Category Archives: colonialism

October 21, 2011 · 8:36 pm

Juxtaposition: legal immunity for soldiers in Iraq and South Korea

Artifact 1: US soldiers in Iraq and immunity from prosecution

One of the sticking points in the negotiations with Iraq was a US demand that American forces remaining in the country after December would enjoy the same immunity from prosecution as they do now. The Iraqi government, conscious of public anger over many controversial incidents involving US troops and defence contractors over the last decade, refused.

via Iraq rejects US request to maintain bases after troop withdrawal | World news | guardian.co.uk.

Artifact 2: US soldiers in South Korea and immunity from prosecution

Still, attitudes toward the 28,500 U.S. servicemen and women stationed in South Korea have deteriorated. Many residents call for the South Korean government to end its diplomatic agreement that allows for the U.S. troop presence, claiming that they’re more afraid of the U.S. military peacekeepers than the North Korean regime they are supposed to be protected them from.

Seoul dance clubs once frequented by U.S. military now bar admission to American soldiers after concern expressed by female patrons, according to local press reports here. South Korea also created a task force to seek revisions to the Status of Forces Agreement, or SOFA, that governs the legal status of U.S. troops in South Korea and elsewhere.

Activists here say that the SOFA, signed in 1965 and amended in 1995 and 2001, is unjust because it goes too far in protecting U.S. soldiers. Many want the police here to be given more legal jurisdiction to investigate sex crimes involving American soldiers.

via Alleged rapes by U.S. soldiers ratchet up anger in South Korea – latimes.com.

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October 20, 2011 · 3:59 pm

Politics are confusing especially if you are a Kurd

Kurds in northern Iraq/Kurdistan helped the United States to invade Iraq.  Kurds made it clear, that their enemies included both Sadaam Hussein and the government of Turkey.  I wonder how many Turks were killed with United States made ammunition?

The Turkish offensive across the Iraqi border included helicopter gunships, ground commandos and fighter jets, authorities said.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan canceled a foreign trip and labeled the operation a legal “hot pursuit” of terrorists operating out of Iraq’s Kurdish region. The overnight attacks were blamed on the PKK, or Kurdistan Workers Party, which has long used mountain bases in rugged northern Iraq to stage guerrilla-style attacks into Turkey, Erdogan said.

The PKK, which seeks what it calls equal rights for Turkey’s Kurdish minority, and Ankara have been locked in a decades-long struggle that has left tens of thousands dead and has recently heated up anew. Public anger in Turkey about the escalating violence has been mounting, putting pressure on Erdogan and other leaders for a robust response.

via Turkey pushes into Iraq after Kurd militant raids kill 24 troops – latimes.com.

Lets put this in context.  I suggest you learn from David Rovic’s folk song: “Good Kurds, Bad Kurds.”

Lyrics:

Saddam Hussein gassed the Kurdish people
Killed thousands in a single day
And twelve long years later
Uncle Sam said “you can’t treat your Kurds this way
“And furthermore all Kurds are freedom fighters
“Who’s resist this Iraqi tyranny
“And Uncle Sam will give them guns and maybe sometimes ammunition
“So the brave Kurds can fight until they’re free”

Meanwhile in southeastern Turkey
The Turkish Army had a unique plan
We’ll go in and burn down three thousand villages
Get rid of what they call Kurdistan
Well some of these pesky Kurds decided
That they would rather fight instead of die
So Uncle Sam said, “You are terrorists
“Because Turkey is our ally”

Geopolitics is confusing
In fact, it can be quite absurd
Especially if you value your freedom
You live in Turkey and you are a Kurd

Yes, when Iraqi Kurds are massacred
We say this is genocide
OK, we armed the Army through the eighties
But now we proudly take the Kurdish side
But in Turkey it’s an internal matter
And for us to get involved would be wrong
So we’ll sell some tanks and ‘copters to Ankara
And hope these poor folks can get along

Yes, geopolitics is confusing
And you can’t take the Yankees at their word
At least that’s distinctly how it looks
If you live in Turkey and you’re a Kurd

So when they talk about American interests
And it somehow seems that they’re not yours
Going all over the world
Bombing countries and starting up wars
You’d better leave it to the experts
Go on back to your Playstations
‘Cause our foreign policy only makes sense
To CEO’s of multinational corporations

‘Cause geopolitics is confusing
And if you feel like you’re not being heard
Just imagine how much worse it could be
If you lived in Turkey and you were a Kurd

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October 19, 2011 · 4:40 pm

Arundhati Roy on Indian Maoists

I like this article (and the original article) because of Roy’s awareness of how talking about ideas changes them.  This is at the core of the modern power of change — language and ideas.  Important stuff here.

