Thursday 19 April 2012

QQ : NUMBER TWENTY NINE - APRIL 19, 2012

A ONCE-A-WEEK (or so) LIST OF WHAT I  GIVE A  DAMN ABOUT. WITH 10 = MOST IMPORTANT;  AND 1 = NOT SO MUCH


A JEWS BLUES ON HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE DAY

The festival of Passover tells the story of freedom from slavery.
This year it reminds me of my story as it does every year.

There was short drive down an unpaved track to one side of the Victorian era Matlock mansion past an abandoned streetcar. The path led to an L-shaped string of about a dozen connected faded gray automobile garages. At the midpoint of the two lines of garages was a narrow almost hidden doorway. That doorway opened to a large storage room. At one end of the room a dirty broken window ran the length of the wall and looked out on a neighboring property.

It is out of this window that I alone as a three year old child sang Czech nursery rhymes to an unknown and foreign neighbor while my mother and father toiled as indentured slaves in Melbourne 1949.

In the shed there was no running water, no toilet, no interior walls and no heat. This is where I and my parents lived for the first four years of my life in Australia.

The songs kept me company and moderated my fear. Perhaps this was a three year olds blues.

This began my trajectory.

QQ.  1:   MAHMUD AHMADINEJAB : THE “HOLOCAUST” IS A HOAX.

In Auschwitz my fathers first wife Greta died in more than a sad circumstance. A child that she knew had her number called for the gas chamber. Greta accompanied the child so that she would not have to die alone.

QQ.  2:   IT IS SUGGESTED THAT COACHED “SURVIVORS” ARE NOT SPEAKING FROM THEIR OWN EXPERIENCE BUT FROM CAREFULLY PREPARED SCRIPTS

A young boy in Prague was suspected by the Gestapo for stealing food. The boy was an inmate of an orphanage where my father was supervisor. The Gestapo gave my father an ultimatum. Find out the identity of the boy and give him up to us or we will kill all eighty of you.

My father gave the boy up.

QQ.  3   DEGESCH HAS PROVIDED DETAILED INFORMATION WHICH SHOWS JUST HOW IMPOSSIBLE THE HOLOCAUST CYANIDE GASSING CLAIMS ARE.

My mother's work detail out of Auschwitz built a railway line. The contractor was a company called Krupp. Some of my mothers friends threw themselves onto the electrified fence rather that suffer the hunger and cold and torture. Today Krupp thrives. When the camp was abandoned by her keepers my mother was taken in by a woman who repeatedly assaulted her and imprisoned her.

This assault was by a local Czech, not a German, Gestapo or Nazi. The war was over.

QQ.  4    THOSE  P U T  O N  T R I A L  C O N F E S S E D  T O  A L L  C R I M E S .
T H E   P E O P L E  O F  C Z E C H O S L O V A K I A   S I G N E D  P E T I T I O N S  A S K I N G   F O R  D E A T H  F O R  T H E  A L L E G E D  T R A I T O R S .   


My fathers house in Prague where I was born was nationalized by the Communist government in 1949. The housekeeper was appointed manager and all property became property of the state. We became tenants. The manager was required to file regular reports on our activities and behavior to the party.

Soon after we left, all of my fathers peers who remained were hung for activities against the state.

QQ.  5   ELIE WIESEL, A BRAZEN LIAR AND BIGOT WHO HAS REPEATEDLY CALLED FOR IMPRISONMENT OF HOLOCAUST “DENIERS,” MANAGED NONETHELESS TO GET HIMSELF A NOBEL PEACE PRIZE IN 1986.

My grandfather Joseph had nine siblings. Irma and Ida found their way to California before the storm. The rest and most of the extended family died. In Terezin, my grandfather Joseph died in my fathers arms suffering Typhus. My mothers father died in her arms from starvation. My fathers brother, his wife and infant daughter were all gassed and then there were all the others.

