The hunt for the Tsarnaev brothers captivated Barbadians this week
There is no denying that the main news feeds for individuals and media come from CNN, ABC, NBC and to a lesser extent the BBC. The result is that news about the Boston Marathon bombing and the resultant manhunt for the Tsarnaev brothers have bombarded our media channels all week long.
At workplaces, on social media discussion points remain fixed on events which unfolded in Boston this past week. While it is understandable that Barbadians have a strong connection with North America – in this case Boston – there is the realization that we have allowed the Western media to heavily influence our thought process. If a similar incident had occurred in a non Western country there would hardly be the same preoccupation by Barbadians which we witnessed this week. A tragedy is a tragedy wherever it occurs.
The tragic Boston episode should highlight the important role of the media and how it is capable of winning and influencing the minds of citizens. Should educated Barbadians not be expected to want to be equally informed about protests in Bahrain and Egypt, preparation for the 2013 Zimbabwe presidential election, the coup attempt in Sudan, Ahmadinejad about to visit West Africa, an Iraq which continues to be gutted by civil strife. You get the point. Ask the average Barbadian about these non Western stories and nine out of ten BU is willing to wager are clueless.
How can we expect to be global in perspective, to compete in a global market if we continue to be limited in our world view? There is the Internet which provides access to the news from almost every country on the globe, how many Barbadians take advantage? A listen to the talk shows daily, a read of the local press and what do we hear or read? The same old tired perspective. We have produced a generation whose geopolitical view is so unifocal that it betrays the billions invested in education.
So how do we turn it around? We live in times where it is fashionable to have ‘cable’. Embedded in the ‘cable’ are the best news channels the US and UK offer. It is very difficult to believe that the brain washing which is in high gear can be disrupted at this stage. We scoff when we hear attempts by China and other non Western countries to censor Western news. Perhaps they know what they are doing after all.
The media space in Barbados is occupied by a passive lot. Our media houses are news takers. With the exception of one or two individuals who try to take the role of a journalist seriously, it is hopeless. The dearth of rich news content has given rise to an active social media which includes ‘the blogs’. We lay claim to high literacy yet have no curiosity to pursue information outside the channel which is fed to US.
Propaganda Wars-American and Israeli propaganda worldwide is Anti-muslim propaganda
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/04/20/299247/us-most-obvious-false-flag-attack-yet/
A recent American Prayer.
Lord let the god-damn perpetrators be Muslims, Jews or Blacks,
And not our full-blooded American boys.
USA, USA, USA, USA.
The average Bajan will probably never go to Zimbabwe but that doesn’t stop them from knowing Zimbabwe has a top class pace bowler in the making in Kyle Jarvis because we share cricket with Zimbabwe and many other countries in the world. He put our top batsmen in real trouble.
What do Sudan, Egypt, Iraq etc. share with Barbadians apart from their humanity? The average Bajan will probably know a bit about the starvation in Sudan, the riots in Egypt in which Mubarak was ousted and that the US has pulled out of Iraq but the average Bajan will not pick up and go to these places and will in all probability not have family there either.
But the US ……. we go there all the time, and many of us have family there ….. it is like a second home.
It used to be the UK, in fact I knew a Bajan who used to refer to it as his home although he lived here!!
My bet is we know much less about the UK news than we do about the US news and the UK is a Western Country …… and almost nothing at all about Germany or France although they are western countries!!
Were the bombing to have happened in Italy, another western country, I doubt it would have attracted the attention of Bajans.
We will probably have heard about Cyprus’ problems because money laundering and corruption we have in common, plus people losing their savings is something we share.
Anyone heard about the Philpott trial in the UK where a father with the help of his wife and a friend set a fire one early morning in his house and killed his five children?
It has a touch of the macabre which would appeal to Bajans, atleast the ones I know.
The terrorist attack in the US had all the ingredients to make the whole world stop and take note. The fact that the News agencies have got to such a stage of sophistication made that news easy to get at.
I followed it on the Internet and probably am as well informed as the person who watched it unfold on TV in America. In fact, speaking on skype with people who live there over the last week made me realise I was just as well informed as they were!
