Law and Order part I Dia de los Muertos

"Disobedience, in the eyes of any one who has read history, is man’s original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion." -Oscar Wilde
Despite the impressive progress made in the past several decades to bring the entire world into the global market there are still regions that seem rather serious about resisting. The mindblowing spectacle of modernity is a phantasmagoria of desire difficult to resist when it is offered as a birth right. For those however that see their lands, culture and people consumed for the grand pageant there is often a point of no return were you either sign on with the New World Order or you get ready for the bombs to start falling. This conflict is most frequently painted in the West as a battle between the forward march of freedom/progress that is being impeded by anachronistic and inherently belligerent peoples. In most instances however, it is a battle against centralized authority, which is often synonymous with exploitation. British Raj era term for Waziristan mountains- Hell's Door Knocker. The Pakistani military started on Oct. 17th an offensive dubbed "Operation Path to Salvation". This is a civil war that has been on the horizon since the mass migration of people to what is today called Pakistan after the partition and subsequent wars with India. The various tribes that are hostile to the Government forces there are some of the most warlike people on the planet, so there down to throw down; not like they really had a choice anyway. We'll have to see how that one works out. Aside from resistance in this fashion, there is always the gold old fashioned cluster fuck of internecine warfare, like that in Eastern Congo. A recent statistic said that 1,200 people die from ongoing violence and its consequences every single day. The fighting hasn't really stopped in this area since the 1994 Rwandan Genocide, but ebbs and flows with the various ferocity. The UN forces just announced today that they will no longer being giving logistical or military support for the Congolese Army on account of the fact that they have been killing Hutu civilians in North Kivu. Lawlessness on a level incomprehensible to most of mankind is just how things are done in the Congo Basin. On another front in the ongoing battle between authority and anarchy, the Great Mexican Drug war is rumbling right along. Gargantuan profits lead to battles erupting along the border and smuggling routes. The "Law" in Mexico rarely wants to go engage in combat with any of the cartels because nobody really wants to have their head cut off and family murdered. Because so many of the foot soldiers the cartels employ are ex-military, using that institution often proves very difficult to say the least. One of the newer cartels, Los Zetas, is largely ex Mexican Special Forces that maintain much contact and access with the Military. These people are clearly not fucking around, in case the picture fails to convey this fact.
"Árbol que crece torcido jamás su tronco endereza"
The tree that grows bent will never get straight again."
-Mexican Proverb

Bravery

"Courage is in the air in bracing whiffs
Better than all the stalemate an’s and ifs."
Throughout the timeless trial of thought
can we define what it is we've got
the buildings are built
and the people then wilt
like a flower without water
why do we even bother?
to construct a world such as ours
the endless roads filled with cars
Our soul and brain are clearly insane
if we can happily embrace the mundane
then we deserve the world we get
and we have no place to talk shit
for iff courage and imagination don't dominate
then forever shall we feel fear, despair, hate
As the coward dies many times before his death
So the brave live life in every single breath
if we're ever to pull ourselves out of this abyss
and build a world of transcendant bliss
we need to shed the lies that cloud our eyes
must be prepared to raid and raze
all the aspects of this malaise phase
I probably wouldn't want to live another day
unless i thought we're going to find a way
for me i can only handle the matter
with copious amounts of laughter

