From shimogamo at attglobal.net Sat Nov 1 05:59:06 2008 From: shimogamo at attglobal.net (Bill Totten) Date: Sat, 01 Nov 2008 20:59:06 +0900 Subject: [R-G] [BillTottenWeblog] The Triumph of Ignorance Message-ID: <490C448A.8040503@attglobal.net> Why morons succeed in US politics by George Monbiot Published in the Guardian (October 28 2008) How was it allowed to happen? How did politics in the US come to be dominated by people who make a virtue out of ignorance? Was it charity that has permitted mankind's closest living relative to spend two terms as president? How did Sarah Palin, Dan Quayle and other such gibbering numbskulls get to where they are? How could Republican rallies in 2008 be drowned out by screaming ignoramuses insisting that Barack Obama is a Muslim and a terrorist? {1} Like most people on this side of the Atlantic I have spent my adult life mystified by American politics. The US has the world's best universities and attracts the world's finest minds. It dominates discoveries in science and medicine. Its wealth and power depend on the application of knowledge. Yet, uniquely among the developed nations (with the possible exception of Australia), learning is a grave political disadvantage. There have been exceptions over the past century: Franklin Roosevelt, Kennedy and Clinton tempered their intellectualism with the common touch and survived; but Adlai Stevenson, Al Gore and John Kerry were successfully tarred by their opponents as members of a cerebral elite (as if this were not a qualification for the presidency). Perhaps the defining moment in the collapse of intelligent politics was Ronald Reagan's response to Jimmy Carter during the 1980 presidential debate. Carter - stumbling a little, using long words - carefully enumerated the benefits of national health insurance. Reagan smiled and said "there you go again" {2}. His own health programme would have appalled most Americans, had he explained it as carefully as Carter had done, but he had found a formula for avoiding tough political issues and making his opponents look like wonks. It wasn't always like this. The founding fathers of the republic - men like Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, John Adams and Alexander Hamilton - were among the greatest thinkers of their age. They felt no need to make a secret of it. How did the project they launched degenerate into George W Bush and Sarah Palin? On one level this is easy to answer. Ignorant politicians are elected by ignorant people. US education, like the US health system, is notorious for its failures. In the most powerful nation on earth, one adult in five believes the sun revolves around the earth; only 26% accept that evolution takes place by means of natural selection; two-thirds of young adults are unable to find Iraq on a map; two-thirds of US voters cannot name the three branches of government; the maths skills of fifteen year-olds in the US are ranked 24th out of the 29 countries of the OECD {3}. But this merely extends the mystery: how did so many US citizens become so dumb, and so suspicious of intelligence? Susan Jacoby's book The Age of American Unreason (2008) provides the fullest explanation I have read so far. She shows that the degradation of US politics results from a series of interlocking tragedies. One theme is both familiar and clear: religion - in particular fundamentalist religion - makes you stupid. The US is the only rich country in which Christian fundamentalism is vast and growing. Jacoby shows that there was once a certain logic to its anti-rationalism. During the first few decades after the publication of The Origin of Species (1859), for example, Americans had good reason to reject the theory of natural selection and to treat public intellectuals with suspicion. From the beginning, Darwin's theory was mixed up in the US with the brutal philosophy - now known as Social Darwinism - of the British writer Herbert Spencer. Spencer's doctrine, promoted in the popular press with the help of funding from Andrew Carnegie, John D Rockefeller and Thomas Edison, suggested that millionaires stood at the top of a scala natura established by evolution. By preventing unfit people from being weeded out, government intervention weakened the nation. Gross economic inequalities were both justifiable and necessary {4}. Darwinism, in other words, became indistinguishable to the public from the most bestial form of laissez-faire economics. Many Christians responded with revulsion. It is profoundly ironic that the doctrine rejected a century ago by such prominent fundamentalists as William Jennings Bryan is now central to the economic thinking of the Christian right. Modern fundamentalists reject the science of Darwinian evolution and accept the pseudoscience of Social Darwinism. But there were other, more powerful, reasons for the intellectual isolation of the fundamentalists. The US is peculiar in devolving the control of education to local authorities. Teaching in the southern states was dominated by the views of an ignorant aristocracy of planters, and a great educational gulf opened up. "In the South", Jacoby writes, "what can only be described as an intellectual blockade was imposed in order to keep out any ideas that might threaten the social order" {5}. The Southern Baptist Convention, now the biggest Protestant denomination in the US, was to slavery and segregation what the Dutch Reformed Church was to apartheid in South Africa. It has done more than any other force to keep the South stupid. In the 1960s it tried to stave off desegregation by establishing a system of private Christian schools and universities. A student can now progress from kindergarten to a higher degree without any exposure to secular teaching. Southern Baptist beliefs pass intact through the public school system as well. A survey by researchers at the University of Texas in 1998 found that one in four of the state's public school biology teachers believed that humans and dinosaurs lived on earth at the same time {6}. This tragedy has been assisted by the American fetishisation of self-education. Though he greatly regretted his lack of formal teaching, Abraham Lincoln's career is repeatedly cited as evidence that good education, provided by the state, is unnecessary: all that is required to succeed is determination and rugged individualism. This might have served people well when genuine self-education movements, like the one built around the Little Blue Books in the first half of the 20th century, were in vogue. In the age of infotainment it is a recipe for confusion. Besides fundamentalist religion, perhaps the most potent reason why intellectuals struggle in elections is that intellectualism has been equated with subversion. The brief flirtation of some thinkers with communism a long time ago has been used to create an impression in the public mind that all intellectuals are communists. Almost every day men like Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly rage against the "liberal elites" destroying America. The spectre of pointy-headed alien subversives was crucial to the election of Reagan and Bush. A genuine intellectual elite - like the neocons (some of them former communists) surrounding Bush - has managed to pitch the political conflict as a battle between ordinary Americans and an over-educated pinko establishment. Any attempt to challenge the ideas of the rightwing elite has been successfully branded as elitism. Obama has a good deal to offer America, but none of this will come to an end if he wins. Until the great failures of the US education system are reversed or religious fundamentalism withers there will be political opportunities for people, like Bush and Palin, who flaunt their ignorance. www.monbiot.com References: 1. For a staggering display of ignorance and bigotry, see: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=lPg0VCg4AEQ 2. You can see this exchange at http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=px7aRIhUkHY&feature=related 3. All these facts are contained in Susan Jacoby, 2008. The Age of American Unreason: dumbing down and the future of democracy. Old Street Publishing, London. 4. Susan Jacoby, ibid. Chapter 3. 5. Susan Jacoby, ibid. Page 57. 6. Susan Jacoby, ibid. Page 25. Copyright (c) 2006 Monbiot.com http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2008/10/28/the-triumph-of-ignorance/ TO POST A COMMENT, OR TO READ COMMENTS POSTED BY OTHERS, please click on the word "comment" highlighted at the end of the version of this essay posted at http://billtotten.blogspot.com/ From shniad at sfu.ca Sat Nov 1 14:22:00 2008 From: shniad at sfu.ca (Sid Shniad) Date: Sat, 01 Nov 2008 13:22:00 -0700 Subject: [R-G] The dirty little secret of the banking industry Message-ID: <200811012022.mA1KM0p2011149@rm-rstar.sfu.ca> An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: not available Url: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/rad-green/attachments/20081101/cb97ca1c/attachment.txt From shniad at sfu.ca Sat Nov 1 14:24:08 2008 From: shniad at sfu.ca (Sid Shniad) Date: Sat, 01 Nov 2008 13:24:08 -0700 Subject: [R-G] Visible Man Message-ID: <200811012024.mA1KO8Nl013121@rm-rstar.sfu.ca> An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: not available Url: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/rad-green/attachments/20081101/c2b2acd2/attachment.txt From shniad at sfu.ca Sat Nov 1 14:24:48 2008 From: shniad at sfu.ca (Sid Shniad) Date: Sat, 01 Nov 2008 13:24:48 -0700 Subject: [R-G] DOJ Accepted AIPAC Parent's Demand for Secrecy Message-ID: <200811012024.mA1KOm2Q013853@rm-rstar.sfu.ca> An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: not available Url: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/rad-green/attachments/20081101/9f0612c4/attachment.txt From shniad at sfu.ca Sat Nov 1 14:23:01 2008 From: shniad at sfu.ca (Sid Shniad) Date: Sat, 01 Nov 2008 13:23:01 -0700 Subject: [R-G] U.S. pulls the plug on the world Message-ID: <200811012023.mA1KN1iN012323@rm-rstar.sfu.ca> An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: not available Url: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/rad-green/attachments/20081101/dd4f7129/attachment.txt From fentona at shaw.ca Sat Nov 1 14:54:02 2008 From: fentona at shaw.ca (Anthony Fenton) Date: Sat, 1 Nov 2008 13:54:02 -0700 Subject: [R-G] fw: 31 days of groundbreaking independent journalism References: <2ad0cf040811011333p2ce349a5r50c0992104c33e06@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: Dear readers, Every day in November, the Dominion will be posting an original, investigative article on Canada's State of Mine. Many of the stories are featured in the Dominion's special issue on the extractive industry, which is being launched at events from coast to coast. Please help us to continue to break new ground in independent journalism: -> Become a Dominion Sustainer -> Help us distribute our special issue in your community -> Subscribe! Today's featured story: A Violation of Algonquin Law First Nations spearhead resistance to uranium mining by Sara Falconer thanks for reading, The Editors From shniad at sfu.ca Sat Nov 1 14:50:34 2008 From: shniad at sfu.ca (Sid Shniad) Date: Sat, 01 Nov 2008 13:50:34 -0700 Subject: [R-G] The Sounds of Voting -- and Check Writing (Bill Moyers) Message-ID: <200811012050.mA1KoYQr006636@rm-rstar.sfu.ca> An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: not available Url: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/rad-green/attachments/20081101/86738104/attachment.txt From hunterbadbear at hunterbear.org Sat Nov 1 18:00:35 2008 From: hunterbadbear at hunterbear.org (Hunter Gray) Date: Sat, 1 Nov 2008 18:00:35 -0600 Subject: [R-G] Notes [November 1 2008] Message-ID: <000a01c93c7e$093d06b0$0400a8c0@computer> Sky Gray -- truly a wonderful companion and all that anyone could ask for in a Kitty, and more -- is helping me with the computer stuff this morning. Challenging situation. The catnip mouse diversion worked for a little while but we have now opened a fresh can of tuna. Well, RBB has ended the month -- only coincidentally is it Halloween -- with a true and not atypical July 4th display of fireworks. Drawing from the traditions of my maternal grandfather [who I cordially -- and I do mean cordially since we were great friends -- describe in my long Civil Rights Movement Veterans interview as "capitalism incarnate"] I note that the post tally for our just completed month is 895, topping the previous record of 887 for November, 2001. I'd say, in an all-around friendly fashion, that it's deep breath time. We're all on the same side. Always will be. And we're all quite articulate indeed. And passionate. [I much like the just given suggestion of John [Beba] about good beer. To that I'd add Johnny Walker Red. I miss the days of long yore when I was not an abstainer.] And, of course, we are all aware that a major development in American history -- the Obama campaign -- is now moving toward an extremely probable victory. [When we voted yesterday, in the Bannock County Courthouse Annex, the very large room was full -- and there was lots of motion: people coming in to vote, people registering for the first time, all kinds of people -- many young, and some quite young. The lady in charge said that, in past elections, they only drew a tiny handful of early voters each day. But they were well staffed.] True, Obama is no saint, no messiah [and I really don't get the impression that he thinks he is -- though, of course, some others may.] But he and the contextual and foundational forces around him represent, in my opinion, a great step [not a leap] forward -- and forward with the Winds of History, It's a good -- a damn good -- fighting chance. Our job is to Keep Pushing, Keep Fighting. Whatever happens and whenever, our work is always cut out. I appreciate the comments on the Iroquois and the Great Confederacy -- which picked up on mine of yesterday. During my one year of high school teaching -- and from my very first semester of higher ed teaching [college/university], I have always managed to incorporate therein Native historical and social cultural material -- and very much current issues. During my thirteen years at University of North Dakota, my three favorite courses -- quite officially in the Native context -- were Intro to Indian Studies, Federal Indian Law, and Contemporary Indian Issues. And, if I have always been surprised -- but not too surprised -- about the dearth of awareness and accurate knowledge on the part of non-Indians [and even some Indians] about Native matters. But I've been very pleased, always, about the friendly and open-minded nature of virtually every student I've ever had the privilege of teaching -- all kinds of students, many kinds of subjects. [I should add that I have always avoided "guilt-tripping."] For anyone interested in the Iroquois, here is a list of recommended books I provided awhile back -- and have given earlier on at least one of our lists. I have appropriate comments as well. And, of course, I am always happy to answer questions, on list or off. Dear Walter: Thanks for your inquiry. I'm posting this on another list or two as well -- since it's an excellent question and my response, I trust, is equally excellent. As you know, being a professor, ask a professor a question and he or she is still responding 45 minutes later. Anyway - The ancient Iroquois Confederacy -- which is very much alive and extremely vital -- is complex and quite formal. It exemplifies, within the context of the traditional cultures of the initially five and later six Iroquois nations, the very carefully worked out balance between collective and individual well-being [ and here, in this matter of confederation, between the component nations and the Confederacy as well] -- that is the enduring and fundamental dimension of any Native tribal nation [and other Fourth World tribal societies.] Agriculture and hunting were the traditional economic mainstays of the village-based Iroquois nations that make up the Confederacy: Mohawk, Seneca, Onondaga, Oneida, Cayuga -- and, sixth, Tuscarora [coming up from North Carolina in the early 1700s.] As such, this extraordinary entity is much more structured than, say, that of the old Wabanaki [Abenaki or Abnaki] Confederacy -- to the east and northeast of the Iroquois -- where the participating nations were traditionally hunters and trappers and where the family bands comprising the Abenaki nations were necessarily semi-nomadic. [Among these Wabanaki tribes are the St. Francis Abenaki, Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, Maliseet, Micmac.] I have a great deal of material -- always growing -- on Native American matters posted on our very large social justice website www.hunterbear.org A short piece of mine, if you haven't seen it, gets quickly into the matter of tribal or mutual responsibility: the individual has an obligation to the tribe and the tribe has an obligation to the individual; should these interests conflict, the well-being of the tribe takes precedence; but, within that very carefully established framework, there are clearly developed areas of individual and family autonomy into which the tribe cannot intrude. That little piece of mine is "Racism, Ethnocentrism, and Native Tribalism [it was recently published in the Northwest Ethnic Voice.] Here is its link on our site: http://www.hunterbear.org/nativetribalism.htm Here are several suggested books. I have a thought or two attached to each: Lewis Henry Morgan: The League of the Iroquois [League of the Ho-de-no-sau-nee or Iroquois], Corinth Books, New York, 1962 [many editions]. This is, of course, one of the major classics by the Rochester, New Yorker who worked so closely with traditional Iroquois -- especially the excellent Donehogawa [Eli Parker], the Seneca who was also Brigadier General in the Union Army and Grant's chief aide, as well as being the first Native person to head what was becoming the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Morgan's works and subsequent extensive correspondence were of great and enduring interest to Marx and Engels. Edmund Wilson: Apologies to the Iroquois, Vintage Books, New York, 1960. This is an excellent introduction to the Iroquois by the gifted and well-known writer -- who "discovered" the Iroquois and whose healthy fascination became life-long. A component essay in Wilson's work, Joseph Mitchell's "The Mohawks in High Steel" is a splendid addition. Dean R. Snow: The Iroquois, [Blackwell, Oxford UK and Cambridge MA, 1994. A great deal of material -- historical and contemporary -- is presented in a well organized, trenchant, and lucid fashion. A full and very palatable reference work. Annemarie Anrod Shimony: Conservatism among the Iroquois at the Six Nations Reserve, Syracuse University Press, 1994. This is an extremely detailed and intricate study of Iroquois traditionalism -- including traditional government -- into and with an emphasis on contemporary times. Very well done and presented, this first appeared under the aegis of Yale in 1961; the new edition is updated. [My father secured this when it initially appeared and I read portions at that point. That copy was falling apart and we were delighted to get the updated reprint.] William Fenton: Parker on the Iroquois, Syracuse University Press, 1968. This is the edited compilation [by Professor Fenton] of much of the vast primary research and analytical work -- on many key components of traditional Iroquois culture -- by the noted and traditional Seneca scholar and activist, Arthur Caswell Parker [great nephew of Eli Parker] who was, in addition to being a broadly acclaimed ethnologist, an active organizer of Native rights organizations: e.g., Society of American Indians [1911] and a founder of National Congress of American Indians [1944.] Arthur Parker, I should add, was an extremely important role model of mine as I developed. This work contains a great deal on traditional Iroquois governance, the origins and development and vigorous continuation of the Confederacy, and the Constitution of the Five Nations of the Confederacy. For a first-rate discussion of the origin and development of the Society of American Indians and Pan-Indianism in general [organizations and movements transcending specific tribal lines], see Hazel Hertzberg: The Search for an American Indian Identity: Modern Pan-Indian Movements, Syracuse University Press, 1971. As Ever -- Hunter [Hunter Bear] HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk Protected by Na?shdo?i?ba?i? and Ohkwari' Check out our Hunterbear website Directory http://hunterbear.org/directory.htm [The site is dedicated to our one-half Bobcat, Cloudy Gray: http://hunterbear.org/cloudy_gray.htm See our Community Organizing Course [With new material] http://hunterbear.org/my_combined_community_organizing.htm And see Hunter's Movement Life Interview: http://hunterbear.org/HUNTER%20BEAR%20INTERVIEW%20CRMV.htm From critical.montages at gmail.com Sun Nov 2 02:32:54 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Sun, 2 Nov 2008 04:32:54 -0500 Subject: [R-G] Three Way Presidential Debate - Obama, McCain, and Nader Message-ID: Yoshie From critical.montages at gmail.com Sun Nov 2 03:09:43 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Sun, 2 Nov 2008 05:09:43 -0500 Subject: [R-G] Britain Uses