latin american princesa {LAP}

This event has been launched and promoted through Facebook. If you read Spanish see the event’s site: Un MILLION de VOCES contra las FARC. Or read Plan Colombia’s commentary in English, which includes the translation of an article from Colombia’s El Tiempo about the importance of dialogue and minimizing highly-charged nationalistic ideology. The goal is peace, after all.

I think one of the most frustrating things for me while living in Europe was listening to people exclaim the greatness of Europe (rolling my eyes) and complain about the U.S. The ease with which many Europeans ignore their history of imperialism and complicity in the destruction of the third world is astounding to say the least. The ease with which they ignore the EU’s attempts to further strangle the third world is just another example of the Eurocentric arrogance of today’s neo-imperialism.

I love the way Tetteh Hormeku discusses the free trade negotiations in IPS: Q&A: “The EU Is a Bandit in Trade Negotiations”

IPS: The EU constantly points out that it is the largest aid donor in the world. So the picture you paint of the EU would come as a shock to Europeans who believe it is trying to help developing countries.

TH (holding a beer bottle): People who believe that, have too much faith in European institutions. The EU is a bandit in international negotiations. It is no different to the Americans. Or the only difference is that the Americans say ”I want your beer, baby, and if you do not give it to me, I’m gonna shoot you”. The Europeans say ”I want your beer because it is in your own interests to give it to me”.

Tja, blind faith, brainwashed Europeans (not just Americans are brainwashed): wouldn’t it be better to stop putting down the US and make yourself useful by doing something about your own governments’ attempts to continue raping the developing world? Put down your beer. Put down your wine. And take some action. Or maybe you are really busy trying to stop US imperialism so you can control it all to yourselves?

Ugh, I so can’t stand hypocrisy.

Well, I survived a major gas leak in my new apartment!

I just received a reminder about an old cause. The American Anthropological Association sent an email calling for renewed support of a boycott of the Coca-Cola Company and all its products. This boycott was originally called by the Colombian union SINALTRAINAL.

The AAA boycott arose from concerns that the Coca-Cola Company has not done enough to protect workers and their families from intimidation and violence, has not respected workers’ internationally recognized right to organize unions, and has not disclosed information that independent sources can easily verify.

Consult the Coca-Cola brand list so you know what NOT to buy!! And spread the word about Killer Coke please.

I’ve been catching up on my race fix with the Addicted to Race podcast and in one episode Carmen was discussing Jena Six and the media with Baratunde. They talked about how the blogosphere, in this case the blackosphere or bloggers-of-colorsphere, kept the Jena story alive, beating out the mainstream media. Exposing these kinds of stories is important because many have the misguided idea that well “the blacks” got their civil rights so “what are they always complainin’ about?” Well civil rights (as well as equal rights for women) was the first step. There is so much to do still.

I’ve been away for a few years and things have changed. Blogs, activism, protests, people standing up for their rights and the things they believe in. This is what is different. And perhaps the increase is due to growing discomfort and disgust with the economy and Iraq, but it’s also about a change in power. Somehow these new connections and interactions in the virtual world signify a shift in power. Or is it just me? No, there is some serious empowerment going on.

But not just here. No, I’m not going to play that Amero-centric game. Let’s go to Myanmar. Photos, videos and news traveled through an international blogosphere and brought the historic protest to the world. Until the Burmese rulers shut down the Internet ostensibly to stop the outside world from witnessing the crackdown, but the real reason, I think, was to quelch the hope of its citizens. Isn’t that the “real” (I mean is real anyway) link? The Internet and mobile phones are links to hope, to our fellow human beings. Not virtual beings, but real flesh and blood humans with feelings, emotions and issues.

Pakistan is in lockdown now too. Why? Because another megalomaniac doesn’t want to give up power. And the idiots in Washington can’t even pretend to condemn the removal of freedom for our allies, the Pakistanis. What are we doing in Iraq? Freeing the Iraqis? Hmmm, but we don’t mind if the “Pakis” lose theirs in the meantime. There are still some other Bush family members who might want to start another war later. But I digress…. With TV shut down, Pakistanis turn to another external connection: the web!

Back in September I went to visit a good friend in Istanbul. Well to my disappointment I could not blog while there because wordpress had been blocked. Why? Because a certain man wanted to censor blogs that “defamed” him. The Internet, the web, and now bloggers are being subjected to more and more scrutiny and repression.

And while this news is disturbing and we should worry about it and most definitely fight against it…it heartens me to know that we are big enough to get the big guy’s attention. Remember a tiny virus can bring even the biggest man down.

Ah! Welcome home to me, to the land of the free…to be arrested, Tasered or better yet have one’s leg broken by police. No thankfully it hasn’t happened to me personally, but a friend just shared a few interesting tidbits, which haven’t all made it to the front page.

• Andrew Meyer, UF student arrested and Tasered for asking John Kerry questions.
• Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Jr., President of the Hip Hop Caucus arrested and ankle broken when trying to get into a public hearing.
• She also told me about an incident on The Mall where cops were harassing a group of Ethiopians selling t-shirts for a demonstration and later apologized to her, the white girl, but continued intimidating the group of Ethiopians.

I like to try to think that most cops are nice people. They are humans too and sometimes mistakes are made. But Tasering someone for asking a question or breaking someone’s ankle for attending a public hearing are not mistakes. What is this mentally that drives some to such terror tactics? Isn’t it supposed to be a War on Terror, not a war on freedom of speech and democracy? Let’s start calling it for what it is a War of Terror on freedom, democracy and individual rights. Don’t let the lies continue.

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.

The first annual Anti-Telethon Blogswarm hosted by Kara and led by Miss Crip Chick is up. I don’t know much about this issue myself but I am learning now! You can too.

I have to admit that sometimes I feel uncomfortable with disability, which is proof of the “pity model” in society that these girls are protesting. I don’t have much personal experience, but through greater knowledge and awareness I hope to shed the last vestiges of discomfort, eliminate my ignorance. My own mother is a great example. She works with disabled children and she just adores them. She doesn’t see disability but beautiful, loving, laughing, crying young men and women who get on her bus every morning to go to school.

Another issue in which I am currently educating myself is mental health which Hymes is so eloquently writing about.