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.

"Abortion is sacred": FEMEN activists interrupt Spanish congress debate on new fundamentalist abortion law

Three activists of FEMEN interrupted the discourse of Spanish Justice Minister, Alberto Ruiz Gallardón, getting topless and chanting "abortion is sacred" for a couple of minutes.

While some MPs applauded them, others, from the neofascist PP in government, yelled "out!" While the three women were being pulled out it could be heard in the microphones the voice of the Christian fundamentalist Ruiz Gallardón perplex about the slogan: "abortion is sacred?, abortion is sacred?"

This seems to underline the extreme difference in thought, conscience and concept between them and us, between the religious fundamentalists who try to impose their ideological dogma on others by means of law and the humanists who only believe in respect, dignity and freedom.

This is indeed a true clash of civilizations, one that has been going on for at least two centuries, since rationality began overcoming fanaticism. Sadly enough, the struggle has not ended with any decisive victory for the only side which can win; the forces of obscurantism, of darkness are still way too strong. It's they or us, freedom or cultist slavery, we must continue fighting. 

Source: Naiz Info[es].

Galicia: bomb attack against outspokenly fascist mayor

A bomb exploded early this morning in the Town Hall of Bouade (Galicia), causing important damages (two storeys damaged) but no victims. 

Incidentally, the mayor of that town, Senén Pousa, (affiliated to the Spanish conservative party PP) is infamous for his systematic apology of fascism, which has caused offense to many, something way too common among the so-called "populars", whose offenses to human dignity are always tolerated. 

This is not the first case of urban guerrilla in Galicia in the last years. In previous years employment offices and cash machines were targeted but the activity ceased for a time after some people were arrested.

More recently, in more assimilated areas of the state of Spain, there have been bomb attacks against iconic churches, again without victims. The last one was just a few days ago. 

It seems obvious that the anger is growing as the socio-economic and political situation degenerates, and that, for some, peaceful protests have grown increasingly pointless, after being systematically ignored, when not brutally repressed. 

I can only attempt to understand why this violent drift of the social anger. But I guess that, while some kill themselves in desperation, others resign painfully to the destruction of society and their own lives by the local and international bourgeoisie, who keep pocketing huge profits at the expense of the workers, etc., there are also those who think that something more radical must be done. 

The sad true is that the state calling itself Spain is deeply sick and its 45 million denizens are totally desperate. Everything in this is clearly a symptom of such depressingly chronic malady.

Main source: Público[es] (includes video and a photos of the fascist mayor posing with his horrible icons that I'd rather not replicate her).

Basque Country: annother social squat is born

A former convent was occupied recently in Durango (Bizkaia) by people who describe themselves as mothers, fathers, workers, electricians, teachers, young, known, unknown, students... mostly neighbors of the town.

They say that this occupation is a way to make our rights real by bringing back to life a building and lands long abandoned. 

Hope it has a long and fruitful life. 

Source: Bilboko Okupazio Bulegoa[es].

Obituary: Vo Nguyen Giap

A 20th century legend died on Friday. Revolutionary General Vo Nguyen Giap died in Hanoi at the venerable age of 102. He is also known as Ge Luo: volcano under the snow.

Castro and Giap

He was born in August 25th 1911 in a landless but literate farmer family. He began his revolutionary career already in high school, joining nationalist organizations at the age of 15. He was first arrested in 1930. 

In 1933 he began studying at the university but was expelled for his political activities. It was there when he met Truong Chinh, the main communist ideologue of Vietnam, joining then the Communist Party. He finally graduated as attorney in 1937 and got work as history teacher in a high school.

In 1938 he married a Thai woman, Dang Thi Quang, who was also communist.

In 1939 he published his first book, jointly with Truong Chinh, titled "The farmer question", in which they pondered about the role of the farmer class in the joint struggle with urban workers. 

In 1940 the Communist Party was banned by the Vichy regime and he escaped to China. However his relatives were not so lucky: his sister-in-law was beheaded and his wife sentenced to life in prison, dying a few years later because of tortures. His son, his father, two sister and other relatives were also murdered. 

In spite of all this tragedy, he studied the work of Mao in China and met the also legendary Ho Chi Minh. They founded the Dang Minh (Vietminh), which was a broad front of nationalist forces. 

In 1941 he went back to Vietnam to initiate the guerrilla war, in alliance with ethnic minorities. After a few years of frantic armed and political activism, he was in 1945 at the command of a 10,000 strong force, taking an offensive stand against the Japanese and proclaiming the independence of Vietnam with Ho Chi Minh as President. 

However defeating the Japanese was just the beginning. Soon France attempted to reclaim its colony, leading Giap to the epic battle of Dien Bien Phu, in which the guerrilla decisively defeated 15,000 French soldiers supported by US air forces. The arrogant imperialists were unaware of the ability of Giap's forces to move heavy artillery through the jungle. 

