Pelshval

Antropologiske betraktninger om pelshvaldrift

Blessings of ridicule

I wonder when I last listened to a comedian. It’s been years, I think. Maybe I haven’t heard of the right comedians, the comedians for me, that is. George Carlin is no longer, and I know of no one who has taken his place.

Most comedians I stumble across on the rare occasions when I turn on my TV are just “silly”; to my mind at least. Not that I don’t appreciate silliness. I have a silly dog, and she makes me laugh out loud even in public places. I don’t need silly comedians who are unable to make me laugh even alone in the shower.

But today I happened, by pure accident, to listen to … No, let me explain. I was reading Jeffrey Sachs, “Stop Netanyahu Before He Gets Us All Killed” and suddenly the scene shifted – I must have done something – at any rate, suddenly, I was faced with John Steward, and John Steward was screaming. That definitely caught my attention.

So I listened to him for a while. And I was able to laugh! Yes! Because he was screaming and targeting what I abhor, warmongering.. In my mind, I thanked him.

I leave it there, for now, not because I believe John Steward deserves the last word – I really know nothing about him – but because ridicule is so powerful a weapon. In geopolitics, the weapon of ridicule has been all but forgotten.

Peter Pan-syndromet

Natt til i går ble Iran utsatt for et stort israelsk bombeangrep.

Verdens ledere ba “partene besinne seg”. Det betyr i klartekst at den ene parten (Iran) bes ydmykt akseptere at den andre parten har tatt seg til rette. Det tror jeg faktisk ikke Iran vil gå med på. Israel har jo lenge ønsket å føre Iran tilbake til stenalderen, og vil fortsette å gå inn for det uansett hva Iran gjør eller ikke gjør.

Når Iran går til motangrep, vil USA komme Israel til unnsetning, dvs. aktivt delta i videre angrep mot Iran. Slik er det, og slik har det alltid vært, til tross for at USAs støtte til Israel skader USAs omdømme og interesser. En krig med Iran er derfor noe Trump ikke ønsker.

Jeg tror at vi her i Norge har overvurdert USAnske presidenters makt. Jo, de oppfører seg som allmektige keisere, men det viser seg at de må samarbeide, enten de vil eller ei, med stadig mektigere interessegrupper. I utenrikspolitikken er det særlig den såkalte “Israel-lobbyen” og apparatet rundt våpenprodusentene (“military-industrial complex”) som gjør seg gjeldende. Våpenprodusentene trenger kriger (“forever wars”) for å få avsetning for sine kampfly, ballistiske missiler, osv.

Israel-lobbyen, på sin side, er riktignok sammensatt av hummer og kanari, men later til å ha total kontroll over begge partiene i kongressen. Kongressen er rett og slett blitt et sionistisk organ.

Hva er sionisme? I USAs kongress innebærer sionisme nå uforbeholden støtte til alt Israel og Netanyahu måtte finne på for å utrydde palestinere, okkupere nye landområder, fastholde middelaldersk rasediskriminering, angripe naboland og gjennomføre attentater mot personer i fjerne land. Også i USAs statsapparat står sionismen sterkt. Jeg antar at sionisme har sterkere kort på hånden nå enn noensinne før, til tross for – ja, jeg må gjenta det – til tross for at Trump faktisk ikke ønsker krig mot Iran.

Tenk om norske stortingsmenn og -kvinner skulle få betalt for å stemme for Norges deltakelse i militære operasjoner mot Iran. Tenk om ledelsen i våre etterretningsorganer var sionister. Er det utenkelig, sier du? Kanskje det, men slik er det altså i USA.

Palantir er et privat firma som driver med etterretning. Palantir er overalt. Det produserer og selger AI-baserte overvåkings- og etterretnings-løsninger til høystbydende, også til norsk politi, som visstnok avbrøt avtalen etter noen år. USA har privatisert (“outsourced”) stadig mer av sitt etterretningsarbeid, og Palantir, har nå adgang til de aller fleste personopplysningsregistre i landet. Det kreves ikke mye fantasi for å forstå at Palantir kan være et uhyre effektivt våpen mot dissidenter.

Palantir ble skapt av Peter Thiel, som er sionist på sin hals, og Alex Karp, selskapets toppsjef. Sistnevnte har for øvrig et menneskesyn som får det til å gå kaldt nedover ryggen på meg.

