Free Hawaii from the Military

The U.S Department of Defense announced this week that 9000 US Marines currently stationed in Okinawa, Japan, will be redeployed to Guam, Hawaii & Australia.

Hawaii is due to get 2700 of these Marines, plus their families.

The United States Pacific Command (USPACOM) deploys 300,000 military personnel in its wide region of operations. A large percentage of these military people pass through Hawaii. They bring money, energy, and a measure of protection. Costs to Hawaii include military occupation of huge tracts of scarce land, frictions between locals & vacationers & military-related youths, pollution by military-related industries, and the targeting of Hawaii by potential enemy forces (largely due to the military concentration).

US military deployment in Japan is about 50,000 personnel in total (link to BBC report).

Bring US military families home to the US mainland!

National Amnesia

 

The Korean people suppress inconvenient & embarrassing facts, "forgetting" conditions or events seemingly in the blink of an eye. The ability is shared by those from other nations, and maybe not to a lesser degree. I've always been astounded that Americans in the 1970s so quickly migrated from war opposition to ignoring their genocide in Southeast Asia. The massacres of American Indian peoples in earlier decades remains conveniently forgotten by those who displaced & butchered their territories' prior inhabitants. Surely the imagery of Columbus "discovering" America is characteristic of this syndrome.

Perhaps a global truth-finding panel could root out such anomalies. Some myths cause huge harm, but are conveniently ignored by proud national populations, corrupt leaders and feeble media. Dangerous harm too easily recurs, again & again.

Norwegian mass-murderer Anders Breivik condemned multi-culturalism at his trial this week and praised "racially pure" Korea & Japan... Breivik proudly "supports the model in South Korea and Japan". Not nice. Multiple views and opinions are inefficient, but it's safest to involve women & minorities in the decision-making process. Peace grows from pluralistic involvement, by all generations. Too narrow a viewpoint leads to foolishness and widespread perilous exposure.

In such regard, let's not forget the nearly mythical case of Korean Hwang Woo-Suk, "Supreme Scientist" (황우석, "최고과학자"); Great Hero until exposed for fraudulent cloning data & ethics violations. Koreans wish it never happened, and suppress their memories. It thus can occur easily again!  

Hero of the Nation became someone to forget 

As stories unraveled, Prof. Hwang collapsed to hospital 

Remember Pearl Harbor

This week the Dalai Lama draws attention in military-occupied Hawaii to peoples still colonized. Tibetans & Hawaiians face heartbreaking encroachment, each ruled from a distant megalopolis by an alien culture. Resilient peoples, pawns in global geopolitical belligerency, yet widely admired for joyous living, naturally greeting each day's blessings. Dispossessed, but standing together. Recently freed nations, help speak up for us! Please work for future peace.

 

Romney's Silver Spoon

Ann & Mitt Romney with his parents in 1969. George was
then a U.S. Cabinet Secretary in the Nixon administration.

Mitt Romney is an ass. He claims he wants "to serve the people" but his self-centered arrogance makes clear he'll help himself and his cronies, doing nothing for the rest of us. He's a wealthy brat who refuses to recognize his debts to others. His father was five times the greater man. Mitt's as "self-made" as George W. Bush and Mickey Mouse. Oh sorry - he's made an ass of himself.

Scrooge's Ghosts

Where are the ghoulies when we need them? It's time skinflint Republicans got flogged with Christmas chains and made to see the error of their ways.

There's nothing inherently wrong with being rich. But squeeze working folk too rudely and backfire is likely. Worse, too many fat pale 1%ers believe they've done it all themselves. Community contributes greatly to anyone's wealth and success, but now they are misers, scorning all in continuing selfish tantrum.

Jeju 4.3 Butchery

The history of Jeju 4.3 is still now being uncovered. Bitter ideological infighting in Korea between 1948 and 1954 killed 30,000 people on tiny Jeju island, with thousands more systematically raped and widespread destruction of property. Jeju 4.3 was held secret and suppressed for many decades (a 1978 novel Aunt Suni that discussed events led to author Hyun Ki-Young's arrest & torture). It's now admitted that Government forces were responsible for the great bulk of the outrages (link).

It's terrible people can refuse to recognize such horrors, as if turning our thoughts away makes reality disappear. But massacre of indigenous peoples by "settlers" still takes place in our world. Terrible.

Here's a key article about Jeju 4.3 (link)

Below is part of a poster illustrating continuing struggle, as local activists seek to stop construction of a naval base threatening a UNESCO World Heritage site & national park in Gangjeong, Jeju island.

Colony Afghan

The U.S. Afghan Strategic Partnership Agreement is a sham. In fact, a proud noble people will be denigrated to servile raghead status. America has no proper business occupying Afghanistan. Get out America! Go home, and in your own nation build bridges and trolleys and clinics.

While foreign military occupation continues, of course a few will fight back...

Unregulated & Unafraid

From cases such as Enron, Bernie Madoff & Co., WorldCom, etc., few of us gullible guppies believe in corporate nobility.

Rich folk fleece & cheat too often; among themselves as well.

We need regulation, regulators, and penalties for non-compliance.  The cheats poison the system. They avoid paying for pollution. They pass their costs to us. Selling inferior products, they swindle & steal.

Did you get the proper volume of gas / petrol when you filled your car? Can you trust the indicated volume on the pump? Who owns that pump?

Unregulated = Unafraid
too often a prelude to us being hoodwinked & cheated by professional scumbags.

Surveillance State, Techie's Dream

Many nations now seek to monitor communications of their entire populations (UK plans are reported here - link). The State can access our information; they try to assure us we're thus better protected.

Internet and telephone provider firms are forced to pay for surveillance & storage equipment, costs passed to consumers. These ludicrous systems will cause many multiples more problems than potential successes. The banks & credit card companies are already thus regulated, but at least (because of the money) security & secrecy are part of their basic mandate.

Giving anyone access to such telephone, email, and computer interactions is monstrously problematic. Under existing & proposed laws, private sector providers will be required to store data for many months or years. From a security perspective, your data is at grave risk of hijacking. Technical entrepreneurs are sure to hugely profit from some such files or metadata. Resale? Blackmail? Piracy? Government snoops are angelic in comparison.

We'll soon be hostage to minimally-trained private sector tech staff who recognize the value of information they collect & control.