I’m fast getting weary of these—well, no, okay, not weary. Not even exhausted. Pissed off? No, it’s worse. I’m sick of hearing the same empty justifications spewed out again and again by people who have as much credibility as W shouting his “Bring’em on!” to the world (and getting them full in the face, as requested).
If only the spokespersons of Tsahal, among whom Ehoud Olmert seems to have gained a place (wait, wasn’t he supposed to be Prime Minister, instead of Deluxe Army Lackey?) would just shut the fuck up…
I have enough of hearing how Israel is careful in selecting its targets, in having a second recognition before striking. They’re just making it worse. If they check twice that they’re going to bomb a UNIFIL building, an ambulance, a humanitarian convoy or a truck where workers are working to put a fruit harvest inside, well… yeah, I think that counts as making it worse.
Just as the ludicrous claim that they just want to take care of the threat of Hezbollah in South Lebanon. Why are they attacking Christian quarters in Beirut, then? Why did they attack cities and infrastructures in the North? Why did they just cut off Beirut from the outside world, destroying the last highway that was an escape route for civilians to flee the living hell their home has become? So that they can drop tracts warning the same civilians of a coming bombardment and advising them to flee via escape routes that no longer exist?
I know I’m sounding like a broken record right now, but that’s because Tsahal and its Deluxe Lackey, Ehoud Olmert, are busy being a broken record themselves.
Why do they cling to this stupid discourse? Do they think they can fool anyone other than their own extremists, and all those who believe that the only good Muslim is a dead Muslim? I stumbled on such a person’s prose today, and quite frankly, they’re as much a menace as the Islamists. Sometimes, I wonder who writes the speeches of all these Israeli politicians, and their defenders. One thing is for sure: they’re not very good at writing, and about as convincing as a kid claiming he didn’t eat any chocolate with his hands smudged with dark brown traces.
The tales these people are trying to spin are so unbelievable, so badly woven that I could almost feel some compassion toward them. Almost. But behind their pathetic words of justification, of being the shields of the West, innocents die.
The other day, I read a paper where the author was explaining that in his view, Israel doesn’t give a damn about Lebanon, and is just using it as a battleground without the slightest regard for that small state and its population. When I analyze the very thorough destruction of the country’s infrastructure, the raids against food convoys, against humanitarian convoys, the strikes against hospitals and ambulances, the cutting of the last escape routes… Well, I can only come to one conclusion:
Israel cares about Lebanon, all right.
It cares that it is a thorn in its side, and that it needs to be taken out. What I see is the deliberate destruction of that small country. And maybe even something uglier, that I don’t want to contemplate. I can only hope that Lebanon will not become another Bosnia.
I can only hope, while Condi is playing tea and chit-chat, oh, and shedding a tear on the tragedy the poor population of Lebanon is going through—when the cameras are nearby, of course. Wouldn’t want to abuse of her eye-dropper. These things are so expensive, you know!
Friday, August 04, 2006
Monday, July 31, 2006
War Crimes Send Birds Scattering
Didn't you know that? Well, now you do.
On the morning of the carnage^H^H^H^H^H^H^H sad and tragic collateral damage that slaughtered dozens of people among whom a majority of children, the world saw it happening. In a great harmony, the chirping birds just took off in a great and chaotic flutter of wings: dear Mrs Rice and her team made haste to announce they were returning to the US and also pushed to get the one thing they needed: an annoucement that could be seen as going in the direction of a cease-fire. Thus, while the Israeli military used the one worn out excuse that all war criminals have held out over the ages and claimed that the people who died had been warned and only needed to flee, Mrs Rice went into secluded meetings and spent all her energy and influence in reaching the one goal that matters to the Bush Administration: something to soften and help the catastrophic image it has all around the world.
So here came Mrs Rice, the triumphant victor in air-conditioned rooms where people are nice and polite and ask you if you'd like another soda or perhaps a sandwich--much different from the oven-like temperatures, lack of air and constant explosions that send your heart hammering in your chest when you sweat off your nights in a bomb shelter in Lebanon, but still very very hard I'm sure. And here she announced a pause in the air strikes that is scheduled to last some 48 hours. Of course, this concerns air strikes, not ground or naval strikes, and doesn't concern any ground operation currently underway. Of course, the fact that this could very well be just the expression of a tactical modification in Tsahal's plans and not something even remotely resembling a beginning of cease-fire is of no consequence. What matters is that Mrs Rice has her announcement for the world to hear. Something that says "hey, I'm really trying to make it stop, despite what you all think that I'm just biding time and dallying around, delaying the inetrnational community so that Israel can carry out its little war without interfence and do our job for us".
Perhaps she believes it will fool people, and change public opinions around the world as to what the US is really doing in this crisis. If I were her, I wouldn't count on that, though.
As to our nice war criminals and their ages-old excuse of "we warned them, they just needed to flee", I really wish that those people had guts, and just the tiniest bit of courage. I thought that killing off kids and innocent people was the hard part, but it would seem I was mistaken. Slaughtering the innocent is the easy part. Assuming the consequences of your action really seems beyond the strength and courage of Tsahal.
"They were warned," you tell us, Mr Army spokesman. Yes, of course they were. And what were they supposed to do about the warning? "They merely needed to go away," you answer us. Just how were they supposed to do that, Mr Army spokesman? With what means of transportations? On what roads? Over what bridges? Ah, those you all destroyed, thus making travel extremely hazardous and dangerous, if not outright impossible? And I suppose you wouldn't have bombed them on the way either, the way you didn't bomb ambulances and humanitarian or food convoys. Sure. Let's even admit all this, flee where? To what house? What job? What life?
Can you answer me that, Mr Army spokesman?
Ah, no, I see that you can't.
Israel and the US make a ratrher pathetic couple, right now. A pitiful, miserable pair, glued, stuck in a swamp of their own making. Condi must be really put out at Tsahal right now. With its action on Qana, the same Qana which Tsahal bombed back in 1996, slaughtering more than a hundred innocent civilians who had taken refuge in a UNO building (rings a bell?) during a campaign to destroy Hezbollah (rings another bell?). Yes, her feathers must be ruffled at this catastophe--oh, not the losses of innocent lives, no, but on the effect it has in the world, and the consequences for her and the US. It becomes really difficult to hold their "let Israel do what it has to do first" line, but they're doing it. While they go in long meetings to get an annoucement like a pause in air-strikes which is most likely nothing other than a tactical redeployment, our darling Condi is still not calling for an immediate cease-fire. But she does move around, a lot.
And so, as they did in 1996, war crimes send birds scattering in disarray. This time the birds are Condi and her team.
(Source: today's edition of the New York Times)
Oh, last minute news from The Guardian and Le Monde: despite announcing a cease-fire, Israeli jets are busy bombing South Lebanon. But then, what else can one expect from war criminals?
Please, everyone, take note: while the army announced a pause in air strikes to allow refugees to flee, thus implicitly acknowledging that it would have been impossible before and invalidating the ludicrous excuse they used to justify yesterday's carnage, they also announced that that would continue bombing any Hezbollah group detected in action. Black and white in the same sentence. But of course. I'm sure the refugees find this rhetoric very amusing, and appreciate it for what it is.
And while fools like Mr Mallaby vent their frustration by spitting on old Europe, History, as old Europe warned you, is busy repeating itself.
On the morning of the carnage^H^H^H^H^H^H^H sad and tragic collateral damage that slaughtered dozens of people among whom a majority of children, the world saw it happening. In a great harmony, the chirping birds just took off in a great and chaotic flutter of wings: dear Mrs Rice and her team made haste to announce they were returning to the US and also pushed to get the one thing they needed: an annoucement that could be seen as going in the direction of a cease-fire. Thus, while the Israeli military used the one worn out excuse that all war criminals have held out over the ages and claimed that the people who died had been warned and only needed to flee, Mrs Rice went into secluded meetings and spent all her energy and influence in reaching the one goal that matters to the Bush Administration: something to soften and help the catastrophic image it has all around the world.
So here came Mrs Rice, the triumphant victor in air-conditioned rooms where people are nice and polite and ask you if you'd like another soda or perhaps a sandwich--much different from the oven-like temperatures, lack of air and constant explosions that send your heart hammering in your chest when you sweat off your nights in a bomb shelter in Lebanon, but still very very hard I'm sure. And here she announced a pause in the air strikes that is scheduled to last some 48 hours. Of course, this concerns air strikes, not ground or naval strikes, and doesn't concern any ground operation currently underway. Of course, the fact that this could very well be just the expression of a tactical modification in Tsahal's plans and not something even remotely resembling a beginning of cease-fire is of no consequence. What matters is that Mrs Rice has her announcement for the world to hear. Something that says "hey, I'm really trying to make it stop, despite what you all think that I'm just biding time and dallying around, delaying the inetrnational community so that Israel can carry out its little war without interfence and do our job for us".
Perhaps she believes it will fool people, and change public opinions around the world as to what the US is really doing in this crisis. If I were her, I wouldn't count on that, though.
As to our nice war criminals and their ages-old excuse of "we warned them, they just needed to flee", I really wish that those people had guts, and just the tiniest bit of courage. I thought that killing off kids and innocent people was the hard part, but it would seem I was mistaken. Slaughtering the innocent is the easy part. Assuming the consequences of your action really seems beyond the strength and courage of Tsahal.
"They were warned," you tell us, Mr Army spokesman. Yes, of course they were. And what were they supposed to do about the warning? "They merely needed to go away," you answer us. Just how were they supposed to do that, Mr Army spokesman? With what means of transportations? On what roads? Over what bridges? Ah, those you all destroyed, thus making travel extremely hazardous and dangerous, if not outright impossible? And I suppose you wouldn't have bombed them on the way either, the way you didn't bomb ambulances and humanitarian or food convoys. Sure. Let's even admit all this, flee where? To what house? What job? What life?
Can you answer me that, Mr Army spokesman?
Ah, no, I see that you can't.
Israel and the US make a ratrher pathetic couple, right now. A pitiful, miserable pair, glued, stuck in a swamp of their own making. Condi must be really put out at Tsahal right now. With its action on Qana, the same Qana which Tsahal bombed back in 1996, slaughtering more than a hundred innocent civilians who had taken refuge in a UNO building (rings a bell?) during a campaign to destroy Hezbollah (rings another bell?). Yes, her feathers must be ruffled at this catastophe--oh, not the losses of innocent lives, no, but on the effect it has in the world, and the consequences for her and the US. It becomes really difficult to hold their "let Israel do what it has to do first" line, but they're doing it. While they go in long meetings to get an annoucement like a pause in air-strikes which is most likely nothing other than a tactical redeployment, our darling Condi is still not calling for an immediate cease-fire. But she does move around, a lot.
And so, as they did in 1996, war crimes send birds scattering in disarray. This time the birds are Condi and her team.
(Source: today's edition of the New York Times)
Oh, last minute news from The Guardian and Le Monde: despite announcing a cease-fire, Israeli jets are busy bombing South Lebanon. But then, what else can one expect from war criminals?
Please, everyone, take note: while the army announced a pause in air strikes to allow refugees to flee, thus implicitly acknowledging that it would have been impossible before and invalidating the ludicrous excuse they used to justify yesterday's carnage, they also announced that that would continue bombing any Hezbollah group detected in action. Black and white in the same sentence. But of course. I'm sure the refugees find this rhetoric very amusing, and appreciate it for what it is.
And while fools like Mr Mallaby vent their frustration by spitting on old Europe, History, as old Europe warned you, is busy repeating itself.
Sunday, July 30, 2006
Delusions
In the grand Stratego game unfolding in the Middle East (and killing off hundreds of innocent people, displacing half a million innocents who've lost everything they had to define their lives, but let's not tarry on inconsequential collateral damages, our air strikes have a perfect surgical precision), I have found myself wondering what the heck Tony Blair was doing.
For a very long time, I've found myself wondering just where the UK was going, and how its governement could believe the path it had chosen would be beneficial. When I saw Tony Blair rallying W's insane cause and speech of "Crusades" and "Changing the Middle-East" through the folly that led the US in Irak, I just went, "duh, has Blair taken leave of his senses?"
Well, he has not--or not in the sense I first thought.
Reading today's edition of the Guardian, I have found a few scraps that may be the start of an explanation to Tony Blair's apparently crazy choices and decisions. Why did Tony Blair play along with the brutish, coarse and beyond stupid, primitive rethoric of Georges W Bush? Why did he play along with "Crusades" and "Bring Them On" (W has since then been on the receiving end of his "bring them on", not that he'll ever admit as much)? Why is Blair allowing himself to be seen as the US's dog? Why does he let W talk to him as one would a pal during a student party? Why does he bow at anything W says and play good and obedient "aye aye sir" underling?
Well, it would appear Tony Blair believes he can accomplish something by being on the good side of W. It would appear our dear Tony believes he has a mission to accomplish, and that in order to reach the higher goal, he needs to kind of sacrifice his image by doing a bit of "W boot licking".
There is something that is almost coherent in that line of thinking. It's true that you need to US if you're going to do any good in the Middle-East. You need its military power (although how much of it is left now that they're firmly trapped in Irak and not anywhere near winning free of that swamp?), you need its influence on some Arab countries, and first and ofremost on Israel (if one can conceive that the US will ever go against Israel's will, that is yet to be proven possible). It may also be true that in order to make friends with the US, while it's being led by the likes of W and his goons, Cheney and Rumsfeld overshadowing his every action, you need to play dog and win that friendship through displays of blind, mindless loyalty and all that jazz.
