Iconoclastic Xmas

I despise Christmas with its stinky mixture of Patriarchal pseudo-religious word-idolatric ritualistic dogma and Capitalist commercial consumerist brainwashing in the prostituted name of peace, love and whatnot. 

Truly I feel much like this FEMEN activist who had the gills to interrupt the pitiful decadent Christian ritual with such an obvious Pantheistic slogan:

But what really motivated me to write this Xmas entry was this excellent postcard by graffiti artist Banksy, which says it all:

After all Palestinians are the real descendants of the protagonists of the Bible and their situation today is much worse than under Herod and Pilate. Possibly even worse than under the Roman genocide.

Somehow related in the Xmas knot is this other American Gestapo story which also illustrates how undercover fascist is the Imperial regime we live under. The FBI investigated the classical Christmas film "It's a Wonderful Life!", full of "honest capitalism" propaganda and religious magic because it depicts a powerful banker for what they are: greedy and evil. 

The screenwriters Francis Goodrich and Albert Hackett were accused in the report of being crypto-Communists. As evidence of such tendency, having lunch with other screenwriters claimed to be Communists was apparently enough. Also some details of the plot (the suicide attempt scene) have vague parallels in a Soviet movie.

So that's what your taxes and tributes to the Empire are wasted in: protecting Scrooge from being shown as he really is.

Sources: Webguerrillero[es] (link 1, link 2) and The Daily Mail for the American Gestapo story.

Machiavellism, social dominance orientation and authoritarianism are tightly related (and subclinically psycopathic)

Depending on one's ideology this may seem either obvious or counterintuitive but that is what a powerful set of five successive studies has found.

Laura Niemi & Liane Young, Caring across Boundaries versus Keeping Boundaries Intact: Links between Moral Values and Interpersonal Orientations. PLoS ONE 2013. Open access → LINK [doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0081605]

Abstract

Prior work has established robust diversity in the extent to which different moral values are endorsed. Some people focus on values related to caring and fairness, whereas others assign additional moral weight to ingroup loyalty, respect for authority and established hierarchies, and purity concerns. Five studies explore associations between endorsement of distinct moral values and a suite of interpersonal orientations: Machiavellianism, prosocial resource distribution, Social Dominance Orientation, and reported likelihood of helping and not helping kin and close friends versus acquaintances and neighbors. We found that Machiavellianism (Studies 1, 3, 4, 5) (e.g., amorality, controlling and status-seeking behaviors) and Social Dominance Orientation (Study 4) were negatively associated with caring values, and positively associated with valuation of authority. Those higher in caring values were more likely to choose prosocial resource distributions (Studies 2, 3, 4) and to report reduced likelihood of failing to help kin/close friends or acquaintances (Study 4). Finally, greater likelihood of helping acquaintances was positively associated with all moral values tested except authority values (Study 4). The current work offers a novel approach to characterizing moral values and reveals a striking divergence between two kinds of moral values in particular: caring values and authority values. Caring values were positively linked with prosociality and negatively associated with Machiavellianism, whereas authority values were positively associated with Machiavellianism and Social Dominance Orientation.

A synthesis of the results of the five studies is presented in figure 2:

Figure 2. Summary of correlations observed across all studies.
Each square represents an observation of a significant partial correlation (politics, religion, and gender controlled). Each circle represents an observation of a significant zero-order correlation. Study (#) indicated on each circle/square. Moral values are color-coded.

"Mach" means Machiavellianism and "SDO" means social dominance orientation, which are clearly and positively correlated among them, via the same set of "group values" (ingroup loyalty, authority and purity). Instead helping those close to oneself and prosocial distribution are very positively correlated among them and associated with the "humanist values" or caring and fairness.

This is very much counterintuitive, especially as the authors use the term "individualizing" for the caring and fairness values, which makes absolutely no sense to me, as individualism means selfishness and aloofness, even misanthropy. Hence I replaced that term for "humanist" although I also pondered "personalist" (as the person can be something more whole and socially connected than the individual).

The produce of the two sets of values is even more at odds with the concept individualism. In fact it is the group (or "binding and dividing") value people who actually strive for social dominance and favor Machiavellianism. This is because they do not think in the group as extensive but as intensive and almost certainly as tool for their own individualist selfish goals. 

Interestingly:

Most interpersonal behavior requires individuals to balance selfish motivation with prosocial motivation – to be a positive social partner who helps other people. These orientations are not mutually exclusive – care for the self is at times necessary to enable care for others. However, for some individuals, a motivation to dominate or exploit the group for selfish aims, measureable as Machiavellianism [20] or Social Dominance Orientation [21], may take precedence. Individuals high in Machiavellianism (“Machs”) admit to employing manipulation and deception to achieve power, status, control, and financial success [20]. These goals require successful management of group relations, which may in turn shed light on the paradoxical nature of Machiavellianism. Machs are often described as socially skilled, well-liked, popular, and excellent at building alliances [22], but they are also subclinically psychopathic [23] and exploitative of others' trust [24], [25]. Machiavellian negotiation of relationships and social structures for personal gain may benefit from a moral stance that elevates values like loyalty and deference to authority. More specifically, these values are critical for the preservation of existing social order but largely insensitive to concerns about caring and fairness. Moralization of these values – alongside relative indifference to caring and fairness values – could facilitate strategic hierarchy management while freeing the individual to feel morally justified in engaging in manipulative or exploitative behavior.

Subclinically psychopathic is a most revealing concept. I have often though of this as a real social problem of first order. The subclinicality may only be because psychiatry has established a boundary not to touch the powerful, what would be playing with fire. But, as we will see below, there is more to it.

What happens with social dominance orientation?

Relatedly, Social Dominance Orientation (SDO) is characterized by a desire for inequality and a tendency to categorize people along a hierarchical “superior-inferior dimension” [21]. SDO, like Machiavellianism, has been found to predict various antisocial outcomes, including explicit racism and sexism as well as reduced empathy and concern for others [21], [26], [27]. While SDO has previously been identified as negatively correlated with individualizing values and positively correlated with binding values [2], SDO has not yet received attention for its potential positive connection with binding values when political orientation is controlled. Since an orientation towards social dominance requires a strict hierarchical worldview, a positive correlation between SDO and authority values, regardless of political orientation, would be predicted [2].

