Immortal Technique, a commentary

We all know that natural disasters are unavoidable you cannot fire missiles at a tornado and expect it to stop. Armed troops are as useless in a gunfight against an earthquake as they would be marching towards heaven to challenge God. Dropping a Nuke on a Hurricane would be like pissing in the wind, the radiation alone blown to every part of the nation would poison this country and everything around it.

That said, things that can be done to avert tragedies when they are known to be coming are a completely different story. Cutting the funding for the now imperative job of rebuilding a levee, and the complete disarray of a nation's forces when the people of America needed them the most is inexcusable. Many comments have been made, both by the left and right. People have acted as if racism has reared its ugly, head. As if its eye had not been watching us from across the perched eagle and gained from our loss over the years. I'm not one for conspiracy theories. I wrote a song called "Bin Laden" and Green Lantern put together a hook to grab peoples attention but the lyrics were focused on what was going on America, not Bush and the towers. I wrote in "The Cause of Death" that Bush was not responsible directly, that he didn't plan 911, but him and his definitely benefited from the end result of all those people dying. Like it or not no matter what your politics is realize that. And then remember how in a murder case, a simple one that a local sheriffs dept. may get we always examine those who stand to benefit from the death of that individual. Why did we never ask ourselves the same of 9.11?

Well, now we have another opportunity, to ask ourselves. Who benefits from the tragedy that has befallen the people of New Orleans? Who will have that land? Who will buy it out? Will the Federal government assume more control of the nation because of this pressure that it acted to late? And now that we know Racism is still an issue because of the media's portrayal can we actually sit down with the Right wing and ask them why they think that Blacks are not victims but rather the recipients of their just due in America? Why Latinos and Blacks are graceful when we swallow racism and hatred and belligerent disregard for our people? But we become racist ourselves, spiteful and 'radical' for simply pointing out what everyone else, even other white people see as truth. America is seen as brave and resilient for striking back at its enemies but when we even criticize the system that enslaved us, stole our religion, raped our women, land and our spirit we are not brave, we are traitors and ungrateful for the place we were brought to. We are lucky to work here so we cannot complain about picking strawberries or making up the jail populations since its probably better than whatever we got in Latin America right? I don't believe in justice in the hereafter I believe in having it now?

Then there are the people who are wearing the Emperors clothes for him, talking as if Bush was some rock of Gibraltar. As if he had led us like Ulysses Grant thru a Civil War instead of running this country thru the mud. This man is a complete failure as a president and this has finally awoken some people to it. 9/11 was a cover up of mistakes, dark alliances and economic power moves. The campaign to remove the Taliban should have never been conducted after 9/11/2001, but rather in 1998 when they started ethnically cleansing their own people the Asiatic so called "Hazara." We have always put corporate profits before the living standard of people in American foreign policy and now that echoes in our own nation.. That is the very nature of Capitalism. But nothing in the corrupted form of Russian Communism offers a viable alternative, only an unmasked totalitarian rule without the details that we have and the choice between Pepsi and Coke. I'm not a Marxist, a Communist or an anarchist I am just a Peruvian/Black muthafucka from Harlem but I could see this truth if I were blind.

Bush ruined his invasion of Afghanistan by not capturing Bin Laden and leaving that country in ruins while being run by Dick Cheney's bitch Hamid Karzai. The closing in on Al Quaeda was interrupted and we only sent in a few thousand troops whereas we sent in more but not enough in Iraq now it seems. Iraq, Another blunder, a place we should have never gone. And since Saddam's guards were not trained by the SOA (Check out www.soaw.org) like most of Latin America's puppet presidents, he had to be removed by invasion instead of assassination. Fighting the "idea of terrorism" is like boxing the waves the ocean sends at you at the beach. An idea cannot be killed, good or bad it has to be found at the root and explained, then and only then can we understand how to resolve issues. This president hasn't resolved any issues or finished one thing he started since he was doing lines in college. No child left behind is a disgrace and a secret draft, this economy is crap, gas is damn near $5 in some places in the South and its still $3.40 up here. This president hasn't resolved anything by flying by the city or taking photo opts in deserted parts of town. Hold on, now that this mess is unfolding and you're distracted, John G. Roberts will be Supreme Court Chief Justice and another conservative will join in the fray. But the public will not care, they will be split. Blacks and Latinos and poor/conscious whites shaking their heads at the way the people were treated and racist rich white people and house niggaz shaking their heads at the blacks & broke people they see on TV. Their gonna march in backwards and say they were retreating.

