From “Neverland” to the real world

Western media put the brakes on their 24/7 demonization of Iran ’s leadership in favor of a ubiquitous, round-the-clock coverage of the death of Michael Jackson. From probing every minutiae of the life and times of the grotesque, white parchment-skinned ”Neverland” prince, to gathering tributes from all corners of the globe, including those infamous 1,500 dancing inmates of a Cebu prison, such efforts must have been deemed enough to distract viewers from the more pressing problems of the day. “How quaint these people are at performing ‘Thriller’,” they must have said. What’s being missed, however, is that for these inmates (or their superiors) to want to be noticed as great at aping that pitiful Michael Jackson, who was himself a “slave” of the white master, who bleached his face and salved his soul with pain killers to his death, it only betrays a greater cultural flaw among Filipinos: That of aping the decadent American sado-hedonist civilization.

While to some, it’s “killjoy” to react to Jackson ’s passing this way, a killjoy I will be to help kill this pandemic of a delusional cult culture that has infected our people. Michael Jackson promoted a slave culture that kept the masses distracted from the toil of meaningless labor and their alienation from the fruits of the earth, which should be for all but monopolized by a few. As someone reacting to the Inquirer’s banner photo of the orange clad inmates said, “Better than nothing for them to do,” I promptly retorted that these inmates could do better by building roads and bridges, mini-hydroelectric dams and the like, instead of merely grabbing their 15 minutes of fame.

Soon enough, western media will go back to Iran and Ahmadinejad-bashing; but the world will have snapped out of the anti-Iran shock anyway as hardnosed facts are surfacing, such as western media’s lopsided replaying of a dozen anti-Ahmadinejad demonstrations while hundreds of massive pro-Ahmadinejad rallies go unreported. The killing of the Iranian lady, too, is now known to be unrelated to any rallies or demonstrations and, therefore, could be attributed to the MKO or the CIA. By week’s end, people will better remember that these media, like CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, previously conspired with US and British interests to lie about Iraq and Saddam’s WMD.

Filipinos must now learn the truth about Iran because it is the only evolving, real democracy in that region. Iran is a revolutionary but democratic state that can bring change to the whole of the Middle East, and weaken the imperial hold of the US , as it is one of the few countries there that hold genuine elections. While post-election protests are to be expected in any working democracy, the West’s diatribes against Iran prove hypocritical since the US supports client states like Egypt , Saudi Arabia , and Israel , which do not even feign democratic processes and are infinitely more repressive, where even the slightest demonstrations are met with absolutely ruthless repression. Because of these, Iran is essential to the peace and prosperity of the Third World .

The post-election violence in Tehran was clearly provoked by anti-government elements, abetted by western media. From this incident’s very first day, CNN, BBC, and Al Jazeera, have all showed from morning until night, one footage of a burning garbage bin and already described Tehran as “in flames.” With words and images like these, rage is sure to be provoked against Ahmadinejad, whose “faults,” according to the West, include opening a discussion about the Holocaust, standing firm on Iran and every country’s right to develop peaceful nuclear technology, and compelling world powers to conform to international law.

By calling for an open debate about the Holocaust, Ahmadinejad only sought an honest study of the facts. Is it wrong to challenge the long established rule about Holocaust questions, where in European countries such as Germany, one can be imprisoned for questioning it, or where in the US and France, many academics can be ostracized for doing the same, or where in Argentina, a Catholic bishop, Richard Williamson, can be hounded out by that country’s large Jewish community?

If the Holocaust were completely true, why even enact laws that make it illegal to look deeper into it? What is there to fear from questioning minds?

Perhaps it is because Israel has been extracting hundreds of billions of dollars in US economic-military support because of the “Holocaust guilt complex,” side by side with obtaining billions upon billions of German “Holocaust reparations” payments to create its “miracle state” and “miracle communes,” which are really massively subsidized Potemkin villages, and perpetuate Jewish control the US Federal Reserve and Congress, the information and entertainment business, and the control of much of America’s mind.

I posit that once Ahmadinejad shatters the myth of the Holocaust, and Iran finally masters the nuclear cycle, the world can begin total nuclear disarmament. Why? Israel is the only Middle Eastern nuclear weapons state. If Iran obtains nuclear weapons capability, Israel will have no choice but to negotiate for eventual mutual disarmament. In the same way, the US, which has tried to maintain monopoly of nuclear weapons by pressuring even France from nuclear testing until 1996, has been pretty cautious with regard to North Korea, perhaps because of the latter’s ability to damage US interests substantially. When North Korea perfects its nuclear weapons arsenal enough to reach US territory, America will then have to think very seriously about opening up to a universal disarmament to save itself. Ironically, only then can Michael Jackson’s “We are the World” become a real possibility.

(Tune in to 1098AM, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 6 p.m. to 7 p.m., and Saturday, 10 p.m. to 11 p.m.; YouTube‘s “Sulong Pilipinismo” Internet broadcasts; Global News Network, Tuesday, 8:15 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. with Gov. Homobono Adaza on “Leaders: From Marcos to Arroyo,” with replay on Saturday, 3 p.m. to 4 p.m.; also visit http://hermantiulaurel.blogspot.com)