"It is naively assumed that the fact that the majority of people share certain ideas or feelings proves the validity of these ideas and feelings. Nothing is further from the truth... Just as there is a 'folie a deux' there is a 'folie a millions.' The fact that millions of people share the same vices does not make these vices virtues, the fact that they share so many errors does not make the errors to be truths, and the fact that millions of people share the same form of mental pathology does not make these people sane." (Fromm, The Sane Society, Routledge, 1955, pp.14-15)
Sunday, September 17, 2006
Saturday, September 16, 2006
14th summit of the Non-Aligned Movement
14th summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), in the Palace of Conventions in Havana makes uncomfortable reading. All those rogue states plotting together to destroy the democratic and liberal forces on this planet.....
That is of course one way of looking at it. The other is that the small guys are meeting to talk without the big guys and big guys don't like it one little bit. The BBC said (with delicious understatement) that the member list makes uncomfortable reading list for London and USA. Why would some of the greatest powers of the planet feel uncomfortable?. Its the economy, stupid!
Cuba is a real sore in the USA's side: despite the tightening of the sanctions and embargos at precisely the point when Cuba lost Soviet Union as a sanction busting partner and bodyguard, and despite a catastrophic decline in living standards the country did not break and did not embrace the loving capitalism of its nearest superpower neighbour.
Iran is equally infuriating. It will simply not accept, that the sort of backtalk that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad dares to engage in, translates into very measurable fury of the free world: His country can end up paying the same price as Iraqis paid when free world imposed sanctions on their people.
And what about Mr Hugo Chavez of Venezuela? Didn't he learn about the price that people pay, if countries like his vote "the wrong sort of guy" into the government? Did he forget Haiti, Nicaragua and Uruguay? Doesn't he read the papers about Hamas and Palestine?
Anyway, back to the Non-Aligned Movement: Countries join the Non-Aligned Movement if they do not like being aligned with free world of western democracies. Aligned means of course opening its borders to free world's imports, opening it's banking systems to market forces and capital flows, and opening its press and media to objective, free and democratic media moguls of western free worlds. Not to mention to open its economies to free worlds economic policies specially designed by IMF to speedily increase the welfare of its populace: to eliminate poverty, lack of universal education and lack of universal access to health care.
Well, they decided that rather than benefit from all these blessings, they much rather try and communicate with each other and, while respecting the sovereignty of it's own political systems, they will try to emulate some of the most successful enterprises of their respective nations. One very positive example of this co-operation is project to create a Cuban-style Medical School in Venezuela where poor background students can gain the medial knowledge of Cuban Healthcare which belongs to the best, and to most cost effective in the world.
The added bonus of the summit is the outspokenness of some delegates, which makes for excellent reading for the old skeptic like me.
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Technorati tags:
Current Affairs Non-Aligned Movement Venezuela Hugo Chavez Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Cuba Havana Healthcare Ahmadinejad Iran
That is of course one way of looking at it. The other is that the small guys are meeting to talk without the big guys and big guys don't like it one little bit. The BBC said (with delicious understatement) that the member list makes uncomfortable reading list for London and USA. Why would some of the greatest powers of the planet feel uncomfortable?. Its the economy, stupid!
Cuba is a real sore in the USA's side: despite the tightening of the sanctions and embargos at precisely the point when Cuba lost Soviet Union as a sanction busting partner and bodyguard, and despite a catastrophic decline in living standards the country did not break and did not embrace the loving capitalism of its nearest superpower neighbour.
Iran is equally infuriating. It will simply not accept, that the sort of backtalk that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad dares to engage in, translates into very measurable fury of the free world: His country can end up paying the same price as Iraqis paid when free world imposed sanctions on their people.
And what about Mr Hugo Chavez of Venezuela? Didn't he learn about the price that people pay, if countries like his vote "the wrong sort of guy" into the government? Did he forget Haiti, Nicaragua and Uruguay? Doesn't he read the papers about Hamas and Palestine?
Anyway, back to the Non-Aligned Movement: Countries join the Non-Aligned Movement if they do not like being aligned with free world of western democracies. Aligned means of course opening its borders to free world's imports, opening it's banking systems to market forces and capital flows, and opening its press and media to objective, free and democratic media moguls of western free worlds. Not to mention to open its economies to free worlds economic policies specially designed by IMF to speedily increase the welfare of its populace: to eliminate poverty, lack of universal education and lack of universal access to health care.
Well, they decided that rather than benefit from all these blessings, they much rather try and communicate with each other and, while respecting the sovereignty of it's own political systems, they will try to emulate some of the most successful enterprises of their respective nations. One very positive example of this co-operation is project to create a Cuban-style Medical School in Venezuela where poor background students can gain the medial knowledge of Cuban Healthcare which belongs to the best, and to most cost effective in the world.
The added bonus of the summit is the outspokenness of some delegates, which makes for excellent reading for the old skeptic like me.
