Writers contribute to nation building

"I know that there are other [literary] prizes that are not worth their hype, in fact they corrupt the society. Those that are based on merit should be encouraged because what they do is encourage [and] recognise the effort and excellence of their recipients and fire them [up] to do more. But if there is any writer that allows his or herself to be conditioned or compromised by some kind of literary prize or awards, such writer is not worthy [of being] called a writer because, a writer should be an independent, conscientious and upright person. [...]

A writer is a social critic who all his/her life has been trying to rebrand his/her country. Though you don't call it that big name or go about telling people that is what you are doing, but when you are talking about corruption and other social ills, condemning and proffering solution for a better society, what you are doing invariably is contributing to nation building."

Chukwuemeka Ike (SOURCE)

Globalisation - a path to Hell?

Fr Jon Sobrino, SJ, in Edinburgh:

He drew on his latest book, 'The Eye of the Needle' - No Salvation
Outside the Poor' to contrast what humanises and gives life with
what dehumanises and destroys life. Globalisation,
in particular, is terribly dehumanising because though it implies
a good, it is in fact destructive and divisive. The
poverty gap - or wealth gap - dehumanises even before we make
an enquiry about any causal relationship between the rich and
the poor. The parable of the rich man and Lazarus sums
up the global reality very well, says Sobrino. In contrast,
the poor themselves humanise us, and the Latin American bishops
of the Medellin conference famously urged us to make an 'option
for the poor'. For Jon Sobrino the poor, in fact, lead
us to the divine, and he proposes an 'option to let salvation
come from the poor'. SOURCE

Solution for Latin America and beyond

American business and government are bound up with the ruling minorities in Latin America - with the rural and industrial property holders. Our interests are their interests - stability, return on investment - are the same. Meanwhile the masses of the people keep on suffering because they lack even minimal educational facilities, healthcare, housing, and diet. They could have these benefits if national income were not so unevenly distributed.

The only real alternative to injustice in Latin America is socialism [...]

American capitalism, based as it is on exploitation of the poor, with its fundamental motivation in personal greed, simply cannot survive without force - without a secret police force. The argument is with capitalism and it is capitalism that must be opposed, with its CIA, FBI and other security agencies understood as logical, necessary manifestations of a ruling class’s determination to retain power and privilege.

Now, more than ever, indifference to injustice at home and abroad is impossible. Now, more clearly than ever, the extremes of poverty and wealth demonstrate the irreconcilable class conflicts, that only socialist revolution can resolve. Now, more than ever, each of us is forced to make a conscious choice whether to support the system of minority comfort and privilege with all its security apparatus and repression, or whether to struggle for real equality of opportunity and fair distribution of benefits for all of society, in the domestic as well as the international order.

Philip Agee in CIA DIARY, Inside the Company

I had a conversation with my grandmother who grew up in pre-communist Poland in a privileged class family. She talked about appalling poverty, only step above middle ages feudalism, that gripped majority of the population. After WWII, after loosing family properties due to nationalization of industries and land, hating communism all her life, she still found enough objectivity to observe that socialism, or more specifically - communism, as oppressive as it was, eliminated poverty of the masses, equalized the society and, from the perspective of time, "was inevitable, and probably the only solution" to injustice.

Why against the war

Dorothy Day:

We are against war because it is contrary to the spirit of Jesus
Christ, and the only important thing is that we abide in His spirit. It
is more important than being American, more important than being
respectable, more important than obedience to the State. [...]

What would we advocate? Wholesale disloyalty to Americanism. Wholesale
refusal to fight. Wholesale withdrawal of labor (a general strike) from
all industries that further the war effort. We would urge a mighty band
of Catholic Conscientious Objectors who will refuse induction, who will
follow Jesus of Nazareth, Prince of Peace, in the way of non-violence,
in love for all mankind!

Soon to become Saint Dorothy?

Oscar Romero

An interesting website about the assassinated Bishop Oscar Romero.

Bishop Romero died because he spoke out:

Brothers, you come from our own people. You are killing your own brother peasants when any human order to kill must be subordinate to the law of God which says, "Thou shalt not kill." No soldier is obliged to obey an order contrary to the law of God. No one has to obey an immoral law. It is high time you recovered your consciences and obeyed your consciences rather than a sinful order. The church, the defender of the rights of God, of the law of God, of human dignity, of the person, cannot remain silent before such an abomination. We want the government to face the fact that reforms are valueless if they are to be carried out at the cost of so much blood. In the name of God, in the name of this suffering people whose cries rise to heaven more loudly each day, I implore you, I beg you, I order you in the name of God: stop the repression. Archbishop Oscar Romero to the troops.

