went to whiteface mountain in the adirondacks (near lake placid) with family and friends. hiked the flume knob trail, right next to whiteface. it’s a short but steep hike (four miles round-trip) to a rocky ledge which offers great views. the first mile climbs gradually, but the second mile is straight up and quite challenging. here we r en route to the top.
come brothers, we have far too much work on our hands to revel in outmoded games. europe has done what it had to do and all things considered, it has done a good job; let us stop accusing it, but let us say to it firmly it must stop putting on such a show. we no longer have reason to fear it, let us stop then envying it.
the third world is today facing europe as one colossal mass whose project must be to try and solve the problems this europe was incapable of finding the answers to.
but what matters now is not a question of profitability, not a question of increased productivity, not a question of production rates. no, it is not a question of back to nature. it is the very basic question of not dragging man in directions which mutilate him, of not imposing on his brain tempos that rapidly obliterate and unhinge it. the notion of catching up must not be used as a pretext to brutalize man, to tear him from himself and his inner consciousness, to break him, to kill him.
no, we do not want to catch up with anyone. but what we want is to walk in the company of man, every man, night and day, for all times. it is not a question of stringing the caravan out where groups are spaced so far apart they cannot see the one in front, and men who no longer recognize each other, meet less and less and talk to each other less and less.
the third world must start over a new history of man which takes account of not only the occasional prodigious theses maintained by europe but also its crimes, the most heinous of which have been committed at the very heart of man, the pathological dismembering of his functions and the erosion of his unity, and in the context of the community, the fracture, the stratification and the bloody tensions fed by class, and finally, on the immense scale of humanity, the racial hatred, slavery, exploitation and, above all, the bloodless genocide whereby one and a half billion men have been written off.
so comrades, let us not pay tribute to europe by creating states, institutions, and societies that draw their inspiration from it.
humanity expects other things from us than this grotesque and generally obscene emulation.
if we want to transform africa into a new europe, america into a new europe, then let us entrust the destinies of our countries to the europeans. they will do a better job than the best of us.
but if we want humanity to take one step forward, if we want to take it to another level than the one where europe has placed it, then we must innovate, we must be pioneers.
if we want to respond to the expectations of our peoples, we must look elsewhere besides europe.
moreover, if we want to respond to the expectations of the europeans we must not send them back a reflection, however ideal, of their society and their thought that periodically sickens even them.
for europe, for ourselves and for humanity, comrades, we must make a new start, develop a new way of thinking, and endeavor to create a new man.
calls into question all the “grainy” al-qaeda/bin laden videos, no?
During planning for the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the CIA’s Iraq Operations Group kicked around a number of ideas for discrediting Saddam Hussein in the eyes of his people. One was to create a video purporting to show the Iraqi dictator having sex with a teenage boy, according to two former CIA officials familiar with the project. The agency actually did make a video purporting to show Osama bin Laden and his cronies sitting around a campfire swigging bottles of liquor and savoring their conquests with boys, one of the former CIA officers recalled, chuckling at the memory. The actors were drawn from “some of us darker-skinned employees,” he said. Full article.
We may well wonder, in these conditions, what is going to happen when the crisis enters its next phases? There will be protest movements, almost certainly, but they will find themselves isolated, and possibly they will become deviated towards violence, or recuperated by racism and xenophobia (which are already surging all around us). But the question also concerns intellectuals: what should and could be a democratically elaborated political action against the crisis at the European level? It is the task of progressive intellectuals, whether they see themselves as reformists or revolutionaries, to discuss this subject and take risks. If they fail to do it, they will have no excuse. Full article.
cutest music video i’ve ever seen! ahh the 70s… more about this lovely lebanese family here.
activism!
We are facing the collapse of the world’s financial system. It is the end of globalization. And in these final moments the rich are trying to get all they can while there is still time. The fusion of corporatism, militarism and internal and external intelligence agencies—much of their work done by private contractors—has given these corporations terrifying mechanisms of control. Think of it, as the Greeks do, as a species of foreign occupation. Think of the Greek riots as a struggle for liberation. Full article.
Modern totalitarianism can integrate the masses so completely into the political structure, through terror and propaganda, that they become the architects of their own enslavement. (Dwight Macdonald)
House Kills Plan to Close Guantánamo: How lawmakers have refused to give Obama $350 million (out of a $700 billion war budget) to buy a prison in Illinois and close Guantanamo – and why this should encourage the administration to think again about its flawed plan, to give up on indefinite detention, and to rediscover its lost principles. (Andy Worthington) Full article.
click here to see pictures.
Here are the principles under which Facebook operates:
– You have control over how your information is shared.
– We do not share your personal information with people or services you don’t want.
– We do not give advertisers access to your personal information.
– We do not and never will sell any of your information to anyone.
– We will always keep Facebook a free service for everyone.
An anthropologist, choreographer and dancer, as well as a journalist, professor, political activist, filmmaker and author, Katherine Dunham was the best-known pioneer of black dance in the US, the model scholar/choreographer who used anthropological fieldwork as the foundation for her choreography.
Dunham gave modern dance a technique that merged movements from African-Caribbean and African-American social dances with techniques of modern dance and ballet. In theatrical, narrative choreography she fused all sorts of dance styles. These Africanised principles of movement continue to define the style, and breadth, of American concert dance – a flexible torso and spine, swivelling pelvis, odd isolations of arms and legs, the polyrhythmic and syncopated playfulness of the body. Ironically, most young dancers do not know about her contributions. Yet when stylish African-American social dances (such as hip-hop) are performed on the stage, or when dancers noddle about in the “released” style of today’s post-modernist dance, they are following Dunham’s ideas from 60 years before. Full article.
Many Pakistanis, including some Pakistani military officials, feel astounded by the U.S. government suggestion that Pakistan should do more to dislodge militants from strongholds in FATA and in other parts of Pakistan. The Pakistani military says the casualty figures and troop levels speak for themselves. Pakistan has lost 2,421 soldiers fighting militants since 2004. In Afghanistan, 1,777 U.S.-led coalition troops have died since 2001, according to the website icasualties.org. Currently 147,400 Pakistani troops are stationed in the west and northwest along the Afghan border, fighting militants, while total U.S.-led coalition troops in Afghanistan will number about 140,000 when a U.S. troop surge is complete. Full article.
