[derrickjensen_discussion] "Democracy is the Free World's whore" - Arundhati Roy (fwd)

http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0518-01.htm

If you haven't seen this, you should. (and post copies in
your local wal-mart)


That one is the most important. I am not planning to be a
leader in the new revolution, but I'm looking for the people
who will be (and curious to see how long until their
asassination).

So far I have:
(1) Derrick Jensen
(2) Arundhati Roy

These are the people who are going around inciting people to
action, and speaking out, MLK-style.
please add others to the list and include links to
representative documents.

I suppose we can harvest the list at
http://zmag.org/weluser.htm

as well.


While I'm emailing, here's some others to be aware of:

http://indymedia.org/ (I hope you already knew of that)
and
one more from the derrickjensen list
http://www.geocities.com/becnalrio/possumliving.htm
(which I haven't finished but seems promising)

Colin
http://j9k.org

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 19 May 2003 13:41:55 -0400
From: L A Hazard <lahazard@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Reply-To: derrickjensen_discussion@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
To: derrickjensen_discussion@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [derrickjensen_discussion] "Democracy is the Free World's whore" -
    Arundhati Roy

Published on Sunday, May 18, 2003 by Agence France Presse
Democracy is the Free World's Whore, says Arundhati Roy


NEW DELHI — Acclaimed author Arundhati Roy has blasted the US-led war in
Iraq and branded democracy as "the Free World's whore" in a blistering
article in a leading Indian magazine.

Roy, who makes the cover of the latest edition of Outlook magazine
published this weekend, is well known as a social activist and critic of
the United States and globalization.

Her article, a reprint of a speech she made in New York on May 13 at the
Center for Economic and Social Rights, brands the US as the "American
Empire" where "facts don't matter."

"Apart from the invented links between Iraq and Al-Qaeda, we had the
manufactured frenzy about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction," she said.

"We once again witnessed the paranoia that a starved, bombed besieged
country was about to annihilate almighty America ...

"The war against Iraq has been fought and won and no weapons of mass
destruction have been found. Not even a little one. Perhaps they'll have to
be planted before they're discovered."

Roy, who won the Booker Prize for "The God of Small Things" which has sold
more than six million copies in over 40 languages, criticized US President
George W. Bush and other leaders for not listening to public opinion
against the war.

"Democracy, the modern world's holy cow, is in crisis ... every kind of
outrage is being committed in the name of democracy. It has become little
more than a hollow word, a pretty shell, emptied of all content or
meaning," she said.

"Democracy is the Free World's whore, willing to dress up, dress down,
willing to satisfy a whole range of tastes, available to be used and abused
at will."

Free elections, a free press and an independent judiciary mean little when
the free market means they are on sale to the highest bidder, she said.

Last year Roy spent a day in prison after being found guilty of criminal
contempt by India's supreme court.

Copyright 2003 AFP

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0518-03.htm

###

Here is the link to her speech at Riverside Church..............

http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0518-01.htm

(This was shown on CSPAN-2 this past weekend. Currently it is not archived
at their site, but it usually takes them a day or two to get things archived.)


Instant-Mix Imperial Democracy
(Buy One, Get One Free)
by Arundhati Roy
Presented in New York City at The Riverside Church
May 13, 2003
Sponsored by the Center for Economic and Social Rights


In these times, when we have to race to keep abreast of the speed at which
our freedoms are being snatched from us, and when few can afford the luxury
of retreating from the streets for a while in order to return with an
exquisite, fully formed political thesis replete with footnotes and
references, what profound gift can I offer you tonight?

As we lurch from crisis to crisis, beamed directly into our brains by
satellite TV, we have to think on our feet. On the move. We enter histories
through the rubble of war. Ruined cities, parched fields, shrinking
forests, and dying rivers are our archives. Craters left by daisy cutters,
our libraries.

So what can I offer you tonight? Some uncomfortable thoughts about money,
war, empire, racism, and democracy. Some worries that flit around my brain
like a family of persistent moths that keep me awake at night.

Some of you will think it bad manners for a person like me, officially
entered in the Big Book of Modern Nations as an "Indian citizen," to come
here and criticize the U.S. government. Speaking for myself, I'm no
flag-waver, no patriot, and am fully aware that venality, brutality, and
hypocrisy are imprinted on the leaden soul of every state. But when a
country ceases to be merely a country and becomes an empire, then the scale
of operations changes dramatically. So may I clarify that tonight I speak
as a subject of the American Empire? I speak as a slave who presumes to
criticize her king.


(much more at link)




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