tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-74642222635728160252024-03-06T05:33:42.222+09:00Lit by IMAGINATIONpolitics, history, disarmament, environment, energy, education, literature, cinema, whateverUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger152125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7464222263572816025.post-58223794219123973002023-03-13T19:58:00.005+09:002023-03-13T20:00:50.176+09:00Polyvalent Drugs, Corruption, and the Know-Nothing Leadership Class: Professor Didier Raoult’s Pandemic Post-Mortem<p><span face=""Open Sans", sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">It has been three
years since the new coronavirus appeared and most of the world appears to be
moving on without giving it much thought. Hollywood has started to set stories
in the pandemic with the film </span><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11564570/?ref_=fn_al_tt_2"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Glass
Onion—A Knives Out Mystery</span></i></a><span face=""Open Sans", sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"> standing out as an
example. It satirizes, just a little, the mass psychosis of the time as the
characters flaunt the new rules and carry on with their privileged lives. The
public mood now seems to be more of a will to forget rather than a will to reckon
with what just happened.</span></p><p><span face=""Open Sans", sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP3Et1TSl21U8XyX8EPUu2XWf7OyBZEaxTRwgmCzR37TZQgG_azpn8ZCJAyo6hw58aQkF5Wf_b70as9YUWCF-ZYdO7m-wjz0ZD-23Q4GHfmw13fQyg6aZx2AEytjNrs61TvZsF6C_0irJVUrjnKqgANm39Cr7HB_fg9qh-PKeEVcyGedTj1Nrj2usG/s1920/glass%20onion-mesh%20mask.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1038" data-original-width="1920" height="173" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP3Et1TSl21U8XyX8EPUu2XWf7OyBZEaxTRwgmCzR37TZQgG_azpn8ZCJAyo6hw58aQkF5Wf_b70as9YUWCF-ZYdO7m-wjz0ZD-23Q4GHfmw13fQyg6aZx2AEytjNrs61TvZsF6C_0irJVUrjnKqgANm39Cr7HB_fg9qh-PKeEVcyGedTj1Nrj2usG/s320/glass%20onion-mesh%20mask.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kate Hudson as Birdie Jay in <em>Glass Onion</em>, sporting <br />her version of a mask that was, after all, no less <br />effective than the masks worn by her servants.</td></tr></tbody></table><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span><p></p><p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">An article published
in the </span><a href="https://m.dailykos.com/stories/2023/2/16/2153287/-D-C-antiwar-rally-will-mostly-be-a-platform-for-far-right-conspiracism-pro-Putin-propaganda"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Daily
Kos</span></i></a><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"> on February 17, 2023 disparaged the anti-war rally to
be held in Washington on February 19, 2022, slandering all the left-wing
speakers involved by dismissing the event as a platform for right-wing
grifters, Putin apologists and conspiracy theorists. In the mix was the accusation
that many of the participants had peddled “Covid-19 conspiracy theories” during
the pandemic. Instead of noticing at this late date that almost everything that
was labelled “conspiracy theory” has come true, self-proclaimed progressives
stick to the official narrative: that masks and lockdowns were effective, the
vaccines—and only the vaccines—would end the pandemic, the vaccines were safe,
and the billions to be gained by the pharmaceutical companies did not influence
media or government policy. They cared about your welfare, apparently. Sideline
public safety in the pursuit of profit? They wouldn’t do that! <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p><p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Maybe you wouldn’t,
but they would. This short saying perhaps sums up best the mass psychosis of
naivete that struck “first world” nations during the pandemic years. I don’t
have the motivation to go over it all again. Read my blog posts from 2020-21
for the record of how I covered it as it was happening. I called it early and
there is very little that I got wrong. I won my so-called “bet on the
pandemic,” which was not a bet at all. I committed the sin of “doing my own
research” and figured out what to do by reading the hundreds of dissenting
medical opinions. I suffered no damage from the infection, but, unfortunately,
I saw a dozen colleagues, friends and relatives experience serious adverse
events after getting their mRNA shots. Relationships also suffered some adverse
effects. But none of these people are dead, so this mood of forgetting and
moving on reminds me of something the fictional grifter </span><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3032476/"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Saul Goodman</span></i></a><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">
liked to say: ’<i>ts’all good, man!</i> They did everything just right because,
you know, “It would have been worse if we hadn’t [<i>fill in your own blank</i>].”
People believe what they want to believe, and the world moves on to the next
thing. Joe Biden decided the Covid thing will be officially over on May 11th.
Maybe they have something big planned this year to commemorate <i>Unternehmen Barbarossa</i>
(1941/06/21). (Naaah, they wouldn’t do that!) Throughout history, war has
always been the answer for capitalism in crisis and its need for a great reset.
The pandemic served that role for a while, but they took that as far as they
could. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p><p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">As a short reminder
of a few of the pertinent issues to assess post-pandemic, what follows is an
excerpt of a recent interview with Professor Didier Raoult, the dissident
French doctor who saved his patients with early, effective treatments and spoke
early and often about the errors of public health policy. In the interview he gave
on February 14, 2023, he discussed the potential of new uses of off-patent
drugs, if governments can create a way to support the research and marketing of
them. This would be an alternative to the present corrupt practice of approving
new high cost patented drugs developed by pharmaceutical companies. Professor
Raoult also reminded us of the tremendous corruption that was on display during
the pandemic: the lies told about off-patent drugs, the promotion of the toxic
and useless drug remdesivir, the backroom text-messaged deals between the CEO
of Pfizer and the war-mongering lunatic president of the European Union, and
the pathetic level of scientific ignorance of journalists, bureaucrats and
politicians. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><b><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></b></p><p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><b><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Professor
of Medicine, Didier Raoult: </span></b><a href="https://youtu.be/8_NNBNCyY9o"><b><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">In
France, the level of scientific research is very low</span></b></a></p><p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><b><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Sud
Radio, 2023/02/14</span></b></p><p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><b><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Translated
by Dennis Riches</span></b></p><p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">The
interview was translated, edited and, in a few segments, paraphrased in order
to improve the clarity while preserving the speaker’s intent. <o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p><p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Didier Raoult: I’m
fairly optimistic. I think that there will be a shift with regard to the repurposing
of old drugs to treat diseases... Since the 19th century, we’ve been through a
technological revolution and an evolution of medicine that is partly based on
innovation but also on hygiene, on quality of life etc. Simply increasing the
size of houses has decreased the transmissibility of diseases. But after 150
years of chemistry we have an absolutely astounding inventory of compounds that
were found to be effective. But what’s more impressive is that the compounds
found in nature are very often dual use, or polyvalent. It is now a question of
exploiting the versatility of these compounds and testing them. For example,
there are a number of molecules that have been shown in the laboratory to be
effective against this virus [SARS-Cov-2]—including neuroleptics and sedatives—and
this was unexpected. So these molecules exist, and we know that they are not
toxic. That’s why the greatest fantasy sold [during the pandemic] was the alleged
toxicity of hydroxychloroquine, a drug that had been prescribed for 70 years. Or
ivermectin is another example. So we know their toxicity. We know that they don’t
have toxicity at certain doses, so we have to test their efficacy in other
situations, and many compounds have uses that are unsuspected. So there can be a
recycling of these drugs which costs nothing because these drugs are
inexpensive. And this is actually the problem with them. I warned a few years
ago in a column I wrote to say that we must find a social space for someone to
earn money by developing these drugs.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p><p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">But the world is
changing... whatever the subject is. We think that in Paris we run a part of
the world, and then Europe runs another, and the United States runs the rest,
but as a total of the world population these places are not very big. In other
places they know how to deal with corruption better than we do. For example,
the Chinese have punished very, very severely... <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p><p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">I’m not a
conspiracy theorist. I don’t believe that there is a summit of people who talk
to each other and decide the affairs of the world, but when you find out that
corruption is one of the problems... It’s obvious... Pfizer has been hit with
between 13 billion and 20 billion in penalties in the United States in the last
few years, so we have discovered that Pfizer is likely to be corrupt and we
seem to find it normal that the president of the European Commission negotiated
with the CEO of Pfizer, without any witnesses present [</span><a href="https://www.spectator.com.au/2023/02/bourla-von-der-leyen-text-message-scandal-eu-cant-function-without-corruption/"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">the
text messages</span></a><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"> of Albert Bourla, CEO of Pfizer, and
Ursula Von der Leyen, president of the European Commission]. I think they don’t
care about the world.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p><p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Corruption is as
old as the world. I like to study history and I can tell you that corruption is
as old as human history. It requires checks and balances. It requires analysis.
It requires transparency. That’s what prevents corruption. So when we see that they
can spend 40 billion euros without the slightest transparency, we remain a
little suffocated. [Remdesivir] brought in a billion euros for the manufacturer
at a time when </span><a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/feature-stories/detail/who-recommends-against-the-use-of-remdesivir-in-covid-19-patients"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">the
WHO said it was useless</span></a><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">. Europe bought a billion euros worth
of it, and we don’t know who decided that. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p><p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">There is a very
important phenomenon that has not been talked about enough, in my opinion. In
politics and among journalists there is of course an absolute, terrible,
terrifying ignorance of what science is, and not only that but also a
disinterest... They are uncomfortable with people who do not depend on them.
They are people who have learned to talk about anything without knowing what
they are talking about… These are people who are adapted to a particular
selection mechanism, which does not equate with a spectacular level of
intelligence. So when they find themselves in front of people who have very,
very different backgrounds and who have obtained things not by obedience to
different cabinets or to different ministers but by their own means, they are
perplexed. And we are perplexed also because we don’t take them very seriously.
Meanwhile, they say, “Who do these people think they are?” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://youtu.be/8_NNBNCyY9o"><b><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" lang="FR" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: FR;">Pr.
Raoult : Le niveau d’analyse de la science est très bas en France</span></b></a></p><p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><b><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" lang="FR" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: FR;">Sud Radio, 2023/02/14<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" lang="FR" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: FR;"><br /></span></p><p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" lang="FR" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: FR;">Je suis assez optimiste. Je pense qu’il y aura une
bascule à faire et qui qui va se passer, si vous voulez, avec le
repositionnement de molécules anciennes pour battre les choses... On a vécu
depuis le 19e siècle une révolution technologique et une évolution de la
médecine qui est en partie basée sur l’innovation [et] … sur l’hygiène, la
qualité de vie. Simplement, le fait d’agrandir la taille des maisons a diminué
la transmissibilité des maladies. Mais au bout de 150 ans de chimie … on a un
capital chimique absolument considérable or les molécules ont été découvertes
pour une efficacité et à cette efficacité alors que les molécules en
particulier issues de la nature sont très souvent polyvalentes. Il s’agit
maintenant d’utiliser la polyvalence de ces molécules et de les tester. Par
exemple, il y a une quantité de molécules dont on a montré qu’elles étaient, au
laboratoire, efficaces contre ce virus—y compris des neuroleptiques, y compris
des calmants—ce qui était imprévus. Donc ces molécules existent. Elles ont un
intérêt et on connaît leur absence de toxicité. C’est pour ça que le plus grand
fantasme a été la toxicité de l’hydroxychloroquine sur un des médicaments
prescrits depuis 70 ans, ou l’ivermectine. Donc on connaît leur toxicité. On
sait qu’ils n’ont pas de toxicité à certaines doses, et donc il faut tester
leur efficacité dans d’autres situations, et beaucoup de molécules ont des
efficacités qui sont insoupçonnées. Et donc il y a un recyclage de ces
molécules ne qui coûtent rien parce que ces molécules ne coûtent rien. C’est
leur problème d’ailleurs. J’avais alerté il y a quelques années dans une
chronique pour dire il faut leur trouver un espace social pour que quelqu’un
gagne de l’argent à développer ses molécules parce que sinon. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" lang="FR" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: FR;"><br /></span></p><p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" lang="FR" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: FR;">Mais le monde change… quelle que soit le sujet à penser
que si vous voulez à paris on dirige une partie du monde et puis que l’Europe
dirige le reste, et les États-Unis dirige le reste, mais tout ça ensemble dans
la population mondiale n’est pas très gros. Donc les chiffons se foutent un peu.
Ils savent mieux traiter que nous la corruption. Par exemple, les Chinois ont
puni très, très sévèrement... <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" lang="FR" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: FR;"><br /></span></p><p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" lang="FR" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: FR;">Je ne suis pas un complotiste. Je ne crois pas qu’il y ait
un sommet de gens qui discutent entre eux et qui règlent les affaires du
monde, mais quand on découvre que la corruption est un des paramètres... C’est évident...
Pfizer a été condamné entre 13 milliards et 20 milliards de pénalités aux
États-Unis ces dernières années. Alors si on découvre maintenant que Pfizer est
susceptible de donner des corruptions et si on trouve normal que la présidente
de la commission discute toute seule avec Pfizer sans témoin [</span><a href="https://www.spectator.com.au/2023/02/bourla-von-der-leyen-text-message-scandal-eu-cant-function-without-corruption/"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" lang="FR" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: FR;">les SMS d’Albert Bourla (PDG de Pfizer) et de Ursula Von
der Leyen (présidente de la Commission européenne)</span></a><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" lang="FR" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: FR;">]. Je trouve qu’ils se fichent du monde… La corruption est
vieille comme le monde. J’aime bien l’histoire. Je peux vous dire que la
corruption est aussi vieille que l’histoire humain. Ça nécessite des
contre-pouvoirs. Ça nécessite des analyses. Ça nécessite de la transparence. C’est
ce qui évite la corruption. Donc à chaque fois quand on voit qu’on peut signer
40 milliards d’euros sans la moindre transparence, on reste un peu suffoqué. Ça
serait [remdesivir] pour l’industrie un milliard au moment où </span><a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/feature-stories/detail/who-recommends-against-the-use-of-remdesivir-in-covid-19-patients"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" lang="FR" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: FR;">l’OMS dit que ça ne sert à rien</span></a><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" lang="FR" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: FR;">. L’Europe en a acheté pour un milliard et on sait pas
qui a décidé de ça. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" lang="FR" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: FR;"><br /></span></p><p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" lang="FR" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: FR;">Il y a un phénomène qui est très important dont on n’a
pas assez parlé à mon sens. Il y a bien sûr que—nous sommes d’accord—il y a une
ignorance absolue, terrible, terrifiante de ce qu’est est la science dans la
politique et chez les journalistes, et non seulement ça mais du coup un
désintérêt… Ils sont mal à l’aise avec des gens qui ne dépendent pas d’eux. Ce
sont des gens qui apprennent à parler de n’importe quoi sans savoir de quoi ils
parlent. Ce sont des gens qui sont adaptés à un mécanisme de sélection
particulière, ce qui ne traduit pas à une forme d’intelligence spectaculaire.
Donc c’est vrai que quand ils se retrouvent en face de gens qui ont des cursus
très, très différents et qui ont obtenu les choses non pas par la succession
des obéissances à différents cabinets ou à différents ministres mais par leurs
propres moyens, ils ont des difficultés. Et nous aussi avons des difficultés
parce que nous ne les prenons pas très au sérieux. Et eux, ils se disent « mais
pour qui ces gens se prennent ? » <o:p></o:p></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7464222263572816025.post-16002340756609602502023-03-08T23:01:00.012+09:002023-03-08T23:54:19.146+09:00Who are the Collaborators in the New Cold War?<p><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">“I don’t like Americans, nor their films or
their culture. They have constantly destroyed other nations... How can I not
feel more Russian than French with the president that we have now in France?”</span></i><span face=""Open Sans", sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%;">
– </span><a href="https://fb.watch/iJm6_xJs4M/"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Gérard Depardieu</span></a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">“Russia and Germany have each made it clear:
There will not be any Nordstream rebuilt. This is a permanent shift. [Russia]
has ended its reliance on Germany, France, Italy, and the rest of Europe.
They've shown that they can't be trusted... European progress has ended. We are
seeing the end of a one-thousand-year take-off... We've seen the end of
European prosperity that's irreversible for at least a century, and I don't
think the population has understood that.”</span></i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> – </span><a href="https://youtu.be/fujl6lC2tWg"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Michael Hudson</span></a><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">,
<i>Systemic Sponsors of Self-Interest</i>, 2023/01/17, 1:00:08~.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">“The world has mainly two problems now:
global warming and the United States.”</span></i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" lang="FR" style="line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">- </span><a href="https://youtu.be/RpLxmp9_skM"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" lang="FR" style="line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Emmanuel Todd</span></a><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" lang="FR" style="line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">, <i>Face aux crises : Fixer le cap et reconstruire</i>, 2023/01/29,
37 :07~.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" lang="FR" style="line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Francois Asselineau is the leader of the
French political party UPR (</span><a href="https://www.upr.fr/"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Union
Populaire Républicain</span></i></a><span class="MsoHyperlink"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">e</span></i></span><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">).
In the most recent presidential elections in 2022, he and his party were ignored
or dismissed by the mainstream media, but he carries on and continues to
develop the party’s base of support through conferences and video lectures. The
core of the party’s policy is the establishment of a true form of national
sovereignty, one that would require withdrawal from the European Union, the
Euro currency, and NATO. Emmanuel Macron won two presidential elections as the
candidate with the blandest and most platitudinous speeches, but in stark contrast,
the intelligence, knowledge and articulateness of Francois Asselineau is
sidelined by the merchants of mediocrity in the media corporations that
promoted Emmanuel Macron.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Mr. Asselineau has been critical of NATO’s
destabilization project in Ukraine, its criminal overthrow of the Ukrainian
government in 2014, and the numerous provocations of Russia before February
2022. For these positions, Mr. Asselineau is often called a Russian
“collaborator.” To respond to this slander, he produced an excellent response (</span><a href="https://www.upr.fr/actualite/qui-sont-les-vrais-collabos/"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Qui
sont les vrais collabos?</span></i></a><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> Who are the real
collaborators? 2023/02/04) that teaches his critics the true meaning of this
word. His lecture also delivers an astute analysis of the war in Europe in the
1940s and relates it to the war that is occurring now.<a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2023/blog-2023-02-17.docx#_edn1" name="_ednref1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">In the most basic sense, <i>collaborate</i>
means simply “work together,” but in political discourse it has a pejorative
meaning that came from the people and governments who collaborated with Nazi
Germany after they had been defeated or occupied. The collaborating nations
were Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, France, Greece, Hungary, Latvia,
Lithuania, Norway<a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2023/blog-2023-02-17.docx#_edn2" name="_ednref2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>,
Poland, Romania, Slovakia, The Netherlands, and Ukraine. There were varying
degrees of enthusiasm for Nazi policy, and varying degrees of passive and
active resistance in these countries, but their governments were all
collaborators. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum describes as follows
the collaboration of various countries under Nazi rule:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1cm;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Axis governments,
police, and military authorities aided in the roundup and deportation of Jews
to killing centers, actively participated in the murder of Jews, and in several
cases committed atrocities against their Jewish fellow citizens within their
own national borders. In territories they occupied (particularly in the east)
the Germans depended on indigenous auxiliaries (civilian, military, and police)
to carry out the annihilation of the Jewish population. Axis government
authorities and local auxiliaries in German-occupied regions were key in
implementing expropriation, deportation for forced labor, and mass murder of
non-Jewish populations.<a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2023/blog-2023-02-17.docx#_edn3" name="_ednref3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[3]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">In addition, the collaborating nations
committed their own citizens to labor for German industry and to fight in the
war for Germany. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">With this history in mind, it is clear that
Mr. Asselineau is not a collaborator because the meaning of the word is to
submit to and cooperate with the power that has conquered your nation. He can’t
be a Russian collaborator because Russia has not conquered France or any other
country. He is simply analyzing and interpreting the state of international
relations. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Another element of Mr. Asselineau’s history
lesson deals with the contradictions that arise when one speaks of Russia’s
“illegal aggression.” In September 1939, France and Britain declared war on
Germany because of its invasion of Poland. This was before the UN Charter
existed, but it was nonetheless illegal to wage war on a sovereign nation. France
and Britain launched a preventive illegal war because of Germany’s obvious
intent to expand throughout Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. It
threatened to take control of the critical oil supplies and colonial holdings
of France and Britain. At the time, neither country was overly concerned with
the atrocities being committed against German citizens and the people in other
nations that Germany was legally bound to protect under the laws of occupation.
That justification came later. Germany made the Holocaust “legal” by changing
its own domestic laws, and at the time no international laws existed to allow a
nation or an alliance to attack another nation in order to protect persecuted citizens
within it. Christopher Simpson’s <i>The Splendid Blond Beast</i> describes how
the US State Department used this reasoning to take no action against Germany
until Germany declared war on the US in December 1941.<a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2023/blog-2023-02-17.docx#_edn4" name="_ednref4" style="mso-endnote-id: edn4;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[4]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">In retrospect, there is a consensus that
France and Britain were on the right side of history. They were justified in
declaring war, even though doing so was illegal. Along with the major
contribution of the USSR, that war, joined later by the United States, put an
end to genocide and the misanthropic ideology of the Third Reich.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">In his lecture, Mr. Asselineau suggests
there is an analogy between the preventive war declared in 1939 and the
preventive military operation launched by Russia in February 2022, and there is
nothing “collaborationist” about saying so. Russia is on the right side of
history.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">In early 2022, there was nothing happening
in Europe comparable to the Nazi invasion of Poland and its associated
atrocities, but Russia saw a similar aggressive formation arising in Europe. It’s
not the lightning strikes of 1939-41 but rather the low, rumbling thunder of a
different kind of storm, the soft Reich that George Carlin warned us about when
he said, “... it will not be in brown and black shirts. It will not be with
jackboots. It will be Nike sneakers and Smiley shirts.” For Russia, the NATO
alliance creeping toward its borders looks an awful lot like the alliance of
nations that attacked it in 1941. One nation leads it; dozens of others submit
and collaborate. Just as the Nazi regime suppressed labor and forced lower
wages and longer hours on workers, NATO is now inflicting energy shortages and
inflation on its own citizens while it is increasing military budgets and
sending billions of dollars and weapons to Ukraine. They are eating their own
to feed their war machine. Russia sees that this alliance has spoken often for
many years of a need to wage a long war against Russia, remove the Russian
leader, install a new government, or repeat in Russia what was done to the
Soviet Union and Yugoslavia. It is understandable that Russia would see this as
an echo of WWII and eventually decide to launch a pre-emptive war—a blocking
maneuver, as John Mearsheimer describes it—rather than wait for this alliance
to act on its threats.<a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2023/blog-2023-02-17.docx#_edn5" name="_ednref5" style="mso-endnote-id: edn5;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[5]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">NATO has proven itself to be an aggressive
alliance that acts on its own without approval from the United Nations. The
doctrine was stated specifically in 1999 in NATO’s new “Strategic Concept”. NATO
declared that it would take military action “out of area”; that is, “operations
outside of Allies’ territory where there may be little or no host-nation
support.” In other words, NATO would invade other nations when doing so was
deemed necessary.<a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2023/blog-2023-02-17.docx#_edn6" name="_ednref6" style="mso-endnote-id: edn6;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[6]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> The
legality of NATO actions, or even its right to exist, is complicated by the
fact that the UN Charter had nothing to say about the legality of alliances
such as NATO. It did not exist at the time the Charter was drafted. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">NATO has expanded steadily toward Russia’s
borders since the 1990s, even though the founding reason for its existence
vanished in 1991. This time there are not tanks and millions of soldiers
marching toward Russia, but there are massive nuclear arsenals involved, and
this is a unique danger for which there is no analogy with WWII. The nuclear
powers have always had their tacit understandings—especially since the Cuban
Missile Crisis of 1962—that there should be buffer zones and great care taken
to not threaten the security of a nuclear-armed rival. This is not codified in
international law. These are simply the rules and doctrines that the nuclear
superpowers have made up for themselves since the 1950s.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">This traditional caution was tossed aside this
century as the United States withdrew from two nuclear arms reduction
treaties—the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABM) in 2002 and the Intermediate
Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) in 2019. Caution was discarded further when the US
announced that Georgia and Ukraine would be welcomed as NATO members. Russia
said it would not tolerate Ukraine joining NATO. The US called this bluff, and
in February 2022 the world learned that Russia was not bluffing. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">In 2013-14, the US fomented a <i>coup
d’etat</i> with the Maidan protests, with American officials recorded in a
famous phone call selecting who would be the new leader of Ukraine. No attempt
was made to impeach the elected president through constitutional means. He was
simply chased out of the country. Instead of impeachment, the revolutionaries
could have waited until the scheduled elections in 2015, if they truly believed
they had the support of the people. Robert Parry reported on it thus when the
coup occurred in 2014:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1cm;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1cm;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">NED [National
Endowment for Democracy] funded a staggering 65 projects in Ukraine, according
to its latest report... [They] created for NED what amounted to a shadow
political structure of media and activist groups that could be deployed to stir
up unrest when the Ukrainian government didn’t act as desired.... working in
concert with domestic opposition forces, [it] had the capability to challenge
the decisions of Yanukovych’s elected government, including the recent coup
spearheaded by violent neo-Nazis that overthrew him. Presumably, NED wanted the
“regime change” without the neo-Nazi element. But that armed force was
necessary for the coup to oust Yanukovych and open the path for those
IMF-demanded economic “reforms.” ... a policy dispute about whether Ukraine
should accept the European Union’s trade demands or go with a more generous $15
billion loan from Moscow escalated into violent street clashes and finally a
putsch spearheaded by neo-Nazi storm troopers who took control of government
buildings in Kiev. With Yanukovych and his top aides forced to flee for their
lives, the opposition-controlled parliament then passed a series of draconian
laws often unanimously, while U.S. neocons cheered and virtually no one in the
U.S. press corps noted the undemocratic nature of what had just happened.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_2dqStlBdCUHuEMQ1m9fAjvtEwtNB1rOHCzxI55gxlID0r4FO-I9SXlvUzqyMCTycb32DJ3XAym5LCj9ncW3lCRCaQ373OBDGOy--WQmxFOG_ago8eSwlKIcr7ETODy5mP9FmIx0Vxik5zTQV7FK5xiG9UMpTF1DrGG6Y5ShqV2N4y-6f244av-R7/s696/odessa-memorial%20to%20victims-of-massacre.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="448" data-original-width="696" height="206" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_2dqStlBdCUHuEMQ1m9fAjvtEwtNB1rOHCzxI55gxlID0r4FO-I9SXlvUzqyMCTycb32DJ3XAym5LCj9ncW3lCRCaQ373OBDGOy--WQmxFOG_ago8eSwlKIcr7ETODy5mP9FmIx0Vxik5zTQV7FK5xiG9UMpTF1DrGG6Y5ShqV2N4y-6f244av-R7/s320/odessa-memorial%20to%20victims-of-massacre.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><em><div style="text-align: center;"><em>Memorial to victims of the <a href="https://www.globalresearch.ca/once-bright-city-became-gloomy-sad-survivor-2014-odessa-massacre-reflects-back-tragedy/5779914">Odessa Trade Unions Building massacre</a>, May 2, 2014. </em></div><div style="text-align: center;"><em>[Source: <a href="https://tass.com/world/821336?utm_source=google.com&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=google.com&utm_referrer=google.com">tass.com</a>]</em> <em>If you have never heard of it, ask yourself why.</em></div></em><o:p><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></o:p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">After the coup, American citizen and
Atlantic Council member, Natalie Jaresko, was installed as minister of finance,
then given Ukrainian citizenship. Before this time, she had held various
positions in the State Department, including that of First Head of the Economic
Section of the US Embassy in Ukraine from 1992 to 1995. She had also been CEO and
founder of the investment fund Horizon Capital, holder of $600 million in
assets in Ukraine.<a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2023/blog-2023-02-17.docx#_edn7" name="_ednref7" style="mso-endnote-id: edn7;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[7]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Nothing better illustrates the usurpation of sovereignty than this example.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">There has been a lot of talk in Europe
about Russia having violated the Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances
(1994), but the US invasion (the Maidan coup) was the initial violation of the
Memorandum which obliged Russia, the United States and the United Kingdom to
not interfere in Ukraine’s internal affairs and economy.<a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2023/blog-2023-02-17.docx#_edn8" name="_ednref8" style="mso-endnote-id: edn8;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[8]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
One of the stipulations of the Memorandum stated that the signatories shall
“Refrain from economic coercion... to secure advantages of any kind.” The six
points agreed to in the Memorandum were:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1cm;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1cm;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">(1) Respect the
signatory’s independence and sovereignty in the existing borders. (2) Refrain
from the threat or the use of force against the signatory. (3) Refrain from
economic coercion designed to subordinate to their own interest the exercise by
the signatory of the rights inherent in its sovereignty and thus to secure
advantages of any kind. (4) Seek immediate Security Council action to provide
assistance to the signatory if they “should become a victim of an act of
aggression or an object of a threat of aggression in which nuclear weapons are
used”. (5) Refrain from the use of nuclear arms against the signatory. (6)
Consult with one another if questions arise regarding those commitments.<a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2023/blog-2023-02-17.docx#_edn9" name="_ednref9" style="mso-endnote-id: edn9;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[9]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The third and fourth elements of the
Memorandum (economic coercion undermining sovereignty and the overthrow as an
act of aggression) came into play with the events <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>of 2014. Russia was obliged to seek assistance
from the Security Council when Ukraine became the victim of this act of
aggression. However, Russia would receive no support from Britain, France, or
the US at the Security Council. One option was direct assistance to the
elements within Ukraine who wanted to resist the new regime. This was the sort
of unilateral action that NATO and the US permit themselves regularly. It is
not an ideal solution, but Russia had to take such action in a situation in
which international law had been violated so consistently as to make it
meaningless. It is analogous to Britain and France deciding to declare war on
Germany in 1939. The other strategy was to appeal to other states to support
new agreements that would resolve the conflict peacefully, and this was done
with the Minsk Accords. If Ukraine had upheld its obligations under these
accords, and its NATO backers had forced Ukraine to uphold them, the “special
military operation” begun in 2022 would not have happened. It’s that simple.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">It would be impossible for Ukraine to not
feel dominated or coerced to some degree by the economic power of NATO/EU/US on
one side and Russia on the other, so the third part of the Memorandum was bound
to cause problems of interpretation in the future. However, there was nothing
balanced or restrained about the US regime-change operation. It was an
egregious violation of the Budapest Memorandum. Since the situation was never
rectified by the United Nations or the other signatories, it should not be
surprising that armed conflict was the result. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Since 2014, the US program has advanced. Ukrainian
national assets have been privatized according to the standard neoliberal program,
and the agricultural and energy sectors have been sold off to Western investors.
Ukraine’s weapons purchases started to come from NATO suppliers. Several US
bioweapons labs were built, a move that was another provocation threatening
Russian security. Though Ukraine had become an economic vassal before 2022, if
it imagines it can now win the war against Russia, what will such a victory be after
having taken massive amounts of aid from NATO countries? It will be completely
owned by Western capital.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The “international community” has laid
heavy emphasis on the fact that Russia violated the geographical sovereignty of
Ukraine. This is the ultimate crime, supposedly. But this concept of
sovereignty is an anachronism, one which perhaps stopped being relevant in the
18th century. For example, one can find records of opposition politicians in
the Hawaiian Kingdom in the 1870s claiming that the nation would lose its sovereignty
by entering into exclusive favorable trade agreements for sugar with the United
States. They saw that if the kingdom did not get out of that dependence and
reduce the influence of “big sugar,” loss of territorial sovereignty would soon
follow.<a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2023/blog-2023-02-17.docx#_edn10" name="_ednref10" style="mso-endnote-id: edn10;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[10]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
That is indeed what happened in a process very similar to what happened in Kiev
a century later. This is the reason I argue with my friends in the occupied
Hawaiian Kingdom that they should view the present government in Ukraine as the
equivalent of the insurrectionists who established the short-lived Republic of
Hawaii (1893-98) that existed before vote in the US Congress for annexation. The
US doesn’t annex anymore because doing so is costly and too blatantly illegal,
and also because it doesn’t have to. Sovereignty can be stolen more abstractly
without taking territory and without the burden of being responsible for the
inhabitants’ welfare and granting them rights as US citizens.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Another dimension of the conflict was that
the new Ukrainian government was virulently anti-Russian. Thus, it is not only
the Budapest Memorandum that comes into play but also UN resolutions on
genocide and ethnic cleansing. Speeches made by President Poroshenko in 2014, as
well as discussions on popular media channels, showed clear genocidal intent of
the government and various militias and groups that had gained prominence. The
Nazi-era war criminal Stepan Bandera was restored in school textbooks as a
national hero. Nazi militias were integrated into the army. Quite predictably,
the Russian populations in the east protested against the revolution in Kiev and
the rise of this ethnic hatred, so they vowed to secede. When the civil war
broke out, Russia provided some support, but the factor that is seldom reported
in the NATO bloc is that forces in the Donbass gained most of their power from defecting
Ukrainian soldiers and officers who took their weapons with them.<a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2023/blog-2023-02-17.docx#_edn11" name="_ednref11" style="mso-endnote-id: edn11;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[11]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Russia did supply some arms, and Russian “volunteers” were found to be involved
in the fighting, but unlike others who say this proves Russia’s venality, I say
this intervention was a justified humanitarian intervention to protect those
Ukrainians who were endangered by a US invasion disguised as a popular revolt. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Russia minimized its involvement and sought
peaceful resolution through the Minsk Accords. This limited the fighting, but
still 14,000 civilians died over the next eight years under constant shelling
by Ukrainian forces. Are those people’s kin supposed to be outraged by Russia’s
actions in February 2022?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The civil war should have made it clear to
the international community that there were serious ethnic fault lines in
Ukraine that should have been attended to in 1991 when Ukraine’s independence
was too hastily recognized. In one sense, the problem is finally being attended
to now, unfortunately through armed conflict. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">With the borders it had at the time as a
Soviet Republic, Ukraine had never existed as a sovereign state. A Soviet
referendum conducted in 1991 had shown that all fifteen republics favored
staying in the Soviet Union, but somehow a few months later the leaders of
Belarus, Ukraine and Russia conspired over a weekend to declare independence
simultaneously.<a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2023/blog-2023-02-17.docx#_edn12" name="_ednref12" style="mso-endnote-id: edn12;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[12]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> It
is a rarity for any independence movement to gain recognition from the United
States and other leading powers, but in this case the recognition was
instant—no questions asked about regional stability, ethnic conflict, the will
of the people and so on. President Bush had to act surprised when Gorbachev
called him a few weeks later to tell him the Soviet Union was over. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">If the Ukraine of the 2014-2022 period had
been led by a government that NATO wanted to eliminate, the fascist militias,
corruption, and the criminality of the Ukrainian state would be a constant
theme in the media of NATO countries. (Refer to coverage of Serbia in the 1990s
as an example.) However, when the strategic interests line up in the opposite
direction, state crimes of a favored nation can be overlooked. Anyone who
points them out will be labelled a useful idiot, an apologist for, or a
collaborator with an evil despot. The examples are easy to find, from Indonesia
in the 1960s to South and Central America in the 1970s and 1980s, all of them
victims of the “Jakarta Method” applied so effectively after 1965.<a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2023/blog-2023-02-17.docx#_edn13" name="_ednref13" style="mso-endnote-id: edn13;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[13]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">In late 2021, Russia saw that Ukraine had
become a <i>de facto</i> NATO member because it was using NATO military hardware
and its soldiers were being trained by NATO forces. It might never join NATO
because it was more useful for NATO to keep it in this unofficial status.
Ukraine had lost its political and economic sovereignty and become an American
vassal, the next Afghanistan. Russia also saw that Ukraine was preparing for a
massive offensive against Donbass to end the civil war. All of the factors discussed
herein prompted Russia’s preventive military operation. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">In the aftermath of WWII, the lesson learned
by the nations that fought fascism was, supposedly, “never again.” In order to
honor the sacrifices of our ancestors who died fighting fascism, we were
supposed to never let this happen again. This the is the background to what
Scott Ritter said in an interview on February 14, 2023, which I will use to conclude
this essay:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1cm;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1cm;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">What we’re doing
now in Ukraine is evil. Pure evil. We claim to be the friends of Ukrainian
people, and look at what we’ve done to them… We don’t care about Ukrainian
people. We put the flags on our social media. Everywhere I see flags flying.
But really? That’s how you treat your friends? You allow them to be slaughtered
on the battlefield? There won’t be a Ukraine when this is done. How much do you
love Ukraine? You don’t. You want to know why? Because you have no clue what
Ukraine is. Anybody who puts up that flag I could interrogate for two minutes,
and it would be clear they don’t have a clue what they are talking about. They
don’t have any grasp of history. They don’t have any understanding of the
underlying issues… They’re trying to project “I’m a good person,” but they are
not. They are morons… The vast majority of people don’t have a clue.<a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2023/blog-2023-02-17.docx#_edn14" name="_ednref14" style="mso-endnote-id: edn14;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[14]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Further reading<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Stavroula Pabst, “</span><a href="https://propagandainfocus.com/in-a-compromised-media-environment-western-intelligence-agencies-escalate-natos-proxy-war-in-ukraine-unchallenged/"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">In
A Compromised Media Environment, Western Intelligence Agencies Escalate NATO’s
Proxy War In Ukraine Unchallenged</span></a><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">,” <i>Propaganda in
Focus</i>, February 10, 2023.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">For a detailed description of the economic
takeover of Ukraine, see: Laura Ruggeri, “</span><a href="https://strategic-culture.org/news/2023/02/23/marketing-ukraine-reconstruction-fuel-war/"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Marketing
Ukraine’s Reconstruction to Fuel the War</span></a><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">,” <i>Strategic
Culture</i>, February 23, 2023:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1cm;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1cm;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Since its
independence in 1991, Ukraine’s GDP has lagged behind the level it reached in
Soviet times, industry declined, and the population decreased by about 14.5
million people in 30 years due to emigration and the lowest birth rate in
Europe. Ukraine has also become the third largest IMF debtor and Europe’s
poorest country. These negative records cannot be blamed solely on Ukraine’s
systemic and staggering corruption: the corrupt networks bleeding Ukraine are
truly transnational.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1cm;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1cm;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Ukraine was
targeted by two US-funded color revolutions that led to regime change and civil
war, and was wrestled away from its largest economic partner, Russia. Its
history was erased and rewritten, neoliberal prescriptions destroyed its
economic and social fabric and led to a neocolonial form of governance.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1cm;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1cm;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Ukraine joined
Europe’s nefarious Eastern Partnership in 2009 (1) and has been teeming with
Western NGOs, economic and political advisers since its independence. The
country’s indentured servitude and captivity to Western interests was cemented
after the last Ukrainian government to object to the IMF’s harsh conditions was
overthrown by a U.S.-sponsored coup in 2014.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1cm;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1cm;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">On 10 December,
2013, Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovich stated that the conditions set by
the IMF for loan approval were unacceptable: “I had a conversation with U.S.
Vice President Joe Biden, who told me that the issue of the IMF loan has almost
been solved, but I told him that if the conditions remained we did not need
such loans“. He then broke off negotiations with the IMF and turned to Russia
for financial assistance. It was the sensible thing to do but cost him dearly.
You can’t break the shackles of IMF debt with impunity: not only does this
lender of last resort impose its usual shock therapy of austerity,
deregulation, and privatization so that the vultures can swoop in, it also
furthers and protects U.S. interests.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1cm;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1cm;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">If those who
destroyed a country are allowed to be involved in its reconstruction, then reconstruction
will inevitably be just a point on the continuum of conquest, occupation and
looting, but with better optics. Destruction produces that blank slate on which
the occupier can write his own rules: “To plunder, butcher, steal, these things
they misname empire: they make a desolation, and they call it peace”. Tacitus
knew both the reality and the spin of Roman imperialism. One can only wonder if
those who talk about ‘reconstruction’, ‘recovery’, ‘reform’, ‘rules-based
order’, ‘reset’ or whatever buzzword is fashionable at the moment are aware of
the brutal reality or truly believe their own propaganda. In any case, they
promise a future utopia worth killing and dying for.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Notes<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<div style="mso-element: endnote-list;"><!--[if !supportEndnotes]--><br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2023/blog-2023-02-17.docx#_ednref1" name="_edn1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a>
<span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">From
the </span><a href="https://www.upr.fr/actualite/qui-sont-les-vrais-collabos/"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Union
Populaire</span></i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> <i>Républicaine</i> website</span></a><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">: </span></span><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">“In this new video
(2023/02/04), François Asselineau denounces the inverted accusation that
consists of calling anyone a “collaborator” when he or she expresses doubts
about the official narratives distilled by Western governments and repeated
endlessly by the subsidized media. When one knows the history of France,
especially the history of the Second World War, one knows that “collaboration”
was always a matter of submitting to and serving the power that dominated
France: England during the Hundred Years War, the German Empire after 1870, and
Nazi Germany in 1940... This video answers two questions: 1) Which power dominates
France today? and 2) Which French people collaborate obediently with this power
without offering the slightest resistance?”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn2" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><br /></p><p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2023/blog-2023-02-17.docx#_ednref2" name="_edn2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a>
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Norway’s
prime minister at the time was named Quisling. This name became a word in the English
dictionary that means “a collaborating puppet head of state”.</span> <o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn3" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2023/blog-2023-02-17.docx#_ednref3" name="_edn3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[3]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a>
<span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">United States Holocaust
Memorial Museum, </span><a href="https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/collaboration"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">Collaboration</span></i></a><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">, Accessed February 16, 2023.</span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn4" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><br /></p><p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2023/blog-2023-02-17.docx#_ednref4" name="_edn4" style="mso-endnote-id: edn4;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[4]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a>
Christopher Simpson, <i>The Splendid Blond Beast: Money, Law, and Genocide in
the Twentieth Century</i> (Common Courage Press, 1995).</p><p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn5" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2023/blog-2023-02-17.docx#_ednref5" name="_edn5" style="mso-endnote-id: edn5;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[5]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a>
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-2Oy3MVyyA">John J. Mearsheimer:
Great Power Politics in the 21st Century & The Implications for Hungary</a>,
December 5, 2022.<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn6" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2023/blog-2023-02-17.docx#_ednref6" name="_edn6" style="mso-endnote-id: edn6;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[6]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a>
Diana Johnstone, <i>Fools’ Crusade: Yugoslavia, NATO and Western Delusions </i>(New
York: Monthly Review Press, London: Pluto Press, 2002), 265-269.<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn7" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2023/blog-2023-02-17.docx#_ednref7" name="_edn7" style="mso-endnote-id: edn7;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[7]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a>
The Atlantic Council, “<a href="https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/expert/natalie-jaresko/">Natalie Jaresko</a>”
(profile), accessed February 16, 2023.</p></div><div id="edn8" style="mso-element: endnote;"><p class="MsoNormal"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2023/blog-2023-02-17.docx#_ednref8" name="_edn8" style="mso-endnote-id: edn8;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[8]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a>
<span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The
</span><a href="https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G94/652/92/PDF/G9465292.pdf?OpenElement"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Budapest
Memorandum</span></a><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> was a step for Ukraine, Belarus and
Kazakhstan to relinquish the Soviet nuclear weapons on their territory and sign
the Non-Proliferation Treaty. There were six stipulations that the US, UK, and
Russia were to abide by: (1) Respect the signatory’s independence and
sovereignty in the existing borders. (2) Refrain from the threat or the use of
force against the signatory. (3) Refrain from economic coercion designed to
subordinate to their own interest the exercise by the signatory of the rights
inherent in its sovereignty and thus to secure advantages of any kind. (4) Seek
immediate Security Council action to provide assistance to the signatory if
they “should become a victim of an act of aggression or an object of a threat
of aggression in which nuclear weapons are used”. (5) Refrain from the use of
nuclear arms against the signatory. (6) Consult with one another if questions
arise regarding those commitments.</span></p></div><div id="edn9" style="mso-element: endnote;"><p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><br /></p><p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2023/blog-2023-02-17.docx#_ednref9" name="_edn9" style="mso-endnote-id: edn9;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[9]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a>
Robert Parry, “<a href="https://consortiumnews.com/2014/02/27/a-shadow-us-foreign-policy/">A
Shadow US Foreign Policy</a>,” <i>Consortium News</i>, February 27, 2014.<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn10" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2023/blog-2023-02-17.docx#_ednref10" name="_edn10" style="mso-endnote-id: edn10;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[10]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a>
Gavan Daws, <i>Shoal of Time: A History of the Hawaiian Islands</i> (University
of Hawaii Press, 1968), 202-206.<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn11" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2023/blog-2023-02-17.docx#_ednref11" name="_edn11" style="mso-endnote-id: edn11;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[11]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><span style="mso-ansi-language: FR;"> <span lang="FR">Jacques Baud, « </span></span><a href="https://bonpourlatete.com/debat/la-situation-militaire-en-ukraine"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">Débat / La situation militaire en Ukraine</span></a><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;"> » <i>Bon Pour La Tête</i>, 23 mars,
2022.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn12" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2023/blog-2023-02-17.docx#_ednref12" name="_edn12" style="mso-endnote-id: edn12;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[12]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a>
Mikhail Gorbachev, <i>On My Country and the World</i> (Columbia University
Press, 2000), 151-152. Gorbachev had no kind words for Yeltsin’s betrayal of
the Soviet Union at the Belovezh meeting where Yeltsin and the heads of Ukraine
and Belarus plotted to announce their withdrawal from the Soviet Union, in
spite of the pro-union results of the New Union Treaty held just a few months
previously. <o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn13" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2023/blog-2023-02-17.docx#_ednref13" name="_edn13" style="mso-endnote-id: edn13;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[13]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a>
Vincent Bevins, <i>The Jakarta Method: Washington’s Anticommunist Crusade and
the Mass Murder Program that Shaped Our World</i> (Hachette Book Group, 2020).<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn14" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2023/blog-2023-02-17.docx#_ednref14" name="_edn14" style="mso-endnote-id: edn14;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[14]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a>
<span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">Danny Haiphong (interviewer), “</span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Db_7B5Irtqg"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">Scott Ritter on Ukraine’s Future</span></i></a><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">...” February 14, 2023, 22:00~.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7464222263572816025.post-60703305751597178572023-02-22T22:35:00.007+09:002023-02-22T22:35:28.683+09:00Cold Warriors, Gold Warriors: A look back at America’s Secret Recovery of Yamashita’s Gold<p><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Introduction</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Since the war in Ukraine began in February
2022, many have wondered why NATO and other American allies have gone along so
devotedly with the war that for many years the US had wanted to provoke between
Russia and Ukraine. Europe, Japan, and South Korea have a long-term interest in
having good relations with Russia, but they have done nothing to moderate the
US desire to escalate the war and isolate Russia. They have gone along with
economic sanctions that have ended up being a spectacular own goal. The United
States destroyed Germany’s energy infrastructure, the Nord Stream Pipeline, and
the NATO countries just pretend they don’t know who did it. Why are they
willing to humiliate themselves to this extent, accepting their status as
vassals and client states, even when there is such obvious detriment to themselves?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The question belies a certain naivete
within even people who consider themselves cynics. It is easy to be unaware or
to forget just how depraved the rules-based international order is and how
sordid its beginnings were. The history told in a book published in 2003, <i>Gold
Warriors</i>, reminds us of the tremendous crimes committed by the US and its
new allies in the aftermath of World War II. The allies don’t complain because
they are in it up to their necks along with the hegemon. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://www.sterlingseagrave.com/books"><b><i><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Gold
Warriors: America’s Secret Recovery of Yamashita’s Gold</span></i></b></a><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">
is a meticulously </span><span style="font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif;">researched book that describes how the gold and treasures plundered
from Asia by the Japanese Empire were confiscated by the US and used as slush
funds in the following decades to build its rules-based international order. The
book answers the question of why the allies go along and never forge an
independent path that would be more in the interests of their people. The
reason is that the US and its allies should be perceived as similar to the
various organized crime families that exist in large urban areas like New York.
There is one large family that controls most of it but many others in the
region. They may compete for turf occasionally, but their basic interest is the
status quo. Crime syndicates collaborate in evading the justice system.
Governments collaborate in evading the will of their citizens. They have collaborated
and conspired on too much in the past. Each knows what the others have done, so
the mutual guilt creates the veil of secrecy and a tacit conspiracy to maintain
a façade of good will.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The four excerpts that follow illustrate
this point. The first three are from reviews of the book, and the last is the
epilogue of the book. I am posting it here (3.7% of the content) with the
intent of non-commercial fair use, not to deprive the author and publisher of
income but to promote the work and perhaps inspire some readers to obtain it.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Reviews <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Roland Kelts, </span></b><a href="https://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/2004/07/11/general/believe-it-or-not/"><b><i><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The
Japan Times</span></i></b></a><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">, July 11, 2004 </span></b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">(non-paywalled
version </span><a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5b2d196ab27e390e8328eabc/t/5b66856a6d2a73ce52fd6de7/1533445483058/review_gw_rk.pdf"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">here</span></a><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">):<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Though the Seagraves’ book may at times
read like a political thriller of Joycean scope and detail, it is no less than
their attempt to provide readers with the entire provenance of the stockpiled
loot known as Yamashita’s Gold that is, in the end, the story’s central
character.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The authors’ chief contention is that the
vast riches gathered by the Japanese in Asia—and (yet more astonishingly) much
of the Nazis’ European loot—were combined, hidden, disseminated, and exploited
by some of the most famous names in history, mostly to finance anti-communist
efforts, prop up key global banks and manipulate the value of currencies to
suit U.S. strategy. Critics of the book and its authors cite “overheated” prose
and periodic bouts of speculation. A reviewer for <i>Publisher’s Weekly</i>
argues that the authors’ repeated references to suppressed evidence, however
accurate, “make it impossible for the lay reader to judge the book’s
credibility.” And Gilbert Taylor in <i>Booklist</i>, while applauding the
Seagraves’ plethora of sources, points out the challenge posed by their
occasional reliance on “the word of single individuals.” But in this reader’s
opinion, the graphic, detailed evidence provided on the two CD-ROMs make the
book’s central and most compelling claims hard to refute. Indeed, it’s hard not
to sweat a little when confronted with such a well-documented narrative that
implicitly locates real power so far from the people of so-called democratic
states.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Douglas Valentine, </span></b><a href="https://www.counterpunch.org/2003/09/25/gold-warriors/"><b><i><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Counterpunch</span></i></b></a><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">,
September 23, 2003:</span><o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Gold Warriors</span></i><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">
is more than a book about Japan’s “serious, sober and deliberate” plundering of
Asia’s treasure from 1895 until 1945, and its collusion after the war with American
officials to recover and use the loot as a secret political action slush fund
to promote right wing regimes. <i>Gold Warriors: America’s Secret Recovery of
Yamashita’s Gold</i> is a journey into the darkest recesses of history and the
human soul. Authors Peggy and Sterling Seagrave not only unravel one of the
greatest crimes and cover-ups ever, they reveal something new and startling
about the depths of human depravity and barbarity, and the human capacity for
deceit.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Chalmers Johnson, </span></b><a href="https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v25/n22/chalmers-johnson/the-looting-of-asia"><b><i><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;">London Review of Books</span></i></b><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;">, Vol. 25 No. 22</span></b></a><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;">, November 20, 2003:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Almost as soon as the war was over,
American forces began to discover stupendous caches of Japanese war treasure.
General MacArthur, in charge of the occupation, reported finding “great hoards
of gold, silver, precious stones, foreign postage stamps, engraving plates and
. . . currency not legal in Japan”. His officials arrested the underworld boss
Yoshio Kodama, who had worked in China during the war, selling opium and
supervising the collection and shipment to Japan of industrial metals such as
tungsten, titanium, and platinum. Japan was by far the largest opium producer
in Asia throughout the first half of the 20th century, initially in its colony
of Korea and then in Manchuria, which it seized in 1931. Kodama supplied heroin
and liquor to occupied China in return for gold coins, jewelry, and <i>objets
d’art</i>, which the Japanese melted down into ingots...<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">On orders from Washington, Lansdale
supervised the recovery of several Golden Lily vaults, inventoried the bullion,
and had it trucked to warehouses at the US Naval base at Subic Bay or the Air
Force base at Clark Field. According to the Seagraves, two members of Stimson’s
staff, together with financial experts from the newly formed CIA, instructed
Santa Romana in how to deposit the gold in 176 reliable banks in 42 different
countries. These deposits were made in his own name or in one of his numerous
aliases in order to keep the identity of the true owners secret. Once the gold
was in their vaults, the banks would issue certificates that are even more
negotiable than money, being backed by gold itself. With this seemingly inexhaustible
source of cash, the CIA set up slush funds to influence politics in Japan,
Greece, Italy, Britain and many other places around the world. For example,
money from what was called the “M-Fund” (named after Major-General William
Marquat of MacArthur’s staff) was secretly employed to pay for Japan’s initial
rearmament after the outbreak of the Korean War, since the Japanese Diet itself
refused to appropriate money for the purpose. The various uses to which these
funds were put over the years, among them helping to finance the Nicaraguan
counterrevolutionaries in their attacks on the elected government in Managua
(the Iran-Contra scandal of the Reagan Presidency), would require another
volume. Suffice it to say that virtually everyone known to have been involved
with the secret CIA slush funds derived from Yamashita’s gold has had their
career ruined. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYU7Taw9G0k8L3AUwIx9-L6oaLjfbr9N3s8DznYjXS8JP6Ce-l9xVcyI61YUpH5N5HimakKL-VNQzGSb-WITpyFgwVWxdb48yhjY9XuJ23VgB3l0dp37VI5vzH1QlcQTZGkRJfS6Jh6_DIQLQ5bpa406lO-T_hJ85gSE7PmEr7Ob44ohL_9gWSVBBi/s500/gold%20warriors-yamashita's%20gold.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="335" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYU7Taw9G0k8L3AUwIx9-L6oaLjfbr9N3s8DznYjXS8JP6Ce-l9xVcyI61YUpH5N5HimakKL-VNQzGSb-WITpyFgwVWxdb48yhjY9XuJ23VgB3l0dp37VI5vzH1QlcQTZGkRJfS6Jh6_DIQLQ5bpa406lO-T_hJ85gSE7PmEr7Ob44ohL_9gWSVBBi/s320/gold%20warriors-yamashita's%20gold.jpg" width="214" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;">Epilogue
from</span></b> <a href="https://www.sterlingseagrave.com/"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Sterling
Seagrave</span></b></a><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> and </span></b><a href="https://www.sterlingseagrave.com/bio"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Peggy Seagrave’s</span></b></a><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">
<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><a href="https://www.sterlingseagrave.com/books"><b><i><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Gold Warriors:
America’s Secret Recovery of Yamashita’s Gold</span></i></b></a><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">
<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">(Verso, 2003), Epilogue, pages 235-243<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>(other reviews of the book </span></b><a href="https://www.sterlingseagrave.com/press"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">here</span></b></a><span class="MsoHyperlink"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">)</span></b></span><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Terms used in the epilogue: <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">M-Fund</span></b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">: A fund
established during the occupation of Japan by General MacArthur. It was based
on the gold and treasure looted by Japan from its Asian empire, which was
seized by U.S. forces after Japan’s surrender. For obvious political and
economic reasons, the gold had to be kept off the books of declared gold
reserves. Among the fund’s various uses as slush funds for Japanese and
American interests, MacArthur used the fund to create Japan’s Liberal
Democratic Party. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">57s</span></b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">: Various
individuals involved in the confiscation and concealment of the plundered gold
had been pressed into holding it in accounts in their name. It was implicitly
understood that they couldn’t use the gold, as everyone knew it was being used
for shady, covert geopolitical and financial interests. However, as years
passed, a bond crisis emerged in Japan because of all the debt and favors that
had been issued based on the M-Fund and the plundered treasure, the existence
of which could not be officially acknowledged. Unable to let account holders
redeem their assets, the LDP leadership created a special derivative bond. In
the 57th year of the emperor’s reign (1982), they created certificates called
“57s” and told bond holders they must accept these instead of cash. Some of
them received interest but they could not sell the “57s”. They were issued
completely outside the norms of the global bond market. Eventually, when faced
with legal challenges from holders of the “57s”, American and Japanese
officials argued that they were fraudulent, arising from a sort of urban legend
perhaps—a crazy idea that there had been a secret stash of gold plundered by
the Japanese Empire and there were these weird bonds that no official would
confess to issuing. The Seagraves describe in the book how the scandal led to
several “assisted suicides” of political figures who “knew where all the bodies
were.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Epilogue</span></b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">In March 2001, only weeks into the new Bush
Administration, two U.S. Navy ships arrived in the Philippines carrying teams
of SEAL commandos. According to a source at the U.S. Embassy, they were sent to
the Philippines to recover gold as part of a plan to enlarge America’s
reserves. This gold, the embassy source said, would come from two places: New
excavations of Yamashita Gold vaults, and the purchase (at a deep discount) of
Japanese loot already recovered and held in private vaults by wealthy
Filipinos. One of the two ships sailed on to Mindanao to take on a load of
bullion the embassy source said was owned by the family of the new president,
Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. President Bush, the source said, was “being
aggressive”.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The buzz among gold hunters in Luzon was
that associates of President Bush and his family were privately in the market
to buy some of the bullion still being recovered from Golden Lily sites. One of
the names being dropped by goldbugs in Manila was that of East Texas oil
billionaire William Stamps Farish, an intimate friend and fishing companion of
the Bush family. Will Farish, who raises horses in Kentucky and is board
chairman of Churchill Downs where the Kentucky Derby is staged, had just been
nominated by President Bush to be America’s new ambassador to the Court of St.
James, where he was a personal friend of Queen Elizabeth. The buzz had special
resonance because Will Farish is said to be the manager of President Bush’s
blind trust.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">It should come as no surprise that yet
another U.S. president may be taking an interest in Japanese plunder, while
shielding Japan’s biggest corporations from lawsuits by POWs and other victims.
Every president since Harry Truman has been involved in covering up the looting
and the slush funds. Even Jimmy Carter played a role, becoming a personal
friend of the great fixer, Sasakawa, who was up to his knees in dog-tags.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Bluntly put, the terrible secret is that
for over half a century some officials of the U.S. Government—not least of them
Nixon—greatly advanced their careers by receiving stolen goods, made
unscrupulous use of covert funds, and continue to collude with Tokyo.
Justification always has been the Cold War and national security. As federal
officials, this meant their security. In plain English, this is conflict of
interest and double standards. Politicians, diplomats, bureaucrats, military
officers, and businessmen have been involved in falsification and manipulation
of facts and records. Whether cynical or misguided, they aided and abetted
extraordinary and corruption.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">A quote from Chalmers Johnson bears
repeating: “The Cold War is over. Whatever the United States may have believed
was necessary to prosecute the Cold War, the Cold War itself can no longer be
used to justify ignorance about its costs and unintended consequences. The
issue today is not whether Japan might veer toward socialism or neutralism but
why the government that evolved from its long period of dependence on the
United States is so corrupt, inept, and weak.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The answer is that one thing leads to
another. When Truman chose to keep secret the recoveries of Japanese war loot,
he then had to endorse the cover-up, followed by a phony Peace Treaty based on
fraudulent claims about Japan’s postwar poverty. As contrived by John Foster
Dulles in total secrecy, this peace treaty blocked POWs, and civilian victims
including Comfort Women, from any compensation for their suffering. Their
suffering continues to this day because the Department of State and Justice
Department still block all legal recourse by Japan’s victims in American
courts. We may rightly wonder whether this really is what Truman had in mind.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">President Eisenhower then authorized the use
of war-gold to set up the LDP, interfering in the domestic political process in
Japan, putting the Japanese people back under a one-party dictatorship, under a
man—Kishi—who had been involved in armed robbery, narcotics, and slave labor
since the 1930s.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">How much did the LDP secretly contribute to
Nixon’s presidential campaigns, in return for exclusive control of the M-Fund?
What were aides of President Nixon and President Ford doing with President
Marcos in 1975 during his shipboard discussions of war loot recoveries?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Was President Carter oblivious to
Sasakawa’s participation with Marcos in recovering treasure vaults where
hundreds of Allied POWs were buried alive?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">How could Lansdale transfer Santy’s assets
at UBS into his own name, while transferring other Santy assets from
Citibank-Manila to Citibank-New York? Why did Citibank first deny having
Santy’s accounts, later concede they had them, then move them offshore when his
heirs fairly demanded access? What was Ray Cline really up to, trying to grab
some or all of Santy’s $50 billion that Citibank moved to Nassau?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">What happened to all the bullion that was
removed from Malacanang Palace when President Reagan had CIA Director Bill
Casey kidnap the Marcoses? Is it in Fort Knox, or has it vanished into a black
hole?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Why was Reagan’s NSC advisor General
Schweitzer using U.S. Army colonels, Navy Seals, and Navy deep-divers to
recover war loot from the Philippines—is this normal, and if so, why be so
evasive?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Was Clinton also playing games with black
gold? Yes, according to the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee. In September
2001, <i>The Economist</i> reported, “it has uncovered evidence that the
American government, assisted by others, has somehow ‘lent’ thousands of tons
[of gold bullion] to speculators and bullion banks, notably Citibank, J.P.
Morgan Chase, to depress the gold price.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Conflict of interest is evident in all
these instances.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">As E.L. Doctorow remarked not long ago, “I
try to think of a President in my lifetime who has not lied to the American
people.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Those are not things that happened long
ago, that can be swept under the rug. When Japan was exonerated by Dulles of
its duty to pay reparations, it was allowed to keep the artworks, cultural
artifacts, and other plunder stolen from its Asian neighbors since 1895. Little
of this has been returned; the rest remains in Japanese vaults, enriching the
ruling elite and continuing to impoverish those cultures, and individuals, from
whom it was stolen. Thus the crime continues to be perpetrated to this day.
Because justice has not been done, the victims continue to be victimized. There
is no statute of limitations on guilt.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Washington’s role is all too clear, in the
way the Peace Treaty was bullied through. Professor John Price sums up: “The
U.S. monopolized and abused the treaty preparations.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">As we now know, Japan was not bankrupted by
the war. By 1951, six years after the war, Japan’s economy was stronger than it
had been during the best business years before the war. Carlos Romulo, head of
the Philippine delegation to the peace conference, “demolished the U.S.
argument that Japan lacked the ability to pay for economic reasons.” Japan’s
industrial activity was 32 percent above pre-war levels, its fiscal position
showed a surplus, and its balance of trade had moved into the black. In
discussions between U.S. monetary experts and Japan’s Finance Minister, Ikeda
Hayato, just before the peace conference, admitted to a budget surplus of over
100 billion yen and planned to use 40 billion of it as a tax-rebate to Japanese
citizens. The governor of the Bank of Japan pleaded with U.S. authorities to
take custody of $200 million worth of gold holdings because he feared “the
Filipinos might try to attach the gold as reparations.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Dulles allowed certain other nations such
as the Netherlands to make secret deals with Japan on reparations. These
agreements were so sensitive that Washington classified these documents as top
secret for the next fifty years. The Dutch gambit only came to light in 2000.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The problem with the treaty terms laid down
by Dulles, as the Dutch government expressed it, was that “it would appear the
Dutch Government was, by the act of signing ... giving up without due process
the rights held by Dutch subjects.” Dulles grudgingly agreed to give Dutch
citizens the right to make separate claims against the Japanese government.
Speaking of this secret deal, a U.S. Senator remarked, “Dulles classified it
and kept it classified for 50 years to keep these [victims] from having the
right to go to court. That is what he did. That is what the U.S. Government
did. That is wrong and we need to correct it.” Then he added, “Our own
government would not give these documents to our own soldiers. What an outrage
that is.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Subsequently, the Dutch government secretly
negotiated a deal with Japan that resulted in Tokyo paying $10 million in 1956—a
drop in the bucket. In 1952, the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee
admitted that claims of Asian nations alone could total “as much as $100
billion” (1952 values).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Washington has much to hide. It played an
active role in covering up Nazi looting, until is feet were held to the fire in
the mid-1990s by Senator Alfonso D’Amato, backed by the deep pockets of
Seagram’s billionaire Edgar Bronfman, a leader of the World Jewish Congress. In
an effort to redeem himself in the eyes of that important segment of the
electorate—the Jewish community—President Clinton finally let the investigation
proceed. But before then, Washington dragged its feet, and was neither
conscientious, nor honest, with Holocaust victims. Much of the documentary
evidence was hidden, lost, or destroyed. The deputy archivist of the United
States told D’Amato that the Reichsbank gold records (once in possession of the
U. S. Government) “have been lost.” Other records, the archivist admitted, were
returned to the German government and, strangely, no copies were retained by
the U.S.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">There also is clear evidence of outright
U.S. collusion with German business, bankers, and former Nazi leaders, in
strong parallels to Japan.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">In December 2000, President Clinton signed
into law the Japanese Imperial Army Disclosure Act to declassify documents
about World War II in Asia and the Pacific. This bill originally required the
government to open all classified documents from World War II that have bearing
on Japanese war crimes, which include looting. But before the bill was passed,
a filter was added providing for an interagency task force to review all the
records and remove any that the CIA director thinks are too sensitive and might
compromise national security. For Nazi records, withholding any information was
specifically disallowed. For Japanese records it was specifically allowed.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Remarked one observer, “It arouses
suspicion when the U.S. Government has a double standard in treating such
issues with the two countries.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">What could possibly be in Japanese war
records to compromise American security sixty years or more after the fact? Who
will be shamed by such disclosures? As it stands, the interagency task force
was given three years to decide which records to declassify, which makes a joke
of the whole process. A lot of outrage has been expressed about money
laundering. This is history laundering.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">By the time these archives finally are
opened, those that reveal the true nature of U.S.-Japanese collusion will have
been “lost” like the Nazi gold archives.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Destroying the evidence actually began
before Japan’s surrender.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Before the Occupation began in 1945, Japan
burnt great quantities of war records and documents. Skies all over the islands
were filled with smoke and ashes. In 1946, millions of pages of Japanese
government and military records that remained were transferred to Herbert
Hoover—peculiar, as Hoover was not a government official. However, as we
revealed in<i> The Yamato Dynasty,</i> he was a chief mover in whitewashing the
emperor, suborning General Tojo, and putting the war criminals back in power.
Hoover shipped these records to the Hoover Institute in California, but half a
century later their location remains a mystery.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Another huge collection of Japanese
documents was transferred to the CIA in the late 1940s. After sensitive
documents were removed, the rest were turned over to the National Archives. The
State Department then decided, amazingly, to return them all to Japan. Despite
protests from scholars, only 10 percent were microfilmed first, and these were
bleached of any evidence of looting and collusion.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">When we did Freedom of Information queries
on Yamashita’s Gold in 1987, the Treasury Department, the Defense Department,
and the CIA, dodged all our requests, claiming these records were exempt from
release. In other words, the records did exist, but could not be seen. Yet
during the Schlei lawsuit in the 1990s, the government claimed it carried out a
thorough search of all government agencies and archives for any records related
to Japan’s looting of Asia and postwar slush-funds, declaring to the court that
no such written evidence could be found. What had happened to it in the
intervening years?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">While Germany has paid more than $45
billion in compensation and reparations, Japan has paid only $3 billion. Even
today, Germany continues this program of compensation and reparations, but
Japan has dug in its heels and said it was all settled in 1951. Its position is
backed adamantly by the State Department, which is determined to block compensation
payments even to U.S. citizens, even to former POWs.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Britain, having parroted Washington by
declaring that all this was “settled” in 1951, finally reversed itself. In
2001, the British government agreed to pay—from is own tax revenues—a £10,000
one-time settlement on former British POWs of Japan and their heirs. This may
seem humane, but it sidesteps the real question of why Japan continues to be
shielded from paying. It also does not satisfy the demands of British POWs and
internees for an official apology from Japan.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Since the war, Tokyo has passed fifteen
laws giving its own nationals compensation of $400 billion. Among those
receiving compensation and pensions were indicted war criminals. Japanese
sociologist Tanaka Hiroshi said, “We are generous with ourselves, stingy with
others, [and] our policy on war compensation is manifestly unfair to
foreigners, and unrepentant of the past.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Washington has paid compensation to
Japanese civilians interned unjustly in America during the war. Each internee,
even babies born at the end of this period, was awarded $20,000. Most of them
were complete innocents and their lives were, in many cases, damaged or
destroyed by the internment. But not one was forced to perform slave labor.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Since 1999, more than thirty lawsuits have
been filed in California courts by survivors of the Bataan Death March and
other POWs who were forced to provide slave labor for Japanese companies. They
were focused in California because the state legislature had extended the
period when such claims could be filed. The U.S. Government then had the cases
transferred to a federal court in San Francisco, where most of these suits then
were rejected in September 2000 by Federal Judge Vaughn Walker. Judge Walker
said they were barred by the terms of the 1951 Peace Treaty, the same
stonewalling used by Tokyo and Washington.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Hard as it may be to believe, the State
Department argued on the side of Japanese corporations in these cases. Walker
summed up his decision by stating that the San Francisco Peace Treaty had
“exchanged full compensation of plaintiffs for a future peace. History has
vindicated the wisdom of that bargain.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Chalmers Johnson reacted by pointing out
that since the treaty was signed, at least ten million people and 55,00
Americans have died in Asian wars. By those facts alone, he rightly called
Judge Walker’s statement “one of the more abysmal moments of denial.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Some fought back. In March 2001, U.S.
Congressman Mike Honda (D-San Jose) and Dana </span><span style="font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif;">Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach)
introduced a bill “Justice for Prisoners of War Act” before the US. Congress.
The bill had strong bipartisan support and by August 2002 had 228 cosigners
including House whips for both parties. Honda’s bill called for “clarification
of the wording of the 1951 Peace Treaty between Japan and the United States” to
keep the State Department from deviously interfering in victims’ lawsuits.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">If this bill became law, it could open a
window for compensation to POWs who were forced to perform slave labor for
Japanese companies like Mitsui, Mitsubishi, and Sumitomo, which are among the
richest on earth. The bill would remove a key legal barrier used in Judge
Walker’s rejection of the slave labor lawsuits. Article 26 of the 1951 treaty
reads: “Should Japan make a peace settlement or war claims settlement with any
State granting that State greater advantages than those provided by the present
Treaty, those same advantages shall be extended to the parties to the present
Treaty.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">In other words, if Japan were ever to give
another country greater advantages for war claims than those granted in the
treaty, then it has to extend such terms to all forty-eight countries that
signed the treaty. And as we now know, a secret deal was arranged by Dulles for
the Dutch government to receive $10 million from Japan. Both Switzerland and
Burma also negotiated compensation to their citizens that would today be worth
about $50,000 each. While Burma was occupied by Japan, Switzerland was not even
a belligerent during the war. When these settlements with Burma and Switzerland
went through, the British government (confronted by demands from its own POWs)
decided against reopening negotiations, although it was entitled to do so by
the terms of the treaty. In fact, none of America’s closest allies deviated from
Washington’s instructions not to meddle with Article 26.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Judge Walker, possibly under considerable
pressure, sided with the State Department and ruled that Article 26 cannot be
invoked by private citizens, but only by their government. The Honda-Rohrabacher
bill would get around that bizarre ruling by having Congress act for the
victims.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The State Department’s unelected
bureaucrats, aghast at the temerity of America’s elected lawmakers, realized
that Honda’s bill cannot be thrown out by the exercise of political pressure
over federal judges. Instead, State took the high moral ground by claiming that
passage of Honda’s bill “would be an act of extreme bad faith.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Bad faith toward Japan’s biggest
corporations and its extraordinarily corrupt and incompetent LDP bosses.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Since spring 2001, this bill has been
stalled in committee. Once through the House of Representatives, the battle for
the bill would have to be fought again in the Senate. Thereafter, the
presidential veto could be (and probably would be) invoked. In which case,
President George W. Bush would be honoring the tradition of cover-up by every
American president since Truman.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Another Congressional effort to force State
and Justice Departments to let justice take its course was an amendment to an
appropriations bill. This made it illegal for the State and Justice to spend
any of their 2002 budget “to file a motion in any court opposing a civil action
against any Japanese person or corporation for compensation or reparations in
which the plaintiff alleges that, as an American prisoner of war during World
War II, he or she was used as a slave or forced labor.” This amendment was
passed with overwhelming bipartisan support one day before the World Trade
Center attack.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Of course, nothing prohibits State or Justice
from advising’ courts against favorable settlements for POWs or putting
pressure on judges in federal courts. The bill was only valid for twelve
months, after which it would have to be reintroduced, so it is popular,
patriotic but toothless.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Sadly, this judicial gridlock is like
France before the Revolution, when a two-tiered system of justice was in
place—one for nobility, one for ordinary people.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">However, it may be too late for Washington
to save Japan’s LDP from its own ineptitude and venality. Japan’s financial
collapse has been predicted by scholars at Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, on the premise that the LDP would refuse to undertake the serious
reforms needed. In fact, all Japan’s top banks failed long ago, but—as in a
silent movie—the edifice collapsed without the audience hearing any sound.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Japan’s banks had $1 trillion in bad loans
on their books, in sweetheart deals for men like Prime Minister Tanaka, or
zero-interest loans to the yakuza. Among the banks hit hardest were Sanwa Bank
and Tokai Bank. Together with Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank they are the three that were
exempted by General MacArthur and General Marquat from reorganization in 1945.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Former prime minister and finance minister
Miyazawa proposed a painless bailout—painless, that is, for the banks. They
would be bailed out by Japanese taxpayers. After which the banks could resume
their bad habits. Whether taxpayers would stand for it is questionable.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">If anyone knew how to arrange such a magic
trick, it was Miyazawa. Few other men have been so intimately and continually
involved in the inner workings of the Ministry of Finance since the early
1940s. He began his career in the Finance Ministry in 1942 and was one of the
three Japanese who negotiated the secret terms of the 1951 Peace Treaty with
John Foster Dulles. Thanks to cachet he gained in those warped negotiations,
Miyazawa entered politics where he remains to this day as a man of phenomenal
leverage. He served as minister of finance in the Nakasone, Takeshita, Obuchi,
and Mori cabinets. Over all those decades, Miyazawa was chief of accounting for
the LDP, so he had intimate knowledge of all the slush funds. He held many
other ministerial posts, such as chief cabinet secretary to Prime Minister
Suzuki when the M-Fund “57s” first were issued. When minister of finance for
Takeshita, Miyazawa had to resign along with Takeshita in the Recruit
insider-trading scandal tied to the M-Fund. In 1991, thanks to his rescue by
M-Fund controllers Kanemaru and Gotoda, Miyazawa became prime minister. He then
named Gotoda as his deputy prime minister and made Kanemaru the LDP’s vice
president, giving Kanemaru the informal role of “co-prime minister”. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">At a celebration of this collaboration in a
posh Tokyo restaurant, Miyazawa pledged to Kanemaru that, “I will not do
anything that differs from your intentions. I will consult you on everything.”
The honeymoon was brief. In 1992, Kanemaru became involved in the great scandal
of the Sagawa Parcel company, which was delivering war-gold bribes to
politically influential people. Before his trial was concluded, Kanemaru
conveniently died.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">If anyone knows the truth, Miyazawa does.
But he is not talking, nor is his son-in-law, Christopher J. Lafleur, a career
U.S. Foreign Service officer who for years has been the most powerful diplomat
at the American Embassy in Tokyo, as deputy chief of mission, or DCM.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">In 1986, the 38-year-old Lafleur was
dispatched to Tokyo, ostensibly to negotiate sales of the FS-X fighter plane
(the same year Schlei came to Tokyo to negotiate his client’s “57s”). Miyazawa,
then minister of finance, was Japan’s FS-X negotiator, under a cloud in the
Recruit scandal, linked to the “57s” and M-Fund moneys.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">One unexpected outcome of the friendship
that bloomed between Lafleur and Miyazawa was that Lafleur married Miyazawa’s
daughter.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">In September 1997, Lafleur was made Deputy
Chief of Mission at the US. Embassy in Tokyo—called the “<i>de facto</i> boss
of the embassy”. A few months later, in 1998, Miyazawa was back in the driver’s
seat as finance minister in the Obuchi cabinet. Like his earlier appointments
to this job, Miyazawa was returned to office to practice damage control.
According to Professor Lausier, this time Miyazawa was put back in as minister
of finance because a large number of “57s” were coming due—documents that the
LDP and the government of Japan could ill afford to redeem, and therefore
denounced as counterfeit.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Lausier believes that Miyazawa was there to
decide which of these IOUs would be honored and which would not.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">During the same period, the U.S. Embassy’s
Lafleur was vocal in claiming that the “57s” were fraudulent, and arguing
against victims’ rights to sue Japanese corporations, on the basis of the 1951
treaty negotiated by Lafleur’s father-in-law.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Not only Lafleur but a string of
ambassadors he served also showed conspicuous conflict of interest.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Many people were troubled to learn that
Ambassador Tom Foley’s wife was a paid consultant to Sumitomo Heavy Industries,
one of the primary targets of the POW lawsuits for slave labor. The State
Department declared that it saw no conflict of interest in Mrs. Foley’s job and
the simultaneous appointment of her husband as ambassador to Japan. However, in
that post Foley vigorously denied the right of American POWs to sue Japanese
corporations including the one his wife worked for.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">After retiring as ambassador and returning
to Washington, Foley openly became a paid lobbyist for Mitsubishi Corporation
as a member of its advisory panel on strategy. Mitsubishi was among the biggest
employers of American slave labor during the war.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">When he was appointed DCM under Foley,
foreign correspondents in Tokyo joked that Lafleur was a member of Japan’s
“dream team”.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">In 2001, when news of Lafleur’s special
status as Miyazawa’s son in-law became more widely known, making the issues of
conflict of interest and double standards become too obvious to ignore further,
Lafleur was recalled to Washington and made Deputy Assistant Director to the
Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs at the State Department. This removed
him from potential embarrassment in Tokyo but put him in a prime position to
monitor and guide Congress, as well as to oversee any legal actions in U.S.
courts. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The low point of this farce came in late
September 2001 when a letter appeared <i>The Washington Post</i> written by
three former ambassadors to Tokyo—Thomas Foley, Michael Armacost, and Fritz
Mondale. The letter linked the claims of American POWs against Japan to the
terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center: “Why would Congress consider
passing [the Rohrabacher Bill] which could abrogate a treaty so fundamental to
our security at a time the president and his administration are trying so hard
... to combat terrorism?”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">In other words, Honda and Rohrabacher, and
America’s POWs, were no better than terrorists!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Even Japan’s government winced at the
Foley-Armacost-Mondale attack. A Japanese Embassy spokesman in Washington told
the media that the government of Japan regarded the claims of POWs and the
problems of world terrorism to be “different issues”.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">As a dissident State Department official
quipped, “Sometimes it [seems] that Japan [has] two embassies working for
them—ours and theirs.”</span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7464222263572816025.post-20317528383494901742023-02-12T10:58:00.006+09:002023-02-12T11:01:10.511+09:00The Deplorable State of Europe 78 Years after the Liberation of Auschwitz<p>A Post to Mark <a href="https://www.history.com/news/auschwitz-liberation-soviets-holocaust" style="font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">January
27, 1945: The Red Army Liberation of Auschwitz</a></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;"><span class="x193iq5w"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></i></span></p><p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;"><span class="x193iq5w"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Any
attempts to revise Russia’s contribution to achieving the victory over fascism
de facto means justifying Nazi crimes and paves the way to reviving its deadly
ideology. Horrible tragedies can happen again if we forget the lessons of
history.</span></i></span></p><p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;"><span class="x193iq5w"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></i></span></p><p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;"><span class="x193iq5w"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Thus
spoke Vladimir Putin many times about the long, dangerous revision of history
of recent years that seeks to equate communism with fascism, erase or minimize the
Russian role in the WWII victory, or recast the short German-Soviet
non-aggression pact as an alliance. The revisionists always fail to mention
that the pact came after France and Britain refused Stalin’s request to form an
alliance against Germany.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;"><span class="x193iq5w"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></span></p><p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;"><span class="x193iq5w"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVDiS0lB_0-H__12QmxPSvhvmNwLXaiJoZFFQnVJ4Mg8GScGR4VcPZpEz7cMS8zBsliclcBy6bbXhOve1TPQzVl7VbRJQmQORWg9AVc3hl5uEypw9BNAfWJLvJxmANxu2nv3rgMBcs5M250jCYZeKJU_UfOVKV3ayVRPKmunKn4wOVpRVonQ5n_oLy/s1233/bloodlies-bloodlines.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="586" data-original-width="1233" height="190" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVDiS0lB_0-H__12QmxPSvhvmNwLXaiJoZFFQnVJ4Mg8GScGR4VcPZpEz7cMS8zBsliclcBy6bbXhOve1TPQzVl7VbRJQmQORWg9AVc3hl5uEypw9BNAfWJLvJxmANxu2nv3rgMBcs5M250jCYZeKJU_UfOVKV3ayVRPKmunKn4wOVpRVonQ5n_oLy/w400-h190/bloodlies-bloodlines.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><span class="x193iq5w"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"><p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;"><span class="x193iq5w"><span class="x193iq5w"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></span></span></p>Over
the past year, I’ve written about the causes of the tragedy in Ukraine which
started decades ago. See </span></span><a href="https://dennisriches.wordpress.com/category/ukraine/"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">posts tagged with
“Ukraine”</span></a><span class="x193iq5w"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> for more coverage of what is summarized
briefly below.</span></span><p></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;"><span class="x193iq5w"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></span></p><p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;"><span class="x193iq5w"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">In
the late 1940s, the CIA started to use Ukrainian nationalist Nazi collaborators
as a force that could destabilize the Soviet Union. After Ukraine won its
independence in 1991, the project continued as a way to pull Ukraine toward the
EU and into NATO. This culminated in 2014 in the US-sponsored covert overthrow
of the elected government of Ukraine. By manipulating divisions within Ukraine
and sponsoring protests (representing a minority of citizens) the US government
support was key in assuring that the government fell in the Maidan coup. The
Nazi militias were a minority of the protesters, but they were a key tool in
the plan, and they proudly boasted of being the decisive factor that instigated
violence and chased the legitimate president out of the country. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;"><span class="x193iq5w"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></span></p><p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;"><span class="x193iq5w"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">In
recent years, the far-right groups have never had a majority in the legislature,
but they were large and fearsome enough to intimidate Zelensky into doing
nothing to protect the rights of ethnic Russian citizens in Ukraine. The Unties
States’ interference in the internal affairs of Ukraine was a violation of
national sovereignty just as egregious as violation of territorial integrity. This
violation of international law and the UN Charter should have outraged the
international community long before Russia was forced to react to put an end to
the threat on its border and the genocidal civil war that was being perpetrated
against ethnic Russians in Eastern Ukraine. About the ethnic Russian minority
in Donbass, President Poroshenko said in 2014:</span></span><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">We will have jobs and they won’t. We will
have retirement benefits and they won’t. We will have benefits for seniors and
children, and they won’t. Our children will go to school and kindergarten, but
theirs won’t. Their children will stay in basements [hiding from bombardment], so
they won’t know how to do anything. And like this, precisely like this, we will
win this war.</span></i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">
(This speech appears at the beginning of Anne Laure Bonnel’s documentary film </span><a href="https://youtu.be/b8j0tJsKltg"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Donbass</span></i></a><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> (2016)). <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: left;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></p><p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: left;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The United Nations and the vaunted
“international community” did nothing to delegitimize this clearly stated
genocidal intent. </span><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Citing the<b> <i>Rome Statute of the
International Criminal Court on Genocide </i>(1998)<i>, </i></b>bold text below
indicates why President Poroshenko’s statement in 2014 should have been enough
for the United Nations to take whatever actions necessary to delegitimize the
Ukrainian government and prevent further atrocities from happening. Later, when
the Minsk Accords were signed, the United Nations should have forced the
signatories to uphold them. This was not done. Furthermore, two of the European
signatories, French President Hollande and German Chancellor Merkel both
confessed in 2022 that they cynically used the Minsk Accords as a stalling
tactic that would allow Ukraine to build up its military in order to carry out
the plan envisioned by President Poroshenko. Is it any wonder that Russians are
appalled at the rewriting of history in the West and the re-iteration in this
century of the fascist project to fight Russia? Russian intervention into the
sovereign territory of Ukraine was taken to demilitarize and de-Nazify a
government that was guilty of genocide. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: left;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">__________</span><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: left;"><b><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Rome
Statute of the International Criminal Court – Article 6 (genocide), Adopted on
17 July 1998</span></b></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: left;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">For
the purpose of this Statute, “genocide” means any of the following <b>acts
committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical,
racial or religious group</b>, as such:</span></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: left;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Article
I: The Contracting Parties confirm that <b>genocide, whether committed in time
of peace or in time of war, is a crime under international law which they
undertake to prevent and to punish.</b></span></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: left;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Article
II: In the present Convention, <b>genocide means any of the following acts
committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical,
racial or religious group, as such</b>:</span><span face=""Open Sans", sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: left;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">(a)
Killing members of the group;<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: left;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">(b)
<b>Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;</b><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: left;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">(c)
<b>Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring
about its physical destruction in whole or in part;<o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: left;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">(d)
Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: left;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">(e)
Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.</span></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: left;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Article
III: The following acts shall be punishable:</span></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: left;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">(a)
Genocide;<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: left;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">(b)
Conspiracy to commit genocide;<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: left;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">(c)
<b>Direct and public incitement to commit genocide;<o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: left;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">(d)
Attempt to commit genocide;<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: left;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">(e)
Complicity in genocide.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">__________<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;"><b><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The last word goes
to </span></b><b><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Emilios George Ades Georgiades,
January 23, 2023 (Facebook posting):</span></b><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></i></p><p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The best thing that could happen for Europe, even for
Ukraine itself, is a quick military defeat of the Nazi regime in Kiev.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></i></p><p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">It is not what Washington would like, but then again
Washington is only concerned with its own interests and does not lose any sleep
over the economic and social disaster that is looming over its European “allies.”
