What do you mean there’s no money?!
I am bushed. But because it’s been a productive day, I don’t mind being exhausted (my finger tips are crying bloody heck).
Israel has begun sending ground troops to Lebanon. Oh hell.
Reading the latest posts about the escalating situation in Lebanon make my stomach churn. For people who are not genuinely aware of how the problems in the Middle East started way back after World war II, it’s insane that this latest, very blatant and open outbreak of hostilities started over two Israeli hostages. Now the bullets are flying by the thousands and bridges, buildings and museums and hospitals and schools and houses are being levelled to the ground by bombs falling from the sky.
It’s a nightmare even trying to think how a young Lebanese or Palestinian child feels. How he or she would gaze at the nighttime sky and see nothing but clouds of dust from crumbling buildings that were so recently housed a daycare center or a religious teaching hall. To see dust and inhale fumes from rockets and exhaust from military aircraft.
I am reminded of Mindanao during the height of the Estrada administration and military’s campaign against the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). The seige of Camp Abubakar. How the children in the refugee camps looked, their beautiful eyes going wide in fear.
The Arroyo government refuses to make a position on the war supposedly for the sake of the three million Filipinos in the Middle East.
Is this smart? I suppose. This is better than Arroyo mouthing off and saying something in support of Israel.
But what about the 30,000 OFWs in Lebanon? Where’s the money for the repatriation?
Dapat saluhin na yun ng funds from the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration.
Pinagbabayad ang bawat isang OFW ng US$25 para sa OWWA membership. Ang kabuuang halagang naiipon ay tinatawag na OWWA Trust Fund. Latest reports say that the amount is now pegged at P6 bilyon. This figure grows by almost P1 billion yearly.
Kung may average na 2,500 na OFW ang lumilipad kada araw at nagbayad ng US$25 kada isa, US$62,500 agad ang nadadagdag sa OWWA funds o $1.875 million kada 30 araw. Jeez! That’s a lot of money! So where does Arroyo get off saying that the delay in the rescue of OFWs is because there’s a lack of funds?
Among the accusations of migrant groups like Migrante International against the government and the OWWA is its attempts to play down and escape its responsibility to repatriate OFWS.
Naghuhugas kamay ang OWWA sa Section 6, provision (a) ng Article VIII sa OWWA Omnibus Policies. Sinasabi na ang repatriation ay pangunahing nakasalalay sa OFW mismo, at pangalawa lang sa recruiter. So in Lebanon, heck, will the OFWs drive or airlift themselves out of Lebanon? Their employers have more than likely secured themselves already.
According to the OWWA Omnibus Policies, eeksena lang ang OWWA sa panahon ng sakuna, epidemya at mga gera, at hindi sa mga sitwasyong personal na OFW. Ang masaklap, kahit nga tuwing may matinding sakuna o gera, hindi agad masaklolohan ng OWWA ang mga OFW. This is what’s happening now. How can the Arroyo government say that it has ‘insufficient resources’ for the rescue and repatriation of all those OFWs?!
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This is something I forwarded to my friend Raymond. He reacted in usual Raymond fashion and answered "Yet again I apologize for my countrymen…"
Canada’s Lebanon stand sparks domestic criticism
By Allan DowdTue Jul 18, 4:26 PM ET
The Conservative government was criticized at home on Tuesday for siding too closely with Israel over the fighting in Lebanon, where Canadians have been among the casualties.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper is costing Canada credibility, and preventing it from playing its traditional role of neutral broker in any Middle East peace effort, acting Liberal Party leader Bill Graham said.
"There are greater geopolitical considerations in the region that mean that Canada has to take a balanced approach… Will we be a credible force in the region in the future? That’s a question we must ask ourselves," Graham said.
Graham said that even President Bush, a strong supporter of Israel, has expressed concern the fighting will destabilize Lebanon’s government.
"I have a concern that the prime minister of Canada is out-Bushing Mr. Bush," said Graham, a former Liberal foreign minister, who complained that the Conservatives have ignored the need for diplomatic "nuance" in their public comments.
"Lose the nuance and (you) lose your capacity to help others," Graham said.
Under former Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin, Canada had moved away from past wholesale criticism of Israel, but Harper’s remarks on the fighting have been seen by commentators at home as striking in their outright support of Israel.
Harper, who defeated Martin in January’s election, has defended Israel’s incursion as "measured" self-defense, and told reporters on Tuesday the world had to confront groups like Hizbollah, which recommend the use of violence to achieve political goals.
"We don’t say they shouldn’t be part of the process. We say be part of a negotiating process. But I think we have to hold ultimately responsible for the violence, people who advocate it and act upon those desires," Harper said in Paris on his way home from the G8 summit in Russia.
Graham’s comments were echoed by Jack Layton, leader of the left-leaning New Democrats, who said Harper had to "immediately correct" the mistake of moving Canadian foreign policy too close to that of Bush.
"Mr Harper has said today in Paris that it’s too early to send an international force to the region. I say to you Mr Harper — it’s never to early to demonstrate the resolve of Canadians to bring peace and stability to those who are suffering," Layton told a news conference in Ottawa.
The Lebanese fighting hit home to many Canadians when a Montreal family visiting relatives died in an Israeli air strike that killed 11 people. There could as many as 50,000 Canadian passport holders, including dual citizens, in Lebanon, an official said.
A Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said Canada has chartered seven vessels and will start evacuating its citizens on Wednesday from Beirut, but the government has been criticized for being slow to react.
The crisis could pose a problem for Harper’s minority government, whose party did not win any seats in Canada’s three main cities — Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal.
Montreal, the largest city in French-speaking Quebec — and home to some 50,000 people of Lebanese decent — could easily become even cooler to Harper’s government, cutting into Conservative hopes for a stronger voter base in the province.
The party made a major breakthrough in Quebec in the last election and has high hopes of winning more seats there in the next vote. But the Quebec media have largely condemned Harper for his stance on Israel’s attacks on Lebanon.
"If the prime minister does not improve his handling of the Middle East crisis, it could become for him … what Hurricane Katrina became for President Bush: the start of a major weakening in public confidence toward the head of government," wrote commentator Andre Pratte in La Presse newspaper.