“The country that I live in is becoming more and more repressive, more and more of a police state…. India is hardening as a state. It has to continue to give the impression of being a messy, cuddly democracy but actually what’s going on outside the arc lights is really desperate.”

But at the same time it remains an open society, and the arguments are there to be won. In 2009 the government announced Operation Greenhunt, a new, even tougher attempt to kill off the Maoist insurgency, but it sparked fierce resistance, both inside the forest and beyond. “Among the Indian elite it was okay just to call them Maoist terrorists: they had been de-humanised. So when I, who am not a Maoist, went in and wrote about who they were, it made them human beings, fighting for something very, very serious. And that makes a big difference.

“This is a very interesting time where I think the debates are being cracked open. Real intervention at a real moment can change the paradigm of the debate, even if it doesn’t instantly cause a revolution.”

via Arundhati Roy: ‘The next novel will just have to wait…’ – Features, Books – The Independent.

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October 14, 2011 · 5:39 pm

Alabama and immigrant slavery

Sometimes the British media get a more clear sense of what is happening in the United States than any domestic source.

So, here is how it goes. First, the state passes a harsh immigration law. Then, it detains large numbers of immigrants. Third, private prisons (LCS, CCA, GEO) receive fresh inmates. And finally, the artificially created labor shortage is supplied by the new inmates. Does this sound like modern-day slavery to anyone?

The rest of the country can only look in shock and dismay, as once again, Alabama, a state renowned for its historical role in racism, segregation and slavery, leads the nation into another round of shame.

via Alabama brings back slavery for Latinos | Axel Caballero | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk.

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October 13, 2011 · 5:54 pm

Juxtaposition: Curfews vs. Tahrir square

Artifact 1:

January 31: Mubarak still refuses to step down, amid growing calls for his resignation. Protesters continue to defy the military-imposed curfew. About 250,000 people gather in Cairo’s Tahrir Square and hundreds march through Alexandria.

via Timeline: Egypt’s revolution – Middle East – Al Jazeera English.

Artifact 2:

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — Protesters say they’re ready to face arrest again on the fourth day of the “Occupy Sacramento” demonstrations, but they are now calling for city leaders to rescind the curfew that makes it illegal to continue protests overnight.

About 14 protesters were arrested after midnight following Saturday’s event, and the attendees of Sunday’s march said they were prepared to follow suit and remain at Cesar Chavez Park until police arrested them.

“These arbitrary rules that say at midnight at this park, you’re not allowed to be here, that’s ridiculous,” said protester Morgan Lesko.

via ‘Occupy Sacramento’ Protests Demand City Rescind Park Curfew « CBS Sacramento.

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September 10, 2011 · 7:38 pm

Nationalism and killing pigs

Interesting article in the LA Times about rising pork prices in China.  Good opportunity for analysis from the article on nationalism and meat eating.

China, by far the world’s biggest producer of pork, is home to about half the world’s porcine population with 460 million pigs. That’s about seven times more than the United States, the second-largest producer.

But it hasn’t been enough to keep a lid on prices, which have risen steeply since the middle of last year. That’s when Chinese farmers reduced production in response to high feed costs and shrinking profit margins. A spate of hog diseases also cut into the supply.

China’s government is so sensitive to the country’s appetite that it maintains a strategic reserve of 200,000 tons of frozen pork. It has tapped that secret stash in recent weeks to increase supply. But analysts said it will make little difference in a nation that consumes 100,000 tons of pork daily.

via China’s pork shortage hitting close to home, affecting economy – latimes.com.

My first thought is that this indicates the importance of pork consumption to the idea of the nation.  In the USA we keep some strategic oil reserves to ensure that there is a backup, but also to reassure Americans that their government is thinking about their oil future oil consumption.  It reassures and encourages healthy consumption.  Similarly, China’s frozen pig reserve indicates a selling of the idea of regular animal protein consumption to the citizenry.

