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  • WHAT IS WRONG WITH PUBLIC EDUCATION?

    WHAT IS WRONG WITH PUBLIC EDUCATION?

    Last articles on the cost of universities have generated considerable interest on elementary, middle, and high school education. I wrote four articles on this subject since the beginning of these LETTERS. I want to summarize them here for the benefit of new readers.

    The aim of education in Turkey at the time of Ataturk was (a) to acquire modern knowledge, to learn to think analytically and (b) to acquire a modern conception of the world.( The problem with the Conception of the World will be discussed in an other article) According to the self-taught Eric Hoffer, the purpose should be to produce “learning” people, not “learned” people. As we will see, the U.S. does not achieve any of the two aims of the Ataturk era that were the same as European aims.

    American public schools are the way they are because of the teaching method of John Dewey. Around

    1900 large numbers of European peasants were immigrating to the U.S. Most of them were illiterate and did not speak English. It was a big task to train them and to convert them to useful citizens. The American Public Education System was “redesigned” for a specific purpose to meet this challenge. This job was given to the philosopher John Dewey (1850-1952) who became the most influential man in Public Education., in fact, he was called “The Father of American Education”. Dewey wanted to make education “child-centered”. In his book “The School and Society“ [The University of Chicago Press, Second Edition, 1915] he said, “The mere absorption of facts and truths is so exclusively individual an affair that it tends very naturally pass into selfishness. There is no obvious social motive for the acquirement of mere learning, there is no obvious social gain in success there at. Indeed almost the only measure for success is a competitive one, in the bad sense of the term….” He obviously did understand that learning is a purely individual mental process and there is no such thing as a collective learning. That apparently troubled him, because he believed in the supremacy of the society over the individual and all the other socialist failed ideas that eventually carried the socialist countries of the 20th century to destruction.

    In practice, “Child-centered Education” meant that no theoretical (conceptual) knowledge was given to the child. He/she was taught practical (concrete) knowledge in form of so-called class projects, which would develop his/her “social spirit”. Thus, in stead of teaching systematically history, geography, physics, and chemistry, the teacher might, for example, talk about the preparation of woolen textiles, she can give children bits of information on the raising of sheep, the parts of the country, where sheep are raised, etc. The child sees and feels this material as part of his/her life. Hence the term, “child-centered”. Thus, the childen never get any comprehensive and systematic knowledge of history, geography, physics, chemistry, or what ever.

    This system has very grave consequences. Ayn Rand, in her book “The new Left –The Anti-Industrial Revolution” [Signet books (1971) pp. 152-204] made an enlightening analysis of the Dewey System.. She said, “The perception of reality, the learning of facts, the ability to distinguish truth from falsehood, are exclusively individual capacities; the mind is an exclusively individual “affair”; there is no such thing as a collective brain”. Sacrificing one’s knowledge and truth to any social pressure is what we call a lack of intellectual integrity. Thus, “the goal of the Dewey system is to stunt,, stifle, and destroy the child’s capacity to develop “intellectual integrity. Dewey encouraged learning by memorizing instead of learning by understanding.

    Dewey’s system produced millions of Americans who have much practical knowledge, but are unable to think conceptually. The fact that “Johnnie can’t read” is a normal result of this system. After the Russians launched

    the Sputnik, there was a revue of U.S. Education. In the 1980’s “The National Commission on Excellence in Education” was created. Their finding called “A Nation in Risk – An imperative in Education Reform” was published in 1983. It said “If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well viewed it as an act of war.” Twenty six years passed since that report and nothing has changed. In competition with European and Japanese kids, ours can’t measure up. We cannot hope to stay as a superpower with an education like that. We should get rid of the Dewey system. Why isn’t anything ever done about it? It is inconceivable that a superpower that sends a man to the moon and back, may be unable to fix its own public education. It reminds me of “Brave New World”. (See Appendix) The governments under the influence of Business may not want a smart citizenry who would not swallow all the advertising garbage and would be easier buyers. Anyway, enough hard-minded kids will learn to think in spite of Dewey. Those are feeding the universities plus the foreign students who were taught to think. That deal was probably still adequate 26 years ago but it is no more valid. Business has changed. Things have gotten high-tech. Computers have invaded our country. Brave New World or not, the Dewey System must go!

