5112개의 게시물을 찾았습니다.
Welcome to Chávez-land, the new Latin mecca for the sandalistas (Guardian, UK, 1.15)
Tourists flock not to the beaches, but the slums to see '21st-century socialism'
Tourists now visit Caracas slums such as La Planicie to see the
Chávez revolution. Some praise progress such as Bach playing
in the streets, but others are wary of increasing one-party control.
To sceptics they are naive westerners seduced by hype who would not recognise communist tyranny if it expropriated their sandals. "Malodorous, leftwing, US and European peace creeps armed with mom's credit card and brand new Birkenstocks," according to American Thinker, a rightwing magazine.
To the Venezuelan government they are valued friends who witness firsthand the positive changes in the slums and countryside and who return home, a volunteer army of ambassadors, to spread the good news. To others they are simply curious souls drawn to this corner of South America to see what all the fuss is about.
Meet the revolutionary tourists, a wave of backpackers, artists, academics and politicians on a mission to discover if President Hugo Chávez really is forging a radical alternative to neoliberalism and capitalism.
From a trickle a few years ago there are now thousands, travelling individually and on package tours, exploring a leftwing mecca which promises to build social justice in the form of "21st century socialism".
Successors to the so-called "sandalistas" who flocked to Sandinista-ruled Nicaragua in the 1980s and to Cuba in earlier decades, their ranks are to swell further now that Mr Chávez is accelerating his self-styled revolution after last month's landslide re-election. "Socialism or death - I swear it," he said last week, and declared himself a communist.
Passion
"It's just amazing being here. There is so much vibe and passion, there is truly a sense of revolution," Lucy Dale, 20, a university student from Chicago on a 17-day trip, said last week. "I want to return to do volunteer work."
Global Exchange, a San Francisco-based group which doubles as a travel agent, organised trips for almost 500 Americans last year, five times the 2003 figure, said Jojo Farrell, its Venezuela liaison worker.
From Britain, the Wolverhampton-based Venezuela Solidarity Campaign is planning to send at least six delegations this year, mostly of trade union members. "Interest is growing significantly," said Andy Goodall, the coordinator.
The visitors tend to shun the Caribbean beaches in favour of tours to agricultural cooperatives, shantytown medical clinics and adult literacy programmes, part of the government's effort to spend petrodollars improving the lives of the poor majority.
"We saw healthy, happy well-dressed children taught by well-qualified teachers who get paid a decent salary. These are opportunities that did not exist for poor people before Chávez," said Kate Young, who travelled with the Rotary Foundation.
Others hail Caracas and its alliance with other leftwing governments for loosening Washington's traditional grip over the region. "We need checks and balances to US unilateralism and any good north American would laud Chávez for doing that," said Clif Roberts, a Californian writer who stayed on in Venezuela after attending a poetry festival.
Visiting celebrities such as the actor Danny Glover, the singer Harry Belafonte and the anti-Iraq war activist Cindy Sheehan have echoed the sentiment. London's mayor, Ken Livingstone, and the US doctor-turned political activist Hunter "Patch" Adams, are expected later this year.
"Given the history of gringo intervention in Latin American affairs, the Venezuelans have greeted us with an amazing degree of hospitality and openness," said Edward Ellis, an American anthropologist who coordinates tours.
Many enthusiasts set up solidarity groups when they return home and detail their impressions in blogs, amplifying the message sent out by Venezuela's embassies, information offices and Bolívarian Circles, an expatriate network named after the 19th-century Latin American independence fighter.
The aim is to correct alleged corporate media distortion which depicts the paratrooper-turned president as an autocratic megalomaniac and plays down the groundbreaking social progress.
"The UK media is very disappointing, always a negative slant," said Rod Finlayson, 62, a Ford Dagenham trade union official who was thrilled by the nationalisations and cultural events. "Bach in the slums. Stuff you could only dream about."
Dreaming, say some critics, is the problem: instead of investigating complexities - such as the corruption and mismanagement undermining some social programmes - visitors sleepwalk through government spin and never hear allegations that Venezuela's oil bonanza is being wasted or that democracy is being smothered.
Mr Finlayson said his TGWU delegation ignored such voices because the goal was to express solidarity, not investigate. However, the delegation did encounter some Chávez critics: when walking through an upmarket district of Caracas it was pelted with eggs.