<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></i></p><p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Europe has already well and truly lost this war. Ukraine
does not stand a chance of reversing the tide and any talk of pushing the
Russians back from the territory they have captured, and continue to capture,
is nothing more than a pipe dream.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></i></p><p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Tens of thousands of lives have been lost and thousands continue
to die every day this war is allowed to go on.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></i></p><p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">If Europe wishes to continue existing as an economic if not
a major military power, it must withdraw its support for this futile endeavor.
Without European participation, the US will have no option but to call it a day
and count its blessings and ill-gotten gains.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></i></p><p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Given time and political will, things can begin to return to
the good old days when Europe was benefitting from cheap Russian fuel and was
competitive and exported its own products to a new middle class in Russia flush
with money.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></i></p><p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The enemy of Europe and the West is not Russia. It never has
been Russia. If the Europeans open their eyes, they will see who it really is
that is standing between them and their prosperity. <o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></i></p><p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">It was not Russia that broke the peace in February 2022.
That peace was broken eight years earlier. There had been thousands of
casualties in this war, long before Russia was forced to get involved to put an
end to the worst ethnic cleansing of the 21st century, carried out by a
US-controlled Nazi regime in Ukraine. <o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></i></p><p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: left;"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Europe and the rest of the West are once again not on the
right side of history. Time to correct that.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7464222263572816025.post-57489730310387984162023-02-11T09:50:00.007+09:002023-02-11T09:54:04.647+09:00Emmanuel Todd: World War III Has Already Begun<p>Emmanuel Todd
is an anthropologist, historian, essayist, futurologist, and author of numerous
books. He may be most well known for predicting the fall of the Soviet Union,
and the reasons for it, in the mid-1970s when no other social scientists,
Sovietologists or political leaders could conceive of a world without the USSR.
In 2003, he wrote <i>Après l'Empire : Essai sur la décomposition du système
américain</i> (no English version published) explaining the eventual decline of
the United States’ rule-based international order, as Americans like to refer
to it. In an interview published in <i>Le Figaro</i> on January 13, 2023, he
explained how this theme is central to the war in Ukraine now. It is an
existential battle for both the US-NATO bloc and for Russia. Neither side can quit
the fight without falling into decline afterwards.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt;"><span style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The interviewer
refers to a book that Emmanuel Todd published in 2022: <i>World War III Has
Already Begun</i>. Curiously, it was written in French but not published in
French. The book was derived from interviews done in Japan which were compiled
and translated by a Japanese publisher. It has sold 100,000 copies in Japan so
far. Emmanuel Todd noted in the interview that his views have not been welcome
in Europe for the past year, but he said the Japanese media are interested and
capable of discussing Russia in a calm and serene atmosphere, even though
attitudes in Japan are quite set against Russia in the present conflict and
Japan has fallen into line behind the US as a loyal client state.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt;"><span style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The interview
caught the eyes of many who have been watching the non-mainstream media for the
past year because it is the first time that contrarian views have broken
through in a publication such as <i>Le Figaro</i>. Unfortunately, the article
was behind a paywall, but it was liberated after a few days. Taking articles
from behind paywalls is not kind to working journalists, but by now one would
think that large media corporations would have figured out a way for people to
buy single articles without having the hassle of subscribing, setting up usernames
and passwords, and receiving daily email notifications. People no longer have
any interest in subscribing to a single news source and reading it from “cover
to cover” in the evening. News junkies read dozens of sources every day, and
they can’t afford subscriptions to all of them. It seems justified in this case
to liberate information such as this that is so much in the public interest.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt;"><span style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><a href="https://www.lefigaro.fr/vox/monde/emmanuel-todd-la-troisieme-guerre-mondiale-a-commence-20230112"><b><span style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Emmanuel
Todd: “The Third World War Has Already Begun”</span></b></a><b><span style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">2023/01/13<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><b><span style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Interviewed by
Alexandre Devecchio<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt;"><span style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Alexandre
Devecchio: </span>Why publish a
book about the war in Ukraine in Japan and not in France?</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt;"><span style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Emmanuel Todd: </span>Japanese are
just as anti-Russian as Europeans, but they are geographically distant from the
conflict, so there is no real sense of urgency. They do not have our emotional
connection to Ukraine. In Japan, I don’t have the same status as in France.
Here I have the absurd reputation of being a “rebel destroyer”, while in Japan
I am a respected anthropologist, historian and geopolitician who speaks in all
the major newspapers and magazines. And all of my books have been published
there. I can express myself there in a serene atmosphere, which I first did in
magazines then by publishing this book, which is a collection of interviews.
This book is called <i>World War III Has Already Begun</i>, with 100,000 copies
sold so far.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt;"><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrXQj6Zl3KblgEFwwNLqTNdDkVyMn9jcL9nI-ryHxZPW-0UEBx4bp6MyKTuJt_e-DX_OsSHDocLIfkaeTSo5mNyFjhnryRpficy1qOzWqDlz7zcOv6ex8TXYuMDaXgetCXup5qz9TMmG5BwGql1WZxkWridlz7kQhAfBg5t43iF4XXPD2MiRjWTbNv/s1092/todd-emmanuel-01.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1092" data-original-width="657" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrXQj6Zl3KblgEFwwNLqTNdDkVyMn9jcL9nI-ryHxZPW-0UEBx4bp6MyKTuJt_e-DX_OsSHDocLIfkaeTSo5mNyFjhnryRpficy1qOzWqDlz7zcOv6ex8TXYuMDaXgetCXup5qz9TMmG5BwGql1WZxkWridlz7kQhAfBg5t43iF4XXPD2MiRjWTbNv/s320/todd-emmanuel-01.jpg" width="193" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Japanese edition of <br /><i>World War III Has Already Begun</i></td></tr></tbody></table><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt;"><span style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Alexandre
Devecchio: </span>Why this title?</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt;"><span style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Emmanuel Todd: </span>Because this is
the reality. World War III has begun. It is true that it started “small” and
with two surprises. We went into this war with the idea that Russia’s army was
very powerful and that its economy was very weak. It was thought that Ukraine
would be crushed militarily, and that Russia would be crushed economically by
the West. The opposite happened. Ukraine has not been crushed militarily, even
though it has lost 16% of its territory to date, and Russia has not been
crushed economically. As I speak, the ruble has gained 8% against the dollar and
18% against the euro since the eve of the war.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt;"><span style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">So there was a
kind of misunderstanding, but it is obvious that the conflict, going from a
limited territorial war to a global economic confrontation, between the whole
of the West on the one hand and China-backed Russia on the other, has become a
world war, even if military violence is low compared to that of previous world
wars.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt;"><span style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Alexandre
Devecchio: </span>Aren’t you
exaggerating? The West is not directly engaged militarily.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt;"><span style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Emmanuel Todd: </span>Well, we
provide weapons. We kill Russians, even if we don’t discuss this fact, but it
remains true that we Europeans are, above all, economically committed. We also
feel that our real entry into war is coming through inflation and shortages.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt;"><span style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Putin made a
big mistake at the beginning, which is of immense socio-historical interest.
Those who worked on Ukraine on the eve of the war saw it not as a nascent
democracy but as a decaying society and a failed state in the making. When the
war broke out, there was a question of whether Ukraine had lost 10 million or
15 million inhabitants since its independence. We don’t know because Ukraine
has not conducted a census since 2001, a classic sign of a society that is
afraid of reality. I think the Kremlin’s calculation was that this decaying
society would collapse at the first shock, or even say “Mama, you’re back!” to
holy Russia. But what has been discovered, on the other hand, is that a
decaying society, if fueled by external financial and military resources, can
find in war a new type of equilibrium, and even a horizon, a hope. The Russians
could not foresee it. No one could.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt;"><span style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Alexandre
Devecchio: </span>But have the
Russians not underestimated, despite the state of real decomposition of
society, the strength of Ukrainian national sentiment, or even the strength of
European support for Ukraine? And don’t you yourself underestimate it?</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt;"><span style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Emmanuel Todd: </span>I don’t know.
I’m reflecting on that as a researcher, admitting that there are things we do
not know. For me, strangely, one of the fields in which I have too little
information about is Ukraine. I could tell you, on the basis of old data, that
the family system of Little Russia [or <i>Malorussia</i>, the term for Ukraine
used during the tsarist empire] was nuclear, more individualistic than the
Greater Russia system, which was more communitarian and collectivist. I can
tell you that, but what has become of Ukraine, with massive population
movements, self-selection of certain social types through emigration before and
during the war? I cannot answer this question. For the time being, we do not
know.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt;"><span style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">One of the
paradoxes I face is that Russia does not pose a problem of understanding for
me. This is where I am most out of step with my Western environment. I
understand everyone’s emotions, so it is painful for me to speak as a cold
historian. But when we think of Julius Caesar locking Vercingetorix in Alesia
and then taking him to Rome to celebrate his triumph, we don’t wonder if the
Romans were evil or deficient in values. Today, being in tune with the emotions
of my own country, I can clearly see the entry of the Russian army into
Ukrainian territory, the bombings and deaths, the destruction of energy
infrastructure, the Ukrainians freezing to death all winter. But for me, the
behavior of Putin and the Russians is understandable in a different way, and I
will tell you how.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt;"><span style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">To begin with,
I admit to having been caught off guard by the beginning of the war. I couldn’t
believe it. Today I share the analysis of the American “realist” geopolitician
John Mearsheimer. He made the following observation. He told us that Ukraine,
whose army had been taken over by NATO soldiers (American, British, and Polish)
since at least 2014, was therefore a <i>de facto</i> member of NATO, and that
the Russians had announced that they would never tolerate Ukraine as a member
of NATO. The Russians are therefore (as Putin said the day before the attack)
waging a war from a defensive and preventive point of view. Mearsheimer added
that we should have no reason to rejoice about possible difficulties of the
Russians because, since this is an existential question for them, the harder it
was, the harder they would hit. The analysis seems to be true. I would add a
supplement and a criticism to Mearsheimer’s analysis.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt;"><span style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Alexandre
Devecchio: </span>Which is?</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt;"><span style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Emmanuel Todd: </span>When he says
that Ukraine was a <i>de facto</i> member of NATO, he does not go far enough.
Germany and France had become minor partners in NATO and were unaware of what
was going on in Ukraine militarily. French and German naivety were criticized
because our governments did not believe in the possibility of a Russian
invasion. That’s true, but that was because they did not know that the
Americans, British and Poles would enable Ukraine to fight a broader war. The
fundamental axis of NATO now is Washington-London-Warsaw-Kiev.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt;"><span style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Now the
criticism. Mearsheimer, as a good American, overestimates his country. He
considers that, if for the Russians the war in Ukraine is existential, for the
Americans it is basically only one “game” of power among others. After Vietnam,
Iraq, and Afghanistan, it’s one more debacle. So what? The basic axiom of
American geopolitics is: “We can do whatever we want because we are safe, far
away, between two oceans. Nothing will ever happen to us.” Nothing would be
existential for America. This lack of analysis today leads Biden into a
headlong rush. America is fragile. The resilience of the Russian economy is
pushing the US imperial system towards the abyss. No one foresaw that the
Russian economy would stand up to NATO’s “economic power.” I believe that the
Russians themselves did not anticipate this.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt;"><span style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">If the Russian
economy resisted sanctions indefinitely and managed to exhaust the European
economy, while it itself remained, backed by China, the American monetary and
financial controls of the world would collapse, and with them the possibility
for the United States to finance its huge trade deficit for nothing. So this
war has become existential for the United States. Just as Russia cannot
withdraw from the conflict, neither can they. That is why we are now in an
endless war, in a confrontation whose outcome must be the collapse of one or
the other. Chinese, Indians, and Saudis, among others, are jubilant.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt;"><span style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Alexandre
Devecchio: </span>But the Russian
army still seems to be in a very bad position. Some go so far as to predict the
collapse of the regime. Don’t you believe this will happen?</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt;"><span style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Emmanuel Todd: </span>No. At first
there seems to have been a hesitation in Russia, the feeling of having been abused,
of not having been warned. But now the Russians are settled on the war, and
Putin benefits from something which we have no understanding of. It is that the
2000s, the Putin years, were for the Russians the years of a return to balance,
of the return to normal life. I think that Macron will represent for the French
the discovery of an unpredictable and dangerous world, a reunion with fear. The
90s were a time of unprecedented suffering for Russia. The 2000s were a return
to normal, and not only in terms of living standards. We saw suicide and
homicide rates plummet, and above all, my favorite indicator, the infant
mortality rate plunged and even fell below the American rate.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt;"><span style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">In the minds of
Russians, Putin embodies stability, and at the most extreme he is something
Christ-like. Fundamentally, ordinary Russians believe, like their president,
that they are waging a defensive war. They are aware of having made mistakes at
the beginning, but their good economic preparation has increased their
confidence, not in the face of Ukraine (the resistance of the Ukrainians is for
them understandable—they are brave as Russians, after all; the Westerners would
never fight so well!) but in the face of what they call “the collective West”,
or “the United States and its vassals”. The real priority of the Russian regime
is not military victory on the ground. It is not to lose the social stability
achieved in the last 20 years.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt;"><span style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">So they are
waging this “economic war”, especially an economic war of men because Russia
has its demographic problem, with a fertility of 1.5 children per woman. In
five years they will have hollow age classes. In my opinion, they must win the
war in five years or lose it. That’s a normal duration for a world war. So they
are waging this war on the economy, rebuilding a partial war economy, but
wanting to preserve men. This is the reason for the withdrawal from Kherson,
after the others in the Kharkiv and Kiev regions. We count the square
kilometers taken over by the Ukrainians, but the Russians are waiting for the
European economies to fall. We [Europeans] are their main front. I could
obviously be wrong, but I maintain that the behavior of the Russians is
readable because it is rational and harsh. The unknowns lie elsewhere.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt;"><span style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Alexandre
Devecchio: </span>You explain
that the Russians perceive this conflict as “a defensive war”, but no one has
tried to invade Russia, and today, because of the war, NATO has never had so
much influence in the East with the Baltic countries wanting to integrate more.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt;"><span style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Emmanuel Todd: </span>To answer you,
I propose a psycho-geographical exercise, which can be done by a zooming our
perspective out. If we look at the map of Ukraine, we see the entry of Russian
troops from the North, the East, the South. And there, indeed, we have the
appearance of a Russian invasion. There is no other word for it. However, if we
zoom out farther, towards a view of the world taking in Washington, we see that
NATO guns and missiles converge from far away towards the battlefield. It’s a
movement of weapons that had begun before the war. Bakhmut is 8,400 kilometers
from Washington, but 130 kilometers from the Russian border. A simple reading
of the world map allows us, I think, to consider the hypothesis “Yes, from the
Russian point of view, it must be a defensive war.”</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt;"><span style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Alexandre
Devecchio: </span>According to
you, the entry of the Russians into the war is also explained by the relative
decline of the United States.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt;"><span style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Emmanuel Todd: </span>In <i>After the
Empire</i>, published in 2002, I spoke of the long-term decline of the United
States and the return of Russian power. Since 2002, America has had a series of
failures and setbacks. The United States invaded Iraq but left, leaving Iran a
major player in the Middle East. They fled Afghanistan. The satellite status of
Ukraine set up by Europe and the United States did not represent an increase in
Western dynamism but rather the end of a wave launched around 1990, relayed by
the anti-Russian resentment of the Poles and the Baltic states. However, it was
in this context of American reflux that the Russians took the decision to bring
Ukraine to heel because they felt they finally had the technical means to do
so.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt;"><span style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I have just
read a book by S. Jaishankar (<i>The India Way</i>), Minister of External
Affairs of India, published just before the war, which sees American weakness.
He knows that the confrontation between China and the United States will not
have a winner but will give space to a country like India, and many others. I
would add but not to Europeans. Everywhere we see the weakening of the United
States, but not in Europe and Japan because one of the effects of the
retraction of the imperial system is that the United States strengthens its
grip on its original protectorates.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt;"><span style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">If we read
Brzeziński (<i>The Grand Chessboard</i>), we see that the American empire was
formed at the end of the Second World War by the conquest of Germany and Japan,
which are still protectorates today. As the American system shrinks, it weighs
more and more heavily on the local elites of the protectorates (and I include
here the whole of Europe). The first to lose all national autonomy will be (or
already are) the English and Australians. The Internet has produced human
interaction with the United States in the Anglosphere of such intensity that
its academic, media and artistic elites are virtually annexed. On the European
continent, we are somewhat protected by our national languages, but the decline
of our autonomy is considerable, and rapid. Recall the Iraq war when Chirac,
Schröder, and Putin held joint press conferences against the war.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt;"><span style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Alexandre
Devecchio: </span>Many observers
point out that Russia has the GDP of Spain. Don’t you overestimate its economic
power and resilience?</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt;"><span style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Emmanuel Todd: </span>War becomes a
test of political economy. It is the great revealer. The GDP of Russia and
Belarus represents 3.3% of Western GDP (United States, Anglosphere, Europe,
Japan, South Korea), which is practically nothing. One wonders how this
insignificant GDP can cope and continue to produce missiles. The reason for
this is that GDP is a fictitious measure of output. If we remove from US GDP
half of its overcharged health spending, the “wealth produced” by the activity
of its lawyers, the best filled prisons in the world, an entire economy of
ill-defined services including the “production” of its 15 to 20,000 economists
with an average salary of $ 120,000, we then realize that a significant part of
this GDP is vapor. War brings us back to the real economy. It allows us to
understand what the true wealth of nations is. It is productive capacity, and
therefore the capacity for war. If we go back to material variables, we see the
Russian economy. In 2014, we put in place the first major sanctions against
Russia, but it then increased its wheat production from 40 to 90 million tons
in 2020. Meanwhile, thanks to neoliberalism, US wheat production, between 1980
and 2020, went from 80 to 40 million tons. Russia has also become the largest
exporter of nuclear power plants. In 2007, the Americans explained that their
strategic adversary was in such a state of nuclear decay that soon the United
States would have a first-strike capability on a Russia that could not respond.
Today, the Russians have nuclear superiority with their hypersonic missiles.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt;"><span style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Russia
therefore has a real capacity to adapt. When we want to mock centralized
economies, we emphasize their rigidity, and when we glorify capitalism, we
praise its flexibility. We are right. For an economy to be flexible, of course,
you need the market, and financial and monetary mechanisms. But first you need
a workforce that knows how to do things. The United States is now more than
twice as populous as Russia (2.2 times in student age groups). Still, with
comparable cohort proportions of young people in higher education, in the
United States, 7% study engineering, while in Russia it is 25%. This means that
with 2.2 times fewer people studying, Russians train 30% more engineers. The US
is filling the gap with foreign students, but they are mostly Indian, and even
more are Chinese. This substitute resource is not secure and is already
dwindling. This is the fundamental dilemma of the US economy. It can only face
Chinese competition by importing Chinese skilled labor. I propose here the
concept of economic balancing. The Russian economy, for its part, has accepted
the rules of the market (it is even an obsession of Putin to preserve them) but
with a very large role for the state. It also owes its flexibility to the
training of engineers that allow industrial and military adaptations.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt;"><span style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Alexandre
Devecchio: </span>Many observers
think, on the contrary, that Vladimir Putin has benefited from the sale of raw
materials without having been able to develop his economy.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt;"><span style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Emmanuel Todd: </span>If that were
the case, this war would not have taken place. One of the striking things about
this conflict, and which makes it so uncertain, is that it raises (like any
modern war) the question of the balance between advanced technologies and mass
production. There is no doubt that the United States has some of the most
advanced military technologies, which have sometimes been decisive for
Ukrainian military successes. But when we enter into a war of attrition, not
only on the side of human resources but also on the material side, the ability
to continue depends on the industrial production of less advanced weapons. We
find by closer inspection the question of globalization and the fundamental
problem of the West. We have relocated so much of our industrial activities
that we do not know if our war production can function. The problem is
admitted. CNN, the <i>New York Tim</i>es, and the Pentagon wonder if America
will be able to restart the production lines of this or that type of missile.
But it’s also unclear whether the Russians are able to keep pace with such a
conflict. The outcome and solution of the war will depend on the ability of
both systems to produce armaments.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt;"><span style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Alexandre
Devecchio: </span>According to
you, this war is not only military and economic, but also ideological and
cultural.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt;"><span style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Emmanuel Todd: </span>I am speaking
here mainly as an anthropologist. In Russia there have been denser, communal
family structures, some of whose values have survived. There is a Russian
patriotic feeling that is something we have no concept of here, nourished
subconsciously as a nation as a family. Russia had a patrilineal family
organization, that is to say one in which men are central, so it cannot adhere
to all Western neo-feminist, LGBT, transgender innovations. When we see the
Russian Duma passing even more repressive legislation on “LGBT propaganda,” we
feel superior. I can feel that way as an ordinary Westerner, but from a
geopolitical point of view, if we think in terms of soft power, this is a
mistake. On 75% of the planet, the kinship organization was patrilineal, and
one can feel a strong understanding of Russian attitudes. For the collective
non-West, Russia asserts a reassuring moral conservatism. Latin America,
however, is on the Western side in this regard.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt;"><span style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">When it comes
to geopolitics, we are interested in multiple areas: energy and military power
relations, arms production (which refers to industrial power relations). But
there is also the ideological and cultural balance of power, what Americans
call “soft power”. The USSR had a certain form of soft power in communism. It
influenced part of Italy, the Chinese, the Vietnamese, the Serbs, French
workers, but communism was basically abhorred by the entire Muslim world for
its atheism, and it inspired nothing particular in India, outside of West
Bengal and Kerala. Today, however, Russia, repositioned as an archetype of the
great power, not only anti-colonialist but also patrilineal and conservative of
traditional mores, can be much more seductive. The Americans now feel betrayed
by Saudi Arabia, which refuses to increase its oil production, despite the
energy crisis caused by the war, and in fact it takes the side of the Russians,
in part, of course, out of oil interest. But it’s obvious that Putin’s Russia,
which has become morally conservative, has become sympathetic to Saudis, who
I’m sure have a bit of trouble with American debates about transgender women
(defined as males at conception) accessing women’s bathrooms.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt;"><span style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Western
newspapers are tragically amusing. They keep saying “Russia is isolated. Russia
is isolated”. But when we look at the votes of the United Nations, we see that
75% of the world does not follow the West, which then seems very small. As an
anthropologist, one can explain the map. On the one hand, there are countries
classified by <i>The Economist</i> as having a good level of democracy (namely
the Anglosphere, Europe) and on the other hand authoritarian countries, which
stretch from Africa to China through the Arab world and Russia. For an
anthropologist, this is a banal map. On the “western” periphery are countries
with a nuclear family structure with bilateral kinship systems; that is, where
male and female kinship are equivalent in defining the social status of the
child. At the center, along with the bulk of the Afro-Euro-Asian mass, are
community and patrilineal family organizations. We then see that this conflict,
described by our media as a conflict of political values, is, at a deeper
level, a conflict of anthropological values. The failure to recognize this
difference and the depth of it makes the confrontation dangerous.</span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7464222263572816025.post-64360948955213622342023-02-06T21:57:00.001+09:002023-02-06T21:57:06.077+09:00Interview with Pierre de Gaulle: Can we separate France from Russia?<p><a href="https://youtu.be/uGrHroCCFB0" style="font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif;"><b>Interview with Pierre de Gaulle: Can we
separate France from Russia?</b></a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;">Dialogue
Franco-Russe, December 16, 2022</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;">INTRODUCTION<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;">It
would be nice if other voices besides those of the conservative and religious right
could speak out against the way that the United States and NATO, over many
years, have transformed Ukraine into a tool with which to weaken Russia. My
political views have seldom lined up with the conservative parties in Western
nations. I don’t want to lend full support to those who glorify without reserve
the “greatness of France,” for example, or the exploits of any other nation
with a history of colonialism or imperialism, or a history of testing nuclear
weapons on the lands of its colonial subjects. Putting these differences aside,
I have to acknowledge that it is only the conservative voices that are aware
that we live in an anarchic world where the only form of protection and
strength is in national sovereignty. These voices are the only ones defending
the notion of a healthy form of nationalism that could be an alternative to the
parasitic and nihilistic forces of neoliberalism and hegemony that have
infiltrated the political spectrum—conservatism, “the left,” liberalism, and
progressivism. Nations do need to collaborate and form alliances, but sometimes
they also need to say no, or reply in even stronger terms when, for example, an
America diplomat says about an ally, “</span><a href="https://www.france24.com/en/20140207-ukraine-usa-eu-nuland-leaked-audio"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;">Fuck the EU</span></a><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;">.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;">In
the interview below, Pierre de Gaulle—grandson of French General and President
(1959-1969) Charles de Gaulle—describes the long, nefarious process by which
Ukrainian people have been turned into an American instrument to damage Russia.
He argues for an end of the corruption of the European Union and NATO and the
return of greater national sovereignty for European nations. In 1966, Charles
de Gaulle’s example of such independence was the withdrawal of France from NATO’s
integrated military command (but not from NATO), and France did not return
until 2009, a time that coincides with declarations by the United States that
it would cross Russia’s “bright red lines” by bringing Georgia and Ukraine into
NATO.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;">The
arguments made below have been voiced over the past year by other dissenters
such as </span><a href="https://youtu.be/m-2Oy3MVyyA"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;">John Mearsheimer</span></a><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;">, </span><a href="https://www.democracynow.org/2022/8/30/wests_false_narrative_china_russia_ukraine"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;">Jeffrey Sachs</span></a><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;">, </span><a href="https://youtu.be/EzMSt4AlZiI"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;">Jimmy
Dore</span></a><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;">, </span><a href="https://youtu.be/8dbuf3H8oYo"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;">Oliver
Stone</span></a><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;">, </span><a href="https://mises.org/wire/review-how-west-brought-war-ukraine"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;">Benjamin Abelow</span></a><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;">, </span><a href="https://systemupdate.substack.com/p/media-rewrites-ukraines-dark-history"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;">Glenn Greenwald</span></a><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;">, </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/@AlexChristoforou"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;">Alex
Christoforou</span></a><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;">, </span><a href="https://www.academia.edu/938636/_Multiculturalism_Memory_and_Ritualization_Ukrainian_Nationalist_Monuments_in_Edmonton_Alberta_Nationalities_Papers_Vol_39_no_5_September_2011_733_768?email_work_card=title"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;">Per A. Rudling</span></a><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;">, </span><a href="https://christopher-black.com/the-legality-of-war/"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;">Christopher C. Black</span></a><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;">, </span><a href="https://youtu.be/eDK2w9ZnYYk"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;">Douglas
MacGregor</span></a><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;">, </span><a href="https://youtu.be/JCR-Phtgx0k"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;">Scott
Ritter</span></a><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;">, </span><a href="https://youtu.be/JAEybTns0Lg"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;">Abby
Martin</span></a><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;">, and </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVCmgfeBDg4&t=1224s"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;">Francois Asselineau</span></a><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;">, and by publications such as </span><a href="https://consortiumnews.com/2022/12/30/for-a-different-angle-on-ukraine/"><i><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;">Consortium News</span></i></a><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;">, </span><a href="https://thegrayzone.com/2022/12/23/zelenskys-diaspora-hit-woman-ukraine/"><i><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;">The Grayzone</span></i></a><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;">, </span><a href="https://www.thecanadafiles.com/articles/canadian-journalist-added-to-ukrainian-hitlist"><i><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;">The Canada Files</span></i></a><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;">, </span><a href="https://www.greanvillepost.com/2023/01/04/ukraine-war-tolls-death-knell-for-nato/"><i><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;">The Greanville Post</span></i></a><i><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;">, </span></i><a href="https://www.internationalmagz.com/articles/two-speeches-two-world-view-by-christopher-black"><i><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;">International Magazine</span></i></a><i><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;">, </span></i><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;">and </span><a href="https://www.mintpressnews.com/chris-hedges-democrats-now-war-party/283114/"><i><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;">Mint Press News</span></i></a><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;">. To name just a few.<b> <o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;">INTERVIEW<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;">Translated
by Dennis Riches<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;">Irina
Dubois: Good morning, Mr. de Gaulle. Thank you for being with us today at <i>Dialogue
Franco-Russe</i>. You do consulting in strategy and corporate finance. You have
15 years of experience in private banking management, and there is probably no
need to mention the achievements of your grandfather, General de Gaulle. It’s
2022, and it is an unprecedented year, a very, very complex and difficult time
for Franco-Russian relations. It is something of an anti-Russian year, but I
would say, aside from politics, and especially from September-October onwards,
there have been more and more people who, modestly, are in favor of normalizing
relations between France and Russia, and you are one of them. Why do you think
it’s so important for the France not to break ties with Russia?</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/uGrHroCCFB0" width="320" youtube-src-id="uGrHroCCFB0"></iframe></div><br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;">Pierre
de Gaulle : Good morning, madam. I thank you for your warm welcome and for
giving me the opportunity to express myself in this house of culture which
celebrates all that unites the French people and the Russian people through a culture
of good understanding. I believe that it is extremely important for France to
keep, preserve, and promote a relationship of understanding and cooperation
with Russia, first of all through historical ties, the common destiny that
unites us, and also because preserving and maintaining a relationship with
Russia is the guarantee of<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>stability and
prosperity in Europe and the world. Unfortunately, the<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>consequences of the current crisis are<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>reverberating in Europe, around the world,
and in France, and<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>everyone suffers as a
result, and this greatly weakens the balance that my grandfather always tried
to preserve, even at the most difficult time in history, and throughout the
Cold War. And during the Second World War Russia was also a country in the
winning camp, with France, against the Nazi occupier. My grandfather always
tried to preserve this relationship with Russia. And I think it is in the
interest of the France to continue this policy and to continue this balance
because it is essential to the stability of Europe. I think that public opinion
is beginning to become aware of the perverse game and lies of the Americans,
and in particular of NATO, to use this Ukrainian crisis to destabilize Europe.
They are becoming aware that Europe allied with Russia represents a strong bloc
both politically and economically, and culturally, and socially, of about 500
million people. They know that since the Vietnam War, economic crises came one
after another, notably from the abandonment of the gold standard for the dollar.
The Americans have always tried by force, by cunning, and by their policy, to
try to make up for this loss of influence, both economic and political, to make
up for the loss of influence of the dollar as the only bargaining chip in the
world. And they know that policy is ongoing. I am protesting against this
intellectual identification with the Ukrainian crisis because the triggers for
war were the Americans. The triggers for war were NATO, and<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I would like to cite as evidence the recent
statements by Ms. Merkel who said that she never intended to implement the
Minsk agreements, the Minsk agreements that were negotiated and signed to
guarantee the security, integrity, and respect for the Russian-speaking
populations of the Donbass. The Germans and the French are guarantors of these
agreements for the balance, stability, and protection of the populations in
this region. Ms. Merkel, by saying that she never intended to implement the
Minsk agreements, has done everything to let NATO arm Ukraine, to do everything
possible to lay the foundations for this conflict, and I think this is serious
because there are millions of people who suffer from it. By authorizing this
Ukrainian nationalist expansion, between 16 and 18,000 people were killed and
bombarded. It has allowed its Ukrainian nationalist populations to annihilate
Russian culture, to annihilate the very sense of belonging to Russia. It has
annihilated their ability to use their language, and it has, unfortunately,
allowed these crimes to take hold. It means that they knowingly contributed to
this war and knowingly contributed to this escalation. The United States
continues, unfortunately, this military escalation from which the Ukrainian
populations are the first to suffer, but also the European populations suffer.
The scale, the number, and the depth of the sanctions show that all this was
organized very far in advance, and that it is in fact an economic war also of
which the Americans are the beneficiaries. The Americans sell gas to Europeans
at 4 to 7 times the price they sell it for in their own country. And,
unfortunately, everyone in Europe in their daily lives suffers because all this
is causing an economic and financial crisis that is absolutely unprecedented. We
are told that it is the fault of the Russians. Very well,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>but the Russians are defending themselves
because there are 11,000 sanctions that have been pronounced against Russia, in
addition to a ninth round of sanctions which was decided yesterday. So I
believe it is perfectly legitimate and normal for Russians to defend
themselves. In the current situation, the fundamental qualities of patriotism,
love of country, and defense of the people are considered abnormal. I think
this is very serious, and once again, I am happy that a number of political
figures from the intellectual world, the economic world, and the elites are
returning to considerations of balance, returning to a certain logic, and
returning to what has always been the history of relations between France and
Russia; that is, preserving this balance, preserving understanding, preserving
cooperation, preserving the dialogue of civilizations. I am thinking as
Christmas approaches of all that unites us for the future and for our common
destiny. In fact, for me this need, this imperative to maintain a good
relationship with Russia is, I believe, not only perfectly legitimate, but it
is also a duty for Europe, for stability in the world and in Europe. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;">Irina
Dubois: Exactly. Since we talk about stability, at <i>Dialogue Franco-Russe</i>
we talk a lot about the sovereignty of states. General de Gaulle’s famous
formula, a Europe of nations, no longer exists. How can we build an independent
international relationship in today’s globalized world? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;">Pierre
De Gaulle: So as far as Europe is concerned, my grandfather was indeed in favor
of a Europe of nations. That is to say, each country cooperated with a view to
a European union, both economically and politically, but also with a certain
autonomy in policy and decision-making. We find ourselves in a system where we
are dealing with a technocracy that imposes directives that can be applied in
each of the member states, a technocracy that is, unfortunately, extremely
corrupt. We don’t talk about it anymore, but at the time, when the president of
the European Commission was appointed, she left behind a memo about EUR 100
million in unexplained costs for the employment of external consultancy firms
when she was German minister of defense. These questions are glossed over. Much
has also been said about the links between the president of the European
Commission and the pharmaceutical industries. I remind you that her son works
for an American biotechnology company and what happened recently with regard to
the relationship between Ms. von der Leyen and the CEO of Pfizer. Twice the CEO
of Pfizer was called to testify and speak before the European Commission. Twice
he refused. I would like to see a little more honesty and transparency in the
European Commission, which has the power to enact many laws. They are people
who are not elected, who have no respect keeping their word. This is, unfortunately,
the evil of today’s European leaders. I wish there was a little more
transparency. Recently, we saw, in the case of Qatar, suitcases of banknotes
that were strangely found at the home of one of the leaders of the European
Commission. So at a time when we are in a major crisis, a political crisis, and
an economic crisis—once again, desired and orchestrated by the Americans and
NATO—I would like once again a little more transparency and honesty in
dialogue, and especially respect for promises made. Again, if Germany, if
France, if the OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe), the
guarantors of the Minsk agreements, had kept their word, we would not be in the
current situation.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;">Irina
Dubois: General de Gaulle always wanted to continue, as you said, the
relationship with Russia at all times, and I read in his <i>War Memoirs</i>
just yesterday before our meeting, excerpts from his trip to Russia in 1944
when he met Stalin. I quote from it: “I noted how much the break between Russia
and France had enabled the unleashing of German ambitions. In the face of German
aggression, joint action by Russia and France was called for.” The general
considered the Franco-Russian relationship natural, which he repeats several
times in various excerpts from these memoirs. I want to ask you if you think
Gaullism is still alive in France. Who are such politicians, perhaps, in your
opinion, whether you can name them or not? Or what is, precisely, the legacy of
the general?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;">Pierre
de Gaulle: Well, I am not going to take sides with any particular politician in
France, except to say that I am against the policy currently practiced by the president
of the republic and by his government, particularly with regard to relations
with Russia. I think that, as I have often said in interviews, we do not engage
in a duel with countries as strong, as whole, and as important as Russia,
China, or even Algeria. Doing so is a sign of a misunderstanding of Russian
culture and mentality. It also means not respecting all the history, all the closeness
of relations we have had with Russia. As for Gaullism, well, it is a legacy.
That is one part of our legacy. It is the ability to, in all things, promote
the greatness of France, the nation, and the country, which are normal and
fundamental values that are unfortunately decried today. Your president [Putin]
launched a program which I think was called “essential values” or “essential
realities” vis-à-vis the Russian youth. It involved having a homeland, the
raising of the flag, patriotic values, and love of the nation. This is
perfectly normal. I was raised in that environment. In many countries like
Algeria, China, the United Kingdom, and the United States, people celebrate the
raising of the flag, the love of the homeland. This is quite normal, but now
there is an abnormal system that relaxes, that tends to deconstruct the
essential values which are family, tradition, and religion, and fortunately, in
your country, President Putin maintains these values. I would like to see a
political leader in France who promotes these values and the greatness of
France. General de Gaulle’s legacy is indeed a certain idea of France—a France
present on the international scene, but also a France that empowers itself to
carry out its policy. It is also the legacy of a charismatic leader with a
vision, a real strategy, and a republican legitimacy. I think that developing
an international relationship in an independent way obviously means having the
means to carry out policy, but also having this whole perspective of
anticipating decisions. It is to have a clear strategy. It’s about having a
clear vision. It is to have frank messages, precise messages, a real strategy
for the French—for the people that these leaders represent, since they are at
the service of the people. They are at the service of the nation. They are at
the service of the homeland, and they must in all things promote and carry the
values of their country. Unfortunately, I don’t see any emerging figures in
France taking up this torch, but my grandfather worked all his life for the
greatness of France. He also left a legacy, and that legacy is in the hands of
the French. It is written in history, and it is up to each of us to continue
this work and take up the torch. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;">Irina
Dubois: French society is fragmented over the conflict in Ukraine. There is a
category of people who think that anyway it doesn’t matter what Russia thinks.
They are against it because they see it as a dictatorship, a country that has
nothing to do with Europe’s democratic values. There is another category that
thinks that ultimately the economic interests of the France are not with
Ukraine and are not related to this conflict. There are those who, I think, are
quite indifferent to the conflict. There is a category of people who really
believe that this is the fight of civilization, that it is something that goes
beyond the war in Ukraine. You talked about this right at the very beginning.
Could you elaborate a little more on this aspect?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;">Pierre
de Gaulle: This conflict has repercussions in the world and in Europe. It was
provoked by the will of the Americans and NATO, and it is largely maintained by
the European Commission. It is a fundamental and major crisis that affects
everyone’s daily lives. I have had testimonies from small craftsmen, small
traders, people who are suffering from this situation. About 50% of bakers are
bankrupt, in France and in Belgium and Europe, because their electricity bills
have risen from EUR 1,500 per month to EUR 5,000, which makes it totally
impossible to continue their activity, and which will throw hundreds of
thousands of people in Europe out of work and into a crisis. This crisis is
serious because the repercussions go much further—which, unfortunately,
journalists hide. And the intellectual community categorizes the situation in
order to avoid any debate and dialogue between pro-Russians and pro-Americans,
or they invoke some dictatorship. We have to know that less than 50% of the
aid, which is more precisely subsidies that are given to the Ukrainians,
reaches the Ukrainians. It should be noted that 50% of the weapons that are
given to Ukrainians are resold on international markets to supply terrorists,
to fuel political crises and conflicts, and to fuel revolutions. Recently,
the<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ukrainian government published a
catalog of nearly 1,000 pages of weapons that are intended to be sold in South
America, Africa, and Arab countries, and that will fuel terrorism all over the
world. These are heavy weapons and small arms. It is one of the most corrupt
countries in the world, unfortunately. I am not criticizing the Ukrainians in
any way. I criticize the regime that was set up by the Americans in 2014 with
this famous coup where Ms. Nuland [US State Department official], who is of
Ukrainian origin… said, “Fuck the EU.” Excuse me, that’s the direct quote. That
is to say, any consideration even for the Ukrainians is disregarded. The US has
established a dictatorship. I am outraged that in France and Europe they are supporting
a battalion called Azov which uses the same emblems as those of the <i>Das
Reich</i> division. My parents fought Nazism. My grandparents were even
deported for their resistance. For me, it is absolutely scandalous that we
promote people who massacred, killed, and discriminated against people in the
Donbass. <a name="_Hlk123824830">Already in 2019,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the statements of Arestovich, a close adviser
to Zelensky, the person who would become president, said in a February 2019
interview that it was absolutely necessary to wage war against Russia, that he
wanted it and that in any case they were going to receive armaments and support
from the European Union, support from NATO, and that Ukraine could not lose.
The Americans have totally deceived the Ukrainian population and the Ukrainian
government with regard to realistic prospects for victory for Ukraine because,
in any case, the<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>big loser in this war
is the Ukrainian population itself, and also as a consequence, Europe</a>, with
the crisis which has been caused by the will of politicians. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;">Irina
Dubois: It’s very, very sad, actually. Europe is suffering. The people are
suffering. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;">Pierre
de Gaulle: I think it is very urgent to return to reality. That’s why it’s very
important for me to denounce all these lies and all the logic that led to this
conflict. But in this conflict, they are trying to make us believe that Russia
is isolated. This is totally false, first of all because there are people who
are aware of the stakes and realities both in France, in Europe, and in the
world because these people are responsible for restoring fundamental truths,
denouncing lies, and denouncing the logic that led to this war. I also believe
in renewal. I also believe in the reconstruction that will follow simply
because I go back to what you said about my grandfather. We cannot do without
Russia. We cannot do without this continent. It is not quite a continent, but it
is in any case the largest country in the world which, because of its
geography, its culture, and its history, represents an absolutely enormous
economic, political, industrial, geopolitical, and cultural potential. Russia
in this crisis is benefiting, in my opinion rightly, from a reorientation of
political, economic, and financial interests towards the east, and it will be
one of the arbiters of what is called Eurasia. That is to say, it is a
fantastic continent that brings together both Europe and Asia and it will see
the emergence of new decision-making centers. Unfortunately, Europe is missing
the train. It is a fantastic opportunity because Eurasia is a self-sufficient
continent. Thus I would also like to denounce the hypocrisy of this sanctions
regime, since Russian oil is still being bought. Obviously, we cannot do
without it. Russian gas continues to be bought. Industrial metals continue to
be bought. 60% of the industrial metals on the world markets are, I would say,
dominated by Russia. Uranium continues to be bought. The Americans also
continue to buy magnets for new-generation nuclear reactors, and, fortunately,
we continue in what unites us. That is to say, art, common destiny, history,
and everything that makes up the scientific community, everything in the
exchanges of the intellectual community. The International Space Station is
continuing this cooperation in spite of the conflict. And that’s what unites
us, and that’s what we absolutely have to continue. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;">Irina
Dubois: Precisely, there are still things that unite us, and in particular it
is in the culture of the Christmas celebrations. The French will celebrate
Christmas a little bit early, before Russian Orthodox Christmas that we will be
celebrated on January 7th. At <i>Dialogue Franco-Russe</i>, as we believe our
historical and cultural ties are very, very strong, we will hold a Christmas
concert on December 22nd. Is it only culture that remains for us at the moment.
Is that all that unites us? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;">Pierre
de Gaulle: There are many other things that unite us. I told you—and this is
what my grandfather pointed out—that France and Russia are both daughters of
Europe, both had common origins and were linked by a common destiny and interest.
<a name="_Hlk124969068">It goes far beyond culture, being both culture and
economic exchanges. This is what brings nations together.</a> This is what
unites us, and it is what remains beyond conflicts and differences of interest.
What I would also like to say is that in this common history, peace must be
made, and peace is inevitable. Peace follows all conflict. It is peace that
connects people. This peace necessarily requires a restoration of dialogue,
then an understanding, then economic cooperation. That is what was rebuilt, I
would say, what made continuity even at the time of the Cold War. This is what
makes continuity between peoples, and I would like to give a message of hope
and union because I believe in this community of culture and destiny. I believe
that what unites us—the relationship between France and Russia—is extremely
old, and everyone is talking about peace right now. I was one of the first to
denounce the lies, injustice, and dispossession of your people, which I find
absolutely scandalous because you cannot punish a nation. We cannot punish a
people for reasons of crisis, knowing that this is not only contrary to
fundamental freedoms. It is contrary to international law. This is a very great
injustice. I think that no other people since the Jewish persecution during the
Second World War has suffered as much plunder as the Russian people at the
present time. It shocks me. This is a great injustice. I think that beyond the
current crises, we must see the balance of peoples. We must see the balance of
nations. We must see the balance of the world and Europe. Of course, culture is
one of the preferred and universal ways to bring our two peoples closer
together. I think what united and unites us is also our common history. As for
the rest, what can I say about the love, the immense consideration that I
carry, that my family has for the richness of Russian culture, for the richness
of the Russian world? Recently, a Nobel Prize winner in physics said that we
want to destroy Russian culture, but how can we destroy a country that is
responsible for more than half of the fundamental discoveries in chemistry,
physics, and mathematics? You are a great country. You are a country with a
fantastic history, and unfortunately the neoliberal model, inspired by the
Americans, aims to destroy<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>something
much more fundamental than an economic and political balance, but it also aims
to destroy an entire culture. As I said, the foundations are being undermined. The
conscience of a people is being undermined because we want to destroy the two
pillars of civilization—religion and faith—and replace them with a culture of
short-term, personal satisfaction. We are attacking the fundamentals, even in education.
I think it’s something serious, and we have to fortify these ramparts. This is
what has traditionally united us for a long time. With the Russian culture it
is in the notion, a little irrational, a little crazy, as Dostoevsky described
very well. It is what creates faith. Faith is one of the pillars of Russia, and
I quote Dostoevsky on this: “No one but himself can separate a Russian from his
faith.” From that comes your strength and cohesion. This is also what makes the
strength of the French. This is the strength of every nation, every European
country. Just like the notion of patriotism, love of country, family, and
religion, which<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>are, unfortunately,
values that are being destroyed to better reduce the capacity of peoples and
individuals to emancipate themselves. The aim is to destroy their integrity and
therefore to better manipulate them because it leads a people to lose their
bearings. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;">Irina
Dubois: Thank you very much, Mr. de Gaulle, for this message of hope. We will
continue our activities in the years to come. I say “years to come” because we
will need these strong, strategic, and cordial relations with and between
Russia and France, and because dialogue must never stop. Thank you very much. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;">Pierre
de Gaulle: Know in any case that you are not alone, that there are many people
in the world, again, two-thirds of the world’s population, in France and in
Europe, who are with you and who will continue this work with you. You can
count on my support and cooperation to continue this reconstruction in hope and
renewal. Thank you, Madam.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><a href="https://youtu.be/uGrHroCCFB0"><b><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR;">Entretien avec Pierre De Gaulle. Peut-on séparer la
France de la Russie ?</span></b></a><b><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR;"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR;">Dialogue
Franco-Russe, 16 décembre, 2022<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif;">Irina Dubois : Bonjour,
monsieur de Gaulle. Merci d’être avec nous aujourd’hui au Dialogue
Franco-Russe. Vous faites du conseil en stratégie et finance d’entreprise. Vous
avez 15 ans d’expérience en direction de banque privée et il est sans doute
inutile de rappeler les hauts faits de votre grand-père, le général De Gaulle.
On est en 2022 et c’est une année sans précédentes, très, très complexe et
difficile pour les relations franco-russes. C’est en quelque sorte une année
antirusse, je dirais, sans parler de la politique, et quand même à partir du
mois de septembre-octobre, il y a de plus en plus de personnalités qui,
modestement, se prononce pour la normalisation de nos relations entre la France
et la Russie, et vous en faites partie. Pourquoi pensez-vous que ce soit si
important pour la France de ne pas se séparer de la Russie ?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR;">Pierre De Gaulle : Bonjour,
madame. Je vous remercie de votre accueil et de me donner l’occasion de m’exprimer
dans cette maison de la culture qui célèbre tout ce qui unit le peuple français
et le peuple russe par la culture bien entendu. Je pense que c’est extrêmement
important pour la France de garder, de préserver, et de promouvoir une relation
d’entente et de coopération avec la Russie, tout d’abord par les liens
historiques, la communauté de destins qui nous unit, et aussi parce que
préserver et garder une relation avec la Russie est la garantie d’une stabilité
et la prospérité en Europe et dans le monde. Malheureusement, les conséquences
subies de la crise actuelles se répercutent en Europe dans le monde et en France,
et tout le monde en souffre et ça fragilise grandement cet équilibre que mon
grand-père s’est toujours efforcé de préserver, même au moment les plus
difficiles de l’histoire, et tout au long de la guerre froide. Et partant aussi
la deuxième guerre mondiale, la Russie étant un des pays dans le camp des
vainqueurs avec la France contre l’occupant nazi. Mon grand-père s’est toujours
efforcé de préserver cette relation avec la Russie. Et je pense qu’il est l’intérêt
de la France de continuer cette politique et de continuer cet équilibre parce
que c’est essentiel à la stabilité de l’Europe. Je pense que l’opinion publique
commence à prendre conscience du jeu pervers et des mensonges américains, et en
particulier de l’OTAN, d’utiliser cette crise ukrainienne pour déstabiliser l’Europe,
que l’Europe allié avec la Russie représente un bloc fort aussi bien
politiquement qu’économiquement, que culturellement, que socialement d’environ
500 millions de personnes, que depuis la guerre du Vietnam et depuis. Les
crises économiques ont succédé, lié notamment à l’abandon de l’étalon or sur le
dollar. Les Américains ont toujours essayé par la force, par la ruse, et par
leur politique, d’essayer de rattraper cette perte d’influence à la fois
économique, à la fois politique, de rattraper la perte d’influence du dollar
comme seul monnaie d’échange dans le monde, et que cette politique continue. Je
me révolte et je m’insurge contre cette mainorité intellectuelle dans la crise
ukrainienne parce que les déclencheurs de guerre sont les Américains. Les
déclencheurs de guerre sont l’OTAN, et je voudrais citer comme preuve les
déclarations récentes de Madame Merkel qui a dit qu’elle n’avait jamais eu l’intention
d’appliquer les accords de Minsk, les accords de Minsk qui ont été négociés et
signés pour garantir la sécurité, l’intégrité et le respect des populations
russophones du Donbass, et que les Allemands et les Français sont portés
garants de ces accords pour l’équilibre, la stabilité et la protection des
populations dans cette région. Madame Merkel, en disant qu’elle n’avait jamais
eu l’intention d’appliquer les accords de Minsk, a tout fait pour laisser l’OTAN
armer l’Ukraine, à tout fait pour poser les bases de ce conflit, et je trouve
que c’est grave parce qu’il y a des millions de personnes qui en souffrent. En
autorisant cette expansion nationaliste ukrainienne, elle a laissé entre 16 et
18000 personnes se faire tuer, être bombardées. Elle a laissé ses populations
ukrainiennes nationalistes annihiler la culture russe, annihiler le sentiment
même de leur appartenance à la Russie. Elle a annihilé leur possibilité de
pratiquer la langue, et elle a laissé, malheureusement, ces crimes s’installer.
Ça veut dire que sciemment ils ont contribué à cette guerre, et sciemment ils
ont contribué à cette escalade. Les États-Unis continuent, malheureusement, cette
escalade militaire dont les populations ukrainiennes sont les premières à
souffrir mais aussi les populations européennes. L’ampleur, le nombre, et la
profondeur des sanctions montrent que tout ça a été organisé très longtemps à l’avance,
et qu’il s’agit en fait d’une guerre économique aussi dont les Américains en
sont les bénéficiaires. Les Américains vendent le gaz 4 à 7 fois plus cher aux
Européens qui ils le font pour leur propre pays. Et malheureusement, chacun
dans son quotidien en souffre en Europe parce que tout cela provoque une crise
économique et financière qui est absolument sans précédent. On vous dira que c’est
la faute des Russes. Très bien, mais les Russes se défendent parce qu’il y a 11000
sanctions qui ont été prononcées contre elle. Plus un neuvième tronçon encore
de sanctions qui a été décidé hier. Bien, ma foi, c’est tout à fait légitime et
normal que les Russes se défendent. On est dans le modèle que je dirais actuel
est que les qualités fondamentales du patriotisme, de l’amour de la patrie, et
de la défense du peuple sont considérés comme anormales. Je pense que c’est
très grave, et encore une fois, je suis heureux qu’un certain nombre de
personnalités politiques du monde intellectuel, du monde économique, et des
élites reviennent à des considérations d’équilibre, reviennent en certaines
logiques, et reviennent à ce qui a toujours fait l’historique des relations
entre la France et la Russie ; c’est à dire préserver cet équilibre, préserver
l’entente, préserver la coopération, préserver le dialogue des civilisations,
et je pense à l’approche de Noël à tout ce qui nous unit pour le futur et pour
notre communauté destin. Donc, pour moi cette nécessité, cet impératif de
garder une bonne relation avec la Russie est, ma foi, non seulement
parfaitement légitime, mais c’est aussi un devoir pour l’Europe et la stabilité
dans le monde, et en Europe. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR;">Irina Dubois : Exactement
puisque parler de la stabilité nous, à <i>Dialogue Franco-Russe</i>, on parle
beaucoup de souverainisme, de souveraineté des États. Cette fameuse formule de
général de Gaulle, l’Europe des nations, n’existe plus, n’existe pas. Comment
peut-on construire une relation internationale indépendante dans le monde
globalisé d’aujourd’hui ? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR;">Pierre De Gaulle : Alors en
ce qui concerne l’Europe, mon grand-père était effectivement partisan d’une
Europe des nations. C’est à dire où chaque pays coopérait en vue d’une union
européenne, à la fois économiquement et politiquement, mais aussi avec une
certaine autonomie évidemment de politique et de décision. On se retrouve dans
un système où il s’agit d’une technocratie qui impose des directives qui peut
être appliquées dans chacun des états membres, une technocratie qui est,
malheureusement, extrêmement corrompue. On ne parle plus maintenant, mais à l’époque,
lorsque la présidente de la Commission européenne avait été nommée, elle a
quand même laissé arrière d’une ardoise environ 100 millions d’euros de frais
inexpliqués en ce qui concerne l’emploi de consultants extérieur de cabinets de
conseil lorsqu’elle était ministre de la Défense. Ces questions sont passées
sous silence. On a parlé beaucoup aussi des liens qui unissaient la présidente
de la Commission européenne avec les industries pharmaceutiques. Je rappelle
que son fils travaille pour une entreprise de biotechnologie américaine et que
récemment en ce qui concerne les liens entre madame von der Leyen et le PDG
(président-directeur général) de Pfizer. Par deux fois le PDG de Pfizer a été
appelé à témoigner et se prononcer devant la Commission européenne. Par deux
fois il a refusé. J’aimerais bien qu’il y ait un peu plus d’honnêteté et de
transparence au niveau de la Commission européenne qui édicte certaines lois. Ils
sont des gens qui ne sont pas élus, qui n’ont en aucun cas le respect de la
parole donnée. C’est malheureusement le mal des dirigeants européens d’aujourd’hui.
J’aimerais bien qu’il y ait un peu plus de transparence. Récemment, on a vu
dans l’affaire du Qatar, des valises de billets qui s’étaient étrangement
retrouvées au domicile d’une des présidents de la Commission européenne. Donc
au moment où on est dans une crise majeure, une crise politique et une crise
économique, encore une fois parfaitement voulue et orchestrée à dessin par les
Américains et par l’OTAN, je voudrais encore une fois un peu plus de transparence
et d’honnêteté dans dialogue, et surtout le respect de la parole donnée. Encore
une fois, si l’Allemagne, si la France, si l’OSCE (Organisation pour la sécurité
et coopération in Europe), qui s’étaient portés garants des accords de Minsk,
avait respecté leurs paroles, nous ne serions pas dans la situation actuelle.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR;">Irina Dubois : Le général
voulait toujours poursuivre, et vous venez de le dire, la relation avec la
Russie à toute époque, et dans ces <i>Mémoires de guerre,</i> justement hier
avant notre rencontre, je lisais les extraits de son voyage à Russie à 1944
quand il a rencontré Staline, et je me permets donc de citer. « Je notais
à quel point le fait que la Russie et la France s’étaient séparées l’une de l’autre
avait influé sur le déchaînement des ambitions germaniques, face aux dangers
germanique, l’action commune de la Russie et de la France était dans la nature
des choses. » Le général considérait la relation franco-russe naturelle, ce
qu’il répète à plusieurs reprises dans différents extraits de ces mémoires. J’ai
envie de vous demander ce que vous pensez que le gaullisme actuellement est
encore vivant en France. Qui sont ces politiques, peut-être, à votre avis, si
vous pouvez les nommer ou pas, ou comme justement l’héritage du général ? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR;">Pierre De Gaulle : Écoutez,
je ne vais pas prendre parti pour un homme politique en particulier en France,
si ce n’est que je suis contre la politique pratiquée actuellement par le
Président de la République et son gouvernement, notamment en ce qui concerne la
relation avec la Russie. Je pense que, comme j’ai dit souvent dans des
interviews, on ne fait pas duel en même temps avec des pays aussi forts, aussi
entier, aussi important que la Russie, que la Chine, ou quand même l’Algérie. C’est
ne pas comprendre la culture russe et ne pas comprendre la mentalité. Ce n’est
pas aussi respecter toute l’historique, tout l’ancienneté, toute la proximité
des relations que l’on a eu avec la Russie. Quant au gaullisme, bien c’est un
héritage. C’est un exemple. C’est la capacité à, en toute chose, promouvoir la
grandeur de la France, de la nation, et du pays, qui sont des valeurs normales
et fondamentales qui sont malheureusement décriées aujourd’hui. Votre président
[Poutine] justement avait lancé une émission, je crois que ça s’appelait « valeurs
essentielles » ou « réalités essentielles » vis-à-vis de la
jeunesse russe ou on en aurait la patrie, le lever du drapeau, et les valeurs
patriotiques, et d’amour de la nation. C’est tout à fait normal. J’ai été élevé
dans cet environnement. Dans beaucoup de pays comme l’Algérie, comme la Chine,
comme le Royaume-Uni, les États-Unis, on célèbre la levée des couleurs du
drapeau, l’amour de la patrie. C’est tout à fait normal, et maintenant c’est
érigé en anormalité par un système qui détend, qui tend à déconstruire les
valeurs essentielles qui sont la famille, la tradition, et la religion, et
heureusement, dans votre pays, le président Poutine maintient ces valeurs, et j’aimerais
bien qu’en France il y ait un leader politique qui fasse la promotion de ces
valeurs et de la grandeur de la France. L’héritage du général De Gaulle est
effectivement une certaine idée de la France—la France présente sur la scène
internationale, mais aussi la France qui se donne les moyens de sa politique. C’est
aussi l’héritage d’un leader charismatique avec une vision, une véritable
stratégie et une légitimité républicaine. Je pense que développer une relation
à l’international d’une façon indépendante c’est avoir évidemment les moyens de
sa politique, mais avoir aussi toute cette perspective d’anticipation de
décision. C’est d’avoir une stratégie claire. C’est avoir une vision claire. C’est
avoir des messages francs, des messages précis, une véritable stratégie pour
les Français et pour le peuple que c’est que ces leaders représentent puisqu’ils
sont au service du peuple, ils sont au service de la nation. Ils sont au
service de la patrie, et ils doivent en toute chose promouvoir et porter les
valeurs de leur pays. Malheureusement, je ne vois pas de figures émergentes en
France qui reprennent ce flambeau, mais mon grand-père œuvrait toute sa vie
pour la grandeur de la France. Il a aussi laissé un héritage, et cet héritage
est entre les mains des Français. Il est écrit par l’histoire et il nous appartient
à chacun de continuer cet œuvre et de reprendre le flambeau. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR;">Irina Dubois : La société en
France est fractionnée par rapport à la situation du conflit en l’Ukraine. Il y
a une catégorie de gens qui pensent que de toute façon peu importe ce qui fait
la Russie. Ils sont contre parce qu’ils la considèrent comme une dictature, un
pays qui n’a rien à voir avec les valeurs démocratiques de l’Europe. Il y a une
autre catégorie qui pense que finalement les intérêts économiques de la France
ne sont pas à l’Ukraine et ne sont pas liés avec ce conflit là. Ou il y a ceux
qui, je pense, sont assez indifférents par rapport au conflit. Il y a une
catégorie de gens qui croient vraiment que c’est le combat de civilisation, que
c’est quelque chose qui dépasse juste la guerre à l’Ukraine. Et vous en avez
parlé juste au tout début. Est-ce que vous pourriez développer un petit peu
plus cet aspect ? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR;">Pierre de Gaulle : Alors ce
conflit a des répercussions dans le monde et dans l’Europe. Ça a été provoqué
par la volonté des Américains et de l’OTAN et largement il est entretenu par la
Commission européenne. C’est une crise fondamentale et majeure qui touche le
quotidien de tous. J’ai eu des témoignages de petits artisans, de petits
commerçants, des gens qui souffrent de cette situation. Des boulangers—à peu
près 50% d’entre eux sont en faillite, aussi bien en France qu’en Belgique et
en Europe parce que leurs factures d’électricité ont dépassé de 1500 euros par
mois à 5000, ce qui rend la poursuite de leur activité totalement impossible,
et ce qui va jeter des centaines de milliers de personnes en Europe au chômage
et dans la crise. Cette crise est grave parce que les répercussions vont
beaucoup plus loin—ce que, malheureusement, les journalistes occultent. Et la
communauté intellectuelle catégorise pour éviter tout débat et tout dialogue
entre les gens pro-Russe ou pro-Américains ou pro-Poutine, ou ils invoquent je
ne sais quelle dictature. Bien, il faut savoir que moins de 50 % de l’aide, qui
est enfin plus exactement des subventions qui sont accordées aux Ukrainiens,
arrivent aux Ukrainiens. Il faut savoir que 50% des armes qui sont donnés aux
Ukrainiens sont revendus sur les marchés internationaux pour alimenter les
terroristes, pour alimenter les crises politiques et des conflits, et pour
alimenter des révolutions. Récemment, le gouvernement ukrainien a publié un
catalogue de près de 1000 pages d’armes qui sont destinés à être vendus en
Amérique du Sud, en Afrique, dans les pays arabes et qui vont alimenter le
terrorisme partout dans le monde. Il s’agit d’armes lourdes et d’armes légères.
C’est un des pays, malheureusement, les plus corrompus au monde. Je ne critique
pas en aucun cas les Ukrainiens. Je critique le régime qui a été mis en place
par les Américains en 2014 avec ce fameux coup d’état ou madame Nuland [US
State Department], qui est d’origine ukrainienne … s’est exprimé en disant « <i>Fuck
the EU</i>. » Pardonnez-moi, je le cite. Je cite textuellement. C’est à
dire qu’on méprit de toute considération même pour les Ukrainiens. Elle a
instauré une dictature. Je me m’insurge, et je suis scandalisé qu’en France et
en Europe, on fasse l’apologie d’un bataillon qui s’appelle Azov qui utilise
les mêmes emblèmes que ceux de la division <i>Das Reich</i>. Mes parents ont combattu
le nazisme. Mes grands-parents ont même été déportés pour des raisons de
résistance. Et pour moi, c’est absolument scandaleux qu’on fasse la promotion
de gens qui ont massacré, tué, et discriminé des populations dans le Donbass. <a name="_Hlk123824882">En 2019 déjà, les déclarations du plus proche conseiller
de ce qui allait être le président Zelenski—Arestovich—disait dans une
interview de février 2019 qu’il fallait absolument faire une guerre contre la
Russie, qu’il la souhaitait et que de toute façon ils allaient recevoir
subventions d’armements, soutien de l’Union européenne, soutien de l’OTAN, et
que l’Ukraine ne pouvait pas perdre. Les Américains ont d’ailleurs totalement
trompé la population ukrainienne et le gouvernement ukrainien en ce qui
concerne la victoire, tout à fait, à mon avis réaliste, de l’Ukraine dans cette
guerre parce que de toute façon, le grand perdant de cette guerre est la
population ukrainienne elle-même, et aussi par effet de conséquence, l’Europe</a>,
avec toute la crise dans laquelle elle s’est engouffrée par la volonté des
politiques. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR;">Irina Dubois : C’est très,
très triste en fait. C’est la souffrance de l’Europe. C’est la souffrance de
peuple. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR;">Pierre de Gaulle : Je crois
que c’est très urgent se retourner aux réalités. C’est pour ça que c’est très
important pour moi de dénoncer tous ces mensonges et toute la logique qui a
conduit à ce conflit. Mais dans ce conflit on essaie de nous faire croire que
la Russie est isolée. C’est totalement faux d’abord parce qu’il y a des gens
qui sont conscients des enjeux et des réalités à la fois en France, en Europe,
et dans le monde parce que ces personnes sont chargées de rétablir les vérités
fondamentales, de dénoncer les mensonges, et de dénoncer la logique qui a conduit
à cette guerre. Maintenant je crois aussi au renouveau. Je crois aussi à la
reconstruction qui suivra tout simplement parce que je reviens à ce que vous
disiez de mon grand-père. On ne peut pas se passer de la Russie. On ne peut pas
se passer de ce continent en soi. Ce n’est pas tout à fait un continent, mais c’est
en tout cas le plus grand pays du monde qui, de part à sa géographie, sa
culture, et son histoire représente un potentiel économique, politique,
industrielle, géopolitique et culturelle absolument considérable. La Russie
dans cette crise tire partie, à mon avis à juste titre, d’une réorientation des
centres d’intérêts politiques, économiques, et financier vers l’est et sera un
des arbitres de ce qu’on appelle l’Eurasie. C’est-à-dire un continent
fantastique qui réunit à la fois l’Europe et l’Asie et qui verra émerger des
nouveaux centres de décision. Malheureusement, l’Europe va rater le train de
cette opportunité qui est absolument fantastique, sachant que l’Eurasie est un
continent qui se suffit à lui-même. Alors, je voudrais aussi dénoncer dans ce
régime des sanctions l’hypocrisie puisque on continue à acheter du pétrole
russe. Évidemment, on ne peut pas s’en passer. On continue à acheter du gaz
russe. On continue à acheter des métaux industriels. 60% des métaux industriels
sur les marchés mondiaux sont, je dirais, dominés par la Russie. On continue à
acheter l’uranium. Les Américains aussi continue à acheter des aiments<b> </b>pour
les réacteurs nucléaires de nouvelle génération, et heureusement on continue
dans ce qui nous unit. C’est-à-dire l’art, les destins communs, l’historique,
et tout ce qui fait la communauté scientifique, de ce qui fait les échanges de
la communauté intellectuelle. La Station spatiale internationale se poursuit
grâce à cette coopération qui va au-delà de ce conflit. Et c’est ce qui nous
unit, et c’est ce qu’il faut absolument continuer. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR;">Irina Dubois : Justement, il
y a encore des choses qui nous unissent, et c’est notamment la culture, des
célébrations de Noël. Les Français vont célébrer Noël un petit assez
rapidement. C’est à dire avant Noël russe orthodoxe qu’on va célébrer le 7
janvier, et justement au Dialogue Franco-Russe comme on croit à nos liens
historiques et culturel très, très fort, on organise un concert de Noël le 22
décembre prochain. Est-ce que ce n’est que la culture qui nous reste en ce
moment, qui nous unit ? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR;">Pierre de Gaulle : Il y a
beaucoup d’autres choses qui nous unissent. Je vous le disais, et c’est ce que
soulignait mon grand-père—que la France et la Russie étaient toutes les deux
filles de l’Europe, avaient des origines communes et étaient liées par une
communauté de destins et d’intérêts. Ça va bien au-delà de la culture, cela
étant la culture et les échanges économiques. C’est ce qui rapproche les
nations. C’est ce qui nous unit, et c’est ce qui reste au-delà des conflits et
des divergences d’intérêts. Ce que je voudrais dire aussi est que dans cette
histoire commune, il faut faire la paix, et la paix est inévitable. La paix
succède à tout conflit. C’est la paix qui relie les hommes. Cette paix passe
nécessairement par une restauration du dialogue, puis une entente, puis une
coopération économique. C’est ce qui a refait, je dirais, ce qui a fait une
continuité même au moment de la guerre froide. C’est ce qui fait la continuité
entre les peuples, et je voudrais donner un message d’espoir et d’union parce
que je crois en cette communauté de culture et de destin. Je crois que ce qui
nous unit—les relations entre la France et la Russie—sont extrêmement
anciennes, et tout le monde parle de paix actuellement. J’ai été un des
premiers à dénoncer les mensonges, l’injustice et la spoliation dont votre
peuple fait l’objet, que je trouve absolument scandaleux parce qu’on ne peut
pas punir une nation. On ne peut pas punir un peuple pour des raisons de crise,
sachant que c’est contraire non seulement aux libertés fondamentales, c’est
contraire au droit international. C’est une très grande injustice. Je pense que
nulle autre nation depuis les persécutions juives pendant la deuxième guerre
mondiale n’a subi autant de spoliation que le peuple russe actuellement. Pour
moi, ça me choque. C’est une grande injustice. Je pense qu’au-delà des crises
actuelles, il faut avoir l’équilibre des peuples. Il faut avoir l’équilibre des
nations. Il faut avoir l’équilibre du monde et de l’Europe. Bien évidemment, la
culture est un des voies préféré et universel pour rapprocher nos deux peuples.
Je pense que ce qui nous unit est aussi notre histoire commune et ce qui nous
unissait. Le reste, comment vous dire ? L’amour, l’immense considération
que je porte, que ma famille porte à la richesse de la culture russe, à la
richesse du monde russe. Récemment, un prix Nobel de physique disait qu’on veut
détruire la culture russe, mais comment peut-on détruire un pays qui est
responsable de plus de la moitié des découvertes fondamentales en chimie, en
physique, et en mathématiques ? Vous êtes un grand pays. Vous êtes un pays qui
a une histoire fantastique, et malheureusement, le modèle néolibéral, inspiré des
Américains, vise à détruire quelque chose de bien plus fondamental que gérer un
équilibre économique et politique, mais aussi il vise à détruire toute une
culture. Et comme je vous l’indiquais, on sape les fondements. On sape la
conscience d’un peuple parce qu’on veut détruire les deux piliers de la
civilisation qui sont la religion et la foi pour les remplacer par une culture
du court terme, de la satisfaction personnelle. On s’attaque au fondamentaux,<b>
</b>voire-même de l’éducation. Et je pense que c’est quelque chose de grave, et
il faut garder ces remparts. C’est ce qui nous unit traditionnellement depuis
longtemps. Avec le la culture russe c’est de cette notion, je dirais un petit
peu irrationnel, un petit peu fou comme Dostoïevski décrivait très bien. Et c’est
ce qui fait la foi, en fait. La foi est un des piliers de la Russie, et je
crois que Dostoïevski<b> </b>le citait : « Nul ne peut arracher au
Russe sa foi si ce n’est pas lui-même ». C’est ça qui fait votre force et
votre cohésion. C’est ce qui fait aussi la force des Français. C’est ce qui
fait la force de chaque nation, de chaque pays européen. Tout comme la notion
de patriotisme, d’amour de la nation, la famille, et la religion qui sont,
malheureusement, des valeurs comptant à vouloir détruire pour mieux réduire la
capacité des peuples, des individus à s’émanciper, qui vise à détruire leur
intégrité, et donc à mieux les manipuler parce que ça aboutit à une perte de
repère.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR;">Irina Dubois : Merci beaucoup,
monsieur de Gaulle, pour ce message d’espoir. On va poursuivre nos actions dans
les années qui viennent. Je dis bien « des années qui viennent »
parce qu’on aura besoin de ces relations fortes, stratégiques, et cordiales
avec et entre la Russie et la France, et parce que le dialogue ne doit jamais
cesser. Merci beaucoup. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR;">Pierre de Gaulle : Sachez en
tout cas que vous n’êtes pas seule, qu’il y a beaucoup de gens dans le monde,
encore une fois, deux tiers de la population mondiale, en France et en Europe,
qui sont avec vous et qui continueront ce travail avec vous. Et vous pourrez compter
sur mon soutien et ma coopération pour poursuivre cette reconstruction dans l’espoir
et dans le renouveau. Merci, Madame.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7464222263572816025.post-4854041512236725092023-02-05T10:06:00.012+09:002023-02-05T10:39:41.512+09:00Yugoslavia: the NATO Operation before Ukraine<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Many
people who have come of age in this decade may know nothing about Yugoslavia or
may not even know that there was ever such a country. I have written several
posts about what happened there in the 1990s (see the notes below), and this
one will serve as an overview and a lens through which people can understand
what the NATO alliance began to do a few years later in Ukraine in the hope of
weakening and balkanizing Russia as it did in the Balkan region and the USSR
before that.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></p>
<table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoTableGrid" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 1184;">
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<td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 487.1pt;" valign="top" width="649">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">“I think that, unfortunately, Ukraine is
disappearing, but it’s our fault... We have to accept, in fact, a
narcissistic wound... The West must say, ‘Alright, we went too far. We
pushed. Russia responded, and we continued.’ It’s time to stop now.
Otherwise, it could end very badly or last for years, with all the associated
problems for Europe... in Europe the energy crisis had been hanging over us
for years anyway. It was an American idea to cut off Russian gas, cut off
Germany from Russia etc., but it could be worse. We could have an exodus of
millions of people... This is where geopolitics hits its limits. My wish for
everyone [for the new year] is that they at least change their way of
thinking a little, grow a little bit, rise above the mediocrity, beyond the
pure will for domination that does not usually lead to anything worthwhile.” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">- Caroline Galactéros, president of <a href="https://geopragma.fr/">Géopragma</a>, <a href="https://youtu.be/fq41L8zzGOI">Interview with Irina Dubois</a>, December
19, 2022.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Background</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Yugoslavia
was located between East and West and was at the crossroads of the empires that
came into conflict in WWI, and at the crossroads between European Christianity,
Orthodox Christianity, and the Islamic world.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The
most significant event of the 20th century may be the Bolshevik revolution in
Russia in October 1917. This set the stage for the great conflict of the
century: capitalism vs. socialism. The capitalist countries (US, UK, France,
Germany, and others) reacted immediately against the revolution in Russia. The
most extreme reaction came later from Nazi Germany and fascist Italy in the
1930s and 1940s. In this conflict, Croatia allied itself with Germany and Italy
between 1929 and 1945 and founded the fascist nationalist movement known as
Ustasha. Serbia took the side of the USSR (with whom they had cultural roots
through the Christian Orthodox Church). Ustasha members murdered hundreds of
thousands of Serbs, Jews, and Roma as well as political dissidents in
Yugoslavia during World War II.<b><span style="color: #4472c4; mso-themecolor: accent1;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="color: #4472c4; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-themecolor: accent1;">[1]</span></b><!--[endif]--></span></span></b><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWmlsj68GDVsRpVXG1WFFjS_-9HTwK1W7KaApnTACUc-RnjDfuyBGjjmo97atnbLkpa2msAi0AlQ4x2R5lmj4NYOAUcDp4frREu5I698FiBvzdwY2kMGVvVHqKrP7e_05yn73V7XxdtN3tgUaQUaLH2jjRwVNeY67To3VG6Husea9YQTbmj8iImpK_/s433/yugoslavia-map.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="390" data-original-width="433" height="288" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWmlsj68GDVsRpVXG1WFFjS_-9HTwK1W7KaApnTACUc-RnjDfuyBGjjmo97atnbLkpa2msAi0AlQ4x2R5lmj4NYOAUcDp4frREu5I698FiBvzdwY2kMGVvVHqKrP7e_05yn73V7XxdtN3tgUaQUaLH2jjRwVNeY67To3VG6Husea9YQTbmj8iImpK_/s320/yugoslavia-map.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">After
WWII, the Balkan Peninsula was unified as a multi-ethnic socialist state called
Yugoslavia, led by Josip Tito. This was a tremendous achievement because, in
addition to the challenge of uniting such a religiously and ethnically diverse
region, there was the fact that Croatia had been a Nazi ally and had carried
out massive atrocities against Serbians, Jews, and other minorities. The Serbian
and Montenegrin partisans had put up a famous resistance with the help of
Soviet, American, and British allies. Twenty years later, the new Yugoslavian
state had become successful in providing good living standards, and it resolved
(or suppressed, as many would assert) historical tensions between Croatia,
Bosnia, and Serbia. Tito had bad relations with Stalin after WWII, and thus
Yugoslavia developed its own form of socialism independently, and it was more
open and friendly to Europe and the NATO nations. In fact, Tito had made
promises to NATO that he would block a Soviet advance if war broke out.<b><span style="color: #4472c4; mso-themecolor: accent1;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="color: #4472c4; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-themecolor: accent1;">[2]</span></b><!--[endif]--></span></span></b>
By the 1960s, Yugoslavia was a popular travel destination for Europeans. In
1970, no one could have foreseen the war that would erupt in the Balkans in the
1990s. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">When
Tito died in 1980, the Soviet Union was entering a period of instability, and all
of Europe was entering a new era of economic disruption and neoliberal doctrine.
The governments of the US, UK, France, and Germany wondered what to do about
Yugoslavia. They could have helped it stay together, but they didn’t want to
preserve its independent socialist economy. They wanted it to come into the EU
and NATO system with a capitalist economy. They decided to promote nationalism
and break Yugoslavia up into independent states, and, interestingly, modern
Germany became very keen to help Croatia, a former Nazi ally, achieve independence.
This was a shock to Serbians because they had memories of the Croatian
atrocities against them. Tensions and mistrust escalated at a time when there
was tremendous economic insecurity and people turned to demagogic leaders. Wars
broke out in the early 1990s and lasted until the end of the decade.<b><span style="color: #4472c4; mso-themecolor: accent1;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="color: #4472c4; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-themecolor: accent1;">[3]</span></b><!--[endif]--></span></span></b><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">People
of all the minority groups lived throughout Yugoslavia, so it was no simple
matter to break the country into separate geographical zones called Bosnia,
Serbia, and Croatia and so on. There were Serbian and Bosnian minorities in
Croatia, and likewise in the other parts of Yugoslavia—Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina,
Kosovo, Slovenia, Montenegro, and North Macedonia. During the war, atrocities
were committed by all sides, but in general the US, UK, France, and Germany
decided that the Serbians were “the bad guys” and Serbia was attacked by NATO
forces for three months in the spring of 1999, after a long campaign of
vilification that had gone on for several years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Twenty-four
years later, it is still difficult to discuss the root causes of this war and
the atrocities committed during it. European and American media and
historiography depicted Serbia as the sole perpetrator and described the
outbreak of war as just the mysterious reappearance of ancient ethnic hatreds.
In 1999, the media justified the NATO attack on Serbia as a necessary “humanitarian
intervention,” regardless of the massive level of destruction by aerial
bombardment required to be so humane.<b><span style="color: #4472c4; mso-themecolor: accent1;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="color: #4472c4; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-themecolor: accent1;">[4]</span></b><!--[endif]--></span></span></b><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Noam
Chomsky commented on the war in an interview he gave in 2006:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"><i>Actually,
we have for the first time a very authoritative comment on that from the
highest level of the Clinton administration, which is something that one could
have surmised before, but now it is asserted. This is from Strobe Talbott who
ran the Pentagon/State Department intelligence Joint Committee on the diplomacy
during the whole affair including the bombing, so that’s the very top of
Clinton administration. He just wrote the foreword to a book by his Director of
Communications, John Norris, and in the foreword, he says if you really want to
understand what the thinking was of the top of the Clinton administration, this
is the book you should read. Take a look at John Norris’s book. What he says is
that the real purpose of the war had nothing to do with concern for Kosovar
Albanians. It was because Serbia was not carrying out the required social and
economic reforms, meaning it was the last corner of Europe which had not
subordinated itself to the US-run neoliberal programs, so therefore it had to
be eliminated. That’s from the highest level. Again, we could have guessed it,
but I’ve never seen it said before</i>.<b><span style="color: #4472c4; mso-themecolor: accent1;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="color: #4472c4; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-themecolor: accent1;">[5]</span></b><!--[endif]--></span></span></b><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">In
an interview recorded in 2009, French General Pierre-Marie Gallois denounced
the European powers’ lack of <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>commitment
to peace and the principles enshrined in the UN Charter and the Helsinki
accords to preserve borders as they were. He decried the violation of these
principles evident in the efforts of Germany, the United States, France, and
the UK to redraw the borders of Yugoslavia in the 1990s. The purported reason
for the breakup—that Yugoslavia was too big and too multi-ethnic to be
viable—made no sense. The resulting smaller states would be just as
multi-ethnic and possibly more non-viable than Yugoslavia. Mr. Gallois
concluded:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"><i>Westerners
performed absolutely unethically, with a duplicity that shocked me, as it came
from the purported creators of human rights—France, the UK, and to some extent
Germany. Nevertheless, old demons, particularly German ones, re-emerged and
created the existing chaos in these lands, whether it was Bosnia, Republika
Srpska, or Kosovo</i>.<b><span style="color: #4472c4; mso-themecolor: accent1;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="color: #4472c4; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-themecolor: accent1;">[6]</span></b><!--[endif]--></span></span></b><b><span style="color: #4472c4; mso-themecolor: accent1;"> </span></b><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The
following excerpt from Diana Johnstone’s book <i>Fool’s Crusade</i> gives a sobering
account of NATO’s new Strategic Concept, developed by the Clinton
administration, that redefined NATO’s role after the Cold War, turning it into an
aggressive alliance beyond international law with a self-appointed role to act
outside of countries in the alliance “where there may be little or no
host-nation support.” This doctrine made it clear that NATO had given itself
the right to invade other countries whenever it felt its “stability” was
threatened. The new concept also dashed any hopes of nuclear disarmament, as nuclear
weapons were deemed essential because conventional forces could not provide
adequate deterrent force.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Looking
back on the years leading up to the war that started in Ukraine in 2022, we can
see how the NATO Strategic Concept of the 1990s has been adapted to provoke
Russia. Because Russia has its own nuclear deterrent, it could not be attacked
directly, so Ukraine was slowly turned into an economic, military and political
dependency of NATO, then it was used to supposedly weaken Russia during many
years of conflict and economic war.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">__________
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Diana
Johnstone, <i>Fools’ Crusade: Yugoslavia, NATO and Western Delusions</i>, Postscript:
Perpetual War, (New York: Monthly Review Press, London: Pluto Press, 2002), 265-269<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">NATO’S
birthday present<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">NATO’s
50th birthday celebration was held in Washington between 23 and 25 April 1999.
The bombing of Yugoslavia had been going on for a month. Thanks to Kosovo, NATO
was already asserting its new role as a “humanitarian” strike force unlimited
by geographical boundaries or international law. The anniversary was the
occasion for official adoption of NATO’s new Strategic Concept, prepared by the
Clinton administration and accepted by Allied leaders obliged to make a strong
show of unity in the midst of a war. The Strategic Concept includes three
important elements which clinch the dominance of the United States over its
European allies.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">1.
