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Geldof's Live Shame Show

category international | summit mobilisations | other press author Sunday July 03, 2005 19:27author by Henk Ruyssenaars - Foreign Press Foundationauthor email fpf at chello dot nl

They are the problem, not a part of the solution.

Urging the G8 leaders to do more to help Africa, is like begging the same people for mercy who represent the inhuman systems. And nothing was said aloud about the origins of poverty, stopping the illegal wars or the taking of the African oil: again cheating Africa out of trillions.

by Henk Ruyssenaars - Former Africa correspondent

FPF - Sunday, July 3d - 2005 - Geldof's rip off with his global 'Live Shame' show was to cheat all of us for the benefit of Bush and Blair, which he nota bene describes as 'his friends'. Even explaining in a Time Magazine* interview: "that he [Bush] has actually done more than any American President for Africa."

This is one of the incredibly shameless lies which the Live 8 concert now has sold globally, spread with music by Geldof and his friends in the faith. Since Geldof's friends run most of the major media, it was not difficult to help whip up support for the worst war criminals at present wrecking the globe.

And in advance - with a lot of murderous restrictions and killing obligations - the G 8 'money ministers' (finance) offered a debt relief package for the world's poorest countries. Relief of a debt of trillions that we never should have lend them in the first place, knowing they would never be able to pay back the loans.

The multinational's International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and similar criminal organizations keep wrecking the world, without Geldof's friends ever protesting. Bob Geldof never said a word either about Israel 'Holocausting' the Palestinians for decades.

The profits for the multinationals are too big and the unseen (many times) 50.000 people which daily die of hunger is a price 'they' never bother about. In all African countries they ruled, the multinationals have only allowed corrupt imbeciles with or without fancy uniforms on the bloody dictator thrones, criminals who of course emptied their IMF and World Bank loan coffers, turning the country's own economy into shambles. That is what we have done to Africa, and still do.

Than the Africans and all other victims are blamed for their inaptitude, for not having natural abilities to 'run' their own country. The mainstream media keep the picture alive for their owners, and the perpetrators of these crimes are cheered at a global concert?

SHELL: KILLING AND DRILLING

And while all the eyes are raised to Bush and Blair in 'Geldof Heaven', the US in the past years has enormously expanded it's military presence in Africa. Under the cover of the US neocon made 'War of Terror' the US military - assisting the global banks and their multinationals - has abandoned a lot of military bases in Europe and Asia, and relocated them to 'protect' nearly all oil and natural gas resources in Africa. With the cover of the UN the Chinese have been forced to leave the oil rich Darfur region in Sudan, for years their oil base, which they now have stopped building in Africa.

So called 'Royal' Dutch SHELL already for decades has been 'killing and drilling' for profit - in Africa their main victim is especially oil rich Nigeria - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/aekkc - The US 'Robber Barons' - it's the same group of 'London Banks' anyway - have focused on Uganda, Djibouti, Senegal and Sao Tomé y Principe, where heavily armed but flexible, small scale 'jumping off points' exist or are built for the 'oil protecting' US 'Rapid Deployment Forces'. The small archipelago is strategically placed in the oil rich Gulf of Guinea, sub-Saharan Africa's major oil producing area.

Here, the "US military could monitor the movement of oil tankers and protect oil platforms," the american industrial information service and former 'news agency' AP quoted high ranking military officers. The US and collaborating Navies at present surround and control Africa 'again to 'protect' it: this time it's the 'pirates' which have to be kept away from the oil tanker lanes around the African continent.

What George Monbiot writes about Geldof's show in the Guardian*, is similar to my experiences, after spending ten years working as a correspondent in Africa, and like many I understand the game the 'Geldofs of this world' and their media are playing: 'They believe that praising the world's most powerful men is more persuasive than criticizing them.

The problem is that in doing so they turn the political campaign developed by the global justice movement into a philanthropic one. They urge the G8 leaders to do more to help the poor. But they say nothing about ceasing to do harm.'

And the harm which those G8 people and their multinationals have done to the world, and in this case Africa, is gigantic. At present the nefarious neocon and bad genius Paul Wolfowitz is the new head of the US Empire's economical killers at the World Bank with it's deadly 'help'. He's the boss of the 'Jackals and hit men', which are perfectly described in "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man", by John Perkins* in his book which has now been published.

