On The Road In The Kingdom Of Fear

Forget Che, leave him in the past where he belongs

What is it with students and Che Guevara? The amount of otherwise decent and intelligent people I have seen with Alberto Korda’s enduring photograph emblazoned on a t-shirt is ridiculous to the point of banality. Che Guevara was sexy and, in some ways idealistic but he was also a defender of Stalin and mass murder.

Many of the early leaders of the Cuban Revolution favoured a democratic or democratic-socialist direction for the soon to be ‘free’ Cuba. Che, however, gave unwavering support to the pro-Soviet faction which ultimately triumphed. While the resulting system is celebrated for training many excellent doctors and providing a fine education for its people - what use is literacy if you cannot choose which books you wish to read in your long healthy life?

Immediately after the collapse of the Batista regime Castro put Che in charge of La Cabana prison where he oversaw mass executions. Conservative estimates place the number of Cuban ‘counter revolutionaries’ executed on his orders well into the hundreds. A former Catholic priest at the prison recalls that Guevara “never overturned a sentence.” He later founded Cuba’s “labour camp” system that was later used to incarcerate gays, dissidents, and AIDS victims.

He often spoke of martyrdom and managed to compose a number of disturbing phrases, including wanting to make his soldiers into a “violent, selective, and cold-blooded killing machine”. He was killed in Bolivia in 1967, leading a guerrilla movement that had failed to enlist a single Bolivian peasant. His ultimate aim in South America was to create another Vietnam, turning the entire continent into a quagmire that would eventually destroy the United States.

Is this a man to celebrate? Do these students think about all those innocent people killed on his orders as he they pull on their £40 t-shirt in a morning? I accept that Che was fighting against odious right-wing forces, especially in Guatemala, where the US was backing a far-right coup on behalf of the United Fruit Company. However, these forces had to be resisted with left-wing democracy, not more totalitarianism.

I have been pondering the Cult of Che ever since the release of the Motorcycle Diaries, a beautifully shot, wonderfully acted, and frustratingly unbalanced account of the man. Reviving an old Stalinist icon will do little for the democratic and progressive elements of left. Leftists our age are the first generation in nearly a century to be totally untainted by association with communism. The worst thing we could do is squander this opportunity and revitalize the heroes of that bloodstained era. Accompanying the Che paraphernalia I see CCCP jackets, Cuba hoodies and assorted badges bearing, among others, Fidel and Lenin. This is an embarrassment.

Of course it is true that right-wing denial of atrocities is equally apparent, but that is to be expected. The right’s lauding of Pinochet, the Saudi’s and a whole host of other undemocratic and oppressive dictatorships is heinous. This, however, is no excuse for us; we have to set ourselves higher moral standards.

The present-day cult of Che has succeeded in obscuring his barbaric past. Che was an enemy of freedom and stood for callous Marxist-Leninism, yet he is celebrated as a free-thinker and a rebel. Why does revolutionary (or is it capitalist?) chic not bear the face of Nelson Mandela, Vaclav Havel or Aung San Suu Kyi? These are real heroes - democrats who believe in the freedom of speech, freedom from oppression and are untainted by a love for Soviet authoritarianism.

Dissident liberals in Cuba are still demanding fundamental human rights, and the dictatorship still places many in prison. Reading the memoirs of Cuban dissenter Armando Valladares has placed the brutality of the Cuban system into perspective. His diaries chart his 23 year incarceration in various prisons, including La Cabana. He suffered savage beatings, psychological and biological experimentation and isolation beyond imagination. His crime; nothing more than refusing to place a placard on his desk at work saying he supported Communism. I have come to the conclusion that anyone who wears Che, Cuba or CCCP clothing is either ignorant or a nihilist.

posted by Alexander Try @ 8:35 pm 4 comments

Google Whacked

Google has recently blotted it’s “do no evil” image, following in the footsteps of Yahoo and Microsoft by conceding to censorship by the Chinese Communist Party dictatorship. Ironically this surrender to the totalitarian Chinese Government comes in the same week that several of the ‘old guard’ in the regime have called for a lifting of censorship. This call would appear to suggest an age of Chinese Glasnost is beginning. It’s a tragedy then, and an insult to the millions of Chinese hoping for reform, that this bastion of the free market has complete contempt for freedom of speech.

