[mobglob-discuss] Chiapas: Subcomandante Marcos on Radio Insurgente

[Tom Childs]

Thought you all would find this to be interesting and amusing.  
Saludos, TC

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 15 Aug 2003 16:08:47 -0500 (CDT)
From: irlandesa <irlandesa at sbcglobal.net>
To: chiapas at eco.utexas.edu 
Subject: En;Marcos spins

Originally published in Spanish by the EZLN
************************************
Translated by irlandesa, based on transcription of recording


Fragment of Radio Insurgente Presentation
August 9, 2003.


This is Radio Insurgente, broadcasting from the mountains of the
Mexican
southeast.

Welcome to this first intergalactic broadcast of Radio Insurgente.

Radio Insurgente, the voice of the Zapatista Army of National
Liberation,
broadcasting at 5.8 megahertz on band 49, short-wave, and, when we're
interfered with by the supreme government, then we circulate on pirate
CDs.

We would like to send a greeting to our various Radio Insurgente
affiliates, the voice of those without voice, in Los Altos of Chiapas,
in
the Border Selva and in the Tseltal Selva.

Greetings also to the insurgent troops, who are remaining on alert in
our
positions in the mountains, and also to all the support bases of the
Zapatista Army of National Liberation.  This is Radio Insurgente.

At this time, we are sending special greetings to the civil societies
who
are currently in El Caracol of Oventik, participating in the fiesta
for
the death of the Aguascalientes and the birth of the Caracoles and the
Good Government Juntas.

We are also sending greetings to the brothers and sisters of the
Zapatista Front of National Liberation, to the Red Zapatista in
Movement
for National Liberation.  And greetings to Germany, especially to the
regulars at the Diater Zeler Bar, or whatever it's called, which is in
Go:ttingen, or whatever it's called.

Greetings also to Free Speech Radio News, Big Noise and Autonomous
Media
Projects.

Welcome to Radio Insurgente, the voice of the Zapatista Army of
National
Liberation.  As everyone knows, the Zapatista Army of National
Liberation
is made up of an undetermined number of transgressors of the law, who
do
nothing except devote themselves to creating problems for the supreme
and
the respectable.  Their activities have not failed to earn them
enemies
of all kinds, and, in order to demonstrate that the zapatones have
globalized enmity, they have managed to achieve what no other
organization has been able to do:  to have nothing less than an enemy
in
every corner of the planet.  Well, that's just arrogance, because the
North American government has nothing less than a ton of enemies in
every
part of the world.

And now, as an exclusive for those few slippery ones who are tuning us
in, we have an exclusive report:  our efficient and professional team
of
reporters...well, of women reporters, because females here are, like
in
everything, in the majority (and so it goes).  Well, I was telling you
that our team of reporters has done a patient and dedicated job, and
they
have discovered something about the zapatudos.  It so happens that
what
the zapatistas really want is to make a new world, a world where many
worlds fit.  And not just that, we have also discovered that, in that
subversive task, they have accomplices throughout the planet earth,
and,
it is rumored, but we haven't confirmed it, in other galaxies as well.
And the zapatistas say that there should be a better world somewhere.
"There should be a better world somewhere"...hmmm...ahh...that
sentence
sounds familiar to me as well.  And so I set about looking in all the
books and manuals I could, and no, it wasn't Karl, or Groucho Marx who
said that.  Lenin didn't say it, nor the Sub, nor Che Guevara, nor
Emiliano Zapata.  Of course I didn't get discouraged, and I was
willing
to do everything to unmask the masked ones, so I continued
investigating
and I found, yes, that B.B. King said that subversive sentence and
made
it into the blues.  And so here is, exclusively for Radio Insurgente,
the
king, B.B. King and this cut which is impudently called "There must be
a
better world somewhere."

Here, at Radio Insurgente, history, tired of walking, repeats itself. 
If
work allowed monkeys to be transformed into men, war is making
possible
the transformation of men into monkeys.  And, of course, the first
ones
to protest have been the monkeys and the little monkeys, or the
cartoons.
And the cartoons are protesting because the political class' image is
far
surpassing them in humor.  And so the comic strips are declining in
the
face of unfair competition from the national and international
politics
pages.  A general overview will suffice.  There it says that Se~or
Bush
doesn't know how to spell anything other than bombs, and the North
American press goes to great pains to put into intelligible words what
looks like nothing but grunts.

Over there is Se~or Berlusconi, who has lost all sense of time and
space,
and who can't tell the difference between governing and making a
television program. (...)  And just a little bit over there a ways,
Se~or
Garzo'n - certainly exhausted from his intense work in shutting down
newspapers, persecuting the Basque language, interrogating tortured
persons,  having photo ops with relatives of people killed in attacks,
and campaigning for the Nobel peace prize - decides to take a
vacation.
And of course, in order to continue in the same environment, he
decides
that his vacation should be in Chiapas, a place which has, of late,
been
abounding and rebounding with illegals and media, Judge Garzon's two
great passions.

Over there, Se~or Blair, once again confronting existential doubts,
but
no, one would be mistaken if one assumed that he was wondering what to
say in order to justify the scandal about the false reports on the
Iraqi
threat.  No, Se~or Blair is in doubt, because he doesn't know which
suit
to put on.  Close by, over there, Aznar and the little king are
meeting,
because their intelligence services in Mexico - the Mexican
government,
that is - have informed them that the zapatones have not given up on
the
idea of invading the European Union, disembarking, of course, on
Iberian
lands.  And, given that it is common knowledge that I don't give a
bloody
damn about monarchies, I took the newspaper clipping into the latrine
in
order to reflect on the political class, sitting in the same position
as
Rodin's The Thinker.  When I came back, in the brand new EZLN general
command headquarters, I read a letter which read, verbatim, "I can't
stop
thinking about you."  I got excited, lowered my lashes according to
glance number seven from the "seductive glances" catalogue, volume
one,
and I sighed.  But not for very long, because I realized almost
immediately that the letter was directed to Brad Pitt, who,
incidentally,
is going to be invited to our program.

I then filed my seductive gaze number seven away in the "useless
gestures" file and, knowing that I was going to be severely criticized
for this program, turned to Cuco Sa'nchez and this cut which could
easily
be the zapatistas' other hymn.  It's called, what's it called:  "no
soy
monedita de oro."

Let's continue, then, with the special intergalactic program of Radio
Insurgente.  Intergalactic program means that we broadcast with such
little power that we couldn't even get it up with electronic Viagra,
and
we can only be heard with intergalactic technology.  Even so, we have
our
methods for preventing the supreme government from detecting us and
from
interfering with the signal of Radio Insurgente's slippery dial.  For
example, every so often we put on the song that's going to be played
next, so that the enemy will think he's listening to another station,
to
wit, 69 point G.  And so, with Joaquin Sabina, this production of the
"dimelo en la calle" album, the cut called "69 G Spot," and, along
with
it, we send greetings to Panchito Varona, who will certainly not be
listening to us, but, whatever...

You are listening to Radio Insurgente, the voice of the Zapatista Army
of
National Liberation, which is not broadcasting on 69 G Spot, but we
would
love to be.  Yes, we would love to...it so happens that they say "Yes"
to
you, but then they don't tell you when.  With the Vargas mariachi, "el
son de la Negra."




--
Tom Childs - Audio/Visual Resources
Douglas College Library
New Westminster, B.C. Canada
T: 604 527-5713 - Library
T: 604 524-9316 - Lulu Island
E: childst at douglas.bc.ca 
U: BCGEU Local 703
W: http://www.globaljustice.ca 
   
     "There's no way to delay, that trouble comin' everyday."
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