The new Blog is entitled "Shourouq" ("شروق") which means "sunrise" in Arabic.
Please visit soon.
Peace and love
El Gringo Rumbero
Monday, December 28, 2009
Friday, January 4, 2008
On Immigration Policy
Before our white bothers came to civilize us we had no jails. Therefore we had no criminals. You can't have criminals without a jail. We had no locks or keys,and so we had no thieves. If a man was so poor that he had no horse, tipi or blanket, someone gave him these things. We were too uncivilized to set much value on personal belongings. We wanted to have things only in order to give them away. We had no money, and therefor a man's worth couldn't be measured by it. We had no written law, no attorneys or politicians, therefore we couldn't cheat. We really were in a bad way before the white man came, and I don't know how we managed to get along without the basic things which, we are told, are absolutely necessary to make a civilized society.
It's election time in the U.S. and the Republican candidates are in heated debates about who's going to be better at keeping Latin Americans, mostly Mexicans (just because these hypocrites mince words doesn't mean I have to), from entering the country illegally. They all seem to have conveniently forgotten that the U.S. was founded by illegal immigrants. The Europeans who came to the Americas, murdered its inhabitants and robbed them of their ancestral lands never asked for anyone's permission. Columbus did not ask the Taino chiefs in the Caribbean islands if he could enter their lands. Cortez never requested a visa from the Mexica (Aztec) authorities or the authorities of any of the neighboring peoples. The Englishmen who founded the Jamestown colony never applied for residency permits from the chief of the Powahatans. Moreover the illegal immigrants who founded the U.S., unlike most of the undocumented immigrants in the U.S. today, really were criminals! And we are talking here about the worst kind of murders, racketeers and thieves. They committed genocide and enslaved people. Now the descendants of these same scoundrels want to keep Latin Americans, most of whom (ironically) have indigenous ancestors, from moving north in search of better economic opportunities -- opportunities which might exist in their homelands if not for the exploitative neo-liberal economic policies which the U.S. establishment exports all over the world via the World Bank, World Trade Organization and International Monetary Fund.
It's election time in the U.S. and the Republican candidates are in heated debates about who's going to be better at keeping Latin Americans, mostly Mexicans (just because these hypocrites mince words doesn't mean I have to), from entering the country illegally. They all seem to have conveniently forgotten that the U.S. was founded by illegal immigrants. The Europeans who came to the Americas, murdered its inhabitants and robbed them of their ancestral lands never asked for anyone's permission. Columbus did not ask the Taino chiefs in the Caribbean islands if he could enter their lands. Cortez never requested a visa from the Mexica (Aztec) authorities or the authorities of any of the neighboring peoples. The Englishmen who founded the Jamestown colony never applied for residency permits from the chief of the Powahatans. Moreover the illegal immigrants who founded the U.S., unlike most of the undocumented immigrants in the U.S. today, really were criminals! And we are talking here about the worst kind of murders, racketeers and thieves. They committed genocide and enslaved people. Now the descendants of these same scoundrels want to keep Latin Americans, most of whom (ironically) have indigenous ancestors, from moving north in search of better economic opportunities -- opportunities which might exist in their homelands if not for the exploitative neo-liberal economic policies which the U.S. establishment exports all over the world via the World Bank, World Trade Organization and International Monetary Fund.
Friday, December 21, 2007
Towards the Unconditional Return of All Tribal Lands
After over 500 years of European rule in the Americas and about 100 years after the last of the "wild" Indians were massacred at Wounded Knee, 150 in all including women and children, the tide may finally be turning for the Indigenous people of these lands.
Evo Morales, an Aymara Indian, was recently elected to the presidency of Bolivia and has proposed a new constitution which would recognize the rights of the country's indigenous population to their tribal lands including natural resources (this is what really frightens the avaricious oligarchs in the wealthier provinces of the country -- not the lifting of term limits so often publicized by the U.S. news media which is actually not uncommon in many of Europe's democracies).
At the same time, further north, representatives of the Lakota Sioux Indians (including three veteran A.I.M. activists who were at Wounded Knee during the 1973 takeover) have declared independence from the U.S. citing years of treaty violations and other grievances. The delegation has already met with representatives of the Bolivian government which has expressed interest in the Lakota Sioux cause.
Hopefully this is just the beginning.
Evo Morales, an Aymara Indian, was recently elected to the presidency of Bolivia and has proposed a new constitution which would recognize the rights of the country's indigenous population to their tribal lands including natural resources (this is what really frightens the avaricious oligarchs in the wealthier provinces of the country -- not the lifting of term limits so often publicized by the U.S. news media which is actually not uncommon in many of Europe's democracies).
At the same time, further north, representatives of the Lakota Sioux Indians (including three veteran A.I.M. activists who were at Wounded Knee during the 1973 takeover) have declared independence from the U.S. citing years of treaty violations and other grievances. The delegation has already met with representatives of the Bolivian government which has expressed interest in the Lakota Sioux cause.
Hopefully this is just the beginning.
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
Stop the Genocide in Iraq!
According to a study published in September 2007 by the U.K.-based Opinion Research Business (ORB), the number of civilian deaths in Iraq since the U.S. invaded in March 2003 has now exceeded one million. This number is nearly double the figure that came out of the Johns Hopkins study published in The Lancet in 2006. The authors of the Johns Hopkins study were not surprised, however, at the new estimate considering that it covers a broader time period. Moreover, having read the new report, the authors of the study published in The Lancet supported the new figure since the methodologies of both studies were essentially identical. Killing over a million civilians in a country of roughly 30 million is nothing less than genocide.
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Petition of Protest Against the Annapolis Summit
To: President Georg W.Bush, White House, Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, United Nations, UK Government, Security Council
We the undersigned declare our rejection to Annapolis Summit for the following reasons:
First: we repudiate the exploitation of the Palestinian cause to conceal the United States' failure in its illegitimate imperialist invasion to Iraq.
Second: Arab governments attended this summit under the pressure of the United States. The governmental capitulation to the United States does not mean by any means that it articulates the will of Arab people. The United States is aware of the contradiction between Arab people will and its governments' gluttonies.
Third: The announcement and invitation to this conference, completely ignore the Palestinian right in the land of Palestine, the right of return of refugees, the establishment of a free, independent and sovereign Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.
Forth: Arab people resent racism, we do not recognize racist entities and we do not accept its existence in our region. As we reject racism which is spreading world wide along with the hegemony of Globalization culture, we refuse the United States endeavors to impose racist categorizations in our region. We insist on our negation to Israel, we do not recognize it as a state and we assert that we do not abide to treaties signed by illegitimate Arab governments supported by the United States.
Fifth: The main aim of such a summit is to form a front of Arab governments that disregards Palestinian rights, implements the American imperialist plot which titled as "The New Middle East" and to impose proxy war on our governments with Iran and resistance groups to serve American interests.
As we declare our rejection Annapolis Summit and to all American-Zionist-Imperialist schemes, we announce our demands as:
1- The comprehensive liberation of the complete Palestinian Lands and the establishment of an independent, liberated and sovereign Palestinians state with Jerusalem as its capital.
2- The return of all Palestinian refugees from the diaspora to the land of Palestine.
