I rage
I rage
I rage
I rage
I rage against
The gods who let the world spin out of control
I rage against the system that deceives us
I rage against the machinery that destroys
Fed by silent people
Acquiescence
Apathy
And trickery
I rage because we should rage
And not be subdued
Or pacified
Or patronized
I rage against the system that watches with glee
As we tear ourselves to pieces
Become monsters that howl at the moon
With bared fangs
And steel claws
I rage because silence kills
I rage because a vote is sometimes
A death warrant
For someone somewhere
I rage
I rage
I rage because our instruments of peace
Have been co opted
Are skewed
Are unjust
And far less than peaceful
I rage because we resurrected Rome from the dead
And gave it powers
To kill
To maim
To create havoc
To veto peace
And turn us all into bloodthirsty beasts
I rage because the colour of my skin
Determines whether I am grieved for
Or ignored
Or blamed
For my own misery and death
I rage silently
I rage openly
I rage with my pen
I rage with my thoughts
I rage
I rage
I rage
I rage because we feel pity for the emperor
And none for the victims
Who litter the fields
Maimed
Brutalized
I rage because we are willfully blind
Consciously deaf
And grieve selectively
I rage at our hypocrisy
And false values
At our double speak
And undying
Unconditional
Love of Rome
Love of the emperor
Love of the slave master
Love of the whip
And love of our own humiliation
Degradation
and descent into bestiality
I rage
I rage
I rage
I rage because children die
Bullets fly
Because we kiss our sanity bye bye
Politicians deny
Because widows cry
Bling bling reflected in every eye
Should I fold my arms and sigh
No
No
No
No
No
I rage
I rage
I rage
I rage because I must
I rage because history
Is not changed by submissive men
Or silent men
But by angry men
Who rage at injustice
And spit in the faces of oppressors
And stand by their truths
Like mountains
Steadfast
Resolute
I rage
I rage
I rage
I rage
I rage
Till I revolt
And burn both palace and dungeon
Come brother
Sister
Mother
Daughter
Comrade
Friend
Give me your hand
Rage with me
The silence is deafening
Apathy kills
More insidiously than bullets
Let the drumbeat
Of justice
Pulsate deep within you
Let your blood boil like lava
And your anger like flames
Flare to the sun
Outshining it
Dwarfing it
For it is so that
Temples of vanity
Are burned to cinder
And power destroyed
I rage
I rage
I rage
I rage
I rage
Until justice is done
And the future of the child assured
Until peace is like the air we breathe
And the fields grow flowers of joy
Not whitened bones
Till the hills of Palestine
Are returned to their rightful owners
And the olive trees sing in the breeze
Symphonies of leaves and birds
Letters of peace
To a war weary people
In need of respite
Until every oppressor
Is harnessed
Fears the rage
Of the people
Until then I must rage
You must rage
We must rage
For perhaps it is through rage
That a better world will be born
Nekoliko linkova za Palestinu/Izrael:
Salon Radio: Dr. Mustafa Barghouti on Israeli elections
Radio intervju s Dr. Mustafom Barghoutijem i transkript u cijelosti možete poslušati/pročitati na linku...
Lieberman is a fascist. But, in one way what you're saying is correct, that the only difference between Livni and Netanyahu is that we have two extremists, one with make-up and the other one without make-up. That's how I feel. That's the only difference. But at the same time, accepting the election of Netanyahu, and again accepting this move towards a person like Lieberman, is going to mean that Israel probably will have even larger license to kill Palestinians. During the war on Gaza, Israel conducted several very serious offenses against international law. They launched a war, they created this war, they started it, it wasn't Hamas that started it. They deliberately targeted civilians and killed 1,350 people, most of whom were civilians. They conducted and they still conduct collective punishment. They used illegal weapons like white phosphorus, DIME weapons and the "flashettes." And they prevented even care for the injured people and attacked medical facilities, including thirteen of doctors and nurses who were killed in the attack. And, not only did they use disproportionate force, but Ehud Olmert, the Prime Minister of Israel, comes out declaring - declaring, with full courage - that he is going to continue to use disproportionate force. And not only that he's violating the international law, he's declaring that's he's violating international law. And many world community leaders remain silent. This feeling of impunity is responsible for what is happening. ...
But at the end of the day the world has to see that Abbas and his group, Fatah, represent in the best case scenario only 25% of the Palestinian community. There's a third chunk - less than one third now is with him, one third is with Hamas, and another one third is with us, with people like us, with the democratic opposition in Palestine. And as long as certain countries insist to deal with only 25% of the Palestinian population, they will of course not create a situation where a Palestinian government is capable to develop. And this is an outcome of Israeli-dictated policy, which in my opinion does not want to see any strong leadership in Palestine, they don't want to see unified leadership, and then they can have the excuse and say we cannot have a peace process, because there isn't a leader who can deliver. ...
