A Monster Dies and the World Mourns(from Rabble.Ca)

[Ken Burch]

http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/j-baglow/2015/01/monster-dies-and-world-mourns

A monster dies and the world mourns
A foul despot has just passed on, and the Western world is singing his praises. Speak no ill of the dead? There are always exceptions to that rule. And King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, one might have thought, should be a glaringly obvious one.
We may never again have such an opportunity to observe the West's paramount value -- hypocrisy -- showcased in glitter, tinsel and neon quite so spectacularly. In the U.K. the government has ordered that all flags be lowered to half-mast. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry sucks hard enough to implode. Here at home, our Prime Minister sings Abdullah's praises: "the monarch also undertook a range of important economic, social, education, health, and infrastructure initiatives in his country." Just another Economic Action Plan, with a few cut limbs and rolling heads. What's not to like?
Under this bloated tyrant, women have been arrested for the crime of driving. A blogger has been sentenced to 10 years and 1,000 lashes for cautiously endorsing mildly liberal values. But these are, comparatively speaking, mere peccadilloes, a few national idiosyncrasies.

[MohRokTah]

1. K&R eom

[Algernon Moncrieff]

16. +1

[mountain grammy]

2. not to mention complicity in the events of 9/11/01

something I think will be confirmed with the release of the full report of the commission.

[Ken Burch]

3. When will the full report be released, btw?

Last edited Sat Jan 24, 2015, 12:54 PM - Edit history (1)

Personally, it wouldn't surprise me if somebody made them wait until fifty years after the last Dubya appointee finally dies.

[mountain grammy]

11. I'm beginning to think you're right.

I've been writing to my remaining sane senator nearly every day asking for progress on this.. one of these days I'll get a straight answer.

[malaise]

9. Check this out

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/23/king-abdullah-half-mast-flag-tribute-mps
<snip>
A decision to mark the death of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia by flying flags in Whitehall at half-mast has been criticised by MPs.

The tribute was paid even though the sentencing of a Saudi blogger to 10 years in jail and 1,000 lashes for insulting Islam has thrust Saudi Arabia’s dismal human rights record into the spotlight in recent weeks.

Carswell said the “Sir Humphreys who run British foreign policy” were to blame for the tribute and that they were out of touch with public feeling.

“It is an extraordinary misjudgment by the out-of-touch elite in Whitehall who think it is appropriate to do this,” he said.

“On the day that flags at Whitehall are flying at half-mast for King Abdullah, how many public executions will there be?”

Labour MP Paul Flynn said the tribute was “liable to bring infantile fawning over royalty into disrepute”. It was evidence of the establishment’s “extraordinary subservience” to foreign royals, he added.

================
And of course Cameron and Charles are off to Saudi Arabia

[mountain grammy]

10. “On the day that flags at Whitehall are flying at half-mast for King Abdullah, how many public

executions will there be?" That says it all.. Je suis whaaat????

[WestCoastLib]

4. I'm not mourning.

am I not the world?

[Ken Burch]

5. I suppose the author of the piece meant "the world's LEADERS mourn".

Point taken, though.

[WestCoastLib]

6. Oh, I get it

I was being tongue 'n cheek of course. However, I've never been a big fan of the misleading headline. The headline seems like he wants to suggest that this leader is being universally mourned and his actions whitewashed. I'm just not seeing it to that extent.

Good riddance, I say. And for the most part the overall sentiment is probably apathy.

[treestar]

20. I'm not mourning him either

I didn't know his name until he died. Still don't in fact.

[BrotherIvan]

7. Tramp the dirt down

Written for Thatcher, but the sentiment applies. Good riddance, but the next one will be just as bad.

[mountain grammy]

13. Wow, I can't believe I never heard this..

It might have been for Thatcher, but you're right. It applies to all the iron idiots who have ruled the world in accordance with the shock doctrine, bringing war and misery to millions.

[BrotherIvan]

18. Yes, I always sing it in my head when an evil one has died

I wonder if in their last moments, when they are facing death, if they have to face the atrocities they have committed. Not sure, but I hope so. I should go find Reagan's grave and jump up and down on it because I feel the same way for all the people he starved, made suffer, and killed.