3- The departure of all occupation forces from all the countries of the region: Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, UAE and the Golan.
4- Lifting of the siege on the Palestinian people.
5- Removing American domination from the region; We do not want American aid, we do not want American support for dictatorial governments in the region, we do not want American intervention, which give provokes sectarian sense in our region, and we do not want American intervention to protect the Zionist entity in the region, we do not want the American exploitation to our wealth and our resources, we do not want neither good or evil from the United States.
We want to build our countries depending on our human and natural resources without interference from any outside force. We want our right self - determination.
6- We refuse the establishment of a "Jewish" state in our region; we respect all beliefs and religions, and admit citizenship to all citizens, equally, regardless of their doctrines, religions, or races. We resent the Zionist entity and its violation of human rights: slaughtering our women and children, expelling natives from their mother lands and building racist settlements on it.
We demand our rights according to:
Universal Declaration of Human Rights which states:
Article 1.
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
Article 2.
Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.
Article 3.
Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.
And according to:
Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, G.A. res. 1514 (XV), 15 U.N. GAOR Supp. (No. 16) at 66, U.N. Doc. A/4684 (1961).
Which Declares that:
1. The subjection of peoples to alien subjugation, domination and exploitation constitutes a denial of fundamental human rights, is contrary to the Charter of the United Nations and is an impediment to the promotion of world peace and co-operation.
2. All peoples have the right to self-determination; by virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.
3. Inadequacy of political, economic, social or educational preparedness should never serve as a pretext for delaying independence.
4. All armed action or repressive measures of all kinds directed against dependent peoples shall cease in order to enable them to exercise peacefully and freely their right to complete independence, and the integrity of their national territory shall be respected.
5. Immediate steps shall be taken, in Trust and Non-Self-Governing Territories or all other territories which have not yet attained independence, to transfer all powers to the peoples of those territories, without any conditions or reservations, in accordance with their freely expressed will and desire, without any distinction as to race, creed or colour, in order to enable them to enjoy complete independence and freedom.
6. Any attempt aimed at the partial or total disruption of the national unity and the territorial integrity of a country is incompatible with the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations.
7. All States shall observe faithfully and strictly the provisions of the Charter of the United Nations, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the present Declaration on the basis of equality, non-interference in the internal affairs of all States, and respect for the sovereign rights of all peoples and their territorial integrity.
We the undersigned declare our rejection to Annapolis Summit for the following reasons:
First: we repudiate the exploitation of the Palestinian cause to conceal the United States' failure in its illegitimate imperialist invasion to Iraq.
Second: Arab governments attended this summit under the pressure of the United States. The governmental capitulation to the United States does not mean by any means that it articulates the will of Arab people. The United States is aware of the contradiction between Arab people will and its governments' gluttonies.
Third: The announcement and invitation to this conference, completely ignore the Palestinian right in the land of Palestine, the right of return of refugees, the establishment of a free, independent and sovereign Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.
Forth: Arab people resent racism, we do not recognize racist entities and we do not accept its existence in our region. As we reject racism which is spreading world wide along with the hegemony of Globalization culture, we refuse the United States endeavors to impose racist categorizations in our region. We insist on our negation to Israel, we do not recognize it as a state and we assert that we do not abide to treaties signed by illegitimate Arab governments supported by the United States.
Fifth: The main aim of such a summit is to form a front of Arab governments that disregards Palestinian rights, implements the American imperialist plot which titled as "The New Middle East" and to impose proxy war on our governments with Iran and resistance groups to serve American interests.
As we declare our rejection Annapolis Summit and to all American-Zionist-Imperialist schemes, we announce our demands as:
1- The comprehensive liberation of the complete Palestinian Lands and the establishment of an independent, liberated and sovereign Palestinians state with Jerusalem as its capital.
2- The return of all Palestinian refugees from the diaspora to the land of Palestine.
3- The departure of all occupation forces from all the countries of the region: Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, UAE and the Golan.
4- Lifting of the siege on the Palestinian people.
5- Removing American domination from the region; We do not want American aid, we do not want American support for dictatorial governments in the region, we do not want American intervention, which give provokes sectarian sense in our region, and we do not want American intervention to protect the Zionist entity in the region, we do not want the American exploitation to our wealth and our resources, we do not want neither good or evil from the United States.
We want to build our countries depending on our human and natural resources without interference from any outside force. We want our right self - determination.
6- We refuse the establishment of a "Jewish" state in our region; we respect all beliefs and religions, and admit citizenship to all citizens, equally, regardless of their doctrines, religions, or races. We resent the Zionist entity and its violation of human rights: slaughtering our women and children, expelling natives from their mother lands and building racist settlements on it.
We demand our rights according to:
Universal Declaration of Human Rights which states:
Article 1.
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
Article 2.
Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.
Article 3.
Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.
And according to:
Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, G.A. res. 1514 (XV), 15 U.N. GAOR Supp. (No. 16) at 66, U.N. Doc. A/4684 (1961).
Which Declares that:
1. The subjection of peoples to alien subjugation, domination and exploitation constitutes a denial of fundamental human rights, is contrary to the Charter of the United Nations and is an impediment to the promotion of world peace and co-operation.
2. All peoples have the right to self-determination; by virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.
3. Inadequacy of political, economic, social or educational preparedness should never serve as a pretext for delaying independence.
4. All armed action or repressive measures of all kinds directed against dependent peoples shall cease in order to enable them to exercise peacefully and freely their right to complete independence, and the integrity of their national territory shall be respected.
5. Immediate steps shall be taken, in Trust and Non-Self-Governing Territories or all other territories which have not yet attained independence, to transfer all powers to the peoples of those territories, without any conditions or reservations, in accordance with their freely expressed will and desire, without any distinction as to race, creed or colour, in order to enable them to enjoy complete independence and freedom.
6. Any attempt aimed at the partial or total disruption of the national unity and the territorial integrity of a country is incompatible with the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations.
7. All States shall observe faithfully and strictly the provisions of the Charter of the United Nations, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the present Declaration on the basis of equality, non-interference in the internal affairs of all States, and respect for the sovereign rights of all peoples and their territorial integrity.
Monday, November 19, 2007
Friday, November 9, 2007
Justice for Samina Malik!
Samina Malik is a 22-year-old Muslim Briton who was convicted yesterday under the U.K.'s Terrorism Act of 2000 for "owning terrorist manuals" ("articles likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism"). Evidence presented at her trial included poems she wrote. Apparently she is a prolific poet. Here's one of the poems the prosecutors presented at the trial:
How to Behead
Hold him
Tie the arms behind his back
And bandage his legs together
Just by the ankles
Blindfold the punk
So that he won't hesitate as much
For on seeing the sharp pointy knife
He'll begin to shake
And continuously scream like an eedyat
And jiggle like a jelly
Trust me – this will sure get you angry
It's better to have at least two or three brothers by your side
Who can hold the fool
Because as soon as the warm sharp knife
Touches his naked flesh
He'll come to know what'll happen
No evidence was presented at the trial to prove that Ms. Malik had actually committed or was even planning any violent actions against anyone. She was convicted for possessing certain types of literature and writing certain types of poetry. In other words she was convicted for merely thinking certain types of thoughts.
