ZERO TOLERANCE!

Cartoon by Latuff

Zero tolerance for imperialist invaders


ZERO SYMPATHY

“My heart is a stork
Perched on a distant dome in Baghdad.
Its nest made of bones
Its sky of death.”
Sinan Antoon, Iraki poet

Some time ago I confronted a young American soldier who was giving me the middle finger for protesting against the U.S.-U.K.-led plunder war on and criminal occupation of Irak in front of the U.S. embassy here in Tokyo. I had asked him why he was going to kill people who had done him no harm. He answered that for him being a soldier was just a job and that it put food on the table. So, I just started throwing things at him, anything I could lay my hands on.

Now, am I supposed to feel sorry for that degenerate if he gets killed in Irak? Never. Good riddance. I often hear how poor young Americans from working class families join the army to escape poverty at home in the U.S. They join the U.S. army so that after they’ve served their greedy country they could afford a college education. So, let me get this straight; the poor young American soldier goes to Irak, among other places, to kill innocent Irakis so that he or she could afford a better life back home in the U.S. He or she kills a young Iraki so that they could go to college. Is this some kind of this joke?! And it is even worse if that poor young American soldier actually makes it back home and has a better life thanks to the Irakis he killed. I feel no sorrow at all for the dead American soldiers.
On the contrary, and I don’t like it, I rejoice every time I hear a U.S. sokdier was killed by the Iraki resistance. They, the U.S. soldiers, are the ones killing innocent Irakis so that the West and Japan could get cheap or close to free oil. I wouldn’t feel sorry for them even after I am done feeling sorry for the millions and millions os victims of U.S., Western imperialism. Am I supposed to feel sorry for the raped and the rapist? How am I supposed to feel sorry for someone who’s trying to make one’s life better by killing innocent people? How about I ask the West to feel sorry for the poor young German soldiers who rampaged through Europe during WW2? Or the poor young German soldiers working at Auschwitz as camp guards or escorting Jews to gas chambers and crematoriums? Those German soldiers were young, poor, ignorant, innocent, deceived, misled, lied to…..they didn’t know about Hitler’s plans. Most of them just wanted to escape poverty and misery in Germany. Hell, they even have a better excuse for not knowing what was really going on than today’s U.S. soldiers who at least have the advantages offered by highly developed information technology which didn’t exist during WW2.

So, when I am told that the poor young American soldier didn’t know what he was getting into, that he was deceived, misled…. All I can say is: give me a break. So was the young SS. What infuriates me is the people on the Left, their shyness, cowardice when it comes to condemning the rape of Irak. They condemn the war but at the same time they also deplore the deaths, for the sake of political correctness, of the poor young American soldiers who kill, beat, humiliate, rape Irakis, plunder and destroy Irak and camps like Abu Ghraib. The problem of the people on the Left is that they are trying to please everyone. They are being careful not to alienate the public, the notoriously indifferent Western public, at large so they sympathize with innocent poor American soldiers who are supposedly dying needlessly in Irak, the poor young American soldiers who have so far killed more than 500 000 thousands innocent Irakis. According to some sources it could be close to 1 million. This reminds me of another Iraki poem by Sinan Antoon:

“To an Iraqi Infant”
“Don’t be afraid
We’ll arrange your bones
Which ever way you want
And leave your skull
Like a flower on top.”

Why sympathize with or feel sorry for the enemy? The U.S. soldiers and all the vultures that have followed them are the enemy. The Left in the West must embrace the Iraki resistance and give it its full and unconditional support because this is a classic case of imperialist attack carried out by the enlightened West. The invaders and occupiers must be driven out of Irak by any means necessary. All those who took part in this supreme international crime must be, and will be, kicked out of Irak, dead or alive, I don’t care. To me, personally, a good American soldier is one returning home in a body bag from wherever he or she had been extending imperialism. The other day I watched yet another 4 or 5 minute film on a news website called Information Clearing House. Young American soldiers shooting an Iraki dog and laughing because the poor animal just wouldn’t die, it just kept trying to stand up and they kept shooting it, kicking Iraki prisoners, killing, by mistake of course, Iraki civilians riding in a car and accompanying every killing with more laughter, swearing and cursing.

