On Boris Johnson celebrating the victory of Conservatism

An interesting article by Boris Johnson in today's Telegraph, sent around my class mailing list by a fellow student, and in the interest of avoiding any real work, I feel like making a few comments on it here(I'll try to keep the rant short!). In the article Boris celebrates what he percieves as the victory of Conservatism and the almost complete vanquishing of the left.

To begin with, I wouldn't rely on the word of the ludicrous Boris Johnson to describe the 'extinction' of the left. After all, what he describes in the article is the politics of Blair,(PR people, social conservatism etc.) Cameron was complaining only a couple of weeks ago about how hard it was to come up with policy that differs strongly from the government line. After all, with Blair in power, who needs a conservative opposition? I think most people would agree that the Prime Minister is hardly a representative voice for 'lefties', as Boris calls them.

Left wing politics is alive and well, but it is true to say that to a certain degree it has lost some of its voice in Britain. This doesn't mean that it's not there, just that it is not represented in Blair's administration. I think if Boris travelled a little further afield beyond the small naval gazing island he inhabits he might find a different picture in other parts of Europe, not to talk about the left wing movements sweeping other continents. For anybody comfortable with being on the left, its actually quite funny to have somebody tell you, "you no longer exist", with the assumption that you'll take their word for it and disappear. Imagine that kind of power, eh? It certainly is a wet dream worthy of any public schoolboy. Is that what happened to the dinosuars? Did Boris Johnson explain to them that they were extinct?

Who really imagines we are travelling along a linear path towards some kind of capitalist paradise anyway? Conservatism and unbridled capitalism may work for Boris but it certainly isn't working for the majority of the world. Is this the best kind of society we can hope to achieve? Of course not. But it is always useful for certain interested parties to have people believe that change is impossible, that history has come to an end, or as the Borg put it in Star Trek (who knows why I'm referring to them), 'resistence is futile'.

The left is not dead and Boris' vision of a homogenous political outlook will be a long time in coming, if it ever does. We have arrived at one small moment in a constantly changing political climate, and while I don't have a clue which direction the world is heading in (its getting crazier by the minute), it would be naieve to imagine that its going to achieve the kind of political stagnation that Boris and co. dream of wallowing in anytime soon.

Underestimating civilan deaths in Iraq

An interesting article on the Z-Mag web-site talks about the 'cluster sample survey' conducted by a group of epistimologists to estimate the true extent of civilian casualties in Iraq, and the attempts by the the British and US governments to dicredit their findings after they were published in the Lancet journal.

"Over a year ago an international team of epidemiologists, headed by Les Roberts of Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, completed a “cluster sample survey” of civilian casualties in Iraq. Its findings contradicted central elements of what politicians and journalists had presented to the U.S. public and the world. After excluding any possible statistical anomalies, they estimated that at least 98,000 Iraqi civilians had died in the previous 18 months as a direct result of the invasion and occupation of their country. They also found that violence had become the leading cause of death in Iraq during that period. Their most significant finding was that the vast majority (79 percent) of violent deaths were caused by “coalition” forces using “helicopter gunships, rockets or other forms of aerial weaponry,” and that almost half (48 percent) of these were children, with a median age of 8."

Yet these deaths go almost completely unreported by the media, a nod to the success of the British and US administrations in undermining their research, and the article goes on to explain how even the sections of the media which have positioned themselves against the war continuosly underestimate the number of civilian casualties and ignore the primary source of their deaths, a bombing campaign hidden from the public that continues right up to the present unabated.

On my humiliating defeat by a glass bottle....

This evening, feeling a little hungry, I went to the Dunnes Stores down the road from here on Georges street and bought myself something to eat and what looked like a delicious cranberry and orange fruit drink.

I arrived back at my desk, and started munching into a rather bland chicken salad sandwich. I tried to open my tasty looking fruit drink to wash it down, but the lid wouldn't budge. Oh, it must be on a little tight, I naively thought to myself. I twisted a little harder, and still it didn't move a millimetre. I got a cloth, thinking that would give me a better grip, and twisted till the sinews of my forearm burnt and felt like they were going to rip apart, but NO NO NO NOTHING!

