#free everyone from their colonizers and oppressive regimes

[disneydatass]

Why are you so angry all the time? Why do you lock yourself away from the world? Why are you not living your life they ask?

I answer with my own set of questions. How can I live in a body that doesn’t work? In a house divided? In a mind that constantly races? How can I go out and try to make a living when I know off the back of my labor my money goes to funding genocide? How can I think positively and go out and have fun when children are being gun downed for going to school, the movies, the mall? Is this survivor’s guilt? It can’t be. I don’t feel guilty for surviving. I feel rage and sorrow that I have to survive. I should be living. We should be living. One shouldn’t have to struggle to eat, drink, and have basic healthcare and rights.

[witchoftheouachitas]

April 8th, 2024 New Moon Total Solar Eclipse Manifestations:

This celestial event is in the sign of Aries, the zodiac’s symbol of release & rebirth, taking action, endings & new beginnings, resistance & revolution. This eclipse is a prime time for humanity to do the work to abolish oppression and manifest universal peace, love, compassion, joy, healing, and liberation for all.

Under the power of this eclipse, We are focusing our thoughts and actions to manifest an end to the oppressive old world during this 21st century to bring in a new world and reality of universal peace, love, compassion, joy, healing, and liberation. We are all awakening to the divinity that lives within each and every one of us, inspiring us to take action to recycle the old oppressive world and transmute its negativity into the new universally liberated world that we all long for.

During this 21st century, We will put an end to the ongoing Palestinian genocide and colonization of Palestine, as well as the Zionist regime, Christian nationalism, Christian supremacy, Christofascism, and more. All individuals, organizations, corporations, and entities that enable Palestinian (and all other) oppression will have their influence, resources, capital, and power banished from them; these enablers will also receive sufficient divine punishment for their numerous crimes.

The Collective will continue to awaken, being enlightened with divine light, wisdom, and spiritual clarity. We are all open to channeling and transmitting the loving, peaceful, and liberating energy of the divine for the highest good of all! We will no longer support any individual, organization, corporation, or entity that enables and supports any form of oppression. The Collective is screaming for Palestine, Hawai’i, Turtle Island, Aotearoa, Congo, Sudan, Somalia, Yemen, Lebanon, Turkey, India, Iran, Iraq, Australia—DURING THIS 21ST CENTURY, EVERYONE WILL BE FREE TO EXPERIENCE THE UNIVERSAL LIBERATION WE HAVE ALL WORKED FOR!

With the renewing power of this eclipse, We the Collective will abolish all forms of oppression that run rampant throughout our universe, including the colonization of Turtle Island, Aotearoa, Palestine, Australia, and other lands; slavery, violence, land theft, war, crusades, genocide, cultural erasure, ecocide, racism, sexism, queerphobia, xenophobia, capitalism, classism, ableism, poverty, mass hunger, homelessness, and more. All these forms of oppression will cease to exist in the new reality of universal liberation thanks to the perseverant efforts of the Collective.

Humanity and all other organisms that We share the earth with (with the help of our ancestors, spirit guides, deities, what have you-) will collectively do the work to manifest us all a reality of universal love, peace, compassion, joy, healing, & liberation; this reality includes ecological restoration, land back, and decolonization; liberation of all indigenous peoples, cultures, lands, and languages; abolishing all forms of religious and spiritual oppression including sexism, queerphobia, xenophobia, racism, colonization, “mission work,” compulsory spiritual conversion, genocide, and more; abolishing capitalism and all other oppressive economic systems; promoting food sovereignty, climate change mitigation, and poverty reduction through local sustainable farming and foraging, native agroecology, agroforestry, and regenerative/indigenous farming; making sure everyone has a healthy home; taking care of ourselves *and* others; ensuring the survival of rural communities; ensuring the survival of all life on our planet.

In the 21st century of this Age of Aquarius, the Collective will ultimately manifest the abolishment of all oppression and the creation of universal peace, love, compassion, joy, healing, and liberation.

And it is so.

[possiblyunhinged]

What I *love* about being English is you are brought up with the idea we are a ‘Christian’ country that is almost too soft for its own good. That we treat everybody with kindness, and our only problem is that we are just so fucking kind that everybody takes advantage of us 😢. Womp womp.

Of course, you grow up and realise that, actually, the people who are the recipients of that good, Christian treatment are rich, heinous pieces of doo who couldn’t give two shits about anyone who isn’t of their socioeconomic background. Everyone outside of that gilet-shagging bubble is, of course, scum.

And then you leave school and find what you've learned about your country's history is absolute bullshit. Our military didn't go into countries to free people from oppressive regimes but rather to make the rich men who told them to go and kill people they deem as their enemies even richer. Oh, and then there are the civilian rapes and murders. But we are the good guys, see! We may have colonized your country, but we occasionally send an old man with sausage fingers over there to wave at you and ignore your requests for your stuff back!

I thought being British was loving Robbie Williams a bit too much... oh how I was wrong.

The 'kindness' that proud folk misplaced as being an English trait is essentially mass silence regarding rich men and how they want to live while being a cunt to everybody else. English people are very vocal about immigrants, the working class, the disabled and anybody who simply doesn’t live like Sid James in a fucking Carry On film. From tall poppy syndrome, the middle-class people who interchange their politics like a y2k Depop fit to flag shaggers… this country is a joke, and I would like to leave, please, sir xoxo.

Over 4 million children are living in poverty, but please tell me why I should give a shit about a flag on the collar of an England shirt and why Angela Rayner is a slag because she sold her council house. Meanwhile... how much money was spunked up a wall on PPE you paid for through your mate's imaginary companies? How much money did Priti Patel spend in a nail salon again?

P.S. Of course, I can’t just leave because I’m agoraphobic, poor and objectively useless. I have a degree in Music Business, thou lads, if the world's most useless degree is appealing to any EU country, that would be sehr schön xoxo

[sepublic]

This flashback and its worldbuilding history really messed me up. As Darius implied in Any Sport in a Storm, for all its faults, the Emperor’s Coven wasn’t always like this. People weren’t like this! Belos started off as reasonable, as any dictator does; And then gradually slid everyone down the slippery slope into a full-on cult that persecutes freely and treats isolation and conflict with peers as totally normal things!

The covenscouts used to be relatively chill people. They encouraged and taught trust exercises, teamwork and collaboration. One actually feels free enough to speak up against Terra’s child endangerment as being illegal. Hunter says covenscouts have to cut all outside ties, yet we see how this one covenscout waves to and apparently recognizes someone from outside the coven, and vice-versa! And when Terra declares that nobody gets a ribbon, we even see a few covenscouts look upset about this, maybe even express disapproval; They once had the freedom to object!

