Why Do They Hate Us?

What truly unites countries as diverse as Cuba and China, Russia and Venezuela, Bolivia and South Africa?

ANDRE VLTCHEK They hate us, because we are alive, and because we are walking and moving forward, sometimes stumbling, sometimes unsteady, but walking nevertheless.

All the while they are dragging all of humanity back into, dark
nihilism, into terrible moods, dark sarcasm, and a feeling of hopelessness.
They hate us because we insist on doing things our own way, and because we put our people first, and sometimes we put deprived people all over the world, first. We do it more and more, often, whenever we can afford it.

 While ‘they’ are putting their economic interests first, and in doing so, they torture, destroy and humiliate those that refuse to succumb, to kneel and to lick their boots.
For ages have been trying to destroy us, but we stood firm and we fought back, proudly. They invaded, ruined, burned our lands, and they murdered the people of Russia, of China and of the entire part of the world, now called Latin America. They, of course, also murdered and destroyed tens or hundreds of millions of people in the Middle East, in Africa, Asia and Oceania.

When I say ‘they’, I mean the West, and once again I refuse to make any distinction between the old colonial devils, Europe, and the new ones that come from the same roots, the same ‘culture’, but kill under the shade of their relatively new flags.

They hate us because we bled and cried over our dead, but we never gave up the struggle.
They only ‘acknowledge’ and glorify those who accept their regime, who have decided to collaborate, partially or fully: countries like India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kenya, and dozens of other “client” states, countries that are feeding that horrendous capitalist monster with the flesh of their own citizens.

‘They’ even invented ‘political correctness’ so the ‘culture’ of the oppressive and brutal regimes loyal to neo-colonialism, would evade being criticized or ridiculed in those ‘polite circles’ (lackey academia, mass media, etc.). Political correctness is not there to protect the majority of Indian or Indonesian people, but to shield their usurpers and exploiters, who wrap themselves hypocritically in their flags, as well as religions and cultural gowns.

 They hate us for our dreams and for our laughter, for our confidence and determination. We are often hated not only by the Western global regime, but also by the majority of Western people, who are part of the system or at least to some degree, are beneficiaries of it.
The more they steal all over the world and the less we do than them, the more they smear us and claim that ‘we are the same’, robbing and ‘pushing for our interests’ in Africa and elsewhere. They own the mass media and they spill the poison of their lies through their press agencies and television networks, as well as the internet. Elites all over the world, owners of most of the local media, are then happy and always ready to disseminate these lies.

They hate us because they actually suspect that we are different, and the more they suspect it, the more they hate us; then the more they shout and scream that we are exactly like them, and perhaps even worse!
If the world they have created is total shit, then, they insist, the entire universe, even humanity itself, has to be swimming in the excrement.
But we are not like them.

They may be masters of propaganda, great puppeteers, but we, most of the time, refuse to lower ourselves to their level. We are trying to play fair, fighting fair and honest battles. We are trying to win honestly, not like the deceptive and sadistic scum. It is simply because we do want to play fair and also because we are so horrified by their bloodstained hands and mouths that we simply do not want to be like them, even when they are fighting us with all their might; even when they are trying to wipe us out, off the face of the earth.

For that, they hate us, too.
The more sincere we are, the more they slander us.
The more considerate we are, the more they accuse us of demagogy and deceit.
The more peaceful we are, the more they accuse us of being the aggressors.
The more pure our goals, the dirtier are their comments about our deeds.
Those right now that are collaborating hate us for not surrendering, because the collaborators always hate those that are free and proud, and resolute. Cowardly and angry servants, and slaves, are often much more vicious than their masters. Not always, but they often are.

 The more comrades we lose, the more they hate us, because we refuse to kneel, and to beg them to stop killing us. We just grin through our teeth and keep walking forward. For humanity, for our beloved people…
The more united we are, the more they hate us. Latin America and China, as well as Russia, are now together. And several other great nations are joining us. We embraced. We embraced standing, proudly, voluntarily!

