P Tagg's Anti-Disinformation Marquees

Marquee and other short texts 2002-2006

According to this month's "Il giornale della musica" (http://www.giornaledellamusica.it), there are 121 teaching posts ("professori e ricercatori") in various musicological disciplines (music history, music theory, etc.), and 14 teaching posts in ethnomusicology. The figure for popular music studies (and film or television music studies) is zero.

Chosen peoples and their holy wars [2006-09-03]

Iraq war; Lockerbie & Shirley McKie; Walocaust; Cheney & Co. behind Iran’s nuclear programme, etc. [2006-03-09 - ]

[1] US economists: ‘The Iraq war could cost >$2 trillion ($2,000,000,000,000)’. Every US citizen (man, woman, child) currently owes the US government $28,000 to cover the national debt.          [2] Sites Internet sur l'opposition à la guerre en Irak           [3] Evidence about the Lockerbie (PanAm) disaster was faked so that Libya could be framed as a ‘rogue’ nation. In the process, falsely incriminated policewoman Shirley McKie’s life and career were ruined. A complex web of cynical deceit, it seems, involving the FBI, the CIA, heroin smuggling and improper pressure on Scottish authorities to fall in line with US foreign policy agendas.           [4] WalMart and the Walocaust site: ‘The world is our labour camp’ (report in The Guardian).       [5] Cheney, Rumsfeld & Wolfowitz backed Iran’s nuclear programme. [They] ‘endorsed Iranian plans to build a massive nuclear energy industry... [and] worked hard [on] a multibillion-dollar deal... [to give] Tehran control of large quantities of plutonium and enriched uranium’.     — So (personal plea) —     Dear Visitor to this Site,     Please help depose the hooligans responsible for all this mayhem.     With deepest respect and thanks,     Yours sincerely,     www.tagg.org.

Esso, global warming and terrorism [2005-08-15 - 2006-03-07]

Esso (Exxon) spends astronomical sums spreading the lie that burning fossil fuel has nothing to do with climate change.       Researchers at the UK’s Meteorological Office say man-made climate change caused the 2003 heat-wave which killed 27,000 people across Europe.       Makes no difference to Esso, apparently   —   propagate to kill...             The Bush regime spends equally astronomical sums propagating against publicly funded social security.       The fact that all that money could cover the needs of thousands of disadvantaged “fellow Americans” seems to make no difference to a regime put into power by the likes of Esso   ——   propagate to kill at home and abroad, if not the whole planet...           I will not mention the war in Iraq or the disastrous terrorism caused, at least in part, by policies of greed, corruption and death in the Middle East to gain control of fossil fuel.         Those who propagate terror must be outlawed.       It is a principle applicable to all who seek to wound or kill innocent victims, whether it be by inciting suicide bombers, lying bare-faced about global warming or cynically dismantling social security.             “George’s answer to any problem at the ranch is to cut it down with a chain saw, which I think is why he and Cheney and Rumsfeld get along so well” (Laura Bush, Washington, D.C., 2005-04-30)        

Québec student strike this spring [2005-06 - 2005-06-15]

Our students were on strike for 3 weeks this spring  [info English | français]. The ‘liberal’ government of Québec may still be set on turning student grants into student debt but student action has stopped the rot for the time being.             I’ve taught students since 1971.       They do no-one any harm.       They are an important investment in our common future.           Students lose money by paying to attend university.       At the same time, they make unemployment statistics look much better than they really are.           My generation benefitted from a system of student grants.       We have NO right to turn against today’s students, very few of whom are guaranteed a steady job after unversity.           Why lumber students with debts many won’t be able to pay off?       In whose interests?           No wonder support for the students in Québec was so massive.           It warms my heart to know that my students care about their future and about the future of a world where articles 23 and 26 of the UN Human Rights Declaration are taken seriously.

Freedom of movement and the “Land of the Free”

I just heard [2005-04-12] that Fred Frith, reputed musician (and brother of Simon), has been denied the right to run a workshop he was invited to run in Italy.

