Looking for Eric / Haifa Film Festival and Welcome Redistribution of Wealth
October 14th, 2009 § 1 Comment
Rebecca O'Brien, Paul Laverty, Ken Loach, Kierston Wareing, Juliet Ellis and Leslaw Zurek at the Venice Film Festival 2007
PULSE Exclusive
It is not often we hear of bosses voluntarily sharing profits, so it was with some delight we heard the good news that the Chief Executive, Nurit Shani, of Lev Cinemas and Films in Israel will use the profits from our film “Looking for Eric” to benefit Israeli film makers. We hope this new found determination to redistribute wealth will be matched by her wisdom in choosing to support those film-makers most starved of resources. Logically, that would mean those brave free spirits in the Israeli artistic community who decide to respect the cultural boycott and refuse to accept any funds from the Israeli State. Who knows, but perhaps some time in the future Nurit Shani’s vision will help kick start projects about those courageous Isreali soldiers who formed the group “Breaking the Silence” and spoke out against the “reckless and gratuitous use of white phosphorous” in civilian areas in Gaza, and were appalled by the use of Palestinians as human shields? Perhaps too we will be fortunate to watch films about those young men and women in Israeli prisons who refuse to join the Israeli army because of the illegal occupation of Palestinian lands. And why not include Palestinian film makers or is Israel really an apartheid State?
LIVE FROM HONDURAS: Micheletti declares revenge on US in World Cup qualifying match
October 13th, 2009 § Leave a Comment
A few weeks prior to the October 10 World Cup qualifying match between Honduras and the United States, the appointed Costa Rican referee was replaced with a Panamanian one. The substitution of nationalities was explained in Saturday’s La Tribuna as being due to the fact that Panama was not also a World Cup contender; my newspaper vendor had a slightly different take on the situation, which was that Costa Rica intended to skew not only the internal politics of Honduras but also its athletic legacy in favor of the United States.
Regarding US manipulation of Latin American destinies, Honduran political analyst and former Congress member Matías Funes – speaking over coffee the other morning – noted inconsistencies in the evolution of the golpista position vis-à-vis the regional superpower, such as that coup government functionaries who had previously maintained a policy of obsequiousness had now discovered the principle of autodeterminación. According to Funes, the evolutionary trajectory was particularly visible in the career of golpista Foreign Minister Carlos López Contreras, who had been assigned the nickname “Carlos López Contras” in the 1980s despite his insistence that there were no armed Nicaraguan groups in Honduras.
On Lacking Heroes and Good Ideas
October 13th, 2009 § 4 Comments
News of the Nobel Peace Prize being awarded to yet another war profiteer was received with shock from both sides of the political spectrum when Barack Hussein Obama was named the winner last week. American historian, intellectual and long-time peace activist Howard Zinn’s reaction was fair and to the point:
I was dismayed when I heard Barack Obama was given the Nobel peace prize. A shock, really, to think that a president carrying on two wars would be given a peace prize. Until I recalled that Woodrow Wilson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Henry Kissinger had all received Nobel peace prizes. The Nobel committee is famous for its superficial estimates, won over by rhetoric and by empty gestures, and ignoring blatant violations of world peace.
Conversely, famed right-wing radio-host Rush Limbaugh shared Zinn’s dismay and disapproval, although for different reasons:
He’s not only the first post-racial president; he’s also the nation’s first post-accomplishment president. He has risen above incompetence. He’s now judged on wishful thinking. Gore, Carter, Obama…Don’t worry about it, Mr. President, your day is coming. Gore, Carter, Obama, soon Bill Clinton, you see a pattern here, folks? Liberal sellouts get this prize.
The following latter part of Limbaugh’s spiel is cited because quoting the hate-monger is a necessary evil. No matter how confused and demented his ideas may be, he is referred to by many as the voice of millions of American Republicans:
No Quarter on the Frontier
October 12th, 2009 § 2 Comments
'Everything is coming up roses in Pakistan' -- ForeignPolicy.com
The day that I arrived in Pakistan mid-September, the frontpage story on Foreign Policy magazine’s ‘Af-Pak Channel’ carried the exuberant headline ‘Everything’s coming up roses in Pakistan’. In the next four days the frontier capital of Peshawar would be hit by five rocket attacks. The week after there would be a car bombing. And things have only gotten worse since.
