Just a random find on YouTube – which I had to post (now that this is mostly a video blog).  I thought this was pretty good! That healthcare bill should be flushed down the toilet (or taken to the medical waste disposal bin). And what a big surprise, sitll no action on unemployment…

Yet another professor, and I don’t know much about him…  But I like this excerpt from an interview with Thomas Ferguson for precisely the line that’s used as the title of the video.  What would it take in this country for there to be an active movement of the unemployed ready to challenge Obama and other leaders – and do so aggressively?  Ferguson feels that the public will “not take 20 percent unemployment” (referring to the real unemployment rate, not the “official” underestimate that results from recent decades of heavy manipulation).  I so much hope he’s right, but I don’t have the faintest notion when or how this sudden change to people not taking it anymore will materialize.  (We are in a time of multiple crises, yet I have never seen a population at least seem so passive.)  And I love Ferguson’s idea about unions organizing the unemployed as they did in the ’30s, but my impression of unions in recent history is that such a task is generally far beyond their range and vision.

Ferguson insists that come January, many politicians will suddenly change their attitude about further stimulus measures and come out in support of them.  That’s not such an unlikely occurrence – and it’s something that I really am hoping for, for the sake of my and our economic survival.  It would be fantastic to see a new stimulus with more of an emphais on the unemployed, on workers, on people who had the least to begin with and are now hurting the most due to the actions of those who made a bundle destroying the economy.  That is not an impossibility, either – but I don’t see the president doing anything significant in that direction unless he is starting to feel that he is under enormous social pressure (which gets back to the idea of that besiegement).

P.S.  I looked up Ferguson a little more and saw that he is known for his Investment Theory of Party Competition.  This theory puts forth some possible reasons for a phenomenon that is obvious to many if us – i.e., that in our “democracy,” political leaders are basically bought, sold, and controlled by businesses.  Interesting stuff…

Ever since I posted that interview with Tariq Ali, this song has been running through my head. And what a good song it is! I don’t have much of a taste for stuff that’s being called “classic rock,” and much less for the Stones than The Beatles. But The Rolling Stones really did have a few good years, and as Tariq Ali pointed out (in the lighter part of his interview), Mick Jagger was actually more radical than John Lennon at one point. This is a pretty daring song. What happened to this guy, Mick Jagger? How did he end up being such a snooze? Was it all because of money and complacency?

Over in the blog that I devote to classic Indian films and related topics (such as Pakistani films), I did a post on November 20 about the 25th Death Anniversary of Faiz Ahmed Faiz.  Faiz had a few connections to some of my favorite people from classic and vintage South Asian films.  The most significant connection was his friendship with Noor Jehan (whom I talk about plenty in my other blog, because she is now my favorite singer/actress ever to be connected to old Bollywood – as well as Lollywood), but Faiz also inspired other singers (who also contributed playback singing to old films) such as Iqbal Bano.  Like Noor Jehan, Iqbal Bano sang Faiz’s songs in defiance of a ban by a right-wing government in Pakistan.  (By the way, for those who don’t know this, Faiz was a committed socialist and he did at one point participate in a conspiracy to overthrow the Paksitani government, but I think those actions didn’t present nearly as much of threat as the poetry itself.) 

I included both Noor and Iqbal in my post at the other blog, but I’ve picked Iqbal Bano’s performance as the one to repost here, not only because she was a very compelling singer in her own right, but also because I felt that this poem’s lyrics about all thrones being toppled, crowns tossed, cruetly and torture ended, and truth reigning would fit particularly nicely here. 

Hum Dekhain Gay
We shall see
Lazim Hai ke hum Bhi Dekhain Gay
It is necessary that we shall also see
Woh Din ke Jis ka Wadah Hai
That day which has been promised
Jo Loh-e-Azl pe Likha hai
Which is written with God’s ink
Hum Dekhain Gay
We shall see

Jab Zulm-o-Sitam ke Koh-e-garaan
When the mountains of cruelty and torture
Ruii ki Tarah Urd Jain Gay
Will fly like pieces of cotton
Hum Mehkumoon ke Paun Talay
Under the feet of the governed
Yeh Dharti Dhard Dhard Dhardkay gi
This earth will quake
Aur Ehl-e-Hukum ke Sar Uper
And over the head of the ruler
Jab Bijli kard Kard Kardke gi
When lightning will thunder
Hum Dekhain Gay
We shall see

Jab Arz-e-Khuda ke kabay se
When from God’s Mecca
Sab but Uthwaaiy Jain gay
All the idols will be shattered
Hum Ehl-e-Safa Mardood-e-Haram
Us people standing in the mosque
Masnad pe Bithaaiy jain gay
Will be elevated to a higher platform
Sab Taaj Uchalay jain gay
All the crowns will be tossed
Sab Takht Giraaiy Jain gay
All the thrones will be toppled

Bas Naam rahay Ga Allah ka
Then only God’s name will remain
Jo Ghayab Bhi hai Hazir Bhi
Who is both absent and present
Jo nazir bhi hai manzar bhi
Who is both the observer and the view itself
Uthay ga Analhaq ka Naara
When the anthem of truth will be raised
Jo Main bhi Hun aur Tumbhi ho
Who I am and you are as well
Aur Raaj karay gi khalq-e-Khuda
And the people of God will reign
Jo main bhi hun aur tum bhi ho
Who I am and you are as well

Hum Dekhain Gay
We shall see
Lazim Hai ke hum Bhi Dekhain Gay
It is necessary that we shall also see
Hum Dekhain Gay
We shall see

(Translation from EGO.)

Seems a few of my neighbors in Jackson Heights got arrested for using Twitter to help protesters, the same thing that the U.S. politicians and media were praising when it happened in Iran. Seems that these principles of freedom shouldn’t apply globally, just in vilified nations. This video nicely illustrates the contrast.

P.S. I don’t know anything about Twitter, nor do I have any curiosity about it. But it’s nice that people are using it this way.