Now Available!
Other Lands Have
Dreams:
From
Baghdad to Pekin Prison
by KATHY KELLY
Click Here to Order the Hot New CounterPunch
Book by 3-time Nobel Peace Prize Nominee Kathy Kelly!
Today's
Stories
May
24, 2005
Dave
Zirin
Palestine's Big Visitor: Not Laura,
but Ronaldo
May
23, 2005
Esther
Sassaman / Thomas Nagy
An Exclusive Interview with George Galloway
Mike
Whitney
Free Jose Padilla: Three Years
in Prison, Not a Shred of Evidence
Ramzy
Baroud
Fallout from a Forged War: Battling Windmills While Iraq Burns
Michael
Dickinson
Pictures at an Exhibition: Censoring the "Carnival of Chaos"
Walter
Brasch
In Praise of Bob Barr
Dick
J. Reavis
The Newsweek Scandal: an Unmentioned Detail
Maria
Tomchick
Galloway and the US Press
Norman
Solomon
Let's Play "Media Jeopardy"
Kevin
Zeese
Inventing a Pretext for War: an Inte4rview with James Bamford
Website
of the Day
Drawings of Darfur: Genocide Through Children's Eyes
May
21 / 22, 2005
David
H. Price
CIA Skullduggery in Academia
Gabriel
García Márquez
My Visit to the Clinton White House, Bearing a Message from Fidel
on Terrorism
Oren
Ben-Dor
To Create Academic Freedom in Israel,
a Boycott is Needed
Gary
Leupp
Nights in White House Satin with Jeff Gannon
Laith
al-Saud
An Anatomy of the Iraqi Resistance
Elaine
Cassel
Bush and the Angry God: Twilight of Secular Democracy in America?
Greg
Moses
The Saints of Mischief and Halliburton
Fred
Gardner
Martyring Dr. Carol Wolman
Dave
Lindorff
The GOP's Police State
Alan
Maass
Uzbekistan's Karimov: Bush's Favorite Terrorist?
William
Blum
The American Myth Industry
Tom
Crumpacker
Send Posada Carriles to Venezuela
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
Newsweek: a Contest of Hypocrisies
Doug
Giebel
The Grand Illusion
Evelyn
J. Pringle
No Child Left Unmedicated: TeenScreen, State-drugging and Suicide
Carolyn
Baker
Spiritual Abuse by the Religious Right
Chris
Floyd
Justice in JebWorld
Frederick
B. Hudson
Black and Gay?: a Review of "Brother to Brother"
Ben
Tripp
Him Talk Plenty Long Time: Busting the Filibuster
Poets'
Basement
Davies, Engel and Louise
May
20, 2005
Dave
Lindorff
Newsweek and White House Hypocrisy
Kevin
Zeese
As Insurgency Increases, New US Military
Recruits Fall
Paul
de Rooij
"Private": a Film in Search
of a Cliché
Christopher
Brauchli
How Insurance Companies Exploited 9/11
Mark
Engler
Triumph Over Debt?
Joshua
Frank
Bush to Dine with Porn Star
Robert
Jensen
TV Talk, No Evidence Required
Jeffery
R. Webber
Bolivia Erupts
May
19, 2005
Bill
Forman
An Interview with Alexander Cockburn
Stan
Goff
Hey, Democrats, Listen to Galloway and
Learn Something
Neve
Gordon
From Ghettos to Frontiers: What Will Happen After Israel Withdraws
from Gaza
Michael
Dickinson
The Trouble with Menwith: Tagging British Peace Activists
Karyn
Strickler
The Texas Nexus: How Racial and Political Gerrymandering United
Andrew
Freedman
Nazi Science at NIH
Paul
Craig Roberts
The Politics and Economics of Outsourcing
May
18, 2005
Jean
Bricmont
Vive La France?
Laura
Carlsen
Bush's Posada Carriles Quandry: an
Anti-Cuba Terrorist is Still a Terrorist
Mike
Whitney
The Secret Raids of Alberto Gonzales: 10,000 Swept Up
Joshua
Frank
Flushing the Koran: Why Newsweek Got It Right
George
Galloway
Thusly, I Humiliated Norm Coleman (and Christopher Hitchens)
Manuel
Garcia, Jr.
Writing Tickets for American War Crimes
Dwight
D. Eisenhower
How the GOP will Destroy Itself
Dave
Lindorff
The Plot to Make the PATRIOT Act
Even Worse
May
17, 2005
Mickey
Z.
