One of the latest discoveries people have made is that New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinta Adern is a nice person, who condoled with the victims and said As-salaam Alaikum, not to mention calling the attacker who killed 50 people at mosque in Christchurch, a ‘terrorist’.
What seems to have escaped notice that she formed the government in 2017 with the support of the New Zealand First party, which is racist, fascist and anti-immigrant. In other words, white supremacist. Its head, Winston Peters, is not just Deputy Prime Minister, but also Foreign Minister, and it was in the latter capacity that he visited Turkey in the aftermath of the shooting, to placate sentiment there.
It’s not as if New Zealand’s conservatives are any better than Labour. New Zealand First has been in coalition with them too, and good old Peters has been Deputy PM with them too. He’s half-Maori, by the way, but then it should be remembered that Hitler was no ideal Aryan blond, but dark like most other Bavarians. Still, his being a white supremacist is a bit like Imran Khan being corrupt. True, as Peters shows, Maoris don’t like immigrants, even white immigrants.
I hope he didn’t take a detour to Birmingham on his way to Turkey. Otherwise, suspicion would fall on him of having trashed the mosques, which some white supremacist did. Not all that much attention was paid to them, first because nobody was killed, and then because of all the confusion over Brexit. That confusion has not been cleared by Teresa May’s offer to resign as PM.
Imran must be puzzled by that offer. There are no corruption charges against her. There were against Michel Temer, who was temporarily President of Brazil after his predecessor, Dilma Rouseff, was impeached for corruption. Imran would like the new President, Jair Bolsonaro, who not only is not corrupt, but very pro-military. And the Brazilian military went in for coups.
Another politician compared to Bolsonaro was US President Donald Trump. Trump was mentioned by the Christchurch attacker as an icon. He could have mentioned Bolsonaro. Trump is apparently happy these days, because of the Mueller probe against him, about the allegations that the Russians tilted the campaign his way. Around the same time, there have been allegations that Ukraine tried to throw the election against him by leaking documents damaging to his campaign chairman, Paul Manafort. Manafort has been convicted because of the Mueller probe unearthing campaign finance violation and tax evasion charges against him. And guess what, the probe used the Ukrainian leaks.
I suppose another reason he’s happy is that ISIS has been completely eliminated. Is that why Trump has recognised the Israeli annexation of the Golan Height? That marked the only annexation of territory by conquest in over half a century. Even though India got East Pakistan to secede from Pakistan, it didn’t annex it. It might have established a pro-Indian government, but it didn’t add it to its territory. Ardent Zionists are said to want to include not just the Nile, but also the Euphrates, in their land, on the same principle that they justify Israel: they were once there.
Somehow, there isn’t the same fuss as when Trump recognised Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. But it still does seems an odd way to mark the liberation of Syrian territory from ISIS; recognising a previous annexation. So what’s the real difference between ISIS and Israel?
I wonder if the annexation is somehow behind the US Ambassador to Afghanistan telling Imran to stop his ball tampering. He was referring to Imran’s statement that the Kabul government should be replaced by an interim government. Americans shouldn’t talk about cricket, even if they’re ambassadors accredited to a country which has recently been awarded Test status. And Imran can’t like the reminders about ball tampering, which were used in his playing days to belittle his and Sarfraz Nawaz’s invention of reverse swing.
In another diplomatic move, the ambassador’s boss, Donald Trump, has announced that he isn’t imposing any sanctions on North Korea. Well, he should announce them on one man. No, not Kim Jong-il. His barber. Rumour has that the Hanoi Summit between him and Trump broke down over hair secrets, not nuclear weapons.
Footnote to these notes: Mian Nawaz Sharif’s bail condition, that he must surrender himself to the jail authorities on expiry of the bail period, raises the image of Mian Nawaz at the jail gate, hammering at them, asking to be let in, while a sentry calmly smokes a cigarette and tells him to pay up.
Actually, that’s what happened to Asma Aziz, who went to the police after her husband shaved her head. They asked her to pay up to get her medically examined. And that examination is essential. How else would a trial court know that her head had been shaved?
