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| Happy New Year Everyone! |
| 12.31.04 (1:49 pm) [edit] |
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| Supermarket Giants Crush Central American Farmers |
| 12.31.04 (1:02 pm) [edit] |
This is a condensed version of a 4 page article at the NY Times. Follow the link at the end of this article to read the details.
Across Latin America, supermarket chains partly or wholly owned by global corporate goliaths like Ahold, Wal-Mart and Carrefour have revolutionized food distribution in the short span of a decade and have now begun to transform food growing, too.
The megastores are popular with customers for their lower prices, choice and convenience. But their sudden appearance has brought unanticipated and daunting challenges to millions of struggling, small farmers.
Most of these small farmers will go bust because they lack the expertise and money that would help them meet supermarket specifications.
In the 1990's supermarkets went from controlling 10 to 20 percent of the market in the region to dominating it. While the changes have happened more slowly in poorer, more rural Central American countries, they have begun to quicken here, too.
But, The hope that small farmers would benefit by banding together in business-minded associations has not been borne out.
Its feeble attempts to sell to major supermarkets illustrate how the odds are stacked against small farmers, as well as the uneven effects of globalization itself. Many small farmers in the region are getting left behind, while medium-sized and larger growers, with more money and marketing savvy, are far more likely to benefit.
The bottom line: supermarkets and their privately set standards already loom larger for many farmers than the rules of the World Trade Organization.
Farmers who do not or cannot afford to change fast enough to meet the standards set by supermarkets are threatened.
The tiny farming community of Lo de Silva clings to a steep, verdant hillside. Slanting cornstalks look as if they would slide into the valley if they were not rooted to the earth.
Some of the more than 300 farmers who originally belonged to Mr. Chinchilla's co-op, the Association of Small Irrigation Users of Palencia - known by its Spanish acronym, Asumpal - were from this village. Only eight remain. The only product they still sell is salad tomatoes - and they sell to middlemen, not supermarkets.
José Luis Pérez Escobar, 44, a member of the co-op, scratched out a living for 20 years from his small field, perched in the clouds here.
But after his potato crop failed last year, he migrated to the United States to save his land from foreclosure by the bank, leaving his wife, María Graciela Lorenzana, and their five children behind. He now works the graveyard shift at a golf course in Texas for $6 an hour so he can pay his debts.
He had dreamed his cooperative would help him escape poverty by selling directly to the supermarkets. "It would be magnificent," Mrs. Lorenzana recalled of that more hopeful time. "The small farmer would not need a middleman. But he was never able to achieve it."
Most concern about the perils of globalization for local farmers has focused on unfair trade competition from heavily subsidized American and European producers.
But increasingly, supermarkets also leave small farmers exposed as the stores spread from big cities to small towns, from well-to-do enclaves to working-class neighborhoods, from richer countries to poorer ones. As the chains' market share expands, farmers who are shut out find themselves forced to retreat to shrinking rural markets.
Economic growth has not kept pace with rising populations. The number of people living below poverty lines in Latin America has risen from 200 million in 1990 to 224 million this year. More than 6 in 10 people living in rural areas are still poor.
Even in economically vibrant Chile, which has invested $1.5 billion in small-scale farming since 1990, a study of 750 farmer organizations found that 8 of 10 had failed or survived only with continuous infusions of government aid.
Mr. Berdegué, author of the Chile study, had sought to make the associations work in the 1990's when he was a senior government official there. The pressure from the I.M.F. and the World Bank to allow greater foreign investment was intended to make Latin American economies more competitive.
"But the model did not have a social dimension at the real center," he said. "It was trickle-down economics."
The farmers themselves were uncomfortable with the rules of the supermarket game. They found it difficult to wait weeks to get paid. They did not want to sell their vegetables on the books and pay taxes that sharply cut profits. And some of what they supplied was rejected as too bruised or too limp or too ripe.
In one example each farmer is growing less than an acre of salad tomatoes in rustic greenhouses that are fast deteriorating. Their production has plummeted because of the blight that dries out the plants, which then yield very small tomatoes. They wonder if it's the water or the soil itself. But, "Everything costs money," he explained - money he does not have and cannot afford to borrow at the going rate of 21 percent. "When you don't have access to credit, you can't expand," he said. "We don't want anything given to us, but we need a hand."
This is a small excerpt from a NY times article. Read the rest Supermarket Giants Crush Central American Farmers
“We welcome the process of globalisation. It is inescapable and irreversible. ...” However, he added, “...if globalisation is to create real peace and stability across the world, it must be a process benefiting all. It must not allow the most economically and politically powerful countries to dominate and submerge the countries of the weaker and peripheral regions. It should not be allowed to drain the wealth of smaller countries towards the larger ones, or to increase inequality between richer and poorer regions.”
Nelson Mandela
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| FamilyLinks |
| 12.30.04 (10:37 am) [edit] |
The ICRC today launched a website to help people obtain information about family members in the tsunamis disaster zone.
People in the affected countries can register on the site to inform their families that they are safe and well, and families can consult the list of people who have registered. It is also possible to search for names of relatives.
FamilyLinks.icrc.org can be found here.
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| Tsunamis aid will not be quick enough for many |
| 12.30.04 (10:28 am) [edit] |
Well, I've spent the last hour reading about the dead and dying from the tsunami disaster. People are starving, have no clean water to drink and disease is spreading. Even the doctors are getting sick. The death toll is nearing the 100,000 mark and will surely rise by the minute if these poor people don't get food, water and medicine quickly. But how seems to be the question. It's very frustrating.
"If within three to four days relief does not arrive, there will be a starvation disaster that will cause mass deaths," chief police detective Rilo Pambudi said in the e-mail, released by officials in Jakarta.
If you haven't made a donation please do so today. As we know pledges are just that. Much that is pledged at the height of a crisis is never seen. Organizations such as the Red Cross need cash. Give yours today. We made our donation at Croix-Rouge Français and will set aside enough for a monthly donation. I'm sure most of us can do this. They need cash today. Does anyone know of online organizations that accept less than $25? There are many that can't give this much but would like to give something. Please let me know of organizations accepting small donations online.
Aid Reaches Tsunami Victims, But Only a Trickle
Hundreds of tons of medical supplies have been flown to the wider region but the United Nations admits only a fraction of the aid has yet got to where it is needed, in the coastal areas where Sunday's sea swell killed more than 80,000 people.
"We are doing very little at the moment," U.N. emergency relief coordinator Jan Egeland acknowledged in New York, as aid workers reached many stricken areas, but were still thin on the ground in a region with up to 5 million people in need.
"It will take maybe 48 to 72 hours more to be able to respond to the tens of thousands of people who would like to have assistance today -- or yesterday, rather," he said. "I believe the frustration will be growing in the days and the weeks ahead."
Some have not eaten since Sunday when the tsunami hit and now face a fight for their lives against infections and diseases, such as elephantiasis, cholera, typhoid, hepatitis, bronchitis, pneumonia, malaria, meningitis and haemorrhagic fever.
From Indonesia to Sri Lanka the story was the same, as people, many injured with broken bones and cuts, wandered debris- and corpse-strewn streets in a hunt for clean water and food. Reuters
Red Cross fears messy response to tsunami
"I think we can clearly anticipate there will be a very confused situation with a lot organizations putting in supplies. I wouldn't expect coordination to be in good shape for another couple of weeks," said Peter Rees, head of operational support with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).
"I do not think anyone can expect a really good coordinated response this time. This is quite normal for a disaster of this size. So we mitigate against the worst effect of bad coordination," Rees told reporters.
He said the Federation would work closely with the lead UN's emergency relief coordination office:
"To try and bring the whole international community in line with the international coordinated response but its going to be messy." Washington Times
Millions hunt food as tsunami toll passes 87,000
"Villages have been washed away," said Rod Volway of CARE Canada, whose emergency response team was one of the first into Indonesia's northern Aceh province, the worst-hit area with more than half of known deaths.
"This isn't just a situation of giving out food and water. Entire towns and villages need to be rebuilt from the ground up."
Some areas have yet to be reached. The death toll could rise to 100,000, said Peter Rees of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
U.N. officials say children could make up a third of victims.
As the world pledged $220 million in cash and sent a flotilla of ships and aircraft laden with supplies, history's biggest relief operation battled with the enormity of the task.
"As many as 5 million people are not able to access what they need for living," said David Nabarro, head of a World Health Organisation (WHO) crisis team.
Survivors in Aceh complained aid was only trickling in despite a mountain of supplies stacking up at the local airport. Aid officials blamed poor coordination with the military.
"There's no information. Just what you hear on the street. The coordination is very bad," said Banda Aceh resident Zulkarnaen, 36.
Hungry crowds jostling for aid biscuits besieged people delivering them in the town, so some drivers dared not stop.
"Some cars come by and throw food like that. The fastest get the food, the strong one wins. The elderly and the injured don't get anything. We feel like dogs," said Usman, 43.
In Sri Lanka's worst-hit area Ampara, residents ran things themselves, going around with loudhailers, asking people to donate pots and pans, buckets of fresh water and sarongs.
"The government has done nothing for us so far," said shopkeeper Mohammed Tamir, who lost a wife and daughter.
Indonesian aircraft dropped food to isolated areas along the western coast of Sumatra, an island the size of Florida.
"Frustration will be growing in the days and the weeks ahead," said U.N. emergency relief coordinator Jan Egeland.
Well over a million people have been left homeless. Hospitals are overwhelmed with the injured -- an estimated 100,000 or more. Alert Net
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| Indian Ocean Earthquake |
| 12.28.04 (10:14 am) [edit] |
Update: Wednesday - 29th
Tsunami Death Toll Soars Past 58,000
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia - Thousands of bodies lay rotting and unidentified on lawns and streets of battered Sumatra island Wednesday and authorities called out bulldozers to dig mass graves, as the number killed in a mammoth earthquake and tsunami soared above 58,000 with tens of thousands still missing. The U.N. health agency warned that disease could double the toll yet again.
AP
Tuesday - 28th
I'm reading this morning that the death toll has risen to 24,000 and will surely be much more. There are still tens of thousands reported missing. Communications have been lost with the Nan Kauri group of islands, some of which have been completely submerged, with the total number of the population out of contact exceeding 18,000. The west coast of Sumatra was about 100 km (60 mi) from the epicenter and would be expected to have taken heavy damage. At least five villages were completely destroyed.
Rescue efforts have been hampered because of water, lack of communication and the lack of a relief plan for a disaster of this nature.
Large amounts of humanitarian aid are needed due to widespread damage to infrastructure, food and water shortages and economic damage to the fishing and tourism industries. Epidemics are of special concern, as they are highly likely due to the high population density and tropical climate of the affected areas. The United Nations has stated that the largest relief operation in history is underway.
