Angry White Kid

Reorienting and debranding

And I promise to learn to love the way I've learned to fear
To unknot all the inhibitions tangled in my hair
To let my ego mound in piles around the barber chair
And make a graceful exit from my vexed and troubled years

- Saul Williams, Sea Lion

I open up Facebook or Twitter and immediately get hit by a battering ram of bad news. My social media feeds are seeing red. Once notifications or messages are tended to, I close the pages almost as quickly as I open them.

Up until a few months ago, I would have been spending much of the day online, tweeting and posting alongside my virtual comrades. Now, I cannot afford to engage in that activity.

There is a reason. For the past two years, I’ve been in an intense struggle to address a life-threatening condition. Something that has very nearly killed me. I’ve tried many different methods of treatment, and feel through much work and assistance I have arrived at an approach that, with vigilance, will hopefully keep the disease in remission.

Part of that approach has to do with me assessing the activities I’m involved in and engaging in those which are more true to myself as I’ve come to understand myself during these past two years.

Some love from La Jornada

Last Wednesday, José Steinsleger of the Mexican daily La Jornada published a piece about Tlaxcala, the radical translation network that I work with, calling us "translators for liberation." Not a bad compliment.

We currently translate from or into about 13 different languages. If you can translate, and would like to help out, let us know. We especially can always use more folks to translate into English. A premise of Tlaxcala is that English is the imperial language, both in terms of utilization and the production of ideas.  As such, it's very important to translate from other languages into English, so as in a small way to counter the hegemonic influence of the U.S., and make ideas from elsewhere available in the language of the hegemon.

UPDATE: True to our mission, the article is now available in German and English.

UDPATE II - 4/23: I'm no longer with Tlaxcala due to some political and interpersonal difference. However, I still think their mission is important and should be support.

Videos for the Hikers

One week from today will mark six months of detention in Iran for my friends Sarah and Shane, and their friend Josh. Their families are requesting folks upload videos with messages for the hikers and calls for their release. Post them as a response to the video below.

Here is mine. Nothing fancy required.

Here is a list of "Ten Things You Can Do in 2010 to FREE THE HIKERS."

10. Organize a fun cultural event to raise awareness and funds for the Free the Hikers campaign.

9.  Sign the petition to Free the Hikers and get 10 friends to do the same.

8. Join the Google Group, the Facebook Fan Page, and follow us on Twitter.

7. Get a Free the Hikers sweatshirt for the winter.

6. Write a letter to your local paper or write a blog post calling for the immediate release of the hikers.

5. Have your school or professional organization pass a resolution or issue a statement calling for the Hikers’ immediate release and share that resolution or statement with a comparable institution in Iran .

4. Write to the Head of the Iranian Judiciary asking that Shane, Sarah and Josh be released on humanitarian grounds without further delay (please keep these letters apolitical).

Head of the Judiciary
His Excellency Ayatollah Sadegh Ardeshir Larijani
Howzeh Riyasat-e Qoveh Qazaiyeh / Office of the Head of the Judiciary
Pasteur St., Vali Asr Ave., south of Serah-e Jomhouri
Tehran 1316814737
Islamic Republic of Iran

3. Write to government officials from your country asking them to do everything within their power to seek Shane, Sarah and Josh’s release and reunite them with their families and friends.

2. Let the hikers know they are not forgotten by writing to them at this address:
Free the Hikers
PO Box 15065
Duluth, MN  55815

1. Keep Shane, Sarah and Josh in your thoughts and prayers.  Send them strength, good energy and best wishes to endure their extended detention by taking moments out of your daily life to light a candle and to go on a solidarity hike with your friends.

Free the Hikers!

The families and friends of Sarah Shourd, Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, the three Americans currently detained in Iran have just launched a website: www.freethehikers.org.

Please help in spreading the word about this site and the situation of Sarah, Shane and Josh. Their families and friends want them all home safe and soon!

Along with notifying others about the site, you can join the Facebook group and if you are on Twitter, please use the hash tage #ssj.

Here's some more info on Sarah, Shane and Josh from the website:

Shane Bauer, Josh Fattal and Sarah Shourd have been detained in Iran since July 31, 2009, when they accidentally crossed an unmarked border during a hiking trip in the mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan. They were in a peaceful region of Iraq that is increasingly popular with Western tourists.

The three young Americans, all graduates of the University of California at Berkeley, are believed to be held in the Iranian capital, Tehran. They have not been charged with any crime, have had no contact with their families, and have not been granted their right to consular access.

Shane, Josh and Sarah care greatly about the world. They admire and respect different cultures and religions and share a love of travel that has taken them to many countries. That’s why they went to Kurdistan, not because they wanted to enter Iran.

The families and friends of the three hikers created this site to tell the story of Shane, Josh and Sarah and keep the world informed about their situation.

We hope the Iranian authorities understand that there’s just one reason why our children and friends happened to be in Iran: because they made a regrettable mistake and got lost. Please let them return home as soon as possible.

YouTubin' it with boysetsfire, Phil Ochs, and Ashes

While writing papers at the end of this last semester, my way of procrastinating was embarking on a YouTube improvement project.  And by that I mean posting videos I want to see up there. 

Here's a sampling on the chance you like them, too.  First, my favorite band, boysetsfire, which I love even though they plugged the CPUSA in some of their liner notes. Second is Phil Ochs playing The Highwayman on an old poetry show.  Finally, my favorite emo band, Ashes.  No video for those, just the music.  Enjoy.

I'm back. Kinda.

