Hollywood Filmmaker Wants Americans To Wake Up Before It’s Too Late
Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) October 3, 2006 –-
While billed as necessary tools for the “War on Terror,” the Surveillance and Detainee Treatment bills passed by Congress could have dire implications for Americans who still think they live in the land of the free.
“For the first time in our nation’s history our representatives have just voted for the right to hold you indefinitely in a secret detention facility, put you on trial based on evidence you cannot see and sentence you to death based on hearsay or testimony that has been gathered from torture,” says filmmaker Aaron Russo.
“Subsection 4(b) (26) of section 950v. of HR 6166 claims you can be tried in a military court if you are, ‘Any person subject to this chapter who, in breach of an allegiance or duty to the United States, knowingly and intentionally aids an enemy of the United States, or one of the co-belligerents of the enemy.’ Can you — or anyone you know — define what a ‘co-belligerent’ is? And how do we know who’s been classified as an enemy?”
In his new film America: Freedom To Fascism, Russo uncovers the government’s plan for stolen elections, a police state with a national ID card and ultimately a new world order. “The truth is this country is being forced into fascism by fear and intimidation coming from our own government,” Russo warns. “They are destroying our Constitution and the media isn’t even covering it!”
Because he believes there is little time left before all civil liberties are gone, Russo is making his film available immediately at his website even though it’s just now opening in theaters. Last weekend it received standing ovations and sold out crowds in Denver and Portland and will be opening wider on Friday October 6th in Beverly Hills, Tempe, Tucson, Salt Lake City, Nashville and Dallas.
“We’re at a critical moment in our nation’s history right now,” Russo says. “And if that means I have to take a hit financially, so be it. It’s time to stop being good Democrats. It’s time to stop being good Republicans — and it’s time to start being good Americans. People from all political parties should get the film at FreedomToFascism.com and hold house party screenings before it’s too late. Realize that our government, and that means both political parties, along with war profiteers, want to stifle, intimidate and now eliminate people — and that, we have to stop.”
To schedule an interview with Aaron Russo contact Good Karma Public Relations at 805-653-1588.
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Related Police State Press Releases
Jesse Ventura Talks About Homeland Security “Gestapo,” Hollywood Secrets & More
http://www.prisonplanet.com/ventura-warns-of-homeland-security-gestapo-takeover-of-america.html
In an exclusive new video for Prison Planet.tv subscribers, former Governor Jesse Ventura warns that Homeland Security is rapidly becoming the American Gestapo, as Ventura still fumes over the fact that the feds tried to stop him from filming the JFK memorial at Arlington Cemetery.
Former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura visited Austin, Texas last week to work on the next season of his hit TV show “Conspiracy Theory.” Alex Jones had a chance to catch up with the governor while driving around for the shoot.
While the show is top secret until it airs, Jesse did disclose some of the harassment he and his crew have received during production, including being barred by the Army from filming Kennedy’s eternal flame at Arlington National Cemetery.
When Ventura’s production team attempted to go through the proper channels to get permission to film the JFK memorial, they were refused on the basis that that the Army didn’t like the content of Ventura’s show. They were also lied to when the feds told Ventura that the Kennedy family held jurisdiction over who was allowed to film the memorial, a claim vehemently denied by a Kennedy family spokesman.
Ventura refuses to let the issue drop and is calling for the individual who made the decision to be fired on the basis that he is allowing his personal political viewpoints to interfere with his job.
Duration : 0:14:39
Are We Really One World? German Au Pairs and Cultural Differences
With the rising costs of childcare, American families are hosting au pairs in staggering numbers. There has been an increase in the number of au pairs with nearly 22,000 young women residing in the USA last year, up 44% from 2004! This is a dramatic increase and the trend appears to be growing despite the weak economy.
The French term, au pair, denotes a young woman who “lives as an equal” with her host family. Au pair agencies recruit young women from over 55 countries, with China as the newest “hot” placement for sophisticated American families seeking to expose their children to Mandarin.
Despite global connections between countries and the politcally correct phrase “we are all one world” cultural differences exist across Europe, Asia and South America - top areas au pair agencies recruit from. These cultural differences add flavor and spice to the host family’s year with their au pair and both benefit from cross-cultural experiences.
Knowledge of cultural differences is critical to a host family’s success with their au pair -American behavior may be viewed as rude or insulting to an au pair, and Americans can often misinterpret an au pair’s interactions with their children, etc.
One of the more popular countries that Americans prefer when hosting an au pair is Germany. Let’s take a look at why this is true:
The idea of traveling to the United States to become an au pair is a very familiar concept in Germany. These young women are motivated by several factors including a desire to become more independent, to improve their English skills, and to experience American culture. German youth are fascinated with American music, TV programs, Hollywood stars and movies. In addition, young German women know that a year abroad that improves her English is a significant plus on her resume, greatly increasing her job potential once she returns home. Therefore, the au pair program continues to be a highly popular gap year for young women who usually return to Germany to continue at University. Approximately 37% of all au pairs who arrive in the United States are from Western Europe and 23% of that number are from Germany (although in recent years, that trend seems to be declining).
German Culture
- Young people in Germany have much more freedom from their families to socialize and date compared to their American peers. Socializing with friends is very important and German youth go out to pubs from the early age of 16. If your German au pair likes to go out and socialize, do not misinterpret this as ”party girl” – she will most likely be sitting in a Starbucks talking with other German au pairs or visiting our nation’s famous sights to expand her knowledge of America.
- Curfews are not common and there is generally a relaxed and accepting attitude between parents and their adolescent children.
- German youth are generally open-minded, well mannered and tend to be ambitious regarding their careers.
- Germans take family life very seriously and most German families eat together for all meals, including lunch. Government rules allow all shops and businesses to close each day for from 12 noon to 2 o’clock so the family can come together for lunch. No one is late for meals.
- Germans are very private people and greatly value their time alone. It would not be unusual for your German au pair to keep her door shut while she is on her time “off” and during these times you should make sure the children are not barging in and bothering her. She may interpret this behavior as very rude and intrusive.
Childcare
- Discipline techniques include talking to the child, taking sweets away, taking away television or video privileges, or sending the child to their room.
- Corporal punishment is forbidden in Germany
- German au pairs tend to be highly organized and responsible and catch on quickly to the family’s routine.
- Applicants obtain their childcare experience through formal training (in kindergartens, etc.) and babysitting for friends and family.
- German parents (either mother or father) typically stay home with their young children at least until they are old enough to attend kindergarten. Working at home is very common for German parents.
- Your German au pair will expect the children to treat her with respect, to comply with her instructions and to follow the house rules. Unruly or bad behavior is a sign of disrespect and a child who is overly indulged by parents (with toys, sweets, privileges not earned) is considered spoiled as result of poor or failed parenting.
Driving Skills
- Most West German au pairs are excellent drivers. They receive their license at age 18 and the test is much more demanding and time consuming compared to their American peers. Most driving pupils need 20-30 lessons in order to pass the test and there is an hour practical driving test! If any German fails the test more than 3 times, a psychological test is then required by the state.
- Most parents have a car for the teen to practice on and they support their teenagers in getting the license and becoming good, safe drivers.
