30 shot by police in Madagascar

Supporters of opposition leader Andry Rajoelina were mowed down as they advanced on the presidential palace in Antananarivo on Saturday. On top of the dead over 83 injuries were reported.

68 people died in the same city last month after a riot took place following one of the anti-government protests. The president of Madagascar Marc Ravalomanana has been accused of wanting to turn the country's recent democratic government into a dictatorship.

The opposition is being led by the mayor of Antananarivo. Who has launched legal inquiries into the current government's right to rule the people of Madagascar.
The country's highest courts have already stated they are not qualified to make a ruling on the matter.

So the people have decided to make their voices heard. The voice of the president however is loud and clear as his voice come from the mouths of his semi-automatics.

Muchacho Enfermo

Cuban denied request for French trial....in Quebec

I read this week that a Cuban seeking refugee status in Canada had his lawyer's request for a trial to be heard in French denied by the Commission on Immigration and Refugee Status board.

The whole story is that his first lawyer was anglophone and he had not made an official request for an interpreter to be present. The Cuban refugee subsequently hired a new lawyer who has made the request for the audience to be heard in French. Canadian and Quebec law both state that anyone seeking refugee status can have his/her trial heard in either official language with an interpreter present (but the request must be made).

The trial has yet to begin but all the previous court papers had been filed in English. So the court judged it unfair to change the language of the audience at this point in the status request.

The Bloc and the PQ are all over this, for obvious political reasons. I think it's despicable to use a man seeking refugee status to further their segregationist agenda. But if it gets this man a trial in the language that he thinks will best suit his purpose then I hope it works (for once)...

I'll keep you all posted as this develops.

Muchacho Enfermo

Pope orders idiot bishop to recant.

"Jews made up the Holocaust, Protestants get their orders from the devil and the Vatican has sold its soul to liberalism." Were the words uttered in a sermon, 2 hours from Montreal, by holocaust-denying Bishop Williamson. The bishop was recently allowed back into the fold of the Catholic church after the current Pope rescinded an excommunication order made by his predecessor JP2.

The Pope and the entire Catholic church has been taking some serious heat over letting this idiot back into the church. The Vatican has now ordered that the bishop recant his holocaust denying statements.

What's the point? Things can't be unsaid. I can publicly state that the sky is green, it doesn't mean that I believe it. I don't think that you can make a man change what's in his heart by forcing him to say something.

That being said, Bishop Williamson should be kicked out of the church AGAIN, never to be let back in.

For more click here

Muchacho Enfermo

Buy American? No thanks... I think I'll stay home.

The Canadian media (and the American media) is filled with news of this whole "buy American" part of Obama's 900 billion dollar stimulus package.

Does it scare me? Nope.Not even a little...
Will it affect Canada? Sure.

But the way I look at it is this: the US has never given a damn about us anyways when it comes to trade. Most of us still have a bitter bitter memory of the whole softwood lumber business. Where the WTO courts sided with Canada and the US gave us the middle finger salute and told the WTO to shove it. Or the "mad cow disease" ban on Canadian beef which bankrupted hundreds of Alberta farmers? We all remember that one.

So how is this new way of screwing Canada any different from the many ways they've screwed us in the past? The only difference is they're now making screwing Canada a legislative requirement. They're putting it on paper and they're telling us: "Hey largest trading partner and neighbor... We're going to pump 900 billion dollars into our economy and at the same time plunge your economy into an even bigger rut. By the way... The President is coming on the 19th better pucker up and kiss his ass..."

Maybe the US is doing what they think is best for themselves, maybe they're doing it because they know that Canada can't afford to do anything about it. But from here on in instead of shopping in Vermont on weekends I'm just going to go ahead and stay home and institute my own "Buy Canadian" policy. I urge you all to do the same.

Muchacho Enfermo

Castroite provocation or the work of a gutter snitch?

"Charlie's opinion"

Castroite provocation or the work of a gutter snitch?
Many of my friends have written to me very happily because Ciro wasn't
thrown in a cage with his band mates from Porno Para Ricardo.
I still have to answer to each of of these friends. I would like
everybody to know that even though Ciro was not taken to the dungeons
because he was not with the rest of the band, a guard barked his name
towards the rest of the prisoners in the holding pen. The Keystone Cops
of Castro were sure that they have also bagged him together with the
rest of the group. Ciro is not out of danger, and he is not that lucky
either.