Later in the discussion they turn back to "Machs":

What could account for the positive relationship between respect for authority and Machiavellianism, an antisocial interpersonal style associated with strategic manipulation? Indeed, Machs have been shown to lie more convincingly [35], steal more readily [36], and rationalize deeds with callous unemotionality [37]. To provide the foundation for two potential explanations for this surprising relationship, we first describe two relevant aspects of Machiavellianism: (1) Machiavellianism and psychopathy are distinct in relation to social norm processing, and (2) Machs are likely to be dominant individuals in positions of authority. Next, we propose two potential explanations for the positive relationships between moral valuation of respect for authority and Machiavellianism: (1) Machiavellianism may entail moralization of respect for authority for a variety of strategic reasons, and (2) authority values may license Machiavellian behavior.

Discussing the subtle differences between Machiavellianism and outright psychopathy:

Although Machiavellianism is characterized by selfishness and shares some overlap with psychopathy [23], Machs are not necessarily aloof and unconcerned with social norms. Instead, the ability to manipulate others may actually benefit from a keen sensitivity to norms that govern social structure.

Instead most clinical psychopaths tend to be aloof. 

Another key difference is that Machs are highly sensitive to punishment, while again true psychopaths may be somewhat indifferent to this social corrector, so Machs retreat and even give away profusely in order to avoid this outcome.

Machiavellianism is also clearly related to dominance and control and, therefore to respect for authority:

In addition to being hyper-attuned to social structure, Machs are also likely to reside at the top of those structures in positions of authority. Machiavellian-style social climbing tactics (e.g., manipulation and deception) are more likely to be used by individuals high in dominance and well-equipped to assume authority over others [38]. Likewise, Machiavellian supervisors in a range of business sectors have been described by subordinates as employing authoritarian work habits involving strict control over a hierarchical workplace structure [46]. As individuals who recognize they can personally benefit from “working the system” from a position of authority – rather than attempting to make the system work for all – Machs may be more likely to identify respect for authority as relevant or even central to their concepts of “right and wrong”.

Ironically Machiavellianism finds in authoritarianism a self-serving morality. Being able to play the game and climb to the top, Machs clearly benefit from such respect to authority themselves and will spread the word among their subordinates. It also helps themselves to self-regulate their behavior in ways that are within the boundaries of the game, yet still selfish. Accepting others' authority acts as self-protection and gives them a moral varnish, internalizing these values allows them more easily to perform their flattery and igratiation climbing tactics (otherwise probably perceived as humiliation).

The authoritarian ethics seem also useful in order to condone otherwise anti-social behaviors such as cheating, graft or torture. Other recent studies have shown that individuals primed to feel high in power – that is, closer to “authority figure” status – were more likely to endorse unethical and antisocial behavior [55], [56].

Something I really miss in this study is the proportion of tendencies among the studied group, which could reflect general distribution in society. While the statistical correlations are systematically produced the proportion and intensity of the values of the actual human sample is not shown.

The authors assume that the prosocial values are generally desirable but in reality what I have found way too often is that many people, especially those in intermediate command positions or with a career to develop, experience serious contradictions between the "official" prosocial or humanist ethics and the "unofficial" but very real Machiavellian one. I would even say that they often feel emotionally broken by this contradiction. And this "they" at least sometimes becomes "we" and "I", so painfully.

It would certainly be interesting to study this contradictory social and psychological reality, even cross-culturally. 

In any case this study does produce some very interesting data that should be most valuable for future and more comprehensive research. It also produces very important information for our meditations on our social and personal reality, and certainly it also applies to past realities, at least since society became complex and hierarchical.

TEPCO finally admits that they failed to cool molten nuclear fuel at Fukushima

Remember that in March 2012 the Japanese Government lied to the whole World claiming that the cold shutdown had been achieved in Fukushima Daiichi? I do, because I was utterly scandalized knowing what I knew, knowing that it was the most criminal lie since the denial of the Holocaust... or maybe even worse. Millions of people, children included, in Japan and elsewhere are being exposed to the radioactive harm of the worst nuclear accident ever and all they cared about was to save face with a lie so big and so murderous.

Yesterday finally TEPCO admitted publicly (→ Asahi Shimbun) that they completely failed to even achieve a half-decent cool down of the three nuclear meltdowns and that they knew that since late March 2011:

... water failed to cool it and the other reactors efficiently, and could not stop the core meltdowns in the No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 reactors.

I knew too. Not in such detail but it was quite obvious for anyone with a critical mind and some independent information.

“We should have shared the finding with the public in the belief it would help promote universal safety, but failed to do so,” said [a] TEPCO Managing Executive Officer... 

Yes you should indeed.

EneNews (which is the means by which I found those news) also reports in the same entry of a 2011 study on the consequences of Fukushima catastrophe:

Jiřina Vitázková & Errico Cazzoli, Estimate of Consequences from the Fukushima Disaster. NPSAG Research Reports 2011 → LINK

This study estimates that, at the time of its publication, more than two years ago, Fukushima was already almost four times as bad as Chernobyl. It's difficult to estimate how it is as of today but I would not be surprised if it is 10x as bad as Chernobyl already (or even worse). 

But, unlike Chernobyl, which is semi-contained, Fukushima is impossible to contain because of its proximity to the sea, and therefore to the underground water table as well, there are no human means to contain it at all. The catastrophic site will keep polluting forever in human terms, what means several Chernobyls every year. 

Nobody wants their children to have to put up with that, right?

I actually have serious doubts about the planet and human life being able to withstand such a nightmare in the long run but, assuming we can survive this mega-catastrophe, it is absolutely clear that nuclear energy must be eradicated immediately, before another even worse catastrophe happens. 

Also Japan should be completely evacuated, at the very least the Northern half of Honsu, including Tokyo Metropolis.

Interview with Andalusian Workers Union leader Diego Cañamero (video in Spanish)

The repressed and censored Basque counter-information site Ateak Ireki (Open the Doors) is still available for those connecting from outside the Spanish legal prison of peoples and therefore I still get uncensored feeds even if I can't directly contact with the site. I can also reach to their YouTube account without problems.