- German au pairs are exclusively sought out by host parents for their excellent driving skills making them one of the most popular au pairs.
English Skills – West German Au Pairs get an A+
- English is a compulsory subject at the age of 10, but many children start as early as kindergarten. As a result, German youth have competent English skills with many having no or a very slight German accent.
- German au pairs are popular with host parents for their English skills. Host parents typically expect them to help the children with homework and German au pairs are generally very competent in this area.
- West Germans’ proficiency in English is generally better compared to Germans from East Germany – East Germans get a C- in English!
Health
- Germans are typically very healthy. They have good medical and dental insurance.
- Most young women are not inoculated or tested for TB (tuberculosis).
- Eating disorders are not very common in Germany.
- Most young people in Germany eat meat and lots of vegetables and fresh foods are preferred to fast foods/processed foods. A growing number of German youth are becoming vegetarians and you should ask your au pair if she eats meat.
Religion
- The two most common religions in Germany are Catholic and Protestant
- Most young people in Germany do not practice their religion on a regular basis
Other Useful Information
- Most German families have at least one computer with access to the internet and most young Germans have their own cell phones; contacting prospective au pairs is relatively easy during the interviewing process
- Family members usually speak English and can take messages from you if the au pair is not home which is a great plus for you as a host parent.
- German students end their academic year in June and most of the young women apply to arrive in the USA during the summer months but before our school term starts here in the USA so plan to have your German au pair arrive in early or mid August so she can sign up for fall courses at your local college.
- German au pairs are typically serious students and will expect to sign up for courses immediately upon arrival. German au pairs will expect flexibly from her host parents so she can attend her classes without interruption.
- West Germans are generally more educated, are more experienced drivers and possess better English skills compared to East Germans.
- Generally, German au pairs have less trouble assimilating into American culture and do not generally suffer from culture shock. They genuinely like American culture and look forward to their year abroad.
- Most Germans will not extend beyond the 12 months – they will return home to continue their education, start a business or look for a professional job.
With the growing trend of using au pairs as their #1 childcare option, American families are competing with one and another for au pairs who are responsible, mature, good drivers and who speak good, competent English. German au pairs generally meet all of these criteria while adding old world charm mixed with a youthful and modern perspective. Germans are proud of their culture and are usually delighted with our America experience – a wonderful combination for any host family!
Edina Stone
http://www.articlesbase.com/parenting-articles/are-we-really-one-world-german-au-pairs-and-cultural-differences-712711.html
Are We Really One World? German Au Pairs and Cultural Differences
With the rising costs of childcare, American families are hosting au pairs in staggering numbers. There has been an increase in the number of au pairs with nearly 22,000 young women residing in the USA last year, up 44% from 2004! This is a dramatic increase and the trend appears to be growing despite the weak economy.
The French term, au pair, denotes a young woman who “lives as an equal” with her host family. Au pair agencies recruit young women from over 55 countries, with China as the newest “hot” placement for sophisticated American families seeking to expose their children to Mandarin.
Despite global connections between countries and the politcally correct phrase “we are all one world” cultural differences exist across Europe, Asia and South America - top areas au pair agencies recruit from. These cultural differences add flavor and spice to the host family’s year with their au pair and both benefit from cross-cultural experiences.
Knowledge of cultural differences is critical to a host family’s success with their au pair -American behavior may be viewed as rude or insulting to an au pair, and Americans can often misinterpret an au pair’s interactions with their children, etc.
One of the more popular countries that Americans prefer when hosting an au pair is Germany. Let’s take a look at why this is true:
The idea of traveling to the United States to become an au pair is a very familiar concept in Germany. These young women are motivated by several factors including a desire to become more independent, to improve their English skills, and to experience American culture. German youth are fascinated with American music, TV programs, Hollywood stars and movies. In addition, young German women know that a year abroad that improves her English is a significant plus on her resume, greatly increasing her job potential once she returns home. Therefore, the au pair program continues to be a highly popular gap year for young women who usually return to Germany to continue at University. Approximately 37% of all au pairs who arrive in the United States are from Western Europe and 23% of that number are from Germany (although in recent years, that trend seems to be declining).
German Culture
- Young people in Germany have much more freedom from their families to socialize and date compared to their American peers. Socializing with friends is very important and German youth go out to pubs from the early age of 16. If your German au pair likes to go out and socialize, do not misinterpret this as ”party girl” – she will most likely be sitting in a Starbucks talking with other German au pairs or visiting our nation’s famous sights to expand her knowledge of America.
- Curfews are not common and there is generally a relaxed and accepting attitude between parents and their adolescent children.
- German youth are generally open-minded, well mannered and tend to be ambitious regarding their careers.
- Germans take family life very seriously and most German families eat together for all meals, including lunch. Government rules allow all shops and businesses to close each day for from 12 noon to 2 o’clock so the family can come together for lunch. No one is late for meals.
- Germans are very private people and greatly value their time alone. It would not be unusual for your German au pair to keep her door shut while she is on her time “off” and during these times you should make sure the children are not barging in and bothering her. She may interpret this behavior as very rude and intrusive.
Childcare
- Discipline techniques include talking to the child, taking sweets away, taking away television or video privileges, or sending the child to their room.
- Corporal punishment is forbidden in Germany
- German au pairs tend to be highly organized and responsible and catch on quickly to the family’s routine.
- Applicants obtain their childcare experience through formal training (in kindergartens, etc.) and babysitting for friends and family.
- German parents (either mother or father) typically stay home with their young children at least until they are old enough to attend kindergarten. Working at home is very common for German parents.
- Your German au pair will expect the children to treat her with respect, to comply with her instructions and to follow the house rules. Unruly or bad behavior is a sign of disrespect and a child who is overly indulged by parents (with toys, sweets, privileges not earned) is considered spoiled as result of poor or failed parenting.
Driving Skills
- Most West German au pairs are excellent drivers. They receive their license at age 18 and the test is much more demanding and time consuming compared to their American peers. Most driving pupils need 20-30 lessons in order to pass the test and there is an hour practical driving test! If any German fails the test more than 3 times, a psychological test is then required by the state.
- Most parents have a car for the teen to practice on and they support their teenagers in getting the license and becoming good, safe drivers.
- German au pairs are exclusively sought out by host parents for their excellent driving skills making them one of the most popular au pairs.
English Skills – West German Au Pairs get an A+
- English is a compulsory subject at the age of 10, but many children start as early as kindergarten. As a result, German youth have competent English skills with many having no or a very slight German accent.
- German au pairs are popular with host parents for their English skills. Host parents typically expect them to help the children with homework and German au pairs are generally very competent in this area.
- West Germans’ proficiency in English is generally better compared to Germans from East Germany – East Germans get a C- in English!
Health
- Germans are typically very healthy. They have good medical and dental insurance.
- Most young women are not inoculated or tested for TB (tuberculosis).
- Eating disorders are not very common in Germany.
- Most young people in Germany eat meat and lots of vegetables and fresh foods are preferred to fast foods/processed foods. A growing number of German youth are becoming vegetarians and you should ask your au pair if she eats meat.
