When we stop eating with people. When we start shooting strangers.

Nicky Hager recently published a book, Other People's Wars, in which he demonstrates New Zealand's true war "aid". With stats from the Ministry of Defence, private testimony and other sources, he shows the SAS are not there to reconstruct. Instead they take an active part in the war in Afghanistan. This is known to many left wing activists, but to some it has always had the ring of a conspiracy theory. Now they could be proven wrong.
As Nicky says, very few people know what is actually going on in Afghanistan. All we get is "candy-flossed" media coverage, always showing the New Zealand troops as didactic peace-keepers. Why then do they die "in combat"? We all thought they weren't combating? You see the media does not lie, but it may often hide the truth. Peace-keepers are sometimes described under the term "peace enforcers", this would be a much more accurate representation of their role. NATO is enforcing our defenition of peace, our defintion of society and to our economical or political benefit. This is New Zealand's longest war, yet we have nothing to do there. The war on terror, whatever that is, finished 4 months ago with the death of Osama.
Nicky tells us that the SAS are not just in Afghanistan and Iraq, we have a presence in Oman and Yemen too as well as other regions of the world. We are lied to in this case, but mainly it is because of politicians and a corrupt media system, no longer a watchdog of public interests but a lapdog of private greed.
Here is a Press interview with Nicky about his book.

Politicians also lie to us about the policy that gets passed in parliament, or that which is still on the books. A food bill will go through soon, it is vague and weighs a ton and a half and we wouldn't be wrong to see it as our own food bible. It tells us what we will and will not be able to do, for our health and security. There is the potential that food stalls, sausage sizzles, lemonade stands, community gardens etc., will be closed or restricted to only a few sellers and users. If not it will definetly be covered and wrapped with thick red tape.
In the US people have already been arrested for sharing food, bartering and growing it in their own gardens/manufacturing it. We do not want a law like this to pass,  even especially if it has been created by the WTO.

Last, New Zealanders will soon have to vote in a referendum. Many of us do not know, but we are going to have to vote on our system of vote. According to Metiria Turei, the referendum is being pushed by National because FPP (First past the post) would give it an absolute majority in parliament. ACT is also behind it, even though FPP would destroy its presence in parliament, just like it will destroy the presence of all minor New Zealand parties, possibly even the Greens. A voting system that does not allow a party with 8% of the vote to get in is far from representative.
In the referendum we will be asked whether we want to keep MMP or not. MMP is the current system. It is much more representative as it allows the presence of minor parties. While it could become more representative, even if we decide to keep it it will be reviewed in order to improve it.
Become informed, you will be asked to vote in a month's time. The campaign has been shortened because of the rugby so you should inform yourselves, it is to National's interests to keep you apathetic.
Here are some short youtube vids on the referendum, MMP anf FPP.

These issues and a couple of others were talked about on the Social Justice League, on radio 1 10-12 Fridays.

End of poverty? Think again.

This is an awesome movie everyone should watch. It looks at how illogical this obsession with growth is, looking at historical and current situations from Bolivia to Kenya. Featuring top grade economists. Watch it!

Is Egypt Free at last??

I have taken my time to comment on Egypt, mostly because I haven't found it. I have been working quite a bit and I really just haven't been able to. It's also been very dificult to comment on something we don't completely understand. Al Jazeera is giving us a lot of info, but I don't know how many of you tune on, and I myself haven't really been able to. But even Al Jazeera has been hiding info (it too is a a product of foreign policy), they mostly talk to English talking people,  so we aren't actually able to get information from your average Caireine slum dweller, rubbish scavenger or fruit vendor. Moreover, the last time I watched Al Jaz they were talking about protests, but at that point in time didn't tell us what the chants were, now this is important. It's very different to chant "Mubarak out now" than "We want change, we want democracy we want socialism", I don't think the latter would be apropriated though, Egypt isn't ready. It would be 1917 again, a repetition of already made errors which just paved the streets for a new tyrant under another banner, an even bigger lie.

Yesterday Mubarak stepped down, after thirty years in power, after almost three weeks of on-going protests that have swept the world's attention. Mubarak's forces tried to hold up as much as possible, it has been difficult to know who the military were backing. There have been times where army and people backed each other up or protected each other, others in which people were shot down for shouting. Now they are the ones controlling the country, they have vowed for a smooth transition, but it is the people who will have to keep them in check. Their barricades must stay strong and Tahrir square must continue to be the centre-point of the revolution, because it has not yet ended. I believe the people will get democracy in Egypt, a democracy still bad, resembling ours, but a democracy nontheless. I hope Egypt and Tunisia manage to create a liberal democracy in which all people will be represented. This would become an example for the rest of the middle East, where the masses have yet to rise even though the conditions in Algeria, Morocco, Yemen and so many other nations differ so little.
All I know is that the Egyptian and Tunisian people spoke out and it worked, who says it can't elsewhere, in places where the government is less powerful? This is the best vid on the Egyptian revolution and here you can find how Tunisia is starting to take on its rebirth. The words "We will not be silenced, whether you're a Christian, whether you're a muslim, an atheist. You will get back your goddamn rights and we will have our rights one way or another", from a protestor are probably to become one of the lines of the revolution. It is a people's revolution. I'd call it for bread and butter. they want food, but they also want to become western, they want to become secular.
Jefferson said that "when the people fear their government it's a tyranny. When the government fears its people it's called liberty." We could say that both Tunisians and Egyptians are more free, but they still need their food and they're still going to have to fight for rights we consider normal, whether they are women's, gay or workers'. The future for them is young and full of hope.

