ICH: "But what can we do?"

I used to give thought to what historical time and place I would like to have lived in. Europe in the 1930s was usually my first choice. As the war clouds darkened, I'd be surrounded by intrigue, spies omnipresent, matters of life and death pressing down, the opportunity to be courageous and principled. I pictured myself helping desperate people escape to America. It was real Hollywood stuff; think "Casablanca". And when the Spanish Republic fell to Franco and his fascist forces, aided by the German and Italian fascists (while the United States and Britain stood aside, when not actually aiding the fascists), everything in my imaginary scenario would have heightened -- the fate of Europe hung in the balance. Then the Nazis marched into Austria, then Czechoslovakia, then Poland ... one could have devoted one's life to working against all this, trying to hold back the fascist tide; what could be more thrilling, more noble?

Miracle of miracles, miracle of time machines, I'm actually living in this imagined period, watching as the Bush fascists march into Afghanistan, bombing it into a "failed state"; then Iraq: death, destruction, and utterly ruined lives for 24 million human beings; threatening more of the same endless night of hell for the people of Iran; overthrowing Jean-Bertrand Aristide in Haiti; bombing helpless refugees in Somalia; relentless attempts to destabilize and punish Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Gaza, and other non-believers in the empire's god-given mission. Sadly, my most common reaction to this real-life scenario, daily in fact, is less heroic and more feeling scared or depressed; not for myself personally but for our one and only world. The news every day, which I consume in large portions, slashes away at my joie de vivre; it's not just the horror stories of American military power run amok abroad and the injustices of the ever-expanding police state at home, but all the lies and stupidity which drive me up the wall. I'm constantly changing stations, turning the TV or radio off, turning the newspaper page, to escape the words of the King of Lies and the King of Stupidity -- those two twisted creatures who happen to occupy the same humanoid body -- and a hundred minions.

Nonetheless, I must tell you, comrades, that at the same time, our contemporary period also brings out in me a measure of what I imagined for my 1930s life. Our present world is in just as great peril, even more so when one considers the impending environmental catastrophe (which the King of Capitalism refuses to confront lest it harm the profits of those who lavish him with royal bribes). The Bush fascist tide must be stopped.

Usually when I'm asked "But what can we do?", my reply is something along the lines of: Inasmuch as I can not see violent revolution succeeding in the United States (something deep inside tells me that we couldn't quite match the government's firepower, not to mention their viciousness), I can offer no solution to stopping the imperial beast other than: Educate yourself and as many others as you can, increasing the number of those in the opposition until it reaches a critical mass, at which point ... I can't predict the form the explosion will take. ...

[ full article ]

London: Tens of thousands of CCTV cameras, yet 80% of crime unsolved

London has 10,000 crime-fighting CCTV cameras which cost £200 million, figures show today.

But an analysis of the publicly funded spy network, which is owned and controlled by local authorities and Transport for London, has cast doubt on its ability to help solve crime.

A comparison of the number of cameras in each London borough with the proportion of crimes solved there found that police are no more likely to catch offenders in areas with hundreds of cameras than in those with hardly any.

In fact, four out of five of the boroughs with the most cameras have a record of solving crime that is below average.

The figures were obtained by the Liberal Democrats on the London Assembly using the Freedom of Information Act. ... 

[ full article ]

Artist spotlight: 'She creates'

Mumbai: The world will watch as She Creates ...

In the spirit of Gandhi Jayanti, please join us for the first screening of the 5 films made by 25 girls from Dharavi slums to private schools who came together to make a difference through films. What started as an experiment, resulted in heartfelt short films on girl child issues.

On 2nd October MAM Movies invite you all to witness their little dreams taking shape in the big screen.

The girls attended workshops in film making, so that they could create these stories. Some are about themselves, some are about their family, their neighbours, their nightmares, and their dreams to rise above these...

 

"Transplant tourism" and offshore organ transplants

Organ transplants move offshore as patients pursue "transplant tourism"

Wednesday, September 19, 2007 by: David Gutierrez

(NewsTarget) The United Nations' World Health Organization (WHO) has expressed concern over a dramatic rise in the incidence of "transplant tourism," in which wealthier medical patients -- usually from First World countries -- travel to poor countries for transplants from people who have been persuaded to trade their organs for money.

According to Luc Noel of the WHO's health technology and pharmaceuticals unit, the prevalence of transplant tourism has increased over the past 10 years to the point where it accounted for five to 10 percent of worldwide kidney transplants in 2005.

Poor people in countries such as Egypt, Pakistan and the Philippines are commonly convinced by organ brokers to sell their body parts.

"There are villages that are in the poorer parts of Pakistan where as many as 40 to 50 percent of the population of the village we know only has one kidney," said Farhat Moazam of the Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation in Karachi, Pakistan. While organ donors may be promised as much is 150,000 rupees ($2,500), she said, the amount they see may be drastically lower once brokers' fees and medical costs are deducted.

In addition, many such donors do not receive the needed follow-up care after their major surgery, which often leads to serious health complications.

According to Jeremy Chapman, a doctor at Westmead Hospital in Sydney, Australia, advances in surgical techniques have led to an explosion in the demand for organ transplants. This, in turn, has led to a shortage of organs, most of which are donated by people only after their deaths. If a living relative is not available to donate the needed organ, many people are now turning to other countries to find what they want.

"The wealthy, in search of their own survival, will sometimes seek organs from the poor," Chapman said, summing up the troubling dynamic.

In response to this trend, the WHO has recommended stricter international rules on organ donation and transplantation.

Open Letters to George W. Bush

Letters to the president from his ardent admirer Belacqua Jones

 

Dear George,

 

Two words explain why victory is ours in Iraq: pathological rationalism. This dynamic allows us to pursue a linear course of action driven by a series of if/then constructions that move us forward regardless of the consequences of these actions. Translation: staying the course no matter how deep the shit is.

 

Take Iraq. The logic of it all sings. Controlling oil in the Middle East is a matter of national security. We lost a client state when the Iranian revolution swept the shah out of office. So when the Neocons came to power, it seemed only logical to replace Iran with Iraq, especially since between the first gulf war and our draconian sanctions, the regime was too weak to stand. A cakewalk, as one sage put it.

 

And, what the hell, while we were at it, why not democratize and secularize the whole region, another cakewalk for the world’s sole surviving superpower.

 

It is a basic precept of pathological rationalism that once an action is initiated, it continues even if all the premises upon which the action was based turn out to be wrong. And when it came to Iraq, they were about as dead wrong as you could get. 

 

But, that doesn’t matter. It is far better to bleed slowly to death than to lose face by admitting a mistake. 

 

Besides, as a western democracy we are entitled to take whatever we want because the purity of our motives are always above reproach regardless of our actions. Columbus established this precedence when he Christianized the natives by enslaving them. 

 

It’s only right. We are rational; they are irrational. We practice the serene violence of the civilized; they practice the savage violence of the barbarian. We practice policy while they practice passion.

 

Policy is the sand we spread to absorb and conceal the pools of blood we leave in our wake. Madness poured into the mold of policy is no longer madness. As policy, madness becomes clarity of vision as seen through the opaque lens of ideology.

 

The reason you have christened this The Long War is because we will plod on and on until we have shed so much blood that we finally see a return on our success, no matter how small or insignificant that success is. 

 

To the pathologically rational mind, whatever is posited is. A policy promulgated defines reality and in doing so transcends the grim, unpredictable concreteness of fire, earth, water and air as it orbits in the ethereal realm of fantasy where all is well that ends well.

 

Your admirer,

Belacqua Jones

 

[ Link ]