    To get rid of the Dewey system there are a number of things that must be done:

    (1) A new curriculum must be written for the entire country for classes 1 – 12. that should be as strong as the French and Japanese curriculums that emphasize the teaching of thinking and philosophy in 12th grade.

    (2) The influence of local ignorant school boards on this curriculum must be definitely prevented.

    (3) The Department of Education must prepare yearly examination questions for all high schools and devise a cheat-proof way of using them that does not show the identity of the student to the grader of the paper.

    (4) The schools must be judged by the percentage of successes and failures, and failing schools must be closed. Same, teachers must be judged by their success in educating their pupils.

    If these things are done, U.S. Public schools can be brought to the level of European schools. Unfortunately,

    to do the above four measures, one must act federally. But education is a job reserved to the states. Here, there are constitutional difficulties. These measures cannot be done without changing the constitution, and we know how difficult that is. If this nation does not want to keep on deteriorating under the stupid Dewey system and eventually crumble like the Ottoman Empire and the USSR, its Congress would find ways of fulfilling the above four conditions.

    The new President-Elect Obama has campaigned on a platform of change. Education should be on top of his list, and here is a tough problem that requires his unusual authority and capabilities. I wish him much success.

    A P P E N D I X

    B R A V E N E W W O R L D

    Aldous Huxley’s book “Brave New World” was a utopia first published in 1932. It described a society existing “700 years after Ford”, that produced its people, not by sex, but by mass incubation of human eggs (??). The society consisted of four working classes and a master class. Each class was prepared differently in the incubators., giving less intelligence to the working classes.

    The TIME editor that prefaced the TIME edition of “Brave New World” in 1963 found that ”Life has imitated Huxley’s art” and many unusual ideas of the book have already been applied. Today we are going to add another one to that list.

    ………………………………………………………………………………………….

    To Readers’ Attention: Any one who wishes to receive THE ORHAN TARHAN LETTER should sent an e-mail to [email protected] with his/her full name, e-mail address , and PLEASE phone number, in case there is an interruption caused by the server, or in case of e-mail address change. It is free. Comments are welcome. These LETTERs are also published in AmericanChronicle.com

  • Marching for Hamas

    Marching for Hamas

    by Denis MacEoin
    Jerusalem Post
    January 22, 2009

    https://www.meforum.org/2056/marching-for-hamas

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    Hamas is a bully aided by a bigger bully, Iran. And, just as strident and threatening human bullies get away with their aggression so long as no one calls their bluff, so Hamas has been getting away with murder and torture because the UN and many states won’t call its two-faced self-portrayal as the victim in the piece. In the struggle to take over Gaza from Fatah, it went on a rampage that killed hundreds of Palestinians. Even during this most recent assault, in early January, it executed Fatah members for violating their house arrest. A few weeks ago, Hamas determined to hurt yet more of its compatriots by introducing Islamic hudud punishments to the Strip, from amputations and stonings, to crucifixions and hangings.

    Like all bullies, it likes to taunt its victims. It did just that for years after Israel left Gaza, firing rockets every day into towns like Sderot or Netivot. No one who has dismissed these rockets as harmless homemade toys has ever had the guts to spend a few weeks in Sderot, scurrying from shelter to shelter. And, oh yes, it also built up an arsenal (supplied by Iran) of Grad missiles that certainly aren’t anybody’s toys.

    Like all bullies, Hamas likes to make boastful threats. Its 1988 Covenant is replete with them. It threatens to destroy the State of Israel by violence and violence alone. It says it will never accept the work of conferences or peacemakers, and only jihad will solve its problems. Meanwhile, the Palestinians see their lives drained away in a culture that embraces death and martyrdom, their children exposed to a steady diet of military training and preparation for violent death as suicide bombers.

