In 1994 the whole of South Africa voted for a new government, something to get away from the oppressive regime of the brutal Apartheid government. South Africans united against this inhumanity, and heroes were born.

The man who without a doubt is the most respected leader and polititian in the world is the great Nelson Mandela.

However, it appears that South Africa, with its population of just over 40 million souls… was only able to produce one good man. Nelson Mandela was able to prove the reasoning and actions behind Apartheid wrong.

Then along comes Thabo Mbeki.. at first the people of South Africa where happy. They believed that Thabo Mbeki would continue the healing and rebuilding legacy that Nelson had left behind and take South Africa and its new public image to new heights.

Our public image at the end of Mandela’s leadership was one of tolerance… a new nation of hope that pushed off the tyranny of fascism and embraced that of human rights, decency and understanding. A type of government never before seen on the African continent. A real and true roll model for the entire continent to follow.

Then along comes Thabo Mbeki. The greedy corrupt president of South Africa. He has basically being everything Nelson Mandela was not. He showed in his HIV/AIDS denialism that he is an easily led fool.

Under his leadership and denialism, the people of South Africa had to sue the government to get ARVs… and people died.

Under his leadership, South Africa used its vote to veto a call to help the Burmese people to escape their dictatorship and get basic human rights. Yes.. South Africa’s first vote on the UN security council is vote against the people of Burma and for their dictatorship. What a wanker.

We also have Thabo Mbeki to thank for corruption in big arms deals. For ham stringing South Africa’s education and health systems and for supporting and not punishing his corrupt officials.

Under Thabo Mbeki a climate of ultimate corruption… up to the top levels of our government has being allowed to spread. You all know the stories… if he is not supporting a crooked head of police, he is firing people for doing their jobs well.

None of us will forget him firing the Deputy Minister of Health, Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge for actually doing her job. For those of you who don’t remember her… she found out that one of our hospitals (The Frere Hospital in East London) was being so badly run .. that babies were dying left right and center simply because the staff at the Frere where too stupid, too uncompassionate, too corrupt and simply too evil. She tried to do something about this. She was fired by Mbeki.

Lets skip ahead to another chapter in Mbeki’s Satanic cookbook of success. One of Mbeki’s best boys.. our top policeman in the country… Selebi was found by our anti-corruption unit to be corrupt. There’s a surprise! What does Mbeki do to the person that uncovers the corruption? He fires the head of the unit.. Vusi Pikoli… unconstitutionally!!! (You will notice I use more exclamation marks as I get more upset)

So you would think the mayhem and evil from Thabo Mbeki would hopefully get ironed out with age. You would be wrong if you thought that. If anything, the evil of Mbeki’s legacy is spreading.

South Africa’s single greatest shame though (for me personally).. is how we have treated our neighbors. Thabo Mbeki has taken everything that the ANC and Nelson Mandela had built in its reputation, and then threw it out the window with his completely and unforgivable stupidity with how he has handled Robert Mugabe and the Zimbabwe situation.

Mbeki with help from his boyfriend Mugabe, has done more damage to the people of Zimbabwe and South Africa than Apartheid and the colonials ever did. Hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans have being slaughtered under the current ZANU-PF regime.

That’s almost one hundred fold more damage and death than the racist regimes of South Africa’s Apartheid and Smiths Rhodesian forces ever did. If anything, Mugabe and Mbeki have made people like Ian Smith and Verwoerd look like decent, compassionate and honest people.

Tens of thousands of people in Zimbabwe are right now… at this moment, being tortured, abused and murdered by Mugabe. What does Mbeki do? The single biggest thing he has done throughout his entire leadership. Fuck all.

To the people of the world.. I know South Africa has let you down, and I know right now we must look like a stinking pile of dog poo to the international community as our corrupt leaders throw human rights out the windows, turn away from decent honest allies and embrace the corrupt and deadly governments of China, Russia and the Middle East.

Most of our current leadership are a bunch of corrupt thieves who don’t care one bit for the people of South Africa and are completely dedicated to their own greed. The South African government has shamed the people of South Africa and the only thing we can ask the world, is to please forgive us.. while we learn to deal with the evil and corrupt.

