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Oct. 21, 2021 - The Delingpod - James Delingpole
58:13
Eva K Bartlett
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Welcome to The Deling Pod with me, James Delingpole.
And I know I always say this about this week's special guest, but I really am excited.
I'm meeting for the first time, only on Zoom, unfortunately, Eva K. Bartlett.
Eva, it looks like you're in a... is that a dacha you're in?
I am in a region that has many duches, but I'm living this one permanently for the year anyway.
Right.
So because I've only been to, I've only been to St.
Petersburg and I've, I've read Tolstoy and I've read Vasily Grossman's account of the Second World War.
And I've read, I've just finished Crime and Punishment.
Wow.
What a book.
So there's a lot about Russia that I'd like to know more about.
And you are, you're in Moscow?
Yeah.
I'm about, I'm about an hour south of Moscow.
Right, right.
So in Moscow Oblast, Moscow countryside.
Oh, that sounds, I mean, it's the loads of loads of, sorry to ask you really boring questions that I just don't know enough about it.
No, no, it's fine.
I mean, I've seen, I've seen to the lake.
So I know that there are lots of, there's lots of countryside.
Have you seen to the lake?
My favorite Netflix show of the last.
Yes, yes, yes.
I actually I just I just came across that like last week and powered through it.
Unfortunately, it only had one season.
But yeah, that was brilliant.
Oh, are they not?
Are they not doing a sequel?
Uh, I mean, it, I don't remember the ending.
It seemed kind of abrupt.
It seemed like there's still something to come.
So, uh, I don't know.
I just, I just saw the one season.
Yeah, no, no.
I would know about it if there were, if there had been a second season out, but I would say that I get, I get loads of people, um, telling me, you know, Netflix is evil and, and it's, it's sort of part of the seeding for all the, all the, all the ideas that are ruining our culture.
And of course, I totally agree with that.
But I would not have been without To The Lake, which was just way the best.
Prophetic.
I mean, obviously it was, it was made in 2019.
And it was about a virus outbreak.
And about sort of authoritarian clampdown and people in, you know, sort of soldiers with guns.
I mean, I just thought it was... Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And society turning on each other as well.
And everybody out, you know, for themselves, unfortunately.
Totally.
Human nature.
Totally.
Eva, for those who don't know who you are, I mean, and I've only discovered you Fairly recently, because it's only fairly recently that I've entered this strange world that you inhabit, and I now realize is the real world.
Tell us a bit about yourself.
I mean, I see on Wikipedia, you're described as something like, you promote conspiracy theories about Syria.
And I thought, yes, this is my kind of journalism already.
Well, really, you're not an established journalist unless you have a smear entry on Wikipedia that calls you a conspiracy theorist.
So true.
Well, somebody took it upon themselves to do on Everipedia, I think that's how it's pronounced, to do a very accurate biography of myself.
Anyway, the Wikipedia entry is a complete smear job, including with the blatant lie that my trip to North Korea in 2017 was funded by the government.
It was not, obviously, but I really would love to sue Wikipedia, but I don't have the knowledge of how to do that.
However, I will say this, that of course, I'm not the only one that has a smear entry.
I haven't looked for your own.
Yeah, check out mine.
Mine is full of hate.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Mine's actually quite short.
It's just like all they could be bothered was to call me a conspiracy theorist that blah, blah, blah, regime, blah, blah, blah, genocide, blah, blah, blah.
But if people want, I can send you the link to the more detailed one or it's also on my blog in gaza.wordpress.com in the About Me section.
But basically, I was born in the U.S.
in Michigan.
My family moved to Canada when I was between three and four.
I grew up in Canada, so I have both nationalities or both citizenship, but I feel more Canadian just because that's where I grew up.
Not that that's a good thing, necessarily, because Canada, you know, seems all lovely and polite and all this stuff, but Canada has its hands deep, deep, deep, bloody hands deep, you know, in the war on Syria and in the the mess in Ukraine with the neo-Nazis, you know, so.
I want to know, I want to know about this after you finished your, your self-introduction.
I, I, I think this is absolutely where we should go, but yeah, tell me more.
Okay.
Well, so I grew up quite apolitical and I think it's worth mentioning that because I think people make an assumption about journalists or people with some sort of platform that, you know, maybe they, they studied this or they, you know, this, this was part of their whole being from day one, but no, actually, I mean, this was part of their whole being from day one, but no, actually, I mean, I certainly wouldn't compare myself to James Corbett
I know you two have spoken, but, but we do have a similar kind of story in that like he was more into literature and he, He was living in Japan and I was living in South Korea teaching English, doing the same thing, different times.
I forgot what year he was there.
But similar in that I also, I was completely apolitical.
I'd done a lot of independent traveling, which is a great form of education.
And then after a series of months traveling in Southeast Asia, I went back to Korea to earn some more money because I was broke.
And then I started reading news and I started kind of waking up to the world.
So I went from being, quite frankly, a blank page without any sort of Predetermined notions about about countries really or history or anything really being super ignorant to starting to focus on the issue of Palestine and then over the years broadening from there.
So I lived in Gaza for a cumulative three years between.
late 2008 to March 2013.
I was there during two massacres, Israeli massacres of Gaza.
The first one being December and January 2008-9, which lasted 23 days.
And the other one I was there for was in November 2012.
And if you want to talk about that later, we can But I was also documenting the effects of the brutal Israeli siege, complete blockade, complete lockdown of Gaza since around 2005 or 2006.
It's incredibly brutal.
