District 9: Sci-fi Realism Tackles The Horrors Of Globalization | NEWS JUNKIE POST

The intensity and cinematography of director Neil Blomkamp%u2019s %u201CDistrict 9%u2033, which is up for a Best Picture Oscar, are to be marveled over. But the sci-fi thriller%u2019s pace and visuals are also matched by the film%u2019s political message. As conceptually original as the first %u201CMatrix%u201D film, %u201CDistrict 9%u2033 also serves as a critique, par excellence, of the horrors of today%u2019s global capitalism. And as such, it easily rivals notable films like %u201CBlood Diamond%u201D and %u201CThe Constant Gardener%u201D.

%u201CDistrict 9%u2033 opens with a documentary-style exposition: An enormous alien spacecraft has entered the earth%u2019s atmosphere and coasted to a halt, above contemporary Johannesburg, South Africa. After three months of seeing no activity from the ship, the world governments send an expedition to investigate the craft. The expedition enters the ship and finds it filled with malnourished, insect-like aliens. It is theorized that the aliens were once part of a larger fleet of ships. But they somehow detached from that fleet, became lost, and ran out of fuel and food. Helpless, the aliens then %u201Cwashed ashore%u201D, into Earth%u2019s orbit.

This discovery quickly turns the expedition into a %u201Chumanitarian crisis%u201D, to save the dying aliens. But as is well-known, the modus operandi of any (so-called) foreign aid mission today is %u201Cdisaster capitalism%u201D. And this is no different when it comes to extra-terrestrial aid. The world governments enlist Multi-National United (MNU), to assist in the %u201Chumanitarian%u201D operation. As the name implies, MNU is a kind of conglomerate of logistical and defense corporations and contractors. And as such, they have a profit-motive.

MNU sets-up an alien %u201Crefugee camp%u201D in Johannesburg, that  soon becomes a militarized slum, known as District 9. The aliens are moved into District 9 and are subjected to MNU%u2019s martial law. Blackwater-like mercenaries are hired to violently police the District, while MNU conducts raids on the alien%u2019s temporary living quarters, in attempts to steal alien technology for weapons development. MNU, it turns out, is a major component of the military-industrial complex. And it hopes to further its bio-weaponry research by monopolizing on the alien%u2019s vulnerability.

Meanwhile, local Africans become angered by the alien presence. Already impoverished by the character of global capitalism, the locals see MNU%u2019s focus on the aliens as an even further distraction form their own poverty. Thus, a new form of racism evolves, and the aliens are targeted with a racial slur: %u201CPrawn%u201D. Social tensions between the local humans and the Prawns continue to mount. And MNU uses this racial hatred as an excuse mobilize a %u201Cresettlement%u201D of the Prawns, away from the restless locals. The resettlement program, of course, serves as a further cover for MNU to steal the Prawn technology for weapons development.

MNU%u2019s dual exploitation of the Africans and the Prawns, though, soon explodes. While conducting a raid on a Prawn%u2019s living quarters, Wikus Van De Merwe, the head of MNU%u2019s resettlement program, is exposed to the chemicals in some of the Prawn technology. And from that point, the situation in District 9 begins to radically change, in more ways than one%u2026.

This fantastical premise of %u201CDistrict 9%u2033 could have fallen apart in execution, as is always the case with sci-fi epics. The bar for suspension of disbelief is set particularly high with such movies. And it is rarely met. But Blomkamp%u2019s treatment of the script results in one of the strongest political films in recent history. Much of this is due to the realism created by the setting, itself. The movie was shot in a real Johannesburg slum, one which was recently the target of an actual resettlement program.

Adding to this %u201Cpure%u201D setting is the fact that film is presented as a documentary. The story, itself, unfolds via interview clips with MNU employees, spliced with footage from embedded cameramen filming the resettlement, as well as with footage from security cameras in District 9 and other locales. The special effects, as well, are used not to dazzle (as is in the case with many thrillers), but rather to support the realism of the film%u2019s events. None of the the violence in the film is hyperbolic or self-justifying. Instead, it is presented as the raw meaninglessness of war, violence at the %u201Czero level%u201D, which is rarely captured by real photojournalists on the nightly news.