But I guess, they were just following orders. So was Eichmann. During WW2, when most of Europe was under Nazi occupation, was it wrong of the French resistance or the Partisans in Yugoslavija, where I come from, to ambush convoys of young German soldiers and kill them all? No. During the imperialist occupation of Vietnam by the U.S., was it wrong of the Vietnamese resistance to kill the American invaders? No. Or the Korean or the Chinese resistance fighters killing the Japanese invaders who were trying to liberate Asia just like what Uncle Sam is trying to do in the Arab world, you know, trying to liberate the Arabs from their oil., so, was it wrong to kill Hirohito’s dogs? No. Is it wrong of the Palestinian resistance fighters to kill the U.S.-West Europe-backed Israeli imperialist invaders? No.

This asking a question and answering it myself, I learned it from Donald Rumsfeld. These are just a few examples of great, heroic resistance. So, what’s wrong with the Iraki’s resistance killing the U.S. invaders in order to drive them out of Irak? Nothing. Those so-called poor, young U.S. soldiers have joined the U.S. army voluntarily. Nobody forced them. They chose that job. They live in the most democratic country in the world, the beacon of freedom. I know, I know, they were naïve, they were fooled, they were forced to join by poverty….bla, bla, bla…..but I do not care. If they want to do something about their poverty, they should put up a fight against their government, the U.S. government, against their country, inside the U.S. They could use Timothy McVeigh as their inspiration and guiding star instead of going around the world killing, plundering, destroying, raping.

The U.S.-led coalition of the willing to kill for oil, the U.S.-led coalition of terrorists will be kicked out of beautiful Irak. The invaders, the thieves, the murderers will leave bloodied noses. They will be kicked out of Irak by the Iraki people resistance just like any other imperialist dogs throughout history.
As for calling the Iraki resistance terrorism, in the words of Nizar Qabbani, the Arab world’s poet of love:

“I am with terrorism
With all my poetry, with all my words,
And all my teeth, as long as this
New world is in the hands of a butcher.”

Cartoon by Latuff

Brkic Sulejman
20/01/2008

DELIBERATE IGNORANCE

Cartoon by Latuff

"To gaze idly at a crime is to commit it."
Jose Marti

YOU DON'T HAVE THE RIGHT NOT TO KNOW ANYMORE!

'Not to know is bad. Not to wish to know is worse'
African proverb

I am sick and tired of hearing 'I don't know, I didn't know, I don't understand' when it comes to social issues, problems in our world and the miserable state of affairs into which we've plunged it!

I live in Japan (I've lived here for 15 years) and this is one of the most, with the USA, (deliberately) ignorant countries in the world. It's just like with the US, it's always the same crap. It always goes like this: 'The American people didn't know, they were lied to,, they were misled, manipulated by the media, they were deceived, the Congress was lied to…..bla, bla, bla. And this has been going on forever. They never know. Always the same excuse! And the result of their (deliberate) ignorance is about 7 million people killed throughout our world by US foreign policy since 1945. And we who know about the crimes of US foreign policy are always asked to be careful and separate the US government from its people because they don't know what their government has been up to. Well, I've had it with you over there in the US and here in Japan! No more 'I don't know, I didn't know, I don't understand'! No more of that bull shit! You should know! You should have known! WHEN WILL YOU KNOW?! Really?! When do you think it will be a good time to know that outside the G7 the world, your world, our world is burning?! That we have made our beautiful planet sick? That you, the ones always with 'I don't know, I didn't know, I don't understand' on their lips, you the DELIBERATELY ignorant and indifferent ones, that you may be one of the main causes of the misery in our world!

Here I am, in Tokyo, in the 21st century, talking about two of the most technologically advanced, industrialized, materially rich countries in the world and yet so poor when it comes to knowledge, compassion, sense of justice, sense of history, generosity, sense of shame, human warmth. You are pathetic!

I wonder how many more millions of people will have to die in our world, how badly damaged will our beautiful planet have to get for you, the I-don't-know dimwits, to notice at best that there is something wrong, to cause you to actually feel slightly concerned. Don't know my ass!!

WHY DON'T YOU KNOW?! WHY DON'T YOU KNOW?! WHEN WILL YOU KNOW?!
WHEN WILL YOU UNDERSTAND?! WHY DON'T YOU TRY TO FIND OUT?!

If you have enough gray cells that allow you to think enough to say that you don't know (in order to escape responsibility), then logically, since you know that you don't know, you should try to want to know, to learn, do a little research, read, use the Internet, go to libraries, attend lectures, hang out with people who do know instead of morrons like yourself....When was actually the last time when you did try to do any of the above mentioned?

