I admit it. I was a day late in doing my blog for Friday.. But I was almost done when - I don't know - I must have hit a bad button - and the whole thttp://onf-nfb.gc.ca/en/where-to-find-our-films/nfb-film-club/ext disappeared.
So I kept writing the finish, intending to go back to start afterward. And it happened again.
I may well be that I am unfitted for the 21st century. (I can already hear the taunts of computer-wise street urchins when I appear.
So - I shall write a proper blog on Tuesday. For tonight (it's late for us old folks at 8;15) I shall write a short piece that provides a background for all of them.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There's nothing new about imperialism, slavery, abuse and greed. These were all creatures of ancient worlds. Ancient Rome happily used slaves by the millions. And when the wealthy no longer needed the poor, they happily let them die, and be buried in great pits.Greed has always been a feature of human existence.
The modern age of greed and empire empire began, I suppose, with Columbus as he turned his savagery loose in South America. He enslaved. he forced the native peoples to hand over the wealth, notably gold, of their lands. And when a local failed to deliver is quota of gold on time, Columbus imported trained dogs to hunt him down and tear him to death.
Technically, it wasn't capitalism, I suppose. But the results were remarkably similar.
Slavery, always present, became common in Latin America and, later, as Africans were enslaved in their millions.
Countries like Britain, France, Belgium, Spain, The Netherlands soon got into the slavery business in a rush of that enslaved millions. (The conditions of their capture killed unknown millions just in the sea voyage that took them into slavery.) As late as the twentieth century, the Belgian Empire was enslaving millions in Congo, and conducting mass murder of any who objected. Today, those Belgian conquerors have been succeeded by European and North American capitalists who maintain poverty, enhanced by murder. In effect, people of the Congo are still slaves.
Britain, of course, was the leading world trader in slaves until well into the 19th century. Britain also enslaved millions into the twentieth century in places like China and India. (The death toll by British imperialists came to a total of 350 million - which probably still stands as a world record.)
The U.S. was very much a child of its imperial mother. The American revolution really had little to with freedom. The poor remained poor (and, contrary to the ideal of equality of all men) those so poor as not to own any property were commonly denied the right to vote.
In fact, the U.S. was so much a child of its imperial mother that it immediately used the revolution to build an empire of its own. The U.S. of 1776 had only 13 states. And George Washington, along with other member of the revolutionary leadership wanted more land for the wealth it would produce. And that's really what the revolution was about.
From the start of 1776, the purpose of America was to murder native people so speculators (like Washington) could steal their land. (For the same reason, they attacked Canada - and failed. They were more successful in setting up a war with Mexico that stole the huge areas of Mexico, Arizona, California and other areas.)
Yes. America proved that it could be just as brutal, exploitive and murderous as Britain was. (Yes. Canada too.)
But much earlier on, capitalism had entered the scene. It was overlapped with slavery and imperialism from the start. But, alas, there was no chance of getting slaves any more. So capitalism had to make do with low,low wages and, for itself, no taxes whatever.
With that, the U.S. began the work of getting control of Latin America about 1900. It was easy. The couldn't get slaves. But it was quite easy to buy off local leaders - and then to open employment by U.S. companies with starvation labour. (Canada was quite happy to buy into that game.) Commonly the companies have bare survival minimum wage - though they did pretty young. As well, the American and Canada companies commonly don't pay any taxes. So the encaptured state cannot afford to help it's starving people or to provide anything adequate in education.
And if people object?
A good example of what happens happened in Guatemala in the 1950 and later
The CIA was created as a massive goon squad to stamp on the poor. It's leader in the 1950s was George Bush Sr. - a highly respected American and church-goer - as our news media said when he died.
He murdered 200,000 Guatemalan civilians. When the Catholic Church objected to this butchery, he ordered the widespread murder of priests, lay missionaries and nuns.
Praise the Lord!
Leger was killed late in the slaughter - in 1981. You want more information on that? Good luck. NO news medium in all of North America mentioned it. The only North American medium of any sort I know of that carried the story is
https://www.mcintyre.ca/titles/NFB520584
http://onf-nfb.gc.ca/en/where-to-find-our-films/nfb-film-club/
His body was brought to his native New Brunswick for burial. Alas! Even the newspapers of his own province didn't carry the story. Of course not. The owner of the New Brunswick papers is a billionaire who had a stake in Venezuela oil.
You can get similar stories from all over Latin America. It is the cheap labour base for American and Canadian corporations who carry out their control through torture and murder. This is not just one company. Is is all of them.
The U.S. added an extra touch in the pre-Castro days when it handed over all the gambling rights in Cuba to the Mafia.
We lavish power on major corporations, power that they should never be permitted to hold. We allow them to destroy. And surely, one of the worst episodes in Canadian history was that recent day when Justin Trudeau pulled down Trump's pants and laid a kiss, naming the Venezuela government as evil.
I have no idea when Maduro is capable of leading an efficient government. nor is that any of my business.
The reality is that modern capitalism has become the greediest and most evil force we have seen.
(If you read history, you soon learn that capitalists have controlled our major governments for centuries. And they use that control to make us send troops to kill anybody who is in the way of the capitalists. Hitler murdered Jews. Hitler was evil. Hitler was an empire builder. But read some history and learn that is not whey we went to war in 1939.
In fact, looking at mass murder in the hundreds of millions, in looking at brutality, in looking at horrible exploitation, Hitler was a sweetheart compared to the capitalists of Britain. (no. that's not an exaggeration).
And we are living through another period of capitalist murder, exploitation....
There are two, possible results.
1. The dishonesty, confusion, and partiality of our news media will destroy whatever rational powers we have left. That confusion is already widespread - and that is what has produced a Trump.
