Be warned. We will punish all dissenters!
Friends, sadly, the brave man who threw his shoes at George W Bush, the one who trashed his country, has been jailed for three years. He also claimed he’d been tortured and assaulted while in prison.
Of course, he should’ve been declared a national hero and feted by all nations in the Middle East but given that the Government in Iraq is one installed by their American occupiers, I guess the outcome was predictable and could’ve been much worse.
It shows how political systems, wherever they are in the world and whatever colour they are, tend to be self-promoting and self-perpetuating and one thing they don’t encourage is activists speaking out or showing their disapproval by deeds, even spontaneous, symbolic ones. No, keeping the proles quiet and respectful by whatever means is the name of the political game as is punishing dissenters.
I notice also that Wall Street is experiencing some upward movement. The footage I saw showed traders with their faces alight with excitement and greed. Money was being made again trading bits of paper, money that requires no effort at all and contributes nothing to the economy.
Then economic and financial systems are like political systems. They tend to be self-promoting and self-perpetuating too. Those who profit from them don’t want many or any changes to be made to them so the cycle of greed can continue unabated even if it is destroying our physical world and turning the populace into selfish, materialistic pigs.
So while the world talks about imposing strong regulation on the financial and banking industries during the Great Recession and making corporations and financial institutions more accountable, you can be sure that when the dust settles, the system will quickly slip back into its old ways and, in time, another economic and financial crisis will develop for the exact same reasons.
The current crisis in the world was an opportunity for the world to make real changes to our political, economic and financial systems, to seek a better way, a fairer way.
The symbolic jailing of the Shoe Thrower and frantic attempts by World Government to prop up the deeply flawed, capitalist-inspired, economic and financial systems shows clearly that real change is highly unlikely.
Sadly, the more things change, the more…
This is a catastrophe. Muntader was my hero and an heroic icon to the world.
There is no freedom of expression here in USA either. They will set dogs on you, taser your butt or crack your head open with a baton and when the whim hits certain cops they will murder you for daring to question authority.
My region of the world is Pennsylvania, southwestern PA & it is very racist & conservative here, we are programmed from childhood to not make waves, do not rock the boat, don’t draw attention to yourself, you don’t wanna be a blacksheep do ya?
This home training was reinforced in school and you’ll see it everywhere even on the local news, we’ve been in an economic depression since 1975 when they closed the steel mills.
We’ve never recovered, most people have 2 low paying jobs & are still struggling.
I know a few wealthy folks(ok I know 2 rich guys), with trust funds, etc. all I can tell you is that you would imagine they’re happy but that’s not the way it is. They’re as miserable as anybody else.
I’m in a funk on hearing this latest travesty of justice. They should have take the shoe thrower to Disneyland & had a parade for him, he is a legend.
Reply
I can’t believe it either. Thank Gaw, Oh! Sorry David! Thankfully he missed his target or they might have orchestrated a public hanging.
Reply
Kate and VR2, that is why it is so important to get people thinking, to get people dissenting, not one or two or three (who can easily be picked off), but in their millions.
That is why serious blogs are so important as are comments from responsible, aware, informed, insightful folk like yourselves.
Reply
David in this country is prohibit to think….You have more that two finger of front head and you are a deth body, plus TV , advertising and all the capitalism trash… Who can think!!?? Any way I love always your post….. Make me think !!!!
Reply
it’s just too sick for words………….someone throws a shoe and gets jail; someone kills millions of innocent people and gets to make speeches at a luncheon party………
Reply
sick as coco says. but the Arabs won’t unite. They can’t. All have problems, mostly from the West. But it could have been life.
“not one or two or three (who can easily be picked off), but in their millions. ”
“why it is so important to get people thinking,”, the brain dead?
“it is very racist & conservative here”
Everybody says that.
Reply
The shoe thrower gets 3 years and the “masters of the universe” that with the help of “our” elected officials created the economic meltdown get million dollar bonuses and soft easy jobs in government. The world is simply not fair.
The only way I can see it could possibly change is if people turn off the latest “must see” TV program, get off their butts and do something.
Only Kate Bates said it very well; if anyone tries the authorities will be there to make sure that the average person cannot disrupt business as usual which insures the good life for a lucky few. Nor will it appear on the “news” so others don’t get any ideas that would make them other than compliant sheep.
Reply
So the U.S. puppet government of Iraq is apologetic for what this guy with a bit of bravery did to the war-criminal thug who attacked Iraq for no reason other than greed for Iraq’s oil and lust for power — and killed a million or so Iraqi civilians including children?!? And then the Iraqi government has him tortured?!? It’s a crazy world, I must say. The man is a hero in most people’s eyes.
Reply