the killing fields of inequality

«OK, inequality is a fact, and increasing, so what? Does it matter if David Beckham earns much more than you do? (Tony Blair on one occasion appeared to offer this question as a cover for leaving income inequality untouched.)

My answer is that it does matter, because inequality is a violation of human rights; the invocation of celebrity pay is simply a smoke-screen.

(...)

The stretching social distance between the poorest and the richest diminishes social cohesion, which in turn means more collective problems – such as crime and violence – and fewer resources for solving all our other collective problems, from national identity to climate change.»

excerto de The Killing Fields of Inequality, de Göran Therborn
in Soundings nº42, Verão 2009, via eurozine


The Killing Fields of Inequality (pdf)

serviço púbico

Porque convém ler as notas de rodapé, antes de assinar... ou decidir rasgar o documento.

Programas eleitorais:
PS PSD PCP CDS/PP BE

amerikkka?

US of A, for once... do NOT fuck this up.

We need to broaden our political possibilities

«The hypothesis (...) is not that nation states no longer matter, or that the functions of the nation states are no longer important, but rather that we have to recognize that they function within a larger framework, that they are important elements of this network power. It was this that led us to the hypothesis that the US can no longer dictate global order, in fact that no nation state can do that any more. It is not the case that if the US isn't powerful enough, then China, Russia, or some caliphate will be. No, the terms of sovereignty, of political order, has changed so that no nation state can control them any longer. The Bush lot, Cheney and Wolfowitz, thought that they could act like imperialist, that they could dictate global order. And we have seen little by little the demonstration of their failure, of the final burial of unilateralism: first with military failures, then with the social and economic failures in the US. I take that as evidence of the impossibility of national sovereignty dictating global order.

So we have to create a new concept of sovereignty, or maybe a different word than sovereignty, that allows us to think this collaboration of powers, of political and economic dominant nation states with corporations and international economic institutions. But this doesn't mean that nation states are not important, nor that the US isn't important as a force of domination, or that Bolivia isn't important as a demarcation of lines of defence, is just means that they have to be considered in a larger framework.»

entrevista com Michael Hardt, para o Le Monde Diplomatique
via eurozine.com


http://www.eurozine.com/
http://pt.mondediplo.com/

o fim de um ciclo?

Mensagem de Fidel Castro, anunciando que não retomará a posição de Presidente do Conselho de Estado. O princípio da queda do regime, ou só o prenúncio de uma nova imagem, prolongando o sofrimento do povo cubano?
[http://www.granma.cubaweb.cu/2008/02/19/nacional/artic10.html]




Message from the Commander in Chief
Dear compatriots:

Last Friday, February 15, I promised you that in my next reflection I would deal with an issue of interest to many compatriots. Thus, this now is rather a message.

The moment has come to nominate and elect the State Council, its President, its Vice-Presidents and Secretary.

For many years I have occupied the honorable position of President. On February 15, 1976 the Socialist Constitution was approved with the free, direct and secret vote of over 95% of the people with the right to cast a vote. The first National Assembly was established on December 2nd that same year; this elected the State Council and its presidency. Before that, I had been a Prime Minister for almost 18 years. I always had the necessary prerogatives to carry forward the revolutionary work with the support of the overwhelming majority of the people.

There were those overseas who, aware of my critical health condition, thought that my provisional resignation, on July 31, 2006, to the position of President of the State Council, which I left to First Vice-President Raul Castro Ruz, was final. But Raul, who is also minister of the Armed Forces on account of his own personal merits, and the other comrades of the Party and State leadership were unwilling to consider me out of public life despite my unstable health condition.

It was an uncomfortable situation for me vis-à-vis an adversary which had done everything possible to get rid of me, and I felt reluctant to comply.

Later, in my necessary retreat, I was able to recover the full command of my mind as well as the possibility for much reading and meditation. I had enough physical strength to write for many hours, which I shared with the corresponding rehabilitation and recovery programs. Basic common sense indicated that such activity was within my reach. On the other hand, when referring to my health I was extremely careful to avoid raising expectations since I felt that an adverse ending would bring traumatic news to our people in the midst of the battle. Thus, my first duty was to prepare our people both politically and psychologically for my absence after so many years of struggle. I kept saying that my recovery "was not without risks."

My wishes have always been to discharge my duties to my last breath. That’s all I can offer.

