Monday 30 July 2007

Dream - Megolamania

A reunion with hundreds of people in a place much alike Hampton Court. Looking down from where I am I can see a pitch where later in the day a grand football match with hundreds fans will come together. It's a lavish party with champagne fountains and lovely girls. There is royalty around.

I am told its been a long held secret that I am actually a Prince. I take the news without flinching much. I am given a crown, one that I prefer to carry in my hand. I also attain an inner sense that when the football takes place the earth near us will implode. All the people, including myself will die. The earth will invert, eat in itself, slide across creating squares of swimming pools. I take this information without flinching much also. Though I clearly see visions of the impending tragedy and the beautiful shapes it will create.

Suddenly in the corner of my eye I see Sheherezade, who went to my school, with whom at the time I wished I had gone out with but never did. It was always thought we would. I approach her. Just before I give my crown to prince William, and say
" now that we are brothers". The energy is charged as I get to her. I am looking at the full wack. We say a few words. Words are not needed. We make out. To the view of the football pitch below and visions of tectonic plates I fuck her.


Possible Reasons behind the dream - I found Sheherezade in facebook on the weekend, I saw a skit from an apocalyptical film showing London all flooded, football is a constant, I read a few words written by David Lynch, It was my birthday on the weekend

Wednesday 25 July 2007

Ana Maria Celeste

XII

She sat tossing popcorn on to empty beer bottles. Beer drunk, beer to be drank over volcanic rock, the Santo Domingo Bay and the sea in sight, her troubled hands tossing popcorn. She dreamt and balanced out her options. So many other gusanitos, little worms had made it across the other island.

When I met her she had glasses that were so thick it made her eyes seem as though they were looking from the other side of the room. Her face when she laughed made me feel something in between awe and nausea, a melancholy so toy-like I thought I could mend her. I should have jumped out of kitchen at that moment paid the waiter and walked the other direction. Unaware that in an unperceived way her boxer mulatto nose and curves had got me going again, knowing well that from that moment she would siphon and hinder my money and plans. Love is a violent thing, a restricting act of violence from where the forces in the cosmos spiral off to a kettle boiling towards a sink.

She appeared older than she was, though she was just nineteen. She would say excessive thinking brings the end of things. She thought sometimes of blood, of cuts, the thought of it converted her in to a playtime murderer while cadavers would come out of the earth with boiling meat on their lips. Strange having a mind so open to blood with such ill machinations, and yet when I turned the television on she would immediately turn it off.

“The crevice of all damnation,” she would say, “nothing like stasis to rot the nog.” A slap to the pancreas is how she called it.

“Please I must fuck you,” she said, “I haven’t had sex in months.” I let her. First time I didn’t get in though. We went on with the session stroking each other’s bodies, kissing necks, kissing tits, running the finger over every part. After a long while I fucked her. Right in this time. I went for a piss and she tossed me off, the rest of the day resumed in the same way.

“In heaven there are also cockroaches, slugs and maggots,” she said reading Zoe Valdez and Laura Restrepo. I bought her contacts. I would try to write, she spent time on messenger. She wanted me to tell her about the Islamic gardens of Seville. One day she would meet a famous interpreter she met online from Morocco. She missed the places she had been to and the places she had not.


Chica de la Calle

picture taken in Lima Peru
LC

Tuesday 24 July 2007

8.4%vol

I drink a K cider
8.4%vol "The Ultimate in Quality" which apparently contains sulphates, what ever the fuck they are


Upon a mound of rubble
the dog laughed
the roost listened
"chaff we are like
pigeons
like migratory semaphores making idle signals
worthless like bricks"

worthless chaff

'Worthless chaff, who are you to teach the wind to leap or touch the broken ears of barley?'

John 23:17

My cat leaves the gall bladders of mice in the hall. I just found one then, dried and brittle, green and billeous. It crackled as I picked it up.
I threw it in the toilet, then pissed on it, holding my dick with the same fingers I'd used to hold that other disguarded, shrunken organ.
That kind of thing really doesn't bother me. It floated when I tried to flush. That doesn't bother me either. It'll reabsorb it's weight in moisture and sink, sink, sink.

I agree that we're just gathering stories, have been since we were young, living retrospectively. It's all very un-zen. It's because we hate society and we're cowards. I am going to put my balls on the line and do something brave. Rebel! Canada maybe, turn up, get a job straight away, see what happens if I just throw it all up in the air and let the wind take it, worthless chaff.

