Tony Benn: "Let's See Action!"
No, it's not Tony covering one of Pete's Baba inspired songs, (though that would be something)
it's a shout out to stop the insanity of war in the Middle East.
Now that I'm settling in here in the UK that Paul Robeson spirit is calling...
Hands Off Lebanon: Friday 18 August 6.30pm , London Wc1
Speakers include: Eyewitness to Israeli attacks in southern Lebanon OMAR NACHABE (senior journalist Beirut newspaper Al-Akhtar), TONY BENN (President Stop the War), JEREMY DEAR (Gen Sec NUJ), LINDSEY GERMAN (Stop the War) Friends Meeting House, Euston Road, London WC1(Opposite Euston Station)»Lebanon War: Questions and Answers
"NOT A PROTEST BUT A DEMAND."
The Right and Honourable Tony Benn:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1rW_HuJPCAUK Jewish Socialist Party: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dTXzji50M4&mode=related&search=
Bianca Jagger:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCse_G4yACk&mode=related&search=
posted by Amanda and SuperAmanda™ at
Thursday, August 10, 2006
24 Comments:
Strikes me A as strange I was swimming in the Med. I dunno. If people knew the waters where they stood, which shores they touched?
All these new pics! Pink is you.
Pink was handy. I really need to find an image where it doesn't appear as though I've had my eyes dug out otherwise.
What I was saying earlier: I guess, in summary, if only people thought before they acted. If only we instinctively acknowledged the distant presence of others.
-ginab
Three times the charm I 'spose and yikes do I feel shal-low writing about it.
Let's See Action
Let's See People
Let's See Freedom
Let's See Who Cares
Take Me With You
When you LEAVE Me
And My Shell Behind Us There.
Sorry to interrupt your roll Gina, and yeah, your vacation pictures are very complimentary. Amanda, you are so well informed and so smart for someone so young, your Mum must have brought you up right - or whoever your caretakers were (not to eschew any of the sweat-breaking work you have done on yourself for yourself). This is my response to this political post. Good luck in St. John's Wood. Going north London way now, eh? Nice.
Hi MateStripe-
Age is just a number ;)
WEST HAM!!
Cheers
Thats my favorite photo Gina it reminds me of 'The Shag!'
Hi Amanda,
Can you believe the craziness going on right now? I will check out those links later, right now it is very late and I should go to sleep.
I'll be back later.
Good night!
Crazy but I'm proud of my adopted homeland for kicking ass and protecting its own.
Hi there Amanda!
Sorry for having been such a bad blogger and not visiting your blog! I'm making it up now. Thanks for telling me about the Tony Benn stuff you posted. Getting into it now, will comment in more detail later.
Maria
As far as I'm concerned, there is no justification for the level of military action in Lebanon. In my opinion it's not about defence but, among other things, a show of power: unlike the previous prime ministers, Ehud Olmert has no military background and needed to prove himself in military affairs. And as a form of defence this kind of military attack is catastrophic: however many so-called terrorists you kill, it doesn't help, if you don't remove the reasons the organisations are able to recruit people. It just increases anger.
Maria
So nice to hear from you Maria, congratulations on completing your manuscript!
Creating peace and respect globally is the only way. I can't get over how limited people in US are in their knowledge about Muslims, it's made me feel much sfarer to be living here. It's almost like Muslims are the new Pinkos to many in the states and no one wants to do any research. I agree with what Bianca Jagger said, that Israel has the right to exist but they have to follow UN regulations. The tripling of the ground forces is bankrupt and awful-more fuel for the fires of war.
Hi Amanda,
I've always thought that a "global religions" unit should be mandatory in elementary school, possibly around grade 4 or 5, not to indoctrinate, but to let children know about the world's great religions and traditions. Only then could we fight some of the ignorance.
Cheers,
AM
anne-marie: It would be excellent to teach comparative religion to youngsters in the US. But then my heart sinks when I think how the crazy reactionaries who are in power over here will fight tooth and nail against other religions being given the same credence as their beloved fundamentalist authoritarian creed. A wonderful idea, but unfortunately, it will never fly in the places that need it most.
On Muslims and Americans being ignorant of Islam, I believe, given the concentrations at universities, that college students take courses in world religions. Like me for instance, I took a course in Islam. And the course was full! But I can only go by my own experiences, too.
hmm.
-ginab
I never realized until I first stepped foot outside the United States (to Europe when I was 11)another world existed, even tho my intellect 'knew' the rest of the world existed! It was a very sobering thought to realze just how outrageously brainwashed the U.S. actually is: like Al Gore said recently in an interview; "the U.S lives in an unreality bubble". Thanx for the great links above Amanda, Heidi.
By the way Tanstripe, Al Gore was speaking about Americans' energy-related wastefullness, and subsequent dependency on unreliable or vulnerable forms and sources (of energy). He wasn't talking about America's ignorance of the world, which is a broad BROAD statement.
When I was 11 and I went to Canada (for one example), I honestly didn't care where I was. When I was 19, I boarded a plane and lived abroad with no intention of ever coming back. I returned to get an education, and the high ed institutes encouraged additional foreign ventures (I studied for one year abroad, e.g.).
American's might (or may not) assume everyone lives like we do, in the day-to-day. Maybe that's part of the illusion--and related more directly to Gore's statement--that there's plenty for everyone. Naive, wishful; and all of that. What I will never understand about any country in the world, any one I have been to, all of them, and then back: is why so few of us read and why the majority reads crap? Read a translation. Read poems. Open up doors and dreams and fears and desires and politics and your mind by going to a public library.