    Even if the Palestinians want peace, Hamas won’t let them have it, because Hamas knows best, and jihad “is the only solution.” Don’t believe me, read the Covenant. It likes nothing better than killing Jews, and the bigger bully in Teheran thinks that’s a damn fine thing too. No one says a word, because the UN is dominated by the Islamic states, and the Western governments know where the oil comes from, and nobody likes the Jews much anyway. The people calling for the end of Israel while they march on the streets of London and Dublin aren’t all Muslims by any means.

    There can be no greater indication of this boastfulness than what has happened in recent days. Having taken a heavy battering from Israel, Hamas now proclaims a “great victory,” and its supporters dance in the ruined streets of Gaza, drunk on their own demagoguery. For all its bluster, Hamas, like all bullies, is a coward at heart. Watch those films of Hamas gunmen dragging screaming children along with them to act as human shields, watch how they fire from behind the little ones, knowing no Israeli soldier will fire back. And even as they put their own children’s lives at risk, they shout to high heaven that the Israelis are Nazis and the Jews are child-killers. This blatant pornography spreads through the Western media, and people never once ask “what does this look like from the other side,” because they are addicted to the comforting news that the Yids are baby-killers as they’d always known, that they do poison wells, that no Christian child is safe come Passover. Hamas has become proficient at resurrecting the blood libel, just as its fighters use the Nazi salute, just as their predecessor in the 1930s and ’40s, Haj Amin al-Husseini, conferred with Hitler about building death camps in Palestine and raised a division of SS troops in Bosnia to fight for the Reich.

    We watch The Diary of Anne Frank on television, and some of us attend Holocaust Remembrance Day events, and others pay lip service to Jewish victimhood; we like our Jews emaciated and helpless under the SS boot. But the moment real Jews stand up and show themselves the stronger for all their deaths, it awakens an atavistic fear, and people recoil from them. Jews in uniform, how unseemly. Jews beating the bully, how unheard of. Jews with their own state, what upstarts.

    IN MY home country of Ireland, we glamorize the great nationalist heroes who rebelled against the bullying forces of imperial Britain in the uprising of Easter Sunday 1916. In France, they venerate the heroes of the Resistance against the occupying forces of Nazi Germany. In Spain, they have not ceased to heap praise on those who fought against the forces of fascist bullies and lost. To stand up against an enemy bent on your destruction is everywhere counted an act of bravery. But not when it comes to Israel. In 1948 and 1967 and 1973 and 2006, Israel fought off overwhelming forces who made no secret of their plans for an imminent massacre of the Jews. But nobody now seems to care, no one lauds the courage the Israelis displayed, and no one praises the extraordinary restraint they showed in victory.

    In a bizarre reversal of all their commitment to human rights and the struggle of men and women for independence and self-determination, the European Left has chosen again and again to side with the bullies and to condemn a small nation struggling to survive in a hostile neighborhood. It is all self-contradictory: The Left supports gay rights, yet attacks the only country in the Middle East where gay rights are enshrined in law. Hamas makes death the punishment for being gay, but “we are all Hamas now.” Iran hangs gays, but it is praised as an agent of anti-imperialism, and allowed to get on with its job of stoning women and executing dissidents and members of religious minorities. If UK Premier Gordon Brown swore to wipe France from the face of the earth, he would become a pariah among nations. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad threatens to do that to Israel and is invited to speak to the UN General Assembly

    Israel guarantees civil liberties to all its citizens, Jew or Arab alike, but it is dubbed “an apartheid state”; Hamas, ever the bully, kills its opponents and denies the rest the most basic rights, but we march on behalf of Hamas. The Left prefers the bully because the bully represents a finger in the face of the establishment? Almost no one on the Left has any understanding of militant Islam. Their politics is a politics of gesture, where wearing a keffiyeh is cool but understanding its symbolism is too much effort even for intellectuals.

