Category Archives: Empire/ Imperialism

Culture, Empire/ Imperialism, Identities, Movements, Politics

The meaning of “Obama” and the history of a friendship

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At the Mexico Olympics in 1968, this photograph of American athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos standing on the victory podium with heads bowed and black-gloved fists raised in a Black Power salute in protest at racism in the USA, became the iconic image of the age.

1968_salute

In the fraught years since 1968, the weight of living through the aftermath put a heavy burden on the friendship of Carlos and Smith. In separate interviews with the Los Angeles Times it was revealed that they have barely spoken to each other since the early 1990s, despite living just a short drive apart in southern California. Smith described their relationship as “strained”. Carlos would call his former team-mate only “Mister Smith”.

Continue reading The meaning of “Obama” and the history of a friendship →

Bad ideas, Centre watch, Empire/ Imperialism

Republic Day in Srinagar

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rdayorder1

By the way, belated Happy Republic Day! Say it loud and clear brother, lest you also get an order like this one of these days!

(Thanks, Chandni Parekh.) Continue reading Republic Day in Srinagar →

Empire/ Imperialism, Frontiers, Politics, Violence/Conflict

Chavez Expels Israel’s Ambassador, Becomes New Palestinian Hero

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Via Liberation News Service

Venezuelan leader accuses Israel of being ‘murder arm’ of US, says solution to Gaza crisis is in Obama’s hand.
Report by Anna Pelegri of Middle East Online – BETHLEHEM, 12 January 2009

Demonstrators in Yemen
Portraits of Chavez carried by demonstrators in Yemen

“Venezuelan flags and portraits of President Hugo Chavez have been flying high during protests in the West Bank against Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip”, says the report.

The report continues:

The Venezuelan president’s decision on January 6 to expel Israel’ ambassador from Caracas — the only country apart from Mauritania to take such a step — has made the left-wing South American leader a hero to Palestinians.

Hamas has welcomed Chavez’s “courageous decision,” while Hassan Nasrallah, head of Lebanon’s Hezbollah group, urged Arab states to follow the Venezuelan president’s example.

Empire/ Imperialism, Frontiers, Identities, Politics, Violence/Conflict

ग़ाज़ा, इस्राइल और इस्राइल बनने की मंशा

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प्रणव मुखर्जी से किसी पत्रकार ने पूछा कि क्या भारत पाकिस्तान में वैसी ही कार्रवाई करेगा जैसी इस्राइल गाज़ा में कर रहा है. शुक्र है कि हमारे विदेश मंत्री ने  यह कहना ज़रूरी समझा कि इस्राइल की तरह भारत ने किसी और की ज़मीन पर कब्जा नहीं कर रखा है. इस सादे से तथ्य को कहना आजकल गनीमत है क्योंकि हमारे आदर्श बनते जा रहे अमरीका में फिलीस्तीनीयों को ही इस रूप में पेश किया जा रहा है मानो वे ही शांति से रहने वाले इस्राइलियों को चैन से नहीं रहने दे रहे. तो क्या यह मान लिया जाय कि हमारी याददाश्त भी ‘गजनी’ की तरह सिर्फ पंद्रह मिनट की रह गई है? क्या हम यह भूल गए है कि गाज़ा के उस पतली सी पट्टी में जो पिछले साठ  साल से पीसे जा रहे हैं वे एक ज़िओनवादी राज्य इस्राइल की स्थापना के लिए उनकी अपनी ज़मीन से उखाड कर फेंक दिए गए लोग हैं?

ग़ाज़ा पर इस्राइली बामबारी, सा�ार बीबीसी
ग़ाज़ा पर इस्राइली बामबारी, साभार बीबीसी

अगर हम साठ साल की बात को याद नहीं रखना चाह्ते तो क्या हम यह भी भूल गए हैं कि  अभी दो ही साल बीते हैं कि फिलीस्तीन की जनता ने हमास को चुनाव में बहुमत दिया था! क्या हमें यह भी याद दिलाना होगा कि हमास की चुनावी जीत को इस्राइल, अमरीका , युरोप और उनके पिट्ठू फतह ने मान्यता देने से इंकार कर दिया था?