You are paying, the Americans, the American taxpayers, are paying Israel every rise of the sun every morning, $10 million - every day you pay to Israel, officially. If you count the amounts that American people donate to Israel, it's even larger than that. You're talking about Israel being the largest recipient of American aid money, although it is a rather developed country with a GDP income that is close to United States' income. And still, it is the largest recipient of military aid. It is the country that is allowed to market American military technology worldwide at costs that are less than American costs, so that it would make profits, and the United States has great leverage if it decides it wants to push Israel. ...
But, you see, to strengthen our line of non-violence, we need some different position from the international community. What happened during the war on Gaza was just shameful. They - not only the United States administration, but many, many world leaders simply violated the basic moral standards when they refused to criticize Israel, when they could not tell Israel enough is enough and slaughtering children is not a way of finding a solution. That's why I think, what I tell to my fellow citizens, is that our non-violent approach is the best way, and we're practicing this. But non-violence does not mean you surrender to your oppressors. Non-violence does not mean you give up your right to be free. Non-violence does not mean you become hostages of your occupier, as has happened to the Palestinian Authority under Abbas in the West Bank. That is the issue. Non-violence does not mean that Palestinian government should oppress its own people to prevent them from even non-violently expressing their views and their demands for freedom.
Slike palestinske djece za vrijeme i nakon izraelskog napada na Gazu
Snimio i objavio: Mohammed Fares El Majdalawi
Blog s člancima, akcijama i peticijama na engleskom o Gazi i Palestini/Izraelu.
Ostali linkovi:
Juan Cole: Top Ten Myths About Iraq, 2008
The major reason for the fall in the death toll, however, was that the Shiites won the war for Baghdad, ethnically cleansing hundreds of thousands of Sunnis from the capital, and turning it into a city with a Shiite majority of 75 to 80 percent. (When Bush invaded, Baghdad was about 50/50 Sunni and Shiite). The high death tolls in 2006 and 2007 were a by-product of this massive ethnic cleansing campaign. Now, a Shiite militiaman in Baghdad would have to drive for a while to find a Sunni Arab to kill.
Bush and his cronies must face a reckoning
It shows how the most senior figures in the Bush administration discussed, and sought legal fig leaves for, practices that plainly amounted to torture. They were techniques devised in a training programme known as Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape or SERE, that aimed to teach elite American soldiers how to endure torture should they fall into the hands of pitiless enemies. The SERE techniques were partly modelled on the brutal methods used by the Chinese against US prisoners during the Korean war. Yet Rumsfeld ruled that these same techniques should be "reverse engineered", so that Americans would learn not how to endure them - but how to inflict them. Which they then did, at Guantánamo, Abu Ghraib and beyond. The Senate report cites the memorandums requesting permission to use "stress positions, exploitation of detainee fears (such as fear of dogs), removal of clothing, hooding, deprivation of light and sound, and the so-called wet towel treatment or the waterboard". We read of Mohamed al Kahtani - against whom all charges were dropped earlier this year - who was "deprived of adequate sleep for weeks on end, stripped naked, subjected to loud music, and made to wear a leash and perform dog tricks". Approval for this kind of torture, hidden under the euphemism of "enhanced interrogation", was sought from and granted at the highest level. And that doesn't mean Rumsfeld. The report's first conclusion is that, on "7 February 2002, President George W Bush made a written determination that Common Article 3 of the Geneva conventions, which would have afforded minimum standards for humane treatment, did not apply to al-Qaida or Taliban detainees". The result, it says, is that Bush "opened the door" to the use of a raft of techniques that the US had once branded barbaric and beyond the realm of human decency.
The Noose Tightens
In early December, in a highly unusual move, a federal court in New York agreed to rehear a lawsuit against former Attorney General John Ashcroft brought by a Canadian citizen, Maher Arar. (Arar was a victim of the administration's extraordinary rendition program: he was seized by U.S. officials in 2002 while in transit through Kennedy Airport and deported to Syria, where he was tortured.) Then, on Dec. 15, the Supreme Court revived a lawsuit against Donald Rumsfeld by four Guantánamo detainees alleging abuse there—a reminder that the court, unlike the White House, will extend Constitutional protections to foreigners at Gitmo. Finally, in the same week the Senate Armed Service Committee, led by Carl Levin and John McCain, released a blistering report specifically blaming key administration figures for prisoner mistreatment and interrogation techniques that broke the law. The bipartisan report reads like a brief for the prosecution—calling, for example, Rumsfeld's behavior a "direct cause" of abuse. Analysts say it gives a green light to prosecutors, and supplies them with political cover and factual ammunition.