The overwhelming concern of humanitarian and government agencies is to quickly identify and bury the dead before they become a health issue and contribute to the spread of diseases such as cholera, diphtheria, dysentery and typhoid. Other high priorities are delivery of medical supplies and personnel to overwhelmed hospitals and clinics, tent shelters and clothing to people who have lost their houses and belongings, and potable water. Many usual sources of water were spoiled either by salt water, broken by the force of the tsunami, or contaminated with bodies of dead people or livestock, requiring water purification equipment or trucking potable water into the affected region.
The best most of us can do is to give financially in whatever way we can. I plan to make a donation today probably at the Red Cross. It will be small as we don't have much. I say this only to encourage others who may feel the little they have to give won't make a difference. The little adds up and does count.
Wikipedia has the best information on this disaster and is updating it as things change. They have also a list of sites accepting on-line donations.
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| Socialist 'and' Christian Christmas |
| 12.27.04 (11:16 am) [edit] |
An anonymous man walked into the Samaritan House Shelter Christmas Eve and gave $35,000 in cash to needy residents. The man said he had once been homeless and knew what it was to be in need. He said he had also distributed money at a Las Vegas shelter. He gave $5,000 to one family of six in need of housing in lieu of a promise that if he gave them this money they would use it to find housing. ABC
Imagine one human being relating to other human beings as a fellow member of the same community rather than a tool of production that is no longer useful.
I realize this man is probably not a Socialist or even a Christian. But his actions were uncannily "Socialist and Christian."
"It was like seeing Santa Claus and God all at once," said William Chengelis, who has lived at the shelter since November. "You hear about stuff like that but you don't think you'll be there when it happens."
"From each according to abilities, to each according to needs!" Karl Marx
"Neither was there any among them that lacked: for those who were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold, And laid them down at the apostles' feet: and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need." Acts 4:34-35
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| Eyewitness Interview: Iraq is an absolute disaster |
| 12.27.04 (9:31 am) [edit] |
The following is only a tiny bit from a transcript of an interview between Leonard Lopate of WNYC and Michael Ware, Baghdad bureau chief for TIME magazine. What Mr. Ware speaks of many of us have been able to deduce from the shards and slivers he speaks of.
Do read the entire interview here.
WARE: Actually, many people joke, perhaps a little too seriously, that if we release Saddam and allowed him to run in this election, he would go very close to winning right now. Simply because so desperately crave the security which he was able to deliver. But this is not the real legacy that I fear of the folly of Iraq . It’s not a civil war that tears Iraq apart, as dreadful as that would be… We are giving birth to the next generation of Jihad. September 11 was in many ways the end note of al Qaida as we know it. Osama knew that he would be severely impaired after September 11, really it was an act of inspiration. He was lifting the lid off the Pandora’s Box of Jihad. After that, they were looking for a platform upon which to wage that Jihad, and we gave it to them. Invading Iraq on the sketchiest of grounds… to prevent a link to terrorism that was… not… there. Saddam was a threat? Without a doubt. He was a menace, he was a dictator to his people. He was a human rights nightmare. But, was he exporting terror? No! Now, we are doing that. We’ve created the new Afghanistan . Where the new generation of Al Qaida is blooding themselves and returning out to the rest of the world to spread….
LOPATE: So, we’re seeing a repeat of history? The last time it was when the Soviet Union went into Afghanistan and inspired a Jihad? And now the United States and Britain , and a number of other allies… Poland , for example, as the President reminds us, have done the same thing…
WARE: Absolutely, I mean it’s not just turning Iraqis to a religious fanaticism and a lust for Jihad against us within Iraq . It’s also, I mean…. Some of these guys I would speak to would say, “Look, we just want the Americans out of our country, and we want to be left to our own devices. Iraqi solutions to Iraqi problems.” Now these guys say to me, “I’m fighting for Islam.” And I say, “Well, what will you do when the Americans leave?” They said, “Well, we’ll follow them.” And the other thing is , young Muslim men are pouring in over the borders. Bathing themselves in the blood of Jihad in Iraq . And then, going home again. This is Afghanistan . This was what the Al Qaida generation, or class of veterans from Afghanistan did. We’re creating the next generation. We’ve already created their next leader: Abu Muzab al Zarqawi. A marginal figure before this invasion. Now, he has a price on his head that is matched only by Osama himself. And, his place in the Jihad milieu in fact threatens Osamas. ICH
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| Peace |
| 12.25.04 (9:57 am) [edit] |
I wish everyone a happy holiday season however you may celebrate it. I hope we all take the time between tearing into gifts and stuffing our faces to think about those less fortunate right outside our doors and around the world.
Peace!
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| One Billion Children |
| 12.24.04 (6:45 am) [edit] |
One billion children are suffering from one or more forms of deprivation according to the latest UNICEF report.
Four hundred million children do not have access to clean water. They either have to drink surface water or walk more than 15 minutes to find a protected water source. This means that on average one in five children in developing countries are severely deprived of water. In some areas the figure is much higher. For example, in Ethiopia, Rwanda and Uganda it rises to 80 percent.
One third of the developing world’s children lack sanitation. The total number is 500 million—that is, a third of children in developing countries have “no access whatever” to sanitation. This dramatically increases the risk of disease, especially intestinal worms which “sap learning ability.”
For 270 million children in developing countries there is no access to health care services. A quarter of children in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa do not receive immunisations for the six main diseases and if they succumb to diarrhoea have no access to treatment.
Shelter deprivation, which the report defines as living in dwellings with more that five people per room or no floor material, affects 640 million children.
Amongst children aged between 7-18 years, 13 percent or more than 140 million have never been to school. The rate is even higher in some areas; in sub-Saharan Africa, 32 percent of girls and 27 percent of boys never attend school. Nearly a third of all children in the developing world have no access to television, radio, newspapers or phones. In an increasingly globalised world, more and more reliant on knowledge-based technologies, this denial of education and access to information puts these children at a severe disadvantage.
The report found that 16 percent of children in the developing world were severely malnourished. Half of those affected live in South Asia. They were more vulnerable to disease and likely to suffer learning difficulties.
The impact of the HIV/AIDS pandemic has seriously exacerbated the insecurity of children in developing countries. Worldwide 38 million people currently are HIV infected, of which two million are children under 15. Half of all infants infected with HIV, usually passed to them in the womb, die before the age of two.
The report notes; “By 2003, 15 million children—80 percent of them in sub-Saharan Africa—had been orphaned by the disease... The pandemic has contributed to higher poverty levels, an increased incidence of child labour and dramatically shortened life spans. In Botswana, for instance, over 37 percent of adults are infected with HIV—and a child born there in 2003 could expect to live just 39 years, down from 65 years in 1990.
Unicef
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| Take action on election violations! |
| 12.24.04 (6:24 am) [edit] |
How can we have confidence in American democracy when so many questions about this election remain unanswered? In addition to the longstanding issues subtly undermining democracy -- corporate domination of the two major parties, plurality elections, and corporate media bias - the recent election betrayed democratic principles overtly.
On January 6, 2005, Congress will meet in joint session to certify the 2004 presidential election. On that day, if one member of the House and one member of the Senate object to the certification of the vote, then all members of Congress will finally discuss these issues. On January 6, 2001, not a single Senator would join with the Representatives who demanded an inquiry into the Florida recount. This year, let's make our Senators take a stand!
The following seven Senators are some of the most progressive members of the Senate. Please call them immediately, and urge them to defend democracy on January 6.
*SPREAD THE WORD TO PEOPLE YOU KNOW TO KEEP DOING THE SAME UNTIL JANUARY 6.*
Senator Barbara Boxer, (202) 224-3553,
senator@boxer.senate.gov
Senator Dick Durbin, (202) 224-2152,
dick@durbin.senate.gov
Senator Russ Feingold, (202) 224-5323,
russ_feingold@feingold.senate.gov
Senator Tom Harkin, (202) 224-3254,
tom_harkin@harkin.senate.gov
Senator Jim Jeffords, (202) 224-5141,
Vermont@jeffords.senate.gov
Senator Edward Kennedy, 202/224-4543,
senator@kennedy.senate.gov
Senator Patrick Leahy, (202) 224-4242,
senator_leahy@leahy.senate.gov
ON JANUARY 6, PROTEST IN WASHINGTON, DC AND AT SENATORS' OFFICES IN YOUR OWN COMMUNITIES
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| Liberated, Occupied, Confined |
| 12.22.04 (10:09 am) [edit] |
Do be sure to follow the link and read the entire article. The Iraq situation stinks more and more everyday. Iraq is not becoming more free and democratic. One autocrat has been replaced with another. They torture. They kill. They oppress. They incite terrorist. It's not the first time and probably won't be the last. But, for goodness sake stop eating it up and calling it democracy and freedom. Humanbeings are losing their lives, bodyparts and sanity. Not to mention..sporadic electricity, clean drinking water and shortage of oil and gas in a country that's drowning in the stuff. Take off those rose-colored glasses just once..please.
The US state department has launched a $10m "Iraqi women's democracy initiative" to train Iraqi women in the skills and practices of democratic life ahead of the forthcoming elections. Paula Dobriansky, US undersecretary of state for global affairs, declared:"We will give Iraqi women the tools, information and experience they need to run for office and lobby for fair treatment." The fact that the money will go mainly to organisations embedded with the US administration, such as the Independent Women's Forum (IWF) founded by Dick Cheney's wife Lynn, was, of course, not mentioned.
Of all the blunders by the US administration in Iraq, the greatest is its failure to understand Iraqi people, women in particular. The main misconception is to perceive Iraqi women as silent, powerless victims in a male-controlled society in urgent need of "liberation". This image fits conveniently into the big picture of the Iraqi people being passive victims who would welcome the occupation of their country.
The reality is different. Iraqi women were actively involved in public life even under the Ottoman empire. In 1899 the first schools for girls were established, the first women's organisation in 1924. By 1937 there were four women's magazinespublished in Baghdad.
Women were involved in the 1920 revolution against British occupation, including in fighting. In the 50s, political parties established women's organisations. All reflected the same principle: fighting alongside men, women were also liberating themselves. That was proven in the aftermath of the 1958 revolution ending the British-imposed monarchy when women's organisations achieved within two years what over 30 years of British occupation failed to: legal equality.
This process led Unicef to report in 1993: "Rarely do women in the Arab world enjoy as much power as they do in Iraq ... men and women must receive equal pay for equal work. A wife's income is recognised as independent from her husband's. In 1974, education was made free at all levels, and in 1979 it was made compulsory for girls and boys until the age of 12." By the early 90s, Iraq had one of the highest literacy rates in the Arab world. There were more professional women in positions of power than in almost any other Middle Eastern nation There's more here
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| French journalist headed home |
| 12.22.04 (7:06 am) [edit] |
It's good to wake up to good news such as this. I have to say most mornings the news just makes me want to go back to bed and cover my head. We are living in tragic times that I find hard to bear just reading about. I try to imagine how those living in the reality of bombs both military and suicidal, hunger and disease manage to keep going.