So I wrote quite a bit about that, and also about working with farmers who, when they're simply on their land, simply trying to either work as a paid laborer or work their land as a means of producing food, come under live Israeli sniper fire on a daily basis.
And so accompanying these farmers, I too came under live Israeli sniper fire.
So it's a lot of what I was doing in Gaza during my three years there.
I was also trying to share the humanity and the beauty of life there in spite of all odds and the beauty of Palestinian culture Because they're just like so many things that corporate media has a prescriptive narrative to report on.
Palestinians are just denigrated, you know, in every way possible.
They're rendered, you know, inhuman, quote-unquote terrorists.
You know, every horrible stereotype you can imagine, corporate media has done it to Palestinians.
So I was really trying to show also the beauty of life there.
And and then eventually the war in Syria broke out in 2011.
And I was following it as much as I could from when I was living in Gaza.
It was difficult because the power was out for up to 20 hours a day and the house I was living in didn't have a generator.
So it was very difficult to get news.
But I was following.
People and channels that were giving a more accurate description of what was happening in Syria versus Al Jazeera and Western media's revolution.
So from early on, I had a pretty good notion what was going on was another attempt at regime change in Syria.
But in April 2014, I finally went there for my first time and I've gone there 15 times in total now.
So that's kind of in sum how I came to do what I'm doing.
Out of interest, this is a, I mean, if you can give a short answer to this question, you say it was, it was about, Syria was about regime change.
What was the motivation for getting rid of Assad?
I mean, who, who, some politics did he not suit?
Was he not playing ball with, with the powers that be?
There are many reasons and I hope I don't omit any, but in terms of not playing ball with the powers that be, Syria has an independent financial system.
They weren't taking IMF loans.
We're not willing to cut ties with regional resistance forces like Hezbollah, or their support to Palestinian resistance.
And actually, even, you know, prior to 2011, of course, that wasn't the first time that the US in particular in the West, and all the allies have tried to overthrow the government of Syria, they've been waging attempted coup d'etat and attempts to overthrow the government for decades.
And actually, Assad was in pretty good favor, I would say, with the West and the world at large prior to 2011.
He was seen as a young reformer that was opening up the country, opening up the economy.
And then when it came time to attempt to redeem change, country, then suddenly he was evil personified.
Yeah.
But I don't know.
I don't, I know you might have had my friend and colleague Vanessa Bailey on.
And if so, I think she will have said the same thing.
You know, anybody who's spent, you don't even have to spend a significant amount of time, but certainly if you have spent a significant amount of time in Syria, you will hear over and over again from the people, not just that they like Dr. Assad, but they love him and they respect him.
You know, and his popularity has gone up in the decade of war against Syria, some for different reasons.
Some people who were perhaps formerly against him or against the government realized that now he and the government are the only means of keeping Syria together and that the alternatives are hideous.
I mean, what has the West presented as an alternative government to Syria These bearded jihadi extremists that no Syrian wants to rule over them.
So in any case, I'm sorry, I'm rambling, but so yeah, Syria was not bowing to Western demands.
Syria is at war with Israel, of course, which is occupying Syrian land.
So Israel has a vested interest in overthrowing the government in Syria.
And as you might be aware, Israel has been aiding a terrorist in Syria, including ISIS, and giving terrorist care in Israeli hospitals.
And there was a Syrian journalist, Sadki al-Maket, who was documenting interactions between Israeli forces and Syrian terrorists in Syria, entering via Israel by occupied Palestine into Syria.
So there are there are a number of reasons in terms of Syria not playing ball.
And also there was the the old desire to run a pipeline through Syria, but one that would benefit not Syria and allies, but Qatar and Saudi Arabia and the West.
Yeah, thanks, thanks.
Yeah, I've got a completely open mind on this, because I don't know whether you're aware, not long before I did my Vanessa Beely podcast, I was completely trusting in the mainstream media narrative about everything.
You know, I read the Telegraph and I thought that they're I thought, for example, that anyone who supported Palestine was a kind of...
A sinister lefty with a dodgy agenda, anti-Israel, the only functioning democracy in the region.
Israel has very good relations with non-Jewish people in the population, that it has a high standard of living and stuff, and that all this was basically confected by nasty terrorist groups in the occupied territories, etc.
You know, inviting misery deservedly by the decent Israelis.
I don't trust any of my old views.
I don't know exactly what I do know about the Middle East, but I definitely know that the narrative we're fed is absolutely untrustworthy.
I've completely shifted my position on all the Middle Eastern wars.
You know, I know now that the First and Second Gulf Wars were there generated by, for example, the Bush family.
You know, the people who said it was all about oil really, really were onto something.
They weren't just a bunch of hippie know-nothings.
So I'm open to be educated by you, Eva, because And I definitely suspect you're on the right track with Asad.
You know, you don't strike me as a kind of knee-jerk, stupid enemy of truth.
You strike me as a reasonable person.
Am I right?
I mean, obviously you're going to say that, but... Well, we all have our moments, I suppose.
But no, I mean, You know my Twitter bio is pretty simple but I put I go to the places I write about and that's kind of that that's it like I don't profess to be an expert of any sort.
I don't you know I don't pretend that I've gone to journalism school and in fact I'm quite grateful that I did not go to indoctrination school, but I basically learned.
Largely for myself on the ground from the people in question, and then of course, also from other journalists and other websites and sites that I respect.
But you know, I taught myself to speak colloquial Arabic, so that I could actually understand what Palestinians were saying.
and what they wanted to express about their life.
And then, uh, when I started going to Syria, I mean, the dialect is very similar, but it is a slight, slightly different dialect.