2. We shall, in any case, become a society that will allow the major capitalists to destroy the planet.
This is the most dangerous time the world has ever seen. And we have allowed it to happen.
So I kept writing the finish, intending to go back to start afterward. And it happened again.
I may well be that I am unfitted for the 21st century. (I can already hear the taunts of computer-wise street urchins when I appear.
So - I shall write a proper blog on Tuesday. For tonight (it's late for us old folks at 8;15) I shall write a short piece that provides a background for all of them.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There's nothing new about imperialism, slavery, abuse and greed. These were all creatures of ancient worlds. Ancient Rome happily used slaves by the millions. And when the wealthy no longer needed the poor, they happily let them die, and be buried in great pits.Greed has always been a feature of human existence.
The modern age of greed and empire empire began, I suppose, with Columbus as he turned his savagery loose in South America. He enslaved. he forced the native peoples to hand over the wealth, notably gold, of their lands. And when a local failed to deliver is quota of gold on time, Columbus imported trained dogs to hunt him down and tear him to death.
Technically, it wasn't capitalism, I suppose. But the results were remarkably similar.
Slavery, always present, became common in Latin America and, later, as Africans were enslaved in their millions.
Countries like Britain, France, Belgium, Spain, The Netherlands soon got into the slavery business in a rush of that enslaved millions. (The conditions of their capture killed unknown millions just in the sea voyage that took them into slavery.) As late as the twentieth century, the Belgian Empire was enslaving millions in Congo, and conducting mass murder of any who objected. Today, those Belgian conquerors have been succeeded by European and North American capitalists who maintain poverty, enhanced by murder. In effect, people of the Congo are still slaves.
Britain, of course, was the leading world trader in slaves until well into the 19th century. Britain also enslaved millions into the twentieth century in places like China and India. (The death toll by British imperialists came to a total of 350 million - which probably still stands as a world record.)
The U.S. was very much a child of its imperial mother. The American revolution really had little to with freedom. The poor remained poor (and, contrary to the ideal of equality of all men) those so poor as not to own any property were commonly denied the right to vote.
In fact, the U.S. was so much a child of its imperial mother that it immediately used the revolution to build an empire of its own. The U.S. of 1776 had only 13 states. And George Washington, along with other member of the revolutionary leadership wanted more land for the wealth it would produce. And that's really what the revolution was about.
From the start of 1776, the purpose of America was to murder native people so speculators (like Washington) could steal their land. (For the same reason, they attacked Canada - and failed. They were more successful in setting up a war with Mexico that stole the huge areas of Mexico, Arizona, California and other areas.)
Yes. America proved that it could be just as brutal, exploitive and murderous as Britain was. (Yes. Canada too.)
But much earlier on, capitalism had entered the scene. It was overlapped with slavery and imperialism from the start. But, alas, there was no chance of getting slaves any more. So capitalism had to make do with low,low wages and, for itself, no taxes whatever.
With that, the U.S. began the work of getting control of Latin America about 1900. It was easy. The couldn't get slaves. But it was quite easy to buy off local leaders - and then to open employment by U.S. companies with starvation labour. (Canada was quite happy to buy into that game.) Commonly the companies have bare survival minimum wage - though they did pretty young. As well, the American and Canada companies commonly don't pay any taxes. So the encaptured state cannot afford to help it's starving people or to provide anything adequate in education.
And if people object?
A good example of what happens happened in Guatemala in the 1950 and later
The CIA was created as a massive goon squad to stamp on the poor. It's leader in the 1950s was George Bush Sr. - a highly respected American and church-goer - as our news media said when he died.
He murdered 200,000 Guatemalan civilians. When the Catholic Church objected to this butchery, he ordered the widespread murder of priests, lay missionaries and nuns.
Praise the Lord!
Leger was killed late in the slaughter - in 1981. You want more information on that? Good luck. NO news medium in all of North America mentioned it. The only North American medium of any sort I know of that carried the story is
https://www.mcintyre.ca/titles/NFB520584
http://onf-nfb.gc.ca/en/where-to-find-our-films/nfb-film-club/
His body was brought to his native New Brunswick for burial. Alas! Even the newspapers of his own province didn't carry the story. Of course not. The owner of the New Brunswick papers is a billionaire who had a stake in Venezuela oil.
You can get similar stories from all over Latin America. It is the cheap labour base for American and Canadian corporations who carry out their control through torture and murder. This is not just one company. Is is all of them.
The U.S. added an extra touch in the pre-Castro days when it handed over all the gambling rights in Cuba to the Mafia.
We lavish power on major corporations, power that they should never be permitted to hold. We allow them to destroy. And surely, one of the worst episodes in Canadian history was that recent day when Justin Trudeau pulled down Trump's pants and laid a kiss, naming the Venezuela government as evil.
I have no idea when Maduro is capable of leading an efficient government. nor is that any of my business.
The reality is that modern capitalism has become the greediest and most evil force we have seen.
(If you read history, you soon learn that capitalists have controlled our major governments for centuries. And they use that control to make us send troops to kill anybody who is in the way of the capitalists. Hitler murdered Jews. Hitler was evil. Hitler was an empire builder. But read some history and learn that is not whey we went to war in 1939.
In fact, looking at mass murder in the hundreds of millions, in looking at brutality, in looking at horrible exploitation, Hitler was a sweetheart compared to the capitalists of Britain. (no. that's not an exaggeration).
And we are living through another period of capitalist murder, exploitation....
There are two, possible results.
1. The dishonesty, confusion, and partiality of our news media will destroy whatever rational powers we have left. That confusion is already widespread - and that is what has produced a Trump.
2. We shall, in any case, become a society that will allow the major capitalists to destroy the planet.
This is the most dangerous time the world has ever seen. And we have allowed it to happen.
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