एपी
बमबारी का एक और नज़ारा, तस्वीर: एपी

हमास एक आतंकवादी संगठन नहीं है, जैसा अमरीका और इस्राइल चाह्ते हैं कि उसे माना जाए, वह फिलीस्तीनी जनता का वैध प्रतिनिधि है. क्या चुनाव में उसकी जीत को मानने से इनकार  वैसा ही नहीं जैसा मुजीबुर्रहमान की जीत को मानने से तब की पकिस्तानी हुकूमत का इंकार ? उसका नतीजा था  पाकिस्तान का  विभाजन और बांग्लादेश के रूप में एक नए राष्ट्र का जन्म. यहां अंतर सिर्फ यह है कि हमास ने गाज़ा पट्टी पर संघर्ष के बाद नियंत्रण कर लिया. तब से इस्राइल के कहने पर अमरीका समेत पूरे विश्व ने हमास का बहिष्कार कर रखा है. क्या हम इसकी कल्पना कर सकते हैं कि भारत में भारतीय जनता पार्टी के चुनाव में जीतने के बाद उसकी राजनीति से असहमति रखने के कारण उसे मान्यता न दी जाए?

Continue reading ग़ाज़ा, इस्राइल और इस्राइल बनने की मंशा →

Debates, Empire/ Imperialism, Law, Politics, Right watch, Scams, Violence/Conflict

Guantanamo and Illegal U.S. Detentions: Time for Real Change

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[On the seventh anniversary of Guantanamo Bay, 11 January]

The United States detention facilities at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba – seven years old on 11 January 2009 – have become emblematic of the gross human rights abuses perpetrated by the US Government in the name of fighting terrorism. Though the U.S. President-elect Barack Obama has pledged to close down the Guantanamo Bay, there are undoubtedly substantial challenges to closing. Every day that Guantánamo is kept open is another day in which hundreds of detainees and their families are kept in the legal shadows. Distressing to the individuals concerned and destructive of the rule of law, the example it sets – of a powerful country undermining fundamental human rights principles – is dangerous to us all. It would be no less dangerous, and no less unlawful, if the USA were simply to transfer the problem it has created at Guantánamo to another locations.

Detainees at Guantanamo Bay
Detainees at Guantanamo Bay

The detention facility at Guantánamo Bay isn’t the only prison where the United States is holding detainees from the ‘war on terror.’ At Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan, Camp Bucca and Camp Cropper in Iraq, and many more – some known and others secret – are used to detain those captured by the U.S. military. Camp Bucca alone has at times held 20,000 prisoners, most of whom live in groups of tents surrounded by wire. Most detainees are held unlawfully, without warrant or charge, and without recourse to challenge their detention. Even when Guantánamo is closed, the need to push for detainee human rights will continue.

Continue reading Guantanamo and Illegal U.S. Detentions: Time for Real Change →

Empire/ Imperialism, Frontiers, Government, Politics

Army wanted Abdullah, who’s surprised?

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Ashish Sinha in Mail Today:

Any political decision on Kashmir — especially when the ball is in the Congress’s court — cannot afford to ignore the sentiments of lakhs of troops stationed here because, at least for now, they appear to be a more permanent fixture than any party, even the National Conference (NC). [Full text]

I told you so…

And Siddharth Varadarajan asks the right question:

But if these motives propelled the ISI to either mount or at best turn a blind eye to the Mumbai plot, why did the same agency — which essentially manages Rawalpindi’s links with militant groups active in Jammu and Kashmir — not seek to disrupt the assembly elections? [Here]

Empire/ Imperialism, Identities, Politics, Right watch, Violence/Conflict

The Israeli Attack on Gaza: Chris Floyd

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Shock, Awe and Lies: The Truth Behind the Israeli Attack on Gaza by Chris Floyd

DEMONSTRATION IN TEL AVIV AGAINST THE ISRAELI ATTACK

The Alternative Information Center
Courtesy: The Alternative Information Center, photo by Meni Berman

Award winning American journalist, Chris Floyd, author of Empire Burlesque: High Crimes and Low Comedy in the Bush Regime, writes:

Here is a simple, stone cold fact. You cannot read or hear the truth about what is happening in Gaza from any corporate media in the United States. The only thing you will find there are regurgitations of Israeli spin, which are themselves only regurgitations of the kind of spin that American militarists have put on their own depredations — for centuries now….”
“This is of course a damnable and deliberate lie. Papers in Israel — in Israel, but not the United States — are reporting the truth: the murderous assault on Gaza was planned not only before the six-month ceasefire ended — it was planned before the cease-fire even took effect.