But I'd like to suggest that she was also convicted for thinking certain types of thoughts AND being the child of Asian Muslims. I have written much more violent poems than this one -- one of which was actually published in my High School literary magazine. It's hard for me to imagine that there are no other 22-year-olds in the U.K. who have written violent poetry and/or are in possession of books like "The Anarchist Cookbook" or "Guerilla Warfare" (Ernest "Che" Guevara). Ms. Malik was singled out because of her race and religion.
But never mind the issue of Racism for a minute since the dominant discourse disavows the existence of Racism in the world today. What about FREEDOM -- for which these English and U.S. imperialists claim to be committing genocide in the Middle East? And where is Amnesty International or Human Rights Watch? How come I have been able to find only one article defending Ms. Malik's right to freedom of thought? Has our new motto become (thanks Stephen Colbert) "'live free or do whatever it takes so I don't die"?
How to Behead
Hold him
Tie the arms behind his back
And bandage his legs together
Just by the ankles
Blindfold the punk
So that he won't hesitate as much
For on seeing the sharp pointy knife
He'll begin to shake
And continuously scream like an eedyat
And jiggle like a jelly
Trust me – this will sure get you angry
It's better to have at least two or three brothers by your side
Who can hold the fool
Because as soon as the warm sharp knife
Touches his naked flesh
He'll come to know what'll happen
No evidence was presented at the trial to prove that Ms. Malik had actually committed or was even planning any violent actions against anyone. She was convicted for possessing certain types of literature and writing certain types of poetry. In other words she was convicted for merely thinking certain types of thoughts.
But I'd like to suggest that she was also convicted for thinking certain types of thoughts AND being the child of Asian Muslims. I have written much more violent poems than this one -- one of which was actually published in my High School literary magazine. It's hard for me to imagine that there are no other 22-year-olds in the U.K. who have written violent poetry and/or are in possession of books like "The Anarchist Cookbook" or "Guerilla Warfare" (Ernest "Che" Guevara). Ms. Malik was singled out because of her race and religion.
But never mind the issue of Racism for a minute since the dominant discourse disavows the existence of Racism in the world today. What about FREEDOM -- for which these English and U.S. imperialists claim to be committing genocide in the Middle East? And where is Amnesty International or Human Rights Watch? How come I have been able to find only one article defending Ms. Malik's right to freedom of thought? Has our new motto become (thanks Stephen Colbert) "'live free or do whatever it takes so I don't die"?
Monday, September 10, 2007
Greenland, Israel and the Osama Bin Laden video
No doubt many among you have been wondering where I have been for the past couple of months (wrote the author to his imaginary audience of millions). Actually I have been wondering what to do with this blog. It's going no where. At present it's sole purpose is completely subjective. It helps El Gringo Rumbero cope. It needs to become an objective force in the world outside of my head.
But for the time being -- here's another self-indulgent tirade.
Greenland's Ice Sheet is Melting
The impact of this development will be much greater than the melting of the polar ice caps. What else can I say? Oh yeah, and two-thirds of the global polar bear population will disappear by 2050.
Israel or occupied Palestine
The story about which I wrote in April of this year has finally made its way into the main stream media -- dozens of youths in Israel have been carrying out violent antisemitic attacks against their fellow citizens. The culprits are all Russian immigrants who were permitted to immigrate under Israel's racist "Law of Return" which allows anyone with at least one Jewish grandparent to automatically become an Israeli citizen whether or not they themselves actually practice the Hebrew faith. Somehow most reporters have missed the bitter irony of the situation.
Osama Bin Laden Video
So the evil terrorist bogey man who supposedly planned the attacks of September 11, 2001 is actually part of that sect of radical militant Islam that's into making low budget videos.
Everyone should read the ABC News transcript (English of course) of what Bin Laden said in the latest video. Apparently he is not only into making low budget movies, but he's also into Noam Chomsky. He's also an ant-capitalist, anti-imperialist environmentalist. That is to say he's an independently wealthy, ant-establishment low-budget film-maker. He's boho chic.
The bulk of the transcript, after the usual praise of divinity which is always included in religious discourse, reads like a litany of the evils of capitalism and (especially) U.S. imperialism. The whole middle section is a fairly accurate criticism of the current situation right now. Hell! He even talks about the problems in Africa! But O.B.L.'s conclusion is that we ( U.S. citizens) should all become Muslims and build an Islamic theocracy here in the U.S.
I wonder who would benefit from making a video that equates anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist ideas with Islamic fanaticism?
Keep in mind that the source of the video was the SITE (Search for International Terrorist Entities) Website < http://siteinstitute.org/> which is run by Rita Katz who I suspect is an Israeli or U.S. intelligence agent (do a quick Google search on her and you'll see why). The video itself was then carried by pretty much every major U.S. news outlet complete with a full transcript in English from ABC.
Am I the only person who thinks this video is a complete fabrication designed to discredit any legitimate critique of the current world system and, worse, to equate it with "terrorism"?
If I were Noam Chomsky, who frankly isn't even that radical, I would seriously consider emigrating.
But for the time being -- here's another self-indulgent tirade.
Greenland's Ice Sheet is Melting
The impact of this development will be much greater than the melting of the polar ice caps. What else can I say? Oh yeah, and two-thirds of the global polar bear population will disappear by 2050.
Israel or occupied Palestine
The story about which I wrote in April of this year has finally made its way into the main stream media -- dozens of youths in Israel have been carrying out violent antisemitic attacks against their fellow citizens. The culprits are all Russian immigrants who were permitted to immigrate under Israel's racist "Law of Return" which allows anyone with at least one Jewish grandparent to automatically become an Israeli citizen whether or not they themselves actually practice the Hebrew faith. Somehow most reporters have missed the bitter irony of the situation.
Osama Bin Laden Video
So the evil terrorist bogey man who supposedly planned the attacks of September 11, 2001 is actually part of that sect of radical militant Islam that's into making low budget videos.
Everyone should read the ABC News transcript (English of course) of what Bin Laden said in the latest video. Apparently he is not only into making low budget movies, but he's also into Noam Chomsky. He's also an ant-capitalist, anti-imperialist environmentalist. That is to say he's an independently wealthy, ant-establishment low-budget film-maker. He's boho chic.
The bulk of the transcript, after the usual praise of divinity which is always included in religious discourse, reads like a litany of the evils of capitalism and (especially) U.S. imperialism. The whole middle section is a fairly accurate criticism of the current situation right now. Hell! He even talks about the problems in Africa! But O.B.L.'s conclusion is that we ( U.S. citizens) should all become Muslims and build an Islamic theocracy here in the U.S.
I wonder who would benefit from making a video that equates anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist ideas with Islamic fanaticism?
Keep in mind that the source of the video was the SITE (Search for International Terrorist Entities) Website < http://siteinstitute.org/> which is run by Rita Katz who I suspect is an Israeli or U.S. intelligence agent (do a quick Google search on her and you'll see why). The video itself was then carried by pretty much every major U.S. news outlet complete with a full transcript in English from ABC.
Am I the only person who thinks this video is a complete fabrication designed to discredit any legitimate critique of the current world system and, worse, to equate it with "terrorism"?
If I were Noam Chomsky, who frankly isn't even that radical, I would seriously consider emigrating.