It's still Levant, um, region.
So it is like largely the same, but anyway, the point being most of the time I'm conversing one-on-one with the people that I'm writing about, you know?
And so, um, of course I do have translators, you know, um, go over, Interviews I do and so I can have an exact accurate translation because I don't want to misrepresent somebody.
But there have been occasions when I've had a translator and I hear them mistranslate and I stop them and say, no, that's not what I said.
Or you just said the date wrong.
You just got something wrong.
So like, I just make that point because, um, you know, I really strive to do justice to the people that I speak with and I strive not to put words in their mouth.
I strive to give them a platform to express what corporate media won't allow them to express.
And, you know, with reporting on Syria, I've seen the BBC's least to say in Syria in April 2014.
I'm not sure if you're aware, but, you know, terrorists when they were occupying, and by terrorists, I'm not just throwing a word out.
These are literally terrorists, Jaysh al-Islam, Falak Rahman.
The Al Qaeda factions in Syria, those terrorists that were occupying eastern Ghouta, which is east of the capital Damascus, were raining hell on Damascus for years and years and years.
So I started going to Syria in April 2014, and I was staying in the old city of Damascus at the Bob Sharky East Gate.
And that area was closer to Jobar, which is one of the towns in Eastern Ghouta.
And it was being hammered by mortars on a daily basis.
And these terrorists would wait, they would choose times when they knew the streets would be packed with people either going to work or kids going to school.
And then they would rain these these bombs down on Damascus.
And so, and of course it wasn't only the old city, it they fired rockets as well that could reach across the city but the old city was particularly hard hit.
And so, in April 2014 one elementary school was hit.
By one of these, at least one of these martyrs, and a child was killed and over 60 were injured.
And so I went to one of the hospitals that was treating the kids.
And I was just trying to document I mean, it's, you know, it's, it's, it's, it's, sometimes you feel really crass putting a camera in the face of somebody who's been injured or maimed or mutilated.
But on the other hand, you have to because the media is so dominated with these narratives.
And I'll give you an example in a moment, vilifying Syria and then its allies.
That if you don't show, actually, this is what's really happening, you know, then, then they win.
So I was in the hospital talking to these kids, getting their names, getting their ages, and just trying to put a human face to what had happened to them.
And I saw Lisa say there.
And another person there challenged Doucet and said, are you going to tell the truth about what's happening?
And Lise nodded her head.
And I actually recorded this conversation.
And then she came out with an article sometime later for the BBC, something to the effect of Russian roulette.
This is before Russia's entry into Syria.
But anyway, she actually had the gall and audacity to say, Yeah, well, the regime, quote-unquote, the regime says that it's from rebels in Eastern Ghouta, but locals believe it's the regime firing these mortars.
And I was like, fucking hell, pardon my language, but there's no way that locals believe that, because they're living it every day, these mortars raining down, and they know where it comes from.
So it was so awful and disingenuous and there's another video of Lee's, I believe she was in Homs, and a Syrian is just shouting at her.
I don't know that he knew who she was particularly, but she was kind of emblematic of how media was misreporting on Syria, and he was just calling her a liar, very accurately so.
That's interesting.
Who do you think?
These terrorist groups that you named, who was funding them?
Who were they representing?
Because they weren't just doing it as kind of independent entities, were they?
Probably.
No, no, no.
They were being funded by Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, depending on which group.
Now, I forget the former prime minister of Qatar.
I want to say his name was Thani or something.
But anyway, some years ago, Saudi Arabia and Qatar were having a tiff.
And he actually came out and said, just openly admitted that Qatar had been funding terrorists in Syria.
And if I remember correctly, he even named al-Nusra, which is al-Qaeda in Syria.
The West has also been, you know, in covert means funding terrorists, they had all these different programs, the US, Canada as well.
So no, they weren't, they weren't this organic group of quote unquote rebels that just rose from the ashes of a revolution that failed.
I mean, there's an excellent article by Stephen Gowans, The Revolutionary Distemper That Wasn't, and he writes about the mood in the southern town of Dada, which is where the so-called revolution is said to have been born, to have broken out in 2011.
And it was really interesting because he was writing about how prior to March 2011, there had been attempts, like Facebook groups, calls on Facebook to go and protest.
There had been attempts to manufacture these protests to get people out in the streets and he said they had largely failed.
They'd flopped because the will for protest was not there.
And he names some, actually surprisingly, I think it was New York Times and I forget the other source, but some journalists who were on the ground in Syria at that time and how they were writing about the lack of people coming up for protests.
But then he goes on to talk about like the violence that ensued.
Now, there are a number of great articles.
Sharmin Narwani, a journalist, she writes for a number of sites, but she wrote a really good article for Russia Today.
called, um, Syria, the hidden massacre.
And she talked about a number of massacres that occurred in very early weeks of the so-called revolution.
These massacres were of Syrian security forces, um, by very armed mobs.
So clearly there, there were people that had been already given weapons because the Western narrative is, well, it was a peaceful revolution for the first year, year and a half, and then they were armed, but that's not the case.
Another article, um, I believe it was called the day before data, um, by Steven Sahayoni.
talks about how there were arms in Dara, being stored in Dara, again, when the protests began.
And I mean, this is anecdotal, but I interviewed a soldier who went to Dara.
He was sent there after, I think it was after the first Friday of protests.
And he told me he was sent with about 300 other soldiers.
He was probably in his mid-20s.
He said most of the soldiers that were sent were unmarried.
