Miracle plant

 

AI´s fantasy picture of Silphium

Yuge if true. Finally, some good news! 

Miracle plant used in ancient Greece rediscovered after 2000 years

Humanekologi

 

En sionistisk T-Rex jagar en liten Lundaprofessor

Jag undrar vad Malm anser om Sveriges NATO-ansökan. Han stödde nämligen NATO:s intervention i Libyen mot Gaddafi och uppmanade den dåvarande svenska högerregeringen att skicka JAS-plan för att backa USA. Malm måste vara glad över att NATO-medlemmen Turkiet stödjer Hamas och snart ska få F-16 från Förenta Staterna. 

Eller nej?

Och att Lunds universitet värnar yttrandefriheten är givetvis skitsnack. Tror någon att en frispråkig sverigedemokrat hade fått vara professor i Lund? Nä, just det. Eller ens en Gaddafi-anhängare... 

Andreas Malm stödjer Hamas

Underreported

 

A very interesting article from 2019. Also mentions certain salient events in 2015. What makes the piece interesting is that Russia´s hybrid warfare involving migrants was well known (and feared) by the cognoscenti long before the 2021 Belarus border crisis and the 2022 Russian attack on Ukraine. Yet, it went underreported in the mainstream media. 

We all know why.

Conclusions have been drawn...  

Russia positioning itself in Libya to unleash migrant crisis into Europe

I säng med sultanen

 

Jag skrev för några dagar sedan att woke-vänstern uppfattar Turkiets islamistiske diktator Erdogan som ett hot mot Sveriges NATO-ansökan.

Men så är det ju inte. De uppfattar *Erdogans kritiker* som ett hot mot NATO-ansökan. I valet mellan YPG och Erdogan, väljer de alltså Erdogan. De måste vara väldigt glada att äntligen ha blivit av med Kakabaveh! 

Det var...klargörande.

Och när Sverige väl blir medlemmar, kommer samma woke-vänster att ständigt kroka arm med Erdogan, som självfallet kommer att fortsätta att tjafsa om "Sveriges islamfientlighet", "PKK-terrorister", bläh bläh.

Man undrar förstås varför dessa eländiga människor över huvud taget vill att Sverige ska gå med i NATO? Kanske tror de att NATO tack vare Erdogan kan bli mer Hamas-vänligt? Politics make strange bedfellows. 

Lite som när en viss typ av vänster stödde NATO:s bombningar av Libyen. De kanske förstod att Gaddafis fall skulle gynna Muslimska Brödraskapet och massinvandring till Europa...

Med en sådan vänster har i varje fall jag brutit. 

A book for burning?

 

A Quran even Muslims want to burn? Link to a previous posting on this blog!

A curious Quran

Letter to a Pagan nation

 

John Adams 

Many good points in this one. Carrier goes off tangent at the end, with his rad-lib reinterpration of Solon´s ten "commandments", and he also has a weirdly "idealist" view of history (or seemingly so), but the article is well worth reading anyway. Honor the gods, citizens of the fair republic!  

That Christian nation nonsense (gods bless our pagan nation)

Secrets of fractional-reserve banking

"Secrets of the Sahara" is a Dutch documentary series about various nations in or around the Sahara. In this episode, "Niger´s Rapid Growing Population" (the title used on YouTube), the team visits Agadez and some other places in the West African nation of Niger (not to be confused with its southern neighbor Nigeria). Niger is one of the poorest nations in Africa, perhaps the world, yet its population is projected to double within the next 15 years. Currently, it has 23 million inhabitants, so presumbly they will be 46 million by 2035! The average amount of children per woman is seven, and half of the population is under fifteen years of age. 

The team visits a village where the traditional Muslim leaders are actively encouraging an even higher birth rate, with the simple argument that it´s "the will of Allah", and that´s that. The marabout claims to have 13 children himself. Something doesn´t ad up, since the traditionalists also prohibit modern medicine. So how can the birth rate be so high? The village marabout actually says he fathered a total of 26 children, but that half of them died! Are the women in these villages doing *anything* else than breeding, I wonder? The villagers even proudly display a 12-year old child bride! Or maybe polygamy is the answer, since the reporter then visits a very extended family...