Nuclear weapons. The Strategic Concept emphatically laid to rest any remaining
hope of nuclear disarmament since “the Alliance’s conventional forces alone
cannot ensure credible deterrence. Nuclear weapons make a unique contribution
in rendering the risks of aggression against the Alliance incalculable and
unacceptable. Thus, they remain essential to preserve peace.” Moreover, nuclear
weapons must remain in Europe “for the foreseeable future.” The demand of the
peace movement of the 1980s for a denuclearized Europe was thereby definitively
rejected. “The presence of United States conventional and nuclear forces in
Europe remains vital to the security of Europe, which is inseparably linked to
that of North America.” Thus, “the Alliance will maintain for the foreseeable
future an appropriate mix of nuclear and conventional forces based in Europe
and kept up to date where necessary...”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">2.
Interdependence. The “inseparable link” between North America (that is, the
United States) and Europe is central to the Strategic Concept. There will be no
wriggling out of the grip of U.S.-dominated NATO on the part of the European
Union or of individual member states. Thus, “The principle of collective effort
in Alliance defense is embodied in practical arrangements that enable the
Allies to enjoy the crucial political, military and resource advantages of
collective defense, and prevent the renationalization of defense policies,
without depriving the Allies of their sovereignty.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">3.
The prospect of more “out-of-area” war. This is couched in the usual terms of
reluctant acceptance of duty: “Regional and, in particular, geostrategic
considerations within the Alliance will have to be taken into account, as
instabilities on NATO’s periphery could lead to crisis or conflicts requiring
an Alliance military response, potentially with short warning times.” The
Concept points to the “special logistical challenges” involved in mounting and
sustaining “operations outside the Allies’ territory, where there may be little
or no host-nation support.” This can only mean invading countries where NATO is
not wanted.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The
vaguely defined “security interests” of NATO member states were seen to be
threatened, no longer by Soviet communism, but by “risks of a wider nature,
including acts of terrorism, sabotage and organized crime, and by the
disruption of the flow of vital resources” as well as “uncontrolled movements
of large numbers of people, particularly as a consequence of armed conflicts.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>Threats
all around</b><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">After
the suicide airliner bombings of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, it
was commonly said that “the world changed on September 11.” One thing that had
not changed, however, was the Pentagon’s aggressive strategy. The attacks
merely provided the most persuasive excuse for inflating the military budget
since the Soviet threat. In the foreword to the Pentagon’s Quadrennial Defense
Review Report issued on 30 September 2001, defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld
pointed out that the review and report were “largely completed before the
September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. In important ways, these
attacks confirm the strategic direction and planning principles that resulted
from this review.” September 11 will “require the U.S. to move forward more
rapidly in these directions.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The
Pentagon’s stated objective is to protect and advance U.S. national interests
that “span the world.” This involves precluding hostile domination of “critical
areas, particularly Europe, Northeast Asia, the East Asian littoral, and the
Middle East and Southwest Asia.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">The
essential innovation concerns the definition of “threats.” From its pinnacle of
power, the United States can scarcely perceive any tangible threats. Instead of
feeling safer, the “defense” planners imagine potential threats everywhere.
These go beyond invisible “terrorists” or recalcitrant “rogues.” From now on,
the United States fears the very potential of anybody, anywhere, to have the
capability to pose any sort of threat. The Pentagon has undertaken to “shift
the basis of defense planning from a ‘threat-based’ model that has dominated
thinking in the past to a ‘capabilities-based’ model for the future.” The
question is not who might be an adversary but what anybody might be able to do.
In short, any country with the capability to be an adversary could be one, and
so the strategy requires preventing any country from having the capability.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Meanwhile,
the United States will spend upwards of $500 billion a year to develop every
possible “capability” of its own. A few direct quotes from this remarkable
document give the tone:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"><i>Although
the United States will not face a peer competitor in the near future, the
potential exists for regional powers to develop sufficient capabilities to
threaten stability in regions critical to U.S. interests.</i></span></li><li><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"><i>US
forces must maintain the capability at the direction of the President to impose
the will of the United States and its coalition partners on any adversaries,
including states or non-state entities.</i></span></li><li><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"><i>Such
a decisive defeat could include changing the regime of an adversary state or
occupation of foreign territory until U.S. strategic objectives are met.</i></span></li><li><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"><i>For
the United States, the revolution in military affairs holds the potential to
confer enormous advantages and to extend the current period of U.S. military
superiority.</i></span></li><li><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">A
reorientation of the posture must take account of new challenges, particularly
anti-access and area-denial threats. New combinations of immediately employable
forward stationed and deployed forces; globally available reconnaissance,
strike, and command and control assets; information operations capabilities;
and rapidly deployable, highly lethal and sustainable forces that may come from
outside a theater of operations have the potential to be a significant force
multiplier for forward stationed forces, including forcible entry forces.</span><span face=""Open Sans", sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></i></li></ul><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">It
is hard to see what “forcible entry forces” would be doing against “anti-access
and area denial threats” other than invading foreign countries. Here is the
bottom line to “globalization”, and it signifies world economic domination
enforced by military means.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Power
has its own momentum. Whatever the declared motives, the war against Yugoslavia
served as an exercise in the destruction of a country. The pretext is flexible:
harboring terrorists, building weapons of mass destruction, or “humanitarian
catastrophe”—all can be used to justify bombing as part of an unfolding
strategy of global control.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">With
its military supremacy demonstrated, the United States shows signs of leaving
its NATO allies on the sidelines as it pursues unilateral action in the rest of
the world. The proclaimed intention to destroy an expandable list of designated
enemies is causing growing alarm in the world at large, and even among European
leaders.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Should
the tough unilateralist approach of the second Bush presidency cause serious
disaffection among allies, U.S. leaders have the option of returning to the
soft approach of “humanitarian war” that proved so successful in silencing
critics and rallying support. To keep that option open, the partners in crime
must continue to impose their own mythical version of the 1999 NATO crusade.
The fiction must be told and retold of rescuing innocent victims from wicked
villains. But the story is not over and there is more truth to tell.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Diana
Johnstone, <i>Fools’ Crusade: Yugoslavia, NATO and Western Delusions, </i></span><span face=""Open Sans", sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Postscript:
Perpetual War, (New York: Monthly Review Press, London: Pluto Press, 2002),
265-269</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">__________<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Also
recommended<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Michael
Parenti, <i>To Kill a Nation: The Attack on Yugoslavia </i>(Verso, 2002)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Notes<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<div style="mso-element: endnote-list;"><!--[if !supportEndnotes]--><br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span><a href="https://youtu.be/QjGgjgWmNig"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Memorial message for the victims of Jasenovac</span></a><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">, April 22, 2021 (video 5 minutes).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn2" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Dennis Riches, “</span><a href="https://dennisriches.wordpress.com/2018/11/18/the-yugoslavia-counter-narrative-in-1993-sean-gervasi-a-neglected-expert-spoke-out-in-the-early-years-of-the-catastrophe/"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">The Yugoslavia Counter-Narrative in 1993: Sean Gervasi, a neglected
expert, spoke out in the early years of the catastrophe</span></a><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">,”<span class="MsoHyperlink"><span style="text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"> </span></span><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span color="windowtext" style="text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">(video and transcript), November 18,
2018.</span></span><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn3" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[3]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span><a name="_Hlk123232440"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Dennis Riches, “</span></a><a href="https://dennisriches.wordpress.com/2018/07/29/pierre-marie-gallois-on-the-origins-of-and-responsibility-for-the-yugoslav-wars-1990-99/"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk123232440;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Pierre-Marie Gallois on the
Origins of and Responsibility for the Yugoslav Wars (1990-99)</span></span></a><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk123232440;"><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">,”</span></span></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk123232440;"><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk123232440;"><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span color="windowtext" face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">July 29, 2018. (</span></span></span><a href="https://youtu.be/mv6PI3cyojM"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk123232440;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Video of the interview, in French</span></span></a><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk123232440;"><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span color="windowtext" face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">).</span></span></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk123232440;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn4" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[4]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> “</span><a href="https://www.betterworld.info/conflict-regions/kosovo/nato-war-crimes"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">NATO war crimes/Kosovo</span></a><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">,” <i>Better
World Info</i>, accessed December 29, 2022.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn5" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[5]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span>
<span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Dennis
Riches, “</span><a href="https://dennisriches.wordpress.com/2017/02/18/military-humanism-heart-of-neoliberal-darkness-in-the-balkans/"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Military Humanism:
Heart of Neoliberal Darkness in the Balkans</span></a><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">” (transcript of Interview
with Noam Chomsky<span class="MsoHyperlink"><span color="windowtext" style="text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">), February 18, 2017.</span></span> See
also: Noam Chomsky, <i>The New Military Humanism: Lessons from Kosovo</i>
(Pluto Press, 1999).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn6" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[6]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span>
<a name="_Hlk123239700"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">Dennis
Riches, “</span></a><a href="https://dennisriches.wordpress.com/2018/07/29/pierre-marie-gallois-on-the-origins-of-and-responsibility-for-the-yugoslav-wars-1990-99/"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk123239700;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Pierre-Marie Gallois on the
Origins of and Responsibility for the Yugoslav Wars (1990-99)</span></span></a><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk123239700;"><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">,”</span></span></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk123239700;"><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk123239700;"><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span color="windowtext" face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">July 29, 2018. (</span></span></span><a href="https://youtu.be/mv6PI3cyojM"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk123239700;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Video of the interview, in French</span></span></a><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk123239700;"><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span color="windowtext" face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">).</span></span></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk123239700;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></span><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><o:p> </o:p></p>
</div>
</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7464222263572816025.post-51505357722495487652023-02-02T19:23:00.003+09:002023-02-02T19:23:09.243+09:00Exclusive interview with P. Tolstoy on Ukraine and Russia-West relations<p><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><a href="https://youtu.be/aC-KXHaYqRs">Exclusive
interview with P. Tolstoy on Ukraine and Russia-West relations</a></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Published by </span></b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><a href="https://dialoguefrancorusse.com/actualites-franco-russes/entretien-exclusif-avec-p-tolstoi-sur-lukraine-les-relations-russie-occident-les-sanctions/"><b><i>Dialogue</i>
<i>Franco-Russe</i></b></a><b>, 2022/12/09<o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">translation by Dennis Riches<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Piotr Tolstoy is a major figure in Russian
political life (current Deputy Speaker of the Duma, former Vice-President of
the Council of Europe, leader of United Russia in Moscow). He gave an exclusive
interview from his Duma office in Moscow. On the agenda: the prospects for
Russia-West relations, the role of civil society, negotiations with the US, the
evolution of the conflict in Ukraine, and also the public’s interest in Russian
and French cultures.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">INTERVIEW<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Irina Dubois: Piotr Tolstoy, thank you for
giving this precious time in Moscow to <i>Dialogue Franco-Russe</i>. This year
we have invited many French-speaking experts ... and today we have with us
Piotr Tolstoy, active in politics as vice-president of the Duma [Russian
parliament], but he is also a journalist. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A few years ago, with <i>Dialogue Franco-Russe</i>
in Paris we had a debate with Renaud Girard on the subject of convergence and
divergence in Franco-Russian relations. We tried to find a lot of discrepancies
and still we found a lot of differences. And this year we find that there is
much more divergence between our peoples and our countries.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Our experts have talked a lot about the roots
of the conflict in Ukraine. All our listeners are interested in this important issue,
and in particular people with Franco-Russian heritage since it is the relations
between the West and Russia that are at the heart of international relations.
Could you explain to our listeners—and I invite listeners to follow us much
more because there are so many of you following us—why diplomacy failed on
February 24, 2022?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuqij4lB2qpt1ptf59ppqey9Qn8VP9D42aGaZGiHEorhngWlTSDJsl4pSCKScQxl9LoSxltIEKC8Zc9ZnmhXWrHCpE1KYcGDbGqrM-kqngta8zhvfpH_ZRzsSY-DGA9BFZg_jgVQ6YB-l_bhk73Uq8WtbiWtvhQ6lhM6WUA-LhsyQFJ0e6bAu6nD_J/s816/piotr-tolstoi.webp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="513" data-original-width="816" height="201" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuqij4lB2qpt1ptf59ppqey9Qn8VP9D42aGaZGiHEorhngWlTSDJsl4pSCKScQxl9LoSxltIEKC8Zc9ZnmhXWrHCpE1KYcGDbGqrM-kqngta8zhvfpH_ZRzsSY-DGA9BFZg_jgVQ6YB-l_bhk73Uq8WtbiWtvhQ6lhM6WUA-LhsyQFJ0e6bAu6nD_J/s320/piotr-tolstoi.webp" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Piotr Tolstoy : Thank you for the interest and
for the questions because I may be one of the few <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>who believe in the continuation of a Franco-Russian
dialogue, but, unfortunately, diplomacy has failed because the West, the United
States and the European Union have thought that after the Cold War, it’s a done
deal, the world will be based on Western rules and nobody, except the Americans
and Europeans, will do anything, say anything, or do politics in Europe. Russia
has been concerned about security issues. On several occasions, Putin, the <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Russian President, has proposed dialogue to
NATO, to the Presidents of the countries of the European Union, to the
Presidents of the United States because for us, the security problems were very
sensitive. After the coup d’état of 2014 in Ukraine, they began to build a kind
of anti-Russia sentiment that was completely diametrically opposed to
everything Russians did, and in particular there were many problems inside
Ukraine with Russians, with the 20 million Russians who have been deprived of
their language, deprived of the opportunity to have an education in Russian—people
who continue to have their own ideas about the history of Ukraine etc. Apart from
all that, there was always Russia’s proposal to discuss NATO enlargement,
security problems because of the militarization of Ukraine. This was not only because
of military advisers and military bases, but also because of the prospect of
having NATO bases on Ukrainian territories. For us, this is a vital threat. As
you know, global security is based on the concept of nuclear <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>powers that in fact do not use nuclear weapons.
They only preserve the balance of nuclear threat. For example, for us, the
movement of US nuclear missiles onto Ukrainian territory reduces the
possibility of our response in the event of the nuclear missile attack.
Obviously, we talk about now as a theoretical possibility, but for military
specialists, for those who were involved in the negotiations around détente at
the time of the end of the Soviet Union, the negotiations with Russia and
Ukraine in Budapest etc... All these problems are well known. The West ignored
Russia’s concerns. The West has thought that the world order is set, that
everything is done, that the rules of the game are established by the West. I
am not talking about the rules of international law, but precisely the rules of
the game which the Americans and the politicians of the European Union always
mention. “That’s it! It will be like this, as we decided, and if the Russians
are unhappy, who cares? Let’s go for it. We will continue to expand.” The
foundations continue to be laid at our borders and our proposals have been
repeatedly ignored. That’s why diplomacy failed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Irina Dubois: I want to ask you... This is
perhaps more of a question to a journalist than to a politician. Why, in your
opinion, is any statement made by Russia—especially on the sabotage of Northstream
first of all, and at the moment on the potential use of the so-called dirty
nuclear bomb in Ukraine—why are Russian statements always unheard in the West? We
don’t know. We can’t talk about it. It is said that it the Russians did it. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Piotr Tolstoy: We don’t know because there is
the cliché. There is the system of Anglo-Saxon clichés about “Putin’s
propaganda”. So everything the Russians say is “Putin’s propaganda”. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Irina Dubois: It is said that our organization <i>Franco-Russian
Dialogue</i> is also “Putin’s propaganda”.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Piotr Tolstoy: Everything is “Putin’s
propaganda”. Russia is actually the largest country in Europe. The European
Union is a small piece of the continent compared to Russia. If the Europeans do
not want to hear what the Russians think, what the Russians say, the security
concerns, the concerns about the sabotage of Northstream, about the biolabs on
Ukrainian territory etc., then sooner or later they will be forced to solve all
these problems. There are 47 countries that are against Russia. They build
public opinion against Russia, but the reality is not [in the propaganda]. Dealing
with this [false] reality will perhaps be the most difficult task for future
European politicians after the end of European Union, after the departure of
all those politicians of today who will find themselves in the dustbin of
history because of their position against Russia, because of the illegitimate
sanctions that are now being carried out. 11,000 sanctions against Russia! But
no, they’re crazy. The Russian economy is working. We will win this war because
nuclear countries do not lose wars, as you know. And sooner or later, Europeans
will discover a new world, a new Europe. They will discover the need for
dialogue, and by then, they will have already destroyed all the mechanisms of
dialogue. They have refused all attempts to discuss issues quietly by
diplomats, by parliamentarians, all over the world. We are all punished. We can’t
travel to Europe. Too bad, but sooner or later, it can be at the Polish border.
It can be in Berlin. It may be in Paris, but we will discuss Europe’s security
problems, the future of Europe. And you will see at that time that the people
who value the notion of openness, the idea of dialogue, will be at the table,
unlike those who today pass all these Anglo-Saxon clichés about the evil
Russians and “aggressor Putin who has shaken the world and therefore done so
much harm to the European continent.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Irina Dubois: On several occasions, the Russian
Foreign Minister has said that the Russian authorities are ready to talk, but
we have the impression that in the West there are not enough men and women to really
be able to carry out this role with Russia for Europe. Who is this politician
in Europe that you may know and who would be able to sit down at the negotiating
table—perhaps a former politician if there are none among the current
politicians? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Piotr Tolstoy: Russia is ready to talk. In my
opinion, unfortunately, the Europeans completely lost their sovereignty and
their ability to talk to Russia from the moment when, following the United
States, they resumed sanctions against Russia and this kind of boycott against
Russia. So among the politicians who are in power today, there are no
politicians who will discuss the future of Europe. That’s for sure. We have
time ahead of us while they have very little time—all these people. They have
their limited mandate. It is very, very short, and so soon we will see new leaders.
Maybe we’ll talk to them. We are ready to talk, but in fact, it makes no sense
to talk with the Ukrainians because they are manipulated by London and
Washington like marionettes, and all the negotiations that we tried to start at
the beginning of the special operation failed at the moment Washington said, “No
negotiation.” “You have to win on the battlefield,” as Mr. Borel said. So we’ll
see. What are Ukrainians going to gain, if they are going to win on the
battlefield with all the support of NATO, with all the support of the
Europeans, with all the solidarity, with a shower once a week for all of
Europe, without gas, without oil, with the inflation of 12-15%, we will see
very well how the Ukrainians will win. And as soon as we win, we will negotiate
with Europeans, but not before. We are ready, but if they do not want to talk,
then the battlefield first and then the negotiating table.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Irina Dubois: Do you believe that Russia is definitively
separated from Europe this year, that trust is lost, mutual trust too? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Piotr Tolstoy: Russia cannot be separated from
Europe because Russia is Europe. As I said before, it is the largest country in
Europe. So the little piece of Europe that is very aggressive towards us—the
European Union—will soon be removed from history because it reminds me a little
of the USSR before its end. But Russia cannot move. It cannot change its
geopolitical position, as Russia is also Europe. Russia is a civilization
apart. It is not a huge Poland for Europeans, although there are those who
think of it that way. Russia could not be a mere replica of the American
democratic system that has been installed in the small countries of Eastern
Europe. No, Russia is a separate civilization with its own history, its own
democracy, its own political system, and we are going to operate on that basis,
despite everything, despite all the sanctions, despite all the boycotts,
despite the economic war, despite everything. But sooner or later, Europeans
will come and ask for dialogue. At that time, we will reflect on what basis
this dialogue could be conducted.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Irina Dubois: We must also say to Franco-Russians
that dialogue must never stop. We are trying to maintain this dialogue between
civil societies. There are many people in Europe… when I talk to civilians, there
are people who work in very, very diverse fields and whose voices are rising up
for constructive and strategic dialogue with Russia. Obviously, there are also
many forces in Europe against this dialogue, and you can see that very, very
clearly. Do you believe in the strength of civil societies in Europe?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Piotr Tolstoy: No, I don’t think so. I do not
believe so because the French elites, the German elites, the Italian elites
have become so closely linked to the United States and Great Britain that there
is no possibility of dialogue, not even of a private visit to Russia today. If
a politician visits, there is campaign against that person. So today, no, and
unfortunately Europe is losing its geopolitical role, and it is losing its
chance to become with Russia a global superpower. Europe today, with an
economic crisis, with all these prices for electricity, for gas, for oil
because of sanctions, against “Putin’s bloody regime” as they say—because of
that, Europe became a peripheral aspect of US and British politics. It’s a
shame, but that’s the way it is. And civil society cannot change anything in
this situation because, though they have not lost contact with their relatives,
friends etc., they are not the ones who make decisions. But as I said before,
Russia has centuries ahead of it. We can wait for the political elites in
Europe to change, and we will see if we can renew the dialogue. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Irina Dubois: I notice that Russia has not
closed its borders, so there are still tourists. We can come. Maybe some people
don’t know it, but as far as I know—correct me if I’m wrong—that tourism exists
in Russia, and there our European friends, those who want to discover the
country. They can visit but it is much more expensive now because there are no
longer direct flights between Russia and Europe, but there are still flights.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Piotr Tolstoy: Actually, there are direct
flights to Helsinki, Belgrade, and Istanbul. There is no problem. You can get a
plane ticket. People are travelling. And even for visas recently the president
gave the government the order to accept the most open policy regarding visas
etc. So there is no problem. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Irina Dubois: Can we negotiate with the
Americans? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Piotr Tolstoy: We’ll see. For the moment the
Americans are not ready to negotiate. In my opinion, they are waiting for the result
of the elections and how their president will feel, etc. So for now, Russia is
still ready to negotiate with Europeans, with Americans, but if they don’t want
then... <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Irina Dubois: Do you think that the mid-terms
in the United States could influence the evolution of the conflict in Ukraine
or maybe if another non-Democrat president comes...? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Piotr Tolstoy: What get with the Americans is
that the Americans only have their national interest. Nothing else concerns
them, and one of America’s national interests is to weaken Russia with the
Ukrainian conflict. They will maintain the war until the last Ukrainian. Too
bad for Ukraine. Unfortunately, the Americans, like the European countries,
supply weapons that we bomb and liquidate on Ukrainian territory, but they
supply these weapons for money, with the <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>money of the people who live in these
countries. It is their taxes being used. So if European people are willing to shower
once a week and give their taxes to subsidize the war in Ukraine, too bad. That’s
not Russia’s problem. But what I can say very clearly is that everything that
happens on Ukrainian territory, all the armaments that arrive today from Europe
or the United States will be liquidated by Russian forces, either by bombing,
or during combat, on land, or by air. All of that will be eliminated. So there
you have it. This aid, this solidarity with Ukraine, all these fine phrases
that European politicians have been exchanging for eight months—they are
useless, and it makes no sense in the short term or in the long term in the
coming months.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Irina Dubois: How do you see the conflict in
Ukraine evolving? Since we talked about the long term because there were
several different opinions that it would end quickly. We would see a
negotiation, but now we understand that there are no more negotiations at this
complicated stage. As we enter winter, what is your prognosis?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Piotr Tolstoy: Winter was always a very good
season for the Russians to move forward. I would remind you that we had two
wars with Europeans, in 1812 and 1941, and the first ended in Paris, the second
in Berlin. If the French, the Germans and the other European countries want to
participate in this war, really want NATO forces to participate on the
Ukrainian side, then we will move forward, perhaps more slowly, but we will
move forward, and winter is a very good season for advancement. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Irina Dubois: As General Winter said. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Piotr Tolstoy: Yes. That’s right. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Irina Dubois: You know that there are many
French people who are interested... since you mentioned 1812. I like to remind people
after every conference that is organized in France that France is not at war
with Russia, despite all that is happening. People are interested in Russian
culture, interested in Franco-Russian news, especially all those watching us who
amount to tens of thousands of people at the moment. And you speak French so
well. You keep the link with France and so we will still stay positive. We keep
hope that relations will resume. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Piotr Tolstoy: We will stay positive. Centuries
of Franco-Russian relations are behind us. We still have centuries ahead. I
have part of my family in France, for example, and because of the sanctions, I could
never see them in Paris or France, but they will come to Moscow. So everything
that is human ties, cultural ties, economic ties, in some sense—I hope they
will continue, but unfortunately, it is contrary to the will of politicians. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Irina Dubois: On that note, on that positive
note, I thank you for giving this time to <i>Dialogue Franco-Russe</i>. Thank
you. I invite you to follow us and share. Above all, know that dialogue must
never stop. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Piotr Tolstoy: Thank you very much.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">END<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">About Piotr Tolstoy (French Wikipedia, 2022/12/26)</span></b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">: Piotr Tolstoy, born
June 20, 1969, in Moscow, is a Russian politician, journalist and producer. He
has been Deputy Chairman of the State Duma since 5 October 2016. He has been
secretary of the Moscow regional branch of the United Russia party since May
31, 2021, and a member of the party’s High Council. Piotr Tolstoy is
Vice-President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe from 28
January 2020 to 25 January 2022. He headed the delegation of the Federal
Assembly of the Russian Federation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council
of Europe from 27 January 2017 until 15 March 2022. He is a member of the Civic
Chamber of the Russian Federation (2012-2014).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Pyotr Tolstoy hosts several political programs
on Russian television… In addition to English, Pyotr Tolstoy speaks French… He
is a descendant of the writer Leo Tolstoy and the industrialist and patron
Savva Mamontov. Since February 22, 2022, after Russia’s recognition of the
separatist republics of Donbass, he and other journalists have fallen under
European Union sanctions.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">FRANCAIS<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><a href="https://youtu.be/aC-KXHaYqRs"><b><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">Entretien exclusif avec P. Tolstoï sur l’Ukraine,
les relations Russie-Occident, les sanctions</span></b></a></span><b><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><a href="https://dialoguefrancorusse.com/actualites-franco-russes/entretien-exclusif-avec-p-tolstoi-sur-lukraine-les-relations-russie-occident-les-sanctions/"><b><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">Dialogue Franco-Russe</span></b></a></span><b><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">, 2022/12/09<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Piotr Tolstoï, figure
majeure de la vie politique en Russie (actuel vice-président de la Douma,
ancien vice-président au conseil de l’Europe, chef de file de Russie Unie à
Moscou), nous accorde un entretien exclusif dans son bureau de la Douma à
Moscou. Au programme : les perspectives des relations Russie Occident, le rôle
des sociétés civiles, les négociations avec USA, l’évolution du conflit en Ukraine,
mais aussi de l’intérêt que suscite les cultures russe et française...<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">INTERVIEW<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Irina Dubois : Monsieur
Tolstoï, merci d’avoir accordé ce temps précieux à Moscou pour Dialogue Franco-Russe.
Cette année on invite beaucoup d’experts francophone … et nous avons Piotr Tolstoï,
en politique, vice-président du Douma, et journaliste. Il y a quelques années à
Dialogue Franco-Russe à Paris nous avons fait un débat avec Renaud Girard au
sujet des convergences et divergences dans les relations franco-russes. On a
essayé de trouver beaucoup de divergences et quand même on a trouvé beaucoup de
convergences. Et cette année on trouve qu’il y en a beaucoup plus de divergence
entre nos peuples et nos pays.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Nos experts ont beaucoup
parlé des racines du conflit en Ukraine. Tous nos auditeurs s’intéressent sur
cette réalité brulante, et notamment franco-russes, puisque ce sont les
relations entre l’Occident et la Russie qui sont au cœur des relations
internationales. Pourriez-vous expliquer à nos auditeurs—et je vous invite à
nous suivre beaucoup plus parce que vous êtes très nombreux à nous suivre—pourquoi
la diplomatie a échoué le 24 février 2022 ?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Piotr Tolstoï : Merci
pour l’intérêt et pour les questions parce que moi je suis peut-être en des pas
nombreux à croire à la continuation d’un dialogue franco-russe, mais, malheureusement,
la diplomatie a échoué parce que l’Occident, les États-Unis et l’Union Européenne
ont pensé qu’après la guerre froide, c’est fait, le monde sera basé sur les
règles occidentaux et que personne, sauf les Américains et les européens, ne va
pas rien faire, rien dire, ne va pas faire la politique dans l’Europe. La Russie
a été préoccupée par les questions de sécurité. À plusieurs reprises, Poutine,
le président russe, a proposé à l’OTAN, aux présidents des pays de l’Union Européenne,
aux présidents des États-Unis le dialogue parce que pour nous, les problèmes de
sécurité étaient très sensibles car après le coup d’état de 2014 en Ukraine on
a commencé à construire un espèce de anti-Russie qui était complètement
diamétralement opposé à tout ce que faisait les Russes, et notamment il y avait
plein des problèmes à l’intérieur de l’Ukraine avec les Russes, avec les 20
millions des Russes qui ont été privés de leur langue, privés de la possibilité
d’avoir une éducation en russe, poursuit en fait pour ses idées sur l’histoire
de l’Ukraine etc. Mais à part tout ça, il y avait toujours la proposition de la
Russie de discuter l’élargissement de l’OTAN, les problèmes de sécurité à cause
de la militarisation de l’Ukraine parce que non seulement les conseillers
militaires, non seulement les bases militaires, mais aussi la perspective d’avoir
les bases de l’OTAN sur les territoires ukrainiens. Pour nous, c’est une menace
vitale. Comme vous le savez, la sécurité mondiale est basée sur le concept des
puissances nucléaires qui en fait n’utilisent pas l’arme nucléaire qui
seulement préserve la balance de menace nucléaire. Par exemple, pour nous, le
déplacement des missiles nucléaires américains sur les territoires ukrainiens réduisait
la possibilité de notre réponse en cas de l’attaque par les missiles
nucléaires. Évidemment on en parle d’une façon maintenant comme théorie, mais
pour les spécialistes militaires, pour ceux qui animaient les négociations
autour de la détente à l’époque avec la fin de l’Union Soviétique, les
négociations avec la Russie et l’Ukraine à Budapest etc… tous ces problèmes y
sont bien connus. L’Occident a ignoré la préoccupation de la Russie. L’occident
a pensé voilà que le monde est fait, que tout est fait, que les règles du jeu
sont établies par l’Occident. Je ne parle pas des normes de droit
international, mais justement des règles du jeu que toujours mentionne les Américains
et les politiciens de l’Union Européenne. Voilà ! Ça sera comme ça, « comme
nous avons décidé, et alors les Russes sont mécontents, mais peu importe. »
On fonce. On continue à élargir tout le temps. On continue à mettre les bases
aux frontières etc. Donc à plusieurs reprises répétées, la proposition a été
ignorée. C’est pour ça que la diplomatie a échoué. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Irina Dubois : J’ai
envie de vous demander… c’est peut-être plus une question vers un journaliste
qu’un homme politique. Pourquoi, selon vous, tout annonce faite par la Russie—
notamment sur le sabotage de Northstream au début là et en ce moment sur là l’utilisation
potentielle de la bombe nucléaire dite sale à l’Ukraine—pourquoi cette annonce
chaque fois est inaudible en Occident ? On l’ignore. On ne peut pas en
parler. On dit que ce sont les Russes. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Piotr Tolstoï : On l’ignore
parce qu’il y a le cliché. Il y a le système des clichés anglo-saxon sur « la
propagande de Poutine ». Donc tout ce que disent les Russes est « la
propagande de Poutine en fait ». <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Irina Dubois : On dit
que <i>Dialogue Franco-Russe</i> est aussi « la propagande de
Poutine ».<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Piotr Tolstoï : Tout
est « la propagande de Poutine ». Et donc la Russie est en fait le
plus grand pays de l’Europe. L’Union Européen est un petit morceau du continent
par rapport à la Russie. Si les européens ne veulent pas entendre ce que
pensent les Russes, ce que disent les Russes, les préoccupations sur la
sécurité, les préoccupations sur le sabotage de Northstream, sur les
laboratoires bio sur le territoire ukrainien etc., alors tôt ou tard ils seront
obligés de résoudre tous ces problèmes. Là on est très bien quand il y a 47
pays qui sont contre la Russie. Et voilà ils sont contre la Russie. Ils
construisent l’opinion publique antirusse, mais la réalité n’est pas ça. Réagir
à cette réalité sera peut-être la tâche la plus difficile pour les futurs
politiciens européens après la fin de l’Union Européenne, après le départ de
tous ces politiciens d’aujourd’hui qui vont se retrouver dans la poubelle de l’histoire
à cause de leur position contre la Russie, à cause des sanctions illégitimes
qui sont aujourd’hui établies : 11000 sanctions contre la Russie !
Mais non, ils sont fous. L’économie russe fonctionne. On va gagner cette guerre
parce que les pays nucléaires ne perdent pas les guerres, comme vous le savez.
Et tôt ou tard, les européens vont découvrir un nouveau monde, une nouvelle Europe.
Ils vont découvrir la nécessité de dialogue, et à ce moment-là ils auront
détruit déjà tous les mécanismes de dialogue. Ils ont refusé toutes les tentatives
de discuter les problèmes tranquillement par les diplomates, par les
parlementaires, partout dans le monde. On a tous sanctionné. On ne peut pas
aller en Europe. Tant pis, mais tôt ou tard, ça peut être à la frontière
polonaise. Ça peut être à Berlin. Ça peut être à Paris, mais on va discuter les
problèmes de sécurité de l’Europe, le futur de l’Europe. Et vous allez voir à
ce moment-là que les gens qui ont l’idée d’ouverture, l’idée de dialogue,
seront bien à la table, contrairement à ceux qui aujourd’hui passent tous ces
clichés anglo-saxons sur les méchants Russes et « agresseur Poutine qui a
bouleversé le monde et qui donc a fait tant de mal au continent européen. »
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Irina Dubois : À
plusieurs reprises, le ministre des Affaires étrangers russe a dit que les Russes
sont prêts à discuter, mais on a l’impression que dans l’occident il n’y a pas
assez d’hommes et femmes pour pouvoir vraiment porter ce rôle de l’Europe en
face à la Russie. Qui est cet homme ou cette femme politique en Europe que vous
connaissait peut-être et qui serait capable de se mettre à table de négociation—peut-être
ancien politicien s’il n’y en a pas parmi les politiques actuelles ? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Piotr Tolstoï : La Russie
est prête à discuter. À mon avis, malheureusement, les européens ont
complètement perdu leur souveraineté et leur capacité de discussions avec la Russie
à partir du moment quand ils ont, à la suite des États-Unis, repris les
sanctions contre la Russie et cette espèce de boycotte contre la Russie. Donc
parmi les politiciens qui sont aujourd’hui au pouvoir, il n’y a pas des
politiciens qui vont discuter le futur de l’Europe. Ça c’est sûr. Nous avons le
temps devant nous tandis qu’ils ont très peu de temps, tous ces gens là. Ils
ont leur mandat limité très, très court, et donc bientôt on verra des nouveaux.
On va peut-être discuter avec eux. On est prêt à discuter, mais en fait, ça n’a
aucun sens de discuter avec les ukrainiens parce qu’ils sont manipulés par Londrès
et Washington comme les poupées marionnettes, et toutes les négociations qu’on
a essayées d’entamer au début de l’opération spéciale ont échoué à partir du
moment quand Washington a dit « Pas de négociation. » « Vous devez
gagner sur le champ de bataille » comme a dit monsieur Borel. Alors on va voir.
On va voir. Qu’est-ce qu’ils vont gagner, s’ils vont gagner sur le champ de
bataille—les Ukrainiens—avec tout le soutien de l’OTAN, avec tout le soutien
des européens, avec toute la solidarité, avec une douche une fois par semaine
pour toute l’Europe, sans gaz, sans pétrole, avec l’inflation de 12-15%, on va
très bien voire comment les Ukrainiens vont gagner. Et à partir du moment que
nous gagnons, on va négocier avec des européens, pas avant. Nous sommes prêts,
mais si vous ne voulez pas, alors, d’abord champ de bataille, et après la table
de négociation.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Irina Dubois : Croyez-vous
que la Russie soit éloignée définitivement cette année de l’Europe, que la
confiance est perdue, confiance mutuelle également ? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Piotr Tolstoï : La Russie
ne peut pas être éloignée de l’Europe parce que la Russie est l’Europe. Comme j’ai
déjà dit, c’est le plus grand pays de l’Europe. Donc le petit morceau très
agressif envers nous—le l’Union Européen—sera bientôt éloigné de l’histoire
parce qu’il me rappelle un peu l’URSS avant sa fin. Mais la Russie ne peut pas
bouger. Elle ne peut pas changer sa position géopolitique que la Russie est
aussi l’Europe. La Russie est une civilisation à part. Ce n’est pas une énorme Pologne
pour les européens, malgré qu’il y en ait ceux qui en pensent. Ce ne serait pas
une simple réplique du system démocratique américain qui a été installé dans
les petits pays de l’Europe de l’Est. Non, la Russie est une civilisation à
part avec sa propre histoire, sa propre démocratie, son propre system politique,
et on va fonctionner comme ça, malgré tout, malgré toutes les sanctions, malgré
tous les boycottes, malgré la guerre économique, malgré tout. Mais tôt ou tard,
les européens vont venir et vont demander le dialogue. À ce moment-là, on va
réfléchir sur quelle base pourrait-être effectuer ce dialogue.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Irina Dubois : On
pourrait aussi dire aux franco-russes que justement le dialogue ne doit jamais
cesser. On essaye de maintenir ce dialogue entre les sociétés civiles. Il y a
beaucoup de gens en Europe quand je parle aux civiles ce sont des personnes qui
travaillent dans les domaines très, très variés et dont les voix se lèvent pour
le dialogue constructif et stratégique avec la Russie. Évidemment, il y a aussi
également beaucoup de forces en Europe contre ce dialogue, et vous le voyez
très, très bien. Est-ce que vous croyez en la force des sociétés civiles en Europe
? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Piotr Tolstoï : Non,
je ne crois pas. Je ne crois pas parce que les élites françaises, les élites
allemands, les élites italiennes sont tellement liées avec, économiquement liées,
avec les États-Unis, avec la Grande-Bretagne, qu’il n’y a pas la possibilité
même de dialogue, même d’une visite privée en Russie aujourd’hui. C’est quelque
chose après lequel on mène une campagne contre un politicien ou une personne
qui est venue. Donc aujourd’hui, non, et malheureusement l’Europe est en train
de perdre son rôle géopolitique, et elle est en train de perdre sa chance de
devenir avec la Russie une superpuissance mondiale. L’Europe aujourd’hui, avec
une crise économique, avec tous ces prix pour l’électricité, pour le gaz, pour
le pétrole à cause des sanctions, contre « le régime sanglant de Poutine »
comme on dit—à cause de ça, l’Europe devient une périphérie de la politique des
États-Unis et des britanniques. C’est dommage, mais c’est comme ça. Et la
société civile ne peut rien changer dans cette situation parce qu’on ne perd
pas les contacts avec nos proches, avec nos amis etc., mais ce n’est pas eux
qui prennent des décisions. Mais comme j’ai déjà dit, la Russie a des siècles
devant nous. On peut attendre que les élites politiques en Europe se changent,
et on va voir si on pourra renouveler le dialogue. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Irina Dubois : Je
remarque que la Russie n’a pas fermé ses frontières, et donc il y a des
touristes encore. On peut venir. Peut-être certaines personnes ne le savent
pas, mais autant que je sache—après corriger moi—que le tourisme existe en Russie,
et là nos amis européens, ceux qui veulent découvrir le pays, ils peuvent le
faire en termes beaucoup plus coûteux maintenant parce qu’il n’y a plus de vol
direct entre la Russie et l’Europe, mais il y a quand même des vols.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Piotr Tolstoï : Si,
il y en a à Helsinki, à Belgrade, Istanbul. Il n’y a pas de problème. On prend
un billet d’avion. On vient. Et même pour les visas récemment le président a
donné au gouvernement l’ordre de d’accepter la politique la plus ouverte en ce
qui concerne les visas etc. Donc il n’y a aucun problème. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Irina Dubois : Peut-on
négocier avec les Américains ? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Piotr Tolstoï : On va
voir. Pour l’instant les Américains ne sont pas prêts à négocier. À mon avis, ils
attendent le résultat des élections concrets et comment va se sentir leur
président Biden etc. Donc pour l’instant, la Russie est toujours prête à
négocier avec des européens, avec des Américains, mais s’ils ne veulent pas
alors… <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Irina Dubois : Pensez-vous
que les <i>mid-terms</i> aux États-Unis puissent influencer l’évolution du
conflit en Ukraine ou peut-être si un autre président, <i>non-Democrat</i>
vient… ? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Piotr Tolstoï : Ce
qui vient avec les Américains est que les Américains n’ont que leur intérêt
national. Rien d’autre ne les préoccupent pas, et un des intérêts nationaux
américains est d’affaiblir la Russie avec le conflit ukrainien. Ils vont
maintenir la guerre jusqu’au dernier Ukrainien, mais tant pis pour l’Ukraine.
Malheureusement, les Américains, comme d’ailleurs les Européens, fournissent
des armements que nous bombardons et que nous liquidons sur les territoires
ukrainiens, mais ils fournissent ces armements pour l’argent, par l’argent des
gens qui habitent dans ces pays. Ce sont leurs impôts. Donc si les Européens
sont prêts de prendre une douche une fois par semaine et de donner ses impôts
pour subventionner la guerre en Ukraine, tant pis. Donc ce n’est pas le
problème de la Russie. Mais ce que je peux dire très clairement est que tout ce
qui arrive sur le territoire ukrainien, tous les armements qui arrivent aujourd’hui
de l’Europe ou des États-Unis seront liquidés par les forces Russes, soit par
les bombardements, soit lors de combat, sur la terre, soit par l’aviation. Tout
ça sera éliminé. Voilà, donc cette aide, cette solidarité avec l’Ukraine, tous
ces belles phrases dont les politiciens européens continuent à s’échanger
depuis huit mois—ça ne sert à rien, et ça n’a aucun sens à court terme ou à
long terme dans les mois qui viennent.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Irina Dubois : Comment
voyez-vous l’évolution du conflit en l’Ukraine ? Puisqu’on a parlé du temps
long parce qu’il y avait plusieurs différentes opinions sachant que ça va se
terminer vite. Non, on va voir une négociation, mais maintenant on comprend qu’il
n’y a plus de négociations à la phase compliquée. On entre en hiver, quel est
votre pronostic ? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Piotr Tolstoï : L’hiver
était toujours une très bonne saison pour les Russes pour avancer. Je vous
rappelle qu’on a eu deux guerres avec des européens, à 1812 et à 1941, et la
première a terminé à Paris, la deuxième à Berlin. Si les Français, les Allemands
et les autres européens veulent participer dans cette guerre, veulent vraiment
que les forces de l’OTAN participent du côté ukrainien, alors on va avancer,
peut-être plus doucement, mais on va avancer, et l’hiver est une très bonne
saison pour l’avancement. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Irina Dubois : Comme
disait le Général Hiver. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Piotr Tolstoï : Oui. C’est
exact. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Irina Dubois : Vous
savez qu’il y a beaucoup de français qui s’intéressent… puisque vous avez parlé
de 1812. Je rappelle qu’après chaque conférence qu’on organise à Dialogue Franco-Russe,
que la France n’est pas en guerre avec la Russie, malgré tout ce qui se passe.
Les gens s’intéressent à la culture russe, s’intéresse à l’actualité
franco-russe, notamment tous ceux qui nous regardent sont des dizaines de
milliers de personnes en ce moment. Et vous parlez tellement bien français.
Vous gardez le lien avec la France puisque quand même on va rester positive. On
va espérer que les relations vont reprendre. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Piotr Tolstoï : On va
rester positive. On a des siècles des relations franco-russes derrière nous. On
a des siècles encore en avant. Donc, moi, j’ai une partie de ma famille en France,
par exemple, et à cause des sanctions, je ne pourrais jamais les voir à Paris
ou en France, mais ils vont venir à Moscou. Donc tout ce qui est les liens
humains, les liens culturels, les liens économiques, dans certains sens—j’espère
que ça va continuer, malheureusement, contrairement à la volonté des
politiciens. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Irina Dubois : Sur
cela, sur cette note positive, je vous remercie d’avoir accordé ce temps à Dialogue
Franco-Russe. Merci. Je vous invite à nous suivre et partager. Surtout sachez
qui le dialogue ne doit jamais cesser. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Piotr Tolstoï : Merci
beaucoup.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">FIN<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Wikipedia français (2022/12/26) :</span></b><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> Piotr Olegovitch Tolstoï,
né le 20 juin 1969 à Moscou, est un homme politique, journaliste et producteur
russe. Il est vice-président de la Douma d’État depuis le 5 octobre 2016. Il
est secrétaire de la section régionale de Moscou du parti Russie unie depuis le
31 mai 2021 et membre du haut conseil de ce parti. Piotr Tolstoï est
vice-président de l’assemblée parlementaire du Conseil de l’Europe du 28
janvier 2020 au 25 janvier 2022. Il dirige la délégation de l’assemblée
fédérale de la fédération de Russie à l’assemblée parlementaire du Conseil de l’Europe
à partir du 27 janvier 2017 jusqu’au 15 mars 2022. Il est membre de la Chambre
civique de la fédération de Russie (2012-2014). Piotr Tolstoï anime plusieurs
émissions politiques à la télévision russe… En plus de l’anglais, Piotr Tolstoï
parle le français… Il est un descendant de l’écrivain Léon Tolstoï et de l’industriel
et mécène Savva Mamontov. Depuis le 22 février 2022, après la reconnaissance
par la Russie des républiques séparatistes du Donbass, il est tombé avec d’autres
journalistes, sous le coup des sanctions de l’Union européenne.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7464222263572816025.post-14545253772030874932023-02-01T23:29:00.002+09:002023-02-01T23:31:02.594+09:00Emeritus Professor Fukushima, Kyoto University, Blasts the Ministry of Health, calling for an Investigation of all Vaccine Injuries<p><b><span face=""Open Sans", sans-serif">Emeritus Professor Fukushima, Kyoto
University, Blasts the Ministry of Health, calling for an Investigation of all
Vaccine Injuries</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">I started
learning a great deal about the corruption of medical science after the triple
meltdown at Fukushima-Daiichi in 2011. I learned from many people in the
anti-nuclear movement about the process by which the nuclear industry, national
governments, the IAEA and the WHO marginalized any scientist whose studies
revealed disturbing evidence of the harms that come from all aspects of the
nuclear industry—mining, fuel production, bomb production, meltdowns, minor and
catastrophic accidents, and the unresolvable problems of long-term nuclear
waste storage (forget the misnomer “disposal”). Dr. John W. Gofman was the
prime example of such a scientist. His career has been thoroughly documented by
David Ratcliffe on the Ratical.org website.<a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-12-15.docx#_edn1" name="_ednref1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">One
particular case that arose from the Fukushima meltdowns was the question about
what was causing the increase in thyroid tumors in children who were living
near the meltdowns when they occurred.<a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-12-15.docx#_edn2" name="_ednref2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> The increase was reported
in many mainstream news articles, but these always had to show their “balance”
by giving the last word to the reliable experts who are always available to back
up the nuclear industry. The standard and predictable response was that the apparent
spike in cases was caused by increased testing. More tumors were turning up
because the Ministry of Health had rightly increased its vigilance and done
intensive screening of children living near Fukushima Daiichi. Doctors were
simply detecting a level of thyroid abnormalities that are always there in the
general population. Thus this journalistic practice pulls readers in with a
shocking headline but dismisses the issue with a conclusion that all is well.<a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-12-15.docx#_edn3" name="_ednref3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[3]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> Curiously, but not
surprisingly, the government researchers follow the same dictum as lawyers.
Don’t ask a question in court if you don’t know what the answer is going to be.
Researchers never went to the opposite end of the country to do intensive
screening for thyroid irregularities. Of course not. What if they actually got
a result that went against the simplistic conclusion that the cases in
Fukushima were merely an over-testing effect?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHsg0JaeIFkGsq-j4c8IcnFGBYNFFnaGZ2cJ8SKUFHyB_2Q_mIaq_T3K0wmq7FFU024Y-Rqn-5eXweaWRhezqKENF7FXA5DuGNgyJXv6xllO1GJGME7-rQxuQi8ATSPEHN9CnGgP_iQ38PrniHNPoTgSIUB2k8pgBSNaX8aLLKhvIkqiKVqjGqyMjV/s802/a2-b-c-film.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="434" data-original-width="802" height="173" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHsg0JaeIFkGsq-j4c8IcnFGBYNFFnaGZ2cJ8SKUFHyB_2Q_mIaq_T3K0wmq7FFU024Y-Rqn-5eXweaWRhezqKENF7FXA5DuGNgyJXv6xllO1GJGME7-rQxuQi8ATSPEHN9CnGgP_iQ38PrniHNPoTgSIUB2k8pgBSNaX8aLLKhvIkqiKVqjGqyMjV/s320/a2-b-c-film.webp" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>See the trailer <a href="https://youtu.be/ZD9yGONdEUY">here</a></b></div><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">There is a
curious thing about many of the anti-nuclear activists who see through the
corrupted science when it pertains to nuclear news. They have taken no similar interest
in the pharmaceutical industry—the regulatory capture, corruption, fraud, and
propaganda that has been so obvious since the Covid-19 pandemic was declared.
Since 2021 there has been a stunning rise in young and middle-aged people dying
suddenly. The official and anecdotal reports of vaccine injury are stacking up
and becoming obvious just like the thyroid tumors after the Fukushima
meltdowns. Yet that’s a separate thing. “Not our issue,” they think. “We take
enough abuse being called ‘anti-nuclear, anti-science conspiracy nutjobs,’ why
would we want to be associated with those ‘anti-vaxx nutters?’” The two groups
are like the number one number two nerds in a seventh-grade class, as portrayed
in </span><a href="https://youtu.be/BS67GsImrjQ"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">Diary of a Wimpy Kid</span></i></a><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">. Desperate to get some positive
attention from the larger group, number two nerd (anti-nuclear) wants nothing
to do with number one nerd (the Covid-19 skeptics). When <i>The Defender</i>: <i>Children’s
Health Defense Fund</i>, established by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., published an
article entitled “‘Ticking Atomic Bomb’: 50+ Uranium Mills Still Dumping
Cancer-Causing Toxic Waste into U.S. Rivers,”<a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-12-15.docx#_edn4" name="_ednref4" style="mso-endnote-id: edn4;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[4]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> it was a sure bet that many
anti-nuclear groups and individuals would treat the source like it’s
radioactive. No shares, no retweets. They can get similar reports elsewhere.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">Last year,
I wrote </span><a href="https://dennisriches.wordpress.com/2021/12/29/with-every-mistake-we-must-surely-be-learning/"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">a lengthy article</span></a><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"> about this inability to see the way
the biosecurity state grew out of the nuclear security state—about the fact
they are really two facets of the same beast, so I will leave it here. The rest
of this article concerns a recent speech by Dr. Masanori Fukushima on the
dangers of the mRNA vaccines that are now becoming too common to ignore. Note
the ironic coincidence of his last name. Another coincidence is his affiliation
with Kyoto University, which was also the home of Hiroaki Koide, one of the few
nuclear scientists in Japan who took a critical stance against the way the
government was responding the Fukushima meltdowns.<a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-12-15.docx#_edn5" name="_ednref5" style="mso-endnote-id: edn5;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[5]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">On November
27, 2022, Emeritus Professor of Medicine at Kyoto University, </span><a href="https://biography.omicsonline.org/united-states-of-america/cdisc/masanori-fukushima-300985"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">Masanori Fukushima</span></a><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">, spoke to top officials at the
Japanese Ministry of Health regarding the state of knowledge about the mRNA
vaccines targeting the SARS-Cov-2 virus. Masanori Fukushima is an infectious
disease expert with over 25 years of oncology experience. He had very harsh
words to say about how the Japanese government has handled the response to the
virus, and he told the bureaucrats quite bluntly about the clear evidence of
injury and death occurring because of vaccination, as well as the worsening of the
pandemic after the summer of 2021 <i>because</i> the vaccines arrived on the
scene. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">The video of
Dr. Fukushima’s speech, which went “viral,” is in the link below—but the
subtitles are not the smoothest English translation one could make. </span><a href="https://vigilantfox.substack.com/p/japanese-professor-goes-nuclear-on"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">A professional Japanese translator improved
upon it</span></a><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">,
apparently,<a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-12-15.docx#_edn6" name="_ednref6" style="mso-endnote-id: edn6;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[6]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> but it was not an easy
speech to translate. Dr. Fukushima made a strong impression in Japanese, but he
didn’t have a well-prepared text. He was speaking off the cuff, heatedly,
quickly, and a little incoherently. His message was powerful and clear enough
in the context, but for a translator, it is difficult to infer what his pronouns
refer to, or what the subject or the object of a verb is in some cases. This is
a common problem in translating Japanese. Thus, to make a readable English
text, I’ve made some assumptions about what needs to be added. The version below
is, hopefully, a natural rendering that will be easy to read for English
speakers. A good translation should make the reader forget that she is reading
a translation, and that is what I tried to achieve here by taking liberties
with the spoken words and making revisions until I was satisfied with the
result. If it is not a faithful translation, it is at least an accurate
paraphrasing of the important points made by Dr. Fukushima.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">TRANSLATION/PARAPHRASE
<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">Japanese
doctors are capable, so they realized immediately [from the start of the
pandemic] that we should use steroids, so they sent out a guideline around
June. After that, the death rate sharply declined. That was before the vaccine,
so it was a sin for people to advise the use of this vaccine without it being
properly researched. The harm done worldwide has become an issue.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">In a journal
article published recently, it is stated that widespread harm has occurred in
people who took the vaccine, which means billions of lives may be in danger.<a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-12-15.docx#_edn7" name="_ednref7" style="mso-endnote-id: edn7;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[7]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> The issues that have been
presented need to be studied by the Ministry of Health and Labor. Or you need
to acknowledge that these harms are occurring and act accordingly. Next, this
information needs to be made available to everyone, with everyone on the same
page in terms of treatment.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">This
article has been translated and distributed to everyone, so read it thoroughly!
Another thing to note: among deaths that occurred after vaccination, half of
deaths were from effects on the nerves and the heart, among other causes of
death. You understand the mistakes, right? [All that pre-occupation with] alpha,
gamma, and beta variants, and doing all that dumb stuff achieved by gathering
incompetent scholars, completely ignoring science and medicine!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">This cannot
happen ever again. This is a country of science and technology. You’ve been ignoring
science and medicine, eroding our healthcare. It’s a mess! Shifting from
fantasy to reality, we’re seeing now how much urgent care we’ve had to give to
the people that received this vaccine and had their blood pressure rise because
of this vaccine. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">Nearly
2,000 people have died from vaccine injuries, but the actual deaths, I believe,
are several times that. Most have given up hope. They [at the ministry]
happened to conduct an autopsy and submitted an opinion on it, but the report has
been left untouched! What are they doing? There’s no reason to hide these
facts.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">Prior cases
of harm from medicine were similar. There was great suffering. No matter what,
we have to eradicate drug-induced injuries. This country has learned its lesson
about drug-induced injuries, and it has become committed to the prevention of
drug-induced injuries. But we forcefully ignored the risk in order to spend
trillions of yen to import vaccines. That’s why the pandemic has barely settled
down. Last year, it was thought that the vaccine would become widespread, and
the pandemic would come to an end because of it. I felt that was a pipe dream being
pushed by medical journals. It was a misconception. We have finally started to
grasp this. Also, about the nanoparticles: it is extremely dangerous to wrap mRNA
into nanoparticles. Various cells will absorb that and transform. We know that
now. The mechanism is clear.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">Immediately
dissolve the evaluation committee and investigate all cases. This is the
conclusion. Investigate all cases! Everybody who received the vaccine and felt
bad after it must notify medical institutions. We can’t drag our feet. The
known effects are cardiovascular disease, autoimmune disease, susceptibility to
infections. It will go to the brain. Nanoparticles will be absorbed by the
brain. Some foolish scientists say, “They can’t cross the blood-brain barrier,
so it’s okay.” I want to say to them, “You must be stupid.” And natural
immunity is being suppressed [by the vaccines]. The reason why the virus didn’t
spread in Japan at first was because people have IgA [Immunoglobulin A
antibodies] in their saliva, so they have this resistance to the coronavirus.
However, due to vaccination, natural immunity has been reduced. Natural
immunity was suppressed. That’s why this happened. It didn’t subside at all. It
spread more and more [after the vaccines arrived].<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">Did you
calculate the number of breakthrough infections? Most cases were breakthrough
infections. It’s not the unvaccinated that are infected. It’s the vaccinated
that infect each other. The Ministry of Health and Labor publicized data that
clarifies all of this. I will speak on this later.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">Whatever
you do, respond to this tomorrow. Report it properly to the newspapers and the
press and also to members of the Diet [Japanese parliament]. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">People have
reported where they received their shots, so I’m telling you that you must
investigate! Just going by what is in the documents is not right. Look at the
medical records and investigate properly. There’s no question about it. Are you
going to do science? Are you trying to erase evidence? Do the right thing. If
you don’t, you’re just going to face lawsuits in the future. Enough is enough.
I don’t want to hear any more nonsense. Nobody will be convinced by what you’re
doing.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">There is no
way to evaluate from this [approach taken thus far]! What you need to do is
look at the medical records properly—the data—look at it thoroughly case by
case. People’s lives are at stake. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">You fools!
I’ve had enough. Having gathered the members of the academy and Diet, we can’t
repeat the likes of this! From the start, we need to bring this to light with
the power of science. Which means you disband the foolish organization that is
the Vaccine Causality Evaluation Committee. Have an investigation committee to
investigate all cases. In order to do that properly, include statisticians and
decent scholars, then do the investigations. Like Dr. Sano asked, if there are
samples of tissues, what kind of process will you proceed with? This is being
researched worldwide already. Japan’s restoration is at stake. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">So many
vaccines have been administered. The Ministry of Health is promoting vaccine
uptake, but apparently only 10% of the staff there have been vaccinated. Is
this a joke?!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">First, everything
needs to be clarified. Immediately disband the Vaccine Causality Evaluation
Committee and investigate all cases. You must identify all deaths and
unreported deaths. Thousands and tens of thousands of lives are at stake! And
one more thing. We don’t know the long-term effects of this vaccine. Many
nanoparticles [enclosing mRNA] absorbed into the body will ceaselessly produce
spike proteins. People will wonder why they feel progressively ill. Suddenly, it
gets worse. Blood pressure spikes suddenly for no apparent reason. Eczema
appears out of nowhere. When we investigate, we find spike proteins. But at
this point of diagnosis, it has already moved into the next phase. We need to
stop vaccinations immediately and take care of the health of all these people.
That’s what this article says!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">People
incapable of properly comprehending the cutting edge of science are always called
upon, and the press also shows these people always repeating the same thing. It’s
foolishness on display. I’m not here to talk this over endlessly. I am here
today to set things right. That’s why I am here.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">END OF
TRANSLATION<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">Consider the
Notes to be the second part of this article. Please read Note 7 for a
discussion of examples of the emerging evidence that Dr. Fukushima based his comments
on.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">Notes<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<div style="mso-element: endnote-list;"><!--[if !supportEndnotes]--><br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-12-15.docx#_ednref1" name="_edn1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a>
David Ratcliffe, “<a href="https://www.ratical.org/ratitorsCorner/09.23.15.html">Dr.
John W. Goffman: His Life, and Research on the Health Effects of Exposure to
Ionizing Radiation</a>,” <i>Ratical.org</i>, September 23, 2015. <u><span style="color: #0563c1; mso-themecolor: hyperlink;"><o:p></o:p></span></u></p>
</div>
<div id="edn2" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-12-15.docx#_ednref2" name="_edn2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a>
<span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">Ido Ken’ichi, “</span><a href="https://cnic.jp/english/?p=5973"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">Urging
Support for the 311 Children’s Thyroid Cancer Trial</span></a><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">,” <i>Citizens’ Nuclear Information
Center</i>, April 4, 2022.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn3" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-12-15.docx#_ednref3" name="_edn3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[3]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a>
<span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">Geoff Brumfiel, “</span><a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/10/08/446873871/fukushima-study-links-childrens-cancer-to-nuclear-accident"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">Fukushima Study Links Children’s
Cancer to Nuclear Accident</span></a><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">,”
<i>NPR</i>, October 8, 2015.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn4" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><br /></p><p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-12-15.docx#_ednref4" name="_edn4" style="mso-endnote-id: edn4;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[4]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a>
Mark Olalde, Mollie Simon and Alex Mierjeski, “‘<a href="https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/uranium-mills-cancer-causing-pollution-rivers/">Ticking
Atomic Bomb’: 50+ Uranium Mills Still Dumping Cancer-Causing Toxic Waste into
U.S. Rivers</a>,” <i>The Defender: Children’s Health Defense Fund</i>, December
8, 2022.<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn5" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-12-15.docx#_ednref5" name="_edn5" style="mso-endnote-id: edn5;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[5]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a>
Hiroaki Koide, “<a href="https://apjjf.org/2020/5/Koide.html">The Fukushima
Nuclear Disaster and the Tokyo Olympics</a>,” <i>Asia Pacific Journal</i>,
Translation published March 1, 2020, Japanese version written in August 2018. From
the introduction in this article: “Hiroaki Koide, retired from the Kyoto
University Reactor Research Institute (presently called the Kyoto University
Institute for Integrated Radiation and Nuclear Science Research), is arguably
the most celebrated critic of nuclear power and the handling of the Fukushima
disaster. He is the author of numerous books in Japanese…”<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn6" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-12-15.docx#_ednref6" name="_edn6" style="mso-endnote-id: edn6;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[6]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a>
The video recordings of Dr. Fukushima and the translation posted by the vigilantfox
substack were the basis from which the translation/paraphrasing posted here was
made.<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn7" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-12-15.docx#_ednref7" name="_edn7" style="mso-endnote-id: edn7;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[7]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a>
Dr. Fukushima did not state what article he was referring to, but it could be
this one: <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoEndnoteText">S. Mansanguan, P. Charunwatthana, W. Piyaphanee, W. Dechkhajorn,
A. Poolcharoen, C. Mansanguan, “<b>Cardiovascular Manifestation of the BNT162b2
mRNA COVID-19 Vaccine in Adolescents</b>,” <b><i>Tropical Medicine and
Infectious Disease</i></b>, July 2022, 196. DOI: 10.3390/tropicalmed7080196. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;">Or perhaps it was this
one: <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoEndnoteText">K. Bardosh, A. Krug, E. Jamrozik, et al, “<b>COVID-19
vaccine boosters for young adults: a risk benefit assessment and ethical
analysis of mandate policies at universities</b>,”<b> <i>British Medical
Journal-Journal of Medical Ethics</i></b> Published Online first on December 5,
2022. doi: 10.1136/jme-2022-108449. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;">Or it may have been this
one:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoEndnoteText">C. Schwab, L.M. Domke, L. Hartmann et al. “<b>Autopsy-based
histopathological characterization of myocarditis after
anti-SARS-CoV-2-vaccination</b>.” <i>Clinical Research in Cardiology</i>, November
27, 2022. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s00392-022-02129-5">https://doi.org/10.1007/s00392-022-02129-5</a>.
From the abstract: “Standardized autopsies were performed on 25 persons who had
died unexpectedly and within 20 days after anti-SARS-CoV-2 vaccination. In four
patients who received a mRNA vaccination, we identified acute (epi-)myocarditis
without detection of another significant disease or health constellation that
may have caused an unexpected death. ... Overall, autopsy findings indicated
death due to acute arrhythmogenic cardiac failure. Thus, myocarditis can be a
potentially lethal complication following mRNA-based anti-SARS-CoV-2
vaccination.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;">Or maybe this one:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoEndnoteText">C. Schwab, L.M. Domke, L. Hartmann et al. “<b>Autopsy-based
histopathological characterization of myocarditis after
anti-SARS-CoV-2-vaccination</b>.” <i>Clinical Research in Cardiology</i>,
(2022). <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s00392-022-02129-5">https://doi.org/10.1007/s00392-022-02129-5</a>.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoEndnoteText">The article above by Schwab et al cites five other
published studies on myocarditis following vaccination. All of them were
published one year earlier in 2021:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="background: rgb(252, 252, 252); color: #333333; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention. Advisory Committee on Immunization
Practices. Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines. (2021). </span><a href="https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/acip/meetings/slides-2021-06.html"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="background: rgb(252, 252, 252); color: #004b83; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/acip/meetings/slides-2021-06.html</span></a><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="background: rgb(252, 252, 252); color: #333333; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="background: rgb(252, 252, 252); color: #333333; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">M.
Marshall, I.D. Ferguson, P. Lewis, P. Jaggi, C. Gagliardo, J.S. Collins et al
(2021) “<b>Symptomatic acute myocarditis in 7 adolescents after Pfizer-BioNTech
COVID-19 vaccination</b>.” <i>Pediatrics</i>. </span><a href="https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2021-052478"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="background: rgb(252, 252, 252); color: #004b83; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2021-052478</span></a><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="background: rgb(252, 252, 252); color: #333333; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="background: rgb(252, 252, 252); color: #333333; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">K.F.
Larson, E. Ammirati, E.D. Adler, L.T. Cooper Jr, K.N. Hong, G. Saponara et al
(2021) “<b>Myocarditis After BNT162b2 and mRNA-1273 Vaccination</b>.” <i>Circulation</i>
144(6): 506–508.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="background: rgb(252, 252, 252); color: #333333; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="background: rgb(252, 252, 252); color: #333333; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">A.K.
Verma, K.J. Lavine, C.Y. Lin (2021) “<b>Myocarditis after Covid-19 mRNA
Vaccination</b>.” <i>New England Journal of Medicine</i> 385(14): 1332–1334.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="background: rgb(252, 252, 252); color: #333333; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="background: rgb(252, 252, 252); color: #333333; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">D.
Mevorach, E. Anis, N. Cedar, M. Bromberg, E.J. Haas, E. Nadir et al (2021) “<b>Myocarditis
after BNT162b2 mRNA Vaccine against Covid-19 in Israel</b>.” <i>New England
Journal of Medicine</i> 385(23): 2140–2149.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><br /></p><p class="MsoEndnoteText">The evidence is no longer anecdotal fringe material. It
is difficult to not wonder why, since 2021, so many athletes and celebrities
have fallen ill or died suddenly long before the average age of life
expectancy. The bad news can no longer be dismissed as anecdotal or merely
correlational. The proof is in the timing of the rise in injury, illness and
death. The articles in medical journals are starting to accumulate. You asked
for peer-reviewed science? Here you go. Furthermore, the vaccine injuries being
admitted by many national governments show alarmingly high figures, far beyond
what has caused other vaccines to be taken out of use. The only thing stopping
a halt of their use is the enormous momentum of the ship that has to be turned
around. The <a href="https://childrenshealthdefense.org/community-forum/follow-the-science-covid-vaccines/">US
VAERS data</a>, for example, up to March 2022, shows 1,205,755 adverse events,
including 214,521 rated as serious and 26,396 deaths. The real figures are
probably much higher because many adverse events go unrecognized or unreported
due to the work involved in filing a report and the tendency of medical staff
and even victims to admit to themselves the possibility that an adverse vaccine
reaction has occurred. Even when they can admit they were injured, they may shrug
and say, “Well, I suppose I was one of the very rare cases. It is still wise
for everyone to take this vaccine because fewer will die overall.” See <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2022/09/mrna-covid-vaccine-booster-lymphoma-cancer/671308/">the
story of Dr. Michel Goldman</a> in <i>The Atlantic</i> for an example of this
phenomenon. This doctor, suffering from lymphatic cancer, seems incapable of
considering that in light of the fact that the vaccines impose risks, the
correct policy should have always been focused protection, fully informed
consent, and free choice for patients to decide the risk/benefit ratio for
themselves.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
</div>
</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7464222263572816025.post-8790304413273457542023-01-30T15:36:00.000+09:002023-01-30T15:36:10.457+09:00New Book: 4,500 Testimonials of Post-Jab Injuries to Female Reproductive Organs<p><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Mélodie Feron, <i>Where is My Cycle?</i> (</span></b><a name="_Hlk121947270"></a><a href="https://www.amazon.fr/est-mon-cycle-M%C3%A9lodie-Feron-ebook/dp/B0BDSCBMBF/ref=sr_1_1?__mk_fr_FR=%C3%85M%C3%85%C5%BD%C3%95%C3%91&crid=Y9AFDRSSMKGI&keywords=ou+est+mon+cycle&qid=1671005617&sprefix=ou+est+mon+cycle%2Caps%2C391&sr=8-1"><b><i><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans"; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Où est
mon cycle ?</span></i></b></a><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">)
(Self-published, September 2022). Kindle ebook. 9.5 euros</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Mélodie Feron formed </span><a href="https://health-desk.org/articles/what-is-sudden-adult-death-syndrome"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">a
group of women in France</span></a><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> who wanted to speak out about the
injuries they have suffered since they received the mRNA treatments designed to
protect them from a respiratory virus. She put their testimonials into a book
and published it in September 2022. She was </span><a href="https://youtu.be/5afv_ahNZsA"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">interviewed on Sud Radio</span></a><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> in
October. The book is not likely to be available in translation, or relevant to
people outside of France, but it may inspire similar projects in other
countries. This group is made up of women who have experienced injury to their
menstrual cycles and reproductive capacities. There are many other such groups
forming to speak about other types of injury that appeared shortly after “the
jab”: cardio-pulmonary, circulatory, inflammatory, and neurological disorders, miscarriages,
aggressive cancers, and previously healthy young and middle-aged people falling
victim to SADS (</span><a href="https://health-desk.org/articles/what-is-sudden-adult-death-syndrome"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Sudden
Adult Death Syndrome</span></a><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">)—not a new thing but certainly
something that seems to be on the rise this year. My friends in the
anti-nuclear movement might notice that the experiences of these women in Mélodie
Feron’s group sound very similar to the female victims of radiological
poisoning who have never been taken seriously by the medical establishment—the
“health physicists” who reign over the orthodoxy of all science related to the
health consequences of the nuclear industry.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Another reason for doing this translation was to
support the women in my life who have complained about the medical profession
being male-centric; that is, male doctors practicing medicine based on studies
of male patients, or male doctors misdiagnosing and not listening to or taking
seriously what their female patients tell them. I wonder how many such women
would now dismiss Mélodie Feron’s group as a bunch of anti-vaxx lunatics just
grasping for explanations for their problems.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdi1vpDqnVN3TYvWkJAX6Kz1Q45SAit9px60DKA4dd9edRSU97CtVxkK-6ju4JNHatq8oh5NlSmsLnZbrnQLielYvVfE-7BCXTvGWBP8uDZBD0tWMCwVTH5Ymcd-Z9u_Nsym-gGNgwXMvP8CD1XeXxM1BxZzmgCYefUT7LL4PHcG7gdl1nbZmCc-g2/s500/ou%20est%20mon%20cycle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="324" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdi1vpDqnVN3TYvWkJAX6Kz1Q45SAit9px60DKA4dd9edRSU97CtVxkK-6ju4JNHatq8oh5NlSmsLnZbrnQLielYvVfE-7BCXTvGWBP8uDZBD0tWMCwVTH5Ymcd-Z9u_Nsym-gGNgwXMvP8CD1XeXxM1BxZzmgCYefUT7LL4PHcG7gdl1nbZmCc-g2/s320/ou%20est%20mon%20cycle.jpg" width="207" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">TRANSLATION<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Author’s book description<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I am infinitely fortunate that women trusted me and
entrusted me with the most intimate aspects of their lives through these
testimonials.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I wrote this book as a duty of memory, so that we
never forget these terrifying years of Covid and never forget what we were
forced to undergo—a mass experiment, even before the end of the official
clinical studies (scheduled for 2023 and 2024). This forced injection destroyed
the lives of tens of thousands of us women, in France and around the world.
After one or two, or even three injections, our menstrual cycle was totally
disrupted. It became painfully hemorrhagic, or it vanished altogether. Our
cycle and bodies no longer belonged to us. Some have even, in immense pain,
lost their sense of being a woman and a mother. Some had to lose their uterus.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The individual emotional suffering and the distress
resounded painfully for each one of us, and beyond that into life as a couple.
Sexuality, social life, and desire for motherhood were in some cases destroyed.
It is a personal, immense drama with incalculable psychological consequences.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I hope that we unite, and that together we women take
back the sovereignty of our bodies that throughout the ages has too often been
taken from us.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The great discovery of this sad adventure is this
force that unites us, more than could any cliché, to each other. We are symbols
of warmth and life, the life we build for our children day by day, or the life
that we would give birth to in the future.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Beyond my own experience, this book is a search for
justice and truth. I want to give women a voice for their suffering, and to
highlight their loneliness so that it comes to an end.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The story of <i>Where is My Cycle</i> is the story of
all of us, neither alone nor crazy, in a sick society where the economy and the
accumulation of superfluous wealth come before the preservation of life for the
future. Unfortunately, they also come before what is so evidently important:
life itself.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Mélodie Feron is the founder of the collective </span><a href="https://health-desk.org/articles/what-is-sudden-adult-death-syndrome"><i><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Où
Est Mon Cycle</span></i></a><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">. After two doses of the Pfizer mRNA treatment,
Melody saw her period turn into a heavy cascade, with unprecedented pain. The
medical professionals she consulted said the cause was stress, then they fell
silent. Faced with the inaction and denial of the medical authorities, Mélodie
created <i>Où Est Mon Cycle</i>. In four months she collected more than 4,500
testimonies from women who received the same kind of neglect regarding the
appearance of these inexplicable menstrual disorders after their “anti-Covid”
injections.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://youtu.be/5afv_ahNZsA"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Interview
with Mélodie Feron on Sud Radio (36 minutes) (in French only), October 2022</span></b></a><span class="MsoHyperlink"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">See also<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">T. Parotto, J.A. Thorp, B. Hooker, P.J. Mills, J.
Newman, L. Murphy, et al. “</span></b><a href="https://www.thegms.co/publichealth/pubheal-ra-22041401.pdf"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">COVID-19
and the Surge in Decidual Cast Shedding</span></b></a><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">.” <i>Gazette
of Medical Sciences</i>. 2022; 3(1): 107- 117. </span></b><a href="https://www.doi.org/10.46766/thegms.pubheal.22041401"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">https://www.doi.org/10.46766/thegms.pubheal.22041401</span></b></a><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Abstract: <b>Background</b>: The purpose of this study
is to report on the unprecedented rise in decidual cast shedding (DCS) that
occurred in 2021. DCS is historically a rare gynecological event, with less
than 40 cases reported in the medical literature over the last 109 years.
Previous journal articles on DCS were usually case studies; population
prevalence data is non-existent. <b>Methods</b>: The MyCycleStorySM survey was
distributed via social media from May 16th, 2021, through December 31, 2021.
The total sample size for analysis was 6049 with 89.1% of the participants
responding within the first 3.5 months of the 7.5 months duration of the study.
In parallel to the survey study, a Google Trends search was completed for search
frequencies of relevant keyword terms including “decidual cast” and “decidual
cast covid vaccine.” <b>Results</b>: In the survey, 292 women (4.83 % of the
sample) reported having experienced DCS. The mean age of these predominantly
non-Hispanic white women was 36.1 ± 0.5 (SEM) years. Eleven percent were taking
hormonal contraceptives, 94.3% considered themselves healthy and 96.2% reported
that menstrual irregularities started in 2021. According to Google metadata,
search terms for "decidual cast shedding" substantially increased
during the months of April, May, and June 2021. These peaks in searches
represented a 2000% increase over the first quarter of 2021. <b>Conclusions</b>:
There was a significant increase in self-reported DCS in the latter part of
2021 compared to all pre-pandemic cases. More research is urgently needed to
investigate the factors contributing to DCS in 2021 and whether this trend is
continuing.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans"; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans"; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">FRANCAIS<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans"; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans"; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">J’ai eu la chance infinie
que les femmes me fassent confiance et me confient leur intimité la plus grande
à travers ces témoignages.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans"; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans"; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">J’écris ce livre comme un
devoir de mémoire, pour que nous n’oublions jamais ces années terrifiantes de
la Covid, ce à quoi nous avons été obligées, une expérimentation de masse,
avant même la fin des études cliniques officielles (prévue en 2023 et 2024).
Cette injection forcée qui a détruit la vie de dizaines de milliers d’entre
nous, les femmes, en France et dans le monde, et qui avons constaté après 1 ou
2 voire 3 injections notre cycle menstruel totalement perturbé. Hémorragique,
extrêmement douloureux ou absent, notre cycle et nos corps ne nous
appartenaient plus. Certaines ont même, douleur immense, perdu leur âme de
femme, de mère voire leur utérus...<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans"; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans"; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">La souffrance individuelle,
émotionnelle, cette détresse, a retenti douloureusement pour chacune, et
au-delà, à travers leur vie de couple, leur vie sexuelle, leur vie sociale et
leur désir de maternité parfois anéanti. C’est un drame personnel, immense, aux
conséquences psychologiques incalculables.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans"; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans"; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Je souhaite que nous nous
unissions, et qu’ensemble, nous les femmes, nous reprenions la souveraineté de
notre corps qui à travers les âges nous a trop souvent été enlevée.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans"; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans"; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">La grande découverte de
cette triste aventure est cette force qui nous unit, loin de tout cliché, les
unes aux autres. Nous sommes symboles de chaleur et de Vie, celle que nous
construisons pour nos enfants au jour le jour ou que nous donnerions demain.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans"; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans"; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Au-delà de mon propre vécu,
ce livre est une recherche de justice et de vérité. Je veux rendre la parole
aux femmes, à leurs souffrances, et mettre en lumière leur solitude pour
qu’elle cesse.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans"; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans"; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">L’histoire d’<i>Où est mon
cycle</i>, c’est notre histoire à toutes, ni seules, ni folles, dans une
société malade où l’économie et l’accumulation de richesses superflues passe
avant le futur et malheureusement avant ce qui doit être la première évidence :
la Vie.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans"; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans"; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Mélodie Feron est la
fondatrice du collectif OÙ EST MON CYCLE. Après 2 doses Pfizer, Mélodie a vu
ses règles se transformer en cascades, avec des douleurs inédites. Le corps
médical qu’elle consulte évoque le stress puis c’est le silence. Devant
l’inaction et le déni des autorités médicales, Mélodie a créé <i>Où est mon
Cycle</i>, elle a recueilli en 4 mois plus de 4500 témoignages de femmes qui
pour beaucoup ont reçu le même genre de non-réponse après le déclenchement de
ces troubles menstruels insensés consécutifs à leur injection « contre le Covid
».<o:p></o:p></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7464222263572816025.post-13221114370877209812023-01-28T15:30:00.009+09:002023-01-28T15:36:14.634+09:00Corporate High Plains Grifters<p><span style="font-family: "Open Sans";">The swindler. The
conman. The grifter. The snake oil huckster. The carnival tent preacher. These
are the words for the iconic itinerant salesman who wandered the frontier
selling one false cure and one false hope after another, each time moving on to
a new gullible community, then circling back eventually to dupe the same people
all over again. Interestingly, this icon was also pejoratively called an
“innovator” back in the 19th century, which tells us something about the
pervasive use of the term “innovation” in modern times in the corporate world. The
wares sold by the nuclear and pharmaceutical industries are merely the
large-scale iteration of the high plains swindler of two centuries ago.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans";"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans";">The mark of a good
swindler is his ability to double down and deceive again when confronted by his
victims. If he had told them that a fire-breathing dragon was roaming the
Oklahoma Territory and they needed to spray his patented repellent at the edge
of town to ward it off, he would still have an answer for customers who later woke
up to the con. If the dragon didn’t come, he could say, “See! It worked.” If
the dragon came and burned down the village, he could say, “But don’t you know
there are ten dragons out there now! It would have been so much worse without
my patented protection!” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans";"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans";">A memorable depiction
of the swindler in fiction was in the picaresque film <i>Little Big Man,</i>
directed by Arthur Penn in 1970, based on the novel by Thomas Berger published
in 1964. Dustin Hoffman played the lead as Jack Crabb, a young man thrown into
the world of the 19th century frontier with an “intersectional” identity, as he
was a white boy raised by the Cheyenne who was then bounced back into the white
settler world in his teen years, then sent back again to live with the Cheyenne.
Berger took delight in sending up every cliché and trope of the Western genre:
the gunslinger, the buffalo hunter, the buffalo soldier, the sadistic preacher,
the hypocritical preacher’s wife who becomes the fallen woman enslaved in a
brothel, the noble savage, the card cheat, and the itinerant snake oil
salesman. With a story element later used in <i>Forrest Gump</i>, the fictional
Jack Crabb crosses paths with historical figures and narrates the story as if
he was the factor that determined history—for example, setting up General
Custer to be slaughtered at Little Big Horn.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans";"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans";">In order to survive
after running away from his adoptive parents (the preacher and his wife), he
takes up with a swindler, Allardyce T. Merriweather, playing for him the role
of the anonymous man in the crowd who was magically cured by the snake oil
being promoted. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans";"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk__61UuOXX3FgJpLV0Ao089d3QBVlZMkWENGVDN6xV-DVtRheNWGGVu-YpaXDmEm4jQi5Pc2Osvy1E4y3tMtJyOC7hEAt1yrIkm0VHlPlXwTGqkswL9SwrLGXSOpdj8mS85zAQwflytToPdLUkr8l5g_lb1mtziZ7xPzGA1XTFvVTVVfMpQ7CYzoC/s700/little%20big%20man%20poster.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="700" height="217" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk__61UuOXX3FgJpLV0Ao089d3QBVlZMkWENGVDN6xV-DVtRheNWGGVu-YpaXDmEm4jQi5Pc2Osvy1E4y3tMtJyOC7hEAt1yrIkm0VHlPlXwTGqkswL9SwrLGXSOpdj8mS85zAQwflytToPdLUkr8l5g_lb1mtziZ7xPzGA1XTFvVTVVfMpQ7CYzoC/s320/little%20big%20man%20poster.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans";">__________ <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans";"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans";">Dialog from <i>Little
Big Man</i></span></b><i><span style="font-family: "Open Sans";"> </span></i><span style="font-family: "Open Sans";">(<i>00:34:13 in the film</i>)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans";"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans";">Jack Crabb (narrating):
After starving for a while, I took up with a swindler by the name of Allardyce
T. Merriweather. After Mrs. Pendrake, his honesty was downright refreshing.
Merriweather was one of the smartest men I ever knowed, but he tended to lose
parts of himself. When I joined him, his left hand and left ear were already
gone. During my years with Merriweather, he lost an eye as a result of a fifth
ace dropping out of his sleeve in a poker game. It didn’t phase him, though.
Deception was his life’s blood, even if it caused him to get whittled down kind
of gradual like.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans";"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans";">Mr. Merriweather: You’re
improving, Jack, but you just can’t seem to get rid of that streak of honesty
in you. The one that ruined you was that old Indian, Old Tipi.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans";"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans";">Jack Crabb: You mean
Old Lodge Skins.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans";"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans";">Mr. Merriweather: He
gave you a vision of moral order in the universe, and there isn’t any. Those
stars twinkle in a void there, boy, and the two-legged creature schemes and
dreams beneath them, all in vain. All in vain, Jack. The two-legged creature
will believe anything, and the more preposterous the better. Whales speak
French at the bottom of the sea. Horses of Arabia have silver wings. Pygmies
mate with elephants in darkest Africa. I have sold all those propositions.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans";"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans";">Jack Crabb: Maybe we’re
all fools and none of it matters.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans";"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans";">Mr. Merriweather: Aaah!
You stay with Allardyce Merriweather, and you’ll wear silk.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans";"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans";">Jack Crabb: What I don’t
know is do I want to wear silk...<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans";">…<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans";"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans";">Caroline Crabb: Seven
folks are dead because of this precious medicine. What’s in it?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans";"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans";">Mr. Merriweather:
Nothing harmful. I assure you...<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans";"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans";">Mr. Merriweather: We
got caught, Jack. That’s all. Life contains a particle of risk.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans";"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans";">Jack Crabb: Mr.
Merriweather, you don’t know when you’re licked.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans";"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans";">Mr. Merriweather:
Licked? I’m not licked. I’m tarred and feathered. That’s all.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Open Sans";"><br /></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Open Sans";">Allardyce T.
