The rich in India are getting richer. 36 billionairies consitute a third of India’s GDP. They are disgustingly rich and behave like other such ruling classes always have. They are morally upset when the oppressed and starving demand their right. They talk with horror in their Parliament and their press if the victims defend themselves when private goondas or regular forces of the ruling class–Salwa Judum and Green Hunt–kill, rape and torch to establish law and order.

India has never been ‘‘non-violent’’. Neither from the rulers or the ruled. As a movement against the rulers non-violence gave rise to a library of books but it was not non-violence that forced the British to (partially) leave. The oppressed masses have always been struggling. That everyone who looks at an uncensored history of South Asia knows. But the political censorship about India was so thoroughgoing that even officially non-political books for young people like the standard English version of Jules Verne’s ‘‘The Mysterious Island’’ was purged. Jules Verne’s original text on Captain Nemo and 1857 was considered subversive and rewritten to suit British imperial interests.

The British had to give up their official rule in 1947 because they were broke; because the ‘‘Quit India’’ movement during the war had been far stronger than their official censorship allowed to be published; because the INA-trial and the Bombay naval mutiny proved that they could no longer rely on their armed forces. Gandhi was historically important but ‘‘non-violence’’ played no decisive part in the history of the popular struggle against the protracted—often extreme—violence of the rulers against the people in South Asia.

The projects and the policies in India I have witnessed, this more than half a century that officially have been aimed at the uplift of the unnecessary 25% of the population in the bottom layer of Indian society have not been only officialese and hot air. These projects and policies have provided a pleasant livelihood (partly by direct corruption) for bureaucrats, ‘‘aid workers’’ (state or NGO) and a multitude of politically servile writers in India and outside. The hungry are still as hungry and the oppressed still as oppressed.

But since Charu Mazumdar initiated the armed struggle in Naxalbari 43 years ago these people on the underside of India have been fighting the ruling elites not only politically but also with bows and arrows, knives and guns and bombs.

Much has happened in these years and there have been many changes. Charu Mazumdar is long since dead in jail and his followers, though they deeply respect him and read him, have found that special traits of his policies—like the annihilation line—are unproductive. Thus the struggle has developed and grown. In 1980 when I discussed with Chandrapulla Reddy in Mumbai and he then sent me to Andhra Pradesh the armed squads there were rather weak—even if full of spirit—and his group like other Naxals of that time were, as he told me, parts of a split movement without any leader of an all-India stature.

This time my old friend, the civil rights activist Gautam Navlakha and I were invited to Dandakaranya for discussions with the General Secretary, the Politburo of the Communist Party of India (Maoist) and the leading cadres of the armed forces. The situation was much different from that of 1980. The splits among the Naxals are being overcome. The party is an All-India party and a revolutionary and democratic state organization, the Janata Sarkar—the people’s power—is step by step supplanting the state organization of the ruling class. The armed force—the People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army—is already strong enough to inflict very heavy military losses on the government forces. It is important to let readers the world over know about this mounting war for a decent life by the oppressed of the earth.

But of course it is their country and their war. I always try to keep in mind what Rewi Alley told me in Beijing during the turbulent years of the Cultural Revolution in China:

—Remember it is their country!

That the oppressed always are right against their rulers is as true in India 2010 as it has been through history. But my role as a writer is to try to explain the struggle and make readers outside India—and maybe also in India—better understand why and how the people struggle. I am not to tell them in India what to do and how to do it. As I am writing this I read the Times of India 12 April. It seems that I also have other readers; official ones:

“With Maoists threatening more Dantewada-type attacks, the Centre has asked states and CRPF to be on their toes and is also studying Maoist chief Ganapathi alias Mupalla Laxman Rao’s recent comments about new ‘war tactics’. Fresh alerts were sounded late on Saturday and repeated on Sunday in view of the Naxals’ warning.

Although the forces have been on full alert since the massacre of 76 security personnel on April 6, the Centre asked commanders in war zones to take adequate precautions sensing that the ultras’ warning may not just be plain rhetoric.

Taking cue from what Ganapathi recently said in an interview to Swedish author and columnist Jan Myrdal, CRPF’s operational strategists, meanwhile, are ‘revisiting’ the Maoist chief’s rare utterances on crucial issues including how the Naxals have been positioning themselves to gain ground.’