That said, I don't blame Bush for all this, he didn't kill all those people personally. In the same method that Hitler didn't kill all of the Jews...it took the complacency of the German people. It took generals, officers and soldiers in the SS, it took the Gestapo. It took people betraying each other. It took Europe and America doing nothing for 4 years while this was going on. It was an entire system that engineered the chaos.

In the same fashion, FEMA, The Dept. of Homeland Security, the local disorganization and a federal soundtrack to ignorance bumpin in the background created this great mass to commemorate death. The melodic tune of accepting race relations the way they are, accompanied by a harmony of class fed indifference created a musical soundtrack for the South's misery. And on the drums, fresh off the war drum tour in the Middle East where another disaster is taking place daily, a religious spirit that deducts 40% of donations for "administrative purposes." Every option to help these people, our brothers, mothers, grandmothers, sisters, babies was not exhausted, for that the souls will never know peace, just as my Native American people know no peace. America will never know peace, no matter what religion it hides behind, no matter what it donates in a tax deductible package. This is another example of why it will never know?Our president was on vacation until 3 days after people had been drowning and starving, and now you act like you didn?t know, Jesus knows and so do I. We all know now.

This Friday After I get out of Superior Court....One of my niggaz is about to do 10 years upstate hold ya head G.

I'm sending my stuff to specific Black organized charities, people with a personal connection. People who are donating not to receive a cut, but because something doesn't let them sleep until these people get the supplies that they need to create a new life. The Republican and Democratic Party in the end are not so different. They place blame on each other and yet both have toppled democratically elected government in Latin America, ordered Asia invaded, both voted for Iraq and now both defend the president. I have donated, most of my clothes, jackets, survival items and my services to at least 3 or 4 benefit shows in the near future. Give what you can. Remember empathy is the only language that God can hear your prayers in. For those that believe in God that is, I know some of my soldiers do not, but I do. I believe there will be retribution for this betrayal of our people, and if God is busy then I and others will take up the task. RBG Muthafucka....

Sadly the mirage of equality shattering this was also a wake up call for those of us who thought they cared. Oh you thought they cared?

The fuck you gon' do now nigga??

"The Middle Passage" coming soon. 2006.

Peace & Respect,

Immortal Technique

Lyrics - Immortal Technique - The 4th Branch

The new age is upon us
And yet the past refuses to rest in its shallow grave
For those who hide behind the false image of the son of man
shall stand before God!!! It has begun
The beginning of the end
Yeah..
Yeah... yeah, yeah

The voice of racism preaching the gospel is devilish
A fake church called the prophet Muhammad a terrorist
Forgetting God is not a religion, but a spiritual bond
And Jesus is the most quoted prophet in the Qu'ran
They bombed innocent people, tryin' to murder Saddam
When you gave him those chemical weapons to go to war with Iran
This is the information that they hold back from Peter Jennings
Cause Condoleeza Rice is just a new age Sally Hemmings
I break it down with critical language and spiritual anguish
The Judas I hang with, the guilt of betraying Christ
You murdered and stole his religion, and painting him white
Translated in psychologically tainted philosophy
Conservative political right wing, ideology
Glued together sloppily, the blasphemy of a nation
Got my back to the wall, cause I'm facin' assassination
Guantanamo Bay, federal incarceration
How could this be, the land of the free, home of the brave?
Indigenous holocaust, and the home of the slaves
Corporate America, dancin' offbeat to the rhythm
You really think this country, never sponsored terrorism?
Human rights violations, we continue the saga
El Savador and the contras in Nicaragua
And on top of that, you still wanna take me to prison
Just cause I won't trade humanity for patriotism