Religion
- The two most common religions in Germany are Catholic and Protestant
- Most young people in Germany do not practice their religion on a regular basis
Other Useful Information
- Most German families have at least one computer with access to the internet and most young Germans have their own cell phones; contacting prospective au pairs is relatively easy during the interviewing process
- Family members usually speak English and can take messages from you if the au pair is not home which is a great plus for you as a host parent.
- German students end their academic year in June and most of the young women apply to arrive in the USA during the summer months but before our school term starts here in the USA so plan to have your German au pair arrive in early or mid August so she can sign up for fall courses at your local college.
- German au pairs are typically serious students and will expect to sign up for courses immediately upon arrival. German au pairs will expect flexibly from her host parents so she can attend her classes without interruption.
- West Germans are generally more educated, are more experienced drivers and possess better English skills compared to East Germans.
- Generally, German au pairs have less trouble assimilating into American culture and do not generally suffer from culture shock. They genuinely like American culture and look forward to their year abroad.
- Most Germans will not extend beyond the 12 months – they will return home to continue their education, start a business or look for a professional job.
With the growing trend of using au pairs as their #1 childcare option, American families are competing with one and another for au pairs who are responsible, mature, good drivers and who speak good, competent English. German au pairs generally meet all of these criteria while adding old world charm mixed with a youthful and modern perspective. Germans are proud of their culture and are usually delighted with our America experience – a wonderful combination for any host family!
Edina Stone
http://www.articlesbase.com/parenting-articles/are-we-really-one-world-german-au-pairs-and-cultural-differences-712711.html
Where to eat at Walt Disney World ?
Walt Disney World offers its guests more than 100 different dining options. Formal restaurants, family dining, theme dining, character meals, quick bites and treats from cart vendors are all available throughout Disney’s complex. From mouthwatering steaks to sushi to smoked turkey sandwiches with avocado mayonnaise, dining in Walt Disney World is diverse and delicious. The Florida vacation hot spot continually offers guests culinary choices to please even the most discerning palette.
There are four main theme parks at Walt Disney World. Within each park reside a variety of sit-down restaurants, counter-service restaurants, theme or character dining options and food cart vendors. Several of the best dining options at Disney World are eateries located within the theme parks.
Magic Kingdom
* Cinderella’s Royal Table
Located in Cinderella’s Castle, the “Dreams Come True Dinner” is a recommended dining experience, especially if you have a little princess in your party. This is a character dining experience. Characters that appear may include Cinderella, Fairy Godmother, Prince Charming, Jasmine, Aladdin, Mary Poppins, Peter Pan, Princess Aurora and Snow White.
The dinner meal includes choices of appetizer, entree and dessert as part of a fixed priced meal. Appetizers range from green salad to a delicious corn and crab chowder. The lemon lavender chicken is a recommended entree choice as are the pork chops or cavatappi pasta. For dessert, don’t miss the créme brulée.
* The Crystal Palace
Located on Main Street U.S.A. around the corner from Casey’s Corner, The Crystal Palace has one of the best breakfast buffets in Disney. Make a reservation for this restaurant to share a breakfast buffet experience with the character of Winnie the Pooh. Dine on fluffy eggs, decadent pastries, fresh fruit, Mickey Ear waffles and amazing omelets. The characters including Pooh Bear, Eyeore, Piglet, and Tigger will visit each table and pose for pictures while you eat. The food is outstanding and the atmosphere festive. Breakfast at The Crystal Palace is a great way to start a Disney day.
* Liberty Tree Tavern
To the left of Cinderella’s Castle is the pathway to Liberty Square. In the square is the Liberty Tree Tavern, a great lunch spot serving an amazing New England clam chowder. Visit the Tavern for a hearty lunch of tasty New England pot roast, a juicy Angus cheeseburger or even a flavorful vegetarian potpie. The Ooey Gooey Toffee Cake is recommended for dessert.
Epcot
Epcot is divided into two sections, the World Showcase and Future World, both with many great places to eat. If trying dishes from different countries sounds exciting and delicious, plan several meals in the World Showcase. There are eleven different countries represented serving sit-down meals, quick-bites and some of the tastiest coffee drinks in Epcot. Future World offers an equally eclectic collection of food choices from traditional American burgers to pan-seared Ahi tuna.
* Le Cellier Steakhouse (World Showcase: Canada)
One of the most popular restaurants in Walt Disney World, Le Cellier Steakhouse is one you will need reservations in order to get a table, even for lunch. The atmosphere is warm and the food is extremely hearty and flavorful. For an appetizer, start with the rich Canadian cheddar cheese soup. It is a steakhouse, so a steak is recommended. Excellent choices include the mushroom Filet Mignon and the coffee-rubbed Kansas City Strip Steak. However, for the non-meat eater, the sauteed potato gnocchi is outstanding. For dessert, consider the chocolate “Moose” or the apple-rhubarb crumble.
* The Biergarten Restaurant (World Showcase: Germany)
A festive, family atmosphere, The Biergarten is an all-you-can-eat German buffet served in the Oktoberfest tradition. There is a polka band and guests are encouraged to take a twirl on the dance floor in between feasting on the best German food at Disney. Diners are seated at long tables with other guests so the atmosphere is very friendly. The buffet includes hot and cold offerings as well as amazing pastries and strudels for dessert. For beer lovers there are many German and European choices available. On the buffet, do not miss the sauerbraten, Bavarian cabbage salad, homemade spaetzle, pork roast and baked veal loaf.
* Teppan Edo (World Showcase: Japan)
Miso soup, sushi and Teppan-Yaki entrees are all served around a flattop grill/table combination and cooked to perfection by your personal chef. Kids will love the show the table chef gives as he flips shrimp tails behind his back and creates a steaming volcano out of onion slices. The food is fresh, hot and full of flavor. The atmosphere is relaxing and suitable for couples, families or larger parties.
* Coral Reef (Future World: The Living Seas)
If you are going to eat seafood during a Disney World trip, this is the restaurant to visit. They offer succulent seafood that is fresh and cooked expertly by top chefs. For appetizers the creamy lobster soup and the shrimp and lobster cakes are superb. The blackened catfish served over pepper jack cheese grits is spicy and full of rich flavors but for non-seafood eaters, try the wild mushroom lasagna or the grilled New York Strip Steak. The almond gelato with passion fruit sauce is a dessert favorite.
* Sunshine Season Food Fair (Future World: The Land)
Perfect for lunch, the Food Fair offers items from sandwiches and salads to noodle dishes and pork chops. There is something for everyone and many of the fresh ingredients are grown right there in The Land’s greenhouses.
* Kringla Bakeri og Cafe (World Showcase: Norway)
Viking coffee, espresso and pastries are all recommended at this small counter service stop. This is the perfect place to grab a specialty coffee and treat before Epcot’s evening fireworks display.
Disney Hollywood Studios
* Hollywood Brown Derby
The Brown Derby is located on Hollywood Boulevard across from the giant Mickey Sorcerer’s hat. It serves American food with Hollywood style and is most famous for its Cobb salad. They are open for lunch and dinner but reservations are recommended.
* Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater Restaurant
Eating at this restaurant is like dining at an old-fashioned drive-in that only plays snippets of classic Sci-Fi movies. The table are cars and you dine while the movie clips play. It is a great place to eat with kids. The Rueben is outstanding and the hamburgers are always a hit. Not to be missed is the large and extremely filling ice cream sundae for dessert. It is located on Commissary Lane.
