BE PREPARED

ISRAEL OCCUPIES

SOUTH AFRICANS SUE

When I was a kid, I used to spend Saturday mornings in the neighborhood theater, mesmerized by movies warning of impending disaster. “The Day the Earth Stood Still” is one that comes to mind. Now I don’t have to leave my home to get scared about immenent threats. The worst was the disclosure that earlier this month a football sized asteroid came within 75 million miles of earth. Did you hear about it. They are not blaming that one on Al Qaeda. Not yet.

Earlier in the week, there were fears that terrorists would use ambulances to carry out attacks. This morning the New York Times says authorities are on the alert for fuel trucks that could be rammed into synagogues. In Las Vegas, an Arabic man reported overhearing a cellphone conversation suggesting that the Casino city would be attacked on July 4th. Enter the media and the FBI. The guy failed a lie detector test. The Mayor wants to persecute him. He says all the press attention caused him to confuse his story.

“AT WHAT POINT DO YOU GET IT?”

On June 19, The New York Times’ Chris Hedges profiled a New York area man, John Wheeler, a crusader against government lies and deception, who says that citizens have to stop being scared and, instead get PREPARED, if all these terror threats are true. “We are Jewish. It is Germany It is 1938,” he said by way of analogy. ‘At what point do you get it?…a lot can be done in terms of preparedness, but citizens have to begin asking pointed questions. ‘Failing to prepare the public for a terrorist strike, including discussing what to do and forming detailed emergency plans, he said, would be criminal.”

Criminal! (Don’t they know that “Be Prepared” is the anthem of the boy scouts?)

I thought about this yesterday after an early morning snafu in the New York subways when someone said a “package” was being investigated. The system was shut down. But no one told us what to do or where to go. There could have been panic and chaos if there was a real threat. Earlier in the week, I heard that emergency personnel were staging a chemical warfare drill in Yankee Stadium. But then I later saw nothing about in the press. The lack of a serious and organized attempt to inform and organize the public suggests that all this talk of war by a farce, or worse, real, and revealing total incompetence among officials busy reorganizing the bureaucracy but doing nothing to prepare people. Oh well…What did I expect?

HORRORS IN THE HOLY LAND

The latest horrors in the holy land are leading to more over reactions and, no doubt counter attacks. What is going on? The HARPERS MAGAZINE INDEX reports the “number of references to Israeli ‘retaliation” on US network nightly newscasts between September 2000 and March 2002 as ll8. Number of references to Palestinian ‘retaliation:” 14.” The Times reports today that instead of relaxing the occupation, a principal Palestinian demand, the Israel’s are escalating it: “Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s security cabinet followedthrough on a plan for all-out seizure of the West Bank onFriday, scrapping a tactic of intermittent raids.”

Not everyone in Israel agrees with this approach. There is an intense struggle underway within Israeli politics. I was sent this item about a recent Zionist congress. “A violent scuffle broke out at the congress Thursday, at the end of a speech by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. The incident started when Meretz activists unfurled a banner calling for Israel to withdraw from the West Bank and several Likud delegates - apparently led by a group of Betar members from France - assaulted the left-wingers. Blows were exchanged before security guards restored order.

“In his speech to delegates, Sharon called for Jews everywhere to immigrate to Israel. He said that he would like to find the time to embark on a tour of the Diaspora, calling for Jews to come and live in Israel. “Since the establishment of the State of Israel, some people have forgotten the vow, `If I forget the Jerusalem…’ Not only are those who remained in the Diaspora at fault for this,” added Sharon, “but so are the Israeli governments that accepted this state of affairs.”Sharon also said that in all the battles and wars he had witnessed, nothing was “as atrocious as what I saw on Tuesday in Jerusalem.” (Haaretz, 21 Jun 2002)”

INFORMATION WARS TO ESCALATE

Arab countries are planning their own media offensive, according to a report from Arab News via Globalvision News Network (gvnews.net): “Meanwhile, Arab information ministers yesterday launched a $22.5 million media campaign to denounce Israel’s “racist” policy and terrorism accusations in the West against the Arabs. The announcement came at the end of a two-day meeting at the Cairo headquarters of the 22-member Arab League. Part of the money will fund an “Arab media observatory” to be set up in Europe or the United States tasked with responding to accusations “portraying the Palestinian struggle as terrorism”.

