Sunday, November 27, 2011
OccupyLondon’s week of action in support to the N30 Strike - Take The Square
The largest strike action of a generation will take place on Wednesday 30th November. Occupy London wholeheartedly supports the strike by over 3 million workers fighting for their pensions and a better society.
The government is attacking the people with unjust, unequal and unneccesary austerity measures. The banks got bailed out, we got sold out. We stand with workers in opposing this government and this attack. The Treasury Committee of Parliament’s Independent Commission on Banking gave their final report this week at Westminster. They heard witnesses from executives of banks like RBS, HSBC, and Lloyds, and it’s their charge to examine the policy and investigate the actions of these banks regarding the crisis. We want to remind Parliament that their duty is to the people, not the banks — where is our bailout? What makes up a city, we ask — the Londoners or the landmarks?
The people of the UK will not stand for their government’s silence or their collusion with the financial industry. They will stand up on November 30th for the largest general strike in recent British history. See you there!
In the week before the strike, we will be holding and supporting a number of actions and events. The principal aim of this week is to join students, unions and retired in collaborative actions. The N30 we organize a big collective action in the morning, after this massive “blockade” we will support the different marches all day long in solidarity with all the outraged workers and we invite everybody to join the first “General Assembly of London” at the end of the day to unite the 99% and decide all together how we continue the fight.
Support the strike, reclaim our future.
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Indian farmers protest land acquisition bill
As the Indian parliament is about to bring its Land Acquisition Bill, 2011, thousands of farmers marched to India's parliament to protest against what they call an unjust bill against the interest of farmers and in favor of industrialists.
Phase Two of Occupy Will Not Be Electoral
A Statement by the General Assembly of OccupyWashingtonDC.org and proposed to the Occupy Movement
A growing list of media outlets and partisan organizations are urging us to "evolve," "mature," and "move on" to become part of the problem we have been protesting for months. Most specifically Move On and Rebuild the Dream are promoting and attempting to co-opt and divert the Occupy Movement into a policy of electing Democrats and legislative reform--thereby keeping a system based on control by the 1% firmly in place with yet more promises (never fulfilled) of "change we can believe in."
Both Move On and Rebuild the Dream have attempted in insidious ways to hitch their faltering Democratic wagons to the struggle and success of the Occupy Movement. Both have attempted to appear as supporters and organizational spokespersons for the Occupy Movement while in reality they are and always have been front organizations for the Democratic Party.
We believe elections are essential to a peaceful, just, and sustainable future, and we will continue to push for changes in our electoral system that will guarantee every human the right to vote for candidates who are not financially corrupted or filtered through gerrymandering, unreasonable ballot restrictions or corporate media gate-keeping, and to have our votes verifiably and publicly counted.
We believe, however, that elections alone cannot accomplish what is needed. We cannot "vote" against the disastrous influence of Wall Street or war profiteers by backing either of the two major political parties. Next year's presidential election and most congressional races will offer two major-party candidates, neither of whom agrees with the majority of the people on fundamental issues.
We will not divert our energies into electoral work.
We will not identify with or begin to make compromises and apologies for any party, political candidate, or elected official.
We demand that the corporate plutocracy be replaced by majority rule.
We will educate and organize. We will agitate and mobilize.
We will escalate our campaign of cultural and societal change.
We will bring increased pressure to bear on our government in Washington, D.C. We will bring this pressure as the people to the government as a whole, not as cheerleaders for one part of the government against another.
We will not go away, we will not be silenced, we will not relinquish the right to speak freely, to peaceably assemble, and to petition our government for a redress of grievances.
We will not relent. We will not be defeated. We will not be co-opted by either the Democratic or Republican Party, both of which have sold us out in Congress, the Supreme Court, and in the White House.
SourceDengue fever: CIA's bio attack on Pak suspected
Fears are growing in Pakistan that the spread of dengue fever also known as break-bone fever may have been caused by some kind of biological experiment or deliberate release of virus by foreign elements.
Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) representatives have called on security agencies to investigate fears of deliberate spread of dengue virus in Pakistan. According to a report, the PMA members and experts have demanded in-depth investigation over mysterious spread of Dengue virus in Punjab.
Dengue fever is an infectious tropical disease caused by the dengue virus and the disease has caused alarming situation in Lahore and other Punjab cities. Lately the disease has spread to other cities of Pakistan and has killed over 100 people affecting thousands. According to experts the virus has four different types; infection with one type usually gives lifelong immunity to that type, but only short-term immunity to the others. Subsequent infection with a different type increases the risk of severe complications.
Global shipping to reduce carbon emissions by 13% -IMO
The world merchant marine fleet has committed to cut its fuel usage in line with its efforts to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by an average of 13 percent in 2020, saving around US$ 50 billion in costs, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) said.
