Lenin’s Tomb
On a happier note, murdering bastard Suharto is also dead.
Hurrah!
He was great in Allo, Allo.
am sure there is wild jubilation in jakarta streets just as there were similar scenes in santiago de chile 13 months ago.
I don't think I can handle the inevitable obituaries telling us how Suharto had a "mixed legacy". Explaining that while he murdered hundreds of thousands of innocent Indonesian citizens, he also made Indonesia a thriving Asian economy!
Farewell to GH.
the year of living dangerously...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w...h?
v=w4gZZXK2CiM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=N...feature=related
and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=N...feature=related
I see the BBC, in its commemoration of George Habash, is claiming that
..the PFLP pioneered aircraft hijackings...
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
BBC News Middle East
26 Jan 2008
However, Prof Chomsky begs to differ -
quote]
5. The Canon: Retail Terrorism...
...The first airplane hijacking in the Middle East also falls outside the canon: Israel's hijacking of a Syrian airways civilian jet in 1954, with the intent "to get hostages in order to obtain the release of our prisoners in Damascus," who had been captured on a spy mission in Syria (Prime Minister Moshe Sharett). Sharett accepted the "factual affirmation of the US State Department that our action was without precedent in the history of international practice."
[unquote]
International Terrorism: Image and Reality
In Alexander George (ed.), Western State Terrorism, Routledge,
December, 1991
chomsky.info
all the best LT!
Hijacking - in fact the French Govt were the "pioneers", when they kidnapped leadres of the Algerian resistance. including Ben Bella
My recolection, from a distant and dimly remembered youth is that some of the first hijackings - including one of a train rather than a plane - were by people "escaping to freedom" from Eastern Europe. Of course they were "heroes" and warmly applauded.
Any qualms about murdering civilians, at all?
Habash wasn't the only player in the Israel - Palestine struggle responsible for doing so, of course, but since he's the one getting the "in memoriam" treatment at the moment, it seems a good time to ask.
Or are airline passengers fair game?
The press (with the exception, remarkably, of the New York Times), doing its usual job, studiously ignores mentioning that Habash was a Marxist.
And, in the same vein, studiously ignores the U.S. role in Suharto's brutal reign of terror.
Palestinians Bid Farewell to Al-Hakeem, Dr. George Habash
Umkahlil
27 Jan 2008
Unlike others, Al-Hakeem never saluted a Zionist, never "negotiated" under the Israeli flag, never traded kisses with our people's killers, never knelt before a king, and never stretched a hand in beggary...
...And while the wretched of our people searched for meager pieces of bread and drops of clean water throughout the Gaza Strip and the camps of exile, he did not reside in a palace, nor did he enjoy pay-offs of treason.
Hey Sergio, I think you were mistaken when you said:
Hijacking - in fact the French Govt were the "pioneers", when they kidnapped leadres of the Algerian resistance. including Ben Bella
As I recall the capture of Ben Bella occurred in 1956, while the Israelis captured the Syrian plane and attempted to use the passengers as hostages back in 1954.
That would make the Zionists the real pioneers of hijacking in the mid-east region.
I am not defending either the Zionist entity or French Imperial policy - obviously. Just trying to correct the chronology.
.
.
This is more like it.
Survivors detail Suharto-era massacres
I think Tariq Ali entitled a postscript in the paperback edition of his book "The Clash of Fundamentalism"
with something called "THe Road to Bali". Taken from that Bob Hope film i suspect. Can that article be viewed online anywhere?
i've been reading he died age 80 or 81?
so not sure about the D.O.B.
anyway he will live on.
A propos of nothing in particular, good to see the capitalists providing at last a useful education for the masses...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/educa...ion/
7211958.stm
Yours on the glorious 64th anniversary of the relief of the Hero City of Leningrad
Josef
In ex-Yugoslavia, Tito-era nostalgia
This latest nostalgia should open up some juicy business opportunities.
That fellow with the SFRJ T-Shirt should mass-produce that shirt his wearing - first the production should be moved to some low-wage country to maximise surplus profit of course -and then open a boutique somewhere on Madison Avenue or in Soho.
A spectre haunting europe?
The Left surges ahead in 2 west German states"
With apologies to the memory of George Habash, completely off topic:
Anonymous vs Scientology
Fascinating, if not for what it is at the moment then for the possibilities it hints at...
Funny, too.
More HERE.
Habash gave a wide-ranging interview in 1997, published in the Journal of Palestine Studies , (1998) vol. 28, no. 1, pp. 86-101. I can only find it online via the JSTOR website, which wants $12 for it, for those without a subscription or university connection, so here's some highlights, looking at the past present and future. All verbatim quotes in quotation marks (inc. the interviewers addtions in italics), but rendered into the Queen's English by my spellchecker.