[malaise]

8. It's hilarious to watch

See the West always defends 'its monsters'. In fact you're not a monster if you're doing the West's bidding - fuck freedom and democracy.

[Martin Eden]

12. Saudi Arabia funds radical Islam

The Saudi rulers have imposed on their people the fundamentalist/intolerant version of Islam known as Wahhabism and they fund madrassas throughout the Islamic world, spreading the extremist ideology at the core of Al Qaeda and ISIS.

In reality the House of Saud is perhaps America's greatest enemy.

Why does our government have such a cozy relationship with these evil tyrants?

[mountain grammy]

14. Why indeed?

[Martin Eden]

32. The answer to this question is vitally important, IMO

And the answer is most likely to be found in the usual manner:
FOLLOW THE MONEY

The USA protects the fabulously wealthy Saudi regime.
The Saudis fund radical Islam.
The "war on terror" means huge profits for the MIC.

Connect the dots ..............

[mountain grammy]

33. Yep, it's always been about the money..

[wildbilln864]

15. G.O.D.!

guns, oil, & drugs.

[polly7]

17. Contradiction in Action: The Eulogies for King Abdullah

by Binoy Kampmark / January 24th, 2015

It did not take long for various news agencies to pick up that Saudi Arabia, prior to a 2013 law banning terrorist financing, had been at the forefront of Sunni funding for a colourful assortment of so-called enemies of the free world. A US cable from the WikiLeaks Public Library of US Diplomacy, titled “Terrorist Finance: Action Request for Senior Level Engagement on Terrorism Finance” (December 30, 2009) is illuminating on that precise point.

The gender side of the commemorations were also somewhat skewed. Head of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde, was a test case that silence can, indeed, prove golden – when exercised with judiciousness. Instead, she decided to volunteer a view that King Abdullah had been “a strong advocate for women. It was a very gradual, appropriately so probably for the country.” The great moderniser was, after all, averse to letting his daughters out, keeping them under lock and key for taking issue with stifling, and overwhelming male guardianship.

It all proved a bit much for the former British MP and conservative Louis Mensch, who made a few ripples with a resounding, albeit social media driven “F***K YOU” to Cameron’s ingratiating behaviour to the House of Saud. “It is so unacceptable to offer deep condolences for a man who flogged women, didn’t let them drive, saw guardian laws passed, & STARVES THEM” (emphasis in original).

As for the issue of preventing women from driving in the kingdom, The Independent found it fitting to publish a story taken from former Saudi Ambassador Sherard Cowper-Cole’s memoir, Ever the Diplomat. When visiting Balmoral as a Crown Prince in September 1998, Abdullah was greeted to an astonishing spectacle: the Queen of England taking the wheel of a Land Rover.

While it would be remiss to point out that no single leader can dictate the entirety of a political system, it remains difficult to call King Abdullah, by any stretch of the imagination, a great, let alone subtle “moderniser”. Public beheadings, the sentencing of Raif Badawi to a thousand lashes and ten years in prison for being critical of the state, and injunctions on the construction of non-Islamic places of worship within the country, suggest the workings of a distinctly anti-modern entity rooted in firm tribalism.

http://dissidentvoice.org/2015/01/contradiction-in-action-the-eulogies-for-king-abdullah/

Sorry ... this was supposed to be a reply to the OP, but I guess it doesn't matter where it is : )

[Tom Ripley]

30. +1000

[treestar]

19. Have most of us ever heard of him before?

We knew Saudi Arabia had a king. But not much else, for most of us. So we must have equal disdain for the new person who takes the throne, since our only basis for calling him a foul tyrant is that he is the Saudi King.

I am open to being educated o this country, but my impression so far is that its people are rather accepting of and supportive of their situation.

[Zorra]

27. Yes, most of us have. nt

[bluedigger]

21. I don't think one has to be in mourning to express condolences to those who are.

I haven't seen any pictures of our President in sack cloth and ashes, at least. Showing compassion for the citizens of an ally, no matter how imperfect they are, shouldn't be castigated, but applauded. It's one of our better human qualities.

