2012-08-23
Cyprus Solution
I found a good site for Cyprus, and proposed my solution there (in 2006). I then forgot to actually come back and post my solution on my blog, but better late (6 years) than never. Nothing much was lost in the 6 years. GC and TC didn't go to war over a misunderstanding that could be cleared up.
First of all you need to recognize that both GC and TC are classified as "free" territories, if you go here:
http://www.freedomhouse.org
Free people can unite in any way they want, as the EU demonstrates. EU countries have virtually identical laws - your human rights are respected wherever you go. There's no political barrier to reunification of GC and TC. NATO is another umbrella organization where free people join together in mutual defence.
Also, you need to realise that with the same reasoning, if some group wants autonomy, that is fine too. There's no need for a separate country. The UK recently gave autonomy to Scotland et al. It actually doesn't change anything. The laws remain virtually identical. Human rights remain respected, the autonomous regions remain in NATO.
So here is how to use modern trends to solve the Cyprus problem.
NATO gives a security guarantee to the GC that the TC will not attack GC. Some NATO planes land on GC. The NATO planes can come from any NATO country the GC feels comfortable with, except for Greece and Turkey. ie you can use US planes, French planes, Polish planes, whatever. Or a combination of whatever. The GC will be secure.
The GC then hands ALL their weapons over to the TC. The GC military disbands. The GC is totally defenceless except for the NATO security guarantee (Iceland has a similar arrangement).
Because the TC are now a totally superior military to the GC, there is no need for them to have military protection from Turkey. Turkey withdraws all its armed forces. This is the main thing that the GC are after, and it is a reasonable thing for the GC to request, and this way it happens. If the GC are serious that all they want to see is the Turkish military to cease occupying their country, they will jump at this opportunity. Experience talking to actual GCs on the forum shows that they are not serious. They have more sinister desires, and the TC are well within their rights to seek protection via the Turkish military.
Cyprus then consists of two autonomous regions (not unlike Scotland in the UK, or even NSW in Australia). The TC can integrate with the GC at any level they feel comfortable with. Leave that entirely up to their democratic process to decide.
The TC are not going to invade GC, even though they will have a superior military. Free people don't wage war on other free people. The GC have nothing to fear, but they have a NATO security guarantee for as long as they feel they need it. The GC will save money by having no military, and their standard of living will increase. It will be up to the TC to decide how much money they want to waste on a military designed to defend against another free people (ie the GC). Maybe they will one day wake up and simply ask for a similar NATO guarantee, get some non-Turk/non-Greek planes on their territory, and disband their own army. It's entirely up to them. It shouldn't even be suggested to them. Just let them come to that conclusion on their own.
Iceland is another country with no military. It relies on NATO for protection. You could argue that it is an island, so is different from GC which has a land border. Haiti is a country with no military AND a land border. They're more fearful of a military coup than an invasion from the Dominican Republic.
Regardless, the TC wouldn't dare attack a NATO protectorate. They will be massacred. It will be a turkey-shoot (literally! ).
I can't see any reason for this plan to fail. Can you? Besides GC intransigence, which is the real problem in Cyprus. And Greek intransigence, which is the real problem in the EU.
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First of all you need to recognize that both GC and TC are classified as "free" territories, if you go here:
http://www.freedomhouse.org
Free people can unite in any way they want, as the EU demonstrates. EU countries have virtually identical laws - your human rights are respected wherever you go. There's no political barrier to reunification of GC and TC. NATO is another umbrella organization where free people join together in mutual defence.
Also, you need to realise that with the same reasoning, if some group wants autonomy, that is fine too. There's no need for a separate country. The UK recently gave autonomy to Scotland et al. It actually doesn't change anything. The laws remain virtually identical. Human rights remain respected, the autonomous regions remain in NATO.
So here is how to use modern trends to solve the Cyprus problem.
NATO gives a security guarantee to the GC that the TC will not attack GC. Some NATO planes land on GC. The NATO planes can come from any NATO country the GC feels comfortable with, except for Greece and Turkey. ie you can use US planes, French planes, Polish planes, whatever. Or a combination of whatever. The GC will be secure.
The GC then hands ALL their weapons over to the TC. The GC military disbands. The GC is totally defenceless except for the NATO security guarantee (Iceland has a similar arrangement).