If the Golden Guard of this time period shared and embodied those ideals, it adds to Darius’ motives. He saw firsthand how the coven wasn’t always that bad and used to be reasonable, and then personally witnessed its downwards decline into cult behavior and fascism. And it stands to reason that the Golden Guard may have been phased out because he was reasonable, he represented this kinder age and so had to go, be replaced with Hunter later down the line.

It just really messes me up. These people used to be normal, reasonable; We see multiple adults don’t have coven-bindings, they probably weren’t a mandatory thing back then, hence Gwen not being in a coven at this point in time! But people like Belos and Terra, they start instituting their little changes, one at a time; When they brush up against the rules of society, they opt to change these rules, one by one, now that they’re in the power to do so.

It’s honestly eerie. I expected to see Bonesborough looking nicer in this flashback, to show how it was physically ruined by the coven; But it’s so much more than that. We see how the isles was socially corrupted by Belos, how kids back then can remember that; But Belos controls history, so people don’t realize it wasn’t always like this and doesn’t have to be.

It’s like seeing a country before a regime as peaceful and chill, knowing it becomes a dictatorship, seeing the early warning signs here or there that we know eventually spiral into the oppressive norm... Because that’s exactly what it is. Like Germany before the Nazis, the Middle East before colonization, North Korea before the regime... It’s uncanny and unnerving. This place, the people used to be nice... And then look what happened, because some fascist said this wasn’t good enough, actually! It’s eerie, the calm before the storm we’ve already seen; The dissonance of people not realizing what’s about to happen, what IS happening. They’re DOOMED and walking right into it!

And it just adds to Darius’ motivation. This dude is defending his home; He trusted and invested in this coven to make things stable, and was personally betrayed when he realized how Belos corrupted the isles. This is a man who joined the coven, believing he was helping his home, only to realize he was lied to and used to destroy it; Darius offered good faith and Belos threw it aside and spat in his face.

And the same goes for Raine; They probably figured this out well before Darius, and/or at least chose to do something about it before him. The older generation is important, because they remember what it was like, and that’s why people like Belos seek to silence them. And all of this just leads to a righteous rage and vengeance by those who remember and can grieve, remember what they lost. Darius, Raine, Eberwolf, and as the name implies, the Golden Guard, wanted to defend their home; And Belos tricked them into destroying it instead.

[jewish-privilege]

...When I meet new people and they ask me about my extracurriculars or what I’m involved in on campus, I always wince and hesitate to admit that I am involved in Hillel and the Jewish community, afraid of how they may react. Being the best public university in the world (sorry not sorry @UCLA), the home of the free speech movement, and notorious for protesting in the name of social justice, you would think that the UC Berkeley community would recognize Jewish students as a minority group who has faced a history of persecution and suffering. Yet, many people view us as the oppressors, echoing the classic anti-Semitic trope that Jews are responsible for everything wrong with the world.

On many occasions, students at UC Berkeley have equated Judaism with Zionism, as if our entire religious identity is solely based on our relationship with Israel, and further equate Zionism with white supremacy and settler colonialism, using these words synonymously. Most notably, claims of this nature were made at a live-streamed student senate meeting in April. Not to mention that this meeting was about senate elections and had essentially nothing to do with Israel. During public comments one student said: “All I was hearing for a fat minute was some white tears, some Zionist tears, some Greek tears about some disenfranchisement. Y’all don’t know what disenfranchisement even means, alright?“

This provoked other comments around the topic of Israel, such as one student claiming that the Israel Defense Forces train American police to kill black people and that if you don’t call out your Zionist friends, you are “implicit in the oppression of Palestine and the oppression of settler colonized countries all across the world” as well as implicit in the “prison-industrial complex,” “prison militarization,” and “modern-day slavery.” You can watch the video of the entire meeting here. I’m not making this up.

...Last spring, I was sitting at a popular cafe near campus, getting a coffee with my friend, telling him how excited I was to be going to Israel for the first time that summer. He, having been many times before, shared some of his favorite memories praying at the Western Wall and relaxing in the sun at Gordon Beach.

A girl sitting at the table next to us was listening in. After a few minutes, she turned to us and asked if she heard me correctly that I was going to Israel.

“Yes, why?” I answered, suspicious of where this conversation was going.

“Why are you going?” she asked angrily.

“For Birthright and a summer internship.” My excitement from moments prior began to fade.

“No, but why Israel? Don’t you know that by going you are supporting a murderous regime?”

“A mur—” She cut me off.

“Israel is a murderous regime. Everyone in the IDF is a murderer. How could you possibly go there and give them your money knowing this?”

“I’m going because…” Cut off again.

“You should cancel your trip. You shouldn’t go there. You’re supporting oppression. You’re supporting murder” she screamed.

“But…”

“You need to reevaluate your moral compass, you’re a terrible person.” And with that, she stormed off. Everyone in the cafe was staring at me, having witnessed the entire interaction.

Beyond the aggression and public humiliation, what bothered me most was that I never had the chance to speak. With all of the accusations she made, both about Israel and myself, I never got the chance to defend or explain myself. And to me, that is the root of the issue: people’s unwillingness to be open minded and hear the other side. Being so stubborn as to not even let someone voice their opinion, whether you agree with it or not, means that we are never going to progress. Nothing will get resolved this way. We need to communicate more. We need to listen more.

I have Jewish friends who are adamantly, unwaveringly 100% in support of Israel and in their eyes, Israel can do no wrong. On the other hand, there of course are people like this girl and the students from the senate meeting who are 100% against Israel and its existence. However, the situation in the Middle East is incredibly nuanced and complex. In my opinion, the conflict is often oversimplified into either pro-Israel or pro-Palestine, with people (like myself) who fall in the middle being rejected by supporters on both sides. Even among the Jewish community on campus, Jewish students who acknowledge that Israel doesn’t always do the right thing are often ostracized by other Jewish students, with the argument being that Israel has enough outside criticism, and it doesn’t need internal criticism as well.

Personally, I believe internal criticism is exactly what both sides need. Compromise cannot exist without people admitting some flaw and attempting to see the situation from the opposite point of view. I try to understand the pro-Palestine argument of people fighting for their freedom, and I would hope people on that side would try to understand that Israel is fighting to defend itself...