Some groups, such as those travelling with Global Exchange, meet opposition figures and hear claims that Mr Chávez is hoarding power by fusing his movement into a single socialist party, not renewing the licence of an opposition-aligned TV station and plotting to abolish limits on terms of office
Beacon
"I was encouraged by much of what I saw in Venezuela but the focus on one person as the source of hope and improvement strikes me as unfortunate," said Sarah Gelder, an editor at Yes!, a magazine based near Seattle. Another leftwing journalist, Monica Vera, a documentary-maker, hailed the country as a progressive beacon but voiced unease: "I just hope it continues on that track."
On Saturday Mr Chávez welcomed his latest visitor, the Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and announced a plan to build new cities from scratch in the countryside. He also vowed to replace municipal governments with councils inspired by the Paris commune, France's shortlived experiment with radical socialism in 1871.
Socialist TV, by George:
George Galloway wants Venezuela to sponsor a web TV station which will broadcast political satire and speeches by President Hugo Chávez from the Respect MP's home in London.
The political firebrand, below, hopes to visit Caracas next month to request funding and technical support for the venture.
"I'm definitely headed that way," he told the Guardian. "I want to talk to the Veneuzuelans about television."
Mr Galloway, 52, also known as Gorgeous George for his suntan and cigars, said he would host his own version of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, the Emmy-winning US satirical programme.
The MP for Bethnal Green and Bow, who was expelled from the Labour party in 2003 after outspoken opposition to the Iraq war, knows Adán Chávez, Venezuela's education minister, and shares the rhetorical skill and leftwing radicalism of his brother, the president.
The South American leader has launched Telesur, a pan-regional TV station intended to rival CNN, and hosts his own TV show, Alo Presidente, in which he interviews guests and gives monologues which can last more than four hours.
Mr Galloway said his venture required modest resources but that it still needed technical support and content, such as tapes of Mr Chávez's speeches, to fill the time when he was not doing a Scottish socialist version of The Daily Show.
"The plan is pretty advanced but I need help to run the thing. It will probably be broadcast from my front room."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/venezuela/story/0,,1990414,00.html
For more about Venezuela's latest developments:
☞ Archived articles by the Guardian
PS:
Just a some days ago Chavez called, according to the German "left/marxist" daily newspaper Junge Welt, Jesus Christ(!!!) as the greatest socialist..^^(aeh~ actually it was just few days before he(Chavez, not Jesus..) had his "friendship meeting" with his "anti-imperialist brother" Ahmedinejad!!)
"The U.S. Air Force on Tuesday said it will start deploying a squadron of F-117A stealth fighters and some 300 airmen in South Korea for four months..", Chosun Ilbo reported last Thursday (1.11) and on the same day it happened..
..and so JoongAng Ilbo was able to report yesterday following:
‘Routine' arrival of U.S. fighters here also a signal
F-117 stealth jets' deployment is a test of ability to react to North, analyst says
The arrival of a U.S. F-117 Nighthawk stealth fighter squadron at Kunsan Air Base on the southwest coast Thursday has been called a "routine" deployment by U.S. officials, but one U.S. military analyst said the deployment of the unit served to test U.S. readiness to deter a North Korean threat quickly.
The number of arriving aircraft was not announced, but a squadron usually consists of 15 to 24 fighter planes.
Bruce E. Bechtol Jr., a faculty member of the Marine Corps Command and Staff College, said Wednesday in an interview that the deployment and another one of F-22 Raptor fighter planes to Japan recently had motives beyond the official explanation.
In military terms, he said, the deployments were tests of what the U.S. military calls "flexible deterrent options."
Mr. Bechtol said the philosophy behind the term was at least partly to ensure that an attack on South Korea by the North could be repelled quickly.
Other military analysts commenting on earlier deployments of stealth (radar-evading) aircraft here also served to give air crews a look at a potential combat theater and test the aircraft operating systems in the field (NK's air space..??)
The deployment comes at a time when speculation is mounting that North Korea may conduct a second nuclear test; its first, on Oct. 9, is generally considered to have been only partly successful.
Last month, six-nation talks to induce North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons programs ended inconclusively after a year's pause in the negotiations.
