Femi Kuti
Africa For Africa
Femi Kuti and his band strip it down for La Blogothèque, some hours before they got on stage at the Bellevilloise earlier this year. Not sure what I like most here: the band braving the cold, the sun setting over Paris in Autumn or Vincent Moon’s camera work.
That same evening, they also recorded this version of ‘Day by Day’:
Day By Day
- Tom Devriendt
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Sentinel Literary Quarterly Short Story Competition
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NEW SECTION - "Writer As Reader" Submission Guidelines
Fourth Genre's new section, "Writer As Reader," will feature essays that respond to creative nonfiction, focusing primarily on a single work. Successful "Writer As Reader" essays will be neither jargon-laced nor disinterested, but will find a home in the personal and will tell a story about the author's relationship with one particular work of creative nonfiction.
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Michael Steinberg Essay Prize Submission Guidelines
About the AwardFourth Genre will seek the best creative nonfiction essay/memoir for its sixth annual Michael Steinberg Essay Prize. Authors of previously unpublished manuscripts are encouraged to enter.
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Martin Munro, Edwidge Danticat: A Reader’s Guide.
Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2010, 222p.
Martin Munro opens the introduction to this volume with a question: “when you go to a bookstore to look for something by Edwidge Danticat, which section do you go to first?” (1). Would it be Caribbean literature? African American? Ethnic? Women’s literature? The first part of the guide goes about answering those questions in different ways. Michael Dash examines Danticat’s connections to her Haitian precursors. Carine Mardorossian explores how Danticat fits in with other women writers from the Caribbean. She states that "[Danticat] thus deliberately develops a 'poetics of location' in which one's privileging of a particular and 'coherent' cultural space does not hinder Relation but provides the very condition for it. In this process of identification, the opposition between nation and transnationalism dissolves to reveal the inextricable imbrication of the two" (47). To me, this particular view of Relation is essential to understanding a work such as Danticat’s, or any work, for that matter. I remain wary of the idea that writers are beyond categorization. Although we may choose to ignore certain classifications at times, or not let them overshadow the text itself, they are always there, informing our readings. For Munro, "While this in-between situation may be seen as a loss of identity for Danticat (as for many other exiled authors), it is also a kind of liberation in that she is free from many of the constraints and expectations that direct, unambiguous attachments bring" (4). Yet, Munro himself acknowledges that Danticat does not consider herself to be an exile. She can and does go "home" whenever she wants.
The heavy-handed focus on the political in Nick Nesbitt’s chapter on Danitcat’s short fiction gave me pause. While there is no denying that there is a political dimension to Danticat's work, I feel there should be a greater difference between the way we talk about literature and the way we talk about journalism. Maybe I’m just old-school. But, if the focus of this guide is on literary analysis, I'd like to see some ideas about the actual writing of the text, not just how it fits into global politics.
Mireille Rosello’s chapter on Breath, Eyes, Memory focused almost exclusively on rape, which is interesting. Many readers have indeed identified that theme as the most important in the novel, but there is so much more going on in the text that I would have liked more exploration of some other topics. (There is a problem with the footnotes in this section, which is distracting.)
Kiera Vaclavik's chapter on Danticat’s fiction for younger readers was a real pleasure to read. She considers the question of who exactly Danticat is writing for with staightforward, solid literary analysis.
The writing in Myriam Chancy's chapter on The Farming of Bones was smart as her writing usually is. While I was a little skeptical of the idealistic spin put on Haitian/Dominican relations, I really appreciated the critique of the whole history is over movement in this chapter, because "the inhabitants of the former colonized nations are often forced to live in conditions that duplicate or mimic those of earlier centuries; for them, history is not over but is frozen in constant replay" (132). Not everyone has the luxury of forgetting history.
The book contains the thoughts of four fiction writers on Edwidge Danticat. The constant references to Martinican literature and culture in Maryse Condé’s piece baffled me. She refers to Aimé Césaire as the “founding father of our literature [...]” (163). Now, I do love Césaire as much as the next person, but many, many Haitian writers preceded him. How can he be the founding father of "our" literature? I love that Madison Smartt Bell is described as an African American writer in this section. I wonder if that’s a mistake or the way he identifies himself.
The last section of the book contains an interview in which Renee Shea talks with Edwidge Danticat about Brother, I’m Dying, other texts and just life in general. There is an intimate and profound feel to this interview that made me feel like I was in the room with the ladies, bonding over a good cup of coffee – and maybe some cookies!
Overall, Edwidge Danticat: A Reader’s Guide is a really enjoyable read. And I’m not just saying that because Régine and I were both involved with it. This is definitely a book that both fans of Danticat and those new to her work will want to get their hands on.