He discusses his experiences during the ethnic cleansing of Palestine, when he was working as a medical assistant in Lydda, where many Arabs fled once driven out of their towns by Zionist militia: (pp. 88-89) “… my mother’s maternal aunt came to the hospital looking for me. She wanted me to return home, saying my mother was worried about me. Of course I refused. Finally she had to tell me that my sister had been killed, my older sister who I loved dearly [he pauses to control himself] . As I rushed through the streets, there was great confusion. Dead and wounded, some of whom I knew, were strewn along the side of the road.
“We buried my sister near our house because we could not get to the cemetery. Three hours later, Jewish fighters stormed the house, screaming “Out! Out! Get out!” My mother and my sister’s children – including a small child we had to carry – ran out, as did other relatives and neighbours. We had no idea where to go, but the Jewish soldiers ordered us to get moving. So we walked. It was a hot day in Ramadan. Some people around us were saying it was the Day of Judgement, others that we were already in Hell. When we reached the outskirts of town, we found a Jewish checkpoint where those leaving were being searched. We had no weapons. But our neighbour’s son, Amin Hanhan, apparently had some money concealed on him and wouldn’t let them search him. A Zionist soldier shot him dead right in front of our eyes. His mother and sister rushed to him, wailing. His brother, Bishara, had been in elementary school with me and we were friends. We used to study and play together … [again he is overcome with emotion].
“You wonder why I have chosen this road, why I became an Arab nationalist. This is what Zionism is about. After all this, they talk about peace. This is the Zionism that I knew, that I saw with my own eyes.”
Discussing Fatah and the peace process (pp. 92-3) he said: “When the bourgeoisie achieves its class objectives, it ceases to fight. What happened was that a certain class fraction, represented now by the Oslo team, believes it has scored an achievement. But what of the masses? What of their interest?
“Look at what has become of the masses. The corruption and co-optation of the Palestinian masses by Fatah constitutes a calamity that boggles the mind. Those same masses who had survived all the wars and the attempts to marginalise and defeat them, that had withstood the Zionist military machine inside and outside the occupied territories are now, after thirty years, despairing and despondent under their bourgeois leadership, due to the undermining of the nationalist achievements and institutions and the stifling of the democracy by the repressive state apparatuses.”
This was his parting thoughts in the interview: (p. 101) “On the basis of what life has taught me, taking the bitter and the sweet together, I am convinced that human history moves in a progressive direction. I say this confidently and hopefully, in spite of all the failures and defeats we have suffered. Despite the bitter struggle between the forces of progress and those of darkness, specifically in the Arab region, I predict that the future belongs to our nation. But hopes, wishes, and dreams alone will not achieve our objectives or bring victory…”
And here’s a nice looking Pop Front mayday poster: http://www.answers.com/topic/pfl...yday2005-jpeg-
1
As I write this, I'm sitting in the suburbs of Melbourne, a block away from "Ramsay St", where they film the soapie Neighbours , on the Australia Day public holiday, commemorating the establishment of the first British colony on the continent. So, I'm sitting and drinking (and listening to Tom Wait's Tom Traubert's Blues) and thinking on what these words mean in a country where I, and the rest of the Arab-Australians are as much Zionists as those cunts who take pride in being descended from the so-called First Fleet... Goodnight George, "and goodnight, Matilda, too..."
RE: Anonymous vs. Scientology,
Here's the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J...h?
v=JCbKv9yiLiQ
"We are anonymous. We are legion." Delivered in a robotic Stephen Hawking voice. Fuck me, that's spooky.
Those excerpts from the interview with Dr Habash are brilliant Raj Decency mate!
Here is the great Umkahlil again, posting an email newsletter from Al-Awda on Dr Habash -
Al-Awda Mourns the Passing of Dr George. Habash
Umkahlil
28 Jan 2008
all the best!
My apologies,
I did mean to post the following regarding more evidence of the pioneering work of Israel in the field of (in)human endeavour.
From Prof Chosmky (who else!)
'The Fateful Triangle: The United States, Israel and the Palestinians'(updated ed. 1999),
Page 127.
On the study done by the London Sunday Times Insight Team (June 19, 1977) on the torture of Arab prisoners by Israel -
'More interesting than the attempt at rebuttal [of the study], however, was the conclusion that torture of Arab by Israelis is legitimate, a position expressed, perhaps not surprisingly, in the New Republic, the semi-official journal of American liberalism, where Seth Kaplan concludes that the question of how a government should treat people under its control "is not susceptible to simple absolutism, such as outright condemnation of torture. One may have to use extreme measures - call them 'torture' - to deal with a terrorist movement whose steady tactic is the taking of human life" [Seth Kaplan, New Republic, July 23, 1977] To my knoweldge this is the first explicit defense of torture to have appeared in the West apart from the ravings of the ultra-right in France during the Algerian War.' [my highlight]
all the best!
here I am on colonially settled land which should not be liberated,talking about a different sort of colonial land occupied by Jews/Zionists.