[rupsunar]

Divided Region United by Caste Oppression

The South Asian region is looked at by the world with three intersecting interests. First, the region’s moderate development in infrastructure and welfarism. Second, the multitudes of diversity the region holds. And thirdly, the geopolitical tensions dominated mostly by India-Pakistan war. The troika of South Asia sits between development-culture-politics. However, other regional differences such as India-Nepal trade strife, India-Sri Lanka regional difficulties, Pakistan-Afghanistan do not account to sustaining disagreements. India, Pakistan and Bangladesh occupy overwhelming importance in the regional politics.

South Asian region is home to one fourth humanity of the world. Aside from human capital, there are flora, fauna and natural gifts that this region has as its treasure carefully handed down from over thousand years. Of the 8 countries that are part of South Asia there at least six known countries who retain experiences of age-old discriminations emanating from their native historical context. One of it is oldest surviving discriminatory tactic is caste. Human Rights Watch has identified caste like “corollaries” across South Asia in India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh.

Caste inspired discrimination is not unique to India, although it offers most fertile space for caste like virus to take birth, thrive and contaminate every person in sight. The history of the region as such has a complex historical political-economy. That is why it is always insightful for one to detangle those past baggages by looking at the political space through the lens of subaltern, the working class, women, and the oppressed.

Each state policy heavily relies on the extraction of labor and abstraction of its value. In a society that hangs on to historical values as sacrosanct, distribution of labor’s value does not feature in its scope. How to credit someone for their labour who are meant to performing the duty as part of ordained duty? Asking for a favor in terms of service from lower considered body is a sin and therefore that body needs to be condemned. Such has been the practice for the most part in the region when it came to invasions and colonization.

Every religions and sects have developed anti-Dalit, casteist tendencies towards the lower considered others even if their scriptures do not have caste-based distinction. Six major religions have assimilated Vedic practices of discriminating people who are lowered as outcaste for their advantage. Although their scriptural doctrine discourages any form of discrimination Jain, Sikh, Muslim, Zoroastrians, and Christians have largely benefitted by assimilating with the caste system.

The hatred and fear of the lower considered caste assigns designated lowest job positions that has no respect and standard wage. The job of cleaning the filth, human waste and animal carcasses are single-handedly done by Dalits in India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Nepal. Due to the draconian rule of Taliban in Afghanistan there are no studies that could explicate the exploitation of caste bodies in the hyper-Islamist violence.

It is because of this the South Asian region is plagued with enumerable hurdles that have limited its overall development. On economic front the GDP per capita approximation is USD $ 7,600 while the US alone has GDP per capita at $60,000. In the global ranking on inequality, poverty and corruption, South Asian region stands as a leader in negative performance indexes.

The primary and secondary educational enrollment is sobering. However, when it comes to the breakup of caste, religion and gender one would see the apparent losses. For India, the Dalit student enrollment slides down from 81% in primary education to less than 11% in graduate education. The pass out rate for Dalit graduates is only 2.24%. In Nepal the primary education enrollment of Dalits and indigenous groups was 34% compared to their population of 57%. While in higher education it was merely 3.8% with a high dropout rate. College level graduation for Dalit in Nepal is depressingly 0.4% Completion of studies is equally low where gender plays an important part of disadvantaging Dalit females further. Along with this the Hill and Terai region's differences recreates more gulf.

Due to border related conflicts, the South Asian region has seen brutal wars since the departure of colonial powers. Luxurious spending on military aggressions makes it difficult to redirect some of those bucks for the social welfare and development of human capital as opposed to exploiting it in senseless battles. War and cross-border conflicts have been cornerstones of some of the hegemonic states in the region. What rationalizes one to impose such draconian policies? I think it is the inherent, imperialistic wishes aided with mistrust of Others.

Buddhist South Asia

There is possibly only one commonality that connects this vast region. It is the rich heritage of indigenously grown Buddhist culture. The Buddhist values have vast expanse over any other colonized religious, spiritual doctrines. And perhaps this is an ideal path to reimagine our current problematics. Buddha’s doctrine not only spread in this region, but it also prospered to give this region an iconic reputation.

In the spread of Buddha’s doctrinaire, through Ashokā one cannot see the colonized brutal invasions unlike other spiritual experiences. And it was Buddha who formally challenged caste on a macro level. It is to his credit that many anti-caste, and acaste initiatives were propagated in an otherwise oppressive Vedic caste society.

Through Buddha we can complicate the history and as well as geography of South Asia. It offers us an opportunity to reclaim a regional past that will usher a sense of belonging through expressions of solidarity and unity. As it stands, South Asia is a deeply divided entity. Apart from government sponsored scholarships and few SAARC-like annual initiatives there are not much people to people interactions. Much of it is mediated with stereotypes of each others propagated by the cultural industry and hostile governments.

Regional blocks like Latin America, Africa, Europe have a sense of belonging to the region. While in the South Asian context, one would not even acknowledge their nationality with the region. A balkanized, sovereign supreme identity of one’s nationalism—of whatever worth is strongly rooted in the individuated South Asian identity. At a recently held 2020 SAARC summit held over video conference, Pakistan's representative, health minister Zafar Mirza lamented, "SAARC region remains the least integrated region in the world". Mirza hoped SAARC can be used for "pooling of resources, expertise, and even financing".

South Asia still remains in a shadow of colonial powers and that is why perhaps the foreign sponsored NGO industry and other capital investment has an unequal balance of power. Development related issues like poverty, atrocity, caste discrimination, religious fundamentalism among others inform the region’s politics. To overcome this dependability and to preserve self as a united, strong block with a vast human reserve and natural abilities the region has every reason to aim for a solid economy rooted on people’s welfare.

This doesn’t happen because caste and its attitudes will continue to control our logics of operation. Caste creates mistrust and lack of faith. Due to this, there is no free sharing of knowledge and mobility of human capital. Caste produced insecure groupings amongst its own citizens in a national framework. Each South Asian country takes itself back every time it employs the creative labor and hardworking individuals to the designated caste jobs. A Brahmin becoming priest, a Baniya holding business and a Dalit or Adivasi doing the inhumane jobs of polluting nature becomes an unnatural organization of productive economy.

This then legitimizes the authority and power brokers to certify their discrimination upon the huge mass of people who could have been trained, equipped and prepared for more innovative tasks. Caste system not only deprives one from exercising their fullest potential, but it creates more barriers for a society to grow as a collective. This then puts the pressure on select few who have taken the responsibility to run the economic affairs. By not including a huge mass of people in formal employment the economic and social elites continue to bear the burden of huge taxes. Caste system disadvantages their own purse, yet the powerholders of caste regime involve in the sadist action of imposing caste punishments upon its own citizens at the cost of their own social, economic worth.

