Nationalism

So being here in the Basque country surrounded by nationalism, my interests have been a little peaked. I spent a decent amount yesterday reading part of an essay called "Post-Colonial Anarchism" from Jailbreak Press, which focuses on some issues that have been pointed out by anarchist people of color(APOC) in critique of the larger anarchist milieu. I can´t really say I identify as an anarchist, but it has at least influenced my thinking a bit. This essay addresses not only some very serious issues of various colonialist mindsets within the anarchist "movement", but also, I think, some of the reasons that the larger anarchist "movement" in North America can often seem to lack relevance. The point of bringing this up is, it reevaluates the role of nations and national liberation struggles within the anarchist paradigm. This did less to change my views on nationalism than it did to change my views on the compatibility of anarchist or anti-authoritarian thought with support for national liberation struggles, two tendencies of thought which I have, but have previously been held in different drawers of my brain.

My go-to news source is Al-Jazeera, because I hate America, or maybe because it offers a wider range of stories and analysis than does BBC, and more news than CNN. Because of this, I have known that for at least the past 5 months, the government of Sri-Lanka has led an increasingly intensive initiative to destroy the Tamil Tigers, which seems to also mean destroying the Tamil people, hospitals, journalists, etc.... Now the crisis is reaching truly epic proportions, and I am beginning to see it on the Basque and Spanish nightly news, as well. I don´t know what you have on CNN and BBC. With my general interest in current events and oppressed peoples, and my specific interest in nationalism, I decided I would try and figure out if the U.S. government can be blamed for this at all, given all the attention that Gaza has gotten. In short, they can. In my research process, I learned how horribly daunting a task it is to try and trace money in such a way, and this is with the help of the internet, and with only the open information available to me. So, I have decided to renounce anarchism and leave such hard work to professional bureuacrats that like to, or at least get paid to, do such research. Just kidding, I have actually just gotten a small taste of the ways in which our whole government and financing system is obscured to point of incomprehensibility for any of the public which it is supposed to be serving. Blah. Whatever, Sri-Lanka received money for military non-weapon items, military training, anti-narcotics operations, and anti-terrorism operations. However, from 2003-2007, all of this, plus development and educational aid, only totaled about 10 million dollars. This is a lot to me, but I am pretty sure that compared with the assistance to Israel, its relatively miniscule. I don´t have the ability or will to find out right now. There is also, however, an American Chamber of Commerce in Sri-Lanka, which gives money to the government, unclear how much, that is probably culpable somewhat. For information on how AmCham, and the above-mentioned development aid, as well as the 134 million that the country received in tsunami relief in 2005 may still have some sinister implications, which I can´t claim to know any specifics of, see Naomi Klein´s article "The Rise of Disaster Capitalism in Post-Conflict States". There´s also a book.