A Letter From Chomsky and Others on the Recent Events in the Middle East

Sometimes the world of blogs and blog connections make it worth the searching and reading; sometimes, a mere mention of a blog proves a genuine find. So it is that wood s lot came to my attention through the square of the hypotenuse blog. Both are terrific ways to waste an afternoon.

Letter from wood s lot

Wednesday 19 July 2006

The latest chapter of the conflict between Israel and Palestine began when Israeli forces abducted two civilians, a doctor and his brother, from Gaza. An incident scarcely reported anywhere, except in the Turkish press. The following day the Palestinians took an Israeli soldier prisoner - and proposed a negotiated exchange against prisoners taken by the Israelis - there are approximately 10,000 in Israeli jails.
That this "kidnapping" was considered an outrage, whereas the illegal military occupation of the West Bank and the systematic appropriation of its natural resources - most particularly that of water - by the Israeli Defence (!) Forces is considered a regrettable but realistic fact of life, is typical of the double standards repeatedly employed by the West in face of what has befallen the Palestinians, on the land alloted to them by international agreements, during the last seventy years.

Today outrage follows outrage; makeshift missiles cross sophisticated ones. The latter usually find their target situated where the disinherited and crowded poor live, waiting for what was once called Justice. Both categories of missile rip bodies apart horribly - who but field commanders can forget this for a moment?

Each provocation and counter-provocation is contested and preached over. But the subsequent arguments, accusations and vows, all serve as a distraction in order to divert world attention from a long-term military, economic and geographic practice whose political aim is nothing less than the liquidation of the Palestinian nation.

This has to be said loud and clear for the practice, only half declared and often covert, is advancing fast these days, and, in our opinion, it must be unceasingly and eternally recognised for what it is and resisted.

Tariq Ali
John Berger
Noam Chomsky
Eduardo Galeano
Naomi Klein
Harold Pinter
Arundhati Roy
Jose Saramago
Giuliana Sgrena
Howard Zinn

Throat Singers of Tuva

I found this group from the website Harmony in My Head, a radio program out of LA on Indie 103.1. Listeners outside the area can listen to it online. Henry Rollins is the DJ with an impressive music selection from his own collection, so I highly recommend this broadcast.

I have been listening to gypsy and folk music of the Balkans, particularly Taraf de Haïdouks, who hail from Romania. The music from Tuva is much different; The Gypsy sounds from Romania are gone, and what is left from a recording of Huun-Huur-Tu is a sound that has risen near the Mongolian steppe from shepherds living among reindeer and sheep. The sounds are full of life and sorrow.
Huun-Huur-Tu is a group who transports the listener. The music transcends anything you have going on in your day. I can only say you need to hear them.
Scroll down on Amazon and you will be given samples from the album The Orphan's Lament.

Amazing sounds huh? Here is a bit of biography I found on the internet:


Ted Levin, an American ethnomusicologist who has been working in partnership with the musicians, talks about his introduction to Tuvan overtone singing in the early 80's:

"I first found out about the Tuvans when the physicist Richard Feynman sent us a tape from an old record he had, from Russia, (with a note) that said, 'Thought you guys might be interested in this.' When I heard it, I was blown away. I decided then and there I had to meet the people who were making those sounds."


Richard Feynman, once a participant in the Los Alamos project, was fighting cancer, and his lifetime dream was to visit the mysterious land of Tannu Tuva, the origin of the exotic stamp collection he had acquired as a youth, and to get acquainted with its musical tradition of throat singing.
His heroic attempt to overcome the seemingly unending obstacles in obtaining a visa to Tuva is chronicled by his friend and drumming partner Ralph Leighton in the book 'Tuva or Bust!'. Feynman passed away early 1988, just a few weeks before the Soviet authorities agreed to issue the visa. Leighton and friends undertook the journey in honor of Richard.


In 1987, Ted Levin became the first American to do ethnographic fieldwork in what was then the Soviet Autonomous Republic of Tuva, a sparsely settled region of grasslands, boreal forests, and mountain ridges that lies some 2,500 miles east of Moscow, and is situated at the geographical centre of Asia, north of Mongolia. Sponsored by the National Geographic Society and the USSR Union of Composers, Levin's American-Russian-Tuvan expedition surveyed the traditional expressive culture of Tuva's sheep and reindeer herders, focusing on the musical technique of "xöömei" or throat-singing, in which a single vocalist simultaneously produces two distinct pitches: a fundamental note and, high above it, a series of articulated harmonics that are sequenced into melodies and manipulated with extreme virtuosity in several canonical styles. These field recordings became a CD released in 1990 by Smithsonian Folkways called Tuva: Voices from the Center of Asia.