Pakistan

"No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare."
-James Madison
"War is not so much a matter of weapons as of money." -Thucydides
"Originally war was nothing but a struggle for pasture grounds. To-day war is nothing but a struggle for the riches of nature. By virtue of an inherent law, these riches belong to him who conquers them." -Adolf Hitler
The United States of America is an Empire, and to maintain an Empire one must spill blood from time to time. What is currently transpiring in the Pashtun areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan is such a blood letting session. The Pashtuns are a proud, tenacious and tribal people that, much like the Chechens, don't really give a flying fuck who they are fighting. Their society is so prepared for conflict that its a cornerstone of their culture. Pashtunwali is the code by which they live and it leaves no room for ambiguity. When the countries of Pakistan and Afghanistan came into being it effectively cut the Pasthun community in two, at least on maps. In reality however the thousand year old bonds that form the foundation of this community means they generally ignore the border unless they are using to flee attack from one side to the other. Like many people in their area, the Pashtuns understand very well that if you want to keep your land you have to fight for it, this is just how things work in this part of the world. As the confrontation between the Pakistani military and the Taliban reaches new levels of animosity and violence, the likelihood of a full scale civil war (although in reality more of a ethnic war) is going to erupt grows daily. The nature of asymmetrical warfare necessitates extreme tactics like suicide bombings, guerrilla warfare, and sabotage. Well, one things you gotta say for the Americans, we generally start wars with pretty tough people. We killed a third of Vietnam, and they didn't give up. The Pashtuns are just as hardcore, if not more so. Don't think that the Pashtuns don't have friends, for the Balochi whose territory is virtually half of Pakistan, are sympathetic and also hostile to the government. Although we aren't trying to occupy the region like the Ruskies did, we are setting up strategic bases to use potentially against Iran or China. We are there to exercise our Imperial prerogative. A people does not sink a large portion of their capital for 60 years and not utilize it... its just simply not done. But don't worry my fellow Americans, these people love killing each other and will surely continue doing so long after we are gone. We just have to try our hand and ruling Eurasia, every truly great Empire has to try it once. With our unprecedented military and technological advantage we might make a go of it, for awhile.
"Haha.. you fool! You fell victim to one of the classic blunders. The most famous is: Never get involved in a land war in Asia."-Vizzini in The Princess Bride

Well

Another day under the 5th Sun

The Eurasians and Africans just finished up another wild and woolly day that included: An ambush upon Pakistani paramilitary forces that killed 40, a day after a major raid on an army headquarters by Taliban forces. New figures are emerging that show a meteoric rise in Cancer rates in parts of Iraq where the US has dropped a lot of Depleted Uranium ordinance- people in the Arab world care about this even if others don't. North Korea once more demonstrated its ability to fire missiles into the Pacific, launching 5 for no known reason as the South tries to engage it on flooding concerns that have already killed several people... different priorities I suppose. China once again got an opportunity to show the world that unlike many places in the world, they get to exercise their sovereignty, which in this instance means killing some of the rioters from Xinjiang (almost certainly to be all Uyghurs). Africa, being the completely chaotic clusterfuck that it is these days experienced a hell of a day too: Guinea reeled from a strike called to commemorate deadly protests several weeks ago, to which the government/armed forces of Captain Camara naturally responded to with violence (the West is still debating whether or not to keep slanging guns to them or not). Despite the surrender of thousands of fighters in the Niger Delta under an amnesty program, MEND and other groups announced that it will keep up the fight and that most of those that went over where 'rented'. As has been the case for many years now, Somalia was the scene of fighting. A raid by the Ethiopians sparked diplomatic outcries, a threat by Islamic militants to blow up hospitals unless they stop using western aid is leading to that most likely becoming a reality. So then the Sun rose upon us in the Americas and we start another day. Heavy trading and fluctuations in the US dollar on the global market makes for an uncertain American economy that is far and away the most important thing to the average US citizen. An Iraq War veteran opened fire on Indiana police after they tried to take him in on suspicion of a triple homicide. A large favelha in Sao Paulo was smoldering and the night ended, with thousands of people from the shantytown now completely screwed. Mexico shut its major state run energy company because it, like many subsidized firms, was an economic train wreck bleeding money from many open wounds. This was no doubt a boon for those who greedily wait to buy up its assets and promptly raise prices for the average Mexican. So goes another day on Earth for the Humans in the strange year of our madness 2009. No need for concern, my song goes:
Fun times and the day has just gotten started for me
every time you awake in this world something to see
the brutal and beautiful all wrapped up into one
think of this when day dawns and you see the sun