Adnan Al-Daini

The Legacy Of Milton Friedman: Thatcher’s policies caused
widespread chaos in Britain. Moment of defeat. After 51 weeks
out, miners' lodge members meet at Easington Miners' Welfare
Hall to discuss the end of the strike. (Photo: Keith Pattison)

Market fundamentalism is to be given free reign; never mind that it was the erroneous notion “the market knows best” that brought us the economic depression engulfing western societies.  Austerity programmes and cuts are causing distress, hardship and misery to the majority of people in the west.  This same blind belief in markets is also blighting the lives of billions more worldwide.  Those who are the true believers in the divinity of the market want less regulation; health and safety regulations at work - forget it; this is red tape devised by bleeding heart liberals and misguided leftists. Employment protection laws, fairness at work; oh no, this is stifling business and enterprise, and should be abandoned. 

The Conservative government of Great Britain, with the connivance of the Liberal Democrats, is busy slowly dismantling the institutions that are working for the common good and serving the people.  The National Health Service, if the health and social care bill is to become law, will be salami-sliced into a disjointed health service where private providers and businessmen compete for a slice of the resources, with profits pumped up from the poor and middle classes to the super rich, to the detriment of the service for the many. The Prime Minister, David Cameron, asserts that the bill will be implemented in spite of opposition by almost all the medical professionals.  The “we know best” arrogance of politicians is breathtaking.

More »

Adnan Al-Daini

The mantra of growth as a cure to the economic malaise that is engulfing Europe and the US is repeated ad nauseam by economists and political pundits.  My training is in engineering science, not economics, so let us not be encumbered by economic dogma or theory. Let us go back to first principles to examine some of the prevailing economic axioms.

If we insist that western economies must continue to grow year after year for poor people even to have the basics for life, and since we know that only little of the wealth created trickles down, then before too long we will end up devouring the whole planet.  Of course, well before we reach that point, we will have degraded our environment to the point where life becomes unsustainable for all of us, rich and poor, and certainly for future generations.

How can this growth be achieved anyway? If most of the wealth created finds its way to the top 10 % (UK figures: the top 1% own 21% of wealth, and the top 10% own 53%), where is the demand going to come from?  I hope no one is suggesting we fuel it by unsustainable debt and usury, which is what brought us to this crisis in the first place.  Those at the top already have more money than they know what to do with; there is a limit to how much an individual can consume. How many cars and gadgets does an individual need? 

Yet in America 47 million people live in poverty, 50 million with no health insurance, and 1.5 million children are homeless. In the UK, 13.5 million people live in poverty (22% of the population, 29% of all children), 65,000 households are classified as homeless. We have to substantially change wealth distribution in our societies for the economic system to be sustainable.

As rich western societies, don’t we have a moral duty to do something more imaginative than simply trying to create a bigger cake in the hope that the share for the poor will increase by a sliver more?  Wouldn’t it be fairer and more effective to divide the existing cake, which is big enough, more equitably? 

More »

Adnan Al-Daini

Ruthless Arab dictators have terrified the people around them to the point of total sycophancy, where praise and subservience to the “dear” leader are the only words the despot hears; this renders them incapable of objectively and logically examining a problem. Their delusions of grandeur have fossilised their brains, making them incapable of shifting their political gear to match the changing environment.  Up until the start of the Arab spring, fear woven into the fabric of Arab societies through secret police, torture and violence, was the emotion that kept the masses docile and silent. No more. The revolutionary young of the Arab world have changed societies in the region. They have shown that their desire for dignity, human rights and freedom is stronger than the fear of torture and death that has imprisoned the masses for so long.

The Syrian people started their uprising peacefully, demanding reform of a tyrannical rule to allow people a voice in the way they are governed; they were not initially calling for Bashar al-Assad to go.  The regime’s security apparatus responded in March 2011 with the “torture of children painting anti-regime slogans on a wall in Deraa in the south”.  Patrick Cockburn, in the Independent on Sunday (12 February 2012), describes the sheer stupidity of the response thus:

"The state disastrously misjudged its moment and an atrocity, intended to intimidate would-be protesters into silence, instead provoked them to revolt. Hatred of a despotic regime and fury at repeated massacres still impels great numbers of Syrians to go into the streets to demonstrate despite the dangers.”

The reaction of the regime was similar to that of the other despot Muammar Gaddafi, although Bashar al-Assad was clever enough to have a different rhetoric from that of Gaddafi, but the actions and violence are the same.

More »

Adnan Al-Daini

The optimism generated by the Arab spring is now giving way to anxieties about where these changes are taking Arab societies.  The idealism of the young in their millions for a dignified life where human rights are respected, where the rulers serve the people instead of enslaving them, is being sorely tested by the emergence of destructive sectarianism and ethnic tensions.  Imperial powers, assorted kings and despots play their power games by stoking up fear and divisions among the populace. “You don’t want another Iraq, do you?” dictators cry.

