"The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound"
Isaiah 61:1
Growing up in northern Georgia I have seen my share of bigoted Christian white American's who not only hated their fellow black citizens, but found absolutely no contradiction in following a peace-loving Jesus Christ and defending the War in Iraq or historical acts of U.S. imperialism abroad. In high school I began to question the legitimacy of my faith and the existence of a God that ordained the powerful to commit acts of brutality and intolerance while ignoring the cries of the world's poor and most vulnerable. That is when I stumbled upon the writings of Gustavo Guitierrez. Guitierrez was a priest in Latin America who asked many of the same questions I had been wondering about my self. The end result was an inspirational message for the poor and oppressed known today as Liberation Theology--a doctrine which holds that God desires not only salvation but liberation of the marginalized, and defenseless.
The recent controversy around the comments of Barack Obama's former pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright fails to acknowledge that the statements he has made over the last several decades are not a militant "black" thing but a deeply human attempt at touching a distant God. The outrage over the comments of Rev. Wright are troubling because they completely ignore one of the most disgusting attributes of America's short history--a violent combination of Christian Protestantism, white supremacy, and capitalist expansion Westward in this land or in others across the oceans. My statements are not controversial except in an American society that is out of touch with the world's poor and oppressed. Perhaps, this is why so many American's find it hard to understand contemporary events in Latin America.
In Latin America today, Liberation Theology is a pain in the side of the Roman Catholic Church. It (the Catholic Church) has publicly gone great lengths to distance its self from priests and theologians who believe in a God of the oppressed. When the Pope made statements defending the crusades in Latin America, which lead to the mass subjugation and slaughter of indigenous people, it further unveiled a dialectical split between opposing Christian theologies and conceptions of God. The recent election of the Paraguayan president, Fernando Lugo himself is an example of a priest who found the dominant theologies of the Christian faith incompatible with the living conditions of the majority of his people.
Liberation Theology is not anti-Americanism. Instead of trying to deny the troubling history of a nation who's founder said "all men created equal" and simultaneously defended the rape of black women slaves in his Notes On Virginia, we resign ourselves to labeling people anti-American. Not only is the categorization baseless libel, it is an oversimplification of a global phenomena many of us would rather pretend did not exist. Rev. Jeremiah Wright did the correct thing in pointing this out during his history lesson at the National Press Club.
Expected to be a moment of great pride for Chinese people around the world, the widespread discrediting of the 2008 Olympic games in Beijing has transformed the Olympic torch into a symbol of national pride and resistance for many. Check out an interesting article from New America Media highlighting the other side of the politics surrounding the summer Olympics in China.
For decades technocrats and politicians in Washington D.C. have paraded Milton Friedman and Robert Nozick's 'minimal-state' as the undisputed champion of modern political economy---the narrow path to prosperity and increased living standards in post-colonial countries in the developing world. But the Washington Consensus has failed to deliver the most basic human necessities to the poor and the current food crisis in the global South is a text-book example of what Egyptian economist Samir Amin has identified as a "Liberal Virus".
Sky high food prices, climate change, an increasingly nugatory dollar, and Western subsidies towards the production of biofuels have created a "perfect storm" against the poor world-wide. There is no part of the developing world left unblemished by the current food crisis and countries as diverse as Afghanistan, Argentina, Haiti, and Senegal have reported riots and other forms of social upheaval in response.
Facing pressure from their populations, many nations are fasting from vulgar classical economic liberalism to alleviate the effects of global market-failure by protecting their own domestic food industries. In Asia some of the largest rice exporters in the world including India, Cambodia, China and Vietnam, are either dramatically cutting back or have completely banned exports of rice in a last ditch effort to provide some semblance of food security for their citizens.
In Africa however, there is no such option. A food crisis that may be new for some in the global economy has been intrinsic in this continent for decades and has only worsened in recent months. The structural adjustment policies of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund demanded the whole sale abandonment of large scale domestic agricultural production for a "competitive advantage" in the extraction of cheap natural resources such as oil, diamonds and fish. African nations, dependent on food imports and aid from the West are reeling with social unrest and riots as the poor and middle-classes simply cannot afford enough food for daily consumption. In Sierra Leone the price of food has risen by 300 percent.
