venres, 23 de outubro de 2009

Carta de Michael Moore


Congratulations President Obama on the Nobel Peace Prize -Now please earn it!

(Parabéns Presidente Obama polo Premio Nobel da paz, agora por favor gáñao!)

Dear President Obama,

How outstanding that you've been recognized today as a man of peace. Your swift, early pronouncements -- you will close Guantanamo, you will bring the troops home from Iraq, you want a nuclear weapon-free world, you admitted to the Iranians that we overthrew their democratically-elected president in 1953, you made that great speech to the Islamic world in Cairo, you've eliminated that useless term "The War on Terror," you've put an end to torture -- these have all made us and the rest of the world feel a bit more safe considering the disaster of the past eight years. In eight months you have done an about face and taken this country in a much more sane direction.

But...

The irony that you have been awarded this prize on the 2nd day of the ninth year of what is quickly becoming your War in Afghanistan is not lost on anyone. You are truly at a crossroads now. You can listen to the generals and expand the war (only to result in a far-too-predictable defeat) or you can declare Bush's Wars over, and bring all the troops home. Now. That's what a true man of peace would do.

There is nothing wrong with you doing what the last guy failed to do -- capture the man or men responsible for the mass murder of 3,000 people on 9/11. BUT YOU CANNOT DO THAT WITH TANKS AND TROOPS. You are pursuing a criminal, not an army. You do not use a stick of dynamite to get rid of a mouse.

The Taliban is another matter. That is a problem for the people of Afghanistan to resolve -- just as we did in 1776, the French did in 1789, the Cubans did in 1959, the Nicaraguans did in 1979 and the people of East Berlin did in 1989. One thing is certain through all revolutions by people who wish to be free -- they ultimately have to bring about that freedom themselves. Others can be supportive, but freedom can not be delivered from the front seat of someone else's Humvee.

You have to end our involvement in Afghanistan now. If you don't, you'll have no choice but to return the prize to Oslo.

Yours,
Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
MichaelMoore.com

P.S. Your opposition has spent the morning attacking you for bringing such good will to this country. Why do they hate America so much? I get the feeling that if you found the cure for cancer this afternoon they'd be denouncing you for destroying free enterprise because cancer centers would have to close. There are those who say you've done nothing yet to deserve this award. As far as I'm concerned, the very fact that you've offered to walk into the minefield of hate and try to undo the irreparable damage the last president did is not only appreciated by me and millions of others, it is also an act of true bravery. That's why you got the prize. The whole world is depending on the U.S. -- and you -- to literally save this planet. Let's not let them down.


luns, 19 de outubro de 2009

Por que Blog de Xeografía crítica?

Porque nos inflúe a maneira de pensar dos xeógrafos radicais. Estas persoas nos anos sesenta do s. XX, apoiándose nas ideas dos filósofos da chamada Escola de Frankfurt (Adorno, Marcuse, Walter Benjamin...) que reformularon as teorías marxistas, criticaron o cientifismo e positivismo imperante en tódalas ciencias (físicas e humanísticas), consecuencia do desenvolvemento económico espectacular posterior á segunda guerra mundial e da euforia científica que levou á humanidade a grandes logros técnicos como a chegada á Lúa pero que non resolvía os problemas máis prioritarios como a fame no mundo.

Eles reivindicaban una Xeografía para a acción, que non só persiga coñecer o mundo senón tamén melloralo.

Modestamente o afirmamos, pero esta tamén é a idea que nos move a nós.

Por que lle chamamos "O Umia" a este blog?


Porque quere ser unha pequena homenaxe ao noso poeta cambadés, Ramón Cabanillas, do que este ano 2009 estamos conmemorando o 50 aniversario da morte. Cabanillas e uns amigos lanzaron á rúa en 1907 (fixo en xaneiro 102 anos), unha publicación que se chamaba:

"EL UMIA. Periódico independiente. Se publica los días 5 y 21 de cada mes."

Querían os autores contribuír á mellora do seu pobo e así o afirman no artigo do primeiro número: "Nuestros propósitos":

"Nuestros amores son nuestro pueblo: por su prosperidad, por su engrandecimiento nos creemos obligados a todos los sacrificios, a que se nos moteje de chiflados, ese chabacano epíteto con que se pretende herir a los modernos quijotes; y por eso, aún conociendo nuestra insuficiencia, echamos a la calle este periódico en el que recogeremos la opinión de nuestros vecinos, y, hasta donde lleguen nuestras fuerzas lucharemos sin escudo, adarga, ni coselete, a pecho descubierto, alta la frente, contra la atonía de unos, el pesimismo de los más y las fantásticas visiones nunca realizadas, de otros, acaso los menos, pero no menos perniciosos."

E remata o artigo:

"Con un tropo, no por gastado menos expresivo, refundiremos, pues, nuestro propósito: Todo por y para Cambados"


Pero non durou moito a experiencia, seguramente por motivos económicos e tamén políticos (os caciques locais non estaban para críticas), o derradeiro número de O Umia sae o 21 de maio de 1907. Apenas durou uns meses a aventura e así escribe desencantado Cabanillas neste último exemplar:

"¿Para que vivir? Las ocho octavas partes de nuestros lectores de la localidad, por una u otras causas desean nuestra muerte (...) No hemos visto realizada ni la más trivial de las peticiones de interés general que hemos formulado. Es más, hemos llegado a oir que bastaba que se tratase o pidiese por nosotros, para que no se hiciese".


Esperamos correr nós mellor sorte.