This is in wake of the new energy-efficiency rules for ships to come into effect in January 2013, as passed by the United Nations’ shipping agency in July.
The rules aim to lower emissions by as much as 20 percent for new ships by 2020, and 30 percent five years later, IMO said.
The lawsuit that could end the gangster rule of Western civilization
A lawsuit was filed today (November 23rd US time) that could end the secret government that has ruled Western civilization for at least the past 300 years. The lawsuit claims that close to $1 trillion was stolen by, among others, UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon and the UN, former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and the Italian government, Giancarlo Bruno and the Davos World Economic forum and others believed to include many of the owners of the US Federal Reserve Board. The lawsuit was filed in New York by Neil Keenan, acting as representative of the Dragon family, a reclusive group of wealthy Asian families. This filing is the result of extensive evidence gathering by international police and law-enforcement agencies including Interpol, the CIA, the Japanese Security Police, Eastern European secret services and has the backing of the Pentagon as well as the armed forces of Russia and China.
The ultimate defendants in this legal action are believed to be the same cabal behind the assassination of US President John F. Kennedy and many other major international crimes.
This particular lawsuit was triggered by the illegal detainment of two Japanese citizens, Akihiko Yamaguchi and Mitsuyoshi Watanabe, as well as the seizure of $134.5 billion in bonds they were holding in Italy on June 3, 2009. After the bonds were stolen, self-described 33rd degree Freemason Leo Zagami contacted this writer and said the Montecarlo P2 masonic lodge could cash the bonds with the help of Vatican banker Daniel Dal Bosco. This writer forwarded the information, via a member of the UK Royal family, to the dragon family who entrusted a further $1 trillion worth of similar bonds to the plaintiff Neil Keenan. Keenan then, after much negotiation, entrusted the bonds to Dal Bosco.
Dal Bosco subsequently absconded with the bonds and was followed 24-hours a day by various intelligence service agents to see what he would do with them. The Dal Bosco trail led to the Davos World forum, the UN, the Italian government and the Vatican, among other places. Following this, Keenan was approached by a who’s who of powerful figures including top Vatican officials, Wall Street bankers, European nobles and former US presidents, most offering him astronomical bribes to go away. He was also poisoned with ricin and nearly killed.
According to Keenan “The roots of this case go back to between 1927 and 1938, when, under arrangements made between T.V. Soong (Finance Minister of China) and Henry Morgethau, Secretary of the Treasury, The United States Government purchased some 50 million ounces of silver and leased vast amounts of gold from the Nationalist Chinese Government, known as Kuomintang. For all the treasure handed in, certificates were given to those who surrendered their precious metals.”
Many of the bonds seized by Dal Bosco are backed with the Chinese gold taken by the Federal Reserve Board during those years and never returned to its legal owners.
Will World War III be between the U.S. and China?
China's vast military machine grows by the day. America's sending troops to Australia in response. As tension between the two superpowers escalates, Max Hastings warns of a terrifying threat to world peace.
China’s new economic power is being matched by a military build-up which deeply alarms its Asian neighbours, and Washington. The spectre of armed conflict between the superpowers, unknown since the Korean War ended in 1953, looms once more.
American strategy guru Paul Stares says: ‘If past experience is any guide, the United States and China will find themselves embroiled in a serious crisis at some point in the future.’
The Chinese navy is growing fast, acquiring aircraft-carriers and sophisticated missile systems. Beijing makes no secret of its determination to rule the oil-rich South China Sea, heedless of the claims of others such as Vietnam and the Philippines.
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Former CIA Agent's Message to America - WATCH NOW
Powerful message from former C.I.A. Agent to all Americans.
YOU ARE THE RESISTANCE!
Russian navy nears Cyprus drilling zone
Informed sources have said that the Russian navy and Israeli military will hold joint exercises next week close to Cyprus Exclusive Economic Zone.
The exercises are slated to begin on the 28th November and last a week.
Commentators say that Russia is determined to send the message that they have invested interests in the region and will secure them.
It is understood that the aircraft carrier is carrying 24-fixed wing planes and a number of helicopters. It has also been reported in the press that the Russian navy may request to use port facilities at Limassol.
The radio report also claimed that three Russian destroyers are currently anchored off the Syrian coast. Russia’s naval supply and maintenance site near Syria’s Mediterranean port of Tartus will be modernized to accommodate heavy warships after 2012, the Russian Navy chief said earlier this week.
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Follow your heart: Darpa’s quest to find you by your heartbeat
First off, Darpa wants its biometric device to be able to work from farther away. Right now, it says the accuracy of most systems taps out at around eight meters. And while some see-through devices can see through up to eight inches of concrete, they don't do as well in locations with more or thicker walls. So Darpa's looking for the next system to push that range past 10 meters, particularly in cluttered urban areas.