It was mentioned in the article that no ransom had been mentioned. I have to say this. Who cares? If you can buy hostages freedom...go for it.
I'm thankful to all the Islamic organizations, Iraqis and others that involved themselves in getting these men freed. This does indeed make for a wonderful Christmas present for them and their families.
France is preparing to welcome back two journalists freed yesterday after being kidnapped in Iraq four months ago. Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot were taken hostage along with their Syrian driver en route to the southern city of Najaf. Their captors handed them over to French authorities in Baghdad and the pair are expected to return to Paris later today. Hopes were repeatedly raised and then dashed for their release when diplomatic efforts to secure their freedom were stepped up. Their driver was rescued last month when US marines were attempting to run rebels out of Fallujah.
Thierry Chesnot, brother of Christian, said it was a "wonderful Christmas present" and added that he had been told by the French prime minister's office that they were both in good health. Official French statements made no mention of any ransom being paid - or any other deal - to secure the two men's release.
Mr Chesnot and Mr Malbrunot are thought to have been the longest-held Western hostages in Iraq. The French press ran a continuous campaign for their release. Mr Chesnot, 37, was working for Radio France Internationale and Mr Malbrunot, 41, for Le Figaro daily newspaper. The journalists' captors - the Islamic Army in Iraq (IAI) - initially demanded that France scrap a law banning Muslim headscarves from being worn in schools. A statement quoted by Arabic TV channel al-Jazeera on Tuesday said the reporters were freed for political reasons.
The militants said the pair were freed "because they were proven not to spy for US forces", and in response to appeals and demands from Islamic institutions. EuroNews
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| Find Osama and American aid dries up |
| 12.21.04 (4:35 pm) [edit] |
Found this article via where the Dolphins Play. I can't say I agree with all Mr. Kuznicki says but he does make some interesting points.
I further suspect that someone in the Pakistani government has already grasped a very simple truth: Find Osama, and the American aid dries up. It's in Pakistan's best interest to prolong the war on terror as much as possible, scoring weapon systems, international aid, and loans to shore up its economy--all in preparation for a strike against India, a liberal democracy that would in a saner foreign policy be our one real friend in the region. The Pakistanis are making a killing by playing the United States off against its allies, and the future dictators of Iraq are no doubt taking notes.
What kind of friend do we have in Pakistan? Aside from its other failings, Pakistan refuses to hold democratic elections, oppresses political dissidents, and generally tramples on individual rights. In the best case scenario, that's probably what we are creating in Iraq right now; that's what our soldiers are dying for; and that's the best possible outcome that I can see. Positive Liberty
Would Pakistan be guilty of serving it's own interest before those of America or any other country? Of course! Why not? Staying at the top of the food chain is the name of the game.
As a sidenote: Unlike previous commenters to this blog, I do not feel catching Osama is no longer important. America will never find vindication through Iraq since Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. Is catching Osama important to those that lost loved ones in the attack? I expect it would at least give them a sense of real justice something I don't think the invasion of Iraq can ever do.
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| 'I' will bring peace said Mr. Bush |
| 12.21.04 (7:23 am) [edit] |
"I want you to know that I am going to invest a lot of time and a lot of creative thinking so that there will finally be peace between Israel and the Palestinians," Mr Bush said in an interview with the
Israeli newspaper Yedioth Aharonoth.
"I am convinced that, during this term, I will manage to bring peace," he said.
I was taught very young in life that overuse of the word 'I' implied self-centeredness. In this case it's not only self-centered but egotistical. But, maybe I place too much emphasize on character traits. Mr. Bush's has always bothered me.
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| Conservative Christian Weblogs and what they say to me |
| 12.18.04 (10:20 am) [edit] |
You can't mix politics and religion. There's no way you can serve both honestly. So, many don't try as evidenced on so many Conservative Christian weblogs. I have seen a few that try hard to be balanced. But, most use their religion to push their political leanings. The following are a few thoughts I have gleaned from said blogs.
If a country is a victim of a terrorist attack it is and act of war. Attacked country may now bomb another country in retaliation even if said country had nothing to do with the attack.
Lying is only considered wrong if done by those in disagreement with us i.e. liberals.
If our leaders lie but profess the name of God it is to be forgiven and overlooked no matter how many died because of the lies, how much was stolen in order to line the pockets of rich corporation heads while leaving entire populations in starvation and poverty.
America is the greatest country in the world and therefore should be the leader of the world in all things. We are not wrong because our greatness proves we are right. God is obviously behind us.
Torture is a useful tool and also to be overlooked as we fight satan.
The Christian faith is the only true faith and all others should be destroyed.
Science is relative and should be ignored. Distort and undermine science in pursuit of political and Christian objectives.
If you don't agree with American thinking you are an enemy and should be part of the axis of evil. France should definitely be added to the list.
If you are American and don't agree with American policy you are a traitor and should think of giving up your citizenship and moving elsewhere.
Christian thinking is no longer about the love of God, forgiveness or love of one's neighbor. It's about revenge and God's hatred of all that is not American or in line with 'our' Christian thought.
God's love is no longer for all. He has recalled his son's death as the atonement for sin and decided it is time to condemn the heathens to hell quicksmart.
Recant or face your maker!
Abortion and homosexuality are sin. Gluttony, jealousy, lying, unforgiveness, ignoring the starving, selfishness, and murder are ignored and not spoken of.
Christian thinkers of the past would be in agreement with many Christians today. This is only a short list but it will suffice for the moment.
Pope Urban II’s sermon kicking off the 1st Crusade:
"Begin the journey to the Holy Sepulcher; conquer that land which the wicked have seized, the land which was given by God to the children of Israel and which, as the Scripture says, ‘is all milk and honey’....Undertake this journey, therefore, for the remission of your sins, with the assurance of ‘glory which cannot fade’ in the kingdom of heaven....When you make an armed attack on the enemy, let all those on God’s side cry out together, ‘God wills it! God wills it!’"
The slaughter at Jerusalem as reported by an anonymous eleventh century chronicler of the 1st Crusade:
"An enormous host coming from all regions and all nations, went in arms unto Jerusalem and obliged the Jews to be baptized, massacring by thousands those who refused"
The Catholic Church launched a series of nine holy wars from 1096-1272. The purpose of these wars was to march to the Holy Land of Palestine and liberate it from Moslem "infidels." Along the way, the crusaders massacred all "infidels" in their path who refused to be baptized on the spot to Christianity.
The Inquisition (1231 – 1800s):
Effective use of torture, by Nicholas Eymerich, a Grand Inquisitor of the 14th century:
"If, when he has been decently tortured, he will not confess the truth, let other kinds of torture be laid before him, and let him be told that he must go through all of these. If, even so, he will not [confess], then a second or third day may be fixed to terrify him, or even in truth as a continuation of his torture (which permitted) but not a repetition; for tortures may not be repeated unless fresh evidence comes in against him; then indeed they may be repeated. But there is no prohibition against the continuation"
Galileo (1564-1642):
Background: An Italian mathematician, astronomer and physicist, Galileo repeatedly angered Church officials with his vigorous defense of Copernicus’ heliocentric theory of the universe (i.e., the planets orbit around the sun, not the earth, as the Church thought the Scriptures taught). Galileo’s dangerous ideas were silenced by the Inquisition, and Galileo twice avoided physical torture by quickly rethinking his scientific theories.
Slavery: Many pastors used their Bibles to support it. Slavery is still advocated in North America by some Reconstructionist Christians and a few racist fringe groups within the Christian Identity movement.
The Ku Klux Klan: Some Christians participated while most kept silent—and the KKK still exists today. In the words of a commentator from the period, the KKK had become '... at once anti-Negro, anti-Alien, anti-Red, anti-Catholic, anti-Jew, anti-Darwin, anti-Modern, anti-Liberal, Fundamentalist, vastly Moral, militantly Protestant.' Perhaps the feature that the 1920s KKK shared most closely with the old version was it's doctrine of 'white supremacy.'
The KKK offered disoriented people simple answers to complex problems. It articulated decisively what many conservatives, nativists and also some liberals were already concerned about - and it called them out of their apathy into organised action. The KKK would receive much tacit support from local and state governments. However, a major platform in the rise of the KKK was Conservative Protestant Christianity.
Holocaust Silence: As Hitler’s Final Solution was bringing about the genocide of six million Jews, the Church—world wide—largely kept silent.
Anti-Civil Rights: As the Civil Rights Movement marched and boycotted against racism and injustice, many white Evangelical Christians rallied to slow or even stop real changes from taking place in American society.
The AIDS Crisis: During the mid-1980s the AIDS crisis became known to most Americans, but to the extent AIDS was seen as the "Gay Disease," few conservative Christians really cared. The Christian Right’s hatred of homosexuals easily translated into an understanding that AIDS was in some sense God’s judgment on the evils of homosexuality. Eventually, more compassionate voices could be heard, but churches around the USA once again started out on the wrong side of an important social issue.
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| Riverbend on the fuel shortage and elections in Iraq |
| 12.17.04 (7:57 am) [edit] |
A couple of paragraphs from Riverbend's latest blog. Be sure to visit and read the entire post unless you think a girl blogging from Iraq has nothing relevant to say.
People are wondering how America and gang (i.e. Iyad Allawi, etc.) are going to implement democracy in all of this chaos when they can't seem to get the gasoline flowing in a country that virtually swims in oil. There's a rumor that this gasoline crisis has been concocted on purpose in order to keep a minimum of cars on the streets. Others claim that this whole situation is a form of collective punishment because things are really out of control in so many areas in Baghdad- especially the suburbs. The third theory is that this being done purposely so that the Iraq government can amazingly bring the electricity, gasoline, kerosene and cooking gas back in January before the elections and make themselves look like heroes.
We're also watching the election lists closely. Most people I've talked to aren't going to go to elections. It's simply too dangerous and there's a sense that nothing is going to be achieved anyway. The lists are more or less composed of people affiliated with the very same political parties whose leaders rode in on American tanks. Then you have a handful of tribal sheikhs. Yes- tribal sheikhs. Our country is going to be led by members of religious parties and tribal sheikhs- can anyone say Afghanistan? What's even more irritating is that election lists have to be checked and confirmed by none other than Sistani!! Sistani- the Iranian religious cleric. So basically, this war helped us make a transition from a secular country being run by a dictator to a chaotic country being run by a group of religious clerics. Now, can anyone say 'theocracy in sheeps clothing'?
Ahmad Chalabi is at the head of one of those lists- who would join a list with Ahmad Chalabi at its head?
More at Baghdad Burning
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| Freedom from arbitrary arrest and detention |
| 12.17.04 (7:11 am) [edit] |
Britain's highest court ruled on Thursday that the government could not indefinitely detain foreigners suspected of terrorism without charging or trying them and called the process a violation of European human rights laws.
