Thursday, December 01, 2011

Nikola Tesla - Deathbed Confessions, Photos Support Claims That George H. Scherf(f), Jr Was The 41st U.S. President George Bush | Love for Life

Nikola Tesla - Deathbed Confessions, Photos Support Claims That George H. Scherf(f), Jr Was The 41st U.S. President George Bush | Love for Life

Nikola Tesla - Deathbed Confessions, Photos Support Claims That George H. Scherf(f), Jr Was The 41st U.S. President George Bush

Saturday, April 09, 2011

Profile: Dr. David Sanchez =Brown Beret

First Blogpost Dated 6/5/06 ~Update: 4/09/2011
To be updated:

http://www.mexicanamericanuniversity.com/drsanchez/

David Sanchez Ph.D. grew up around several barrios in Los Angeles. At a young age he began to organize his community for better living conditions. He has always been at the forefront to direct or assist community events for the progress and advancement of Mexican Americans and Latinos.

David Foncerrada Sanchez became one of the most influential leaders during the Mexican American Civil Rights Era. He Started up groups like the Chicano Moratorium and the B.B. National Organization. More recently, David Sanchez earned his Ph.D. and taught Mexican American Studies at several community colleges for over ten years. He also served as Sr. Liaison for the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services. He is the author of two books titled "Expedition Through Aztlan" and "Social Communication for Everyone".

Dr. Sanchez has completed extensive work in reducing crime and violence in the Southwest and is always there when the community aspires a need. Today, he is the President and Developer for the Mexican American University.

Contact Information:
Dr. David Sanchez, PHD
Mexican American University
P.O. Box 23405, Los Angeles, CA 90023
Email: info@mexicanamericanuniversity.com

Mexican American University is an off campus, non-traditional, alternative education university which offers everyone the opportunity to apply their knowledge and experience into academic credits leading to a certificate of completion or a degree.We have developed a distinctive alternative to regional education and are are widely accepted in business, industry, and government. The programs are completed entirely by correspondence or by e-mail.

MAU is a private university and organization which is dedicated to assist learners and working people who wish to excel at a higher level at the workplace. Independent study may be applicable to developmental research which can contribute to your place of employment. Assignments may include readings in preparation for essays in which students are encouraged to express their own views and understanding of society. Also, papers from Scientific and Social Sciences are welcomed.

For more information, you may write to Mexican American University at P.O. Box 23405, Los Angeles, California, 90023.

Related Blog:
http://chicanismo.blogspot.com/
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http://laprensa-sandiego.org/stories/prime-minister-of-the-brown-berets-dr-david-sanchez/


Prime Minister of the Brown Berets, Dr. David Sanchez

Fri, Aug 13, 2010
First Person:
By Al Carlos Hernandez
    Ironically the Brown Berets, the radical Chicano community organization, began in the office of the mayor of Los Angeles. The Mayor’s Advisory Youth Council had just selected 16 year old David John Sanchez as its chairman for 1966.
    Acting as advisers on behalf of the Mexican American community were David Sanchez, Carlos Montes, and Ralph Ramirez. The group originally hoped to ease the strained relationships existing between the community and the police department.
    They opened up a coffeehouse. The intention of the coffeehouse was to attract teenagers and give them something to do other than to hang out on the streets. The coffeehouse was called, “La Piranha,” which also served as an office and meeting hall.
    The Sheriff’s Department decided that the coffeehouse was a bad place because the kids drew a picket line in front of the Sheriff’s station protesting a case of police brutality.
    David Sanchez said, “I was jumped by the fuzz. They had me at the jail for some minor kid thing and I didn’t want to sign. One cop got me in a judo hold and another came up behind me from the back and knocked me flat. When I woke up they were booking me. I began to change my mind about things and began to see that something was wrong with America. Things were no longer Stars and Stripes.”
    Experiences like these incited the group and they became openly militant. In the fall of 1967, they officially changed the name of their group to the Brown Berets.
    The goal of the Brown Berets in the beginning, according to Sanchez was, “To unite our people under the flag of independence. By independence we mean the right to self-determination, self-government, and freedom – our land was stolen from our forefathers.”
    The Beret program included demands for the return of all the stolen land and called for an end to the police occupation of Raza communities, an end to the robbery of Chicano communities by businessmen, and an end to the drafting of Chicanos. Then the demand went out for Chicano control of Chicano education, and for housing fit for human beings.
    The Berets often provided a sense of security to individuals and families and were often called on to provide security at public demonstrations by Latino groups they labeled as La Raza.
    The Berets started people’s clinics, youth centers, anti-drug programs, and many other projects. Sheriff’s deputies harassed the Brown Berets and infiltrated the organization, causing disorganization and forcing them to shut down their coffee shop in the beginning of March 1968.
    Late in May, 1969 the Los Angeles Police Department’s Special Operations Conspiracy Squad raided the main headquarters of the Brown Berets in Los Angeles. Police claimed that the raid was to arrest two people on a charge of conspiracy to commit burglary. David Sanchez, on the other hand, felt the raid occurred because, “The police were irritated by recent intelligence activities by the Berets. Brown Berets members had reportedly uncovered two undercover agents from the police department in their membership.”
    Undaunted, Brown Berets continued to operate their East Los Angeles Free Clinic. With financial help from the Ford Foundation and the volunteer help of professionals, the clinic offered free medical, social, and psychological services to Mexican Americans.
    Through the clinic, similar services were also provided by the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund, also financed by the Ford Foundation. But such efforts were to be overshadowed by the arrests and convictions of those Brown Berets who allegedly created fires and disturbances in the Biltmore Hotel on April 24, 1969.
    Soon, the medical and legal services of the East Los Angeles Free Clinic would cease. But the violence in the streets in the form of demonstrations and social protests would continue and a contingent of the Brown Berets would continue to participate in a show of “Brown Power” and militancy.
    David Sanchez was the Brown Berets founding leader and Prime Minister.
    As a former Brown Beret myself, while in college, I had an opportunity to talk to the enigmatic Dr. David Sanchez about the Brown Beret experience:

    Al Carlos: Society viewed the Brown Berets as a militant organization on the same level as the Black Panther Party. What was your original vision for the Brown Berets?

    David Sanchez: The Brown Berets was a psychological ploy to bring attention to the Mexican American and Chicano community. Our vision was often misinterpreted by scholars and writers. What we did was non-violent community activism drawing attention to our struggle for the survival for our cultural communities and for future generations. Of course, we are always up against reactionaries who called us militants and barrio mentality which was conservative and quite provincial at the time.

    AC: So your intention was social change without violence, using implied power?