Finding humans hiding in a particular room is nice, but being able to tell them apart is even better. Like your fingerprints, irises and even your veins, your heartbeat can be a unique biometric calling card to distinguish you in a crowd. Darpa's hoping its sensor can capitalise on this by using electrocardiography -- the analysis of the heart's electrical activity -- to identify and track up to 10 different individuals.
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How To Tell If You Live In A Police State
Asian and African leaders can laugh out loud when the US State Department slaps their wrists for doing all the same things that the US has been guilty of over the past decade.
The slide from democracy into a police state is subtle. Some of the very people trumpeting the danger are the same ones supporting attacks on civil liberties.
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Will the Looming American Police State Unify the Resistance?
The recent police crackdowns have brought an interesting new dynamic to the Occupy Wall Street movement. With scenes of blatant and unprovoked police brutality going viral on the web almost daily now, it is becoming apparent to everyone in the streets and even at home that Wall Street is just one of many institutions run amok in the American establishment.
OWS has now turned a corner; the movement may still be about Wall Street corruption at its core, but it has now exposed the existence of a police state that rivals the most authoritarian dictatorships in the world. This is a glaring fact that the entire activist community needs to recognize and point out to the world so that this police brutality can take center stage in the public dialogue.
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2012 Revolution: World Awakening (Part 3) Egypt Under Attack
Mark Howitt Presents...
2012 Revolution: World Awakening (Part 3)
Documentary about the current state of events in the world, and a detailed analysis of the system of control that has us at the edge of losing many of our rights and freedoms. Where did this begin? How did we let it all happen? What is the solution?
Features many clips from experts and celebrities who all feel that there needs to be a change on earth, a global spiritual awakening within the human soul of everyone who still has a heart on earth. The realization that change is needed in the way that those with power abuse it and wars are not needed anywhere on earth. Warning: Many of these videos contain graphic content, however this information and footage should be seen by every mature human being on this planet, because these are important issues that need to be openly discussed and not ignored.
How to Start a (Wall Street-backed) Revolution
Gene Sharp of the Albert Einstein Institution penned the book "From Dictatorship to Democracy," originally designated for the destabilization and recolonization of Myanmar, still called "Burma" throughout much of the West. Sharp's book would then be utilized by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) throughout Eastern Europe, throughout Asia, and eventually, in 2011, for the US-engineered "Arab Spring."
According to Sharp's own Albert Einstein Institution (AEI) 2000-2004 annual report, AEI had been sponsored by the US government's National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and its funded subsidiary International Republican Institute (IRI) to train activists in Serbia (page 18) Zimbabwe (page 23) and Myanmar (page 26) to help overthrow their respective sovereign governments.
Australia's Southern Cross University's " Activating Human Rights & Peace (AHRP)" conference had put out a revealing account of their 2008 proceedings illustrating that all of Gene Sharp's work, beyond what was even mentioned in his own institution's annual report, had been fully funded and in support of the US government and its global domineering agenda. Beginning on page 26, Sharp's affiliations, in particular with the National Endowment for Democracy, which is described as carrying out "a lot of work that was formerly undertaken by the CIA," as well as the Ford Foundation, and billionaire Wall Street patriarch George Soros' Open Society Institute are fleshed out in immense detail.
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10 December 2011 - Global Action - World Revolution - Human Rights Day
Introduction to the global action, taking place on 10 December 2011 (Human Rights Day), with excerpts from 15 October 2011. Let's take back our Human Rights!
http://dec10.takethesquare.net/
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=228982923831243
http://www.motivationtolove.me/15o.htm
http://www.15october.net
Music:
Occupy Wall Street Protest Songs - Occupy Wall Street Ode
Occupy Wall Street Protest Songs - Anyhow A Truth Anthem (Occupy Wall Street edit)
#TwitterCensorship Blocks #OccupyWallStreet from Top Trending Topic Twice
On at least two occasions, Saturday September 17th and again on Thursday night, Twitter blocked #OccupyWallStreet from being featured as a top trending topic on their homepage. On both occasions, #OccupyWallStreet tweets were coming in more frequently than other top trending topics that they were featuring on their homepage.
This is blatant political censorship on the part of a company that has recently received a $400 million investment from JP Morgan Chase.
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Kerouac's 'lost' debut novel published after 70 years gathering dust
A novel written and tossed aside by author Jack Kerouac, the heroic figure of the Beat generation, has been published for the first time.
The Sea Is My Brother is based on the time the author spent in the U.S. merchant marines in 1942 when he was just 20 years old.
