Waiting for Civil War in Gaza

Gaza is a time bomb that is set to explode, all the signs are there. I just hope that it doesn't because the potential for carnage is beyond words.

Last Wednesday we went down to Gaza, to shoot a couple of features and what transpired in those few hours still amazes me.

We started by going to the Bank of Palestine in Gaza City, from the outside it was as if it was business as normal, inside however was a scene of chaos , panic and frustration. There were angry frightened men six deep trying to get skips through the teller windows. Most of these men were members of the security forces of the Palestinian Authority, in otherwords these were the Police they have not been paid for nearly two and half months, and the bank was extending a line of credit on this day of 500 Shekels (roughly $110) .

The reason is that since Hamas won the Election, all monies to the Palestinians has dried up from the EU and USA, they will not extend any credit or loans to Hamas, who stated aim is still the elimination of the State of Israel, whom they do not recognize. It is a nice notion of a party that is known more for terrorist acts than for acts of peace. Banks will not transfer money to Hamas for fear of sanctions of funding a terrorist group. All sound words and as one diplomat from the EU said to me the other night. We made the mistake of thinking Hitler was a good idea when he won the election back in the thirties, if we had just said no how different things might of turned out. So in effect there will be no dealings with Hamas, they might of won a fair and democratic election but that does not mean the International community has to accept the rise of a terror organisation into the ranks of the democratic community.

The losers in all of this , the man on the street in Gaza. The man who has a family and whose whole life has been woven into the politics of which party you support, the difference is that democracy is only achieved down in Gaza through the barrel of a gun and not the ballot box.

We then left and drove down to the Southern border of Rafah, which is the only way in and out of Gaza to the world. A land border crossing into Egypt, desolate and forlorn. It is a joint operation of Palestinians , Israelis and EU monitors. But the elected Hamas Govt has no dealings here, it is run by the opposing Presidential Guards on behalf of the Palestinians , men who are loyal and owe there allegiance to the President Abu Mazen, who suceeded Arafat.

We watched as the Presidential Guards along with EU Monitors checked bags , what did i see. Cigarettes and more Cigarettes every single person seemed intent on seeing how many packets of Marlboro they could get past the Guards. I felt that if I was not there with the camera that most of these people would of been just allowed to enter with nothing more than a cursory nod. What is the point of hasling someone for a few cartons of cigarettes.

Driving back to get out from Rafah entails driving the full length of Gaza, South to North and the Presidential Guards insisted on escorting us back out to the border crossing back to Israel, and what I saw still makes me shudder, in the course of a few hours hamas had suddenly established a new militia Guard and on virtually every street corner, where three hours previously there was nothing, now stood at least two armed gunmen members of the new miltia, a militia loyal to Hamas and not the Palestinian Authority controlled by the President.

We had to stop a film a quick piece to camera on the streets as we drove out, so our convoy stopped , the Presidential Guards fully armed jumped out of the cars and provided a cordon, whilst the new Militia came over , it was a matter of getting it done as fast as possible and getting out as both the Presidential Guards and the Hamas Militia where getting close to a Mexican stand off.

Later that night, Fatah the political party of the Authority and Arafat loyalists decided that they too were forming their own Militia on the streets of Gaza. The scene now is that you have two Militia facing each other off, any sense of law and order in the form of Internal Security on a National level no longer exists. In fact over the weekend the Intelligence Chief of the Palestinian Authority had a bomb explode under his elevator, no one has claimed responsibilty yet.

And the pictures out of Gaza today, just hails of bullets going everywhere, Ibrahim our Producer said casually did I recognise the street where the gun battle was raging? It was a 100 m away from the hotel where we stay down there.

The day after we had filmed the security at the Rafah Crossing, a senior Hamas official was caught with 600,000 Euros on his body, what we believe was the payroll for the new Hamas Militia, now Hamas gunmen will not be getting paid along with the Fatah Militia, lots of men lots of guns, no one being paid and a lot of anger reaching critical boiling point.

The clock is about to hit Midnight in Gaza

A Week of Geek

This what a satellite looks like , so if anyone asks you this is W2
Larnaca Cyprus

Now I am not the worlds greatest geek, anytime anyone mentions anything mathematical my brain turns to anti geek mode, however this week I have achieved a major victory in my technical ludite brain.

I have completed a week long course in learning the correct procedures for uplinking satellites, they are a major part of my industry and I have been around them for eight years and even on occasions have had to operate the dish we have in Jerusalem, which let me tell you was far more luck than skill and operator knowledge.

