Thursday, January 16, 2003
- John le Carre: The United States of America has gone mad
“Will people be killed, Daddy?”
“Nobody you know, darling. Just foreign people.”
America has entered one of its periods of historical madness, but this is the worst I can remember: worse than McCarthyism, worse than the Bay of Pigs and in the long term potentially more disastrous than the Vietnam War.
The reaction to 9/11 is beyond anything Osama bin Laden could have hoped for in his nastiest dreams. As in McCarthy times, the freedoms that have made America the envy of the world are being systematically eroded. The combination of compliant US media and vested corporate
interests is once more ensuring that a debate that should be ringing out in every town square is confined to the loftier columns of the East Coast press.
More:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/portside/message/3609
Monday, January 13, 2003
- New ChocoPaul News Radio: Stop the War!
Go here and listen to historian Howard Zinn and actor/director Tim Robbins speak out against the world’s biggest war criminal. Segment #16 is the latest program (bottom of the page). Also news about the website. Music by Pete Seeger, Phil Ochs and Jim Page. Thanks to Charles Rosina for the tape from the Boston Common demonstration.
From Paul Arenson
http://www.radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=4235
(easiest to listen to)
Alternative address is:
http://sf.indymedia.org/news/2003/01/1560172.php
Soon to be on Radio Lava Lamp, Osaka as well:
http://www.rinku.zaq.ne.jp/bkaec205/index.html
- 1.18?@WORLD PEACE NOW 1.18 ‚à‚¤?푈‚?‚¢‚ç‚È‚¢?@?`‚킽‚µ‚½‚
Anti War Demonstration, Concert, Rally in Hibiya Park Tokyo 18 from 12-6 (Saturday)
Also in many other cities (1ŒŽ18“ú‚É‚??A“Œ‹ž‚Ì‚Ù‚©?A•xŽR?AŽD–y?A?L“‡?A‘å?ã?A–¼ŒÃ‰®?AŒF–{‚È‚Ç‘S?‘10??‰Ó?Š‚Ńs?[ƒXƒAƒNƒVƒ‡ƒ“‚ª—’肳‚ê‚Ä‚¢‚Ü‚·.
Japanese:
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On the same day of January 18th, in Japan, we will have a peace action, expecting more than 10000 participants from social movements such as peace, environment and human rights. Only if you are against the war on Iraq, please join us.
Date: 18th January 2003 @Hibiya Park
Peace Concert: open 11:30 , Start 12:00 @Yagai-Shou Ongakudo
Peace March:Open 14:00, Start 14:30 @Yagai Ongakudo -> Ginza
Peace Rally : Start 17:00 @@Yagai Ongakudo
ALSO DEMONSTRATION on FRIDAY the 17th
Jan 17 (Fri)
Emergency rally against U.S. war on Iraq
12:30 at Hibiya Amphitheater, Tokyo
Demonstration after the rally toward U.S. Embassy and the Diet Building
For more information call 03-3264-4764 (the Central Action Committee
against the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty or Anpo-Haki
Go here or see below for more in Japanese on the January 18th Demo:
http://www.worldpeacenow.jp/
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CONTINUES HERE/‚±‚¿‚ç‚Ö
- Which country poses the greatest danger to world peace in 2003?
Occasionally the truth will come out even in places like Time Magazine:
North Korea 10.4 %
Iraq 16.1 %
The United States 73.5 %
Total Votes Cast: 76441
From this page
http://www.time.com/time/europe/gdml/peace2003.html
As of January 13, 2003
- NOT ALL WHITE HOUSE REPORTERS ARE PUSHOVERS
By Norman Solomon
At 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., reporters usually shuffle along to a snoozy beat. But anyone who denigrates the mainstream media in general, or the White House press corps in particular, should acknowledge that exceptional journalists do strive to ask deeper questions while most colleagues go through the motions.
The latest in a long line of presidential spinners, Ari Fleischer, began a news conference on Jan. 6 with a nice greeting: “Good afternoon and happy New Year to everybody.” But his bonhomie didn’t last more than a minute.
“At the earlier briefing, Ari, you said that the president deplored the taking of innocent lives,” Helen Thomas began. “Does that apply to all innocent lives in the world?”
It was a simple question—and, unfortunately, an extraordinary one. Few journalists at the White House move beyond the subtle but powerful ties that bind reporters and top officials in Washington. Routinely, shared assumptions are the unspoken name of the game.
- Peace is made with enemies
By Sean Gonsalves
(Please visit http://zmag.org to see how you can help ZNet by becoming a sustainer)
How do you explain the president’s threat to invade Iraq, in keeping with the “preventive” war prescription laid out in the September 2002 National Security Strategy Directive, while he talks about diplomacy in dealing with North Korea?