After wondering if other meats will replace the value of pig in Chinese food, David Pearson, the article’s author, includes this reply:

Fat chance, said Shi Zhijun, owner of a Beijing restaurant that sells pork-filled steamed buns.

“Eating pork is good for people,” said the rotund 45-year-old, who uses pork for half the items on his menu. “Everybody should eat at least a half-jin [500 grams] every day. It’s very nutritious…. It helps people grow. If you don’t eat pork you will be very thin and weak.”

via China’s pork shortage hitting close to home, affecting economy – latimes.com.

This seems like another interesting western media strategy — the quirky ignorant quote from a foreigner.  I’m not going to scrap with this idea on the factual basis — pork as health food is in fact silly.  Instead, the quote’s inclusion seems like a key element of American media’s colonialist lens.  The notion of exotic other people who don’t know better, is the foundation of judgement and intervention.

It is this precise notion — they don’t know what they are doing — that lends to the well-intentioned, but devastating difference and quite often some sense of we must help.  The impulse to act to help is at the core of the colonial mission.  Of course, a pork bun seller would never suggest that his product was harmful.

In this case, the geopolitics associated with China make it unlikely that the United States will send a chicken promotional team to China (although stranger things have happened).

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August 18, 2011 · 5:52 pm

Black Star

Thanks to the liberator magazine for the image.

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August 16, 2011 · 3:30 pm

Jail the protesters: it’s where we belong

An Indian government attempt to head off a political crisis by arresting a key anti-corruption activist appeared to backfire Tuesday when parliament walked out and demonstrations broke out across the country.

Approximately 20 plainclothes police surrounded activist Anna Hazare, 73, early Tuesday morning as he left his house to begin a hunger strike against alleged widespread corruption, reportedly forbidding him from leaving the premises. When he defied them, they took him into custody on peremptory charges of “breach of peace.”

via Indian police arrest anti-corruption activist sparking peaceful demonstrations throughout the country – latimes.com.

 

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August 14, 2011 · 11:51 pm

Rap and riots in the U.K.

Someone is paying attention . . . oh yeah, the Guardian.  Thanks.

The most extraordinary of the bunch is also the most full-on. They Will Not Control Us, a snarling litany of dispossesion and rage against politicians, police and the media, will be a bit strong for some stomachs – and not only because of the wailing chorus lifted from the Muse track Uprising. By a little-known rapper called 2 K Olderz, it’s nothing if not direct. “Dear Mr Prime Minister …” it begins, “was you travelling on London transport the day the bombs went off?/ How about you go and pay rent to the landlord, earn shit money doing a labouring job?/ We’re living like shit in this country, while you’ve got your feet up living nice and comfy/ Well we know where the problem is, the people acknowledge this: stand up to the politics.”

via Rap responds to the riots: ‘They have to take us seriously’ | Music | guardian.co.uk.

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July 27, 2011 · 6:00 pm

Tuskeegee updated: Afghanistan

Yet this month, the Obama administration admitted that the Central Intelligence Agency had staged a fake vaccination campaign in Pakistan as American intelligence closed in on Osama Bin Laden. Health care workers were used on a clandestine mission—not in the paranoid imagination of America-hating fanatics but as part of the deliberate policy of the United States government.

As atrocities go, delivering inadequate vaccines under false pretenses isn’t obviously worse than, say, systematically kidnapping people and torturing them.

via The CIA’s fake vaccination program in Pakistan reveals the moral bankruptcy of American spooks. – By Tom Scocca – Slate Magazine.

What?  Really?

REALLY?!!?

“If there’s Hell below, we’re all gonna go.”

* How about the kids who got only the first of three doses because the health worker was moved to spy on Bin Laden?  I’ve asked students in the past which evil they think is worse:  the people who injected syphilis into African-American citizens, or the doctors who lied to the sickening people and told them they were getting treatment while they injected placebos and watched people die.

Both are pretty evil, but there is something absolutely wrong about watching people suffer and pretending to help them.

After our CIA vaccine bait-and-switch Pakistan considered cancelling their vaccination program.

The Afghani blood on American hands is going to be there for a long time.

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