In closing, I would like to say as a South African. Dont trust the South African government and certainly dont trust Thabo Mbeki... It is trust wasted.

A really nice Travian signature generator

In this post, I am responding to a rather disgusting piece of "journalism" that I read today in the Zimbabwe Herald (Mugabe`s state run newspaper). I have put all Timothy's passages in block quotes, and my responses follow each of his comments. The link to the original article can be found at the end of this post.

Zim ‘crisis’ removed from reality

By Timothy Kalyegira

AS I focus these days on the dark deception at the international level, we turn today to the most extreme example: Zimbabwe. I have followed world media reports extensively but there is something I have not once heard asked or discussed: Why is Zimbabwe, once one of Africa’s most promising countries, where it is today? Or more pointedly, why is Zimbabwe reported and portrayed to be where it is today?

Simply put, because of the greed and evil of Robert Mugabe and his ZANU-PF cronies. Those sick sick people have destroyed the lives of millions and in my honest and humble opinion, I believe that every single one of them should be shot.

Let us start off by readily agreeing that President Robert Mugabe is an authoritarian leader, a tendency for which he is, needless to say, not alone in Africa.

Hang on there Timothy, yes, Robert Mugabe is an authoritarian leaders... that tends to come with course when one is a kleptocrat totalitarian dictator who has massacred hundreds of thousands of his countries people. A little conservative with that description there would you not say?

Having said that, everything else simply does not add up. Let us look at various inflation rates. Iraq for 2007: 64,80 percent; Afghanistan for 2007: 16,30 percent, according to the CIA World Factbook. The DR Congo for 2006: 14,4 percent; another African country in chaos, Burundi for 2006: 11 percent.

Then, a Voice of America radio broadcast on April 1, 2008 said: "In Somalia, continuing insecurity, a surge in food and fuel prices, and uncontrolled printing of money have created runaway inflation that is threatening the lives of millions already suffering from 18 years of war and lawlessness." What, then, is Somalia’s runaway rate of inflation after "18 years of war and lawlessness"? "Over 100 percent", according to the website indexmundi.com.

We have taken a look at a cross-section of some of the world’s most unstable countries: Iraq, Somalia, Afghanistan, Burundi, the DR Congo and the figures for inflation we see are 14, 11, 64, 100 percent and so forth. Let us turn now to the world record holder, Zimbabwe. As of March 2008, the country’s inflation rate stood at 165 000 percent.

Zimbabwe has not had a single military coup since independence in 1980. No civil war, no war with any of its neighbours, no major drought or famine, no earthquake, no volcanic eruption and no floods caused by extreme rainfall, no locust invasion.

Furthermore, Zimbabwe has been ruled by a Zanu-PF Government from 1980-2008, by the same Prime Minister and later President Mugabe, pursuing the same economic policies, with the same management or mismanagement style.

I really hope there was a gun to your head when you wrote this... because you yourself point out the common factor for this devastation. As you rightly point out... countries like Somalia, Iraq and other war torn bloody parts of the world have lower inflation rates.

You do know what this means right? That Robert Mugabe and his evil country rapers have had a more devastating effect on Zimbabwe than white racism (Smith), war, famine, earth quakes, volcano's, floods, droughts and those locusts you mention.

This is a very very clear indication as to how terribly bad ZANU-PF has being to humanity.

Before the Mugabe Government started uprooting the white farmers in 2000, this Government kept inflation at 5 percent, 8 percent (or 11 percent in difficult years.) How, then, does a country with all the same factors and leaders from 1980 to 2000 suddenly (because the white commercial farmers have been uprooted) see inflation soar to world record levels in a space of just six years starting in 2000? And how is it that a stable Zimbabwe has an inflation rate 1 500 times higher than Somalia, a country without a government since 1991? Does any of this make sense?

Yes, complete sense. ZANU-PF totally destroyed the Zimbabwe economic base (white farmers who where working hard to supply themselves and the rest of the country) and plunged the country that was already suffering the tyranny of Robert Mugabe into a financial abyss. That what happens when you have syphilis infected leaders in command.

