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President Chavez Frias speaks at the United Nations
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Of Sunlight and Shadows: A true tale of Venezuela

By Jutta Schmitt

This was one of those brief, ad hoc journeys we sometimes make to Chiguará, a hidden mountain village an hour's drive from town. The Pan-American Highway, along the Sun Route, crosses miles of a hot, desert-like landscape with keenly shaped sandstone formations and forests of cacti and acacias on dark red soil. Where the Sun Route fades away and dissolves into a somewhat cooler climate, a narrow road branches off into the mountains. It takes the traveler to the picturesque heights of what we like to call the “Independent Republic of Chiguará,” for some of its remarkable, rebellious inhabitants.

This small peasant village, revealing itself at the end of a fifteen- minute climb, clings to a steep slope in the mountainous region and opens up its heart, the wide and friendly Plaza Bolívar, just a few blocks from the entrance to town. Across the Plaza, facing the cathedral and standing in a colourful line of neat houses, is the “El Momoy” house, which bears the name of a legendary Andean dwarf and hosts one of Chiguará´s two modest restaurants.

As we entered the tiny, cave-like restaurant on the ground floor of El Momoy that day, a bouquet of roses caught my eye. They stood in a clay vase on a stool, caressed by a ray of sunlight that spilled across the room through one of the small, open windows. Something struck me about the flowers; their petals seemed denser than those of other roses I had seen, absorbing and retaining the light, making the filigreed heads radiate intense colour. From the kitchen, which is just an open extension of the main dining room, Marina the waitress came forth, greeting us warmly. The old wooden staircase in the back of the room creaked repeatedly to announce that our friend Rafaela was descending. She welcomed us with a long, firm embrace. We sat down at one of the tables as Marina whirled around us, serving black coffee and oven-baked, flat wheat cakes, still warm and filled with grated cheese.

We had hardly finished eating when the bearded face of Carlos Manuel, Rafaela´s husband, appeared at our table, his brown eyes sparkling in defiance. “How much time do we still have left?” he asked, taking a seat. “We do not have to talk about the ifs, the only question here is when,” he said, reaching deep down into his pocket. A wrinkled packet of cigarettes came to light, which he laid on the table, offering a smoke. The packet went round, and for a few moments we all sat quiet and meditative, observing the smoke from our cigarettes rise above our heads in blue circles, forming a dense layer beneath the ceiling.

“So tell me, when will the bastards come for us, for our oil, for our water, for our country's rich fauna and flora? When will they patent our indigenous peoples´ancient knowledge, when will they claim royalty fees on the cultivation of herbs generations of our ancestors have used for medical treatment? When will we finally be strangers on our own soil, in our own forests, on our own shores? When will we stand under this deep blue sky and see it turn red, see our hearts´and hands´daily efforts be bombed to pieces, see the American flag insult our view? All we have been dreaming of, all we have patiently begun to construct since president Chávez came to power, is being obstructed and overshadowed by the big boot that threatens to crush us at any time! My question is, when will that time come?” Carlos´dark, persistent eyes searched for an answer in each of our faces.

The sunlight painting the roses as we entered the restaurant had since made its way around to the open back door, through which it reached our table, immersing Carlos Manuel in a bright aura that contrasted sharply with his sinister mood. Serenity and darkness materialized together in his person for a moment. “He seems a perfect reflection of the times,” I thought as I watched him. Spring has woken this country from decades of hibernation; here are its people, blossoming, acting, thinking and inventing their Bolivarian Revolution, gladly taking the risk of erring. They have simply had enough of five hundred years of imposed economic and political systems detrimental to their hopes, aspirations and lives, of importing the 'wisdom' of social models alien to their spontaneity and humanity. Or to what is left of these after the catastrophic encounter with a self-destructive economic system that has brought the most deadly consequences for the past five centuries. Here are people who have confronted their destiny, determining to change it themselves. And now there is a cloud casting its shadow on their tremendous efforts: the shadow of empire, of fascism, of corporatism expanding all over the globe in a last, desperate act before its inevitable disintegration. These were my thoughts as Carlos continued speaking:

“We know where they will come from; they will encircle us from the outside, from Colombia, Aruba, Curaçao, maybe even from Guyana, and they will suffocate us from within, employing terrorism within our borders. They will lay the noose around our neck and then soon they will be pulling it tight. All this because we have had the courage to take our destiny into our own hands, with president Chávez at the helm, navigating on the oceans of black gold beneath our soil. They, who have trampled on each and every effort of our Latin American peoples to pursue self-determination and happiness, they, who are spitting on their own constitution, still dare give us lessons about democracy and human rights! Who in the world wants their kind of democracy? Who in the world wants their kind of human rights? No sane person--except our former elite turned opposition, of course--would willingly choose such a farce!”

These were the words of an eminently practical man, who had constructed many of Chiguará's newer houses while maintaining their traditional art and craftsmanship, and paying respect to the style and architecture of time-honoured buildings. He was involved in a communal experiment, the Mistajá Cooperative, launched under a new law for cooperative associations. This law gave people the choice of organizing the workforce in small groups of producers, so as to control their own production and distribution of goods and income. The democratization process of the Bolivarian Revolution was not merely limited to the political realm, but an active socio-economic engagement, taking the form of these autonomous cooperatives. These were intended to be open and flexible organizations under the control of both their associated workers and the consumers of their products.