I mean, if you have enough 'brains' to locate the latest MP3, a Louis Vuiton bag, a bargain sale, a cheap airplane ticket on the Internet to Hawaii, Guam, Acapulco...a great Italian restaurant om the other side of town, a great vintage clothes store...if you have enough 'brains' to locate all these, then you should be able, while you (Americans and Japanese) are surfing the net in search of emptiness to fill your empty head and heart, to find out why really America is in Iraq (so far more than 600 000 Iraqis dead), why Japan has supported (again) and taken part in this supreme international crime, why the US, since its inception, has been at war with our world, why Japan, while claiming it loves peace, has supported every criminal adventure undertaken by the US since 1945, why Japan attacked and occupied China, Korea and many other countries in Asia, why so many Asians are still so angry at Japan, why the US is resented by so many people around the world...You could find about all this while you are on the Internet if you cared enough or you could ask your stupid parents, but I guess they 'don't know' either.

When I hear that the Americans, the Japanese are 'peace loving peoples', I actually feel like screaming at you, you hypocrites! After 15 years here in Japan you ain't fooling me no more with your pretense of loving, caring for peace, you hypocrites!

How in the world can you, you Japanese, even pretend to love and care about peace when you have followed and supported the US in each and every of its wars?! Hell, you have economically prospered on your pretense of love for peace. Yes! Your economic prosperity is in big part due to your following blindly, out of greed, the US in its wars of global plunder. But then, of course, you, the 'peace loving' Japanese 'don't know, didn't know, you don't understand' what Uncle Sam, your master, has been up to, just like the American people. Maybe we should ask the Iraqis. I bet they know what is happening to them and who is responsible! You should be ashamed of yourselves! SHAME ON YOU!

There is a joke, of sort, about the American people that says that Americans learn geography through their government's bombings other peoples around the world.

I am not saying that you have to lose sleep over Iraqis, Palestinians, Chechens, Rwandans, the Kurds, the Sudanese, the Korean, Chinese and other Asian women who survived sexual slavery at the hands of Japanese Imperial Army that was liberating Asia, the ozone, the pollution, the 30000 people that die of hunger daily.... but you could at least start caring about the needy at home, in your own countries. You could start with the homeless. But, I guess, you 'didn't know ' about them, either.

It is also interesting that expression that you have on your face when you say that rubbish ' I don't know, I didn't know, I don't understand'. It's as if by saying those (magical to you) words you expect to be granted automatic access to innocence, immunity, absolution, total understanding and exoneration, sympathy, love....

You probably even expect the victims of your government's criminal foreign policy to understand that there was nothing you could do since you 'didn't know' what your democratically elected (by you) government was up to because you were too busy reading Manga, the Davinci Code, Harry Potter, watching baseball, shopping, playing video games, ignoring 'politics' because it's boring. Hell, you were too busy doing your best not to know, not to find out even by accident.

In this age of avalanches of information available to us (in the G7), you have got to really try hard not to know! There is also another look you sometimes have on your face, you know, the one where you lower your eyes or look away in boredom but too coward to say that you are not interested. Or, you just say something like 'Oh! Yeah.... that's terrible....' hoping that those empty words of yours would put an end to the oppressing conversation into which you were dragged from your pathetic, parasitic, dead life. And, trying harder to get you interested in our world, the misery, the injustice in it, would be close to, in your mind, violating your human rights!

Now, I could go on and on and on about your kind, the 'I don't know, I didn't know, I don't understand' specie but I'm afraid I'd be wasting my time, and anyway, the 800 000 dead Rwandans have nothing to do with you. Let's just say that you don't know or didn't know or don't understand because you don't want to. And you don't want to know because you don't care. That's the plain truth. YOU DON'T CARE! You are a despicable person!

'THOSE WHO ACQUIESCE IN A CRIME
ARE EVERY BIT AS GUILTY AS THOSE
WHO ENTHUSIASTICALLY PARTICIPATE'
Endo Shusaku

By 'YOU', as I mentioned earlier, I mean mainly Americans and Japanese because you have been the most numerous ones I've come in contact with during my 15 years in this peace loving country that is Japan. By 'YOU' I also mean the middle class, not only in the US and Japan, but in the G7. The guardian of capitalism.
By 'YOU' I mean the ones who, while I am marching with friends in a protest against war, just stand on the sidewalks and stare, laugh, never thinking of joining us, probably too busy shopping.

By 'YOU' I don't mean the people who already have enough burdens on their shoulders, say, the single mother who can barely make ends meet..

In the movie 'V for Vendetta' the hero asks TV viewers who's to blame for the current miserable state of affairs in our world and he answers them in these words:
'LOOK IN THE MIRROR'.

So, let us all, us in the G7, look in the mirror!