Today they publish an interview with Diego Cañamero, leader of the combative Andalusian Workers Union (SAT), which has promoted supermarket and land expropriations in order to highlight the extreme social injustice that the Capitalist system provokes in Andalusia. Therefore he has dozens of legal cases open against him, as happens with many other activists of this union and sympathizers, but has declared himself total resister against trials, ignoring citations. He explains that he has been repressed with every single government, so let them do whatever they will.

Partly in an attempt to overcome neo-fascist censorship, I am translating below the text surrounding the video but I cannot translate the video-interview itself, which is in Spanish language.

From Ateak Ireki (censored in Spain):

[Video] Diego Cañamero (SAT): "We are legitimate to throw down governments who do not fulfill their word".

The speaker of the Andalusian Workers Union announces that they are preparing a great march to Madrid, to be participated by unions and social movements from all the state, including its nationalities.

Ateak Ireki has used the visit of Diego Cañamero to Iruñea [Pamplona] to speak in length with him on the economic, political and social situation in the State of Spain.

Cañamero assures that the land is "not any merchandise" but a good that must be "at the service of all human beings".

After recalling that he has been arrested in the dictatorship and under all and each governments of "democracy", he states that "the repression against the people who struggles has not changed" but that, nevertheless, this repression "never could defeat the justice of the peoples".

In this sense, the speaker of the Andalusian Workers Union underlines that "a society which does not rebel against injustice is accomplice" of it and that, right now, "unity is the great challenge of the transformer left". 

He reminds also that "people have not authorized with their vote the delay of retirement age, that [public] money is given to banks, that the baby check is removed, nor that public workers lose their extra pay nor that pensions get reduced", reason why he considers that "the people is legitimate to depose governments" who do not fulfill their word. 

In this line, he announces that they are preparing with unions and social movements "large marching columns to collapse Madrid".

We shall not live under fear

I will have some news soonTM on what will happen with my political blogging activity, although I admit I have not cut all corners yet. But meanwhile...

Someone sent me this news link on the absolutely megalomaniac and scaringly Orwellian logos of the actually megalomaniac and scaringly Orwellian US program Total Information Awareness (TIA).

The truth behind the threat:
"Whoever grabs too much, squeezes too little"
(Castilian saying)

In my infancy universe, the TIA was actually a Spanish mockery of the CIA in which two rather dumb and useless secret agents always ended up doing it wrong. While this may not be the case anymore at all, I can't but find ridiculously pretentious the propaganda distilled by those logos and the equally propagandistic TV series The Last Enemy, which aims to justify such totalitarian control.

In fact, the striking issue with all US civilian surveillance programs is that their real aim seems to be to instill fear, because they cannot obviously process such a huge amount of data, even with the help of the most powerful computers. Absolute control is absolutely impossible, science and reality demonstrate once and again.

While the White House and the Pentagon may be doing their best to look as scary as Hitler, or even worse, the reality is much more like Chaplin narrated it in his awesome movie The Great Dictator. They are just apes like us and they bleed exactly like us and that means that they also slack exactly like us and commit brutal errors exactly like us. "They" are not perfect at all. In fact the system tends to select rather imperfect but obedient minions, what makes them extremely vulnerable to degeneration.

That's probably why they attempt to project a very scary shadow. Of course their megalomania and totalitarianism is very scary but, as Orwell correctly said, fascism cannot succeed where people can still laugh at the goose step.

And all those scary icons are nothing but their pathetic form of goose step and their goal is clearly to instill fear. 

But we shall not live under fear, rather we live with much higher emotions: LOVE and RAGE! 

And a good laugh, of course.

Basque Country: Inquisition censors major news website, freedom of speech under siege! (updated)

I have to (briefly) interrupt my blogging hiatus to report a most brutal abuse against freedom of speech in the Basque Country: the Spanish Inquisition (Audiencia Nacional) has decreed the illegality of the news website Ateak Ireki (Open the Gates), which has been a major and steady source of information for this blog and lots of people. 

Being apparently located outside the Spanish jurisdiction, the website is still available from outside the Castilian imperial borders and via proxy but cannot be directly accessed through any known server under Spanish jurisdiction. 

The decree is not firm and can be appealed but we have seen before how such legal routes are delayed indefinitely in the cases of newspapers and other media, so it could take many years or even decades to reverse this censorship by mere legal means, if at all. 

Naturally I can't but flatly reject and denounce this new attack against freedom of speech in the Basque Country by the occupant power of the South. There's little more that I can say other than thank the people behind Ateak Ireki for all their hard work and hope that new venues of free information are opened soon. 

I must of course underline how this is yet another major aggression by the neo-fascist regime of Spain against the feeble and nearly non-existent "peace process", but, even more importantly, against the most basic human rights: freedom of opinion, freedom of speech and freedom of information.

There is only one way out of this perpetual Spanish fascist imposition: independence!

Sources[es]: Borroka Garaia Da!, Naiz Info.


Update: I'm still getting the feed from Ateak Ireki, 11 entries in the last few days with contents like:

• Iruña-Pamplona pro-popular fiestas movement Gora Iruñea! seeks to get a primordial place in the day-by-day of the city.
• Catalan SEPC union's dance team to perform in Pamplona.
• Basque prisoners continue their hunger strike in Seville for their rights.
• Rock star "El Drogas" shows solidarity with the squatters of Sanduzelain.
• Five Navarrese political prisoners could be released after the European Human Rights Court resolution against the Parot doctrine.
• High Speed Rail (AHT-TAV) works stopped by direct action at Kadreita.
• Marine Pueyo (former city councilor) speaks for the struggle in favor of the Basque flag and against suppression of human rights. 
• Basque student union Ikasle Abertzaleak comments on the irregularities in the latest Student Dance Festival.
• Video-report on the struggle for the Basque banner in Navarre.
• Pie throwing fun action in solidarity with the activists who threw one such pie against the totalitarian President of Navarre Yolanda Barcina (who are being subject to trial).

And then of course a commentary on their own forced closure, which I translate here in full [in square brackets = my own translator notes]:

#AdierazpenAskatasuna The Audiencia Nacional decrees the closure of Ateak Ireki.

The Spanish emergency tribunal bases its decision on a report by the [military police corps] Guardia Civil to relate this medium with Herrira [prisoner rights movement recently persecuted by the same court] and this way end its journalistic activity. The resolution of the AN can be appealed.