A specially convened panel of judges in the Law Lords ruled 8 to 1 in favor of nine foreign Muslim men who have been in detention, most of them in Belmarsh Prison in London, for as long as three years. The prison has been called "Britain's Guantanamo" by human rights groups.
In its powerfully worded decision, the court said that the government's "draconian" measures unjustly discriminate against foreigners since they do not apply to British citizens and constitute a lopsided response to the threat of a terrorist attack.
The judges deemed it a clear violation of the European Convention on Human Rights, a declaration that complicates the British government's strategy on combating terrorism.
Using the sharpest language of the nine judges, Leonard Hoffman said the case was one of the most important decided by the court in recent years.
"It calls into question the very existence of an ancient liberty of which this country has until now been very proud: freedom from arbitrary arrest and detention," he wrote.
He went on to say that the government's actions posed a greater threat to the nation than terrorism.
"The real threat to the life of the nation, in the sense of a people living in accordance with its traditional laws and political values, comes not from terrorism but from laws such as these," Hoffman wrote. "That is the true measure of what terrorism may achieve. It is for Parliament to decide whether to give the terrorists such a victory."
More at IHT
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| Thousands of Iraqis have no votes |
| 12.17.04 (6:32 am) [edit] |
Tens, and maybe hundreds of thousands, of Iraqi voters will most likely be unable to cast their ballots in the general elections slated for January 30, 2005, either for being homeless or detained by the US-led forces.
There are also tens of thousands of detainees, majority of which are also Sunnis, who are not subject to the Independent Election Commission in Iraq (IECI).
The Fallujah evacuees have been dispersed among different Iraqi towns including Baghdad. They failed to get their December supply rations, with which they supposed to receive election cards, without which no one could vote.
This means that supporters of a certain party in disturbed governorates may not cast their votes.
More at Islam Online
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| MEPs give thumbs-up to Turkey |
| 12.16.04 (1:22 pm) [edit] |
Members of the European Parliament have voted in favour of Turkey joining the EU by 407 to 262 in a controversial secret ballot, with 29 abstentions.
By calling for a beginning to negotiations "without undue delay", MEPs meeting in Strasbourg sent a strong message to EU leaders who will gather in Brussels on Thursday(16 December) to decide Turkey's EU future.
However, MEPs noted that problems still remain with Turkey's EU bid, including concerns over human rights, the role of the army, religious freedoms and relations with Cyprus.
And, in the case of "serious breaches of the political criteria", negotiations should be suspended, argued Parliamentarians.
The Liberals, Greens and Socialists were all broadly in favour of Turkey, while most of the centre-right European People's Party as well as far-right members voted against opening negotiations.
More EU Observer
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| Pat Buchanan - Bush bumping up against reality |
| 12.16.04 (8:27 am) [edit] |
While there is no shortage of neocon war plans for a Pax Americana, President Bush is bumping up against reality – a U.S. Army tied down and bleeding in Iraq, the rising costs of war, soaring deficits, a sinking dollar and an absence of allies willing to fight beside us or even help. He is facing the Vietnam dilemma.
More at Lew Rockwell
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| Islam - Who are the Alevis? |
| 12.16.04 (7:54 am) [edit] |
Trying to find my place on Turkey joining the EU brought me to this article. I found it very interesting and thought I would post it in hopes it would help alleviate some of the unfounded fear many have of Islam due to radicals. All religions have their extremist and that includes Christianity.
Alevis
Alevis are a branch of Islam, related to Shia Islam and practised mainly in (majority Sunni) Turkey, among both Turks and Kurds. They are a minority religious group.
Alevi thinking gives priority to love and tolerance and not, as in Sunnite Islam, the fear of God.
Again unlike the Sunnis, Alevis -- who account for 15 to 20 million of Turkey's 70 million Muslims -- do not fast during the month of Ramadan and do not pray five times a day.
They do not go to the mosque, but to temples known as "Cemevi", which literally means House of Gathering, where, again unlike Sunni Islam, women -- omnipresent in Alevi society -- participate in the main religious ritual known as "semah," during which they dance with the men.
"Alevi women can freely attend religious ceremonies with the men -- they can smoke and drink (alcohol) in public, if they want to," said Kevser Seven, an Alevi woman of 23 who had come to pray at Haci Bektas Veli's mausoleum.
Respecting secularism is a basic tenet for the Alevis, who are great admirers of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey who, local lore has it, in 1923 first revealed his plan to found a secular republic on the ruins of the Ottoman Empire to the Alevis.
Alevis are the specifically Turkish version of the Middle East's Alawites prominent in Syria, and their adoration of the prophet Ali makes them heretics in the eyes of the Sunnis.
As a result, they suffered persecution at Sunni hands over the centuries and many today still conceal their religious identity.
More at EU Business
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| Chirac to make Turkey's case on French TV |
| 12.15.04 (10:41 am) [edit] |
Facing political isolation in his own country for favouring opening EU membership talks with Turkey, French president Jacques Chirac will this evening appear on French TV to make Turkey's case.
This extraordinary step comes as Mr Chirac faces strong opposition from members of the public and from within his own centre-right UMP party to Turkey's entrance into the Union.
A poll published by Le Figaro on Monday showed that 67 percent of French voters were against Turkey's entry as are several prominent politicians in the UMP, including the man lining himself up to be Mr Chirac's successor, Nicolas Sarkozy.
More at EU Observer
The Turkish Press is reporting that Foreign Minister Michel Barnier is for the first time using the word "genocide" to describe the 1915-1917 Ottoman Empire massacre of Armenians.
Up to now, the French government had avoided the word "genocide", preferring the term "tragedy", although parliament voted in 2001 to qualify the events as a genocide.
The Armenian issue has been an emotional annex to that list, with Turkey -- the heir to the Ottoman Empire -- disputing the scale and nature of the killings, and railing against the term "genocide" used by surviving Armenians and their descendants.
An estimated 1.5 million Armenians are believed to have died between 1915 and 1917 in the last years of the Ottoman Empire.
France has an Armenian population of around 450,000 on its soil.
Barnier, responding to an MP's question about Turkey and its ambitions of joining the EU, said Tuesday: "We will ask all the questions -- notably that of the Armenian genocide, notably that of Cyprus -- all through the negotiations."
More at Turkish Press
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| Drastic rise of homelessness in 2004 |
| 12.15.04 (8:21 am) [edit] |
A national mayors’ organization released its annual report on hunger and homelessness yesterday, documenting a staggering 14 percent increase this year in the number of requests for emergency food assistance and a 6 percent rise in requests for emergency shelter. The survey, which included information from 27 US cities, also found that families with children asked for help at a substantially higher rate this year and that a large portion of those who needed help did not receive it.
The mayors blamed economic problems, including high unemployment and low-paying jobs, as major factors in the increase. They also pointed to the lack of affordable housing and a shortage of available services such as health care, childcare, drug treatment programs and assistance for survivors of domestic violence, the mentally ill and people released from prison.
According to the report, entitled "US Conference of Mayors-Sodexho USA Hunger and Homelessness Survey," the number of requests for emergency food made by families with children rose by an average of 13 percent this year, and 17 percent of those requests went unmet. The survey also documented that families made up just over half of those asking for assistance and that about one third of the adults requesting help were employed.
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| 'Oil for Food' Worked |
| 12.14.04 (9:09 am) [edit] |
By James Dobbins*
American outrage over the diversion of U.N.-supervised Iraqi oil-for-food money seems to miss three salient points. First, no American funds were stolen. Second, no U.N. funds were stolen. Third, the oil-for-food program achieved its two objectives: providing food to the Iraqi people and preventing Saddam Hussein from rebuilding his military threat to the region -- and in particular from reconstituting his programs for weapons of mass destruction.
The oil-for-food program was part of a comprehensive set of U.N.-mandated sanctions designed to prevent Hussein from again becoming a threat to his neighbors. The program was intended to allow the proceeds from Iraqi oil exports to be used to purchase food and medicine for the Iraqi people, but not weapons or WMD-related technology for the Hussein regime.
It is now clear, based on the most exhaustive American post-intervention examination, that the U.N. sanctions regime, including both U.N. weapons inspectors and the U.N.-administered oil-for-food program, fully met this core objective. At the direction of the Security Council, and as a result of the international embargo and international inspections, Iraq destroyed its stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction in the early 1990s, did not acquire new such weapons and did not even reconstitute a program to develop nuclear weapons. More broadly, U.N. sanctions resulted in a steady decline in Iraq's military capabilities from the end of the Persian Gulf War in 1991 to the day of the American-led intervention.
At the same time, the oil-for-food program served its humanitarian goal of feeding the Iraqi people, if not perfectly at least so effectively that Washington asked the United Nations to keep the program in effect for six months after the United States took power in Baghdad.
It is clear that Hussein and his henchmen took advantage of inadequate U.N. oversight to siphon large sums from the program, but the money was Iraqi to begin with and the amounts siphoned were never enough to undermine the purpose for which the sanctions were in place. It is also clear that unscrupulous non-Iraqi businessmen sometimes, apparently, with the knowledge of their governments, connived in these diversions and drew illegitimate profits from them.
Thus the bad news is that the United Nations proved unequal to the task of preventing a rogue regime from stealing some of its own money. The good news is that this same U.N. machinery proved equal to the task of preventing that regime from fielding weapons of mass destruction, developing nuclear weapons and reemerging as a military threat to its neighbors. So the U.N. performance was mixed, but at least it got its priorities straight.
U.N. sanctions against Iraq, including the oil-for-food program, are worth close scrutiny not just because some of that money was stolen but because, taken as a whole, this represents one of the most successful uses of international sanctions on record. Any effort to correct past abuses and forestall future ones should proceed from the recognition that, despite its defects, this regime served the international community's security and humanitarian objectives exceptionally well.
Global Policy Forum
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| Protests |
| 12.14.04 (12:03 am) [edit] |
Some are doing more than tapping keys.
RAF Base Set For Protest
Protesters are to hold a women-only demonstration to demand the closure of a US spy base in North Yorkshire. The women want the Menwith Hill base near Harrogate to be shut down "because of its critical role in the US war drive".
They say they have been brought together by fear of nuclear war.
Kate Hudson of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament said: "Star Wars, together with policies of new nuclear weapons, nuclear first strike and pre-emptive war, are all part of the new US/UK approach to foreign and military policy."
She added: "They must be seriously opposed and the women at Menwith Hill are making a peaceful stand against the front line." Sky News
Candlelight Vigil to Protest the Genocide in Darfur
Diverse groups will join in a candlelight vigil today, Dec. 13, at the Fountain Plaza in Washington Square Park, New York City, at 6:30 p.m. Slavery survivor Simon Deng will be a keynote speaker at the event.
The latest statistics indicate that as many as 350,000 people have died in the past 18 months, and that an additional 10,000 to 30,000 are still dying every month. By the end of this month, the genocide in Darfur, will have claimed 400,000 lives, which is half as many lives as were lost in the Rwandan genocide a decade ago.