NM
Prisoner Advocate Elaine Brown on Georgia Prison Strike:
"Repression Breeds Resistance"
Democracy Now! - democracynow.org -
At least four prisons in Georgia remain in lockdown five days after prisoners went on strike in protest of poor living and working conditions. Using cell phones purchased from guards, the prisoners coordinated the nonviolent protests to stage the largest prison strike in U.S. history. There are reports of widespread violence and brutality by the guards against the prisoners on strike. Democracy Now! speaks to longtime prison activist Elaine Brown of the newly formed group Concerned Coalition to Respect Prisoners' Rights.For the video/audio podcast, transcript, to sign up for the daily news digest, for more information, visit www.DemocracyNow.org. Please consider supporting independent media by making a donation to Democracy Now! today, visithttp://www.democracynow.org/donate/12..._______________________________________________
Day 3 of Historic Prison Strike in Georgia-Blacked out By Media-Guards committing Violence
Posted: December 12, 2010 by Davey D in 2010 Daily News, Political articles
On Thursday morning, December 9, 2010, thousands of Georgia prisoners refused to work, stopped all other activities and locked down in their cells in a peaceful protest for their human rights. The December 9 Strike became the biggest prisoner protest in the history of the United States. Thousands of men, from Augusta, Baldwin, Hancock, Hays, Macon, Smith and Telfair State Prisons, among others, initiated this strike to press the Georgia Department of Corrections (“DOC”) to stop treating them like animals and slaves and institute programs that address their basic human rights. They set forth the following demands:
Former Black Panther Party chair Elaine Brown has been on the case keep[ing everyone up to speed on this historic Prison Strike in GA.. Click HERE to listen to interview
- · A LIVING WAGE FOR WORK
- · EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES
- · DECENT HEALTH CARE
- · AN END TO CRUEL AND UNUSUAL PUNISHMENTS
- · DECENT LIVING CONDITIONS
- · NUTRITIONAL MEALS
- · VOCATIONAL AND SELF-IMPROVEMENT OPPORTUNITIES
- · ACCESS TO FAMILIES
- · JUST PAROLE DECISIONS
Despite that the prisoners’ protest remained non-violent, the DOC violently attempted to force the men back to work—claiming it was “lawful” to order prisoners to work without pay, in defiance of the 13th Amendment’s abolition of slavery. In Augusta State Prison, six or seven inmates were brutally ripped from their cells by CERT Team guards and beaten, resulting in broken ribs for several men, one man beaten beyond recognition. This brutality continues there. At Telfair, the Tactical Squad trashed all the property in inmate cells. At Macon State, the Tactical Squad has menaced the men for two days, removing some to the “hole,” and the warden ordered the heat and hot water turned off. Still, today, men at Macon, Smith, Augusta, Hays and Telfair State Prisons say they are committed to continuing the strike. Inmate leaders, representing blacks, Hispanics, whites, Muslims, Rastafarians, Christians, have stated the men will stay down until their demands are addressed, one issuing this statement:
“…Brothers, we have accomplished a major step in our struggle…We must continue what we have started…The only way to achieve our goals is to continue with our peaceful sit-down…I ask each and every one of my Brothers in this struggle to continue the fight. ON MONDAY MORNING, WHEN THE DOORS OPEN, CLOSE THEM. DO NOT GO TO WORK. They cannot do anything to us that they haven’t already done at one time or another. Brothers, DON’T GIVE UP NOW. Make them come to the table. Be strong. DO NOT MAKE MONEY FOR THE STATE THAT THEY IN TURN USE TO KEEP US AS SLAVES….”
When the strike began, prisoner leaders issued the following call: “No more slavery. Injustice in one place is injustice to all. Inform your family to support our cause. Lock down for liberty!”
Here’s the link to our recent Hard Knock Radio interview w/ Elaine Brown on this historic strike
http://www.kpfa.org/archive/id/65925
Here’s an article written by Bruce Dixon editor of the Black Agenda Report on the strike
GA Inmates Stage One Day Peaceful Prison Strike, Authorities React With Violence
http://www.correntewire.com/ga_inmates_stage_one_day_peaceful_prison_strike_authorities_react_violence
Bruce Dixon
In an action which is unprecedented on several levels, black, brown and white inmates of Georgia’s notorious state prison system are standing together for a historic one day peaceful strike today, during which they are remaining in their cells, refusing work and other assignments and activities. This is a groundbreaking event not only because inmates are standing up for themselves and their own human rughts, but because prisoners are setting an example by reaching across racial boundaries which, in prisons, have historically been used to pit oppressed communities against each other. PRESS RELEASE BELOW THE FOLD
The action is taking place today in at least half a dozen of Georgia’s more than one hundred state prisons, correctional facilities, work camps, county prisons and other correctional facilities. We have unconfirmed reports that authorities at Macon State prison have aggressively responded to the strike by sending tactical squads in to rough up and menace inmates.Outside calls from concerned citizens and news media will tend to stay the hand of prison authorities who may tend to react with reckless and brutal aggression. So calls to the warden’s office of the following Georgia State Prisons expressing concern for the welfare of the prisoners during this and the next few days are welcome.Macon State Prison is 978-472-3900.
Hays State Prison is at (706) 857-0400
Telfair State prison is 229-868-7721
Baldwin State Prison is at (478) 445- 5218
Valdosta State Prison is 229-333-7900
Smith State Prison is at (912) 654-5000
The Georgia Department of Corrections is at http://www.dcor.state.ga.us and their phone number is 478-992-5246
This is all the news we have for now…
Haiti's Cholera Death Toll Climbs
No Relief in Sight for the Battered Nation
The cholera epidemic in Haiti continues to grow. The latest information from the Haitian Ministry of Public Health reports 2,323 related deaths and over 104,000 cases. That report was dated Dec. 9.The unrest following the announcement of preliminary election results on Dec. 7 slowed or stopped relief efforts in a number of regions of Haiti. The violence halted efforts in the North West department, Centre department and in Leoganes, according to the United Nations. The communities of les Cayes, Cap Haitien and Gonaïves were unsafe and UN personnel were restricted to their bases. Some staff was evacuated from les Cayes.
