Africa, Palestine and 1984

The situation that we have in Palestine is covered by one of the greatest deceptions in the world. In order for Israel to maintain control in Palestine, one of the most sophisticated and elaborate deceptions that the Western Governments and media have ever managed to pull off has been in operation for decades. A combination of propagating latent racial prejudices about Arabic people (terrorists, un-civilised, etc), exploiting holocaust guilt ('don’t they deserve a home?'), jamming the media with one of the largest and most sophisticated PR machines in the world, and maintaining a military occupation that focuses as much on psychological manipulation through terror as it does on physical oppression; has created one of the greatest illusions in modern time. Until now…..

To all those people out there who consider themselves 'leftist' or 'radical' I only hope that you can see the connection between this ridiculas web of deceit - which has been developed slowly over many decades - and the current 'plans' being put forward to aid
Africa with the 'make poverty history' campaign. What's the connection?

It's simple really. The theory of total control is being applied to both situations. The way to wield supreme power in any situation is not to stamp out all opposition. This would only create pressure that would eventually explode. What is needed is to allow for an opposition which you can control – and if this opposition believes that it is independent – that’s even better for it will attack the ruling power and lead people to believe that the power is tolerating dissent. In Palestine this comes in the form of the 'road map' and the 'two state solution', whereby Palestine is being slowly turned into a disconnected series of ghettoes in the name of independence and even with the blessing of its own 'government' in the name of 'freedom'. For this days work, the powers that be are probably very proud of themselves.

However, in those cigar lit smoky rooms, where white collar giants can slap each other on the back and congratulate each other on their latest exploits, Palestine is not the current topic of self congratulation and boasting. This is not to say that the situation in Palestine is getting better, the very opposite in fact. It is simply old news to them when compared to the latest little game – the scramble for Africa round 3.

This time, through the cult of the celebrity (exploiting the celeb's deadly combination of naivety, ego and a misguided sense of philanthropy), an entire world wide protest movement is being mobilized which stifles internal decent, refuses to get 'too political' and actually supports the G8's main goals for Africa because they simply do not grasp that they are being manipulated, and have no understanding of the finer points of neo-liberal economics. Eg – Bod Geldof describing Bill Gates as 'one of the world's greatest philanthropists'!?!

The next two paragraphs are a summary of exactly how the opposition is allowing itself to manipulated, written by a close friend who has worded it so well,

Despite the fact that the NGO's have a nice shinny new slogan and the empty headed Celeb's are out in force, "…No-one on today's media has talked about structural adjustment programs, or the fact that debt relief will be granted to poor countries only if they are shown to be 'adjusting their gross assistance flows by the amount given' - that is to say, a matched reduction in aid. No-one has mentioned that the G8 vision of 'good governance' means privatization of natural resources and the opening of domestic agricultural markets to floods of Western- subsidized surplus produce.

This is not the fair trade that the people of Africa have been asking for. This is the establishment of economic conditions to facilitate a massive manufacturing labour force in the model of the far Eastern economies, where worker exploitation is rife.
In these conditions, it is only possible to work for an international elite in sweatshop conditions. The G8 plans to re-enslave the continent of Africa to provide another source of production for the mindless wanton consumerism of the West. This manufactured desire to consume can never be allowed to be satiated, so more (human and non-human) natural resources need to be plundered to provide cheap energy and comfortable trainers no our markets and the gap between rich and poor continues to grow. What's more? They've done it under the banner of 'making poverty history!' 'Bastards!'"

I copied that directly because I couldn’t say it better myself. So why am I writing this article on a Blog designed to give a voice to the Bethlehem Ghetto? I would be worried if you had not already worked that out.

In Palestine the game of controlling the opposition by toying with the ideas of 'two states' and 'the road map', the result – Palestinian ghettoes and a large Pro-western ally to control middle-east oil. In Africa the game of controlling the opposition is through mobilizing a miss-guided mass movement that actually only argues with the G8 on details of policy but refuses to question the legitimacy of a unelected corporate world council, the result – a rapid industrialization of Africa and pillaging of the continents resources to further support the Western economy of endless consuming.

If you consider yourself radical or leftist then have a good long think about this comparison. Whereas the game in Palestine is 60 years old the game in Africa is only just beginning. Calling for a 'two-state solution at the end of a negotiated peace process' is the same as wearing that white band and uttering the phrase 'make poverty history' – in both cases you are behaving EXACTLY how they want you too, think about it.