Still, when I contemplate plans like that, when I contemplate Tony Blair playing along with primitive speeches and black and white views of the world, I can't help but ask: Mr Blair, are you simple-minded, naive or blinded by your sense of being burdened by a mission only you can achieve?
You can play W's game all you want, you won't make him change his mind. You won't bring him to your line of thinking. You won't make him see the other side of the coin. W's game is a game of alpha males locked in a sandbox and battling it out. In this game, brains and strategy, intelligence matter almost not at all. You allow yourself to be used, you allow the UK's image in the Arab World (and elsewhere) to be diminished and tainted. But you will get nothing in return.
Trying to counter that by naive displays of your opposition to W in domains like stem cell research that, in the grand scheme of things in the Middle East have zero importance, is nice and all, but will produce no result--or it might, but the opposite of what is desired. Instead of portraying Blair as a courageous opponent to what is nothing more than the obsucrantist policy of a man who's the puppet of raving religious fanatics (yes, I do believe that the Bible Belt people in the US are as dangerous, if not more, than the Islam fundamentalists), this kind of action simply leave off the sensation of a pathetic attempt at showing one's independance from W.
All in all, I always come back to the same conclusion: people who have "missions" are dangerous people. People with missions quickly become blind to anything other than what they perceive to be the one and only path they can walk. People with missions are easily manipulated, and lured the way one wants.
Delusions--it's the worst flaw in people with missions.
And it's a fatal one.
The only way out is to take off one's blindfold and to stop this blind forward race. to accept the possibility of being mistaken, of failure, and to stop. To stop and get a good look around, and change things while there is still time. But doing this takes courage, a lot of it. And Mr Blair doesn't look like he's ready for a much needed bit of soul searching and truth confronting.
In the meantime, Israeli bombs kill hundreds of innocents. Disturbing wounds and burns seem to indicate the possibility of use by Israel of Phosphoric bombs and maybe even chemical weapons. The Hezbollah sends missiles on Israeli cities and kills innocent Israeli civilians. And chaos--grows.
Entropy thrives.
Sometimes I wonder, are human mistakes and blindness just another expression of the second law of Thermodynamics?
For a very long time, I've found myself wondering just where the UK was going, and how its governement could believe the path it had chosen would be beneficial. When I saw Tony Blair rallying W's insane cause and speech of "Crusades" and "Changing the Middle-East" through the folly that led the US in Irak, I just went, "duh, has Blair taken leave of his senses?"
Well, he has not--or not in the sense I first thought.
Reading today's edition of the Guardian, I have found a few scraps that may be the start of an explanation to Tony Blair's apparently crazy choices and decisions. Why did Tony Blair play along with the brutish, coarse and beyond stupid, primitive rethoric of Georges W Bush? Why did he play along with "Crusades" and "Bring Them On" (W has since then been on the receiving end of his "bring them on", not that he'll ever admit as much)? Why is Blair allowing himself to be seen as the US's dog? Why does he let W talk to him as one would a pal during a student party? Why does he bow at anything W says and play good and obedient "aye aye sir" underling?
Well, it would appear Tony Blair believes he can accomplish something by being on the good side of W. It would appear our dear Tony believes he has a mission to accomplish, and that in order to reach the higher goal, he needs to kind of sacrifice his image by doing a bit of "W boot licking".
There is something that is almost coherent in that line of thinking. It's true that you need to US if you're going to do any good in the Middle-East. You need its military power (although how much of it is left now that they're firmly trapped in Irak and not anywhere near winning free of that swamp?), you need its influence on some Arab countries, and first and ofremost on Israel (if one can conceive that the US will ever go against Israel's will, that is yet to be proven possible). It may also be true that in order to make friends with the US, while it's being led by the likes of W and his goons, Cheney and Rumsfeld overshadowing his every action, you need to play dog and win that friendship through displays of blind, mindless loyalty and all that jazz.
Still, when I contemplate plans like that, when I contemplate Tony Blair playing along with primitive speeches and black and white views of the world, I can't help but ask: Mr Blair, are you simple-minded, naive or blinded by your sense of being burdened by a mission only you can achieve?
You can play W's game all you want, you won't make him change his mind. You won't bring him to your line of thinking. You won't make him see the other side of the coin. W's game is a game of alpha males locked in a sandbox and battling it out. In this game, brains and strategy, intelligence matter almost not at all. You allow yourself to be used, you allow the UK's image in the Arab World (and elsewhere) to be diminished and tainted. But you will get nothing in return.
Trying to counter that by naive displays of your opposition to W in domains like stem cell research that, in the grand scheme of things in the Middle East have zero importance, is nice and all, but will produce no result--or it might, but the opposite of what is desired. Instead of portraying Blair as a courageous opponent to what is nothing more than the obsucrantist policy of a man who's the puppet of raving religious fanatics (yes, I do believe that the Bible Belt people in the US are as dangerous, if not more, than the Islam fundamentalists), this kind of action simply leave off the sensation of a pathetic attempt at showing one's independance from W.
All in all, I always come back to the same conclusion: people who have "missions" are dangerous people. People with missions quickly become blind to anything other than what they perceive to be the one and only path they can walk. People with missions are easily manipulated, and lured the way one wants.
Delusions--it's the worst flaw in people with missions.
And it's a fatal one.
The only way out is to take off one's blindfold and to stop this blind forward race. to accept the possibility of being mistaken, of failure, and to stop. To stop and get a good look around, and change things while there is still time. But doing this takes courage, a lot of it. And Mr Blair doesn't look like he's ready for a much needed bit of soul searching and truth confronting.
In the meantime, Israeli bombs kill hundreds of innocents. Disturbing wounds and burns seem to indicate the possibility of use by Israel of Phosphoric bombs and maybe even chemical weapons. The Hezbollah sends missiles on Israeli cities and kills innocent Israeli civilians. And chaos--grows.
Entropy thrives.
Sometimes I wonder, are human mistakes and blindness just another expression of the second law of Thermodynamics?
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Lady demo, Host demo—Kamawanai yo !
Lady or Host, it doesn’t matter !
And truly, it doesn’t. Weirdly enough, I really enjoy this JPOP opening to Ouran Koukou Host Club, a manga being now turned into an anime TV series by the studio Bones. By the horribly high temperatures of this month of July, the show is a very welcome, refreshing breeze of air.
Take all the cliches of the shoujo genre, push them beyond what you thought imaginable. Next, mix the whole lot, and add a good dose of second degree humor, and you get a delightful story which blissfully ridicules all the genre cliches, makes you laugh and put you in a good mood after a hard day of sweating and generally being miserable at work. Of course, the fact Bisco Hatori draws more than pleasant to look at male characters, and th at the character designers have managed to caputre that quality helps in making the show very much enjoyable.
After all, even though the show ridicules the shoujo cliches and the fangirls in the process, it still needs to cater to them so it will sell. And it does the job beautifully. This fangirl is finding herself hooked on it, and needing more—more !
It has everything : Kyouya, the cold, cruel, intelligent and dark planner. Tamaki the gorgeous, naive and unlucky narcissist. Takashi, the silent, taciturn man who will suddenly fling himself to the rescue of cute, small and apparently so vulnerable-looking Hani. Hani himself, the eldest of them all who looks like a child, acts like one and is so cute and sweet it gives you an overdose in around ten seconds (watch out for his bunny rabbit plush., it’s a weapon of mass destruction). And, last but not least : Hikaru and Kaoru, the twins who’ve never had any friends and anyone outside of each other, and get many a squeal of delight each time they play the « Forbidden Gay Love of the Twins » act for the crowds of drooling fangirls attending the Host Club (and paying good money to have the privilege of watching the performances of the hosts).
Of course, in the middle of this very, very nice group of yummy young men comes an intruder : Haruhi. First mistaken for a boy (she really doesn’t care about her appearance or her gender), she stumbles in the middle of the Host Club and gets shangaied into being a member of it.
From thereon, many funny things follow, and classical yet sweet things too : from the daily extravaganza of the Host Club to please their fangirl-customers, to the invasion of a would-be manager for the club who’s a last-degree female otaku drooling over her fantasy of Kyouya and also to the discovery of the twins that Haruhi can tell them apart and sees each of them as an individual, as well as her slow, gentle entry in their private world, Ouran Koukou Host Club is really a delightful surprise, highly recommended during these difficult days of extreme heat and hard work days.
Now, give me MORE !
PS : check out Wikipedia for more info on the show.
And truly, it doesn’t. Weirdly enough, I really enjoy this JPOP opening to Ouran Koukou Host Club, a manga being now turned into an anime TV series by the studio Bones. By the horribly high temperatures of this month of July, the show is a very welcome, refreshing breeze of air.
Take all the cliches of the shoujo genre, push them beyond what you thought imaginable. Next, mix the whole lot, and add a good dose of second degree humor, and you get a delightful story which blissfully ridicules all the genre cliches, makes you laugh and put you in a good mood after a hard day of sweating and generally being miserable at work. Of course, the fact Bisco Hatori draws more than pleasant to look at male characters, and th at the character designers have managed to caputre that quality helps in making the show very much enjoyable.
After all, even though the show ridicules the shoujo cliches and the fangirls in the process, it still needs to cater to them so it will sell. And it does the job beautifully. This fangirl is finding herself hooked on it, and needing more—more !
It has everything : Kyouya, the cold, cruel, intelligent and dark planner. Tamaki the gorgeous, naive and unlucky narcissist. Takashi, the silent, taciturn man who will suddenly fling himself to the rescue of cute, small and apparently so vulnerable-looking Hani. Hani himself, the eldest of them all who looks like a child, acts like one and is so cute and sweet it gives you an overdose in around ten seconds (watch out for his bunny rabbit plush., it’s a weapon of mass destruction). And, last but not least : Hikaru and Kaoru, the twins who’ve never had any friends and anyone outside of each other, and get many a squeal of delight each time they play the « Forbidden Gay Love of the Twins » act for the crowds of drooling fangirls attending the Host Club (and paying good money to have the privilege of watching the performances of the hosts).
Of course, in the middle of this very, very nice group of yummy young men comes an intruder : Haruhi. First mistaken for a boy (she really doesn’t care about her appearance or her gender), she stumbles in the middle of the Host Club and gets shangaied into being a member of it.
From thereon, many funny things follow, and classical yet sweet things too : from the daily extravaganza of the Host Club to please their fangirl-customers, to the invasion of a would-be manager for the club who’s a last-degree female otaku drooling over her fantasy of Kyouya and also to the discovery of the twins that Haruhi can tell them apart and sees each of them as an individual, as well as her slow, gentle entry in their private world, Ouran Koukou Host Club is really a delightful surprise, highly recommended during these difficult days of extreme heat and hard work days.
Now, give me MORE !
PS : check out Wikipedia for more info on the show.
Sunday, July 23, 2006
When My Pen Itches
It's a very weird sensation. Every now and then, I go through a bout of this strangest of fits.
I want to write. Just to write. Anything. A blog entry, a chapter of a fanfic, a message on a webboard. Anything, so long as I get to write. It's a nagging sensation, but a fun one also. To control it requires a strength of will I sometimes don't feel like gathering. It comes with being lazy, and with this being the end of a sunday afternoon. The sun is gently shining upon the trees on the forest. The heat is at last bearable after the visit of two thunderstorms last night--and most of all, I'm just too tired to shoo this mood away.
But there is one problem: even though I have a fanfic in the works, and scheduled for completion in September, today is July 23rd, and September is still far away. Even though the characters keep pestering me with little details, with insight on their personalities, I just can't let them overcome me for quite a while.
So instead, I write blog entries.
Most of the time, they're somber pieces, because the world we live in is a dark place for a great many, with the notable exception of the West, Japan and some rich people who enjoy life by crushing the existence of others. Nice leeches, very nice. Ooops, I'd better stop here, or this is going to derail in yet another piece of ranting. Sorry about that. So, most of the time I write dark-toned entries, because they reflect my vision of the world, and because I feel the need to share it around (Who ever said I was a nice girl?). I never (well, almost) speak about personal stuff or about my everyday life. Quite frankly, my everyday life is of no interest to strangers, and is better shared with friends and family face to face. Live, you know?
Still, there are brighter things one can talk about in a blog entry. I should talk about anime and manga more than I've done until now. Hm. Yes, I should. I should also talk more about TV series. It would be fitting, since I've immersed myself in those in the last months, more than I've watched anime.
Perhaps I should also warn the innocent reader who'd somehow stumble upon this blog entry to beware of Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (aka MMORPG). Even I, who never play Computer Games (and I mean that, I don't even own a single one, and I own no console), got swallowed by that abyss. For a few months, I sank into a universe, devoting more and more time to that game each day, allowing it to eat bigger and bigger bits of my life. Welll, no longer. I have other things to do, other interests, and another universe to exist into, thank you very much.
But the lure of those online universes is a powerful one. Before I was confronted to such an experience, I didn't quite understand how you could get devoured by those things. Now, I have a better idea of the process involved. But I also know that you can easily win free of them. In those games as in all things, you decide. You, and nobody else. You decide to earse a character you created to be an ersatz of you. Nobody can prevent you from doing that, but yourself. Consequences on the universe you're leaving? Hey, why do you care? Leave it to the other players, they'll manage. Why worry? That universe existed before you came along, and it will keep on existing long after you're gone. We like to believe it, and to entertain that illusion, but we're not indispensable. In any domain, anywhere.
As they say, cemetaries are filled with indispensable people.
