Wednesday, March 30, 2005


Aaarrr that be our PM Posted by Hello

Sunday, March 27, 2005

Cuba Action

When I was growing up in an American school system listening to all the Elian media frenzy and later reading Tom Clancy novels I always got the impression that Cuba was some sort of Communist dictatorship gulag hellhole but with much nicer weather then the former Soviet Union. But then I came back home to Canada and I learnt Canada and Cuba were actually pretty good friends. And after reading more and more on Cuba I have come to think very favorably on it. So favorably in fact I'm planning a trip there this summer to see it for myself.

Over 450,000 Canadians visit Cuba every year making it the 5th most visited foreign destination. Quite impressive so accordingly we are the number one source of tourism into Cuba. I don't feeling like waxing on about Cuba's achievement in health, social and athletic areas by I find it interesting that most American republicans and by extension Canadian conservatives can find any good words to describe Castro's Cuba. I mean on the information superhighway I find several aspects of Cuban life that most conservatives could admire.

1. No Pornography- if you they find the Hustler you forgot in your baggage it is confiscated and you're custom file is marked so you are required to be searched every time you enter Cuba.

2. Profiling (spilling into racial profilling at times). Race relations in Cuba are probably more stable then American or Canadian race relations because even a good communist can still be a racist. But nonetheless there is definite focus on men between 16-22 and they are often stopped by the Po-lice.

3. Heavy police presence. Cuba's solution to many problems seems to be prevention and it is no different with policing. Apparently it is hard to not find a police officer on a corner in Havana.

4. I was going to write about harsh prisons but I came up with this on Google. But if that lady is tripping and Cuba does have gulag standards as deplorable as American gulags then Conservatives can’t really complain because they want Yankee prisons to be even more inhumane. There are horrible jails in Cuba but the US military in Guantánamo control them. At the very least Cuban prisoners are at least told what their crime is before being tossed into the hole.

5. Family life- and no television culture. Television is only available at certain times within the week. So certainly no Janet Jackson's evil nipple scaring young children's minds. Same with the insidious gay agenda promoting Sponge Bob and bunnies visiting lesbian couples.

6. One Party Rule- Ok this isn't an official Republican goal but they have achieved it because of their hold on three branches of government and the media. Its not like the Democrats are a respectable opposition party since I found Kerry more right wing then Bush esp. on foreign policy. And too be fair the Communist party of Cuba doesn’t nominate anyone because it isn't allowed to. Only the Cuban people themselves can nominate their neighbors and campaigning cost 0 dollars cause you cant too much of it.

7. Hard on Drugs. Cuban authorities take the war on drugs fairly seriously it seems.

8. Tough on Prostitution. Although prostitution is making a comeback Castro doesn't seem too pleased about it.


So basically Cuba gots the Conservative law enforcement skills. I haven’t even gone into their war on terror and counter-revolution. No wonder Republicans don’t like Cuba holding those 75 'dissidents' because they allow them conjugal visits. Imagine them giving Padilla a conjugal visit. But hey that guy would probably just settle for a trial. Hell even the U.S. State Dept admits there is no extrajudicial murder and disappearance in Cuba. Too bad they can't say the same for Israel and themselves.

Its an interesting situation Cuba is in with the embargo. The embargo and the DMZ in Korea are probably the last visages of the American Cold War policy. While the DMZ makes sense the blockade is just stupid.

Peter Philips, of the Conservative Cato Institute, reported:
Cuba's leading human rights activist Elizardo Sanchez calls it "an odd way to demonstrate support for human rights." Cuba's Catholic bishops call it "cruel." And in the hundreds of interviews I have conducted across the island, I have never met a Cuban citizen who supports it.
At least it’s for democracy and self-determination an all that jazz.


Those dissidents and human rights groups in Cuba--that are nothing but a fewpeople--are only important to the extent that they serve us in a single cause:that of destabilizing Fidel Castro's regime.

Through those two policies--economic pressure and human rights--we want to force the overthrow of Fidel Castro and then install a transitional government that we like--to reinstate the people we want and, thus control Cuba once again.

--Wayne Smith, former head of the US Interests Section in Havana

Whoops never mind. Silly me, thinking Amerika doesn't want their Cuban economic colony reinstated. Well I'm looking forward to the Communist hellhole which is Cuba. Should be a party though. Gotta learn some Spanish so we can hitch rides on the back of trucks. Apparently for hitch hiking Cubans line up by the side of the ride according to need. -Does it get anymore Communist then that? I sort of doubt it.

Saturday, March 19, 2005

Protest Report for Toronto

Here is some hot off the presses reporting on my trip to the Toronto March 19th protest against War and the Occupation of Iraq among other things.

