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By B. R. Gowani

Rome was burning
While Nero was playing the fiddle
Some truth and some not…

Rome was burning, that is true
but no music was playing then
though he knew the lyre and was a singer

Like other Roman Emperors,
Nero was cruel and merciless
During his heinous reign
Christians were thrown to the dogs

In 64 CE
When 25% of Rome burnt to ashes
And 50% was badly damaged
Nero could not have been fiddling;
There were no fiddles then.

Musharraf’s policies set Pakistan on fire
True it continues to rage on …
Not yet under control
He is playing the tabla and singing songs in England,
where it appears he’ll be the Queen’s guest for a while

If he returns to Pakistan
And the judiciary proves stronger;
Then shed no tears for him
For the military will ship him out for medical treatment.

Rest assured no one can touch him,
He is of the military elite
And no such fate as Z Bhutto can be allowed.

B. R. Gowani can be reached brgowani@hotmail.com

French psychiatrist and revolutionary writer, whose writings had profound influence on the radical movements in the 1960s in the United States and Europe. As a political thinker born in Martinique, Fanon’s views gained audience in the Caribbean islands along with Aimé Césaire, Edouard Glissant, C.L.R. James, and Eric Williams. Fanon rejected the concept of Négritude – a term first used by Césaire – and stated that persons’ status depends on their economical and social position. Fanon believed that violent revolution is the only means of ending colonial repression and cultural trauma in the Third World.

“Violence,” he argued, “is a cleansing force. It frees the native from his inferiority complex and from his despair and inaction; it makes him fearless and restores his self-respect.”

“I have no wish to be the victim of the Fraud of a black world.
My life should not be devoted to drawing up the balance sheet of Negro values.
There is no white world, there is no white ethic, any more than there is a white intelligence.
There are in every part of the world men who search.
I am not a prisoner of history. I should not seek there for the meaning of my destiny.
I should constantly remind myself that the real leap consists in introduction invention into existence.
In the world through which I travel, I am endlessly creating myself.” (Fanon in Black Skin, White Masks, 1952)

Frantz Fanon grew up in Martinique amid descendants of African slaves, who had been brought to the Caribbean to work on the island’s sugar plantations. Fanon’s father Casimir worked in the customs service; he died in 1947. At the lycée Schoelcher in Fort-de-France, where Fanon studied, one of his teachers was Aimé Césaire.
In his teenage Fanon became politically active and participated in the guerrilla struggle against the supporters of the pro-Nazi French Vichy government. He served in the Free French forces and volunteered to go to Europe to fight. After the war he studied medicine and psychiatry in Paris and Lyons. Among Fanon’s friends was Edouard Glissant, his younger compatriot, who studied philosophy and history at the Sorbonne. Fanon was, according to Glissant “extremely sensitive”. Glissant debuted as a poet with Un champ d’îles (1953), Fanon’s first major work, BLACK SKIN, WHITE MASKS, appeared in 1952.

The book, analyzed the impact of colonialism and its deforming effects, had a major influence on civil rights, anti-colonial, and black consciousness movements around the world. Fanon argued that white colonialism imposed an existentially false and degrading existence upon its black victims to the extent that it demanded their conformity to its distorted values. The colonized is not seen by the colonizer a human being; this is also the picture the colonized is forced to accept. Fanon demonstrates how the problem of race, of color, connects with a whole range of words and images, starting from the symbol of the dark side of the soul. “Is not whiteness in symbols always ascribed in French to Justice, Truth, Virginity?” Fanon examines race prejudices as a philosopher and psychologist although he acknowledges social and economic realities. The tone of the text varies from outrage to cool analysis and its poetic grace has not lost anything from its appeal.

In 1952 Fanon began to practice in a psychiatric ward in Algeria. He married in 1953 a young white Frenchwoman. At Blida-Joinville’s hospital, where Fanon worked as the director of the psychiatric department, he applied the ideas of François Tosquelles, an innovative practitioner of group therapy. In 1954 the National Liberation Front (FLN) started its open warfare against French rule.