.... Hmmmmmm--we're now rather far away from the subject of my wirting brighter blog entries. Not to mention the title of this particular entry. Although, come to think of it, all this rambling has one source: my pen is itching.
Right now, I feel like writing.
Anything.
Just...writing.
And it feels wonderful!
I want to write. Just to write. Anything. A blog entry, a chapter of a fanfic, a message on a webboard. Anything, so long as I get to write. It's a nagging sensation, but a fun one also. To control it requires a strength of will I sometimes don't feel like gathering. It comes with being lazy, and with this being the end of a sunday afternoon. The sun is gently shining upon the trees on the forest. The heat is at last bearable after the visit of two thunderstorms last night--and most of all, I'm just too tired to shoo this mood away.
But there is one problem: even though I have a fanfic in the works, and scheduled for completion in September, today is July 23rd, and September is still far away. Even though the characters keep pestering me with little details, with insight on their personalities, I just can't let them overcome me for quite a while.
So instead, I write blog entries.
Most of the time, they're somber pieces, because the world we live in is a dark place for a great many, with the notable exception of the West, Japan and some rich people who enjoy life by crushing the existence of others. Nice leeches, very nice. Ooops, I'd better stop here, or this is going to derail in yet another piece of ranting. Sorry about that. So, most of the time I write dark-toned entries, because they reflect my vision of the world, and because I feel the need to share it around (Who ever said I was a nice girl?). I never (well, almost) speak about personal stuff or about my everyday life. Quite frankly, my everyday life is of no interest to strangers, and is better shared with friends and family face to face. Live, you know?
Still, there are brighter things one can talk about in a blog entry. I should talk about anime and manga more than I've done until now. Hm. Yes, I should. I should also talk more about TV series. It would be fitting, since I've immersed myself in those in the last months, more than I've watched anime.
Perhaps I should also warn the innocent reader who'd somehow stumble upon this blog entry to beware of Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (aka MMORPG). Even I, who never play Computer Games (and I mean that, I don't even own a single one, and I own no console), got swallowed by that abyss. For a few months, I sank into a universe, devoting more and more time to that game each day, allowing it to eat bigger and bigger bits of my life. Welll, no longer. I have other things to do, other interests, and another universe to exist into, thank you very much.
But the lure of those online universes is a powerful one. Before I was confronted to such an experience, I didn't quite understand how you could get devoured by those things. Now, I have a better idea of the process involved. But I also know that you can easily win free of them. In those games as in all things, you decide. You, and nobody else. You decide to earse a character you created to be an ersatz of you. Nobody can prevent you from doing that, but yourself. Consequences on the universe you're leaving? Hey, why do you care? Leave it to the other players, they'll manage. Why worry? That universe existed before you came along, and it will keep on existing long after you're gone. We like to believe it, and to entertain that illusion, but we're not indispensable. In any domain, anywhere.
As they say, cemetaries are filled with indispensable people.
.... Hmmmmmm--we're now rather far away from the subject of my wirting brighter blog entries. Not to mention the title of this particular entry. Although, come to think of it, all this rambling has one source: my pen is itching.
Right now, I feel like writing.
Anything.
Just...writing.
And it feels wonderful!
Friday, July 21, 2006
And All Their Dreams, Torn Asunder.
I’ve been trying to gather my thoughts on the current wars led by Israel against the civilians of Gaza and Lebanon. I know, I know, many righteous people will tell me that Israel is simply trying to free its kidnapped soldiers and fighting against the terrorists of Hamas and Hezbollah. Will those same people please explain to me how bombing the Christian quarters of Beirut is fighting the Hezbollah? How annihilating the infrastructures of Lebanon, undermining its government and killing off children is fighting against terror and helping free those poor soldiers?
It’s highly likely, all these actions can achieve is getting those soldiers killed, sparking rage and long-lived hatred in the hearts of the Lebanese population, and in the end destroying any hope for peace and stability in the region for a very, very long time.
No matter how I try, I just don’t understand the rationale that’s behind Israel’s current actions. I don’t understand what the government of Ehoud Olmert is hoping to achieve. Destroying the Hezbollah? Can anyone in his right mind truly believe that? After a week of intense bombardment, all Israel has achieved is the destruction of a country that was rebuilding itself and finally succeeding in getting a chance at peace and stability after a score of years in the throes of civil war and Israeli/Syrian occupation. The death toll in civilians has soared, while the Hezbollah appears to have lost almost nothing of its power and hold on the South of Lebanon. With its seemingly random strikes, Israel is seen attacking humanitarian convoys, Beirut’s reserves for food, and it’s even hampering the evacuation of foreigners by threatening the boats which come to Beirut to get innocent people trapped in this one)sided war.
Yes, you heard me. I’m sure the American press hasn’t spoken much of it, but Israel has forced French evacuation boats to leave early, abandoning hundreds of refugees in Beirut, because past a given time Israel kindly warned the French authorities that it could “no longer guarantee” the boats’ safety and safe escape from the trap of Beirut’s port.
There. Now, do you see where we stand? Do you see the insanity of Israel’s actions? I get the feeling this is a runaway train heading straight for a mountain’s wall at full speed, and unable to stop.
What will it take for the international community to react?
Mr Bush is happy to let Israel do what he’d do if he could spare the military power, since his primitive black and white vision of the world would have him subdue the parts of the world which don’t work according to his views through the force of arms. Mr Bush dares to “hope the civilian casualties will be kept to the minimum”, in yet another display of despicable hypocrisy. Mr Bush cares nothing if Lebanon is destroyed. Mr Bush imagines that he can have Israel be the US’s viceroy in the region, a looming, threatening power that would guarantee the region’s stability for the US’ insatiable thirst for oil (and its profit for W’s friends…). And if whole populations in the Middle East are unhappy, live in poverty, cannot have the slightest chance at achieving a good life, who cares? Not Mr Bush, and not the Christian fanatics which are his base of support.
Mr Blair is also happy being Mr Bush’s dog. For some reason I have yet to understand, Mr Blair has chosen to debase the UK, and to play the role of Mr Bush’s and the US’ faithful servant. The G8 meeting conversation (in its entirety, not the small bit that went on TV), is very enlightening in that regard. There, again, I fail to understand. And I fail to understand how the English people can accept that, and how the advisers who have the ear of Mr Blair let him play that game without warning him of the political consequences of this game of his. He should stop, if only for his own personal interest—or is he really into that foaming at the mouth self-righteous “world vision” that they’re brining peace by allowing a few “unfortunate sacrifices” to take place?
As to Europe…. Poor, tattered Europe. The acceptance of the Eastern countries has diminished it. We have welcomed among us people who care nothing for the European ideal, only for the money Europe can bestow upon their private companies. Politically-wise, they follow the US in blind displays of gratitude for the US’s so-called support during the cold war, even though as I recall, at Yalta, when Stalin cut the world in half, the Americans agreed to it, and to abandoning the Eastern countries behind the Iron Curtain to the tender mercies of the Soviet Empire. Needless to say, I have yet to understand those people’s blind faith in the US as well.
France would do the right thing, France is calling for action and a cease-fire. At least someone is. But they don’t have the military power to move, and make a difference. Europe is too divided for France’s voice to be heard, thanks to all our new friends from the East.
The silence of the Arab countries is deafening, and extremely dangerous. The more time passes, the more populations who see that Lebanon is abandoned to the bombs of Israel are likely to turn, not to their own governments, but to terrorist groups and militia.
Where are Israel’s and the US’s hopes for a future stability and peace in the region in all this?
Nowhere.
The only thing in sight is-- War.
Devastation.
Death.
Injustice.
Horror rained down from the sky by people who should know better, whose families have suffered the most horrible of genocides, and thus should know better than to visit chaos and death on innocents. Or is it that the horrors they suffered has bereft them of a heart and soul? Is it that they believe themselves entitled to any kind of action because of their terrible past? Has it made them blind and uncaring to the suffering of others? There is a horrible symmetry in Israel’s actions, in its bombing of innocent people. I think, that many people who advocate this exercise in slaughter of a country should take a good look in the mirror. I think what they’d see there wouldn’t be to their liking.
Because, the more time passes, the more they are becoming the enemy.
And all those who give a sad nod and look the other way as Mr Bush and Mr Blair are doing, are following the same dark path.
Tell me, Mr Bush, tell me, Mr Blair, you who think so highly of yourselves and your motives, where is your moral high ground, when you allow the bombing of humanitarian convoys, of purely civilian targets, of Christian quarters of Beirut to take place? Where is it, when you admittedly plan to wait until the grisly job of butchering Lebanon is done before coming in as saviours?
In Lebanon, people had at last reached the end s of their struggles. They had overcome the terrible consequences of a twenty-years long civil war. They had rebuilt. They were looking at very good prospects in terms of tourism. People at last had a chance of building themselves good lives, and at being happy.
All this is gone.
All this has been annihilated by Israel, and by the US’s and the UK’s mad choice to let it all happen unhindered.
All those people’s dreams, burnt to ashes.
It’s highly likely, all these actions can achieve is getting those soldiers killed, sparking rage and long-lived hatred in the hearts of the Lebanese population, and in the end destroying any hope for peace and stability in the region for a very, very long time.
No matter how I try, I just don’t understand the rationale that’s behind Israel’s current actions. I don’t understand what the government of Ehoud Olmert is hoping to achieve. Destroying the Hezbollah? Can anyone in his right mind truly believe that? After a week of intense bombardment, all Israel has achieved is the destruction of a country that was rebuilding itself and finally succeeding in getting a chance at peace and stability after a score of years in the throes of civil war and Israeli/Syrian occupation. The death toll in civilians has soared, while the Hezbollah appears to have lost almost nothing of its power and hold on the South of Lebanon. With its seemingly random strikes, Israel is seen attacking humanitarian convoys, Beirut’s reserves for food, and it’s even hampering the evacuation of foreigners by threatening the boats which come to Beirut to get innocent people trapped in this one)sided war.
Yes, you heard me. I’m sure the American press hasn’t spoken much of it, but Israel has forced French evacuation boats to leave early, abandoning hundreds of refugees in Beirut, because past a given time Israel kindly warned the French authorities that it could “no longer guarantee” the boats’ safety and safe escape from the trap of Beirut’s port.
There. Now, do you see where we stand? Do you see the insanity of Israel’s actions? I get the feeling this is a runaway train heading straight for a mountain’s wall at full speed, and unable to stop.
What will it take for the international community to react?
Mr Bush is happy to let Israel do what he’d do if he could spare the military power, since his primitive black and white vision of the world would have him subdue the parts of the world which don’t work according to his views through the force of arms. Mr Bush dares to “hope the civilian casualties will be kept to the minimum”, in yet another display of despicable hypocrisy. Mr Bush cares nothing if Lebanon is destroyed. Mr Bush imagines that he can have Israel be the US’s viceroy in the region, a looming, threatening power that would guarantee the region’s stability for the US’ insatiable thirst for oil (and its profit for W’s friends…). And if whole populations in the Middle East are unhappy, live in poverty, cannot have the slightest chance at achieving a good life, who cares? Not Mr Bush, and not the Christian fanatics which are his base of support.
Mr Blair is also happy being Mr Bush’s dog. For some reason I have yet to understand, Mr Blair has chosen to debase the UK, and to play the role of Mr Bush’s and the US’ faithful servant. The G8 meeting conversation (in its entirety, not the small bit that went on TV), is very enlightening in that regard. There, again, I fail to understand. And I fail to understand how the English people can accept that, and how the advisers who have the ear of Mr Blair let him play that game without warning him of the political consequences of this game of his. He should stop, if only for his own personal interest—or is he really into that foaming at the mouth self-righteous “world vision” that they’re brining peace by allowing a few “unfortunate sacrifices” to take place?
As to Europe…. Poor, tattered Europe. The acceptance of the Eastern countries has diminished it. We have welcomed among us people who care nothing for the European ideal, only for the money Europe can bestow upon their private companies. Politically-wise, they follow the US in blind displays of gratitude for the US’s so-called support during the cold war, even though as I recall, at Yalta, when Stalin cut the world in half, the Americans agreed to it, and to abandoning the Eastern countries behind the Iron Curtain to the tender mercies of the Soviet Empire. Needless to say, I have yet to understand those people’s blind faith in the US as well.
France would do the right thing, France is calling for action and a cease-fire. At least someone is. But they don’t have the military power to move, and make a difference. Europe is too divided for France’s voice to be heard, thanks to all our new friends from the East.
The silence of the Arab countries is deafening, and extremely dangerous. The more time passes, the more populations who see that Lebanon is abandoned to the bombs of Israel are likely to turn, not to their own governments, but to terrorist groups and militia.
Where are Israel’s and the US’s hopes for a future stability and peace in the region in all this?
Nowhere.
The only thing in sight is-- War.
Devastation.
Death.
Injustice.
Horror rained down from the sky by people who should know better, whose families have suffered the most horrible of genocides, and thus should know better than to visit chaos and death on innocents. Or is it that the horrors they suffered has bereft them of a heart and soul? Is it that they believe themselves entitled to any kind of action because of their terrible past? Has it made them blind and uncaring to the suffering of others? There is a horrible symmetry in Israel’s actions, in its bombing of innocent people. I think, that many people who advocate this exercise in slaughter of a country should take a good look in the mirror. I think what they’d see there wouldn’t be to their liking.
Because, the more time passes, the more they are becoming the enemy.
And all those who give a sad nod and look the other way as Mr Bush and Mr Blair are doing, are following the same dark path.