On an equally rewarding level, the plot%u2019s density does not sacrifice the agonizing character development of Wikus, himself, which equally drives the movie forward, to its phenomenal conclusion.

But on a grander, more philosophical sense, what %u201CDistrict 9%u2033 addresses is the horrific inhumanity of globalization%u2019s own ideology. Globalization, in itself, is meaningless. What gives it character is its corporatist element, the driving force behind its growth.

Propelled by the inhuman interests of multi-national corporations, the IMF, the World Bank, and the G8 governments, globalization%u2019s ethics are the dehumanized ethics of the global %u201Cmarket%u201D. Such a system considers the profit of the few over the humanity of the countless many. This dynamic is what psychoanalyst Viktor Frankl calls our %u201CExistential Vacuum%u201D, a world totally void of human-oriented values, replaced only by the pursuit of capital.

Thus, in %u201CDistrict 9%u2033, the meaningless deaths of the %u201CPrawns%u201D (supported only by the equally meaningless racism) for the sake corporate profit, is a mirror of our world. The %u201CPrawn%u201D is thus a symbol, a symbol for any individual or group of individuals, who are subjected to the legal violence of global capitalism. The %u201CPrawn%u201D, who is oppressed or murdered for profit in the film, is the same as the impoverished Guatemalan, or Nigerian, or Indian, or American, who dies meaninglessly so shareholder wealth can flourish in the real-world.

As such, %u201CDistrict 9%u2033 serves as the diagnosis of the inhumanity that hallmarks our era. It certainly deserves the Oscar. But more importantly, it deserves to be widely seen and discussed.

Editor%u2019s Note: Stephen Dufrechou is a college professor in Memphis, TN. He is the Editor of Opinion and Analysis for News Junkie Post. Please follow this author on Twitter. His archive may be accessed here.

• 

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How War Tests the Allies - Page 1 - The Daily Beast

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Patrick Baz, AFP / Getty Images The Dutch government fell over its part in the Afghan war—just the latest strain on NATO’s unity. Richard Wolffe talks to Secretary General Rasmussen and Madeleine Albright about its growing pains.

NATO has at least two big challenges that will determine its future as the world’s strongest military alliance. One is on the battlefield in Afghanistan, where the war against al Qaeda and the Taliban has drained its resources and political will for several years. The Dutch government collapsed last weekend in large part because the left-of-center Labour Party made a promise to pull troops out of the Afghan war.

The other challenge is what NATO stands for. After two decades of expansion, and two out-of-area wars—in Kosovo and Afghanistan—the alliance is rewriting its strategic mission. That means going beyond the traditional concept of mutual self-defense, under Article Five of the North Atlantic treaty. With the help of an expert panel, led by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, NATO is trying to plan for the next decade.

“It’s understandable that people are impatient,” said Rasmussen, of the Dutch government’s collapse over its role in the Afghan war. “They want to see clear progress on the ground."

Albright makes for an unusual partner with NATO’s Secretary General, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the former Danish prime minister. She was President Clinton’s chief diplomat and a sharp critic of Bush’s foreign policy. He led a right-of-center government and was one of President Bush’s closest allies in Europe, committing Danish troops to the invasion of Iraq.

The two gave an exclusive interview to The Daily Beast just before Rasmussen delivered a speech on Monday at Georgetown University, where Albright teaches at the School of Foreign Service.

The Daily Beast: With what happened to the Dutch government over the weekend, have the politics of war and the politics of NATO changed?

Secretary General Rasmussen: Basically no. But obviously our mission in Afghanistan puts focus on what is territorial defense in today’s world. Territorial defense of our nations and populations has been the core task of NATO since it was established 61 years ago and will remain the core task. However we have to realize that to defend our own borders we very often have to go far away, like in Afghanistan. So in that respect you may say that the nature of collective defense has changed. But it’s still with the aim of ensuring a strong, credible territorial defense.

Do you think this idea of out-of-area operations in Afghanistan is harder for the public to grasp? Do they have less of an appetite for enduring longer operations, difficult wars, because they are not engaged in direct self-defense? It’s indirect self-defense.