Traditionally, Tuvan overtone singing had been performed by soloists, each specializing in a particular style of xöömei. In 1992 Kaigal-ool Khovalyg, Alexander Bapa, his brother Sayan Bapa, and Albert Kuvezin founded the quartet Kungurtuk, as a means of concentrating on the presentation of traditional songs of their homeland. While they devoted themselves to the preservation of these songs, their concerts have always demonstrated the significance of combining tradition and innovation. The musicians later decided to rename the ensemble "Huun-Huur-Tu".

Children of the Fire

From the 7.20.06 NY Times: "Shamil Basayev, was killed in what Chechen rebel groups say was an accidental explosion but the director of Russia's security service is calling a "special operation." Basayev was a leading figure in the Chechen resistance, which has waged a relentless war against Moscow since declaring its independence from Russia in 1991. He was the mastermind of some of the region's bloodiest attacks, including the September 2004 Beslan school siege. Andrei Babitsky of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty is one of the few journalists to have personally met and interviewed Basayev."

But first...

In retaliation to Hezbollah terrorism, Israel is invading Lebanon in an effort to destroy a Hezbollah nucleus, but by doing so is killing innocent civilians...
The United States supports the effort to root out Hezbollah factions, despite the fact that the Israeli initiative is effecting the fledgling democratic government in Lebanon. The United States has urged Israel to be cautious while rooting out Hezbollah, and not weaken the government in Lebanon. Nonetheless, the bombing raids by Israel are being called war crimes by detracters, while others support the effort. It depends on which side you stand. But really, GW is the Decider...

He will decide what constitutes terrorism, war crimes, and threats to democracy.
The war in Lebanon (though it is not being called a war just yet), is slowly weakening any shred of democracy...Heraclitus wrote that "war is the father of all things", and here, it should be noted, war is determining how the state of Lebanon will fall to complete chaos as death tolls rise, Hezbollah gets stronger, and innocent lives are lost. Israel, with the support of the Decider, is weakening the progress (a term I reluctantly use) in the Middle East. Although, as the Decider has said before: when we talk about war we are really talking about peace.


But how do you justify a war in Iraq, presumably about spreading democracy, and undermine the death rate there by supporting a war which is weakening Lebanon's democracy as quickly as I write this? My logic tells me that if we are willing to go to war to spread democracy, then we should be as vigilant to protect it. Without having democracy in location A, can there be democracy in location B? The Decider's rhetoric confuses this. The Decider fooled the American people into believing the war in Iraq was about defending freedom and introducing democracy (of course, this was only declared after the initial reason to wage war to rid Iraq of WMD had proven an absolute lie), and the Decider's rhetoric has reached such political heights that it has fooled the American people to believe that democracy can only exist if evil doers such as terrorists and bad Muslims are taken out of the equation...remember the days of "you're either with us or you're against us?"

What does this have to do with Chechnya and Russia?
Two things here: First, Chechnya has been waging civil war with Russia since its 1991 independence. Some of the worst atrocities, in recent years, against humanity have been committed here. As reported by the BBC, the Beslan school siege of 2004 "left 331 people dead, including 186 children...[and] more than 700 people were injured." Yet The Decider, Condoleeza, Rumsfeld et al. have all condemned Russia for its actions of retaliation against Chechen terrorists. We must not forget that Russia is a democracy (some of my Russian friends would smile at this concept), and as far as I understand, Russia's weight on a world stage, not to mention the sheer size of its country and population demands attention. But there is no helping hand from the Decider for Vladimir Putin as he confronts terrorism from Chechen guerrillas. 10 out of the 35 terrorists who murdered women and children at the Beslan school were Arab...they were not fighting for Chechen independence.
Yet, as the Washington Post reported, "the United States officially maintains that Russia should find a political solution to end the Chechen war, but does not push hard for that goal. European governments have been more vocal in promoting talks as the only way to end the war" (September 8, 2004; Page A01).