Helicopters were able to make deliveries of medicine and cholera treatment supplies on Dec. 10 and 11. UN troops from Bolivia and Guatemala provided protection for the shipments. Cuban medical relief operations continue, with their relief mission now numbering 1,063.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is actively involved in the cholera fight. They have 183 staff assigned to the outbreak, with 25 on location in Haiti. In addition, the existing CDC AIDS program office in Haiti is contributing to the effort with its 40-member staff.
Samaritan's Purse, a faith-based charity, brought attention to the many issues in Haiti with a visit to the country this past weekend by Sarah, Todd and Bristol Palin, along with SP president Franklin Graham and Fox News' Greta Van Susteren. Among the areas visited was the SP cholera treatment center in Cite Soleil, the huge slum in Port-au-Prince.
In Haiti's neighbor, the Dominican Republic, the Ministry of Public Health reports 22 laboratory-confirmed cases of cholera as of Dec. 6. Over 170 more are suspected. Of the confirmed cases, two cases came from Haiti and the remainder were local infections.
An anecdotal account of Haiti's medical situation created by structural violence and negligence. Go to Peoria's Medical Mafia and PMM Daily to see Peoria's role. Also see Live From Haiti and Haitian Hearts.
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Nepal’s army denied Sunday that the cholera epidemic that has taken more than 2,000 lives in Haiti was introduced into the Caribbean country by Nepalese soldiers serving as U.N. peacekeepers, as claimed by a prestigious French physician in a recent study.
“The report is based on suppositions, not proof,” said army spokesman Ramindra Chettri, adding that three independent studies have demonstrated that no Nepalese peacekeeper was responsible for having carried the disease into Haiti.
The soldiers of the South Asian country who participate in U.N. missions are subjected to assorted medical tests before they are deployed, Chettri said.
“We don’t send anyone on the peace missions who has been infected by a contagious disease,” Chettri said.
He acknowledged, however, that the Nepalese soldiers were not given the test for cholera, since that test is not required by the United Nations.
“There have been no (cases of) cholera in the last year-and-a-half” among Nepal’s troops, Chettri said.
The French Foreign Ministry sent to U.N. headquarters in New York on Dec. 7 the report prepared by Dr. Renaud Piarroux that pointed to Nepalese peacekeepers as the ones responsible for introducing the disease into Haiti.
Piarroux, who is considered to be one of the world’s foremost specialists in the study of cholera, alleged that the disease spread because the sewage from the Nepalese troop encampment drained into the same river from which the residents of the town of Mirebalais draw their drinking water, and that is the town where the epidemic was first noticed a few days after the arrival of the blue-helmeted peacekeepers.
In its own investigation based on several analyses of the river water, the United Nations concluded that the watercourse could not be where the epidemic, which so far has sickened some 100,000 people, originated.
Nepal, where cholera is endemic, is one of the countries that contributes the most forces to U.N. peacekeeping missions.
For the original report go to http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=381371&CategoryId=14092
>via: http://repeatingislands.com/2010/12/13/nepalese-army-denies-role-in-haiti-cho...
______________________________________
December 8, 2010
By FIDEL CASTRO
About three weeks ago news and photos were published showing Haitian citizens throwing stones and protesting in indignation against the forces of MINUSTAH, accusing it of having transmitted cholera to that country by way of a Nepalese soldier.
The first impression, if one doesn’t get any additional information, is that this deals with a rumour born out of the hatred caused by any occupying army.
How could this be proven? Many of us were not aware of the characteristics of cholera and how it is transmitted. A few days later the protests ceased in Haiti and nobody said anything else about the matter.
The epidemic followed its inexorable course, and other problems, such as the risks from the electoral battle, took up our time.
Today we are getting reliable and believable news about what really happened. The Haitian people had reason aplenty to express their indignant protests.
The AFP news agency textually reported that: “The renowned French epidemiologist Renaud Piarroux led research in Haiti last month and came to the conclusion that the epidemic was generated by an imported strain and spread from the Nepalese base” of the MINUSTAH.
Another European agency, EFE, reported that: “The origin of the disease is in the small town of Mirebalais, in the centre of the country, where Nepalese soldiers had set up their camp, and it appeared a few days after their arrival, thus proving the origin of the epidemic...”
“Up to the present time, the UN Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) has denied that the epidemic entered along with the blue helmets.”
“…French doctor Renaud Piarroux, considered to be one of the main specialists in the world in the study of the cholera epidemic, leaves no doubts about the origin of the disease…”
“The study was ordered by Paris at the request of Haitian authorities, a French diplomatic spokesman declared.”
“…the appearance of the disease coincides with the arrival of Nepalese soldiers who, moreover, come from a country where there is a cholera epidemic.
“There is no other way to explain the sudden and powerful outbreak of cholera in a small town with a few dozen inhabitants.
“The report also analyzes the way the illness spreads, since the fecal waters in the Nepalese camp were draining into the same river from which the townspeople were getting their drinking water.”
The most surprising thing, according to the abovementioned agency, the UN did was to “…send a research mission into the Nepalese camp, and it concluded that it couldn’t be the origin of the epidemic.”
Haiti, in the midst of the destruction by the earthquake, the epidemic and poverty, cannot now dispense with an international force cooperating with a nation ruined by foreign interventions and the exploitation of the transnationals. The UN not only must fulfill the elementary duty of fighting for reconstruction and development in Haiti, but also of mobilizing the necessary resources to eradicate an epidemic which threatens to spread to the neighbouring Dominican Republic, the Caribbean, Latin America and other similar countries in Asia and Africa.