Now I can find a satellite in the sky with alarming accuracy, look at machines of lines of squiggles and align them, even down link calculate so I leave Cyprus with a great new skill.

It feels good to complete a course and have confidence in yourself, trying to find the right satellite in the sky is like someone getting a very sharp HB pencil marking a point in the sky and then turning you around three times whilst they rub it out and telling you to find it again. That is the best way I can describe finding satellites.

Cyprus is a nice place somewhere where the Greeks hate the Turks and British Tourists come to drink in Pubs and glorify the weather. The weather here is glorious a bright blue sunshine that makes color come alive, where life is very expensive and life also runs very slowly.

Could I live here, well yes if I had too, but then again it would also drive me insane with aspects, one good thing is that they drive on the right but even that scared me a couple of times in car we came to a T intersection and I swore we were on the wrong side of the road. Hence it will be a long time before I could ever drive back in Australia.

It ends with another week away from home, making me sometimes wonder where is home, Israel is home but not home that I am still searching for .. Somewhere to call home. When someone asks me where I call home I have lost that answer.

Makes me wonder what and where I am in life at times. Heading back to Israel is not going home but going back to where I live.

Ladies and Zents

Lost in Translation, Whoever wrote the billboard outside the Ladies and Zents Hairdressing Saloon near the Airport here in Katmandu, must of just assumed that G and Z are interchangeable. English is spoken everywhere in Nepal, but the written language does suffer, a local Newspaper today had a sub editor who likes the word “Felicitate” so much so that he used it three times on the front page, and commenting on the Nepalese National Football teams recently the writer referred to them as “proud ballers”, Ballers ! Who has ever heard the word ballers?

This is a long-winded introduction into the state of daily life here in Katmandu.

It is peaceful, life has returned to normal now, a week ago it looked like Nepal was heading to a complete breakdown.

When we arrived on Tuesday the streets were full of Samari Policemen, with riot shields, clubs and tear gas, however as timing sometimes is in the News business we had arrived as the rioting was ending, and peace deals were being brokered. It can be frustrating to miss the actual conflict, but at the same time you are happy that peoples lives can get back to normal after a protracted state of siege that had gripped Katmandu for the last two weeks.

The Samurai Police - Nepalese are not the tallest or largest people you will meet, so to add fear to the build the Police have these riot designed clothing that looks like something from a 18th Century Feudal Samurai.. Black cloth with stays of bamboo covers the torso with shoulder and arm guards. The bamboo acts as the body army, given that they are most vulnerable to rocks and sticks, which make a nice change to having guns and bullets around me. The head Protection again makes the Policeman appear even taller and wider, carrying on with the Samurai theme it has the grilled front mask, but I did detect a touch of Darth Vader as well.

We did some filming on the streets and once Darth Samurai no more pictures, you moved on. You sense and feel the tensions easing as the day wore on. Rumors came and went proposed demonstrations by Maoists never happened, the King promised everything to anyone to “felicitate” good relations, (I should add that at no stage did the King actually say what he was going to do, since he is actually at the root cause of problems here) Politicians of the past surface and proclaim democratic principles as long as they get in power.

So as I leave Nepal (Writing this entry in the Airport) what are my thoughts on the Kingdom of Nepal, I wrote that I come in as a Lonely Planet Expert with help from the CIA Fact Book.

I would have to say that Nepal is in my Top Ten Countries I have visited, It is a truly nice place, and that comes from the hearts and smiles of the people, (Samurai Police aside whilst they are on duty, they have to scowl and look tough). I am already planning to come back here on holidays if I can be seduced by just working for a few days in the capital and not even seeing a mountain then I know that I will not be happy with my life adventures till I have trekked to Everest Base Camp.
We were out yesterday touring the streets looking for demonstrations that were planned but never happened, but managed to tour the most holy Hindu Temple Complex, watched two cremations and an old lady dying on the temples river banks.

One thing that fascinated me was the sign over what looked like a shop right next to the cremation pyres “ Cornea Extraction Facility” (they like the facil…. Word here) apparently upon death the deceased is cremated within hours, but the greatest gift you can give to get the best karma and new life karma re birth is to donate your eyes, hence the “Cornea Extraction Facility” the doctors perform the removal right behind the pyres. The Hindu God Shiva will bestow many blessings on you.

Touring the Temples there are the Holy men or stardust, now these holy men seem more intent on painting themselves to look good for the Tourists and getting money by posing for photographs so as to buy Hashish to keep themselves stoned. They did not seem to be contemplating the big picture or seeking enlighten.