This is what i know , the good and the bad
what ever you can think or say bad about American is true
what ever you can think or say good about America is also true
American will be at war for ever , not a good place to be ,
The target is the white people of America who pay their taxes and the tax dollar use to kill people around the World , this is what i hear all the time,
So we go no where there is a crowd or events just not worth it , You see more on TV anyways , and we dont have a TV
Hard as it might be for some to believe, planned and actual false flag terror attacks on innocent civilians by agents and operatives working for various military or intelligence agencies of the countries within the NATO alliance (including the CIA) is a conspiracy fact, not a conspiracy theory. Bearing that in mind, it would be wise not to discount out of hand at this early stage suggestions that the Boston attack could possibly be another false flag operation planned and carried out (perhaps with the use of patsies) by operatives with inside access to US military or intelligence agencies.
See the video below about the cold war era NATO/CIA/MI6 20+ year long black op known as Operation Gladio, or alternatively, “The Strategy of Tension”. This black op involved deadly terror attacks by underground groups of the fascist far right (with the cooperation of various western intelligence agencies and using equipment and arms supplied by NATO) on West European civilians which could then be used to sow fear in the public mind and discredit leftist and communist candidates for political office as well as any European politicians or commentators who thought that attempts should be made to defuse the cold war with the USSR.
The Swiss historian Daniele Ganser has also researched this topic extensively and now authored a book on the topic (available at Amazon): NATO’s Secret Armies: Operation GLADIO and Terrorism in Western Europe. (There is also much more information on Operation Gladio/Strategy of Tension and its use of false flag terror freely available on the internet.)
Operation Gladio: The Cold War ‘Black Op’ Continues
@Green Monkey.
If one examines the photos of the before and after, and the videos available, it is clear that ‘something’ went down than just an unexpected bombing. At the very least, authorities had warning of an attempted bombing, because at the finish, before and after, private military personnel are present.
In fact, as the bombs exploded, private military contractors are clearly seen acting to radiation test the ‘fallout’ (one guy) and others searching for further bombs. Rather than running to the assistance of victims, they carried out test activity and then it would seem, left the scene.
There are allegedly also reports of ‘drills’ at the start of the race, but that is not on the photos. However, the photos at the finish cannot lie.
It indicates that the authorities were aware of a threat and trying to prevent.
My only question is, these guys are trained to spot things like unusual packages etc, why did they miss the backpacks?
http://www.infowars.com/photos-private-military-operatives-hired-to-work-the-boston-marathon-with-black-backpacks-radiation-detectors-tactical-gear/
Here is a news article which is off the beaten path and obviously was disqualified from being quoted by local traditional media.
http://consortiumnews.com/2013/04/19/chechen-terrorists-and-the-neocons/
Here is an extract from the link just posted:
‘The bottom line is to never forget that “a poor man’s war is terrorism while a rich man’s terrorism is war” – and sometimes those lines cross for the purposes of big-power politics. War and terrorism seem to work in sync that way.’
The US is currently pumping millions to help anti Assad forces in Syria, then the inevitable occurs and the so called enemy has been defeated, the ‘opposition forces’ will train their sights on the US and the terror mill will continue.
http://www.debka.com/article/22914/The-Tsarnaev-brothers-were-double-agents-who-decoyed-US-into-terror-trap
‘A listen to the talk shows daily, a read of the local press and what do we hear or read? The same old tired perspective.’ An excerpt from David in the above thread. Indeed, this is so in many regards in the print and electronic media in Barbados, and even in the non-traditional news media, including the internet blogs based here in Barbados. The fact is that there are two points which intermarry in relationship to
explaining this question of the old tired perspective in the universal media – which we will not get into explaining but simply state again what we and so many others in Barbados have already stated in many fora. These two points are: the current dismal state of political leadership at multifarious levels of the Barbadian society, and the current abysmal state of critical thinking among many of our people in Barbados – and in which it is to be found, et al, this said political leadership and many people in the local news media. The Weekend Nation newspaper (19 of April 2013) of last week carries a story that highlights the principal of the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill, Professor Hilary Beckles’s view that there is a correlationship between the inability of many of the Caribbean region’s younger people to enrol in higher education in this part of the globe, when dimly contrasted with a number of other mentioned regions – which achieve higher enrolment rates among the identified identical age cohort (18 – 30?), and the lack of development in this said region. The PDC dares to state that this type of perspective is becoming old and tired, and, worse, is quite unsupported and unconfirmed by way of definite factual analysis. Whilst increasing numbers of Barbadian people enrolling in supposedly higher learning/ academic institutions and at the end of the day qualifying with semi/professional papers do indicate, et al, the potential to be competitive with one another in and for particular pre-existing established income payment transfer roles and functions (non income payment transfer ones too) in the Barbadian society, and too the potential to carry greater efficacy and efficiency into them, such factors are only a few amongst the great multitude of factors that are involved in any consideration/ assessment of themes and perspectives and policies in development in Barbados and the wider English-speaking region, and in any proper comparisons/ contrasts with other themes and perspectives and policies in the
development of other regions. A theme for consideration by many people must be the education and consequential national material and other distributive outputs that are necessary in, say, the PDC’s policies for aircraft assemblage/ vehicle manufacturing/ ship building/ satellite building here in Barbados and for the further development of the country, and due applicable comparisons/contrasts, if so, with what already takes place in some states in the US. So, where is the education for the future in the high powered highly scientificized substantially technologized roles and functions that are necessary for helping to define much in Barbados away from the old tired perspectives informing social political material financial dedevelopment and stagnation in Barbados?? Where, huh?? Now, a seriously responsible developmentalist media in Barbados will agitate for and help to secure these kinds of net developments for the Barbados.