That U.S. policy-makers are preparing for war against an Iraqi military that analysts say we can easily crush while going the diplomatic route with North Korea—a country we can’t beat up on as easily—is evidence of an ugly principle at work: might makes right.
Saturday, January 11, 2003
- WWOOF Japan
Get away from your rut
WWOOF Japan
WWOOF Japan at is a program facilitating travellers and holiday makers to visit hosts around Japan and receive meals, boarding, learning and be part of the family or community at no financial cost, in return for assisting the host with the work they do. WWOOF hosts include farms, holiday inns, ski resorts, and more. A 12 month membership is 4000 yen allowing you to visit as many places as you like. We do have hosts that will accept people all year round. One can see a preview of some (not all) of our hosts at http://www.wwoofjapan.com/preview_e.html
You can join and pay online via our website or you can pay at any post office throughout Japan - see the website for details. Members have access to bilingual forms from our website to use to communicate with hosts and make plans that best suit them. WWOOF is a great way to see Japan away from your daily grind. You can arrange to visit a host for just a day or two or for longer periods, or start out with a day or two and extend if you like it. Check out our website for all the details at http://www.wwoofjapan.com
Friday, January 10, 2003
- 9-11 families Visit Iraq in Solidarity with Civilian Targets
Family members of people killed in the September 11 attacks are currently in Iraq. The four-member delegation represents September 11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, an advocacy group seeking effective, non-violent alternatives to war and terrorism.
COLLEEN KELLY
Kelly lost her brother, Bill, at the World Trade Center on September 11. Kelly went to Iraq because she “wanted to understand that Iraq is not just one man, Saddam Hussein, but many, many people, with hopes and dreams and families, just like my brother.” Currently in Iraq, Kelly said: “I’ve found immediately an understanding of what we have gone through, which is something that you do not always find in America....”
Wednesday, January 08, 2003
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- Water justice in Kyoto?
Water justice in Kyoto? Reflections on the Third World Water Forum
by Olivier Hoedeman, Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO)
http://www.xs4all.nl/~ceo/
The organisers of the Third World Water Forum want to avoid the embarrassing experience they had at the previous forum (in The Hague in 2000), when groups succesfully confronted the Forum with its corporate bias. They have therefore invited NGOs to join this year’s event, for instance by organising panels and roundtables inside the forum. Many organisations, from Japan and the rest of the world, have this time accepted the invitation, hoping to make their concerns are heard by the thousands of influential people that will attend the World Water Forum. Strong groups like the Council of Canadians and Public Services International are working on a trojan horse?Estrategy of trying to win the debate inside the Forum. Whatever the impact os this will be, it is essential that the global justice movement is also visible outside of the World Water Forum.....
READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE
- Denis Halliday, Former UN Official, in Iraq
From Institute for Public Accuracy (http://www.accuracy.org)
Halliday is a former head of the UN oil-for-food program and a former UN Assistant Secretary General. Over the last few days he has met with Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz, Foreign Minister Naji Sabri, and Trade Minister Mohammad Saleh, as well as the heads of UNICEF and UNDP in Iraq, two Iraqi families and numerous shopkeepers he knew from his earlier time in Baghdad. He said today: “The majority of Iraqis are staying together with families at home, there’s little sign of a mass exodus as there was in 1991. The government has distributed three months of the oil-for-food program supplies. There’s concern the U.S. would bomb food facilities, as it did here in 1991 and in Afghanistan. The other major concern is water. The people who can afford it are hoarding bottled water.
Friday, January 03, 2003
- North and South Korea, the U.S. and Japan
by Paul Arenson
In the following articles we learn that despite the fearful rhetoric coming out of North Korea, most people in South Korea view George Bush as a “trigger happy man”. We also learn that “72 percent of Koreans oppose the US-led war on terrorism, with only 24 percent in support; in Japan, those figures were almost reversed, with 32 percent opposed to the war and 61 percent in favor. Of all the Asian countries polled, South Koreans also had the highest number of people, 73 percent, who reject the view that US foreign policy considers the interests of other countries” (see Tim Shorrock in the next article).
Here in Japan the media focuses exclusively on the plight of the relatives of the kidnapped people’s familes. using that as a backdrop to support a more militarised Japan, a Japan that supports the Bush policy of belligerence, that tacitly even supports the U.S. policy of “endorsing ‘preventive’ war” and the “use of nuclear weapons in the interests of maintaining American hegemony” (see Chalmers Johnson below). Isn’t it time for people in Japan to ask why so many South Koreans, who have had many more relatives kidnapped by North Korea than Japan, oppose ‘trigger happy’ Bush and missile defense, while so many here do not oppose the creeping militarism of their government in support of the American war machine?