GIs Behaving Badly
Petuuche
Gilbert
The People of Acoma Still Fight to
be Free
Paul
Craig Roberts
Lies That Kill: Why Isn't Bush in
the Dock?
Ramzy
Baroud
The New Palestinian Uprising
Robert
Jensen / Pat Youngblood
Pinning the Blame on Newsweek
Stan
Cox
Poisoning Patancheru: the Severe Side Effects of India's Drug
Industry
Dave
Zirin
American Anthem: Ozzie Guillen and Fining for Freedom
Diana
Barahona
Reporters Without Borders Unmasked
Website
of the Day
Revolutionary Flower Pot Society
May
16, 2005
Michael
Gillespie
The Family Released a Statement:
Death Notices for the Warrior Theocracy
Jason
Leopold
BP Stains the Arctic
Jesse
Muldoon
How Many Schools Left Behind?
Norman
Solomon
Media and the War: "The Bombs in Iraq Explode at Home"
Robert
Cray
Twenty
Patrick
Cockburn
Iraq is a Bloody No Man's Land
Website
of the Day
Bolton's Divorce Papers: She Took It All Away, Including Most
of the Furniture
May
14 / 15, 2005
Alexander
Cockburn
Join the 14 Per Cent Club!
Saul
Landau
Lessons from Vietnam: Wars Kill Empires as Well as People
Gary
Leupp
Whither Yale? Towards the Imperial University
JoAnn
Wypijewski
The Glory that is Lockhart, Texas
Ben
Tripp
The Wayward Airplane: a Cautionary Tale
Brian
J. Foley
Was Jesus Gay?
Tom
Barry
Bolton the Eavesdropper
Mitchell
Verter
Barbarous Oaxaca: Indigenous Rights Groups Meet the "Law
of the Club"
Mike
Ferner
War on COs: Army Files Additional Charges Against Kevin Benderman
Dan
Smith
Perceiving Darfur
Mark
Scaramella
Death with Pitfalls
Don
Fitz
Mommy, Is This a Finger in My Rice Puffs?: Splicing Human DNA
into the Food Chain
Diane
Farsetta
PR Industry Imitates Big Tobacco: the Senate's "Fake News"
Hearings
Michael
Dickinson
Soldier Crawling: Military Conscription in Turkey
Ron
Jacobs
The Jackson State Murders
Fred
Gardner
"Hydroponics? Ridiculous!": A Real Farmer Looks at
Medical Marijuana
Farrah
Hassen
Far From Heaven: a Review of Ridley Scott's "Kingdom of
Heaven"
Douglas
Valentine
50 Cent's Plea
Poets'
Basement
Louise, Ford, Engel, & Albert
Website
of the Weekend
Military Base Closings and the South
May
13, 2005
Tom
Stephens
A Chronology of US War Crimes and Torture, 1975-2005
Patrick
Cockburn
"They Destroyed Everything"
Mike
Whitney
Tom Friedman, Imperial Chronicler
Chris
Floyd
Miami Vice: the Sleazy World of Jeb Bush
Jenna
Orkin
Ground Zero's Toxic Dust
Dave
Lindorff
Googling for Fun
Joshua
Frank
Yale Fires an Acclaimed Anarchist Scholar:
an Interview with David Graeber
Website
of the Day
Botero: Pinta El Horror de Abu Ghraib
May
12, 2005
Paul
Craig Roberts
America is Losing: More Phony Jobs
Hype
Uri
Avnery
Death of a Myth
Greg
Moses
Neo-Con Logic at the Border
Carolyn
Baker
The Politics of Dominionism: the New Religious Right in America
Pat
Williams
Amateurish High Jinks on Roadless Areas
William
S. Lind
Reality Gap: the Myth of US Invincibilty
Jack
Random
The Dubious Wisdom of George W. Bush
Gary
Leupp
Douglas Feith Bares His Soul to Jeffrey Goldberg
May
11, 2005
Patrick
Cockburn
The Rise, Fall and Rise of Ahmed
Chalabi: King of Jordan to Pardon His $300 Million Bank Swindle
Kevin
Zeese
The Occupation Gets More Saddam-like
Every Day
Christopher
Brauchli
Coffee, Tea or Torture?: A One Way Ticket to Uzbekistan
Zalman
Amit
The Collapse of Academic Freedom in
Israel: Tantura, Teddy Katz and Haifa University
Robert
Shull
Carte Blanche for the Terror Cops:
Senate Gives DHS Power to Waive All Laws
Mike
Whitney
God, Gays, and George Bernard Shaw
Dr.
