For A Better World

The Civilized Barbarian

2011-06-03T06:03:00.000-07:00

The Civilized Barbarian

« If you really want to put an end to terrorism, you have to begin by no longer participating in it.” Noam Chomsky….or more sharply, “stop killing their babies.” As put by Georgia state law professor Natsu Saito.

From the book: on the Justice of
Roosting Chickens by Ward Churchill

A civilized barbarian, that’s what the West reminds of. For some, this piece may just be about double standards but it’s not. What the West is doing and saying and telling others to do is beyond the all-too-quickly used term: double standards. Well beyond. There is no standard in Western criminal capitalist foreign policy. It’s really what G. Bush, the senior criminal, said once: “What we say goes.”

I bought the paper today here in Tokyo to see what’s going on in the world according to the lackeys in the mass media. It seems that all the evil, the barbarism, the backwardness, the terrorism in the world come from and are located over there…you know… in the Arab world, Africa, southeast Asia, China, Iran…pretty much anything outside the greedy G8. And it is all too conveniently situated around oil fields and anything that is coveted by the ravenous West. It’s everyday like this. If one is not cautious, one might believe that the West is under siege by barbarians.

A couple of Western leaders, at Sarkozy’s invitation, get together and Libya is being bombed at will (to liberate its people….of their oil). In the paper it says that NATO jets blasted Libya’s capital. Another article is about Switzerland ordering Assad’s assets to be frozen. The Syrian president is also banned from traveling to or through Switzerland, according to government decree. Pathetic little Switzerland! Ha!

Netanyahu, the leader of the only democratic apartheid regime in the Middle East that is holding the whole of the Palestinian population in a prison camp, is treated to standing ovations from U.S. lawmakers for saying that he is ready to make “painful compromises” to achieve historical peace. Painful? I guess for that pathetic little Zionist just pronouncing Palestinian is painful.
Insult upon injury upon insult upon injury….

Another piece says: “Watchdog reports Sudan ‘war crimes’.
But what about Iraq, Palestine, Afghanistan?

Silence…

Lars von Trier says that Israel is busting our balls and the West goes into uproar…he is kicked out of Cannes .

U.S. navy SEALS barge into a sovereign country, Pakistan, assassinate a man and leave. In 1989, the USA attack a sovereign country, Panama, kidnap its president, kill thousands in the process and leave. US drones bomb indiscriminately all over Afghanistan killing entire innocent families and nobody is ever held responsible for these crimes, charged, brought to court…Israel rampages through Palestine, sea, land, sky….not even a slap on the wrist…

The West, silence…….

Anyone and anything that resists the West’s plunder of the rest of our world is put on the terror list made by…..the West.
Don’t you think it’s getting worse? The impunity is appalling. The West is shameless. And it is all probably due to Western economic decline…the monster has become desperate.

I have to say that the news of the death of Osama Ben Laden made me a bit sad. Although I doubt that we could have sat down to chat over a beer, he made more sense to me that any of the sleazebag Western leaders. His grievances were legitimate.
But then, who knows, maybe he is not dead….maybe he is with Elvis…

For fun’s sake, can anyone try to imagine the Arab League putting a special force commando team together and sending it to Texas to assassinate G.W. Bush on his ranch? The action would be legitimate at least in this case since the U.S.-U.K.-led war on Iraq, in which more than a million Iraqis have been killed for oil so far, was declared illegal by the former UN chief Kofi Annan.

I’m writing from Japan, near Tokyo, and you all know what happened here in March and is still going on. Personally, I am rejoicing. The Japanese capitalist economy has been badly damaged. We on the Left all want the demise of capitalism, right? Well? To me it doesn’t matter how it happens. Hell, I hope it gets worse! Because, to be honest, I am not putting much faith anymore into the organizational skills of the Western Left. I’d rather rely on natural disasters. They are much more radical and serious.

As for Japan, in case you didn’t know, this is a fascist country. It has always been on the wrong side of History. Always. It has supported every single US military criminal adventure of plunder (not to mention its History before and during ww2). In the mist of its own recent tragedy, monster earthquake, monster tsunami and nuclear reactor explosions, this pathetic little country actually found the time to vote for the UN resolution to bomb Libya. At least, this time, it could have abstained. That’s when I thought Japan…to the flames!
And do not send any donations to Japan. They have the money. They have stolen more than enough. Send them to Haiti or the Hamas in Gaza instead. That’s what I did.

Now you might say I should be careful to separate the people from the government. No, I don’t want to. I do not care. Does the West do that when it goes bombing around the world in pursuit of happiness? Shall we ask the Iraqis, the Afghans, the Palestinians…? Shall we talk about the daily “collateral damage”?
Earlier I mentioned indiscriminate Western military terrorism. Don’t even get me started on its daily economic and cultural terrorism against anyone or anything daring to resist its greed.

Enough is enough!

So, here is my point loud and clear, from the bottom of my heart, in the words of the late Nazir Qabbani, the poet of love: I am with terrorism of the oppressed!

“I am with terrorism
As long as the new world order
Wants to slaughter my off-spring
And send them to dogs.
For all this
I raise my voice high:
I am with terrorism
I am with terrorism
I am with terrorism…..
Nizar Qabbani / London, 15 Nisan (April) 1997
Link to full poem:
http://salaheddine.tripod.com/nizar_terrorism.html

I am with terrorism of the oppressed by the gluttonous West because, as I.R. Sanchez said once, an attack is a test of truth and also a message of hope for all the forgotten in the ghettos of capitalism and the refugee camps.

Now, to the “peace-loving” Westerner and Japanese who might read this piece and find it shocking, outrageous, offending or just plain stupid and might be tempted to send me a comment…don’t bother…I am not interested in arguing, debating with you or anything you have to say…unless you agree with me and the hundreds of millions of the wretched barbarians whose sufferings are the pillars of Western comfort.
I am not open to discussion.
I do not agree to disagree.

Hey Westerner and you westernized Japanese, here is a poem that speaks directly to you, especially the end:

WAITING FOR THE BARBARIANS by Constantine P. Cavafy (1904) :
http://users.hol.gr/~barbanis/cavafy/barbarians.html

Brkic Sulejman
3/6/2011
http://tokyospring.blogspot.com/

Palestine, The Third World and the West

2011-01-14T04:08:00.000-08:00

GAZA, the West doesn’t care

“I place an ear on the belly of
This moment
I hear wailing
I place it on another moment
-The same!”
Sinan Antoon, Iraki poet
Cairo, May-June 2003

I read a news headline on the Internet “The world is in uproar”, “Worldwide anger” over what’s happening in Gaza, Palestine and I can’t help wonder: What world?
It must be coming from the non-G7 world. An uproar and real anger from the heart can only come from the third world, from those peoples who themselves are still trying to get the rapacious and greedy West off their backs. They are the ones always there with their great shows of solidarity. Because if the uproar is not coming from the third world then that leaves the West, and a Western uproar leaves a lot to be desired.

It seems that that U.S.-West Europe propped up democratic apartheid enclave of settlers called Israel and built in Palestine on stolen land from the Palestinians is at it again. Actually, it has been at it, to protect Western oil interests and despite the strongest Western uproars, for the past 91 years. As for stolen Palestine, Moshe Dayan (the Israeli Defence Minister) addressing the Israeli institute of Technology, Haifa, quoted in Ha’aretz on April 4th, 1969, admits:
“Jewish villages were built in place of Arab villages. You do not even know the names of these Arab villages, and I do not blame you because geography books no longer exist, not only do the books not exist, the Arab villages are not there either. Nahlal arose in the place of Mahlul; Kibbutz Gvat in the place of Jibta; Kibbutz Sarid in the place of Huneifis; and Kefar Yehushu’a in the place of Tal al-Shuman. There is not one single place built in this country that did not have a former Arab population.”

Now, I don’t know how to take that Western uproar anymore. Is it the same kind of uproar that the West expressed when the Taliban started destroying those two Bamiyan Buddhas statues in 2001 in Afghanistan? A stronger uproar than when the Afghan people themselves started being bombed by the U.S. I remember the West being shocked, even more than by what’s happening in Gaza, Palestine, that the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art even proposed to the Taliban to send a team to Afghanistan to remove the sculptures and airlift and transport them to safety (to New York?). I too kind of felt it was a pity to destroy them but my younger brother Daniel told me: “F… those stones! Why isn’t the West so quick to react and airlift to safety people being slaughtered like in Rwanda in 1994 where close to 1 million Tutsis and moderate Hutus were hacked to death by extremist Hutus? Not only the West did nothing to stop the genocide but, on the contrary, some of the Western countries, mainly France, kept arming the extremist Hutu regime!” It’s true that the West is not known for rapid reaction when it comes to people unless it’s profitable. Believe me, in Bosnia we learned to be patient thanks to the West. The 7000 or 8000 Bosnians slaughtered in Srebrenica in 1995 by Serb paramilitary are Zen now. The problem is that the people being slaughtered around the world and in need of urgent help are usually being killed by gangs or governments armed by the West to protect Western economic interests.

“Throughout the world, on any given day, a man, woman or child is likely to be displaced, tortured, killed or ‘disappeared’ at the hands of governments or armed political groups. More often than not, the United States shares the blame.”
Amnesty International, 1996 from “Human rights
and U.S.A. Security Assistance” (1998, pretty
much the same conclusion in a report called:
“United States of America-Rights for All”)

I remember a little Bosnian girl, Irma Hadzimuratovic was her name, 5 years old, who was badly wounded in Serb mortar attack in Sarajevo in 1993. She needed to be evacuated immediately for surgery, so Bosnia begged the West to airlift her and transport her to a hospital in Western Europe, the other Europe. Of course, everything had to go through the proper channels. Her trip was delayed by red tape and she was close to death before the British government arranged to fly her to the U.K. In those days three children a day were dying violent deaths in Sarajevo, in the other Europe. Anyway, Irma died in April 1995. I always thought Bosnia should have applied for E.U. membership to get quicker help before some of the worst massacres since WW2 took place in the other Europe. But then, I have to admit, Bosnia is no Kuwait. Now, had Irma been a little Jewish girl or white Anglo-Saxon Christian wounded in a terrorist attack carried out by a fanatic Palestinian cockroach or a cute little puppy chased around by a Mujahideen, I think the West would have reacted differently . If anything, Brigitte Bardot, the animal rights crusader, would have come out of retirement to condemn the Jihad against animals. Don’t get me wrong, I am not putting this whole thing into a religious context, Christianity against Islam or West versus East….I am putting it into the context of capitalism, of who’s to be exploited by whom, who has what, who’s to be rich at any cost and who’s whose friend because of specific economic interests. Ireland, now Northern Ireland, for example, a Christian country, has been invaded, occupied and most brutally exploited for more than 700 years by England, a Christian country as well, and one of the most brutal colonialist powers in the world and now it’s in Irak again, as a lackey of Uncle Sam but still it’s there and I don’t think it’s for the Iraki sand. “Working class of Ireland… Join your voice with ours in protesting against the base assumption that we owe to this Empire any other debt than that of hatred of all its plundering institutions.” James Connolly, Irish socialist leader, referring to England, 1897.

It also goes the other way around as long as it works for the capitalist West; take East Timor, a Christian country that was invaded in 1975 by Muslim Indonesia and most brutally occupied for more than 24 years with the full encouragement and military support from the West given to Suharto who wiped out 200.000 East Timorese out of a population of 750.000. And why did the Christian West allow a Muslim-majority nation to commit a genocide against a tiny Christian country? Well, maybe these words of wisdom expressed by Nixon might sum up the only reason: “With its 100 million people and 300-mile arc of islands containing the region’s richest hoard of natural resources, Indonesia is the greatest prize in South-East Asia.” Richard Nixon, “Asia after Vietnam”. Foreign affairs, October 1967, p.111. Isn’t it crystal clear? Anything goes if the capitalist West can make a profit. And for the past 150 years or so the colonial powers then are pretty much the same countries dominating and exploiting the rest of the world today, mainly Western Europe and the U.S.A. You can find these same countries in the G7, I.M.F., World Bank, E.U., UNSC, N.A.T.O., with a few different lackeys here and there but the criminals ruling our world today are the same ones who were raping it 150 years ago. Who’s killing the Irakis right now who are standing in the way of Western oil? Samuel Huntington, a U.S. writer and apologist for U.S.-Western imperialism, got it right for once when he said: “The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion… but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact; non-Westerners never do.”

Anyway, I often wonder what will happen to that Zionist democratic apartheid enclave when the Arab world runs out of (Western) oil. Maybe the Zionists will just pack up, airlift that little wall against which those curly men in Zorro hats bang their heads (I tend to do that when I’m drunk) and leave. I don’t think the West will continue paying them to keep the Arabs in line and make sure cheap oil flows unimpeded to the West because there won’t be any anymore. So the Zionists will just have to leave, I guess, and some might go back to Europe, others may go to Pennsylvania or Ohio to live with the Amish.

A few years ago I had a Palestinian friend here in Tokyo who one afternoon told me about two Westerners that he had overheard talking worryingly about the well-being of the white tiger of China, being an endangered species and all…I for one didn’t even know there were white tigers in China. He told me that he didn’t know whether to cry or laugh. There he was, an endangered species himself, taking second place to the white tiger of China. To get back to that worldwide uproar over Gaza, Palestine, I can assure you that you won’t find any here in Tokyo. The other day, in a paper called Asahi Weekly, I found this headline: A dog’s life is great in Japan. It says that fashion in Toyko has gone to the dogs and that the number of well-groomed, well-dressed dogs are on the verge of outnumbering those of people. It says also that some dogs’ happiness includes organic vegetarian dog food, weekly trimming and grooming sessions at a dog salon, stays in a dog hotel when the owner goes away on business, and the purchasing of dog designer garb, and I won’t even get into the trendiest which is the dog cafes. “We are helpless people. It is all out of our hands. Why cannot the world find a solution? The whole world is watching us die and is doing nothing to help us.” Iraki woman, after U.S. missiles killed civilians during 2003 war on Irak. Reuters, 3/29/2003. Here in Tokyo there are also long lines of people standing and waiting sometimes for more than one hour and a half in cold weather to buy a doughnut. So, believe me, there is no uproar over Gaza here in Tokyo. They don’t even care about their own countless homeless people who in winter sleep in the outside entrances of some of the most expensive capitalist buildings in the world, huge banks, multinationals and so on…I repeat, if there is anger, uproar, a genuine one, it must be coming from our third world.