Tell me, Mr Bush, tell me, Mr Blair, you who think so highly of yourselves and your motives, where is your moral high ground, when you allow the bombing of humanitarian convoys, of purely civilian targets, of Christian quarters of Beirut to take place? Where is it, when you admittedly plan to wait until the grisly job of butchering Lebanon is done before coming in as saviours?
In Lebanon, people had at last reached the end s of their struggles. They had overcome the terrible consequences of a twenty-years long civil war. They had rebuilt. They were looking at very good prospects in terms of tourism. People at last had a chance of building themselves good lives, and at being happy.
All this is gone.
All this has been annihilated by Israel, and by the US’s and the UK’s mad choice to let it all happen unhindered.
All those people’s dreams, burnt to ashes.
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
All Dead Civilans, Rise--and Say Thank You!
Every time I think we've hit rock bottom in ugliness and manipulation, a nice piece of news slaps me in the face to remind me that, no, there is no bottom to this particular pit of mud.
The US has reached an agreement with Israel on how to manage the little skirmishes taking place in Lebanon. Yeah, you know, this little bit of strife, where Israel is just trying to free two soldiers and accidentally killing off scores of civilians, men, women, children and old people (those are just collateral damages, they're sorry about them):
The outlines of an American-Israeli consensus began to emerge on Tuesday in which Israel would continue to bombard Lebanon for about another week to degrade the capabilities of the Hezbollah militia, officials of the two countries said.
Then, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice would go to the region and seek to establish a buffer zone in southern Lebanon and perhaps an international force to monitor Lebanon’s borders to prevent Hezbollah from obtaining more rockets with which to bombard Israel.
American officials signaled that Ms. Rice was waiting at least a few more days before wading into the conflict, in part to give Israel more time to weaken Hezbollah forces.
Now I wonder, just how callous, how cynical can the US be? Wait until Israel has had time to weaken the Hezbollah, sure. And to kill how many more innocent people in the meantime? To destroy how many more roads, bridges, electric plants? Waiting until Israel has had time to weaken the Hezbollah? Talk about waiting until Israel is done anihilating that poor country, and blowing any hope of peace in the region to smithereens!
Mrs Rice, when you travel there to be seen as the American hero, the peace keeper, please, don't forget to drop by the destroyed homes and crops, by the cemetaries to chat with those who have lost a son, a daughter, a sister, a brother, a mother, a father, a friend to this barbaric war led by Israel. I'm sure they'll understand your rationale, and will congratulate you without any reservation.
Heck, maybe you and your dear W will be up for the Nobel Prize for peace next year, who knows?
... Oh, sorry, my mistake, I meant the Nobel Prize for Chaos Spawning and Cynicism. What? There's no such thing? No worries, I'm sure we can come with something suitable in no time.
(Source today's New York Times)
The US has reached an agreement with Israel on how to manage the little skirmishes taking place in Lebanon. Yeah, you know, this little bit of strife, where Israel is just trying to free two soldiers and accidentally killing off scores of civilians, men, women, children and old people (those are just collateral damages, they're sorry about them):
The outlines of an American-Israeli consensus began to emerge on Tuesday in which Israel would continue to bombard Lebanon for about another week to degrade the capabilities of the Hezbollah militia, officials of the two countries said.
Then, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice would go to the region and seek to establish a buffer zone in southern Lebanon and perhaps an international force to monitor Lebanon’s borders to prevent Hezbollah from obtaining more rockets with which to bombard Israel.
American officials signaled that Ms. Rice was waiting at least a few more days before wading into the conflict, in part to give Israel more time to weaken Hezbollah forces.
Now I wonder, just how callous, how cynical can the US be? Wait until Israel has had time to weaken the Hezbollah, sure. And to kill how many more innocent people in the meantime? To destroy how many more roads, bridges, electric plants? Waiting until Israel has had time to weaken the Hezbollah? Talk about waiting until Israel is done anihilating that poor country, and blowing any hope of peace in the region to smithereens!
Mrs Rice, when you travel there to be seen as the American hero, the peace keeper, please, don't forget to drop by the destroyed homes and crops, by the cemetaries to chat with those who have lost a son, a daughter, a sister, a brother, a mother, a father, a friend to this barbaric war led by Israel. I'm sure they'll understand your rationale, and will congratulate you without any reservation.
Heck, maybe you and your dear W will be up for the Nobel Prize for peace next year, who knows?
... Oh, sorry, my mistake, I meant the Nobel Prize for Chaos Spawning and Cynicism. What? There's no such thing? No worries, I'm sure we can come with something suitable in no time.
(Source today's New York Times)
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
Laugh So That You Won't Cry
Reading the media everyday, and in particular reading the Editorial and Opinion columns is the only way to get the beginnings of a grasp of situations, and what people think about it (I really hate this in American media, they never speak their mind and their news columns are blunt descriptions without a single hint of opinion voicing, which allows the readers who skip the opinions section to escape the facts that one should reflect and analyze events, make oneself an opinion on those).
It is also, sometimes, a good way to get a good laugh at the idiots who look down on Europe and are blind to their own (perfect by nature and definition) country. Yesterday's editorial of the Washington Post by Mr Mallaby was such a welcome occasion to laugh at an otherwise more than dreary world situation. Here is the great wisdom Mr Mallaby has to share with us retarded peoples of Europe:
We may need $100 oil to jolt the Europeans and the Chinese.
Yeah, sure. It will jolt us. But first, darling, it will jolt YOU. We're not the ones living in coutnries where masculinity is defined by the number of gallons your car swallows every 100 kms. You do. Our cars drink a meager 5 litres per km. Your cars drink, on average, at least 3 times that. We have correct means of collective transport like trains. You have a decaying train system, and you have planes (very hungry where kerosene is concerned as I recall). So, while we will certainly get a jolt, it will most likely happen some time after the US has started weeping and wishing it had better ways of expressing its (obvious) superiority over all of humankind.
Even today, many of these freeloaders see mayhem in Iraq as America's problem. You'd think that chaos in a major oil exporter, with the potential to seed extremism all over the Middle East, would alarm all responsible governments.
Two sentences, two comments:
1 - But it is your problem, my dear. You decided to go there under the false pretense of bringing democracy to the Middle-East. You got warned you would only spawn chaos and instability and make the situation worse than it was at the start, but you went in anyway with your guns blazing. We even went so far as to tell you in the great hall of UNO before the whole world, and to veto your use of NATO for your own purposes. You went in anyway. Now you realize we were right all along. Well, shoulder your responsibility and deal, darling.
2 - But we are alarmed, my dear. We are alarmed. We told you so. The thing is, it's still your shit, your mess, your chaos. You went in and did it, now clean up after yourselves, why don't you? We are aware that oil is a much bigger problem for you than it is for us. Don't ask us to settle what you created against our expressed will and advice.
There is more where that comes from, among what is, in part, a rather interesting paper on Israel's response in Lebanon. If I have one piece of advice for Mr Mallaby it's this one: learn to accept blame, learn to accept you can fail and make mistakes. Drop the arrogance, and maybe people will be more prone to listen to you and to help you out. Right now, you're not winning at the world's great popularity contest.
It is also, sometimes, a good way to get a good laugh at the idiots who look down on Europe and are blind to their own (perfect by nature and definition) country. Yesterday's editorial of the Washington Post by Mr Mallaby was such a welcome occasion to laugh at an otherwise more than dreary world situation. Here is the great wisdom Mr Mallaby has to share with us retarded peoples of Europe:
We may need $100 oil to jolt the Europeans and the Chinese.
Yeah, sure. It will jolt us. But first, darling, it will jolt YOU. We're not the ones living in coutnries where masculinity is defined by the number of gallons your car swallows every 100 kms. You do. Our cars drink a meager 5 litres per km. Your cars drink, on average, at least 3 times that. We have correct means of collective transport like trains. You have a decaying train system, and you have planes (very hungry where kerosene is concerned as I recall). So, while we will certainly get a jolt, it will most likely happen some time after the US has started weeping and wishing it had better ways of expressing its (obvious) superiority over all of humankind.
Even today, many of these freeloaders see mayhem in Iraq as America's problem. You'd think that chaos in a major oil exporter, with the potential to seed extremism all over the Middle East, would alarm all responsible governments.
Two sentences, two comments:
1 - But it is your problem, my dear. You decided to go there under the false pretense of bringing democracy to the Middle-East. You got warned you would only spawn chaos and instability and make the situation worse than it was at the start, but you went in anyway with your guns blazing. We even went so far as to tell you in the great hall of UNO before the whole world, and to veto your use of NATO for your own purposes. You went in anyway. Now you realize we were right all along. Well, shoulder your responsibility and deal, darling.
2 - But we are alarmed, my dear. We are alarmed. We told you so. The thing is, it's still your shit, your mess, your chaos. You went in and did it, now clean up after yourselves, why don't you? We are aware that oil is a much bigger problem for you than it is for us. Don't ask us to settle what you created against our expressed will and advice.
There is more where that comes from, among what is, in part, a rather interesting paper on Israel's response in Lebanon. If I have one piece of advice for Mr Mallaby it's this one: learn to accept blame, learn to accept you can fail and make mistakes. Drop the arrogance, and maybe people will be more prone to listen to you and to help you out. Right now, you're not winning at the world's great popularity contest.
Friday, July 14, 2006
Back into the Stone Age
An eye for an eye. Of course, that's written in the Scriptures, but then many things (and their exact opposite, but let's not be picky here) are written in the Scriptures--most of which are absurdities, barbaric monstrosities and displays of blind rage, hatred and people foaming at the mouth with an insatiable lust for vengeance.
Still, in today's Israel, Gaza and Lebanon, we've upped the scales and gone beyond a mere eye for an eye. When one of the greatest military powers in the world uses the pretext of an attack by a milita to bomb a civilian airport, bomb civilian targets and blockade a sovereign country, we have indeed crossed a line. Mr Bush can say that Israel has the right to defend itself, that is as obvious as the sun's rising in the East every morning at dawn. However, defending oneself doesn't mean bombing people back into the stone age--not in my book. The more so, since this particular militia, the Hezbollah, was born thanks to one of Israel's many tragic mistakes of the past. To condemn and strike a country and its population because your own mistakes are coming back to haunt you is...I don't know, it's hard to find a word to describe that--convenient? Hypocritical? Revolting?
I keep hearing the Israeli ambassador in Brussels claiming that Israel has exercised a lot of restraint, and that Israel is being more than reasonable. I fear, his definition of the word "reasonable" is starting to differ so much from mine, and from many people's in Europe, that soon nothing will be able to bridge that gap in mutual comprehension. And there lies a terrible threat to much more than just Israel. The more chaos spreads in the Middle-East, the more likely it becomes that someday, someone will snap and push on a button. And the less we are able to talk with people on both sides, the less the words we use when we talk to each other have the same meaning to all around the table, the greater the risk of someone pushing that button someday will be.
Even if you don't give a damn about civilian populations in Lebanon or Gaza, even if you hate their guts, even if you couldn't care less about their right to self-determination and to their own country, even if you laugh at the concept of justice or of the UNO's resolutions, there's one thing you should care about: what will happen if things keep deteriorating. For many reasons, Israel believes it is above all criticism, and is entitled to act however it pleases in what it perceives to be the defense of its territory or interests. I understand those reasons, but they are not reasons. They are historical facts, historical tragedies, but they are not reasons. They do not place Israel above and beyond reckoning, or beyond the rule of international law.
Still, I find myself hard placed to blame Israel for their continuing use of the same "you can't tell us what to do because we're the victims here" response. Why should they stop? It works. Nobody really dares to go against that line. Nobody really dares to tell them to stop with the victimization trip, and to get real. Certainly not the US, which would do better to have a good reality check and get a good look at a map of the world, and not our poor unbalanced and dangling Europe. And in the meantime, civilians get bombed, people die.
Rage festers.
Hatred grows.
Israel is not more secure than it was before. The Israelian people are no happier. They still dread suicide-bombers when they take a bus or sit down in a cafe or a restaurant.
To break the cycle is the only viable solution--that, or complete anihilation of the enemy. I regret to say that I am not in favor of the latter. And breaking the cycle is hard, extremely difficult. It demands courage and guts. Grand warlike speeches--those do not demand any kind of courage, they just demand spit, a good pitch and a high dose of populism.
So, now what?
Will Israel push the Middle East the rest of the way down the path to Chaos?
If this were a novel, it might be interesting, or thrilling to find out. It's not fiction, it's reality. I am not thrilled. I am disgusted, and somehwere, deep, deep down, I hope someone will at last see the only way out of this, and will have the strength to try.
Still, in today's Israel, Gaza and Lebanon, we've upped the scales and gone beyond a mere eye for an eye. When one of the greatest military powers in the world uses the pretext of an attack by a milita to bomb a civilian airport, bomb civilian targets and blockade a sovereign country, we have indeed crossed a line. Mr Bush can say that Israel has the right to defend itself, that is as obvious as the sun's rising in the East every morning at dawn. However, defending oneself doesn't mean bombing people back into the stone age--not in my book. The more so, since this particular militia, the Hezbollah, was born thanks to one of Israel's many tragic mistakes of the past. To condemn and strike a country and its population because your own mistakes are coming back to haunt you is...I don't know, it's hard to find a word to describe that--convenient? Hypocritical? Revolting?
