Em 11 de setembro de 2001 , exatos 8 anos , os Estados Unidos da América sofreram um atentado terrorista sem precedentes , com a destruição das torres do World Trade Center , em Nova York, e de uma das alas do Pentágono( o centro administrativo das Forças Armadas ), em Washington, por 19 extremistas islâmicos.

Os terroristas sequestraram aviões comerciais norte-americanos e os utilizaram como mísseis em missões suicidas. No total, os ataques causam cerca de 3 mil mortes.

Os atentados são atribuídos à rede terrorista Al Qaeda, liderada pelo milionário saudita Osama Bin Laden , que vivia no Afeganistão, sob a proteção do regime local, o Taliban.

A recusa das autoridades afeganes em entregar Bin Laden levam os EUA e o Reino Unido a atacarem militarmente o país. O regime Taliban é deposto em novembro de 2001. Os EUA ocupam o Afeganistão, mas não conseguem capturar Osama Bin Laden.

Notícias de 11 de setembro de 2001 podem ser vistas neste vídeo:

DOUTRINA BUSH

A luta contra o terrorismo tornou-se elemento central da política do governo Bush. Internamente , a necessidade de aumentar os dispositivos de segurança leva Bush a propor uma lei, conhecida como Patriotic Act ( Lei Patriótica ), que foi aprovada em outubro de 2001 pelos congressistas.

Essa legislação possibilitou , entre outras coisas, que pessoas suspeitas de vinculação com grupos terroristas fossem detidas por longos períodos. A medida recebe críticas de entidades de defesa dos direitos humanos.

Na sequência, vem a público a existência de uma ordem secreta de Bush, emitida em 2002, que autorizou o monitoramento de dados de telefonemas de cidadãos norte-americanos, sem a necessidade de decisão judicial para tanto.

Em 2002 , Bush definiu diretrizes relativas ao combate antiterrorista, que ficaram conhecidas como Doutrina Bush. Preveu-se por exemplo, o uso de força contra qualquer país que pudesse vir a ameaçar a segurança norte-americana, de maneira unilateral ( sem necessidade de consulta aos aliados ) e preventiva.

O orçamento militar cresceu de forma expressiva , o que tornou-se o principal fator de aumento do déficit público do país a partir de 2002.

GUERRA AO IRAQUE

Bush denunciou , no mesmo ano, a existência do eixo do mal, formado por Iraque, Irã e Coréia do Norte , nações acusadas de produzir armas nucleares e de patrocinar o terrorismo. Saddam Hussein , então presidente iraquiano , negou que seu país possuisse armas.

Os EUA tentaram aprovar na ONU a autorização do uso da força contra o Iraque, mas enfrentaram a oposição russa , francesa , alemã e , com menos ênfase, a chinesa. Os EUA e o Reino Unido decidiram ir à guerra mesmo sem a permissão da ONU.

Em março de 2003 , milhares de soldados norte-americanos e britânicos invadiram o Iraque e em menos de um mês derrubaram o regime.As forças de ocupação foram autorizadas pela ONU a permanecer no país , mas tornaram-se alvos de campanha sitemática de guerrilhas e atentados. A presença de mais de 160 mil soldados norte-americanos não consolidaram o controle sobre o país.Por outro lado , a ocupação do Iraque permitiu o acesso dos EUA ao petróleo iraquiano, além de abrir caminho para que multinacionais norte-americanas lucrassem com as obras de reconstrução do país.

Em outro revés para a imagem do governo Bush, uma comissão parlamentar que investigava os atentados de 11 de setembro de 2001 concluiu que não havia provas de vínculos entre o regime de Saddam Hussein e a Al Qaeda. Essa conclusão derrubou uma das principais justificativas de Bush para a invasão iraquiana.

Do mesmo modo, não acharam-se indícios das armas de destruição em massa que supostamente o governo iraquiano possuiria. Isto não impediu Bush de ser re-eleito em 2004 e dar continuidade as leis de tortura , que desobedeciam a Convenção de Genebra.

]]> http://moaciralencarjunior.wordpress.com/2009/09/11/11-de-setembro-este-dia-tem-historia-na-america-parte-1/ Sat, 12 Sep 2009 00:30:32 +0000 moaciralencarjunior http://moaciralencarjunior.wordpress.com/2009/09/11/11-de-setembro-este-dia-tem-historia-na-america-parte-1/

Salvador Allende, da Unidade Popular ( aliança de socialistas , comunistas e cristãos de     esquerda ) elegeu-se presidente do Chile em 1970, com 34% dos votos.

