Goran Maric on Wed, 23 Feb 2011 16:26:38 +0100 (CET)


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Re: <nettime> Twitter does not cause revolution, people do



Mark,
There is a quite interesting paradox in what you are saying, though this argument is not
directed against you at all, it was just initiated by your writing. And what I am going to
say is something that is occupying my mind for the last few years . What actually took
my attention is this point where you are counting all these books and then we get to
the point where you say, "I am told that it is about to be re-printed in Chinese, how about
Arabic?" and then keep adding two additional writings, I believe.
 
Though my question might have a dose of humor in the way I am asking it, it deals with
things that are anything but humorous . Maybe we should ask people of Egypt, Tunisia,
and the rest who are going quite successfully after their horrendously corrupted regimes,
to write a book and translate it for us, the residents of the western democracies, how did they
get organized that well, how did they stayed that disciplined and, at the end most importantly
how were they able to get rid of their corrupted government?
We, in the west, have all these books written, I could say almost about anything, we can say
whatever we want (?), we can go and do demonstrations (?), but, it seems to me,
we, in the west, just can't CHANGE anything, wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, or even to prosecute
just one individual criminal bankster?
 
People, especially here, in the USA, mainly ordinary blue or white collar workers were
brought to the point where they are accepting public standards of discourse delivered to us
through the Main Stream Media as the proper common sense of the direction of the discussion
that is totally against ourselves blue or white collars working people. At the same time
we have access to the info, all that knowledge that critically discuss about these issues, and yet
we fail to do any real change?
 
Here, in the USA there are 40 million people without health insurance. 40,000 people are dying
on a yearly basis due to the luck of it. My mother is a very sick person, and she is on Medicare.
I am sorry for the rest of the world, maybe my countrymen, the Americans, will know
what I am talking about. It is a kind of state public health program for elderly and sick.
I spent last three days trying to find a doctor that does accept this type of government
insurance. Finally I found it, and we were sent back to this Public Hospital. This hospital, and
the poor souls in there, ...it is a picture one should come to the USA, and film it.
And it is happening in the country that is able to print whatever book it wants, and then
reprint it in any other language in the world. I guess, we in the western world still have
many things to teach the rest, regardless of horrible state affairs that is going on here,
in our back yard, on everyday basis.
 
But this is not the end of the story. There is another, even more menacing struggle going on
in this great country of the USA; the country where we can print any book we want and then
translate it to any language we want. The conditions of people who took the government loans
to get education, here in the US, have gotten tricked with the worst lie I have ever experienced,
and I am personally experiencing it, such as that the higher education will change, for better,
our lives. IT DIDN'T... Rather it made a living hell of it!
 
Why I am writing all of this. What does it have to the with the post I am responding to?
Well, I will post this links for the 'nettime' family to read the real HORROR stories of the people
who bought into this tale of the better future through education. And I hope that it will be
redistributed around the world. ( I might be naive, but it is more than worth trying to get out there )
http://studentloanjustice.org/victims.htm
I ask everyone who doesn't agree with what I am writing in this letter to go to this link and read it.

So, now I am back to Mark's sentence, and I will repeat it, "I am told that it is about to be
re-printed in Chinese, how about Arabic?" So, yes, here, in the west, we can write, speak, sing,
demonstrate. Here we can do whatever we like one could say, right? But at the end of the day,
NOTHING IS CHANGING?! The same old story is going on, HOW and WHY is it so?
Maybe we really should ask Arabic people to write a book and translate it for us, so to help us
to learn how to CHANGE things. It seems to me we can talk for the talk sake but the substance
of our ability, here in the west, to do real change is missing. Now, don't get me wrong, does this
mean we should stop talking and writing, absolutely NOT! We should talk, as openly as possible,
and never stop, but also we should really ask ourselves, and not for the sake to be smarter than
the other one, but for our own good sake, why we can't change anything here at home?
Best,



gORAN


 
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