    DS: The locos (crazy street guys) in the barrio thought that we should use violence. Still, we taught that learning to use non-violence would keep us safe from spending all of our time going to court and jail. We had to deal with extremists from the right and left; polarization was always a concern.

    AC: When in life did social activism become something you became passionate about?

    DS: At 12 years old, I was drafted into a gang in which I ended up making peace with surrounding gangs. Then, an Episcopal priest hired me at 16 years old to be a summer youth counselor. The priest was Father John B. Luce. He gave me books to read. From there, I was able to hook up with other youth organizations. I then became the first president for Mayor Sam Yortie’s Youth Advisory Council.
    Then, whites from the Young Republicans came to demonstrate and to throw me out of L.A. City Hall. They could not. During this time, I was a regular rebel in high school with a “B”average and organized a campus protest against the police explorers. The only Anglos that we saw were the white LAPD police who constantly pulled over any Chicano on any street.
    I knew that there would be a long struggle and was willing to drop everything just to get the movement on the correct path. The Brown Berets were not out to shoot police. Rather, our tactic was to create mass events.

   AC: Why, then, are the immigrant struggles getting more traction while Chicano causes lay on the back burner?

   DS: Barrio mentality and lack of respect for each other is holding us back.

   AC: Tell us about your recent run at local politics?

   DS: Recently, I ran for Congress. It’s a way to get out the issues. Last June, I ran against Congresswoman Lucille Roybal Allard and was opposed to her strong support of the war. I received 5,500 votes. She got 12,000 votes with 18 years in office. This after getting the job passed on to her from her father, Congressman Ed Roybal.

   AC: How would you like American history to remember you?

   DS: I think I will be remembered as the leader during the Chicano Rebellion in East Los Angeles. And founder of the Brown Berets, and founder of the Chicano Moratorium Committee.
   Last said: to care about our people…it’s in my blood.
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http://www.heralddeparis.com/interview-prime-minister-of-the-brown-berets-dr-david-sanchez/102019

Interview: Prime Minister of the Brown Berets, Dr. David Sanchez

By Al Carlos Hernandez on August 8, 2010
LOS ANGELES (Herald de Paris) - Ironically the Brown Berets, the radical Chicano community organization, began in the office of the mayor of Los Angeles. The Mayor’s Advisory Youth Council had just selected 16 year old David John Sanchez as its chairman for 1966. Los Angeles’ Mayor Sam Yorty welcomed and congratulated the young man personally and gave him a gavel. One of his projects was “The Young Citizens for Community Action.”

Acting as advisers on behalf of the Mexican American community was David Sanchez, Carlos Montes, and Ralph Ramirez. The group originally hoped to ease the strained relationships existing between the community and the police department. The group began reading about community issues and began setting up community projects, including going to Delano and raising food for the farm workers.

They opened up a coffeehouse. The intention of the coffeehouse was to attract teenagers and give them something to do other than to hang out on the streets. The coffeehouse was called, “La Piranha,” which also served as an office and meeting hall.

The Sheriff’s Department decided that the coffeehouse was a bad place because the kids drew a picket line in front of the Sheriff’ station protesting a case of police brutality.

David Sanchez said, “I was jumped by the fuzz. They had me at the jail for some minor kid thing and I didn’t want to sign. One cop got me in a judo hold and another came up behind me from the back and knocked me flat. When I woke up they were booking me. I began to change my mind about things and began to see that something was wrong with America. Things were no longer Stars and Stripes.”

Experiences like these incited the group and they become openly militant. In the fall of 1967, they officially changed the name of their group to the Brown Berets.

The goal of the Brown Berets in the beginning, according to Sanchez was, “To unite our people under the flag of independence. By independence we mean the right to self-determination, self-government, and freedom – our land was stolen from our forefathers.”

The Beret program included demands for the return of all the stolen land and called for an end to the police occupation of Raza communities, an end to the robbery of Chicano communities by businessmen, and an end to the drafting of Chicanos. Then the demand went out for Chicano control of Chicano education, and for housing fit for human beings. They also said, “The border lands should be open to La Raza whether they were born north or south of the fence.”

The Brown Berets included both men and women who set up centers where citizens could bring their complaints of police brutality. They published a newspaper called La Causa and the newspaper carried reports of police brutality. The Berets often provided a sense of security to individuals and families and were often called on to provide security at public demonstrations by Latino groups they labeled as La Raza.

The Berets started people’s clinics, youth centers, anti-drug programs, and many other projects. Beret chapters spread throughout the Southwest and Midwest. In Los Angeles, sheriff’s deputies harassed the Brown Berets and infiltrated the organization, causing disorganization and forcing them to shut down their coffee shop in the beginning of March 1968.

Late in May, 1969 the Los Angeles Police Department’s Special Operations Conspiracy Squad raided the main headquarters of the Brown Berets in Los Angeles. Police claimed that the raid was made because the PD had cause to arrest two people on a charge of conspiracy to commit burglary. David Sanchez, on the other hand, felt the raid occurred because, “The police were irritated by recent intelligence activities by the Berets. Brown Berets members have re­portedly uncovered two undercover agents from the police de­partment in their membership.” Two Beret members were arrested and incarcerated.

Undaunted, Brown Berets continued to operate their East Los Angeles Free Clinic. With financial help from the Ford Foundation and the volunteer help of professionals, the clinic offered free medical, social, and psychological services to Mexican Americans.

Through the clinic, similar services were also provided by the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund, also financed by the Ford Foundation. But such efforts were to be overshadowed by the arrests and convictions of those Brown Berets who allegedly created fires and disturbances in the Biltmore Hotel on April 24, 1969.

Soon, the medical and legal services of the East Los Angeles Free Clinic would cease. But the violence in the streets in the form of demonstrations and social protests would continue and a contingent of the Brown Berets would continue to part­icipate in a show of “Brown Power” and militancy.

The organization’s inability to clearly define their role in society resulted in their failure to develop specific plans to achieve their demands. Their tendency to react to crises rather than to remain in control of a situation caused the group to become disorganized. Despite these weaknesses the Brown Berets have become a symbol of the Hispanic resistance to tyranny and their fight for liberation.

David Sanchez was the Brown Berets founding leader and Prime Minister.

Herald de Paris Deputy Managing Editor, Dr. Al Carlos Hernandez, a former Brown Beret himself while in college, had an opportunity to talk to the enigmatic Dr. David Sanchez about the Brown Beret experience:

AC: Society viewed the Brown Berets as a militant organization on the same level as the Black Panther Party. What was your original vision for the Brown Berets?

DS: The Brown Berets was a psychological ploy to bring attention to the Mexican American and Chicano community. Our vision was often misinterpreted by scholars and writers. What we did was non-violent community activism drawing attention to our struggle for the survival for our cultural communities and for future generations. We wanted to give La Raza a chance to attain a higher education. Of course, we are always up against reactionaries who called us militants and barrio mentality which was conservative, and quite provincial at the time.