'HUMAN BEINGS ARE ALL MEMBERS OF ONE BODY.
THEY ARE CREATED FROM THE SAME ESSENCE.
WHEN ONE MEMBER IS IN PAIN, THE OTHER CANNOT
REST. IF YOU DO NOT CARE ABOUT THE PAIN OF
OTHERS, YOU DO NOT DESERVE TO BE CALLED
A HUMAN BEING.'
Mosleh al-Din Saadi Shirazi
(13th century Persian poet, from Shiraz)

Brkic SULEJMAN
21/02/2007

CAPITALISM

CAPITALISM IS…………..GOOD


Brkic Sulejman 10/12/07
A few weeks ago I attended a discussion about the working poor here in Japan and around the world. Many of the participants were not from that class. An hour or so into the discussion, a woman in her 40s (a journalist, writer, translator according to her business card) said that she didn’t think capitalism was bad, that there was nothing wrong with capitalism. A few jaws dropped, including mine.

Now that, according to the capitalist West (including Japan), communism and socialism are “dead”, the only economic system left in charge of the well-being of our world, our planet is capitalism (and its twin neo-liberalism). So, communism and socialism cannot be blamed anymore for the misery surrounding us. So, who is or what is to blame for the, say, between 25 000 and 30 000 children (under the age of 5) who die daily (mainly in the Third World) of hunger in the 21st century, or the close to 50 million people without any health insurance in the U.S.A, or another 45 million or so illiterate in the U.S.A, or the 37 million who live bellow the poverty line in the U.S.A? In the 21st century! In the U.S.A?! The leading capitalist country. The world superpower!

IN 1981 THE UNITED NATIONS TRIED TO PASS A RESOLUTION THAT:
“Declares that education, work, health care, proper nourishment, national development are human rights.” THE U.S. VETOED THIS U.N. RESOLUTION.
http://www.krysstal.com/democracy_whyusa03.html

Saying that there is nothing really wrong with capitalism, that it’s not that bad, when even some capitalists, neo-liberals themselves are starting to recognize its excesses, is just stupid and mean!
“Former chief economist of the World Bank Joseph Stiglitz in his book ‘ Making Globalisation Work’ admits that globalization (capitalism) makes some people poorer and that Africa has gotten poorer since the 1980s…” The Observer,2006 (G.A.C.)

Although I’ve already enumerated a few facts to describe the humane side of capitalism in another piece under a different title
(http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article12257.htm),
here are some other facts, and, as you’ll see, all they show is that capitalism is about…….MONEY, MONEY, MONEY…..MORE MONEY……..AND MORE MONEY …….AT ANY COST!

“Capitalism is the system under which we all live, which is
failing so miserably to meet the needs of the vast majority
of the world’s population. Under capitalism, a small minority
of people are in control of the money and resources of the planet.
They accumulate wealth and power and move their money and
factories at will to keep their profits high and wages low.
PROFIT COMES BEFORE PEOPLE AND THE ENVIRONMENT”
(http://www.globalissues.org/TradeRelated/Poverty/death/?p=1)


Here are some interesting global priorities to help the reader to better imagine and feel the generosity of the capitalist West (including Japan):

1. Consider the global priorities in spending in 1998
Global Priority $U.S. Billions
Cosmetics in the United States 8
Ice cream in Europe 11
Perfumes in Europe and the United States 12
Pet foods in Europe and the United States 17
Business entertainment in Japan 35
Cigarettes in Europe 50
Alcoholic drinks in Europe 105
Narcotics drugs in the world 400
Military spending in the world 780

2. And compare that to what was estimated as additional costs to achieve universal access to basic social services in all developing countries:
Global Priority $U.S. Billions
Basic education for all 6
Water and sanitation for all 9
Reproductive health for all women 12
Basic health and nutrition 13
(http://www.globalissues.org/TradeRelated/Poverty/death/?p=1)
It just reeks of generosity!
The leading capitalist countries are the G7 countries.