The democratic apartheid enclave called Israel has been rampaging through Palestine for the past 91 years from Der Yassin through Sabra and Chatila in Lebanon back to Jenin and Gaza again and all that’s between without ever having been punished for its crimes, at least some kind of economic sanctions or a slap on the wrist to force it to comply with international law and the more than 300 UNGA resolutions and more than 70 UNSC resolutions. We all know that economic sanctions work, right? They worked in the case of Irak. The U.S.-imposed and wrapped in the U.N. flag economic sanctions against Irak in the 90s for more than 10 years killed 1.6 million Irakis of which 600.000 children. So, they worked and according to Madleine Albright it was worth it. They softened Irak and only then did the mightiest country in the world dare attack little Irak. Bravo Amrika! And now on top of all the shame the U.S., the military superpower, is getting its fat ass kicked by Iraki resistance fighters wearing jeans, sneakers and T-shirts just like what happened with the Vietnamese who kicked Uncle Sam’s greedy ass back to Disneyland wearing sandals and little straw hats.

But, I’m not expecting much as long as international law, the U.N., the G7, the world bank and the guns of N.A.T.O. are in the hands of the same criminals. On the contrary, the Zionist democratic apartheid enclave keeps getting more and more money, more and more shiny new weapons mainly from Uncle Sam.
To criticize only the enlightened barbaric West would be unfair without also laying some of the blame on the Arab leaders. The Arab leaders are one embarrassing bunch of impotent, West propped up marionettes, especially the ones in the Gulf countries with their parasitic kings and princes. A bunch of parasites who waste oil revenues on new jets, villas, whores and whiskey in the West instead of spending it on improving the lives of their own people who live in misery, instead of doing more to help their Palestinian brothers and sisters. You, the Arab leaders, the pathetic bunch of dictators, the puppets of the West, aren’t you ashamed of kissing ass and prancing around with your testicles squeezed by Amrika and Western Europe?! Just cut off the flow of oil to the greedy West for which Palestinians and Irakis are being killed by the West. Cut it off for a couple of months, demand justice and see what happens. I can’t believe that Saudi Arabia is the guardian of Mecca. The House of Saud, those pathetic wimps, shouldn’t even be let in charge of a camel. Or in the words of Mohammad Ali, Iraki man from the city of Falluja who survived a three week U.S. attack:
“I tell the presidents of Arab and Muslim countries to wake up! Wake up please! We are being killed, we are refugees from our houses, our children have nothing—not even shoes to wear! Wake up! Wake up! Stop being traitors! Be human beings and not the dummies of the Americans!
Dahr Jamail’s Iraq Dispatches, 11/23/2004

To get back to Gaza, Palestine and the so-called worldwide uproar, anger…my dear Palestinians, Irakis, Chechens, Tibetans, Africans, Native Americans, Aborigines…and all the oppressed and exploited peoples around the world, there is no uproar here in the West (including Japan). Here in Tokyo, Wednesday, January 23, 2008, I actually went out and bought a toilet paper called The Daily Yomiuri, an English daily, and guess what’s on the front page? A huge picture of the recession leaving St. Mary’s Church in Auckland carrying the casket of Sir Edmund Hillary, the first (white) man to climb Mt. Everest. They call it one of the 20th century’s defining feats. And the other major headline is: Tokyo stocks continue to plunge. Gaza is on page 6 and the between 25 000 and 30 000 people, mostly children, who are forced to plunge daily into death due to starvation caused by Western capitalism are nowhere to be seen. So, my oppressed and exploited friends, there no uproar here and if there is one it’s the usual stuff, you know, some of us get into the street(s), protest, and go home. That’s it. And you know it. Sometimes when I take part in the peace walks organized by leftist groups here in Tokyo, I am afraid you might see us on T.V. over there in your war zones, in your ghettos, because our parades look like a circus, some kind of festival, but fortunately it usually lasts only a couple of hours and then most of us go for a beer. I guess some of us in the West, lots of us, have problems of our own but lots of us, maybe most of us, are just indifferent, depressed, lost in our societies of the spectacle… It’s true. We don’t really care that you over there are made to live in misery so that we over here can be gluttons. Some of us on the Left are still trying to do something because it has to be done, it’s the right thing, we believe in it, but I think we got lost somewhere along the road and got stuck into the never ending organizing of the masses, you know, educating, educating, educating….giving lectures on Palestine or some other oppressed place and people in the world to adults who by now should know what’s going on. I mean, it’s not like the problems in Palestine popped up last year out of nowhere. That’s pretty much it.

There used to be more serious people on the Left that meant business in the West in the 70s and 80s but unfortunately they are either dead, rotting in jail, went turncoats or hugging trees. My point is it’s up to you, the oppressed peoples around the world, it has always been up to you to liberate yourselves by any means necessary. Don’t count too much on us. Some may think I’m exaggerating but the fact is that for most of the oppressed peoples around the world it has gotten worse. Just take a look at Palestine. The Zionist democratic apartheid enclave has grown bigger, is expanding a bit almost everyday and Palestine has shrunk, there are more Palestinian refugees than before, about 7 million, which is almost equal to the number of settlers in the Zionist enclave built on land stolen from the Palestinians.

“Jews came and took, by means of uprooting and expulsion, a land that was Arab…”
Israeli Professor Ilan Pappe

Not to mention the Zionist’s latest recreational enterprise which is that segregation wall
they are building with the West’s tacit approval and money. The Berlin wall was bad.
The Zionist’s apartheid wall is good. Is that it? To add insult to injury, the Quartet was
appointed, actually they appointed themselves, to come to the rescue of the Palestinians. The Quartet, as we all know, is made up of the U.S., the E.U., Russia and the U.N. Could the West be more insulting? Is there no end to its shamelessness? A bunch of criminals in charge of finding a solution to the occupation of Palestine by their partners in crime from the Zionist democratic apartheid enclave. Most of the E.U. member countries, in different ways, have taken part in the supreme international crime which is the U.S.-U.K.-led unprovoked attack on Irak and the current criminal occupation, and all for oil. But I guess the U.S. is just exercising its right to protect its oil interests according to the Carter doctrine which says that any challenge to U.S. access to Middle East oil will be met by military force. The more than 500 000 killed Irakis so far by the U.S. liberators must have represented that challenge.

“They came here to drill oil. They ended up drilling blood.” Nigerian Delta resident, anonymous, referring to U.S. oil companies. Free Speech Radio News, July 2003.

The U.S. and the dogs that followed it into this dismembering of Irak are also known as the coalition of the willing. Some of the countries of this coalition that are at this very moment killing Irakis have decided to help the Palestinians. Another member of the Quartet is Russia with Putin the Terrible at its head and Time magazine’s man of the year. By the way, when was the last time anyone heard anything about poor little Chechnya in the coward mainstream media? You see, Russia, beside being one of the members of the Quartet, has also been busy butchering the Chechens and turning the capital Grozny into a parking lot since this little country tried to regain its independence and Chechnya has been suffering all the Putin’s wrath because, in Yeltsin the Drunkard’s words, Chechnya is a major hub in the oil infrastructure of the Russian Federation and hence its secession would hurt the country’s economy and control of oil resources. Ain’t that reassuring to the Palestinians? The last member of the Quartet is the U.N. The U.N. is that organization that let Bosnia burn, Rwanda bleed and Irak starve. So, leaving it to the Quartet to help the Palestinians is like leaving a pedophile to baby-sit your children. If the West were really serious about helping the Palestinians it could have just agreed to the 2002 Saudi Land for Peace plan and again endorsed in 2007.
I’m sorry I can’t enumerate all the people that were let down by the U.N. but they are into millions and millions.

I am not actually blaming the U.N. General Assembly which is made up of about 187 countries out of a total of 192 in the world, nor am I against the principles of the U.N. or what it stands for and what it set out to accomplish when it was established, but unfortunately the U.N. General Assembly was a still born baby from the start. So, we are left with the U.N. (in)Security Council, 5 countries, pretty much the same criminals found in the Quartet, in charge of dealing the cards to the rest of the world, deciding who’s to live and who’s to die according to their economic interests. It’s like the rest of the world is there just to bend over whenever those criminals have a hard on. On top of that, they permanent members with veto powers! Highly democratic, isn’t it? Permanent U.N.S.C. members, permanent G7, permanent I.M.F, permanent World Bank, permanent nuclear powers…always pretty much the same countries for the past 160 years or something. And for the rest of the world, permanent war, permanent, misery, permanent destruction, permanent exploitation, permanent plunder of natural resources…The Palestinians, not to mention the whole of Africa, are one of the peoples who might know best about this.

It’s been going on for 91 years for them and they are supposed to put their fate, their lives and what’s left of their land into the hands of the criminal Quartet, they are asked to trust this gathering of leaches with their ever new empty plans, to trust Amrika that is right now butchering Irak, destroying beautiful Irak in the name of freedom in an attempt to rob its people of their oil so that Amrika could preserve the Amrikan way of life. The greedy way of life! What about the way of life of the rest of the world Uncle Sam?! Simon Bolivar once said: “The United States appears to be destined by Providence to plague Latin America with misery in the name of Liberty.” Now could make just a little change and say that the United States, the West appears to be destined by Providence to plague the world with misery in the name of democracy, freedom and free market….Bolivar said this late 18th-early 19th century, in those days there was no threat of communism, Soviet Union, cold war, terrorism, Islamic terrorism, Al-Qaeda….

The Palestinians are asked to trust the Quartet, the scum of the Earth with the U.S. at its head with their road maps, roads that lead only to new camps, new fences, new walls, more agony, more misery, roads and maps to nowhere. Sinan Antoon once asked: “How much blood will suffice as ink for empire’s new maps?” Palestine is slowly being turned into a Guantanmo, a 21st century freak Disneyland a la U.S.A. sponsored by the greatest democracy in the world and run by Israhell. Can anyone really trust the U.S. to be a fair actor in forcing its bulldog of Zion to relinquish the land it has stolen from the Palestinians when, if anyone would care to recall, the U.S. is the country that in 1989 vetoed a U.N. resolution opposing the acquisition of territory by force?

So, my dear oppressed Palestinians, my dear oppressed peoples in the third world, you already know this but I want to tell you loud and clear: Do not put your faith in the bloody and greedy hands of the West. Do not trust the West. The West is the one who put you and keeps you in such a state of misery in the first place. The West has made itself filthy rich at your expense, by stealing from you and it will keep stealing from you unless YOU put an end to it.

“The Third World wasn’t an impoverished world then, in fact the reason it was colonialized is because it had the wealth…None of these countries were impoverished . Today they are called the poorer part of the world because the wealth has been drained out.” Vandana Shiva, Indian scientist. Interview, In Motion Magazine, 8/14/1998.

Peoples in the third world, your bellies, the bellies of your children are empty so that our supermarkets in the West, in Japan could be full. The West never gives anything for free and what it might give you, believe me, it will steal in return ten times more! My dear Palestinians, if you don’t want Moshe Dayan’s words of wisdom to come true when he said:
“There is no more Palestine. Finished.”, then fight, keep on fighting by any means necessary! To avoid any confusion as to who Moshe Dayan was, he was not, as some may think, one of the extras on the Flying Dutch in The Pirates of the Caribbean 3 but a Zionist land reformer who, among other things, liberated the land of Palestine from the Palestinians and redistributed it among various Jewish and Zionist tourists and real estate agents from Europe.

My dear oppressed peoples around the world, don’t ever stop fighting! Fight! Fight! Fight! Keep on fighting against the greedy West.

“The right to rebellion, to defy those who oppress us with various alibis (always the gods of Power and Money with different masks), is universal.” Subcomandante Marcos, 2003.

Don’t ever lay your weapons down while the fight is still on. I know, it’s easy for me to say this from my comfort zone over here, you’re the ones dying over there. But look at what happened to peoples who stopped fighting like the Native Americans or the Tibetans. Look at what happens to those who choose to follow the West’s advice and fight peacefully like Suu Kyi, that poor forgotten woman left to rot peacefully under house arrest in Myanmar or the Dalai Lama left in peace in exile in India to be photographed with Richard Geer and other Hollywood and Western show business stars with empty lives.

“There is not a single example of people in the Third World being able to achieve qualitative economic and social change by peaceful means. Not in Chile, not in India, not in the Congo, not in South Africa, not in Palestine. Nowhere. Imperialism has too much of a stake in the current economic order and is willing to use force and violence wherever needed.” David Gilbert, writer, U.S. political prisoner. No Surrender, 2004.

