Tuesday, August 15, 2006

I AM TIRED

They tell me that ideas are effective forces in history. That in a way tends to be a guiding philosophy for this blog. But there are times when I get tired of thinking and acting like I want to change the world or make a monumental contribution to what I paradoxically call the Kenyan Canon.

Because I am tired and feeling increasingly intellectually challenged, there are a couple of matters that have crossed my mind recently that I will not blog about:

a) A child that died of Streptococci Meningitis.

I killed that story because I seem to be dragging Pfizer and Kano 1996 into it. In Kano, Pfizer came, they saw, they TROVANed- so how is that my problem? I mean, the poor Africans, who were going to die anyhow, died for a good cause in that instance, didn’t they? They died to give the rich a drug that would keep them alive to rule the world. Is there a point, really in curing the poor bastards, today just so that they can find something else more hideous to die of tomorrow?

b) Terrorism, Democracy, Et al.
  • The tyranny and double standards of the Super Powers.
  • Does, the term ‘Democratically elected government’ change when Fatah is voted into power by the good people of Palestine?
  • What is the difference between the Intifadah policy of one Nation and the War on Terror of another when it comes to defining Terrorism?
  • Does CIA funding legitimise the cause of a particular (warring) faction? Think Somalia, Kabul and that Iraqi Interim who used to work for… yes, THEM!

Washington says they are working towards the day when Cuba is free. Free from what? Do they mean that Cubans must be free to watch MTV and drink Coca Cola? That Cubans, like the poor Iraqis, must exercise their ‘democratic right’ to reel under American socio- cultural and political hegemonies?
The liberation of Cuba, I say, must begin at Guantanamo Bay

c) The Jewish State

Much as my Caucasian friend, John Powers would want me to pussyfoot around the Jewish Question since, as he says, it is a racial one; I refuse to see it that way. As a Black African, I cannot tell a Gothic countenance from a Saxon one; I cannot tell a Roman nose from a Hebraic one. Ergo, says The Potash:

  • I refuse to believe that denying the Holocaust makes one a Neo-Nazi. I do not deny the Holocaust, I just do not think it is of more importance to me than the unsung fact of my ancestor- and his aanake a forty peers- dying in Burma and wherever else fighting a European War they didn’t understand. At least after that war, the Jews got a State; all my people got was a State of Emergency.
  • I know the meaning of the word Holocaust but shouldn’t there be an antonym to it- for when the victim turns into villain? A specific word is needed for the Serial Killing of Palestinian school children.
  • The same people who set up the Jewish State are the same that brought down the Maasai Nation. (Sir Donald Stewart and his thugs set the usurper Lenana against his brother Sendeiyo and then conned him out of Maasailand.) With the same tactics, they pulled down Shaka’s Zulu Nation- admittedly Africa’s greatest military unit ever- and savaged Heligoland in a scramble for King Solomon’s Mines. But no one talks of Genocide here or the repatriation of relics… (Yes they might seem heathen to you, but they were what we called God!)
  • You see the Jewish State exists there, but not here- so in truth, I do not really care about it. But when the Machiavellian Princes, George Bush and Osama bin Laden and Jewish Global Capital drag an entire pantheon into fundamentally temporal matters, it disgusts me. The war is about resources, period and God merely supplies canon fodder whilst religion is the cavalry’s horse. (As I always say, only fools fight for God and for King whilst their families starve.)

If the Zionists- and I single out Theodore Herzl- and their Imperialist supporters (Joseph Chamberlain leading the thieving hordes) had had their way, Eldoret would be called Tel Aviv and East Africa- like the Middle East, today- would be a Crisis rather than a geographical location.

As for me, I would have spent my childhood throwing stones at a guy with an Uzi. Maybe I would have survived the bi-annual ritual of saturation- imprecise- bombing to grow up into a Terrorist (whatever that means). Then they would call me an Anti-Semite. I would become an Anti-Semite for pelting a Kevlar clad Stephen Spielberg look-a-like with pebbles. Puuhliiiz!

17 comments:

Jay said...

Hear Hear.

Cuba's most pressing problems are caused by the decades old American Blockade and america insisting on getting rid of catro by all means than by castros dictatorship. The Americans actually drove him into the arms of the soviets (for protection) in the late fifties when they turned down overtures of cooperation from him because they arrogantly thought they would have him out of power in a few months.

I feel you on isreal.

Glad i stumbled upon your blog

Anonymous said...