Merriweather: Martin Balsam, Jack Crabb: Dustin Hoffman, Caroline Crabb: Carole
Androsky <o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans";">__________<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGqpfzxF_MzQv6SBrg5ngI5eZGlMHZmMmmHJN-WTcyp7tfATcLZe21gfvckznA1EhJN6B1v-ArNj97NTaCpthTDOzPAZQT3vqSzLwKt3fOY9baRlGbxUj4GCXbrvnPqG-xqs_IjcnViYscboV164WkM_WGmiDJadTAyZfp0jKOuEbqlL4NJeMKm2Lf/s800/martin%20balsam-little%20big%20man-02.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="487" data-original-width="800" height="195" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGqpfzxF_MzQv6SBrg5ngI5eZGlMHZmMmmHJN-WTcyp7tfATcLZe21gfvckznA1EhJN6B1v-ArNj97NTaCpthTDOzPAZQT3vqSzLwKt3fOY9baRlGbxUj4GCXbrvnPqG-xqs_IjcnViYscboV164WkM_WGmiDJadTAyZfp0jKOuEbqlL4NJeMKm2Lf/s320/martin%20balsam-little%20big%20man-02.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans";"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans";">Mr. Merriweather
appears once more toward the end of the story at Jack’s lowest moment. He
passes by now with his right leg missing, reminding Jack, “Life contains a
particle of risk, my boy.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans";"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans";">While I was searching
the internet for the correct spelling of “Allardyce,” the name appeared in </span><a href="https://www.cleveland.com/opinion/2022/01/and-the-hornswoggler-nominees-are-rob-dewitt-and-charlie-tercek.html"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans";">an opinion piece written for Cleveland.com</span></a><span style="font-family: "Open Sans";">, “the premier news and information website in
the state of Ohio” owned by Advance Local Media.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans";"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans";">That idea of the
writers, Rob DeWitt and Charlie Tercek, was similar to mine here. They took
Allardyce T. Merriweather as the emblem of the iconic frontier swindler, then
compared him to several contemporary political figures, coming up with a list
“hornswoggler nominees” for the year 2022.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans";"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans";">What I find odd about
their reference to Merriweather is that they focus on the capacity for the
two-legged creature to believe any idea that a con artist sells to them. The
focus is on the false premise believed by the gullible and not on the
criminality of the swindler. The targets of Rob DeWitt and Charlie Tercek are
all prominent Republicans who have some crazy beliefs such as the following:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-left: 21.3pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -21.3pt;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Open Sans";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-left: 21.3pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -21.3pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Open Sans";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Open Sans";">Sea levels
are rising because of rocks falling into the ocean.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 21.3pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -21.3pt;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Open Sans";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 21.3pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -21.3pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Open Sans";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Open Sans";">California
wildfires were caused not by climate change but by lasers from outer space.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 21.3pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -21.3pt;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Open Sans";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 21.3pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -21.3pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Open Sans";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Open Sans";">President
Joe Biden’s election victory was the result of an international conspiracy tied
to former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who’d been dead for more than seven
years.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left: 21.3pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -21.3pt;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Open Sans";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left: 21.3pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -21.3pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Open Sans";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">4.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Open Sans";">Donald
Trump was the greatest president America ever had.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans";"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans";">They write as if the
politicians they like, or anyone for that matter, don’t have their own irrational
beliefs. I could make a very long list of examples here, but I refrain. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans";"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans";">They also miss the
obvious point that the target worthy of criticism should be the deceiver rather
than the deceived. Their targets have some strange beliefs, but their beliefs
are not tied to any substantial snake oil they are trying to sell. They are
just some weird ideas that no one thinks about too seriously. For example, one
of the targets, Congressional Representative Marjorie Taylor Green, does indeed
believe some strange things, but she stood up for something that really matters
when </span><a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2022/05/11/rep_taylor_greene_congress_sends_40_billion_to_ukraine_while_american_mothers_cant_find_baby_forumula.html#!"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans";">she decried the critical shortage of baby
formula</span></a><span style="font-family: "Open Sans";"> at a time when the
government was pledging billions of dollars for weapons for Ukraine. The
government started to move on this issue after she and other Republicans
started to talk about it, so, in spite of her personal beliefs about certain
matters, she arguably helped save the lives of infants. However, in the
rancorous and childish partisan discourse, people prefer to constantly ridicule
opponents rather than give them credit when they achieve something laudable. I’ve
been a two-legged creature walking beneath the stars for sixty-three years and
I have never met anyone who did not have some kind of irrational belief that
guided his or her life. But sensible people overlook such differences, knowing
the believers themselves don’t really take their beliefs so seriously or
literally. Instead, they look for the good in people, and get on with solving practical
problems of mutual concern. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans";"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans";">I prefer to use
Allardyce T. Merriweather as a lens with which to understand the hucksters and
innovators in the world of corporations and charitable foundations. They indeed
have proven in the last three years that the two-legged creature will believe
anything, and the more preposterous the better. Nuclear energy is clean. In
darkest Africa, there is an inexhaustible supply of metals for the batteries
for everyone’s electric cars. Russia diddled with your sacred democracy. Masks
can stop a viral pandemic. A safe and effective vaccine—for a cold virus!<span style="color: red;">*</span>—can be developed in six months, at “warp speed,” at
“the speed of science.” </span><a href="https://youtu.be/3zZdIdxhuuY"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans";">That wasn’t Hunter Biden’s laptop</span></a><span style="font-family: "Open Sans";">. There is no going back to normal. You’ll need
a booster shot every six months from here to eternity. They have sold all those
propositions and more. The human body is the new frontier, Jack. We’ve struck a
vein of gold like never before. Stick with me, my boy. Invest your pension
savings with us and you’ll wear silk pajamas in your old age. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans";"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans";">In addition to the
theft that the swindlers accomplish, there is the cynical, nihilistic
philosophy that they spread. The cynicism darkens even their own existence, so
their only comfort is the ambition to “wear silk.” Before capitalism, people
believed there was a moral order in the universe, but the Merriweathers of the
world have convinced the masses “Those stars twinkle in a void, and the
two-legged creature schemes and dreams beneath them all in vain.” In spite of
the two-legged creature getting justice once in a while by chopping of a limb
from the corporate behemoth, it carries on, insisting its victims are too dumb
to develop healthy skepticism and live in mutually beneficial ways.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans";"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans";">So who would I
nominate for the Allardyce T. Merriweather Hornswoggler Hall of Fame? I’ll let
readers decide. Take your pick. There are so many to choose from this year.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: red; font-family: "Open Sans";">*</span><span style="font-family: "Open Sans";"> </span><a href="http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/?p=205182&fbclid=IwAR0BM3hdb6OHN6MNpV7aKP43Z-Tj5mdC7025bnO8uHR4o7lGyk8GgMQaTDI"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans";">Dr. Stefano Montanari</span></a><span style="font-family: "Open Sans";">, <b><span style="color: red;">March 19, 2020</span></b>:
“The major issue at stake is the vaccines. The regime that now encompasses the
world will force the world to vaccinate—that is, to vaccinate against a virus
that does not give immunity, as is the case [with a coronavirus]. If 50 years
ago, at my exam of pharmacology, I had told my examining professor—who was one
of the most knowledgeable pharmacologists of the time—something like that, I
would have been thrown out the door, for only an incompetent can imagine a
vaccine against a virus that does not give immunity and has no chance of being
effective. We are talking about a virus that mutates at very fast speed and we
cannot possibly run after its mutations.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7464222263572816025.post-88067524988691479442023-01-01T18:09:00.002+09:002023-01-01T18:10:44.785+09:00Wrap Party for the Covid Production<p><span face=""Open Sans", sans-serif">Wrap Party
for the Covid Production: A Call for “Amnesty” and a Dissident Professor of
Medicine is Exonerated by the French Order of Physicians</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">Part 1<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">Professor
of medicine, Christian Perronne, sacrificed his high position within the French
medical establishment by speaking his mind during the Covid-19 emergency. He
opposed the non-pharmacological interventions (masking, social distancing,
school closures, confining the healthy etc.), the suppression of timely
treatment with effective off-patent drugs, and the mandating and coercion of a
medical treatment that had an insufficient record of safety and efficacy. His
enemies attempted to have him disciplined by the medical profession, but in a
decision rendered in October 2022 by the Order of Physicians, Professor
Perronne was completely vindicated. The decision said nothing about whether his
views were correct, but it gave a full endorsement of his right to speak and
even his obligation to speak about important matters within his field of
expertise. A translation of a report on this news follows in Part 2.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">Such
decisions coming 2.5 years after the emergency began may be a sign that the establishment’s
reckoning of “how we got it so wrong” has begun. Look at the shifting media
perspective about Bush’s war that emerged in the 2006-08 period for a
historical example. First they cheered it on, then they performed a
self-excusing show of mild contrition. Perhaps what is happening now is just
something that was planned all along. That is, those who carried out the
suppression knew that the dissidents would have to be re-instated eventually,
after objectives had been achieved, but they had to be sidelined for a while.
Increasingly, there is official recognition that “mistakes were made” and the
reputations of dissenters are being quietly restored. Prosecutions are being
dropped as the witch hunters begin to fear the whirlwind of civil lawsuits coming
for them.<a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-11-08.docx#_edn1" name="_ednref1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">A short,
fatuous piece by Emily Oster (professor of economics at Brown University) was
published by <i>The Atlantic </i>on October 31, 2022<i> </i>suggesting there should
be an amnesty for all that was said and done for the last thirty months and that
we should just forgive each other for unspecified transgressions and move on.<a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-11-08.docx#_edn2" name="_ednref2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> Over the next week there
was a furious blast of anger on social media about this call for amnesty,
summed up in the concise joke below cracked by Jimmy Dore.<a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-11-08.docx#_edn3" name="_ednref3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[3]</span></span></span></span></a></span></p><p class="MsoNormal">_____</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">“<i>Do
you think the Pandemic Amnesty will be a safe and effective treatment?
Personally, I worry about the possible cases of breakthrough ‘Go-fuck-yourself</i>.’”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">-
Jimmy Dore, “</span><a href="https://youtu.be/nqxGLxepUbM"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">COVID Smear Artists Want ‘Amnesty’ for
Their Lies</span></a><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">,” <i>The
Jimmy Dore Show</i>, October 4, 2022, (27:00~).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">_____</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans", sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans", sans-serif">The <i>Atlantic</i>
article implied no apologies are needed. The crimes and transgressions need not
be specified or discussed. It’s like waking up after a wild party, apparently. The
adults did some crazy, drunken stuff and now they can’t find their underwear,
but memories are vague, so they say, “Let’s just blame it on the booze, kids, crawl
home in this harsh morning light and forget about it.” They meant well. Come
on, who knew? It’s time to get ready for the next thing, right? Oster actually
doesn’t acknowledge any mistakes more serious than closing beaches or keeping
schools closed too long. She evinces no awareness of medical research fraud and
vaccine injuries, or of the crimes described so thoroughly in Robert F.
Kennedy’s book </span><a href="https://www.skyhorsepublishing.com/9781510766808/the-real-anthony-fauci/"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">The Real Anthony Fauci</span></i></a><span face=""Open Sans", sans-serif">. The call for amnesty says, “You
lost your job or your business and the media and the government taught your
friends and family to label you as villainous anti-social trash worthy of exile
or death, but hey, we meant well.” (Heh-heh. Shrug. Headscratch.) “We couldn’t
have known at the time, right? After all, we were working at the speed of
science.”<a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-11-08.docx#_edn4" name="_ednref4" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[4]</span></span></span></a></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">This
messaging calling for amnesty was entirely predictable because the misdeeds are
too wide, deep, and consequential to ever be faced honestly by most people. Too
many perpetrators, too many accessories to the crimes. Buyer’s remorse is much
less common than buyer’s denial, or what cognitive scientists call “choice-supportive
bias” and “post-purchase rationalization.” It’s hard to admit you bought the snake
oil, and in this case, it’s going to be extremely difficult for the complicit
to admit they didn’t just buy the juice but also did the salesman’s work for
him and coerced others to swallow the poison against their will, or they stood
by silently while it was all going down. Silence is passive consent and
participation. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">Some people
were merely comfortable and complacent and didn’t care one way or the other.
They just didn’t want to face the risks and experience the stress of talking
over the most divisive issue of their lifetimes. The silent ones were in some
ways worse than those who spoke out. At least the belligerent ones were willing
to cough up what others were afraid to say. I will always remember the friends
who expected me to laugh along with their ridicule of “anti-vaxxers” and
“conspiracy nuts” while they accepted everything that was being fed to them
through official channels.<a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-11-08.docx#_edn5" name="_ednref5" style="mso-endnote-id: edn5;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[5]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> There was that awkward
silence when they realized I wasn’t on board. At best, they reduced contact and
spoke around the issue. In the worst cases, they cut off contact completely
without explanation, and I admit I did too.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">One strange
aspect of the split I went through with people is that I was living in Japan
and observing the North American anti-“anti-vaxx” mass psychosis from the
outside. I knew what was being said in the media, but I wasn’t in the cult. North
Americans couldn’t appreciate that Japanese society was managing to function with
very low “Covid deaths” and without all the strife and trauma created around
vaccine coercion and enforcement. The Japanese government went as far as to
explicitly forbid institutions from requiring vaccination. Peer pressure did a
good job of coercing people, but there was no official pressure on people to
vaccinate, and no pressure put on retail businesses to require proof of
vaccination from their customers.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">One old
friend who decided to have a confrontation lectured me about the need to do the
right thing and not spread dangerous information. After he took the mRNA shots,
he needed surgery for an aneurysm in his arm and his partner developed an
embolism in both lungs. I had no idea how to talk to him after hearing that and
haven’t talked to him since. I have a list of seven other friends and relatives
who had medical downturns within a year of getting the shots—a large increase
compared with my memories from years just before 2021 of people in my social
circles needing hospitalization. And by that, I mean there were none in
2019-2020.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">Meanwhile, I
declined the proffered “vaccination,” and I survived the “dark winter of death”
threatened by US President Joe Biden, and I also survived the dreaded infection
in the summer. I did this in my early sixties, not by gambling with my life but
by educating myself about my risk profile (no chronic illnesses) and how to
stay healthy. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">I have
hesitated for months to talk about this because I know people will say I was
reckless, and that I just got lucky. They will say I’m gloating about my good
fortune and rejoicing in the suffering of others. Yes, I’m fortunate, but I
also did a lot throughout my lifetime to stay in good health. But I’m not gloating
or taking satisfaction in the suffering of others. I want to stress that,
unlike the people who joined the two minutes of hate against the unvaccinated, I
never in my life demanded denial of health care for those who didn’t conform to
my standard of responsible healthy living and disease prevention. I don’t gloat
about the sudden untimely deaths in 2022 of those who wished harm and
banishment on the “unvaccinated” in 2021, but I will say that these ironic
deaths are an interesting phenomenon that has to be noted in the historical
record. They provide a teachable moment. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">Many young
and middle-aged people have died over the last year from sudden heart attacks,
and debate rages over whether the cause is Covid or the “vaccines,” the stress
caused by pandemic measures, or whether these deaths would have occurred in any
case. The famous example of this in November 2022 is Julie Powell who died at
age 49 after having both a recent booster mRNA shot and a recent Covid
infection.<a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-11-08.docx#_edn6" name="_ednref6" style="mso-endnote-id: edn6;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[6]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> The invective she had
hurled at the unvaccinated only added to the controversy. At the very least,
her case is further evidence that the mRNA shots are useless if they lead to one
getting Covid and dying from it after the infection has apparently ended.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">It’s been a
nightmare to watch people turn a deaf ear to rational argument and to see
medical disasters fall on people I care about. I’m telling what I saw happening
around me because it’s important that the stories be told in order to have a
proper reckoning with the history of the Covid emergency. For the record, I
have to say I did not get long covid. It was easy to isolate myself for a few
days. I did not put others at risk. I did not end up in that situation that was
played up in the media constantly—the portrayal of pathetic victims (played by
crisis actors) gasping for air in hospital and regretting that they didn’t take
the shot. In the fear porn, it was never a doctor regretting the loss of a
patient due to the systemic failure to teach prevention and the importance of
getting treatment as soon as symptoms appear, never a dying patient asking why
he was not allowed to proper treatment on day 1.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">A curious
aspect of the Covid extremism is that in spite of the fear, outrage and blame that
people express verbally, their actions seem to speak otherwise. It is a strange
kind of believing but not really believing. John Steppling and his guests on
the podcast <i>Aesthetic Resistance</i> have talked about this recently, and
they might be the first to have made what should actually be an obvious point.
The extremists say that masks protect us from the pandemic, but even for them
it must be obvious that masks never stopped the spread of the virus. They know
the virus continued to spread after the vaccines were deployed (though some
still erroneously blame the unvaccinated for perpetuating the pandemic). They
know that what they claim to be a very dangerous virus is still out there, yet they
wear their imperfect masks and get their imperfect “vaccines” then go back into
crowds, back into shopping malls, back onto airplanes. A </span><a href="https://dennisriches.wordpress.com/2022/10/20/choices-for-the-authentic-self-under-medical-coercion-trauma-expert-gabor-mate-still-ignores-the-elephant-in-the-room/"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">self-help guru</span></a><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"> says vaccine mandates are justified
for university students, then he takes his old body on an international book
promotion tour. They ride crowded escalators instead of taking the wide empty
staircases beside them, foregoing the option to do one small thing to stay away
from people, burn calories, lose weight and thus be less vulnerable to fatal
inflammation while infected. If the virus were really that terrifying, they
would never leave their homes. They know on some level of consciousness that
they don’t really believe any of it. Their behavior is largely performative,
done for reasons that remain a mystery. As John Steppling pointed out on his
podcast, it is similar to the way that people express fear of oceans rising and
destroying life as we know it within ten years, yet they continue to save money
for their children’s college education or for various other common middle-class
aspirations.<a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-11-08.docx#_edn7" name="_ednref7" style="mso-endnote-id: edn7;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[7]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">The call
for amnesty is to be expected in the culture of impunity that has been
entrenched for a long, long time. There were officially admitted “probable
conspiracies” in the assassinations of the 1960s, but no further investigations
were pursued. Vietnamese forces defeated the invading army in 1972, but
President Nixon had to call it “retreat with honor” for a foreign policy
mistake and moral failing that “had good intentions.” Mr. Teflon, President Reagan,
said “mistakes were made” in the Iran-Contra affair, but he was not impeached,
and his vice president became president in 1989. The destruction of buildings
on September 11, 2001, and the anthrax attacks that followed, still have not
been fully explained, to say the least. The full list of unsolved and
unprosecuted state crimes is much longer.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">Charles
Eisenstein explained very well why the lame request for amnesty must not be
accepted. The reason is not because the offended parties want to gloat or to demand
revenge, humiliation, and punishment. The reason is that to prevent the crime
wave from recurring, the perpetrators have to demonstrate contrition and an
understanding of all that they did wrong. It is more than a matter of “not
knowing at the time.” It is a matter of not learning at the time what could
have easily been known, and it was a matter of vicious denunciation of those
who pointed out the crimes that were being committed. Professor Oster wrote,
“The people who got it right, for whatever reason, may want to gloat. Those who
got it wrong, for whatever reason, may feel defensive and retrench into a
position that doesn’t accord with the facts.” For whatever reason? This is a sinister
attempt to obscure what really happened and what the issue now must be. Vague
glosses like “for whatever reason” are unacceptable. The people who got it
right did so not because of a crazy bet on a roll of dice. They got it right by
being skeptical of those in power, asking questions, reading, learning, and
analyzing the issue correctly.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">Charles Eisenstein
provided a precise list of the questions that need to be faced:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">The
invisible workings of the Covid machine must be laid bare if we are to prevent
something similar from happening again. People and institutions must become
cognizant of the role they played in the social catastrophe that was Covid. I
will support amnesty when…<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">… the
universities admit they coerced young people to take unnecessary and dangerous
vaccines<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">… Pfizer
describes how it manipulated data to get its shots approved<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">… regulators
confess that they allowed shoddy vaccine manufacturing processes to proceed
without oversight<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">… medical
boards and hospitals acknowledge that they expelled doctors for using
beneficial therapies<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">… the
FDA admits that it removed helpful drugs from the market<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">… social
media platforms acknowledge that they censored important, true information<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">… fired
workers are reinstated with back pay<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">… the
government acknowledges vaccine damage and compensates the victims<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">… regulatory
agencies are freed of corporate influence<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">… vaccines
are subjected to long-term, robust scientific study to determine safety and
efficacy<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">… mainstream
media gives attention to the dissidents and whistleblowers it has ignored and
ridiculed<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">… brave,
conscientious doctors like Peter McCullough and Meryl Nass are reinstated by
professional organizations and medical boards<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">… a
moratorium is declared on genetically engineered bioweapons research, and its
full extent made transparent to the public <o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">These
are the kinds of things that would have to happen for me to trust that amnesty
wouldn’t mean license to repeat the crimes, again with the excuse of “We didn’t
know.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">OK,
Professor Oster, you didn’t know. Do you know now? Show us. Make the effort to
get to the bottom of why you didn’t know. Believe me that I speak for many when
I say, truly: We do not want revenge. We don’t want to gloat. We don’t want to
keep score. We want this never to happen again.</span></i><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-11-08.docx#_edn8" name="_ednref8" style="mso-endnote-id: edn8;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[8]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOc7iD12QyNGgz8RwgU70zODTjeCzVJdUeizkJBldWI3XK8oDfG7tQqbLK9vI_LunWzLVyebdjf1sBqG6Z0dX9VcQQB8bOjRzPsfNyV38Lkcjh_4MOIPcsxk6QexO3HqfSc2aUuXwrIe-4uxCgVYPjglzI4ZNa0TycpaqeZujLTqRPGFHGF60pMY8K/s288/amnesty-vanity%20fair.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="288" data-original-width="255" height="288" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOc7iD12QyNGgz8RwgU70zODTjeCzVJdUeizkJBldWI3XK8oDfG7tQqbLK9vI_LunWzLVyebdjf1sBqG6Z0dX9VcQQB8bOjRzPsfNyV38Lkcjh_4MOIPcsxk6QexO3HqfSc2aUuXwrIe-4uxCgVYPjglzI4ZNa0TycpaqeZujLTqRPGFHGF60pMY8K/s1600/amnesty-vanity%20fair.jpg" width="255" /></a></div><br /><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">For
whatever reason</span></i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">, by
endorsing mandates, Professor Oster supported violation of the Nuremberg Code,
and various other codes of medical ethics, in order to coerce people into
taking an experimental medical treatment. Now she argues for amnesty for
unspecified mistakes.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">Though I
said at the top there is sort of a Covid wrap party in motion, that does not
mean there won’t be sequels. I leave the last word to C.J. Hopkins:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1cm;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">In
our brave new totalitarian global-capitalist “reality,” anyone who questions or
challenges ... “facts” immediately renders oneself a “Deviant” and is
excommunicated from “Normal” society. Seriously, just for fun, try to get a job
at a corporation, or a university, or a part in a movie or a Broadway play, or
a book deal, or a research grant, etc., while being honest about your beliefs
about Covid. Or, if you’re a “respectable” journalist, you know, with literary
and public-speaking agents, and book deals, and personal managers, and so on,
go ahead, report the facts (i.e., the actual facts, which you know are there,
but which you have been avoiding like the plague for the last two years), and
watch your career get violently sucked down the drain like a turd in an
airplane toilet. That last bit was meant for “urban professionals,” who still
have careers, or are aspiring to careers, or are otherwise still invested in
remaining members in good standing of “Normal” society, i.e., not you folks in
Florida and Idaho, or my fellow literary and artistic “Deviants.” We have
pretty much burned our bridges at this point. Unless you’re prepared to
mindfuck yourself, and gaslight yourself, and confess, and convert, there’s no
going back to “normal” society (which we couldn’t go back to anyway, on account
of how it doesn’t exist anymore) ... We’re not going back. The Normals are
never going to “wake up.” Because they’re not asleep. They’re not hypnotized.
They’re not going to “come to their senses” one day and take responsibility for
the damage they have done. Sure, they will apologize for their “mistakes,” and
admit that possibly they “overreacted,” but the official narrative of the Covid
pandemic and the new “reality” it has ushered into being will remain in force,
and they will defend both with their lives. Or, rather, they will defend both
with our lives. If you think I’m being hyperbolic, well, consider the epithets
GloboCap has conditioned the Normals to use to demonize us … “conspiracy
theorist,” “science denier,” “insurrectionist,” “extremist,” “violent domestic
terrorist.” None of which signify a political ideology or any political or
critical position whatsoever. They signify deviation from the norm. Any type of
deviation from the norm. They are tactical terms, devoid of meaning, designed
to erase the political character of the diverse opposition to global-capitalism
(or “globalism,” if you are touchy about the word “capitalism”), to lump us all
into one big bucket of “deviance.” It is usually not a very good omen when
nations—or totally unaccountable, supranational global-power systems—suddenly
break out the “deviance bucket.” It is usually a sign that things are going to
get ugly, ugly in a totalitarian fashion, which is precisely what has been
happening for the past six years.<a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-11-08.docx#_edn9" name="_ednref9" style="mso-endnote-id: edn9;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[9]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>- </span><a href="https://cjhopkins.substack.com/p/the-road-to-totalitarianism-revisited"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">C.J. Hopkins, 2022/11/14</span></a><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">Part 2<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">A
translation of a report in FranceSoir on Professor Perronne’s exoneration<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://www.francesoir.fr/sante/pr-perronne-remporte-l-ensemble-de-ses-procedures-devant-la-chambre-disciplinaire-il-avait-l"><b><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">Complete victory for Professor
Perronne before the disciplinary chamber of the Order of Physicians</span></b></a><b><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">F.
Froger / Z9, for FranceSoir<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">2022/10/22<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">TRANSLATION<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">At a press
release dated October 22nd, 2022, Professor Perronne’s lawyer, Mr. Thomas
Benages, announced the decisions rendered on October 21st by the disciplinary
chamber of first instance of Île-de-France (metropolitan area of Paris) of the
Order of Physicians following the complaints filed against him. The decision
gives full support to Professor Perronne.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">The
Disciplinary Chamber considered that during the Covid-19 crisis, Professor
Perronne, in view of his standing as an internationally recognized infectious
disease expert, had “the obligation to express himself in the field which falls
within his competence.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">The
decisions rendered by the disciplinary chamber are summarized below.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">On
September 13th, Professor Christian Perronne was heard by the Disciplinary
Chamber of First Instance of Île-de-France of the Order of Physicians following
two complaints, filed in 2020, one by the National Council of the Order of
Physicians (CNOM), and one by Dr. Nathan Peiffer-Smadja.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">The
National Council of the Order of Physicians considered that the doctor had
violated the Code of Public Health when he spoke in the media and in his publications.
According to the council, he “seriously affected colleagues who cared for family
members or who participated in public health decisions”, and, in general, did
not contribute to the public health policies put in place by the government. In
addition, he was accused of having denigrated the “public health policies” put
in place during the Covid-19 crisis.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">Because of
Professor Perronne’s comments made in the media as well as in the documentary <i>Hold-Up</i>,
Dr. Nathan Peiffer-Smadja believed that he had been personally attacked by
Professor Perronne, as his comments referred to the scientific value of his
publications. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">In return,
Professor Perronne had filed an ordinal complaint against Dr. Nathan
Peiffer-Smadja, the latter having published, from May to October 2020, 14
tweets in which he expressed derogatory, defamatory, and insulting comments.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">As part of
these three legal proceedings, the Île-de-France disciplinary chamber of first
instance of the Order of Physicians<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>ruled in favor of Professor Perronne in decisions rendered on October 21st,
2022.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">First of
all, concerning the procedure brought by the CNOM, the Disciplinary Chamber
upheld all of the defendant’s arguments. They maintained that Professor
Perronne had standing as an expert and that he was qualified to express views
that contradicted the government during the health crisis.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">The
Disciplinary Chamber concluded: “Dr. Perronne, a specialist internationally
recognized as an expert in the field of infectious diseases, was best able
understand public health issues. He expressed himself in the press on the
actions of the government and on the pharmaceutical industry, as it was
legitimate for him to do. He even had the obligation to do so, considering that
the subject was within his field of competence. The only limitation is that he
must express himself without invective when dissenting on a subject of public
interest.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">In
addition, according to the disciplinary chamber, it does not appear from any of
the documents in the file that this infectious disease specialist did at any
time make an “antivax” speech. (Editor: That this point could even be raised
leaves us shaking our head in disbelief.)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">The
Disciplinary Chamber also considered that the criticisms expressed by Professor
Perronne against Ms. Agnès Buzyn and Mr. Olivier Véran “concerned these people
only as health authorities holding a political position. Thus, even though
these authorities also had the status of doctors, Dr. Perronne cannot be
regarded as having disregarded, by the criticisms directed against them, the
aforementioned provisions of the Public Health Code.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">Regarding
the proceedings against Dr. Nathan Peiffer-Smadja, the disciplinary chamber
considered that he had made remarks against Professor Perronne of a “seriously un-fraternal
nature” and pronounced a warning against him.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">The
complaint of Dr. Nathan Peiffer-Smadja against Professor Perronne was therefore
rejected. The disciplinary chamber considered that “Professor Perronne’s
remarks concerning Dr. Nathan Peiffer-Smadja were aimed solely, and in an
impersonal manner, at his qualification as an author of a critical study.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">Thus,
through these fundamental decisions, the Disciplinary Chamber has come to
reaffirm the freedom of expression enjoyed by medical professors at
universities, when they express themselves in an impersonal manner, while
emphasizing the preponderant role played by Professor Perronne during the
health crisis in challenging the government and in having “a dissenting voice
on a subject of general interest.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">Through
these decisions, the Disciplinary Chamber has therefore recognized that a
doctor may have a different opinion from that expressed by the government and may
express it publicly.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">This
Wednesday, October 19, at the invitation of several MEPs (Members of the
European Parliament), including Virginie Joron, Professor Christian Perronne,
doctor and infectious disease expert, former head of Garches Hospital, was
received at the European Parliament in Strasbourg to give a conference on the
vaccination policy of the European Union and its management of the health
crisis.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">Notes<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<div style="mso-element: endnote-list;"><!--[if !supportEndnotes]--><br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-11-08.docx#_ednref1" name="_edn1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a>
James Howard Kunstler, “<a href="https://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/american-inquisition/">American
Inquisition</a>,” <i>Klusterfuck Nation-Blog</i>, October 17, 2022. James
Kunstler notes about the prosecution of Dr. Meryl Nass in the state of Maine: “Watch
the video. I think you can see that the Licensure Board members begin to
realize in the proceeding that Dr. Nass is fixing to sue the living shit out of
them, and that just about everything they’ve said implicates them in a malice-driven
campaign to defame her. In fact, it may be appropriate as events move forward
for a court to recommend suspending the medical license of board chair Maroulla
S. Gleaton, and the several other board members who are doctors (some are not)
for official misconduct, as well as paying damages to Dr. Nass.”<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn2" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-11-08.docx#_ednref2" name="_edn2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a>
Emily Oster, “<a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/10/covid-response-forgiveness/671879/">Let’s
Declare a Pandemic Amnesty</a>,” <i>The Atlantic</i>, October 31, 2022.<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn3" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-11-08.docx#_ednref3" name="_edn3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[3]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a>
Tyler Durden, “’<a href="https://www.zerohedge.com/political/you-murderous-hypocrites-outrage-ensues-after-atlantic-suggests-amnesty-pandemic?fbclid=IwAR085vWJ7O-4MjiostL0p8virOQnkdx8VU_0sRp_8t2vxALtKis9IDfXeYs">You
Murderous Hypocrites’: Outrage Ensues After <i>The Atlantic</i> Suggests ‘Amnesty’
For Pandemic Authoritarians</a>,” <i>Zero Hedge</i>, November 2, 2022.<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn4" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-11-08.docx#_ednref4" name="_edn4" style="mso-endnote-id: edn4;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[4]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a>
Filiz Mustafa, “<a href="https://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2022/10/12/pfizer-vaccine-not-tested-for-transmission-due-to-speed-of-science/">Pfizer
Vaccine Not Tested for Transmission Due to ‘Speed of Science</a>,’”<i> HITC</i>,
October 12, 2022. From this report: “Member of the European Parliament, Rob
Roos, asked Pfizer executive Janine Small: ‘Was the Pfizer covid vaccine tested
on stopping the transmission of the virus before it entered the market?’ She
replied, ‘Regarding the question around did we know about stopping the
immunization [SIC] before it entered the market: No. We had to move at the
speed of science to really understand what was taking place in the market.’”
This contradicted Pfizer’s statements made at the time of first<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>vaccinations. In one tweet made by the
official Pfizer account on January 13th, 2021, the company stated, “The ability
to vaccinate at speed to gain herd immunity and stop transmission is our
highest priority.” This implied ability to stop transmission was repeated constantly
in the media and in Pfizer’s public relations campaigns in the first half of
2021.<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn5" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-11-08.docx#_ednref5" name="_edn5" style="mso-endnote-id: edn5;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[5]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a>
Y. Shir-Raz, E. Elisha, B. Martin et al. “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11024-022-09479-4">Censorship and Suppression of
Covid-19 Heterodoxy: Tactics and Counter-Tactics</a>.” <i>Minerva</i>, November
2022.<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn6" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-11-08.docx#_ednref6" name="_edn6" style="mso-endnote-id: edn6;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[6]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a>
“<a href="https://thecovidblog.com/2022/11/04/julie-powell-49-year-old-new-york-food-writer-calls-the-non-vaccinated-lunatics-and-assholes-dies-10-months-after-mrna-booster-shot/">Julie
Powell: 49-year-old New York food writer calls the non-vaccinated ‘lunatics’
and ‘assholes,’ dead 10 months after mRNA booster shot</a>,” <i>TheCOVIDBlog</i>,
November 4, 2022. <o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn7" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-11-08.docx#_ednref7" name="_edn7" style="mso-endnote-id: edn7;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[7]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a>
John Steppling, <a href="https://soundcloud.com/aestheticresistance"><i>Aesthetic
Resistance</i> <i>Episode 73</i></a>, November 4, 2022 (00:55~).<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn8" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-11-08.docx#_ednref8" name="_edn8" style="mso-endnote-id: edn8;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[8]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a>
<span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">Charles Eisenstein, “</span><a href="https://charleseisenstein.substack.com/p/amnesty-yesand-here-is-the-price"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">Amnesty—Yes. And Here is the Price</span></a><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">,” <i>Substack</i>, November 4,
2022.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn9" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-11-08.docx#_ednref9" name="_edn9" style="mso-endnote-id: edn9;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[9]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a>
C. J. Hopkins, “<a href="https://cjhopkins.substack.com/p/the-road-to-totalitarianism-revisited">The
Road to Totalitarianism (Revisited)</a>,” <i>Substack</i>, November 14, 2022.<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7464222263572816025.post-85646310507347944552022-12-11T15:57:00.007+09:002022-12-13T16:03:21.418+09:00Choices for the Authentic Self Under Medical Coercion<p><b><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">Choices
for the Authentic Self Under Medical Coercion: Trauma Expert Gabor Maté Still Ignores
the Elephant in the Room</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">I write
this critique of trauma expert Gabor Maté with some reluctance because I have
admired his work for a long time. I wish it were not necessary to do this again
because this is my second time to address his stance on the mandates for the
experimental mRNA therapy. Yet I feel it is essential to write this because he
has continued to speak with great hypocrisy on this matter while he enjoys
glowing reviews and flattering interviews during the promotional tour of his
new book <i>The Myth of Normal</i>. I could let it go if he were not someone
seeking a large, sympathetic audience and if he were not revered as an expert
on trauma.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">I wrote </span><a href="https://dennisriches.wordpress.com/2022/02/07/gabor-mate-on-vaccine-mandates-the-trauma-expert-jumps-the-shark/"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">the previous essay about Dr. Maté</span></a><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"> after I heard him claim in an
interview that a university student who didn’t want to take the mRNA treatment
was free to make that choice, but “he doesn’t have to go to university” if he
doesn’t want to comply with the coercion to take a medical treatment. I was
stunned to hear him take this position, considering his life story as a
Holocaust survivor and an expert on trauma. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">In spite of
his reputation for being a contrarian thinker and critic of capitalism’s
destructive effects on mental health, he took a completely conventional, incurious,
and conformist view of the most traumatizing and socially divisive issue to
emerge in the last twenty years—one that was brought to us by the
pharmaceutical industry and the “charitable foundations” that are part and
parcel of that destructive capitalism. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">Instead of
engaging with the critiques of vaccination policy made by the medical experts
who formed the great Great Barrington Declaration (and numerous other experts
in other organizations), he focused his attention on examples of powerless people
who were having an apparently irrational response to the mandates because they
were being triggered, supposedly, by unresolved childhood trauma. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">Dr. Maté
never bothered to face the truth about the “vaccines” that emerged soon after
they were injected into millions: It was a lie that the mRNA treatments are
safe and effective. They do have harmful effects. They have done nothing to
stop the spread of the virus, and there is no benefit to people who are in
reasonably good health, considering the risks. We could say, as the joke goes, “safe
and effective” is not a lie; it’s two lies. The only ethical position to take
was that no one should be coerced into taking these treatments in order to
avoid becoming a pariah. Dr. Maté has stressed repeatedly in his lectures, books,
and interviews that social isolation is the worst thing a human can suffer, and
it has devastating effects on mental and physical health over the long term,
especially if one suppresses one’s true self in order to please others. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">If he
doesn’t address this horrible position he took about the vaccines and renounce
it, I don’t see why anyone should buy his new book or take him seriously in the
numerous interviews he has given recently to promote it. I’m not saying he should
be dismissed entirely. I admired his work, and I might again, but before I do
that, all he has to do is admit he got it wrong. It could be a good example of
one of his humble admissions of how he let his own past trauma get the best of
him. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">However,
one has to wonder if he has decided to avoid the issue because he knows the
interviews and the favorable reviews would vanish if he took a stance that
would divide his audience. Perhaps he fears the backlash that would come from
suppressing his authentic self. Book sales would decline, and he would be cancelled
and shadow banned just like everyone else who has taken a dissident stance. No
one wants to become the next Eric Clapton. Book sales would decline, and there
would be no more invitations to appear on the CBC or to write editorials for <i>The
Globe and Mail</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">It is safe
to assume that he has made a conscious effort to not address the issue. Like
many celebrities who agree to interviews, he probably set conditions about what
questions he would not answer and which topics he would not discuss. For
example, in his long interview with Joe Rogan in September 2022, the pandemic
was mentioned only briefly toward the end of the conversation.<a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-10-20.docx#_edn1" name="_ednref1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> And this was Joe Rogan—the
guy who was the victim of an abusive media shitstorm in 2021 when he recovered within
a few days, while unvaccinated, from a SARS-Cov-2 infection. He credited his
recovery to alternative treatments (including the forbidden ivermectin) and healthy
living—something that the officially-sanctioned “science” never endorsed. There
is no way that the pandemic and all its controversies was not the enormous
elephant in the room during this interview when the topic was “healing from
trauma.” This omission had to have been pre-arranged.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">The same
omission was evident in Dr. Maté’s interview with Chris Hedges,<a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-10-20.docx#_edn2" name="_ednref2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> who is himself another
example of a political analyst and harsh critic of capitalism for whom the
pandemic seems to be invisible. Thomas Harrington recently wrote </span><a href="https://zeroanthropology.net/2022/09/30/why-did-the-left-fail-the-covid-test-so-badly/"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">an excellent essay</span></a><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"> on high-profile writers on the left
who have chosen not to write anything critical about the vaccine push by the
pharmaceutical industry for the last two years. They used to write about the
shortcomings of privatized medical care and the crimes of the pharmaceutical industry
in the opioid crisis, but they’ve been silent on the pandemic response and the
money that was spent by the industry to promote vaccines as the only way to
“get back to normal.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHaEErtWll7eBsP1iXW06StjJ60RheHAwqj7wq8L3RgY1CqYxfnTPVijZiSv_wd_ZhwzkCNrvq1Eu2lBiKM8yGfvO586oyyTHG_YHzq20vAv9zGbr9XCNZy5En_aYEmPGZt_ZdLbIMKDhsQeXoE7pSihkyX0Uy0jvYNU-sUwRHThDD9bzqeodBN1sA/s828/my%20choice.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="824" data-original-width="828" height="318" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHaEErtWll7eBsP1iXW06StjJ60RheHAwqj7wq8L3RgY1CqYxfnTPVijZiSv_wd_ZhwzkCNrvq1Eu2lBiKM8yGfvO586oyyTHG_YHzq20vAv9zGbr9XCNZy5En_aYEmPGZt_ZdLbIMKDhsQeXoE7pSihkyX0Uy0jvYNU-sUwRHThDD9bzqeodBN1sA/s320/my%20choice.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">I have also
noticed the omission in the appearances of Dr. Maté’s son Aaron on the Jimmy
Dore show. Jimmy Dore has been a constant harsh critic of the vaccine push throughout
the 2021-22 period, with many searing tirades recorded weekly against Anthony
Fauci and the “shitlib” segment of society that has treated him as a hero. Yet
when Aaron Maté appeared on the show in mid-2022 (after a long, unexplained
absence as a regular guest), other matters were discussed, even though the
pandemic is the elephant in the room on the Jimmy Dore show, just as it is in
Joe Rogan’s studio. Aaron Maté writes for <i>The Grayzone</i>, which has
published a few articles critical of the covid response, so it is probably a
delicate matter for Aaron to dodge with his colleagues there as well.<a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-10-20.docx#_edn3" name="_ednref3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[3]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> I could only conclude that
Jimmy and Aaron had a tense falling out for a while, and Aaron stayed away
because the show was an embarrassing direct attack on views held by his father,
but now they have agreed to work together again with an understanding that they
won’t discuss anything that would be awkward for the Mat</span><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">é</span><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"> family.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">To
illustrate Dr. Maté’s hypocrisy in more detail, below there are some excerpts
from Dr. Maté’s interview with Brian Rose.<a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-10-20.docx#_edn4" name="_ednref4" style="mso-endnote-id: edn4;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[4]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> This was a softball
interview in which the host avoided asking the pertinent questions about the traumatizing
social disruption that, it appears, is a sort of Lord Voldemort—the pandemic
for some is “he who shall not be named.” However, it did come up briefly in the
interview, but it was quickly put aside. Dr. Maté was careful not to mention
his endorsement of coercive medical treatment, and Brian Rose never asked about
it, probably because of a prior agreement.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">It is odd
that Brian Rose would avoid this topic because he interviewed the often-maligned
radical alleged “conspiracy nut” David Icke early in the pandemic.<a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-10-20.docx#_edn5" name="_ednref5" style="mso-endnote-id: edn5;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[5]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> In that interview, Icke claimed
the pandemic response was an engineered social crisis designed to transfer
wealth upward and consolidate the power of transnational elites. Brian Rose
seemed sympathetic to his views and never challenged him. He was willing to
give him a platform, so it is curious that he would not ask challenging
questions of Dr. Maté in order to discuss the contradictions between the views
of his two guests.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">To suggest
what some challenging questions could have been, I refer to the recent essay by
Thomas Harrington (mentioned above) <i>Why Did the Left Fail the Covid Test So
Badly? </i>that readers can keep in mind.<a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-10-20.docx#_edn6" name="_ednref6" style="mso-endnote-id: edn6;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[6]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> He noted that there is a
curiously long list of people like Gabor Maté—perceptive veteran critics of
capitalism and US foreign policy—who ignored the globally coordinated virus
response and failed to apply their sharp analytical skills to it. He listed
several propaganda-savvy journalists and journals he had championed over the
years that failed to notice...<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">the
now heavily documented collaboration between the US government and Big Tech in
censoring opinions that go counter to the government’s and Big Pharma’s desired
discourse on Covid <o:p></o:p></span></li><li><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">the
US government’s abrogation of the Nuremberg principle relating to informed
consent and medical experimentation <o:p></o:p></span></li><li><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">experimental
vaccines that were sold to the population on the basis of their ability to stop
infection do not stop infection, and this was known to anyone who read the FDA
briefing papers published when these injections were unleashed on the public <o:p></o:p></span></li><li><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">the
millions of people who lost their jobs over the lies<o:p></o:p></span></li><li><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">the
government’s abject disdain for the longstanding statutory right to object to
medical treatment on religious grounds <o:p></o:p></span></li><li><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">the
mafia-like nature of the vaccine contracts forced upon sovereign countries
around the world<o:p></o:p></span></li><li><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">Pfizer
sought to keep all clinical information relating to the vaccines under wraps
for 75 years <o:p></o:p></span></li><li><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">the
upward transfer of wealth that took place during the years of the Covid state
of exception <o:p></o:p></span></li><li><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">the
trauma imposed on billions of children around the world whose lives were thrown
into chaos by the useless quarantine and masking rules<o:p></o:p></span></li></ol><!--[if !supportLists]--><p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">_____<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">EXCERPTS
(discussion follows)<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://londonreal.tv/dr-gabor-mate-the-myth-of-normal-trauma-illness-healing-in-a-toxic-culture/"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">Dr. Gabor Maté: The Myth of Normal:
Trauma, Illness & Healing in a Toxic Culture</span></a><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">, <i>London Real</i>, October 3,
2022:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">6:00~<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">Gabor Maté:
The pandemic… whatever side of the vaccine debate or the mandate debate one
finds oneself on, globally the pandemic revealed certain aspects of our society
that we should have been aware of before. Didn’t it teach us how important
human contact and communal presence is? Whether you agree with the policies—I’m
not getting into that debate now—but it certainly taught us the importance of
each other, of the we that contains me.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">In a lot
of the suspicion and rancor I saw in the Covid debate, I was seeing the effect
of trauma. People couldn’t see another point of view, no matter which side
[they were on] … If a child is given the sense early that the world is not trustworthy,
that’s going to show up in politics. It’s going to show up in our social
discourse.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">… I
don’t think they have the technology to introduce microchips into people’s
circulation through a vaccine... [The preacher who believed such microchips
existed] was projecting into the political debate a personal experience of
trauma, not realizing that’s what he was doing.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">1:12:05~1:17:00<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">In
Western medicine, for all the brilliance of Western medical techniques and
curing modalities, there’s still a tendency for the patient to be a passive
recipient of health care rather than being the agent who actually decides what
he’ll accept or not. That’s not helpful to people…<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">How long
do you survive in the wild if you’re not in touch with your feelings? <o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">… Have
you ever had the experience of having a strong gut feeling, ignoring it, and
feeling sorry afterwards?<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">…
Something happens to most of us where we have to give up our authenticity, our
connection to ourselves, in order to belong to our family of origin and to our
society, so there is this tension between attachment and authenticity, and we
go for attachment every time. We go for being accepted, being nurtured, and
liked and so on. Once we make that decision—it’s not conscious; it’s
automatic—it becomes our lodestar, and we follow it. We keep choosing
attachment, other people’s acceptance of us, over our own authentic feelings
and opinions and sense of self, and that leads to pathology of mind and body.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">… A
child has no choice, but as adults we have to realize the price that we are
paying for not being ourselves. Am I still a helpless child who has to choose
the attachment? … Or… can I choose authenticity instead, even at the risk of
losing some attachment relationships? Or even better, can I choose such adult
attachment relationships where I don’t have to sacrifice my authenticity?<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">_____<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">Discussion<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">Everything
Dr. Maté said in the passage above should be taken as a strong endorsement of
the individual’s right to refuse the experimental mRNA treatments, yet he has
not renounced the position he took previously. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">Given the
lack of proven efficacy and safety of the mRNA shots, and the low risk posed by
the virus to the large majority, there was never a threat to the social fabric
that justified the devastating lockdowns and the suppression of the fundamental
right to medical autonomy. Dr. Maté should know all this by now and be willing
to discuss what it means for our severely traumatized society, and he should be
able to see the contradictions in what he said during the interview with Brian
Rose. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">… I
don’t think they have the technology to introduce microchips into people’s circulation
through a vaccine... [The preacher who believed such microchips existed] was
projecting into the political debate a personal experience of trauma, not
realizing that’s what he was doing.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">This
reaction brings to mind the quote from <i>Hamlet</i>: “There are more things in
heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” Although Dr.
Maté seems to have found an interesting target to make a point about irrational
conspiracy theories, it turns out that the fear of inserted microchips is not
that far off from what has actually been studied seriously in recent years. For
example, a paper in the <i>International Journal of Vaccine Theory, Practice
and Research</i> describes how it is not microchips but rather nanoparticles
that are the focus of attention on this matter of implantation of communication
devices. A quote from the abstract of the paper: <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1cm;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">Interdisciplinary
research on the well-documented problems posed to human beings by the injectable
mRNA platforms claiming to address COVID-19 medical complications reveal
surprising, if not deeply troubling, new evidence of apparent fraud and deceit.
Analysis presented here bolsters both the reported laboratory studies of blood
samples from injected subjects and experimental work exploring the potential
reasons for observed phenomena relating to electromagnetic properties exhibited
in human bodies. The impetus for this cross-disciplinary study was current
reports from a substantial proportion of injected subjects who emitted
alphanumeric signals in the frequency range corresponding to Bluetooth
communications networks.<a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-10-20.docx#_edn7" name="_ednref7" style="mso-endnote-id: edn7;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[7]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">A glance at
the works cited list of this journal article should give pause to anyone who
thinks that concern over implanted devices is a just a pre-occupation of whacko
conspiracy nuts who are living out their unresolved childhood trauma. Consider
also that the smartphone apps that everyone is required to have to prove their
health status might as well be an implanted device or an ankle bracelet,
monitoring citizens as if they were all paroled convicts.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">In
Western medicine... there’s still a tendency for the patient to be a passive
recipient of health care rather than being the agent who actually decides what
he’ll accept or not. <o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">… Have
you ever had the experience of having a strong gut feeling, ignoring it, and
feeling sorry afterwards?<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">... there
is this tension between attachment and authenticity, and we go for attachment
every time... we have to realize the price that we are paying for not being
ourselves... <o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">Am I
still a helpless child who has to choose the attachment? … can I choose adult
attachment relationships where I don’t have to sacrifice my authenticity?<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">These
excerpts of the longer excerpts above prompt me to wonder why Dr. Maté did not
congratulate Joe Rogan for “expressing healthy anger,” for not being a “passive
recipient of health care,” and for “being the agent who actually decides what
he’ll accept or not.” Like millions of lockdown and mandate skeptics who chose
authenticity over attachment, Joe Rogan listened perhaps to his “strong gut
feeling” that Anthony Fauci, the media, and the government agencies were
perpetrating a massive fraud<a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-10-20.docx#_edn8" name="_ednref8" style="mso-endnote-id: edn8;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[8]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> and a witch-hunt,<a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-10-20.docx#_edn9" name="_ednref9" style="mso-endnote-id: edn9;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[9]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> and so he didn’t have to be
sorry afterward that he didn’t listen to his gut feeling. Intuition was just as
important as reading the facts presented and the rational arguments made by
hundreds of dissenting scientists, social scientists, and lawyers. Joe Rogan
rejected childish attachment to dishonest and foolish authority figures, found
new friends, and risked losing the successful podcast that has made him
wealthy. However, the backlash in the fall of 2021 was more than he expected,
and he seems to have backed away from controversy since then in order to save
his show. There must be a long list of celebrities now who think twice about
accepting an invitation to interview with him. This caution seemed evident in
this interview with Dr. Maté because he appears to have gone along with a request
to not discuss the pandemic in order to have a high-profile guest on his
podcast.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">Perhaps
Joe Rogan can be forgiven for wanting to steer clear of controversy because he
has done enough already by sticking his neck out at the peak of the vaccination
panic. There are so many other high-profile people and medical professionals
who could step up but have chosen to stay silent. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">I
also need to point out here that in the interview I discussed in </span><a href="https://dennisriches.wordpress.com/2022/02/07/gabor-mate-on-vaccine-mandates-the-trauma-expert-jumps-the-shark/"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">my previous post on this subject</span></a><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">, Dr. Mat</span><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">é</span><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"> stated that medical staff and first
responders must lose their jobs if they don’t want to get the vaccine because
they will be in contact with the vulnerable and the elderly. But here was the
elderly Dr. Mat</span><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">é</span><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"> sitting in a small studio for three
hours with the unvaccinated Joe Rogan! That’s a risk he chose to take, I
suppose, but still it suggests that he knew the risk was no greater than that
posed by all the vaccinated people he encounters. Furthermore, if young people
must lose their jobs to make the vulnerable feel safe, then the vulnerable have
to stay home as much as possible. He is not setting an example as a vulnerable
person doing the responsible thing by refraining from travel and minimizing
contact with society. Not everyone can do this, but he certainly has the
financial resources to stay home and arrange for the necessities of life to be
brought to him. His presence on the Joe Rogan show is probably a tacit
admission that his previous stance was wrong, but nonetheless he prefers not to
discuss it.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">On
the topic of staying silent, I will leave the last word to Dr. Maté himself, then
end with a reference to a peer-reviewed article in the journal <i>Vaccine</i>
that shows a clear signal of vaccine injury occurring at a rate above what has
caused other vaccines to be discontinued. There are dozens of similar articles
and thousands of testimonies that point in the same direction, for anyone who
cares to look for them.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">Gabor
Maté in an interview with Russell Brand in May 2021:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 8.0pt; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: -.05pt; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm -0.05pt 8pt 1cm;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">Albert
Speer was a Nazi armaments minister and economics minister ... He was a war
criminal and condemned as such ... he said he was often asked, “What did you
know?” And he said what he knew wasn’t the right question ... The question is
what he could have known if he had wanted to. He said he had plenty of hints
... So the question is not what he knew. It is what he could have known had he
wanted to know. We’re not living in Nazi Germany ... You can get all the
information you want, so if anybody these days doesn’t know, it’s not because
the information is not available. It’s not what you know. It’s what you could
know if you wanted to find out.<a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-10-20.docx#_edn10" name="_ednref10" style="mso-endnote-id: edn10;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[10]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">Following
this reasoning, here is an example of information that is accessible to those
who look for it:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: 1cm;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">The most conservative, minimalist
conclusion one can draw from </span><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264410X22010283#!"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">this study</span></a><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"> is that [the mRNA] vaccines may not
confer net benefit to everyone, and therefore, universal mandates were dangerous,
unscientific, and unethical. They led to marginalization and systemic
discrimination of the unvaccinated and untold preventable vaccine injuries
among healthy people in particular. Not to mention all the economic, cultural,
and political divisions that were exacerbated.<a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-10-20.docx#_edn11" name="_ednref11" style="mso-endnote-id: edn11;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[11]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">These
are the words of Rav Avora in his discussion of a research paper published in <i>Vaccine</i>
in September 2022. In that paper, the authors adopt the usual tentative and
unprovocative language of the genre, but the wording used in the article is
stunning enough for those who can read the dangerous current moving under the
calm surface, especially for what it implies with the phrase “stratified
according to risk,” which refers to healthy people who were at lower risk from
the virus but at higher risk from the mRNA injections:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: 1cm;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">Combined, the mRNA vaccines were
associated with an excess risk of serious adverse events of special interest of
12.5 per 10,000 vaccinated ... Combined, there was a 16 % higher risk of
serious adverse events in mRNA vaccine recipients: risk difference 13.2 ...
risk ratio 1.16 ... The excess risk of serious adverse events found in our
study points to the need for formal harm-benefit analyses, particularly those
that are stratified according to risk of serious COVID-19 outcomes. These
analyses will require public release of participant level datasets ... [these
results] raise concerns that mRNA vaccines are associated with more harm than
initially estimated at the time of emergency authorization.<a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-10-20.docx#_edn12" name="_ednref12" style="mso-endnote-id: edn12;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[12]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">So
there it is. This article in <i>Vaccine</i> won’t be discussed on legacy media
or by people seeking a large audience with their books to sell and places to go
that require proof of vaccination. But the information is available. It is not
a question of what you know. It’s a question of what you could know if you
wanted to know, and what you could say and do after you know.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">From
the Joe Rogan podcast, episode 1869, September 13, 2022 <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">Dr.
Maté: “So as you know, for example—because I’ve heard you talk about it—people
who are obese are more likely to get Covid, right? But who gets obese? … the
obesity epidemic in our society is an epidemic worldwide as globalized
capitalism extends its influence internationally... What’s happening is that
number one, people are more and more isolated, more and more stressed. Now they
eat to soothe the stress, and then, in the goodness of their hearts, the sugar
companies come along and say, “Have this food, it will make you feel better”...
So the system works elegantly … It creates the problem in the first place, and
it exploits the openings it creates. You couldn’t design a better system.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">Final
comment<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">The
system is actually even “better” than what the doctor describes. Dr. Maté likes
to attribute everything to trauma, but it is speculation, and probably not
helpful to tell the parents of an obese child that the cause is something they
did or didn’t do. The problem is probably caused much more by the degradation
of the food supply over the past five decades since high fructose corn syrup
became the staple sweetener. After the food companies made the population
chronically ill with manufactured high fructose corn syrup, the pharmaceutical
companies stepped in with drugs for symptomatic relief. Those helped somewhat,
but they had side effects that would require further medical interventions and
drugs. Finally, the chronically ill are susceptible to a new virus, and the
pharmaceutical industry profits again with the offer of a vaccine (which
doesn’t live up to its initial promise), and the side effects from that provide
another goldmine. In fact, the human body is being mined as if it is the last
frontier when all the inanimate resources are reaching exhaustion. Goldminers
do indeed dream of “striking a vein.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">UPDATE,
November 20, 2022<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">In an
interview with Jimmy Dore that was published on November 20th, 2022, Gabor Maté
addressed some of the criticisms that I have made in this post and another one
from a few months ago. In that earlier one, I cited </span><a href="https://danielclelandpodcast.podbean.com/e/ep-26-dr-gabor-mate-on-vaccine-mandates-ayahuasca-and-a-culture-in-crisis/"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">a podcast recorded in January 2022</span></a><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"> in which he endorsed coerced
vaccination for college students by saying the following:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1cm;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">What
you seem to see as dictatorial vaccine mandates, I see as necessary public
health measures... That’s not being forced. He doesn’t have to go to
university. He can choose not to. He’s not being forced to take a vaccine.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1cm;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">In the
November 2022 interview with Jimmy Dore, he seemed to address this
reprehensible stand he took by admitting that he had shared, to some degree, in
the lamentable venom and rancor that the pandemic produced in public discourse,
but he didn’t specify exactly what his error was. He suggested that we should
end the disdain for the so-called vaccine refusers and try to understand what
is in their minds and in their histories. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">This
statement falls short of recognizing what a tremendous crime it was to coerce
people into taking a new medical treatment for which there was no long-term
safety data. The statement also suggests that the reasons people refused were
based on their psychology or emotional disposition, and not based on rational
judgment and facts about the risks of the vaccines and their lack of benefit
for people who had got immunity by infection or who were too healthy to be at
risk of a severe outcome due to infection. I give him some credit for backing
away from the uncharacteristically harsh attitude he took in early 2022, but he
has very carefully tiptoed around what he actually said (“that’s not being
coerced… he doesn’t have to go to university”). He admitted that he had not
done a lot of reading on the vaccines and all the scandals related to Anthony
Fauci and so on, so his views may continue to evolve. He said in the interview
that these issues will be discussed for a long time, and that they should be
discussed.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">The
discussion of the pandemic begins at about 1:10:00 in the interview, and the
comment about “the lamentable rancor and venom” is cited below.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">“</span><a href="https://youtu.be/MNnr2jLiZto"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">How
to Heal Trauma Wounds in a Toxic Culture w/Gabor Mate</span></a><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">,’” <i>The Jimmy Dore Show</i>,
November 20, 2022. https://youtu.be/MNnr2jLiZto 1:16:45~<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1cm;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">The
really lamentable thing is the rancor, the venom on both sides. I have to say I
probably shared in it to some degree. I no longer do, you know—the disdain for
people who are so-called refusers. There are so many reasons why people might
resist the vaccine. We don’t know what’s in their minds. We don’t know what’s
in their histories. We have to be much more gentle and appreciative of
differences, and one of the things that has really gone out the window is
civility in discourse.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">Notes<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<div style="mso-element: endnote-list;"><!--[if !supportEndnotes]--><br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-10-20.docx#_ednref1" name="_edn1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Open Sans";"> Joe Rogan (interviewer), “</span><a href="https://open.spotify.com/episode/2XCJAb43d6b4cNLdKS9jSw?si=440e86f3e3c147c9"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Open Sans";">#1869-Dr. Gabor Maté</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Open Sans";">,” <i>The Joe Rogan Experience</i> (on
Spotify), September 13, 2022, 2:19:00~. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn2" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-10-20.docx#_ednref2" name="_edn2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Open Sans";"> Chris Hedges (interviewer), “</span><a href="https://therealnews.com/dr-gabor-mate-on-trauma-addiction-and-illness-under-capitalism"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Open Sans";">Dr. Gabor Maté on Trauma, Addiction,
and Illness Under Capitalism</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Open Sans";">,”
<i>The Real News Network</i>, October 14, 2022.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn3" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-10-20.docx#_ednref3" name="_edn3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[3]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Open Sans";"> Christian Parenti, “</span><a href="https://thegrayzone.com/2022/03/31/left-covid-lockdowns-mind-autopsy/"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Open Sans";">How the Organized Left Got Covid Wrong,
Learned to Love Lockdowns and Lost its Mind: An Autopsy</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Open Sans";">,” <i>The Grayzone</i>, March 31,
2022.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn4" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-10-20.docx#_ednref4" name="_edn4" style="mso-endnote-id: edn4;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[4]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Open Sans";"> Brian Rose (interviewer), </span><a href="https://londonreal.tv/dr-gabor-mate-the-myth-of-normal-trauma-illness-healing-in-a-toxic-culture/"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Open Sans";">Dr. Gabor Maté: The Myth of Normal:
Trauma, Illness & Healing in a Toxic Culture</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Open Sans";">, <i>London Real</i>. October 3, 2022.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn5" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-10-20.docx#_ednref5" name="_edn5" style="mso-endnote-id: edn5;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[5]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Open Sans";"> Brian Rose (interviewer), “</span><a href="https://londonrealtv.libsyn.com/roseicke-i-david-icke-the-truth-behind-the-coronavirus-pandemic-covid-19-lockdown-the-economic-crash"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Open Sans";">David Icke—The Truth Behind the
Coronavirus Pandemic, COVID-19 Lockdown & The Economic Crash</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Open Sans";">,” <i>London Real</i>, July 30, 2020.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn6" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-10-20.docx#_ednref6" name="_edn6" style="mso-endnote-id: edn6;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[6]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"> Thomas Harrington, “</span><a href="https://zeroanthropology.net/2022/09/30/why-did-the-left-fail-the-covid-test-so-badly/"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">Why Did the Left Fail the Covid Test
So Badly?</span></a><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">” <i>Zero
Anthropology</i>, September 30, 2022. This article was also published by the
Brownstone Institute. The posting on <i>Zero Anthropology</i> includes a useful
list of articles that have addressed this question of why “the left” failed and
let opposition to the lockdowns and mandates be erroneously tarnished as a dangerous
and misguided “right-wing” preoccupation. Many libertarian commentators saw the
entire virus phenomenon, with its unleashing of an accelerated capitalist
concentration of wealth, then, ironically, called it a “communist” takeover.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn7" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-10-20.docx#_ednref7" name="_edn7" style="mso-endnote-id: edn7;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[7]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"> Valerie Kyrie and Daniel Broudy, “</span><a href="https://ijvtpr.com/index.php/IJVTPR/article/view/49/79"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">Cyborgs R Us: The Bio-Nano
Panopticon of Injected Bodies?</span></a><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">”
<i>International Journal of Vaccine Theory, Practice and Research</i> 2, no. 2
(August 2022). <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn8" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-10-20.docx#_ednref8" name="_edn8" style="mso-endnote-id: edn8;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[8]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"> Jim Kavanagh, “</span><a href="http://www.thepolemicist.net/2022/10/devils-advocate-farewell-to-fauci.html"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">Devil’s Advocate: Farewell to Fauci</span></a><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">,” <i>The Polemicist</i>, October
15, 2022. A highlight from this excellent review of the last three years: “My
summary take on Fauci is that he’s a self-admitted deceiver, dissembler, and,
ultimately, liar. He has played a central role in creating what is a social,
political, and epistemological (undermining our ability to know how to know),
as well as medical, disaster from which it is going to be very difficult for
U.S. society, public health, and scientific practice to recover. The reality of
what may be the worst iatrogenic medical disaster in history is becoming harder
to ignore in the wake of multiple reinfections of the multiply-vaccinated,
all-cause morbidity and mortality statistics, myocarditis and DNA-transcription
studies, Sudden Adult Death Syndrome, negative vaccine effectivity, evident
harms from lockdowns and masking, etc. … Anybody who, at this point, does not
see, based on what Fauci himself has told us [the truths he spoke before he
lied to promote the official narrative], the incompetence and incoherence of
the whole Covid project of which he was a prime director, including how unsafe
and ineffective the vaccines are and how scientifically ridiculous and
politically pernicious the mandate and passport policies were and are, is a
stubborn and dangerous fool, who will be fooled again—by their attachment to
effectively religious, anti-scientific ideologies about magic potions and
omniscient saints.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn9" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-10-20.docx#_ednref9" name="_edn9" style="mso-endnote-id: edn9;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[9]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Open Sans";"> James Kunstler, “</span><a href="https://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/american-inquisition/"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Open Sans";">American Inquisition</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Open Sans";">,” <i>Klusterfuck Nation</i>, October
17, 2022. This blog post is an excellent report on one of the many witch-hunts
being carried out against Covid dissenters.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn10" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-10-20.docx#_ednref10" name="_edn10" style="mso-endnote-id: edn10;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[10]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Open Sans";"> Russell Brand (interviewer), “<a name="_Hlk117096801"></a><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdPdslOTwJU"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk117096801;">Israel/Palestine—This Needs to be Heard</span><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk117096801;"></span></a>,” <i>Under the Skin Podcast</i>,
May 28, 2021.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn11" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-10-20.docx#_ednref11" name="_edn11" style="mso-endnote-id: edn11;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[11]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"> Rav Avora, “</span><a href="https://maajidnawaz.substack.com/p/one-serious-adverse-event-per-eight?utm_source=direct&r=ri1m&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">One Serious Adverse Event Per
Eight-Hundred Vaccinations</span></a><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">,”
<i>Substack</i>, October 16, 2022. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"><br /></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn12" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-10-20.docx#_ednref12" name="_edn12" style="mso-endnote-id: edn12;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[12]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif"> Joseph Fraiman et al., “</span><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264410X22010283#!"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">Serious Adverse Events of Special
Interest Following mRNA COVID-19 Vaccination in Randomized Trials in Adults</span></a><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">,” <i>Vaccine</i> 40, no. 40
(September 22, 2022): 5798-5805.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7464222263572816025.post-53506328601319564802022-12-05T21:57:00.003+09:002022-12-05T21:57:30.925+09:00Discussion of Vincent Bevins' "The Jakarta Method"<p><strong>Vincent Bevins, <i>The Jakarta Method: Washington’s Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program that Shaped our World</i> (Public Affairs, 2020)</strong></p><!-- wp:paragraph -->
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<p><strong>Mini-review, commentary, excerpt from the book, further reading (references)</strong></p><p><strong>__________</strong></p>
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<!-- wp:paragraph -->
<p><strong>From <a href="https://www.publicaffairsbooks.com/titles/vincent-bevins/the-jakarta-method/9781541724013/">the publisher</a></strong></p>
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<!-- wp:paragraph -->
<p>“The hidden story of the wanton slaughter—in Indonesia, Latin America, and around the world—backed by the United States.</p>
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<p>In 1965, the U.S. government helped the Indonesian military kill approximately one million innocent civilians. This was one of the most important turning points of the twentieth century, eliminating the largest communist party outside China and the Soviet Union and inspiring copycat terror programs in faraway countries like Brazil and Chile. But these events remain widely overlooked, precisely because the CIA’s secret interventions were so successful.</p>
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<p>In this bold and comprehensive new history, Vincent Bevins builds on his incisive reporting for <em>The Washington Post</em>, using recently declassified documents, archival research and eye-witness testimony collected across twelve countries to reveal a shocking legacy that spans the globe. For decades, it’s been believed that parts of the developing world passed peacefully into the U.S.-led capitalist system. <em>The Jakarta Method</em> demonstrates that the brutal extermination of unarmed leftists was a fundamental part of Washington’s final triumph in the Cold War.”</p>
<!-- /wp:paragraph -->
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<p>_________</p>
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<p><em>The Jakarta Method</em> deserves all the praise it received in the numerous reviews that are excerpted in the opening pages of the book, many of them from mainstream sources that usually avoid covering American-backed atrocities. The book is also remarkable in that its author distanced himself from his work with <em>The Washington Post</em> by taking on a project that such “papers of record” have never been interested in.</p>
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<p>I wrote this post on a short deadline in order to have it ready on September 30th, the date in 1965 when Suharto’s CIA-backed coup d’état occurred. Thus I don’t have a thorough review of the book ready. I will write only that its major flaw is that it makes no reference to the outstanding books written by Greg Poulgrain on Indonesian history (see the reference list below). I suspect that Bevins’ <em>Washington Post</em> background might have biased him to neglect, consciously or not, the voluminous research on the CIA’s involvement in the assassinations of JFK and RFK. Because of this aversion, Bevins overlooked the story of the discovery of massive deposits of West Papuan gold and oil in the 1930s. Poulgrain covers it thoroughly, explaining how it led to Allen Dulles (head of the CIA) patiently plotting over decades to turn West Papua over to Indonesia and Indonesia over to American corporations. JFK had a different plan for Indonesia, but he walked unknowingly into the contrasting vision being put in place covertly by the CIA. In addition to all the other famous conflicts JFK had with the security state over organized crime, racial integration, the oil industry, the steel industry, Cuba, Vietnam, Laos and détente with the Soviet Union, this one over Indonesia was very high-stakes. It was one more reason JFK had to go.</p>
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<p>Another glaring omission was the work of poet, scholar and former Canadian diplomat poet, Peter Dale Scott (see the references). Like Poulgrain, his long career of writing analyses of “deep politics” might have been too much for a former <em>Washington Post</em> journalist to contend with.</p>
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<p>For anyone who thinks that the US played a minor role in the Indonesian genocide in 1965-66 and the prime responsibility is on the Indonesian government, it is crucial to understand that the US government brought that government to power through a long covert operation to remove Sukarno, the beloved first leader of independent Indonesia. His rule ended with a staged “attempted communist coup,” provoked and manipulated by Suharto, that was used as an excuse for the mass atrocities against civilian, unarmed members of the country’s largest political party. US military and economic aid was essential for the new government, so the US had tremendous leverage over the Indonesian government if it had wanted to end the bloodshed. As <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWlYorZWvWw">Noam Chomsky said about the independence of East Timor</a> that finally came after years of genocidal terror there, all it takes is a phone call from the US president:</p>
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<p><em>Clinton informed the Indonesian generals the game was over. A couple of sentences. The next day they withdrew. It could have happened for 25 years. After they withdrew, a UN peace-keeping force, Australian, entered, which was a good thing... That’s handled as a great case of humanitarian intervention. What it really was an extraordinary scandal. For 25 years the US continued to support the crimes, atrocities, the virtual genocide. They could have stopped it in one minute. You don’t have to invade anyone. You don’t need sanctions. You don’t need threats. Just stop supporting it, and it’s over.</em></p>
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<p>The new romantic comedy set in Bali called <em>Ticket to Paradise</em>, with Julia Roberts and George Clooney, perhaps provides an excellent teachable moment for the masses to learn a little background about what happened in that paradise under the guidance and tutelage of the powers that now proudly uphold the “rules-based international order” against conjured threats from demonized foes. You could say what happened in Bali stayed in Bali, but in Bali some things have been forgotten even by the locals. It is a prime example of historical erasure. People don’t know, and they don’t even have an inkling that there is something to know. But there are a few who remember.</p><p>__________</p><p><strong>Excerpt from <em>The Jakarta Method, </em>pages 245-246 on Bali, the resort paradise built on top of the mass atrocities of 1965</strong></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhESY59r0ANaZ18KhO4eTCdkm1Svk8sgOeHPA2M06RQG1mgH6b-ELCvb95bltO5GsFY7et_TZgGrT9wJPa8v2rSv7Y2GfWQnDq2FIY8vz243uyBCvZDJt4eaQUOH83eL4zvA03VbCHv2djaOmDmYxs9UsbPGRxKSGbrhAgvECz2y_1EwPTt-kCNVgni/s300/Jakarta%20Method-Vincent-Bevins-193x300.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="193" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhESY59r0ANaZ18KhO4eTCdkm1Svk8sgOeHPA2M06RQG1mgH6b-ELCvb95bltO5GsFY7et_TZgGrT9wJPa8v2rSv7Y2GfWQnDq2FIY8vz243uyBCvZDJt4eaQUOH83eL4zvA03VbCHv2djaOmDmYxs9UsbPGRxKSGbrhAgvECz2y_1EwPTt-kCNVgni/s1600/Jakarta%20Method-Vincent-Bevins-193x300.png" width="193" /></a></div><p>Wayan Badra, the Hindu priest, lives on the street where he grew up, in Seminyak, Southwest Bali. But the neighborhood has changed drastically. That same beach that he used to walk on for forty minutes every morning, as he headed to school down in Kuta, is certainly not empty. It’s packed wall to wall with luxury resorts and “beach clubs,” a very common type of business on the island, where foreigners can sip cocktails all day, and take a dip in a pool, right on the sand.</p><p>It’s the same sand, of course, where the military brought people from Kerobokan, a few miles east, to kill them at night. Right on the beach, a few feet from Badra’s home, is one of the bigger, more upscale beach clubs in Bali. Seminyak has become one of the more expensive places to stay on the island, where the tourism usually revolves around wellness, and spa treatment, or “mindfulness,” and meditation and massages, or, of course, sun and surfing.</p><p>If aliens from another world landed on Bali, they would immediately conclude that our planet has a racial hierarchy. The white people who come here for vacation are orders of magnitude wealthier than the locals, who serve them. It is just accepted as a natural part of life. Almost everywhere in Southeast Asia, white people have the disposable income to buy lavish hospitality, or sex, from the locals. They were born with this wealth. Compared to the rest of Indonesia, Bali has done OK for itself economically as a result of the tourism, and Balinese people often obediently reproduce the “Bali smile” as they get Australian surfers their eggs or Russian Instagram models their coconuts.</p><p>Almost none of the tourists who come, no matter how well meaning and well educated, know what happened here, says Ngurah Termana, the nephew of Agung Alit, the man who spent a darkly absurd afternoon sifting through skulls in search of his father’s body. In contrast to Cambodia, where Western backpackers faithfully (or morbidly) visit the Killing Fields Museum outside Phnom Penh, few people who come to Bali are aware that a huge part of the local population was slaughtered right underneath their beach chairs.</p><p>“Even when we meet with NGO groups, the most internationally informed type of people, that know about Rwanda, Pol Pot, everything, no one has any idea what happened here,” said Ngurah Termana, who is a founding member of Taman 65, or the 1965 Garden, a collective dedicated to promoting memory and reconciliation on the island. The group put out a book on the killings in Bali, as well as a CD of songs that prisoners sang in the concentration camps here.</p><p>The members of Taman 65 know that there’s a reason none of the tourists know about the violence that took the lives of so many of their relatives. The government has buried that history deep, even deeper than it was buried on the island of Java. The tourism boom, which started in the late 1960s, required that. Before Suharto, a huge amount of Bali’s land was communal, and often disputed. “They needed to kill the communists so that foreign investors could bring their capital here,” said Ngurah Temrana…</p><p>The luxury beach club a few steps away from Wayan Badra’s home has a name that is almost comically on the nose. It’s called Ku De Ta, Bahasa Indonesian for coup d’état. I asked the staff there if they knew why that might be ironic. They did not.</p><p>Over the years, Wayan Badra and his neighbors have found bones and skulls in the sand around Ku De Ta. As the elder priest for this village, he takes it upon himself to give the bodies a proper Hindu funeral.</p><p><!-- wp:paragraph -->
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<!-- /wp:paragraph --></p><p>__________</p><p><strong>References</strong></p><p>Dennis Riches, “<a href="https://dennisriches.wordpress.com/2017/10/29/nbcs-troubled-documentary-on-the-indonesian-genocide-transcript/">NBC’s Troubled Documentary on the Indonesian Genocide</a>,” personal blog, October 29, 2017. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DI42TlCZcik">Video clip from the documentary</a>—an archaeologist and enthusiastic genocide apologist describes how the killings in Bali occurred.</p><p><a href="https://www.tribunal1965.org/en/final-report-of-the-ipt-1965/">Final Report of the International People’s Tribunal (IPT) 1965: Findings and Documents of the IPT 1965</a>, July 20, 2016.</p><p>Greg Poulgrain and Edward Curtin, “<a href="https://off-guardian.org/2016/07/24/the-cias-involvement-in-indonesia-and-the-assassinations-of-jfk-and-dag-hammarskjold/">The CIA’s Involvement in Indonesia and the Assassinations of JFK and Dag Hammarskjold</a>,” <em>Off-Guardian</em>, July 24, 2016.</p><p>Greg Poulgrain, <em>JFK vs. Allen Dulles: Battleground Indonesia</em> (Skyhorse, 2020).</p><p>Greg Poulgrain, <em>The Incubus of Intervention: Conflicting Indonesia Strategies of John F. Kennedy and Allen Dulles</em> (Petaling Jaya, Malyasia: Strategic Information and Research Development Center, 2015).</p><p>Humans Rights Watch, “<a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/10/18/indonesia-us-documents-released-1965-66-massacres">Indonesia: US Documents Released on 1965-66 Massacres</a>,” October 18, 2017.</p><p>John Roosa, <em>Buried Histories: The Anticommunist Massacres of 1965–1966 in Indonesia</em> (University of Wisconsin Press, 2020).</p><p>John Roosa, <em>Pretext for Mass Murder: The September 30th Movement and Suharto’s Coup d’Etat in Indonesia</em> (University of Wisconsin Press, 2005).</p><p>Joshua Oppenheimer (director), <em>The Act of Killing</em> (DVD), 2014, <em>The Look of Silence</em> (DVD), 2015.</p><p>Peter Dale Scott, “<a href="https://apjjf.org/Peter-Dale-Scott/4307.html">Islam, a Forgotten Holocaust, and American Historical Amnesia</a>” (イスラム教、忘れ去られたホロコースト、そして歴史に対するアメリカの記憶喪失症), <em>Asia Pacific Journal</em>, April, 2015.</p><p>Peter Dale Scott, “<a href="https://apjjf.org/2015/13/31/Peter-Dale-Scott/4351.html">Still Uninvestigated After 50 Years: Did the U.S. Help Incite the 1965 Indonesia Massacre?</a>” <em>Asia Pacific Journal</em>, August 2105.</p><p>Peter Dale Scott, <em>Poetry and Terror: Politics and Poetics in Coming to Jakarta</em>, 2018.</p><p>Ralph McGehee, “<a href="http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/CIA/McGehee_CIA_Indo.html">The Indonesian Massacres and the CIA</a>,” <em>Covert Action Quarterly</em>, Fall 1990.</p><p>_____</p><p><strong>Vincent Bevins, “</strong><a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/10/the-indonesia-documents-and-the-us-agenda/543534/"><strong>What the United States did in Indonesia</strong></a><strong>,” <em>The Atlantic</em>, October 20, 2017</strong></p><p>A trove of newly declassified diplomatic cables reveals a surprising degree of American involvement in a brutal anti-communist purge in Indonesia half-a-century ago.</p><p>In Indonesia in October 1965, Suharto, a powerful Indonesian military leader, accused the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) of organizing a brutal coup attempt, following the kidnapping and murder of six high-ranking army officers. Over the months that followed, he oversaw the systematic extermination of up to a million Indonesians for affiliation with the party, or simply for being accused of harboring leftist sympathies. He then took power and ruled as dictator, with U.S. support, until 1998.</p><p>This week, the non-profit National Security Archive, along with the National Declassification Center, published a batch of U.S. diplomatic cables covering that dark period. While the newly declassified documents further illustrated the horror of Indonesia’s 1965 mass murder, they also confirmed that U.S. authorities backed Suharto’s purge. Perhaps even more striking: As the documents show, U.S. officials knew most of his victims were entirely innocent. U.S. embassy officials even received updates on the executions and offered help to suppress media coverage. While crucial documents that could provide insight into U.S. and Indonesian activities at the time are still lacking, the broad outlines of the atrocity and America’s role are there for anyone who cares to look them up.</p><p>What is often sorely lacking, however, is an appreciation of the importance of the event or how fundamental the violence was to achieving U.S. goals at the time. Compared with the Vietnam War or a subsequent series of right-wing coups in Latin America, Indonesia 1965 is virtually unknown. But considering the U.S. government’s foreign-policy goals at the time—halting the spread of communism and bringing countries around the world into its sphere of influence—Suharto’s bloody purge was a huge win. The decimation of the PKI and Suharto’s rise to power constituted a major turning point in the Cold War</p><p>John Roosa is an associate professor of history at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, and author of a seminal book on Indonesia in 1965. After reviewing the new documents and their media coverage this week, he told me that much “of the U.S. foreign policy establishment viewed it as a great victory that they were able to sort of ‘flip’ Indonesia very quickly.” Indonesia is the world’s fourth-largest country by population size, and its communist party was the world’s third-largest, after China and the Soviet Union.</p><p>Roosa added that a major problem with framing the events of 1965 is that it’s often claimed the United States simply “stood by,” as the bloodbath occurred, which is incorrect. “It’s easy for American commentators to fall into that approach, but the U.S. was part and parcel of the operation, strategizing with the Indonesian army and encouraging them to go after the PKI.”</p><p>Some elements within the U.S. government had been trying to undermine or overthrow Sukarno, Indonesia’s anti-colonial independence leader and first president, far before 1965. In 1958, the CIA backed armed regional rebellions against the central government, only calling off operations after American pilot Allen Pope was captured while conducting bombing operations that killed Indonesian soldiers and civilians. Agents reportedly went so far as to stage and produce a pornographic film starring a man wearing a Sukarno mask, which they hoped to employ to discredit him. It was never used. Then for years, the United States trained and strengthened the Indonesian army. After John F. Kennedy’s death derailed a planned presidential visit to Jakarta and relations worsened with the Johnson administration, Sukarno strengthened alliances with communist countries and employed anti-American rhetoric in 1964.</p><p>In 1965, when General Suharto blamed the military purge on a PKI coup plot, the CIA supplied communications equipment to help him spread his false reports before moving into power and overseeing the industrial-scale slaughter, as previously released government documents showed. Several of the documents released this week indicate that the U.S. embassy had reliable information that placed blame on rank-and-file PKI members—information that was entirely inaccurate, but nevertheless had encouraged the army to exploit this narrative.</p><p>It has long been known that the United States provided Suharto with active support: In 1990, a U.S. embassy staff member admitted he handed over a list of communists to the Indonesian military as the terror was underway. “It really was a big help to the army,” Robert J. Martens, a former member of the embassy’s political section, told <em>The Washington Post</em>. “They probably killed a lot of people, and I probably have a lot of blood on my hands, but that’s not all bad.”</p><p>Much of the American press at the time did not take a radically different view. In a June 1966 column in <em>The New York Times</em>, entitled “A Gleam of Light in Asia,” James Reston wrote that “The savage transformation of Indonesia from a pro-Chinese policy under Sukarno to a defiantly anti-communist policy under General Suharto is the most important of these [hopeful] developments. Washington is being careful not to claim any credit ... but this does not mean Washington had nothing to do with it.”</p><p>It should not be entirely surprising that Washington would tolerate the deaths of so many civilians to further its Cold War goals. In Vietnam, the U.S. military may have killed up to 2 million civilians. But Indonesia was different: the PKI was a legal, unarmed party, operating openly in Indonesia’s political system. It had gained influence through elections and community outreach, but was nevertheless treated like an insurgency.</p><p>Earlier this month in Central Java at the Sekretariat Bersama 1965, one of Indonesia’s main organizations for the remembrance of these events, I met a survivor of the 1965 massacre. “I believed in President Sukarno and our revolution. At the time our country had the official ‘NASAKOM’ ideology, which meant that Nationalists [NAS, from Nasionalisme], Muslim groups [A, for agama, or ‘religion’ in Indonesian] and Communists [Komunisme] were all supposed to work together to build the country,” he said. “Yes, I worked on the left side of politics, broadly under ‘KOM,’ and there was nothing wrong with that.”</p><p>Though he worked as a schoolteacher and not as an actual PKI member, he said he was arrested and tortured for days, before watching his cellmates dragged off one by one, never to return. He was spared, for reasons he never understood, and spent over a decade in prison. But it wasn’t only communists and leftists who were victimized. Untold numbers of people were tortured, raped, and killed for being accused of being communists, or for belonging to an ethnic minority, or simply being an enemy of some member of the officially-sanctioned death squads.</p><p>Another common problem with the framing of Indonesia 1965 is that the mass violence is often couched as coincidental to Suharto’s rise to power, rather than serving as a prerequisite for it. Historians broadly agree that the anti-communists in the military could have never taken power without crushing the PKI by some means.</p><p>“Suharto could not have come to power without the extermination of the PKI,” said Brad Simpson, the historian at the University of Connecticut who worked with the National Security Archive to digitize and publish U.S. embassy documents this week. He agrees with Roosa that the depiction of the United States as simply a bystander is problematic.</p><p>More documents revealing what happened in Indonesia in 1965 are likely to come, Simpson tells me. But they’re unlikely to offer a complete picture of what both governments were up to in 1965—they won’t for instance, include information from the U.S. military and the CIA. The Indonesian government has offered practically nothing. “Literally no Indonesian official records are publicly available anywhere, so we’re really reliant on Western archives,” Simpson said.</p><p>This is because much of Indonesia’s political elite still relies on Suharto’s original—and false—narrative for their legitimacy. The country’s powerful military leaders fight any investigations that might lay blame on them. Suharto’s government produced a crude, wildly inaccurate propaganda film depicting Communists torturing and killing military officers while communist women perform a wild dance.</p><p><!-- wp:paragraph -->
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<!-- /wp:paragraph --></p><p>The methods Suharto used may have inspired other Washington-backed right-wing putsches around the world. According to several accounts of Santiago, Chile, in the days before the U.S.-backed coup that deposed Salvador Allende, cryptic graffiti showed up on walls around the city. Referring to the capital of Indonesia, they read, “Jakarta is coming.”</p>
<!-- /wp:paragraph -->Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7464222263572816025.post-53692327242305153552022-12-04T22:37:00.007+09:002022-12-04T22:39:56.915+09:00The CIA as Organized Crime in Ukraine<p> <span face=""Open Sans", sans-serif">In </span><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">a <a href="https://youtu.be/rafUqjvvr3w" target="_blank">video recorded in 2022</a></span><span face=""Open Sans", sans-serif">,
author Douglas Valentine discusses his book <i>The CIA as Organized Crime: How
Illegal Operations Corrupt America and the World</i> (2016) with a particular
focus on Chapter 9 which covers the history of the agency’s long project to use
Ukraine as a tool to weaken the Soviet Union and Russia.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">“The United States
occupies Ukraine. Its government is an occupation government that’s supported, funded
and directed by the United States. The businessmen, the military people, and
the politicians that support the Americans benefit, and those who don’t are put
on hit lists and they’re targeted. That’s basically the history and the summary
of what’s going on in Ukraine. The CIA, through its agent operations, which
have been in place for 70 years, is the vanguard of that operation.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><b><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">Introduction<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">It never ceases to amaze me these days that
information like what is given below by Douglas Valentine is continually
dismissed by people my age as “whacko conspiracy stuff,” “Putin propaganda,” “right
wing,” and other such derogatory terms.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">All talk of Russia committing an act of
“unprovoked aggression” and “violating international borders” shrinks down to
the proper perspective if one is capable of seeing that the Russian reaction,
which came after eight years of Russian attempts to settle the conflict
peacefully, is a military action that aims to put an end to an illegal
occupation of Ukraine. It is a covert occupation in which the occupier does not
legally acknowledge its status, but it should be, for all effective purposes,
defined as an occupation. NATO countries supply the weapons, the humanitarian
aid, and even the money for the national budget of Ukraine. NATO tells the
Ukrainian puppet government whether to keep fighting or to negotiate a
settlement. If the puppet master left, the Ukrainian government would collapse
within days. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">When I was coming of age in the 1970s, it
seemed to me that everyone my own age was quite jaded by having grown up in the
era of political assassinations, social unrest, and war in Southeast Asia. Many
had become apolitical and nihilistic, or just interested in making money, but
even these people had good bullshit detectors and a healthy skepticism of
official narratives. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">The revelations of the Church Committee
(United States Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with
Respect to Intelligence Activities) laid bare the CIA’s mind control programs
(MK-ULTRA), surveillance of domestic organizations, assassination plots against
foreign leaders, covert overthrow of foreign governments, and its infiltration
of American media and entertainment industries (Project Mockingbird). <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">Reagan’s war on Central America in the 1980s and
the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in the 2000s should have solidified the
worldview that existed. Of course, there were always millions of people who
thought “the war on communism” or “the war on terror” had to be fought
everywhere, but there was a large enough portion of the population that opposed
them and sometimes stopped the worst from happening. Nowadays, that dissenting
population is much smaller and more marginalized. Trump, Brexit, the Covid
reaction, economic instability, and anti-Russian propaganda have inflicted to a
mass mindfuck that has erased the once-prevalent cynical understanding of the
CIA and American foreign policy. Some people of my generation seem to have been
altered not by insecurity and fear but by the narcotizing effect of affluence
and entertainment. They simply don’t remember and are too lazy to read and
learn something more than what can be spoon-fed to them in a soundbite. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">The mass media, which was never great but
sometimes oppositional, is now just a sponsored propaganda organ for government,
“philanthropic” foundations (tax shelters), and corporations. The media logos
are the same, so many people carry on under the mistaken assumption that they
are still ingesting a virtuous thing called “journalism.” No one told them that
that train left the station a long time ago.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">The Church Committee, as well as the United
States House Select Committee on Assassinations, were bottom-up phenomena—freak
openings of the curtain, ephemera, comets that won’t be back this way for a
long, long time. They were products of 1970s activism and popular influence
over Congress. There were actually elected officials in those days who
responded to the popular call to investigate the activities of the security
state. These investigations were actually thwarted by the CIA, and their
conclusions were watered down (with phrases like “probable conspiracy”), but they
had an impact. It is impossible to imagine the benighted masses doing anything
similar now to restrain the covert operations, greed and corruption of a
civilization that is sleepwalking into catastrophic war. The television
audiences don’t know, don’t want to know, or don’t even know that they don’t
know.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><a href="https://rumble.com/v16koep-journalist-and-author-douglas-valentine-on-the-history-of-the-cias-involvem.html"><b><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif">TRANSCRIPT</span></b></a><b><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">DOUGLAS VALENTINE: After World War Two,
communism became the bugaboo, and the Soviet Union became the enemy. One of the
things the CIA did right after World War Two was hire a lot of Nazis. Guys who
had been Nazis were now recycled and brought into the CIA. The Nazi rocket
scientist Von Braun went to work for the United States developing intercontinental
ballistic missiles. So their Nazi past was forgiven, and Nazis went to work for
the United States, including a guy named Reinhard Gehlen, who had been the Nazi
military intelligence officer in charge of operations against the Soviets in
Eastern Europe. This guy, Gehlen, became the CIA’s main intelligence operator
into East Berlin and areas like Ukraine, where he had had Nazis intelligence
agents during World War Two. And this guy, Reinhard Gehlen, on behalf of his
new CIA masters, just activated all the agent nets that he had during World War
Two.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">The same thing was going on in Ukraine,
although in Ukraine very large swaths of its population were fascists and more
actively involved against the war against the Soviets and were enemies of the
United States in World War Two. After World War Two, they became assets of the
CIA. So the CIA has been developing fascist assets in Ukraine for 70 years. Every
year since 1948, when the CIA went into operation, it has had a station in
Ukraine with a CIA officer who’s running operations. Those operations have all
been directed against, first, the Soviet Union, and after the collapse of the
Soviet Union, against Russia. There’s a lot of momentum that has built up over
75 years. Vast agent nets have been put in place. Sleeper agents have been in
place for decades, and they’re all working against Russia, which is why
nowadays it’s so hard for the mainstream media and the government to shift and even
consider for a moment having good relations with Russia.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">NATO? Its whole mandate and its whole reason
for its existence has been to threaten and roll back Russia, and eventually
sabotage and subvert it and put it out of business. The CIA’s operations in
Ukraine are the cutting-edge vanguard of this effort. So if you look at recent
events in Ukraine, you have to see them in that context—how for decades the CIA
has been trying to recruit Ukrainian politicians, Ukrainian businessmen who are
sympathetic and compatible with Western American ideas, values and interests—who
are fighting against the Russians—and recruiting them, and putting them in
place and setting them up with bank accounts, giving them paramilitary
training, everything the CIA does across the board.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">Ukraine has been the vanguard of this
operation against Russia. The details are in my book, <i>The CIA as Organized Crime</i>—how
this works at the at the agent level, how the CIA would go around after the
coup that threw out a pro-Russian government and installed a pro-American anti-Russian
government. The CIA had already had security services and military people in
place who are able to create private militias that would then work against
individuals in Ukraine who were pro-Russian. It was just like they treated
South Vietnam or any other country that the United States occupies. That is the
situation in Ukraine. The United States occupies Ukraine. Its government is an occupation
government that’s supported, funded and directed by the United States. The
businessmen, the military people, and the politicians that support the
Americans benefit, and those who don’t are put on hit lists and they’re
targeted. That’s basically the history and the summary of what’s going on in
Ukraine. The CIA, through its agent operations, which have been in place for 70
years, is the vanguard of that operation. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">So is the intent and
purpose of the CIA and American involvement in Ukraine to topple Russia, to
balkanize Russia? <o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">Oh, absolutely, but it’s also to steal from
Ukraine, to take all the natural resources that are available there, the
profits that can be had. It’s capitalism. It’s nationalism—American
nationalists who are businessmen. As soon as the CIA arranged that coup and
installed a pro-American government, Joe Biden’s son became the head of one of
the biggest oil companies in Ukraine. American businessmen just swooped down
like vultures to take over any business, like Mafia dons and Mafia gangsters,
that they could steal everything from. That’s exactly what they’re doing, especially
in eastern Ukraine, where a lot of the natural resource industries are based.