Read the rest of the post here.

Empire/ Imperialism, Frontiers

Oranges in Kashmir

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Guest post by K

In the summer of 2008, something impossible happened. To a number of Indians, Kashmir was no longer an atoot ung, an inseparable part of the Indian body politic. That image of Kashmir treacherously manufactured by the Indian state through lies, deceit and the media, was wearing down.

The atoot ung no longer seemed atoot to many voices in India and against all odds the people of Kashmir were changing many hearts and minds in India. The loss of soldiers does not worry India as much as the change in its public opinion on Kashmir. This had to be undone, and undone fast before it spread its tentacles. The evil image of Kashmiris had to emphasized and the  non-violent protests discredited. What better than an election to do the task?

So the results will be out tomorrow, but do they matter? Continue reading Oranges in Kashmir →

Empire/ Imperialism, Frontiers, Identities, Politics

A cruel joke called elections in Kashmir

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The Indian media has been expressing surprise about the high voter turnouts in the Kashmir elections. The expression of surprise sounds genuine. I am not sure how genuine it is. Is patriotism coming in the way of truth? How can we not see what a Wall Street Journal reporter can?

In the village of Samboora, residents said that Indian Army troops went from house to house on Saturday morning, rounding up families and taking them to a polling station. As a reporter drove into the village Saturday afternoon, an army vehicle with several soldiers stopped by the walled compound of Ghulam Mohammad, pulling the 59-year-old retiree onto the road. Seeing a foreign reporter, the soldiers jumped into their vehicle and quickly drove off. “They asked me why I’m not voting, and I said that’s because I don’t like any of the candidates,” Mr. Mohammad said moments later. “They said, if I don’t vote, I’ll be sorry later.” [Must Read]

And wasn’t this predicted anyway? Didn’t we tell you about Gentle Persuasion? Oh, and they already know who the CM is going to be.
Empire/ Imperialism, Frontiers, Politics

Looking Kabul, talking Rawalpindi?

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Strategically speaking, that is. It is important to think this question through.

For one, there’s hardly anybody disputing that the Lashkar-e-Tayebba was behind the attack. Pakistan wants evidence, but doesn’t deny the LeT could be it. 

Parvez Hoodbhoy says in an interview:

LeT, one of the largest militant groups in Pakistan, was established over 15 years ago. It was supported by the Pakistani military and the ISI because it focussed upon fighting Indian rule in Muslim Kashmir. Today it is one of the very few extremist groups left that do not attack the military and the ISI; Continue reading Looking Kabul, talking Rawalpindi? →

Capitalism, Empire/ Imperialism, Left watch, Right watch

The Millennium that Never Came

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by Mike Keefe - The Denver Post
by Mike Keefe – The Denver Post

 

One day the story of the decade gone by will be unpacked by others. This was a decade that was bizarre and terrifying – cluttered with event-scenes: massacres, spectacles, war, endless staged media events, and a mysterious violence with shadow perpetrators whose names changed every day in police stories – a million changing acronyms of ‘terror’ groups.

Continue reading The Millennium that Never Came →

Culture, Debates, Empire/ Imperialism, Identities, Movements, Politics

The ‘Obama Moment’: Sangay Mishra and Jinee Lokaneeta

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The ‘Obama Moment’ and Conversations on Race
Guest post by SANGAY MISHRA and JINEE LOKANEETA

[The ‘Obama moment’ is much more than the man. Elementary, one would have thought. But maybe not. For, it has been intriguing to watch and listen to people – radical and nonradical liberal alike – mock this moment in a cynical, ‘we-know-it-all’ and ‘what-do-you-expect?’ mode. Intriguing, because, somewhere the insinuation is that those who celebrate are just being carried away by an ephemeral event. Maybe. It seems however, and the authors argue below, that this persona we now know as ‘Obama’ was not there even a year or two ago; he emerged in this present form, through a series of ‘encounters’ – with race, with his own history and with ‘blackness’. In his present form, Obama is produced by a certain African American investment in the earlier Obama (of, say, the pre-campaign Obama). – AN]

Much as the Obama victory on the 4th of November was expected and already predicted by a number of polls, the reaction to his victory both inside and outside the United States was breathtaking.

