I was highly amused at the frighteningly self-obsessed and shocked statements by most of the local wannabe “human shields” who left for Baghdad, only to run home with their little frightened yellow quivering tails between their legs a week or so later. As these shamefaced cowards now know, it’s one thing to be verbally brave and have the money to have a “brief holiday in other people’s misery”, but it’s a slightly more adult decision to stand up for what you believe in and face dying for it.
Look at one of the sites run by “real” human shields who don’t sound like whiney cowards running home at the first glimpse of war, like the local wannabes: Human Shields.
I’m just peeved that what is clearly cowardice and a lack of real conviction is being sold as a good example of anti-war activity. Go tell it to the Buddhist monks who burned themselves alive in protest during the Vietnam War: Recalling the Vietnam War.
And read an article by one of the coolest historians you’ll ever find, Howard Zinn, on The Lessons of Vietnam.
You don’t have to die to make your point, but damn, don’t profess social concern about the suffering of a nation, go there with much fanfare and then scuttle home a few days later, talking mainly about your fears for YOUR own safety. What about the people who — in the words of Athol Fugard — are “living there”? Thanks for showing the world what we South Africans are made of, which isn’t very much, from the looks of it. Net “squatters” moved fast, though: take a look at the rapidly hijacked URL for a mostly empty site: Human Shields.
Gear change: for you hairy folks into noise, while it lasts, grab a free download of Lenny Kravitz’s We Want Peace.
The basis of all wars is economic, so if you want to quietly protest, start cutting out all American goods. Make your protest felt by not touching that burger from the world-famous franchise, or eating that fried chicken. Ditto the cold drink, the clothes, the movies, clothing ranges, perfumes and electronic products. Start off at Boycott America.
Other countries are doing this very successfuly and getting their point across by screwing the profits of American companies. Maybe it’s time for South Africa to pull its uneducated, apathetic finger out of its butt and do at least a little to show that “an insult to one is an insult to all” can be applied globally. Read how the Australians are doing it, and how they are making their presence felt, at the anti-war site Boycott War.
Naturally there are two sides to the boycott concept, so here’s someone doing a “gee, it puts our own people out of work” response, (which you may recall was used during apartheid to stop boycott calls): Careful of Boycotts.
Here’s a news report on the spreading SMS global campaign, as well as inane burblings by some local puppet politician from the African Christian Democratic Party saying boycotts are bad for Africa. Yeah right. SMS Campaign.
The English-language site of Al Jazeera — the “Arabic CNN” — was hacked recently, presumably by pro-war hackers. Take a look at a stored mirror of the site before it got nuked: Al Jazeera Mirror. Then read this report about Europeans switching over to Al Jazeera TV. Curious about who the Al Jazeera site hackers might have been? Read this.
To read a sane take on the American media’s amazingly sucking and fawning reporting of the war, go consider TV Anchors Choke Back Tears: I Gag.
And be truly frightened about the following story. United States marines in Iraq have been given pamphlets that have a tear-out section for them to send to the White House, to let Dubya know that they’re praying for him. I’m not kidding. Read US Soldiers Asked to pray For Bush. Then to read the pamphlet being given to the troops, read A Christian’s Duty in a Time of War.
I’m not a Christian but I’m kinda sure there was something about “thou shalt not kill” somewhere in that Bible thing? Maybe I read it wrong. Anyhow, finally, just to demonstrate that some sperms should never have reached an egg, take a look at a protest site whining about the “insensitivity” of naming the second Lord of the Rings film The Two Towers (Yup, instead of worrying about their own president slaughtering thousands, some people would rather protest about a film title. Beam us up Scotty. Go to Twin Towers Protest.
Until the next time, if a whole bunch of namby-pamby wussy wannabe human shields don’t kick the crap out of me.
Ian Fraser is a playwright, author, comedian, conspiracy nut, old-time radio collector and self-confessed data-junkie. Winner of numerous Vita and Amstel awards, he’s been an Internet addict and games-fanatic since around 1995, when the Internet began to make much more sense than theatre.