Teresa Whitehurst
Anti-Arabic Week at a Southern High School
Norman
Solomon
Political Bluster and the Filibuster
May
10, 2005
Richard
Drayton
The Imperial Mythology of WW II:
an Ethical Blank Check
Dave
Zirin
Steve Nash's Brilliant Year: Anti-War
Hoopster Wins NBA's MVP
Jackie
Corr
The Medicare Catch: Mrs. O'Hara's Windfall
Dave
Lindorff
Silence of the Scams: Economists
on China
Michael
Donnelly
From Roadless to Clueless: the Great
Stillborn Eco Victory
Reza
Fiyouzat
Nomadic Abstracts
Scott
Parkin
Taking Direct Action Against Halliburton
Stephen
Babcock
The Burden of Knowing Better
Alan
Farago
Florida, Water and Lobbyists
Michael
Neumann
Naomi's Courage
Website
of the Day
One Nation Under Plagiarism
May
9, 2005
Louis
Proyect
Shilling for Chevron: Jared Diamond,
Greenwasher
Robert
Fisk
"Mission Accomplished": the Occupation, Year Two
Kevin
Zeese
Concientious Objection on Trial: the Court Martial of Keith Benderman
Joshua
Frank
Kerry Bashes Gay Marriage
Sasha
Kramer
A Mother's Day Call for Justice in Haiti's Prisons
Andrew
Wimmer
Create and Resist
Jeffrey
Webber
Back to the Streets in Bolivia?
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Straight to Bechtel
May
7 / 8, 2005
Alexander
Cockburn
Who Beat Hitler?
Gary
Leupp
Biblical Prophecy and Christian Zionism
Saul
Landau
Pope Torquemada: Purges, Pedophiles and Cover-Ups
Joe
DeRaymond
Autumn of the Revolutionary: Another Look at Daniel Ortega
Daniela
Ponce
Seeing Chile in Nepal
Heather
Williams
Hollywood Does Enron
Gregory
Elich
Zimbabwe's Fight for Justice
Anis
Memon
To Cuba and Back
John
Chuckman
The Peculiar State: "Criticism of Israel is a Form of Anti-Semitism"
Mike
Whitney
Hard Right Rage Against the Truth
Ron
Jacobs
Re-Reading "Born on the Fourth of July" as the Iraq
War Grinds On
Colin
Kalmbacher
Whither Disorder? Ann Coulter and the Texas Police State, Cont.
Lance
Selfa
Uprising in Mexico City
Fred
Gardner
"Getting High is a Little Like Cuba"
Ben
Tripp
Letters on Wittgenstein
Mickey
Z.
The Mother of All Days
Richard
Joseph
Those Patriotic Magnets
Dr.
Susan Block
Come As You Are: Masturbation 101
Poets'
Basement
Smith-Ferri, Louise, Nettnin, Engel and Albert
May
6, 2005
Patrick
Cockburn
Baghdad Diary: a Week of Bombs and
Blood
Erin
Yoshioka
Another "3 Strikes" Travesty:
Why is Santo Reyes Facing Life in Prison?
Sam
Husseini
Talking with Syrians
Dave
Lindorff
Ernie Pyle Where Are You? When Reporters were Reporters
Kevin
Zeese
Circus Trials of Abu Ghraib: When Even the Fall Girl Can't Plead
Guilty
Joshua
Frank
An Overextended US Military? It Won't Stop Another War
Dan
Bacher
Tribes and Salmon Win One: Bush Backs Off Trinity River Water
Raid
P.
Sainath
India's Bloody Water Wars
May
5, 2005
Carles
Mutaner
Is Chavez's Venezuela "Socialist"
or "Populist?"
Carl
G. Estabrook
Is There Any Hope for the Pope?
Farrah
Hassen
The US's Syrian Obsession
Kevin
Zeese
"Sent Into Combat Unequipped and Unprepared": an Interview
with Patrick Resta
Michael
Leonardi
May Day with an American Soldier in Rome
Bennett
Ramberg
The Future of Nuclear Terror: Coming to a Reactor Near You
Ray
McGovern
The Smoking Gun on White House Deceit
Norman
Solomon
Nuclear Fundamentalism, the New York Times and Iran
Nicole
Colson
The Back Alley Attack on Abortion Rights
Brian
Concannon, Jr.