Which is, there's a point to that, because if you send a married soldier with kids and that that leaves potentially a wife and kids without their husband and father if he dies, but if you send young unmarried soldiers and they die, then at least they don't have dependents necessarily, you know, that they've left when they've been killed.
But he said they were sent without weapons.
The only thing they had were batons.
they were sent to keep the peace in Dada after these violent protests had erupted.
And he described a few Fridays of these mobs chasing the soldiers and the police that were there, several hundred police as well, chasing them.
And these mobs, of course, not every single person was armed, but amongst the people, there were people who were armed, whether with guns or other Molotov cocktails or whatever.
And they were attacking the soldiers and the police who had no way of defending themselves because the order was from top down, no guns, because the idea was to diminish the potential of violence, you know.
So anyway, that's all just to say, like, what the official narratives on how things began in Syria.
um said they were uh simply not true and one other i can't name him but i interviewed a priest in data i mean i suppose i could name him chances are he's not being watched anymore but i uploaded the interview to my youtube and um with his permission of course and he had been speaking about what he saw as a priest in this cap so-called birthplace of the revolution he was saying he saw people coming from outside
From the countryside of Dada, coming in on motorcycles, they were riding in and hiding their weapons and then going and firing on government buildings and firing in public places.
And again, this was at the time when everybody was talking about nonviolent protest.
Now, the reason I hesitate to mention his name was that sometime later he contacted me and said, please take the video down.
Some of the terrorist insurgents, whatever you want to call them, that took reconciliation and were in the region were threatening to kill him.
Because he had spoken to me.
Yeah, don't don't give his name.
It's not worth it for that.
Yeah.
No, no.
That is the BBC.
I mean, obviously, I can't I can't prove or otherwise whether Liz Doucette is lying.
But if the BBC were lying, what do you think its motivation is?
You know, I think Vanessa, were she with us, could detail, you know, a whole series of things, but she's been a prime target of the BBC and their smear campaigns against her.
But I was included partially in a smear campaign that ultimately they decided just to go with Vanessa instead.
Well, I mean, because of Vanessa's excellent role in exposing the white helmets, her research, I should say.
Um, but the BBC, I mean, uh, is, well, you could probably tell me better about the BBC state funding, but it is funded by the UK government, correct?
Oh yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, I think it's a branch of the intelligence services.
I think it always has been.
Um, And there you go.
And so I think that there is the answer, right?
I mean, the UK is, is part of the, um, axis of, uh, aggressive governments that have tried to topple the government of Syria.
So it's, uh, it's doing the, the, the propaganda work of the UK government.
Yeah.
Yeah um I can't um I'd like I'd love to talk about cereal or podcast but there's even bigger shit going on in the world right now and I don't know whether you yeah well one of the one of the reasons I'm talking to you is I mean like like two years ago I wouldn't even have known your name and now
We live in a world where so many of the big name journalists, the people that one trusted to do the right thing and to report honestly and to fight the fight and stuff, they've just just run away or they found cushy jobs you know where they don't have to report from the front line.
I tell you what it feels like.
It feels like as if you've been training with your sort of band of brothers for for D-Day and you've got to know each other and respect each other and you and you think you know he's really strong and he's really brave and stuff and then you get to D-Day And you start, you charge the enemy position and you suddenly look around and realize that none of these people are with you.
They've all run away and you don't necessarily hate them.
I don't, I don't feel that.
I feel just like Why would you do that?
Why would you be such cowards?
Why would you not deal with the truth of what's happening in the world?
So few people are doing it.
You're, like, former, you know, I mean, you would, you'd be a no-mark in, you know, in the old days when, you know, all the big names in the newspapers and one knew who they were.
But it's people like you who are carrying the torch for the truth, people like you and me, And everyone else is just not doing their job.
I mean, do you feel this as well?
Oh, absolutely.
Absolutely.
And you know, James, when all this started last year, I think all of us, nobody had an idea what was really going on.
Well, there might be some exceptions.
Again, I have to always commend James Corbett because he saw and he didn't maybe perhaps know it was going to be The means that this would be this, you know, fourth industrial revolution, technocracy would be ushered in would be COVID-19 or whatever.
But he definitely saw what's transpiring.
He saw that coming at some point.
But myself, I didn't know.
I mean, the thing is like when you report from a place and you're kind of tunnel visioned on a place, whether it's when I was in Gaza or in Syria, it's hard to be aware of what's happening, you know, on a broader sense.
It's very easy to get tunnel visioned.
But, uh, so I'm just saying that to, to be quite frank and say like when things started last year, I didn't know what was going on.
Um, but I have my go-to sources of websites and people that I trust like Corbett or, you know, global research, or, uh, I didn't know of UK column, but now I do, and now I follow them and I have a lot of respect for their reporting.
And, um, so I was at least, you know, I, Vanessa, others were at least asking questions, you know?
Just asking questions.
Like, well, you know, uh, what was one?
Well, didn't the WHO wasn't involved in a number of scandals before?
Like, why are we taking their word now?
Why are they suddenly this body that is, um, benevolent and, and like, we can just fully trust in them.
Like, and, you know, for those crimes of simply asking questions or, or posting articles that were giving a different narrative or, you know, God forbid articles that were exposing, um, the WHO and, uh, and all the allies, then we were lambasted, including by some of these so-called courageous journalists, or supposedly courageous journalists.
So, like yourself, if there's a journalist or a prominent voice that simply doesn't know, well, that's fair.
I mean, you can't get mad at somebody for not knowing or being confused.
But there are people that have actually gone, and you're probably very well aware of this, but have gone and just attacked and derided those of us who've questioned or gone on to question.
