The Long Hitch Home
Page 44
Photo credit: Danilo Gartner
Kashgar bakery fires up the oven. Photo credit: Danilo Gartner
“I don't like the look of him.”
Photo credit: Danilo Gartner
The Irkeshtam Pass.
Photo credit: Danilo Gartner
Wave Rock, Irkeshtam Pass. Photo credit: Danilo Gartner
The road to Kyrgystan. Photo credit: Danilo Gartner
Meal on the road, Kyrgystan.
Roadside accommodation, Kyrgystan.
Burnt out police station after riot in Bishkek.
Making friends on the road, Kazakhstan.
My friend Cokeh who shared his tiny squat with me.
Khoja Ahmat Yssawi Mausoleum, Kazakhstan.
Truck stop bathroom, Kazakhstan.
On the road with Dmitriy.
Kazakhstani highway.
Aktau. Kazakhstan's answer to Paris. Photo credit: Ethan Martin.
Male model shoot, Kazakhstan. Photo credit: Ethan Martin.
With Dmitriy and friends. Photo credit: Ethan Martin.
Caspian Sea cargo ship.
Photo credit: Ethan Martin.
Mosque dome, Azerbaijan.
Photo Credit: Ethan Martin.
Tank graveyard, Azerbaijan. Photo credit Ethan Martin.
Vardzia cave city, Georgia.
Blue Mosque, Istanbul.
Cappodocia, Turkey.
Hagia Sofia, Istanbul.
Roadside breakfast, Bulgaria.
The amazing Miodrag, Croatia.
The Julian Alps, Slovenia.
Securing my final ride with Gerrit and Richard on the ferry to England.
For more photos from the trip see: http://bit.ly/1pGaLk4
Notes and References
1. Iranian Rappers & Persian Porn. Available in all good book stores, and now in paperback and audio book.
2. Having researched my family tree of late, I know of a fellow Maslin who actually pleaded with a judge for transportation to Australia, as an act of commutation for the only other option available for his crime; a story that according to The Times of 17 August, 1838, had a rather sad, although somewhat amusing ending: George Maslin was indicted for maliciously shooting Mr. Bryan Rumboll with intent to murder him . . . [the judge] Mr. Baron Parke, having put on the black cap, thus addressed the prisoner: “George Maslin, the crime of which you have been found guilty, and justly found guilty—for your own conscience tells you that you have committed it—upon a patient investigation of your case, in which there are so many circumstances against you, that no reasonable doubt can be entertained that it is one of so deep a moral dye, and shows as much disregard to your religious duties as if you were guilty of the crime of murder itself . . . ” The awful sentence of death was then pronounced upon him. . . The prisoner was taken from the bar apparently unmoved, but the learned judge cried bitterly. See The Times (17 August, 1838) for initial report, and The Times (27 August, 1838) for follow up in which George Maslin appeals to have his death sentence commuted to transportation to the colonies—without success.
3. Figure cited in Time Magazine, McCarthy, Terry, (02 October, 2011): www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,998067-1,00.html
4. Ibid
5. Bringing Them Home: Report of the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families, April 1997: www.humanrights.gov.au/social_justice/bth_report/report/index.html
6. Time Magazine, McCarthy, Terry, (02 October, 2011): www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,998067-1,00.html
Disgustingly, the mass theft of Aboriginal children is not a crime confined to history but one that continues today, often under the guise of welfare issues related to poverty and inequality. As John Pilger reports: In 2012 the co-ordinator general of remote services for the Northern Territory, Olga Havnen, was sacked when she revealed that almost A$80m (£44m) was spent on the surveillance and removal of Aboriginal children compared with only A$500,000 (£275,000) on supporting the same impoverished families. For more on this repugnant story see: www.informationclearinghouse.info/article38034.htm; and the film Utopia by John Pilger. Watch this film. It will shock you.
7. Figure cited in The New Statesman, Pilger, John, (12 May, 2011): www.newstatesman.com/australasia/2011/05/pilger-australia-rights
8. Ibid.
9. Ibid.
10. Yes, that’s right. I do mean that Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, The United Kingdom, Ireland, Switzerland, The Netherlands, The Czech Republic, Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, Andorra, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Serbia, Albania, Greece, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia, Luxembourg, Lichtenstein, Monaco, Estonia, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Denmark, Moldova, the Vatican City, Montenegro, San Marino and Malta, as well as the small section of Turkey that falls within continental Europe would all fit in with ample leftovers. I have included Cyprus and Iceland to the list above although they are not, in a purely geographical sense, within Europe. Strictly speaking, small sections of Kazakhstan, Georgia, and Azerbaijan are also classed as falling within the European continent. I have left these off the above list as they are generally considered Asian countries. However, it would make no difference if these small sections were included, they would still all fit into Australia with the other countries listed. Figures for land area in square miles taken from Encyclopedia Britannica.