Away from abstract figures, the evidence before our ordinary eyes is even more puzzling. If you have watched news video footage on BBC TV, CNN, and other Western TV networks, without exception, you will no doubt have noticed that the streets of the capital Harare are far cleaner and better maintained than those in Kampala, even during the week that Uganda hosted the Commonwealth summit last November.

And this has what to do with the price of oranges? Clearly you must be more focused on clean street rather than basic human rights.

Have you seen any beggars on Harare’s streets? Have you taken the time to notice clean and well-painted Government buildings in Harare?

I notice that ZANU-PF and its ilk killed, rounded up, detained, harassed or attacked the beggars. That works I hear.. but then so did Apartheid. Both where really stupid ideas. This isnt a point at all Timothy.

During the recent presidential campaign rallies, you might have noticed that both the supporters of President Mugabe and the opposition were generally well-dressed, looked and acted cheerful. Nobody wore rags or went about barefooted.

Not from the footage I see. Oh wait, I live in South Africa, where we have this thing called "human rights", and we look after our people (and half of Zimbabwe who have fled here to escape the slaughter in Zimbabwe). From our perspective, all we saw where lots of really stressed unhappy people in long lines doing their best to get rid of the sickness of Zimbabwe (Robert Mugabe)

In 2003 and 2007, South Africa’s subscription TV channel M-Net sponsored the Big Brother Africa reality television show. In both competitions, Zimbabwe had representatives resident in Harare, Tapuwa Mhere in 2003 and Bertha Zakeyo in 2007. You saw them confident, relaxed girls, not thin beggarly girls who had not had proper meals in years.

Yay, so you have some people who are not starving. Dude, seriously.. this also it not a point. Quoting MultiChoice`s Big Brother as a source for trying to present a picture of a good Zimbabwe is really clutching at straws. You are desperate in your writing.

More importantly, for M-Net to still have an office in Zimbabwe where viewing is by paid-up subscription, presupposes that there are enough Zimbabweans with money to afford the luxury of pay TV, despite the 100 000+ inflation rate.

Yeah, and you can find them all in the local ZANU-PF offices. Must be interesting to be in that political party. You kill and torture innocents and get free DSTV!

With that kind of inflation, you don’t have the extra money for luxuries like DSTV.

Again, not unless you are part of the 1% ruling cast thats oppressing the other 99%. I mean, with South Africa`s inflation I cant afford that 10 million Rand (not zim dollars) yacht... but if you go to our harbours you will be able to see them. Even a four year old child can see you are pulling at straws now.

So how come, for all this obvious evidence, nobody has asked the simple question: is this Zimbabwe story real or an orchestrated series of events by the British and American governments and media to punish Mugabe for humiliating the white settlers in Zimbabwe? It leads us to ask the auxillary question: might all these supposedly impressive economic growth, dropping HIV infection, and inflation rates in Uganda under President Yoweri Museveni have, after all, been falsified, as have all the election results of 1996, 2001 and 2006?

You sir, are a sick and fked up racist. You and your scum will soon be removed, and I really hope, you and everyone involved with what you have done to the people of Zimbabwe are held accountable. Blame the whites... for fks sakes man.. cant you even be original?! Syphilis infected Robert Mugabe has being blaming the whites since he killed 200 000 matabele back in the day.

Im not really the violent kinda chap, but humanities gene pool will be much more cleaner after those in ZANU-PF and untruthful propagandists like you are removed.

Wanna know whats totally destroyed Zimbabwe? PEOPLE LIKE YOU. PEOPLE LIKE MUGABE. Disgusting evil corrupt thieves and country rapists EXACTLY like you. The single biggest problem to Africa is its kleptocrats. Greed mate... greed, greed, greed, and not giving a hoot about the value of a human life. No single raindrop believes it is guilty for the flood.

Why do we consistently read about impressive growth and achievement figures under Museveni’s rule, and yet most of us feel and know that we are well worse off today than 22 years ago?

