Category: politics

Edward Said on “empire”

Every single empire in its official discourse has said that it is not like all the others, that its circumstances are special, that it has a mission to enlighten, civilize, bring order and democracy, and that it uses force only as a last resort. And, sadder still, there always is a chorus of willing intellectuals to say calming words about benign or altruistic empires. (Edward W. Said)

Naji Hamdan’s Nightmare

The beatings were intended to elicit a confession of involvement with a rotating cast of terrorist groups that would change from one day to the next. Initially, Hamdan protested his innocence. But the threat against his wife was too much, and he broke down. “The interrogator said, You’re going to sign a confession that you’re with Al Qaeda and put your fingerprint on it,” Hamdan remembers. But a few days later, he was taken from his cell to another interrogator, who said he’d received information “from a friendly country” that Hamdan was supporting the Gaza-based Palestinian group Hamas. “He said, You have to change your confession,” said Hamdan. Still fearing for his wife, he told them, “Listen, I’ll do whatever you want.” Full article.

An Oscar for America’s Hubris

No Iraqi had anything to do with attacking us on 9/11, and while we are happy to have an excuse to grab their oil and deploy our bloated military arsenal, the people of Iraq are never more than an afterthought. Whatever motivates Iraqi characters in the movie to throw stones or blow themselves up is unimportant, for they are nothing more than props for a uniquely American-centered show. It is we who matter and they who are graced by our presence no matter how screwed up we may be. Full article.

The Hurt Locker – Part of a deplorable trend

The Iraqi population serves merely as a human landscape in the tense conditions in which the bomb defusers operate. It is the enemy, the bearded Other to the clean-cut US soldier. The local people are portrayed in the film as either faceless, darkly clad terrorists or recognizable types, like the neighborhood merchant… who are also terrorists. The Iraqi characters, such as they are, function largely as prop devices. Unpleasantly, in one extended sequence, the presence of insurgents allows the filmmakers to examine the psychology of soldiers on the verge of a kill. This is passed off as “realism.” Full article.

Robert Fisk: Once again, a nation walks through fire to give the West its ‘democracy’

Under Iraq’s new laws, the electoral system has been jiggled to ensure that no single party can win power. There has got to be a coalition, an alliance among whomever of the 6,000 candidates from 86 parties gain seats in parliament. But all this means is that the next sectarian government will hold power according to the percentage of Shia, Sunni and Kurdish communities in Iraq. The West has always preferred this system in the Middle East, knowing that such “democracy” will produce governments according to the confessional power of each community. We’ve done this in Northern Ireland. We did it in Cyprus. The French created a Lebanon whose very identity is confessional, each community living in suspicious love of each other lest they be destroyed. Even in Afghanistan, we prefer to deal with the corrupt Hamid Karzai – held in disdain by most of his fellow Pushtuns – and allow him to rule on our behalf with an army largely made up of paid tribal supporters. Full article.

Kashmir: “The World’s Most Dangerous Place”

Peer is not writing about a remote past; torture and extrajudicial execution remain commonplace in Kashmir today, even though Pakistan-trained or indigenous militants are fewer and less lethal. Nor have India and Pakistan gotten any closer to resolving their dispute over the region. Pakistani army and intelligence officers loudly invoke the alleged existential threat from India, helping them to preserve the ISI’s extra-constitutional authority (and business monopolies) in Pakistan and severely limiting the prospects for democracy and equitable economic growth. Full article.

Pushing the boundaries of identity: an interview with Jennifer Jajeh

Jennifer Jajeh’s critically acclaimed one-woman show, I Heart Hamas and Other Things I am Afraid to Tell You, pulls no punches. From a Ramallah Convention in San Francisco in the 1980s, to casting lines in contemporary Los Angeles, to the front lines of the Israeli occupation and back, Jajeh navigates the complicated and often conflicted terrain of Palestinian identity. Despite the complexity, her journey is anchored by her sole quest to find her own sense of self amidst the noise. This quest supersedes the politics, the expectations and the backlash that a Palestinian identity can carry and becomes universal.

“I state very clearly in the show’s opening voiceover that “I am not presenting the views or feeling of the average Palestinian, nor do I have any idea what that even means.” I felt it was important to put forth very clearly this notion: that there is no prototypical Palestinian. And, that identity is a hell of a lot more complex and individual, and that this story is being told through the lens of a very specific, individual experience. The first part of the show talks about me carrying the weight of other people’s expectations around my Palestinian identity, feeling squeezed from all sides by these expectations and dealing with people’s often negative, stereotypically racist and completely hilarious reactions to how I actually do express that identity.” Full article.

Activists come to Fisher, speak out on Iraq war

Activists, bloggers, poets, musicians and concerned citizens gathered in Basil 135 on Feb. 12 for the eighth annual Poets Against the War readings. Frank Judge, president of Rochester Poets and a St. John Fisher alum, organized the event. The P.A.W. movement started in 2003 as a response to former President George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq. People channeled their outrage with the government into writing and created what is now the largest poetry anthology ever published. Rochester is one of the few cities in the country with an unbroken record of holding P.A.W readings. “I’m disappointed by the small turn-out,” said filmmaker and first-time performer Mara Ahmed. “It seems like there’s hardly any acknowledgement that our country’s at war.” Full article.

Inside the Beltway – Washington Times

washington times, feb 22, 2010:

Mr. Gage, who is a member of the American Institute of Architects, managed to persuade more than 1,000 of his peers to sign a new petition requesting a formal inquiry.
“The official Federal Emergency Management [Agency] and National Institute of Standards and Technology reports provide insufficient, contradictory and fraudulent accounts of the circumstances of the towers’ destruction. We are therefore calling for a grand jury investigation of NIST officials,” Mr. Gage adds. Full article.