Why did the UN insist on denying that MINUSTAH brought the epidemic to the Haitian people? We are not blaming Nepal which in the past was a British colony, and whose men were used in their colonial wars and today seek employment as soldiers.
We inquired among the Cuban doctors who are today providing their services in Haiti and they confirmed to us the news transmitted by the abovementioned European news agencies with remarkable precision.
I make a brief summary of what was communicated to us by Yamila Zayas Nápoles, a specialist in comprehensive general medicine and anesthesiology, director of a medical institution with 8 basic specialties and the diagnostics of the Cuba-Venezuela Project inaugurated in October 2009 in the urban area of Mirebalais with 86,000 inhabitants in the North Department.
On Saturday October 15, 3 patients were admitted with symptoms of diarrhea and acute dehydration: on Sunday the 16th , 4 more were admitted with similar characteristics, but all from the same family, and they made the decision to isolate them and communicate what happened to the mission; on Monday the 17th, 28 patients were admitted, surprisingly, with the same symptoms.
The Medical Mission urgently sent a group of epidemiologists who took blood, vomit, stool samples and information that was sent immediately to the national Haitian laboratories.
On October 22nd the labs informed that the isolated strain corresponded to the one prevalent in Asia and Oceania, the most severe type. The UN blue-helmeted Nepalese unit is located on the banks of the Artibonite River which flows through the small town of Méyè, where the epidemic broke out, and Mirebalais, where it spread later very quickly.
Despite the sudden form in which cholera appeared in the small but excellent hospital that is at the service of Haiti, of the first 2,822 patients initially looked after in its isolation areas, only 13 people died, for a death rate of 0.5%; later on, when the Cholera Treatment Centre was created separately, of 3,459 patients, 5 of the very serious cases died, for a rate of 0.1%.
The total figure for persons ill from cholera in Haiti today, Tuesday December 7th, comes to 93,222 persons, and the death rate reached 2,120. Among those looked after by the Cuban Mission it went to 0.83%. The death rate in the other hospital institutions it is 3.2%. With experience acquired, proper measures and the reinforcement of the Henry Reeve brigade, the Cuban Medical Mission, with the support of Haitian authorities has offered the assistance to any of the 207 isolated subcommunes, so that no Haitian citizen is lacking care in confronting the epidemic, and many thousands of lives can be saved.
>via: http://www.counterpunch.org/castro12082010.html
______________________________________
Cubans lead campaign
to fight cholera in Haiti
(feature article)
BY SETH GALINSKY
The Cuban government has more centers to treat cholera in Haiti than any other government or non-governmental organization there. Now it is greatly expanding its medical mission.
An additional 300 doctors, nurses, and other medical personnel are joining the 965 members of the Cuban Medical Brigade, bringing the total Cuban contingent in Haiti to more than 1,200. Cuba is also expanding its 37 medical centers to 49 and adding 1,100 hospital beds.
Two hundred members of the contingent are graduates of Cuba’s Latin American Medical School (ELAM), which trains students from all over the world, including Africa and the United States, free of charge. Hundreds of Haitians have also been trained at the school; many of them are now collaborating with the Cuban medical mission.
As of December 2, an estimated 84,000 Haitians had been infected with cholera; nearly 1,900 have died in the six weeks since the first case was confirmed. The countryside has been much harder hit than the capital city Port-au-Prince.
The group Doctors Without Borders has 30 cholera centers, more than a third of them in Port-au-Prince, with doctors from several European countries. Cuba operates some centers jointly with Doctors Without Borders, the United Nations, and other aid groups.
Most of the Cuban-run centers operate in rural areas, often in the most isolated and difficult to reach parts of the country. The mortality rate for cholera victims treated by the Cuban brigade is less than 1 percent; for the rest of the private, Haitian government, and international-run centers it is about 3 percent.
One Cuban brigade is in L’Ester village, in the Artibonite region where the cholera outbreak began. When health workers there learned that dozens of people in the even more isolated Plateau hamlet were severely ill, they quickly sent nine people, including five doctors and two nurses, to set up a treatment center. Four of the doctors, from Uruguay, Paraguay, Nicaragua, and Haiti, are ELAM graduates.
In a letter to family and friends, published in the on-line CubaDebate, Emiliano Mariscal, describes how the mission functions and why the death rate at the Cuban-run centers is so low. He is an Argentine doctor who graduated from ELAM and is volunteering with the Cuban mission in Haiti.
According to Mariscal, the Cuban brigade has trained 15,000 Haitians on how to deal with the cholera outbreak. In addition, he explains, the Cuban doctors have been in Haiti “without interruption for more than 12 years, generating empathy and confidence among the population that does not exist with other forms of cooperation.”
Mariscal also touches on the powerful example of having a revolutionary workers government in power in Cuba. “The experience of practically 50 years of internationalist action,” he writes, has inspired young people from around the world with the “conception of solidarity” practiced by Cuba.
Cuba’s aid to the Haitian people stands in sharp contrast to the inaction of the U.S. government. A November 15 article on a U.S. State Department Web site said that the U.S. embassy was working to “enhance their surveillance system” in Haiti for reporting cholera cases. In addition Washington is “helping to support seven cholera treatment centers in Port-au-Prince,” the article said. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control will soon be conducting a survey to determine how residents of that city “obtain and store water.”