“The basic law in capitalism is you OR I,
NOT both you AND I.”
Karl Liebknecht

1) 6 million children under the age of 5 die every year because of hunger.(G.A.C)
2) For the first time in human history the number of overweight people rivals the number of underweight people.(G.A.C)
3) A child dies of starvation every 7seconds according to the World Food Program. 80% of the world’s hungry children live in countries with food surpluses. (G.A.C)
4) The space shuttle costs $400 million per flight. NASA’s overall budget is $15 billion a year. (G.A.C)
5) Half of the world’s population lives on less than $2 a day. (G.A.C)
6) For $12 you can buy “SPRAY ON MUD” for your SUV. According to the company’s website, SPRAY ON MUD can give the impression “you’ve just come back from a day’s shooting, fishing, or visiting friends on a farm instead of dropping the kids off at the mall on your way to yoga class. The creator of SPRAY ON MUD reassures us that “people may want to look like they’ve been off road, but they certainly don’t want any chips or scratches on paint work.” (G.A.C)
7) 1/3 of the world’s population is without electricity. If present trends continue, this figure will grow by 25% in the next 20 years. (G.A.C)
8) 20 million people in the world who need a wheelchair for basic mobility do not have 1. (G.A.C)
9) In 2003, British people spent more than $2 billion on candy.(G.A.C)
10) Of the 4.4 billion people in developing countries:
3/5 lack basic sanitation,
1/3 have no safe drinking water,
1/4 have inadequate housing,
1/5 are undernourished,
1/5 have no modern health services. (G.A.C)
11) The U.S. “defence” budget in 2005 was over $ 1 billion a day. (G.A.C)
12) 113 million children in developing countries are without access to basic education. 60% are girls. (G.A.C)
13) Madonna and Guy Ritchie’s wedding cost between $2 and 3$ million. (G.A.C)
14) The richest countries are home to 20% of the world’s population who consume 86% of all resources. (G.A.C)
“THE INHERENT VICE OF CAPITALISM IS THE UNEQUAL
SHARING OF BLESSINGS” Winston Churchill
15) 75% of the world’s pollution comes from 25% of the world’s population. (G.A.C)
16) Globally the number 1 occupation for disabled people is begging. (G.A.C)
17) Goodie bags for Oscar presenters at the Academy Awards are worth $100,000. (G.A.C)
18) 1.1 billion (1/6 of the world’s population) do not have clean water. 2.4 billion do not have adequate sanitation. 1 child dies every 15 seconds from water related disease, which amounts to nearly 6,000 deaths a day or the equivalent of 20 jumbo jets crashing.
The $8 billion spent on cosmetics in the U.S. each year would provide clean water for the developing world. (G.A.C)
19) It takes 11,000 liters of water to create 1 quarter-pounder hamburger. (G.A.C)
20) The amount of money spent on PET FOOD in the U.S. and Europe each year equals the additional amount needed to provide BASIC FOOD AND HEALTH CARE for ALL the people in poor countries, with a sizeable amount left over. (G.A.C)
21) The amount of money spent on ICE CREAM in Europe each year would be enough to ensure reproductive health for all women in developing countries per year. (G.A.C)

22) In 1982 the United Nations tried to pass a resolution that
“Declares that education, work, health care, proper nourishment, national development, etc are human rights.” The U.S. vetoed this U.N. resolution.
http://www.krysstal.com/democracy_whyusa03.html

23) The U.S. has the highest rate of child poverty among the industrialized countries, with 1 in every 5 children growing up in poverty. (G.A.C)
24) $500,000: Amount the Iraq war costs per minute, according to a new analysis by a Nobel Prize winning economist at Harvard, who noted that the amount spent on the war each day could pay for health care for 423,529 children. (Time magazine, October 2007)
25) About 650,000 Iraqi civilians (many of them women and children) have died (killed for OIL) since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq (for OIL) according to the Lancet medical journal. (G.A.C)
26) When U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney was CEO of oil field supply company Halliburton, he did almost $24 million in business with Saddam Hussein. (G.A.C)

“CAPITALISM IS THE LEGITIMATE RACKET OF
THE RULING CLASS.” Al Capone

27) In 2005, 37 million Americans lived in poverty, 25.3% American Indians and Alaska Natives, 24.9% were blacks, 21.8% were Hispanics, 11.1% were Asians, and 8.3% were Whites. (G.A.C)
28) The production costs of an hour of “reality” TV programming is about $800,000. (G.A.C)
29) The 225 richest people in the world have a combined wealth of more than $1 trillion, equal to the annual income of the poorest 47% of the Earth’s population, some 2.5 billion people. (G.A.C)
30) $13 billion a year would satisfy the world’s sanitation and food needs (about as much as the people of the U.S. and European Union spend each year on PERFUME). (G.A.C)
31) In the world, every 8 seconds a person dies of a tobacco-related disease. (G.A.C) Why is it still being sold?! Moneeeeeeey!
32) 2.3 million people died of AIDS in 2004 and 25.4 million were HIV-positive.(G.A.C)
33) The United Nations estimates the cost of combating AIDS to be $10 billion a year. U.N. member countries contributed $3 billion in 2002. (G.A.C)
34) The United Nations budget is less than the yearly cost of the Tokyo fire department. (G.A.C)
35) OXFAM estimates that to meet the health, education, and sanitation target of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals would require $48 billion more in aid a year. Annual global military spending is $953 billion. (G.A.C)
36) Michael Eisner, CEO of Disney, makes $9,783 an hour compared with a Haitian worker who stitches Disney products for 28 cents an hour.