Clearing the Fences in Haiti
May
4, 2005
Colin
Kalmbacher
Ann Coulter and the Police State:
Heckle a Racist, Get Arrested
John
Walsh
Al Franken is a Big Fat Phony: Lying
on Air America to Support the War
Greg
Moses
Vigilante Wedge: Schwarzenegger Reprises
"Birth of a Nation"
Ali
Khan
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Poised to Fall Apart
Chris
Floyd
Ring Them Bells
Linda
S. Heard
D-Day for Tony Blair: Bogeymen and Scare Tactics
Dave
Zirin
The NFL, Congress and the Male Cheerleader Principle
William
S. Lind
Fool's Paradise
Gary
Leupp
Bolton's Proudest Moment: Breaking
the UN's Anti-Zionist Resolution
Website
of the Day
Kent State, May 4, 1970
May
3, 2005
Dave
Lindorff
Bush has Grasped the Third Rail,
Now Turn on the Juice
Brian
Cloughley
Halliburton's War Loot
Ira
Kurzban
Death Squad Diplomacy: How Bolton Armed Haiti's Thugs and Killers
Seth
Sandronsky
Towards Debtors' Prisons?
Gilad
Atzmon
The Labour Party Isn't an Option Any More
Michael
Donnelly
Branding Eco Collapse
Alex
Sanchez
Chile's Man at the OAS: a Blow to Bush?
Peter
Linebaugh
Magna Carta and May Day
May
2, 2005
Ron
Jacobs
Toward an Anti-Imperialist Movement
Stan
Goff
The Case of Hasan Akbar
Karyn
Strickler
Achieving Gender Balance in US Politics
Joshua
Frank
Leaked UK Memo Indict's Blair's Iraq Folly
Kevin
Zeese
Getting Out of Iraq will Prove Tougher Than Getting Out of Vietnam
Vicente
Navarro
Pope Benedict: a Rightwing Politician
April
30 / May 1, 2005
Alexander
Cockburn
Marla Ruzicka, Rachel Corrie and
"Credibility"
Gabriel
Kolko
Lessons from a Total Defeat: the End
of the Vietnam War, 30 Years Later
Jennifer
Loewenstein
The Disengaged: Gaza and the Fragmentation of Palestinian Nationhood
Lee
Sustar
City for Sale: Richard Daley's Chicago
Saul
Landau
The Bush-DeLay Axis of Naked Power
T.W.
Croft
The Undiscovered Country: the High Tide of the Neo-Con Confederacy
Nikolas
Kozloff
Fox News v. Hugo Chavez
William
Blum
Never-Ending Double Standards
Dave
Lindorff
Judicial Jury Tampering in Philly
Joshua
Frank
The Bi-Partisan Assault on Teenage Girls
Doug
Giebel
Saving Jane Fonda
Steven
Erlanger
A Response to Kathy Christison, from the NYT Jerusalem Bureau
Chief
Fred
Gardner
Washington State Doctor Harassed
Mike
Whitney
Another Mad Bush Press Conference
Kurt
Nimmo
Putin Pussyfoots in Palestine
Joe
DeRaymond
A Short History of the 15th Congressional District of Pennsylvania
Michael
Dickinson
Flags
Mickey
Z.
May Day at Yankee Stadium
Justin
Taylor
The Crawling Chaos: HP Lovecraft's Polymorphous Legacy
Poets
Basement
Krieger, Engel, Albert, St. Clair
Website
of the Weekend
Save Barbados's Cowpastor
Hot Stories
Alexander Cockburn
Behold,
the Head of a Neo-Con!
Subcomandante
Marcos
The
Death Train of the WTO
Norman Finkelstein
Hitchens
as Model Apostate
Steve Niva
Israel's
Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings?
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Sheldon
Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of Propaganda
in the Iraq War
Wendell
Berry
Small Destructions Add Up
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click
Here for More Stories.
|
May 24, 2005
Palestine's Big Visitor
Not
Laura...But Ronaldo
By
DAVE ZIRIN
Ronaldo is the Brazilian soccer player,
who happens to be the most famous athlete in the world. However,
due to the professional soccer blackout in the US sports media,
Ronaldo's name-recognition among American sports fans hovers
somewhere between the WNBA's Lisa Leslie, and the Whizzinator.