Perkins, a former respected member of the international banking community, is one of the people who after decades has decided that "he can't take it anymore how the U.S. uses globalization to cheat poor countries out of trillions". In his book Perkins describes how he as a highly paid professional, helped the U.S. cheat poor countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars by lending them more money than they could possibly repay, and then take over their economies.

Perkins: "When the economic 'hit men' fail in this scenario, the next step is what we call the jackals. Jackals are C.I.A.-sanctioned people that come in and try to foment a coup or revolution. If that doesn't work they perform assassinations, or try to. [The next thing to be expected by the US, in Venezuela - HR]

In the case of Iraq, they weren't able to get through to Saddam Hussein. His bodyguards were too good. He had doubles. They couldn't get through to him.

So the third line of defense, if the economic hit men and the jackals fail, the next line of defense is our young men and women, who are sent in to die and kill, which is what we've obviously done in Iraq." Perkins said.

GELDOF'S TSUNAMI OF MUSIC

And those same activities, right now worsening the situation for the population of Africa - the reason of all poverty and misery - was drowned in a Geldof made tsunami of good music, making many of us forget what the dirty racket really is about. Mediawise trying to 'cover up' and make us forget about who the real criminals are, which make help more needed than ever: namely Geldof's friends Bush, Blair and their ilk, permanently committing crimes against humanity. Geldof orchestrated a global multinational 'Lullaby'.

Universally - looking at Geldof & friends - one should ask the same as Monbiot did in the Guardian: 'How much damage do Bush and Blair have to do before the rock stars will acknowledge it? Geldof and Bono's campaign for philanthropy portrays the enemies of the poor as their saviors. The good these two remarkable men have done is in danger of being outweighed by the harm.''

Monbiot rightly called Geldof & Friends the 'Bards of the powerful', and came to the insightful conclusion that - instead of questioning the origin of the African poverty - Geldof and his show gave legitimacy to the criminal leaders and their multinationals which are responsible.

They are the problem, not a part of the solution.

That's the Living Shame...

Henk Ruyssenaars

http://tinyurl.com/66dmo

Declared 'Persona non Grata' in Apartheid's South Africa in 1976. - N-West Africa and M-East correspondent 1987 > 1997.

FOOTNOTES/LINKS:

A very good video: Perkins story on the CIA 'jackals' and how the multinationals are cheating the world out of trillions - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/4p5yo

Geldof interview Time Magazine - Url.: [http://tinyurl.com/c4xj9]

George Monbiot's excellent article in the Guardian - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/dmwnz

FPF on Wolfowitz and Bloody Mary for breakfast - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/8x3be

-0-

Comments (16 of 16)

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author by The truthpublication date Sun Jul 03, 2005 19:52author address author phone

Another whine; with nothing positive to offer. Delete! Delete! Delete!

author by um...publication date Sun Jul 03, 2005 20:01author address author phone

Anybody have any info about getting to the g8 eg. busses etc? Cant get through to any organisers and id really appreciate any help...

author by Sean Cruddenpublication date Sun Jul 03, 2005 20:06author address author phone

Good article - good links!

author by The truthpublication date Sun Jul 03, 2005 21:12author address author phone

Amazing how many of these negative crticise everything; yet have no solutions to offer themselves gits either (A) Weren't present at either any of the Live 8 gigs; or the March in Edinburgh; or even the much smaller mobilisation in Dublin last Thursday; or (B) Didn't even bother their arses to look at any of them yesterday!

I'm no big fan of either Bob Geldof or Bono; especially Bono (Aaarrrggghhh!); but if you are going to criticise them (Quite rightly deserved in many circumstances!) have an alternative plan. "Another world is possible" is fine; but what's this to be? Criticism is fine; and often the stronger the better! At least "um" wants to do something; and wants to head to Scotland. Be like "um" and do something; instead of sitting on your big fat arses! I'm really getting p**sed with these armchair critics who can't or who won't do something to try and change the system!

author by beeepppppublication date Sun Jul 03, 2005 21:18author address author phone

Looking at Live 8 or MPH on telly does not involve getting off arses and certainly does not add up to doing anything.

author by Henk Ruyssenaars - FPFpublication date Sun Jul 03, 2005 22:02author email fpf at chello dot nlauthor address author phone

At least I went and worked there, staying abroad during 40 years of which ten years seeing the misery in Africa: saying since decades what some are trying to formulate now.

The solution concerning agribussiness, oil robbery etc. is quite simple: like Allende said about the copper in Chile (I worked there too, at that time) or Chavez about the oil in Venezuela: it's theirs!

it belongs to the people living in that country, not to any Robber Barons.