It's like MK-ULTRA, controlling your brain
Suggestive thinking, causing your perspective to change
They wanna rearrange the whole point of view of the ghetto
The fourth branch of the government, want us to settle
A bandana full of glittering, generality
Fighting for freedom and fighting terror, but what's reality?
Read about the history of the place that we live in
And stop letting corporate news tell lies to your children

Flow like the blood of Abraham through the Jews and the Arabs
Broken apart like a woman's heart, abused in a marriage
The brink of holy war, bottled up, like a miscarriage
Embedded correspondents don't tell the source of the tension
And they refuse to even mention, European intervention
Or the massacres in Jenin, the innocent screams
U.S. manufactured missles, and M-16's
Weapon contracts and corrupted American dreams
Media censorship, blocking out the video screens
A continent of oil kingdoms, bought for a bargain
Democracy is just a word, when the people are starvin'
The average citizen, made to be, blind to the reason
A desert full of genocide, where the bodies are freezin'
And the world doesn't believe that you fightin' for freedom
Cause you fucked the Middle East, and gave birth to a demon
It's open season with the CIA, bugging my crib
Trapped in a ghetto region like a Palestinian kid
Where nobody gives a fuck whether you die or you live
I'm tryin' to give the truth, and I know the price is my life
But when I'm gone they'll sing a song about Immortal Technique
Who beheaded the President, and the princes and sheiks
You don't give a fuck about us, I can see through your facade
Like a fallen angel standing in the presence of God
Bitch niggaz scared of the truth, when it looks at you hard

It's like MK-ULTRA, controlling your brain
Suggestive thinking, causing your perspective to change
They wanna rearrange the whole point of view in the ghetto
The fourth branch of the government, want us to settle
A bandana full of glittering, generality
Fighting for freedom and fighting terror, but what's reality?
Martial law is coming soon to the hood, to kill you
While you hanging your flag out your project window

Yeah..
The fourth branch of the government AKA the media
Seems to now have a retirement plan for ex-military officials
As if their opinion was at all unbiased
A machine shouldn't speak for men
So shut the fuck up you mindless drone!
And you know it's serious
When these same media outfits are spending millions of dollars on a PR campaign
To try to convince you they're fair and balanced
When they're some of the most ignorant, and racist people
Giving that type of mentality a safe haven
We act like we share in the spoils of war that they do
We die in wars, we don't get the contracts to make money off 'em afterwards!
We don't get weapons contracts, nigga!
We don't get cheap labor for our companies, nigga!
We are cheap labor, nigga!
Turn off the news and read, nigga!
Read... read... read...

This Is Not Art - Newcastle Australia Arts Festival

What Is It?

This Is Not Art is a national festival of new media and arts held in Newcastle each year over the October long weekend. Since its humble beginnings in 1998, it has become one of the leading arts festivals in Australia dedicated to the work and ideas of communities not included in other major Australian arts festivals.

It is a convergence point for communities of creative people practicing and learning in a range of art and new media forms including writing, hip hop, digital arts, electronic music, design, environmentalism and student media. The program includes the festivals Electrofringe, the National Young Writers? Festival, National Student Media Conference, Sound Summit and other projects.

Through the festival we look in on our world and rethink and imagine what it can be through the usage of technologies, humour, media and art.

Each year the festival brings together over 400 young writers, arts workers, activists, media makers, electronic and hip hop musicians, digital and sound artists and visual artists to participate in over 200 events. Artists come from Hunter Valley, across Australia and from overseas, to showcase their work, network and develop new skills and projects. Each year between 2 and 3 thousand people travel to Newcastle to attend the event, alongside tens of thousands of Novocastrians.

Festival activities include panels, hands on workshops, showcases, night time concerts, public art installations, exhibitions and online forums.

This year?s festival takes place from 29th September until 3rd October 2005.

Since its inception, the This Is Not Art festival, has been hosted by the Octapod Association.

History

· 1998 - This Is Not Art began life as the National Young Writers' Festival and The National Student Media Conference. The National Young Writers' Festival comprised of 70 sessions and 300 people from outside Newcastle attending.

· 1999 - Electrofringe (which had previously been organised by a committee of the Fringe Festival) also became an independent festival that took place in conjunction with the Writers' Festival and the Student Media Conference. The event doubled in size and scale the audience increased to over a thousand attendees.