To be honest, I know nothing about Uganda.. though after reading this I will go read, but by siding in the slightest with the ZANU-PF side and trying to make out the slaughter in Zimbabwe is somehow related to some kind of black vs white thing.. I find your writings sick, ill informed, naive, all round wrong and a mostly lies used to build a strawman argument. You are guilty of evil.

l Timothy Kalyegira is a columnist with the Daily Monitor paper of Uganda. He can be contacted on timothy_kalyegira@yahoo.com. This article is reproduced courtesy of African Executive.

Feel free to email this ass at the above email address. People like him are just plain sick :(

Original Article: http://www.herald.co.zw/inside.aspx?sectid=34128&cat=10

A couple of months ago I decided to start playing the massive multi-player online game, Travian. Travian is a browser based game that lets you choose one of three races (Romans, Teutons or the Gauls), and then you have to create and build up a village (and its resources) while creating alliances with other gamers in your area to try create a competitive team to make it to end game.

The game, while simple when you start, gets extremely more complex and political as the months go on, and by looking at previous game play, games tend to last 12 to 15 months. I have being informed that after 10 months no new entrants are allowed in the game, and the final 6 months is a race to conquer a computer controlled race and build a Lvl 100 World Wonder.

When I first started playing Travian I was skeptical. How could a browser based game be as fun and as entertaining as the current list of games I play (Battlefield 2, COD4, World of Warcraft), but a couple of months into the game and I am completely sold. I really want to see if I can take my village to end game. However, to do that, I am going to need to make sure the alliance I am associated with 'keeps with the program', and that all enemy alliances and villages in my area are cleaned out and conquered.

There are currently over 20 000 players in the game of Travian that I am competing in. When I started writing this post, the point was not to give a review of the game (as I have just done), but rather to give a list of very useful links (as I am about to do) I have found to enable you to be better equipped for your Travian experience.

List of useful Travian links:

- Travian Website - http://www.travian.com - This is where you register and login to play the game.

- Official Travian 'manual' - http://help.travian.com - A mostly useful manual on the game and its units, resources and infrastructure.

- Travian map tool - http://travianmap.nl/index.php?ln=en# - A great tool to work out where you are in the Travian world, and who is around you.

- Travellog - http://travilog.org.ua/en - A tool to let you post battle and scouting reports to your friends and alliances members.

- Travian toolbox - http://www.traviantoolbox.com/index.php?lang=en - This tool does all types of really good calculations for you. Useful for working out battle coordination.

- Travian analyzer - http://www.travian.ws - The Travian world analyzer is a great tool for when you are doing research on a village or an alliance you have to interact with, or if you just want to have a look at whats going on in the world of Travian.

- Farm finder - http://traviantool2.ww7.be/frame_T.php?lang=com&titre=inactive - This tool lets you find inactive players so you can "farm" (thats when you raid their resources) them.

- Cropper finder - http://asite.110mb.com/cropfinder.php - This is a great tool for finding croppers (resources areas that you can take over that are very valuable) close to you.

Playing guides:

Here are a couple of guides to give you the best possible start in your game of Travian.

- Gauls. The Gauls are the best defensive race in the game. http://forum.travian.us/showthread.php?t=6302

- Romans. Romans are the economic powerhouses of the game. http://ionutbatman.trei.ro/

- Teutons. They are the most aggressive race. I could not find a decent enough guide that I would like to show you.. so if anyone is able to find one, please let me know so I can post it here.

That should be enough information to start you on a successful road to conquest. Let me know if you think there should be any other links added here.

I was going to start this post off with a lot of cussing and anger, but after a cup of tea and a moment of reflection I have decided to go with just the anger.

