It seems like weeks since I have journeyed through the blogosphere and visited old friends and spaces - here are a few posts I thought of mentioning.

I read this post on No Longer At Ease which provides a reality check into what ordinary people want and what they think of democracy.

But what do the people of Hong Kong really want?. A BBC reporter asked one of the people of Hong Kong what he thinks:

Across the lane, Ming Chan was crouched over his flower stall, preparing an extravagant bouquet of purple flowers. He too was cynical.

“In the past, if you were poor, you could work hard and get on”, he said. “That’s not true any more. In today’s Hong Kong, you’ve got to be educated, a middle class professional. Not an uneducated entrepreneur.”

So what about democracy, I asked. He laughed. “Democracy? The poor don’t want a vote, we all want a better life”. “As for democracy”, he added, “we barely know what the word means.”

On a related topic, Annansi Chronicles wonders about the role of Africa’s billionaires in the scramble for Africa’s resources and where do they get their money from?

While this means there is more African representation in Robert Frank’s Richistan, many of us in lower to not-even-close Richistan, are beginning to ask even more questions about what role Africans play in the scramble for Africa’s resources. A BIG question raised in the conversation about African billionaires on Forbes’ list was, where are those billionaires getting their money?

An awful disturbing story from AfroMusing on the rape of a small baby in Kenya. Lucy is being cared for by the Nest home in Limuru, Kenya. As Afro says, her story is not comfortable reading but we still need to read it. For details on how to support Lucy see Afro’s blog.

Exhausting day - so much so Robtel and I missed the 8pm showing of the film Bamako at the Africa Tent - I really wanted to see this film but my legs were not cooperating - by the time we got back to my hotel room we crashed out and woke up after 8 so that was that. Great opening day -the Africa Tent is the coolest place to be literally as it has AC! Besides us at Fahamu, Trans Africa Forum, Priority Africa Network, UCLA Africa Studies Programme and the AFSC Southerland Institute. There is a buzz in the Tent and I get the feeling that it will be a success with a host of workshops planned and a special focus on Darfur. Also a couple of more films will be shown over the next couple of days which I will not miss - “Have you Heard From Johannesburg? Apartheid & the Club of the West” is on tomorrow evening.

A large African American and Latino presence and from what I could see I would say housing and immigration are two big issues and Iraq of course.

Ok so on to the opening day fun stuff - the march - brilliant despite the intense heat of marching at 2pm in Atlanta BUT it was a privilege to march along side 10 - 15,000 dedicated activists from across the US - real ordinary everyday people - just knowing these people exist and are committed is one hell of an uplift.

The serious work starts tomorrow but meanwhile here are some are some photos - I will try and get some video edited up by tomorrow evening

The Africa Tent

Fourth World

One Woman Protest

Those Damn Walls

More Photos

Tags: US Social Forum; Social Justice;

Following on from Kameelah’s post on Palestine a couple of days ago which clearly set out the historical facts on the displacement of Palestinians and the Israeli occupation. On Palestine Solidarity Day two articles to get people thinking and respond to Kameelah’s call for action

While we all can’t fight every battle, what does it mean when Black people of America and the Diaspora turn a blind eye to the struggles of Palestinians? What does it mean when people who recently struggled an lived through Apartheid condone or otherwise ignore the Palestinian struggle? What does it mean that human beings who are so spot-on in their analysis and action in other world events can be so myopic, silent and complacent when it comes to the struggles of Palestinian people?

The first comes from South Africa - a speech made to the South African parliament yesterday by MP, Ronnie Kasrils, MP with some home truths on the 6 day war and Israeli occupation that this was not an act of “self-defence” but a planned act of aggression.

Israel’s military Chief of Staff, Yitzhak Rabin stated: “I do not believe that Nasser wanted war. The two divisions he sent into Sinai on May 14 [1967] would not have been enough to unleash an offensive against Israel. He knew it and we knew it.” [1]

Menachem Begin, later Israel’s Prime Minister, reminisced that the Egyptian army deployment in the Sinai did not prove that Nasser was about to attack Israel. “We must be honest,” he explained. “We decided to attack him.” [2]

General Moshe Dayan explained that “many of the firefights with the Syrians were deliberately provoked by Israel.” He said that the kibbutz residents who pressed the Government to take the Golan Heights … did so less for the security than for the farmland …”

These are clearly statements of an aggressor. Nevertheless, some claim that Israel is justified and obligated, from its birth as a state in 1948 in fact, to defend its land and people by force whenever necessary. But where is the morality in this? Fortress Israel, a militarist aggressive state, defends a stolen land that belonged to another people.