Ateak Ireki could be closed by the Audiencia Nacional. The Spanish emergency tribunal bases this new attack against freedom of speech on a report by the Guardia Civil, which relates this communication medium with the movement Herrira, against which it acted on September 30, arresting 18 of its members.

The Audiencia Nacional has issued an order demanding to several telecommunication media to impede access to Ateak Ireki, as well as to the closure of their social media accounts and the webpage itself.

This decision is not yet firm and can be appealed, although we ignore if in the upcoming days or hours the webpage or our social networks will stop being operative. 

A sad day for democracy

From Ateak Ireki, in a preliminary emergency evaluation, we denounce this new attack against freedom of speech and information. We want to recall that Ateak Ireki arose from the impulse of dozens of Navarrese journalists who, after the closure of Apurtu.org, advocated for small media like ours to have space in the communication panoramic and for the freedom of information and speech to be respected. Therefore we believe that today is a very sad day for democracy in the Basque Country and that again the Audiencia Nacional is deciding what must and must not read the citizenry, just like the Spanish Inquisition used to. Ourselves resolve to confront this new attack against democracy with the only weapon on our hands: the exercise of freedom of speech.

Rethinking my blogging activity

Dear readers:

The reality of my blogging activity right now is that it has become zero (in both blogs) and that I need a serious and calm revision of my way of organizing my own blogging activity so it remains a pleasant hobby and does not become (as it has happened) a burdensome unpaid work.

As I see it right now, the biggest part of the problem is that I would like to read and comment on way too many things, what is a practical impossibility. This happens in both facets of my blogging activity, the anthropological one and the socio-political one, however I reckon that the latter is the main cause of my stress. This is probably because I tend to try to cover all kind of news, often of great interest, through the whole world, as if my humble blog would be some sort of online newspaper or equivalent. This "vice" probably stems of my long activity in counter-information media in which I often fulfilled the role of volunteer journalist. I realize however that I cannot do that anymore, not at the level required by the flow of news much less respecting my own personal needs of leisure and rest.

Therefore I have decided to go on hiatus on both blogs as provisional measure, while I meditate and reorganize my blogger activity and take a much needed vacation of sorts, something I had not done in years (sure: no problem... until you break down). This "vacation" may take some time.

I have also decided that I will continue with the anthropological blog in due time because I do feel it is the activity that seems more important of what I do, having a greater impact, applause and (arguably) need. I will still take that "vacation" as needed but I plan to return some time soon (at worst around new year, just to mark a deadline). I will have to be more selective however on what to comment in order to more effectively use my time in a pleasurable and productive way. I also need to be a bit better organized.

Instead I have made no clear decission about the political blog because I realize that the current format is not working for me. I need to meditate a lot on this but so far I know that the information blog it is a format that does not work, certainly not for me, and that a counter-information medium needs of a cooperative work and cannot be built just on individual voluntarism. However I do not want to renounce to express myself on such matters but I have to ponder very carefully how to focus my interest. Essay only is something that does not really capture my imagination so I'm pondering some sort of equivalent to what could be a small weekly or bi-weekly magazine (in the less regular blog format of course), with one or few articles on selected matters much more sporadically than now.

It is just a preliminary idea and I am setting no deadlines for the political blog's hiatus yet therefore. I have first to chew on all this in much greater depth.

Selecting is still a problem for both blogs and something that burdens me as well, but, other than eliminating those feeds that only rarely produce useful information, which are not that many, and being somewhat more careless about reading and pondering them, I haven't found any solution.

Certainly getting myself better organized is important. Also taking more time can in some cases produce better quality materials. So in general I do have that idea of being much more selective than before on what I dedicate my efforts to and a bit less immediate. We'll see how it works.


In brief:

For what they were... we are continues in hiatus but will come back soon[TM], hopefully improved.

For what we are... they will be is now in hiatus and I have no clear idea of what to do with it yet. I needs a deep rethinking clearly.

Comments will continue to be pre-moderated in both blogs because, even if the troll activity seems to have greatly receded, I fear that some of them are just lurking around in wait of a change in this situation (so obsessive they are in many cases). The last thing I need is to be away from the computer for a few days and find my blogs full of trollish junk when I come back.

Also those reading the Wordpress version of For what they were... probably want to follow the Blogspot version by the moment, not just because it is the one I actually write on (the Wordpress one being a mirror or backup by the moment, getting only irregular updates) but because it is where the discussions really are (although admittedly right now they are all quite cold because of the ongoing hiatus).

I have not been able to decide if to migrate to Wordpress or not. This is another thing I need time for. It's largely a matter of familiarity and functionality, so I would indeed welcome opinions of people who are familiar with the Wordpress format, which I find myself sometimes struggling with to get what I want, for example a sidebar with a blogroll.

Thanks for your patience and all your supportive comments, they do make a difference, really.

What's going on?

I'm about to severely dampen my blogging efforts (I'll write something later on that) but by the moment here is in brief what seems most important that has happened in the last days:

Basque Country:

European Human Rights Court sentences (again) that Basque prisoner Inés del Río must be set free and that the Spanish doctrine of factual imprisonment for life ("Parot doctrine", only applied to Basque prisoners, quite arbitrarily) is illegal under the European Human Rights Convention.  → Borroka Garaia Da![es]


Italy:

Country paralyzed by massive protests and worker strikes in second weekend of protests → Webguerrillero[es].

Huge protests lead by the "antagonist" social movements against the Troika and the bourgeois "unity" government→ Webguerrillero[es] (incl. video).

Demonstrators attack German Embassy in Rome with firecrackers → video WG[es].


Spain:

Two young men in hunger strike for the resignation of the government → Webguerrillero[es].

Police unions denounce the government for training them in criminal methods such as shooting directly against protesters with rubber bullets → Webguerrillero[es].


Belgium:

Durao Barroso, President of the European Comission (EU's unelected directorate), bombed with rotten eggs in Liege → Webguerrillero[es].



Catalan Countries:

IMF vice-director, Josep Vignals, conference in Valencia University interrupted at the chant of "murderer!" → Webguerrillero[es].


France:

Large protests against the deportations of immigrant children → Webguerrillero[es]. Also: video of clashes.