I keep hearing the Israeli ambassador in Brussels claiming that Israel has exercised a lot of restraint, and that Israel is being more than reasonable. I fear, his definition of the word "reasonable" is starting to differ so much from mine, and from many people's in Europe, that soon nothing will be able to bridge that gap in mutual comprehension. And there lies a terrible threat to much more than just Israel. The more chaos spreads in the Middle-East, the more likely it becomes that someday, someone will snap and push on a button. And the less we are able to talk with people on both sides, the less the words we use when we talk to each other have the same meaning to all around the table, the greater the risk of someone pushing that button someday will be.
Even if you don't give a damn about civilian populations in Lebanon or Gaza, even if you hate their guts, even if you couldn't care less about their right to self-determination and to their own country, even if you laugh at the concept of justice or of the UNO's resolutions, there's one thing you should care about: what will happen if things keep deteriorating. For many reasons, Israel believes it is above all criticism, and is entitled to act however it pleases in what it perceives to be the defense of its territory or interests. I understand those reasons, but they are not reasons. They are historical facts, historical tragedies, but they are not reasons. They do not place Israel above and beyond reckoning, or beyond the rule of international law.
Still, I find myself hard placed to blame Israel for their continuing use of the same "you can't tell us what to do because we're the victims here" response. Why should they stop? It works. Nobody really dares to go against that line. Nobody really dares to tell them to stop with the victimization trip, and to get real. Certainly not the US, which would do better to have a good reality check and get a good look at a map of the world, and not our poor unbalanced and dangling Europe. And in the meantime, civilians get bombed, people die.
Rage festers.
Hatred grows.
Israel is not more secure than it was before. The Israelian people are no happier. They still dread suicide-bombers when they take a bus or sit down in a cafe or a restaurant.
To break the cycle is the only viable solution--that, or complete anihilation of the enemy. I regret to say that I am not in favor of the latter. And breaking the cycle is hard, extremely difficult. It demands courage and guts. Grand warlike speeches--those do not demand any kind of courage, they just demand spit, a good pitch and a high dose of populism.
So, now what?
Will Israel push the Middle East the rest of the way down the path to Chaos?
If this were a novel, it might be interesting, or thrilling to find out. It's not fiction, it's reality. I am not thrilled. I am disgusted, and somehwere, deep, deep down, I hope someone will at last see the only way out of this, and will have the strength to try.
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
Give Us A Break
There are many grave things happening in the world. Terror has struck India, the US at last declares its will to abide by the Geneva Conventions (bye bye, torture) while hypocritically trying to cover up for its actions during these last years (the Pentagon claimed its policies always generally complied with the Geneva Conventions--and mock drownings or other niceties are part of all good youth Summer camps as we all know), and yet the media remain hopelessly stuck on a football(*) match.
On a few seconds of a match, to be exact. Come on, people, yes, Zidane struck Materazzi. Yes, Zidane deserved the Red Card. No, there is no excuse for a great professional player such as he, used to all these insults that are the everyday life of a pro during matches, to react that way, no matter what Materazzi said, be it about his mother, his sister, his cat if he has one, or anything.
There.
Done.
Now, get over it, and get a life!
Not only are the media beyond ridiculous in their obsessive quest for the words that triggered Zidane's anger--it does NOT matter, people, it is DONE. You will NOT have this match replayed--but what's more now the low-lives that are the Far Right people, in France and in Italy, are now joining the fray. The stench of racism is now appearing in newspapers, be it because they are the tool of the Far Right, or because they relay what they have the gall to call "information" in order to get more audience.
I am starting to think there is no limit to the mediocrity of the Far Right. I hope this blow right back in its face. I also hope the general media will at last give up on this hysteria, and finally realize that the World Cup is OVER.
The world keeps on turning.
Wars keep happening. People keep dying. Iraq is still there. Israel is bombing Gaza back into the stone age with the most ludicrous of pretexts, global warming is coming along way faster than first estimated...
Yeah, I think there are other things to consider right now.
Just a bit more important than a stupid head blow.
(*) Oh, not the American thing that is armored-rugby, football, you know, the game that's played with feet, hence the sport's name...
On a few seconds of a match, to be exact. Come on, people, yes, Zidane struck Materazzi. Yes, Zidane deserved the Red Card. No, there is no excuse for a great professional player such as he, used to all these insults that are the everyday life of a pro during matches, to react that way, no matter what Materazzi said, be it about his mother, his sister, his cat if he has one, or anything.
There.
Done.
Now, get over it, and get a life!
Not only are the media beyond ridiculous in their obsessive quest for the words that triggered Zidane's anger--it does NOT matter, people, it is DONE. You will NOT have this match replayed--but what's more now the low-lives that are the Far Right people, in France and in Italy, are now joining the fray. The stench of racism is now appearing in newspapers, be it because they are the tool of the Far Right, or because they relay what they have the gall to call "information" in order to get more audience.
I am starting to think there is no limit to the mediocrity of the Far Right. I hope this blow right back in its face. I also hope the general media will at last give up on this hysteria, and finally realize that the World Cup is OVER.
The world keeps on turning.
Wars keep happening. People keep dying. Iraq is still there. Israel is bombing Gaza back into the stone age with the most ludicrous of pretexts, global warming is coming along way faster than first estimated...
Yeah, I think there are other things to consider right now.
Just a bit more important than a stupid head blow.
(*) Oh, not the American thing that is armored-rugby, football, you know, the game that's played with feet, hence the sport's name...
Tuesday, April 04, 2006
Long Live McCarthyism!
Those who thought that the superb movie Good Night, and Good Luck by George Clooney is just retelling tales of a past buried in the black depths of US history are sadly mistaken.
Mc Carthyism is still alive, and in better shape than ever!
What? The fabled US Freedom of Speech?
Oh, you mean the concept that allows fascists, neo-nazis and equally pleasant gentlemen to widely express their views, demonstrate in the streets and spit their hatred in the face of citizens cowed by fear?
Well, that wonderful concept is reserved for a certain class of people: the far-right extremists, the wackos, the religious fundamentalists who'd have anyone bow low before their idea of a divine entity.
As to the left-wingers, the liberals, the critics of W's long list of ineptitudes and mistakes, well, those cannot benefit from that oh so generous and advanced concept.
They are branded as traitors, as madmen. They are compared to Hitler, and great top-class (and right-wing) national papers take care to help in the unmasking and denouciation of those dangerous outcasts of the self-righteous American Society. This is what a professor of the presitigous university of Yale found out, at his expense. And of course, he's not the only one to have known the sorry fate of the outcast rejected by all, by friends, colleagues and students alike. His crime? Well, to harbor views that do not run with the mainstream of the Wall Street Journal's news, or with those of the so delicately balanced Fox News.
Anyuone interested can find the whole story here, in this paper of the Guardian's today edition.
A week or two ago, I was reading a paper reporting the words of former Justice Sandra O'Connor, recently retired from the US Supreme Court. In her speech before a floor of corporate lawyers, she was warning them against the threatening changes in the US governance, against what she called the US's current edging toward a dictatorship.
Well, it would seem the US is still edging in that direction. As things stand, the polarization of the opinion within the US, the years of pushing forward all the fundamentalists and extremists, be they religious or neo-cons, has transformed the US. Before the Bush years, the US used to be an image feared or hated in some parts of the world.
It is now a threatening, looming figure for many of its own citizens as well.
Mc Carthyism is still alive, and in better shape than ever!
What? The fabled US Freedom of Speech?
Oh, you mean the concept that allows fascists, neo-nazis and equally pleasant gentlemen to widely express their views, demonstrate in the streets and spit their hatred in the face of citizens cowed by fear?
Well, that wonderful concept is reserved for a certain class of people: the far-right extremists, the wackos, the religious fundamentalists who'd have anyone bow low before their idea of a divine entity.
As to the left-wingers, the liberals, the critics of W's long list of ineptitudes and mistakes, well, those cannot benefit from that oh so generous and advanced concept.
They are branded as traitors, as madmen. They are compared to Hitler, and great top-class (and right-wing) national papers take care to help in the unmasking and denouciation of those dangerous outcasts of the self-righteous American Society. This is what a professor of the presitigous university of Yale found out, at his expense. And of course, he's not the only one to have known the sorry fate of the outcast rejected by all, by friends, colleagues and students alike. His crime? Well, to harbor views that do not run with the mainstream of the Wall Street Journal's news, or with those of the so delicately balanced Fox News.
Anyuone interested can find the whole story here, in this paper of the Guardian's today edition.
A week or two ago, I was reading a paper reporting the words of former Justice Sandra O'Connor, recently retired from the US Supreme Court. In her speech before a floor of corporate lawyers, she was warning them against the threatening changes in the US governance, against what she called the US's current edging toward a dictatorship.
Well, it would seem the US is still edging in that direction. As things stand, the polarization of the opinion within the US, the years of pushing forward all the fundamentalists and extremists, be they religious or neo-cons, has transformed the US. Before the Bush years, the US used to be an image feared or hated in some parts of the world.
It is now a threatening, looming figure for many of its own citizens as well.
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
Shimmering Hopes
Sometimes, I could kiss journalists. This is such a time. Even if there is no hope left, nothing to be expected from the US government, at least the US journalists haven't forgotten the meaning of intellectual honesty (even if they dare not speak out themselves but simply offer an editorial column to one of their European colleagues). At least they remember they can speak out and set things straight.
(...) How many times have we seen Janet Jackson's breast in the course of a discussion of the limits of family entertainment? How many times have we printed material that Jews might consider offensive in an attempt to define the extent of anti-Semitism? It seems odd that most U.S. papers patronize their readers by withholding cartoons that the whole world talks about. To publish does not mean to endorse. Context matters.
It's worth remembering that the controversy started out as a well-meaning attempt to write a children's book about the life of the prophet Muhammad. The book was designed to promote religious tolerance. But the author encountered the consequences of religious hatred when he looked for an illustrator. He could not find one. Denmark's artists seemed to fear for their lives.
(...) In this jihad over humor, tolerance is disdained by people who demand it of others. The authoritarian governments that claim to speak on behalf of Europe's supposedly oppressed Muslim minorities practice systematic repression against their own religious minorities. They have radicalized what was at first a difficult question. Now they are asking not for respect but for submission. They want non-Muslims in Europe to live by Muslim rules.
On Friday the State Department found it appropriate to intervene. It blasted the publication of the cartoons as unacceptable incitement to religious hatred. It is a peculiar moment when the government of the United States, which likes to see itself as the home of free speech, suggests to European journalists what not to print.
Thank you, Washington Post, for coming clear with such an editorial.
Maybe there's still good luck to be found...
(...) How many times have we seen Janet Jackson's breast in the course of a discussion of the limits of family entertainment? How many times have we printed material that Jews might consider offensive in an attempt to define the extent of anti-Semitism? It seems odd that most U.S. papers patronize their readers by withholding cartoons that the whole world talks about. To publish does not mean to endorse. Context matters.
It's worth remembering that the controversy started out as a well-meaning attempt to write a children's book about the life of the prophet Muhammad. The book was designed to promote religious tolerance. But the author encountered the consequences of religious hatred when he looked for an illustrator. He could not find one. Denmark's artists seemed to fear for their lives.
(...) In this jihad over humor, tolerance is disdained by people who demand it of others. The authoritarian governments that claim to speak on behalf of Europe's supposedly oppressed Muslim minorities practice systematic repression against their own religious minorities. They have radicalized what was at first a difficult question. Now they are asking not for respect but for submission. They want non-Muslims in Europe to live by Muslim rules.
On Friday the State Department found it appropriate to intervene. It blasted the publication of the cartoons as unacceptable incitement to religious hatred. It is a peculiar moment when the government of the United States, which likes to see itself as the home of free speech, suggests to European journalists what not to print.
Thank you, Washington Post, for coming clear with such an editorial.
Maybe there's still good luck to be found...
Monday, February 06, 2006
What If the Heavens Were Empty ? (*)
Well, we'd all be better off, for sure.
I've had it with religions. Religions, mark my words. Not faith. Faith is a personal question, an intimate interrogation for every human being to consider and ponder during the course of their lives. Faith is worthy of infinite respect. Religions have shown over the age how unworthy of trust or respect they are, and they continue displaying it for the world to see.
Religions are poison.
Religions manipulate people, take advantage of their weaknesses, of their distress, of a lack of education they themselves orchestrated. Religions hate freedom. They hate choice and they hate doubt. These are all the enemies of religions. Weapons against dogma and the dictates of human institutions of power which claim to speak on behalf of a supreme being.
Religions want to control our lives, our thoughts, they aim at blindfolding us, at locking out our minds, and restrict our apprehension of the world to what they want us to see.
Today, it's parodic cartoons. Bad taste parodic cartoons, I'll give you that. But... So WHAT?
WE ARE NOW FOUR MONTHS AFTER THEIR PUBLICATION !
Who do the middle-east governments and the religious fundamentalists think they're kidding when they organize violent demonstrations and start foamiong at the mouth, claiming this is a war of religions?
Who?
Not me, and I hope, not you.
These parodic cartoons were published in Denmark. Good. They were published on September 30th, 2005 ! Denmark is a democracy. It has laws, and a solid judicial system. Now, can anyone tell me why the Danish muslim community didn't use the legal path and file a complain with the courts, since they seem to consider those cartoons insulting and offensive?
Let me repeat: why was this matter not brought before the courts and settled there?
Why did the leaders of this muslim community choose instead to wait for a few months, and then spark hatred and violence when they made a small, certainly unplanned, trip to Egypt? Can anyone tell me? To spark chaos, to provoke problems, to make the world an even worse place, an even sadder place?
How nice religions and their leaders are!
And now the Catholics come forth, now they explain how they understand, how there should be limits to parody, how there are things you cannot make humor with. How the sacred should not be touched.