Mr. Bechtol has worked as a senior analyst at the Defense Intelligence Agency and as a cryptographer at several duty posts. He worked in South Korea for four years in that capacity..
http://joongangdaily.joins.com/200701/12/200701122112250539900090409041.html
When I remember well, US military strategists/"scientists" suggested few years ago in one of the OPLAN's (just) one way how to f.. the KPA: temporally limited violations of the DPRK air space would leed to increased activities of NK's airforce - hunt them from east to west and from north ot south and after a short while they will run out off kerosene..^^
20 additional war planes might be enough for to carry out this plan...
For the details of some of the different OPLAN's please check out this:
OPLAN 5027 - Major Theater War
OPLAN 5026 - Air Strikes
OPLAN 5029 - Collapse of DPRK
OPLAN 5030 - Rollback of DPRK
오늘:
그리스
Activists of the Greek (anarchist) resistance movement..
Just today (CET), in a "heroic attack", militants of the Greek anti-imperialist movement - in this case the "Revulotionary Struggle" organisation - perforated the US embassy in Athens. With the help of a RPG(!!) they broke the window(!!) of one of the toilets in the building.^^
Shell hits US embassy in Athens (Guardian)
Rocket grenade attack hits U.S. Embassy in Athens (IHT)
FAT GERMAN RABBITS TO FEED THE POORMonster Bunnies For N. KOREA
An east German pensioner who breeds rabbits the size of dogs has been asked by the DPRK to help set up a big bunny farm to alleviate food shortages in the communist country. Now journalists and rabbit gourmets from around the world are thumping at his door.
It all started when Karl Szmolinsky won a prize for breeding Germany's largest rabbit, a friendly-looking 10.5 kilogram "German Gray Giant" called Robert, in February 2006.
Images of the chubby monster went around the world and reached the reclusive communist state of North Korea, a country of 23 million which according to the United Nations Food Programme suffers widespread food shortages and where many people "struggle to feed themselves on a diet critically deficient in protein, fats and micronutrients."
Szmolinsky, 67, from the eastern town of Eberswalde near Berlin, recalls how the North Korean embassy approached his regional breeding federation and enquired whether it might be willing to sell some rabbits to set up a breeding farm in North Korea. He was the natural choice for the job.
Each of his rabbits produces around seven kilograms of meat, says Szmolinsky, who was so keen to help alleviate hunger in the impoverished country that he made the North Koreans a special price -- ?80 per rabbit instead of the usual ?200 to ?250.
"They'll be used to help feed the population," Szmolinsky told SPIEGEL ONLINE. "I've sent them 12 rabbits so far, they're in a petting zoo for now. I'll be travelling to North Korea in April to advise them on how to set up a breeding farm. A delegation was here and I've already given them a book of tips."
Greedy Rabbits
Szmolinsky knows what he's talking about. He has been breeding rabbits for 47 years. The 12 bunnies he sent can produce 60 babies a year -- if the North Koreans find enough food to feed them properly. "I feed them everything -- grain, carrots, a lot of vegetables. At the moment they're getting kale," said Szmolinsky.
"One rabbit provides a filling meal for eight people. There are a variety of recipes such as rabbit leg or rabbit roulade. No one buys rabbit fur anymore though, I just throw that in the bin," says Szmolinsky with chilling dispassion.
He breeds between 60 and 80 rabbits per year and manages to stay emotionally detached enough to send the furry, innocent-looking, huge-eared creatures to slaughter. Asked if he has any pet bunnies he could never part with, he said: "You can't hang on to them, if you did you wouldn't be able to breed them."
Szmolinsky's North Korean connection has attracted media attention from around the world, and he seems to be getting tired of it. "I'm getting ambushed by camera crews," he said, adding that he was booked up with interview appointments for days. "There's a Japanese crew flying in from Paris later."
Potential Chinese buyers have also expressed an interest. Szmolinsky doesn't know how many more rabbits he will be sending to North Korea and said he definitely wouldn't be increasing his own production to satisfy growing demand from Asia.
"I'm not increasing production and I'm not taking any more orders after this. They cost a lot to feed," he said.
Der Spiegel, 1.10
☞ Robert der Rammler goes East
☞ Riesen-Kaninchen fuer Nordkorea
2007 - the Beginning of the "Future" of Capitalism(?!)
In 2005 Siemens, one of Germany's main conglomerates, sold its mobile phone production company to BenQ (Taiwan). In the end of last year the mother company of BenQ terminated complete the financing of BenQ-Siemens Mobile, because actually nobody wanted to buy this oldstyle sh.. So in the last days of January 2006 BenQ-Siemens announced insolvency (i.e. the company was complete bancrupt) and the dismissal of all 800 employees (wow, for them it was a very "beautiful" Christmas present!!).
