González Iñarritu's Golden Globe

As you may know, the film "Babel" by Alejandro González Iñarritu won the Golden Globe to the best Drama Movie last night.

The film was not well received among US film critics because it demolishes the idea some have that the USA is the perfect democracy.

Ironically enough, the person in charge of presenting González Iñarritu with the award was no other than The Governator, the fascist immigrant by the name of Arnold Schwarzenneger, a mediocre actor who among other things, despises Mexican immigrants.

The note from Yahoo News relates how the director told Ahnul how much of a bigot the Austrian is:

Mexican director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu received the best picture award for "Babel" from California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who appeared on crutches to give the final prize of the night at the Beverly Hilton.

"I swear I have my papers in order governor, I swear," Inarritu quipped, a reference to his film, which touches on immigration issues between the United States and Mexico.

Wham!

Enter idiotic smile by Schwarzenegger.

The article tells us a bit more about the movie and the director:

The multi-lingual drama skillfully interweaves the stories of four families on three continents following the shooting of a US tourist in Morocco.

Inarritu, who has said inspiration for the film came from his experiences of living in America in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks, said the film showed that cinema knew no boundaries.

"It seems that no matter how many languages you make a film in, I think the power of cinema is universal and at the end emotion doesn't need translation and that's the beauty of it," Inarritu said.

I know that by know you may be wondering what does this had to do with this page. Well, Gónzalez Iñarritu is Mexican of Basque background. And if that was not enough, the script was penned by Guillermo Arriaga, you guessed it, another Mexican of Basque background.

The Basque diaspora is leaving its mark.

~ ~ ~

Basque or Welsh?

Here you have some additonal information about a note that was published last year in which DNA studies point out at a Basque origin for the inhabitants of the Brittish islands.

This was published at icWales:

Basque-ing in Welsh DNA

Jan 16 2007

Western Mail

New DNA research claims we may have more in common with the English than we thought - we both descend from Basques. Perhaps that explains the swarthy Welsh looks, says Catherine Jones

LIKE a miner or a steelworker, many of the Welsh have got one of them somewhere in their family tree.

Yes, a picture of someone who has the dark eyes, hair and colouring of a "foreigner" - often causing the family to think there must have been some "exotic" influence way back when.

The Welsh sometimes seem easily categorised on a superficial level. You either have the dark, swarthy customers with near-black eyes or the pale- skinned, finer-boned lot with beautiful, startling blue eyes.

Pair the two together in a marriage and you can still get a brood with the curly dark locks, insolent dark eyes and chunky brown limbs of one of those spoilt Mediterranean fat kids you see running about piazzas in the evenings.

How many Welsh families like to have a bit of a joke about something "rum" in one of the parents' family trees?

How else to explain the fact their children turn "black" in a bit of sun and all get mistaken for French/Spanish/Italian depending on which country is the holiday destination of choice?

The more fun the family, the better the story they concoct to explain the beady black eyes staring out of a sepia family photo.

"Looks like a Portuguese sailor," say some, looking round at the modern-day mob with their pale eyes and skin, and wondering where the heck he came from. Or where they came from.

Perhaps one parent - usually fair-skinned - makes mischief with haughty references to "your father's family", as though it's awash with Romanian Gypsies who "came over" in wagons to flog pegs.

Or, if you hail from West Wales, there's the Spanish ships wrecked on Pembrey Sands routine.

If you come from Llanelli and you're dark of skin and eye, you've probably heard the one about the Italian ice cream parlour owners - and how your Great Aunty May got taunted at school for looking like a senorita.

But what is the truth of our origins? Over to Professor Stephen Oppenheimer of Oxford University, who says some 81% of the Welsh have DNA evidence which shows a common link to ancestors who came to Britain from northern Spain many thousands of years ago.

In fact, many Britons share a gene pool that can be traced back to Basque. Around three-quarters of the Welsh, Scots and English can be traced to those who arrived from the Basque country between 7,500 and 15,000 years ago.

Based on research into DNA studies across the UK and Ireland over the past 10 years, the professor's theory on British origins challenges mainstream historical views. And it might horrify those who like to think they are a distinct race apart from the English.