It was written before the seminal On The Road, critically acclaimed for its comment on the transient and lost youth of post-war America and the country's thriving counterculture.
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One generation is all they need
By the time my four-year-old son is swathed in the soft flesh of old age, he will likely find it unremarkable that he and almost everyone he knows will be permanently implanted with a microchip. Automatically tracking his location in real time, it will connect him with databases monitoring and recording his smallest behavioural traits.
Most people anticipate such a prospect with a sense of horrified disbelief, dismissing it as a science-fiction fantasy. The technology, however, already exists. For years humane societies have implanted all the pets that leave their premises with a small identifying microchip. As well, millions of consumer goods are now traced with tiny radio frequency identification chips that allow satellites to reveal their exact location.
A select group of people are already "chipped" with devices that automatically open doors, turn on lights, and perform other low-level miracles. Prominent among such individuals is researcher Kevin Warwick of Reading University in England; Warwick is a leading proponent of the almost limitless potential uses for such chips.
Other users include the patrons of the Baja Beach Club in Barcelona, many of whom have paid about $150 (U.S.) for the privilege of being implanted with an identifying chip that allows them to bypass lengthy club queues and purchase drinks by being scanned. These individuals are the advance guard of an effort to expand the technology as widely as possible.
From this point forward, microchips will become progressively smaller, less invasive, and easier to deploy. Thus, any realistic barrier to the wholesale "chipping" of Western citizens is not technological but cultural. It relies upon the visceral reaction against the prospect of being personally marked as one component in a massive human inventory.
I'm not blaming myself anymore!
This is a 2003 recording by Stephen Stink in denouncing right wing fake freedom ideology. It was written by S.J.Morris. It's dedicated to the Occupation Movement.
Palestine's Holocaust museum
In a small anonymous home in the West Bank, a Palestinian academic has set up a project which is almost unheard of in the Occupied Territories.
Hassan Musa is the curator of a museum exhibition dedicated to the Jewish Holocaust in Europe.
The cracked white walls of this makeshift museum in the village of Ni'lin are covered from floor to ceiling with images of people forced out of their homes, tortured, imprisoned, starved and murdered.
In addition to the pictures depicting the Nazi brutality against Jews in Europe, there are also images of the Palestinian Nakba (catastrophe) following the creation of the state of Israel in 1948 and the violence in Palestine since.
On one wall, there is a picture of a scared Jewish boy holding up his hands as Nazi soldiers look on; the caption reads: "Make your final account with Hitler and the Nazi Germans, not with the Palestinians."
On an adjacent wall there are photos of dead children, demolished homes and women screaming during the Israeli war on Gaza in January.
Musa, who is also a member of Ni'lin's Popular Committee Against the Wall, says pictures of the atrocities committed against both peoples were strategically placed side-by-side to not only reflect the suffering of both and help Israelis and Palestinians better understand each other, but also to demonstrate how victims of one conflict can become the harbinger of another.
Russian newsreader Tatyana Limanova makes insulting gesture at Obama
A top Russian female newsreader has caused a stir after appearing to offensively show US President Barack Obama her middle finger during a live newscast.
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Tuning out: How brains benefit from meditation
Experienced meditators seem to be able switch off areas of the brain associated with daydreaming as well as psychiatric disorders such as autism and schizophrenia, according to a new brain imaging study by Yale researchers.
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Quote of the Day: Murong Xuecun on the Chinese monster
"This rotten system is the mongrel of Stalinist-Maoism and Imperial Chinese political culture, a cross-breed of the rule of the jungle with traditional Chinese trickery and communism. Decades later, this creature now has become a monster. This monster is vain, tyrannical and arrogant. It never admits to mistakes. It destroys people in the name of justice and rehabilitates them, also in the name of justice. It takes credit for everything positive, and blames others for all failures. It wants to lord over everything and only tolerates one faith, faith in itself. This monster only allows praise to one thing, praise to itself. It owns every newspaper, every school, and every temple. Without its permission, even flowers may not bloom."
Source
A tank tries to run over protesters in Saudi Arabia
Amateur footage shows a tank deliberately trying to hit protesters in the eastern Saudi Arabian city of Qatif on Wednesday. Our Observer told us that this kind of violence is unprecedented in Saudi Arabia. Similar incidents have, however, recently taken place in Bahrain and Egypt.
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Chavez repatriates Venezuela's foreign gold reserves
Venezuela has received its first shipment of gold bars, after President Hugo Chavez ordered the repatriation of 85% of the country's bullion reserves.
The gold was unloaded from a plane and taken under heavy guard to the Central Bank in the capital, Caracas.
President Chavez has explained the move as an act of sovereignty that will protect Venezuela's reserves from global economic turbulence.
