Cây viết Tạp Bút (blogger) RAIF BADAWI công dân Arab Seoud bị bỏ tù 10 năm và bị QUẤT ROI giữa công chúng.. đã "gây phẫn nộ" nơi thế giới Âu Mỹ.... Trong khi hiện nay bọn nhà nước Âu Mỹ đang săn lùng bắt bớ những phát biểu tự do trên mạng FaceBook, Twitters, cũng như các trang tạp bút. Và đám quần chúng Âu Mỹ Úc cũng đang rình mò lén lút theo dõi những tay tạp bút nào phê phán chích biếm Do Thái, phản đối chiến tranh, chống định chế nhà nước v.v để báo cáo với an ninh!Bọn đạo đức giả lúc nào cũng TO MỒM XỈA XÓI kẻ khác những điều mà chính chúng nó ủng hộ và vi phạm từ trong định chế gia đình cho đến ngoài xã hội của họ!
===
The Charlie Hebdo Rally: Media Distortions and Hypocrisy in Paris
Including thousands of police and military forces. Along the two-mile Boulevarde Voltaire route marchers took.
An “unprecedented tribute,” said Reuters. Showing “unity and defiance,” claimed The New York Times.
“(S)olidarity following three days of terrorist attacks that badly shook the nation,” said the Washington Post.London’s Guardian said one million “expected for anti-terror rally.”
“Paris displays defiance with huge rally,” headlined the Wall Street Journal.
“Paris urged to ‘come in numbers’ to defy Islamist terror,” said the Los Angeles Times.
Al Jazeera headlined “Huge crowds attend Paris solidarity rally.”
BBC said “Vast Paris rally…Unity after 17 people were killed during three days of deadly attacks.”
Le Figaro said “(A)ll major (Parisian) streets are saturated” leading to “place de la Republique.”
Le Monde headlined “(H)uge crowds marched against terrorism in Paris and France.”
An invitation circulating on social media said: “Indignation. Resistance. Solidarity, I am Charlie.”
Organizers said Sunday’s rally expressed solidarity for “freedom of the press. (F)reedom of speech. France won’t be cowed by terrorists.”
Around 40 world leaders attended. Reuters said 44. Some reports said 50. Including around two dozen Western European ones.
Current French President Francois Hollande and former president Nicolas Sarkozy were accompanied by Germany’s Angela Merkel. Britain’s David Cameron.
Spain’s Mariano Rajoy. Italy’s Matteo Renzi. EU Council President Donald Tusk. EU Commission President Jean-Claude Junker.
Other European leaders. Eight African ones. Outgoing US Attorney General Eric Holder and US ambassador to France Jane Hartley representing America.
Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney represents Canada. Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman represent Israel.
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov represents Russia. Putschist/oligarch president Petro Poroshenko represents Ukraine.
NATO’s Secretary-General Jens Stoletenberg is there. So is European Parliament President Martin Schulz.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon came. Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas arrived.
One source lists the following participating countries in alphabetical order:
Albania. Algeria. Austria. Belgium. Benin. Britain. Bulgaria. Canada. Croatia. Czech Republic. Denmark. Gabon. Egypt. Finland. Georgia.To encourage turnout, public transport into and throughout Paris is free on Sunday. International train operator Thalys cut fares to the capital.
Germany. Greece. Hungary. Israel. Jordan. Latvia. Niger. Mali. Palestine. Poland. Portugal. Romania. Russia. Spain. Sweden. Switzerland.
The Netherlands. Tunisia. Turkey. United Arab Emirates. Ukraine. United States.
Right-wing National Front leader Marine Le Pen urged her supporters to rally outside Paris. In retaliation for exclusion from event preparations.
French officials condemned Paris killings. The way US ones denounced the deaths of New York police officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos.
“(M)ourning the loss of these brave souls,” said New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. Vice President Biden joined him on site. Obama sent a message of condolence.
In response to last week’s Paris killings, he ludicrously called them “an attack on journalists…on our free press … underscor(ing) the degree to which these terrorists fear freedom.”
“(O)ur thoughts and prayers are with the families of those who’ve been lost in France, and with the people of Paris and the people of France.”
Obama’s comments are rife with hypocrisy. Other Western leaders voice similar Big Lies.
Israel’s Netanyayu is a serial liar. US-led NATO leaders and Netanyahu are war criminals multiple times over.
Who mourns for millions US-dominated NATO victims? Murdered in cold blood? Noncombatant men, women and children.
Lost Palestinian lives. Slaughtered by Israel. Others ruthlessly persecuted.