And here was Carlos Manuel, an enthusiastically committed worker, co-manager and co-owner of Mistajá Cooperative, a craftsman, architect and agronomist, one of hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans who were dedicating all their energy to the enormous task of creating not only a new political system, but a different kind of socio-economic system, one that would have a compassionate human face. As he lit another cigarette, he rose from his seat, as defiant as when he had taken it. “Are you prepared? I am prepared,” he said. “So let them come. Other than that, I am afraid there is not much to say these days. Everything is fine, and at the same time–-everything is not fine at all!” He said goodbye to us, stepped though the back door and disappeared into the bright sunlight.

I doubted he or anyone here was really prepared. How do you prepare to face an unprecedented arsenal of conventional, nuclear, chemical, biological and even geophysical weapons in a combination of low, medium and--in the end--high intensity warfare? I asked myself. I thought of the biological warfare disguised as a “war on drugs” the Americans were conducting in neigbouring Colombia, this tragic country converted into a macabre testing ground for chemical and biological agents, threatening its immense biodiversity and its inhabitants´ health and lives. I remembered December 15th, 1999, the day of the decisive popular referendum in Venezuela, when the new constitution was submitted to the people for approbation. That day, the State of Vargas had literally been swept into the ocean by devastating torrential rains, product of climatic conditions never before experienced in Venezuela´s coastal region. There was suspicion that some type of artificial manipulation of weather systems themselves was even being employed as a weapon.

A strong, fresh breeze from the Plaza came through the front door of El Momoy, and as I felt the cool wind in my hair, I felt I could see, in a single image, the ultimate logic and apex of our dying, globalized mode of production. Nature itself--humanity´s environment and habitat, our very lifeline, had been converted into a lethal weapon as the logical result of a process that began as the ‘liberation of man from the yoke of nature,' and progressively converted all of humanity's inventions into weapons and means of destruction.

It was time for us to leave. When we got up from the table, Rafaela reached toward the stool where the roses stood in their clay vase. Carefully, she picked one of the beautiful flowers from the bunch and gave it to me in a warm, spontaneous gesture. “Where do you get these incredible roses from?” I asked her. “From the most special rose gardener in the region,” she replied. “Who would that be?” I inquired. “Mistajá Cooperative,” she said with a smile. As I marveled at the glowing rose in my hand, a true piece of nature's art, the old saying flashed through my mind: “They can kill the flowers, but they cannot stop the coming of spring!”

Uneasily, I couldn't help thinking at the same time: what if this isn't true anymore?

Jutta Schmitt is a political analyst & commentator, assistant lecturer in political science at the University of The Andes in Mérida, Venezuela. Born in Germany in 1965, she studied political and social science at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt on Main. She came to Venezuela in the early nineties for two semesters of overseas studies at the University of The Andes in Mérida, obtained her masters degree with a dissertation on the Venezuelan political, social and economic crisis and returned to Venezuela after the conclusion of her studies. She has been a permanent resident there since 1995. A supporter of Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez Frías and the Venezuelan people's cause, Jutta Schmitt has participated in many conferences speaking about the Bolivarian Revolution, the dangers of Globalisation, and Imperialism in the XXIst Century. She forms part of a Bolivarian Studies Circle in a rural community near Mérida, which tries to unite academia with the common people in an effort to further the theoretical understanding and practical realization of the Bolivarian Revolution. She can be reached at jutta@aktionspotenzial.de

For comments, essays & poetry: http://www.geocities.com/juschmi/index.html
For summaries (spanish) of the sessions of the Bolivarian Studies Circle: http://www.franzlee.org/momoyprotocols001.html

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Venezuela: Luchando contra un holocausto mental colonial y neocolonial de cinco siglos

Por: Franz J. T. Lee
Publicado el Viernes, 16/09/05 02:55pm


	imprímelo

Bajo la globalización no sólo es el orden mundial que está cambiando radicalmente de la producción física a la producción intelectual, sino también el capitalismo - la “economía del mercado” - que muestra cada vez más su verdadera cara social, el desarrollo de la explotación económica a la dominación y opresión socio-política global, la “guerra de las ideas” y la guerra sobre las ideas.

Según podíamos presenciar en los recientes acontecimientos en cuanto a la participación del Presidente Chávez a la asamblea general de las Naciones Unidas en Nueva York, las maniobras de la Junta Bush para evitar la asistencia de Chávez, presentan otro ejemplo de un ataque fascista yanqui contra la Revolución Bolivariana.

Dentro de este contexto es importante contrrarestar las campañas de desinformación de los medios masivos a nivel mundial, que han desatado una verdadera “guerra de ideas” ideológica contra Venezuela y la Integración Latinoamericana.

Los medios masivos internacionales, las grandes agencias de noticias y los periódicos - propios de y controlados por los complejos industriales y militares globales oligopólicos y corporativos - en la tradición orweliana del “Newspeak” (ya aplicado por Platón y Hitler), desatan actualmente un verdadero holocausto mental alrededor del planeta, que consiste en guerras de desinformación, contra Venezuela, entre otros.

