JUVENTUD REBELDE July 12, 2005
Why London?
One of the most watched cities in the world. Technology has not been able to make it safer. It would be better to remove the causes of a terrorist attack.
A CubaNews
translation by Ana Portela.
Edited by Walter Lippmann.
http://www.jrebelde.cu/2005/julio-septiembre/jul-12/porque.html
By: Luis Luque Álvarez
London is one of the most watched cities in the world. Thousands of cameras (until 2003 there were 247.1 per square mile) spy on the citizens in every part of the city, in Hyde Park or Liverpool Street that have provoked protests from groups such as Privacy International who consider it an incredible interference by the authorities on the intimacy of the citizens.
However, technology has not made London safer. It is totally impossible to know what people know or do, what people carry in their bags and what intentions do three million persons have who use public transportation.
Consequently, it would be more worthwhile to remove the causes of the terrorist attacks than carrying out thankless and uncertain espionage.
Why did July 7 happen?
Why the massacre of innocent civilians? According to the Labor Prime Minister, Tony Blair, because the terrorists hate "our values and way of life". This sounds very much like Bush's argument after September 11, 2001: "They hate us because they hate what we represent: freedom and democracy.
This conclusion, nonetheless, is on slippery ground. The Evangelist Bishop and former lieutenant colonel of the U.S. army, Robert Bowan, in a letter to Bush wrote: "The Canadian people enjoy democracy, freedom and human rights as well as the Norwegian and Swedish people. Did you ever hear that the embassies of Canada, Norway and Sweden were bombed?
Blair could also be asked why neighboring Ireland - a typical "western democracy" - is one of the countries of the European Union with a better living standard and has not suffered an attack by the "envious" Islamic terrorists who, at the moment, are probably the most responsible for the explosions in the London tube.
Bowan's answer to the U.S. president can better guide the arrow to the target: "We are not hated because we practice democracy, freedom or human rights but because our government denies the rights of the peoples of the Third World, whose resources are coveted by our multi-national corporations".
"In each country, our government obstructed democracy, suppressed freedom and trampled human rights. That is why we are hated around the world. That is why we are a target of the terrorists", he added.
As for the United Kingdom, the cause would have to be sought in Iraq. That nation together with the U.S. Air Force, was "surgically" bombed for twelve years and, in March of 2003, it turned deaf ears to the demands of the majority of the British population. They decided to invade. Once in southern Iraq supporting the U.S. forces deployed in the rest of the country, British soldiers, also, did not escape the temptation to commit excesses and torture of civilians.
In the Arab and Islamic nations, the people have taken note. And, also, the extremists who, convinced of fulfilling the will of Allah, attack civilian objectives either around the Thames, Madrid or New York. Years, centuries of colonial exploitation has fed this radicalism. And Tomohawk missiles will not extinguish it.
Once again, let us hear the simple logic expressed by Bowan: "Instead of being bad we should be good and, as such… Who would be interested in attacking us? Who would have reasons to hate us? Who would have reasons to bomb us?
The omnipresent video cameras - obviously - are of little value, Mr. Blair. The question is not technology but politic. Look at Ottawa and Stockholm. Take out your pencil and do the math.