One day this has to end, and it will end. And when the time of reconstructing the society will arise the people who are enjoying their unearned, aristocratic privilege will have to go back and check their vile acts that have imposed such harsher measures on fellow humans. It is upon everyone to eradicate caste; however, the onus is more on the privileged ones as they are most invested in it.

This article is written by Dr. Suraj Yengde, who is an author of bestseller ‘Caste Matters’ and a fellow and postdoc at the Harvard’s Kennedy School. 

Naya Patrika Daily published its Nepali translation: https://jhannaya.nayapatrikadaily.com/news-details/911/2020-03-21

[carmen-berzattos]

You know what, I’m gonna do it. I’m just gonna go on a rant about the (second) Gulf War, aka the 2003 Iraq invasion. 

The thing that drives me absolutely mad, MAD I tell you, about the way that people talk about this war here in the U.S. is how it has become conflated with the U.S.’s effort in fighting terrorism. It hasn’t even been 20 years since the 9/11, it has barely been 15 years since the Iraq invasion, and the history of it has been misconstrued into one of the string of the U.S.’s effort to fight terrorism. 

Setting aside the utter absurdity of the War on Terror that the U.S. launched (that needs its own 50k book), the U.S. did not really invade Iraq to fight terrorism. The U.S. at the time did not present terrorism as a reason for the war. That’s something that was only secondary and added to the narrative after the fact after the country went into a shitstorm following the invasion. What Bush as the time said is that: 

They, supposedly, found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

Those weapons are there because of a corrupt regime, embodied in Saddam Hussein. 

The U.S. needs to help the Iraqi people free themselves from said terrible leader and give them freedom and democracy. 

Now, to be clear, Saddam Hussein was an absolute tyrannical piece of shit. I’m talking next level genocides, oppression, driving the country’s economy through the mud, all that good stuff. So it’s not like they weren’t correct in how terrible Saddam Hussein actually was. The real shitstorm is assuming that a population, historically colonized, would be welcoming to a foreign invasion removing a local leader. 

And here, we need some context. The problem is that Iraq has been through so much shit over the past 50 years. he 1970′s were a fairly prosperous time for Iraq, following the political turmoil of the 1960′s, the country was beginning to settle. Then Saddam Hussein entered the picture. He went into an eight years long war against Iran in the 1980′s. That war DESTROYED the country. As wars go, half the country’s men were forcibly drafted and subsequently killed, the economic situation was absolutely terrible, and of course, it came to no real win. This is when my mother’s cousin was taken as a War prisoner. He would not return for over ten years after. And what returned of him was nothing but a ghost.  

The Iraq-Iran war ended in 1989. People got the smallest bit of a breather then of about a year, during which my parents got engaged. But then, Saddam Hussein got himself in an argument with Kuwait about settling some finances that he should have received from them for his effort against Iran (why exactly Kuwait would support such war against Iran is long and complicated and we will not get into it right now), but then they kinda denied him. So he, like the fucking idiot that he was, went and invaded Kuwait and declared it a part of Iraq. 

But that shit ain’t gonna cut it. Now the entirety of the Arab countries, along with the U.S. and its allies (basically everyone and their mom), formed an army against Iraq to defend Kuwait. Things were absolutely terribly for Iraqis, of course, because another war after the eight years long one against Iran, is an utter nightmare in and of itself. But to have to deal with the bombarded effort of all those countries, who were blowing up shit that really did little to hurt the regime but a lot to hurt the people was devastating. My parents got married during this war, because they literally had no idea if they’d survive and they wanted to be married if something were to happen.

Also during this war the U.S.’s effort to get rid of Saddam Hussein started.  The U.S. backed Saddam’s rise to power, make no mistake about that. He was someone who could be a good ally to them. Perhaps you would be more inclined to be doubtful about that if it weren’t for our support of Saudi Arabia after everything that the Crown Prince’s been doing. But after his invasion of Kuwait, they saw him as an unpredictable wild card who could go out of control any minute, so he must go. One of the defining moments of the 1990/1991 Gulf War, The First Gulf War, was the destruction of Al-Amriyyah shelter. The U.S. got intelligence that Saddam was in said shelter, so they bombed it. The shelter was undergound, so it required a special kind of incinerating bombs to do the job. We’re also talking about a shelter in which over 300 families stayed at to protect themselves from the terror of the night bombings. All those families were wiped clean. Saddam, whether he was actually there or not before we don’t know for sure, but by the time the bombs hit and burned all those people, he was gone. 

Following the war, economic sanctions were placed on Iraq. Dealings and tradings with Iraq were internationally prohibited, it became a no-fly zone, and every once in a while, the U.S. would randomly bomb a few places here and there throughout the 1990′s. It’s important to note here that Bin Ladin stated the bombings on Iraq as one of the reasons behind 9/11, as retaliation. As if the world needed any more bloodthirsty vengeance-seeking monsters. I was born in 1995. And while everyone on here remembers the ‘90′s fondly, my memories of it are a lot of dark nights and loud noise that my father would try to drown out by singing Country Road by John Denver to my siblings and I. 

The sanctions, unsurprisingly, did not hurt the regime. It hurt the Iraqi people. It completely destroyed the middle class. And it pretty much ensured that the people themselves would have no chance to get rid of Saddam through a local revolution. And make no mistake people have attempted to overthrow him before, and were brutally squashed every time. But all those attempts were before the economic sanctions. You don’t really have time to revolt when you can’t even afford food. Not to mention the sense of fear from a foreign invasion making patriotism hit in all the wrong places (though do realize that wrong here is only in retrospect and coming from someone who was too young to think of any of this at the time). 

The sanctions would not be removed until after the 2003 invasion. But at the time we had a much bigger issue to deal with. A war. Again.

To go back to the original reason of the war and what Bush and the U.S. administration stated, what they said has nothing to do with the actual reason that they invaded Iraq. The simple fact of the matter is that they wanted to get rid of Saddam, yes, but for no reason other than wanting to control the country’s resources, that’s A, and B what they really wanted was to have constant control over an important part of the region. 

The talk of terrorism being a reason for it is misleading and maddening. Because this was not the bullshit reason that the administration gave at the time, nor was it the actual reason for it. To say that it was a response to 9/11 is to say that the U.S. miscalculated the benefits of the war for an ultimately “well-intentioned” reason. Iraq had a lot of issues when Saddam was in charge, but terrorism only became an issue AFTER the war. It’s almost as if war... creates a circumstance appropriate for terrorism? But that’s just a crazy theory. Don’t mind me. 