________________________________________________
Technorati tags:
Current Affairs Non-Aligned Movement Venezuela Hugo Chavez Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Cuba Havana Healthcare Ahmadinejad Iran
Friday, September 15, 2006
When are Children Children
This chilling entry found by me when I surfed the blogs seeking examples of successful propaganda exercises should be a standard text for any Media Student. (nota bene links are inactive. For original text with active links go HERE)
On Sunday, Israel hit a building in Qana, Lebanon, killing 34 children. The Associated Press story reporting the killing of these children was headlined "34 youths among 56 dead in Israeli strike," which seemed really peculiar to me. (The text of the story correctly reported that the victims were children. The headline was also used by many outlets that carry AP stories.)
Youths sounds just a bit less childreny, I suppose. We've already declared that all "military age male"s are terrorists. The women are collaborators. The infrastructure is all command and control centers. Trucks carrying food and aid could be munition relief. Ambulances... don't ask.
But the children pose a bit of a problem because while we have managed to dehumanize entire nations, our caring towards children is a bit more resistant to propaganda.
Ergo, all children are youths. And they will one day grow into adults, who are all terrorists (men) or collaborators (women), after first growing into youths.
But this child in Qana will not be doing any more of that pesky growing up thing, solving in one fell swoop the problem of the tension we have between continuing to care about children, and our utter lack of concern for their parents, their environment, and their well-being:
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Technorati tags:
Killing Lebanon Occupation Terrorism Extrajudicial+Killings Palestine Israel Middle East Occupation War Crimes Justice Current Affairs Propaganda
On Sunday, Israel hit a building in Qana, Lebanon, killing 34 children. The Associated Press story reporting the killing of these children was headlined "34 youths among 56 dead in Israeli strike," which seemed really peculiar to me. (The text of the story correctly reported that the victims were children. The headline was also used by many outlets that carry AP stories.)
Youths sounds just a bit less childreny, I suppose. We've already declared that all "military age male"s are terrorists. The women are collaborators. The infrastructure is all command and control centers. Trucks carrying food and aid could be munition relief. Ambulances... don't ask.
But the children pose a bit of a problem because while we have managed to dehumanize entire nations, our caring towards children is a bit more resistant to propaganda.
Ergo, all children are youths. And they will one day grow into adults, who are all terrorists (men) or collaborators (women), after first growing into youths.
But this child in Qana will not be doing any more of that pesky growing up thing, solving in one fell swoop the problem of the tension we have between continuing to care about children, and our utter lack of concern for their parents, their environment, and their well-being:
-----------------------------------------------------
Technorati tags:
Killing Lebanon Occupation Terrorism Extrajudicial+Killings Palestine Israel Middle East Occupation War Crimes Justice Current Affairs Propaganda
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
USA stands for justice and fairness
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Technorati tags:
Occupation Palestine Israel Middle East Democracy Resistance United Nations Justice Current Affairs
Sunday, September 10, 2006
Peace
Richard Ben Cramer's latest book is called WHY ISRAEL LOST. I started this book twelve hours ago and just finished a last page. I'm Polish and lost family members in struggles with Tzar's Russia two hundred years ago, and relatively recently - 60 years ago - in struggles with Nazis. My first thought was to purchase couple of hundred copies of this book and take it personally to movers and shakers of UK and EU and say: " Read this book. See1? there is a way forward in the Israel/Palestinian conflict! - just recognize that real people really hurt if you do nothing". I felt that the prose is so strong, so powerful, so illuminating, that if only it was to get to people it would actually, like some churchillian speeches in the Houses of Parlament, make a difference. I read a lot of books and I have never felt like this before. Ben Cramer's prose makes the hurt and the fear and the hate somehow understandable, human and, in an powerful beam of the work that manages to state the obvious, real. It is, as if the events described in the book translated the news and the statistics and the belicose statements of the politicians into real emotions, of real people, in the nightmare that they can neither shake of nor escape from.
Here I must confess that I am not impartial in the subject matter. I have therefore an emotional baggage which colours the way I read about the military campains, occupations of land, extrajudicial killings, checkpoints and targeted assasinations. You see - its not a fiction for me.
Here I must confess that I am not impartial in the subject matter. I have therefore an emotional baggage which colours the way I read about the military campains, occupations of land, extrajudicial killings, checkpoints and targeted assasinations. You see - its not a fiction for me.
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Technorati Keywords: Middle East Iran Anti-semitism Killing Middle East Occupation Terrorism Suicide Bombers Extrajudicial+Killings Israel Palestine
Sunday, September 03, 2006
Thank You Israel for nuclear proliferation in the Middle East
How entirely predictable. Israel's acquisition of nuclear weapons of mass destruction created an imbalance which Iran is trying to redress, while blowing raspberries at USA.
Is it really so difficult to predict? If it isn't, then let's reflect: there are only two possible avenues that lead to this state of affairs: Primo, that Israel obtained nuclear warheads despite West's opposition or that Israel obtained nuclear warheads with West's blessing.
Let's take the first scenario.