Remember how the West helped Nelson Mandela? First they called him a terrorist, a black South African man fighting to liberate his people from one of the most vicious white supremacist apartheid regimes in the world that was allowed and encouraged by the West to last (with very, very few exceptions) up to almost the mid-90s, 20th century, while the West kept doing profitable business with the South African apartheid regime and let Mandela rot in prison for almost 30 years! The South African apartheid regime got its strongest support from the Reagan administration. But, as Madleine Albright stated once in 1999, it is not a good idea to link human rights and trade issues, I guess. Mandela could have been free earlier back in the 80s, but in the 1980s he again rejected P.W. Botha’s offer of freedom if he renounced violence. Mandela’s real friends were as usual the third world countries with Lybia and Cuba at the head. Never stop fighting. Whatever negotiations you enter into, you the oppressed peoples, the victims of Western greed, you will always be asked to lay down your weapons first. It’s always the victims, the oppressed who are asked to give up their weapons before negotiations start with a criminal armed to his teeth, while the Western murderer, rapist, plunderer gets to keep his deadly arsenal. The West throughout history has never relinquished anything that it had stolen out of change of heart. It always had to be hit hard on the nose in order to stop it in its drive for more and more plunder. Isn’t there a limit to its greed? How much is enough? And before leaving, it always left behind millions of ghosts, oceans of tears, mountains of ashes and skeletons….Vietnam, Algeria, Africa, Latin America…that’s what the enlightened West does in its quest for always more wealth. And today our beloved Irak is the latest victim of the greedy enlightened West with Amrika at its head.

“You speak of ‘duty’, ‘humanity’ and ‘civilization!’ What is this duty?... It is markets, competition, interests, privileges. Trade and finance are things which express your ‘humanity’. Taxes, forced labour, excessive exploitation, that is the summing up of your civilization!” Ho Chi Minh, 1923

Oppressed peoples around the world; keep on fighting! You should even extend your resistance to Western countries themselves, on their territories. There would be nothing wrong with that. The West has been going over there anytime it wanted to steal something for ages, and it still does it if it can’t do it through its I.M.F. or World Bank or its multinationals. It goes over there and bombs the hell out of you, destroy your homes, kills your children, steals your natural resources, steals yours and your children’s future! So, what’s wrong with your coming over here to defend yourselves? Nothing. On the contrary, in your case actually it would be totally justified. That’s what the U.S. is doing in Irak, right? According to that degenerate Bush, the U.S. went over there, Irak and Afghanistan, to fight the terrorists so that they wouldn’t come over here. Now, speaking of terrorists, remember:
“Terrorism is in the eye of the beholder” Nidal Sakr

To end this ranting of mine and get back to Gaza, I just remembered what my boss, who is Jewish, told me one day a little prior to the U.S.-U.K-led war of aggression and plunder on Irak. He said that, beside being pro-war on Irak, sometimes force was the only way that Arabs understood and that there would be peace in the Middle East if only the Palestinians would stop their terrorism. I told him that implementing UNGA resolution 194 and UNSC resolutions 242 and 338 might work, too. If they are not already as dead as little Muhammad Jamal al-Durrah. As for how I feel about our beloved Irak, here is something that Fred Hampton, Black Panther leader who was assassinated by Chicago police in December 1969, said about Vietnam:

“And you motherfuckers that’s for peace in Vietnam, the Black Panther Party is for victory in Vietnam…The U.S. is a bunch of Wall Street warmongers. And they need to be driven out of there.” Just put Irak instead of Vietnam and I instead of the Black Panther Party.

Write down!
I am an Arab
You have stolen the orchards of
My ancestors
And the land which I cultivated
Along with my children
And you left nothing for us
Except for these rocks…
So will the State take them
As it has been said?!
Therefore!
Write down on the top of the first page:
I do not hate people
Nor do I encroach
But if I become hungry
The usurper’s flesh will be my food
Beware..
Beware..
Of my hunger
And my anger!
From the poem Identity Card by Mahmoud Darwish, Palestinian poet.

Brkic Sulejman
3/02/2008

Individual Revolutions

2010-12-21T06:24:00.000-08:00

Revolution Evolution

‘Revolution is internal
Help yourself at anytime
Evolution isn’t over….’
From the song Raise The Knowledge by Gogol Bordello

When I think of the West, including Japan, let’s say the G8, excluding China, I think of devolution, which in biology is also called degeneration.
How else can we explain the state of apathy and ridicule we have sank in?

Take me for example.
I’ve been teaching French and English at a language school here in Tokyo since 1991. I’ve made it rule not to teach the police, the Self Defence Forces (the Japanese army) and the U.S. military. It’s the kind of money that I can do without. I am just a teacher here, I do not own the school. An Israeli does, a Zionist I think. We never talk about politics. He knows where I stand. To make my point one day I went to work with a Palestinian keffiyeh around my neck.

In the past few years there has been a steady increase and attendance by U.S. military personnel. Right now, there is a bunch of them coming to the school where I work to learn Chinese, Persian, Thai, Indonesian, Korean from North Korea and one young, 25, American soldier studying French…not with me of course.
En passant, right here there should be a conflict, a Zionist, a pro-Palestinian and a U.S. mercenary working together but no…we allow our capitalist democracies to absorb all these potential conflicts and turn ourselves into greedy whores.
Anyway, I kind of manage to avoid them, even saying hello bothers me. Since the school reception office is not that big, I do sometimes unfortunately have them in my face.

Now, to get back to the 25 year old Yankee. He was already here about 2 years ago. The other day, there he was on the balcony, where we can smoke, with his French teacher of Moroccan origin, chatting, laughing…I said hi and out of the blue this colleague of mine starts telling me how an exciting life the Yankee has had and…boom! He hits me by saying that the Yankee was also in Irak and Afghanistan…and since that day he brought it up himself several times…the Irak and Afghanistan adventures…sometimes even complaining about the heat and the noise of the five daily calls to prayer in Irak.

To be honest with you I feel disgusted, not only with him, but with myself for just standing there, smoking, smiling and even exchanging a few words with a criminal. Yes, a criminal!

“The U.S-U.K.-led war against Irak was illegal”
Kofi Annan
International Herald Tribune, Friday, September 17, 2004 (U.N chief calls Iraq war Illegal) The Associated Press, United Nations, New York.

So, if it’s illegal, it’s a crime and the despicable people who have taken part in it are criminals as well as all those who have acquiesced .
I do throw in a few sarcastic comments and I’ve made it pretty clear about my stance on the whole Irak/Afghanistan/U.S. criminal foreign policy issue, but that’s it…Being under the same roof with criminals frustrates me very much. Sometimes the Yankee has his French lesson in a classroom next to mine and I can’t focus on my student because I tend to eavesdrop. I tried to talk about this with the secretary at the school, expecting some/any kind of shock reaction but she just said, oh, well, being a soldier is just a job…But it’s not just a job! It’s not even a job…

Here in Japan they have had 3 main bogeymen since the end of WW2: Communism, North Korea and China. The Japanese government, through its keyboard, the mainstream media, has managed to instill such fear into the hearts and minds of the Japanese people, who in turn only too readily dived into the comfort of not thinking, that it’s impossible to have a reasonable debate.
Since 9/11, in the U.S. not in Chile, in order to be in line with the foreign policy of its master Uncle Sam, Japan has added another bogeyman to its list: Islam. Here is an article that will give you a rough picture of Japan’s attitude vis-à-vis its Muslim community:
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20101109zg.html
North Korea, China, as well as Arabs, beside being government/media prop up bogeymen, are also an object of great ridicule, and not only among the Japanese but also Westerners.

Ridicule. Ridiculous.
Ridicule: Words or actions intended to evoke contemptuous laughter at or feelings toward a person or thing.

This is where the G8 comes in.
When it comes to ridicule, I believe that the joke should be on us, the ridiculous-dangerous-coward-anti-depressant/Viagra popping Western degenerates.
How dare we make fun of the rest of the world?
I mean, just take a look at this headline I saw the other day, front page, the Daily Yomiuri, Tokyo: Obama says China must respect international law.
Nobody is laughing…
Obama, the apostle of ridicule. He should get another Nobel Prize just for this.
I ain’t no fan of China but this…
He should tell this to the hooded prisoners in Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib.
http://0.tqn.com/d/middleeast/1/0/w/7/-/-/abu-ghraib-torture-22.jpg

America, our dear leader.

Most people we make fun of live in our dictatorships and there isn’t much they can do about it. But we, in our democracies with all our freedoms, rights…what do we do about being robbed blind by mega-banks that suddenly crash and we, the little guy, are forced to bail them out? About the austerity plans, the welfare cuts, the pushing back of retirement age, the tripling of university tuition fees, environmental degeneration…and hundreds if not thousands of other daily humiliations? Nothing. What do we do about the fact that most of our dear leaders are liars, thieves, war criminals who have led us to commit and support the Supreme International Crime, the attack on Irak that so far has killed more than a million of Irakis for our oil, and numerous other wars of plunder? Nothing. What do we do about our democratic ridiculous mainstream media that bombard us daily with government-fabricated lies called news, mind-numbing programs, sport, sex and violence? Nothing

What else do we do beside demonstrating in the streets five minutes before our democratic bombs are about to rain on another country that possesses our natural resources? Nothing.
What do we do here in our psychopathic democracies about our unbridled capitalism that’s destroying everyone and everything on its highway to the ever mightier buck, the ever rising unemployment, poverty, misery and add to all this the annual 30 000 suicides here in Japan….what do we do about our whole democratic malaise? Nothing
What do we do when we are led to believe that the top threats to our Western values and our freedoms (to do nothing), Western (genocidal) civilization are Islam and immigrants or when French leaders, including one socialist, pass a law banning the veil in schools and the niqab in public out of concern for the happiness of barely 2000 Muslim women in France who are forced to cover themselves when outside but no concern at all for millions of women and girls throughout the world forced by our savage democratic capitalist system to uncover and sell their vaginas 24/7 on TV, Internet, the press sold in all major bookstores on every street corner of our beautiful democratic capitals, or here in Tokyo where I’ve seen a vending machine, in a residential area, selling used panties worn by high school girls? What do we do about all this? Nothing

What do we do with all those freedoms, rights, all that democracy, all those values that the West prides itself in, to make our world, or for that matter our rotting Western societies, a better place?
Nothing…nothing…nothing…nada

The best we have come up with is to blame Islam, immigrants, Iran, China, North Korea…and that is what makes us ridiculous…so ridiculous that it’s painful.

Ridicule. Ridiculous.
That’s the feeling I’ve had when saying hello, chatting, smiling, smoking with that Yankee who visited Irak and Afghanistan…

So here I am exchanging greetings with a criminal and working for a Zionist while at the same time being anti-American and pro-Palestinian. Why? Well, I guess I gotta eat. That’s one excuse. Having to eat is one thing. But making someone starve so that one could eat is another. And my example is pretty much what the great Western civilization is about. This is pretty much how it’s done. It is millions of daily actions like mine throughout the West, harmless at first glance, actions of accommodation, appeasement, cooperation with capitalism that grease the wheels of our genocidal capitalism. And as long as we continue like this, all we’ll ever be is…ridiculous by pretending otherwise.

All our values, our democracy, our freedoms are drenched in blood. All the comforts and material wealth enjoyed by the peoples in the West and here in Japan are owed to their acquiescence to their governments’ murder and plunder of the rest of our world. And whatever is called the Left in the West, content with paper protests and playing riskless politics, is a joke.
My point is that there cannot be any accommodation, any compromise with our capitalist democracies. They have to be sabotaged from within by us with actions not words. We have to derail our capitalist train that we are on. We, on the left, gotta stop hiding behind our endless so-called organizing. Acts of sabotage can be carried out by individuals.

We have to carry out daily little individual revolutions.

The other day my brother was telling me about this article by Slavoj Zizek in which he writes how Western intellectuals want a revolution…but not here, not in their countries. They’d rather have it in Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela…

Our capitalist economies, our fake and murderous democracies must be crippled All most of us have been doing so far is greasing the wheels of our Western capitalism with our hypocrisy and with the sweat of millions of women, men and children throughout the world….or we can continue to be ridiculous.

In Iraq, children are looking towards
the night sky with fear, as though
there were no stars, only bombs in the cosmos.
And they are afraid of the earth because
they can count the cancers in their
hoods now, where once there were none.
On the brink of…..by Suheir Hammad, Palestinian poet

Brkic Sulejman
21/12/2010

http://thinklearnact.blogspot.com/

for sarkozy from Gogol Bordello

2010-12-08T06:19:00.000-08:00

For sarkozy from Gogol Bordello

Yo sarko ! this is for you, you idiot hobbit!

Just because I come from Roma Camp up the hill
They put me in the school for mentally ill
Ho pa ho pa di ri da
All them lies about Roma
Just because I do refuse to take your pill
Any road I take leads to the Bastille
Ho pa ho pa di rid a
All them lies about Roma
You love our music
But you hate our guts
I know that you still want me
To ride in back of the bus
Opportunities for me
Is a red carpet to hell
But I’m a Roma wunderking
I’m gonna break the…
Break the spell
Break the spell
Break the spell
I’m gonna break the spell

Like a pro, I pack your dance floor
Yet you want me to come in and exit through back door
Ho pa ho pa di rid a
All the lies about Roma
You love our music
But you hate our guts
I know you still want me
To ride in back of the bus
Opportunities for me
Is a red carpet to hell
But I’m a Roma wunderking
I’m gonna break the…
Break the spell
Break the spell
Break the spell
I’m gonna break the spell
In average intelligence bureau on us they run big file
Average intelligence bureau sends Charlie Chaplin in exile
You always do the best what in your familia runs
And so we are original globetrotters with no guns
We came from Rajastan as non-militant travelers
The time in Byzantium made us even more advanced
And at the end I gotta say
To conclude our little study
One thing about them Gypsies, they never bored nobody

You love our music
But you hate our guts
We know all about you
You don’t know thing about us-no!
Opportunities for me
Is a red carpet to hell
But I am Roma wunderking
I’m gonna break the…
Break the spell
Break the spell
Break the spell
Break the spell
Break the spell……
Break the Fuckin spel!!

