24.05.2015

End of a dream, birth of a legend


Novorussian Ghost Brigade commander Alexej Borisovich Mozgovoy was more than a military man, he dreamed of social justice and equality, he wanted to end the oligarchs rule, he fought corruption and pilfering in the area where he was in charge.

On May 23 at 17:30 Alexej Borisovich Mozgovoy was assassinated on the highway Luhansk-Alchevsk near Mikhailovka, some 40 kilometer away from Luhansk, in an ambush by suspected Ukrainian covert commandos.

After the explosion of a mine, the car carrying Mozgovoy was targeted with machine guns. Everyone in the car, Mozgovoy, his press secretary Anna, the driver, and two bodyguards, died on the spot. The assassins also hit three other cars, killing two civilians, including a pregnant woman.
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Currently law enforcement authorities of the Lugansk People’s Republic are conducting investigations and operational activities aimed at identifying and apprehending the assassins.

While Revolutionaries Can Be Murdered, You Cannot Kill Ideas

Boris Rozhin / Colonel Cassad

I first learned of the existence of this man in April 2014, when he began appearing on the TV screens as one of the leaders of the uprising in Luhansk. Very quickly two centers of power emerged in Luhansk — the groups of Bolotov and Mozgovoy, who had systemic disagreements. Starting approximately in April, having completed our humanitarian program for Sevastopol, and having received a letter of thanks from Aleksey Chaly, we started reorienting our work toward the Donbass.

Very quickly it became apparent that we would have to choose who to work with — Bolotov or Mozgovoy. We chose Mozgovoy and never regretted it. We were able to establish contact and to begin work, which, however, did not last very long because Mozgovoy soon left Luhansk and went west. After that, in Luhansk we worked with Batman, Leshiy, and a number of other commanders.

In the summer our collaboration resumed, and we transported humanitarian cargo to the cities in Mozgovoy’s jurisdiction. He even visited our warehouses, although for a long time our paths did not cross. I first met him face-to-face in Yalta at a well-known conference, where I was able finally to say hello to a person who in a few short months had became a legend. I became closer acquainted with him in September 2014 when we discussed various projects of humanitarian movements in the Donbass (which later became the foundation of the Novorossia Movement), and I finally was able to speak to the commander of the Prizrak Brigade.

What struck me about Mozgovoy is that he was no hypocrite — he was the same in real life as he was in his public appearances. There is always the possibility that yet another “popular leader” is insincere, wears the mask of an advocate for truth, while in secret desires glory and riches. As a known skeptic, I expected there to be a certain divergence between his media image and the man in real life. Mozgovoy was nothing like that; he was driven by ideas. He chose to fight for his ideals, even though he could have elected to fit into the system he disliked so much and, like the rest, forget about justice, equality, and other lofty goals. In this regard, in his death and in his life, Mozgovoy demonstrated his honesty and his readiness to die for what he believed in.

I still remember his words, that “I went to war without leaving a shred of me behind, cannot deal with the family, while there is war, the brigade is my family.” He truly, to a large degree sacrificed his personal comfort for a common cause, even though, like others, he could have in “that ignominious war” considerably enriched himself, for instance trading in coal. He had a different path, and he walked it from the beginning to the end.

Mozgovoy lived very modestly and mercilessly pursued the local criminal underworld. Unlike Plotnitskiy and Kosytsyn, who became mired in coal-trading scandals, Mozgovoy had no part in corrupt schemes. He was constantly trying to foster grassroots activism, and, having no ability to spread his ideas across the Republic, he tried to do what he could, to change at least something in the world around him.

That is exactly how his image as the local “Che Guevara” was formed — he spoke for the people and tried to be closer to the common folk in words and in deeds. That is why it was so difficult for him to fit into the constantly shifting political landscape of the LPR. That is what he was periodically persecuted for, as the LPR never managed to produce a Fidel to stand by him.
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His struggle against the oligarchy, a motif which he hoisted like a banner, drew to him not only a lot of volunteers with left-leaning and communist beliefs, but also brought him a lot of sympathy from people for whom justice and equity are not empty sounds. That is why in his brigade, in addition to local volunteers, there were many so called internationalists from Russia and from abroad. What’s surprising is that, at the same time, under his command there were also units of nationalists. All these people were drawn by the character of Mozgovoy, who was an advocate of truth, which each one of them understood in his own way, but which united all of them for the common good. This was not just a slogan — Mozgovoy set himself apart in such a way that people who joined him truly saw him as a beacon that illuminated the uncertain future of Novorossia. The reactions to his death are a crystal-clear demonstration that the tragic death of the Brigadier who had lost much of his military and political means saddened masses of people of various views and beliefs — as if someone close to them had perished.