We should take into account that the members of Porno Para Ricardo were
looking around at the Maxim facilities, according to what eyewitnesses
have referred to us and according to how the photographer Claudio
Fuentes tells the story. That's why Maxyuri, the "commander in chief" of
"la agencia del rock" (she's knows as "el Agente Yuro") and her
thug-of-the-day, the singer of Hipnosis (a.k.a. Zeppelin) reacted so
violently against the members of Porno Para Ricardo. The government is
using one of the oldest traits of rock'n'roll as a tool to do their
dirty work: the rivalry between bands has been used for the first time
to intimidate, to beat, to repress. As y'all know, singer of Hinosis
"Zeppelin" was not arrested in spite of having hit Gorki he and his
friend Maxyuri were just the hand chosen tool of repression and the
ones who called the police..

Besides what happened at the Maxim, one could think that the police and
the state security were framing up the members of Porno Para Ricardo,
with the only objective to be able to prosecute them as common
delinquents and truants, as is their style in Cuba. Not even in the
furthest corner of the civilized world the police would able to jail
some participants in a fight and let the others walk free, and much less
they would be even legally able to bag somebody due to his choice of
clothing or its decoration. It's just another right for those of us who
enjoy freedom of expression, action, and thought.

That the repressive forced squealed Ciro's name in front of the other
prisoners, with the objective to fine him for something in which he was
not remotely involved, only tells us that they were following a script
written with the collaboration of paid agents and volunteer snitches.
As we have denounced in other occasions, there's a conspiracy to silence
Porno Para Ricardo; there are forces who are trying to seed discord,
trying to break them up, and specially they are trying to isolate them
and to silence them. This has not been possible, because the fans fo the
band -in and out of Cuba- know all the details of their work. Then the
authorities are tying to put to work one of their oldest and more
cherished methods: to transform the ideological transgression into a
common crime.

The harassment will be based on the lowest feeling of envy and hate, and
the tyranny already counts on an apparatus of snitches very well
established, full of nosy neighbors and fake friends, even. It's evident
to us that the conspiracy is rough and crude, and that their methods
would make an amateur blush.

Nevertheless, not for this the conspiracy is less dangerous.


Written by Charlie Bravo

English version to follow

¿Provocación castrista o chivatazo?

Muchos amigos me han escrito muy contentos porque Ciro no fue enjaulado con los otros miembros de Porno Para Ricardo.

Aun no he respondido a cada uno de estos amigos. Quisiera que todos supieran que aunque Ciro no fue llevado a los calabozos porque no estaba con el resto del piquete, un guardia ladró su nombre hacia el grupo de prisioneros que estaba en la celda. La policía castrista estaba segura que lo habían capturado junto a los demas. Es decir, Ciro no esta fuera de peligro, ni tiene mucha suerte, tampoco.

Debemos tener en cuenta que los miembros del piquete curioseaban en el Maxim, segun testigos presenciales nos cuentan y segun cuenta la historia Claudio Fuentes. De ahi la reacción de Maxyuri, la "comandanta en jefe" de la Agencia del Rock, más conocida como el Agente Yuro, y el cantante de Hipnosis, su esbirro de turno conocido como el Zeppelin.

El gobierno esta utilizando la mas vieja caracteristica del rock and roll, la rivalidad entre bandas, para golpear y tratar de intimidar. Naturalmente, como ya se sabe, a pesar de golpear a Gorki el Zeppelin no fue encarcelado, el solo fue el instrumento escogido de la represión y él y Maxyuri quienes llamaron a la policia.

Aparte de lo sucedido en el Maxim, todo nos lleva a pensar que la policía y la seguridad del estado han tendido una serie de trampas al piquete, con el unico objetivo de poderles encausar por figuras delictivas comunes -al menos, en Cuba.

En ningún rincon del mundo civilizado pueden llevarse a nadie por una pelea si no se llevan a todos los participantes, o mucho menos por cualquier símbolo que se tenga en la ropa, aunque parte de la sociedad lo considere de mal gusto. Simplemente, el derecho a ponerse cualquier prenda de ropa decorada de cualquier modo es un derecho más para todos los que disfrutamos de la libertades de acción, pensamiento, y expresión.