Because the TC are now a totally superior military to the GC, there is no need for them to have military protection from Turkey. Turkey withdraws all its armed forces. This is the main thing that the GC are after, and it is a reasonable thing for the GC to request, and this way it happens. If the GC are serious that all they want to see is the Turkish military to cease occupying their country, they will jump at this opportunity. Experience talking to actual GCs on the forum shows that they are not serious. They have more sinister desires, and the TC are well within their rights to seek protection via the Turkish military.
Cyprus then consists of two autonomous regions (not unlike Scotland in the UK, or even NSW in Australia). The TC can integrate with the GC at any level they feel comfortable with. Leave that entirely up to their democratic process to decide.
The TC are not going to invade GC, even though they will have a superior military. Free people don't wage war on other free people. The GC have nothing to fear, but they have a NATO security guarantee for as long as they feel they need it. The GC will save money by having no military, and their standard of living will increase. It will be up to the TC to decide how much money they want to waste on a military designed to defend against another free people (ie the GC). Maybe they will one day wake up and simply ask for a similar NATO guarantee, get some non-Turk/non-Greek planes on their territory, and disband their own army. It's entirely up to them. It shouldn't even be suggested to them. Just let them come to that conclusion on their own.
Iceland is another country with no military. It relies on NATO for protection. You could argue that it is an island, so is different from GC which has a land border. Haiti is a country with no military AND a land border. They're more fearful of a military coup than an invasion from the Dominican Republic.
Regardless, the TC wouldn't dare attack a NATO protectorate. They will be massacred. It will be a turkey-shoot (literally! ).
I can't see any reason for this plan to fail. Can you? Besides GC intransigence, which is the real problem in Cyprus. And Greek intransigence, which is the real problem in the EU.
# posted by Paul Edwards @ 12:46 
2012-08-19
Turkish Zakat
At the end of Ramadan, I told the Turkish government (via the Sydney consulate) that since I hadn't heard from them, I was going to give my zakat instead to selected poor Filipinos, rather than a faceless and unaccountable NGO. But the Turkish government suddenly replied that they had in fact contacted me, but the email must have gotten lost. They resupplied the account details.
I did a search on the account number provided, and found (on NATO's website) that it is this. Basically Turkey has asked for others to assist with the Syrian refugee problem. So there is a way of funnelling money to the Turkish government, and that is a great place to be donating money. It is ironic that the Red Cross etc don't have charities specifically for Syria, but the Turkish government does. And if we take that burden off the Turkish government's shoulders, then that means there is more money available for wars of choice (ie I hope they will liberate Syria, with or without NATO assistance).
So I encourage everyone to give all or part of their zakat (or other charity money for non-Muslims like my family) to the Turkish government via the above bank account.
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I did a search on the account number provided, and found (on NATO's website) that it is this. Basically Turkey has asked for others to assist with the Syrian refugee problem. So there is a way of funnelling money to the Turkish government, and that is a great place to be donating money. It is ironic that the Red Cross etc don't have charities specifically for Syria, but the Turkish government does. And if we take that burden off the Turkish government's shoulders, then that means there is more money available for wars of choice (ie I hope they will liberate Syria, with or without NATO assistance).
So I encourage everyone to give all or part of their zakat (or other charity money for non-Muslims like my family) to the Turkish government via the above bank account.
# posted by Paul Edwards @ 19:02
2012-08-17
De-humanizing Westerners
I missed Friday prayers last week, but this week they had the presumed Burmese back on. ie the one that the police don't seem to be interested in. But that's better than them being interested in silencing me, instead.
Anyway, this prick spent the whole time dehumanizing Westerners. Saying that we only followed our own desires, not caring about the consequences. And that we export our selfish desires internationally, when we spread so-called freedom and so-called democracy to others, when all we are doing is trying to exploit them. And we're all criminals and pedophiles too, because we're not following Allah's will.
This prick insulted me, my family and my country. Who let people like this in in the first place? We should have some sort of questionnaire that says something like "before you migrate to the West, do you hate the West or love the West or are you neutral?". Only let in those, like Filipinos, who love the West, and do not in any way whatsoever want to incite terrorism.
Good grief. It's not at all surprising that Muslims become terrorists when they get this pumped into their "brains" every week, with nothing to counter it. I have enough on my main website to counter all this indoctrination, but pricks like this get a better podium than I do.
At the end of the day, there's absolutely nothing that can be done to prevent a Muslim from picking up a gun and mowing down white people because of their racism and religious bigotry. Only changing the ideology of the non-white Muslims can possibly counter the terrorism. Just inspecting passengers as they get on jets is missing the entire point completely. As you saw in Rwanda, racism is spread to individuals, who can pick up a machete at any time. There's no military solution for this, except for one that makes massive changes to the education system.