Just a sore wrist and a red face. I could see the juice inside, laughing at my feeble efforts to liberate it. I could practically taste it, but not being possessed of Herculean strength, I would never know how sweet it was. Humiliated, with an aching arm and a parched throat, I resigned myself to defeat, but left the bottle in the class, as a lesson for others, so that they too may learn humility at the hands of the evil 'Feel Good Juice Co.'

I suspect they have employed the services of either Mr. T or the Devil in their factory, cos I pity the fool who tries to get the damn thing open.

Amnesty report on Guantánamo Bay

"I have written the story of my suffering and sorrows, this story which has not ended and which I am still living through. I have written these lines from behind the walls of the dreadful detention camps. I have written about my pain and my sadness. I do not know what will happen in the future and what fate has hidden for me, when the end will come or how it will be."

These are the words of Jumah al-Dossari, a Guantánamo detainee who has been illegally held prisoner, without being charged for any crime, for more than four years by US forces. Amnesty International released a report today entitled, "Guantánamo: Lives torn apart – The impact of indefinite detention on detainees and their families". It reports on the ongoing hunger strike and force-feeding of the prisoners, the physical and psychological abuse which they suffer at the hands of their guards and the devastating effect which indefinate detention has had on their families. Jumah al-Dossari's story is just one of several accounts of abuse mentioned in the report.

"Throughout his detention in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Guantánamo, he claims to have been subjected to torture and ill-treatment, including beatings, rape and death threats, prolonged isolation, exposure to extreme cold, sexual assaults and having his body smeared with menstrual blood during the course of an interrogation. He is believed to have attempted suicide at least nine times. On 15 October 2005, he attempted to hang himself after going into the toilet during an interview with his lawyer. In declassified notes from a meeting with the lawyer in November, Jumah al-Dossari talked about this suicide attempt, explaining that he had wanted to kill himself so that he could send a message to the world that the conditions at Guantánamo are intolerable. He added that he tried to do it in a public way so that the military could not cover it up and his death would not be anonymous. This suicide attempt left him with a broken vertebra and fourteen stitches in his right arm."

His harrowing account of torture and abuse at the hands of the American military can be read in full HERE.

Negroponte, Rumsfeld and the Defenders of Democracy

Before the celebrations of Evo Morales' inaugaration as President in Bolivia have even died down, the US has already begun the propaganda process of labeling him, along with other left wing leaders in Latin America, as threats to democracy. Meanwhile, US moves to claw back some of the control it has lost in the region are already under way, and as always, their methods are anti-democratic and subversive.

In June 2004, 10 South American nations had $330 million in economic and military aid from the US canceled as punishment for refusing to sign bi-lateral agreements granting immunity from prosecution to American soldiers. On May 6th of 2005 however, Paraguay agreed to US demands and signed a deal to allow American military personel and civilian employees an 18 month stay in the country. On May 26, another agreement was signed, granting immuunity from prosecution to US military forces for crimes committed within the country's borders and from prosecution by the international criminal court.

"This agreement grants U.S. soldiers complete legal immunity from some of their actions while they are in the country, affording them the same privileges as diplomats as well as leaving them free from prosecution for any damages inflicted on the public health, the environment or the country’s resources. According to Servicio Paz y Justicia (SERPAJ) Paraguay, the Paraguayan National Congress passed this resolution allowing for the entry of U.S. forces with no debate, behind closed doors and with the public largely unaware of the entire transaction."

On July 1st, 500 fully equipped American troops landed in Paraguay and took up station at a base near Mariscal Estigarribia, a small city 200 kilometers from the Bolivian border. According to the council of hemispheric affairs (coha), the group was the first of at least 13 which will visit the base (which can house up to 16,000 troops) until the agreement runs out in December 2006.