Karp er overbevist om at USA er berettiget i å bruke absolutt alle midler for å bevare sitt globale overherredømme. Vi i vesten er nemlig bedre enn de andre. “The West is obviously superior“. Personlig lurer jeg på om mannen er en smule gal.

Palantir er som sagt et aksjeselskap. I likhet med andre aksjeselskap trenger det kunder, oppdrag. De næringsmedia som Palantir vokser seg stor og sterk på, er krig og sosiale konflikter. I likhet med den private militære organisiasjonen (“contractor”) Blackwater, nå omdøpt til Constellis, som arbeider på oppdrag for CIA, er Palantir ikke interessert i å dempe konfliktnivåer. Tvert i mot. Om konflikter på hjemmebane er konfekt for bedriften, som i stor stil har bidratt til utvisninger fra universiteter og massedeportasjoner fra landet, så er konflikten i Midtøsten et 6-retters luksusmåltid. Drapslister (“hit lists”) er noe selskapet visstnok er særlig gode på. Medvirket Palantir også i drapet på flere militære ledere og vitenskapsmenn i Iran i går natt?

Hva blir så Norges rolle i den kommende krigen? Ja. jeg hørte Bart Eide oppfordre til fortsatte forhandlinger. Men nei, jeg tror ikke Iran kan gå med på USAs krav. De er så urimelige at ikke noe land med respekt for seg selv ville kunne bøye seg for dem. Dette vet Bart Eide utmerket godt.

Bart Eides jobb er å la Ola og Kari forbli i drømmelandet enda en stund til, ja, så lenge som mulig. Det eneste vi trenger å vite, fra Bart Eides ståsted, er at USA vil passe på oss når russerne kommer. Bart Eides jobb er å late som om Norge enda er et selvstendig land med en selvstendig utenrikspolitikk. Når Israel med USAs hjelp bomber Iran tilbake til stenalderen, slik de pleier å gjøre med land de ikke liker, må Bart Eide ta oss inn i eventyrkroken og fortelle om tusser og troll, og om snille kloke Askeladden.

Vårt bilde av USA, det snille gode landet som beskytter oss mot trollene, er skapt av Hollywood, godt hjulpet av norske utenriksministre og norsk presse. Vi befinner oss altså i Peter Pan landet for dem som ikke vil bli voksne; for dem som ikke orker å se at det – for eksempel – faktisk er USA som finansierer og bevæpner og altså muliggjør det uhyrlige folkemordet av det palestinske folket og den kommende krigen mot Iran.

Heinous derangement

For months, commentators and geopolitical analysts have been biting their nails, fearing that the Zionist lobby would be able to prevail upon the US president to support the Israeli wish to annihilate Iran.

For months, US presidents – first Biden, then Trump – have stood their ground. Now, however, the US is withdrawing personnel from all the countries in the Middle East. It looks as though the lobby of the deranged will succeed. Trump is, after all, a weak president, while the military-industrial complex is anything but. And Israel does, after all, have “the Bomb”.

So maybe, the Evangelists and the ultra-orthodox Jews will at long last see an end to their earthly tribulations, as they reach Wagnerian suicidal orgasms enjoying Armageddon.

Idiots!

Akk

Glenn Diesen er blitt presset til å trekke seg fra valgkampen som representant for partiet FOR.

Når en som stiller til valg som stortingsrepresentant anklages foran hele nasjonen og i beste sendetid,
(a) først for muligens å være “en betalt agent for” og
(b) deretter for helt bestemt å være en “nyttig idiot for”
Norges for tiden verste fiende, da skjønner jeg at han/hun må trekke seg.

Glenn Diesen er relativt ung og har sikkert barn. Jeg får frysninger ved tanken på hva familien hans utsettes for, siden anklageren i et av NRKs mest besøkte programmer var ingen ringere enn den forrige regjeringens utenriksminister.

Ine Eriksen Søreide er altså en dame som har vært utenriksminister og som later som om hun ikke aner hvorfor Ukraina er blitt angrepet av russiske tropper. Er det virkelig blitt slik at våre statsråder er like uvitende som (jeg nevner ingen navn) deres kollegaer i USA? Helt siden 1950-tallet har USA-presidenter og statsråder underholdt oss med sin formidable uvitenhet og like formidable kynisme.