Venezuela right now shows how the 'greedy gringos' should be treated to avoid their death knell: unite and speak with a not too small voice while carrying as big a stick as is possible.

Preferably Mig's, Stingers etc.

And work and fight together!

Take care,

HR

author by Aleksander Boydpublication date Sun Jul 03, 2005 23:38author email alek.boyd at gmail dot comauthor address author phone

Oh yes, ladies and gents please put your hands together and welcome Henk Ruyssenaars, Chavez apologist and bearer of the supreme truth. He will tell you that Chavez has taken control of Venezuela's oil and is helping the poor. However he will have difficulty explaining why poverty has actually increased during Chavez's tenure, in spite of massive oil income windfall and even greater problems explaining why Chavez seeks, desperately, to do business with Big Oil.

Check out this video: http://www.soberania.org/Videos/Nuestro_petroleo.wmv

Or this article from chavista media: http://www.soberania.org/Articulos/articulo_1318.htm

Enjoy the show!!

For more info on Chavez's policy of showing the finger to the US check this one out: http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news.php?newsno=1682

http://aporrea.org/dameletra.php?docid=15061

http://aporrea.org/dameletra.php?docid=14885

author by Henk Ruyssenaarspublication date Tue Jul 05, 2005 09:56author address author phone

US-Boyd is an 'Agent Provocateur':

Further comment concerning 'Betraying Boyd' and his malignant activities (defending US neocon policies and contra the Venezuelan people) is necessary:

* Laywer Eva Golinger: Face it Boyd ... you are a complete failure in life - (Published: Tuesday, March 29, 2005

* It appears that the Bush regime stupidly agrees with Aleksander Boyd - (Published: Monday, June 27, 2005

* Carlos Herrera: Oh, I forgot, it had to do with Cuba, the Axis of Evil! - (Published: Tuesday, May 10, 2005

* Carlos Herrera: Letter to "Lost in London" Aleksander Boyd - (Published: Monday, April 25, 2005

* With reference to Les Blough's excellent expose The Cheetah and the Hyena - (Published: Tuesday, March 29, 2005

* The Cheetah and the Hyena - (Published: Saturday, March 26, 2005

* Crystallex intends to increase momentum at Las Cristinas throughout 2005 - (Published: Thursday, January 27, 2005

* Arthur Shaw: Is the Bush regime planning to "Special Op" Venezuela? - (Published: Friday, January 28, 2005

* A disgusting barrage of half-truths and lies in Venezuela's disinformation war - (Published: Thursday, January 06, 2005

* Malicious communications and internet terrorism ... the same crime in the UK? - (Published: Monday, January 03, 2005

In venezuela they know much more about Boyd:

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5... - Url.: http://www.vheadline.com/search_results.asp

Watch out for the 'agent provocateurs'!

Beware of the 'Boyds' of this world!

Henk Ruyssenaars :-)

http://tinyurl.com/4n2oe




 

Related Link: http://www.vheadline.com/search_results.asp
author by Henk Ruyssenaarspublication date Tue Jul 05, 2005 12:00author address author phone

FPF - fwd.: How the world is taken for another ride, by the same people who are responsible for the inhuman misery: In the present and proceeding slaughter by the multinationals in Africa -their major media covering the world - use a dirty trick and blame the gigentic death toll of their actions through hunger etc. by pointing to AIDS.

The smokescreen of music in Geldof's worldwide Live concert was a shameful cover-up* of the bitter and murderous reality in Africa, where the populations pay the price of the multinational's profit.

But even in the United States the misery has been spreading: "Most Americans may find it hard to accept that millions in this nation are suffering from hunger -- an affliction most often associated with war-torn Africa or flood-ravaged Bengal. It flies in the face of everything we've been told about our nation's prosperity." Read what Mother Jones published three years ago and again about the book "Growing Up Empty: The Hunger Epidemic in America" - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/7wr46

‘Africa needs justice, not charity’

Casual readers of the newspaper headlines could be forgiven for believing that the leaders of the richest and most powerful countries have had a miraculous change of heart. If the papers are to be believed, the key decades-long demand of the global justice movement — debt cancellation — had been agreed to, thanks to an unlikely alliance between Tony Blair’s British Labour government, leading aid agencies and pop “legends” Bob Geldof and Bono. However, the devil is in the details, as Green Left Weekly’s Norm Dixon discovers.