A senior official said, ‘We are not in a position to take any threat lightly while waiting for its authenticity. After all, such threats are in tune with Ganapathi’s line as broadly revealed in his recent interview.’

The forces are now trying to figure out what Ganapathi meant when he told Myrdal that Maoist guerrillas would chase the security forces’ base camps like ‘honey bees’.

Referring to the 22-page interview given somewhere in the jungles of eastern ghats in January, the official said, ‘It is important to know them if we want to counter them’.”

Also now I see on the net that the present Indian rulers ‘‘beareth not the sword in vain” (Romans 13.4). The Home minister P. Chidabaram on Thursday May 6th 2010 goes out of his way to warn what he calls ‘‘the intellectuals”. He warns writers like me and Gautam Navlakha and Arundhati Roy that have gone to Dandakaranya with the aim to report truthfully on the situation:

“Government Asks People to Be Vigilant of CPI (Maoist) Propaganda.

It has come to the notice of the Government that some Maoist leaders have been directly contacting certain NGOs/intellectuals to propagate their ideology and persuade them to take steps as would provide support to the CPI (Maoist) ideology. It is brought to the notice of the general public that under Section 39 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, any person who commits the offence of supporting such a terrorist organisation with inter alia intention to further the activities of such terrorist organisations would be liable to be punished with imprisonment for a term not exceeding ten years or with fine or with both. General public are informed to be extremely vigilant of the propaganda of CPI (Maoist) and not unwittingly become a victim of such propaganda.

This is being issued in public interest so that the general public are aware that the Communist Party of India (Maoist) and all its formations and front organisations are terrorist organisations whose sole aim is armed overthrow of the Indian State and that they have no place in India’s parliamentary democracy. CPI (Maoist) continues to kill innocent civilians including tribals in cold blood and destroy crucial infrastructure like roads, culverts, school buildings, gram panchayat buildings, etc. so as to prevent development from reaching these under-developed areas.”

I am not sure that the readers outside India—or even in India—know how extraordinary this ‘‘section 39’’ is. Thus I will quote it. Not even openly fascist governments use to formulate India-rubber laws like this!

“39. Offence relating to support given to a terrorist organisation. (1) A person commits the offence relating to support given to a terrorist organisation, (a) who, with intention to further the activity of a terrorist organisation, (i) invites support for the terrorist organisation, and (ii) the support is not or is not restricted to provide money or other property within the meaning of section 40; or (b) who, with intention to further the activity of a terrorist organisation, arranges, manages or assists in arranging or managing a meeting which he knows is (i) to support the terrorist organisation, or (ii) to further the activity of the terrorist organisation, or (iii) to be addressed by a person who associates or professes to be associated with the terrorist organisation; or (c) who, with intention to further the activity of a terrorist organisation, addresses a meeting for the purpose of encouraging support for the terrorist organisation or to further its activity. (2) A person, who commits the offence relating to support given to a terrorist organisation under sub-section (1) shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term not exceeding ten years, or with fine, or with both.”

But whatever laws the ruling class of India have passed through their parliament I am now writing ‘‘Red Star over India. The Wretched of the Earth are Rising.” It will be interesting to see what the Home minister P Chidabaram will do about it.

Author:  Jan MYRDAL

Source: Tlaxcale.se

The last article of our little supra vuvuzela series. We promise. Because there are surely more important things, like the elites keep ripping off the people (G20) and media corporations help to keep it altogether (for example not showing massive strikes in Greece against the reforms dictated by the IWF).

Edit: Waves also realeased a Vuvuzela Filter. It is actually a plugin-chain containing the Q10 and the WNS Waves Noise Suppressor.

Funny idea and nice marketing move

OK, that’s dogmatic but … remember … if you are not indie…

Cya

The pictures are by Leon Kuhn. You can check out more stuff @ (http://www.leonkuhn.org.uk)

Thanks for watching

Check out more banknotes at Payvand!

Goodbye

Zalia (Polignostix)

Alyssa Bustamante. She killed a 9 year old child for real.

My Fallen Earth avatar.She killed thousands of people and monsters in the game.

If you want to find out more about  Alyssa Bustamante you can start here. It leads to the blog that made me find out about this terrifying murder and the similarity to my avatar today. I like her style on the picture tho.