And if you want to know what the Kiwi army is doing in Egypt check it out.

Julian Assange, accused of raping a system he merely exposed.

We all know who Julian Assange is and we've all developped our own opinions of him. For some he is a thief, for stealing secret documents which they believe can actually threaten the lives of a few. For others he has merely done the honest thing, showing the world's citizens what their governments are actually doing but deny. I'm closer to the latter position. I think those threatened are in positions where they can take the diplomatic immunity card. What's more, I don't think we can compare the lives of so many civilians dead in Afghanistan or Iraq, hitherto hidden from the public records with those of a few diplomats who've been living a relatively simple life.
I think we are in trouble if it becomes a crime to tell the truth, especially when those who represent us don't, and are paid to. All Wikileaks has done is expose the world's governments but especially the US's imperialist policies and secret wars. Because most of the leaks concern US embassies, or US wars or US economic policies. At the very least US intersts in the world.
Would Palestinians have been happy to know that Fatah wanted the Israelis to bomb Hamas, fellow Palestinians? I think not. Do Saudis want Iran bombed, by the U.S.? I think not. Was the UN aware that the US was spying on the organization and its members? I doubt it. Soon Wikileaks is going to reveal the actions of the Bank of America. Exposing the realities of the capitalist system as a whole. It is about time people realize that this system has stopped working for the masses. It works for the Prime ministers, Presidents, parliamentaries and polititians, but that's about it. People are no longer even allowed to know what is happening in the world. I quote from Socialist Alternative:

Charles Krauthammer, a Washington Post op-ed columnist, was bluntest of all:
The problem is not that the purloined cables exposed US hypocrisy or double-dealing. Good God, that’s the essence of diplomacy. That’s what we do; that’s what everyone does…
“That’s what we do.” What sort of a system is this where those whose job it is supposed to be to hold those in power to account can be so blasé in the face of rank corruption of the highest order, at the highest levels? On what other planet could such forthright, frank assessment be useful propaganda? “Lies, assassinations, rank hypocrisy? Never mind, it has always been like this don’t you know?” 

Did you know that the lawyer defending the two rape victims, Claes Borgstrom, is also a polititian? Maybe he's also affected by the leaks? Why else did he re-open a closed case?

Assange isn't perfect either. If he in fact has raped those two victims, he should pay for it. However two judges have decided that he's innocent, and this accusation came just in time. If the US, interpol or whoever wanted to accuse assange of something, they had this. People despise thiefs and fraudsters but especially hate rapists. The trauma rapists cause doesn't go away. If these two victims aren't actually victims, they are downplaying the suffering millions, regretfully, suffer. They are almost making rape seem as an excuse, or a joke. It clearly isn't. Whether rapists do it because of society or their past is a different question but rape isn't something which we can laugh about, or misapply.
For all I know, Assange is reported to be authoritarian within Wikileaks, imposing his point of view among others. Also, Wikileaks' bank accounts have never been made public and when Bradley Manning was arrested in relation to the leaks, Wikileaks never gave him the money they had raised to help his case.

He may not be perfect, but in my world only liars are bad. He has been tagged a criminal for telling the truth. Free Speech has been kicked out of the backdoor. I'll finish with Assange's words:

[T]hose who commit abuses against humanity or against the law find abusing legitimate secrecy to conceal their abuse all too easy. People of good conscience have always revealed abuses by ignoring abusive strictures. It is not Wikileaks that decides to reveal something. It is a whistleblower or a dissident who decides to reveal it. Our job is to make sure that these individuals are protected, the public is informed and the historical record is not denied…

We all only live once. So we are obligated to make good use of the time that we have and to do something that is meaningful and satisfying. This is something that I find meaningful and satisfying… I enjoy helping people who are vulnerable. And I enjoy crushing bastards.

If everyone who believes what he believes were to be put in prison, we wouldn't find a continent big enough to put us in.

Here's an interview by Al-Jazeera with Wikileaks.

If London was occupied.

This is an amazing vid about the daily struggles the Palestinians have to endure, set somewhere closer to us.