Los recientes montajes y mentiras referentes a las Torres Gemelas, las guerras invasoras contra Afganistán e Irak, las amenazas militares contra Corea del Norte, Irán y Venezuela, y ahora la cobertura racista de la tragedia en Nueva Orleáns, especialmente por parte de CNN y Fox News, todo esto deja claro, que si quieres controlar a un pueblo ideológicamente, sólo necesitas controlar su educación, su información y sus noticias, a través de campañas de desinformación realmente beligerantes.

Como comentarista frecuente en Vheadline, siento que dentro del contexto de la actual carnicería imperialista internacional contra todos los derechos humanos, especialmente contra la libertad de prensa, del pensamiento y de la libre expresión, como VHeadline mismo lo enfatiza en sus declaraciones editoriales, “una publicación electrónica totalmente independiente, promoviendo la democracia en su máxima expresión”, como urgente arma revolucionaria de la auto-defensa a nivel teórico, se ha vuelto un compromiso necesario obligatorio e inalienable para la sobrevivencia humana.

Durante los últimos años, Vheadline ha defendido definitivamente de manera valiente y a escala mundial “el derecho inalienable de la auto-determinación de todos los Venezolanos y la búsqueda de la independencia soberana sin intromisión”.

Esto no sólo son frases vacías, los obscenos ataques contrarrevolucionarios diarios, la cobertura de noticias de Vheadline a escala mundial, su creciente popularidad en los medios independientes y diseminación de sus noticias, comentarios y opiniones, pueden verificar en cualquier momento su rol democrático en la vanguardia de aquellos, que informan verdadero e independientemente sobre Venezuela, invitando además a la crítica constructiva proveniente de todas partes.

En este espíritu emancipatorio, Vheadline busca “iluminar las prácticas nefarias y la corrupción”, que para décadas han estrangulado el progreso y el desarrollo de Venezuela.

Esta mentalidad corrupta y generalizada de las clases media y alta, el cáncer burocrático y la actitud académica letárgica en amplios círculos sociales y administrativos en Venezuela, no son problemas o rasgos de carácter personal o específicamente humano: todo esto es el resultado lógico de una socialización durante un holocausto mental colonial y neocolonial de hace 500 años.

Para entender lo qué está pasando actualmente en Venezuela y América Latina, para ver lo qué está pasando con su rostro humano, humanista y humanitario, una conditio sine qua non es el estudio científico y filosófico consciente de todas las condiciones y factores necesarios históricos, personales, nacionales e internacionales, objetivos, subjetivos y “transjectivos”, que forman la Venezuela actual y que destacan su camino emancipatorio.

Para lograr esto, necesitamos verdadera información, conocimiento, medios masivos responsables, reporteros militantes y comentaristas optimistas.

Y ¿quién tiene que crear todas las condiciones y factores emancipatorios? La respuesta es: ¡Nosotros, de, por y para nosotros mismos!

¡Esto es, de qué se trata con los cuadros revolucionarios y la vanguardia emancipatoria!

Seis años de esfuerzos revolucionarios no son suficientes para introducir todas las medidas pre-socialistas necesarias en una sociedad venezolana neocolonial.

En sus noticias, análisis y comentarios referente a lo anterior, Vheadline siempre ha tratado - y sigue tratando - sin fin, de explicar su urgencia y de informar a los Venezolanos sobre sus dificultades históricas y sus posibilidades revolucionarias pioneras.

Por esas mismas razones, en mi opinión, como resultado de su experiencia en la publicación y comunicación electrónica, es obvio, que en la línea frontal de los ataques internacionales de la “Guerra de las Ideas” de Bush, Vheadline merece todo el apoyo necesario para la auto-defensa táctica y estratégica de las metas y de los objetivos de una futura prosperidad venezolana.

Sobre todo, desde Venezuela y de todos los revolucionarios, Vheadline necesita la ayuda solidaria y la cooperación colectiva para su propia existencia física e intelectual y para su sobrevivencia material. En todo caso, como siempre, continuaremos con nuestro objetivo incondicional y sagrado de decir la verdad, que es la pre-condición para la libertad humana.

Especialmente a nivel de los idiomas más importantes en el mundo, entre ellos primeramente el Inglés, la actual vanguardia revolucionaria de Venezuela urgentemente tiene que crear una red efectiva, eficiente e internacional de verdadera información, que alcanza desde Telesur a Vheadline, si no, es decir, sin semejante arma emancipatoria, el Fascismo Orweliano del Norte va a echar a perder cada esfuerzo emancipatorio individual y social, y cubrirá nuestro planeta azul con una oscura cobija de uranio empobrecido y con un eterno luto radioactivo.

Claro, no son los individuos que hacen o deshacen la historia, esto es una ventura social, un asunto de la lucha de clases global y globalizada.

Sin embargo, en estos tiempos históricos de la ultra urgencia y del peligro inminente de dimensiones apocalípticas y de la extinción, cualitativamente los individuos son altamente socializados, y la sociedad misma se individualiza extremadamente. En la era de la decaída del imperialismo, es esto la actual situación en que se encuentra Venezuela con Chávez y Cuba con Fidel.

