Comments on: Rundown 6/3

By: Shrdlu

Shrdlu — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 18:05:21 +0000

Paolo, you are ignoring the 8,000 pound gorilla that’s really behind the trouble in Darfur: the Mafia. It’s a well known fact that all of the troubles in the world originated with Italy, and Italian criminals. Doubtless, Mr. Caruso, you are a charter member of “La Cosa Nostra”.

And, yes, I’m being sarcastic, since there is about as much truth to the nonsense I just posted as there is to your “Anglo-Zionist” rantings!

By: Mark Jones

Mark Jones — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 20:23:05 +0000

I enjoyed the piece of buying local. It is a practice I am always trying to increase in my daily habits. Although the idea of “buying local” when it comes to mortgages (or banking in general) seems nearly impossible. My original mortgage on my current home was with a local bank but was immediately sold to a conglomerate in somewhere U.S.A. I spent the morning today trying to follow the advice and called the relative few actual “local” banks and each one also said they always sell mortgages. One did tell me they sell to a local investor, but of course that turned out to be a megabank that isn’t local at all. Another tried explaining to me how much things have changed because of the credit meltdown, but seemed completely clueless when I attributed some of the blame to companies buying and selling, slicing and dicing mortgages down to the nth degree.

By: Paolo Caruso

Paolo Caruso — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 21:11:58 +0000

Most native American Indian tribes where conquered by the “whiteman” with critical collusion of another rival Indian tribe. Same goes for Iraqi, Lebanon, Palestine, Darfur and many others. Divide and conquer, give one tribe or faction a few guns and trinkets and they all eventually lose.

The Eastern press during the times of the Indian wars were no different, pinning one tribe against the other, creating the manechean good tribe and bad tribe to persuade Washington DC to open more land for the taking.

If Mia Farrow and George Clooney had been around in those days, to be sure the railroad interests would be using them to badmouth the Souix. Today these unwitting superficial actors are being exploited for Anglo-ZIonist interests in the Sudan.

By: cecilia

cecilia — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 21:11:35 +0000

Save Darfur coalition says in their statment:
“Mamdani ignores the facts and instead continues to preach the same disjointed conspiracy theories that claim the Darfur movement is a front for supporters of U.S. policies in Iraq and the War on Terror.”

Maybe Mamdani preaches such “conspiracy theories” elsewhere, but I did not hear him say any such thing in this interview. I have never read anything else by Mr Mamdani and I do not know him, but he did not say any such thing in THIS interview.
It does not surprise me in the least that this conflict started as a conflict over land and survival. Then the conflict over land gets mixed up with issues of race, and to an outsider it might look like a racial genocide, but the resolution of the conflict resides in sorting out how all groups can meet their survival needs from the land.
As white Americans pushed westward in their search for land, Native Americans stood in their way. Any genocide of Native Americans did not start out simply because they were of a different race, but it started because white people wanted that land and were willing to wipe another race and culture out in their quest to get it.

By: John M. Morgan

John M. Morgan — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 21:11:02 +0000

Thank you! It has been a long wait to hear an alternative perspective about Darfur on NPR.

It is striking how eager these Save Darfur people are to raise alarm about crimes that can be blamed on someone else. Surely our first priority should be to stop what the U.S. is doing to create misery and devastation. In some ways the devastation in Somalia in recent years is as bad as Darfur, but we hear next to nothing about that because it is a “made in America” crime.

Here is some useful reading about Darfur:

http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/article/1687/

John

By: cecilia

cecilia — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 21:10:00 +0000

Mr Mamdani makes a lot of sense.

By: jk

jk — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 21:08:36 +0000

what an insightful and nuanced take, paolo.

By: Paolo Caruso

Paolo Caruso — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 21:05:39 +0000

Professor Mamdani was evasive. He avoided mentioning the 800 pound gorilla in the room, and explained the Darfur phenomenon as a non-politicized effort by ideological students, as opposed to a politicized campaign such as Iraq, where genocide and wanton destruction is rampant.

In fact, Darfur is extremely politicized, in the interest of the neocons in the US and the state of ISRAEL.. the gorilla. And is precisely the reason why they can mobilize the forces of Hollywood… yes they do own it… all of it.

Don;t blame English colonialism, blame Israel and Zionist expansionism and their divide and conquer strategies that have devastated and murdered Palestinians, Iraqis and peoples throughout the Middle East and Horn of Africa.

By: BHA

BHA — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 18:28:58 +0000

An H2 is a hugely wasteful form of transportation no matter what sort of fuel it uses. 25% more fuel efficiency SOUNDS good, but a diesel H2 getting 12-13 MPG (instead of 9-10 MPG for a gas version) to take the kids to school, go to the store or work is still inexcusable.

The boys and girls in Washington left a big one on the table with “Gross Vehicle Weight over 8,000 pounds is a commercial vehicle and eligible for a tax break and exemption from EPA rating”. They MEANT delivery trucks, etc. Too naive to figure out GM would boost the GVW SPECIFICALLY to avoid the EPA CAFE numbers. An H2 is NOT a commercial vehicle and has NO value as a commercial vehicle. GM would have never built it if it would hit their fleet CAFE numbers.

I’m glad people keep their jobs; no jobs, no economy. BUT, I wish the H2 was obliterated from the public roads. There is nothing more dangerous to the rest of the vehicles on the road nor more wasteful out there. Sure, maybe SOME of them are used for Search and Rescue but MOST of them are nothing more than massive glorified commuter vehicles. The H3 is no better. 14 city / 18 highway to carry no more than 5 people? Please.