{"id":451,"date":"2006-11-08T04:21:37","date_gmt":"2006-11-07T18:21:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/?p=451"},"modified":"2006-11-08T04:21:37","modified_gmt":"2006-11-07T18:21:37","slug":"tacky-souvenirs-of-pre-revolutionary-australia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/?p=451","title":{"rendered":"Tacky Souvenirs of Pre-Revolutionary Australia"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\u201cWhen I give food to the poor, they call me a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.catholic.org\/saints\/isidore.php\">saint<\/a>. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a <a href=\"http:\/\/jesusradicals.com\/\">communist<\/a>.\u201d \u2014 <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.edstrong.blog-city.com\/the_antiprogressive_pope.htm\">Dom Helda Camara<\/a><\/em><\/ul>\n<p>Next Friday, November 17 &#8212; the day before the <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/?p=101\">G20<\/a><\/strong> meets in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hyatt.com\/hyatt\/about\/overview\/history-of-hyatt-corporation.jsp\">corporate luxury<\/a> in <a href=\"http:\/\/melbourne.park.hyatt.com\/hyatt\/hotels\/\">Melbourne<\/a> &#8212;  the advertising campaign now known as <a href=\"http:\/\/www.developmentinaction.org\/newspages\/index\/111.php\">&#8216;Make Poverty History&#8217;<\/a> (and previously known as &#8216;Jubilee 2000&#8217;) is staging a concert. According to the organisers:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>We live in an exciting time. This is the first time in history that our generation has the financial capacity, resources and internationally agreed framework to put an end to extreme poverty. The MAKEPOVERTYHISTORY Concert will provide Australians with a voice in a global movement that stands in solidarity with the world&#8217;s poor. Show your support for making poverty history on a global stage by joining top Australian performers and over 20,000 people to celebrate the largest MAKEPOVERTYHISTORY event ever held in Australia!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Aside from being a gross insult to the intelligence, this is pretty nauseating stuff.<\/p>\n<p>To begin with, the &#8216;problem&#8217; with &#8216;poverty&#8217; &#8212; which &#8216;Make Poverty History&#8217; has identified as being most germane to attracting an audience &#8212; is the supposed fact that <a href=\"http:\/\/www.globalissues.org\/TradeRelated\/Facts.asp\">&#8220;Every single day, 30,000 children are dying as a result of extreme poverty&#8221;<\/a>. One is tempted to ask these 30,000 children (thankfully, adults do not appear to die as a result of the same malady) whether they too feel that their imminent death is &#8220;exciting&#8221;. But of course the &#8216;we&#8217; who live in &#8220;exciting times&#8221; are the same &#8216;we&#8217; who genuinely believe that the existence of extreme-poverty-unto-death is some kind of an historical oversight; a &#8220;shameful&#8221; episode that merely requires the good will of fans of (the truly execrable) <strong>Eskimo Joe<\/strong> to be closed, once and for all.<\/p>\n<p>In reality, &#8220;this is [<em>not<\/em>] the first time in history that our generation has the financial capacity, resources and internationally agreed framework to put an end to extreme poverty&#8221; and &#8220;the MAKEPOVERTYHISTORY Concert will [<em>not<\/em>] provide Australians with a voice in a global movement that stands in solidarity with the world&#8217;s poor&#8221;. In addition to demonstrating bad grammar, the ability to make nonsensical assertions and to display <a href=\"http:\/\/zedbooks.co.uk\/book.asp?bookdetail=3837\">political ignorance<\/a>, such statements make a mockery of the struggles of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.africa.ufl.edu\/asq\/v8\/v8i2a6.htm\">&#8216;the poors&#8217;<\/a> for freedom and dignity, and do nothing to express solidarity with them.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Several responses are standard to criticism of ideologically bankrupt and morally schizophrenic initiatives like the UK&#8217;s Make Poverty History campaign. One is to rail at the impudence of calling into question the campaign organizers sincerity and good intentions. Another is to pout, &#8220;well, what alternative do YOU offer&#8230;?&#8221; Or, more disingeuously, critics will be accused of sneering at the genuine heartfelt desire among the millions of people who contribute hard-earned money to projects and programmes meant to alleviate world poverty&#8217;s all-too-numerous symptoms&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>&#8212; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.zmag.org\/content\/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=13&#038;ItemID=9618\">&#8216;Poverty, consumerism and anti-imperialism&#8217;<\/a>, toni solo, <strong>ZNet<\/strong>, January 9, 2006<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<div align = \"center\" ><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/static.flickr.com\/116\/291561848_4e71578f67_m.jpg\"><\/div>\n<ul><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.illegal-art.org\/audio\/culturecide.mp3\">They Aren&#8217;t the World<\/a><\/strong> : <strong>Culturcide<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>There comes a time<br \/>\nWhen rock stars beg for cash<br \/>\nAnd that&#8217;s how the world<br \/>\nIs supposed to come together as one<\/p>\n<p>There are people dying<br \/>\nAnd they just noticed<br \/>\nAnd they think they&#8217;re<br \/>\nThe greatest gift of all<\/p>\n<p>We can&#8217;t go on<br \/>\nPretending day by day<br \/>\nThat record companies and media gods<br \/>\nWill soon make a change<\/p>\n<p>We all play a part<br \/>\nIn a world that starves us all<br \/>\nAnd our cooperation<br \/>\nIs all they need<\/p>\n<p>(Chorus)<\/p>\n<p><em>They&#8217;re not the world<br \/>\nThey&#8217;re not the children<br \/>\nThey&#8217;re just bosses and bureaucrats<br \/>\nAnd rock &#8216;n&#8217; roll has-beens<\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s a choice we&#8217;re never given<br \/>\nTo run our own lives<br \/>\nWithout it your better day<br \/>\nIs just a better lie<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Well buy the record<br \/>\nSo they can pretend they care<br \/>\nAnd their careers<br \/>\nWill be stronger and guilt-free<\/p>\n<p>As Michael and Lionel have shown us<br \/>\nThe world&#8217;s just TV<br \/>\nIf children are starving<br \/>\nLet &#8217;em drink Pepsi<\/p>\n<p><em>They&#8217;re not the world<br \/>\nThey&#8217;re not the children<br \/>\nIf you want to change anything<br \/>\nStart from the beginning<\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s a choice we&#8217;re never given<br \/>\nTo run our own lives<br \/>\nWithout it your better day<br \/>\nIs just a better lie<\/em><\/p>\n<p>When you&#8217;re rich and famous<br \/>\nThere seems no contradiction at all<br \/>\n&#8216;If we can just have a number one hit<br \/>\nWe&#8217;ll solve it all&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>You must realise<br \/>\nThat change cannot come<br \/>\nIf CBS<br \/>\nDecides what&#8217;s the problem<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Make poverty history: eat the rich.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In other news&#8230; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/worldlatest\/story\/0,,-6195001,00.html\">Simultaneous explosions in Mexico City<\/a> (<em>The Guardian<\/em> [AP], November 6); <a href=\"http:\/\/www.iht.com\/articles\/ap\/2006\/11\/07\/america\/LA_GEN_Mexico_Explosions.php\">Leftist rebels claim responsibility for Mexico City blasts; demand Oaxaca governor resign<\/a> (<em>International Herald Tribune<\/em> [AP], November 6); <a href=\"http:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/?p=443\">Making the world safe for capitalism: Oaxaca, Mexico<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cWhen I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist.\u201d \u2014 Dom Helda Camara Next Friday, November 17 &#8212; the day before the G20 &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/?p=451\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2,6,16,11,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anarchism","category-history","category-media","category-music","category-state"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6AyE-7h","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}