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Wednesday, March 30, 2016

BRICS Under Attack: The Empire’s Destabilizing Hand Reaches Into South Africa

An undercurrent of political manipulation pulses beneath the surface of popular South African demonstrations organized around legitimate grievances. But who’s pulling the strings? And why?
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    Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, Jacob Zuma, Narendra Modi, Dilma Rousseff
    Leaders of the BRICS nations, from left, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff, China’s President Xi Jinping and South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma, pose for a group photo during the BRICS summit in Fortaleza, Brazil, Tuesday, July 15, 2014. The leaders of the BRICS nations are expected to officially create a bailout and development fund worth $100 billion. It’s meant to be an alternative to the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, which are seen as being dominated by the U.S. and Europe. (AP PHOTO)
    This article is part of a series on Western meddling to foment unrest and destabilize BRICS nations in an effort to ensure the continuation of Western economic and political control over the Global South. The first part, focusing on Brazil, can be found here. Still to come: BRICS under attack in Russia, India, and China.
    NEW YORK — (Analysis) Major protests have gripped South Africa in recent months as political forces have emerged to give voice to a growing discontent with the government and ruling party. Beneath the surface of these demonstrations organized around legitimate grievances, however, there’s an undercurrent of political manipulation.
    South Africa and its ruling African National Congress (ANC) party have been targeted for destabilization due to the country’s burgeoning relationship with China and other non-Western nations, most obviously typified by South Africa’s inclusion in BRICS, the association of the five major emerging economies of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
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    Last year, for example, China surpassed the United States and European Union as South Africa’s largest trade partner, and the ANC has been hard at work promoting further trade cooperation. Answering questions in the National Assembly, Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa explained: “We trade more effectively with China because the relationship is based on win-win; mutual benefit that they can get out of the relationship and that we can get out the relationship.”  
    But recent protests against the ANC government have threatened the ruling tripartite coalition of the ANC, along with the South African Communist Party and Congress of South African Trade Unions.
    A number of groups on the left such as the Economic Freedom Fighters, led by former ANC youth leader Julius Malema, and the National Union of Metalworkers, have taken part in the protests touched off bystudent demonstrations against university fees.
    At the same time, however, Western-backed opposition forces led by the Democratic Alliance have positioned themselves as leaders and beneficiaries of the anti-government movement.
    The DA, a center-right liberal political party now fronted by “South Africa’s Obama,” Mmusi Maimane, is lauded by Western financial interests. The American Chamber of Commerce, for example, has consistently heaped praise on DA as the way forward for South Africa.  
    When Maimane delivered a widely publicized speech at a May 2015 business breakfast hosted by the American Chamber of Commerce, he stated:
    “While China may have overtaken the US as South Africa’s largest trade partner in volume, the US remains an incredibly important partner for our future growth and development.
    I refer to ‘future growth and development’ for under the lacklustre and confused leadership of the ANC, our economy has failed to reach its true potential.”  
    A careful reading of the subtext offers a clearer understanding of what Maimane is implying. By noting that China has overtaken the U.S. as South Africa’s largest trade partner, he is directly tying the ANC and its “lackluster and confused leadership” to the close relationship with China.  
    In other words, the DA represents “the future” — that is, a future in which the U.S. is able to reclaim its status as South Africa’s dominant trade partner. This certainly would not have been lost on the attendees at a Chamber of Commerce breakfast. (It should be recalled that the Chamber of Commerce is traditionally seen as the main arm of U.S. economic power projection in the Global South — just ask any leader in South and Central America.)
    Democratic Alliance members march in Johannesburg, South Africa, Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2014. The skirmish happened Wednesday after followers of the opposition Democratic Alliance marched near the headquarters of the African National Congress, which has dominated politics since the end of white minority rule in 1994. (AP Photo)
    Democratic Alliance members march in Johannesburg, South Africa, Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2014. The skirmish happened Wednesday after followers of the opposition Democratic Alliance marched near the headquarters of the African National Congress, which has dominated politics since the end of white minority rule in 1994. (AP Photo)
    The Wall Street-London connection runs deep
    But the ties to the political and financial establishment of neoliberal capital and the U.S. empire do not stop at the American Chamber of Commerce. In 2014 it came to light that one of the principal financiers behind the DA and its short-lived attempt at unity with the centrist Agang SA party, led by anti-Apartheid figure Mamphela Ramphele, was billionaire Nathan Kirsh.  
    As the Business Times noted in March 2014:
    “Mr Kirsh said he provided a ‘marginal amount’ of funding to both the DA and Agang SA … but denied bringing the parties together.
    ‘I believe there’s got to be an opposition to the government, but I wasn’t involved in the marriage. … When Mamphela [Ramphele] came to me, she represented what could be good, credible opposition and I gave her some money. When [leader of the DA] Helen Zille came to me, she had already shown her ability to put things together and the [Western] Cape runs perhaps better than any of the other provinces,’ said Kirsh.
    Zille and Ramphele announced early in February that the short-lived plan to join forces, and for Ramphele to stand as the DA’s presidential candidate, was over.
    At the time, Ms Ramphele was quoted as saying ‘a donor pushed the DA and Agang SA together.’”