AC: So your intention was social change without violence, using implied power?

DS: The locos (crazy street guys) in the barrio thought that we should use violence. Still, we taught that learning to use non-violence would keep us safe from spending all of our time going to court and jail. We had to deal with extremists from the right and left; polarization was always a concern.

At first, many of us went to jail for walkouts, demonstrations, and fighting with the police. Personally, I went to jail twelve times on false charges. Despite that, we learned that non-violence would help us to last. Eventually we learned that going on the road organizing in various communities helped us to avoid police traps.

AC: Extremists? Weren’t you considered an extremist yourself during that time?

DS: There were people affiliated with the organization that would ask us to use violence. Then we questioned why they wanted to embark on extreme measures. We eventually learned that some extremist were actually police informants.

AC: When in life did social activism become something you became passionate about?

DS: When I was in the fifth grade at thee 79th Street School in South Central L.A., my teacher, who was an African American Mr. Roger Moore, taught me that this land once belonged to Mexico.

At 12 years old, I was drafted into a gang in which I ended up making peace with surrounding gangs. Then, an Episcopal priest hired me at 16 years old to be a summer youth counselor. The priest was Father John B. Luce. He gave me books to read. From there, I was able to hook up with other youth organization. I then became the first president for Mayor Sam Yortie’s Youth Advisory Council.

Then, whites from the Young Republicans came to demonstrate and to throw me out of L.A. City Hall. They could not. During this time, I was a regular rebel in high school with a “B”average and organized a campus protest against the police explorers. The only Anglos that we saw were the white LAPD police who constantly pulled over any Chicano on any street. My parents also explained to me that Anglos were very unfair to our people.

Our family business was constantly harassed by the LAPD. I moved to change our group’s name from Young Citizens for Community Action to Young Chicanos for Community Action. And then to the Brown Berets.
I knew that there would be a long struggle and was willing to drop everything just to get the movement on the correct path. The Brown Berets were not out to shoot police. Rather, our tactic was to create mass events.

AC: Some people think that the Brown Berets were a prelude to some of the gangs in the community today. Do you believe that’s true?


DS: The Berets were not a gang, Gangs and north/south conflicts came out of the prisons with barrio gang mentality to put gas on the fire. The migrants at this time are better organized and get most of the attention. Yet, if La Raza gets it together for a progress movement, we will have a new civil rights movement and not the Blacks.


AC: Why, then, are the immigrant struggles getting more traction while Chicano causes lay on the back burner?
 

DS: Barrio mentality and lack of respect for each other is holding us back.

AC:What about the groups who are now calling themselves Brown Berets, they even have websites?

DS: There will always be Brown Berets popping up because people want change. However, some of these groups have developed bad attitudes and have not done their homework on the past, Nor do not they respect past leaders. Nonetheless, I have respect for a few new Brown Berets in Los Angeles who know how to tackle issues. Just wearing a Brown Beret does not make them a respectful Brown Beret. The original Brown Beret Manual says, “Have respect for everyone”. Many of the new Brown Berets want to be independent. In the old days, Brown Berets were under one command which was coming from my office as Prime Minister.


AC: What about your personal life? Have you always been arcane and enigmatic?


DS: I play guitar and write. I really could not afford a family with teaching just part time at colleges since 1978.

I wrote a book on the “Brown Beret Movement” as part of my dissertation and did much work in Human Communication. In 1978, I received a Ph.D. from The Union Institute and University. I love teaching.
Mostly I taught Chicano Studies for 11 years and taught Speech 101. I wrote, Expedition through Aztlan.

As a Brown Beret, I traveled in a real expedition to eighty barrios throughout the U.S. I knew that the area had to be mapped out culturally, politically, and socially. It was probably the only book that was written during the Chicano Movement from an inside perspective. I also knew that it was important to document the movement and history before all may get wiped out. I learned about expeditions while attending Cal State Los Angeles in the late sixties.

The other book I wrote was, Social Communication for everyone. In this book I felt that our People needed to improve their communication skills. The book covers areas from social to advanced human communication.

AC: Tell us about your recent run at local politics?

DS: Recently, I ran for Congress. It’s a way to get out the issues. Last June, I ran against Congresswoman Lucille Roybal Allard and was opposed to her strong support of the war. I received 5,500 votes. She got 12,000 votes with 18 years in office. This after getting the job passed on to her from her father, Congressman Ed Roybal.
It was hard to run with no money. Yes, I want to run again. Actually, I should have been a congressman but gave most of my years to community issues.

AC: What are some of the projects you are working on now?

Presently, I am trying to find grant funds for the Mexican American University. I put together a board and corporation to develop The Mexican American University. It’s a lot of work.


AC: How would you like American history to remember you?


DS: I think I will be remembered as the leader during the Chicano Rebellion in East Los Angeles. And founder of the Brown Berets, and founder of the Chicano Moratorium Committee.


And last, founder of the Mexican American University. Last said: to care about our people…it’s in my blood.

Edited By Susan Aceves

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Note: As a former Brown Beret I think we got sidetracked by Chicano cultural nationalism and were not able to cross over into a global democratic socialist ideology. I do not endorse Sanchez, respect the new Brown Berets and felt he was a fool for disbanding them when he did. ~Che Peta ~On Twitter @Peta_de_Aztlan

KEY LINKS:
The Humane-Rights-Agenda Blog
Join Related Group:Humane-Rights-Agenda Group
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Wednesday, December 08, 2010

Brief Bio: #WikiLeaks Founder Julien Assange ~2B Updated

Short URL http://bit.ly/iilUZe

Julian Assange of Wikileaks

Oct 24, 2010 Leann Richards

Julian Assange - Wikimedia commons

Julian Assange is said to be the founder of Wikileaks, the on line whistleblower organisation. Assange is a mysterious figure and little is known about him.

Julian Assange is the public face of Wikileaks, the online whistleblower organisation. However, little is known about this mysterious Australian.
Birth and Early Life

Assange was born in Townsville in the north of Queensland, Australia, in 1971. His parents were in a traveling theatre troupe and were itinerant employees.They traveled around the countryside throughout Julian's early life until they separated when he was 11 years old.

People from Magnetic Island in Queensland remember the family as living an alternative lifestyle like hippies who always had something interesting going on in their house.

After the divorce, Julian's mother frantically ran from town to town seeking to avoid domestic violence. The family rarely stayed in the one place and kept a low profile.
Education and teenage years

Assange left home when he was 16 . He enrolled at several universities including Melbourne University, where he studied Mathematics. He was an exceptional mathematician and soon turned these skills towards computer programming.

