Their Romani language is divided into several dialects, which add up to an estimated number of speakers larger than two million.[17] The total number of Romani people is at least twice as large (several times as large according to high estimates), and many Romani are native speakers of the language current in their country of residence, or of mixed languages combining the two.
. . . .
The English term Gypsy (or Gipsy) originates from the Greek word Αιγύπτιοι (Aigyptioi, whence modern Greek γύφτοιgifti), in the erroneous belief that the Romanies originated in Egypt, and were exiled as punishment for allegedly harboring the infant Jesus.[26] This exonym is sometimes written with capital letter, to show that it designates an ethnic group.[27]
As described in Victor Hugo's novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame, the medieval French referred to the Romanies as egyptiens. The term has come to bear pejorative connotations. The word "Gypsy" in English has become so pervasive that many Romani organizations use it in their own organizational names.
. . . . In 1919, Chaplin [of Romani background] co-founded the United Artists film distribution company with Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and D. W. Griffith, all of whom were seeking to escape the growing power consolidation of film distributors and financiers in the developing Hollywood studio system. This move, along with complete control of his film production through his studio, assured Chaplin's independence as a film-maker. He served on the board of UA until the early 1950s.
Roy and Monte Rutledge are very different British brothers studying at Oxford together at the onset of World War I. Mild-mannered Roy is in love with and idealizes the wayward Helen, played by Jean Harlow. Monte, on the other hand, is a free-wheeling womanizer who can't refuse any woman's advances. A German student by the name of Karl is best friends to both. After the outbreak of World War I, Karl is recruited into the German Air Force and the two British brothers enlist in the Royal Flying Corps (RFC); Roy enthusiastically as a sense of duty and Monte doing so only to get a kiss from a girl at the recruiting station. After their training, Roy finally introduces Monte to Helen, who seduces Monte.
Meanwhile, Karl is serving aboard a zeppelin that is flying over London for an attack from high above the clouds. Karl is the bombardier as he is lowered below the cloud-line in a pod, but because of his love for England he directs the zeppelin over a pond on a farm and bombs that instead. Before his superiors find out, RFC fighters are summoned, including Roy and Monte, to shoot down the zeppelin. Unbeknownst to them, the airship commander decides to sacrifice Karl by cutting the cable that secures his pod in order to obtain more altitude and speed to escape the English fliers. The sacrifice is in vain, as is the suicide of several German personnel who jump ship "for Kaiser and fatherland" in a harrowing sequence. German machine gunners manage to shoot down Roy and Monte's plane, which has a deeply unsettling effect on the latter. After his machine guns jammed on him, the last English pilot aloft steers his fighter into the dirigible, killing all aboard in a blazing fireball.
Word gets around that Monte is developing a "yellow streak" and Roy is determined that his brother restore his reputation. In a fit of anger and under enormous pressure from Roy, the brothers both volunteer for a dangerous bombing mission over Germany.
In the night before the raid, Roy discovers Helen in the arms of another officer in a pub. When he tries to take her home, she causes a scene and publicly splits up with him, leaving him devastated.
After the successful raid on a German munitions dump an aerial dogfight ensues, the brothers are shot down and captured. Given the option of a firing squad or treason, Monte's yellow streak fires up again and he plans on giving the enemy any information they want when the Germans promise that his life will be spared. Roy is forced to act so as to protect the thousands of British troops that would be harmed should they squeal, so he kills Monte and then refuses to divulge any information to his captors and is killed by the firing squad.
