Listen to mainstream media newscasts
or Bush regime spokesmen and you get the impression that outside Washington,
Hollywood, Jerusalem & Baghdad, there is no news. But in the real world,
events make the overblown, skewed and fabricated stories that most Americans
take for complete and impartial reporting look myopic and shallow. Two examples:
Afghanistan
: David Hayman reports for the Herald:
Wasn't this the country that Tony Blair and George
Bush pledged, in the same breath that announced war, that the people of
Afghanistan would not be forgotten? Well, I can say after two visits to
Afghanistan that they are not only forgotten but well and truly betrayed.
The country is on its knees: roads, bridges, tunnels, schools, homes, hospitals,
and farmlands are reduced to rubble and dust. It is one of the most heavily
land-mined countries in the world. Only 5% of the rural population have access
to clean water, 17% have access to medical services, 13% have access to
education, 25% of all children are dead by the age of five. Life expectancy
is 43. An estimated three million people are still in refugee camps in Iran
and Pakistan, let alone the hundreds of thousands of internally displaced
peoples. This country is in a mess and if anyone tells me that millions of
dollars worth of aid is getting into this country then I will gladly take
them to Afghanistan and point out the brutal truth. The people are dying!
And we are turning a blind eye.
Congo
: Someni Sengupta for the NYT:
They call the machete a weapon of mass destruction
here. Its ghastly wreckage can be found inside what passes for this town's
only functioning hospital. On a thin foam mattress lies a wide-eyed old man
who has survived an attempted decapitation. Nearby, a mother with black moons
around her eyes nurses two wounded children back to health and mourns for
another two, freshly killed. It is estimated that more than three million
people have died in Congo's four-year war as a dizzying array of rival rebel
armies and their patrons from nine neighboring countries have fought over
Congo's enormous spoils. Gold, diamonds and coltan ? a mineral used in cellphones
? are among the precious loot in this northeastern province called Ituri,
and peace deals so far have done nothing to stanch the bloodletting. The
latest massacre took place over several days this month, as militias belonging
to rival Hema and Lendu tribes battled for control here in Ituri's largest
town. Today, the death toll stands at 350. Most have been buried in unmarked
graves since their remains offered few details about who they were, let alone
which of the warring ethnic groups they belonged to. As many as 17,000 people
are huddled inside the tent cities that have sprung up in a United Nations
compound, at the airport and in the heart of town.
Millions killed in genocide in Sudan, resurging famine in Ethiopia and Somalia,
political instability, corruption and economic collapse in South America,
tens of millions displaced and homeless due to wars in Asia and Africa, guerrilla
movements and brutal, corrupt dictatorships in Central Asia, environmental
holocaust accelerating everywhere, dozens of countries governed by madmen
and criminals. But no mention of any of this in most of the American press
or government speeches.
A few weeks ago I discussed Jack Kent's children's story
There's No Such Thing as a Dragon
, where a once-peaceful ignored dragon keeps growing and growing
until it gets so large that it starts to create havoc, and then devastation.
On 9/11, one Middle Eastern dragon got so large its flailing tail was felt
on this side of the Atlantic. Our response was to declare war on green tails
(since there's no such thing as a dragon we couldn't declare war on
dragons). When a green tail couldn't be found, we attacked some other animal
that we persuaded ourselves looked kind of like a green tail, though
unfortunately when we killed it, it turned out we were mistaken. But we declared
green tails to be in retreat, since we haven't seen one around here lately,
though we've been screening for them at all the airports and arresting anyone
that we think looks like they might have a green tail or be a green tail
sympathizer.
Meanwhile, across the globe, the army of dragons is growing ever larger.
In Palestine, Afghanistan and Congo they're larger than life. And although
we're still calling them green tails, since there's no such thing as a
dragon, we know they're coming.
|
MADE IN CANADA
trust your
instincts 