CAPITALISTS: “PEOPLE WHO JUST SEE PROFIT AS IMPORTANT.
MONEY, MONEY AND MORE MONEY.” Dalai Lama (G.A.C)

37) Over their lifetime, 1 child born in the West will consume and pollute more than
would 30 children born in developing countries. (G.A.C)
38) 1/6 of the world’s population lives in squalid unhealthy areas mostly without water,
sanitation, public services or legal security. (G.A.C)
39) A birthday party for former Tyco chief executive Dennis Kozlowski’s wife Karen, cost $2.2 million. It included an ice sculpture of Michelangelo’s David that urinated Vodka. (G.A.C)
40) In the entire world, those living in extreme poverty ( on less than $1 a day) rose from 271 million in 1996 to 313 million in 2002. That is an increase of 42 million in 6 years.(G.A.C)

IN 1983 THE UNITED NATIONS TRIED TO PASS A RESOLUTION THAT:
“Declares that education, work, health care, proper nourishment, national development are human rights.” THE U.S. VETOED THIS U.N. RESOLUTION.
http://www.krysstal.com/democracy_whyusa03.html

41) The military involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq have cost the U.S. $ 400 billion in 3 years. (G.A.C)
42) Every 4 days the world spends more than $7 billion on the military. The U.N. estimates that this amount would be enough to provide poor countries with primary education for a year. (G.A.C)
43) Daily DEATHS around the world: 24,000 from hunger
6,000 children from diarrhea
2,700 children from measles
1,400 women in child birth
550 children from war
201 from drought (G.A.C)

“WORLD WIDE CAPITALISM KILLS MORE PEOPLE EVERYDAY
THAN HITLER DID. AND HE WAS CRAZY.” Ken Livingstone

44) For many of the world’s poorest countries, living standards are lower than what
they were 30 years ago. (G.A.C)
45) The gap between the incomes of the richest and poorest countries was about:
3 to 1 in 1820,
35 to 1 in 1950,
44 to 1 in 1973,
and 72 to 1 in 1992. (G.A.C)

“THE FORCES IN A CAPITALIST SOCIETY, IF LEFT UNCHECKED, TEND
TO MAKE THE RICH RICHER AND THE POOR POORER.”
Jawaharlal Nehru

46) The 3 richest people in the world have assets that exceed the combined gross
domestic product of the 48 least-developed countries. (G.A.C)
47) It would cost between $7 and 8 billion a year to provide primary education for everyone in the developing world. This amount represents 4 days of global military spending, and 50% of what the U.S. spends annually on children’s TOYS. (G.A.C)
48) The amount of money that the richest 1% of the world’s population makes each year equals what the poorest 57% make. (G.A.C)
49) Global production of hazardous waste has reached more than 300 million tons a year. (G.A.C)
50) The human race is living beyond its means. A report backed by 1,360 scientists from 95 countries warned that almost 2/3 of the natural machinery that supports life on Earth is being degraded by human pressure. (G.A.C)
51) The world’s most profitable corporation, EXXONMOBIL has sales that amount to more than $1 billion a day. The company has used some of this money to contribute to 124 organizations that deny climate change. (G.A.C)
52) 100 million children in the world are estimated to be living or working on the streets and 1.2 million women and girls under 18 are trafficked for prostitution each year. (G.A.C)

“LIBERAL CAPITALISM IS NOT AT ALL THE GOOD OF HUMANITY.
QUITE THE CONTRARY; IT IS THE VEHICLE OF SAVAGE, DESTRUCTIVE NIHILISM” Alain Badiou

53) 1 million children in Canada live bellow the poverty line. (G.A.C)
54) A former student of mine, here in Tokyo, has 3 Louis Vuitton shoulder bags at the price of between 300,000 and 500,000 yen each. (Brkic Sulejman)

“I KEEP ON UNDERESTIMATING CAPITALISM. I REGARD IT AS THE WORLD’S EVIL, AND I STILL CONTINUE TO UNDERESTIMATE IT…”
Stephen Lewis, United Nations Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, 2006
(G.A.C)