* Toy Story Pizza Planet Arcade
A replica of Pizza Planet from the Toy Story movie, it is a great place for pizza, salads and fun. It is located on the Streets of America across from Muppet Vision 3-D.
Animal Kingdom
* Tusker House
This restaurant located in the Africa area of the park is a lunch and dinner buffet. It features American and African cuisine with dishes like couscous salad, hummus, curry chicken and rotisserie pork loin. The warm banana pudding is excellent for dessert.
Dining in the Resorts
* California Grill
(Contemporary Resort)
Featuring Californian-Asian fusion cuisine, this amazing restaurant is located on the top floor of the Contemporary Resort with one of the best views of the evening’s fireworks from the Magic Kingdom.
* Boma (Animal Kingdom Lodge)
African and American cuisine served buffet style, Boma is a flavorful bounty of delicious foods. Make sure to try the FuFu, mashed sweet and white potatoes spiced with cinnamon and coriander.
* Victoria and Albert’s (Grand Floridian)
This is the ultimate in elegant Disney dining. Victoria and Albert’s is not for a casual family meal or a quick bite before taking in a fireworks display. This fine dining, Disney style. Meal choices include Poulet Rouge, Wild Turbot, lamb, duck and Australian “Kobe” beef tenderloin to name but a few. Reservations are required.
Finding a good place to eat or dine is not difficult when visiting Walt Disney World. Most restaurants and quick-service eateries are participating members of the Disney Dining plan. The Dining Plan can be included in most vacation packages and can save guests about 40 percent on their vacation dining.
It is strongly recommended for guests to make advanced dining reservations at most Disney table service restaurants, Character dining, Dinner Shows, and Grand Gatherings. Reservations can be made by calling (407) 939-3463 (407-WDW-DINE), through your concierge at your Disney Resort hotel, from your in-room telephone by touching 55, or by touching *88 on any Disney World resort pay telephone.
Raj Aryan
Arundhati Roy: Mumbai Was not India’s 9/11
Arundhati Roy: Mumbai was not India’s 9/11
http://www.guardian .co.uk/world/ 2008/dec/ 12/mumbai- arundhati- roy
The Mumbai attacks have been dubbed ‘India’s 9/11′, and there are calls for a 9/11-style response, including an attack on Pakistan. Instead, the country must fight terrorism with justice, or face civil war.
We’ve forfeited the rights to our own tragedies. As the carnage in Mumbai raged on, day after horrible day, our 24-hour news channels informed us that we were watching "India’s 9/11". Like actors in a Bollywood rip-off of an old Hollywood film, we’re expected to play our parts and say our lines, even though we know it’s all been said and done before.
As tension in the region builds, US Senator John McCain has warned Pakistan that if it didn’t act fast to arrest the "Bad Guys" he had personal information that India would launch air strikes on "terrorist camps" in Pakistan and that Washington could do nothing because Mumbai was India’s 9/11.
But November isn’t September, 2008 isn’t 2001, Pakistan isn’t Afghanistan and India isn’t America. So perhaps we should reclaim our tragedy and pick through the debris with our own brains and our own broken hearts so that we can arrive at our own conclusions.
It’s odd how in the last week of November thousands of people in Kashmir supervised by thousands of Indian troops lined up to cast their vote, while the richest quarters of India’s richest city ended up looking like war-torn Kupwara – one of Kashmir’s most ravaged districts.
The Mumbai attacks are only the most recent of a spate of terrorist attacks on Indian towns and cities this year. Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Delhi, Guwahati, Jaipur and Malegaon have all seen serial bomb blasts in which hundreds of ordinary people have been killed and wounded. If the police are right about the people they have arrested as suspects, both Hindu and Muslim, all Indian nationals, it obviously indicates that something’s going very badly wrong in this country.
If you were watching television you may not have heard that ordinary people too died in Mumbai. They were mowed down in a busy railway station and a public hospital. The terrorists did not distinguish between poor and rich. They killed both with equal cold-bloodedness. The Indian media, however, was transfixed by the rising tide of horror that breached the glittering barricades of India Shining and spread its stench in the marbled lobbies and crystal ballrooms of two incredibly luxurious hotels and a small Jewish centre.
We’re told one of these hotels is an icon of the city of Mumbai. That’s absolutely true. It’s an icon of the easy, obscene injustice that ordinary Indians endure every day. On a day when the newspapers were full of moving obituaries by beautiful people about the hotel rooms they had stayed in, the gourmet restaurants they loved (ironically one was called Kandahar), and the staff who served them, a small box on the top left-hand corner in the inner pages of a national newspaper (sponsored by a pizza company I think) said "Hungry, kya?" (Hungry eh?). It then, with the best of intentions I’m sure, informed its readers that on the international hunger index, India ranked below Sudan and Somalia. But of course this isn’t that war. That one’s still being fought in the Dalit bastis of our villages, on the banks of the Narmada and the Koel Karo rivers; in the rubber estate in Chengara; in the villages of Nandigram, Singur, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa, Lalgarh in West Bengal and the slums and shantytowns of our gigantic cities.
That war isn’t on TV. Yet. So maybe, like everyone else, we should deal with the one that is.
There is a fierce, unforgiving fault-line that runs through the contemporary discourse on terrorism. On one side (let’s call it Side A) are those who see terrorism, especially "Islamist" terrorism, as a hateful, insane scourge that spins on its own axis, in its own orbit and has nothing to do with the world around it, nothing to do with history, geography or economics. Therefore, Side A says, to try and place it in a political context, or even try to understand it, amounts to justifying it and is a crime in itself.
Side B believes that though nothing can ever excuse or justify terrorism, it exists in a particular time, place and political context, and to refuse to see that will only aggravate the problem and put more and more people in harm’s way. Which is a crime in itself.
The sayings of Hafiz Saeed, who founded the Lashkar-e-Taiba (Army of the Pure) in 1990 and who belongs to the hardline Salafi tradition of Islam, certainly bolsters the case of Side A. Hafiz Saeed approves of suicide bombing, hates Jews, Shias and Democracy and believes that jihad should be waged until Islam, his Islam, rules the world. Among the things he said are: "There cannot be any peace while India remains intact. Cut them, cut them so much that they kneel before you and ask for mercy."
And: "India has shown us this path. We would like to give India a tit-for-tat response and reciprocate in the same way by killing the Hindus, just like it is killing the Muslims in Kashmir."
But where would Side A accommodate the sayings of Babu Bajrangi of Ahmedabad, India, who sees himself as a democrat, not a terrorist? He was one of the major lynchpins of the 2002 Gujarat genocide and has said (on camera): "We didn’t spare a single Muslim shop, we set everything on fire … we hacked, burned, set on fire … we believe in setting them on fire because these bastards don’t want to be cremated, they’re afraid of it … I have just one last wish … let me be sentenced to death … I don’t care if I’m hanged … just give me two days before my hanging and I will go and have a field day in Juhapura where seven or eight lakhs [seven or eight hundred thousand] of these people stay … I will finish them off … let a few more of them die … at least 25,000 to 50,000 should die."
