IN MEMORIAM: Andre Vltchek, 1962-2020

 

IN MEMORIAM: Andre Vltchek, 1962-2020

Foto: selfie da autoria do próprio Andre Vltchek 

O corpo do jornalista de investigação, cineasta e filósofo Andre Vltchek foi encontrado sem vida na madrugada de dia 22, num automóvel, em Istambul.

Por Flávio Gonçalves

23 de Setembro de 2020

A notícia chegou-nos como um choque, para vos sermos sinceros estamos ainda em negação à espera de receber um qualquer relato contraditório em como houve um erro de identificação e Andre Vltchek ainda se encontra vivo, perpetuamente em viagem a relatar os crimes e as injustiças do Império, sempre imparável, um verdadeiro titã na defesa dos oprimidos.

Os leitores das edições em língua inglesa e em língua portuguesa do Pravda.ru estavam familiarizados com o seu nome, em Portugal os seus textos eram também publicados nos portais libertaria.pt, tiremasmaosdavenezuela.com e resistir.info, vários deles traduzidos por mim para publicação no Pravda.ru e posteriormente reencaminhados para reprodução em portais como o do Centre for Research on Globalization, era também presença habitual nos canais de televisão da iraniana PressTV, da russa RT e até da venezuelana TeleSUR, isto nos tempos de glória deste ambicioso projecto chavista.

Foi uma das primeiras vozes internacionais a defender Lula, publicando inclusivamente a obra “Por Lula: O Brasil de Bolsonaro, O Novo Tubarão Num Mar Infestado de Tubarões” em 2018, sendo que aquando da segunda edição em Abril de 2019 me pediu inclusivamente para interceder junto do núcleo do Núcleo de Lisboa do Partido dos Trabalhadores para determinar se alguém poderia fazer com que um exemplar fosse entregue ao próprio.

Ainda não foram divulgadas as causas da sua morte, não nos surpreenderiam se não fossem naturais do mesmo modo que não será qualquer surpresa se o forem. O último ano foi particularmente intenso e cruel para com Andre Vltchek, tanto física como psicologicamente, quem o seguia nas redes sociais testemunhou quão frustrado se sentia com a generalizada falta de apoio ao seu trabalho, com milhares de seguidores e dezenas ou até mesmo centenas de milhar de leitores em todo o mundo, em língua portuguesa, inglesa e castelhana, a verdade é que contava com menos de uma trintena de patronos.

Migalhas Para um Revolucionário

Desabafava frequentemente que os seus leitores ocidentais só estavam interessados em borlas, em lê-lo talvez por mero entretenimento político ou alívio de consciência, mas que todos os elogios, traduções e partilhas e gostos não se repercutiam em qualquer apoio directo e que tampouco compravam os seus livros, o seu Patreon contava apenas com 26 patronos, sendo um deles este que aqui vos escreve. No último ano contraiu uma infecção que o deixou febril e parcialmente cego numa das suas passagens pela Ásia, na altura pediu-me conselhos de tratamento uma vez que eu próprio no início de 2019 também contraí uma infecção que me deixou parcialmente cego durante uma semana em Lisboa.

Após uma estadia forçada no Chile – que aproveitou para nos deliciar com reportagens em primeira mão sobre os movimentos sociais locais – seguiu para a Venezuela e depois para a Europa após várias jornadas que o levaram a colapsar em Berlim de exaustão. Era uma máquina viva o nosso Andre, sempre em movimento viveu por largas temporadas no Líbano, no Chile – que considerava o seu segundo lar –, no Japão e até no coração do Grande Satanás, os EUA, onde obteve cidadania.

Andre Vltchek -- US journalist found dead in Istanbul under 'suspicious' circumstances

 

US journalist found dead in Istanbul under 'suspicious' circumstances

BY DAILY SABAH WITH DHA

 ISTANBUL INVESTIGATIONS 

SEP 22, 2020 11:41 AM GMT+3

The car where U.S. journalist Andre Vltchek was found dead inside in Istanbul, Turkey, Sept. 22, 2020. (DHA Photo)

 

Andre Vltchek, a Russian-born American journalist, was found dead in his car in Istanbul on Tuesday. Police are treating the circumstances around his death as “suspicious.”