However critics say it is expensive and unnecessary.
Venezuela plans to bring home around 160 tonnes of gold, worth more than $11bn (£7bn).
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Now UK faces a £5bn bill to bail out Spain... as ministers plan for euro collapse
Britain was last night planning for the collapse of the eurozone as Spain weighed up a bailout that could cost UK taxpayers £5billion.
The Government is preparing for the biggest mass default in history and the break-up of the single currency bloc.
Analysts warned that euro meltdown would wreak havoc in the banking system and plunge the global economy back into recession. 
Whitehall sources said contingency plans are being drawn up – and indicated that the longer the euro limps on, the more time Britain has to prepare.
Fears are mounting that Greece will be forced to default on its debts as the crisis threatens to sink Spain and Italy.
The storm hit Belgium last night as the country’s credit rating was cut from AA+ to AA by Standard & Poor’s amid tumbling confidence in the region.
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Prepare for riots in euro collapse, Foreign Office warns
British embassies in the eurozone have been told to draw up plans to help British expats through the collapse of the single currency, amid new fears for Italy and Spain.
As the Italian government struggled to borrow and Spain considered seeking an international bail-out, British ministers privately warned that the break-up of the euro, once almost unthinkable, is now increasingly plausible.
Diplomats are preparing to help Britons abroad through a banking collapse and even riots arising from the debt crisis.
The Treasury confirmed earlier this month that contingency planning for a collapse is now under way.
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Occupy Tampa Mic Checks Walmart On Black Friday
In The Early Hours Of The Morning On November 25 Black Friday Occupy Tampa Mic Checked Several Big Box Stores Walmart, Best Buy, Target.
www.freedividual.com
Woman pepper sprays other Black Friday shoppers
A woman trying to improve her chance to buy cheap electronics at a Walmart in a wealthy suburb spewed pepper spray on a crowd of shoppers and 20 people suffered minor injuries, police said Friday.
The attack took place about 10:20 p.m. Thursday shortly after doors opened for the sale at the Walmart in Porter Ranch in the San Fernando Valley.
The store had brought out a crate of discounted Xbox video game players, and a crowd had formed to wait for the unwrapping, when the woman began spraying people "in order to get an advantage," police Sgt. Jose Valle said.
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See also: Violence mars holiday shopping
Senators Demand the Military Lock Up American Citizens in a “Battlefield” They Define as Being Right Outside Your Window
The Senate is going to vote on whether Congress will give this president—and every future president — the power to order the military to pick up and imprison without charge or trial civilians anywhere in the world. Even Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) raised his concerns about the NDAA detention provisions during last night’s Republican debate. The power is so broad that even U.S. citizens could be swept up by the military and the military could be used far from any battlefield, even within the United States itself.
The worldwide indefinite detention without charge or trial provision is in S. 1867, the National Defense Authorization Act bill, which will be on the Senate floor on Monday. The bill was drafted in secret by Sens. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) and passed in a closed-door committee meeting, without even a single hearing.
I know it sounds incredible. New powers to use the military worldwide, even within the United States? Hasn’t anyone told the Senate that Osama bin Laden is dead, that the president is pulling all of the combat troops out of Iraq and trying to figure out how to get combat troops out of Afghanistan too? And American citizens and people picked up on American or Canadian or British streets being sent to military prisons indefinitely without even being charged with a crime. Really? Does anyone think this is a good idea? And why now?
Deserter from Egypt’s Army
Today I was lucky enough to interview Major Tamer Badri, from the Egyptian Military. He has left his post to join the Tahrir protests, and throws his weight behind the protests. This despite the unpleasant fates of those who have deserted from the army’s ranks before. He says the officers who tried this on April 8th are all now either dead or in jail. Will have a full interview up soon, Inshallah. For now, it will suffice to say that his courage is inspirational.
How to block/kill RFID chips
This Instructable different ways to block or kill RFID tags. RFID stands for Radio Frequency Identification. If you do not know about this technology yet, you should definitely start familiarizing yourself with it, because the number of different devices that utilize these types of tags is growing exponentially.
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European Banks Frantically Trying To Dump $7 Trillion Of Crap Assets -- But No One Will Buy Them
The balance sheets of European banks are piled high with legacy assets -- mortgages, real-estate, and other loans--that are tying up precious capital and constricting the banks' ability to make new, more productive loans.
At the same time, the banks' traditional sources of funding--other banks and institutional investors--have begun drying up as the European crisis intensifies.
This leaves the banks desperately needing to raise cash to survive.
The first plan was to sell off the crap assets.
But according to Gareth Gore in the International Financing Review, this plan has failed, because buyers won't pony up the prices the banks want them to pay.
