Friday, February 29, 2008

We are moving

TokyoProgressive is moving to a new webhost with a different content management system.  We should be ready in a few weeks.  Apologies for the delay.

Monday, December 10, 2007

What more can we say?

Wednesday, December 05, 2007

READERS’ CORNER: かかるテロに責任あるのは誰？アルカイダか？/ Who Is Responsible

かかるテロに責任あるのは誰？アルカイダか？

English

１．毎年３千万の人々が餓死している。
２．８億人が栄養失調に苦しんでいる。
３．５億人が安楽な生活をむさぼっている。
４．５５億人が困窮している。
５．毎日３万人が餓死しており、栄養失調にともなう病死を含めればさらに１万人がプラスされる。
６．世界で最もお金持ちの３人は、世界中の諸国１／４をしめる最貧の４９ヶ国の国内総生産をあわせたよりも多くの富を有している。
７．発展途上国４５億人のうち、ほとんど１／３は飲料水にありつけず、１／５の子どもたちは十分なタンパク質を摂取できない。
８．地球上の半分をしめる３０億人は、日に２ドル以下で暮らしている。
９．１９８９年以来、冷戦の終結後、新たに７０の戦争が勃発した。
10．最もお金持ちの１５人の富の総計は、サハラ以南のアフリカ諸国の国内総生産の総額を上回っている。
11．１９６０年には、世界の最も富める２０％は、最も貧困な２０％の３０倍かせいでいた。現在では、金持ち２０％は、貧者２０％の８２倍も収入がある。
12．国連によれば、世界の最もお金持ちの２２５人の富は、世界の私的な富みの４％以下だが、それですべての人の食料・飲料水・教育・医療といった必需をまかなえる。
13．世界中で１０億人以上が失業状態にある。
14．３億の子どもたちが前例のない野蛮な状態で搾取されている。

これは、２１世紀における私たちの世界での恐怖、その氷山の一角にすぎない。

「繁栄」と「民主」国家に暮らす私たちとは何者であるのか？「文明的」（白人的）世界は、以上について何をなしているのか？何をなしえたか？これから何をしようとしているのか。悲惨にたいする戦争でもやろうというのか？

困窮するすべての人々の基本的な衛生や栄養の必需をみたすには、アメリカやヨーロッパの香水消費量の年総額でまかなえるし、アイスクリームの消費総額より少なくてすむ。

2006年2月24日
ブルキッチ・スーレイマン
Brki? SULEJMAN

（翻訳：津村洋）

The above article was reader-submitted. All opinons are those of the original authors and may not reflect the views of TokyoProgressive.

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American Psychological Association’s Tortured Defense of Torture Aid

Last Friday American Psychological Association President, and Indiana University professor Sharon Brehm discussed the APA's policies supporting psychologist participation in national security interrogations with faculty and students at her university. The Indiana Daily Student has an account of the meeting.

While the entire article is well worth reading, a few of Dr. Brehm's remarks as cited there are especially worth commenting upon. Either they reflect an unacceptable level of ignorance of the basic facts about psychologists' roles in American torture or they are simply willful falsehoods. For example:

"Brehm said psychologists only acted in an advisory role during questionings, working with interrogators to develop effective strategies that will elicit 'accurate information.'"

There is now overwhelming evidence from reporters and government documents that this statement is not simply false, but almost the exact opposite of the truth. Thus, three major journalists (Jane Mayer at the New Yorker, Katherine Eban at Vanity Fair, and Mark Benjamin at Salon) have reported that the basic torture techniques used by the CIA in its black sites were initially developed and implemented by psychologists James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen. This role is far from Brehm's "...psychologists only acted in an advisory role during questionings, working with interrogators to develop effective strategies that will elicit 'accurate information.'" On the contrary, as Eban reported In Vanity Fair:

"psychologists weren't merely complicit in America's aggressive new interrogation regime. Psychologists, working in secrecy, had actually designed the tactics and trained interrogators in them while on contract to the C.I.A."

Thus, Dr. Brehm's "effective strategies" include months of total isolation with nothing to do and no one to talk to, freezing, being chained up in painful positions for hours and days on end, and, it seems, waterboarding.

The Department of Defense Office of the Inspector General (OIG), in a report declassified last May, documented the central role of psychologists, including those from the military's Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape (SERE) program in the development of what the OIG itself saw as abusive. [See our summary of the OIG report and in pdf format.] The OIG report documents how SERE psychologists trained Guantanamo psychologists in the use of SERE-based torture techniques. The OIG report also documents how SERE and Guantanamo staff went to Iraq to train US soldiers there in abusive SERE-based "counter-resistance" techniques. The OIG report made clear that these techniques were, in the OIG's opinion, abusive.

Just last month the Guantanamo Camp Delta Standard Operating Procedures manual was leaked. As I wrote, this document details the systematic use of a month of isolation on all new detainees "to foster dependence on interrogators and 'enhance and exploit the disorientation and disorganization felt by a newly arrived detainee in the interrogation process'" (emphasis added). The decision about how long a detainee would be held in isolation, the SOP states, was to be made by the GTMO Joint Intelligence Group (JIG). The Chief Psychologist for the JIG at the time the SOP was issued was Col. Larry James. The APA appointed Col. James, along with five others with military or intelligence ties (including the head SERE psychologist), to its Task Force on Psychological Ethics and National Security to formulate "ethics" to decide if it was "ethical" for psychologists to participate in national security interrogations. Further, the APA selected Col. James to present its "anti-torture" policy to the 2007 Convention.

