On June 4th 2009, President Barack Obama (a man I voted for!) took the stage on the soil of one of the region’s most despotic and repressive regimes. But more than that, he was standing in the center of the geography of American imperial projections that has been the Middle East since the British, Germans, French and other smaller European nations were forced to leave it in the 1940s.
(Originally written in response to Obama’s first condescending speech to the A-rabs back in 2009. Reposted to reflect that nothing really has changed.) Details »
Published on May 19, 2011 8:26 am.
Filed under: American And Her Wars, Journalism, The Question Of Palestine Tags: Afghanistan, Barack Obama, Clash of Civilizations, Colonialism, Imperialism, Israel, Orientalism, Terrorism, Torture, War Against Terror, War Crimes
Larry Towell is looking for money for a new project in Afghanistan and has placed his request on Kickstarter. This would all have been fine had it not been for the fact that he is doing the wrong project.
Larry Towell has been an inspiration, one of the first photographers whose works compelled me to come to photography. So it is with great disappointment that I read his description of what he intends to do in Afghanistan.
The opening sentence from his project description, a project called Crisis In Afghanistan, left me stunned:
For 30 years, Afghanistan has known only civil war.
No it has not. Details »
Published on December 29, 2010 12:20 pm.
Filed under: American And Her Wars, Essays On Embedded Photojournalism, Journalism, Photography Tags: Afghanistan, Clash of Civilizations, Colonialism, Crimes Against Humanity, Crisis of Photojournalism, Imperialism, Journalism, Middle East, Occupation, Oil, On Photography, Terrorism, Tribal Areas, War Against Terror, War Crimes
I’ve decided that if the government wants to monitor me that’s fine. But I could do a much better job monitoring myself than anyone else.
Hasan Elahi
Trackingtranscience is a brilliant response by Professor Hasan Elahi, a Bangladeshi-born American citizen, to his detention and interrogation at the hands of Home Land Security and FBI personnel. Professor Elahi was accused by his neighbors for being a 9/11 terrorist (description; dark, Muslim) and later taken off a flight returning from Europe for questioning. The FBI accused him of hoarding explosives in a Florida warehouse. He was subjected to months of interrogations, nine polygraph tests, and left on the ‘watch list’.
So he decided that he will just watch himself and effectively erase all pretence at ‘privacy’. Details »
Published on November 19, 2010 4:21 pm.
Filed under: American And Her Wars Tags: Barack Obama, Islam, Muslims, Terrorism
So, my brothers, how is it that we do not understand that we have better things to do than to follow that same Europe? That same Europe where they were never done talking of Man, and where they never stopped proclaiming that they were only anxious for the welfare of Man: today we know with what sufferings humanity has paid for every one of their triumphs of the mind…When I search for Man in the technique and the style of Europe, I see only a succession of negations of man, and an avalanche of murders.
Frantz Fanon, The Wretched Of The Earth Chapter Six Details »
Published on November 16, 2010 1:23 am.
Filed under: American And Her Wars Tags: Crimes Against Humanity, Democracy, Imperialism, Occupation, Terrorism, War Against Terror, War Crimes, Water Boarding
We have often wondered what led so many Germans to just sat by or appeared to ‘collaborate’ during the Jewish genocide, or the Rwandans to engage in mass slaughter of each other, or the Serbians to look away as Sarajevo burned, or the Pakistanis to celebrate the slaughter of the Bengali. And many more such situations that leave so many ‘civilized’ and ‘decent’ people asking themselves that old question: how can a people do this to another? Details »
Published on December 28, 2009 11:33 am.
Filed under: American And Her Wars, Musings On Confusions, The Question Of Palestine Tags: Crimes Against Humanity, Gaza, Israel, Middle East, Occupation, Operation Cast Lead, Palestine, Terrorism, War Against Terror, War Crimes, West Bank
A few weeks ago another typically obtuse and brain dead New York Times journalist lamented the said state of affairs of the country of Pakistan where apparently her pop singers were not entertaining him sufficiently with songs against the Taliban. Adam B. Ellick was confused and upset about this and pointed out, in a piece called Pakistan Rock Rails Against The West, Not The Taliban that there is..
…a surge of bubble-gum stars who have become increasingly politicized. Some are churning out ambiguous, cheery lyrics urging their young fans to act against the nation’s woes. Others simply vilify the United States. Details »
Published on November 26, 2009 11:52 am.
Filed under: American And Her Wars Tags: Afghanistan, Journalism, Pakistan, Terrorism, War Against Terror
A wide range of issues came across recently and though I would love to wax lyrical about all of them I find my head space considerably limited to speak of each in some reasonable fashion. But I wanted to draw your attention to some interesting developments, a few of which are being carefully ignored in our press and oh-so-alert media Details »
Published on November 13, 2009 11:28 pm.
Filed under: American And Her Wars, Musings On Confusions, The Daily Discussion, The Question Of Palestine Tags: Anti-Semitism, Clash of Civilizations, Colonialism, Islam, Islamofacism, Israel, Middle East, Pakistan, Terrorism, War Against Terror, War Crimes, West Bank
A couple of insightful pieces appeared recently. Both, in different ways, challenge the mainstream narrative being bandied about in Washington D.C. and being stenographed by individuals pretending to be reporters but in fact are really acting as government/official stenographers out of Pakistan and the USA. Details »
Published on November 5, 2009 12:49 pm.
Filed under: Pakistan Tags: Afghanistan, Barack Obama, Colonialism, Crimes Against Humanity, Imperialism, Pakistan, Terrorism, Tribal Areas, War Against Terror, War Crimes
Speaking of a history of ugliness, that lovely man shaking the hands of our Secretary of State is Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, the President of the nation of Turkmenistan. This photo was taken on September 21, 2009. At the Waldorf Astoria in New York City. Quite the address. Details »
Published on September 23, 2009 5:48 pm.
Filed under: American And Her Wars Tags: Afghanistan, Barack Obama, Colonialism, Crimes Against Humanity, Democracy, Imperialism, Oil, Terrorism, War Against Terror
A Wedding At Masara, West Bank Photo By: Oren Ziv/ Activestills.org
This post today celebrates a Palestinian wedding thanks to the photography of Israeli activists at Activestills and Haggai Matar who was in fact beaten by Israeli soldiers while participating in this event, as he explains here in this piece called Assault-A Personal Story Details »
Published on August 7, 2009 6:09 am.
Filed under: American And Her Wars, Journalism, Photography, The Question Of Palestine Tags: Crimes Against Humanity, Israel, Middle East, Occupation, Terrorism, War Crimes, West Bank
