‘“A bunch of rich people having fun while others are being killed,” is how one motor-racing fan voiced his disgust over the decision for the Formula One Grand Prix to go ahead in Bahrain next weekend. For the past several weeks, there has been much speculation in the media about whether the sporting event watched by millions around the world would take place in Bahrain given the kingdom’s lethal crackdown on a pro-democracy movement since February 2011.

The decision by the Paris-based Federation Internationale Automobile (FIA) to give the Bahrain Grand Prix the green light has incensed the mainly Shia population of the Persian Gulf kingdom and many racing fans around the world who see it as putting commercial profits above the value of human life. This weekend saw more street demonstrations against the ruling US-backed Al Khalifa monarchy and predictably more state violence. Over the past year, more than 70 people have been killed by Saudi-backed forces propping up the Bahraini monarchy, which is closely aligned with the Saudi rulers.’

‘Israel’s Big Brother this year achieved a surprising twist, by making a superstar out of “Palestine sympathiser” Saar Szekely. Szekely is obviously locked within a left/right banal dichotomy (occupation, pre/post 67), yet, such an open debate is taking place in Israeli TV on prime time.’

‘UK Foreign Secretary William Hague has announced today at the fluffily named “Friends of Syria” conference, that Britain will only recognise the anti-Assad side of the conflict, as “legitimate representatives” of the country’s people [1]; meaning hundreds of thousands of citizens loyal to the Assad Government will now be ignored and effectively treated as enemy combatants – typical of the biased reporting so far. Hague fails to address evidence that members of the opposition include Al Qaeda terrorists, that armed rebels are covertly directed by Western forces, and suspicions of CIA death squads deliberately used for destabilization.

Since the beginning of the violence, Western media have been reluctant to report any deaths at the hands of the armed rebels, preferring to call them activists or opposition. Anyone loyal to Assad is cynically labeled part of the “regime” or “Assad’s forces”.

In fact the West are going directly to the opposition for death statistics and information, which is only going to produce a biased conclusion. Wikpedia for example states:

The number of fatalities in the conflict, according to sources in the Syrian opposition, was 8,976, updated to 22 February 2012. The number includes 887 military defectors, and does not include members of the government security forces [2].

This has two major problems. Firstly the opposition are obviously going to have a pro-opposition bias. Secondly it implies that every single civilian is a member of the opposition, and anyone loyal to Assad must be a member of the Government forces and should be glossed over.

This is an extremely disingenuous way to create statistics.’