Excuse me, where do you think you're living, my dear Catholic activists? In a theocracy? Ah, no, I didn't think so. We live in a democracy, in a SECULAR society. There is no censorhsip prior to publication. If you have a problem with something, you bring it to the courts and let them settle it. In the meantime, our secular societies guarantee us the right to express ourselves, guarantee us the freedom not to bow our heads before religions we do not recognize. Ah, yes, of course, we agnostics, we atheists, are a very dissonant voice. A problem, a flaw in the system, because of us, religions no longer hold sway. Too bad for them!
Bit by bit, religions crawl back into the political game, they try with all their will and might to regain their old power, to dictate what we may see or not see, hear or not hear. It's time to stand up for our freedoms. Maybe it's already late, but it's time we did anyway.
Oh, and let me finish with a word on our great friends in the US government: darlings, just keep your self-righteous pronouncements for your hypocritical selves, will you? A country which holds freedom of speech so precious it will allow neo-nazis gathering and consider them lawful has no moral highground to say the first word on what are nothing more than parodic cartoons.
Thank you.
Good night, and good luck.
(*) translation of the title of a wonderful song by Alain Souchon, one of the greatest French singers.
I've had it with religions. Religions, mark my words. Not faith. Faith is a personal question, an intimate interrogation for every human being to consider and ponder during the course of their lives. Faith is worthy of infinite respect. Religions have shown over the age how unworthy of trust or respect they are, and they continue displaying it for the world to see.
Religions are poison.
Religions manipulate people, take advantage of their weaknesses, of their distress, of a lack of education they themselves orchestrated. Religions hate freedom. They hate choice and they hate doubt. These are all the enemies of religions. Weapons against dogma and the dictates of human institutions of power which claim to speak on behalf of a supreme being.
Religions want to control our lives, our thoughts, they aim at blindfolding us, at locking out our minds, and restrict our apprehension of the world to what they want us to see.
Today, it's parodic cartoons. Bad taste parodic cartoons, I'll give you that. But... So WHAT?
WE ARE NOW FOUR MONTHS AFTER THEIR PUBLICATION !
Who do the middle-east governments and the religious fundamentalists think they're kidding when they organize violent demonstrations and start foamiong at the mouth, claiming this is a war of religions?
Who?
Not me, and I hope, not you.
These parodic cartoons were published in Denmark. Good. They were published on September 30th, 2005 ! Denmark is a democracy. It has laws, and a solid judicial system. Now, can anyone tell me why the Danish muslim community didn't use the legal path and file a complain with the courts, since they seem to consider those cartoons insulting and offensive?
Let me repeat: why was this matter not brought before the courts and settled there?
Why did the leaders of this muslim community choose instead to wait for a few months, and then spark hatred and violence when they made a small, certainly unplanned, trip to Egypt? Can anyone tell me? To spark chaos, to provoke problems, to make the world an even worse place, an even sadder place?
How nice religions and their leaders are!
And now the Catholics come forth, now they explain how they understand, how there should be limits to parody, how there are things you cannot make humor with. How the sacred should not be touched.
Excuse me, where do you think you're living, my dear Catholic activists? In a theocracy? Ah, no, I didn't think so. We live in a democracy, in a SECULAR society. There is no censorhsip prior to publication. If you have a problem with something, you bring it to the courts and let them settle it. In the meantime, our secular societies guarantee us the right to express ourselves, guarantee us the freedom not to bow our heads before religions we do not recognize. Ah, yes, of course, we agnostics, we atheists, are a very dissonant voice. A problem, a flaw in the system, because of us, religions no longer hold sway. Too bad for them!
Bit by bit, religions crawl back into the political game, they try with all their will and might to regain their old power, to dictate what we may see or not see, hear or not hear. It's time to stand up for our freedoms. Maybe it's already late, but it's time we did anyway.
Oh, and let me finish with a word on our great friends in the US government: darlings, just keep your self-righteous pronouncements for your hypocritical selves, will you? A country which holds freedom of speech so precious it will allow neo-nazis gathering and consider them lawful has no moral highground to say the first word on what are nothing more than parodic cartoons.
Thank you.
Good night, and good luck.
(*) translation of the title of a wonderful song by Alain Souchon, one of the greatest French singers.
Sunday, January 29, 2006
Schizophrenic Mafia Boys : Grandeur and Decadence of the US Government
Ah, the world doesn't realize the treasure it enjoys with the current US Administration. I think dear W. must be the most grotesque excuse for a liar and a hypocrit we've ever had the joy to see. Oh, and his appointed "science advisors" are of course on par with him.
Let's see :
In today's Washington Post issue : Some scientists, including President Bush's chief science adviser, John H. Marburger III, emphasize there is still much uncertainty about when abrupt global warming might occur. And this nice piece : "There's no agreement on what it is that constitutes a dangerous climate change," said Marburger (...)
Of course not. And to add to the touching concern the White House is displaying toward this direst of perils, there's this little jewel: Marburger said that though everyone agrees carbon dioxide emissions should decline, the United States prefers to promote cleaner technology rather than impose mandatory greenhouse gas limits. "The U.S. is the world leader in doing something on climate change because of its actions on changing technology," he said.
Cleaner technology, my ass! Why are US car manufacturers still spewing out monsters that swallow gallons per hundred mile? Why are these manufacturers not making cars like the Japanese and Europeans do? Because the American Male ™ is a primitive oaf who needs to have his big fat car to emphasize his imaginary virility?
Why is the US Administration refusing to stamp down on greenhouse gas emissions? Because it candidly believes that the Holy Free Market ™ will of course take it to its generous and merciful (not to mention altruistic) heart to rein its activity in and stop worrying about short-term profit? Give me a break! This Administraiton is nothing but a dog lolling its tongue and wagging its tail at its corportate masters' bidding. It's nothing but a vile servant to lobbyists. Nothing more.
And now, to the best part, let's listen to what the official White Hous experts are saying in Davos, where the nice people of the G8 are meeting, and worrying about oil reserves for the future, and on the dependance upon "potentially unstable states".
Here, in Davos, the word becomes : "When we’ve been talking about climate change it’s with concern, but we’re talking about opportunity," George Newton, the chairman of the US Arctic Research Commission said. thanks to the increasingly rapid global warming, the ice will start melting in earnest, the more so with China and India's economies growing in chaotic proportions. Never mind that this will trigger disasters and destroy habitats, what matters is that it will make it so much easier to get the oil sleeping below the Arctic ice! It's such great news, don't you understand? It's fantastic! Long live global warming!
(Source: the Times Online )
And I will not mention the pressure and veiled threats made on US scientists who'd be crazy enough to try and denounce the danger of global warming. Those idiots are being dealt with:
"They're trying to control what's getting out to the public," Hansen (*) said, adding that many of his colleagues are afraid to talk about the issue. "They're not willing to say much, because they've been pressured and they're afraid they'll get into trouble."
(*) director of NASA's Goddard Institute of Space Studies, who last week confirmed that 2005 was the warmest year on record, surpassing 1998.
See the nice, kind and so gentle answer of the authority in question :
But Mary L. Cleave, deputy associate administrator for NASA's Office of Earth Science, said the agency insists on monitoring interviews with scientists to ensure they are not misquoted.
"People could see it as a constraint," Cleave said. "As a manager, I might see it as protection."
A protection. Right. Is it me, or is the Bush government sounding more and more like cheap mafia bosses?
But of course, it's me. I must have been watching too much Sopranos lately.
Let's see :
In today's Washington Post issue : Some scientists, including President Bush's chief science adviser, John H. Marburger III, emphasize there is still much uncertainty about when abrupt global warming might occur. And this nice piece : "There's no agreement on what it is that constitutes a dangerous climate change," said Marburger (...)
Of course not. And to add to the touching concern the White House is displaying toward this direst of perils, there's this little jewel: Marburger said that though everyone agrees carbon dioxide emissions should decline, the United States prefers to promote cleaner technology rather than impose mandatory greenhouse gas limits. "The U.S. is the world leader in doing something on climate change because of its actions on changing technology," he said.
Cleaner technology, my ass! Why are US car manufacturers still spewing out monsters that swallow gallons per hundred mile? Why are these manufacturers not making cars like the Japanese and Europeans do? Because the American Male ™ is a primitive oaf who needs to have his big fat car to emphasize his imaginary virility?
Why is the US Administration refusing to stamp down on greenhouse gas emissions? Because it candidly believes that the Holy Free Market ™ will of course take it to its generous and merciful (not to mention altruistic) heart to rein its activity in and stop worrying about short-term profit? Give me a break! This Administraiton is nothing but a dog lolling its tongue and wagging its tail at its corportate masters' bidding. It's nothing but a vile servant to lobbyists. Nothing more.
And now, to the best part, let's listen to what the official White Hous experts are saying in Davos, where the nice people of the G8 are meeting, and worrying about oil reserves for the future, and on the dependance upon "potentially unstable states".
Here, in Davos, the word becomes : "When we’ve been talking about climate change it’s with concern, but we’re talking about opportunity," George Newton, the chairman of the US Arctic Research Commission said. thanks to the increasingly rapid global warming, the ice will start melting in earnest, the more so with China and India's economies growing in chaotic proportions. Never mind that this will trigger disasters and destroy habitats, what matters is that it will make it so much easier to get the oil sleeping below the Arctic ice! It's such great news, don't you understand? It's fantastic! Long live global warming!
(Source: the Times Online )
And I will not mention the pressure and veiled threats made on US scientists who'd be crazy enough to try and denounce the danger of global warming. Those idiots are being dealt with:
"They're trying to control what's getting out to the public," Hansen (*) said, adding that many of his colleagues are afraid to talk about the issue. "They're not willing to say much, because they've been pressured and they're afraid they'll get into trouble."
(*) director of NASA's Goddard Institute of Space Studies, who last week confirmed that 2005 was the warmest year on record, surpassing 1998.
See the nice, kind and so gentle answer of the authority in question :
But Mary L. Cleave, deputy associate administrator for NASA's Office of Earth Science, said the agency insists on monitoring interviews with scientists to ensure they are not misquoted.
"People could see it as a constraint," Cleave said. "As a manager, I might see it as protection."
A protection. Right. Is it me, or is the Bush government sounding more and more like cheap mafia bosses?
But of course, it's me. I must have been watching too much Sopranos lately.
Sunday, December 25, 2005
Meditations on the Abyss (*)
Every year at this time, it's the same. Every time the clock marks 00h00 on December 25th, I sit down and think about things.
I wish there would be peace on earth for all the people of good will.
I wish people would have a true chance at happiness.
I wish we would learn to respect the earth and every single lifeform it houses and nurtures.
I wish…far too many things.
And also, I wonder.
I wonder what changed this year. I wonder what happened this year. I wonder what was better this year.
2005 was a year of contrasts. A year of environmental cataclysms, a year of bereavement et death. A year of giving. A year of war. A year of fear.
2005 was a year of death. The tsunami's devastation continued to take its toll in the beginning of the year, reaping hundreds of thousands of lives. The earthquake in Pakistan killed tens of thousands of people, is still killing them, all those who survived and who are now freezing in the terribly cold winter of the mountains. Bereft of everything, cut out from the oh-so-sincere generosity of the West because it's Pakistan, and one of the heart of all evil, according the the US-imposed black and white world. 2005 was a year of death, in the death rows of all the US prisons, in states where the crime they call capital punishments is still applied, where they cultivate hatred, and invite victims' families to relish the spectacle of death.
2005 was a year of fear. Terrorism struck in Europe once again. And it sparked into life our greatest enemy: fear. The fear that will blind us, and make us bow to unacceptable compromises on our essential freedom in the name of "security". Security won new privileges and new acknowledgements. Security became sacro-sanct. Security became the magic word behind which all the would-be authoritarian politicians could hide, and in the name of which they could impose just about any kind of restrictions on our most basic rights to freedom and privacy. Security has become the great threat, the One Truth we're supposed to have to bow to for our own good--or so say people who claim to know better than we do. I deny them that right and that claim.
2005 was another year of kidnappings, murders and slaughter in Irak. It was a year of elections as well. It was another year of denying the obivous and lying through their teeth for the White House people. It was the year when GW Bush decided to spew the word "victory" at every opportunity he got, as if that might be some kind of shield against the truth displayed before the world in all the TV news. The worst of it, is that it seems there are people gullible enough, stupid and brainwashed enough in the US, to believe in the simple uttering of such an empty word.
But, 2005 was a year of elections in Irak. A year when the people of Irak gathered all their strength and crowded the polls. A year when these people who've lost everything showed the world how brave and noble they were, when they went to vote as they did. Perhaps, just perhaps, 2005 will be the year of a beginning of hope for them. I hope it is.
2005 was also the year when the US Senate rebuked the soulless appetites of the oil companies and preserved the natural space of Alaska. A small flame in an ocean of darkness, but still, it was there.
2005 was the year of the Meikai-Hen OVAs debut. A debut in pain, among protests and critics, most of them more than justified, unfortunately. A year of making dreams into reality, botched by the headstrong stupidity of an author who no longer can touch the soul of the magic he once created, 20 years ago. And yet, in spite of all the obstacles thrown in the way of these OVAs, somehow the magic manages to reach out and touch the viewer. In spite of all the flaws, they manage to revive the flames in my heart. Somehow.