The World Bank has been obliged to join the growing chorus of international organizations warning of a deepening global crisis over the rising cost of food. The current head of the World Bank Robert Zoellick has asked rich nations to commit at least $500 million to the UN World Food Program to fight hunger in emergencies. Zoellick said prices of rice have risen a whopping 75 percent over the last two years.
“This is about recognizing a growing emergency, acting and seizing opportunity, too. The world can do this. We can do this. We can have a new deal on global food policy."
The "New Deal", referred to by Zoellick is needless to say a call for agrarian sectors in emerging countries to be more productive and competitive in global markets. But the broken record skipping from zonked Bretton Woods institutions is likely to be cut in the coming months ahead by post-colonial nations in Asia and Latin America looking to avoid political unrest---offering temporary concessions to the poor in the form of price controls and export protections. For the Bush Administration the food crisis will add fuel to a fire of domestic and Latin American hostility to the proposed Colombian-U.S. free-trade deal--- currently stalled for a vote in the Congress by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.
President Bush's plan to extend NATO membership to Ukraine and Georgia, thus isolating Russian influence in the region, has fallen flat on it's face---for now. During his recent trip to Ukraine, President Bush and the orange "revolutionary" Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko posed for the international media cameras and announced their strategic plan for Ukranian membership into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. President Bush announced,
“Your nation has made a bold decision, and the United States strongly supports your request...Helping Ukraine move toward NATO membership is in the interest of every member in the alliance and will help advance security and freedom in this region and around the world.”
The membership of eastern European countries like Ukraine and Georgia along with a proposed anti-missle defense system, are part of a larger plan by the Pentagon to spread American influence and hegemony in eastern Europe.
"Georgia's and Ukraine's membership in the alliance is a huge strategic mistake which would have most serious consequences for pan-European security."
The decision of the summit to postpone membership to Ukraine and Georgia is a small yet significant blow to the expansion of the U.S. dominated military alliance. But NATO endorsed the Pentagon's plans to establish a missle defense system in the Czech Republic and Poland. However, Russia should not fear the missle defense system, which according to the Bush Administration is aimed against Middle-East countries like Iran.
"Something is happening in our world. The masses of people are rising up. And wherever they are assembled today, whether they are in Johannesburg, South Africa; Nairobi, Kenya; Accra, Ghana; New York City; Atlanta, Georgia; Jackson, Mississippi; or Memphis, Tennessee -- the cry is always the same: 'We want to be free.'"
- MLK
On this day April 3, 1968 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. made his last speech "I've Been to the Mountaintop" in support of a sanitation workers strike in Memphis Tennessee. The speech was an indictment against the vicious cycle of the extreme inequality, oppression and war, which had come to characterize the world in which he lived. But in his final remarks Dr. King said that although he knew his days were numbered (he would be shot dead the very next day), that "as a people we would reach the promised land." Are we there yet?
What would Dr. King, a dedicated proponent of social and economic justice say about our global economy? The world's richest 50 individuals have a combined income greater than that of the poorest 416 million. The past ten years have been among the most profitable years in history for the global economy, but still there are more than 2.5 billion people living on less than $2 a day. Meanwhile, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan wage on with no end in sight for either. In Iraq alone over 600,000 innocent people, mostly women and children have evaporated since the U.S. invasion began in 2003.
While there is no limit to the amount of suffering and pain caused by our own government and it's "democratic" allies throughout the world the dominant media, (owned by a small number of global conglomerates), wages daily bias and slanted attacks against Bolivia, Ecuador, Iran, Venezuela, Zimbabwe, China, and any other perceived enemies of U.S. foreign policy. These reports give regular unmediated coverage to opposition parties, and reporters hostile to opponents of the U.S. free trade agenda. The New York Times, a newspaper which launches a daily barrage of misinformation against foreign governments, delayed publication of the Bush Administration's illegal wire-tapping program for more than a year after intense lobbying from the White House. The chaos in Somalia, instigated by U.S. intervention goes almost totally unreported in the dominant press.
