Rising US Stakes in Africa: Commentaries on "an article written for the U.S. Defense Department's American Forces Information Service, 'New Counterterrorism Initiative to Focus on Saharan Africa'." According to the commentary, "The Americans are concerned that the old caravan trade routes and vast empty desert will prove too attractive to potential terrorists to resist." The reason for this: "because there are more than 60 million Muslims." Also, according to the report, "Other factors -- war, poverty, disease, corruption and lack of education, among them -- create an atmosphere of hopelessness where extremists' messages resonate, particularly with the younger generation ... The very conditions that cause these humanitarian tragedies are also the very conditions that lead to breeding grounds for the kinds of threats that we're most concerned about in this region." Rather than redressing the conditions that cause "humanitarian tragedies", the "Trans Saharan Counterterrorism Initiative" will probably have the effect of "pumping even more money into the militarisation of states that are undemocratic and repressive and who will more than likely use their newly learned skills and equipment on their own citizens rather than any terror threat." via Black Looks
monochrom is an art-technology-philosophy group having its seat in Vienna and Zeta Draconis. monochrom is an unpeculiar mixture of proto-aesthetic fringe work, pop attitude, subcultural science, context hacking and political activism. Our mission is conducted everywhere, but first and foremost in culture-archeological digs into the seats (and pockets) of ideology and entertainment. monochrom has existed in this (and almost every other) form since 1993. [more]
