Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Blog news: The Vineyard extends to Oceania!

Dear friends,

It is with all the pride of a proud father looking a a new baby that I am happy to officially announce the creation of the Vineyard Saker in Oceania

The folks who launched this new franchise of our community had been working with the various Saker Language Teams for a while already and I can say with great confidence that their work is nothing short of stellar.  Yet, there is something different in this Team, it is not really a Language Team as it is a Geographical Area Team.  Why?  Here is how they explain it in the "About" page of their blog:
The Oceania Saker idea grew out of discussions amongst the volunteer teams working with The Saker. The idea is to give the English team the same degree of editorial independence that the French,German and Russian teams enjoy. The obvious observation is that both The Saker and The Oceania Saker will publish in English but will be quite different.
Oceania sees itself as the first frontier where the global policies of neoliberalism hit home hard. Climate change,the rising sea levels and destructive uncontrolled capitalism has been the norm for a while now. While “bad” news, about what our policies as a collective human species do,might not have reached a central European town, they are quite evident in small Islands across the Pacific. The population has been dumbed down,abused,robbed and down right denied a voice in its affairs. We seem to swallow,without question or critique, the policies and “culture” of the AngloZionist Empire. As an example, the rich green fertile paradise of New Zealand has child poverty of 25%! 
While children are being murdered in Ukraine and Palestine, they talk about the next Hollywood blockbuster on morning radio. While Fascism is on the rise across Europe and rabid russophobia the norm, we do not seem to question it but instead join the choir. The events in Ukraine are especially a cruel joke on the intelligence of anyone whose grandparents fought Nazis in WWII. The descendants of Nazi collaborators are now being hailed as elected democratic politicians. This is lunacy. 
The Pacific nations have had a rich history of being friends of the earth, we have for thousands of years lived in harmony with our environment. It is this destruction of the harmony and beauty of our lands that has awaken many to the realities of destructive neoliberalism. We see our fate being decided on the world stage in this continuing struggle between the US and the sane world. 
The Oceania Saker team will continue to publish in the same spirit and will try its best to give various perspectives which represent the diverse nature of Oceania. We plan to cover a wide range of topics from social issues, to economic issues to political issues right across the globe.
I would only add that to have a one-person-blog like the "original" Saker fully monopolize a language spread all over the world would have been illogical wrong. Furthermore, Oceania is far enough and unique enough to deserve its own voice.  Last, but mos definitely not least, I know that I have *a lot* of readers from Oceania who often email me, send me articles, help with donations and participate in the comments and I really wanted them to have "their own" closer-to-home "vineyard".  I encourage them all to contact the wonderful Team at the Oceania Saker either to just say "hi" or offer their help, or both.

And to the Oceania Saker Team - thanks a lot guys, you really rock!

Kind regards and many thanks,

The Saker