latin american princesa {LAP}

This video introduces a tour arranged by Just Foreign Policy to counter the Bush administration’s calls for military confrontation with Iran. Please watch the video and check the site for dates when it will be near you!

We don’t need anymore war!! Peace and dialogue are the only way to ensure the survival and spread of democracy. And I don’t mean some Western definition of democracy but rather context-specific and self-defined.

I love a good mystery and humans are truly a mystery. Now that people are starting to realize that Obama actually has a real chance, the hate starts oozing. Despite the Clintons’ racially-charged smear campaign, Obama won South Carolina. Many of us saw their true colors in that offensive. I was already having my doubts about Hillary. She sealed her fate in SC.

But another smear campaign is underway. I was stunned a couple of weeks ago when a Jewish friend of mine told me that her father told her Obama was secretly a muslim. “Huh???!!!!” I had not heard anything to that effect. Not that I think being Muslim is a bad thing, but the whole secrecy thing seemed dubious to me. Then I found an article in the NY Times about a spam email spreading the “Obama is a muslim” rumor. But the email has been confirmed as fake and 9 Jewish leaders condemned the hateful rumors being spread about Obama.

My friend forwarded the info on to her dad, but he remains unconvinced and referred to “being at war with the Nation of Islam”. I was perplexed again. I thought Israel or the War on Terror was the issue. Where did the Nation of Islam come into play? Well after a little digging I found the answer: Jeremiah Wright. Apparently Obama’s pastor at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago is too close to Farrakhan for the comfort some. I can certainly understand her father’s concern. I however am satisfied with Obama’s statement condemning anti-Semitism and anti-Semitic statements made by Farrakhan.

In a world full of hate and prejudice how many degrees of separation can we maintain between ourselves and preachers of hate? According to the wikipedia on Wright, critics claim his preaching of Black liberation theology is racist, but

Wright has rejected this notion by saying that “The African-centered point of view does not assume superiority, nor does it assume separatism. It assumes Africans speaking for themselves as subjects in history, not objects in history.”

And the Trinity Church website also claims:

African-centered thought, unlike Eurocentrism, does not assume superiority and look at everyone else as being inferior.

Having never heard him preach, I cannot pass judgment, but as a woman and a social scientist I certainly stand behind the argument: be a subject, not an object. The biggest obstacle to ending discrimination and racism is the tendency of human beings to reduce groups to a limited identity: just black, just Jewish, just Latino, just American. This reductionism, dehumanizes the Other, reduces us to objects. It keeps us from seeing the total picture, the complex subjects that each and every one of us is. It is not something that is limited to whites either. All groups have prejudices and stereotype others. I know Latinos, Jews and Muslims who are racist against Blacks also. And yes, Blacks can be racist too. Farrakhan being a prime example. At the top of the power ladder in this neck of the woods, however, is the Euro/American white, many who claim to be “enlightened” and have been trying to “enlighten” the rest of the world (usually by force) since the merchant/trade race began in Europe.

This weekend I read an article about Vick’s dogs. The latest black man we all love to hate is serving 23 months. I almost threw up reading about the dogs. My husband said he deserves more jail time. I had to wonder. How much jail time did Europeans and Americans get for the same (or worse) treatment of Africans? How much time will Bush or his cronies serve for Iraq and Guantanamo? I’m with Obama. Dialogue! We need real, open and honest dialogue.

The Guardian published a passage from a Wright sermon:

“The good news that’s coming is for all people! Not white people - all people. Not black people - all people. Not rich people - all people. Not poor people - all people. I know you’ll hate this … not straight people - all people! Not gay people - all people. Not American people - all people … Jesus came for Iraqis and Afghanis. Jesus was sent for Iranians and Ukranians. All people! Jesus is God’s gift to the brothers in jail and the sisters in jeopardy. The Lord left his royal courts on high to come for all those that you love, yes, but he also came for those folk you can’t stand.”

All people. Hmmm…where is the racism? I see some honesty. Perhaps the people mentioned don’t all like or accept one another, but he recognizes that they all have rights. Ok well the right to Jesus’s love. Maybe not my first choice in rights, but for a pastor that is important.