Free to disagree with the Castros. Past is past. He's too personal, a bit of a joke now. Well denying the Holocaust goes in line with neo-nazi thinking and it’s abnormal for a sane person to deny a particular event in history. Nationhood comes before Statehood in most instances, the Jews shared a common religion and they occupied a certain territory so they earned their statehood, most nations have at certain point aspired for statehood and achieved it. If any past genocide has happened it’s up to those inflicted to make it known, New York is the home to Jews, so it’s understandable how their ordeal has been acknowledged.

They’re not finding the cure because they love Africans. Pharmaceutical companies pay researchers to make drugs in order to sell them to those HIV+ because they can make a lot of money from that. The more sick people the better so they can sell their product and make a lot of money. It’s lucrative business.

Statesmen adhere to other sets of moral codes that ensure a state’s wellbeing. Statism, survival and self-help at times mean war. Unlike Castro perhaps, for a modern statesman it’s nothing personal, they’re just doing their job in maximizing gains for the state in order for it’s everyday citizens to prosper comfortably. Dissidents, those bodies who pose threat to the state should be dwelt with like the way the church was before the 1648 Treaty of Westphalia, ‘terrorist’ organizations are no different, they pose threat to state security.

If these terrorist grouping were not carrying arms they would not be classified as terrorists, the fact that they are, makes them offensive and potentially dangerous so really the state has no choice but to have them dwelt with because ultimately they could strengthen their arms, military and could be utilized, hired out, offer their services to Multi-National Corporations or other rogue states to threaten other citizens, MNCs or govts of other nation-states. Power is ranked by arms and not resources nor democracy.

My guess is if the world is to continue under the capitalist model in 50 or so years govts will be non-existent and those powerful MNCs will be calling the shots with their own arms. Many scholars are calling the model problematic and thus working on it.

POTASH said...

@Kagz:
Sema kid, America is waiting for Castro to die becuse they have been unable to kill him, or otherwise depose him, to pave way for a 'democracy' that fits their defination.

Yes, your grandmother is extremely poor because the poor in American Projects have fridges and cable TV.

As for politics, well you can hate it but it still shapes your life... whether you like it or not, you are affected.

@Jay:
Thanks for stumbling in.
In a world where we cannot agree on the meaning of democracy and what it is that constitutes the 'just government of men' it becomes callous to describe Cuba as a dictatorship, right?

As for Americans driving him to the Russians, my problem really is why there should be an Axis anyway. If the Russians had kept their game together, we would be villifying them today for playing Global Policeman. Either way, might remains right so the best form of government for the rest of us mortals will always be defined by the Super Powers and not by rationality.
(The tragedy though is that a rational government would drive us all to ruin.)

POTASH said...

@Anon, I am usually hesistant to answer anonymous commentators, but you are my regulay from Tel-Aviv, I can tell, so:

As, I said, denial of the Holocaust is of no consequence to me, but when you talk about history,I will want to remind you that Historical Revisionism is an acceptable pursuit by historians. And thus the concept of Holocaust Revisionism, as opossed to denial is viable.
It is also a fact, rather pertinent to my argument, that there exists individuals who pass the Yiddishkeit meter...lol...but who deny the Holocaust, are they Neo- Nazi in their thinking?

Which reminds me that, there really isn't a commonality I can find between the Israeli citizens that would set them apart from their aggreived Goyim neighbours. To me Jewishness as I know it today is neither a race, religion, or culture because as I am told, MAdeline Albright is a jew and so is Lenny Kravitz. Yet, Albright is catholic, to the best of my knowledge and Lenny would fail the Pencil test in South Africa. So how would these people come together, under a 'homogenous nation'?

I think you refuse to see my point really, which was about Zionism, and the consequences it would have had for me... if the Jews own New York and have one of their own for mayor, it is of little value to me. But the fact that Israel would have been here, is what has me worried.

On that last point about statesmen, I totally agree with you.. that is why I am not ranting about Hizbollah, or the fact that children are denying because, to me...that is collateral damage. I believe that the common man has no clue about he wants to be governed, seriously, if people were governed the way they wanted to, then there wouldn't be government and consequently superstructure and infrastructure...yadayadayada....

POTASH said...

*regular

*The fact that children are DYING

Anonymous said...

Powerful post...

POTASH said...

Cheers @ Msanii

Anonymous said...