We went fairly early at about 1230 and there wasn't too many people there- mostly just communists hawking their various pamphlets and newspapers- "1917", "Workers Vanguard", "Spartacus", etc. I noticed lots of police presence with their flex cuffs and at least 10 troopers in riot gear and on horseback in groups of two. Saw at least two very obvious plainclothes policemen- I really don’t know who they thought they were tricking.

Nathan Phillips square in front of Toronto's City Hall started filling up a bit past 1300. The crowd was diverse as can always be expected but the four speakers was fairly predictable. i.e. 14 year old Iraqi Muslim girl, American war resistor (deserter in rightwing lingo), some labor/union leader, and Marilyn Churley- deputy leader of Ontario's New Democratic Party. There were four American War resistors with their wives and children there. One of the resistors was younger then me.

Anyway I had a Socialist Worker placard I picked up from a bundle with a fist and proclaiming no to US Imperialism in Iraq, Iran, and Syria on one side and on the other it told Paul Martin to let American War resistors stay in Canada. My brother had a Troops Out Now placard with blood spots and messages against Racial Profiling and Secret Trails and telling Canada to get out of Afghanistan. There was the expected Che, Marx, Marley, and Fidel flags as well.

The march was good- very peaceful with lots of onlookers because it stop a good part of downtown Toronto's traffic. Lots of drumming and slogan chanting. My favorite was "Shame, shame USA, How many kids did you kill today?" very similar to the Vietnam era "Hey, Hey, LBJ, How many kids did you kill today?" Only confrontation I saw was a group of maybe ten anarchists tops boosting to the other side of the road past a barrier and leading maybe 70 people that way. But bicycle police grabbed the loudest anarchists and dragged them along I dont think they got arrested and their groups joined the main group soon enough.

Lots of Muslims it seemed, many with signs demanding the withdrawal of American troops and the disarming of Islamist and Nationalist groups in Iraq. Only groups was handing out pamphlets on Islam but they didn’t have much luck the Commies did way better in that regard. Lots of camaramen professional and amateur and some decent press coverage. There was a group of maybe a dozen high school students but the side of the road yelling “We want Rock, Paper, Scissors.” They had Pink signs saying "This is Pink". They were having a good time at least. Only saw one joint and a fattie blunt the whole time so that was disappointing.

Anyway good march and great fun came back with pockets full of communist literature. I would say there were probably over 2000 people there so a decent turnout the marching group was long and the square was full and since this my first protest so my figure probably isn't accurate.

END OCCUPATION! TROOPS OUT NOW!!

Saturday, March 12, 2005

Pity the Nation

While reading about Lebanon today I run across this poem by the early 20th century Arab American poet Khalil Ghibran:
Pity the nation that is full of beliefs and empty of religion.

Pity the nation that wears a cloth it does not weave, eats a bread it does not harvest, and drinks a wine that flows not from its own winepress.

Pity the nation that acclaims the bully as hero, and that deems the glittering conqueror bountiful.

Pity the nation that despises a passion in its dream, yet submits in its awakening.

Pity the nation that raises not its voice save when it walks in a funeral, boasts not except among its ruins, and will rebel not save when its neck is laid between the sword and the block.

Pity the nation whose statesman is a fox, whose philosopher is a juggler, and whose art is the art of patching and mimicking.

Pity the nation that welcomes its new ruler with trumpetings and farewells him with hootings, only to welcome another with trumpetings once again.

Pity the nation whose sages are dumb with years and whose strong men are yet in the cradle.

Pity the nation divided into fragments, each fragment deeming itself a nation.
The poem can speak to many countries but it certainly I think reflects on Lebanon's situation.

I was going to write more on Lebanon but I this Guardian article really just sums everything up. It is certainly essential reading for any delusional idealist conservative. ( Hahahahaha 'idealist conservative used to be an oxymoron no longer with Bush and his follower many of whom still believe WMDs are waiting to be found). The Neocons are just dying for support over there in the Middle East. Their new pin-up boy Walid Jumblatt glowing quotes on American democracy have been frequenting the right wing blog echo chamber. Unfortunately they forget that it was Syria that engineered Jumblatt’s raise and he did turn against them when politically expedient. And even better he wasn't too impressed when that 'Jew' or Paul Wolfowitz made it out alive of his Baghdad hotel room after it was the subject of a rocket attack.

Jumblatt vision of democracy certainly isn't an open, free or fair one either I'm sure because if it was then he would be asking the Hizbollah to ran Lebanon and ne probably doesn't want that. Man the Shia and Hizbollah must be stoked on more democracy. They were actually represented in government when the first elections were held in the early 1990s.