Jeg er gammel nok til å ha opplevd flere tiår av USAs utenrikspolitiske sirkus. Ine Eriksen Søreide er riktignok ikke like gammel. Men hun kan vel lese? Det forventes at noen som har et så ansvarsfullt embete som hun hadde, faktisk setter seg inn i ting og tang.

Jeg må rett og slett spørre: Hvorfor er Ine Eriksen Søreide villig til å risikere at nordmenn setter spørsmålstegn ved presse- og informasjonsfriheten i landet sitt? Den informasjonen som Glenn Diesen har samlet gjennom sin årelange forskning er nærmest bannlyst fra norsk presse men tilgjengelig og viden kjent i mange andre land. Hvorfor møter Ine Eriksen Søreide informasjon med sjikane?

Terje Alnes har logget noen av argumentene Ine Eriksen Søreide brukte mot informasjonen FOR prøvde å formidle på “Debatten” på NRK:

  • reinspikka tøv
  • de har slukt den russiske propagandaen rått
  • de videresender russisk propaganda i beste sendetid på NRK
  • innholdet er helt uten rot i virkeligheten
  • alle som ser dette skjønner veldig godt at dere snakker reinspikka tull
  • dere har ingen argumenter for det dere mener
  • historien viser at dere er som å høre ekko av propagandaen fra Moskva
  • dere er nyttige idioter for en politikk som Russland ønsker skal få fotfeste i Europa
  • Russland bruker dere fordi de ønsker å skape splittelse og polarisering

Terje Alnes, skriver videre.

Samtidig hadde Søreide et kroppsspråk som underbygget «argumentasjonen», der hun himlet med øynene og smilte hånlig av motparten. Denne høytstående representanten for det politiske Norge viste seg ikke i stand til å imøtegå motstanderen på en saklig måte, sannsynligvis fordi hun mangler kunnskap. Derfor saboterte hun i praksis debatten med et forsøk på å idiotforklare motparten, en kjent hersketeknikk.

Terje Alnes er saklig.

Jeg klarer ikke være saklig når jeg er sint, og nå er jeg – det må jeg innrømme – alvorlig sint. Jeg må derfor rett og slett spørre, slik Ine Eriksen Søreide mer enn spurte: Er hun kjøpt og betalt? Av USAs våpenindustri? Av NED? Av Atlantic Council? Kanskje burde PST ta en kikk på hennes konti i inn- og utland.

Let us listen and learn

I have nothing to add to what this man has to say.

True, the speaker’s English is probably AI-generated.
True, the speech was not delivered in the UN itself although it is addressed to the UN.

The fact remains that Burkina Faso has been one of the very poorest countries in the world, although it has some of the world’s most important gold mines, mines owned by Western companies that pay next to nothing to the workers in the mines, and next-to-nothing for the gold they appropriate.

I am not in the habit of rooting for military leaders. However, “Democracy” has not delivered what it promised to Africa. “Democracy” has not delivered peace. Nor has it delivered human rights, or health care, or retirement pensions, or education. Above all, it has not delivered dignity.

Since the establishment of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) by Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, things are changing for the better.

The economic outlook for AES countries is positive (Burkina 5.494%, Mali 3.751%, and Niger 9.869% GDP growth in 2024, with Niger becoming the 3rd fastest growing economy in the world and the fastest growing economy in Africa in 2024., Wikipedia as at 31 May 2025

So: May all the Gods be with Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali.

Meningsbrytning

En gammel venn som slett ikke deler mitt syn i utenrikspolitiske saker, skrev til meg:

Jeg har fått med meg at de [FOR] opptrådte i “Debatten” i NRK, og fikk mye pepper, særlig fra Høyres utenrikspolitiske talsmann, den utrettelige Eriksen Søreide. De etablerte sannhetsbærerne i Norge vil ikke at andre synspunkter kommer til orde. Denne ensrettingen i Norge er virkelig oppsiktsvekkende. Alle avvik fra Den Eneste Rette Lære er blasfemi, gudsbespottelse og kjetteri. Helt i religiøst alvor. Det er som om noen baker sølekaker i døpefonten.

Han lurer naturlig nok på hvorfor det er blitt slik. Og han er ikke alene.