Read Bishop Romero’s last sermon in full.

Philip Agee is dead

Philip Agee worked for the CIA in Latin America, became disillusioned with the US's actions and left the Firm. Agee was not the first nor the last man whose eyes opened in that terribly oppressed region. He became a vocal advocate for the Better World.

American capitalism, based as it is on exploitation of the poor, with its fundamental motivation in personal greed, simply cannot survive without force - without a secret police force. The argument is with capitalism and it is capitalism that must be opposed, with its CIA, FBI and other security agencies understood as logical, necessary manifestations of a ruling class’s determination to retain power and privilege.

Now, more than ever, indifference to injustice at home and abroad is impossible. Now, more clearly than ever, the extremes of poverty and wealth demonstrate the irreconcilable class conflicts, that only socialist revolution can resolve. Now, more than ever, each of us is forced to make a conscious choice whether to support the system of minority comfort and privilege with all its security apparatus and repression, or whether to struggle for real equality of opportunity and fair distribution of benefits for all of society, in the domestic as well as the international order.

Philip Agee in CIA Diary.

Havana, January 9 (Prensa Latina) Once an officer of the US Central Intelligence Agency, Phillip B. Agee stepped away from that organization in 1968 because of his conscience, and died in this Cuban capital on January 7.

In 1974 he published his book Inside the CIA and from that moment on devoted himself to denouncing terrorism, destabilization and subversive activities of the US government against governments and progressive and revolutionary movements in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Cuban media published on Wednesday that Phillip Agee was outstanding for his solidarity with the island, Nicaragua, Grenada and Venezuela and other countries.

Agee was Cuba's loyal friend and fervent defender of the peoples struggle for a better world. SOURCE

Here's to you Philip!

What is good for Venezuela

Reading Philip Agee's CIA DIARY, in light of the events taking place today in Venezuela, one cannot help but conclude that what is good for Chavez' country might be good for USA:

American capitalism, based as it is on exploitation of the poor, with its fundamental motivation in personal greed, simply cannot survive without force - without a secret police force. The argument is with capitalism and it is capitalism that must be opposed, with its CIA, FBI and other security agencies understood as logical, necessary manifestations of a ruling class's determination to retain power and privilege.

Now, more than ever, indifference to injustice at home and abroad is impossible. Now, more clearly than ever, the extremes of poverty and wealth demonstrate the irreconcilable class conflicts, that only socialist revolution can resolve. Now, more than ever, each of us is forced to make a conscious choice whether to support the system of minority comfort and privilege with all its security apparatus and repression, or whether to struggle for real equality of opportunity and fair distribution of benefits for all of society, in the domestic as well as the international order. Philip Agee in CIA Diary.

Agee wrote it in 1974, while still under the impression of the Cuban revolution, the American defeat in Vietnam, and the Watergate scandal, but he might as well have written it yesterday. His words apply to the USA, Venezuela and everywhere else. Agee was a CIA officer who worked in Latin America, and that's were his eyes opened. Mine did, and your will too if you step beyond those Acapulcos and Cancuns...

One thing that Agee does not see, is that socialism, much as capitalism requires repressive apparatus of secret police to sustain itself.

Red Bishop

Today is the birthday (b. 1909) of one of the leading figures in Liberation Theology and social justice.

Dom Hélder Pessoa Câmara was a catholic archbishop in Brazil. Nicknamed: "Red Bishop".

He was instrumental in delineating the course of Liberation Theology, a premise for my latest novel.

To cut to the chase let me post some quotes from the colorful Dom Hélder Pessoa Câmara:

“When I give food to the poor they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food they call me a communist.”

“I will never carry a weapon and will never kill anyone. But I am ready to give life for the poor.”

“The greatest problem of the Church is not a lack of priests, rather the hunger faced by the people.”

Dom Hélder Pessoa Câmara

Today marks the anniversary of the death of one of the most significant figures in Liberation Theology and social justice.

Dom Hélder Pessoa Câmara was a catholic archbishop in Brazil.

He was instrumental in delineating the course of Liberation Theology, a premise for my latest novel.

To cut to the chase let me post some quotes from the colorful Dom Hélder Pessoa Câmara:

"When I give food to the poor the call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food they call me a communist."

"I will never carry a weapon and will never kill anyone. But I am ready to give life for the poor."

"The greatest problem of the Church is not a lack of priests, rather the hunger faced by the people."