The French commander, ashamed, committed suicide soon after the Vietnamese guns began pounding their positions. The whole army was captured or died in combat. However the Vietnamese loses were also very important (exact figures are debated). 

After that, he defeated one after the other, the top generals of the French Army, resulting in the truce by which Vietnam was temporarily divided in two states. 

Giap's struggle did not end there. The war continued in the South, a tyrannical US neo-colonial protectorate, in a guerrilla war that lasted for more than whole decade. In 1973, the USA finally withdrew their forces and two years later Vietnam was united again under a red banner. 

Giap held the position of Defense Minister until 1980. 

In the meantime he also wrote the masterpiece of guerrilla warfare theory "People's War, People's Army", published in 1961. He also authored "Big Victory, Great Task", "Dien Bien Phu" and "We Will Win".

Main source: Webguerrillero[es].

Global eye opening about the shadowy reality of Spanish maverick judge Baltasar Garzón

This guy, who lead much of the worst repression against Basques and our most basic liberties, may be known to you because he is the defense attorney of Wikileaks leader Julian Assange or because he once made a futile attempt to bring Chilean dictator Pinochet to trial, embarrassing Great Britain.

But, in spite of being a character well worth of an intrigue novel or film, Garzón is essentially a hypocrite and a repressor, clearly aligned with the worst of Spanish and global elites.

Argentines are discovering it now and have dedicated a whole blog with plenty material on his person, to uncover the dark truth of Garzón. The materials are so far only available in Spanish, but they are interesting enough to teach me something new about this human worm and therefore to share here at least in outline form. 

Garzón was paid by multinational corporations to teach "anti-terrorism", he paid back in legal favors

→ article[es].

This is one of the items I did not know about beforehand. Spanish multinational companies CEPSA, Banco Santander, BBVA, Telefónica, Endesa and Unión Fenosa, paid Garzón €1 million to give a course on "international terrorism", along with such elements as Condi Rice, John Negroponte, Thimothy Geithner, Michael Chertoff, Michael Bloomberg, Rodrigo Rato, José Manuel Insulza (OAS) and Arthur Shulzberg (NYT).

The case was known publicly because in the 2010 revenge legal action taken against him by his own colleagues, it became apparent that he may have paid back Banco Santander by dismissing a case against them. 

The presence of so many US VIPs in Garzón courses was arranged by Banco Santander as well, on request of the maverick Spanish judge. 

The article links to a number of documents backing this case of cronyism.

Garzón used illegal wiretapping to hinder the investigation of the Gürtel corruption affair of the Spanish conservatives

→ article[es].

When still a judge of the Audiencia Nacional (especial political tribunal of Spain), Garzón wiretapped conversations between those investigated and their attorneys in what seems a clear case of intentional muddying of the legal procedure to nullify the prosecution. 

His defense attorney in that case is, quite notably, the same one defending some of those accused in the Gürtel affair, Francisco Correa, who is also godfather of Garzón's son. 

Garzón actively supported state terrorism in Colombia

→ article[es].

He provided legal assessment for the whitewashing of the many horrible paramilitary terror crimes under Uribe and publicly backed the Colombian state attorney in this operation of criminal impunity. 

Garzón attacked Bolivarian Venezuela in connivance with the oligarchy

→ article[es].

After being hired as public relations by the Venezuelan capitalist syndicate CONINDUSTRIA, he backed the RCTV broadcasting corporation when the license it had was not renewed by the government.

He also wrote the foreword of the book by reactionary leader Enrique Capriles Radonski Estado Delincuente (Criminal State), dedicated to defame the Venezuelan democratic socialism. 

Garzón worked against truth and reparation in the case against victims of Fascism in Spain

→ article[es].

Some have imagined, thanks to media hype and half-truths that Garzón was some sort of "hero" in the demand of justice for the massive crimes of Fascism in Spain. But the reality is very different. 

Not just he brought the cases to his own court Audiencia Nacional, legally not competent, but he has admitted publicly that:

• He stopped opening burials of the victims of Fascism
• He did not make any actual investigation whatsoever

His activity of sabotage of the case for some 157,000 victims of Fascist terror, has been denounced by human rights associations.

Garzón was a key piece in the political repression and tortures against the Basque People as well as US kidnapping of Muslims

→ article 1 (torture) [es].

→ article 2 (closure of media)[es].

Well known here but maybe not as well abroad. Garzón, along with other Spanish judges, notably those in the Audiencia Nacional, protected systematic torture against political prisoners of all sorts, not just Basques, but also Catalans, etc.

He also dismissed systematically all denounces of torture.

Garzón was a centerpiece in the political repression that exploded in 1998 against the Basque People. His infamous case 18/98 established the legal frame of "everything is ETA", by which every other Basque entity, be it political, social, cultural or even the media, have been persecuted in the last 15 years. 

He closed newspaper Egin (To Do, an excellent medium with lots of investigative journalism and high quality information and opinion), radio station Egin Irratia and magazines Ardi Beltza (Black Sheep) and its successor Kale Gorria (Damned Street), dedicated exclusively to investigative journalism and, therefore, a threat of truth and transparency against the many corruptions of the Spanish and Basque oligarchies. 