The film ends with footage of British soldiers successfully attacking the German front lines.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - There are many traits of pre-code Hollywood in this movie. In addition to some fairly frank sexuality, there is a surprising amount of adult language (for the time) during the final dogfight sequence, i.e. "son of a bitch", "goddamn it", and "for Christ's sake". ------------------------ Production Cost: $3,950,000
In 1929, a group of Chicago Roman Catholic clergy and lay people, with the assistance of Jesuit priest Father Daniel A. Lord, created a code of ethics and practices they hoped the studios would adopt. In February 1930, they met with the heads of several studios, including Irving Thalberg of MGM, who eventually agreed to the stipulations of the Code. It was the responsibility of the Studio Relations Committee, headed by Jason Joy, to supervise film production and advise the studios when changes or cuts were required. [1]
The Code sought not only to determine what could be portrayed on screen, but also to promote traditional values. Sexual relations outside of marriage could not be portrayed as "attractive and beautiful," could not be presented in a way that might "arouse passion," and could not be made to seem "right and permissible." All criminal action had to be punished, and neither the crime nor the criminal could elicit sympathy from the audience. Authority figures had to be treated with respect, and the clergy could not be portrayed as comic characters or villains. Under some circumstances, politicians, policemen and judges could be villains, as long as it was clear they were the exception to the rule. [1]
For the most part, the Code was ignored because many found such censorship prudish, due to the libertine social attitudes of the 1920s and early 1930s. This was a period in which the Victorian era was looked upon as being naïve and backward and was constantly ridiculed as such. In addition, the Great Depression of the 1930's led many studios to seek income any way possible. As films containing racy and violent content were resulting in high ticket sales, it seemed reasonable to continue producing such product. As a result, films in the late 1920s and early 30s reflected the liberal attitudes of the day and frequently included sexual innuendos, references to homosexuality, miscegenation, illegal drug use, infidelity, abortion, and profane language, as well as women in their undergarments. Strong women dominated the screen in films such as The Mysterious Lady, The Docks of New York, Anna Christie, Red-Headed Woman, Blonde Venus, Red Dust, and Waterloo Bridge. Gangsters in films like The Public Enemy, Little Caesar, and A Free Soul were more heroic than evil. [1]
Co-founders Ori Kaplan and Tamir Muskat both met in Brooklyn, New York as teenagers. Both had grown up with music and Kaplan had been a klezmer clarinetist, while Muskat was a drummer in a punk band. They began playing together and had trouble finding a style that they felt represented themselves, so they decided to create one. They established their own unique sound by fusing the musical styles of Mediterranean and Balkan traditions with hip-hop and dancehall beats [1]. The group was extremely influenced by Jamaican dub, another influence visible in their hybrid musical form. Balkan Beat Box’s goal was to take ancient and traditional musical traditions and fuse those with hip-hop in order to create a new mix of musical styles out of the traditional world music context that would appeal to listeners in a club or a dancehall[2]. As children, they had felt that traditional music was outdated and felt as though it did not adequately reflect their experiences of the growing world culture, so hoped to bring new relevance to these old traditional musical forms[3]. They also hoped to encourage and foster peace between citizens around the world by combining traditional music from various areas in the world, hoping that by doing this they can create peace, and believe in the elimination of political borders.
The proto-fascist Glenn Beck has been busy using Rupert Murdoch´s multi-billion dollar media infrastructure to convince Americans that fascism and communism are the same thing, both ´progressive´ ideologies of big government or ´socialist´ economy with no private property. I am certain that he is trying to deal with the American public´s overwhelmingly negative view of the Nazis as any far-right winger must do to resonate with a mass audience and get them on board for the American incarnation of fascism.
Let´s get back to basics here and figure our left from our right.
I´ll start with wikipedia (where else?) and the term <progressivism>
Progressivism is a political attitude favoring or advocating changes or reform. Progressivism is often viewed in opposition to conservative or reactionary ideologies. The Progressive Movement began in cities with settlement workers and reformers who were interested in helping those facing harsh conditions at home and at work. The reformers spoke out about the need for laws regulating tenement housing and child labor. They also called for better working conditions for women.
In the United States, the term progressivism emerged in the late 19th century into the 20th century in reference to a more general response to the vast changes brought by industrialization: an alternative to both the traditional conservative response to social and economic issues and to the various more radical streams of socialism and anarchism which opposed them. Political parties, such as the Progressive Party, organized at the start of the 20th century, and progressivism made great strides under American presidents Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Lyndon Baines Johnson.[1]
Despite being associated with left-wing politics in the United States, the term "progressive" has occasionally been used by groups not particularly left-wing. The Progressive Democrats in the Republic of Ireland took the name "progressivism" despite being considered centre-right or classical liberal. The European Progressive Democrats was a mainly heterogeneous political group in the European Union. For most of the period from 1942-2003, the largest conservative party in Canada was the Progressive Conservative Party.