It goes without saying that such an inconvenient man was ridiculed in every way — Mozgovoy was the target of mudslinging from various émigré Ukrainians, he was constantly subjected to attacks by the media of the Ukrainian Junta, humanitarian deliveries and supplies of ammunition addressed to him were being blocked, he had been forbidden to hold parades and international fora. There was even an attempt to blame him for the failures of the command during the Debaltsevo operation. In the end, Mozgovoy became, in his own way, a black sheep, because his views diverged quite drastically from the new reality around him.

He could have taken the same way out as Dremov, accepted the banner from and complete subordination to Plotnitskiy, but he could not betray his ideals. Some consider his stance to be quixotic, others stubborn, others  foolish. In my opinion, it is people like him, driven by an idea that inspires the masses, who advance history. It was none other than Mozgovoy who was among the revolutionary leaders who lit the fire of Novorossia with the impulse of their struggle, who tore Donbass from Ukraine, and until the last breath did not allow this fire to be extinguished. Without people like this there would have been nothing — only recently, the People’s Republics and Novorossia were nothing but media phantoms. With their life and their death, these people filled the ideas with real content, which cannot simply be shut down, like Tsarev’s bureau. It is because in those days people followed the leaders who carried inside them the flame of a new idea, which became a real alternative to the odious “Ukrainization.”
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Of course he made mistakes, such as when he could not push through the idea of unifying the commanders of Novorossiya or when he began to maneuver in relation to the murder of Bednov, when instead his traditional straightforwardness was required. People are not perfect, and Mozgovoy was no exception. But his errors and misconceptions do not outweigh that which he accomplished and what he fought for, sparking the hearts of people with hope in the possibility of change and belief that an equitable and just society is not merely a figure of speech or a propagandistic stamp. After all, it was this faith, which Mozgovoy embodied, that changed the lives of so many people, who left behind their regular lives and came to fight in the far-away Donbass to defend the ideas, which he taught.

Here is this man who, like a comet, flew right in front of us and burned up in the thickness of the atmosphere. But in the course of this brief and impetuous path, he accomplished enough to secure a place in history. Apart from the purely historical role as one of the leaders of the Novorossian revolution, Mozgovoy will for many years remain as a symbol of the struggle for a just and equitable society and the public good.

Cynics will say: “So what? After all, he was murdered and was unable to implement his ideas.” In my opinion, it is enough that he sincerely tried to do it and sacrificed his life in the process. In his brief, but rich and eventful life there was more meaning than in the lives of those who spend their years wasting away in consumerist intoxication, lying on the couch and watching yet another faraway or, finally, proximate war on the television.

His life and, in particular, his death, will undoubtedly contribute to his further glorification and mythologization. After all, if even the late Alexander Bednov is, despite definite concerns, ranked by the public opinion among the most iconic heroes of Novorossia, then Mozgovoy is simply doomed to posthumous perpetuation as a symbol and a myth.

In recent history, Mozgovoy’s closest analogue is Thomas Sankara, whose aphorism was adopted as the title of this note. They had similar aspirations and suffered a similar fate. When Sankara was being murdered, the perpetrators expected that he, like many other African fighters for justice, would disappear from the horizon of history just like a short ripple that shook the world of exploitation and profit. But time demonstrated that people like that depart to immortality, becoming moral and ethical compasses for the future generations. They represent the will of humanity to justice and equity and inspire more and more new fighters for justice to take the place of those who fell in their struggle for it.

Rest in peace, Aleksej Borisovich. I did not know you well as a person, but to the end of my days I will take pride in having been acquainted with you.
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Further reading:
Interview with Alexej Mozgovoy
News from Novorussia
Against Oligarchs and False Politicians
Report from a war zone
Ukrainian unknowns and uncertainties Part 2
There is no meltdown
Shattered Dreams of Victory (and Prosperity)

The following text is an interview with Aleksej Mozgovoy in Alchevsk on April 9, where he is very critical about the current LPR leadership.

Orhan Dzhemal: I am very interested in the political situation in the LPR, because the war continues, but there is much talk of the post-war reconstruction of the state. As far as I understand, it is in the Lugansk Republic that the complexity of this process is demonstrated most clearly.

Aleksej Mozgovoy: It’s too early yet to talk of post-war reconstruction. The fact that there is a cease-fire does not mean that there is peace. Almost all our attention is still focused on the frontline.

Orhan Dzhemal: It seems that many of the recent heroes of the LPR, well-known field commanders, have had difficulties with the authorities of the Republic.

Aleksej Mozgovoy: They do not have difficulties with the leadership itself, but with the policy pursued by the leadership.

Orhan Dzhemal: And what is that policy?

Aleksej Mozgovoy: Well, let’s say that it does not answer to the demands that the people put forward in March and April of last year. Everybody then declared loud and clear that the most important thing was the welfare of the people. But what do we see in fact? All that remains of the people is the ‘P’ in the title LPR.