That’s why it’s so contentious there. The CIA, through its assets in private
industry, is trying to bring all those people, all those people who are
considered compatible, into the American fold. You don’t see it at its dirty
level, at the level of blackmailing people, the level of extorting people, the
level of the CIA using its underworld contacts to squeeze these people and to
force them out of business and to make life miserable for them so that they
give up their associations with Russians and Russian businessmen.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">That’s what’s going on at the very basic
level. Militias are being formed to terrorize anybody who supported Russia in
Donbass and places like that. As for the details, you would have to spend years
studying them to understand. I suggest you just read the book to see how the
CIA has relationships with the security services in Ukraine. As soon as the
coup was launched, it took over control of those security services and it
started drawing up the hit lists, targeting people that it could go after. The
people that they target most highly are people that are sitting on natural
resources that American businessmen want. They are not going after plumbers and
carpenters. They are going after major businessmen. That’s what the CIA does.
It paves the way for American business interests by using illegal methods and
by using illegal methods to install politicians in Ukraine that will follow the
American line. These are things that you don’t know about, that you’re not told
about by the media, which, I should add, is well aware of what’s going on, but
just doesn’t tell you because it’s good for their business, too.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><b><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">Source discussed<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">Douglas Valentine, <i>The CIA as Organized
Crime: How Illegal Operations Corrupt America and the World</i> (Clarity Press,
2016) Chapter 9: The CIA in Ukraine, pages 129-143.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">For information on the popular pressure that
led to the creation of the select committees mentioned in the introduction, see
Mark Lane, <i>Last Word: My Indictment of the CIA in the Murder of JFK</i>
(Skyhorse, 2012).<o:p></o:p></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7464222263572816025.post-40980751654523317292022-09-18T14:57:00.009+09:002022-09-19T22:39:27.546+09:00Sucrose, Fructose and Fossil Fuels: The Rise of Energy-Intensive Societies Since 1500CE<p><b><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">1. Introduction: Life in the Zone of
Exclusion</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">In the years after the explosion of a nuclear reactor
in Chernobyl in 1986, many people lived illegally in the zone of exclusion.
Some said they were too old to leave and couldn’t give up the simple life they
loved. Others were refugees from the civil wars and societal collapse that
occurred in the early 1990s in the former Soviet republics. It seems outrageous
that they would choose to live with the dangers of radiation, but for them it
was a rational choice about how to survive in the short term. Necessity made
them disregard the long-term risks. One’s first reaction is to feel amazement
and pity, but if one looks at their situation as a metaphor for life in the
21st century, one could say we all live in zones of exclusion. The words Godfrey
Reggio used to explain his purpose in making his classic documentary film <i>Koyaanisqatsi</i>
serve well to introduce the essay that follows:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1cm;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">… the main event today is
not seen by those of us that live in it. We see the surface of the newspapers,
the obviousness of conflict, of social injustice, of the market, the welling up
of culture, but to me the greatest event, or the most important event of
perhaps our entire history—nothing comparable in the past to this event—has
fundamentally gone unnoticed, and the event is the following: the transiting
from all-nature, or the natural environment as our host of life for human
habitation, into a technological milieu, into mass technology as the
environment of life. So these films have never been about the effect of
technology, of industry, on people. It’s been that everyone, politics,
education, the financial structure, the nation-state structure, language, the
culture, religion: all of that exists within the host of technology, so it’s
not the effect of. It’s that everything exists within. It’s not that we use
technology. We live technology. Technology has become as ubiquitous as the air
we breathe, so we are no longer conscious of its presence.<a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2021/blog-2021-08-sugar.docx#_edn1" name="_ednref1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">This essay discusses the energy crisis of the present
day from a broad perspective that includes the energy sources for work done by
biological “machines” since the late fifteenth century. As capitalism started
to form out of European colonialism, it demanded ever greater short-term gain at
the expense of long-term fitness of people and the environment. This economic
system had the irrational motivations of an addict, always seeking short-term
relief and short-term gain at the expense of enduring health. Short-term
motivations were required of both the individuals leading and profiting from
these institutions and the individuals victimized by them. Society functioned
like an addict, setting up an exclusion zone of insecurity, slavery, labor for
hire, fear of bankruptcy, bad food and environmental degradation—a zone where
the only relief from this anxiety was the pursuit of power and fleeting
pleasure.<a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2021/blog-2021-08-sugar.docx#_edn2" name="_ednref2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="FootnoteAnchor"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="FootnoteAnchor"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a>
Unlike the Chernobyl Zone of Exclusion, its boundaries can’t be seen on a map,
but we live in it regardless. It “as ubiquitous as the air we breathe,” as
Godfrey Reggio stated. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Since the 1990s, neoliberal ideologues have declared
TINA—There Is No Alternative—to the trans-Atlantic world order held in place by
US power, NATO, the EU, the G7 and countless think tanks and foundations that
front for corporate oligarchy. The “great power rivals” to this system offer
alternatives, but they too have to face the contradictions encountered when
trying to establish a new political economy in the technological milieu, when the
natural environment is no longer the host of life for human habitation.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">In contemporary essays on the energy crisis, much
attention is given to global warming, the fossil fuel industry, the nuclear
industry, and the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, but this essay focuses
mostly on the energy paradigm that predates fossil fuels. It looks at how the
energy dilemma of the 21st century was born out of the energy paradigm derived
from slavery and sugar—the first carbon-based fuel to be exploited at
industrial scale. The discussion about how to get out of the present energy
paradigm contains many echoes of the struggles against slavery and sugar
plantations that first arose in the 18th century. This first iteration of the
energy crisis also points to the fact that the crisis is not inherent in the
energy sources and the technology but rather in choices human societies made
about how to deploy those energy sources.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">2. The Candid Truth</span>: </b><b><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">“This
is the price of the sugar you eat in Europe”</span><o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">In Voltaire’s novella <i>Candide </i>(1759), the
protagonist travels to South America and encounters a disabled man who tells
him what it is to be a slave:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1cm;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">For clothing, they give us
a pair of linen drawers twice a year. When we work at the sugar canes, and the
mill snatches hold of a finger, they cut off the hand; and when we attempt to
run away, they cut off a leg; both cases have happened to me. This is the price
of the sugar you eat in Europe.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Voltaire was one of many Europeans who were beginning
to raise such consciousness about the price of sugar, making Europeans see the
connections between the suffering of others on the opposite side of the world
and the simple luxuries they took for granted. Thirty-five years later, the
French revolutionary government was the first state in Europe to abolish
slavery in its colonies, though Napoleon re-instated it eight years later. Voltaire
was not the only social critic who spoke out against slavery in the late 18th
century, as the abolitionist movement was growing in Britain also. Slavery and
sugar were the energy paradigm of the age, and just as today everyone can see
the cruelty and irrationality of the fossil fuel and nuclear industries, it was
easy then for all involved to see the soil depletion on the plantations, to
recognize Africans as fellow human beings and to acknowledge the cruelty of
slavery. Yet in the same breath they would say there was nothing that could be
done about it, that it was part of a long process of development and growing
prosperity. The powerful people most invested in the system could say that
“they stand taller and see farther into the future.”<a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2021/blog-2021-08-sugar.docx#_edn3" name="_ednref3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[3]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> In
the present age, after disasters like the Deepwater Horizon Gulf of Mexico Oil
Spill (in 2010) or the Fukushima Daiichi meltdowns (in 2011), people declare, “But
we need the energy!”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">In his famous 1944 study, <i>Capitalism and Slavery</i>,
Eric Williams documented the debates that raged in Britain over slavery in the
18th and 19th century, and in the sources he quoted, one notes the similarity
to voices in the present age who see no way out of the present energy paradigm:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1cm;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Only a few Englishmen
before 1783 … had any doubts about the morality of the slave trade. Those who
had [doubts] realized that objections, as Postlethwayt put it, would be of
little weight with statesmen who saw the great national emoluments which accrued
from the slave trade. “We shall take things as they are, and reason from them
in their present State, and not from that wherein we could hope them to be...
We cannot think of giving up the slave-trade, notwithstanding my good wishes
that it could be done.” Later, perhaps, some noble and benevolent Christian
spirit might think of changing the system, “which, as things are now
circumstanced, may not be so easily brought about.” Before the American
Revolution, English public opinion in general accepted the view of the slave
trader: “Tho to traffic in human creatures, may at first sight appear
barbarous, inhuman, and unnatural; yet the traders herein have as much to plead
in their own excuse, as can be said for some other branches of trade, namely,
the advantage of it. In a word, from this trade proceed benefits, far
outweighing all, either real or pretended mischiefs and inconveniencies.”<a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2021/blog-2021-08-sugar.docx#_edn4" name="_ednref4" style="mso-endnote-id: edn4;" title=""><span class="FootnoteAnchor"><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="FootnoteAnchor"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-themecolor: text1;">[4]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">3. Accelerated Life: When did the
Anthropocene begin?</span><o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">When did humanity start its plunge toward ecocide?
There has been a lot of talk in recent years about the Anthropocene, the label
that signifies the point at which <i>homo sapiens</i> started to have such an
impact that the planet moved into a new geological era. Scientists don’t agree
about when it began. Perhaps it started when humans went from nomadic
hunter-gathering to settled agriculture, but for the first ten thousand years
after that, we didn’t have much effect on the climate and other species, and
our waste products were almost entirely recycled. It is more common to set the
start of the Anthropocene at the time when fossil fuel exploitation (coal
first, gas and oil later) began in the early 19th century. Some scientists say
that the Anthropocene began in the nuclear era, after 1945, because a new
geologic era requires a detectable change in soil layers, and it was the
fallout from nuclear detonations that became the marker of change.<a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2021/blog-2021-08-sugar.docx#_edn5" name="_ednref5" style="mso-endnote-id: edn5;" title=""><span class="FootnoteAnchor"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="FootnoteAnchor"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[5]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">The discussion herein sees the new era as beginning
five centuries ago when the discovery of the New World and colonialism began to
drastically alter culture, politics, and philosophy, eventually enclosing
everyone on the planet in framework that Mark Fisher has called “Capitalist
Realism.”<a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2021/blog-2021-08-sugar.docx#_edn6" name="_ednref6" style="mso-endnote-id: edn6;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[6]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> The
Anthropocene could be regarded as the beginning of an acceleration in the way
humans abused each other and their natural environment in the pursuit of
short-term gain. The story of fossil fuel use since the Industrial Revolution
is well-known, and it is well-known that it put massive amounts of carbon
dioxide in the atmosphere, but we seldom think about the previous era based on
sucrose, the carbon-based fuel that humans began to exploit three centuries
earlier. In this “early modern” period the structures of capitalism were
formed, and the capital required for capitalism and imperialism was derived
from the labor of slaves. The money that poured into Liverpool from the slave
trade financed building of the factories of Manchester. All the progress of the
Enlightenment in Europe rode on the back of colonialism. On this point, Homi
Bhabha stated:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1cm;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">John Stuart Mill, whose
word on liberty is accepted everywhere in the world, said, “I am a Democrat in
my own country… and a despot in somebody else’s country as a member of a
colonial power, as the subject of a colonial power.” So John Stuart Mill’s paradox…
gives you, in brief, the whole story about post-colonial studies… And of course
this issue is one that bedevils all of modernity. Slavery, after, all was
considered to be an economically advanced, modern concept of dealing with
questions of trade and production. Nobody said imperialism or empire was
unjust. Initially, the justification for it was that it would modernize and
christianize many countries that were actually being ruled by oriental despots.<a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2021/blog-2021-08-sugar.docx#_edn7" name="_ednref7" style="mso-endnote-id: edn7;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[7]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">In the earlier stage of energy exploitation, we didn’t
burn fuel in human-made machines. The machines were human beings, some of them
slaves who made a new cheap and “efficient” fuel to feed the emerging
proletariat. The use of this fuel didn’t end with the advent of the Industrial
Revolution, but it was overshadowed by the rise of machines that could run on
fossil fuels. It is not just a coincidence that the abolition movement grew
stronger after the invention of the steam engine. Matt Ridley, citing several
economists who have argued this obvious point, devoted a chapter to the subject
in his book <i>The Rational Optimist</i>.<a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2021/blog-2021-08-sugar.docx#_edn8" name="_ednref8" style="mso-endnote-id: edn8;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[8]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> He
argued that the rise of fossil fuel-burning machines did not on its own abolish
slavery, but it was the economic rationale that lowered resistance to change. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Nonetheless, sugar consumption did not end after the
Industrial Revolution. Humans continued sugar consumption and learned how to produce
other types of sugar besides sucrose, and those new habits had further
disastrous effects on rates of chronic diseases that are clearly evident in the
21st century.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">The significance of the early industrial sugar trade
has slipped from awareness in the modern age, but its importance was common
knowledge in the 19th century when innovations in refining technology or the
opening of closed mercantile colonial markets could change the fates of nations
and empires. The sugar trade has been studied by historians, economists, and
anthropologists such as Sidney W. Mintz, author of <i>Sweetness and Power: The
Place of Sugar in Modern History</i><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2021/blog-2021-08-sugar.docx#_edn9" name="_ednref9" style="mso-endnote-id: edn9;" title=""><span class="FootnoteAnchor"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="FootnoteAnchor"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[9]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><i>
</i>and Eric Williams, author of <i>Capitalism and Slavery</i>, mentioned
above. Another excellent resource is Gillo Pontecorvo’s 1969 film </span><a href="https://dennisriches.wordpress.com/2019/12/15/notes-on-gillo-pontecorvos-queimada-with-dialog-excerpts/"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Queimada</span></i></a><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">
starring Marlon Brando and Evaristo Márquez. The story about a British <i>agent
provocateur’s</i> exploitation of a slave revolt in a Portuguese plantation
colony was so shockingly anti-imperialist, and such an obvious veiled critique
of the US war on Vietnam, that it had a very short run and was seldom viewed
again until it was released on DVD in 2004.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">The long struggle to end slavery and the ecological and
cultural destruction caused by plantations was similar to the efforts underway
now to find a way out of the prevailing energy system that seems irreplaceable.
This history may be forgotten in the 21st century, even though sugar and the
social structures and energy systems that grew around it still exist in
alternate forms, interacting with and compounding all the effects of the fossil
fuel economy.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">The early and late period of capitalism and energy
exploitation can be best understood by prefacing the subject with some quotes
by sociologists who have written about energy. In an introduction to an essay
entitled <i>Energy and Democracy</i>, by Joe Costello, Yasha Levine wrote:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1cm;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">It’s obvious that we have
figure out new ways of living that don’t totally depend on the death-drive,
hyper-industrial technologies that surround us today. It’s also obvious that in
order to do that we’ll have to return, at least in some aspects, to slower,
more local, pre-industrial modes of living. But I’m not so sure we’re capable
of making this kind of transition without being forced to by some kind of
massive collapse or calamity that will be outside of our control. Our politics,
our culture—everything’s too locked into the present way of doing things.<a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2021/blog-2021-08-sugar.docx#_edn10" name="_ednref10" style="mso-endnote-id: edn10;" title=""><span class="FootnoteAnchor"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="FootnoteAnchor"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[10]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1cm;"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">The essay referred to above quoted two important
earlier sociological works on energy. In one, Vaclav Smil wrote in <i>Energy
and Civilization</i>:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1cm;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">The adoption and diffusion
of new energy sources have been the fundamental physical reasons for economic,
social, and environmental change and they have transformed virtually every
facet of modern societies: the process has always been with us, but its pace
has been accelerating. Prehistoric changes brought about by better tools, the
mastery of fire, and better hunting strategies were very slow, unfolding over
tens of thousands of years. The subsequent adoption and intensification of
permanent farming lasted for millennia. Its most important consequence was a
large increase in population densities, leading to social stratification,
occupational specialization, and incipient urbanization. High-energy societies
created by the rising consumption of fossil fuels became the very epitomes of
change, leading to a widespread obsession with the need for constant
innovation.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1cm;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1cm;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">But one fundamental
reality had not changed: all of these clear and impressive historical trends
tracing the rise of new sources, new superior performances, and efficiency
gains do not mean humanity has been using energy in a progressively more
rational manner. … Indeed, higher energy use by itself does not guarantee
anything except greater environmental burdens. The historical evidence is
clear. Higher energy will not ensure a reliable food supply; it will not confer
strategic security; it will not safely underpin political stability; it will
not necessarily lead to a more enlightened governance; and it will not bring
widely shared increases in a nation’s standard of living.<a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2021/blog-2021-08-sugar.docx#_edn11" name="_ednref11" style="mso-endnote-id: edn11;" title=""><span class="FootnoteAnchor"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="FootnoteAnchor"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[11]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">The essay by Joe Costello also quotes the writing of
Ivan Illich published in 1974:</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1cm;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Beyond a certain point,
more energy means less equity… Over-industrialization enslaves people to the
tools they worship, fattens professional hierarchies on bits and on watts, and
invites the translation of unequal power into huge income differentials. It imposes
the same net transfers of power on the productive relations of every society,
no matter what creed the managers profess, no matter what rain-dance, what
penitential ritual they conduct.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1cm;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1cm;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">This profound control of
the transportation industry over natural mobility constitutes a monopoly much
more pervasive than either the commercial monopoly Ford might win over the
automobile market, or the political monopoly car manufacturers might wield
against the development of trains and buses. Because of its hidden, entrenched,
and structuring nature, I call this a radical monopoly. Any industry exercises
this kind of deep-seated monopoly when it becomes the dominant means of
satisfying needs that formerly occasioned a personal response. Traffic serves
here as the paradigm of a general economic law: Any industrial product that
comes in <i>per capita quanta</i> beyond a given intensity exercises a radical
monopoly over the satisfaction of a need.<a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2021/blog-2021-08-sugar.docx#_edn12" name="_ednref12" style="mso-endnote-id: edn12;" title=""><span class="FootnoteAnchor"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="FootnoteAnchor"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[12]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Joe Costello adds:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1cm;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">All utilized energy
organizes society. The resulting organization, in part, defines political
structures, whether they’re democratic or tyrannical. Any society wanting
democracy needs to create democratic energy systems. Today’s centuries-old
agrarian-era structures of government and the industrial era mega-corporations
straddling atop them are simply incapable of creating the necessary processes,
values, and organization of a new energy era. We have no democratic politics
today. If democracy is to arise anew it needs new organization, democratic
organization that understands energy use and technology.<a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2021/blog-2021-08-sugar.docx#_edn13" name="_ednref13" style="mso-endnote-id: edn13;" title=""><span class="FootnoteAnchor"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="FootnoteAnchor"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[13]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">What these passages make clear is that whether we are
talking about slaves, sugar, coal or uranium, the energy source <i>per se</i>
is not the source of our problems. Our institutions and our ways of thinking
about energy preclude successful resolution of “the energy crisis.” Even if
clean, limitless fusion energy became abundant tomorrow, satisfying all our “energy
needs,” the ways we might deploy that technology could create unforeseen
scenarios of environmental degradation. Technology cannot provide us with any
answers about what we want to be when we grow up.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">4. The Rise of Sugar and the Decline of
Traditional Food Cultures <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Sidney W. Mintz’ book <i>Sweetness and Power</i> tells
how over four centuries of European history (roughly 1500-1900) sugar went from
being a rarity to a luxury and finally a cheap necessity, a caloric supplement
that was essential fuel for the proletariat. Plantation owners and empires became
wealthy as two groups of laborers grew simultaneously: the slaves growing sugar
and the proletariat consuming what the slaves produced. It was the first
iteration of industrial agriculture and an energy-intensive economic system.
Mintz wrote, “Slave and proletarian together powered the imperial economic
system that kept the one supplied with manacles and the other with sugar and
rum; but neither had more than minimal influence over it.<a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2021/blog-2021-08-sugar.docx#_edn14" name="_ednref14" style="mso-endnote-id: edn14;" title=""><span class="FootnoteAnchor"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="FootnoteAnchor"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[14]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">In 1800, world sugar production was 250,000 tons (see
Table 1). By 1880, it had risen fifteen-fold to 3.8 million tons. By 1914,
production was 16 million tons, then in 1945, 30 million tons. From 1900 to
1970, production increased by 500 percent and sucrose contributed an estimated
9% of all calories consumed in the world.<a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2021/blog-2021-08-sugar.docx#_edn15" name="_ednref15" style="mso-endnote-id: edn15;" title=""><span class="FootnoteAnchor"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="FootnoteAnchor"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[15]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWbBGtiSvW7jeQZ716yP09JFS7qriM1Ub2aHwpu99A8kidLx3pFaINykN9URaYmdix4six_frpxvHgwVmfDwZ9uS1rawizut8DN7phWleMWlmQ7hLjbwyZiTaVL4N0XsCsdYIrMHmqmqy1BqdAW2QUjc5vtyzH8mHEO0Shg8Uud7Anz7viV35wMsN2/s475/sweetness%20and%20power.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="294" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWbBGtiSvW7jeQZ716yP09JFS7qriM1Ub2aHwpu99A8kidLx3pFaINykN9URaYmdix4six_frpxvHgwVmfDwZ9uS1rawizut8DN7phWleMWlmQ7hLjbwyZiTaVL4N0XsCsdYIrMHmqmqy1BqdAW2QUjc5vtyzH8mHEO0Shg8Uud7Anz7viV35wMsN2/s320/sweetness%20and%20power.jpg" width="198" /></a></div><br /><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Table 1</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></b></p><table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoTableGrid" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-table-layout-alt: fixed; mso-yfti-tbllook: 1184; width: 595px;">
<tbody><tr style="height: 17.0pt; mso-height-rule: exactly; mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0;">
<td colspan="3" style="border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; height: 17.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-height-rule: exactly; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 446.3pt;" valign="top" width="595">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Global Sugar Production
1800-1970 (tons)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 17.0pt; mso-height-rule: exactly; mso-row-margin-right: 333.15pt; mso-yfti-irow: 1;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; height: 17.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-height-rule: exactly; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 40.05pt;" valign="top" width="53">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">1800<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 17.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-height-rule: exactly; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 73.1pt;" valign="top" width="97">
<p align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: right;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">250,000<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
<td style="border: none; mso-cell-special: placeholder; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm;" width="444"><p class="MsoNormal"> </p></td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 17.0pt; mso-height-rule: exactly; mso-row-margin-right: 333.15pt; mso-yfti-irow: 2;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; height: 17.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-height-rule: exactly; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 40.05pt;" valign="top" width="53">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">1880<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 17.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-height-rule: exactly; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 73.1pt;" valign="top" width="97">
<p align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: right;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">3,800,000<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
<td style="border: none; mso-cell-special: placeholder; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm;" width="444"><p class="MsoNormal"> </p></td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 17.0pt; mso-height-rule: exactly; mso-row-margin-right: 333.15pt; mso-yfti-irow: 3;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; height: 17.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-height-rule: exactly; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 40.05pt;" valign="top" width="53">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">1914<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 17.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-height-rule: exactly; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 73.1pt;" valign="top" width="97">
<p align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: right;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">16,000,000<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
<td style="border: none; mso-cell-special: placeholder; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm;" width="444"><p class="MsoNormal"> </p></td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 17.0pt; mso-height-rule: exactly; mso-row-margin-right: 333.15pt; mso-yfti-irow: 4;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; height: 17.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-height-rule: exactly; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 40.05pt;" valign="top" width="53">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">1945<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 17.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-height-rule: exactly; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 73.1pt;" valign="top" width="97">
<p align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: right;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">30,000,000<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border: none; mso-cell-special: placeholder;" width="444"><p class="MsoNormal"> </p></td>
</tr>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">From 1900 to 1970,
sugar production increased by 500 percent. In 1970, sucrose contributed an
estimated 9% of all calories consumed in the world. Global population
increased 230 percent during this period, from to 1.6 billion to 3.7 billion.
After 1970, sugar production included the use of corn to manufacture
high-fructose corn syrup, a process which, like sugar cane refining, required
fossil fuel energy inputs. Data from Mintz, 1986 (see note 9).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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</tbody></table><p class="MsoNormal">
</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans", sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">This change occurred as the English commoners were
being pushed off the commons in the period of the Enclosures and forced into
the factories of the industrial revolution. They lost their access to local
food and to their native food culture. They also lost time in their daily
routines to prepare food. Sugar and manufactured sweets filled the gap for the
working class who lacked calories and access to nutritious food. A common pattern
by the 19th century was the male breadwinner getting portions of meat to
sustain himself at work while his wife and children subsisted on the calories
provided by jam and sweetened tea and porridge.</span><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2021/blog-2021-08-sugar.docx#_edn16" name="_ednref16" style="font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">[16]</span></span></span></a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">There was concern by the mid-19th century that workers
in some sectors were being worked to extinction, that the future strength of
British industry was in peril because the workers’ lives were so miserable that
they could not raise the next generation of factory workers or miners. Frederick
Engels wrote about the deploring conditions in 1844 in <i>The Condition of the
Working Class in England</i>, but he noted in the preface of the American
edition in 1887 that England, but not other countries, had outgrown the “juvenile
state of capitalist exploitation” for the sake of the bourgeoisie’s
self-preservation: <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1cm;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Again th</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">e repeated
visitations of cholera, typhus, small-pox, and other epidemics have shown the
British bourgeois the urgent necessity of sanitation in his towns and cities,
if he wishes to save himself and family from falling victims to such diseases.
Accordingly, the most crying abuses described in this book have either
disappeared or have been made less conspicuous.… But what of that? Whole
districts which in 1844 I could describe as almost idyllic have now, with the
growth of the towns, fallen into the same state of dilapidation, discomfort,
and misery.... The bourgeoisie have made further progress in the art of hiding
the distress of the working-class.</span><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2021/blog-2021-08-sugar.docx#_edn17" name="_ednref17" style="font-size: 12pt; mso-endnote-id: edn17;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[17]</span></span></span></span></a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Sugar was obviously a partial solution to this
desperate situation of workers. As long as they were burning the calories in
their muscles, the damage wrought by nutrient-empty calories was less apparent
than it is now. Sugar consumption increased and dietary habits declined further
in the 20th century, and new problems developed when the sugar-eater became
unemployed through de-industrialization or became a sedentary worker in the age
of machines powered by oil and split uranium atoms.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Mintz points out, “There was no conspiracy at work to
wreck the nutrition of the British working class, to turn them into addicts, or
to ruin their teeth. But the ever-rising consumption of sugar was an artifact
of intraclass struggles for profit.”<a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2021/blog-2021-08-sugar.docx#_edn18" name="_ednref18" style="mso-endnote-id: edn18;" title=""><span class="FootnoteAnchor"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="FootnoteAnchor"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[18]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><b><span style="color: #4472c4; mso-themecolor: accent1;"> </span></b>These changes happened
slowly over centuries, with no individual leaders able to alter course by “standing
taller and seeing farther into the future” (referring again to Madeleine
Albright’s justification for US imperialism). Yet the opportunities for
exploitation and profit were apparent every step of the way, as were the
horrible circumstances and inhumane treatment of slaves and laborers. It is
another question altogether whether anyone would have cared if they could have known
the outcome. Williams notes that, just like contemporary corporations being
oblivious to resource exhaustion, nuclear waste storage, and environmental
degradation, the plantation owners’ intensive agriculture exhausted the soils
and led to their own ruin. That awareness didn’t stop them from trying to
squeeze more out of the soil for as long as possible—even when they were aware
of the soil exhaustion happening before their eyes. And this happened quite
early in the age of the sugar plantations. By the late 18th century, British
plantation owners in the West Indies were already complaining that they could
not compete with the richer soil in the more recently exploited plantations in
the French colony of Saint Domingue (Haiti).<a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2021/blog-2021-08-sugar.docx#_edn19" name="_ednref19" style="mso-endnote-id: edn19;" title=""><span class="FootnoteAnchor"><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="FootnoteAnchor"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-themecolor: text1;">[19]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">The problems of the sugar industry did not disappear
with the abolition of slavery. In the 21st century, sugar plantation workers
die young from kidney disease caused by dehydration and mineral insufficiency,
so the toll must have been enormous among slaves in earlier centuries.<a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2021/blog-2021-08-sugar.docx#_edn20" name="_ednref20" style="mso-endnote-id: edn20;" title=""><span class="FootnoteAnchor"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="FootnoteAnchor"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[20]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> Europeans campaigned for
the abolition of slavery from the mid 18th century to the mid 19th century.
However, after abolition, the economic system was never stopped or replaced in
a fundamental way, regardless of the transition from colonial mercantilism to
free trade and freed labor. There was no colonial revolution that cut ties to
the global system and reverted to local self-sufficiency. When the Haitian
Revolution first succeeded in the 1790s, its leader, Toussaint Louverture, had
the unfortunate task of telling the freed slaves to go back to the land and
bring in the sugar harvest. Without the essential commodity, the revolution
would be unable to defend itself against the imperial powers.<a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2021/blog-2021-08-sugar.docx#_edn21" name="_ednref21" style="mso-endnote-id: edn21;" title=""><span class="FootnoteAnchor"><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-themecolor: text1;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="FootnoteAnchor"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-themecolor: text1;">[21]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a>
The Hawaiian Kingdom,
before the US overthrow in 1893, also became dependent on a plantation economy.
In more recent times, after the 1959 revolution and until 1991, Cuba continued
to export sugar to the Soviet Union. Cuba finally developed self-sustaining
agriculture after it lost its supportive arrangement with the Soviet Union.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">5. Sugar and Chronic Illness in the 21st
Century<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">In the 20th century, authoritative voices in science
and government finally stopped saying sugar had beneficial medicinal effects.
The mechanisms of tooth decay and type 1 and type 2 diabetes were understood,
and the discovery of insulin’s role made type 1 diabetes a manageable disease.
Nonetheless, the pathological food culture and energy system continued to
evolve in a negative direction. The modern condition is familiar and summed up
well in sources such as the following published by Organic Consumers
Association:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1cm;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">The pernicious but
profitable U.S. food and farming system feeding our supersized/supersick nation
continues to be subsidized with billions of dollars in public funds. These
bi-partisan, ongoing subsidies guarantee the profits of Big Food and Big Ag,
chemical, pharma, and genetic engineering transnationals, with little or no
consideration for the catastrophic damage to public health, the environment,
climate, and the livelihoods of food workers, small farmers, and rural
communities—both at home and abroad.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1cm;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1cm;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Health damages that are
directly caused by America’s food and farming system include a chronic disease
epidemic (cancer, obesity, diabetes, heart disease, Alzheimer’s, et al.) that
has doubled since 1980, as well as the extraordinarily high hospitalization and
death rates triggered by COVID-19 and its underlying chronic disease
comorbidities.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1cm;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1cm;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Environmental damages
include excessive greenhouse gas emissions (more than a third of which come
from our food system); water pollution; and loss of wildlife habitat and
biodiversity.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1cm;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1cm;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">These collateral damages
(estimated at more than two trillion dollars a year) are categorized as “externalities,”
costs or damages to be paid for by consumers and taxpayers, rather than the
debts owed to society by polluters and perpetrators of so-called “modern” food
and farming. Things are so dire that now, even the global elite, in this case
The Rockefeller Foundation, are sounding the alarm on the multi-trillion-dollar
collateral damage of Big Food and Big Ag.<a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2021/blog-2021-08-sugar.docx#_edn22" name="_ednref22" style="mso-endnote-id: edn22;" title=""><span class="FootnoteAnchor"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="FootnoteAnchor"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[22]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1cm;"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">The very problematic twist on the present long
emergency is that capitalism is taking over the process of finding solutions to
the problem caused by capitalism.<a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2021/blog-2021-08-sugar.docx#_edn23" name="_ednref23" style="mso-endnote-id: edn23;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[23]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> The
trend is similar to what Engels noted (<span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">see note 17</span>) about the bourgeoisie of the 19th century calling
for better sanitation because they found that their interests in this case
merged with those of the proletariat. Capitalism has awoken belatedly to the
ecological emergency, but it insists on determining and owning the solutions. Cory
Morningstar, an independent journalist who has covered this phenomenon more
thoroughly than anyone, sums it up thus:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1cm;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Framed as altruistic
imperatives, SDGs (UN Sustainable Development Goal’s) are, in reality, nothing
more than emerging markets to save the global capitalist system. The economic
system is being transformed, rebooted, digitized, and privatized… as it
transforms and reboots via a new global/industrial, surveillance infrastructure
being rebuilt from the ground up. Via the exploitation of multiple crises,
under guise of “solving” the multiple crises, (created by those who have caused
the multiple crises), the ruling classes and corporate interests will continue
to access public monies (treasuries/emergency funding, global health tax,
pension funds, etc.) to pay for the infrastructure which will be owned by
corporate/private interests.<a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2021/blog-2021-08-sugar.docx#_edn24" name="_ednref24" style="mso-endnote-id: edn24;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[24]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1cm;"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">In the present political climate, such analysis is
often falsely equated with political factions that deny that there is any sort
of ecological crisis that needs to be dealt with. It is dismissed erroneously as
“right wing” or “global “warming denialism.” Mainstream environmentalists are
on board with sustainable development goals and capitalist solutions because
few seem to be capable of imagining any alternative economic order. A century
ago, people did imagine an alternative, but since the collapse of the USSR in
1991, neoliberal ideology has entrenched the concept of TINA (mentioned above).
It has colonized the imagination of even the once marginal and radical “green”
parties in various countries. In late 2019, just before the pandemic emergency,
the righteous anger of Greta Thunberg was brought to global attention by the
World Economic Forum.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Regardless of the apparent invisibility of the problem,
examples of what is happening abound. Journalist Whitney Webb reported on a
clear example in September 2021:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1cm;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">The New York Stock
Exchange (NYSE) announced it had developed a new asset class and accompanying
listing vehicle meant “to preserve and restore the natural assets that
ultimately underpin the ability for there to be life on Earth.” Called a
natural asset company, or NAC, the vehicle will allow for the formation of
specialized corporations “that hold the rights to the ecosystem services
produced on a given chunk of land, services like carbon sequestration or clean
water.”<a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2021/blog-2021-08-sugar.docx#_edn25" name="_ednref25" style="mso-endnote-id: edn25;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[25]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1cm;"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">The latest example is the sudden targeting of the use
of fossil fuels to create synthetic fertilizer. In the summer of 2022, governments
in several countries took simultaneous action to end the use of synthetic
fertilizer, provoking angry protests from farmers who suspected that it was
shock therapy intended to force them to sell their land to corporate investors.
In an interview she gave in July 2022, Vandana Shiva, author and founder of
Navdanya Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology, explained her
view of why this was happening:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1cm;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">We do face a serious
crisis caused by industrial agriculture. Fifty greenhouse gases come from
farming with fossil fuels and chemicals, and shipping food long distance,
transforming it with ultra-processing, and packaging it. All of this has added
up to more greenhouse gases, but that same system that is punishing the farmer
is punishing the earth and is punishing the consumers through disease… The
chemical fertilizers… use fossil fuels to fix atmospheric nitrogen by burning
fossil fuels at very high temperature. There are better ways to fix nitrogen.
Let the earthworms give you forty kilograms per hectare. Let the soil
micro-organisms work... The same people who are pushing a very anti-nature,
anti-people, anti-life globalization agenda shaped a system that has caused the
problem that forced the farmers into that system—to use chemical fertilizers,
to get the cows off the grass and into factory farms, then feed them with GMO’s…
Forty percent of soil goes for animal feed. Another forty percent goes for
biofuel. It’s not feeding the world. All of this was forced on people through
regulation and subsidies. European tax money was used to create this kind of
agriculture, and now the same people who caused the problem are saying, “Farmers,
you’re responsible.” It’s a bit like saying to a person who became obese
because of junk food, “You are responsible.”… The original cause of pollution
is the manufacturers and the governments who subsidize, and the governments
that promoted the false idea that without chemicals you can’t grow food.
Billionaires today like Bill Gates are promoting that same false idea. There
are huge numbers of alternatives, but farmers need to be given a 5 to 10-year
period of transition, and the structures that were created to promote chemicals
should be used to promote ecological agriculture... Farmers are a victim of this
system.<a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2021/blog-2021-08-sugar.docx#_edn26" name="_ednref26" style="mso-endnote-id: edn26;" title=""><span class="FootnoteAnchor"><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="FootnoteAnchor"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-themecolor: text1;">[26]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1cm;"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">“Nitrogen bacteria teach us that Nature, with her
sophisticated forms of the chemistry of living matter, still understands and
utilizes methods which we do not as yet know how to imitate.” - Fritz Haber,
“father of chemical warfare” (chlorine gas during World War I), inventor of the
method for manufacturing ammonia fertilizer.<a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2021/blog-2021-08-sugar.docx#_edn27" name="_ednref27" style="mso-endnote-id: edn27;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[27]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">6. The Age of High-Fructose Corn Syrup
(HFCS)</span><o:p></o:p></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">How did we get to this ironic situation in which
capitalism is trying to portray itself as the savior from the system it
created? The modern age of Big Oil, Big Ag and Big Pharma spread worldwide and
developed over a long time, but a key inflection point of the modern period
came in the United States during the Nixon and Ford administrations (early
1970s) when Earl Butz was Secretary of Agriculture. Nixon had a simple demand:
make food cheap. In concert with the neoliberal economic agenda, Butz put US
agriculture on a “free-market” (but nonetheless subsidized) path of maximized
production. Previous policies, first put in place to avoid a repeat of the Dust
Bowl of the 1930s, controlled supplies, moderated prices, and prevented
over-exploitation of soil. They didn’t function perfectly, and they often had
an effect which seems at first glance to be irrational—that of paying farmers
to not produce. In retrospect, it is clear that Butz’ policies were a disaster
for public health in spite of their superficial efficiencies. They paved the
way for “Big Ag” to industrialize agriculture with the energy-intensive
practices described above by Vandana Shiva.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY3JeTqzAx3Ak2GOOtfswI6tt8XzRfmaUBsuLNIJbvzkZsWpWjIuf5uonniWE9dQ9Y7Ci-OcoBGQXNXDpMbOthlSW6Qu0bvMrxMLKj8bqYW9QEXyPrSa-IBIbQPGwRNJwBR7XDNEW9XX0S1IDr6YHBnMcODE_x8vUdGm8RrfhLV1R1sbiIAXQir2-4/s628/king%20corn%20poster.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="628" data-original-width="417" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY3JeTqzAx3Ak2GOOtfswI6tt8XzRfmaUBsuLNIJbvzkZsWpWjIuf5uonniWE9dQ9Y7Ci-OcoBGQXNXDpMbOthlSW6Qu0bvMrxMLKj8bqYW9QEXyPrSa-IBIbQPGwRNJwBR7XDNEW9XX0S1IDr6YHBnMcODE_x8vUdGm8RrfhLV1R1sbiIAXQir2-4/s320/king%20corn%20poster.jpg" width="212" /></a></div><span face=""Open Sans", sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans", sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></p>This history and its devastating effects were portrayed
effectively in the 2007 documentary film </span><i style="font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">King Corn</i><span face=""Open Sans", sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;">.</span><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2021/blog-2021-08-sugar.docx#_edn28" name="_ednref28" style="font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;" title=""><span class="FootnoteAnchor"><span class="FootnoteAnchor"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">[28]</span></span></span></a><span face=""Open Sans", sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt;"> The filmmakers went to
Iowa in the springtime and planted an acre of corn after spraying it with
subsidized ammonia fertilizer. With this small-scale example they illustrated
the bigger picture of how corn has penetrated the culture and afflicted human
bodies. The following excerpts of interviews in the film tell the story:</span><div><br /><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Michael Pollan: <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1cm;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">We happen to have a kind
of subsidy system—and we haven’t always had it, only for the last 30 years or
so—that rewards the overproduction of cheap corn. All that cheap, surplus corn
goes somewhere. And in fact, a lot of it’s going into our bodies.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Loren Cordain (University of Colorado):<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1cm;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">The meat that what we eat
in this day and age is produced in the feedlot. It’s grain-fed, and we produce
a characteristically obese animal, an animal whose muscle tissue looks more
like fat tissue than it does lean meat of wild animals. If you look at a T-bone
steak from a grain-fed cow, it may have as much as nine grams of saturated fat
whereas a comparable steak from a grass-fed animal would have 1.3 grams of
saturated fat. This is the meat that we eat in America… Hamburger meat is
really not meat. It is rather fat disguised as meat. 65% of its calories are
from fat.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Ken Cook: <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1cm;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Corn is the crop we’ve
spent the most money on over the past 10 years, so we’ve got mountains of grain
all over the Midwest because the subsidy programs keep the production going
full blast. There is a role that the subsidies have played in making the raw
material available for an overweight society. We subsidize the Happy Meals, but
we don’t subsidize the healthy ones. There is a very specific history to this…
you really do have to go back to Earl Butz and the revolution in farm policy
that happened in the 1970s.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Earl Butz:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1cm;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Well, [the corn subsidies
are] the basis of our affluence now. The fact that we spend less on food is
America’s best-kept secret. We feed ourselves with approximately 16 or 17% of
our take-home pay. That’s marvelous. That’s a very small chunk to feed
ourselves. And that includes all the meals we eat at restaurants, all the fancy
doodads we get in our food system. I don’t see much room for improvement there,
which means we’ll spend our surplus cash on something else.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">A half-century later, it is apparent that mass
production of corn, boosted by manufactured ammonia fertilizer, has come with
mineral depletion of soil and less nutritious corn. The kernels of corn consist
mostly of starch and have a lower protein and nutrient content than they used
to. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">King Corn</span></i><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"> describes how the
abundance of corn led to the surplus going into animal feed and fructose
production. Fructose became the preferred sweetener of the food industry
because it was a cheap, domestic source which freed the US from reliance on the
widely fluctuating price of sugar on the global market. Little concern was
shown for the fact that fructose is metabolized differently than sucrose. The
abundance of fructose in the diet led to a crisis of liver disease and obesity,
and numerous chronic diseases that result as secondary consequences.<a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2021/blog-2021-08-sugar.docx#_edn29" name="_ednref29" style="mso-endnote-id: edn29;" title=""><span class="FootnoteAnchor"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="FootnoteAnchor"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[29]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">The abundant supply of corn was also funneled into
livestock, even though it was not the natural diet of cattle. Before corn-fed
cattle die young from digestive problems, they have to be fattened up faster
and fed more medicines to make them tolerate the corn. In spite of its cruelty,
it became an excellent method for extracting short-term profit. The overuse of
corn led to cheaper and more processed foods to the next livestock in the
production process—the human, who could be viewed now not as the ultimate
beneficiary but rather as a consumable resource now exploited by those who own
capital in the food, medical insurance, and pharmaceutical industries. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">The consumer of meat and high fructose corn syrup is
entertained and distracted, and lives a contented life quite removed from the
wretched suffering of a slave, but he or she is subjected to psychic and
physical suffering, and when it becomes unbearable, there are health insurance
policies to be sold and drugs and vaccines that can be given, which offer
further opportunities for corporate profit. These therapies, which the victims
are induced to want and demand during a crisis, produce side-effects that add
to the spiral of declining health, and so it goes until the resource is
exhausted, much like the soil on 18th century sugar plantations. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Capitalism has run out of other resources to exploit,
and perhaps because of the threat of nuclear holocaust, it can’t resort to full
war in a time of crisis, so it has turned to this last frontier, perpetual
low-intensity war, commodification of culture, and the exploitation of the
human body. As early as 1981, social scientist Jacques Attali noted:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1cm;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">… today man is no longer
important as a worker but as a consumer (because he is replaced by machines in
his work). Therefore, we could accept the idea of increasing life expectancy on
the condition that we make old people solvent and thus create a market. We can
see very well how the big pharmaceutical companies behave today, in relatively
egalitarian countries where at least the mode of financing retirement is achieved:
they privilege geriatrics, to the detriment of other fields of research such as
tropical diseases.<a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2021/blog-2021-08-sugar.docx#_edn30" name="_ednref30" style="mso-endnote-id: edn30;" title=""><span class="FootnoteAnchor"><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="FootnoteAnchor"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-themecolor: text1;">[30]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1cm;"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Although the human does not experience the tortures of
plantation slaves of centuries past and may instead live and “work” in an
air-conditioned cubicle, he or she is nonetheless being worked on as a
consumer/worker. The automation trend underway now is for there to be no more
cashiers at the grocery store, no assistants at hotel and airport check-ins,
and no human help at the consumer help desk. People work less, and may soon be
given a universal basic income, but they will be forced to work more at
consuming.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">The chronic diseases that arise from this life can be
tolerated for a long time, and solutions can be forestalled, at least until a
virulent pathogen appears to make the victims perceive an acute emergency. Yet
even when that occurs, the pathogen is seen as an opportunity for profit and as
the cause of the problem. Ignored throughout the official pandemic reaction
were the underlying illnesses that have been worsening for decades.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">I suspect the victims of this process, even though they
may be called uneducated and unsophisticated, and may vote against their
interests for a populist demagogue, they feel in their “gut intuition” what has
been done to them. During the great vaccine coercion campaign of 2021-22, there
were many who rejected the treatments proffered because they believed that the
treatments had a poor chance of being safe or efficacious (which turned out to
be true<a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2021/blog-2021-08-sugar.docx#_edn31" name="_ednref31" style="mso-endnote-id: edn31;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[31]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>),
and they judged that they were healthy enough to survive the viral infection.
Yet there were many people with serious chronic health problems who also
rejected the offer of salvation by vaccination, knowing full well that with
their “comorbidities” it might save their lives. They seemed to be making a
defiant last stand—a desperate protest against what had been done to them over
the long term, as if to say, “You’ll squeeze no more from me. If I die on this
hill, so be it.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh34hIDy9mUvrzj3fvLzZIRyNXdJ2NInsoW2dUJFXPOI1w4LbqTdh08IH4y0vn-QFtgnZ44m8gd6PSPNjeXZelnzuwi2GZD98BD0fqbZACUuo4FmMe6tRoS6PwQhwwl5BbTgNlnWy_qUyNkpslLhEPBNBPJ5M0QgPk4rh7Y5kOwZIR542_Oca6VfgYA/s1464/fries%20and%20booster.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1084" data-original-width="1464" height="237" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh34hIDy9mUvrzj3fvLzZIRyNXdJ2NInsoW2dUJFXPOI1w4LbqTdh08IH4y0vn-QFtgnZ44m8gd6PSPNjeXZelnzuwi2GZD98BD0fqbZACUuo4FmMe6tRoS6PwQhwwl5BbTgNlnWy_qUyNkpslLhEPBNBPJ5M0QgPk4rh7Y5kOwZIR542_Oca6VfgYA/s320/fries%20and%20booster.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">The directors of <i>King Corn</i> interviewed Earl Butz
in a seniors’ residence shortly before he passed away in 2008. He expressed
pride in policies which, he asserted (see the quote above), led to greater
efficiency and cheaper food, allowing for a greater prosperity in which
Americans were able to spend their money on other things besides food. The film’s
most powerful statement comes in a brief shot with no words spoken. The elderly
but very slim Mr. Butz had to conclude the interview because his grandson was
coming to take him to a family event. The filmmakers waited in the parking lot
after the interview and photographed the obese grandson helping the grandfather
into his car. That visual message laid bare the Secretary of Agriculture’s true
legacy.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">I began this essay by saying that the inhabitants of
the earth are living in a cultural space much like the Chernobyl Zone of
Exclusion. It started to form in the years just after Columbus arrived in the
Caribbean, when investors in Europe started to finance sugar plantations and
the slave trade in the new colonies. This was the start of an acceleration in
the exploitation of human and natural resources, of a new energy paradigm which
later integrated itself with the energy paradigm of fossil fuels and uranium.
With the rising use of non-human machines and automation, the excess
carbon-based energy source circulating in human bodies triggered a new
catastrophe—a long list of chronic illnesses with insulin resistance as their
root cause.<a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2021/blog-2021-08-sugar.docx#_edn32" name="_ednref32" style="mso-endnote-id: edn32;" title=""><span class="FootnoteAnchor"><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="FootnoteAnchor"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-themecolor: text1;">[32]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibmtUnLSXvY67f1RdHkgzpbnX0Ia41mxBii5TYpynfUl1zDM4uL_D-TYIcIUA_ThcCVlIbC86uajWm0IM2XuMU3FHfwP-3PiMBL7iF5BNGyS6fIN8VSjEsEu_eobThHV57Y6IKDi1_Tto-YND4XscyBfLAR_2wya3DE6dpuxu-LnEA23fLGIF6eNR7/s675/metabolical.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="675" data-original-width="439" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibmtUnLSXvY67f1RdHkgzpbnX0Ia41mxBii5TYpynfUl1zDM4uL_D-TYIcIUA_ThcCVlIbC86uajWm0IM2XuMU3FHfwP-3PiMBL7iF5BNGyS6fIN8VSjEsEu_eobThHV57Y6IKDi1_Tto-YND4XscyBfLAR_2wya3DE6dpuxu-LnEA23fLGIF6eNR7/s320/metabolical.jpg" width="208" /></a></div><br /><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">This essay has illustrated the process by which
humanity became enclosed in this technological zone of exclusion. However, this
trap was not inherent in the technology itself. We created it and walked into
its trap because we never stopped to ask the important questions. Quoting
Jacques Attali again, from forty years ago:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1cm;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">With the internal
combustion engine, we could have made two choices: either to favor public
transport and make people’s lives easier, or to produce cars, tools of
aggression, consumption, individualization, solitude, accumulation, desire,
rivalry... We chose this second solution. I believe that with genetic
engineering we have the same type of choice and I believe that we will also
choose, unfortunately, the second solution. In other words, with genetic
engineering we could gradually create the conditions for humanity to live
freely but collectively, or we could create the conditions for a new commodity,
genetic this time, which would be made of copies of men sold to men, of
chimeras or hybrids used as slaves, robots, means of work...<a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2021/blog-2021-08-sugar.docx#_edn33" name="_ednref33" style="mso-endnote-id: edn33;" title=""><span class="FootnoteAnchor"><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="FootnoteAnchor"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-themecolor: text1;">[33]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1cm;"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Reclaiming human dignity must begin with rejecting the
false notion of prosperity endorsed by Earl Butz, which seems to be a prime
example of what Attali thought of as his disfavored second solution. What is
needed is a radical re-imagining of the way we produce and deploy energy in
machines and in human bodies, and of the societies that grow around this
deployment. A growing segment of the global population is rejecting the idea
that this reform should be entrusted to the institutions that caused the
problem—the billionaire philanthropists who continue to travel by private jet during
this long emergency. Corporate executives and wealthy philanthropists cannot be
allowed to greenwash harsh reality and propose false “sustainable” solutions
imposed from above without democratic participation of the masses of people who
will be told to make all the sacrifices, that the age of abundance is over, as
President Macron told his French subjects in August 2022.<a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2021/blog-2021-08-sugar.docx#_edn34" name="_ednref34" style="mso-endnote-id: edn34;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[34]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> Unless
they are opposed, these self-appointed benefactors will unleash further chaotic
“creative” destruction of energy systems, health care, agriculture, and food
supplies, with the citizens who survive reduced to being consumers, “target
demographics,” items in databases, and raw material and products. Indeed commodification
of the human mind and body is well underway, as these are surely considered to
be among the “natural assets” bundled up for listing as Natural Asset Companies
on the New York Stock Exchange. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Notes<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<div style="mso-element: endnote-list;"><!--[if !supportEndnotes]--><br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2021/blog-2021-08-sugar.docx#_ednref1" name="_edn1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>. Godfrey
Reggio (Director), <a href="https://youtu.be/8oiK4vPLtVw"><i>Koyaanisqatsi:
Life Out of Balance</i></a> (MGM Video and DVD, 2002, original film release:
1982). <a href="https://youtu.be/8oiK4vPLtVw">https://youtu.be/8oiK4vPLtVw</a> <o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn2" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2021/blog-2021-08-sugar.docx#_ednref2" name="_edn2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="NumberingSymbols"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="NumberingSymbols"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">. Anne Wilson Schaef, <i>When Society
Becomes an Addict</i> (Harper One, 1987).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn3" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2021/blog-2021-08-sugar.docx#_ednref3" name="_edn3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[3]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>. US
Department of State Archive, “<a href="https://1997-2001.state.gov/statements/1998/980219a.html">Interview on
NBC-TV ‘The Today Show’ with Matt Lauer</a>,” February 19, 1998. <a href="https://1997-2001.state.gov/statements/1998/980219a.html">https://1997-2001.state.gov/statements/1998/980219a.html</a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I use these words to refer to US Secretary of
State Madeleine Albright’s declaring to critics of US policy, “But if we have
to use force, it is because we are America; we are the indispensable nation. We
stand tall and we see further than other countries into the future, and we see
the danger here to all of us.”<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn4" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2021/blog-2021-08-sugar.docx#_ednref4" name="_edn4" style="mso-endnote-id: edn4;" title=""><span class="NumberingSymbols"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="NumberingSymbols"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[4]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>. Eric
Williams, <i>Capitalism and Slavery</i> (University of North Carolina Press,
1944), 38. <o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn5" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2021/blog-2021-08-sugar.docx#_ednref5" name="_edn5" style="mso-endnote-id: edn5;" title=""><span class="NumberingSymbols"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="NumberingSymbols"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[5]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">. </span><a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/anthropocene/">National
Geographic Encyclopedia</a><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">. </span><a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/anthropocene/"><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/anthropocene/</span></a><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn6" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2021/blog-2021-08-sugar.docx#_ednref6" name="_edn6" style="mso-endnote-id: edn6;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[6]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>. Mark
Fisher, <i>Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative?</i> (Zero Books, 2009).<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn7" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2021/blog-2021-08-sugar.docx#_ednref7" name="_edn7" style="mso-endnote-id: edn7;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[7]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>. Homi
Bhabha, “<a href="https://youtu.be/9t82nbsoiqE">Why Empires Fall, Full
Interview, Homi Bhabha</a>,” Institute of Art and Ideas, February 14, 2019. <a href="https://youtu.be/9t82nbsoiqE">https://youtu.be/9t82nbsoiqE</a> <o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn8" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2021/blog-2021-08-sugar.docx#_ednref8" name="_edn8" style="mso-endnote-id: edn8;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[8]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>. Matt
Ridley, <i>The Rational Optimists: How Prosperity Evolves</i> (HarperCollins,
2010), Chapter 7, 213-246.<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn9" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2021/blog-2021-08-sugar.docx#_ednref9" name="_edn9" style="mso-endnote-id: edn9;" title=""><span class="NumberingSymbols"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="NumberingSymbols"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[9]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-themecolor: text1;">. Sidney W. Mintz, <i>Sweetness and Power:
The Place of Sugar in Modern History</i> (Penguin Books, 1986).</span><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn10" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2021/blog-2021-08-sugar.docx#_ednref10" name="_edn10" style="mso-endnote-id: edn10;" title=""><span class="NumberingSymbols"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="NumberingSymbols"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[10]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">. Yasha Levine, “</span><a href="https://yasha.substack.com/p/joe-costello-on-energy-and-democracy">Joe
Costello on Energy and Democracy</a><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">,” <i>Substack</i>, July 5, 2021. </span><a href="https://yasha.substack.com/p/joe-costello-on-energy-and-democracy"><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">https://yasha.substack.com/p/joe-costello-on-energy-and-democracy</span></a><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn11" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2021/blog-2021-08-sugar.docx#_ednref11" name="_edn11" style="mso-endnote-id: edn11;" title=""><span class="NumberingSymbols"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="NumberingSymbols"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[11]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">. Vaclav Smil, <i>Energy and
Civilization: A History</i> (MIT Press, 2017).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn12" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2021/blog-2021-08-sugar.docx#_ednref12" name="_edn12" style="mso-endnote-id: edn12;" title=""><span class="NumberingSymbols"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="NumberingSymbols"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[12]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">. Ivan Illich, <i>Energy and Equity</i>
(Harper and Row, 1974).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn13" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2021/blog-2021-08-sugar.docx#_ednref13" name="_edn13" style="mso-endnote-id: edn13;" title=""><span class="NumberingSymbols"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="NumberingSymbols"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[13]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Yasha Levine.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn14" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 12.0pt; margin: 12pt 0cm;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2021/blog-2021-08-sugar.docx#_ednref14" name="_edn14" style="mso-endnote-id: edn14;" title=""><span class="NumberingSymbols"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="NumberingSymbols"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[14]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;"> . Mintz, 184.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn15" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2021/blog-2021-08-sugar.docx#_ednref15" name="_edn15" style="mso-endnote-id: edn15;" title=""><span class="NumberingSymbols"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="NumberingSymbols"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[15]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">. Mintz, 197.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn16" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2021/blog-2021-08-sugar.docx#_ednref16" name="_edn16" style="mso-endnote-id: edn16;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[16]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>. Mintz,
128, 146.<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn17" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2021/blog-2021-08-sugar.docx#_ednref17" name="_edn17" style="mso-endnote-id: edn17;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[17]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>.
<a name="_Hlk114343822">Frederick Engels, </a><a href="https://archive.org/details/conditionworkingclassengland/page/1/mode/2up"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk114343822;"><i>The Condition of the Working Class in
England</i></span></a><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk114343822;"> (Preface to the
US edition, 1887, Soviet edition, 1973, German edition, 1845). </span><a href="https://archive.org/details/conditionworkingclassengland/page/1/mode/2up"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk114343822;">https://archive.org/details/conditionworkingclassengland/page/1/mode/2up</span></a><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk114343822;"></span> <o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn18" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 12.0pt; margin: 12pt 0cm;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2021/blog-2021-08-sugar.docx#_ednref18" name="_edn18" style="mso-endnote-id: edn18;" title=""><span class="NumberingSymbols"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="NumberingSymbols"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[18]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">. Mintz, 186.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn19" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2021/blog-2021-08-sugar.docx#_ednref19" name="_edn19" style="mso-endnote-id: edn19;" title=""><span class="NumberingSymbols"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="NumberingSymbols"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[19]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>.<b> </b>Eric
Williams, <i>Capitalism and Slavery</i> (University of North Carolina Press,
1944).<b> </b><o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn20" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2021/blog-2021-08-sugar.docx#_ednref20" name="_edn20" style="mso-endnote-id: edn20;" title=""><span class="NumberingSymbols"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="NumberingSymbols"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[20]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-themecolor: text1;">.</span><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;"> </span><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-themecolor: text1;">“</span><a href="https://medicalxpress.com/news/2017-02-kidney-disease-plantation-workers.html"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Kidney
Disease in Plantation Workers</span></a><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-themecolor: text1;">,” <i>Karolinska Institute</i>, February 9, 2017.</span><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-themecolor: text1;"> </span></span><a href="https://medicalxpress.com/news/2017-02-kidney-disease-plantation-workers.html"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">https://medicalxpress.com/news/2017-02-kidney-disease-plantation-workers.html</span></a><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-themecolor: text1;"> </span></span><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn21" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-top: 12pt;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2021/blog-2021-08-sugar.docx#_ednref21" name="_edn21" style="mso-endnote-id: edn21;" title=""><span class="NumberingSymbols"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="NumberingSymbols"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[21]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">. Charles Forsdick and <span class="a-size-base">Christian Høgsbjerg,</span> <i>Toussaint Louverture: A Black
Jacobin in the Age of Revolutions</i> (Pluto Press, 2017). <o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn22" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 12.0pt; margin: 12pt 0cm;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2021/blog-2021-08-sugar.docx#_ednref22" name="_edn22" style="mso-endnote-id: edn22;" title=""><span class="NumberingSymbols"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="NumberingSymbols"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[22]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">. “</span><a href="https://www.organicconsumers.org/bytes/weeks-newsletter-catastrophic-damages-industrial-food-and-farming">We
Told You So</a><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">,” <i>Organic
Consumers Association</i>, July 2021. </span><a href="https://www.organicconsumers.org/bytes/weeks-newsletter-catastrophic-damages-industrial-food-and-farming">https://www.organicconsumers.org/bytes/weeks-newsletter-catastrophic-damages-industrial-food-and-farming</a>
<span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn23" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2021/blog-2021-08-sugar.docx#_ednref23" name="_edn23" style="mso-endnote-id: edn23;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[23]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>. James
Howard Kunstler, <i>The Long Emergency: Surviving the Converging Catastrophes
of the 21st Century</i> (Atlantic Monthly Press, 2005). Without going into a
discussion of this work, I borrow the phrase “long emergency” to credit James
Kunstler for his excellent coverage, seventeen years ago, of the themes
discussed in this essay.<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn24" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2021/blog-2021-08-sugar.docx#_ednref24" name="_edn24" style="mso-endnote-id: edn24;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[24]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>. Cory
Morningstar, Facebook, September 15, 2022. See also <a href="http://www.wrongkindofgreen.orgn/">www.wrongkindofgreen.org</a> for
related articles by this author.<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn25" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2021/blog-2021-08-sugar.docx#_ednref25" name="_edn25" style="mso-endnote-id: edn25;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[25]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>. Whitney
Webb, “<a href="https://www.wrongkindofgreen.org/2021/10/13/wall-streets-takeover-of-nature-advances-with-launch-of-new-asset-class/">Wall
Street’s Takeover of Nature Advances with Launch of New Asset Class</a>, <i>Wrong
Kind of Green</i>, October 13, 2021. <a href="https://www.wrongkindofgreen.org/2021/10/13/wall-streets-takeover-of-nature-advances-with-launch-of-new-asset-class/">https://www.wrongkindofgreen.org/2021/10/13/wall-streets-takeover-of-nature-advances-with-launch-of-new-asset-class/</a>
<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn26" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2021/blog-2021-08-sugar.docx#_ednref26" name="_edn26" style="mso-endnote-id: edn26;" title=""><span class="NumberingSymbols"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="NumberingSymbols"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[26]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>.
Russell Brand, “<a href="https://youtu.be/JMo6bdiv1Gg">New truckers protest?
This is Impossible to Ignore</a>“ (Interview with Vandana Shiva), July 14,
2022. <a href="https://youtu.be/JMo6bdiv1Gg">https://youtu.be/JMo6bdiv1Gg</a>.
See also: <a href="https://navdanyainternational.org/our-staff/vandana-shiva/">https://navdanyainternational.org/our-staff/vandana-shiva/</a>
<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn27" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2021/blog-2021-08-sugar.docx#_ednref27" name="_edn27" style="mso-endnote-id: edn27;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[27]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>. Claudia
Flavell-While, “<a href="https://www.thechemicalengineer.com/features/cewctw-fritz-haber-and-carl-bosch-feed-the-world/">Fritz
Haber and Carl Bosch Feed the World</a>,” <i>The Chemical Engineer</i>, March
1, 2010. <a href="https://www.thechemicalengineer.com/features/cewctw-fritz-haber-and-carl-bosch-feed-the-world/">https://www.thechemicalengineer.com/features/cewctw-fritz-haber-and-carl-bosch-feed-the-world/</a>
<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn28" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2021/blog-2021-08-sugar.docx#_ednref28" name="_edn28" style="mso-endnote-id: edn28;" title=""><span class="NumberingSymbols"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="NumberingSymbols"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[28]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>. <span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Aaron Woolf,
Ian Cheney, and Curt Ellis (directors), </span><a href="http://www.bullfrogfilms.com/catalog/kcorn2.html"><i><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">King Corn</span></i></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> (Mosaic
Films, 2007).</span><o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn29" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2021/blog-2021-08-sugar.docx#_ednref29" name="_edn29" style="mso-endnote-id: edn29;" title=""><span class="NumberingSymbols"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="NumberingSymbols"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[29]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>. <span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Melissa
Groves, “</span><a href="https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/sucrose-glucose-fructose#absorption-and-use"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Sucrose vs.
Glucose vs. Fructose: What’s the Difference?</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">“ <i>Healthline</i>, June 8, 2018. </span><a href="https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/sucrose-glucose-fructose#absorption-and-use"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/sucrose-glucose-fructose#absorption-and-use</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn30" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2021/blog-2021-08-sugar.docx#_ednref30" name="_edn30" style="mso-endnote-id: edn30;" title=""><span class="NumberingSymbols"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="NumberingSymbols"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[30]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>.<b> </b>Michel
Salomon, <i>L’Avenir de la vie</i>. (<i>The Future of Life</i>, interview with
Jacques Attali) (Seghers, 1981), 264-279. <a href="https://dennisriches.wordpress.com/2022/08/16/past-visions-of-the-present-future-jacques-attali-in-1981-on-the-future-of-medical-care/">English
translation</a>: <a href="https://dennisriches.wordpress.com/2022/08/16/past-visions-of-the-present-future-jacques-attali-in-1981-on-the-future-of-medical-care/">https://dennisriches.wordpress.com/2022/08/16/past-visions-of-the-present-future-jacques-attali-in-1981-on-the-future-of-medical-care/</a>
<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn31" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2021/blog-2021-08-sugar.docx#_ednref31" name="_edn31" style="mso-endnote-id: edn31;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[31]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>.
Joseph Mercola, “<a href="https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2022/09/16/do-authoritarians-care-about-you.aspx">Do
Authoritarians ‘Care’ About You?</a>” <i>Mercola.com</i>, September 16, 2022. <a href="https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2022/09/16/do-authoritarians-care-about-you.aspx">https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2022/09/16/do-authoritarians-care-about-you.aspx</a>
<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn32" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2021/blog-2021-08-sugar.docx#_ednref32" name="_edn32" style="mso-endnote-id: edn32;" title=""><span class="NumberingSymbols"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="NumberingSymbols"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[32]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>.
Sten Ekberg, “<a href="https://youtu.be/NDGEYNNXeTs">3 X Deadlier than Cancer
and Most People Don’t Know They Have It</a>,” YouTube Channel. <a href="https://youtu.be/NDGEYNNXeTs">https://youtu.be/NDGEYNNXeTs</a> <o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn33" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2021/blog-2021-08-sugar.docx#_ednref33" name="_edn33" style="mso-endnote-id: edn33;" title=""><span class="NumberingSymbols"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="NumberingSymbols"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[33]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>.<b> </b>Michel
Salomon, 1981.<b><o:p></o:p></b></p>
</div>
<div id="edn34" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2021/blog-2021-08-sugar.docx#_ednref34" name="_edn34" style="mso-endnote-id: edn34;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[34]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>.
Emma Morgan, “<a href="https://www.connexionfrance.com/article/French-news/Macron-France-is-at-the-end-of-its-age-of-abundance">Macron:
‘France is at the end of its age of abundance</a>,’” <i>Connexion France</i>, August
24, 2022. <a href="https://www.connexionfrance.com/article/French-news/Macron-France-is-at-the-end-of-its-age-of-abundance">https://www.connexionfrance.com/article/French-news/Macron-France-is-at-the-end-of-its-age-of-abundance</a>
<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
</div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7464222263572816025.post-57553679940551869012022-09-01T15:57:00.005+09:002022-09-01T15:57:44.418+09:00Which national liberation movements should we care about?<p><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">A headline you will never see:</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">“Taiwan recognizes the Republics of Lugansk
and Donetsk, pledging support of Russia’s commitment to defend the newly
independent republics.”<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">SECTION 1<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The missing solidarity<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">This imaginary headline above is jarring to
anyone who has followed news coming out of the US hegemonic sphere in recent
months because it is obviously absurd. Taiwan independence is currently gaining
more support than ever from the United States, and Taiwan has for decades been
an important part of the high-tech supply chain and a purchaser of US weapons.
Yet from the perspective of universal justice, a sincere commitment to the
ideals of independence should force Taiwan to express solidarity with all
peoples in similar struggles.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Because of the difficulty in distinguishing
them, herein I refer to types of “national” struggle interchangeably, whether
they refer to themselves as independence movements, civil wars, separatism,
claims for lost territory, self-determination, liberation, de-occupation, or nationalist.
In the case of Taiwan, for example, the problem there has been variously framed
as an independence movement, an unresolved civil war over which side is the
rightful ruler of all of China, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>or an
evolving self-determination of a new state made up of the aboriginal peoples
and ethnic Chinese who came from elsewhere long ago. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">In any case, solidarity with other
struggles is utterly lacking and impossible for Taiwan and many independence
movements. They focus on realism and the pursuit of their own interests, and
that means building alliances and networks of support with states that are
powerful enough to help them. Just as “no man is an island,” neither is any
state an island, so independence struggles usually ignore any separatist cause that
that is in conflict with their chosen allies. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Japan, for example, wants Russia to return
the Kuril Islands (what Japan calls its Northern Territories), which are
Russian territory according to treaties Japan signed after WWII. Regardless of
these treaties, Japan still resents the loss of land once colonized by Japan. In
that process, Japan paid no attention to the sovereignty of the Ainu, the
aboriginal people already living there. Furthermore, Japan cares nothing about
the democratic will of the people of the Japanese prefecture of Okinawa
(annexed by Japan in 1879) to have US military bases removed from their land. In
negotiations Putin once said to Japanese Prime Minister Abe (I paraphrase),
“Suppose we could work out some arrangement in your favor. The next day, the US
might say it wants to put military bases on those islands. You couldn’t say no,
and this makes me wonder if you have true sovereignty, and if you don’t, it’s
not you we should be negotiating with.” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">This example, like many others I could
cite, illustrates that there is seldom any solidarity or commitment to
principles of justice among separatist movements or nations’ claims for
territory. There is in most cases only political realism—the desire to put
aside ideals and justice and focus on whatever relations can help the separatist
or national cause. According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, “The
negative side of the realists’ emphasis on power and self-interest is often
their skepticism regarding the relevance of ethical norms to relations among
states.”<a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-08-26.docx#_edn1" name="_ednref1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
This is abundantly clear in many cases, and it is often what drains away
sympathy for separatism and nationalism.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">For example, eventually, world opinion will
change as people begin to understand Ukrainian history and the sordid reasons
that its nationalist aspirations were used by NATO to exploit its resources and
to provoke Russia. The nationalist mythology, created during the collapse of
the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman Empires and the rise of Bolshevism, and after
centuries of Polish domination, is taken seriously only in the western region
of the country. It glorifies Nazi collaborators and mass murderers as heroes, and
as a result it is not, to say the least, enough to inspire the hearts and minds
of the world for very long.<a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-08-26.docx#_edn2" name="_ednref2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
There is just no romance in the story arc of soccer hooligans who grew up to
join the Azov Battalion. There is no uplift, no utopian vision—in the best sense
of the word that just means the opposite of cynical realism—to build something
better that has not existed before. Nation-building has to be based on much more
than just the stunted mindset of resentment and hatred of “the other.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Even when a people achieve the status of a
sovereign recognized nation with a seat at the United Nations, their
sovereignty can be undermined by economic and military alliances they have had
to join—the acceptance of US military bases (Status of Forces Agreements), the
IMF-imposed economic restructuring, foreign debt, the sale of national assets
to foreign corporations, the loss of their right to set standards for labor and
environmental protection. This happened to all the Warsaw Bloc countries and
former republics of the USSR and Yugoslavia. After their initial high hopes of
gaining “Western affluence and freedom,” actual experience forced the victims
to ask what the point was of pursuing sovereignty and democracy if they don’t exist
in any substantial way and social security evaporates.<a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-08-26.docx#_edn3" name="_ednref3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[3]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">It is well known that struggles for
self-determination and independence are messy, sordid affairs that are rife
with contradictions and hypocrisies that carry within them the potential for
destabilization, war, and genocide. The former minority group becomes the new
oppressor of smaller minorities within the new nation. People may realize that
the new nation has no real sovereignty and their living standards have
declined. Nonetheless, those who govern the world and lead discussion of such
matters as Taiwan independence, for example, still present the issue of
independence as if it were a simple matter of advancing “freedom and democracy”
and countering “tyranny” or “authoritarianism.” None of the complexity of
history or the potential for worsening material conditions is acknowledged. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The right to self-determination is upheld
by the UN Charter, but in reality, very few nations have been able to determine
themselves unless they were allowed to by the US and unless they agreed to take
up a subordinate role in “the rules-based order.” Independence struggles that
are not recognized or needed by the US make no progress. At best they might
achieve the status of “unrecognized breakaway state,” as South Ossetia did with
Russian support when it resisted Georgian aggression in 2008. The
“international community” could not admit Russia’s influence there by recognizing
South Ossetia, so it remains as an “unrecognized breakaway state” because it
has simply not been recognized by the right people. In other instances,
recalcitrant states become perpetual irritants to the empire, forced to live
under economic warfare (sanctions) and the threat of internal interference and
overthrow. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The USSR and Yugoslavia<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">In contrast to the “unrecognized” states, consider
the newly independent states that have been recognized instantly, with very
little consideration for the chaos, economic decline, human rights abuses, and
civil wars that would come from the disappearance of the larger state that held
them together peacefully in a federation. In spite of the Helsinki Agreements
of 1975 which committed Europe and the Soviet Union to maintain borders as they
were, the US, the UK, France, and Germany acted quickly in the 1980s to accelerate
the breakup the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia. Germany was thrilled to
resuscitate an independent Croatia, its WWII fascist ally, welcoming leaders
who were ideologically aligned with and proud of Croatia’s fascist past.<a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-08-26.docx#_edn4" name="_ednref4" style="mso-endnote-id: edn4;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[4]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">It is “common wisdom” that the USSR and
Yugoslavia broke up because of their own inevitable weaknesses and historical
ethnic rivalries, but few ever ask the question of what might have been, and
what bloodshed might have been avoided, if the “responsible” nations of the
West had upheld the principles of the Helsinki Accords, refrained from internal
interference, and stubbornly refused to support or to recognize Croatia,
Serbia, Bosnia, Belarus, Ukraine and Russia, and many others. No recognition,
no state, no foreign aid, no loans, no seat at the UN. Leave well enough alone
and go back and work something out with the federation that you belong to. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Regardless of whatever legitimate yearnings
there were for independence in various regions of the USSR, the international
community could have given them the same neglect they give to Catalonia.
