Biased US media

As long as the strong continue to oppress and tyrannize the weak and vulnerable there is a role for militants/guerillas.

For how else can the victimized win/regain their freedom from those with superior arms?

Remember, it was militants, also dubbed terrorists by the well-armed oppressors and their powerful supporters, who brought the fight and eventually justice in the United Kingdom (the IRA), South Africa (the ANC) etc.

Freedom fighters should never lose their humanity in their struggle though, and that is what HAMAS, under the leadership of Mohammed Deif, did on October 7^th, when they invaded sections of Israel, killed, maimed, and kidnapped innocent women and children, instead of those who had their heels on their necks.

I had no idea the so-called free press in the USA which influences so much of the world, was so biased until they started to report on this bloody tragedy. For if you had just come from Mars, you could be excused if you thought this latest flare-up in that region happened in a vacuum. For, the main media houses seemed to be in competition among themselves to determine who could sound more like the official spokespeople of the Israeli government! As to News Nation, which was only launched in 2020 as a cable news station, they in my book, have the most unhinged reportage on the Gaza affair.

In the USA, where press freedom is supposedly held up as being sacred, suddenly all criticism of the Israeli government’s actions which led to the inexcusable actions by HAMAS, are condemned by the traditional media organizations as either anti-Semitic, taken out of context or simply censored.

This despite the fact that the Israeli government comprised of Likud and other far-right malevolent parties and led by Netanyahu since 2022, is extremely unpopular and has been facing massive resistance at home.

For it is not all Israelis inside and outside of the Zionist state who support the oppression and the campaign by settlers operating under the protection of the Israeli Defense Force, to murder and terrorize Palestinians to steal their land, as is the regular practice in the West Bank.

So, while HAMAS has to be condemned for the brutal attack on civilians on October 7^th which left some 1200 civilians dead and more than 240 taken hostages, the vicious retaliation on all civilians in Gaza by the Israeli army which killed almost 7000 children in 40 days is beyond the pale.

Interestingly, in the US, most of the voices that condemn Putin for his brutal attacks on civilians in Ukraine saw little wrong with what could only be described as the start of a genocidal campaign against innocent Palestinians in Gaza.

In this latest campaign, the Israeli government has not only relentlessly bombed over a million civilians, destroyed their homes, all possessions, even bombing hospitals carelessly but also, later deprived those who managed to survive, of food, water, and electricity.

 This is simply beyond evil.

 “When war is declared, truth is the first casualty' declared by Samuel Johnson and what we were told by most of the mainstream media in the USA,  is the most blatant evidence of this I have ever seen.

You know, the US and Israel had long boasted about Israel being the only democracy in the Middle East but what the world is now getting full evidence of is that what really exists there, is a vicious apartheid system.

As I write, there is a temporary respite from the bombing as some Israeli hostages are being released as well as Palestinian ‘prisoners.’

This exposes is the truth behind the popular perception that Gaza is the largest prison in the world. For we now understand the trivial grounds they had been using to create prisoners there. For prominent among these ‘prisoners’ are women and children who were detained and locked up indefinitely without due process, for ‘crimes’ as trivial as tweeting or throwing stones at Israeli soldiers guarding settlers who stole their lands after killing and maiming their parents and relatives!

According to well-respected Dr. Gabor Mate in an interview with Piers Morgan,  ‘a poll in 2005, found that the most traumatized children in the world were to be found in Gaza.’ 

That was long before the unconscionable bombing in Gaza since October 2023, he emphasized.

Dr. Mate is a child of Holocaust victims and is one of the many Israelis worldwide, who are vocal and passionately opposed to the continuing vicious treatment of Palestinians by the Israelis.

The US media tells us how traumatized Israelis are, and the Israeli government insists that this pause in the bombing is only temporary and they will resume the campaign shortly.

The world cannot sit by and allow that country with the backing of the powerful USA, to continue this vicious and unconscionable campaign against women and children in Gaza. (Thank goodness they fired Israeli Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahuy who flippantly suggested using nuclear weapons on the Palestinians!)

For murder, destruction, land grab, and brutality can only lead to the creation of more HAMAS.’

Dare I remind them that it was Einstein who declared that ‘the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”!

Link; https://youtu.be/CMtMFg4LTho. 

 

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Ride to Dornoch

The Dornoch that we sought.

The Dornoch that we got!

According to the late, brilliant Albert Einstein,"Reality is merely an illusion" but boy the reality of Dornoch was no illusion but a great disappointment interspersed with real mosquito bites!

It was just yesterday morning that Betty was telling me about a documentary she saw about the photos that we see on the Internet versus how the subjects really look. We got a taste of this after going to Dornoch and I am especially sorry for Tara, Stefan, Penny and family who never got to swim at all or even ride. But I am sure they had a wonderful weekend nevertheless. I surely did.

On Saturday night I decided to sleep up by Betty and Charles, since the MTR Fun and Thrills people had decided to do a ride to Trelawny starting on Sunday morning at 4am and I did not feel like getting out of my bed so early and riding up to meet anyone. Besides I had long decided not to start any more rides from the Headquarters since I am allergic to getting up early to start rides at the appointed time only to end up waiting hours on end for those who do not respect other's time or simply lack discipline. So I have been, for almost a year now, riding out with Charles who does things my way. This two day ride was slated to have ended on Monday morning (after a night's rest) at Dornoch  in the Cockpit country where the Rio Bueno has its source, for the pictures which we had seen, had made it look like the Garden of Eden.