Tomorrow, politicians, business leaders, journalists, media corespondents, and military officers will observe the anniversary of the death of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. But there will be little critical analysis of exactly what Dr. King's legacy means in today's world. Expect one of the presidential hopefuls who is among of the few staunch defenders of the War in Vietnam, which Dr. King so ardently opposed to make a brief statement in his honor. Expect the true message of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to be once again sanitized and redecorated to suit an American society, which has lost sight of the radical vision for a "new world" he gave his life for.
"These brave individuals have lived out the words of the Gospel: `Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends,"
- George Bush
A day after President Bush's heart warming radio address reminding America to remember the ongoing sacrifices of U.S. troops in Iraq on Easter Sunday, four U.S. soldiers were blown apart by a roadside bomb in Baghdad bringing the total number of dead over 4,000. President Bush marked the occasion Monday with resolve and assurance for the American people.
"One day people will look back at this moment in history and say, 'Thank God there were courageous people willing to serve, because they laid the foundations for peace for generations to come."
If someday our war and occupation in Iraq are heralded as blessed peacemaking, it will likely be by a disconnected American public and not the Iraqi people. In January, a joint UN World Health Organization and Iraqi government study concluded that between 104,000 and 233,000 Iraqi's have died violently from the invasion.
"The world regards the American soldiers as our saviours but they are murderers..All the killings in Iraq are because of the Americans. They are the cause of all the bloodshed. I ask Allah to kill all the American soldiers --to count them all and not leave any one of them."
It reads like a scene from the futuristic science fiction blockbuster Minority Report, starring Tom Cruise set in Washington D.C. where the police apprehend criminals weeks before they commit the crime. The presidential election in Zimbabwe is slated for the 29th of May but it was stolen. Western NGO's who realize the inevitable re-election of current President Robert Mugabe have opted to discredit an election which has yet to occur, drafted stern consequences for guilty parties who have yet to rig the voter booths, and naturally have readied detailed proposals for broad neo-liberal structural reforms in the government and economy.
The International Crisis Group has gone as far as asking for the formation of "a united front of all opposition forces" with the objective of "establishing a transitional government of national unity". Human Rights Watch has outruled any "meaningful" prospect of a "free and fair election" despite what it calls some electoral system improvements.
Front-runner President Robert Mugabe gains the base of his support from the rural black poor, war veterans, and radical youth who remember the 84 year old's leadership during the liberation struggle when Zimbabwe was Rhodesia. He remains one of the last remaining symbols of public resistance to London's and Washington D.C.'s foreign policy in Africa and is campaigning under the slogan "vote for the fist". Mugabe faces his biggest electoral challenge to date from former ally Simba Makoni and long time rival Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the main faction of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), amid a desperate struggle to revive Zimbabwe's economy.
The international media has been rushed with reports among others from the U.S. State Department and British Parliament, which publicly support the political "opposition" to the ZANU-PF specifically the Movement for Democratic Change. These sources are even 'predicting' Zimbabwe may spiral into all out violence and political turmoil Kenya style as a result of the fraud (wink, wink...nudge, nudge). This on coming apocalypse will surely require humanitarian intervention and political arbitration from Western governments and NGO's. "Mission accomplished".
Despite the persistent CNN images of oddly, mostly white middle-class private school students marching through the streets calling for ¨freedom of speech¨, there was a willing ignorance of the much greater collective of young supporters of the decision to ¨democratize¨ public air space. As more evidence about the RCTV ordeal and the millions of dollars funneled by American NGO´s and governmental organizations to anti-government groups begin to emerge, perhaps U.S. media outlets will finally begin reflecting the objective reality in Venezuela---a stark polarization between the upper-middle class elite, and the masses of poor workers and students who are pushing for the radical transformation of Venezuelan civil society.
