We are on the train from Cologne to Brussels to cover Mr. Bush's visit to the European Union for Indymedia UK. Newsstands and websites display pictures of happy European statesmen - Jacques Chirac looking aggressively relaxed during the handshake - and the talk is of rapprochement, a new partnership between America and Europe. Like a bad song or an awkward lover, Mr. Bush declares to the assembled notables that “no power on Earth could ever divide us.”
An old friend of mine once talked about the collision between the real world of human experience and a virtual world. This virtual world of corporate media is inhabited by the Very Important People, he said, and it is what they say, who they sleep with, what they wear, and what they take off that is important in the virtual world. Ordinary people, unpeople, the ones that you and I know, never show up in this world, except when they die, or when they commit a crime and are punished. It is the task of the independent media to map out the vast gap between the virtual and the real worlds – one might say, the gap between Bono and Africa. Another old friend once said “don't piss down my back and tell me it's raining,” which is a simpler way of saying the same thing.
In light of these words of wisdom, what is actually going on in Europe today?
Probably the most interesting thing is the way in which Mr. Bush is being shielded from the mob by his gracious hosts and handlers. Although we might have expected a triumphant mini-trip to London so soon after the elections in Iraq, this was not on the table. Hundreds of thousands of people shut down London the last time Bush visited, but as I have already noted in the corporate media ordinary people do not exist...the media coverage at the time was like a set of spotlights playing around the edges of a black hole. Here, in the independent media, we can give a name to the unmentionable darkness that reared its head in November of 2003: it was the citizenry of London.
Tomorrow, Mr. Bush will visit the small city of Mainz, in Germany. Meaning no offense to the residents of these fine towns, it should be pointed out that the World-Emperor, unable to visit Berlin due to the massive disruptions that security will cause in the German capital, is on the equivalent of a state visit to Dundee, or in American terms, maybe Duluth, Minnesota. The fact that he will be visiting US military bases in the area should at least assure a polite audience.
This is nothing new, of course, and it's unfair to single out Mr. Bush. Since the late 1990s, it has been a certainty that any attempt by heads of governments, industrial leaders, or financial wizards to meet and discuss the business of running the “Free World”, will be met by a vast and unmentionable conspiracy. People who do not normally show up on the evening news organize themselves in novel ways that are increasingly difficult not to notice; the police use batons and gas grenades. Things get tricky. So, as the real world gets moving against the wars, environmental destruction, and the political and economic system, government and corporate leaders withdraw further into the virtual world, visiting small provincial towns under heavy guard. If this process continues, the most powerful men in the world will be forced to drop the pretense that they have any freedom of motion and hold meetings on specially-designed film sets providing the illusion that they are out-of-doors. This is very nearly the case already.
By chance, a group of British teenagers are sitting on the train next to me, taking the piss out of dumb Americans and Tony Blair, and hoping that they will not be “blamed for America” while in Europe because they speak English. In their conversation, they are uniformly against the Iraq war, which they seem to view as an American war, as if Britain were not involved (Mr. Blair seems to count as an honourary American). This view of things is common in Britain, where the corporate media routinely reports details of American atrocities next to tear-jerking accounts of the deaths of British “heroes”, who were presumably standing around innocently, busily not enforcing a colonial occupation. The attitude is echoed in the American media, where the atrocities are generally glossed over, but the “terrible cost of the war in Iraq” is measured in the lost lives of US soldiers. Now, it may be the case that 1,000 dead American soldiers weigh more than 10,000 dead Iraqi children, but it is poor form for anyone to base their moral calculations on this fact, and someone needs to interrupt the news anchors and point this out.
The Europeans have their own peculiar way of reconciling the real and virtual worlds: the statesmen of Europe, according to the press here, “oppose” the war, despite the fact that US aircraft, troops, and supplies move uninterrupted across European territory on their way to the conflict zones in Iraq and also to Afghanistan, the Occupation That Time Forgot. As I finish this in the Brussels indymedia center before heading off to cover the demonstrations, Mr. Bush is asking his fellow NATO members to take a more fundamental role in fostering Iraq's new “democracy.” He is proposing that the Europeans train some Iraqi prison wardens and police, and afterwards maybe contribute more troops in Afghanistan, still not fully under control after three years of occupation.
What we are seeing in the corporate media today is an attempt at a normalization of the world situation, a normalization that has been denied to Mr. Bush by the unpeople of Fallujah and Baghdad, who are executed in their own neighbourhoods by western helicopter gunships and pilotless drones. How the unpeople of Brussels responded yesterday with demonstrations at the Bourse (stock exchange) and will respond again at a large demonstration a few hours from now. Indymedia will be mapping things out as the situation unfolds. Stay tuned...
In light of these words of wisdom, what is actually going on in Europe today?
Probably the most interesting thing is the way in which Mr. Bush is being shielded from the mob by his gracious hosts and handlers. Although we might have expected a triumphant mini-trip to London so soon after the elections in Iraq, this was not on the table. Hundreds of thousands of people shut down London the last time Bush visited, but as I have already noted in the corporate media ordinary people do not exist...the media coverage at the time was like a set of spotlights playing around the edges of a black hole. Here, in the independent media, we can give a name to the unmentionable darkness that reared its head in November of 2003: it was the citizenry of London.