    Kirsh, the business tycoon who heads a multinational business empire controlled through his Kirsh Holdings Group, is one of the richest men in the world, having made his fortune during the Apartheid regime in South Africa and in a variety of other ventures since then.
    Aside from his dodgy past, Kirsh is well known to have untold billions in assets and companies domiciled intax havens from the British Virgin Islands to Liberia. Perhaps most notorious among his recent money-making projects has been the massive contracts awarded to his company Magal Security Systems by the Israeli government to provide electronic fences and security systems for the apartheid wall Israel constructed, and which has been almost universally condemned as illegal.  
    In fact, Kirsh is well known as being very close to some of the leading institutions of Western finance capital, as evidenced by his choice of Bradley Fried to oversee Kirsh Group. As noted by Bloomberg, Fried will oversee “the management company that holds Kirsh’s disparate assets, which include two U.S. wholesale grocery businesses, commercial and residential real estate, and private equity investments on four continents.” Fried is a member of the Bank of England’s Court of Directors and a well-connected executive in circles of high finance.
    Fried “takes over [Kirsh Group] from Ron Sandler, the former CEO of Lloyd’s of London who Kirsh said will remain working as a trustee and adviser to the family.” It should be noted that Sandler, who served aschairman of the infamous Northern Rock, had close ties with former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, himself a creature of the City of London.  
    Between Kirsh’s connections to the highest circles of finance capital in the U.S. empire, and his lucrative business dealings with Apartheid South Africa and the current apartheid state of Israel, it should be crystal clear that Kirsh is no progressive. So what’s he doing financing the allegedly “liberal-progressive” opposition in South Africa? To put it simply, Kirsh is making yet another investment that he hopes will pay massive political and financial dividends.   
    obama south africa
    Soft power projects from pro-DA think tanks
    Another source of soft power projection from the U.S. empire are the think tanks that uphold the neoliberal DA as the future for South Africa. One example is Legatum Institute, which has published numerous papers criticizing the ANC and calling for “democratization” and “plurality of voices” in the political sphere.
    In an innocuously titled 2014 report, “South Africa and the Pursuit of Inclusive Growth,” Legatum noted:
    “Together opposition voters constituted just over 34 percent of the national vote. The ANC is understandably proud of its achievements in attracting such a large proportion of votes. However, the weakness of the opposition has reduced the pressure on the ANC to win electoral votes on the basis of its performance in government. It also means that at the national level the ANC’s commitment to democracy has not been put to the ultimate test: the transfer of power to a victorious opposition.”
    While the report notes the democratic nature of South Africa’s election, the implied argument, couched in the typically duplicitous rhetoric of Western think tanks, is that the ANC should be unseated from power in order for a truly democratic South Africa to emerge. The report, it should be noted, was edited and overseen by the notoriously anti-Russia, anti-China, anti-BRICS, neoliberal Anne Applebaum, who has repeatedly used her pen and face in the service of the empire’s agenda. (Interesting to note also is that Applebaum is married to Radek Sikorski, the vehemently pro-NATO former foreign minister of Poland.)
    One example of Applebaum’s anti-Russia outlook is her widely read 2014 essay in the New York Review of Books, “How He [Putin] and His Cronies Stole Russia,” which argued the typical neoliberal finance capital line that Russia was on the right path in the 1990s under the stewardship of the U.S.- and Wall Street-backed Russian President Boris Yeltsin and his gaggle of thieves, but that Putin and his “kleptocratic KGB apparatchiks” seized control of Russia for their own purposes.
    Such nonsense, in addition to Applebaum’s unmitigated warmongering in matters relating to Syria and Libya, demonstrates just what sort of slant exists in her report on South Africa.
    Another important element in this equation is an understanding of exactly what the Legatum Institute really is and who funds it. As Pando’s Mark Ames wrote in 2015:
    “Legatum turns out to be a project of the most secretive billionaire vulture capital investor you’ve (and I’d) never heard of: Christopher Chandler, a New Zealander who, along with his billionaire brother Richard Chandler, ran one of the world’s most successful vulture capital funds …
    Brother Christopher Chandler took his billions to Dubai, where he launched Legatum Capital, and, in 2007, the Legatum Institute … The Legatum Institute’s motto, displayed proudly on its homepage, reads ‘Prosperity Through Revitalising Capitalism and Democracy.’
    … [T]he Chandler brothers were the largest foreign portfolio investors in Russia throughout the 1990s into the first half of the 2000s, including the largest foreign investors in natural gas behemoth Gazprom. …
    From what I’ve learned, the Chandlers make buckets of fast money by buying into totally depressed and corrupt emerging markets when everyone else is too afraid to, driving up the price of their assets by making a lot of noise about corporate governance and corruption, and then selling out when those investments tick up during what look like to outsiders as principled battles over corporate governance issues. In other words, a form of extreme green-mailing.”
    Applebaum’s official title with Legatum is “director of the Transitions Forum,” “a series of projects that examine the challenges and opportunities of radical political and economic change.” No wonder the think tank’s prized propagandist is so gung-ho in her hatred of all things Putin and Russia: Her bosses were directly targeted by Putin and the Russian government as it sought to reverse the “vulturization” of Russia’s economy carried out by Western capitalists like the Chandlers.
    It seems then that Legatum is part of the same anti-Russian, anti-BRICS network of Western NGOs and think tanks that includes the International Republican Institute, Freedom House, the National Democratic Institute, and the National Endowment for Democracy.  And it should come as no surprise that Russia and many other countries have moved so strongly to curtail their presence and influence in their respective countries (this author has written detailed analyses of the political significance of the NGO laws in Russia and China).  

