Freedom of speech has become a propaganda slogan: Andre Vltchek

TEHRAN, Sept. 6 (MNA) – While travelling to different corners of the world I feel sadness because I know that the world is a very different place from those perceptions and stereotypes implanted into our brains, says novelist and filmmaker Andre Vltchek. He made the remarks during a recent interview with the Tehran Times. “Perceptions are formed by propaganda, by mass media, by traditionally bigoted stereotypes,” stated Vltchek, who was born in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) in the Soviet Union but became a naturalized U.S. citizen. His articles have appeared on such news websites and papers as Counterpunch, Z Magazine, Newsweek, Asia Times, China Daily, Irish Times and Japan Focus. Following is the text of the interview: Q: Andre, I learned that you've traveled to so many countries across the world. Can you give me the exact number? Which country has fascinated you the most? How has been the experience of traveling to different nations in four corners of the globe and getting familiar with diverse cultures and civilizations? A: Kourosh, first of all, I thank you for giving me this opportunity to address your readers in Iran. For me it is great honor. About the number of countries that I visited: I already lost track, but at the last count, which was just a couple of years ago, the number was roughly 145. One of the reasons why it is difficult to keep track is simply because I keep traveling and also because the world maps are constantly “evolving”; some old countries like Yugoslavia, Somalia or Sudan are destroyed by the outside forces, and the new ones are created to serve the interests of the Empire: South Sudan, Kosovo and probably soon it will be the speck of land in Southern part of Somalia occupied by Kenya, staunch ally of the West. I would not be surprised if there would be soon some fully independent and oil-rich “Kurdistan”, with pro-Western government. I am not sure anymore whether what I do could be really described as traveling and visiting different countries. I move around the world constantly: I am an internationalist and I actually live in several parts of the world, increasingly all over the world. It is not a pose -- it is simply my reality. And the reality is sometimes fascinating and breathtaking, but it can also be sad. The nature of my work and my struggle simply demands this kind of lifestyle -- there is nothing I can do to change it. About the cultures, it is like this: I simply don't have my own. And I never had. My family history is very complex; to some extend traumatic. Since I was a little boy, I always wanted to be “somewhere else,” “very far from where I lived.” I created my own imaginary world, and in that world there were many imaginary countries. Well, some were imaginary and some were real, but when you are a child, even the real countries are actually imaginary -- you dream them, you build them almost from the scratch. My maternal grandmother, easily the most important woman in my life, ignited my passion for reading, fed my imagination. She used to read for me and she used to tell me her stories. Thanks to her I became a writer. She never told me, but I felt she wanted me to do all those things she never had a chance to do herself. I loved her very much. I still do, years after she passed away. Many things I did in life were done as a tribute to her. Beautiful and fragile woman as she was when young, she fought Germans, defending her city -- Leningrad -- ravished by 900 days of horrible siege. If she could do it, why not me: a big man that I am. And I do -- I fight fascism in any form it comes. My grandmother dared to fall in love and to marry a man, a top Soviet government official, who was of Chinese stock and came from the Middle East. And when he was executed, although later they rehabilitated him and turned him to a “hero” again, posthumously, she never betrayed him or his memory and preferred to go to prison, rather than to publicly repent her decision to marry him. I always believe that people of different races should mix: that this is the only way to bring peace and harmony and understanding to our planet; my grandmother's influence, of course. But what I want to say is that my mixture of bloods and my family history are so complex that since I was a child, I never belonged to anywhere. So I can blend with any culture or group of people. And I feel no allegiance to any race or nation. Personally I enjoy living in Japan, I feel very comfortable in Chile and in China, and I love Cuba. What do I feel when traveling to different corners of the world? Mainly sadness. Sadness because I know that the world is very different place from those perceptions and stereotypes implanted to our brains. Perceptions are formed by propaganda, by mass media, by traditionally bigoted stereotypes. The reality is different and it is only what you touch, feel, see, hear, taste; it is your true interaction with the place and its people that matters. But you have to be very brave, very daring and very strong to really explore the world on your own. Not because of some physical danger, but because if you observe and analyze the world from your own perspective, not through the eyes and lenses of