Ireland: Socialist Fintan O'Toole's flawed political agenda laid bare on Late Late Show

Irish Times columnist Fintan O'Toole along with Nell McCafferty and Dr John Crown- appeared on tonight's Late Late show and attacked deficiencies in the Irish political system. Present in the audience were politicians from FF, FG, Labour, Sinn Fein and Greens.

O'Toole criticized the parish pump mentality and lambasted cute hoorism. He savaged the clinic system and demanded an end to multi-seat constituencies and a fundamental realignment in party politics.
Undoubtedly he is correct in some respects but in reality he is an elitist and a theoretician. The clinic system keeps politicians in touch with the requirements of the electorate. This is something which Fintan would not understand. Ending mult-seat constituencies would be undemocratic and would skew the results of elections in a manner similar to the UK. There the Lib Dems can secure 20% of the vote and yet end up with a very low proportion of seats. O'Toole has a leftist political agenda-something which he failed to declare. He took a cheap shot at FG leader Enda Kenny. O'Toole wants a left wing government. He has contempt for an electorate which in the main votes for centre right parties. We must do Fintan's bidding apparently. Tonight Fintan hectored and lectured not alone the politicians but also the electorate.

Spain and Britain have political systems polarized on a left right basis so beloved of O'Toole. The Spanish and British economies have been run into the ground by their Socialist governments. Fintan O'Toole needs to divest himself of his Socialist dogma and go back to the drawing board. He is out of touch on many issues.

Israel fears Hamas rockets may destroy Dimona nuclear power plant

Israel has harboured fears for sometime that Iran might target the Dimona nuclear power plant. It is suspected that nuclear station at Dimona is used by the Israeli military to make atomic bombs. Such a missile attack by Iran would obliterate Israel. Now Israel is facing a second threat to the security of this facility.
PressTV carries the following:

Hamas retaliatory attacks have alarmed Israel with officials anticipating that the Dimona nuclear complex might become the next target......................Israeli officials were quoted by the Times Online as saying on Friday that Hamas may have acquired longer range rockets, which would enable the group to target the sole Israeli nuclear plant in Dimona.

It is time for a ceasefire and negotiations. Hamas must cease its rocket attacks on Israel. A strike on Dimona could cause a second Chernobyl. The Israelis must end the aerial bombardment of Gaza. The US, Britain, France and Russia must pressurise both sides to pull back from the brink of disaster.

As a Mega Catastrophe unfolds it is time to implement the UN's "responsibility to protect" doctrine and invade Burma now

UN's "responsibility to protect" doctrine calls on the international community to invade any country if its government is not protecting its people. This doctrine was agreed by the UN to ensure that no further Rwandas would occur.

So far the UN estimates that c102,000 Burmese have perished; some 220,000 are missing; and close to 2.5 million are in dire need of clean water, shelter, food and medical treatment. The British-based charity Save the Children Fund says that 216,000 Burmese died in cyclone Nargis and its aftermath, just 9,000 fewer than died in of all 11 countries hit by the 2004 Asian tsunami.

The paranoid regime has rebuffed most offers of aid from the international community and appears determined to keep out relief workers on the pretext that they might incite revolution amongst a hungry and cowed populace.The Burmese army has seized much of the aid, which has got through and distributed it to soldiers or sold it on the black market. The government has even obstructed the distribution of rice by some citizens.

Britain, France, Spain , Canada and the EU have been strongly critical. The criticism may be gaining in intensity but the reality is that the international community is too tardy in its response.

China as usual this week disgraced itself and obstructed efforts at the UN to pressurise the Burmese generals. Extreme pressure must be exerted on China to use its undoubted influence on the generals to ensure delivery of aid to a stricken populace. China must alter its policy of support for the Junta at the UN.

The US, Canada, Britain and France amongst others must implement the UN's "responsibility to protect" doctrine immediately and ensure the delivery and distribution of aid by military means. The time for diplomatic niceties has passed.

Many thousands have already perished because of the obduracy of the Burmese Junta. The world has a Mega Catastrophe on its hands.

Burma-China's role in crushing pro democracy protests

The following is an excerpt taken from an article in the Timesonline
Diplomatic sources with access to military intelligence reports have disclosed that the United States and Britain learnt earlier this year of an intense programme of training and cooperation between Burma and China that focused on counterinsurgency and the suppression of street protests.
Diplomatic sources identified the key liaison man as Colonel Fen Lian Feng, a specialist in psychological warfare and counter-subversion who is stationed at the Chinese embassy in Rangoon.
Fen has overseen the supply of automatic weapons that fire rubber-coated steel bullets, new communications gear, teargas and other chemical agents used in crowd control. He has also given the Burmese access to tactical training in confronting crowds using methods taught by the PLA and China’s internal security forces.
The classic doctrine is to get informers into the movement, allow the demonstrations to proceed, break them up with the sudden use of force, identify and arrest the ringleaders and then clamp down hard to seize data, block information and stop people gathering again.