Around this time he became involved with a group of outlaw hackers. The group, called the "International Subversives" were based in Melbourne and hacked into large corporations including Telecom, the Australian telecommunications company, RMIT, the Australian National University and even allegedly, the Australian Federal Police, where they read the file about the investigation into their activities.

In 1991, the group were caught and charged . Assange was given a good behaviour bond and a fine. The judge said that he had hacked into these corporations because of intellectual curiosity and with no malicious intent.

In 1997 a book called Underground which dealt with the Melbourne underground hacking scene appeared. Assange was listed as one of the researchers for the book. It was alleged he was the hacker called Mendax whose activities were described in the publication.

Assange's genius with computers lead to him working with some large companies writing encryption codes.He never completed his degree and was largely self educated.
Wikileaks

In 2007 Assange with some like-minded people formed Wikileaks, an online organisation that released information and documents from whistleblowers.

In 2009 Wikileaks released a secret black list of banned websites from the Australian communication authority. Also in that year the organisation with Assange won an Amnesty International Media award for publishing information about human rights abuses in Kenya in 2008.

Wikileaks has become known worldwide for its leaking of documents relating to the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. In 2010, large caches of secret government documents relating to these conflicts were revealed by Wikileaks.

Due to issues with the information on the site, Assange has found it necessary to revert to his childhood pattern of itinerancy, traveling from place to place with little more than a back pack and computer. He rarely talks about his private life and remains focused on wikileaks.

Julian Assange is a controversial figure with a stated mission to resolve the problem of press and whistleblower censorship. His ability to access whistleblowers and government documents is unprecedented in the modern age. Whether these revelations will have lasting effect is yet to be seen.

Sources

Carly Crawford, Hacker or Revolutionary? Herald Sun, Melbourne,July 31 2010

Andrew Strutton, Rogue Website Author Local Lad, Townsville Bulletin,Townsville QLD, July 29 2010

Will Pavia, Aussie Behind Invulnerable site for Whistleblowers , The Australian, Canberra ACT, July 28 2010

Bernard Lagan, International Man of Mystery, Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney NSW, April 10, 2010.

http://www.suite101.com/content/julian-assange-of-wikileaks-a300242
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http://bit.ly/f5kDAW
Julian Assange

Who is Julian Assange?
GLENDA KWEK - Sydney Morning Herald
Last updated 05:00 10/12/2010
Reuters
SUPER-GEEK: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

The super-geek who is now staking a claim to being the world's most notorious leaker of secrets grew up on a small idyllic Queensland island with just 500 residents - a "Tom Sawyer" who fished and built rafts while his mother "lived in a bikini" and shot a taipan on his bed.

Born in July 1971 in Townsville on the Queensland coast, Julian Assange says he's never been a stranger to the nomadic way of life, moving 37 times by the time he was 14. His parents worked in theatre and were often on the road.

He and his half-brother did not receive formal education, with his mother Christine telling The New Yorker magazine in June: "I didn't want their spirits broken."

"Assange's mother believed that formal education would inculcate an unhealthy respect for authority in her children and dampen their will to learn," the magazine reported, adding that Mr Assange's parents were "tough-minded nonconformists".

Assange said he "spent a lot of time in libraries going from one thing to another, looking closely at the books I found in citations, and followed that trail", took correspondence classes, had informal lessons with university professors and was occasionally home-schooled.

Two of the locations he and his family frequented included Magnetic Island - a small heritage-listed island eight kilometres off Townsville - and Byron Bay.

"Most of this period of my childhood was pretty Tom Sawyer," he told the New Yorker.

"I had my own horse. I built my own raft. I went fishing. I was going down mine shafts and tunnels."

Assange wrote warmly about his childhood on Australia's east coast in an opinion article for The Australian newspaper, citing Queenslanders' willingness to "[speak] their minds bluntly" as influencing his desire to create WikiLeaks, whose motto is "we open governments".

"I grew up in a Queensland country town where people spoke their minds bluntly. They distrusted big government as something that could be corrupted if not watched carefully. The dark days of corruption in the Queensland government before the Fitzgerald inquiry are testimony to what happens when the politicians gag the media from reporting the truth," he wrote in the hours before his arrest yesterday.

"These things have stayed with me. WikiLeaks was created around these core values. The idea, conceived in Australia, was to use internet technologies in new ways to report the truth."
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In September 2009, Mrs Assange wrote about her time on Magnetic Island in its History and Craft Centre visitor's book.

"My name is Assange. I have lived on the Island three times. 1971 as a single mum with a young baby (Julian). I rented an island cottage for $12 per week in Picnic Bay," the Magnetic Times community paper reported, quoting from the book.

"I lived in a bikini, 'going native' with my baby and other mums on the island. ...

"Back again in 1976 with new husband. Lived in Horseshoe Bay on an old abandoned pineapple farm. Slashed way to front door with machete. Shot a taipan in the water tank and on son's bed. Had to suspend fruit from ceiling to protect from possums.

"Back again in 1982 with another little child. Lived in a flat on esplanade in Picnic Bay. Back again as a grandmother with long-term boyfriend - still in love with island - only staying 2 weeks."

Magnetic Times editor George Hirst said the island in the 1970s would have had 500 residents, with most of them "highly transient". It now has more than 2000 residents.

"For a kid growing up, it's one of the best places you can imagine. People are much more laid back and casual," he said today.

"There's not much crime and you see kids running around and having fun. They can do things without the safety paranoia of the modern age."

When Assange was eight, his parents split up and his mother started dating a musician who she said was abusive towards her.

She left him, but, fearful that she would lose custody of her second son, who was fathered by the musician, the trio went on the run.

She said "we now we need to disappear", Mr Assange told the New Yorker.

At 13, Mrs Assange bought Julian his first computer for $600.

"Being a very bright boy in a country town he really needed something extra than what the country town could give him," Mrs Assange told The Sunshine Coast Daily this week.

"Julian had been drooling over these things [computers] for about a year and I just thought that he really needed to have it for his intellectual growth.

"I was just indulging his childhood passion."

By the time Assange moved to Melbourne with his family in his teens, he had built up a reputation as a sophisticated computer programmer.

He also fell in love with a 16-year-old girl and left home to live with her. At 18, they married and had a son, Daniel.

Assange's experiments with computer hacking soon attracted the ire of the police. In 1991, he was tracked down by authorities after he and other hackers broke into Canadian telecommunications company Nortel's main terminal, and eventually charged with 31 counts of hacking. At the same time, his wife left, taking their baby son with her.

