Till Mediekritik 04 11 12

Arundhati Roy har emottagit ett fredspris i Sidney. Vi lär knappast få läsa hennes tacktal i etablissemangets media. Hon har en pregnant formuleringsförmåga som når hjärtat i konflikterna. Ni får förlåta mej för omfattningen då ni kanske bara orkar med korta "soundbites" och reklamsnuttar. Jag ser det som ett måste att vi alla läser hela hennes tal. Här nedan är kanske de starkaste avsnitten.

Kolla in på http://info.interactivist.net/article.pl?sid=04/11/04/234211&tid=

Mvh från er utrotningshotade medhabitant på Tellus.
Bo Modén

     Arundhati Roy, "Peace and the New Corporate Liberation Theology"



There can be no real peace without justice. And without resistance there will be no justice.
Today, it is not merely justice itself, but the idea of justice that is under attack. The assault on vulnerable, fragile sections of society is at once so complete, so cruel and so clever - all-encompassing and yet specifically targeted, blatantly brutal and yet unbelievably insidious - that its sheer audacity has eroded our definition of justice. It has forced us to lower our sights and curtail our expectations. Even among the well-intentioned, the expansive, magnificent concept of justice is gradually being substituted with the reduced, far more fragile discourse of "human rights".

If you think about it, this is an alarming shift of paradigm. The difference is that notions of equality, of parity, have been pried loose and eased out of the equation. It's a process of attrition. Almost unconsciously, we begin to think of justice for the rich and human rights for the poor. Justice for the corporate world, human rights for its victims. Justice for Americans, human rights for Afghans and Iraqis. Justice for the Indian upper castes, human rights for Dalits and Adivasis (if that). Justice for white Australians, human rights for Aboriginals and immigrants (most times, not even that).

It is becoming more than clear that violating human rights is an inherent and necessary part of the process of implementing a coercive and unjust political and economic structure on the world. Without the violation of human rights on an enormous scale, the neo-liberal project would remain in the dreamy realm of policy. But increasingly Human Rights violations are being portrayed as the unfortunate, almost accidental, fallout of an otherwise acceptable political and economic system. As though they're a small problem that can be mopped up with a little extra attention from some NGOs. This is why in areas of heightened conflict - in Kashmir and in Iraq for example - Human Rights Professionals are regarded with a degree of suspicion. Many resistance movements in poor countries which are fighting huge injustice and questioning the underlying principles of what constitutes "liberation" and "development", view Human Rights NGOs as modern day missionaries who've come to take the ugly edge off Imperialism. To defuse political anger and to maintain the status quo. ............................................

I speak of Iraq, not because everybody is talking about it, (sadly at the cost of leaving other horrors in other places to unfurl in the dark), but because it is a sign of things to come. Iraq marks the beginning of a new cycle. It offers us an opportunity to watch the corporate-military cabal that has come to be known as "Empire" at work. In the new Iraq the gloves are off.

As the battle to control the world's resources intensifies, economic colonialism through formal military aggression is staging a comeback. Iraq is the logical culmination of the process of corporate globalisation in which neocolonialism and neoliberalism have fused. If we can find it in ourselves to peep behind the curtain of blood, we would glimpse the pitiless transactions taking place backstage. But first, briefly, the stage itself. ...............................

US General Tommy Franks said "We don't do body counts" (meaning Iraqi body counts). He could have added "We don't do the Geneva Convention either."

A new, detailed study, fast-tracked by the Lancet medical journal and extensively peer reviewed, estimates that 100,000 Iraqis have lost their lives since the 2003 invasion. That's 100 halls full of people - like this one. That's 100 halls full of friends, parents, siblings, colleagues, lovers like you. The difference is that there aren't many children here today let's not forget Iraq's children. Technically that bloodbath is called precision bombing. In ordinary language, it's called butchering.

Most of this is common knowledge now. Those who support the invasion and vote for the invaders cannot take refuge in ignorance. They must truly believe that this epic brutality is right and just or, at the very least, acceptable because it's in their interest.

So the "civilised" "modern" world - built painstakingly on a legacy of genocide, slavery and colonialism - now controls most of the world's oil. And most of the world's weapons, most of the world's money, and most of the world's media. The embedded, corporate media in which the Doctrine of Free Speech has been substituted by the Doctrine of Free If You Agree Speech.

In New Iraq, privatisation has broken new ground. The US Army is increasingly recruiting private mercenaries to help in the occupation. The advantage with mercenaries is that when they're killed they're not included in the US soldiers' body count. It helps to manage public opinion, which is particularly important in an election year. Prisons have been privatised. Torture has been privatised. We have seen what that leads to. Other attractions in New Iraq include newspapers being shut down, television stations bombed, reporters killed. US soldiers have opened fire on crowds of unarmed protestors, killing scores of people. The only kind of resistance that has managed to survive is as crazed and brutal as the occupation itself. Is there space for a secular, democratic, feminist, non-violent resistance in Iraq? There isn't really.

That is why it falls to those of us living outside Iraq to create that mass-based, secular and non-violent resistance to the US occupation. If we fail to do that, we run the risk of allowing the idea of resistance to be hijacked and conflated with terrorism and that will be a pity because they are not the same thing.

So what does peace mean in this savage, corporatised, militarised world? What does it mean in a world where an entrenched system of appropriation has created a situation in which poor countries which have been plundered by colonising regimes for centuries are steeped in debt to the very same countries that plundered them, and have to repay that debt at the rate of $US382 billion a year? What does peace mean in a world in which the combined wealth of the world's 587 billionaires exceeds the combined gross domestic product of the world's 135 poorest countries? Or when rich countries that pay farm subsidies of $US1 billion a day, try and force poor countries to drop their subsidies? What does peace mean to people in occupied Iraq, Palestine, Kashmir, Tibet and Chechnya? Or to the aboriginal people of Australia? Or the Ogoni of Nigeria? Or the Kurds in Turkey? Or the Dalits and Adivasis of India? What does peace mean to non-Muslims in Islamic countries, or to women in Iran, Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan? What does it mean to the millions who are being uprooted from their lands by dams and development projects? What does peace mean to the poor who are being actively robbed of their resources and for whom everyday life is a grim battle for water, shelter, survival and, above all, some semblance of dignity? For them, peace is war.

We know very well who benefits from war in the Age of Empire. But we must also ask ourselves honestly who benefits from peace in the Age of Empire? War-mongering is criminal. But talking of peace without talking of justice could easily become advocacy of a kind of capitulation. And talking of justice without unmasking the institutions and the systems that perpetrate injustice, is beyond hypocritical. ...........................................

Är våra media okritiskt underordnade US Corporate Media ? Är svenska media en taltratt för Washington ?
Läs och lyssna på nyheter och analyser från alternativa kritiska media i USA och förstå vad man döljer för oss.

http://democracynow.org/ http://www.flashpoints.net/ http://www.fsrn.org/
http://www.will.uiuc.edu/am/mediamatters/default.htm http://www.freespeech.org/fsitv/fscm2/genx.php?name=home
http://www.gregpalast.com/columns.cfm


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