Rasmussen: Indeed it is a bigger challenge to communicate a strong narrative. But we have to repeat the clear message that we are in Afghanistan primarily to protect and defend our own populations against terrorism. If Afghanistan once again became a safe haven for terrorists, they could easily spread through central Asia and further, not to speak about the risk of destabilizing neighboring Pakistan, a nuclear power. That would be a very dangerous situation. So basically it’s the same notion but the message should be conveyed convincingly. And it is indeed, communications-wise, a bigger challenge than in the past.

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How War Tests the Allies - Page 1 - The Daily Beast

BC professor Lisa Dodson tracks ‘economic’ disobedience - The Boston Globe

As Newton resident Lisa Dodson, a Boston College sociology professor in the thick of a research project, was interviewing a grocery story manager in the Midwest about the difficulties of the low-income workers he supervised, he asked her a curious question: “Don’t you want to know what this does to me too?’’

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She did. And so the manager talked about the sense of unfairness he felt as a supervisor, making enough to live comfortably while overseeing workers who couldn’t feed their families on the money they earned. That inequality, he told her, tainted his job, making him feel complicit in an unfair system that paid hard workers too little to cover basic needs.

The interview changed the way Dodson talked with other supervisors and managers of low-income workers, and she began to find that many of them felt the same discomfort as the grocery store manager. And many went a step further, finding ways to undermine the system and slip their workers extra money, food, or time needed to care for sick children. She was surprised how widespread these acts were. In her new book, “The Moral Underground: How Ordinary Americans Subvert an Unfair Economy,’’ she called such behavior “economic disobedience.’’

As Dodson’s questions grew more pointed, she began to hear fascinating stories. Andrew, a manager in a large Midwest food business, said he put extra money in the paychecks of those earning a “poverty wage,’’ punched out their time cards at the usual quitting time when they had to leave early for a doctor’s appointment, and gave them food.

Andrew had decided that by supervising workers who were treated unfairly - paid too little and subjected to inflexible schedules that prevented them from taking care of their families - he was playing a direct role in the unfair system, and so he was morally obligated to act.

Dodson concluded that Andrew and many like him were following the American tradition of civil disobedience - this time, against the economy - and creating a “moral underground.’’

But her book, which came out late last year, has provoked debate about the morality of such acts.

After Dodson talked about her book on a radio program, American Public Media’s “Marketplace,’’ some listeners posted comments on the show’s website arguing that supervisors like Andrew are cheating their employers.

Referring to the show’s host, a listener from Leesburg, Va., wrote, “I was surprised that throughout the entire interview, neither Tess Vigeland nor Ms. Dodson touched on what would seem to me a rather crucial point - that these ‘Ordinary Americans’ are stealing from the companies who employ them.

“The examples Ms. Dodson gave . . . are acts of theft from the companies, yet they are described as if somehow moral and virtuous. It’s one thing for me to see someone in need and open my wallet; its quite another to address that need by giving something I’ve stolen from my neighbor.’’Continued...

Although Dodson makes clear where she stands - the subtitle of her book includes the phrase “unfair economy’’ - she said she believes the debate is important.

“I think that this is a really important conversation that we should have in this country,’’ Dodson said. “What is the worst wrong here? Is it to break a rule or to pass some food over, or is it that we have tens of millions of children and people in families that are working as hard as they can and they can’t take care of their families?’’

Not all supervisors felt troubled by the plight of those who worked under them. Dodson interviewed supervisors who said they had no obligation beyond the bottom line of their company; some complained bitterly about the work ethic of those who filled low-wage jobs.

Dodson has had an unusual career trajectory for an academic. She was a union activist and an obstetrical nurse in Dorchester before she began teaching, first at Harvard and now at Boston College. In her first book, “Don’t Call Us Out of Name: The Untold Lives of Women and Girls in Poor America,’’ Dodson studied how women and their families coped in the face of welfare reform as their safety net vanished.

This time, though, she was drawn largely to the stories of those Americans who worked with the working poor, suggesting that the difficulties of that group also affect the lives of those who intersect with them.

“I feel as though there’s this tendency is this society to kind of think about low-income people as those people over there,’’ she said, “as though it’s an experience that’s sort of marginal and distant from those of us who are not poor.’’