    I have personally had enough of it all. The whining double standards, the blatant lies, the way their leaders have forced Palestinians to suffer for 60 years because peace and compromise aren’t in their vocabulary and because they won’t settle for anything but total victory. Painful as it was, in the 1920s Ireland created a republic by compromising on the status of the North. Ireland subsequently became a prosperous country and, in due course, one of the hottest economies in the world. When the Israelis left Gaza in 2005, they left state-of-the-art greenhouses to form the basis for a thriving economy. Hamas destroyed them to the last pane of glass. Why? Because they had been Jewish greenhouses.

    The writer is the incoming editor of the leading international journal Middle East Quarterly and the author of a blog entitled ‘A Liberal Defence of Israel.’

    Related Topics: Arab-Israel conflict & diplomacy, Palestinians

  • FORGET ARMENIA, TURKS SHOULD CONDEMN AMERICAN INDIAN GENOCIDE

    FORGET ARMENIA, TURKS SHOULD CONDEMN AMERICAN INDIAN GENOCIDE

    Massacre, Wounded Knee, South Dakota, December 1890

    Turkey is today beset on all sides by the shock doctrine strategy of the west, and from within by its US-backed marionette government. Now the Armenian Genocide issue has once again bubbled to the surface. Apologize! Apologize! yell the so-called Turkish liberals, egos stroked and, no doubt, palms greased by their western puppeteers. It’s the same old drama with the same stodgy cast burbling the same trite lines. As usual, the Turkish government does nothing, thus contributing to the confusion, apathy, and fear that stalk the land. But that’s the whole idea isn’t it?

    Turkish people! Instead of handwringing and moaning, ACT! Turkish people, you heirs of the Atatürk Revolution, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk gave you the right (and responsibility) to save your country. https://yunus.hacettepe.edu.tr/~sadi/dizeler/hitabe2.html ) Fight the rush-to-judgment efforts of the Armenian Genocide lobby. Every “Turkish child of future generations” should demand that their parliament immediately enact a resolution that condemns the American Indian Genocide. Turkish people…ACT! Defend your country against the dark powers that Mustafa Kemal Atatürk foresaw over eighty years ago. The facts of the catastrophe done to the American Indians are in plain sight and beyond dispute. Spain, Portugal, England, and, most importantly, the United States of America should stand condemned in the eyes of the world for the crimes committed against the aboriginal population in the Americas.

    More than 200 million Indians lost their lives on the combined North, Central, and South American continents after Columbus landed in 1492. The Indians in South and Central America were mostly enslaved to extract precious metals. The Indians in North America were displaced, starved, and slaughtered to make way for the enormous flow of European immigrants. Vast numbers died from European diseases, perhaps the first weapon of mass destruction, in this case, biological warfare. Surely Turkey has the right to defend itself from the Western claims of genocide, given the historically bloody hand of the West.

    From approximately 15-18 million North American Indians present in the days of Columbus, only 190,000 were left in the territorial United States in 1890. The destruction of the Southern Indians (the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Creek tribes) resulted in the seizure and clearance of their enormously fertile forest lands (the Southern black belt) in order to expand both slavery and cotton production in Arkansas, Alabama, and Mississippi. In this manner, the red and black races were displaced, enslaved, and murdered in order for white America to prosper. The proof of this assertion is fully documented and unassailable.

    On the other hand, Turkey has welcomed the persecuted minorities of many nations. The same year that the destruction of the American Indians began, 1492, Turkey’s Sultan Bayezit II accepted with kindness and consideration the Jews expelled from Spain and Portugal. Similar compassion was rendered to Jews centuries later who fled Hitler’s genocide. Surely Turkey has the right, the responsibility, and moral authority to counter the orchestrated, poorly documented, rush-to-judgment of the Armenian Lobby and its collaborators, both western and Turkish.