To this extensive record that psychologists were active and central participants in some of the worst of the Bush administration's abuses, Dr. Brehm contrasts her faith:

"'We have great confidence that at least most of our members are really good people and that they would not do bad things,' Brehm said, adding her belief that psychologists had the ability to be heroes in fighting against torture."

Given the historical record, Dr. Brehm's belief only makes sense if the words "heroes,"  "against," and "torture" no longer mean what they used to mean.

Another of Dr. Brehm's statements is similarly astounding, given that she is a social psychologist:

"'All of our ethical policies are based on individual responsibility,' Brehm said. 'If you violate the behaviors that are prescribed then, if it is a serious violation, we'll kick you out of the association and you may not be able to make a living anymore. It is that basic.'"

Social psychologists are taught from the first day that the social environment often overrules individual behavioral tendencies. Those in abuse-generating situations are likely to participate in abuse. Social psychologists routinely study why "good" people do "bad" things. There is no evidence that psychologists are uniquely able to resist these pressures. Indeed, at the APA Convention last August, Craig Haney, a social psychologist who studies the US criminal justice system, stated that in 30 years of research in prisons, he knew of not a single instance in which a psychologist stopped existing abuse.

Dr. Brehm, like the rest of the APA leadership, ignores that we live in a country which, at this time, is committed to detainee abuse as national policy. Those aiding interrogations in that system are, at best, complicit in the numerous abuses we know are occurring: the kidnapping of detainees from around the world, the purchase of detainees, the lack of any legal rights, the removal of the centuries-old right to habeas corpus, not to mention the abusive interrogations. Rather than denouncing this organized regime, the APA talks obsessively about "influencing policy" through engagement, but has precious little to show for it. The CIA still tortures, using the techniques that were designed by psychologists. We all know it. The press reports on  it. But the APA has yet to utter a word condemning these misuses of psychological knowledge and expertise.

Jane Mayer, in an august 8, 2007 Democracy Now! interview pointed out that not only the knowledge and expertise but the prestige of psychology was central to the Bush administration's torture regime. The administration figures who ordered torture hoped psychologist participation would prove to be a "get out of jail free" card in the event of future investigation of and trial for their crimes:

"if you take a look at the so-called torture memos, the forty pages or so of memos that were written by Jay Bybee and John Yoo way back right after 9/11, and you take a look at how they—they're busy looking at the Convention Against Torture, basically, it seems, trying to figure a way around it. One of the things they argued, these lawyers from the Justice Department, is that if you don't intend to torture someone, if your intention is not just to inflict terrible pain on them but to get information, then you really can't be necessarily convicted of torture.

"So how do you prove that your intent is pure? Well, one of the things they suggest is if you consult with experts who will say that what you're doing is just interrogation, then that might also be a good legal defense. And so, one of the roles that these SERE psychologists played was a legal role. They were the experts who were consulted in order to argue that the program was not a program of torture. They are to say, 'We've got PhDs, and this is standard psychology, and this is a legitimate way to question people.'"

We have written Dr. Brehm directly documenting in detail reports that psychologists were central in creating, implementing, standardizing as policy, and disseminating the abusive interrogation techniques used by the American military and the CIA. We sent Dr. Brehm an Open Letter signed by over 700 psychologists. We sent her our summary of the OIG report. She never responded. I sent her my article on the systematic use of isolation at Guantanamo. Again, no response. So, if Dr. Brehm is truly ignorant of the central role of psychologists in US abusive interrogations, it was not for lack of opportunity to inform herself.

Or do APA leaders know the facts, but simply not care? After all, the military and intelligence agencies hire hundreds, or even thousands of psychologists and provided many tens of millions of dollars in grant funding for psychological research. Further, psychologists have a preferred position over their long-time rivals, the psychiatrists, aiding interrogations in US detention centers. A little willful ignorance is, perhaps, a small price to pay for the APA leadership when millions of dollars and preferential treatment for psychologists are at stake.

But whether ignorance or willful avoidance, Dr. Brehm's lack of responsiveness to the legitimate concerns of so many of the APA's membership comes at a high price. The issue is increasingly dividing the organization, and threatens its hegemony as the primary representative of organized psychology at a time when rival psychological organizations are gaining membership and energy.

Only the APA's members can decide that closing one's eyes to abuse is too high a price to pay for government funding and other favors from the powerful.

Stephen Soldz is a psychoanalyst, psychologist, public health researcher, and faculty member at the Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis. He maintains the Psychoanalysts for Peace and Justice web site and the Psyche, Science, and Society blog. He is a founder of the Coalition for an Ethical Psychology, one of the organizations leading the struggle to change American Psychological Association policy on participation in abusive interrogations.