In my opinion, if we are to build something new, and even more so if we are to build, let us say, a part of new Russia, of New Russ, of Novorussia, then we simply must get away from all previous methods of government, all previous ways of relating to the people, and create something new. First of all, in my view, there should be total transparency in all matters from the start. Transparency and clarity for every citizen. If an official takes a step, it should be clear why he took it. If a decision is made, even if it is not discussed with the people, at least it should be arrived at in a transparent manner. To be clear — does it serve the interests of the people or just the interests of the bureaucrats?

Orhan Dzhemal: What is happening in fact?

Aleksej Mozgovoy: In fact, we have reverted to our old ways. Corruption is rampant. The use of administrative resources by the head of the Republic is the same as it was with the governor of the previous Luhansk region. The television and the press operate only to display how much we love our leader. Just like before.

Orhan Dzhemal: Are there problems between your military unit and the command?

Aleksej Mozgovoy: At the beginning they tried to disband us. Here is what they told us: “We will integrate you into the LPR Army, but only as an addition to units already formed.” That is, their object was to disperse us, and merge us into existing units so that we ceased to exist.

Orhan Dzhemal: But will you now be integrated in the emerging structure?

Aleksej Mozgovoy: We are integrated. We exist as a brigade. We obey the supreme commander of the LPR troops. But I want to say something about the total blockade of the humanitarian aid which our subdivision was receiving. With this, we provided food for the local population; we had four canteens, where people came to eat: from mines, from factories, from small villages, kindergartens, schools. We shared all this aid with the civilian population. All this is also blocked.

Orhan Dzhemal: What do you mean “blocked”?

Aleksej Mozgovoy: It is now impossible to bring in humanitarian aid.

Orhan Dzhemal: But the aid was collected in Russia, loaded up, and delivered to you. Where have obstacles arisen?

Aleksej Mozgovoy: Everywhere. Including with the Russian Federation customs. You probably heard about the last load. In Yekaterinburg, a complete unit of volunteers collected and brought with them a cargo of humanitarian aid, including for the civilian population. They brought with them their belongings, brought food, medicines and equipment for hospitals. The cargo was turned back at customs because it exceeded the maximum permitted tonnage. Five tons were stopped at the border. How can you impose a weight restriction on humanitarian aid, if it is humanitarian? Basically, cutting us off from supplies makes us dependent. This is one of the control mechanisms.

Orhan Dzhemal: Is there a central supply of humanitarian aid? Does anything get to you from that?

Aleksej Mozgovoy: Each time that we see in the media how pompously the convoys arrive, but not once have I seen how this aid is distributed. Why are the same cameras not recording the distribution of this aid in remote villages?

Orhan Dzhemal: And does it ever reach these remote villages?

Aleksej Mozgovoy: I do not know. I am not going to speculate. We were recently in the town of Frunze talking with this grandfather who had worked for forty years on the railway. He has received nothing for nine months.

Orhan Dzhemal: Do you attribute this to bureaucratic disorganization or simply to corruption?

Aleksej Mozgovoy: War is such an interesting thing: some die, others reap huge profits. Humanitarian aid — this is one of the sources of such income. The more there is, the more there is to steal.

Orhan Dzhemal: Do you know who has harnessed these streams and who is profiteering from them?

Aleksej Mozgovoy: There has been no investigation, therefore there is nothing I can prove. Without being able to prove who is guilty, my accusations would be just rumors and gossip. But, even though I cannot name specific names, the responsibility must be borne by the administration of our leader and the government.

Orhan Dzhemal: What formula would you propose for the distribution of humanitarian aid?

Aleksej Mozgovoy: The way we did it from the beginning — targeting the aid. A children’s hospital or some other institution would provide us with a list of what they needed. We passed on the list to the humanitarian organizations, they sent what was on the list, and we delivered the cargo — it was filmed — to those who needed it.
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Orhan Dzhemal: Do you want private organizations to work directly with you?

Aleksej Mozgovoy: I do not want anything, and I am certainly making no demands. I simply see the difference between the deliveries made by the state, which in fact no one controls, and those made by private providers, who do not allow their cargo to vanish into thin air.

Orhan Dzhemal: There are many large enterprises in this territory. Are you a supporter of nationalization?

Aleksej Mozgovoy: Nationalization should not be undertaken lightly. Look, most of the shares in the Alchevsk metallurgical plant are currently owned by one of the Moscow banks, the rest by people from Dnepropetrovsk, not just Kolomoisky. But you cannot touch the factory now, because it is linked to Europe. If we act hastily, the factory will be left without a market for its products. To regain the same position in the market would be very difficult. And 15,000 people work there. Some people wanted to proceed with nationalization, but we explained to them that it was not possible to do so. You can nationalize, but who is going to need it if there is no external market? We need to tread very carefully.