In her new book, some of the most wrenching stories are about women who cannot afford child care and leave their children unattended at home, asking older children to watch the younger ones. They feared social service agencies would investigate them for neglect, but they felt they had no choice if they were going to keep their jobs.

“It was very common for parents to tell me that their kids spent a lot of time all by themselves at home,’’ Dodson said. “That puts the parent into just an untenable position: You’re a bad worker or you’re a bad parent.’’

Kathleen Burge can be reached at kburge@globe.com

© Copyright 2010 Globe Newspaper Company.

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BC professor Lisa Dodson tracks ‘economic’ disobedience - The Boston Globe

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US-HAITI: The Failure of Aid – Part 2

US-HAITI: The Failure of Aid – Part 2 William Fisher NEW YORK, 13 Feb (IPS) - The sick, injured and stressed people of Port au Prince are unlikely to be impressed by the small army of reconstruction contractors and development experts who are preparing to descend on Haiti. The reason? They've seen it all before. Over the years, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere has seen billions of dollars in aid appear – and disappear. They have witnessed aid programmes characterised by start-stop-start, shaped largely by U.S. political ideologies. And they have seen the corrupt rulers of the country amass fortunes while ordinary people existed on one or two dollars a day. The Duvalier family ruled Haiti from 1957 to 1986. Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier was elected by the largest majority in Haitian history. Once in power, he became a dictator, creating a violent military police force known as the Tonton Macoutes. Papa Doc's son, Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier, followed his father into power. In 1986, the Haitian people revolted and Baby Doc fled to France with millions of dollars stolen from the Haitian treasury. Jubilee USA, a network calling for elimination of debt owed by poor countries, estimates that Baby Doc alone diverted at least 500 million dollars in public funds to his private accounts, and that 45 percent of Haiti's debt in recent decades was accumulated during the corrupt Duvalier reign. "Since 1804, Haiti has had 30 coups and 20 constitutions," says Robert Muggah, research director of the Geneva-based Small Arms Survey. So it is not surprising that ordinary Haitians would be cynical about the prospects of post-earthquake aid being substantially different from the past. Most experts say the country's history as an aid recipient has made it a poster child for how not to administer development assistance. A 2006 report by the U.S. National Academy of Public Administration, "Why Foreign Aid to Haiti Failed," outlines the shortcomings of development assistance to Haiti over the long term. Despite an estimated nine billion dollars in aid over the years, Haiti remains near the bottom of global poverty and development indexes. It ranks in 146th place in the most recent U.N. Human Development Report, for example. Haiti has also been adversely affected by a brain-drain. The educated usually emigrate, and then support families at home through remittances, which are estimated to total 1.5 billion to 1.8 billion dollars annually. But even many of the uneducated have prospered in the Haitian Diaspora, revealing what many observers describe as their natural strong will to survive. According to ISN Security Watch, remittances have more of an impact because the funds go directly to poor Haitians, while much development aid goes through corrupt officialdom. ISN is a project of the Centre for Security Studies (CSS) at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich). What role will development assistance play in post-earthquake Haiti? To understand where development in Haiti needs to go, it's important to know where it's been. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has generally been the lead organisation for development aid to Haiti. Insights into how successful it has been can be found in a September 2000 report by Jess T. Ford, then a senior State Department official. Assessing the impact of U.S. aid on Haiti's justice system, Ford wrote, "Over the last six fiscal years, the United States provided about 97 million dollars in assistance to help Haiti establish its first civilian-controlled police force and improve aspects of its judicial sector, which includes various judicial institutions, procedures, and legal codes." He reported that, despite some modest achievements, "The police force has not effectively carried out its basic law enforcement responsibilities, and recent events suggest that politicisation has compromised the force, according to U.S. and other donor officials." "The judicial sector also has serious weaknesses, according to U.S. and other donor officials. The sector has not undergone a major reform and, as a result, lacks independence from the executive branch and has outdated legal codes and cumbersome judicial proceedings," he wrote. "Further, the judicial institutions have personnel shortages; inadequate infrastructure and equipment, such as shortages of vehicles and legal texts; and an ineffective internal oversight organisation unable to stem corruption." Overall, Ford wrote, these institutions provide justice services to only a small segment of the population, because the institutions rely heavily in judicial proceedings on the use of French rather than Creole - the language of the majority of the population, he said. The key factor affecting the lack of success of U.S. assistance has been the Haitian government's lack of commitment to addressing the major problems of its police and judicial institutions, he said. Fast-forward to 2005, a critically important USAID year, coming on the heels of a 2004 Haitian rebellion. That coup d'etat happened after conflicts that occurred for several weeks in Haiti during February 2004. It resulted in the premature end of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's second term. He left Haiti on a U.S. plane accompanied by U.S. military/security personnel, and it is still unclear whether the U.S. forced him to leave. USAID's objectives that year included decreasing narcotics trafficking, strengthening democracy, providing humanitarian assistance, stemming the flow of illegal migrants, fighting HIV/AIDS, generating employment, and strengthening civil society's ability to resist authoritarianism. The agency's development menu contained support to the interim government in efforts to stabilise the country in preparation for local, parliamentary and presidential elections later that year, and USAID efforts encourage creation of jobs, support institutions, offer health, education and humanitarian assistance and respond to hurricanes and similar natural disasters. There were programmes for peace and security; governing justly and democratically; supporting Haiti's social development, access to basic health services and HIV/AIDS prevention; distance-based education; response to the food riots and hurricanes; school feeding programmes; and provision of emergency food and shelter in response to increasing food insecurity and hurricanes. Total USAID expenditure for 2005 was approximately 51 million dollars. But even Haiti's most generous friends would acknowledge that the country has little to show for that year's – or arguably any year's – international aid. In fact, many experts contend that some aid has done more harm than good. For example, loans from the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) imposed "structural adjustment" conditions on Haiti, opening its economy to cheap U.S. agricultural products. Farmers, unable to compete, stopped growing rice and moved to the cities to earn low wages, if they were lucky enough to get one of the scarce sweatshop jobs. People in the highlands were driven to deforest the hills, converting wood into salable charcoal, which created an ecological crisis - destabilising hillsides, increasing the destructiveness of earthquakes and causing landslides during the rainy season. A frequently asked question is whether the impact of aid will be different during the post earthquake period, and whether President René Préval is up to the task of managing the huge resources destined to flow into his country in the coming months. "Préval is the legitimately elected president of Haiti, and the obligation of the international community is to assist him and Prime Minister (Jean-Max Bellerive) in fulfilling their leadership role," said Mark Schneider of the International Crisis Group. But the current government has no shortage of critics. "I can think of no country in the world that would have so pathetically handled the post-earthquake situation," said Larry Birns, director of the Washington-based Council on Hemispheric Affairs. "It's a caricature of what a government is supposed to be." *The final installment of this three-part series will explore approaches to more effective aid to Haiti. (END/2010)