Assange struggled to cope with fighting to regain custody of Daniel and waiting for his criminal trial to take place. When it finally concluded in 1995, he pleaded guilty to 25 of the hacking charges, avoiding prison on condition he did not reoffend.

The judge said then: "There is just no evidence that there was anything other than sort of intelligent inquisitiveness and the pleasure of being able to - what's the expression - surf through these various computers."

But it was the custody battle that eventually drained all the colour out of his brown hair, Mrs Assange told the New Yorker. Although Mr Assange obtained an agreement with his wife over Daniel in 1999, both he and his mother "experienced very high levels of adrenaline".

"And I think that after it all finished I ended up with PTSD [post traumatic stress disorder]. It was like coming back from a war. You just can't interact with normal people to the same degree, and I am sure that Jules has some PTSD that is untreated."

Assange travelled in Asia and worked in a number of different fields, including as a security consultant, a researcher in journalism, and started his own IT company, scraping together money to help support Daniel. In his late 20s he went to Melbourne University to study mathematics and physics.

He founded WikiLeaks in 2006, creating a web-based "dead letter drop" for would-be leakers.

In 2007, he told smh.com.au: "Imagine a world where companies and government make plans the public likes, open up rather than covering up and treat employees well.

"Sounds pretty good, doesn't it?"

But he added in another interview with the website this year that he did not see himself as a computer guru.

"I live a broad intellectual life. I'm good at a lot of things, except for spelling."

http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/4442361/Who-is-Julian-Assange?utm_term=Julian+Assange&utm_source=TheCubaBlog&utm_medium=twitter

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  • Thursday, November 25, 2010

    Peta_de_Aztlan

    Being Thankful on a Thanksgiving Day of Mourning ~ November 25, 2010 via Peta_de_Aztlan

    Short Blog Link~ http://bit.ly/hUVijO
    Collage=11-25-2010

    It is that time of year again here inside the so-called United States of America ~more accurately described as Divided States. Time for Thanksgiving Day ~ Turkey Day! Millions upon millions of innocent turkeys have already been slaughtered and prepared for big family gatherings today when they will be devoured by millions of Americans for Thanksgiving Dinner. Many will have turkey sandwiches around for a few days until it feels like turkey is coming out of our ears. The mythology behind Thanksgiving Day involves the crafty Injuns helping the poor Pilgrims to survive one rough late November winter. Then they celebrated it all by having a big joyful feast together. One big happy family pigging out ~or rather ~ turking out!

    The truth: In 1637, Thanksgiving Day started out a Celebration of the Pequot Massacre of 700 Indian men, women and children during one of their religious ceremonies. "Thanksgiving Day" was first proclaimed by the Governor of the then Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1637 in recognition of the blood-lust victory.

    I am indigenous to this land I call Aztlan ~Our Land~ in reference to the U.S. Southwest. I identify with the cultural term 'Chicano'. I am not your typical Amerikan. I am a U.S. citizen, not subject to deportation, yet! I was born, bred and raised in Sacramento, California, Aztlan. My street name is 'Peta' ~ a Pachuco term meaning 'a rope hard to cut'. On my Dad's side, my direct bloodline goes back to the Chiricahua-Apache Warrior Chief known as Geronimo and a great great grandfather who was a Sonoran Yaqui Chief of a tribe never conquered by the Spaniards in Mexico whose name I do not now know, according to my Father/Padre Pedro M. Lopez who was born near Chandler, Arizona.

    I have been on the Internet for several years now. Every year it is traditional for many Native-American advocates online to dig up the bones about the horrible history of the Thanksgiving Day Massacre. Let us not forget to educate others about the key lessons of history in order to more clearly understand out present situation. Let us accept the truth of history as a guide to action. At the same time let us live in the present here and now without the burdens of bitter past resentments, the haunting of history. Like the Garth Brooks song, we need to bury the hatchet but keep the handle sticking out!

    We can appreciate Thanksgiving Day as a special day of being sincerely thankful for the blessings we have received in life; yet we should also reverence today as a day of mourning for all the indigenous native victims of genocide in the Amerikan Holocaust. Keep it real! Free Leonard Pelier Now!

    Relevant Links:

    Thanksgiving: A Native American View/ By Jacqueline Keeler ~1/01/2000
    > http://www.alternet.org/story/4391/

    READ: Deconstructing Thanksgiving~A Native American view~11/27/08
    > http://bit.ly/gCWVm2

    The TRUE History of Thanksgiving
    > http://bit.ly/eGKmxA

    The Real History of Thanksgiving – The Rape of America by European Racial Supremicists
    > http://bit.ly/hBKUFJ

    Thanksgiving is a LIE
    > http://bit.ly/hOPKgB ~

    The Thanksgiving Day Massacre...Or, would you like Turkey with your genocide? by DelicateMonster ~ Thu Nov 23, 2006 at 07:35:36 AM PST
    > http://bit.ly/gnU7KL

    Native American Genocide ~Raina Delema~ History behind the News~Spring 2005
    > http://bit.ly/eIzTz5

    Thanksgiving Day Celebrates A Massacre ~Research compiled, October 19, 1990 by Johyn Westcott and Paul Apidaca
    > http://bit.ly/hkUhXE ~

    THE SUPPRESSED SPEECH OF WAMSUTTA (FRANK B.) JAMES, WAMPANOAG ~ To have been delivered at Plymouth, Massachusetts, 1970
    > http://www.uaine.org/wmsuta.htm

    c/s

    Tags: Amerikan, Holocaust

     
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    Unidos Venceremos! United We Will Win!

    PETER S. LOPEZ AKA: Peta-de-Aztlan
    Sacramento, California
    Email: peter.lopez51@yahoo.com
    http://twitter.com/Peta_de_Aztlan
    http://www.facebook.com/Peta51
    http://help-matrix.ning.com/
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/THIRD-WORLD-NEWS/
    "An invasion of armies can be resisted, but not an idea whose time has come."
    ~ Victor Hugo
    c/s

    Thursday, November 11, 2010

    Biography: Saddam Hussein ~Arabic Saddam means "One who confronts"






    http://www.who2.com/saddamhussein.html


    Saddam Hussein was dictator of Iraq from 1979 until 2003, when his regime was overthrown by a United States-led invasion. Hussein had joined the revolutionary Baath party while he was a university student. He launched his political career in 1958 by assassinating a supporter of Iraqi ruler Abdul-Karim Qassim. Saddam rose in the ranks after a Baath coup, and by 1979 he was Iraq's president and de facto dictator. He led Iraq through a decade-long war with Iran, and in August of 1990 his forces invaded the neighboring country of Kuwait. A U.S.-led alliance organized by George Bush (the elder) ran Hussein's forces out of Kuwait in the Gulf War, which ended in February of 1991 with Saddam still in power. Hussein came under renewed pressure in 2002 from George W. Bush, the son of the first President Bush. Hussein's regime was overthrown by an invasion of U.S. and British forces in March of 2003. Hussein disappeared, but U.S. forces captured him on 13 December 2003 after finding him hiding in a small underground pit on a farm near the town of Tikrit. Late in 2005 he went on trial in Iraq for the 1982 deaths of over 140 men in the town of Dujail. On 5 November 2006 he was convicted and sentenced to death by hanging. The sentence was upheld after appeal, and Hussein was executed by hanging in Baghdad on the morning of 30 December 2006.