“THE BASIC LAW OF CAPITALISM IS
you OR i,
NOT BOTH you AND i.”
Karl Liebknecht

P.S. According to Texas-based Android World, Inc., Valerie, an attractive female-shaped
robot can be purchased for $59,000. Valerie is expected to do all the owner’s ironing and cleaning. (G.A.C)

G.A.C.= “The Gruesome Acts Of Capitalism” by David Lester

IRAN

Iran And "The International Community "

By Brkić Sulejman

02/26/06 -- -- Here we go again! Now it’s Iran. Bush, again mumbling something about Iran’s being a threat to the world, the same crap as about Iraq. But this time, the west European countries (the ”traditional” allies) are at it, too.

Isn’t it strange how all these countries, the USA, Israel, England, France, Germany…with all their weapons of mass destruction, feel so easily threatened? Why shouldn’t Iran be a nuclear power? The U.S, England, France, Israel, Russia, China, Japan (yes! Japan, too), India and Pakistan are.

These idiots are the cause of nuclear proliferation. If they are so concerned about the safety of the world they should lead by example and dismantle their nuclear weapons.

When the U.S, Israel, England France and Germany talk about the safety of the world being their main reason to object to Iran’s possessing nuclear technology, what world are they talking about? They are the only ones (as always) who feel threatened. I don’t hear about Thailand, Bhutan, Bulgaria, Latvia, Vietnam, Zambia… feeling threatened. I mean, really, what world is in question? The world comprised of the U.S, England, Israel, France, Canada, Germany, Italy, and Japan?
The world of GREED?

The O.E.C.D world? The world made up of the G7 the E.U the IMF, World Bank, WTO, N.A.T.O, the UN Security Council, NAFTA, Wall Street, OIL interests, cheap OIL. Is this the world we hear so much about? Because, if this is the world the West is worried about, then it is a world of SHAME that is in question, a world of deceit, greed, wars, theft, colonialism, capitalism, imperialism... An opulent white world born out of mainly colored peoples slave work, sweat and blood and their natural resources.
If this is the world that is in danger then it might as well be done away with!

We hear again words of shame, words like ”the UN Security Council”, “UNSC resolutions”, “International community”… I thought all this didn’t exist anymore. I thought the UN was finally dead, the coup de grâce being the (another) illegal US-UK-led war against the Iraqi people in order to rob them of their OIL. But let’s face it, the UN was never very much alive. Actually, there never was a UN. All there was was the(UN) Security Council, a band of criminals bent on tearing the natural resources of the world at any cost.

Although I am far from being a fan of the ruling Mullahs in Teheran, I still remember the Shah, Reza Pahlavi, a friend of the West, which means “the International Community” and oppressor of the Iranian people, a vicious dictator who was propped up and kept in power by the West, robbed his people blind and made himself and the West even richer and who eventually gave birth to the Mullahs. So, I urge Iran not to put its fate into the hands of “the International Community”. When you hear “International Community” on the news, what countries pop up in your mind? Albania, Burkina Faso, Burundi…? Of course not! The countries that pop up in our mind are usually the US and whoever follows (pretty much the same faithful dogs : Israel, England, France, Germany, Italy, Japan…) or G7, EU, NATO, W.B., IMF, WTO… it’s always the same gangsters anyway.

This ”International Community” that is so worried about the safety of the “world”, that claims the higher moral ground, a higher sense of justice and is so vociferous in its proclamations of being the defender of democratic values, human rights and protector of the “civilized” world, this ”International Community” is the same one that has betrayed millions of people around the real world in need of human rights, democracy, justice…

Millions have been killed, tortured, oppressed, persecuted, exploited…as a result of the criminal policies of our angelic ”International Community”, because what mattered and still matters the most today is the economic interests of this ”International Community” of SHAME!

Here are just a few names, a few peoples that were let down by our ”International Community”, the savior of the “world”: East Timor (200 000 killed), El Salvador (75000 killed), Chile (between 10000 and 30000 killed), these murders (in Chile) started on September 11, 1973 with a coup against the democratically elected president Salvador Allende, orchestrated by the U.S and welcome by “the International Community” and brought to power the fascist general Augusto Pinochet. Although this tragedy took place on a September 11, too, ”the International Community” seems to have a very selective memory when it comes to remember the victims of its criminal policies.