Perhaps some Europeans sympathize with Catalonians, but no separatist longings
in the heart of Europe will be tolerated by the NATO-EU bloc. What would
Catalonia gain in any case when all the nations of Europe have lost so much
sovereignty to the Euro, the EU and NATO? What is the point when national
sovereignty is in decline everywhere?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">In the case of the USSR, the major powers
at the UN could have declared that the only agreement that mattered was the
referendum of March 1991 that endorsed the proposed New Union Treaty organized
by Gorbachev. Boris Yeltsin could have been told by the international community
that his secret deal with Ukraine and Belarus to terminate the USSSR—the
Belovezh Accords—was a dangerous, undemocratic, and illegal conspiracy to
undermine the New Union Treaty and its popular endorsement by referendum.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijkfUn-pj-Vie1JwSGA8nDS1KCUrebVCaW1sRHf20mDMT4-3h9zCOsbUbUiUayuSBRcKqYFi5SV2ih8jTe6KTUFEqihOlRtnTrwsl_4851B8LHaxfX2fl7zSN9gNQIXQX6v0iWsvUTwIhu-DsrZ5bpbc-yVqfS9ppAgFa6DXtLAhhq6nu4CeeQqRhG/s976/Belovezh%20Signing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="549" data-original-width="976" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijkfUn-pj-Vie1JwSGA8nDS1KCUrebVCaW1sRHf20mDMT4-3h9zCOsbUbUiUayuSBRcKqYFi5SV2ih8jTe6KTUFEqihOlRtnTrwsl_4851B8LHaxfX2fl7zSN9gNQIXQX6v0iWsvUTwIhu-DsrZ5bpbc-yVqfS9ppAgFa6DXtLAhhq6nu4CeeQqRhG/s320/Belovezh%20Signing.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From right to left, the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus signing the <br /><a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-38416657">Belovezh Accords, December 1991</a> <br />(Boris Yeltsin, Leonid Kravchuk, Stanislav Shushkevich)</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif;">Gorbachev, in addition to describing
Yeltsin as his worst backstabbing enemy, wrote the following about his
treachery in Belovezh:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The fate of the
multinational state cannot be determined by the will of the leaders of three
republics [Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia]. The question should be decided only
by constitutional means with the participation of all sovereign states [the fifteen
republics of the USSR] and taking into account the will of all their citizens.
The statement that Unionwide legal norms would cease to be in effect is also
illegal and dangerous; it can only worsen the chaos and anarchy in society. The
hastiness with which the document appeared is also of serious concern. It was
not discussed by the populations nor by the Supreme Soviets of the republics in
whose name it was signed. Even worse, it appeared at the moment when the draft
treaty for a Union of Sovereign States, drafted by the USSR State Council, was
being discussed by the parliaments of the republics.<a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-08-26.docx#_edn5" name="_ednref5" style="mso-endnote-id: edn5;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[5]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Gorbachev’s assessment of Belovezh reveals
why Putin was absolutely correct when he said in February 2022 that Ukrainian
independence had been recognized too quickly and too carelessly. Unlike France
or Germany, for example, it had no history as sovereign state with fixed
borders and a national identity. It had been put together as a part of the
Soviet Union, with no expectation at the time that it would ever have to
function as a sovereign nation with the given geographical boundaries and
ethnic composition. The ethnic identities and loyalties of the people in
various regions should have been dealt with before the borders were finalized.
The logical outcome of that process would have been Odessa, Crimea, and the
eastern regions joining Russia, and this is exactly the transformation that is
taking place through other less favorable means. It is unlikely that Russia
will ever stop its support of the new republics in Donbass or surrender the
territory it has gained where it has support of the local population. Anyone
who is hoping that Russia will lose and leave these regions should know that
within Ukraine there are elements that would engage in massive acts of
retribution against the populations that welcomed the arrival of Russian
forces. The “international community” seems to be woefully unaware of the need
to prepare some way to stop such a genocide from occurring, if indeed they care
at all about preventing atrocities against Russians.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Balkanization reloaded<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">There is obvious hypocrisy now on display
(in 2022) in NATO’s non-support of the separatist aspirations of Lugansk and
Donetsk while it lends support to Ukraine, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and any
separatist movement that weakens China or Russia.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">What should be at issue, if we care about
principles and international law, is Ukraine’s failure to uphold the Minsk
Agreements, the unconstitutional overthrow of the Ukrainian government in 2014
(supported by various US agencies), and that illegitimate government’s declared
genocidal policies toward ethnic Russians. The failure of a state to protect
its minority populations, or a stated intent to commit crimes against it, is
supposed to be enough to de-legitimize that government and provoke an
intervention by the United Nations. Genocidal policy is exactly what President
Poroshenko announced in 2014,<a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-08-26.docx#_edn6" name="_ednref6" style="mso-endnote-id: edn6;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[6]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
but the “international community” was silent, even though the rationale of the
“right to protect” and humanitarian intervention were used to justify
aggression against Serbia and other nations attacked by the US in recent
decades. There was also the supposed “never again” promise after Rwanda in
1994, even though atrocities continued in Congo for many years while the “international
community” stopped paying attention.<a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-08-26.docx#_edn7" name="_ednref7" style="mso-endnote-id: edn7;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[7]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Russia invoked the right to protect in 2022,
but no one acknowledged Russia’s reasoning. Citing Chapter VII, article 51 of
the UN Charter, Russia took action to defend a civilian population until such
time as the United Nations could act to defend them. In the West, few know
about this, and fewer care even if they might have heard about it. The obedient
citizenry has been whipped into a hypnotic singular focus on one of many
conflicts in the world—one of the least deserving of their sympathy. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">If this discussion of separatism and
nationalism is too brief, the contradictions and hypocrisies of most separatist
causes become evident upon consideration of a list of many struggles that exist
and how they intersect with a large glossary of terms one must contend with to
discuss war, international relations, or any separatist or nationalist movements
which are, in most cases, just cover for the empire’s plans to balkanize and
bring new small nations into its fold. It becomes a monumental task to sort out
which causes might be worthy of sympathy and support, and which others are
shit-disturbing destabilization projects, provocations, opportunism, or
outright aggression and land grabs. As the saying goes, there are a lot of
moving parts here, “a lot of ins, a lot of outs,” to borrow a phrase in <i>The
Big Lebowski</i> that described its complex plot. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">These lists of case studies (not exhaustive)
and terminology appear in Section 2, after which this essay continues in
Section 3.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">__________<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">SECTION 2<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Places with a history of independence
struggles, some resolved, most ongoing<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Aceh, Armenia, Catalonia, Chechnya, Crimea,
Cuba and The Philippines in the 1898-1913 war of independence from Spain,
followed by a war with the US, its “liberator” in that war, Cyprus/Turkish
Republic of Northern Cyprus, Donbass (Lugansk and Donetsk), East Timor, every
decolonized nation, every First Nation and aboriginal group in the Americas and
Australia, French Polynesia (semi-autonomous French overseas nation—“<i>pays
d’outre-mer</i>”), Ireland, Islamic separatists in Thailand, Jammu and Kashmir,
Kosovo, Kurdish minorities in Turkey, Iraq, and Syria, the Maori in New Zealand,
Marshall Islands, Nuevomexicanos (in the southwest US), Palestine, Quebec, Rohingya
in Myanmar, Scotland, South Ossetia, Taiwan, The Hawaiian Kingdom, The Ryukyu
Kingdom (Okinawa), Tibet, Transnistria, United States (from Britain), Xinjiang,
West Papua…<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Terminology</span></b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Independence, self-determination,
sovereignty, occupation, splittism, revanchism, irredentism, balkanization, paying
of tribute, de facto, de jure, recognition, sovereignty, nationalism,
tribalism, ethnic states, religious states, rump states, reservations, enclaves,
exclaves, semi-exclaves, “unrecognized” breakaway states, provisional
governments (acting governments in exile or in states under occupation), client
states, vassal states, international law, “rules-based” order, alliances, non-aggression
pacts, status of forces agreements, protectorates, blocs, empires, federations,
annexations, occupations, terrorist separatist groups, partisans, insurgents,
counter-insurgents, reactionaries, humanitarian interventions, sanctions and economic
warfare (“make the economy scream”), activist refugee groups (“weaponized
immigrants”—activist diasporas, White Russians, Zionists, Tutsis, Banderites, “rightful”
rulers waiting in exile to return to power), fascism—the merger of state and
corporate power in an infantile masquerade that imitates authentic struggles
for national liberation.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Supra-national economic and political
collectives<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Economic blocs, common currency zones,
autonomous regions, defensive and offensive alliances, spheres of influence, empires,
commonwealths, first nations and aboriginal peoples uniting in common cause <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Examples of supra-national economic and political
collectives<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">United Nations, NATO, Nation of Islam
(Black nationalism within the US), Eurozone (shared currency), Bretton Woods
Agreement (1944), European Union, ASEAN, G7, G20, Organization of American
States, African Union, First, the Second and the Third World, <i>Mercado Común
del Sur</i> (MERCOSUR), Non-Aligned Movement, the American Indian Movement
(AIM), the global trading system based on the Petro-Dollar (US dollar as the
global reserve currency).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Political actions, concepts, movements, and
organizations that interact with separatist and nationalist causes<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Realpolitik, geopolitics, demagoguery, foreign
interference, soft coups, hard coups, legislative coups, revolution, insurgency,
counter-insurgency, civil war, secession, internationalism, globalization,
colonialism, decolonization, neocolonialism, Third World solidarity, the
Non-Aligned Movement, the Jakarta Method (the global anti-communist witch-hunt)—the
20th century iteration of The Inquisition (1184-1808), the War on Terror, the
National Endowment for Democracy, USAID, Voice of America, the CIA. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Global organizations of influence, state
and non-state actors<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">National Endowment for Democracy, USAID,
Voice of America, CIA, International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank, World
Economic Forum (WEF), Trilateral Commission, Council on Foreign Relations (CFR),
Atlantic Council, the annual Bilderberg Meeting, Rockefeller Foundation, Bill
and Melinda Gates Foundation…<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Treaties and Laws that Created the World
Order <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Doctrine of Discovery (15th century), Treaty
of Westphalia (1648), Congress of Vienna (1814-15), League of Nations (1919), Kellogg-Briand
Pact (1928),<a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-08-26.docx#_edn8" name="_ednref8" style="mso-endnote-id: edn8;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[8]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> the
conferences at which the USSR, the US and the UK decided the borders and
spheres of influence of the post-war world—Casablanca (January 1943), Cairo
(November 1943), Tehran (December 1943), Quebec (September 1944), Yalta
(February 1945), Potsdam (July 1945)—United Nations Charter (1945), Helsinki
Accords (1975, commitment to principles, not ratified), Nuremberg Code and international
laws defining crimes against humanity and genocide (post 1945), International
Court of Arbitration, international courts in the Hague, Netherlands—International
Court of Justice (ICJ), International Criminal Court (ICC), International
Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Natural endowment<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Unequal natural endowment of resources and
geographical size—agricultural land, potential for food self-sufficiency, climate
advantages, access to the sea, freshwater resources, underground mineral and
energy resources.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">__________<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">SECTION 3<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Separatism, nationalism, and resentment<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">In many separatist and nationalist causes,
there is a dangerous neglect of everything that is going well enough. The
status quo is rejected too readily. There is instead often an adolescent
rejection of authority, a refusal to accept that “it sucks to be governed” no
matter who is in charge. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just as a teenager
resents his parents’ rules, or the middle-aged man with Peter Pan syndrome
wants to walk away from commitments, separatist longings can be immature,
unjustified, and oblivious to negative consequences.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">In fact, separatist sentiment arises in
times of chaos when material conditions deteriorate, when there is increasingly
a feeling of “nothing to lose” and something to gain in the “glory of conquest.”
This is indeed the goal of destabilization projects and internal interference. In
the 1980s, the US spent hundreds of millions of dollars on soft-power projects
within the Soviet Union, and the dividends were enormous.<a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-08-26.docx#_edn9" name="_ednref9" style="mso-endnote-id: edn9;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[9]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
In such circumstances, separatist causes become fascistic, led by demagogues
voicing grievances which, if acted upon, only worsen the situation. Yet the
forces that destabilized the federation in the first place do not care about
this radicalization. In fact, they encourage it because it furthers their goals.
The dissolution of the USSR and Yugoslavia, discussed above, make this point
obvious. The historical record shows that the empire never supports a
separatist cause on principle. It lends support only in the pursuit of its own
goals. This has never been plainer to see than now when we can look at the
split between who supports Taiwan and who supports Lugansk and Donetsk.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">A full discussion of the terms and case
studies listed in Section 2 would require this essay to become a heavy textbook
on separatism and nationalism. I wrote Section 2 primarily to provoke awareness
of the unspoken motivations and complexities that lie behind simplistic
reporting and facile expressions of support for Ukraine or Taiwan, or, equally,
condemnations of Russia or Syria.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">One more important issue remains to cover,
and that is the question of size.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoTableGrid" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 1184;">
<tbody><tr style="mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;">
<td style="border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 467.5pt;" valign="top" width="623">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The
World Economic Forum describes itself as “globalism,” and “globalism” is
their word for “colonialism”. It used to be called “imperialism.” Every
imperial European country—Britain, Holland, France—were all globalists…
President Biden used a different vocabulary when he said it’s really not
between globalism and anti-imperialism. It’s between “democracy” and
“autocracy” … Aristotle described how all democracies tend to evolve into
oligarchies… ever since ancient Greece, that’s been the case… the World
Economic Forum is sort of the board of directors of the Western economy… The
Greek [oligarchs] used to get together on one of the sacred islands, either
Delos or Delphi, and that’s the role that Switzerland has today. Now all of a
sudden, what you have is autocracy. Autocracy means a country with a strong
enough government to prevent an oligarchy from taking over.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l10 level1 lfo11; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Open Sans";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Michael Hudson, “</span><a href="https://michael-hudson.com/2022/08/the-big-context/"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The Big
Context</span></a><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">,”
<i>Michael-Hudson.com</i>, August 8, 2022<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Size Matters<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">In a lecture given in 2011, American
historian Gal Alperovitz asked an audience of progressive reformers, “If you
don’t like capitalism or state socialism, what do you want?” Along with this
question, he brought up a topic that is rarely addressed when people talk about
perfecting nations and democratic governance: What is the ideal size of a
democratic state, in terms of geographical size and population? In nations the
size of continents, with populations over 100 million, is democracy even
possible? He described the problem this way:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Germany in scale
could be tucked into Montana. We live in a continent. If you want democracy in
a continent, you’ve got a big problem because those countries are little. I
sometimes say to my students “like those dinky little countries France and
Germany,” meaning that the polity is organizable in smaller scale than in a
continent (from 14:10 in the video) … If you take the high estimate of the
Census Bureau, [the US population] will be over a billion by the end of the
century. Now, hopefully, we’re not going to have that high estimate, but the
numbers get very large no matter what. To those of you who believe in
participatory democracy, [I ask] if you can have any form of meaningful
participatory democracy in a continent of five or six hundred million people?
The answer is probably no, and if most states are too small for economic
management or too large for democracy, we are already stalemated in this
archaic political system. The intermediate unit is called the region. There was
a huge debate amongst liberals and conservatives and radicals in the 1930s
about how you begin to regionalize and decentralize the economic system, and I
think that’s inevitable under almost any regime. People don’t like to think
about regionalizing. It’s a hard one, but some of the most interesting work on
this was done by thoughtful conservatives, by the way, as well as thoughtful
radicals … so I think that’s on our agenda. (from 44:30 in the video)<a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-08-26.docx#_edn10" name="_ednref10" style="mso-endnote-id: edn10;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[10]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Perhaps it would be better if states were limited
in size to be no larger than Germany, and no alliances like NATO were allowed.
There would be more equality in possession of natural resources, no
superpowers, no states that could assemble massive military power and nuclear
arsenals, and there would be better interaction between the government and the
governed. However, this topic is never on the agenda in mainstream US political
discourse. Instead, all of the political and economic forces within the empire deal
with this issue in its only permissible form—as psychological projection aimed
at Russia and China. It is seldom stated explicitly, but the goal is not the
war in Ukraine or Putin, or Taiwan. These are small short-term projects within
a larger long-term project to foment and support separatist and nationalist
movements to balkanize Russia and China and gain control of their resources.
The United States and the NATO bloc are never said to be too big and too
unwieldy to allow for freedom and democracy, but size is definitely considered a
problem for “our great power adversaries.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The Free Nations of Russia Forum is an
example of one organization that is working with a low profile but stating
explicitly that its goal is the fracturing of Russia into a number of smaller
states. The idea is: if it worked in the 1980s and 1990s for the Soviet Union
and Yugoslavia, why not keep the show going? There are similar projects to
break Xinjiang, Tibet, Hong Kong, and Taiwan away from China.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The four main goals of the </span><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif;"><a href="https://freenationsrf.org/en.html"><span style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Free Nations of Russia Forum</span></a></span><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">
are “de-imperialization and decolonization,” “de-Putinization and de-Nazification,”
“de-militarization and de-nuclearization,” and “economic and social changes.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0Lao0DUH5JQKJudM-UfTWFQTEGJRM8AFnAG5MtF__WFJac-Bw-tPmBSxZZsmhaql7fIu_EE4FfSnS0bUW2FlufW3i6ike4YzuH31q9AjEdngRJjNI_FgZVCpOvjfc22UyDDllL0Ku9KbRp_PDBP5eK7pvqhqCiXluxo4ayVVYjuitx4QJnIYcN2cJ/s905/Post-Putin%20Russia%20Maps.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="751" data-original-width="905" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0Lao0DUH5JQKJudM-UfTWFQTEGJRM8AFnAG5MtF__WFJac-Bw-tPmBSxZZsmhaql7fIu_EE4FfSnS0bUW2FlufW3i6ike4YzuH31q9AjEdngRJjNI_FgZVCpOvjfc22UyDDllL0Ku9KbRp_PDBP5eK7pvqhqCiXluxo4ayVVYjuitx4QJnIYcN2cJ/s320/Post-Putin%20Russia%20Maps.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">It is difficult not to laugh at the
immaturity, hypocrisy and ignorance expressed by this forum. Russia is not, by
any stretch of semantics, an imperial or colonial power.<a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-08-26.docx#_edn11" name="_ednref11" style="mso-endnote-id: edn11;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[11]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
The forum seems to be saying that Russia is, paradoxically, imperialistic within
its own territory, over regions that are, supposedly, actually oppressed
independent nations. The people living there just don’t know it yet.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">It is absurd to believe that one could destroy
a sovereign nation by removing one leader and his influence. It is outrageous
that these non-Russian citizens think they have the right to interfere in the
internal affairs of Russia. They declare it shamelessly, oblivious to their
flaunting of the UN Charter and the Helsinki Accords as they actively call for
interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign nation and promote the
destruction of it. They are oblivious to the reality that there is a lack
support for this project among Russian people.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">They are oblivious to the military budget
of the US which is more than ten times larger than Russia’s. They are oblivious
to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty which obliges <i>all</i> nuclear powers
to reduce and eventually eliminate their nuclear arsenals. The treaty does not
stipulate in any way that the United States is to remain intact with its
nuclear arsenal while “de-nuclearization” is set as a goal to be achieved only after
the nation called Russia ceases to exist.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Finally, there is something grandly
insulting and ironic in calling for the destruction and “de-Nazification” of
the country that made the greatest contribution to defeating Nazi Germany. In
fact, the goal of Nazi Germany was exactly the same as the goal of the Free
Nations of Russia Forum—to turn Russia into a group of weak colonies led by a
local comprador class. The forum is clearly a sign of the return of fascism and
imperialism—the Fourth Reich, one could say, picking up a project that suffered
a setback at Stalingrad in 1942. The forum expresses pure projection of its
hidden motives—to colonize Russia by turning it into a group of client states
that will be open for exploitation by “the blob” of Trans-Atlantic power that
is 21st century imperialism. The forum does all this at a moment in history
when the US empire has entered a period of steep decline. The only realistic
statement in the forum’s platform is the final item in the list. There would
indeed be “economic and social changes” if, in their wildest dreams, they
succeeded.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFAAabWT-1nXtHJOfFjGfNO88_T6HbntYX7d6cVlzSLnO_Kf2F6NUqALpfiHarMfS90UCtYUmRlzPZIFpMx8mVvoxASDWBHsHBcu89ym54RMJ2lZ5qDBoydpI469wROr29nUEA_D6pPedFH_vgjNzS2uq-9zKt-yiGID0YAlT5a3n5P_shhtWlKPqg/s895/black%20ribbon%20day.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="895" data-original-width="649" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFAAabWT-1nXtHJOfFjGfNO88_T6HbntYX7d6cVlzSLnO_Kf2F6NUqALpfiHarMfS90UCtYUmRlzPZIFpMx8mVvoxASDWBHsHBcu89ym54RMJ2lZ5qDBoydpI469wROr29nUEA_D6pPedFH_vgjNzS2uq-9zKt-yiGID0YAlT5a3n5P_shhtWlKPqg/s320/black%20ribbon%20day.jpg" width="232" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Realism and Idealism<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The obvious question to ask at this point
is about which independence struggles are worth supporting, and which will lead
to positive outcomes if they are supported. In the present era, many struggles
have sought help from the hegemonic power, which condemns them in advance from
ever having any true form of sovereignty. The struggles that are worth
supporting are precisely the ones that the hegemon has ignored and disdained.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The present era is one in which cynical
realism has prevailed, even among the weak who adopt it to pursue their goals
only to find that in their “independence” they have become vassals. The tension
between realism and idealism is as old as the study of history and
international relations, as the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy tells us: <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Thucydides shows
that power, if it is unrestrained by moderation and a sense of justice, brings about
the uncontrolled desire for more power... Drunk with the prospect of glory and
gain, after conquering Melos, the Athenians engage in a war against Sicily.
They pay no attention to the Melian argument that considerations of justice are
useful to all in the longer run. And, as the Athenians overestimate their
strength and, in the end, lose the war, their self-interested logic proves to
be very shortsighted indeed.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">It is utopian to
ignore the reality of power in international relations, but it is equally blind
to rely on power alone. Thucydides appears to support neither the naive
idealism of the Melians nor the cynicism of their Athenian opponents. He
teaches us to be on guard “against naïve-dreaming on international politics,”
on the one hand, and “against the other pernicious extreme: unrestrained
cynicism,” on the other. If he can be regarded as a political realist, his
realism nonetheless prefigures neither realpolitik, in which traditional ethics
is denied, nor today’s scientific neorealism, in which moral questions are
largely ignored. Thucydides’ realism, neither immoral nor amoral, can rather be
compared to that of Hans Morgenthau, Raymond Aron, and other twentieth-century
classical realists, who, although sensible to the demands of national interest,
would not deny that political actors on the international scene are subject to
moral judgment.<a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-08-26.docx#_edn12" name="_ednref12" style="mso-endnote-id: edn12;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[12]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Like Athenians of the past, the modern
empire is drunk on its prospects for glory and gain, as are those who seek to
gain from cooperation with it. They have forgotten that “considerations of
justice are useful in the long run.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Palestine is the most obvious example of a
cause worth supporting. In addition, the long occupation of the Hawaiian
Kingdom should end. That would be a good way for the United States to begin to wrap
up its imperial project and join the family of nations as an equal. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">We should support the independence of </span><a href="https://www.freewestpapua.org/"><span style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">West Papua</span></a><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">,
a region that never received fair treatment during the post-war period of
de-colonization. As they were leaving their colonies in Southeast Asia, the
Dutch argued that West Papua was culturally, racially, and linguistically
unrelated to Indonesia and that the United Nations should help it go through
its own process of self-determination. However, in the early 1960s, realpolitik
dictated that Indonesia was too strategically important. The US and Russia,
(members of the UN Security Council), and China were all courting President
Sukarno, hoping that Indonesia could be a buffer against the influence of
opposing great power adversaries. President Kennedy crafted the “New York
Agreement” that was signed between Indonesia and the Netherlands, thus ensuring
that the United Nations would recognize West Papua as part of Indonesia.<a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-08-26.docx#_edn13" name="_ednref13" style="mso-endnote-id: edn13;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[13]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The New York Agreement called for a
plebiscite in 1969 to allow West Papuans to accept or reject Indonesian
control. This Act of Free Choice has been described thus by Thomas Musgrave in
his book chapter “An analysis of the 1969 Act of Free Choice in West Papua”:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">There is no doubt
whatsoever that the process of self-determination in West Papua was nothing
more than a sham and amounted to a gross travesty. From whatever angle the
situation is considered, be it the requirements of Resolutions 1514(XV) and
1541(XV), or the terms of the New York Agreement, or basic principles of
general international law, Indonesia not only failed to fulfil its
international obligations but in fact consistently acted in a manner which
traduced those obligations. As a result, the people of West Papua were never
given any real opportunity to exercise their right of self-determination and
West Papua was incorporated into Indonesia without the true consent of its people.<a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-08-26.docx#_edn14" name="_ednref14" style="mso-endnote-id: edn14;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[14]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Through a <i>coup d’état</i> in 1965, followed
by the US-backed “Jakarta Method” of killing at least half a million unarmed
members of the Indonesian Communist Party, Sukarno was overthrown in any case,
and Indonesia, including West Papua, became a dictatorship in which foreign
corporations exploited the tremendous gold and oil reserves of West Papua, as
well as the resources of Indonesia.<a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-08-26.docx#_edn15" name="_ednref15" style="mso-endnote-id: edn15;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[15]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
The violence against the indigenous population of West Papua reached genocidal
levels. UN rapporteurs and the “diplomatic community” know all about it, but it
remains completely beyond the awareness of the masses of people who can be so
quickly manipulated to voice sympathy for Ukraine and Taiwan.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The final example most worthy of respect is
a nation that didn’t separate from anything geographically or redraw its
borders in any way. It separated from its past and built a new nation, and it
has been punished for that success ever since. The Cuban Revolution of 1959 was
motivated by idealism, not realism. It aligned with the quote attributed to
Einstein’s that “the real purpose of socialism is precisely to overcome and
advance beyond the predatory phase of human development.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Many independence and nationalist movements
express no concern for the higher concepts of social evolution and liberation,
but Cuba did, and it achieved much. It eliminated the nefarious presence of casinos,
brothels, and organized crime. It liberated itself from foreign ownership of
its economy. It gave citizens literacy, health care, employment, and housing,
and established a military that could defend these achievements and values. Over
25 years Cuba sent 500,000 soldiers to Africa to help with liberation struggles
there. For that effort Cuba gained no ownership of African resources and imposed
no onerous debt. It asked for nothing in return. In 1975, Fidel Castro stated
emphatically:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Some imperialists
ask why we’re helping the Angolans, what our interest is. They assume that
countries only act out of a desire for petrol, copper, diamonds, or some other
resource. No. We have no material interest. Of course, the imperialists don’t
understand this. They would only do it for jingoistic, selfish reasons. We are
fulfilling an elementary internationalist duty in helping the people of Angola.<a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-08-26.docx#_edn16" name="_ednref16" style="mso-endnote-id: edn16;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[16]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The Cuban government did some mean things
to people who wanted to prevent its progress, and as a result, ever since then,
Cuba been subjected to economic warfare and internal interference, and condemned
as a tyrannical dictatorship. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Castro also always expressed an interest in
democratizing the revolution. In a review of Arnold August’s <i>Cuba and Its
Neighbors: Democracy in Motion, </i>Max Forte described the evolution of
democracy in Cuba since 1959:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">August
substantiates his point that much of US scholarship on Cuba suffers from a
blind spot when it comes to participatory democracy in the country. If
multi-party elections were rejected it was because they symbolized the old
order when a minority ruled in the interests of a minority—such a system not
only coexists happily with oligarchy (as we ought to know), it serves it. Even
the US State Department had to admit in 1960 that “the majority of Cubans
support Castro”. In building up the participatory feature of the new Cuban
political system, Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR) were
established at the neighborhood level. Just one year after their founding in
1960, more than 800,000 Cubans voluntarily participated in these associations.
A counterpart of the CDR are the National Revolutionary Militias (MNR), that
were first established in the autumn of 1959. The Literacy Campaign was also
built on grass-roots participation, and one of the key organizations behind it
was the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC). Local government was also redeveloped
from 1961 onwards, with elections for municipal delegates organized in
neighborhoods and places of work from 1966. This was known then as “Local
Power,” and as August explains, was the first systematic attempt to create
government institutions that were directly accountable to the public. At the
party level, multiple leftist organizations and movements developed a new Cuban
Communist Party (PCC) by 1965, the passage of years reflecting the critical
degree of work required to bring together multiple factions. By 1970, the PCC
launched an effort to further democratize the revolution by suggesting the
creation of Organs of Popular Power (OPP). A new Constitution was also drafted.
This was not some party dictate—the draft was taken to the public, and
discussed in schools, workplaces, in rural areas, and by the end of the months
of discussions there had been 70,812 neighborhood meetings with 2,064,755
participants (p. 114). In 1976, by universal, secret ballot, the Constitution
was approved by 97.7% of voters, with a voter turnout of 98%. After that,
municipal, provincial, and national elections took place that resulted in the
formation of the National Assembly of Popular Power (ANPP). The PCC, meanwhile,
never functioned as an electoral party... <a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-08-26.docx#_edn17" name="_ednref17" style="mso-endnote-id: edn17;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[17]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">This description should at least be
humbling for every citizen living in liberal democracies, and for some it must provoke
envy. For most people in classic multi-party liberal democracies, there is no
opportunity to participate in such nation-building projects. Cuba’s success is,
to steal a phrase from an American election campaign, the sort of “change we
can believe in,” and it stands as an inspiring example of the sort of
independence struggle that deserves to be supported globally. It stands in
sharp contrast with Taiwan and Ukraine where there is no plan to go beyond “the
predatory phase of human development.” Ukraine wants to become a client state
and sell off its national treasure, and Taiwan would let itself become a second
Okinawa—an unsinkable US battleship—if China were not committed to stopping
that from happening by any means necessary.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Conclusion<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I hope this essay has made it clear that
when people of various parts of the world are being asked to show solidarity
with Ukraine or Taiwan, or whatever the next thing is going to be, we need to
ask whom these nations are aligned with and why, and we have to ask why they
express no solidarity with other independence and nationalist causes. The
answer is that they support no one but themselves and the powerful entities
that are eager to exploit their cause. The Ukrainian government will not ask
for the end of sanctions against Cuba, Iran, and Venezuela. The Taiwanese
government will not antagonize Indonesia by speaking up for West Papua. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I doubt that more than a handful of people
in Taiwan know the least thing about the plight of their neighbor in the Southwest
Pacific. If they learned about it, they would see the main difference between
Taiwan and West Papua. Taiwan is peaceful and prosperous. China has refrained
from the use of force and waited patiently for a peaceful settlement of the issue,
in spite of the fact that the US and the UN long ago recognized Taiwan as a
part of China. In contrast, as soon as the UN recognized West Papua as part of
Indonesia, Indonesia occupied the territory, repressed the indigenous
independence movement, and engaged in settler colonialism, also known as
cultural genocide. It has been ongoing since the 1960s, but Indonesia has never
been subjected to sanctions or condemnation by “the international community.” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The nationalist causes of Ukraine and
Taiwan are compromised from the start by the team they have chosen. If they
don’t care about others, why should we care about them? Why should the rest of
the world give them billions of dollars in foreign aid, deprive themselves of
resources, pay more for food, and risk nuclear war to support these causes? Ukraine
and Taiwan were at peace and doing well enough before the US decided to meddle
in their affairs and turn them into <i>causes célèbres</i> for the world to suddenly
be pre-occupied with. The fact is that these causes could not even exist if
they were not useful as the empire’s proxy wars against what it refers to as
its “great power rivals.” Without the massive amounts of weapons and money
coming from a nation on the opposite side of the globe, they would have long
ago realized that their best option was to find a way to get along with their
closest neighbors and avoid war. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">With or without war, the end result is
often the same. Defeated Japan became an industrial powerhouse within US
hegemony. The US could have avoided war in Vietnam, and Vietnam would have
become exactly the sort of nation it became after its enemy left—a socialist
country open to foreign investment and development aid from the US and other
nations. Carl von Clausewitz famously said, “War is the continuation of policy
with other means,” and we could say in a variation of this aphorism, “Policy can
be the achieving of, with means other than war, precisely what the outcome of
war would be.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Notes that include further discussion
follow the appendix<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Appendix<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The Helsinki Accords</span></b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">,
notes compiled from: </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helsinki_Accords"><span style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helsinki_Accords</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">All then-existing European countries
(except Andorra and pro-Chinese Albania) as well as the United States and
Canada and the USSR, altogether 35 participating states, signed the Final Act
in an attempt to improve the détente between the East and the West. The
Helsinki Accords, however, were not binding as they did not have treaty status
that would have to be ratified by parliaments. Sometimes the term “Helsinki
pact(s)” was also used unofficially. President Ford said at the time if the
accord failed to be ratified, it wouldn’t matter because everything pledged in
the accords is already enshrined in the UN Charter and other official endorsements
of human rights.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The first basket, the “Declaration on
Principles Guiding Relations between Participating States” (also known as “The
Decalogue”) enumerated the following 10 points:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Sovereign equality, respect for the rights
inherent in sovereignty, Refraining from the threat or use of force,
inviolability of frontiers, territorial integrity of states, peaceful
settlement of disputes, non-intervention in internal affairs, respect for human
rights and fundamental freedoms, including the freedom of thought, conscience,
religion or belief, equal rights and self-determination of peoples,
co-operation among States, fulfillment in good faith of obligations under
international law<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The second basket promised economic,
scientific, and technological cooperation; facilitating business contacts and
industrial cooperation; linking together transportation networks; and
increasing the flow of information.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The third basket involved commitments to
improve the human context of family reunions, marriages, and travel. It also
sought to improve the conditions of journalists and expand cultural exchanges. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The fourth basket dealt with procedures to
monitor implementation, and to plan future meetings.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">In July 1975, US President Gerald Ford told
the delegation of Americans from East European backgrounds:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The Helsinki
documents involve political and moral commitments aimed at lessening tensions
and opening further the lines of communication between peoples of East and West
... We are not committing ourselves to anything beyond what we are already
committed to by our own moral and legal standards and by more formal treaty
agreements such as the United Nations Charter and Declaration of Human Rights
... If it all fails, Europe will be no worse off than it is now. If even a part
of it succeeds, the lot the people in Eastern Europe will be that much better,
and the cause of freedom will advance at least that far.<a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-08-26.docx#_edn18" name="_ednref18" style="mso-endnote-id: edn18;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[18]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">NOTES<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<div style="mso-element: endnote-list;"><!--[if !supportEndnotes]--><br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-08-26.docx#_ednref1" name="_edn1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a>
“<a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/realism-intl-relations/">Political
Realism in International Relations</a>,” <i>Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy</i>,
May 24, 2017.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn2" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-08-26.docx#_ednref2" name="_edn2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a>
John-Paul Himka, “<a href="http://soi.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/soi/article/view/7999/7147"><span style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">War
Criminality: A Blank Spot in the Collective Memory of the Ukrainian Diaspora</span></a>,” <i>Spaces of Identity, Special
Issue: War Crimes</i>, Vol.5, No.1, 2005.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn3" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-08-26.docx#_ednref3" name="_edn3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[3]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a>
Michael Parenti, <i>Blackshirts and Reds: Rational Fascism and the Overthrow of
Communism</i> (City Lights Publishers, 1997). This book provides a thorough description
of the true cost of “liberation” for the citizens of the former socialist
countries in the 1980s and 1990s.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn4" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-08-26.docx#_ednref4" name="_edn4" style="mso-endnote-id: edn4;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[4]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a>
“<a href="https://dennisriches.wordpress.com/2018/11/18/the-yugoslavia-counter-narrative-in-1993-sean-gervasi-a-neglected-expert-spoke-out-in-the-early-years-of-the-catastrophe/"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Open Sans";">The Yugoslavia Counter-Narrative in
1993: Sean Gervasi, a neglected expert, spoke out in the early years of the
catastrophe</span></a>.”
Transcript of an interview recorded in 1993 for “Conversations with Harold
Hudson Channer,” a public access cable television series in New York. Sean
Gervasi: “I would say that Mr. Kohl’s [German chancellor] recognition of the
seceding republics is without any doubt what precipitated the wars in
Yugoslavia. It didn’t start them, but it turned them into major international
conflicts… it is an important element here in understanding what’s happened in
Yugoslavia because the Germans really helped to precipitate that. They helped
to precipitate the war between Croatia and Yugoslavia, the secession of
Croatia, and they have armed, assisted, advised etc., guided the new version of
the independent Croatian state under Mr. Tudjman… This is a very serious
question because of the historical background which I mentioned—the independent
Croatian state and the genocide conducted against various populations, the
Serbs in particular between 1941 and 1945. At the time that Croatia declared
its independence in June of 1991, there were 750,000 Serbs living in parts of
the Krajina, as they’re called, which by the way is the geopolitical heart of
Croatia. There were 1,300,000 or 1,400,000 Serbs living in Bosnia at the time
that Bosnian independence was declared in April of last year. These secessions
took place in a manner which raised the historic fears, historically justified
fears, of the Serbian populations of these areas that they would be the target
of genocidal persecutions again.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn5" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-08-26.docx#_ednref5" name="_edn5" style="mso-endnote-id: edn5;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[5]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a>
<span style="line-height: 107%;">Mikhail
Gorbachev, <i>On My Country and the World</i> (Columbia University Press,
2000), 151-152. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn6" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-08-26.docx#_ednref6" name="_edn6" style="mso-endnote-id: edn6;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[6]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a>
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Open Sans";">Anne Laure Bonnel (director), “</span><a href="https://youtu.be/b8j0tJsKltg"><span style="color: blue; mso-bidi-font-family: "Open Sans";">Donbass</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Open Sans";">,”
2016. President Poroshenko, speaking in December 2014, is quoted at the
beginning of the film speaking about how he planned to treat a Russian-speaking
minority group within Ukraine: “We will have jobs and they won’t. We will have
retirement benefits and they won’t. We will have benefits for seniors and children,
and they won’t. Our children will go to school and kindergarten, but theirs
won’t. Their children will stay in basements because they won’t know how to do
anything. And like this, precisely like this, we will win this war.” The
international community, is, supposedly, obliged to intervene in cases in which
there is a declared intent of genocidal policy.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn7" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-08-26.docx#_ednref7" name="_edn7" style="mso-endnote-id: edn7;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[7]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“<a href="https://friendsofthecongo.org/un-mapping-report/">UN Mapping Report</a>,”
<i>Friends of the Congo</i>, accessed August 23, 2022. From this article
describing the Mapping Report: “[the report covers] the most serious violations
of human rights and international humanitarian law committed with the territory
of the DRC between March 1993 and June 2003… The claim that the victims of the
1994 genocide in Rwanda may be culpable of committing a genocide in the Congo
has generated a great deal of interest… The authors of the report indicated
that they were concerned that the language of ‘genocide’ may be watered down
before the official publishing of the document… The discovery of three mass
graves in North Kivu in 2005 was a stark reminder to the United Nations that
the past human rights violations in the Congo had remained largely
uninvestigated.“ <o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn8" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-08-26.docx#_ednref8" name="_edn8" style="mso-endnote-id: edn8;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[8]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a>
Christopher Black, “<a href="https://journal-neo.org/2022/03/08/the-legality-of-war/">The Legality of
War</a>,” <i>New Eastern Outlook</i>, March 8, 2022. This article provides an
excellent brief explanation of how war came to be illegal under international
law but permitted in some instances to authorize wars in defense of a nation
that was under attack. The author points out that the veto power of members of
the UN Security Council “has effectively led to the paralysis of the United
Nations in a number of international conflicts, where national interests are in
conflict, and has resulted in reality in a state of the world where might makes
right.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn9" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-08-26.docx#_ednref9" name="_edn9" style="mso-endnote-id: edn9;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[9]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a>
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Open Sans";">Sean Gervasi, “</span><a href="https://dennisriches.wordpress.com/2018/02/22/trump-era-russophobia-vs-western-intervention-in-the-u-s-s-r-1970-1991/"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Open Sans";">Western Intervention in the USSR</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Open Sans";">,” <i>Covert Action Information
Bulletin</i> No.39, January 1, 1991. “The minimal conclusion that can be
deduced… even taking into account the complex channeling and re-channeling of
funds and projects through intermediaries, is that during the 1980s, Western
governments, businesses and private organizations were devoting something on
the order of $100 million per year to intervention in the internal affairs of
the Soviet Union.”</span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn10" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-08-26.docx#_ednref10" name="_edn10" style="mso-endnote-id: edn10;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[10]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> “<a href="https://youtu.be/l0ZTRa4yP-Q"><span style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Gar
Alperovitz: If you don’t like capitalism or state socialism, what do you want?</span></a><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">”</span></span><span style="line-height: 107%;"> <i>Democracy
Collective/New Economics Institute</i>, New York, November 5, 2011.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn11" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-08-26.docx#_ednref11" name="_edn11" style="mso-endnote-id: edn11;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[11]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a>
“<a href="https://mltoday.com/the-leninist-theory-of-imperialism/">The Leninist
Theory of Imperialism</a>,” <i>ML Today</i>, September 2, 2016. Lenin defined
imperialism as having five economic features. His definition endures as the
most useful because it went beyond looking at imperialism as merely a nation
state expanding its power outside its territory. Lenin looked instead at the
nature of financial capital in the world. He described the fifth feature thus:
“The territorial division of the whole world among the biggest capitalist
powers is completed. Imperialism is capitalism at that stage of development at
which the dominance of monopolies and finance capital is established; in which
the export of capital has acquired pronounced importance; in which the division
of the world among the international trusts has begun, in which the division of
all territories of the globe among the biggest capitalist powers has been
completed.” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn12" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-08-26.docx#_ednref12" name="_edn12" style="mso-endnote-id: edn12;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[12]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a>
<span style="line-height: 107%;">“</span><a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/realism-intl-relations/"><span style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Political
Realism in International Relations</span></a><span style="line-height: 107%;">,” <i>Stanford
Encyclopedia of Philosophy</i>, May 24, 2017.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn13" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-08-26.docx#_ednref13" name="_edn13" style="mso-endnote-id: edn13;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[13]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a>
<span style="line-height: 107%;">Yamin
Kogoya, “</span><a href="https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/west-papuas-colonial-fate-un-new-york-agreement"><span style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">West
Papua’s Colonial Fate—the UN ‘New York Agreement</span></a><span style="line-height: 107%;">,’”
<i>Greenleft</i>, August 17, 2022.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn14" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-08-26.docx#_ednref14" name="_edn14" style="mso-endnote-id: edn14;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[14]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a>
<span style="line-height: 107%;">Thomas
D. Musgrave, “</span><a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/sovereignty-statehood-and-state-responsibility/an-analysis-of-the-1969-act-of-free-choice-in-west-papua/6DB756FCBC96D81B76B663846A8BDE53"><span style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">An
analysis of the 1969 Act of Free Choice in West Papua</span></a><span style="line-height: 107%;">,”
Chapter 12 in <i>Sovereignty, Statehood and State Responsibility</i> (Cambridge
University Press, 2015).<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn15" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-08-26.docx#_ednref15" name="_edn15" style="mso-endnote-id: edn15;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[15]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a>
Vincent Bevins, <i>The Jakarta
Method: Washington’s Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program that
Shaped Our World</i> (Hachette Book Group, 2020).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn16" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-08-26.docx#_ednref16" name="_edn16" style="mso-endnote-id: edn16;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[16]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Jihan Al-Tahri
(director), <i>Cuba: An African Odyssey (Part 2)</i>, <i>Temps-noir-Big Sister</i>,
37:40~. Fidel Castro in 1975: “It is obvious that [US President] Ford’s
declarations show how annoyed the capitalists are with us. Why are they so
annoyed? Because they had planned to seize control in Angola before November
11th. Angola is rich in natural resources. Cabinda has large oil reserves. <a name="_Hlk112187256">Some imperialists ask why we’re helping the Angolans, what
our interest is. They assume that countries only act out of a desire for
petrol, copper, diamonds, or some other resource. No. We have no material
interest. Of course, the imperialists don’t understand this. They would only do
it for jingoistic, selfish reasons. We are fulfilling an elementary
internationalist duty in helping the people of Angola.</a>”</span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn17" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-08-26.docx#_ednref17" name="_edn17" style="mso-endnote-id: edn17;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[17]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a>
<span style="line-height: 107%;">Maximilian
Forte, “</span><a href="https://zeroanthropology.net/2014/12/30/democracy-in-cuba-and-at-home/"><span style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Part
1: ‘Democracy in Cuba and at Home</span></a><span style="line-height: 107%;">,’” <i>Zero
Anthropology</i>, December 30, 2014. See also “</span><a href="https://zeroanthropology.net/2014/12/30/the-real-world-of-democracy-and-anthropology/"><span style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Part
2: ‘The Real World of Democracy (and Anthropology)</span></a><span style="line-height: 107%;">.’”
<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn18" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/denni/Documents/01-RADIANT/possibles%20fuse/possible%20fuse-2022/blog-2022-08-26.docx#_ednref18" name="_edn18" style="mso-endnote-id: edn18;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Yu Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[18]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a>
<span style="line-height: 107%;">Gerald
R. Ford, “</span><a href="https://books.google.co.jp/books?id=SILVAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA1031&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false"><span style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Public
Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Gerald R. Ford</span></a></span><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">,”
1975, 1030–31.</span><span style="font-family: Open Sans, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><o:p> </o:p></p>
</div>
</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7464222263572816025.post-26451964674432462142022-08-20T23:10:00.003+09:002022-08-23T15:19:58.664+09:00Testimony of Dr. Richard M. Fleming on the SARS-COV2 Pandemic<p><span face=""Open Sans", sans-serif">Qualifications: MD, specializing in nuclear
cardiology, cardiology, internal medicine, member of the American College of
Physicians and the American Society of Internal Medicine, PhD Physics, Law
Degree (JD), patent holder and inventor of medical imaging technologies, author
of 400-500 medical papers, member of editorial and review boards of medical
journals.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Recent book<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Dr. Richard M. Fleming, <i>Is COVID-19 a
Bioweapon?: A Scientific and Forensic Investigation</i> (Skyhorse, Children’s
Health Defense, 2021)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Publisher’s description<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">In 2020, Dr. Richard M. Fleming began
investigating SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19. Using both his “Inflammation” Theory and
Patent (FMTVDM; the first method capable of measuring regional blood flow and
metabolic changes occurring inside the body, which makes it possible to
accurately determine what is happening inside the body as well as whether
treatments prescribed for patients are working or not), he investigated COVID
treatments. Simultaneously he began investigating the origins of COVID-19. This
book details much of what he has found. By 1999, US Federal Agencies began
funding Gain-of-Function research. Research that by its very nature is designed
to increase the ability of pathogens to infect and harm people. In 2019, one of
those pathogens was intentionally released upon the world in the Wuhan Wet
Market. The key to proving and understanding this bioweapon is its spike
protein. The very same spike protein is now being made in millions of people
after the COVID vaccines are injected into them. These vaccines are nothing
more than the genetic code of this bioweapon. This book traces the publication
and money trail of COVID-19, showing who is ultimately criminally responsible
for the design and development of this weapon, which violates the Biological
Weapons Convention (BWC) Treaty, exposing those who have committed crimes
against humanity. Dr. Fleming will reveal the ultimate conspiracy: one that
puts the future of the entire world at stake.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwIbGRs8CmIEB7ePbfvLkWQEmWRov2fa4aaWDsIwjAztF7VMeovB5zgOYIFvWeIYF3itHy_0rkrKijdIDofwTtHb7enF-Fh6vSGZdHTmbZLVD5QO8bCMsG6hIFQtVD_3zllDmTzNQRq4AI3aITk0490FpKOopn99UDjohp2n5UQBvgZKb2ny02WzbG/s738/Fleming-Bioweapon.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="738" data-original-width="502" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwIbGRs8CmIEB7ePbfvLkWQEmWRov2fa4aaWDsIwjAztF7VMeovB5zgOYIFvWeIYF3itHy_0rkrKijdIDofwTtHb7enF-Fh6vSGZdHTmbZLVD5QO8bCMsG6hIFQtVD_3zllDmTzNQRq4AI3aITk0490FpKOopn99UDjohp2n5UQBvgZKb2ny02WzbG/s320/Fleming-Bioweapon.jpg" width="218" /></a></div><br /><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://www.bitchute.com/video/T09RMWSKMIaD/"><b><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Interview,
March 2022</span></b></a><b><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> (54 minutes). Partial transcript
follows notes.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Interview highlights/notes<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Mass vaccination and the focus of the
vaccines on the original SARS-COV2 variant’s spike protein have caused pressure
selection of the variants that have arisen since the vaccination program began.
Mutations that could elude the coverage of the vaccine became the dominant
variants. This is one reason why vaccinated people have trouble mounting a
strong immune response to the new variants. Vaccines based on the original
variants are not useful.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">There are HIV glycoprotein 120 and other
protein sequences found on SARS-COV2 that strongly indicate they were spliced
in by humans because they aren’t found in any other coronaviruses in the wild.
The chance of this many sequences being inserted naturally is extremely remote.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">There are published scientific papers in
which the author boasts about splicing in HIV gp120 into a coronavirus from
bats.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">There was a cover up of the lab origins of
virus. At first it was dismissed as a conspiracy theory, then it was admitted
as a possibility that should be investigated.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Anthony Fauci lied about the
gain-of-function work he was funding via Ecohealth.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The vaccines aren’t safe or effective. The
makers of the vaccines emphasized relative risk reduction, but the important
metric—the absolute risk reduction—was only around 1% at best for all three
manufacturers. This was not statistically significant.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The vaccines/synthetic mRNA cause damage to
red blood cells’ ability to carry oxygen and carbon dioxide by interfering with
the hemoglobin protein structure.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The vaccines suppress the innate immune
response (interferon 1) and helper T-cells, impairing the body’s ability to
produce antibodies to viruses.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The usual way to make a vaccine is to make
a weakened version of the entire virus. This gives the immune system a way to build
antibodies for the real virus when it is encountered. The mRNA treatments
induce the body to produce the spike protein, which is only a small part of the
SARS-COV2 virus.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Due the highly engineered nature of the
spike protein, it is a bioweapon, and the vaccines are delivering it into
cells. Therefore, the vaccines are also a bioweapon.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The FDA stated, “We won’t know what it does
to our children until we give it to our children.” This is criminal and
violates medical ethics as well as Nuremberg Code and Helsinki agreements on
human experimentation.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The US adverse events reporting system has
no medical codes for medical staff to use to submit reports of covid vaccine
injuries. All other vaccines have these codes, allowing for more efficient
reporting. The reporting system is also designed in such a way as to dissuade
medical staff from taking the necessary time to register reports. People who
call in are put on hold or referred to another number, then put on hold. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">In the 1970s, the use of the swine flu
vaccine was cancelled after 25 deaths had been reported. During the present
mass vaccination campaign, the acknowledged harms have been much higher, but
they have been deemed acceptable.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">These vaccines have done nothing to end the
pandemic and they need to be stopped. Mass vaccination was followed by massive
increases in rates of infection.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">There was no data in 2020 and 2021 to show
lockdowns slowed the spread of the SARS-COV2 virus.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The vaccines cause the body to produce
massive amounts of spike protein, much more than the body would be exposed to
during an infection by the virus. This is an acute problem for young people
because their immune systems detect a massive assault and are capable of
mounting a harmful massive response.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The people behind the gain-of-function
research, the vaccination program, and the entire response to the virus have
violated:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The Biological Weapons
Convention Treaty<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The Nuremberg Code<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The International Covenant
of Civil and Political Rights<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The American Medical
Association Code of Ethics<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The US Constitution which
states that treaties are the highest law of the land. If a government official
violates a treaty that the US government has ratified, that person has violated
the constitution that he or she has sworn to defend.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Transcript of the conclusion of the
interview<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">46:10: What we have seen is that two of the
critical steps for your immune system, the production of interferon—which means
it interferes with the replication of the virus—and T-helper T-cells, which are
critical for helping to make antibodies, those are all suppressed [by the
vaccine]... T-helper T-cells have three components that actually have to match
up with the B-cells that make antibodies. Only when all three of those match up
does a signal get sent to your antibody system—what’s called the adaptive
humeral antibody system—to make antibodies of a specific type targeting a
specific infection and to keep memory cells for that. Now in the absence of
those T-helper T-cells being produced like they should be, that system, even
though it exists, is going to be blunted. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">47:20: The fact that the spike protein is a
gain-of-function developed virus [component], which by definition is a
bioweapon, replicating that same genetic sequence and putting it into a
vaccine--it doesn’t matter how you get it into the human body--it’s still a
bioweapon.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">47:40: Most alarmingly, for the children
right now, you have people at an FDA meeting making a statement that we need to
vaccinate the children, but we won’t know what happens until we vaccinate them.
That’s the experimental phase of a research project. As of 1947 [because of the
Nuremberg Code], I thought that we had, officially [renounced such
experiments], though it’s very clear from the Tuskegee Airmen and other studies
that have been paid for by the US government, that it seems like our leaders
don’t have a problem experimenting on our elderly, on our police officers, on
our first responders, on our doctors and nurses, on our general public, and
now, apparently, they don’t have a problem experimenting on our children.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">48:44: When you’re doing something in
medicine or in science of any sort, and there is a bad outcome, you quit doing
it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">49:05: All the evidence shows that there is
no statistical benefit to using these vaccines. The mass vaccination has caused
pressure selection of these variants. It has produced significant adverse
effects in the people it has been given to. The FDA has admitted during it EUA
documents for children that we won’t know what it does to our children until we
experiment on our children. It’s very clear. These vaccines have done nothing
to solve the problem. They need to be stopped. The companies need to be held
legally accountable. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The questions about all these codes and
treaties, that we claim that we honor but are being abused, needs to be
addressed. The gain-of-function research needs to be stopped at least until it
can be done under some type of control where it actually provides a benefit for
humanity without a harm. We need to hold accountable the people responsible for
doing this. They have violated the Biological Weapons Convention Treaty. They
have violated the Nuremberg Code. They have violated the International Covenant
on Civil and Political Rights. They have violated the American Medical
Association Code of Ethics, which may not be a criminal act, but it’s the way I
thought we were practicing medicine or were supposed to practice medicine.
There comes a time for people to be held accountable for things that they do...
[There are] two decades of gain-of-function of function research, all focused
on increasing the infectivity of this virus with consequences that are very
clear around the world. We took procedures in 2020 and 2021 that make no
scientific sense. There is no data to show that the quarantining of citizens
around the world stopped this virus. If there is, explain to me why in 2021
this virus was endemic. It didn’t stop it. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Physicians abandoned the practice of
medicine for a variety of reasons. Some of them might have literally thought
they were doing the right thing. Many of them did it because they were told
there were no treatments. And who told them that? Agencies of the federal
government? The federal government run by Fauci, Collins and other people?
Those agencies don’t practice medicine. You don’t call them when you go to the
hospital. Your physician practices medicine. That’s the person you see who
takes care of you. We have interfered with the practice of medicine. We have
interfered with physicians feeling like they could practice medicine.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">For the physicians who haven’t bothered to
measure treatment outcomes but are espousing a number of drugs, I encourage
them to get quantified, measured data to see whether they work or they don’t
work, but at least they are trying something, which is kind of what we always
used to do before we figured it out. I was there when HIV hit the scene. We
didn’t know what we were doing. So we worked. We winged it. We treated
symptoms. When patients were short of breath, we gave them breathing treatments.
In 2019, we quit giving breathing treatments to people short of breath, even if
they were wheezing because, well, “there was no treatment”, right? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">All the things that we did in science and
medicine were thrown out the window. We locked down society. We put fear into
everybody’s heart. We told people to quit believing people who might tell you
something different. We quit challenging the scientific paradigm. In science,
we are always debating. Anybody who thinks that physicians and scientists are a
jolly group of people that are constantly agreeing with each other? No,
scientific debate is had constantly. Physicians will frequently talk among
themselves and debate what should or shouldn’t be done. That’s a free exchange
of ideas. That hasn’t been done. The Texas Medical Association, health
authorities, the governor, the attorney general—all of these people should be
looking at why this happened to make sure that Texans are taken care of and
other people in the country have an opportunity to follow them. It needs to be
fully accountable for the people that caused this chaos, this mayhem, to begin
with, to stop it from occurring again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Other interviews with Dr. Fleming<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://www.expandingawarenessrelations.com/dr-richard-fleming-interview-with-mike-adams-the-vaccines-are-the-bioweapon-full-transcript/"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">With
Mike Adams</span></a><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://passionatelylovingjesus.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Mercola-Fleming-COVID19-Bioweapon-Transcript.pdf"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">With
Dr. Mercola</span></a><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Internet searches for more information
about Dr. Fleming will lead to reports of his conviction several years ago for
filing fraudulent medical bills. To his critics, this seems to be reason enough
to dismiss him as a critic of the federal government. However, there is reason
to believe that his prosecution resulted from other problems he was bringing to
light and that he was subjected to a malicious fishing expedition to find
something--anything--that was proof of some error, intentional or accidental,
in his history of billing the government for medical services. One may wonder
if there is any doctor who could emerge clean from an investigation that was
determined to find any mistake. Medicare billing has been a massively
fraudulent and systemic practice in the United States. See, for example, Atul
Gawande, “</span><a href="http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/05/11/overkill-atul-gawande?intcid=mod-most-popular"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">An
avalanche of unnecessary medical care is harming patients physically and
financially. What can we do about it?</span></a><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">“ <i>New Yorker
Magazine</i>, May 11, 2015.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b>List of adverse reactions to the various gene therapies
deployed against the SARS-COV2 virus<o:p></o:p></b></p><p class="MsoNormal">
</p><p class="MsoNormal">Myocardial infarction, myocarditis, stroke, blood clots, headaches,
tinnitus, Bell’s Palsy, Guillain-Barré Syndrome, transverse myelitis, heavy bleeding,
menstrual irregularities, miscarriage, neurological symptoms, skin rash, headaches,
memory loss, “brain fog,” pain, death<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Final question for discussion<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Open Sans",sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Did the bioweapon come into existence
through the same rationale used for the hydrogen bomb in the early 1950s? The
development of that weapon also violated numerous international treaties. The
testing of hydrogen bombs was a crime against humanity. The decision to develop
the hydrogen bomb was made in secret, without the citizens of the world ever
being consulted or given a say in the matter. The people who wanted to make it
knew that it was too horrible to ever be used as a weapon, and they were
confident they could contain its power, but they justified its development by
saying they had to know if it was possible. If the enemy ever made it, we would
have to have our own capability in order to deter that enemy from using it
against us. The nuclear security mindset paved the way for the biosecurity
state.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7464222263572816025.post-10196630121227114992022-08-18T10:12:00.004+09:002022-08-18T10:26:29.973+09:00Past visions of the present future: Jacques Attali in 1981 on the future of medical care<p> <b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Jacques Attali, interviewed by
Michel Salomon in <i>L’Avenir de la vie</i> (Seghers, 1981), 264-279</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Book discussed: Jacques Attali, <i>L’ordre
cannibale : Vie et mort de la médecine</i> (Grasset, 1979, 1996)<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Introduction<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">In this time of upheaval in which
medical science is at the eye of the storm, it can be instructive to look back
at futurists of the past to see what we missed in their warnings about the
brave new world that is upon us. A few weeks ago, I read a Telegram channel
that posted a few short quotations from a 1981 interview with Jacques Attali. I
tried to find the original source to confirm their authenticity, but it was out
of print and not digitized in any format. Amazon France listed the out-of-print
book <i>(L’Avenir de la vie</i>) even though no copies were available. It
turned out that the interview had generated a great controversy at the time it
appeared, and one commenter had posted images of the relevant fifteen pages
from the book. The French public had mistaken Attali’s description for
prescription, and he subsequently won defamation lawsuits against people who
had misrepresented his views.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I obtained the images posted on
Amazon France and set about slowly transcribing and translating the interview.
For whatever it is worth, readers can now access the interview below, in French
and English, and ascertain for themselves whether it helps them perceive the
future that was perceived by Jacques Attali forty years ago.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Highlights (2,000 words)<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The productivity of machine
production is growing faster than the relative productivity of consumer
production. This contradiction will be overcome by a transformation of the
health and education systems towards their commodification and
industrialization… <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">… the doctor is largely replaced by
prostheses whose role is to restore a function of the body, or to replace it… <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Throughout the nineteenth century,
with the new surveillance, which was hygiene, the new solution, the new
separation, was done by the doctor-surgeon, and we saw the policeman and the
priest disappear behind the doctor.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">… there is a loss of credibility for
the doctor. We have much more confidence in the quantified data than in the
doctor…<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I believe that the important thing
in life will no longer be to work but to be in a position to consume, to be a
consumer among other consuming machines… <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">This theoretical discourse is only
useful if it stops the foreseen future from happening. We will only avoid being
cannibals by ceasing to become so. I believe that the main thing for a theory
to be false is not that it is refutable but that it is refuted. The truth is
not the refutable, but the refuted…<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">… there is a choice between three
attitudes: either to maintain, or to maintain medical practice as it has been,
or to accept change and make it the best possible, with greater equality of
access to prostheses, or a third change in which the reference to evil is
thought of in a new way, which is neither that of the present or the past. It
would be an attitude close to the acceptance of death, so as to make people
more aware that the important thing is neither to forget, nor to delay, nor to
wait for death, but on the contrary to want life to be as free as possible.
Thus, I think that little by little, we will be polarized around these three
types of solutions, and I want to show that, in my opinion, the last one is
truly humane…<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Utopia can have two different
characteristics depending on whether we speak of utopia as an absolute dream,
thus the dream of eternity, or whether we refer to the etymology of the word.
In this sense it means to pursue what has never taken place, and we then try to
see what kind of utopia is possible… <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I find this fascination with anxiety
medications frightening—the search for anything that can eliminate anxiety—but
it is the pursuit of a commodity rather than a way of life. We are trying to
provide ways to make anxiety tolerable with no effort to create a society
without anxiety… <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Second, all the medicines of the
future that are related to behavior control can have a major political impact.
It would indeed be possible to reconcile parliamentary democracy with
totalitarianism since it would suffice to maintain all the formal rules of
parliamentary democracy but at the same time to generalize the use of these
products so that totalitarianism is a part of everyday life…<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I think we must distinguish very
clearly two kinds of men of the twenty-first century; that is to say the man of
the twenty-first century of the rich countries and the man of the twenty-first
century of the poor countries. The first will certainly be a man much more
anxious than today but who will find his answer to the evil of living in a
passive avoidance, in the anti-pain and anti-anxiety machines, in the drugs,
and who will try at all costs to live a kind of commercialized form of
conviviality…<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">But besides that, I am convinced
that the vast majority, who will be aware of these machines and the way of life
of the rich but who will not have access to them, will be extraordinarily
aggressive and violent. It is from this distortion that great chaos can result
either in racial wars, conquests, or in immigration. Millions of people will
want to share our way of life…<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I believe that genetic engineering
will become in the next twenty years as banal a technique, as well known and
also present in everyday life, as the internal combustion engine is today… <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">With the internal combustion engine
we could have made two choices: either favor public transport and make people’s
lives easier, or produce automobiles, tools of aggression, consumption,
individualization, loneliness, hoarding, desire, rivalry... We chose the second
way. I believe that with genetic engineering we have the same type of choice
and I believe that we will also, alas, choose the second solution. In other
words, with genetic engineering we could gradually create the conditions for
humanity living freely, but collectively, or we could create the conditions for
a new commodity, genetic this time, which would amount to copies of men sold to
men, chimeras or hybrids used as slaves, robots, means of work…<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">in the very logic of the industrial
system in which we find ourselves, the extension of longevity is no longer an
objective desired by the logic of power. Why? Because as long as it was a
question of extending life expectancy in order to reach the maximum break-even
point of the human machine, in terms of work, it was perfect. But as soon as we
live past 60 or 65 years, man lives longer than he produces, and he then costs
society dearly. Hence, I believe that in the very logic of industrial society,
the objective will no longer be to extend life expectancy, but to ensure that
within a fixed lifespan, people live as well as possible but in such a way that
health expenditure will be as low as possible in terms of costs for the
community. Then a new criterion of life expectancy will appear; that of the
value of a health system, a function not of the increase in life expectancy but
of the number of years without disease and particularly without
hospitalization. Indeed, from the point of view of society, it is much better
for the human machine to stop abruptly rather than gradually deteriorate. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">health expenditure would not reach a
third of the current level (175 billion francs in 1979) if all deaths occurred
suddenly in car accidents… <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">… increasing the lifespan remains a
fantasy that corresponds to two objectives: the first is that of people in
power. The increasingly totalitarian and top-down societies in which we find
ourselves tend to be run by “old” men. They have become gerontocracies. The
second reason lies in the possibility for capitalist society to make old age
economically profitable simply by making the old solvent. It is currently a
“market”, but it is not solvent…<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">This is entirely in line with the
view that man, today, is no longer important as a worker but as a consumer
(because he is replaced by machines in work). Therefore, we could accept the
idea of increasing life expectancy provided that we make the old solvent and
thus create a market. We can see very well how today’s big pharmaceutical
companies behave, in relatively egalitarian countries, where at least the way
in which retirement is financed is correct: they favor geriatrics, to the
detriment of other areas of research such as tropical diseases… <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">For my part, as a socialist, I am
objectively against increasing longevity because it is a distraction, a false
problem. I believe that focusing on this type of problem avoids more essential
questions such as that of the liberation of the time actually lived in the
present life. What is the point of living to a hundred years, if we gain 20
more years of life in a dictatorship? …<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Euthanasia will be one of the
essential instruments of our future societies in all cases. In a socialist
logic, to begin with, the problem arises as follows: the socialist logic is
freedom, and a fundamental freedom is the freedom to choose suicide.
Consequently, the right to direct or indirect suicide is therefore an absolute
value in this type of society. In a capitalist society, killing machines,
prostheses which will make it possible to eliminate life when it is too
unbearable, or economically too expensive, will emerge and will be put into
common practice. I therefore think that euthanasia, whether it is a value of
freedom or a commodity, will be one of the features of future society…<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The worst drug is the absence of
culture. Individuals want drugs because they have no culture. Why do they seek
alienation through drugs? Because they have become aware of their powerlessness
to live, and this powerlessness translates concretely into the total rejection
of life…<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">An optimistic bet on man would be to
say that if man had culture, in the sense of the tools of thought, he could
avoid false and impotent solutions. So to take evil at its root is to give men
a formidable instrument of subversion and creativity…<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I do not believe that the
prohibition of drugs would be enough because if you do not attack a problem at
its root, you inevitably fall into the trap of policing the problem, and that
is worse… <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">It seems to me that, in the second
step, and for economic reasons, a certain number of electronic means will be
put in place, which will be either methods of pain control (biofeedback, etc.)
or a computer system of psychoanalytic dialogue…<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">This evolution will have the
consequence of leading to what I call the explanation of normal; that is,
electronic means will make it possible to precisely define what is normal and
quantify social behavior. The latter will become economically consumable since
there will be the means and criteria for compliance with standards. In the long
run, when disease is defeated, we are tempted to conform, to choose the
“biological normal” that conditions the functioning of an absolute social organization…<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Medical care is indicative of a
society that is now moving towards a centralized totalitarianism. There is
already a certain conscious or unconscious desire to conform as much as
possible to social norms…<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Following the logic of my general
reasoning, we do not see why procreation would not become a commodity like any
other. One can perfectly imagine that the family or the woman are only one of
the means of production of a particular object, the child…<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">If, for economic reasons, a family
does not wish to have more than two children, this attitude is clearly contrary
to the interests of the family and of society. The only way to resolve this
contradiction is to imagine that society could buy children from a family that
would be paid in return. I am not thinking of family allowances, which are weak
incentives. A family would agree to have many children if the State guaranteed
them substantial progressive allowances on the one hand and full care for the
material life of each child on the other. In this scheme, the child will become
a kind of currency of exchange in the relations between the individual and the
community…<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">What I am saying here is not on my
part a kind of complacency in the face of what seems inevitable. This is a
warning. I believe that this world that is forming will be so awful that it
signifies the death of mankind. So we have to be prepared to resist it, and it
seems to me today that the best way to avoid the worst is to understand this
and to accept the fight… <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Democracy has a duty to adapt to
technical developments. Old constitutions confronted with new technologies can
lead to totalitarian systems…<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The appearance on the market of
individualized items of self-monitoring and self-control will create the
preventive spirit. People will adapt in such a way as to conform to the
criteria of normality. Prevention will no longer be coercive because it will be
desired by people. But we should not lose sight of the fact that the most
important thing is not technological progress but the highest form of exchange
between people that culture represents. The form of society that unfolds
depends on the ability to master technical progress. Will we dominate it, or
will we be dominated by it? That is the question.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgemPg-ZQGq1xQvJiVkcZyZ1qh2nUN2I4FVuE7nlyDPDhEZEIZU-WmZ_xExwA4tamXDJg3SoVK-pYax_uJPq31z1ISF00y2r7hEmNUow_irQxxULl0sy2uavy6mltAxMJbeZ88xjpmAig61VCvDgmMWQjQ7U6Dn3hYjhJxfesz5VuWKaFmPcnzh7OQd/s499/Attali-Ordre%20Cannibal.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="299" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgemPg-ZQGq1xQvJiVkcZyZ1qh2nUN2I4FVuE7nlyDPDhEZEIZU-WmZ_xExwA4tamXDJg3SoVK-pYax_uJPq31z1ISF00y2r7hEmNUow_irQxxULl0sy2uavy6mltAxMJbeZ88xjpmAig61VCvDgmMWQjQ7U6Dn3hYjhJxfesz5VuWKaFmPcnzh7OQd/s320/Attali-Ordre%20Cannibal.jpg" width="192" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">FULL INTERVIEW (5,600 words)<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">(Texte français après l’anglais)<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Jacques Attali, interviewed by Michel
Salomon in <i>L’Avenir de la vie</i> (Seghers, 1981), 264-279<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Book discussed: Jacques Attali, <i>L’ordre
cannibale : Vie et mort de la médecine</i> (Grasset, 1979, 1996)</span></b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">“<i>Ein Wunderkind</i>” as the
Germans would say, a child prodigy. At less than forty years old [in 1981],
Jacques Attali is an economist of international reputation, a teacher, a highly
respected political advisor to the Socialist Party and a versatile writer,
author not only of theoretical works in his discipline, but of remarkable
essays in fields as varied as politics, music and, recently, medicine. The book
he published in the autumn of 1979, <i>The Cannibal Order or the Power and
Decline of Medicine</i>, revived the debate in France, not only on the validity
of medical care but on all existential problems, from birth to death, which
underlies the organization of the health care system in the West.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">What makes Attali tick?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">For those who are his friends, so
much energy deployed in so many directions is baffling. For those who are his
enemies—and he has many, less because of his kind, endearing personality, than
because of his political choices—this gifted man is suspect. Rooted in a terrain
of reason, of moderation, of “happy medium”, – the middle of what exactly? –
the French establishment has always been wary of intellectuals who trample its
gardens “à la française”. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Jacques Attali undoubtedly disturbs,
with his excesses, his outrageousness, his permanent and feverish questioning.
But in these times of crisis, don’t we need to be more “worried” than
reassured? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">MICHEL SALOMON (MS): Why is an
economist so passionately interested in medicine, and in health?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">JACQUES ATTALI (JA): I have seen in
studying the general economic problems of Western society, and health costs are
one of the essential factors of the economic crisis. The production and
maintenance of consumers is expensive, even more expensive than the production
of goods themselves. People are produced by services that they render to each
other, especially in the field of health, whose economic productivity does not
increase very quickly. The productivity of machine production is growing faster
than the relative productivity of consumer production. This contradiction will
be overcome by a transformation of the health and education systems towards
their commodification and industrialization. Anyone who analyzes economic
history realizes that our society is increasingly transforming industrial activities
and that an increasing number of services rendered by people to people are
becoming more and more objects that are produced in machines.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Addressing these two questions leads
us to ask if health care can also be produced by machines that would replace
the activity of the doctor?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">MS: This question seems a bit
academic, theoretical... <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">JA: Certainly, it may reflect the
current crisis. If health care, like education, were to be mass-produced, the
economic crisis would be quickly resolved. This is a bit like the point of view
of the astronomer who would say, “If my reasoning is good, there should be a
star there.” If this reasoning is correct, and if our society is coherent,
logic leads to this: as other functions were eaten, in the earlier phases of
the crisis, by the industrial apparatus, health care becomes a mass-produced
activity, which leads to the metaphor.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The latter means that the doctor is
largely replaced by prostheses whose role is to restore a function of the body,
or to replace it. If the prosthesis tries to do the same thing as the body, it functions
as the organs of the body do, and therefore it becomes a copy of organs of the
body or functions of the body. Such objects would therefore be prostheses to be
consumed. In economic language the problem is clear: it is that of cannibalism.
We consume the body.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">So from the metaphor (and I always
thought it was the source of knowledge) I asked myself two questions:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Is cannibalism close to being therapeutic?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Is there something invariant in the
different social structures which would make an axiomatized cannibalism,
emanating from the way it was lived, and reduced to operators, in the mathematical
sense, that would be found in the therapeutic approach? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Firstly, cannibalism seems to be
broadly explained as a therapeutic and foundational strategy. Secondly, it
seems that all healing strategies in relation to disease contain a series of
operations done by the body itself but also done by cannibalism and that we
find in all these strategies: selecting signs that we will observe, monitoring
it to see if they are doing well or not, denouncing what will break the order
of these signs, what is called Evil: negotiating with Evil, and separating
Evil. All healing systems have thus employed these same operations: selection
of signs, denunciation of evil, surveillance, negotiation, separation. These
different operations are also part of a political strategy: select signs to
observe, observe them to see if everything is going well, denounce evil, the
scapegoat, the enemy, and keep it away. There is a very deep relationship
between the strategy towards individual evil, and the strategy towards social
evil. The various fundamental operations applied to different historical
periods, on different conceptions that one could have of disease, evil, power,
death, life, and therefore of the one who must fulfill the function of
designating evil, of separation… In other words, there are the same operations,
the same roles, but it is not the same actors who play the roles. And the plays
are not performed at the same time.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">MS: By founding a theory from
historical or mythical cannibalism... Your essay has upset and shocked not only
doctors but also those whom people in power must serve, in short, public
opinion.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">JA: This essay attempts three things:
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">First, an attempt to tell an
economic story of evil, the history of relationships to disease.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Secondly, to show that there are, in
a way, four dominant periods and therefore three major crises between which the
system shift is structured and that each shift affects not only the healer, but
also the very conception of life, death, and disease.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Thirdly, and finally, to show that these
shifts concern the signs and not the strategy, which remains that of
cannibalism, and that in fact, we start from cannibalism to return to it. In
short, we can interpret the whole of industrial history as a machine to
translate the original cannibalism, the first relation to evil, where people
eat people, into industrial cannibalism, where people become commodities that
eat goods. Industrial society functions as a dictionary with different stages
in translation: there are intermediate languages, in a way, four major
languages. There is the fundamental order, the cannibal order. It is the case
that the first gods that appear are cannibals and that in the myths that
follow, historically, the cannibal gods eat each other, then it becomes awful
for the gods to be cannibals.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">In all the myths I have studied, in
different civilizations, religion serves in a way to destroy cannibalism. For
cannibalism, evil is the souls of the dead. If I want to separate the soul of
the dead from the dead, I have to eat the body. For the best way to separate
the dead from their souls is to eat the bodies. So what is fundamental in
cannibal consumption is separation. This is what I wanted to get at: consumption
is separation. Cannibalism is a formidable therapeutic force of power. So why
doesn’t cannibalism work anymore? Well, because from the moment (we see it
clearly in the myths—and I give an interpretation of both Girard’s work on
violence and Freud’s work in <i>Totem and Taboo</i>, in which he sees the totem
and the totemic meal as founders, and the totemic meal disappears in sexuality)
when I say “eat the dead” this allows me to live, so... I am able to eat. So
cannibalism is healing, but it is, at the same time, a producer of violence.
And that’s how I try to interpret the transition to sexual prohibitions, always
the same as cannibalistic prohibitions. Because it is obvious that if I kill my
father, or my mother, or my children, I will prevent the production of the
group. And yet they are the ones who are the easiest to kill because they live
next to me. Sexual prohibitions are secondary prohibitions compared to food
prohibitions. Then, we ritualize. We stage cannibalism in a religious way. In a
way, we delegate. We represent. We stage. Religious civilization is a staging
of cannibalism. The signs we observe are those of the gods. Disease is
possession by the gods. The only diseases that can be observed and cured are
those of possession. Healing, finally, is the expulsion of evil, the evil
which, in this case, is the Evil One, that is, the gods. And the main healer is
the priest. There are always two healers permanently. There is the
whistleblower of evil and the separator, who will then be found under the names
of doctor and surgeon. The whistleblower of evil is the priest, and the
separator is the practitioner.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I try to tell, then, the story on
the one hand, that Christian ritualization is fundamentally cannibalistic. Luke’s
texts on “bread and wine” which are “the Body and Blood of Christ”, and which
if eaten give life, are cannibalistic texts, obviously therapeutic; there is a
medical reading, at the same time cannibalistic, of these books, which is
striking.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I then try to tell the story of the
Church’s relationship to healing, and to see that little by little, probably
around the twelfth century or thirteenth century, a new system of signs appeared.
We observe not only diseases coming from the gods, but also diseases coming
from the bodies of men. Why? Because the economy was beginning to become
organized. We were getting out of slavery. The dominant diseases were epidemics
that began to circulate like people and goods. The bodies of poor men carried
disease and there was a total unity between poverty (which did not exist before
because almost everyone was a slave or lord) and disease. Being poor or sick
meant the same thing in the thirteenth century. So the strategy towards the
poor in politics and that towards the sick were no different. When you were
poor, you got sick. When you were sick, you became poor. Disease and poverty did
not yet exist. What existed was to be poor and sick, and, the poor or sick
being designated, the right strategy was to separate them, to contain them, not
to heal them but to destroy them: this was called, in the French texts, to the
lock-in—confinement in Foucault’s theses. It occurred in many ways: quarantine,
the lazaret [the rear part of a ship’s hold], the hospital and, in England, the
workhouses. The laws regarding the poor and charity were not means of helping
people but of signifying them as such and containing them. Charity was nothing
but a form of denunciation.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">MS: The policeman became the
therapist instead of the priest.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">JA: That’s right. Religion withdrew
and took power elsewhere because it could not assume the power of healing any
longer. There were, of course, already doctors, but they only gave consolation,
and the proof for this is that political power, very curiously, did not yet
recognize the diplomas of doctors. Political power considered that its main
therapist was the policeman and not the doctors. Moreover, in Europe, at the
time, there was only one doctor per 100,000 inhabitants.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">In the third period it was no longer
possible to lock up the poor because there were too many of them. On the
contrary, they had to be held together because they became workers. They ceased
to be bodies and became machines. And the signs we see are those of machines.
Disease, evil, constituted the breakdown. Clinical language isolated and
objectified evil a little more. Evil was designated, separated, and expelled. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Throughout the nineteenth century,
with the new surveillance, which was hygiene, the new solution, the new
separation, was done by the doctor-surgeon, and we saw the policeman and the
priest disappear behind the doctor.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">MS: And today, it’s the doctor’s
turn to fall into the trap...<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">JA: Today, the crisis is threefold.
On the one hand, as in the previous period, the system can no longer ensure its
operation on its own. Today, in a way, medicine is largely unable to cure all
diseases because the costs are becoming too high.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">On the other hand, there is a loss
of credibility for the doctor. We have much more confidence in the quantified
data than in the doctor.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Finally, diseases or forms of
behavior appear that are no longer treatable by traditional medical practice.
These three characteristics lead to a kind of natural continuum that passes
from clinical medicine to prosthesis, and I tried to distinguish three phases
that interpenetrate in this transformation.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">In the first phase, the system tries
to last by monitoring its financial costs. But this will lead to the need to
monitor behavior and therefore to define norms of health and activities to
which the individual must submit. Thus appears the notion of optimum lifestyle
for efficiency in health expenditure.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">From then on, we move on to the
second phase which is that of the self-denunciation of evil thanks to the tools
of self-control of behavior. The individual can thus conform to the standard optimum
lifestyle and become free of disease.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The main criterion of behavior was,
in the first order, to give meaning to death, in the second order, to contain
death, in the third order, to increase life expectancy, in the fourth—the one
we are experiencing—is the search for a lifestyle that is efficient for health
expenditure.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The third phase consists of the
appearance of prostheses that make it possible to designate evil in an
industrial way. Thus, for example, electronic drugs such as a medication
coupled with a microcomputer make it possible to release into the body, at
regular intervals, substances that are elements of regulation.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">MS: In short, health, with the
appearance of these electronic prostheses, will be the new engine of industrial
expansion...<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">JA: Yes, in conclusion, all the
traditional concepts disappear—production, consumption. Life and death
disappear because the prosthesis blurs the moment of death.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I believe that the important thing in
life will no longer be to work but to be in a position to consume, to be a
consumer among other consuming machines. The dominant social science so far has
been machine science. Marx is a clinician because he points to evil, the
capitalist class, and he eliminates it. In a sense, he follows the same
discourse as Pasteur. The great dominant social science will be the science of
codes, computer science and then genetics. This book [<i>The Cannibal Order or
Power and Decline of Medicine</i>] is also a book about codes because I try to
show that there are successive codes: the religious code, the police code, the
thermodynamic code, and today the informational code and what is called
sociobiology.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">This theoretical discourse is only
useful if it stops the foreseen future from happening. We will only avoid being
cannibals by ceasing to become so. I believe that the main thing for a theory
to be false is not that it is refutable but that it is refuted. The truth is
not the refutable, but the refuted.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">MS: Does your thesis lead to a
concrete reflection on medicine, even in the long term? Are these the
beginnings of a concrete reflection of a politician and economist on the
organization of medicine?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>JA: I don’t know. For now, I do not want to
ask myself that question. I think the first thing I wanted to show, and only
this, is that healing is a process in full transformation towards an
organizational model that has nothing to do with the current one, and that there
is a choice between three attitudes: either to maintain, or to maintain medical
practice as it has been, or to accept change and make it the best possible,
with greater equality of access to prostheses, or a third change in which the
reference to evil is thought of in a new way, which is neither that of the
present or the past. It would be an attitude close to the acceptance of death,
so as to make people more aware that the important thing is neither to forget,
nor to delay, nor to wait for death, but on the contrary to want life to be as
free as possible. Thus, I think that little by little, we will be polarized around
these three types of solutions, and I want to show that, in my opinion, the
last one is truly humane.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">MS: It’s social utopia. It’s
sometimes dangerous to be utopian...<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">JA: Utopia can have two different
characteristics depending on whether we speak of utopia as an absolute dream,
thus the dream of eternity, or whether we refer to the etymology of the word. In
this sense it means to pursue what has never taken place, and we then try to
see what kind of utopia is possible. But I believe that if we want to
understand the problem of health, we must realize that there are plausible
utopias. The future is necessarily a utopia, and it is very important to
understand that it is not dangerous since to say that utopia means to accept
the idea that the future has nothing to do with the prolongation of current
trends.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I would even say all futures are
possible except one that would be the extension of the current situation.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">MS: Is the future this particular
prosthesis, all these drugs of the future—and the present—that help man to
better cope with his condition?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">JA: I find this fascination with
anxiety medications frightening—the search for anything that can eliminate
anxiety—but it is the pursuit of a commodity rather than a way of life. We are
trying to provide ways to make anxiety tolerable with no effort to create a
society without anxiety. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Second, all the medicines of the
future that are related to behavior control can have a major political impact. It
would indeed be possible to reconcile parliamentary democracy with
totalitarianism since it would suffice to maintain all the formal rules of
parliamentary democracy but at the same time to generalize the use of these
products so that totalitarianism is a part of everyday life.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">MS: Does this seem conceivable, an
Orwellian “1984” based on a pharmacology to control behavior?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">JA: I don’t see it as Orwellian
because that is a form of technical totalitarianism with a visible and
centralized “Big Brother.” Rather, I see implicit totalitarianism with an
invisible and decentralized “Big Brother.” These machines to monitor our
health, which we might say we have for our own good, will enslave us for our
good. In a way, we will undergo a gentle and permanent conditioning.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">MS: How do you see the man of the
twenty-first century?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">JA: I think we must distinguish very
clearly two kinds of men of the twenty-first century; that is to say the man of
the twenty-first century of the rich countries and the man of the twenty-first
century of the poor countries. The first will certainly be a man much more
anxious than today but who will find his answer to the evil of living in a
passive avoidance, in the anti-pain and anti-anxiety machines, in the drugs,
and who will try at all costs to live a kind of commercialized form of
conviviality.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">But besides that, I am convinced
that the vast majority, who will be aware of these machines and the way of life
of the rich but who will not have access to them, will be extraordinarily
aggressive and violent. It is from this distortion that great chaos can result
either in racial wars, conquests, or in immigration. Millions of people will
want to share our way of life.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">MS: Do you believe that genetic
engineering is one of the keys to our future?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">JA: I believe that genetic
engineering will become in the next twenty years as banal a technique, as well
known and also present in everyday life, as the internal combustion engine is
today. The same type of parallel can be drawn.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">With the internal combustion engine
we could have made two choices: either favor public transport and make people’s
lives easier, or produce automobiles, tools of aggression, consumption,
individualization, loneliness, hoarding, desire, rivalry... We chose the second
way. I believe that with genetic engineering we have the same type of choice
and I believe that we will also, alas, choose the second solution. In other
words, with genetic engineering we could gradually create the conditions for
humanity living freely, but collectively, or we could create the conditions for
a new commodity, genetic this time, which would amount to copies of men sold to
men, chimeras or hybrids used as slaves, robots, means of work.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">MS: Is it possible and desirable to
live 120 years?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">JA: Medically, I don’t know. I was
always told that it was possible. Is this desirable? I will answer in several
stages. First of all, I believe that in the very logic of the industrial system
in which we find ourselves, the extension of longevity is no longer an objective
desired by the logic of power. Why? Because as long as it was a question of
extending life expectancy in order to reach the maximum break-even point of the
human machine, in terms of work, it was perfect. But as soon as we live past 60
or 65 years, man lives longer than he produces, and he then costs society
dearly. Hence, I believe that in the very logic of industrial society, the
objective will no longer be to extend life expectancy, but to ensure that
within a fixed lifespan, people live as well as possible but in such a way that
health expenditure will be as low as possible in terms of costs for the
community. Then a new criterion of life expectancy will appear; that of the
value of a health system, a function not of the increase in life expectancy but
of the number of years without disease and particularly without
hospitalization. Indeed, from the point of view of society, it is much better
for the human machine to stop abruptly rather than gradually deteriorate. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">This is perfectly clear if we remember
that two-thirds of health spending is concentrated on the last months of life.