To my dearest compatriots, who have recently honored me so much by electing me a member of the Parliament where so many agreements should be adopted of utmost importance to the destiny of our Revolution, I am saying that I will neither aspire to nor accept, I repeat, I will neither aspire to nor accept the positions of President of the State Council and Commander in Chief.

In short letters addressed to Randy Alonso, Director of the Round Table National TV Program, --letters which at my request were made public-- I discreetly introduced elements of this message I am writing today, when not even the addressee of such letters was aware of my intention. I trusted Randy, whom I knew very well from his days as a student of Journalism. In those days I met almost on a weekly basis with the main representatives of the University students from the provinces at the library of the large house in Kohly where they lived. Today, the entire country is an immense University.

Following are some paragraphs chosen from the letter addressed to Randy on December 17, 2007:

"I strongly believe that the answers to the current problems facing Cuban society, which has, as an average, a twelfth grade of education, almost a million university graduates, and a real possibility for all its citizens to become educated without their being in any way discriminated against, require more variables for each concrete problem than those contained in a chess game. We cannot ignore one single detail; this is not an easy path to take, if the intelligence of a human being in a revolutionary society is to prevail over instinct.

"My elemental duty is not to cling to positions, much less to stand in the way of younger persons, but rather to contribute my own experience and ideas whose modest value comes from the exceptional era that I had the privilege of living in.

"Like Niemeyer, I believe that one has to be consistent right up to the end."

Letter from January 8, 2008:

"…I am a firm supporter of the united vote (a principle that preserves the unknown merits), which allowed us to avoid the tendency to copy what came to us from countries of the former socialist bloc, including the portrait of the one candidate, as singular as his solidarity towards Cuba. I deeply respect that first attempt at building socialism, thanks to which we were able to continue along the path we had chosen."

And I reiterated in that letter that "…I never forget that ‘all of the world’s glory fits in a kernel of corn."

Therefore, it would be a betrayal to my conscience to accept a responsibility requiring more mobility and dedication than I am physically able to offer. This I say devoid of all drama.

Fortunately, our Revolution can still count on cadres from the old guard and others who were very young in the early stages of the process. Some were very young, almost children, when they joined the fight on the mountains and later they have given glory to the country with their heroic performance and their internationalist missions. They have the authority and the experience to guarantee the replacement. There is also the intermediate generation which learned together with us the basics of the complex and almost unattainable art of organizing and leading a revolution.

The path will always be difficult and require from everyone’s intelligent effort. I distrust the seemingly easy path of apologetics or its antithesis the self-flagellation. We should always be prepared for the worst variable. The principle of being as prudent in success as steady in adversity cannot be forgotten. The adversary to be defeated is extremely strong; however, we have been able to keep it at bay for half a century.

This is not my farewell to you. My only wish is to fight as a soldier in the battle of ideas. I shall continue to write under the heading of ‘Reflections by comrade Fidel.’ It will be just another weapon you can count on. Perhaps my voice will be heard. I shall be careful.

Thanks.

Fidel Castro Ruz
February 18, 2008 5:30 p.m.

[http://www.granma.cubaweb.cu/2008/02/19/nacional/artic10.html]

guerra fria II

imagem de: http://www.writersmugs.com/


«The evidence that Iran is waging war against the US is now conclusive. After all, it comes from an administration that has never deceived the American people, even improving on the famous stellar honesty of its predecessors.»

Cáustico como sempre, Noam Chomsky disserta acerca da actual situação política e militar dos EUA no mundo, em particular face à Ásia, Médio Oriente e Rússia, num artigo da ZNet.
Um ensaio surpreendente, ao estabelecer comparações entre a actual postura americana e a da Rússia no período da Guerra Fria.


http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=11&ItemID=13629
http://www.zmag.org/weluser.htm

the unthinking majority

Serj Tankian, dos System of a Down, tem em preparação um álbum a solo ("Elect the Dead"), com edição prevista para meados de Outubro. Apesar da proximidade da data de lançamento do disco, Serj disponibiliza no seu site um vídeo relativo a uma canção - The Unthinking Majority - que segundo ele «precisava de ser editada já!».

Surge esta necessidade da sua vontade de «passar uma mensagem» acerca da «presente catástrofe da nossa democracia falhada».


«Borders are the gallows of our collective national egos.
Subjective lines in the sand, water and air are separating plants, animals and atmosphere.
Fear! Fear is the cause of separation for this imposed illusion, this cordoned off space from pre-birth.
When we run out of borders, we reach infinity and unity.