Igual que los eventos de abril del 2002 y el sabotaje petrolero, hay que estudiar y analizar severamente el fenómeno Chávez, por causa de la práxis y teoría revolucionaria permanente.

Los revolucionarios no salen del suelo de la noche a la mañana como los hongos, ¡ni siquiera en 6 años! Esto es la razón, por qué el gobierno y sus instituciones están llenos de monstruos puntofijistas del pasado, que no perderán tan fácil su corruptibilidad, su identidad contrarrevolucionaria, su mentalidad racista y fascista, su modus vivendi parasítico y su modus operandi asesino.

Sin embargo, la conquista de la Habana comenzó con 12 valientes revolucionarios; también Lenin, con menos que 1000 Bolcheviques, finalmente tomó el Palacio de Invierno, meses antes de la Revolución de Octubre. Como vanguardia no necesitamos tantos en Venezuela; de hecho, con 1000 Nuevos Bolivarianos científicos y filosóficos, socializados y globalizados, con una nueva cosmovisión y una nueva lógica, podríamos liberar a toda la América e incluso a todo el mundo.

En cuanto al futuro de Venezuela, América Latina y el mundo: quien siembra viento revolucionario, cosechará ciertamente huracanes fascistas. Dentro de la Revolución Bolivariana, este venidero látigo fascista separará la paja reformista del trigo revolucionario permanente.

Nunca jamás dudábamos, que finalmente sobrevivirá la victoria.

Sin embargo, siempre deberíamos recordar, que la peor corrupción es la corrupción de lo mejor! Muchos “revolucionarios” camuflajeados siguen “confiando en Dios”, es decir, en el moribundo y añejo dólar estadounidense. Este cáncer global ha destruido más que una revolución social prometedora durante el siglo 20.

A través de la información cuidadosa, aquí en Venezuela, estamos luchando para evitar la repetición de este vicio capitalista e imperialista.

Por todas estas razones, nosotros, los comentaristas de Vheadline, apoyamos de todo corazón al heroico Presidente de Venezuela Rafael Hugo Chávez Frías, y con esto ayudamos de manera incondicional a todos los Venezolanos, que luchan por los derechos y las libertades humanas, de la prensa, de la libre expresión y de la información.

Original en Inglés: “Venezuela: Fighting a colonial and neocolonial mental holocaust of five centuries”
URL: http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=45892
http://www.aporrea.org/dameletra.php?docid=16713

Latest

Published: Friday, September 16, 2005
Bylined to: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

President Chavez is the talk of the town at the UN Summit

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Frias was the talk of the town at the United Nations (UN) Summit because of his aggressive style of speaking, which at least for twenty minutes stopped delegates chatting loudly to each other.

The President went over the five-minute speech deadline, saying that if George W. Bush was given twenty minutes, he had the same rights.

The President has proposed 4 reforms to the UN: expand the Security Council. improvements in work methods to increase transparency, immediate withdrawal of veto rights and strengthening the role of the Secretary General.

Throwing in another awkward suggestion, Chavez Frias has suggested moving the UN HQ from New York to a South American country.

Referring to the 35-page reform document, Chavez Frias has declared that Venezuela rejects the UN Reform draft outright calling the document a null and void fraud.

"We will not accept it ... it will be the last thing we accept here, this dictatorship."

The President blasts the International Monetary Fund, which he calls the International Coupster Fund.

Hitting out at President Bush, Chavez Frias has repeated his criticism of the Bush Administration's handling of the Katrina disaster.

Accompanying the President on his trip are: Foreign Minister Ali Rodriguez Araque, Minister for North America Maripili Hernandez, Education Minister Aristobulo Isturiz.

http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=45992

Entre los “Pomagás” y la “Kakistocracia”. ¿Un nuevo socialismo sin socialistas?

Por: Nicmer N. Evans
Publicado el Miércoles, 14/09/05 10:40am


	imprímelo

Deseo iniciar estas líneas, expresando mi profunda preocupación por dos fenómenos que hoy más que nunca se profundizan dentro de nuestro proceso revolucionario, a tal punto que sigue minando espacios de poder, detrás de un método retórico que casi se ha convertido en una cartilla de fácil aprendizaje, que podríamos llamar “Como ser revolucionario en 10 lecciones”.

Este es el caso de los “Pomagás” (basado en los colores que componen el fruto del mismo nombre de origen Malayo, cuyo nombre científico es Syzygium Malaccense), que no son más que aquellos personajes muy rojos a la vista y profundamente blancos por dentro, no tanto por su origen partidista, sino por su cultura política e identidad valorativa, me explico.

Los Pomagás son aquellos personas que al hablar tiene la capacidad de citar a Marx o Chávez con una soltura y una lógica argumentativa de gran pertinencia, aún cuando un poco exagerados, son lo suficientemente persuasivos para convencer, y no solo bastando esto, se aprenden (seguramente por afinidad rítmica sin capacidad de comprensión lírica) canciones de Alí Primera, Silvio Rodríguez, Pablo Milanes, así como son capaces de recitar líneas completas del Manifiesto Comunista, o se pavonean repitiendo los 10 objetivos estratégicos con una vehemencia tal que parecieran no comprender que estos responden a una estrategia de un año, que por cierto ya esta terminando, e inclusos son capaces de llamarlos “los diez mandamientos”, y entre otras cosas, te declaman los artículos de La Constitución, cosas que por si solas no son malas, por el contrario demuestras un interés significativo ante el proceso revolucionario, pero en sus acciones están totalmente contrapuestas a la apariencia.