Anti-terrorism Laws to Freeze Iceland's Assets Message-ID: Financial Sanctions Notice 8 October 2008 The Landsbanki Freezing Order 2008 2008 No. 2668 BANKS AND BANKING The Landsbanki Freezing Order 2008 November 2, 2008 Iceland, Mired in Debt, Blames Britain for Woes By SARAH LYALL LONDON ? No one disputes that Iceland's economic troubles are largely the country's own fault. But there may be more to the story, at least in the view of Iceland's government, its citizens and even some outsiders. As grave as their situation already was, they say, Britain ? their old friend, NATO ally and trading partner ? made it immeasurably worse. The troubles between the countries began three weeks ago when Britain took the extraordinary step of using its 2001 antiterrorism laws to freeze the British assets of a failing Icelandic bank. That appeared to brand Iceland a terrorist state. "I must admit that I was absolutely appalled," the Icelandic foreign minister, Ingibjorg Solrun Gisladottir, said in an interview, describing her horror at opening the British treasury department's home page at the time and finding Iceland on a list of terrorist entities with Al Qaeda, Sudan and North Korea, among others. In a volatile economic climate, in which appearance matters almost as much as reality, being associated with terrorism is not a good thing. "The immediate effect was to trigger an almost complete freeze on any banking transactions between Iceland and abroad," said Jon Danielsson, an economist at the London School of Economics. "When you're labeled a terrorist, nobody does business with you." The Icelandic prime minister, Geir H. Haarde, accused Britain of "bullying a small neighbor" and said the action was "very out of proportion." In a recent speech in Beijing, Sir Howard Davies, a former deputy governor of the Bank of England and now the director of the London School of Economics, said that Britain had used a "beggar thy neighbor" approach to Iceland. And an online petition signed so far by more than 20 percent of Iceland's population said the British prime minister, Gordon Brown, had sacrificed Iceland "for his own short-term political gain," thereby turning "a grave situation into a national disaster." Iceland's financial problems had been brewing for some time. This past spring, the country's banks, bloated with foreign deposits and debts, began to falter. This fall, as the financial crisis deepened, the government took over two of the country's three largest banks. Britain's government, alarmed about the tens of thousands of accounts held by its citizens, companies, local governments and charities, froze the British assets of one of the failed banks, Landsbanki. It also seized the assets of Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander, the British subsidiary of another Icelandic bank, Kaupthing. "The Icelandic government, believe it or not, told me yesterday that they have no intention of honoring their obligations here," Alistair Darling, the chancellor of the Exchequer, declared the day Britain seized the assets. The Icelandic government disputed that, saying it was merely asking for time to make good on its obligations. Whatever the case, reaction was immediate and severe, particularly when Mr. Brown said the following day ? inaccurately ? that "we are freezing the assets of Icelandic companies in the U.K. where we can." Iceland's ambassador to Britain, Sverrir H. Gunnlaugsson, said in an interview that this statement was particularly damaging. "There was a perception in the U.K. press and among suppliers that everything Icelandic had been frozen," he said. "The word was put out belatedly that this was not the case." Icelanders say that it is now nearly impossible to get foreign currency into or out of the country. Many banks have refused even to transfer money to Iceland. Importers are having difficulty paying their foreign bills, and exporters are having trouble getting paid by their foreign customers. Many people in Iceland are also furious about what happened to Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander. The British government's seizure of its assets precipitated the immediate collapse of its parent bank, Kaupthing, which the Icelandic government had been propping up and had hoped would survive. "Kaupthing was the last, best hope of the Icelandic banking system, and it was killed there and then," Andres Magnusson, an editorial writer for Icelandic Financial News, said in an interview. "This really was the last straw. A lot of Icelanders are asking, 'Excuse me: who's the terrorist here?' " The bank's collapse had repercussions beyond Iceland and Britain. More than 8,000 depositors, individuals and businesses, hold Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander accounts worth about $1.34 billion on the Isle of Man, money they cannot get their hands on now ? and may never. Iceland is in line to receive a $2 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund and is talking to other Scandinavian countries. It is not entirely friendless: it was recently offered a loan of about $52 million from the tiny Faroe Islands, for which it is very grateful, Mr. Gunnlaugsson said. The Icelandic government has pledged to make good on domestic bank accounts. But it is still fighting with Britain over how much it is obliged to pay ? and how much it can afford to pay ? to compensate customers with accounts in Icesave, Landsbanki's British branch. Under European regulations, Iceland is obliged to pay 20,000 euros (about $25,000) to each individual account holder in Icesave. But the total, Ms. Gisladottir, the foreign minister, said, would amount to about 600 billion Icelandic kronur ? only about $5 billion at today's collapsed exchange rate but fully 60 percent of Iceland's gross domestic product. "The compensation that we would give would be twice as much per head as the reparations Germany faced in the Treaty of Versailles after the First World War," she said. "That is something we cannot afford." The British government has guaranteed that individual British account holders will be compensated fully, which is why it is seeking to wrest as much money as possible from Iceland. But no such guarantees have been made to the British companies, local governments, charities and universities ? including Oxford and Cambridge ? that had Icesave accounts. That figure alone is well over a billion dollars. Iceland's key interest rate now stands at 18 percent. The currency, the krona, has declined 44 percent in the last year. Mr. Danielsson, the economist, visited the country recently and found the situation grave. "Salaries are frozen, food prices are shooting up and they are laying off people left, right and center," he said. "Companies are going bankrupt all over the place. It's unimaginable how bad it is." Ms. Gisladottir said Britain's decision had sent Iceland back some 30 or 40 years, to a time when it was an isolated, poor country, dependent mostly on its fishing trade. "This is a major crisis," she said. "We haven't been in this situation for, probably, ever. We cannot solve it alone. We need solidarity from partners, from friendly countries, and we thought the U.K. was one of them." Warning on use of anti-terror law on banks By Michael Peel Published: October 10 2008 04:14 | Last updated: October 10 2008 04:14 The use of anti-terror powers to freeze billions of pounds of Icelandic bank assets in Britain is a distortion of the law's intent and risks further gumming up the ailing financial system, legal experts warned on Thursday. Financial crime lawyers said the government's unprecedented decision to apply the freezing order for purposes other than tackling terrorism opened the way to its use in other cases centred on commercial and political interests. The Treasury's action on Wednesday to protect the deposits of British account holders has highlighted broader concerns that some security-related laws passed since the September 11 2001 terrorist attacks are so widely drafted they are open to abuse. Martin Saunders, a partner at Clifford Chance, the law firm, said it was "surprising" the government was addressing an economic problem with "the kind of order issued against organisations like al-Qaeda". The firm said that the Treasury order freezing an estimated ?4bn of assets of Landsbanki, which went into receivership this week, could create a ripple effect of disruption on deals involving other institutions. The freezing provisions applied to many assets other than account deposits, potentially affecting transactions involving instruments such as gold, securities and letters of credit. Gareth Rees QC, a leading financial crime counsel, questioned whether use of the powers was justified even though "everyone is being urged to treat the present financial crisis as requiring a new approach". He said: "Using powers clearly designed to combat terrorism in this commercial and political way seems to be stretching the meaning of this legislation beyond its intended limits." It is the first time the Treasury has deployed the 2001 Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act powers in a non-terrorist case, using the sweeping discretion the law offers to combat "action to the detriment of the UK's economy". Lawyers say that this term is so widely drawn that it appears to offer support both to what the government did and to similar action in future situations involving troubled overseas institutions. Asked if the government saw the Landsbanki case as constituting a kind of financial terrorism, one official responded wryly: "The question is: who are the terrorists?" The Treasury stressed it had used the power as a precautionary measure to protect British retail depositors, as it was not clear whether Landsbanki could cover its obligations to them. The order was temporary and officials were working "co-operatively and constructively" with the Icelandic authorities to resolve the situation. The Treasury on Thursday issued a licence allowing a partial relaxation of the order to allow businesses to access their accounts and other facilities with Landsbanki's London branch. The government approach came under political fire, with Baroness Miller, Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, condemning it as "clearly a misuse" of the 2001 act. "Although it may have been right to freeze the assets, it is appalling to use terrorism legislation for anything other than counter-terrorism measures." Her attack echoes criticisms of the broad application of official powers in areas such as surveillance, which can ordered by hundreds of authorities, including local councils, to safeguard "the interests of the economic well-being of the UK". Stephen Grosz, the head of public law and human rights at Bindmans, the law firm, said that the Iceland asset freezing was another example of "function creep", under which the breadth of potential applications of an act meant powers adopted for one purpose could be deployed for another. Liberty, the human rights group, declined to criticise the government's use of the anti-terrorism law, arguing that it seemed to fall under the umbrella of the "security" provisions referred to in the act's title. Additional reporting by Jimmy Burns Terror law used for Iceland deposits By FT reporters Published: October 8 2008 17:11 | Last updated: October 8 2008 22:54 Anti-terrorism powers were used on Wednesday to recoup money owed to UK depositors in a failed Icelandic bank in a move that risked sending Britain's relations with Reykjavik to their lowest since the 1970s "cod wars". From critical.montages at gmail.com Sun Nov 2 03:15:34 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Sun, 2 Nov 2008 05:15:34 -0500 Subject: [R-G] Credit Lifeline Could Spur Budapest Reforms + Belarus to Liberalise for IMF Loan Message-ID: Credit lifeline could spur Budapest reforms By Thomas Escritt in London Published: October 29 2008 18:24 | Last updated: October 29 2008 18:24 The strings attached to Hungary's rescue package may just give the country's leaders the excuse they need to push through structural reforms. When Hungarians voted in a referendum on spending cuts last March, their response was a resounding "no" and the politicians listened. Since the 1960s, Hungarian governments have secured social peace by borrowing abroad to indulge consumer appetites at home, a tradition that survived the country's transition to free market democracy in 1989. Painful reforms have been a recipe for political suicide. But the news of a $25.1bn credit line to the country, which has been suffering from investor flight due to fears over its ability to finance its foreign debts, may bolster the minority socialist government's resolve. In exchange for the package, led by the International Monetary Fund, Hungary has promised Ft300bn ($1.5bn, ?1.2bn, ?920m) in spending cuts. This is on top of cuts worth Ft80bn, which Hungary pledged following the European Central Bank's grant of a ?5bn credit line two weeks ago. The IMF said it had been impressed by Hungary's comprehensive policy package, designed to restore investor confidence and alleviate the stress experienced in recent weeks in the Hungarian financial markets. The package's fiscal measures "[justified] the exceptional level of access to Fund resources ? equivalent to around 1,020 per cent of Hungary's quota in the IMF ? and deserve the support of the international community," said Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the managing director of the IMF. The IMF and EU interventions have helped Ferenc Gyurcsany, the reform-minded prime minister, to enforce discipline among his fractious backbenchers, convincing them to support the curtailing of totemic "13th month" payments to pensioners and public sector employees. "At least Mr Gyurcsany has now persuaded his party to sacrifice this particular sacred cow," said Krisztian Szabados, a partner at Political Capital, a public affairs consultancy. David Daroczi, spokesman for Mr Gyurcsany, said the cut was also a signal to foreign investors: "We did not need to [cut the 13th month payments] to get the IMF's help. We did it to send a clear message to investors that the government is ready to make cuts. It has symbolic value." The government forecast on Tuesday that the economy could contract by up to 1 per cent next year. Belarus to liberalise for IMF loan By Jan Cienski in Minsk Published: October 29 2008 09:26 | Last updated: October 29 2008 18:53 Belarus is promising to reform its economy and sell off some state assets as it holds talks with the International Monetary Fund on a possible $2bn loan as a "security cushion" in case of further turbulence from the global financial crisis. Minsk has used about 10 per cent of its foreign currency reserves, which now stand at about $4.9bn, over the last month as it tried to support the Belarusian rouble. Belarus, which has a relatively underdeveloped financial sector, was not affected by the initial shock of the crisis, but it has been hit by turmoil in Russia, its main trading partner, and neighbouring Ukraine. "In the first phase Belarus was only minimally affected. But in the second phase, with terms of trade becoming worse, we anticipate certain problems will confront our exporters," Vasily Matyushevsky, the deputy chairman of the central bank, told reporters on Wednesday. The IMF has already agreed to loan Hungary $25.1bn and Ukraine $16.5bn. An IMF delegation arrived in Minsk on Sunday and is holding talks with the Belarusian government. "It is needed to safeguard against any shocks or stresses," said Andrei Kobyakov, the deputy prime minister, adding that if the economic situation improved Belarus might end up not needing the loan. Belarus, one of Europe's last authoritarian states, has long been one of Russia's closest allies but in the last year has been cautiously opening itself to the west. In September it increased the permitted foreign stake in local banks to rise from 25 to 50 per cent. The government is also planning to sell off four state owned banks as well as other state owned enterprises. "We are taking steps to improve the business climate of our country, to ensure a continued inflow of foreign direct investment," said Mr Matyushevsky. Belarus is also in the final stages of negotiating a $2bn loan from Russia, which supplies Belarus with most of its oil and gas. Mr Kobyakov denied that the terms of the loan were tied to Belarusian recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, two breakaway regions of Georgia that Russia says are independent states. "The Russian loan is not linked to the global economic crisis, although in today's situation it is coming just in time," he said. The Belarusian economy grew by 8.2 per cent last year and the government expects growth this year to be at least 10 per cent. From critical.montages at gmail.com Sun Nov 2 03:23:30 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Sun, 2 Nov 2008 05:23:30 -0500 Subject: [R-G] The East Is in the Red Message-ID: The east is in the red By Stefan Wagstyl Published: October 16 2008 20:11 | Last updated: October 16 2008 20:11 Current Account Balances, as a % of GDP, 2008 and Cost of Insuring Government Debt, credit default swaps spread (basis points) From critical.montages at gmail.com Sun Nov 2 03:30:47 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Sun, 2 Nov 2008 05:30:47 -0500 Subject: [R-G] Turkish Politicians Argue over Need for IMF Help as Crunch Bites Message-ID: Turkish politicians argue over need for IMF help as crunch bites By Delphine Strauss in Ankara Published: October 28 2008 02:00 | Last updated: October 28 2008 02:00 A political squabble has broken out in Turkey over whether it should turn again to the International Monetary Fund for help, amid growing evidence of the negative impact of the global financial crisis. The country's most recent $10bn (?6.4bn, ?8bn) IMF deal expired in May, and despite the rush by several European countries this month for support from the Washington-based body, Turkish politicians initially said Ankara could do without outside help. "We cannot darken our future by bowing to the wishes of the IMF," Recep Tayyip Erdogan, prime minister, said at the weekend - comments that suggest an IMF deal would require cuts in budget plans presented only last week. But Durmus Yilmaz, central bank governor, said yesterday that IMF support would be "useful" to give confidence to international markets - although it would ultimately be a political decision. "At this stage we do not need IMF cash . . . but there is uncertainty about what we will face in the coming term," he said, according to the state-run Anatolian news agency. The governor's comments are a sign of the times in a country that is no stranger to financial turbulence and where fears are growing of an economic slowdown as foreign capital dries up. A history of homegrown currency crises means many people watch inflation and exchange rates more closely than the weather forecast. To them, the convulsions in global markets look wearily familiar. In 2001, two fifths of Turkey's banks failed after a spree of irresponsible - at times corrupt - lending. Taking them over and recapitalising them cost a crippling 30 per cent of gross domestic product and the economy plunged into a deep, if brief, recession. Now, thanks to that restructuring, Turkish banks look conservative and well-capitalised compared with their shaky US and western European counterparts. But that will not spare the country a sharp economic slowdown as the foreign capital flows that funded five years of prosperity decline. Politicians are reluctant to acknowledge the severity of the situation, sticking to a forecast of 4 per cent growth for 2009. That is much higher than independent forecasts, casting doubt on the assumptions on which budget plans are based. The IMF, in its latest forecasts, predicted GDP growth of just 3.5 per cent this year and 3 per cent in 2009 - half the average over the past five years. Slow growth would itself be a novelty for an economy that has historically swung between boom and rapid contraction. But it is a painful prospect for a country already struggling to create jobs for a young and fast-growing population. Serhan Cevik, economist at Nomura, said: "Turkey is one of the best proxies for global risk appetite." The lira has lost a third of its value against the dollar this month and equity values have halved from their peak as foreign investors pull out of a liquid market. The biggest immediate danger lies in Turkey's heavy external financing requirement, a long-standing weakness that makes it vulnerable to tight global credit conditions. Most analysts think it can avoid a full-blown balance of payments crisis. But it will inevitably become harder to manage a current account deficit running above 6 per cent of GDP and increasingly financed by corporate borrowing. The central bank has already begun daily foreign exchange auctions to increase foreign exchange liquidity in the banking system. It is likely to keep interest rates high - they are already at 16.75 per cent - until the risk of a run on the lira has dissipated. Even without the threat of imminent meltdown, the real economy is suffering as high interest rates hasten the end of a consumer boom and the slump in European markets hits an export sector concentrated on cars and white goods. Real estate investors have pulled out of deals, retailers are scaling back store expansions and carmakers are calling halts in production. Lower oil prices will cut Turkey's import bill, but will also mean slower business for Turkish contractors in Middle Eastern markets. Bankers in Istanbul say Gulf investors want to renegotiate prices in deals discussed before the lira's plunge, which will also hurt companies that borrowed heavily in foreign currency without effective hedges. Additional reporting by Funja Guler From critical.montages at gmail.com Sun Nov 2 04:16:08 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Sun, 2 Nov 2008 06:16:08 -0500 Subject: [R-G] Zimbabwe: Donors Want Break from Past Policies Message-ID: Donors want break from past policies By William Wallis in London Published: October 28 2008 02:00 | Last updated: October 28 2008 02:00 It could be many months before Zimbabwe can access donor funds to stabilise its imploding economy even if President Robert Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai, the prime minister designate, break the deadlock over cabinet positions holding up a post-election agreement. Donor officials say any government emerging from the power-sharing talks that resumed in Harare yesterday would first have to establish a clean break from ruinous past policies. "We are keen that they reach a political agreement so that they can have a credible economic reform programme and credible people at the Reserve Bank," says Donald Kaberuka, president of the African Development Bank. But the government would have to move quickly to schedule repayment of $1bn (?801m, ?644m) in arrears to the AfDB, and the World Bank, and reach agreement on an International Monetary Fund reform programme before direct budgetary support would be available, he said. The threshold has been raised by the global financial crisis and the likelihood that donors will be reluctant to risk substantial sums on rescuing an administration still headed by Mr Mugabe. "For the bilaterals they could begin now. For the international financial institutions it would require agreement on arrears and an internationally accepted reform package," Mr Kaberuka told the Financial Times. Without an injection of hard currency, potentially more than $1bn, any government would struggle to tame hyper-inflation running officially at an annualised 231m per cent, and by unofficial estimates tracked by the US Cato institute, at 10 quadrillion per cent. Bilateral donors including the US and UK could raise humanitarian aid to an estimated 5m Zimbabweans facing starvation, donor officials say. But a prolonged period of waiting before any formal stabilisation package is available would pose serious difficulties for both Mr Tsvangirai and Mr Mugabe. Having signed up to what some opposition activists criticise as a pact with the devil, the opposition leader once in government will be under pressure to prove he can quickly reverse a vertiginous decline in Zimbabwean livelihoods. "Civil servants want real incomes. What happens if he can't deliver?" asks a Zimbabwean analyst connected with the Reserve Bank. As a bare minimum towards maintaining the peace and paying security forces, a new government would have to continue printing money in the near term, an economist with a multilateral donor organisation said. But to accelerate the disbursement of donor funds - in the best case scenario within three months - it would have to signal serious intent to reform. For Mr Mugabe this would pose an acute dilemma. A period of best behaviour could jeopardise the patronage system with which he has maintained his grip on power. In the fantastical world of quadrillions that Zimbabwe's economy inhabits, it has become next to impossible to measure the real state of the country's finances. Donors list some minimum conditions that a new government would have to meet to restore confidence. These include commissioning an external audit of the Reserve Bank, establishing a credible consumer price index, willingness to seek technical assistance from the IMF, and the appointment of credible reformers to positions with influence over monetary and economic policy. Beyond that, a new government could move to protect private property, reverse legislation hindering business, and re-establish the rule of law. Because Mr Mugabe and his principal lieutenants have shown little inclination to do this, many donor officials remain sceptical that a substantial recovery programme will be feasible in the near term. From shimogamo at attglobal.net Sun Nov 2 04:50:53 2008 From: shimogamo at attglobal.net (Bill Totten) Date: Sun, 02 Nov 2008 20:50:53 +0900 Subject: [R-G] [BillTottenWeblog] Arguments from Ignorance Message-ID: <490D941D.5030304@attglobal.net> by John Michael Greer The Archdruid Report (October 29 2008) Druid perspectives on nature, culture, and the future of industrial society For some time now I've been wondering how to bring up a certain habit of thought that, as I see it, forms one of the taproots feeding the contemporary crisis of industrial civilization. That it had to be discussed here on The Archdruid Report I never doubted, but in the midst of a cascade of dramatic current events, that discussion can seem very nearly beside the point. When the system of hallucinatory finance that propped up the illusion of American prosperity for a quarter century may be going to pieces around us, panic selling in commodity markets by speculators hit with margin calls is sending fossil fuel prices to lows just as unsustainable as their recent highs, and the wheels are coming off America's global empire, I find myself wondering, is it really a good time to go wandering off in pursuit of intangibles? Then perspective returns, and I remember that it's precisely the intangibles, the states of mind and attitudes toward the world that form a culture's collective discourse, that define what it can and cannot accomplish as the age of oil comes to an end. As I've commented before, it's not technical issues that make our present predicament so difficult; it's the failure of collective will that keeps even the most grudging acknowledgment of our predicament, and even the most modest response to it, completely off the radar screens of mainstream politics in every nation in the industrial world. Until the "mind-forg'd manacles" of dysfunctional thinking are unlocked and tossed aside, constructive plans for the world after peak oil on anything past an individual level are wasted effort, since they will not be implemented by societies that cannot grasp the need for them. I had a cogent reminder of this over the past week, when three efforts of mine to spark collective discussion about these issues - my book The Long Descent (2008), a reading and booksigning at a local bookstore here in southern Oregon, and the most recent post here - fielded three responses that used very different arguments to make a common claim. A reader of my book emailed me to tell me he thought I was refusing to give proper weight to the possibility that new technology would save our civilization from the impact of peak oil; a serious young man who attended the reading came up afterwards to ask me what I thought about the possibility that the current crisis would drive humanity to achieve a new stage of spiritual evolution, after which we will easily replace fossil fuels with currently unimaginable resources; a new reader of this blog sent in a comment insisting that peak oil was an illusion manufactured by sinister elites who were suppressing inventions that would allow everyone to have all the energy they wanted. Mind you, I'd encountered every one of these assertions before. Ever since this blog first started suggesting that the end of the age of cheap abundant energy was the natural and inevitable result of a human ecology hopelessly out of step with the realities of life on a finite planet, I've fielded a great many emails and comments insisting, basically, that it just ain't so - that one way or another, for one reason or another, humanity could have its abundant energy resources and burn them too, and can reasonably expect more of the same forever. The three responses I've just cited by no means exhaust the full spectrum of arguments advanced to back this curious claim, but they're good representative samples of the type. Now it's possible to dispute each of these claims on their own terms, and I've done that more than once on this blog and elsewhere, but there's a very real extent to which this is a waste of breath. Each of them is what the old logicians used to call argumentia ad ignorantem, arguments from ignorance. They insist on the presence of a factor that isn't actually present for examination and can't be proved or disproved - a technological advance that hasn't happened yet, an imminent spiritual transformation that has to be taken on blind faith, or a conspiracy so secret and pervasive that it can manipulate everything we think we know about the world - to insist that we don't actually have to do anything about peak oil. Such arguments prove nothing, of course; they're the precise equivalent of using the phrase "then a miracle happens" to get from one step of a cookbook recipe or a mathematical equation to the next. Their only virtue is that they're impossible to disprove. I've come to think that this last detail is why they're so popular. It's a very charming social habit, dating back to the 18th century Enlightenment, to profess the belief that people come to decisions about the world by sitting down with the relevant facts, assessing them calmly, and then making a decision on that basis. I think most of us are aware, though, that few decisions are actually made this way; much more often, people start from the conclusion that appeals to their emotions and intuition, and then go looking for logical reasons to support the belief they've already chosen. Most of the time, this is actually a good thing. Left to itself, the reasoning mind tends to run to extremes; it's because most human decisions obey the nonrational promptings of emotional patterns laid down in childhood that our lives have any continuity at all. This same process, averaged out over the millions who inhabit a nation, provides a sense of stability and identity essential to our collective life. Still, the emotions' habit of projecting the past onto the blank screen of the future can become a ghastly liability when the future no longer resembles the past in some crucial sense. That's the situation we're facing now. Between 1980 and 2005, political gimmickry and the reckless overproduction of the North Slope and North Sea oil fields crashed the price of oil to right around US$10 a barrel - corrected for inflation, the cheapest price in history. During that quarter century of unsustainable excess, energy was so cheap that the cost no longer mattered; it seemed to make perfect sense to live in rural Oregon and commute daily by jet to San Francisco or Seattle, or to arbitrage wage costs by manufacturing consumer goods for the American market in Third World sweatshops and shipping them halfway around the world to their customers, or to build internet server farms, thousands of them, each one drawing as much electricity from the grid as a medium-sized town. That world of unlimited free energy is the world in which nearly all of us in the industrial world lived until very recently, and it's the only world people who are under the age of 35 or so can remember at all. Thus it's not surprising that when people are faced with the claim that the future will be very, very different, they tend to reject the notion out of hand, and if the only reasons they can find to justify that rejection are arguments from ignorance like the ones I cited above, then arguments from ignorance are what they'll cite. The problem is that at this point we don't have time to wait for hypothetical solutions to show up and save us. The Hirsch Report pointed out in 2005 that, to avoid severe economic disruption, any effective response to peak oil had to get started at least twenty years before the beginning of petroleum production declines. Any less than that, and the result is damage to the economy; the shorter the lead time, the worse the damage, and waiting until production declines actually begin is a recipe for crippling economic impacts that could make it impossible to respond to the crisis effectively at all. This is dire news, because we no longer have the twenty years Hirsch specified; we most likely have only two years left. By most calculations, in fact, conventional petroleum production actually peaked the same year the Hirsch Report was published; apparent increases since then have happened because biofuels, tar sand extractives, and other alternative fuels that require high energy inputs have been lumped together with conventional oil; and the best estimates suggest that even with the alternatives factored in, production will face serious declines beginning around 2010. That gives us desperately little time to respond, and no time to spare for arguments that insist some unknown phenomenon will pop out of the woodwork just in time. There are times late at night when I find myself wondering if similar reasonings could have been heard in the Yucatan lowlands as the Terminal Classic period of Mayan history arrived and the paired jaws of declining soil fertility and catastrophic drought clamped around the throat of Lowland Maya civilization. There were plenty of potential responses as the corn harvests began to fail, centering on a transition from corn culture to less valued foods such as ramon nuts, but ideological factors made such a transition difficult for the ahauob, "divine lords" of the Maya city-states, to contemplate; abundant corn harvests filled the same role in their culture as abundant fossil fuel supplies have in ours. Thus, instead of facing the crisis, the ahauob responded by hoping that something would provide them with a way out of it. Some of them, anticipating America's recent neoconservative movement, went to war with other city-states to seize their corn supplies, while others offered up human sacrifices and built ever more grandiose temples in the hopes that the gods would take the crisis away. None of this helped, and much of it probably made the situation worse; one way or another, the result was a "rolling collapse" that, over a century and a half, turned the thriving Maya cities of the lowlands to crumbling, overgrown ruins inhabited by a scattering of survivors. The idea that the cities of contemporary North America could meet the same fate is quite literally unthinkable to most people today, but then the Maya, the Romans, and the people of other collapsed civilizations all probably found their historical destiny just as unthinkable before it happened. There may be little reason to hope that anything like a majority can be helped to think the unthinkable in time to make a difference, but the effort seems worth making, and challenging the sort of arguments from ignorance I've described above might be a good first step. _____ ?John Michael Greer has been active in the alternative spirituality movement for more than 25 years, and is the author of a dozen books, including The Druidry Handbook (2006) and The Long Descent (2008). He lives in Ashland, Oregon. http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com/2008/10/arguments-from-ignorance.html TO POST A COMMENT, OR TO READ COMMENTS POSTED BY OTHERS, please click on the word "comment" highlighted at the end of the version of this essay posted at http://billtotten.blogspot.com/ From fentona at shaw.ca Sun Nov 2 08:50:24 2008 From: fentona at shaw.ca (Anthony Fenton) Date: Sun, 2 Nov 2008 07:50:24 -0800 Subject: [R-G] Fwd: Palin Brutally Punk'd by Fake French President Sarkozy References: Message-ID: <3D015907-5943-44A4-B246-B4BDAEC9A27E@shaw.ca> > > Palin Brutally Punk'd by Fake French President Sarkozy > Palin Brutally Punk'd by Fake French President Sarkozy > > > The popular Montreal comedy duo Marc-Antoine Audette and Sebastien > Trudel, aka "The Masked Avengers" ( Les Justiciers Masqus Masqu?s ) > are notorious for prank-calling heads of state and celebrities who > take themselves a little too seriously. Surely none take themselves > so seriously as Sarah Palin. She was pranked by the pair today when > they social-hacked their way past security and convinced her she was > speaking to Nicholas Nicolas Sarkozy, the president of France. > > Fake Sarkozy tells Palin that his wife is "hot in bed," drops plenty > of hints it's a fake call, and suggests Palin would make a good > president "one day you too." She replies, "well, maybe in eight > years!" Snip: > > He tells Palin one of his favorite pastimes is hunting, also a > passion of the 44-year-old Alaska governor. > "I just love killing those animals. Mmm, mmm, take away life, that > is so fun," the fake Sarkozy says. > > He proposes they go hunting together by helicopter, something he > says he has never done. > > "Well, I think we could have a lot of fun together while we're > getting work done," Palin counters. "We can kill two birds with one > stone that way." > > The comedian jokes that they shouldn't bring Cheney along on the > hunt, referring to the 2006 incident in which the vice-president > shot and injured a friend while hunting quail. > > "I'll be a careful shot," responds Palin. > > Playing off the governor's much-mocked comment in an early > television interview that she had insights into foreign policy > because "you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska," the > caller tells her: "You know we have a lot in common also, > because ... from my house I can see Belgium." > > She replies: "Well, see, we're right next door to different > countries that we all need to be working with, yes." > > (...) He also tells the Alaska governor that he loved the > "documentary" made about her and referred to a pornographic film > with a Palin look-alike made by Hustler founder Larry Flynt. She > answers tentatively, "Ohh, good, thank you, yes." > Coverage: Washington Post, AP via HuffPo. Here's the comedy duo's > home page. (thanks, Richard Metzger) > > > > > > Source unknown > > Skin > white > black > Layout > one > two > > From suzannedk at yahoo.com Sun Nov 2 10:26:34 2008 From: suzannedk at yahoo.com (Suzanne de Kuyper) Date: Sun, 2 Nov 2008 09:26:34 -0800 (PST) Subject: [R-G] fw: 31 days of groundbreaking independent journalism In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <738281.25505.qm@web30906.mail.mud.yahoo.com> The law that was supposed to be included so one could read it , was not! Please send again! Thank you, S.M. de Kuyper suzannedk at yahoo.com.................... --- On Sat, 11/1/08, Anthony Fenton wrote: > From: Anthony Fenton > Subject: [R-G] fw: 31 days of groundbreaking independent journalism > To: "suzanne de Kuyper" > Date: Saturday, November 1, 2008, 4:54 PM > Dear readers, > > Every day in November, the Dominion will be posting an > original, > investigative article on Canada's State of Mine. Many > of the stories > are featured in the Dominion's special issue on the > extractive > industry, which is being launched at events from coast to > coast. > > Please help us to continue to break new ground in > independent > journalism: > -> Become a Dominion Sustainer > -> Help us distribute our special issue in your > community > -> Subscribe! > > Today's featured story: > > A Violation of Algonquin Law > First Nations spearhead resistance to uranium mining > by Sara Falconer > > thanks for reading, > > The Editors > _______________________________________________ > Rad-Green mailing list > Rad-Green at lists.econ.utah.edu > To change your options or unsubscribe go to: > http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/rad-green From fentona at shaw.ca Sun Nov 2 10:47:15 2008 From: fentona at shaw.ca (Anthony Fenton) Date: Sun, 2 Nov 2008 09:47:15 -0800 Subject: [R-G] fw: 31 days of groundbreaking independent journalism In-Reply-To: <738281.25505.qm@web30906.mail.mud.yahoo.com> References: <738281.25505.qm@web30906.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <0ECEAE37-EEE5-4B55-8AE5-0C4253C6E126@shaw.ca> Sorry: http://www.dominionpaper.ca/articles/2148 On 2-Nov-08, at 9:26 AM, Suzanne de Kuyper wrote: > The law that was supposed to be included so one could read it , was > not! Please send again! Thank you, S.M. de Kuyper > suzannedk at yahoo.com.................... > > > --- On Sat, 11/1/08, Anthony Fenton wrote: > >> From: Anthony Fenton >> Subject: [R-G] fw: 31 days of groundbreaking independent journalism >> To: "suzanne de Kuyper" >> Date: Saturday, November 1, 2008, 4:54 PM >> Dear readers, >> >> Every day in November, the Dominion will be posting an >> original, >> investigative article on Canada's State of Mine. Many >> of the stories >> are featured in the Dominion's special issue on the >> extractive >> industry, which is being launched at events from coast to >> coast. >> >> Please help us to continue to break new ground in >> independent >> journalism: >> -> Become a Dominion Sustainer >> -> Help us distribute our special issue in your >> community >> -> Subscribe! >> >> Today's featured story: >> >> A Violation of Algonquin Law >> First Nations spearhead resistance to uranium mining >> by Sara Falconer >> >> thanks for reading, >> >> The Editors >> _______________________________________________ >> Rad-Green mailing list >> Rad-Green at lists.econ.utah.edu >> To change your options or unsubscribe go to: >> http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/rad-green > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Rad-Green mailing list > Rad-Green at lists.econ.utah.edu > To change your options or unsubscribe go to: > http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/rad-green From hunterbadbear at hunterbear.org Sun Nov 2 11:48:07 2008 From: hunterbadbear at hunterbear.org (Hunter Gray) Date: Sun, 2 Nov 2008 11:48:07 -0700 Subject: [R-G] Don't forget Lupus in the voting booth Message-ID: <002101c93d1b$a31c1df0$0400a8c0@computer> NOTE BY HUNTER BEAR: 11/02/08 [Lupus has a preference for both men and women in certain "minority" categories -- Native, Chicano, Black -- and for Anglo women. Doesn't seem to care much for Anglo men.] A lady near us -- an ISU professor who recently moved into the neighborhood and who often takes Maria to St Joseph's Catholic Church -- has just called, unable to drive this morning. Although they are still testing her, it is likely she has Lupus. Down the road a short piece lives another very good neighbor, a young woman, LDS, close to Josie's age, who has been battling Lupus for years. [Unusual to have three cases of this close by in unrelated people.] I can only say that, in addition to all of the other reasons to vote Democratic, there is the fact that research monies into these relatively rare "orphan diseases" and other serious threats should increase substantially. At the very least, critical stem cell research should be greatly facilitated. Lupus is, of course, politically non-partisan: I understand that [Utah] Republican Senator Robert Bennett's daughter has it. He's been active in the Cause, supports the Utah/Idaho chaper of Lupus Foundation of America, to which we belong. H. From fentona at shaw.ca Sun Nov 2 14:39:02 2008 From: fentona at shaw.ca (Anthony Fenton) Date: Sun, 2 Nov 2008 13:39:02 -0800 Subject: [R-G] Britain may deploy troops to Congo Message-ID: <0E6B7340-B6DC-41AB-BE74-AFBB63090534@shaw.ca> Britain may deploy troops to Congo Britain may need to send troops to the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo if diplomatic efforts fail to find a solution to the crisis, the Government has warned. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/democraticrepublicofcongo/3362230/Britain-may-deploy-troops-to-Congo.html Last Updated: 12:38AM GMT 02 Nov 2008 Two boys in front of the UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo Lord Malloch-Brown stressed that the deployment of troops on a European Union mission was a last option Photo: Getty The Foreign Office minister Lord Malloch-Brown said that the UK and other European powers could not stand back if the fighting between government and rebel forces erupted again. The latest strife has seen 225,000 people flee their homes as a rebel commander has led his forces in an attempt to capture the key eastern city of Goma, close to the border with Rwanda David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, and his French counterpart Bernard Kouchner are meanwhile embarking on a joint mission to the region to try to bring the warring parties together. Lord Malloch-Brown said that while the priority was to find a diplomatic solution, contingency plans were being drawn up for the deployment of an EU force to bolster United Nations peacekeepers, who have struggled to contain the violence. "We have certainly got to have it as an option which is developed and on the table if we need it," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. "The first line of call on this should be the deployment of the UN's own troops from elsewhere in the country. "But we have got to have plans. If everything else fails we cannot stand back and watch violence erupt. "Britain is currently the so-called standby country which would indeed need to contribute. Lord Malloch-Brown stressed that the deployment of troops on a European Union mission was a last option if all else failed. "The idea of a European force is very much at the back of the line and a contingency that we hope that we will not need to be drawn on," he said. Nevertheless his comments are likely to alarm British commanders at time when the Army is stretched fighting on two fronts in Afghanistan and Iraq. His warning came as aid agencies were predicting a humanitarian crisis. The Department for International Development is sending a further ?5 million in aid to provide food, water and shelter for refugees from the violence. Mr Miliband and Mr Kouchner will use their visit to the region to impress upon President Joseph Kabila and President Paul Kagame of neighbouring Rwanda of the need to use their influence to end the conflict. Rwanda has been accused of providing support for the rebel forces of General Laurent Nkunda - a claim they deny. Gen Nkunda says in turn that he is fighting to protect his Tutsi followers from Rwandan Hutus, some of whom are accused of taking part in the Rwandan genocide of 1994 and who have, the rebels claim, support from the Congolese government. From realiteee1 at yahoo.com Sun Nov 2 16:15:25 2008 From: realiteee1 at yahoo.com (james m nordlund) Date: Sun, 2 Nov 2008 15:15:25 -0800 (PST) Subject: [R-G] Green Party Acts: endorses Standing / Voters Pledge; etc.. In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <243806.68139.qm@web50811.mail.re2.yahoo.com> Green Party endorses Standing For Voters Pledge November 2008 News Headlines http://www.standingforvoters.org/ The Green Party of the United States has become the first political party to endorse the Election Integrity Pledge promoted by Standing For Voters, an internet-based group inviting candidates to pledge their commitment to fair elections. http://www.americanblackout.com/ Along with the Green Party, several Green Party candidates have pledged 'no early concessions' and actions challenging election outcomes if necessary: presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney and vice presidential candidate Rosa Clemente; US Congressional candidates Carol Brouillet (Calif.-14), Rebecca Dewitt (Ariz.-4), Harold Burbank (Conn.-5), and Mike Beilstein (Or.-4); and five candidates for state and local offices: Dan Kairis of Illinois, Richard Boyle of California, Rick Lass of New Mexico, Allan Hancock of Minnesota, and Charles A. Pillsbury of Connecticut. http://www.breakthematrix.com/node/28047 "Led by David Cobb, our 2004 presidential candidate, Greens organized the response to the 2004 vote theft. John Kerry and most of his fellow Democrats did nothing after reports and evidence of GOP election manipulation and obstruction of African American and young voters surfaced. Meanwhile, Greens filed for the recounts in Ohio and New Mexico and raised most of the money for legal expenses. It's our special obligation and privilege to be the first party to sign on to the Standing For Voters pledge," said Holly Hart, secretary of the Green Party of the United States. http://www.gp.org For more on Green leadership in the Ohio and New Mexico recounts, visit IWantMyVote.com. In signing the pledge, Greens sharply condemned recent tactics that have been used to obstruct and discourage voters, especially African Americans in certain states, from voting. Such tactics include letters to voters falsely claiming that they've been declared ineligible to vote, foreclosure lists denying right to vote because a voter's address is "no longer valid," and vicious attacks on voter registration efforts. "The drastic efforts to disqualify legitimate voters suggests that we'll see a repeat of Republican conspiracies to steal the national election. Will Democrats fight this time, or will they roll over again and leave it to the Green Party?" asked Sanda Everette, co- chair of the Green Party. The documentary 'American Blackout' covers Cynthia McKinney's role in the struggle for election integrity. A recent essay by Ms. McKinney also addresses the breakdown in fair elections (OpEdNews.com, Oct. 7). The Green Party advocates various systematic reforms to ensure fair, accurate, and truly democratic elections, including public financing of elections, free time on public airwaves for all candidates, repeal of ballot access laws restricting alternative-party and independent candidates, paper verification and open-source software for computer voting systems, instant runoff voting, and proportional representation. According to the Standing For Voters pledge, signers promise to challenge election results "if the combination of election conditions, incident reports, and announced election results calls into question the reliability of the official vote count." Should another candidate be declared the winner in a race, signers vow to "wait until all valid votes are counted and all serious challenges resolved before conceding defeat." "We'd like to see all of the nation's political parties endorse Standing For Voters, as the Green Party has done nationally," said Emily Levy, Standing For Voters Project Coordinator. "As participants in what's commonly known as 'our democratic process,' all parties should commit to fair elections. We welcome endorsements from local, state, and national party organizations, as well as other groups that care about democracy." GP candidates to watch Election Day 2008 The Green Party of the United States has identified several candidates who are running significant campaigns at state and local levels. Five such candidates are profiled below. The Green Party's 2008 national nominees are Cynthia McKinney and running mate Rosa Clemente. Ms. McKinney was interviewed on BreakTheMatrix.com on Sunday evening, October 19 and on Democracy Now!, October 16, following the final presidential debate, from which she was excluded. More recently she was interviewed on Weekend Edition Saturday (NPR), October 25, 2008. At least 245 Green candidates will be on ballots on Election Day, November 4. At least 293 Greens have run for public office throughout 2008, including the November 4 election. More Green candidates to watch are listed at: http://www.gp.org/2008-elections/candidate- news.php ? Jesse Johnson, Mountain Party candidate for governor of West Virginia, has participated in three debates and has attracted attention for his promotion of a ban on mountaintop removal mining by West Virginia's powerful coal industry and his leadership on other state issues. Mr. Johnson was endorsed by the Sierra Club on October 3 (http://www.greenpartywatch.org/2008/10/06/sierra-club-endorses- jesse-johnson-for-wv-governor/). "Because of mountaintop removal and the power of the coal companies, West Virginia has become ground zero for global climate change in the US," said Jesse Johnson. "The Interior Department is now relaxing rules on mountaintop mining, which will bring untold devastation to the natural environment and a massive threat to public health, through contamination of water and other resources. I'm the only candidate addressing this crisis, because the Democrat and Republican are too closely allied with the coal companies that are plundering West Virginia." Campaign web site: http://www.jesse4wvgov.org Video clip of Jesse Johnson speaking at a West Virginia Youth Commission forum. ? Rebekah Kennedy, Green candidate for the US Senate in Arkansas, is competing against Democratic incumbent Mark Pryor, with no Republican in the race. Despite numerous invitations, Sen. Pryor has avoided facing Ms. Kennedy in a candidates' debate. http://www.wreg.com/Global/story.asp?S=9182552 http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/240400/ Campaign web site: http://www.kennedy2008.org ? Gordon Clark, Maryland candidate for the US House (District 8, Rep. Chris Van Hollen's seat), is receiving significant attention for his grassroots campaign against a powerful Democrat. (Mr. Van Hollen, though only in Congress five years, is Chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.) Gordon raised more campaign funds (all individual) during the second quarter than any other candidate nominated for Congress by an alternative party in the US . Mr. Clark came out on top in a candidates' forum sponsored by the League of Women Voters on October 2 and is now receiving coverage in the mainstream press. Gordon Clark noted that "Chris Van Hollen went from being a liberal Democrat to a corporate Democrat, and he no longer represents his constituents on an array of issues. Maryland's 8th is one of the most progressive districts in the country, and voters here are looking for a political leader who has a vision for tackling the energy crisis, the faltering economy and the climate crisis of global warming, as well as the willingness to end the war in Iraq and the judgment to stop an expanding war in Afghanistan and Pakistan. It's becoming clear to many that Mr. Van Hollen, with his numerous close ties to campaign contributors, cannot meet that need -- and that our campaign does." Campaign web site: http://www.clarkforcongress.net Video of Oct. 2 candidates' forum: http://www.clarkforcongress.net/press.cfm More video clips of Gordon Clark: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cbj- MoxER7g http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyYZ9Oof_RQ ? Malik Rahim, Louisiana Green candidate for the US House (District 2), is co-founder of the Common Ground Collective, an organization that provides short-term relief to victims of hurricane disasters in the Gulf Coast region. Mr. Rahim is a former Black Panther and ran for New Orleans City Council in 2002 as a Green Party candidate. The election for the 2nd District US House seat will take place on December 6 instead of November 4 because of election delays caused by Hurricanes Gustave and Ike. Campaign web site: http://www.votemalik.com Common Ground: http://www.commongroundrelief.org ? Ross Mirkarimi was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors (District 5) in 2004 and is running for reelection. Mr. Mirkarimi has sponsored about 40 pieces of legislation addressing crime, making streets safer for pedestrians, improving efficiency of city departments, and the environment. He led efforts to promote medical marijuana clubs in San Francisco. In March 2007, he introduced legislation prohibiting large supermarkets and drugstores from providing customers with non- biodegradable plastic bags, making San Francisco the first city to regulate such bags. In June 2008, Mr. Mirkarimi sponsored a one-year pilot plan for solar rebate program that provides $1.5 million to nonprofit organizations and lower income residents for installing solar voltaic power on rooftops. He faces two opponents in the current election. Campaign web site: http://www.rossmirkarimi.com ? Richard Carroll is running unopposed, except for two write-in candidates, for an open seat in Arkansas State Representative District 39. He has strong union support, with endorsements from the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers (IBB), United Transportation Union, AFSCME, AFL-CIO, Arkansas State Electrical Workers Association, Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, and the Central Labor Council of Arkansas, as well as the North Little Rock Fire Fighters, Ride Free, and Arkansas Democrat Gazette (http://www2.arkansasonline.com/news/2008/oct/29/richard- carroll-20081029/). Mr. Carroll has been active in union organizing for 30 years, holding the offices of Vice President, and Recording Secretary of IBB Local 69, and Vice President, Recording Secretary, and Local Chairman of IBB Local 66 Campaign web site: http://www.newmenu.org/richardcarroll ? Farheen Hakeem, a popular political personality in Minneapolis, is running for Minnesota State House District 61B. Three candidates are seeking an open seat, and in recent polls Ms. Hakeem is running in a statistical dead heat for the lead. Ms. Hakeem, who has worked as a teacher and volunteers as a Girl Scout Leader, ran for Mayor of Minneapolis in 2005 as a Green and received 14% of the vote. In 2006, she ran for Hennepin County Commissioner (District 4) against a Democratic incumbent, drawing 33%. Minneapolis Mirror article with video: http://mplsmirror.com/joomla/index.php? option=com_content&task=view&id=422&Itemid=1 Campaign web site: http://www.farheenhakeem.org ? Ante Marijan, candidate for State Representative in the Chicago (District 2), received endorsements from the Chicago Sun-Times and the Chicago Tribune. Campaign web site: http://www.11thwardgreens.org/ ? Kent Solberg, candidate for State Representative District 27, received the endorsement of the Arizona Daily Star, the largest circulation newspaper in Tucson. He also qualified for Arizona Clean Elections funds, enabling him to run a well-financed campaign. The campaign has canvassed the entire district twice with 50,000 brochures each time, and just finished a series of three special rallies with live bands. Mr. Solberg, running an issues-oriented campaign, has a very real chance to defeat one of the two incumbents. Campaign web site: http://www.kent4house.org The candidates to watch list is constantly being updated in these last few days before the election. Please go to the list at: http://www.gp.org/2008-elections/candidate-news.php for the latest information. Or for general Green Party election information: http://www.gp.org/elections.shtml. Hakeem is candidate Minnesota State Rep Farheen Hakeem is running as a Green candidate for Minnesota State House Representative from the 61B district. This urban open seat in South Minneapolis contains a diverse array of communities that are home to middle class families and young students, people with international background, people of the creative class and the economically disadvantaged. Farheen is a young community leader in Minneapolis with rich experiences in education and community organizing. A former math teacher, she is a Girl Scout troop leader. One of Farheen's core policies is to establish a universal, single- payer healthcare system for Minnesotans. Also, she will dedicate herself as a youth policy expert at the State Capitol so that Minnesotans from all backgrounds can have equal and bright opportunities in life. Another priority for her is sustainability; as a Green leader and a hybrid car driver who was environmentally- conscious well before "it was cool and sexy to be green". She will promote an affordable and extensive public transportation system to meet the needs of the citizens. Most importantly, Farheen will be an independent, green voice in St. Paul, who will not be influenced by the machine politics of Republicans or the DFL. As a well-known community organizer who has run for a public office twice before, she has a very good chance of winning the seat. In the County Commissioner's race in 2006, Farheen won 43% of the votes in the electorate. Throughout the district, the presence of Farheen's yard signs is far more visible than her opponents. Enthusiasm for a new type of politics and the culture of independent politics in Minnesota all work in favour for her candidacy this November. Once elected, Farheen Hakim will make great Green change in St. Paul as one of the highest-ranking Green politicians in the entire country. Rebel Diaz Support McKinney/Clemente Check out the latest from Bronx based hip-hop activists Rebel Diaz. Voxunion.com calls "Open Letter to Obama" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynNzmi0jMB0 "an attempt to deal with the swirling and confusing excitement generated by the Obama campaign" The track tells the story of an Obama fan who becomes disillusioned with his Obama's policies and ultimately supports McKinney/Clemente. Register Green. Vote Green. Give Green. The Green Party does not accept corporate donations. We depend entirely on donations from people who are committed to building a powerful and progressive alternative to the two corporate parties. We ask you to challenge corporate influence in politics by supporting the Green Party of the United States! Show your resistance to the status quo by enabling us to continue organizing and mobilizing for real change. Please help us get out our positive, progressive values to new communities, and to deepen our involvement where we're already anchored. Support us today and please consider becoming a sustainer (look for the recurring donation option). Green Party online shopping just got easier! Visit our improved online store. Americans are ready for Change America is ready for the Green Party's message. But we need your help in bringing the message to the American people! Donate now to the Green Party Make your friends GREEN with envy. Become a card-carrying Green today! Buy Your Green Party Card Online (or download a PDF order form). The latest, coolest item in the wallets of progressives is the personalized Green Party Card. For $36.00 a year* you can be a card- carrying Green. When you become an active supporter of the Green Party of the United States, you'll receive our spanking-new card, which shows the world that you stand committed to time-honored progressive values like liberty, equality, democracy, social justice, personal responsibility and focus on the future. In addition, you will receive a Green Party button and bumper sticker, a one-year subscription to Green Pages, plus all of the