From: db (email suppressed)
Date: Mon Dec 04 2006 - 16:24:59 PST
On Dec 4, 2006, at 1:01 PM, Philip Hood wrote:
> when your nose it totally clean,
> then go talking about someone else's nose -
Are we talking big boogers or just a little snot?
Seriously, though, if this were the necessary protocol for getting
things done, nothing would ever get done. There is a difference
between idealism and pragmatism. Plus, many are capable of working on
multiple fronts simultaneously.
I am as deeply offended by the Police murder of Amadou Diallo or the
nightstick rape by Police of Abner Louima in NYC as I am by the
murder of Steven Biko in SA, or of an anonymous Palestinian killed by
an Israeli cluster bomb bought from the United States, or those
annihilated in Iraq by a "Bunker Buster," or an elderly Jewish man
thrown from the Achille Lauro, or the firebombing of Dresden, or the
gassing of Kurds and Iranians by Hussein, or the napalming of
Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, or the Occupation of Tibet by the
Chinese, or the water boarding of an Algerian under French Occupation
in 1962, or Indonesia's suppression in Timor, or the corporate
negligence of Union Carbide in Bhopal, or the violence perpetrated in
Burma against the Karen, or of Auschwitz, Treblinka and Sobibor, or
two atomic bombs dropped on Japan in 1945, or the brutal Occupation
of Manchuria by the Japanese Army, or the US internment camps of
Manzanar, Tule Lake, Heart Mountain, Mindoka and Gila River, or the
genocidal history in the Americas of the native populations (by
Spain, Portugal, Britain, the US, et al), or the Police killings of
the mentally disturbed in Portland, Oregon (Jose Santos Victor Mejia
Poot, James Chasse). I could go on, but is that necessary?
Or, haven't you heard: "we're living in a Global Society now."
To jump off from the South African examples in the original call
(with no intent to equate SA with Israel), the Rolling Stones would
yet be playing at an apartheid Sun City stadium if international
pressure hadn't been applied to that country (for the parsers: not to
suggest that such a result was the end-all goal in the quest for
ending apartheid).
From the 1985 Kalahari Surfers album, 'Living In the Heart of the
Beast':
"Township Beat"
Some of us work and some of us play
Summer in the city we make money every day
We play the games of the wealthy patrons of the State
and do the clubs at night.
We need to fornicate.
We need to suffocate.
The lap of luxury.
It is a fashionable street.
We like the Township Beat.
The only thing that moves our feet.
This is the life of the white in Johannesburg
Removed from reality, haven't you heard,
"The Rolling Stones are here."
They're throwing stones out there.
Some of us work and some of us play
Some of us have to live with Police every day
They do the Township Beat to keep them running in the street.
Even the little ones have got no shoes upon their feet
And the Police beat.
These aren't fashionable streets.
But we like the Township Beat.
It's the only thing that moves our feet.
Rise up people, rise up
Rise up people and seize the day
Rise up
And the news screens are there, full of violent fear
They take their chances with the tear gas advances of Police.
They run for shelter.
It is a helter skelter.
At the S.A.D. they transmit it through their satellites
No one spots the aridity... (lyrics unknown)
The government man, he does not understand
That the people overseas watch us all with ease on their televisions.
"Our people, the people of this country,
have now stood up and said, 'Leave Us Alone!'
"'Leave us Alone! Let us determine our own future.'"
They see the tear gas falling from the heavens above
The people run for cover from the mighty iron glove
They use their gloves at night
On the poor man, the children, the beggar man, thief,
the lion and the cheetah and the African Chief.
Rise up people, rise up
Rise up people and seize the day
Rise up
"Leave us Alone!"
"Leave us Alone!"
"The people of this country have now stood up and said,
I want to state it categorically: 'this government is a tool.'"
"This government is a tool."
* The indented lines are samples from broadcast recordings of a
government official (Botha?)
Any typos or lyric mangling are the result of my amateur
transcription skills.
db
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For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.