People need educate themselves a little better, before passing judgment on things they do not understand. We must understand the social and cultural context of things. Even in “liberal, left” Europe people are questioning Obama now as a reverse racist. Well seems that they are liberal and left as long as their own superior position is not threatened. For instance, in The Netherlands affirmative action is demonized in the public sphere and there is loud demand for immigrants to adopt all Dutch norms and values. No thanks, my parents taught me my norms and values, and I like them just fine. A comment on a Dutch blog refers to Obama as a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Oh god forbid we might upset the status quo in which Western Europe/America does not control the world.

Seems to me that it is a particular liberal left that claims to care about “us minorities” who are the “wolf in sheep’s clothing”. I can respect conservatives on the right who are at least being honest about their views, even if their views make me nervous. It is the insidious racism that’s so hard to fight.

Black churches are not like white churches. Black pride is not equivalent to white hate. Perhaps whites who are quick to jump on the reverse racism bandwagon now are just projecting their own behavior on others?

If Eurocentric history won’t be re-written to include the rest of us, why can’t we write our own? Just look at the ‘war’ Latinos had to fight to be recognized in the PBS documentary on WWII.

Obama is different. His campaign is different. If the biggest problem people can find with him is that he knows someone who knows someone that is questionable in his beliefs, then guess what? He’s just like all the rest of us. We all know someone, who knows someone that has views we don’t agree with. Obama is hard to define and perhaps that is also what makes the most conservative from all walks of life so nervous. It also makes it easier to come up with vague reasons to smear him.

The lines are blurred and the spinners are pouncing, but revolution is brewing…brewing…brewing…a whisper in the wind, the flutter of a butterfly’s wings.

For all those who will be voting on Tuesday, February 5th, in Missouri, Colorado, Arizona, Nebraska and Oklahoma please take a few moments to read this warning written by Racialicious’s Carmen Kerchove:

WARD CONNERLY FOOLS YOU INTO DISMANTLING AFFIRMATIVE ACTION, AGAIN

Information and knowledge are critical to our freedom and are the real power behind our vote. Don’t let the elite and greedy hijack that power from us. They’ve been eating away at our civil liberties, we can’t let them take away our opportunities also.

Mike Gravel was right when he exclaimed “his lips are moving, the President’s lying“. IPS interviewed Chuck Lewis from the Centre for Public Integrity on a report that documents the lies told by the administration to justify invading Iraq.

Eight key players in the George W. Bush administration, including the president himself, made at least 935 false statements in the run-up to and aftermath of the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

The analysis shows that Bush made the most false statements of all eight officials. His namesake, who couldn’t even lie about chopping a cherry tree down, must be rolling in his grave!! But who am I kidding? That’s just another lie in America’s history of lies.

I can’t say it better than Mr. Lewis:

What the world needs most, though, is real-time truth, not years later. Maybe, because of this debacle of the past five years, reporters and citizens will become more sceptical and discerning of politicians and those in power.

And while some may dismiss bloggers as being less credible and professional than journalists, journalism as an industry is in a crisis. Mr. Lewis describes the state of U.S. journalism like this:

Not good, emaciated economically, thousands of reporters and editors fired since 2000, still too easily misled, not sufficiently sceptical of officialdom, of government, of power.

In ‘Can Newspaper Journalism Survive Blogs, Fox News, and Karl Rove?‘ David Wessel addresses several of the problems newspapers are facing today, but is rather positive about the future of newspapers and journalism. He also reveals an important validation for blogs: keeping reporters honest.

It’s very hard for the press, if it ever wanted to, to conspire to keep secret the foibles of the president today because some blog will put it out and everybody will be talking about it, and we feel we’ll have to respond.

There are people out there challenging the lies we are told everyday. Dismissing us as not credible or as crazy liberals is just another lie, much like calling extreme environmental activists ‘terrorists’. I don’t see blogs as a replacement for journalism, but as serving a check and balance role and giving ordinary citizens a chance to have their say. Why should we wait for the elite? It’s our freedom too. In my view, the elite only enrich themselves and protect their own interests.