information you need to get involved and active as a Green. Half of your contribution will be shared with your state's Green Party. The Future is Green! Order Your Green Party Card Online Today ------------- Federal law requires political committees to use their best effort to collect and report the name, mailing address, occupation and employer for each individual whose contributions exceed $200 in a calendar year. Contributions form the following individuals and entities are prohibited: corporations, labor organizations, national banks, government contractors, people under 18 years of age, and foreign nationals. *$36.00 is roughly equivalent to the $1.00 paid for a one-year membership in the Populist Party of the 1890s. The Populist Party was a multiracial, progressive, grassroots third party of working people which agitated for many popular progressive reforms. The Green Party of the 21st century continues the Populist's fight for citizen empowerment and progressive reforms at all levels today. All comments, feedback and content suggestions should be sent to: office at .... You've been reading Green Line, the monthly e-newsletter of the Green Party of the United States. Subscribe for free at http://www.democracyinaction.com/dia/organizations/Greens/signUp.jsp? Email=. Paid for by the Green Party of the United States Vote Green On Tuesday! Back to GP.org This is an exciting time for us! The Green Party has never been as relevant as it is today. As Congress offers trillion-dollar bailouts to Wall Street, people living on Main Street struggle to stay in their homes and pay for basic needs. Why is Congress bailing out corporations while the public slides into economic insecurity? Because the industries that will benefit from the bailout are some of the largest campaign contributors to political campaigns. http://www.gp.org/2008-elections/candidate-news.php But never fear because you can VOTE GREEN on Tuesday and choose People Power over corporate power. Support Cynthia McKinney for President and Rosa Clemente for Vice President; and, support other Green candidates running in your community. Greens are running for office across the country for 60 types of office. Check them out! To find out who's running in your community, click here. http://www.democracyinaction.com/dia/organizationsCOM/Greens/tellafrie nd.jsp?tell_a_friend_KEY=1042 Once elected, Greens will not betray the public interest for corporate cash. We accept no corporate money because we believe corporate influence is what's wrong with politics. If you believe healthcare is a right for all, not to be governed by the profit motive of insurance companies, support the Green Party and our campaign for Single Payer Healthcare. If you believe offshore drilling furthers our national addiction to fossil fuels; and want to see positive solutions like renewable energy, local food production, local businesses and better public transportation- Help elect Greens who will make it a reality. Donate here! If you believe every vote must be counted, that higher education should be available to everyone, that climate change is real, that the war on drugs is racist, and that the privatization of public goods and services is wrong and that we need to BRING OUR TROOPS HOME NOW stand up and support the party that will stand up for you The Green Party. If you want to see a clean, healthy future for our children, make sure we have a strong Green Party today - donate here. If every Green donates just $50.00, less than a dollar a week, we can make a remarkable impact on politics across the country. We will be able to run candidate trainings, buy media ads, fund Ballot Access drives, and organize strong Green Party locals in new places. Can you donate $50.00 right now? Please consider $100.00 or even $150.00 to help Greens who cannot afford to give right now. If you can chip in $20, $15, or even $10 we promise we'll put your money to good use at the state and national level. Sign-Up for News and Updates from the Green Party here. Please Spread the Word click here. And, of course, VOTE GREEN on Tuesday! The Green Party takes no money from real estate companies, investment firms, or insurance companies; In fact, we don't take any corporate money because we think corporate money in politics is wrong. If you agree, please help us today. Email: office at ... Office: PO Box 57065 Washington, D.C. 20037 202-319-7191 or toll-free (US): 866-41GREEN Make your vote count in DC: vote only for Schwartzman; vote for McKinney (Please forward this message to all friends, family, and neighbors who vote in DC!) DAVID SCHWARTZMAN for DC City Council, At-Large You get two votes for At-Large Member of City Council on Election Day, Nov. 4. If you support David Schwartzman, please cast one of your votes for Dave! But if you want David Schwartzman to WIN, then please vote ONLY for Dave! We want David Schwartzman to get the highest percentage possible. Voting for another candidate too makes this less possible. There are two At-Large seats on Council that will be filled on Election Day, so we want Dave to place first or second. To make that happen, please cast only one vote in the At-Large election -- for David Schwartzman. CYNTHIA McKINNEY & ROSA CLEMENTE for President & Vice President Are you a DC voter who'd like to vote for Green presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney and VP candidate Rosa Clemente, but you're worried that John McCain might win? Vote for McKinney & Clemente! In Washington, DC, Barack Obama will get an overwhelming majority on Election Day. Obama will get all three of DC's Electoral College votes. If you vote for Cynthia McKinney and Rosa Clemente in DC, you won't change this outcome. If you want your vote to really count in 2008, invest it in a growing alternative party that doesn't take corporate contributions. Vote DC Statehood Green on Election Day -- vote for Cynthia McKinney, Rosa Clemente, and the Statehood Green slate of candidates. THE DC STATEHOOD SLATE Do you believe that real democracy and full equality for DC residents mean a lot more than just giving Eleanor Holmes Norton a vote in Congress? Then please vote for: ? Maude Louise Hills for Delegate to the US House ? Joyce Robinson Paul for US Representative ? Keith Ware for US Senator The DC Statehood Green candidates will work for DC statehood. The Democrats won't. Del. Norton has asked her fellow Dems not to demand statehood, only the 'DC vote' -- a single DC vote in Congress. The DC vote won't change our status as 'America's Last Colony', because it won't give us self-government, equality, and freedom from Congress's authority. In 2004 and 2008, the Democrats removed the goal of DC statehood from the Democratic national platform. The Green Party is the only party that supports DC statehood! ELECTION DAY, NOV. 4 We need help on Election Day! Please sign up to work the polls and hand out literature for Statehood Green candidates for a few hours in the morning or evening or both. Contact Dave at orilla at ... or 202-483-4165. Stay tuned for an announcement of the DC Statehood Green Party's Election Night Victory Party.... Everyone is invited! //\\//\\//\\//\\//\\// Get involved and help our 2008 DC Statehood Green slate of candidates! Visit their web sites, contact the candidates, make a donation..... ? 2008 DC Statehood Green candidates index http://www.statehood4dc.com/home ? Joyce Robinson Paul, for US Representative http://www.statehood4dc.com/jrpaul/home ? David Schwartzman, for Council, At-Large http://www.davidschwartzman.com ? Louise Thundercloud, for Delegate to the US House of Representatives http://www.statehood4dc.com/thundercloud http://votingforchangeindc.ning.com ? Keith Ware, for US Senator http://www.statehood4dc.com/ware/home ? Cynthia McKinney, for President of the United States http://www.runcynthiarun.com ? Rosa Clemente, for Vice President of the United States http://www.rosaclemente.com DC Statehood Green Party http://www.dcstatehoodgreen.org Join the DC Statehood Green discussion & news list: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dcsgp Join the list to receive press releases and important party announcements: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dcstatehoodgreennews GP RELEASE Green statehouse candidates to watch on Election Day 2008 GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES http://www.gp.org For Immediate Release: Wednesday, October 29, 2008 Contacts: Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator, 202-518-5624, cell 202-904-7614, mclarty at ... Starlene Rankin, Media Coordinator, 916-995-3805, starlene at ... Green Party candidates for state legislature to watch on Election Day 2008 ? General Green Party election information: http://www.gp.org/elections.shtml ? More candidates to watch: http://www.gp.org/2008- elections/candidate-news.php WASHINGTON, DC -- The Green Party of the United States is running an outstanding slate of candidates for state legislature in 2008, with a few strong possibilities of victory on Election Day. Four such candidates are profiled below. The most impressive list of candidates comes from Illinois, where the Green Party (http://www.ilgp.org) is running 54 candidates for public office, more than any other Green Party, among whom 18 candidates are seeking seats in the state legislature. At least 245 Green candidates will be on ballots on Election Day, November 4. At least 293 Greens have run for public office throughout 2008, including the November 4 election. More Green candidates to watch are listed at: http://www.gp.org/2008- elections/candidate-news.php The Green Party's 2008 national nominees are Cynthia McKinney and running mate Rosa Clemente. Ms. McKinney was interviewed on BreakTheMatrix.com on Sunday evening, October 19 (http://www.breakthematrix.com/node/28047) and on Democracy Now!, October 16, following the final presidential debate, from which she was excluded (http://www.democracynow.org/2008/10/16/breaking_the_sound_barrier_thi rd). ? Richard Carroll is running unopposed, except for two write-in candidates, for an open seat in Arkansas State Representative District 39. He has strong union support, with endorsements from the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers (IBB), United Transportation Union, AFSCME, AFL-CIO, Arkansas State Electrical Workers Association, Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, and the Central Labor Council of Arkansas, as well as the North Little Rock Fire Fighters, Ride Free, and Arkansas Democrat Gazette (http://www2.arkansasonline.com/news/2008/oct/29/richard- carroll-20081029/). Mr. Carroll has been active in union organizing for 30 years, holding the offices of Vice President, and Recording Secretary of IBB Local 69, and Vice President, Recording Secretary, and Local Chairman of IBB Local 66 Campaign web site: http://www.newmenu.org/richardcarroll ? Farheen Hakeem, a popular political personality in Minneapolis, is running for Minnesota State House District 61B. Three candidates are seeking an open seat, and in recent polls Ms. Hakeem is running in a statistical dead heat for the lead. Ms. Hakeem, who has worked as a teacher and volunteers as a Girl Scout Leader, ran for Mayor of Minneapolis in 2005 as a Green and received 14% of the vote. In 2006, she ran for Hennepin County Commissioner (District 4) against a Democratic incumbent, drawing 33%. Minneapolis Mirror article with video: http://mplsmirror.com/joomla/index.php? option=com_content&task=view&id=422&Itemid=1 Campaign web site: http://www.farheenhakeem.org ? Ante Marijan, candidate for State Representative in the Chicago (District 2), received endorsements from the Chicago Sun-Times (http://www.suntimes.com/news/elections/endorsements/1239644,CST-EDT- edit24.article) and the Chicago Tribune (http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi- 1025edit1oct25,0,2682341.story). Campaign web site: http://www.11thwardgreens.org/ ? Kent Solberg, candidate for State Representative District 27, received the endorsement of the Arizona Daily Star, the largest circulation newspaper in Tucson (http://www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/263651). He also qualified for Arizona Clean Elections funds, enabling him to run a well- financed campaign. The campaign has canvassed the entire district twice with 50,000 brochures each time, and just finished a series of three special rallies with live bands. Mr. Solberg, running an issues-oriented campaign, has a very real chance to defeat one of the two incumbents. Campaign web site: http://www.kent4house.org MORE INFORMATION Green Party of the United States http://www.gp.org 202-319-7191, 866-41GREEN Fax 202-319-7193 ? Green candidate database for 2008 and other campaign information: http://www.gp.org/elections.shtml ? Green Party News Center http://www.gp.org/newscenter.shtml ? Green Party Speakers Bureau http://www.gp.org/speakers ? Green Party ballot access page http://www.gp.org/2008-elections ? 2008 Green candidates to watch http://www.gp.org/2008- elections/candidate-news.php Cynthia McKinney/Rosa Clemente 'Power to the People' Campaign for the White House http://votetruth08.com http://www.runcynthiarun.org Cynthia McKinney on video http://www.youtube.com/user/RunCynthiaRun http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=RunCynthiaRun ? BreakTheMatrix.com interview, Oct. 19: http://www.breakthematrix.com/node/28047 ? Democracy Now! interview, Oct. 16: http://www.democracynow.org/2008/10/16/breaking_the_sound_barrier_thir d ? Music video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gx1NPlQjkqo Rosa Clemente on video ? Interview: Current TV/Rock the Vote http://current.com/items/89335393_the_organizer_and_green_party_vp_can didate_talks_about_her_inspirations From realiteee1 at yahoo.com Sun Nov 2 16:25:11 2008 From: realiteee1 at yahoo.com (james m nordlund) Date: Sun, 2 Nov 2008 15:25:11 -0800 (PST) Subject: [R-G] The Whole World is Watching In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <669188.75075.qm@web50811.mail.re2.yahoo.com> Home | About Us | Sign-up | Contact Us | Donate | Action http://www.truevote.us/action.php | Articles Dear jamesm, The election is upon us. More than 20% of Americans have already voted and Election Day is only four days away. True Vote's report on the election so far shows lots of problems from registration through voting, but U.S. election integrity advocates are mobilized and the whole world is watching. Many organizations and individuals are working to ensure an election result that voters can trust. This week I met with two international election observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights is engaged in an election observation mission in the United States in 40 states. True Vote provided them with a breadth of examples of election issues that they should be monitoring. Yesterday, I went with two colleagues to seven embassies in Washington, DC to deliver a "Petition for International Observers for the U.S. Presidential Elections 2008." The petition was submitted by TrueVote.US, http://truevote.us/nucleus/index.php?itemid=494 No More Stolen Elections, the Economic Human Rights Project, Chesapeake Citizens and Global Exchange. Today, the petition is being delivered to the United Nations. We want to make sure that if the election results are contested steps have been taken so that the U.N. is able to participate in ensuring the integrity of the U.S. election. You can see a summary of the petition here, and the full petition here. Watch a video of our delivery of the petition in Washington, DC. Our international actions are to let American officials know that the whole world is watching. Please sign the petition to support our call for international involvement in a disputed election. Click here to sign the petition. TrueVote.US's action alerts, joined in by the No More Stolen Elections Campaign, have let election administrators know that there are thousands of eyes watching, their actions will be monitored and reported on so that they can be held accountable. We hope to applaud a smoothly run honest election, but if not we will work for a 2008 election Americans can trust. While there is more work to do to ensure the integrity of U.S. elections, in recent years Democracy advocates had an impact. This year, a majority of Americans will be voting with a paper record, a shrinking number are voting on touch screen machines and there is more flexibility in when people can vote. Early voting has already shown the need for more reform and True Vote will advocate for a democracy agenda in the next Congress. Thank you for your support. When we have called on you to take action http://truevote.us/action.php many of you have. We appreciate it. If you are able to support our work with a donation that would be helpful at this critical time. Click here to donate. Sincerely, Kevin Zeese Executive Director 2842 N. Calvert St. Baltimore, MD 21218 443-708-8360 TrueVote.US is a project of the Campaign for Fresh Air & Clean Politics From realiteee1 at yahoo.com Sun Nov 2 17:08:47 2008 From: realiteee1 at yahoo.com (james m nordlund) Date: Sun, 2 Nov 2008 16:08:47 -0800 (PST) Subject: [R-G] Urgent, It's Time to Protect Your Vote by voting early :) In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <728805.32233.qm@web50808.mail.re2.yahoo.com> Cara All, Ni hao. Cool, thanx for sharing, caring, and go vote early, http://colorofchange.org/earlyvote08/?id=1593-67632 , from :) http://www.colorOfChange.org ; it's a great way to make sure the remocrats don't discount your vote and steal the elections! Thanx All, twigs of poetree :) YOU CAN Talk the talk, walk the walk, and even Be the be, but, if you don't vote the vote, You won't ever be livin' in a democracy! Thanx While feeling sacred on This All Hallow's Day, I also feel pangs of the Hungry, so wrought by The profane; for the food Wasted by us could feed All the world's. Yet, Betwixt, in the mundane It's only hurled. clarity Sword that cuts all ways, Without, for, there's no cutting; And a pointless point. normal I don't suffer, or, suffer from, Eurocentrism, northern malaise, Nor, academia; a blood disease. Injustices Addressing, not addressing them have costs, the former is individual, the later is global, as well. ends or means Neither do I embrace. Rather, the struggle well run, Which uplifts us uncrowned, Every moment humans race! Responsibility If you don't exercise it, Its Siamese twin sister, freedom, Will wither, like a muscle, as well. if One lived as prayer, Their light adding To the well of light, Their every step in grace, Leaving no footprints; That will echo always. why As acid rain from your closed eye, An acre of rainforest falls each Second, and the earths tears bleed; For, all you see is grey. grace Feeling with your spirits hands, See with the eye of your heart, Hear with the ear of your soul, And know with the body Of life's knowledge, We can be prayer; Being forever answered. Tone Life's signs and meanings Perceived by all our senses and Being's foci of attention, can Divine from within and without. That's if our inner-eye Isn't clouded by false-ego, Self-conscious self, or doubt. Cityscape Hustled and bustled, Still, hands only put to heart, Beings, only art. Artist Their innerselves, stretched canvasses On that frameless frame, the world. They being painted by life itself, With reality as the brush. The painting ever evolving, The frame continually changing, Their beingness as gleaned meanings For all to share; seen through..., If they were there. Some of the groups I moderate : Disabled Greens News and discussion, Group : http://www.groups.yahoo.com/group/DisabledGreensNews/ Abuse in Therapy, Group : http://www.health.groups.yahoo.com/group/AbuseinTherapy/ Diffabled, Mental Health, all related issues, advocacy, and professionals: Invite link: http://passport.care2.net/invite.html?g=880 , Homepage: http://www.care2.com/c2c/group/Diffabled_MentalHealth_Action reality's 360 page and blog : http://360.yahoo.com/jamesmnordlund reality's My Space page, blog : http://myspace.com/jamesmnordlund Rights for Imprisoned People with Psychiatric Disabilities: United to Demand Justice and Social Change: http://rippdnycnetwork.ning.com/profile/realiteee Prison Abuse Social Network! Welcome to all Abolitionists: http://sdicks4msnetwork.ning.com/profile/realiteee reality's Windows Live Space : http://jamesmnordlundreality.spaces.live.com/default.aspx?owner=1&wa=wsignin1.0 reality's geocities website : http://www.geocities.com/jamesmnordlund/index.html Poets For Human Rights : http://groups.google.com/group/Poets-for-Human-Rights/web/realitys-twigs-of-poetree-pour-vous Poets For Human Rights :) http://poetsforhumanrights.ning.com/profile/reality What do you think? "Painting is poetry which is seen and not heard, and poetry is a painting which is heard but not seen." ~ Leonardo da Vinci. Enjoy a festive eve' as you can. Copy, share, as you will. Lest "we" forget, if you don't exercise responsibility, its Siamese twin sister, freedom, will wither, like a muscle, as well. Sadly, now, it first needs to be exorcized before its exercised. Viva la evolution, viva Green Party! Music is life's song accompanying the abundance of joy's Spring. I look forward to hearing from you. Goodbye. For those interested :) "of or pertaining to the morning, day: relating to or happening in the morning