The nearer we are to achieving our main goal – the creation of a socialist, more humane and decent society on this planet – the more they hate us. They would rather obliterate our countries; even destroy them – nuke us – the entire planet, instead of accepting a global egalitarian society built on principles of social justice, true respect and non-interference.
The more reasonable and egalitarian we are trying to become, the more they hate us.

 We may not always succeed but they still hate us when we try, but fail. But when we get it right, when we succeed, then they go into top gear in their odium, assassinating our leaders, manufacturing and funding an ‘opposition’ in our countries, preparing and executing military coups against our leaders. How many ‘successful’ and failed coup attempts have we had, recently? Let us just recall a few: Honduras, Paraguay, Venezuela, Syria, Ukraine, and Libya…

But back to the main point: we do not yield! Not anymore. We refuse to yield. Their grotesque, idiotic, nihilist turbo-capitalist, neo-colonialist system and other fundamentalist dogmas, are as terrible as death itself. We are working night and day to resist it, to expose its maliciousness. We feel obliged to work and to fight, not because we are always so great and honorable ourselves, but simply because they are so horrid, murderous, cynical and inhuman!

And so they bathe us in dirt, they vomit their toxic poisons at us, pitching our neighbors against us, planning and triggering coups and ‘opposition movements’, as well as ‘student revolts’ and ‘color revolutions’. The targets are China and Russia, Cuba and Venezuela… Bolivia and Ecuador. Smeared are, Brazil and South Africa, Argentina and Zimbabwe, demonized are Eritrea and North Korea…

In a way, they – our enemies – are pathetic, ridiculous and sad… For those who know the world, they are just a bunch of sadistic lunatics… mighty but uncool, stinky echoes of previous loud and toxic colonialist/imperialist/racist farts.

But they are managing to scream louder. They are publishing billions of sheets filled with lies. They are using their money (mostly stolen from us and others) to twist all logical observations and analyses, presenting the emptiness they are spreading, with their soulless gadgets and consumerism, as something hip and human. And so the new generations in their countries and in their colonies are being manufactured and shaped – they are confused, tired ever since their cradles; empty, lacking poetry and creativity, obsessed with form whilst rejecting substance.

 We keep telling them what they are doing to the world, and the more we tell them, the more they hate us.
But what do we really want? What truly unites countries as diverse as Cuba and China, Russia and Venezuela, Bolivia and South Africa?

It is a great desire for freedom. Not ‘their’ twisted concept of freedom! But the freedom to choose our own path, to use our resources to feed our children, to heal our sick, and to educate both adults and children! All for free. All as our patriotic and humanist duty!
We want our countries to exist only in order to create, to facilitate a good, healthy, meaningful life for their citizens. We want people to wake up and not to be scared that they will end up on the street, or that if they get sick, they will die just because they can’t pay their medical bills. We want people to think about the journey, about where they are going and what they will do at their destination, instead of constantly agonizing over where they will they get the money to buy a new car!

We want people to be free and to have the time to decide ‘where they are going’, and to have knowledge, to release their creativity and energy for the improvement of life, all over our beautiful planet.

And the more we want that, the more they hate us.
We want to be; many of us want to be, ‘naive’ again… to be able to dream, to communicate with each other, to work with our hands and our brains, to put our entire hearts into this life. And we want people to feel safe, not to be scared of waking up every morning, of being ridiculed for simply being good, decent; for being human!
This is what socialism or communism mean to me. This is what it meant to Chavez and what I think it means to Evo. This is what it means to my dearest friends in Beijing.

Venezuela, Bolivia or China are not perfect, damn it! We are all human; we all make mistakes. But we are trying. We are doing our best. We want to pull hundreds of millions out of poverty and we are doing it, step by step. Each of our countries is doing it in its own way, depending on its culture and history. And we want to do it our way and only in our own way, and that is why they hate us!

I don’t care or mind if someone runs his or her private hotel, or restaurant, or a newspaper… I don’t mind at all. I am not some dogmatic freak. But I do mind when entire nations are destroyed simply because they want to go their own way!