My reasons why China is evil:

- It has amongst the worst cases of human rights abuses in the world
- Its citizens are kept in a state of political fear with political prison camps for anyone who may have an opposing view to the Chinese government
- Its population is HEAVILY censored
- We all know about Tibet
- We all know that the Burma situation is allowed to happen because of its Chinese support.
- We all know that the genocide in Sudan is only able to happen because of all the chinese sponsored weapons (being sold for oil... they make the Americans look like peaceful hippies)
- And now... Southern Africa is going to be experiencing another genocide (the last one took place when Robert Mugabe killed 200 000 matabele... and blamed the Apartheid white government... and the world lapped it up)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/04/18/wzim218.xml

Yup, another genocide is going to happen, and the thing that makes me so angry.. is the world is going to let is happen. Right now.. weapons are on their way to Robert Mugabe to help him kill more people. Right now the world knows (the people who need to know).. know that this is going to happen.. and once again.. as in Sudan, as in Burma, as in Tibet... the world are going to collectively sit on their fat bums and do nothing about it (except perhaps send a strong worded letter of dissatisfaction to the Chinese government).

Our governments are failing us. It seems all politics is corrupt and all the peoples of the world are suffering from this sickness of apathy. I honestly dont know how people can live with themselves by not acting on these horrors.

Just remember the next time you buy something that says, "Made in China". Know that is was built with blood and that you are guilty of supporting the worlds most evil country and the actions it commits... simply by purchasing a single product made in China. Though.. I doubt most of the people out there even care.

What makes this whole matter worse, is our wonderful ANC led government are supporting the sale of arms to Zimbabwe, and are not doing a single thing to hinder the process.

I am shamed many times over. I am ashamed to be a South African and for allowing so many Zimbabweans to die and I am ashamed to be a member of the human race. Even most of the "good" people in this world.. are evil.. as they allow evil to happen.

"Evil can only happen when good men stand by and do nothing".. and in the case of the rest of the world.. this is exactly what is happening.

I wish there was some army or something I could join to fight China, Zimbabwes ZANUPF and South Africa's corrupt ANC (I swear, you would think Mugabe and Mbeki are having sexual relations when you look at how far Mbeki is up Mugabe's ass).

Am I wrong to be so angry?

For all of those on the South African http://www.bidorbuy.co.za website be very careful. Due to bad coding (as reported by Bradbowlllama on MyADSL ) it is possible for users to obtain your personal email address by simply going through the code.

To give an example:

- Find a user that is selling something you wish to bid on
- Click on the "Community Watch" link
- View the source on the "Report suspicious behaviour" page

Your result should look something like this:

INPUT class="dfont" TYPE=TEXT VALUE="communitywatch@bidorbuy.co.za" NAME="from1" SIZE=55 MAXLENGTH=100 disabled
INPUT TYPE="hidden" VALUE="youraddy@address.com" NAME="from"
INPUT TYPE="hidden" VALUE="otheruser@adress.com" NAME="cc"
INPUT TYPE="hidden" VALUE="123455" NAME="abcde"

As you will see, the email address of the user is easily accessible to anyone, including the hundreds of Nigerian scammers and identity thieves.

For those of you wanting to open an account at BidOrBuy... be very careful

This vulnerability is valid as of 3/4/2008 (Lets see how long it takes them to fix this very serious issue.

I have noticed a couple of eco-friendly posters here mention how much they hate mans advancement in technology, how humanity is like a virus to nature and the usual ra ra from those blokes and dudettes.

I would like those people to consider this point. If life is to exist beyond the life span of our sun it has to find a way to exist outside of the confines of this planet.

The chances of life evolving another life form capable of space travel before there is another major extinction period is pretty slim, so basically humanity may be lifes (as we know it) last chance for survival.

Think about it... imagine humans kill each other off, and no other life form evolves to the level of space travel. Our sun expands or our magnetosphere dies off... and our planet will become sterile. No more life will exist.

Which means (assuming we are the only life out here), that the complete uniqueness of all life... what it went through, all its suffering, all its learning, all its hopes and joy, everything it achieved... would have being for nothing. There would not even be anyone around to remember it.

So for the long term survival of all life. Humanity I believe is a keystone species.

Linux for years has being one of the best quality server operating systems on the market and there are currently more Linux servers on the web than any other operating system. Over the last couple of years, with distributions like Ubuntu pushing into the desktop market, the Linux desktop has come of age.