You Were Made For This
Clarissa Pinkola Estes writes:
Ours is not the task of fixing the entire world all at once, but of stretching out to mend the part of the world that is within our reach. Any small, calm thing that one soul can do to help another soul, to assist some portion of this poor suffering world, will help immensely. It is not given to us to know which acts or by whom, will cause the critical mass to tip toward an enduring good.
What is needed for dramatic change is an accumulation of acts, adding, adding to, adding more, continuing. We know that it does not take everyone on Earth to bring justice and peace, but only a small, determined group who will not give up during the first, second, or hundredth gale.
One of the most calming and powerful actions you can do to intervene in a stormy world is to stand up and show your soul. Soul on deck shines like gold in dark times. The light of the soul throws sparks, can send up flares, builds signal fires, causes proper matters to catch fire. To display the lantern of soul in shadowy times like these – to be fierce and to show mercy toward others; both are acts of immense bravery and greatest necessity.
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Democracy doesn't have to start from revolt
Chinese propaganda to avoid home-grown Occupy movement:
For a long time, China has not only been criticized as undemocratic, but also anti-democracy. As China does not have Western-style elections, some Chinese find it hard to refute the West's finger-pointing. Although China has made prominent social progress in recent years, it has long been the target of criticism over the democratic issue.
To convince Western public opinion is rather difficult but Chinese people should not be manipulated by the West. It is important to maintain independent thinking on democracy.
Democracy is a good thing, but is this also true when latest streets protests in Egypt claimed dozens of lives? We need democracy, but a truly good democracy that will avoid autocracy, promote scientific decision-making, combat corruption, and more importantly, not give way to social unrest.
This requires the basic construction of a Chinese democratic culture that should match the building of democratic institutions. This should include a social consensus on democratic politics, strong legal authority and respect for the majority opinion.
Democracy may bring different results to different countries. The Egypt revolution may aim at a high standard of democracy, but a true democratic culture needs to be reached through constant economic and cultural development.
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US, Israel Funding Terrorists in Syria
Evil is being pitted against Evil in Syria, with Syrians being the losers no matter who prevails.
A prominent political analyst says that members of the anti-government "Free Syria Army” are not defected army personnel but militants backed, funded and armed by the United States, Israel, and Turkey.
In an article published on Global Research website on November 20, Thailand-based geopolitical expert Tony Cartalucci cited a report released by the International Institute for Strategic Studies stating that Syria's opposition is armed and prepared to drag the country into more violence.
“The report comes in sharp contrast to the propaganda fed via the corporate-media and the West's foreign ministers on a daily basis, where the violence is portrayed as one-sided, with Syria's President Bashar al-Assad 'gunning down' throngs of peaceful, placard waving protesters,” Cartalucci wrote.
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The real fight has just begun for democracy
It is now official. The Mail & Guardian and journalists Sam Sole and Stefaans Brümmer are under investigation by the Organised Crime Unit, a division of the Hawks ordinarily charged with going after heist gangs, drugs syndicates and money launderers.
What has the M&G done to attract the attention of the "priority crimes" directorate? Well, we've embarrassed Mac Maharaj, the president's spokesperson and grand vizier, by preparing a story that would have shown, if published in full, how he lied to the Scorpions during a "section 28" interview about his finances.
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Who We're Being
For anybody who's wondering what the democratic process of an occupation looks like, here's a shining example.
Video taken during an emergency action committee on Thursday, Oct. 13th. The topic at hand was the imminent (though later averted) showdown between the NYPD and Occupy Wall Street; Occupiers from LA gathered to discuss methods of showing solidarity with New York.
A Global Revolt
It started with Tunisia and the Arab Spring, then spread to Spain and the Indignados movement, to Chile with the massive student mobilization for an end to education for profit, to England with the urban riots, to Athens with the massive demonstrations against the tyranny of the Euro and the financial markets, and then to New York with the Occupy Wall Street movement.
Two comparable uprisings have rocked the course of history:
The revolutions of 1848 in Europe—known as the Spring Time of the Peoples—challenged monarchs, aristocrats and autocrats alike as Karl Marx and Frederick Engels penned the Communist Manifesto. Disturbances and revolutions occurred in more than 50 countries and thousands died with untold numbers fleeing abroad.
Then, exactly one century and two decades later, a broad anti-systemic movement roiled the globe on many fronts: the Tet offensive in Vietnam, the global anti-war movement, the student and worker uprising in Paris, the Prague Spring in Czechoslovakia, the riots in Chicago at the Democratic convention and the Mexican student protests that led to the massacre at Tlateloco Plaza.
None of these historic revolts was successful in terms of taking power, but they changed the world in profound ways, just as the great revolt of 2011 is doing.