I do mind when ‘democracy’ is reduced to only what the Western bullies say it should mean. I mind when people are converted into serfs for the rich in their own countries, and then into serfs for the Empire. I do mind when they have no choice. I do mind when they are constantly fearful of something, when they get humiliated again and again. And not only do I mind, I want to clench my fists and fight for justice.
The more I mind, the more others like me mind, the more they hate us.

More and more of us actually do mind.
Now we have this great new wave of cooperation between four wonderful parts of the world. Soon we will have an alternative to the horrid institution called the World Bank. And eventually we will create an alternative to the United Nations, which by now has become a toothless, kidnapped institution, unable to punish or even name those true gangsters and true terrorists!

They hate us! But we do not like them, either! How could we like fascists and bigots?
They run this world by employing fear, just as for centuries, they used to run their colonies. They killed hundreds of millions, perhaps billions, in the last millennia. They would not think twice of killing a few hundred million more.
On top of it, they are also scared, and the more scared they are, the more bellicose and aggressive they are becoming. They suspect that this cannot last – this twisted, psychopathic arrangement of the world. They just hope it will last for another few decades, while they are still alive.

 The more scared they are, the more they are trying to scare others, too… to provoke conflicts, to antagonize people, to spy on them, to lock millions up, to brainwash billions worldwide.
Those corporations of the Empire, the governments that they select… they make normal people want to puke. And we tell them this, straight to their faces! Now we have our own block of countries, our organized resistance, our media, (this publication is an integrated and strong part of it)!

We tell them who they are.
And they hate us for that.
We tell them: you do what you want at home. As long as your people tolerate it, accept it, or even endorse it. We will not be attacking you or ‘liberating you’. But do not dare to come to our homes again, and plunder, loot and corrupt.
If you do, our nations and our people will fight.

They know it, and they hate us for that!
We tell them: Our people will fight against you and for what is human, and for the normal development of mankind – development, which you have derailed in such a brutal, Machiavellian manner, for centuries.
For centuries, you used slavery in order to compile your riches. You are enslaving billions of men and women even now, although you do not use that “s” word.

Our people will fight against you if you try to impose slavery on us once again.
We will also fight for kindness, poetry – for that dreamy, naive and at the same time creative and secure world, which almost all of us humans desire from the bottom of our hearts.
And this is why ‘they’ really hate us – we want to stop this horrific experiment on human beings. We want human life to be much more important than the profits of some corporations and twisted individuals. We want to be proud again of being part of the human race.

They want us to produce and to consume, submit to their designs and on top of it, stay quiet and scared.
While we want to build and we want to sing, to dream and to invent, for other people, not just for cash. We want to help each other. We do not want to succumb to a system where those who are brutal and aggressive are enslaving those who are gentle and kind.

We want to prove that humans are not just cynical and selfish beasts. They are not! They only behave like that when they are injected with high doses of repulsive psychological toxins.
We want the end of this corporate and colonialist tyranny. Millions have fought it for centuries, and millions have already died, fighting for a much better world.

We are not going away! We are not deserting. We are not scared, anymore. Before falling, Hugo Chavez shouted: “Here nobody surrenders!” Well said! We feel the same. Aqui no se rinde nadie!
And that is why they hate us!
And we should be proud that they do.
www. CounterPunch

Andre Vltchek is a novelist, filmmaker and investigative journalist. He covered wars and conflicts in dozens of countries. The result is his latest book: “Fighting Against Western Imperialism”. ‘Pluto’ published his discussion with Noam Chomsky: On Western Terrorism. His critically acclaimed political novel Point of No Return is re-edited and available. Oceania is his book on Western imperialism in the South Pacific. His provocative book about post-Suharto Indonesia and the market-fundamentalist model is called “Indonesia – The Archipelago of Fear”. His feature documentary, “Rwanda Gambit” is about Rwandan history and the plunder of DR Congo. After living for many years in Latin America and Oceania, Vltchek presently resides and works in East Asia and Africa. He can be reached through his website or his Twitter.