NeWs 23/24th July. Flesh Eating spiders + polite mercenaries
I must begin this week’s news report with a short but weighty apology. Sincerely I am almost embarrassed by my inability to dive headfirst back into the MiddleEastern problem. The best I can manage, and ‘best’, is not the appropriate word..um…maybe ‘only semblance of satisfactory reportage’…this topic deserves the verbatim views from those directly afflicted. My studies of others’ studies can only take me so far. Not far enough, in my view…But still, I must try…Though let it be known, before you start trying to make sense of my latest bout of confusion, that this text draws heavily on expert testimony as opposed to my normal output of bare facts mixed with personal reaction.What more can I say other than : I feel damn guilty?. Guilty of paying taxes to governments which have scant regard for anything organic. We should all feel shame, serious shame, for our lack of physical/ violent reaction to the Israeli government’s recent decisions, which for my two cents, have been rapidly edging closer towards genocidal. Olmert says that he will not stop the bombardment until his soldiers are released and Hizbollah disarmed. His army continues to heinously murder swathes of innocent Lebanese civilians and the latest update that I read, implied that soon the ground troops will be deployed.
If a thorough demolition of Lebanon’s infrastructure is not enough for Olmert and his cold-blooded gang, then what, I ask you will, will be enough?? Does anyone seriously believe that dropping a 500lb bomb next to a Palestinian refugee camp is going will lead to a Hizbollah surrender??? In the words of a father who lost an infant son to that ‘strategic bombing’ …“Children…Children…” he emotionally growled through his weeping, “ Children here…My son here.” He stood and looked down into the crater: “Is Hizbullah here?’ (Guardian)
As Dostoyevsky would say, I am primed, and no doubt that encourages my emotions to roam somewhat wild, but still…Just sitting here, staring at those words, and imagining the scene of that father speaking that line, with a huge crater in front of him, where he last saw his son alive…And I am not bothering to hold back these tears,… but deep down my compassion angers me, because for that man, for his child, it means jack-shit. My pity and my anger are powerful but useless to all affected by the hellish Israeli ‘defensive’ manoeuvres….I am not even sure that this ‘spreading awareness’ game is either suited to my character or successful in it’s aims, but I will continue, because there is always hope….but not while these polite mercenaries are running the show…
The G8 and China.: why the fuck are they smiling?. And has Chiraq began the sliding down the slippery slop of dementia? …
Last week, in St Petersburg (russia), there just happened to be the prime opportunity for the world’s power-mongers to show some respect to the sanctity of human life through ordering immediate action AGAINST THE ISRALI ARMY AND GOVERNMENT. But alas, this is not what transpired, when the G8 summit got underway.
Who the hell are these goons which align under the G8 flag???
The Group of Eight (G8) consists of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Together, these countries represent about 65% of the world economy (The People’s Republic of China is notably missing from this group). The hallmark of the G8 is an annual political summit meeting of the heads of government with international officials, though there are numerous subsidiary meetings and policy research. (wikipedia).
The most noteworthy phrase in that block of text is ‘about 65% of the world economy’ and bear in mind that by bringing in the Chinese(who as a burgeoning world power are gaining access to the G8 crowd, with membership on the horizon) that 65% perhaps moves closer to 75%. Basically we are talking about the figureheads of the richest governments on Earth. And it seems fair enough to expect this group to accept some form of responsibility for the well being of the world as a whole and all of it’s creatures.. Whether through minor ministerial meetings, or the annual summit itself, the group discusses ‘topics such as health, law enforcement, labour, development, energy, environment, foreign affairs, justice and interior, terrorism, trade, and also issues of mutual or global concern’. So it is fair to have expected the current Israel/Palestine/Lebanon problem to have figured high on the G8 agenda. It was definitely spoken about, but President Bush (and perhaps some others of whose names haven’t been mentioned in the report I have read) is steadfastly refusing to budge from his ignorant and to be honest, typically mistaken conclusion, that ‘hizbollah are to blame for everything’. Tony Blair and UN super-stud Kofi Anan have since made public calls for an international force to be deployed to the region to halt the carnage and slaughter, but then the English government are also one of Israel’s top European allies…
So why the two-faced routine Mr Blair..could it have something to do with this>
‘Campaigners have demanded that Britain impose a ban on arms sales to Israel after figures showed that the Government licensed £23m worth of weaponry to be shipped to the country in the past year. They warned that British arms sales to Tel Aviv broke the Government’s pledge not to stock the arsenals of countries where there is a risk of regional instability or conflict.’(Observer, July 2006)
I wonder if there were any British licenced weapon sales to Hizbollah??? Probably not, because UK, like many countries, brand the group, ‘terrorists’.