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Why Turkey Will Never Be Allowed Into the European Union
In the wake of the recent elections in Turkey we've been hearing a lot in the news media about Turkey's aspirations for membership in the European Union (EU) as well as the challenges it faces in achieving this goal. Reporters have been especially great at reiterating a lot of Orientalist discourse about Turkey not being "European" or a lot of Neoliberal bullshit about Turkey's human rights record and we're told that these are the primary obstacles to Turkey's entry into the EU. But is this really what's going on?
Let's look at what Nicholas Sarkozy actually said about the issue in his debate with Segolene Royale before the French presidential elections:
"Ceux qui souhaitent l’entrée de la Turquie en Europe sont ceux qui ne croient pas à l’Europe politique. C’est la mort de l’Europe politique" (Those who hope for the entry of Turkey in the EU are those who do not believe in a political Europe. It's the death of a political Europe).
Politics is about power. What Sarkozy said was that Turkey's entry into the EU would mean the end of the latter as a world power. Why?
I'll start my answer to this question by looking at the most prominent party among those who are hoping for the entry of Turkey in the EU. That's right, you guessed it, the good old USA.
Turkey's entry in the EU is part of the US's plan for rendering Europe completely dependent on a US-dominated energy infrastructure stretching from the Caspian through Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey. Turkey's entry into the EU would also be the last nail in the coffin in which plans fo any independent European military force would be buried. The US-dominated North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), of which Turkey is a key member, would remain the sole guarantor of security on the continent and the EU would be nothing but a free-trade zone dominated by a hegemonic US in a unipolar New World Order.
Unfortunately for the US, like so many of the grandiose dreams of the US ruling class these days, this plan is all but dead. Russia has successfully secured all of the major gas and oil reserves in the Caspian (as of May 12, 2007) completely cutting out the US. In other words the Azerbaijan-Georgia-Turkey pipeline is now empty. The EU's dependence on Russia for gas and oil is now solid and, unlike the US which seeks to weaken the EU and subordinate it to US interests, Russia supports a strong economic and political EU as a partner in its effort to push the US out of Eurasia.
Turkey could strengthen its economy and, more importantly, its sovereignty by looking eastwards to make strategic alliances -- Iran and Russia are two potential partners that come to mind. Otherwise, left out of the EU as well as the rapidly forming alliances in Asia (e.g. the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation), Turkey will be just another pawn in the US' losing play for global domination.
Let's look at what Nicholas Sarkozy actually said about the issue in his debate with Segolene Royale before the French presidential elections:
"Ceux qui souhaitent l’entrée de la Turquie en Europe sont ceux qui ne croient pas à l’Europe politique. C’est la mort de l’Europe politique" (Those who hope for the entry of Turkey in the EU are those who do not believe in a political Europe. It's the death of a political Europe).
Politics is about power. What Sarkozy said was that Turkey's entry into the EU would mean the end of the latter as a world power. Why?
I'll start my answer to this question by looking at the most prominent party among those who are hoping for the entry of Turkey in the EU. That's right, you guessed it, the good old USA.
Turkey's entry in the EU is part of the US's plan for rendering Europe completely dependent on a US-dominated energy infrastructure stretching from the Caspian through Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey. Turkey's entry into the EU would also be the last nail in the coffin in which plans fo any independent European military force would be buried. The US-dominated North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), of which Turkey is a key member, would remain the sole guarantor of security on the continent and the EU would be nothing but a free-trade zone dominated by a hegemonic US in a unipolar New World Order.
Unfortunately for the US, like so many of the grandiose dreams of the US ruling class these days, this plan is all but dead. Russia has successfully secured all of the major gas and oil reserves in the Caspian (as of May 12, 2007) completely cutting out the US. In other words the Azerbaijan-Georgia-Turkey pipeline is now empty. The EU's dependence on Russia for gas and oil is now solid and, unlike the US which seeks to weaken the EU and subordinate it to US interests, Russia supports a strong economic and political EU as a partner in its effort to push the US out of Eurasia.
Turkey could strengthen its economy and, more importantly, its sovereignty by looking eastwards to make strategic alliances -- Iran and Russia are two potential partners that come to mind. Otherwise, left out of the EU as well as the rapidly forming alliances in Asia (e.g. the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation), Turkey will be just another pawn in the US' losing play for global domination.
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Al Qaeda is a Metaphor
First, on Tuesday, Homeland Security Department Secretary Michael Chertoff wants us all to lock our windows and bolt our doors this Summer because he has a "gut feeling" that the evil Al Qaeda is coming to get us! Then, today, the Associated Press tells us that it's gotten hold of super top secret classified reports from U.S. intelligence agencies that Al Qaeda is the strongest it's been since before 9/11!
Holy shit man! I'd be soiling myself right now if I didn't know that Al Qaeda is about as real as my dream of spending a night with Bipasha Basu, Marylin Monroe, Vanessa Paradis, Ashwarya Rai and Natalie Wood.
Here's what Martin Scheinin (Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights while countering terrorism, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights) has to say about Al Qaeda:
... I don’t see the global war between states and Al Qaeda as anything more than a metaphor. I don’t see Al Qaeda as qualifying as a global army that could be party of a global, never-ending armed conflict.
Scheinin, as a United Nations appointee, has to mince words. We don't. Al Qaeda is a metaphor that the U.S. government uses to inspire xenophobia (i.e. racism) among the people it controls. Al Qaeda is all people, especially people of color, who oppose U.S. interests whether they employ terrorist tactics or otherwise. What defines a terrorist act according to international law is a violent attack against the general populace. This is not the operative definition the U.S. government uses. When resistance fighters in Iraq attack U.S. soldiers they are not committing acts of terrorism as defined by international law. Yet, as far as the U.S. government is concerned, anyone in Iraq who opposes the U.S. military presence there is a terrorist -- hence the chimera ubiquitous in the U.S. news media known as Al Qaeda in Iraq. Ultimately we will be informed by our leaders that branches of Al Qaeda are firmly entrenched in every single region which is critical to the global hegemonic strategy of the U.S. ruling class.
Holy shit man! I'd be soiling myself right now if I didn't know that Al Qaeda is about as real as my dream of spending a night with Bipasha Basu, Marylin Monroe, Vanessa Paradis, Ashwarya Rai and Natalie Wood.
Here's what Martin Scheinin (Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights while countering terrorism, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights) has to say about Al Qaeda:
... I don’t see the global war between states and Al Qaeda as anything more than a metaphor. I don’t see Al Qaeda as qualifying as a global army that could be party of a global, never-ending armed conflict.
Scheinin, as a United Nations appointee, has to mince words. We don't. Al Qaeda is a metaphor that the U.S. government uses to inspire xenophobia (i.e. racism) among the people it controls. Al Qaeda is all people, especially people of color, who oppose U.S. interests whether they employ terrorist tactics or otherwise. What defines a terrorist act according to international law is a violent attack against the general populace. This is not the operative definition the U.S. government uses. When resistance fighters in Iraq attack U.S. soldiers they are not committing acts of terrorism as defined by international law. Yet, as far as the U.S. government is concerned, anyone in Iraq who opposes the U.S. military presence there is a terrorist -- hence the chimera ubiquitous in the U.S. news media known as Al Qaeda in Iraq. Ultimately we will be informed by our leaders that branches of Al Qaeda are firmly entrenched in every single region which is critical to the global hegemonic strategy of the U.S. ruling class.