Reprinted from Znet 

Tuesday, December 04, 2007

READERS’ CORNER: YOU DON’T HAVE THE RIGHT NOT TO KNOW ANYMORE!/知らないなんて言わせない

submitted by Brkic SULEJMAN

Original here:

http://www.ngy.1st.ne.jp/%7Eieg/07/01/bs-j.htm

ENGLISH BELOW 

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　ブルキッチ・スレイマン

「知らないのは悪いこと。知りたいと思わないのはもっと悪いこと」 　―アフリカの格言

社会問題、国際問題そして自国が首を突っ込んだ嘆かわしい情勢について、「知らない」とか「知らなかった」と人が言うのを僕はうんざりするくらい耳にする。僕は日本に住んでいてかれこれ15年 になる。この国はアメリカと並んで、世界でもっとも（自覚的に）無知な国の一つである。日本がいつもアメリカと共にあるように。そしていつも同じ戯言の繰 り返し。決まってこんなふうだ。「アメリカ人は知らなかった、メディアに嘘をつかれ、誤解するよう仕向けられ、情報操作されていた、彼らは騙されたのだ、 議会ですら騙されていた」などなど。これがずっと続いてきた。彼らは決して知ることがないのだ。そしていつも同じ言い訳。そうした（自覚的な）無知こそ が、世界中で1945年以来アメリカの外交政策による700万人もの殺戮という事態を招いてきた。アメリカの外交政策の数え切れない罪を知る僕たちは、常にアメリカ政府とその国民を注意深く切り離すよう求められる。なぜなら、アメリカ人は政府がやってきたことを知らないから、というわけだ。

ア メリカや日本にいるこんな人たちに、僕はもううんざりだ。「知らない」「知らなかった」ではすまない！そんな茶番はもうやめてくれ！君たちは知らなければ ならないんだ！むしろ、知っているはずだったんだ！じゃあ、いつになったらわかるのか。君たちが住まうＧ７諸国の外で、世界が焼け焦げているということ を、自分たちがこの美しい地球を荒廃させているということを知るのに都合がいいのは一体いつなんだ？君たち、決まって「知らない、知らなかった」と言う文 句を口にし、（自覚的に）無知で無関心でいる君たちが、この世界の惨劇を引き起こす主な原因の一部であるかもしれないことを！

現在21世紀、僕がここで話しているのは、世界で最も技術的に進歩し、最も工業化され、最も物質的に豊かである一方、知識、他者への思い、正義感、歴史の感覚、恥の感覚、寛容な心、人間的な温かさについては本当に貧しい国のうちの2つだ。果たして、「知らない知らない」とほざく君たちが、何かがおかしいとせいぜい気づくまで、世界であと何百万人が死に、どれほどこの美しい地球が傷つけられなければならないのだろう。全くもって知るよしもない！

な んで知らないんだ？どうしてわからない？いつになったら知るんだ？いつになったらわかるんだ？どうして自分で見つけようとしない？「知らない」と言うこと を思いつくだけのそんな灰色の細胞をを持っているのなら、つまり論理的言って、自分が知らないということを知っているのなら、知りたい、学びたい、ほんの 少し調べてみたいと思うべきだし、読んだり、インターネットを使ったり、図書館に行ったり、講演に参加したり、知識のある人たちと（自分たちのような無知 な人間ではなく）付き合ったりしようとするべきだ。君たちが最後にこういうことをしようとしたのは一体いつだ？　最新のMP３ やルイ・ヴィトンのバッグやバーゲンセールの情報を仕入れたり、インターネットでハワイやグアムやアカプルコへの格安チケットを見つけたり、おいしいイタ リア料理のレストラン、すごいヴィンテージ服の店を探し出したり、というそれだけの「頭」があるのなら、（君たち日本人やアメリカ人は）その空っぽの頭と 心を満たすためにネットサーフィンをするのではなく、どうしてアメリカがイラクに駐屯しているのか（これまで60万 人のイラク人の死者が出ている）、なぜ日本がこの素晴らしい国際的犯罪を支持し、そしてそれに手を貸しているのか、どうしてそもそもアメリカがその建国の 時点から世界と戦争状態にあるのか、なぜ日本がアメリカによるあらゆる犯罪行為を支持してきたのか、なぜ日本は中国、朝鮮半島やその他のアジアの諸国を攻 撃、占領したのか、なぜこんなにも多くのアジア人が日本に対して怒りを覚えているのか、そしてなぜアメリカは全世界の人々の憤激の的になっているのか、と いうことがわかるはずだ。もし君たちが十分な関心を持っているのであれば、インターネットを使ってこうしたこと全てがわかるだろうし、あるいは君たちの同 様に無知なご両親にきいてみるがいい。ご両親も「知らない」というのが落ちであると思うけれど。

「アメリカ人や日本人は平和を愛する人々」という言葉を耳にすると、僕は君たち偽善者に向かって本当に叫びたくなる。君たち偽善者は平和を慈しみ尊んでいるふりなどして、15年 間日本に住んだ僕をもはや騙すことはできない。君たち日本人は、アメリカのありとあらゆる戦争行為に追従しそれを支えてきたというのに、一体どうやったら 平和を慈しみ尊んでいるというふりができるのか。そうだ、君たちはその見せ掛けの平和への愛によって経済的に発展してきた。そしてその経済発展も部分的に は、アメリカの世界略奪戦争に盲目的に追従してきたことによる。だが無論、「平和を愛する」君たちは、アメリカ人とまったく同様に、アンクル・サムがして きたことを知らないし、知らなかったし、わからないのだ。たぶんイラク人に聞いてみるべきだろう。彼らに何が起こっているか、それが誰のせいなのか、彼ら は「知っている」はずだから。

