Author: Justin Podur

Author of Siegebreakers. Ecology. Environmental Science. Political Science. Anti-imperialism. Political fiction.

Implementing the Bolivarian Revolution: Julio Chavez in Toronto

On October 10/09 Venezuelan former mayor, now state legislator Julio Chavez spoke at the University of Toronto sponsored by Hands off Venezuela and the Louis Riel Bolivarian Circle. He came in sporting the unassuming Bolivarian fashion: red T-shirt, red baseball cap (with a Canada logo on it), jeans, and sneakers, and fired up a powerpoint presentation.

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Control the geography, control the people: Saed Abu-Hijleh in Toronto

Just over a month ago (Oct 14/09) Palestinian geographer and director of the “Center for Global Consciousness” Saed Abu-Hijleh spoke at the University of Toronto. Traveling to the North American continent was no escape: Canadian Border services had put him through the ringer at Pearson airport, the border agent asking him whether he would “say anything against Israel” during his time in Canada. “Why did they give me a visa if they were going to humiliate me? I’ve had Canadians stay at my house in Nablus, but when I come to Canada I get treated like this.”

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An award weirder than Obama’s Peace Prize

Seriously. The Colombian magazine, Semana, and its owner, Alejandro Santos, just won a COHA award for Excellence in Print Journalism.

Santos comes from one of Colombia’s most powerful families and Semana, while I’ll admit that it is an indispensable source (like El Tiempo), is thoroughly an establishment outlet. COHA, meanwhile, is also indispensable, but perhaps I thought it was a little more oppositional in outlook than it actually is. So I was a little surprised to see the award.

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The M-19 Palace of Justice Takeover in 1985: New Documents

The amazing National Security Archive strikes again, this time showing how the Colombian army is responsible for the deaths of 70 people when they raided Colombia’s Palace of Justice following the guerrilla group M-19’s takeover of it in 1985.

The most striking note in it, that accords with anecdotes I’ve heard from people who were around at the time and knew people who died, was the two contradictory cables that came from the US Embassy, spaced two days apart:

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The crack reporter and the mystery phone

“And yet, for all my fulminating, one fact is uncontested: I am writing about Naomi Klein. She isn’t writing about me.”

–Jonathan Kay, September 12, 2007

I have to admit I stay away from Jonathan Kay’s writing as much as I can (a stomach can only take so much, even though I’ve had two doses of Ducoral now). I can honestly say that I have never encountered a piece of writing of Kay’s that doesn’t mention Naomi. It’s vaguely creepy for me as a reader, and I can only imagine how creepy it must be for her.

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Comments…

I’ve had to disable comments temporarily while I try to figure out how to deal with some kinds of spam I haven’t dealt with before… hope to be back with comments soon… [UPDATE OCT 2/09: I’VE FIGURED OUT THE PROBLEM AND RE-ENABLED COMMENTING. SEE YOU IN THE CONVERSATIONS…]