Here you go sarko, tough guy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJlPG8lsYY0

Brkic Sulejman
8/12/2010

THE COVE

2010-09-01T05:04:00.000-07:00

The Cove

The Cove is a 2009 American documentary film that describes the annual killing of dolphins in a National Park at Taiji, Wakayama, in Japan from an anti–dolphin-hunting campaigner's point of view. The film highlights the fact that the number of dolphins killed in the Taiji dolphin hunting drive is several times greater than the number of whales killed in the Antarctic, and reports that 23,000 dolphins and porpoises are killed in Japan every year in the country's whaling industry. The migrating dolphins are herded into a hidden cove where they are netted and killed by means of spears and knives over the side of small fishing boats.

The film was directed by former National Geographic photographer Louie Psihoyos. Portions were filmed secretly during 2007 using underwater microphones and high-definition cameras disguised as rocks.
The documentary won the U.S. Audience Award at the 25th annual Sundance Film Festival in January 2009. It was selected out of the 879 submissions in the category. On March 7, 2010, The Cove won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature at the 82nd Academy Awards.

This piece is addressed to Louie Psihoyos, the Western media, particularly The Japan Times, to “activist” Ric O’Barry, the “Flipper” trainer-cum-activist who stars in The Cove and all of you Westerners with all your lofty feelings.

I live in Japan. I’ve lived here for 20 years. Japan is a country that harbors a war criminal: former prime minister Junichiro Koizumi. He has led Japan into the illegal war against Irak, alongside other Western vultures, notably the U.S.A. and the U.K.

The decision by President George W. Bush to go to war in Iraq was ILLEGAL because it didn't have U.N Security Council approval, according to Secretary General Kofi Annan in an interview with the BBC World Service on Wednesday 15 2004. On Wednesday after being asked three times whether the lack of council approval for the war meant it was illegal, he (Annan) said:
" From our point of view it was ILLEGAL."

Q: It was illegal ?
Annan: Yes, if you wish.
Q: It was illegal ?
Annan: Yes, I have indicated it is not In conformity with the U.N Charter, from our point of view and from the Charter point of view it Was ILLEGAL.

International Herald Tribune, Friday, September 17, 2004 (U.N chief calls Iraq war Illegal) The Associated Press, United Nations, New York."

Of course nobody here thinks of him (Koizumi) as a war criminal. Instead of being in The Hague, he is prancing around freely…..just like Bush, Blair, Berlusconi and all the other partners in crime, members of the coalition of the willing (to kill and plunder). The rape of Irak is barely in the mainstream media, Afghanistan even less. When it does make the news it’s usually to tell us about U.S. soldiers suffering from PTD or some other Western casualty .

I read a daily (anesthetic) called The Japan Times. The other day, Tuesday 24, I came across, again!, an article, almost half a page (by Jay Alabaster, AP), about Taiji where The Cove was shot. There has been so much in the English language press, especially The Japan Times, about The Cove, the “slaughter” of dolphins, the “dark” secret of this little town, Taiji…..hell, the slaughter of dolphins got more attention than the slaughter of more than one million Irakis (so far) by the U.S.-U.K.-led coalition of the willing (to kill for oil). Some Japanese fishermen kill some dolphins and eat the meat. So what? What is the big deal?

I am sick and tired of this intentionally misplaced Western concern! Doesn’t the director of The Cove, Louie Psihoyos, have anything better to do? Anything more important to film? And this piece of crap got an Oscar….well, on second thought, it does deserve it…just think about it…Hollywood deciding what’s important in the world….it’s just like another piece of crap, The Hurt Locker by Kathryn Bigelow, about a team of deminers in Irak. The whole of Irak, hell, most of the world is a hurt locker, and all K. Bigelow can do is make a film about a bunch of Yankees disposing of land mines in and around Baghdad that are there because of them in the first place!

How much longer will this deliberately misplaced Western concern go on? The majority of people in the world live in abject misery caused by the capitalist economic policies of the West and some dolphins, whales and a bunch of Yankee criminals turned into victims get more attention! Hello?! The West! Do you need more September 11ths, more trains blowing up in Madrid, more buses blowing up in London…to pay attention to the people that you slaughter and plunder around the world to preserve your comfort. Hello?! Louie Psihoyos! You, as an American, living in the country that has been the greatest purveyor of violence on Earth since its inception, shouldn’t you be concerned with at least the misery in your own country if you don’t give a damn about the misery in the world caused by your country??

Dolphins?? Who cares??

I don’t! Eastern Europe doesn’t! Africa doesn’t! The Arab world doesn’t! Asia doesn’t! So, who is left to (pretend to) care about some dolphins in some Taiji? So, who is left?

Again the same people, the white Anglo-Saxon god-fearing middle class Christian with his/her lofty feelings of self-satisfying compassion.
Why don’t you Louie Psihoyos with your secret, high-tech, waterproof, mini cameras film secretly the arrogance of war criminals such as Bush, Blair, Koizumi, Berlusconi, Aznar et al.? Or the daily oppression in the lives of the Chechens, Palestinians, Sudanese, Irakis, Kurds, the Indians in U.S. concentration camps, the 25 000 people dying daily of hunger, the child prostitutes, the child soldiers….and so on and on and on. Don’t tell me you didn’t have a choice. You actually chose dolphins over millions of people literally dying to be heard and seen…..you have the means, the time and obviously the dedication but all misplaced!

No one can imagine how much attention and space this whole dolphin and whale business got in the press here in The Japan Times. But what can we expect from the cowardly mainstream media? And, Louie, with that misplaced interest of yours in Japan, shouldn’t you be focusing on the “peace loving” Japan, the Japan that has renounced war and yet taken part in the supreme international crime, the attack on Irak, led by your country, America? What is this obsession with dolphins? It’s typical of the Western white man and woman. The most recent article, the one I mentioned here above, is about the annual dolphin hunt that’s about to start in early September. It says that the waters of the cove in Taiji will turn blood red. The whole of Irak and a large part of the world has turned blood red or no color at all due to the savage capitalist economic policies of the sensitive West. It also says that, and this is a good one, while for the people in and around Taiji dolphins can be playmates, they are primarily seen as big game animals, a perception many foreigners find difficult to stomach.

Again, who are these foreigners? I am a foreigner. Who are these sensitive souls with sensitive stomachs who care more about dolphins than people? I am not one of them, my brothers are not among them, my friends here in Tokyo from Palestine, Irak, Burundi, Yugoslavia, Russia, Lebanon, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia….are not among those foreigners with sensitive stomachs. The slaughter of dolphins in Taiji has been getting more attention than the Israelo-Western starving of Palestinians in Gaza or the 9 Turkish activists trying to enter Gaza to bring humanitarian aid to the Palestinians in Gaza who were killed by a demented Israeli commando.

I have eaten whale meat on several occasions. It is delicious. There is a very good restaurant in Shibuya-ward, Tokyo, that serves whale meat. Unfortunately, I haven’t had a chance to try dolphin meat yet.

Hey, Louie Psihoyos, are you gonna show your pathetic little documentary to the U.S. troops in Irak to cheer them up? How about showing it in Chechnya, Gaza, Sudan, Srebrenica, Angola, Sierra Leone, the Congo, Cambodia, Venezuela, Afghanistan, Guatemala, Salvador, Kurdistan, Albania, Yemen, Somalia, East Timor, Pakistan, Haiti…or to all the slums and all the sweatshops all over the world, products of sensitive Western capitalism? Are you gonna send a copy to Aung San Suu Kyi, Leonard Peltier, Mumia Abu Jamal, Abdullah Ocalan, Marwan Barghouti, Leila Zana….? See if they care. And please, Louie Psihoyos, if you do show The Cove in one of these places say, Irak, after the viewing in Baghdad or Fallujah you should do the Q and A thing. I am sure the people of Irak have lots of questions about the little town of Taiji and its dark secret.

You, Louie Psihoyos, and the foreigners (Westerners) who “care”, who are “shocked”, who can’t stomach the slaughter of poor little, cute, intelligent dolphins but who can stomach your governments’ slaughter of poor little, cute, intelligent Iraki children and plunder of the whole world…you are a bunch of pretenders, the typical middle class empty Westerner, pseudo activist, in search of some spiritual connection, climbing Mount Everest, traveling to Nepal and Tibet to get wasted, in love with the Dalai Lama, Aung San Suu Kyi, Gandhi, M.L. King but not with Malcolm X, the Black Panthers, sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, the Hamas, the Iraki Resistance, the IRA, Chavez, Morales, the Maoists in Nepal……Playing it safe, aren’t you? Hug a tree, hug a dolphin, join Amnesty, organize end poverty concerts, sing we are the world we are the children…..do your best to avoid confronting the real problems in our world caused by your governments’ criminal capitalist economic policies and your greed. You hypocrites!

To an Iraqi infant by Sinan Antoon

do you know
that your mother's nipples
are dry bones?
that her breasts
are bursting
with depleted uranium?

do you know
that the womb's window
overlooks
a confiscated land?

do you know
that your tomorrow
has no tomorrow?
that your blood
is the ink
of new maps?

do you know
that your mother is weaving
the slowness of her moments
into an elegy?
And she is already
mourning you?

don't be shy!
your funeral is over
the tears are dry
everyone's gone

come forward!
it's only a short way
don't be late
your grave is looking
at its watch!

don't be afraid!
We'll arrange your bones
which ever way you want
and leave your skull
like a flower
on top

come forward!
your many friends await
there are more every day
. . .
your ghosts
will play together

come on!

Brkic Sulejman 2/9/2010

PALESTINE

2010-06-28T07:04:00.000-07:00

PEACE IN PALESTINE : THE SOLUTION

On May 27, 2010, outside the Jewish Heritage Celebration Day event at the White House, the following exchange took place between Helen Thomas and Rabbi David Nesenoff:

Nesenoff: Any comments on Israel? We're asking everybody today, any comments on Israel?
Thomas: Tell them to get the hell out of Palestine. (laughs)
Tell them to get the hell out of Palestine.
Tell them to get the hell out of Palestine.
Tell them to get the hell out of Palestine.
Tell them to get the hell out of Palestine.
Tell them to get the hell out of Palestine.
Nesenoff: Oooh. Any better comments on Israel?
Thomas: (still laughing) Remember, these people are occupied and it's their land. It's not German, it's not Poland ...
Remember, these people are occupied and it's their land.
Remember, these people are occupied and it's their land.
Remember, these people are occupied and it's their land.
Remember, these people are occupied and it's their land.
Remember, these people are occupied and it's their land.
Remember, these people are occupied and it's their land.
Nesenoff: So where should they go, what should they do?
Thomas: They go home.
Nesenoff: Where's the home?
Thomas: Poland. Germany.
Nesenoff: So you're saying the Jews go back to Poland and Germany?
Thomas: And America and everywhere else. Why push people out of there who have lived there for centuries? See?
Nesenoff: Well, yeah, are you familiar with the, the history of that region and what took place?
Thomas: Very much. I'm of Arab background.

"Let us not ignore the truth among ourselves ... politically we are the aggressors and they defend themselves... The country is theirs, because they inhabit it, whereas we want to come here and settle down, and in their view we want to take away from them their country."
-- David Ben Gurion, quoted on pp 91-2 of Chomsky's Fateful Triangle, which appears in Simha Flapan's "Zionism and the Palestinians pp 141-2 citing a 1938 speech.

“Jews came and took, by means of uprooting and expulsion, a land that was Arab…” Israeli Professor Ilan Pappe

Write down!
I am an Arab
You have stolen the orchards of
My ancestors
And the land which I cultivated
Along with my children
And you left nothing for us
Except for these rocks…
So will the State take them
As it has been said?!
Therefore!
Write down on the top of the first page:
I do not hate people
Nor do I encroach
But if I become hungry
The usurper’s flesh will be my food
Beware..
Beware..
Of my hunger
And my anger!

From the poem Identity Card by Mahmoud Darwish, Palestinian poet.

Enemy by Langston Hughes

It would be nice
In any case,
To someday meet you
Face to face
Walking down
The road to hell...
As I come up
Feeling swell.

Brkic SULEJMAN
28/6/2010

THE DAILY ANESTHETIC

2010-04-22T09:43:00.000-07:00

THE DAILY ANESTHETIC

“Hi-ho, this is Kermit the Frog here, reporting for the Sesame Street News.”
Kermit

I’ve lived in Japan for 20 years. I often read the daily The Japan Times or The Daily Yomiuri which is cheaper and worse….I’ve often wondered why I read them and I think it’s partly because they are fairly entertaining and to find out how much and what they are deliberately not saying.

I believe that the mass media is an accomplice of the capitalist system in crimes against humanity.

Above the name of the paper The Japan Times it says: ALL THE NEWS WITH(OUT) FEAR OR FAVOR.
“I don’t get it”
Bert of Sesame Street

Today, it’s Monday, April 19, 2010. The Japan Times has 16 pages.
I’ll start from the back.

Pp. 16, 15, 14 Sports.
P.13 is the TV page.
P. 12, the “opinion” page, the opinion page where you never see opinions by, say Arundhati Roy, Robert Fisk, John Pilger, N. Chomsky…or some labour union member, social justice activist, a single mother, a representative of the unemployed or the homeless….anyway, I think you get the picture of what I mean.
P.11, business insights, some article about the US, Swiss and UBS.
P.10, news analysis/topics, almost the whole page about the Vatican’s pedophiles and a much smaller piece on scientists and the Antarctic.
P.9 today is called American perspectives. There is an article about the fundamentalist Westboro Baptist church (half the page). And the other half is about journalists embedded with the US military (I told you it was fairly entertaining).
P.8…too is American perspectives, almost the whole page is about Florida’s governor Charlie Crist. The rest of the page is about N.Y. cops tackling terror in the tunnels.