Most people in Scotland, Ireland and Wales were assumed to be descended from Celtic farming tribes who migrated here from central Europe up to 6,500 years ago. The English were thought to largely take their genetic line from the Anglo-Saxon invaders of the Dark Ages who supposedly wiped out the Celts in England.

Continues...

So, there you have it, one more reason to ensure that Europe's oldest indigenous culture does not get erased by the occupying neighbors.

~ ~ ~

A Song Called "Gernika"

I want to publicly thanks Andy Roberts for sharing his song "Gernika" with all of us.

If you want to listen to it and even download it, go to his blog DARnet:

Gernika Guernica

The story of the song

Everything is true.

In April 2003 I went on a solo trip around the Basque region of Spain and France. Driving inland from east to west, I called in at the town of Guernica, and after some lunch I wandered towards the town centre and heard the sound of guitar music and singing. It looked like a street party, possibly a wedding. But every few minutes, somebody wound up an old air raid warning siren. I stood and listened to the south american folk singer for a while, and then a woman who was seated at the long table with her family beckoned me over.

“Would you like to sit down, have something to drink, some food. Do you know what this is about? Today is the anniversary of the bombing of Gernika, here” “Oh really?” We chatted some more. I had read a moving passage in my alternative guide book about the history of Gurnica but hadn’t noticed the date. When the musician stopped, people looked disappointed but he had run out of songs. After travelling alone for a week I was appreciating the company there and moved by the occasion and I felt compelled to offer my fraternal greetings in the international language of music, but what kind of song would be appropriate? “Imagine” came to mind, and seemed to go down well. Then I quietly started singing “the internationale” acapella, holding the silent guitar. An older man at the back recognised the tune and stood up, earnestly making a fist and singing with gusto, then everybody else rose from the tables and seats and joined in.

As I drove on that afternoon, I began mentally penning the first few verses of the song. In the evening, at my hotel, the TV was showing that day’s footage of the destruction of Bagdhad and I finished the lyrics within the next day, I think.

What a nice story of friendship and solidarity among human beings.

I'll leave you with this paragraph of the song:

So you say the General was a monster, and the little Austrian mad
but how to explain Sarejevo, and now, what about Bagdhad?

~ ~ ~

5th Anniversary

Five years ago a good friend of mine finally got me to start a blog. I was not sure about what I was supposed to do with it so I would post time to time.

And here we are, five years later, blogging as often as work and social compromises allow.

During these five years I have seen how the blogosphere evolved. I remember the time when you would tell someone that you kept a blog and they would look at you as some someone from out of space. Today, anyone that uses the internet on a regular basis knows what a blog is, and the main stream media has become more aware of how bloggers can actually break right through their barrier of lies and deceptions.

This blog was one of the first blogs to bring some of the worst of the main stream media to the spot light. While many were busy blogging about their cats and their children, and other were busy trying to bring their agenda forward, this blog pointed a finger at one of the worst aspects of news as a business and as a propaganda tool.

And it aimed its criticism towards one of the worst aspects of the information monopolies, their proclivity to demonize the national liberation movements that are not darlings to Washington and London.

And so it is that while Taiwan and Kosovo are always portrayed as victims of bad governments (China for the former and Serbia for the latter), other peoples were eternally presented as violent loons. The Palestinians, the Kurds, the Timorese, the Karen and the Basques.

I can say without doubt in my mind that this blog was the first of its kind, today there is many blogs published by Basque people, Kurdish people, Palestinian people. Many of them address their national struggle towards nationhood. But this one was the first.

And as it happened, when the worst vermin produced by the neocon wave decided to attack the Lebanese, the Palestinians, the Kurds and the Basques, this blog was here to stop them on their tracks.

Many wannabe Goebbels met a mighty adversary here, and one after the other folded. Today they stay away from aiming their guns at those who work towards the self determination of their people .

This has been a labor of love and courage.

And there is a lot left from were those last five years came from, so stay tuned.

And by the way...

...Gora Euskal Herria Askatuta!

~ ~ ~