After three years Fanon resigned and allied himself with the Algerian liberation movement that sought to throw off French rule. Fanon travelled guerrilla camps from Mali to Sahara, hid terrorists at his home and trained nurses to dress wounds. In 1959 he was severely wounded on the border of Algeria and Morocco. Fanon then worked briefly as an ambassador of the provisional Algerian government to Ghana and edited in Tunisia the magazine Moudjahid. During this period he also founded Africa’s first psychiatric clinic. Much of his writing concentrated on the Algerian revolution, including the essays published in L’AN CINQ, DE LA RÉVOLUTION ALGÉRIENNE (1959), in which he calls for armed struggle against the French imperialism. Fanon himself did not live long enough to witness Algeria’s independence.

Fanon survived several political murder attempts, and also the slaughter in 1957, in which the F.L.N. killed 300 suspected supporters of a rival rebel group. After a 1,200-mile intelligence expedition in 1960, from Mali to the Algerian, he was seriously ill. Finally Fanon was taken of leukemia and died in Washington, DC, on December 12, 1961. After negotiations, his body was flown back to Algeria to be buried on Algerian soil. Josie Fanon, his wife, committed suicide in Algiers in 1989.

Fanon’s last work, The Wretched of the Earth (1961), was called by its publisher “the handbook for the black revolution”. The book was based on Fanon’s experiences in Algeria during the war of independence. Using Marxist framework, Fanon explores the class conflict and questions of cultural hegemony in the creation and maintenance of a new country’s national consciousness. “In guerrilla war the struggle no longer concerns the place where you are, but the places where you are going. Each fighter carries his warring country between his toes.”

The Wretched of the Earth became one of the central documents of the black liberation movement. Fanon’s writings also influenced such anticolonial writers as Kenya’s Ngugi Wa Thiong’o, Zimbabwe’s Tsitsi Dangarembga, and Senegal’s Ousmane Sembène. In contrast to Mao and orthodox Leninism, Fanon did not accept the view that the Communist party leads the revolution, but he believed that the revolutionary party grows from the struggle. As a Marxist Fanon argued that postcolonial African nations end in disaster if they simply replace their white colonial bourgeois leaders with black African bourgeoisie trained by Europeans – oppression remains under capitalistic class structure. “The national bourgeoisie will be greatly helped on its way toward decadence by the Western bourgeoisies, who come to it as tourists avid for the exotic, for big game hunting, and for casinos. The national bourgeoisie organizes centers of rest and relaxation and pleasure resorts to meet the wishes of the Western bourgeoisie. Such activity is given the mane of tourism, and for the occasion will be built up as a national industry.”

For further reading: Fanon by D. Caute (1970); Colonialism and Alienation by Renate Zahar (1974); Frantz Fanon by L. Gendzier (1973); Frantz Fanon: Social and Political Thought by Emmanuel Hansen (1977); A Critique of Revolutionary Humanism: Frantz Fanon by Richard C. Onwuanibe (1983); Holy Violence by B. Marie Perinbam (1983); Frantz Fanon and the Psychology of Oppression by Hussein Abdilahi Bulhan (1985); Fanon: In Search of the African Revolution by J. Adele Jinadu (1986); Fanon and the Crisis of European Man by Lewis R. Gordon (1995); Fanon: A Critical Reader, ed. by Lewis R. Gordon (1996); Fanon’s Dialectic Experience by Ato Sekyi-Otu (1997); Frantz Fanon: Conflicts and Feminisms by T. Denean Sharpley-Whiting (1997); Fanon for Beginners by Deborah Wyrick (1998); Rethinking Fanon, ed. by Nigel C. Gibson (1999); Frantz Fanon: A Life by David Macey (2000); Frantz Fanon: A Biography by David Macey (2001)
Selected works:
• PEAU NOIR, MASQUES BLANCS, 1952 – Black Skin, White Masks (trans. by Charles Lam Markham)
• L’AN CINQ DE LA RÉVOLUTION ALGÉRIENNE, 1959 – Studies in a Dying Colonialism
• LES DAMNÉS DE LA TERRE, 1961 – The Wretched Earth (trans. by Constance Farrington) – Sorron yöstä
• POUR LA RÉVOLUTION AFRICAN, 1964 – Toward the African Revolution (trans. by Haakon Chevalier)