And where, in Side A’s scheme of things, would we place the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh bible, We, or, Our Nationhood Defined by MS Golwalkar, who became head of the RSS in 1944. It says: "Ever since that evil day, when Moslems first landed in Hindustan, right up to the present moment, the Hindu Nation has been gallantly fighting on to take on these despoilers. The Race Spirit has been awakening."
Or: "To keep up the purity of its race and culture, Germany shocked the world by her purging the country of the Semitic races – the Jews. Race pride at its highest has been manifested here … a good lesson for us in Hindustan to learn and profit by."
(Of course Muslims are not the only people in the gun sights of the Hindu right. Dalits have been consistently targeted. Recently in Kandhamal in Orissa, Christians were the target of two and a half months of violence which left more than 40 dead. Forty thousand people have been driven from their homes, half of who now live in refugee camps.)
All these years Hafiz Saeed has lived the life of a respectable man in Lahore as the head of the Jamaat-ud Daawa, which many believe is a front organization for the Lashkar-e-Taiba. He continues to recruit young boys for his own bigoted jehad with his twisted, fiery sermons. On December 11 the UN imposed sanctions on the Jammat-ud-Daawa. The Pakistani government succumbed to international pressure and put Hafiz Saeed under house arrest. Babu Bajrangi, however, is out on bail and lives the life of a respectable man in Gujarat. A couple of years after the genocide he left the VHP to join the Shiv Sena. Narendra Modi, Bajrangi’s former mentor, is still the chief minister of Gujarat. So the man who presided over the Gujarat genocide was re-elected twice, and is deeply respected by India’s biggest corporate houses, Reliance and Tata.
Suhel Seth, a TV impresario and corporate spokesperson, recently said: "Modi is God." The policemen who supervised and sometimes even assisted the rampaging Hindu mobs in Gujarat have been rewarded and promoted. The RSS has 45,000 branches, its own range of charities and 7 million volunteers preaching its doctrine of hate across India. They include Narendra Modi, but also former prime minister AB Vajpayee, current leader of the opposition LK Advani, and a host of other senior politicians, bureaucrats and police and intelligence officers.
If that’s not enough to complicate our picture of secular democracy, we should place on record that there are plenty of Muslim organisations within India preaching their own narrow bigotry.
So, on balance, if I had to choose between Side A and Side B, I’d pick Side B. We need context. Always.
In this nuclear subcontinent that context is partition. The Radcliffe Line, which separated India and Pakistan and tore through states, districts, villages, fields, communities, water systems, homes and families, was drawn virtually overnight. It was Britain’s final, parting kick to us. Partition triggered the massacre of more than a million people and the largest migration of a human population in contemporary history. Eight million people, Hindus fleeing the new Pakistan, Muslims fleeing the new kind of India left their homes with nothing but the clothes on their backs.
Each of those people carries and passes down a story of unimaginable pain, hate, horror but yearning too. That wound, those torn but still unsevered muscles, that blood and those splintered bones still lock us together in a close embrace of hatred, terrifying familiarity but also love. It has left Kashmir trapped in a nightmare from which it can’t seem to emerge, a nightmare that has claimed more than 60,000 lives. Pakistan, the Land of the Pure, became an Islamic Republic, and then, very quickly a corrupt, violent military state, openly intolerant of other faiths. India on the other hand declared herself an inclusive, secular democracy. It was a magnificent undertaking, but Babu Bajrangi’s predecessors had been hard at work since the 1920s, dripping poison into India’s bloodstream, undermining that idea of India even before it was born.
By 1990 they were ready to make a bid for power. In 1992 Hindu mobs exhorted by LK Advani stormed the Babri Masjid and demolished it. By 1998 the BJP was in power at the centre. The US war on terror put the wind in their sails. It allowed them to do exactly as they pleased, even to commit genocide and then present their fascism as a legitimate form of chaotic democracy. This happened at a time when India had opened its huge market to international finance and it was in the interests of international corporations and the media houses they owned to project it as a country that could do no wrong. That gave Hindu nationalists all the impetus and the impunity they needed.
This, then, is the larger historical context of terrorism in the subcontinent and of the Mumbai attacks. It shouldn’t surprise us that Hafiz Saeed of the Lashkar-e-Taiba is from Shimla (India) and LK Advani of the Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh is from Sindh (Pakistan).
In much the same way as it did after the 2001 parliament attack, the 2002 burning of the Sabarmati Express and the 2007 bombing of the Samjhauta Express, the government of India announced that it has "incontrovertible" evidence that the Lashkar-e-Taiba backed by Pakistan’s ISI was behind the Mumbai strikes. The Lashkar has denied involvement, but remains the prime accused. According to the police and intelligence agencies the Lashkar operates in India through an organisation called the Indian Mujahideen. Two Indian nationals, Sheikh Mukhtar Ahmed, a Special Police Officer working for the Jammu and Kashmir police, and Tausif Rehman, a resident of Kolkata in West Bengal, have been arrested in connection with the Mumbai attacks.
So already the neat accusation against Pakistan is getting a little messy. Almost always, when these stories unspool, they reveal a complicated global network of foot soldiers, trainers, recruiters, middlemen and undercover intelligence and counter-intelligenc e operatives working not just on both sides of the India-Pakistan border, but in several countries simultaneously. In today’s world, trying to pin down the provenance of a terrorist strike and isolate it within the borders of a single nation state is very much like trying to pin down the provenance of corporate money. It’s almost impossible.
In circumstances like these, air strikes to "take out" terrorist camps may take out the camps, but certainly will not "take out" the terrorists. Neither will war. (Also, in our bid for the moral high ground, let’s try not to forget that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the LTTE of neighbouring Sri Lanka, one of the world’s most deadly terrorist groups, were trained by the Indian army.)
Thanks largely to the part it was forced to play as America’s ally first in its war in support of the Afghan Islamists and then in its war against them, Pakistan, whose territory is reeling under these contradictions, is careening towards civil war. As recruiting agents for America’s jihad against the Soviet Union, it was the job of the Pakistan army and the ISI to nurture and channel funds to Islamic fundamentalist organizations. Having wired up these Frankensteins and released them into the world, the US expected it could rein them in like pet mastiffs whenever it wanted to.
Certainly it did not expect them to come calling in heart of the Homeland on September 11. So once again, Afghanistan had to be violently remade. Now the debris of a re-ravaged Afghanistan has washed up on Pakistan’s borders. Nobody, least of all the Pakistan government, denies that it is presiding over a country that is threatening to implode. The terrorist training camps, the fire-breathing mullahs and the maniacs who believe that Islam will, or should, rule the world is mostly the detritus of two Afghan wars. Their ire rains down on the Pakistan government and Pakistani civilians as much, if not more than it does on India.
If at this point India decides to go to war perhaps the descent of the whole region into chaos will be complete. The debris of a bankrupt, destroyed Pakistan will wash up on India’s shores, endangering us as never before. If Pakistan collapses, we can look forward to having millions of "non-state actors" with an arsenal of nuclear weapons at their disposal as neighbours. It’s hard to understand why those who steer India’s ship are so keen to replicate Pakistan’s mistakes and call damnation upon this country by inviting the United States to further meddle clumsily and dangerously in our extremely complicated affairs. A superpower never has allies. It only has agents.
