LIVE FROM HONDURAS: Honduran neighbors dupe Hondurans into thinking there is coup
July 31st, 2009 § 8 Comments
Roger Vallejo Soriano, in a condition Venezuelans and Nicaraguans might define as bloody. (Photo: La Tribuna)
I approached a police officer on the sidewalk in Tegucigalpa yesterday to inquire as to the whereabouts of the current protests in favor of deposed Honduran President Manuel Zelaya. The officer informed me that protesters had blocked the highway north of the capital, that it would take me two hours to reach the blockade on foot provided I was not mugged on the way, and that if I did arrive I would most likely be hit with a stray rock or other projectile. His concerns were confirmed when a teacher received a bullet to the head after the protest moved to a large market in the city; still not confirmed is whether the teacher is dead or alive, although if alive he might do well to heed the lesson contained in the caption on page 8 of today’s El Heraldo, which corresponds to a picture of him on a stretcher in his underwear: “Professor Roger Vallejo Soriano ended up with a head wound. He had abandoned his classroom in order to go out and protest in the streets.”
The police officer assured me that there would be more protests taking place today starting at 10 AM, and that they would also be infiltrated by Venezuelans, Nicaraguans, and possibly a few Salvadorans, all of whom were provoking the Hondurans into thinking there had been a coup in Honduras. If this coup were really a coup, the officer argued, he would not be standing on the sidewalk merrily chatting with me but would instead have assumed a harsher disposition. He indicated passing traffic and pedestrians as proof of the freedom of movement permitted by the non-coup regime of Roberto Micheletti; I in turn brought up the curfew which presently ran from 1-4.30 AM in Tegucigalpa and 6 PM-6 AM on the Nicaraguan border—a schedule which had, according to an article recently featured in the daily La Tribuna, reduced the freedom of movement of sex workers.
The Triumph of Spectacle
July 31st, 2009 § 4 Comments
Chris Hedges on GritTV: How did such a sizeable portion of modern society develop into a post-literate, fantasy-fueled, perma-reality show? Noted reporter Chris Hedges speaks to the wonderful Laura Flanders about his new book: The Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle.
Resigning from Cohen and Amnesty
July 30th, 2009 § 12 Comments
Activists leafletting a Leonard Cohen concert in Liverpool
Renowned Irish composer and novelist Raymond Deane on the reasons why he has chosen to resign from Amnesty International. We encourage readers to follow Deane’s example.
When I first – and belatedly – began fretting about human rights and political injustice in the wake of the 1990-91 Gulf War, I joined Amnesty International and started writing letters and cards to political prisoners and to a variety of Embassies.
Although I was subsequently drawn deeply into activism of a more explicitly political nature – particularly on the Israel/Palestine issue – I retained my Amnesty membership out of residual respect for the organisation, but also because I wished to be in a position to say “as an Amnesty member myself, I completely disagree with the organisation’s stance on…” (fill in the dots as appropriate).
Obscenity
July 30th, 2009 § 3 Comments
This is, more or less, a selection from posts I made during the Gaza massacre.
According to the dictionary, obscenity is what is offensive or repulsive to the senses, or indecent in behaviour, expression or appearance.
From Palestine come pictures on the internet, and on al-Jazeera – burning half bodies, a head and torso screaming, corpses spilt in a marketplace like unruly apples, all the tens and hundreds of infants and children turned to outraged dust. A little more out of focus, but concrete, there is the obscenity of starved refugees and cratered farmland, of shriek-soaked hospital walls and babies born at checkpoints. Still further behind these instances, these symptoms, looms the brute and perpetual obscenity of the ancient Canaanite-Arab Palestinian people having been driven from their land into camps and walled ghettoes, where they have been repeatedly massacred. All of this is offensive, repulsive and indecent. The Western media, not wishing to offend our senses, keeps the obscenity quiet. Better put, they cloak the obscenity with the greater obscenity of untruth, of dreaming a pleasant version while people bleed and die.