Orhan Dzhemal: The Verkhovna Rada has adopted a law on the occupied territories. Your attitude to this law?
Aleksej Mozgovoy: To be honest, I have not even examined it. I cannot take seriously any documents adopted by the Rada and the government in Kiev.

Orhan Dzhemal: Can you avoid a situation whereby elections here will be held according to Ukrainian laws?

Aleksej Mozgovoy: At the moment we live under the old Ukrainian laws. Nothing has changed, therefore nothing would surprise me. Many former employees and police officers have returned to their positions without any verification. I understand that we need experts, but accepting thus everyone who yesterday served in Severodonetsk (where the regional administration is now based ‒auth.) and today works for us…

Orhan Dzhemal: Do you accept such people with you in Alchevsk?

Aleksej Mozgovoy: Yes, we do not interfere in this matter, we are a military unit. I have always said that civilian life should be managed by someone in civilian clothes.

Orhan Dzhemal: Do they get into senior positions?

Aleksej Mozgovoy: Well, if you are talking of military posts, many who once wore a sergeant’s uniform are now colonels.

Orhan Dzhemal: Are elections going to be held in Alchevsk?

Aleksej Mozgovoy: They are planned. This is the position taken by our government. At this point everything is in deadlock. It turns out that the date of elections can be declared by the head of the Republic at short notice, even a few hours before the election. Who has time to prepare?

Orhan Dzhemal: Are you going to stay in the military, or do you intend take part in politics?

Aleksej Mozgovoy: Of course I will.

Orhan Dzhemal: How?

Aleksej Mozgovoy: That is a secret. You will have to wait and see!

Orhan Dzhemal: What would be for you a victory in this civil war?

Aleksej Mozgovoy: In this war there will be no victory.

Orhan Dzhemal: When will it end?

Aleksej Mozgovoy: It will end when the majority of the people will understand that they are being exploited for the benefit of others. On both sides. Nothing new. War has always been, and always will be, a business. The greatest victory will be if we create a government that thinks of the people. Not victory in the war, but victory over ourselves, over our own minds.

Orhan Dzhemal: Are the people already realizing that something is amiss?

Aleksej Mozgovoy: That something is not right, yes. Not as much as we would wish. But sooner or later the two opposing sides will find a common language, and only then will they talk a little bit differently with each other. Only then can we create something that is truly popular. As long as people are distracted with “suicide.” we can build nothing here. Those who were conducting black affairs behind our backs will continue to do so.
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21.05.2015

Women feed the world, not corporations


Vandana Shiva

The two great ecological challenges of our times are biodiversity loss and climate change. And both are interconnected, in their causes and their solutions.
Vandana Shiva 4
Industrial agriculture is the biggest contributor to biodiversity erosion as well as to climate change. According to the United Nations, 93 percent of all plant varieties have disappeared over the last 80 years.

Monocultures based on chemical inputs do not merely destroy plant biodiversity, they have destroyed soil biodiversity, which leads to the emergence of pathogens, new diseases, and more chemical use.

Our study of soils in the Bt cotton regions of Vidharba showed a dramatic decline in beneficial soil organisms. In many regions with intensive use of pesticides and GMOs, bees and butterflies are disappearing. There are no pollinators on Bt cotton plants, whereas the population of pollinators in Navdanya’s biodiversity conservation farm in Doon Valley is six times more than in the neighboring forest. The UNEP has calculated the contribution of pollinators to be 200 billion US$ annually. Industrial agriculture also kills aquatic and marine life by creating dead zones due to fertilizer run off. Pesticides are also killing or damaging aquatic life.

Besides the harm to biodiversity and the climate, industrial agriculture actually undermines food and nutrition security.

First, industrial agriculture grows commodities for profits of the agrochemical and biotech corporations. Only 10 percent of the annual GMO corn and soya crop does feed people. The rest goes to animal feed and biofuel. This is clearly not a food system that feeds the world.

Second, monocultures undermine nutrition by displacing the biodiversity that provides nourishment and the diversity of nutrients our body needs. Herbicides like Roundup do not just kill the milkweed on which the monarch Butterfly larvae feed, they kill sources of nutrition for humans — the amaranth, the “bathua,” and the mixed cropping that produces more “Nutrition per Acre” than industrial monocultures (see Navdanya’s report on Health per Acre).

Having destroyed our sources of natural healthy nutrition by destroying biodiversity — and thereby creating vitamin A deficiency, iron deficiency, and other nutritional degradations — the same companies who created the crisis are promising a miracle solution: GMOs. Genetically engineered Golden Rice and GMO Bananas are being proposed as miracle cure by corporations hiding behind the cloak of academia as a solution to hunger and malnutrition in the Global South. But these are false miracles.
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Indigenous varieties of food grown by women provide far more nutrition than the commodities produced by industrial agriculture. Since 1985 the false miracle of Golden Rice is being offered as a solution to vitamin A deficiency. But Golden rice is still under development. Billions of dollars have been wasted on a hoax.