Britain: 

Teachers march for their salaries and pensions → Webguerrillero[es].

Wokers are also poor in Britain: 3/4 of poor children in Britain belong to families where at least one parent works full journey. The UK has very high levels of poverty and very low levels of social mobility → Webguerrillero[es].


Romania:

Large marches against polluting Canadian mining multinationals → Webguerrillero[es].


Syria:

Video of the brutal murder of a family by NATO-sponsored Islamists → Webguerrillero[es].


Brazil:

Clashes between teachers and police → Webguerrillero[es] (video).

Police murders young man by beating → at Contra Info. 


Colombia:

Some 130 people injured by police forces in repressive bout against the Native uprising that, according to their organizations, is active in 17 districts of the republic. → Webguerrillero[es].

Previously several police agents and soldiers were retained by the Native pickets → Webguerrillero[es].

Joint marches of Natives, farmers and students take Bogotá and other cities → Webguerrillero[es].


Honduras:

Candidate murdered. Elvin Hernández, of the Libre coalition that represents the anti-putschist democratic and socialist forces, was murdered. Previously Hernández had been member of the Liberal Party. → at LINyM[es].


Dominican Republic:

Riots shatter the country after young boy murdered by police. → Webguerrillero[es].


USA:

Elderly man murdered by LA police in unjustified drug raid. As usual, police blames the victim → Webguerrillero[es].


Environmental catastrophe:

"The ocean is broken : Report from sailor Ivan Macfadyen aboard the Funnel Web" → at Fukushima Emergency (not about radiation this time but the brutal destruction of overfishing).


Fukushima nuclear catastrophe:

Fukushima Daiichi former director, Masao Yoshida, dies of cancer → at Fukushima Emergency. Of course they claim it's "impossible" that his cancer is in any way related to the nuclear catastrophe but they lie even more than they talk and this guy, like other Fukushima personnel, went through a major nuclear explosion (the explosion of reactor 3 was a nuclear one, without doubt) and all the other radiation derived from the slower but equally destructive meltdown in the three other reactors affected). My respects because I do not think by a second that he was directly responsible for the accident, he just worked there.

Typhoons seem to have dramatically aggravated the already disastrous situation at Fukushima Daiichi → EneNews. 

Mi'kmaq nation uprises against fracking

The First Nation of the Atlantic coasts arose against the damage to their lands caused by fracking (destroying the Earth's crust to scratch for gas and oil, disturbing the crust's stability and polluting the water).

Canadian police and army acted to repress the road blockades, using all kind of weapons from pepper spray to war dogs, from revolvers ready to fire to planting explosives in a ridiculous attempt to frame up the rebels as "terrorists", as their southern colleagues did with Leonard Peltier decades ago.

At least 40 have been arrested so far. 

The conflict can end up with deadly victims any moment because the Canadian state is clearly unwilling to allow the Natives rule on their own lands (how typical), which for them are just colonies to exploit.

Source: RT, Canada.com.

EU public bank finances Zionist genocide of Bedouins

Not only the USA finances the genocidal Jewish-only colony in Palestine, the European Union also does: our money is being used to finance the genocide of Palestinians. 

For example the Europan Investment Bank is financing colonial developments in the very same area of Naqab ("Negev") where the Bedouin with Isreali ID card but no rights because not being acknowledged as Jewish, even if they probably have more blood from Moses, Aaron and all that bunch of cultist madmen than the Ashkenazi new arrivals from the North, never mind the same shepherd lifestyle. 

The EIB is lending €150 to build a huge thermo-solar energy plant in the lands robbed to the Bedouins. David Cronin explains that:

The plant is being built in Ashalim, an Israeli community [Zionist colonial settlement], located beside the Bedouin village of Bir Hadaj. On 10 September, a number of orders to destroy property were distributed in Bir Hadaj by the Israeli authorities. Yet the Luxembourg-based bank — an EU institution — appeared to pay no attention to that brazen attempt to uproot the indigenous people of the Naqab.

Unlike Cronin, I'm sure that they did pay all attention and said: that's exactly what we are here for: developing the European colonies, lending to the Imperial vassals. After all the directors' board of European public banks are not subject to democratic scrutiny but are just a corrupt bureaucracy at the service of Big Capital. 

Source: Electronic Intifada.

Palestine: Zionist colonists stage new terror attacks while the Apartheid Army watches

Just the usual, I fear, but it must be mentioned. From Electronic Intifada:

Armed settlers attack mosque, burn cars in West Bank village

Israeli settlers raided Burqa, a village near the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, on 10 October. In addition to vandalizing the village mosque, three cars were also set ablaze in front of their owners’ homes.

This attack and others appear to be in response to the recent killings of Israeli soldiers in the West Bank. A mere fifty meters down the street, the perpetrators spray-painted graffiti on the side of the mosque. “The redemption of Zion loves Tomer Hazan,” it read, referring to an Israeli soldier who was killed in the city of Qalqiliya last month.

The attack followed one in the Jalazone refugee camp, also in the Ramallah area, on 27 September. After setting two cars on fire in the camp, Israeli settlers left graffiti proclaiming that the act was revenge for the killing of an Israeli soldier in Hebron (“Settlers set two cars on fire near Ramallah,” Ma’an News Agency, 27 September 2013).

Despite the illegality of their presence under international law, Israeli settlers face virtually no consequences for their routine violence against Palestinians. Across the West Bank, these settlers have targeted Palestinian holy sites, farmers, buildings and land with increasing frequency.

“They came around 1 o’clock am and wrote on the mosque. Then they set our neighbor’s car on fire before they came to our garage and set my truck and our car on fire,” said Abu Ali Nitham, a farmer who lives at the edge of Burqa.

... continue reading at EI.

Basque Country: thousands support Inquisition victim

Luis Goñi has become the latest prisoner of conscience of the Basque Country but not without a fight.

Goñi, who is persecuted for his political activism and no other reason, as so many other Basques, stood in the center of Iruñea-Pamplona, sheltered by a large human wall.

The protest continued all day and only in the night, police finally intervened, violently enough to cause  injuries to at least three.

Video of the police intervention and arrest:

A great bravo for the Navarrese people, especially the youth, who were there in large numbers. This kind of nonviolent actions seldom impede Inquisitorial repression but they do serve to evidence the repression itself and its fascist nature, eroding the power of the authorities, which in our country are foreign invaders with zero legitimacy. 

