The Thing With Egypt

(copié de / copied from: http://sebastianhell.blogspot.ca/2013/08/the-thing-with-egypt.html)

If you're like me, you're probably baffled by the lack of information about what's going on in Egypt, then at the misleading direction the news comes in from one source to another.



A usually trustworthy source is Al-Jazeera, who had this to say:







An Egyptian friend of mine questions this version, though, saying ''with the eyes of the world watching their every move, there is no way the army would go out of their way to murder opponents in broad daylight, especiall after ridding the country of yet another government who oppressed the people''.



Which is true. And proponents of this view usually point to videos like this one as evidence:







And pretty much the only Western media taking the army's side on a consistent basis is Fox News. Which doesn't help, seeing as they're involved in fiction and propaganda as their major business, and seeing as their always-against-Obama stance inevitably leads to the main comments sections of such videos to look like this (these were actually consecutive, no editing was required):

By being fed incomplete information as news for over a decade, these folks rely on still-incomplete factual omissions in their assessments of Barack Obama's work in this rock-and-a-hard-place situation. As an elected world leader, he has to keep in mind that fallen oppressor President Mohamed Morsi was also an elected official, whose term was merely a year in before the army stepped in. Meaning it seems to have been the Will Of The People that put him in power as, let's not forget, the first democratically-elected leader of Egypt. And evidence shows the crisis he was involved in - power and fuel shortages - were brought on by supporters of the (Hosni Mubarak-led) regime that was overthrown before these elections took place, i.e. the one the Arab Spring had deposed.



And, officially, the U.S. has stopped encouraging armies to perform a Coup. Whether they're in it for the right reasons or not.



As I've shown here, both sides can point to ''evidence'' supporting their cause, and, in most civil cases, those types of situations demand an outside party to weigh the evidence and reach a verdict, which can be appealed twice by either side.



If the Americans admit the Coup was founded, their whole ''exporting Democracy'' thing that Republicans and Fox News were so hell-bent on during the George W. Bush years proves to be wrong on every count, meaning the U.S. can be deemed war criminals. Though it'd be a good thing to put Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld in jail, since the Nuremberg trials, the political leaders aren't the only ones responsible, as each individual partaking in illegal activities has a ''duty to do which is right, even if it defies current Law'' - and that means prosecuting the Generals, most of which are still active in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as all the soldiers. You know, the ''heroes'' we are over-compensating in glory to make up for having desecrated the ones who went to Vietnam and the first attempt to invade Iraq.



Not only is that something that'd be lengthy, it'd stand against everything those who now condemn Obama for standing pat believe in, meaning they'd hate him even more for it. As a wise man by the name of Bartholomew J. Simpson once said: ''damned if you do, damned if you don't''.



The actual truth is, for once, there is no precedent for this - and especially in such a media-savvy and media-weary world. There is no logical or correct way to act, either, because either way, people will die.



Our government, here, when a whole generation tried to start a dialogue that almost created a revolution, told us to let them finish their term (with anywhere from 6 months to 2 years left) and show our displeasure via vote, by ousting them; they were even arrogant enough to hold premature elections, and were voted out, albeit in favour of a minority government.



And having learned from that, the international community should have sent a message to ''hang in there until the term ends, and if you're still unhappy, go another route; if we detect problems at the election, we'll intervene''. It would be unsustainable to have another Haiti (where a revolution almost follows each election) smack-dab at the heart of the Middle East.



What we need, on this side of the Pond, is for the media to do their fucking job and report on both sides equally so we can have a broader picture. This isn't a hurricane a journalist can stand next to, knee-deep in water, telling us it's windy. We don't need to have ground-level reporting an interviews with screaming, terrorized victims of either side.



Instead, disarm fucking drones, mount HD cameras on them, with fine, music-studio quality microphones (good Shure ones go for $100 apiece, it's a very fair price and a news organization might even get a decent bulk discount for purchasing a bunch), and have 25 of them at a time hover above the crowds, some in the middle of it, others a bit far removed, and show us some fucking perspective. Operators could zoom the picture in and out from miles away (even from the States!) and capture exactly who is doing what. I'll bet both sides are equally to blame, with each using half the deaths to advance their own cause.

Never Forget

(copié/collé de mon blogue anglo)

September 11, 2001.

I'd been in a relationship with the (now-former) Lady Of The House for a year, and it was my first trip away from her. It was smack-dab in the middle of my two weeks, sleeping in Trois-Rivières at night and working in a field in St-Tite by day, counting the cars passing by on the highway - a lonely, boring job if there ever was one.

Every day, we'd wake up around 6 AM, get to the hotel's dining room by 6:30, leave for work around 7, come back around 7 PM.

But on that day, the news was on: a plane had accidentally crashed in one of the towers. And, half an hour later, the other plane crashed and it was now clear this was premeditated. With all the world's news cameras watching, live, showing the despair, people jumping out of windows, others suffocating in the street. Reports soon flocked in about 4 highjacked planes and everyone on TV had their opinion about what was going on, and what was going to happen.

And yet the shuttle to take us to work was there on time, and we hopped on it, confused, disoriented, some numb. It was hard to believe World War 3 may have begun and yet we were about to carry on as we would on any regular day.

On the other hand, what choice did we have? We weren't directly involved in anything, and the world around us was still happening, shit needed to get done.

But when we arrived in St-Tite, it was a strange spectacle: many of the homes there, in Québec's one true cowboy town, had American and Canadian flags in their backyards - an extremely uncommon sight in our parts - and the American flags were at half-mast, signifying a national tragedy.

