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Why Should Ken L Apologise?

Gilad Atzmon | 18.02.2005 12:05 | Anti-militarism | Anti-racism | Education

I argue that morally deteriorated leaders often ally themselves with Jewish and Zionist organisations.


KEN Livingstone, the Mayor of the multi ethnic city of London, is asked to apologise after comparing an 'Evening Standard' reporter to a "concentration camp guard". Like many other inhabitants of this colourful metropolis, I ask myself why should he apologise? As it seems, the answer is simple: he dared to insult a Jew. He neither referred to any Jewish characteristic the journalist may have had, nor did he refer to the reporter's ethnic origin. The Mayor was just insulting a man who happened to be a Jew. In politically correct Britain this is unacceptable.

Mayor Livingstone wasn't referring to the journalist as a Jew; he wasn't even equating the 'Jews' with 'concentration camp guards'. As a matter of fact, he was referring to a specific journalist in reaction to his conduct.

And yet, this was enough to awaken the Board of Deputies of British Jews, an organisation that presents itself as the "voice of British Jews'. They now publicly demand the Mayor's apology. We should ask why British Jews feel offended by the Mayor? Did he threaten any Jewish interests? Clearly not, and yet the Board of Deputies insist on presenting the Mayor's comment as a racial assault.

I would maintain that once again we are presented with a glimpse into the Jewish notion of brotherhood. Following the twisted logic of the Jewish Board of Deputies: offending one Jew is an assault against the entire 'chosen race'. But it goes further; the incident makes it clear that in the eyes of the Board of Deputies, WW2 is in fact an internal Jewish affair.

The fact that millions of non-Jews died in Nazi concentration camps is completely irrelevant for them, so is the fact that Britain scarified its best young men fighting Hitler. The Board of Deputies is very efficient in capitalizing on the Holocaust. For them, WW2 is an integral part of the Jewish history; no one else is allowed in. This applies of course to the Mayor's usage of metaphorical language and to Prince Harry's dressing code.


THE Board of Deputies demands the Mayor's apology but apparently they are not alone. As disgusting as it may sound, another morally deteriorated political figure has joined their demand. This is what Prime Minister Tony Blair had to say today:

"Let's just apologise and move on."
For PM Blair an apology is a political manoeuvre. It is there to serve a political cause. In Blair's world, an apology is merely a strategic act. If political survival is the 'one and only' goal, then every means is more than legitimate. But then, very much in contrast, Livingstone served us all with a far more dignified performance.

Livingstone insisted that he would not apologise because he didn't believe that he should offer an apology. Here is what he said on Monday: "I could apologise but why should I say words I do not believe in my heart?"

Unlike the instrumental prime minister, who is suggesting using words tactically, the Mayor insists that apology is a sincere and meaningful act. On the face of it, sincerity and integrity are exactly the ingredients Blair and his cohorts are lacking badly.

We should ask ourselves why Mr Blair, once the leader of a European political institution (he is still the leader but unfortunately they are not an institution anymore), joined the Jewish clannish demand. I argue that morally deteriorated leaders often ally themselves with Jewish and Zionist organisations. Allying yourself with holocaust victims is proved to be the ultimate sufficient political body armour. Being amongst the survivors makes one look better than Hitler.

Yes, let's admit, PM Blair is still far better than Hitler but the fact that he feels a need to emphasize it occasionally makes it clear that he owes us, the Iraqi people and humanity a big apology himself.