Las acciones de los Pomagás están orientadas por el arrivismo, la oportunidad y competitividad como premisa fundamental de su devenir. Cada acción gira en torno a la posibilidad de figurar y controlar todos los espacios donde se encuentran. Incluso, algunos llegar a ser racistas o clasistas y se evidencia en su trato a subalternos políticos o laborales, o se concreta en la constante evasión al contacto con el pueblo. Los Pomagás están concientes de esta limitación, léase, el asco que le tienen al pueblo, y en ocasiones logran demostrar, cuando no queda otra, que son capaces de tratar a un pobre o a un moreno o negro, pero jamás propondrán generar algún trabajo con comunidades de sectores populares donde él o ella sea quien lidere dicho proceso.

Los Pomagás, siempre desearan aparentar lo que no son, léase, humildes, democráticos, conciliadores, inteligentes, socialistas, esto se evidencia en gestos y comentarios que además evidencian un problema de autoestima, afirmando constantemente en público que ellos si son humildes, democráticos, conciliadores, inteligentes y socialistas de una manera exagerada y constante, especialmente cuando se encuentran en apremios.

Los Pomagás, por su carácter individualista y ególatra, no sabe trabajar en equipo, y nunca conforma equipos reales, generalmente se rodea, para estructurar equipos, de personas tan oportunistas como ellas que después le traicionan o con quien tiene conflictos al punto del irrespeto.

Sin embargo, Los Pomagás son pragmáticos, y tras tener algún objetivo claro, van tras el hasta obtenerlo, cueste lo que cueste, incluso vulnerando cualquier principio ético, y es por ello que logran colocarse en importantes puestos de poder, en efecto estos personajes además tienen la capacidad de enquistarse ya que en torno a ellos crean espacios macoyéricos que mantiene a punta de prebendas, siempre mostrando una cara hacia quien tiene el poder de mantenerlo, distinta de el que le muestra al pueblo, a sus empleados subalternos o a sus subalternos políticos.

Este es uno de los aspectos, entre otros, que va sumando a la conquista de la Kakistocracia como forma de gobierno. Entiéndase por Kakistocracia, el sistema de gobierno de los más ineptos, de los más incapaces, de aquellos que precisamente por ser pragmáticos, hacen lo que sea por obtener alguna cuota de poder, persuadiendo al otro que lo acompañe ya que así podrán disfrutar de los beneficios y privilegios del poder, sin tener objetivos claros en lo colectivo, por tanto quienes gobiernan en un sistema kakistocrático son individualistas, compiten deslealmente, utilizan las peores argucias y además se mantienen a pesar de la incapacidad de poseer el conocimiento técnico, filosófico o ético para el ejercicio de la cuota de poder que posee.

Esto se refuerza por el hecho de que quienes tienen la solvencia ética, y el conocimiento mínimo pertinente, eluden la responsabilidad por el riesgo, entre otras cosas, de ser asociado con un sistema como el kakistocrático. Este fenómeno definitivamente pone en riesgo el proceso revolucionario, ya que los pocos que se arriesgan, son atacados de manera inclemente hasta hacerlos desistir, cuestionándolos sin base, en perjuicio de su honor.

Para culminar, quisiera alertar que, sobre estos dos elementos se sostiene la corrupción, que no es más que la degeneración ética de los postulados de un nuevo socialismo.

Nicmer N. Evans/ nicmerevans@yahoo.es
Politólogo/Profesor-UBV
http://www.aporrea.org/dameletra.php?docid=16659

New Orleans Unmasks 'Apartheid, American Style'

By Jason Miller.

New Orleans Unmasks 'Apartheid, American Style'
Posted on Tuesday, September 13 @ 00:38:56 VET
Topic: USA

By Jason Miller

What is the recipe for a toxic sludge potent enough to destroy a heavily populated city and inflict infection with a mere splash? Start with a force of nature powerful beyond belief. Mix in an ample supply of sewage, garbage, brackish water from Lake Ponchatrain , floating corpses of humans and animals, and various and sundry noxious chemicals. Blend well with a system of seriously inadequate levees resulting from cuts in federal funding. Of course this concoction would not be complete without heaping portions of racism, spiritual emptiness, and avarice fueling slow and inadequate federal relief efforts.

