Re: Iraq: The Way Forward
On Friday, 5. January 2007 20:36, Michael H Goldhaber wrote: > We have reached a crucial turning point in American history. The > November elections and current polls have made clear that Americans > have soured on the Iraq war, and want the troops to be withdrawn > rapidly. I'm not a close observer of American politics (how come that Lieberman was relected?), but what strikes me as the really remarkable outcome of this election is that it revealed the total bankrupcy of the ideologies that has been dominant since the end of the cold war: neo-liberalism (with its emphasis on freedom) and neo-conservativism (with its emphasis on security), which have produced not freedom and security but abandonnment and fear. Neoliberalism has had to declare bankrupcy a while ago, but 9/11 provided the opportunity to swiftly replace it with its darker cousin, so the void was less obvious. Now, we are in a situation where nobody has any good idea what to do. "Bringing the troops home now" is as unrealistic as "fighting for victory". What comes next? Nobody seems to know beyond short-term political tactical games. But while such desorientation might provide room for creative thinking, I'm not optimistic. The social conditions which have provided the mass basis for the acceptance of faith-based politics are still here. Just that the war in Iraq is too manifestly disasterous to whish away. Salon Magazine recently featured an interesting interview with Chris Hedges, NYT reporter (Bosnia, Middle East), and author of a new book on the US Christian right, "American Fascists", that seems directly relevant here. http://salon.com/books/feature/2007/01/08/fascism/ > Since the midterm election, many have suggested that the Christian > right has peaked, and the movement has in fact suffered quite a few > severe blows since both of our books came out It's suffered severe blows in the past too. It depends on how you view the engine of the movement. For me, the engine of the movement is deep economic and personal despair. A terrible distortion and deformation of American society, where tens of millions of people in this country feel completely disenfranchised, where their physical communities have been obliterated, whether that's in the Rust Belt in Ohio or these monstrous exurbs like Orange County, where there is no community. There are no community rituals, no community centers, often there are no sidewalks. People live in empty soulless houses and drive big empty cars on freeways to Los Angeles and sit in vast offices and then come home again. You can't deform your society to that extent, and you can't shunt people aside and rip away any kind of safety net, any kind of program that gives them hope, and not expect political consequences. Democracies function because the vast majority live relatively stable lives with a degree of hope, and, if not economic prosperity, at least enough of an income to free them from severe want or instability. Whatever the Democrats say now about the war, they're not addressing the fundamental issues that have given rise to this movement. > But isn't there a change in the Democratic Party, now that it's > talking about class issues and economic issues more so than in the > past? Yes, but how far are they willing to go? The corporations that fund the Republican Party fund them. I don't hear anybody talking about repealing the bankruptcy bill, just like I don't hear them talking about torture. The Democrats recognize the problem, but I don't see anyone offering any kind of solutions that will begin to re-enfranchise people into American society. The fact that they can't get even get healthcare through is pretty depressing. > The argument you're now making sounds in some ways like Tom Frank's, > which is basically that support for the religious right represents a > kind of misdirected class warfare. But your book struck me differently > -- it seemed to be much more about what this movement offers people > psychologically. Yeah, the economic is part of it, but you have large sections of the middle class that are bulwarks within this movement, so obviously the economic part isn't enough. The reason the catastrophic loss of manufacturing jobs is important is not so much the economic deprivation but the social consequences of that deprivation. The breakdown of community is really at the core here. When people lose job stability, when they work for $16 an hour and don't have health insurance, and nobody funds their public schools and nobody fixes their infrastructure, that has direct consequences into how the life of their community is led. I know firsthand because my family comes from a working-class town in Maine that has suffered exactly this kind of deterioration. You pick up the local paper and the weekly police blotter is just DWIs and domestic violence. We've shattered these lives, and it isn't always economic. That's where I guess I would differ with Frank. It's really the
Re: Iraq: The Way Forward