¨He´s more of a left-wing promoter than Hugo Chavez for crying out loud!
Lou Dobbs
In an interview on the always extraneous ¨Situation Room¨ with Wolf Blitzer, film director Michael Moore challenged CNN´s biased coverage of his movie ¨Sicko¨, the inaccurate facts about the Corporate sector dominated U.S. health care industry and the proposed solution of a comprehensive universal medicine program. link
The interview reveals Moore's anger about CNN and the other corporate dominated media outlets. His frustration is shared by millions of others through out the U.S. and the world. A broad international conversation about the role of large corporations in American civil society, including our health care system is long overdue and several alternative media sources are filling in the gaps.
" There's going to be a dramatic contraction at some point." - Alan Greenspan
When the Prophet of the almighty free-market speaks, the financial world listens. Today Chinese shares fell after former US Federal Reserve head Alan Greenspan said China’s stock market was overvalued, which in turn markedly impacted markets in the US, Europe and Asia. Greenspan's comments contributed to the first decline in U.S. stocks in four days. Alan Greenspan didn’t bring all bad news. He remarked he wasn’t worried about the financial system overall but only “some parts".
Michael James, senior equity trader at Wedbush Morgan Securities in Los Angeles said,
``To have someone like Chairman Greenspan calling for a dramatic contraction in the Chinese markets might have made a few people a little nervous.''
Greenspan is notorious for moving financial markets with his prophetic “utterances” since he retired from the Federal Reserve in January 2006. Between the prophetic power of speculators, forecasters and the insane volatility of the invisible hand, the idiocy of market economics always gives me something new to laugh about.
The CIA has received approval from the President to mount a covert operation to destabilize the Iranian government, including a campaign of propaganda, disinformation and manipulation of Iran's currency and international financial transactions. Link
"I have concluded that it is the best interests of those whom this institution serves for that mission to be carried forward under new leadership."
- Paul Wolfowitz
The World Bank is no stranger to controversy and stories of corruption. But the recent fire storm surrounding Paul Wolfowitz and his alleged favoritism has invited a larger conversation about the distribution of power with in the World Bank and its sister the International Monetary Fund. The World Bank president has traditionally been appointed by the US government, while the Europeans have chosen the head of the IMF. Developing nations and organizations are calling for a more fair and open process in deciding the leadership of the world’s preeminent financial institutions asking for, "transparency of process, and competence of prospective leadership without regard to national origin".
The calls for a non- U.S. or European dominated structure have resonated for years now as the economic emergence of countries like China and India have challenged the very nature of the current economic world-system. The National Intelligence Council, a U.S. government think tank, predicts that by 2025, China and India will have the world's second- and fourth-largest economies. This growth is opening the way for a multi-polar era in world politics. This tectonic shift will pose a challenge to the U.S.-dominated global institutions that have been firmly in place since the 1940s. Votes in the World Bank are said to reflect the size of a countries economy and not its’ population, however Europe still maintains an over-represented position on the bank’s board as compared to the China and India who are underrepresented.
In light of the Wolfowitz scandal and beyond voices will continue to push for the World Bank and IMF’s leadership to begin reflecting the people and world views of the poor nations they claim to serve. Even more importantly as non-western nations begin to take more substantial roles in the world-system it remains to be seen if the current distribution of world economic authority will remain in the benefit of the global north.
“By the end of the decade sub-Saharan Africa is likely to become as important as a source of U.S. energy imports as the Middle East.”
In light of the mayhem recently unleashed by the Bush Administration in the Middle East perhaps Africa would rather China as a business partner.