“It’s good to shut up sometimes.”
Marcel Marceau

P.7, classified/ads
P.6, World
Iceland volcano/A new young king in Uganda/Poland (Kaczynski’s funeral)/Another article at the bottom about an American firm cashing in on bunker space for those anticipating apocalypse and on the side of the page, 3 in brief pieces: LBJ daughter may have rare disorder/US woman claims Powerball jackpot/Washington owes N.Y. library fees.

Pp. 5,4, World
A piece about Queen Noor al-Hussein of Jordan on getting rid of nuclear weapons/Ahmedinejad being ridiculed for asking the USA to ditch warheads first/Saudi Arabia planning center to develop nuclear renewable energy/Somalis fleeing radical Islamists/Iraqi al-Qaida starts using house bombs/Tea Party movement and Ross Perot (pretty big article)/Former US Rep.Eric Massa and his denying paying aide/Karzai on “reforming Afghanistan’s electoral system” (ha,ha,ha) and on the side again some in brief: white supremacists rally in L.A./Man shot at US border crossing/Discovery heading home from ISS/Advocates light up at marijuana expo.

“It’s not fair. It’s just not fair!”
Bert of Sesame Street

P.3, Asia Pacific
An article about a massacre that took place on Nov.23 of 57 people, among them 30 journalists, in the Philippines/The red shirts in Thailand/Something about an epic Polynesian voyage relived by descendents/Earthquake survivors in Tibet and in brief about a suicide bombing in Pakistan,/The reopening of an Aussie immigration detention center/A rare leopard spotted in Malaysia.

P.2, National
Japan falls fast from Obama’s list of priorities/A launching of a new political party in Tokyo/A missing Nepalese student in Fukuoka, Japan/Retailers gear up for 3-D TV launch by Panasonic/World expo song halted by plagiarism row/Cameraman slain in Bangkok honored at funeral/Medical procedures pitched to foreign tourists.

The front page
European flight ban stays among chaos (Iceland volcano)/Poles mass to lay president to rest/An article about the relocation of a US base in Japan/A piece about British Liberal Democrats.

Throughout the paper there are 12 advertisements of which one is on the front page, bottom right corner. It’s for a lecture. It says: A new civilization begins. The emergence of the World Teacher and the role of UFOs.

“Journalists are unable, seemingly, to discriminate between a bicycle accident and the collapse of civilization.”
George Bernard Shaw

That’s it.

I picked today for no reason…it was random…there was no real need to think.
It’s pretty much the same everyday….shallow and hallow.

“The first law of journalism: to confirm existing prejudice, rather than contradict it.”
Alexander Cockburn

Is this information? Is this news? Do we feel informed? Does it make us think?
My picking The Japan Times was also random. They are more or less the same; empty, shallow and hallow. The Japanese dailies are even worse. It’s so empty that you actually start feeling as if there were something.
Most of the sources for and in the articles come from government officials, the police, people in some or other kind of power. Simply put, it hardly ever comes from a person who’s actually directly affected by the problem.
It is always some “expert” or “official” speaking for the person affected.
The “opinion” page (p.12) is all by men. There is (almost) never a woman.
“It’s not fair. It’s just not fair!”
Bert of Sesame Street

You will also notice the waste of space.

On Fridays this paper has 22 or 23 pages. The additional pages are all about art, films and more sports.

Anyway, it’s not only about what’s written in dailies of this kind. What really sticks out is what is deliberately omitted.
And that’s what makes of these dailies a muzzle owned by the rich and powerful for the voiceless, the ones who really need and have something important to say.

“Think of the press as a great keyboard on which the government can play.”
Joseph Goebbels

Brkic Sulejman
22/4/2010

THE PARIS COMMUNE, LIP, and Butterfly

2009-10-06T07:27:00.000-07:00

THE PARIS COMMUNE, LIP, and
BUTTERFLY

“Here on the slopes of
Hills, facing the dusk and
The cannon of time
Close to the gardens
Of broken shadows,
We do what prisoners
Do,
And what the jobless
Do:
We cultivate hope.

Mahmoud Darwish
From the poem Under Siege

In 1871 the capitalists, the bourgeoisie or whatever you want to call that greedy vermin, all over Europe if not the world, shat their pants at the sight and the roar of the Paris Communards. The people took the power, freed themselves and took control of their lives. When I say people I mean all the oppressed and exploited so that a few leeches on top could live in luxury.
This piece is not about the history of the Paris Commune. It is about why one of the most beautiful people power movements in history of class struggle failed and lasted only a couple of months. If you really want to know more in details about the Paris Commune, do a little research yourself.

Communists, left wing socialists, anarchists and others have seen the Commune as a model for, or a prefiguration of a liberated society, with a political system based on participatory democracy from the grass roots up, the prototype for a revolutionary government of the future, the form at last discovered for the emancipation of the proletariat (Marx).

According to some literature on the mistakes of the Paris Commune, Karl Marx found it aggravating that the Communards lost precious moments organizing democratic elections rather than instantly FINISHING OFF Versailles once and for all. France’s national bank, located in Paris and storing billions of francs, was left untouched and unguarded by the Communards. TIMIDLY they ASKED to BORROW money from the bank. The Communards chose not to seize the bank’s assets because they were AFRAID that the world would condemn them if they did. Thus large amounts of money were moved from Paris to Versailles, money that financed the army that crushed the Commune. Marx wrote that the Commune might have saved itself had it dealt MORE HARSHLY with reactionaries.

Lenin criticized the Communards for having STOPPED HALF WAY…led astray by dreams of…JUSTICE; he thought their EXCESSIVE MAGNANIMITY had prevented them from DESTROYING the class enemy by RUTHLESS EXTERMINATION.

I didn’t know what “magnanimity” means (I’m a high school drop out) so I looked it up and found the adjective “magnanimous”. MAGNANIMOUS means generous and noble in forgiving; above revenge or resentment. [L magnanimus, “great-souled”].

Again, among a few other mistakes, the most important failure of the Paris Commune was its LACK OF RELENTLESS AND DECISIVE ACTION AGAINST THE BOURGEOISIE. The very MAGNANIMITY and HUMANITY of the Commune proved fatal. Only RELUCTANTLY did it use force, take hostages or keep the prisoners it captured. The Commune’s MODERATION left the way open for the vicious, vengeful retaliation the Versailles government inflicted on the workers of Paris.

“If they (the Communards) are defeated only their GOOD NATURE will be to blame” Marx
“The right moment was missed because of CONSCIENTIOUS SCRUPLES” Marx.

According to Lenin again, two mistakes destroyed the fruits of the splendid victory. The proletariat stopped half-way: instead of setting about expropriating the expropriators, it allowed itself to be led astray by DREAMS OF ESTABLISHING A HIGHER JUSTICE…such institutions as the banks, for example, were not taken over….
The second mistake was EXCESSIVE MAGNANIMITY on the part of the proletariat: instead of DESTROYING ITS ENEMIES it sought to exert MORAL INFLUENCE on them…in certain conditions the armed struggle assumes the form of armed conflict and civil war; there are times when the interests of the proletariat call for RUTHLESS EXTERMINATION of its enemies in open armed clashes.

In the end, the Paris commune was drowned in the blood of the Communards and of all those who had supported it in any way. The number of killed during “The Bloody Week” can never be established for certain, and estimates vary from about 10 000 to 50 000. According to Alfred Cobban, 30 000 were killed, perhaps as many as 50 000 later executed or imprisoned and 7000 were exiled to New Caledonia.

We on the Left have to stop being nice, not all of us. Peaceful methods are very important but peaceful methods alone will lead nowhere. It’s like M. L. King without the Black Panthers and Malcolm X. Unrealistic! Peaceful methods must be combined with more aggressive and violent methods.

“Early in life I had learned that if you want something, you had better make some noise.” Malcolm X

A combination of methods to get rid of, first, capitalist and imperialist institutions has the best chance to succeed. And I don’t even want to hear, especially from someone from a Western country, how violence doesn’t pay off. The West got filthy rich through systematic use of violence. Right now, in Irak, do you think the Yankee dogs are applying the Dalai Lama method to liberate the Irakis of their oil?

“If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightning.” Frederick Douglass

LIP is a French clock company whose turmoil became emblematic of the conflicts between workers and management in France.
The LIP factory, based in Besancon in eastern France, was having financial problems in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and management decided to close it. However, after strikes and a highly publicized occupation of the factory in 1973, LIP became worker-managed. All the fired employees were rehired by March 1974, but the firm was liquidated again in the spring of 1976. This led to a new struggle, called “the social conflict of the 1970s” by the daily newspaper Liberation.
Confederation Francaise Democratique du Travail (CFDT) union leader Charles Piaget led the strike. The Unified Socialist Party (PSU), which included former Radical Pierre Mendes-France, was then in favor of autogestion (self-management), or worker-run businesses.

Charles Piaget testified in 1977, in the Quotidien de Paris, about the self-management experiment: “A few more than 500 workers are effectively in battle, gathering every day, and this, nineteen months after having been fired. It is living proof of democracy. It is impossible to have such a collective force without the sustained practice of democracy, without sharing responsibilities, and without participation of all sorts. It must be pointed out that at LIP, the workers are in charge of approximately thirty jobs, from the restaurants, which serve 300 meals a day for 4 francs, to a hairdresser for the unemployed, to various artisanal activities….”

But as is to be expected, the ruling capitalist class reacted. And when they react, they mean business.

In May 1974, Valery Giscard d’Estaing, representing free enterprise, had been elected President of France, with the support of Jacques Chirac. They OPPOSED this union victory at a time when downsizing was happening all over France. The previous Minister of Industrial Development, Jean Charbonnel, testified that Giscard had declared: “ LIP MUST BE PUNISHED. LET THEM BE UNEMPLOYED AND STAY THAT WAY. OTHERWISE THEY WILL INFECT ALL OF SOCIETY.” According to Charbonnel, the employers and Chirac’s government had deliberately assassinated LIP.

This was done by confronting the left-wing employer, Neuschwander, and the firm with unforeseen difficulties. Renault, a state enterprise, withdrew its commands, and the Ministry of Industry refused a promised fund. In contradiction to the Dole agreement of January 1974, the trade court requested that LIP honor a debt of 6 million francs owed by the former firm to providers.
Again, if you want to know more about how it all ended for LIP, do your own research.

As you can see, capitalism is not about a good life for everyone and capitalists are mean and greedy bastards. Just picture the likes of Dick Cheney. If it were up to me, I would reactivate the guillotine just for Giscard and Chirac. They are scum!
I personally have had it with that crap on the Left about being careful in our methods when trying to recruit new people, about being careful not to alienate people. What people? The middle class? Those defenders of capitalism, the buffer zone of capitalism who would betray anything and anyone to keep things the way they are or get into the upper class by climbing on the shoulders of the rest of us. Hell, I don’t even want them on our side, those sneaky bastards! They are the kind that go turn coats according to the stock markets. They are even worse than the capitalists, at least with the capitalists you know what you are dealing with. But the middle class, they are the kind that stabs you in the back when you least expect it. Alienate the middle class? They have already alienated themselves as human beings anyway. But, as J.F.K, one of my heroes, once said: “Those who make peaceful evolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable.”

How many times I have marched in protest against some injustice with various groups here in Tokyo, through huge, crowded avenues without ever seeing, I mean not once, one of those so-called undecided or (still) sitting on the fence types (probably brain dead) joining us in solidarity. Some of them, Japanese as well as foreigners, just stand there on the sidewalk like statues waiting for pigeons to shit on them, looking at us with a stupid grin on their face as if we were from Mars. Although, I have to admit that often our peace parades are confusing, with all the balloons and the colorful things flying around, they do tend to look like some festival which may cause onlookers to smile and laugh.

We on the left have to get through our heads that this might be it. The number of committed people on our side is not growing and we don’t have all the time in the world to continue screwing around so we’d better find ways to do with what we have. The eco clock is ticking, and fast. We who live in the belly of the capitalist beast, and therefore the most responsible for the misery around our world, have to start hitting the beast in the belly. Some of us can stick to organizing and “educating”, others should carry violent actions against capitalist targets. I am under the impression that every single group on the Left is busy with only organizing and “educating”. That’s all we do. We do so much of it and with so much care not to alienate people who don’t give a shit anyway that we have lost sight of the actual goal. Organizing and “educating” have become our goal! And when we go out to march, parade against..whatever..we stop at traffic lights! We allow the police to cut through our line and divide us into smaller and weaker groups because of a fucking traffic light! We actually wait for the light to turn green! It is pathetic! At least THAT day should be OUR day and the couple of avenues we take should be OUR avenues! Come on people! For crying out loud, our space of action is shrinking! When was the last time we had a taste of victory? Just a taste of victory for Christ’s sake! When we actually pushed back and said “not today pigs!” Today is our day!!

“When in 1956…the Front de Liberation Nationale, in a famous leaflet, stated that colonialism (capitalism and imperialism) only loosens its hold when the knife is at its throat, no Algerian really found these terms too violent. The leaflet only expressed what every Algerian felt at heart: colonialism is not a thinking machine, nor a body endowed with reasoning faculties. It is violence in its natural state, and it will only yield when confronted with greater violence.” Frantz Fanon

Remember, right now people around the third world, at this very moment in Irak, people are paying with their lives the real price of our comfort, our freedoms here in the West They are the ones doing the real resisting. They are resisting OUR capitalist beast so that it wouldn’t swallow all of us and the best we can do for them to help them is endless organizing, educating people that should know by now and stop at traffic lights when parading.

Julia Butterfly Hill, born in 1974, is an American activist and environmentalist. Hill is best known for living in a 180-foot-tall, 600-year-old California Redwood tree for 738 days between December 10, 1997 to December 18, 1999. Hill lived barefoot in the tree, affectionately known as “Luna”, to prevent loggers of the Pacific Lumber Company from cutting it down.
Hill spent a little more than two years in that tree! Now, that’s what I call tough and determined. That’s emotions in action.

