Showing posts with label arms trade. Show all posts
Showing posts with label arms trade. Show all posts

Sunday, August 22, 2010

No sehri and no iftar


Never in a million years would I want to be seen as the niggardly, mean-spirited type of person who would discourage people from donating to relief efforts. On the contrary, those of us who enjoy a better life than the people in the affected areas need to remember that our wealth is a test, and that to withhold it from those in need is to fail that test. This is the biggest disaster facing humanity since the 2006 Tsunami, and it deserves the attention of our entire species.

It must be said, however, as it was said about the United States during Hurricane Katrina, that if Pakistan didn't spend so much on "national security," it would probably be able to afford some national security.

Unlike the United States, Pakistan has some good reasons to maintain a large military - it lives in a dangerous neighbourhood - but this is a country that spends more on its military than it does on health and education combined. The lack of those does more damage to the country every day than any army ever could.

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Friday, March 13, 2009

Merchants of dinga-dinga-Death

Arms manufacturer Rafael recently produced this horrendous promotional video to boost sales at an Indian air show. Wired Magazine picked it up, dubbing it "most atrocious defense video of all time."



Those of you who are unfamiliar with the arms trade are probably not aware of just how common this nonsense is. Weapons systems are products, and they are bought by human beings. Consequently, whether you are marketing targeting pods or toothpaste, the gimmicks are the same.

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Saturday, January 17, 2009

Since a whopping 7% of my "readership" is from the UK, I'd like to encourage any of you with UK citizenship to sign this petition, with an aim to stop the arms trade that enables the current carnage in Gaza.

Petition to 10 Downing for an arms embargo.

as for my Canadian readers, please call your MP (especially Liberal MPs) or Michael Ignatieff, to decry the Liberal party's anti-Palestinian stance.

http://webinfo.parl.gc.ca/MembersOfParliament/MainMPsCompleteList.aspx?TimePeriod=Current&Language=E


I have no idea if any of this will get results, but since the options are there, it can't hurt to use them.

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