Many of their journalists were jailed and sometimes tortured. A decade later the case was dismissed but the harm was already done. 

Garzón collaborated with the kidnapping and tortures of Muslims by the USA

→ article[es].

Even such a coy organization as Amnesty international denounced Garzón for his active complicity in the US operations of arbitrary kidnapping of Muslim suspects and transference to Guantanamo concentration camp and other secret prisons worldwide. 

In the case of the only Spaniard held in Guantanamo, Hamed Abderrahaman Ahmed, Garzón was informed of the tortures suffered by this citizen but he preferred to bury the issue adhering to the doctrine of "all is Al Qaeda", by which every single Muslim is suspect and therefore, seemingly, unprotected by any law, much less this cynic.

Beware Julian, beware!

Basque Country: huge demo rejects inquisitorial persecution against human rights movement Herrira

A huge demonstration took Bilbao today to reject the inquisitorial operative against prisoner rights watchdog movement Herrira, which has been outlawed by some unelected foreign judge guy from Madrid overnight in yet another instance of imperialist oppression against our small but proud nation.

No media has yet dared to report an estimate of the number of assistants but the description of the march's head reaching its destination at the Town Hall while many were still awaiting to begin at the place of origin (La Casilla Square), make it perfectly comparable with the massive demo that Herrira organized in 2012, following the exact same course, and whose figures have been estimated in more than 150,000.

The 18 activists arrested on Monday (and later set free on bail and other restrictions) took part on the march, as well as many personalities of Basque culture, social activism and politics.

DROP ON DROP
For the rights of prisoners and exiles
A tide for the rights of Basque prisoners and exiles

Among other slogans, people chanted with especial emphasis Herrira aurrera! (go Herrira!) and euskal presoak etxera! (Basque prisoners back home!)

After an hour of marching, the head of the demo reached the Town Hall, while, as I said before, many still awaited to begin the protest at the origin. A communication intercalating Basque and Castilian (Spanish) languages was read (transcript available here). 

The communication emphasized, after expressing solidarity with Herrira and Basque prisoners, that:

We came here also for ourselves. Because somehow all us have been arrested, because we do not want to be a people under conditional freedom.

Indeed. That is exactly what all our struggle is about: our own freedom.

Later:

We have no intention whatsoever of spending our lives denouncing police raids and repeating the same demands once and again. Sometimes it happens that a particular demand becomes the representation of the desire of freedom, peace and democracy of a people. That is exactly what is happening with the issue of the rights of political prisoners.

Sources[eu/es]: Argia, Berria, Naiz Info, Ateak Ireki.


Update: Tsavvko, the Angry Brazilian (a great friend of this country) made some pretty good videos and photos:

→ another video (part of the closing act).

→ full gallery.

Spain: state terrorist Gral. Rodríguez Galindo set free

This is a clear example of double standards when speaking of terrorism. While the prisoners of ETA are given retroactively what amounts to life penalties¹, the prisoners of Spanish death squads are treated with all benevolence. 

It would be naive to expect otherwise but just in case someone is still believes that the law is the same for all. 

Guardia Civil Gral. Rodríguez Galindo was one of the key actors of the death squad known as Grupos Antiterroristas de Liberación (GAL, sometimes they used other acronyms), which murdered a large number of Basque citizens, some ETA members but many others not at all: political leaders, journalists, local activists, passersby and people they mistook for someone else. Galindo specifically was also involved in large scale drug dealing. 

Many trials against the GAL were fruitless or almost but Galindo and two other military policemen were eventually found guilty of the kidnapping, torture and murder of Basque exiles Josean Lasa and Joxi Zabala. Their brutally mutilated corpses were buried in quicklime in the countryside of Valencia. 

In 2001 they were punished with more than 70 years of prison each, 75 in the case of Galindo.

Galindo already enjoyed, since 2004, a privileged of home prison on alleged "health issues" (you'd have to watch the irate Spanish chauvinists in TV when an elderly ETA member got a similar deal recently because of a terminal cancer).

Now he has been just set free. The tribunal said that he has "fulfilled two thirds of his sentence, after discounting the redemptions". 2x75/3=50, not 12! What "redemptions" if he was at home, not being able to work for the prison system?

Probably the most favorable possible reading of the law allows for this but the case is that he is a brutal terrorist, kidnapper, torturer and murderer and that in other comparable cases no redemption nor reductions of any kind are considered. 

When the Basque People is being subject to yet another inquisitorial persecution, not against armed fighters but against human rights defenders, this only adds to the many many grievances we have against the Spanish occupation.

Source: Naiz Info[es].

________________________________________________________

¹ Parot doctrine: sentences add up even beyond the constitutional limit of 30 years and no redemptions whatsoever are applied. It is applied retroactively against the repeated jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights.