Just a quick Sunday night note to salute my Chilean peeps, you know who you are, and share their joy at the election of President Michelle Bachelet, who the media likes to remind us is a “left wing single mother,” and perhaps more importantly, the daughter of one of Pinochet’s victims. (Her father, a former military officer, died in prison under the dictatorship.)
I do believe that Pinochet should face justice for his crimes (“Please remember Victor Jara,” as the Clash sang all those years ago, reminding us that the folk singer who had his hands broken by Pinochet’s thugs and was then told to play his guitar in the Santiago Stadium before being blown away by “Washington bullets”). But I also believe that the voters of Chile have once again delivered the ultimate punishment to the decrepit old despot: By once again repudiating the barbarism of Pinochet and affirming that it is the Socialist Party of the late Salvador Allende that represents democratic civilization in Chile.
The ultimate punishment for Pinochet is that the Chilean electorate has cast him and what he stands for in the trash can of history, leaving him to live out his days as a disgraced outcast hounded by prosecutors. (It’s a gentler fate than thousands of his victims had, to be sure.)
But Bachelet has more important matters on her plate than avenging the dead. The whole continent’s politics are being remade by new left-wing models of governance — the media will focus on the bogey men of the nationalist-demagogue Chavez/Evo Morales stripe, but ultimately it’s the more centrist, pragmatic model represented by Bachelet, Argentina’s Nestor Kirschner and Lula in Brazil that is carving out the more viable and durable alternatives for developing countries interacting with the world economy.
And there’s something emotionally satisfying — in the way that Hollwyood movies end — in the notion that when the people of Chile have been given the democratic right to choose their leaders, it is the children of Pinochet’s victims, rather than those of his acolytes, that they turn. As y’all used to say in the old days, Venceremos!
Very exciting indeed! And she’s a pediatrician. Think what a better country America could be if our president was a female pediatrician!
Maybe on one of her State visits to Washington, she’ll bump into Henry K and get to ask him how it feels to have empowered the men who tortured her dad to death.
After Pinochet was arrested in London in ’98, a bunch of Chileans went to the British embassy in Santiago to pick up the garbage. The guards stopped them and asked: “What do you think you’re doing?” And they replied: “You picked up our trash, we’ll pick up yours.”
Check your vacation destinations carefully, Henry K: garbage collectors are waiting for you, too.
Victor Jara is smiling in heaven with the beginnings of a return to democratic rule in Chile, but it’ll take a lot of grassroots organizing and activism to secure the kind of social and economic equality he dedicated his life to. After 30 years his actual killer was disclosed: Edwin Dimiter, aka the ‘Sadistic Prince” who works in the Pensions department of the Bachelet government. It’s grassroots protests against Dimiter that are uncovering this gross injustice (see: http://socialistworld.net/eng/2006/06/06chile.html). There is a wonderful album released this year in tribute to Victor Jara by Francesca Ancarola called “Lonquen”–the name of the village where Jara was born and she notes that even under the current government the class divide in Lonquen. Here’s an excerpt:
“The title song, the only Ancarola composition, opens the album with a counterpoint to Jara’s portrait of Lonquén, where, it seems that, even with the dictatorship’s self-destruction, little has changed in sociological terms. Jara was a poet, troubadour, and prophet of the Chilean masses, and as Ancarola observes, “Víctor’s art emerges inexorably from his humble origin in a country marked by class differences.”
Francesca Ancarola, Lonquén: Tribute to Víctor Jara
Petroglyph (www.petroglyphrecords.com)
Victor Jara’s songs and his struggle continues.
MMS must have all the fanfare of one of the most critical medicines that has ever been created to mankind
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Nobel Prize-winning physicist Albert Einstein’s famous letter about the Nazis, the United States were sold at an auction of 14 thousand dollars.
Einstein, June 10, 1939 letter to a New York businessman, Hyman Zinn, the Nazis for the Jews “a very great danger,” warns formed.
Nate D Sanders auction house in Los Angeles, California, double the price buyers who predicted the auction letter, Einstein, who helped Jews to escape Germany’s Adolf Hitler, praised Zinn.
Einstein, in his letter contained the following statements:
“Jews for thousands of years to keep alive power of resistance, largely based on the tradition of helping others. This difficult period and our desire to help each other, passing a big exam. Just like our fathers before us we must pass this exam.”
Einstein developed his theory of general relativity which revolutionized the world of science, Hitler came to power in 1933, then moved to Germany after leaving the United States.
A delegation from Turkey to Belgium, while the other one is going to literally. Agency for International Development as a victory of Manisa, Kütahya, Afyon and Usak delegation composed of governors immediately after contact among Belgium, Brussels, welcomes delegation of Isparta.
Western Mediterranean Development Agency, the Provincial Directorate of Agriculture and Suleyman Demirel University, Isparta, Isparta 30 people, officials as well as businessmen’s delegation held talks in Brussels. The delegation, all of Industrialists and Businessmen’s Association (TUMSIAD) also visited the headquarters in Brussels.
During the visit, providing information on economic development in the region of Isparta Commodity Exchange President Ahmet Adar, “There are opportunities in our region attractive for investment. Bridal Evaluation with these opportunities.” he, Ali Galip knowledgeable in the Mediterranean Development Agency Coordinator “that can be done in Isparta has invested in many areas. Knowledgeable” very attractive opportunities available in rose oil. Isparta Commodity Exchange of 30 million euros per year in exports in question. However, the large demand for this area of Turkey. “He said.
In his speech, President Bashir Hamarat TUMSIAD Belgium gave information about investments. Industrious “Of course, after having more detailed information about the projects to explore possibilities of cooperation, develop. Very satisfied with this visit we had. Our goal is to serve the development of regions, as well as the investment in our people.” saying, thanked the delegation from Turkey.
After the interview protocol was signed in good faith between TUMSIAD and Isparta.
The prisoner exchange agreement with Israel in exchange for Gilad Shalit, Hamas, Fatah leader Marwan agreement Popular Free Palestine Cephesin’den Berguti and high-profile names such as Ahmad Sadat explained why has not taken place. Hamas officials, insisting on these two names would result in failure to insist upon the agreement stated that they are not. An agreement with Hamas, Israel, and Sadat Berguti criticism was that it does not contain.
Hamas, the organization said in a statement today, Abdullah Barghouti and his high-profile men like Hassan Salameh stressed that even the free b?rakt?ramad???n?. Even more difficult to force the agreement on this subject insist on these names to sokaca?? defended is sparse.
Another criticism of Hamas, the second stage, which is left to be determined by the Palestinians in Israel. Under the deal, leaving 450 Palestinians, Hamas was first elected, but the second stage of 550 Palestinians, Israel will choose to leave. After the end of embroidery that do not release from prison, relatives may show some response to Hamas, the Palestinians said.
Be released at the moment who has been made public. Hamas security reasons it also shows that as the reason.
Specific identities of the 27 women prisoners would be freed if the prisoners. Hamas has announced the names of such persons only. These include the Israeli-Arab prisoners in Lina’s Jarbouni and Verod Kassen
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