「知 らない、知らなかった、わからない」一族の君たちは、自分を恥ずかしいと思わないのだろうか？アメリカ人についてのこういう冗談がある。アメリカ人は政府 が世界を爆撃することから地理を学ぶといったものだ。僕は無論、イラク人やチェチェン人やパレスチナ人、それにオゾン層破壊や毎日出る3万 人の餓死者のことを考えて眠れない日々を過ごすべきだ、などと言っているわけではない。けれども、少なくとも、自分たちの間にいる人々、たとえば数多くい るホームレスについて考えることができるのではないだろうか。いや、しかし、君たちは彼らについても「知らなかった」と言うに違いないだろうが。

お もしろいのは、君たちが「知らない、知らなかった、わからない」と言う時の表情だ。この（君たちにとっては魔法の）呪文を唱えることで、あたかも自動的に 清廉潔白、贖罪、責任免除、同情、愛情へと近づくことを期待しているかのようなのだ。そしておそらく、自分たちができることは何もなかったと確認するため に、自分は政府の外交政策の犠牲者であるとすら思い浮かべる。つまり、君たちはマンガを読んだり、野球を見たり、買い物をしたり、テレビゲームをするのに 忙しかったから、（君たちが）民主的に選出した政府が何を企んでいるのか「知らなかった」わけで、つまらない「政治」などに関心がないからだ。

そう、君たちは、偶然にすら知らないでいるために、わからないでいるために、最善を尽くすのに多忙だった。（G7の 内側にいる）僕たちにとって、情報が雪崩のように降りかかってくる時代に、無知でいるには本当に努力しなければならないのだ。それから、君たちが時々見せ るもう一つの表情についても言っておくべきだろう。あまりの退屈のために目線を下げるか、そっぽを向くかするが、臆病だから関心がないと認めることができ ないでいる、あの時の表情だ。あるいはただ「そうそう、それは酷い」などと言い、その空虚な言葉によって、哀れな寄生的で静止的な生活から自分が引きずり 込まれた重苦しい会話に終止符を打つことを願いながら浮かべる、あの表情。君たちをこの世界に、この世界の悲惨で不公平な状況に引き入れようとするのは、 たぶん君たちにとっては人権侵害にまさるとも劣らないことなのだろうか。

君 たちのような「知らない、知らなかった、わからない」人種についていくらでも話し続けることはできるが、残念ながらそんなことをすると時間の無駄になるだ ろう。はっきり言おうじゃないか。知らない、知らなかった、わからないのは、そうしたくないから、関心がないからだ、と。それが全くの真実なのだ。そう、 君たちは関心がない、恥ずべき人間なのだ！

「犯罪を黙認している者たちは、熱狂的に犯罪を犯す者たちと同様罪深い」　－遠藤周作

ここで、「君たち」とは、先にも言ったように、アメリカ人と日本人のことだ。つまり、僕が日本でこの15年間にもっとも頻繁に出くわしたのがアメリカ人と日本人だからだ。しかし「君たち」とは、アメリカや日本だけではなく、資本主義の守護者であるG7諸 国の中産階級についても充当する。そしてまた「君たち」とは、僕が戦争反対のデモで友人と歩いている時、歩道に突っ立って、ただ傍観して笑っていたりする だけで、たぶん買い物に忙しいあまり、その仲間に入ろうとよもや考えもつかない、そうした人々のことを言っている。ただ、ここで言う「君たち」とは、日々 の糧を得るのに苦労しているシングルマザーなど、すでに余りある重荷を背負っている人々のことは指していない。

『Vフォー・ヴェンデッタ』という映画で、主人公がテレビの視聴者に対し、この世界における現在の悲惨な状況について責任があるのは誰かと尋ね、こう答える。「鏡を見てみるがよい」。さあ、G7諸国にいる僕たち皆で鏡を覗き込んでみようではないか。

「人類のすべては同じ起源をもち、互いに体のなくてはならない器官である。器官ひとつでも苦しみにさらされると、体全体が苦しむ。他者の苦しみを軽視する者は人間の名に値しない者だ」

"Not to know is bad. Not to wish to know is worse"
African proverb

I am sick and tired of hearing "I don't know, I didn't know, I don't understand" when it comes to social issues, problems in our world and the miserable state of affairs into which we've plunged it!

I live in Japan (I've lived here for 15 years) and this is one of the most, with the USA, (deliberately) ignorant countries in the world. It's just like with the US, it's always the same crap. It always goes like this: "The American people didn't know, they were lied to,, they were misled, manipulated by the media, they were deceived, the Congress was lied to…..bla, bla, bla. And this has been going on forever. They never know. Always the same excuse! And the result of their (deliberate) ignorance is about 7 million people killed throughout our world by US foreign policy since 1945. And we who know about the crimes of US foreign policy are always asked to be careful and separate the US government from its people because they don't know what their government has been up to. Well, I've had it with you over there in the US and here in Japan! No more "I don't know, I didn't know, I don't understand"! No more of that bull shit! You should know! You should have known! WHEN WILL YOU KNOW?! Really?! When do you think it will be a good time to know that outside the G7 the world, your world, our world is burning?! That we have made our beautiful planet sick? That you, the ones always with "I don't know, I didn't know, I don't understand" on their lips, you the DELIBERATELY ignorant and indifferent ones, that you may be one of the main causes of the misery in our world!