or in the early part of the day (formal), (Mid-16th century, from late Latin matutinalis, from Matuta, goddess of the dawn.)". Matutinally Yours, james m nordlund reality (aja) :) From fentona at shaw.ca Sun Nov 2 22:00:00 2008 From: fentona at shaw.ca (Anthony Fenton) Date: Sun, 2 Nov 2008 21:00:00 -0800 Subject: [R-G] The road away from Serfdom Message-ID: The road away from Serfdom COMMON SENSE JOHN MAXWELL Sunday, November 02, 2008 http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/columns/html/20081101T200000-0500_142042_OBS_THE_ROAD_AWAY_FROM_SERFDOM.asp John McCain's real problem is that if it is announced on Tuesday that he has won the election for the presidency of the United States, nobody will believe it. JOHN MAXWELL Every indicator - including popular sentiment worldwide - is against him. The huge crowds - some standing in the rain to listen to Barack Obama; the millions of poor people's dollars donated to the Obama campaign, the hundreds of thousands of volunteers for Obama, the hundreds of songs written for Obama, the number of early voters who say they have voted for Obama, and finally, the public opinion polls have embedded into the consciousness of the world the idea that Barack Obama cannot lose this election if it is conducted fairly. The world is suspicious of John McCain and his confederates. They, led by Rove, Cheney and Bush have so discredited the US electoral system, have so reduced US credibility over the world, that nobody really believes anything they say. And it isn't that they are simply unbelievable, untrustworthy and full of it, they and McCain and Palin are also viewed as socially backward and behind the times, technologically advanced but culturally primitive -unrepresentative of what the world believes the real America to be. In a world where Liberal usually means right of centre, non-Americans are astonished to hear "Liberal' launched as a cuss-word by people who believe that the world was created in seven days and that dinosaurs and humans once walked the earth at the same time. A few days ago it was announced that Volkswagen had overtaken Exxon- Mobil as the world's most highly valued company. In a world where 'socialism' is an even more outrageous insult than 'liberal', it is startling to contemplate the fact that Volkswagen is a product of the post-war British Army of the Rhine directed by the 1945 British government of Clement Atlee- a bunch of socialist commissars who reinvented Hitler's 'People's Car' and put it on the road. It was these same socialists who were responsible for civilising industrial relations in Germany by inventing the idea of Co- Determination, a system where the worker participates at every executive level of the German corporation and worker directors sit on corporate boards. Co-Determination is an idea which has been so successful that it has transformed European social relations and flowered into the adoption of an EU social agenda - aimed at full employment and a more inclusive, participatory society. On December 9, 1989, the member states, with the historically ironic exception of the United Kingdom, adopted a declaration constituting the Community Charter of the Fundamental Social Rights of Workers. Among the areas regulated in this charter are such matters as employment and remuneration, improvement of living and working conditions, social protection, freedom of association, collective bargaining, equal treatment of men and women, industrial health, the protection of children, elderly and disabled persons; and information, consultation and participation of workers in decision-making. Most of these principles are still, in the United States, subjects of bitter dispute. A couple of weeks ago, President Bush, in a piteous appeal for a return to the wild, begged his fellow world leaders not to abandon the principles of laissez-faire when they come to remake the world in the aftermath of the current economic meltdown and the almost inevitable social catastrophe to follow. The next president of the United States will need to come to terms with a world which no longer works according to American principles and rules. Free trade, globalisation, and the ideas behind the multilateral agreement on investment are obsolete. This time, as in every crisis of capitalism, the pundits are dashing to the Internet and the libraries to reread Karl Marx. Marx was not a sentimentalist. He hated neither capitalism nor capitalists. They were objective realities and functioned according to certain principles. Capitalism was doomed to fail because of its fundamental internal contradictions - not because of the greed of its practitioners. These contradictions include the antagonism between the social, collective nature of production on the one hand, and private ownership of the means of production on the other; and the antagonism between the world market and the limitations of the nation state. Capitalism is based on production for profit and not for social need. The working class creates new value but receives only a portion of that new value back as wages. The capitalists take the rest - the surplus. As a result, the working class collectively cannot afford to buy back all the goods it produces. Capitalism destroys its own markets by pauperising its workers and by over-production. Marx predicted globalisation and the worldwide effects we now experience. The opponents of socialism, the proponents of laissez-faire, tend to believe like Margaret Thatcher that "There is no such thing as society" and like Ronald Reagan that "Government is not the answer, Government is the problem." The ultra-capitalists and globalisers abhor what they call "the Nanny State" - the welfare state that attempts to guarantee a basic level of civilised existence for all. In FA Hayek's "Road to Serfdom?" the problem is stated: "In place of individual liberty, socialism offers security. It promises protection from personal economic necessities and restraints, and an equality of economic well-being." Hayek was not a socialist. The main architect of the latest disaster, Alan Greenspan, has proclaimed himself confounded by the turn of events. He had a set of rules which he says had always worked. Until now! He cannot understand the disaster over which he presided. Greenspan is a disciple of Ayn Rand, one of recent history's most eminent false prophets. Rand's theory - so-called 'Objectivism' - holds that human beings must rationally be selfish, putting individual self-interest first. She therefore rejects the ethical doctrine of altruism - a moral obligation to live not only for one's self but for the sake of others. Since Rand took millions of words to define her philosophy, any summary of it is perforce crude. I do not think, however, that I have misrepresented her, or Hayek, or Greenspan, or Thatcher or Reagan or the millions of others to whom freedom is a purely personal attribute and life is every man for himself and the devil take the hindmost. Some others of us think that none of us is free if any of us is unfree. The fascists believe that any sense of duty outside of self is a fetter, restricting real freedom. We believe that only by our mutual recognition of all our humanity are we human, and that our civilisation and survival depend on that. We are all in the same boat and on the same journey. Individual liberty clearly means different things to different people. The International Republican Institute, headed by John McCain, no doubt believes that the people of Haiti are free, and free to starve to death, while the people of Cuba are enslaved by socialism, free education and the best health services in the world. The IRI was one of the prime movers in usurping Haitian sovereignty to get rid of Jean Bertrand Aristide whom they consider a serious threat to real democracy as he was intent on building another socialist/ welfare state alongside Cuba. NAUGHT FOR THEIR COMFORT The Gleaner on Wednesday betrayed the essentially parasitical view of imperial capitalism, when it headlined a soiree held at the Gleaner with the admonition "Look away from the USA", and reported that a number of academics and a (now obligatory) theologian were urging the government to seek financial aid from world powers other than the USA. On Sunday last Mr Edward Seaga similarly gave his considered and equally obtuse opinion that Jamaica stood to gain nothing from either Obama or McCain. I am not at all sure when or whether Jamaica has ever got any useful financial assistance from abroad, except in remittances sent by our own emigrants. What we have got is massive loans which have gone to pay for SUVs, foreign travel, air-conditioned garrison-townhouses and expensive white elephants such as Mr Seaga's redevelopment of downtown Kingston and the 'Doomsday Highway'. The Kingston redevelopment tore the heart out of our once fairly elegant and vibrant capital city transforming it into a tawdry, lawless, toxic disaster. The 'Doomsday Highway' is the best means yet devised for separating Jamaicans from their hard-earned pensions. Bauxite development destroyed our countryside and its communities, sending our farmers fleeing to languish on the street-corners of Birmingham and the Bronx and leaving thousands of children fatherless, hungry, illiterate and ripe for exploitation by pimps and gunmen and doomed to be brutalised, jailed or hanged for our criminal neglect. Now, courtesy of Russian oligarchs and presidentially pardoned Swiss billionaires, we are to metastasise our bauxite disaster. This phase is really something destined to sterilise the land, destroy the landscape, the water supplies, and the culture, and to send even more peasants into exile and even more children into lives of crime and social degradation. Additionally, by burning coal the new bauxite miracle will complete the destruction of our air quality as it destroys our water quality. In the 1960s the graffiti had it that birth control was "a plan to kill Negro". Little did the artists know about bauxite. Now that the capitalists have established that the state - that is, us, we, the people - are the benefactors of last resort, it is time that we too discovered that truth. The billions we are spending to rescue banks and capitalists would be more efficiently and cost- effectively spent on rescuing our communities. If Obama becomes president, that is a discovery his constituents are likely to make sooner rather than later. In fact, some are already making it, demanding fundamental change and a new economic order. The decay of imperial capitalism is bound to produce unforeseen byproducts, some beneficial, some toxic. Those who will survive need to be able to quickly choose between them. When Jesus of Nazareth chased the moneychangers from the temple in Jerusalem he knew what he was doing. Yet, today, every Christian yearns to become a moneychanger. Few of us recognise that our salvation is in our hands and in our lands. But hunger is a great teacher. Copyright?2008 John Maxwell jankunnu at gmail.com From fentona at shaw.ca Sun Nov 2 22:48:21 2008 From: fentona at shaw.ca (Anthony Fenton) Date: Sun, 2 Nov 2008 21:48:21 -0800 Subject: [R-G] The word on 'dirty 'oil Authors take critical look at oilsands; Message-ID: <480E81E6-4948-4A10-B446-C65F0A7AA5EA@shaw.ca> The word on 'dirty 'oil ; Authors take critical look at oilsands; Eric Volmers Calgary Herald Sunday, November 02, 2008 http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/story.html?id=d7e9705f-5863-4968-a5a5-1a1dbda807c9 Andrew Nikiforuk may feel let down by the various vanguards of Canada's establishment -- our government, our media, our industry. But the journalist and author acknowledges Canada can be a relatively benign place to operate if you're a pot-stirring writer looking to topple apple carts and criticize what has been, up until recently, a bit of a sacred cow in his home province. "I would expect in Russia or Nigeria, someone like me would just disappear," says Nikiforuk. "Thank God I live in Alberta. Where they just send letters to the editor." It's a sly reference to a recent letter drawn up by the Energy Resources Conservation Board, the provincial regulator of the oil and gas industry that gets raked over the coals in Nikiforuk's latest book Tar Sands: Dirty Oil and the Future of a Continent. The board fired off a letter-to-the-editor to the Calgary Herald before the newspaper had printed anything about the book, pointing out what it sees as errors. Nikiforuk, who offers a rebuttal on his website, makes no apologies for ruffling feathers. In fact, he seems at least a little pleased that the ERCB - tar Sands: dirty Oil and the Future of a Continent by andrew nikiforuk (douglas&McIntyre, 208 pages $20) - the tyranny of Oil: the world's Most Powerful Industry-- and what we Must do to Stop It byantonia Juhasz(Harper Collins Canada, 480 pages, $26.99) has opted to participate in the debate at all. Tar Sands paints an unflattering picture of oilsands development as a poorly-planned, badly-regulated free-for-all to frantically liquidate northern Alberta's precious bituminous sands and feed "irrational global demands." The result, he says, is a $200-billion behemoth that has swallowed the province's economy and identity, altered the nation's foreign policy and inflicted still-unknown damage to Alberta's environment. Yet, he claims, it has received scant attention over the years. If such a project were active in the U. S., Fort McMurray would have long ago been populated with newspaper bureaus of the L. A. Times, New York Times and Washington Post, he says. "We are just catching up with a nation-changing event with continental and global implications," Nikiforuk, 53, says. "This is the world's largest energy project, which is in our own back yard and has so demonstratively changed Alberta. . . . The media has failed to really tackle this story. This is a story that is just as dramatic as the Klondike, only 100 times better." If oilsands development remains under-reported by the mainstream media, as Nikiforuk believes, it has become a lightning rod for certain areas of the political spectrum, in entertainment-as-activism. Documentary films such as To the Tarsands and Downstream have tackled the controversy, with the latter even being shortlisted for an Academy Award nomination. The recent miniseries Burn Up--while fictional and rather conspiratorial in nature--paints oilsands development in Alberta as a less-than-noble pursuit. Even Canuck-turned-Hollywood-starlet Neve Campbell has weighed in, voicing her disapproval of the development after flying over it in a helicopter. But unlike artists who work in those mediums, authors attempting to write the quintessential last word on the topic face the specific challenge of painting the big picture, in all its dauntingly complex glory. Authors like Nikiforuk need to wrap an enormous amount of scientific, geopolitical, economic and social data into something the average reader will enjoy, or in the very least understand. It's not an easy task, he says. "There is so much information, and a lot of it is not readily available to the public," says Nikiforuk. "I interviewed 100 people in Fort McMurray alone to try and get a sense of where everyone is coming from. The book doesn't capture everything because it is so damn large. I did two years of basic reporting just to begin to understand how big this thing was and what a true, nation-changing development it is." Few authors wading into the subject have much positive to say about the oilsands. There's little discussion of green initiatives in the region, for example, or the financial benefits of the industry. Montreal Gazette reporter William Mardsen was among the first authors to shine a critical light at Alberta's oil industry for a mainstream audience. Last year's bluntly titled Stupid to the Last Drop: How Alberta is Bringing Environmental Armageddon to Canada (And Doesn't Seem to Care) was an unabashed polemic, intent on shattering any comfort the average citizen may have taken in the assumption that Alberta knows what it's doing when it came to managing resources (it's original title: Albertans are Stupid). Tony Clarke's up-coming book, Tarsands Showdown, follows a similar path but also delves into its geopolitical implications of how the oilsands will change Canada's reputation and footing in the world. U. S. writer Antonia Juhasz's The Tyranny of Oil: The World's Most Powerful Industry -and What We Must Do to Stop It, takes on Big Oil in general, but reserves a good deal of space to bemoan oilsands development in Alberta. Dr. Andrew Weaver, a Nobel Prize-winning scientist and expert on climate change, touches on the issue in his new book Keeping Our Cool: Canada in a Warming World. "I don't like to pick on the tarsands, it's one part of a much bigger issue," says Weaver, who will be speaking in Calgary, Edmonton and Lethbridge later this month. "But what the tarsands captures is the end-to-end environmental degradation. The wildlife activists can attack it because of its specific impact on wildlife; the water conservation types can attack it because of the amount of water it uses; the natural habitat types go after it because of its impact on existing habitat and on and on. It has become like the spotted owl in the U.S. It's an icon, it epitomizes the whole spectrum--the very worst aspects of humans interacting with the environment." Such drama, the authors hope, will help the debate bubble up from the underground realm of activists and scientists to the public at large, preferably a public beyond Alberta. But as a writer, how do you ensure the average reader doesn't nod off as you passionately rail against lax regulations, geopolitical shifts and the law of petropolitics? "It's a challenge and different people have approached it different ways." says author Tony Clarke, who is executive director and co- founder of the Polaris Institute in Ottawa. "I have come at it from the standpoint, that while there's certainly economic and social impacts, there is a larger impact from a geopolitical framework. You have to get Canadians to realize how important this mega-project is and how it could become the centrepiece of the economy for the first half of the 21st century. We need to push Canadians to look at the deeper implications of this and how it relates to who we are as people." Nikiforuk says he took pains to ensure his book went beyond preaching to the converted. Tarsands begins with a bluntly worded 22-point "declaration of a political emergency" and ends with a 12-step plan to regain "energy sanity," which includes action the general reader can take. In between, Nikiforuk writes not only about environmental and political concerns, but takes the reader into the frenzied boom of Fort McMurray and along the so-called "highway to hell" that leads to it. He tells the story of Fort McMurray physician Dr. John O'Connor, who Nikiforuk says faced severe "political persecution"when he went public about an increase of cancer cases in Fort Chipewyan, downstream from oilsand projects. He tells these tales with old-fashioned good writing, whether it be describing the yearly level of carbon dioxide emitted from tarsands projects as enough to "fill one million two- storey, three-bedroom homes and suffocate every occupant" or the provincial and federal governments as "joyous peanut hawkers who can't believe the size of the crowd" in Alberta's "global energy playground." In its three-page letter, the Energy Resources Conservation Board has claimed Nikiforuk's reporting to be either inaccurate or incomplete on issues relating directly to the board's duties as provincial regulator. But Nikiforuk stands by his reporting and his reasons for tackling the oilsands in the first place. "I try to choose subjects that will make some difference to my children," Nikiforuk says. "I have three boys in Calgary. This project has tremendous implications for young people in the province. If we can get it under control and manage it's financial and political impact properly and reduce its environmental footprint, then maybe we can use this project to make Alberta the greenest province in Canada and Canada the greenest country in the world." ? The Calgary Herald 2008 From fentona at shaw.ca Sun Nov 2 22:57:14 2008 From: fentona at shaw.ca (Anthony Fenton) Date: Sun, 2 Nov 2008 21:57:14 -0800 Subject: [R-G] Chavez to expropriate banks in crisis Message-ID: <30268E24-FD4E-4D50-A81A-C5E883ABF7E3@shaw.ca> Nov 3, 2008 Chavez to seize banks in crisis http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/Money/Story/STIStory_297867.html Hugo Chavez said he would 'expropriate' Venezuela's banks if they are hit by a finance crisis like the one that has rocked the world economic system. -- PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE CARACAS - PRESIDENT Hugo Chavez on Sunday said he would 'expropriate' Venezuela's banks if they are hit by a finance crisis like the one that has rocked the world economic system. 