Weekly review.

national | miscellaneous | news report Sunday January 12, 2003 19:24 by iosaf who has to say it again. barcelona 0034697708674

100 postings have appeared in the last week on ireland indymedia.

which is a very real sign that involvement is improving. Welcome to all the new contributors who are "thinking for themselves" "not being humble" and "sharing their two pence worth". It is also probably a sign of increased readership too. Lovely does it! Welcome. One week can never be enough to judge the merits of this space.

firstly the feelings of a few of us:

This week on ireland.indymedia.org two of the established parties that have failed us all over the years decided to climb on our bandwagon to stop the Iraq War.

Fine Gael first made their appearance last year trumpeting their charity work for the homeless of
Limerick they now used the spokespeople "Alex" and "in support of Alex".
We are supposed to believe that these two writers are young fine gael heads sincere supporters of such myriad groupings as gluaiseacht (the wonderful techno tweedy gaelgoirs) squatters (according to Alex they loved the collection in Limerick) and in their own words their blue shirt grandaddys.
It is most possible that they merely have realised how marginalised they really are and this is another crass attempt to portray themselves as "young" "hip" and at the "cutting edge".
Well Young Fine Gael if I gave you a cutting edge and a mirror I doubt you would be able to do anything useful. and if you could you wouldn´t admit to it would you?

The other bastards that showed their words were Labour.
well really.
welcome to the forum Labour.
You bastards sold us all out over the years even with your cheerful IRFU capped Dick Spring, who entered coalition with who was it ....yes Fine Gael, though it must be said Alex´s ogra fine gael were still in school then and so can only be judged on their own words which lets face it are possible worse than any of their forebears.

Now the review stuff.

Associated Press continued the shite propagada stuff of the Iraq war this week with a global front page splash of Iraqi women touting AK47 kaleshnikovs.
(oh yes I will be misspelling lots today).
The AK47 won the industrial design award in 1996.
It operates in all weather and very rarely sticks. Great little weapon, the British decided as reported in today´s Sunday Telgraph to invest in super duper american double hit rocket launchers, so together with the depleted uranium bullets that pierce 5mm armour, don´t get your hopes up for the Iraqi women.

My favourite european newpaper this week was DasBild of Wednesday 8th. They did a nice article on Napoleon, who as everyone will remember made a few basic mistakes.
He invaded Russia.

Don´t do that.

Under a qoute from Goethe and Schiller (two german geniuses for the price of one)
letter writers ruminated on the French tactics in this forthcoming war.
The qoute for your illumination was;
"Wo Partein entstehn hält jeder sich hüben und drüben. Viele Jahre vergehn, eh sie die Mitte vereint".
Labour as well as jumping on the bandwagon supplied us with a translator (thank you most sincerely Cathal) so we can all consider the moral issues.
http://www.freetranslation.com/

The French media downplayed their involvment in the Iraq build-up and focussed on the deaths due to hypothermia of homeless people throughout the country.
They also focussed on Matignon´s plan (a french careerist----go check him out) to redefine the European regions. I wrote a piece entitled Europe of the 125 regions
http://ireland.indymedia.org/cgi-bin/newswire.cgi?id=23420
so you see there will be less.
Europe of the 25 states will see more centralisation.

The British media today focused on Iraq, and today finally copped on that Bush 2 is not after all infallible.
Blair might be lose a commons vote and has been advised to use the phrase "liberation" as opposed to "invasion" of Iraq.
That might be something to do with no-one wanting this war and suspecting MR Blair´s suport of illegitanate president Bush who appears to nurse some serious psychological problems as regards his father´s enemy.

Think about that one.

IN south America observers were very surprised to see the general strike continue.
The amounts of people who have mobilised on the streets with so far only two deaths since the beginning of the strike have ensured a situation where the strikers have now stepped down from suporting a military intervention, and even Chavez has begun to wonder about his words on day three of the strike "there will be no anarchy here".
Sorry Mr Chavez, but anarchy never waits for permission.

The OPEC ministers are understandably in a bit of a fuss, Brent Oil barrel prices have been rising steadily as Venezuealan oil exports have slowed.

They all went to Vienna to have a chat this weekend and Saudi oil minister Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi sent a "strong message" to world oil markets, where prices recently hit a two-year high, above $33 a barrel, for U.S. crude.

last week it was about 32$

"There is a shortage. It is significant," said Naimi of the Venezuelan outage. "I can assure you that there will be no shortage." He predicted that oil prices "will be lower" after Sunday's meeting.