As in 1968, today’s uprising is anti-systemic—calling for fundamental changes in the world’s political and economic order. The youthful demonstrators of Tahrir Square in Cairo and the young people camped out in Zuccotti Park in New York see no future in the current governments that control their countries, be they authoritarian or democratic. As Nobel economics laureate Joseph Stiglitz writes, “Social protest has found fertile ground everywhere: a sense that the ‘system’ has failed and the conviction that even in a democracy, the electoral process will not set things right—at least not without strong pressure from the street.”
Occupy Everything: Make the ripples, build for waves
The time is now ripe (for the first time in a long time) for widely speaking about revolution and radical change. Not because the time is now ripe for actually overthrowing the U.S. empire and capitalist property system, but because ears and minds are open to the new, and because we can make this conversation anew.
And (does it need to be said) if we waited to talk about revolution (or “power to the people!”) until the crisis is so deep that we could conceivably make a revolution — then it would be too late for plans, core organizations, theory, conferences, training of specialists, supporting projects, party building, etc. etc. And our waiting would have squandered the crisis, not exploited it.
Often the demand “wait to raise revolution until the time for revolution has arrived” is a plan for never making revolutionary changes — and somewhat consciously so.
An Ominous Sign in Brazil’s Simmering Land Battles: Dom Phillips
The Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul, near the Paraguay border, is one of Brazil’s biggest agricultural producers. It's also home to one of the largest populations of indigenous Brazilians, many of whom live in settlements on farms where they claim land rights. Last week, these two facts collided violently.
A British NGO called Survival had the story:
"Gunmen surrounded Nisio Gomes, ordering members of his community to lie on the ground. Witnesses say he was shot in the head, chest, arms and legs. The 59-year-old’s body was then driven away."
Gomes was a Guarani Indian chief who was leading his tribe’s reoccupation of ancestral land in Mato Grosso do Sul. Survival, which has documented a number of attacks on Guarani over the years, added that there were reports of other murders and kidnappings as part of the same incident.
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Greenwald on Never-Ending War
Once again, champion of the people Glenn Greenwald has taken the fight to the powers that be, this time setting his sights on what is perhaps the greatest blight on our planet: the military industrial complex.
In a timely article on Salon, the former civil rights litigator begins his assessment by showing how the vastly expanded Security State – justified in the name of 9/11 – will not be going anywhere despite a recent announcement that the terrorist group Al-Qaeda has been defeated. This prompts Greenwald to sarcastically quip the following:
The author goes on to highlight the defining mentality of never-ending armed conflict, stating:I’m sure we can all agree that we must endure years more of civil liberties assaults, endless war, bulging military budgets, suffocating government secrecy, a sprawling surveillance regime, and the slaughter of countless more Muslim children in order to save ourselves from [extremist threats]. And that’s to say nothing of the fact that endless war, drone attacks, occupying countries, and engineering regime change is precisely what causes and fuels these threats in the first place. In other words, what little Terrorism does exist is caused directly by our own actions — the very actions justified in the name of stopping Terrorism.
more...>>The key trick of Endless War is to permanently maintain two contradictory official premises: (1) we’re on the verge of Victory!; and (2) the threat is grave and we cannot let up. Without both of those premises, the citizenry will wonder why endless war is necessary or wise.
Libya displays evidence of cluster bombs
In Misrata, a coastal city that saw some of the fiercest fighting during the uprising against Muammar Gaddafi this spring, residents can now peruse evidence of the weapons used against them.
Among the shells and canisters from Britain, France, Russia, Serbia and others are Spanish-made MAT-120 "mortar cargo bombs," a cluster munition that became infamous when journalists and Human Rights Watch discovered its use by Gaddafi's forces during Misrata's siege.
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Thoughts on the Importance of Nonviolence in the Occupy Revolution
As Jonathan Schell points out in his magnificent book The Unconquerable World: Power, Nonviolence, and the Will of the People, violence is what the state uses when its other powers have failed, when it is already losing. In using violence the state often loses its moral authority and its popular support. That’s why sometimes their visible violence feeds our victory, tragic though the impact may be. It’s also telling that when the FBI or other government agencies infiltrate a movement or an activist group, they seek to undermine it by egging it on to more violence.
The state would like us to be violent. Violence as cooptation tries to make us more like them, and if we’re like them they win twice—once because being unlike them is our goal and again because then we’re then easier to imprison, brutalize, marginalize, etc. We have another kind of power, though the term nonviolence only defines what it is not; some call our power people power. It works. It’s powerful. It’s changed and it’s changing the world.