Most of the documentary is about Agadez, a town that became notorious during the migrant crisis as a major transit point for West African migrants from nations outside Niger trying to reach North Africa and then Europe. In fact, it seems the town experienced something of an economic boom during the migrant crisis, a boom which ended the moment migration north became more difficult. 

The reporter is explicitly on the side of the traffickers (he actually calls them "smugglers"!) and bemoans the fact that the EU somehow got Algeria and Libya to send many of the migrants back to Agadez. It seems EU even paid millions of euros to the Nigerien government, money ear-marked for the smugglers (!), in order to stop the migrant streams. Or so the smugglers claim. They also claim that corrupted local officials in Agadez confiscated most of the money for themselves, rather than giving it to the traffickers. The top bureaucrat in the town, in his turn, complains about high administration costs and what not. Apparently, *he* had to pay somebody to get the applications for EU money processed at all! 

The documentary ends with somebody almost bragglingly informing the film crew that the smuggling of migrants in the direction of Libya is still on-going. Indeed it is, and quite openly, in broad day-light and in front of the cameras... 

Personally, I can´t say I mind sending money to Niger, per se. I mean, just print the damn money and ship them off, it´s not like they will cause inflation in our back yard anyway. Or so I´ve been kindly informed by the Federal Reserve and US Congress, LOL. 

"Kärleken till Biden är blind bland politiker"

Vem var det egentligen stora delar av "vänstern" stödde mot Trump i den amerikanska valskandalen?

Aftonbladet behövs, om sanningen ska fram!

Kärleken till Biden är blind bland politiker

The Turkosphere scrambles for Africa

The geopolitical struggle is heating up all over the world. As the United States is becoming less and less capable of holding its grand alliance together, the usual fault lines are coming back with a vengeance. For instance, the Turkish attempts to create a Neo-Ottoman sphere in the Middle East and Africa, creating tensions with the Arab nations. The link below is to an article which argues that the US should support the Turkish ambitions in West Africa...

Why Turkey is making friends in West Africa

Varken krig eller fred?

Kan Aftonbladet förklara varför Trump lyckats mäkla fred i Mellersta Östern och på Balkan, om nu USA "abdikerat sin roll som världspolis"? De föredrar visst att agera världsmedlare istället!

Trump har även utnämnt en ambassadör i Afghanistan som faktiskt vill avsluta kriget där. 

Och hur kommer det sig att så många generaler och säkerhetsexperter från tidigare administrationer löpt över till Biden? Det är nästan som om det inte gillar fredsavtal, or something.

Sedan undrar man ju varför Aftonbladet skiter ner sig varje gång Trump faktisk gör något aggressivt. Som att döda iranska generaler eller säga upp nedrustningsavtal...

De verkar ha lite problem med att få agendorna att gå ihop. Såvida inte AB tycker att Kushner och Grenell sluter fredsavtal med helt fel personer... De föredrar kanske fred i vår tid med radikala islamister?

Men okej. Elddopet kommer när Putte invaderar Belarus senare i år. Då kanske AB äntligen slipper alla dessa fredsavtal. Såvida de inte vill ha ett med just Putin. AB är ju trots allt inte DN... 

Min geopoliska önskelista:

Fred i Ukraina. Demokrati i Belarus. Båda länderna blir neutrala buffertstater. 

Fred i Libyen. Låt Haftar ta över. 

Fred i Syrien. Inget stöd till al-Qaida.

Fred i östra Medelhavet. Annars färgrevolution i Ankara.

USA lämnar över Afghanistan till någon annan stormakt, varsågoda!

Vi är hemma till jul.

The pipeline next time

Not fired just yet, more like fired up 

Some needed background on the recent war and "peace" moves over Libya, which seemingly means nothing. Except that they do! And yes, it´s about energy security, more specifically natural gas. 

Note one irony: the perennial enemies Turkey and Russia seem to be on the same side in this dispute, while Russia´s natural allies Greece and Cyprus have ended up on the same side as Israel. Note also that both Egypt and Jordan imports huge amounts of natural gas from Israel. 

I wonder where Libyan "warlord" Khalifa Haftar stands in all this. He has often been portrayed as a Russian asset, but if the Russians are on the same side as the Turks (at least this week), where does that leave Haftar? Turkey supports the other side in the Libyan war. According to some sources, he is really on the Saudi payroll. And the Saudis are allies of the United States... 

This could prove, shall we say, interesting.