2005 was a year of lies. When the US governments told us, hand upon its dead and rotten heart, that there were no secret CIA prisons and that the US had never, ever, never used torture or inhumane methods on its prisoners, or even allowed it to happen...despite everyone knowing how they changed their own laws in order to allow torture. A year of deception, fantastically ended by Poland when it said it wouldn't come public with its results on the inquiry concerning the CIA's secret prison facilities on its land. Funny, if they have agreed to nothing wrong, why should those results remain secret?
2005 was a year of harted and war. A year of foul words spat out by Nicolas Sarkozy. A year when the French right, led by this populist, dirty politician, slowly but certainly slid toward the far right, mesmerized by the promise of power. Hypnotized by the persepective of winning the 2007 presidential elections.
2005... As usual, here I sit, pondering on questions and concepts which have baffled humanity since its very beginning. We haven't changed, we degenerated apes. We haven't evolved. All we have won in millions of years is a layer of varnish, nothing more.
Why are we here? What are we living for? What is our place in the order of things?
The questions are the same. The answers, still illusions taunting us from beyond a mist of our own making.
2005 is nearing its end, and as always, here I sit, and wonder. Tonight, I'll gladly throw a log in the fire. It's an old, ancient custom, a true one which somehow managed to survive the purge of judeo-christianism. One of the few traditions we haven't been robbed of by the Catholic church. Yes, I'll throw a log of wood into the fire. A log of a tree cut out under the beautiful Summer sun. A log that will crackle in the hearth and give birth to flames, give birth to the sun anew, in the heart of Winter, and send back the abyss of the night.
When we celebrate the Winter solstice.
(*) My humblest apologies to Michael J. Straczinski, who made really too appealing episodes titles for me to resist using them when he gave us this greatest of gifts named "Babylon 5".
I wish there would be peace on earth for all the people of good will.
I wish people would have a true chance at happiness.
I wish we would learn to respect the earth and every single lifeform it houses and nurtures.
I wish…far too many things.
And also, I wonder.
I wonder what changed this year. I wonder what happened this year. I wonder what was better this year.
2005 was a year of contrasts. A year of environmental cataclysms, a year of bereavement et death. A year of giving. A year of war. A year of fear.
2005 was a year of death. The tsunami's devastation continued to take its toll in the beginning of the year, reaping hundreds of thousands of lives. The earthquake in Pakistan killed tens of thousands of people, is still killing them, all those who survived and who are now freezing in the terribly cold winter of the mountains. Bereft of everything, cut out from the oh-so-sincere generosity of the West because it's Pakistan, and one of the heart of all evil, according the the US-imposed black and white world. 2005 was a year of death, in the death rows of all the US prisons, in states where the crime they call capital punishments is still applied, where they cultivate hatred, and invite victims' families to relish the spectacle of death.
2005 was a year of fear. Terrorism struck in Europe once again. And it sparked into life our greatest enemy: fear. The fear that will blind us, and make us bow to unacceptable compromises on our essential freedom in the name of "security". Security won new privileges and new acknowledgements. Security became sacro-sanct. Security became the magic word behind which all the would-be authoritarian politicians could hide, and in the name of which they could impose just about any kind of restrictions on our most basic rights to freedom and privacy. Security has become the great threat, the One Truth we're supposed to have to bow to for our own good--or so say people who claim to know better than we do. I deny them that right and that claim.
2005 was another year of kidnappings, murders and slaughter in Irak. It was a year of elections as well. It was another year of denying the obivous and lying through their teeth for the White House people. It was the year when GW Bush decided to spew the word "victory" at every opportunity he got, as if that might be some kind of shield against the truth displayed before the world in all the TV news. The worst of it, is that it seems there are people gullible enough, stupid and brainwashed enough in the US, to believe in the simple uttering of such an empty word.
But, 2005 was a year of elections in Irak. A year when the people of Irak gathered all their strength and crowded the polls. A year when these people who've lost everything showed the world how brave and noble they were, when they went to vote as they did. Perhaps, just perhaps, 2005 will be the year of a beginning of hope for them. I hope it is.
2005 was also the year when the US Senate rebuked the soulless appetites of the oil companies and preserved the natural space of Alaska. A small flame in an ocean of darkness, but still, it was there.
2005 was the year of the Meikai-Hen OVAs debut. A debut in pain, among protests and critics, most of them more than justified, unfortunately. A year of making dreams into reality, botched by the headstrong stupidity of an author who no longer can touch the soul of the magic he once created, 20 years ago. And yet, in spite of all the obstacles thrown in the way of these OVAs, somehow the magic manages to reach out and touch the viewer. In spite of all the flaws, they manage to revive the flames in my heart. Somehow.
2005 was a year of lies. When the US governments told us, hand upon its dead and rotten heart, that there were no secret CIA prisons and that the US had never, ever, never used torture or inhumane methods on its prisoners, or even allowed it to happen...despite everyone knowing how they changed their own laws in order to allow torture. A year of deception, fantastically ended by Poland when it said it wouldn't come public with its results on the inquiry concerning the CIA's secret prison facilities on its land. Funny, if they have agreed to nothing wrong, why should those results remain secret?
2005 was a year of harted and war. A year of foul words spat out by Nicolas Sarkozy. A year when the French right, led by this populist, dirty politician, slowly but certainly slid toward the far right, mesmerized by the promise of power. Hypnotized by the persepective of winning the 2007 presidential elections.
2005... As usual, here I sit, pondering on questions and concepts which have baffled humanity since its very beginning. We haven't changed, we degenerated apes. We haven't evolved. All we have won in millions of years is a layer of varnish, nothing more.
Why are we here? What are we living for? What is our place in the order of things?
The questions are the same. The answers, still illusions taunting us from beyond a mist of our own making.
2005 is nearing its end, and as always, here I sit, and wonder. Tonight, I'll gladly throw a log in the fire. It's an old, ancient custom, a true one which somehow managed to survive the purge of judeo-christianism. One of the few traditions we haven't been robbed of by the Catholic church. Yes, I'll throw a log of wood into the fire. A log of a tree cut out under the beautiful Summer sun. A log that will crackle in the hearth and give birth to flames, give birth to the sun anew, in the heart of Winter, and send back the abyss of the night.
When we celebrate the Winter solstice.
(*) My humblest apologies to Michael J. Straczinski, who made really too appealing episodes titles for me to resist using them when he gave us this greatest of gifts named "Babylon 5".
Sunday, December 04, 2005
Mrs Rice... You're Kidding, Right ?
Big title in the Observer today : Rice rejects EU protests over secret terror prisons
(...)[Mrs. Rice] is expected to make a public statement today stressing that the US does not violate allies' sovereignty or break international law.
No, of course the US isn't doing anything wrong. There's no secret arrests of people who're never been charged with anything, flown away to prisons where they can be tortured, where they can be "dealt with" without ever respecting the most basic of their rights to a lawyer, a defense, and a trial. Nah, all that is bullshit. We all know there's nothing resembling extraordinary rendition, nothing at all!
The Observer adds: Irish Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern said Rice told him in Washington she expected allies to trust that America does not allow rights abuses.
But of course, we do trust America, we do trust the US government. Our faith in Georges W. Bush is absolute! Never, ever would the US wander astray from all the international conventions on torture. Geneva, anyone? Remember Mr. Rumsfeld and his undying love and respect for the Geneva Conventions?
Oh, and if this wasn't enough, I advise you to go read the following paper in today's edition of the Washington Post: Wrongful Imprisonment: Anatomy of a CIA Mistake. You will learn a few interesting things.
Coats [the U.S. ambassador in Germany] informed the German minister that the CIA had wrongfully imprisoned one of its citizens, Khaled Masri, for five months, and would soon release him, the sources said. There was also a request: that the German government not disclose what it had been told even if Masri went public.
In case anyone doubted it: (...) there is no tribunal or judge to check the evidence against those picked up by the CIA.
Wait, it gets better:
The CIA inspector general is investigating a growing number of what it calls "erroneous renditions," (...)
"They picked up the wrong people, who had no information. In many, many cases there was only some vague association" with terrorism, one CIA officer said. (...)
Masri was held for five months largely because the head of the CIA's Counterterrorist Center's al Qaeda unit "believed he was someone else," one former CIA official said. "She didn't really know. She just had a hunch."
Wow! You kidnap a man, whisk him away god knows where, interrogate him, torture him for five months on a hunch! But of course, in the same time you're upholding all the Geneva conventions, respecting all the aspects of human rights, and you're the most trustworthy US government the wolrd has ever seen.
GIVE ME A BREAK !
Who do you think you're kidding, Mrs Rice?
In front of declarations like this: "It was the Camelot of counterterrorism," a former counterterrorism official said. "We didn't have to mess with others -- and it was fun.", What kind of moral high ground do you think you're standing upon, you and the US?
Sand!
How will you ever dare tell anyone who holds your own citizens prisoners without a trial and who tortures them that they're vilains? They're just the same as you! You hide behind a veneer of dignity that's crackling and crumbling to pieces a bit more each day.
Pathetic.
Stay where you are, Mrs Rice, and keep your mouth shut. Europe has no need for your lessons, your ethics and morals are more than flawed or askew. They no longer have any value.
As for us, I dearly hope the EU will deal with the collaborators of torturers. I hope the EU will show them all the love and mercy they deserve.
Any country which knowingly, at any level of power, participated in helping the CIA in those renditions should be expelled from the EU.
Forever.
(...)[Mrs. Rice] is expected to make a public statement today stressing that the US does not violate allies' sovereignty or break international law.
No, of course the US isn't doing anything wrong. There's no secret arrests of people who're never been charged with anything, flown away to prisons where they can be tortured, where they can be "dealt with" without ever respecting the most basic of their rights to a lawyer, a defense, and a trial. Nah, all that is bullshit. We all know there's nothing resembling extraordinary rendition, nothing at all!
The Observer adds: Irish Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern said Rice told him in Washington she expected allies to trust that America does not allow rights abuses.
But of course, we do trust America, we do trust the US government. Our faith in Georges W. Bush is absolute! Never, ever would the US wander astray from all the international conventions on torture. Geneva, anyone? Remember Mr. Rumsfeld and his undying love and respect for the Geneva Conventions?
Oh, and if this wasn't enough, I advise you to go read the following paper in today's edition of the Washington Post: Wrongful Imprisonment: Anatomy of a CIA Mistake. You will learn a few interesting things.
Coats [the U.S. ambassador in Germany] informed the German minister that the CIA had wrongfully imprisoned one of its citizens, Khaled Masri, for five months, and would soon release him, the sources said. There was also a request: that the German government not disclose what it had been told even if Masri went public.
In case anyone doubted it: (...) there is no tribunal or judge to check the evidence against those picked up by the CIA.
Wait, it gets better:
The CIA inspector general is investigating a growing number of what it calls "erroneous renditions," (...)
"They picked up the wrong people, who had no information. In many, many cases there was only some vague association" with terrorism, one CIA officer said. (...)
Masri was held for five months largely because the head of the CIA's Counterterrorist Center's al Qaeda unit "believed he was someone else," one former CIA official said. "She didn't really know. She just had a hunch."
Wow! You kidnap a man, whisk him away god knows where, interrogate him, torture him for five months on a hunch! But of course, in the same time you're upholding all the Geneva conventions, respecting all the aspects of human rights, and you're the most trustworthy US government the wolrd has ever seen.
GIVE ME A BREAK !
Who do you think you're kidding, Mrs Rice?
In front of declarations like this: "It was the Camelot of counterterrorism," a former counterterrorism official said. "We didn't have to mess with others -- and it was fun.", What kind of moral high ground do you think you're standing upon, you and the US?
Sand!
How will you ever dare tell anyone who holds your own citizens prisoners without a trial and who tortures them that they're vilains? They're just the same as you! You hide behind a veneer of dignity that's crackling and crumbling to pieces a bit more each day.
Pathetic.
Stay where you are, Mrs Rice, and keep your mouth shut. Europe has no need for your lessons, your ethics and morals are more than flawed or askew. They no longer have any value.
As for us, I dearly hope the EU will deal with the collaborators of torturers. I hope the EU will show them all the love and mercy they deserve.
Any country which knowingly, at any level of power, participated in helping the CIA in those renditions should be expelled from the EU.
Forever.
Sunday, November 27, 2005
Mr Bush's Fiasco
Sometimes there is no joy in being right, in having predicted what was most likely to happen.
This is such a time.
From today's edition of the Observer: Human rights abuses in Iraq are now as bad as they were under Saddam Hussein and are even in danger of eclipsing his record, according to the country's first Prime Minister (a strong ally of the US-led coalition forces and prime minister of Irak until this April, ndlr) after the fall of Saddam's regime.
(...)
"We are hearing about secret police, secret bunkers where people are being interrogated," he added. "A lot of Iraqis are being tortured or killed in the course of interrogations. We are even witnessing Sharia courts based on Islamic law that are trying people and executing them."
The chaos, the sinking into the darkness of radical Islam and use of the Sharia law to beat and stone women back to the stone age, back into slavery, the assassination and torture as under Saddam Hussein...tell me, what have you won, Mr Bush?
Please, tell us, tell the world what it is you've won, except contracts for Haliburton and vaults of money and oil for your nice pro-torture vice-president!
Tell us what you've won for the US, except for disgust and dislike, even hatred from many parts of the world?
All you've done is fuel anger and hatred, and give more grounds for attacks by terrorists, not to mention offer a land that nurtured a secular society to the worst kind of religious fanatics! Ah, but then, perhaps this suits you fine. After all, in your own country you're doing all you can to ridicule America in the eyes of the world and lift ignorance and ludicrous superstitions to the rank of sanctioned scientific theories to be taught in school. True enough. So, maybe you reached one of your goals, I have to be fair here.