“The observatory will also seek to counteract charges of terrorism against Arabs, which have been frequent since the Sept. 11 terror attacks on the United States. Funds will also go to set up English- and Hebrew-speaking services on Arab public and private TVs to address international and Israeli public opinion, said Syrian Information Minister Adnan Omran, who chaired the meeting.”

OUT OF TOUCH, OUT OF MIND

As the word waits (breathlessly, I am sure) for President Bush’s long awaited Middle East “Peace” speech, regional scholars continue to insist that the US is out of touch with realities in the region. opendemocracy.net is carrying an analysis by GemaMartín-Muñoz, author and professor of Arab and Islamic studies, which challengesthe West’s conventional thinking which she believes is out of touch with therealities of the Middle East and concludes that the Western approach has sofar failed either to think or to know.” “To think and to know” — what a simple but often missing forumulation in all news reporting!

US TO UN: OUR WAY OR THE HIGHWAY

The Guardian is reporting on new threats by the US at the UN: “Oliver Burkeman reported on Thursday: “America has infuriated its allies at the United Nations by threatening tokeep US troops out of peacekeeping forces unless they are granted a blanketimmunity from prosecution by the International Criminal Court, which comesinto being next month.Richard Williamson, a US representative at the UN, said he had warned thesecurity council that “there should be no misunderstanding. If there is notadequate protection for US peacekeepers, there will be no US peacekeepers.”

“Human rights campaigners accused the US of a “shortsighted and ultimatelypathetic” scare campaign.”

FUNDINGMAKES A DIFFERENCE

I hope that “liberal funders will check out the new issue of American Prospect for a piece by Robert Kuttner on a recent conference by the grantees of CONSERVATIVE foundation who explain how support from right-leaning funders enabled them to change the political climate in America. Writes Kuttner about a plush event called “”Philanthropy, Think Tanks, and the Importance of Ideas.” The heads of the Heritage Foundation and the Cato, Manhattan, and American Enterprise institutes were there to tell their patrons what political gains a billion dollars had bought. This session I would have paid to attend.

The panel was chaired by none other than Roger Hertog, a mega-rich center-right philanthropist and new part-owner of The New Republic recently profiled in these pages as exemplar of a new kind of “velvet conservatism.” But there was nothing velvet about the discussion that followed. Most foundations, Hertog began, spend their money on brick-and-mortar institutions — museums, hospitals, symphonies, universities. These are all fine, Hertog continued, but the four panelists have achieved something far more consequential. They have changed the course of American politics, and they “only” cost, collectively, $70 million dollars a year. “You get huge leverage for your dollars,” Hertog affirmed. http://www.prospect.org

SUING THE SWISS AGAIN

In this climate, it is not surprising that certain ideas are downplayed while others get all the air play. Here’s one. On Friday, The New York Times buried this story in a paragraph in its news summary, I wonder why. Could it have anything to do with the amount of money and INTERESTS involved. This was carried out of South Africa by IPS: ” An international team of lawyers is about to file a multi-billion-dollar class action lawsuit in New York against Swiss and U.S. banks accused of using illegal loans and other deals to prop up the apartheid-era regime in South Africa.

” Lawyers in South Africa have set up a toll-free hotline to recruit plaintiffs for the legal action against the banks, the U.S.-based Citigroup and Swiss banks UBS and Credit Suisse. More than 500 South Africans called the hotline in its first day of operations yesterday.

” The first claim will be filed on behalf of Lulu Petersen, the younger sister of Hector Petersen, a 12-year-old who was shot and killed during the police repression of the Soweto uprising, when high school students resisted the introduction of Afrikaans in their schools in 1976.

” A picture of Petersen’s body being carried home is one of the enduring images of South African’s struggle against apartheid. ”

STIGLITZ STICKS IT

For a deeper understanding of the economic forces at play here, check out a new book by Joseph Stiglitz, the Nobel prize winning economist who worked for the World Bank and now works against it. Here’s a preview of Joe Kahn’s review out tomorrow in the New York Times: “”The Pulitzer Prize-winning economist Joseph E. Stiglitz, who “was at least nominally part” of Bill Clinton’s economic brain trust, “now argues that the way the Clinton team pursued American interests overseas was as flawed as the way ‘the best and the brightest’ defended national security in the 1960’s,” writes Joseph Kahn. In Stiglitz’s “treatise,” continues Kahn, who writes about international economics for The Times, “globalization became a neoimperialist force that left hundreds of millions of people worse off in 2000 than they were in 1990.”