    The horrific destruction of the sophisticated Native American cultural system was encouraged by the government of the United States, particularly under the administration of that so-called champion of so-called democracy, Andrew Jackson. By 1890, the American Indians were finished. Their numbers had been reduced by 98 percent over the 400 years since Columbus landed. By 1890 the United States government had seized 98 percent of their land. No greater genocide or land grab has existed in the history of the world. Surely Turkey has the right to challenge the unproven claim of so-called genocide by affirming through parliamentary resolution the well-documented genocide of an entire race of people by an act of policy by the government of the United States of America.

    It is high time that Turkey takes the offensive on the matter of genocide. In this day of widespread destruction, it is high time to remind America, Americans, and their government, that they are up to their ancestral elbows in the blood of the American Indians. The Turkish government must condemn the American Indian Genocide, or itself be condemned. And if you, the Turkish people, think that makes you a traitor, then read again Nazım Hikmet’s magnificent poem, Vatan Haini (“Traitor”) below, along with Atatürk’s statement of your “primary duty.”

    Cem Ryan, Ph.D.
    Istanbul
    21 December 2008

    TRAITOR


    “Nazim Hikmet is still continuing to be a traitor,
    We are a half-colony of American imperialism, said Hikmet.
    Nazim Hikmet is still continuing to be a traitor.”
    This came out in one of the Ankara newspapers,
    Over three columns, in a pitch-black screaming streamer.
    In an Ankara newspaper, beside a photograph of Admiral Williamson,
    smiling in 66 square centimeters, his mouth in his ears,
    the American admiral.
    America gave 120 million lira to our budget, 120 million lira.
    “We are a half-colony of American imperialism, said Hikmet.
    Nazim Hikmet is still continuing to be a traitor.”

    Yes, I am a traitor, if you are a patriot, if you are a defender of our homeland,
    I am a traitor to my homeland, I am a traitor to my country.
    If patriotism is your farms,
    if the valuables in your safes and your bank accounts is patriotism,
    if patriotism is dying from hunger by the side of the road,
    if patriotism is trembling in the cold like a cur and shivering from malaria in the summer,
    if sucking our scarlet blood in your factories is patriotism,
    if patriotism is the claws of your village lords,
    if patriotism is the catechism, if patriotism is the police club,
    if your allocations and your salaries are patriotism,
    if patriotism is American bases, American bombs, and American missiles,
    if patriotism is not escaping from our stinking black-minded ignorance,
    then I am a traitor.
    Write it over three columns, in a pitch-black screaming streamer,
    Nazim Hikmet is continuing to be a traitor, STILL!

    Nazim Hikmet
    28 July 1962

    (Translation: Hüda Cereb and James Ryan, 1 June 2005)

    ATATÜRK’S SPEECH TO TURKISH YOUTH
    O Turkish Youth! Your first duty is ever to preserve and defend the national independence, the Turkish Republic.

    That is the sole foundation of your existence and your future. This foundation is your most precious treasure. In the future, too, there will be ill-will, both in the country itself and abroad, which will try to tear this treasure from you. If one day you are compelled to defend your independence and the Republic, then, in order to fulfill your duty, you will have to look beyond the possibilities and conditions in which you might find yourself.

    It may be that these conditions and possibilities are altogether unfavorable. It may be that the enemies who desire to destroy your independence and your Republic represent the strongest force that the earth has ever seen; that they have through craft and force, taken possession of all the fortresses and arsenals of the homeland; that all its armies are scattered and the country actually and completely occupied.
    Assuming, in order to look still darker possibilities in the face, that those who hold the power of Government within the country have fallen into error, that they are fools or traitors, yes, even that these leading persons may identify their personal interests with the enemy’s political goals, it might happen that the nation came into complete privation, into the most extreme distress; that it found itself in a condition of ruin and complete exhaustion.

    Even under those circumstances, O Turkish child of future generations, it is your duty to save the independence of the Turkish Republic.

    The strength that you will need for this is mighty in the noble blood which flows in your veins.

    Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

    From“The Great Speech”
    20 October 1927

    https://yunus.hacettepe.edu.tr/~sadi/dizeler/hitabe2.html

    VATAN HAİNİ

    “Nâzım Hikmet vatan hainliğine devam ediyor hâlâ.
    Amerikan emperyalizminin yarı sömürgesiyiz,” dedi Hikmet.
    “Nâzım Hikmet vatan hainliğine devam ediyor hâlâ.”
    Bir Ankara gazetesinde çıktı bunlar, üç sütun üstüne, kapkara haykıran puntolarla,
    bır Ankara gazetesinde, fotoğrafı yanında Amiral Vilyamson’un
    66 santimetre karede gülüyor, ağzı kulaklarında, Amerikan amirali
    Amerika, bütçemize 120 milyon lira hibe etti, 120 milyon lira.
    “Amerikan emperyalizminin yari sömurgesiyiz, dedi Hikmet
    Nâzım Hikmet vatan hainliğine devam ediyor hâlâ.”

    Evet, vatan hainliğine, siz vatanperverseniz, siz yurtseverseniz, ben yurt
    hainiyim, ben vatan hainiyim.
    Vatan ciftliklerinizse,
    kasalarınızın ve çek defterlerinizin içindekilerse vatan,
    vatan, şose boylarında gebermekse açlıktan,
    vatan, soğukta it gibi titremek ve sıtmadan kıvranmaksa yazın,
    fabrikalrınızda al kanımızı içmekse vatan,
    vatan tırnaklarıysa ağalarınızın,
    vatan, mızraklı ilmühalse, vatan, polis copuysa,
    ödeneklerinizse, maaşlarınızsa vatan,
    vatan, Amerikan üsleri, Amerikan bombası, American donanması topuysa,
    vatan, kurtulmamaksa kokmuş karanlığımızdan,
    ben vatan hainiyim.
    Yazın üç sütun üstüne kapkara haykıran puntolarla:
    Nâzım Hikmet vatan hainliğine devam ediyor hâlâ.

    Nazım Hikmet

    28 Temmuz 1962

    https://nazimhikmet.fisek.com.tr/siir/vatanhaini.htm

    ATATÜRK’ÜN GENCLİĞE HİTABESİ

    Ey Türk gençliği! Birinci vazifen, Türk istiklâlini, Türk Cumhuriyet’ini, ilelebet, muhafaza ve müdafaa etmektir.

    Mevcudiyetinin ve istikbalinin yegâne temeli budur.
    Bu temel, senin, en kıymetli hazinendir.
    İstikbalde dahi, seni bu hazineden mahrum etmek isteyecek, dahilî ve haricî bedhahların olacaktır. Bir gün, istiklâl ve cumhuriyeti müdafaa mecburiyetine düşersen, vazifeye atılmak için, içinde bulunacağın vaziyetln imkân ve şeraitini düşünmeyeceksin!
    Bu imkân ve şerait, çok nâmüsait bir mahiyette tezahür edebilir.
    İstiklâl ve cumhuriyetine kastedecek düşmanlar, bütün dünyada emsali görülmemiş bir galibiyetin mümessili olabilirler. Cebren ve hile ile aziz vatanın, bütün kaleleri zaptedilmiş, bütün tersanelerine girilmiş, bütün orduları dagıtılmış ve memleketin her köşesi bilfiil işgal edilmiş olabilir. Bütün bu şeraitten daha elîm ve daha vahim olmak üzere, memleketin dahilinde, iktidara sahip olanlar gaflet ve dalâlet ve hattâ hiyanet içinde bulunabilirler.
    Hatta bu iktidar sahipleri şahsî menfaatlerini, müstevlilerin siyasî emelleriyle tevhit edebilirler. Millet, fakr ü zaruret içinde harap ve bîtap düşmüş olabilir.