I was simply amazed at the native driver support that my Ubuntu desktop offered me. My blue tooth dongle, my Skype phone, my USB wireless device, HSDPA modem, my Ipod Nano and flash disks were all picked up automatically by the system and the correct drivers and applications loaded.

I have never seen an operating system with so much support for all my devices right out of the box. The Linux desktop has come of age and is in almost every aspect, superior to its Windows Vista and Windows XP counterparts.

Instead of paying a lot of money for hardware that struggles with the most basic versions of Vista, rather install Ubuntu and get a quicker, faster... superior desktop.

Why not to get a HP product.

I used to be a strong supporter of the HP brand... well at least until HP and Microsoft got into bed and had a child called Vista that really should have being aborted. I used to support HP products because they had reliable hardware, and decent support. I never thought a company could sink its reputation as quickly and efficiently as HP has done.

I ordered 2 HP Pavilion notebook / laptops. They had great hardware specs and they looked stunning, the only problem with them being that they came with Vista installed. For those of you who have not realized it. Vista is designed for really stupid people who like shiny things. Anyways.. back to HP. I think, "well no problem", when I get these laptops in I will purchase two copies of Windows XP professional SP2 and install that and a copy of Ubuntu onto my notebook.

The notebooks arrived and I get all excited. Yay! Two stunning pieces of hardware with decent specs... I will even be able to play the latest games I have, and I was really looking forward to using my notebook. I format the drives... navigate to the HP website... to the section that has the XP drivers for it... only to find... NO XP drivers!!! I nearly fell of my chair in surprise. HP is not supporting the worlds most popular desktop operating system (XP)... you cant be serious? The bastards!

The reason I dont want to install Vista is because its Windows XP in a fancy frock. Its a waste of time, resources and a disgusting insult to anyone with an IQ above that of a retarded rabbit. Even though this notebook had very decent specs (duel AMD, Nvidia chipset, 1GB of RAM)... it completely chokes with Vista Basic, and any hopes and dreams of me running any type of game were quickly being dashed against the rocks of corporate stupidity.

However, the story gets even sicker. I find out that while HP does not support XP for my laptop, they do have the drivers for XP for my hardware, but I only found that out after some digging through their other drivers and similar models. HP are trying to screw its customers into using Vista and that's the only reason why they did not put the drivers up on their website. Must be some great kick backs being paid to HP execs that they're willing to destroy their customers trust for profit.

So not only do you get shafted by Microsoft with a terrible product, but you also now get shafted by HP your hardware supplier because they are more interested in profit than quality or you.

So to all my readers... If you want to get a decent notebook that supports multiple operating systems and would likely meet all your entertainment and business needs... get an Acer. If you want to get a notebook that does not really do much and can only run one operating system.. get an Apple product. If you want a useless doorstop for your office... Get a HP notebook or a government official.

Lastly, if you are looking to download drivers from the HP website... set aside a couple of hours for extremely slow downloads for extremely bloated drivers.

Since my last article I wrote about Russia and its president Putin, things have evolved much further and I have more perspective on why Putin and Russia are behaving like the school yard bullies again. I wanted to write this article about some of the insidious actives Russia has being up to in the last couple of years and how it is abusing its power, but as I learnt more, and as I learnt the politics of each independent state bordering Russia I realised how big and complex the issue is, so I will do my best to condense the information into a useful summary and back story of some of the events.

When Putin came to power, he was young, energetic, strong and sober... (all things Yeltsin was not), Putin not only promised democracy but also strength, and that's what millions of Russians longed for after the chaos of the Yeltsin years. At first almost everyone was happy with this. The Russians had a strong leader that was going to change and modernize their country and the West were happier with a united Russia rather than a divided one (simply because of Russia's immense nuclear stockpile).

However, events where set into motion when a group Islamic religious fanatics attacked the United States by flying passenger aircraft into the Twin Towers in New York on 9/11. Russia's President Putin was the first head of state to contact the United States and President Bush to offer both the condolences of Russia and any support Russia could offer... including allowing forward military bases in central Asia states.