As for an explanation for Bush’s woeful reluctance to study the facts of the situation, we don’t need to look too far…And how easily I found this information almost shocked me as much as the weight of the words themselves. The lady who is quoted in the following passage is Frida Berrigan., Senior Research Associate with the Arms Trade Resource Center at the World Policy Institute…( The Arms Trade Resource Center was established in 1993 to engage in public education and policy advocacy aimed at promoting restraint in the international arms trade)—–>
Almost all of the weapons used by Israel are from the United States. There might be a couple French fighter planes that they’re using, but its F-16s made in Fort Worth, Texas; its Apache helicopters; its Sparrow and Sidewinder missiles; it’s all from the United States. So you have this real disconnect between an overemphasis on the supply by Iran and Syria of Hezbollah’s weapons and no discussion of the fact that all of the Israeli arsenal is from the United States, and that that is in contravention to U.S. law. to the Arms Export Control Act, which says that U.S.-origin weapons are only to be used for self-defense and for internal security.
(Now we can start to understand why Bush keeps stating that ‘Israel have a right to defend their country’)
(Since 2001)We’re looking at incredible increases in U.S. military aid and weapons sales to Israel. Military aid stands at about $3 billion a year. That’s about $500 for every Israeli citizen that the United States provides on an annual basis. And then, weapons sales, most recently, since the Bush administration came into power, we’re looking at $6.3 billion worth of weaponry sold to Israel.
…the United States provides 20% of the Israeli military budget on an annual basis, and then about 70% of that money that is given from the United States, from U.S. taxpayers, to Israel is then spent on weapons from Lockheed Martin and Boeing and Raytheon.
…when you’re talking about 20% of the Israeli military budget, you’re talking about a huge fulcrum of leverage, right? The United States could today say, you know, “This incursion into Lebanon, the killing of civilians, the bombing in Gaza, all of this is not internal security, all of this is not self-defense, and we’re cutting it off.” And they could cut it off tomorrow. And that would essentially not only send an incredibly strong message to the Israeli military, but it would remove the tools of the occupation, the tools of the bloodshed and the suffering that’s happening in Lebanon and in Gaza. ..on the 14th(july), the United States decided to sell $120 million worth of jet fuel to the Israeli military. The little notice that announced the sale from the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said, “This fuel will be used to promote peace and security in the region.” And then, meanwhile, you have jets strafing villages, bombing civilians, taking out bridges, destroying water treatment plants
…the largest weapons manufacturer in this country(US) is Lockheed Martin. It’s based in Texas. And it manufactures the F-16 fighter plane, all manner of missiles. It manufactures the C-130, which is a huge transport plane. It’s the biggest weapons manufacturer in the world.