-----------------------------------------------------------

Gilad Atzmon was born in Israel and served in the Israeli military. He is the author of the new novel A Guide to the Perplexed. Atzmon is also one of the most accomplished jazz saxophonists in Europe. His recent CD, Exile, was named the year's best jazz CD by the BBC. He now lives in London and can be reached at:  atz@onetel.net.uk


Gilad Atzmon
- e-mail: atz@onetel.net.uk

Comments

Hide the following 6 comments

make believe

18.02.2005 13:15

"There is no event more exciting or global in its reach than the Olympics" - Tony Blair today



meantime, somewhere away from labour's fairytale fantasy:


The thing to remember about Nike – when you watch the skilfully made, trendy adverts, or see top Nike-sponsored athletes perform, or take part in Nike-backed charity-PR events – is that Nike is built on workers’ misery. Workers in Nike sub-contracting firms across the world are regularly denied a living wage, union rights and safe working conditions. Nike has been caught using child labour.

Nike is bad news.

You have to meet the quota before you can go home. She hit all 15 team leaders in turn from the first one to the fifteenth... The physical pain didn't last long, but the pain I feel in my heart will never disappear.
- Thuy and Lap, woman workers at Nike plant, Vietnam, (CBS, October 1996)

One would think that $12.3 billion would be enough money for Nike’s CEO Phil Knight, and that perhaps he would finally stop sucking his wealth off the backs of exploited teenage children who are stripped of their rights and paid pennies an hour making Nike goods in China, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia , El Salvador, etc. But greed is a funny thing - it must feed on itself.
- National Labor Committee (US)

3,000 Indonesian workers marched through the main streets of Jakarta, criticising the world's top athletic shoemaker Nike for withdrawing orders from their factory.
The workers from a factory owned by PT Dobson carried banners such as 'Nike, your shoes are full of blood and tears' and 'Nike, you're the devil and we're the victims'. A rally co-ordinator said Nike would leave 7,000 workers in the factory jobless by shifting orders to other Indonesian factories and shoe plants in China.
"We just want a proper severance pay. Why can't they leave properly? We haven't got anything from them”, said Abdul Haris, of Doson's labour union.
- Indonesian press report, August 2002

Nike: a vast, profitable transnational

Phil Knight, Nike Chairman and CEO, said, "Nike's performance during fiscal year 2003 was one for the record books… We surpassed the $10 billion revenue mark and delivered record earnings per share … This year's results are a testament to the strong connection that the Nike brand has with consumers and our ability to drive profitable growth. We are optimistic that the combination of our global brand momentum, superior product offerings and worldwide operating capability will generate continued long-term growth."

Nike’s financial report, June 2003, states:
 Revenues for the fourth quarter increased 11 percent to $3.0 billion (as against $2.7 billion for the same period last year)
 Worldwide futures orders (scheduled for delivery between June and November 2003), totalled $4.9 billion, up 4.4 percent
 For the fiscal year ended May 31, 2003, revenues increased eight percent to $10.7 billion, compared to $9.9 billion in fiscal year 2002. Full year income before accounting change totalled $740.1 million
 At fiscal year-end, global inventories stood at $1.5 billion, an increase of 10 percent from last year.

Nike is now so vast it has 13,000 direct and indirect suppliers.

Nike in Europe

Quarterly revenues for Nike’s ‘European region’ (which oddly includes the Middle East and Africa) grew 24 percent to $945.3 million. For the full year, European revenues grew 20 percent to $3.2 billion, compared to $2.7 billion last year.
(Nike’s figures, June 2003)

Phil Knight’s wealth

The National Labor Committee (US) comments:
Phil Knight, Nike's founder and CEO, is now worth $12.3 billion.

At the National Labor Committee we sat down one Saturday to try to figure out just how much money $12.3 billion actually is, and what you could do with it. So we phoned a travel agent and said we wanted to fly around the world first class. We were told we could do that for $11,028.

Next, we called the plush Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York, explaining that we wanted a room with a view and concierge service. We could have that for $399. And we did not want any sort of continental breakfast – rather, we preferred the "power breakfast." The power breakfast at the Waldorf would cost $23, and we could have lunch for $40, and supper for $80. We figured we should also purchase a new Lincoln Continental, which would cost us $39,660.

