Boycott; It Works!

My personal blogging is now at My My Neverland; do visit it.


Only the other evening Ah Chai was telling me how he is beginning to understand the Boycott issue. Rather reluctantly, he might add though. Still, the fact that he does now is good enough for me as we once had a heated argument on the matter. Well, at least, I did. Anyway, when I read the news below at Window Into Palestine, it sort of made my day; The Boycott, is working.

Israelis Are Beginning to See the Power of BDS

Shir Hever, Alternative Information Center (AIC)

A BDS Israel poster by the Palestinian Campaign for Boycott, Divestment and Sanction Against Israel. In recent years, there has been a gradual growth in the BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) movement, calling to put economic pressure on Israel until it recognizes the rights of the occupied Palestinian people and puts an end the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The Israeli attack on the Gaza Strip, starting on 27 December 2008, which lasted for nearly a month, has given this movement a powerful reason to redouble its efforts. Dozens of BDS campaigns have gained momentum and publicity; dozens of new ones were launched during or immediately after Israel's attack on the Gaza Strip. These campaigns range from calls to boycott goods from the illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank, to calls to stop all economic contacts with Israel altogether. They include protests at sporting events, two countries cutting diplomatic ties with Israel (Bolivia and Venezuela), and many demonstrations around the world, attended by hundreds of thousands of protestors. The growing protest against the atrocities committed by the Israeli military in the Gaza Strip have begun to change something in the Israeli political discourse, and the first indication of this can already be seen in the Israeli economic media. Although the Israeli economic media doesn't concern itself with the moral dimension of the attacks on Gaza, the economic dimension of recent events have created a rising level of concern. In order to demonstrate this trend, here are summaries of four articles that appeared in the Israeli The Marker magazine for economic news: 1. On 2 February, Guy Grimland warned about a growing phenomenon of boycott of Israeli high-tech companies, and several Israeli companies received letters from European and U.S. companies explaining that they cannot invest in Israel for moral reasons. 2. In 3 February, Nehemia Strassler, one of Israel's most famous economic correspondents, attacked the Israeli Minister of Industry, Trade and Labor, Eli Yishai, for calling on the Israeli military to "destroy one hundred homes in Gaza for every rocket that falls in Israel." Strassler had nothing to say about the Palestinians living in these homes or about the loss of life, but he warned: "[the minister] doesn't even understand how the operation in Gaza hurts the economy. The horror sights on television and the words of politicians in Europe and Turkey change the behavior of consumers, businessmen and potential investors. Many European consumers boycott Israeli products in practice. Intellectuals call for an economic war against us and to enforce an official and full consumer boycott. Calls are heard in board meetings of economic corporations to boycott trade relations with Israel. So far deals were cancelled with Turkey, the UK, Egypt and the Gulf States, and visits by economic delegations were cancelled. It’s much easier now to switch providers while abandoning Israeli providers. Many company boards are required to take wide considerations into account with regards to the good of society and the environment, and they put political considerations in that slot as well. Of course there is an economic cost to severing diplomatic ties. Qatar cut its trade relations with Israel, Venezuela and Bolivia cut diplomatic relations. Mauritania recalled its ambassador and the relations with Turkey worsened considerably—and this bad ambience seeps into the business sector decisions. Here, just yesterday Dudi Ovshitz, who grows peppers for export, said that 'there is a concealed boycott of Israeli products in Europe.'" 3. On 6 February, Shuki Sadeh wrote about even more companies that have decided to boycott relations with Israel. A Turkish company demanded that Israeli companies sign a document condemning the Israeli massacre in Gaza before they can offer their services for it. Sadeh quoted Naomi Klein's recent call for boycott, the 2005 Palestinian civil society call for boycott and Israeli organizations that support the boycott and provide information for the global BDS movement. Sadeh's article also had concerned quotes by Israeli businessmen who demanded government intervention to protect them from the growing boycott. 4. In 11 February, Ora Koren reported that the Israeli business sectors feel the effects of the attack on Gaza. She reported that Israeli businessmen in Turkey are hiding their names so that the local BDS organizations won't learn about their activities, and that the situation is even worse in the UK. These four articles are a sign that there is a shift in the effectiveness of the BDS movement against Israel, and that if the momentum is maintained and strengthened, Israeli businessmen may decide to move their headquarters away from Israel, or to begin to put pressure on the Israeli government to begin respecting international law, and ending the occupation

Some News

It would be easy to forget Gaza and the sufferings of the people there since the illegal regime along with Egypt closed the borders just to punish the Palestinians for voting Hamas into office (sounds familiar, does it not?). But to push Gaza out of our life and forget the injustice there, especially now - I cannot say for the rest - would make me a much lesser human, and putting myself down on the same level as those minions of the illegal regime.