In politics, right-wing and the Right are generally used to describe support for social stratification, the preservation of social order, and upholding traditional values.[1][2][3][4][5] The terms Right and Left were coined during the French Revolution, referring to seating arrangements in parliament; those who sat on the right supported preserving the institutions of the Ancien Régime (the monarchy, the aristocracy and the established church).[6][7][8][9]
The concept of a political Right became more prominent after the second restoration of the French monarchy in 1815 with the Ultra-royalists. Today the term the Right is primarily used to refer to political groups that have a historical connection with the traditional Right, including conservatives, reactionaries,[10]monarchists, aristocrats and theocrats. The term is also used to describe those who support free market capitalism, and some forms of nationalism.
. . . .
Linked with right-wing nationalism is cultural conservatism. Cultural conservatism supports the preservation of the heritage of a nation or culture, usually in the face of external forces for change.
Far right, extreme right, hard right, radical right, and ultra-right are terms used to discuss the qualitative or quantitative position a group or person occupies within right-wing politics. Far right politics involves supremacism, believing that superiority and inferiority is an innate reality between individuals and groups and involves the complete rejection of the concept of social equality as a norm.[1] Far right politics supports segregation and separation of groups deemed to be superior from groups deemed to be inferior.[2] Far-right politics and political views commonly include authoritarianism, homophobia, nativism, racism, sexism, and xenophobia.[3]
The Nazis claimed that the German nation represents the most racially pure Aryan people.[12] The Nazis deemed the greatest threat to the Aryan race and the German nation as the Jewish race, which the Nazis described as being a parasitic race that has attached itself to various ideologies and movements to secure its self-preservation, such as the Enlightenment, liberalism, democracy, parliamentary politics, capitalism, industrialization, Marxism, and trade unions.[13]
. . . .
In 1927, Hitler said: "We are socialists, we are enemies of today’s capitalistic economic system for the exploitation of the economically weak, with its unfair salaries, with its unseemly evaluation of a human being according to wealth and property instead of responsibility and performance, and we are determined to destroy this system under all conditions.”[112] Yet two years later, in 1929, Hitler backtracked, saying that socialism was “an unfortunate word altogether” and that “if people have something to eat, and their pleasures, then they have their socialism”. Historian Henry A. Turner reports Hitler’s regret at having integrated the word socialism to the Nazi Party name.[113] The Nazi Party’s early self-description as “socialist” caused conservative opponents, such as the Industrial Employers Association, to describe it as “totalitarian, terrorist, conspiratorial, and socialist”.[114]
In 1930, Hitler said: “Our adopted term ‘Socialist’ has nothing to do with Marxian Socialism. Marxism is anti-property; true Socialism is not”.[115]
. . . .
The racist subject of Nazism is Das Volk, the German people living under continual cultural attack by Judeo-Bolshevism, who must unite under Nazi Party leadership, and, per the spartan nationalist tenets of Nazism: be stoic, self-disciplined and self-sacrificing until victory.[64]
. . . .
The Jewish–Bolshevism conspiracy theory derives from anti-Semitism and anti-communism; Adolf Hitler first developed his worldview from living and observing Viennese life from 1907 to 1913, concluding that the Austro–Hungarian Empire comprised racial, religious, and cultural hierarchies; per his interpretations, atop were the “Aryans”, the ultimate, white master race, whilst Jews and Gypsies were at bottom.[64]
. . . .
