Writing Books

I have finished "Nga Tapuwae O Hinetewai" after at least 5 years of writing and research. I learnt a lot on the way to the finish; namely that it is harder to stop once one has started. Anyway its done (I think!) and will be launched soon at Waiari where it began. Double click the front cover to find out briefly what the book was about and the back cover for extracts.

The World's Biggest Raruraru?

In my view it has become the US of A and not for the first time. It's difficult to figure out their foreign policy since the end of WW 2 but surely it has been one total disaster after another beginning with the Vietnam War. Only the USA and its ideological allies thought it was to defeat or at least stop the Communist dominoes from falling all the way to the South Pacific. The Vietnamese Nationalists with AK 47s and rubber sandals managed eventually to send a world power packing and scrambling off the rooftops onto their helicopters. They united the two halves of their nation. In the process however millions were killed, towns and infrastructure destroyed, forests and people sprayed with agent orange and billions wasted in a stupid war. Saturation bombing from B52s was horrifying.

Most nations would have had enough after that but not the USA. Next comes Afghanistan to punish terrorists for 9/11 when 4000 were killed in New York. Motivated by utu they have yet again over killed by thousands more than 9/11 established a country riddled with corruption where truck loads of money and goods disappear, the drug trade flourishes, women's rights continue to be abused, the Taliban attack s at will, and US soldiers piss on dead bodies. The Pakistan nation's sovereignty is attacked by drones and innocent people killed for no apparent reason. Worse still, they are still there billions of dollars and many lives and atrocities later. There's enough war crimes to keep the Hague going for years. 

Iraq began with the biggest lie of all and this time involved Britain and Blair big time finding non-existent weapons of mass destruction. While getting rid of Saddam Hussein's regime was something, the invasion and its aftermath  killed thousands more that he did and has left the country in total disarray and fractured along religious and ethnic lines. It's a horrific mess but at least the US is leaving. So far that's the best decision they have made.The solution to that country's raruraru is in their hands not those of super powers from the west who have only made things worse. But in the meantime the war pot is boiling in the Middle East between Iran and the US. Is this the next target for their war machines?

Sadly, Obama the first black US President has broken some of his; "We will......." and  "Yes we can..." promises which turn out to be nothing but empty rhetoric. He has not only not closed down the torture chamber known as Guantanamo but signed into law more draconian measures to hold people without trial or legal recourse including US citizens. His Presidency is doomed if he keeps kowtowing to the war mongers and their military-industrial complex. It seems he has bought into the idea that the US must be a super power and dominate the world. It is fair to say that he didnot start the above ventures into genocide. He can be excused for being hog tied by the Congress in his attempts to reform the US health system for example but as the Commander In Chief of the armed forces he can do more than bend at the knees. We should view the new policy of focusing on Asia and the Pacific with skepticism. He's already using Australia and we are next and will be roped into another bamboo curtain cold war with China our prominent trading partner. The least he can is to contain rather than attack Iran and try diplomacy. "Yes he can.."The US and Britain have a long history of interfering in Iran and imposing that horrible Shah on their democracy and oil resources. By allowing Israel to develop nuclear weapons, did they expect that Iran would not?