 

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US-HAITI: The Failure of Aid – Part 2

Pre-Emptive PR? Seeking A Kinder, Gentler Image For Israel

Israel submitted its formal response last month to a U.N.-commissioned probe that accused both Israel and Hamas of war crimes during last winter's war in the Gaza Strip. Israel defended its conduct and pledged to fully investigate the U.N. allegations, but stopped short of a U.N. demand to appoint an independent commission to probe its army's conduct.

The U.N. must now decide how to proceed. But Israel is focusing on the broader international opinion of the Jewish state.

"Public perception today in the global economy and in the world as it is today is not less strategic than having any other military strategic weapon. Public perception is almost as important as existence," says Lior Chorev, one of Israel's top public relations experts.

The Punch Line

There is a common joke that, some say, reflects Israel's global image abroad. But this time, it is an Israeli official delivering it.

Three Israelis arrive at the Charles de Gaulle Airport in France. They approach the immigration officer. He asks them, "Nationality?" They say, "Israeli." He then turns to them and says, "Occupation?" They look at each other and say, "No thank you. We're only here for three days."

Ido Aharoni is head of the brand management division at the Israeli Foreign Ministry. It's his job to generate an image of Israel that doesn't include words like "occupation" or "conflict."

At a session of the Herzliya Conference, a yearly gathering of Israel's top brass on security and economic issues, Aharoni's talk on Israel's image abroad drew hundreds.