    Powerful forces aligning
    Make no mistake, though: Institutional issues such as corruption and political and economic disenfranchisement do indeed exist in South Africa, and these must be addressed. The challenge against the ANC from leftist forces who seek wealth and land redistribution, socialization of the economy, and other traditional policies associated with leftist politics is to be welcomed. That challenge could likely push the ANC to make much needed policy changes, including moving further away from neoliberal capitalism, as it broadens its engagement with the non-Western world.
    However, one should not miss the forest for the trees. There are powerful forces aligning behind the DA and other Western proxy political forces in order to destabilize a key partner of the BRICS project.

    Wednesday, March 23, 2016

    North Korea punished for helping to liberate Africa


    20.03.2016
     
    North Korea punished for helping to liberate Africa. 57565.jpeg
    North Korea (DPRK) is depicted as some insane, starving, subnormal and underdeveloped hermit state, whose leaders are constantly boozing and whoring, murdering each other, and building some primitive but lethal nukes, in order to destroy the world.
    Soon, most likely, there will be new brutal sanctions imposed against North Korea. And there will be massive provocative military exercises held, involving the US and South Korean (ROK). In brief, it is all 'business as usual': the West continues to torture DPRK; it is provoking it, isolating, demonizing and dehumanizing it, making sure that it wouldn't function normally, let alone thrive.

    Submissive Western public

    The submissive Western public keeps obediently swallowing all the shameless lies it is being served by its mainstream media. It is not really surprising; people of Europe and North America already stopped questioning official dogmas long time ago.
    North Korea (DPRK) is depicted as some insane, starving, subnormal and underdeveloped hermit state, whose leaders are constantly boozing and whoring, murdering each other, and building some primitive but lethal nukes, in order to destroy the world.
    Those of us who are familiar with DPRK know that all this is one bundle of fat, shameless lies. Pyongyang is an elegant, well functioning city with great public housing, excellent public transportation, public places and recreational facilities, theatres, sport facilities and green areas. And despite those monstrous sanctions, the countryside is much more prosperous than what one sees in the desperate Western 'client' states like Indonesia and Philippines.
    At least there is something; there have at least been a few decent reports that have been written about those grotesque lies and the Western propaganda.
    But the essential question remains: 'Why is the West so obsessed with demonizing North Korea?'
    And the answer is simple: Like Cuba, North Korea dared to step on the toes of Western colonialism and imperialism. Sacrificing its sons and daughters, it helped to liberate many African countries, and it provided assistance to the most progressive forces on the most plundered and devastated continent.