Pipeline or a pipe dream? Hydrocarbon conflict brewing

Wtf, I love Justin Trudeau now

Based as fuck 

So Justin Trudeau decided that keeping jobs in Canada is more important than punishing some bribe shit involving Muammar Gaddafi, who at the time was on good terms with the Western powers. 

What´s the accusation?

Wtf, I love Justin Trudeau now. Had I been a Maple Leaf citizen, or citoyen, I would seriously have considered voting Liberal in the upcoming Canadian elections! 

Really. 

Next week: Yes, Justin really is Fidel Castro´s love child. 

Free Aceh

A little essay I posted on Amazon.

This is the flag of the so-called Free Aceh Movement (GAM). In Sweden, they use the designation National Liberation Front of Aceh Sumatra (NLFAS). Similar names are used in other foreign countries. The GAM is a separatist movement in the northern Aceh province of Sumatra, and fought a decades-long guerilla war against several Indonesian governments. Today, GAM has been legalized and has presumably given up its demand for independence. On leaflets passed out by this group in Sweden during the 1980's, all of Sumatra was indicated as the sought-after independent state, but in practice, GAM or NLFAS were only active in Aceh and express the aspirations of the Acenehse people. In Sweden, GAM participated in the Social Democratic May Day marches, presumably because Indonesia had an authoritarian right-wing regime which many Social Democrats and leftists would have been critical towards. GAM is really Muslim-nationalist rather than leftist, and one of its main brokers at the time was Gaddafi's Libya, which mentioned the group prominently in its “World Mathaba” propaganda organ (the World Mathaba was an attempt to create a kind of pro-Libyan international). The flag of GAM is inspired by that of the old Aceh Sultanate, which in turn is a typically Muslim banner.

An apology

I take back everything bad I ever said about Muammar Gaddafi. For reasons of Über-Machiavellian Realpolitik, we shouldn't have overthrown him. Colonel Gaddafi, come back, all is forgiven, please come back to Italy and dance with Berlusconi!

Sometimes, astrology makes sense

Condoleeza Rice is a Scorpio with an Aquarian ascendant. Of course she is. I mean, she managed to charm Gaddafi!

:D

A curious Quran

Despite its name, this isn't an authorized translation of the Quran. It's published by a small group known as United Submitters International (USI), a group considered heretical by virtually all other Muslims. The Submitters were founded by an Egyptian-American, Rashad Khalifa. He became famous in the Arab world for supposedly proving that the Quran was based on a secret numerical code based on the number 19. However, his religious criticism of official Islam wasn't well taken, and in 1990 Khalifa was assassinated in Arizona by a Muslim fundamentalist.

Thus, this translation is really a compilation of Rashad Khalifa's own opinions, and those of the small group he founded. It could be of interest for students of New Religious Movements, while those interested in main-line Islam must look elsewhere. Khalifa's views are stated in footnotes throughout the text, and also in a large number of appendices at the end of the book.

As already stated, Khalifa believed that the Quran was a mathematical miracle based on multiples of the number 19. He further believed that several Quranic and Biblical prophecies were about himself! Khalifa claimed to be "The Messanger of the Covenant", sent by God in the last days to purify the religions of Islam, Christianity and Judaism from idolatry and polytheism, and restore the true religion of submission to God alone. Since Muslims consider Muhammad to have been the last prophet, Khalifa's claim to be a new messenger almost immediately placed him outside the Muslim fold (a similar fate have befallen the Ahmadiyya in Pakistan, who claim a similar role for their founder Mirza Ghulam Ahmad). It seems Khalifa received his commission during a pilgrimage to Mecca when his soul was taken to Heaven to commune with all the prophets, including Abraham, Jesus and Muhammad!

The purification of Islam advocated by "the messenger of the Covenant" turns out to be very far-reaching. Khalifa rejects sunna and sharia in their entirety, radically re-interprets the Quran in a modernist direction, and even rejects the traditional Muslim confession of faith, since it mentions Muhammad. The real confession of faith should simply state that there is no God but God, period. He further believes that several verses in the Quran are later forgeries, apparently because they don't fit his numerological system. Other beliefs of the USI are more curious. For instance, Khalifa states that the age of responsibility is 40. Therefore, everyone who dies before that age goes straight to Heaven! He further believes that human souls are pre-existent, and that the soul of Jesus was snatched from Earth before he was arrested, while the body remained as a kind of mindless zombie. Thus, the Romans crucified an empty body without a soul. I also noticed that Khalifa often quotes from the Bible to prove theological points. Indeed, Khalifa calls his translation "the final testament". Finally, we learn that the end of the world will take place in AD 2271.

