Chomsky and Venezuela
On the 30th anniverary of the CIA sponsored bombing of a Cuban airliner Noam Chomsky took part in a forum to discuss US involvement in governmnet subverison and covert ops in Latin America. His response was reprinted on Z-Net. Asked about possible US intervention in Venezual and Bolivia, Chomsky had some things to say that I found quite interesting. Discussing the US sponsoered coup attempt against Chavez several years ago, chomsky noted that
"in almost all ofLatin America , there was a very angry reaction. They take democracy there more seriously then we do here."
"[Here] we are voluntary North Koreans, when the dear leader says it, it’s true."
Turnout in both U.S. and Canada very low.
I found this to be a very inteesting comment. It really hit home to me somehting that I think we all realise instintivel. Namely, people tned to charish their rights in places where they are regularily infringed, while in countries thast ostensibly cherish those rights, those rights are taken for granted or even ignored.
Case in point. I saw Haitian activist Patrick Elie speak on the Canaidan role in the Haitian coup that overthrew Aristide and intiated a new reign of terror in hait, in which thousands have been killed. Elie had been at the anti war protest the day before, anjd he said somehting remarkeable,. he said while it was nice to see 5 thousand citizens marhing in the streets of Vancouver, 5 thousand Haitians marching in the sreets of Cite de Soleil is so common it wouldn't even make the news. In Haiti, where rights abuses have been frequent and severe, people are willing to risk violent suppression to fihgt for their democracy.
Here David Emerson basically steals (or at least, borrowed without permission) an entire riding (my riding), and Canadians make barely as peep about democratic subversion in their own country (though it is fashionable to protest our foreign policy in Afghanistan and Haiti). The romans had an old saying, which paraphrased said basically that yopu could make a populaiton do anyhting you want so long as you provided them with enough bread and circuses. As long as we eat well and freqeuntly, and watdch Canadian idol (or in my case, Battlestar Gallactica), we are unlikley to fight for our rights, especially when we are told time and again how well they are respected and gaurded.
last301
"in almost all of
"[Here] we are voluntary North Koreans, when the dear leader says it, it’s true."
Turnout in both U.S. and Canada very low.
I found this to be a very inteesting comment. It really hit home to me somehting that I think we all realise instintivel. Namely, people tned to charish their rights in places where they are regularily infringed, while in countries thast ostensibly cherish those rights, those rights are taken for granted or even ignored.
Case in point. I saw Haitian activist Patrick Elie speak on the Canaidan role in the Haitian coup that overthrew Aristide and intiated a new reign of terror in hait, in which thousands have been killed. Elie had been at the anti war protest the day before, anjd he said somehting remarkeable,. he said while it was nice to see 5 thousand citizens marhing in the streets of Vancouver, 5 thousand Haitians marching in the sreets of Cite de Soleil is so common it wouldn't even make the news. In Haiti, where rights abuses have been frequent and severe, people are willing to risk violent suppression to fihgt for their democracy.
Here David Emerson basically steals (or at least, borrowed without permission) an entire riding (my riding), and Canadians make barely as peep about democratic subversion in their own country (though it is fashionable to protest our foreign policy in Afghanistan and Haiti). The romans had an old saying, which paraphrased said basically that yopu could make a populaiton do anyhting you want so long as you provided them with enough bread and circuses. As long as we eat well and freqeuntly, and watdch Canadian idol (or in my case, Battlestar Gallactica), we are unlikley to fight for our rights, especially when we are told time and again how well they are respected and gaurded.
last301
posted by Bob Neubauer at 10:54 AM
5 Comments:
Taking an interest in Latin America has had an effect on me. I make a concerted effort to vote now. 10 years ago, admitedly, I couldn't have cared less.
I completely agree in the fact that people here dont take their freedoms and rights seriously. We all know we have them and we demand that they time and time again be protected but we really don't even know what are rights are. It was a perfect example in class the first few sessions when Jon asked 'what our rights were' and none of us could really answer. Is that because we have never really had to fight for them like they do in other parts of the world, such as Latin America?
I also agree with Dave's comment in taking an interest in LAS has definately increased my awareness of other countries and the struggles they have endured in order to protect their freedoms and rights. I have also made a more concerted effort to involve myself in rights decisions and become more aware of the priveledges we experience here in Canada. By doing so I am hoping that our priveledges can help the struggles going on in other areas.
you post begs the question, "how do we fight apathy?" i dont know but definitly not by having anti-apathy awareness days.
the strange thing is though, in vancouver everyone is so so socially aware. you can have an educated conversation with a person on a park bench, but wheres the action? what are we so bloody scared of? when i ddo the ocasional subversive act i'm not scared of the man behind of the security camera-he's probably fat and lazy and i could flirt my way out of it- but i'm scared of the camera. i'm so conditioned to live in a state of constant awareness of being watched that subersive acts rarely come to mind. its oh so deep- we are the perfect citizens that just eat and eat loads of easily digestible mashed potatoes and peas.
maybe as a class we can do some sort of small lovely act of resistance? any ideas?
NSU - 4efer, 5210 - rulez
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