    The West never forgives

    This is one thing that the West never forgives. It lives off the unbridled plunder of all continents; it essentially thrives by looting its colonies. Those countries that assisted the liberation struggles, those nations that fought for freedom of the colonized world - Soviet Union/Russia, China, Cuba and the DPRK - were designated by Western ideologues as the most 'dangerous' and 'evil' places on Earth.
    In Europe and North America, conditioned masses (they have been actually profiting from the colonialism and neo-colonialism for decades and centuries), are stubbornly refusing to comprehend this main reason why the Empire has made the people of North Korea suffer so terribly for years and decades.
    My comrade, Mwandawiro Mghanga, Chairperson of SDP and also a Member of the Executive Committee of Africa Left Networking Forum (ALNEF) based in Dakar Senegal, wrote for this essay:
    "The Social Democratic Party of Kenya (SDP) condemns the unjustified sanctions against North Korea (DPRK) instigated by imperialism led by the United States of America. We are aware that imperialism has never stopped its cold and hot war against DPRK that through one of the greatest patriotic, heroic and revolutionary anti-colonial and anti-imperialist national liberation armed struggles succeeded in winning true independence in the northern half of Korea. When it invaded North Korea, US imperialism like Japanese colonialism earlier, suffered one of the most humiliating military defeats it will never forget in its reactionary history. We also know that the US and the West hates DPRK with venom for refusing to be a puppet of imperialism like South Korea. A dirty false propaganda war is waged against DPRK for refusing the capitalist and neo-colonial path of slavery, under-development and exploitation of person by person and instead choosing the path of development for freedom and humanity, socialism.
    We in Africa will not accept to be cheated by imperialists who have always been part and parcel of our problems. Imperialism is not and has never been a friend of Africa but its enemy. African patriots and revolutionaries will never allow imperialism to tell us who our friends are. For we know whom our friends are! And North Korea has always been Africa's true friend. When the whole of the African continent was under Western colonialism, Korea under the revolutionary leadership of comrade Kim Il Sung was fighting Japanese colonialism and showing solidarity with Africa at the same time. After DPRK, in the name of socialist internationalism increased its moral, military and other material support to African countries in their struggle for liberation from colonialism, imperialism and apartheid. Immediately after independence from colonialism in the 1960s, thousands of Africans, including Kenyans, received free higher, technical and specialised education in the DPRK. DPRK not only offered arms, finance and other material solidarity to Namibia, South Africa, Angola and Mozambique in the war against apartheid and imperialism, but it also actually sent internationalist revolutionaries to Africa to fight side by side with Africans for Africa.DPRK fought with Egypt and Africa during the 1967 war against the brutal Zionist regime of Israel supported by the Western countries. Today DPRK is together with African countries in the demand for a new just international order. In this DPRK is blamed by imperialism and imperialist puppet regimes for being in the forefront and showing by its own example that a new just international order cannot be but anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist, it must be socialist."
    North Korean internationalism is legendary, just as Cuban internationalism is. And this is the least that we can do right now, when the country is facing new tremendous and brutal challenges - to recall how much it gave to the world; how much it had already sacrificed for the sake of humanity!
    I spoke to people in Windhoek, who with tears in their eyes recalled North Korea's struggle against (South African) apartheid-supported regimes in both Namibia and Angola. Naturally, South African apartheid used to enjoy the full support of the West. To repay that favor, South African troops joined the fight against North Korea and China during the Korean War.
    As mentioned by Mwandawiro Mghanga, North Korea fought against Israel, its pilots flew Egyptian fighter planes in the 1973 Arab-Israeli War. DPRK took part in the liberation struggle in Angola and it fought in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), Lesotho, and Namibia and in the Seychelles. It provided assistance to the African National Congress and its epic struggle to liberate South Africa from apartheid. In the past, it had aided the then progressive African nations, including Guinea, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Mali and Tanzania.
    Arthur Tewungwa, Ugandan opposition politician from the Uganda People's Congress Party (UPC) compares the involvement of the DPRK and the West in his country and the African Great Lakes region:
    "Uganda benefited from its relationship with North Korea in the 1980s when it helped the government to fight against the Museveni rebels who were supported by the US and UK. Morally, compared to the DPRK, the latter two have no leg to stand on with all the bloodshed they triggered in the Great Lakes Region."
    Has North Korea been fully abandoned, left to its fate? Has it been 'betrayed'?
    Christopher Black, a prominent international lawyer based in Toronto, Canada:
    "...The fact that the US, as part of the SC is imposing sanctions on a country it is threatening is hypocritical and unjust. That the Russians and Chinese have joined the US in this, instead of calling for sanctions against the US for its threats against the DPRK and its new military exercises, which are a clear and present danger to the DPRK, is shameful. If the Russians and Chinese are sincere why don't they insist that the US draw down its forces there so the DPRK feels less threatened and take steps to guarantee the security of the DPRK?  They do not explain their actions but their actions make them collaborators with the USA against the DPRK."
    The situation is bleak, but most likely not fatal; not fatal yet.
    Jeff J Brown, a leading China expert based in Beijing, does not hide his optimism when it comes to the Sino-Russian relationship with the DPRK:
    "There is not a lot that North Korea does in the international arena, that Baba Beijing does not have its hand in. They are two fraternal communist countries and 65 years ago, the Chinese spilled a lot of blood and treasure to save North Korea from the West. Mao Zedong's son died on the Korean War battlefield, fighting against Yankee imperialism. There are two million ethnic Koreans living along the border with North Korea and another half a million Northerners living and working in China. Koreans are a recognized minority in China. No other country in the world understands North Korea like China does. This closeness is emblematic of their common border, the Yalu River, which is so shallow, you can wade across it. They also share boundaries with another key ally, Russia. China is North Korea's very, very big brother and protector. Frankly, vis-à-vis the upcoming UNSC sanctions against North Korea, I think the West is getting played like a drum, and it is the drum that gets the crap pounded out of it."
    Of course both China and Russia have their long land borders with North Korea -roads and railroads inter-connecting all three countries. According to my sources in Moscow and Beijing, it is highly unlikely that the two closest allies of the DPRK would ever go along with the new sanctions, whether they are officially 'supporting them', or not.
    But the logic used by Christopher Black is absolutely correct: it is the West that should be suffering from the toughest sanctions imaginable, not DPRK.
    It is the West, not North Korea, which has murdered one billion human beings, throughout history. It is the West that colonized, plundered, raped and enslaved people in all corners of the planet. What moral mandate does it have to propose and impose sanctions against anyone?
    We are living in a twisted, truly perverse world, where mass murderers act as judges, and actually get away with it.
    North Korea spilled blood for the liberation of Africa. It showed true solidarity with robbed, tortured people, with those whom Franz Fanon used to call the "Wretched of the Earth". That is why, according to perverse logic (which has roots in the Western religious and cultural fundamentalism), it has to be punished, humiliated, and even possibly wipe off the face of the earth.
    Not because it did something objectively 'bad', but because the objectivity lost its meaning. Terms 'good' and 'bad' are now determined by only one criterion: 'good' is all that serves the interests of the Western Empire, 'bad' is what challenges its global dictatorship.
    If you save the village that had been designated by the Empire as a place to be raped and pillaged, you will be punished in the most sadistic and brutal manner. North Korea did exactly that. Except that it did not save just one village, but it helped to liberate an entire continent!
    Andre Vltchek is a philosopher, novelist, filmmaker and investigative journalist. He covered wars and conflicts in dozens of countries. His latest books are: "Exposing Lies Of The Empire" and  "Fighting Against Western Imperialism".  Discussion with Noam Chomsky: On Western Terrorism. Point of No Return is his critically acclaimed political novel. Oceania - a book on Western imperialism in the South Pacific. His provocative book about Indonesia: "Indonesia - The Archipelago of Fear". Andre is making films for teleSUR and Press TV. After living for many years in Latin America and Oceania, Vltchek presently resides and works in East Asia and the Middle East. He can be reached through his website or his Twitter.