Monday, July 9, 2007
Free Sami Al Haj!
Five-and-a-half years ago -- on December 15, 2001 -- U.S. military personnel captured Al Jazeera cameraman Sami Al-Haj while he was en route to Afghanistan in Pakistan. He has since been held, with no criminal charges against him, as an "enemy combatant" in Guantanamo Bay. Sami, who is a Sudanese national with distinctly African features, reported to his attorney who was finally allowed to see him in December of 2005 that:
- he has been tortured (e.g. forced to remain seated, exposed to the tropical sun, deprived of sleep, subjected to sexual abuse, confined in rooms in which extremely loud music was played, etc.)
- he has been interrogated with the use of threats more than 130 times
- he has a throat cancer that is not being treated
In other words the U.S. government claims to support freedom of speech yet it is trying to destroy a news outlet because of its distinctly balanced approach to current events in Western Asia (in March 2003, Al Jazeera was awarded by Index on Censorship -- an international group which campaigns against censorship -- for its "courage in circumventing censorship and contributing to the free exchange of information in the Arab world"). This isn't the first time the U.S. military has struck violently against Al Jazeera:
- November 13, 2001 -- U.S. missles destroy the Kabul offices of Al Jazeera in Afghanistan.
- April 8, 2003 -- U.S. missles strike the Baghdad offices of Al Jazeera killing reporter Tarek Ayoub.
- November 22, 2005 -- The Daily Mirror (U.K.) leaks the infamous "Al Jazeera Bombing Memo" in which U.S. President Bush suggests to U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair the idea of bombing Al Jazeera.
The U.S. government claims to fight for Democracy and the rule of law yet it is currently holding countless prisoners without due process.
There is no Global Islamic Conspiracy! This is as much a work of racist fiction as was Hitler's Global Judeo-Bolshevist Conspiracy.
For more about Sami: http://www.prisoner345.net/
To sign a petition: http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=19079
Thursday, June 7, 2007
Kosovo and the Battle for Eurasia
Today's Kosovo is nothing but a criminal enclave led by terrorists and murderers… Kosovo "politicians" are bandits hired by the US in order to turn the territory into a US ground aircraft carrier. This was the main objective of the offensive against Yugoslavia, and this was why they needed to make Kosovo independent from Belgrade… The US, inspired by the chimerical goal of the global dominance, will soon crack down on Iran. A new global drama will begin.
As I write these lines, the powerful Group of 8 is deciding the fate of a small province in Serbia known presently as Kosovo. The E.U. and U.S. want independence for Kosovo as quickly as possible while Russia has promised to oppose any moves towards independence without direct talks between Pristina (the administrative center of the province) and Belgrade (the capital of Serbia). Once again the lines are being drawn between opposing sides in an increasingly dangerous global situation.
Kosovo, also known as Kosovo and Metohija, has never in its history been an independent political entity. While most of its population is comprised of ethnic Albanians, there have always been significant Serbian, Bosniak, Turkish and Roma (Gypsy) minorities. In around 1995, a paramilitary organization financed by heroin and prostitution trafficking (as well as other criminal activities) called the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) emerged on the scene. The following year, the KLA provoked a full-scale war with Serbia by attacking Serbian police and civilians alike with the aim of full independence. This conflict was known as the Kosovo War and it lasted until 1999. That year, NATO carried out a military operation against Serbia bombing both military and civilian targets. NATO, spearheaded by President Clinton, claimed that the Serbian government was committing genocide in Kosovo and had to be stopped.
In April of 1999, while NATO was bombing Serbia's cities, the U.S. state department announced that the genocide against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo had taken as many as 500,000 lives and compared the the ethnic cleansing to the Nazi Holocaust. In May that figure had somehow fallen to 100,000 -- according to the Department of Defense. Strangely, after NATO occupied the region and place it under the governance of the U.N. in June, the number shrank to 10,000 -- this time according to the British Foreign Office. No reports have ever stated how the British Foreign Office arrived at this figure and to this day it has never been objectively confirmed.
The fighting ended in October and by November, most of the ethnic Albanian refugees who had fled during the conflict returned to their homes. However, much of the remaining Serbian population population -- some 250,000 people -- fled and have never been able to return. The Roma (Gypsy) population was also forced to flee after being brutalized by the KLA.
After the war, reports began to surface which revealed that British and U.S. (CIA) intelligence agents had been in constant contact with the KLA since at least 1996 and that they had been providing advice and training to the KLA throughout the war. These reports further undermined the official pretext for the NATO invasion since the putative "genocide" of ethnic Albanians had not begun until well after the CIA made contact with the KLA. While, most people in the U.S. and Europe probably still believe the genocide story and that the U.S. got involved in the Balkan wars of the 1990s for humanitarian reasons, it is fairly clear that the NATO bombing of Serbia was in fact the final phase of the U.S.'s plan for Yugoslavia after the death of General Tito -- dissolution and the establishment of a permanent air base in the region.
Slobodan Milosevic was the antagonist in the official U.S. story about Yugoslavia not because of his war crimes or his responsibility for ethnic cleansing but simply because he opposed the break-up of the former Yugoslavia. The wars in the Balkans were wars amongst thieves scrambling for the scraps of what was once a major regional power and war crimes were committed on all sides. Slobodan Milosevic was different from the other forces in the region mainly because his aim was to maintain the territorial integrity of Yugoslavia (he is arguably the least evil of the players involved ). Every step of the way, since the death of General Tito, the U.S. and its junior partners in Europe supported the forces of fragmentation and Slobodan Milosevic stood in their way.
Kosovo, now controlled by the heroin and prostitute trafficking KLA, would be an excellent location for a U.S. air base. It would serve as a strategic base for any air offensive against Iran and is another step towards the goal of encircling Russia and dominating Eurasia.
Of course Russia is opposing Kosovo's independence just as it opposes U.S. missile defenses in Eastern Europe. Moreover, Russia is making its own power moves. Recently Russia secured natural gas deals with Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan -- deals which will increase the energy dependence of Europe on Russia. Meanwhile, the efforts of the U.S. and Europe to build a Trans-Caspian oil pipeline that would allow them to bypass Russia are all but dead in the water.
Unlike the Cold War we are no longer in a situation where the major players recognize the line between "yours" and "mine". The U.S. wants Eurasia and a unipolar world while Russia wants to maintain its position as a regional power-broker with China as an equal partner in a multi-polar world. Either they will come to an agreement or they will go to war.
As I write these lines, the powerful Group of 8 is deciding the fate of a small province in Serbia known presently as Kosovo. The E.U. and U.S. want independence for Kosovo as quickly as possible while Russia has promised to oppose any moves towards independence without direct talks between Pristina (the administrative center of the province) and Belgrade (the capital of Serbia). Once again the lines are being drawn between opposing sides in an increasingly dangerous global situation.