Anyway, trust me, as a Muslim myself (depending on your definition of "Muslim" - I pray 5 times per day, I fast during Ramadan, I pay the zakat, I said the shahada, but I haven't been to Mecca yet), I am all for a Muslim vs Muslim war to eradicate my ideological enemies. It's pricks like this that dehumanized Jews before gassing them. Did he ever stop to consider why no-one in the West at all gives two hoots about Chinese Buddhists, but are somewhat wary about Muslims? It couldn't possibly be something to do with Muslims themselves, could it? Hell no! That would require introspection and self-criticism!
By the way, the more I practice Islam, the more I realise that Islam surely is from God. Try doing the physical machinations of praying. It's not like the Christian put your hands together, or the Buddhist nod your head. This is really physical exercise, and if it wasn't a religious requirement (with people ringing me up to make sure I was fulfilling my religious obligations), I'd have virtually no exercise. Instead I now need to do "stand-ups" or whatever they're called, 17 times per day. Also, another thing that is required is fasting, which is a prelude to dieting. Basically this is everything that the modern world needs as far as body is concerned. And there's also the Friday prayers to get the population out on the street at once, ready to hold a revolution, which would be possible if it wasn't for sophisticated modern weaponry. But first things first. I am happy that I am now very clearly a player in the Muslim vs Muslim war to praise, instead of dehumanizing, the West. Mu'tazilah 4ever!
P.S. I can think of one reason why they would let large numbers of these pricks into the country. To create a critical mass so that these people can get organized enough to hold a prayer centre like the one I went to, so that they could get me personally to psychoanalyze these pricks and create policies/documentation to counter their deadly message, for international use. Because otherwise the chances of me going to a Muslim prayer centre, presumably in a Muslim country, were basically nil.
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Anyway, this prick spent the whole time dehumanizing Westerners. Saying that we only followed our own desires, not caring about the consequences. And that we export our selfish desires internationally, when we spread so-called freedom and so-called democracy to others, when all we are doing is trying to exploit them. And we're all criminals and pedophiles too, because we're not following Allah's will.
This prick insulted me, my family and my country. Who let people like this in in the first place? We should have some sort of questionnaire that says something like "before you migrate to the West, do you hate the West or love the West or are you neutral?". Only let in those, like Filipinos, who love the West, and do not in any way whatsoever want to incite terrorism.
Good grief. It's not at all surprising that Muslims become terrorists when they get this pumped into their "brains" every week, with nothing to counter it. I have enough on my main website to counter all this indoctrination, but pricks like this get a better podium than I do.
At the end of the day, there's absolutely nothing that can be done to prevent a Muslim from picking up a gun and mowing down white people because of their racism and religious bigotry. Only changing the ideology of the non-white Muslims can possibly counter the terrorism. Just inspecting passengers as they get on jets is missing the entire point completely. As you saw in Rwanda, racism is spread to individuals, who can pick up a machete at any time. There's no military solution for this, except for one that makes massive changes to the education system.
Anyway, trust me, as a Muslim myself (depending on your definition of "Muslim" - I pray 5 times per day, I fast during Ramadan, I pay the zakat, I said the shahada, but I haven't been to Mecca yet), I am all for a Muslim vs Muslim war to eradicate my ideological enemies. It's pricks like this that dehumanized Jews before gassing them. Did he ever stop to consider why no-one in the West at all gives two hoots about Chinese Buddhists, but are somewhat wary about Muslims? It couldn't possibly be something to do with Muslims themselves, could it? Hell no! That would require introspection and self-criticism!
By the way, the more I practice Islam, the more I realise that Islam surely is from God. Try doing the physical machinations of praying. It's not like the Christian put your hands together, or the Buddhist nod your head. This is really physical exercise, and if it wasn't a religious requirement (with people ringing me up to make sure I was fulfilling my religious obligations), I'd have virtually no exercise. Instead I now need to do "stand-ups" or whatever they're called, 17 times per day. Also, another thing that is required is fasting, which is a prelude to dieting. Basically this is everything that the modern world needs as far as body is concerned. And there's also the Friday prayers to get the population out on the street at once, ready to hold a revolution, which would be possible if it wasn't for sophisticated modern weaponry. But first things first. I am happy that I am now very clearly a player in the Muslim vs Muslim war to praise, instead of dehumanizing, the West. Mu'tazilah 4ever!
