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Bristol Evening Post, UK
January 27, 2007 Saturday
Soapbox: Holocaust day
This is a polite reminder that today is Holocaust Day, which in my
opinion ought to be renamed Genocide Day, especially when one
considers the situations in Iraq, Afghanistan, Chechnya, Palestine
and, lest we forget, Africa (Rwanda, The Congo and Darfur spring to
mind).
Genocide is defined in the dictionary in unambiguous terms as "the
deliberate extermination of a racial, religious or ethnic group". A
more expanded definition comes with the following quote from the
Peace Pledge Union website: "It is mass murder deliberately planned
and carried out by individuals, all of whom are responsible whether
they made the plan, gave the order or carried out the killings.
"Whatever its scale, genocide is made up of individual acts and
individual choices to perform them. So human individuals need to make
the commitment, as early in life as possible, that they will have no
truck with it."
Almost without question, the Holocaust - to sacrifice by fire - (or
Shoa) was the worst example of this kind of barbarism and organised
mass murder. The fact that it was so organised and meticulously
carried out makes it so. Sadly, it is not unique in history.
Millions of Congolese were murdered by the Belgian imperialists under
the stewardship of King Leopold the second.
The British incarcerated and starved hundreds of thousands of Boers
during the Boer War, the British army effectively invented the
concentration camp.
In 1915, the Young Turks organised the extermination of at least
million Christian Armenians.
By 1900, the Native American Indians were practically eradicated from
a population of at least three million.
In 1904, the German imperialists murdered 65,000 members of the
Namibian Herero tribe from an initial population of 80,000.
In 1932, enforced collectivisation of the Ukrainian farmers resulted
in the deaths of at least seven million people and another 10 million
were deported to Siberia as slave labour.
At least 100,000 Cambodians were killed as a direct result of US B52
bombing - this catastrophe helped Pol Pot take control. The Khmer
Rouge (which the US backed in its war with Vietnam) systematically
slaughtered, tortured and starved at least three million people.
This is by no means an exhaustive list, and I have tried to convey
balance - no one country or geographic block is guilt-free.
This leads me to believe that it is a system of deliberate policies
that allow it all to happen.
The great US historian Howard Sinn hits the nail on the head, saying:
"The memory of the Jewish holocaust should not be kept isolated from
other atrocities in history. To remember what happened to the six
million Jews serves no important purpose unless it arouses
indignation, anger and action against all atrocities anywhere in the
world."
So, dear reader, if you are anything like me, you are appalled about
the general state of our beautiful world today, sick of seeing
killing versus helping. You think that it is a crime that recent
Pentagon disclosures show the US military alone is spending 320
million a day solely on Iraq and Afghanistan, with no discernable
improvements for those we are supposed to be helping. In fact, by any
benchmark, things are worse than they were before "liberation". You
think it is an obscenity that our UK establishment is even
considering spending £25 to £75 billion on the Trident replacement,
yet is shutting hospitals and selling off services that could be run
for decades if not centuries for the same money.
In short, you are appalled by our reality and disgusted by the lack
of progress in terms of "sorting things out".
Look at the solutions put forward by the establishment to deal with
climate change, world hunger, Aids, and poverty across the world - do
you think they are going to work?
I believe that in a global context these sorts of issues taken as a
whole constitute a crime against humanity, as it is all so
unnecessary and tragic.
Today is about giving some time to reflect on our situation. More
importantly, it is about taking action and saying words to the effect
of "I'm not standing for this any more."
Mark Plummer, Knowle.
January 27, 2007 Saturday
Soapbox: Holocaust day
This is a polite reminder that today is Holocaust Day, which in my
opinion ought to be renamed Genocide Day, especially when one
considers the situations in Iraq, Afghanistan, Chechnya, Palestine
and, lest we forget, Africa (Rwanda, The Congo and Darfur spring to
mind).
Genocide is defined in the dictionary in unambiguous terms as "the
deliberate extermination of a racial, religious or ethnic group". A
more expanded definition comes with the following quote from the
Peace Pledge Union website: "It is mass murder deliberately planned
and carried out by individuals, all of whom are responsible whether
they made the plan, gave the order or carried out the killings.
"Whatever its scale, genocide is made up of individual acts and
individual choices to perform them. So human individuals need to make
the commitment, as early in life as possible, that they will have no
truck with it."
Almost without question, the Holocaust - to sacrifice by fire - (or
Shoa) was the worst example of this kind of barbarism and organised
mass murder. The fact that it was so organised and meticulously
carried out makes it so. Sadly, it is not unique in history.
Millions of Congolese were murdered by the Belgian imperialists under
the stewardship of King Leopold the second.
The British incarcerated and starved hundreds of thousands of Boers
during the Boer War, the British army effectively invented the
concentration camp.
In 1915, the Young Turks organised the extermination of at least
million Christian Armenians.
By 1900, the Native American Indians were practically eradicated from
a population of at least three million.
In 1904, the German imperialists murdered 65,000 members of the
Namibian Herero tribe from an initial population of 80,000.
In 1932, enforced collectivisation of the Ukrainian farmers resulted
in the deaths of at least seven million people and another 10 million
were deported to Siberia as slave labour.
At least 100,000 Cambodians were killed as a direct result of US B52
bombing - this catastrophe helped Pol Pot take control. The Khmer
Rouge (which the US backed in its war with Vietnam) systematically
slaughtered, tortured and starved at least three million people.
This is by no means an exhaustive list, and I have tried to convey
balance - no one country or geographic block is guilt-free.
This leads me to believe that it is a system of deliberate policies
that allow it all to happen.
The great US historian Howard Sinn hits the nail on the head, saying:
"The memory of the Jewish holocaust should not be kept isolated from
other atrocities in history. To remember what happened to the six
million Jews serves no important purpose unless it arouses
indignation, anger and action against all atrocities anywhere in the
world."
So, dear reader, if you are anything like me, you are appalled about
the general state of our beautiful world today, sick of seeing
killing versus helping. You think that it is a crime that recent
Pentagon disclosures show the US military alone is spending 320
million a day solely on Iraq and Afghanistan, with no discernable
improvements for those we are supposed to be helping. In fact, by any
benchmark, things are worse than they were before "liberation". You
think it is an obscenity that our UK establishment is even
considering spending £25 to £75 billion on the Trident replacement,
yet is shutting hospitals and selling off services that could be run
for decades if not centuries for the same money.
In short, you are appalled by our reality and disgusted by the lack
of progress in terms of "sorting things out".
Look at the solutions put forward by the establishment to deal with
climate change, world hunger, Aids, and poverty across the world - do
you think they are going to work?
I believe that in a global context these sorts of issues taken as a
whole constitute a crime against humanity, as it is all so
unnecessary and tragic.
Today is about giving some time to reflect on our situation. More
importantly, it is about taking action and saying words to the effect
of "I'm not standing for this any more."
Mark Plummer, Knowle.