Private property rights were conditional upon the economic mode of use; if it did not advance Nazi economic goals, the state could nationalize it .[153] Nazi government corporate takeovers, and threatened takeovers, encouraged compliance with government production plans, even if unprofitable for the firm. For example, the owner of the Junkers aeroplane factory refused the government’s directives, whereupon the Nazis occupied the factory and arrested Hugo Junkers, but paid him for his nationalized business. Although the Nazis privatised public properties and public services, they also increased economic state control.[154] Under Nazi economics, free competition and self-regulating markets diminished; nevertheless, Adolf Hitler’s social Darwinist beliefs made him reluctant to entirely disregard business competition and private property as economic engines.[155][156] In 1942, Hitler privately said: “I absolutely insist on protecting private property ... we must encourage private initiative”.[157]
To the proposition that businesses were private property in name but not in substance, but, in Ther Journal of Economic History article “The Role of Private Property in the Nazi Economy: The Case of Industry”, Christoph Buchheim and Jonas Scherner counter that despite state control, business had much production and investment planning freedom — yet acknowledge that Nazi German economy was state-directed.[158]
The President of Iran is a reactionary dictator with plenty of blood on his hands but did Ahmadinejad really say this:
¨To uproot and exterminate the corrupt microbe that is Israel¨
as this Russia Today correspondent reports:
Well Ha´aretz usually does its job, this is what they titled their article:
¨Ahmadinejad: Israel is a corrupt microbe on way to collapse¨
But in the body text the quote appears to state that the Zionist regime, not Israel was the noun in Ahmadinejad´s statement:
"The Zionist regime is on its way to collapse," said the Iranian president. "This is the will of the regional nations and that after 60 odd years, the root of this corrupt microbe and the main reason for insecurity in the region be pulled out."
Are the Imperialists plying for another shot at invasion?
Joy Division was a small band in Manchester from 1976 to 1980 that made music emblematic of a generation of youth coming of age amidst declining social conditions and no political leadership. The Labour government´s betrayal of the working class during the 1970s and the rise of Thatcherism at the end of the 1970s heralded a future of mass unemployment, government repression and decaying industry. The perspective taken by Ian Curtis, the band´s sole lyricist, towards this growing authoritarianism and despair is crucial to understand if one is to place the references to fascism found in the band´s album art in the context intended by the artist, that is, a despairing anti-Nazism.
In an August 2008 article, Kevin Martinez of the Socialist Equality Party (ICFI) explained the band´s relationship with Nazism as such:
The name of the band was taken from the brothels operated by the Nazis in various concentration camps. While Curtis was not flirting with neo-Nazism, some of his bandmates indicate that they had a fascination with fascism at the time, and the whole thing suggests unseriousness and irresponsibility, as well as a growing social nihilism.
The band’s demo EP, “An Ideal For Living,” featured a Hitler Youth member pounding a drum on the cover. The inside artwork is the infamous picture of Jews with their hands up in surrender during the Warsaw Ghetto uprising.
“I like it,” Ian explains “It’s thought-provoking.” This critical stance, however, does not prevent their shows from being overrun by skinheads and accusations of the band supporting fascism.
Punk at that time was a unique music scene in which battles between anti-racists and neo-nazis were being thrashed out at concerts as the skinheads tried to appropriate the punk aesthetic and hijack the following of alienated, disillusioned working class youth who gravitated towards such a sub-culture in places like Manchester at the beginning of the 1980s. This dynamic should have been noted by Martinez when he raised the accusations of fascist sympathies and any presence of skinheads at Joy Division concerts. The lyrics of Ian Curtis made it clear that this was a presence suffered and feared as opposed to tolerated or toyed with by the band. However, there is a claim that some of the other band members had a ¨fascination¨ or ¨obsession¨ or ¨intrigue¨with fascism:
While Hook and Sumner later admitted to being intrigued by fascism at the time, Morris insisted that the group's obsession with Nazi imagery came from a desire to keep memories of the sacrifices of their parents and grandparents during World War II alive. He argued that accusations of neo-Nazi sympathies merely provoked the band "to keep on doing it, because that's the kind of people we are".
Joy Division feared fascism, they did not flirt with it and the artwork and lyrics in An Ideal for Living serves as a warning of growing fascistic tendencies in British society. It appears more like a cancer patient learning the nature of their disease in order fight it. For this, Curtis and his bandmates should be lauded for tackling such a controversial issue and expressing such a well-grounded fear and hostility towards such a veritable enemy of the working class during a swift turn to the right in Britain.