And yet people were going about their business: bull-riding competitions, horse shows, selling merchandise, food, jewelry. Stepping in horse shit. It was surreal. Unreal, even.

How could the world go on now that nothing was ever going to be the same? Then again, how long did it take before we just kept doing what we'd been doing anyway, and the only thing that ever changed was that each day, we'd have more rights and freedoms taken away from us. That, and bearded, tanned fellows were getting a harder time than ever before.

But nothing else really changed.

And that's why I'm pissed off about the wall-to-wall, week-long coverage of the memorials.

''Never forget'' is something everyone should deal with on their own, in their own way, not a stupid fucking catchphrase to be repeated ad nauseam on every news channel, in every publication, on commemorative plaques and plates - and especially not t-shirts.

It's not something a political party should have the right to shove down our throats, especially if they keep blocking support for the first responders any chance they get, usually mere minutes after parading an NYPD cop or NYFD fireman in front of a camera.

Wearing a flag pin or driving a car with a flag bumper sticker doesn't actually do anything for anyone either; you're not ''more supportive'' of the victims than anyone else, and ''supporting the troops'' doesn't help in this particular case either.

Flying planes in building was a political act, not an act of war. ''Never forget'' is aimed at the innocent victims - not ''first and foremost'', but ''only'' , and the consequences of the attacks (two ten-year wars... and counting) mean very little for the friends and families of those who perished.

''Where were you/I/we on 9/11''? I answered that already. But more importantly: where are we now? And where will we be in the future? And how exactly is the world we're shaping a tribute to the departed?

We should have been busy making a better world to live in, one in which events like those from ten years ago wouldn't be a daily possibility. Instead, we used 3000 useless deaths as an excuse to kill over 150,000 more.

Video of the Moment: Wycelf Jean

In light of the earthquake in Haiti, a thought for those who were injured, who died, and those left standing.

A thought to the diaspora as well, as Haitians are spread just about everywhere on this planet, particularly in North America, shaping us as we are shaping them.

Wyclef Jean first burst onto the scene as the frontman of hip hop group The Fugees; from the get-go, he wore his heritage on his sleeve, and as soon as he came into money, he made sure to help spread it in his country of origin as well. Sure, some of it was lost to local corruption, but that just made his resolve stronger in bringing aid directly to those in the street.

We might lose track of this from some of his more recent contributions to modern music, cameos on songs that don't mean anything, collaborations with pop stars (Shakira), film stars (The Rock) or divas (Mary J. Blige) - but the guy is a heck of a humanitarian.

Shout out. Props.


Also: if you're going to send money, please do so through usual, recognized NGOs. Too many fuckers are trying to use this crisis to rip you off.

Aussi: si vous donnez, veilluez le faire au travers d'ornagismes charitables reconnus mondialement. Il y a trop de crosseurs qui veulent profiter de votre générosité.
Je recommande Oxfam, Croix-Rouge et World Vision.

The Passing Of Time Through Winter

The future is inherently a good thing. And we move into it one winter at a time.

Things get better one winter at a time. So if you're going to celebrate, have a drink on this: the world is, generally and on balance, a better place to live this year than it was last year.

Those are the words of Spider Jerusalem, writer Warren Ellis' take on a Hunter S. Thompson-like journalist in the future; they are taken from the very last page of the fourth volume in the Transmetropolitan series, called The New Scum, in which a new President is elected to the U.S. Ironically, they were written and published in the year 2000.

Transmetropolitan currently sits atop my line of favourite books, along with other comics Preacher and The Walking Dead.

It's funny that I happened to read this volume again, for perhaps the tenth time, today, if only because tonight marked the final in a five-night series that I was outside putting up posters for a show happening on the 18th at La Sala Rossa, for supergroup Magic Christian, comprised of members of Flamin' Groovies and Blondie, among others.

Five nights during which I froze my balls in minus-30 weather, with a windchill I hadn't felt in years. And last night was the worst. I actually witnessed the temperature go down at least 5 degrees in mere seconds, with the swoop of one short blow of wind, at precisely 2:10AM. It was decently cold, with the wind providing extra chill to the fingertips, but without exaggeration, when out of the blue a tiny whirlwind of a weirdly milder wind came and took over Parc Avenue for a few seconds, just enough to make you realize something wasn't quite right, and as soon as it died off, it became colder than death in an instant.

It was yet another proof that Nature is a much stronger beast than we bipeds, but I know for one I didn't need any. It was also a reminder that February is coming at full speed and we Montrealers should just lock ourselves inside and hide/hibernate for 28 days and just order out, fuck, and play Playstation and let the whole world go right by past us for a month.

And if Jerusalem's/Ellis' words are to be true, it's so fucking cold out there right now that this particular winter should signify the death of the past decade completely - what with its 80s-revivals, shitty music, brand new and brand old wars, political tragedies and all-out fucking up of our way of Life - and bring about some actual, consistent, lasting change. For The Better (not sure why I need to add this in particular, but I've been unlucky with my wishes the past few years, in case you can't tell).

It's not in my genes, in my upbringing, in my habits. Perhaps it can be, although I'm quite happy being skeptical and realistic - but I'm actually hoping for Hope. It feels juvenile and stupid, but set against a backdrop of 100 km/h winds outside my window pushing a growing cemetary of white snow in minus-40 degree weather merely 5 inches from my face, a bottle of Jack Daniel's in my right hand, it's all I can muster up that feels right.

That, and putting this text to rest so I can go meet the Lady Of The House in bed.

Good night.