11. Figures cited in Financial Times for market values and prices at 30 March, 2012: www.media.ft.com/cms/a81f853e-ca80-11e1-89f8-00144feabdc0.pdf.
12. Based on profit figures of $31 billion cited in The Guardian, Goodley, Simon, (24 August, 2011): www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/aug/24/bhp-makes-big-profits-but-sound-a-warning, compared to data for other countries taken from IMF World Economic Outlook Database: http://goo.gl/acz4K
13. If the information I found out online about the man who ripped me off is anything to go by, then I’m far from his only victim.
See: www.vendingmachinesaustralia.blogspot.co.uk/2009/03/new-business-vending-machines.html; www.naturalvending-machinesaustralia.blogspot.co.uk/2010/03/paul-davies-and-adam-boman.html; www.fumingmad.blogspot.co.uk/2011/06/magazine-vending-headache.html; www.scam.com/blog.php?b=9004&goto=prev (among other sites).
14. A Secret Country, The Coup, Pilger, John (1992), London Vintage.
15. See report, Senate Select Committee on a Certain Maritime Incident: http://goo.gl/y1rk6; and Report of Independent Assessor to Senate Select Committee on a Certain Maritime Incident: http://goo.gl/Crp9q
16. Ibid.
17. Ibid.
18. See Australian Broadcasting Corporation article: www.abc.net.au/news/2011-07-07/former-sas-commander-breaks-silence-on-tampa/2785164
19. See Australian Broadcasting Corporation documentary film, Leaky Boat: www.youtube.com/watch?v=3c_phJsx1NE&feature=related
20. www.canismajor.de/reports/rep047.html
21. It is interesting to note that despite the widespread hysteria in Australia surrounding asylum seekers entering the country by boat—and the massive political capital gained from being seen to take a hard line stance against them—they actually comprise less than 2% of Australia’s annual immigration. Figure cited in The Guardian, Rourke Alison, (15 December 2010): www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/15/asylum-australia-christmas-island
22. Inside Indonesia, Warren, Carol, (Edition 54 April-June 1998): www.insideindonesia.org/feature-editions/whose-tourism-balinese-fight-back. See also The Politics of Environment in Southeast Asia, Hirsch, Philip, (1998), New York, Routledge, reference 26, page 257
23. The Politics of Environment in Southeast Asia, Hirsch, Philip, (1998), New York, Routledge, page 246
24. Danish Journal of Geography 2005, Community mapping, local planning and alternative land use strategies in Bali, Warren, Carol, (2005), page 31. See also: Bali Post, 22/11/04.
25. Ibid.
26. The Politics of Environment in Southeast Asia, Hirsch, Philip, (1998)
, New York, Routledge, page 244.
27. Inside Indonesia, Warren, Carol, (Edition 54 April-June 1998): www.insideindonesia.org/feature-editions/whose-tourism-balinese-fight-back
28. Central intelligence Agency, Directorate of Intelligence, Intelligence Report: Indonesia 1965, The Coup That Backfired, Langley: CIA, 1968. See also San Francisco Examiner, May 20, 1990; Washington Post, May 21, 1990.
29. The New Rulers of the World, Pilger, John, (2002), London, Verso, page 36.
30. The Disappearing Fear of Neutralism, Hagen, Bernhard, (2007), Norderstedt, GRIN Verlag, page 5.
31. Portrait of a Cold Warrior, Smith, Joseph Burkholder, (1976), New York, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, page 205.
32. Comments of F. Tomlinson of the British Foreign Office, cited in Unpeople, Curtis, Mark, (2004) London, Vintage, page 191. Foreign Office document: FO371/135849 (11 March 1958).
33. The Ambiguities of Power: British Foreign Policy since 1945, Curtis, Mark, (1995) London, Zed Books, page 57.
34. The Invisible Government, Wise, Denis, and Ross, Thomas, (1965) New York, RandomHouse, page 148.
35. The Army and Politics in Indonesia, Crouch, Harold, (1997) Ithaca, Cornell University Press, page 155 and 351.
36. Portrait of a Cold Warrior, Smith, Joseph Burkholder, (1976), New York, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, page 228-9.
