tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-65624381221813223702024-02-08T02:12:13.715-08:00DanielHoaiNguyenLá lành đùm lá rách!Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10154726216820615441noreply@blogger.comBlogger44125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6562438122181322370.post-87628943263499637562011-05-04T21:05:00.000-07:002011-05-04T21:43:01.566-07:00Home<div><i>"Does it matter what country you came from or what language you speak?<br /></i><div><i>Home is something we can all understand.</i></div><div><div><i>A place where you were born, or where you came to settle,</i></div><div><i>A place in your heart for the home you left behind." - Paul Kwan</i></div></div></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div>Home is a concept I find myself struggling with on a regular basis - especially having moved to New Orleans, a place where the population is more or less split between natives and transplants. I struggle with the idea of being 'from' somewhere - at what point can you say that you are 'from' somewhere? At what point does a place become home? </div><div><br /></div><div>I think this is why Paul Kwan's explanation of home really resonates with me. As a person with Chinese ancestry, raised in Viet Nam, and consequently apart of the Vietnamese diaspora, I think Paul Kwan has a very unique aspect on the concept of home. </div><div><br /></div><div>I like the idea of having a multi-faceted definition of home. I like the flexibility of having multiple homes. It allows me not to feel constrained to only calling the place I was born, or the place where my parents currently reside as home. I like the idea of being able to make a place your home and I think that is ultimately what many of the Vietnamese in America have done. It's been said that America - specifically, Village de l'Est - is the new quê hương (native land, homeland) for many of the Vietnamese living in New Orleans East. </div><div><br /></div><div>This spirit is really inspiring to a young person like me, who has yet to really settle down anywhere, but nonetheless, I feel strongly about wanting to invest much of my life to this community. I think that community is something much like farming. It is more than a place to root yourself and exist with others, but it is something that must exist past today and past our generation. We have to invest in the future and survival of the community, much like plants of today will pass to become nutrients for seedlings of tomorrow. </div><div><br /></div><div>Blah, sometimes I really hate writing blog posts, but I think it's becoming necessary to reflect on life experiences, regardless of pretentiousness and all that. </div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10154726216820615441noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6562438122181322370.post-89862613709933126192011-03-22T20:34:00.000-07:002011-03-22T20:34:55.521-07:00Libya, getting it right: a revolutionary pan-African perspective<a href="http://sfbayview.com/2011/libya-getting-it-right-a-revolutionary-pan-african-perspective-2/">Libya, getting it right: a revolutionary pan-African perspective</a><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px; ">Thousands of Indians, Egyptians, Chinese, Filipinos, Turks, Germans, English, Italians, Malaysians, Koreans and a host of other nationalities are lining up at the borders and the airport to leave Libya. It begs the question: What were they doing in Libya in the first place? Unemployment figures, according to the Western media and Al Jazeera, are at 30 percent. If this is so, then why all these foreign workers?<p style="padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "></p><p style="padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">For those of us who have lived and worked in Libya, there are many complexities to the current situation that have been completely overlooked by the Western media and “Westoxicated” analysts, who have nothing other than a Eurocentric perspective to draw on. Let us be clear – there is no possibility of understanding what is happening in Libya within a Eurocentric framework. Westerners are incapable of understanding a system unless the system emanates from or is attached in some way to the West. Libya’s system and the battle now taking place on its soil stands completely outside of the Western imagination.</p><p style="padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">News coverage by the BBC, CNN and Al Jazeera has been oversimplified and misleading. An array of anti-Qaddafi spokespersons, most living outside Libya, have been paraded in front of us – each one clearly a counter-revolutionary and less credible than the last. Despite the clear and irrefutable evidence from the beginning of these protests that Muammar Qaddafi had considerable support both inside Libya and internationally, not one pro-Qaddafi voice has been allowed to air.</p><p style="padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">The media and their selected commentators have done their best to manufacture an opinion that Libya is essentially the same as Egypt and Tunisia and that Qaddafi is just another tyrant amassing large sums of money in Swiss bank accounts. But no matter how hard they try, they cannot make Qaddafi into a Mubarak or Libya into Egypt.</p><p style="padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">The first question is: Is the revolt taking place in Libya fueled by a concern over economic issues such as poverty and unemployment as the media would have us believe? Let us examine the facts.</p><p style="padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">Under the revolutionary leadership of Muammar Qaddafi, Libya has attained the highest standard of living in Africa. In 2007, in an article which appeared in the African Executive Magazine, Norah Owaraga noted that Libya, “unlike other oil producing countries such as Nigeria and Saudi Arabia, utilized the revenue from its oil to develop its country. The standard of living of the people of Libya is one of the highest in Africa, falling in the category of countries with a GNP per capita of between USD 2,200 and 6,000.”</p><div class="img alignright size-full wp-image-18876" style="float: right; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 2px; margin-left: 18px; width: 270px; "><a href="http://sfbayview.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Libya-traditionally-decorated-home-in-Ghadamis-020204-by-AP-on-US-State-Dept-site.jpg" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(38, 83, 114); "><img src="http://sfbayview.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Libya-traditionally-decorated-home-in-Ghadamis-020204-by-AP-on-US-State-Dept-site.jpg" alt="" width="270" height="181" style="border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; " /></a><div style="font-size: 0.9em; line-height: 1.6em; text-align: center; background-color: rgb(255, 253, 229); border-top-width: 1px; border-top-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(242, 240, 217); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(230, 228, 207); padding-top: 6px; padding-right: 6px; padding-bottom: 6px; padding-left: 6px; margin-top: 5px; ">In 1951, Libya was officially the world’s poorest country. Now, because its oil wealth has been shared with all its people, Libya has one of the highest standards of living in the region. Government subsidies keep food plentiful and affordable, everyone owns a home and a car, and education and health care of excellent quality are free to all. The photo above of a traditionally decorated home in the city of Ghadamis, taken on Feb. 2, 2004, appears on the Libya page of the U.S. Department of State website. The photo below shows Libyans buying fresh herbs at the market. – Photo above: AP</div></div>This is all the more remarkable when we consider that in 1951 Libya was officially the poorest country in the world. According to the World Bank, the per capita income was less than $50 a year – even lower than India. Today, all Libyans own their own homes and cars. Two Fleet Street journalists, David Blundy and Andrew Lycett, who are by no means supporters of the Libyan revolution, had this to say:<p style="padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "></p><p style="padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">“The young people are well dressed, well fed and well educated. Libyans now earn more per capita than the British. The disparity in annual incomes … is smaller than in most countries. Libya’s wealth has been fairly spread throughout society. Every Libyan gets free, and often excellent, education, medical and health services. New colleges and hospitals are impressive by any international standard. All Libyans have a house or a flat, a car and most have televisions, video recorders and telephones. Compared with most citizens of the Third World countries, and with many in the First World, Libyans have it very good indeed.” (Source: “Qaddafi and the Libyan Revolution”)</p><p style="padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><a href="http://sfbayview.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/libyans-weiging-green-fresh-herbs.jpg" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(38, 83, 114); "><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-18877" src="http://sfbayview.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/libyans-weiging-green-fresh-herbs.jpg" alt="" width="360" height="178" style="float: right; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 2px; margin-left: 18px; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; " /></a>Large scale housing construction has taken place right across the country. Every citizen has been given a decent house or apartment to live in rent-free. In Qaddafi’s Green Book it states: “The house is a basic need of both the individual and the family; therefore, it should not be owned by others.” This dictum has now become a reality for the Libyan people.</p><p style="padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">Large scale agricultural projects have been implemented in an effort to “make the desert bloom” and achieve self-sufficiency in food production. Any Libyan who wants to become a farmer is given free use of land, a house, farm equipment, some livestock and seed.</p><p style="padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">Today, Libya can boast one of the finest health care systems in the Arab and African World. All people have access to doctors, hospitals, clinics and medicines, completely free of all charges.</p><p style="padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">The fact is that the Libyan revolution has achieved such a high standard of living for its people that they import labor from other parts of the world to do the jobs that the unemployed Libyans refuse to do. Libya has been called by many observers inside and out “a nation of shop keepers.” It is part of the Libyan Arab psyche to own your own small business and this type of small scale private enterprise flourishes in Libya. We can draw on many examples of Libyans with young sons who expressed the idea that it would be shameful for the family if these same young men were to seek menial work and instead preferred for them to remain at home supported by the extended family.</p><p style="padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">No system is perfect, and Libya is no exception. They suffered nine years of economic sanctions and this caused huge problems for the Libyan economy. Also, there is nowhere on planet Earth that has escaped the monumental crisis of neo-liberal capitalism. It has impacted everywhere – even on post-revolutionary societies that have rejected “free market” capitalism. However, what we are saying is that severe economic injustice is not at the heart of this conflict. So then, what is?</p><h3 style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 14px; "><strong>A battle for Africa</strong></h3><p style="padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">The battle that is being waged in Libya is fundamentally a battle between pan-African forces on the one hand, who are dedicated to the realization of Qaddafi’s vision of a united Africa, and reactionary racist Libyan Arab forces who reject Qaddafi’s vision of Libya as part of a united Africa and want to ally themselves instead with the EU and look toward Europe and the Arab world for Libya’s future.</p><div class="img alignleft size-full wp-image-18484" style="float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 18px; margin-bottom: 2px; margin-left: 0px; width: 285px; "><a href="http://sfbayview.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/King-of-Burkina-Faso-at-Tripoli-conf-0111-by-JR-web.jpg" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(38, 83, 114); "><img src="http://sfbayview.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/King-of-Burkina-Faso-at-Tripoli-conf-0111-by-JR-web.jpg" alt="" width="285" height="380" style="border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; " /></a><div style="font-size: 0.9em; line-height: 1.6em; text-align: center; background-color: rgb(255, 253, 229); border-top-width: 1px; border-top-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(242, 240, 217); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(230, 228, 207); padding-top: 6px; padding-right: 6px; padding-bottom: 6px; padding-left: 6px; margin-top: 5px; ">Kings and sultans of Africa, long befriended by Qaddafi, came to the conference for “A Decent Life in Europe or a Welcome Return to Africa.” In the foreground is the king of Burkina Faso. – Photo: Minister of Information JR</div></div>One of Muammar Qaddafi’s most controversial and difficult moves in the eyes of many Libyans was his championing of Africa and his determined drive to unite Africa with one currency, one army and a shared vision regarding the true independence and liberation of the entire continent. He has contributed large amounts of his time and energy and large sums of money to this project and like Kwame Nkrumah, he has paid a high price.<p style="padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "></p><p style="padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">Many of the Libyan people did not approve of this move. They wanted their leader to look towards Europe. Of course, Libya has extensive investments and commercial ties with Europe, but the Libyans know that Qaddafi’s heart is in Africa.</p><p style="padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">Many years ago, Qaddafi told a large gathering, which included Libyans and revolutionaries from many parts of the world, that the Black Africans were the true owners of Libya long before the Arab incursion into North Africa and that Libyans need to acknowledge and pay tribute to their ancient African roots. He ended by saying, as is proclaimed in his Green Book, that “the Black race shall prevail throughout the world.” This is not what many Libyans wanted to hear. As with all fair skinned Arabs, prejudice against Black Africans is endemic.