On April 20, the White House gave an award to Syngenta which tried to pirate India’s rice diversity and owns most of the 80 patents related to Golden Rice. But Golden Rice is 350 percent less efficient in providing vitamin A than the traditional alternatives that women grow. GMO “iron-rich” Bananas have 3000 percent less iron than turmeric and 2000 percent less iron than amchur (mango powder).

Apart from being nutritionally empty, GMOs are part of an industrial system of agriculture that is destroying the planet, depleting our water sources, increasing green houses gases, and driving farmers into debt and suicide through a greater dependence on expensive chemicals and seeds. Moreover, these corporate-led industrial monocultures are destroying biodiversity, and we are losing access to the food systems that has sustained us for thousands of years. Biodiverse ecological agriculture in women’s hands is a solution not just to the malnutrition crisis, but also the climate crisis.
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Women have been the primary growers of food throughout history, but today, food is being taken out of our hands and substituted with toxic commodities controlled by global corporations. Monoculture industrial farming has taken the quality, taste and nutrition out of our food.

In addition to destroying biodiversity, industrial agriculture is the biggest contributor of greenhouse gases which are leading to climate change, droughts, and extreme weather events. As I have written in my book, Soil Not Oil: Environmental Justice in an Age of Climate Crisis, 40 percent of all greenhouse gases — including carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxide, and methane — come from industrialized globalized agriculture.

Industrial monocultures are more vulnerable to climate change as we have witnessed in the unseasonal rains at harvest time in 2015. On the other hand, organic farming reduces emissions, and also makes agriculture more resilient to climate change. Because organic farming is based on returning organic matter to the soil, it is the most effective means to remove excess carbon in the air, where it does not belong, and putting it in the soil, where it belongs. Navdanya’s research has shown that organic farming increases carbon absorption by 55 percent. International studies show that with 2 tons of Soil Organic Matter per hectare, we can remove 10 gigatons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, which can reduce the atmospheric concentration of carbon back down to pre-industrial levels of 350 ppm.

In addition, organic matter in the soil also increases water-holding capacity of the soil, reducing the impact of floods and droughts. Just 1 percent increase in Soil Organic Matter can raise the water-holding capacity of soil by 100,000 liters per hectare. And an increase of 5  percent  can raise it to 800,000 liters. This is our insurance against climate change, both when there is drought and too little rain, and when there are floods and excess rain. On the other hand, cement and concrete increases runoff of water, aggravating floods and drought. We witnessed this in the Uttarakhand disaster in 2013 and in the Kashmir disaster in 2014.

At harvest time of spring 2015 India had unseasonal rains which destroyed the crops. More than a 100 farmers committed suicide. The unseasonal rains due to climate instability added to the burden of debt the farmers are already carrying due to rising costs of production and falling prices. Both the crisis of debt leading to climate change and the climate crisis have a common solution — a shift to a biodiverse ecological agriculture which is free of high cost chemical inputs, not depending on expensive corporate seeds, and also provides climate resilience through biodiversity and organic soils.

4000 years ago our ancient Vedas had guided us, “Upon this handful of soil our survival depends. Care for it, and it will grow our food, our fuel, our shelter and surround us with beauty. Abuse it, and the soil will collapse and die, taking humanity with it.”
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Foundation Soul of Haiti

03.05.2015

Christians in Syria fight for survival

John L. Allen Jr.  CRUX

While most of the world celebrated Easter 2015 with church services and family get-togethers, Christians in the Syrian city of Aleppo spent the holiday digging through rubble to locate the bodies of 15 people who died after a ferocious round of rocket bombs fired by Islamic fighters rained down on a Christian neighborhood.

It was merely the latest assault on Christians in the city, which has seen some of the most intense fighting between jihadists and Syrian forces.

Archbishop Jean-Clément Jeanbart, head of the Melkite Greek Catholic Archparchy of Aleppo, was on the scene immediately afterwards. Among the casualties was an entire Melkite Greek family of four, crushed to death when a section of their apartment building collapsed. One of Jeanbart’s grim responsibilities was to find a suitable spot for their burial, since the cemetery used by his Church for centuries is now a battle zone ringed by snipers.

It was hardly the 72-year-old prelate’s first taste of tragedy.

In October 2012, his own priest secretary and protégé, the Rev. Imad Daher, was nearly killed when a bomb exploded near the archbishop’s residence. Daher had to be helicoptered to Beirut for the first of seven surgeries, which, among other things, cost him one of his eyes.

Not long ago, Jeanbart himself was driving to Beirut when an armed band shot out the tires of his car and forced it from the road, perhaps with the aim of either killing or kidnapping him. (Abducting Christian clergy has become a cottage industry.) Jeanbart and his driver escaped when a military convoy happened to pass by, prompting the assailants to flee.