QQ.  6   TO OUTSIDERS, IT WAS PRESENTED BY THE NAZIS AS A MODEL JEWISH SETTLEMENT, BUT IN REALITY IT WAS A CONCENTRATION CAMP 'WHERE OVER 33,000 INMATES DIED AS A RESULT OF HUNGER, SICKNESS, OR THE SADISTIC TREATMENT METED OUT BY THEIR CAPTORS'.THERESIENSTADT WAS ALSO USED AS A TRANSIT CAMP FOR EUROPEAN JEWS EN ROUTE TO AUSCHWITZ AND TREBLINKA.

When my mother was six years old, her mother Anna went to a spa in the Czech countryside. She caught cholera. The spa management hid her away and did not allow medical attention in fear that the situation would destroy their business. Anna died. My mother spent the next years in an orphanage until she was taken to Terezin and then Auschwitz.

QQ.  7   AT AUSCHWITZ II (BIRKENAU), THE SS STAFF INTRODUCED THE PRACTICE OF TATTOOING IN MARCH 1942 TO KEEP UP WITH THE IDENTIFICATION OF LARGE NUMBERS OF PRISONERS WHO ARRIVED, SICKENED, AND DIED QUICKLY.   

For unknown reasons my mother was never tattooed in Auschwitz.
In Sydney in 1990 mother went into a tattoo parlor and paid to have her number inscribed on her arm. She was quite mad.

QQ.  8   SURVIVORS OF GENOCIDE ARE FOREVER TRANSFORMED. THEY SPEAK OF HAVING LIVED THREE LIVES: THEIR LIFE BEFORE THE GENOCIDE, THEIR LIFE DURING THE GENOCIDE, AND THEIR LIFE AFTER THE GENOCIDE.  


In 2006 my mother wanted to claim the dignity of her own life and death decision.

She had debilitating emphysema and no quality of life. The system in Melbourne would not allow her this decision and her death was as tragic as her life.

QQ.  9   IN 1964, AFTER YEARS OF CLINICAL EXPERIENCE IN DIAGNOSING AND TREATING CONCENTRATION CAMP SURVIVORS, WILLIAM NIEDERLAND, A PSYCHIATRIST AND A REFUGEE FROM NAZI GERMANY, PUBLISHED A LANDMARK STUDY PROCLAIMING THE EXISTENCE OF A SURVIVOR SYNDROME.

My mother was a City Councilor a political activist and was decorated by Queen Elizabeth II with an MBE for her community work.

Irene only got as far as grade 8 in school before Terezin

QQ.  10   HOLOCAUST DENIAL IS THE ACT OF DENYING THE GENOCIDE OF JEWS DURING WORLD WAR II, USUALLY REFERRED TO AS THE HOLOCAUST.


These days the Holocaust is often depicted as old news and as a political tool used by Jews to manipulate situations for their political and economic agenda. There is a term "Shoa business" that is used to describe the many accounts, books, films and other vehicles that continue to flow as a result of this event.

I am not part of the Shoa business. But I do still sing the blues.



Etched on my Stone Tablet

Friday 6 April 2012

QQ : NUMBER TWENTY EIGHT - APRIL 6, 2012

A ONCE-A-WEEK (or so) LIST OF WHAT I  GIVE A  DAMN ABOUT. WITH 10 = MOST IMPORTANT;  AND 1 = NOT SO MUCH

                                                        T R U T H    OR    D A R E


     
“A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.”
 -  Winston Churchill.


“Keep the company of those who seek the truth - run from those who have found it”
― Václav Havel


The problem, as I see it, is that on any particular point, there is usually one lie but there are many truths.  A lie occupies the highway, the truths take many side roads to get to their destination.

QQ:  1.   THE WISDOM OF 1787

THE LIE:

Obama-care is socialism imposed by dictatorial decree.

A RANDOM SELECTION OF TRUTHS (ARS of TRUTHS:):

Three troubling truths trouble me. These are the Deity, the Bible and the American Constitution. They trouble me because within our accepted cultural, religious and political norms, we place the symbol above the content. The Deity is a judgmental, angry super-being who demands worship and subservience. The Bible of any religion is a poorly-translated, badly-edited collection of fables and myths that seek to impose nonsensical dogma. The American Constitution is a utopian ideal that had a vague relevance to the world in 1787.