A resolution was reached in 1999 when the Pacific Lumber Company agreed to preserve Luna and all the trees within a 3-acre buffer zone (I guess beyond that they could go on rampaging). In exchange, Hill agreed to vacate the tree. The tree was later attacked with a chainsaw by “someone”. The gash to the 200-foot-tall redwood was discovered in November 2001. It was treated with an herbal remedy and the tree was stabilized with steel cables. As of spring 2007, the tree is doing well.

“One day, they were cutting down trees all around me, and I started crying and hugging Luna. I was crying because I felt ashamed to be in white skin. I felt ashamed to be part of a race of people who perpetuated genocide thousands of years ago and have now made it our mission to perpetuate genocide on the rest of the planet and life in all its forms. It was eating me alive from the inside out. I was so angry and so hurt and ashamed, and I held onto Luna and was crying and apologizing over and over, saying: I’m so sorry.”
Julia Butterfly Hill

While Julia Butterfly Hill was up in the tree risking her life to protect and save it, the Pacific Lumber Company should have been attacked by activists and severely damaged as a punishment and a warning with a message left on its doorstep saying that its practices are unacceptable and that next time it would be burnt down to the ground.

“It is not light that we need, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder.
We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake.” Frederick Douglass

Now, I cannot finish this ranting without mentioning Irak and the 1 million killed Irakis, so far, for oil by the U.S-led whatever is left of that coalition of the willing, one of the most shameful coalitions in the history of mankind. I cannot ignore Irak because 1 million dead Irakis kind of sticks out. 1 million on top of 1.6 million (of which 600 000 Iraki children) dead due to the U.S-U.K-imposed-wrapped-in-the-U.N-flag economic sanctions. And all those Irakis died just so that we in the West and here in puppet Japan could get very cheap (if not free) oil. I got a mail about one of my articles the other day from an angry guy in the US, telling me to shut up. So, I’ll shut up and let this poem by the Haitian poet Paul Laraque speak:

REIGN OF THE PEOPLES

You say democracy
and we know it is Bolivia's tin
Chile's copper
Venezuela's oil
Cuba's sugar
raw materials and profits

You say democracy
and it's the annexation of Texas
the hold up of the Panama Canal
the occupation of Haiti
the colonization of Puerto-Rico
the bombing of Guatemala

You say democracy
and it's America to the Yankee
it's the rape of nations
it's Sandino's blood
and Peralte's crucifixion

You say democracy
and it's the plunder of our wealth
from Hiroshima to Indochina
you spread the slaughter everywhere
and everywhere ruin

You say democracy
and it's the Ku Klux Klan
o hidden people
inside your own cities
an ogre is devouring your children
Ubu from the empire of robots
you let your ravens fly
from Harlem to Jerusalem
from Wounded Knee to Haiti
from Santo Domingo to Soweto
the people will be waving
the torch of revolution

Night is a tunnel opening on the dawn
Viet-Nam stands like a tree in the storm
the frontier which marks the place of your defeat
history's lessons have no recourse
a footbridge stretches from Asia to Africa
the reign of the white race is ending on earth
and the reign of the peoples in the universe is beginning.
Paul Laraque
(Translation from French by Rosemary Manno)

And since I am for victory in Irak because it would be a step closer to total victory against imperialism around the world, here is what I hope will happen to “the greatest purveyor of violence on Earth”:

“For my part, I would not care if, tomorrow, I should hear of the death of every man who engaged in that bloody war in Mexico (IRAK), and that every man had met the fate he went there to perpetrate upon unoffending Mexicans (IRAKIS).” Frederick Douglass

Brkic Sulejman 3/7/08

I AM RIGHT!

2009-09-06T05:58:00.000-07:00

The Rhythm Of Time by Bobby Sands

There's an inner thing in every man,
Do you know this thing my friend?
It has withstood the blows of a million years,
And will do so to the end.

It was born when time did not exist,
And it grew up out of life,
It cut down evil's strangling vines,
Like a slashing searing knife.

It lit fires when fires were not,
And burnt the mind of man,
Tempering leandened hearts to steel,
From the time that time began.

It wept by the waters of Babylon,
And when all men were a loss,
It screeched in writhing agony,
And it hung bleeding from the Cross.

It died in Rome by lion and sword,
And in defiant cruel array,
When the deathly word was 'Spartacus'
Along the Appian Way.

It marched with Wat the Tyler's poor,
And frightened lord and king,
And it was emblazoned in their deathly stare,
As e'er a living thing.

It smiled in holy innocence,
Before conquistadors of old,
So meek and tame and unaware,
Of the deathly power of gold.

It burst forth through pitiful Paris streets,
And stormed the old Bastille,
And marched upon the serpent's head,
And crushed it 'neath its heel.

It died in blood on Buffalo Plains,
And starved by moons of rain,
Its heart was buried at Wounded Knee,
But it will come to rise again.

It screamed aloud by Kerry lakes,
As it was knelt upon the ground,
And it died in great defiance,
As they coldly shot it down.

It is found in every light of hope,
It knows no bounds nor space
It has risen in red and black and white,
It is there in every race.

It lies in the hearts of heroes dead,
It screams in tyrants' eyes,
It has reached the peak of mountains high,
It comes searing 'cross the skies.

It lights the dark of this prison cell,
It thunders forth its might,
It is 'the undauntable thought', my friend,
The thought that says 'I'm right!'

Brkic Sulejman

HIDING BEHIND PACIFISM

2009-07-24T08:13:00.000-07:00

HIDING BEHIND PACIFISM

Protest is when I say this does not please me.
Resistance is when I ensure what does not please me occurs no more.
Ulrike Meinhof

On a damp night in February 2003 as the U.S. prepared to invade Iraq, five Catholic Worker activists scrambled across runways and broke into a hangar at Shannon airport. Swinging hammers and a pickaxe, they did more than $ 2.5 million damage to a U.S. Navy transport plane.
The five were hit with the full weight of the law, and were quickly condemned by the media and much of the anti-war movement. But three-and-a-half years later a Dublin jury decided they were innocent of any crime.

The above passage was taken from the back cover of the book Hammered by the Irish: How the Pitstop Ploughshares disabled a U.S. war-plane with Ireland’s Blessing by Harry Browne with an introduction by Daniel Berrigan.

First of all: Bravo! To the these brave activists.
As for the much of the anti-war movement that condemned them: Shame on you!

Here in Japan, lots of us live practically surrounded by terroristic U.S. military bases, between 40 000 and 50 000 U.S. mercenaries are stationed here (mainly in Okinawa) to protect Japan from North Korea, which is total bull-shit but I won’t get into that now, it’s too ridiculous to be worth explaining.
What I am aiming at is the abundance of opportunity for the Japanese anti-war movement to put its words into practice. There are at least 4 U.S. military bases in the area where I live, a 5 minute train ride to the closest one.
In my 18 years in Japan, as you may know a major launch pad for Yankee wars of plunder and a country that pretends to be peace loving but follows and supports every single criminal war adventure in pursuit of plunder undertaken by its master Uncle Sam, in my 18 years here not once have I heard a call for action of the kind carried out by the brave Irishmen mentioned above.
Beside the circus-like peace parades organized around Tokyo in which I have taken part, in my memory the lowest point of the Japanese peace (brain dead, no balls) movement, I mean really pathetic, was when a guy, an activist, stood up at some gathering in Tokyo just before another one of their colorful anti-war prancing and suggested that the few people who were still raising a clenched fist during a march stop doing that. Can it get more pathetic? Supposedly it was too aggressive and it might alienate people. And I won’t even get into what hurts the most the Japanese Left: its sectarianism.

To get back to the Pitstop Ploughshares, in the opening passage taken from the book I mentioned it says that they (the five Catholic Worker activists) were quickly condemned by the media (the government lackeys) and much of the anti―war movement.
Condemned by much of the anti-war movement.
Why am I not surprised?
What else is to be expected from cowards? Yes! Cowards!
The Pitstop Ploughshares are pacifists, too, yet they have engaged in direct action.
How dare the spineless anti-war movement condemn them?!
But the fact is that there are very few pacifists like them.

At one of my gatherings, I brought up direct action for discussion (mentioning the Pitstop Ploughshares and Shannon airport), out of about 30 people only 2 agreed with the need for it. Although I tried to explain that direct action doesn’t necessarily mean violence, that the Pitstop Ploughshares’s actions were not violent, not violent, that they were right in every sense of the word, that they did save lives by destroying a U.S. military killing machine, that they had sent a strong message to the warmongers that people will no longer just stand by or prance in the street while innocents are being slaughtered for economic gains, that, if possible, we should all try to engage in such actions if we are at all serious about preventing our countries (Japan did take part in the U.S.-U.K.-led illegal war on Iraq and the peace-loving Japanese people a r e responsible for the death of over 1 million innocent Iraqis who were killed so that the Japanese and all those who took part in this war could get very, very, very cheap oil) from going into wars in order to preserve our comfortable, materialistic, parasitic, empty way of life.
The more I kept talking like this, the more cowardice became palpable. The usual excuses to avoid doing more were at hand, how we should keep organizing, how direct action would only alienate people, how we should preserve the moral high ground, how it’s counterproductive…bla, bla, bla…..Hell, nowadays coward pacifists are trying to avoid the topic of direct action altogether.
We have assumed the name of peacemakers, but we have been, by and large, unwilling to pay any significant price. And because we want peace with half a heart and half a life and will, the war, of course continues, because the waging of war, by its nature is total-but the waging of peace, by our cowardice is partial.Fr Daniel Berrigan

A comment on the side for all those of you who don’t know much about Japan, it is a country with a total lack of solidarity. In case you get involved in direct action here, do not expect any sympathy from the public or a sympathetic jury. Cowardice feeds on cowardice here.

I watched the German film The Baader-Meinhof Complex and I was praising their actions and the actions of other urban guerrilla groups such as The Red Brigades, The Tupamaros and so on…to a friend of mine and he said that those groups had done a great deal of damage to the Left that was trying to organize a mass movement .
I don’t think so.
Let’s turn that argument around and I say that it is the rest of the Left that damaged itself by refusing out of cowardice to lend support to those urban guerrilla groups and betrayed those groups by refusing to join them in their/our armed struggle against capitalism/imperialism.

Simply put: The threat today is not passivity, but pseudo-activity, the urge to “be active”, to “participate”, to mask the nothingness of what goes on. Slavoj Zizek

My message to you so-called pacifist activists is: Stop pretending!
Stop pretending you are doing something. Your ways, combining hesitance with cowardice, have never achieved anything! Name one example in History where pacifism has actually brought about meaningful social change, alleviated suffering of mankind, instilled fear into capitalist/imperialist dogs, restored justice…
It is the collective responsibility of the citizens in a modern
State to ensure by all means necessary that its government
adheres to the rule of law, not just domestically but internationally. Karl JaspersYour ways, your flowers in the barrel of the gun are an insult to all those who came before you and really fought, who put up a real fight, who resorted to all kinds of direct action, who died so that you and I would have the right today to prance in the streets daring to pretend that your/our clownish activism is gonna save Iraqi, Palestinian….lives. All you are doing is legitimizing dictatorial democracies!
And don’t even dare to talk about Martin Luther King Jr. without mentioning The Black Panther Party and Malcolm X or Gandhi without Chandrasekhar Azad and Bhagat Singh. We need a combination of tactics!

Much of the anti-war movement is about the first part of the quote by Ulrike Meinhof at the top of this piece. The Pitstop Ploughshares is about the second part of the same quote.

By condemning the five Catholic Worker activists, much of the anti-war movement took sides. It allied itself with the State, the lackeys in the media, it allied itself with the U.S. killing machine!
What much of the anti-war movement did and has been doing is, in the words of the title of a book by Romeo Dallaire, shaking hands with the Devil!

Sometimes doing nothing is the most violent thing to do.Slavoj Zizek from his book Violence

We need a combination of tactics!

Brkic Sulejman
24/07/2009

ARMED UPRISING

2008-12-05T05:58:00.000-08:00

LET US TAKE UP ARMS!

"All means used to struggle
against tyrants are legitimate."French revolutionary Gracchus Babeuf 1792

It seems that Iran is about to be attacked by the U.S. With the active support of the only democratic apartheid regime in the world: Israel. And, as usual, the tacit support of the rest of the G7 vultures.

Another war of plunder. But that's nothing new.

The question is whether we on the left are going to do something new to stop the above mentioned criminals. Or the best we'll come up with is some new "protest" signs and a couple of new peace songs. No, I mean, really, what is wrong with us? That's the question! It is not "what's wrong with capitalism or imperialism and so on...?" We know what is wrong with capitalism. What is wrong with us? Us, the so-called anti-war "activists".

Do we really expect to stop the U.S war machine from bombing, killing hundreds of thousands more of innocent people, plundering again another country, do we really expect to stop the U.S war machine, our criminal governments in the G7, the IMF, N.A.T.O, the E.U, the W.B, you know, the usual partners in crime, do we really expect to stop them by holding peaceful "mass protests" only on a Saturday or a Sunday (not both days because there are shopping needs to be satisfied), by holding candle light vigils, giving lectures on why Iran is being targeted, writing letters to our congressmen or to whatever scumbag is "representing" us, "educating" people when actually everybody knows what is going on and those in the G7 who don't know, let's face it, it's because they don't want to know, because they don't care. And let's stop making up excuses for them, like blaming the mass media for their DELIBERATE ignorance. How come I know? How come most of us on the left (or not) know?

So, do we really expect to stop them with our risk-free bullshit? Don't we see that it doesn't work?! IT DOESN'T WORK! We gotta stop pretending we are doing something, for a start!

