Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Protests in UK.....Our Media won't cover US protests

Yesterday morning as I was sweeping the leaves at our school, I was wondering "Where are all of the Bu-Jews? Why are they not out and protesting?" I remember during the Viet Nam war, some Buddhist monks set themselves on fire to protest against the war. Buddhists have traditionally been against wars of all kinds. This kind of violence, where state of the art military is raining down terror on a population TRAPPED like fish in a barrel would seem to be so outrageous that pacifists of ALL kinds would be out in the streets.

Jewish people, some friends of mine in fact, have turned to Buddhism as a philosophy, have been on Buddhist retreats in fact. I know of some Jews who have embraced Buddhism to the point of becoming nuns and monks and/or writing books about the practice. So many Jewish folks convert that they are affectionately called "Bu-Jews". Yesterday morning I was asking the question of the Universe: "Where are the Bu-Jews?" In fact, where are the protesters altogether?

In a conversation with a friend yesterday I discovered that yes, there ARE protests going on, it is just that OUR US MEDIA DOESN'T DEEM IT NEWSWORTHY to cover it, in print or broadcast. They learned that lesson in Viet Nam. "Don't show actual wars, don't show people's outrage." Have glossy graphics with new scrawl as a talking head describes a white wash version, the official party line slant on it all. In passing they'll mention that some people were protesting but they always cast the protesters in the light of "kooks" "fringe" "extremists", all descriptions being pejorative AND they'll always mention ANY violence on the part of the protesters, even if it is one window broken. The whole idea being that Americans are so damned attached to "private property" that any damage that may occur to this holy of holies de-legitimizes ANY intent or purpose or message of the protesters. It's sort of an innoculation process; TV news viewers are supposed to be so put off that they'll NEVER take the protests seriously EVER.

I went on the hunt for news stories about protests that DID get broadcast and I found one in London, UK, where a former UK Ambassador to Uzbakistan, Craig Murray grabs a loudspeaker and speaks his mind and heart. I've posted it here:


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