Seu governo nacionalizou mineradoras, algumas companhias multinacionais, entre elas mineradoras norte-americanas, e passou a ser alvo de uma campanha de desestabilização promovida pelos Estados Unidos (EUA).

Um golpe militar , há exatos 36 anos , poria fim ao seu governo, ele foi deposto após um ataque ao Palácio Presidencial de la Moneda em 11 de setembro de 1973.

“Versões sobre a morte de Allende são paradoxais”

Há duas versões aceitas sobre a morte de Allende: uma é que ele se suicida no Palácio de La Moneda, cercado por tropas do exército, com a arma que lhe fora dada por Fidel Castro; a outra versão é que ele foi assassinado pelas tropas invasoras. Sua sobrinha Isabel Allende Llona é uma das que acreditam que seu tio foi assassinado. A filha do Presidente, a deputada Isabel Allende, declarou que a versão do suicídio é a correta. Allende foi inicialmente enterrado numa cova comum, num caixão com as iniciais “NN”. Com o término da ditadura de Pinochet, Allende teve um funeral com honras militares, em 1990.

O general Augusto Pinochet assumiu o poder , chefiando uma junta militar que dissolveu os partidos políticos e iniciou um período de censura à imprensa e de repressão aos oposicionistas. A violência da ditadura deixou milhares de mortos, desaparecidos e exilados.

Mais sobre 11 de setembro de 1973 , em um paralelo aos atentados de 2001 , nos EUA , podem ser vistos neste documentário do ano de 2002.

( legendado em português )

]]> http://derivantropologica.wordpress.com/2009/09/12/11-settembre/ Fri, 11 Sep 2009 23:54:13 +0000 Wallace Henry Hartley http://derivantropologica.wordpress.com/2009/09/12/11-settembre/

Hoje foi o começo do fim. 11/09/01 foi uma batalha perdida pela civilização ocidental. O inferno é logo ali.

Estadão sob censura há 42 dias. Leis de mordaça na Venezuela. Invasão do Clarin na Argentina. O inferno é logo ali.

E muita gente achando pouco tudo isso. O inferno é logo ali.

Due to a world-class migraine, my viewing of 11′09″01 – September 11 was cut short. However, what I viewed deserves to be remembered (memory is, after all, a major theme of this series of films), and if it doesn’t get typed out, it might be forgotten. Some background on this/these film(s) is, eleven different directors, all from different countries, were asked to contribute short films responding to the event of 9/11. The film’s opening sequence boasts, “Complete artistic freedom.” Despite this dubious notion, the films certainly represent a spectrum of takes on the disaster, the United States, and ideology. It’s an intriguing project, and it implies something about the nature of the 9/11 catastrophe. These are not eleven films made by eleven different US directors, but eleven different world directors, only one of whom is from the US (Sean Penn?). Because of the difficulty of attaining the film in the States, I have linked the film titles to sites where they are presently viewable (I can only find three of them). Since this (hopefully) wasn’t a moneymaking venture, I am in good conscience here. Still, who knows how long the links will stay alive, so, sorry in advance if they’re gone. Since I can’t find all of the individual segments, here is a Youtube user who has posted the entire film in 10:00 chunks, but not separated by film.

From what I can tell, each short film’s title was simply the name of the country from which it came. So Iran’s contribution was Samira Makhmalbaf’s Iran, which initiated the series. In the segment, a female teacher walks through open areas of people, largely children, making mud bricks into the beginnings of a sort of defense. She yells at them that if an atom bomb is dropped, bricks won’t save them; they should send their children to school instead. In school, the children display their ignorance of the event that has occurred that day which has the parents paranoid. These families are Afghan refugees living in Iran, worried that when the US retaliates against Afghanistan, they too will be targeted. In the classroom, the teacher attempts to persuade the children of the significance of what has happened on that day, but the children have no ability to conceive what happened. The teacher tries to tell them what a “tower” is by pointing out the window at a long, narrow, smoking chimney. When the children fail to keep quiet for a full minute out of respect for the fallen, the teacher walks them outside to the chimney, where they are more successful. The final shot, positioned from below, has the teacher and children in the foreground and the smoking chimney extending all the way up, eerily reminiscent of the Twin Towers, for those who have seen them. This segment seems to illustrate the difficulty of explaining to children what happened on that day. The gravity of the event is impeded by their innocence, as they cannot even understand what a skyscraper looks like, let alone what it means for thousands of people to die horrible deaths.