This should concern everybody, and first of all writers and readers. For the prime obscenity for us here, away from the immediate death and panic, is the language we use to hide the reality of what’s happening. We use magical terms. This is how it goes:
LIVE FROM HONDURAS: Nicaraguan Constitution joins list of documents violated by Zelaya
July 30th, 2009 § Leave a Comment
Zelaya, mid-violation. (Photo: AFP)
Arriving to Toncontín airport in Tegucigalpa, Honduras yesterday, I asked the customs official processing my US passport how long I was permitted to stay in the country. The woman looked up from her desk at me and replied icily: “One day.”
Fearful that this was a sign of diminishing US influence in Latin America, I squeaked: “Por qué?”, at which point the woman entered into a fit of laughter and welcomed me to Honduras for 90 days. Other versions of the Honduran welcome had been experienced by ousted President Manuel Zelaya in early July, when the Honduran military blockade of Toncontín airport had not been removed amid a fit of laughter and the military had instead fired at the crowd of Zelaya supporters that had gathered to watch his plane circle overhead.
Zelaya has since transferred his intended point of homeland penetration to the Nicaraguan border, where the “reckless” behavior of which he has been accused by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has included stepping briefly into Honduran territory. According to Clinton, an elected president’s attempts to remain president do not at the moment “contribute to the broader effort to restore democratic and constitutional order in the Honduras crisis.” She refrains from discussing whether the prohibition of public consultations on the issue of constitutional reform is a more effective contribution to democracy.
A Decisive Turning Point?
July 27th, 2009 § Leave a Comment
The Guardian reports on British campaigning in Afghanistan, specifically an “operation” which ”took nearly 3,000 British troops, many engaged in gun battles, to capture an area the size of the Isle of Wight.” I do wonder what meaning the verb ‘capture’ has here.
The article relays stories told by “British officials” and a couple of named officers, stirring stories which involve “a risky air attack” and a “Taliban drugs bazaar.” Twenty two British soldiers have been killed in Helmand province this month alone, so I expect our officials are thinking very hard indeed about the stories they tell. The recent adventure is called ‘Operation Panther’s Claw’, and is hoped to be “a decisive turning point in the eight-year conflict.”
We shall see. In the meantime, what seems a potentially decisive sign is the language and direction of this Taliban ‘code of conduct’. It demonstrates not only a higher stage of organisation than at any time since the movement’s 2001 defeat, but also a leap forward in ethics and political understanding.
On suicide bombing, the code says
(These) attacks should only be used on high and important targets. A brave son of Islam should not be used for lower and useless targets. The utmost effort should be made to avoid civilian casualties.
Taste worth dying for?
July 27th, 2009 § 5 Comments
The waitresses of The Heart Attack Grill.
Alternet, July 2009
In the late 90s while writing a paper about fitness training studios in a marketing class Jon Basso came up with an idea for a new theme based restaurant which he would call The Heart Attack Grill. Years later this American’s dream would become a reality in Chandler, Arizona where The Heart Attack Grill has literally been serving up death sentences on a plate since 2005. Menu choices include Quadruple Bypass Burgers (8,000 calories per a serving) and Flatliner Fries deep fried in loads of good old-fashioned pure lard, served by scantily clad women in nurse outfits. Basso himself (known as Dr. Basso though he holds no medical certifications) will even examine you with a stethescope and have you exit the restaurant in a wheel chair should you feel too weak from resulting blood clots to walk out by yourself. There’s also no chance of having your kids eat for free at this restaurant — only the customers who agree to prove they weigh 350 pounds or more can enjoy that privilege!
While the health craze movement has been increasingly penetrating various aspects of North American society for decades, everywhere from the workplace to the home and of course the food and drink industry (even Fat Burger which has been around since 1952 offers healthy menu alternatives now), The Heart Attack Grill has been promoting an anti-health rebellion. Basso even goes so far as to prohibit the existence of any calorie-conscious choices on the menu. Those who would have normally opt for a Diet Coke can choose a drink like Mexican Cola instead which is made with real sugar.
