And sadly, but predictably, the US appears to have sided with the death squads. "Now it's time for the hemisphere as a whole to move forward and welcome Honduras back into the inter-American community," the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, said earlier this month, imploring other members of the Organisation of American States to re-admit Honduras to the organisation. A majority bloc of Latin American nations, led by Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela and Ecuador, disagreed, citing the horrendous human rights record in the country, and a lack of accountability for those behind the coup. And while hypocrisy in foreign policy is hardly news, it's worth noting here that the US state department released a harshly worded statement earlier this month chastising the Venezuelan government's "continuing assault on the freedom of the press" following that country's issuance of an arrest warrant for a media tycoon. A week later, with no fanfare and not a word about press freedoms, the US resumed military aid to the pariah government of Honduras.

A year after the coup the polarising figure of deposed president Zelaya, who elicited the ire of the Honduran ruling class by, among other things, raising the minimum wage, still dominates much of the media coverage. But the broad-based democracy movement born in the bloody aftermath of the coup continues to organise inside and outside of the country, at great personal risk, and makes great pains to express that the long-term fight in Honduras is much bigger than who sits in the presidential palace.

"A lot of people can't quite understand a movement that doesn't revolve around a caudillo," Gerardo tells me. "This resistance movement is wide and complex. We have feminists working with Christian activists, who are working with labour activists. Zelaya is important, but the popular movement more so. And we think the repression has built up because those who have always run the country are scared, and this is their desperate response. Them with their arms, us with our ideas."

Good one Gus,

IMHO The article is about the world in general rather than just Honduras.

The “American Story” if I could call it that, seems to me to have begun its moral decline at the turn of the 20th century and has only worsened in crimes against humanity and wars of choice and profit ever since. Even President Eisenhower warned Americans to avoid this possible decay in his farewell speech which I quote in part:

“This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence – economic, political, even spiritual – is felt in every city, every Statehouse, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.”

“In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.”

“We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.” [End of quote and how prophetic?]

The parallels between the rise of the Zionists and their methods with those of G.W. Bush’s US foreign policies is not a coincidence and - going by the contemptuous reception that the Obama Administration has been dealt by Netanyahu and his mob, the Zionists are the real unelected murderous power of the US in the modern era.

Ever since that powerful Jewish Lobby in the US demanded that the S.S. St. Louis carrying nearly a thousand (by memory) German citizens of Jewish origin who were “encouraged” to leave Europe by the deal between Hitler and the Zionists - were refused landing rights in Cuba or America itself.  The Story goes that these Jewish people were betrayed by Jewish Lobbyists who wanted them to go to Palestine as the unholy duo (Hitler and the Zionists) had agreed.

It is estimated that some 50% of these people perished in the Holocaust.

So Gus, I admire the rebellious people of the South American continent and in particular the advances made by Brazil and Argentina. 

Once the US (controlled by the Zionists) is accepted as the major player in Terrorism, the States that do so can join together to reduce and eventually eliminate the estimated 700 controlling US military bases throughout the world.

IMHO, all American wars have been orchestrated by some "horrific attack on their way of living".  Each and every one has successfully influenced the normally peaceful people with the paranoia of being "a target" of jealous nations.

Does that sound like the Zionists of centuries long gone?

All that the Zionists have done is to raise the specter of the history of the Jewish people and how their concerted power disadvantaged each nation of which they were citizens.

The only point of which I believe is fostering the opportunist and well organized "take overs" of many nations is that in any so-called American style democracy - they can.

God Bless Australia and may we realize that Gus's issue above has a resonance with the "class war" that is still festering in Australia today.  NE OUBLIE.

“The beginning of the uprising by”    Gus

In many ways we help our weak survive while most other species reject the weakest in the nest. If you find a young bird that can’t fly — still covered with juvenile down — at the foot of a tree, it’s not because it fell off in a strong breeze, but, more likely, it was pushed. Pushed either by a stronger sibling or even pushed by its parents, tired of feeding an offspring that could not really make it in the wider world... It was lucky it was not eaten, like in some bird species, by its stronger brother or sister... On that behavioral score, we’re sometimes very close to nature, but as a whole we are compassionate mostly because as an individual we “may be’ (we are) in the same boat as the weakling. We've learned to protect our own degeneracy by protecting all who suffer from some degeneration of sorts and thus accept that degeneracy is not a problem of survival when the weakest of the weak can survive in our midst...

There are many more of your observations with which I could take exception Gus however; my comfort zone is the K.I.S.S. principle and the basic ability to think reason and be logical that I believe are the natural born ability of a human child.