In a search on Google.cn the extent to which the company has crawled to submit to the Chinese authorities is plain for all to see. Typing in the Chinese characters for Falun Gong, the spiritual movement China brands an evil cult, brings up results such as the official Chinese media’s “Expose” of the Falun Gong campaign. Type Falun Gong into the English search engine and, in contrast, the movement's homepages and information centre are top of the results. Similar treatment is given to the Taiwanese independence movement, Tibetan human rights, and even the BBC is censored with only links to politically neutral sites, for example the BBC’s language learning schemes. Needless to say, no links are provided to the BBC’s news output.

The most disturbing search I carried out was on Google.cn images. Searching ‘Tiananmen’ on the English version brings up the iconic image of a young man standing in front of a tank during the student protests of 1989. On Google.cn we see groups of smiling children and brightly lit buildings.

Google has spun its bad press by stating that as the Google page lets people know their search results are being restricted, something that doesn't happen if the filtering is done by the government, then the censorship is somehow not as bad. This stance is ridiculous. What if Chinese users know their searches are being restricted? I would imagine the disappearances of their friends or the closing down of their online forums is evidence enough of government control.

Yahoo has also stained its reputation by colluding with the Chinese, helping them jail democracy advocate Li Zhi. Li was given an eight-year sentence in 2003 for trying to join the Chinese Democratic Party. He had also been critical of corruption in local government officials in online discussion groups and was convicted on the basis of information Yahoo provided about his email account and Yahoo user name activity.

Information provided by Yahoo to the Chinese government was also used to put journalist Shi Tao in jail for ten years. In its 2005 world press freedom index, Reporters Without Borders ranked China 159th worst out of 167 countries. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists 32 reporters reside in Chinese jails.

As I write over 45,000 emails of complaint have been sent to Google’s senior executives, and over 4,300 to the top management of Yahoo, Microsoft, and Cisco. This is hardly going to change the behaviour of these corporations but every protest can help. If word is spread, and indignation abounds, then perhaps we can make a difference to the people subjected to the totalitarian dictatorship in China and their sidekicks and supporters at Google and Yahoo. The refusal to buy South African goods and the diplomatic sanctions imposed on their country lead directly to the fall of Apartheid and the election of Nelson Mandela. In short, protest does work.

It’s tough to break the addiction to Google or Yahoo. I, like everyone else, hardly thinks which search engine to use while surfing the net. There are, however, alternatives for those who wish to search with a clear conscience. I am informed by ‘Students for a Free Tibet’ that www.alltheweb.com is an ethical search engine. Unfortunately it is impossible at present to argue that ‘alltheweb’, or any other competitor for that matter, is better than Google. If you can’t stop using Google then at the very least I would urge you to send an email to Google’s head honchos to put some more pressure on them. Google has put its financial bottom line over the most basic human rights.

posted by Alexander Try @ 7:56 pm 0 comments

Keep blasphemy alive!

Mo was one of the "Super Best Friends" in a July 2001 episode of South Park. You can see the show in the link provided below. I also include his picture, alongside, Jesus, Buddha, and David Blaine, among others here.

This is a quote from a Saudi Memo from the Royal Press Secretary to his Highness King Abdullah dated 4th of Feb.

"....we are nevertheless "treading on thin ice" when we talk about our reforms. Sooner or later someone is going to ask exactly what they are. Rather than change the subject at that time, I would rather take the initiative now and put pressure on the US. Therefore I would change my recommendation from my previous Memo. Rather than go after Belgium [the same press secretary suggested inciting hatred against Belgium as a 1970's version of a Tintin comic included an image of Mo on its front cover], I propose that we put them on "hold", and instead "suddenly discover" the blasphemous "South Park" "Super Best Friends" episode. Can I have Your Majesty's approval for this course of action?