And of course, the really sick thing is that they've derided us not only by saying that you were crazy, essentially, but by using the very CIA weaponized term conspiracy theorist that has been used against us when reporting honestly on Syria.
So they know that term.
is used to discredit to just blanket discredit somebody, but they're using it themselves.
It's just like such a state of hypocrisy.
You know, if you don't agree with us, like yourself, James, you and I probably differ on a number of perspectives.
Right?
But that's okay.
Like, we can still have a really honest, civil conversation.
Yeah, and I'm happy to be corrected if I'm wrong on something.
You know, I'm going to look out for what's the evidence and stuff.
And yeah, persuade me, show me.
That seems to be the position for any journalist.
Yeah, so there are some, I'm not going to get into name calling, but I think people who are following, you know, know who I might be referring to.
There's some that were particularly vicious and nasty in tarring all of us who were just questioning.
And there are others that just have not even touched the issue of like, for example, lockdowns in, say, Australia.
Let's go there, actually, Eva, we should talk about that.
And I want you to tell me about Canada as well.
Tell me first about Canada, because I think Canadians were sort of proud, independent people, you know, sort of living in quite harsh climate, some of them, and coping very, very well.
And yet, I look at your former country, and I think, what the fuck?
I mean, how did Trudeau get a second term?
How are Canadians taking this stuff?
I mean, why is there not more resistance?
I don't know how Trudeau got a second term other than suspecting there might be some rigging involved.
Can I do that?
Because somebody told me they hadn't got Dominion voting machines.
A Canadian assured me sort of rather pompously, I thought, because I didn't really answer my question.
I do not believe that he won that vote legitimately, but I don't know how they rigged it.
Do you?
I don't know, so I'm not really going to speculate.
I hate the issue of Western elections because I think they're just a fraud in any case.
Even if you believe that, for example, Biden won the US elections, which I don't believe, but even if you do, You know, I still feel like you really only get to a position of power in Western societies if you're already playing the game.
So, you know, you might have a different face, whether it's Trump or Biden, but like, effectively, it seems like the same policies are played out.
So I don't get into like the my team, like go team, whatever, Trudeau, whatever.
Um so but but all that to say I did briefly flirt with the idea of writing an op-ed about the elections and I think if I remember when I was researching I think that um Trudeau had a a good deal of support from the the wealthier which would make sense I suppose because the the wealthier have just gotten wealthier during these lockdowns and it's the middle class who've been destroyed and and the working class obviously.
Yeah that was the term.
Um but yeah Canadians are are massively complacent it's just like You know, as I was saying at the beginning, like there's a misperception in my perspective that Canada is just this nice, kind, benevolent country.
Yeah.
But I think because of that misperception, Canadians view ourselves as like, oh, well, we're just do-gooders, you know, we're just easy to please and like easygoing and nice people and blah, blah, blah.
I don't really understand the The reason for our complacency, but I know it's something that bothered me when I would come back from Syria and I'd want to talk with people and eyes would glaze over and there was no interest whatsoever.
And, you know, I don't want to say that about all Canadians.
It's not fair, but certainly there's a degree of complacency that like, uh, I haven't been in Canada since I left in February, I think it was last year, but I still have family there and friends there.
And it is shocking how much people have accepted.
You know, after Australia, Canada, Ontario in particular has had one of the longest lockdowns in the world, you know, and I just, I don't understand where people's common sense has gotten to.
Yes.
You know, in both, I'm very fortunate in that both my brothers, I have two brothers, and they're both very well informed.
On most critical issues from 9-11 to COVID and on the other hand for them it's been quite isolating and lonely because people they know in their daily lives maybe aren't necessarily informed and they can't have conversations about the ineffectiveness of masks or you know the ridiculousness of physical distancing or they like how lockdowns are dangerous etc.
So I don't I don't really know to be to Give you a long answer why Canadians are so complacent.
I just know that it's gotten to a dangerous point where now I believe it's the end of, I might get the date wrong, at the end of this month they're imposing a no travel unless you've been jabbed.
Yes, I think it's the end of this month, isn't it?
Yeah, I mean, I think there's some like little thing like maybe until the end of November, you could travel if you have like a negative COVID test, which of course we know is ridiculous anyway.
I think that might be a clause.
But anyway, regardless, end of this month, end of November, what the Corbett's out there were warning of has come to fruition.
And that is, this is not just like you need a QR code or a COVID Pass in order to go to see a movie or baseball game or whatever.
It's going to be every aspect of life, you know, and I don't know how people have been.
Well, it's indoctrination.
I was going to say, I don't know how people have been so accepting of this, but it is indoctrination and it's just, it's maddening.
You know, I interviewed a woman, an Italian woman living in Canada who has multiple sclerosis, and she's talking about how.
Because she and her husband will refuse to get the job, they're going to be unemployed and she will no longer be able to afford her medications for MS.
So she's saying, you know, effectively these government policies are going to kill me because I will not be able to afford my medication.
And then she pointed out to me that also some hospital in Toronto will not do organ transplants unless the person has been jabbed.
And it's just like, you know, these lockdowns have already prevented people from getting lifesaving surgeries or medical care or whatever, because they're not COVID patients.
And now, because you're not jabbed, you're going to be denied medical care or denied travel.
It's just, it's a monstrous level of fascism.
It is monstrous.
I recently had a Deling Pod live event and among the people who came were this couple who had recently fled Canada and they were obviously quite prosperous.
The guy had worked in the financial sector.