The other night when I was driving to a petrol kiosk and had to pass a McD, 2 young people were walking towards it. As I do not drive with the air conditioner on when weather permits, I heard one of the guys mentioning 'but people are beginning to boycott now...', the rest of the statement was lost as I drove passt them. Passing by the front of building, I saw a lesser number of people than usual. Sadly though, many of them there were young Muslims, obviously oblivious to the sufferings of their fellow humans in Gaza - for every ringgit one spend there, at least 5 to 10% adds to the Palestinians' tragedy. This, I was informed by Ustaz Maszlee some years back, who interestingly has an entry entitled "Not All Jews Are Zionist" (click here), and I would recommend all to read it.

Also, kindly listen to this video of George Galloway which was made available by Information Clearing House (click here).

Sad, but I think its rather absurd that while we have people like Mr Galloway and even Jews speaking out against the attrocity in Gaza, we still have Muslims partonising outlets which contribute towards it. Please, help spread the boycott news.

Also, please read and watch the links from WIP which I've logged into NYMHM for wider reach. Just click on the titles.

1. Israel Admit "No Hamas Rockets Were Fired During Ceasefire!"

2. Are We Not Human?

3. Gaza: A Scene of Destruction

4. A Message from a Gazan to the World


Last but not least, do enjoy the song below sent to me by bro Zul.

Gaza Latest

Please read

1. Gaza strike is not against Hamas, it’s against all Palestinians’

2. Gaza: The Untold Story.

Be End's Cupid

They say the corruption in this country is sinking to its lowest depth. I believe them. Having traveled a wee bit, I may have seen a much worse scenario. Like my experience with an immigration officer at an airport sometime back. An acquaintance and I were both new to a certain company and was sent to this city we shall call DJ, to learn the trades from their officers there. This acquaintance, K, was a much senior person but from the way he moved and talked, I gathered he has not been around much. And true enough, much to my woe.

K was standing in front of me in one of the lines at DJ's airport immigration check. When the officer called him, I just stood lazily waiting for my turn, for I do get bored waiting in queues and what not. Then my ears began picking up K's voice rising in pitch and began wondering what the heck was going on. I mean, immigration check through should be a whiz at the time before 9-11, and this should not be an exception as well. But no. That old goat K, feeling all high and mighty for being sent here, proudly boasted to the immigration officer that he was here for a business trip, which meant a different visa than tourist we were traveling as. So, being a country that's largely made of people who are used to taking things under the counter, the officer began harassing K. In turn, K, being the *rs* he is, pointed to me and said "What about him?" The immigration officer called me up and in a loud voice I asked him back "How much do you want?", which made heads turned towards our direction. Well, I got through just fine after that with a parting of RM50. Its either that of a flight back to KL, where I would certainly have to bear the cost of coming back. But K had to forked out RM150 very quietly. Served him right too for trying to squeal on someone else.

Looking at the episode above, and the level of corruption in Malaysia, I could swear we are heading into the sewers, where the country above was 10 years ago. Though corruption level there is still high there, public awareness is growing and there are changes to show an improvement for the betterment of the society there as a whole. Unfortunately, such is not so true here. And through the use of the media which is controlled by the goons in power, they are painting a rosy picture of a highly efficient and clean Malaysia. Even worse now, day in and out they are painting the opposition as hooligans. Its come to a point that the opposition has advised all concerned to boycott the media. And thus, I too have followed suit, missing out on my Tuesdays and Thursdays tabloid. It does get me down.

While rummaging through a stack of old tabloids, I came across one reason why I should continue boycotting. It does seem the propaganda run by the goons has seeped to such a low level that almost nothing is impossible to be bought. I gaped in sadness when I saw this section and makes me wonder where we are heading to next.

Only some few days back, news was abuzz about the goonies penchant to seek bomohs and dukuns especially at this time of the year. Even Cikgu wrote a sort of satire about it which had readers chuckling quietly by themselves. Oops! Make that by myself as I do not not know about the rest of the readers, but each night I sit alone in front of the pc while laughing, jabbering and chuckling by myself, while emak's downstairs either in prayers or reading her stuff. Or, she might already be sleeping as she normally does after Isyak. Hang on, I'm going way off now. Where were we? Ok, the bomohs and dukuns.

Its not surprising. I mean, bomohs and dukuns are the 'professionals' in their what ever field, that the list of their clients may include even the top most goon in the country (Who that top most goon is, I leave it to you to decide). Anyway, when I saw this section, apart from it leaving my mouth wide enough for a mosquito to come flying in, I also had to slap my face in disbelief! I mean, take a look for yourself...even Cupid's now corrupted!



Sheesh! Don't it make you feel sick to the...heart!

Hmm...oh well. Nothing much I can do there now but carry on with the struggle in an effort to make things better. In the end, who knows, that Cupid guy might just take me into his heart and let fly one stunning shot in the direction I would like him to. But till then, I guess I just have to listen alone to the song below.

Just A Reminder

Mimpi Palestin