    Text and Photos: Andre Vltchek

    Originally published by NEO.

    Russia must be armed to the teeth to stop NATO's aggression


    21.03.2016
     
    Russia must be armed to the teeth to stop NATO's aggression. 57572.jpeg
    Source: Pravda.Ru photo archive














    Russia was destroying its defense industry purposefully during the 1990s. The then Russian administration believed that Russia had no enemy at all. The demilitarization of the economy cost Russia a lot. Luckily, the country woke up on time. Nowadays, the revival of the Russian defense industry is in full swing.

    War is a terrible thing. This is probably the most terrible thing that may ever happen in the history of mankind. One has to do everything possible to avoid wars. If they occur, one must do everything possible to finish off the armed side of a conflict, as Russia did in Syria, for example, acting as a sponsor of a peace conference between the Syrian government and opposition.

    The taste of blood

    NATO's aggressive stance is the most unpleasant thing in this situation. The current generation of Western politicians like the taste of blood. They are like predators, like sharks in the sea, rushing to catch and kill their prey.

    After the collapse of the Soviet Union, we have seen NATO's aggression in a number of countries. We saw it in Iraq, Libya, we saw it in Yugoslavia, and then Serbia, in an attempt to organize an armed invasion of Syria.
    Also read: Russia takes advantage of modern times in arms sales

    NATO members do not understand the power of words - they can understand the power of force only. The best proof of this was insurgency in Ukraine, when a bunch of rebels - no more than 30,000 people - killed Ukrainian democracy, overthrew the legally elected president of the 45-million-strong country and threw the country into bloody mess.

    Russia needs to be fully armed to be able to stop NATO's aggression. Russia needs to spend money on defense, otherwise we will have to pay with blood.

    Russian troops receive new weapons

    In 2015, Russian ground troops received more than 1,000 armored vehicles, 300 units of anti-aircraft missile complexes and systems, more than 3,400 automotive vehicles, about 22,000 units of communication systems, two systems of operational-tactical missile complex Iskander.

    Russian air and space troops received: more than 230 aircraft, 158 helicopters, 191 radar stations, four anti-aircraft missile systems S-400, more than 35,000 aircraft weapons, nine units of spacecraft  launch vehicles. In addition, seven carrier rockets were launched and eight military satellites were put into orbit.

    Russian navy received: four warships, four submarines, 52 vessels, two coastal missile complexes "Bastion", 27 naval aircraft, 45 units of missile and artillery weapons.

    Russian airborne troops received: 114 units of armored vehicles, two complexes of anti-aircraft missile system "Verba", 11,000 landing complexes.

    Russian Strategic Missile Forces received: 21 strategic ballistic missiles, 386 units and components of mobile and stationary missile complexes.

    Of course, we hope that all these weapons will never be used in combat action. Yet, all these weapons act like a cold shower to cool the ardor of the hawks in the Pentagon. They behave very aggressively. On the one hand, they try to intimidate Russia, but on the other hand, they talk about the (imaginary) Russian threat. This is partly due to the fact that they are in the midst of the budget year, and the US military-industrial complex wants to receive as much as possible as the outgoing president prepares to leave the White House.
    Also read: Bastion systems and Onyx missiles block Barents and Black Seas

    Russia executed state orders on new models of weapons on the level of 97 percent in 2015. This seems a lot, but three missing percent is a lot too. The missing three percent accounts for 15 aircraft, eight ships and vessels, 17 units of automatic control systems, three Rokot carrier rockets, one upper stage, 253 rockets of various purpose and 240 armored vehicles."

    President Putin was concerned about the delayed and failed contracts. The reasons include poor organization of planning activities, low level of attracting labor resources, cessation of production of spare parts and materials, losses of production technologies. Indeed, Russia has lost the productions that it used to have in the former USSR.

    "We know that people may work somewhere in three shifts, including at night, but somewhere else production capacities are underdeveloped. This is a result of uncoordinated work, and there is a lot to be done to achieve the required result," Putin said.

    Russia is running the import substitution program, the production of many components has been launched, but there are still problems in many areas. At the same time, restrictions on the supply of spare parts from Ukraine, NATO and EU countries did not affect the execution of state order in 2015.

    If Russia destroys its metalworking, the country will inevitably have problems in the defense industry. For the time being, China helps Russia solve many of its problems, but this is not the case, because the defense industry is the area, where Russia must rely solely on itself.

    Said Gafurov
    Pravda.Ru 

    Read article on the Russian version of Pravda.Ru

    Tuesday, December 1, 2015

    Hukum Solat Sunat Tahiyatul Masjid Semasa Imam Membaca Khutbah

    Orang kita jangan suka memandai-mandai membuat hukum sendiri berkaitan kes ini.
    Contoh:

    Solat Tahiyyatul Masjid adalah hukumnya sunat. Manakala khutbah jumaat adalah rukun kepada solat jumaat. Apabila bertembung kedua-dua ini, maka mestilah ditumpukan kepada yang wajib (rukun). Apabila seseorang itu meninggalkan rukun, maka tidak sempurnalah ibadahnya pada masa itu.