Continue reading The ‘Obama Moment’: Sangay Mishra and Jinee Lokaneeta →

Empire/ Imperialism, Excavation, Politics

‘The Best Form of Saying is Doing’ – Ravikumar on Che

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Picture by Alberto Korda
This portrait of Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara, titled "Heroic Guerrilla", is the most reproduced image in the history of photography. Taken in 1960, at the highpoint of the Cuban revolution, by Alberto Korda, it hung for years in his studio before it became the iconic figure of the rebel.

[This is a guest post by well-known Tamil writer RAVIKUMAR on the occasion of Che Guevara’s 40th death anniversary on 9 October. The article was written on the 9th. ]

Ernesto Guevara de la Serna popularly known as ‘ Che’ was born on June 14, 1928 in Argentina. A doctor by profession he involved himself in revolutionary activities from his student days. He was with the political activists of Guatemala when the elected government of Jacob Arbenz was overthrown by a CIA backed coup in 1954. He escaped to Mexico where he met the exiled Cuban revolutionaries led by Fidel Castro. He joined with them in their struggle to liberate Cuba from the Batista regime.

Che was the name his Cuban companeros gave him. It is a popular form of address in Argentina. He sailed with the Cuban revolutionaries in the famous yacht ‘Granma’ as a doctor. Later he was promoted as commander. Che played an important role in the success of the Cuban revolution. He led a guerilla column in the final battle. Finally, Batista fled the country on January 1, 1959.

Continue reading ‘The Best Form of Saying is Doing’ – Ravikumar on Che →

Centre watch, Empire/ Imperialism, Excavation, Frontiers, Law, Media politics, Violence/Conflict

“Madam, we know you’re leaving. Think wisely before coming back”

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Continue reading “Madam, we know you’re leaving. Think wisely before coming back” →

Empire/ Imperialism

“Iraq Has Only Militants, No Civilians” by Dahr Jamail

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“Sometimes I think it should be a rule of war that you have to see somebody up close and get to know him before you can shoot him.” — Colonel Potter, M*A*S*H

Name them. Maim them. Kill them.

From the beginning of the American occupation in Iraq, air strikes and attacks by the U.S. military have only killed “militants,” “criminals,” “suspected insurgents,” “IED [Improvised Explosive Device] emplacers,” “anti-American fighters,” “terrorists,” “military age males,” “armed men,” “extremists,” or “al-Qaeda.”

The pattern for reporting on such attacks has remained the same from the early years of the occupation to today. Continue reading “Iraq Has Only Militants, No Civilians” by Dahr Jamail →

Empire/ Imperialism, Politics, Violence/Conflict

Rights-Free Zones

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‘O Father, this is a prison of injustice.
Its iniquity makes the mountains weep.
I have committed no crime and am guilty of no offence.
Curved claws have I,
But I have been sold like a fattened sheep.’
— Abdulla Thani Faris al Anazi, a Guantanamo detainee since 2002, arrested in Afghanistan, and turned over to the US forces by bounty hunters.
— Abdulla Thani Faris al Anazi, a Guantanamo detainee since 2002, arrested in Afghanistan, and turned over to the US forces by bounty hunters

11 January 2008 marks 6 years since the first detainees were transferred to Guantanamo Bay. The United States Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay is a rights-free zone, for the detention, treatment and trial of certain people in the ‘war on terror’. Here the Pentagon is authorised to hold non-US citizens in indefinite custody without charge; here detainees are barred from seeking any remedy in any proceedings in any US, foreign or international court; here if any detainee were to be tried, the trial would be by military commission — an executive body, and not an independent or impartial court. A memorandum from the Justice Department to the Pentagon advises that because Guantanamo Bay is not a sovereign US territory, the federal courts should not be able to consider habeas corpus petitions from ‘enemy aliens’ detained at the base.

Continue reading Rights-Free Zones →

Capitalism, Debates, Empire/ Imperialism, Left watch

Response to Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn et al on Nandigram

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We read with growing dismay the statement signed by Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn and others advising those opposing the CPI(M)’s pro-capitalist policies in West Bengal not to “split the Left” in the face of American imperialism. We believe that for some of the signatories, their distance from events in India has resulted in their falling prey to a CPI(M) public relations coup and that they may have signed the statement without fully realising the import of it and what it means here in India, not just in Bengal.