The next film is from Claude Lelouch, entitled France. The simple title is reflected in the simple narrative held within. It takes place in New York City, and it features a man and a woman in an apartment in the morning. The woman is deaf, and the man runs a tour service for the hearing impaired. Most of the film is shot from the woman’s point-of-view and hence, has very little sound; only the faint echo of louder noises as a deaf person might hear them. This film is more moving than the first, and in it Lelouch offers a more accessible lesson. The images of the towers are used ironically in this segment, demonstrating how sight suffers when sound is dead. Deep focus and long takes characterize the segment, which takes viewers much closer to the actual catastrophe of 9/11 and forces them to see it differently.

The third film Egypt, is directed by Youssef Chahine. It is probably the weakest of those viewed. It raises a valid point but does so in a flawed manner. The question is, isn’t every American guilty of the wrongs done by its government, since it is a democracy? Even though the main character (incidentally, a film director patterned after Chahine) is deeply affected by the event of 9/11, the film implies American fault at a level that will be uncomfortable to many, especially in light of the tragic nature of the event. Certain cinematic clichés, such as the apparently obligatory love scene and its kinda obscene innuendo, distracted from a potentially thoughtful film. Of course, if an American criticizes this film, it will be interpreted as ignorant patriotism. Hopefully anyone who has read anything on this blog knows that’s not the case here.

One of the more stirring segments is Danis Tanovic’s Bosnia-Herzegovina. The film’s POV is that of a young woman who, with other women, demonstrate on the 11th of every month over a Bosnian tragedy. The woman’s delicate relationship with her mother and the wheelchair-bound male friend help ground the film in reality and set it in marked contrast with the Egyptian film before it by avoiding clichés. When the other women find out on 9/11 what has occurred in New York, they sit quietly listening to the radio. When the main character comes in, she is told that there will be no demonstration today. Not unaffected by the New York event, the woman still insists that the demonstration must take place. Beginning only with herself and her male friend, the demonstration begins, as the rest of the women eventually join her. Tanovic kept an excellent balance in this film between present and future. Wallowing in the event is paralyzing, but moving ahead quickly refuses the necessity of grief. The film also serves as a reminder, especially to Americans, that there are and have been other world tragedies requiring acknowledgment. These tragedies have been both bigger and smaller than 9/11, but because they didn’t take place on US soil, they are not always given the voice that they deserve. My cousin, traveling through Bosnia-Herzegovina not long ago, showed me pictures she took from a small village that looks like it was bombed yesterday. Tragedies in countries like this constantly remind its remaining inhabitants of what happened, and a lack of voice in the world keep the people from being able to move ahead. Tanovic should be commended for pointing this fact out to us while remaining utterly sensitive to the pain of those in the US.

Certainly one of the most entertaining parts of the series was Idrissa Ouedraogo’s Burkina Faso. It is told from the vantage point of a boy and his cronies in an African village. After finding out what has happened in New York, the boy is sure that he recognizes from the newspaper photos Osama bin Laden there in the village. He gathers his friends together, they “borrow” a father’s camcorder, and they spy on who they are sure is Osama. They determine that the $25 million reward would allow them to cure a mother of one of the boys from her illness and allow her son to return to school. After gathering sufficient footage on the camcorder, they decide to capture Osama with the help of some rope, spears, and fake guns. The day they decide to take action is a day too late, however, and they are forced to watch him fly away on, ironically, a commercial airliner. The film allows a minimal use of subtle comedy to put even such a catastrophe as 9/11 into the perspective of rural, third-world children. How are they going to respond to such an event? Clearly, they cannot and cannot be expected to get their heads around it. Those who witnessed the event firsthand cannot get their heads around it. What is remarkable, and what this film illustrates, is how an event like 9/11 can totally usurp the normal lives of people such as these boys in Burkina Faso. Even if they really don’t grasp what has happened, they are consumed by it. Or perhaps, they do grasp what has happened, and better than most. Without being blinded by the shock and awe of the event, they acknowledge that someone is responsible and ought to be held accountable. They eschew the notion that they as children are impotent to help. The film does well not to answer the question, was that really Osama? It’s beside the point. But the best way to view the film is to ask, what if it were? Look who almost caught him.