As for flags, they're much less useful than toilet paper.
No one as been caused distress by running out of flags.
They become useful in times of crisis and unjust manipulative coercions pitting the victim against the victor or vice-versa.

Neoliberal globalism is failing due to its undelying imperial ambitions and the discoveries of those sinister ulterior motives.
So the ambitions have reawakened for "democracy promotion", in the past few years.
In real terms, thar means promoting democracy if and only if it serves imperial ambitions.

How about we create a real democracy right here and now!

Let's allow the people to vote for or against a pre-emptive war, universal healthcare, expansion of society security, the Kyoto Protocol, the International Criminal and World Courts, and the role of the United Nations in interventions and reconstruction of devastated lands. Let's vote for how we want our taxes to be spent, directly.
Major referendums discussed and debated thoroughly representing all sides of each issue on television.

All empires represent the aristocracy in their imperial ambitions, not the general populace!

Also in dire need is a true democracy of nations.
The UN Security Council should be dissolved and the General Assembly should rule all international affairs, allowing all nations equal access to the international forum and law.
Given the truth, all human beings will collectively choose the direction of this lost, possibly last civilization.»


the unthinking majority, serj tankian


http://www.serjtankian.com/
http://www.myspace.com/serjtankian

os soldados da fortuna

Blackwater USA is the most comprehensive professional military, law enforcement, security, peacekeeping, and stability operations company in the world.



É desta forma profissional e corporativa que a Blackwater se define a si própria no seu site http://www.blackwaterusa.com/ . Na realidade deveria ler-se " A Blackwater USA é o maior exército privado do mundo, o seu maior empregador é o governo dos Estados Unidos e neste momento o número de soldados da Blackwater em actividade nos conflitos em que os EUA estão envolvidos são praticamente numa proporção de 1 para 1."

Esta companhia, responsável por treino na utilização de armas, segurança e operações de "estabilização" está também ligada ao desenvolvimento de armamento bem como à construção - através do Raven Development Group (RDG will travel virtually anywhere to meet its client's needs. Whether our client needs an office complex constructed in North Carolina; an aviation hangar in Virginia or a secure barracks compound in Baghdad, RDG can do the job!).

No Iraque, Afeganistão ou mesmo em Nova Orleães, após a passagem do Katrina, elementos (empregados?!) da Blackwater entraram em acção, gozando de um estatuto único; por um lado são apoiados pelo governo e pagos utilizando o dinheiro dos contribuintes, para realizar o mesmo trabalho do exército regular (pago pelos mesmos contribuintes), mas como companhia privada não possuem as obrigações (incluindo morais) desse mesmo exército regular.

Perder algum tempo a navegar no site da Blackwater permite encontrar tiradas como:

Over the years, Blackwater’s reputation as the premier weapons and tactics training facility in the United States had spread worldwide. Today, Blackwater has and is currently training select military and other government groups from US-friendly nations at Blackwater and abroad. Our instructors are ranked the best in the world and our facilities are second to none. With appropriate US Department of State approvals, Blackwater can meet your training objectives. Training can be conducted at our Moyock Facility or in your country.

ou

The leader in the high-threat security industry, Blackwater incorporates real-world lessons learned on the streets of Iraq and Afghanistan into all of our operations. Now, we’ve gone one step further.





A título de curiosidade aqui fica o programa de treinos da Blackwater:
http://www.blackwaterusa.com/images/pdf/Course%20cat.pdf

Pessoalmente, fiquei curioso de experimentar um curso de três dias: Basic Shotgun (pre-requisite: None) e desiludido de não poder frequentar o curso de sete dias Blackwater Personal Protection Specialist (pre-requisite: Be a United States citizen or a legal resident alien of the United States).

Deixo aqui também o link de uma das publicidades disponíveis no site da Blackwater, o número de Março da revista New American Truth (que tem o curioso sub-título: a contemporary common sense magazine). Mesmo para aqueles sem paciência ou tempo, convido-vos a ler apenas a Carta do Editor, na página 7, para ficarem com uma ideia de onde estes senhores querem chegar...