37. Mentioned in a memo from Allen Dulles to the White House, which briefly summarizes main points of the U.S. intervention, (7 April 1961), Declassified Documents Reference System, Arlington, released 18 December 1974.
38. Killing Hope: U.S. Military & C.I.A. Interventions since World War II, Blum, William, (2004) London, Zed Books, page 102.
39. Unpeople, Curtis, Mark, (2004) London, Vintage, page 194.
40. Comments of D. MacDermot, cited in Unpeople, Curtis, Mark, (2004) London, Vintage, page 191. Foreign Office document: Annual report for the year 1958, 12 January 1959, FO371/144065.
41. Comments of Sir Robert Scott to Foreign Office, cited in Unpeople, Curtis, Mark, (2004) London, Vintage, page 192. Foreign Office document, 12 December 1957, FO371/129531
42. Killing Hope: U.S. Military & C.I.A. Interventions since World War II, Blum, William, (2004) London, Zed Books, page 102.
43. Ibid.
44. Unpeople, Curtis, Mark, (2004) London, Vintage, page 194.
45. Feet to the Fire, CIA Covert Operations, 1957-1958, Conboy, Kenneth J, and Morrison, James, (1999) Annapolis, Naval Institute Press, page 115.
46. Unpeople, Curtis, Mark, (2004), London, Vintage, page 194.
47. Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA, Weiner, Tim, (2008), London, Penguin, page 175.
48. Unpeople, Curtis, Mark, (2004) London, Vintage, page 194.
49. Subversion as Foreign Policy: The Secret Eisenhower and Dulles Debacle in Indonesia, Kahin, Audrey R, and Kahin, George McT, (1997), New York, New Press, page 134,148. See also President’s Secret Wars, Prados, John, (1996) Chicago, Ivan R Dee, page 144.
50. Killing Hope: U.S. Military & C.I.A. Interventions since World War II, Blum, William, (2004) London, Zed Books, page 103.
51. The Invisible Government, Wise, David, and Ross, Thomas, (1965) New York, Random House, page 145.
52. Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA, Weiner, Tim, (2008), London, Penguin, page 175 and 177.
53. The Times, (August 8, 1986); cited in Britain’s Secret Propaganda War 1948-1977, Lashmar, Paul, and Oliver, James, (1998), London, Sutton, page 4.
54. Killing Hope: U.S. Military & C.I.A. Interventions since World War II, Blum, William, (2004) London, Zed Books, page 197. Full quote cited is by Neville Maxwell, Senior Research Officer, Institute of Commonwealth Studies, Oxford: “A few years ago I was researching in Pakistan into the diplomatic background of the 1965 Indo-Pakistan conflict, and in foreign ministry papers to which I had been given access came across a letter to the then foreign minister, Mr. Bhutto, from one of his ambassadors in Europe (I believe Mr. J.A. Rahim, in Paris) reporting a conversation with a Dutch intelligence officer with NATO. According to my note of that letter, the officer had remarked to the Pakistani diplomat that Indonesia was ‘ready to fall into the Western lap like a rotten apple’. Western intelligence agencies, he said, would organize a ‘premature communist coup . . . [which would be] foredoomed to fail, providing a legitimate and welcome opportunity to the army to crush the communists and make Sukarno a prisoner of the army’s goodwill’. The ambassador’s report was dated December 1964.” Blum notes in Killing Hope: “It should be remembered that Indonesia had been a colony of the Netherlands, and the Dutch still had some special links to the country.”
55. Remaking Asia: Essays on the American Uses of Power, Selden, Mark, (1974), New York, Pantheon, page 47 and 48.
56. Confronting the Third World, Kolko, Gabriel, (1998), New York, Pantheon, page 181.
57. Figure cited in Unpeople, Curtis, Mark, (2004), London, Vintage, page 313 and 362. See also Killing Hope: U.S. Military & C.I.A. Interventions since World War II, Blum, William, (2004) London, Zed Books, page 193 and 420, which cites “various Amnesty International reports on Indonesia published in the 1970s.”
58. San Francisco Examiner, Kadane, Kathy, (May 20, 1990): www.namebase.org/kadane.html. See also Washington Post, (May 21, 1990).
59. Ibid.
60. Ibid.
61. New York Times, (July 19, 1966); cited in The New Rulers of the World, Pilger, John, (2002), London, Verso, page 35.
62. U.S. National Archives, RG 59 Records of Department of State: cable no. 868, ref: Embtel 852, October 5, 1965; cited in The New Rulers of the World, Pilger, John, (2002), London, Verso, page 33.
