World Newswire Archive

Welcome to Palestine Today a service of the International Middle East Media Center www.imemc.org, for Thursday May 12, 2011

An anarchist from Bristol travels to Benghazi to join the Libyan Peoples Revolution and help what ever way he can...This is part 1 of his story so far...

As you can guess from the title I'm writing to you from Benghazi "Free Libya". I left Bristol about 20 days ago and flew to Cairo, ominously on a one way ticket. My plan was simple to join the Libyan Peoples Revolution and help what ever way I could (they don't like the words rebel or rebellion they call themselves 'revolutionaries')

My motives for joining are fairly anarcho-simple; join the revolution and help topple a dictator, an under equipped peoples militia against a totalitarian regime, a people sick of an underdeveloped neglected with a mega rich family ruling it from lavish palaces and in a small way for an adventure and excitement something you only seem to get in small amounts when it kicks off a riot or demo. I've been from Genoa to Copenhagen, Greece to Scotland and about half the European capitals in-between with the bloc and street medics in the last ten years, fighting for social change and not getting it. So when I looked at Libya and it ordinary people succeeding in liberating its second largest city (Benghazi) and then half the country there was no where else i wanted to be.

Getting there was the easy bit , I got an over night bus from Cairo to Saluum in the far West ($10) and a taxi the last 12 km to the border post. That was where it started to get real , there are about 250+ people living in the border complex carpark stuck in between Libya and Egypt all under plastic tents and tarps they are all migrant workers who left Libya when the fighting started none of them have money to go home or visas to enter Egypt. The guys I talked to were Ethiopian Christians who cant or wont go back to Ethiopia because of religious persecution they all like Libya and its people and want to go back there to live and work, apparently the money is quite good. Everyone at the border area were quite friendly, tents have been handed out,showers and toilets work (but they would remind you of ones at a squat party)

They jack free electricity off of lamp posts. The IOM (International Organisation of Migrants) hands food three times a day, the Red Cross register everyone and carry out health care clinics .But when I passed through some of the people had been there for two months with out a doubt they are still there right now. Couldn’t hardly keep from nervous laughter as I approached the Libyan side of the border, what exactly was I going to tell them? Beyond a passport I had nothing,no contacts in Libya, no one to meet me, no letter of introduction, no contract of employment. I decided at all costs not to lie because lies have a way of tripping you up later on . So I said I was a humanitarian volunteer hoping to imply that I was some sort of aid worker which I suppose I am. The production of an Irish passport seemed to calm them. They weren’t suspicious or hostile just mystified. They stamped my passport and wished me luck! So this is it, up till now it was all just theory, where to go? how to get in? Buying maps, packing bags, the torture of the two weeks notice I had to give at work. But I had done it, I got a lift to the next city Tobruk 180km away for $20. Sat in the front seat laughing , laughing at the mission ahead, laughing at the self doubt of the last three weeks, just happy to be doing it not thinking it.

I texted my main man in Bristol to keep him informed of what i was doing, before I left I bought two identical maps leaving one with him just so I would have some one in Bristol keeping an eye on me . Within 40km of the border vodafone reception gave up, that took the smile off my face.

I got dropped off at a posh hotel on the edge of Tobruk, it was going to get dark soon so I booked in ($80), big hotels are good for information , money exchange, fixers and interpretors .The next morning I changed Dollars to Dinar and got a taxi to Benghazi. Please note that there is no way to withdraw cash in this country no banks open, no cash machines working, Western Union has suspended all operations no one will accept credit or debit cards, if you don't have it in your pocket when you cross the border, your screwed.

I got to Benghazi after a 6 hour journey in a taxi, it cost me $105 which is about 3 times that of a bus but it went direct, saving me 10 hours travel time and it dropped me right to a hotel, bear in mind I have a 24 kilo rucksack (half of it is tools). He drops me at another posh hotel (my last) . This hotel is crawling with corporate media, satellite dishes on the lawn, journo only internet, Government press conference every two days etc.,I book in ($80) drop my bags and head into town to have a look around (and find a cheaper place to stay)....

(Image: Benghazi Media Centre) Original Article

An interesting article on the current state of affairs of young people and the leftist movement in Ukraine. Interesting to read the history of current Russian Ukrainian oligarchs to see how they started out, but you need to delve deep, much further than "their own" "official" biographies which don't often mention how they "started out" as racketeers, smugglers from an early age and grew from out of the Soviet black market underground, and became ologarchs after Yeltsin took power.