Kosovo, also known as Kosovo and Metohija, has never in its history been an independent political entity. While most of its population is comprised of ethnic Albanians, there have always been significant Serbian, Bosniak, Turkish and Roma (Gypsy) minorities. In around 1995, a paramilitary organization financed by heroin and prostitution trafficking (as well as other criminal activities) called the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) emerged on the scene. The following year, the KLA provoked a full-scale war with Serbia by attacking Serbian police and civilians alike with the aim of full independence. This conflict was known as the Kosovo War and it lasted until 1999. That year, NATO carried out a military operation against Serbia bombing both military and civilian targets. NATO, spearheaded by President Clinton, claimed that the Serbian government was committing genocide in Kosovo and had to be stopped.
In April of 1999, while NATO was bombing Serbia's cities, the U.S. state department announced that the genocide against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo had taken as many as 500,000 lives and compared the the ethnic cleansing to the Nazi Holocaust. In May that figure had somehow fallen to 100,000 -- according to the Department of Defense. Strangely, after NATO occupied the region and place it under the governance of the U.N. in June, the number shrank to 10,000 -- this time according to the British Foreign Office. No reports have ever stated how the British Foreign Office arrived at this figure and to this day it has never been objectively confirmed.
The fighting ended in October and by November, most of the ethnic Albanian refugees who had fled during the conflict returned to their homes. However, much of the remaining Serbian population population -- some 250,000 people -- fled and have never been able to return. The Roma (Gypsy) population was also forced to flee after being brutalized by the KLA.
After the war, reports began to surface which revealed that British and U.S. (CIA) intelligence agents had been in constant contact with the KLA since at least 1996 and that they had been providing advice and training to the KLA throughout the war. These reports further undermined the official pretext for the NATO invasion since the putative "genocide" of ethnic Albanians had not begun until well after the CIA made contact with the KLA. While, most people in the U.S. and Europe probably still believe the genocide story and that the U.S. got involved in the Balkan wars of the 1990s for humanitarian reasons, it is fairly clear that the NATO bombing of Serbia was in fact the final phase of the U.S.'s plan for Yugoslavia after the death of General Tito -- dissolution and the establishment of a permanent air base in the region.
Slobodan Milosevic was the antagonist in the official U.S. story about Yugoslavia not because of his war crimes or his responsibility for ethnic cleansing but simply because he opposed the break-up of the former Yugoslavia. The wars in the Balkans were wars amongst thieves scrambling for the scraps of what was once a major regional power and war crimes were committed on all sides. Slobodan Milosevic was different from the other forces in the region mainly because his aim was to maintain the territorial integrity of Yugoslavia (he is arguably the least evil of the players involved ). Every step of the way, since the death of General Tito, the U.S. and its junior partners in Europe supported the forces of fragmentation and Slobodan Milosevic stood in their way.
Kosovo, now controlled by the heroin and prostitute trafficking KLA, would be an excellent location for a U.S. air base. It would serve as a strategic base for any air offensive against Iran and is another step towards the goal of encircling Russia and dominating Eurasia.
Of course Russia is opposing Kosovo's independence just as it opposes U.S. missile defenses in Eastern Europe. Moreover, Russia is making its own power moves. Recently Russia secured natural gas deals with Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan -- deals which will increase the energy dependence of Europe on Russia. Meanwhile, the efforts of the U.S. and Europe to build a Trans-Caspian oil pipeline that would allow them to bypass Russia are all but dead in the water.
Unlike the Cold War we are no longer in a situation where the major players recognize the line between "yours" and "mine". The U.S. wants Eurasia and a unipolar world while Russia wants to maintain its position as a regional power-broker with China as an equal partner in a multi-polar world. Either they will come to an agreement or they will go to war.
Monday, June 4, 2007
There Won't Be Another Cold War
Ali Larijani, Secretary of Supreme National Security Council , Iran
Iran simply does not have the ability to launch a missile attack against Europe. Moreover, since the E.U. is
Side note: the utter contempt with which the current
So, if the official justification for building missile defenses in Eastern Europe is a lie, then why is
The first Bush and Clinton administrations carried out the initial phase of the effort -- the looting of the Russian financial system. Under the auspices of the IMF and with the assistance of corrupt Russian politicans (e.g. Boris Yeltsin) and businessmen (i.e. gangsters), billions of dollars were funneled out of Russia and into U.S. banks.
Simultaneously and continuing into the present, the U.S. government has sought to fragment the countries of the former Soviet Union into as many little countries as possible, since little weak countries are easier to dominate than larger ones. The obvious supplement to this strategy has been the support of anti-Russian, pro-U.S. governments in the former Warsaw Pact nations of
Side note: NATO absorbed the Baltic States and
The final phase of the plan is to encircle Russia with missile defenses using the pro-U.S. countries of the former Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact as bases. This, theoretically (since missile defense systems have not been proven to actually work), would allow the
But why would the
The most immediate task [in the wake of the Cold War] is to make certain that no state or combination of states gains the capacity to expel the United States from Eurasia or even to diminish significantly its decisive arbitration role (page 198, The Grand Chessboard, 1997).
Why is
Eurasia is the globe's largest continent and is geopolitically axial. A power that dominates Eurasia would control two of the world's three most advanced and economically productive regions. A mere glance at the map also suggests that control over Eurasia would almost automatically entail Africa's subordination, rendering the Western Hemisphere and Oceania geopolitically peripheral to the world's central continent. About 75 per cent of the world's people live in Eurasia, and most of the world's physical wealth is there as well, both in its enterprises and underneath its soil. Eurasia accounts for 60 per cent of the world's GNP and about three-fourths of the world's known energy resources (page 31, The Grand Chessboard, 1997).
In other words the
Monday, May 21, 2007
Venezuela Blows Up the D.E.A.'s Spot
Estaban haciendo una gran cantidad de traslado de droga bajo la figura de entrega vigilada... nosotros pudimos determinar que estábamos en presencia evidentemente de un nuevo cartel (they were making a large quantity of drug shipments under the pretense of monitoring them.. we were able to determine the presence of a new drug cartel).Pedro Carreño, Minister of the Interior, Venezuela
Last year I wrote about the the so-called "War on Drugs" in Latin America and how it is in fact a cover for the U.S.'s drug wars to protect its financial interest in cocaine trafficking. What I neglected to mention was that the U.S.'s drug wars are part of a political strategy as well. Fortunately Chavez's government called the U.S. out on this issue earlier this month in response to criticism from the White House that Venezuela was not cooperating with the U.S. in curbing cocaine smuggling. Minister of the Interior Pedro Carreño explained to the Associated Press that his government ended its cooperation with the U.S. D.E.A. in 2005 because the agency wasn't making any arrests or smashing any cartels. Instead it was smuggling huge amounts of blow through the country. In effect the D.E.A. was itself operating as a drug cartel. Morever the authorities in Venezuela discovered that the U.S. D.E.A. had infiltrated government intelligence agencies and represented a threat to national security. Thus it would appear that the U.S. D.E.A. serves two functions: (a) as a an instrument of espionage it serves to protect U.S. strategic political interests; and (b) as an enforcement agency it serves to protect the U.S.'s financial interest in cocaine trafficking.