Mange viser til “russofobi”. Men hva skyldes den da? Er det ikke slik at man etter krigen var i stor i takknemlighetsgjeld til russerne, som for øvrig drev tyskerne ut av Finnmark?

Jeg for min del er ikke et øyeblikk i tvil: Til enhver tid, i ethvert land, får allmuen de nyhetene og analysene som myndighetene anser som “passende”. I Norge har vi hatt det relativt fritt, men skriverier om hvordan også det norske næringslivet utbytter land i det globale sør, det har vi ikke sett mye til i vår presse. “Redaktørstyrte aviser” som eies av f.eks. Schibsted – driver ikke med systemkritikk som rammer “næringslivet”, som det eufemistisk heter. Selv Klassekampen kan ikke tillate seg å kreve mer enn noen flere smuler fra de rikes bord.

Det er dessverre sikkert og visst at vi – mennesker – har trodd på julenissen igjen og igjen. Den franske revolusjonen ble et blodbad, den russiske revolusjonen ble et diktatur. FDR’s “New Deal” varte knapt noen år.

Og det er like sikkert som døden at noen mennesker skyr ingen midler for å oppnå egen rikdom og makt uten å bry seg om flertallets ve og vel! Sånn er det, og sånn har det alltid vært. Kan vi da “tro på” en bedre verden?

Riktignok har vi en uendelig mye bedre hverdag nå enn for 100 år siden. Her! Kun her i “Vesten” – hvor vi utgjør 13-15 % av verdens befolkning. Vår velferd går på bekostning av folk i det globale sør og den har gått på bekostning av våre egne barn. Vi har allerede langt på vei brent opp våre ressurser. Tross teknologiske og medisinske nyvinninger, går vi i Vesten mot harde tider.

Det store velferds-spranget i Europa etter krigen skyldtes forresten at makteliten var konkurs etter de to meningsløse krigene og depresjonen mellom dem (ifølge Thomas Piketty) og at den fryktet spredning av den russiske revolusjonen, som dermed paradoksalt nok gagnet oss i vest minst like mye som den gagnet russerne.

Levestandarden har også gjort et fenomenalt og egentlig utrolig sprang under Putin i Russland, for ikke å snakke om under Ji i Kina. Og der, til forskjell fra her, er det grunn til å tro at den vil fortsette å stige. Også andre BRICS-land håper å se, endelig, bedring i levestandarden etterhvert som de får frigjort seg fra dollaren og IMF.

Ja, der ligger nemlig hunden begravet: “De-dollarisering” er bra for noen, men ganske bestemt ikke for “oss”, dvs. for vestens finanselite. Vi leste for noen dager siden at Støre nylig hadde “tatt ut 12 millioner i utbytte” fra sitt “heleide investeringsselskap”. Slikt blir det mindre av hvis ikke makteliten klarer å forhindre den bebudete de-dollariseringen som BRICS driver på med.

Og hvem er det som mer enn noen annen har satt fart i de-dollariseringen? Jo det er Putin, og det fordi vestens sanksjoner faktisk tvang ham til det.

Vestens ledere har gravd seg ned i et hull det er vanskelig å grave seg ut av. Jo flere våpen, jo flere bomber (og tilhørende klimagasser) og jo flere sanksjoner, jo dypere blir hullet. Når Partiet FOR påpeker dette, kjøres det i gang luftvernssirener for å overdøve dem.

BRICS lover multipolaritet. BRICS lover at ingen “pol” skal være sjef, alle skal være likeverdige, med sine respektive kulturelle verdier. Ingen skal utbytte/ undertrykke/ bestemme over andre. Det høres flott og fint ut, ikke sant. Men tror jeg på at det blir slik?

Nei. Jeg gjør ikke det. Men har BRICS en mulighet til å gi det globale sør bedre vekstmuligheter enn Pax Americana? Ja det tror jeg absolutt. Langt, langt bedre! Vil våre finansfolk like det? NEI.

Jeg misliker sterkt at dissens fordømmes og undertrykkes, enten det skjer i Storbritannia, i Tyskland eller i Russland /Kina. Siden det for tiden er mitt syn som fordømmes nettopp i det såkalt pressefrie Norge, har jeg lært mye interessant om vestlig “pressefrihet”.