“$55-billion debts write-off agreed”, declared the June 11 British Guardian. “Debtor nations freed of burdens”, the Los Angeles Times announced on June 12. “Victory for Millions”, trumpeted the June 12 British Observer. “Blair, Bono Win One for Africa”, cooed the June 13 Christian Science Monitor. “Debt deal just the beginning, says Geldof”, assured the June 13 Sydney Morning Herald.

The hype was in response to a June 11 agreement by seven finance ministers from the Group of Eight industrialised countries (G8 — United States, Japan, Italy, Canada, Britain, France, Germany and Russia). The ministers agreed to immediately cancel all the debts owed by 18 mainly African countries to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank and the African Development Bank (AfrDB). According to the British government, this amounts to US$40 billion. In practical terms, it should save these countries $15 billion in debt payments, spread over 10 years.

The deal must be approved by the G8 leaders’ summit being held in Gleneagles, Scotland, on July 6-8.

The June 12 LA Times lavishly claimed the deal “fulfilled a decades-old dream of anti-poverty activists”, reporting that US Treasury Secretary John Snow had hailed the arrangement as “an achievement of historic proportions”. The June 13 Christian Science Monitor’s article began: “It’s been a long campaign of persistent persuasion by British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Irish rock star Bono. But finally ... they won a victory for the world’s poorest continent.”

Most newspapers quoted a gushing Geldof: “Tomorrow 280 million people will wake up for the first time in their lives without owing you or me a penny from the burden of debt that has crippled them and their countries for so long. Money we didn’t even know we were owed, and never wanted in the first place, and money they could never pay.”

Also widely reported was Brown’s grandiloquent description of what had been achieved: “It is the intention of world leaders to forge a new and better relationship — a new deal — between the rich and poor countries of the world and I believe that the advances that we have made can be built upon ... This is not as time for timidity, but a time for boldness, and not a time for settling for second best, but aiming high.”

Stirring words indeed, but tragically the hype does not match the reality.

[end quote]

You can read all about who is trying to take you for a ride here at Url.: http://tinyurl.com/c3uyu

Confirming what the FPF published about ''Geldof's Live Shame Show'' at Url.: http://tinyurl.com/chjdf

In India - because of the same international- but also local criminals - the food is rotting by the millions of tons, while people are starving en masse, as desrcribed by Devinder Sharma in his very informative and shocking essay "The Business of Hunger" - Z-Net - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/cysbo

FOREIGN PRESS FOUNDATION
http://tinyurl.com/3tro9
Editor : Henk Ruyssenaars
http://tinyurl.com/amn3q
The Netherlands
FPF@Chello.nl

Related Link: http://tinyurl.com/c3uyu
author by SP Memberpublication date Tue Jul 05, 2005 12:58author address author phone

http://uk.news.launch.yahoo.com/dyna/article.html?a=/050704/344/fmmjn.html&e=l_news_dm

author by John Pilger - FPF-fwd. - HRpublication date Wed Jul 06, 2005 09:03author address author phone

One of the best investigative journalists alive:

In his latest column for the New Statesman, John Pilger writes about the coming G8 summit in Scotland and says that the illusion of an anti establishment crusade led by pop stars serves to dilute a great political movement of anger. : Pilger : 22 Jun 2005

THE G8 SUMMIT: A FRAUD AND A CIRCUS

The front page of the London Observer on 12 June announced, "55 billion dollar Africa debt deal 'a victory for millions'." The "victory for millions" is a quotation of Bob Geldof, who said, "Tomorrow 280 million Africans will wake up for the first time in their lives without owing you or me a penny...". The nonsense of this would be breathtaking if the reader's breath had not already been extracted by the unrelenting sophistry of Geldof, Bono, Blair, the Observer et al.

Africa's imperial plunder and tragedy have been turned into a circus for the benefit of the so-called G8 leaders due in Scotland next month and those of us willing to be distracted by the barkers of the circus: the establishment media and its "celebrities". The illusion of an anti establishment crusade led by pop stars - a cultivated, controlling image of rebellion - serves to dilute a great political movement of anger. In summit after summit, not a single significant "promise" of the G8 has been kept, and the "victory for millions" is no different. It is a fraud - actually a setback to reducing poverty in Africa. Entirely conditional on vicious, discredited economic programmes imposed by the World Bank and the IMF, the "package" will ensure that the "chosen" countries slip deeper into poverty.