Last year I wrote about the the so-called "War on Drugs" in Latin America and how it is in fact a cover for the U.S.'s drug wars to protect its financial interest in cocaine trafficking. What I neglected to mention was that the U.S.'s drug wars are part of a political strategy as well. Fortunately Chavez's government called the U.S. out on this issue earlier this month in response to criticism from the White House that Venezuela was not cooperating with the U.S. in curbing cocaine smuggling. Minister of the Interior Pedro Carreño explained to the Associated Press that his government ended its cooperation with the U.S. D.E.A. in 2005 because the agency wasn't making any arrests or smashing any cartels. Instead it was smuggling huge amounts of blow through the country. In effect the D.E.A. was itself operating as a drug cartel. Morever the authorities in Venezuela discovered that the U.S. D.E.A. had infiltrated government intelligence agencies and represented a threat to national security. Thus it would appear that the U.S. D.E.A. serves two functions: (a) as a an instrument of espionage it serves to protect U.S. strategic political interests; and (b) as an enforcement agency it serves to protect the U.S.'s financial interest in cocaine trafficking.
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Post-May Day Rant
Sometimes the world is just so fucked-up that El Gringo Rumbero prefers to tune it out and immerse himself in simple pleasures without yielding too much to his many vices. Then he throws cold water on his face, slips on his mouth guard and comes out from his corner swinging!
The Pope is a wicked man. Never mind the fact that he is the master of an institution which bleeds the poor while its leaders, especially the Pope himself, live lavishly. Never mind that the Catholic Church as an institution, throughout its entire history, has done absolutely nothing to alleviate the suffering of the masses of people of the world -- on the contrary it has most often played an intrumental role in oppressing and even murdering people in mass. Just look at the history of this Pope in particular.
1941: Pope Benedict XVI, née Joseph Alois Ratzinger, joins the Hitler Youth. His excuse that he had to join because membership was legally required at the time is not satisfactory from a man who is supposedly the representative of Jesus Christ on earth. Jesus (née Yeshua Ben Yusuf) would not have even been allowed to join the Hitler Youth so I think we know what he would have done in such a situation!
1943: Pope Benedict XVI, née Joseph Alois Ratzinger, is drafted into the German Army. Again, the man who is currently the supreme master of the universal
Now this man, who we see is not exceptional in any way and certainly not especially Christian, is applauding the Spanish Conquest and "conversion" of the indigenous people of the Americas while denouncing both Marxism (true to his Nazi roots) and Capitalism (while he prances around in gilded robes). Behold, the Antichrist!
What's going on in
Why would Estonians want to rehabilitate Nazism? Answering this question requires one to look at the history of
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Zionists Spread Anti-Semitism to Palestine
Last year I wrote an entry on
Apparently, in a strange twist of fate that is giving me an evil kind of pleasure, the policy has backfired! Israeli citizens – even IDF soldiers – have been carrying out vicious anti-semitic attacks inside Israel! As I explained in my entry last year – White people (unlike people of color like the Jin family) need only produce a single Jewish parent or grandparent in order to fulfill the official definition of a "Jewish person" and thereby automatically become Israeli citizens. This policy has resulted in the immigration of over one million Russians to
Monday, April 23, 2007
Post-Earth Day Musings
New Yorkers were blessed yesterday -- "Earth Day" -- with unseasonably warm weather and not a cloud in the sky. I took advantage of the hot sun and cool breeze by running a few miles in the park and soaking up some of that rich ultra-violet radiation. But I really had to struggle to escape persistent thoughts about how miserable we have made the world over the past couple of centuries -- how we took the gifts of the earth for granted. Actually so-called "civilized man" has, for the past 200 years or so, treated the earth with nothing less than contempt. The earth has been for civilized man a kind of enemy or, at best, an obstacle to be overcome and mastered through man's superior ingenuity. And, of course, man's hatred of the earth has ultimately resulted in his own suffering -- suffering for some more than others thanks to the elegant machine of his civilization. This cycle of pain is not so wondrous when one considers that humans are, after all, of the earth and that hidden in man's contempt is necessarily his own self-loathing and shame. Thus human suffering and, very possibly, extinction is the inevitable result of man's poisoning of the environment. How short-sighted is modern civilization that it cannot find the motivation to cherish and protect the earth in the most basic instinct of self-preservation?
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Virginia Tech
For nineteen years I have been put in your man's world and was forbidden to touch anything and you made me think that all was going very well and that I did not have to worry about anything but putting flowers in vases. Why did you lie to me? Why did you keep me ignorant, if it was to admit to me one day that this world is cracking and that you are all powerless and to make me choose between a suicide and a murder?
Bill O'Reilly: El Gringo Rumbero, do you hate America?
El Gringo Rumbero: Hell yeah!
Why is it such a big deal that the shooter was Asian? Conversely -- why wasn't it such a big deal that the shooters at Columbine were White? How does his being Asian have so much explanatory power? Could it be that the U.S. is still a nauseatingly racist country?
Here's my hypothesis about the shootings:
This guy killed all of those people because a lot people in this country are fucking annoying and anyone who has never fantasized about just going all out and fucking buck wild and putting gaping holes in his fellow Americans is either extremely Buddha-like and Saintly or just plain stupid and insensitive to the world. In fact the guy said he was sick and tired of the students at Virginia Tech whom he viewed as rich and debauched. In other words -- it aint that deep, people! Stop hiding your racism behind pseudo-anthropology and look at the world around you!
This guy killed all of those people because it's so fucking easy to get a firearm in this country! You can get one at Wal-Mart. The kid had two nine-millimeter pistols that he obtained legally! Had he stayed in Korea -- where it is virtually impossible for civilians to procure firearms (legally or illegally) -- he probably would just have gotten wasted and, in the worst case, gotten his ass beat in a drunken brawl. Instead he was in Blacksburg (VA) where -- unlike in Korea -- any demented psychopath or his retarded cousin can easily and legally procure lethal firearms.
And where's the memorial address for the 650,000 dead Iraqis Mr. President?! Why are the lives of 650,000 dead Iraqis worth exponentially less than the lives of 32 Americans?!
-- Jean-Paul Sartre
Bill O'Reilly: El Gringo Rumbero, do you hate America?
El Gringo Rumbero: Hell yeah!
Why is it such a big deal that the shooter was Asian? Conversely -- why wasn't it such a big deal that the shooters at Columbine were White? How does his being Asian have so much explanatory power? Could it be that the U.S. is still a nauseatingly racist country?
Here's my hypothesis about the shootings:
This guy killed all of those people because a lot people in this country are fucking annoying and anyone who has never fantasized about just going all out and fucking buck wild and putting gaping holes in his fellow Americans is either extremely Buddha-like and Saintly or just plain stupid and insensitive to the world. In fact the guy said he was sick and tired of the students at Virginia Tech whom he viewed as rich and debauched. In other words -- it aint that deep, people! Stop hiding your racism behind pseudo-anthropology and look at the world around you!
This guy killed all of those people because it's so fucking easy to get a firearm in this country! You can get one at Wal-Mart. The kid had two nine-millimeter pistols that he obtained legally! Had he stayed in Korea -- where it is virtually impossible for civilians to procure firearms (legally or illegally) -- he probably would just have gotten wasted and, in the worst case, gotten his ass beat in a drunken brawl. Instead he was in Blacksburg (VA) where -- unlike in Korea -- any demented psychopath or his retarded cousin can easily and legally procure lethal firearms.