Why would I tell you all of this, you might ask. Because the way that we talk about the U.S.’s history with the region is absolutely absurd. It wants you to believe that its relationship with the region before 9/11 was normal and that the attack was what triggered everything. But this is hardly a way of understanding what happened in Iraq, and what continues to happen in the region. The Gulf War was not a disembodied bloody incident in the U.S.’s history with Iraq, it’s pretty much the norm. 

[ritchiepage2001newaccount]

#CorpMedia #Idiocracy #Oligarchs #MegaBanks vs #Union #Occupy #NoDAPL #BLM #SDF #DACA #Humanity

From Rojava to the Hambacher Forest

https://anfdeutsch.com/aktuelles/von-rojava-an-den-hambacher-forst-6604

Letter from an activist from Rojava, who was previously in the resistance in Hambacher Forest. Now she writes from Rojava.

According to the activists, the Hambacher forest, which has been occupied for years, is about to be evicted. The 12,000-year-old forest is to be cut down, because there are lignite deposits under the ancient trees. For forty years now, historical villages have disappeared with the forest and with them the people who lived there. In the next three years, the entire residual forest will disappear, because the energy giant RWE wants to use lignite. The activists call for practical solidarity.

An activist, who is now in Rojava, wrote a letter to the squatters a few days ago. This is as follows:

"Azadî ji bo: Freedom for the trees

A letter from the Rojava to the Hambacher Forst

My dear wild hambis, To sit with you around the campfire again and sing new verses for seven days and sing loudly. Wake up again in the treetops, put on the belt and whiz down into the depths. Once again, see how hundreds of people flock to the forest to see and understand. Build Barris again. Going through the forest alone again, once again go to my secret place for archery, another action, once again fight with you.

Instead, I'm far away. Instead of waking up with my little minimerlin, my hambi-stuffed dog, it's the cold metal of the Kalashnikov. Instead of waking up with the concert of the birds, the mid-woodpecker and the tits, the jay and the wood pigeons, it is the roar of the Turkish bombs. Actually, bombs that come from the west. Our bombs.

I've left the only place I've ever been happy. A place where I could be myself without being condemned for having people who also suffered from the farce of the capitalist concept of freedom and wanted something else but did not know how to achieve it. And that's why I have let you down, for the egoistic goal of finally being able to fight effectively against the powerlessness. Ironically in the year in which everything decides.

I did that because I could not stand it anymore. I could not see how we should defend the Hambi unless we finally manage to overcome skepticism and focus every fiber of our body on resistance, not knowing how.

How to develop a strategy and implement it with everything we have? I could not see it. And seeing how this place is being destroyed almost broke me last year: when the police, a superior force at that time, came into the forest with their machines and the first trees fell. It was selfish to go. I was not strong enough to stay and I apologize for that.

How can you listen now, when I speak of devotion and courage, of overcoming egoisms if I did not show any of this by walking away? Probably not. What I want to tell you is what I see as what has made the others succeed. Those who did not leave when it became difficult but fought. And achieved so much. Maybe it will help you anyway.

The most important thing you already know: that resistance, revolution, is not a half-day or even weekend job; that you must do what you do with total dedication in order to achieve anything at all, and that we can not accomplish much on our own but achieve anything in the community. That we can really implement utopias (and certainly not those of Morus) and that the revolution has already begun. That we should do our best in everything we do, and that we have to decide if we want to keep a backdoor, because we do not really believe that we can really change anything, and eventually crawl back into the system, or ours Dedicate life to resistance with all that goes with it, and go together on this difficult but exciting, hopeful path.

The people here in Rojava are on their way to freedom. Little girls hopping through the streets in shorts at night alone, without fear of men, of Daesh, of the regime. Nobody can hurt them. The cities are rebuilt, the landscape, the trees are blooming again. Everywhere it grows and blooms. The Daesh are almost destroyed. They are afraid of those with "red shoes" (Kurdish fighters). The regime has almost no power anywhere. Nobody cares about money here. No one is starving because they all stick together, despite the difficulties of embargo and war. So many refugees. No help from the west. So the refugees immediately organize themselves, form commissions, can not be beaten down. A sign of how much states are not needed.

The female-read people have made their shared history of oppression a point of connection and have become autonomous. As women, they have developed their independence in all areas. Instead of hierarchies, all municipalities / neighborhoods and villages are autonomous and live together in consensus. It has long been claimed that such a thing is permanently not possible. Rojava proves the opposite!

Whichever regime is in power, it keeps itself by isolation of the people. In capitalism, the highest value is individualism, "self-actualization." This refers to selfishness and rejection of consideration for others. Everything is based on cohesion and diversity. This means that a person is only free when all are free and vice versa. Self-realization is strengthened by mutual support and help, not restricted.

The revolutionaries do everything for the revolution, they have dedicated their lives to it and they never let the population down and when it costs their lives, which has happened countless times. This power of persuasion is based on thousands of years of genocide, assimilation, torture and murder. On the will to freedom. The path to this is political education, an understanding of the needs of the people here and the will to make a difference, as well as the certainty that it is possible if we do not split up but stick together and all people, old or young Believing or not, poor or rich, involve in the revolution.

Not differences, but looking for similarities. Because no one is free from them and therefore to make them understandable and to show them perspectives is the most important task. Cohesion, friendship, respectful, friendly dealings with everyone, discipline born of the will to change. Never give way before the enemy, never give up, do not doubt for a second. Never forsaking people means gaining trust and, with it, support, thus growth and strength. Maybe you lose a fight in one day. Then you come back the next day with double strength and determination. Never accept a defeat. Always finding a way.

Find common ground with those who have the same goal in principle. And never turn the gun against people if they do not do the same against you or others.

In this way, they have made people here to support the revolution. And these things can also help you in your struggle and after. What is the capitalist West doing when it can no longer colonize and exploit for oil and power? So where do we find him sensitive? At the same time, it is also obvious everywhere in Europe that more and more people are dissatisfied and rebel in their own individual way.

Rojava spreads, inspires, gives hope, gives strength, gives knowledge!

My dears, the revolution has already started in Europe. It's not just about a place anymore. Many people are already working on it. Because everywhere capitalism is at its end and now it is time to help it. They have pushed the exploitation too far. From many places, people are now fleeing to Europe, elsewhere they are fighting on the spot.

Rojava spreads, inspires, gives hope, gives strength, gives knowledge! How many anti-fascist groups have emerged in recent years, how many feminist groups, how many FLIT groups, (eco -) - ... Anarchis have come together, as we have done, how many campaigns, how many Bürgi initiatives, collectives, anarcho syndicates, federations? Time to bring them all together! You and everyone else. Time to overcome the systemic isolation. Time for cohesion, time to unite all of us into one force. Time to get support wherever it makes sense to bring it. Time for the anarchist Förderalismus!