The band´s name is taken from the 1955 novella The House of Dolls written by Ka-tzetnik 135633, probably a young Jewish girl who was captured in Poland when she was fourteen years old and forced into sexual slavery in a Nazi labour camp as part of one of several ¨Joy Divisions¨ created to reward non-jewish inmates and prison guards. For the band to perform as Joy Division should be seen as an indictment of British society at the time. It is not uncommon for young people, coming of age in a time of working class defeat and repression, to loosely throw around charges of Nazism toward their own society. If anything, the correct criticism of Joy Division´s indictment of British society is that it is too alarmist and disappears some important distinctions to validate their despair.
The band´s first recording, An Ideal for Living (1978), mentioned by Martinez because of the album´s Nazi references, contains the track ¨Leaders of Men¨ which thumps out a clear message:
To force a final ultimatum. / Thousand words are spoken loud,/Reach the dumb to fool the crowd. / When you walk down the street, / And the sound's not so sweet, / And you wish you could hide,/Maybe go for a ride,/To some peep show arcade, / Where the future's not made.
A nightmare situation, / Infiltrate imagination, / Smacks of past Holy wars, / By the wall with broken laws. / The leaders of men, / Born out of your frustration. / The leaders of men, / Just a strange infatuation. / The leaders of men, / Made a promise for a new life. / No saviour for our sakes, / To twist the internees of hate, / Self induced manipulation, / To crush all thoughts of mass salvation.
Unknown Pleasures (1979) marked the move to what would be called ¨post-punk¨ and featured a more articulate political character such as that found in ¨Candidate¨
I campaigned for nothing / I worked hard for this / I tried to get to you /You treat me like this
It's just second nature / It's what we've been shown / We're living by your rules / That's all that we know
Another track from that album, ¨Shadowplay¨ would turn out to be one of the band´s lasting hits. As would be in keeping with Curtis´ lyrical content, the song expressed defeat at the hands of authoritarians:
In the shadowplay, acting out your own death, knowing no more /As the assassins all grouped in four lines, dancing on the floor / And with cold steel, odour on their bodies made a move to connect / But I could only stare in disbelief as the crowds all left
In the autumn of 1978 Joy Division played a precedent-setting concert titled ¨Rock Against Racism¨ which is described in this Guardian article as such:
That influence was both political and musical. 'It built a circuit of gigs and concerts on which a lot of bands cut their teeth,' explains Ian Goodyer. 'And these small gigs relied on the people in the grassroots getting involved.' Such people include Paul Furness, whose RAR club in Leeds staged the only Rock Against Racism concert featuring Joy Division. The strategy of encouraging black and white bands to jam together paved the way for the ska revival, 2-Tone and multi-racial bands such as the Beat (who, according to Red Saunders, first met in Victoria Park) and the Specials.
The release of Closer (1980) showed a band with the same panging need to call out fascism for what it was as the song ¨They Walked in Line¨ indicates:
All dressed in uniforms so fine / They drank and killed to pass the time / Wearing the shame of all their crimes / With measured steps, they walked in line
. . . .To never question anymore / Hypnotic trance, they never saw
¨Dead Souls¨
They keep calling me / Where figures from the past stand tall / And mocking voices ring the hall / Imperialistic house of prayer / Conquistadors who took their share
¨Decades¨
Here are the young men, the weight on their shoulders
Here are the young men, well where have they been?
We knocked on the doors of Hell's darker chamber
Pushed to the limit, we dragged ourselves in
Watched from the wings as the scenes were replaying
We saw ourselves now as we never had seen
Portrayal of the trauma and degeneration
The sorrows we suffered and never were free
. . . .
Weary inside, now our heart's lost forever
Can't replace the fear, or the thrill of the chase
Each ritual showed up the door for our wanderings
Open then shut, then slammed in our face
¨Autosuggestion¨
Here, here,
Everything is kept inside.
So take a chance and step outside.
Pure frustration face to face.
A point of view creates more waves,
So take a chance and step outside.
¨From Safety to Where¨
Just passing through, 'till we reach the next stage.