"Jook them and blindside them, let the shits fall where they may."
Ken Keasy.

And with that, we made a cup of tea.

WG

Oliver Balch

Behind the waterfalls: human trafficking on the Triple Frontera
written by Oliver Blach, freelance journalist based in Argentina

..Spanning the borders of Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina stretch the awe-inspiring Iguazú falls. Lurking behind this incredible natural wonder, however, is a grisly trade in human trafficking..

readmore
http://www.argybargy.biz/Articles/Argentina/Human%20trafficking.htm

Latin America's secret slave trade also O.Balch in the triple frontier
http://www.guardian.co.uk/argentina/story/0,,1976028,00.html

Ciudad del Este

...Where all the components of
transnational lawlessness seem to converge...


















Words by Mr.William W.Mendel, Military Review Apr 2002:

Paraguay is landlocked, poor, a long way from everywhere, and seldom appears in the drama of international events but is nevertheless emblematic of our global security challenge. It has suffered crippling wars where governance has always been a challenge and where smuggling and criminal organizing is a tradition. Long disregarded by the great powers' intelligence and diplomatic services, it is now a place where international crimes like money laundering, gunrunning, migration fraud, and drug trafficking recombine and metastasize. In an age of great sovereign competitors, the United States pays attention to nations according to their development-their ability to mobilize as a nation and to make war as a nation. Now we are entering an age of uncivilized behavior in which we must focus on the lost geographies, the fertile ground for piracy and terror. Ciudad del Este, a boomtown on Paraguay's eastern border facing Brazil and Argentina, is an appropriate target for new concerns. Regional security scholars have aptly called it a nest of spies and thieves.

The Larger Context

The turbulent political environment of Paraguay engendered lawlessness in Ciudad del Este. The country has suffered three coup attempts in the past 5 years. Popular army chief, General Lino Oviedo, who mounted a short-lived coup in 1998, was sentenced to 10 years in prison, then ran for president later the same year. While the supreme court declared Oviedo an illegal candidate, his running mate, Raul Cubas Grau, was elected president and quickly pardoned Oviedo. Cubas Grau resigned under pressure after the vice president was assassinated in March1999, leaving the presidency to Luis Angel González Macchi who was next in line as senate president. Adding to the political turbulence, González Macchi fired 18 generals and more than 100 other officers who had supported Oviedo. After a May 2000 coup attempt, González Macchi terminated another 13 officers. Meanwhile, the party of Oviedo-supported Vice President Julio Cesar Franco maneuvered to impeach González Macchi. The political tumult has done little to engender social and economic progress in Paraguay, and only Brazil and Argentina's influence have kept the democratic government afloat.1 Needless to say, the government in Asunción has had little time to concentrate on improving the rule of law in Ciudad del Este.

The population in the triborder area is concentrated in three interacting border cities. Ciudad del Este is the largest city, with a population of 240,000. Across the Bridge of Friendship in Brazil, the city of Foz do Iguaçu (population of 190,000) thrives on tourism and provides secure neighborhoods for foreign nationals who commute to Ciudad del Este from Brazil. Argentina's Puerto Iguazú (population of 28,100) is isolated from Ciudad del Este by the Paraná River but has access to Brazil across the Iguazú River at the Tancredo Neves International Bridge. The Arab community of immigrants that represents a slice of the urban population in the triborder area, mainly Ciudad del Este and Foz do Iguaçu, is estimated to be nearly 30,000.

Illegality of Every Kind













In Ciudad de Este, the absence of government control allows smugglers and money launderers to leverage disparity in the levels of law enforcement, import regulations, exchange rates, and tax rates between Paraguay and its neighbors. European-bound illicit drugs, such as cocaine and marijuana, pass through Foz do Iguaçu for transshipment eastward to Puerto Paranaguá on Brazil's Atlantic coast. Argentina's aggressive border controls and law enforcement, and the impressive Iguazú waterfalls have nurtured a growing international tourism industry in the Argentine state of Misiones. But Argentina's high tax rate and expensive peso have made smuggling cigarettes a profitable, low-risk enterprise. Night flights of cigarettes from Paraguay to Argentina bring sizable profits with little risk. A $1 pack of cigarettes in Paraguay gets $2.50 in Argentina. Even agricultural products, such as soybeans and chickens, are involved. Since Brazil and Argentina are magnets for the marijuana grown in Paraguay, most of the illicit drug trafficking in the triborder area involves marijuana, but cocaine from Bolivia and Peru is sometimes seized at triborder checkpoints. Investment money flows from the Middle East, apparently because profits can be made quickly on illegal merchandise, including purloined intellectual property.