Einstein said:

In order to form an immaculate member of a flock of sheep one must, above all, be a sheep.

The powers-that-be like to herd the sheep along, terrifying them into submission using their barking ever-loyal best friend crying out in the past about the “evil communists” and now about the “evil terrorists”. The modern day Inquisition known as McCarthyism was replaced by the War on Drugs and now the War on Terror. Guantanamo is the worst manifestation of it but Arab/Middle Eastern/Muslim immigrants have endured the repercussions in every Western nation. The Dutch now screen immigrants with a required inburgerings cursus from which all Western immigrants are exempt and which is funded by the perspective migrant before entering the country (a prohibitive amount for people from developing countries). But we all pay the price of this war cry. Even animal rights activists are labeled “terrorists” these days.

So am I a wolf in sheep’s clothing? Hmm, tough one. I don’t eat sheep (I do respect the choice of those who wish to do so), but I wouldn’t mind helping the sheep be free. Question is: Do they want to be free? The left is not without its own faults. The Western liberal assumption that the “oppressed masses” are desperately waiting to be saved (ala Zoe’s Ark) stems from the same paternalistic Christian ideology (”saving the savages”) that also fuels the right’s xenophobic intolerance of non-white, non-Christians (”savage pagans to be ‘cleansed’”).

Awareness and communication will increase knowledge. And with knowledge the “sheep” can find their own path. This wolf will just keep howling, because biting would be resorting to the level of the extremists on both sides.

Here’s a clip from Mike Gravel’s myspace:

And he’s lying then. And he’s lying now. Because he went in there for oil. He wasn’t going to sell democracy. That only came about after they couldn’t find the weapons of mass destruction. You can tell his lips are moving…the president’s lying!!

Ok so I’m a sucker for an underdog. But gosh darn it he’s speaking the truth!!!!! Oh right the truth is an underdog.

Alright so my friend Dynia in Cali isn’t happy if she’s not the center of attention (she’s soooo jealous of my princesa status ). So she’s gone and started her own personal Ron Paul campaign (maybe Mexicans shouldn’t be able to vote! )

Check her out:

This means war…stay tuned for my Gravel comeback.

What’s that I hear? Is it real? A politician speaking the truth? Rubbish you say? Well pigs have flown and hell froze over cause Gravel has spoken (or not spoken, if you’ve seen the rock video):

Mike Gravel ‘08

After reading Live From New York, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s Unreality Show slamming the Iranian leader’s claims during his two appearances on Monday, I couldn’t help but make a connection to our own totally incompetent leader. Just when we thought he couldn’t get any dumber, Bush declares Mandela dead and argues that individuals and their doctors should have control over their health care, not the federal government. Can someone please explain to him that people without health insurance DON’T HAVE doctors!

In a scathing interview on CNN, Donald Trump openly declared that Bush is possibly the worst president in our history and he thinks that Bush should ‘go into a corner and hide’. Trumps states with conviction: “IT’S ALL A BIG LIE” “EVERYTHING IS A LIE”.

Are we going to sit back and allow two morons tripping over their own lies to bring the world into a war that could possibly destroy us all? We want freedom and democracy, well we have to work at it. So let’s get to work. Register to vote, protest, read new and alternative sources of information, talk to your neighbors, meet up with others, learn more about the world and respecting diversity. Just take some action!

Dr. Berhanu Nega recently spoke at the New School for Social Research in NYC on freedom, democracy and economic development in Ethiopia. The webcast of Dr. Nega’s speech and the question-answer session following can be seen online: The Free Nega Campaign web site.

He closes his informative and interesting speech with:

…the least the West can do, if it can’t support the struggle for democracy, is to avoid helping the enemies of democracy in Africa.

What Dr. Nega thinks we individual Americans can do to help:

Americans can work and put a lot of pressure on their own government to at least reflect what the United States supposedly stands for. As a person who has lived in this country for a long time, with lots of American friends, it always amazes me, this disconnect between the friends that I know and what the United States…I mean even for me it was shock when I went to Ethiopia and started to see what these foreign policy types were doing.