Is it any surprise that this is backed by Blair and his treasurer, Gordon Brown, and George Bush; even the White House calls it a "milestone"? For them, it is an important facade, held up by the famous and the naive and the inane. Having effused about Blair, Geldof describes Bush as "passionate and sincere" about ending poverty. Bono has called Blair and Brown "the John and Paul of the global development stage". Behind this front, rapacious power can "re-order" the lives of millions in favour of totalitarian corporations and their control of the world's resources.

There is no conspiracy; the goal is no secret. Gordon Brown spells it out in speech after speech, which liberal journalists choose to ignore, preferring the Treasury spun version. The G8 communique announcing the "victory for millions" is unequivocal. Under a section headed "G8 proposals for HIPC debt cancellation", it says that debt relief to poor countries will be granted only if they are shown "adjusting their gross assistance flows by the amount given": in other words, their aid will be reduced by the same amount as the debt relief. So they gain nothing. Paragraph Two states that "it is essential" that poor countries "boost private sector development" and ensure "the elimination of impediments to private investment, both domestic and foreign".

The "55 billion" claimed by the Observer comes down, at most, to 1 billion spread over 18 countries. This will almost certainly be halved - providing less than six days' worth of debt payments - because Blair and Brown want the IMF to pay its share of the "relief" by revaluing its vast stock of gold, and passionate and sincere Bush has said no.

The first unmentionable is that the gold was plundered originally from Africa. The second unmentionable is that debt payments are due to rise sharply from next year, more than doubling by 2015. This will mean not "victory for millions", but death for millions.

At present, for every 1 dollar of "aid" to Africa, 3 dollars are taken out by western banks, institutions and governments, and that does not account for the repatriated profit of transnational corporations. Take the Congo. Thirty-two corporations, all of them based in G8 countries, dominate the exploitation of this deeply impoverished, minerals-rich country, where millions have died in the "cause" of 200 years of imperialism. In the Cote d'Ivoire, three G8 companies control 95 per cent of the processing and export of cocoa: the main resource.

The profits of Unilever, a British company long in Africa, are a third larger than Mozambique's GDP. One American company, Monsanto - of genetic engineering notoriety - controls 52 per cent of the maize seed in South Africa, that country's staple food.

Blair could not give two flying faeces for the people of Africa. Ian Taylor at the University of St Andrews used the Freedom of Information Act to learn that while Blair was declaiming his desire to "make poverty history", he was secretly cutting the government's Africa desk officers and staff. At the same time, his "department for international development" was forcing, by the back door, privatisation of water supply in Ghana for the benefit of British investors.

This ministry lives by the dictates of its "Business Partnership Unit", which is devoted to finding "ways in which DfID can improve the enabling environment for productive investment overseas and... contribute to the operation of the financial sector".

Poverty reduction? Of course not. A charade promotes the modern imperial ideology known as neoliberalism, yet it is almost never reported that way and the connections are seldom made. In the issue of the Observer announcing "victory for millions" was a secondary news item that British arms sales to Africa had passed 1 billion. One British arms client is Malawi, which pays out more on the interest on its debt than its entire health budget, despite the fact that 15 per cent of its population has HIV.

Gordon Brown likes to use Malawi as example of why "we should make poverty history", yet Malawi will not receive a penny of the "victory for millions" relief.

The charade is a gift for Blair, who will try anything to persuade the public to "move on" from the third unmentionable: his part in the greatest political scandal of the modern era, his crime in Iraq. Although essentially an opportunist, as his lying demonstrates, he presents himself as a Kiplingesque imperialist. His "vision for Africa" is as patronising and exploitative as a stage full of white pop stars (with black tokens now added).

His messianic references to "shaking the kaleidoscope" of societies about which he understands little and "watching the pieces fall" has translated into seven violent interventions abroad, more than any British prime minister for half a century. Bob Geldof, an Irishman at his court, duly knighted, says nothing about this.

The protesters going to the G8 summit at Gleneagles ought not to allow themselves to be distracted by these games. If inspiration is needed, along with evidence that direct action can work, they should look to Latin America's mighty popular movements against total locura capitalista (total capitalist folly). They should look to Bolivia, the poorest country in Latin America, where an indigenous movement has Blair's and Bush's corporate friends on the run, and Venezuela, the only country in the world where oil revenue has been diverted for the benefit of the majority, and Uruguay and Argentina, Ecuador and Peru, and Brazil's great landless people's movement. Across the continent, ordinary people are standing up to the old Washington-sponsored order.

"Que se vayan todos!" (Out with them all!) say the crowds in the streets.