Lockheed Martin and the Israeli military recently went into business together, co-producing a version of the F-16 fighter plane called the Sufa, which means “storm” in Hebrew. It’s built partially outside of Tel Aviv, and then the final work is done in Ft. Worth, Texas. It’s a $4 billion deal with the Israeli military. For the first time, an Israeli military company is contributing in its manufacturing the avionics of the plane. So there’s this — it’s almost this supranational relationship between Lockheed Martin and the Israeli defense industry. It’s a kind of relationship that weapons corporations in this country would like to see with other countries, where they work directly with — they sort of transcend government and work directly with the manufacturers of weapons in other countries. …
(all the above taken from DemocracyNow.com)
It is suddenly becoming all too painfully palpable for my small heart and ultra-absorbent mind. Money, seems to be the driving force behind Bush’s evil ignorance. This is a depressingly accurate example of blood-letting for financial gain. But there is certainly much more to the story, than the obvious $ arrangements which Frida so succinctly outlined. I have not the energy or inclination to attempt to explain why it is that American citizens pay for 20% of the Israeli annual military budget. But it isn’t a point to be forgotten, such is it’s obvious pertinence to this, the latest in a lengthening line of wars that are fought primariliy to make money. This is the reality, not conjecture. For America and the UK to lecture Syria and Iran about supplying weapons to Hizbollah, is tow-faced and yet another illustration of how little those swine care about telling the truth. As a friend remarked to me, after discussing this very topic : ‘(those fuckers are).. lizard people’….
The $$ just keep on rolling in for those American Arms Manufacturers, as another Israeli bomb pounds a Lebanese village.
British foreign minister, Kim Howells, yesterday publicly criticized the American government. And his words, though not echoed by the PM Tony Blair, have not yet been dismissed or denounced. Perhaps in his most pleasant dreams that is exactly what Mr Blair would like to say, but he can’t, because his hands, legs and tongue are all tied into a tangle of political knots. I do see almost a flicker of belief in the PM’s eyes, only on certain occasions, belief that he can do Good…Still, for now, I still consider him as much of a Sadist as Mao, just with a different fashion sense.
‘‘The destruction of the infrastructure, the death of so many children and so many people: these have not been surgical strikes. If they are chasing Hizbollah, then go for Hizbollah. You don’t go for the entire Lebanese nation.‘ The minister added: ‘I very much hope that the Americans understand what’s happening to Lebanon.’ A few hours before Howell’s disdainful observations, US president, Bush had declared that he was sending, to Israel, the US Secretary of Hate, Condi ‘bull-shark’ Rice, who will apparently ‘make it clear that resolving the crisis demands confronting the terrorist group that launched the attacks and the nations that support it’. Yes, I guess that makes perfect sense if you are a hick retard who somehow became King. Wise move as ever, Bush. I mean honestly, that Nazi bitch can only make matters worse. Everywhere she goes, she spreads disharmony and terror. It is her, whom I consider to have some control over or intentional subordination, to whatever force exists on this planet, maybe in the galaxy as a whole, which is responsible for creating all that is Evil.
To allow her out of US territory is like unleashing a starving crocodile into a paddling pool full of delicious infants.
Condi Rice. perhaps the most dangerous lady on the planet…and undoubtedly a queen bitch.
To finish this middle eastern report, which is suitably reliant upon the words of experts, I will display the most recent death charts…
More than 350 Lebanese have been killed in the 11 days of violence, most of whom were civilians.
Thirty-four Israelis have been killed, including 15 civilians killed by rockets fired by Hezbollah into Israel. (BBC)
Well I can’t move straight from that horror onto a happier subject. There needs to be a connecting piece, something which perks my wayward spirits and then beats them into positivity…can it be done???
I have always been shit-scared of spiders. Unreasonably so. Having sampled a variety of environments, I have often been forced to confront, instantly become engulfed by the adrenalin of groundless fear, then run from, these 8 legged beasts. And yes, I have seen a few which I would call beasts. The biggest of which, or most ‘beastly’ was a spider in Nepal, which had a body bigger than my whole fucking head I had to get the guesthouse owner- an elderly, rugged, warm-hearted native- to follow me to see why I point blank refused to enter my room. She of course spoke no English but immediately understood my predicament when her eyes met those of the beast. However, contrary to my own feeble reactions, the veteran spider-handler cornered the intruder-as one might corner a small cat- then proceeded to scoop it up in between both her hands. I can vividly remember the scene of this tiny, wrinkled old dear, laughing as she calmly strolled out of my room, carrying in her hands the source of such pure panic. As much as it sends icy shivers up my spine right into my brain, I must add that I can still see the furry legs wiggling in indignation, in between the ladies’ fingers…
So, imagine how ecstatic I was when I found myself staring at this:>
The caption next to that fearful picture hardly helped calm my growing anxiety…
A photo of two huge spiders, each the size of a man’s calf, was accompanied by an alarming note. The sender said his or her friend—or friend of a friend—knew a soldier stationed in Iraq who had said that these spiders could inject a sleeping soldier with anesthetic, then chew out a chunk of flesh.