Habash always got those two a little mixed up.
Habash's idea of liberation was a socialist state where all enjoy the same rights regardless of ethnicity or religion. The difference between a colonial settler state like Australia and one like Israel is that Australia is a little better at pretending that those rights are enjoyed equally. We had a 150 year head start, mind. Nothing to get indecent about, matey.
I don't think I can handle the inevitable obituaries telling us how Suharto had a "mixed legacy". Explaining that while he murdered hundreds of thousands of innocent Indonesian citizens, he also made Indonesia a thriving Asian economy!
Callum, you probably won't enjoy reading this.
"I think it is entirely inappropriate to rank Suharto alongside Sadaam Hussein. There was never anything like the pervasive terror here that existed in Iraq. I in no way wish to diminish the enormous suffering of many Indonesians under his rule."
O/T: there's an interview with Saddam Hussein's FBI interrogator here
FYI, Newsweek had something called 'The Case for Torture' by Michael Levin, a professor of philosophy at City College of New York, on June 7, 1982.
On the whole Australia/Palestine comparison. Indigenous peoples suffer all round the world, but the Palestinians situation is legally unique. They are the only people not allowed to be co-erced into another nationality and at the same time not allowed to have their own. There are no parrallels today.
the Palestinians situation is legally unique. They are the only people not allowed to be co-erced into another nationality and at the same time not allowed to have their own.
Very true. The standard colonial approach is to assimilate indigenous nations into the colonial society at the bottom rung of the class ladder, but grant citizenship if and when they're no longer a threat. This seems to be the approach taken to Israeli Arabs. Exploited third-class citizens to be brutally suppressed if they dare raise their heads, but economically and politically useful...
Oh how Irish refugees would've preferred to be kept in camps by there host countries,until Generations later 100 million had a theoretical right of return.
And Bosnian Muslims ejected from Republika Srpska dream of being kept on the Austrian border.
Not coerced?
Not given the option even if they want it you mean?
do all socialist georges have the same exact face?
It depends who you classify as a socialist. George Papandreou looks very vaguely like that, I suppose, but he's a fairly right-wing cretin. George Bernard Shaw was a socialist of a kind, but he didn't look like that. George Orwell had a little moustache, but there's no close resemblance. I think George Fernandes was once a socialist of some kind, and he's never looked like that. Er, what other Georges are there?
There was Georg Lukacs... He was well on the path to a solidly orthodox Georgian aesthetic
http://www.militantesthetix.co.u.../mic/
lukacs.jpg
but in the end reverted to the George Burns school
http://i53.photobucket.com/album.../
GyrgyLukcs.jpg
How about the two George Bush's - they're hardline socialists who believe in directly intervening in the economy on behalf of their friends and fellow shareholders in Haliburton, Bechtel etc, in order to insulate them from the effects of the capitalist free-market.
In fact, the Bush's also believe in intervening in the economies of other countries, such as Iraq and Afghanistan, in order to provide competition-free markets for American state-subsidised enterprises, such as Bechtel and Haliburton.
How about George Michael - he's into all that commie-pinko gay rights stuff, is he not?
Or how about George Best - one of the most famous Reds there is?
Then of course that inveterant opponent of the given GWF Hegel, who wrote clear concise prose about various important subjects.
How about George Weah - soccer superbrain and reckoned to be the best African player of all time?
Although he did play football for the Rossoneri of Berloslimy's AC Milan, George was a bit of a commie-pinko Red when it came to running for the office of the President of Liberia.
Raj Decency:
Thanks for the excerpts from Journal of Palestine Studies.
How about George Sands - whose savage indictment of the satanic dark mills of middle class English academia defined the late nineteenth century etc etc, as only blokes like her could at the time?
Or how about George Formby - whose savage indictment of the dark satanic cotton mills of working class English Lancashire, on ukulele and banjo, has never been equalled and will be a long time before its ever forgotten, I'll wager?
There's Seinfeld's George Costanza, who pretended to be a Communist sympathiser to get a Cuban player for the Yankees:
http://www.seinfeldscripts.com/T...om/
TheRace.html
GEORGE: You wanted to see me, El Presidente?
CASTRO: Si, si. ... Come here. I understand you are very interested in one of our players, eh?
GEORGE: Si, si.
CASTRO: Ordinarily I would not grant such a request but I've heard you are, uh, how you say, Communista simpatico, eh?
GEORGE: Muy sumpatico. Muy muy muy.
CASTRO: Well good, then you can have your pick.
And he grew a mustache in one episode, though it's Seinfeld who looks a little like a younger Habash: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g...h?
v=gSf2O80brbU
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