Prior to the war, Christians were 10 percent of Syria’s population, but faced with such carnage, scores have fled. The roots of the faith in the country reach back to the age of the apostles, but today Jeanbart warns ominously, “We could disappear.”

Despite it all, Jeanbart vows he will “never stop fighting” to keep the Church alive. (The Melkite Greek church is an Eastern Catholic Church in full communion with the Holy See.)

Jeanbart sat down for an exclusive interview with Crux on April 25 during a tour of the United States sponsored by Aid to the Church in Need, a Catholic group supporting persecuted Christians. Among other topics, he discussed calls for an international military response to IS, charges that Christian clergy in Syria are too close to the Assad regime, and the role played by Pope Francis on the Syrian conflict.

The following is an excerpt from that conversation.

Crux: How many Christians are left in Aleppo?

Jeanbart: Before the war we were around 170,000. We don’t have reliable statistics today, but we may be around 100,000, maybe less. Most [who have left] aren’t very far away, in the southern part of the country or in Lebanon. On the other hand, some have gone to Europe, Canada, the United States, Australia, Sweden, and so on. We worry about these people, because we’re not sure they’ll ever come back.

After what happened on Easter, people don’t know what to do. They’re afraid we’ll have the same scenario as Mosul. [Mosul is an Iraqi city under IS domination where virtually all Christians have been driven out, and where militants destroyed Christian gravesites over Easter in an effort to eradicate remaining symbols of the faith.]
Syria church Qusayr
Crux: How are you helping people to hold on?

Jeanbart: We provide a monthly stipend to around 475 families, with the idea being to pay them roughly half of what their salary used to be, since for the last two years there’s been no work. We offer food baskets, we pay scholarships to allow children to go to school, we provide some money for heating costs, we offer health care and we also offer shelter to those who need it.

Crux: Has the Melkite Greek Church had any priests kidnapped?

Jeanbart: So far, just one. We have no news about him, and no means of communication [with his kidnappers].

Crux: Let’s say you were kidnapped and somebody wanted $100,000 to get you back. Would you want your Church to pay?

Jeanbart: I hope it won’t happen, because I’m helping thousands of people. It’s not that I’m something special, but … the truth is that $100,000 would represent very little compared to what I’m offering my people. If it came to that, it would be a good bargain! But I am not sure if paying ransom is a good idea.

Crux: Where does the money you raise come from?

Jeanbart: I’ve been a bishop for 20 years, and I’d never asked anyone for donations. Two years ago, when I saw what was happening, I wrote to a number of friends around the world, and they answered. There are also organizations such as Aid to the Church in Need that have helped, including some in the United States such as the Knights of Columbus.

My aim is more than emergency relief, because for the most part that’s coming. Caritas and the Red Cross are helping, we’re helping, and in a way basic needs are being satisfied. What’s most important is that afterwards, we can do something to help people reestablish themselves and to be able to stay.

This is my program, which we call “Built to Stay,” and it’s what I’m persuaded I have to do. I have to give Christians hope and confidence that their future could be good in this country.
Syria church vandalized
Crux: Why is the Christian presence in Syria so important?

Jeanbart: I feel responsible for the survival of a Church founded by the apostles themselves. The first Christians in Syria were baptized the day of the Pentecost in Jerusalem, by Peter and the other apostles. … They spread all over the region and founded the Church. The Lord gave me this responsibility in Syria, and I cannot simply accept that during my mandate, the Christians disappear. I’ll never stop fighting so they can hold on.

Crux: Do you believe there’s no alternative to an international military force to dislodge Islamic State?

Jeanbart: As far as Syria is concerned, there is an alternative. Nations such as the United States could pressure Turkey to stop allowing mercenaries to pass through its airports and borders. The same applies to Jordan. The army of Syria would be able to handle things very quickly if these terrorists are not fed money, weapons, fighters, and logistical support.

Crux: You don’t see a need for boots on the ground?

Jeanbart: It is not needed. I would like an international coalition committed to stopping the war, but they don’t need to come in. They just need to stop feeding the insurrection and terrorism.

Crux: What about Iraq?

Jeanbart: I would say the situation is different, because the country’s structures have been destroyed and they’re rebuilding their army and national unity. They may need more help.

Crux: Over the years, Christian clergy in Syria have been accused of being too close to the Assad regime. What’s the truth?

Jeanbart: We are not pro-Assad. We’re in favor of a government that’s open to all denominations. We’re in favor of a secular government. It may be led by Assad or someone else, but that’s what we want.

Personally, I would say that Bashar al-Assad is a good man. I don’t want to pass judgment beyond that, but I’ve met him a couple of times and all my colleagues, my fellow bishops and the priests and nuns, appreciate him. That doesn’t mean he’s an angel.