Much of the propaganda that passes for news in our own society is given to immobilising and pacifying people and diverting them from the idea that they can confront power. The current babble about Europe, of which no reporter makes sense, is part of this; yet the French and Dutch "no" votes are part of the same movement as in Latin America, returning democracy to its true home: that of power accountable to the people, not to the "free market" or the war policies of rampant bullies.

And this is just a beginning.

First published in the New Statesman - www.newstatesman.co.uk

John Pilger

Related Link: http://tinyurl.com/hjpl
author by DV8publication date Wed Jul 06, 2005 16:48author address author phone

Get Lost Geldof!

Being called a bunch of losers by Sir Bob Geldof is praise indeed. This is after all the man who 20 years ago led Live Aid to end suffering and starvation in Africa.

You might not have noticed Bob, but the situation in that continent, and indeed any other, cannot be resolved by charitable donations. The people throwing bricks at the police in Scotland can work that out, yet Sir Bob, for all his wealth and influence, cannot.

So 20 years after the failure of Live Aid, Sir Bob repeats his actions of 20 years before. If only he pleads, people can make politicians listen. This from a man who grovels to George Bush and Tony Blair, to the extent that criticism of both men was expressely banned from the Live8 gig in London. So much for Bob's version of democracy.

Worse, Geldof appears unable to recognise that far greater number of people mobilised world wide in 2003 to lobby politicians against the invasion of Iraq. George and Tony did not listen then Sir Bob, so why should they now?

In opposing direct action, Geldof is at least consistent. When protestors in Genoa were beaten, tortured and in the case of Carlo Guilani murdered by the police, Geldof stood full square behind the Italian authorities.

Bob Geldof is part of the problem, not the solution. He is part of the problem at the G8 demonstrations, and he is increasingly part of the problem in Africa. By promoting charity, and "fair" trade Geldof is only offering Africans what they have had for generations.

The only question that remains about Sir Bob is why he is outside the G8, not inside serving the drinks.

author by Bob Stalkerpublication date Wed Jul 06, 2005 18:31author address author phone

I cried when Bill Hicks died of cancer
Tears ran down my spine
And I cried when they released Mandela
As though I'd found a father of mine
But Carlo Giuliani had it coming
He got what he asked for this time

CHORUS
So love me, love me, love me
I'm Bob Geldof

I go to MPH rallies
Recycle my cans and jars
I'll salute you if you wear a wristband
Hope Chris Martin becomes a star
But don't talk about revolution
That's going a little bit too far

So love me, love me, love me
I'm Bob Geldof

I cheered when Gordon wrote the debts off
My faith in the system reborn
Bono will do anything to save schools in Ireland
As long as his tax bill remains zero
And I love blacks and asians and latinos
But don’t ask me to let them perform

So love me, love me, love me
I'm Bob Geldof

Senior General Than Shwe and his cronies
Should all hang their heads in shame
I can't understand where they're at
A free Aung San Suu Kyi will set them straight
But if you wear a hood or a balaclava
I hope the cops take down your name

So love me, love me, love me
I'm Bob Geldof

Yeh, I read the Independent
The Guardian and BBC website too
If I vote it's a Lib-dem or new-Labourite
With a sensible economy view
But when it comes to slaughtering Iraqis
There's no one more silent and subdued

So love me, love me, love me
I'm Bob Geldof

Once I was young and had an attitude
Toured the world in a punk rock band
Hung around with the likes of Strummer
And sang songs about sticking it to the man
Ah, but now I've grown older and wiser
And that's why I'm turning you in

So love me, love me, love me
I'm Bob Geldof

author by DV8publication date Wed Jul 06, 2005 18:37author address author phone

I think this is more apt for today and apologies to our resident Badman (not bye bye to you)
----------------------------
Soak me to my skin
Will you drown me in your sea submission
Ends and I begin

Choke me smoke the air
In this citrus sucking sunshine I don't care
You're not all there

Every backbone and heart you break
Will still come back for more
Submission ends it all

Here he comes
Got no question got no love
I'm throwing stones at you man
I want you black and blue and
I'm gonna make you bleed
Gonna bring you down to your knees
Bye bye badman ooh bye bye

Choke me smoke the air
In this citrus sucking sunshine I don't
Care you're not all there

You've been bought and paid
You're a whore and a slave
Your dock's not a holy shrine
Come taste the end you're mine