> Their good will is nothing when that is all that matters. doch! 'the road to hell is paved with good intentions' sound noble, fluent, shakespearian what fit in the bondesque month of the global fatal liege man, the brit hammer of god, his beloved download, the good..then..i dont know..'i feel always compulsively jealous my laptop is always slower than yours for money transfert' would right brand the laborious swiss killbill a la godard, the stammer of the devil, the becket's tramp waiting for the european constitution. the bad # distributed via : no commercial use without permission # is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: [EMAIL PROTECTED] and "info nettime-l" in the msg body # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@bbs.thing.net
Re: Iraq: The Way Forward
folks, in the context of transmediale.07 we are organising a conference panel with several journalists working in bagdad and amman, together with the people who run http://www.niqash.org regards, -a transmediale.07 Conference Panel: The Media Landscape of Iraq =46riday, 2.2. 2007, 12.00 hrs, Akademie Hanseatenweg, Studio 1 Participants: Saad Saloum [iq], Ismael Zayer [iq], Ali Badr [iq], Susanne Fischer [de], Anja Wollenberg [de], Mod. Klaas Glenewinkel [de] The future developments in Iraq will depend crucially on the question whether a process of negotiation can be initiated between the conflicting groups, or whether separation and isolation will continue. The function of the media in this process is not to be underestimated. The media communicate, comment and reflect; they form opinions and mobilise atmospheres of consent or dissent. Since the collapse of the regime, the media landscape in Iraq has been growing and sprawling uncontrollably in all directions, and the coverage of the socio-political situation is as multi-layered and complex as the situation itself. The discussion with Iraqi journalists and artists explores the role that the media play in the development of conflicts and the tight-rope walk between the freedom of speech and the will to survive. MICT (Media in Cooperation & Transition) introduce the topic with a report. In collaboration with MICT and the Friedrich-Ebert-Foundation. http://www.transmediale.de/site/conference.html ** Conference 'Unfinish!' The transmediale.07 conference, 'unfinish!', deals with the phenomenon of finiteness in art, science, architecture, computer science and politics. The digital culture of the present seems to be neither willing nor able to accep= t final determination and the closure of processes. Instead processuality and continuous and consecutive updates and versions are the credo of current cultural practices. The conference of the transmediale.07 enters into the discrepancy between the desire to open up solidified structures and situatio= ns, and the curse of digital work that doesn=92t come to conclusions,but only to= an iteration of preliminary versions. In this discussion terms such as 'opening= ', 'closure', and 'restart', figure as central aspects. In seven panel discussi= ons and in three keynote speeches, they will be analysed and applied to artistic and socio-political questions. The conference of transmediale.07 in organised in cooperation with the Feder= al Agency for Civic Education. ** transmediale.07 unfinish! January 31 - February 4, 2007 Akademie der Kuenste Berlin, Hanseatenweg 10 # distributed via : no commercial use without permission # is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: [EMAIL PROTECTED] and "info nettime-l" in the msg body # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@bbs.thing.net
Re: Iraq: The Way Forward
On 10/01/07, Felix Stalder <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Now, we are in a situation where nobody has any good idea what to do. [...] > There are no community rituals, no community centers, often there are no > sidewalks. People live in empty soulless houses and drive big empty cars on > freeways to Los Angeles and sit in vast offices and then come home again. I've just read a very thoughtful book, _Carfree Cities_, that begins with an analysis of how cars destroy communities. The author goes on to provide a detailed design proposal for car-free cities, borrowing heavily from Christopher Alexander's architectural design patterns. In essence, the proposal attempts to combine the best aspects of old European neighbourhoods with an urban topology that allows for very efficient public transport based on a metro or tram system. A comparison of car-centric Los Angeles with car-free Venice runs throughout the book. The author's web site provides a brief summary of the book: http://www.carfree.com/ I don't know whether the time is ripe for this idea in the US, but maybe September 11 and the Iraq war could be used to concentrate Americans' minds on an idea that would enable them to rebuild their communities while reducing their dependence on oil (and thus reducing their military presence in the Middle East). Ben # distributed via : no commercial use without permission # is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: [EMAIL PROTECTED] and "info nettime-l" in the msg body # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@bbs.thing.net