>via: http://www.themilitant.com/2010/7448/744850.html
Brazil: Recognition of the Palestinian State
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Palestine flag in Brazil, by Flickr user Setesete77 (Creative Commons 2.0: by-nc-sa)
On December 3, 2010 Brazil officially recognized [pt] the Palestinian state within the 1967 borders - before the Six-Day War - by note No. 707 of Ministry of Foreign Affairs / Itamaraty.
Since 1975 Brazil has recognized the PLO - Palestine Liberation Organization - as the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. Since 1993 it has, in Brazil, had a Special Delegation, and since 1998 the status of Embassy. The recognition came after a letter sent [pt] by the Chairman of the Palestinian National Authority Mahmoud Abbas to the Brazilian President Lula asking for the recognition of a Palestinian state.
Journalist and historian Rafael Fortes, in his blog, comments [pt] on Itamaraty's note, praising the decision, which he considers consistent with the foreign policy practiced by President Lula in recent years:
O texto é claro, direto e correto. Corresponde, aliás, à política externa do Governo Lula, que nada tem de radical, apesar da histeria da mídia gorda (principal partido de direita do Brasil, hoje). Exemplo disso é a intensificação das trocas comerciais com Israel – inclusive pela compra de armas e outros produtos e serviços de segurança e inteligência, cujo “laboratório” são os territórios ocupados e as “cobaias humanas”, a população palestina. Estas trocas comerciais contribuem para o fortalecimento de um país que deveria sofrer boicote da comunidade internacional, tal qual a África do Sul do apartheid.
The text is clear, straightforward and correct. It corresponds, in fact, to the foreign policy of the Lula government, which has nothing radical, despite the fat [big] media hysteria (the main right-wing party in Brazil, nowadays). An example is the intensification of trade with Israel - including the purchase of weapons and other products and security and intelligence services, whose “lab” are the occupied territories and the “human guinea pigs”, the Palestinian population. This trade contributes to the strengthening of a country that should suffer a boycott of the international community, like apartheid South Africa.Miguel Grazziotin, in his blog, salutes [pt] Brazilian diplomacy's decision, which he considers fair, given that Brazil also recognizes the state of Israel:
Muito acertada a decisão deste presidente, do qual muito me orgulho.
Se existe o reconhecimento de um Estado Judeu, Israel, nada mais justo que o reconhecimento do Estado Palestino.
Embora saibamos que no mundo ocidental, dominado pelos sionistas, há coisas que só o “povo escolhido” pode fazer ou ter…….Very wise the decision of this president, of which I am very proud.
If there is a recognition of a Jewish state, Israel, the recognition of a Palestinian state seems fair.
Although we know that in the western world, dominated by the Zionists, there are things that only the “chosen people” can do or have …….Marcos Guterman, in his blog, on the other hand, criticizes [pt] the decision, citing possible mistakes:
Tecnicamente, é um erro falar de um Estado palestino com “fronteiras anteriores à guerra de 1967”. O que há são acordos de armistício, e o que Israel conquistou não foram territórios “palestinos”, mas egípcios (Gaza) e jordanianos (Cisjordânia).
Technically, it is a mistake to speak of a Palestinian state with “the pre-war borders of 1967″. What exist are armistice agreements, and what Israel conquered were not “Palestinians” territories, but Egyptian (Gaza) and Jordanian (West Bank).Conceição Oliveira, at the blog Maria Frô, considers [pt] that the recognition by the Brazil of the Palestinian state within the 1967 borders was the most important news of the day, and she takes the chance to criticize the Brazilian media coverage of the case:
Diplomacia é isso, aprendam aí gringos, ao invés de ficar bisbilhotando chefes de Estado, façam o que tem de ser feito: contribuam para o diálogo e processo de paz não dizendo amém para o imperialismo da política sionista.
Para mim foi a notícia mais importante do dia, mas os brasileiros preferiram falar e sonhar com IPad e a imprensalona a dar voz ao Estado Sionista.Diplomacy is this, learn it gringos, instead of snooping heads of state, do what needs to be done: contribute to dialogue and peace process, not saying amen to the imperialism of the Zionist policy.
For me it was the most important news of the day, but the Brazilians preferred to talk and dream about the iPad and the big press giving voice to the Zionist state.Three days after the Brazilian decision was made, Argentina also announced the recognition of a Palestinian state, as Opera Mundi informs [pt]. Oliveira comments [pt] on the impact that has had in Brazilian media coverage of the issue, given the fact that until then the news had little been noticed on the Brazilian blogosphere and in the press:
Houve pouca repercurssão na blogosfera e na imprensalona o viés de sempre: o que os sionistas acharam da nota do Itamaraty, nenhum linha sobre a repercussão do reconhecimento brasileiro entre os palestinos.
Após a Argentina também reconhecer aos palestinos o direito de constituir um Estado livre e independente os portais brasileiros começaram a dar mais bola para notícia.
Ao menos entre os palestinos as expectativas diante do fato de O Cara reconhecer o direito de formação do Estado Palestino são a de que o ato do presidente Lula produzirá uma onda de apoio à luta de décadas dos palestinos contra a opressão do imperialismo sionista. Acompanhemos.There was little repercussion in the blogosphere, and in the big press the same bias: what the Zionists thought of the note from the Foreign Ministry, no line on the impact of the Brazilian recognition among Palestinians.
After Argentina also recognized the Palestinians right to establish a free and independent state, Brazilian portals began to pay more attention to the news.