A. M. Al Shegri
Press Secretary
Royal Palace"

Look out for this discovery in the coming weeks.

Watch the offending episode here.

I have not posted on this issue, but my feelings on this issue are as follows:

We have every right to say, write or draw whatever we like, no matter how offensive it is - providing of corse it does not incite violence. There is a case for self censorship, to make life easier for us - this does not mean we should shy away from critisising relgion. No relgion is free from critism and part of living in a Liberal Democracy is the acceptance of its secularism and the notion that free speech is paramount. People have the right to be offended, just as i too am offended by the crackpots and fundamentalists who would prohibit me from seeing some crappy cartoon. People died for the publication of the Satanic Verses (the last great offense to Islam). In a fight between art and religion i know whos side i am on. We shouldnt compromise a fucking inch.

posted by Alexander Try @ 2:18 pm 0 comments

My Love for Big Brother

I am well aware that Big Brother is disgustingly vapid television, offering little if nothing in the way of intellectual stimulation. However, as a vehicle to open the public’s eyes to the vile George Galloway it has been a godsend. I have long been beating the anti-Galloway drum, trying to educate those fawning over him about the various crooks and dictators to which he offers his political support. Nothing I could do, however, has been quite as effective in showing people the real Galloway as locking him up for three weeks with television cameras constantly rolling.

It is a shame that it has taken a bust up with Barrymore, Preston and Chantelle for vast swathes of the public to turn against him. One would think saluting Saddam or telling the Syrian people that they are “lucky” to have the dictatorial regime of Bashar al-Assad would be the final nail in his political coffin. Unfortunately the British public has allowed this man to survive. Equally, it is rather sad that his idiocies in the house have been given more attention than his apologies for fascism. When asked by Rula Lenska, "Was he [Saddam] hated by the ordinary [Iraqi] people?" He replied: "Not at all; not at all”. The same opinion polls Galloway quotes when the Iraqis say they want the American troops out of their country show that 97 percent of Iraqis hate Saddam.

Despite the bittersweet nature of his demise, I have gained great pleasure in watching him humiliate himself. I watched him dance the ‘robot’ behind a cushion as he jerked around in his red leotard: he looked like a plucked turkey with haemorrhoids. This was only bettered by his cringingly awful cat impersonation. I really feel for his constituents. Where was their MP when they needed him? After spending weeks in the U.S., months on the road around the UK (incidentally missing a Terror Bill vote, won by the Government by the margin of one, on an amendment which he himself campaigned for) he then decided to spend three weeks satisfying his own inflated ego (and his bank balance) in the Big Brother house.

While sparing a thought for the residents of Bethnal Green and Bow, I at least, have got tremendous pleasure out of his humiliating antics. Seeing him booed then watching his face freeze in a desperate grimace as the dozens of headlines dedicated to him came up on the studio screens was pure bliss. Paxman's contemptuous missive capped this off wonderfully. On E4 John McCirrick summed it up perfectly: “did you see him coming out of the house, it was like Ceausescu coming out to make his last speech, thinking the crowd was cheering him.” Where the U.S. Senate failed, it was his own hubris that finally destroyed him. Big brother, for showing Galloway’s blustering, bullying and sheer vindictive deviousness to the general public, I not only love you – I salute your courage, your strength and your indefatigability.

posted by Alexander Try @ 7:18 pm 1 comments

Libya

A year ago being an American and standing on Libyan soil was a crime. With the advent of Qaddafi’s 'glasnost' and 'perestroika' Michael J. Totten decided to travel to Tripoli to see what life is like in a socialist, Islamic dictatorship. It’s not surprising that the combination of military rule, combative socialism and Islamic fundamentalism made for a tragically backward country.