OPEC is under pressure from the United States to stop prices running out of control ahead of a possible U.S. attack against Baghdad, that some fear could be just weeks away.

Others who know how these things work, have realised that two of the OPEC countries are also on the list of Bush2 with the "please daddy i´m soory about the cocaine childhood complex".
And that background noise on the internet that AlQaeda will consider an attack on Iraq as an attack on Islam, and well they do seem to be capable of retaliation don´t they?
So if the UN say Iraq is not capable of mass destruction weapon production then the USA and UK really shouldn´t provoke a new generation of unhappy motivated terrorists should they?

let´s talk money-
so in the terms of Oil price increases the Prestige would be worth 125.000$ more this week.

The costs of the Prestige are being recounted now.
The debacle of the beginning of this year when the Spanish state attempted to stop volunteers going to the beaches has now failed.
there are approx 3500 volunteers.
1200 professional cleaners
and
2800 soldiers.
Nunca Mas!
read my prestige said it all article of last year at http://ireland.indymedia.org/cgi-bin/newswire.cgi?id=18493

Oh yes the costs.
well the oil is now worth one fifty more than when it sank per barrel, and the Spanish state has revised the costs upwards to approx €390million.
The French whose are now suffering oil on 200km of their coast are calling for European wide support.
We in Spain -catalúnya Galizia
called for Galizia to be declared a disaster area last november.
anyone listening?

Lulu is now being written about after his first weeks in office.

It is too soon to write about Lulu.
But professional journalists have to sell newspapers and suport alcohol habits and ego and will write any type of shite to do so.

Oh if you want to get involved in Venezueala then troll back through the newswire and find info-
unfortuanetly the banks have now been closed so you can´t send them money.
If you had been interested you would have known that the money transfer services suspended money payments on Dec 5th.
Western union will still send credit to Caracas if you know anyone with a credit card.
but no hard cash.
"pasta" or "plata" as it is known in spanish.
The Bolivarian state being proposed by Chavez and his allies and fellow travellers will for the first time offer health care, social security and education. (just like Lulu wants to do in Brazil).

with the Irish Labour supplied translator learn about your world sure why not?
or see last week´s review at
http://ireland.indymedia.org/cgi-bin/newswire.cgi?id=22957

OH what else happened?
North Korea did a million on the streets job, though I shan´t be putting it in the Reclaim the Streets! scrapbook of global mobilisations.
if you´re interested about Korea and it´s scud missiles and stuff go see my global list of brand name weaponry during the week the Spanish confiscated NorthKorean scuds. (i am not putting the link go look for it can not spoon feed you all the time).

I shall soon supply you with a global list of AK47 distribution.
just so you keep abreast.
of the changing times.

I still maintain that Venezueala is the key.
Chavez is nominally in control of an oil state.
It is not a nation state in our understanding of the words. Ordinary people those with who real socialists and anarchist work and live do not enjoy real benefits from the Oil state. Thus they do not owe real allegiance to its operation.
But do have real hope of what it may offer.
;-)

Farmers.

there are lots in the world.

It is a great tradition stretching back to the empires that formally stood in the Iraqi region abouit seven thousand years ago.

Farming has resisted many challenges.
Genetic Seed manipulation and careerist intervention.

Irish Farmers who some here think are petty bourgois but I would prefer to think of as the backbone of the Irish people as in they have parented most of the Irish people decided to get in to their tractors and go to Dublin.

Their "leader" Mr Dillon decided they ought not do that, and finally only 300 made the journey.
Read my thoughts on tractors at
http://ireland.indymedia.org/cgi-bin/newswire.cgi?id=23514
look at photos of tractors from RedJaDe and Blisset at.
RedJaDe foccused on the hardware. ;-)
http://ireland.indymedia.org/cgi-bin/newswire.cgi?id=23643
http://ireland.indymedia.org/cgi-bin/newswire.cgi?id=23644
http://ireland.indymedia.org/cgi-bin/newswire.cgi?id=23645
blisset focussed on the plackards they carried.
http://ireland.indymedia.org/cgi-bin/newswire.cgi?id=23548
http://ireland.indymedia.org/cgi-bin/newswire.cgi?id=23551

The Dublin City council government local assembly corporation beurocracy talking shop for beginner careerists entered "a dodgy phase".
This as everyone resident in Ireland knows is due to the contentious bin tax.
I recommend the following solution.
Don´t pay a state that rips you off.
Recycle your rubbish and carpool with friends to dump it yourself.
Give useful stuff to others who need it.
Keep what is left in your bedroom along with escreatea urine and nail clippìngs.

