EDITORIAL: Beware Neil Young: Message to the Oilpatch
As the debate over Canada failing to honor the treaties and relentlessly exploit First Nations people while devastating the Alberta Tar Sands region, support for Neil Young continues to build -- not just in Canada but around the world. (See here, here, and here.)
And as the following editorial makes clear, those who have challenged Neil Young in the past have often regretted doing so and found themselves on the losing end.
Over and over, Neil Young has proven to be on the right side of history time after time after time. So just a reminder for the doubters out there, when Neil Young speaks truth to power, challenge him at your own risk.
From Message to the oilpatch: beware Neil Young | Toronto Star by Eugene Lang, BMO Visiting Fellow, School of Public and International Affairs, Glendon College, York University:
Big oil has spent tens of millions of dollars in advertisements and public relations (...) Whatever positive effect this expensive PR effort has yielded, Neil Young could wipe out in an afternoon of inspired song writing.All it will take is one song from Neil Young to turn this around.
...
Give him the respect he deserves and consider his views carefully, lest he train his formidable lyrical and melodic arsenal on you.
...
The message to Big Oil should be clear. When an angry Neil Young shows up on your doorstep, don’t dismiss him the way you do all your other critics. Give him the respect he deserves and consider his views carefully, lest he train his formidable lyrical and melodic arsenal on you.
There's a hole in the sky... and the earth...
And in other Neil news, it seems that some would like Neil Young to cancel his concert in Tel-Aviv, Israel on July 17 with Crazy Horse and have started a petition.
While the entire Middle East region seems to be a terminal basket case that everyone wishes would just go away, of course, it's not going anywhere, anytime soon, so the only option is to continue to dialog. Speaking with one another is certainly far better than this continued nonsense of simply bombing each other. When has dropping bombs ever fixed anything?
With that all said, how about those supporting the petition putting their energy into something positive? Like supporting a concert for peace, maybe? In fact, that's what Neil Young & Crazy Horse's tour of Europe last summer was: a concert of peace and love.
Love and only love. Unconditional love. Try it sometime.
"I disapprove of what you have to say, but I shall defend to the death your right to say it."
~~Beatrice Hall summarizing Voltaire's philosophy in The Friends of Voltaire
Labels: neil young
by thrasher@PermaLink: 2/10/2014 07:01:00 AM
12 comments
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12 Comments:
Great article. This is in part why I love Neil Young. He is not afraid to use his fame to make a difference but as for actually being famous? It never went to his head like so many others!! He is a real person!! NEIL YOUNG! I LOVE YOU!! "KEEP ON ROCKIN IN THE FREE WORLD"!!!!!
A powerful indictment of Israeli war crimes against Palestinians, set to Neil's Ohio. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ilx0urLtKs&feature=youtu.be
Israel the bad guy? Palestine the ones who lobb rockets into Israel constantly First the good guys? Why does my common sense keep getting battered around? Play Israel Neil, then play Palestine.I wonder which one is the most dangerous to an innocent musician?
The Palestinians have every right to resist illegal occupation. That Neil even considered playing Israel says all you need to know about his depth.
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Can't wait for new version of " Let's Impeach the President (for lying)", to be fair and all.
From Huffington Post:
Guess who graduated first in this year's medical school class at the Technion, Israel's version of M.I.T.? The answer will surprise you. It's a 27-year-old stereotype-buster: a charming, feminist, smart, open-minded and observant Islamic woman named Mais Ali-Saleh who grew up in a small village outside of Nazareth, in Israel's Galilee.
Ali-Selah's academic excellence not only marks her own personal achievement but also proves that contrary to propaganda spouted by proponents of the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) Movement -- whose latest convert is Stephen Hawking -- an academic boycott of Israel is the wrong approach to solving the Israel-Arab conflict. Moreover, it ultimately hurts the very people it claims to help. Ali-Selah put it best when she said, "An academic boycott of Israel is a passive move, and it doesn't achieve any of its purported objectives."
see full article here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/diana-bletter/guess-whos-valedictorian_b_3602610.html
Bottom line is Palestinian terror -- physical, psychological, economic ... it is unfair to the Palestinian people who continue to suffer under the hands of their own corrupt leaders and well meaning but ignorant western 'activists'. The boycott thing, which is pushed by many ignorants in the West, has become very fashionable, but its just another form of fighting and promotes this endless, senseless war and worst of all it impedes dialog ...
Neil is nobody's fool and he won't buckle under pressure, not to Big Oil, not to the anti Middle East peace movement that calls for an ISRAELI boycott ... he understands that music brings people together, music is the uniter, ... make love not war, "all we are saying is give peace a chance"
For those who don't have time to read the full Huffington Post article, another telling blurb:
On trips to Europe, Ali-Selah said that people she met were surprised to learn that Israeli Arabs studied engineering and medicine in Israel, and that they lived among Jews. This lack of awareness helps the BDS Movement win misguided supporters. Boycotters like Roger Waters repeat a falsehood -- that Israel is an apartheid state -- and deny a fundamental truth: Arabs, in particular Arab women, have more freedom, liberties and academic opportunities in Israel than in any Arab country. Yes, they do.
@Dan1:
You wrote: "all we are saying is give peace a chance"
Right now, Israel is committing daily violence against Palestinians, bulldozing their homes to build new settlements, confiscating their belongings, restricting their travel, etc. That's not peace, that's violence and war.
The boycott movement is NOT advocating any kind of violence against Israel, but rather the use of political and economic means to pressure Israel to change its policies. This is a PEACEFUL means of effecting positive change. If you (and the writer of the HuffPost piece) don't agree with it that's your prerogative. Just as some people supported the boycott movement against South Africa, some did not.
Israel -- and the U.S. -- have for decades blocked any kind of REAL peace in the Middle East and unfortunately have convinced their populations of their noble intentions, contrary to what the rest of the world thinks. Each year the UN General Assembly passes a resolution condemning Israeli violence with a vote of 190 to 2 -- every year the same result!
Regards,
Steve
Not long now until crazy Horse gig. Neil Young dose not give a dame on what people say. Long may you run Neil Young
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Steve, I think Ali-Selah, the Palestinian women who graduated as valedictorian from the MIT of Israel said it better than I ever can, and she has 1000x more credibility than I:
from Huffpo article:
Ali-Selah put it best when she said, "An academic boycott of Israel is a passive move, and it doesn't achieve any of its purported objectives."
My primary point is to illustrate my view that those who are pushing this boycott and trying to pressure Neil into backing down are sadly uninformed and doing a dis-service to the Palestinian people they hope to help ...
The Huff-Po article writes, " Arabs, in particular Arab women, have more freedom, liberties and academic opportunities in Israel than in any Arab country."
That's a powerful thing. Think about that.
Its a complicated conflict and one we won't solve on the TW board but my simple point is that the boycott movement won't bring peace closer and siding with the Palestinian elites prolongs the conflict and hurts civilians on both sides, especially the Palestinian people ... and my guess is that Neil, as a lifelong activist, gets that which is why implicitly he's trying to unify rather than divide ...
Peace,
Dan
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