The 57-year-old journalist was traveling with his wife Rossie Indira and two drivers who took them from the northern province of Samsun where they stayed for nine days before going to Istanbul.

Upon arriving at their hotel in Istanbul's Karaköy district in the early hours of Tuesday morning, Indira tried to tried to wake Vltchek who she presumed to be asleep, but he was unresponsive. An ambulance was called, and paramedics confirmed that Vltchek had died. Police cordoned off the area while an investigation was launched into his death, during which the journalist’s wife and two drivers will be questioned.

Vltchek, an investigative journalist who was born in Russia and became a naturalized U.S. citizen, worked as a reporter in conflict zones from Bosnia to East Timor for a long time. He also penned articles for Der Spiegel and The Guardian. He has been in Turkey for a while and gave an interview to the Aydınlık daily earlier this month.

LAST UPDATE: SEP 22, 2020 5:11 PM

09/04/2020

The time has come for the West to sit down, shut upand listen to the rest of the world

000

Andre Vltchek

 

We have always been told what to think and what is true from white dudes from Europe and North America. They knew everything, they were the most qualified, we were assured.

When I write “white,” I don’t mean just their race or color of their skin. To me, “white” is a cultural category, a kind of Western self-identity.

We Russians, Cubans, Venezuelans, Chinese, Iranians, Turks are not really “white,” even if our skin color is, nor are we trying to be white. We have our own way of living and thinking, and most of us are on the side of the oppressed; we firmly stand with the “wretched of the earth”, intuitively. For centuries, our nations have been plundered and attacked. Millions of our people vanished during invasions and genocides not unlike those experienced in Africa and other parts of the ‘non-white’ world.

Andre Vltchek -- Our Planet Missed Opportunity to Fight side-by-side against the Pandemic!

04.08.2020 Author: Andre Vltchek

Our Planet Missed Opportunity to Fight side-by-side against the Pandemic!

Column: Society

Region: Eastern Asia

Country: China

It is time to stop irresponsible finger-pointing.

All over the world, as this essay is being written, well over 17 million COVID-19 cases have been reported, and 676,000 people died. And instead of concentrating on serious research, trying to save human lives and attempting to stop the global calamity, ‘residents’ of the White House are spending all the energy on their own political survival, as well as on the survival of the regime.

In the US, both the establishment and opposition are buzzing with phantasmagoric conspiracy theories. Everyone is shouting, and no one is listening.

COVID-19 has been dangerously politicized. In order to ‘save its skin,’ the White House has been relentlessly blaming China for the origin and handling of the pandemic. Various US government officials have been pointing fingers, irresponsibly, at Beijing. Some have been going as far as claiming that the pandemic was manufactured in one of the laboratories in the city of Wuhan. A bit like a ‘Frankenstein theory,’ fit for a comic book or a horror movie, but not for any serious analysis.

Serious analyses are, however, often neglected by mainstream media. Although they do get picked up for those who are interested and unbiased.

The Telegraph reported on 5 July 2020:

Andre Vltchek -- Anti-Communism is a Fundamentalist Religion, Now Followed by Billions

04.06.2020 Author: Andre Vltchek

Anti-Communism is a Fundamentalist Religion, Now Followed by Billions

Column: Society

Region: Eastern Asia

Country: China

150 years ago, on April 21, 1870, Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, alias Lenin, was born. According to many, he was the greatest revolutionary of all times, a man who gave birth to both internationalism and anti-imperialism.

It is time to “revisit Communism”. It is also time to ask some basic, essential questions:

“How is it possible that a system so logical, progressive, and so superior to what is, up till now, governing the world, failed to permanently overthrow the nihilism and brutality of capitalism, imperialism and neo-colonialism?”

***

Without any doubt, you have been told many horrifying things about Communism, especially if you have been living in the West, or in one of the countries that are fully under the control of the centres of anti-Communism: Washington, London or Paris.

You have been forced to read, again and again, about “Stalinism”, the Tiananmen Square massacre, and the Khmer Rouge genocide. You have, again and again, been served an elaborate cocktail of half-truths, outright fabrications, as well as twisted interpretations of the world history.