Mira Nair (whose Mississippi Masala has been looked at recently) added India. The film is set in New York, in an Indian-American immigrant family. Because the story is a bit drawn out, it seems more complex than it actually is. A young adult son disappears on 9/11 and the authorities implicate him, by virtue of his ethnicity, in the catastrophe. The mother is given POV priority, adding an emotional component but leaving some paternal love to be desired. In the end, it is discovered that the youth was killed when he showed up at Ground Zero and tried to rescue survivors. Local television stations proclaim him a hero and he is given a hero’s burial, which provides his mother with the opportunity to condemn the way of things when a person is unfairly villainized before being justly heroized. The film succeeds in some ways and lacks in others. It is certainly accurate in revealing stigmas that are still alive and well in the US. The whole episode forces one to recall the internment of the Japanese during WWII.

Though I watched Ken Loach’s British contribution United Kingdom, unfortunately the force of my migraine seems to have wiped it from my memory, so I’ll proceed on to the piece de resistance, Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Mexico. The film is highly experimental in its form, relying on sound to such an extent that it can nearly be described as the antithesis of silent film. Iñárritu’s previous films, also very formalistic, include Amores Perros, 21 Grams, and Babel. Babel is strongly related to Mexico not only formally but also thematically. Aside from that, Mexico is a film that discourages or rejects description. One of the main points of this blog is to help my own memory recall the many films I see. Since this film is unforgettable in the truest sense, and since anyone who hasn’t seen it won’t be helped by a description, I think I’ll skip it. Suffice it to say, Iñárritu has been accused of using images of catastrophic horror for the purpose of artistic experimentation. It seems that when someone hits the nail on the head so perfectly, even when it was a risky move, he cannot be criticized. It is clear that Iñárritu never for a moment forgot what happened on 9/11 while he made the film. It is also clear that he was motivated by a determination that no one ever forget. Knowing that the images of that day have been played ad infinitum and become only images for many, Iñárritu uses sounds, almost entirely composed of human voices to pierce much deeper than graphic images can do. The words at the end are intentionally vague: “Does God’s light guide us or blind us?” Still, they effectively pose a question both to victims and to perpetrators.

It is not clear if this film, or collection of films, is a balm to those for whom 9/11 was a catastrophe. The catastrophic is a powerful force on the human psyche, and all too often it is not dealt with adequately. There is an extent to which looking into the horror is necessary. Those who have read Akira Kurosawa’s Something Like An Autobiography know about how Kurosawa’s older brother, when they were children, forced Akira to look upon the devastation of the aftermath of the Kanto earthquake. Death literally covered the streets, but Kurosawa’s brother told him that if he looked straight at the horror, he would not be afraid of it. This idea of the need to look violence and pain in the face has been given different spins, including that from Spielberg in his justification for the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan. But something seems to happen when the horror is transformed into an artwork, something out of not only the imagination of another person but also his/her creativity. Such efforts may be commendable, but is creativity the proper realm for the catastrophic as it relates to actual people and events? Perhaps at times. In this case, the same argument might be applied to 11′09”01 as was applied to Oliver Stone’s World Trade Center: it’s too soon for films about it. (It’s always too soon for Oliver Stone films about it.) If a catharsis takes place in the viewing of such art, then perhaps it is beneficial. But for those still wondering and suffering, it’s easy to imagine that the art representing the tragedy creates something new, something like tragic art. It may have the ability to recall, but it’s more likely to reinvent. It offers multiple ways of looking at an event when a person who has experienced a catastrophe often by definition doesn’t know what s/he thinks and feels about it. When one stops to consider the exchange taking place during the viewing of this film, one wonders if it’s healthy, or even what it’s accomplishing.

Nel mio giro mattutino per blog, prima di staccarmi per una 4 giorni che mi vedrà lontano dal pc, Alberto mi riporta con la mente a sette anni fa, a dove fossi alle 3 di quel pomeriggio che forse ha cambiato più cose, realmente, di quante ne cambierà il bosone higgs, ground zero di tutto, se mai verrà trovato. E nel contempo Unpercento mi porta ad una riflessione ulteriore. Sembra davvero che quell’evento sia sparito dai giornali, come le sue vittime, come la verità, come quegli edifici che piano piano, senza che quasi ce ne rendessimo conto si sono dissolti nelle impressioni delle pellicole che raccontano la vita tra fantasia e realtà. Come in un buco nero.