Those to stingy to actually buy Khalifa's reworked version of the Quran can find it free at USI's website. Personally, I bought a Swedish version (!) a couple of years ago, thinking it was simply another Swedish translation of the real Quran. Was I surprised!

To repeat: if you are interested in main-line Islam, this is a book to avoid. But if you want to know more about a modern, sectarian re-interpretation of Islam, in effect a New Religious Movement, then this "authorized" translation of Dr. Rashad Khalifa, the messenger of the Covenant, might be of some interest.

The green fascism of Qaddafi

"The Green Book" is a book written by Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi, in which he outlines his personal philosophy. Green is the colour of Islam, and also the colour of the Libyan national flag. The name "The Green Book", perhaps unintentionally, alludes to Mao Zedong's "The Little Red Book".

Qaddafi's book has been translated into many languages, including Swedish. It's divided into three sections, titled "The solution to the problem of democracy", "The solution to the economic problem" and "The social basis of the Third Universal Theory". The entire work is rather short, and is available free on-line. It's not clear to me where Qaddafi's ideas come from. Did he develop them himself? Or do they have Muslim antecedents?

Personally, I consider "The Green Book" to be both hypocritical and contradictory. In the first section, Qaddafi rejects rule by parliament, plebiscite, party or class. He seemingly calls for direct democracy. But does he really? Since there are no political parties, it's unclear how people can organize themselves to express an opinion. Only "the people's committees" have a right to publish political newspapers. Associations or individuals don't have the right to publish such newspapers. The law of the land is identical to some kind of natural law, rooted in religion, and cannot be changed. The religion is presumably Islam. And although Qaddafi rejects parliaments, there actually is a parliament even in his system, the General People's Congress. The direct democracy is therefore a sheer paper construction. Interestingly, the Congress is to some extent elected on a corporatist basis. And since every people's committee has a secretariat charged with carrying out the decisions of the General People's Congress, there is in effect a bureaucratic state apparatus as well. But no political parties, no freedom of the press, and the entire system is based on unchanging religious laws!

The second section, subtitled "Socialism", calls for an economic system based on individual or family-based small-scale production. The third section, on the social question, calls for patriarchal relations between men and women, who are said to be different by nature. Further, it states that the nation is the natural form of organization for humans. It also calls for corporate minority rights, presumably for national or religious minorities. While this sounds good on paper, it may actually be based on the dhimmi or millet systems. More sensationally, there is a chapter entitled "Black people will prevail in the world" (in Swedish it has an even more dramatic title, best translated as "The Blacks shall rule the world"). This statement is probably in keeping with Libya's leadership ambitions in Africa, and has also earned Libya the support of Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam.

"The Green Book" never discusses Qaddafi's own position, but it's pretty obvious that he is Libya's real leader. The direct democracy is simply a figleaf for Qaddafi's own personal power.

How should we characterize the ideas in "The Green Book"? Corporatism, patriarchy, theocracy, organic nationalism, racial supremacy and a personal dictatorship behind a smokescreen of people's power...

It sure sounds familiar. It is, of course, what we usually term...fascism.

The discarded image

Written when Gaddafi was still in power in Libya.

"My vision" is a book by French professor Edmond Jouve, who is personally acquainted with both Gaddafi's daughter Aicha and his son Saif al-Islam. He has also met Gaddafi himself on a number of occasions, and could be considered an admirer or "fellow traveller". "My vision" contains both reflections on Libya by Jouve himself, an interview with Gaddafi, and Gaddafi's entire "Green Book" as an appendix. Some material on the African Union, in which Libya aspires to a leading role, has also been included.

