Baby Bush go home

Irony piles upon infamy as Bush sullies the memory of Gandhi. Arundhati Roy* leads the chorus saying No

On his triumphalist tour of this part of the world, where he hopes to wave imperiously at people he considers potential subjects, President Bush's itinerary is getting curiouser and curiouser. For his 2 March pit stop in New Delhi, the Indian government tried very hard to have him address our parliament. A not inconsequential number of MPs threatened to heckle him, so Plan One was hastily shelved. Plan Two was that he address the masses from the ramparts of the magnificent Red Fort where the Indian prime minister traditionally delivers his Independence Day address. But the Red Fort, surrounded as it is by the predominantly Muslim population of Old Delhi, was considered a security nightmare. So now we're into Plan Three: President George Bush speaks from Purana Qila, the Old Fort.

Ironic isn't it, that the only safe public space for a man who has recently been so enthusiastic about India's modernity, should be a crumbling medieval fort?

Since the Purana Qila also houses the Delhi zoo -- George Bush's audience will be a few hundred caged animals and an approved list of caged human beings who in India go under the category of "eminent persons". They're mostly rich folk who live in our poor country like captive animals, incarcerated by their own wealth, locked and barred in their gilded cages, protecting themselves from the threat of the vulgar and unruly multitudes whom they have systematically dispossessed over the centuries.

So what's going to happen to George W Bush? Will the gorillas cheer him on? Will the gibbons curl their lips? Will the brow-antlered deer sneer? Will the chimps make rude noises? Will the owls hoot? Will the lions yawn and the giraffes bat their beautiful eyelashes? Will the crocs recognise a kindred soul? Will the quails give thanks that Bush isn't travelling with Dick Cheney, his hunting partner with the notoriously bad aim? Will the CEOs agree?

Oh, and on 2 March Bush will be taken to visit Gandhi's memorial in Rajghat. He's by no means the only war criminal who has been invited by the Indian government to lay flowers at Rajghat. (Only recently we had the Burmese dictator General Than Shwe -- no shrinking violet himself). But when George Bush places flowers on that famous slab of highly polished stone millions of Indians will wince. It will be as though he has poured a pint of blood on the memory of Gandhi.

We really would prefer that he didn't.

full article: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2006/784/in2.htm



Friday, March 3rd, 2006

Hecklers From the Street to Parliament: Arundhati Roy on Bush’s Visit to India, the U.S. - India Nuclear Deal, and More:

Democracy Now speaks with acclaimed Indian author and activist Arundhati Roy who is in New Delhi, India. Bush arrived in India late Wednesday in his first trip to the country. He was greeted the next day by various branches of the Indian military. But on the streets, Bush was greeted by mass protests across the country. In New Delhi alone, there were tens of thousands of demonstrators. Crowd estimates varied from 250,000 to 700,000.

Another shining example of his superlative judgement.

...thoroughly unworthy of the office he presently pollutes that he can't even do justice to the ceremonial aspects of the job, like laying flowers on the memorial of Gandhi, or attending the funeral of Coretta Scott King, Rosa Parks, etc, etc...

And the interview is a must-read.

She's funny too.

I really appreciate her humor in the face of such turmoil in her country. Good insight also.

you did.

...And I read it yesterday.

Hers is an insightful viewpoint, and it shows that the face of the global-corporatist takeover of the world is much the same all over the world (what follows isn't entirely fair to the original): an obsequious, lackey-cult corporate-media; nonstop propaganda/distraction campaigns to control public focus (attention), "knowledge", "understanding" and "perspective" (etc); the increasing power (and collusion) world-wide of the "eminent" class; world affairs as a series of secret deals (or at least deals well-understood only by the deal-makers -- and not adequately described and disclosed to the larger public) with carefully managed public faces; exclusion of ordinary people from the politico-economic equation; politicians "talking the talk" to get elected, then "flopping the flop", instead of "walking the walk"; dividing peoples and nations over various (basically, any useful) hot-button issues in order to keep them distracted, unable to work together and impotent; the suppression of dissent, blocking of access for protesters, etc; thuggery, bribery, threats and fear as means of social, political and economic control; etc.

And a sense of humor is pretty much a requirement for sentient survival these days.