Here he comes
Got no question got no love
I'm throwing stones at you man
I want you black and blue and
I'm gonna make you bleed
Gonna bring you down to your knees
Bye bye badman ooh bye bye

I've got bad intentions
I intend to
Knock you down
These stones I throw
Oh these French kisses
Are the only way I've found

I've got bad intentions
I intend to knock you down
These stones I throw
Oh these French kisses
Are the only way I've found

author by Aleksander Boydpublication date Thu Jul 14, 2005 10:45author email alek.boyd at gmail dot comauthor address author phone

Still waiting on an explanation pertaining to the links provided...

author by FPF-fwd.: the excellent Oscar Heck - VHeadline news service - Venezuelapublication date Fri Jul 22, 2005 10:36author email oscar at vheadline dot comauthor address Venezuelaauthor phone

VHeadline.com commentarist Oscar Heck writes:

I think it will soon be time for Aleksander Boyd to leave England. Some readers may be aware that the British government is actively seeking to pass a new anti-terrorism bill which will make it illegal to prepare, train, and incite acts of terror.

Who is Aleksander Boyd?

Boyd is the person who operates a very aggressive anti-Chavez website called Vcrisis.com, based in London, England.

On more than one occasion, Boyd openly called for the use of violence to oust Chavez, Venezuela's democratically-elected President. So did Carlos Andres Perez (CAP), a former Venezuelan president who was (in the past) convicted of embezzlement and who is now hiding (in the USA) from Venezuelan law on additional criminal charges.

For the years that I have been aware of Vcrisis.com and Boyd, he has done nothing but condemn Chavez and verbally menace anyone who does not side with the violent and criminal Venezuelan anti-Chavez movement.

It will soon become a crime in the UK to incite people to use violence ... something that Boyd is quite accustomed to doing. If Boyd gets arrested in the UK for having incited people to use violence in order to "get rid of Chavez" (terrorism), he will probably be shipped back to Venezuela, where he will probably also face the courts for inciting people to use violence.

First, I will present readers with evidence supporting what I state about Boyd. Later in the article, I will present additional information about him that will make VHeadline.com readers fall of their chairs!

In October 2004 Boyd published an article entitled "Venezuela‚s opposition: to rebel or to die under Chavez‚ boot" in which he states the following:

"Paraphrasing Gerry Adams; 'sometimes violence is the only means to achieve goals' The more the time elapses, the blunter the constitutional violations of the regime, the more I become convinced that the sole way of effectively opposing Chavez is through violence ...

Hence there is a solution: to disown the regime for its violations to democratic values, principles and guarantees and encroachment of human rights are evident. Said stance should go in hand with violence, as Gerry Adams pointed out, if some sort of consensus and respect from Chavez and his thugs is to be achieved."

In November 2004, in another article entitled "Editor's note" he states:

"Yesterday I had a conversation with someone about Venezuela and its problems. Given the peculiar characteristics of our crisis, my interlocutor asked 'what‚s the solution then?' And I replied 'when elected politicians treat one as an animal, how on earth can be expected that one behaves as a gentleman?

The solution in my view is clear and simple: violence.' ... The other question that daunts me is, how can democracy be protected from itself? What mechanisms has the layman to simply kick out of office pariahs such as Chavez? The answer is none, and since there is no democratic mechanisms in place, violence is the only recourse left."

Then, in December 2004, in yet another article, entitled, "Being a Œterrorist‚: a natural law approach," Boyd states:

"Recently I have been accused of being a ' 'terrorist‚ by a group of people who have fallen for the incantation chanted by Hugo Chavez. They have proposed a) for the Home Office to deport me from Britain; b) for the Interpol, MI6 and Anti-Terrorist unit of the Metropolitan police to investigate my terrorist activities;
c) to be charged in Venezuela in absentia for treason and d) to notify the political police of Venezuela (DISIP) of my endeavours, probably with the purpose of arresting me should I travel to Venezuela. ...

My 'terrorist‚ status derives from opinions of mine posted in this site with respect to what I consider to be the solution to deal with criminals such as Hugo Chavez, i.e. violence. The use of violence is intrinsic to human nature since the beginnings of times. ... In light of the aforementioned, how else, if not by violent means as those utilised by Chavez himself in 1992, is the robbed sovereignty to be regained? Should the constitutional terms and conditions of the social contract be utterly violated by one of the parties, how can it be rationally expected for the other party to be bound by them?