They decided in the space of three weeks that the climate was becoming intolerable.
It was a bit like Jews in Vienna in the 1930s, realising that it was leave or die.
And I said, well, that must have cost you a lot of money.
And he said, it's a figure not unadjacent to the amount that you said that you would not take to have a vaccine.
And I think I said that I would not take the vaccine, even if somebody were to pay me 10 million pounds.
So these people had probably lost 10 million pounds worth of property and stuff.
That's how keen they were to get away from Canada.
I pity all those people who have not got the money to do that.
But here's a thought.
You're a Canadian.
Broadcasting from Russia now.
Can you imagine what the media coverage would have been only, say, two years ago if Putin had declared that you weren't allowed to leave Russia unless you'd have an experimental gene therapy shot, and that he'd imprisoned priests
for holding services or pastors but it's the amounts of the same thing for holding services given them a what five year sentence um or to give your example um if if if there were a woman with MS, who was no longer able to get treatment because of Putin's policy.
Do you think that that would have been ignored in the media, in the way that what's going on in Canada has been ignored?
I think it would have been all over the papers.
Absolutely.
And some of these journalists, well, no, I was going to say some of the journalists that have been silent on COVID, but that's a wrong analogy.
But yes, it definitely would have been all over.
I mean, that's the absurdity That people cannot see, you know, all these things.
They're not about health policies.
They're not about saving lives.
All these policies are about prolonging sicknesses or just killing people off.
And on the other hand, I was just reading Look, I don't know what the government here, what their official policy is going to be regarding in the future.
And I don't try to predict because I simply can't know.
But I did come across an article today that was talking about this.
I guess Russia is known for having these, I think they're called sanatoriums, but like these health spas.
And I was reading one article that this spa, I think it was northeast of Moscow somewhere, was providing post COVID healthcare for free.
And it was like involving pool therapy, massage, all this stuff for free.
I mean, obviously there's going to be a long waiting list, but just contrast this to what's going on in Canada.
And you're right.
Like media would be up, up in arms if it was, if it was Putin or Assad, for example, and you know, Syria, Of course, no country is perfect, but Syria does have free health care.
It's not perfect, and it's impacted by the sanctions, obviously.
But still, they're still giving free health care after 10 years of war and sanctions, and Canada is actively denying people health care.
I really feel as though we've gone through the looking glass.
I think a lot of people who watch this podcast and probably follow your stuff will feel exactly the same way.
That it is like, it's like a bad acid trip or something.
I think it's worth dwelling on this point.
Like, you and I, we went into journalism, probably because we were Naturally curious.
I mean, I'm not saying I went in as a crusader for truth, but I did think that kind of finding out what's really going on was the deal, right?
That's what you want to do.
You're curious.
You want to know the truth.
You don't want to know what the lie is that you should tell your readers because somebody is telling you to lie.
That feels wrong somehow.
So what's happening in Canada is so
Totalitarian, so redolent of all the kind of the terrible states that we used to study in history lessons at school, you know, be it Pol Pot's Cambodia or Stalin's Soviet Union or Mao's China or Enver Hoxha's Albania or Castro's Cuba, all these regimes that we've been warned off, they've been held up to as an example from history of how not to do it.
And then you get I suppose liberal Western democracy doing it.
And what are the journalists all doing?
What are they all saying?
It's crickets.
It's absolutely unbelievable.
What's going through the journalist's head that are not reporting on this stuff?
I mean, James, I think it's the same thing as journalists like Lisa Sayer, and she's not alone, of course, in lying about Syria.
They've made a conscious decision that that it's career and maybe kickbacks above all else.
Like, I don't know how Somebody could knowingly lie, whether it's about war propaganda on Syria, or whether it's about, you know, denied healthcare and not reporting on lockdowns in Canada.
I don't know how somebody could knowingly.
For me, I'm like yourself, you said earlier, look, I'm open to learning, I'm open to be proven wrong, proven wrong.
I'm open to changing my views.
I'm the same way, you know, but if I don't know something, then I will just be Quite frankly say, I don't know, but I'm open to learning, but I would never, I could never, I could never say like, Oh no, you know, lockdowns are really good.
I think that's a great idea.
You know, I don't think that maybe some believe it, but you know, how could they believe it now after so many, after everything, after a year and a half plus of this, how could you believe it now?
I get it.
Maybe early on you could believe, okay, this is the best remedy, but now.
How can you not see?
Okay, look at Sweden.
It didn't lock down.
Look at wherever else.
Look at Syria.
I mean, I was in Syria for half of last year, from March to the end of September, and I was walking all over Damascus.
And, you know, at the beginning of last year, we were seeing reports of people dropping dead in the streets around the world, right?
Or maybe it was just in China.
And I wasn't seeing that in Syria.
So, you know, And they were not social distancing and they were not doing any of the things that people in the West were being made to do.
So, you know, why don't people say, OK, wait, it's now it's now what month are we now?
October 2021.
And, you know, these gloom and doom predictions didn't happen.
And why are we talking about cases, not deaths anymore?
You know, and I don't know why people cannot simply exercise their common sense.
And as for the journalists that who No, they should be questioning, but don't.
I think it's a case of them choosing career, whatever incomes they have, whether it's Patreon or whatever other platforms they're earning.
I do think there's a case of them not wanting to rock the boat because they don't want to be called a conspiracy theorist or they don't want to lose their income.
But for myself and yourself and others like us, and of course there are many, this is our life.
This is our future.
I don't care if everywhere I write deplatforms me, I'm still going to say the same thing.
I don't want my mother to be forced with a vaccination.