· 2000 - With the addition of Sound Summit (National Independent Electronic Labels and Artists Conference) and an Independent Radio Conference, the term This Is Not Art was coined to explain the five very different but interconnected events and the audience grew substantially again. Two and half thousand people came to Newcastle for the festival. For the first time, the festival included a massive electronic music performance component comprising over 140 acts.

· 2001 - This is Not Art became one of Newcastle's largest annual weekend tourism event - attracting thousands of visitors from every state in Australia, New Zealand and around the world. The festival brought in over $1.5 million into the Newcastle economy and over 40% of the people attending come from interstate or overseas.

· 2002 - ABC Radio Triple J became a major partner of the festival, providing full run of station radio promotion, live broadcasts and editorial support.

· 2003 - This is Not Art expanded to include TINA FM, a local radio station broadcasting for the duration of the event, Critical Animals, a post graduate student's conference and TINA shop, selling wares of independent artists. Attendances soared to over 3,000 people.

· 2004 - The festival once again included the National Young Writers' Festival, The National Student Media Conference, Electrofringe, Sound Summit, Critical Animals and for the first time EAR (Environment Awareness Raising) Festival joined the festival. The festival drew a crowd of over 3,000 people from outside Newcastle, robots came to town along with hundreds of digital artists, electronic musicians, young writers, activists and media makers. Click here to view the 2004 website.

Who Is Tina-Org

Tina-Org is the planning body behind the festival. It comprises of the coordinators from each of the participating festivals and projects as well as the TINA specific staff. Tina-Org communicate via an email list and meet every one to two months in Newcastle. Important planning decisions are passed by Tina-Org via a majority voting system.

Speech by President Hugo Chavez at UN General Assembly

Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela
Entire Text of President Chavez' speech at UN General Assembly, Thursday September 15, 2005
By President Hugo Chavez Frias
Sep 16, 2005, 20:52


Your Excellencies, friends, good afternoon:

The original purpose of this meeting has been completely distorted. The imposed center of debate has been a so-called reform process that overshadows the most urgent issues, what the peoples of the world claim with urgency: the adoption of measures that deal with the real problems that block and sabotage the efforts made by our countries for real development and life.

Five years after the Millennium Summit, the harsh reality is that the great majority of estimated goals- which were very modest indeed- will not be met.

We pretended reducing by half the 842 million hungry people by the year 2015. At the current rate that goal will be achieved by the year 2215. Who in this audience will be there to celebrate it? That is only if the human race is able to survive the destruction that threats our natural environment.

We had claimed the aspiration of achieving universal primary education by the year 2015. At the current rate that goal will be reached after the year 2100. Let us prepare, then, to celebrate it.

Friends of the world, this takes us to a sad conclusion: The United Nations has exhausted its model, and it is not all about reform. The XXI century claims deep changes that will only be possible if a new organization is founded. This UN does not work. We have to say it. It is the truth. These transformations the ones Venezuela is referring to- have, according to us, two phases: The immediate phase and the aspiration phase, a utopia. The first is framed by the agreements that were signed in the old system. We do not run away from them. We even bring concrete proposals in that model for the short term. But the dream of an ever-lasting world peace, the dream of a world not ashamed by hunger, disease, illiteracy, extreme necessity, needs-apart from roots- to spread its wings to fly. We need to spread our wings and fly. We are aware of a frightening neoliberal globalization, but there is also the reality of an interconnected world that we have to face not as a problem but as a challenge. We could, on the basis of national realities, exchange knowledge, integrate markets, interconnect, but at the same time we must understand that there are problems that do not have a national solution: radioactive clouds, world oil prices, diseases, warming of the planet or the hole in the ozone layer. These are not domestic problems. As we stride toward a new United Nations model that includes all of us when they talk about the people, we are bringing four indispensable and urgent reform proposals to this Assembly: the first; the expansion of the Security Council in its permanent categories as well as the non permanent categories, thus allowing new developed and developing countries as new permanent and non permanent categories. The second; we need to assure the necessary improvement of the work methodology in order to increase transparency, not to diminish it. The third; we need to immediately suppress- we have said this repeatedly in Venezuela for the past six years- the veto in the decisions taken by the Security Council, that elitist trace is incompatible with democracy, incompatible with the principles of equality and democracy.