“So what?”, you may well ask. Well, here’s “what”.

Fred is a British citizen who has worked for many years in the USA. He holds a chair at Mills College in Oakland (CA). He has applied for permanent residence in the USA but his request was recently denied. No reasons were given for this decision.

Fred was supposed to have left for Europe yesterday. If he had done so he would have been denied re-entry into the USA. Faced with the alternatives of either losing a lot of work in Europe over the next few months or of losing his job — not to mention his partner, children and house in California — if were to have left the USA, he had to cancel his trip. Now Fred has to apply for a temporary US residence permit which will not necessarily be granted.

US musicians can tour Europe with little or no bureaucratic hassle whereas European musicians intent on working in the USA have no real alternative but to enter the “Land of the Free” illegally. It’s also worth noting that the same federal bureau which denied Fred his residence permit was also responsible for delivering full US residence permits to the addresses of two September 11 terrorists.

“Once upon a time”, remarks Franco Fabbri, “this sort of thing happened to Soviet artists and intellectuals. People quite rightly protested”, he continues, “against a system that denied individuals the right to travel freely. Now it happens, more often than we realise, in ‘The Land of the Free’.”

My personal reflection? Well, had Fred been a Soviet citizen denied the right to travel freely, people would have probably kicked up a stink on this side of the “Iron Curtain” (perhaps with support from some Republican party propaganda organisation). Everybody would have “known” that the restriction of personal freedom was wrong because we all “knew” then that the Soviet Union was an “Empire of Evil”. So why don’t we kick up a stink now? Do we so unequivocally identify with the USA as to apply a completely different set of values when seeing the same denial of individual liberties? Because we don't have the support of the Republican Party in the USA? Or because we are cowards? Or because we are morally compromised? Or because we are too stupid and indoctrinated?

This episode constitutes another reason for my refusal (as well as reluctance) to visit the USA. It may only an hour’s drive away from here but, as far as I’m concerned, it’s ideologically and ethically on another planet.

(Montréal, 2005-04-12)

Our students are on strike

The ‘liberal’ government of Québec seems set on turning student grants into student debt. This regressive measure affects those least able to afford a university education. I’ve taught students since 1971. They do no-one any harm. They are an important investment in our common future. Losing money by paying to attend university, they make unemployment statistics look much better than they really are. People like Blair and Charest, who benefitted from a system of student grants, turn on today’s students, very few of whom are guaranteed a steady job after unversity. They want to lumber those students with debts they won’t necessarily be able to pay off. No wonder the student demonstrations are so massive. It warms my heart to see that at least our students care about their future and about the future of a world where that will hopefully comply with article 23 of the UN Human Rights Declaration, i.e. that they will be allowed to earn a decent living... [March-April 2005]

Iraq: learning from history...       ...or not...      

Headline: “U.S. ENCOURAGED BY VOTER TURNOUT” (Peter Grose, New York Times, 4 Sept., 1967, p. 2).  “U.S. officials were surprised and heartened today at the size of turnout in South Vietnam’s presidential election despite a Vietcong terrorist campaign to disrupt the voting. According to reports from Saigon, 83% of the 5.85 million registered voters cast their ballots yesterday. Many of them risked reprisals threatened by the Vietcong. A successful election has long been seen as the keystone in President Johnson’s policy of encouraging the growth of constitutional processes in South Vietnam.”

Just after the Tsunami

‘Humans are greedy by nature’. ‘What?!’   ‘C'maaaahn! Everyone wants to make a quick buck for themselves, not for the next guy!’   Bla bla bla bla bla bla bla...  

How can anyone believe such capitalist claptrap given the surge of human generosity in response to the tsunami disaster?   Still, some greedy guts have already tried to cash in on the current surge of altruism.

Speaking for the Bush regime (2005-01-04), Colin Powell said:   “The rest of the world is being given an opportunity to see American generosity, American values in action”.

