Transcript from Arundhati Roy's speech

Ran across this speech on Democracy Now. Recorded at the American Sociological Association meeting in Berkeley, Roy speaks with clarity about empire, power and politics from an outsider's point of view.

Each of the Iraqi children killed by the United States was our child. Each of the prisoners tortured in Abu Ghraib was our comrade. Each of their screams was ours. When they were humiliated, we were humiliated. The U.S. soldiers fighting in Iraq - mostly volunteers in a poverty draft from small towns and poor urban neighborhoods - are victims just as much as the Iraqis of the same horrendous process, which asks them to die for a victory that will never be theirs.

And this criticism regarding the two presidential candidates:

It's not a real choice. It's an apparent choice. Like choosing a brand of detergent. Whether you buy Ivory Snow or Tide, they're both owned by Proctor & Gamble.

I have to admit it was hard to listen to her criticism of Kerry. I don't agree with her completely on how far Kerry is on the imperialist/corporate bandwagon. I think there are enough critical differences between Kerry and Dubya. However, this analogy about Ivory Snow and Tide is on the mark regarding the education policies of our two candidates, unfortunately. That's not going to stop me from supporting Kerry in this election.