And the fourth; we need to strengthen the role of the Secretary General; his/her political functions regarding preventive diplomacy, that role must be consolidated. The seriousness of all problems calls for deep transformations. Mere reforms are not enough to recover that "we" all the peoples of the world are waiting for. More than just reforms we in Venezuela call for the foundation of a new United Nations, or as the teacher of Simón Bolívar, Simón Rodríguez said: "Either we invent or we err."

At the Porto Alegre World Social Forum last January different personalities asked for the United Nations to move outside the United States if the repeated violations to international rule of law continue. Today we know that there were never any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. The people of the United States have always been very rigorous in demanding the truth to their leaders; the people of the world demand the same thing. There were never any weapons of mass destruction; however, Iraq was bombed, occupied and it is still occupied. All this happened over the United Nations. That is why we propose this Assembly that the United Nations should leave a country that does not respect the resolutions taken by this same Assembly. Some proposals have pointed out to Jerusalem as an international city as an alternative. The proposal is generous enough to propose an answer to the current conflict affecting Palestine. Nonetheless, it may have some characteristics that could make it very difficult to become a reality. That is why we are bringing a proposal made by Simón Bolívar, the great Liberator of the South, in 1815. Bolívar proposed then the creation of an international city that would host the idea of unity.

We believe it is time to think about the creation of an international city with its own sovereignty, with its own strength and morality to represent all nations of the world. Such international city has to balance five centuries of unbalance. The headquarters of the United Nations must be in the South.

Ladies and gentlemen, we are facing an unprecedented energy crisis in which an unstoppable increase of energy is perilously reaching record highs, as well as the incapacity of increase oil supply and the perspective of a decline in the proven reserves of fuel worldwide. Oil is starting to become exhausted.

For the year 2020 the daily demand for oil will be 120 million barrels. Such demand, even without counting future increments- would consume in 20 years what humanity has used up to now. This means that more carbon dioxide will inevitably be increased, thus warming our planet even more.

Hurricane Katrina has been a painful example of the cost of ignoring such realities. The warming of the oceans is the fundamental factor behind the demolishing increase in the strength of the hurricanes we have witnessed in the last years. Let this occasion be an outlet to send our deepest condolences to the people of the United States. Their people are brothers and sisters of all of us in the Americas and the rest of the world.

It is unpractical and unethical to sacrifice the human race by appealing in an insane manner the validity of a socioeconomic model that has a galloping destructive capacity. It would be suicidal to spread it and impose it as an infallible remedy for the evils which are caused precisely by them.

Not too long ago the President of the United States went to an Organization of American States? meeting to propose Latin America and the Caribbean to increase market-oriented policies, open market policies-that is neoliberalism- when it is precisely the fundamental cause of the great evils and the great tragedies currently suffered by our people. : The neoliberal capitalism, the Washington Consensus. All this has generated is a high degree of misery, inequality and infinite tragedy for all the peoples on his continent.

What we need now more than ever Mr. President is a new international order. Let us recall the United Nations General assembly in its sixth extraordinary session period in 1974, 31 years ago, where a new International Economic Order action plan was adopted, as well as the States Economic Rights and Duties Charter by an overwhelming majority, 120 votes for the motion, 6 against and 10 abstentions. This was the period when voting was possible at the United Nations. Now it is impossible to vote. Now they approve documents such as this one which I denounce on behalf of Venezuela as null, void and illegitimate. This document was approved violating the current laws of the United Nations. This document is invalid! This document should be discussed; the Venezuelan government will make it public. We cannot accept an open and shameless dictatorship in the United Nations. These matters should be discussed and that is why I petition my colleagues, heads of states and heads of governments, to discuss it.

I just came from a meeting with President Néstor Kirchner and well, I was pulling this document out; this document was handed out five minutes before- and only in English- to our delegation. This document was approved by a dictatorial hammer which I am here denouncing as illegal, null, void and illegitimate.