</p><h3 style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 14px; text-align: center; "><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0); ">Qaddafi ended by saying, as is proclaimed in his Green Book, that “the Black race shall prevail throughout the world.”</span></h3><p style="padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">Brother Leader, Guide of the Revolution and King of Kings are some of the titles that have been bestowed on Qaddafi by Africans. Only last month Qaddafi called for the creation of a Secretariat of traditional African Chiefs and Kings, with whom he has excellent ties, to co-ordinate efforts to build African unity at the grassroots level throughout the continent, a bottom-up approach, as opposed to trying to build unity at the government/state level, an approach which has failed the African unification project since the days of Kwame Nkrumah and Sekou Toure. This bottom-up approach is widely supported by many pan-Africanists worldwide.</p><h3 style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 14px; "><strong>African mercenaries or freedom fighters?</strong></h3><p style="padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">In the past week, the phrase “African mercenaries” has been repeated over and over by the media, and the Libyan citizens they choose to speak have, as one commentator put it, “spat the word ‘African’ with a venomous hatred.”</p><div class="img alignright size-full wp-image-18485" style="float: right; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 2px; margin-left: 18px; width: 373px; "><a href="http://sfbayview.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Qaddafi-meets-with-over-200-African-traditional-rulers-to-urge-unity-082908-by-BBC.jpg" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(38, 83, 114); "><img src="http://sfbayview.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Qaddafi-meets-with-over-200-African-traditional-rulers-to-urge-unity-082908-by-BBC.jpg" alt="" width="373" height="240" style="border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; " /></a><div style="font-size: 0.9em; line-height: 1.6em; text-align: center; background-color: rgb(255, 253, 229); border-top-width: 1px; border-top-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(242, 240, 217); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(230, 228, 207); padding-top: 6px; padding-right: 6px; padding-bottom: 6px; padding-left: 6px; margin-top: 5px; ">In August 2008, Qaddafi called this meeting of traditional African rulers. Recognizing that African people tend to trust these kings and chiefs, he encouraged them to use their influence to urge African political leaders to work toward African unity. – Photo: BBC</div></div>The media has assumed, without any research or understanding of the situation because they are refusing to give any air time to pro-Qaddafi forces, that the many Africans in military uniform fighting alongside the pro-Qaddafi Libyan forces are mercenaries. However, it is a myth that the Africans fighting to defend the Jamahiriya and Muammar Qaddafi are mercenaries being paid a few dollars and this assumption is based solely on the usual racist and contemptuous view of Black Africans.<p style="padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "></p><p style="padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">Actually, in truth, there are people all over Africa and the African Diaspora who support and respect Muammar Qaddafi as a result of his invaluable contribution to the worldwide struggle for African emancipation.</p><p style="padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">Over the past two decades, thousands of Africans from all over the continent were provided with education, work and military training – many of them coming from liberation movements. As a result of Libya’s support for liberation movements throughout Africa and the world, international battalions were formed. These battalions saw themselves as a part of the Libyan revolution and took it upon themselves to defend the revolution against attacks from within its borders or outside.</p><div class="img alignleft size-full wp-image-18486" style="float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 18px; margin-bottom: 2px; margin-left: 0px; width: 324px; "><a href="http://sfbayview.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Anti-Qaddafi-militia-stop-3-Africans-at-checkpoint-Libya-0311-by-Kevin-Frayer-AP.jpg" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(38, 83, 114); "><img src="http://sfbayview.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Anti-Qaddafi-militia-stop-3-Africans-at-checkpoint-Libya-0311-by-Kevin-Frayer-AP.jpg" alt="" width="324" height="212" style="border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; " /></a><div style="font-size: 0.9em; line-height: 1.6em; text-align: center; background-color: rgb(255, 253, 229); border-top-width: 1px; border-top-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(242, 240, 217); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(230, 228, 207); padding-top: 6px; padding-right: 6px; padding-bottom: 6px; padding-left: 6px; margin-top: 5px; ">Anti-Qaddafi militia stop three Africans at a checkpoint in eastern Libya. – Photo: Kevin Frayer, AP</div></div>These are the Africans who are fighting to defend Qaddafi and the gains of the Libyan revolution to their death if need be. It is not unlike what happened when internationalist battalions came to the aid of the revolutionary forces against Franco’s fascist forces in Spain.<p style="padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "></p><p style="padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">Malian political analyst, Adam Thiam, notes that “thousands of Tuaregs who were enrolled in the Islamic Legion established by the Libyan revolution remained in Libya and they are enrolled in the Libyan security forces.”</p><h3 style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 14px; "><strong>African migrants under attack</strong></h3><p style="padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">As African fighters from Chad, Niger, Mali, Ghana, Kenya and Southern Sudan (it should be noted that Libya supported the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army under John Garang in their war of liberation against Arab hegemonists in Khartoum, while all other Arab leaders backed the Khartoum regime) fight to defend this African revolution, a million African refugees and thousands of African migrant workers stand the risk of being murdered as a result of their perceived support for Qaddafi.</p><div class="img alignright size-full wp-image-18487" style="float: right; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 2px; margin-left: 18px; width: 360px; "><a href="http://sfbayview.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Africans-fleeing-Libya-in-Tunisia-carry-belongings-by-Lefteris-Pitarakis-AP.jpg" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(38, 83, 114); "><img src="http://sfbayview.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Africans-fleeing-Libya-in-Tunisia-carry-belongings-by-Lefteris-Pitarakis-AP.jpg" alt="" width="360" height="240" style="border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; " /></a><div style="font-size: 0.9em; line-height: 1.6em; text-align: center; background-color: rgb(255, 253, 229); border-top-width: 1px; border-top-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(242, 240, 217); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(230, 228, 207); padding-top: 6px; padding-right: 6px; padding-bottom: 6px; padding-left: 6px; margin-top: 5px; ">Thousands of Africans have fled Libya for Tunisia, where this new camp for 5,000 refugees has been set up. – Photo: Lefteris Pitarakis, AP</div></div>One Turkish construction worker described a massacre: “We had 70-80 people from Chad working for our company. They were cut dead with pruning shears and axes, attackers saying: ‘You are providing troops for Qaddafi.’ The Sudanese were also massacred. We saw it for ourselves.”<p style="padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "></p><p style="padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">This is a far cry from what is being portrayed in the media as ‘peaceful protesters’ being set upon by pro-Qaddafi forces. In fact, footage of the Benghazi revolt shows men with machetes, AK 47s and RPGs. In the Green Book, Qaddafi argues for the transfer of all power, wealth and arms directly into the hands of the people themselves. No one can deny that the Libyan populace is heavily armed. This is part of Qaddafi’s philosophy of arms not being monopolised by any section of the society, including the armed forces. It must be said that it is not usual practice for tyrants and dictators to arm their population.</p><p style="padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">Qaddafi has also been very vocal regarding the plight of Africans who migrate to Europe, where they are met with racism, more poverty, violence at the hands of extreme right wing groups and, in many cases, death when the un-seaworthy boats they travel in sink.</p><div class="img alignleft size-full wp-image-18488" style="float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 18px; margin-bottom: 2px; margin-left: 0px; width: 380px; "><a href="http://sfbayview.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/JR-Samia-Nkrumah-RaShida-Malcolm-at-Tripoli-conf-0111-by-JR-web.jpg" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(38, 83, 114); "><img src="http://sfbayview.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/JR-Samia-Nkrumah-RaShida-Malcolm-at-Tripoli-conf-0111-by-JR-web.jpg" alt="" width="380" height="285" style="border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; " /></a><div style="font-size: 0.9em; line-height: 1.6em; text-align: center; background-color: rgb(255, 253, 229); border-top-width: 1px; border-top-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(242, 240, 217); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(230, 228, 207); padding-top: 6px; padding-right: 6px; padding-bottom: 6px; padding-left: 6px; margin-top: 5px; ">Minister of Information JR, Ra’Shida and Hajj Malcolm Shabazz, grandson of Malcolm X, met Samia Nkrumah (second from left), daughter of Kwame Nkrumah, at a conference organized by Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi to improve the lot of Africans, whether they try their luck in Europe or return to Africa. Qaddafi has long championed Africans – to the dismay of some of his own people. He invited new, emerging leaders as well as veteran and traditional leaders to this conference, held in Tripoli this January. – Photo: Minister of Information JR</div></div>Moved by their plight, a conference was held in Libya in January this year, to address their needs and concerns. More than 500 delegates and speakers from around the world attended the conference titled “A Decent Life in Europe or a Welcome Return to Africa.”<p style="padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "></p><p style="padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">“We should live in Europe with decency and dignity,” Qaddafi told participants. “We need a good relationship with Europe, not a relationship of master and slave. There should be a strong relationship between Africa and Europe. Our presence should be strong, tangible and good. It’s up to you as the Africans in the Diaspora. We have to continue more and more until the unity of Africa is achieved.</p><p style="padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">“From now on, by the will of God, I will assign teams to search, investigate and liaise with the Africans in Europe and to check their situations … this is my duty and role towards the sons of Africa; I am a soldier for Africa. I am here for you and I work for you; therefore, I will not leave you and I will follow up on your conditions.”</p><p style="padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">Joint committees of African migrants, the United Nations, the African Union, the European Union and international organizations present at the conference discussed the need to coordinate the implementation of many of the conference’s recommendations.</p><p style="padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">Statements are appearing all over the internet from Africans who have a different view to that being perpetuated by those intent on discrediting Qaddafi and the Libyan revolution. One African commented:</p><p style="padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">“When I was growing up, I first read a comic book of his revolution at the age of 10. Since then, as dictators came and went, Col. Qaddafi has made an impression on me as a man who truly loves Africa! Libyans could complain that he spent their wealth on other Africans! But those Africans he helped put in power built schools and mosques and brought in many forms of development showing that Africans can do for themselves. If those Africans would abandon him to be swallowed by Western imperialism and their lies and just let him go as a dictator in the name of so-called democracy … if they could do that … they should receive the names and fate that the Western press gives our beloved leader. If there is any one person who was half as generous as he is, let them step forward.”</p><h3 style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 14px; text-align: center; "><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0); ">An African migrant commented: “Col. Qaddafi has made an impression on me as a man who truly loves Africa! Libyans could complain that he spent their wealth on other Africans! But those Africans he helped put in power built schools and mosques and brought in many forms of development showing that Africans can do for themselves.”</span></h3><p style="padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">And another African comments:</p><p style="padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">“This man has been accused of many things and listening to the West who just recently were happy to accept his generous hospitality, you will think that he is worse than Hitler. The racism and contemptuous attitudes of Arabs towards Black Africans has made me a natural sceptic of any overtures from them to forge a closer link with Black Africa, but Qaddafi was an exception.”</p><h3 style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 14px; "><strong>Opportunistic revolt</strong></h3><p style="padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">This counter-revolutionary revolt caught everyone, including the Libyan authorities, by surprise. They knew what the media is not reporting: that unlike Egypt and Tunisia and other countries in the region, where there is tremendous poverty, unemployment and repressive pro-Western regimes, the Libyan dynamic was entirely different. However, an array of opportunistic forces, ranging from so-called Islamists, Arab supremacists, including some of those who have recently defected from Qaddafi’s inner circle, have used the events in neighbouring countries as a pretext to stage a coup and to advance their own agenda for the Libyan nation.