The focal, permanent U.S. military base in Africa lies in Djibouti in the Horn of Africa, giving the United States strategic control of the maritime zone through which a quarter of the world’s oil production passes. In West Africa, the U.S. military's European Command has established forward-operating stations in Senegal, Mali, Ghana, and Gabon as well as Namibia, involving the upgrading of airfields, the pre-positioning of supplies and fuel, and agreements for swift deployment of U.S. troops. The Pentagon is thus moving aggressively to establish a military presence in the Gulf of Guinea that will allow it to control the western part of the extensive trans-Africa oil strip and the crucial oil reserves now being discovered. The U.S. has found itself in the position of financing, and aiding corrupt and dictatorial African governments to protect its capital assets in Equatorial Guinea, Chad, and until recently, Mauritania.
According to the Wall Street Journal in its April 25th issue, the U.S. military’s European Command is also working with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to expand the role of U.S. corporations in Africa as part of an “integrated U.S. response.” Britain and France are working closely with the United States to secure Western imperial control of the region against other actors including India and China. An action fueled by China’s growing influence on the continent. The Council on Foreign Relations maintain,
“China has altered the strategic context in Africa. All across Africa today, China is acquiring control of natural resource assets, outbidding Western contractors on major infrastructure projects, and providing soft loans and other incentives to bolster its competitive advantage.”
The new scramble for strategic hegemony in Africa is non-unique in that it remains a struggle among great powers for cheap resources, pillage, and stratagem not for the measurable development or welfare of the African people. The words oil and terrorism have replaced food and justice in the rhetoric of greedy kleptomaniacs in Africa looking to profit from new interventions in their countries.
"The most important message that I will be delivering is that a stable, unified and democratic Iraq is an Iraq that will be a pillar of stability in the Middle East,"- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
The debate about the War in Iraq however polarized is tragically representative of two separate cheeks of the same Eurocentric ass. For centuries under the veil of civilization, secular-humanist values or modernism the western world has asserted its “right to interfere” in the political situations in various non-western parts of the world.
Despite the overwhelming majority opinion of Iraqi’s, and various members of parliament who oppose the U.S. lead occupation, American politicians and military strategists continue to avow their right to dictate the political and economic affairs of the Iraqi people in the name of progress and stability. More importantly this perceived right is hardly second guessed in either major political circles or the media.
President Bush stated earlier this week,
"Iraqi and U.S. forces are making gradual but important progress almost every day...we will remain steadfast until our objectives are achieved."
Immanuel Wallerstein, a widely renowned historical social scientist discusses the tendency of Western powers to use the name of progress for their own hegemonic ends.
"Progress has been a basic theme of occupying powers since the European Enlightenment. The metaphor of progress and development were not merely attempts to describe; they were moreover incentives to prescribe."
The discourse on the occupation of Iraq has been resolutely universalist in declaring that what is declared progressive by the Democrats, Republicans or their European allies is by default in the best interest of the Iraqi people----a people who vehemently oppose the occupation of their country. The Democratic controlled Congress cites turmoil within the Maliki government and the lack of progress being made in the county as the secondary premise of its opposition to the war----the first of course being the casualty rate of American soldiers. Democratic Senator Olympia Snowe recently said,
"It's up to the Iraqis to determine whether or not they're going to pursue the political consensus that's going to be so critical to unifying the country.... And we haven't a sense from within the Iraqis themselves as to whether or not they're aiming, you know, to achieve the kind of solution that's so important to put us on the path towards national reconciliation."
But can the Iraqi parliament be blamed for their lethargy regarding political reforms and benchmarks created by American policy makers and military generals? As the Democrats and Republicans vociferously debate a political solution between a unified federal government and partition of Iraq into three separate zones there seems to be a mutual consensus that the future of Iraq is ourdecision to make. Whether we support a phased with drawl from the country or indefinite commitment the question remains to be answered, does the American military and political apparatus have the moral authority to decide the destiny of Iraq either way?
While the Bush Administration continues to play footsy with U.S. farmers, energy companies, and green environmentalist over ethanol, I can’t help but notice the warnings from the global south which get very little if any airtime in our regal media outlets. As often expected, what materially benefits the 1st world or core countries comes at the fatal expense of millions of those living at the peripheries of the global economic system. America is beginning to use corn to create ethanol biofuel, which will subsequently be combined with petrol to reduce the country's dependence on foreign oil. One problem though, theres not enough corn in the U.S. to fill the gap even after the obscene amount of subsidies U.S. farmers are likely to receive.
