One of those time a little Leninism would have helped. Even "common sense."
----Original Message----- From: justiceforbrad-bounces at lists.interactivist.net [mailto:justiceforbrad-bounces at lists.interactivist.net] On Behalf Of Alberto M. Giordano Sent: Wednesday, December 06, 2006 2:37 AM To: Reclaim The Commons Cc: justiceforbrad at lists.interactivist.net Subject: [Justiceforbrad] Revolutionary Tourism Indeed
Dear "Reclaim the Commons".
I normally don't respond to people who don't use their real names, but in this case, it being a public list (the "justiceforbrad" list), I make a brief exception.
(It's that it is very hard to take seriously anyone who doesn't put his or her all - first name and last name, as so many of us do - on the line.)
I am tempted to respond with CCs to other lists, too, because this story is so precious. But this one will suffice. Maybe you will have a thoughtful moment of conscience as a result. Tho' I doubt it.
Here are the facts:
Three North American "anti globalization" activists in Oaxaca went to Dominos Pizza the other night in that city. Um, anyone catch the contradiction? They got picked up by police. One (the one that goes by the psued of "Xochtil" had written on various public email lists some self-aggrandizing statement like "I am taking all precautions for safety." What crap)
Here's a clue, "Xochtil" and friends: Dominos DELIVERS! Even to the Holiday Inn where y'all were staying! You're anti-globalization?
Yeah, right.
So what were they doing there?
Anyway, they got scooped up by the municipal police. Each got allowed one phone call.
One called our correspondent in Oaxaca (thus endangering her life, and removing her temporarily from the work at hand; don't these people rushing off to Oaxaca make better plans for what to do in case of emergency, plans that don't endanger our correspondents that have brought you all the story for the past six months at risk of their own lives?).
Another called his father and asked him to contact me, which he did. Smart boy.
Another, I don't know what he did with his phone call. And I don't really care at this point.
Narco News sent the lawyer. If not for that, they would have been tortured, raped, and deported. Like every other from Atenco to Oaxaca. Period. If not for us. Anyone care to challenge me on that fact? In some degree, I regret that members of our team called in chits for people that didn't deserve it. Still, I'm glad they didn't get raped or tortured, as annoyed as I am with them.
Narco News then - to get these kids out of a news scandal - told a US official that if anything bad happened to these revolutionary tourists (who are not part of our team, for the record, nor do we accept any responsibility for their actions there, which in the case of one of them, were irresponsible and put Oaxaquenos and our reporters in greater danger), we would post on the Internet documents embarrassing to that US consulate official, involving a gringo pedophile now in jail in Oaxaca that he visited and protected.
The US consul then went, panicked for the scandal to come, to the jailhouse.
It was the first time that he lifted a finger on behalf of any movement people or journalists in Oaxaca. He is still a prick. We likewise disassociate ourselves from him as we do of the three revolutionary tourists. To us, they are all part of the same invasion.
And these three kids (kids in their thirties) got sprung. Including your friend. The first people detained over the past months in Oaxaca who didn't get tortured and raped. The first. Think about that for a moment.
They each paid a fine of 300 pesos (thirty dollars), pleading guilty to shouting obscenities in Dominos Pizza (I make no claims as to whether that part is true or not). No wonder we haven't received another breathless report from them since. And I stil worry over what information they perhaps traded to get out. The police kept their cell phones, with numbers of our correspondents, and of many good people in Oaxaca.
Thank you, boys and girl! You have probably just signed the death warrant on various good people.
Is anyone out there grasping why I ask these questions about "revolutionary tourism" now?
A half hour after their release, I called "their" (our correspondent's) lawyer's cell phone, to confirm the story. They were so stoooopid as to go to a bar afterwards, the music was blaring. He said, over the loud music, "yes, they are out, let me pass the phone to the doctora."
I said, "no, that's ok. That's all I wanted to know." And I hung up. Because if I had talked to the Yale-Harvard graduate, I might not have been polite. And we try so hard to be polite, at least in the middle of a crisis.
And these three kids went free. Which is what I and others wasted a whole night making happen. And they have to live the rest of their lives with the shame that Narco News set them free while everyone else scrambled trying to find out what was happening.
And if they challenge my version of these events, there are witnesses who will confirm everything I have just said to the letter. We did it not for love for them, but so they wouldn't be tortured (as everyone else has been tortured there) and talk about other people. I repeat. They were the first arrested in Oaxaca who were not tortured and who got out the same day on a 30 dollar fine. (About the price of a Dominos' pizza, no?)
Here's another clue: before they were sprung by our correspondent's lawyer, they were about to be (or were, that part still is not clear, and perhaps never will be) separated into three different interrogation rooms.
But here is the long and the short of it. THEY SHOULD NEVER HAVE GONE TO OAXACA TO BEGIN WITH.