Tomorrow, Mr. Bush will visit the small city of Mainz, in Germany. Meaning no offense to the residents of these fine towns, it should be pointed out that the World-Emperor, unable to visit Berlin due to the massive disruptions that security will cause in the German capital, is on the equivalent of a state visit to Dundee, or in American terms, maybe Duluth, Minnesota. The fact that he will be visiting US military bases in the area should at least assure a polite audience.
This is nothing new, of course, and it's unfair to single out Mr. Bush. Since the late 1990s, it has been a certainty that any attempt by heads of governments, industrial leaders, or financial wizards to meet and discuss the business of running the “Free World”, will be met by a vast and unmentionable conspiracy. People who do not normally show up on the evening news organize themselves in novel ways that are increasingly difficult not to notice; the police use batons and gas grenades. Things get tricky. So, as the real world gets moving against the wars, environmental destruction, and the political and economic system, government and corporate leaders withdraw further into the virtual world, visiting small provincial towns under heavy guard. If this process continues, the most powerful men in the world will be forced to drop the pretense that they have any freedom of motion and hold meetings on specially-designed film sets providing the illusion that they are out-of-doors. This is very nearly the case already.
By chance, a group of British teenagers are sitting on the train next to me, taking the piss out of dumb Americans and Tony Blair, and hoping that they will not be “blamed for America” while in Europe because they speak English. In their conversation, they are uniformly against the Iraq war, which they seem to view as an American war, as if Britain were not involved (Mr. Blair seems to count as an honourary American). This view of things is common in Britain, where the corporate media routinely reports details of American atrocities next to tear-jerking accounts of the deaths of British “heroes”, who were presumably standing around innocently, busily not enforcing a colonial occupation. The attitude is echoed in the American media, where the atrocities are generally glossed over, but the “terrible cost of the war in Iraq” is measured in the lost lives of US soldiers. Now, it may be the case that 1,000 dead American soldiers weigh more than 10,000 dead Iraqi children, but it is poor form for anyone to base their moral calculations on this fact, and someone needs to interrupt the news anchors and point this out.
The Europeans have their own peculiar way of reconciling the real and virtual worlds: the statesmen of Europe, according to the press here, “oppose” the war, despite the fact that US aircraft, troops, and supplies move uninterrupted across European territory on their way to the conflict zones in Iraq and also to Afghanistan, the Occupation That Time Forgot. As I finish this in the Brussels indymedia center before heading off to cover the demonstrations, Mr. Bush is asking his fellow NATO members to take a more fundamental role in fostering Iraq's new “democracy.” He is proposing that the Europeans train some Iraqi prison wardens and police, and afterwards maybe contribute more troops in Afghanistan, still not fully under control after three years of occupation.
What we are seeing in the corporate media today is an attempt at a normalization of the world situation, a normalization that has been denied to Mr. Bush by the unpeople of Fallujah and Baghdad, who are executed in their own neighbourhoods by western helicopter gunships and pilotless drones. How the unpeople of Brussels responded yesterday with demonstrations at the Bourse (stock exchange) and will respond again at a large demonstration a few hours from now. Indymedia will be mapping things out as the situation unfolds. Stay tuned...
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be the media
22.02.2005 16:45
Statewatch News Online, 21 February 2005 (06/05)
Full contents see:
1. EU: Council objects to Commission report which "names and shames"
governments
2. EU: Data Protection and RFIDs
3. "Room to roam - England's Irish Travellers"
4. France: Passengers to face trial for preventing a violent deportation
5. UK: Victory for McLibel 2
6. UN report on threats and challenges
7. Italy: Play on prison life to be staged in Rome
8. UK: The new "anti-terror" laws: Taking Liberties, meeting
9. UK: Britain: A Failed State, meeting
1. EU: COUNCIL OBJECTS TO COMMISSION REPORT WHICH "NAMES AND SHAMES"
GOVERNMENTS
"the habit has been not to "name and shame"" governments which fail to
implement decisions correctly (Presidency, Council of the European Union)
see:
2. EU: Data Protection and RFIDs The EU's Article 29 Working Party is
concerned that some applications may "violate human dignity as well as data
protection rights:
3. "Room to roam - England's Irish Travellers", a report of research by Dr
Colm Power.