Fidel Castro, the sickly former leader of Cuba and the third world’s Non-Aligned Movement asks a few fundamental questions about America’s drive for ethanol in a recent article.
"Where are the more than 500 million tons of corn and other cereals which the United States, Europe and wealthy nations require to produce the gallons of ethanol that big companies in the United States and other countries demand in exchange for their voluminous investments going to be produced and who is going to supply them?"
Of course the U.S. is going to feed its’ drive for alternative based fuel by turning food crops into cash and energy crops in the global south. The Economist, one of the leading financial magazines in the country ironically agrees with President Castro’s assessment of our ‘genocidal’ drive for food based ethanol.
"As more land is used to grow corn rather than other food crops, such as soy, their prices also rise. And since corn is used as animal feed, the price of meat goes up, too. The food supply, in other words, is being diverted to feed America's hungry cars."
The demand for ethanol has pushed corn prices to record highs, and economists warn that the rise in prices will likely hurt the world's poor. In the future the U.S. should probably discontinue pursuing self-interested energy policies that will inevitably lead to mass starvation among those in the global south. We should go "green" but not at the expense of the the worlds poorer peripheral nations.
"We realised that had we resisted there would have been a major fight, one we could not have won and with consequences major strategic impacts… we made a conscious decision not to engage the Iranians and do as they asked,"
In an ironic twist of events, media outlets are using press appearances, new confessions by the sailors and the tedium of round the clock news coverage to reaffirm Britains official postion of the events that took place leading up to and during the sailors capture. The new information released contradicts previous sailors versions of events including the position of the ship in Iranian waters.
The sailors have returned home, but the details of their capture and detention will continue to dominate the headlines and accelerate the geo-political posturing between British, American and Iranian statesmen. Tony Blair issued a statement suggesting Iranian involvement in the deaths of several British soldiers in an ambush the same day as the sailors were released. He called the recent roadside bombing and helicopter attacks which also killed eight U.S. soldiers, “acts of terrorism”. He suggested the bombing may have been connected to elements connected to Iran. From Baghdad, to the living rooms and dinner tables of the American and British people, all evil roads to Tehran.
Sunday is April Fools Day. As usual my excitement is boiling over and I just can’t wait to start playing pranks on all my friends and family. On April the 1st, I have decided to be a conservative for a day.
In preparation I’ve been getting into conservative shape, and of course memorizing all my Ronald Regan facts. Do you know yours? Every true conservative knows at least ten. After all he is the father of modern conservatism and my personal April Fools Day hero. Here are a few of my favorites…
There is no theory of evolution. Just a list of animals Ronald Regan allows to live.
Ronald Regan doesn't read books. He stares them down until he gets the information he wants.
Ronald Regan can slam a revolving door.
Ronald Regan does not sleep. He waits.
The chief export of Ronald Regan is Pain.
Ronald Regan has two speeds. Walk, and Kill.
Ronald Regan’ tears cure cancer. Too bad he has never cried.
The Great Wall of China was originally created to keep Ronald Regan out. It failed miserably.
Ronald Regan drinks napalm to quell his heartburn.
Ronald Regan single handedly lead to the collapse of the Soviet Union.
"The history of slavery should be taught in order for people to understand the effect it has had and continues to have,"
This is a quote by Elizabeth Ama Asare, a teacher of history at Labone Secondary School in Accra Ghana. She like many throughout the continent, are realizing more everyday the powerful consequences European slavery had within Africa. The abolition of the Trans- Atlantic Slave Trade was a landmark decision in the history of the modern Western World. Conservative estimates say 12 million slaves were brought across the Atlantic between the 15th and 19th Centuries and there were dozens of millions more who lost their lives in the journey during this heartrending period in world history. The effects of the slave trade, according to some scholarly sources, still can be seen throughout Western Africa. The drain of entire working populations, some of Africa’s strongest, is one of the causes for rural underdevelopment in many countries today.