 Phil Knight, with his $12.3 billion, could fly around the world first class every single day;
 Stay in the plush Waldorf Astoria Hotel every single night and have three full meals a day (remember, no continental breakfast);
 Buy a brand new Lincoln Continental every week - for the next 1,957 years

Phil Knight’s wealth didn’t come from no-where – it came from the intense exploitation of workers.

Obscene amounts on ‘celebrity endorsement’

He has built Nike's expansion into sport after sport: Carl Lewis on the track; tennis's Jimmy Connors and John McEnroe; Tiger Woods, who led Nike into golf; Ronaldo and the Brazilian national football team; and Michael Jordan, who famously rescued the company.
In 1992 Nike paid Michael Jordan $20m for endorsing their trainers, more than they paid their entire Indonesian workforce.

From the beginning Nike has been prepared to take a gamble on sporting bad boys others would not touch: Ian Wright, Eric Cantona and Andre Agassi. It was a strategy that began with Ilie Nastase, the original tennis bad boy. The Romanian had the quality that Nike realises it can market: attitude.

In 1998 Nike signed a $17m (£11m) annual deal with Brazilian football team. In 2000 Nike signed a £303m, 13 year deal with Manchester United giving it rights to all of United's merchandise. Tiger Woods’ five-year deal is worth $100million.
Most recently LeBron James, an 18 year-old US high school basketball star signed a seven-year $90m deal with Nike.

Nike’s advertising is also enormously wasteful. For example, they spent $3m on a Terry Gilliam-directed epic in cages on a ship, for the 2002 World Cup. (Guardian, June 2003)

Nike and Dope (added, June 04)

With the Olympics looming on the horizon, the world's biggest sportswear company now faces the alarming prospect of seeing two of its global icons, Tim Montgomery and Marion Jones, being denied the opportunity to compete in Athens, jeopardising a multi-million dollar advertising campaign.

To Nike, Jones is its poster girl, a figure instantly recognisable around the world and to whom it pays $3m (£1.64m) a year to endorse its products.

The importance to Nike in building its image by associating with glamorous sportsmen and women is reflected in its yearly endorsement budget, for which it sets aside $1.36bn a year. That means that when the status of its athletes is threatened it tends to pull the gloves on and come out fighting. If the American authorities try to prevent Jones from competing in Athens, they are likely to find her sponsor joining her in battle. Jones has denied ever taking performance-enhancing drugs.

… the company has a record of standing by athletes involved in doping scandals.

In 1992 when Germany's Katrin Krabbe, the world 100 and 200 metres champion, tested positive for steroids Nike continued to support her financially before she was eventually banned for four years.

Similarly, when in 1997 it was revealed America's middle-distance queen, Mary Slaney, had tested positive for the male hormone testosterone, Nike continued to back her despite the fact she was banned and stripped of the silver medal she had won in the 1500m at the world indoor championships.

In Britain it has also stood by the Manchester United and England defender Rio Ferdinand after he was banned for eight months when he failed to turn up for a random out-of-competition test. He was in the first 12 months of a three-year deal with Nike worth a reputed annual £270,000.

It had planned to use Jones in adverts around the world during the run-up to the games alongside those of Britain's Paula Radcliffe, the world marathon record holder who the company also sponsors.

Jones's attempt four years ago to win five Olympic gold medals captivated the world and her story earned millions of column inches for Nike around the globe. It believed her attractiveness on this occasion would be greatly increased by becoming a mother last year.
(June 10, 2004. The Guardian)

Nike: developing an empire

1971: Nike, named after the Greek goddess of winged victory, is founded. The swoosh is designed by Portland University design student Carolyn Davidson, who is later paid in shares
1974: Jimmy Connors wins Wimbledon wearing waffle Nikes
1984: Carl Lewis and Nike dominate the LA Olympics
1985: Knight signs basketball rookie Michael Jordan
1987: Nike launches Air Max
1988: Nike adman says "you guys just do it" at a meeting. Their slogan is born
1997: Nike's rookie golfer Tiger Woods wins the Masters by a record 12 strokes
(Guardian, June 2003)