your culture, religion, or non-religion, social class or profession, you may end up developing your own opinion, and that makes you an outcast in today's world, a buffoon, a danger to the ruling cultures. You have to be ready to be ridiculed, silenced and sidelined. Your world will be described by some, even by those who may be dearest to you, as gagaland. You see, to have your own opinion is not really in vogue, anymore. It is expected that one ‘belongs’; sees the world as others do. Q: You haven't been to Iran yet, but I know that you're quite interested in visiting Iran in order to tell the world the truth about the country. So, what do you know about Iran? A: I am a filmmaker. Naturally I am fascinated by Iranian cinema. It is very well known and appreciated in South America, particularly in two extremely educated countries -- Chile and Argentina -- where I used to live. Just thinking about some films by Abbas Kiarostami or Jafar Panahi gives me instant goose bumps. Iranian New Wave has so much in common with the classical Japanese cinema -- the one I admire with no limits. It goes to the essence of human existence; it shows impatience and spite with everything that is non-essential. Kiarostami is a great humanist, a thinker, and enormous artist. Like Bergman, Tarkovski, Fellini and Kurosawa, he managed to create an entire universe; addressing the most essential conditions and dilemmas of human existence. Of course I admire two great Persian poets, two, so to speak, extremes in the way the poetry could describe the world: Omar Khayyam and Rumi. Visual arts of Persia are also stunning. Like China, Iran is one of the oldest civilizations on earth. Both countries are historically peaceful. They are also determined to stick to their own path of development. More peaceful and determined they are, more demonized they become in the West. Now about the bomb; actually, I would have no problem if Iran would develop and possess one, given its peaceful history. I don't feel threatened by Iran. But I am truly horrified that the countries that managed to shatter tens of millions of human lives -- like the United States, France or UK -- have entire arsenal of nukes. There is of course no philosophical logic to all that: only “mafia logic” employed by the Empire: “We are big and strong and you are not, and if you don't do what we say and don't repeat what we designate as truth, we will come and break your leg… or something worst.” Q: In one of your articles, you said that sometimes it’s very difficult to convince the editors and publishers to run materials which are not in compliance with their policies. They withhold the truths which could be otherwise revealed to the people, and this is how the mainstream media work. Doesn't such an approach violate the principles of freedom of speech? What's your take on that? A: First of all, terms like “freedom of speech” or “liberty” became nothing more than propaganda slogans. There is not one country on earth which has absolute freedom of speech. There are always limitations. The propaganda in the West is the most developed and the most “perfect” in the world. Otherwise European empires could not have controlled and plundered entire continents for all those long centuries. You see, Europeans and North Americans do not only want to loot; they also want to feel superior when they are robbing others. They want to be applauded and admired for killing, for raping and plundering. In a way, they are very sentimental. And to do all these terrible things to the people around the world and still feel like that superior' well, it takes some discipline and some continuous massaging of one's conscience, as well as trivializing and twisting the logic. That's why philosophy and serious arts are discouraged; what is propagated is light entertainment. If people are light, it is easier to manipulate them. If they watch films by Abbas Kiarostami or Yasujiro Ozu, they will be training their brains and they will learn how to feel and how to think. It would be hard for them to swallow something like War on Terror. But feed them with the movies about giant spiders or insect invading the earth and you can be sure that eventually their ability to analyze and resist propaganda will significantly decrease. It takes continuous battering of what the great Uruguayan writer, my friend, Eduardo Galeano, calls “Lady Reality.” You see, she is very beautiful, very mysterious, that lad Reality. Galeano and I are in love with her. Both of us are, madly! She is so brave; she makes so many people, mostly those with gangster streak, terribly uncomfortable, even scared. So they are hunting her, muzzling her, they torture her, and do some absolutely appalling things to her, but she always manages to get away, she always survives. She is very strong, very proud, and very beautiful. She is worth fighting for and living for and dying for. She has entire armies of the enemies, but she has some very determined admirers, too. Like Galeano, like Chomsky, like myself. Listen what Galeano had to say about his beloved Lady named reality, when we met in his face in Montevideo, Uruguay some years ago: “My position is always that in order not to be mute, one shouldn't be deaf. One has to be able to listen in order to speak. I am