And enjoy a New Year card and a teaser of things to come www.worlddictatorsunite.com
Last Friday of 2010, post coming up, meanwhile 42 in Prague!
Another family day survived, I can tell you Hannah Montana and Toy Story are both doing well in the merchandising stakes, Disney own children, it’s like a non-alien corporate Midwich Cuckoos. However niece no. 3′s guinea pig died, this was doubly unfortunate as 3 nieces have one each and niece no. 3′s previous guinea pig died within weeks of purchase. So that’s two in quick succession for her. They were all bought from Pets at Home which puts the survival rate of guinea pigs from their chain at 50% within 2 months (at least as far as this small sample goes) I am thinking chain store profit motives may not be in absolute sympathy with animal welfare, go figure.
Meanwhile from glancing contact with the web the awful story of the death of Joanna Yeates unfolded, yes it had a whiff of missing white woman syndrome but that aside it put the tinsely consumerism in perspective. Over the same period in North Wales Patrick John Cleary thought to be homeless froze to death in a Bangor park and a mother killed her two children and then herself. All tragedy will never be preventable but if the Austerity fetishists have their way our society will move further from any semblance of one that nurtures human beings. What does not produce surplus capital to be creamed off by the rentier class will not be supported, homelessness will shoot up next year due to the changes in the welfare system and support for banks and the property rental & sale industry rather than people who live in houses and think of them as a home not a get rich quick scheme. Mental health services that are already scarce will be devastated and clinical illnesses will be denied by for profit health corporations in order to gain performance bonuses from the government and reduce the benefits paid to even terminally ill people. What small regulation the health reforms in the US have introduced are incentives for the rapacious corporations making profit from human suffering to expand in the UK under welcoming neoliberal governance of all three parties.
Oh yes and Vince Cable danced and the Queen spoke about sport…sport, as the head of an institution that by its very existence validates a rigid class system of privilege at a time of massive attacks by the ruling class upon all beneath them their figurehead babbled about sport and millions still think she is ‘their’ Queen. Fuckwits. Cable, well the BBC are clearly sympathetic to promoting the coalition and its austerity agenda by subtle means as well as the standard Mark ’800 grand a year’ Thompson disdain for journalistic ethics. Although to be fair to Auntie Beeb’s creative output it was striking if you looked at the schedule for BBC against ITV1 it was stark, ITV the for profit network was filled with soaps, reality shows and one arse quakingly awful period detective bollocks. The BBC while having its share of shite did manage some original, popular programs (Who, Corbett) though apparently Ben Elton wrote Ronnie’s monologue, oh dear, like tempting Bill Murray back to SNL then have his script written by Dennis Miller, jimminy christmas.
Anyways, my Na-Twivity (it now turns out actual religious orgs used that pun to retell and drum up some tech savvy faithful) seems to have gone down well, unplanned and spur of the moment as it was. Thanks to all who followed and had fun with it which did influence how it happened as I did ponder having the couple die in custody but that felt wrong as it developed plus custard is not that homicidal (what!?!). Maybe next year the other Xmas cliché could be tackled, A Christmas Carol, hmmmmm. Now I have to sort out my stuff and prepare to leave this snowy island, get to Manchester airport and fly to Prague tomorrow where I have been summoned for another shadowy HFA summit. Hope to blog from there a bit, my birthday and also something called New Year is happening I am told, can’t say it rings any bells, New Year? Maybe it just gets overshadowed by my birthday (also this blogs fourth anniversary) which must be very sad for those who celebrate ‘New Year’, imagine having an important day so close to two much more famous holidays, that must be rubbish…
[Update: D Notice blogged about this and came up with the perfect title The Na-Twivity, so I'm totally calling it that now!]
I didn’t mean to do this, but one tweet leads to another… So a Nativity of sorts unfolded on Twitter, here it is in all its 140 characters or less glory:
- IDF spokesman Avi Benayahu reports male & pregnant female on a donkey detained near Bethlehem, also 3 Arabs bearing contraband were shot.
- IDF’s Avi Benayahu says contraband recovered from dead (Gold, Frankincense & Myrrh) ‘could be used a weapons’ soldiers fired in self defence
- Responding to an unidentified light in sky over West Bank IDF F16′s launched rockets, several shepherds reported killed near Bethlehem.