"Jose Ruiz, Public Affairs officer for the U.S. Armed Forces Southern Command office, told COHA that “some military training will be operational in nature,” and the goal is to better equip Paraguayans to deal with the threats of narcotrafficking, terrorism, government corruption and poverty. "

These claims have been greeted with scepticism, and the move has alarmed Paraguay's neighbours in the region, particularly Bolivia, Brazil and Argentina, who claim that the agreements are paving the way for the US to set up a permanent military base there. (The FBI has also announced that it will be setting up an office in Paraguay later this year.)

There is an excellent article by W.T. Whitney jnr. to be found HERE, which outlines the political context and the implications of the agreement between the US and Paraguay, and the causes for alarm.

As Argentine Nobel laureate Adolfo Pérez Esquibel remarked: "Once the United States arrives, it takes a long time to leave ... and that really frightens me."

Yesterday, according to an article on venezuelaanalysis.com, Donald Rumsfeld compared Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez with Adolf Hitler, while John Negroponte, the head of American intelligence operations, alleged that Chavez was deepening ties with North Korea and Iran.

According to Rumsfeld,
“We've got Chavez in Venezuela with a lot of oil money. He's a person who was elected legally, just as Adolf Hitler was elected legally, and then consolidated power, and now is of course working closely with [Cuban leader] Fidel Castro and Mr. Morales [Bolivian President Evo Morales] and others. It concerns me."

Negroponte stated before an intelligence comittee,
“In Venezuela, President Chavez, if he wins reelection later this year, appears ready to use his control of the legislature and other institutions to continue to stifle the opposition, reduce press freedom, and entrench himself through measures that are technically legal, but which nonetheless constrict democracy. We expect Chavez to deepen his relationship with Castro (Venezuela provides roughly two-thirds of that island's oil needs on preferential credit terms). He also is seeking closer economic, military, and diplomatic ties with Iran and North Korea. Chavez has scaled back counter-narcotics cooperation with the US. Increased oil revenues have allowed Chavez to embark on an activist foreign policy in Latin America that includes providing oil at favorable repayment rates to gain allies, using newly created media outlets to generate support for his Bolivarian goals, and meddling in the internal affairs of his neighbors by backing particular candidates for elective office.”

A very useful association for Negroponte to make, because as the article notes,
"As the U.S. prepares to take actions against Iran in the very near future, publicly declaring a link between Venezuela and Iran, as well as North Korea, provides justification for an inclusion of Venezuela on the list of nations targeted by the Bush Administration for military intervention."

The irony is that the misleading language employed is clearly intended to paint the Venezuelan President (who enjoys a 77% approval rating) in the light of a dictator, but comes from two of the representatives of an administration that supported the failed coup against the democratically elected Chavez, and one of whom, Negroponte, ran South America's largest CIA station in the 80s in Honduras, directly responisible for countless atrocities through its role in supporting the contras in Nicaragua. Chavez and his left-wing allies, supposedly represent a threat to democracy, but as the article goes on to note, the real danger lies in the fact that,

"Rumsfeld and Negroponte represent the two entities in the United States that wage war: Defense and Intelligence. "

With this in mind, their comments have a certain ominous edge to them.

The Narrative Arts Club is back once again

Just a little note.
The organizor of the Narrative Arts Club here in Dublin has just left some comments on an earlier review I did of the storytelling club when it was just starting off, so here are the details and it should be well worth checking out if any of you are around Dublin (and feel like avoiding the normal Valentine's Day shmooze) on February 14th.

"Next time is Valentine's night, when the club will be holding a swamp party with the gorgeous, the courageous, the outrageous Angela Davis, who is coming all the way from New Orleans to entertain us with her unique participative take on storytelling, as she takes us on a virtual canoe trip through Cajun territory.
Also starring Tiny James, from Nigeria.
MC the aforementioned Ciarán MacMathúna - a well known figure from Dublin's comedy and improv scene. So please come along, and invite all your friends to the swamp party at the Central Hotel on 14 February.
Doors 7.30 pm for 8 pm start. EUR 5. "