What about on average one defenseless Black youth per day killed by US cops?
Who holds solidarity marches for justice? Mourns victims. Supports surviving family members. Rallies for justice.
Demands state-sponsored terrorism end. The madness of one imperial war after another. Senseless slaughter and destruction.
Trillions of dollars down a black hole of war profiteering, waste, fraud and abuse. Wars are dirty. Merciless. Unjust. Lawless.
Good ones don’t exist. Poet Robert Burns said “(m)ore inhumanity has been done by man himself than any other of nature’s causes.”
“Man’s inhumanity to man makes countless thousands mourn.” Out of sight and mind worldwide. Every day of the year.
Who notices their suffering? Who explains their grief? Who televises it?
What world leaders express solidarity? Which ones demand no more wars?
George Santanyana said “(o)nly the dead have seen the end of war.”
Howard Zinn denounced the myth of good wars. Preventing peace. Perpetuating violence.
WW II was worst of all. WW III if waged will be the war to end all future ones. Today’s destructive WMDs can end life on earth.
Zinn said “(w)e need to decide that we will not go to war, whatever reason is conjured up by the politicians or the media, because war in our time is always indiscriminate, a war against innocents, a war against children.”
No “flag (is) large enough to cover the shame of killing (millions) of innocent people.”Over a century ago, Mark Twain expressed outrage about America slaughtering Filipinos. Things were like today on a smaller scale.
Imperial conquest is vicious. Having nothing to do with liberating oppressed people.
Or championing democracy. Free expression. A free press. Freedom of assembly, association, and religion.
The right of people to hold ruling authorities accountable. Receive redress for grievances. Institute governance of, by and for everyone. Equitably and just. A new dawn.
Mark Twain said “I have seen that we do not intend to free, but to subjugate the people of the Philippines.”He proposed a new American flag. Envisioning one “with the white stripes painted black and the stars replaced by the skull and cross-bones.”
“We have gone there to conquer, not to redeem.”
“And so I am an anti-imperialist. I am opposed to having the eagle put its talons on any other land.”
“We have pacified some thousands of the islanders and buried them; destroyed their fields, burned their villages, turned their widows and orphans out-of-doors, (and) subjugated the remaining ten million by Benevolent Assimilation, which is the pious new name of the musket…”
Appalled that General Jacob Smith ordered his troops to “kill and burn.”
“(T)his is no time to take prisoners,” he said. (T)he more you kill and burn, the better.”Wars are lunatic acts. Resolving nothing. Preventing any hope for peace. Begetting endless violence.
“Kill all above the age of ten. (T)urn (the Philippines into) a howling wilderness.”
Waging perpetual wars reflects official US policy. Crimes of war, against humanity and genocide follow. Millions of corpses attest to America’s barbarity.
Paris mourns 17 lost lives. Avoidable tragedies. Victims deserving to live. Get equitable and just treatment.
Who mourns for the daily victims of US-dominated NATO ruthlessness? From ongoing imperial direct and proxy wars.
Endless ones. Countless millions affected worldwide. The dead, dying, mutilated, suffering, deprived and exploited.
Who rallies on their behalf? Who demands lawless imperial slaughter end? Who accepts nothing less than peace, equity and justice?
Who puts their bodies on the line for them? Who resists growing tyranny in Western societies?
Who fights for democratic freedoms fast slipping away? Who demands responsible governments replace ill-serving ones? Who goes all out for what matters most?
Public rallies achieve nothing. Nor high-minded rhetoric. Committed grassroots activism for change alone works.
Sustained for the long haul. No matter the cost. The alternative is continued subjugation. Ruler/serf societies. Ones unfit to live in.
The kind Washington intends instituting worldwide. Unless mass public outrage stops it once and for all.
Rally for right over wrong daily. Support what matters most. Forget about Je suis Charlie.
Propaganda rubbish shoved down our throats. By Western oppressors vital to oppose. The fundamental issue of our time!
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. His new book as editor and contributor is titled “Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.” http://www.claritypress.com/
==
The Paris “Charlie Hebdo” March: The Frailty of Free Speech
“We must demonstrate our solidarity with Charlie Hebdo without forgetting all the world’s other Charlies.” – Christophe Deloire, RWB Secretary, Jan 11, 2014
“Paris is the capital of the world today,” proclaimed French President François Hollande. “The whole country will rise up.” The occasion was that of a 1.5 million strong march in the French capital, noted by the presence of over 40 world leaders, with the conspicuous absence of the United States. The march was organised as a response to a series of attacks – the slaughter of 11 journalists at the offices of the satirical magazine, Charlie Hebdo, and a police officer on Wednesday, the shooting of a policewoman on Thursday with the wounding of a jogger, and the death of four hostages and the hostage taker Amedy Coulibaly at the Hyper Cacher supermarket on Friday.