Here I am, in Tokyo, in the 21st century, talking about two of the most technologically advanced, industrialized, materially rich countries in the world and yet so poor when it comes to knowledge, compassion, sense of justice, sense of history, generosity, sense of shame, human warmth. You are pathetic!

I wonder how many more millions of people will have to die in our world, how badly damaged will our beautiful planet have to get for you, the I-don't-know dimwits, to notice at best that there is something wrong, to cause you to actually feel slightly concerned. Don't know my ass!!

WHY DON'T YOU KNOW?!  WHY DON'T YOU KNOW?! WHEN WILL YOU KNOW?!
WHEN WILL YOU UNDERSTAND?!  WHY DON'T YOU TRY TO FIND OUT?!

If you have enough gray cells that allow you to think enough to say that you don't know (in order to escape responsibility), then logically, since you know that you don't know, you should try to want to know, to learn, do a little research, read, use the Internet, go to libraries, attend lectures, hang out with people who do know instead of morrons like yourself....When was actually the last time when you did try to do any of the above mentioned?

I mean, if you have enough "brains" to locate the latest MP3, a Louis Vuiton bag, a bargain sale, a cheap airplane ticket on the Internet to Hawaii, Guam, Acapulco...a great Italian restaurant om the other side of town, a great vintage clothes store...if you have enough "brains" to locate all these, then you should be able, while you (Americans and Japanese) are surfing the net in search of emptiness to fill your empty head and heart, to find out why really America is in Iraq (so far more than 600 000 Iraqis dead), why Japan has supported (again) and taken part in this supreme international crime, why the US, since its inception, has been at war with our world, why Japan, while claiming it loves peace, has supported every criminal adventure undertaken by the US since 1945, why Japan attacked and occupied China, Korea and many other countries in Asia, why so many Asians are still so angry at Japan, why the US is resented by so many people around the world...You could find about all this while you are on the Internet if you cared enough or you could ask your stupid parents, but I guess they "don't know" either.

When I hear that the Americans, the Japanese are "peace loving peoples", I actually feel like screaming at you, you hypocrites! After 15 years here in Japan you ain't fooling me no more with your pretense of loving, caring for peace, you hypocrites!

How in the world can you, you Japanese, even pretend to love and care about peace when you have followed and supported the US in each and every of its wars?! Hell, you have economically prospered on your pretense of love for peace. Yes! Your economic prosperity is in big part due to your following blindly, out of greed, the US in its wars of global plunder. But then, of course, you, the "peace loving" Japanese "don't know, didn't know, you don't understand" what Uncle Sam, your master, has been up to, just like the American people. Maybe we should ask the Iraqis. I bet they know what is happening to them and who is responsible! You should be ashamed of yourselves! SHAME ON YOU!

There is a joke, of sort, about the American people that says that Americans learn geography through their government's bombings other peoples around the world.

I am not saying that you have to lose sleep over Iraqis, Palestinians, Chechens, Rwandans, the Kurds, the Sudanese, the Korean, Chinese and other Asian women who survived sexual slavery at the hands of Japanese Imperial Army that was liberating Asia, the ozone, the pollution, the 30000 people that die of hunger daily.... but you could at least start caring about the needy at home, in your own countries. You could start with the homeless. But, I guess, you "didn't know " about them, either.

It is also interesting that expression that you have on your face when you say that rubbish " I don't know, I didn't know, I don't understand". It's as if by saying those (magical to you) words you expect to be granted automatic access to innocence, immunity, absolution, total understanding and exoneration, sympathy, love....

You probably even expect the victims of your government's criminal foreign policy to understand that there was nothing you could do since you "didn't know" what your democratically elected (by you) government was up to because you were too busy reading Manga, the Davinci Code, Harry Potter, watching baseball, shopping, playing video games, ignoring "politics" because it's boring. Hell, you were too busy doing your best not to know, not to find out even by accident.

In this age of avalanches of information available to us (in the G7), you have got to really try hard not to know! There is also another look you sometimes have on your face, you know, the one where you lower your eyes or look away in boredom but too coward to say that you are not interested. Or, you just say something like "Oh! Yeah.... that's terrible...." hoping that those empty words of yours would put an end to the oppressing conversation into which you were dragged from your pathetic, parasitic, dead life. And, trying harder to get you interested in our world, the misery, the injustice in it, would be close to, in your mind, violating your human rights!

Now, I could go on and on and on about your kind, the "I don't know, I didn't know, I don't understand" specie but I'm afraid I'd be wasting my time, and anyway, the 800 000 dead Rwandans have nothing to do with you. Let's just say that you don't know or didn't know or don't understand because you don't want to. And you don't want to know because you don't care. That's the plain truth. YOU DON'T CARE! You are a despicable person!

"THOSE WHO ACQUIESCE IN A CRIME
ARE EVERY BIT AS GUILTY AS THOSE
WHO ENTHUSIASTICALLY PARTICIPATE"
Endo Shusaku

By "YOU", as I mentioned earlier, I mean mainly Americans and Japanese because you have been the most numerous ones I've come in contact with during my 15 years in this peace loving country that is Japan. By "YOU" I also mean the middle class, not only in the US and Japan, but in the G7. The guardian of capitalism.
By "YOU" I mean the ones who, while I am marching with friends in a protest against war, just stand on the sidewalks and stare, laugh, never thinking of joining us, probably too busy shopping.