Excuse me!! What planet does that guy live on? It'll take much more than donating the equivalent of a few days warring against all those Iraqi “weapons of mass destruction” (as in the picture, above), much more than a progandist platitude about "American values"   (and, yes, he did really say that)   to persuade the rest of “the world” as I know it.   I shall remember these days the next time some idiot tells me that humans are intrinsically evil.   The capitalist system may well be evil and its advocates would have us believe we are all as evil as they are.       Bollocks!     Get real!....     C'maaaaaaaaahn, yourself!...

Made in China (Just before the Tsunami)

Cheaper if 'Made in China?'...       Yes,   if you live in China.   If you’re in North America, it's worth remembering that a Trans-Pacific freighter, carrying 5,000 containers of cheaply manufactured goods, uses 150 tonnes of bunker fuel (grade 360: like asphalt) and spews out 5 tons of sulphur into the atmosphere every single day.     If that's a good deal, I'm a duck\'s uncle...       .........       US elections were rigged.       .........     Canada and ‘free trade’ with the USA?...       .........       China again.   [1] If you think my Chinese history (in English) of 21st-century music in the West is weird, please remember that China now owns Canada’s biggest mining company...             [2] China tells the USA not to blame its economic problems on others.       .........       Meanwhile, back in the \'free world\', in order to cover its current deficit, the USA has to import $2.6 billion in cash, every single working day. That’s 80% of the entire world’s net savings...       When did your news media last connect this capitalist catastrophe with, for example:       ENRON?...       Iraq?...       SUVs?...       consumerism?...       not ratifying the Kyoto protocol?...       short-termism?...       greed?...       cynicism?...       stupdity?...             All of which = capitalism, of course, an obvious conclusion constituting heresy and blasphemy in the eyes of the \'free enterprise\' inquisitors torturing the world in the name of the Church of the Holy Market Forces                     schmarket forces...                             2 + 2 = 4, whatever voodoo economists may say...  

THE US-LED INVASION OF IRAQ
17 March 2003

‘Whenever you’ve got the Pope and the Dixie Chicks against you, your time is up...   Shame on you, Mr Bush!’ (Michael Moore’s Oscar speech, 2003). 

How many were actually in favour of the war declared unilaterally by the USA and its allies?

Argentina 3%, Australia 12%, Bolivia 9%, Bulgaria 5%, Cameroon 9%, Canada 10%, Colombia 15%, Denmark 10%, Ecuador 3%, Finland 6%, France 6%, Germany 9%, Iceland 7%, Ireland 8%, Kenya 17%, Malaysia 3%, Netherlands 7%, New Zealand 8%, Nigeria 10%, Pakistan 3%, Romania 11%, Russia 7%, South Africa 9%, Spain 4%, Switzerland 5%, Uganda 20%, UK 15%, Uruguay 9%, Yugoslavia 8%  (Gallup International Iraq poll, 2003)

Now, how about some justice for the Palestinians? [Please note that Zionism is incompatible with the Torah]

NOT EVERYONE IN THE USA HAS GONE MAD!
17 May 2002

From all the hype you would be excused for believing that everyone in the USA had gone stark raving bonkers. Do they really all support the Bush administration and its terrorist ‘war on terrorism’, its disregard for the interests of people in every nation in the world (including its own), its disregard for the ecological welfare of the planet?

No. Lies and propaganda.
Not everyone in the USA is bonkers...

Yesterday on BBC2’s Newsnight programme, Dan Rather, veteran anchorman for the US CBS Evening News, talked of ‘patriotism gone mad’.

Rather criticised himself and his fellow TV journalists for allowing themselves to be threatened into silence. He slated the deals the Pentagon has made with latter-day producers of Top-Gun-style ‘militainment’.

There’s a neo-McCarthyist witch hunt on for those who still believe in the basic democratic values of the US constitution...

• a student accused of having un-American material in her apartment — it was an anti-death-penalty poster

• a phone company employee questioned by the FBI for having questioned government policy

• thousands of US citizens of Arab origin detained illegally

• a surveillance system allowing government to eavesdrop without detection on anyone on line

... and there’s worse...

Click on ‘Neo-McCarthyism’ for more...