At least the expectations among the Palestinians on the the fact that The Man recognized the right of a Palestinian statehood are that the act of President Lula will produce a wave of support for the decades of Palestinian struggle against the oppression of Zionist imperialism. Let's keep track.
Meeting between President Lula da Silva and Mahmoud Abbas in November 2009. Photo by Manu Dias / AGECOM shared by Flickr user Gov/Ba (Creative Commons 2.0 by)
Claudio Ribeiro at the blog Diversas Palavras [Many Words, pt] also criticizes the media's coverage, accusing it of having ties with American interests - those that are opposed to the recognition of Palestine:
O Brasil não está isolado e nem fazendo “pirotecnia diplomática” ou agindo sem qualquer sintonia com seus pares e/ou vizinhos, como insistem em afirmar os prepostos americanos: grande imprensa local e políticos da oposição.
Brazil is not alone and is not doing “diplomatic pyrotechnics” or acting out of tune with their peers and / or neighbors, as the American agents insist: the big local press and opposition politicians.For a long time, according to the blog Kaos en la Red [Chaos in the Web, pt/es], Brazil has sought an active position on the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the recognition of the Palestinian state can give more strength to Brazil in participating in such negotiations. Jorge Seadi, writing for the Sul21 [South21, pt] blog, analyses the meaning of the recognition for the Brazilian government and its practical effects:
O reconhecimento das fronteiras como eram em 1967 significa que, na opinião do governo brasileiro, Israel deve devolver os territórios ocupados — Cisjordânia, Jerusalém Oriental e Faixa de Gaza. O presidente Lula escreveu ao líder palestino que “o reconhecimento de suas fronteiras é parte da convicção brasileira de que um processo negociador que resulte em dois Estados convivendo pacificamente e em segurança é o melhor caminho para a paz no Oriente Médio”.
The recognition of the borders as they existed in 1967 means that, in the opinion of the Brazilian government, Israel should return the occupied territories - West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza. President Lula wrote to the Palestinian leader that “the recognition of its borders is part of Brazil's conviction that a negotiating process leading to two States living in peace and security is the best path to peace in the Middle East.”Georges Bourdukan, on his blog, also adds [pt] that the United States criticized Brazil's decision to recognize the Palestinian state, and offers reasons, such as the necessity for the U.S. to maintain its burgeoning war industry through the support given to Israel:
Criticar a atitude brasileira é querer transformar o Brasil no Iran da vez.
Os Estados Unidos, por, exemplo, consideraram “lamentável” e “imprudente” a decisão brasileira.
O que confirma, mais uma vez, que os Estados Unidos farão de tudo, como têm feito até hoje, para impedir a criação do Estado palestino.
É fundamental para eles que não haja Estado palestino.
Um Estado palestino significa o início do fim do atual estado de Israel, cujos dirigentes, como se sabe, transformaram o país num posto militar.
Israel existe para manter florescente a indústria bélica e a sobrevivência dos EUA.To criticize the Brazilian attitude is turning Brazil into the Iran of the moment.
The United States, for, example, considered the Brazilian decision ”regrettable” and “reckless”.
This confirms, once again, that the United States will do everything, as they have up to today, to prevent the creation of a Palestinian state.
It is crucial to them that there is no Palestinian state.
A Palestinian state means the beginning of the end of the current state of Israel, whose leaders, as is known, transformed the country into a military post.
Israel exists to maintain a flourishing arms industry and the survival of the USA.The MOPAT (Movement Palestine for All) welcomed Lula's decision, but asked him to for more concrete actions against what they call the “Zionist occupation” of Palestine.
The Israeli government, according to Braulio Wanderley from the blog História Vermelha [Red History, pt] condemned the recognition, saying that it “does not help, but hinders the peace process.”
December 14th, 2010 6:23 AMWhy I'm Posting Bail Money for Julian Assange
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Yesterday, in the Westminster Magistrates Court in London, the lawyers for WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange presented to the judge a document from me stating that I have put up $20,000 of my own money to help bail Mr. Assange out of jail.
Furthermore, I am publicly offering the assistance of my website, my servers, my domain names and anything else I can do to keep WikiLeaks alive and thriving as it continues its work to expose the crimes that were concocted in secret and carried out in our name and with our tax dollars.
We were taken to war in Iraq on a lie. Hundreds of thousands are now dead. Just imagine if the men who planned this war crime back in 2002 had had a WikiLeaks to deal with. They might not have been able to pull it off. The only reason they thought they could get away with it was because they had a guaranteed cloak of secrecy. That guarantee has now been ripped from them, and I hope they are never able to operate in secret again.
So why is WikiLeaks, after performing such an important public service, under such vicious attack? Because they have outed and embarrassed those who have covered up the truth. The assault on them has been over the top:
**Sen. Joe Lieberman says WikiLeaks "has violated the Espionage Act."
**The New Yorker's George Packer calls Assange "super-secretive, thin-skinned, [and] megalomaniacal."
**Sarah Palin claims he's "an anti-American operative with blood on his hands" whom we should pursue "with the same urgency we pursue al Qaeda and Taliban leaders."
**Democrat Bob Beckel (Walter Mondale's 1984 campaign manager) said about Assange on Fox: "A dead man can't leak stuff ... there's only one way to do it: illegally shoot the son of a bitch."