But just to where, well it's all been arranged.
Just passing through but the break must be made.
Should we move on or stay safely away?
Through childlike ways rebellion and crime,
To reach this point and retreat back again.
The broken hearts,
All the wheels that have turned,
The memories scarred and the vision is blurred.
¨Transmission¨
Listen to the silence, let it ring on.
Eyes, dark grey lenses frightened of the sun.
We would have a fine time living in the night,
Left to blind destruction,
Waiting for our sight.
¨Insight¨
Guess the dreams always end
They don't rise up, just descend
But I don't care anymore
I've lost the will to want more
I'm not afraid not at all
I watch them all as they fall
But I remember when we were young
Those with habits of waste
Their sense of style and good taste
Of making sure you were right
Hey don't you know you were right?
I'm not afraid anymore
I keep my eyes on the door
But I remember...
Tears of sadness for you
More upheaval for you
Reflects a moment in time
A special moment in time
Yeah we wasted our time
We didn't really have time
But we remember when we were young
And all God's angels beware
And all you judges beware
Sons of chance take good care
For all the people not there
I'm not afraid anymore
I'm not afraid anymore
I'm not afraid anymore
Oh, I'm not afraid anymore
There are a lot of problems with how the issue of Genetically Engineered crops is portrayed on corporate television. One example as good as another is an episode of Penn & Teller's BULLSHIT. Here are eight problems or misconceptions shown in the episode.
i) What level is the world food supply at? There is an abundance of food but it is not evenly distributed. As Dr. Christos Vasilikiotis articulates:
Our current world food production is more than sufficient to provide an adequate diet to all humans, yet more than 840 million people are suffering from hunger. Hunger is a problem of poverty, distribution, and access to food. The question then, is not "how to feed the world", but rather, how can we develop sustainable farming methods that have the potential to help the world feed and sustain itself. Organic management practices promote soil health, water conservation and can reverse environmental degradation. The emphasis on small-scale family farms has the potential to revitalize rural areas and their economies. Counter to the widely held belief that industrial agriculture is more efficient and productive, small farms produce far more per acre than large farms. Industrial agriculture relies heavily on monocultures, the planting of a single crop throughout the farm, because they simplify management and allow the use of heavy machinery. Larger farms in the third world also tend to grow export luxury crops instead of providing staple foods to their growing population. Small farmers, especially in the Third World have integrated farming systems where they plant a variety of crops maximizing the use of their land. http://www.cnr.berkeley.edu/~christos/articles/cv_organic_farming.html
Therefore, it appears the episode begins the issue on a false premise that is common.
ii) 1min 11sec: Suicide seeds can contaminate neighbouring crops and takeover causing harm to farmers. See Percy Schmeiser's experiences with such 'suicide' or 'terminator' seeds. https://www.greenpeace.org.au/truefood/news2.html?mode=intl&archive=1
"Terminator or Genetic Use Restriction Technology (GURTs) is a technology of genetic engineering designed by the multinational seed industry to render seeds sterile after first harvest, thus preventing farmers from saving and re-using seed, forcing them to return to corporations to buy seed every season. This predatory strategy has been widely condemned, in Canada and across the world, because it threatens farmer livelihoods, food security, and agricultural biodiversity. And yet, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency continues to prepare for the potential introduction of Terminator seeds and there is no policy in Canada to address the devastating impacts Terminator would have on farmers’ livelihoods." http://www.activistmagazine.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=636&Itemid=80
Short and long term health effects of g.e. food cannot be determined since it has not been a significant part of the food supply for very long.
iii) Monsanto style fertilizers and industrial farming techniques tend towards over-farming the soil. This of course reduces arable land to grow food on thereby causing a reduction of food production.