Uma perspectiva histórica/política da Blackwater USA pode encontrar-se em Bush's shadow army, um artigo de Jeremy Scahill, adaptado do livro Blackwater: The Rise of The World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army.


http://www.blackwaterusa.com/
http://www.blackwaterusa.com/images/pdf/Course%20cat.pdf

new american truth (a contemporary common sense publication)
[http://www.newamericantruth.com/natmar07.pdf]

bush's shadow army
[http://www.alternet.org/story/49307/]

o gémeo maléfico do mickey

A polémica estalou recentemente quando vieram a público imagens de um programa infantil da Al-Aqsa TV, a televisão oficial do movimento palestiniano Hamas.

Nestas imagens surge um clone do rato Mickey que, num ambiente típico dos programas para crianças, e juntamente com uma jovem co-apresentadora incitam a audiência (as crianças, portanto!) à exultação da supremacia islâmica e à resistência armada contra a ocupação sionista.

Esta foi obviamente a pior ideia que o Hamas poderia ter tido. Vê-se agora a braços com uma luta desigual contra um poder superior ao do exército americano ou israelita... os advogados da Disney!

do it

"We are all on the same raft. 500 Direct TV channels and an unlimited choice of purchase options doesn´t change that. The ocean that surrounds us all ain´t one we can swim, it´s vast, cold and merciless. We live on a miniscule needle point in an ever growing vacuum so large not even the most brilliant minds and machines of science can say just how enormous it is. Still we quarrel, bicker and murder each other over land, oil, and the ridiculous thing we refer to as power, and weigh it in an abstract we call capital.

Fuck Jesus, Fuck Jahve, Fuck Allah, Fuck Buddah, Fuck Shiva, Vishnu and all their incarnations. Fuck Mama Mamatou, Fuck Tyr, Frei and fuck Odin too. They have no power in a world that has all but completely given up to pathological mathematics. A twisted, blister ridden, old God has risen and rules the world. Its name is Mammon. Money. Whatever currency it may be is irrelevant. Capitalism is the end of the world. In the world of capitalism nothing else matters but dominans and further capital accumulation. Those who bow to its irrational construction have all given up to their own fears and incapacity to look further than their own noses. The Pope does not bow in humility to a merciful deity. He hides behind a veil of elevated reverence, on his calleous knees sucking Mammons many cocks like a greedy baby at its mothers tit. Acidic jizz running down his papal holiness´ chin, the stench of putrid flesh rising from his corrupt loin.

Every single argument stated in defense of capitalism stands in contemp of sustainable life of a free, democratic, human species on the planet. Every single one.
The language of the hopeless is indeed the language of capitalism, it´s psychology is that of a traumatized child. Across the planet we are bombarded with the utterly psychotic and suicidal message that free market, growing revenue and money is indeed the way to freedom. Hypomanically stating the concept of freedom as something quantifiable in how much and what you own, and what you can buy. Flailing wildly for control.

There is not one single human malfunction in society that is not directly related to capitalism. Failing education. Crime. Illness. Overpopulation. War. Famine. The small time coca farmer in in the hills of South America, the burglar in New Jersey, a hooker in Stockholm, HIV-positive children in Zaire. Stress disorders in the executive reality of CEO´s as well as the antibacterial soap-rubbed hubbub of nurses and doctors. Desensitized cops, raging teenage students in Atlanta and convicts in Seattle. Old and young. We all have one thing in common. The fear of not making money. For we all feel it crushing down on us like a Tsunami wave. We all fear drowning, because in a capitalist world, we are lost without cash to keep us afloat.

We will lie, cheat, steal, burn, break, prostitute, murder, conceal, circumvene and falsify - yes, we will do anything humanly possible not to drown in what we believe will happen to us if we are not somehow successful, or at least accepted in that mad mad world of mythologic cuckoo land that is Capitalism. It is the ultimate disfunction. It will kill our species if we let it.

We are all engulfed in it. Swallowed to the full. Participants all. A real estate agent in Milano is no more guilty than the girl at the counter of a Hot Topic-shop in Hoboken. The anarcho crust collective in Mark as just as much a part of it as the adrenaline pumped brokers on Wallstreet. A system failed. We are murdering eachother without even trying, in a sublime mechanism built on the mental aftermath of generation upon generation of humans living in fear. Victims to our own survival-instinct. An instict that´s not even slightly in touch with the immense capacity for creativity we have as a species. We reinforce our fears with the superficial constructions of religion, politics or what team we root for. Estranged we look for scapegoats. Turning a blind eye to the fact that every single human individual is filled to the brim with the capacity for love and true greatness.
We have a choice.