Slaves sold across the Atlantic were often prisoners of war between rival African communities. Warfare became a major source of slaves and European traders exploited differences between groups for their own benefit. Dr. Akosua Adoma Perbi from Ghana explains,
"The greater demand for slaves for the external market resulted in an increased tapping of the indigenous sources of slave supply. This period of great demand for slaves also coincided with the introduction of guns and gunpowder into Ghana. Incessant wars of conquest, expansion, aggression and retaliation became a feature of the Ghanaian experience,"
Many large scale African population depletions left the continent open for colonialism and further conquest during the 2oth centuries. Recently, leaders like Tony Blair have issued statements presenting their disdain and remorse about their countries involvement with the Slave Trade. The reality is however, America has not yet officially apologized for it’s involvement in the Slavery Enterprise and is neglectful of any substantive dialogue about this shameful episode in American history. Most attempts to present slavery and it’s present day effects on African-Americans are stigmatized as irrelevant. An educated conversation about slavery and it's legacy is long overdue and necessary for our political leaders to have with the American people.
The international media circus surrounding the capture of 15 British sailors by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard has become an information war with both British and American news outlets in a bitter confrontation with Iranian and Middle Eastern channels. Today, Iranian news stations released footage of the sailors including a taped recording of a woman in the group Faye Turney. She admonishes Britain,
"Isn't it time for us to start withdrawing our forces from Iraq and let them determine their own future?"
She continues in her testimony that the sailors had illegally entered Iranian waters, which contradicts British reports that the 15 were on a 'legal' mission in Iraqi waters. Clearly perusing in Iraqi territory is a legal right for British or American forces. The western media has not denied the authenticity of the confession, however include a disclaimer by Margaret Beckett who said she was,
"very concerned about these pictures and any indication of pressure on, or coercion of, our personnel. ... I am particularly disappointed that a private letter has been used in a way which can only add to the distress of the families."
Tony Blair is maintaining his position the sailors were in Iraqi waters, and clearly has no intention to leave Iraq in light of Turney's remarks. The U.N. Security Council, or Britain, U.S., China, Russia, and France issued a public statement that they had "grave concern" about the issue. Britain however failed to gain support for a meaner statement deploring Iran's confinement of the Britons and demanding for their immediate release.
Hostilities between the United States, Britain and Iran are heating up and this issue has shed light on the delicate relationship between the three Middle Eastern juggernauts. The capture and detainment of Iranian Revolutionary Guard members by U.S. forces, and the subsequent information war didn’t cause quite the firestorm the new incident has but serves as a backdrop in this new conflict. Oil prices went up more than $1 a barrel on Wednesday in the course of the standoff, as the U.S. Navy is carrying out its largest show of force in the Persian Gulf since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. It appears that decades of confrontation between the three going back well into the 20th century are at an all time boiling point as the Iraq War and the protracted moral campaign against Iran’s nuclear program continues on. For now the fiercest fighting is happening on the battleground of public opinion through the media. If I were a betting man though, I’d say the fight is going to take a more deadly turn in the next month.
" harnessing technology to willingfully infinge copyrights on a huge scale".
The lawsuit most likely won't hold water since proving the " willingfullness" of YouTube's intellectual property wrongs, will be nearly impossible. The video- sharing website doesn't actually upload the copyrighted material and users are the "willingfull" culprits.
What is particularly irritating to me however, is the continued attempts by Big media to squash the internet open-source and file sharing movement. Viacom and other 'old media' outlets are worried video sharing websites will lure away viewers and ad dollars from cable and broadcast televsion. If websites like YouTube can provide a free and user friendly alternative to the closed source television model people will logically gravitate towards the former. Viacom, who has a virtual monopoly on the television media and entertainment industry should relax. Americans will have watched around 250 billion hours of television by years end. Traditional media will continue to be my primary source for gratuitous sex, violence and conspicuous consumption.
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