Nearly 2 million people have been displaced inside Darfur and many of these are beyond humanitarian access. Almost 250,000 Sudanese have fled as refugees to neighboring Chad. As the violence, rape and the destruction of villages continue, security remains a primary concern throughout the area. Common Dreams
Radical Christian peace activists arrive in Israel
A new group of 15 Christians have arrived in Israel and Palestine, to help reduce the brutality of the occupation and improve the daily lives of both peoples.
The Ecumenical Accompaniers will monitor and report violations of human rights and international humanitarian law, support acts of non-violent resistance alongside local Christian and Muslim Palestinians and Israeli peace activists, offer protection through non-violent presence, engage in public policy advocacy, and stand in solidarity with the churches and all those struggling against the occupation. ekklesia
Five die in Kashmir, protestors block highway
Four civilians and a Muslim militant died in the latest violence in Kashmir (news - web sites) as thousands of villagers blocked a main road in an anti-government protest, police and witnesses said.
Muslim-majority Kashmir is in the grip of a 15-year-old insurgency that has left dead more than 40,000 people by official count. Separatists put the toll between 80,000 and 100,000. AP
Rare anti-Mubarak demo in Cairo
Hundreds of Egyptians have defied a ban on public protests to call for an end to Hosni Mubarak's 23-year presidency.
Surrounded by helmeted riot police in Cairo, protesters held banners saying "Enough" and "No more extensions".
Organisers describe it as Egypt's first protest against Mr Mubarak, believed by many to be grooming his son to take over next year when his term ends. BBC
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| Iraqi leader criticizes US led coalition |
| 12.13.04 (10:22 pm) [edit] |
Iraq's interim President Ghazi al-Yawer warned in an interview published Monday that long-term instability and violence in his country could create the conditions for an "Iraqi Hitler" to emerge.
"If the situation in Iraq will continue like this, it will create within the Iraqi people feelings of bitterness, rage and humiliation which will provide, in the long run, an appropriate environment for an Iraqi Hitler to appear similar to the German Hitler who emerged after Germany's defeat and the humiliation of the German people in World War I," al-Yawer was quoted as saying in the London-based Asharq al-Awsat newspaper.
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| French religious symbols ban cuts both ways |
| 12.13.04 (10:18 pm) [edit] |
They arrived as they do every December: gaily wrapped gifts destined for children at a kindergarten in rural northern France.
But this year, teachers unwrapped a few, took a look and sent all 1,300 packages back to City Hall. The presents were innocent, but strictly speaking, illegal: seasonal chocolates shaped like Christian crosses and St. Nicholas.
More than a dozen teenage Muslim girls have been expelled from high schools for refusing to remove their scarves, along with three Sikh boys kicked out of a Paris-area school for wearing turbans.
But last week's dispute over the chocolates was the first time the law -- France's response to what many perceive as a rise in Muslim fundamentalism -- has been used to challenge Christian imagery.
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| Climate experts confer on post-Kyoto steps |
| 12.13.04 (10:01 pm) [edit] |
International experts, searching for ways to break a deadlock with the United States over climate change, consulted on an array of ideas Monday to lure that No. 1 polluter into a joint effort to control "greenhouse gases," along with such second-rank emitters as China and India.
At a briefing Monday, the Pew Center's Eliot Diringer said the participants thus far have agreed that "a future climate approach should aim, No. 1, to engage major emitters."
The United States is the biggest, emitting 21 percent of the world's greenhouse gases in 2000, according to a report issued Monday by the Pew Center and the World Resources Institute of Washington. The No. 2 emitter is China, accounting for 15 percent of the gases, more than the entire 25-nation European Union (news - web sites)'s 14 percent.
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| Controlled Press Ignores Criminal Obliteration of Fallujah |
| 12.13.04 (1:01 pm) [edit] |
The controlled press has scrupulously avoided discussing the devastation and prima facie evidence of war crimes committed during the U.S. siege and assault of Fallujah.
As Americans prepared for Thanksgiving, an estimated 100,000 residents of the besieged Iraqi city of Fallujah, trapped in their homes, struggled to survive without fresh food, water or electricity, reportedly cut off by U.S. forces on November 8.
Meanwhile, on the streets of Fallujah, a city of more than 350,000, dogs gnawed on bloated and rotting corpses that remained unburied for weeks.
Michael Ware, Baghdad bureau chief for Time magazine, who has been in Fallujah during the fighting, said U.S. actions in Fallujah are "creating the nightmare that we are seeking to prevent."
"I stood there as I saw American boys die," Ware told Chris Matthews of MSNBC on Nov. 24, "I mean, a man shot at close range, blown apart by a rocket propelled grenade. He dies there in front of you and I can't help but think why? For what cause?
"I see us creating the very thing that the president said we went there to prevent," Ware said, "…subsequent to this invasion and the occupation and the guerrilla war that is currently underway, we are the midwives of the next generation of al Qaida and Islamic terrorist."
Ware, who has interviewed senior insurgent leaders, said they study the writings of the Vietnamese general Vo Nguyen Giap, Che Guevara, and Mao Zedong. "They're bringing it straight from the Vietnam, and the broader insurgency playbook," Ware said.
"The name of the game is deny the population to the insurgents," Ware said. "That's what we're trying to do, win hearts and minds. But we're not winning them."
Having seen what appeared to be a depleted uranium (DU) missile fired at a building in Fallujah on CNN during the first week of the fighting, AFP asked the Pentagon if DU weapons are being used in Fallujah. "Yes," Yoswa said, "DU is a standard round on the M-1 Abrams tank."
Because U.S. marines in Fallujah are very close to the poison gas produced by exploded DU shells, AFP asked Yoswa if anything was being done to protect the troops from DU poisoning. Yoswa seemed unaware of the dangers posed by the use of DU.
Marion Fulk, a retired nuclear scientist from Livermore National Lab told AFP that U.S. troops in DU contaminated battlefields are considered "throw-away soldiers." The Marines exposed to DU in Fallujah, and elsewhere, face greatly increased risks of cancer, deformed children, and other health problems in the future.
The "obliteration of Fallujah" is a serious war crime, according to Francis A. Boyle, a professor of international law at the University of Illinois. "The obliteration of Fallujah continues apace," Boyle wrote in his Nov. 15 article, A War Crime in Real Time: Obliterating Fallujah. "Article 6(b) of the 1945 Nuremberg Charter defines a Nuremberg War Crime in relevant part as the 'wanton destruction of cities, towns or villages.' According to this definitive definition, the Bush administration's destruction of Fallujah constitutes a war crime for which Nazis were tried and executed."
Anti Imperialist League
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| Turkey warns of terror wave if EU membership is rejected |
| 12.13.04 (12:51 pm) [edit] |
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has warned European Union leaders that violence from Islamic extremists could escalate if the EU rejects Turkey as a member.
Speaking before the opening of Istanbul’s first modern art museum Mr Erdogan said, according to the Times: "There is nothing we can do if the EU feels that it can live with being simply a Christian club . . . but if these countries burn their bridges with the rest of the world, history will not forgive them".
Turkey applied for EU membership in 1963 and it is expected that a two-day EU summit this week will finally decide to begin formal membership talks, probably in the second half of next year.
"No other country had to wait for 41 years at Europe’s door. We have fulfilled all the criteria, but despite this Europeans are hesitating", the Turkish leader said in Ankara.
EU Observer
European leaders this week are expected to give Turkey a date on which it can begin negotiations on joining the EU. One issue has been whether the country's record on human rights has improved.
In recent years Turkey has made huge strides in stamping out human rights abuses.
The death penalty has been abolished, the once dreaded state security courts dismantled, and cultural and linguistic rights broadened for the country's Kurdish, Arabic and Bosnian communities.
Yet human rights violations continue. Across the Muslim nation's remote and impoverished south-east,women are still prone to crimes of violence.
To correct some of these inequities, Ankara's parliament passed a new penal code in September bringing Turkey into line with EU states.
But lawyers, human rights activists, psychologists, academics and non-governmental organisations throughout Turkey say progress is often obstructed by a failure to implement the reforms on the ground.
"Passing legislation is one thing but changing mentalities has proved to be quite another," said Senal Saruhan, a feminist lawyer in Ankara who led the campaign to revise the penal code.
Guardian
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| Leading the Industrialized World in Mean-Heartedness |
| 12.12.04 (4:00 pm) [edit] |
As feminist author Ruth Sidel wrote in her book, Keeping Women and Children Last: America's War on the Poor:
According to Sidel, "Rather than resent the wealthy, Americans revere them, emulate them, long for a touch of the glitter and glamour of their lifestyle. Rather than being seen as enemy, the 'rich and famous' are made into icons by the media." As a cover story in the U.S. News & World Report pointed out, not only do most Americans "admire and respect the rich," but many believe that the rich honestly earned their fabulous incomes.
Blaming the poor and powerless for America's social and economic problems is far more comforting and acceptable than blaming the rich and powerful. Blaming the poor upholds a fundamental tenet of the American ideology (or the so-called "American Dream"): that individuals can dramatically alter the course of their own lives, that they can rise in the class hierarchy on their own initiative. The notion that the failure of the poor is due to their weakness of character enables others to blame the impoverished for their own poverty while simultaneously preserving the faith of those who are not poor that thepoor had had a possibility of success. "To maintain our own dream of success we must blame the poor for their failure; if their failure is due to flaws in the structure of society, these same societal limitations could thwart our dreams of success," says Ruth Sidel. As with players in the expanding state-supported gambling enterprise known as the lottery, everyone upholds the system on the chance that they have the winning ticket. But as economic analyst Stenley Lebergott says, the probability that anyone will rise from the lower ninetynine percent to the top one percent of the wealth distribution in America is less than 0.002.
The probability that anyone will rise from the lower ninetynine percent to the top one percent of the wealth distribution in America is less than 0.002.
All the social demagogy about "pulling oneself up by the bootstraps," hard work, immoral state welfare, etc., which dominates public debate in the United States today, separates most Americans from their real experience, from their common sense, from their humanity, and from each other. It never allows a serious question to be asked, such as, "How can we pull ourselves up by our bootstraps if we have no boots? Why is it our fault that we have no jobs, if our jobs have been taken away from us by some high-flying CEO terminator? How can we be responsible for finding jobs if there are none?"
Valdas Anelauskas Read the entire article here
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| Israelis attack refugee camp |
| 12.12.04 (10:02 am) [edit] |
The Israeli army fired three tank shells at the Khan Younis refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip today, moderately wounding five schoolchildren and lightly wounding two others, Palestinian officials said.
News.com.au
In the present intifada, 323 Palestinian children under the age of 14 have been killed by IDF fire. Three recent examples from Nablus...