A large Chinese community has developed in Ciudad del Este alongside the established Arab population, adding to the international mix. It is interesting to note that over the past 3 years 30 percent of the false immigration documents seized at the Argentine Iguazu checkpoint were carried by Chinese people who were presumed to be heading to Buenos Aires.6 In September 2001, the Paraguayan consul in Miami was arrested for allegedly selling more than 300 passports, visas, and shipping documents since June 1999. The consul reportedly sold 16 passports to terrorist suspects from Egypt, Syria, and Lebanon who were planning to move to Ciudad del Este.


Illegal weapons merchandising provides another trading advantage for Paraguay. Taurus- and Rossi-produced Brazilian guns are reexported from Paraguay back into Brazil with no documentation and with great profit to gunrunners. Brazilian investigative news sources assess that most of the Brazilian weapons exported to Paraguay end up in Brazil, but there is a significant flow of weapons into Argentina as well. On the Argentine side of the Tancredo Neves International Bridge at Iguazú, the number of judicial actions taken in cases involving firearms and explosives jumped from 1 in 1999 to 51 in 2000. These cases are considered serious enough and supported by enough evidence to be processed successfully through the Argentine courts. Preliminary numbers for the first half of 2001 indicate that gun smuggling continues apace. In contrast to the increase in gunrunning, individuals passing through the Iguazú border checkpoint dropped from 3,413,876 in 1999 to 1,396,733 in 2000 and continued on a similar pace in 2001. Total vehicle passages dropped from 350,751 to 242,669, with the pace seeming to slow more in 2001.

While no one conclusion can be drawn, the dramatic rise in weapon smuggling against a decrease in total cross-border movement at least raises questions concerning regional instability. Likewise, the Ciudad del Este link to Colombia is also important. A guns-for-cocaine connection between Paraguayan gunrunners and the terrorist group Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) was uncovered, and one FARC operative was arrested.

HANG ON!!! - Now this is what Mr.William W.Mendel suggest to solve the problem:

What Can be Done

If we believe that the best defense against terrorism is a good offense, perhaps the Ciudad del Este triborder area requires an active presence. At a recent meeting of the OAS International Committee on Terrorism, U.S. State Department Counterter-rorism Coordinator Francis X. Taylor announced that the United States will use all elements of its national power against terrorist groups in the triborder area, and in Colombia, including using military force.21 The smugglers' haven at Ciudad del Este could find itself at the top of the target list.

Since the 11 September 2001 Arab terrorist attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the locus of U.S. counteraction has been Southwest Asia and the Middle East. The stunning attack met a prompt response in those regions, but, as U.S. leaders asserted early on, the United States' and worldwide effort to counter terrorism will be protracted, encompassing all regions of the globe, including areas out of the mainstream.



U.S. security strategists are now open to more carefully scrutinizing peripheral geographies and to respecting the dangers that may emanate from them. These are the centers of gravity of the new threat; however, regional states' strategic interests are most immediately implicated. The social and political anomalies associated with the Taliban government in Afghanistan were felt most strongly in Pakistan, a long-time U.S. ally. After Afghanistan fell under the U.S. military loupe, Pakistan's security and stability were directly stressed. While the characterization of governance and the degree of organized criminality is much different in South America, it is similarly true that their Paraguayan neighbors' lack of discipline negatively affects the states of the southern cone. Not only have they suffered more than the United States, but they are also in a far better position to gain intelligence and mount appropriate legal and physical responses. It may be through cooperation with these states that the best U.S. strategy proceeds if the Paraguayan Government proves unable to meet the challenge.

Monday 23 July 2007

the triple frontier



So here goes, here is a place that brings MadMax, Pablo Escobar and Tintin to a head-on collision. Some lawless tri-border area where contraband is king and women wearing burquas walk in the heat of the surrounding jungle. A place where arms, women and drugs pass through unnoticed. And where nearby, a UNESCO heritage site, the Iguazu Falls, with its dramatic falls and cascades draws thousands of tourists every year, most of which spend an average of two days there. It is a completely transient zone.