**Republican Mary Matalin says "he's a psychopath, a sociopath ... He's a terrorist."
**Rep. Peter A. King calls WikiLeaks a "terrorist organization."
And indeed they are! They exist to terrorize the liars and warmongers who have brought ruin to our nation and to others. Perhaps the next war won't be so easy because the tables have been turned -- and now it's Big Brother who's being watched ... by us!
WikiLeaks deserves our thanks for shining a huge spotlight on all this. But some in the corporate-owned press have dismissed the importance of WikiLeaks ("they've released little that's new!") or have painted them as simple anarchists ("WikiLeaks just releases everything without any editorial control!"). WikiLeaks exists, in part, because the mainstream media has failed to live up to its responsibility. The corporate owners have decimated newsrooms, making it impossible for good journalists to do their job. There's no time or money anymore for investigative journalism. Simply put, investors don't want those stories exposed. They like their secrets kept ... as secrets.
I ask you to imagine how much different our world would be if WikiLeaks had existed 10 years ago. Take a look at this photo. That's Mr. Bush about to be handed a "secret" document on August 6th, 2001. Its heading read: "Bin Ladin Determined To Strike in US." And on those pages it said the FBI had discovered "patterns of suspicious activity in this country consistent with preparations for hijackings." Mr. Bush decided to ignore it and went fishing for the next four weeks.
But if that document had been leaked, how would you or I have reacted? What would Congress or the FAA have done? Was there not a greater chance that someone, somewhere would have done something if all of us knew about bin Laden's impending attack using hijacked planes?
But back then only a few people had access to that document. Because the secret was kept, a flight school instructor in San Diego who noticed that two Saudi students took no interest in takeoffs or landings, did nothing. Had he read about the bin Laden threat in the paper, might he have called the FBI? (Please read this essay by former FBI Agent Coleen Rowley, Time's 2002 co-Person of the Year, about her belief that had WikiLeaks been around in 2001, 9/11 might have been prevented.)
Or what if the public in 2003 had been able to read "secret" memos from Dick Cheney as he pressured the CIA to give him the "facts" he wanted in order to build his false case for war? If a WikiLeaks had revealed at that time that there were, in fact, no weapons of mass destruction, do you think that the war would have been launched -- or rather, wouldn't there have been calls for Cheney's arrest?
Openness, transparency -- these are among the few weapons the citizenry has to protect itself from the powerful and the corrupt. What if within days of August 4th, 1964 -- after the Pentagon had made up the lie that our ship was attacked by the North Vietnamese in the Gulf of Tonkin -- there had been a WikiLeaks to tell the American people that the whole thing was made up? I guess 58,000 of our soldiers (and 2 million Vietnamese) might be alive today.
Instead, secrets killed them.
For those of you who think it's wrong to support Julian Assange because of the sexual assault allegations he's being held for, all I ask is that you not be naive about how the government works when it decides to go after its prey. Please -- never, ever believe the "official story." And regardless of Assange's guilt or innocence (see the strange nature of the allegations here), this man has the right to have bail posted and to defend himself. I have joined with filmmakers Ken Loach and John Pilger and writer Jemima Khan in putting up the bail money -- and we hope the judge will accept this and grant his release today.
Might WikiLeaks cause some unintended harm to diplomatic negotiations and U.S. interests around the world? Perhaps. But that's the price you pay when you and your government take us into a war based on a lie. Your punishment for misbehaving is that someone has to turn on all the lights in the room so that we can see what you're up to. You simply can't be trusted. So every cable, every email you write is now fair game. Sorry, but you brought this upon yourself. No one can hide from the truth now. No one can plot the next Big Lie if they know that they might be exposed.
And that is the best thing that WikiLeaks has done. WikiLeaks, God bless them, will save lives as a result of their actions. And any of you who join me in supporting them are committing a true act of patriotism. Period.
I stand today in absentia with Julian Assange in London and I ask the judge to grant him his release. I am willing to guarantee his return to court with the bail money I have wired to said court. I will not allow this injustice to continue unchallenged.
P.S. You can read the statement I filed today in the London court here.
P.P.S. If you're reading this in London, please go support Julian Assange and WikiLeaks at a demonstration at 1 PM today, Tuesday the 14th, in front of the Westminster court.
The Wikileaks founder Julian Assange arrived at court inside a prison van with heavily tinted windows on Tuesday in London.
LONDON — Julian Assange, the jailed founder of the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks, was ordered freed on $315,000 bail on Tuesday but remained at least temporarily in custody awaiting a final decision on whether he will be extradited to Sweden over allegations of sexual offenses against two women.
Articles in this series examine American diplomatic cables as a window on relations with the rest of the world in an age of war and terrorism.
Protesters demonstrated outside the City of Westminster Magistrates Court, where Julian Assange attended a bail hearing on Tuesday.
Mr. Assange was driven back to Wandsworth Prison in London on Tuesday night, past cheering and whistling supporters and scores of flashbulbs, pending an appeal of the bail ruling by the Swedish authorities, which must be heard at Britain’s High Court within the next 48 hours.
Judge Howard Riddle, presiding over a packed and rapt courtroom at Westminster Magistrate’s Court in Central London, said that his decision to jail Mr. Assange as a “serious flight risk” at an initial hearing on Dec. 7 was “marginal” and that, with conditions, Mr. Assange should now be freed until further proceedings on Jan. 11.