But for the rest?
As stated before: "told you so."
I'm sure the citizens of Irak thank you...well, the learned people, the women, all the people who had a grasp of culture and education don't thank you. But then, certainly the mollahs, and the terrorists do.
Isn't that what matters to you?
This is such a time.
From today's edition of the Observer: Human rights abuses in Iraq are now as bad as they were under Saddam Hussein and are even in danger of eclipsing his record, according to the country's first Prime Minister (a strong ally of the US-led coalition forces and prime minister of Irak until this April, ndlr) after the fall of Saddam's regime.
(...)
"We are hearing about secret police, secret bunkers where people are being interrogated," he added. "A lot of Iraqis are being tortured or killed in the course of interrogations. We are even witnessing Sharia courts based on Islamic law that are trying people and executing them."
The chaos, the sinking into the darkness of radical Islam and use of the Sharia law to beat and stone women back to the stone age, back into slavery, the assassination and torture as under Saddam Hussein...tell me, what have you won, Mr Bush?
Please, tell us, tell the world what it is you've won, except contracts for Haliburton and vaults of money and oil for your nice pro-torture vice-president!
Tell us what you've won for the US, except for disgust and dislike, even hatred from many parts of the world?
All you've done is fuel anger and hatred, and give more grounds for attacks by terrorists, not to mention offer a land that nurtured a secular society to the worst kind of religious fanatics! Ah, but then, perhaps this suits you fine. After all, in your own country you're doing all you can to ridicule America in the eyes of the world and lift ignorance and ludicrous superstitions to the rank of sanctioned scientific theories to be taught in school. True enough. So, maybe you reached one of your goals, I have to be fair here.
But for the rest?
As stated before: "told you so."
I'm sure the citizens of Irak thank you...well, the learned people, the women, all the people who had a grasp of culture and education don't thank you. But then, certainly the mollahs, and the terrorists do.
Isn't that what matters to you?
Sunday, November 20, 2005
Franco mi Amor: the Nostalgia of the Righteous
They're standing with their right arm raised to the sky in salute. They're not saying "heil!" but they might as well be.
They're not saluting Hitler, but they might as well be.
They're saluting Franco. The butcher, murderer, tormentor, bloody dictator who smothered Spain under a blanket of terror during more than 30 years in the 20th century. During one of the blackest pages of Spanish history.
They're celebrating the anniversary of his death, they're mourning the butcher.
They.
The righteous. The nice, good society, the one that goes to church on sunday, the one that teaches the "true values" of society. Those who condemn any kind of modernism, those who are against the right not to have to study religion at school.
They.
The nice people. The well-behaved, well-bred people of the higher classes.
They send nausea raking my stomach.
They're the shame of their country, the shame of Europe. The shame of democracy. Abusing a freedom of speech they so loved trampling, they glorify, they worship a mass murderer, a criminal. They gather, their right arms lifted in salute and their sick nostalgia for an era of blood and dread, and the absolute rule of their caste.
They.
In Germany, nobody would have dared leave a statue of Hitler standing. In Italy, nobody would have dared leave a statue of Mussolini standing. In Romania, nobody would have dared leave a statue of Caucescu standing.
In Spain, there are still statues of Franco standing.
In Spain, the good and the righteous have the gall to commemorate that filthy butcher's death with right arms lifted to the sky. Mocking the survivors of the years of terror, mocking the victims of torture, deportation, they dare display their nostalgia for those years of hell.
Why Spanish laws allow this, I cannot even begin to understand. Shit, I don't even want to understand. Doing this, is like planting the seeds that will in the end destroy their democracy. If democracy doesn't protect itself, doesn't prevent by law the expressions of hatred, of ideologies that aim only at its destruction, then it cannot help but fall in the long run.
The statues of Franco should be hacked to pieces.
And the righteous should be arrested, tried, and convicted.
The righteous, they who believe themselves above the populace, are a cancer. They are filth Spanish society should deal with.
Once and for all.
They're not saluting Hitler, but they might as well be.
They're saluting Franco. The butcher, murderer, tormentor, bloody dictator who smothered Spain under a blanket of terror during more than 30 years in the 20th century. During one of the blackest pages of Spanish history.
They're celebrating the anniversary of his death, they're mourning the butcher.
They.
The righteous. The nice, good society, the one that goes to church on sunday, the one that teaches the "true values" of society. Those who condemn any kind of modernism, those who are against the right not to have to study religion at school.
They.
The nice people. The well-behaved, well-bred people of the higher classes.
They send nausea raking my stomach.
They're the shame of their country, the shame of Europe. The shame of democracy. Abusing a freedom of speech they so loved trampling, they glorify, they worship a mass murderer, a criminal. They gather, their right arms lifted in salute and their sick nostalgia for an era of blood and dread, and the absolute rule of their caste.
They.
In Germany, nobody would have dared leave a statue of Hitler standing. In Italy, nobody would have dared leave a statue of Mussolini standing. In Romania, nobody would have dared leave a statue of Caucescu standing.
In Spain, there are still statues of Franco standing.
In Spain, the good and the righteous have the gall to commemorate that filthy butcher's death with right arms lifted to the sky. Mocking the survivors of the years of terror, mocking the victims of torture, deportation, they dare display their nostalgia for those years of hell.
Why Spanish laws allow this, I cannot even begin to understand. Shit, I don't even want to understand. Doing this, is like planting the seeds that will in the end destroy their democracy. If democracy doesn't protect itself, doesn't prevent by law the expressions of hatred, of ideologies that aim only at its destruction, then it cannot help but fall in the long run.
The statues of Franco should be hacked to pieces.
And the righteous should be arrested, tried, and convicted.
The righteous, they who believe themselves above the populace, are a cancer. They are filth Spanish society should deal with.
Once and for all.
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
Smoked Brain
...Must taste really awful (not that I'd ever want to eat brain, no matter what kind of animal it came from anyway)
Journalists can be tiresome. Journalists should sometimes use their brains. The UNO is holding a summit on the technologies of information (and their sharing around the world), in short, about the internet and the freedom of accessing it throughout the world. This summit is taking place in Tunisia, which happens to be an authoritarian dictatorship where freedom of expression and so on are not exactly a given.
And, lo, comes our journalist turned white knight of the night, denouncing the dubious choice of location of the UNO, and of Mr Annan. and, said journalist continues his rant claiming that Mr Annan made a show of saying a few words against the current abuses of the Tunisian government, which would be a hypocrisy in our dear journalist's eye, since the Tunisian TV immediately censored the words of Mr Annan. And so, our brave journalists smites down the evil UNO.
Please, give me a break.
If the summit had taken place elsewhere, dear mr. journalist, you would NEVER have bothered to waste a second on the situation of people in Tunisia. Thanks to the summit taking place there, you and other TV media, felt obliged to take a look around the corner and denounce wha'ts happening. If it wasn't for that choice of location you call dubious, you would never waste a shred of prime time to talk about it. So, if you're willing to be logicial and fair, you should thank Mr Annan for choosing to hold the summit in Tunisia. In doing so, he gave you the opportunity to see the awful reality there, and to reveal it to our bored selves (not to worry, two minutes after the end of the news, once the commercial break has sucked our brains dry, we'll have all forgotten about it and will only be concerned by how we can spend money on things we have no real need for).
So, instead of accusing, thank Mr Annan for having shown the intelligence to hold a summit there. Thank him for giving you an opportunity to denounce the abuses committed there.
And get a brain. They're cheap these days, nobody wants them anymore. They make you think. Yuck. While we think, we can't chew junk food in front of junk TV shows (anyone for Star Academy?) like the good, brainless cows that we are...oh, sorry, I meant consumers.
Good night.
Journalists can be tiresome. Journalists should sometimes use their brains. The UNO is holding a summit on the technologies of information (and their sharing around the world), in short, about the internet and the freedom of accessing it throughout the world. This summit is taking place in Tunisia, which happens to be an authoritarian dictatorship where freedom of expression and so on are not exactly a given.
And, lo, comes our journalist turned white knight of the night, denouncing the dubious choice of location of the UNO, and of Mr Annan. and, said journalist continues his rant claiming that Mr Annan made a show of saying a few words against the current abuses of the Tunisian government, which would be a hypocrisy in our dear journalist's eye, since the Tunisian TV immediately censored the words of Mr Annan. And so, our brave journalists smites down the evil UNO.
Please, give me a break.
If the summit had taken place elsewhere, dear mr. journalist, you would NEVER have bothered to waste a second on the situation of people in Tunisia. Thanks to the summit taking place there, you and other TV media, felt obliged to take a look around the corner and denounce wha'ts happening. If it wasn't for that choice of location you call dubious, you would never waste a shred of prime time to talk about it. So, if you're willing to be logicial and fair, you should thank Mr Annan for choosing to hold the summit in Tunisia. In doing so, he gave you the opportunity to see the awful reality there, and to reveal it to our bored selves (not to worry, two minutes after the end of the news, once the commercial break has sucked our brains dry, we'll have all forgotten about it and will only be concerned by how we can spend money on things we have no real need for).
So, instead of accusing, thank Mr Annan for having shown the intelligence to hold a summit there. Thank him for giving you an opportunity to denounce the abuses committed there.
And get a brain. They're cheap these days, nobody wants them anymore. They make you think. Yuck. While we think, we can't chew junk food in front of junk TV shows (anyone for Star Academy?) like the good, brainless cows that we are...oh, sorry, I meant consumers.
Good night.
Monday, November 14, 2005
USA : Welcome to the land of the Free^H^H^H^H Oooops, wrong word, sorry!
I wonder if the US government ever intends to learn from the numerous (and grievous) mistakes of its predecessors (and its own, Mr Georges W Bush kindly having seen to adding up to the piles of tragedies labelled “courtesy of the USA” since 1776). Well, all right, I’m not wondering. They’re learning.
They’re learning how to repeat them over and over again.
Now, they’re busy hacking down the fundamentals of law. The very core of what makes a country democratic. The core of what sets it apart from a dictatorship (hello, Mr Pinochet!). Hacking down the Habeas Corpus rule, they’re contemplating the arbitrary detention of innocent people in charming locations like Guantanamo Bay, where every single sort of comfort is offered to the lucky residents. Even night games, stripping games, and all those things.
I was always of the opinion that detainees, no matter what the crime, deserve a trial. They deserve to know what they’re accused of, and they deserve the right to a lawyer and to a fair trial. The fact that we offer this to everyone, even to the foulest criminals, is the one thing that makes us who we are, that labels us as civilized people, who live in a democracy.
Well, not in the eyes of Mr Bush’s governement it seems, but then, are you really surprised?
The media are busy using lofty words like Habeas Corpus that very few people understand, but the truth, the down to earth, simple truth can be summarized this way: Habeas corpus is older than even our Constitution. It is the right to compel the executive to justify itself when it imprisons people.
As the writer of the Washington Post column says:
In a wiser past, we tried Nazi war criminals in the sunlight. Summing up for the prosecution at Nuremberg, Robert Jackson said that "the future will never have to ask, with misgiving: 'What could the Nazis have said in their favor?' History will know that whatever could be said, they were allowed to say. . . . The extraordinary fairness of these hearings is an attribute of our strength."
The world has never doubted the judgment at Nuremberg. But no one will trust the work of these secret tribunals.
Read the column here, and learn how fair-minded the US government aims to be.
Lofty moral highground is shrinking, and writhing away from the United States of America in a great hurry. Soon, any US official trying to tell anyone in the world they should abide by the Geneva Conventions, or the Human Rights, will see the audience laugh in his face.
With good reason.
Source: one of today’s editorials of the Washington Post.
They’re learning how to repeat them over and over again.
Now, they’re busy hacking down the fundamentals of law. The very core of what makes a country democratic. The core of what sets it apart from a dictatorship (hello, Mr Pinochet!). Hacking down the Habeas Corpus rule, they’re contemplating the arbitrary detention of innocent people in charming locations like Guantanamo Bay, where every single sort of comfort is offered to the lucky residents. Even night games, stripping games, and all those things.
I was always of the opinion that detainees, no matter what the crime, deserve a trial. They deserve to know what they’re accused of, and they deserve the right to a lawyer and to a fair trial. The fact that we offer this to everyone, even to the foulest criminals, is the one thing that makes us who we are, that labels us as civilized people, who live in a democracy.
Well, not in the eyes of Mr Bush’s governement it seems, but then, are you really surprised?
The media are busy using lofty words like Habeas Corpus that very few people understand, but the truth, the down to earth, simple truth can be summarized this way: Habeas corpus is older than even our Constitution. It is the right to compel the executive to justify itself when it imprisons people.
As the writer of the Washington Post column says:
In a wiser past, we tried Nazi war criminals in the sunlight. Summing up for the prosecution at Nuremberg, Robert Jackson said that "the future will never have to ask, with misgiving: 'What could the Nazis have said in their favor?' History will know that whatever could be said, they were allowed to say. . . . The extraordinary fairness of these hearings is an attribute of our strength."
The world has never doubted the judgment at Nuremberg. But no one will trust the work of these secret tribunals.
Read the column here, and learn how fair-minded the US government aims to be.
Lofty moral highground is shrinking, and writhing away from the United States of America in a great hurry. Soon, any US official trying to tell anyone in the world they should abide by the Geneva Conventions, or the Human Rights, will see the audience laugh in his face.
With good reason.
Source: one of today’s editorials of the Washington Post.
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