Pulling it off

We find ourselves wondering how come those of us who weep for the Palestinians, content ourselves with weeping. Why are there no armies of angry citizens with pitchforks in front of every US or Israeli embassy in Europe? Why do we allow unelected EU commissars to refer to Israel as a “beacon of Democracy”. What’s the matter with us?

Propaganda is not a new science. I have previously written about Arthur Ponsonby’s remarkable little 1928 book Falsehood in War-Time, about how nations were fooled into starting WWI and about how their populations were bamboozled into believing they were sacrificing their lives for a noble cause.

Since then, propaganda has made even greater strides, whereas our ability to resist propaganda has not. We swallow the bait, time and time again.

In school we were taught to look up information, to question its reliability, to consult sources, to seek other sources, to consider dissenting opinions without prejudice and assess the sources for them. That, we were told, is how science has brought us to where we are. Since then, however, those who have questioned official narratives – be they about Covid, the Ukraine war, Russia-gate, the murder of JFK or the weather forecast are labelled “conspiracy theorists”. Such an approach to controversy bodes ill for so-called Democracy and, for that matter, also for “science”.

We have long understood that history is written by the victor, and nowadays there are numerous researchers who challenge the victors’ stories, after the fact, as it were. Thus we know a great deal about the infamous cruelty of colonialism, for instance. That was a long time ago, and the perpetrators are dead. But what about the cruelties being perpetrated by neo-colonialism as we speak? Who dares expose them?

If you tell me, “time will be the judge”, I will riposte: Too much damage will have been done, by the time “time is ready to pass its verdict”, if we choose, today, a very dangerous course.

We are choosing a very dangerous course, Many dangerous courses, in fact. The old world order is cracking, but governments in the West are desperately trying to hold it together rather than pave the ground for a more just system.

There are numerous ways of airbrushing history. You can f.ex. apply the playground narrative: “He started it!” The other guy, the one with the bloody nose, will indignantly protest, “But that was after he––” before teacher grabs him by the ear and drags him off to be whipped. This constitutes what Yanis Varoufakis calls “truncation of history“. Our governments define one particular event as the catalyst of a conflict and all preceding events are simply deleted from the public memory. We won’t even be allowed to hear what the other guy, the one with the bloody nose, has to say for himself. This method has been used again and again by, not least, the USA to lend legitimacy to the new wars it needs to engage in, every couple of years or so.

Thus the Gaza war started on October 7, not a day earlier, when Hamas, the aggressor, allegedly mass-raped women and beheaded babies. Yes, here we apply not only “history truncation”; we also resort to demonization, as we did about Sadam, i.e. outright lies. When you are going to wipe out a population, you need to resort to fiction. By the time your lies are exposed, your own population is so emotionally involved that nothing can shift its outlook.

Thus the Ukraine war started in February 2022 with the so-called “unprovoked invasion” of 120 000 Russian troops in Ukraine. Yet an example of “history truncation” + demonization – as Russia’s president is regularly referred to as a modern-day Hitler. I have written extensively of this elsewhere on this site.

Now if, as is often the case, a US war ends badly for the USA, we have to resort to “framing“. By “we”, I mean not only the USA but all the US vassals in Europe. We make a big show of how good we are and how unspeakably horrible the opponents are. In Afghanistan, for instance, we provided schools and health care and, above all, we liberated women from the madmen who had used them as cows. To this day, we often see an unforgettable meme: desperate Aghans hanging from the underbelly of departing NATO planes. Yes, NATO suffered defeat in Afghanistan, but NATO was loved and missed by some thousand Afghans who had worked with the NATO forces and had reason to fear reprisals.

Now I put to you, that through framing, past Afghan history has gone missing in the most extraordinary way from the official narrative. Admittedly, I know very little about Afghanistan. But there is no doubt that Afghanistan has been egregiously fiddled with by all and sundry powers. Few seem to have noticed that (according to Wikipedia) the period 1933 to 1973 was not bad at all:

Zahir Shah [1933-1973,] like his father Nadir Shah, had a policy of maintaining national independence while pursuing gradual modernization, creating nationalist feeling, and improving relations with the United Kingdom. Afghanistan was neither a participant in World War II nor aligned with either power bloc in the Cold War. However, it was a beneficiary of the latter rivalry as both the Soviet Union and the United States vied for influence by building Afghanistan’s main highways, airports, and other vital infrastructure. On a per capita basis, Afghanistan received more Soviet development aid than any other country.

