The Prince and the Pauper

The Prince and the Pauper
By Gabriele Zamparini

"What dost thou know of suffering and oppression? I and my people know, but not thou." – Mark Twain, The Prince and the Pauper

We are told Prince Harry is to be withdrawn from Afghanistan after news broke of him serving there on the front line.

We are told he was deployed 10 weeks ago and his fellow soldiers were sworn to secrecy.

We are told the information had been kept secret for security reasons.

We are told news organizations chose to honor an embargo requested by the military.

We are told Prince Harry had been "incredibly brave".

In a recent interview with CNN Correspondent Paula Newton, Prince Harry said, "At the end of the day I like to sort of be a normal person, and for once I think this is about as normal as I'm ever going to get."

Poor Prince Harry! If acting in a propaganda spot to help recruiting fresh cannon fodder and covering with the Royal patriotic flag the slaughter of innocent people is His idea of “normal person”, he needs all our compassion, for he’s just another victim of indoctrination.

Now that the Prince is coming home (isn’t it what we ask? Troops home now! All troops, not only the Royal ones…) it wouldn’t be a bad idea if Harry met with Ben Griffin, a former SAS soldier who resigned from the army two years ago, describing the military intervention in Iraq as a "war of aggression" and "morally wrong".

Ben Griffin was in the High Court this morning; the UK government has gained an injunction to prevent him speaking out. He spoke last night at an anti-war rally in London. This is what he had to say…

Hopefully Prince Harry is “normal” enough to watch YouTube.

e-mail to MEDIA WORKERS AGAINST THE WAR RE: Flat Earth News and Guardians of Power

Dear Media Workers Against the War,

I’d like to thank you for your article “Author under fire over Iraq exposé” about “A campaign is afoot to suppress the brilliant new book Flat Earth News by award-winning journalist Nick Davies analysing the media’s collective failure on Iraq.”

You conclude your article with a call to the anti-war movement: “The anti-war movement must get behind its author”.

I agree. The anti-war movement should always get behind those who expose the responsibility of the so-called mainstream media in spreading the propaganda that makes wars and crimes against humanity inevitable.

There is another book I believe the anti-war movement should get behind, GUARDIANS OF POWER The Myth of the Liberal Media, by David Edwards and David Cromwell

John Pilger called it “the most important book about journalism I can remember.”

Incredibly (but not surprisingly) Guardians of Power has been completely ignored by the UK mainstream media. If “a campaign is afoot to suppress the brilliant new book Flat Earth News”, I would not hesitate to call what’s happened to Guardians of Power, ostracism.

I would like to kindly invite you to take into consideration Guardians of Power now that Flat Earth News seems to have opened a debate on this important issue and discuss Edwards-Cromwell’s book in your future articles, meetings and debates.

Thank you for all your work.

Best wishes,
Gabriele Zamparini
London