</p><div class="img alignright size-full wp-image-18489" style="float: right; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 2px; margin-left: 18px; width: 279px; "><a href="http://sfbayview.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Libyan-aid-ship-to-Gaza-diverted-to-Egypt-071310-by-Pan-African-News-Wire.jpg" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(38, 83, 114); "><img src="http://sfbayview.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Libyan-aid-ship-to-Gaza-diverted-to-Egypt-071310-by-Pan-African-News-Wire.jpg" alt="" width="279" height="185" style="border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; " /></a><div style="font-size: 0.9em; line-height: 1.6em; text-align: center; background-color: rgb(255, 253, 229); border-top-width: 1px; border-top-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(242, 240, 217); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(230, 228, 207); padding-top: 6px; padding-right: 6px; padding-bottom: 6px; padding-left: 6px; margin-top: 5px; ">This Libyan ship loaded with aid for Gaza attempted to break the Israeli blockade but was diverted to Egypt on July 13, 2010. The attempt was made only six weeks after nine Turks were killed when Israelis attacked a large aid flotilla on May 31, 2010. – Photo: Pan African News Wire</div></div>Many of these former officials were the authors of and covertly fuelled the anti-African pogrom in Libya a few years ago when many Africans lost their lives in street battles between Africans and Arab Libyans. This was a deliberate attempt to embarrass Qaddafi and to undermine his efforts in Africa.<p style="padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "></p><p style="padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">Qaddafi has long been a thorn in the Islamists’ side. In his recent address to the Libyan people, broadcast from the ruins of the Bab al-Azizia compound bombed by Reagan in 1986, he asked the “bearded ones” in Benghazi and Jabal al Akhdar where they were when Reagan bombed his compound in Tripoli, killing hundreds of Libyans, including his daughter. He said they were hiding in their homes applauding the U.S. and he vowed that he would never allow the country to be returned to the grip of them and their colonial masters.</p><p style="padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">Al Qaeda is in the Sahara on his borders and the International Union of Muslim Scholars is calling for him to be tried in a court. One asks why are they calling for Qaddafi’s blood? Why not Mubarak, who closed the Rafah Border Crossing while the Israelis slaughtered the Palestinians in Gaza. Why not Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Blair, who are responsible for the murder of millions of Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan?</p><p style="padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">The answer is simple – because Qaddafi committed some “cardinal sins.” He dared to challenge their reactionary and feudal notions of Islam. He has upheld the idea that every Muslim is a ruler (Caliph) and does not need the Ulema to interpret the Quran for them. He has questioned the Islam of the Muslim Brotherhood and Al Qaeda from a Quranic/theological perspective and is one of the few political leaders equipped to do so. Qaddafi has been called a Mujaddid (this term refers to a person who appears to revive Islam and to purge it of alien elements, restoring it to its authentic form) and he comes in the tradition of Jamaludeen Afghani and the late Iranian revolutionary, Ali Shariati.</p><div class="img alignleft size-full wp-image-18490" style="float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 18px; margin-bottom: 2px; margin-left: 0px; width: 346px; "><a href="http://sfbayview.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/JR-Ra%E2%80%99Shida-sight-seeing-in-Old-Tripoli-0111-by-JR-web.jpg" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(38, 83, 114); "><img src="http://sfbayview.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/JR-Ra%E2%80%99Shida-sight-seeing-in-Old-Tripoli-0111-by-JR-web.jpg" alt="" width="346" height="461" style="border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; " /></a><div style="font-size: 0.9em; line-height: 1.6em; text-align: center; background-color: rgb(255, 253, 229); border-top-width: 1px; border-top-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(242, 240, 217); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(230, 228, 207); padding-top: 6px; padding-right: 6px; padding-bottom: 6px; padding-left: 6px; margin-top: 5px; ">Minister of Information JR and Ra’Shida walked around Old Tripoli during their visit in January, learning about Libyan history and looking at the architecture. Marcus Aurelius of the Roman Empire created a wall around Old Tripoli in ancient times. Qaddafi likes to remind Libyans that their country is part of Africa and the population used to be Black African. – Photo: Minister of Information JR</div></div>Libya is a deeply traditional society, plagued with some outmoded and bankrupt ideas that continue to surface to this day. In many ways, Qaddafi has had to struggle against the same reactionary aspects of Arab culture and tradition that the holy prophet Muhammad (pbuh) was struggling against in seventh century Arabia – Arab supremacy/racism, supremacy of family and tribe, historical feuding tribe against tribe and the marginalisation of women.<p style="padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "></p><p style="padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">Benghazi has always been at the heart of counter-revolution in Libya, fostering reactionary Islamic movements such as the Wahhabis and Salafists. It is these people who founded the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group based in Benghazi which allies itself with Al Qaeda and who have, over the years, been responsible for the assassination of leading members of the Libyan revolutionary committees.</p><p style="padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">These forces hate Qaddafi’s revolutionary reading of the Quran. They foster an Islam concerned with outward trappings and mere religiosity, in the form of rituals, which at the same time is feudal and repressive, while rejecting the liberatory spirituality of Islam. While these so-called Islamists are opposed to Western occupation of Muslim lands, they have no concrete programmatic platform for meaningful socio-economic and political transformation to advance their societies beyond semi-feudal and capitalist systems which reinforce the most backward and reactionary ideas and traditions.</p><p style="padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">Qaddafi’s political philosophy, as outlined in the Green Book, rejects unfettered capitalism in all its manifestations, including the “state capitalism” of the former communist countries and the neo-liberal capitalist model that has been imposed at a global level. The idea that capitalism is not compatible with Islam and the Quran is not palatable to many Arabs and so-called Islamists because they hold onto the fallacious notion that business and trade is synonymous with capitalism.</p><h3 style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 14px; "><strong>Getting it right</strong></h3><p style="padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">Whatever the mistakes made by Qaddafi and the Libyan revolution, its gains and its huge contribution to the struggle of oppressed peoples worldwide cannot and must not be ignored. Saif Qaddafi, when asked about the position of his father and family, said this battle is not about one man and his family; it is about Libya and the direction it will take.</p><div class="img alignright size-full wp-image-18491" style="float: right; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 2px; margin-left: 18px; width: 287px; "><a href="http://sfbayview.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Artwork-Qaddafi-Africa-for-Africans-2001.jpg" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(38, 83, 114); "><img src="http://sfbayview.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Artwork-Qaddafi-Africa-for-Africans-2001.jpg" alt="" width="287" height="382" style="border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; " /></a><div style="font-size: 0.9em; line-height: 1.6em; text-align: center; background-color: rgb(255, 253, 229); border-top-width: 1px; border-top-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(242, 240, 217); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(230, 228, 207); padding-top: 6px; padding-right: 6px; padding-bottom: 6px; padding-left: 6px; margin-top: 5px; ">Artwork created in 2001 shows Qaddafi championing “Africa for Africans.”</div></div>That direction has always been controversial. In 1982, The World Mathaba was established in Libya. Mathaba means a gathering place for people with a common purpose. The World Mathaba brought together revolutionaries and freedom fighters from every corner of the globe to share ideas and develop their revolutionary knowledge.<p style="padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "></p><p style="padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">Many liberation groups throughout the world received education, training and support from Muammar Qaddafi and the Libyan revolution, including ANC, AZAPO, PAC and BCM of Azania (South Africa), SWAPO of Namibia, MPLA of Angola, the Sandinistas of Nicaragua, the Polisario of the Sahara, the PLO, the Native American movements throughout the Americas, the Nation of Islam led by Louis Farrakhan, to name but a few. Nelson Mandela called Muammar Qaddafi one of this century’s greatest freedom fighters, and insisted that the eventual collapse of the apartheid system owed much to Qaddafi and Libyan support. Mandela said that in the darkest moments of their struggle, when their backs were to the wall, it was Muammar Qaddafi who stood with them. The late African freedom fighter, Kwame Ture, referred to Qaddafi as “a diamond in a cesspool of African misleaders.”</p><h3 style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 14px; text-align: center; "><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0); ">The late African freedom fighter, Kwame Ture, referred to Qaddafi as “a diamond in a cesspool of African misleaders.”</span></h3><p style="padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">The hideous notion being perpetuated by the media and reactionary forces, inside and outside of Libya, that this is just another story of a bloated dictatorship that has run its course is misinformation and deliberate distortion. Whatever one’s opinions of Qaddafi the man, no one can deny his invaluable contribution to human emancipation and the universal truths outlined in his Green Book.</p><p style="padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">Progressive scholars in many parts of the world, including the West, have acclaimed The Green Book as an incisive critique of capitalism and the Western parliamentary model of multi-party democracy. In addition, there is no denying that the system of direct democracy posited by Qaddafi in The Green Book offers an alternative model and solution for Africa and the Third World, where multi-party so-called democracy has been a dismal failure, resulting in poverty, ethnic and tribal conflict and chaos.</p><p style="padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">Every revolution, since the beginning of time, has defended itself against those who would want to roll back its gains. Europeans should look back into their own bloody history to see that this includes the American, French and Bolshevik revolutions. Marxists speak of Trotsky and Lenin’s brutal suppression of the Kronstadt rebellion by the Red Army as being a “tragic necessity.”</p><p style="padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">Let’s get it right: The battle in Libya is not about peaceful protestors versus an armed and hostile state. All sides are heavily armed and hostile. The battle being waged in Libya is essentially a battle between those who want to see a united and liberated Libya and Africa, free of neo-colonialism and neo-liberal capitalism and free to construct their own system of governance compatible with the African and Arab personalities and cultures, and those who find this entire notion repugnant. And both sides are willing to pay the ultimate price to defend their positions.</p><p style="padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">Make no mistake, if Qaddafi and the Libyan revolution are defeated by this opportunistic conglomerate of reactionaries and racists, then progressive forces worldwide and the pan-African project will suffer a huge defeat and setback.</p></span></div>Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10154726216820615441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6562438122181322370.post-68024672001925225922011-03-11T17:21:00.000-08:002011-03-11T18:20:31.345-08:00What does it mean...?I was inspired to write this post by a conversation I had with co-workers and community members during lunch today about the meaning of being Vietnamese - specifically in America. <div><br /></div><div>While I'm pretty sure that this topic has been well discussed - probably overly discussed, by such individuals such as ethnic studies intellectuals, I think it is safe to say that I want to live in a world where everyone's opinions matter, regardless of the glitter on your degree placard. </div><div><br /></div><div>Onwards! </div><div><br /></div><div>The root question is: what does it mean to be Vietnamese? What makes you Vietnamese (that which separates you from other identities)? Is it language? Is it culture? Is it both? These are questions we asked - especially crucial: are you still Vietnamese if you can't speak the language? </div><div><br /></div><div>I remember reading a quote by Monique that said something along the lines of: When asked, what does it mean to grow up Asian-American, I respond by asking, what is it like to grow up looking Asian while being raised as an American in America?</div><div><br /></div><div>I personally think that to be Vietnamese in America is the <i>experience</i>. For example, when asked, what does it mean to be Vietnamese-American, I say that it is to be regarded as gook, chink, slant-eyes, yellow, oriental, etc. It is being the target of racial hatred, regardless of class status, by not only whites (neo-nazi's and KKK), but by other minorities in the USA as well. And regardless, (and this may be controversial to some), as a community, we choose to hate our own brothers and sisters in Viet Nam more than we choose to address the injustices we face in America. I don't care if you can read <span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 15px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" >Truyện Kiều or can't even order a bowl of phở</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman'; line-height: 15px; font-size: large; "> - I've never met a Vietnamese person in America who hasn't been called a racial slur. One can reject their identity all they want - we can pretend to be the best Americans we can be - learn the Star Spangled Banner, Pledge of Allegiance, vote Republican - but at the end of the day, that won't change the fact that the police won't think twice about shooting someone like Cau Bich Tran or beating the shit out of someone like Phuong Ho. It doesn't change the fact that while we can learn to hate ourselves, and learn not to know who we are, American society knows exactly what we are and treats us accordingly. It's never been about 'The White Man', it's the 'White Man's' System that we have to be against. White people don't have to go out of their way to call us gooks or kick our asses - they've taught everyone, including us, how to do that to ourselves. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman'; line-height: 15px; font-size: large; "><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman'; line-height: 15px; font-size: large; ">So what does it mean to be 'Vietnamese-American'? Is it an issue of power? Or rather, the lack of power? Because we can sit around and discuss at length these issues, but if we remain powerless to <i>change</i> the real phenomena, that is, the way society sees us and labels us, we'll always be remain,at best, 'Asian', 'Asian-American', 'Asian-Pacific Islander', 'Vietnamese-American', or whatever fancy, 'politically correct' verbal sincerity for the word gook.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman'; line-height: 15px; font-size: large; "><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman'; line-height: 15px; font-size: large; "></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman'; line-height: 15px; font-size: large; ">I don't have a solution, just my two-cents to spark discussion or thoughts. </span></div>Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10154726216820615441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6562438122181322370.post-65507998933198744832011-03-06T10:15:00.001-08:002011-03-06T10:17:32.077-08:00George Carlin<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://s3.amazonaws.com/data.tumblr.com/tumblr_lgvy0qDWcC1qeap22o1_1280.jpg?AWSAccessKeyId=0RYTHV9YYQ4W5Q3HQMG2&Expires=1299521669&Signature=y6DMqkh0vd8ypvYytjToqmKt2Bk%3D"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 750px; height: 450px;" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/data.tumblr.com/tumblr_lgvy0qDWcC1qeap22o1_1280.jpg?AWSAccessKeyId=0RYTHV9YYQ4W5Q3HQMG2&Expires=1299521669&Signature=y6DMqkh0vd8ypvYytjToqmKt2Bk%3D" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://s3.amazonaws.com/data.tumblr.com/tumblr_lgvy0qDWcC1qeap22o1_1280.jpg?AWSAccessKeyId=0RYTHV9YYQ4W5Q3HQMG2&Expires=1299521669&Signature=y6DMqkh0vd8ypvYytjToqmKt2Bk%3D"><br /></a><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10154726216820615441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6562438122181322370.post-38967749468511625582011-02-23T07:07:00.000-08:002011-02-23T07:12:30.586-08:00Is This Justice?<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px; "><table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="732" border="0"><tbody><tr><td valign="top" align="left" width="522" style="font-size: 12px; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 16px; "><div class="blog" style="overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; "><a id="a123981"></a><div class="entry" id="entry-123981" style="font-size: 14px !important; line-height: 20px !important; "><p class="blog_entry_title" style="font-size: 16px !important; line-height: 20px !important; font-weight: bold !important; "><b>Shawna Forde Gets the Death Penalty.</b></p><div class="blog-byline" style="font-size: 12px; text-transform: uppercase; font-family: arial !important; ">BY <b>JULIANNE HING</b> | POSTED <a href="http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/tapped_archive?month=02&year=2011&base_name=shawna_forde_gets_the_death_pe#123981" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(153, 0, 0); ">02/22/2011 AT 05:04 PM</a></div><p style="font-size: 14px !important; line-height: 20px !important; ">The <a href="http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=a_tale_of_two_victims" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(153, 0, 0); ">anti-immigration activist</a> who was convicted last week of first-degree murder for her involvement in the May 2009 murders of nine-year-old Brisenia Flores and her father Raul, has been sentenced with the death penalty.</p><p style="font-size: 14px !important; line-height: 20px !important; "><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2011/CRIME/02/22/arizona.double.killing/index.html?hpt=T2" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(153, 0, 0); ">CNN</a> reports that the jury's unanimous decision is binding:<br /></p><blockquote>If the jury had not voted for the death penalty, the judge would have decided whether Shawna Forde should have received life with a chance of parole after 35 years or life with no possibility of parole.<p style="font-size: 14px !important; line-height: 20px !important; "></p><p style="font-size: 14px !important; line-height: 20px !important; ">Forde was convicted February 14 on eight counts, including two counts of murder for the shooting deaths of Raul Flores and his daughter, Brisenia, and the attempted murder of the child's mother, Gina Gonzales.</p></blockquote><p style="font-size: 14px !important; line-height: 20px !important; "></p><p style="font-size: 14px !important; line-height: 20px !important; ">On May 20, 2009, Forde and two alleged accomplices stormed the Flores' home in Arivaca, Arizona. Two men killed Raul Flores Jr. and shot his wife and Brisenia's mother Gina Gonzalez before shooting the 9-year-old girl point-blank. Gonzalez testified during the trial that she could hear her daughter, roused from her sleep in the living room where she was camped out so she could be close to the family's new dog, ask why her parents had been killed, then silence as the shooter stopped to reload a gun, and finally two shots that went through the little girl's head.</p><p style="font-size: 14px !important; line-height: 20px !important; ">Forde reportedly planned elaborate heists of suspected drug dealers as a way to fund her anti-immigrant activism and her splinter group, The Minuteman American Defense. Nothing besides pot residue was found in the Flores home, according to <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2011-01-26/minuteman-vigilantes-arizona-murder-trial-brisenia-flores-mother-testifies/" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(153, 0, 0); ">Terry Greene Sterling</a>. MAD was inspired by the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps, and both groups recruited civilians to patrol the border for migrants attempting to enter the country. Forde was found with Gonzalez's wedding ring.</p><p style="font-size: 14px !important; line-height: 20px !important; ">During the trial and sentencing phase, Forde's defense was very disciplined about crafting a portrait of an unstable woman, a big talker with little follow-through. The prosecution <a href="http://www.gvnews.com/news/article_7df90534-3736-11e0-b208-001cc4c002e0.html" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(153, 0, 0); ">argued</a> she could have been both a braggart and a murderer. After Forde was convicted, she reportedly called a press conference. Forde's defense asked psychologist Dr. Judith Becker how Forde's actions, including the fact that she called for a press conference, should be interpreted.</p><p style="font-size: 14px !important; line-height: 20px !important; ">"That does not surprise me," Becker testified, the <a href="http://www.gvnews.com/news/article_7d94185e-3b0f-11e0-a3f1-001cc4c03286.html" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(153, 0, 0); ">Green Valley News and Sun</a>reported. "It shows poor judgment."</p><p style="font-size: 14px !important; line-height: 20px !important; ">Such information is crucial for shaping a jury's understanding of a person's health and frame of mind. It's also a useful way to help anti-immigrant groups like Federation for American Immigration Reform, which have since tried to<a href="http://www.fairus.org/site/News2/856933113?page=NewsArticle&id=20731&security=1601&news_iv_ctrl=1741" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(153, 0, 0); ">distance</a> themselves from Forde, further <a href="http://news.change.org/stories/fair-denies-connection-to-shawna-forde" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(153, 0, 0); ">disassociate</a> themselves from one of their former members. Anti-immigrant groups may not want anything to do with Forde these days, but she certainly thought of herself as <a href="http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/bastard/2009/06/right_wing_extremist_shawna_fo.php" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(153, 0, 0); ">one of them</a>.</p><p style="font-size: 14px !important; line-height: 20px !important; ">Much of the chatter on the lefty blogs and immigrant rights networks in the weeks of the trial has been dominated by bitter confusion about the lack of media coverage the case got. As Gabe wrote <a href="http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=a_tale_of_two_victims" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(153, 0, 0); ">last week</a>, the tragic deaths of two 9-year-old Arizona girls received very different public responses. It may be that the country is not interested in the scary lessons that Brisenia Flores' murder offers about the real life consequences of the national discourse surrounding immigrants.</p><p style="font-size: 14px !important; line-height: 20px !important; "><br /></p><p style="font-size: 14px !important; line-height: 20px !important; ">(<a href="http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/tapped_archive?month=02&year=2011&base_name=shawna_forde_gets_the_death_pe">http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/tapped_archive?month=02&year=2011&base_name=shawna_forde_gets_the_death_pe</a>)</p><p style="font-size: 14px !important; line-height: 20px !important; "><br /></p><p style="font-size: 14px !important; line-height: 20px !important; ">What does justice mean when the media is still hellbent on convincing segments of the population that immigrants who look brown are sub-human? In other words, is justice possible on just an individual case-by-case basis when systematic injustice exists?</p><p style="font-size: 14px !important; line-height: 20px !important; "><br /></p></div></div></td></tr></tbody></table></span>Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10154726216820615441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6562438122181322370.post-68409843448563725072011-02-22T21:05:00.000-08:002011-02-22T21:06:37.871-08:00I Like Illustrations<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="640" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/n7Fzm1hEiDQ" frameborder="0"></iframe>Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10154726216820615441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6562438122181322370.post-62931473863532108032011-02-21T20:02:00.000-08:002011-02-22T06:37:15.217-08:00It's Been A Long Time<span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px;">It's been a while - almost a year to be exact and during which, so much has occurred. </span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px;">Reading back and reminiscing on my mindset last March, I realize that not much has changed in the world, and if anything, everything that has happened only re-affirms what I previously thought - and to a greater degree. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px;">Simply put, the world, or rather, our society, is going to shit. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px;">By that, I mean that when push comes to shove, something's got to give. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px;">What a more perfect example than the BP oil drilling disaster - a chronological landmark that will probably last for the rest of my cognizant lifetime, cementing the fact that in our current society, the rich make the rules.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px;">So what has happened since last March?</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px;">I've moved - first from San Diego to Irvine, then from Irvine to New Orleans, then from Uptown New Orleans to Mid-City New Orleans, and finally, from Mid-City to New Orleans East - Versai, otherwise known as home. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px;">The BP oil spill occurred, wiping out an already struggling Gulf Coast fishing industry and community. To this date, fisherfolk - white, black, Cajun, Creole, native american, Vietnamese, Cambodian, Thai - have not been justly compensated for subsistence damage. Hundreds of thousands of people became unemployed overnight with peripheral effects spreading to other industries such as the restaurant business.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px;">Arizona SB 1070 - State sanctioned terror against people of color. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px;">Kanye West releases 'My Dark and Twisted Fantasy'</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px;">The shooting incident in Arizona involving Congresswoman Gifford - homegrown terrorism. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px;">DJ Kool Herc is hospitalized. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px;">Brisenia Flores, 9 years of age, shot and killed by 'anti-illegal immigrant vigilantes' - in other words, </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px;">Revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt, with more to come.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px;">Republican assault on Planned Parenthood, NPR, and Americorps.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px;">The list could go on but I'm kind of lazy. Just want to start posting more regularly again... about life, thoughts, and perhaps my struggling garden (it's weird to think that sunlight could be such a limited/hard-to-obtain resource).</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 15px;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 15px;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px;"><br /></span></span></div>Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10154726216820615441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6562438122181322370.post-48641878928920114882010-03-25T15:41:00.000-07:002010-03-25T15:42:07.479-07:00H Rap Brown drops knowledge<object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/DfJFcGzXNr4&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/DfJFcGzXNr4&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object><br /><br />Right on.Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10154726216820615441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6562438122181322370.post-41636942729909048932010-03-21T10:28:00.000-07:002010-03-21T10:29:07.678-07:00"We view each other with a great love and great understanding and that we try to expand this to the general black population and also people, oppressed people all over the world and, I think that we differ from some other groups simply because we understand the system better than most groups understand the system, and with this realization we attempt to form a strong political base based in the community with the only strength that we have and that's the strength of a potentially destructive force if we don't get freedom." -Huey P. NewtonDanielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10154726216820615441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6562438122181322370.post-59686909891722838722010-03-14T00:00:00.000-08:002010-03-14T00:09:03.600-08:00Guillotine Poem(of Confucian Sino-Vietnamese origin)<br /><br />The flame [of patriotism] burns in my heart to the very end,<br />I am now going to shed blood beautifying the Fatherland,<br />Don't feel sorry that I must go and you remain,<br />This sacrifice is simply a test, distinguishing cowards from great men,<br />It is now yours, the sacred duty to liberate our beloved land,<br />Success or failure will be in your hands,<br />Your victory in the future is my hope and my dream,<br />I want to share it in the golden stream (place where the deceased go).<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Context: French colonialists often used public executions via guillotine to dissuade villagers from joining revolutionary organizations. This was a poem often recited by people before execution. Said to have originated in Phu-Tho prison where many were held in solitary confinement until execution, which escalated throughout the 1930s.Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10154726216820615441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6562438122181322370.post-13025786173738426632010-03-08T22:13:00.000-08:002010-03-08T22:28:12.800-08:00Fascism in the U.S.A.<object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/NsjadfLYnD4&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/NsjadfLYnD4&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object><br /><br />Watch that and ponder this:<br /><br /><b>Fascism</b>, pronounced <span title="Pronunciation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:IPA_for_English" title="Wikipedia:IPA for English">/ˈfæʃɪzəm/</a></span>, is a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_radicalism" title="Political radicalism">radical</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Authoritarianism" title="Authoritarianism">authoritarian</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nationalism" title="Nationalism">nationalist</a> political <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ideology" title="Ideology">ideology</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-0" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascism#cite_note-0"><span>[</span>1<span>]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-1" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascism#cite_note-1"><span>[</span>2<span>]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-2" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascism#cite_note-2"><span>[</span>3<span>]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-3" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascism#cite_note-3"><span>[</span>4<span>]</span></a></sup> Fascists seek to organize a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nation" title="Nation">nation</a> on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporatism" title="Corporatism">corporatist</a> perspectives; values; and systems such as the political system and the economy.<br /><br />Fascists believe that a nation is an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organicism" title="Organicism">organic</a> community that requires strong leadership, collective identity, and the will and <span style="font-weight: bold;">ability to commit violence and wage war in order to keep the nation strong.</span><sup id="cite_ref-Gr.C4.8Di.C4.87.2C_Joseph_2000._p._120_15-0" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascism#cite_note-Gr.C4.8Di.C4.87.2C_Joseph_2000._p._120-15"><span>[</span>16<span>]</span></a></sup> Fascists identify violence and war as actions that create national <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regeneration" title="Regeneration">regeneration</a>, spirit and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitalism" title="Vitalism">vitality</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-16" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascism#cite_note-16"><span>[</span>17<span>]</span></a></sup><br /><br /><br /><br />The will and ability to commit violence and wage war in order to keep the nation strong.<br /><br />This is 2010 and the pigs didn't hesitate to arrest more than 100 peaceful protesters using pretty disproportionate force. When you threaten the functioning of the system, in ways such as shutting down the freeway arteries, you get a real response. The ugly beast fucking rears its head.<br /><br />Keep in mind that America has the highest incarceration rate and the most prisons in the world. 7 million people are on parole or probation. More than 10% of government employees work in corrections. Recidivism (basically, rate of returning back to jail) is more than 67%.<br /><br /><br />Not to mention, the military industrial complex has been engaged in warfare non-stop since the end of WWII as if war creates national regeneration, spirit, and vitality...<br /><br />I think it's very clear that we need revolution. A pig will always be a pig and this shit won't stop and don't stop until we get every single one of them off the block. None of this reformist shit. They all have to go.Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10154726216820615441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6562438122181322370.post-63120936802555890892010-02-28T23:49:00.000-08:002010-03-01T00:28:08.739-08:00It's Time Change TacticsRecently, with the numerous crises(LGBTRC at UC Davis being vandalized, noose and racist shit at UCSD, soon to be March 4th and budget cuts already in place) that have struck our community, we have been forced to struggle against the blatant animosity placed before us and have been met with quite outrageous resistance.<br /><br />When people organized to let the campus know that we weren't going to take shit like the Compton Cook-out lightly, what did they do? The Koala called BSU a bunch of ungrateful niggers. We protested against that, and what did they do? They hung a noose. We protested against that and what did they do? Said they were with us, issued a bullshit document with empty rhetoric and promises as well as increase the police presence on campus to 'protect' black students when the police are a RACIST institution of oppression.<br /><br />My question is, when we escalate, do we <span style="font-style: italic;">really think</span> that there's not going to be reaction from our opponents? They're going to escalate. We shouldn't be surprised when they escalate, instead, we should strive to understand the nature of this capitalist, racist, sexist, and homophobic system and the actions it pushes people to materialize. And <span style="font-style: italic;">what</span> language does this system speak? Violence.<br /><br />This system<span style="font-style: italic;"> violently</span> oppresses us and <span style="font-style: italic;">threatens</span> our very existence. Understanding this, it would be <span style="font-style: italic;">foolish</span> and naive of us not to take necessary measures to protect our communities. What do I mean? I mean that we can't just fucking keep marching around and shouting at the higher authorities, demanding them to do something because they won't. We have to understand that they are <span style="font-style: italic;">invested</span> in the system. They <span style="font-style: italic;">serve</span> the system. Their privilege exists because the current system gives these people privilege (the chancellors, politicians, police).<br /><br />What is needed? Escalated and renewed tactics that implement direct people power.<br /><br />I'm talking about for March 4th, because we anticipate heavy police presence, and from what we've seen earlier this year with police brutality against protestors, let's not just bring cameras and make a fuss when we get beat up by the pigs, instead, lets' bring rags with vinegar, solution to deal with tear gas, and train ourselves with black bloc tactics(how to move as a coherent unit to prevent being singled out and arrested, etc) so we can effectively <span style="font-style: italic;">resist</span> and <span style="font-style: italic;">protect</span> our brothers and sisters. Instead of relying on racist police to 'protect' us from racists, when they themselves are racist, to take it on ourselves to look after each other and pick up knowledge and skills regarding self-defense. After all, who is going to protect us when the police brutalize us? Not the legal system - only us.<br /><br />I'm talking about a call to re-think our tactics. Yes, critical liberation theory - they're going to brutalize us because it's in their best interest because this system GIVES THEM PRIVILEGE. What makes you think they're going to willingly give that up? The more we resist, the more we see that those that hold power won't give up their privilege and if we really want to prevent our brothers and sisters from being hurt, why the fuck are we looking to the power system for answers?! The solution is within us to defend our community the way we see fit.<br /><br />We've reached a point where going back only means returning to the way it was in the beginning - more shit like the Compton Cook-out or Warren College's 'Night of the Orientals Party' or vandalized LGBT resource centers, etc. Either you free or you not - no such thing as in the middle. This second class, oppressed citizenship shit still means we're not free, so let's get real and down with it and stop fronting. It's time to escalate.Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10154726216820615441noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6562438122181322370.post-11940236097055323482010-02-27T22:06:00.000-08:002010-02-27T22:07:35.244-08:00"The people's hearts are like sunflowers<br />Hundreds of thousands of them all turn toward the sun<br />Even if everything in nature changes<br />They pledge to remain steadfast and loyal to the revolution"<br /><br />Vietnamese folk poemDanielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10154726216820615441noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6562438122181322370.post-24850109920609021872010-02-22T10:31:00.000-08:002010-02-22T10:34:33.137-08:00I Wor Kuen - Serve the People<p>Original Source: http://apimovement.com/i-wor-kuen/serve-people (emphasis added)<br /></p><div class="field field-type-filefield field-field-photo"> <div class="field-items"> <div class="field-item odd"> <img class="imagefield imagefield-field_photo" alt="" src="http://apimovement.com/sites/default/files/servethepeople.jpg?1253988673" width="300" height="179" /> </div> </div> </div><p>First Issue of Getting Together - February 1970</p> <p>40,000 people-young and old, women and men, children and babies-live in Chinatown. Most of us work hard and long hours, often in uncomfortable quarters - a sweatshop, a laundry, or a restaurant. We pay extremely high city, state, and federal taxes; in addition, many of us dutifully give money to various organizations such as tongs, family associations as well. In fact, we pay out so much that after all these "taxes" and "dues", hardly any of our hard-earned money is left to take care of our daily living needs.</p> <p>For all this money that we pay out, our neighborhood in Chinatown remains dirty and unhealthy (because of uncollected garbage), crowded and shabby (what else do you expect when most of the buildings were built not too many years after Lincoln's time?), and our seven elementary and junior high schools are dilapidated and so overcrowded that the schools are fire traps, and the kids there are packed like sardines. TB and other serious diseases are more widespread here than in any other neighborhood in this city. The kids from Hong King who refused to be bossed around in the schools are compelled to drop out, and find it hard to find any meaningful jobs with decent wages. So they join a gang, get into trouble, loaf and run around, or get drafted and sent across the Pacific to fight our fellow Asians (the yellow people) in Vietnam.</p> <p>Where do all the taxes, dues, and money we pay out go? WHY DO THESE SHAMEFUL THINGS CONTINUE TO EXIST?</p> <p>In a "democracy", the government is supposed to serve the daily needs of the people. That's what they tell us in social studies, and that's why the officials are called "public SERVANTS". But the conditions in Chinatown and the lack of even the most minimal public services tell us that as far as we Asian-Americans (Chinese, Japanese, etc) are concerned, the government does, not serve us well. (if it did, there would be clean streets without any trash or garbage, there would be up-to-date comfortable apartments with modern facilities for everyone, all the young people would have decent, dignified jobs, etc.) As far as we know from the conditions in our neighborhood, the goverment exists, not to serve us, but to serve the needs of some big-shots living in rich, White Suburbs. And as for the so-called "public SERVANTS", we know from our own experience that the only time they give a damn about the people in Chinatown is during the election period when they want us to vote for them. Public servants? These rich, white politicians? It must be a big joke!</p> <p>It is not by mistake that these miserable conditions exist, not only in the New York Chinatown, but in Chinatowns across the country. To put it very frankly, these white politicians care only about themselves and their own kind (other well-off whites). They are so "superior" that they can't be bothered with the daily needs of us "Orientals" (or any other non-Whites). We Asian-American people are patient and don't complain too often or too loud. So these selfish politicians and the government take us for granted, and so far they have gotten away with a whole lot.</p> <p style="font-weight: bold;">What is do be done? It's not simply a question of becoming "better informed", writing letters to the crooked or apathetic White politicians, or of getting more Chinese people to register and vote in elections. Those elections are rigged and phoney. anyway, so why bother? It takes a lot more than just becoming "interested" or "involved" to really change things.