'If something similar comes to pass in Venezuela, you should not have the slightest doubt that I won't give a penny to the banks - I'll expropriate them,' said Mr Chavez, speaking on Sunday in the south- eastern state of Barinas. The Venezuelan leader said he found it 'strange' that rich countries which have said 'that they have no money to fight poverty, from one day to the come up with billions of dollars (to bail out the banks). They remain unable, he chided, to finance 'the production of food and medicine or to support education, but can help out the bankrupt bankers'. He added however, that so far the global banking crisis has not affected Venezuela's economy 'thanks to the revolution, which has strengthened it'. -- AFP From suzannedk at gmail.com Mon Nov 3 01:37:20 2008 From: suzannedk at gmail.com (Suzanne de Kuyper) Date: Mon, 3 Nov 2008 09:37:20 +0100 Subject: [R-G] U.S. pulls the plug on the world In-Reply-To: <200811012023.mA1KN1iN012323@rm-rstar.sfu.ca> References: <200811012023.mA1KN1iN012323@rm-rstar.sfu.ca> Message-ID: The U.S. may well have deliberately prompted a shakeout of assets and the flight to the dollar. The EU poses a danger to US empire moves. As do U.S. debts. Read Jean-Claude Paye, "Global War on Liberty" from the french "La fin de L'Etat de droit". Suzanne de Kuyper On Sat, Nov 1, 2008 at 9:23 PM, Sid Shniad wrote: > > http://www.russiatoday.com/Crisis/news/32493 > Russia Today October 27, 2008 > Crisis Chronicle > U.S. pulls the plug on the world > The U.S. administration has prompted a huge surge in the U.S. dollar, > which may help refinance its financial sector. The cost is a currency > whirlwind that threatens the collapse not just of banks and companies > but entire countries. > In the past week the financial crisis, which began in banking and > spread to stocks, has careered into the currency markets. The U.S. > actively decided back in September 2008 to shut down the investment > banks that lend to the biggest professional investors. This has caused > those investors to sell anything and everything and to settle their > trades. > The result was a whirlwind of liquidation. Korean won, Turkish lira, > Brazilian real, British pounds and commodities from oil and metals, > all were sucked into the downdraft. > Like a speeding truck heading home, dollar investors left a vacuum in > their wake, a vortex of dust, where there had been steadily growing > emerging market economies. > And you thought the U.S. authorities were doing their best to prop up > asset prices? As the economic lights go out and the U.S. > administration fumbles in the dark, maybe it's accidentally cut off > the hand that feeds it. > Or has it deliberately prompted a shakeout of asset values and a > flight to the dollar? On October 3 the $US 700 billion bailout of > banks' bad bets was signed into law, after U.S. Treasury Secretary > Henry Paulson assured U.S. Congress it was the only way to avoid > financial Armageddon. The stated aim was to support asset prices. > But on September 22, with less publicity, Morgan Stanley and Goldman > Sachs gave up their investment bank status, which had allowed them to > borrow and lend much more than traditional banking companies. That was > just seven days after another investment bank, Lehman Brothers, filed > for bankruptcy protection. > These prime brokers, or investment banks, provided the loans that > allowed America's professional investors to hunt worldwide in search > of ever-bigger game. While U.S. investors earned profits, foreign > countries benefited from U.S. investment in their bank, retail and > property sectors. > All this dates back to September 2004, when the U.S. Securities and > Exchange Commission gave in to pleading from the big five investment > banks, who wanted to borrow more heavily against reserves that served > to cushion against losses. This allowed them to raise their leverage > up to 20, 30 or 40 times, in other words, to borrow $US 30 against > every dollar of assets and lend it on. > They certainly lent it! For mortgage-backed securities, collateralised > debt obligations, credit default swaps and dangerous stuff with even > safer sounding names. > Read more here. > The banks were Merrill Lynch and Bear Stearns along with Morgan > Stanley, Lehman Brothers and Goldman Sachs headed at the time by Henry > Paulson. > Treasury Secretary Paulson knows very well who lends to the hedge > funds, how shutting down the prime broker system would force them to > liquidate their trading strategies and cause a broad sell-off of all > kinds of assets. > But what was he, along with the administration, trying to achieve? As > professional investors dump foreign currencies and pile the dollars > into that homeward bound truck, they're pushing up the U.S. currency. > The U.S. needs its currency to be strong. The U.S. is a debtor nation, > spending more than it earns, dependent on foreign loans. Foreigners > like the Chinese are financing the bailout of U.S. banks. > If the dollar were to crash in this environment the U.S., reliant as > it is on borrowing, would struggle to raise the debt funding it needs > to buy its way out of this crisis. > You would expect the dollar to fall as one state after another tips > into recession and for gold to rise in times of uncertainty. Instead > the reverse is happening. > Gold was approaching $US 700 in the last week of October, down from > about $US 1200 just months before. It's a big leap to suggest the U.S. > may be shorting gold as a way of supporting the dollar, but causing > distressed hedge funds to sell gold amounts to the same thing. > There are other arguments for the rampant dollar. Some people argue > that the U.S. entered this financial crisis earlier than other > countries, that its housing market has been falling since 2006, and > that the U.S. will recover before other countries. Traders may be > anticipating interest rate cuts in the UK and Eurozone, while in the > U.S. rates have less far to fall. > Companies are certainly buying dollars in order to pay off their > debts. However, none of this explains the role of the U.S. > administration in driving down asset prices. > I have argued before that governments should focus on supporting the > real economy, on saving jobs and less on bailing out the banks. It is > certainly not the job of governments to support asset prices at a > particular level and certainly not to spend $US 700 billion buying > them off their banking chums. > Maybe Paulson's seen the light but, in that case, may the U.S. > taxpayers have their $US 700 billion back please? > Mark Gay, RT > _______________________________________________ > Rad-Green mailing list > Rad-Green at lists.econ.utah.edu > To change your options or unsubscribe go to: > http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/rad-green > From shimogamo at attglobal.net Mon Nov 3 02:18:08 2008 From: shimogamo at attglobal.net (Bill Totten) Date: Mon, 03 Nov 2008 18:18:08 +0900 Subject: [R-G] [BillTottenWeblog] The Anti-Empire Report Message-ID: <490EC1D0.20107@attglobal.net> Read this or George W Bush will be president the rest of your life by William Blum www.killinghope.org (October 30 2008) Don't tell my mother I work at the White House. She thinks I play the piano in a whore house. The Republican presidential campaign has tried to make a big issue of Barack Obama at one time associating with Bill Ayers, a member of the 1960s Weathermen who engaged in political bombings. Governor Palin has accused Obama of "palling around with terrorists", although Ayers' association with the Weathermen during their period of carrying out anti-Vietnam War bombings in the United States took place when Obama was around eight-years-old. Contrast this with who President Ronald Reagan, so beloved by the Republican candidates, associated with. Gulbuddin Hekmatyar was an Afghan warlord whose followers first gained attention by throwing acid in the faces of women who refused to wear the veil. This is how they spent their time when they were not screaming "Death to America". CIA and State Department officials called Hekmatyar "scary", "vicious", "a fascist", "definite dictatorship material" {1). None of this prevented the Reagan administration from inviting the man to the White House to meet with Reagan, and showering him with large amounts of aid to fight against the Soviet-supported government of Afghanistan. Reagan's successor, George H W Bush, palled around with characters almost as unsavory during his first campaign for the presidency in 1988. His campaign staff included a number of genuine pro-Nazi, anti-Semitic types from Eastern and Central Europe. Several of these worthies were leaders of the Republican campaign's ethnic outreach arm, the Coalition of American Nationalities, despite the fact that their checkered past was not a big secret. One of them, Laszlo Pasztor (or Pastor) had served in the pro-Nazi Hungarian government's embassy in Berlin during the Second World War. This had been revealed in a 1971 page-one story in the Washington Post {2}. When this past was again brought up in September 1988, the Republicans were obliged to dump Pasztor and four others of his ilk from Bush's campaign {3}. And who has John McCain been palling around with? Who has been co-chair of McCain's New York campaign and a foreign policy adviser to McCain himself? None other than the illustrious unindicted war criminal and mass murderer Henry Kissinger, who must be very careful when he travels to Europe for there are committed and serious people in several countries there who will again try to have him arrested for the crimes against humanity he's responsible for ... Chile ... Angola ... East Timor ... Vietnam ... Laos ... Cambodia ... By contrast, there is no evidence that Bill Ayers was involved in any Weathermen bombing that killed anyone; nor have I seen any evidence that on the very rare occasion that an anti-Vietnam War bombing in the United States resulted in a casualty that it could be ascribed to the Weathermen. John McCain's bombings certainly killed - some two dozen aerial attacks upon the people of Vietnam, people who had neither done nor threatened any harm to him or his country. What label do we give to such acts, to such a man? His level of violence is matched by his degree of hypocrisy. Speaking of Ayers, McCain asked: "How can you countenance someone who was engaged in bombings that could have or did kill innocent people?" {4} In his 2001 memoir, Fugitive Days (Penguin), Ayers writes: "I don't regret setting bombs. I feel we didn't do enough." This is something very few Americans can accept, and I wouldn't even make the attempt to persuade them. But I personally didn't blame the Weathermen then, and I don't blame them now. The Vietnam War was in its eighth year of barbarity. I and the rest of the army of the powerless needed a few points up there on the scoreboard against the lords of the national-security corporate state. A bombing, with a suitably war-criminal target - like the State Department or the Pentagon - and taking care to prevent any casualties, told the bastards that we were still out there, that their impunity was not total, that this is how it feels to be bombed. Armed propaganda. It told the public that there was something more serious going on than a town-hall difference of opinion that could be reasonably resolved by reasonable people discussing things in a reasonable manner. And like an unhappy child having a temper tantrum, we needed some instant gratification. We were struggling against the most powerful force in the world. The Weathermen were on the right side of that war. John McCain on the wrong side. And who has Sarah Palin herself been palling around with? John McCain, and the Alaska Independence Party, a secessionist party her husband belonged to for seven years. "My government is my worst enemy. I'm going to fight them with any means at hand", Joe Vogler, who founded the party, once declared. Earlier this year Governor Palin shouted out to party members: "Keep up the good work. And God bless you." {5} I do believe that secession of a state from the union is somewhat frowned upon by the powers that be, and if memory serves me, the last time it was seriously tried the government actually went to war. Who do these Alaskans think they are, the Kosovo gangsters whose secession from Serbia was immediately recognized by Washington? This just in: John McCain (yes, the same one), as a congressman, met in 1985 in Chile with General Augusto Pinochet, one of the world's most notorious violators of human rights, credited with killing more than 3,000 civilians, jailing tens of thousands of others, and torturing a great many of them. McCain met with Pinochet apparently without any preconditions, which is what McCain has repeatedly criticized Obama for saying he would do with certain present-day foreign leaders whom McCain doesn't like. At the time of the meeting, the US Justice Department was seeking the extradition of two close Pinochet associates for an act of terrorism in Washington, DC - the 1976 car-bomb assassination of former Chilean ambassador to the US, Orlando Letelier, a prominent critic of Pinochet, and his American assistant. McCain made no public or private statements critical of the dictatorship, nor did he meet with members of the democratic opposition in Chile. Senator Edward Kennedy arrived only twelve days after McCain in a highly public show of support for democracy, meeting with Catholic church and human rights leaders and large groups of opposition activists. {6} The John McCains of America, in and out of Congress, would much sooner pal around with Augusto Pinochet than Hugo Chavez or Fidel Castro or Bill Ayers. The bourgeois triumphalism that attended the funeral of the USSR Greed is a hot topic now. Stock brokers and others involved in the current financial crisis are angrily accused of being greedy. Time magazine declared that the nation's current troubles were "the price of greed". "Blame greed", echoed the Chicago Tribune. But these establishment publications can't be taken too seriously. Like other believers in the system, they're convinced that greed is a built-in, valuable, and necessary feature of capitalism and capitalist man, that it's indispensable for motivating entrepreneurs, and that it results in all manner of innovation and invention. During the years of the Cold War, this was a key element of the interminable discussions cum arguments between defenders of free enterprise and defenders of socialism; the arguments still continue, although most people now think that history has answered the question - capitalism has won. "The end of history", leading conservative Francis Fukuyama called it in his well-received book in 1992 (Free Press). He asserted that we couldn't expect to find a better way to organize society than the marriage of liberal democracy and market capitalism. Subsequent world movements such as anti-globalization and political Islam caused Fukuyama to have some second thoughts about whether history had actually come to an end. (He also came to renounce the war in Iraq which he had initially embraced on the premise that it would bring the joys of liberal democracy and market capitalism to the benighted Iraqi people.) Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the boys of Capital have chortled in their martinis about the death of socialism. Until recently, the word had been banned from polite conversation (now achieving new notoriety as a term of political insult). And no one seems to notice that every socialist experiment of any significance in the twentieth century was either bombed, invaded, or overthrown; corrupted, perverted, or destabilized; or otherwise had life made impossible for it, by the United States. Not one socialist government or movement - from the Russian revolution to the Vietnamese communists to the Sandinistas in Nicaragua, from Communist China to Salvador Allende in Chile to the FMLN in Salvador - not one was permitted to rise or fall solely on its own merits; not one was left secure enough to drop its guard against the all-powerful enemy abroad and freely and fully relax control at home. It continues today with Washington's attempts to subvert the governments of Venezuela and Bolivia, and, of course, still, forever, Cuba. Imagine that the Wright brothers' first experiments with flying machines had all failed because the automobile interests had sabotaged each test flight. And then, thanks to the auto companies' propaganda, the good and god-fearing folk of the world looked upon this, took notice of the consequences, nodded their collective heads wisely, and intoned solemnly: Man shall never fly. It's widely assumed that the Soviet Union demise resulted from gross shortcomings intrinsic to its socialist system, that the economy somehow imploded from its inherent contradictions. But all the shortcomings and contradictions that could have been found in the Soviet system in 1990 could have as well been found in 1980, or 1970, or 1960. Unlike capitalism, whose volatility is legendary, as each day's headlines remind us anew, the Soviet system with its government ownership of the means of production and its command economy, whatever its other defects, remained relatively stable and uniform. The question is thus: What happened in the late 1980s in the Soviet system to cause it to unravel? I believe that the best answer to the question lies in the person of Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, who came to power in 1985. Gorbachev's long-time and ardent ambition was to model the Soviet Union after a West European social democracy and have the country accepted as such by the Europeans. That's the principal reason he put an end to the Soviet military involvement in Afghanistan; and why he instituted his historic economic and political changes at home (with their unintended consequences), and relinquished control over Eastern Europe without resorting to military force. The war in Afghanistan certainly had its effects, financially and psychologically, upon the people of the Soviet Union, and is commonly cited as a major cause for the nation's breakup. But the same can be said even more so of the effect of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq upon the American people, millions of whom have marched against the wars, yet none of this has led to an American withdrawal from either place; not even close. Superpowers should not be confused with democracies. Ayn Rand's social philosophy: Let the strong prevail, let the weak pay for their weakness "I made a mistake in presuming that the self-interests of organizations, specifically banks and others, were such that they were best capable of protecting their own shareholders and their equity in the firms ... So the problem here is [that] something which looked to be a very solid edifice and, indeed, a critical pillar to market competition and free markets, did break down. And I think that, as I said, shocked me." A remarkable admission from Alan Greenspan, former chairman of the Federal Reserve, long-time opponent of government regulation of the corporate world, and friend and devoted follower of Ayn Rand, the selfishness guru who turned the emulation of two-year olds into a philosophy of life. "I have found a flaw", said Greenspan, referring to his economic philosophy. "I don't know how significant or permanent it is. But I have been very distressed by that fact." {7} Greenspan was induced into these admissions by tough questioning from congressmen at a hearing called in October to deal with the financial crisis. There was a time when Greenspan was looked upon as a guru by a largely unquestioning and unchallenging congress and media, no matter how dubious or obscure his pronouncements. He could have passed at times for Chauncey Gardener, the main character of the book and film Being There (1979). Gardener, brought to life by Peter Sellers, was a simple man with very simple thoughts and behavior, who might have been considered to be borderline "retarded", but fortuitous circumstances and the deference toward him by those of insufficient intellect and/or courage resulted in him being thought of as brilliant by people in high positions. There was one noteworthy exception to this delicate treatment of Greenspan. In July 2003, Representative Bernie Sanders of Vermont faced the Fed chairman across the table at a congressional hearing and said: "Mr Greenspan, I have long been concerned that you are way out of touch with the needs of the middle class and working families of our country, that you see your major function in your position as the need to represent the wealthy and large corporations ... I think you just don't know what's going on in the real world. ... You talk about an improving economy, while we have lost three million private sector jobs in the last two years. Long-term unemployment has more than tripled. ... We have a $4 trillion national debt. 1.4 million Americans have lost their health insurance. Millions of seniors can't afford prescription drugs. Middle class families can't send their kids to college because they don't have the money to do that." "Congressman", Greenspan replied, "we have the highest standard of living in the world". "No, we do not", insisted Sanders. "You go to Scandinavia, and you will find that people have a much higher standard of living, in terms of education, health care and decent paying jobs. Wrong, Mister." Not accustomed to having to defend his profundities, Greenspan could do no better than to counter with: "We have the highest standard of living for a country of our size" {8} This was quite a comedown from "in the world", and inasmuch as the only countries of equal or larger population are China and India, with