Kirjasto for more

A brief biopic on Franz Fanon

By Raúl Zibechi

USS George WashingtonThe imminent agreement between the United States and Colombia over the use of seven military bases by the Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) forms part of the major dispute over commonly held resources throughout the South American region.

First, a few recent updates:

* Venezuela has become the number one country in the world in potential oil reserves, following the announcement by the Venezuelan state-owned petroleum company PDVSA that locates an estimated 314 billion barrels in the Orinoco Heavy Oil belt. According to PDVSA, the findings show Venezuela knocking Saudi Arabia down to number two in the world with 264 billion barrels. (1)

* Fatih Birol, chief economist of the International Energy Agency (IEA), affirms that the oil crisis will hit much sooner than previously expected. “The world is heading for a catastrophic energy crunch that could cripple a global economic recovery, as most of the world’s major oil fields have passed their peak production.” Birol maintains that the figures the IEA had previously used were incorrect and he predicts that peak oil production will be reached in 10 years (2020 rather than 2030).

Birol points out, “The first detailed assessment of more than 800 oil fields in the world, covering three-quarters of global reserves, has found that most of the biggest fields have already peaked and that the rate of decline in oil production is now running at nearly twice the pace calculated just two years ago.” The decline in oil production in existing fields is now running at 6.7% per year compared to the 3.7% decline the IEA had estimated in 2007. (2)

* Twenty years ago, China was the 12th largest trading partner with Latin America, with a commercial volume that totaled slightly more than US$ 8 billion. Since 2007 China has become the number two partner, more than tripling that figure and recently reaching a volume greater than US$ 100 billion. China has been establishing strategic partnerships with Brazil since the 90s, followed by agreements with Venezuela, Mexico, Argentina, Chile, and Peru.

This year, China has negotiated agreements that would double a development fund in Venezuela to US$ 12 billion, lend US$ 1 billion to Ecuador for the construction of a hydroelectric plant, give Argentina access to US$ 10 billion for several projects, and another US$ 10 billion to the Brazilian state-owned oil company.

According to official Brazilian figures, the volume of bilateral trade between Brazil and China reached US$ 36.4 billion in 2008, a 55.9% increase over the previous year. In April of this year, China became Brazil’s number one trading partner, usurping the United States. China’s admittance as a donor country within the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) last April (after 15 years of negotiations), was a major indicator of its growing commitment to strengthen relationships in the region. (3)

* An important turning point has occurred in terms of Brazil’s political economy and its relation to the United States. From August 2008 to May of this year, in the midst of the exploding global financial crisis, Brazil reduced its investment in U.S. bonds by 17% – the largest reduction made by any of Washington’s 15 biggest creditors. In contrast, within the same period, Russia increased its purchase of Federal Reserve issue bonds by 20% and China made a 40% increase in its purchases. (4)

* The Chinese state-owned petroleum company (CNPC) decided to step up its acquisitions in Africa and Latin America because “the relatively low prices of overseas assets this year have offered us unprecedented opportunities.” One of these opportunities could be the purchase of 84% of Repsol YPF’s stakes in its Argentine unit for US$ 17 billion, in a deal with China’s third largest oil company CNOOC. The deal would be the largest overseas investment made by China. (5)

These recent events, reported in last week’s international press, demonstrate the intense competition for natural resources in the region among the world’s economic powerhouses. In parallel, the region’s most important countries (Argentina, Brazil, and Venezuela) have begun conducting transactions in currencies other than the U.S. dollar and establishing partnerships with Asian countries and other emerging powers.