Haaretz
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| Whitehouse robots disallow file |
| 12.12.04 (9:33 am) [edit] |
Interesting to see what whitehouse.gov doesn't want indexed by robots. Robots.txt is used to exclude robots from certain files or folders to keep material you don't want indexed out of other people's hands.
whitehouse.gov
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| Social Security reform = cutting retirement benefits? |
| 12.12.04 (8:53 am) [edit] |
President Bush, who has promised that his plan to allow private investment accounts in Social Security would give workers a ''better rate of return," is seriously mulling a companion effort that could cut future promised retirement benefits for millions of workers by 6 percent, even when potential gains from private accounts are included, analysts said.
Boston Globe
Find interesting articles concerning this issue at Social Security Network
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| US government speaks with forked tongue |
| 12.12.04 (8:06 am) [edit] |
Senior Arab officials attending an international conference to promote democracy in the Middle East emphatically rejected on Saturday the Bush administration's assertion that greater democracy in the region would help end terrorism. They argued that the administration's strong support of Israel made it difficult to undertake political reform or to stop extremists driven by hatred of U.S. policies.
"Let us face it," said the Saudi foreign minister, Prince Saud Faisal. "We perceive no clashes of civilization or competing value systems. The real bone of contention is the longest conflict in modern history."
In his remarks, Saud said Arabs recognized that the United States has a "bias toward Israel" but "the Arab peoples cannot fathom why these guarantees are transformed into unrestricted backing of unrestrained Israeli policies contrary to international legality."
Arguing that the conflict was responsible for the "seeds of terrorism" in the region, he said "it remains to be seen whether for the first time we can be honest with each other and commit ourselves to settling the Arab-Israeli conflict."
At one point, Saud recited a long list of Western and Arab philosophers that he said had shaped common values of Western and Arab nations. "These principles are far more powerful in their sublime inspiration than any weapons of war in inflicting fear and intimidation," he said, alluding to the invasion of Iraq. "By returning to these values, you can win the hearts and minds of the Arab and Muslim peoples."
Washington Post
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| Iraq's new patent law: A declaration of war against farmers |
| 12.12.04 (7:42 am) [edit] |
Iraq has the potential to feed itself. But instead of developing this capacity, the US has shaped the future of Iraq's food and farming to serve the interests of US corporations.
While historically the Iraqi constitution prohibited private ownership of biological resources, the new US-imposed patent law introduces a system of monopoly rights over seeds.
Grain.org
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| US threatens suspension of economic aid unless... |
| 12.11.04 (5:06 am) [edit] |
The United States is poised to punish some of its closest friends overseas for supporting the International Criminal Court (ICC) as a growing number of its soldiers are being sanctioned for abusing prisoners in the "war on terrorism," said U.S. human rights groups Wednesday.
A measure inserted into the current omnibus appropriations bill in Congress would ban tens of millions of dollars in U.S. economic aid to some of its allies unless they formally agree to exempt U.S. citizens from the ICC's jurisdiction.
"While accounts of U.S. abuse of prisoners keep surfacing, the United States is ratcheting up pressure on states to place U.S. citizens beyond the reach of a court that can only be used as a last resort," said Richard Dicker, director of the international justice program of Human Rights Watch (HRW).
"As revelations of abuses continue, U.S. insistence on immunity strikes a particularly raw nerve," he added in a statement.
Lew Rockwell
I wonder, does George Bush want to see the ICC abolished or only the US exempt from prosecution? I suppose it would be ok with Mr. Bush if Chirac were brought before the ICC?
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| Kerik pulls out |
| 12.11.04 (4:18 am) [edit] |
George Bush's choice for homeland security secretary, Bernard Kerik, withdrew his nomination Friday night saying questions have arisen about the immigration status of a housekeeper and nanny he employed. There is also ongoing controversy about his links to the stun-gun company, Tsar. Mr. Kerik has earned $6.2m from stock options he received from Tsar, which had done highly profitable business with the department he would now head. He was also fined 2 years ago for using staff to research his autobiography.
I suppose Mr. Bush didn't know about any of this before he selected this man or perhaps he just didn't care?
Mr. Kerik said the problematic issue arose as he was completing documents required for Senate confirmation. “I uncovered information that now leads me to question the immigration status of a person who had been in my employ as a housekeeper and nanny. It has also been brought to my attention that for a period of time during such employment required tax payments and related filings had not been made.”
Oh my! I just realized I didn't pay my income tax and I have an illegal alien working for me. Heavens to betsy!
GlobeandMail
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| Human Rights Day and Poverties Children |
| 12.10.04 (1:21 pm) [edit] |
One billion children - half the world's population of children - suffer from poverty, conflict and the scourge of AIDS, the United Nations Children's Fund revealed in its annual report yesterday.
The rights of children to a healthy and protected upbringing, as laid out in the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child, were regularly imperilled due to the failure of governments to enact human rights and economic reforms, UNICEF said.
"When half the world's children are growing up hungry and unhealthy, when schools have become targets and whole villages are being emptied by AIDS, we have failed to deliver on the promise of childhood," said UNICEF executive director Carol Bellamy.
The Australian
THERE ARE NO CHILDREN HERE
They were blown away in holocaust ashes.
Small bits, the size of petals or puppy paws were found
on hillsides, in hedgerows, or sprinkled in summer gardens.
Here? There are no children.
They were taken by the fairies wanting something sweet.
The little ones just bite sized melted on the tongue. Everyone was hungry then.
The youngest, taken first, toddled toward the open arms, the gaping maw of famine.
There? No children are here.
They were murdered: burned, shot, killed in cities, towns, east, west, north and south.
They flamed briefly, candles on a cake.
Fireworks became firebombs
in a place where there are no birthdays.
Here? No children are there.
Now there are tears where there were children.
Mothers rend their hands, keen and call for them.
But there is no sound.
There is only silence.
There are no children here.
Penelope Thoms
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| Human Rights Day and Strange Fruit |
| 12.10.04 (1:06 pm) [edit] |
On Human Rights Day, every year on Dec. 10th, it is celebrated around the globe that "All human beings are born with equal and inalienable rights and fundamental freedoms".
In honor of this day I give you this:
Students at one of the area's largest Christian schools are reading a controversial booklet that critics say whitewashes Southern slavery with its view that slaves lived "a life of plenty, of simple pleasures."
Leaders at Cary Christian School say they are not condoning slavery by using "Southern Slavery, As It Was," a booklet that attempts to provide a biblical justification for slavery and asserts that slaves weren't treated as badly as people think.
Steve Wilkins, one of the authors of the booklet, is a member of the board of directors of the Alabama-based League of the South. That is classified as a "hate group" by the Southern Poverty Law Center, an Alabama-based civil rights group.
"Doug Wilson and Steve Wilkins have essentially constructed the ruling theology of the neo-Confederate movement," said Mark Potok, editor of the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Report.
Potok said people who argue that the South should secede again have latched onto the writings of Wilson and Wilkins, which portray the Confederacy as the last true Christian civilization.
Marcus Ranch, who has three daughters at Cary Christian, said he has no problem with the school using the booklet. He said it offers an accurate portrayal that is overlooked of how many slaves were treated kindly by their owners.
newsobserver.com
Southern trees bear strange fruit,
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze,
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.
Pastoral scene of the gallant south,
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth,
Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh,
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh.
Here is fruit for the crows to pluck,
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck,
For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop,
Here is a strange and bitter crop.
Written by Abel Meeropol
Sung by Billie Holiday
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| Bush approves $20 million to the Palestinian Authority |
| 12.09.04 (7:12 am) [edit] |
President George W. Bush yesterday approved $20 million in direct aid to the Palestinian Authority to help pay its Israeli utility bills. Under pressure from key US lawmakers, the Bush administration backed away from plans to provide the money directly in support of the January 9 presidential election to find a successor to Arafat.
A senior Bush administration official said the United States hoped the US aid would encourage additional donations from other countries “at a time when the Palestinian Authority is in desperate need of budget support to pay its bills, maintain stability and allow it to focus on the larger question of governing.” Times of Oman
This is good but I have to wonder if it's just a move to make Bush and his war on terror in the Middle East look legit.
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| Ex-Marine says 30 unarmed Iraqi civilians killed by his unit |
| 12.09.04 (6:42 am) [edit] |
Jimmy Massey was a Marine for 12 years. He served 3 months in Iraq before being honorably discharged with post-traumatic stress syndrome. He testified Wednesday before Canada's Immigration and Refugee Board for Army Pfc. Jeremy Hinzman, 26, who fled to Canada weeks before he was to be deployed to Iraq.
The former US Marine said several men in his unit were "psychopaths" who enjoyed killing unarmed Iraqi civilians who posed no threat and that Hinzman likely would have been forced to commit atrocities that violated the Geneva Conventions if he went to Iraq.
Massey, 33, of Waynesville, N.C., said his 7th Marines weapons company killed more than 30 civilians during a 48-hour period in April in the southern Baghdad district of Rashid. The Marine Corps denied Massey's allegations.
Hinzman had served three years in the Army but applied for conscientious-objector status before his unit was sent to Afghanistan in 2002.
Of course, the 101st keyboard brigade is pounding into these men around the internet.
Arizona Daily Star
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| Poor are paying the price of rich countries failures |
| 12.08.04 (10:01 am) [edit] |
Let your heart break and get involved in the fight against world poverty.
'We are the first generation that can look extreme poverty in the eye, and say this and mean it - we have the cash, we have the drugs, we have the science. Do we have the will to make poverty history?' Bono, September 2004
A new report from international agency Oxfam today reveals that 45 million more children will die needlessly by 2015, because rich countries are failing to provide the necessary resources they promised to overcome poverty.
The report, Paying the Price, finds that rich countries' aid budgets are half what they were in 1960 and poor countries are paying back a staggering $100 million a day in debt repayments. Oxfam also calculates that 97 million more children will be out of school by 2015 unless urgent action is taken.
Jeremy Hobbs, Oxfam's Executive Director, said:
"The world has never been wealthier, yet rich nations are giving less and less. Across the globe, millions of people are being denied the most basic human needs - clean water, food, health care and education. People are dying while leaders delay debt relief and aid."
In 1970 rich countries agreed to spend just 0.7 percent of their incomes on aid. Thirty-four years later, none of the G8 members have reached this target and many have not even set a timetable.
In addition, only 40 percent of the money counted officially as aid actually reaches the poorest countries, and when it does it is often seriously delayed. For example, 20 percent of the European Union's aid arrives at least a year late and 92 percent of Italian aid is spent on Italian goods and services.
At only 0.14 percent of national income, the US spending on foreign aid in 2003 was one-tenth of what it spent on Iraq. The US won't reach the aid target needed to halve world poverty until 2040. Germany won't reach the target until 2087 while Japan is decreasing its aid commitments.
Click here for full size pic
Read the report PDF
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| Another Canadian's perspective on Bush and other nasties |
| 12.07.04 (8:19 am) [edit] |
I only discovered this site yesterday. Be sure to check it out. You'll either love him or hate him. I love him..hubby will understand.