    Extra credit: Before the 1991 Gulf War, Hussein threatened that if international forces led by the United States attacked Iraq, it would be "the mother of all wars," giving rise to a multi-purpose catchphrase: "the mother of all (fill in the blank)"... The U.S. effort in the Gulf War was directed by the elder George Bush and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Colin Powell; Powell later became Secretary of State under Bush's son George W. Bush... Hussein's sons Uday and Qusay were killed by U.S forces in the northern town of Mosul in July of 2003... Saddam Hussein was no relation to King Hussein, the late ruler of Jordan.

    WIKI BIOGRAPHY ~
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saddam_Hussein
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    Key Profiles, Bios + Links Blog



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  • Monday, November 08, 2010

    Bio, Notes & Links on Hermano Eduardo Galeano


    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduardo_Galeano

    Eduardo Hughes Galeano (2005)
    Born: September 3, 1940 (1940-09-03) (age 70)
    Montevideo, Uruguay
    Pen name: Eduardo Galeano
    Occupation: Journalist
    Nationality: Uruguayan
    Period: 20th century
    Spouse(s): Helena Villagra
    This name uses Spanish naming customs; the first or paternal family name is Hughes and the second or maternal family name is Galeano.
    >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

    http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5c/Eduardo_Galeano_2009.jpg

    Eduardo Hughes Galeano (born September 3, 1940) is a Uruguayan journalist, writer and novelist. His most well known works are Memoria del fuego (Memory of Fire, 1986) and Las venas abiertas de América Latina (Open Veins of Latin America, 1971) which have since been translated into twenty languages and transcend orthodox genres: combining fiction, journalism, political analysis, and history. The author himself has proclaimed his obsession as a writer saying, "I'm a writer obsessed with remembering, with remembering the past of America above all and above all that of Latin America, intimate land condemned to amnesia."[1]

    Contents
    * 1 Life
    * 2 Works
    * 3 Bibliography
    * 4 See also
    * 5 References
    * 6 External links

    Life

    Galeano was born in Montevideo, Uruguay to a middle class Catholic family of European descent (Welsh,Spanish,Italian and German descent). Like many young Latin American boys, Galeano dreamed of becoming a football (soccer) player; this desire was reflected in some of his works, such as El Fútbol A Sol Y Sombra (Football In Sun and Shadow). In his teens, Galeano worked odd jobs — as a factory worker, a bill collector, a sign painter, a messenger, a typist, and a bank teller. At 14 years, Galeano sold his first political cartoon to the Socialist Party weekly, El Sol and married for the first time in 1959. He started his career as a journalist in the early 1960s as editor of Marcha, an influential weekly journal which had such contributors as Mario Vargas Llosa, Mario Benedetti, Manuel Maldonado Denis and Roberto Fernández Retamar. For two years he edited the daily Época and worked as editor-in-chief of the University Press. In 1962, having divorced, he remarried to Graciela Berro.

    In 1973, a military coup took power in Uruguay; Galeano was imprisoned and later was forced to flee. His book Open Veins of Latin America was banned by the right-wing military government, not only in Uruguay, but also in Chile and Argentina. [1]. He settled in Argentina where he founded the cultural magazine, Crisis. In 1976 he married for the third time to Helena Villagra, however in the same year the Videla regime took power in Argentina in a bloody military coup and his name was added to the lists of those condemned by the death squads. He fled again, this time to Spain, where he wrote his famous trilogy: Memoria del fuego (Memory of Fire). Galeano in 1984

    At the beginning of 1985 Galeano returned to Montevideo, where he continues to live. Following the victory of Tabaré Vázquez and the Broad Front alliance in the 2004 Uruguayan elections marking the first left-wing government in Uruguayan history Galeano wrote a piece for The Progressive titled "Where the People Voted Against Fear" in which Galeano showed support for the new government and concluded that the Uruguayan populace used "common sense" and were "tired of being cheated" by the traditional Colorado and Blanco parties. [2] Following the creation of TeleSUR, a pan-Latin American television station based in Caracas, Venezuela, in 2005 Galeano along with other left-wing intellectuals such as Tariq Ali and Adolfo Pérez Esquivel joined the network's 36 member advisory committee.[3]

    In 2006, Galeano signed a petition in support of the independence of Puerto Rico from the United States of America.

    On February 10, 2007, Galeano underwent a successful operation to treat lung cancer.[4] During an interview with journalist Amy Goodman following Barack Obama's election as President of the United States in November 2008, Galeano said, "The White House will be Barack Obama's house in the time coming, but this White House was built by black slaves. And I’d like, I hope, that he never, never forgets this."[5] At the April 17, 2009, opening session of the 5th Summit of the Americas held in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez gave a copy of Galeano's Open Veins of Latin America to U.S. President Barack Obama, who was making his first diplomatic visit to the region.[6] This made the English language edition of the book go to #2 position and the Spanish version to #11 on the Amazon.com bestseller list.

    In a May 2009 interview he spoke about his past and recent works, some of which deal with the relationships between freedom and slavery, and democracies and dictatorships; "... not only the United States, also some European countries, have spread military dictatorships all over the world. And they feel as if they are able to teach democracy...". He also talked about how and why he has changed his writing style, and his recent rise in popularity.[7]
    [edit] Works

    "Fleas dream of buying themselves a dog, and nobodies dream of escaping poverty: that, one magical day, good luck will suddenly rain down on them - will rain down in buckets. But good luck doesn’t rain down, yesterday, today, tomorrow or ever. Good luck doesn’t even fall in a fine drizzle, no matter how hard the nobodies summon it, even if their left hand is tickling, or if they begin the new day on their right foot, or start the new year with a change of brooms. The nobodies: nobody’s children, owners of nothing. The nobodies: the no-ones, the nobodied, running like rabbits, dying through life, screwed every which way. Who are not, but could be. Who don’t speak languages, but dialects. Who don’t have religions, but superstitions. Who don’t create art, but handicrafts. Who don’t have culture, but folklore. Who are not human beings, but human resources. Who do not have faces, but arms. Who do not have names, but numbers. Who do not appear in the history of the world, but in the crime reports of the local paper. The nobodies, who are not worth the bullet that kills them." – Eduardo Galeano, "The Nobodies" [8]

    Las venas abiertas de América Latina (Open Veins of Latin America) is arguably Galeano's best-known work. In this book, he analyzes the history of Latin America as a whole from the time period of European contact with the New World to contemporary Latin America arguing against European and later U.S. economic exploitation and political dominance over the region. It was the first of his many books to be translated by Cedric Belfrage into English. It is a classic among scholars of Latin American history. The book gained popularity in the English-speaking world after the Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez gave it as a gift to the American President Barack Obama.