Sources[es/eu]: Naiz Info, Gara.

Spain: two more fascist attacks on "Hispanity Day"

In Palencia (Castile) a group of fascists attacked a homosexual couple at the battle cry of "get them: they are faggots!" Thanks to citizen intervention and police arrival the damages of the attack could be limited. The same group of boneheads seems to have been harassing an old man before.

The attackers were identified and a denounce has been made. The lesions caused include face, skull, thorax and cervical vertebrae. It was lucky that they were not armed. 

Communist beaten in Madrid

A member of the Communist Youths (UJCE) was attacked by seven facists wearing Falange uniforms, apparently drunk, beating him several times. The victim was attended at hospital for rib injuries and pain in one hand. 

Both aggressions happened on October 12th, "Hispanity Day", one of the major chauvinist holidays of Spain. This kind of attacks have been growing quite worryingly in spite of the near zero support that outspokenly fascist parties get in elections (most of them vote "moderate" chauvinist options like PP or UPyD, and even make a substantial part of their militants, being outrageously tolerated by these parties).

Source: Sare Antifaxista[es] (link 1, link 2).

Russia: police allows and collaborates with Nazi riot

Some 1500 Russian Nazis took part in an illegal protest in Moscow with the pretext of a murder incident in which the aggressor was allegedly an immigrant.

Police did not just tolerate the protest for hours but also conducted anti-immigrant raids simultaneously, arresting some 1200 people on documentation grounds. 

While the police remained passive, the Nazis attacked a commercial center (which has some immigrants in the plaintiff). 

Finally they did charge against the Nazis, who chanted slogans like "White power!" or "Go Russia!", arresting 400.

Some 30 people were injured, four of which were hospitalized. 

Source: Público[es].

Confirmed: Arafat was poisoned with polonium

That is the information that Russian daily Kommersant reports today and is reflected by several media in other languages, for example RIA Novosti in French or LINyM in Spanish.

The source of the information is anonymous but said to be very close to the investigation. The results are already there and have been given to the widow, Suha Arafat, who is the one deciding if they will be published or not.

But regardless of her wishes, which may well be conditioned by other interests than the right of the public to know the truth, the conclusions are already there and seem very clear: Arafat was indeed poisoned by polonium-210, as was already strongly suspected.

The big question is: who carried on the poisoning. I have no doubt that Israel was at the very least in agreement with the murder, I strongly suspect Russia as the origin of the polonium (typical KGB mafioso method) but why nobody else in the Ramallah complex was poisoned? It seems obvious that the radioactive substance was given to Arafat in person, what means that elements of Al Fatah were involved as well.

It was indeed the Al Fatah cuppola who dissuaded Suha Arafat initially from carrying on an autopsy. So I would consider that mercenary bantustan dictator that is Abbas as the main suspect.

Mexico: court blocks GMOs

From Volatility:

For Mexico, “Without Corn, There Is No Country”

A Mexican federal judge has ruled that the government may not authorize field trials or commerical planting of genetically modified (GM) maize so long as lawsuits filed by citizens, farmers, and civil society groups are continuing in the courts.

The judge granted the injunction in a case filed by Accion Colectiva (Collective Action), an alliance of farmers and democracy advocates. The case argues that the government has allowed field trials* and is rushing to approve commercialization without having conducted the safety and contamination tests and environmental reviews required by Mexican law and the Mexican constitution, Article 27 of which requires protection of genetic biodiversity as a common good.

[*Corporate field trials and "safety tests" never involve food safety or environmental contamination, but are the bare minimum to confirm that animals gain weight and/or that a plant grows and produces a crop. The extent of the safety confirmed is merely that the animal or plant doesn't immediately drop dead.]

Accion Colectiva lauded the ruling as a critical step in their campaign to protect Mexico as “the birthplace of corn”. The lawsuit is part of the broad political campaign, Sin Maiz, No Hay Maiz : “Without Corn, There is No Country”. One of the leaders of the movement, Father Miguel Concha, said that the ruling helps the campaign toward its goal of preserving “the human right to save and use the agrobiodiversity of native landraces from the threats posed by GMO maize.”

This action, like others which seek the necessary abolition of GMOs, focuses on the socioeconomic injustice and impracticality of patents in seeds which are part of the public heritage and property, and the agricultural and environmental destruction wrought by the inevitable contamination of crops and ecosystems wrought by GMOs.

... continue reading at Volatility.

Ecuador: fight for the right to abortion

While President Correa shames himself and all the Left claiming that he will step down if abortion is legalized in Ecuador, a dozen women protested in Parliament FEMEN-style for its legalization. 

The President of the Ecuadorean Parliament, Roxana Alvarado, impeded that police evicted them saying: "gentlemen of the public force, we have not requested your intervention". 

She added: this is a public space and demonstration is allowed, I request that the public force retreats and let them demonstrate in freedom. 

In Ecuador abortion is only allowed for women with severe mental problems, less than 1% of the population. 

Meanwhile the Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa has strongly tied himself to the reactionary fundamentalist Christian dogma by advancing that he won't sign such legislation and even blackmailing his own coalition Alianza País with his resignation if the law is passed. 

Correa accused the MPs of his own party who support freedom of abortion of "disloyalty" and by the moment he has achieved that Paola Pabón retired her proposal to legalize abortion. 

Shame on you, Correa!

EU: IMF proposes huge tax on savings

It seems clear that the Cyprus savings crisis was just the beginning. Back in the day there were already voices proposing to tax savings and it seems their time has come. Faced with plummeting income sources EU states may agree to tax savings above €100,000 with a yet unclear figure, speculated to be 10%. 

Uh, just what happened in Cyprus!

Or is it a "one time ~30% tax on all assets", as Zero Hedge speculated? Or is it a 10% on all households with "positive wealth", as suggested by the Fiscal Monitor? 

They are in any case trying to impose it stealthily, "before avoidance is possible". 

Oops, just as happened in Cyprus!

Of course, the rumor is already spreading, so it may not work at all. 

In any case it illustrate the terrible woes of this deep systemic crisis, whose cost, as happened some 230 years ago in France, can't be unloaded anymore only on the shoulders of the workers.