The government and mainstream-to-right media often create fictions of our violence, from the myth that protesters were violent (beyond property damage) in Seattle in 1999 to the myth of spitting in returning soldiers’ faces in the Vietnam era to generally smearing us as terrorists. If we were violent, we’d be conventionally dangerous and the authorities could justify repressing us. In fact, we’re unconventionally dangerous, because we’re not threatening physical violence but the transformation of the system (and its violence). That is so much more dangerous to them, which is why they have to lie about (or just cannot comprehend) the nature of our danger.
So when episodes of violence break out as part of our side in a demonstration, an uprising, a movement, I think of it as a sabotage, a corruption, a coercion, a misunderstanding, or a mistake, whether it’s a paid infiltrator or a clueless dude. Here I want to be clear that property damage is not necessarily violence. The firefighter breaks the door to get the people out of the building. But the husband breaks the dishes to demonstrate to his wife that he can and may also break her. It’s violence displaced onto the inanimate as a threat to the animate.
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Study reveals explosion in Arabic 'tweeting'
The popularity of Twitter has soared in the Arab world over the past year, a study published on Thursday revealed, reflecting the key role of the social networking site in the "Arab Spring" revolutions.
Online Twitter messages, or tweets, in Arabic rocketed from 99,000 a day in October 2010 to over two million last month, social media monitor Semiocast showed in its study into the most popular languages used on the popular site.
Arabic is now the eighth most popular language on the microblogging site, where users leave short messages of no more than 140 characters.
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Mother and Baby Protest After Police Raid Occupy Denver
The poignant image and message of a mother who wants her one year old daughter to have freedom of speech moving forward. They protest peacefully after being upset by videos of police in riot gear destroying the Occupy Denver kitchen two days prior.
Q&A: Syria's daring actress
Fadwa Soliman, an Alawite who became an icon in the uprising against Bashar al-Assad, speaks to Al Jazeera from hiding.
She rebelled against the Syrian authorities, against her community and against her own family.
Fadwa Soliman, a Syrian actress brought up as an Alawite - the sect of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad - shocked many Syrians when she stood on a high platform in front of hundreds of anti-government protesters in one of the most conservative Sunni districts and chanted against Assad's rule.
Following this protest in the central city of Homs, her brother appeared on Syrian government-sponsored TV channel and said he and his family disown her. He said that her actions were probably motivated by money and expressed shock at watching her on Al Jazeera Arabic TV screaming anti-regime slogans in a protest.
Soliman, who is currently in hiding, said army forces stormed a whole neighbourhood in Homs looking for her
Knowing that her fate would be either death or prison, Soliman still wanted to participate in the demonstration to dispel what she said is a perception that all the Alawite community, which makes up around 10 per cent of the population, supports Assad's government.
She said she also wanted to dismiss the government's narrative that those who participate in protests are Islamists or armed terrorists.
Soliman is currently in hiding and is constantly on the run since she said the Syrian authorities are looking for her.
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Noam Chomsky and The Manufacture of Consent – Dan Glazebrook
By whitewashing the Libyan rebels and demonising the Gaddafi regime did the leading US intellectual Noam Chomsky help facilitate an imperialist invasion? In a wide-ranging interview with Chomsky, Dan Glazebrook asks him..
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Death of Arab Spring 'martyr' which led to uprisings may not be all it seems
That the grave of Mohamed Bouazizi (26) is conspicuously bereft of visitors paying their respects may have something to do with the reluctance shown by locals to direct people here.
Located deep in the countryside outside Lessouda, some 8km north of the city of Sidi Bouzid, the cemetery is not easily found. Several requests for directions were met with a vague wave into the distance and advice to ask someone else.
The reason becomes apparent only later: facilitating a pilgrimage by outsiders and tourists would inevitably confer even greater heroic status upon the young street vendor who, global legend would have it, died of burns last January after setting himself alight 18 days previously in desperation and protest following a humiliating public slap from a policewoman as she confiscated his vegetable cart.
As visitors to this economically depressed region eventually realise, the people of Sidi Bouzid have heard enough talk of heroes and are wary of propagating a myth they say is unwarranted and downright inaccurate.
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The Revolution at Cairo’s American University
They’re certainly not the only ones participating in the Egyptian uprising, but young people have been at the forefront of recent street demonstrations. That includes many students from one of Egypt’s most prestigious universities.
The American University in Cairo, or AUC, was established way back in 1919. It’s known as the home of Egypt’s elite. Today, it finds itself smack in the middle of current events.
The university has a campus right off of Tahrir Square. It’s near where especially violent demonstrations took place this week. It was also a dangerous place to be last January, when snipers were seen on AUC rooftops, firing rifles.
The brand new, much larger AUC campus is a 45 minute drive outside the capital. The setting couldn’t be more different. It’s an oasis of academic calm. But the Egyptian revolution is playing out here, too.
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image from http://www.spitting-image.net