Nike Prices

Nike's own pricing documents show that workers in the Dominican Republic are paid just eight cents for every $22.99 Nike shirt they sew, meaning their wages amount to a stunning 3/10ths of one percent of the retail price of the sweatshirt! Also, Nike sneakers made in China by young women paid 20 cents an hour arrive in the U.S. with a total customs value of $14.61. That $14.61 includes every conceivable expense - the materials, labour, shipping, and the profit to Nike's contractor in China. Nike then turns around and sells the sneakers in the U.S. for $135, which represents a 924 percent mark-up! Now we know where and how Phil Knight gets his billions, and how the global sweatshop economy operates
(National Labor Committee)

An Indonesian worker in a sports shoe factory will take home 0.4% (40 cents) of the $100 paid for the shoes in a US store.
The brand name takes 33% of the cost; the factory gets 12% (the 0.4% workers’ wages comes out of this amount), transport and tax come to 5%, and the rest, 50%, goes to the store.
(Clean Clothes Campaign)

Nike: taking advantage of dictatorship

Nike has consistently moved production of its sneakers to wherever wages are lowest and workers' human rights are most brutally repressed. In 1990 more than half of Nike's sneakers were made in South Korea. As South Korea became a democracy and South Korean workers fought for wage increases, Nike shifted production to Indonesia and China. As Indonesia moved towards democracy in 1997-98, Nike started to reduce production there, moving that production to Vietnam and China. According to Nike's 2001 Annual report, in the 2001 fiscal year 40% of Nike's shoes were made in China, 31% in Indonesia and 13% each in Thailand and Vietnam. Only 1% each were made in Italy, South Korea and Taiwan.
(Landrum, N. (2000), A Quantitative and Qualitative Examination of the Dynamics of Nike and Reebok Storytelling as Strategy, Dissertation Thesis, New Mexico State University, New Mexico.)

How much are workers paid in Nike contract factories?

In the great majority of Nike contract factories full-time wages are equal to or slightly above the local legal minimum wage. In the industrial zones of China, Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia the legal minimum is well below what is needed to meet the basic needs of a small family.
In Indonesia, as of July 2001 entry-level full-time wages in Nike contract factories in West Java were equal to or slightly above the legal minimum of Rp. 17,000 ($2) per day. Research paid for by Nike itself and released by the Global Alliance for Workers and Communities in February 2001 indicated that many Indonesian Nike workers are distressed because they cannot afford to have their children with them and must leave them with relatives in their home villages. Research conducted by Oxfam Community Aid Abroad in July 2001 confirmed that the majority of Indonesian Nike workers who are parents are forced by their financial circumstances to live apart from their children. Workers whose home villages are within a few hundred kilometres of their factory are usually able to see their children once a month. Workers from more distant villages are only able to see their children three or four times a year.
(Oxfam Community Aid Abroad/NikeWatch)

Health and safety

In 1997 Nike was severely embarrassed when the New York Times reported that workers in the gluing section of a Nike contract factory in Vietnam were being exposed to the toxic gas Toluene at more than one hundred times the Vietnamese legal limit. Toluene can cause nervous system malfunction and has been linked to an increased chance of miscarriage. Nike has since replaced the petroleum based glues and solvents with new 'water-based' ones which are significantly less toxic.
Although the new 'water-based' glues and solvents are less toxic than those used previously, they still contain toxins that can be dangerous to workers' health. In July 2001 NikeWatch co-ordinator Tim Connor interviewed an Indonesian Nike worker involved in applying the new glues who was having serious respiratory problems, including bouts when she found it extremely painful to breathe. She claimed that many other workers in her glue line had similar health problems and that the factory medical clinic had been unable to help them. (Oxfam Community Aid Abroad/NikeWatch)