“after walking around his [Qaddafi’s] outdoor laboratory and everywhere seeing his beady eyes and that arrogant jut of his mouth, it suddenly hit me. He isn’t merely Libya’s tyrant. He is a man who would be god.His Mukhabarat, the secret police, are omniscient. His visage is omnipresent. His power is omnipotent.And he is deranged. He says he’s the sun of Africa. He threatens to ban money and schools. He vanquished beauty and art. He liquidates those who oppose him. He says he can’t help it if the people of Libya love him so much they plaster his portrait up everywhere. Fuck him. I wanted to rip his face from the walls.”

Totten then recalls a shop keeper’s confessions about Qaddafi -

“We hate that fucking bastard, we have nothing to do with him. Nothing. We keep our heads down and our mouths shut. We do our jobs, we go home. If I talk, they will take me out of my house in the night and put me in prison.”

Towards the end of the article he tells us various French diplomats are staying in his hotel while Chirac cuts new oil deals with Qaddafi. Moral clarity Mr Chirac? This seems as morally corrupt as our dependence on the Saudis.

Perhaps the most important point made in the article is the reminder that “people are people” – the desire for freedom is universal. Despite the diet of anti-Americanism fed by the state media for over 30 years, the ordinary Libyans Totten spoke to hate Qaddaffi with a passion. When we hear people saying Democracy wont work in the middle east, or that the people are content to live under repressive doctrinal and even theocratic regimes, this is more than often not the case. Some interesting points to consider.

The article can be found here at LA weekly.

posted by Alexander Try @ 5:52 pm 3 comments

a brief update on fascism, the USA and a good deed being done by a comrade

Now, as I am sure you will be aware there is talk that Mr Blair dissuaded Mr Bush from bombing al jazeera. Bar the idiotic hypocrisy of this issue (building a democratic Iraq with a free press, then only to want to blow up a slightly critical news organisation in Qatar), the issue of whether al jazeera is anti-American, or pro-the resistance should also be debated. From what I have read al jazeera is a relatively liberal and impartial news company that gives its stories from an Arab perspective. Obviously, with the majority of the Arab world being up in arms over Bush’s policies, this will be reflected in their news coverage. They aren’t militants, as their staffers blog will show.

Indeed, Sir David Frost (remember breakfast with frost on Sundays?) is now their Washington correspondent and a fair proportion of their staff are ex-BBC world service. Another quality check of the impartiality of a news organisation is who it pisses off. The bbc is accused of being pro-Israeli by some liberals, and pro-Palestine by conservatives. Seems to me like its doing a pretty good job then. Regards, al jazeera, as this news item would suggest the same can apply to them. Al jazzera is accused of being 'Israel Controlled' by extremists on t’other side of the argument. When compared to some of the other stuff in the Arab media… like this from Saudi.. how can Bush still view them as allies while making such a big deal about al jazeera.

As one would expect, the dude was in wonderful form when discussing the issue of journalistic freedom in Iraq.

"The prostitute journalist is a familiar and well-understood figure in the Middle East, and Saddam Hussein's regime made lavish use of the buyability of the regional press. Now we, too, have hired that clapped-out old floozy, Miss Rosie Scenario, and sent her whoring through the streets. If there was one single thing that gave a certain grandeur to the change of regime in Baghdad, it was the reopening of the free press (with the Communist Party's paper the first one back on the streets just after the statue fell) and the profusion of satellite dishes, radio stations, and TV programs. There were some crass exceptions—Paul Bremer's decision to close Muqtada Sadr's paper being one of the stupidest and most calamitous decisions—but in general it was something to be proud of. Now any fool is entitled to say that a free Iraqi paper is a mouthpiece, and any killer is licensed to allege that a free Iraqi reporter is a mercenary. A fine day's work. Someone should be fired for it."

posted by Alexander Try @ 4:40 am 2 comments