Who can deny the fact that America is the place to be, despite all its imperfections?
America has operated in this manner for a long time. It is historical fact that America blew up its own warship just to start a war.
Time, place and ship –Research it for yourself
@Oilman
And yes Bajans talk we do not shoot people, or throw bricks. But one day coming soon…
Technology is such a force to be reckoned with right now that i even obtained photos of one of the alleged white bomber’s body……….it’s serious out there…………………………….
Below is a snip from a post in the readers’ emails section at http://whatreallyhappened.com/x.php?letters which to my mind succinctly sums up where the USA (and by extension, it’s friends and allies) finds itself today.
Letter continues at the WRH readers’ emails link above. Can’t link to individual posts directly so you would have to go to the link and page down to find the letter (they are not that many of them).
Not in the post snipped above, but a useful quote to consider at this point in time is a sworn statement given in his court testimony by one of the convicted Operation Gladio false flag terrorists, Italian Vincenzo Vinciguerra:
“You had to attack civilians, the people, women, children, innocent people, unknown people far removed from any political game. The reason was quite simple: to force the public to turn to the state to ask for greater security.”
Will the CISPA Act get pass the Senate?
The buzz is that the Senate will defeat it and Obama will VETO if forced.
http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/cispa-passes-house-vote-faces-senate-possible-veto-1C9357282
What is John Blackman saying?
Even in America, there are those who live in total denial and far removed from reality……………….
The thousands of runners came from different countries. The crowd of spectators was international.
I can’t see the bombing attacks could have been orchestrated because this was not simply an Anerican event..
What would Germany say if it were to find out one of its citizens was killed in the orchestration …. or Japan, or the UK, or any one of the African Countries that took part …. or even Barbados if it had a citizen running.
Maybe there were a couple of North Koreans there too!!
You would have to convince me that the timing of the explosion coincided with no non nationals at risk but even so, if it ever came to light, all hell would let loose and international relations would be severely strained.
I agree there is a puzzle to find out why these two did it, but there must be a reason.
I agree with your premise…it’s not only the Boston events that attract our attention and elicit our commentary…this is true of almost any news event coming out of the USA…but we are conditioned to react this way…in our banks, commercial offices, doctor’s offices and our homes, these are the news stories that repeat themselves on the TV screens that we watch while waiting…stories that grip our consciousness and feature in our conversations. Yet, events in our backyard are relegated to secondary status…it is as if they have little meaning or import for us. Case in point, the ongoing political situation in Venezuela. This has implications for the Caribbean…..to begin with, Venezuela is a Caribbean nation but we tend to think of her almost exclusively in Latin American terms. We cannot deny that her politics and her economics have an impact on our islands….but are we well informed, do we debate the situation there….is it even a separate thread on this blog? Does our media seriously analyze the situation there or does it content itself with offering panegyrics for dead leaders? So many questions but few answers.
@Dr. Watson
You are correct of course but we try although sometimes we are hog tied because of a lack of resources. Last we week we bloged about how atheist bloggers were under threat in Bangladesh, it raised two comments, this said we have to lean on members of the BU family who are encouraged to submit articles.
RIP Richie Havens