The chances are, you have never been to Russia, China or Cambodia; you haven’t done any serious research there.

Andre Vltchek -- COVID-19 will Devastate Indonesia which is Already Collapsing

08.06.2020 Author: Andre Vltchek

COVID-19 will Devastate Indonesia which is Already Collapsing

Column: Politics

Region: Southeast Asia

In Jakarta, doctors are dying, while common people do not know which data to believe, anymore. It appears that even some government officials do not trust government statistics.

At the beginning of the pandemic, for weeks, the Indonesian government was pretending that there is no problem whatsoever, insisting that number of cases was zero, thanks to prayers and divine intervention.

While talking about God and prayers, the President was advising to drink traditional herbal medicine as prevention. Well, at least he was not pitching detergent or disinfectant, for oral consumption.

Andre Vltchek -- It is All about Race, Awful Hypocrisy Hypocrisy to Say it’s Not!

11.06.2020 Author: Andre Vltchek

It is All about Race, Awful Hypocrisy Hypocrisy to Say it’s Not!

Column: Society

Region: USA in the World

While I am following closely various discussions on Western mass media and social media, simultaneously engaging in several direct exchanges, one overwhelming leitmotif that I see is clearly emerging: “What is happening in the United States (and the UK, France and other parts of Western Empire) is not really about the race. Let us protest peacefully, let us not allow ‘rioting’ to continue, and above all, please let us not single out the white race, Western culture as a sole villain. Let us have peace, love each other… Then things will miraculously improve; terrible occurrences will soon go away.”

I have worked and lived on all continents, from far away island nations of South Pacific (Oceania), to Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, and Asia. Of course, I lived in Europe and North America, too.

Colonialism, neo-colonialism, imperialism – these are all my topics. Seriously! I have been studying them, investigating them; I wrote and made various documentary films about them. On several occasions I came very close to losing my life, confronting them.

My conclusion after all that I saw and experienced and survived? You can probably guess it:

“To claim that the race is not what has been, for centuries, dividing our Planet, is outrageous hypocrisy. Or deranged wishful thinking. Or something much worse: it is calculated blindness that serves only the ruling, white group of people.”

To make it blunt: Our Planet has been reduced to only two races:

White and “the other”!

On top of it, the color of one’s skin is not always identical to what the West, in general, perceives as the Caucasian/white race. To be “white” is the state of mind. It means: belonging to the culture which perceives itself as “superior”. The culture which sees itself as ‘exceptional’, and somehow ‘chosen’ to judge and advice the entire humanity.

Andre Vltchek -- Peter Navarro: A Man Who Smear China without Knowing Much about It

13.04.2020 Author: Andre Vltchek

 Peter Navarro: A Man Who Smear China without Knowing Much about It 

Column: Politics

Region: USA in the World

For many years now, it has been obvious that in both North America and Europe, smearing and provoking China has become an extremely lucrative business, even career. There are entire ‘institutes’ and NGOs dedicated strictly to such activities, and there are individuals who are groomed to become anti-Chinese warriors.

Peter Navarro, a neo-con and a right-wing combatant, has been, for years, feeling confident that he knows precisely just “how evil” the People’s Republic of China really is. He has written books on the topic, and he has made videos. He cannot stop talking about the ‘evilness’ of the most populous country on Earth.

But does Mr. Navarro really know much about China? Or, are his constant attacks against Beijing just a job, and a well remunerated career?

How much damage is he really causing?

In 2017, Foreign Policy (FP) asked a rhetorical question:

“Trump’s Top China Expert Isn’t a China Expert. Peter Navarro doesn’t speak Chinese, and has scant in-country experience. Should that matter?”

Yes, does it matter at all, these days? Or is just publicly hating China a good enough set of credentials in the West; sufficient to receive top jobs in the government, academia or the mass media?

Andre Vltchek -- We are Not Allowed to Watch, Listen and Read what We Want, Anymore

01.04.2020 Author: Andre Vltchek

We are Not Allowed to Watch, Listen and Read what We Want, Anymore

Column: Society

Region: USA in the World

Now, that almost all of us, all over the world, have been forced into staying in what could be easily defined as house arrest, there is suddenly plenty of time to read books, to watch great films, and to listen to splendid music.