Source: The Automatic Earth.

USA: food stamp program stops working on "maintenance"

In as many as 17 North American states the debit cards of the food stamp program have stopped working altogether, forcing many to spend the money they do not have in food.

The culprit seems to be Xerox, which is doing maintenance work at the system. It does not seem related to the budget crisis but one wonders why would Xerox do that? Is it a way of putting political pressure of some sort?

Whatever the case, in the meantime, people are being forced to pay for their most basic foodstuff, what in most cases is beyond what they can really afford. 

Source: EXSKF.

EU: 43 million can't even afford food

According to data of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, some 43 million EU citizens can't even afford food anymore. 

This is 8.5% of the population of the continental confederation (507 millions) but the actual figure must be larger in fact because the data only gathers information from 22 states (the EU has 28 members). The most affected states are Croatia, Romania, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Spain and Italy. 

No truce for the poor: fines for being forced to sleep outdoors

In Spain the situation is particularly severe, as the ultra-conservative authorities are issuing anti-beggar regulations such as heavy fines for sleeping in the streets. In Madrid specifically, those sleeping in the streets, begging or washing car windscreens for a tip, will be fined with up to €1.500, a figure that obviously they do not have. 

Other activities like skating will also be sanctioned in the Castilian capital. 

According to official sources, in Spain one of every five people (almost 10 millions) is poor, 2.2 million children suffer hunger and 30% of owned homes are in or nearing mortgage default (debt that will continue even after eviction).

Source: Webguerrillero[es] (link 1, link 2).

Italy: massive protests against the Troika

Many thousands of students marched this Friday through the streets of at least 80 Italian cities against the class dictatorship of the Troika. 

At least in Milan and Rome there were serious clashes as the youths attempted to overcome the police lines. In Rome they tried to take over the Ministry of Finances. 

Source: Webguerrillero[es].


Update (Oct 20): video of the clashes at the Finance Ministry:

Spain: repression and censorship (Madrid's latest)

Three activists of the anarchosyndicalist union CNT-AIT were arrested in Leganés (Madrid) upon a loud whistle of discontent at the inaugural discourse of the local fiestas. 

The protest was directed against the Mayor and the town government (conservatives, PP) and continued after the inauguration at the caseta (provisional tavern) of this party. A huge police deployment charged then against the crowd with great violence. 

The three arrestees have been beaten with particular brutality. As usual, they are accused of made-up charges of "attack against authority" and "public disorder". 

There have been further protests demanding the release without charges of those arrested.

Concert suspended for "political reasons"

The concert Love Music, Hate Fascism, scheduled to take place in the Shoko stage of Madrid, has been canceled in the last minute for unspecified "political reasons", as reported by the regional authorities.

The concert of Dr. Calypso and Ministers was organized as part of the Antifascist Week 2013. 

Source: Madriz Rebelde[es] (link 1, link 2).

Colombia: major mine blocked by Indigenous Peoples

The mine of BHP Hilton in Cerro Matoso (Montelíbano, Córdoba Department), producing 4% of global nickel, has been blocked by pickets of Native Americans of the Zenú nationality. 

The protesters demand payment of environmental compensations for the pollution caused by the mine since 30 years ago. 

Source: Webguerrillero[es].

Dominican Republic: extremely racist measures may leave more than 200,000 without nationality

The Dominican Supreme Court decreed that all citizens whose ancestors acquired the nationality since 1929 be deprived of it. This affects especially to at least 210,000 Dominicans of Haitian ancestry who may now become stateless, in clear violation of international Human Rights conventions, as well as the general legal principle of no retroactivity. 

Article 15 (of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights).

• (1) Everyone has the right to a nationality.
• (2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.

Naturally, the Dominican Republic is signatory of this convention.

There is a long history of mistrust and racism between the two countries of Hispaniola. Haiti controlled the Spanish-speaking eastern half for decades until this one broke apart, raising the issue of Mulatto vs. Black racism (sometimes bidirectional). This ethnic and racist conflict has shadowed the relations between both states but never reached this level of outright denial of the most basic human rights by such a high institution.

Protests and diplomacy have been going on since this absurd resolution but with no results so far.

Puerto Rico: demo against pension cuts

Puerto Rican teachers marched on Wednesday against the planned pension cuts which may reduce their future earnings as much as 50%, what in their words means leaving them in dire poverty.

The cuts have been dictated ("suggested") by private rating agency Moody's, to whom Puerto Rico Governor Alejandro García Padilla immediately paid fealty. 

Source: Webguerrillero[es].

Basque representative scenifies in Spanish Congress the "punishment" of the new chauvinist education law

While the ruling party PP (ultra-conservatives, including many outright fascists) plummets in polls, they are using their legal mandate, not just to curtail salaries, pensions and social rights, but also to force-feed a lot of reactionary laws. 

Earlier this week it was FEMEN who brought the attention of the media on the fundamentalist anti-abortion law by means of nonviolent direct action and yesterday it was Basque representative Xabier Errekondo (Amaiur, i.e. Basque Nationalist Left) who had to use his reduced speech time to call attention on how the new Spanish education law is fascist and chauvinistic, by graphically portraying its essence with the old school punishment of being forced to stand with a book on each hand.

Among other fascist impositions, this law forces the teaching of a single version of history in all the territory occupied by Spain, version in which the history of the Basques, for example, doesn't even exist.


Update: a more detailed look at the new Spanish education law

As Gara[es] explains, these are some of the most hateful aspects of the LOMCE, from a Basque viewpoint:

Basque language becomes less important, as Spain imposes teaching a minimal number of subjects in Spanish, breaking the immersion strategy so popular in the Basque Country.

Religion (Catholic dogma) becomes a relatively important and almost compulsory subject.

Increased discrimination between "good" and "bad" students.

A new ranking of schools, something forbidden before.

Loss of power of teachers and parents, more power to the director.

Imposition of an extra test before you can get the bachelor degree (high school graduation), what may leave many unable to access any sort of superior education, be it vocational or university. This test may be managed by private agents (unclear so far).

Basque Country: giant banner and other activities against political repression in Navarre

As political repression against all those who dare to express their disagreement with the Christian Fundamentalist pro-Spanish regime in Navarre increases, so does rebellion.