63. Letter from Andrew Gilchrist to EH Peck, head of the South-East Asia Division at the Foreign Office, October 5, 1965; cited in The New Rulers of the World, Pilger, John, (2002), London, Verso, page 33/34.
64. The New Rulers of the World, Pilger, John, (2002), London, Verso, page 41. For more on the conference see Power in Motion: Capital Mobility and the Indonesian State, Winters, Jeffrey Alan, (1996), New York, Cornell University Press.
65. Ramparts, The Berkeley Mafia and the Indonesian Massacre, Ranson, David, (4 October 1970), Volume 9, Number 4.
66. World Bank, Confidential Assessment Corrupted Bank Funds: Summary of RSI staff views regarding the problem of ‘leakage’ from World Bank project budgets, Jakarta, August 1997.
67. Jubilee Debt Campaign: www.jubileedebtcampaign.org.uk/Indonesia+2792.twl
68. A debt for Development Swap with Indonesia, A policy paper by Jubilee Australia April, (2007), page 6.
69. Figure cited in The New Rulers of the World, Pilger, John, (2002), London, Verso, page 17.
70. A debt for Development Swap with Indonesia, A policy paper by Jubilee Australia April, (2007), page 6.
71. Ibid, page 5. Paper states: Indonesia spent 7.9% of GDP on debt repayments as compared to 1.1% on health and 0.9% education. Human Development Indicators, 2006 Human Development Report.
72. Ibid, page 5 and page 6.
73. Los Angeles Times, (15 June 1991), page 10. Figure cited from Amnesty International, who, by 1989, estimated that Indonesian troops had killed 200,000 people out of a population of between 600,000 and 700,000.
74. Distant Voices, Pilger, John, (1992), London, Vintage, page 233.
75. Ibid, page 267. Interview conducted by Pilger with wife of murdered reporter Greg Shackleton: “Shirley Shackleton has also spoken to eye-witnesses. ‘What happened’, she said, ‘was that most of them were strung up by their feet, their sexual organs were removed and stuffed into their mouths, and they were stabbed with the short throwing knives that the Indonesian soldiers carry. Nobody knows for sure whether they choked to death or whether they choked on their own blood, or whether they just died from their wounds or whether they bled to death.’”
76. The Guardian, Pilger, John, (Tuesday 21 September 1999): www.guardian.co.uk/world/1999/sep/21/easttimor.unitednations
77. Distant Voices, Pilger, John, (1992), London, Vint
age, page 253
78. Ibid, page 68.
79. Interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, (February 9, 1991), cited by Indonesian News, (February 1991), Volume 19, No. 2.
80. The Guardian, (Monday 25 January 1999): www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/1999/jan/25/features11.g29
81. Indonesia’s Forgotten War: The Hidden History of East Timor, Taylor, John G., (1991)London, Zed Books, page 64.
82. Interview in documentary film, The Trials of Henry Kissinger: www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bFOhAAYfqk
83. Ibid. See also If You Leave Us Here We Will Die, Robinson, Geoffrey, (2009), New Jersey, Princeton University Press, page 59 and page 60.
84. The Nation, Hitchens, Christopher, (18 February, 2002): www.thenation.com/article/kissingers-green-light-suharto
85. Remember that British understatement a moment ago?
86. Not a euphemism.
87. Figure cited in The Guardian, Chambers, Andrew, (6 July 2012): www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/poverty-matters/2012/jul/06/landmines-toll-civilians-laos-bombs. See also National Regulatory Authority report, National Survey of UXO Victims and Accidents, Boddington, Michael AB, and Chanthavongsa, Bountao, (2010): http://goo.gl/XO0T8
88. Congressional Record, (18 July 1973), page 24520-22.
89. Killing Hope: U.S. Military & C.I.A. Interventions since World War II, Blum, William, (2004) London, Zed Books, page 144.
90. National Regulatory Authority report, National Survey of UXO Victims and Accidents, Boddington, Michael AB, and Chanthavongsa, Bountao, (2010): http://goo.gl/XO0T8
91. New York Times, (18 May 1958), IV, page 7. Cited in Killing Hope: U.S. Military & C.I.A. Interventions since World War II, Blum, William, (2004) London, Zed Books, page 411.
92. Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media, Chomsky, Noam, and Herman, Edward S, (1994), London, Vintage, page 254.