The weight of economic factors linked to hegemonic powers is evident in the decision to increase U.S. military presence in Colombia. Obama is demonstrably making more strategic decisions of this kind.

Brazzil for more

In the strife-torn valley of India-controlled Kashmir, the decades-long conflict continues to take its toll, especially on its young. Dilnaz Boga has met some of them.

Every Friday, after the prayers, the slogans begin. A violent dance of marking territories unfolds on the streets of Srinagar, the summer capital of India’s northern state of Jammu and Kashmir. Shops draw their shutters, the streets empty and residents avoid peeking out of their windows for fear of tear-gas shells. ‘Yesterday, the CRPF broke all the windows,’ says Mumtaz Begum from Nowhatta. ‘We’ve stopped replacing the glass.’ Suddenly, the troops position themselves to push the protesters back. Trouble begins.

When people don’t get justice, they have no choice but to take to the streets

Flying stones bounce off the shutters of closed shops. Protesters charge at the band of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) men. The uniformed men take cover behind an armoured vehicle and ‘the match’ begins. Both sides pelt each other with stones. When the battle seems to get out of hand, tear gas is fired. But the young boys remain undeterred. They change tactics by trying to use the by-lanes in an attempt to surround the forces. They begin the charge. Too close for comfort, the forces resort to discharging shells at close range. Unfazed, the attackers abuse them and continue to engage them.

A masked teenager rushes at a battered armoured vehicle nicknamed the Taj Mahal, and kicks it, knowing well that two gun barrels are sticking out of its rear door. ‘This vehicle has been stoned so many times, it is ruined. That’s why we call it the Taj,’ laughs a protester. Fleeing the shots fired by security personnel, the protesters and I take shelter in somebody’s house. A wedding is in progress. Ten minutes later, when the firing stops, we step out to find the forces gone. ‘They’ll be back. They’ve gone for reinforcements. It’s about to turn ugly,’ a local photojournalist says ominously. He adds: ‘In the Hindu-dominated Jammu region, they use water cannons to deal with protesters. In Muslim-dominated Kashmir, they use bullets. That’s life.’ Alienation from mainstream India and victimization are the dominant sentiments here.

Newint for more

New research at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston suggests that ancient Chinese herbal formulas used primarily for cardiovascular indications including heart disease may produce large amounts of artery-widening nitric oxide. Findings of the preclinical study by scientists in the university’s Brown Foundation Institute of Molecular Medicine for the Prevention of Human Diseases (IMM) appear in the Sept. 15 print issue of the journal Free Radical Biology & Medicine.

Nitric oxide is crucial to the cardiovascular system because it signals the inner walls of blood vessels to relax, which facilitates the flow of blood through the heart and circulatory system. The messenger molecule also eliminates dangerous clots, lowers high blood pressure and reduces artery-clogging plaque formation.

The results from this study reveal that ancient Chinese herbal formulas “have profound nitric oxide bioactivity primarily through the enhancement of nitric oxide in the inner walls of blood vessels, but also through their ability to convert nitrite and nitrate into nitric oxide,” said Nathan S. Bryan, Ph.D., the study’s senior author and an IMM assistant professor.

Herbal formulas are a major component of traditional Chinese medicines (TCMs), which also include acupuncture and massage. “TCMs have provided leads to safe medications in cancer, cardiovascular disease and diabetes,” said C. Thomas Caskey, M.D., IMM director and CEO. “The opportunity for Dr. Bryan’s work is outstanding given that cardiac disease is the No. 1 cause of death in the United States.”

Biology News for more

By Jolio Godoy

BERLIN, Aug 20 (IPS) – It was announced as a terror plot busted. German police had captured three young Muslim men in the small village Medebach-Oberschledor, some 450 km southwest of Berlin Sep. 4 in 2007. The police declared they had seized 730 kilograms of hydrogen peroxide, enough to make 550 kg of explosives.

The three men, and a fourth, who was captured a year later in Turkey, wanted to bomb U.S. military and other facilities in Germany, and to kill “as many U.S. soldiers as possible,” one of the accused later confessed.