Emperor Zero of The Yewnatted States of Diebold flies his Illusion Bubble into Canada.
Big Pauly and the old boys can suckle up to the war criminal in the name of living for our economies.
I, like millions of Canadians, extend my middle finger in greeting - Welcome to Canada, pig.
YoungFox Canada
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| Russia has the right to pre-emptive strikes outside it's borders |
| 12.07.04 (7:53 am) [edit] |
Would someone like to venture a guess as to where this line of thinking came from?
Just call them terrorist and bomb them off the face of the planet. Love hurts...
Russia may use cruise missiles and strategic bombers in preventive strikes against terrorists
outside its borders, the commander of Russia's air force said Friday.
Russian leaders have claimed a right to pre-emptive strikes before, for example threatening neighboring Georgia that it would pursue Chechen rebels allegedly sheltering on its territory.
But Gen. Vladimir Mikhailov's comments to the ITAR-Tass news agency aired on Friday were the most direct yet in Russia's rising rhetoric on attacking terrorists abroad. Mikhailov did not specify what targets the air force could potentially go after.
AP
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| Good News! |
| 12.05.04 (9:22 am) [edit] |
There are some really evil people in the world. But, sometimes justice is done.
Man gets 4 years for killing girlfriend's cat
AUGUSTA, Maine
A man who was charged under a new crime of felony animal cruelty will spend four years in jail, a judge ruled. A jury found John W. Witham, 27, guilty of deliberately driving his pickup truck over a pet carrier containing his girlfriend's cat as it was having kittens in the driveway of their home last February. ''It's me or the cat," Witham reportedly told his girlfriend before dropping the carrier containing the animal out of the window of the truck. He also told her ''last chance" before backing over the crate, according to court records. Somerset-Kennebec District Attorney Evert Fowle said Thursday that Witham sent a message about what he was capable of when he ran over the cat. ''This is more than the killing of an innocent animal," Fowle said. ''This is in the context of domestic violence and intimidation." (AP)
Boston Globe
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| Musharraf: bin Laden is alive but not available |
| 12.05.04 (9:17 am) [edit] |
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf says they have no idea where bin Laden is. All they do know is that he is alive. I'll leave you to ponder this one without comment.
Times of India
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| A Sunday morning rant is the best I can do |
| 12.05.04 (8:59 am) [edit] |
Some of you have probably noticed I haven't been posting as much these days. I'm in a mood that I hope lifts very soon. I can't help but see that although there are many many people fighting for the rights of others in this world the scales of justice are leaning heavily the other way. The bad guys have been winning for some time now and some days it feels like there's no hope. I can only imagine what it must feel like for those we are fighting for. I doubt I would make a very good field worker or maybe being in the midst of the struggle strengthens you. I don't know. Perhaps I will one day.
Pre-emptive war, unilateralist, nationalist, racist, religious fundamentalist and selfish hypocrisy have a tight grip on the world today and they are not going to give it up without a fight. Some days it's just too much.
In the past 2 years we have sat by and allowed one country to be invaded because another was terrorized. Although the invaded country had nothing to do with the terrorist. We have sat by after finding out the invaders were terrorist themselves. In spite of hearing from the majority of those living in the invaded country that they want the occupiers to leave it's ignored. The protagonist talk of fear and terror combining it with talk of the good job that is being done. This is all in spite of thousands and thousands of deaths and people living in inhumane conditions.
Palestinians are dying everyday but it's overlooked for fear of upsetting the Israelis.
Sudan has become another killing field similar to Cambodia and Rwanda.
Today many will be going to their houses of worship. I have to wonder what they are hearing from the pulpit that enables them to condone mass murder? What enables them to hip hip hooray at the deaths of men, women and children while at the same time screaming pro-life?
It's not hard to understand hate. But, I cannot comprehend those that sanction death especially in the name of God, freedom and democracy. There is no dictator trying to take over the world such as Hitler. There is no excuse for the monstrous acts being carried out around the world today. There is no excuse for those of us enabling these crimes against humanity by our lack of action.
One doesn't have to be a psychiatrist to realize some serious neurosis has moved among us.
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| Why kerry lost -- a writer's analysis... |
| 12.04.04 (7:52 am) [edit] |
[It is very long. Very. Non-partisan, and no bashing and strictly using a writer's analysis.]
For a moment, I'm setting issues aside. I don't think this election was won or lost on issues, anyway. I think it was won and lost on how much or little people identified with a candidate. You may wholly disagree, and that's fine. There is no one finite explanation which, posted on a blog, would encompass all of the vast variety that is the American political process. This is simply a different way to look at the problem, one I haven't seen analyzed quite like this.
Read it at electric mist
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| Justice for Bhopal |
| 12.04.04 (7:16 am) [edit] |
This is a day late but I only ran across a reference to this article on Je Blog last night. I had seen news on this tragedy but saw no headlines concerning it yesterday. I guess it's not very important. These people aren't white enough.
This morning I read this...A spokesman from Union Carbide has denied reports that Dow Chemical had accepted responsibility for the Bhopal gas tragedy of 1984 which killed over 3,000. Denying a report by the BBC from Paris that said Dow also had a $12 billion compensation plan for victims, the spokesman said by telephone from London: "The BBC story is false", Reuters reported. Earlier, there were reports that Dow Chemical Co, in a major policy reversal had accepted full responsibility for the disaster.
The Times of India
On December 3rd, 1984, thousands of people in Bhopal, India, were gassed to death after a catastrophic chemical leak at a Union Carbide pesticide plant. More than 150,000 people were left severely disabled ––of whom 20,000 have since died of their injuries––in a disaster now widely acknowledged as the world’s worst-ever industrial disaster. None of the six safety systems at the plant were functional, and Union Carbide’s own documents prove the company cut corners on safety and maintenance in order to save money. Today, twenty years after the Bhopal disaster, those who survived the gas remain sick, and the chemicals that Union Carbide left behind in Bhopal have poisoned the water supply and contributed to an epidemic of cancers, birth defects, and other afflictions. Since its purchase of Carbide in 2001, Dow-Carbide has refused to clean up the site, which continues to contaminate those near it. It has refused to fund medical care or livelihood regeneration, and it has refused to stand trial in Bhopal, where the Union Carbide Corporation faces criminal charges of culpable homicide (manslaughter), and has fled these charges for the past 12 years.
Students from more than 60 colleges, universities, and high schools worldwide have organized events this week to mark the 20th anniversary of the Bhopal disaster, and to demand that Dow Chemical resolve its legal and moral responsibilities for the “Hiroshima of the chemical industry”. The events, organized by Students for Bhopal, Association for India’s Development (AID) chapters, the Campus Greens and the Environmental Justice Program of the Sierra Student Coalition (SSC), represent the first mass student movement Dow has faced since its production of Agent Orange and Napalm during the Vietnam War.
Follow the link below, read the story, look at the pictures.
Bhopal.net
In the early morning hours of December 3, 1984, one of the worst industrial disasters in history began when a pesticide plant located in the densely populated region of Bhopal in central India leaked a highly toxic cloud of methyl isocyanate into the air. Of the estimated one million people living in Bhopal at the time, 2,000 were killed immediately, at least 600,000 were injured, and at least 6,000 have died since. The leak was caused by a series of mechanical and human errors in the pesticide-producing plant, operated by the Union Carbide Corporation, a U.S.-based multinational. For a full hour, the plant's personnel and safety equipment failed to detect the massive leak, and when an alarm was finally sounded, most of the harm had already been done. To make matters worse, local health officials had not been educated on the toxicity of the chemicals used at the Union Carbide plant, and therefore there were no emergency procedures in place to protect Bhopal's citizens in the event of a chemical leak. If the victims had simply placed a wet towel over their face, most would have escaped serious injury. The Indian government sued Union Carbide in a civil case and settled in 1989 for $470 million. Because of the great number of individuals affected by the disaster, most Bhopal victims received just $550, which could not pay for the chronic lung ailments, eye problems, psychiatric disorders, and other common illnesses they developed. The average compensation for deaths resulting from the disaster was $1,300. The Indian government, famous for its corruption, has yet to distribute roughly half of Union Carbide's original settlement. Union Carbide, which shut down its Bhopal plant after the disaster, has failed to clean up the site completely, and the rusty, deserted complex continues to leak various poisonous substances into the water and soil of Bhopal.
History Channel
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| Rwanda Syndrome on the Ivory Coast |
| 12.04.04 (6:30 am) [edit] |
"'Never again,’ people said after the Rwandan genocide," observed Marie-France Cros in La Libre Belgique Nov 8. "Yet, it seems that all conditions will soon be in place for a similar tragedy to take place in Ivory Coast. As in Rwanda, local authorities have adopted a double language: one of appeasement meant for the international community — by formally accepting a peace plan…[while] allowing the creation of militias of extremist patriots… As in Rwanda ten years ago, authorities in Ivory Coast mix up democracy and demagoguery…
The commitment of French troops in Ivory Coast — the country's riskiest venture in Africa since Rwanda 10 years ago — has turned into a fiasco. After Ivorian jets bombed a French base on November 6, killing eight soldiers and an American, France destroyed the country's air force.
Mob violence forced the evacuation of more than 9,000 Westerners, including non-essential staff from UN and other humanitarian agencies. Militant "Young Patriots" — members of a militia with close links to President Gbagbo — were responsible for explosive anti-white riots in the streets of Abidjan, capital of the Ivory Coast.
"The Riviera 1, 2 and 3 neighborhoods [in Abidjan] where Europeans lived were taken by storm", reported Jeune Afrique L'Intelligent (Nov 19). There were rapes and beatings, all part of a manifest desire to humiliate the 'whites,' whoever they were — French, Belgians, British, Lebanese — and perhaps a few murders…the riot quickly assumed the character of a tornado."
According to Human Rights Watch, Muslims living in Abidjan have also been threatened and their houses ransacked while the police looked on. Most of them are from the north of the country. Tens of thousands have fled to neighboring countries.
"One must never forget that Rwanda was a French-speaking country," wrote Professor Louise Beaudoin in Le Devoir (Nov 24), Canada's leading French-language newspaper. "If some [francophone] countries claimed they didn't know what was going on back then, no one in a French-speaking country, or anywhere else for that matter, will be able to say they didn't see it coming in a land [Ivory Coast] that has known relative prosperity and still represents 40% of the GDP of West Africa.
World Press Review
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| Fallujah is the new Guernica. |
| 12.04.04 (6:21 am) [edit] |
The residents of the Basque capital in 1937 were resisting the Spanish dictator Francisco Franco. Fallujah in 2004 was resisting the dictator Iyad Allawi, the US-installed interim premier. Franco asked Nazi Germany - which supported him - to bomb Guernica, just as Allawi "asked" the Pentagon to bomb Fallujah. Guernica had no air force and no anti-aircraft guns to defend itself - just like Fallujah. In Guernica - as in Fallujah - there was no distinction between civilians and guerrillas: the order was to "kill them all". The Nazis shouted "Viva la muerte!" ("Long live death") along with their fascist Spanish counterparts before bombing Guernica.