- Detained couple are being questioned at Etzion Interrogation and Detention Centre, the 3 dead Arabs found to be illegal immigrants.
- Palestinian hotelier has been arrested, stables in Bethlehem being searched for terrorists…Developing
- Pregnant detainee has been moved to Herod medical facility within detention centre, B’Tselem have queried detention of ‘activists’
- Detained man identified as Joseph a Jewish carpenter with links to Nazareth, several Palestinians in that area are detained & questioned.
- Obama congratulates Netanyahu over foiling suspected terrorist plot in his Christmas address, ‘Israel is our partner in peace’
- All flights to Washington & NYC are cancelled, The Christmas Plot is thought to involve mass infanticide reports CNN
- Several Palestinian Americans are detained as enemy combatants, suspected connections to the 3 shot illegal immigrants, US on Red Severe alert.
- Israeli activist & human rights groups raided by police, computers seized, checkpoints in Gaza & West Bank are sealed.
- FBI & ICE arrest several Muslims who work at a ‘Nativity Scene’ manufacturers, they possessed miniature figures of the 3 shot Arabs.
- President Abbas thanks Israel for its prompt action against illegal immigrants calling them ‘Hamas Infiltrators’
- 3 dead identified as Balthasar, Caspar & Melchior, NYT reports senior anonymous sources say they may have links to Iranian Qud’s Force.
- Pregnant detainee identified as Mary, a teenage Jewish girl who claims to be married to Joseph but does not say who child’s father is.
- Mortar shell explodes in Israel near Gaza border, no one hurt, IDF F16′s respond bombing several targets in Gaza, 18 dead and 43 injured.
- IDF: No record of detainees being married, ‘Joseph & Mary may be fugitives from their families’ Mary ‘could give birth at any moment’
- Washington Post reports the Christmas Plot involves a previously unknown religious sect and a new ‘Messiah’ who will free ‘Holy Land’
- US citizens advised to remain indoors, Glenn Beck given a rolling 24 hour broadcast on Fox with special guests Sarah Palin & Karl Rove
- Protesting shepherds in West Bank are tear gassed, shots also reported, President Abbas appeals for calm as he sends riot police in.
- Benjamin Netanyahu: ‘it is sad reminder that activists who hate their own nation work with our enemies to destroy us’
- 3 new settlement expansions announced, US congress in emergency session votes to send additional $400 million to Israel for ‘security’
- NYT: Recovered Frankincense & Myrrh could have been weaponised say ‘senior security sources’, chemical terror plot was planned
- Protests in Tel Aviv to free the imprisoned couple, security forces respond with baton charges defending the ‘only democracy in the Middle East’
- In Gaza Hamas units round up ‘Fatah supporters’, clashes reported, damage from IDF raid destroys reconstruction after Cast Lead
- Human Rights groups get Habeas hearing, couple could be released within hours…Developing
- On Sky News a previous customer of Joseph’s carpentry business claims he was overcharged for a bookcase & that Mary was ‘flighty’
- MSNBC report The Christmas Terror Plot was ordered by Anwar Al Alawaki, as CNN report 3 drone strikes in Yemen kill 97
- Supreme court orders release of couple. Homeless, they are offered accommodation in Bethlehem by family of detained hotelier
- JPost: Detention facility doctor Herod Hiss says Mary is an ‘irresponsible single mother…baby would be much safer here’
- Family of one of the dead say Melchoir was not a terrorist, a Professor of philosophy exiled from Iran, they call for UN investigation
- Another of the dead, Caspar is identified as a former Al Jazeera journalist who survived US attack on Palestine Hotel in Iraq
- Balthasar identified as peace activist born in Sabra refugee camp orphaned by massacre carried out by Christian forces w/Israeli oversight
- IDF claim gold was payment for weapons ‘traced to a looted Afghan bank’, dead men’s families deny & say it was to pay to build a nursery
- Under security force drones crowds have gathered in Bethlehem ‘we will resist any attempt to harm the couple or their child’ says one
- Andrew Breitbart- James O’Keefe has video exclusive of Julian Assange with Mary ‘nine months ago’. US networks repeat without fact checking
- Joseph to crowd, Mary is in labour, security cordon won’t allow ambulance through, doctor gets to stable on foot, baby will be born there.