By "YOU" I don't mean the people who already have enough burdens on their shoulders, say, the single mother who can barely make ends meet..

In the movie "V for Vendetta" the hero asks TV viewers who's to blame for the current miserable state of affairs in our world and he answers them in these words:
"LOOK IN THE MIRROR".

So, let us all, us in the G7, look in the mirror!

"HUMAN BEINGS ARE ALL MEMBERS OF ONE BODY.
THEY ARE CREATED FROM THE SAME ESSENCE.
WHEN ONE MEMBER IS IN PAIN, THE OTHER CANNOT
REST. IF YOU DO NOT CARE ABOUT THE PAIN OF
OTHERS, YOU DO NOT DESERVE TO BE CALLED
A HUMAN BEING."
Mosleh al-Din Saadi Shirazi
(13th century Persian poet, from Shiraz)

Brkic SULEJMAN
21/02/2007

The above article was reader-submitted. All opinons are those of the original authors and may not reflect the views of TokyoProgressive.

This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for by copyright law in several countries.  The material on this site is distributed without profit .

READERS’ CORNER: Iran And “The International Community “

submitted by Tokyoite Brkić Sulejman and originally appearing at INFORMATION CLEARING HOUSE 02/26/06 "ICH"

Here we go again! Now it’s Iran. Bush, again mumbling something about Iran’s being a threat to the world, the same crap as about Iraq. But this time, the west European countries (the ”traditional” allies) are at it, too.

Isn’t it strange how all these countries, the USA, Israel, England, France, Germany…with all their weapons of mass destruction, feel so easily threatened? Why shouldn’t Iran be a nuclear power? The U.S, England, France, Israel, Russia, China, Japan (yes! Japan, too), India and Pakistan are.

These idiots are the cause of nuclear proliferation. If they are so concerned about the safety of the world they should lead by example and dismantle their nuclear weapons.

When the U.S, Israel, England France and Germany talk about the safety of the world being their main reason to object to Iran’s possessing nuclear technology, what world are they talking about?  They are the only ones (as always) who feel threatened. I don’t hear about Thailand, Bhutan, Bulgaria, Latvia, Vietnam, Zambia… feeling threatened. I mean, really, what world is in question? The world comprised of the U.S, England, Israel, France, Canada, Germany, Italy, and Japan?
The world of GREED?

The O.E.C.D world? The world made up of the G7 the E.U the IMF, World Bank, WTO, N.A.T.O, the UN Security Council, NAFTA, Wall Street, OIL interests, cheap OIL. Is this the world we hear so much about? Because, if this is the world the West is worried about, then it is a world of SHAME that is in question, a world of deceit, greed, wars, theft, colonialism, capitalism, imperialism… An opulent white world born out of mainly colored peoples slave work, sweat and blood and their natural resources.
If this is the world that is in danger then it might as well be done away with!

We hear again words of shame, words like ”the UN Security Council”, “UNSC resolutions”, “International community”… I thought all this didn’t exist anymore. I thought the UN was finally dead, the coup de grâce being the (another) illegal US-UK-led war against the Iraqi people in order to rob them of their OIL. But let’s face it, the UN was never very much alive. Actually, there never was a UN. All there was was the(UN) Security Council, a band of criminals bent on tearing the natural resources of the world at any cost.

Although I am far from being a fan of the ruling Mullahs in Teheran, I still remember the Shah, Reza Pahlavi, a friend of the West, which means “the International Community” and oppressor of the Iranian people, a vicious dictator who was propped up and kept in power by the West, robbed his people blind and made himself and the West even richer and who eventually gave birth to the Mullahs. So, I urge Iran not to put its fate into the hands of “the International Community”.  When you hear “International Community” on the news, what countries pop up in your mind? Albania, Burkina Faso, Burundi…? Of course not!  The countries that pop up in our mind are usually the US and whoever follows (pretty much the same faithful dogs : Israel, England, France, Germany, Italy, Japan…) or G7, EU, NATO, W.B., IMF, WTO… it’s always the same gangsters anyway.

This ”International Community” that is so worried about the safety of the “world”, that claims the higher moral ground, a higher sense of justice and is so vociferous in its proclamations of being the defender of democratic values, human rights and protector of the “civilized” world, this ”International Community” is the same one that has betrayed millions of people around the real world in need of human rights, democracy, justice…

Millions have been killed, tortured, oppressed, persecuted, exploited…as a result of the criminal policies of our angelic ”International Community”, because what mattered and still matters the most today is the economic interests of this ”International Community” of SHAME!

Here are just a few names, a few peoples that were let down by our ”International Community”, the savior of the “world”: East Timor (200 000 killed), El Salvador (75000 killed), Chile (between 10000 and 30000 killed), these murders (in Chile) started on September 11, 1973 with a coup against the democratically elected president Salvador Allende, orchestrated by the U.S and welcome by “the International Community” and brought to power the fascist general Augusto Pinochet. Although this tragedy took place on a September 11, too, ”the International Community” seems to have a very selective memory when it comes to remember the victims of its criminal policies.