Needless to say, that king was deposed in a coup. We can’t have heads of state who actually benefit their country. Neighbouring countries might be tempted to follow their example.

Currently, Afghanistan is subject to a US-imposed starvation campaign, euphemistically referred to as “sanctions”. (Israel did not invent starvation campaigns!)

“Perception management” is big business in the US, not only for dealing with dissenters against wars. Environmentalists, for example are a menace to “US interests”, i.e. the interests of the proverbial 1%. Trump’s and Biden’s people deal with them differently, but none of them intend to avert environmental disaster.

In US vassal states, US “soft power” has blinkered us. All the films we have seen, with all those good and honest heroes and heroins have blotted out reality.

Then there is the matter of why poor countries are poor and getting poorer in spite of all the aid we are giving them? We have been led to blame corrupted officials, bad governance, inefficient institutions, difficult climates, lazy workers, etc. And of course too much fornication, which we politely refer to as “too many children”.

This is, again, an example of “truncated history” + framing. Mind you, I am not referring to the ghastly age of colonialism, which most governments are quite willing to “fess about”. I am referring to the decades since the 50s and 60s. See, for instance, the paper by Dylan Sullivan and Jason Hickel in Review of African Polical Economy. The details of how and why Africa has had to pay the west far more than the amount it has received in loans, aid and investment combined would take far too much space in a humble blog. Besides, it’s about economic exploitation, a field most of us find too technical. What seems clear, though, is that African countries have had to accept the terms of the more powerful countries. The injustice has been papered over with “aid”.

Which, of course, is why “perception management” is so effective. Few will be bothered to read papers published in the Review of African Economy. At least here in Norway. Most ordinary citizens in “the West” are left with the idea that in spite of a US invasion here, a US-orchestrated coup there – and yes, aggressive meddling just about everywhere, for instance in Haiti – we, the West give enormous sums of aid every year. We care about you poor sods, even if you are incompetent; we honestly try to keep you afloat. [For the record, Haiti was hell on earth under the French, then under USA until Aristide. The Haitians loved Aristide, but the US Americans did not, needless to say, so Haiti is still hell on earth.)

In his 2023 book, The Divide, Global Inequality from Conquest to Free Markets, Jason Hickel explains it all to us. I have not read the entire book because I stopped for a break after reading about how he was taken on a long drive on a dirt road to a place on the West Bank with an enormous sign: USAID. Apparently a well had been paid for by US tax payers to alleviate “Recurring water shortages” in the area. The well was, the sign read, a “gift from the American people”.

What made me feel quite ill as I read this was that since the 1967 war, Israel illegally controls:

water-rich territories like the West Bank, Gaza, and the Golan Heights. These areas now provide a significant portion of Israel’s water supply. However, this control has come at the expense of neighboring states and Palestinians, who face severe restrictions on water access. For example, Palestinian per capita water consumption averages just 20 cubic meters annually, compared to Israel’s 60 cubic meters.

The Israeli government strictly regulates Palestinian water use, prohibiting the drilling of new wells and imposing fines for exceeding quotas, while Israeli settlements face no such restrictions. The result is a terrible inequality in access to water, …(source)


Perception management has been a priority in the USA ever since Reagan decided to energetically get the American people to “kick the Vietnam syndrom”.

Jason Hickel’s 2023 book, The Divide, is addressed to people like you and me, not to academics. However, if you are willing to read academic papers you can find him here.

On dignity

Today I listened to Glenn Diesen interviewing Gideon Levy, an Israeli journalist and author who runs a weekly column in the Haaretz.

I forget what Diesen’s initial question was, but I shall never forget Mr Levy’s reply: “Uh, I’m so desperate that I don’t know where to start.”

And he looked it. Sallow and drawn, he had not the slightest hint of a smile on his face throughout their conversation. Even Glenn Diesen seemed to be twitching uncomfortably in his chair in the end, because – according to Mr Levy – there is not even a sliver of hope for the future of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.

There is only one person in the entire world who can stop the current slaughter, and that is Trump, but Trump has been paid 100 million USD in advance by Miriam-what’s-er-name to not do what he could and should do.