- Joseph thanks crowd, asks them to remember those still in prison, thousands of Palestinians being detained, Shalit. Goes inside.
- The Anti-Defamation League condemn Joseph & Mary as ‘affront to Judaism’ Abe Foxman promises to sue them for ‘self libel’
- Emergency UN security council session votes to condemn Israeli incursions, US vetoes, UK & France abstain,
- Media jostle for exclusives, Joseph refuses, ‘follow twitter’, Mary can be heard shouting ‘fucking hell, I need fucking drugs now!’
- The crowd have made a collection of medicine a Red Crescent paramedic assists, scarcity has not affected generosity
- The crowd sing over the sounds of Mary giving birth, she ‘I want this bastard thing out of me, it’s fucking agony, Jesus!’
- Nursery plans discovered, 3 visitors were on project to repair infrastructure in OPT, Avigdor Lieberman dismisses as ‘typical Arab lies’
- Bodies of slain charity workers released to families, Thomas Friedman in NYT writes ‘are all Arab families connected to terrorism?’
- Bono, Bill Gates & Tony Blair at $10,000 a plate Christmas charity ball, pledge to negotiate with Israel the building of one whole nursery.
- Nicholas Kristof in NYT praise Bono, Gates & Blair for their peacemaking efforts.
- FBI is praised, overall 37 people have been detained in the US over The Christmas Terror Plot…despite it never having existed.
- Apparently Mary has inadvertently punched Joseph in the balls while experiencing a particularly painful contraction ‘it’s ok’ he winces.
- A settler Rabbi condemns ‘feckless youngsters living like animals in a stable and consorting with the enemies of Israel’
- NYT Exclusive: Pentagon indicates Iranian involvement in Christmas Terror Plot, Ethan Bronner reports ‘IDF elite forces are ready to assist’
- Obama promises no let up in resolve to fight terrorists after The Christmas Terror Plot ‘all options remain on the table with Iran’
- In Bethlehem it has gone strangely quiet…
- The crowd fall to the ground as a sonic boom caused by overflying IDF F16′s shakes the air, they wait… there is no attack
- Joseph emerges from stable, announces to crowd ‘it’s a girl!’, as news spread Christian Zionists are outraged, doomsday cults likewise.
- Mary comes out of the stable holding the child, helped by Palestinian family of detained owner.
- The couple are enveloped in a bright light, crowd shouts & the IDF helicopter moves away, live media feeds show armed troops onboard.
- Crowd asks ‘what will you call her?’ a hush falls, Mary says they have not thought, expected a boy, also- ‘I just gave birth, give me a minute’
- Was going to call boy Jesús after the father, a Mexican socialist who was killed by ICE police troops while visiting relatives in Arizona
- Or Richard, after Richard Dawkins & Ricardo Montalbán ‘Y’know, Khan!’ but as she was a girl, they think the name will be…
- Gaia
- News media contact religious figures & politicians to rail against ‘secular atheist leftwing earth worshipping terrorists’
- Joseph & Mary’s donkey is released by the IDF, subsequently it will appear being ridden by a naked Lady Gaga in PETA commercial
- Gaia finally falls asleep after much crying and demanding sustenance, Mary & Joseph are exhausted can still smell the prison on their clothes
- They fall asleep at last. Overhead a drone transmits their heat signatures & coordinates to a control room.
- Peace on earth will come when there is justice on earth. Merry Christmas Nadolig Llawen. Goodnight!
Oh noes it’s a snow post, but we rarely get such a covering on this bit of the island, anecdotal accounts say it was 30 years ago the last time our bit ‘o’ coast got proper inches deep snow. The warming of the sea for once confounded and cheeky snow even hanging out on the beach taunting its salty cousin with its cold crystalline uniqueness. However if you are worried your Xmas might be imperilled by the Blanket of White Death!!!!!!! (I think that’s how the media are playing it) Fear not because you can fight it with an instant (just add water or something) Black Christmas in a bag-
- I support wikileaks.
- Assange is one individual, he is not wikileaks, they are an organisation that will survive this, in fact they must, as they have demonstrated our media have largely abdicated any oversight role of the powerful.