P.S. I can think of one reason why they would let large numbers of these pricks into the country. To create a critical mass so that these people can get organized enough to hold a prayer centre like the one I went to, so that they could get me personally to psychoanalyze these pricks and create policies/documentation to counter their deadly message, for international use. Because otherwise the chances of me going to a Muslim prayer centre, presumably in a Muslim country, were basically nil.
# posted by Paul Edwards @ 22:02
2012-08-03
Sleeping With The Enemy
Well, the police have not made any contact with me, neither to arrest me nor to get more information about those with a terrorist mindset.
Nor was I kicked out of Friday Prayers.
So the war continues.
Today's sermon started off with complaints about people using rationalism instead of scripture to decide to use calculations instead of global/local moon sightings to determine the start of Ramadan. Like wtf? As if the moon gives a shit.
However, then it moved to move sinister matters. Apparently some Islamic organization in the US is issuing fatwahs saying that it's OK for Muslims to join the US Army. That's apparently bad, because the US Army kills brothers in Afghanistan. And the Australian government is the enemy, as it donates money to Indonesia to try to set the curriculum for Islamic teaching - trying to get its version of Islam implemented. And it is unacceptable to join the Australian government in itfar too - Allah would not approve of this. And to top it all off, the Australian government supports dictators in the Middle East like Assad. Any proof required of this? Of course not.
I'm thinking of spending Friday lunchtime outside the prayer centre with a protest sign saying "Don't believe prejudiced, lying, anti-western imams. For the truth, join the Mu'tazilah at http://www.mutazilah.org/enlight.htm ". And I will have a headband that says "I love Syria" in Arabic. Having difficulty finding a competent Arabic speaker at the moment. But another part of me says it is better to continue "information gathering" to fully understand the terrorist paradigm. I have been told that this prayer centre is run by Hizb ut-Tahrir. What an organization to be associated with!
But get this. In order for the North Sydney Council to allow me to book the centre for prayers myself, I have to have "evidence of your representation of the group; a letter from an Imam on letterhead would suffice.". So an imam, sorry, Imam, needs to sign off on my own prayer group, but it matters not one whit if the imam/Imam is an anti-Australian lying terrorist-supporting prick. And all these anti-Australian lies are taking place in Australian government-owned premises! Wtf?
And they're collecting money there too. Obstensibly for things not involving terrorism, but money is fungible, even if the front-groups are ostensibly semi-legitimate.
Ultimately I believe that the antidote to bad speech is good speech, not banning of bad speech. I hope Allah lights up the path for me to follow now.
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Nor was I kicked out of Friday Prayers.
So the war continues.
Today's sermon started off with complaints about people using rationalism instead of scripture to decide to use calculations instead of global/local moon sightings to determine the start of Ramadan. Like wtf? As if the moon gives a shit.
However, then it moved to move sinister matters. Apparently some Islamic organization in the US is issuing fatwahs saying that it's OK for Muslims to join the US Army. That's apparently bad, because the US Army kills brothers in Afghanistan. And the Australian government is the enemy, as it donates money to Indonesia to try to set the curriculum for Islamic teaching - trying to get its version of Islam implemented. And it is unacceptable to join the Australian government in itfar too - Allah would not approve of this. And to top it all off, the Australian government supports dictators in the Middle East like Assad. Any proof required of this? Of course not.
I'm thinking of spending Friday lunchtime outside the prayer centre with a protest sign saying "Don't believe prejudiced, lying, anti-western imams. For the truth, join the Mu'tazilah at http://www.mutazilah.org/enlight.htm ". And I will have a headband that says "I love Syria" in Arabic. Having difficulty finding a competent Arabic speaker at the moment. But another part of me says it is better to continue "information gathering" to fully understand the terrorist paradigm. I have been told that this prayer centre is run by Hizb ut-Tahrir. What an organization to be associated with!
But get this. In order for the North Sydney Council to allow me to book the centre for prayers myself, I have to have "evidence of your representation of the group; a letter from an Imam on letterhead would suffice.". So an imam, sorry, Imam, needs to sign off on my own prayer group, but it matters not one whit if the imam/Imam is an anti-Australian lying terrorist-supporting prick. And all these anti-Australian lies are taking place in Australian government-owned premises! Wtf?
And they're collecting money there too. Obstensibly for things not involving terrorism, but money is fungible, even if the front-groups are ostensibly semi-legitimate.
Ultimately I believe that the antidote to bad speech is good speech, not banning of bad speech. I hope Allah lights up the path for me to follow now.
# posted by Paul Edwards @ 21:55