Heart of darkness revealed

The New Orleans debacle exposed America's "heart of darkness" to the world as its leaders allowed their own to suffer or die. Many throughout the world were aware of the damage the US government was capable of inflicting upon people of other nations, but Hurricane Katrina showed what America's decision-makers were willing to do to their own. The twin evils of raw capitalism and imperialism were on full display as the human race watched the events unfold on the Gulf Coast . As Mother Nature unleashed her ferocity, Americans witnessed the destruction of a jewel of a city and the pleasant fiction of the "American Dream" in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

With the eyes of the world upon its sole remaining superpower, President Bush, who fancies himself to be a monarch, remained on vacation, strummed his guitar, and led a federal response to the disaster which moved with the speed of a wounded snail. Several days into the aftermath, the "Queen Mum" surveyed the conditions under which the survivors were living and remarked how things were "working very well" for the "underprivileged". As the lies unraveled and the truth was revealed, the people learned that the Bush administration had significantly reduced funding for fortification of the levees protecting New Orleans . They realized that FEMA, whose purpose is to provide federal aid in the event of natural disasters, had been absorbed by Homeland Security and the military industrial complex. As humankind watched the nauseating events in New Orleans unfold, they realized that George Bush cared so little about the welfare of his people that he would appoint a grossly incompetent crony to head the federal organization upon which people counted to save them in the event of a disaster. American citizens have been in denial about the cruelty of their government's foreign policy for years, but now that their leaders have imposed that truculence upon fellow Americans, it will be difficult to evade the painful reality of the depth of the corruption and malevolence of the United States government.

Who do they think they are fooling?

Even the typically compliant mainstream media made strong note of the skin color and socio-economic status of most of the hurricane survivors, whom the federal government left to fend for themselves for several days. Stranded on roof-tops, taking refuge on islands formed by broken slabs of highway, hiding in attics, or clinging to survival inside the miserable, dangerous squalor of the "Super" Dome, tens of thousands of poor black Americans exposed a truth they have known for years. To the soulless plutocrats, aristocrats, white patriarchs, and "captains of industry" who rule the United States, black people are expendable, particularly if they are poor. The power-brokers in the US federal government only provided assistance for two reasons. One was to prevent civil unrest amongst the Proletariat. Secondly, they needed to provide window dressing in their desperate attempt to maintain their facade as champions of "freedom and democracy" so they could continue to justify their ongoing quest for global domination.

It staggers the imagination to think that The Big Easy (the home to Mardi Gras and the birthplace of jazz) has essentially been reduced to memories. The perverse emphasis on property, power, and wealth over humanity by a government "of the wealthy, by the wealthy, and for the wealthy" caused the demise of New Orleans . Under this twisted paradigm, the city was doomed when the hurricane struck. 68% of the population was black. Less than half owned their homes. Almost 30% lived below the poverty line. An estimated 134,000 residents did not have cars or other viable means to evacuate. The demographics virtually ensured that the Bush administration would render aid slowly and ineffectively, resulting in suffering and death on a scale usually associated with third world nations.

Hurricane Katrina's devastation and the US government's anemic response revealed the malevolent and wicked face which lurks beneath the mask of "freedom and liberty". Touting America's systems of capitalism and democracy as models for the rest of the world, the leaders of the United States have carried out an agenda of imperialism since our nation's inception. Sorry, Mr. Rove (and your staff of cunning Orwellian propagandists), but a true republic would not maintain a perpetual system of apartheid (which in Afrikaans means "separateness"). Certainly many laws have been passed to enhance the civil rights of blacks in the United States , but racism, bigotry, and separatism are still very much alive, both overtly and covertly. New Orleans provides a grim reminder that "Apartheid, American Style" is thriving in this nation.

In an address to Howard University in June 1965, President Lyndon Johnson stated:

"You cannot take a man who has been in chains for 300 years, remove the chains, take him to the starting line and tell him to run the race, and think that you are being fair."

Three months later, he signed an Executive Order requiring affirmative action by federal government contractors. Johnson understood that the journey toward equality for blacks in the United States had been a long and tortuous one, and even two hundred years after the Civil War, their struggle was far from over.

America's wealthy, predominately white power-brokers dominate the US government by utilizing their money to win elections, buying elected officials through campaign finance, applying expensive lobbying efforts to sway votes and decisions, and exerting influence through powerful corporations. When will they take responsibility for the plight of black citizens in the United States and rectify the gross injustices of US Apartheid?

Shameful history belies the nature of the beast

In 1619, the first slaves arrived at the British colony of Jamestown , thus starting the future United States of America down a path of moral repugnance and turpitude. By 1850, there were 2.5 million enslaved Africans in the United States . The agrarian economy in many southern states was so dependent upon slavery that they were willing to secede from the Union and to initiate the Civil War to ensure the perpetuation of an evil institution which had enabled them to build a thriving economy with the blood, sweat and tears human beings. White slave owners, a small minority of the population in whose hands rested most of the Confederacy's wealth, were able to convince poor, ignorant Southern whites that preserving slavery was critical for them as well. So compelling was the slave-owners' argument that poor white Southerners died by the tens of thousands defending the "great institution" of slavery.

In 1865, the Union triumphed and the Thirteenth Amendment made chattel slavery unconstitutional. Despite these events, the lot of black Americans, particularly in the South, improved little. "Mr. Jim Crow" saw to their continued suffering. In 1830, a white minstrel show performer named Thomas "Daddy" Rice blackened his face and danced an absurd jig to the song "Jump Jim Crow" as he mimicked a crippled, elderly black man singing and dancing. Jim Crow became a popular character in American culture and grew to represent "black inferiority". Faced with the Constitutional mandate to abolish slavery, vanquished states in the post-bellum South began to pass laws to ensure government-mandated suppression of the civil rights of black Americans. Jim Crow laws became common in most southern states starting in 1890.