</p> <p style="font-weight: bold;">The long history of the Asian people, and the experience of the black and brown (Puerto Rican and Mexican) peoples here in this country shows us the Way. The most important lesson of our own history and of these peoples is that nothing good, nothing really important happens unless the common, ordinary people themselves make it happen. We cannot expect basic improvements in our lives and in our community unless we have some POWER and use it to get the government to make the necessary improvements and/or to do what is necessary ourselves. For us- in the Chinatown, it means that what we really need is Chinese or YELLOW POWER!</p> <p>Now, we don't control the police or fire departments; we have little say over the use of tax-money or the schools; the sanitation department doesn't serve our needs; we pay rent all our lives to mostly non-Chinese real estate companies and landlords; and we, or our brothers, or sons, are forced to fight in a war against Asian people. All these things are controlled and decided mostly by well-off white people who live outside of our community. It's as if we Asians (Chinese) in Chinatown are living in a colony controlled by foreigners (the rich, outside whites). In fact, Chinatown is not only a ghetto, but a colony of sorts. What we have to do is begin to gain power to run our own community. That means, for example, if the city sanitation department is unable or unwilling to do the job that we pay them for (through the taxes), then we say good-by to the largely white city sanitation department, and take back our money from the city and do it ourselves! The same with medical, welfare, educational, anti-poverty and other services that the city is supposed to provide us with the taxes that we pay. We've got to take back what's ours, and serve our own needs by our own efforts. We'll do it much better and cheaper, too. But, in order to achieve this objective of self-determination of Asian-Americans, and the total community control of all the public services in Chinese community, we must get ourselves really together and build our Chinese-YELLOW POWER.</p> <p>As a first step in this long struggle for Chinese Power, a group of us have begun a series of programs that serve the needs of our people. These include: 1) regular publication of this community paper in which we would exchange ideas and experience to help us achieve Chinese people's power; 2) free health-care program to inform and educate our people about the various health hazards common in our neighborhood, and also to meet some important health needs of the Chinese people (especially in the area of TB prevention and detection, and Vitamin deficiencies); 3) Chinatown Draft Help to inform our brothers about how they could lawfully get out of the draft and the Army so that they wouldn't have to fight or die in this stupid, useless, racist war in Vietnam. Since most of us are young, and none of us rich, we'll have to work really hard and use every bit of our Asian ingenuity to get these programs going. These programs can succeed and expand only if you become actively involved in them. </p> <p>We are not a bunch of "do-gooders" out to save somebody else; we only know that our own freedom and happiness are tied-in with the freedom and happiness of every Chinese and every Asian person. We are not going to turn ourselves into a bureaucratic agency to hand out charity; our programs will be the beginning blocks of the movement for Chinese, YELLOW POWER. We are not out to demand this phoney reform or that, but to fight for the total self-determination of the Asian people in Chinatown. Our programs are a step on a road of thousand-li that leads to the freedom and power for all non-white (YELLOW, BROWN, BLACK) peoples of this community.</p> <p>POWER TO THE COURAGEOUS, HARDWORKING, PROUD ASIAN-AMERICAN PEOPLE!</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>This organization, like so many revolutionary organizations during the time, eventually collapsed due to all-out COINTELPRO repression.<br /></p>Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10154726216820615441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6562438122181322370.post-51379129434193477662010-02-19T12:01:00.000-08:002010-02-19T13:36:50.081-08:00We must provide our predictions of the future with action"There is so much that could be done, right now... But I won't talk about those things right here. I will say that it should never be easy for them to destroy us. If you start with Malcolm X and count <span style="font-style: italic;">all </span>of the brothers who have died or been captured since, you will find that not even one of them was really <span style="font-style: italic;">prepared</span> for a fight. No imagination or fighting style was evident in any one of the incidents. But each one that died professed to know the nature of our enemies. It should never be so easy for them. Do you understand what I'm saying? Edward V. Hanrahan, Illinois State Attorney General, sent fifteen pigs to raid the Panther headquarters and murder Hampton and Clark. Do you have any idea what would have happened to those fifteen pigs if they had run into as many Viet Cong as there were Panthers in that building. The VC are all little people with less general education than we have. The argument that they have been doing it longer has no validity at all, because they were doing it just as well when they started as they are now. <span style="font-weight: bold;">It's very contradictory for a man to teach about the murder in corporate capitalism, to isolate and expose the murderers behind it, to instruct that these madmen are completely without stops, are licentious, totally depraved - and then not make adequate preparations to defend himself from the madman's attack. Either they don't really believe their own spiel or they harbor some sort of subconscious death wish.</span>" - George Jackson, <span style="font-style: italic;">Soledad Brothers</span><br /><br />Recognizing the racist, sexist, homophobic, imperialist, capitalist nature of this system that we live in is only the first step. After we reach this realization, we must understand that the system, because of its nature, will never give us liberation and will never stop oppressing us.<br /><br />It is absurd and otherwise foolish to even begin to think that the system would be interested in amending or stopping oppression. So why do we continue to act surprised when pigs brutalize someone in the community and get let off clean, when universities (cough, UC San Diego, cough) fail to take action against racist fraternities but threaten to expel protesters, when the nation's first black president decides to escalate warfare and armed occupation in Afghanistan and poor communities of color in America, when banks get bailed out while welfare gets cut, or when prison systems get more funding than public education? Why <span style="font-style: italic;">wouldn't</span> the system continue want to continue its oppressive policies?<br /><br />We have to question and understand each and every apparatus of the system. Let's take the legal system for example. Who makes laws? Who gets to participate in the legal process? Who does the law benefit? Who <span style="font-style: italic;">is</span> the law? Who gets to enforce the law? Who is immune from the law?<br /><br />When we begin to question the system's apparatus in this nature, we begin to see that it is all a farce. Who makes the laws? Politicians - not the people. And for who? Themselves and the corporations/capitalists they serve. Who gets to enforce the law? The racist, facist pigs. Who is immune from the law? The same people who get to make and enforce the law - the pig capitalists,politicians, and police.<br /><br />The legal is system is not flawed - it operates very efficiently in the manner in which it was designed to operate - to delude the masses with the sorcery of 'justice' while legitimizing means of oppression through enlightenment rationale.<br /><br />What do I mean by this? It took over a year of strenuous legal battles to legally free Angela Davis from captivity in the 1970s, but since then, California has almost tripled its prisons, sent more black men to prisons than schools, and deported countless people of color (and I ain't just talking about Mexicans - I'm talking about Vietnamese and Cambodian as well). While it's great that Angela Davis is free, we must understand that the nature of such a decadent system, is to give the people an inch, only to take back ten inches.<br /><br />Understanding this and coming to terms with the absurdity of a politics of liberalism or reformism, we must, as George Jackson says, "make revolution", "we must find out exactly what the people need and organize them around these needs." We must mobilize and create a condition where a politics of rupture and revolution is possible. At the same time, we must recognize that the terrain is different now than in the 60s and 70s. While oppressive systems such as racism or sexism are still stronger than ever, they take different forms. The system is not dogmatic in its oppression of people, but rather, it is very dynamic and constantly changing and we, as revolutionaries, but recognize this and also change tactics with the times. We cannot confine ourselves to strict dogmatism. We must recognize that the people lost the war against the system - the Black Panthers, Brown Beret, Red Guard, American Indian Movement - they no longer exist, not because of peaceful disbanding, but forceful and violent repression. So while it is important to learn and adopt principles and tactics from past revolutionary groups, we must recognize that they ultimately failed and we must adapt their tactics to our situation. Take and adopt principles in order to forge material praxis.<br /><br />What do I mean? Take the Việt Cộng for example. They were notorious for creating elaborate tunnel systems to fight against American, French, Japanese, Cambodian, and Chinese imperialism. It is absurd to begin to argue that such tunnel systems would be fitting in urban sprawl such as Los Angeles, but instead, principles such as learning and becoming attuned to your environment and using your understanding of the environment that against the oppressor is something that is practical and useful today and applies to any environment. Instead of imagining jungle guerrilla warfare and resistance, we must begin to imagine urban guerrilla warfare and resistance. The Việt Cộng, understanding that the people of South Việt Nam lived in poverty, went into villages and distributed food to the people at no cost - understand the needs of the people and work to meet the needs of the people.<br /><br />Apply concepts and principles, not word-for-word examples.<br /><br />So the question is, how do we learn from the successes and failures of the past, while imagining new revolutionary possibilities?<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://blogs.alumniroundup.com/russy/files/2009/10/free_breakfast_program.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 302px; height: 320px;" src="http://blogs.alumniroundup.com/russy/files/2009/10/free_breakfast_program.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://a34.idata.over-blog.com/464x633/0/39/65/84/july-2007/TUNNEL.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 464px; height: 633px;" src="http://a34.idata.over-blog.com/464x633/0/39/65/84/july-2007/TUNNEL.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10154726216820615441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6562438122181322370.post-41889897935351257782010-02-17T20:56:00.000-08:002010-02-17T21:08:16.198-08:00'Compton Cookout'" OFFICE OF THE VICE CHANCELLOR -<br /> STUDENT AFFAIRS<br /> <br /> CHANCELLOR'S DIVERSITY OFFICE<br /><br /> February 17, 2010<br /><br /><br />ALL STUDENTS AT UCSD<br /><br />SUBJECT: Campus Response to Racial Incident<br /><br /><br />Over this past weekend in an off-campus apartment, a racially-themed<br />party was held that mocked the commemoration of Black History Month.<br />The party was announced on Facebook, and while the announcement has<br />since been removed, it was viewed by many UCSD students before being<br />taken down. The text of the announcement has been widely circulated, and<br />news of its creation has been posted on community blogs and<br />prospective-student recruitment sites.<br /><br />Many members of our campus community who have viewed the website find<br />the idea of the gathering to be patently offensive. I understand that<br />students of color, already finding themselves seriously underrepresented<br />on our campus, see this incident as an example of UC San Diego's<br />unwelcoming climate. Others who care about strengthening our sense of<br />community are dismayed at the language and images chosen. My heart goes<br />out to all who have been affected by this incident.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"> I have been reminded by many in our academic community that among the</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"> highest of academic values is our right to free expression, and yes,</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"> this right does extend to offensive speech and misguided humor. At the</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"> same time, I am urged by others to utilize the harshest sanctions in</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"> responding to the organizers of this event.</span><br /><br />Currently, Student Life staff are conducting a full investigation of the<br />incident and the role of registered student organizations in it. They<br />will determine if this violation of our Principles of Community is also<br />a violation of our code of conduct. They are working with the national<br />arms of the relevant Greek letter organizations so that those bodies may<br />also follow disciplinary processes.<br /><br />Students most directly affected by this insensitivity feel isolated and<br />vulnerable in addition to angry. They need to know they are not alone<br />in their response to this incident. We are launching a campaign<br />entitled, "Not in our Community," which will allow members throughout<br />the community to show their support. You can join our Facebook page, or<br />pick up a button at the Cross-cultural Center or any Student Affairs<br />office soon and wear it in solidarity.<br /><br />No one action or reaction will heal the hurt caused by this event.<br />Instead, I'd like for you to think about what you could do to help us<br />learn from such a thoughtless incident. Critical conversations among<br />trusted friends, College-based events, vigorous classroom debate-all<br />these and more will show that the power to build community is stronger<br />than the power to divide it. I also welcome your suggestion for steps<br />the university can take. Please feel free to share with me your<br />suggestions of ways to respond to this incident, or to others like it<br />that may go unacknowledged or unreported. You can reach me at<br /><a href="mailto:prue@ucsd.edu" target="_blank">prue@ucsd.edu</a>.