Many of us, for years, have been sadly repeating again and again: “if only we would have time…”

Now there is plenty of it – plenty of time. The world has stopped. Something terrible is happening; something we never wanted to occur. We sense it, we are terrified, but we do not know precisely, what it is. Not now, not yet.

Fiction has become reality. Albert Camus and his Plague. Jose Saramago and Blindness.

We did not really know that something like this could take place; even those of us who have close to zero trust in the wisdom of Western civilization.

Today, again, I read the same argument that has been sending chills down my spine, each time it is repeated. And repeated it is being, now regularly, at least in Europe. There, Fascism is clearly back. Dr. Luboš Motl, a Czech theoretical physicist, who was an assistant professor at Harvard University from 2004 to 2007:

Andre Vltchek -- It is Not China, but the Western World that should be Defined as the “Real Sick Man”

24.03.2020 Author: Andre Vltchek

It is Not China, but the Western World that should be Defined as the “Real Sick Man”

Column: Society

Region: Eastern Asia

Country: China

Not long ago, the Wall Street Journal insulted China, calling it “the Real Sick Man of Asia”. China retaliated, and then the U.S. counter-retaliated. Emotions have been running high, journalists got deported.

Suddenly, various Chinese officials expressed publicly what many in both China and Russia have been, for weeks, articulating in sotto voce: that it was perhaps the U.S. military establishment, which brought the new type of coronavirus (COVID-19) to Wuhan, in order to harm China and bring the world back, through complex backroads, under the West’s control.

Suddenly, the world feels very uncomfortable. The way it is governed is clearly perverse. People do not always know why, they just feel frightened, prickly and insecure. Actually, they always have, during the last few decades, but this is somehow becoming “too much”.

Countries do not trust each other. People do not trust each other. People do not trust their governments. Capitalism is despised, but nations have been robbed of alternatives.

I work all over the world, and I observe all this. What I see, I do not like.

Increasingly, I am fearful that what has been set in motion by Washington and London, may not end well. That a tragedy is waiting right around the corner.

***

For many years I have been warning that imperialism is murdering tens of millions of people, annually. Predominantly Western imperialism, but also its offshoots in some places where the elites learned from their former colonialist master how to brutalize conquered territories, such as Jakarta, New Delhi, or Tel Aviv.

Genocides and modern-day slavery have become the vilest reflections of modernity. Not the only ones, of course, but the vilest.

Andre Vltchek -- Could the Latest Outburst of Ankara’s Temper Lead to Escalation in Syria?

17.02.2020 Author: Andre Vltchek

Could the Latest Outburst of Ankara’s Temper Lead to Escalation in Syria?

Column: Politics

Region: Middle East

Country: Syria

 

So far Turkey, militarily the second mightiest NATO country, has been able to get away with virtually anything it has chosen to brew in the Middle East.

The reason why, is simple: to confront Turkey’s bullying and expansionism militarily would be like confronting the United States or Israel; thousands of innocent people would die as a result, or perhaps even millions.

Moscow is well aware of the situation. Its diplomacy is superb. And its desire to keep Syria as one entity has gained admiration and support in many parts of the world. But not in the West, not in Israel and not in Ankara.

Periodically, Russia and Turkey are able to find common ground, on many issues. The people of both countries like each other a lot; there are great cultural, economic and strategic ties. And to give credit where it is due, both governments are ready to compromise, on various essential issues.

But periodically, there comes a time when the Turkish administration begins to acts irrationally and unpredictably. During such moments, agreements begin to collapse, and people die. Russia gets caught between a rock and the deep blue sea. Russia wants to resolve things peacefully, but it is also determined to protect its most important ally in the Middle East – Syria.

Andre Vltchek -- Italy Tries to Kick Out Their Right-Wing Extremist from the ‘Gladiator Cloister’

10.02.2020 Author: Andre Vltchek

Italy Tries to Kick Out Their Right-Wing Extremist from the ‘Gladiator Cloister’

Column: Society

Region: Europe

Steve Bannon, a former White House strategist and Breitbart editor,was finally kicked out of an Italian monastery, which even Newsweek wittily described as a“far-right boot camp”.