Hi there friends, comrades, haters. After more than a year outside the blogging game, I've decided to meander back.  But in its current form it won't be of a very consistent nature.  Here's the deal:

I'm currently in Oaxaca, Mexico and will be here for a while yet. I've been sending updates to emails lists as well as doing translations of news stories and communiques. In the interest of getting stuff out to a broader audience, it makes sense to utilize this blog as well. Shortly, I will be posting some original pieces and translations and will continue to update this as events and my stay progress.  Please do get in touch if there's anything you'd like to see up here relating to Oaxaca.

Hope you've all been doing well. And of course I can't leave with touching on Palestine. Much love, hope, concern and admiration to the Free Gaza Movement! Bon voyage!

Censoring Palestine on Daily Kos

As I couldn't care less about the Democrats, I don't read Daily Kos.  They like to call themselves the "left-wing of the Democratic Party", but on the political spectrum that's still a pretty right-wing place to be, and I'm not interested.

Given that 500,000 other people per day do appear to be interested, and given that anyone can post on the site, it is an important place to raise topical issues that most Democrats could use some educating about, such as Palestine.  Several pro-Palestine bloggers maintain diaries on the site in an effort to do just that.

But ironically enough, as the Palestinians marked the 59th anniversary of the Nakba - their forced expulsion from their homes and homeland - three pro-Palestine bloggers were expelled from Daily Kos. This occurred for no reason other than that the pro-Israel side complained consistently and loudly enough that some apparently weak-willed administrator gave in.

Sabbah, one of the recently-banned bloggers, provides some background on this development. Others on Daily Kos are trying to right the situation.  Unfortunately, I don't see the banned bloggers being reinstated. As the dKosopedia states, "If you are banned as a user for any reason, the only court of appeal is Markos himself."  And as Markos states, Daily Kos "is a Democratic blog with one goal in mind: electoral victory."  As the Democrats' only concern about the Palestinians is making sure they remain as subjugated as possible, a blog dedicated to Democratic victory is likely not to look fondly on Palestinian rights or have any interest in the Palestinian narrative. 

In short, it's a shameful situation. The banned bloggers should be immediately reinstated and the censorship at Daily Kos - for which it is gaining a reputation - should end. But really, it's the Democrats, the other brand of American Fascism™, so I wouldn't expect much. My hat is off to those who tried, and keep trying, to make a difference.

UPDATE: curmudgiana at My Left Wing shares just how far off the deep end the Kos administrators have gone.  Truly, Daily Kos has now ideologically melded itself with Bush and the selective "war on terror." The purge and silencing of anything contradicting The Party line continues.

Democracy and Deconstruction in Contemporary Media: An Ode to Bill Hicks

Two weeks of silence and now a random posting.  Obviously, this blog has been on an unannounced leave of absence and will likely remain that way for the time being.  But on to the post.  Last Sunday, my friend Jamie came over and we threw on some Bill Hicks.  Jamie hadn't seen/heard Bill before, was clearly inspired, and sent me this the next day.  I don't necessarily subscribe to a bulk of his argument, but I still think it's interesting stuff.  Onward...

------------------------

I believe one of the greatest problems in our media landscape today is the curious coming together of democracy and deconstruction.  While media used to follow a more metaphysical program of cramming the absolute beliefs of the rich and powerful down our collective throat, this heavy handed treatment of the populous inevitably lost favor.  The traditional power structures of the “old world” were the industrialists, politicians and religious groups that held a symbolic importance so great they presented themselves as earth-bound elements of God’s eternal plan.  These institutions, however, could not easily maintain their grip on power in a democratic country while maintaining that power through such obvious disregard for democracy’s underlying principles of equality and participation.  So in time the media outlets knew their style would have to change, to become more egalitarian, or they would become increasingly perceived as out of touch with their own target audiences.  Luckily for them, this change was to come about with the proliferation of alternative media outlets.  The number of alternative sources of information grew as the means to disseminate information became less expensive and more easy to obtain.  While the evolving technology of television, computers, printers and copy machines moved this process along, the most fundamental shift certainly came with the birth of the internet and the mouthpiece it provided to anyone with access to the world wide web.  Now the mainstream media no longer had a monopoly on the outlet for mass-produced information, and to a more optimistic mind that may have seemed like a good thing (I for one thought it was great at first).  Here we have the dramatic upheaval of the traditional seats of power who could no longer present their points of view as fact.  This is postmodern philosophy at it’s best: applying an adolescent energy of rebellion and deep socratic questioning to the traditional sources of power, so comfortable in their untouched ivory towers and secure corporate boardrooms that they no longer know how to properly defend their own lies.  Due to the greater dissemination of information and the greater willingness to ask questions that this carries with it, the symbols of the elite’s power could no longer be passed off as signposts of truth, and their claim to be one with the absolute was deconstructed (and Derrida did a jig on Kant’s grave...or something).

Comment moderation is on

I will be moderating comments for the time being due to the pro-Israel buffoon who has mastered copying and pasting but is incapable of making a cogent argument, or for that matter, a complete sentence.  Please be patient if your stuff doesn't appear immediately.

Lee Kaplan - Judge for yourself

In February, I blogged about Lee Kaplan and his disgraceful and manipulative attempts at "investigative journalism."  On that post, he even proved my point by pretending to be someone else and posting positive comments about himself.

Given a recent action of his that is too horrible to share, Lee Kaplan sunk to a new low and further established himself not just as someone interested in protecting Israel by making stuff up, but as a heartless coward intent on destroying lives.

In light of that, I was excited when a fellow blogger notified me about a new site called Lee Kaplan Watch.  Over there you can stay up to date on the latest shameless antics of the Bay Area's favorite nut.  I highly recommend people check it out, link to it, post about it, and anytime the words "Lee Kaplan" come up - you know where to send them.

And while we're on the topic of watches, I'd like to give a shout to Watching JihadWatch and of course the lovely folks over at LGF Watch.