<br /><br />As members of an academic community, when stressed by acts of<br />intolerance and insensitivity, our collective responsibility is to come<br />together to discuss and learn from each other. The remedy for<br />dangerous, offensive or extreme speech is more speech, not less. It is<br />our collective voices that will show the resilience and strength of the<br />UC San Diego community. It is also our communal responsibility to help<br />those who don't understand what the big deal is, who see such expression<br />as satire, to understand its historic roots and its present day impact.<br />They need the best attention from members of the educational community.<br /><br />Student Affairs and the Campus Diversity Office are currently engaged in<br />numerous initiatives to increase the presence of underrepresented<br />students and improve the campus climate for all members of our<br />community, and we welcome your involvement. Please join us at a<br />Teach-in scheduled for Feb. 24 from 12 to 2 p.m. in the Price Center<br />East Ballroom, where we'll explore how such incidents continue to occur<br />today and to discuss the importance of mutual respect and civility on<br />our campus.<br /><br /><br /><br /> Penny Rue<br /> Vice Chancellor -<br /> Student Affairs<br /><br /> Sandra Daley <br /> Associate Chancellor and<br /> Chief Diversity Officer"<br /><br />Recently, there was a racist fraternity party titled, "Compton Cookout" in which the theme was to come dressed in 'ghetto' attire and perform black stereotypes which include, but isn't limited to, hypersexualized black women as well as acting 'Shanaynay'.<br /><br />And this was VC Rue's response.<br /><br />It says a lot about institutions when racism is protected by 'free speech' while activities of people of color are heavily militarized. Why is it that trash such as The Koala is protected under free speech yet students of color can't have a weekend conference without heavy police presence? There is an obvious material difference in the treatment of the two groups.<br /><br />The point to take home is that we cannot rely on institutions invested in racist, sexist, capitalism to appropriately address the needs of the community. Despite being told by students and faculty that it's rather inappropriate to throw around this incident as a learning opportunity as if people of color are supposed to feel grateful that the privileged get to have an opportunity to learn at the expense of people of color, VC Rue not only fails to take any action against the students responsible but also reiterates this need to make this a 'learning experience'.<br /><br />I don't think she was paying much attention at the town hall.<br /><br />The point was to address institutional problems. There is something wrong with the institution and the climate of the institution. It is racist. It's narrow-sighted to focus strictly on what these fraternities did - we need to focus on the institution and this was not addressed by Penny Rue. Why? She is <span style="font-style: italic;">invested</span> in the institution. Why would we appeal to someone so invested in the institution to deconstruct it? Whose interests does she serve?<br /><br />People at the town hall were right, this isn't the first and won't be the last time this sort of thing happens because people entering the university are already 18ish year old products of a racist society. How do we change that?Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10154726216820615441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6562438122181322370.post-76647521244187600732010-02-12T18:34:00.000-08:002010-02-12T19:09:41.174-08:00Soledad Brothers on Yuppie-isms"<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Depression is an economic condition. </span></span></span></span></span>It is a part of the capitalist business cycle, a necessaryu concomitant of capitalism. Its colonies - secondary markets - will always be depressed areas, because eh steadily decreasing labor force, decreasing and growing more skilled under the advances of automation, casts the unskilled colonial subject into economic roles that preclude economic mobility. Learning the new skills even if we were allowed wouldn't help. <span style="font-weight: bold;">It wouldn't help the masses even if they learned them. It wouldn't help because there is a fixed ceiling on the labor force. This ceiling gets lower with every advance in the arts of production. </span><span style="font-weight: bold;">Learning the newer skills would merely put us into a competition with established labor that we could not win. One that we don't want. There are absolutely no vacuums for us to fill in the business world. We don't want to capitalize on people anyway. Capitalism is the enemy. It must be destroyed. There is no other recourse. The System is not workable in view of the modern industrial city-based society. Men are born disenfranchised. The contract between the ruler and ruled perpetuates this disenfranchisement."<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span></span></span>- George Jackson (emphasis added).<br /><br />In this passage, George Jackson touches on the absurdity of what many would call, yuppie-isms. I'm not condemning getting skilled, but condemning forgetting your community and where you come from. Moving up don't mean you gotta move out (in reference to the community). As Fanon says, we need to have revolutionaries who have skills that can aid in the construction of a new society. We need revolutionary doctors, engineers, teachers, etc. While Fanon differs from many Marxists by believing that revolution starts with the lumpen proletariat (in our society - the people completely left out - homeless, unemployed), it cannot end with the lumpen proletariat.<br /><br />Falling into a yuppie mindset of strict ladder climbing pits us against ourselves. We got brothers and sisters getting educated then going off to make lofty salaries serving the ruling class, thinking that they getting something for themselves, while the communities where they come from are falling apart or being systematically militarized and forcefully repressed. Everytime someone with 'professional skills' picks up and moves out to serve the interests of the rich, the community loses resources and the rich gain another (why is it that you don't see no doctors or professionals living in places like East Long Beach?). Instead, imagine if we re-invested in our communities instead of peacing out and pull some jive ass shit and pretending to integrate into this petty bourgeoisie culture. We know they can build housing fit for human shelter, distribute food fit for human consumption, provide healthcare fit to address the needs of the people - just look at affluent communities. Imagine if our brothers and sisters with those sorts of skills invested in the community. We could actually get some shit instead of begging for scraps. We could actually have some empowerment in the community instead of resentment everytime someone calls where we come from 'ghetto'.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">"Why else do men allow other men to govern? To what purpose is a Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, or of Housing and Urban Development, etc? Why do we give these men power over us. Why do we give them taxes? For nothing? So they can say that the world owes our children nothing? This world owers each of us a living the very day we are born."</span> - George Jackson<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.fromthevaultradio.org/home/wp-content/images/FTV%20172%20Black%20August%20-%20George%20Jackson/GeorgeJackson-BPP-Agents.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 488px;" src="http://www.fromthevaultradio.org/home/wp-content/images/FTV%20172%20Black%20August%20-%20George%20Jackson/GeorgeJackson-BPP-Agents.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10154726216820615441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6562438122181322370.post-52453226053036761052010-02-07T11:09:00.000-08:002010-02-07T14:42:40.396-08:00Decolonizing DecolonialismI recently attended a seminar focusing on the decolonizing movements and thoughts of Frantz Fanon and Aimé Césaire and something that was addressed that I thought was very crucial was, how do we deconstruct and create a movement dedicated to decolonization without becoming the new colonizer?<br /><br />The speaker brought up examples of People's Republic of China and Cuba where after successfully ousting colonialists from their respective nations, they proceeded with decolonization, in the case of People's Republic of China, with the Cultural Revolution and thus the subsequent and methodical destruction of all things Confucian and in the case of Cuba, the persecution and targetting of Christianity. We also see this in Việt Nam, where after the revolution, Catholics came under heavy fire from the new government for being ardent pro-colonialists during the war. All these events were described as having 'decolonization' intentions, but reality, resulted in material, reactionary suppression of populations.<br /><br />Decolonization efforts, as Fanon argued, should center around both self-determinism and the creation of a new society. Are we really creating a new society by reverting back to oppressive techniques shown to us and ingrained in us by our colonial masters?<br /><br />The revolt against colonialism should really strive to have a critical analysis of systemic oppression, namely a system that prevents self-determinism. In the context of culture, I feel that decolonization movements should strive to ask, what is culture? What is the goal of decolonization? Is it to handcuff ourselves to the past?<br /><br />I think it is important to note that culture is dynamic, not static. Though it is extremely important to preserve culture and self, especially in the context of Western imperialism and colonization (remembering that colonization is the very real extermination and smothering of 'deviant' people by a dominant, white male supremacist capitalist western society), it is important to realize that we must be open to change and not be stuck on being static. For example, while it is important to realize the narrative between Confucianism and colonial Christianity, which sought to 'civilize' savages, often through force and brutality, and the importance of understanding Confucianism and how it plays into the social structures of a lot of East Asian 'cultures' it does no one any good to stay stuck on Confucianism, which is heavily invested in patriarchy.<br /><br />The important thing about decolonization is to allow people to make their own decisions within their own contexts. This requires that people be treated as human beings with respect and dignity. As with other aspects of the struggle, decolonization is an issue of human rights, not civil or otherwise - decolonization will never fit into a piece of legislation.<br /><br />Decolonization is and must be radical and requires a comprehensive, radical revolution that continues even after the colonizer is overthrown. As Frantz Fanon theorized, decolonization is a long term project, not a coup.<br /><br /><h1 id="firstHeading" class="firstHeading"><br /></h1>Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10154726216820615441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6562438122181322370.post-38162424141590059152010-02-06T17:48:00.001-08:002010-02-07T08:14:33.651-08:00Fuck the Lawhttp://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/22/us/politics/22scotus.html<br /><br /><h1>Justices, 5-4, Reject Corporate Spending Limit </h1>"Overruling two important precedents about the First Amendment rights of corporations, a bitterly divided <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/s/supreme_court/index.html?inline=nyt-org" title="More articles about the U.S. Supreme Court.">Supreme Court</a> on <span style="font-weight: bold;">Thursday </span><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/09pdf/08-205.pdf" title="The court’s ruling (PDF).">ruled</a><span style="font-weight: bold;"> that the government may not ban political spending by corporations in candidate elections</span>."<br /><br />If this doesn't shoot the idea of 'checks and balances' to hell, than I don't know what would.<br /><br />We've always been taught in school that we live in such a just society because we have this thing called checks and balances where the judicial, executive, and legislative branches of government are supposed to keep each other in check. That and we have have this mystical thing called Democracy...<br /><br />But the Supreme Court especially aren't even elected, but rather, appointed <span style="font-style: italic;">for life</span>. They're politicians dressed in fancy robes mascaraing around with an air of moral authority. They serve the agendas of those who appoint them (after all, the president is going to appoint someone who is going to serve his agenda) and back the agendas of said ruling politicians with an accepted infallible logic (after all, wasn't it the Supreme Court that justified slavery as well as jim crow segregation?).<br /><br />The president is hardly elected by the people. With this idea of electoral colleges and jerry mandering and re-districting, we have the consolidation of voting power and the systematic disenfranchisement of a strategic population of people. In addition, a horrific portion of people of color have either been to prison or are currently serving time in prison, something which nullifies one's right to vote. So we have to question, who does the president serve/represent and who gets to vote in the president? Certainly not the poor and oppressed black and brown people.<br /><br />And with this new ruling from the Supreme Court, what little saving grace the legislative or execute branch had is long gone. We'd be fools to believe we lived in a politically free society.<br /><br />Who do the corporations serve and for what purpose? Who is silenced as a result?<br /><br />Corporations exist to create profit and serve the interest of the rich. Plain and simple. Giving corporations unlimited access to the political system only means that this government will only be further invested in the welfare of the rich and less concerned with the masses.<br /><br />What does that mean for us?<br /><br />With corporations such as Corrections Corporation of America giving millions to politicians, the abolition of the prison industrial complex will never come about through the legal system and countless people of color will continue to be sent to prisons or brutalized by the pigs everyday.<br /><br />This further solidifies the fact that revolution will never come through the ballot with the insane amount of say that corporations have in the operations and future of this nation. Wars will never stop so long as corporations as Halliburton have a say. Exploitation of the earth will never stop so long as big oil has a say.<br /><br />I say, fuck the law. Fuck this legal system. Fuck the uniformed pigs that defend it by any means necessary.<br /><br />Of course this ruling isn't getting media play - the corporations that own the media outlets won't have it. We need to stop playing by their rules (God, has anyone even tried to read legislation? It's near impossible to understand and comprehend the shit they write and who has the luxury and time to fully understand all that legal jaron?) and start making our own community agreements and guidelines by which we adhere to.