Were Norman Borlaug's techniques in Mexico, India, and China of the sustainable/organic variety or of the industrial variety leading to genetically engineered seeds that would not be invented years after Borlaug's work that won him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970? It is misleading to say genetically engineered food saved the billions of lives the episode states if they were not yet invented during the period in which said lives were saved.
iv) "If we used only organic methods on existing farmlands we couldn't feed anymore than two thirds of the world's population." -5min 12sec
A crude hypothetical is only that. Ideas to compliment an organically-grown food supply are many. For instance the amount of meat being consumed by westerners is unpredented in history--more than in the 1950's. Raising livestock is the least efficient use of farmland.
v) These genetically engineered crops are actually the most highly tested crops that we've ever had." 7min 25sec
This is because little testing has ever been done on existing organic crops since they have progressively proven safe historically as selective breeding and grafting technique were improved. Genetically engineered foods are new and totally unprecedented in the food supply so it was appropriate to start testing such foods. Also, the F.D.A, U.S.D.A., and E.P.A. are modern inventions with a chronologically limited amount of study material to draw on. It makes sense that the most testing is done on genetically engineered food. Stating this alone is misleading however.
vi) How can any 'progressive' activists or leftists (scientific materialist basis) reject scientific research? Certain technologies like thermonuclear warheads or suicide seeds, or any technologies that are aimed at concentrating control and profits of a material necessity of life should be denounced in favour of applications that have the opposite outcome or tendencies.
vii) 7min 55sec: the 2002 Environmental Summit in Africa in which Zambia was convinced by groups "like Greenpeace" that the foods were poisonous. The European Union decided previously that the g.e. food being donated was not yet safely tested. The President of Zambia stated of his country's judgment:
"We have made a decision. We have rejected GM-food. It is not a slight on donors. There is no conclusive evidence that it is safe. We wish not to use our people as guinea pigs in this experiment. Our decision is final," he told reporters.
"We have enough food to take the country to December," he said, adding that he believed Zambia could by that time get GM-free food donations and could also bring in GM-free commercial imports.¨
viii) 9min 01sec: Selective breeding and grafting are not processes equivalent or the same as the genetic engineering in question. Changes are not the issue. Even the most spaced-out hippie can acknowledge that selective breeding and grafting created changes in the strains of cannabis, improving the potency and focusing certain types of T.H.C. (there are nine apparently). So such 'changes' should not be called into question.
By ´relevant´ I mean in relation to this past decade. Emblematic would be another word. Usually this involved more digital equipment/sampling in the arrangements but also, lyrically there is a steady theme that could be linked to the zeitgeist of the 00´s.
I think there´s often this tendency to think of First Nations people living in their communities and choosing to live in ways that are like the ways of their ancestors that somehow that makes them backwards. But it doesn´t. They are our contemporaries. We can call them on the phone and speak to them and they will speak at us, and they are every bit as modern as we are, here in this television studio. And there´s something deeply racist in fact, about this idea that choosing to live a traditional life is somehow to live a backward life. I mean, we accept all kinds of people and kinds of ...[Paikin interrupts]
I think this begs the question what is meant by a ¨traditional life¨ and where the line between ´traditional´ and ´modern´ is. When does the quantitative turn into a qualitative shift?
Of or pertaining to tradition; derived from tradition; communicated from ancestors to descendants by word only; transmitted from age to age without writing; as, traditional opinions; traditional customs; traditional expositions of the Scriptures.
Observant of tradition; attached to old customs; old-fashioned.
Ann Coulter is a particularly reactionary American pundit who embarked on a three city tour of Canadian universities; U of Western Ontario, U of Ottawa, and U of Calgary. Here is footage from her speech at Western on 22 March in which she tells a 17 year old hijab-wearing student to ¨take a camel¨ as transport if she doesn´t have a flying carpet:
At the University of Ottawa about 2000 students showed up to protest her appearance at their university due to her well-known hate speech.
At the University of Calgary only about 40 students protested her performance with home-made placards bearing slogans such as ¨free speech not hate speech¨ and others.