a passionate listener. I listen to reality. Reality is a magic lady, sometimes very mysterious. To me she is very passionate. She is real not only when she is awake, walking down the streets, but also at night when she is dreaming or when she is having nightmares. When I am writing, I am always paying tribute to her – to that lady called Reality. I am trying not to fail her.” Do you understand? This is all that really matters; listening and telling the story, truthfully; the story that matters, the story that can change the course of the world history or the story that can change or save one single human life. How long are we going to blame corporate media, big newspapers, and television stations for the state of our stories? It is they, sure it is they who are censoring and twisting the truth; but it is also us, the storytellers, philosophers, thinkers, writers, filmmakers, and poets, who are to blame. How many of us are intellectually whoring instead of fighting for better world? May I quote and paraphrase just a little bit one of the greatest Czech poets, Jaroslav Seifert, a laureate of Nobel Prize in Literature and a writer of both great lyricism and integrity, who once barged in despair at his colleagues at the plenary session of the Union of Czech writers: “writers are the conscience of their nation. If anyone else omits the truth, it can be considered as a strategic maneuver. If a writer omits the truth, he is a liar.” If thousands would be writing the truth, even our regime would not be able to muzzle them! Q: In our correspondence, you talked about your latest 150-minute film called “Rwandan Gambit” and mentioned that it is about the suffering of the Congolese people. Would you please explain more about this documentary? You've visited several African countries. Do you still see effects of imperialism and foreign occupation in these countries? A: Imperialism never vanished; it is deeply engraved in European psyche, in its culture. In fact, Western culture and imperialism are two synonyms. Of course imperialism often changes its form; it mutates, it calls itself “defender of freedom” or “warrior against terrorism.” That's not new, of course. Do you know how German Nazis called the members of French resistance? They called them bunch of terrorists. If you read Gustav Jung carefully, and he was one of the greatest psychologists of all times, you will find some pointed remarks on the topic. After WWII, Jung spoke and wrote about the European culture as being pathological. And it is not just because what they did to their own people and to Jews and Gypsies and disabled people and Slavs. It is also because what they did to the people all over the world for many long centuries. WWII was terrible and relatively recent. But in the past, there were many horrid events like the 30 Year War, the 100 Year War – events that left entire European continent in ruins. But simultaneously and more significantly, there were colonial wars and “expeditions”, invasions. Entire nations disappeared, together with their languages, cultures, and religions. In the 20th Century, for instance, Germans did not only exterminate Jews, they came much closer to the total holocaust; a genocide in an African country of Namibia, where they brutally exterminated most of the people from Herero Tribe. Of course Arabs were renowned for their colonialism as well, and Turkish Ottoman Empire was hardly a benevolent and benign realm, but there is nothing in the history of the mankind that could match the cruelty of Western imperialism. Belgians killed around 10 million people during the reign of their King Leopold II. Can you just imagine? 10 million people vanishing approximately one century ago, when the world population was just a fraction of what it is now? Those cultured and civilized Belgians were mainly killing people by chopping their hands off when they did not produce enough rubber to fill royal coffers. They were also burning people alive in their huts, one of the cheapest and quickest ways to exterminate large quantities of human beings. And European nations – majority of their citizens – feel zero remorse. It is scandalous. You come to Brussels and instead of stumbling over monuments to the victims of Belgian holocaust in Africa, you see King Leopold’s statues everywhere. He is revered! He is sitting on his horse, proud and erect. It is sickening but it is how Europe is. In the Belgian capital you encounter thousands of anti-immigrant graffiti, but no insults against one of the worst mass murderers in the human history. Spain is no different, or the UK, France, Germany and Holland. Back to my film; what do people know about the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda? They know close to nothing; they know what they are told by the Western media. And what they are told is that on one sunny day bad Hutus went simply bananas, and began murdering good poor Tutsi minority. Westerners were told that there were also some good dudes like that guy running the “Hotel Rwanda” who helped to save hundreds of human lives. Oh, and the punch line was; blame everything on the United Nations as they stood by and did nothing to stop this mass murder of around 800,000 people. Sounds simple and comforting, right? But think twice. There