But, how committed are we? How far are we willing to go to stop another crime from being committed? More than 600 000 killed Iraqis (so that we in the G7 could get cheap OIL) is not enough for us to consider other options, other actions? How much are we willing to risk, to sacrifice for our beliefs? How deep are our beliefs? Sometimes it seems to me that our ("activists on the left") obsession with doing things "peacefully" is very hypocritical and has to do more with our COWARDICE than anything else!

Just think! Have we managed to stop the murder for plunder going on in Iraq? How hard have we really been trying to? Has it ever crossed our mind that some much more drastic measures have to be taken to force our criminal governments in the G7 to respect OUR will, the people's will, and not the will of a small capitalist elite?!

Doesn't it bother us to be surrounded by war criminals walking freely with all that blood on their (and ours) hands? Our presidents, prime ministers and all the other politicians who are involved in war crimes, Bush, Blair, Howard, Berlusconi, Aznar, Koizumi, Abe...etc, all these criminals should be hanging! Do we really expect any court to try them for war crimes? Do we really expect to get justice from THEIR courts? Some of these criminals have already retired and now they are enjoying peace and quiet in their new lives after having helped set Iraq on fire and drown it in blood of (so far) more than 600 000 innocent Iraqis for OIL! And this is not the first time! It has been going on and on and on forever. When will the victims of our greedy capitalistic lives get justice?! And now OUR heads of States in the G7 are about to do it again with Iran.

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

So, what are we on the left going to do about it? Organize another peace march to stop them? That's us, right? That's the best we can do, right?

How the hell do we hope to change something while operating within the very criminal system set up and controled by the very gangsters mentioned above? The courts, the police, the media, the banks, the money, the guns... everything is in their hands! Everything is in the hands of a few leeches! We know that, right?! And yet, we keep operating within/inside that criminal system instead of doing everything possible and more to smash it or at least damage it! Why? Cowardice!

"IT IS THE OBLIGATION OF EVERY PERSON WHO
CLAIMS TO OPPOSE OPPRESSION TO RESIST THE
OPPRESSOR BY EVERY MEANS AT HIS OR HER DISPOSAL.
NOT TO ENGAGE IN PHYSICAL RESISTANCE, ARMED
RESISTANCE TO OPPRESSION, IS TO SERVE THE
INTERESTS OF THE OPPRESSOS; NO MORE, NO LESS.
THERE ARE NO EXCEPTIONS TO THE RULE, NO
EASY OUT...Assata Shakur, 1984.

Someone once said that without breaking the rules the fight against injustice is a waste of time! Yes! Unjust laws must be broken, cordons of police must be broken, threats must be made and warnings given to all those in power, to the coward mass media people... they must understand that we the great majority of people don't want their wars! We must break out of their criminal system! They must be afraid of us! They must tremble at the sound of the roar of the people!

"POWER GROWS FROM THE BARREL OF A GUN."
Chairman Mao Tsetung

And if our threats and warnings are not heeded by those who are supposed to represent us, then punitive actions will be carried out against those bastards; the kind of punitive actions that might leave one in a life-threatening condition. Whatever their interests are, they must become the target of great damage.

"ALL MEANS, INCLUDING SUICIDE ATTACKS, ARE
VALID IF THEY SPEED UP THE ADVENT OF
DEMOCRACY!"Karl Heinzen

We on the left must set up an armed wing, an armed extension of the current pathetic "peace" movement. That armed wing will be carrying out violent, punitive actions against anyone in position to negatively influence and lead the people to the path of war. Any stinking politician, mass media vulture, intellectual who dares advocating, justifying any kind of war will be physically disabled.

"MASS MEDIA, OPPRESSIVE CULTURE, ADVERTISING
MANAGEMENT, AND MOST CONTEMPORARY MODES OF
THOUGHT ARE THE ENEMIES AND APPROPRIATE
TARGETS..."Herbert Marcuse

But, first, we have to start arming ourselves because the fight will be tough. Let us not forget that those sons of bitches in power have any kind of weapon we can imagine at their disposal to suppress us, the people, if we ever dare get out of line. We the people must remind those ungrateful bastards who the real masters are! They have weapons to wage plunder wars, we'll have weapons to wage a liberation war!

"THE PATH TO HUMANITY WILL PASS THROUGH
THE ZENITH OF BARBARITY."Karl Heinzen

In 2003, despite of millions of people marching throughout the world against the then-imminent war on Iraq, despite of the fact that the great majority of people in almost every single country (except Israel and the U.S) in the world were opposed to the war, war happened! If that is not spitting in the face of the people then what is?

Aren't you enraged by their (the politicians') arrogance, lies, condescension, corruption, crimes...and all in the name of greed?! Those sons of bitches are just supposed to respect and carry out our will, that's all! But you look around and it's the other way around! The vermin must be exterminated!

Those who advocate war for the sake of profit, those who advocate WAR must be taken out!

I am advocating intensive, intelligent, selective, well organized violence against the State in the G7 and against anyone involved in any kind of crime against humanity. Any political and economic elite, any oligarchy, any plutocracy must be physically eliminated once and for all! I am advocating being ONE with the oppressed!

"MEET VIOLENCE WITH VIOLENCE."
Rob Williams

I am advocating violent self-defence against capitalism and imperialism!

Elites must be exterminated!
Power must be taken by the people and spread among the people!
War must be stamped out!
Those who advocate war must be crushed!
The thought of war must be erased!
Capitalism must be obliterated!
Capitalists must be wiped out!
Capital must be annihilated!
Private ownership must be eradicated!
But all this can only be done by peoples of good will armed to the teeth, without mercy for the enemy, well organized and in coordination throughout the rapacious G7 for the benefit of the entire mankind.

"IF YOU HAVE TO BLOW UP HALF A CONTINENT
AND CAUSE A BLOODBATH TO DESTROY THE PARTY
OF BARBARISM, YOU SHOULD HAVE NO SCRUPLES
OF CONSCIENCE." Karl Heinzen

After all this is accomplished, all weapons must be destroyed.

Brkic Sulejman 28.03.2007

ONE WAY TO CHANGE THE WORLD

2008-09-17T07:00:00.000-07:00

ONE WAY TO CHANGE THE WORLD

I watched FIVE FINGERS. It is a 2006 film directed by Laurence Malkin, starring Laurence Fishburn, Colm Meaney and Ryan Phillippe.

Here is the synopsis:

The film is fictional, but inspired by and is about an Islamic terrorist who captures a Dutch citizen, setting off a thrilling game of one-upsmanship, punctuated by riveting suspense and a dynamite shocker ending. Martijn (Ryan Phillippe) is on a goodwill mission in Morocco when he is stabbed with a syringe and wakes up blindfolded and shackled in a hideout. His captors (Laurence Fishburne and Gina Torres) want information - and they'll do anything to get it. So Martijn had better come up with a plan of action, because he's running out of time ... and fingers.

Here is a dialogue from one of the scenes. It’s between Martijn and the woman captor, Aicha:

M: I was fired.

A: And why is that? Did they find out about the money?

M: No. They saw pictures of me.

A: Doing what?

M: Protesting.

A: Protesting. Against who?

M: Dutch immigration policy and our government’s support of the World Bank.

A: You honestly believe that to protest against the World Bank would accomplish something?

M: I did. I used to think that it could accomplish a lot.

A: But not anymore?

M: Not that way, no.

A: Of course not. Because you are a child, Martijn. An idealistic, stupid child who is playing a very dangerous game. You go away for a weekend, throw a few stones, swallow a little tear gas and tell your girlfriend how risky it was. And while she is sucking on your cock, your government expels 40 000 asylum seekers. You have no idea what it would really take to change the world.

M: You’re wrong.

A: Then tell me.

M: A series of devastating events, events that would destroy the world’s richest companies, that would crush the world’s economy. A dozen 9/11s all over the world.

A: Like what?

M: Like targeted direct action against Halliburton. Against Dow Chemical, against McDonald’s. And not just American companies. Against Airbus, against British Petroleum. Against any company that promotes global capitalism and destroys lives and cultures in order to increase its profits…

JAPAN: GUILTY OF DOING GOOD

2008-06-30T09:05:00.000-07:00

Guilty Of Doing Good

“Every man is guilty of all the good he didn’t do” Voltaire

From the narrow window of my small cell,
I see trees that are smiling at me
and rooftops crowded with my family.
And windows weeping and praying for me.
From the narrow window of my small cell--
I can see your big cell!

Samih al-Qasim, from “End of a talk with a jailer”

Here in Tokyo, Japan, 3 peace activists, Toshiyuki Obora, Nobuhiro Onishi and Sachimi Takada were found guilty on April 11, 2008 by the Supreme Court of putting anti-war fliers into the mail boxes of the families of the Japanese soldiers who were dispatched to Irak on the orders of Uncle Sam to assist the shameful U.S.-led coalition in its illegal invasion and occupation of Irak to free it of its oil.

For a detailed account of this injustice, please read these articles by David McNeill in The Japan Times and on Japan Focus:
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20060214zg.html
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20080520zg.html
http://www.japanfocus.org/_David_McNeill-Martyrs_for_Peace__Japanese_antiwar_activists_jailed_for_trespassing_in_SDF_compound_vow_to_fight_on
(with the interview)

These 3 activists were found guilty, their actions were found illegal for opposing an illegal war in which their country has taken part.

" The decision by President George W. Bush to go to war in Iraq was ILLEGAL because it didn't have U.N Security Council approval, according to Secretary General Kofi Annan in an interview with the BBC World Service on Wednesday 15 2004. On Wednesday after being asked three times whether the lack of council approval for the war meant it was illegal, he (Annan) said: " From our point of view it was ILLEGAL."

The crime I’m writing about is of course the rape of Irak by the of course U.S.-led coalition of the willing to kill and plunder. These 3 activists did jail time, 75 days, for opposing an illegal war that has led to the death of over 1 million Irakis, and counting, to rob them of their oil! And the criminals who have caused their death, who have taken part in this Supreme International Crime are prancing around free.

To initiate a war of aggression, therefore, is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole. Robert H. Jackson, 1945-46

A student of mine the other day here in Tokyo was all excited and happy because she went to the Opera and there, guess who she saw enjoying Don Giovanni? Koizumi himself! Koizumi is the former Prime Minister of Japan and a war criminal since he has led his country into this illegal war on Irak. There he was, at the Opera, enjoying Don Giovanni while Irak is burning and bleeding! I feel rage burning inside me while writing this piece.

The 3 activists were found guilty by a judicial system of a country whose government, ignoring the will of the majority of its people opposed to the war, has taken part in the Supreme International Crime. They, who are opposed to this illegal war, were found guilty by a lackey judge who is an accomplice in this illegal war. Could anyone really expect anything else than a guilty verdict?

What is the Left that lives in the belly of the beast doing about this?

I once wrote a piece advocating the inclusion of violence as one method among others used by us on the Left to fight against whatever capitalist and imperialist institution and their leaders is promoting the horrible, horrible kind of crime against humanity that is taking place in Irak before our greedy eyes.

I sent my piece to a socialist website on which I was a kind of a regular and was banned from it soon after. I was told that the kind of actions I had in mind to fight against the illegal actions of our Western imperialist governments (including Japan) would be … illegal.

“It is the collective responsibility of the citizens in a modernState to ensure by all means necessary that its governmentadheres to the rule of law, not just domestically but internationally”. Karl Jaspers

Brkic Sulejman

BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY!

2008-06-06T06:08:00.000-07:00

Remember, remember.......5 years!

The decision by President George W. Bush to go to war in Iraq was ILLEGAL because it didn't have U.N Security Council approval, according to Secretary General Kofi Annan in an interview with the BBC World Service on Wednesday 15 2004. On Wednesday after being asked three times whether the lack of council approval for the war meant it was illegal, he (Annan) said:
" From our point of view it was ILLEGAL."

Q: It was illegal ?

Annan: Yes, if you wish.

Q: It was illegal ?

Annan: Yes, I have indicated it is not In conformity with the U.N Charter, from our point of view and from the Charter point of view it Was ILLEGAL.

International Herald Tribune, Friday, September 17, 2004 (U.N chief calls Iraq war Illegal) The Associated Press, United Nations, New York."

Individuals have international duties which transcend the national obligations of obedience. Therefore [individual citizens] have the duty to violate domestic laws to prevent crimes against peace and humanity from occurring."
Nuremberg War Crimes tribunal,1950.

"By any means necessary…" Malcolm X

Here is now my opinion on how we, the anti-war movement (at least here in Japan), should define the fight led by the Iraqi people against the U.S-British-led ILLEGAL occupation of their country:It is RESISTANCE !

The Iraqi people should and have the right to fight the invaders of Iraq, and all the vultures that came with them, by any means necessary !It is RESISTANCE ! There must be no doubt about it.Iraq is just another Algeria, Vietnam, Kenya, Haiti, Afghanistan, Palestine, Chechnya…etcWe, the anti-war movement, must support the Iraqi RESISTANCE no matter how ugly it may appear. No matter how many are beheaded, no matter how many heads we see being cut off on the Internet, no matter all that ugliness, we must support the Iraqi RESISTANCE.

Frantz Fanon once said: "The resistance is ugly because the occupation is ugly".

Is more than 1000000 dead Iraqis so far, killed (for OIL) by U.S high precision strikes pretty ?

It is at least 10 times greater than most estimates cited in the US media, yet it is based on a scientific study of violent Iraqi deaths caused by the U.S.-led invasion of March 2003.
That study, published in prestigious medical journal The Lancet, estimated that over 600,000 Iraqis had been killed as a result of the invasion as of July 2006. Iraqis have continued to be killed since then. The graphic above provides a rough daily update of this number based on a rate of increase derived from the Iraq Body Count. (See the complete explanation.)
The estimate that over a million Iraqis have died received independent confirmation from a prestigious British polling agency in September 2007. Opinion Research Business estimated that 1.2 million Iraqis have been killed violently since the US invasion.