Vietnam (between 2 and 3 million killed), Laos, Cambodia, The Kurds, the Palestinians (robbed of their land and kept in huge prison camps by the only ”democracy” in the middle East: Israel), Rwanda(close to 1 million) Zaire (the Congo), Sabra and Chatila (between 2 and 3 thousand Palestinians killed), San Su Kyi, Lumumba, Leila Zana, Nelson Mandela, the Tibetans, 1.6million Iraqis, including 600 000 Iraqi children, who were killed by US-imposed, West European-backed (read ”International Community”), wrapped in the UN flag economic sanctions. For about 12 years, since the end of the Gulf War up to the current illegal war again against Iraq, the Iraqi people kept dying (600 000 children) like flies under the watchful eye of the humanists that comprise the “ International Community”.

And many more millions of others.

Now, just a few more words about N.Mandela. Mandela, a black South African man, had actually to fight in his own country for the liberation of his people against a white minority racist regime! :  APARTHEID. He was labeled as a terrorist, arrested and thrown into jail and left to rot there right up to 1990! Meanwhile, our alrighteous ”International Community” kept doing very profitable business with apartheid, that white minority racist regime that lasted until 1994. That was 12 years ago! Bravo the ”International Community”!

When Mandela, at last, was to be released from prison in 1990, guess who was opposed to his release? No less than the current vice president of the United States of America: Dick Cheney (although, I’m sure he was not the only one). Mandela himself in an interview with the U.S. Magazine, Newsweek revealed this fact, published on Wednesday, 11 September 2002. Excerpts of this interview can also be found on BBC news world edition, Wednesday, 11 September 2002.

And let’s not forget Srebrenica, a place located where I come from :  Tito’s Yugoslavia. Now that area is called Bosnia and Herzegovina.  In July1995, between 7800 and8000 men and boys were executed, slaughtered by the Serb military and paramilitary forces during the 1992 – 1995 war in Bosnia and Herzegovina in an area that was under the protection of the “United Nations. Srebrenica was even declared a “safe area” , a “haven”. This massacre took place in the heart of Europe, it was the worst massacre since the end of World War2.

It occurred right under the noses of the leaders of the three European countries that are these days so concerned about the safety of the “world”, so much so that they are even considering supporting a military action, undertaken by the U.S.A and its proxy Israel against Iran to stop it from developing nuclear technology. The three European countries I have in mind are: France, England and Germany, all members of the UN ”Security Council” of which two are permanent, France and England. These hypocrites want to protect the “world” when they couldn’t even stop 7800 to 8000 men and boys from being killed in a small town (located on their doorstep) like Srebrenica. Maybe the people of Srebrenica should have applied for EU membership before the massacre in order to get better protection.

When the ”International Community” threatens Iran to force it to give up its nuclear program in order to make the world safer, I wonder if its thoughts of safety include the Chechens, the Palestinians, the Iraqis, the Sudanese in Darfur, the campesinos and the Indios being massacred in Colombia by death squads backed by the cheap – natural resources - hungry U.S. and its west European vassals and Japan (read: ”International Community”) …or the 30 000 daily deaths caused by hunger due to economic policies of the ”International Community”…Will all these peoples and many other oppressed ones feel safer once they find out that Iran has agreed to get rid of its nuclear technology? Who or What will really be safer?  The flow of cheap OIL to the West and Japan (the ”International Community”)?

In light of this record of atrocities approved of by ”the International Community”, Iran should really speed up the development of its nuclear technology in order to defend itself against these vultures.

Iran shouldn’t either count too much on the anti-war “movements” in the West or here in Japan. I mean, take a look at Iraq. Close to 200 000 Iraqis killed for OIL so far! You see any outrage? But two bombs go off in London or two buildings go down in New York with some collateral damage, then and only then there is outrage! ”The International Community” goes into uproar, it is the end of the (white) world (of privilege), (white) civilization is in danger, “democracy” and “peace” are under fire. Yeah, sure, the anti – war “movements” in the West and here in Japan, we’ll do our usual thing, just like with Iraq, get in the streets, parade, shout slogans “No war! Peace now! Don’t attack Iran!”, we’ll walk, dance, sing “Blowing in the wind”, carry banners (some with very “aggressive” messages). It will be very colorful, joyful… hell, it might even be better than Le Cirque du Soleil, and all of these “protests” will of course be non-violent! Peaceful, superpeaceful, ultra-peaceful! And then, if our governments despite our strongest objections don’t back off and submit to our will and attack Iran all the same, well, we’ll just have to… go home, I guess, and wait for the next war, as usual.

Therefore Iran should really hurry and develop whatever it needs to protect itself from us, I mean, ”the International Community”.

The above article was reader-submitted. All opinons are those of the original authors and may not reflect the views of TokyoProgressive.

This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for by copyright law in several countries.  The material on this site is distributed without profit .