is hardly any truth in that official narrative! In brief; before the 1994, the West, particularly the U.S. but also others, were arming Paul Kagame and his murderous RPF army – a group of exiles who had been living in Uganda after several pogroms in Uganda really forced many Tutsi to leave the country. They were dreaming about returning and about taking power. Paul Kagame was trained in the U.S. and for some long period of time was acting as the military intelligence chief of Uganda. The West felt it needed some strong, militaristic, Prussian-style country to act as its client state, in order to plunder those plentiful natural riches found all over the region, mainly in DR Congo. By then the IMF already did “great job” in destabilizing Rwanda; the currency was devalued, “restructuring programs” implemented, people brought close to starvation. The RPF was shelling Rwanda and conducting raids; it was killing civilians. And then the Presidential plane carrying two Hutu heads of state – one of Rwanda and one of Burundi – was shot down from the sky killing everybody on board when it crashed right at the backyard of the Rwandan President's home. Many credible investigators arrived to conclusion that the murder was carried by RPF. But all investigations soon stopped; the U.S. and UK did not want their men to be indicted. After the plane crash, the country literally exploded, the genocide took place and hundreds of thousands of people really died. It was terrible, but it did not happen “from the blue.” And it was not the end of the story. Victorious RPF began persecuting Hutu majority, chasing them and after them to DR Congo. There was gruesome Kibeho massacre but it was not the only one. DR Congo was invaded by both Rwanda and Uganda; it was brutalized, occupied, plundered. 6 to 10 million people died. Mass rapes were ravishing East Kivu region. Absolute lunatics and religious maniacs like General Laurent Nkunda went on the rampage, and Kigali was behind their actions! At home and abroad, Kagame began murdering people, often even his former allies and cohorts. And what about that hero of the official narrative, the manager of “Hotel Rwanda” (Hotel des Milles Collines” in real life)? His name is Paul Rusesabagina, and he lives in South Africa, in exile! In the West, almost everybody prefers to know nothing about what is happening in Rwanda, DR Congo and Uganda. In Brussels, New York, London and Paris, people are enjoying their Congolese diamonds; they use coltan in their mobile phones, they take advantage of the uranium mined in Congo. I spent 3 years making this film. I made it with Professor Scott Erlinder. We amassed ocean of testimonies, conducted interviews in Africa, U.S., Europe, Australia, Japan. I was filming all over Rwanda, Uganda and Congo. It was dangerous, very challenging, but it had to be done. Others tried and failed. I believe we did great job making this film. In 2-3 weeks it will be finished. We ruined ourselves financially, of course, but again, it had to be done. There are worse ways how to get broke! Millions are dying. Now we have to make sure that the film has deep impact on the Great Lakes and on the world opinion. Q: What do you think about the mainstream media's portrayal of Iran and other non-aligned, independent countries? A: In the eyes of the Western global regime, strife for independence is the greatest crime any nation could commit. All countries that tried to be independent, from Nicaragua and Cuba to Indonesia (before 1965), Yugoslavia and Chile, were attacked and destroyed either by hired internal forces or by direct invasions from abroad. Cuba survived, but at a tremendous cost and only because of its exceptionally strong and heroic people. Iran is next; you know it, and everyone knows it. As Aleppo is falling to that mostly Western-trained “opposition” scum, it is obvious why Syria is being ravished; in Washington and London they simply can't tolerate its independent course. Also, if Damascus falls, Iran will be more vulnerable, more exposed. That is why it is essential to write about what is happening in Syria and who is behind that “rebellion.” It is equally essential to write about Iran, to show the country realistically, in positive light; to propagate its culture, to open dialogue with its people. Right now Iran is the target of Western propaganda, as in the past it had been a victim of direct and indirect Western invasions and attacks. What was done to Iran is not unlike the terror unleashed against several Latin American nations throughout the 20th century. That is why those of us who lived for many years in Latin America, covering its suffering, resistance and finally its victories, understand importance of supporting Iran. Of course the most essential is to prevent any potential attack on Iran. Western propaganda is aiming at dehumanizing the country, at reducing its image to some abstract lunatic bigoted nightmare. Entire might of the misinformation techniques is employed. The best way to help Iran is to visit it, to write about it, to show lives of its men, women and children, and its people; to tell the stories, to describe its culture. To give it back “its face” that was erased by vicious campaign. Exactly what I am planning to do, soon! (By Kourosh Ziabari)