- One cannot in good conscience dismiss the allegations by two women as unfounded or a plot.
- The forces ranged against Assange are vast and have shown they can and will kidnap and torture (including rape) people to death.
- Applying rigid analysis such as- because of the usual very poor treatment of rape survivors by legal systems we must regard the complainants as sincere and truthful and on the other hand- this is a conspiracy by the US/Radical Swedish Feminists (whatever that is meant to mean) will probably not be that helpful to understand the entirety and complexity of this situation and the related media and ideological phenomena.
- The urge, not resisted by many, to argue his guilt or innocence/the complainants truthfulness is dumb mob zealous lazy space filling shite, mortgages have to be paid, page views have to be increased I guess.
- A more pertinent question is: If charged can Sweden provide a competent investigation and a fair trial (which should be everyone’s right both plaintiffs and defendant) given the enormous political pressure to find a guilty verdict as part of the war against wikileaks (which so far includes- spying, public death threats by leading US politicians, asset freezing and sanctions) by the global empire that is the United States and its familiars.
- If you conclude a fair trial can’t be had that leaves us in a very dark place, where a sexual criminal can escape justice (already a fact of life in the majority of cases) and be a hero or the serious issue of sex crimes treatment by legal systems are being abused and misused by powerful forces both male and female who will deeply injure the advances made to fight rape culture by using it as a cover for political warfare.
- I just don’t see how anyone with an informed world view can put this easily into one frame, it has been depressing to see the ease with which -mostly- men managed to retreat into the big conspiracy/false accusation camp. I don’t see any comfort zone when you appraise this situation honestly, whatever the resolution we are set for some uncomfortable truths.
Wednesday night’s screening of Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo with journalist & co-director Andy Worthington went off very well. Turnout was not massive but around 30 people made it to the Blue Sky Cafe to see the film and Q&A afterwards, many were new faces so it seems word had spread beyond usual networks which is good. Earwicga saved the evening when the projector rejected Andy’s DVD, but her copy which she had bought some time previously worked fine (you can buy the film here). The Blue Sky Cafe location enabled people to come early, have a meal then see the film. Bangor Peace & Justice Group (who with Occasional Cinema) pulled this showing off in what turned out to be a topical week with the payments to detainees and subsequent announcement by ‘justice’ secretary Kenneth Clarke of a green paper to attempt to forever cloak the security services in unaccountable secrecy, literally cloak and dagger. These became a topic of conversation and Andy filled in a lot more detail from his expert perspective, he had talked to Moazzam Begg about the payments and there appears to be no conditions (ie to silence or abandoning other legal actions) to affect future cases. He also told us that when the detainees met with Kenneth Clarke in summer they expressed how unimportant the money was compared to getting Shaker Aamer released, Clarke apparently was taken aback by this as well as appearing to be relatively unaware of Shaker’s case or importance to the other detainees (imagine, a Tory not understanding that money does not trump solidarity). Andy also talked about subsequent revelations that the previous New Labour administration had done virtually nothing for Shaker Aamer, no visit in five years and the person detailed to the case had done little or nothing. He talks about some of this today relating to his talk with Aamer’s lawyer the legedary Gareth Peirce, a big campaign push by Amnesty International starts on Monday to push for Shaker Aamer’s release, see here and here. As William Hague says he has talked to Hillary Clinton about this and claims to be asking for his release now is the time to put pressure on the government.
Andy Worthington is a very friendly (not to say suave) campaigning journalist who together with Polly Nash has made a very compelling film. Interestingly the BBC rejected showing it while opining it would do well at film festivals, have they a policy against quality independent documentaries? The thing is, as Andy recounted, they did have a doco on Guantánamo, fronted by Michael Portillo, who ended the film with a defence of torture, so it’s not like they are against advocacy journalism (if one were to class the film as such which I would resist, I think it simply balances the lies of the powerful with what actually happened)… it’s just what they are advocating, apparently human rights are more controversial than being pro-torture, who knew? Mirroring elite opinion may be a successful strategy for the corporate Machiavellian multi-millionaire on the make *cough* Mark Thompson* cough*, but it isn’t actually journalism.
Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo is one of those instances where you think you know most of the stuff, but they lay it out in a clean direct way that brings the immediacy of the issues right back into sharp focus together with new information. It also presents a stark narrative of the Bush administration with Blair government aiding, carefully proceeding to create legal cover for torture as they began their prosecution of the War on Terror. There are no mistakes, bad apples or random & isolated atrocities here, it was systematic (and I would also say a good deal of racism was involved and imperial privilege) and careful policy to fight this ludicrous long generational replacement for the cold war in a medieval fashion. The only worst of the worst were ‘our’ sides adoption of torture as weapon of war. I do not think we know all that has been done yet, Bagram still operates in a total legal vacuum today, and that’s just what we know of. New details come up in the film, like the short lived prisoners council at Guantánamo lead by Shaker Aamer, it lasted for about a fortnight before the military shut it down. Binyam Mohamed’s holding up of a sign ‘Con-mission’ at his military commission hearing after querying what really we should call the non legal kangaroo court.
The film creates a journalistic framework of clearly conveyed information building into a horrifying and anger inducing record of our slump into barbarity but then it quietly presents the most powerful elements, the survivors, the ex detainees, Polly Nash the codirector also edited and she did a great job in unobtrusively but powerfully structuring the film. Moazzam Begg and Omar Deghayes are interviewed and they recount not just their torture and ill treatment but what was done to others, again Shaker Aamer figures prominently, because he was naturally a charismatic, well spoken prisoner and natural leader he was subject to the most severe torture. Andy said that when they came to interview Omar Deghayes he ended up speaking in great detail for around five hours, this being common in some torture survivors, at some point they come out with everything in one go, it’s a significant step and for the film a great strength. Omar is soft spoken, personable and this brings home how essential to the torturers work it has been for the media to dehumanise, vilify and demonise the detainees, to absolutely remove human empathy from any perception of the detainees. This was illustrated by the turnover of guards, they would be rotated out of Gitmo every few months, standard procedure served a function because in that time many guards went from hate filled 911 fetishising bullies into realising they were part of a concentration camp against the very principles they swore to uphold. Empathy must be exterminated at all costs for divide and rule to function. Moazzam Begg is another case in point, even now Decents rallying behind the hysterical (yes I said it) Gita Sahgal continue to harangue survivors of torture eagerly promoted by pro-torture power blocs in media and government. As the events of this week demonstrate, this is not history, this is an ongoing effort by our ruling elites and security complexes to make torture an accepted standard operating procedure, albeit at arms length from mediated narratives of our ‘noble wars’ and the all encompassing excuse of our national security imperatives. As Moazzam and Omar say, they thought once in UK/US hands their ordeal would end, it was then in fact the torture got far worse. Yes folks, that’s us, now just remind me about patriotism?
After the film the Q&A was very useful, Andy’s close coverage of Guantánamo meant he could recall dates and events to draw meaning and direction from the years of official obfuscation and denial, one questioner expressed how powerless they feel to do anything although quite what Barack Obama was doing there no one knows and I’m not sure anyone believed his lack of power. Oh no wait that was actually a regular member of the audience, Obama is President of the United States and has in his power the means to close Guantánamo and instruct the justice department to pursue torturers such as George Bush and Dick Cheney who have openly admitted war crimes in global corporate media, Hmmm. Another conclusion was simply governments do not pursue a previous administration’s crimes, they cover them up. However by the end of the evening a conclusion of- where to now, might go something like this:-
- Campaign and achieve the release of Shaker Aamer
- Build a wide opposition to the ConDems green paper effectively proposing putting security services beyond the law
- Continue pressure to close Guantánamo
- While it is unlikely actual justice will be achieved and all officials and operatives involved in torture will be tried in court there will be weak links, these should be exploited and war criminals brought to trial. My suggestion -Jack Straw.
Andy Worthington and others involved with the film are doing more showings which you can find on his website here.
Do visit the Blue Sky Cafe if you are needing sustenance while wandering the streets of Bangor, dedicated people trying to make it a real hub of community activity and a successful business (also if they make more money they could invest in a swankier sound system which I think would enrich the film showings).
Bangor Peace & Justice (here or FB here) meet every Monday at the Friends Meeting House (map) and on this Sunday 6pm also at the meeting house Rotem Mor an Israeli refusenik & activist will be speaking. And see the Facebook page for the Save Shaker Aamer Campaign.