Additional information about the game Fallen Earth: Click!

Zalia (Polignostix)

Today he published a video documentation with English subtitles, which I am quite happy about, because now, more people can understand what was going on with this project. It contains various background information and live cuts of the premiere of the music. And it contains an awesome scene at 8:48! An outraged spectator accuses Kreidler of exploitation! What better prove can there be that his project actually worked out?

This project was about more topics than just outsourcing, but see for yourself:

Now, just imagine if people would react like that in various different situations. Imagine an angry person in a shoe shop throwing shoes onto the floor, then leaving the shop while angrily shouting “No, I do not pay 100 times more money than what the workers in China got”.

Or think about the virtual money of online-computer-games, that people buy for real money off of companies. These – often western – companies usually gather the virtual money by using bots (software) and/or cheap, often Chinese people. They play all day and night under mostly inhumane conditions, to gather the game-money. Gamers, mostly from the western countries, then buy the virtual money for a few dollars and improve the equipment of their virtual game avatars.

What if people would simply not buy the virtual gold anymore or behave like the person in the shoe-shop of the aforementioned example. People do have the power to improve  the economic system. More than politicians or lobby organizations. But sadly, many individuals are more interested in their own benefits, for example to buy their virtual game avatar a new horse or new sword. And further more, the economic system is so brutal, that gold-farmers are happy to work in sweatshops because it is better than to have nothing.

And if you scream “Education! Education! Then they get better jobs!”. Nope. That is just a carrot on a stick held in front of our noses by the elites. A society can not exist if everyone is a quantum physicist, architect, composer, doctor etc.

The aforementioned examples are just logic results of the capitalism, which is primarily driven by the rule to make profit. It is primarily a profit orientated and not matter orientated system. (Yes, It often goes hand in hand but that may be a topic for another blog entry)

Old cold-war propaganda movie:

And so I think complaining about exploiting foreign workers is not enough. Basically every worker generates more value than he receives as wage, not just the Chinese guy who does outsourced work, but also the US worker at let’s say GM, even with needed (re)investiments in mind.

I think we have to do a lot of rethinking.

Thanks for your attention

Zalia (Polignostix)

The End.

Thanks for your attention

Zalia (Polignostix.com)

Globalization - Outsourcing to China and India

Kreidler, 29, trained composer and music teacher, received a composing  job by Klangwerkstatt Berlin. To fulfill the task, he did what corporations like to do in order to maximize their profits: He outsourced the work. Basically he outsourced his own job to India and China. Thanks to the internet, he found the people he needed. Kreidler payed 90$ to the  low wage workers and, on top of that, actually claimed a lot of the copyright of the work.

The German artist found and hired one Indian audio programmer and one Chinese composer to copy his style and compose 4 pieces of music with Kreidler’s signature sound. Since the foreign musicians never did something like that – the Chinese composer usually produces music for weddings – the music turned out to be a strange mixture of western and eastern influences, so said Kreidler. The work of the chinese composer actually pleased him and he would not hesitate to say, that it could be his own music, quality wise.

But who cares about perfected music anyways. The German composer will receive 1500$ for his work in Germany. Time is money. 1500$ – 90$ = 1410$ profit. Easy work, mission accomplished. Daddy turbo-capitalism would be proud of Johannes Kreidler, if it wasn’t an action to point out grievances that take place daily in the current globalization.

After this sad article, some cuddly and friendly music

Thank  you for your interest

Zalia (Polignostix)

This is a huge increase of +725’621 recipients or from +2.1% compared to the previous month and +23.4% respectively incredible +6.791 million people compared to the same month last year,  with 29.059 million needy at that time.

> The explosive rise in food stamps recipients on a monthly basis. < <

In 1970 4.3 million people were recipients of food stamps and the program caused costs of 577 million U.S. dollars. In 1990 20,1 million needy already received support and the expenses increased to 15,4 billion U.S. dollars. In 2000, 17.2 million people obtained food stamps, the cost rose to 17.1 billion U.S. dollars.