I want to see my mom again, and I can't.
I can't go back to Canada.
I want to see my brothers again.
I want my brother's kids to grow up As normal children, not stuck behind some screen, learning from home because they can't go to school or not sitting in a cubicle at school, being forced not to interact with other children, not being forced to wear a mask, you know, and not knowing what a human smile is like anymore.
Like, I don't want any of this for anybody.
It's certainly not for my nephew and nephews and nieces.
So I don't understand why other journalists or people with platforms, why don't they care about that?
And a lot of these people take anti-imperialist stances.
So why don't you care about all the people that have been rendered impoverished by these lockdowns?
Why don't you care about that?
You talk about Black Lives Matter, but you don't care about the people who are completely devastated by this.
It's a hypocrisy I really can't understand.
No, I think we should use our, I'd love to talk to you for hours and hours and hours, but maybe, maybe we'll come back.
But I think a lot of people will be wondering, you know, Eva's in Russia, because everyone's looking around the world thinking, where do I flee to?
Where can I flee to?
I mean, I know that Russia's got very strict entry policies.
It's very hard to get residency there.
But what's it like living in Russia?
How strict are the COVID regulations and where are they on vaccines?
Oh, sorry, experimental gene therapy.
And what's it like?
What's the deal?
OK, well, I moved here in January.
So my understanding is that Russia did do a lockdown last year, but since then has not done so.
And I was just reading something today saying that the government, much like Syria, chose to prioritize allowing businesses and the economy to function rather than than destroying the economy, as Canada has done.
So I don't I don't know what it was like last year, but in my experience, since I've come here in January, In theory, you're supposed to wear masks on the metro, public transportation and in shops.
Although I don't live in Moscow, in January I was there for a couple of weeks before I found a place to live and I was riding the metro quite frequently.
Only once did a police officer tell me to mask up and then did not enforce it.
So there was no, I have to make this point, there was no police coming over and beating the crap out of someone because they're not wearing a mask as we've seen in Australia.
Yes.
There was just like a, hey, put your mask on.
I was like, hey, okay, sure.
And then I walked on and didn't do it and they didn't follow up.
But I will just, if I may, just elaborate a little bit, James.
Around that time, there was a lot of media coverage about these pro-Navalny protests, which really were a smattering of kids that, I guess, saw it on TikTok that they should go out and support this nobody named Navalny.
But anyway, the Western theme was that there was police brutality against these protesters.
And I had seen a protest a couple of years ago when I was here, same Western theme, police brutality.
So I went to this protest as well, same as two years ago, there was no police brutality.
There were some batons being used, but actually what you didn't see before were the instigators that were ramming the police before the batons came down.
For the most part, I saw police linking arms and just clearing squares like this, not like what you see in Australia or France or elsewhere.
But, you know, back to your question earlier of what if Sorry, I was going to make a point about police brutality, like the scenes that we see in Australia.
If they were here in Russia, then we'd have the media screaming.
Totally.
But anyway, back to your point.
Sorry, that's a digression.
Basically, in my experience, now I live south of Moscow.
I go into the city every so often.
I went into Moscow last night for a concert and I was told to put a mask on at the door.
Nobody enforced it.
I did not wear a mask.
Nobody, pretty much the whole crowd was not wearing masks.
There's no social distancing, of course.
It was a wonderful concert.
People were dancing, having a great time.
There were kids and entire families there.
So I guess the thing is, I think there are elements in Russia that want to go along with this globalist plan.
And I can't speak to what the government really thinks or believes.
The government has been pushing for people to get the jab, the Sputnik one.
I can't even speak really to how much that is different from the Western ones.
But I was reading today that less than 40% of adults here are vaccinated, are jabbed.
And I know from speaking with friends here, Russian and expat friends that have lived here for a while, There is a very strong anti-vaccine sentiment here.
Some, I think a small amount, are for religious reasons and others just a lack of trust in them, in vaccines.
I don't really know what's going to come, but one of the articles I was reading today was saying Russia isn't going to impose a new lockdown.
I don't know, I guess we'll see, but generally I'm living my life very freely.
Again, nobody's forcing me to mask.
Sometimes If a supermarket cashier who has to ask me for their job asked me to do it, then I put it on my chin and all is fine.
You know, it's ridiculous.
But it's quite leaning and it's certainly not the draconian scenes that we're seeing in Canada or Australia.
Do you know anything about the Russian Orthodox Church's position?
I know that Patriarch Kirill, I think, said that he thought that the vaccines, so-called vaccines, were the mark of the beast.
So that was a fairly clear indication of where he stood on the issue.
You mentioned for religious reasons.
Is the Orthodox Church generally... again?
A couple of people I went to the concert with last night, they're both Orthodox.
One is Russian, one is not.
He's converted to Russian Orthodoxy, Orthodox Christianity.
And they were both saying that the people they know in their churches, they're all very strongly anti-vax.
So I get a feeling that within the Orthodox community, that is a strong sentiment.
But I don't know, I don't know their official position.
I should look that up, actually.
Like the official, you mentioned the patriarch.
So that's good to know.
So finally, how do we get to move to Russia?
How easy is that?
Come be my neighbour!
I would love that.
We'd have so much fun.
Well, I mean, actually, so this one of the guys, he's involved with Okay.
trying to expand some orthodox community outside of Moscow and doing agriculture.
But anyway, he mentioned offhand, he knows five Canadian families that are coming here.
I said, wow, like how are they coming here?
I thought it was, I thought it was difficult to get here and apparently tourist visas are not so difficult.