Hear this, Mr. President: if we accept this, we are indeed lost. Let us turn off the lights, close all doors and windows! That would be unbelievable: us accepting a dictatorship here in this hall.

Now more than ever- we were saying- we need to retake ideas that were left on the road such as the proposal approved at this Assembly in 1974 regarding a New Economic International Order. Article 2 of that text confirms the right of states to nationalizing the property and natural resources that belonged to foreign investors. It also proposed to create cartels of raw material producers. In the Resolution 3021, May, 1974, the Assembly expressed its will to work with utmost urgency in the creation of a New Economic International Order based on- listen carefully, please- "the equity, sovereign equality, interdependence, common interest and cooperation among all states regardless of their economic and social systems, correcting the inequalities and repairing the injustices among developed and developing countries, thus assuring present and future generations, peace, justice and a social and economic development that grows at a sustainable rate."

The main goal of the New Economic International Order was to modify the old economic order conceived at Breton Woods.

We the people now claim- this is the case of Venezuela- a new international economic order. But it is also urgent a new international political order. Let us not permit that a few countries try to reinterpret the principles of International Law in order to impose new doctrines such as "pre-emptive warfare." Oh do they threaten us with that pre-emptive war! And what about the "Responsibility to Protect" doctrine? We need to ask ourselves. Who is going to protect us? How are they going to protect us?

I believe one of the countries that require protection is precisely the United States. That was shown painfully with the tragedy caused by Hurricane Katrina; they do not have a government that protects them from the announced nature disasters, if we are going to talk about protecting each other; these are very dangerous concepts that shape imperialism, interventionism as they try to legalize the violation of the national sovereignty. The full respect towards the principles of International Law and the United Nations Charter must be, Mr. President, the keystone for international relations in today?s world and the base for the new order we are currently proposing.

It is urgent to fight, in an efficient manner, international terrorism. Nonetheless, we must not use it as an excuse to launch unjustified military aggressions which violate international law. Such has been the doctrine following September 11. Only a true and close cooperation and the end of the double discourse that some countries of the North apply regarding terrorism, could end this terrible calamity.

In just seven years of Bolivarian Revolution, the people of Venezuela can claim important social and economic advances.

One million four hundred and six thousand Venezuelans learned to read and write. We are 25 million total. And the country will-in a few days- be declared illiteracy-free territory. And three million Venezuelans, who had always been excluded because of poverty, are now part of primary, secondary and higher studies.

Seventeen million Venezuelans-almost 70% of the population- are receiving, and for the first time, universal healthcare, including the medicine, and in a few years, all Venezuelans will have free access to an excellent healthcare service. More thatn a million seven hundred tons of food are channeled to over 12 million people at subsidized prices, almost half the population. One million gets them completely free, as they are in a transition period. More than 700 thousand new jobs have been created, thus reducing unemployment by 9 points. All of this amid internal and external aggressions, including a coup d?etat and an oil industry shutdown organized by Washington. Regardless of the conspiracies, the lies spread by powerful media outlets, and the permanent threat of the empire and its allies, they even call for the assassination of a president. The only country where a person is able to call for the assassination of a head of state is the United States. Such was the case of a Reverend called Pat Robertson, very close to the White House: He called for my assassination and he is a free person. That is international terrorism!

We will fight for Venezuela, for Latin American integration and the world. We reaffirm our infinite faith in humankind. We are thirsty for peace and justice in order to survive as species. Simón Bolívar, founding father of our country and guide of our revolution swore to never allow his hands to be idle or his soul to rest until he had broken the shackles which bound us to the empire. Now is the time to not allow our hands to be idle or our souls to rest until we save humanity.

Students for an Orwellian Society

Because 2005 is 21 years too late.

What is SOS?

Students for an Orwellian Society (SOS) is a nationwide student group. Although SOS has always been a nationwide student group, there is evidence to suggest that it first appeared at Columbia University. The mission of SOS is to promote the vision of a society based upon the principles of Ingsoc, first articulated by George Orwell in his prophetic novel, 1984.

read on...

Talk Like A Pirate Day - September 19

check out this website.....very funny