Ironically, the US Supreme Court opened the door for Jim Crow segregation laws. In 1883 it ruled that the Civil Rights Act of 1875 was unconstitutional. The gist of the ruling was that the Fourteenth Amendment did not prevent individuals or private businesses from discriminating against black people. In 1896 the highest court of the "Bastion of Freedom" upheld a lower court ruling in Plessy vs. Ferguson, which affirmed Louisiana's law mandating that blacks ride in separate railroad cars. The ultimate arbiters in the "Land of the Free" made a ruling in Cummings vs. Richmond County Board of Education in 1899 which enabled local governments to maintain "whites only" schools and close schools for blacks based on claims of financial hardship.

Throughout the Jim Crow era, blacks faced many hardships. They were denied access to public areas and accommodations, like hotels and restaurants. Public restrooms and water fountains were designated for "Whites Only" and "Coloreds". White and black workers were separated. Schools were segregated. Gerrymandering, voter intimidation, fraud, manipulation by white landlords, literacy tests and poll taxes prevented many blacks from exercising their right to vote. Crop lien laws, which allowed creditors to charge outrageous interest, and the system of sharecropping reduced black farmers to little more than indentured servants as their debt perpetually exceeded their income. Debts were enforced by local police, creating a system of debt peonage. Stiff penalties for minor crimes often committed by itinerant blacks (i.e. five year prison sentences for stealing a pig) stocked the penal system in the South with slave labor. Prison farms and chain gangs became the order of the day, with black convicts returned to enslavement under unimaginable living conditions.

Vigilante groups like the Ku Klux Klan did their part to suppress the black race and guarantee they suffered. Nearly 5,000 blacks were lynched between 1890 and 1968. Virtually all of these atrocities occurred in former Confederate states. Many more than just the perpetrators were complicit in these murders. Railroads sold tickets for the express purpose of attending these executions committed by mobs. Many of the killings involved brutal torture prior to actual death. White families brought their children to watch lynchings. After the murders, participants and onlookers bought and sold body parts of the victims as "souvenirs".

Progress toward equality at last

Slowly and steadily through the course of the Twentieth Century, black Americans made progress toward equality and civil rights. In a significant blow to the "separate but equal" doctrine, in 1954 the Supreme Court ruled in Brown vs. the Board of Education that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. Tireless, courageous efforts by people such as Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and Medger Evers applied tremendous pressure on the federal government to protect the civil rights of black Americans. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed Jim Crow laws, prohibited employment discrimination, and enhanced the voting rights of blacks. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 went further in protecting the rights of blacks to vote by abolishing literacy tests. To this day, the right to vote remains state-granted, but the Voting Rights Act and three Constitutional amendments prevent states from discriminating in granting the right. The push for a Constitutional amendment granting the right to vote to all Americans continues.

Renaissance of inhumanity

Sadly, despite these strides, black Americans still lag far behind their white counter-parts. Under the brutal "trickle down" economic policies which started in the Reagan era, the rich have enjoyed a succession of generous tax cuts and businesses are operating in an increasingly deregulated environment. Black Americans have simultaneously experienced a serious decline in their situation. Chanting the mantra that less government is better, US policy-makers have diligently worked to diminish domestic spending and decrease taxes on the wealthy (progressive taxes). Despite the subterfuge, their true objective has been to line the pockets of the wealthy by diverting federal money previously spent toward humanitarian ends (like education and health) to military and defense, which benefits the many affluent who have heavy stakes invested in the military industrial complex. The end result has been an increase in regressive taxes to make up for revenue lost on tax cuts for the rich, obscene federal deficits, and a serious decline in funds available for education, health care, assistance to the poor, and emergency preparedness.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said:

"There is nothing new about poverty. What is new is that we now have the techniques and the resources to get rid of poverty. The real question is whether we have the will."

Since Reagan, the US government has consistently employed policies demonstrating a lack of will to eliminate poverty. Who has born the brunt of the obsession with greed and power which has been such a detriment of humanity?

For a concrete example, look no further than the disaster in New Orleans (bear in mind that 68% of the population was black), the 360 deaths verified as of 9/10, the government's emphasis on containing looters over rescuing victims, and the countless people who have been rendered homeless and jobless. Appropriate funding to strengthen the levees and a quick and appropriate federal response to the hurricane could have alleviated much of this suffering.

For statistical evidence, consider the 2004 US Census figures. While the overall poverty rate in the United States stood at 12.7%, the poverty rate for blacks was 24.7% compared with 10.8% for whites. Only 11.3% of white Americans did not have health insurance while 19.7% of blacks lacked coverage. At $30,134, the black median household income came in at the bottom of the ladder compared to other race groups.

As of August 2005, white unemployment came in at 4.2% while blacks were jobless at a rate of 9.6%. Black infants are more than 2.5 times as likely to die before age one as white infants. In 2001, the average net worth of a white household was $468,200.00, while blacks rang in at a mere $75,700.00. The disparities are indeed staggering.

