The Fifth of November

Eugene V. Debs and Tilda Swinton share November 5th birthdays. So do Vivien Leigh and Ike Turner. What meaning you can glean from that trivia is yours to treasure.
Two years ago today, the movie, "V for Vendetta" premiered on England's Guy Fawkes Day, or the anniversary of the Gunpowder Plot. In 1605, Guy Fawkes and fellow Roman Catholics conspired to blow up King James I and the Protestant-dominated Houses of Parliament. The plot failed, but November 5 remembers Guy Fawkes, who was discovered with the explosives on November 4, arrested, tortured, and eventually executed. In 1983, Alan Moore and David Lloyd published the graphic novel, V for Vendetta, upon which the 2005 movie was based.
Today begins the 2007 Writers' Guild strike. (Coincidental, entirely, to my initiation of this blog, which has no particular larger purpose beyond public rambling. Sometimes ranting and railing.)
So, good luck to the Writers' Guild. These writers aren't demanding "perks," but payment in the form of residuals from the sale of their work through new media, like this here internet. Producers and studios receive residuals, but claim they can't afford to pay the writers. For art, and for the rare moments of real entertainment writers inject between reels of propaganda, consumers of Hollywood products should support their demands.
Thankfully, we don't have to worry about missing an injection of the Daily Show. Stand-up guy Jon Stewart is willing to pay the show's writers out of his own pockets.
In grimmer news, as we continue to spread freedom across the globe, millions of Iraqis have been displaced from their homes, but cannot escape Iraq. U.N. estimates of 4.4 million displaced Iraqis are considered to be conservative. Read more from outstanding reporter Dahr Jamail.
In 2002, President George W. Bush named Iraq one of three countries constituting an "Axis of Evil". Five years later, while North Korea has receded from public discussion, it's game-on for the Bush administration in its relentless campaign against Iran.
28 years ago today, Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini pronounced the U.S. the "Great Satan". I was 13. I remember Khomeini described as an ideologue, a fanatic, a religious zealot. But since 9/11, the leaders of the so-called free world have employed similar fanatical rhetoric to justify their disastrous wars. Bush claimed recently that disabling Iran's (allegedly developing) nuclear program (presumably by dropping bombs on the country) will prevent World War III.
Never mind that for so many parts of the world, we are well past number three. Never mind that our troops are trapped in what seems to be war without end.
Never mind that our ally in the endless war on a concept, President Pervez Mushareff, has declared "Emergency Rule" in Pakistan, although Benazir Bhutto names the declaration "Martial Law". Never mind that "pro-Western" Mushareff has control of a fully operating nuclear program.
As of today, Pakistan's constitution has been suspended and more than 1,500 people, including Mushareff's political enemies, have been arrested. Lawyers protesting the constitution's suspension were beaten by police.
We should be paying close attention to what's happening in Pakistan, just as we should wonder why our media aren't paying closer attention to what's happening in Burma.
Consider how the Burmese government so effectively shut out the world by shutting down the media. The images stopped, and the world seems to have stopped paying attention to those brave, brave monks and the Burmese people.
Ignoring the brutality in Burma won't make it stop. It is our responsibility as beings to witness, at the very least, and condemn these brutal injustices as another generation is inducted into the cycle of oppression.
At best, we can emulate the Burmese people. They have not stopped. They won't stop because, as one young activist stated, "we are living for democracy and human rights, not for ourselves."
What are we living for?