We cannot believe that many of the signatories whom we know personally, and whose work we respect, share the values of the CPI(M) – to “share similar values” with the party today is to stand for unbridled capitalist development, nuclear energy at the cost of both ecological concerns and mass displacement of people (the planned nuclear plant at Haripur, West Bengal), and the Stalinist arrogance that the party knows what “the people” need better than the people themselves. Moreover, the violence that has been perpetrated by CPI(M) cadres to browbeat the peasants into submission, including time-tested weapons like rape, demonstrate that this “Left” shares little with the Left ideals that we cherish.

Continue reading Response to Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn et al on Nandigram →

Capitalism, Ecology/Environment, Empire/ Imperialism

Interview with Evo Morales

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Democracy Now!

By way of Liberation News Service

[Interview with Bolivian President Evo Morales. Here he talks about some interesting question relating to the new possibilities of democratic transformation, the problems of leadership, and global warming – among other things. Some Excerpts:]

AMY GOODMAN: The Bolivian Supreme Court recently asked the government to start extradition proceedings for the former Bolivian President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada, who lives here in the United States in Miami. They also asked for an order for him not to be allowed to go to another country, but to be sent back to Bolivia. What is the former president guilty of and whether he thinks the United States will extradite him.

PRESIDENT EVO MORALES: First of all, the United States cannot, should not receive, protect delinquents from any part of the world. It is unconscionable that the United States, a democratic country, would be protecting international criminals like Posada Carriles. The process has to do with two issues: first of all, human rights, and second of all, for economic damages done to the state. So people who massacre peoples, that violate human rights and do economic damage to countries and their economies have to go to jail. The United States shouldn’t be sitting there waiting for a process to be put into motion, but rather should kick these people out so that they can be submitted to justice.

I hope the United States respects these norms and respects the decision of our Supreme Court. But here, we have an experience. The last military dictator was sent to jail. And since that time, in Bolivia, no member of the military dares to threaten a coup d’etat. Likewise, any democratic government that violates human rights, that massacres people or that does economic damage to the state should also be subject to these sorts of processes, and their leaders should be put in jail, so that they never dare to do it again either.

Continue reading Interview with Evo Morales →

Empire/ Imperialism

Put Away The Flags : Howard Zinn

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On this July 4, we would do well to renounce nationalism and all its symbols: its flags, its pledges of allegiance, its anthems, its insistence in song that God must single out America to be blessed.

Is not nationalism — that devotion to a flag, an anthem, a boundary so fierce it engenders mass murder — one of the great evils of our time, along with racism, along with religious hatred?

These ways of thinking — cultivated, nurtured, indoctrinated from childhood on — have been useful to those in power, and deadly for those out of power. Continue reading Put Away The Flags : Howard Zinn →

Empire/ Imperialism

‘Liberation of a Monster’

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WHY INTERNATIONAL TERRORIST POSADA CARRILES WALKS FREE IN US. Does blowing of civilian airliners, bombing of hotels or other civilian facilities constitute an act of terrorism? Anyone with a feeble sense of justice would definitely answer in the affirmative. But for the US such a categorization is dependent upon the way state department looks at such acts. If it is meant to damage the US then definitely ‘yes’ but if it is meant to damage its adversaries then such actions can not only be condoned but duly supported as well. The much debated case of the Cuban-American terrorist Possada Carilles who was instrumental in blowing up a civilian airliner killing 73 people is a case in point.

It was only last week that Louis Posada Carriles walked out of a New Mexico jail, free on bail. Posada was being held and tried for immigration charges in US but not in connection with the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner that killed 73 people. The Bush administration has consistently refused to extradite Posada to Venezuela or Cuba to stand trial for the airline bombing. In a statement, Castro said the Bush administration is allowing: “the liberation of [a] monster.” On Sunday, the Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez accused the US of protecting international terrorism and said that Posada Carriles, that his case should be taken to the United Nations. Cuba has also renewed calls for Posada’s extradition.

Continue reading ‘Liberation of a Monster’ →