But our fear of that monstrous misinterpetation of reality gives us the argument to keep turning a blind eye to our own creativity. Selfpity, rage, boredom, lack of knowledge, indifference, sorrow, hunger, pain, lack of direction and loneliness, all the things we fear - they become our alibi. And we, prisoners in denial. Subconciously feeding ourselves and eachother further circular arguments and ways to step off any linear reasoning with the passing of the hour.

We all fear the unknown. Tough guys, hot chicks, ugly ducklings and skinny dudes, we all have the fear. So in silence, helpless, we desperately grasp on to the very things that destroy us. Because they´re all we know.

The truth is you are precious. Never believe anything else. Not evil. Not vile, not foul sinners, nor weak. We are not the destroyers of life if we make that choice to be, and more than anything - We are NOT alone.
Fear; it´s just an emotion. Respect, that we need. Fear? Fear is pointless my friend.

Survival? Survival is for those who let fear run their lives.
You don´t have to. It´s simple really. If you want to; live free. NOW. Fuck the past let´s move on... "

http://blog.myspace.com/dolving

Peter Dolving é o vocalista dos The Haunted.

Carpinteiro, artista plástico, junkie, sem-abrigo, músico... não é fácil escrever qualquer tipo de
nota biográfica acerca de Dolving. Dificilmente se consegue "encaixá-lo" num estereótipo social.
E ainda bem... É talvez por isso que os posts de Dolving em http://blog.myspace.com/dolving são incontornáveis. Por um lado são exercício de introspecção para o autor, por outro uma lição de vida (sem falsos moralismos) para o leitor.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Dolving
http://www.metal-rules.com/zine/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=703&Itemid=60

what americans need to know about jihad

What Americans need to know about Jihad é um panfleto de propaganda editado pelo David Horowitz Freedom Center. Pretende, alegadamente, alertar os americanos e o mundo ocidental em geral para o perigo iminente que a Jihad representa.

Como se o título e capa, aqui reproduzidos, não fossem suficientemente auto-explanatórios das intenções inflamatórias e do tom xenófobo e provocatório do texto, fica aqui também o endereço para a versão vídeo do mesmo documento: http://www.terrorismawareness.org/know-about-jihad/, na minha opinião, uma verdadeira homenagem à propaganda política de origem terrorista.



Recorrendo a excertos do Corão e citações de islamitas fundamentalistas, Robert Spencer consegue causar no leitor uma sensação de terror (faz sentido, certo?) irracional, passando a imagem de uma grande conspiração organizada pelo Islão para o domínio do Ocidente.
A este Ocidente, cheio de virtudes, opõe um mundo islâmico (assim definido, como uma grande mancha cinzenta - ou será verde?), onde sobressai apenas a desigualdade entre géneros e uma incitação explícita à violência, assim expressa no Corão.

O dedo apontador e por vezes bem em cima da ferida dos dinamizadores do site jihadwatch.org, pecam pela parcialidade nunca verdadeiramente assumida e pelo discurso falsamente moralista e perigosamente intolerante.

As questões das igualdades de direitos, nomeadamente das mulheres, bem como a ausência de liberdade de consciência presentes na "sociedade islâmica" servem como pretexto para um apoio quase incondicional às políticas de ocidentalização opressiva do actual governo norte-americano (teste-se o que afirmo aqui colocando em paralelo a informação difundida diariamente pelos órgãos noticiosos mais comuns e as actualizações de jihadwatch.org!).

O interesse informativo deste site perde-se pela associação compulsiva da ideologia islâmica ao conceito de jihad. Parece-me a mim (que não sou analista político nem tenho o longo currículo deste senhor) que seria o mesmo que continuar a apontar todos os católicos como inquisidores ou todos os alemães como nazis. Uma generalização deste género é por si só perigosa pois serve normalmente como catalisador dos extremistas nos grupos-alvo, quer para radicalizar as posições já existentes quer para angariar novos membros à custa da deturpação da mensagem original.

O medo e a incerteza que o terrorismo islâmico representam actualmente devem bastante ao conservadorismo podre que vai passando nos endereços seguintes:

http://www.jihadwatch.org/
http://www.terrorismawareness.org/
http://frontpagemagazine.com/

What Americans Need To Know About Jihad - texto
What Americans Need To Know About Jihad - vídeo

why of course the people don't want war