Similarly, cynicism aside, health expenditure would not reach accidents. Thus
it must be recognized that the logic no longer lies in the increase in life
expectancy but in that of the duration of life without disease. I think,
however, that increasing the lifespan remains a fantasy that corresponds to two
objectives: the first is that of people in power. The increasingly totalitarian
and top-down societies in which we find ourselves tend to be run by “old” men. They
have become gerontocracies. The second reason lies in the possibility for
capitalist society to make old age economically profitable simply by making the
old solvent. It is currently a “market”, but it is not solvent.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">This is entirely in line with the
view that man, today, is no longer important as a worker but as a consumer
(because he is replaced by machines in work). Therefore, we could accept the
idea of increasing life expectancy provided that we make the old solvent and
thus create a market. We can see very well how today’s big pharmaceutical
companies behave, in relatively egalitarian countries, where at least the way
in which retirement is financed is correct: they favor geriatrics, to the
detriment of other areas of research such as tropical diseases. It is therefore
a problem of retirement technology that determines the acceptability of the
lifespan.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">For my part, as a socialist, I am
objectively against increasing longevity because it is a distraction, a false
problem. I believe that focusing on this type of problem avoids more essential
questions such as that of the liberation of the time actually lived in the
present life. What is the point of living to a hundred years, if we gain 20 more
years of life in a dictatorship?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">MS: The world to come, “liberal” or
“socialist”, will need a “biological” morality, to create an ethic of cloning
or euthanasia for example.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">JA: Euthanasia will be one of the
essential instruments of our future societies in all cases. In a socialist
logic, to begin with, the problem arises as follows: the socialist logic is
freedom, and a fundamental freedom is the freedom to choose suicide. Consequently,
the right to direct or indirect suicide is therefore an absolute value in this
type of society. In a capitalist society, killing machines, prostheses which
will make it possible to eliminate life when it is too unbearable, or
economically too expensive, will emerge and will be put into common practice. I
therefore think that euthanasia, whether it is a value of freedom or a
commodity, will be one of the features of future society.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">MS: Won’t the men of tomorrow be
conditioned by psychotropic drugs and subjected to manipulations of the psyche?
How can people protect themselves?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">JA: The only precautions you can
take are related to knowledge. It is essential today to ban a very large number
of drugs, to stop the proliferation of drugs, but perhaps the frontier has
already been crossed. Isn’t television harmful drug? Hasn’t alcohol always been
a harmful drug? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The worst drug is the absence of
culture. Individuals want drugs because they have no culture. Why do they seek
alienation through drugs? Because they have become aware of their powerlessness
to live, and this powerlessness translates concretely into the total rejection
of life.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">An optimistic bet on man would be to
say that if man had culture, in the sense of the tools of thought, he could avoid
false and impotent solutions. So to take evil at its root is to give men a
formidable instrument of subversion and creativity.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I do not believe that the
prohibition of drugs would be enough because if you do not attack a problem at
its root, you inevitably fall into the trap of policing the problem, and that
is worse. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">MS: How are we going to deal with
mental illness in the future?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">JA: The problem of the evolution of treating
mental illness will be addressed in two stages. Initially, there will be even
more drugs, psychotropic drugs that correspond to a real progress, over the
past 30 years, in mental health care.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">It seems to me that, in the second
step, and for economic reasons, a certain number of electronic means will be put
in place, which will be either methods of pain control (biofeedback, etc.) or a
computer system of psychoanalytic dialogue.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">This evolution will have the
consequence of leading to what I call the explanation of normal; that is,
electronic means will make it possible to precisely define what is normal and
quantify social behavior. The latter will become economically consumable since
there will be the means and criteria for compliance with standards. In the long
run, when disease is defeated, we are tempted to conform, to choose the
“biological normal” that conditions the functioning of an absolute social
organization.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Medical care is indicative of a
society that is now moving towards a centralized totalitarianism. There is
already a certain conscious or unconscious desire to conform as much as
possible to social norms.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">MS: Do you see this forced
normalization governing all areas of life, including sexuality, since science
today allows the almost total dissociation of sexuality and conception?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">JA: From an economic point of view,
there are two reasons that lead me to think that we will go very far.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The first concerns the fact that the
production of people is not yet a market like any other. Following the logic of
my general reasoning, we do not see why procreation would not become commodity
like any other. One can perfectly imagine that the family or the woman are only
one of the means of production of a particular object, the child.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">We can, in a way, imagine a “rental
matrix” that is already technically possible. This idea corresponds entirely to
an economic evolution in the sense that the woman or the couple will be part of
the division of labor and general production. Thus it will be possible to buy
children as one buys peanuts or a television set. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">A second important reason related to
the first could explain this new family order. If, from an economic point of
view, the child is a commodity like any other, society also considers it so,
but for social reasons. Indeed, the survival of communities depends on a
sufficient demographic balance for its survival. If, for economic reasons, a
family does not wish to have more than two children, this attitude is clearly
contrary to the interests of the family and of society. The only way to resolve
this contradiction is to imagine that society could buy children from a family
that would be paid in return. I am not thinking of family allowances, which are
weak incentives. A family would agree to have many children if the State
guaranteed them substantial progressive allowances on the one hand and full
care for the material life of each child on the other. In this scheme, the
child will become a kind of currency of exchange in the relations between the
individual and the community.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">What I am saying here is not on my
part a kind of complacency in the face of what seems inevitable. This is a
warning. I believe that this world that is forming will be so awful that it
signifies the death of mankind. So we have to be prepared to resist it, and it
seems to me today that the best way to avoid the worst is to understand this
and to accept the fight. That’s why I pursue my reasoning to its end...<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">MS: Resist what, since you tell us
about an inevitable universe of prostheses?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">JA: The prostheses I see coming are
not mechanical but are means of fighting against chronic conditions related to
the phenomenon of tissue degeneration. Cell engineering, genetic engineering
and cloning are paving the way for these prostheses which will be regenerated
organs replacing failing organs.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">MS: The increasing penetration of technology
in society calls for an ethical reflection. Is there not an underlying threat
to human freedom?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">JA: It is clear that the discourse
on prevention, the economics of health, good medical practice, will lead to the
need for each individual to have a medical record that will be put in digital
storage. For epidemiological reasons, all these files will be centralized in a
computer to which doctors will have access. The question arises: will the
police be able to have access to these files? I note frankly that Sweden today
has this kind of sophisticated system, and Sweden is not known as a
dictatorship. Faced with new threats, let us know how to create a new rampart with
new procedures. Democracy has a duty to adapt to technical developments. Old
constitutions confronted with new technologies can lead to totalitarian
systems.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">MS: One of the most common projections
about the future predicts that humans will be able to exert biological control
over their own bodies, among other things, thanks to microprocessors.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">JA: This control already exists for
the heart through the pacemakers, and also for the pancreas. It should extend
to other areas such as pain. There are plans to develop small implants in the
body capable of releasing hormones and active substances into target organs. If
the aim is to prolong life, this progress is inevitable.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">MS: It seems that we are leaving the
era of physics and entering the era of biology, close to a panbiology. Is that
your opinion?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">JA: I think we’re moving out of an
energy-controlled universe into the information universe. If matter is energy,
life is information. This is why the major producer of tomorrow’s society will
be living matter. Thanks in particular to genetic engineering, it will produce
new therapeutic weapons, food, and energy. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">MS: What is the future of medical
practice and medical power?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">JA: In a rather brutal way, I would
say that just as the washerwomen have faded behind the advertising images of
washing machines, the doctors integrated into the industrial system will become
the background foils of biological prosthesis. The doctor we know will
disappear to make way for a new social category living in the prosthesis
industry. As with washing machines, there will be the creators, the sellers,
the installers, the repairers of prostheses. My words may be surprising, but
the main companies thinking about prostheses are the big car companies such as
Régie Renault, General Motors and Ford.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">MS: In other words, we will no
longer need medical therapists because the “normalization” will be done by a
kind of preventive medicine, self-managed or not, and in any case “controlled”.
Won’t it necessarily be coercive?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>JA: The appearance on the market of
individualized items of self-monitoring and self-control will create the
preventive spirit. People will adapt in such a way as to conform to the
criteria of normality. Prevention will no longer be coercive because it will be
desired by people. But we should not lose sight of the fact that the most
important thing is not technological progress but the highest form of exchange
between people that culture represents. The form of society that unfolds
depends on the ability to master technical progress. Will we dominate it, or
will we be dominated by it? That is the question.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">END<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Michel Salomon, <i>L’Avenir de la vie</i> (Seghers, 1981), 264-279<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Livre
discuté :<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Jacques Attali, <i>L’ordre cannibale : Vie et mort de la médecine</i>
(Grasset, 1979, 1996)<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">(264) « <i>Ein
Wunderkind</i> » diraient les Allemands, un enfant-prodige. A moins de
quarante ans, Jacques Attali est tout à la fois un économiste de réputation
internationale, un enseignant, un conseiller politique très écouté du parti
socialiste et un écrivain versatile, auteur non seulement d’ouvrage théorique
sur sa discipline, mais d’essais remarqués dans des domaines aussi variés que
la politique, la musique, et, récemment, la médicine. Le livre qu’il a publié à
l’automne de 1979, <i>L’Ordre Cannibale ou Pouvoir et Déclin de la Médicine</i>
a relancé le débat en France, non seulement sur la validité de l’acte thérapeutique
mais sur tous les problèmes existentiels, de la naissance à la mort, qui
sous-tendent l’organisation du système de soins en Occident.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Qu’est-ce qui
fait courir Attali ?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Pour ceux qui
sont ces amis, tant d’énergie déployée dans autant de directions à la fois les déconcerte.
Pour ceux qui sont ces ennemis—et il en a beaucoup, moins du fait de sa
personnalité aimable, attachante, que de ces options politique—ce surdoué est
suspect. Enraciné dans un terroir de raison, de mesure, de « juste
milieu », —le milieu de quoi au juste ? —l’<i>establishment</i> hexagonale
s’est toujours méfié des intellectuels qui piétinent ses jardins « à la française »
…<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Jacques Attali perturbe
sans doute, avec ses excès, ses outrances, son questionnement permanent et
fiévreux. Mais en ces temps de crise, n’avons-nous pas besoin d’être plus
« inquiétés » que rassurés ? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>MICHEL SALOMON (MS) : Pourquoi un
économiste s’intéresse-t-il avec tant de passion a la médicine, a la santé ?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">JACQUES ATTALI
(JA) : J’ai constaté en étudiant les problèmes économiques généraux de la société
occidentale que les couts de la santé sont un des facteurs essentiels de la
crise économique. La production de consommateur et leur entretien coûtent cher,
plus cher encore que la production de marchandises elles-mêmes. Les hommes sont
produits par des services qu’ils se rendent les uns aux autres, en particulier
dans le domaine de la santé, dont la productivité économique n’augmente pas
très vite. « La productivité de la production de machines » augmente
plus rapidement que la productivité relative de la production de consommateurs.
Cette contradiction sera levée par une transformation du système de santé et d’éducation
vers leur marchandisation et leur industrialisation. Quiconque analyse l’histoire
économique se rend compte que notre société transforme de plus en plus des
activités industrielles et qu’un nombre croissant de services rendus par des
hommes à d’autres deviennent de plus en plus des objets qui sont produits dans
des machines.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">La rencontre de
ces deux questions conduit à se demander : est-ce que la médicine peut,
elle aussi, être produite par des machines qui viendraient remplacer l’activité
du médecin ?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">MS : Cette
question parait un peu académique, théorique… <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">JA : Certes,
mais elle rend compte de la crise actuelle. Si la médicine devait, come l’éducation,
être produite en série, la crise économique serait vite résolue. C’est un peu
le point de vue de l’astronome qui dirait : « Si mes raisonnement son
bons, il y a là une étoile… » Si ce raisonnement est exact et si notre société
est cohérente, la logique conduit a ceci : comme d’autres fonctions ont
été mangées, dans les phases antérieures de la crise, par l’appareil
industriel, la médicine devient une activité produite en série, ce qui amène à la
métaphore.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Cette dernière
signifie que le médecin est largement remplacé par des prothèses qui ont pour
rôle de récupérer la fonction du corps, de la rétablir ou de s’y substituer. Si
la prothèse tente de faire la même chose, elle le fait comme le font les
organes du corps et elle devient donc une copie d’organes du corps ou de fonctions
du corps. De tels objets seraient donc des prothèses à consommer. Dans le
langage économique la m<a name="_Hlk109570921">é</a>taphore est claire : c’est
celle du cannibalisme. On consomme du corps.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Donc à partir de la métaphore (et j’ai
toujours pensé qu’elle était source du savoir) je me suis posé deux
questions :<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Est-ce que le
cannibalisme est proche d’une thérapeutique ?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Est-ce qu’il
existe une sorte d’invariant dans les différentes structures sociales, qui
ferait qu’un cannibalisme axiomatisé, dégage de la façon dont il était vécu, et
ramené à des opérateurs, au sens mathématique, se retrouverait dans la démarche
thérapeutique. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Premièrement,
le cannibalisme semble pouvoir être expliqué assez largement comme strat<a name="_Hlk109719874">é</a>gie thérapeutique, fondatrice. Deuxièmement, il
semble que toutes les stratégies de guérison en rapport à la maladie
contiennent une série d’opérations faites par le corps lui-même mais faites
aussi par le cannibalisme et que l’on retrouve dans toutes ces stratégies :
sélectionner des signes qu’on va observer, le surveiller pour voir s’ils vont
bien ou pas, dénoncer ce qui va rompre l’ordre de ces signes, ce que l’on
appelle le Mal : négocier avec le Mal, séparer le Mal. Tous les systèmes
de guérison ont ainsi employé ces mêmes opérations : sélection des signes,
dénonciation du mal, surveillance, négociation, séparation. Ces différentes opérations
relèvent aussi d’une stratégie du politique : sélectionner des signes à
observer, les observer pour voir si tout va bien, dénoncer le mal, le bouc émissaire,
l’ennemi, et l’éloigner. Il y a des rapports très profonds entre la stratégie à
l’égard du Mal individuel, et la stratégie à l’égard du Mal social. Ces
diverses opérations fondamentales s’appliquaient à des périodes historiques différentes,
sur des conceptions différentes qu’on pouvait avoir de la maladie, du mal, du
pouvoir, de la mort, de la vie, et donc de celui qui doit remplir la fonction
de désignation du mal, de séparation. Autrement dit, il y a les mêmes opérations,
les mêmes rôles, mais ce ne sont pas les mêmes acteurs qui jouent les rôles. Et
la pièce ne se joue pas dans le même temps.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">MS : De là
à fonder une théorie à partir du cannibalisme historique ou mythique… Votre
essai a bouleversé et choqué no seulement les médecins mais aussi ces malades
que nous sommes tous en puissance, bref l’opinion publique…<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">JA : Cet
essai est une triple tentative : <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Premièrement,
une tentative de raconter une histoire économique du Mal, l’histoire des
rapports à la maladie.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Deuxièmement,
de montrer qu’il y a, en quelque sorte, quatre périodes dominantes et donc
trois grandes crises entre lesquelles se structurent les basculements de système
et que chaque basculement ne touche pas seulement le guérisseur, mais aussi la
conception même de la vie, de la mort, de la maladie. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Troisièmement,
enfin, de montrer que ces basculements concernent les signes et non pas la stratégie,
qui reste celle du cannibalisme, et qu’en fait, on part du cannibalisme pour y
revenir. En somme, on peut interpréter toute l’histoire industrielle comme une
machine à traduire le cannibalisme fondateur, premier rapport au mal, où les
hommes mangent des hommes, en cannibalisme industriel, où les hommes deviennent
des marchandises qui mangent des marchandises. La société industrielle
fonctionnerait comme un dictionnaire avec différentes étapes dans la
traduction : il y a des langues intermédiaires, en quelque sorte, quatre
grandes langues. Il y a l’ordre fondamental, l’ordre cannibale. C’est là que
les premiers dieux qui apparaissent sont cannibales et que dans les mythes qui
suivent, historiquement, les dieux cannibales se mangent entre eux, puis il
devient affreux pour les dieux d’être cannibales. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Dans tous les
mythes que j’ai étudiés, dan différentes civilisations la religion sert en
quelque sorte à détruire le cannibalisme. Pour le cannibalisme, le mal, ce sont
les âmes des morts. Si je veux séparer l’âme des morts des morts, if faut que
je mange le corps. Car la meilleure façon de séparer les morts de leurs âmes, c’est
de manger les corps. Donc ce qui est fondamental dans la consommation cannibale
c’est qu’elle est séparation. C’est là où je voulais en venir : la consommation
est séparation. Le cannibalisme est une formidable force thérapeutique du
pouvoir. Alors pourquoi le cannibalisme ne fonctionne-t-il-plus ? Eh bien,
parce qu’à partir du moment (on le voit bien dans les mythes—et je donne là une
interprétation tant du travail de Girard sur la violence que de Freud sur
« Totem et tabou », dans lequel il voit le totem et le repas totémique
comme fondateurs, et le repas totémique disparaitre dans la sexualité) où je
dis « manger les morts » me permet de vivre, alors… je vais en trouver
à manger. Donc le cannibalisme et guérisseur, mais il est, en même temps,
producteur de violence. Et c’est comme cela que j’essaie d’interpréter le
passage aux interdits sexuels, toujours les mêmes que les interdits cannibales.
Parce qu’il est évident que si je tue mon père, ou ma mère, ou mes enfants, je
vais empêcher la production du groupe. Et pourtant ce sont ceux qui sont les
plus faciles à tuer étant donné qu’ils vivent à côté de moi. Les interdits
sexuels sont des interdits seconds par rapport aux interdits de nourriture.
Ensuite, on ritualise, on met en scène le cannibalisme de façon religieuse. En
quelque sorte on délègue, on représente, on met en scène. La civilisation religieuse
est une mise en scène du cannibalisme. Les signes qu’on observe sont ceux des
dieux. La maladie c’est la possession par les dieux. Les seules maladies qu’on
peut observer et guérir sont celles de possession. La guérison, enfin, c’est l’expulsion
du mal, le mal qui, dans ce cas-là, est le Malin, c’est-à-dire les dieux. Et le
guérisseur principal, c’est le prêtre. Il y a toujours deux guérisseurs en
permanence. Il y a le dénonciateur du mal et le séparateur, qu’on retrouvera
ensuite sous les noms de médecin et chirurgien. Le dénonciateur du mal, c’est
le prêtre, et le séparateur c’est le praticien.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">J’essaie de
raconter, ensuite, l’histoire d’une part, que la ritualisation chrétienne est
fondamentalement cannibale. Lex textes de Luc sur « le pain et le
vin » qui sont « le Corps et le Sang du Christ », et qui si on
les mange donnent la vie, sont des textes cannibales, thérapeutique de toute
évidence ; il y a une lecture médicale, en même temps cannibale, de ces
livres, qui est frappante.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">J’essaie de
raconter, ensuite, l’histoire du rapport de l’Église a la guérison, et de voir
peu à peu, sans doute autour du XIIème siècle ou XIIIème siècle, qu’un nouveau
système de signes apparait. On observe non plus seulement les maladies venant
des dieux, mais également les maladies venant du corps des hommes.
Pourquoi ? Parce que l’économie commence à devenir organisé. On sort de l’esclavage.
Les maladies dominantes sont les épidémies qui commencent à circuler comme les
hommes et les marchandises. Les corps des hommes pauvres portent la maladie et
il y a une unité totale entre la pauvreté (qui n’existait pas avant parce que
presque tout le monde était esclave ou seigneur) et la maladie. Être pauvre ou
malade signifiait la même chose du XIIIème siècle. Donc la stratégie à l’égard
du pauvre en politique et celle à l’égard du malade ne sont pas différentes.
Quand on est pauvre, on tombe malade. Quand on est malade, on devient pauvre.
La maladie et la pauvreté n’existe pas encore. Ce qui existe c’est être pauvre
et malade, et, le pauvre ou malade étant désigné, la bonne stratégie consiste à
le séparer, à le contenir, non à le guérir mais à le détruire : on a appelé
cela, dans les textes français, à l’enfermer—enfermement dans les thèses de
Foucault. On l’enferme de multiples façons : la quarantaine, le lazaret, l’hôpital
et en Angleterre les workhouses. La loi sur les pauvres et la charité ne sont
pas des moyens d’aider les personnes mais de les désigner comme telles et de
les contenir. La charité n’est autre qu’une forme de dénonciation.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">MS : Le
policier devient le thérapeute à la place du prêtre.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">JA : C’est
cela. La religion se retire et prend le pouvoir ailleurs car elle ne peut pas
assumer plus longtemps le pouvoir de guérison. Il y a, certes, déjà des
médecins mais ceux-ci ne jouent qu’un rôle de consolation et, preuve en est, le
pouvoir politique, très curieusement, ne reconnait pas encore le diplômes des
médecins. Le pouvoir politique considère que son principal thérapeute est le
policier et nullement les médecins. D’ailleurs en Europe, à l’époque, il n’y
avait qu’un médicine pour 100,000 habitants.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Mais j’en viens
à la troisième période où il n’est plus possible d’enfermer les pauvres parce
qu’ils sont trop nombreux. Ceux-ci doivent, au contraire, être entretenus parce
qu’ils deviennent des travailleurs. Ils cessent d’être des corps pour devenir
des machines. Et les signes qu’on observe sont ceux des machines. La maladie,
le mal, constituent la panne. Le langage clinique isole, objectivise un peu
plus encore le mal. On désigne le mal, on le sépare et on l’expulse. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Pendant tout le
XIXème siècle, avec la nouvelle surveillance qui est l’hygiène, la nouvelle réparation,
la nouvelle séparation médecin-chirurgien, on voit le policier et le prêtre s’effacer
derrière le médecin.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">MS : Et
aujourd’hui, c’est au tour du médecin de tomber dans la trappe…<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">JA :
Aujourd’hui, la crise est triple. D’une part, comme dans la période antérieure,
le système ne peut plus assurer à lui tout seul son fonctionnement. Aujourd’hui,
d’une certaine façon, la médecine est largement incapable de soigner toutes les
maladies car les couts deviennent trop élevés.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">D’autre part,
on observe une perte de crédibilité du médecin. On a beaucoup plus confiance
dans les données quantifiées que dans le médecin.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Enfin
apparaissent des maladies ou des formes de comportement qui ne sont plus
redevables de la médecine classique. Ces trois caractéristiques conduisent à
une sorte de continuum naturel qui passe de la médecine clinique à la prothèse,
et j’ai essayé de distinguer trois phases qui s’interpénètrent dans cette
transformation.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Dans une
première phase, le système tente de durer en surveillant ses couts financiers.
Mais cette volonté débouche sur la nécessité de surveiller les comportements et
donc de définir des normes de santé, d’activités, auxquelles l’individu doit se
soumettre. Ainsi apparait la notion de profil de vie économe en dépense de santé.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Des lors, on
passe à la seconde phase qui est celle de l’autodénonciation du mal grâce aux
outils d’autocontrôle du comportement. L’individu peut ainsi se conformer à la
norme de profil de vie et devenir autonome par rapport à sa maladie.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Le principal
critère du comportement était, dans le premier ordre, donner un sens à la mort,
dans le second ordre, contenir la mort, dans le troisième ordre, augmenter l’espérance
de vie, dans le quatrième, celui que nous vivons, c’est la recherche d’un
profil de vie économe en dépense de santé.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">La troisième
phase est constituée par l’apparition de prothèses qui permettent de designer
le mal de façon industrielle. Ainsi, par exemple, les médicaments électroniques
tels que la pilule couplée à un micro-ordinateur permettent de libérer dans le
corps, à intervalles réguliers, des substances, éléments de la régulation.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">MS : En somme,
la santé, avec l’apparition de ces prothèses électroniques, sera le nouveau
moteur de l’expansion industrielle…<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">JA : Oui, en
conclusion, tous les concepts traditionnels disparaissent : production,
consommation disparaissent, vie et mort disparaissent parce que la prothèse
rend la mort un moment flou…<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Je crois que l’important
de la vie ne sera plus de travailler mais d’être en situation de consommer, d’être
un consommateur parmi d’autres machines de consommation. La science sociale
dominante jusqu’à présent a été la science des machines. Marx est un clinicien
car il désigne le mal, la classe capitaliste, et il l’élimine. Il tient, dans
un sens, le même discours que Pasteur. La grande science sociale dominante sera
la science des codes, informatique puis génétique. Ce livre [<i>L’Ordre
Cannibale ou Pouvoir et Déclin de la Médicine</i>] est d’ailleurs aussi un
livre sur les codes parce que j’essaie de montrer qu’il y a des codes
successifs : le code religieux, le code policier, le code thermodynamique, et
aujourd’hui le code informationnel et ce que l’on appelle la sociobiologie.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Ce discours
théorique n’est utile que si l’avenir ne se produit pas : nous n’éviterons d’être
cannibales qu’en cessant de le devenir. Je crois que l’essentiel, pour qu’une
théorie soit fausse, n’est pas qu’elle soit réfutable mais réfutée. Le vrai n’est
pas le réfutable, mais le réfuté.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">MS : Votre
thèse débouche-t-elle sur une réflexion concrète sur la médecine, même à terme
; est-ce que ce sont les prémices d’une réflexion concrète d’homme politique et
d’économiste sur l’organisation de la médecine ?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>JA : Je ne sais pas. Pour l’instant, je
ne veux pas me poser cette question. Je crois que la première chose que j’ai
voulu montrer, uniquement cela, c’est que la guérison est un processus en
pleine transformation vers un modèle d’organisation qui n’a rien à voir avec l’actuel,
et que le choix est entre trois types d’attitude : ou conserver, ou
conserver actuellement la m<a name="_Hlk110167434">é</a>decine comme naguère,
ou accepter l’évolution et faire qu’elle soit la meilleure possible, avec un
plus grande égalité de l’accès aux prothèses, soit une troisième évolution dans
laquelle le renvoi au mal est pensé d’une nouvelle façon, qui ne soit ni celle
du passé, ni celle de l’avenir du system cannibale ; elle serait une
attitude proche de l’acceptation de la mort, de façon a rendre les gens plus
conscient que l’urgent n’est ni d’oublier, ni de retarder, ni d’attendre la
mort, mais au contraire de vouloir que la vie soit la plus libre possible.
Ainsi, je pense que, peu à peu, on se polarisera autour de ces trois types de
solutions et je veux montrer, qu’à mon sens, la dernière est véritablement
humaine.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">MS : C’est
de l’utopie sociale ; c’est parfois dangereux d’être utopique…<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">JA : L’utopie
peut avoir deux caractéristiques différentes suivant qu’on parle de l’utopie
comme d’un rêve absolu alors le rêve est un rêve d’éternité, soit qu’on se réfère
à l’étymologie du mot, cet à dire à ce qui n’a jamais pris place et on tente
alors de voir quel type d’utopie est vraisemblable. Or je crois que si on veut
comprendre le problème de santé, il faut se rendre compte qu’il y a des utopies
vraisemblables. L’avenir est nécessairement une utopie, et c’est très important
de comprendre qu’elle n’est pas dangereuse puisque parler utopie signifie
accepter l’idée que l’avenir n’a rien à voir avec les prolongations de
tendances actuelles.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Je dirais même
tous les futurs sont possibles sauf un qui serait la prolongation de la
situation actuelle.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">MS : L’avenir,
est-ce que cette prothèse particulière que sont tous ces médicaments du
futur—et du présent—qui aident l’homme à mieux supporter sa condition… ?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">JA : Je
trouve effrayante cette fascination pour les médicaments contre l’angoisse,
tout ce qui peut être à même éliminer l’angoisse, mais comme une marchandise et
non pas comme un mode de vie. On essaye de donner des moyens de rendre tolérable
l’angoisse et non pas de créer les fonctions pour ne plus être angoissé. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Ensuite, toutes
les médecines du futur qui sont liées au contrôle du comportement peuvent avoir
une incidence politique majeure.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Il serait
possible en effet de rendre conciliable la démocratie parlementaire avec le
totalitarisme puisqu’il suffirait de maintenir toutes les règles formelles de
la démocratie parlementaire mais en même temps de généraliser l’utilisation de
ces produits pour que le totalitarisme soit quotidien.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">MS :
Est-ce que cela parait concevable, un « 1984 » orwellien base sur une
pharmacologie du comportement… ?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">JA : Je ne
crois pas à l’orwellisme, parce que c’est une forme de totalitarisme technique
avec un « Big Brother » visible et centralisé. Je crois plutôt à un
totalitarisme implicite avec un « Big Brother » invisible et décentralisé.
Ces machines pour surveiller notre santé, que nous pourrions avoir pour notre
bien, nous asserviront pour notre bien. En quelque sorte nous subirons un conditionnement
doux et permanent…<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">MS :
Comment voyez-vous l’homme du XXIème siècle ?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">JA : Je
crois qu’il faut très nettement distinguer deux sortes d’hommes du XXIème
siècle, c’est-à-dire : l’homme du XXIème siècle des pays riches et l’homme
du XXIème siècle des pays pauvres. Le premier sera certainement un homme
beaucoup plus angoissé qu’aujourd’hui mais qui trouvera sa réponse au mal de
vivre dans une fuite passive, dans les machines anti-douleur et anti-angoisse,
dans les drogues, et qui tentera à tout prix de vivre une sorte de forme
marchande de la convivialité.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Mais à côté de
cela, je suis convaincu que l’immense majorité, qui aura connaissance de ces
machines et du mode de vie des riches mais qui n’y aura pas accès, sera
extraordinairement agressive et violente. C’est de cette distorsion que naitra
le grand chaos qui pourra se traduire soit par des guerres raciales, des
conquêtes, soit par l’immigration sous nos contrées de millions de personnes
qui voudront partager notre mode de vie.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">MS :
Croyez-vous que le génie génétique soit l’une des clés de notre avenir ?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">JA : Je
crois que le génie génétique sera dans les vingt années à venir une technique
aussi banale, aussi connue et aussi présente dans la vie quotidienne que l’est
aujourd’hui le moteur à explosion. C’est d’ailleurs le même type de parallèle
qu’on peut établir.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Avec le moteur à
explosion on pouvait faire deux choix : soit privilégier les transports en
commun et faciliter la vie des gens, soit produire des automobiles, outils d’agressivité,
de consommation, d’individualisation, de solitude, de stockage, de désir, de rivalité...
On a choisi la deuxième solution. Je crois qu’avec le génie génétique on a le même
type de choix et je crois qu’on choisira aussi, hélas, la deuxième solution. En
d’autres termes, avec le génie génétique on pourrait peu à peu créer les
conditions d’une humanité s’assumant elle-même librement, mais collectivement,
ou alors créer les conditions d’une marchandise nouvelle, génétique cette
fois-ci, qui serait faite de copies d’hommes vendues aux hommes, de chimères ou
d’hybrides utilisés comme des esclaves, des robots, des moyens de travail…<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">MS :
Est-il possible et souhaitable de vivre 120 ans ?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">JA :
Médicalement, je n’en sais rien. On m’a toujours dit que c’était possible.
Est-ce souhaitable ? Je répondrai en plusieurs temps. D’abord je crois que
dans la logique même du system industriel dans lequel nous nous trouvons, l’allongement
de la durée de la vie n’est plus un objectif souhaité par la logique du
pouvoir. Pourquoi ? Parce qu’aussi longtemps qu’il s’agissait d’allonger l’espérance
de vie afin d’atteindre le seuil maximum de rentabilité de la machine humaine, en
termes de travail, c’était parfait.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Mais dès qu’on
dépasse 60/65 ans, l’homme vit plus longtemps qu’il ne produit et il coute
alors cher à la société.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">D’où je crois que
dans la logique même de la société industrielle, l’objectif ne va plus être d’allonger
l’espérance de vie, mais de faire en sorte qu’à l’intérieure même d’une durée
de vie déterminée, l’homme vive le mieux possible mais de telle sorte que les dépenses
de santé seront les plus réduites possible en termes de coûts pour la
collectivité. Alors apparait un nouveau critère d’espérance de vie : celui
de la valeur d’un système de santé, fonction non pas de l’allongement de l’espérance
de vie mais du nombre d’années sans maladie et particulièrement sans hospitalisation.
En effet du point de vue de la société, il est bien préférable que la machine
humaine s’arrête brutalement plutôt qu’elle ne se détériore progressivement. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">C’est
parfaitement clair si l’on se rappelle que les deux tiers des dépenses de santé
sont concentrés sur les derniers mois de vie. De même, cynisme mis à part, les
dépenses de santé n’atteindraient pas le tiers du niveau actuel (175 milliards
de francs en 1979) si les individus mouraient tous brutalement dans des
accidents de voiture. Ainsi force est de reconnaitre que la logique ne réside
plus dans l’augmentation de l’espérance de vie mais dans celle de la durée de
vie sans maladie. Je pense cependant que l’augmentation de la durée de vie
reste un fantasme qui correspond à deux objectifs : le premier est celui
des hommes de pouvoir. Les sociétés de plus en plus totalitaires et directives
dans lesquelles nous nous trouvons tendent à être dirigées par des hommes
« vieux », à devenir des gérontocraties. La seconde raison réside
dans la possibilité pour la société capitaliste de rendre économiquement
rentable la vieillesse simplement en rendant solvables les vieux. C’est
actuellement un « marché », mais il n’est pas solvable.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Cela va tout à fait
dans l’optique selon laquelle l’homme, aujourd’hui, n’est plus important comme
travailleur mais comme consommateur (parce qu’il est remplacé par des machines
dans le travail). Donc, on pourrait accepter l’idée d’allongement de l’espérance
de vie à condition de rendre les vieux solvables et créer ainsi un marché. On voit
très bien comment se comportent les grandes entreprises pharmaceutiques
actuelles, dans les pays relativement égalitaires ou au moins le mode de
financement de la retraite est correct : elles privilégient la gériatrie,
au détriment d’autres domaines de recherche comme les maladies tropicales.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">C’est donc un problème
de technologie de la retraite qui détermine l’acceptabilité de la durée de vie.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><a name="_Hlk111411644"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Je sui pour ma part, en tant que socialiste,
objectivement contre l’allongement de la vie parce que c’est un leurre, un faux
problème. Je crois que poser ce type de problème permet d’éviter des questions
plus essentielles telle que celle de la libération du temps réellement vécu dans
la vie présente. A quoi cela sert de vivre jusqu’à cent ans, si nous gagnons 20
ans de dictature ?<o:p></o:p></span></a></p>
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk111411644;"></span>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">MS : Le
monde à venir, « libéral » ou « socialiste », aura besoin d’une
morale « biologique », de se créer une éthique du clonage ou de l’euthanasie
par exemple.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">JA : L’euthanasie
sera un des instruments essentiels de nos sociétés futures dans tous les cas de
figures. Dans une logique socialiste, pour commencer, le problème se pose comme
suit : la logique socialiste c’est la liberté et la liberté fondamentale,
c’est le suicide : en conséquence, le droit au suicide direct ou indirect
est donc une valeur absolue dans ce type de société. Dans une société
capitaliste, des machines à tuer, des prothèses qui permettront d’éliminer la
vie lorsqu’elle sera trop insupportable, ou économiquement trop coûteuse,
verront le jour et seront de pratique courante. Je pense donc que l’euthanasie,
qu’elle soit une valeur de liberté ou une marchandise, sera une des règles de
la société future.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">MS : Les
homme de demain ne seront-ils pas conditionnés par les psychotropes et soumis à
des manipulations du psychisme ? Comment s’en prémunir ?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">JA : Les
seules précautions que l’on puisse prendre sont liées au savoir et à la
connaissance. Il est essentiel, aujourd’hui d’interdire un très grand nombre de
drogues, d’arrêter la prolifération de drogues du conditionnement ; mais
peut-être la frontière est-elle déjà franchie…<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Est-ce que, de
son côté, la télévision n’est pas une drogue excessive ?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Est-ce que l’alcool
n’a pas toujours été une drogue excessive ? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">La pire des
drogues c’est l’absence de culture. Les individus veulent des drogues parce qu’ils
n’ont pas de culture. Pourquoi recherchent-ils l’aliénation par les
drogues ? Parce qu’ils ont pris conscience de leur impuissance à vivre et
que cette impuissance se traduit concrètement par le refus total de la vie.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Un pari
optimiste sur l’homme serait de dire que si l’homme avait la culture, au sens
des outils de la pensée, il pourrait échapper aux solutions d’impuissance.
Donc, prendre le mal à la racine, c’est donner aux hommes un formidable
instrument de subversion et de créativité.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Je ne crois pas
que l’interdiction des drogues serait suffisante car si on n’attaque pas un
problème à sa racine, on tombe inévitablement dans l’engrenage de la police et
c’est pire. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">MS :
Comment allons-nous, à l’avenir, faire front à la maladie mentale ?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">JA : Le
problème de l’évolution de la médecine des maladies mentales se fera en deux
temps. Dans un premier temps il y aura davantage encore de drogues, les
psychotropes qui correspondent à un véritable progrès, depuis 30 ans, de la
médecine mentale.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Il me semble
que, dans un second temps, et pour des raisons économiques, se mettront en
place un certain nombre de moyens électroniques, qui seront soit des méthodes
de contrôle de la douleur (biofeedback, etc.), soit un système informatique de
dialogues psychanalytiques. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Cette évolution
aura pour conséquence de conduire à ce que j’appelle l’explication du
normal ; c’est-à-dire que les moyens électroniques permettront de définir
avec précision le normal et de quantifier le comportement social. Ce dernier
deviendra économiquement consommable puisque existeront les moyens et les
critères de conformité aux normes. A long terme, lorsque la maladie sera
vaincue, pointe la tentation de conformité au « normal biologique »
qui conditionne le fonctionnement d’une organisation sociale absolue.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">La médecine est
révélatrice d’une société qui s’oriente demain vers un totalitarisme d<a name="_Hlk110700158">é</a>centralisé. On perçoit déjà un certain désir
conscient ou inconscient de se conformer le plus possible à des normes
sociales.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">MS : Cette
normalisation forcée, la voyez-vous régir tous les domaines de la vie, y
compris la sexualité, puisque la science permet aujourd’hui la dissociation à
peu près totale de la sexualité et de la conception ?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">JA : D’un
point de vue économique, il y a deux raisons qui me permettent de penser qu’on
ira très loin.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">La première
concerne le fait que la production des hommes n’est pas encore un marché comme
les autres. En suivant la logique de mon raisonnement général, on ne voit pas
pourquoi la procréation ne deviendrait pas une production économique comme les
autres.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">On peut
parfaitement imaginer que la famille ou la femme ne soient qu’un des moyens de
production d’un objet particulier, l’enfant.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">On peut, en
quelque sorte, imaginer des « matrice de location » qui d’ores et
déjà sont techniquement possibles. Cette idée correspond tout à fait à une
évolution économique en ce sens que la femme ou le couple s’inscriront dans la
division du travail et dans la production générale. Ainsi il sera possible d’acheter
des enfants comme on achète des « cacahuètes » ou un poste de
télévision. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Une deuxième
raison importante et liée à la première pourrait expliquer ce nouvel ordre
familial. Si sur le plan économique l’enfant est une marchandise comme les
autres, la société le considère également ainsi mais pour des raisons sociales.
En effet, la survie des collectivités dépend d’une démographie suffisante pour
sa survie. Si pour des raisons économique la famille ne souhaite pas avoir plus
de deux enfants, cette attitude s’oppose à l’évidence à l’intérêt de la famille
et celui de la société. Le seul moyen de résoudre cette contradiction est d’imaginer
que la société puisse acheter des enfants à une famille qui serait payée en
retour. Je ne pense pas aux allocations familiales qui sont de faibles
incitations. Une famille accepterait d’avoir de nombreux enfants si l’État leur
garantissait d’une part le versement d’allocations progressives substantielles
et d’autre part la prise en charge totale de la vie matérielle de chaque
enfant. Dans ce schéma, l’enfant deviendra une sorte de monnaie d’échange dans
les rapports entre l’individu et la collectivité.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Ce que je dis là
n’est pas de ma part une sorte de complaisance devant ce qui parait l’inévitable.
C’est un avertissement. Je crois que ce monde en préparation sera tellement
affreux qu’il signifie la mort de l’homme. If faut donc se préparer à y
résister et il me semble aujourd’hui que la meilleure façon de le faire, c’est
de comprendre, d’accepter le combat, pour éviter le pire. C’est pour cela que
je pousse mon raisonnement au bout… <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">MS :
Résister à quoi, puisque vous nous annoncez un univers inéluctable de
prothèses ?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">JA : Les
prothèses que je vois venir ne sont pas mécaniques mais sont des moyens de
lutte contre les affections chroniques liées au phénomène de dégénérescence
tissulaire. Le génie cellulaire, le génie génétique et le clonage préparent la
voie à ces prothèses qui seront des organes régénérés remplaçant les organes défaillants.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">MS : Le
pénétration croissante de l’informatique dans la société invite à une r<a name="_Hlk110702843">é</a>flexion éthique. N’y a-t-il pas là une menace
sous-jacente pour la liberté de l’homme ?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">JA : Il
est clair que les discours sur la prévention, l’économie de la santé, la bonne
pratique médicale, amèneront à la nécessité pour chaque individu de posséder un
dossier médical qui sera mis sure une bande magnétique. Pour des raisons épidémiologiques,
l’ensemble de ces dossiers seront centralisés dans un ordinateur auquel les
médecins auront accès. La question se pose : la police pourra-t-elle avoir
accès à ces fichiers ? Je constate en toute honnêteté que la Suède possède
aujourd’hui ce genre de système sophistiqué et ne connait pas pour autant de
dictature. A des menaces nouvelles sachons créer le rempart de procédures
nouvelles. La démocratie a le devoir de s’adapter à l’évolution technique. Les
vieilles constitutions confrontées aux technologies nouvelles peuvent conduire à
des systèmes totalitaires.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">MS : Une
des projections le plus courantes sur l’avenir prévoit que l’homme pourra
exercer un contrôle biologique sur son propre corps, entre autres, grâce aux
microprocesseurs…<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">JA : Ce
contrôle existe déjà pour le cœur par le biais des « pacemakers », et
également pour le pancréas. Il devrait s’étendre à d’autres domaines comme
celui de la douleur. On prévoit la mise au point de petits implants dans l’organisme
capable de libérer dans des organes-cibles des hormones et des substances
actives. S’il vise à prolonger la vie, ce progrès est inévitable.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">MS : Il
semble que nous quittons l’ère de la physique pour entrer dans l’ère de la
biologie, proche d’une panbiologie. Est-ce votre avis ?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">JA : Je
crois que nous sortons d’un univers contrôlé par l’énergie pour entrer dans l’univers
de l’information. Si la matière est énergie, la vie est information. C’est
pourquoi le producteur majeur de la société de demain sera la matière vivante.
Grace en particulier au génie génétique, elle sera productrice de nouvelles
armes thérapeutiques, d’aliments et d’énergie. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">MS : Quel
est l’avenir du médicine et du pouvoir médical ?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">JA : De
manière un peu brutale, je dirais que de même que les lavandières se sont effacées
derrière les images publicitaires des machines à laver, les médecins intégrés
dans le system industriel deviendront les faire-valoir de la prothèse biologique.
Le médecin que nous connaissons disparaitra pour laisser la place à une catégorie
sociale nouvelle vivant de l’industrie de la prothèse. Comme pour les machines à
laver existeront les créateurs, les vendeurs, les installateurs, les
réparateurs de prothèses. Mes propos peuvent surprendre mais sait-on que les
principales entreprises qui réfléchissent aux prothèses sont les grandes firmes
automobiles telles que la Régie Renault, General Motors et Ford.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">MS : En d’autres
termes, on n’aura plus besoin de médecins thérapeutes car la
« normalisation » sera faite par une sorte de médecine préventive,
autogérée ou non, et en tous cas « contrôlée ». Ne sera-t-elle pas
forcément coercitive ?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">JA : L’apparition
sur le marché d’articles individualisés d’autosurveillance et d’autocontrôle
créera l’esprit préventif. Les personnes s’adapteront de manière à être
conformes aux critères de normalité ; la prévention ne sera plus
coercitive car voulue par les personnes. Mais il ne faudrait pas perdre de vue
que le plus important n’est pas le progrès technologique mais bien la forme la
plus élevée de commerce entre les hommes que représente la culture. La forme de
société que nous prépare l’avenir est fonction de la capacité à maitriser le progrès
technique. Le dominerons-nous ou serons-nous dominés par lui ? Là est la
question.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7464222263572816025.post-69025865439618557922022-07-21T16:46:00.002+09:002022-07-21T16:46:55.204+09:00Adolfo Pérez Esquivel: The Kidnapping of Justice<p class="PreformattedText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Adolfo Pérez
Esquivel: The Kidnapping of Justice<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p><span style="font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">I recently read an essay by Nobel
Peace Prize laureate Adolfo Perez Esquivel entitled </span><i style="font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The Kidnapping of
Justice</i><span style="font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">. It reminded me, in its searing and brutally honest analysis of
geopolitics, of the speech that Harold Pinter gave in 2005 when he was awarded
the Nobel for literature.</span></p><div class="WordSection1">
<p class="PreformattedText" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Mr. Esquivel’s essay was published
in French in 2021 as the preface to Charles Onana’s book on the assassinations
that triggered the fall of the Rwandan government in April 1994 (<i><a href="https://dennisriches.wordpress.com/2022/07/01/interview-with-charles-onana-on-hidden-truth-behind-the-political-assassinations-that-triggered-the-rwandan-genocide/">Enquêtes
sur un attentat</a></i>). What makes the essay more remarkable is the way it describes
the common ways and means by which the US engineered political upheavals in
both South American and Africa.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="PreformattedText" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">An English translation of the essay
(Part 2, 6,000 words) follows this introduction, and with this introduction I
include a few excerpts of Harold Pinter’s speech delivered almost twenty years
ago (Part 1, 700 words). I believe it is a fitting way to set the stage for Mr.
Esquivel’s essay.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="PreformattedText" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">As far as I know, <i>The Kidnapping
of Justice</i> has not been published elsewhere in any language besides French.
I hope that the author and the publishers of </span><a href="https://www.editionsartilleur.fr/produit/enquetes-sur-un-attentat/"><i><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Enquêtes sur un
attentat</span></i></a><i><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">
</span></i><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">will
consider this translation to be fair and favorable use. The essay is, after
all, the work of someone who supported liberation theology throughout his life,
so it seems fitting to liberate this essay from the single format in which it
has been published so that it can be shared with the world.</span></p>
<p class="PreformattedText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Part 1<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="PreformattedText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Harold Pinter Nobel
Laureate for Literature, acceptance speech delivered in 2005: </span></b><a href="https://www.transcend.org/tms/2015/10/nobel-acceptance-speech-art-truth-politics/"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Art, Truth, and Politics</span></b></a><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> (excerpts)<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="PreformattedText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">… politicians, on the evidence
available to us, are interested not in truth but in power and in the
maintenance of that power. To maintain that power it is essential that people
remain in ignorance, that they live in ignorance of the truth, even the truth
of their own lives. What surrounds us therefore is a vast tapestry of lies,
upon which we feed…<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="PreformattedText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">The truth is something entirely
different. The truth is to do with how the United States understands its role
in the world and how it chooses to embody it…<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="PreformattedText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I would like to look at the recent
past, by which I mean United States foreign policy since the end of the Second
World War. I believe it is obligatory upon us to subject this period to at
least some kind of even limited scrutiny, which is all that time will allow
here…<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="PreformattedText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">… my contention here is that the US
crimes … have only been superficially recorded, let alone documented, let alone
acknowledged, let alone recognized as crimes at all. I believe this must be
addressed and that the truth has considerable bearing on where the world stands
now…<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="PreformattedText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Direct invasion of a sovereign state
has never in fact been America’s favored method. In the main, it has preferred
what it has described as ‘low intensity conflict’. Low intensity conflict means
that thousands of people die but slower than if you dropped a bomb on them in
one fell swoop. It means that you infect the heart of the country, that you
establish a malignant growth and watch the gangrene bloom…<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="PreformattedText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">The United States supported, and in
many cases, engendered every right-wing military dictatorship in the world
after the end of the Second World War. I refer to Indonesia, Greece, Uruguay,
Brazil, Paraguay, Haiti, Turkey, the Philippines, Guatemala, El Salvador, and,
of course, Chile. The horror the United States inflicted upon Chile in 1973 can
never be purged and can never be forgiven.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="PreformattedText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Hundreds of thousands of deaths took
place throughout these countries. Did they take place? And are they in all
cases attributable to US foreign policy? The answer is yes, they did take place
and they are attributable to American foreign policy. But you wouldn’t know it.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="PreformattedText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">It never happened. Nothing ever
happened. Even while it was happening it wasn’t happening. It didn’t matter. It
was of no interest. The crimes of the United States have been systematic,
constant, vicious, remorseless, but very few people have actually talked about
them. You have to hand it to America. It has exercised a quite clinical
manipulation of power worldwide while masquerading as a force for universal
good. It’s a brilliant, even witty, highly successful act of hypnosis.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="PreformattedText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I put to you that the United States
is without doubt the greatest show on the road. Brutal, indifferent, scornful,
and ruthless it may be, but it is also very clever. As a salesman it is out on
its own and its most saleable commodity is self love. It’s a winner…<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="PreformattedText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">It’s a scintillating stratagem.
Language is actually employed to keep thought at bay. The words ‘the American
people’ provide a truly voluptuous cushion of reassurance. You don’t need to
think. Just lie back on the cushion. The cushion may be suffocating your
intelligence and your critical faculties but it’s very comfortable. This does
not apply of course to the 40 million people living below the poverty line and
the 2 million men and women imprisoned in the vast gulag of prisons, which
extends across the US.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="PreformattedText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">The United States… quite simply
doesn’t give a damn about the United Nations, international law, or critical
dissent, which it regards as impotent and irrelevant. It also has its own
bleating little lamb tagging behind it on a lead, the pathetic and supine Great
Britain…<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="PreformattedText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I believe that despite the enormous
odds which exist, unflinching, unswerving, fierce intellectual determination,
as citizens, to define the real truth of our lives and our societies is a
crucial obligation which devolves upon us all. It is in fact mandatory.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="PreformattedText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">If such a determination is not
embodied in our political vision, we have no hope of restoring what is so
nearly lost to us—the dignity of man.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="PreformattedText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZKORsuz3PoNYgFfMqfcwku95ZnpfOvno0a3GmCWi5kn3QwTdZsRZ-05VNTUmV6OiiVvuKvvNDrujt9lMPIe2LRy9evBVi9OKkTyYF-LXhmf7mJsIEFEkuJuH03GrtSmzbxy7FZk9eJxNBoAty-AzlRYPj9a6hsE7OTHReDjnzws2EnA2wEXT2nSeT/s1000/SERPAJ.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="674" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZKORsuz3PoNYgFfMqfcwku95ZnpfOvno0a3GmCWi5kn3QwTdZsRZ-05VNTUmV6OiiVvuKvvNDrujt9lMPIe2LRy9evBVi9OKkTyYF-LXhmf7mJsIEFEkuJuH03GrtSmzbxy7FZk9eJxNBoAty-AzlRYPj9a6hsE7OTHReDjnzws2EnA2wEXT2nSeT/s320/SERPAJ.jpg" width="216" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span><p></p>
<p class="PreformattedText"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Part
2<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="PreformattedText"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
Kidnapping of Justice<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="PreformattedText"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">by
Adolfo Pérez Esquivel<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="PreformattedText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Recipient of the
Nobel Peace Prize, 1980<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="PreformattedText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">English translation of the preface
to the book by Charles Onana: <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="PreformattedText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Enquêtes sur un
attentat—Rwanda 6 avril 1994 : vingt-cinq ans d’investigations pour un non-lieu</span></i><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> (L’Artilleur,
2021). (</span><a href="https://dennisriches.wordpress.com/2022/07/01/interview-with-charles-onana-on-hidden-truth-behind-the-political-assassinations-that-triggered-the-rwandan-genocide/"><i><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Investigations into
an attack—Rwanda, April 6, 1994: twenty-five years of investigations that ended
in case dismissed</span></i></a><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">).
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="PreformattedText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Translated by Dennis Riches<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="PreformattedText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><a href="https://serpaj.org.ar/"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">SERPAJ</span></a><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> (<i>Sevicio Paz y
Justicia</i>), or Service Peace and Justice, of which I became the honorary
president, was born in the 1960s in Mexico. It was initiated by different
groups and churches in an ecumenical spirit, starting from well-defined axes,
the first of which, essential, is the commitment to the poorest and most
marginalized of Latin America. The second axis is that of the spirituality of
non-violence as a form of conflict resolution and meaning to be given to
personal, social and community life. This approach remains valid for what is happening
in the Latin American continent today.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="PreformattedText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">US invasions and
coups in Latin America<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="PreformattedText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">SERPA emerged at a time when
military dictatorships were taking hold in Latin America. This process was not
accidental but was the result of a project, the Condor Plan, carried out by the
United States Department of State (with the participation of the School of the
Americas, in which the descendant of the former Tutsi feudal aristocracy, Paul
Kagame, the current President of Rwanda also mentioned in </span><a href="https://www.editionsartilleur.fr/produit/enquetes-sur-un-attentat/"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">this book</span></a><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">, would later be
trained) and at the Brazilian <i>Escola Superior de Guerra</i> in the 1970s.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="PreformattedText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Assassinations, disappearances,
torture, and exile spread throughout the Latin American continent: in Hugo
Banzer’s Bolivia in 1971, Auguste Pinochet’s Chile in 1973, Alfredo
Stroessner’s Paraguay (who had already been in power since 1954), Juan Maria
Bordaberry’s Uruguay in 1973, Ernesto Geisel’s Brazil in 1974 and Jorge Rafael
Videla’s Argentina in 1976...<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="PreformattedText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">In November 2020, on the occasion of
the 50th anniversary of the beginning of Salvador Allende’s presidency in
Chile, the National Security Agency (NSA), an agency of the United States
Department of Defense, declassified the secret archives that explain the
decisive role of the Nixon administration, and in particular of Henry Kissinger
(the most important, along with Zbigniew Brzezinski, of David Rockefeller’s
men), in the cruel and bloody coup against Allende. US government documents
also reveal the regional nature of this project.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="PreformattedText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="PreformattedText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Six days after Allende took office, US
officials began working with Brazil, Argentina, and other governments in the
region to coordinate their efforts against the statesman, including blocking
multilateral bank loans to Chile and influencing the value of commodities on
the international market to affect Chile’s major exports.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="PreformattedText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">The history of this period should
help us to understand the mechanisms still in place today in Latin America,
such as those that have been able to suffocate Venezuela economically for
years, and also to better understand those that contributed to the economic
strangulation of Juvenal Habyarimana’s Rwanda, to the point that he could not
defend himself militarily against the aggression of Uganda while it was
scandalously armed and financed by American institutions.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="PreformattedText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I am a survivor of this tragic
period for Argentina and for all of Latin America. The doctrine of “national
security” advocated by the United States, the objective of which is the defense
of Christian and Western civilization—even though the doctrine is not Christian—led
to the installation of ferocious dictatorships throughout the Latin American
continent in the 1970s and the strengthening of some that were already aging,
like that of Alfredo Stroessner in Paraguay. Faced with this aggression against
rights and freedoms, different forms of opposition emerged, one of them being
the guerrilla resistance.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="PreformattedText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">This doctrine of “national security”
has been opposed by various liberation movements with different ideologies,
including the International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR), the
International Reconciliation Movement that originated in Europe, mainly in
Austria, during the First World War, and the Satyagraha, a movement initiated
by Mahatma Gandhi. Their goal was to try to deal with all conflicts through
non-violence, which does not mean passivity but is rather a form of direct
action in the resolution of conflicts by methods other than the use of brute
force. It is therefore not without reason that eminent personalities such as
Mahatma Gandhi, Pastor Martin Luther King, or Archbishop Hélder Câmara have
resorted to it.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="PreformattedText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">What is the situation in Latin
America today? It is useful to briefly examine the different stages following
the fall of military dictatorships to the establishment of democratic
governments still subject to many pressures, conditions, and restrictions. The
Falklands War was the key moment. It meant symbolically the end of the
East/West confrontation and the opening of a new conflictual axis: that of a
North/South confrontation. At the time when Ronald Reagan was in the White
House, from 1981 to 1989, the Latin American continent had, in theory, begun to
“democratize”, yet reality was very different. In December 1983, Raúl Alfonsin
occupied the presidential chair in Argentina under pressure from the military
while dictators still reigned in Paraguay, Chile and Brazil.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="PreformattedText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Today, we are witnessing another
phenomenon. Violent and bloody coups, as well as scandalous wars of
international aggression, are disfavored because humanity no longer tolerates
them as in the past. They are also less and less likely to succeed. Thus,
although direct military intervention is still considered as a last resort, the
United States has not, since the invasion of Haiti in 2004, resorted to direct
military invasions in Latin America nor has it been able to carry them out.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="PreformattedText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Let us recall here a number of
American military interventions justified on the grounds of “restoring
democracy”: the invasion of Grenada in October 1983, a week after the coup that
overthrew the government of Maurice Bishop; large-scale military operation in
Panama at the end of 1989, the new president, Guillermo Endara, being sworn in
on the very day of the invasion. In 2004, it was again in the name of democracy
that Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, under pressure from the United
States, France, and Canada, was forced at gunpoint to resign and go into exile;
his party, the Lavalas Family, was not allowed to participate in the elections.
Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the first democratically elected President in the
history of constitutional Haiti in 1991, from 1993 to 1996, and from 2001 to
2004, was also a Salesian priest and member of liberation theology.
Coincidence?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="PreformattedText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Today, the powers that be are
therefore encouraged to try something else, including coups d’état that do not
look like coups d’état, and so-called “hybrid” wars. Among the instruments used
both to overthrow incompetent governments and to support servile governments,
we see the emergence of </span><a href="https://www.lawfareblog.com/about-lawfare-brief-history-term-and-site"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">lawfare</span></a><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> or “wars of law”.
Playing a fundamental role in the life of modern states, such wars consist of
political actions aimed at using the judicial system to fight an enemy.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="PreformattedText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">In this, “democracy” is today the
great alibi of a West determined to set itself up as an “international community”
or a “free world”, which would legitimize legislating against the
“recalcitrant”. I am talking about a West in which the United States has been
doing what it wants again and again for too many decades. In its growing
confrontation with the emerging powers, especially China and Russia, to
maintain its dominant position, this West likes to constantly base its
arguments on “democracy” as if this term alone were enough to understand the
subject we are talking about. In the spirit of the “Westerner”, democracy
rhymes with law and respect for the law.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="PreformattedText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">In fact, every day brings new
evidence that this “democracy” leads to a denial of the law and a kidnapping of
justice. Without an independent judiciary, there is no democracy. The Uruguayan
writer and journalist Eduardo Galeano, with a talent for crafting language in
his own way, called these “arbitrarities” the “imperialist democracimeter”.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="PreformattedText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">The kidnapping of justice by the
economic, political and media powers is a hybrid strategy of domination.
Lawfare could not be used so systematically if information had not also been
kidnapped by economic power. This is another great contradiction because
without free information, there is no democracy either.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="PreformattedText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Economic pressures are included in
the strategy. The fact is that, as we have seen in Venezuela, threats and
economic blackmail of all kinds are always very effective. The various forms of
economic harassment have thus made it possible to obtain better results than
those obtained in 2002 with the attempted military coup against President Hugo
Chávez, which lasted only a few days and was stopped by popular action.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="PreformattedText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">To this weapon of war that is
economic pressure, the United States adds, in all countries where this is
possible, the systematic and “scientific” control and manipulation of
information and justice. Lawfare now plays the leading role in this process. It
is a powerful weapon, almost as powerful as military force.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="PreformattedText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Lawfare and “soft”
coups<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="PreformattedText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">There is a constantly increasing
list of legalistic wars waged in Latin America in recent years to try to impose
the illegitimate interests of a minority on the majority will of the people.
That is why I define the current moment of conflict in Latin America as
Operation Condor 2. We continue to be dependent peoples. The Cuban revolution
is still blocked. And we must also continue to observe what is happening in
Venezuela and what has happened in Honduras and Paraguay. I believe that
lawfare was applied in Honduras as a pilot project. In June 2009, President
Manuel Zelaya was arrested, deported to Costa Rica, and replaced by Roberto
Micheletti, while the local press was brought under control and a state of
emergency declared. The November elections saw the victory of the right-wing
candidate, Porfirio Lobo, immediately recognized by the United States, but not
by the European Union, nor by MERCOSUR [the Southern Common Market]. In
Paraguay, Fernando Lugo, a secularized Catholic bishop, the first left-wing
president elected in April 2008, was impeached by the Senate in June 2012, an impeachment
described by Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner as a coup
d’état that only Obama’s United States was trying to legitimize. Recall that
there is a very large American base in </span><a href="https://thegrayzone.com/2019/07/20/max-blumenthal-palmerola-air-base-honduras/"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Palmerola</span></a><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> [Honduras]. These
two coups were a serious warning to current and future governments that might
try to expand their margins of sovereignty and proceed with a greater
distribution of income to the population.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="PreformattedText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">It is this same hegemonic will that
led to the trial of Dilma Rousseff in Brazil. When Yousseff was still
President, I went to Brasilia. After meeting her, in the Senate I gave the
shortest speech of my life: “Greetings everyone. Here a coup is being prepared
against President Dilma Rousseff.” This took less than a minute to say, but it
sparked a scandal in the country. What I denounced, however, was the reality.
The political opposition and its allies had begun a virulent campaign to
overthrow the President and destroy the Workers’ Party, using the “soft” coup
method already used by the United States to overthrow Presidents Zelaya in
Honduras and Lugo in Paraguay, with the complicity of the judiciary and/or
parliamentary, the armed forces, and corporations. Even Vice-President Michel
Temer had to admit that it was indeed a coup against Dilma Rousseff that was
also allowing Lula to be removed from the political scene. This was achieved
through a powerful press campaign conducted by the newspaper <i>O Globo</i>. These
cases illustrate very well the hybrid nature of judicial coups or “soft” coups
that we observe today. And they connect us to the great problem of the media.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="PreformattedText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">In the 1970s, the media that
criticized dictatorial governments suffered many acts of censorship, attacks
and persecutions. In 1975, Vladimir Herzog, a Brazilian journalist of Jewish
origin, was murdered; in 1977, it was the Argentine Rodolfo Walsh, not to
mention many other lesser-known people. Later, this victim/executioner
relationship was reversed: the former victims became political leaders opposed
to globalist neoliberalism and the media aggressors aligned with this ideology.
<i>O Globo</i> in Brazil and the daily <i>Clarin</i> in Argentina have both set
up false stories that convict such leaders before any court trials are held. It
is an <i>ex officio</i> condemnation by the media.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="PreformattedText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Lula da Silva in particular, who
remained very popular, was the victim of a major public discrediting operation,
accusing him of corruption without presenting any evidence. This made him
appear guilty even before being tried. It is regrettable that someone like him,
who after coming to power in 2003, implemented the Zero Hunger and Bolsa
Familia programs that lifted more than 30 million people out of extreme
poverty, could be imprisoned with impunity. Lula made Brazil a model of success
recognized by international bodies such as the Food and Agriculture
Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the United Nations Development
Program (UNDP) and the World Bank, which is why I nominated Lula for the Nobel
Peace Prize in 2019. I have known Lula for more than forty years, from the time
when he was still in charge of a metallurgical union in Säo Paulo. He comes
from the basic ecclesiastical communities, those of Cardinal Paulo Evaristo
Arns, an extraordinary person who got me out of prison twice.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="PreformattedText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">To the “successful” coups, we must
add the failed attempts with violent actions, such as that of Venezuela in
2002, which failed due to the popular mobilization for the defense of Hugo
Chavez, or the police uprising against Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa in
2010, which failed due to the rapid intervention of the Union of South American
Nations (UNASUR). There are also the attacks on the President of Bolivia, Evo
Morales, whose ouster was finally achieved under military pressure. As for the
Venezuelan government, it continues to suffer the onslaught of a veritable
economic war aimed at generating a sense of weariness among the population,
while the opposition continues to work for the overthrow of President Nicolas
Maduro.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="PreformattedText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">This climate is deleterious because
it prevents the progress of peoples and deprives them of the development to
which they aspire. In reality, peace is not just the absence of war or violent
confrontation or the avoidance of the death of one or more people. Peace is
also about offering people hope for progress, especially those in the most
vulnerable sectors of society. It also lies in including and protecting those
whom this economic system condemns to death and ongoing violence. According to
FAO’s latest report, hunger affects more than 820 million people worldwide. It
is a scourge and a crime suffered by peoples who are subjected to poverty and
marginalization, and who remain deprived of a future for several generations.
Thus if a national government becomes a global example of the fight against
poverty and inequality and against the structural violence that afflicts us as
humanity, it deserves to be recognized for its contribution to world peace.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="PreformattedText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">For reasons similar to those I have
given regarding Lula, I have nominated Bolivian President Evo Morales for the
2020 Nobel Peace Prize. Evo Morales is also a symbol of resistance against the
new Condor plan, which aims, through military, media, and judicial coups, to
outlaw political parties and candidates likely to mobilize voters by
implementing sovereign policies in favor of the people. In my letter to the
Nobel Institute, I wrote, “It is an honor for me to present Evo Morales Ayma to
the Committee as a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize. He is a trade union
leader, a social leader, and the first indigenous president of Latin America.
He has managed to implement effective programs to fight poverty, inequality,
climate change and as such is a contributor to peace.” In 1980, I myself received
the Nobel Peace Prize for our struggle against Latin American dictatorships
that were coordinated among themselves via the US-led Operation Condor.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="PreformattedText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">A Condor 2 plan for
the entire region<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="PreformattedText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Before closing the issue affecting
Latin America and moving on to that of the African Great Lakes region , I would
like to stress the need to clarify the context of these “soft” coups, linked
mainly, as in the first Condor plan, to the desire of the United States not to
lose its influence over the Latin America and to continue to control it.
Throughout the region, the judiciary as well as the mainstream media are
delivering “soft” coups against democracies, criminalizing progressive
politicians and leaders: Lula in Brazil, Cristina Fernändez de Kirchner in
Argentina, or President Correa in Ecuador. Everywhere, the crises caused are
aimed at hindering the self-determination of peoples and calling into question
the social, cultural, and political conquests that have cost human beings so
much effort.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="PreformattedText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">The accusations against Argentine
President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner for her alleged responsibility in the
case of the terrorist attack of July 18, 1994 against the Argentine Israelite
Mutual Association (AMIA), in which 85 people were killed, seem to me to be
another obvious case of war by judicial harassment. Cristina Fernandez de
Kirchner was accused of treason and collusion with Iran, the alleged
perpetrator of the attack. This was based on suppositions. She was also charged
with the murder of prosecutor Alberto Nisman, just the day before he was due to
appear before the Criminal Legislation Committee of the Chamber of Deputies to
be questioned about the grounds for his complaint against the President.
Prosecutor Nisman accused the President of favoring impunity for Iranian suspects,
but what no one talks about are the hundreds of WikiLeaks cables released by
journalist Santiago O’Donnell showing that the same prosecutor consulted the US
Embassy in Buenos Aires at every step. He asked for permission to release his
draft resolutions, revised them after following the advice he received, then
informed the embassy of judicial measures to be taken by both the prosecutor’s
office and the court hearing the AMIA case. He made excuses for US diplomacy
which at the same time ordered him to continue without evidence in the
investigation of Iran’s responsibility, etc. Nor is it mentioned that he was
probably going to appear empty-handed before the Commission the day before his
assassination. If all this is true, Nisman was much more useful to some once
assassinated (especially by the President) than alive. These events came as
President Kirchner had resolutely set out to change the axis of Argentina’s
foreign policy, promoting rapprochement with Russia and China and maintaining
its support for Venezuela and its ties with Iran, to the detriment of the
United States and the European Union.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="PreformattedText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">This “big game hunting”, all having
in common the hindrance of American interests, therefore appears as a decisive
factor in the changes of political regimes that are taking place in this
subcontinent. On the other hand, not offending the United States seems to
guarantee a stay in power, like Michel Temer who remained president of Brazil
while the accusations of corruption brought against him by the Attorney General
were much more serious than those made against Dilma Rousseff which, let us
remember, had nothing to do with corruption or personal enrichment.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="PreformattedText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">In an interview with the Russian
media platform <i>Sputnik</i>, political scientist Silvia Romano denounced the current
wars or judicial safaris, in which a “facade of law and legality” is used to
accuse a large group or political figure “without any evidence”. She also
highlighted the decisive role of the US Department of Justice in advising on
legal reforms in several Latin American countries, through “bilateral agencies”
such as USAID (United States Agency for International Development).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="PreformattedText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">One of the most important actions
has been the Puentes Project, which consists of a training program for
different actors in the judiciary in Brazil and other countries in the region.
The star student of this training program is Judge Sérgio Moro, who triggered
the Lava Jato case and participated in the trial against Lula. “What is
striking is that this training is not only hidden from the public but very few
people are aware of its content,” said Silvia Romano. She also criticized the
“double standards” in legal proceedings against other officials and businessmen
involved in corruption cases, such as Michel Temer in Brazil or Mauricio Macri
in Argentina, who went unpunished.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="PreformattedText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I am not one to believe in
coincidences. According to documents revealed by WikiLeaks, the man who
replaced Dilma Rousseff as President of Brazil, Michel Temer, was a US
intelligence asset. He procured sensitive documents. Moreover, the current US
ambassador to Brazil is the one who was in Paraguay when the coup against
President Lugo occurred...<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="PreformattedText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">UNASUR and MERCOSUR (Southern Common
Market) have expressed their concerns about the impeachment procedure against
President Dilma Rousseff based solely on an accusation concerning the
accounting procedures of previous governments, some of whose members were among
its accusers. But they could not prevent the process thus launched from
succeeding, one of the objectives of which was to tackle regional integration
and the BRICS (the group of five countries formed by Brazil, Russia, India,
China, and South Africa). This is obviously not a coincidence. The US-backed
right had already hit MERCOSUR by deposing President Lugo in Paraguay and
delaying Venezuela’s entry there. And they deposed President Zelaya in
Honduras, attacking the integration project of the Bolivarian Alliance for the
Peoples of Our America (ALBA).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="PreformattedText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Wherever these methods are used
there is an increase in violence, hatred, the devastating effects of neoliberal
policies, intolerance, and discredit of politics. What the supporters of
domination cannot achieve through the ballot box, they seek to achieve through
the illegal impeachment of presidents, the privatization of state-owned
enterprises and the theft of natural resources.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="PreformattedText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">The current challenge is not only to
prevent the triumph of these lawfare operations but to achieve participatory
democracy: to ensure that it is society that chooses the political orientations
of the major problems that affect a country and not the nuclei of economic
power, be they internal or external. If representative democracy is called into
question for having tended to leave the people defenseless, with leaders who
are unaccountable for four-year terms, can we believe that lawfare operations
will guarantee something better?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="PreformattedText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Manipulation of the
ICTR and attacks on French and Spanish justice<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="PreformattedText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">It is important to know that
judicial wars are not only fought against governments. They are also directed
against all those who represent a danger to the Anglo-Saxon project of world
domination. This is the case with the journalist Julian Assange, abandoned by
the vast majority of his colleagues in the unfair and critical situation he
suffers as a result of perverse judicial manipulations by the United Kingdom.
His case is one of the most striking examples of the ambivalence of
professional journalism today.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="PreformattedText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I could also refer to the serious
and false accusations made by the United Nations in November 2009, in
particular against my friend and companion in non-violence, Juan Carrero and
his Foundation, plaintiff in the criminal complaint that came into the hands of
the judge of the Spanish National Court, Fernando Andreu Merelles, which
Charles Onana covers in depth in his book <i>Enquêtes sur un attentat</i>. The
charges referred to the hypothetical funding for the Democratic Forces for the
Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), an alleged terrorist organization operating in the
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Here we are faced with a paradox because
the false accusations came from the United Nations, which occupies the highest
level of the world legal system and is therefore untouchable by national
justices. The purpose of these unprovable accusations was above all to disable
or at least discredit a key judicial process dealing with the greatest crimes
against humanity that are under way in the African Great Lakes region.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="PreformattedText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">After the publication of these
serious accusations by the newspapers <i>El País</i> and <i>Público</i>, I met
Juan Carrero in Mallorca and expressed my astonishment to him. “I have been
attacked many times in my life but never by the UN itself,” he replied. Soon
after, it became clear that this was a masquerade, with Julian Assange
publishing various important documents testifying to US interference in these
African cases. Unfortunately, none of the five major newspapers to which
Assange had handed over the documents had the courage to publish them.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="PreformattedText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">This is, however, crucial
information for Spanish readers, who have reportedly discovered five cables
from the US State Department and the US ambassador in Madrid revealing
Washington’s covert action to thwart our complaint in Spain against the current
head of the State of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, and his men. The American diplomatic
cables that Charles Onana presents and analyzes in this book show how the
United States decided to neutralize the forty arrest warrants issued by Judge
Fernando Andreu Merelles against Paul Kagame and members of the armed rebellion
he led between October 1990 until his seizure of power in Rwanda in July 1994.
President Kagame, the main culprit accused of major crimes, including genocide
and the murder of nine Spaniards, enjoys immunity... while elsewhere, as we
have shown, Presidents who have committed no crime are removed from office and
even imprisoned.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="PreformattedText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">The complaint we filed in Spain
reveals that if Paul Kagame enjoys immunity, the other thirty-nine suspects
cannot be arrested either. This book—which deals with the central issue of the
attack of April 6, 1994 against the heads of state of Rwanda and Burundi, their
collaborators and the French flight crew—reveals why certain categories of
people seem untouchable.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="PreformattedText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">This deplorable political activism
in court cases affecting millions of victims, for whom I myself have been one
of the plaintiffs from the beginning, is an essential part of Charles Onana’s
present book. It is therefore not necessary for me to dwell on this subject.
You will have the opportunity to learn more about the importance of the
author’s research work. Likewise, Charles Onana is well known to all readers
who are interested in the issues he addresses in this new book and who are
concerned with truth and justice. He is one of the most widely read authors of
the Rwanda/Congo dossier and his work is internationally recognized and
respected. In his resounding book <i>The Secrets of the Rwandan Genocide,</i>
he was the first to publicly hold Paul Kagame, and the Rwandan Patriotic Army
(RPA) he led, responsible for the April 6, 1994 attack.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="PreformattedText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Paul Kagame and the Rwandan state
immediately filed a defamation complaint with the French courts against the
author and publisher, hoping to silence Charles Onana. After a first appeal was
declared inadmissible on June 3, 2002, they filed a second complaint against
the second edition of the book, but then Kagame chose to drop the charges,
aware that embarrassing revelations could be made public if he continued in
this direction. The complaint was therefore finally withdrawn a few days before
the opening of the trial. It speaks volumes that such powerful plaintiffs
preferred not to go further when faced with a determined ordinary citizen.
Charles Onana showed us that if we cannot defeat lawfare, we can at least fight
it. He returns in this book to the wars that the powerful are waging against
truth and justice. Fortunately, the truth that forms the backbone of the
doctrine of the nonviolence movement is daunting: the truth is powerful, no
matter how small the messenger. The action taken against Charles Onana and then
abandoned by Paul Kagame is the best illustration of this.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="PreformattedText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">The misfortune that struck Latin
America in the 1970s and bloodied it for decades also struck Central Africa in
the 1990s: the United States, convinced that it had a destiny to dominate others
and considering itself the nation guaranteeing the rights of man and democracy
throughout the world, has been interested in this region that is very rich in
resources of all kinds, to the point of imposing its law upon it.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="PreformattedText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">This is how they decided to “generously”
bring to this region of Africa, in particular to the rich Zaire (now the
Democratic Republic of the Congo), the great values of their great civilization
and their way of life. Latin America as a backyard was no longer enough for
them, so they had to find another: Africa, which they were ready to seize
without any scruples. US documents presented during the 1999 campaign in
support of Juan Carrero’s nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize included this
cautionary statement by Ronald Brown, US Secretary of State for Commerce: “For
many years, African trade has been dominated by Europeans, while North
Americans controlled only 17% of this market. We are now determined to reverse
this situation and carve out the lion’s share. Bernat Vicens, spokesman for
Juan Carrero’s candidacy, wrote the following in his main document:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="PreformattedText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">“1. The African
continent is, surely more than any other, the great forgotten area of all the
progressive forces of the international community who claim to banish
barbarism, hunger and misery from the face of the earth forever. And yet, at
the same time, it has been, for centuries, the object of the interest and lust
of the governments and the great economic interests of the civilized North,
fundamentally of the Europeans, who have not ceased to plunder it. The latest
major global political transformations that have made the United States the
world’s hegemonic power have also had repercussions on this continent. In
recent years, it has become clear that nothing will happen without the approval
of the US government and the large multinationals gravitating around it.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="PreformattedText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">2. However, this
new stage did not mean the arrival of an African “spring” within the framework
of a so-called new international order, but rather a kind of neocolonization.
For the United States, the fundamental issue does not seem to be a solution for
Africa’s crucial problems but rather the massive exploitation of its resources
under the most favorable conditions possible for large multinationals. A few
years ago, Ronald Brown, Secretary of State for Commerce, proclaimed it without
the slightest embarrassment and with the most expressive and African of images:
“We are now determined to ... carve out for ourselves the lion’s share.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="PreformattedText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">3. It is no
coincidence that Mr. Brown made such a declaration of intent in Uganda. This
country is precisely the “bridgehead” where the American giant made its
“landing” in Africa. Unfortunately, this landing did not have the same grand
vision as the one in Normandy. This small but strategically important country
is a neighbor of the former Zaire, a giant country and a veritable reservoir of
raw materials and natural resources of all kinds, occupying the very center of
this great continent.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="PreformattedText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">We first witnessed
the fall of Rwanda, then that of Burundi, and later that of Zaire itself. The
large mining contracts already concluded are beginning to pay the first
dividends that will increase the meagre 17% deplored by Mr. Brown.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="PreformattedText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">4. The economic
objectives are therefore clear. But what is really discouraging is that the
methods of achieving them have not changed compared to those practiced for
decades in Latin America. It seems that in Africa, it is still possible to be
allied with dictators or genocidaires more vicious than the Pinochets and
Videlas of the past, without American and European civil societies knowing what
is really happening there. Secret alliances had to be made with small but
powerful lobbies within the Tutsi ethnic group, already a minority. These
lobbies are made up of unscrupulous beings who know that, in order to retain
their power in the region, they must eliminate all Hutu leaders and keep the
population of this majority ethnic group in “manageable” numbers. It was also
necessary to carry out powerful media campaigns in order to hide from
international public opinion, behind the genocide of 1994, several hundred
thousand Tutsis and moderate Hutus killed in another genocide that was much
more atrocious—that of several million Hutus—and to justify the brutal
apartheid suffered by the survivors of this majority ethnic group.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="PreformattedText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Munzihirwa, the
Jesuit bishop of Bukavu, three days before he was assassinated (like Bishop
Romero, who was assassinated in El Salvador in 1980 because he openly denounced
the abuses perpetrated by the military junta), said: “We ask the Tutsi lobbies
that run Rwanda and Burundi to stop organizing disinformation in order to
deceive international opinion.” His sacrifice will certainly not have been in
vain, but for the moment, these lobbies of Tutsi extremists have managed to
pass off as “genocidaires” the real victims of this tragedy: the vast majority
of the population of Rwanda. Once again, a small minority has succeeded, by the
most perverse means, in enslaving an entire people by deceiving almost everyone
through absolute control of any independent investigation into the territory it
dominates.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="PreformattedText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">The ambition of the US deep state
(the one that brought the Clintons to power) to make Rwanda, formerly allied
with France, an important US military base at the gates of Mobutu’s decadent
French-speaking Zaire, had been repeatedly countered by Rwandan President
Habyarimana. The latter had confidence in France and believed that it would not
let Rwanda sink into chaos. As soon as he rejected the claims of the US deep
state, Habyarimana’s days began to be numbered. On October 1, 1990, the Rwandan
Patriotic Front (RPF) invaded Rwanda from Uganda. After four years of war, the
two missile launches on the Falcon 50—the plane that carried Rwandan President
Juvenal Habyarimana and his Burundian counterpart Cyprien Ntaryamira—created
the total chaos that the RPF needed to justify a seizure of power by arms and
definitively discredit any project of power-sharing through negotiation between
Hutus and Tutsis.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="PreformattedText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">In order to take control of Central
Africa, the perverse use of “justice” followed blood crimes, as had been done
in Latin America. On the one hand, the justice system was used to obtain the
total submission of those who had previously been overthrown by blood and fire.