Aljazeera (Arabic) reported on a conference of Arab thinkers and commentators entitled “The Arab Revolution and Democracy – The roots of sectarianism and how to combat it” organized by the Arabic Centre for the study and research in political thought. It warns that “sectarian and ethnic tensions and divisions are complicating and impeding the birth of democracy in the region.”

These obstacles and problems on the road to true democracy should come as no surprise to any objective observer of events.   Those with vested interests in the old despotic regimes are not going to relinquish their power and wealth so easily. Driving the revolution into the destructive blind alley of sectarianism and ethnicity is their way of countering the glorious revolution of the young.  Azmi Bishara, head of the Centre, opined that these sectarian tensions should have been expected and “it is wrong and naïve to sweep them under the carpet of unity”.

More »

Adnan Al-Daini

The British people are rightly proud of their NHS and will campaign to save it from confused, misinformed and ideologically driven changes.

Long ago in the late fifties, in Iraq, as an eleven year old boy, I developed osteomyelitis after a fall from a bicycle.  My poor parents had to borrow the money to pay for many doctors’ visits before the correct diagnosis was made. They then needed to borrow more money to pay for an operation without which my leg would have had to be amputated, or I probably would have died.  Many families in the village who were poorer than my family would not have been able to borrow the money, and had it happened to their son he would have almost certainly died.  My poor family had to suffer a few years of hardship to repay the loans.  I will always be grateful and humbled by my family’s sacrifice.

The year 1970/71 I spent in Russia, which was under communism at the time.  In a discussion with some Russian friends about Russia versus the UK, they conceded that when it came to consumer goods, washing machines, cars ...etc. the people of Britain were far better served than their counterparts in Russia, but they continued, “If we are ill or have an accident, however, we do not have to worry about medical bills”.  I said, “Neither would you if you were a British citizen; Britain has the NHS”. That came as a complete surprise to them; it was never reported in their government controlled media.

The National Health Service is just about all that is left from the mixed economy that characterised Britain not long ago.  Utilities (gas, water, electricity) have all been privatised, sold cheaply with enormous profits to multinational corporations.  Social (council) housing all but disappeared under Margaret Thatcher’s “right to buy” scheme, selling council houses at an enormous discount.  The railways were fragmented and sold, with commuters frequently now packed in like sardines, often having to stand for hours and paying a fortune for the privilege. All these sell-offs happened under Conservative governments.

More »

Adnan Al-Daini

Religious flags of Shiite Imams waves while relative of
Qssim Abbas, 48, who was killed in a bomb attack take
his body for burial in the Shiite holy city of Najaf, 160
kilometers (100 miles) south of Baghdad, Iraq, Friday,
Jan. 6, 2012. (Alaa al-Marjani/Associated Press/SFGate)

In the daily carnage of today’s Iraq, with bombs and shootings targeting the innocent, one is forgiven for feeling despair at the sheer wickedness and inhumanity of these deeds.  In the midst of the misery and carnage, however, an act of heroism and sacrifice that shows the true face of Iraq has passed completely unreported by western media. 

This concerns the suicide attack on Thursday 5 January that targeted Shia pilgrims in Nassiriya, southern Iraq, causing death or injury to over 100 people.  The Arabic newspaper Alhayat (8 January) in a piece entitled “Heroes of Iraqi National Unity – Two Soldiers Attempted to Stop a Suicide Bomber from Exploding Himself”, its journalist, Abd-Alwahid  Jumma, reports the incredible bravery of two members of the Iraqi army, Lieutenant Nuzhan Saleh Al-Jebouri and Sergeant Ali Ahmed Sabih, who, having witnessed someone moving amongst the pilgrims and  acting suspiciously, ran towards the suspect, throwing themselves on him as he exploded his bomb, killing them instantly and causing the carnage. 

The figures for the dead and injured could well have been higher if Nuzhan and Ali had not taken the initial force of the explosion.  The two army personnel were Sunni Muslims from different parts of Iraq. They made the ultimate sacrifice to protect the Shia pilgrims. They acted instinctively to save fellow human beings; Shia or Sunni did not occur to them. 

Western media have covered the story of the carnage and other stories of sectarian violence and intolerance in detail, so why ignore the heroism of the soldiers?  These brave men are the true representatives of the Iraqi people.  Their martyrdom symbolizes the unity of the people in the face of of terrorists targeting the innocent, in the name of a warped and insane interpretation of the noble religion of Islam.

More »

Adnan Al-Daini

Edmund Burke, the Irish political philosopher, wrote: “When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.” Or if one prefers the popular version: “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”  Either way the sentiment is clear.

Looking at today’s Iraq, I could think of no better advice than that uttered by Edmund Burke in 1770.  The chaos, the sectarianism, and the terrorism engulfing the country is causing good men and women to leave if they have the resources to do so, or to keep their heads down and hope that somehow things will change. 

I was talking to an Iraqi friend the other day who is living in Iraq, and has experienced the full horror of wars, sanctions, and more wars that have blighted the country of my birth for decades.  He told me the situation is hopeless; the corruption, the violence, the criminality is overwhelming.  Add to that the lack of basic services, and you begin to imagine the depths of despair to which ordinary people have descended. 