Nike’s so-called ‘monitoring program’

Nike has employed staff with a background in public relations to manage its factory monitoring program, and they have put in place a scheme which looks good on paper but which in practice achieves very little.
Nike's main monitoring program involves the auditing firm PriceWaterhouseCoopers visiting each factory once each year. Nike calls this independent monitoring, but it is more accurate to call it company-controlled monitoring. PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC) have been selected by Nike, implement a monitoring program designed by Nike, and report their findings to Nike on a confidential basis. In October 2000 MIT professor Dara O'Rourke released a report on PwC’s monitoring methods based on a detailed observational study of PwC factory audits in China and Korea. The PwC monitors he observed failed to note violations of overtime laws, barriers to freedom of association and use of hazardous chemicals. They also advised factory owners of how they could use a technical loophole to evade laws regarding payment for overtime.
(Oxfam Community Aid Abroad/NikeWatch)

Nike is also a member of the Fair Labor Association (FLA). The FLA was set up in 1995 by the Clinton administration. It is a PR front for big business. There have been big battles on US campuses, for example, for a better monitoring process capable of keeping real tabs on companies like Nike. The US student movement have formed a new organisation (Code), in competition to the FLA, called the WRC (Workers’ Rights Consortium).
Nike and Phil Knight have attempted to stop the progress of the WRC by, for example, withdrawing sponsorship from colleges which join the WRC code (see Case Study 1, below)

Nike sets up radical-sounding PR front

Nike has also teamed up with the GAP (another company which has been heavily criticised for using sweatshops) and the International Youth Foundation to form an ethical-sounding organisation, the Global Alliance for Workers and Communities. The Global Alliance represents an attempt by Nike and the GAP to shift the focus of the debate away from campaigners' demands for decent wages and independent monitoring of factory conditions. The Alliance is at this stage only working with 21 of Nike's 700+ contract factories and by its own admission is not monitoring whether human rights and labour standards are maintained in these factories. Instead they are conducting a program of "assessment, training and development".
Doesn't Nike's "Transparency 101" initiative mean that the company's monitoring program is now transparent? No. Around the world more than 700 factories produce Nike shoes and clothes. Nike has so far released summaries of the kinds of problems that PriceWaterhouseCoopers' (PwC) has found in 78 of those factories, but has only released the full PwC reports for 11 factories. The company will not say why it won't release the full PwC reports for all 700 factories.
(Oxfam Community Aid Abroad/NikeWatch)

Nike: broken promises

18 May 2001 - radio station KPFA (Berkeley):
"Three years ago, Nike chairman Phil Knight stood before the National Press Club and said that he was so tired of labour-rights groups criticising the athletic shoe company he founded that he would personally make sure conditions improved at Nike factories around the world.
“Among his promises: all Nike shoe factories would meet US Occupational Health and Safety Administration indoor air quality standards; the minimum age would be raised to 18 for Nike shoe factories, 16 for clothing factories; Nike would include non-governmental organisations in factory monitoring; the company would make inspection results public.
“But according to a 105-page report released by Global Exchange (by Tim Conner, University of Newcastle, Australia), Nike has failed to meet Knight's promises. Global Exchange concludes that Nike workers still work for wages they can't live on, are forced to work long overtime hours, and face harassment, violent intimidation, and firing when they organise to defend their rights or tell journalists about labour conditions in their factories.”


Case study 1. Nike PR and Nike reality in Vietnam

Part A (2001, Source: Boycott Nike)

You have to meet the quota before you can go home. She hit all 15 team leaders in turn from the first one to the fifteenth... The physical pain didn't last long, but the pain I feel in my heart will never disappear.
The above statements were made by Thuy and Lap, woman workers at Nike plant in Vietnam, and reported by CBS in October 1996. However disturbing those comments might have been, they turned out to be but a scratch on the surface of a far more horrendous reality - confirmed, quantified, and fully documented by a Vietnam Labour Watch report (1997).

