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Dec 27, 2011

Malaise Then - Apocalypse Now

There is a certain irony I suppose that I would be writing this from the steamy rainswept jungles of the Philippines not too far from where Francis Ford Coppola filmed the 1979 movie Apocalypse Now.   

From the start, Apocalypse Now, the film based on Joseph Conrad's novella, the Heart of Darkness was besieged with problems.  In the steamy Philippine jungle, the staff and crew were struck down with dysentery almost immediately, that together with a typhoon, delays and budget over runs, the film now, perhaps one of the greatest movies ever made was almost never completed. Grossly over budget and delayed countless times, the movie was finally released on 15 August 1979.

Looking back, Colonel Kurtz' final words seem today to be more prophetic than apocalyptic.  

"Did he live his life again in every detail of desire, temptation, and surrender during that supreme moment of complete knowledge?  He cried in a whisper at some image, at some vision -- he cried out twice, a cry that was no more than a breath:   " 'The horror!   The horror!' "

America's Summer of Madness

It was the summer of 1979, a hot summer plagued by long gas lines and a sense of hopelessness, never-ending that seemed to permeate everything.    That summer our nation would be subjected to Jimmy Carter's infamous "malaise" speech.  The opening lines of which failed to reassure and instead conveyed a man's impotence.     It was as if everything was ending and the cultural decay had hastened.  Chaotic and mad, a film released late that summer entitled "Apocalypse Now" seemed just fitting for the zeitgeist.

So where are we today thirty-two years later?  Has the erosion of our confidence in the future finally destroyed the social and the political fabric of America?   As 2012 approaches how many Americans are confident of what the future holds?

It has been over thirty-two years since and little remains of the film sets at Baler and Caliraya here in the Philippines.  The jungle it seems has a way of forgetting the past.


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Dec 24, 2011

Gimme Shelter

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Dec 4, 2011

Don't Ever Dream Of Freedom

While the international community and much of the world's media has been focused on the so-called "Arab Spring" and on events transpiring across the Middle East, they seem to have turned a blind eye to South East Asia and in particular on West Papua and the plight of the West Papuan's.

There was hope that with President Obama's visit last month, that the United States would take a tougher stance on Indonesia's brutal human rights abuses in West Papua but sadly the people of West Papua are coming to the bitter realization that their cries for freedom and self-determination have fallen on deaf ears.

The only crime of the West Papuan's has been to peacefully raise their national flag and declare independence from Indonesia and for that they have and continue to suffer the wrath of the Indonesian government.

There was a time when the United States supported the West Papuans and their right to self-determination, but it would seem no more.

Less than a month ago this is what Hillary Clinton had to say...

"There needs to be continuing dialogue and political reforms in order to meet the legitimate needs of the Papua people, and we will be raising that again directly and encouraging that kind of approach....[sic]"

Take a look at the video above, this is how Indonesia deals with the West Papuans.  The comments in the video regarding the pig sty deserve a closer examination and give a glimpse into the mindset of the Indonesian soldiers who see the West Papuans, the majority of which are Christians, as infidels.

For the Indonesians, the separatist conflict in West Papua has little to do with state sovereignty and more so to do with religious strife. 

The West Papuans deserve more than noncommittal gobbledygook from America.  They deserve freedom.




Obama:  Throwing Papua Under the Bus
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