THE CENTRAL QUESTION FOR BOURGEOIS JOURNALISTS TO COVER IS: ¨Does Ann Coulter´s speeches constitute hate speech under Canadian law¨
Here are the relevant quotes that any journalist doing their job would have cited:
They're [Democrats] always accusing us of repressing their speech. I say let's do it. Let's repress them. Frankly, I'm not a big fan of the First Amendment. * University of Florida speech; October 20, 2005
When contemplating college liberals, you really regret once again that John Walker is not getting the death penalty. We need to execute people like John Walker in order to physically intimidate liberals, by making them realize that they can be killed, too. Otherwise, they will turn out to be outright traitors. * Conservative Political Action Conference; February 26, 2002
Which brings me to this week's scandal about No Such Agency spying on 'Americans.' I have difficulty ginning up much interest in this story inasmuch as I think the government should be spying on all Arabs, engaging in torture as a televised spectator sport, dropping daisy cutters wantonly throughout the Middle East, and sending liberals to Guantanamo. * Live and Let Spy; December 21, 2005
"I'm getting a little fed up with hearing about, oh, civilian casualties"; "I think we ought to nuke North Korea right now just to give the rest of the world a warning.
[Canadians] better hope the United States does not roll over one night and crush them. They are lucky we allow them to exist on the same continent.
We need somebody to put rat poisoning in Justice Stevens's creme brulee. That's just a joke, for you in the media. * Philander Smith College January 26, 2006 [18]
I think our motto should be, post-9-11, 'raghead talks tough, raghead faces consequences.' * At CPAC Conference; February 10, 2006
"Press passes can't be that hard to come by if the White House allows that old Arab Helen Thomas to sit within yards of the president" * (Version of her February 23, 2005 article, "REPUBLICANS, BLOGGERS AND GAYS, OH MY!" at her website
We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity. We weren't punctilious about locating and punishing only Hitler and his top officers. We carpet-bombed German cities; we killed civilians. That's war. And this is war.
When we were fighting communism, OK, they had mass murderers and gulags, but they were white men and they were sane. Now we're up against absolutely insane savages. * [6]; August 16, 2004
THE CENTRAL QUESTION FOR LEFTIST ACTIVISTS IS: ¨Is blocking her platform at the university serving the political-economic interests of the working class and its oppressed layers?¨
--On her controversial remarks: "I like to stir up the pot. I don't pretend to be impartial or balanced, as broadcasters do."
--On voting rights: "It would be a much better country if women did not vote. That is simply a fact."
--On Liberals: "Liberals hate America, they hate flag-wavers, they hate abortion opponents, they hate all religions except Islam, post 9/11. Even Islamic terrorists don't hate America like liberals do. They don't have the energy. If they had that much energy, they'd have indoor plumbing by now."
--On terrorism: "We know who the homicidal maniacs are. They are the ones cheering and dancing right now. We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity. We weren't punctilious about locating and punishing only Hitler and his top officers. We carpet-bombed German cities; we killed civilians. That's war. And this is war."
--On security: "If only we could get Muslims to boycott all airlines, we could dispense with airport security altogether." She also sad Muslims could use "flying carpets" to travel instead. When a Muslim female student called Coulter on that comment during one of her students, she told the student "to take a camel." See video.
--On Jihad fighters: "I believe our motto should be after 9/11: Jihad monkey talks tough; jihad monkey takes the consequences. Sorry, I realize that's offensive. How about "camel jockey"? What? Now what'd I say? Boy, you tent merchants sure are touchy. Grow up, would you?"
--On John Edwards: "I was going to have a few comments on the other Democratic presidential candidate, John Edwards, but it turns out that you have to go into rehab if you use the word 'faggot,' so I'm – so, kind of at an impasse, can't really talk about Edwards, so I think I'll just conclude here and take your questions." See video.
--On Jews: "We just want Jews to be perfected ... That is what Christianity is ... that is what Christians consider themselves: perfected Jews." See video.
--On Barack Obama before he became President: "It's shocking that ... he's probably going to be our next president, President Hussein" and "[h]is first big accomplishment" was "being born half-black. ... He wouldn't be running for president if he weren't half-black."
--On the health care reform: "I might be in favor of national healthcare if it required all Democrats to get their heads examined."
--On the election of a Republican in Massachusetts: "The fact that a Republican is in the late Senator Kennedy's old seat must have him rolling in his grave, probably spilling his drink."
[still from The Kid, 1921]
at Dictator, 1940]