Fwd: OPEN LETTER from HUNGER-STRIKERS at Canada's "Guantanamo
as harper's conservatives (better known as right-wing radicals) have been busy solidifying their parliamentary and operational powers in canada without any effective opposition, the 'security certificate' remains the extra-judicial measure that gives canadian government and secret service powers similar to their u.s. counterparts. important to note stockwell day, currently minister for border security, formerly was the leader of the racist reform party that was folded into the present conservative party formation. the detainees who've written the letter below have been on hunger strike for a while. as expected, there is almost no reflection/reporting about this in canadian mainstream media. these men, and the 'toronto 17' detainees, have all but been dropped from canada's dominant political discourse that fabricates our national identity as a democratic nation of peace-keepers! be well. gita -Original Message- From: Justice for Adil [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, January 09, 2007 12:28 PM Subject: [securitycerts-coord] OPEN LETTER from HUNGER-STRIKERS at Canada's "Guantanamo North" Open Letter and Call for Action from Hungerstrikers at "Guantanamo North" Security certificate detainees' Hunger Strike Enters Day 45 for Mahjoub, Day 34 for Jaballah and Almrei TAKE ACTION: SEE END OF EMAIL JANUARY 8, 2007 -- In an open letter released today from the detainees at Canada's Guantanamo Bay -- the Kingston Immigration Holding Centre, located on the grounds of Millhaven Penitentiary outside of Kingston, ON -- Mahmoud Jaballah, Mohammad Mahjoub, and Hassan Almrei have asked the people of Canada to speak up for their rights. The three men have been held indefinitely, without charge or bail, for as long as 6.5 years, on secret evidence neither they nor their lawyers are allowed to see. The open letter comes with the declining health of two of the men. "I normally hear from Mr. Mahjoub every day or so, but he was so weak that he did not call for two days, and when he finally was able to use the phone, he reported a fever, awful headaches, chest pains, pains in his left arm, and overall weakness," says family friend and coordinator of the Campaign to Stop Secret Trials in Canada, Matthew Behrens. "Mr. Jaballah is experiencing the kind of difficulties consistent with a lengthy hunger strike as well, in addition to ongoing pain from a double hernia which, despite being diagnosed last April, has yet to be scheduled for surgery." There has not been a daily check of medical conditions of the hunger-strikers at KIHC. It appears increasingly that the denial of medical care is part of an overall pattern of arbitrary decisionmaking that contributes to a punitive atmosphere against men who are being held indefinitely without charge. TEXT OF THE OPEN LETTER Monday, January 8, 2007 Open Letter to the People of Canada from the Detainees at Canada's Guantanamo Bay We are writing to you because the government of Canada will not speak with us. We are three Muslim men who have been detained under a security certificate, without charge or bail, for between 5 and 6 and a half years. We are not allowed to know the evidence against us. Many groups such as Amnesty International have called security certificates fundamentally flawed and unfair. The United Nations has criticized Canada for this practice. Right now, the Supreme Court is deciding what Canada should do about them. We are held at a place called the Kingston Immigration Holding Centre (KIHC), located on the grounds of Millhaven Penitentiary. Some people have called this place Guantanamo Bay North. Like the detainees in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, we are held indefinitely. This is a kind of psychological torture that is almost unimaginable. We do not know when, or if, we will be released from jail. We still have many months, and possibly years, of jail before us while our cases go through different court proceedings. We have been very patient and done our best to deal with a process where it is impossible to defend yourself. And we will remain patient, because we know that ultimately, we will be let out, because we are innocent men. But sometimes there is only so much human beings should be required to accept before they raise their voice in peaceful protest. Right now we are on a liquid-only hunger strike protesting the conditions of our detention. For Mohammad Mahjoub, it is day 45, for Mahmoud Jaballah and Hassan Almrei, it is day 34. We do not want to be on hunger strike. It is hard on us and our families. But it is the only voice we have. When we were detained in Toronto, there were many hunger strikes protesting our conditions of detention. Because of this, the new facility at Millhaven was built, and now we are three hours away from our loved ones. Many of the things promised to us, such as educational programs and a library, have not happened. We do not have the same rights as co