The costs of the SNAP program literally exploded in July 2009,  to a new monthly all-time high. Just in July,  SNAP swallowed 4.78 billion U.S. dollars in direct aid, without the costs of bureaucracy. Projected over the year it can be estimated, that the costs of direct grants will be  50.38 billion U.S. dollars, in 2008 it was 34.611 billion U.S. dollars. As part of the U.S. economic stimulus program 2009  (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act), amounting to 787 billion U.S. dollars, 20 additional billion U.S. dollars  to the food program for the needy, will flow in the next 5 years. This also explains the rise in public attention to the needy from 31% to the same month last year to now $ 133.31 per person.

Even today’s 35.851 million needy are only one part of the bitter reality, because to get to the “enjoyment” of the credit for food expenditure, able-bodied adults from 16 to 60 years old have to prove, that they are willing to look for work and accept any work , plus employment or training programs. The discouraged workers who have given up looking for a job, fall through the unemployment statistics, as well as  through the SNAP network. Adults without children can generally only apply for a maximum of 3 months to the SNAP program. Nearly 76% of the food stamps go to families with children, of which are 61% children with one parental unit.

As a condition for indigence, the poverty line is used. The poverty line is currently defined by SNAP for a 1 person household with $ 903  net income per month and for a 4 person household with $ 1838 net!

In marked contrast to the financial instruments for the capital markets, the obtainable food for the poor is heavily regulated. Beer, wine, liquor, cigarettes, tobacco, pet food, cosmetics, medicines, vitamins, restaurants, even fast-food premises are excluded from the reference (for details: PDF Snap / Retailers).

The exponentially increasing number of needy clearly shows the failure of recent economic and fiscal policy under President Bush as well as under Obama!

The job loss  in the United States accumulated on a huge -6.929 million lost jobs since January 2008! The feedback of this disaster is clearly visible in the growing poverty of the population. According to the latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau for 2008, the poverty rate rose to 13.2% or 39.8 million U.S. citizens, compared to 37.3 million in 2007. The number of U.S. citizens without health insurance rose further, to an incredible 46.3 million in 2008 (45.7 million in 2007) or at a rate of 15.4%, including 7.3 million children.

The amount of income of the lowest 20% of households and the unequal distribution of income explain the additionally growing poverty.

> Click to enlarge the image. The income distribution by quin-tiles (fifth parts) including the top 5%. The top 20% of households generate 50% of all income. The top 5% even 21.5% of income. The bottom 40% of households reached, however only a 12% share of total income. The situation of the lowest 20% is dramatic, with a share of only 3.4% of the income pie! The lowest 20% of U.S. households in 2008 achieved an average real (inflation-adjusted) annual income of only 11’656 dollars! Since 1969, with $ 10,031, the real income only rose by +16.1% respectively +1’625 dollars. Data Source: Census.gov

All these unspeakable conditions are a declaration of bankruptcy, given the incurred and planned bailouts, liquidity support and credit of the State and the Federal Reserve in the amount of downward revision is now 11.536 billion dollars, according to Bloomberg. Currently, around 3.025 billion dollars flowed in real.

Data Source: SNAP Program

I translated the article by Steffen Bogs.

Sigh and bye

Zalia (Polignostix)

/irony off

Zalia (Polignostix)

And what do people like to do every day in  electrified countries / areas of the world? What is the light source that emits a glimmering light in every second room when you walk through the city at the evening and make people stare into one direction as if they had a vision or a religious visitation?

Right, the TV!

Because TVs need power, Ghulam Nabi Azad suggests, to electrify whole India quickly. People are often bored in the evening and start to have sex. This behaviour would change if more people had TVs. So he says.

Zalia (Polignostix.com)

I received an email today and was informed, that this plan eventually failed. The measurements of the German government to prevent further killing sprees are however still ridiculous. Basically they wanted to please the populace which demands actions to be taken and not wanted to treat the feet of the weapon lobby at the same time. So basically the actions taken are nothing but hot air. As so often in the world of politics.

One interesting side note: The weapon lobby suggested to forbid first person shooter computer games. My journalistic comment: Fuck you, you false assholes.