A revolution means much more than destruction for the love of creative reconstruction. It also means groups building structures. We are already far in it. There are already structures in every town, almost every village! If you look, you see helpfulness, you see anarchism everywhere. Because slowly people understand that not a face, not a company, but the idea of ​​power itself is the disease from which we must free ourselves.

Revolution means making people aware, going from house to house, from school to school, from university to university, from factory to factory! To respect them, to help them and to be helped to learn from each other. Use the power of the media. To gather forces, to learn from the past, to analyze all forms of resistance, of struggle. To avoid the mistakes, to use the positive aspects - of all, not to limit oneself.

Before states emerged, anarchism was the natural state of living together. What has changed? From Diogenes to Étienne de LaBoétie to the propaganda of the deed, the Paris Commune, the revolutions in Mexico, the Ukraine, Germany, Spain, anarchism has shaped the world. Again and again. Only the methods and the struggles have never worked together as it should have been, never by stealing on principles (the people for whom the revolution is always treat well, never steal, threaten or worse.) It is about the state and its Structures) and good media work gained confidence enough. There were other mistakes and they need to be analyzed and conclusions drawn. It's all part of the revolution.

Necessary steps

Necessary steps at a time when, unfortunately, fascists have already taken these steps! Many turn to racism because they value it because it gives them an identity, a sense of dignity and pride. As sad as it is, that too is a result of the system directing these constructed needs against other people in the form of racism. Many just become depressed. By understanding that, we can bring back some of these very wrong people ourselves, they can weaken fascism.

To make you understand that love for the place where you grew up and have family and friends, has nothing to do with the system that rules there. The country also exists without state, without hatred and without pride on a particular color of skin or a word on a passport.

That it is not reprehensible to love a beautiful forest, mountain or the sea that surrounds you, but it is important to ask why love for something has to go hand in hand with hatred of something else, exclusion of others. Where does the fear come from? Who supports them and why? What is the purpose of a nation state? You know the answer. So we can pull those who have one last good hair out of the brown swamp.

It is important to go to the villages and towns to help people in factories, farms, schools, universities, offices and businesses with patience and dedication to become self-organized and autonomous and to build up good, deep contacts, political education, common education To tackle projects.

Alternative structures need to be set up to free people from the dependence of state structures on health and care and to suit their environment, their culture. Not only do they learn from us, we also learn from them. And for them are the structures. We can only be empowering and supportive here. What remains of the state when it is no longer needed? When it is needed so little that there is no reason to continue serving it, whether with labor or taxes. Let us hold to Henry D. Thoreau. How much do you care if everyone is already free? Who will defend him? And how well can it last when people learn to defend themselves? To rob him of the monopoly of force, because freedom is our right? And they will not be left alone?

Every action against oppressive and state-important structures must have a good media preparation as well as strictly adhere to the publicly known principles. So people know when state provocateurs want to harm us with bad actions and no longer believe in the defamation that awaits us and that has already brought down many movements.

Let's say what we do and do what we say.

The first steps have already been taken. And it's a spirit of optimism. Let's make sure it's our departure! Anarchist Promotionalism for Europe is a big project, but it is being implemented. We do not need to hide this. On the contrary. The more people we can win, the faster it works. For too long, the paranoia of surveillance, which happens anyway, paralyzed us. Let's say what we do and do what we say. We want the revolution. We do not want to be oppressed anymore and we no longer see how our lifestyle is destroying the world and causing genocide. It is enough!

Let us use all the powers we have and their offers. The power of music, the power of the Internet, Youtube and Facebook, of television and radio stations, of sunny days and moonless nights. I can imagine that some of you are hiding the show and I can also imagine that the state will regret it if the hambi falls, because the perspective you have here and a channeled rage can be very dangerous ,

I know that you will fight. When I think about you, I have no doubt that this year will be the resistance to the fight. That it is no longer all about waiting peacefully until someone is taken away. I saw your faces last year. The look in your eyes when it looked like it was all over. After that it was different. The expression has changed the moment the cops withdrew and we took the Secu Road. There was something else to see. Not just a spark anymore. It was a fire. When I think of that phrase, I know that if I survive this, I can one day come back to Hambi and find more than one hole. I know the trees will stand still, the mid-woodpecker will still sing, the hornbeams and pedunculate oaks and lilies of the valley will bloom. The forest will recover area and with the years he will reunite with the separated from him arms.

So you dear savages, that was just what was on my mind. Incidentally, here in Rojava, the Hambi was literally poured into concrete in important places. Rojava greets you. I miss you very much!

A hambi - forever "

[clubofinfo]

