Media Monitors Network (MMN)

:: Prepared text of speech at the Brazilian Social Forum, November 8, 2003 - Belo Horizonte, Brazil ::

"When a country — particularly “a democracy” — goes to war, the passive consent of the governed lubricates the machinery of slaughter. Silence is a key form of cooperation, but the war-making system does not insist on quietude or agreement. Mere passivity or self-restraint will suffice to keep the missiles flying, the bombs exploding and the faraway people dying."

"Numerous people among the Muslim community—and even those who look remotely Middle Eastern—have been, at best, humiliated and, in extreme cases, brutalized by government officials."

"A fundamental criticism of the Patriot Act's targeting of Arab and Muslim Americans, as well as foreign nationals, is that it is ineffective. According to Cole of the over 5,000 foreign nationals who have been detained since 9/11, only two have been convicted of anything related to terrorism."

"So what about the stuff we can hardly measure, the things we consider unimportant or trivial in our daily lives? -- a smile, a simple kind gesture, for example? What place do they have in our day-to-day encounters?"

"The U.S. airlines suffered severe losses following the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington D.C., compounding the effects of an already weak economy. American Airlines, which ranks number one among all airlines using U.S. airports to transit between foreign countries, lost about $5.3 billion during the past two years, and more than $1.04 billion in the first quarter of 2003 alone."