After spending much of the fifties and sixties in Cold War, with possibility of nuclear conflict sometimes closer, sometimes less close but always somewhere on the horizon of the subconscious mind, we arrived at the times, when people started to sleep better at night. This corporate sigh of relief was not least due to the signing Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1968. The phantom of "Doctor Strangelow" receding into the half forgotten twilight where night terrors reside. Israel decided that it will develop nuclear weapons and that it is not bound by any obligations towards the world community. It refused to listen to 188 countries that signed the treaty hoping that by limiting the amount of weapons it will limit the probability of them being used. It put it's own interests first, and undermined the universal law of reciprocity in its dealing with the West. In the layman's terms it stuck two fingers at the West and said A: it's our business and B: you are anti-semitic if you dare to object. I do not recall any serious critical opinion expressed in the western media. It is almost as if Mordechai Vanunu's abduction offended our sensibilities more than weapons of mass destruction smack bang in one of the most volatile regions on the earth. I remember a cartoon from before 1st world war where Balkans were represented as barrels full of dynamite on which the solemn heads of state were smoking a peace pipe. Israel, by unilaterally deciding to upset the delicate balance of nuclear deterrents and contr-deterrents have made a world a decidedly less safe place for its friends and its foes alike.
Lets take a second scenario. Instead of ignoring its friends and allies the scenario offers exactly opposite: that Israel got covert or overt blessing for its entrepreneurial spirit and West had no issues with it's program of proliferating weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East. West liked (and likes) Israel so much that it considered the price of OPEC raising oil prices and triggering a near-catastrophic recession of 1973 as a small price to pay for it's protege's feeling of safety and security. West felt that the collapse of non-proliferation treaty was a acceptable price to pay to welcome Israel at the God's table where Olympians able to destroy the planet eat drink and make merry with the 7 (pardon now eight) red nuclear buttons sticking at the centre of the table). Israel must have something of incredible value to offer to West, something so precious that it is worth more than billions lost in catastrophic 1973 recession, worth more than increased risk of proliferation and worth more than loss of good will of numerous countries in the Middle East. In short: What Israel offered in return for approval of it's nuclear program is worth more than West's countries' good. There is no running away from it - we do like Israel an awful lot!
_________________________________________
Technorati Keywords: Israel Nuclear Proliferation Middle East Weapons of Mass Destruction Nuclear Bomb Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Iran OPEC Recession Oil Crisis Mordechai Vanunu Anti-semitism
Is it really so difficult to predict? If it isn't, then let's reflect: there are only two possible avenues that lead to this state of affairs: Primo, that Israel obtained nuclear warheads despite West's opposition or that Israel obtained nuclear warheads with West's blessing.
Let's take the first scenario.
After spending much of the fifties and sixties in Cold War, with possibility of nuclear conflict sometimes closer, sometimes less close but always somewhere on the horizon of the subconscious mind, we arrived at the times, when people started to sleep better at night. This corporate sigh of relief was not least due to the signing Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1968. The phantom of "Doctor Strangelow" receding into the half forgotten twilight where night terrors reside. Israel decided that it will develop nuclear weapons and that it is not bound by any obligations towards the world community. It refused to listen to 188 countries that signed the treaty hoping that by limiting the amount of weapons it will limit the probability of them being used. It put it's own interests first, and undermined the universal law of reciprocity in its dealing with the West. In the layman's terms it stuck two fingers at the West and said A: it's our business and B: you are anti-semitic if you dare to object. I do not recall any serious critical opinion expressed in the western media. It is almost as if Mordechai Vanunu's abduction offended our sensibilities more than weapons of mass destruction smack bang in one of the most volatile regions on the earth. I remember a cartoon from before 1st world war where Balkans were represented as barrels full of dynamite on which the solemn heads of state were smoking a peace pipe. Israel, by unilaterally deciding to upset the delicate balance of nuclear deterrents and contr-deterrents have made a world a decidedly less safe place for its friends and its foes alike.
Lets take a second scenario. Instead of ignoring its friends and allies the scenario offers exactly opposite: that Israel got covert or overt blessing for its entrepreneurial spirit and West had no issues with it's program of proliferating weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East. West liked (and likes) Israel so much that it considered the price of OPEC raising oil prices and triggering a near-catastrophic recession of 1973 as a small price to pay for it's protege's feeling of safety and security. West felt that the collapse of non-proliferation treaty was a acceptable price to pay to welcome Israel at the God's table where Olympians able to destroy the planet eat drink and make merry with the 7 (pardon now eight) red nuclear buttons sticking at the centre of the table). Israel must have something of incredible value to offer to West, something so precious that it is worth more than billions lost in catastrophic 1973 recession, worth more than increased risk of proliferation and worth more than loss of good will of numerous countries in the Middle East. In short: What Israel offered in return for approval of it's nuclear program is worth more than West's countries' good. There is no running away from it - we do like Israel an awful lot!
_________________________________________
Technorati Keywords: Israel Nuclear Proliferation Middle East Weapons of Mass Destruction Nuclear Bomb Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Iran OPEC Recession Oil Crisis Mordechai Vanunu Anti-semitism
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