"We don't do body counts" U.S General Tommy Franks

We must support the Iraqi RESISTANCE because History demands it, because Justice demands it, because the ghosts of the victims of previous injustices demand it, because the ghosts of killed resistance fighters throughout History demand it, because the ghosts of the more than 600.000 dead Iraqi children (we, in our "democracies" let them die) in the 1990s under genocidal and illegal U.S-imposed, cowardly U.N-allowed economic sanctions demand it, because all those who cannot resist need it.

We must support the Iraqi RESISTANCE because we owe it to all those before us who died resisting so that we, today, would have the strength to resist. We must support the Iraqi RESISTANCE because it is the right thing to do ! We cannot pretend to do anything else before we have made a clear stand for this issue. We cannot go around in pitiful numbers, chanting anti-war slogans and asking for the withdrawal of these troops or those troops, an "end to the occupation" and so on before making it clear that we support the Iraqi RESISTANCE ! We also must stop condemning "both sides" for their brutality, we must stop being hypocritically "even handed" because this kind of attitude only reinforces the aggressor.One thing must be made clear:
The Iraqis are the victims, the U.S-led occupation forces are the aggressors and the Iraqis fighting these criminals are the RESISTANCE!

As for the "leaders" of the countries that took part in the rape of Iraq, here is the verdict:

BUSH, BLAIR, HOWARD, AZNAR, BERLUSCONI, KOIZUMI, KWASINEVSKI and all the others who supported the decision to invade and occupy Iraq are guilty of mass destruction and continued massacre in Iraq. They should be tried as war criminals in an international court for distorting the reality with lies upon lies, taking lives of thousands of innocent people and making the world more unstable than it was before their much vaunted noble war.

As for us, the people, who elected these criminals, we have the right and duty to get rid of these scumbags BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY.

Noam Chomsky, speaking of George W. Bush, once said that
" if he (Bush) were to be judged by the standards of the Nuremberg Tribunal, he would be hanged. So too would every single American President since the end of WW2, including Jimmy Carter."

And I say Bush, Blair, Howard, Aznar, Berlusconi, Koizumi, and all the others in power who supported this war on Iraq as well as all those cowards, lackeys of the government in the mainstream "media", all these leeches should be judged by the standards of the Nuremberg Tribunals and be hanged !

WAR CRIMINALS

We, the anti-war movement, must identify with the Iraqi RESISTANCE because if we don't then what are we? When I say that we must identify with the Iraqi RESISTANCE, I don't mean that we must identify with the elements that the RESISTANCE is led by, be they Islamic fundamentalist, ex-Baathists or some other religious or secular groups. We do not have to and must not identify with the ideologies of these elements if they are incompatible with ours, we must not compromise our beliefs, we do not have to espouse their beliefs in order to support the RESISTANCE.
But there is one thing that we must recognize and it is that no matter how much their ideologies differ from ours, the people carrying out the battle against the rapacious U.S-led imperialist dogs ARE the RESISTANCE and that is what, without hesitation and delay , we must identify with and support. I repeat: without delay !
Because if we don't, we'll be confirming what Bertrand Russell once said:

"It is the nature of Imperialism that citizens of the imperial power are always among the last to know and care about circumstances in the colonies."

We, the people who live in the imperialist ("democratic") countries that have taken part in the rape of Iraq (for OIL), are responsible for what our leaders are doing and have the obligation to topple our criminal leaders because they do not represent us, the majority opposed to the war, anymore.We can do it, we have the real power, we are the power!

As for condemning "horrible" acts committed by the RESISTANCE, we have no right to condemn the RESISTANCE from the safety of our homes in our "democracies".

Che Guevara said:

"A people without hate cannot triumph over a brutal enemy".

Two factors contribute to the increasing brutality of the Iraqi RESISTANCE: The U.S-British-led ever increasing brutal and illegal occupation of Iraq and our, the anti-war movement's, passivity, docility.
Instead of pretending being pacifists, of trying at all costs, when, say demonstrating, to abide by the rule of law (the very same law that allowed our government to take part in the slaughter of more than 1000000 ("We don't do body counts" U.S General Tommy Franks) Iraqis (for OIL) so far), instead of pretending to follow the principles of non-violence of M.L. King or Gandhi when, actually, it is our own cowardice that we are trying to disguise, instead of engaging in all these half-measures, there is one concrete step that we could take and that could pave the way to more concrete actions and that is to recognize, identify with and support the Iraqi RESISTANCE.

We, the anti-war movement (at least here in Japan) have shied away from any association with the people fighting the imperialist invaders of Iraq. We have been demanding the withdrawal of foreign troops from Iraq and an end to the occupation while ignoring or condemning the RESISTANCE.
We have been doing all that through actions that are called "parades" in some dailies (I took part in one of these parades and on the way a friend of mine was actually asked by a passerby if it were a festival) or ignored altogether and carried out mainly on the anniversary of the attack on Iraq (Afghanistan has again been forgotten) in a very colorful and cheerful fashion, and all this of course inside the framework of unjust and more and more restrictive domestic laws aimed at people dissenting with the government line.

Now, are our tactics really productive?

Supporting the Iraqi RESISTANCE is not only about Iraq. It is about a global RESISTANCE. RESISTANCE to war, exploitation, greed, plunder, colonialism, capitalism, destruction of environment, oppression, aggression, occupation, G7, the World Bank, the I.M.F, E.U, the U.N Security Council… in other words: Globalization, that ubiquitous and faceless MURDERER, which is just a euphemism for IMPERIALISM !And Iraq is just another front in the RESISTANCE to IMPERIALISM !

According to the Webster's ll New Riverside University Dictionary, Imperialism is the policy of extending a nation's authority by acquisition of territory or by the establishment of economic and political hegemony over other nations.
According to LENIN, Imperialism is a struggle of the great powers for the economic and political division of the world characterized by the quest for spheres of influence for the control of markets, raw materials and cheap labor.

To all of us involved in the RESISTANCE against injustice, Frederick Douglass once said:

"If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, and it may be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle."

To me RESISTANCE is about hope. Hope for a better world. Of course, by hope I don't mean sitting and waiting for something good to fall down from the sky. I mean hope in action. I mean Being hope by RESISTING, resisting to those who want to sell us hope.

St. Augustine said: "Hope has two beautiful daughters: ANGER and COURAGE. ANGER at the way things are and COURAGE to change them."

RESIST…BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY !

Brkic SULEJMAN

TIBET

2008-05-01T03:15:00.000-07:00

Free Tibet?
Y E S!

All forms of violence, especially war, are totally unacceptable as means to settle disputes between and among nations, groups and persons.
~Dalai Lama

In the April 23, 2008, Japan Times, I read this headline: Dalai Lama seeks help from U.S.
So, let me get this straight, one of the greatest pacifists in the world is asking for help from the most warmongering country in the world, the U.S.A. Ha!

On December 17, 1984, 143 member-states endorse UNGA Res.39/161B, commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial countries and Peoples. The U.S. alone casts an opposing vote.
(And this is one time among many others)

I was never a big fan of that impotent, chubby, bald guy called the Dalai Lama, prancing around in his colorful nightgown. But this tops it all. He is asking for help from the most genocidal country in the history of mankind, the U.S.A, the greatest purveyor of violence on Earth, according to M.L. King. The Dalai Lame is asking for help from the U.S.A, the country that has just caused the death of over a million Irakis (and counting), in yet another illegal war, in an attempt to rob them of their oil.

When I say I was never a big fan of the Dalai Lama, I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one. According to the bits I’ve read, even the younger generation of Tibetans themselves are fed up with him and his impotent ways of dealing with the Chinese ogre. The younger generation of Tibetans are willing to put up a real fight against the Chinese imperialists. Yes, Chinese imperialists! Imperialism is not something that belongs exclusively to the Right. The Soviet Union was an imperialist dictatorship. As for because of my being on the Left I should automatically sympathize with the “communist” China, give me break!
China is as communist as that pedophile Benedict in the Vatican.

Let me make something clear: I am for free Tibet! Tibetans should fight by any means necessary to get free of more than 50 years of Chinese colonial rule!

Now, about all those Western protesters, trying to extinguish the Olympic flame on its way to China or whatever shithole it’s headed for, as far as I am concerned they can piss on it. Where were those Western protesting angels who are so (suddenly) concerned with the plight of the Tibetans, where were they when the flame of shame was heading for Atlanta, Georgia in 1996 into the bloody hands of Uncle Sam? Why weren’t they demanding freedom for Hawaii or its other colonies? Why weren’t they demanding a halt to U.S.A’s support for apartheid Israhell against a free Palestine, its continous bombing of Irak and genocidal economic sanctions against Irak that killed 1.6 million Irakis including 600.000 Iraki children? Not to mention the 1984 Olympics held in Los Angeles.

On April 4, 1984, 13 of 15 Security Council member-states endorse draft res.S/16463, condemning the U.S. policy of aggression towards Nicaragua as violating international law. The U.S. employs its veto to override them (final vote: 13-1-1).

And then what do you think happened? The U.S. went on to get 83 gold medals. Bravo! These are just two examples of Western deadly hypocrisy, not even the tip of the iceberg.
So, why only Tibet? Why suddenly now? What is so special about Tibet? Is it because of that “special spiritual connection” that the empty white Westerner (he thinks) has with Tibet? The empty white vegetarian Westerner would rather have a gentle, cute little Tibetan monk at his/her dinner table than a Fedayin (Palestinian freedom fighter) with his/her head wrapped in a kuffiya holding a Kalashnikov, right? How deep can cowardice and hypocrisy go?

Why is China being suddenly demonized? I mean, what do you expect from a dictatorship when the greatest democracy in the world, the U.S.A, is running a gulag called Guantanamo on stolen land from Cuba?
And, what is it with the Olympics anyway? China should never have gotten them in the first place! None of the Western powers should be allowed anywhere near the Olympic flame, either! Hell, the Olympics should be abolished altogether! It has become painfully ridiculous, to say the least, to hold such an event when the great majority of the population in the world lives in misery, when between 25 000 and 30 000 people are dying daily of hunger in the 21st century. As if there weren’t enough sports on TV already to keep people dumb, we need some more Olympic crap and let us rejoice when instead we should be screaming at the top of our lungs at the injustice that surrounds us!

The Western governments are in no position to criticize China. It’s like a rapist criticizing another rapist. They criticize China but keep doing business with it. Doing business with China is much more profitable than trying to get justice for Tibet. No wonder this injustice has been going on for more than 50 years. Remember how the West profited from its relationship with white apartheid South Africa that lasted up to the mid-nineties?! And Mandela spent almost 30 years in prison so that the West could continue doing business with a bunch of white racists. And they even gave the Nobel Peace Prize to de Klerk who, in a just world, shoul have ended up on Robben Island.

“I was called a terrorist yesterday, but when I came out of jail, many people embraced me, including my enemies, and that is what I normally tell other people who say those who are struggling for liberation in their country are terrorists. I tell them that I was also a terrorist yesterday, but, today, I am admired by the very people who said I was one” Mandela

Socialist/Communist governments cannot take sides with China just out of leftwing solidarity and for the sake of opposing the imperialist West. Peoples do have the right to self-determination!

Although China may be an important business partner of the West, it is mainly seen as a rival. If you look at the map of the world, China is almost totally surrounded by U.S. military bases or military installations.
To get back to the good-for-nothing Dalai Lama, he has done more harm than good to the Tibetan cause. By playing by the Western rules which always demand peaceful methods of resistance on the part of the oppressed peoples whom the West is raping (Look at what has happened to Suu Kyi in Myanmar. Fallen into oblivion. Where is the Western cavalry?), the Dalai Lama and his Western “supporters” have allowed Tibetan culture to go almost extinct, particularly the Tibetan language. In Tibet right now, there are more Chinese than Tibetans, millions were forced to flee, Chinese businesses, casinos, departments stores, brothels, luxurious hotels are flourishing and out of hundreds of Tibetan temples, there are only a few left, among other things. So, what are the D. Lama’s achievements beside a few pictures of him with Richard Gere and Stephen Segal?

The Dalai Lama should be pushed aside by the younger generation of Tibetans. He could easily find a lucrative job as a spiritual guide to the Hollywood lost souls. Tibet should establish stronger ties with the rest of the oppressed third world, arm itself and put up a resistance fight against the Chinese colonizers.

To me, China has become just another player in the capitalist game so it might as well go down. I just hope it takes the West with it. Then maybe we’ll have some peace.
To the West: Fuck off!
To the Dalai Lama: “There is no such thing as part freedom.” Mandela
To the Western hypocrite protesters: where is your (even spiritual) indignation about the Irakis, Palestinians, Chechens, Kurds, Africa, and many, many, many others?
As for the Olympic flame….well, to the flames!

Brkic Sulejman
1/5/2008

ZERO TOLERANCE!

2008-04-30T18:29:00.000-07:00

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

2008-04-30T07:23:00.000-07:00

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

2008-04-30T07:14:00.000-07:00

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

2008-04-30T06:57:00.000-07:00

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”.

sabra and shatila

2007-09-14T06:01:00.000-07:00

sabra and shatila

remember remember
1982
the 16 17 18 of september

the yankee zionist phalangist
melting pot

thousands of Palestinians
butchered raped shot
their corpses strewn in the streets
to rot

uncle sam
uncle sharon
and the rest of western vultures hope that the genocide will be
forgot

to no avail

Palestine shall prevail!

Brkic Sulejman 11/9/2009