It's a fact that our mainstream
sports blather blithely ignores the sport known to the world
as football-- despite the fact that almost four million Americans
under 19 participate in organized soccer leagues, a number far
higher than baseball, basketball, or youth golf. In all honesty,
I am not a big soccer fan -- my anti-soccer indoctrination sealed
at an early age - but I do understand its appeal and respect
those like my buddy "Nicky the Chin," who know that
Man U and Real Madrid aren't cheap colognes.
Soccer-heads like Nicky also
know that Ronaldo, far from being an athletic footnote, matters
. Ronaldo matters because his global recognition and social import
stretch to audiences the NFL and NBA for all their billions couldn't
hope to reach. To soccer-obsessed children, especially in the
impoverished global south, Ronaldo is a demigod. His acolytes
don't need expensive sneakers or equipmentójust a ball
and some friends-- to imitate the utterly distinctive moves and
motion of their hero.
But heroes don't always rise
to the level of heroism. This was seen last week when Ronaldo
traveled to Palestine in his official capacity as Goodwill Ambassador
for the United Nations He inaugurated a youth center in Ramallah
and announced to a crowd of 1,500 people that his visit was part
of a campaign for Middle East peace. He told a news conference,
ìI hope that the sports movement will be revived in Palestine,
and I hope to see a Palestinian soccer
team when there will be peace." Then the star went to Tel
Aviv and gave the same kind of speech to an Israeli audience,
preaching ìsports, love, and understanding" like
a thick-thighed Elvis Costello.
This was in many ways a highly
scripted trip. But reality intervened when Ronaldo's plan to
visit the occupied Gaza Strip was thwarted by Israeli armed checkpoints.
The checkpoints prevented Ronaldo
from granting the wish of a 12-year-old Palestinian boy named
Hamad al-Nairib who lives in the Rafah refugee camp, Hamad once
dreamt of becoming ìthe Ronaldo of Palestine," but
such hopes were dashed when an Israeli cruise missile blew off
one of his legs. Hamad wrote the following letter, urging Ronaldo
to defy the travel ban on the Gaza strip, so the two of them
could ìshake hands."
Here is the full text of Hamads
letter. (Note: This letter has been widely published in the
European and Middle Eastern papers but to my knowledge has yet
to appear anywhere in the mainstream press in the United States.)
"Dear Ronaldo,
My name is Hamad al-Nairab,
I am 12-year-old, live in the Refugee Camp of al-Shabboura in
the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah. I like football very much,
and love you very much. I am one of the supporters of the Brazilian
football team. Everyday, I watch football matches on TV to see
you while playing football.
I used to play football in
our quarter. I used to wear the yellow shirt with number 9. I
hoped to visit Brazil to see you there, play with you and to
take picture with you.
I had a dream to be older and
older and to become a famous professional footballer like you,
I had a dream to be the Ronaldo of Palestine. Dear Ronaldo, I
cannot play football because I lost my left leg. On May 19, 2004,
me and my friends participated in a peaceful march in Rafah.
The Israeli helicopters hit us with missiles. A lot of friends
were killed and others wounded. On that day, I lost my leg and
my dreams dead. No more playing football.
I was so pleased and surprised
when I heard that you are visiting our homeland Palestine. But,
unfortunately, I will be not able to see you because of the Israeli
checkpoints and my health condition. All of my friends love you
so much, and love football, they hope just to see you even for
seconds. Seeing you is one of their big dreams.
I invite you to visit Rafah
and beg you to agree, to award me the opportunity to shake hand
with you and to take pictures with you. And to see how much the
people here love you. All of them talk about you and about your
visit. I hope you will not disappoint the children of Rafah and
all the people here who love you.
We are waiting for you, Hamad
al-Nairab."
Hamad is still waiting, as
defying travel bans was not on Ronald's goodwill agenda. It's
hard to comprehend here in the states how deeply soccer is loved
around the world. It is perhaps harder for us to digest that
US made weapons are blowing the legs off of 12-year-old boys
with universal dreams of athletic glory. But it is intolerable
that Hamad's dreams - dreams to meet Ronaldo, dreams to play
soccer, dreams to walk -- have become little more than collateral
damage.
Dave Zirin's new book "What's
My Name Fool? Sports and Resistance in the United States"
will be in stores in June 2005. Check out his revamped website
edgeofsports.com. You
can receive his column Edge of Sports, every week by e-mailing
edgeofsports-subscribe@zirin.com.
Contact him at whatsmynamefool2005@yahoo.com.
|