Well, I have very little sympathy for the Jewish lot in Israel in particular with their latest assaults on Lebanon but I will say those who deny the Holocaust is stereotypical neo-nazi, whether they're aspiring to join the neo-nazi brotherhood or, are already members of that particular group is their private affair and frankly since I am not a Holocaust survivor, neither religious, it does not concern me. The Jewish lot I refer to are not the Albrights and Kravitzs but those residing in Israel. When I speak of New Yorkers, I have to say Jew as publicity has carried well as opposed to the Zulus and looking at it like that, it's understandable why some parts of history have heightened attention and why some do not. We tend to emphasize those parts of history that may be of beneficial for us in achieving our goals for tomorrow. Moscow’s historical view of the Cold War is probably different to Washington.

To be honest with you, I really do not see the zionists cause any different to neo-nazis. The state does not adhere to religious causes and some may think certain superpowers acted religiously but there is no room for religion in politics unless it serves tool to maximize a gain for a particular state which is the single most priority. Time and time again, all throughout the history of nation-states that religious argument did not hold when bringing into equation to why nation-states made certain decisions, Jewish occupation of Israel is no different. A Jewish Israel would yield better control for the USA than perhaps an Arab one.. Islamic whatever who cares and as you know Israel is a strategic location, the heart of those parts to monitor flow of things.

If there was a movement in East Africa, perhaps a certain tribal group who cooperated snug with the ‘imperialists’ then most likely that group was lifted up so that the ‘imperialists’ could achieve their agenda, naturally, if Kenya was imperializing Rwanda, they’d have done the same. For the imperialists, it would not have mattered if that group worshipped cows and the other diligently sung hymns all day, if the one worshipping cows were more cooperative they’d have supported them. If you were throwing stones at the cow worshipping lot who happened to wear fezes with horns then yes some may look at you as anti-cow, I mean why would you as a grown man be throwing stones at people in the first place unless you had a mental problem, harboring some grudge that needed counseling or in actual fact was part of a terrorist organization. Terrorism is not what most people think, it’s political. It’s in reference to those certain networks out to weaken a particular nation-state for economic gain, it’s not an individual action. If you decide to blow yourself up on the bus they would classify you as a suicidal maniac unless you did so with direct ties at the behest of those terrorist networks. These terrorist networks are just aftermaths of the Cold War which need to be addressed and cleaned up.

John Powers said...

Looking for a definition of "pussyfoot" online I stumbled onto "to do things not quite relevant to the task." Actually that definition was in the English to American dictionary under the word "faff."

Racism has so many connotations that uttering it raises problems of definition and proper definitions elude us. A similar sort of problem occurs frequently here in the US with the words Africa and African. The way so many of us talk it seems we imagine Africa as some little country somewhere far away, not the huge continent it is. And that Africans are all the same.

Should nations be "homogenous?" You call me Caucasian, and enough people would that I'll answer to that, but I'm a mongrel and I know it. I'd prefer ideas of nations as heterogeneous, which is why "The Jewish State" isn't so appealing to me as a construct. But identities are not all our own choosing. I guess the best we can do is to choose what identity we can.

Per chance someone will read this not knowing about Trovan http://www.ahrp.org/infomail/03/10/14.php

POTASH said...

Well, at least we agree on governemt and Hizbollah, is not a concern for any of us. But you missed my point on The Jews ala Lenny Kravitz. I was saying that those people are jews too, and thus Yiddisheit is neither a religious or a racial grouping. Also I said that there are people who deny the Holocaust but are described as Jews, and they qualify to be that under soem criteria or other. Those people are not in reality Neo Nazis- they are just dissenting voices. They are individuals who have agreed that their collective history needs a rethink.

On religion and the war, as i said: "The war is about resources, period and God merely supplies canon fodder whilst religion is the cavalry’s horse."

As a famous Jew- who was born christian...lol said: Religion is the opium of the people. It is something any ruler of men must use and use wisely to keep the State together. I have always seen Emperor Constantine as the most succesful example of this tenet.
But even in his days, the Jews got a special dispensation. Lucky folks, really.
MAybe the black people haven't spoken loud enough... but on that I am thinking about something from MAx weber,-In The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism- about ethnic and religious minorities... A thing that has given the Jews the financial might they enjoy today... which can allow them to push their course more aggressively
That I might talk about soon.

POTASH said...

Lol@ John.. Well I use British English and the hword as I learnt it back in the days didn't have such grim connotations.

And thanks for the link on Trovan, you know I have little time to dig up this links, but I remember watching a documentaryyears back about That and the Tuskegee Syphilis research and it was all screaming racism, so in a way, we can not evade the race question..here..can we? Touchy as it is. But then I never try try to...lol ..pussyfoot about it. It is real, it is a part of who we are.
I am not for a homogeneous state, I was just saying that there is no homogeneity in the Jewish state, that allows it to be defined racially, culturally or otherwise.