Crux: Is the realistic choice not between Assad and democracy, but Assad and IS?

Jeanbart: In a sense, yes. If we have to choose between IS and Assad, we choose Assad. If the choice were between a real democratic opposition and Assad, we’d wait and see. We’d leave our faithful free to do what they like.

It seems sometimes that all the countries of the world are against Assad, but we feel we don’t have any other alternative. Honest to God, this is the situation. I think Assad wants to reform. Let him prove his good intentions, and let’s give him the chance to see what he will do.
Assad visits Maaloula 5
Crux: What’s your view of the role Pope Francis has played regarding the Syria conflict?

Jeanbart: The first time I ever heard a Syrian government official saying a word of thanks to the Catholic Church was when our foreign minister, who’s the second most important figure in Syria, declared thanks for the Holy Father’s position against Western air strikes on Syria in 2013.

For Syria, a Muslim country, to recognize that the only one in the world who stood with us and stopped it was very important. All Syrians will never forget it, and for us it will always be a source of pride. What would have happened would have destroyed all of Syria, like what happened in Iraq, what happened in Libya, and what’s happening now in Yemen.

Crux: Spiritually, how do you make sense of what’s happening in your country?

Jeanbart: Reading the Gospel and trying to see things that way, I think about how the Devil manifests himself and his actions. We read in the Bible that he is the father of lies, the master of money, and the lord of blood and death. We see all three in this war: It’s a blend of money, lies, and blood. Of course I know there are strategic dimensions to it, but sometimes I think perhaps ultimately this is a Satanic work, because it’s almost impossible to understand otherwise.

Crux: Last fall, there was a Synod of Bishops on the family that triggered massive debates over matters such as Communion for the divorced and remarried and outreach to gays and lesbians, and this fall, another synod will likely take up the same issues. Does it frustrate you that the life-and-death challenges facing Christians in countries such as Syria often don’t seem to attract the same attention?

Jeanbart: Yes, indeed. Of course the bishops have to talk about the topics they’ve been given, but the suffering and death of so many people in our country, and the huge sacrifices they are making to remain faithful to the Lord, seems to be forgotten. What I see, both in the Church and society in general, is that they’re discussing everything else, but they ignore the execution of our people.

Links Mai 2015


Environmental news:
http://www.nola.com/environment/index.ssf/2015/04/gulf_oil_spill_hidden_2004.htmlOne of thousands of daily environmental catastrophes that the public over the last few decades has got used to and accepted as the new normal.
http://e360.yale.edu/feature/for_buddhist_leader_religion_and_the_environment_are_one/2866/Everything seems right in this text, and yet, the interviewer is from Yale University and the interviewee is a Buddhist aristocrat. Be aware of their limited imaginations.
http://www.dollarsandsense.org/archives/2015/0315maine.html In short: environmental sustainability is not greatly desired, short term profitability is. No need to fight global warming, building greenhouses and using GM-crops will do the trick. And, of course, less regulations (what would one expect in the “land of the free”?).
http://edition.cnn.com/2015/04/22/us/pacific-ocean-blob/ For CNN, warming sea waters are “still a mystery.”
http://www.commondreams.org/views/2015/04/23/living-soil-lies-solution-climate-change Nothing new, but it is good to be reminded about the fundamental wisdom of the elders — and the fundamental folly of Western technophilia.
http://www.bidmc.org/News/In-Medicine/2015/April/WilkerStroke.aspx Air pollution makes you dump too.
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/apr/30/one-in-six-of-worlds-species-faces-extinction-due-to-climate-change-study As long as we do not belong to the 17 percent which face extinction — full speed ahead, caution and empathy are for losers.
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/30449-experts-warn-of-cataclysmic-changes-as-planetary-temperatures-rise# Another apocalyptic climate change warning, side by side with and overshadowed by reviews of the new Apple Watch. Yawn.

Imperial news:
http://robertreich.org/post/116924386855 Brave new world of US super productive super capitalism, with its “flexible labor market” being the envy of business leaders and policy makers the world over (shining light on the hill for elites everywhere).
http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2015/04/27/insanity-grips-western-world-paul-craig-roberts/ US dissidents become more outspoken, but they are ignored and not even ridiculed anymore.

