Is Democracy for Sale? The Problem with Paid Petitioners

by Madeleine Kando


Push to listen

Today was one of those 'Oh, wow' days in my life. Something happened that put a permanent dent in the armor of naivete with which I usually view the world.

Because I feel strongly about animal protection, I volunteered to gather signatures for a new ballot initiative in Massachusetts which would curb extreme confinement and lifelong immobilization of animals at industrial-style factory farms.

There I was, standing at the entrance of the local super market, boldly approaching strangers, ignoring my natural shyness for the sake of a lofty cause. I watched the shopping cart retriever maneuver his catch, like a long metal snake, as he was trying not to collide into the walls. Ha, so that's how it feels to be anonymous - you know, when nobody pays attention to you. As we exchanged looks, this older man pushing his long trail of carts and I, we had a moment of 'understanding'. Read more...

The Psychosis of Violence: A New Phase in the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict

by Madeleine Kando

Another wave of attacks took place this week in Israel. A terrorist stabbed a sixty-year old woman and this past Tuesday another Palestinian willfully crashed his car into a bus stop, then swung a cleaver to hack Jews to pieces. The hatred jumps out at you, as you watch the footage of this senseless attack, taken by a security camera. What triggered this latest bout of violence?

According to the Times, "The wave of violence is a response to the increase in Jewish visitors to the Temple Mount, the Muslim holy Al-Aqsa mosque." Last year, 12,000 Jews visited the Temple Mount. But 200,000 Christians visited the site during the same period, and the number of Muslims amounts to four million. But those damn Jews, those 33 per day, that's just unacceptable.

Others would say that the attacks are a result of the Palestinian despair at the lack of progress of the peace process—never mind that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas just declared the Oslo Accords null and void.

Dr. Col. (res.) Moshe Elad views the wave of terror attacks as a desperate cry for attention from the international community. "The Palestinians felt that in the last couple of months they were a little out of focus because most news was about ISIS, the problem in Syria, Russia, the United States and suddenly the Palestinian problem was a little outdated." In an article 'The Real Reason why Arabs hate the Jews', Dutch writer Leon de Winter has another, more basic explanation: 'With the overwhelming success of their state, the Jews have humiliated the Arabs. This is the core of the madness from which Palestinians and most other Muslims suffer. They refuse to live in a region with a superior Jewish state. Jews are supposed to be second-class citizens, that is what the Koran says.' Read more...

The Debate, Hillary Redux and why any Democrat is better than any Republican

by Tom Kando

Call me a one-track mind, but after the democratic presidential debate, I MUST devote another post to Hillary Clinton and the presidential campaign.

So on October 13, five democratic candidates for the US presidency held a debate, attempting to emulate the same level of entertainment as that with which eleven Republican candidates regaled us nearly a month earlier.

The candidates were (1) former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, the front runner; (2) Bernie Sanders, Vermont Senator, an independent and a “Socialist,” the only other candidate with a significant following at this time; (3) former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley; (4) former Virginia senator Jim Webb; and former Rhode Island governor and senator Lincoln Chafee, who had the great courage to convert from Republican to Democrat in 2007.
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Dutch Law Tolerates Child Marriages

by Madeleine Kando

One of the more disturbing aspects of the Refugee Crisis in Europe, is the 'child bride' phenomenon. For the past year and a half, at least 34 Syrian child brides have applied for asylum in the Netherlands, among them girls aged 13, 14 and 15.

As described in a recent article in the Dutch Magazine 'Elsevier', adult men who marry underage girls in their own country, can legally have their brides come to the Netherlands within the framework of 'family reunification', which means that the Netherlands is in fact participating in marriages that are often forced upon a child.

The basis for this is the Dutch Civil Code which says that: 'If a marriage is performed legally in the country of origin, is has to be recognized as valid', even though such a marriage would not be legal, if performed in the Netherlands. In other words, under this ruling, a Moroccan man living in the Netherlands can have multiple wives if these marriages were legally performed in Morocco, where polygamy is allowed. Read more...