They were calling me Heidi last night because I had plaits.
Just got back from StJohn's Wood and then Highgate and one the most surreal evenings...ended up behind Bishops Gate in this maze of big glass buildings, finally found my way back out behind three guys one of whom was walking and relieving himself simultaneously; I told him he had 'good aim.'
I knew I should have just gone down to the pub ;)
...and on the strange trip home (the whole area looked familiar yet it ws my first visit..) I noticed a few travel agencies for nations i'd never heard of (Baroda?) and I realized how shitty Americans are at Geography.
Generalities...where do they come from?
But I remember when Yugotours were all the bang!
And watch you don't speak to the wrong pisser. Might follow you. You never know! I saw a few in B'lona and in Alicante; thought they would shower off the graffiti. Happens. Drink + night out = pee against a building. Happens especially among tourists, but there I go painting using a broad brush.
A friend of mine looked like Dorothy the other night. Spitting image and not as in ITV.
-ginab
Cheers, Amanda.
That Tony Benn, is one swell guy!
In the interest of fairness, and because my heart is hurting right now, I hope you will keep this up Amanda,
Thank you,
Sue
Israel vs. Hezbollah, right vs. wrong
Posted: August 11, 2006
1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Joseph Farah
© 2006
How people view the conflict in Lebanon is a barometer for determining their ability to discern right from wrong.
If you hear someone fudge on this conflict, it is an indication of a moral failing, a weakness in their heart, a defect in their brain, a darkness in their very soul.
There is no better picture of evil in the world today that the terrorist organization Hezbollah. Founded by the mullahs in Iran, facilitated by two generations of dictators in Syria, it was Hezbollah that killed 241 U.S. Marines sent to Beirut to protect the Lebanese people. Collectively, its terrorist attacks – from Latin America to Asia – have probably killed more innocent people than have been murdered even by al-Qaida.
Hezbollah is bigger and better armed than al-Qaida. And it has maintained an operational alliance with Osama bin Laden's terror network for years.
Quite simply, Hezbollah seeks in the short term to kill all the Jews in the Middle East or scatter them abroad. In the long term, it seeks to impose a worldwide Shiite theocracy like the one currently enjoyed by the people of Iran.
In the other corner, we have Israel. It is hardly a flawless and perfect state. There is no such thing in the world and never has been. But it is a legitimate state founded where no other state existed by a consensus of world opinion following the murder of 6 million Jews in Germany's concentration camps. Israel served as a refuge for nearly 1 million Arab Jews persecuted throughout the Middle East – more, by the way, than even the most exaggerated claims of Arab Palestinian refugees displaced by the war of 1948.
As many other observers have pointed out, you don't need to know much about the complicated history of the Middle East to understand the difference between Israel and its enemies. If Israel's enemies – including Hezbollah – had the power to destroy Israel, it would do so in a heartbeat. Israel, however, actually possesses such awesome power and, of course, has never used it.
There is no moral murkiness here. The raw, unadulterated evil that is Hezbollah is on display for all to see. The basic decency and compassion of the Jewish state has been on display for nearly 60 years.
Yet, look around us and see how many people are still "confused." A recent Los Angeles Times poll showed most Democrats are incapable of making any distinctions between these two warring parties. Sadly, a third of Republicans are also unwilling or unable to distinguish good from evil when it comes to this conflict.
Looking outside the U.S., the picture of moral confusion is even worse. At least half the world is cheering on Hezbollah.
This has nothing to do with Israel's behavior or the behavior of the U.S. Nothing we or the Jews of Israel could do would change the opinion of those aligned with Hezbollah. Like the pharaoh in Egypt, their hearts have been hardened. It will take an act of God to get people like that to see the light – something to hope and pray for, perhaps, but not something any argument will change.
It's disturbing to me to see so many people living in moral confusion – moral darkness. It's worse to think so many Americans are falling into this abyss. It's even more shocking to see so many Israelis incapable of understanding the stakes in this conflict.
There are a lot of people getting weak in the knees right now.
It's not without precedent.
It happened before in 1939.
The dangers we face in the world today are comparable to what the world faced back then – maybe worse.
Today, the Nazis are those claiming to be the original Aryans. In fact, that's a derivation of the name of their country – Iran. They speak openly of wanting to destroy all the Jews. They are working feverishly on the development of nuclear weapons – something Hitler could only dream about.
It's not a time for going wobbly. It's not a time for moral confusion. It's not a time for myopia in distinguishing right from wrong.
OF COURSE I WOULD LEAVE IT UP!
I agree it is so true and I have no problem admitting that I fear a lot about the fundamental Muslim world-I find NO heroes in any of the groups like Hezbollah or Mossad.
Hezbollah's inital act of aggression was pointless., antagonizing and ended up killing hundreds who are simply trying to live.
I agree that Israel has the right to exist and there are times when I'm not exactly that unhappy (as many on the Left are) that they receive more aid from the US than any other country. I was made aware of The Holocaust at a very early age as well as how and why Israel was founded. After watching both the fictionalized version of the murders of the Israel athletes in Munich and the documentary, I realized why Israel is so radically self reliant.
There are answers to peace in the world and in London Muslims of all stripes are everywhere and they love this country, are not anti-semetic and pray for peace like we all do.
Knowing and truly believing that not all Muslims are going to shoot a plane out of the sky and that all Israels are not Zionist zealots is the first step towards a happier war. Perhaps living without cars and private jets is too...
Thank you, Amanda.
xo
Sue
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