Expert: There is nothing sadder and more pathetic, than a notorious liar shouting, spitting saliva, insulting normal people left and right, while terrorizing those who are telling the truth. Lately, the West has gone clearly berserk. The more it is scared of losing control over the brains of billions of people in all corners of the world, the more aggressively it is screaming, kicking and making a fool of itself. It doesn’t even hide its intentions anymore. The intentions are clear: to destroy all of its opponents, be they in Russia, China, Iran or in any other patriotic and independent-minded state. To silence all the media outlets that are speaking the truth; not the truth as it is defined in London, Washington, Paris or Berlin, but the truth as it is perceived in Moscow, Beijing, Caracas or Teheran; the truth that simply serves the people, not the fake, pseudo-truth fabricated in order to uphold the supremacy of the Western Empire. Huge funds are now being allocated for the mortal propaganda onslaught, originating predominantly in both London and Washington. Millions of pounds and dollars have been allocated and spent, officially and openly, in order to ‘counter’ the voices of Russian, Chinese, Arab, Iranian and Latin American people; voices that are finally reaching ‘the Others’ – the desolate inhabitants of the ‘global south’, the dwellers of the colonies and neo-colonies; the modern-day slaves living in the ‘client’ states. The mask is falling down and the gangrenous face of Western propaganda is being exposed. It is awful, frightening, but at least it is what it is, for everyone to see. No more suspense, no surprises. It is all suddenly out in the open. It is frightening but honest. This is our world. This is how low our humanity has sunk. This is the so-called world order, or more precisely, neo-colonialism. ***** The West knows how to slaughter millions, and it knows how to manipulate masses. Its propaganda has always been tough (and repeated a thousand times, not unlike corporate advertisements or the WWII fascist indoctrination campaigns) when it originates in the United States, or brilliantly Machiavellian and lethally effective when coming from the United Kingdom. Let us never forget: the U.K. has been murdering and enslaving hundreds of millions of innocent and much more advanced human beings, for many long centuries and all over the world. Due to its talent in brainwashing and manipulating the masses, Great Britain has been getting away with countless genocides, robberies and even managing to convince the world that it should be respected and allowed to retain both a moral mandate and the seat at the U.N. Security Council. The Western regime knows how to lie, shamelessly but professionally, and above all, perpetually. There are thousands of lies piling up on top of each other, delivered with perfect upper-class ‘educated’ accents: lies about Salisbury, about Communism, Russia, China, Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, North Korea, Syria, Yugoslavia, Rwanda, South Africa, Libya, refugees. There are lies about the past, present and even about the future. Nobody is laughing, seeing such imperialist thugs like the U.K. and France preaching, all over the world and with straight face, about both freedom and human rights. Not laughing, yet. But many are slowly getting outraged. People in the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Latin America are beginning to realize that they have been fooled, cheated, lied to; that the so called ‘education’ and ‘information’ coming from the West have been nothing else other than shameless indoctrination campaigns. For years I worked on all continents, compiling stories and testimonies about the crimes of imperialism, and about the awakening of the world, ‘summarized’ in my 840-page book, “Exposing Lies Of The Empire”. Millions can now see, for the first time, that media outlets such as BBC, DW, CNN, Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, have been encoding them mercilessly and thoroughly, for years and decades. Reuters, AP, AFP and several other Western press agencies, have managed to create a uniformed narrative for the entire planet, with local newspapers everywhere in the world now publishing identical fabrications that originate from Washington, London, Paris and other Western capitals. Totally false pictures about such important subjects as the Soviet Union, Communism, China, but also freedom and democracy, have been engraved into billions of human brains. The main reason for the opening of the eyes of people of the world which is still oppressed by Western imperialism, is, the relentless work of media outlets such as the Russian-based New Eastern Outlook (NEO), RT and Sputnik, as China-based CGTN, China Radio International and China Daily, Venezuela-based TeleSur, Lebanese Al-Mayadeen, and Iranian Press TV. Of course, there are many other proud and determined anti-imperialist media outlets in various parts of the world, but the above-mentioned ones are the most important vehicles of the counter-propaganda coming from the countries that fought for their freedom and simply refused to be conquered, colonized, prostituted and brainwashed by the West. One mighty anti-imperialist coalition of truly independent states has been forming and solidifying. It is now inspiring billions of oppressed human beings everywhere on Earth, giving them hope, promising a better, optimistic and just future. Standing at the vanguard of many positive changes and expectations is the ‘new media’. And the West is watching, horrified, desperate and increasingly vitriolic. It is willing to destroy, to kill and to crush, just in order to stop this wave of ‘dangerous optimism’ and strive for true independence and freedom. ***** There are now constant attacks against the new media of the free world. In the West, RT is being threatened with expulsion, brilliant and increasingly popular New Eastern Outlook (NEO) came just recently under vicious cyber-attack from, most likely, professional Western hackers. TeleSur is periodically crippled by sanctions shamefully unleashed against Venezuela, and the same banditry is targeting Iranian Press TV. You see, the West may be responsible for billions of ruined lives everywhere in the world, but it is still faces no sanctions, no punitive actions. While countries like Russia, Iran, China, Cuba, DPRK or Venezuela have to ‘face consequences’ mainly in the form of embargos, sanctions, propaganda, direct intimidation, even military bullying, simply for refusing to accept the insane Western global dictatorship, and for choosing their own form of the government and political as well as economic system. The West simply doesn’t seem to be able to tolerate dissent. It requires full and unconditional obedience, an absolute submission. It acts as both religious fundamentalist and a global thug. And to make things worse, its citizens appear to be so programmed or so indifferent or both, that they are not capable of comprehending what their countries and their ‘culture’ are doing to the rest of the world. ***** When being interviewed, I am often asked: “is the world facing real danger of WWIII?” I always reply “yes”. It is because it appears that both North America and Europe are unable to stop forcing the world into obedience and to virtual slavery. They appear to be unwilling to accept any rational and democratic arrangement on our Planet. Would they sacrifice one, tens or hundreds of millions of human beings, just in order to retain control over the universe? Definitely they would! They already have, on several occasions, without thinking twice, with no regret and no mercy. The gamble of the Western fundamentalists is that the rest of the world is so much more decent and much less brutal, that it could not stomach yet another war, another carnage, another bloodbath; that it rather surrenders, rather gives up all its dreams for a much better future, instead of fighting and defending itself against what increasingly appears to be an inevitable Western military attack. ***** Such calculations and ‘hopes’ of the Western fanatics are false. Countries that are now being confronted and intimidated are well aware what to expect if they give up and surrender to Western insanity and imperialist designs. People know, they remember what it is like to be enslaved. Russia under Yeltsin, collapsed, being plundered by Western corporations, being spat at, in the face, by the European and North American governments; its life expectancy dropped to sub-Saharan African levels. China survived unimaginable agony of “humiliation period’, being ransacked, plundered and divided by French, British and the U.S. invaders. Iran robbed of its legitimate and socialist government, having to live under a sadistic maniac, the Western puppet, the Shah. The entire ‘Latin’ America, with its open veins, with ruined culture, with Western religion forced down its throat; with literally all democratically-elected socialist and Communist governments and leaders either overthrown, or directly murdered, or at least manipulated out of power by Washington and its lackeys. North Korea, survivor of a beastly genocide against its civilians, committed by the U.S. and its allies in the so-called Korean War. Vietnam and Laos, raped and humiliated by the French, and then bombed to the stone ages by the U.S. and its allies. South Africa… East Timor… Cambodia… There are living carcasses, decomposing horrid wrecks, left after the Western deadly ‘liberating’ embraces: Libya and Iraq, Afghanistan and Honduras, Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, to name just a few. These are serving as warnings to those who still have some illusions left about the Western ‘good will’ and spirit of justice! Syria… Oh Syria! Just look what the West has done to a proud and beautiful country which refused to fall on its knees and lick Washington’s and London’s feet. But also, look how strong, how determined those who truly love their country can be. Against all odds, Syria stood up, it fought foreign-backed terrorists, and it won, surrounded and supported by the great internationalist coalition! The West thought it was triggering yet another Libyan scenario, but instead, it encountered an iron fist, nerves of steel, another Stalingrad. Fascism was identified, confronted and stopped. At an enormous cost, but stopped! The entire Middle East is watching. The entire world is watching. People now see and they remember. They are beginning to remember clearly what happened to them. They are starting to understand. They are emboldened. They clearly comprehend that slavery is not the only way to live their lives. ***** The Anti-Western or more precisely, anti-imperialist coalition is now solid like steel. Because it is one great coalition of victims, of people who know what rape is and what plunder is, and what thorough destruction is. They know precisely what is administered by the self-proclaimed champions of freedom and democracy – by the Western cultural and economic fundamentalism. This coalition of independent and proud nations is here to protect itself, to protect each other, as well as the rest of the world. It will never surrender, never back up. Because the people have spoken and they are sending clear messages to their leaders: “Never again! Do not capitulate. Do not yield to the Western intimidations. We will fight if attacked. And we will stand, proudly, on our own feet, no matter what, no matter what brutal force we have to face. Never on our knees, comrades! We will never again fall to our knees in front of those who are spreading terror!” And the media in these wonderful countries that are resisting Western imperialism and terror is spreading countless optimistic and brave messages. And the Western establishing is watching and shaking and soiling its pants. It knows the end of its brutal rule over the world is approaching. It knows those days of impunity are ending. It knows the world will soon judge the West, for the centuries of crimes it has been committing against humanity. It knows that the media war will be won by ‘us’, not by ‘them’. The battlefield is being defined. With some bright exceptions, the Westerners and their media outlets are closing ranks, sticking to their masters. Like several other writers, I had been unceremoniously kicked out from Counterpunch, one of the increasingly anti-Communist, anti-Russian, anti-Syrian and anti-Chinese U.S.-based publications. From their point of view, I was writing for several ‘wrong’ publications. I am actually proud that they stopped publishing me. I am fine where I am: facing them, as I am facing other mass-circulation media outlets of the West. The extent of Western ideological control of the world is degenerate, truly perverse. Its media and ‘educational’ outlets are fully at the service of the regime. But the world is waking up and confronting this deadly cultural and political fundamentalism. A great ideological battle is on. These are exciting, bright times. Nothing could be worse than slavery. Chains are being broken. From now on, there will be no impunity for those who have been torturing the world for centuries. Their lies, as well as their armor, will be confronted and stopped! • Originally published by New Eastern Outlook – NEO   http://clubof.info/