Reports of physical abuse, sexual abuse, salary below minimum wage rates and a debilitating quota systems have been confirmed by CBS News, the New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, AP, Reuters as well as other non-profit organisations.
In 1998, Phil Knight promised to change Nike's labour practices in Asia. We observed a few improvements, but much of Phil Knight's plan of actions were nothing but empty promises.
In 1999, Thuy & Lap were fired for talking to reporter. Thuy is now working in another factory in Dong Nai. Lap is still unemployed.

Nike continues to treat its ‘labour problem’ as a matter public relations. Nike's factory wages are still the lowest among foreign-owned factories in Vietnam. Many studies have confirmed that Nike does not pay its Asian workers enough to live on. Nike factories continue to abuse its workers and violate their labour rights. Nike did made changes. Nike has staffed up its PR department to go on a charm-offensive to seduce the public, to create confusion among concerned people about the reality of Nike sweatshops and to sow doubts about anti-sweatshop activists. Nike public stance has become much more sophisticated than five years ago. It's no longer simply refusing to acknowledge the labour question. It now tries hard to look like a responsible citizen; it has put out more Nike-funded "studies" & propped up Nike-funded organisations to be apologists for the Nike globalisation agenda. Nike funded the Global Alliance for $10 million and got numerous feel-good articles from Global Alliance studies of Asian workers.
Nike also continues to use the Fair Labor Association (FLA) as a quasi-stamp of approval for its labour policy even though in reality the FLA is still a non-functioning organisation. The FLA has not even monitor a single factory yet, despite numerous press releases promising actions.
Behind closed-doors, however, Nike continues its goal to sabotage any labour organisation that stands in its way. To derail co-operation between US labour groups & Vietnam labour organisations, Nike sent a "private" letter to a high-level Vietnam government official accusing US labour activists of harbouring a secret agenda to change the government in Vietnam. To stop the momentum of the Workers Right Consortium (WRC), Phil Knight's retracted his donation to the University of Oregon because the school has joined the WRC, a labour group whose agenda competes with Nike-sponsored monitoring body, the FLA. Nike also threatened to stop funding for universities that joined the WRC.

Part B

CBS News 48 Hours reported the following:
Minimum wage
Workers at VN Nike shoe manufacturing plants make on 20 cents an hour or $1.60 per day. The workers told Vietnam Labor Watch that the cost of three meals per day in Cu Chi is about $2. Many of them skipped meals or receive extra financial assistance from their families. During the first three months of employment, all workers received $37 per month which is below the minimum wage of $45 per month in Vietnam.
Nike also claims that the workers are paid a lower wage because Vietnamese law allows for a training wage less than the minimum wage. Viet Nam's legal code, however, specifies that the training wage can be paid only for a "trial-period" of 6 days, (under Article 32 of the Labor Code of June 23 1994 and Article 5 (2) of Decree 198-CP of Dec 31, 1994).

Corporal Punishment
15 Vietnamese women told CBS News that they were hit over the head by their supervisor for poor sewing. 2 were sent to the hospital afterward.
45 women were forced by their supervisors to kneel down with their hands up in the air for 25 minutes. On Nov. 26, 1996, 100 workers at the Pouchen factory, a Nike site in Dong Nai, were forced to stand in the sun for half an hour for spilling a tray of fruit on an altar which three Taiwanese supervisors were using. One employee (Nguyen Minh Tri) walked out after 18 minutes, and was then formally fired. Mr. Nguyen Minh Tri was reinstated after intervention by local labour federation officials. Mr. Tri, however, has declined to work for Pouchen.
On International Women’s Day, March 8, 1997, 56 women at the Nike factory, Pouchen were forced to run around the factory grounds. 12 of them fainted and were taken to the hospital by their friends.