"This brief historical perspective outlines recent Irish Traveller
migration to Britain and explains the social, legal and administrative
contexts that impact on Travellers’ lives underlining the necessity for
this research report. Irish Travellers refer to themselves as ‘Pavees’ or
‘Minceir’. They are an indigenous nomadic minority group in Ireland (south
and north) and Britain.":
see:
4. France: Passengers to face trial for preventing a violent deportation:
5. UK: Victory for McLibel 2 against UK Government in European Court of
Human Rights - press statement from the McLibel campaign, ECHR press
release and full-text of the judgment: see:
6. UN: "A more secure world: our shared responsibility" Report of the
High-level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change (full-text, pdf):
7. Italy: Play on prison life to be staged in Rome. The prisoners' cultural
association Papillon which operates from Rebibbia prison in Rome has
organised the staging of a play called La Gabbia. Il carcere come metafora
della violenza quotidiana (The Cage. Prison as a metaphor of everyday
violence) in Rome on 21 March 2005 in the Vittoria
theatre. The play was written by a former inmate, Giulio Salierno, and will
be performed by actors including former inmates, with the support of the
Rome city council and Libera, an association concerned with prisoners'
rights. It is the first step in a project for the establishment of a pilot
multi-purpose social centre to be managed entirely by prisoners and former
prisoners. Leaflet:
8. UK: The new "anti-terror" laws: Taking Liberties, public meeting, 7-9pm
Wednesday 2nd March 2005, Committee Room 10, House of Commons, Westminster.
Hosted by Jim Dobbin MP. Speakers include Gareth Peirce, solicitor; Gillian
Slovo, South-African born novelist; James Welsh, Legal Director of Liberty;
Simon Hughes MP; Richard Harvey, Chair of Haldane Society; Prof. Paddy
Hillyard, Queens University Belfast, author of the book “Suspect
Communities People’s Experience of the Prevention of Terrorism Acts in
Britain”, Saghir Hussein, lawyer and Stop Political Terror. Leaflet:
9. UK: Britain: A Failed State, public meeting with David Shayler, Paul
Feldman & Corinna Lotz. 6pm Thursday February 24 Polis Seminars at London
Metropolitan University, Staff Common Room, Ladbroke House, Highbury Grove,
N5. Leaflet:
BOOKMARK
News online - full contents:
What's New on the Statewatch site:
Statewatch European Monitor:
________________________________________________
Statewatch: Monitoring the state and civil liberties in Europe
PO Box 1516, London, N16 0EW. UK
tel: +44(0)20-8802-1882; fax: +44(0)20-8880-1727
- -
the specticle
23.02.2005 02:21
kali13
Subcomandante Marcos said
24.02.2005 02:28
The giant communication media: the great monsters of the television industry, the communication satellites, magazines, and newspapers seem determined to present a virtual world, created in the image of what the globalization process requires.
In this sense, the world of contemporary news is a world that exists for the VIP's-- the very important people. Their everyday lives are what is important: if they get married, if they divorce, if they eat, what clothes they wear and what clothes they take off-- these major movie stars and big politicians. But common people only appear for a moment-- when they kill someone, or when they die. For the communication giants and the neoliberal powers, the others, the excluded, only exist when they are dead, or when they are in jail or court. This can't go on. Sooner or later this virtual world clashes with the real world. And that is actually happening: this clash produces results of rebellion and war throughout the entire world, or what is left of the world to even have war.
We have a choice: we can have a cynical attitude in the face of the media, to say that nothing can be done about the dollar power that creates itself in images, words, digital communication, and computer systems that invades not just with an invasion of power, but with a way of seeing that world, of how they think the world should look. We could say, well, "that's the way it is" and do nothing. Or we can simply assume incredulity: we can say that any communication by the media monopolies is a total lie. We can ignore it and go about our lives.
But there is a third option that is neither conformity, nor skepticism, nor distrust: that is to construct a different way-- to show the world what is really happening-- to have a critical world view and to become interested in the truth of what happens to the people who inhabit every corner of this world.The work of independent media is to tell the history of social struggle in the world, and here in North America-- the US, Canada and Mexico, independent media has, on occasion, been able to open spaces even within the mass media monopolies: to force them to acknowledge news of other social movements.
The problem is not only to know what is occurring in the world, but to understand it and to derive lessons from it-- just as if we were studying history- - a history not of the past, but a history of what is happening at any given moment in whatever part of the world. This is the way to learn who we are, what it is we want, who we can be and what we can do or not do.
By not having to answer to the monster media monopolies, the independent media has a life work, a political project and purpose: to let the truth be known. This is more and more important in the globalization process. This truth becomes a knot of resistance against the lie. It is our only possibility to save the truth, to maintain it, and distribute it, little by little, just as the books were saved in Fahrenheit 451--in which a group of people dedicated themselves to memorize books, to save them from being destroyed, so that the ideas would not be lost.
This same way, independent media tries to save history: the present history-- saving it and trying to share it, so it will not disappear, moreover to distribute it to other places, so that this history is not limited to one country, to one region, to one city or social group. It is necessary not only for independent voices to exchange information and to broaden the channels, but to resist the spreading lies of the monopolies. The truth that we build in our groups, our cities, our regions, our countries, will reach full potential if we join with other truths and realize that what is occurring in other parts of the world also is part of human history.
In August 1996, we called for the creation of a network of independent media, a network of information. We mean a network to resist the power of the lie that sells us this war that we call the Fourth World War. We need this network not only as a tool for our social movements, but for our lives: this is a project of life, of humanity, humanity which has a right to critical and truthful information.
***
.... Subcomandante Marcos, statement videotaped in the mountains of Chiapas, Southeast Mexico, and delivered to the Media & Democracy Congress, New York City, January 31 & February 1 1997.
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