They didn't know the terrain, they didn't put in the years it requires to gain the trust of the locals. And they made many errors and caused harm upon Oaxaca residents.
They, among many others, thought this was another weekend anti-WTO protest, instead of what it was and continues to be: an entrenched local battle.
I sure hope they have left. Sorry to say it, but they did more harm than good.
And this is the problem. If anyone has any opinions or thoughts on how outsiders have done more good than harm in Mexico, or examples of how they have done more harm than good, please write me at narconews at gmail.com.
Because my lifespan - and that of every person who has really brought you the story over the past six months - is shorter because of what them and those like them did in Oaxaca.
And before I or others get whacked because of the colonialist behavior by privileged university educated "action hoppers," I hope to have the time to write this story.
And these three people who you hail so triumphantly, especially one of them, and her "medic" collective back in Lousiana, practically signed our death warrants. And maybe still have.
But we don't go quietly into the night. We continue reporting the story. But with facts, not rumors. And if anyone wants to challenge the facts I have reported here, adelante. More have been posted in other places, not yet public, in case I or others get killed because of the stupid actions of so-called North American and European do-gooders in Oaxaca in 2006.
Al Giordano
On 12/5/06, Reclaim The Commons <reclaimthecommons at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> in response to your question about when "revolutionary tourism" (or in
this
> case, mere journalistic tourism) is detrimental -- i'll let this speak for
> itself...
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> Subject: "Alive in Mexico" - Video blogger dodging bullets, teargas in
> Oaxaca, Mexico
>
> http://aliveinmexico.com/
>
> December 05, 2006
>
> Video blogger dodging bullets, teargas in Oaxaca, Mexico
> Filed under: Blogs and blogging
>
> What's more ballsy than picking up your video camera and jetting off to
> Baghdad, Iraq to report on conditions for ordinary civilians caught in the
> midst of a civil war? How about picking up your video camera and jetting
off
> to Oaxaca, Mexico, to report on the conditions of ordinary civilians
caught
> in the midst of civil unrest and a government crackdown?
>
> That's what Brian Conley, creator of the powerful Alive in Baghdad video
> blog has done with his latest project, A live in Mexico. Conley, whose
work
> picked up two awards at the recent Vloggies Video Blogs award ceremony in
> San Francisco, has opened up a new bureau in Oaxaca, Mexico, the scene of
a
> long simmering popular uprising that has boiled over in recent months.
>
> Conley and his collaborative projects (Alive in Baghdad has been run
mostly
> by native Iraqis, armed with video cameras in recent months) is a sterling
> example of the potential and power of the Internet and portable, easy to
use
> video and audio equipment to revolutionize the way news is gathered and
> consumed.
>
> You can forget about hearing anything from Matt Lauer about the conditions
> on the ground in Oaxaca, where villagers are calling for the removal of
> Governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz and battling with the Federal Preventive
> Police(PFP). But you can zoom on over to AliveinMexico and see what's its
> like to stand in the middle of a pitched street battle between the PFP and
> the protesters. Amazing stuff.
>
> In IM conversations with InfoWorld, Conley said that he's already been
> arrested by the Mexican police and taken in for questioning. He also says
> that the situation has, in some ways, been more difficult in Oaxaca than
> Baghdad, where citizens were happy to come forward and give interviews
about
> conditions on the ground.
>
> In Oaxaca, unlike Baghdad, fear of government reprisal has made one on one
> interviews hard to come by. However, life on the street is safer and
footage
> from the street protests is easier to come by than in Iraq. (An Alive in
> Baghdad reporter was kidnapped and held for days after being spotted
taking
> "B Roll" footage of a gas station. His account of his captivity and the
> disintegration of civil society in Iraq along ethnic lines is one of the
> more moving pieces of reporting I've seen anywhere, and speaks volumes
about
> the conflict. More recent entries there bring you up close interviews with
> car bomb survivors. This while the MSM in the U.S. dithers about whether
to
> call Iraq a "civil war," and folks like Lauer are celebrated just for
> standing up in downtown Manhattan in thousand dollar suits and stating the
> obvious.
>
> Conley has some powerful people in his corner, including VON founder Jeff
> Pulver. Donations and sales of footage to folks at Frontline and other
news
> organizations have allowed him to pay meager salaries to his staff in
> Baghdad and get the ball rolling in Oaxaca. For now, he says he's got
enough
> video in the bag for six or so more posts to Alive in Mexico, providing he
> can keep one step ahead of the PFP. As he did in Iraq, he's also trying to
> build a self-sustaining vlogging/news organization that can keep reporting
> after he boards a jet back home to the U.S. As we hear more and more about
> countries like China and Iran cutting off access to parts of the Internet
> that challenge the government's authority or view of reality, you've got
to
> pull for folks like Conley who, despite formal training as a journalist,
are
> living up the truest ideals of the profession and speaking truth to power.
> Posted by Paul Roberts on December 5, 2006 07:22 AM
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