Que las fuerzas represivas chillaran el nombre de Ciro a los demas prisioneros, para llamarle a multarlo, solo nos dice que estaban siguiendo un guión escrito con la colaboración de agentes a sueldo e informantes voluntarios. Como hemos denunciado en varias ocasiones hay una conspiración para silenciar al piquete: hay fuerzas que estan tratando de causar divisiones, aislamiento, y sobre todo, silenciarlos. Esto último no ha sido posible, ya que el público de la banda dentro y fuera de Cuba conoce todos los detalles de la labor del grupo, y por lo tanto, están poniendo en práctica un viejo método; transformar la transgresión ideológica en crimen común. El acoso se basará en los más bajos sentimientos de envidia y odio, y la tiranía cuenta ya con un aparato de chivatos muy bien establecido, lleno de vecinos fisgones y hasta de falsos amigos.

Se nos ha hecho evidente que la conspiración es burda y cruda, con métodos que harían ruborizar a un aficionado.

No por eso es menos peligrosa, sin embargo.

Porno Para Ricardo musicians arrested! (UPDATE)

This just in!

To all:
Our friends Gorki, Hebert, and Renay from Porno Para Ricardo were
arbitrarily arrested last night in Havana.
They need all of our solidarity, they need all our help to denounce the
harassment of the communist goverment of Cuba on these outspoken musicians.
Please do contact your local newspaper and let them know that Gorki, his
bass player Hebert, and his drummer Renay were arrested without a
warrant in Havana, Cuba. That's state sponsored kidnapping, but a
communist regime knows no bounds for terror.
Please join us in denouncing this violation of their human rights.
Thanks
Charlie Bravo
CubaUnderground, virtual bandmate of the lads of Porno Para Ricardo.

UPDATE:
Our friends of Porno Para Ricardo were finally liberated a short while ago. They were loaded in a police lorry because their shirts and t-shirs had what the Cuban "authorities" considered pornographic images, c'est a dire, related with Porno Para Ricardo, and they were just given a warning and a fine.

Duceppe vows to bring more turmoil to the country

Gilles Duceppe, leader of the Bloc Québécois and professional idiot, stated a party rally in St-Hyacinthe that "Bloc and Parti Québécois victories brought hope to sovereignists. It's up to us now to translate this hope into action." There's so much I could say about the Bloc and the PQ but I'm pretty sure I've made my opinions clear on these two "mickey mouse" political parties, so we'll just leave it at that.

I'm just glad that Ignatieff never went through with this coalition business... It would have been a catastrophe to have the Bloc try to push their renewed fervor for separatism and its plan to destroy the country.

Duceppe gets cheers and applause at rallies because he speaks with conviction even when he's spouting nonsense such as: "For those who may not have noticed, no matter what party is in power in Ottawa, Liberal or Conservative, no matter who's in charge, the interests of Canada take precedence over the values and interests of Quebec." Does anyone else see hoe moronic that statement actually is? Of course they'll put Canada first, Ottawa is the capital of CANADA. If they started putting Québec first we'd have a huge problem on our hands.

My other beef with this next round of separatist rhetoric is that in this situation of economic downturn, the comments of the PQ and the Bloc could further hurt Québec's economy by scaring away businesses that operate here, simply because of the potential for political instability. The other thing is that this always comes up when the economy is at its lowest, when people are getting desperate, people who are afraid are much easier to manipulate and Duceppe is a professional manipulator.

I sometimes tell myself that I hope that the separatists win. It's too bad that I'd have to move away, maybe it's the motivation I need to buy a nice little house on the beach in PEI. But all that would be a small price to pay to watch the sovereignists crash and burn and struggle to stay alive. When all is said and done and Québec realizes it can't govern itself and steer its economy into the fiscal utopia that the Bloc keeps promising and they come crawling back... I'd hear about it on CBC radio, while sipping an ice cold Moosehead on my porch, watching the sunset on the Atlantic, I'd light a celebratory Cohiba, smile to myself and say: "I told you so".


*source for quotes: Globe and Mail*

Muchacho Enfermo