Now if you are ever thinking of buying a house with a tin roof, I shall give you this real estate tip, monkeys like to jump up and down on any loose tin as they like the noise. The peace and calm of the Temple was constantly shattered by the sounds of the temple monkeys jumping up and down on a loose piece of tin and then locals trying to shoo them away by throwing stones. I did not know until yesterday that monkeys are the third most holy creatures to Hindu’s after cows and bulls, so you are not allowed actually hit the monkeys with the stones but you can scare them.

The thing that also struck me is how poor Nepal is, not a swollen belly refugee poverty scene out of Sudan. But a grinding poverty of the third world, you do not have to look far behind the scenes here to see the children stunted, the shoeless urchins and looks on mothers faces as they realize that life for them will never get better. There are no expensive flashy cars or glitzy shops catering for petro dollar fuelled shopping trips.

What they as a nation, they lack can be measured in monetary terms and in power point presentations at Economic Summits. But what cannot be measured in columns of GDP statistics is the warmth and spirit of the people. There is an infection of laughter and goodwill in everyone’s souls here, from the Samurai Police to the sign writer who painted Ladies and Zents.

Watching Death

I saw someone die today, I will never know her name or age, but in front of my eyes she died and later today the youngest son will light a cremation fire under her.

This is a disturbing enough image to carry through a day but in context with the plight of the living here in Nepal, death may not come soon enough. However it is the image of a small girl in the window of my car that will haunt me far longer than that of an old woman dying.

We were coming back to the hotel after spending the afternoon in and around the Thamal District looking for anything that might constitute a potential build up of demonstrators, the story here has died to use a metaphor, peace and democracy is promised to the people, but the buts’ are too numerous and in reality, peace is never a news worthy story, if it was we would all have Bureaus in Tahiti and New Zealand and not in Baghdad.

I normally try to keep small notes in my pocket when I travel in cars so that if a beggar comes to the car I can give away my small notes, first a mother approached and I gave her about 40 Rupees (60 cents) then an old man carrying a woman on his back came up I gave my 50 Rupee note (80 cents) and then a small girl, dirty faced, wearing a red maybe ten years old not much more came up and held out her hand, I had one last note in my hand 20 Rupee (35 cents roughly) and I pushed the button to wind up the window, then I stopped the window going up in her face, and if time had stopped I realized what I was doing, this small girl was doing nothing more than asking, she has nothing, a poor street urchin.

In my wallet I had more money than her father could earn in two years, if she had a family. I do not know it is not something you ask a street child as you are closing a window on them, holding a note that means nothing to me in the big picture at all but to her it is a meal or medicine.

I see beggars around the world, I hear the grossly exaggerated stories told by fat tourists around bars at nights in five star hotels saying how all children gangs use and they get nothing. When you have something in life it is hard to comprehend what nothing is.

I wound down the window and gave her the note and she left, I did not see her face as she turned and darted back to the footpath. I did not look around but took the moment to reflect and it was not a proud moment in my life. Small things do matter and small children matter.

The woman who died in front of my eyes was an old woman taken out of a hospice down to the holy river at the sacred temple here in Katmandu. In death she had dignity and support her last moments had included holy water being poured in her mouth. It was not hard to watch her death; it was in fact watching life here in Nepal can be harder.

POSTSCRIPT
Katmandu – Bangkok (18 hours later)

Look you have to laugh, I can reflect back on how I felt at that moment but a scam stung us last night by a beggar, and to be honest I did not care. The aim is to hit a woman, in this case Yonat, our Producer. A girl in her young teens with a baby on her back comes up and first off says I do not want money, but could you buy me some milk for my baby. Now I was with Yonat and fell just as badly as she did, she was not asking for money but baby milk how could anyone say no. So the girl leads Yonat and I down the street. We get to a grocery store and spend twenty bucks or so on buying baby milk, she smiles and waves to us thanking for us and disappears back up the street.

Yonat and I feel good for the deed we have done, only to ask a friend Jill who works for Reuters later that night had this happened to her and lo and behold, hook line and sinker she had fallen for it and spent nearly $30 buying the same story. I had to laugh, there is a girl out there doing fine in Katmandu. She has no doubt returned the milk to the shop where she is in cahoots with the owner and gets a cut I just hope she gets a fair share.

What do you need to know?

The amazing thing about traveling in my job is the absolute lack of knowledge that you may have on any subject or country before you travel there, and then how you can become an instant expert on any subject. Take for instance “Nepal”

One it has a big mountain, and lots of other big mountains, the hippies used to like going there, the swami for The Beatles appeared on National TV and a cousin of the Royal family went mad a few years ago and killed half the dynasty. That about sums up most of the world’s knowledge about Nepal, it also has a funny triangular flag in case you did not know.

