Two events, separated by a century, came across this writer's attention recently and each underscore the fact that capitalism cannot change. On November 11, U.N. officials said that Daesh militants have killed "scores of civilians" in Mosul in recent days, sometimes using children as executioners and have used chemical agents Iraq and Kurdish troops. Videos posted by Daesh showed children between ten and fourteen years of age shooting civilians accused of disloyalty. A mass grave discovered on November 7 by Iraqi troops was only many of large scale killings. It contained at least 100 corpses, but it was reported Daesh fighters have dumped bodies down a well at a cement factory yard and at several other locations including the Mosul airport and in the Tigris.
As horrifying as this is it pales in comparison to the other "event." A recent book, A Future Without Hate or Need – The Promise of the Jewish Left in Canada, by Ester Reiter, focuses on the history of secular Jewish movements in Canada (www.btlbooks.com)
When children played with rubber balls in their schools, secular Jewish teachers taught them where they were produced, to quote, ". . . before colonialism, tribes in the Congo lived peacefully, surviving from cattle grazing and gathering. In the nineteenth century the Belgian whites appeared. They taught the "Negroes" how to extract precious metals such as gold and copper. The Congo became a colony of Belgium in 1884, although Belgium is less than half its size. From a population of twenty million in 1908, by 1911 there were only eight million Congolese. Twelve million people died in a three year period. The Belgians enslaved the Congolese to extract rubber, killing whole families who refused to comply. A contemporary report said ". . . if a worker tries to run away the Belgian overseer punishes not only the family, but the whole village. Children and women are whipped, entire villages are burned, in order to frighten the others. The Belgian merchants and the Belgian King are the richest in the country. When children use rubber they need to remember the life of the black slaves who live so far from us. "It's enough to make anyone with a love of humanity to cry out: "When will it end?" - the answer being it won't – At least not as long as the despicable apology for an economic system we lie under lasts.
Steve and John.
As horrifying as this is it pales in comparison to the other "event." A recent book, A Future Without Hate or Need – The Promise of the Jewish Left in Canada, by Ester Reiter, focuses on the history of secular Jewish movements in Canada (www.btlbooks.com)
When children played with rubber balls in their schools, secular Jewish teachers taught them where they were produced, to quote, ". . . before colonialism, tribes in the Congo lived peacefully, surviving from cattle grazing and gathering. In the nineteenth century the Belgian whites appeared. They taught the "Negroes" how to extract precious metals such as gold and copper. The Congo became a colony of Belgium in 1884, although Belgium is less than half its size. From a population of twenty million in 1908, by 1911 there were only eight million Congolese. Twelve million people died in a three year period. The Belgians enslaved the Congolese to extract rubber, killing whole families who refused to comply. A contemporary report said ". . . if a worker tries to run away the Belgian overseer punishes not only the family, but the whole village. Children and women are whipped, entire villages are burned, in order to frighten the others. The Belgian merchants and the Belgian King are the richest in the country. When children use rubber they need to remember the life of the black slaves who live so far from us. "It's enough to make anyone with a love of humanity to cry out: "When will it end?" - the answer being it won't – At least not as long as the despicable apology for an economic system we lie under lasts.
Steve and John.
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