Thursday, November 01, 2007

Early November stories

LAST WEEK: Japanese social issues, sweatshops
PREVIOUS WEEKS

THIS WEEK:  

MOST RECENT  MEDIA STORIES

• Burma Embassy Protest in Tokyo (from IMC J)
• Media: なにがわるい？
• Media and World Social Issues in English
• HIV SCANDAL/Kawada Ryuhei
• Asian News and Japanese Social Problems in English
• Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Earthquake・【声明 ： 東京電力柏崎刈羽原子力発電所の閉鎖を
• Mad Cow Disease: “The Report Blocked by the Japanese Government
• Japanese Kenpo, Articles from English to Japanese, etc.
• Japan Press Service
• Tokyo Spring Film and Discussion
• Gyaku Japan
• Some more news sources
• ニューズ,etc: Resources in Japanese and English (News and Activism)
• 動画ストリーミング：Democracy　Now
• August 13 Democracy Now　（英語日本語）
• There’s a Lesson to be learned in the Trees
• Strikers Line
• Go Down You Broken Old Man
• Ballad of Chong Gyan-Yong
• Good Ship England

MOST RECENT NEWS

• Early November stories
• Not Just Our Minds and Hearts But Our Bodies
• JAPAN FOCUS
• マガジン９条 magazine Kempo 9jo
• ZENROREN LABOR NEWS
• JAPAN PRESS SERVICE NEWS
• People’s Plan Quarterly English Magazine
• People’s Plan
• GLOBAL ARTICLE 9 CAMPAIGN
• THE BIG ISSUE
• 龍平日記ーいのちをつなぐBlog (KAWADA RYUHEI’S BLOG)
• NUKE INFO TOKYO (ENG) from CNIC
• 最新ニュース（新着情報）From Citizens’ Nuclear Info Center
• BUY NOTHING DAY
• LABOR NET JAPAN
• Democracy Now Japan
• TANAKA NEWS
• アクセンチュア、JAPAN-VISIT、１０万円入札の謎/Accenture and the mystery of the 100,
• Psychologists and Torture in Iraq, Afganistan and Guantanamo
• Alexander Cockburn and George Monbiot debate climate change issue

All opinons are those of the original authors and may not reflect the views of TokyoProgressive.

This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for by copyright law in several countries.  The material on this site is distributed without profit .

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Not Just Our Minds and Hearts But Our Bodies

ZNet Commentary
Not Just Our Minds and Hearts But Our Bodies October 29, 2007
By Ted Glick

It was gratifying, I have to admit, to get a fairly long phone message from Nancy Pelosi's Policy Director at the end of last week, the latest in a series of back-and-forth calls since I visited Pelosi's office on the 17th day of my climate emergency fast over three weeks ago. On that day I visited 15 offices of key people in the House and Senate who are dealing with the global warming issue, making efforts, their staffers indicated, to come up with legislation to address this deepening crisis.

I wasn't able to speak to any policy people in Pelosi's office but I was given a name and number to follow up, and I did so. The call last week was the most recent in a game of telephone tag.

Pelosi's person, Lara, commented on the Speaker's concern about my health and about her very strong commitment to taking action on global warming. She then proceeded to tell me that Pelosi's plan is to come up with something "that George Bush can sign," a direct quote. What she talked about was aspects of two different versions of an energy bill passed by the House and Senate this summer that will strengthen laws and regulations to make the U.S. economy more energy efficient. Period. Full stop.

So in the face of the greatest civilizational challenge humankind has ever faced, to paraphrase Bill McKibben, the best the Democratic leadership can do is to capitulate to George Bush?

Honestly, I'm not surprised, given what they've done and not done on the war and the snail-like pace of their efforts on global warming since they took office over nine months ago.

Their strong-statements-backed-up-by-weak-action only deepen my commitment to continue this climate fast and work hard in this last week to make the Monday, Oct. 22nd, No War No Warming nonviolent disruption of business as usual on Capitol Hill in D.C. as large and effective as possible.

I'm really looking forward to risking arrest as part of that stepping-it-up action, and I'm glad that there are at least hundreds of others doing the same. I hope many more will make their plans in this last week to join us.

"Action is the best antidote to despair." I believe Joan Baez said that. It's absolutely true. And it's not just "action," in general. It's "action" appropriate to how you feel, to your past experiences in the world of activism and to the situation. For a lot of us, disrupting business as usual on Capitol Hill on a day, a Monday, that Congress is in session and doing their work sure seems very timely, very necessary.

I think back to other major mass movements in U.S. history over the past century. All the successful ones had an edge to them, people willing to occupy factories, in the case of the labor movement of the 30's, people sitting in or directly confronting racist practices, in the case of the civil rights movement of the 50's and 60's, people burning their draft cards or going into draft boards to destroy Selective Service records, in the case of the anti-Vietnam War movement of the 60's and 70's, or the massive civil disobedience actions at planned and existing nuclear power sites in the '70's and 80's.

And this century, beginning with actions in D.C. in April, 2000 that themselves were a follow-up to the successful late November, 1999 actions in Seattle, the global justice movement put the IMF/World Bank/WTO very much on the defensive and concretely impacted their ability to advance their corporate globalization agenda.

I think of the famous statement of Mario Savio, leader of the Berkeley Free Speech Movement in the mid-1960's: "There's a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can't take part, you can't even passively take part, and you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you've got to make it stop! And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you're free, the machine will be prevented from working at all!"  It's time for us to emulate those past movements as we build the 21st century movement to Fight Climate Change, Not Wars for Oil!   Ted Glick is the coordinator of the U.S. Climate Emergency Council (http://www.climateemergency.org), a leading organizer of No War, No Warming (http://www.nowarnowarming.org) and is on the 41st day of an open-ended climate emergency fast. He can be reached at .  

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