In what moment does the State becomes the permanent and sole proprietor of one‚s natural rights? Should the repossess of my lost rights be considered as an act of terrorism, then I am a terrorist and I will always be, regardless of whether I follow a natural or a positivist legal approach."
In this last quote above, Boyd refers to Chavez as an example of the use of violence.

There are two things which Boyd conveniently leaves out. Firstly, Chavez has apologized many times, in public, to the Venezuelan people because he did use violence during an attempted coup against CAP in 1992.

Secondly, Chavez was charged and convicted and he served jail time for his crime (the coup).

(For Vheadline.com readers who are not aware of the history behind the 1992 coup, Chavez decided to lead a coup against CAP because of the February 1989 "Caracazo" massacre which was ordered by CAP himself. CAP had ordered the military to go into the streets and shoot down thousands of innocent people in an attempt to try to control the ransacking of food stores - brought about by CAP's own government policies and mass corruption - hoarding and speculation of basic foodstuff.

Most, if not all army soldiers and National Guard come from poor families ... and most of the people who looted the food stores were form poor families. CAP ordered the soldiers to shoot and kill their own people. The real number of deaths and casualties is not known, however, some people say that as many as several thousand may have been shot down in cold blood under orders from CAP. CAP never faced the courts for this crime. The "Caracazo" is what propelled Chavez to where he is now.)

What is very interesting is that if Boyd calls for the use of violence .. as he does ... then he should also be prepared to serve jail time ... like Chavez did ... and that will happen at some point in time .. just as it did with Chavez, just as it will happen with CAP, just as is happening with Carlos Ortega ... and just as it will eventually happen to most the people (bishops included) who either participated in the April 2002 coup against Chavez and/or the subsequent sabotage of the country in 2002 and 2003 (which included publicly inciting people to use violence).

Boyd has acted (written) as if he were immune ... but he is not ... and I believe that he will find this out on his own ... sooner or later.

His statements (above) are still on his website ... his website is functioning and he is openly and verbally violent, menacing and threatening.

Boyd's call for the use of violence cannot be construed as an "error in judgement" or the ranting of a mentally ill person. As noted above, Boyd is quite lucid, intentional and clear in his words:
The use of violence is OK if it is used to "get rid of Chavez."

Furthermore, one cannot attribute his statements to a whim, a one-time event. He clearly repeats himself on at least three separate occasions.

Now ... this will really astound some readers!

Boyd also runs a site called Proveo, which states the following:

"ProVeO is an NGO registered in London, UK (English Companies House Certificate of Incorporation number 4706973) with 1.929 members present in 55+ countries worldwide. We are also members of the Coalition for the International Criminal Court. ProVeO has coordinated and organized events at a local and international scale, teaming up with other Venezuelan associations. We were in charge of the petition drive in the UK and the redistribution of the signatures collected in Europe and the recent signature collection drive.

We have teamed up with Venezuelan human rights organizations and have been actively lobbying international bodies in our intent to promote a peaceful, democratic resolution to our conflict and raise awareness about the crisis in Venezuela. Aleksander Boyd, Founder and Director."

Promote a peaceful, democratic resolution?

How can he on the one hand claim this and on the other hand promote the use of violence?

Multiple personality syndrome perhaps?

How can he claim to be teamed up with Venezuelan "human rights" organizations when he is promoting violence?

That makes no sense at all.

It is like the US government promoting peace and democracy and "human rights" with one hand while using the other to assassinate thousands of innocent people in Afghanistan and Iraq.

It makes no sense at all.

Furthermore, to add to Boyd's obviously twisted mentality, Proveo is a "rip-off" of another well-established and recognized Venezuelan "human rights" organization called Provea!

The time is coming for Boyd ... the one who promotes and incites the use of violence.
The soon to be enacted British law will be applicable to Boyd ... just as it will be applicable to any other UK resident who publicly calls for the use of violence to resolve issues.

It is important to note that there are several other Venezuelans (who reside outside Venezuela) who have also publicly called for the use of violence against Chavez (CAP is included amongst these) ... but some of them have been "smart" enough to take their articles - those which openly promote the use of violence against Chavez - off the internet.

They know who they are (and so does the Venezuelan government) ... and they too should expect to eventually spend some time in Venezuelan jails pondering over the consequences of their thinking process ... unless, like CAP, they can find a way to remain hidden from view and/or protected in the USA.

Oscar Heck

oscar@vheadline.com

More VHeadline.com commentaries by Oscar Heck

http://www.vheadline.com/spanish

http://www.vheadline.com/espanol

http://www.vheadline.com/español

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