Humanitarian Crisis Unfolding in Gaza

Even after the scathing criticism by the United Nations, Israel is continuing with its brutal attack on the Palestinians. The missile assault on the schools run by the United Nations under pretext of attacking ‘hiding’ Hamas militants should be condemned by all who give any importance to human values and ideals. In the military attack on the Gaza strip, about 1,200 people have lost their lives, where one third is children and young people. Humanitarian groups have called for an immediate end to the conflict as people in the Gaza strip are reeling under pressures of hunger, power outages, lack of basic sanitation and medicine.

Human rights activism often takes no cognisance of political facts and always considers it beyond its own realm. Therefore we are not interested in knowing who is politically correct, the Israelis or the Hamas. The gross human rights violation perpetrated by the Israeli forces needed to be condemned in the strongest of terms. The United Nations has called for a war crimes investigation into the actions of the Israeli forces as their actions are nothing but genocide. In any war women and children are given exemption from killing by the warring forces. But in its assault, Israel made no distinction between men, women and children. They were just inclined towards killing and handing over maximum destruction to Palestinian people in Gaza and their infrastructure. As a result of the destruction of the infrastructure, there has been shortage of basic supplies like food, water and medicine. On June 28, the Israeli IAF bombed the major power plant in Gaza and hence electrical outages have become common. Hospitals, sewage treatment plants and water utilities are working on generators that are having outdated electronic parts and are in the verge of breakdown.

About 85% of people in Gaza are dependent upon the food handouts of the United Nations World Food Program. Because of the continuous bombardment of Gaza by Israeli forces, the aid workers of the United Nations are not able to carry out their responsibilities. The killing of a truck driver of the UN made it suspend all relief operations in Gaza. This has made matters worse for the Gazans and now a lot of those families are living on one meal a day. The situation would result in problems of chronic malnutrition for the children in Gaza and that would mean that the crisis can lead to some long term health issues to those children. Therefore it is important for the international community to find an immediate solution for the crisis in Gaza.

Another dismaying fact coming out of this crisis is that Israel had used white phosphorous as a weapon against the civilians of Gaza. The use of white phosphorous as a weapon has been banned by Third Convention on Conventional Weapons that deals with incendiary weapons. Israel is not a signatory of the agreement but still the use of such horrific weapons that cause burn from the skin to the bone to the civilian population must not be used under any circumstances.

Once the conflict ends, Israel administration will have some serious questions to answer. The attacks that have killed thousands of civilians, children in particular, are outrageous attacks on humanity. The international community has the onus to judge whether these attacks are war crimes and if they are the perpetrators should be brought to book. Humanitarian aid workers and organisations like the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross have a daunting task ahead of them even after the crisis is over. They have to provide aid to the people of Gaza who by now would have lost all hope. Human Rights organisations should also work in tandem with the aid organisations to bring relief and support to the ordinary people of Gaza.

I Congratulate Music Maestro AR Rahman for Bagging the Golden Globe Award

I congratulate the music maestro, Isaipuyal, AR Rahman for bagging the coveted Golden Globe Award for the original music score for the film Slumdog Millionaire. Thus he became the first Indian to win the Golden Globe. Rahman has given a great Pongal gift to all Tamilians and another reason for us all Indians to be proud being an Indian. Thanks for creating great musical scores all these years in the Indian wide screen and in the International arena.

In Cricket, Australian Unilateralism is Over

In the realm of international relations, this decade is one where all major economic powers in the world are asking for a paradigm shift from the unilateralism practised by the United States to a multilateral world where almost all countries have an equal voice in world affairs. But even a diehard optimist will accept that it will take some more decades before it actually happens. At the same time in the world of cricket one can be rest assured that the unilateralism and dominance of Australia is over. 

Australia had won last three world cups, in 1999, 2003 and 2007. And interestingly, in these three times, they had defeated the countries of the sub-continent, Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka respectively. As a result of this dominance of Australia in world cups, one joke that went on the rounds was that there is no need to waste time for other countries by playing the world cup and the International Cricket Council or the ICC can simplify the whole event of world cup by having just three ceremonies viz., inauguration, handing the trophy to the Australian team and then the closing ceremony. 

But all that has changed in the last one and a half years and the credit for that should go to some of the finest cricket being played by some other countries in the cricketing world, like India and South Africa. At the same time one should admit that one of the main reasons for Australia’s decline has been the retirement of two of the greatest bowlers of the modern era – the leg spin legend Shane Warne and the lanky fast bowling great Glenn McGrath. The team was so much dependent on these great players that their absence is a gap that the Australian team is finding very hard to fill. With the absence those two players, Australia is finding it difficult these days to take 20 wickets of the opposition team, which is a must for winning test matches. In the last few series Brett Lee had been nothing but below par on international standards. Mitchell Johnson is just an emerging international player and there is a real dearth of quality spin bowlers to replace the class of Warne. New spin bowlers in the team like Jason Krejza and Nathan Hauritz are not of the same mould of that of Warne.

Some people like it or not, the fact of the matter is that Ricky Ponting is not a great captain. They say that a captain is only as good as his team and if that is the case then Ponting has stooped from a great captain to an ordinary captain with the retirement of Warne and McGrath. But in the history of cricket there had been some great captains who were able to extract extraordinary performance from his ordinary players. Former Australian captain Allan Border and Pakistani captain Imran Khan were two of those brilliant captains who were able to do this. But now we know that Ponting neither has the extraordinary ability of these two captains nor has the leadership abilities shown by his own captains Mark Taylor and Steve Waugh. At the same time there is no doubting the batting abilities of Ricky Ponting where he is one of the greatest batsmen of all times.

After failing to retain the Border-Gavaskar and after losing the home series to South Africa, some heads are sure to roll in the Australian team. The first casualty is surely going to be the beleaguered southpaw, the burly opener, Mathew Hayden who had been ridiculously out of sorts and managed an average of less than 20 in the series against the Proteas. Michael Hussey was not also at his best in the recent series as he also ended up with a very low batting average. Though Michael Clarke was not good against the Indians, he regained some of his confidence against South Africa. Brett Lee and Stuart Clark are out of the team owing to injuries. The only silver lining as far as Australia is concerned in the recent series was the emergence of Peter Siddle as a lethal bowler, but it is too early to confirm his place in the team or in the league of good fast bowlers.

For the first time in history, South Africa won a test match series down under, but failed to secure a white wash. This has helped the Aussies to maintain their number one position in ICC test rankings, but time is not far when teams like India and South Africa, who are playing good cricket these days, usurp the number one position from the Aussies. If they have to maintain it in the future too, they have to make some serious changes in their team as well as in the way they play their cricket.