Separate and unequal

A "separate and unequal" educational system continues to exist in the US . How can this be, you ask, after the federal government ordered school desegregation? "White flight" to the suburbs and inequitable distribution of education dollars are the principal reasons. Using their higher economic means, many whites have fled deteriorating urban cores for the haven of the suburbs. A 2004 report by the Harvard Civil Rights Project found that in the Midwest, 46% of black children attend schools in urban areas which are 90 to 100% black. Of these children, 88% are from poor families. The HCRP report found that nationwide, America's schools spend an average of $1500.00 less per black student than they do on white students. Poor black students attending under-funded schools face decrepit buildings, archaic classroom materials, under-qualified teachers, over-crowding, and simplistic curriculum which emphasizes rote memory over the development of critical thinking skills. The end result statistically? While 91.8% of white students graduate from high school, blacks graduate at a rate of 83.7%. Of those black males who do drop out of high school, over half do prison time. Perhaps even more damning is the fact that only 17% of blacks have college degrees versus 30% of whites.

Challenge us and see what happens to you

The Civil Rights Movement represented a serious threat to the dominance of the wealthy, white patriarchy dominating the federal government. Naturally, they responded by imprisoning those challenging their stranglehold on power. In doing so, they employed the typical guile of the US government. In 1971, the US prison population was 200,000. Today it is 2.1 million. Half of the US prison population is black. While having only 5% of the world's overall population, the United States now harbors 25% of the incarcerated population of the world. 13% of prisoners worldwide are black Americans. 30% of black American men experience incarceration during their lifetime. The most rapid growth in prison populations began during the Reagan era, with blacks leading the way. Federal sentencing laws passed in the 1980's virtually guaranteed that black Americans would swell the ranks of the incarcerated. These laws enacted federal sentencing guidelines for the distribution of crack cocaine (used predominately in poor black neighborhoods) 100 times more harsh than those for distributing white cocaine powder (often the "drug of choice" for more affluent whites). Contrary to the hysteria often created by the mainstream media (i.e. the over-blown reports of rampant looting, raping and shooting in New Orleans), a majority of the nation's prison population is serving time for non-violent crimes.

Legacies were meant to be continued, weren't they?

Building upon the Reagan legacy, Bush II has continued to chip away at the federal disbursements to the poor, elderly and disabled, shrinking a safety net which the world's wealthiest nation has a moral obligation to provide for its less fortunate citizens. While bankrupting the United States to fund a grossly bloated military budget (the US accounts for 50% of world military spending to "protect" 5% of the world's population), Bush continues to chop domestic spending (i.e. funds to strengthen the levees in New Orleans ). If you doubt that Bush's axe-swinging is disproportionately affecting the black population, consider that the poverty rate for blacks is 25% while the black population of New Orleans used to be 68%.

One way the merciless decision-makers in the United States justify their push to significantly diminish the social welfare system, including Medicaid, AFDC, and Social Security, in favor of private charity is to utilize the mainstream media, their instrument of propaganda, to re-enforce common myths about welfare. Contrary to the lies, poor women on AFDC (federal financial aid to single mothers) generally do not bear more children to garner more benefits. The average family receiving AFDC has 2 children. Many media "pundits" claim that the US has spent $5 trillion on welfare since the 1960's and it has "not worked". To put this into perspective, consider that spending on AFDC from 1964 to 1994 was $500 billion, less than 5% of defense spending during the same period. Most of the $5 trillion of which the media puppets speak went to the disabled, the elderly, and the uninsured (via Medicaid). Another common misconception perpetuated by the mainstream media is that of the "black welfare queen". The truth is that a majority of those receiving benefits from federal entitlement programs are white, and many are elderly or are children.

"Velvet" revolution unfolding

If perverse individuals like George Bush, who is devoid of empathy and compassion, continue to impose their sick will upon America by diminishing domestic spending and increasing defense spending to seek global dominance, black Americans will continue to suffer. They will see significant declines in federal programs which aid them in their quest to reach a level playing field. The quality of their education will further deteriorate. Aid available to the 25% of black Americans living in poverty will continue to vanish. More will find themselves in prisons. Many black mothers will find themselves grieving for the loss of sons lured by slick recruiters (and a dearth of opportunities) to fight in America's latest imperial conquest. Urban cores will further decay, encouraging more "white flight". Despite the promises of Reagan and his successors, the money is not "trickling down" to black America . How many more travesties have to occur, and how many more cities must America lose before spiritually evolved Americans demand an end to "Apartheid, American Style"?

The illegal occupation in Iraq and the American Apartheid revealed by events in New Orleans provide ample evidence that it is time that "We the People" oust the scoundrels who are "leading" our nation. It is incumbent upon the poor and the working class, the true majority in the United States , to exercise our social consciences and wrest the power from the unworthy hands of the wealthy minority who now hold that power. They have proven their moral bankruptcy and ineptitude as leaders. A non-violent, "velvet" revolution is evolving and gaining momentum. If you have not done so already, I hope you join.

Jason Miller is a 38 year old activist writer with a degree in liberal arts. He works in the transportation industry, and is a husband and a father to three boys. His affiliations include Amnesty International, the ACLU and the Americans United for Separation of Church and State. He welcomes responses at willpowerful@hotmail.com or comments on his blog at http://civillibertarian.blogspot.com.