On the plus side, the advantage of going to war is that it’s the best way for India to avoid facing up to the serious trouble building on our home front. The Mumbai attacks were broadcast live (and exclusive!) on all or most of our 67 24-hour news channels and god knows how many international ones. TV anchors in their studios and journalists at "ground zero" kept up an endless stream of excited commentary. Over three days and three nights we watched in disbelief as a small group of very young men armed with guns and gadgets exposed the powerlessness of the police, the elite National Security Guard and the marine commandos of this supposedly mighty, nuclear-powered nation.
While they did this they indiscriminately massacred unarmed people, in railway stations, hospitals and luxury hotels, unmindful of their class, caste, religion or nationality. (Part of the helplessness of the security forces had to do with having to worry about hostages. In other situations, in Kashmir for example, their tactics are not so sensitive. Whole buildings are blown up. Human shields are used. The U.S and Israeli armies don’t hesitate to send cruise missiles into buildings and drop daisy cutters on wedding parties in Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan. ) But this was different. And it was on TV.
The boy-terrorists’ nonchalant willingness to kill – and be killed – mesmerised their international audience. They delivered something different from the usual diet of suicide bombings and missile attacks that people have grown inured to on the news. Here was something new. Die Hard 25. The gruesome performance went on and on. TV ratings soared. Ask any television magnate or corporate advertiser who measures broadcast time in seconds, not minutes, what that’s worth.
Eventually the killers died and died hard, all but one. (Perhaps, in the chaos, some escaped. We may never know.) Throughout the standoff the terrorists made no demands and expressed no desire to negotiate. Their purpose was to kill people and inflict as much damage as they could before they were killed themselves. They left us completely bewildered. When we say "nothing can justify terrorism", what most of us mean is that nothing can justify the taking of human life. We say this because we respect life, because we think it’s precious. So what are we to make of those who care nothing for life, not even their own? The truth is that we have no idea what to make of them, because we can sense that even before they’ve died, they’ve journeyed to another world where we cannot reach them.
One TV channel (India TV) broadcast a phone conversation with one of the attackers, who called himself Imran Babar. I cannot vouch for the veracity of the conversation, but the things he talked about were the things contained in the "terror emails" that were sent out before several other bomb attacks in India. Things we don’t want to talk about any more: the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992, the genocidal slaughter of Muslims in Gujarat in 2002, the brutal repression in Kashmir. "You’re surrounded," the anchor told him. "You are definitely going to die. Why don’t you surrender?"
"We die every day," he replied in a strange, mechanical way. "It’s better to live one day as a lion and then die this way." He didn’t seem to want to change the world. He just seemed to want to take it down with him.
If the men were indeed members of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, why didn’t it matter to them that a large number of their victims were Muslim, or that their action was likely to result in a severe backlash against the Muslim community in India whose rights they claim to be fighting for? Terrorism is a heartless ideology, and like most ideologies that have their eye on the Big Picture, individuals don’t figure in their calculations except as collateral damage. It has always been a part of and often even the aim of terrorist strategy to exacerbate a bad situation in order to expose hidden faultlines. The blood of "martyrs" irrigates terrorism. Hindu terrorists need dead Hindus, Communist terrorists need dead proletarians, Islamist terrorists need dead Muslims. The dead become the demonstration, the proof of victimhood, which is central to the project. A single act of terrorism is not in itself meant to achieve military victory; at best it is meant to be a catalyst that triggers something else, something much larger than itself, a tectonic shift, a realignment. The act itself is theatre, spectacle and symbolism, and today, the stage on which it pirouettes and performs its acts of bestiality is Live TV. Even as the attack was being condemned by TV anchors, the effectiveness of the terror strikes were being magnified a thousandfold by TV broadcasts.
Through the endless hours of analysis and the endless op-ed essays, in India at least there has been very little mention of the elephants in the room: Kashmir, Gujarat and the demolition of the Babri Masjid. Instead we had retired diplomats and strategic experts debate the pros and cons of a war against Pakistan. We had the rich threatening not to pay their taxes unless their security was guaranteed (is it alright for the poor to remain unprotected? ). We had people suggest that the government step down and each state in India be handed over to a separate corporation. We had the death of former prime minster VP Singh, the hero of Dalits and lower castes and villain of Upper caste Hindus pass without a mention.
We had Suketu Mehta, author of Maximum City and co-writer of the Bollywood film Mission Kashmir, give us his version of George Bush’s famous "Why they hate us" speech. His analysis of why religious bigots, both Hindu and Muslim hate Mumbai: "Perhaps because Mumbai stands for lucre, profane dreams and an indiscriminate openness." His prescription: "The best answer to the terrorists is to dream bigger, make even more money, and visit Mumbai more than ever." Didn’t George Bush ask Americans to go out and shop after 9/11? Ah yes. 9/11, the day we can’t seem to get away from.
Though one chapter of horror in Mumbai has ended, another might have just begun. Day after day, a powerful, vociferous section of the Indian elite, goaded by marauding TV anchors who make Fox News look almost radical and leftwing, have taken to mindlessly attacking politicians, all politicians, glorifying the police and the army and virtually asking for a police state. It isn’t surprising that those who have grown plump on the pickings of democracy (such as it is) should now be calling for a police state. The era of "pickings" is long gone. We’re now in the era of Grabbing by Force, and democracy has a terrible habit of getting in the way.
Dangerous, stupid television flashcards like the Police are Good Politicians are Bad/Chief Executives are Good Chief Ministers are Bad/Army is Good Government is Bad/ India is Good Pakistan is Bad are being bandied about by TV channels that have already whipped their viewers into a state of almost uncontrollable hysteria.
Tragically, this regression into intellectual infancy comes at a time when people in India were beginning to see that in the business of terrorism, victims and perpetrators sometimes exchange roles. It’s an understanding that the people of Kashmir, given their dreadful experiences of the last 20 years, have honed to an exquisite art. On the mainland we’re still learning. (If Kashmir won’t willingly integrate into India, it’s beginning to look as though India will integrate/disintegr ate into Kashmir.)
It was after the 2001 parliament attack that the first serious questions began to be raised. A campaign by a group of lawyers and activists exposed how innocent people had been framed by the police and the press, how evidence was fabricated, how witnesses lied, how due process had been criminally violated at every stage of the investigation. Eventually the courts acquitted two out of the four accused, including SAR Geelani, the man whom the police claimed was the mastermind of the operation. A third, Showkat Guru, was acquitted of all the charges brought against him but was then convicted for a fresh, comparatively minor offence. The supreme court upheld the death sentence of another of the accused, Mohammad Afzal. In its judgment the court acknowledged there was no proof that Mohammed Afzal belonged to any terrorist group, but went on to say, quite shockingly, "The collective conscience of the society will only be satisfied if capital punishment is awarded to the offender." Even today we don’t really know who the terrorists that attacked the Indian parliament were and who they worked for.