There was much triumphalism about the Pakistani army’s decisive action in Swat. Some were even encouraged to claim ownership of the war; it wasn’t an American war anymore, they said, it was ‘our’ war. The Pakistani liberal elite exhorted the military to press on and carry out similar actions in the Federally Administered Tribal Agencies (FATA). The militants seemed demoralized; it was was time to finish the job. It was not to be.
US, Venezuela find selves on same side of resurrected Cold War
October 10th, 2009 § Leave a Comment
Attendees dance at function in favor of educational reform in the Venezuelan state of Anzoátegui. (Photo by Amelia Opalinska)
Following a one-and-a-half year hiatus from the United States and a 15-year hiatus from my mother’s family in Florida, I paid them a visit last month. I arrived to north Florida from Honduras, where the pro-coup population remains convinced that Honduran teachers are propagating socialist ideology via opposition to military coups; I was unaware that the educational system of the US had also been infiltrated by socialist ideologues but was brought up to speed by my grandfather, who informed me that my mother’s sister was partially to blame for the infiltration as she had voted for Barack Obama.
LIVE FROM HONDURAS: Esdras Amado López Explains Increasing Lack of Chemistry between Channel 36 and Roberto Micheletti; Coup President Fails to Confiscate Award He Signed to Journalist and Station Owner in 2006
October 8th, 2009 § Leave a Comment
Channel 36 TV, Tegucigalpa
According to Amado López, Micheletti’s appreciation for technological innovation had declined in accordance with Channel 36 news reports of his alleged involvement in premeditated financial mismanagement and the nonfatal shooting of an attorney who had participated in the 2008 hunger strike at the Congress by public prosecutors protesting corruption in Honduras. Micheletti meanwhile explained the lack of chemistry between Channel 36 and himself by accusing Honduran President Mel Zelaya of funding the news outlet, an accusation challenged by Amado López, who pointed out that TV stations “sell advertising, not rocks,” that Zelaya’s government had paid for their ads just like people presumably paid other stations for ads comparing Zelaya to Hugo Chávez, and that golpista Rafael Ferrari owned far more media outlets than he himself did.
Why did Mahmoud Abbas bury the Goldstone Report?
October 8th, 2009 § 4 Comments
In the Al Jazeera interview posted below Richard Falk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, reflects on the Mahmoud Abbas headed Palestinian Authority’s decision to abandon a resolution to hold Israel accountable for its war crimes in Gaza.
You can access the 575 page ”Goldstone Report,” officially titled “Human Rights in Palestine and Other Occupied Arab Territories: Report of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict,” here.
Falk’s earlier reflections on the Goldstone Report can be read here.
Be sure to also check out Ali Abunimah’s scathing critique of Mahmoud Abbas and the PA’s actions here.
“To the trash heap of history, you traitor, Mahmoud Abbas”
October 8th, 2009 § 1 Comment
Palestinian protesters throw shoes at a poster of Mahmoud Abbas during a demonstration in Gaza City, Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2009. The poster reads: "To the trash heap of history, you traitor, Mahmoud Abbas." (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa)
US Exports to Arab World: Missiles replaced Merchandise
October 7th, 2009 § 5 Comments
Arab Import Market Growth and Declining US Share
According to Robert Fisk at The Independent, Arab states are quietly ditching the US dollar in their energy trade. The gradual reduction of dollar reserves could have a devastating effect on the value of the dollar and ability of the US Treasury to finance the national debt.
While the price of gold is rocketing skyward the Israel lobby is no doubt quietly celebrating. Over the past decade, a multi-tiered strategy aimed at getting Americans to see the Middle East as a battlefield rather than a marketplace has slowly unfurled—with devastating results.