The march, and the grief, strike the necessary emotional register. The attendance list of the notables in attendance, however, was more problematic. The most striking difference was how lacking such a response was when the Danish flag lay burning in a range of countries after the publication of satirical cartoons on Mohammed in theJyllands-Posten in December 2005. Magazines and publishing outlets refused, in several instances, to republish the subject cartoons.
Now, the commentator and offbeat philosopher Bernard-Henry Lévi assumes his mantle as spokesperson of this mood of enigmatic indignation and outrage. It is the voice of universal values articulated through that well worn effigy known as the French state and its civic duties. This is difficult on various levels, but BHL shows an even more tenuous grasp on the issue of what the enemy is. This is “jihadi fascism”, or so he claimed on CNN. “It is time for us to break, once and for all, with the Leninist reasoning that has been served up for so long by the useful idiots of radical Islam immersed in the sociology of poverty and frustration” (Wall Street Journal, Jan 8).
The French Prime Minister, Manuel Valls, is certainly raising the dangerous stakes. On Saturday, he declared that France was at war with radical Islam. But what, exactly, is this war against? Such untidy reasoning has become the hallmark of responses of supposedly tolerant governments.
This is why the list of political celebrities in attendance of the Paris march is troubling. Turkey’s Prime Minister, Ahmet Davutoğlu was present, representing state interests that are complicated in how they are intertwined with Islamic radicalism. The tip-toeing of Turkey with the Islamic State is well noted, as is the authoritarian move of the regime towards a more conservative brand of Islam. While Kurdish fighters have been shedding their blood in Kobane, Ankara continues to show ambivalence as to where it stands towards the ambitions of IS.
The case becomes even murkier on the issue of free speech. If free speech is, in fact, the valiant creature that is meant to be the armed warrior against obscurantism, then some of the leaders in attendance seem like odd choices. For them, free speech is not something to treasure so much as dread and stifle.
Turkey, to take one example, remains a star offender against the journalistic profession in the World Press Freedom Index. Questioning various dogmas of the government – that the Armenian genocide is not, for example, a genocide – will land you a prison sentence.
Even more notable is the prospect that the same cartoons run by Charlie Hebdo in Turkey may well have seen its journalists targeted. The government can call upon various legal weapons to achieve its purpose of controlling freedom of expression, be it the penal code’s articles on defamation (Art 125), religious defamation (Art 216), obscenity (Art 226), to name but a few.
Other countries also deserve mention. There is Egypt, Algeria and the United Arab Emirates. Then there is Russia. All place regime interests before free speech interests. All had representatives at the march. “I am Charlie,” may well a powerful statement of marketing value, but it is hardly universal.
Reporters Without Borders was one of the first to note the contradictions. “Reporters Without Borders is appalled by the presence of leaders from countries where journalists and bloggers are systematically persecuted such as Egypt (which is ranked 159th out of 180 countries in RWB’s press freedom index), Russia (148th), Turkey (154th) and United Arab Emirates (118th)” (Reporters Without Borders, Jan 11).[1]
Then comes that rather troubling issue of terrorism – or at the very least what are perceived to be acts that fall within the dozens of definitions suggested in the social science canon. Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu has made his position clear on the Palestinian state, on Palestinians in general and that old hoary chestnut of sovereignty. And the state he runs has not been remiss in its own periodic acts of military ruthlessness against those in Gaza, where Palestinian deaths assume statistical coldness before state brutality. They do not tend to merit a mention in BHL’s moral reflection on what terrorism is.
The tragic tale of the recent killings in Paris, is that these were not acts lacking a compass. The direction was made even clearer once France joined the air campaign led by the United States in Iraq against the Islamic State. Bombs, at least the result of them, tend to be productive of only more bombs. Leninist sociological reasoning on poverty has nothing to do with it. A pretext for home generated brutality is minted with each intervention, with each impassioned appeal to storm distant foreign barricades.
Jihadi fascism is the distorting less here, while free speech is ever the straw man cast in an argument that is actually Realpolitik. Regimes are capitalising on sprucing up their images, the police state has been given a shot in the arm, and even now, the significance of the Charlie Hebdo victims is being lost.
Dr. Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge. He lectures at RMIT University, Melbourne. Email: bkampmark@gmail.com
No comments:
Post a Comment