And where's the memorial address for the 650,000 dead Iraqis Mr. President?! Why are the lives of 650,000 dead Iraqis worth exponentially less than the lives of 32 Americans?!
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
The War On Drugs (Revisited)
Acknowledged or not, consciously or unconsciously, the poetic state, a transcendant state of life, is fundamentally what the public seeks through love, crime, drugs, war or insurrection.
From New York to Tehran the world is getting high, high, high. Why? That's a rhetorical question isn't it? Why can't we all just get high on life? Let's face it: if life were a drug, it would be rubbing alcohol. It may get you a little drunk sometimes but, ultimately, it's just going to make you go blind or just kill you. For most people in this world, life is about figuring out where the next meal's coming from and for most of the rest it's about drudgery. We spend our time circulating commodities -- consuming them, manufactuiring them and selling them even though some of us wake up to the painful realization that we ourselves have become mere commodities, merely means by which this absurd machine perpetuates its murderous existence. So we get tipsy, twisted and tight trying to attain that sweet perfection that eludes us when sober. We look for the sublime through the eye of a hypodermic needle or try to inhale it -- hot, dry and ethereal -- through the stem of a glass pipe. But let me tell you, I checked and double-checked, baby I've done research and nobody ever found nirvana between the folds of a glassine envelope. Nobody ever found paradise at the bottom of a brandy snifter. What drugs provide is simulation and, as with all simulacra, you have to pay. Drugs are money, they cost money, and the high you get from them is the manifestation not of creativity, not of the reality that makes us all live but of the qualitative experience of a discrete quantity of money. And as with all money, someone had to die for those drugs, someone like the people of Afghanistan and Colombia. So to escape the misery of life in the Babylon system we took drugs and by taking those drugs we only augmented our complicity in the system that creates our misery. The same system that provides those drugs to slake our appetite for the sublime while securing surplus cash-flows and circumventing insurrection. Still we get no satisfaction. Instead we have crime, drugs and war ... and with so little love left in the world, maybe it's time we tried an insurrection.
-- Antonin Artaud
When you work hard all day with your head and know you must work again the next day what else can change your ideas and make them run on a different plane like whisky?
-- Ernest Hemingway
From New York to Tehran the world is getting high, high, high. Why? That's a rhetorical question isn't it? Why can't we all just get high on life? Let's face it: if life were a drug, it would be rubbing alcohol. It may get you a little drunk sometimes but, ultimately, it's just going to make you go blind or just kill you. For most people in this world, life is about figuring out where the next meal's coming from and for most of the rest it's about drudgery. We spend our time circulating commodities -- consuming them, manufactuiring them and selling them even though some of us wake up to the painful realization that we ourselves have become mere commodities, merely means by which this absurd machine perpetuates its murderous existence. So we get tipsy, twisted and tight trying to attain that sweet perfection that eludes us when sober. We look for the sublime through the eye of a hypodermic needle or try to inhale it -- hot, dry and ethereal -- through the stem of a glass pipe. But let me tell you, I checked and double-checked, baby I've done research and nobody ever found nirvana between the folds of a glassine envelope. Nobody ever found paradise at the bottom of a brandy snifter. What drugs provide is simulation and, as with all simulacra, you have to pay. Drugs are money, they cost money, and the high you get from them is the manifestation not of creativity, not of the reality that makes us all live but of the qualitative experience of a discrete quantity of money. And as with all money, someone had to die for those drugs, someone like the people of Afghanistan and Colombia. So to escape the misery of life in the Babylon system we took drugs and by taking those drugs we only augmented our complicity in the system that creates our misery. The same system that provides those drugs to slake our appetite for the sublime while securing surplus cash-flows and circumventing insurrection. Still we get no satisfaction. Instead we have crime, drugs and war ... and with so little love left in the world, maybe it's time we tried an insurrection.
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
"300": The Banality of Fascist Art
Finally, American cinema has never ceased to make and remake the same fundamental movie, that is Birth of a nation-civilization, of which Griffith made the first version.
Gilles Deleuze, 1983
Fifteen years after its coronation as global leader (with the fall of the Soviet Union), America is becoming a fearful and lonely democracy in a politically antagonistic world.
Zbigniew Brzezinski, 2007
On Saturday I shelled out 18 bucks for me and my date to see "300" -- Warner Bros.' production of the Frank Miller graphic novel about the Battle of Thermopylae (480 BC). Since then I have been in a persistent state of of silent panic. No one in the audience booed as did the audience at the Berlin Film Festival last month after the screening of 300. There was intermittent laughter but no anger at such a blatantly fascist, racist and sexist spectacle. I can't believe that there could possibly be any question about the nature of this film. Here's a synopsis -- the world is being engulfed and overwhelmed by degenerate, diseased effeminate dark-skinned people from Africa and Asia and the only thing that stands in their way are 300 White Super-Men from Sparta which represents "freedom" (a word that, thanks to the U.S., now is devoid of any meaning whatsoever), masculinity and physical fitness (i.e. Whiteness as configured in the movie). Thus we are not talking about a hidden message here. Where is the outrage? D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation was met with significant protests all across the country upon it's release about a Century ago. Where is the protest now? After 100 years of replaying the same fascist and racist scenario to the public it would appear that the majority have finally internalized the illusion such that, as one blogger put it, "it's ok that it has a fascist aesthetic... so long as you know it's there." I would argue that this is in fact the hallmark of culture that has become rigorously fascist. When the elements that comprise fascist ideology -- denigration of life in and for itself, glorification of death in war, racism and sexism -- become banal then you can be sure that you are living under a fascist regime.
Gilles Deleuze, 1983
Fifteen years after its coronation as global leader (with the fall of the Soviet Union), America is becoming a fearful and lonely democracy in a politically antagonistic world.
Zbigniew Brzezinski, 2007
On Saturday I shelled out 18 bucks for me and my date to see "300" -- Warner Bros.' production of the Frank Miller graphic novel about the Battle of Thermopylae (480 BC). Since then I have been in a persistent state of of silent panic. No one in the audience booed as did the audience at the Berlin Film Festival last month after the screening of 300. There was intermittent laughter but no anger at such a blatantly fascist, racist and sexist spectacle. I can't believe that there could possibly be any question about the nature of this film. Here's a synopsis -- the world is being engulfed and overwhelmed by degenerate, diseased effeminate dark-skinned people from Africa and Asia and the only thing that stands in their way are 300 White Super-Men from Sparta which represents "freedom" (a word that, thanks to the U.S., now is devoid of any meaning whatsoever), masculinity and physical fitness (i.e. Whiteness as configured in the movie). Thus we are not talking about a hidden message here. Where is the outrage? D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation was met with significant protests all across the country upon it's release about a Century ago. Where is the protest now? After 100 years of replaying the same fascist and racist scenario to the public it would appear that the majority have finally internalized the illusion such that, as one blogger put it, "it's ok that it has a fascist aesthetic... so long as you know it's there." I would argue that this is in fact the hallmark of culture that has become rigorously fascist. When the elements that comprise fascist ideology -- denigration of life in and for itself, glorification of death in war, racism and sexism -- become banal then you can be sure that you are living under a fascist regime.
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