AND A DAY IT WAS

ROMA CAMP IN ITALY


Oh where to start. It's been a few days since I made an entry and things are hopping. So here we go.

Sept. 9Th was the anniversary of the 1971 uprising at Attica State Penitentiary in New York. 43 people, mostly prisoners were killed before it was over.

Sept. 11Th (1973)is the anniversary of the violent overthrow, with US backing, of the leftist government of Salvador Allende of Chile.
In related news, the president of Bolivia, Evo Morales, has expelled the United States ambassador for inciting violence.

Jim McDermott has signed on to impeach George W. Bush. Better late than never Jim.

Gloria Steinem has written a good article on Sarah Palin. It's in the LA Times on 9/4/08. I hope you can look it up. I just couldn't get the link to work.

In Seattle, police have started carrying tiny cameras which can videotape for 4 hours at a time. They've already been seen filming demonstrators with their little cameras. Am I the only one outraged ?

The European Union has decreed that Italy is NOT violating anyone's rights by systematically fingerprinting the Sinti Roma. Meanwhile, a Romani news crew was denied entrance to Camp Castillano, the oldest and most notorious of the "camps" for Roma in Italy

Yesterday I heard a wonderful interview on KUOW/NPR with a philosopher from Slovenia named Slavoj Zizek. He's written over 30 books, the latest called VIOLENCE.
He talked about many things dear to my heart including
that Americans recognize physical violence but ignore institutional and ideological violence. We try to fix immediate problems, like hunger here, starvation in Africa, but refuse to address the underlying philosophies which cause them.
My favorite part was when he talked about liberal philanthropists, like Bill Gates, and even George Soros, who does a lot for Roma in Europe. They give away lots of money but first accumulated it by any means necessary.
He even addressed the issue of "tolerance" (gag me) but I'll write more on that later.