When the Supreme Court ponders the mores of 1787 as to whether or not society should express compassion towards the sick, they miss the point. Federal, state or corporate is not the point. The point IS welfare and compassion. We should direct welfare and compassion towards our fellow human beings if we wish to lay claim to even the most rudimentary connection to a civilized society. 
 
QQ:  2.  BORN AGAIN

THE LIE:

The Republican Party position on abortion:

"The unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life which cannot be infringed".

ARS of TRUTHS:

We are primitive beings. Ego supersedes meaning. Jesus is said to have proclaimed,
"I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." (John 14:6) This suggests that the ego of the Deity surpasses any content or meaning. Compassion, charity ethics and morality are put in second place behind the proclamation and acceptance of the Deity's ego. No heaven for you dude unless you fall on your knees and accept the me-me-me. We will deal with ethics later. Me first.

Similarly, the big man in the sky decided to test Abraham. "Don't concern yourself with your natural instinct to protect your son. Kill him to prove that you love me more".
The big man in the sky has a big ego.

The sanctity of life within a woman's womb is a hot topic of debate amongst privileged, white, male moralists who seek to impose a dogma and a fundamentalist absolutism based on the message they claim to have received from the big man in the sky.

I, in fact, prefer to exercise my rights as an individual human being after my birth. Prior to coming in to existence, I had nothing much to say on the matter. I would have preferred that Dick Santorum stay out of my mother's womb. Perhaps, he would extend fundamental individual rights to the un-dead and the post-death population? The population of purgatory may have something to say on the matter.
In that Dick firmly believes in the afterlife, don't the living dead have rights as well?

QQ:  3.  GAY PRIDE IN GAZA

THE LIE:

Israel practices state-imposed apartheid as mandated policy.

ARS of TRUTHS:

The Jewish population of Egypt is about a dozen, down from  80,000.

Moroccan Jews formed an ancient community. Before 1948, there were about 300,000 Jews in the country. Now a handful remain.

And so it goes. Pick an Arab country, any Arab country and ask what happened to the Jews? Spontaneous combustion? Perhaps, they simultaneously packed their bags, abandoned their homes and businesses and moved en-masse to the war-ravaged peace and quiet of Palestine.

Or could it be a case of ethnic cleansing? Perhaps we should ask the Copts of Egypt or the Christians of Iraq.

Israeli Arabs serve at every level of government and administration. Are there any Jews running for office in Saudi Arabia? Any Christians? Is Saudi Arabia exempt from accusations of practicing apartheid?

Where are the Queers Against Saudi Apartheid policies? Where are the York University marches against Saudi apartheid? When is the Gay Pride Day in Gaza?

By the way, I propose that we return Manhattan to its rightful owners. Or, is conquered or purchased territory a whole other matter? Give that island back to its rightful owners and send the occupiers back to where they came from.

QQ:  4.  I AM NOT AN APE


THE LIE:  

Evolution is a theory.

ARS of TRUTHS::

Tennessee established its place on the world stage in 1925 with the Monkey Trial.
Bill 368 passed in the House last year continues the Tennessee Dark Age of Reason.

Because we are God's creation and unrelated to the apes or the ants, it seems that the entire science of genetics should be banned in Tennessee as it does not conform with the teachings of 'Bubba the Evangelista'.

Of course, the Department of Genetics & Evolution at Geneva University which studies the integration of multiple disciplines such as Classical Genetics, Molecular Genetics, Developmental Biology, and Evolutionary Biology is based on the teachings of Satan.

Such a university department would have no place in a God-fearing Tennessee where we know that the world was created 6,000 years ago. According to William Jennings Bryan, if we have to give up either religion or education, we should give up education. Bryan also declared an absolutism connected to something about a whale and some guy called Jonah. It is written.

QQ:  5.  GOOGLE GAGGLE


THE LIE: 

The Internet has given us a new democracy. Twitter has facilitated the Arab spring and the free flow of information and ideas for the greater good.

ARS of TRUTHS:

The twitter-fest is a superficial, meaningless vehicle facilitating pissing into the wind. The Arab spring has unleashed nothing but more fundamentalism.

The democracy of the blog-o-sphere, YouTube and Facebook can in no way replace the   power of real journalism, developed and formed artistic statements and educated commentary and criticism.