Until next time

Zalia (Polignostix)

“Everyday practices and habits are grounded in taken-for-granted assumptions about ‘normal’ practices [...] This sort of behaviour is often not a calculated choice, but taken-for-granted, as an inherent aspect of modern life. This helps to explain why traditional approaches that try to change behaviour by directly influencing attitudes and intentions often prove ineffective. However, studies in several related disciplines suggest that everyday practices are malleable, and can be nudged in a socially desirable direction by subtle forms of social influence. In particular, research indicates that feedback on an individual’s level of performance (e.g. electricity consumption) can change their behaviour, and moreover, that this effect is enhanced if supplemented by feedback on the performance of a relevant social group. This project will evaluate this process, using and developing digital technology to facilitate the capture and feedback of individual and social group information in a non-invasive, cost effective and timely manner. There are three case studies 1) electricity consumption, 2) active lifestyle and 3) Facebook.” [Source]

One of the keys is to let people know what other people do and give feedback. This is THE element of web 2.0.  This meanwhile lead to companies which offer to manipulate forums, blogs, online-magazine comments in order to distort the reality that way, that the naive user, who ie. seeks informations about a product or political coherences (!) thinks, that this product or political point of view is good/right because so many “others” recommend, use or have it. Corporations like the europe wide influential Bertelsmann Corporation (they own hundreds affiliated companies like tv stations, magazines, radio stations, temporary employment agencies and much more; basically they explain us the world and (provable) try to run it ) openly offer such services. You can, if you want, use your search engine and look for example for  ” Arvato Online Services social media monitoring”.

The aforementioned study of the business university tries to find out how to manipulate people with non invasive methods. One group of persons is equipped with mobile phones and gps. They constantly get feedback about how active they are, how much they move and how they behave compared to others. The background is probably, to see if those people develop the ambition to keep the pace of others or even to be on top.

Another group is equipped with energy meters in their apartments. They also constantly get feedback about how the other people in that group perform. The third group interacts with Facebook and gets monitored regarding their behaviour.

Thanks for reading

Zalia (Polignostix)

Read more interesting background informations regarding the protests in China 1989 here!

Cheers

Zalia (Polignostix.com)

On march 11th, a killing spree happened in Winnenden, Germany. A seventeen year old boy killed 15 people and himself. This event shocked a huge part of the German society.

The reasons were soon to be found: The young killer was member of a gun sports club and played first person shooters computer games. In order to show the ability to take action, German government recently announced, to tighten up the gun law a tiny bit, forbid the game Paintball and the German Bundeswehr.

Paintball is a game which is basically imported from the USA. A few thousand people in Germany play it and there are even leagues. In order to prevent further killing sprees,  this strategic team fight sport will be forbidden soon. The main  reason is, that the participants of this sport are trained to shoot on other persons.

… hold on … telephone…

OK, i just got informed that this blog entry is true except the part of the German Armed Forces. The German Armed Forces will continue to train soldiers to kill other people in order to advocate the interests of the elites.

Cya -.-

Zalia (Babble Machine of Polignostix)

I say: Go for it ! And please: be gone then ! The last thing mankind needs, is this corporation network, which is nothing but a powerful mouthpiece of the conservative money elites, distorting reality day by day and hour by hour.

But of course: It is not as simple as that. Probably the announcement of Ruport Murdoch is just a test to see reactions. And even if he really ignores, that a lot of people do not like to pay for the online content of his newspapers, would not mean that his empire would perish.

But: Every reflecting person can only hope that the access to the online newspapers of the News Corporation need to be payed for. Because it would cut down it’s influence and it’s readers range drastically.

Yours,

Zalia (Professinoal Ranter of Polignostix)

However: Do not mess with the people, when they PERSONALLY feel badly treated ! And since this happens to more and more people ( and not just “the others” ) protest rises a little bit. And even new forms of organization and protest against ongoing circumstances emerge.

In Germany a so called „ crap strike” takes place by poorly paid people working in nursing services. You can take the word „ crap strike” literally: The partaking people put crap into small tubes and send them to those, who they think are responsible for bad payments and exploitations.

If you want to be politically active too, you may want to check out the global organization called Attac. I am not proposing that they are perfect but it is better to do something, than nothing. And one thing i like about Attac is, that they are open to anyone ( which means you do not have to be a leftist or communist or whatever). So no matter what political background you have (unless you are a radical right wing i guess) and as long as you do not agree anymore with the ongoing economic coherences, you are welcome.

You can find the Attac Homepage here.

Bye

Zalia (Polignostix)