    Memoria del fuego (Memory of Fire) is a three-volume narrative of the history of America, North and South. The characters are historical figures; generals, artists, revolutionaries, workers, conquerors and the conquered, who are portrayed in brief episodes which reflect the colonial history of the continent. It starts with pre-Columbian creation myths and ends in the 1980s. It highlights not only the colonial oppression that the continent underwent but particularly the long history of resistance, from individual acts of heroism to mass revolutionary movements.

    Memoria del fuego is widely praised by reviewers. Galeano was compared to John Dos Passos and Gabriel García Márquez. Ronald Wright wrote in the Times Literary Supplement: "Great writers... dissolve old genres and found new ones. This trilogy by one of South America's most daring and accomplished authors is impossible to classify."

    In New York Times Book Review Jay Parini praised as perhaps his most daring work The Book of Embraces, a collection of short, often lyrical stories presenting Galeano's views on emotion, art, politics, and values, as well as offering a scathing critique of modern capitalistic society and views on an ideal society and mindset. (The Book of Embraces was the last book Cedric Belfrage translated before he died in 1991.)

    Galeano is also an avid Soccer fan; in his chidlhood, Galeano had the dream of becoming a soccer player and this desire is the subject of some of his writings, among them Soccer in Sun and Shadow (1995), a review of the history of the game. Galeano compares it with a theater performance and with war; he criticizes its unholy alliance with global corporations but attacks leftist intellectuals who reject the game and its attraction to the broad masses for ideological reasons.

    Galeano's Espejos (Mirrors) is Galeano's most expansive work since Memory of Fire. Galeano offers a broad mosaic of history told through the voices of the unseen, unheard, and forgotten. Recalling the lives of artists, writers, gods and visionaries, Galeano's makes "lore out of the mass of history and stories that make this world, and make us human." (Rick Simonson) Mirrors is set to be published in the US in English by Nation Books in June 2009.

    Galeano is a regular contributor to The Progressive and the New Internationalist, and has also been published in the Monthly Review and The Nation.
    See Link Source ~
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduardo_Galeano
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    Video 1:21:22~Eduardo Galeano Chronicles the History of Human Adventure~Los Angeles Public Library > http://ning.it/d0lLRT
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    VIDEO 9:58~ 'Open Veins of Latin America' author Eduardo Galeano on Democracy NOW! 2006 (Part 1) > http://ning.it/95YsOX
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    VIDEO~8:39~ 'Open Veins of Latin America' author Eduardo /Galeano on Democracy NOW! 2006 (Part 2) > http://ning.it/cxjB2G ~
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    VIDEO~9:56~'Open Veins of Latin America' author Eduardo Galeano on Democracy NOW! 2006 (Part 3) > http://ning.it/bVhx0b ~
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    Link Source~
    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/11/AR2009061104627_pf.html
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    Scenes From the Life of a South American Literary Legend
    By Eduardo Galeano ~ Sunday, June 14, 2009

    WHEN I WROTE "Soccer in Sun and Shadow," I wanted fans of reading to lose their fear of soccer and fans of soccer to lose their fear of books. I never imagined anything more.

    But a former member of the Mexican congress, Victor Quintana, told me the book saved his life. In the middle of 1997, he was kidnapped by contract killers, hired to punish him for exposing some nasty business.

    They had him trussed up, face in the dirt, and were kicking him to death, when, just before finishing him off with a bullet, they started arguing about soccer. Victor, more dead than alive, put in his two cents. And he started telling stories from my book, trading minutes of life for every tale out of those pages. Time and stories came and went, and at last the murderers left him, beaten and broken, but alive.

    "You're okay," they told him, and they took their bullets elsewhere.
    -- -- --
    I don't know Jorge Ventocilla. Rather, I've never met him, but my books are his friends, so I am too.

    When "Mirrors" was first published in Spanish last year, Jorge decided that the book, not readily available in Panama, ought to be handed around from one reader to another.

    Though his savings didn't amount to much, in a flight of fancy he used them all to buy copies of "Mirrors," and he set them loose in cafés, stores, barbershops, kiosks, everywhere. He inscribed each one:

    "This free book is a traveling book. Read it and pass it on."

    And so it was.
    -- -- --
    In 1971, I submitted "Open Veins of Latin America" for the Casa de las Américas prize in Cuba. It lost. Perhaps the jury thought the manuscript was not serious enough.

    Later on, the book got published. Perhaps the military dictatorships that had spread across Latin America thought it too serious. They burned it.

    But in my country, Uruguay, "Open Veins of Latin America" circulated freely among political prisoners during the first few months of military rule. The censors thought it was a textbook on anatomy, and medical texts were not forbidden.
    -- -- --
    A few years ago, at a school in Salta in the north of Argentina, I was reading stories to 8- and 9-year-olds.
    Afterward, the teacher asked the children to write to me, commenting on what I had read.
    One of the letters counseled: "Keep at it, you'll improve."
    -- -- --
    In March 2007, in the Yucatan, "The Book of Embraces" was banned from the jail in Mérida "because it contains diabolical things." Some time before that, in San Jose, Costa Rica, I'd met a girl who was reading it in the bus station. "I always bring it along when I travel," she told me. "It's my portable boyfriend."
    -- -- --
    In "Mirrors," I tell stories that are barely known or simply unheard of.

    One of them occurred in Spain in 1942. After Francisco Franco's coup d'état had annihilated the Spanish Republic, the dictatorship trumpeted the news that a prisoner, Matilde Landa, was going to publicly repent of her satanic beliefs and receive the holy sacrament of baptism in the prison yard.

    The ceremony could not begin without the guest of honor, but Matilde could not be found. She was up on the roof. Suddenly, she threw herself off and exploded like a bomb when she hit the ground. The show went on. The bishop baptized her shattered body.

    "Mirrors" was at the printers when I received a letter from the copy editor at the publishing house.

    She wanted to know where I got that story. The facts were correct, but she knew it only as a family secret.
    Matilde Landa was her aunt.
    -- -- --
    A few months ago, I read some stories at the University of Mexico.