    Ey Türk istikbalinin evlâdı! İşte, bu ahval ve şerait içinde dahi, vazifen; Türk istiklâl ve cumhuriyetini kurtarmaktır!

    Muhtaç olduğun kudret, damarlarındaki asil kanda, mevcuttur!

    Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
    “Nutuk”
    20 Ekim 1927

    Posted by Cem Ryan, Ph.D. Istanbul, Turkey [email protected] at 6:55 PM
    Labels: Armenia, armenian genocide, armenian question, ataturk, nazim hikmet, Turkey

    2 comments:

    Ergun Kirlikovali said…
    Dear Cem Ryan,

    I appreciated and enjoyed your commentary and would like to publish it in my columns at www.turkla.com and www.turkishjournal.com in its entirety, if you give me your permission.

    Keep up the good work!

    Ergun KIRLIKOVALI: [email protected].
    12-24-2008

    December 24, 2008 6:11 PM
    Anonymous said…
    Turks Should Condemn American Indian Genocide, indeed but, if Armenian were as ‘lucky’ as native Americans, they would have Casinos and ‘tribal’ lands in Turkey. Armenian Genocide should never be forgotten and you’ll be rotting in hell for being Turkish government’s thug.

    December 24, 2008 11:31 PM
  • Archbishop joins criticism of BBC refusal to screen Gaza appeal

    Archbishop joins criticism of BBC refusal to screen Gaza appeal

    Corporation receives 11,000 complaints and 50 MPs plan to back motion calling on BBC to change its mind over aid film

    Protesters demonstrate outside the BBC's Broadcasting House. Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA

    The Archbishop of Canterbury today added to criticism of the BBC over its refusal to broadcast a charity appeal for aid to Gaza.

    He spoke as it emerged the BBC had received some 11,000 complaints and more than 50 MPs planned to back a parliamentary motion urging the corporation to reverse its decision not to broadcast tomorrow’s appeal by the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC).

     

    The early day motion to be tabled tomorrow by Labour’s Richard Burden has received the support of 51 MPs from across the Commons; ministers and some senior BBC staff have also called for the BBC to change its mind. The corporation today admitted it had received “approximately” 1,000 telephone complaints about the decision and a further 10,000 by email.

     

    Meanwhile, adding his voice to the calls for a U-turn while speaking after a church service in Cambridge, the Right Rev Rowan Williams said: “My feeling is that the BBC should broadcast an appeal.”

     

    But despite the increasing pressure, a BBC spokesman today said the situation remained unchanged.

     

    Mark Thompson, the BBC director general, has been left isolated as ITV and Channel 4 agreed to air the plea for aid.

     

    The BBC has decided that broadcasting the appeal might be seen as evidence of bias on a highly sensitive political issue.

     

    The culture secretary, Andy Burnham, said it was right that broadcasters made their own decisions, adding that the BBC faced a difficult choice because of the way it is funded.

    The communities secretary, Hazel Blears, said she hoped the BBC would “urgently review its decision”, and the Scottish first minister, Alex Salmond, said the corporation had made the “wrong decision”.

    Yesterday, the Archbishop of York, the John Sentamu, accused the broadcaster of “taking sides” and said: “This is not a row about impartiality, but rather about humanity.

     

    “This situation is akin to that of British military hospitals who treat prisoners of war as a result of their duty under the Geneva convention,” he added.

    “They do so because they identify need rather than cause. This is not an appeal by Hamas asking for arms, but by the Disasters Emergency Committee asking for relief.

    “By declining their request, the BBC has already taken sides and forsaken impartiality.”

    Thompson received backing from the BBC Trust’s chairman, Sir Michael Lyons. He said he was “concerned” about the tone of some politicians’ comments on the issue, which he said came close to “undue interference” in the BBC’s editorial independence.

    The BBC’s unrepentant stance has stirred up rebellion in the ranks of it own reporters and editors. One senior BBC news presenter told the Observer: “I’ve been talking to colleagues, and everyone here is absolutely seething about this.