Asia Times
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| Hmm, Latin America must not be a part of America |
| 12.04.04 (6:18 am) [edit] |
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The absolute silence on my post yesterday is bewildering. I know, every post doesn't get comments. But, I found the fact that in spite of abortion being illegal in this part of the world women have not been deterred from seeking them out. I felt sure I would get up this morning and find I had been ravaged by a pro-lifer, at the very least. For myself I could never get an abortion. Adoption is the way I would go if I didn't want a child for some reason. But, who knows what life may deal us tomorrow? Ideals have a way of changing when our comfort zone is breached. I bet somewhere out there you could find a minister's wife who had a fling with the choir director, got pregnant in spite of precautions and just had to get an abortion because the choir director afterall was a mistake and she can't risk ruining her life. I could think up a few more examples but this one popped into my head so I will go with it. I wonder how many pro-lifers may one day find themselves or one of their family in a position to consider abortion as the only answer? Never say never.
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| Illegal abortions rampant in Latin America |
| 12.03.04 (7:02 am) [edit] |
How interesting that in spite of abortion being illegal and the very real threat of criminal action the women of Latin America continue to seek them out.
In fact, legalizing abortion is key to preventing so many women from dying.
Where abortion is legal--as in Europe and North America--the percentage of abortions performed has actually gone down because legalization is usually accompanied by informed access to public health, education and family planning.
Do read the entire article found here
Five thousand women die from clandestine abortions every year in Latin America. It has one of the highest abortion rates in the world, despite its near-universal illegality.
Across Latin America, an estimated 5,000 women die every year as a result of clandestine abortions, according International Planned Parenthood Federation. An estimated 800,000 are hospitalized due to complications, according to the Alan Guttmacher Institute, based in New York and Washington.
Abortion is prohibited across most of Latin America. Cuba and Puerto Rico are the exceptions. While some countries allow abortion in cases of rape or danger to the mother's life, there are no exceptions in Chile, Colombia and El Salvador. These countries prosecute hundreds of women for having abortions.
Lidia Casas, a lawyer and professor at Chile's Diego Portales University, in Santiago, says during the 1980s, Chile began a policy of prosecuting women. Between 250 and 300 cases go into the justice system per year, she says, and in 2001, around 50 people were convicted for having an abortion.
"It's mostly poor women who end up going to the hospitals for their complications of an illegal backstreet abortion and some of the doctors or the midwives working in the maternity wards used to report the women to the police right there," says Casas. The maximum penalty is five years in prison.
But despite such legal risks, Latin America continues to experience abortion rates that are much higher than most countries where it is legal.
There are an estimated 4 million abortions every year across the region. Up to 200,000 clandestine abortions take place in Chile every year--twice as many as in Canada, which has 100,000 a year--and Chile has half the population.
Women's e News
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| Working on template |
| 12.02.04 (7:15 am) [edit] |
I've had complaints about my overlapping borders so I'm working on the problem now. Hopefully things will be fixed later. Please do come back. Thanks!
Update!
Well, as you can see there's a huge amount of white space to the left and my left column is up against the edge of the window. For the moment this is all I can figure out to do. I hope it helps. Please do continue to tell me if you're having problems.
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| Will we execute another innocent man? |
| 12.02.04 (6:46 am) [edit] |
Charles Walker, 39, of Brooklyn, N.Y., was scheduled for execution by injection at 2 a.m. Friday (Dec. 3, 2004) for the 1992 drug-related killing of Tito Davidson.
Superior Court Judge John Craig issued a stay after a three-hour hearing Monday at which defense lawyers asked for a new hearing or trial for Walker. He gave lawyers until Jan. 15 to file briefs.
Craig says he wants to hear more argument from lawyers for condemned inmate Charles Walker about claims that Walker was convicted based on the unreliable testimony of his co-defendants.
State Attorney General Roy Cooper tried to get it overturned. In a 38-page emergency motion, Cooper said the claims in Walker's latest appeal "should have been raised on direct appeal" and that nothing was new in the latest appeal.
"The claims are purely legal questions arising from the record," Cooper said, adding that the state put on evidence that Walker planned the killing of Tito Davidson and participated in disposing of Davidson's body and cleaning up the crime scene.
Defense lawyer Jon Megerian said he was not surprised by the appeal, but felt there was "a substantial risk of a fundamental miscarriage of justice."
"I think it's shocking the state says this guy may be innocent, but you should have raised these claims before, so let's go ahead and kill him," Megerian said. "I think they need to worry about whether they're getting ready to execute an innocent man."
Charles Walker's defenders say he's not guilty of the 1992 murder for which he's condemned to die.
The victim's body was never found. No physical evidence linked Walker to the crime. He was convicted solely on the testimony of co-defendants who cut deals with prosecutors in exchange for lighter sentences.
That's part of what's wrong with capital punishment. The difference between life and death can boil down to a foolish decision in court or some capricious twist of fate.
ABC
NC Dept. of Corrections
News-Record
Newsday
Get involved! Whatever you can do for this man, do it. There is no real evidence he killed Tito Davidson. Yet, he would have died tomorrow at 2:00. Judge Craig has extended his life for 2 weeks. Take some time to think about this. Really let it penetrate your brain. This could be any one of us caught up in some twist of fate. Yes, this man was a drug dealer. Does this make a difference in his right to life?
Speaking of right to life where are these compassionate folks who scream about abortion? There silence is telling.
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| Religion and the church great bastions of truth? |
| 12.01.04 (11:48 am) [edit] |
Religious people has been disagreeing longer than any of us have been alive. They disagree so well they have more denominations than you can shake a stick at. They even argue who is part of the true church. Churches split more often than you can imagine. The pastor is booted out and part of the congregation moves with him.
Most but not all do have one common belief that is the most important, at least, for Christians. They believe in the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ as the Son of God. But,in what way they are to worship, and even what they must do to make it to heaven after they come to this belief they can't agree on.
I have followed the Baptist faith and the Full Gospel/Pentacostal faith during my life as a Christian. They do not agree in many areas and although they will kindly say, "well these are good folks but they're just confused" they clearly don't agree with what those other folks stand for. Many go so far as to condemn them from the church pulpit.
The Baptist church believes 'once saved always saved.' It's by grace that your saved..by faith and not by works. The Full Gospel folks will say 'ah it is by grace but you have to work at it every day.' They teach you can fall from grace. A really important issue for a Christian.
Now I don't want to go too deeply into this. I only want to make a point.
While it seems with the turn of the election that 'the church' is one and all agree. This is not the case. Church denominations have been fighting for years just like political parties do as to who has the truth. Each one believes 'they' do. That somehow God is in their little box.
The Catholics believe they are the only true church. Well, so do the Baptist. Most Pentacostals and Baptist believe the Catholics are idol worshipers when you get right down to it.
Full Gospel believe they have the 'full' gospel. They also believe in the 'baptism of the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues.'
Try talking to a Baptist about this one. Hmm It can get really nasty.
There are some Pentacostals that believe the races are meant to be seperate. They even have a certain Bible they use to back this up.
I could go on and on with this and it is an interesting subject.
But, my point is, which of these groups is going to interpret the law for you? They have an awfully hard time interpreting their own laws. The Bible is read and interpreted differently depending on what church you belong to. Yes, some parts they agree on as we heard loud and clear during the election. Homosexuals are doomed. Anyone getting an abortion is doomed. I could veer off here but I won't..maybe later.
I have visited the blogs of more conservative religious folk these past days than I want to talk about. It's clear most haven't the slightest idea what they are talking about when it comes to the scripture. The Bible is no more than a spell book. Close your eyes and put your finger on a page. Wherever your finger lands that verse is for you directly from God. Yes, you would be surprised how many people do it this way. It's a bit like reading your daily horoscope. Forget the context of the scripture or the culture it was written to. If you can find a scripture to fight your pet peeve..go for it.
Oh yes, my point. But, maybe your ahead of me. Are you beginning to get my point? All these folks pulled together in voting for Mr. Bush. They believe he's been called by God for such a time as this.
"I believe Our Lord elected our president and I believe he put him in office and it is my prayer that he will sustain him in office," said one woman at the Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Another was asked if she believed that God intervened in the election. "Absolutely," she said. Link
After all these many years they are still fighting amongst themselves about the truth. How can they be so sure they know the truth now?
A sidenote for the religious readers. I have no desire to discuss the truth you think your particular denomination has over another. Don't miss the point of this blog.
I don't reject your Christ.
I love your Christ.
It's just that so many of you Christians
are so unlike your Christ.
-- Mahatma Ghandi
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| Is the Iraq war a good thing? What do you think? |
| 12.01.04 (11:30 am) [edit] |
Yesterday's blog comments Let's talk about Iraq continues to delve into the ideology of 'war being a good thing' particularly the Iraq war. What do you think?
A selection taken from the comments:
"Very selective compassion you have there. I feel compassion too. I mourn the more than half million Iraqis found in mass graves. I grieve for every TRULY innocent life taken in this horrible war. Horrible, yes, but necessary to ensure our survival. I augment my compassion with reason and discernment." By Nakedtruth
"If I was an innocent Iraqi living in Fallujah, I believe I would have left when the Americans gave me weeks of warning that they were coming to battle the murderous thugs hiding in my mosques." By Nakedtruth
"Let's try that again: if I was an innocent American living in dire straight poverty somewhere in Arizona, I believe I would have left my poor home and gone live in the desert with the rattlers for a few weeks while the very nice invading army from China/Russia/whatever was bombing the shit out of my town and flattening down my Christian church because the priest who's encouraging us to resist the invasion is in there. And I would be so grateful for this very compassionate invading army to tell me in advance about it so I could book a mover to pack all my belongings and dump them in the desert, and then I could return to my flattened down city and start rebuild my home with the rubbles that this very nice army left for me, and then I could book another mover to go get my things from the desert and bring them back. And I'd be forever grateful to this very nice friendly army." By WhyNot
"Keep at it. this war is not a good thing, no matter what other say to justify it to themselves. protecting their way of life? maybe, more like carrying on a tradition which was laid down the second Christopher columbus set foot on what was NOT HIS LAND. same in Israel. and they do all support each other, because they do all benefit from it, at the expense of others, and without the resources they have, blogs and other small things are all we have left to stand against this oppression, in all forms." By M
"The number of innocent dead Iraqis killed by Americans and their allies are but a miniscule fraction of the number killed by Sadam" By Nakedtruth
"I think the figures are something like..Saddam killed around 300,000 over a 25 year period. US military has killed over 100,000, and that's the conservative number, in 18 months." By Dianne Maire
Do join in and please don't forget if your not a member of tblog to leave your url.
The conversation is happening here.
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