Between ‘Social Fact’ and Fiction
July 26th, 2009 § 1 Comment
Hamid Dabashi, Reza Barahani and Noam Chomsky at the international day of protest for Iran
As we have noted earlier, with all due respect, we find Hamid Dabashi’s notion of ‘social fact’ problematic, and would find it utterly unacceptable if it were to be used by our adversaries. Zionist myths after all are still a ‘social fact’ for many in the US and Israel. Here is Max Ajl‘s riposte to Dabashi. (Also see As’ad Abu Khalil’s response to Dabashi’s criticisms of him and Azmi Bishara).
Hamid Dabashi has had a remarkably consistent line about what’s going on in Iran. Consistency is an admirable trait, and the line is an attractive one. It goes something like this. Dabashi demurs from taking a stance on whether there was electoral fraud, calling it a “social fact,” e.g. widely believed in Iranian society. He deems the demonstrators part of a burgeoning “civil rights” movement. He calls Mousavi a nascent “Gandhi,” or “Mandela.” He says that the protesters are a rainbow-hued, heterogeneous lot: middle class, lower class, peasants, workers, plumbers, waiters, officers, bankers, students, professionals. And he doesn’t say much about those who voted for Ahmadinejad, or protested in favor of his victory, or stayed home.
A recent Al-Ahram essay crystallizes this message in remarkably compressed form, although slightly adulterated by a bit of ideological obfuscation. The obfuscation comes when he lectures Palestinian intellectual Azmi Bishara, for having the temerity to note that there exists in Iran an “ideology that claims to have answers for everything and that seeks to permeate all aspects of life.” According to Bishara, that ideology “is a real religion embraced by the vast majority of the people…a religious doctrine is the state ideology, the clerical hierarchy defines and anchors the state hierarchy, and the lower echelons of the clergy are the intermediaries between the people and the ruling ideology.”
Thomas Friedman goes to Afghanistan, saves me from boredom
July 25th, 2009 § Leave a Comment
Admiral Mike Mullen attends school opening in Pushghar. (Photo: US Dept. of Defense, US Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Chad J. McNeeley)
After producing only one column during his recent visit to Iraq, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman has already churned out two in Afghanistan, the next stop on his tour of areas affected by US diplomacy. The tour is occurring in the company of chairman Admiral Mike Mullen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and there is a pedagogical theme running through all three columns, starting with Friedman’s assertion that “[w]e are going to find out just what Iraqis have learned soon.” What they should have internalized from the US occupation is, Friedman implies, the value of cooperation between US troops of different backgrounds—“men, women, blacks, whites, Asians, Hispanics.”
Afghanistan meanwhile has not yet reached final exam time, as evidenced by the title of Friedman’s July 18 article: “Teacher, Can We Leave Now? No.” The article begins: “I confess, I find it hard to come to Afghanistan and not ask: Why are we here? Who cares about the Taliban? Al Qaeda is gone. And if its leaders come back, well, that’s why God created cruise missiles.”
The People are in the Streets Demanding Liberty
July 24th, 2009 § 11 Comments
Toncontin airport. (Photo by Neil Brandvold)
By Neil Brandvold, who was at Toncontin airport in Tegucigalpa awaiting the arrival of President Zelaya’s plane when the Honduran military opened fire on the crowd.
The democratically elected president of Honduras, Mel Zelaya, is currently making plans for a second attempt to enter Honduras since he was ousted in a military coup just under a month ago. Earlier this week, Costa Rican president and Nobel Peace Prize winner Oscar Arias proposed a plan to return Zelaya to the presidency. Zelaya agreed to all conditions outlined in the proposal, including establishing a power-sharing government and holding presidential elections on Oct. 28, a month earlier than scheduled. The proposal was immediately rejected by the junta.
Zelaya has arrived at a Nicaraguan town on the border of Honduras with plans to enter the country by land, stating: “I have requested my wife and family accompany me, and have made the military responsible for any damage. I am going unarmed and peacefully so that Honduras can return to peace and tranquility.” It is a risky move for the president and his supporters, especially considering his first attempt to re-enter the country on July 5th was blocked by the junta. On that day, the military open fired on a gathering of upwards of 100,000 peaceful demonstrators at the Toncontin airport in Tegucigalpa and subsequently blocked the runway preventing the plane from landing.