Putin thought that by showing his support, and offering out an olive branch, the United States and NATO would understand the integral border problems it was having with its own religious separatist conflict in Chechnya, and together they would fight Islamic religious extremism. Working along side America and the European Union on such a project with benefit all involved.

Bush took Putin's offer and set up more military bases in central Asia, which in turn angered a lot of powerful Russian leaders who were also concerned about the expansion of Russia's long time nemesis... NATO. In 2002 seven more nations were invited to join and Bush had to fly to St Petersburg to try calm down an agitated Putin. Russian-American relations took a dramatic turn for the worse when Bush ordered the attack on Iraq against the Kremlin's requests.

The United States and European countries were also involved in financing a lot pro-democratic reformation movements in the former Soviet states. These were called to the Color Revolutions and lead to democratic revolutions over autocratic authorising rule such as Ukrainian Orange Revolution and the Georgian Rose Revolution. In all these revolutions the people of those countries spoke and ousted their corrupt pro-Russian leaders for more transparent pro-West democratic leaders as the people of each country took control and responsibility for their futures.

Increasingly Putin felt like a jilted bride with Bush making small concessions while he was at the same time expanding NATO influence over countries that Russia still regarded as its own charges. Russia also considered the eastern expansion of NATO to be in contradiction of an earlier NATO/Soviet Union agreement for NATO not to expand eastwards. To add to this was the fear within Russia's ruling party that pro-west influence may spread into Russia itself, and the FSB (the new KGB) were quick to stamp out the flames of dissent within its own borders so that Russian leaders would not lose control of Russia like what had happened in the Ukrainian Orange Revolution.

In process to wipe out political pro-west opposition from with Russia, Putin moved forward and took control of Russia's Gazprom and its other large corporations and in turn was able to use these companies to further what his future political ambitions. Over half of Gazprom's shares are now owned by the state and its Chairman Demetri Medvedev will be Russia's next president (at the time of writing this article, Russia's 2008 elections are underway, but I still have not seen the official results).

For Putin a strong Russia no longer meant a Russia that would be a worthy partner for America, it meant a Russia that would defend itself against the West and offer a more authoritarian political model.

To put this new attitude into perspective lets have a look at current and ongoing abuses of Russian power, and when you look at the selective use of its authority you will get a better idea of why you should behave more critically to Russia's ruling parties policies and actions;

Let me start with a situation that has been ongoing since 2006 and by yesterdays news, had resurrected its ugly head. With the Ukraine considering halting payment to the Commonwealth of Independent States (a lose collection of states with shared policies that was created to allow a civilised divorce of some previous Soviet Union countries) and its growing support for EU acceptance and NATO defence... Russia has responded. After the Ukrainian Orange Revolution Russia showed its displeasure by getting its state asset Gazprom to cut the gas line that supplies parts of Europe and parts of the Ukraine.

This was done for three reasons. Firstly to punish the Ukraine for its EU ambitions, secondly to try convey a perspective that the 'rebel' republics are too unreliable for the delivery of energy from Russia to Europe (and in so promote the Nord Stream pipeline). At least nine European countries (and these included, France, Germany and Italy) registered a 20% to 33% drop in their gas supply from the Ukraine. Which leads us to the third reason that it very much intertwined with the second reason. To show the European Union that Russia was displeased with the Color Revolutions and Europe's support of democratic and human rights orientated political movements.

The Ukraine was not the only country to suffer this economic and energy supply bullying. Belarus, Moldova and Georgia all had their gas supplies threatened or cut due to their political policies of democratic reformation and accountability. Gas is not the only economic weapon used against neighbouring states that do not follow the Kremlin's demands.

Lithuania, Belarus, Poland and Latvia have had their oil supplies threatened or cut off by Russia. In more stranger abuses of economic power, Poland has being on the receiving end of a Russian ban on imported Polish meat, and Georgia and Moldova have had their wines and mineral waters banned from entering the country.