True, there is vociferous opposition to Netanyahu, yes, but not because of the plight of the Gazans; only because of the hostages. If the hostages are released, the Israeli government is welcome to do whatever it likes with Gaza. “They couldn’t care less about the suffering in Gaza.” There is no organised opposition to the ethnic cleansing. There will be no civil war in Israel. There will be no military coup, even if there has been some tension between the government and the military (which is overstretched). There will be no exodus from Israel – for the simple reason that it’s too risky to leave a home and a job for an uncertain future.

Mr Levy pointed out that Israelis love and are proud of their military which is integrated in Israeli society in a way that most of us cannot imagine.

As for the future: The war will simply continue indefinitely, until all Gazans have been killed, all 2.3 million of them. (The part of the previous sentence that follows the word “until”, was not explicitly uttered, but was left hanging as an ellipsis.)

Unless … unless Trump stops it. If he does, the Gazans will nonetheless have to go on living in “a cage”. Palestinians are not people.

A two-state solution is out of the question now that there are 700 000 illegal Israeli settlers on the West Bank. And dismantling apartheid is simply not on the books, never has been. Not on anyone’s books in Israel, because the Palestinians are not people.

There are admittedly “some inconvenient incidents in Europe” for people who fly.

People try to hide their Israeli identity, …but there is no real shame for what we are doing … Most Israelis are totally convinced that the world is anti-Semitic. …It’s all about you, the world. You should be accused, not us.

That is, says Mr Levi, the attitude of almost every Israeli. Because Palestinians are not people.

I have a friend in Gaza with whom I used to work in Gaza for many, many years… And he is diabetic and he needs insulin, And one week ago he told me he was left with the last two drops of insulin. I didn’t call him since then, but we know what happens to people in his condition when they don’t have insulin…

There is, of course, also the tragedy of the crumbling of moral standards in Israel. But above all, he warns:

SAVE THE PEOPLE OF GAZA.

Meanwhile, back at home base, I admit I have been hoping that Israelis would be so disgusted by the horrible deeds their beloved military is committing that they would rise up in arms, and violently overthrow the monsters that are governing them. Now I ask myself, why on earth have I expected more from Israelis than from my own people, from Europeans, from US Americans, who are actively aiding and abetting this mother of all nightmares with arms and “everything we ever asked for”, as Mr Levy put it.

I hold that if you treat a whole population as vermin, you have divested yourself of all human dignity. If we, the others, aid you who treat a whole population as vermin, we are no better than you and as devoid of moral dignity.

Ethnic cleansing – i.e. treating people of a certain nationality or ethnic background as vermin – was the principal crime committed by the Nazis, who considered Poles, Belarusians, Czechs, Ukrainians, Russians, Serbs and Jews to be untermenschen that had to be exterminated. The allies’ resistance to the Nazis was impressive. We did not trade with them, we had no cultural relations with them; we certainly did not send them weapons or money.

Now look at us!

In contrast, I would like to introduce you, if you don’t already know of him, to Pepe Mujica. The people of Uruguay actually went and elected him as president of their country, an office he held from 2010 to 2015.

That a population should choose as their president a person who had been a political prisoner for 11 years (during the US-orchestrated dictatorship of Uruguay) is remarkable in itself. It is all the more remarkable in view of his outlook. I urge you to listen to his monologue, in Spanish it is true, but beautifully (visually) translated to English.

Pepe Mujica passed away last Tuesday (13 May) 89 years old. He was probably relieved to be released from pain, but news of his passing has moved people all over the world. His iconoclastic lifestyle as president has spawned innumerable amusing legends which you will find on the web. However, I would like to focus on the speech held at his funeral by Mauricio Rosencof, about the many years the two of them were incarcerated in the same prison. Rosencof is also very old, but clear as a bell and well-spoken. His speech is in Spanish, but youtube translates, if you press settings (the cog wheel) then “Subtitles/CC”. Below “Spanish (auto-generated)”, click “Auto-translate”.

I put to you that human dignity still exists. Somewhere.

What they are not telling us

I should be ashamed of myself! And I am, believe me, but not sufficiently so to alter the title of this post while I still can, before I click “publish”.