Activists masked with fake beards, dark glasses and hats took to the roofs of the Old Quarter of Iruñea-Pamplona to raise a giant banner over Gaztelu Plaza, where Pompey (who gives name to the city) raised his camp more than 2000 years ago and the center of the city to this very day.

The triangular banner, resembling a festive neckerchief, read simply Askegunea badator, that is: the Freedom Zone (Askegunea) is coming. This refers to the activities in support of the victims of political persecution that will take place this weekend, with a march from Gares to Obanos[eu] on Saturday and a demonstration, followed by festive activities, in Iruñea-Pamplona on Sunday. 

In another video[eu], one of those persecuted by the Spanish Inquisition, Luis Goñi, explains that he will be around in Pamplona (but not in the march) this Sunday, openly risking arrest.

Source: Ateak Ireki[es]. 

Basque Country: to jail for protesting in Pamplona

The totalitarian repression in Navarre has been increasing in the last decades, up to the point that citizens who just express their opinions publicly are getting not just beatings and fines but very serious prison sentences. 

One person was already punished to 5 years and 3 months of prison for the incidents in the protests of the San Fermin procession of 2011.

Now 13 citizens involved in the attempt of deployment of a giant Basque flag in 2010 are again being asked for penalties that total 33 years of prison (state attorney) or 160 years (private accusation).

The situation of widespread repression by the Spanish occupants reminds of the time of Fascism.

Source: Ateak Ireki[es] (incl. video of the clashes).

Ethiopia: millions of Oromo and Somali suffering genocide

One of the origins of the endless tsunami of refugees reaching Europe and other places is Ethiopia. This most informative article from Black Agenda Reports explains why: ongoing mass genocide silenced by the media

Ethiopian Killosh (ethnic states)

Ethiopia’s 10 Million Human Tsunami

Mon, 10/07/2013 - 20:43 — Thomas C. Mountain

Most of the millions of Ethiopians forced into the global limbo of displacement are Oromo or ethnic Somali from the Ogaden, victims of the Ethiopian regime’s genocidal policies. During the recent devastating drought, “all of Oromia and the Ogaden affected by this catastrophe were prevented from receiving food and medical aid by the Ethiopian regime” – one of Washington’s closest allies in Africa.

Ethiopia’s 10 Million Human Tsunami

by Thomas C. Mountain

“At one point up to 1,000 people a day, mostly women, children and the elderly, were dying of hunger.”

Every year for a decade or more a million Ethiopians, 10 million and counting, have left, or fled, their homeland. While the television screens of the world have been flooded with images of North African migrants drowning off the Italian island of Lampedusa, the bones of tens of thousands of Ethiopian refugees lay in unmarked graves along Yemeni shores or at the bottom of the Indian Ocean or Red Sea.

How is it you might ask, that this 10 million human tsunami remains almost unknown to the world? And why, why would ten million Ethiopians, one in every 8 people in the country, risking their lives in many cases, seek refuge in foreign, mostly unwelcoming, lands?

The answer lies in the policies of the Ethiopian regime which have been described by UN investigators in reports long suppressed with words such as “food and medical aid blockades,” “scorched earth counterinsurgency tactics,” “mass murder” and even “genocide.”

Most of the Ethiopians refugees are from the Oromo nationality, at 40 million strong half of Ethiopia, or the ethnic Somalis of the Ogaden. Both of these regions in southern Ethiopia have long been victims of some of the most inhumane, brutal treatment any peoples of the world have ever known (it has been estimated that a full half of all Oromos were wiped out during the western supported Abyssinian Imperialist colonialization during the late 1800’s by the forefathers of “Emperor” Haile Sellasie).

These past few years saw the worst drought and famine in the Horn of Africa in 60 years yet almost all of Oromia and the Ogaden affected by this catastrophe were prevented from receiving food and medical aid by the Ethiopian regime.

What country in the world is allowed to expel both the Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders during such a humanitarian crisis and not be roundly condemned by the international community? Only Ethiopia.

In Somalia alone the UN has admitted at least 250,000 starved to death during this famine with estimates for the victims in Oromia and the Ogaden running at least this high.

500,000 people starving to death in a couple of years and no outcry from the world? At one point up to 1,000 people a day, mostly women, children and the elderly, were dying of hunger and all we got was a New York Times best seller on the CIA’s “dirty wars” in the Horn of Africa which somehow failed to condemn this enormous crime.

“Every day some 3,000 Ethiopians flee their homeland, almost 100,000 a month, another million or more this year.”

Ethiopia remains the largest recipient of international, mainly western aid, in the world. Recently sources in Addis Ababa from within the offices of the IMF have sent word that Ethiopia’s import bill has reached almost 12 billion dollars a year while exports are only $2 billion. $10 billion a year in “aid,” “loans” or “investment” make Ethiopia entirely dependent on foreign good will to survive yet the world is helpless to prevent the enforced starvation of hundreds of thousand or over 10 million Ethiopians fleeing their country?

In the past ten years we have seen many reports on over two million Iraqi refugees and now another more than 2 million Syrian refugees. Yet more than twice this number of Ethiopian have become refugees and this fact remains unknown to the world?

When speaking of these crimes I am not speaking in the past tense for every day some 3,000 Ethiopians flee their homeland, almost 100,000 a month, another million or more this year. Many flee by boat from the shores of Somalia, heading for Yemeni shores and hopefully on to safer lands. How many boats sink with the loss of almost all onboard, or worse yet, have their passengers thrown overboard while still offshore will never be known. The international navies that patrol this region seem to care little for preventing the human trafficking mafias from carrying out their ghoulish trade, far to busy protecting the interests of the major shipping lines through these very same waters. Have you ever heard of a drone strike or commando raid on a human trafficking headquarters? Are any of these vermin trading in human misery ever listed on international “Most Wanted” bulletins?

Why should they, for the criminals ruling Ethiopia not only are allowed to continue business as usual but actually see their cash flow in the form of “foreign aid and investment” increased by a third since 2010 while at the same time hundreds of thousands of Ethiopians starve to death.

So next time you are confronted by images of lines of corpses along the shores of Italy remember that this is something that goes on almost everyday in the Horn of Africa but doesn't merit comment, let alone disgust and outrage by those most pious of commentators in the international media.