I think they were saying, I can't, I can't ascertain this or not or affirm this, but they were saying that in recent months it's been easier to get tourist visas.
So that might be one way people could approach. - Well, there's lots of space I've noticed in Russia.
It's famous for it, isn't it?
Yeah, yeah, I mean...
I really wish, do you know what, like about six months ago, nine months ago, I consulted a friend who was in, who writes about finance and I was saying, I really fancy buying into Russia at the moment.
I just, I've got good feelings about it, that it's going to do much, much better out of this, this global mayhem than most of the economy.
And unfortunately, I didn't do anything about it.
But I think because I guess I think, you know, Gazprom shares, for example, must be rocketing, right?
If you presumably you can buy Gazprom shares.
I just got I've got a feeling that Russia is going to weather this better than most countries.
And I have that feeling as well.
Again, aside from knowing how much elements of the government are a part of this or not, I feel like, well, I mean, Russia has weathered the fall of the Soviet Union, right?
And people have gone through the very hard times.
They've been through the Great Reset already.
Yeah, and like you began by asking me if I was living in a dacha.
But you know, a lot of the people where I live, live here full time and others, there are dachas in the region.
And so I walk around all the time, there's a big beautiful forest, a 10 minute walk away from me, I take my my two pups with me almost daily and have like, I could walk for hours in the forest.
And it's just like a wonderful respite.
But in getting there, I pass all these houses.
And in the summer, yeah, I saw Gardens overflowing with vegetables and fruit trees everywhere.
I feel like Russians are, you know, there are still black markets here.
I don't really know how they operate, but I think that's why I chose to come here.
I can't predict how it's going to play out, but I felt like this was my best chance.
For the reasons you mentioned, there's so much space here.
Even if I can never travel internationally again, I can still travel in Russia and see so much culture and beauty here.
You don't need to.
You've got the Crimea for your seaside.
You've got Sochi or wherever for your skiing.
It's all there, isn't it?
Oh yeah, you've got the North.
You've got Murmansk for your Arctic experience.
Yeah, up in your Northern Lights.
I also feel like Russians are among the best prepared to weather this.
But ironically, I talked about Gaza and them essentially living the longest lockdown in the world.
They have nothing.
Almost 2 million Palestinians in Gaza have been rendered destitute by the Israeli blockade and their policies of just destroying every means of their existence possible, but they still exist, you know, and so.
Although they are destitute, they still exist.
Whereas I think people in the West really are going to have to catch up with Palestinians on how to survive with the bare minimum.
Because I'm sure you're following this, but there have been a lot of reports of food shortages, which is something that's being manufactured quite clearly.
But I think it is really going to impact on people.
And most people in the West are going to be screwed.
They won't know.
They won't have a means to grow their own food.
They won't have the ability, maybe they're living in the city or whatever.
And I'm really worried about that.
I'm not sure where in the UK you are based, but are you feeling like that's going to be impacting you?
Totally, but it's something that one can't talk about because it's just so depressing.
And anyway, people don't believe you.
Those who know, know.
Those who don't know are going to get in for a very nasty shock.
Anyway, I've really loved talking to you and I wish we could talk longer.
So many people watching this are going to be really envying you, I have to say.
I mean, I'm sorry if your family is stuck in Canada, but at least one of you has got out and one of you is somewhere safe.
I mean, I'd say to everyone, learn Russian and Because it's probably the best hope.
And it's funny, isn't it?
Well, I hope you make it over here.
I hope others make it over here.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, you've painted a very, very fine picture of it.
Is there anything you'd like to promote?
Do you have a patron or anything?
Or how do you make ends meet?
I have a donate button on my blog.
It's a very small donate on ingaza.wordpress.com.
I do nominally have Patreon, but out of protest, I stopped posting there because, I'm not sure if you heard, but sometime earlier this year or last year, Patreon, I think they froze Corbett's account.
And he, when he talked about it, said, I've literally never posted on Patreon.
All he did was link the Corbett report to Patreon.
And they froze his account.
Because of something he posted elsewhere.
So I thought like, that's ridiculous amount of censorship.
I think they also, I think they also froze Whitney Webb's account, if I remember correctly.
So I was just like, okay.
Oh, I've got Whitney Webb coming up.
This is a thing, like.
I'm going to get cancelled, aren't I?
I'm going to get cancelled.
Well, anyway.
Oh, yeah.
I'm sorry that I haven't yet had your moral courage to get rid of all my patron income.
Corey Morningstar.
You need to get Corey Morningstar on.
I know, I know.
I've been... You know her, right?
Canadian researcher and fantastic researcher.
Corinne Morningstar.
She's brilliant.
She turned me on to the car ages ago.
I read an article.
She introduced me to the term communitarianism, and I understood through some of her writing.
This was about 10 years ago.
And I thought, who is this person?
Yeah, you're right.
She'd be good.
Eva, you've been great as well.
Thank you so much.
Well, thank you.
Before I go, I must tap for my own Patreon and Subscribestar.
Freedom isn't free, and I really appreciate those of you who can support me.
I met some of you the other day at my Delingpod live event, and I'm going to have more.
It was really good fun.
And yeah, I'm on Subscribestar and Patreon.
And also, delingpodworld.com, there's a button where you can pay me in Bitcoin.
I mean, come on, some of you, those of you who've got Bitcoin, We'll have a bit to spare right now because you've made massive profits, so yeah.
Eva, thank you again for being on the podcast.
It's been really fun and enjoy your dacha.
Thank you very much, James.
It has been fun.
Okay, great.
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