Your discourse is sad but very true in most aspects and we as humanity have a price to pay for our war against Mother Nature.  She will change to compensate for the actions of the survivors on this planet – the most destructive of which is humanity and “business as normal”.

I have not completely read the findings of Darwin but, (the logic resonates with me) nor have I read the “opinions” of the bible to any worthwhile extent but I cannot come to terms with your overall opinion that to shouldn’t save life that does not productively contribute to the ultimate profitable wealth and power of an unnecessary waster of time and money? But they employ us don’t they?

The very argument that I consider you are making is simply the asset and the only asset for humanity to survive and prosper - is the Survival of the Fittest?

I believe that the human species developed the ability to “change” and adjust to the demands of Mother Nature, by the need to survive and prosper – and that happened.  Who is to say that the result of evolution of the Human race has been a success when we are asking the very people involved for their opinion?

The Essay (if that is the correct word) referred to in your post seems to me to have a very disappointed and even bitter point of view on humanity.  It seems to say that human compassion to fellowmen is as unprofitable as the Nazi; British; Turkish; and American caused holocausts currently being tut tutted in the societies related to the US/Zionist wars of choice.

And Gus, with respect, the countries in this selfish world of ours who have basically depended on Mother Nature to maintain their lives, have by that “necessity is the Mother of invention”  have never, and never may without our help – like the diseases that are causing our concerns like HIV and yet they survive and I feel for them.

God Bless Australia and all animals of our world – including ours?  NE OUBLIE.

Yes, Ernest...

It is a constatation of fact that we try to help our weakest to survive... I see no sadness in that. So please do not be too disappointed (or mad at me) because as I explained in the same blog — philosophy is not dead. Philosophy is the stylistic conundrum that makes us accept and work out the conflicts in the human condition, warts and all, weak and strong, for ourselves individually or in a group. The relative underpinning of philosophy in my book is care. Care for ourself, care for others and care for the environment (social, natural, etc)... Care encompasses compassion and action.

There is often a blur — or conflicts — between our own survival, in which care for ourself is essential (should we wish to live at this point in time) and care for others becomes difficult or impossible in this context. I have seen friends torn apart, having to care for an extremely disabled progeny. I have seen friends who are approaching an age when they are not able to care any further for a very disabled daughter. I have seen friends caring for alzheimer spouses till it breaks them down. Caring can often be a lonely and difficult activity should we have no support such as a good extended family, a social network or a "caring" government that provide specialised care. I know some specialist carers who can only do it for so long, as the work becomes too taxing.

There is also a blur between caring at all cost, such as maintaining a moribund life with pipes and machines and the reality of nature that long ago would have terminated a life. And I know people who would prefer having their life terminated rather than enter a state of debility or dependency, expecially after having had a glorious existence.

My mother's most difficult decision in life was to pull the plug on my dad's body. But for her it was also the most caring and most loving gesture of all. Nothing is ever clear cut.

For example, IVF is a great process that helps otherwise infertile couples to have kids... So far there is no comprehensive statistic in regard to the increase in the need of IVF procedure in the future, due to the use of IVF now. There may be a illusory statistical level that may suddenly go over the cliff say in 50 years time... The lack of fertility can come from "mechanical" or compatibility problems as well as genetics. According to the law of natural selection, the process is probably weakening the species as a whole.

There are plenty of example in which "care" becomes expedient — such as giving oodles of kids pills that are consciousness modifying in order to "keep them quiet" or more "focused"... To me this care is wrong but is pushed by "caring" pharmaceuticals and often valued by caring "busy" parents... Goodness knows what these pills will do in the future to the kids...

Care can be paying attention and having joyful momentous interaction with people — but try to have innocent fun and games with a passing stranger's kids and you will be arrested for molestation...

The cost of health care can become out of reach with doctors fees, specialists dues, new machines, new medicines, more complex treatments... and suddenly the resultant bill gives us a heart attack or sends the government into bankruptcy.

When someone else takes over the right of a person (able or not) to life, that is Nazi, that is Zionism — slavery and ultimately turns into murder. Much "power and wealth" is fuelled by enslaving or cocooning other lives in one form or another, including by debt, and selected killings — under the protective banner of war-on-something else to "care" for us.

Caring for life is not a waste of time...

But for some, it can be a "waste of money". For others, caring becomes a business... as in "we care about your health — take this pill and don't worry about the side effects, even if you go blind... I've seen it.

Caring is precious to me... but trying to define the edges at which we should enact caring is sometimes hard — and should be hard — to define. That is why euthanasia is such a hard basket to legalise, as terminating a life might be the greatest form of caring and yet could be murder...