This author, along with a few others, has been warning for some time that the former Trump’s top advisor had crossed all lines, and began directly interfering in the internal affairs of the European Union, by promoting and amalgamizing dangerous extreme right-wing alliances of all natures; political, philosophical and religious. The monastery was supposed to offer “classes”, which Bannon described as “the kind of underpinnings of the Judeo-Christian West”.

Tactics? “A modern gladiator school”, according to Steve Bannon’s own assessment.

Journal NEO (New Easter Outlook) has already published one essay in 2019, analyzing Bannon’s activities in Italy and beyond: “Steve Bannon – a Profile of a US Apparatchik. From China to the Pope”. There, it was argued:

“Steve Bannon is a talented propagandist and promoter of Western supremacy and imperialist “culture”. He is extremely dangerous, mainly because he knows precisely what he is doing and what he wants to achieve: total control over the world.” 

Last year, it was hard to imagine that Italy would dare to rock the boat, disturbing the activities of one of the most powerful and canny neo-cons in the world. But the unimaginable suddenly took place.

Reported by Newsweek’s Rosie McCall:

Andre Vltchek -- SABOTEURS EXHIBIT APPALLING CALLOUSNESS IN TIMES OF CRISIS

SABOTEURS EXHIBIT APPALLING CALLOUSNESS IN TIMES OF CRISIS

Andre Vltchek

Source

All objective reports coming out of China are praising the country for its determined and successful battle against the new and treacherous disease known as Coronavirus.

The government in Beijing takes no chances. It is studying the situation, allocating massive resources to medical research. It is setting up temporary hospitals and medical centers, informing citizens about the recent developments, while controlling the flow of people in all affected and high-risk areas.

All this is impressive. China is fighting for its own people, and it is trying to minimize the impact on foreign lands. And it is much more effective than what takes place in Western countries during the same or similar national emergencies.

But how is the Chinese government rewarded for its life-saving efforts?

Andre Vltchek -- Coronavirus – China Fights Determinately, while Others Smear!

31.01.2020 Author: Andre Vltchek

Coronavirus – China Fights Determinately, while Others Smear!

Column: Society

Region: Eastern Asia

Country: China

China has been hit by coronavirus as if by a brick over the head; heavily and mercilessly. Instead of help, Beijing has received criticism, even verbal attacks.

In spite of doing tremendous job fighting the epidemy, China is getting almost no tributes for its performance.

Now Bangkok, Jakarta and other regional capital are in panic. After trying to sweep the crises under the carpet in order not to rock their tourist industries which are heavily dependent on annual arrival of the millions of Chinese package tourists, they are trying to introduce coherent health measures. A bit too late, complain their own citizens. However, the West has no appetite to criticize them. All criticism is reserved, as always, for China.

Andre Vltchek -- Western ‘Political Correctness’ does Not Make All People Equal

18.01.2020 Author: Andre Vltchek

Western ‘Political Correctness’ does Not Make All People Equal

Column: Society

Region: USA in the World

In the West, there is a new wave of political correctness at work: it is all about one’s sexual orientation; who has sex with whom, and how. Suddenly, the mass media in London, Paris and New York is greatly concerned about who has the right to change his or her sex, and who does not want to belong to any ‘traditional’ gender bracket.

Thinking about ‘it’, writing about it, doing it, is considered “progressive”; cutting edge. Entire novels are being commissioned and then subsidized, as far away as in the Asia Pacific. Western organizations and NGOs (so-called “non-government organizations”, but financed by Western régimes), are thriving on the matter.

These days it is not just LGBT that are in the spotlight, glorified and propagandized; there are all sorts of new types of combinations that many people never even heard about, or imagined could exist.

Even some Western airlines do not call their passengers “ladies, gentlemen and children”, anymore, in order “not to offend” those who do not want to be any of the above.

Accept any sexual habit, repeat loudly, many times, that you have done it; then preferably write about it, and you will be lauded as progressive, tolerant, and even “left-wing’.

This is a discussion which is clearly encouraged, even invented by the Western regime: a safe discussion which is aimed at diverting dialogue from topics such as the fact that even in the West, a great number of people are living in fear and misery, and that the majority of neo-colonies of North America and Europe are once again being totally, shamelessly exploited.