Now a German/American group of investors announced last weekend - according to German magazines and newspapers, like Der Spiegel, Berliner Zeitung, WAZ.. - that they want to take over the company for continuing the production.
But they announced also "great" ideas about the conditions how (only) the take-over can become reality:
1. The investor group will pay NOTHING for (the take-over of) the company
2. The federal government have to pay them 100 Million Euro
3. At least in the first 4 month or so they will pay the employees NOTHING (i.e. no salaries, no health insurance etc...)
TRULY A MAGIC IDEA (for the further development of the capitalism)!! ^^
First of all: Today's Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung (the Sunday edition of THE MAIN bourgeois German daily FAZ) maintained that the paper has evidence that the "supernotes" - i.e. the falsified/faked 100-$-notes - were produced in CIA printing offices (to finance CIA undercover activities/operations) and not in the DPRK (Stammen die „Supernotes” von der CIA?).
Anyway.. here's a kind of collections of last week's articles, reports and comments about/from the DPRK:
"On January 4 on Kim Il Sung Square, Pyongyang, 100,000 citizens hold a rally,
vowing that they will follow the direction sought by the government’s New Year’s
joint editorial, which was published in three state-run newspapers.
This year’s joint editorial emphasized the country’s "military-first" policy
and economic recovery as the top agenda items."
(Korean Central News Agency, Yonhap, Hankyoreh)
"The New Year's Day of Juche 96 (2007) has come. From the early morning,
streams of the Korean people visit statues of the great President Kim Il Sung,
the eternal sun of Juche... to make a New Year's bow to him" (KCNA)
I Will Be the Highest Leader till 90 Years (DailyNK)
Reports Indicate N. Korea Plans New Test (AP)
North Korea accuses US of conducting practice aerial strikes (AP)
North Korea on Saturday accused the US of carrying out aerial exercises to practice strikes on targets in the country.
The North's Korean Central News Agency said the exercises were conducted over South Korea, but were meant as practice runs for possible aerial attacks against North Korea. "Strategic bombers of the US imperialist aggression forces staged a DPRK-targeted madcap air strike exercise" on Friday, KCNA reported, citing an unidentified military source..
U.S. warns N.K. against another nuclear test (K. Herald)
The Book A Year in Pyongyang, written by Andrew Holloway, was already published in 2003, but - in my opinion - it is still very interesting to read it.
^^(*)
Chapter 1
There are times in life when even the dullest and most complacent among us feel the need to make a change. It was at such a time in my life that a friend drew my attention to a job she had seen advertised on a Leeds University notice board. It was an unusual job in a little known country. The remuneration was not extravagant, but I estimated it would be sufficient for me to meet my ongoing commitments and save enough to tide me over on my return until I could find another job.
The country was the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, better known in the west as North Korea. The job entailed raising translations into English that Koreans had made of the works of their President, Kim Il Sung, his son and heir apparent Kim Jong Il, and sundry other propaganda...
Please read the entire book (23 chapters!!) here!
* source of the pic(the t-shirt):
Jean-Baptiste KIM, one of the main promoters (or better said: THE main promoter) of "2007 PY Rock Festival/ROCK FOR PEACE" (☞ 평양 2007年 5月) published on the first day of the new year following statement:
"I .. need to announce that ROCK FOR PEACE will be suspended along with myself. It was my passion to bring rock festival into North Korea but I decided not to continue on this project because I know full details of the event, the reasons, the purposes, the backgrounds, everything. The reason why I abandon the event is because the event was politically designed which gives more pains to ordinary people but more benefits to the regime. The event was designed to generate westernized reputations over the current isolated image of the regime. I have generated lots of reactions from world medias and I was about to use them in order to generate new political images for internal and external political purposes. It has been also designed to make more money while UN sanction is restricting DPRK rulers. I am pretty much sure that the money I create from this project will not benefit ordinary people but only gives political fund for ruling minority only..."
His entire statement ("MY COUP D'ETAT, CONSCIENCE AGAINST REASONS OF STATE") - actually he's breaking complete with the DPRK - you can read here: http://www.voiceofkorea.org
최근 덧글 목록