Fifty million YouTube hits on the song "Friday" does not constitute a useful or meaningful democratic statement.

The cult of the amateur has sucked up the energy of the available media and spat out the result.
He is Drake.

QQ:  6.  MY COLD DEAD HANDS


THE LIE:

Guns don't kill people. People kill people .

ARS of TRUTHS

The city of Windsor,Ontario,Canada has not had a homicide in two years. Windsor is geographically a twin city with Detroit, Michigan, separated by a river.

A recent news report from Detroit states: (WJBK) - "It was once labeled America's murder capitol of the world. Sadly, Detroit could once again be headed for that negative title. The murder rate in the city has jumped to the highest level in nearly two decades. There have been 166 murders since January first. That's up 20-percent, and we're on pace for nearly 400 this year. When it comes to shootings, there have been 521 since January first. That's up 12-percent".

How is it that the "people" on one side of the river seem to have a greater propensity to kill than the "people" on the other side of the river.

Could it possibly have something to do with - guns?

These are horrifying numbers. Four hundred murders on one side of the river and zero on the other. Glock that.

QQ:  7.  ACCEPTIONALISM

THE LIE: 

Obama-Bush America is American exceptionalism - business as usual.

ARS of TRUTHS:

This time it is truly different. The SCOTUS has effectively destroyed the very underpinning and principal of the American ideal with its decision on Citizens United. With this one decision, it is game over at every level.

The new corporate democracy does allow us greater freedom. We are permitted to Tweet, MyFace and Blog, however with a cautioning eye on anything that might be picked up by the algorithms that watch over the security of our homeland. Who came up with the word "homeland"? Hitler or Stalin? Fatherland and Motherland were already taken.

In addition, we are permitted to post on YouTube and comment ad nauseous on the endless commentary bilge-fest promoted as a last ditch attempt by newspapers to engage their readers in the new, 'Web 2', great leap forward. I blog, you blog, we all blog into the wind.

What we are not permitted to do:
Get sick, develop art and culture, or use the word "liberal".
We are also not permitted to make a real and reasonable choice in the forthcoming presidential election. I don't know which to choose - between business or business, or rule by corporation or rule by corporation. You say tomato.

Why don't we just hand the country over to the Koch brothers and be done with it.
Perhaps, we already have. What is pink slime anyway?

QQ:  8.  NOT SO SUPREME

THE LIE:

Canon Two of the Code of Conduct mandates that, "A judge should not allow family, social, political, financial, or other relationships to influence judicial conduct or judgment. A judge should neither lend the prestige of the judicial office to advance the private interests of the judge or others nor convey or permit others to convey the impression that they are in a special position to influence the judge."

ARS of TRUTHS:

The SCOTUS is out of control. Their activist agenda is a humanitarian, fascistic, inconceivable nightmare.

The SCOTUS has decided the outcome of an election, allowed strip searches for minor traffic offenses and determined that corporations are people. Of course, the acceptance of the larger society that health care is a 'product' is not the fault of the court. Is that colonoscopy up on Craigslist yet?

A strip search on Justice Scalia would likely reveal black lace panties and a hot pink lift and separate bra.

QQ:  9.  FRACK YOU


THE LIE:

Global warming is the result of the Earth's natural cycles.

ARS of TRUTHS:

Fracking causes earthquakes. Eliminating the natural lubricants in the earth's interior creates violent disruption.

The hole in the ozone layer has made exposure to the sun a life threatening hazard in the southern hemisphere.

Tuna used to be food. Now it contains the raw material for thermometers.

QQ:  10.  FOLLOW ME DOWN THE RIVER

THE LIE:

There is deep cultural and powerful significance to the following twitter statistics

Lady Gaga has 22,000,000 followers.

Shakira has 15,000,000.

Justin Bieber, Katy Perry, Rihanna, Britney Spears and Taylor Swift have similar millions of followers.

ARS of TRUTHS:

Hitler, Stalin and Kim Jong Il also had followers. Their accumulated number was possibly in the hundreds of millions.

Could it be that the medium is more important than the message?


Etched on my Stone Tablet

Editing : Batsheva