<br /><br />Power to the people, not the legal or political system!<br /><br />Self-determinism! Let's have it.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i.imgur.com/bYrwO.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 424px; height: 275px;" src="http://i.imgur.com/bYrwO.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10154726216820615441noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6562438122181322370.post-15576767042996125542010-02-05T19:05:00.000-08:002010-02-05T19:15:34.796-08:00Thoughts on Solidarity"Such pledges, however, can be empty. Guevara missed the Tricontinental. He left Cuba for Africa, where he had begun to explore the possibility of joining the revolutionary movements in the Congo. In a letter to the Tricontinental, Che asked the hardest question of all: What is the value of solidarity when the imperialist guns were not challenged? 'The solidarity of the progressive forces of the world towards the people of Vietnam today,' he wrote, 'is similar to the bitter irony of the plebeians coaxing on the gladiators in the Roman arena. It is not a matter of wishing success to the victims of aggression, but of sharing his fate; one must accompany him to his death or to victory.'"<br /> - Excerpt from A People's History of the Third World: The Darker Nations by Vijay Prashad.<br /><br />In other words, how do we construct solidarity as mutual liberation as opposed to passive and weightless words without critically examining things such as privilege? For example, is it adequate for feminist male allies to claim solidarity without actively being invested and active in deconstructing and challenging the structure of white male patriarchy and thus critically analyzing their own male privilege?<br /><br />In my opinion, it is not enough for me as a male to say I am against patriarchy but continue to perpetuate patriarchy through my actions. Saying I am against patriarchy and standing with my sisters who are in the struggle to liberate ourselves from such a structure means also being active in deconstructing patriarchy in my own self.<br /><br />This is essentially what Che Guevara is saying in his letter to the Tricontinental. Solidarity is proactive, not passive. Words of our comrades cannot fall on deaf ears.<br /><br />But at the same time, how do we make this work within the frame work of from each according to ability and to each according to need? Is it unreasonable to fight all battles? Is it truly liberation if we don't address the unique struggles of different peoples of the world?Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10154726216820615441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6562438122181322370.post-72211632725997746652010-01-29T16:25:00.000-08:002010-01-30T07:53:13.706-08:00Colonialism<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://michelledina.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/edward-adams_saigon-execution2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 392px; height: 298px;" src="http://michelledina.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/edward-adams_saigon-execution2.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Ironically, the General who shot the man fled to America after the unification of Việt Nam and died poor and shunned by his colonial masters, a victim of American capitalism that he fought so hard to defend. Colonialism has a sick and twisted humor.Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10154726216820615441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6562438122181322370.post-78158013600316780382010-01-25T16:14:00.000-08:002010-01-25T16:15:18.937-08:0016 on Deathrow"Dear mama, they sentenced me to death<br />Today's my final day, I'm countin every breath<br />I'm bitter cause I'm dyin, so much I haven't seen<br />I know you never dreamed, your baby would be dead at 16<br />I got beef with a sick society that doesn't give a shit<br />And they too quick to say goodbye to me<br />They tell me the preacher's there for me<br />He's a crook with a book, that motherfucker never cared for me<br />He's only here to be sure<br />I don't drop a dime to God bout the crimes he's commitin<br />on the poor, and how can these people judge me?<br />They ain't my peers and in all these years, they ain't never love me<br />I never got to be a man, must be part of some big plan<br />to keep a nigga in the state pen<br />And to my homies out buryin motherfuckers<br />Steer clear of these Aryan motherfuckers<br />Cause once they got you locked up<br />They got you trapped, you're better off gettin shot up<br />I'm convinced self-defense is the way<br />Please, stay strapped, pack a gat every day<br />I wish I woulda known while I was out there<br />Now I'm straight headin for the chair"<br />- 2pacDanielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10154726216820615441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6562438122181322370.post-1434628214956521482009-12-11T17:52:00.000-08:002009-12-11T18:38:08.178-08:00On The Ineffectual Nature of Rioting"...colonialism is not a machine capable of thinking, a body endowed with reason. It is a naked violence and only gives in when confronted with greater violence."<br /><br />"The colonized man liberates himself in and through violence. This praxis enlightens the militant because it shows him the means and the end."<br /><br />- Frantz Fanon<br /><br />Fanon argued that violence allowed for true liberation because the colonized, through means of violent resistance, can achieve both the removal of the colonizer and the liberation of the colonized subject. He goes on to argue that the process of decolonization is "the immobility to which the colonized subject is condemned can be challenged only if he decides to put an end to the history of colonization and the history of despoliation in order to bring to life the history of the nation, the history of decolonization." Ultimately, Fanon simply puts that decolonization is the constructive process of a new human being.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">In regards to rioting<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></span></span></span>No doubt, rioting can be an inspiring spectacle, sparking the imagination of the people to what destruction of the current system can look like:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.abc.net.au/reslib/200906/r388227_1813103.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 335px; height: 214px;" src="http://www.abc.net.au/reslib/200906/r388227_1813103.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>We must understand, however, that rioting can only take resistance so far. The large question that Fanon poses is this, "But how do we get from the atmosphere of violence to setting violence in motion?"<br /><br />In rioting we see a sort of hibernation therapy - actions that put pressure on the power system and allow the oppressed to let off steam but quickly dissipates and is easily co-opted and pacified by the system. It is no surprise to see countless riots happening all across the globe and yet not one government is overthrown and no real concessions are made - in fact, the G8 and the G20 still met and operated - business as usual. Even the inspiring Greek Anarchist riots last December yielded no fruitful results. What ends up happening at riots is that hundreds of people are arrested and countless others are brutalized by the State -so essentially, instead of the collapse of a system, we see the expansion of the prison industrial complex and an almost unrelenting method of organized violence against the people, by the State.<br /><br />In rioting, there is no real goal in mind and riots are often reactionary and destructive at best. We must remember that true liberation also involves construction - most importantly, construction of a new human being. This is key. Powerful movements such as the Black Panther Party, did not strictly involve resistance, but also implemented constructive aspects. The Black Panther Party ran extensive Serve The People Programs which ranged from free breakfast programs, free medical clinics, to political education as well as true Black history classes. In fact, armed resistance against police occupation of their communities, while a crucial aspect of the Party, was only a small aspect of the operation of the Party in relation to all the other activities they carried out. Same with the Viet Cong movement.<br /><br />What differentiates a movement aimed at decolonization and liberation as opposed to a colonizing movement is that decolonizing movements aim to also construct a new human being and to replace the colonizing force - not simply repeat and continue colonizing tendencies of blind brutality and oppression. Therefore, if we want to see a movement aimed truly at the liberation of humanity from the oppression of humans by other humans, we must see a movement that has the means to actually liberate itself (through violence and forceful resistance) while at the same time, through liberation, see the construction of a new era of human beings.<br /><br />The shortcomings of liberation movements, such as the Viet Cong movement or the Bolshevik movement, was that there was a failure to implement the construction of the new human being. What we see in history is that these 'socialist experiments' failed because there was never a true material implementation of the construction of a new human, rather, it fell short to nothing more than cheap political rhetoric, therefore, we see these otherwise inspiring experiments repeating the same colonizing practices they were originally fighting against.<br /><br />We must remember that colonization involves the construction of the colonized subject by the colonizer and therefore, to completely decolonize, we must undo our construction in light of colonization and replace it with our own liberated constructed human being.<br /><br />So in conclusion, rioting is more detrimental than positive to any movement. Rioting subjects otherwise useful comrades to being jailed, or killed by the hands of the bloodthirsty pigs without true cause. What is needed is organized resistance so that when we fall to the hands of the pigs, we do so while in the process of <span style="font-style: italic;">constructing</span> a movement and ultimately, our own liberation at any costs.Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10154726216820615441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6562438122181322370.post-71511138225949775962009-12-02T10:36:00.000-08:002009-12-02T10:45:34.081-08:00Mao and Physical HealthExcerpts of Mao Tse-tung's "A Study of Physical Education":<br /><br /><i style="font-style: italic;">"It is the body that contains knowledge and houses virtue.</i><span style="font-style: italic;">"</span><br /><br /><i>"Physical education really occupies the first place in our lives. When the body is strong, then one can advance speedily in Knowledge and morality, and reap far-reaching advantages</i>."<br /><br />"As far as we, students are concerned,<b><i> </i></b><i>the installation of a school and the instruction given by its teachers are only the external and objective aspect. We also have the internal, the subjective aspect</i>. When one's decision is made in his heart, then all parts of the body obey its orders. Fortune and misfortune are of our own seeking. 'I wish to be virtuous, and lo, virtue is at hand.' [From the Confucian<i> Analects.</i>]<i> </i>How<i> </i>much more this is true of physical education! If we do not have the will to act, then even though the exterior and the objective are perfect, they still cannot benefit us. <i>Hence, when we speak of physical education, we should begin with individual initiative</i>. "<br /><br />"Physical education not only strengthens the body but also enhances our knowledge. There is a saying: Civilize the mind and make savage the body. This is an apt saying. In order to civilize the mind one must first make savage the body. If the body is made savage, then the civilized mind will follow. <i>Knowledge consists in knowing the things in the world, and in discerning their laws. In this matter we must rely on our body, because direct observation depends on the ears and eyes, and reflection depends on the brain. The ears and eyes, as well as the brain, may be considered parts of the body. When the body is perfect, then knowledge is also perfect</i>. Hence one can say that knowledge is acquired indirectly through physical education. Physical strength is required to undertake the study of the numerous modern sciences, whether in school or through independent study. He who is equal to this is the man with a strong body; he who is not equal to it is the man with a weak body. The division between the strong and the weak determines the area of responsibilities each can assume."<br /><br />Thoughts on these excerpts to come later.Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10154726216820615441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6562438122181322370.post-50888985674397057222009-11-17T10:28:00.000-08:002009-11-17T11:04:18.734-08:00Stop Dying for My SinsWhat we want are allies, not saviors. <div><br /></div><div>Allies stand along side each other as equals in their own regard while saviors stand up for people. </div><div><br /></div><div>If we as people of color really want to achieve liberation from oppression under a white supremacist society, we need to learn to stand on our own two feet and fight for our own liberation. We need to do this ourselves. If we continue to ask and rely on the white man for our own liberation, all we're going to get is bureaucratic red tape and hand-outs. We'll never achieve liberation on our terms because the white man can't see liberation on our terms, but can see liberation only on his terms and as long as we're playing by the white man's rules, we'll always be fighting an uphill, bound-for-watered-down-failure struggle. </div><div><br /></div><div>White liberals who don't check their privilege, in my opinion, are worse than the white person who is out-right racist. As people of color, we have to understand that white liberals aren't doing us a favor with their single-issue non-profits going to save Africa bullshit. They're crippling us because they're confining us to single-issue non-profit crutch reform in lieu of real revolution - once again, this is liberation on their terms which translates to our continual oppression. </div><div><br /></div><div>Real liberation means divesting from whiteness. This means revolution - not reform - because the system itself is the problem. The system serves the interest of the White capitalist, therefore, we need to do away with the current system and as a community - white allies included, envision a society that we want to see that serves the specific needs of the community where everyone has an active say and everyone has access to visibility. </div><div><br /></div>Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10154726216820615441noreply@blogger.com0