Yes, it is a ludicrously pretentious title – after all, there is so much more they don’t tell us than what I want to write about. They don’t tell us about their military cabals, for instance; they didn’t even tell us (Norwegians) that they were going to let the USA take military control of our country, with 12 US military bases. They certainly didn’t allow us to vote on the matter. There was no referendum. Nor were we told ahead of parliamentary elections that the issue would be on the Parliament’s agenda. We were thus unable to vote for MPs known to be opposed to the US takeover. We were simply presented with a fait accompli. I am certainly not surprised that Trump speaks of “bying” Greenland; he has effectively already full control over Norway.

Yet, I am not going to change the title of this post, because I think that the issue I have in mind is very serious indeed. I could of course change it to “One of the things they don’t tell us”, but this is not really about a “thing”. It’s about a whole web of interrelated issues that connect with other webs of interrelated issues at various levels, which could, in the long or even short run, culminate in the “end of history”, not as Fukuyama envisaged “the end”, but rather like the “final solution” for us all.

So no, I am not changing the title.

What they are not telling us, then, is about the “tragedy of Ukraine”, as Nicolai Petro calls it, about how a relatively small minority came to dominate the vast majority in a fairly large country. I would like to stress that there seems to be no doubt that a fairly solid majority were earnestly in favour of Ukrainian independence from the Soviet Union. But only a very small minority wished to pursue the course that was subsequently taken, one which led to the collapse of Ukrainian economy, civil war, and subsequently what we have been seeing these past couple of years, which is a stand-off between Russia and the “West”, a stand-off in which the Ukrainian population is being sacrificed.

I cannot and therefore will not presume to tell the tale of Ukraine’s tragedy. It has many chapters and many protagonists. Anybody who reads good novels or good history books knows that protagonists can be good or bad or, more often than not, both. Even a person with the best of intentions can do immeasurable harm. The modern history of Ukraine is like a great big forest, in which enemies lurk in the dark. It is very easy to lose one’s way between details.

There is no doubt whatsoever, that Ukraine has lost its way. I shall refrain, today, from expressing myself regarding the role played by Western players.

Instead, I leave the details to the West-Ukrainian researcher,
Marta Havryshko, here interviewed by Glenn Diesen,

Frigjøringsdagen 8. mai

Det er 80 år siden, ja, og ikke husker jeg selve dagen, siden jeg ikke en gang var påtenkt da. Men det må ha vært en utrolig sterk opplevelse, enten man gikk på Karl Johan eller gråt hjemme på gården av lettelse og kanskje også av sorg. Det var jo noen som aldri mer ville vende hjem. Så var det også et mindretall som hadde samarbeidet med tyskerne.

Men jeg har tross alt levd såpass mange år at jeg har vært avstandsvitne til mange kriger, blant dem NATOs 88-dager-lange bombing av Serbia i 1999. Den gang fantes det kritikere av Norges og NATOs politikk. Dessverre, var jeg ikke en av dem.

Akk.

Jeg vet mer nå om hva som skjedde i 1999 og om hvordan vi ble manipulert, hvordan vi igjen blir manipulert, ang. krigen i Ukraina.

USA (Biden og Trump) framstiller USA som vinneren av annen verdenskrig. Da vi landet i Normandie, reddet vi verden, heter det. Til og med Aftenpostens Halvor Hegtun, blir indignert av påstanden og sender sovjetiske soldater som ofret livet en takknemlig tanke i det han i dag “ruslet fordi” bautaen til minne om dem.

Men jeg ruslet ikke forbi. Partiet FOR arrangerte kransnedleggelse ved de falne sovjetiske soldaters bauta i Vestre Gravlund. Det var ingen der fra regjeringen, fra NRK, eller fra det offisielle Norge. Ingen.

I Norges program nevnes ikke Sovjetunionen.

Men det var en smilende og respektfull gjeng på 50-70 personer som etterhvert stilte opp foran bautaen for å hedre de nærmere 27 millioner sovjetiske borgerne som mistet livet i kampen mot Nazismen. Av dem døde 13 700 av sult, utmattelse, kulde og annen mishandling på norsk jord under krigen. Hvor mange av dem som var ukrainere vites ikke. Det må ha vært en del.

Den norske pressen velger for tiden å ikke snakke om forræderen Stepan Bandera og hans samarbeid med tyskerne under krigen. Stepan Bandera er jo utropt som nasjonalhelt i Ukraina.

Jeg lar ballen ligge. Dette skal jo være en fredens dag.

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