When you are confronted with such a catastrophe, one reaction is to feel hopelessness and paralysis; simply existing from one day to the next and thanking God that you and your family have survived another day is just about all you can manage.  Understandable, but is there a better way?

More »

Adnan Al-Daini

The sectarian and ethnic divisions among Iraqi politicians have now become so deep that trust across the sectarian and ethnic schisms, Shia, Sunni, Kurdish, is now practically non-existent. Any action or statement by any politician, whether well-intentioned or not, is viewed through this destructive prism.  Where do we go from here?  Is there any action that all politicians could agree upon that could not possibly be interpreted as suspicious?

Of all the statistics that describe the devastation wreaked upon Iraq by the illegal war, I find the figures describing the plight of Iraqi children the most troubling and heart-wrenching.   These children are the ones who will determine what sort of future Iraq will have.  Their well-being, or lack of it, will impact on the lives of all Iraqis regardless of sect, religion, or ethnicity.

A study by the Iraqi Society of Psychiatrists in collaboration with the World Health Organization found that 70% of children (sample 10,000) in the Sha’ab section of North Baghdad are suffering from trauma-related symptoms.  Even if this study is not completely replicated in the whole of Iraq, it clearly shows that huge numbers of children are growing up with mental problems. Many of these children have seen close family members killed; they have walked in streets where they have seen dead and mutilated bodies just lying around. If left untreated, what impact will these mental problems have on the future of Iraq?  First, of course, the suffering, the stress, and the depression that afflicts these children must be alleviated.  All of Iraqi society must see that providing expert medical intervention to help these children cope is a moral imperative.

More »

Adnan Al-Daini

A local farmer from the Fedaliyah area of New Baghdad
herds his jammous into the Diyala River to cool off.

As a seventeen year old, in 1962, I was one of a group of about 10 Iraqi students doing A levels in a college in the UK.  The group included three Christians, one Kurd and the rest were Muslims.  Please do not ask me how many of the Muslims were Shia and how many were Sunni.  I had no idea and neither had anyone else.  I only knew of the religion and ethnicity of others through casual conversations. That is not how we defined ourselves. The only label that mattered was that we were all Iraqis.

Not long ago I was sent a list of Iraqi politicians and members of the Iraqi parliament, and against each name was written the label Shia, Sunni, Kurdish, Christian and other designations defining ethnicity or sect.  I wrote back decrying the fact that if  intellectuals and opinion-formers were engaging in defining people with these labels, how could we blame the rest of Iraqi society for doing the same?

The illegal Iraq war has melted the glue that bound Iraqi society together. Paul Bremer, the American viceroy in charge of Iraq after the war, headed the Coalition Provisional Authority whose members were based on quotas representing the mosaic of Iraqi society.  It thus deliberately employed the maxim of divide and rule.  But why should the Iraqis expect otherwise?  The American aim, supported by Britain, was to occupy Iraq and control its oil, and this is the tried and tested way of all occupiers and colonizers.

More »

Adnan Al-Daini

Could one do the right thing for the wrong reasons? Yes. Does it matter that it is for the wrong reasons? It does, if it shows a mindset from which other actions may follow that are wrong, uninformed and damaging.

Britain's eurosceptic press hail Cameron's decision
to veto a new EU treaty to tackle the eurozone debt
crisis, although a few commentators warn London
is now dangerously isolated. Photo: AFP

David Cameron sought, but did not get, a “legally-binding protocol to protect the City of London from more EU financial regulation”. Consequently he vetoed the EU- wide treaty change to save the Euro.  Accepting the change would have involved Britain “signing up for a deal conferring intrusive rights on European institutions to enforce budgetary policy in countries breaking the Euro’s debt and deficit rules, as well as quasi-automatic penalties for delinquents” (The Guardian). The democratic deficit implied in this is clear and I am glad he rejected the deal.

What I find puzzling is that Mr Cameron appeared content to cede sovereignty on tax, spend and borrowing policies provided the “City of London” was exempted from further EU regulations. He used the veto to protect the moneyed and powerful financial sector (the City of London) from regulations, and from the Tobin tax that is supported by 66% of the British public. It is the “light touch” regulation that brought the world economy to the edge of the abyss, and reforms are essential to prevent another collapse down the line. I suspect this is the reason for his isolation, and had he made the “straightjacket” of the Euro proposed by Germany as his core objection, he might have had more support in the discussions.

The government fixation with the city and financial services shows a delusional tendency in believing that financial services will forever be the main contributor to the British economy.  The realisation has not yet dawned on politicians, and particularly those on the right of politics, that the era of financial engineering is over and the future belongs to real engineering: the application of science to the manufacturing of efficient quality products.   To compete internationally they must be engineered to require the minimum amount of energy in their production, and must use the minimum amount of energy in performing the task they do. The enormous value added to hi-tech manufactured goods is the only sure way for Britain to employ its people, giving them a reasonable standard of living.

More »