There is a timeliness to the session: Israel had just submitted to the U.N. its defense of last year's offensive in Gaza, which was heavily criticized in the so-called Goldstone Report.

Both Israel and Hamas have rejected the report's findings that they had each committed war crimes during the 22-day conflict and should form independent committees of inquiries into their actions.

'Goldstone Effect'

But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned of the "Goldstone effect," whereby the U.N.'s report creates a ripple that furthers negative images of Israel.

There has been debate over how Israel handled the Goldstone report. The government initially refused to cooperate with the probe at all, Chorev says.

"I think that the Goldstone report has managed to create an atmosphere because Israel kept silent," Chorev says. "Israel did not play the PR power game with the Goldstone report. Israel chose to play the game of an absentee. We discredited the Goldstone report too late. We weren't there to give our side of the story. We did not produce our own theme, and we became apologetic. Everybody who deals with public perception understands that being apologetic is being mostly on the losing side."

Is Twitter The Answer?

There are conflicting views on what Israel should do now.

Noam Lemelshtrich, dean of communications at IDC Herzliya, the university that hosted the conference, says Israel should be using new media - such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube - to get its message across to a wider audience.

"I think we are handling this very, very poorly," Lemelshtrich says. "It's not being handled by professionals, it's being handled by politicians. But fortunately, the Internet and social networks allow the people of Israel, who are much better than their government, to tell their stories to friendly crowds across the world in the United States and in Europe. So I am optimistic, because the new social medium allows us to bypass the government."

But others, including public relations expert Eyal Arad, think the message should be an organized, united voice led by seasoned experts.

"What we need is to start a political campaign, the way we campaign in elections - a global political campaign," Arad says. "It's going to be tough. It's going to be expensive. It needs leadership that can take choices - that can make choices and enforce choices. It needs discipline."

And with newfound support and funds, Arad says Israel is poised to tackle Goldstone on a global level.

"Our main problem in the world today has become a legitimacy problem," Arad says. "It's not that people do not think that our policies are right. It's that people that question whether we should exist or continue to exist in the first place. We are more and more becoming the South Africa of the 21st century."

For now, the U.N. has deferred its decision on Goldstone. But in Israel, public relations firms aren't wasting any time. They're already planning a new campaign, aimed at future offensives. They're calling it "pre-emptive PR."

© 2010 National Public Radio

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Pre-Emptive PR? Seeking A Kinder, Gentler Image For Israel

#US #Military Being Sued For Poisoning Over 7000 In U.S Island OF #Vieques

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#US #Military Being Sued For Poisoning Over 7000 In U.S Island OF #Vieques

A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom. Martin Luther King, Jr.

A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom. ..................................... Martin Luther King, Jr.

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A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom. Martin Luther King, Jr.

BBC News - Israel disciplines top officers on white phosphorus #Gaza #Palestine

Israel disciplines top officers on white phosphorus

White phosphorus was used in the 22-day Israeli offensive

Israel has revealed it has disciplined two senior officers in its defence forces for using white phosphorus shells during an offensive in Gaza.

The admission is contained in the Israeli response to the Goldstone report, which concluded both Israel and Hamas had committed war crimes.

The identities of the officers and their punishment is not yet clear.

During the 22-day conflict last year media pictures showed incendiary shells raining down on a UN compound.

The officers ranks have been confirmed as a brigadier-general and a colonel.

"Several artillery shells were fired in violation of the rules of engagement prohibiting use of such artillery near populated areas," the report says.

The BBC's Paul Wood in Jerusalem says it is the first time Israel has revealed it disciplined any officer for their actions during the offensive, named by the Israeli military as Operation Cast Lead.

Our correspondent says the admission was buried in the document handed to the United Nations on Friday.

The UN General Assembly has demanded that both Israel and Hamas launch independent investigations into their conduct during the Israeli operation which began in December 2008.

An Israeli official said the submission to the UN was not intended to respond in detail to the allegations and incidents outlined in the Goldstone report, but to explain why the Israeli justice system was "reliable" and "independent".

The Islamist movement Hamas has denied that its forces deliberately targeted civilians with rockets.

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BBC News - Israel disciplines top officers on white phosphorus #Gaza #Palestine