Will the Government Listen? Ukraine: Lies and Realities - CounterPunch

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71. forget Counterpunch, let's consider Andre Vltchek

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andre_Vltchek

André Vltchek is a novelist, filmmaker, journalist, photographer and playwright. He covered dozens of war zones and conflicts from Bosnia and Peru to Sri Lanka, DR Congo and Timor Leste. After living for many years in Latin America and Oceania, Vltchek presently resides and works in East Asia and Africa.

Comments on Vltchek's work

On Vltchek's latest book Oceania, Noam Chomsky comments:

Andre Vltchek has compiled a stunning record in evoking the reality of the contemporary world, not as perceived through the distorting prisms of power and privilege, but as lived by the myriad victims. He has also not failed to trace the painful – and particularly for the West, shameful – realities to their historical roots. The remarkable scope of his inquiries is illustrated even by the titles of some of his major books: “Western Terror: From Potosi to Baghdad,” a vast range of topics that he explores with rare insight and understanding; and “Exile,” his interviews with Indonesia’s great novelist Pramoedya, who spent a large part of his life in internal exile, imprisoned by the murderous and vicious Suharto government in Indonesia, which was greatly admired by the West, and enthusiastically supported in its shocking crimes, after it won approval by carrying out a mass slaughter that the CIA compared to the crimes of Hitler, Stalin, and Mao, and opened up the rich resources of the country to Western exploitation. In the present work, Vltchek extends his penetrating gaze to a lovely, desecrated, almost forgotten vast area of the world, Oceania, which he shows to be “a microcosm of almost all major problems faced by our planet.” Again, he tears away the scabs and reveals the festering sores below with the insight, acuity, and sympathetic understanding he has shown in his earlier work. At the same time, once again, he brings to light the strength and courage of the people, and their achievements, and explores the hopes for decent recovery and survival if the powerful can allow themselves to comprehend what they have done, and to accept the responsibility of actually protecting their victims instead of mouthing comforting and self-serving slogans.

According to Michael Parenti:

Andre Vltchek brings a highly informed and incisive intelligence to the politico-economic realities of whole countries and regions. His work on Micronesia alone has opened our eyes to the iniquities of the free market in that part of the world. He writes with objectivity and investigative honesty but also with a heartfelt concern for social justice. His efforts deserve our keen attention.