"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
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