Youtube and Terrorism...

I just finished reading a very interesting on Der Spiegel-Online, which can be linked to ES's post about the globalized media and his idea of how we have to look for "...some reasonable account of world events" in order to get a more objective account of events. The article dealt with the increase of terror videos from insurgent groups on internet platforms as Youtube, which show uncut scenes from attacks on American troops...
This has caused a storm of protest by mostly American customers, who thump on Youtube's policy, which strictly forbids the graphic representation of violence...

But is it really the violence that strucks American customers? I am convinced that it is more the powerlessness they feel, because the globalized media and especially Youtube as a side-effect of this development, has gone "out of control" (very difficult to censor) a long time ago.
Nowadays people all across the globe accept this medium as a new kind of "account of events", except those who favor the filtered accounts and the idea of a succesful and "clean" war...

The Last King of Scotland

Movie Review here

I think this looks like a great movie. It is largely the history behind the movie which intrigues me. Some of you may already know the history behind the independence of Uganda from Britain's imperialist rule, but if you sense even the mildest curiousity for the topic then this movie review will provide a brief historical background.

Under Britain's imperialist rule, many African states were highly exploited. After profiting from these exploitations, Britain grants states such as Uganda independence. The movie looks at the struggle that this particular state encounters as the Ugandan dictator, Idi Amin, leads his people to genocide.

From what I've read of the movie, it begins just as Idi Amin leads a coup and steps in as the dictator of Uganda. I think it would be interesting to see a prequel to this movie though. I think the relationship between the core British imperialist system and the peripheral African states during the mid 20th century is fascinating. It is difficult to see things from the perspective of a leader such as Amin, but he led his people down this catastrophic path with hopes of removing the colonial system from Uganda.

I definitely plan to see this movie once its out of theaters.

Another external link I found particularly helpful: Walking Away from War

Bad reps - who is to blame?

NYT - Global Sludge Ends in Tragedy for Ivory Coast

Over the past couple of days many fingers have been pointed, but who is to blame for this chemical mess? The tanker that dumped the sludge was leased by Trafigura, a multi-billion dollar oil and metals trading company. According to the article, Trafigura hired a tanker to store the waste for some time, until it was carried across the Mediterranian and dumped along the Ivory Coast. Trafigura paid $15,000 to dispose of the toxic material, however, the specified volume and toxicity were obviously incorrect. The tanker contained more than twice the amount that was expected, and the materials were so toxic they caused 8 deaths and hundreds of injuries.

To me, based on what the media has released (I'm not saying they are right), it seems that Trafigura underestimated the hazardousness of the waste, leaving the company responsible. There are a total of 18 dump sites found in Ivory Coast so far. So who will hold Trafigura responsible for this mess? There are several environmental activist groups that are responding, and the Ivorian government has detained the tanker that was used to dump the waste.

So, Trafigura gets a slap on the wrist, probably pays a fine, cleans up their mess, and goes on to make several billions of dollars again this year. As was stated at the end of this article in NY Times:

Africa has long been a dumping ground for all sorts of things the developed world has no use for. "This is the underbelly of globalization", said Jim Puckett, an activist at the Basel Action Network, an environmental group that fights toxic waste dumping.

It seems as though there needs to be a strict foreign policy regarding disposal of waste. Waste disposal has become so expensive that companies will look to dump their waste in lowlying areas, especially African countries. If we are going to allow corporations like Trafigura to trade oil and metals at this industrial scale then someone needs to regulate their protocol for disposing of this toxic waste.

Back on Blogging

The BBC World service jumped on the shooting in Pennsylvania (as did every other major news source for the most part). This may seem an simplistic stab in the dark, but I think it is interesting the dichotomy of a an extremely isolated community suddenly brought into focus by the world. Second, other news media, just as ours has apparent lucidity in examining the middle east, has made the actions of one disturbed individual a prop for those criticizing the American gun culture as proposed by the infallible Michael More.

Back to my first point. It is amazing to see pictures of a community that is isolated from the modern world in our country posted all over the world. It could almost be similar to us seeing mountain villages in Afghanistan after the intrusion of a foreign violent event into their life. I know this is an odd comparison.

As I drove down the highway listening to the radio, it re-dawned on me the effect that globalization has had on understanding of events. There is little compunction about highlighting the bias of American media with little in the way of external bias in others. This relates to my earlier belief that in this global world, objectivity is an illusion and that constant examination must occur to find out some reasonable account of world events.

The Ground Truth

I watched another very interesting documentary at the Naro, which I really would like to recommend too, because it deals with another side-effect of America's struggle to maintain its status as an Empire... The Ground Truth

In the recent three years there might have been a lot of documentaries about the war on Iraq, but the Ground Truth differs a lot...

This documentary, directed by Patricia Foulkrod, only deals with the American soldiers’ who actually fight the war on Iraq. In the Ground Truth, Foulkrod focuses on three stages of the development from a civilian to a trained soldier in combat and finally to a labile and handicapped repatriate, who will never be able to live a “normal life” again...

Firstly, Foulkrod shows how people in general are attracted by the Army, which offers them a better perspective in life, which means roundly money... By interviewing Iraq Vets, she carefully uncovers how the soldiers are brainwashed in boot camp and how they are prepared” to do a good job” in Iraq, namely developing the desire to kill....

Secondly, Foulkrod displays the daily life in Iraq and she lets the soldiers explain what they encounter every day in Iraq, how they “do their job” and how they try to deal with this madness...

Finally, the documentary examines the war at home, how they and their families seem to be completely left alone and how they have to deal with their inner conflicts, which even led in one case, the documentary looked at, to a suicide...( I am really aware of the fact that this is unfortunately not the exception!)

America as an Empire...

I would like to answer ES's initial question without referring to any scientific sources or newspaper articles, because I think the question aims at our personal point of view and not what so and so wrote in this or that paper, but please correct me if I am wrong!

I think that America could be definetely understood as some kind of a new empire that tries to maintain its hegemonic status, because we must bid farewell to the oftentimes "romatic" concept of the English Empire. We do live in the 21st century and nevertheless the way the USA tries to maintain its status has even changed since the turn of the 20th century and especially since 9-11...

Almost every blog posting about this topic agrees on the fact that the foreign policy has changed, but what about what has changed inside the USA? I think that we should firstly look at the domestic level, before we look at the foreign one! Because the most important step for maintaining America's status, is its inner stability...

For instance, as what would you qualify the whole Patriot Act (what an euphemism!!!) , if not as a very strong recess on your personal rights or the rights of the common people in order to keep them quiet and under control ?!?