Vietnam (between 2 and 3 million killed), Laos, Cambodia, The Kurds, the Palestinians (robbed of their land and kept in huge prison camps by the only ”democracy” in the middle East: Israel), Rwanda(close to 1 million) Zaire (the Congo), Sabra and Chatila (between 2 and 3 thousand Palestinians killed), San Su Kyi, Lumumba, Leila Zana, Nelson Mandela, the Tibetans, 1.6million Iraqis, including 600 000 Iraqi children, who were killed by US-imposed, West European-backed (read ”International Community”), wrapped in the UN flag economic sanctions. For about 12 years, since the end of the Gulf War up to the current illegal war again against Iraq, the Iraqi people kept dying (600 000 children) like flies under the watchful eye of the humanists that comprise the “ International Community”.

And many more millions of others.

Now, just a few more words about N.Mandela. Mandela, a black South African man, had actually to fight in his own country for the liberation of his people against a white minority racist regime! : APARTHEID. He was labeled as a terrorist, arrested and thrown into jail and left to rot there right up to 1990! Meanwhile, our alrighteous ”International Community” kept doing very profitable business with apartheid, that white minority racist regime that lasted until 1994. That was 12 years ago! Bravo the ”International Community”!

When Mandela, at last, was to be released from prison in 1990, guess who was opposed to his release? No less than the current vice president of the United States of America: Dick Cheney (although, I’m sure he was not the only one). Mandela himself in an interview with the U.S. Magazine, Newsweek revealed this fact, published on Wednesday, 11 September 2002. Excerpts of this interview can also be found on BBC news world edition, Wednesday, 11 September 2002.

And let’s not forget Srebrenica, a place located where I come from : Tito’s Yugoslavia. Now that area is called Bosnia and Herzegovina. In July1995, between 7800 and8000 men and boys were executed, slaughtered by the Serb military and paramilitary forces during the 1992 – 1995 war in Bosnia and Herzegovina in an area that was under the protection of the “United Nations. Srebrenica was even declared a “safe area” , a “haven”. This massacre took place in the heart of Europe, it was the worst massacre since the end of World War2.

It occurred right under the noses of the leaders of the three European countries that are these days so concerned about the safety of the “world”, so much so that they are even considering supporting a military action, undertaken by the U.S.A and its proxy Israel against Iran to stop it from developing nuclear technology. The three European countries I have in mind are: France, England and Germany, all members of the UN ”Security Council” of which two are permanent, France and England. These hypocrites want to protect the “world” when they couldn’t even stop 7800 to 8000 men and boys from being killed in a small town (located on their doorstep) like Srebrenica. Maybe the people of Srebrenica should have applied for EU membership before the massacre in order to get better protection.

When the ”International Community” threatens Iran to force it to give up its nuclear program in order to make the world safer, I wonder if its thoughts of safety include the Chechens, the Palestinians, the Iraqis, the Sudanese in Darfur, the campesinos and the Indios being massacred in Colombia by death squads backed by the cheap – natural resources - hungry U.S. and its west European vassals and Japan (read: ”International Community”) …or the 30 000 daily deaths caused by hunger due to economic policies of the ”International Community”…Will all these peoples and many other oppressed ones feel safer once they find out that Iran has agreed to get rid of its nuclear technology? Who or What will really be safer? The flow of cheap OIL to the West and Japan (the ”International Community”)?

In light of this record of atrocities approved of by ”the International Community”, Iran should really speed up the development of its nuclear technology in order to defend itself against these vultures.

Iran shouldn’t either count too much on the anti-war “movements” in the West or here in Japan. I mean, take a look at Iraq. Close to 200 000 Iraqis killed for OIL so far! You see any outrage? But two bombs go off in London or two buildings go down in New York with some collateral damage, then and only then there is outrage! ”The International Community” goes into uproar, it is the end of the (white) world (of privilege), (white) civilization is in danger, “democracy” and “peace” are under fire. Yeah, sure, the anti – war “movements” in the West and here in Japan, we’ll do our usual thing, just like with Iraq, get in the streets, parade, shout slogans “No war! Peace now! Don’t attack Iran!”, we’ll walk, dance, sing “Blowing in the wind”, carry banners (some with very “aggressive” messages). It will be very colorful, joyful… hell, it might even be better than Le Cirque du Soleil, and all of these “protests” will of course be non-violent! Peaceful, superpeaceful, ultra-peaceful! And then, if our governments despite our strongest objections don’t back off and submit to our will and attack Iran all the same, well, we’ll just have to… go home, I guess, and wait for the next war, as usual.

Therefore Iran should really hurry and develop whatever it needs to protect itself from us, I mean, ”the International Community”.