[pinepapelpen-blog]

Freedom of the Press in the Philippines

By Lea Concepcion Flores

“Journalists go to the most dangerous places to give voice to the voiceless. Media workers suffer character assassination, sexual assault, detention, injuries and even death. We need leaders to defend a free media. This is crucial to counter prevailing misinformation. And we need everyone to stand for our right to truth “said Secretary-General Antonio Guterres of the United Nations in the World Press Freedom Day 2017 on Wednesday, May 3.

Throughout the years Filipino journalists struggle to deliver news with utmost integrity, even though the Philippines is regarded as having one of the world’s freest media, as the 1987 Constitution guarantees the freedom of the press, Philippines had the third most number of journalists killed, and unfortunately slain journalists regained no justice due to the government’s apparent apathy, thus Filipinos  the right to know the nation’s conflicts for us to comply to the nation’s development, so the freedom of the press should be supported to the point our journalists will have a chance to be integrated to a nation committed to broadcasting factual information.

Journalism historian John Lent (1971) described early colonial newspapers as more literary than newsy in style, often depended on satires, poems and news laced with sarcasm. Stories were long and rambling and most of the news concerned events abroad.

Furthermore, Philippines has its roots in nationalistic newspapers published in Europe and in the Philippines during the Spanish colonial regime. The aim was to raise the level of consciousness with respect to oppressive conditions prevailing in the country then. For most of these newspapers, however, their origin was elitist. They were mainly published and written by the so-called ilustrados and read mostly by the same group.

Foremost among the nationalistic newspapers was the La Solidaridad, the mouthpiece of the reformists and the fortnightly organ of the Propaganda Movement. Published in Spain, it first appeared in 1889 with the policy "to work peacefully for social and economic reforms, to expose the real plight of the Philippines, and to champion liberalism and democracy."

In addition the Propaganda Movement was organized in Spain by Filipinos studying in Europe who are now among our national heroes-Xraciano Lopez Jaena, Jose Rizal, Marcelo H. del Pilar, Mariano Ponce, Juan Luna, among others (Corpuz 1989). It is interesting to note that the history of Philippine journalism is silent on the initial role of women journalists in the struggle for Philippine independence against the Spanish colonizers. Perhaps, their limited access to higher educational opportunities curtailed their participation in socio-political affairs (Braid 1996).

Other newspapers which advocated for political reforms included Kalayaan (liberty), the only issue of which was published in 1898. Kalayaan served as the official organ of the Katipunan. Historians are unanimous in pointing out that the most important reason for the exponential growth of the Katipunan was the publication of Kalayaan. From only 300 members, the secret society grew to 30,000. La Independencia (1898) was the most widely read newspaper of the Revolution. Other newspapers were La Libertad (1898) and El Heraldo de lloilo (1898). The newspaper was not the only medium used in advocating for reforms and mobilizing support for the Revolution.

When martial law was declared on 21 September 1972, the first order issued by the late President Ferdinand E. Marcos was for the press secretary and the secretary of national defence to "take over and control or cause the taking over and control of all privately owned newspapers, magazines, radio and television facilities and all other media communications." Editors and journalists were among the first to be arrested and incarcerated in military prison camps.

In conclusion when one speaks of the Philippine press, he speaks of an institution which began in the 17th Century but really didn't take root until the 19th Century; which overthrew the shackles of three governments but became enslaved by its own members; which won a high degree of freedom of the press but neglected to accept the responsibilities inherent in such freedom.

It’s a press which uses English more often than its native language (Tagalog) or its adopted language or more than 300 years (Spanish). It’s a press which preaches and probably thoroughly believes in freedom of the press, but cannot maintain independent daily newspapers in some cities because of political pressures. It’s a press which has bred nearly all of the country’s heroes, while breeding many corrupt and unscrupulous newspapermen.

Thus, freedom of the press should be supported to the point our journalists will be free to deliver news with utmost integrity.

Bibliography

Jr, R. S. (2014, may 3). World Press Freedom Day: Where the PH stands. Retrieved from www.rappler.com: http://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/iq/57086-world-press-freedom-day-philippines

Lent, J. (1966, December 1). The Press of the Philippines: History and Problems. Retrieved from journals.sagepub.com: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/107769906604300416?journalCode=jmqb

Rappler. (2017, May 3). UN Secretary General's message for World Press Freedom Day 2017. Retrieved from www.rappler.com: http://www.rappler.com/thought-leaders/168486-un-secretary-general-message-world-press-freedom-day-2017

Tuazon, F. R.-B. (n.d.). philippine studies. Retrieved from http://philippinestudies.net: http://philippinestudies.net/ojs/index.php/ps/article/viewFile/542/546