These changing republics are not just the victims of Russia ability to use its economic power to bully them... recently, when Estonia moved the graves and statue commemorated to honor solders who died during the Soviet era, Russia found a perfect excuse to test its cyber warfare capabilities and in a way showcase them to the world.

On April 27, 2007 a cyber (hacker attack) blasted the online services of Estonian organizations, including the Estonian parliament, telecommunications, banks, ministries, newspapers and broadcasters bringing the countries communications to a grinding halt. While Russia has managed somehow to keep its hand clears of being directly responsible for the attack, experts (including top Russian hackers ... some of whom were involved in the attack), confirmed that such an attack with its sophistication and coordination and the shear use of resources could not have being orchestrated or allowed without Kremlin involvement.

As all these event unfolded, I kept expecting massive resistance to the Russian governments actions by the people of Russia. The Russian people are smart... "any moment now they are going to reign their leaders in and take back control of their country", I thought. I was disappointed. Putin and his party have popular support in Russia as a lot of the Russian populace feel that Putin is putting forward good economic reforms that are helping the country, and that Putin is showing Russian strength by standing up against America and western policies. You see, the sad thing for the people of Russia is some how they equate respect with fear. Russians tend to believe that if the EU and the US fear Russian power and aggression that they will earn respect they feel they deserve.

Its at this moment I have to put the above perception of the Putin supporting Russian into perspective with an analogy. A weak man beats his wife into submission so that the wife respects him out of fear and self preservation. A good man builds her confidence, looks after her feelings and supports and protects her. To me... a Putin supporting Russian is a weak man. I can have no respect for someone who reasons like that.

Not all Russians are for Putin, Russian Grandmaster chess players, heads of business, political opposition parties and many human rights organizations are shouting foul, however their voices are not enough. Critics of Putin are quickly and efficiently ridiculed, abused, threatened and killed.

One can not but compare the economic and political situation of Germany and the end of world war one, and the decline of the Soviet Union after the Cold War. You will also notice a lot of similarities to how Germans felt after world war one, and the feeling of defeat the Russians felt when communism fell.

Hitler was able to convince a country that it could regain its power in the world through economic power and military strength. For a short while... he was not wrong. The Germans, noglastic on the memories of its power and stature before the Treaty of Versailles, quickly stood behind the dreams of Hitler in what they considered was the right way to take their place as again as leaders in (and apparently of) Europe. The same can be seen happening in Russia. The Russian people felt defeated with the fall of the Soviet Union, and the drunken debauchery of its political leaders before Putin came to power. Putin came into power when the corruption and mismanagement of the past left much to be desired and Russia was almost in a state of economic collapse. Putin has managed to take control of the country, and like Hitler is offering the elixir of previous power and strength through economic reform and military might.

There are many many more similarities and warning signs than the ones I have briefly mentioned. Even Hitlers Nazi Youth has a Russian counterpart, the Nashi youth movement (who claimed part responsibility for the cyber attacks launched against Estonia. I am also not the only person to link the similarities between Hitlers Youth and the Nashi Youth.

Perhaps I am being to harsh with comparing Russia's mood and politics to that of Hitlers, but from where I am sitting, I see Putin using Russia to commit attacks on weaker nations... and mostly nations with pro democratic, EU and NATO ambitions seem to be specifically targeted, and I have to wonder why Russia is so scared of the reformation happening in these smaller countries. After all, the reformations have lead to more accountability and transparency in those governments.

My perspective so far based on the balance of evidence is that former secret and security services members have managed to take control of Russia through political manipulation and intimidation after the KGB (now the FSB) failed to take control of Russia in a military coup they attempted. Using the FSB (KGB) to bully big money in Russia assured the compliance of businessman to tow the new Kremlin line, and use of special services skills were used to destroy any real political opposition. Over the last couple of years, Putin has centralised power and has an extremely strong autocratic method of rule.

The old KGB now has control of the Kremlin and Russia, and the people behind this organisation are not going to give up that power easily.

Russia leaders are scared of real democracy and the concept of accountability for one simple reason. To quote Hitler, "You can not keep with a democracy what you have taken with force"