David Ben Gurion reveals more of Israel’s deception and present revisionist interpretations of the historical facts: the decision to systematically drive out the Palestinians from the land admitting that they Israel had “stolen their country”

“Why should the Arabs make peace? If I was an Arab leader, I would never make terms with Israel. That is natural: We have taken their country. Sure, God promised it to us, but what does that matter to them. Our God is not theirs. We come from Israel, its true, but two thousand years ago, and what is that to them? There has been anti-Semitism, the Nazis … but was that their fault? They only see one thing: we came here and stole their country.”

From Qumsiyeh: A Human Rights Web: Mazin Qumsiyeh’s call to action: How willing are we to be inconvenienced? and this goes for other conflicts, occupations and injustices taking place at this very moment. (Via Haitham)

I want to take time to address those who have yet to do so by asking them the question How willing are we to be inconvenienced to get peace/justice? and till when will those who are silently observing (or cursing the darkness instead of lighting a candle) remain silent. But first, please take the time to review this very short vide on Gaza. It will change you even if you think you know what is going on…So How willing are we to be inconvenienced to get peace/justice?

After all, it is about convenience. Fear of inconvenience permeates us. Our lives are commercialized (go shopping Bush told us after 9/11), sanitized from the suffering of others, routinized lest we encounter the unfamiliar, and stigmatized (both stigmatizing ourselves and others). All in all, avoiding what the Budhists call “having joyful participation in the sorrows of this world”.
How willing are we to be inconvenienced to get peace/justice?
After 60 years of ethnic cleansing, 6 million Palestinians refugees and displaced people. After 530 depopulated villages and towns and more land being confiscated daily (All done with Western governments direct and indirect support).
How willing are we to be inconvenienced to get peace/justice?

If you are in London this weekend there is a march organised for Saturday by the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign

Links: Boycott Israeli Goods (BIG) Campaign

Tags: Palestine ; Israel ; Apartheid ; Occupation; Imperialism; Zionism

The people of the Chagos Islands have won their Court of Appeal case against the British government and have been given the right to return to the homeland after 40 years. The islanders were expelled by the British government in 1961 when they established a base on the largest of the islands, Diego Garcia.

Although the islanders won their initial case in 2000 to return, the British government refused to allow them to return to Diego Garcia because of the treaty they had with the US. This decision over rides that of the British government so after 40 years the people and their descendants who have been displaced can now return home. However the reality is going home at least to settle is not really an option for most citizens, since there is little development and opportunities unless they receive considerable compensation from the British and US governments for the 40 years loss of their land and livelihoods. The struggle Diego Garcia continues……

Tags:
Chagos Islands; Diego Garcia; Britain;

The more I watch the news (Al Jazeera / BBC World/ Lebanese TV) the more I ask myself whether a pact has been made between the Zionists and their supporters [who come in all disguises and all nationalities] - to destroy Palestine and Palestinians once and for all - trapped in Gaza, trapped in Nahr el-Bared, trapped by Walls, trapped in lies and myths. Is this the beginning of yet another genocidal process? Remember the invasion of Lebanon - the world media were distracted by Israeli action there, meanwhile the Israeli’s were continuing with some of the worst attacks on Gaza which were hardly reported.

Today I heard straight from the mouth of the Druze leader, Waleed Jumblat that no one can be allowed to fire on the Lebanese army and that they should go in and “clean up the camps”. Sound familiar? But according to Lebanese TV station “Future” the PM, the President, Hariri even Nasrallah are all supporting the Lebanese army’s bombardment of the camps. With one mouth Hariri is saying “Palestinians are our brothers” and with the other he is saying any attack against the Lebanese army cannot be tolerated. Only the PLO qualify their support of the Lebanese army with the condition of protecting the civilians living in the camp.

There are 40,000 residents in Nahr el Bared refugee camp, who have been without water or electricity since sunday and are under indiscriminate attack from the Lebanese army supposedly fighting 200 members of Fatah al Islam. Hizbollah TV is saying this is not the first time this group have appeared and that they must be gotten rid of as they are all foreigners from Yemen, Iraq and elsewhere and are in the country just to make trouble. So what to do? The Lebanese army has to stop now and allow medical teams to enter the camp - you cannot keep killing civilians with collective punishment.
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