NAM, OIC and Pope Benedict XVI

Continuing on post-colonial discourse, memories of revolutionary heroes and the condition of post-modernity, I would like to celebrate and embrace the spirit of Hari Angkatan Tentera (Arm Forces' Day)*, the 24th NAM (Non-Aligned Movement) summit held in Havana (Cuba) and the Science and Technology Management Training Course for Researchers in OIC Countries (4-15 September 2006).
Even the most hard-hearted amongst us would shed a tear upon hearing songs such as Barisan Kita, Pahlawanku, etc. dedicated to the fallen heroes who had valiantly defended our national borders against "insurgents" and external threats (from Imperialist forces such as Japan and China). And recognition of their wives/widows' sacrifices as well. May there be zero skirmishes and wars from here on.
Now that Cuba takes over the chairmanship of NAM, the enigmatic aura of Latin America and the Carribeans will "shift the organization" and usher in "a new era", as foretold by President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela.
In a speech during the opening session of the 24th NAM summit held in Havana, Chávez spoke in the name of the Latin American and Caribbean member states. "The US colonialism continues conspiring and plotting against Cuba and Venezuela, and against other states as well," he cautioned, Efe reported.
"Fifty years after setting the principles of the Non-Aligned Movement in Bandung (Indonesia, 1955), the world is standing up again," Chávez said after sending his regards to Cuban ruler Fidel Castro, who could not chair the summit due to a surgery underwent last July 31st.
Chávez reviewed the history of the American, African and Asian colonization. Afterwards, he called the 118 NAM member states to join efforts and "push the sun in this new dawn."
(Long Live the Spirit of Bandung and Bung Karno's anti-imperialist, anti-capitalist stance!)
By the Grace of God, I was invited to attend the closing ceremony of the Science and Technology Management Training Course for Researchers in OIC Countries held yesterday morning at the Islamic Arts Meseum Malaysia Restaurant. The ambience was perfect, the company of envoys and senior officials excellent and the Mediteranean food simply delicious. I really look forward to saving and visiting Egypt, Jordan, Turkey and Oman.
Just when we thought the uproar over the derogatory caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) has subsided, the German-born pope had to issue statements that sparked the ire of the Muslims worldwide.
Muslim anger over papal comments grows
By BENJAMIN HARVEY, Associated Press Writer
Fri Sep 15, 7:18 PM ET
ISTANBUL, Turkey - Pakistan's legislature unanimously condemned Pope Benedict XVI. Lebanon's top Shiite cleric demanded an apology. And in Turkey, the ruling party likened the pontiff to Hitler and Mussolini and accused him of reviving the mentality of the Crusades.
Across the Islamic world Friday, Benedict's remarks on Islam and jihad in a speech in Germany unleashed a torrent of rage that many fear could burst into violent protests like those that followed publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.
By citing an obscure Medieval text that characterizes some of the teachings of Islam's founder as "evil and inhuman," Benedict inflamed Muslim passions and aggravated fears of a new outbreak of anti-Western protests.
The last outpouring of Islamic anger at the West came in February over the prophet cartoons first published in a Danish newspaper. The drawings sparked protests — some of them deadly — in almost every Muslim nation in the world.
Some experts said the perceived provocation by the spiritual leader of more than a billion Roman Catholics could leave even deeper scars.....
Isn't it about time that leaders of oil-rich Muslim countries cease spending millions on jewellery gifts to pop divas and invest in alternative voices to counter negative portrayals of Islam?
Related news:
Muslim tycoons should buy stakes in global media outlets to help change anti-Muslim attitudes around the world, ministers from Islamic countries heard at a conference in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday.
Information ministers and officials meeting under the auspices of the 57-nation Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), the world's largest Islamic body, said Islam faced vilification after the September 11 attacks, when 19 Arabs killed nearly 3,000 people in U.S. cities in 2001.
"Muslim investors must invest in the large media institutions of the world, which generally make considerable profits, so that they have the ability to affect their policies via their administrative boards," OIC chief Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu told the gathering in the Saudi city of Jeddah.