Sexual Abuse
A Nike plant supervisor fled Vietnam after he was accused of sexually molesting several women workers. Nike claims that the supervisor was fired and sent back to Korea, but at the shareholder meeting on Sept 16, 1996, Nike CEO Phil Knight further insulted these women, by claiming that the supervisor was just trying to wake them up and must have touched the wrong places. Nike also did not try to have the supervisor stay in Vietnam to face criminal charges. The government of Vietnam later instigated extradition procedures against the supervisor.
Women workers have complained to Vietnam Labor Watch about frequent sexual harassment from foreign supervisors. Even in broad daylight, in front of other workers, these supervisors try to touch, rub or grab their buttocks or chests.

Forced Overtime
Women workers told CBS News that they are forced to work overtime to meet a daily quota which is set unrealistically high. Most workers at VN Nike plants are forced to work 600+ hours of overtime per year -- well above the VN legal limit of 200 hours per year. If they do not accept the forced overtime, they will get a warning and after three warnings they will get fired. Based on our analysis of pay-stubs, Nike factory workers are working 26 to 27 days per month plus 40 to 65 hours of overtime. We found months when workers were forced to work over 100 hours of overtime per month. We recognise that Vietnam is a poor country but there must be a level of corporate decency for a US corporation operating in Vietnam.

Inhumane Working Conditions
Workers cannot go to the toilet more than once per 8-hour shift and they cannot drink water more than twice per shift.
It is a common occurrence for workers to faint from exhaustion, heat, fumes and poor nutrition during their shifts.
Health care is inadequate. At the Sam Yang factory, with 6000 employees, one doctor works only two hours a day but the factory operates 20 hours a day. Night shift employees do not have any on-site medical emergency services.

 http://www.nosweat.org.uk

- -


boycott america

18.02.2005 13:37


every day in every way i'm just not buying corporate america

nick watson
- Homepage: http://www.zmag.org/cartoons


Yawn

18.02.2005 16:12

Nick. If you insist on using IM as an advertising resource to spam your web site, I suggest you make some attempt at commenting on topic, and change the bloody pic, you have been using it for months, and lets face it my pet guniepig could churn out work like this.

Adam smith


Shurely Scum Misteak

18.02.2005 21:49

The original article was about Kens Comment to an Evener lower standards journalist, who happens to be jewish .
I guess the Olympian never quite made it post his comment as an article and it just landed up here by chance, as a comment and then some one else drops in another irrelevant caca.
Strange that the resident zionist brigade are away for the weekend no comments from them , or where there ?

charliban


'Red' Ken

19.02.2005 19:25

Funny how the issue of the holocaust gets dredged up again.
Funny how Holocaust Survivors Organisation allows the ordeal and suffering of the millions they represent to be prostituted in the name of a scumbag tabloid scribbler.

This is nothing mpore than a personal insult, it had absolutely no racial overtones or anyhting that should have merited it being on teh news in any way.

Ken should have known better because there is a horde of jackals waiting for him to slip up. He is not exactly my all-time hero, but he should have been smarter than to get caught out like this.

Earlier this week I overheard a middle-class wanker start her 'analysis' of the incident by saying that she didn't like him because he "got rid of the Routemasters". Yes, of course the Mayor of a small city like London has nothing more important to do than to decide what type of buses we have........

Abu Burkan


bollocks

19.02.2005 21:23

If I called you, whiteboy, a slave, it would be different than if I called someone who was black a slave. Even if you don't agree with that, if that black person was offended by the comment, I would have said something offensive, even racist - it's a person's right to self-determination.

So back off you simplistic scuzzers confusing (as in the original post) Jewish and Zionist, talking about what British Jews think in their entirety. And back off you people defending Ken (er, why?) - it seems you have not been persecuted/a minority, so are unlikely to understand what it feels like, especially when it's is SO easy to apologise - it's the first step in conflict resolution, leading to understanding (difficult for people who like conflict or like to be in a clearly defined belief-set).

anti-zionist


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