So sitting in Zurich Airport now, what do I know about Nepal now. Well it is slightly larger than Arkansas according to the CIA Factbook, so that is bad news for Rhode Island and other small US States, Nepal is a potential bigger enemy. It borders only two countries India and China, only 17% of the land is arable the rest is Mountain. Nepal has 8 of the 10 tallest Mountains in the world

Get this it has a bigger population than Australia, estimated at 28,287,147 for July 2006, now this figure may fluctuate according to how many the Police shoot in the next few days. The Average age of your Nepalese is 20 years old and life expectancy is on 60 years old, and females die earlier.

Religion wise 80% are Hindu, 10% Buddhist, 4.2% are Muslim (pick the trouble makers) , well actually it is the Royal Family they sort of decided to have a reverse coup and take all power from the Constitutionally elected Parliament in Feb 2005, Parliament has actually been suspended since May 2002, all power rests solely with King Gyanendra. Nepal is actually correctly called “The Kingdom of Nepal”, Nepal is the short slang.

Unemployment is roughly 42%, 31% of the people live below the poverty line. Before shaking your head at this figure, in Israel roughly 15% of Israeli’s are classified as living below the poverty line. “Nepal is one of the poorest and least developed countries in the world” according again to the CIA if you read their economic overview and even take away the civil strife and Maoist problems, Nepal is not looking good by any accounts.

Since 1996, over 12,000 people have died in the Maoist Rebellion in Nepal, intent on setting up a Communist state the Maoists have been waging a bloody and brutal civil war with the Monarchy.

That is what I know as of the moment about the Kingdom of Nepal, like so many other countries I have visited, I fly in and then form an opinion, arriving with a preconceived notion about a nation or its people is foolish.

Treat everyone with respect and dignity and it is returned with the same values, treat anyone with disdain and you are the one who looks foolish and stupid. I have met some of the most fantastic people and friends in some of the worst places in the world.




What we will see hear and smell will form my opinion, not glib background facts from the CIA World Fact Book or BBC Web Site, but then again did you know that the Fiscal Year in Nepal runs from 16 July to 15 July. Now that is the sort of trivia that makes you a champion on “Who wants to be a Millionaire” , when you have run out of lifelines and the audience does not cough correct answers.

I must admit to a mistake earlier in the blog, this would be listed as an Correction in the next blog but I am big enough to admit such a glaring error up front … the flag is actually two triangles not one, see you learn something everyday.

Mal
Zurich Airport


Now in Bangkok , have just picked up the Lonely Planet Guide , now I am truly an expert on Nepal

Tel Aviv Airport at 3am

You can build the best airport in the world, and there is still no other word than they suck at 3 am in the morning, when you have not been to bed since yesterday morning and the next time I will lie flat in a bed could be two days away.

This Assignment is actually to a country that I have always wanted to visit, Nepal. Home of the tallest mountain in the world and as of the moment massive civil rioting, gues which is the reason I am going this time. I always thought that I would get to Nepal and see Mt Everest on my 50th birthday, well I am 47 next week so that is not bad.

One of the quirks of the job is what to pack and tonight I was digging thru the cupboards in the office in Jerusalem getting out gas masks and riot helmets, expecting stones and gas this time. Hopefully not to much bang bang your dead bullets.

Hopefully will not be to longer assignment, one of those jobs when we could fly to Bangkok only to be told to come back, lucky I like airline food

Mal
Tel Aviv Airport Lounge

Tel Aviv Monday Afternoon

When you arrive at the scene of a suicide bombing there is nothing nice to say or anything new to say or film. It is just a scene of desperation and grief. The bombing at the Schwarma Shop yesterday was devastating 9 innocent people were killed in an Instant by a terrorist , a young male from the West Bank who had recently joined Islamic Jihad after leaving Hamas because they were not carrying out attacks on Israel. What he achieved was to plunge the scene here into Political Mayhem.

What would the new Prime Minister Ulmert do and just how would the new Hamas Government react. Well Israel does not react with knee jerk options , cold calculating and at there time and choosing that is what they will do. As for Hamas they did not condemn the attack.

The bombing took place near the Old Bus Station a sad and bad neighbourhood, in other words a soft target with almost no security. Standing on a blood streaked street the local Right Wingers and druggies screamed profanities and Death to Arabs for nearly an hour, the moment a camera is turned on them they would resume there chants.

Covering these events like the bombing yesterday leaves me numb, it is not the last one I will go too