Judge Riddle was swayed Tuesday, he told the court, when a friend of Mr. Assange offered to allow him to stay at a lavish country mansion in Sussex, an hour away from London. Mr. Assange, according to conditions the judge laid out, must spend every night at the mansion, Ellingham Hall, a 10-bedroom home on a 650-acre estate owned by Vaughan Smith, the wealthy founder of a journalists’ clubin London.
Geoffrey Robertson, one of Britain’s most prominent lawyers, who is assisting Mr. Assange’s defense team, described it in court as less house arrest, more “mansion arrest.” But Mr. Assange, a 39-year-old Australian, will also be electronically tagged to track his movements and must agree to curfews — from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. Additionally, he will be stripped of his passport and will be required to present himself to the police every evening.
Mr. Assange, in a dark blue suit and white shirt, his naturally gray-blond hair growing back through brown dye, had looked pensive during the hearing, his head often resting on his hand. But he smiled at his mother, present in the public gallery, and offered a thumbs-up as he heard the decision. His principal lawyer, Mark Stephens, told reporters that his client had been subjected to “Victorian conditions” in a segregation cell at the London jail over the past week.
His incarceration has not stanched the controversial flow of classified American documents from WikiLeaks, the most recent drawn from some 250,000 diplomatic cables, mostly between American diplomats abroad and the State Department in Washington.
As figures in the Obama administration weigh whether to prosecute Mr. Assange for his repeated dissemination of secret United States materials, his lawyers have darkly hinted that the Swedish extradition is motivated by a political conspiracy. Mr. Assange himself has called the allegations a “smear campaign.”
Critics and supporters alike have seized on the controversy, describing Mr. Assange alternately as a villain and traitor or as a hero and martyr. Indeed, many of the 100 or so fervent fans of Mr. Assange outside the court on Tuesday refused to believe that the Swedish charges — which relate to allegations of sexual misconduct on three occasions with two young Swedish women in Stockholm last August — were not politically motivated.
“The timing is too coincidental,” said one woman, who gave her name only as Timi, holding up the words “Exposing war crimes is no crime” on a placard.
In court on Tuesday, Gemma Lindfield, the lawyer for the Swedish authorities, emphasized that the extradition attempt was “not about WikiLeaks” but centered on crimes “of a serious sexual nature.” The two women informed the authorities that consensual relations with Mr. Assange in Sweden, over a four-day period, had turned nonconsensual. Last week, in the initial hearing, the court was told that the charges involved three incidents, including one in which Mr. Assange was alleged to have had unprotected sex with one of his accusers while she was asleep. Swedish authorities characterize the encounters as “rape, sexual molestation and unlawful coercion.”
Mr. Assange has repeatedly disputed the accounts, and Mr. Robertson told the court that, in a previous interview with the Swedish authorities on Aug. 30, Mr. Assange had denied any wrongdoing “fully, firmly and convincingly.”
His lawyer, Mr. Stephens, said in an interview with the journalist David Frost that the Swedish authorities had neither delineated the charges against Mr. Assange nor shown him the evidence. He added that the Swedish actions were “nothing more than a holding charge” to make Mr. Assange available to the United States, should it choose to seek his extradition in connection with the leaking of the American diplomatic and military cables.
Articles in this series examine American diplomatic cables as a window on relations with the rest of the world in an age of war and terrorism.
Mr. Stephens asserted that the Swedish authorities had said that “they will defer their interest in him to the Americans,” and that a grand jury had been impaneled in Alexandria, Va., that was currently hearing evidence of Mr. Assange’s role in exposing the diplomatic cables. Justice Department officials have refused to discuss whether there is such a grand jury hearing the case.
The assertions could not be verified, and the Swedish prosecutors could not be immediately reached for comment. But in an earlier interview, one of them, Marianne Ny, referred obliquely to the possibility that Mr. Assange might end up in the United States. In discussing the procedure for extraditing a person who has been surrendered to Sweden, the prosecutor said the authorities would need the consent of the country that gave the prisoner up. “Sweden cannot,” she said, “without such consent extradite a person, for example to the U.S.A.”
The latest twist, following others in Sweden that saw the case dropped, then reopened in a different jurisdiction in recent months, began a week ago when a Swedish prosecutor submitted an arrest warrant for Mr. Assange. At his arraignment, at a central London police station, Mr. Assange, according to statements given in court last week, refused to give fingerprints, a DNA sample or even an address.
In that first hearing, Judge Riddle had seemed troubled by the refusal to provide a fixed location and agreed with the prosecution that there were “significant grounds” for thinking Mr. Assange posed a flight risk. He cited Mr. Assange’s “nomadic lifestyle,” his lack of ties in Britain, his network of international contacts and his access to substantial sums of money donated by supporters.
This time, he said that the concerns had been “handsomely” addressed by Mr. Smith, the mansion’s owner, who stood up among other supporters in court to explain that Mr. Assange would be under the supervision of his family if allowed bail, and that Mr. Assange was unlikely to flee. In addition, he said, domestic staff members at his mansion “will be reporting” to him on Mr. Assange’s movements.
An Australian broadcaster, 7 News, reported that in a 10-minute telephone conversation with his mother, who had flown from Australia to be in London on Tuesday, Mr. Assange declared: “My convictions are unfaltering. I remain true to the ideals I have always expressed. These circumstances shall not shake them. If anything, this process has increased my determination that they are true and correct.”
In prison, Mr. Robertson told the court, Mr. Assange is allowed very limited access to information. This ban extended, he said, even to a copy of Time magazine with Mr. Assange, an American flag over his mouth, on the cover.
Documents: Selected Dispatches