An estimated 2 billion people watched the lavish wedding of Kate and William in London that cost the British economy $10 billion from a national day off work. We all wish the best for the happy couple. However the TV coverage permitted by the Royal Family involved massive censorship of the Australian ABC and indeed all other media. The Royal Family and the British Establishment survive through censorship, lies (of commission and omission) and slice (spin-based untruths) and this latest British censorship demands exposure of Britain’s horrendous past and continuing imperialist crimes.

Regarding the extremely serious injury of demonstrator Yiannis K. and the attempted cover-up by the police

Yiannis K., who is currently intubated in a critical condition at the intensive care unit of the Nikaia Hospital in Athens having received murderous blows to his head by the Riot Police, was one of the thousands of demonstrators who participated in the General Strike demonstration of May 11th. More specifically, during the entire demonstration – including the moment when he was attacked at Panepistimiou Ave – Yiannis was in the block of the assembly of resistance and solidarity of Kypseli/ Patision.

I'm sure this constitutes "non-news" but it does also constitute a collective sense of relief at still having an open publishing platform to express whatever's on your mind....

Just Do It will be premiering at Sheffield Doc Fest on Thursday June the 9th at 6:35pm  http://bit.ly/jJ6ryI

Don't miss out on the World Premier of this groundbreaking doc, book your tickets here  http://www.showroomworkstation.org.uk/justdoitqanda

This year, Israel's Independence Day theme was "Looking after one another - the year of mutual care," denied anyone not Jewish, especially Palestinians, but also Israeli Arabs, one-fifth of the population treated more like a fifth column than citizens.

President Shimon Peres and other Israeli officials ignore its decades of slaughter, destruction, and ruthlessness against regional Arabs, belying any notion of morality. Palestinians understand well, by far paying the greatest price, ongoing daily.

Welcome to Palestine Today a service of the International Middle East Media Center www.imemc.org, for Wednesday May 11, 2011

One person, described on athens.indymedia as being struck on the head with a truncheon, leading to severe hemmorage. Not yet clear whether he will survive. The local hospital collective came out and said something about police brutality.

Dozens of others injuired, police in one hospital sking about injured

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The annual demonstration over Nestlé's pushing of baby milk will take place on Saturday 21 May, 11:00 - 12:00 in Croydon. If you can't attend, you can still send us your 'Nestlé, Good Grief!' jingle.

The six Iranian activists protesting against the Home Office in Croydon and central London will stop their hunger strike tomorrow (Wednesday 11 May). They are calling for supporters to join them outside the Amnesty International head office (1 Easton St, London WC1) at 12 noon tomorrow, where they will cut the stitches sealing their mouths.

Media Lens is a media analysis organisation set up by David Edwards and David Cromwell in 2001 to highlight the shortcomings of mainstream media reporting in Britain. Sending out regular email alerts to its subscribers, it questions the coverage of key topics by ‘impartial’ sources like the BBC, as well as traditionally liberal publications like the Independent. Ultimately, it hopes to encourage members of the public to challenge journalists and editors over the way they report. After publishing a couple of Media Lens alerts in Now Then in the past few months, we spoke to David Edwards about the venture and how it got off the ground on the month of its 10th anniversary.

Iranian Hunger Strikers and Petition submission by Peacestrike to 10 Downing Street

It is now 35 days since they started their action.

During filming for the upcoming documentary feature 'The Crisis of Civilization' Dean Puckett asked best-selling author and international security analyst Dr. Nafeez Ahmed for his thoughts on the recent death of Osama Bin Laden.

The story in pictures

This article highlights a shameless Washington effort to compound one lie with others. Ad nauseam accounts continue, contributing to war on terror fear mongering that's changed America dramatically post-9/11 disturbingly. It suggests worse yet to come, including perhaps more war besides others now raging, while popular needs go begging.

Despite poll data showing opposition, they continue because people focus more on bread and circuses than activism, the only way to achieve constructive change. It's high time opinions became anger enough to significantly make a difference. It better because the alternative is too dire to imagine.

Welcome to Palestine Today on this Tuesday 10 of May 2011. This is the daily round up of today’s events from around Palestine as brought to you by the International Middle East Media Centre, www.imemc.org. I am David Steele

Radio Kebele! interviewed RAMONA AFRICA about the 26th anniversary of the bombing of MOVE in Philadelphia, United States.