Thankfully, a little research was all that was needed to balance out some of that craziness with truth. A National Geographic report explains that these creatures, though part of the Arachnid family and often called camel spiders, are not classed as spiders. This non-venomous Arachnid branch are also called solifugids and/or wind scorpions. The little bastards can run damn fast, but their natural diet is insects, invertebrates, and sometimes small reptiles, NOT human flesh or camel back. In Mexico, the wind scorpions enjoy similar notoriety as seen in their colloquial name matevenados, which translates as ‘deer killers’.
Amusingly, Donnie ‘dick-brain’ Rumsfeld refused to acknowledge the conclusion of the NG report, choosing instead to issue a ‘shoot on sight’ order to all American troops in Iraq who encounter the ‘poisonous, leg-eating, parasites’ (camel spiders)….
I need a breather from Earthly issues so let us move swiftly, astronomically, to the scene of a solar explosion of stunning effects. 5000 light years away, there are two stars which are closely orbiting each other. One is in the Red Giant stage (of the star cycle), while the other is currently classed as a ‘white dwarf’(and this dwarf has a name which is RS Ophiuchi) …Gas is attracted from the gargantuan stellar entity to it’s pale weaker nearby cousin, and this gas builds up until ‘thermonuclear reactions to begin, similar to those which power the Sun but which runaway into a massive explosion. In less than a day, its energy output increases to over 100,000 times that of the Sun, and the gas [almost equaling the mass of the Earth] is thrown into space at speeds of several thousand km/second. This ejected matter then slams into the extended atmosphere of the bloated red giant and sets up blast waves that accelerate electrons to almost the speed of light. The electrons release radio waves as they move through a magnetic field; that are then picked up by the telescope arrays.”( Professor Mike Bode, of Liverpool John Moores University)
An inter-stellar tryst…
Finally after a long over-due domestic pounding, the Bush administration has agreed to comply with the decision, of both the Pentagon and Supreme Court, to apply Geneva conventions to not only the detainees held at Guantanamo Bay but also to every prisoner held in secret CIA prisons on foreign soil (The Geneva Conventions consist of four treaties formulated in Geneva, Switzerland, that set the standards for international law for humanitarian concerns). This is wonderful news for anyone who values the ideals of equality and global law because from now onwards, Americans will be breaking their own laws(as well as international legislation) if they torture suspects/detainees. Reprehensively bitter, none of Bush’s goon squad were pleased with the turn-around……“We strongly believe that terrorists picked up off the battlefield- who don’t represent a nation, and refuse to wear uniforms- do not qualify for protections under Geneva” said White House counselor, Dan Bartlett.
‘Sick mongrel of the week’ goes to Dan Bartlett….(sitting to Bush’s left)
Writer of the week goes to Dostoyevsky, again, for The Idiot
Why also, waking from your dream and completely entering reality, do you feel almost every time, and sometimes with an impression that is extraordinarily strong that together with the dream you are leaving something that, for you, is unresolved? You laugh at the absurdity of your dream and at the same time feel that in the interweaving of these absurdities there is some idea, but an idea that is now a reality, something that is part of your real life, something that exists and has always existed in your heart; it is as though what your dream has told you is something new, prophetic, something you have been waiting for; your impression is a strong one, it is joyful or a tormenting one, but of what it consists, and what was told to you – all that you can neither understand nor remember.
(from The Idiot)
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