Imperial conquest news:
http://slavyangrad.org/2015/04/18/statement-by-elena-bondarenko-peoples-deputy-of-verkhovna-rada-of-ukraine/ Western style democracy.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/ukraine-blocks-10000-websites-confiscates-a-newspaper/5442084 It will take a little time, till Ukrainian journalists lear, what “free speech” really means.
http://slavyangrad.org/2015/04/17/murder-of-oles-buzina-an-act-of-intimidation-by-nato/ Western human rights standards.
http://slavyangrad.org/2015/04/17/extracts-from-buzinas-last-interview-my-position-is-inconvenient-to-the-current-government/ Last words of a brave man.
http://russia-insider.com/en/oles-buzina-his-open-letter-us-ambassador-kiev/5885
http://www.globalresearch.ca/ukraine-disappears-opponents-of-the-kiev-regime-abductions-of-independent-journalists/5441924
http://www.globalresearch.ca/three-prominent-poroshenko-critics-killed-in-kiev-in-three-days/5443485
http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-may-2nd-odessa-massacre-why-obamas-coup-regime-still-runs-ukraine/5446593 Must read.
http://thesaker.is/what-does-putin-want-a-major-analysis-by-rostislav-ishchenko-must-read/ I only partly agree with this analysis but the author makes a few important points: Peace and compromise are no options for the USA, because the US-system is characterized by internal contradictions as well as an inefficient use of resources, meaning that without continuous expansion and the pillaging of newly conquered territory the system would collapse. To extend the life of the empire for a few more years a complete victory against Russia is needed. Russia on the other hand cannot evade a confrontation and retreat, regroup, and wait for the collapse of the US -empire, because while Western elites, shielded by subservient media and tightly controlled state institutions, can disregard public opinion and do whatever they want, in Russia public opinion matters (Ishchenko calls it aptly an “authoritative, rather than authoritarian” system), and therefore nationalist fervor and pride influence all strategic decisions. The Ukrainians are only pawns in this tragic game, their future is decided in Washington and Moscow.
http://www.bne.eu/content/story/ukraines-economy-bad-worse What else will it take for the Ukrainian public to wake up from the dream of a splendid Western consumer existence?
Ukraine WB predictionshttp://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175988/tomgram%3A_andrew_cockburn%2C_how_assassination_sold_drugs_and_promoted_terrorismMurder is merely the continuation of policy by other means (not Clausewitz, but Obama).
http://rt.com/op-edge/253481-al-qaeda-syria-takeover-assad/ Bad news indeed. Will Syria follow Libya?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/assads-regime-at-increasing-risk-amid-a-surge-of-rebel-advances/2015/04/26/c2742e22-ec32-11e4-8050-839e9234b303_story.html One cannot simply dismiss this as a Western propaganda piece, because the recent victories of Jabhat al-Nusra and allied Islamic terrorist groups against the Syrian army are undeniable. Will Al-Qaeda do the trick where Islamic State and the FSA failed? And no Western media channel, no government, and no international organization finds it objectionable, that Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qatar, and Israel openly support terror organizations.
https://consortiumnews.com/2015/04/27/syrias-nightmarish-narrative/https://consortiumnews.com/2015/04/29/the-day-after-damascus-falls/A useful compilation and comparison of US destabilization (= regime change) efforts, but the analysis has one week point: It assumes, that chaos is not the outright and deliberate aim of US policy. Beside that: Would Syria under IS or Jabhat al-Nusra really be much worse than Saudi Arabia, which is after all a reliable US-ally?
https://consortiumnews.com/2015/05/02/climbing-into-bed-with-al-qaeda/ Most articles written by the few US media workers, which still deserve to be called journalists, are, while well intended, nevertheless apologetical. They are based on the wrong premise that US leaders act in good faith and carnage and mayhem are not the desired outcome. The movers and shakers in Washington are not naive, they know exactly what they are doing. Just look at the balance sheets of Boing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics, Raytheon, L-3, and others. These US leaders know how to get the business going and keep the money flowing.
http://aranews.net/2015/05/isis-militants-execute-600-yezidis-northern-iraq/ Don’t forget: IS = US.
http://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/2015/04/httpnews786inarticlephpidmtu4ote3d.htmlSaudi Arabia paper tiger?
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/defence-contractor-run-by-colonel-tim-collins-obe-under-investigation-for-fraud-in-afghanistan-10208271.html War profiteers.

Everything else news:
http://petras.lahaine.org/?p=2032 Argentine in the crosshairs
http://www.mintpressnews.com/land-seizures-speeding-up-leaving-africans-homeless-and-landless/204152/ Neocolonialism by corruption. Foreign companies are bribing the countries political elite to acquire land. Every man has his price. This is how the world works — even in Zimbabwe and Mozambique.
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/417679/malice-toward-nun-nina-shea Has the USA an issue with Catholic nuns?
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/29/un-aid-worker-suspended-leaking-report-child-abuse-french-troops-car? French peacekeepers teaching Western values to the indigenous population of a former colony.

Thats it, because time is in short supply. Greetings to all my friends and apologies for the unanswered emails. Slugs, snails, weeds keep me busy. The cats are fine, enjoying spring (like we all should do) and waiting for the momentarily downpouring rain to stop.
Mia Gandhi Min Ki sleeping DSCN3065
Rosy, Wendy, Sumo couch DSCN3007Gandhi Linda playing DSCN3543