Stiglitz characterizes Clinton’s economic advisors as “market fundamentalists,” notes Kahn, and criticizes their “Hooverite” policies, arguing that the “wrenching reform” they prescribed for ailing economies “predictably led to financial bubbles and collapses.”

IN PRAISE OF JUNE JORDAN

Let us take a moment out this morn to mourn and remember a wordsmith of distinction. I missed this at the time but Lakshmi Gandhi of GIN reported June l9: “June Jordan, the prolific poet and essayist who was one of the most widely-published African-American authors in history, died of breast cancer on Jun. 14 at her home in Berkeley, California. She was 65.

“Over the course of her career, Jordan published 28 books, including books of poetry, essays, and children’s books. Jordan’s most recent book, “Soldier, A Poet’s Childhood,” was published in May 2000 by Basic Books to critical acclaim.

“Just after “Soldier” came out, the Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison hailed Jordan’s life and work as “40 years of activism fueled by flawless art.” Jordan’s last book of essays, “Some of Us Did Not Die,” is scheduled to be published in September and will include pieces on a wide range of subjects, including feminism, Palestine, and the 2000 U.S. election.

“Jordan is best known as a poet, and her first book of poetry, “Who Look at Me,” appeared in 1969.”

A MODEST MEDIA PROPOSAL

If you are looking for some ideas on how to change the media, have a look at alternet.org this week. The alternative news site is carrying a modest proposal by critic Norman Solomon who suggests, “every commercial for food and drugs should be taxed — with the proceeds going to pay for “truth commission” ads from independent researchers.”

JIANG AND SHRUB: BIRDS OF A FEATHER

The other day a I showed a documentary to a student intern from China who is working with us at Globalvision. It was about the first visit to the US by Chinese President Jiang Zemin and featured images of Chinese students in America waving flags and welcoming him to Harvard. The film, in Chinese for distribution in the People’s Republic, omitted images of the protests who outnumbered the supporters. Our Chinese intern revealed to me that he heard that all the students who were mobilized to cheer were paid $100 apiece by the Chinese government. I have no way of checking this, but I thought of the conversation when I read another item circulated by Stuart Shafer and sent to me on line. It was about President Bush’s visit earlier this month to Ohio State University. It was very well covered:

“President Bush’s June 14 commencement address at Ohio State University was asign of a “revived” presidency, according to WashingtonPost reporter DanaMilbank. “Bush basked in the adulation of 55,000 people who treated him towaves of standing ovations in Ohio Stadium as he received an honorarydoctorate,” according to the paper (6/15/02). “If there was a protest in thestadium, it was not visible to reporters.”

“There may have been no protests visible to the Post reporter,but, as other media reported, there may have been other reasonsfor this in addition to “adulation” for Bush. According to theColumbus Dispatch (6/15/02), students were warned ahead of timethey faced arrest if they showed any signs of dissent: “Graduates had beenwarned during rehearsal on Thursday that they faced arrest if– as wasrumored– some stood up and turned their backs on Bush during his speech.”The warning continued on the day of the event as well, according to theAssociated Press (6/14/02): “Immediately before class members filed into the giant footballstadium, an announcer instructed the crowd that all the university’sspeakers deserve to be treated with respect and that anyone demonstrating orheckling would be subject to expulsion and arrest. The announcer urged thatBush be greeted with a ‘thunderous’ ovation.”

So there you have it, a strange ‘convergence’ between “the land of the free” and the land of the “unfree.”

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND

I am off to Boston to check in with my dad in the hospital today and then on to Calgary Monday for a talk at an event challenging the G8 meeting. I am not sure if I will be able to file until next week. Thanks for all the nice notes. I was especially gratified to hear from a very high up official at BBC who wrote to praise mediachannel.org.Your comments are always welcome as well. Write: Dissector@mediachannel.org.