    One of them, from my book "Voices of Time," recounts how a Uruguayan troupe visiting Spain put on a play by Federico García Lorca, the poet executed by Franco and banned during the long dictatorship. It was the first time the play had been performed after decades on the blacklist.

    When the curtain came down, the audience applauded, but with their feet, stamping on the floor. The actors were stunned. Had they done such a poor job? A moment later they received a prolonged ovation.

    In my story I suggest the thundering of feet might have been for the playwright, shot for being a Red, a fag, a weirdo. A way of saying: "Federico, listen."

    And when I told this story at the University in Mexico, something happened that had never happened before on the many other occasions I had told it: 4,000 students applauded with their feet, stamping their hearts out, as if they too were sitting in that theater in Madrid so many years ago. Federico listened.
    -- -- --
    At one of my storytelling sessions, in the Spanish town of Ourense, a man in the back row kept staring at me, an unblinking, impassible mask. When the reading ended, he approached slowly, fixing me with his gaze as if he wanted to kill me. Fortunately, he didn't. Instead, he said, "It must be so hard to write so simply."

    And after that remark, the highest praise I have ever received, he turned on his heel and left.
    -- -- --
    The Bolivian town of Llallagua lived from the mine, and in the mine its miners died. Deep in the shafts in the bowels of the mountains, they hunted veins of tin and lost, in a few short years, their lungs and their lives.

    I spent some time there and made good friends. The last night, we were drinking, my friends and I, singing laments and telling bad jokes till just before dawn. When little time remained before the scream of the siren that would call them to work, my friends fell silent, all of them at once. Then one asked, or pleaded, or ordered: "And now, my brother, tell us about the sea."

    I was speechless. They insisted: "Tell us. Tell us about the sea."

    It was the most difficult challenge in all my storytelling life. None of these miners would ever know the sea; each was doomed to die young. And I had no choice but to bring them the sea, the sea that was so far away, discovering words that could drench them to the bone.
    --Translated from the Spanish by Mark Fried
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    Eduardo Galeano: In the Crucible

    He was born Eduardo Hughes Galeano in Uruguay in 1940, a descendant of middle-class European immigrants. By the time he was 14, he was publishing cartoons in newspapers. By 20, he was editor of Uruguay's famous left-wing weekly La Marcha. Shortly thereafter, he became top executive of Montevideo's paper of record, Época. In 1971, at 31, he published a hair-raising indictment of North American influence on the hemisphere, "The Open Veins of Latin America." Just this past April at the Summit of the Americas, Hugo Chavez handed a copy of that book to Barack Obama.

    For all the ease with which Galeano slid into journalism, the rest of his writing life hasn't been easy. After Uruguay's 1973 military coup, he was arrested for his radical views and imprisoned. He broke free and fled to Argentina where, three years later, he had to flee again. The notorious Brigadier Gen. Jorge Videla, who had deposed Isabel Perón, installed a regime that became known for its secret camps, kidnappings and torture. When Galeano's name appeared on Argentine death squad lists, he escaped from Buenos Aires and settled in Spain, where he wrote his three-volume masterwork, a bracingly original narrative of America's 500 years of history, "Memory of Fire." Like the accompanying essay, it is a mosaic of miniatures, strung together to fashion a powerful and moving portrait. "We Latins are known for jabbering on," he told me. "I wanted to write it all sharper and shorter."

    Surviving lung cancer a few years ago freed him, he says, to employ an even larger canvas: His new book, "Mirrors," reflects 5,000 years of human experience. But it does so with a keen sense of perspective.

    For all the past that Galeano captures, this is a writer who lives right now.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/11/AR2009061104626.html
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    http://bit.ly/q8bNj
    Chávez creates overnight bestseller with book gift to Obama
    Sales surge for book about history of Latin America's exploitation after exchange at summit of Americas
    * Andrew Clark * guardian.co.uk, Sunday 19 April 2009 15.12 BST
    Chavez gives a book to Obama during the Summit of the Americas in Port of Spain
    Hugo Chavez gives Barack Obama a copy of Las Venas Abiertas de America Latina (The Open Veins of Latin America) by Eduardo Galeano during a meeting at the Summit of the Americas. Photograph: Ho/Reuters


    A 36-year-old historical tract attacking the imperialist exploitation of Latin America has become an improbable overnight bestseller after the Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez abruptly presented a copy to Barack Obama.


    During a session of the summit of the Americas in Trinidad at the weekend, Chávez strode up to Obama, patted him on the shoulder and, with a friendly handshake, gave him a paperback copy of Eduardo Galeano's 1973 work, Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent.


    As footage of the encounter appeared on news bulletins, the book rocketed up the US paperback sales chart of the online bookseller Amazon, soaring from number 54,295 to sixth place within 24 hours.


    A classic work in left-wing circles, Galeano's book analyses five centuries of unequal relations with Europe and the US. It contends that Latin America has been abused as industrialised nations plundered its natural resources, ranging from gold and silver to cocoa and cotton.


    Obama accepted the book in good humour, telling reporters: "I thought it was one of Chávez's books. I was going to give him one of mine."


    The US president has made it clear that he wants a friendlier relationship than his predecessor with Chávez, who once described George Bush as the "devil" and who frequently railed against the US for providing flawed global leadership.


    After meeting Obama, Chávez suggested on Saturday that Venezuela was ready to send an ambassador to Washington, ending a diplomatic impasse which began in September. The summit was also notable for further signs of a thaw in US-Cuban relations.


    It is not the first time that Chávez has influenced the readers of the world. Three years ago he publicly praised a Noam Chomsky tome, Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance, at the United Nations. The book surged to the top of Amazon's bestseller list.


    Galeano's book could provide food for thought in the White House. A highly controversial work, it was banned during periods of military leadership in Chile, Argentina and Uruguay. In a famous passage, it argues: "Our defeat was always implicit in the victory of others; our wealth has always generated our poverty by nourishing the prosperity of others."


    A recent edition contains an introduction by the novelist Isabel Allende, who writes that the book was one of a handful of items she took with her when she fled Chile after a military coup in 1973 along with a bag of dirt from her garden, some family pictures and clothes.


    Advisers to Obama suggested, however, that a practical problem may interfere with the president's enjoyment of the book. When asked whether Obama was likely to read it, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said: "I think it's in Spanish, so that might be a tad on the difficult side."
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    Comment: Gibbs is a bias culturalist here as he should know the book is also in English. ~PSLopez


    http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_CLfDkoElnKE/TBGgG8uXymI/AAAAAAAADGY/NjB1vWjrGy4/s1600/1215272264_GaleanoGalicia4102006.jpg

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    Key Profiles, Bios + Links Blog

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