More recently, on September 19 this year, we had the controversial "encounter" at Batla House in Jamia Nagar, Delhi, where the Special Cell of the Delhi police gunned down two Muslim students in their rented flat under seriously questionable circumstances, claiming that they were responsible for serial bombings in Delhi, Jaipur and Ahmedabad in 2008. An assistant commissioner of Police, Mohan Chand Sharma, who played a key role in the parliament attack investigation, lost his life as well. He was one of India’s many "encounter specialists" known and rewarded for having summarily executed several "terrorists" . There was an outcry against the Special Cell from a spectrum of people, ranging from eyewitnesses in the local community to senior Congress Party leaders, students, journalists, lawyers, academics and activists all of whom demanded a judicial inquiry into the incident. In response, the BJP and LK Advani lauded Mohan Chand Sharma as a "Braveheart" and launched a concerted campaign in which they targeted those who had dared to question the integrity of the police, saying it was "suicidal" and calling them "anti-national" . Of course there has been no inquiry.
Only days after the Batla House event, another story about "terrorists" surfaced in the news. In a report submitted to a sessions court, the CBI said that a team from Delhi’s Special Cell (the same team that led the Batla House encounter, including Mohan Chand Sharma) had abducted two innocent men, Irshad Ali and Moarif Qamar, in December 2005, planted 2kg of RDX and two pistols on them and then arrested them as "terrorists" who belonged to Al Badr (which operates out of Kashmir). Ali and Qamar who have spent years in jail, are only two examples out of hundreds of Muslims who have been similarly jailed, tortured and even killed on false charges.
This pattern changed in October 2008 when Maharashtra’ s Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) that was investigating the September 2008 Malegaon blasts arrested a Hindu preacher Sadhvi Pragya, a self-styled God man Swami Dayanand Pande and Lt Col Purohit, a serving officer of the Indian Army. All the arrested belong to Hindu Nationalist organizations including a Hindu Supremacist group called Abhinav Bharat. The Shiv Sena, the BJP and the RSS condemned the Maharashtra ATS, and vilified its chief, Hemant Karkare, claiming he was part of a political conspiracy and declaring that "Hindus could not be terrorists". LK Advani changed his mind about his policy on the police and made rabble rousing speeches to huge gatherings in which he denounced the ATS for daring to cast aspersions on holy men and women.
On the November 25 newspapers reported that the ATS was investigating the high profile VHP Chief Pravin Togadia’s possible role in the Malegaon blasts. The next day, in an extraordinary twist of fate, Hemant Karkare was killed in the Mumbai Attacks. The chances are that the new chief whoever he is, will find it hard to withstand the political pressure that is bound to be brought on him over the Malegaon investigation.
While the Sangh Parivar does not seem to have come to a final decision over whether or not it is anti-national and suicidal to question the police, Arnab Goswami, anchorperson of Times Now television, has stepped up to the plate. He has taken to naming, demonising and openly heckling people who have dared to question the integrity of the police and armed forces. My name and the name of the well-known lawyer Prashant Bhushan have come up several times. At one point, while interviewing a former police officer, Arnab Goswami turned to camera: "Arundhati Roy and Prashant Bhushan," he said, "I hope you are watching this. We think you are disgusting." For a TV anchor to do this in an atmosphere as charged and as frenzied as the one that prevails today, amounts to incitement as well as threat, and would probably in different circumstances have cost a journalist his or her job.
So according to a man aspiring to be the next prime minister of India, and another who is the public face of a mainstream TV channel, citizens have no right to raise questions about the police. This in a country with a shadowy history of suspicious terror attacks, murky investigations, and fake "encounters" . This in a country that boasts of the highest number of custodial deaths in the world and yet refuses to ratify the International Covenant on Torture. A country where the ones who make it to torture chambers are the lucky ones because at least they’ve escaped being "encountered" by our Encounter Specialists. A country where the line between the Underworld and the Encounter Specialists virtually does not exist.
How should those of us whose hearts have been sickened by the knowledge of all of this view the Mumbai attacks, and what are we to do about them? There are those who point out that US strategy has been successful inasmuch as the United States has not suffered a major attack on its home ground since 9/11. However, some would say that what America is suffering now is far worse. If the idea behind the 9/11 terror attacks was to goad America into showing its true colors, what greater success could the terrorists have asked for? The US army is bogged down in two unwinnable wars, which have made the United States the most hated country in the world. Those wars have contributed greatly to the unraveling of the American economy and who knows, perhaps eventually the American empire. (Could it be that battered, bombed Afghanistan, the graveyard of the Soviet Union, will be the undoing of this one too?) Hundreds of thousands people including thousands of American soldiers have lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan. The frequency of terrorist strikes on U.S allies/agents (including India) and U.S interests in the rest of the world has increased dramatically since 9/11. George Bush, the man who led the US response to 9/11 is a despised figure not just internationally, but also by his own people. Who can possibly claim that the United States is winning the war on terror?
Homeland Security has cost the US government billions of dollars. Few countries, certainly not India, can afford that sort of price tag. But even if we could, the fact is that this vast homeland of ours cannot be secured or policed in the way the United States has been. It’s not that kind of homeland. We have a hostile nuclear weapons state that is slowly spinning out of control as a neighbour, we have a military occupation in Kashmir and a shamefully persecuted, impoverished minority of more than 150 million Muslims who are being targeted as a community and pushed to the wall, whose young see no justice on the horizon, and who, were they to totally lose hope and radicalise, end up as a threat not just to India, but to the whole world. If ten men can hold off the NSG commandos, and the police for three days, and if it takes half a million soldiers to hold down the Kashmir valley, do the math. What kind of Homeland Security can secure India?
Nor for that matter will any other quick fix. Anti-terrorism laws are not meant for terrorists; they’re for people that governments don’t like. That’s why they have a conviction rate of less than 2%. They’re just a means of putting inconvenient people away without bail for a long time and eventually letting them go. Terrorists like those who attacked Mumbai are hardly likely to be deterred by the prospect of being refused bail or being sentenced to death. It’s what they want.
What we’re experiencing now is blowback, the cumulative result of decades of quick fixes and dirty deeds. The carpet’s squelching under our feet.
The only way to contain (it would be naïve to say end) terrorism is to look at the monster in the mirror. We’re standing at a fork in the road. One sign says Justice, the other Civil War. There’s no third sign and there’s no going back. Choose.
MUHAMMAD SHAKEER KS
http://www.articlesbase.com/news-and-society-articles/arundhati-roy-mumbai-was-not-indias-911-711720.html
Churchill, His Conservatism and Freedom
Churchill was the 20th century’s most influential person, because he personified, defended, and extended the franchise of the orthodox Anglo-Saxon inspired [big L] Liberal-Parliamentary order. Yet his lessons, attitudes and beliefs are already forgotten. In this sense he was indeed the last of the ‘Conservatives’.
The Liberal-Parliamentary order is not the ‘end of history’ but merely the most successful method of organising society yet developed. But we need to clarify some terms. First big L ‘Liberal’ in my usage does not mean the sick modern small l liberalism of left wing Marxists and chattering media elites with their empty headed politically correct rhetoric and matchless support of corrupt political friends. ‘Liberal’ in my vocabulary references the orthodox Enlightenment based Liberalism of the 18th and 19th centuries – small government, low taxation, a strong military, a society keen on progress, innovation and self-reliance. In essence these ideals are branded in today’s parlance by the term ‘Conservative’ used as a pejorative by the weak-minded and power hungry. I in no way support the modern welfare or mommy-state as espoused by small l liberalism or the legal-gay-feminist axis that runs roughshod in today’s politics. Neither would or did Churchill.