    “The notion that the decision to ban the appeal will seem impartial to the public at large is quite absurd.

    “Most of us feel that the BBC’s defence of its position is pathetic, and there’s a feeling of real anger, made worse by the fact that, contractually, we are unable to speak out.”

    Jon Snow, the journalist who presents Channel 4 news, said the BBC should have been prepared to accept the judgment of the aid experts of the DEC.

    “It is a ludicrous decision,” he said. “That is what public service broadcasting is for. I think it was a decision founded on complete ignorance and I am absolutely amazed they have stuck to it.”

    Snow said he suspected a BBC bureaucrat had “panicked” and urged Thompson to put the situation right.

    Martin Bell, the former BBC foreign correspondent, said the corporation should admit it had made a mistake and claimed “a culture of timidity had crept” in.

    “I am completely appalled,” he said. “It is a grave humanitarian crisis and the people who are suffering are children. They have been caught out on this question of balance.”

    But Greg Dyke, Thompson’s predecessor as director general, said the issue had put the BBC in a “no win situation”.

    “Outside of Iraq, the single biggest issue that caused complaints was the coverage of Israel,” he added. “I can understand why the BBC has taken this decision, because on a subject as sensitive as the Middle East it is absolutely essential that the audience cannot see any evidence at all of a bias.”

    The BBC also faces demands for an explanation from within the ­Commons international development select committee.

    Andrew Mitchell, the shadow international development secretary, said: “We believe that they should allow the broadcast to proceed so that the British public, who have proved themselves so generous during recent emergencies in the Congo and Burma, can make their own judgment on the validity of the appeal.”

    The satellite broadcaster Sky said it was “considering” broadcasting the appeal.

    A BBC spokesman said: “We do accept that people are strongly guided in their view on this by the humanitarian emergency.

    “We are highlighting the situation in Gaza in every news bulletin, and that is one of the reasons the issue is so high on the agenda.”

    Guardian

  • Poor Richard’s Report

    Poor Richard’s Report

    Turkey: EU Must Remove Obstacles To Membership — Official
    January 24, 2009Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan said Jan. 24 that several EU countries should stop blocking Turkey’s possible membership in the European Union, KUNA reported. Babacan said, “There are influential countries inside the EU who want to undermine Turkey’s membership.” Turkey has finalized only 10 of the 35 required chapters for EU accession. Eight accession chapters were suspended because Turkey refused to allow Greek Cypriot ships to enter Turkish ports.

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  • “Criminals committed by Armenians against Azerbaijanis will be brought for consideration in international court

    “Criminals committed by Armenians against Azerbaijanis will be brought for consideration in international court

    Politic / 24.01.2009 20:51

    Norwegian well-known researcher of genocide and terror crimes Sefa Yurukel is busy with gathering facts related with the issue.
    “Criminals committed by Armenians against Azerbaijanis can be submitted for consideration in International Court of Hague”.
    Norwegian well-known researcher of genocide and terror crimes Sefa Yurukel said. S.Yurukel underlined that he is busy with gathering facts related with the issue. Sefa Yurukel interviewed by ANS TV said that he intended to let know the international community about Armenians’ cruelties committed against Azerbaijanis through two ways.
    The first way is a civil court called an alternative tribunal composed of competitive experts of the world.

    “We are planning to hold it in Hague. We shall bring all crimes to notice of different peoples through TV channels in the end the court.
    The second way is: the trial can be held in in Baku with participation of international experts if Azerbaijani state wants to put this issue as Armenian genocide committed against Azerbaijanis. We want to prepare a report related with the issue.  The report can be used both by Azerbaijan and international law. That is, we are working over a report to start a legal procedure envisaging punishment of Armenia for it committed genocide against Azerbaijanis as well as punishment of the Armenian authorities such as Sargsyan and Kocharyan responsible for all these criminals happened there”.

    (c) 2008 All rights reserved. Citing to ANS PRESS is necessary upon using news. BAKU, AZERBAIJAN