[Peace-discuss] NFN

[Karen Aram]

Carl 

I’m sorry, if it appears I’m always bashing your statements on NFN, in spite of supporting your primary anti-war views. 

Please tell me how does voting “present,” as did Tulsi Gabbard, in reference to Impeachment, differ from “abstention?” How does it prove “courage,” rather than “cowardice,” as a local Representative here, was accused a couple years ago, when abstaining from a vote related to BDS. Please don’t repeat what Tulsi said, as I don’t see anything said by or as a candidate of value.

BDS is an issue in which Tulsi clearly supported Israel with her vote recently. Which begs the question, how does an anti-war candidate support Israel in their continued murder of Palestinians?

David

I’m also a fan of Walden Bello, as he has been involved in Social Protection issues with the ILO, as well as having a presence in Bangkok some years ago, though a Filipino national.
Now retired from the U. of Philippines, he is a lecturer at Binghamton University in the US.

His article on Counterpunch to which you refer is good, though something he overlooked to mention is: 

1) The Scarborough Island contention, referred to in the article, between the Philippines and China, was orchestrated by the US. Not one Filipino Attorney was present in relation to the trial that took place with the ICCLOS/International Court on Law of the Seas. The island had never been used by the Philippines, and upon taking office current President Duerte dismissed the issue saying “we don’t want it, China can have it,” infuriating the US. He has now changed his tune and is demanding it be returned to the Philippines. Duerte, not a nice guy, neither was Saddam, nor is Assad, represents a small vulnerable nation with US military bases populating the island, Duerte had the US military bases closed in the south, but the remaining bases in the north are still there, pointing at China. Put simply the Philippines is a very vulnerable nation, having been a former and current US colony in one way or another. I await further articles on this topic by Walden Bello, hoping he will point out the reason China has become so defensive, that being the US Pivot to China during the Obama Administration placing US battleships throughout the South China Sea. Too many Asian indigenous peoples, especially the Filipino’s having been colonized by the US, have relatives working around the world, especially in the US are western wannabe’s. Our soft power of film, education, missionaries whether Catholic, Mormon, Jehovah Witnesses, etc. have had the propaganda effect the Council on Foreign Relations perfected over the years. Hong Kong, and India having been colonized by the Brits, tend to have forgotten the past horrors inflicted by colonization, now worship all that the west has to offer. Some might refer to it as white supremacist adulation. 

Carl and I discussed the situation of the Philippines on AOTA many times. 

2) It needs to be stated, people throughout Southeast Asia, generally dislike China, though knowing little about the nation, but because it’s the Chinese within their own nations who for centuries have controlled business and commerce. Less dislike exists in Thailand where the peoples have intermarried so extensively due to shared culture and religion of Buddhism. Not as much intermarriage has taken place in Catholic/Christian Philippines, and very little at all in either Muslim Malaysia or Indonesia. I mention this because the similarity to the Jews of Europe has not gone unnoticed by some lesser known Asian scholars in the past. Most notably when half a million Chinese Indonesians were murdered in 1965, during regime change, as a result of US fear of Communism taking root there. The US was behind it, and proof was provided on “Democracy Now," by the Director of a film covering the massacre, going so far as to provide the names of the US Embassy personnel involved. Malaysia also at one time, scapegoated the Chinese minority during economic stress and violence was perpetrated against the Chinese communities. PM Mahathur famous for making racist statements against them, nonetheless when speaking with Chinese Malaysians expressed love for him, as he protected them. The discrimination against the Chinese in Malaysia today in relation to education and employment continues though given their elitist status due to economic success in business and commerce protects them. However, in 1998 after the economic crash of 1997, only one Chinese Malaysian was scapegoated and murdered, while many Chinese working class people were murdered in Indonesia their homes and businesses were destroyed.  As always it was the working classes who suffered while the wealthy Chinese Indonesians escaped and to the jubilation of the Thai’s had their money transferred to Bangkok banks. 

> On Dec 21, 2019, at 15:47, J.B. Nicholson via Peace <peace at lists.chambana.net> wrote:
> 
> I wrote:
>> J.B. Nicholson notes
>> [lists.chambana.net was unreachable or returning a 502 error as this set of notes were edited. The notes posted to peace and peace-discuss mailing lists should eventually show up somewhere on these URLs.]
>> https://lists.chambana.net/pipermail/peace/2019-December/
>> https://lists.chambana.net/pipermail/peace-discuss/2019-December/
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