Second I use ‘parliamentary order’ on purpose. I am not a big fan of ‘mass democracy’ which in my view leads to mob rule, socialist pandering to buy votes and widespread ignorance. Representative parliamentary and republican processes and institutions are necessary for society to develop. ‘Parliamentary order’ references legal, political, and systemic processes that allow a society to progress morally, spiritually, legally, economically and militarily. When politicians blather about mass democracy I have the suspicion that few know what they are talking about and that even fewer understand that it is systemic processes [as opposed to an all knowing liberal elite, educated at Ivy League schools reshaping society in their vanity], and institutions which are far surer guides to progress, then vacant rhetoric about mass democratic mob rule. In any event mass democracy has led not only to the emasculation of systemic processes and virtues but also to the establishment of a massive system of welfare and vote-buying which breaks society apart into little groups that must be catered to and bought. Mass democracy leads in short to corruption and the curtailment of freedom.
In contradistinction to what we have today, orthodox Liberals or Conservatives in the common parlance believe that systemic processes, virtues and respect for individual rights and private property ownership trump socialist vote buying and pandering to ‘rights’ groups. Churchill was one of the great defenders of systemic Conservative human progress based on orthodox Liberal ideas. This creed is premised on millennia of experiences, millions of social, economic and moral transactions and the affirmation that collective results premised on freedom of information and the accumulation of literally billions of decisions, coupled with parliamentary institutions, are far better guides to enlightenment and progress than following the utopian dreams and dictums of a self-appointed and self-absorbed corrupted elite who desire to create the mommy-state to accrete power and control.
In the age of fascist Islam, moral equivalency, United Nations corruption and support of illiberal forces, and the sad moral relativity embedded in socialist governance, there is no guarantee that freedom will survive. Churchill embodied the best spirit and hopes of mankind precisely because he defended the Conservative order and view of the world. He expressed clearly and consistently over a 60 year career in politics the belief that systemic and parliamentary forces are the only methods to move society forward in the right direction. Such forces are of course the most reliable means of increasing wealth, justice and morality for all. Though an aristocrat Churchill understood that the Conservative vision – which is so at odds with the modern welfare liberalism and mommy-state creations we have today in the West – was the only path to ensure societal dynamism and freedom for the mass. He also understood that international institutions are limited and that fascism is not reduced by endless jawing and discussions, but only through war.
Many however disagree. Hollywood airheads, pop singers, social-reductionists, leftist’s, Marxists, academics, and defender’s of the Third World’s self induced malaise, these critics and more descry Conservatism, Western history and Enlightenment ideals as being little more than white racist tripe. Such groups hate a man like Churchill who was full of pomp, addicted to empire and war, too manly, and incomprehensibly ignorant in dealing with modern socio-political issues – or so such groups claim. These criticisms take aim at Churchill’s policies; the fact that he was a white Anglo; his aristocratic lineage; his fondness for military affairs to defend empire and civilisation; his penchant for self promotion; his [admittedly] indefensible objection to India’s self-rule; and the politician’s flair for changing goals and objectives in order to succour election. Most of these critics contend that history is shaped by dialectical forces that overwhelm weak human leadership and initiative and in that regard Churchill was not brilliant but only lucky. They maintain that Churchill only rode the ‘tide’ of events and that any thinking politician did or would have done the same. One can analyse these criticisms and perhaps give them fair play but in general they are pathetic, insipid and largely worthless.
Freedom and liberty is a difficult concept to fully comprehend and defend – but they are not premised on ‘dialectical theories’ or luck. In the West it is simply taken for granted that freedom will flourish. There should be a debate however on how free people really are in the mommy-state creations of the 21rst century where tax, spend and programs of all sizes erupt yearly from self aggrandizing bureaucrats and officials. The more government power that we have, the less likely it is that prosperity will march on in a linear progression. The more mommy-state programs that are implemented the less reliable past systemic virtues, institutions and processes become. In the mommy-welfare state Conservative and systemic institutional ideals fade into irrelevance as history is rewritten and codes of conduct reshaped.
Though many people still live in poverty, filth, corrupt kleptocracies and desperation, to quote Churchill, ‘their liberation is sure.’ However, it will only be ‘sure’ if the current system of nation state and international governance does not mutate into anti-Western, anti-republican, or anti-parliamentary socialism and we defeat militant fascist pagan Islam in the Middle East and anywhere else it presents itself. These twin threats are very real. Many Western nations in the world that profess a faith in ‘orthodox liberalism’ are in reality top-down socialist constructs. Unsurprisingly most of these nations are also lax or non-participants in the war on terror against the fascistic elements of Islam preferring to free-ride off the Anglo-Saxon military. There is no evidence in history that socialism is a moral or successful construct yet it has sadly become the de-facto standard of political organisation.
In many countries socialist dogma has little in common with freedom, or what allowed the West to flourish and control history. For instance national defence, projectionable military force and pride in our collective Western greatness and historical dynamism have been jettisoned to establish immoral international or ‘post-modern’ groups, replete with unaccountable and expensive Orwellian programs and double-talk. We have replaced the philosophies of Churchill with the smirking incoherence of ‘mommy figures’ and immoral liars and centralists like Kofi Annan, Clinton and Chirac. The threat to Western freedom lies not only in fascist Islam, but in the oppressive socialism marked by post-modern welfare states, ‘managed’ trade, overbearing government, corrupt politicians and the imposition of the mommy-nanny state to turn individuals into narcissistic automatons and men into half female creatures unable to think and act like their forbears.
The values that Churchill stood for and defended, and in some sense allowed to survive and flourish, are under attack. Freedom is ephemeral and in mankind’s long journey only the late modern era has unshackled the average person’s life from tyranny. Socialism, government control, state managed trade, tariffs, regulations and unaccountable world bodies are as much of a threat to our prosperity – economic, moral, environmental and spiritual – as is pagan fascist Islamic fundamentalism. I hope we can all learn a lesson from one of mankind’s more interesting personalities and not take for granted what we have today and roll back the corrosive tides of socialist and fascistic tyranny. If we fail we deserve our fate. If we don’t understand history and realise that the fascist and illiberal ideas of the 1930s have indeed resurfaced in Islam and in small l liberalism than we truly are, as Churchill said about the human race, ‘un-teachable from infancy to the tomb.’ Unfortunately it may come to pass that Churchill was indeed the last of the Conservatives as the world falls prey to eco-fascist cults; post modern socialist silliness; and the onward march of militant pagan Islam.
C. Read
http://www.articlesbase.com/news-and-society-articles/churchill-his-conservatism-and-freedom-699606.html
Braveheart In Defiance Of The English Tyranny! BRAVO
LISTEN TO HIS SPEECH CAREFULLY. Mel Gibson, an excellent Aussie-American Hollywood actor starring as the “William Wallace” character in the movie – BRAVEHEART – based on a real story took place in Scotland.
William Wallace gave his fellow country-men a freedom speech against the tyrant English(Anglo-Saxons)King’s Royal/Evil Armies.
Scotts and Irishs want to have their own independence from the corrupt-brutal Royal Kindom of England.
Duration : 0:2:33