Shannon Peace Camp got to the TV despite attempts by ogra fine gael to associate the people there with Omagh.
Everyone was gratly impressed.
And jumped on the bandwagon.

the IRA the one most of grew up hearing about (oh no we didn´t they were censored) oh well anyway, sticky one that, oh no they were diferent, well the real no not them either,
P O. Neil made a statement. The Peace process just like all other peace processes has been troubled since the illegitamate Bush2 entered the White House.
They try and tell you it is because of Sept 11, but that is the Nemesis of their lies.
As a result Sinn Fein members demostrated what great progress has been made since that sense of optimism and relief touched us all in the global Irish community 8 years ago by discussing cricket here on indymedia ireland.
Beir Bua!
The Sunday Telegraph featured an article today on Somerset which is really bigger than everyone thinks, and the Zimbabwe Cricket thing.
Clare SHort minister for that sort of thing in the UK government has said it is unfair for cricketers to make up their own mind about the boycott and unfair to ecpect them to come to a suitably "informed moral decision".
well really.
Clare Short hgas advisors for that sort of thing and don´t worry she doesn´t lose sleep over moral debate.
Sport be it IRFU or Cricket or Football is about games. Not sponsership, not nationality, not logos. That is the competition of internatised capitalism and control.
Play your games.
as gentleman and gentlewoman just like Beckett and the GAA.

I wrote for the first time on Israel when most of you probably weren´t looking on christmas day.
http://ireland.indymedia.org/cgi-bin/newswire.cgi?id=22552
that was very serious.
I called for Sharon to be rejected at the polls and I as an ordinary person, a silly marginalised anarchist and grass roots activist, blaa blaa do not have any real influence over these things do I?
This week he has been acused of corruption.
And the two DJs who attempted to organised a rave party at the doors of his country estate entitled "reclaim the peace" have been released from custody.
Todá Shalom!

Finally this is something I feel is important.

most irish do not live in the Irish state.
They have gone in order of population density to:

London and England
Scotland
USA
Australia
Canada
Europe.
in Europe the largest communties of Irish are in
London, Munich, Paris.

None of these Irish have votes in the Irish state.
All other european citizens can vote for their state. Ireland is the only european union member state that does not afford postal votes to its citizens resident outside the state.

Irish citizens resident in the UK may vote in UK elections due to the common area agreement between Ireland and the UK established in 1949.

The Irish are immigrants.
only a rump are left in Ireland.

It is arguable that the finest minds and talent of the Irish nation have long ago left. They have not demonstrated any real wish to return either.
Celtic Tiger or not.
Not until the Irish resident in the Irish states recognise that the majority of the Irish are disenfranchised will the Irish begin to enjoy the sort of governance they have consistently sought.

(I do not count myself as one the finest Irish minds that left by the way).

There have been many campaigns to allow voting rights to the "diasporia".
All have failed.
In the past most concentrated on the Irish American community.
Now it would seem more in keeping with our EU membership and status to seek full citizen rights for those Irish citizens who are resident in other EU states.
In the past the established parties in Ireland resisted voting rights for the diasoria because it was felt that they would ignorantly vote for the "wrong parties" such as any leftwing alternative available or god forbid Sinn Fein.
And that is the truth.
I would like the right to vote.
I am not sure I would vote but I want the right.
And every Irish citizen I have met resident in Europe wants the right too.
It is as much a result of the failed policies of the established parties Fianna Fail, Fine GAel, Labour and most recently Prgressive Democrats that the majority of us left. It was not only for a better sex life.

all borders are immoral.

A border has never defined a nation.
now can we wonder who has attempted to place
¿ne plus ultra? on the development of the Irish people?

Anarchy sees no mutual difficulty in stateless nations and borderless communities.
and you know it is our planet.
have a good week all comrades and friends of the evolving revolution, be you peacenik, greenie, socialist, anarkisti, republican, fine gael or labour.

Iosaf who is O As If

and jedi of assorted nature.
and ipsiphi.
and Me. not God.
-------------------------god appears here sometimes ....hi Dave!