Never mind the 186 children that were burned to death by terrorists in southern Russia. The Decider has decided that Moscow's best course of action is to exercise diplomacy, by talking with the Chechens to see what they want...a suggestion for which Putin responded, "Why don't you meet Osama bin Laden, invite him to Brussels or to the White House, engage in talks, ask him what he wants and give it to him so he leaves you in peace?" Putin said to a group of Western academics and journalists. "You find it possible to set some limits in your dealings with these bastards, so why should we talk to people who are child killers?" (Washington Post, Wednesday, September 8, 2004; Page A01)

So where does diplomacy fit into the Israeli/Lebanon debacle? The fighting in Lebanon simply undermines the quest for democracy in other locations. As if we hadn't stirred the pot enough in Afghanistan and Iraq, we are now supporting the use of force by the Israeli military against another rogue terrorist group operating in yet another fragile political system. Hopefully Lebanon can withstand the impact of this war, but if it cannot, then what we have set out to do in Iraq will be all in vain due to the destruction of an almost stable government in an area very badly in need of stability. But...where the Decider makes a decision, chaos is sure to follow. Confusion, violence, and sadness are part of the Decider's diplomacy.

The reason I have revisited the Beslan school massacre and set it alongside the Israeli/Lebanon war is simple: there are too many inconsistencies, contradictions, and hypocrisies to the Decider's diplomacy of spreading freedom and democracy.
The point for the Decider to understand is best put by Andrei Babitsky: "it's possible to kill all those who are resisting, but you can't kill the idea of resistance" (NY Times, 7.20.06). I have been saying this from very nearly the day war broke out in Afghanistan many years ago: as long as I continue to see children parading in streets with AK-47s holding pictures of American presidents with the words "death to America" written on them, and as long as I continue to see mobs of people burning American flags and dancing around effigies of American presidents, there will be no peace. You cannot fight a war against a feeling of hatred, against a ghost. The children will ensure that.

I remember Oranges; I have tasted Lemons, I think?

it has been so long...
i have been on vacation for 6 weeks which means i have been reading and watching movies for six weeks. i have not left my little town, but instead, opted for a specific laziness prompted by the thick, iowa heat...so no blog mind you.


for now, let me run down some tasty quotes from Orwell's 1984. i am re-reading this because it has been since middle school when i last looked at it. i remember the story, but i have forgotten the amazing prose...and, of course, Orwell is a prophet. I think of Dick Cheney's fat face when i read the line "if there is hope, it lies in the proles."

here are some great lines i have been reading over the past few days:

"I hate purity, I hate goodness. I don't want any virtue to exist anywhere. I want everyone to be corrupt to the bones."

"In the old days, [Winston] thought, a man looked at a girl's body and saw that it was desireable, and that was the end of the story. But you could not have pure love or pure lust nowadays. No emotion was pure, because everything was mixed up with fear and hatred. Their embrace had been a battle, the climax a victory. It was a blow struck against the Party. It was a political act."

[Julie]: "Tell me, what did you think of me before that day I gave you the note?"
[Winston] did not feel any temptation to tell lies to her. It was even a sort of love offering to start off by telling the worst.
"I hated the sight of you, he said. "I wanted to rape you and then murder you afterwards. Two weeks ago I thought seriously of smashing your head in with a cobblestone. If you really want to know, I imagined that you had something to do with the Thought Police."

"Life, if you looked about you, bore no resemblance not only to the lies that streamed out of the telescreens, but even to the ideals that the Party was trying to achieve. Great areas of it, even for a Party member, were neutral and nonpolitical, a matter of slogging through dreary jobs, fighting for a place on the Tube, darning a worn-out sock, cadging a saccharine tablet, saving a cigarette end. The ideal set up by the party was something huge, terrible, and glittering--a world of steel and concrete, of monstrous machines and terrifying weapons--a nation of warriors and fanatics, marching forward in perfect unity, all thinking the same thoughts and shouting the same slogans, perpetually working, fighting, triumphing, persecuting--three hundred million people all with the same face."

"In a way, the world-view of the Party imposed itself most successfully on people incapable of understanding it.They could be made to accept the most flagrant violations of reality, because they never fully grasped the enormity of what was demanded of them, and were not sufficiently interested in public events to notice what was happening. By lack of understanding they remained sane. They simply swallowed everything, and what they swallowed did them no harm, because it left no residue behind, just as a grain of corn will pass undigested through the body of a bird."

"Until they become conscious they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious."


if only Cheney could meet the proles...