Girl next door said...

Your statement about "the victim becoming villain" is so true. After watching 'Paradise Now' (I blogged on it too) my view of the middle-east conflict changed.

Anonymous said...

First of all hi and its an amazing post full of ideas and thought.
A. why make a drug that will cure you if i can make a drug that controls the disease and i get more money in the process, the perils of living in a capatilist world.
B.Do onto others what they do onto you. So if a terrorist is born some where its because they are reacting to their problems and situation in the same manner they presented themselves.
C.All i will say on a jewish state is this.here is an example, take Mr X and his family to the house of Mr Y allocate a room Mr X and his family and tell them that the room is theirs, and expect that Mr Y will forever be happy with the whole scenario.

Life is a Promise not a Debt said...

Firstly, I find it difficult to ignore the plight of children be they in Kenya, Uganda, Congo or Lebanon…I hate war and what it does to people…I abhor the seeds it plants…resentment, hatred and vengefulness, the fruit of which is even more hatred which ultimately breeds more conflict and war…so, much as Lebanon, Kabul, Baghdad, Sri Lanka….much as these are conflicts happening there, I can’t not feel for those affected. I guess I am a condemned empathic.

Secondly, terrorism…what’s that about? Interesting how this has become a household name since 9/11...This is what I think: the ‘Aryan oppressor’ of today was yesterday’s Messiah…the Americans were in history (esp the world wars), the last Allies card…and in that way, perhaps, they seemed, to many, as a saviour…of course, at some point, when you glorify a man so much, he starts to believe that he is god…so now this god wants to ‘liberate’ the world by shoving its candy coated BS labeled democracy…people see through the ruse and they smell the stench coming out of Washington B.S from well… from everywhere. Different forms of government work differently for different nations and just because one works out great in one place does not make it superior, and it definitely does not mean that it will work some place else just because its crusader says it will. Terrorism is a euphemism…just another label, another sachet…one coined to make modern day imperialists look like troops coming from the army of the lord…and their challengers, well, it paints them as black demons complete with glaring red horns…bring out your pitchforks!!!

And this brings me to something else altogether…that I am a Christian I cannot deny. I have little faith in the church order(daughter of Calvin, I do not claim to be…but I think I might be protestant…still can’t decide),I will go to mass, and enjoy it although I am not particularly drawn to Catholicism…saying this to my friends, I am sometimes labeled a pagan…but I cannot be pagan seeing as I am notoriously monotheistic…see, labels… and so in the same way, it’s incorrect to label anyone Neo Nazi just because they disbelieve the holocaust…for the record, I don’t disbelieve it but I can’t say that other people haven’t the right to, for their own reasons, question it.

Lastly, I like Castro although really, he should have stepped down years ago…and as for passing power to his 75 year old cousin, that’s something else altogether…but then again, these guys can outlive Methuselah so, you never know… I like Mommar Gaddafi too. He has mellowed over the years but he, Castro and Saddam shook their fists against the west when the rest of the world cowered with their tails between their legs. Have to admire their spunk although I disagree with their politics.

Anonymous said...

Potash excellent post as usual. Children dying... War..., I'm glad you decided not to write about it! Because in my very humble opinion, humanity lives it's history over and over, with the only Differences being who to hate and for what inane reason, who to subjugate and how fast and how long and with what, and perhaps the language. And Potash YOU are RIGHT about the 'GOD provides the fodder...' statement. Why do human beings forget that none of them chooses to be born black or white african, chinese, arab ... WHY CAN'T WE ALL JUST GET ALONG? what we are missing in our generation is a good old-fashioned revolution, an acceptable reason to die! Chide me...Chastise me.I rumbled on and on.

Anonymous said...

War is about exercising power. Resources is one of factors along with economics, military, arms, influence, survival, regime competition etc. The USA did not attack Vietnam to rape them of resources. Israel did not attack Lebanon because of resources. In this case it was to demonstrate regional hegemony to the rising dissention of Hezbollah, Hamas, Iran, Syria and the likes.

If you were looking purely at resources, the 9-20% of the US economy used to fuel the war in Iraq wouldn't have been necessary for the sake of gaining 0.01% or so of resources in Iraq.

USA is currently the only superpower, the unipolar dimension you see at the moment means at times it requires the superpower to demonstrate their force, or else Eurasia and the likes will gang up.

Wars reflect the nature of power politics at play, is al Qaeda fighting for resources? Did Hitler fight for resources? Resources is just one of factors.

alexcia said...

maze you have unleashed this one