On one level, "My vision" is a remarkably silly book. Jouve comes across as a fat, frivolous and naïve scholar, dazzled by the dictator's propaganda and hospitality. He calls Gadaffi "The Guide", claims that Libya is a direct democracy, and attempts to paint a romantic picture of its leader, claiming that Gaddafi is a "son of the desert", a Sufi mystic who found the Path, a deep political thinker, and what not. Jouve is also incredibly vain, constantly informing the reader about his sumptuous meals and desserts at various Tripoli five-star hotels. The author boasts that Aicha Gaddafi has been his student, that his briefcase is a gift from Blaise Compaore (the president of Burkina Faso), and that he actually saw Ahmed Ben Bella during a visit to one of the previously mentioned luxurious hotels. When Gaddafi gave an interview to Jouve, he apparently let Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak wait longer than usual for his turn.

In other words, I think "My vision" is a book by the Libyan lobby!

On another level, however, the author gives a more sinister impression. I don't think Jouve is a left-winger, since he seems to admire Charles De Gaulle and other Gaullist presidents of France. At one point, he asks Gaddafi why Libya hasn't joined the Francophonie! The real point of "My vision" is to promote Libya's turn towards the West, and here, the good professor shows his true colours. Jouve mentions Libya's payments to the victims of the Lockerbie bombing, but never discuss the obvious implications (that Libya used to be a rogue state). He points out that Gaddafi is "realist", has abandoned the IRA and aided British intelligence to uncover IRA's secret networks. The author freely admits that Gaddafi at one point wanted to create an African empire, together with shadowy characters such as Bokassa and Mengistu Haile Mariam (quite a combination), but seems fascinated rather than repelled by this fact. Nor is Jouve unaware of Libyan racism against Black Africans or the spread of Muslim fundamentalism in the country (even Aicha has began to wear the veil). Indeed, Jouve actually asks The Guide about this during the previously mentioned interview. He does let Gaddafi get away with evasive responses, but clearly the author knows exactly what is really going on in Tripoli.

Who or what is Edmond Jouve? I don't know, but my guess is that the seemingly naïve fellow traveller is actually an ultra-Gaullist who wants France to collaborate with Libya rather than compete with it (the usual French policy), thereby creating a geopolitical Franco-Arab Grossraum in Africa. For all I know, the guy might actually be a French intelligence operative! His remark about the briefcase is telling. Blaise Compaore took power in Burkina Faso by overthrowing and assassinating Thomas Sankara, a left-wing radical who took strongly anti-French stances. Compaore seems to be on good terms with both France and Libya. Small wonder Jouve loves the occasional chit chat with this banana republic president.

"My vision" doesn't say much about Gaddafi, but it does give us a glimpse of Edmond Jouve's visions. What a pity Nicolas Sarkozy isn't a true Gaullist. As we know, France participates in the US attack on Libya and recently recognized...the rebels.

It seems Jouve's visions have been discarded. For now.

From Phoenician colony to revolutionary independence

Originally posted at another site when Gaddafi was still in power.

"Libya: From Colony to Independence" is a book about the history of Libya, from earliest times until today. Or rather 2008, when the book was published. Naturally, the main chapters deal with Gaddafi's weird and idiosyncratic regime.

The book could have needed better editing. The chronology isn't always clear, and the sheer mass of facts is sure to confuse the beginner. You probably need *some* kind of foreknowledge about Libya in order to really digest this work.

Still, it seems to be one of the few books that deal with Libyan history on a somewhat-basic level. You therefore probably can't do without it, if you want to study the Libyan revolution and its aftermath.

Of course, the main shortcoming of "Libya: From Colony to Independence" is that it never really explains what on earth makes Gaddafi tick. But then, nobody else seems to know that either...

Not very sensational

"Libya's Qaddafi" by Mansour El-Kikhia is marketed as some kind of sensational and sensationally insightful book on Libya's strongman Gaddafi and his regime.

In reality, it's nothing of the kind.

Most of the facts found in this book can also be found in similar works by St. Ronald Bruce John and Dirk Vandewalle. "Libya's Qaddafi" is actually a basic introduction to the history of Gaddafi's Libya, the political system, the economy, etc. There is nothing particularly sensational about this volume, except that it's grossly overpriced by Amazon's third party sellers.

Perhaps El-Kikhia's book gives such an unusual impression, because he never calls Gaddafi "mad"? That may be shocking to somebody who only reads American newspapers, but no serious scholar considers the Libyan leader clinical (although he is definitely extremely idiosyncratic!).

I have nevertheless decided to give this book four stars, but it's really an introductory text, than a fantastic new angle on the problem.

Originally published when Gaddafi was still in power.