How it is now the Shiites are allocated 27 seats out of 128 or 15%. Of which Hizbollah has 13 seats and will almost certainly increase that number in the May election reinforcing its position as Lebanon's largest political party representing Lebanon's Shia who are that countries poorest and more historically oppressed citizens. Of course Hizbollah would be biggest if the Shia got a fair number of seats that represented the 40% of Lebanese who are Shiites.

But hey I'll be realist even though American taxpayers paid with their treasure and children's blood for an Islamic Shia state based on Shria law in Iraq they probably will not accept Hizbollah having any role in Lebanon for some reason. My solution this is unrealistic and will not happen but here it is. At absolute minimum Israel pulls out of the Shaba farms area depriving Hizbollah of its main excuse for keeping its weapons. To take that further Israel finally comply with UN resolution 242 and boost out of the Golan taking its illegal settlements with its and finally negotiates peace with Syria and receives official recognition and security guarantees. Nw it is not in Syria interest for Hizbollah to remain at war with Israel.

Syria then leans heavily on Hizbollah to restrain its activities. Iran at this point has more influence with the Hizbollah and has restrained them recently. American security guarantees and full diplomatic relations would easily convince Iran to call on the Nasrallah (Hizbollah leader) to have his militants and impressive rocket force to be absorbed in the Lebanese Army like the other militia had done. Hizbollah's political and social organization is now fully legitimate in the eyes of the West as it is obvious it derives it power from the people it represents not merely from their impressive amount of weaponry.

Of course all highly unlikely as with a full Israeli withdrawal from their bloody occupation in the West Bank and Gaza where a 40 year reign of terrorism and oppression has failed to squash the Palestinians aspirations for freedom and self-determination. But hey I guy can dream eh.

Tuesday, March 08, 2005

Lebanon Party

I'll say one thing about media coverage of the anti-Syrian demonstrations those ladies are superfine. And of course is one of the reasons I plan to visit Lebanon and Syria when I go back to Saudi for Christmas. Beirut is a party and Damascus is supposed to be hellsza tight with its history, certainly far safer then going outside my camp in Saudi Arabia. Hell safer then American cities I suppose. I've only been to Jordan in that area but that is a really great place for any person who likes classical or ancient history (Jerash and Petra).

But anyway looks likes the inevitable is happening in Lebanon. Syria has been hard press to explain its presence in Lebanon since the Israeli occupiers left in 2000. Although it would be hard to call Syria's presence an occupation per se. No presence in cities and only 14000 troops in the Baeka Valley. Hell America alone has 30000 troops in Kuwait and we don’t consider that then occupation even though the situation is the same. (i.e. the American puppet government is okay with it but a large portion of the Kuwaiti people aren’t too impressed. And unlike Syria in Lebanon the America forces in Kuwait have been attacked.)

The funniest I thing I find about it is Bush's idiotic remarks. Has this man lost all grip on reality. I mean he says Syria's occupation of Lebanon destabilizes the Middle East. WOW. And Israel's 40 year subjugation and settlement of the West Bank and Gaza has done nothing but good then. The Maple Leafs will win the Stanley Cup at about the same time I hear Bush denounce Israel's disgusting state aggression and terrorism. And let's not forget a friggin American invasion and occupation which has killed over a 100,000 Iraqis. I'm sure the burning rubble of Falluja destabilizes the Middle East more then Syrian troops in the desert.

He also said the elections can't truly be free if Syria is still there. No shit Sherlock. That’s why American denounced all the Soviet sponsored 'elections' in Cold War Europe. At least Lebanon everyone will be able to vote. Try telling a Christian in Kirkrit or anyone in the Anbar province that the election was fair. It would be funny for sure. Iraqis yearn freedom from occupation as much as their Lebanese brethren but that won't be happening any time soon.

All I have left to say is poor Assad. The guy has lost his Lebanese bargaining chip in dealing with Israel. He was once able tell Sharon he would leave Lebanon, recognize Israel and grant security guarantees in return for the Syrian Heights (now known as the Golan). He'll only be able use the last two now but it wont matter Sharon refused to talk last time so they'll be no peace for Syria. He just can't do anything right in American eyes. Hell he gave them Saddam's half-brother and they still accuse him of helping the insurgency. It's not like Assad's regime got along well with Saddam hell Syria was the only Arab country to side with Iran in the Iraq-Iran war. Assad much prefers fellow Shiites being elected in Iraq then Saddam's erratic regime.

Oh well I hope to make it to Syria before Bush turns it into a Falluja style gorefest. Same with Iran all the people I know who have toured Iran have had good things to say. It is a great region which Bush is fucking up in his Great Game for strategic control over the Arab world and their resource wealth.