[Liberal_in_LA]

22. exactly. i hope he was dragged right down to hell for the atrocities of his reign

[Luminous Animal]

23. King Abdullah flogged & beheaded some folks.

[Volaris]

31. yeah, but he was a patriot. So don't be gettin' all sanctimonious and whatnot up in here.

and I use that tag almost reluctantly at this point.

[Tom Ripley]

24. I have a wedding gift from him, and still don't mourn

true

[Ken Burch]

25. Ok...gotta ask...what did he give you? n/t.

[Tom Ripley]

29. Little gold plated tea glasses, spoons, and platter...

back when he was Prince Abdullah.
I had a good friend who was a "former" spook and current security consultant who was very close to the Saud family, along with the heads of Kuwait and Qatar.
He was a fascinating guy. And bone fide. Hell, he had received a wedding gift from Haile Selassie!

[Donald Ian Rankin]

26. I worry that his successor will give us cause to mourn him.

Never assume that things can't get any worse.

[Zorra]

28. If I owned hell and Saudi Arabia, I'd live in hell and rent out Saudi Arabia.

Eleven things women in Saudi Arabia can't do

As Saudi Arabia mourns the death of King Abdullah, human rights groups argue he should not be remembered for championing women's rights, despite the modest changes that he introduced.

The conservative kingdom has an abysmal human right record, particularly with regards to protecting women. Although in recent years the rights of women have been incrementally extended – they were allowed to vote in local elections, for example – their actions are still severely restricted.

"I believe strongly in the rights of women," King Abdullah once told the BBC. "My mother is a woman, my sister is a woman, my daughter is a woman, my wife is a woman."

However, last year his adult daughters revealed that they had effectively been held "hostage" in his palace in Jeddah for more than a decade, in an interview with Channel 4 News.

http://www.theweek.co.uk/middle-east/60339/eleven-things-women-in-saudi-arabia-cant-do

Human trafficking in Saudi Arabia

Both the 2007 and the 2008 Trafficking in Persons Reports designate Saudi Arabia as a Tier 3 country.[1]

The Government of Saudi Arabia does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so. The government continues to lack adequate anti-trafficking laws, and, despite evidence of widespread trafficking abuses, did not report any criminal prosecutions, convictions, or prison sentences for trafficking crimes committed against foreign domestic workers. The government similarly did not take law enforcement action against trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation in Saudi Arabia, or take any steps to provide victims of sex trafficking with protection. The Saudi government also made no discernable effort to employ procedures to identify and refer victims to protective services.[1]

Saudi Arabia is a destination for men and women from South East Asia and East Africa trafficked for the purpose of labor exploitation, and for children from Yemen, Afghanistan, and Africa trafficking for forced begging. Hundreds of thousands of low-skilled workers from Pakistan, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Kenya migrate voluntarily to Saudi Arabia; some fall into conditions of involuntary servitude, suffering from physical and sexual abuse, non-payment or delayed payment of wages, the withholding of travel documents, restrictions on their freedom of movement and non-consensual contract alterations. According to international organizations such as Ansar Burney Trust, young children from Bangladesh and India are also smuggled to Saudi Arabia to be used as jockeys. The children are underfed to reduce their weights, in order to lighten the load on the camel.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_trafficking_in_Saudi_Arabia

LGBT rights in Saudi Arabia

The rights of LGBT people in Saudi Arabia are unrecognized. Homosexuality is frequently a taboo subject in Saudi Arabian society and is punished with imprisonment, fines, corporal punishment, capital punishment, whipping/flogging, and chemical castrations. Transgenderism is generally associated with homosexuality.
snip===
Penalty:
Lashings, fines, floggings, prison time up to life, torture, chemical castrations,[1] whipping torture, and/or Death penalty on first offense. If convicted twice, you will be executed. Vigilante executions are very common as well,[2] especially by families who want to "save face". The police participate in executions/torture or turn a blind eye to it.[3] Islamic Sharia law is strictly and emphatically applied

Discrimination protections: No protection, discrimination is encouraged, enforced and heavily applied to the LGBT community.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_in_Saudi_Arabia