Click also on ‘Support teachers persecuted for opposing the «War on Terrorism»’

“The list of assaults on Americans’ liberties grows each day... they grow further away from their ideals as a free people. By their actions, Americans give their enemies the comfort of realizing that they are right: freedom and the rule of law have no place in the world”.
(The Casper (Wyoming) Star Tribune)

[Marquee #28]
[02-05-17]

THE UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS - REMINDER #1

Article 12: No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence…

Article 14 § 1: Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.

Article 23 §1: Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.

Article 23 §2: Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.

Article 23 §3: Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.

Article 23 §4: Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.

Article 25. Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.

Article 26 §1: … Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.

The US and UK governments spend huge amounts on ‘internal security’ — wire taps, satellite communication interception, etc . The UK government throws refugees back into persecution. Neither the UK nor the USA guarantees the right to work, nor favourable conditions of work, nor equal pay for equal work, nor an existence worthy of human dignity, nor the right to form and join trade unions, nor the care, nor the services, nor security in the event of circumstances beyond our control, nor university education accessible to all on the basis of merit.

When did the US and the UK leave the UN? Or did they just forget Article 30?

Article 30: Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.

Letter to a US Citizen

Liverpool, 23 Feb. 2002

Dear Friend,

Politics here in the UK has reached the standard you’re used to.

Our Mr Blair, like Mrs Thatcher before him, sucks up to your president. He tries hard to make everything here like in the USA and has had some success.

First, he was voted in again with the lowest electoral turnout in a century. That almost matches your Mr Bush’s fantastic mandate last year.

Then, our Mr Blair has learnt how to push through one item of ludicrous legislation after another. He’s part-privatised public transport and health, not because anyone wants that, not because it’s a good idea, not because it’s cheaper or better, but because he’s in bed with big business, just like your own King George II.

(Funny how lots of Brits want to get rid of the monarchy and how your republic has introduced hereditary presidency by the back door.)

But I really wanted to ask something else.

Both you and I are citizens of the same world. My problem is that what your government and what US corporations do in your name has a really bad effect on all of us. Let me give an example.

I just turned 58 and have experienced more extreme weather in the last 5 years than ever before. Today we’re on our 5th day of severe gales and torrential rain. All experts say it’s due to carbon emissions, something your country produces much more of than even we Europeans manage to belch out.

Your government won’t do anything to help stop global warning. Please get them to at least sign the Kyoto protocol. Thanks.

Then there’s the war which both our Führers support...

Many, many more civilians, including thousands of children, have been killed in US attacks on Afghanistan than were killed on September 11 in the USA. Isn’t that enough ‘revenge’ — as if revenge was the answer! More like a recipe for another attack on innocent US citizens, if you ask me.

The more innocent civilians the USA war machine kills or maims, the more determination there will be to fight back. The more US goverment and corporations exploit the poor of this world, the more anger and resentment will be aroused and the more September 11ths we can expect in our part of the world.

The trouble is that US corporations want to rule the world and the US government wants to help them.

How would YOU like to be ruled and policed by a system you never had the chance to vote for or against?

That’s not democratic and it’s one reason why those who suffer infinitely more than I do under US rule abroad hate the USA so strongly.

As an upstanding US citizen who believes in democracy, you deserve better than to be despised by the rest of us. I know it’s not your fault, but you are in a much better position than most to influence US policy.

So, if you agree with the principle of rule by democratic mandate, please pressure your congressman to help ALL of us. Ask him/her to propose that the whole world be allowed to vote for a US presidential candidate next time, for someone who will not go to bed with big business and destroy the only world we have, for someone who will not make life a misery for most of this planet’s inhabitants.

Thanks for your help. I’m sorry to have to burden you with these requests, but I really am looking forward to the opportunity of finally being allowed to vote for or against those who want to rule me,

Sincerely yours,
Philip Tagg.

‘When I give food to the poor they call me a saint.
When I ask why the poor have no food they call me a communist.’
Dom Hélder Camara, 1909-1999, Bishop of Recife

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