Charles and I set out promptly at 4 am with Kenesha as a support driver and after a brief servic stop at the gas station on Constant Spring road, we were joined by Chuck. From the beginning, the three of us had decided that there was no way on earth we were going to spend hours on end on a bicycle, but instead we would ride to Juici Beef at Clarendon Park, then leave the MTR's and drive over to the beach in Trelawny.

Well by the time I got to Sandy Bay and was about to cross on to the main highway, I felt the sun pelting down into my back and who did I see drive up beside me but Stewart, music and  air condition running and feeling no pain. He looked so happy that I immediately decided that I had had enough of the ride (3 1/2 hours in the saddle) and also wanted to share the good life, so I beckoned him to stop, packed up my bike and we drove off happily to Juici Beef where I had the most delicious porridge I have ever had anywhere, Peacorn porridge, made from peanuts and hominy corn.

When the MTR's arrived, I heard that there had been one mishap as super rider Howie had slipped and fallen while crossing the train line in Old Harbour.  He got a cut on his knee but happily there were no other mishaps for the entire weekend.

Beautiful, calm Burr Head Beach

Charles, Kenesha and I left the main group at Juici  (Chuck drove back to Kingston) and drove straight to Retreat Guest House in Trelawny where we heard about this absolutely wonderful beach, Burr Head beach. In my book, this beach is only to be outdone by Negril.  It is a public, white sands beach right beside Beaches hotel and it is so clean and shallow that I swear that if you wade out for half mile, the water is still at your waist. This is going to be my beach of first choice, from now on, in Trelawny. Betty later joined us there as she had driven down my car but came via the north coast whereas we had  taken a new and challenging route, going into central Jamaica then heading north from Porus, up Shooters Hill then to Trelawny via Albert Town, Clark's Town, Duncan's then on to Falmouth.

Whereas we used the beach for free, Betty had to pay $300 as it had been rented for a private stage show and after noon they had closed the gate.

After a wonderful swim we went to Bodmint where we found that Caroline and Charles Simpson had also defected from the ride and had driven straight over after riding to Porus.  Later, we went over to the bar next  door  to make arrangements for dinner. It was there Carolyn and  found two Jamericans  and played dominoes with them.

When we went back over there to wait for dinner, one was still there and he played with Carolyn while I played with Charles Simpson. That's when the 6 love drop! 

While we played some more,  the main group of tired riders arrived . (about 7.30 pm)  It was then that I learnt that the only person s who rode the entire journey were Alrick, Orelle, Maurice, Howie and Michael. Everyone else had to be driven over Shooters Hill and Sanford and Fatman never got back on their bikes. Disgraceful, considering that the stalwart women like Nicky and Sparkles did! (I wonder who dares to say "Look who's taking" . I aint no masochist! lol)

Anyway, when Fatman came he joined Carolyn, one of the six loveites and threatened to give it back to us.  Thank god we were called for dinner just when we were at the dangerous got 4 love point!

The dinner was quite good and I dare say the curry goat was probably the best I have had in years.

Next morning I discovered that Penny, Stefan  and family had arrived in the night as they wanted to ride to Dornoch  next day. The breakfast at Retreat guest house was excellent and before we could finish, Charles was calling desperately for Kenesha to pick them up at Burr Head Beach for while they had walked over from Bodmint from 6.30 am, they did not feel like walking back. I could have kicked myself for not thinking of driving to the beach when I woke up for I had been up from 7am but just never thought of it.

The lazy men who refused to walk from the beach back to Bodmint!

After breakfast Kenesha and I drove down and found the bunch of lazy men who we piled into the back of the pickup and took them back to Bodmint. We then walked with them to Aunt Gloria's where they voraciously gobbled up the breakfast but  poor Howie, chief masochist could not even sit down at breakfast, as he was still sore from the 15 hour ride.

As we got back to Bodmint, Chris (Dalrimple) joined us, having driven over from her home in St. Ann's bay. While we hung around, we heard brakes screeching outside and a faint thud, only to discover that a taxi  had run into the back of Donavan's  vehicle as he was turning into Bodmint. Although his vehicle's bumper was damaged, it was admirable to see him working assiduously to help the taximan pull away metal from his fan so he could drive his car to a mechanic. I wish I could be as charitable to people who rear end me. I promise to try.

Well sanity finally prevailed and it was decided that we would all drive the 19 miles to Dornoch instead of riding. We took the winding road  via Clark's Town to Stewart Town where we then took an unpaved, potholed access road into Dornoch. When we got there we parked at the top and hiked for about fifteen minutes down to the river head . Disappointment, for the beautiful clean river that we had seen in the pictures was no where to be found but instead only a mud hole and millions of mosquitoes. Luckily I had a towel to ward them off so only got bitten about a dozen times!

Disappointed I returned to my car with Johan and Kenesha and we decided to go back to Stewart Town to find a bar to get some cool beer. We did but then got a call from Charles saying that he had discovered that if you continue on the road to Dornoch, you could end up in Discovery Bay in 10 minutes.  I could not bother to go back on to the bad road so instead proceeded on to Kingston via Brown's Town. I was sorry to have to separate from what was a really nice group of fun loving people, but c'est la vie for after all, it had been a wonderful weekend of riding, swimming, eating, dominoes and camaraderie so there was no reason for me to be greedy.

 Another weekend well spent despite the disappointment of the Rio Bueno river, but I imagine that the mud and mosquitoes were a natural result of the islandwide rains which had pelted us all on the Saturday before .


No regrets about anything.