Author Archives: bicyclemark

Within Europe, the EU subsidizes a news channel called: Euronews. Whats characteristic of Euronews is that there are no anchors or little people at desks saying “Good morning, Im____ and here’s whats happenning.” Instead, Euronews features reports from the field and that’s it. Often the footage comes from the public media of that country. One excellent segment is called NO COMMENT, where you watch footage from some current event with no comment, just the original sound.

Well, ever since the begining of the US’s invasion of Iraq, Euronews has offered some really unique and un-sensational coverage, and the NO COMMENT segment is always footage from the streets of Basra or Baghdad, etc. Today’s footage showed the people of Baghdad…. piling sandbags in front of their shops draging supplies into their crumbling homes. Perhaps the most striking thing was the age of these people; standing guard with what seemed to be a broken kalishnakov was an old Iraqi man… probably 70 years old.. he seemed alert and determined but scared. So scared. He probably has grandchildren. Some of them may not have survived.. or may not survive this invasion.. and the old man seems to have accepted the responsibility.. to fight in their honor. He probably can’t move very fast, so he has propped himself up against the sandbags. He’s not defending a regime. He’s not defending any man or devil-incarnate. This man is defending his home, his shop, his street, his children. And while it may not fit the American Government’s line of justification and moralization of what they have done in Iraq, it is the truth for many old men in Baghdad. Liberators? This is not the first foreign army to make that claim, these old men do not forget.

Watching these nervous old men… awaiting certain death… a thought re-occurs… how much can be justified? How many lives are “worth it”. How sure are these leaders that there was no other way? How hard did they try to avoid this?

Growing up… you’re taught.. in virtually every society around the world: violence is not the answer. Violence does not solve problems. And this is a universal teaching, violence is not an acceptable method of problem solving.

Yet in the past two weeks, the children of America, and the world, have learned a huge lesson. They’ve learned that violence is a way to solve problems. That it is ok, sometimes, to hurt others if you have good intentions. What a crazy time it must be to be a child.

I think of the school shootings and all the violence is schools, over the past decade, people tried so hard to discover the source of this violence.. they blamed music, videogames, satan, and the favorite – parents. Yet what do they learn now, when they swtich on the TV. What are the leaders of the country telling them… what are their parents doing, marching off to the gulf? They’re teaching them…. that violence is acceptable. That when there is a problem and you can’t find a solution, hurting, killing, bombing, destroying… it is all acceptable.

How difficult it must be to be a parent and have to explain this situation. How difficult it will be to work in a school after such lessons have been taught. How confusing it is to be a child in such an ironic and backwards world.

The following was discussed by Michael Moore at River Side Church in Brooklyn and can be heard at http://www.webactive.com/pacifica/demnow/dn20030328.html … it is the second half of Democracy Now!

Watching the reports on the news… you just keep hearing it over and over…. “This is so-and-so… embedded with the 3rd Marine expeditionary force, reporting for CNN”, “This is joe blow embedded with the 1st infantry…” I’m embedded…. embedded… embedded… inbedded… inbed…. inbed…. I’m in bed with the military… IN BED WITH THE MILITARY! — and that’s basically what you have.. reporters in bed with military. Even the BBC.. a somewhat balanced news source (based on social science research on news coverage) … there was an embedded (READ-IN BEDDED) reporter with the British Army… he looked on as tanks moved forward.. he called it “A beautiful and breathtaking sight….” These are the reports that are supposed to inform the public what’s happenning in the middle east? Beautiful? That’s his job? To cheer on the military? But this is what we have… reporters who get to ride in HumVees and become like children.. can’t you just hear them shouting “WEEEEEEEEEE” as the hang on tight while being driven around by the marines?

Think this is harmless? Who’s job is it to report the truth? Who’s job is it to seek out information that is not readily available…. to question… to evaluate… to criticize… ? Certainly not the military! And definately not the government!

While the western media spends every waking hour showing its viewers US Army approved images of the desert, there are other battles taking place around the world. No, not the “war on terrorism” or even the “war on drugs”… no.. the battle that is being waged now poses the Ijaw people of the Niger-Delta state of Nigeria against Chevron and friends.

The Ijaw live in the state of utter poverty while their land helps Nigeria to be the world’s 8th largest oil producing nation. The people receive no benefits or compensation, while the oil from under them is extracted by Shell, Chevron, TotalFinaElf, and Texaco, helping keep those companies rich, while their river is polluted and most of their people have no access to electricity or proper hostipals. In the past, there have been brave people who have come forward and spoken out against the multi-nationals. In the past, those people have been murdered… by the army… or by the oil companies’ security forces (READ-PARAMILITARY)

Well the tables have turned. Out of frustration and desperation, the Ijaw youths have mobilized and armed themselves, and they’ve told the companies to go to hell. Of course, in the process they’ve entered into conflict with other groups in the region. Nevertheless, they’ve chased Shell and Co. out of the Niger Delta… all operations have been suspended indefinately. Unfortunatelly, in the middle of all this are many displaced people, who like the Ijaw youth, want to benefit from their oil, just as the national government and the rest of the world does. To have clean water, proper homes, hospitals, schools, streets, electricity…. you know, those luxuries that multi-national oil companies don’t believe in.

Somewhere in the headlines today there was this report: “500 Iraqi’s fiercely fighting back against 5,000 Marines”….. 5,000 marines…. with the best equipment money can buy.. with all the training and moral high-ground…. against Iraqi’s that are probably using circa 1970’s kalishnakovs and Toyota trucks as their “armoured” transport. This is a war? NO.. this is an exercise… an exercise in domination and subjugation. A few nations asserting their superiority over smaller nations that have been semi-disarmed, starved and bombed into the stone age. Not war, by any means.

Elsewhere is the headlines…. Prisoners of War! Wierd thing, you never hear what happens to the Iraqi prisoners taken. But man, those American soldiers.. you never hear the end of it! Rumsfeld… or Rommel as he’d prefer to be known….. He was on some mainstream media show reciting his usual “hooray for war” speech.. when he was shown the POW footage. His immediate response was extremely interesting… he said “That’s a total violation of the Geneva Convention.” VIOLATION OF THE GENEVA CONVENTION!!!! Indeed. This is the same man who is responsible for the illegal holding of 600 hundred odd muslim alleged terrorists who have never been charged with a crime and are held in Guantanamo… he says Geneva doesnt apply to them. Well Rommel, you really pick and choose when the rules apply, don’t you?

A slightly smaller headline, equally as telling, Dan Rather… was giving his evening disinformation news, and he refferred to the possibility that iraqi military might set fire to oil wells…. to this possibility he added, ” Of course, we want to try and discourage them from setting fire to the oil wells since we’re going to own the country soon…” THIS IS WHAT HE SAID!! We’re going to own the country! This is the “defender or the public”, the noble “media” that informs people. Well.. he did his job.. he told the truth… the US, if things go its way, will own Iraq.. and its oil wells. Nice job Dan.. you told the truth.