The four men told court their plans were in retaliation against the U.S. war on ‘Islamic terrorism’, especially the abuse of hundreds of Muslims detained at Guantanamo prison. German authorities and the media dubbed the four men ‘the Sauerland group’, in reference to the region where they were captured.

The Sauerland group were declared to be members of the Islamic Jihad Union, an alleged terrorist organisation based in Uzbekistan.

Almost two years later, the case is before the higher regional court in Duesseldorf, some 460 km southwest of Berlin, and should come to a close early 2010.

But now, the case has ceased to be “the serious terrorist threat” it was called. It is now a mysterious puzzle of secret service games, prosecutors’ alarmism spread by the media, and basic failures of justice.

The supposedly dangerous group members have emerged as no more than some muddle-heads. They had no links whatsoever to international Islamic terror groups.

“No Islamic chief villain…in Pakistan or somewhere else influenced the group,” says Hans Leyendecker, one of Germany’s top investigative journalists. “Its members are dumb, narrow-minded young men who hate the U.S.”

IPS for more

By MICHAEL HUDSON

In the wake of the world crash populations are asking not only whether debts should be paid, but whether they can be paid! If they can’t be, then trying to pay will only shrink economics further, preventing them from becoming viable. This is what has led past structural adjustment programs to fail.

For the past decade Iceland has been a kind of controlled experiment, an extreme test case of neoliberal free-market ideology. What has been tested has been whether there is a limit to how far a population can be pushed into debt-dependency. Is there a limit, a point at which government will draw a line against by taking on public responsibility for private debts beyond any reasonable capacity to pay without drastically slashing public spending on education, health care and other basic services?

The problem for the post-Soviet economies such as Latvia is that independence in 1991 did not bring the hoped-for Western living standards. Like Iceland, these countries remain dependent on imports for their consumer goods and capital equipment. Their trade deficits have been financed by the global property bubble – borrowing in foreign currency against property that was free of debt at the time of independence. Now these assets are fully “loaned up,” the bubble has burst and payback time has arrived. No more credit is flowing to the Baltics from Swedish banks, to Hungary from Austrian banks, or to Iceland from Britain and the Netherlands. Unemployment is rising and governments are slashing healthcare and education budgets. The resulting economic shrinkage is leaving large swaths of real estate with negative equity.

Can Iceland and Latvia pay the foreign debts run up by a fairly narrow layer of their population? The European Union and International Monetary Fund have told them to replace private debts with public obligations, and to pay by raising taxes, slashing public spending and obliging citizens to deplete their savings.

Counterpunch for more

Written by Kevin Pina

Kevin Pina is a journalist and filmmaker who has been covering events in Haiti since 1991. Pina is also the Founding Editor of the Haiti Information Project(HIP), an alternative news agency based in Port au Prince.

That the Lavalas political movement opposed the neo-liberal economic model of development that is currently unfolding in Haiti today is without question. The insistence of the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank on structural adjustments that included eliminating import and export tariffs, selling off State-owned industries and businesses, maintaining a low minimum wage and an obsessive reliance on the private sector as the motor for economic development was called the “death plan.”

The major obstacle to the plan of the International Financial Institutions (IFIs) for Haiti was democracy itself in the form of the Lavalas movement representing the interests of the majority of the poor and the president they elected twice, Jean Bertrand Aristide. The government refused to privatize key industries like the Telephone Company (Teleco) and the Electrical company (EDH) and while the IFIs also insisted that social programs be cut, the Fanmi Lavalas party would take profits from these State-owned businesses to invest in a universal literacy program and to provide millions of subsidized meals for the poor. For the first time in history Haiti had a safety net in place to insure against widespread hunger and malnutrition. Over the objections of the IFIs and Haiti’s predatory economic elite, the minimum wage was doubled twice during Aristide’s first and second terms for the lowest paid work force in the hemisphere. Not so coincidentally, both of Aristide’s terms were cut short by a coup.

Upside Down World for more