    Padahal dah ada dalil dari hadis Nabi:

    Dari Jabir bin Abdillah Radhiyallahu ‘anhu, ia mengatakan : “Sulaik Al-Ghathfani pernah datang pada hari Jum’at ketika Rasulullah Shallallahu ‘alaihi wa sallam tengah menyampaikan khutbah, lalu dia duduk, maka beliau berkata kepadanya : ‘Wahai Sulaik, berdiri dan kerjakanlah shalat dua raka’at dan bersegera dalam mengerjakannya’. Kemudian beliau bersabda.

    “Jika salah seorang diantara kalian datang pada hari Jum’at sedang imam tengah berkhutbah maka hendaklah dia mengerjakan shalat dua raka’at dan hendaklah dia bersegera dalam mengerjakan keduanya” [Diriwayatkan oleh Asy-Syaikhani] [7]


    Diharap tiada lagi orang islam suka-suka membuat hukum sendiri di lain masa. 

    Wednesday, November 11, 2015

    We Call It Charlie Bodoh (Stupid)


    The cartoons of the crashed Russian Airbus A321 airliner, published by the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, are a sign of cowardice, according to Russian lawmaker Alexei Pushkov.

    "Charlie Hebdo – sarcasm and irony without borders? No, it’s hypocrisy without borders: spitting on the graves of others is cowardice, not heroic" Pushkov posted in French on Twitter.
    On October 31, the Russian Kogalymavia airliner, carrying 224 people, crashed in the Sinai Peninsula en route from Sharm El-Sheikh to St. Petersburg. Everyone on board died in what has become the biggest tragedy in Russian and Soviet civil aviation history.
    Several days after the catastrophe, Charlie Hebdo published two cartoons poking fun at the crash.
    One of the pictures shows an Islamic State (IS) jihadist militant with plane debris falling around him. The caption reads "IS: Russian Aviation intensifies its bombing campaign."
    In the second drawing, a skull in sunglasses, lying on the ground amid body parts and the plane’s debris, speaks about the dangers of flying with the Russian airline. The caption says: "The dangers of a Russian budget airline. I should have taken Air Cocaine."
    Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called the cartoons an “abomination” which have nothing to do with democracy or self-expression.

    Monday, October 19, 2015

    DAULAT TUNKU. THE BEST CROWN PRINCE IN MALAYSIA

    Saturday August 22, 2015
    10:35 AM GMT+8


    Johor Crown Prince Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim said his post was not meant to single out any specific individual or to complicate matters but was merely for him to express his loyalty to the Sultan and the Johor people. — File pic Johor Crown Prince Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim said his post was not meant to single out any specific individual or to complicate matters but was merely for him to express his loyalty to the Sultan and the Johor people. — File picKUALA LUMPUR, Aug 22 — Johor Crown Prince Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim declared today that his loyalty lies solely with his father, the Sultan, and with leaders who serve the public with integrity, transparency and respect.
    The prince, who was writing on the Facebook page of the Johor Southern Tigers, also said that he does not support or side with any political party.
    “Of late, there seems to be many trying to get close to and become friends with His Majesty the Sultan of Johor, triggering all kinds of speculation and perception.
    “But never forget, I am heir to the Johor throne, and mine is the final voice to reach His Majesty’s ears,” he wrote.
    “My loyalty lies with my father, my Sultan. My priority is the sovereignty and prosperity of the state of Johor and its people.
    “Never once attempt to give counsel to His Majesty for personal interests. When I give counsel, it comes from an honest place because I do not have personal interests,” he added.
    The prince went on to declare that his love for his father will remain unwavering.
    He added that his post was not meant to single out any specific individual or to complicate matters but was merely for him to express his loyalty to the Sultan and the Johor people.
    According to Malaysiakini, Umno vice-president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi had an audience with the Johor Sultan yesterday before the Kota Tinggi Umno divisional meet.
    At the meeting with Umno delegates later, Zahid, who is also deputy prime minister, reportedly said that the Sultan believes that only Umno can unite the Malays, according to the news portal.