The Triple Frontier -not to be confused with Las Triples Fronteras, the border of Brazil, Peru and Colombia- is where Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil join near the cities of Ciudad del Este, Alto Parana, Misiones and Foz do Iguazu. The area is routinely characterised as a lawless land and a hub for terrorist activities though there remains to be much proof for the sake of the latter. It has a large Arab community, some of which are Christian, of about 30 thousand. There are also large Taiwanese and Korean populations. It is said the Colombian FARC (terrorist liberation army known to deal in coke) and the Triads are there. Not to mention, as the CIA say, Hezbollah and Al-Qaeda.

Characteristics of the tri-border area, taken from outlines given by Thomaz G.Costa of the National Defense University of Brazil concerning organised crime are:
• The central geographic location tying three countries with unstable economics, mixing four currencies systems.
• Centers of tourism: the falls of Inuacu, with 3-4 million visitors/year, and the Itaipu Dam, with 500,000 visitors/year.
• Weak exercise of customs and immigration control.

The resulting dynamics of the region:
• Trade hub; extensive import and export of products sensitive to currency exchange fluctuations, counterfeit products and high value goods.
• Extensive currency exchange opportunities.
• Illegal activities.
• Extensive social mobility.

The resulting issues:
• Illegal activities are not salient when compared to other problems.
• Terrorism is not perceived as a direct threat.
• Illegal economic activities are perceived as a social valve.
• Bottlenecking of the judiciary system weakens law enforcement.
• The intelligence dilemma: can anyone confirm the presence of terrorists in the region?

triple frontier youtube found footage


crossing the border, over the bridge, mundane yet revealing

triple frontier youtube found footage


the girls from Ciudad del Este, Paraguay

triple frontier youtube found footage


clouds over iguazu, small doc about muslim arabs in the tri-border. Very good as it remains impartial

triple frontier youtube found footage


ciudad del este, lame footage, but insight nontheless

triple frontier youtube found footage


An american dork speaking about the Itaipu Dam, impressive

triple frontier youtube found footage


a terribly biased american media assertion that there are hezbollah recruits in the tri-border, where did they get this guy?

triple frontier youtube found footage


a great guide to the tri-border

triple frontier youtube found footage


not sure about this, hip hop music to bad raps, about rowing a shoddy canoe over the parana river to keep it real

Sunday 22 July 2007

getaway

what is it with these agonising polyps that we carry
something to do with the age
or the lost generation that we homage

its pure dellusion
some veneer shit
really what we want is not the experience but the story
and get a pat on the back
perhaps get paid for being slack mutha fuckas for the rest of our lives

i want to be that foreign correspondent
who speaks french fluently with a portuguese accent
and reports on a garifuna burial, the triple frontier and the dunes of surinam

come lets take over the world
soon in october i plan this non seeded getaway
and let the birds swoop over my head while i stick my middle finger up at them

LC

Saturday 21 July 2007

Eaten by the Birds

'If you wake up every morning in a new place you will eventually forget what it's like to be rooted, and thus you will be as seed, to be tossed in the wind and eaten by birds.'

Leviticus 11:13


How do you, my naive milking crusader, do?

I am replying. Here. Look:

Last night my woman and I sat down and had a talk.
"You're draining my emotional resources" I told her.
"You're draining mine" She said.
"I really love you and I don't want anyone else", I said, "it's just that I need to sort my shit out, I feel pretty worthless right now".
I stared at the wall. she stared at the ceiling. I rubbed my eyes. She wiped snot on her sleeve.
"What do you want to do?" She asked.
I took a few deep breaths, I've given up smoking, I take lot's of deep breaths now, it's my new coping mechanism.
"Dunno" I said.

Might run off to sea. Got this crazy idea about being a freelance foreign correspondent. She's going to go to London for a month or so- Trial Separation- fucking sucks.

And so I write, and er self promote.
And take deep breaths.
The wound on my shin is a nasty one but it's healing nicely now. Playing football tonight.

Morose, yet strangely righteous.
Left wing, yet largely fascistic.
Just lining up the letters, ones and zeros,
Rooted, yet still tossed and eaten by birds.

Love, my brother, there is always love.

WG