On the other hand, it served to eliminate them politically. Ramsey
Clark—Assistant Attorney General under President John F. Kennedy, then Attorney
General under Lyndon B. Johnson and architect of the Civil Rights Act
championed by millions of African Americans under the leadership of Martin
Luther King—lucidly articulated the objective imposed on the ICTR by the United
States and the United Kingdom: “The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda
is an instrument to continue the war against the Hutu majority by other means.”
We better understand the meaning of Ramsey Clark’s formula and Charles Onana’s
revelations on obstruction of justice concerning the attack of April 6, 1994
against Juvenal Habyarimana if we read the memoirs of the ICTR Prosecutor
General, Carla Del Ponte [author of </span><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120406221717/http:/blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/harrydequetteville/3693551/Revelations_in_Carla_del_Pontes_book/"><i><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">The Hunt: Me and
The War Criminals</span></i></a><i><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">, </span></i><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">2008, never published in English], who was harassed and
dismissed by those who had decided what the ICTR should or should not do with
the crimes that this court should or should not investigate, and the people
that the ICTR should or should not investigate, and those that the ICTR should
or should not instruct, and whom it was necessary or not to condemn and
imprison.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="PreformattedText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">By violently attacking the
investigation of Judge Bruguière in France as well as that of Judge Fernando
Andreu Merelles in Spain, some have tried and continue to try to prevent, by
all possible means, a truly independent judiciary, in France and Spain, from
trying the perpetrators of the attack of April 6 and the crimes against
humanity committed in this region of Africa since 1990. The strength of this
book lies in the author’s ability to highlight the tremendous efforts made to
neutralize the investigations of the dignified and independent magistrates who
acted in national and international courts to shed light on this criminal case.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="PreformattedText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">If there is not sufficient proof in
the aforementioned WikiLeaks cables revealing US pressure to extinguish the
Rwanda/Congo cases opened before the Spanish court, it is still essential to
note the attempt to eliminate the very principle of “universal jurisdiction” in
Spain. This attempt almost entirely achieved its goal thanks to the agreement
of the political parties that make up the parliamentary majority, the People’s
Party (PP) and the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE)—parties that
tolerated US interference in the Spanish judicial system and preferred
submission rather than acceptance of the challenges presented by an independent
judiciary. All these attacks on truth, justice and dignity are now the subject
of this magnificent work by Charles Onana.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="PreformattedText" style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">- Adolfo
Pérez Esquivel, </span><span style="font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">University
professor, </span><span style="font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">President
of the Academic Council of the University of Peace of Namur (Belgium) and, </span><span style="font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">since
September 1998, holder of the Chair “Culture for Peace and Human Rights” at the
Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Buenos Aires, </span><span style="font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Nobel Peace Prize in 1980</span></p>
<p class="PreformattedText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Extra<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="PreformattedText" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">In </span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=401324928634842&ref=sharing"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">a recent video</span></a><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> (on Facebook), Mr.
Esquivel speaks out in support of Julian Assange. In Spanish with English
subtitles.</span></p></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7464222263572816025.post-3519725215599775042020-01-04T10:41:00.003+09:002022-09-01T16:00:03.822+09:00DUPLICATE BLOG LOCATION AFTER 2020/01/01<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span face=""open sans" , sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: x-large; line-height: 107%;">NEW BLOG LOCATION AFTER
2020/01/01</span></b><span style="color: black; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span face=""open sans" , sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 107%;">All the contents of this blog have been moved to the following
location:</span></b><span style="color: black; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span face=""open sans" , sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 107%;"><a href="https://dennisriches.wordpress.com/">https://dennisriches.wordpress.com/</a> </span></b><span style="color: black; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: medium;">UPDATE: 2022/08/18</span></b></div>
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<b><span face=""open sans" , sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 107%;">When I made the new blog at WordPress, my plan was to no longer publish on blogger. Traffic had dropped off over the years as Google and other search engines downgraded content from non-mainstream sources. I thought I would see if the WordPress platform might be an improvement. </span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><span face=""open sans" , sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><span face=""open sans" , sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 107%;">From January 1, 2020 to July 2022 I didn't publish any content on the blogger platform. After some success with the WordPress platform, traffic dropped off during the Covid-19 and Ukraine conflict, and it became obvious that search engines were shutting out dissenting voices. When I looked back at my blogger account here, I could see that my blogs here were now getting more views than WordPress. Perhaps some key word searches on Google were still leading people randomly to this site at blogger.com (owned by Google). So I decided to start posting some articles here again just to compare the site traffic with the traffic at WordPress. </span></b></div>
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<b><span face=""open sans" , sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 107%;">Dennis Riches</span></b><span style="color: black; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7464222263572816025.post-6553564079449181322019-12-31T18:13:00.000+09:002020-01-13T17:14:51.189+09:00A New Year, A New Decade<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXrt3_JUkG8f7kdMzFY0Q2EUdItHuL-MONA6iB5CkjEY2rxXGzF9BTztFkS6rtpJ2Cy7r8UPkuUJMOSH8KsV4Ms_uO4bI0jH4Kcuh5dIBv2I3Bv1RpudrKZAjYMYK3qWkjmtf3exIq268/s1600/Gatsby+in+2020-01.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXrt3_JUkG8f7kdMzFY0Q2EUdItHuL-MONA6iB5CkjEY2rxXGzF9BTztFkS6rtpJ2Cy7r8UPkuUJMOSH8KsV4Ms_uO4bI0jH4Kcuh5dIBv2I3Bv1RpudrKZAjYMYK3qWkjmtf3exIq268/s640/Gatsby+in+2020-01.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, set in and published in
the 1920s, seems apropos for kicking off this decade. He said that we can’t
repeat the past, but also that we are “boats against the current, borne back
ceaselessly into the past.” So be borne back to, or imagine, if you will, a past in
which you had to take that one English course in order to graduate, in which
you were asked to understand something about the corrupt Jay Gatsby’s “incorruptible
dream,” and what that meant about the collective dreams of nations. As this
decade begins, the globe is gripped by the desire to capture various versions
of a dream of a time when all was right: when America and Britain were great,
or before Trump or Brexit, when India was all Hindu, when Japan had an Asian
empire, before Gorbachev and Yeltsin sold the collective farm, before Thatcher
and Reagan and the neoliberal revolution. What happened to the good old days when
a working stiff’s salary could cover the rent? Ah, the 90s when we were happy
just to watch Seinfeld, “a show about nothing”! What’s “the price for living
too long with a single dream”? When, exactly, was that golden age of innocence?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><i>No telephone message arrived but the butler went
without his sleep and waited for it until four o'clock—until long after there
was anyone to give it to if it came. I have an idea that Gatsby himself didn't
believe it would come and perhaps he no longer cared. If that was true, he must
have felt that he had lost the old warm world, paid a high price for living too
long with a single dream. He must have looked up at an unfamiliar sky through
frightening leaves and shivered as he found what a grotesque thing a rose is
and how raw the sunlight was upon the scarcely created grass. A new world,
material without being real, where poor ghosts, breathing dreams like air,
drifted fortuitously about... like that ashen, fantastic figure gliding toward
him through the amorphous trees. </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The Great Gatsby, Chapter 8. </span></div>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7464222263572816025.post-55319725128309528722019-12-27T22:16:00.004+09:002020-07-18T22:13:56.840+09:00Review of: "Rwanda, the Truth about Operation Turquoise–When the Archives Speak" <br />
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<div class="MsoNormal"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0mm;"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif;"><a href="https://prochetmoyen-orient.ch/rwanda-le-livre-definitif-enfin/"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Rwanda:
The Definitive Book, at Last</span></b></a></span><b><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0mm;"><b><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0mm;"><b><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Observatoire
Géostratégique, numéro 262 / 23 décembre 2019<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">by Richard Labévière, December 16,
2019<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Translation of </span></b><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif;"><a href="https://prochetmoyen-orient.ch/rwanda-le-livre-definitif-enfin/"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Rwanda</span></b></a></span><span class="MsoHyperlink"><b><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"> : le livre definitif, enfin</span></b></span><b><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"> ! Translated
by Dennis Riches<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Review
of: <i>Rwanda, the Truth about Operation Turquoise–When the Archives Speak</i> <i>[Rwanda,
la vérité sur l’Opération Turquoise–Quand les archives parlent]</i>, by Charles
Onana, Editions L’Artilleur, 2019. </span></b><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif;"><a href="about:blank"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">https://prochetmoyen-orient.ch/rwanda-le-livre-definitif-enfin/</span></b></a></span><b><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Dedicated
to Jean-Claude Lafourcade, Jacques Hogard, Marin Gillier and all the others.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">In France,
it is difficult to speak about certain subjects without unleashing the guard
dogs of correct thought and dominant ideology. The sensitive dossiers are
well-known: the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the civil-global war in Syria,
and the Rwandan genocides. Even to speak of “genocides” in the plural is to
take a serious risk, as the guardians of the temple have erected the singular
as a totem of their religion: from April 7, 1994 until July 17, 1994, the “evil”
Hutu massacred the “gentle” Tutsi. Definitively, the morality of it is always
this simple.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">And from
then on: spread the word, as there is nothing more to comprehend because it is
a matter of feeling, believing in and celebrating the Rwandan dictator as a
benefactor of humanity. The case is closed.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">In a
succession of sleight-of-hand tricks that turned the Rwandan tragedy into a
veritable historic fraud, the French military’s Operation Turquoise deserves
particular attention because it has been the object of fantasy, disinformation,
and deceitful propaganda.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">On June
22, 1994, the United Nations Security Council mandated in Resolution 929 the
deployment of a multinational force, under the command of French forces in
Zaire (Congo) and Rwanda, for the protection of thousands of endangered
refugees. However, for over twenty years, journalists, staff of NGO’s,
researchers, and, above all, the Rwandan regime have accused France of having
participated in the preparation, if not the execution of, genocide. How was
such a phantasmagoria imposed to the point that it became an undisputed and
ideologically dominant truth?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Ten
Years of Research<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">To respond
to this question, this book by Charles Onana reports on more than ten years of
research in the archives of the French Security Council, the executive branch,
the Ministries of Defense and Foreign Affairs, and the American administration
of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, as well as numerous
first-hand witnesses’ accounts. His book methodically deconstructs one of the
greatest ideological frauds of contemporary history. It illustrates that the
present rulers of Rwanda impeded intervention by the UN for over two months,
knowingly encouraging massacres instead of acting to stop them, in order to
gain unshared power and then move on to the conquest of Zaire—with the support
of Uganda, the United States, Great Britain, and, to a lesser degree, Belgium.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Born on February
18, 1964, Charles Onana is no dilettante on this subject. With a doctorate in
political science, this French-Cameroonian researcher has become known for
several studies, made in collaboration with our friend Pierre Péan (deceased in
the summer of 2019), on Africa and the Great Lakes region, Palestine, and other
armed conflicts. His milestone was his pioneering work on African sharpshooters
of the French military during WWII. He managed the Pan-African Organization of
Independent Journalists, for which he led an inquiry into the assassination of
Norbert Zongo, a journalist from Burkina Faso. He has authored over twenty
works, among them: <i>The Tutsi Killers at the Heart of the Congolese Tragedy</i>
(2009), <i>Al-Bashir and Darfour: The Couter-Inquiry</i> (2010), <i>Cote d’Ivoire:
the Coup d’Etat</i> (2011), <i>Europe, Crimes and Censure in the Congo</i>
(2012), <i>France in the Rwandan Terror</i> (2014), and <i>Palestine, the
French Malaise</i> (2015). <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Prefaced
by Colonel Luc Marchal, former head of the blue helmets of the Kigali sector of
the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda [1993/10-1996/03], this first
scientific study devoted to Operation Turquoise begins by presenting its
sources and its methodology. After coverage of the historic and political
context, Charles Onana explains how the attack of April 6, 1994—on the plane
carrying the presidents of Rwanda and Burundi (Juvénal Habyarimana and Cyprien
Ntaryamira)—ignited the terrible machinery: “the massacres of civilians began
effectively in the capital on April 7, 1994, after the announcement of the
assassination of the Rwandan head of state. They would then spread throughout
the country at the initiative of armed groups against the entire Rwandan
population. Yet the mode for designating victims would never be founded on a
detailed and deep inquiry, but rather done in haste under the emotions of the
time.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">The
Assumption of Power<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">At the
time of the massacres, many journalists reported that the presidential guard
and elements of FAR (<i>Forces Armées Rwandaise</i>) were committing atrocities
against Tutsis and Hutus. Certainly, a few witnessed equally criminal acts
committed by rebels of the RPA/RPF (Rwandan Patriotic Army/Rwandan Patriotic
Front) during the same period. Among the few rare journals that were paying
attention to the advance of the RPF was <i>Liberation</i>, on May 19, 1994
(editor’s note: <i>Liberation’s</i> objective reporting did not last long)
which evoked “bloody reprisals by the Rwandan guerrilla forces” before adding, “contrary
to what they always promised, soldiers of the RPF had themselves begun to
target civilian populations that had not succeeded in fleeing from the
conflict.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Charles
Onana refocuses as well on this question, writing, “Far from the purely ethnic
question that all journals refer to, it is rather the ‘sharing of power’
required by the Arusha Accords, or the non-sharing of power, that seems to be
the heart of the problem. In other words, was the RPF disposed to share power
with Hutus of the interim government at the moment it had a military advantage
and preferred to fight until it could totally dominate?”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">The
testimony of the special representative of the UN Secretary General in Rwanda
was along the same lines: “Considering that victory was within reach, the RPF
proved itself to be unreceptive to having informal contact with organizers of a
meeting between the parties. It insisted on the dissolution of the interim
government and the presidential guard… The special representative of the UN,
the secretary general of the OUA, and the international community were accused
of doing nothing to stop the massacres and being complicit with the interim
government. These excessive assertions led to the abandonment of the Arusha
Accords by everyone targeted by the RPF, including Western diplomats.” [See
translator’s note 1 about the special representative, Jacques-Roger Booh Booh.]<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">The
attitude of the RPF in the massacres of civilians in 1994 remains a great
taboo. No one has the right to speak of it, even the dissidents of this
movement. If the image of the RPF has long been one of a “sympathetic national
liberation movement opposed to the Habyarimana dictatorship, its positions and behavior
during the massacres finished by revealing its Machiavellian and criminal side,”
write Charles Onana. He sets out as rationally as possible the Rwandan and
French context at the time the decision was made to undertake Operation
Turqoise—a context of political “co-existence” within the country and of
hostility outside of it. Clearly, when the French Prime Minister Edouard
Balladur saw what was at stake from the point of view of domestic politics,
President François Mitterrand saw what was at stake geopolitically.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">The author
of these lines above remembers having covered the OAU summit (at the time the
African Union was still called the “Organization” of African Unity) in Tunis
from June 13-15, 1994. The delegation was concerned mainly with the big issue
at the summit: Nelson Mandela himself was ceaselessly imploring François
Mitterrand to do something to attempt to staunch the massacres that were
continuing against the Rwandan refugees heading for Zaire. The former oldest
prisoner in the world—then having been president of South Africa for one
month—estimated that the needed operation by the UN would take months and that
only France, with its prepositioned forces in Africa, could intervene.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">From
Genocide to Accusations Against Turquoise<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">The term “genocide”
was not applied at first because neither the United Nations nor the OAU, nor
the Red Cross used this term. Its use, initiated with the help and support of
the permanent delegation of the Czech Republic and the United States,
encountered numerous opponents at the UN. It was then the close contacts
undertaken by Colin Keating—ambassador for New Zealand and president of the
Security Council—with the RPF which led to the first use of the term, relaying
it officially within the United Nations and its technical agencies. [See
translator’s note 2 below on why the term “genocide” was thought to be
problematic.]<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">The US
Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, did the rest, and the United States
validated, without the least reservation, and very officially, the pressing
demand of the RPF to retain the term “genocide” and to qualify the massacres in
Rwanda as such. This qualification was thus retained without prior examination
or inquiry. Its validation would never be submitted to review by professional
magistrates, nor by any international jurisdiction. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Charles
Onana writes, “The French Minister of Cooperation, Bernard Debre, would say
with notable courage: two genocides had been committed, and the leading power
of the world wanted that there should only be one because that suited its
interests.” Thus the foundation of an emotional ideological reconstruction was
assured for the “genocides” and the attacks that were going to follow. The
first accusations launched against Operation Turquoise were not initiated by
French journalists or media. It was the American press that took a position and
fired the first shot. From the month of April, shortly after the attack on
President Habyarimana’s plane, several American newspapers blamed France. It
was notably the <i>International Herald Tribune</i>, distributed in close to
180 countries around the world, that on April 14th published an article by “journalist”
Frank Smyth entitled “French money is behind the over-arming of Rwanda.”<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">From then
on the parrots of the Parisian press—in a permanent state of admiration and a
quasi-colonial intellectual dependence on the American press—would relay a
dossier cleverly promoted by the American NGO Human Rights Watch. It was taken
up in Belgium and France by a very strange and shady organization named “Survie,”
which was literally obsessed with “<i>Françafrique</i>” [see translator’s note
3]. It operated on the premise that the United States, the United Kingdom, and
Israel had no idea where Africa was and that only France had any influence on
the continent. This organization would never cease to incriminate French
authorities and Operation Turquoise. <b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">In this “journalistic”
affiliation a number of “useful idiots” would flourish—self-proclaimed
prosecutors, if not obsessed neurotics, who would peddle the fraudulent
narrative. Charles Onana writes, “In invoking regularly and uniquely the
support, as a real presence, of France to the Rwandan regime ‘before’ the massacres
(until 1993), and in revealing only the actions of Rwandan government troops
during the long civil and international war, but not describing in parallel
those of the rebels and not mentioning the origin of their arms and their
support, the French press, in quasi-totality, played a role in dismissing an
essential part of the reality and presenting facts in a partial or incomplete
way. The treatment of information thus, from the start, was unbalanced and
truncated. This asymmetry would necessarily affect the intelligibility of the
conflict and have consequences for the image of all actors in the conflict.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Fear Changed
Sides<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">The most
violent attacks on Operation Turquoise appeared in the daily <i>L’Humanité</i>,
which were then relayed by <i>Le Figaro</i>, which pounded—from the beginning—the administration of
President Mitterand and Prime Minister Balladur. In this context, <i>Liberation</i>
and <i>L’Express</i> would definitively take up the role of scandalmongers,
while <i>Le Monde</i>—under the influence of the anti-militarism left over from
1968—would specialize in systematically denigrating the French military. In
some cases it was the officers of Operation Turquoise themselves who were
copiously dragged through the mud and personally slandered, as if it was a
matter of establishing a supposed continuity with the Algerian war, in order to
perpetrate bad conscience and tenacious hatred toward a France that remained “colonial”
in its essence. While he was chief editor of <i>Radio France International</i>,
the author was able to see the power of this ideological machinery: the
political commissars of the organization <i>Survie </i>called directly to
editors of “Service Afrique,” certain members of which were in permanent
contact with the Embassy of Israel in Paris. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">In effect,
the other great trait of the mythology of the “singular” Rwandan genocide
consisted of comparing it—<i>stricto sensu</i>—to the holocaust of WWII. Even
if in the study of history comparison seldom rhymes with reason, there was
suddenly a surge of all the water carriers of the Israeli cause, even launching
defamation suits against free thinkers who disagreed with the dominant view.
One must not forget also that in the context of a dreadful intellectual
terrorism, inviting the investigator Pierre Péan had become a cause for
termination!</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">It is some
of the persons in this study—and the author of the book reviewed here is one </span><span style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">of
them—to whom we are indebted for a gradual re-establishment of the truth,
notably concerning Operation Turquoise. At the time, the author reported on
Swiss television (TSR), on many occasions, about the much decried Operation
Turquoise. Based on his first-hand experience, he told how French soldiers
assisted refugees, bringing them medical care, water and food; how in Goa,
Congo, they had buried victims of cholera in order to stop the spread of the
epidemic, how they had saved thousands of refugees who would have certainly
died otherwise.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">In paying
homage to these soldiers—most of them very young, and who were then the face of
France—I could not help but recall the words of Nelson Mandela to François
Mitterrand: “Do something!”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Yes, this
book by Charles Onana is “definitive” because, illuminated by undisputable
multiple sources and testimonies, not only does he restore the historical truth
(without closing the field to further research) but he also makes fear and
indignation change sides. This book leads to an inescapable conclusion: from
the common soldier to the highest military and political officials, Operation
Turquoise saved—yes, saved!—thousands of lives. From the common soldier to
those with the highest responsibility, this overseas deployment of French armed
forces deserves our respect and admiration.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">A Question
of Honor<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">And if
fear has thus changed sides and made it possible today to finally give much
deserved honor to all the men and women of Operation Turquoise, it is also
because its commander—General Jean-Claude Lafourcade—battled relentlessly to
defend the honor of the mission accomplished. <b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">When he
was named as the head of the operation in June 1994, he was a brigade general
of the 11th parachute division in Toulouse. Named as commander of the Legion of
Honor in 2000, he would become successively deputy chief of staff of ground
forces, chief commander of the armed forces of New Caledonia, then commander of
ground forces (CFAT) in Lille. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">How could
such a man, supposedly so tarnished, have had such a career path? Yet
Jean-Claude Lafourcade would also preside over the France-Turquoise Association
which fought step by step against all the calumnies hurled against the actions
of our country in Rwanda. Ignored by the Parisian press, his book <i>Operation
Turquoise-Rwanda 1994</i>, written with journalist Guillaume Riffaud, cleared
the way. In January 2016, General Lafourcade was a witness (<i>témoin assisté</i>)
[Translator’s note 4] in a judicial inquiry pertaining (<i>information
judiciaire</i>) to “complicity in genocide and crimes against humanity” that
targeted French military personnel. These procedures all failed abruptly, not
interfering with his ability to pursue the fight necessary to re-establish “honor”
during a time when there was so little of it.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Other
honorable men should be mentioned here: Admiral Marin Gillier, whose career was
distinguished by an assignment in the Special Forces, in particular with the
French Combat Swimmers.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">His
knowledge of Arabic led him to counter-terrorism activities and the fight
against radical Islamic fighters. Duties at the Ministry of Defense led him to
work in establishing rule of law in different national and international
formats. Out of uniform, he took on several private duties: <i>l’association
Nazaréens au Cœur</i> (NauC) which welcomed families having fled Iraq and Syria
after the rise of Dae’ch [ISIS] there. Another was Night of the Handicapped, a
gathering in public places, once a year, for passersby, organizations, and institutions
involved with vulnerable and handicapped people to share a moment of
conviviality and brotherhood.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">On this
horizon line of restored honor, a third musketeer stands out among many others:
Colonel Jacques Hogard, who was a commander of the Foreign Legion at the time of
Operation Turquoise. In 2005, his testimony about his participation—<i>Tears of
Honor: Sixty Days in the Torment of Rwanda</i>—was published by Hugo. It
asserts that the person responsible for the attack of April 6, 1994, which
killed the Rwandan and Burundian presidents, was indeed Paul Kagame. He accuses
American Secretary of State Madeleine Albright of having delayed the deployment
of an international force to end the massacres. On May 13, 2009, with a number
of other former officers of the French Army that served in Rwanda between 1990
and 1994, he was distinguished with a decree from the President of the Republic
and promoted to officer of the Legion of Honor. He is appreciated for other
books revealing other truths, such as <i>Europe Died in Pristina: War in Kosovo</i>
(two editions, 1999, 2014).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">It is in
such good company that Charles Onana concludes his book by writing, “Even in
the present day, French political leaders, almost apathetic and resigned, are
always little inclined to effectively and courageously defend their soldiers,
in particular those of Operation Turquoise, in the face of endless ignominious
and defamatory accusations, a situation that would be totally unimaginable in
the United States if it were a matter concerning American soldiers.”<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Translator’s
Notes<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">1.
Jacques-Roger Booh Booh, Special representative of the UN Secretary General, Chief
of UNAMIR (United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda) during the genocide<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Booh Booh, Jacques-Roger, </span></b><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.editionsduboiris.com/livre.php?aid=7"><b><i><span lang="FR" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: FR;">Le Patron de
Dallaire parle</span></i></b></a></span><b><i><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">.</span></i></b><b><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"> </span></b><b><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Editions Duboiris, janvier 2005, [<i>Dallaire’s
Boss Speaks</i>]. Publisher’s summary:<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Eleven
years after the genocide in Rwanda, Jacques-Roger Booh Booh, the special
representative of the UN Secretary General, delivers his testimony on the
mission and on General Dallaire.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Chief of
UNAMIR (United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda) during the genocide, </span><span style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Mr.
Booh Booh reveals that General Dallaire organized the sabotage of diplomatic
work by clandestinely placing microphones in his office in order to listen to
the confidential and official conversations of his superior. Dallaire closed
his eyes to arms convoys destined for the RPF while he more strictly controlled
those of the Habyarimana regime. He sided with the rebels when he decided to
live under their roofs. This frivolous behavior damaged the reputation of
UNAMIR and discredited the work of the blue helmets [UN peacekeepers]. The
special representative of the UN affirms that Dallaire never delivered any
report on the attack of April 6, 1994 that unleashed the genocide the same day.
Nor did he report on the assassination of Belgian UN soldiers. Mr. Booh Booh
goes further in revealing that Dallaire outright invited FPR rebels to the
headquarters on UNAMIR in Kigali in order to give them information on the
positions of the Hutu army.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">The
special representative of the UN affirms that the French military’s Operation
Turquoise saved numerous lives. Without this intervention, there would have
been more deaths in Rwanda in 1994. Mr. Booh Booh does not comprehend the
accusations that are made today against France. He stresses that the mission
that he managed did not have the means to prevent the massacres.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">In staying
silent for ten years, Jacques-Roger Booh Booh, the former minister and
ambassador from Cameroon, chose discretion and humility in facing the Rwandan
genocide. Now, “The Boss of Dallaire” speaks in order to denounce the
megalomania and deceptions of a UN general who presented himself as a sort of
General McArthur while the tragedy was taking place. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">2. Political
bias and lack of information create difficulty in defining genocide and
determining intent to commit genocide; genocide in contrast with crimes against
humanity, mass atrocities, and war crimes<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">It may
seem that by questioning the use of the word “genocide,” the reviewer is
denying the extreme and horrific acts of violence committed by Hutus against
their Tutsi fellow citizens. No researcher that I have encountered has denied
the reality of the Hutu-on-Tutsi violence of the April to July 1994 period. They
are not “genocide deniers” or apologists for mass murderers. The problem arises
from the haste in which the term was applied before the outbreak of mass
violence was understood in its full context. Comparisons to the European
Holocaust were made but were inappropriate, as in that case there had been no
army of exiled Jewish warriors attacking Germany for four years before the
genocide began. In the Rwandan case, Tutsi forces based in Uganda had committed
atrocities against Hutus and terrorized the population for several years before
the decapitation of the Rwandan government in April 1994. At that time, Rwanda
was a gasoline-soaked pile of timber ready to be set alight. See the definition
of genocide below, and the following comment by Philippe Sands on the
long-debated problems involved in readily applying the term “genocide” to any situation
where mass atrocities have occurred. The politicization of genocide is evident
in the fact that the mass killings in Rwanda in 1994 received far more
attention and concern at the UN and in the “international” press and academia than
the mass killings in Indonesia in 1965-66, even though the number of victims
was similar.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p>
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<td style="border: 1pt solid; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0mm 5.4pt; width: 697.4pt;" valign="top" width="930">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0mm;"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0mm;"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.preventgenocide.org/law/convention/text.htm"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court -
Article 6 (genocide), Adopted on 17 July 1998</span></b></a></span><b><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0mm;"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0mm;"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">For the purpose of this Statute, “genocide”
means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or
in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0mm;"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0mm;"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Article I: The Contracting Parties confirm
that genocide, whether committed in time of peace or in time of war, is a
crime under international law which they undertake to prevent and to punish. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0mm;"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0mm;"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Article II: In the present Convention,
genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in
whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0mm;"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">(a) Killing members of the group;<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0mm;"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm
to members of the group;<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0mm;"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group
conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in
whole or in part;<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0mm;"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent
births within the group;<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0mm;"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">(e) Forcibly transferring children of the
group to another group. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0mm;"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0mm;"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Article III: The following acts shall be
punishable:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0mm;"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">(a) Genocide;<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0mm;"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">(b) Conspiracy to commit genocide;<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0mm;"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">(c) Direct and public incitement to commit
genocide;<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0mm;"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">(d) Attempt to commit genocide;<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0mm;"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">(e) Complicity in genocide.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0mm;"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p>
</td>
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</tbody></table>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0mm;"><b><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Philippe Sands author of <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Lawless
World: The Whistle-Blowing Account of How Bush and Blair Are Taking the Law
into Their Own Hands, </span></i></b><b><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">(Penguin, 2005): <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">“I think
that… the concept of genocide… requires the person claiming that a genocide has
taken place to show that the person who did the act intended to destroy a
group. Since the person proving this is often from the group that is the victim
group, what it tends to do, I think, is create the sort of condition in which
you associate with the alleged perpetrator a sort of bad intent toward another
group and it tends to pit the victim group against the perpetrator group. I
think the danger is it tends to reinforce the very conditions that it seeks to
prevent. It reinforces the sense that one group is against another group... On
the other hand, … people are not killed only because they are individuals.” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0mm;"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">- quoted in Robert Coalson, “</span><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/03/whats-the-difference-between-crimes-against-humanity-and-genocide/274167/"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">What’s the Difference Between ‘Crimes
Against Humanity’ and ‘Genocide’?</span></a></span><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">
</span></span><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">“Interview
with lawyer and author Philippe Sands,” <i>The Atlantic</i>, March 19, 2013.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">3. Françafrique</span></b><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Françafrique
is a term used to refer to the former French African colonies where France
retained a strong neo-colonial influence in the post-colonial period. Rwanda
had been a Belgian and German colony, but never a French colony, so the term
does not apply. Nonetheless, because French was widely spoken in Rwanda after
it gained independence in 1959, Francophone nations such as Canada, Belgium,
and France developed strong cultural ties with Rwanda and gave developmental
assistance. In the early 1990s, France was reluctantly drawn into supporting
Rwanda in its defense against armies of Tutsi exiles that were attacking from
their bases in Uganda and supported by the United States. Behind the semblance
of a regional ethnic conflict in a small corner of Africa, this war across
international boundaries was a post-cold war conflict between France and the Anglo-American
axis for the future of Central Africa. Military aggression from Uganda into
Rwanda provoked no “international” outrage similar to the Iraqi incursion into
Kuwait that occurred during the same period. The long “African World War”
ensued and lasted until 2007, involving Congo, Sudan, Angola, Uganda, Zimbabwe,
Rwanda, and other nations. The “international community” paid scant attention in
spite of the tremendous levels of violence.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">4. <i>Témoin
assisté</i><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">There is
no precise equivalent for this term in other legal systems. In French courts, a
<i>témoin assisté</i> is a witness who appears to be circumstantially involved
in the crime being investigated but has not been not indicted. He or she may or
may not be indicted at a later time.<o:p></o:p></span></p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="color: black; font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="color: black; font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Recommended
sources for further reading:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Black, Christopher, “</span><span style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><a href="https://www.globalresearch.ca/kagames-mass-atrocities-in-rwanda-and-the-congo/5346739">Kagame’s
Mass Atrocities in Rwanda and the Congo</a><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">,” <i>Global Research</i>, August 26, 2012.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Conroy, John
(director, producer) and Corbin, Jane (producer, narrator), “</span><span style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><a href="https://vimeo.com/107867605">Rwanda’s Untold Story</a><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">,” <i>BBC Productions</i>, 2014.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black; font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Desvarieux, Jessica
(producer), “</span><span style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><a href="https://youtu.be/kwCAv3J6Lf0">Rwanda 20 Years
Later: Genocide, Western Plunder of Congo, and President Kagame</a><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">,” <i>The Real News Network</i>, April
8, 2014.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Herman, Edward S. and
Peterson, David, <i>Enduring Lies: The Rwandan Genocide in the Propaganda
System 20 Years Later</i> (The Real News Books, 2014).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black; font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Himbara, David, <i>Kagame’s
Killing Fields</i> (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2017), ISBN 1546607285.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black; font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">McBride, Jesse, <i>U.S.
Made</i> (Christian Faith Publishing, 2015), ISBN 978-1-68197-015-8. The author
is an exiled Rwandan citizen who wrote under a pseudonym.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="FR" style="color: black; font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Péan, Pierre, <i>Noir Fureurs, Blanc Menteurs: Rwanda 1990-1994</i>
(Fayard/Pluriel, 2005), [<i>Black Furies, White Liars: Rwanda 1990-1994</i>].<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Prunier, Gerard, <i>Africa’s
World War: Congo, the Rwandan Genocide, and the Making of a Continental
Catastrophe</i> (Oxford University Press, 2011).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="FR" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Quil<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">è</span>s<span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">, Paul, “Rwanda: en revenir aux faits” [</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><a href="https://litbyimagination.blogspot.com/2019/12/a-former-french-parliamentarian-and.html"><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;">Rwanda: Getting back to the facts</span></a></span><span lang="FR" style="color: black; font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">], <i>Le blog de Paul </i></span><i><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Quil<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">è</span>s</span></i><span lang="FR" style="color: black; font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">, April 8, 2014. The
English title is linked to an English translation.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black; font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Rever, Judi, <i>In
Praise of Blood: The Crimes of the Rwandan Patriotic Front</i> (Random House
Canada, 2018). See </span><span style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><a href="https://youtu.be/RbhsxuL7leE">this
36-minute lecture</a><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;"> for an
overview of some subjects covered in the book.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black; font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Reyntjens, Filip, <i>Political
Governance in Post-Genocide Rwanda</i> (Cambridge University Press, 2015).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Harmon Snow, Keith, “</span><span style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><a href="https://youtu.be/OlPY2fWBUeU">Your World News Interview with Keith Harmon
Snow: The Politics of Genocide</a><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">,”
<i>Conscious Being Alliance</i>, December 2011.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Harmon Snow, Keith,
“Genocide in Rwanda (Part 1),” </span><span style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><a href="https://midnightwriternews.com/order-the-pdf-e-version-of-garrison-the-journal-of-history-deep-politics/"><i>Garrison:
The Journal of History and Deep Politics</i></a><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">, April-May, 2019, Issue 1, 93-106. Parts 2 and 3 appear
in Issues 2 and 3 of the same journal.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Vltchek, Andre
(director, writer), </span><span style="font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><a href="https://youtu.be/yydDBl_UlpQ"><i>Rwanda
Gambit</i></a><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">, 2013.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7464222263572816025.post-40088321263951398212019-12-27T21:54:00.003+09:002019-12-27T22:17:37.302+09:00A former French parliamentarian and minister defends France’s role in Rwanda<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif;">Paul Quilès
belonged to the Socialist Party and was elected to the French National Assembly
for several terms during his career—most recently 1993-2007, as well other
terms beginning in 1978. He was president of the National Assembly Commission
for National Defense (1997-2002), Minister of Defense (1985-86) and held other
cabinet appointments during his career. In retirement he founded </span><a href="http://www.idn-france.org/nous-connaitre/lequipe-2/" style="font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif;">Initiatives for
Nuclear Disarmament</a><span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif;">. In 2014 he wrote an editorial in </span><i style="font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif;">Le Monde</i><span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif;">
defending France’s role in Rwanda and defending the work of the 1998 Parliamentary
Commission on Rwanda for which he was responsible. The following is a translation
of the complete version of his editorial (not the version published in </span><i style="font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif;">Le
Monde</i><span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif;">) published on his personal blog.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif;">Translated
by Dennis Riches <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://paul.quiles.over-blog.com/2014/04/rwanda-en-revenir-aux-faits.html">Rwanda:
Back to the Facts<o:p></o:p></a></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif;">by Paul
Quil<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">è</span>s, April 8,
2014<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif;">As
the former president of the parliamentary commission on Rwanda (1998), I wanted
to make the following points which seemed necessary in the climate of confusion
created by the statements made by Rwandan president, Paul Kagame.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif;">A
part of this text was published in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Le
Monde</i> under the title <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Rwanda: Let’s
put a stop to aberrant accusations</i> (<a href="http://www.lemonde.fr/idees/article/2014/04/08/rwanda-en-finir-avec-les-accusations-aberrantes_4397374_3232.html#meter_toaster"><i>Rwanda:
en finir avec les accusations aberrantes</i></a>).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif;">The
genocide of Tutsis in Rwanda [1] is one of the great tragedies of the 20th
century. Twenty years ago, the world witnessed once again an attempt to
exterminate a group of people based on their ethnic origin.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif;">Since
that time, we have seen a flood of accounts and testimonials in which it is
often difficult to discern the truthfulness of what is stated as fact. Analyses
are sometimes contradictory and polemic, and often violent.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif;">Certain
accusations against France were formulated in good faith by persons whose lives
were truly ravaged, but who believe wrongly that our country [France], the only
country engaged since the early 1990s in trying to stop the escalation of
murderous attacks in Rwanda, did not intervene militarily to use force to stop
the genocide.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif;">Aberrant
accusations<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif;">Other
accusations had the goal of discrediting all French engagement in Africa. These
were more in evidence recently due to the responsibilities assumed by France in
Mali, in Central Africa, with the approval of the international community. Yet
the accusations became less intense when the United States distanced itself
from the regime of Paul Kagame, responsible for grave interference in eastern
Congo where he supported a rebel movement, M23, which was responsible for
large-scale recruitment of child soldiers. This interference and the methods employed
were condemned by several countries, as well as the UN Security Council, which
suspended their aid to Rwanda. [2]<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif;">It
is perfectly normal to critically evaluate the foreign policy of France, and
certain questions are legitimate. But some questions are from accusers who act
like prosecutors, affected by exaggeration, simplification and partiality.[3]
According to some of these accusations, which are regularly refuted but
repeated endlessly, France supported a dictatorial regime based on ethnic
exclusion, with the goal of preserving a zone of influence in Africa. France
purportedly allowed the regime to disseminate racist propaganda and engage in
massacres that paved the way to the genocide. France purportedly contributed
military aid for the preparation for genocide. France is accused of supporting
the formation of a <i>de facto</i> government made up of the leaders of the
genocide. France is believed to have refused to help victims and even assisted
the leaders of the genocide in escaping from Rwanda before the definitive
victory of the RPF. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif;">These
aberrant accusations were often considered, and their lack of foundation was
exposed as they were addressed point by point by the facts established by the
1998 parliamentary commission over which I presided, as well as by the
testimonies of persons involved that have been gathered since 1998. [4]<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif;">The 1998
Parliamentary Report<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif;">After
nine months of work, punctuated by numerous public hearings, open to the press
and even televised live, we published a 1,500-page report. This set a precedent
because the parliament had intervened in the presumed “privileged domain” of
national defense and foreign policy. We demonstrated that we were not
complacent in analyzing the mistakes France had made in understanding the
realities of Rwandan politics.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif;">To
better understand these, one must remember that after independence, in the
early 1960s, the Hutus overthrew the Tutsi monarchy [5] which had been upheld
by the German and Belgian colonizers. The Hutus massacred a large number of
Tutsis. Close to half of them fled to Uganda, while others stayed. This
situation defined Rwandan politics for the decades that followed: Tutsis living
abroad wanted to return to their lost country, and Hutus wanted to stop them,
and thereby Tutsis inside the country were subjected to constant discrimination
and persecution.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif;">France
believed it could integrate this small nation into the larger group of
French-speaking African nations [As a former Belgian colony, French was already
established as a second official language]. The aid that France gave to Rwanda,
so that it could defend itself from RPF [Rwanda Patriotic Front] attacks from
Uganda, was accompanied by efforts to democratize the regime and leave in place
a government, a parliament and an armed forces represented by both ethnicities,
Hutu and Tutsi. These efforts led to the success of the Arusha Accords [6],
which were sponsored by France and would permit French forces to withdraw,
ceding the peace-keeping role to UN forces.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif;">However,
these accords were considered by Hutu extremists as a provisional concession,
and the RPF remained ambiguous about its real intentions. In this context of
mistrust and hatred, the strongly centralized political power structure in
Rwanda held the means with which to lead the Hutu population toward violence.
The assassination of President Habyarimana [7] and the Hutu and Tutsi conflict
in neighboring Burundi were the two factors that led Hutu extremists to seize
power and incite the population toward genocide.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif;">The Passivity of
the International Community<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif;">It
is not an exaggeration to say that the international community <span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">failed in Rwanda</span><span style="color: red;"> </span>through lack of commitment, whether it was before or
after the beginning of the genocide. The UN found itself incapable of
fulfilling its mission to provide security because most of the great powers had
refused to provide the means to intervene. The United States contributed to
blocking Security Council decisions in a constant and deliberate manner. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif;">In
contrast to what needed to be done, the international forces deployed in Kigali
were dramatically reduced. Later, when the UN decided to launch a humanitarian
operation, only France took up the task of arranging Operation Turquoise [8] <span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">because no</span><span style="color: red;"> </span>other nation wanted to get involved.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif;">The
honest examination of the facts, the only way to respond to </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif;">ignominious accusations, firmly establishes that
France played no role in executing the genocide. It cannot be held responsible
for, and even less so found guilty of, the crimes it tried to prevent by all
means at its disposal, even though, unfortunately, it failed in this endeavor.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif;">Further reading...</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDMy5LAvqeARUL8s-QhIWCzjLwMmQ2mOxqjLLyF2LFfKCMKNihgxCXT8hw0mSYj0uFTNhRUGAghbZRIF_yJuyRsd-jxZaAL_oAp6q6TaVUvNq9Xt8OzvQFXk0zyASFJY1iFP3ozwjU78Y/s1600/operation-turquoise-livre.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDMy5LAvqeARUL8s-QhIWCzjLwMmQ2mOxqjLLyF2LFfKCMKNihgxCXT8hw0mSYj0uFTNhRUGAghbZRIF_yJuyRsd-jxZaAL_oAp6q6TaVUvNq9Xt8OzvQFXk0zyASFJY1iFP3ozwjU78Y/s1600/operation-turquoise-livre.jpg" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif;">Notes<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; mso-themecolor: text1;">[1] Alain Juppé, then Minister of Foreign
Affairs, May 15, 1994. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; mso-themecolor: text1;">[2] Resolution 2076 of November 2012, made
after the occupation de Goma by the M23 rebel group, with the aid of Rwandan
forces. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; mso-themecolor: text1;">[3] Such were the accusations made by the
Rwandan government or its spokespersons (Mucyo report published in 2008, for
example). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; mso-themecolor: text1;">[4] See UN report (December 1999), report of
the Organization of African Unity (May 2000), results of the ICTR
(International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda) instructions by French and Spanish
judges.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; mso-themecolor: text1;">[5] The Tutsis represented about 15% of the
population but dominated the Hutu majority. The colonizers theorized that the
Tutsis were descendants of conquerors from Ethiopia who subjugated the Hutu
masses. This racist view of Rwandan social relations was the ultimate cause of
the genocide.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; mso-themecolor: text1;">[6] August 4, 1993.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; mso-themecolor: text1;">[7] April 6, 1994.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; mso-themecolor: text1;">[8] June 21 to August 21, 1994.</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7464222263572816025.post-48115463718604625052019-12-20T10:03:00.000+09:002019-12-20T10:09:29.512+09:00Review of Peter Janney’s “Mary’s Mosaic”<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Part
1<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Review:
<i><a href="http://www.marysmosaic.net/">Mary’s Mosaic: The CIA Conspiracy to
Murder John F. Kennedy, Mary Pinchot Meyer and Their Vision for World Peace</a></i>,
author: Peter Janney<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Part
1 is a review. Part 2 that follows below is a transcript of an interview with Peter Janney that was
broadcast on November 28, 2019. Video link </span></i></b><a href="https://youtu.be/kGmB-BDRZw8"><b><i><span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">here</span></i></b></a><b><i><span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">.<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">In
<i>Mary’s Mosaic</i> Peter Janney recounts his lifetime of research on the
unsolved murder of Mary Meyer in Washington, DC in October 1964. Mary Meyer was
a frequent private visitor to the White House during the presidency of John F.
Kennedy, particularly when his wife was out of town. She was also the ex-wife
of high-ranking CIA officer, Cord Meyer, and had a reputation of being critical
of the agency and a passionate advocate for global peace-building and the end
of American hegemony. This coincided with JFK’s famous “turn to peace” during
the last year of his life, and Janney contends that Mary was a strong influence
on his shifting policy after the Cuban Missile Crisis. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhSqmf0Zf8mfoB6S9PHF9ZT22W2qXshSeE-G29x_AzvqfbnWzgej3k_oSZJ6QFR8Zm6MEihngD-Y_b06tOe1p8IvZn46FZRtuk71VEIsC912sbH0YACW9TQDC13E89jVkpBIQVlmhpBHI/s1600/Marys_Mosaic-coverjpg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1067" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhSqmf0Zf8mfoB6S9PHF9ZT22W2qXshSeE-G29x_AzvqfbnWzgej3k_oSZJ6QFR8Zm6MEihngD-Y_b06tOe1p8IvZn46FZRtuk71VEIsC912sbH0YACW9TQDC13E89jVkpBIQVlmhpBHI/s320/Marys_Mosaic-coverjpg.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Peter
Janney’s father, Wistar Janney, was also a high-ranking CIA officer who lived
in the same neighborhood as the Meyers. Peter was the best friend of Mary’s son
until he was killed in a traffic accident at the age of nine. Peter was
comforted by Mary after this traumatic loss, and for him she became a sort of
second mother because, as he says in the interview cited above, she was more
adept than his own parents in helping him process the loss of his friend. Thus
Mary’s death struck him hard, and he ended up pursuing the mystery of her
murder over several decades while her own children, family and friends preferred
to let the matter rest.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Janney’s
thesis is that Mary was killed in a well-planned CIA hit because of her refusal
to quietly accept the official explanation of the JFK assassination. She had
been talking to her powerful friends in Washington and bad-mouthing the CIA to
her circle of friends who were “CIA wives.” She also had a diary that
purportedly revealed shocking details of her private meetings with JFK. What
happened to the diary and what was written in it have never been determined.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Mary
was murdered during her routine walk through a Washington park. According to
Janney’s thesis, an innocent patsy, Ray Crump, was set up and charged with the
murder, but he was acquitted for a lack of forensic evidence. After that,
District of Columbia police dropped the case and were never interested in
pursuing the possibility that the real killer was still at large. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Janney’s
book has been criticized for not convincingly solving the case with reliable confessions
from insiders or forensic evidence that clearly points to the real killers. The
book also involves a great deal of speculation about Mary’s influence on JKF
and what she knew that was so threatening to those who were covering up the
true nature of the assassination. There is no record of her making speeches or
publishing papers about what she knew, and she had no established standing as a
government official or scholar in international relations.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Two
well-respected researchers of the Kennedy assassinations, Lisa Pease and James
DiEugenio, wrote brutal reviews of the first edition of <i>Mary’s Mosaic</i> in
2012, saying that Janney let his childhood attachment to Mary Meyer blind him
to the fact that she wasn’t much of an influence on JFK nor a threat to the
CIA.<span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span>,<span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span>
Many Washington insiders, some more powerful and influential than Mary, doubted
the Warren Commission report, but the broadcast networks, <i>New York Times</i>
and the <i>Washington Post</i> simply ignored them. It is hard to imagine how
one angry woman could have ripped the lid off the story and woken up a nation
that had already made a firm decision to go back to sleep and ignore all disturbing
questions about the assassination. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">As
for her diary, no matter how shocking its contents might have been, nothing in
it could have been corroborated. Its revelations could have been easily
dismissed, and the writer could have been maligned as a liar, a homewrecker of
the Kennedy household, or just someone who wanted to exploit the situation for
her own gain. Assassination isn’t necessary when character assassination would
work just as well.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Skeptical
critics also find some of Janney’s sources unreliable and believe that the
patsy actually did commit the crime. There was enough circumstantial evidence
to point to his guilt. They caution that assassination researchers have to be
careful to not let their theories get ahead of the evidence. And this caution
comes from Lisa Pease, someone who says, in her book about the Robert Kennedy
assassination, that the evidence shows that Sirhan Sirhan was hypnotized at the
time he was set up as the patsy in the assassination of Robert Kennedy.<span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[3]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span>
That is quite a “crazy” and difficult conspiracy theory for people take
seriously, even though she has compelling evidence for it, so it is odd that
she rejects a fellow researcher like Janney who seems like he would be an ally
in the long struggle to reveal the truth about the age of assassinations
(1963-68). Like other theses about the assassinations, his also requires a
similar acceptance that reality is stranger than spy fiction, that government
agencies can and do carry out elaborate secret plots to eliminate people who “get
in the way.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Janney
contends that Mary Meyer was surveyed by a team for several days until they
knew her routine movements and until the perfect stranger appeared to be set up
as the patsy. It was in one part a plan meticulously made in advance, and in
the other part an act of improvisation reacting to what was happening in the
park on the day she was killed. Janney alleges that the team might have
attempted the plot several times and aborted it several times until the right
circumstances presented themselves. On the day of the murder, the hit team saw
Crump arrive in the park in the morning, after which they assembled a
jacket-and-slacks combination that resembled his outfit and put them on a
stand-in for the killer. That person was made to be seen by a witness standing
over the body, and that witness was made to appear in the park by placing a
stalled vehicle nearby. A call went to a car repair shop at the right time in
order to make the witness (the car mechanic) appear on the scene just as shots
were fired. He ran up an embankment just in time to see, from a considerable
distance, the Ray Crump look-alike standing over the body.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">That
scenario seems far-fetched and very difficult to pull off, but as I read it I
thought of something that Janney perhaps never considered as a possible way to
prove the concept. A team of improv actors could simulate this plot by trying
to duplicate it, of course without a murder at the end of it. If one actor
played the part of the victim walking past a known place at a known time, could
the other actors manipulate an unwitting patsy and unwitting witness to be in
the right place at the right time? How many times would they have to abort the
mission before succeeding? In fact this is the sort of thing that reality
television shows do all the time, so perhaps this would be a way to illustrate
to skeptics the way such plots could work.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">If
one reads the harsh reviews mentioned above, published when the first edition
of the book was released, they seem quite devastating. However, not every
source Janney used was unreliable, and he admitted the limitations of the ones
that critics questioned. His thesis remains valid because of the other sources
that are reliable and because of the overall weight of the evidence. The
critics chose not to mention one key finding that truly exculpates the alleged
killer, even though it was not in the trial record. He was in the vicinity of
the murder scene because he was hooking up with a woman he wasn’t supposed to
be with. The two of them had got drunk and had sex on the river bank, but he
passed out afterwards and she left him there—with his fly open—and went home.
The accused named her as his alibi, and she confirmed the details. She refused
to testify because she feared being killed “by her husband,” but she might have
also feared being a key witness in a case that was obviously drawing much
official heat and light. She did provide a written affidavit, but the judge
dismissed it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">If
one finds this alibi unreliable, one has to believe that this working class
woman conspired with Crump in a plot in which he was going to commit a sexual
assault and murder and she was going back him up by saying that she was
drinking with him on the riverbank the whole morning, but then she didn’t want
to testify in court. It’s hard to see what her motive to lie could have been.
That she was lying is much more implausible than the theory about how the
assassination team pulled off the crime.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">As
an aside, note here the uncanny common story element between two men who couldn’t
be farther apart in the social hierarchy. They were both undone by how they
unzipped. Illicit sex is at the fulcrum of this triple tragedy that brought
down JFK, Mary Meyer and Ray Crump. The young Ray Crump at least had the excuse
of having lived in crushing poverty, but the other two should have known better
by middle age and by their advantages in life. Would JFK have lived longer and
been more effective in politics if his sexual misbehavior had not strengthened
his opponents and exposed him to blackmail? What if Mary Meyer had chosen to
not get involved with her friend’s husband? If Ray Crump had gone to work that
day instead of hooking up with his girl on the side, he would have saved
himself from ruin, and the murder of Mary Meyer might have been called off, at
least for that day, and maybe forever.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">There
was other compelling evidence, besides Crump’s alibi, that Janney uses to
support his case. The killer grabbed the victim before shooting her in order to
have her scream be heard by the necessary witness. She fought back more than
expected, which made the first shot to the head fail to penetrate and stop her
on the spot. She ran off a few feet, then was captured and killed with the
second shot. The coroner concluded that the shooter was ambidextrous and
well-trained. The first bullet was shot by the assassin’s left hand while the
last shot was fired by his right hand into the right shoulder blade, pointing
down to the left toward the heart, killing her instantly. This technique was
too professional to be the work of an amateur such as Crump, a man of slight
build who didn’t use guns and had been drinking all morning. The victim was
also dragged back onto the footpath, as if the killer wanted the body to be
seen there.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Another
piece of evidence is in the way information about the killing spread to people
connected to the victim. Her ex-husband, a CIA officer, had been sent to New
York, perhaps to take suspicion off of him. Janney’s father, also a CIA
officer, called Mary Mayer’s brother-in-law, Ben Bradlee (future editor of the <i>Washington
Post</i>) to tell him of news of a murder near Mary’s home. For some unusual
reason he was listening to the radio at work and just happened to hear news of
a murder that had taken place about an hour previously. The name of the victim
was not announced until several hours later. A worried mother might have a lot
of anxiety if she heard about a murder happening in the park that her child
passes through every day. She would imagine the worst and not be able to relax
until she confirmed that it wasn’t her child. But a disinterested, rational
person calculates the odds and assumes the description could be a match for
thousands of people in a city such as Washington. Most people would wait for
confirmation and not panic. But here we have high-ranking intelligence officer
who participated in all the dark arts of the CIA, and we are to believe he
listened to local AM radio while at work and suddenly became worried that his
colleague’s ex-wife, divorced from him years ago, was the murder victim—so
worried that he had to arouse anxiety in others instead of waiting for the
police to identify the victim. As it turned out, there was a reason he wanted
Ben Bradlee to hurry down to the morgue to identify the victim.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">With
all of this evidence in mind, skeptics still could say Crump did it, and this
is what the critics cited above said in their reviews of the first edition.
However, after the first edition of the book was published, Janney received
further help from professional investigators who were able to find a key
witness for the prosecution who had gone missing after the trial. This witness,
William L. Mitchell, appeared after news of the murder was broadcast. He was a
military officer who at the time was said to be assigned to the Pentagon. He
offered to testify that he had been jogging through the park at the time of the
murder and had seen Mary and her alleged assailant approaching two hundred feet
behind her. There was no witness who could corroborate his presence in the park
that day, and he was never questioned about his background, his job at the
Pentagon, or why he was jogging at lunch time in a place so far from his work
place where employees usually exercised on sports grounds nearby. Janney always
suspected he was an intelligence agent inserted into the plot to lend weight to
the prosecution’s case, which was extremely weak without him, but he had
vanished after the case concluded with an acquittal. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">For
the third edition of the book, Janney now had an extra chapter on this missing
witness, and with it he was able to refute the critics—the conspiracy
researchers who had dismissed him as a conspiracy nut. He launched a civil
lawsuit and hoped to compel Mitchell to testify. William L. Mitchell had by now
legally changed his name to just Bill Mitchell. Janney hoped that a judge would
agree that, because of his childhood attachment to the Meyer family, he was an
aggrieved victim who could sue for damages. He knew that argument was weak and that
a judge might dismiss it, but the legal danger for Bill Mitchell caused him to
come forward with a proposed deal. He would agree to be deposed, with lawyers
present, if Janney agreed to drop him as a witness in the civil suit. Janney
agreed, knowing that the lawsuit might never occur in any case. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">During
the long deposition, Bill Mitchell, of sound mind at age seventy-four,
maintained an unwavering inability to recall any of the details of the
trial—something which for any other person would be an unforgettable
experience. Could you forget participating as the key witness in a high-profile
murder trial—one in which you heroically volunteered to come forward in order to
bring justice to the aggrieved family of the victim? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Bill
Mitchell also refused to explain the mysterious gaps in his military career,
why he had moved around so much after the trial, and why he had changed his
name exactly when the congressional investigations into the CIA were heating up
in 1974. Everything about him suggested he had been a covert agent. He showed
the sort of stonewalling, denial, and failure of memory that every detective
and prosecutor recognizes as an implicit non-confessing confession. As a useful
and familiar comparison, one could think of Frank Sheeran in <i>The Irishman</i>,
Martin Scorsese’s “version of the truth” of the Jimmy Hoffa murder mystery. At
the end of the story, the FBI agents come to ask Frank—whom they suspect is the
killer—if he wants to shed light on the mystery now that everyone is dead. “Who
are you protecting?” they ask, but he maintains his silence. It was a similar
scene during the deposition of Bill Mitchell as he steadfastly avoided saying
anything that might be incriminating. An intelligence officer is, after all,
like the organized crime figures in <i>The Irishman</i>. There is a lifelong
omerta that few agents dare betray, either out of loyalty, fear for their own
safety, or fear of what psychic pain would come from telling others the truth.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">With
the heavy weight of the circumstantial evidence that Janney provides, the
reader can agree that there is a high degree of certainty that Mary Meyer was
killed in a covert operation, but the evidence is not conclusive. The book
still does not provide definitive proof of who killed her, who was involved in
the plot, and precisely why she was such a threat. Just as Ray Crump had to be
acquitted for lack of forensic evidence, every other suspect would also be
cleared in a court of law, unless someone started talking, which is impossible
now that so many years have passed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">It
is also still reasonable to ask how Mary Meyer could have possibly been such a
threat that she had to be killed. Whatever was in her diary could never have
been corroborated, and she had no official role in government that would have
made her a star witness or given her knowledge of government malfeasance. Her
word could have been spun as the unreliable word of a divorcee homewrecker who
had a scandalous affair with the president. This is not the sort of person that
either major political party, the East Coast elite or Main Street Americans
would rally behind. The media would shut her out just as they shut out everyone
else who questioned the Warren Report. It is hard to imagine that someone in
her position could have struck fear into the hearts of Lyndon Johnson and J.
Edgar Hoover or others in the Washington war machine during a time when they
were pre-occupied with civil strife, the USSR, China, Vietnam, Indonesia and
Latin America.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">It
is more plausible that Mary Meyer’s murder occurred for no serious reason of
state but rather just because the CIA had such a habituated taste for blood by
that time that personal animosities became the rationale for concluding she was
a security threat that had to be eliminated. Jim Marrs noted in his book <i>Crossfire</i>
that more than one hundred people who knew key details of the JFK assassination
died in suspicious circumstances, thirty of them by gunfire.<span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[4]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span>
As Janney writes, “Mary Meyer’s murder was number fifteen on this list. It
wasn’t just Mary’s murder anymore, but all the suspicious ‘suicides,’ ‘heart
attacks,’ ‘cancers,’ or ‘accidents.’”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Her
ex-husband was displeased by her scandalous behavior during and after the
breakup of the marriage, and she was known to have a loose tongue when voicing
her opinions about the CIA’s crimes. JFK was killed for the threat his policies
posed to varied interests who stood to lose billions of dollars. Mary Meyer was
no such threat. She may have been killed simply because she was undermining
Washington elite society’s faith in its husbands and its institutions. An
example had to be made of someone who was getting too uppity. Janney mentions
several people close to himself and Mary Meyer who refused to discuss the case,
and some resented him for his persistence, which indicates that her murder did
indeed intimidate them into silence. Another explanation might be that she was
rattling the cages of people with guilty consciences, so she may have prompted
them into acting out of fear rather than a logical assessment of the risks she
posed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">It
is also easy to imagine another motive that could have been real, or fabricated
as needed, if a government-linked assassin had ever been arrested. A “lone
rogue agent” might have said he killed Meyer to defend the honor of Jacqueline
Kennedy and the Kennedy family, just as the mob-linked Jack Ruby said,
laughably, after he killed Lee Harvey Oswald.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">It
may be slightly unsatisfying that Janney’s book doesn’t definitively solve the
murder mystery, but that is asking too much. He has solved the mystery as much
as anyone could at this point fifty-five years after the crime. This book
should be appreciated more for how it illuminates a distant socio-political era
that still has profound effects on the present.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Janney
devotes many pages to the East Coast private school and Ivy League milieu that
produced the Kennedy brothers and other key figures in this story. JFK knew
Cord Meyer in his youth and competed with him even then for Mary’s attention.
The two men fought in WWII and came back as progressive peace-seeking liberal
journalists, but both of them got eaten up by the cold war political machinery.
One person quoted in the book wrote, “…many of the most percipient men of my
generation killed off those parts of themselves that were most vulnerable to
pain, and thus lost forever a delicacy of feeling on which intimacy depends. To
a less tragic extent we women also had to harden ourselves and stood to lose
with them the vulnerability that is one of the guardians of the human spirit.”<span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[5]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">It
was particularly grim to read how Mary’s husband, Cord Meyer, shut down
emotionally as he went from war hero, to honored journalist and essayist, to
peace activist, to ending up as an alcoholic and bitter high-ranking CIA
officer overseeing domestic propaganda, destabilization campaigns, coups and
assassinations. During that time he lost a brother, a son, and his wife, first
in divorce and finally in her death. He didn’t handle any of it well.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">At
the same time, Cord Meyer’s rival, JFK, wasn’t a model of emotional health, either.
This is another area in which the book excels because it portrays JFK
realistically. The critics who slammed the first edition expressed disgust with
the way the CIA had conducted a “second assassination” of JFK by leaking sordid
details of his private life to the tabloid press, and they accused Janney of being
part of this trend. They said there was a determined effort to knock the halo
off JFK’s head, starting in the late 1970s when the CIA was under investigation
in Congress. However, Janney’s account shouldn’t be smeared this way because it
refrains from wallowing in the gutter, but it makes no attempt to put a halo on
JFK’s head that never should have been there. JFK was a son of a millionaire,
an aggressive, handsy, entitled serial seducer with a failing marriage that he
didn’t want to deal with until after re-election. His friends, family and
widow—not his enemies—gave corroborating accounts of his “problems with
intimacy,” which is a kind way of putting it reserved only for political
leaders one likes. JKF wouldn’t dare to even enter a presidential primary race
in the cultural climate of the Me Too era. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Most
remarkable, perhaps, is Janney’s unbiased account of his own father, a CIA
colleague and friend of Cord Meyer. Janney tells of how disorienting it was as
a child to slowly realize what a dark world these men inhabited. His father
once blurted out, in describing a family friend that his children knew, “Hod
Fuller was one of the best damn assassins we ever had.” Janney was always
disturbed by his father’s stoic reaction to Mary’s murder, but through his
research he came to believe (as described above) that his father had
foreknowledge of the plot against her. He also came across minutes of a CIA
meeting chaired by his father in which someone said he was certain that New
Orleans district attorney Jim Garrison was going to get a conviction in the
trial of Clay Shaw, which would be a court ruling confirming that there was a
conspiracy to murder JFK. Thus the document showed this room full of CIA
officers admitting to the conspiracy, which meant Janney’s father was a key
figure in the coverup of the JFK assassination.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">It
is this dimension of the story that makes the book worthwhile because most
people in such circumstances tend to do one of two things. They idolize father
and country when confronted with such disturbing truths, or the truth drives
them into an impotent depression or a reckless anger, like Hamlet’s tragic
reaction to the ghost of his father demanding revenge. Janney is to be
commended for the courage it took to stare into the abyss and come back to tell
the story of his quest to honor what Mary’s ghost whispered into his soul.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Part
2<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">An
interview with the author, Peter Janney<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<a href="https://youtu.be/kGmB-BDRZw8"><b><span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Redacted Tonight
VIP Episode 183. The Assassination of JFK & Mary Meyer</span></b></a><b><span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">.</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Interview
with Peter Janney, author of <i>Mary’s Mosaic: The CIA Conspiracy to Murder
John F. Kennedy, Mary Pinchot Meyer and Their Vision for World Peace</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Lee
Camp (LC): Welcome to Redacted Tonight VIP. I’m Lee Camp. I have a truly
incredible show for you today. I spoke recently with Peter Janney, an
investigator and author who has uncovered the truth about the assassination of
John F. Kennedy’s mistress, Mary Meyer. And, perhaps not coincidentally, Peter
Janney’s father was also a high-ranking CIA official named Wistar Janney. If
you haven’t heard of Mary Pinchot Meyer, it’s now accepted fact that she and
JFK were lovers in the final year of his life, if not before that time. And
then after his murder, Mary Meyer—who was herself part of elite Washington society,
the ex-wife of a powerful CIA official—was furious after his assassination that
the truth was not getting out about the real people who killed John F. Kennedy.
When it became clear that she was not going to stop speaking out, she was
executed in broad daylight on the canal path right here in Washington DC, in
1964. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Through decades of painstaking research, Peter Janney has unearthed the
truth, and it’s as horrifying as you can imagine. He’s put it all together in
the book <i>Mary’s Mosaic: The CIA Conspiracy to Murder John F. Kennedy, Mary
Pinchot Meyer and Their Vision for World Peace. </i>So I think you’ll quickly see
why I had to speak to him for the entire half hour. Here’s my conversation with
author Peter Janney.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">LC:
Hello, Dr. Janney. Is it doctor? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Peter
Janney (PJ): Call me Peter. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">LC:
All right, Peter, thank you so much for being here. Your book is incredible. It
clearly is decades of work, and I want to try and dive into some of this. I
think I want to go in with the assumption that most people know very little of
the backstory of any of this because growing up, I heard rumors that JFK had
some lovers, and maybe one of them had been killed in [Washington] DC, but I
really didn’t know the details. So let’s start with who Mary Meyer was, and how
you knew her personally. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">PJ:
She was a fascinating human being, and an even a more fascinating woman, from
my point of view, and of course when I knew her as a young boy, she was my best
friend’s mother. She and my mother had gone to college together. Her husband,
Cord Meyer, and my father both worked at the Central Intelligence Agency
together, and Michael and I were just the best of friends. Michael was killed.
He was hit by a car one evening right before Christmas in the late 1950s. I was
nine. We were both nine, and it was a very traumatic event in my life, and the
loss really put me into what you would call an acute adjustment reaction. And
my own parents were just mostly inept in terms of helping me deal with the
grief around this, but who wasn’t inept was Mary. And she was very, very
helpful to me in terms of just holding me, and not just physically but
spiritually, emotionally during that time. And I really was, I think, saved by
her in terms of her intervention. Mary was not a drinker like most of her social
set, not that she didn’t have a little bit of wine, maybe a Dubonnet here and
there, but she was very avid tennis player, walker, camper. I don’t think she
got into this sort of alcoholic rut that a lot of Washington socialites get
into. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">LC:
Well, also she probably didn’t have the guilt to deal with that maybe her
husband and some others at the CIA had. So ultimately she divorced Cord Meyer,
so she wouldn’t have a CIA husband anymore. She had known JFK for years and
years, and ended up having an affair with him—and he had had many affairs—but
this seemed far more serious. And it’s not a rumor. Many people have come
forward and said this is a fact. She was pushing him on a path toward a
peaceful world which he had taken many steps toward, and I think nowadays it’s
been lost to history, maybe intentionally. About those steps he was taking: do
you want to go through some of those?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">PJ:
Well, I think the pivotal event was the Cuban Missile Crisis, in October 1962,
where we really, as a country and as a planet, came the closest we have ever
come to nuclear Armageddon. And JFK and his brother were instrumental in
pulling us out of that crisis by not invading Cuba. There was a huge
opportunity in that crisis because JFK and Khrushchev really started to become
friends afterwards…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">LC:
… through back channels, secretly. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">PJ:
Right. So I think at that point, President Kennedy realized that this Cold War
mentality was a dead-end street, and Mary was always on him saying, “Jack,
you’ve got to open up to something much, much bigger in terms of what you want
your real legacy to be about.” I think Mary’s influence around world peace
really started to have an increasing impact on him, but so did Khrushchev. This
was when there was a possibility of our country and Russia really becoming very
close to being friends. Right before JFK was assassinated in November, he gave
a speech at the United Nations and basically he told the people at the United
Nations that we were going to the moon. Russia and the US were going to go to
the moon together. This was going to be a joint effort. It was the ultimate
symbol of the end of the Cold War. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">LC:
So he was pushing for the end of the Cold War. You’ve got the nuclear test ban
treaty. You’ve got him wanting to get out of Vietnam. We didn’t have boots on
the ground there yet, but he wanted to be done with it, and he was butting
heads endlessly with the CIA and basically saying he wanted it not to disband
but greatly decrease its power. So it’s a lot of things that made him… the
military intelligence complex was not happy with JFK in many ways, and it
seems, or I think it’s pretty proven now, that they had connections to his
assassination. So he was assassinated and then almost a year later Mary Meyer
was killed by two gunshot wounds on a towpath here in DC, in broad daylight
while she was walking. And I was wondering if you can go through the details of
who they said initially killed her, and how she was killed on the towpath. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">PJ:
So this was about ten months later in October of 1964. Mary had read the Warren
Commission report. She realized that this was turning into the biggest cover-up
this country had ever seen, so she was contemplating going public with what she
knew, particularly what she had discovered in the last year in terms of what
really had gone on in Dallas. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">LC:
And she was and talking to some powerful people. She had a lot of powerful
friends. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">PJ:
She had a lot of powerful friends, and she had a lot of insider friends who
knew what was really taking place. So she took her daily walks on the towpath
after she painted in the morning. She was an aspiring artist really coming into
her own, so that’s when it was set up to take her out because she was on the
verge of going public with who she was in JFK’s life, as well as what she had
discovered in terms of the media now taking control and convincing the public
that Lee Harvey Oswald had alone been the crazy man who shot JFK. She just knew
it wasn’t true and she really felt the public needed to know. Had that
happened, people would have been very upset to hear this story because she was
not a frivolous human being. This was a very substantial woman who was highly
educated. </span><span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">They
pinned it on a guy—his name was Ray Crump—or they attempted to pin it on a guy
who was down in the towpath area that day…</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">LC:
… a 25-year-old black man who just happened to be down there. At first there
was only one eyewitness who did not say he saw this man. He just said he saw a
black man who was wearing certain items… <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">PJ:
… and following her, allegedly. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">LC:
So there’s this one eye witness who said he can’t identify the person, and he
gave a completely different size for the man that was much taller, much wider.
Then suddenly a second witness shows up the following day who’s a lieutenant in
the military. He didn’t say he saw the murder, but he said he saw Ray Crump
following Mary Meyer. Then there was a trial and, believe it or not, the state
failed to prove it, and he was found not guilty. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">PJ:
Right. That’s because of this legendary female black attorney, one of the first
who passed the bar in the in the DC area. Her name was Dovey Roundtree. There’s
a movie currently being made about her, and the book that’s been written about
her by a very good friend of mine by the name of Katie McCabe called Mighty Justice.
Dovey Roundtree became a legend in Washington legal circles for having gotten
Ray Crump acquitted because she said to the court, “Where’s the evidence? You
don’t have a gun. There isn’t any chemical evidence linking Ray Crump to the
murder scene.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">LC:
There’s no blood on him. He’s a completely different size than the eyewitness
says, and he’s got no motivation other than they claimed he just spontaneously
decided to try to sexually assault her and then kill her within the span of
about thirty seconds. It seems totally outlandish. Your book is pretty
impressive in hunting down someone who basically had been missing since that
trial, the second witness who saw Ray Crump on the path, Lieutenant William L.
Mitchell. The guy disappeared for many years and nobody could find him, but
then you tracked him down. Can you talk about how that went for a bit?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">PJ:
Well, when I wrote the first edition in 2012, I hadn’t found Mitchell, and I
thought that he was probably the likely assassin, but then someone pointed out
to me through a very elaborate Google search that this guy was probably out in
California teaching in Cal State Hayward Business School. And he was a very
highly educated guy… <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">LC:
… having slightly changed his name to Bill Mitchell. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">PJ:
Right, from William L. Mitchell to Bill Mitchell. He legally changed his name,
and, of course, I took him to task on that when I finally got him in front of
the deposition. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">LC:
So you eventually got him in for a deposition and he answered “I don’t recall”
to just about everything, half of the questions, and when asked why he changed
his name he couldn’t seem to give an answer for that, either. Eventually, you
got his military records which just screamed that he was a part of the
intelligence community because none of them made any sense. They were all over
the place.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">PJ:
Yes, I had a lot of help with that. Roger Charles, a world-class researcher,
along with his colleague Don Devereaux. They helped me immeasurably really come
to terms with who Bill Mitchell really was. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">LC:
So talk a little about Mary’s diary, which was a big part of this. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">PJ:
Well, I’ve never seen the diary. The author who attempted to write a book about
Mary allegedly had some pages of it, but I never was able to get ahold of it.
The only people who did see the diary were people like James Jesus Angleton at
the CIA, and a couple of his colleagues. But from all the folklore around it,
this is the way that Mary kept her record of what she was discovering post
Dallas, in that year from November ‘63 to her death in October ’64. She wrote a
lot of notes about what she had discovered. And in fact, when one CIA person
who had read the diary talked to another researcher many years later, he
confirmed for this guy that it was all there—all the right information, all the
secrets were there in that diary.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">LC:
And Ben Bradlee, who was both Mary’s brother-in-law and the managing editor of
the Washington Post… <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">PJ:
… not at that time. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">LC:
Yes, not at that time, but for many years. He said in his memoir that he did go
with, or was searching for the diary, with Jim Angleton at her house
afterwards.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">PJ:
There’s a lot of fishy stories about what happened because if you read the
transcript, Bradlee was in her studio the night of the murder. And I think he
was there with Angleton, although he never said that. They got into her studio.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">LC:
He didn’t say that in the transcript.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">PJ:
No, he didn’t say that. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">LC:
He didn’t say that in the 1965 trial in which he was put on the stand. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">PJ:
Right. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">LC:
From a psychological standpoint, I found this really fascinating. In his memoir
years later in the 90s, he claims that his sister-in-law was shot once and died
instantly, but everyone knows that’s not true. She was shot twice. It lasted 30
seconds or more. She was screaming, which is what got the witness to look in
that direction. So I think he was trying to appease his guilt by thinking she
didn’t suffer. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">PJ:
Right. And she knew she was going to die. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">LC:
It’s incredibly suspicious. We have to go to a quick break, but I’ll be right
back with the rest of this incredible interview. Don’t change the channel…
Welcome back. I’m still Lee Camp. Let’s not waste any time. Here now is the
rest of my interview with author Peter Janney. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">One
document you bring forward relating to JFK’s assassination that I had never
heard of, and coincidentally involved your father, was this. It notes what they
fear might come out of Jim Garrison’s trial. Jim Garrison, people might recall,
was played by Kevin Costner in the movie JFK by Oliver Stone, and in this
internal CIA document, they seem concerned that this trial is going to prove
the connection to the CIA. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">PJ:
Well, Clay Shaw, who was being prosecuted, claimed all through the trial that
he never worked for the CIA, had nothing to do with this. At this meeting that
my father was chairing in September of ’67, when Garrison was building momentum
for this trial, they had an upper echelon meeting of which they released the
minutes. I don’t know why they did because it really is a smoking gun. One of
James Jesus Angleton’s chief lieutenants, a guy named Ray Roca, came to the
meeting and basically said Garrison is going to get a conviction at this trial,
which is another way of saying, “Yes, Shaw is working for us, and of course we
were in on it.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">LC:
Right. You would only be worried that this lawyer was going to prove this if
there was something there to be proven, right? It seems like an admission. And,
coincidentally, your father was chairing the meeting? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">PJ:
Yes, that’s a whole other dimension of this story, in terms of my own personal
journey, of<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>what I went through in order
to come to the conclusion that I did that not only was my father leading the
cover-up of the JFK assassination, or one of the cover-ups, but he was part of
the conspiracy to take Mary Meyer out. That final realization—we talked about
this a little bit earlier before we went on air—it sent me back into my own
personal therapy. At that juncture I said I just don’t know whether I can do
this. I don’t know whether I can handle facing all of this. And luckily I had
already been in therapy years earlier with a wonderful woman who just was
really great, and so I just went back and saw her for several months and snapped
out of it and got the book done. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">LC:
The truth is the truth. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">PJ:
Yeah. Dig it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">LC:
Your father and others… One of the key pieces that you circle around and then
pinpoint is when they found out, or say they found out, that Mary had been
killed, and it ends up proving that they knew ahead of time. Can you talk about
that? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">PJ:
Well, when you take a look at what happened, and you go through the trial
transcript, and you see all the events that were carefully put in place, you
cannot come away from that… I couldn’t, finally, come away from this without
seeing this was a CIA operation from start to finish. They were controlling
every dimension of the murder itself, post murder, when Crump was picked up,
when the policeman showed up at Bradlee’s house and asked him to come down to
the morgue to identify the body. It was like clockwork. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">LC:
It’s tough to keep all those lies straight, which is ultimately what slipped
out because Bradlee said he found out hours before it had been publicly
announced.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">PJ:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And he found out because my father called and
said, “Ben, have you listened to the radio?” And he said, “Wistar, I’m at work.
Why would I be listening to the radio?” “Well, there’s been a murder down on
the towpath, and I’m just wondering where Mary is.” As if my father sits around
in his office all day long listening to the radio because he has nothing better
to do! It’s just very, very blatant.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">LC:
And it seems like they couldn’t exactly keep that straight. I wanted to real
quick get into some of these immediate questions that I had when I first
started reading the book, which was, “If this was a CIA hit, why wouldn’t they
just do it in her sleep where they can control the environment?” There’s no
eyewitness. It’s super easy—just shot in her sleep—no one knows anything. But
then you realize that if she had been going around talking to certain people
about how she thought CIA was involved in Kennedy’s assassination, killing her
without witnesses is very bad for them. So they need witnesses. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">PJ:
Exactly. It was done in a very public place, and I think there was a profound
amount of real engineering that went on where they were controlling the entire
situation from start to finish, and it was done by professionals. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">LC:
And similarly, with my next question: when the CIA wants to kill someone, or
any professional hitman wants to kill someone, you assume it can be done very
quickly and easily, unfortunately, however horrible that is, but this sounded
so messy. She was shot once. She was still alive. She was screaming. He dragged
her across the path. He then shot her again. I thought that sounds just far too
messy, but then it makes sense that they needed her screaming. They needed an
eyewitness. They wanted it to look like a sexual assault, which is not an
executioner walking up. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">PJ:
No, it’s just a random act of violence. That was the framework that they wanted
to try to do this with. I think they underestimated Mary. One shot wasn’t going
to take her out. She struggled and she fought. As I point out in the book, the assassin
was a very skilled assassin, and when he finally got her in the right embrace,
the second shot just went right through her aorta and that just knocked her
down and that was it. That was lights out. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">PJ:
You’ve talked a little about your journey in writing this book. You talked
about the other authors who had tried to write this book. One of them
ultimately decided not to after getting deep within it because he said he
wanted to live. Who knows what kind of threats were made to him? And then the other
one is Leo Damore who’s well known for the book about the cover-up of
Chappaquiddick with Ted Kennedy. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">PJ:
Senatorial Privilege is the name of that book. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">LC:
Damore got years and years into researching and writing this, and then
ultimately killed himself after becoming more and more paranoid, rightfully so,
about being watched or possibly followed and stuff like that. Just talk about
that, and talk about how that weighed on you while you were writing this.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">PJ:
When I found out Leo Damore was taking this topic on—I think it was probably
the late 1980s, maybe very early ‘90s—I went out of my way to contact him and
introduced myself, and he knew who my father was immediately because he said,
“Oh, your father was one of the pallbearers at the funeral.” And I said, “Yes,
that’s right.” I knew the family very well. I grew up with one of the sons who
was my best friend, who was hit by a car and killed. So I befriended Leo
Damore, and we had a couple of years where we would talk sometimes twice a
month. I would go down to his place in Connecticut. We would do interviews, and
he really had painstakingly started to put this together. Just having finished
his book about Ted Kennedy and Chappaquiddick, he went right into researching
this book. He befriended the attorney Dovey Roundtree [who had defended Crump]
who started confiding to him all the little nasty things that were going on
during the trial. And she would get these phone calls late at night with people
just breathing on the phone but not really saying anything. They were obviously
trying to intimidate her and scare her, but then something happened with Leo. I
don’t have proof of it, but he complained of being poisoned. Someone might have
“slipped him a mickey,” so to speak. The CIA had a whole department run by this
guy Sidney Gottlieb who created all these substances, all these poisons to take
people out. He wanted to do it to Castro. He did it for another individual that
I talk about in the book, so I don’t think it’s far-fetched. And I have to live
in conspiracy land to believe that someone got to Damore. As one famous ex-CIA
person said, “It’s easy to commit a murder, but it takes a lot of expertise to
know how to commit a suicide.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">LC:
How horrible is that? That’s incredible. So this last question may be the
hardest one. Do you feel anything has changed with the unaccountability of our
intelligence community? If there’s one thing to get out of this book it’s that
they felt like they just ruled the world. They didn’t have to worry even about
elected officials getting in their way. They could deal with them. And you talk
about how Cord Meyer was in charge of a project called Operation Mockingbird
that I’ve talked about on my show before, which was to insert CIA views into
various news organizations so they always could get good coverage, whatever
coverage they needed at the time. Nowadays that program is not around anymore,
but nowadays you don’t have to do it secretly. Our mainstream media just says
here’s our CIA correspondent and they just fawn over their every word. It’s no
longer a secret program. So are things worse than they were?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">PJ:
I would say they’re worse in some ways, but they’re better in the sense that
people are waking up. There is an awakening in our culture. You now have over
eighty percent of the population—I think, according to the last research done
on this—believing that the Warren Commission was not truthful, that they
believe that there was a conspiracy in the death of a sitting president. I
think that’s what it takes, and it’s shows like yours and others that really
serve to help educate anyone who’s willing to listen, to really understand what
their government is truly up to. So in this day and age, we live in the
surveillance age. We have whistleblowers like Ed Snowden who really tried to do
the right thing, and John Kiriakou, who we talked about earlier. There are a
number of them now who are coming forward, but this is what it’s going to take.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">LC:
Courage is contagious. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">PJ:
Courage is contagious, and it’s very, very necessary.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">LC:
Well, thank you so much, Peter. The book is <i>Mary’s Mosaic: The CIA Conspiracy
to Murder JFK, Marry Pinchot Meyer and Their Vision for World Peace</i>. Thank you
so much. I highly recommend it. We couldn’t get to half of what’s in there. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">PJ:
A lot of people tell me the book reads like a novel, so I think many in your
audience will find it a valuable read. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">LC:
Thanks again. All right. That’s the show…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Notes<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-fareast-language: JA;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span>
Lisa Pease, “<a href="https://kennedysandking.com/john-f-kennedy-reviews/janney-peter-mary-s-mosaic-part-1">Peter
Janney, Mary's Mosaic (Part 1)</a>,” <i>Kennedys and King</i>, June 21, 2012.<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="edn2" style="mso-element: endnote;">
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<span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">James
DiEugenio, “</span><a href="https://kennedysandking.com/john-f-kennedy-reviews/janney-peter-mary-s-mosaic-part-2"><span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Peter Janney,
Mary's Mosaic (Part 2)</span></a><span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">,” <i>Kennedys and King</i>, July 12, 2012. Peter
Janney’s rebuttal to these two reviews was published </span><a href="https://www.lewrockwell.com/2012/07/peter-janney/the-autodaf-of-lisa-pease-and-jamesdieugenio-tomas-de-torquemada-and-the-spanish-inquisition-return-in-a-new-era-of-suppression-of-freedom-of-thought-and-adherence-to-a-rigid-dogma-namely-thei/"><span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">here</span></a><span style="font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-fareast-language: JA;">[3]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span>
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">Lisa
Pease, <i>A Lie Too Big to Fail</i> (Feral House, 2018).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-fareast-language: JA;">[4]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span>
Peter Janney, <i>Mary's Mosaic: The CIA Conspiracy to Murder John F. Kennedy,
Mary Pinchot Meyer, and Their Vision for World Peace, Third Edition</i>
(Skyhorse, 2016), chapter 14.<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Open Sans"; mso-fareast-language: JA;">[5]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span>
Anne Truitt, <i>Daybook: The Journal of an Artist</i> (Pantheon, 1982),
200-201.<i> </i>In <i>Mary’s Mosaic</i>, chapter 7.<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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