Indonesia being the fourth largest, Greenspan's point is rather difficult to evaluate. The idea that the United States has the highest standard of living in the world is one that is actually believed by numerous grownups in America, and most of them believe that this highest standard applies across the board. They're only minimally conscious of the fact that whereas they've made extremely painful sacrifices to send a child to university, and they often simply can't come up with enough money, and even if they can the child will be very heavily in debt for years afterward, in much of Western Europe university education is either free or eminently affordable; as it is in Cuba and was in Iraq under Saddam Hussein. The same lack of awareness about superior conditions in other countries extends to health care, working hours, vacation time, maternity leave, child care, unemployment insurance, and a host of other social and economic benefits. In short, amongst the developed nations, the United States is the worst place to be a worker, to be sick, to seek a university education, to be a parent; or, in the land of two million incarcerated, to exercise certain rights or be a defendant in court. To which the Chauncey Gardeners of America, including the one who used to sit in the Federal Reserve and the one presently sitting in the Oval Office, would say: "Duh! Whaddaya mean?" The Rosenbergs as heroes John Gerassi, professor of political science at Queens College in New York City, recently wrote a letter to the New York Times: To the Editor: NYT In his "A Spy Confesses" (Week in Review 9/21), Sam Roberts claims that folks "fiercely loyal to the far left, believed that the Rosenbergs were not guilty ..." I am and have always been, since my stint as a correspondent and editor in Latin America for Time and Newsweek, a "far leftist", and I have never claimed the Rosenbergs were not guilty. Nor have any of my "far leftist" friends. What we always said, and what I repeat to my students every semester, is that "if they were guilty, they are this planet's great heroes". My explanation is quite simple: The US had a first-strike policy, the USSR did not (until Gorbachev). In 1952, the US military, and various intelligence services, calculated that a first strike on all Soviet silos would wipe out all but six percent of Russian atomic missiles (and, we now know, create enough radiation to kill us all). But those six percent would automatically be fired at US cities. The military then calculated what would happen if one made a direct hit on Denver (why they chose Denver and not New York or Washington was never explained). Their finding: 200,000 would die immediately, two million within a month. They concluded that it was not worth it. In other words, I tell my students, you were born and I am alive because the USSR had a deterrent against our "preventive" attack, not the other way around. And if it is true that the Rosenbergs helped the Soviets get that deterrent, they end up among the planet's saviors. - John Gerassi (tgerassi at hotmail.com) [It will not come as a great surprise to learn that the Times did not allow such thoughts to appear in their exalted pages.] Correction I don't know how it happened, but the address (URL) I sent out for last month's report was incorrect. It should have been: http://killinghope.org/bblum6/aer62.htm All previous reports can be found at www.killinghope.org Notes 1. Tim Weiner, Blank Check: The Pentagon's Black Budget (1990), pages 149-50. 2. Washington Post, November 21 1971 3. Los Angeles Times, September 13 1988, page 19. For further discussion of this issue, see Russ Bellant, "Old Nazis and the New Right: The Republican Party and Fascists", Covert Action Information Bulletin (Washington, DC), #33, Winter 1990, pages 27-31 4. New York Times, October 3 2008 5. David Talbot, Salon.com, October 7 2008 6. John Dinges, The Huffington Post, October 24 2008, based on a declassified US Embassy cable 7. Washington Post, October 23 2008 8. House Financial Services Committee, July 15 2003; http://commdocs.house.gov/committees/bank/hba91775.000/hba91775_0f.htm William Blum is the author of:- Killing Hope: US Military and CIA Interventions Since World War Two (Common Courage Press, 1995) Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower (Zed Books, 2002) West-Bloc Dissident: A Cold War Memoir (Soft Skull Press, 2002) Freeing the World to Death: Essays on the American Empire (Common Courage Press, 2004) Portions of the books can be read, and copies purchased, at http://www.killinghope.org and previous Anti-Empire Reports can be read at this website. To add yourself to this mailing list simply send an email to bblum6 at aol.com with "add" in the subject line. I'd like your name and city in the message, but that's optional. I ask for your city only in case I'll be speaking in your area. Or put "remove" in the subject line to do the opposite. Any part of this report may be disseminated without permission. I'd appreciate it if the website were mentioned. http://www.killinghope.org/bblum6/aer63.html TO POST A COMMENT, OR TO READ COMMENTS POSTED BY OTHERS, please click on the word "comment" highlighted at the end of the version of this essay posted at http://billtotten.blogspot.com/ From menecraj at shaw.ca Mon Nov 3 10:00:37 2008 From: menecraj at shaw.ca (Richard Menec) Date: Mon, 3 Nov 2008 11:00:37 -0600 Subject: [R-G] Only Nader Is Right on the Issues Message-ID: <32C9411EFF6040319B74419DC6C6E15A@agingCHS072729> "For in every city these two opposite parties (people vs aristocracy) are to be found, arising from the desire of the populace to avoid oppression of the great, and the desire of the great to command and oppress the people....For when the nobility see that they are unable to resist the people, they unite in exalting one of their number and creating him prince, so as to be able to carry out their own designs under the shadow of his authority." - Niccolo Machiavelli, 1469-1527 (quotation from The Prince, 1513) http://booksinternationale.pbwiki.com/Niccolo+Machiavelli ================== Only Nader Is Right on the Issues Posted on Nov 3, 2008 By Chris Hedges Chris Hedges is a Pulitzer prize-winning journalist who has covered many wars around the world. His column appears Mondays on Truthdig. Tomorrow I will go to a polling station in Princeton, N.J., and vote for Ralph Nader. I know the tired arguments against a Nader vote. He can't win. A vote for Nader is a vote for McCain. He threw the election to George W. Bush in 2000. He is an egomaniac. There is little disagreement among liberals and progressives about the Nader and Obama campaign issues. Nader would win among us in a landslide if this was based on issues. Sen. Barack Obama's vote to renew the Patriot Act, his votes to continue to fund the Iraq war, his backing of the FISA Reform Act, his craven courting of the Israeli lobby, his support of the death penalty, his refusal to champion universal, single-payer not-for-profit health care for all Americans, his call to increase troop levels and expand the war in Afghanistan, his failure to call for a reduction in the bloated and wasteful defense spending and his lobbying for the huge taxpayer swindle known as the bailout are repugnant to most of us on the left. Nader stands on the other side of all those issues. So if the argument is not about issues what is it about? Those on the left who back Obama, although they disagree with much of what he promotes, believe they are choosing the practical over the moral. They see themselves as political realists. They fear John McCain and the Republicans. They believe Obama is better for the country. They are right. Obama is better. He is not John McCain. There will be under Obama marginal improvements for some Americans although the corporate state, as Obama knows, will remain our shadow government and the working class will continue to descend into poverty. Democratic administrations have, at least until Bill Clinton, been more receptive to social programs that provide benefits, better working conditions and higher wages. An Obama presidency, however, will make no difference to those in the Middle East. I can't join the practical. I spent two decades of my life witnessing the suffering of those on the receiving end of American power. I have stood over the rows of bodies, including women and children, butchered by Ronald Reagan's Contra forces in Nicaragua. I have inspected the mutilated corpses dumped in pits outside San Salvador by the death squads. I have crouched in a concrete hovel as American-made F-16 fighter jets, piloted by Israelis, dropped 500- and 1,000-pound iron-fragmentation bombs on Gaza City. I can't join the practical because I do not see myself exclusively as an American. The narrow, provincial and national lines that divide cultures and races blurred and evaporated during the years I spent in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, Europe and the Balkans. I built friendships around a shared morality, not a common language, religion, history or tradition. I cannot support any candidate who does not call for immediate withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan and an end to Israeli abuse of Palestinians. We have no moral or legal right to debate the terms of the occupation. And we will recover our sanity as a nation only when our troops have left Iraq and our president flies to Baghdad, kneels before a monument to the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi war dead and asks for forgiveness. We dismiss the suffering of others because it is not our suffering. There are between 600,000 and perhaps a million dead in Iraq. They died because we invaded and occupied their country. At least three Afghan civilians have died at the hands of the occupation forces for every foreign soldier killed this year. The dead Afghans include the 95 people, 60 of them children, killed by an air assault in Azizabad in August and the 47 wedding guests butchered in July during a bombardment in Nangarhar. The Palestinians are forgotten. Obama and McCain, courting the Israeli lobby, do not mention them. The 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza live in a vast open-air prison. Supplies and food dribble through the Israeli blockade. Ninety-five percent of local industries have shut down. Unemployment is rampant. Childhood malnutrition has skyrocketed. A staggering 80 percent of families in Gaza are dependent on international food aid to survive. It is bad enough that I pay taxes, although I will stop paying taxes if we go to war with Iran. It is bad enough that I have retreated into a safe, privileged corner of the globe, a product of industrialized wealth and militarism. These are enough moral concessions, indeed moral failings. I will not accept that the unlawful use of American military power be politely debated among us like the subtle pros and cons of tort law. George Bush has shredded, violated or absented America from its obligations under international law. He has refused to sign the Kyoto Protocol, backed out of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, tried to kill the International Criminal Court, walked out on negotiations on chemical and biological weapons and defied the Geneva Conventions and human rights law in the treatment of detainees in our offshore penal colonies. Most egregiously, he launched an illegal war in Iraq based on fabricated evidence we now know had been discredited even before it was made public. The president is guilty, in short, of what in legal circles is known as the "crime of aggression." (Page 2) The legacy of the Bush administration may be the codification of a world without treaties, statutes and laws. Bush may have bequeathed to us a world where any nation, from a rogue nuclear state to a great imperial power, will be able to invoke its domestic laws to annul its obligations to others. This new order will undo five decades of international cooperation-largely put in place by the United States-and thrust us into a Hobbesian nightmare. The exercise of power without law is tyranny. If we demolish the fragile and delicate international order, if we do not restore a world where diplomacy, broad cooperation and the law are respected, we will see our moral and political authority disintegrate. We will erode the possibility of cooperation between nation-states, including our closest allies, and see visited upon us the evils we visit on others. Obama, like McCain, may tinker with this new world, but neither says they will dismantle it. Nader would. Practical men and women do not stand up against injustice. The practical remain silent. A voice, even one voice, which speaks the truth and denounces injustice is never useless. It is not impractical. It reminds us of what we should strive to become. It defies moral concession after moral concession that leaves us chanting empty slogans. When I sat on the summit of Mount Igman in my armored jeep, the engine idling, before nervously running the gantlet of Serb gunfire that raked the dirt road into the besieged city of Sarajevo, I never asked myself if what I was doing was practical. Forty-five foreign correspondents died in the city along with some 12,000 Bosnians, including 2,000 children. Some 50,000 people were wounded. Of the dead and wounded 85 percent were civilians. I drove down the slope into Sarajevo, which was being hit by 2,000 shells a day and under constant sniper fire, because what was happening there was a crime. I drove down because I had friends in the city. I did not want them to be alone. Their stories had become mine. War, with all its euphemisms about surges and the escalation of troops and collateral damage, is not an abstraction to me. I am haunted by hundreds of memories of violence and trauma. I have abandoned, because I no longer cover these conflicts, many I care about. They live in Gaza, Baghdad, Jerusalem, Beirut, Kabul and Tehran. They cannot vote in our election. They will, however, bear the consequences of our decision. Some, if the wars continue, may be injured or killed. The quest for justice is not about being practical. It is required by the bonds we share. They would do no less for me. ============== Fresh Ink is an alternative news service and sister project of Booksinternationale.com. Join us! https://booksinternationale.info/mailman/listinfo/freshink ============== Our website: http://booksinternationale.pbwiki.com/ Over 100 online catalogues at: http://booksinternationale.pbwiki.com/All+Catalogues ============== From fentona at shaw.ca Mon Nov 3 11:52:06 2008 From: fentona at shaw.ca (Anthony Fenton) Date: Mon, 3 Nov 2008 10:52:06 -0800 Subject: [R-G] The United States of ... Canada Message-ID: <3088B0AE-3CC1-489F-BD1F-2E4299DBEA4C@shaw.ca> http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9932.shtml The United States of ... Canada Hicham Safieddine, The Electronic Intifada, 3 November 2008 People around the world, including those in the Middle East, may have paid little attention to Canada's parliamentary elections on 14 October. This should come as no surprise, as Canadians themselves seemed more interested in the developments of the presidential race for the White House south of the border. Besides, the Canadian election brought little change to the makeup of parliament. The Conservatives maintained their lead and formed a minority government while the Liberals lost more seats. But preserving the status quo and the virtual absence of foreign policy as a topic of public debate in the run up to the vote reinforces the transformation in Canada's geopolitical role in relation to the Middle East. And this must be of extra concern today. Canada may take on an increasingly active role in light of the partial weakening of the United States' ability to maintain its hegemonic status across the globe single-handedly following its invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. This is especially so if Barack Obama becomes president. Canada is among the nations with the largest military presence in Afghanistan. The Conservatives led by George W. Bush's protege Stephen Harper have always pushed for a more aggressive role by Canada at a time when the anti-war movement is on the wane. Harper's policy is more likely to sit well with the public if it is marketed in line with the "moderate" vision of an American president like Obama who doesn't have Bush's bad reputation and who has expressed a desire to shift the war effort from Iraq to Pakistan and Afghanistan. The fact is Canada's current role in aiding American expansionism in the Middle East is larger and more complex than what some might think. This role simply became more evident when Canada led the international occupying forces in the Afghani province of Kandahar. This coincided with a gradual shift towards the militarization of foreign policy in opposition to the (at least official) policy of focusing on peacekeeping and diplomacy. And this shift was adopted by the Liberals and Conservatives alike. In 2005, the Liberals promised to increase the military budget by 13 billion dollars (all Canadian figures) over five years. In 2006, the Conservatives came to power. They announced a 2 percent annual increase in military spending over 20 years in addition to a package of 15 billion dollars aimed at buying new equipment and weaponry. With a military budget of 18 billion, Canada ranks sixth among NATO countries when it comes to military spending and jumped to sixth place worldwide in terms of military exports. However, Canada's role in aiding the American project isn't limited to Afghanistan. For despite the official decision not to join the American invasion of Iraq in 2003, Canadian forces took on several major tasks during the operation and after. This included logistical missions (transportation of provisions, heavy machinery, securing of supply lines), training by Canadian federal police of their Iraqi counterparts in Jordan, and even taking on leadership positions among the troops (Canadian generals such as Peter Devlin held top positions). Former US ambassador to Canada Paul Celluci confirmed the extent of Canada's complicity when he pointed out during the invasion in March 2003 that "ironically, Canadian naval vessels, aircraft and personnel ... will supply more support to this war in Iraq indirectly ... than most of those 46 countries that are fully supporting our efforts there." The militarization of Canada's foreign policy was accompanied by the reshaping of the armed forces ideology that produced the phenomenon of the army's former Chief of Staff Rick Hillier. Hillier became a popular face in the media and took on a role similar to that of American Generals David Petraeus and Tommy Franks as a trusted source of authority untainted by political ambition. Canada's position vis-a-vis the Arab Israeli conflict was no less extreme. Canada's increasing support for Israel is on the rise. The Canadian government was the first among Western powers to cut aid to the Palestinian government following the election of Hamas. The suffocating siege on Gaza did not prevent one of the Liberal's leading candidates for the election, Ken Dryden, from calling to "stop all aid that flows into Gaza" even though it might hurt the Palestinian population. In relation to Lebanon, Prime Minister Harper described Israel's aggression against Lebanon in 2006 as a "measured response" while Hizballah's military and political wing joined the list of terrorist organizations a few years prior. Domestically, consecutive governments have failed to live up to their minimal obligations towards the country's citizen of Muslim origin when it comes to the so-called "war on terror." Recent laws have given the Minister of Immigration more say in determining status of visa application, a move interpreted by immigrant activists as undermining transparency and opening the door for ethnic and racial profiling of applicants. Moreover, Canada is the only western country allied to the US that has failed to repatriate its citizen from Guantanamo. A video released this year showed how Canadian diplomats were implicated in the torture of the Canadian detainee, Omar Khadr. The release of the video did not lead to the public uproar that Khadr's lawyers had hoped. This last detail sheds some light on the gap between the gravity of the shift in Canada's policy and the public's awareness and acknowledgment of such a shift. The image of Canada as an international peace keeper remains the dominant one among the public imagination. Not that Canada abided by such a peacekeeping role throughout its history. Indeed, the country has stood by the US in many of its imperialist endeavors, from the Korean War in the 1950s to regime change in Haiti and later in Afghanistan. But often, it was never as aggressive in its approach as the US, and it did show some concern for international law and multilateral diplomacy. That is what is eroding. All this shows that it is misguided to treat Canada as a moderate force. Canada today squarely belongs to the neo-conservative US camp. And this is the message that politicians, diplomats, and activists opposed to US foreign policy in the region need to convey to their Canadian counterparts in an effort to reverse this shift. Anything less is worthy of blame and possibly prosecution. Hicham Safieddine is a Lebanese Canadian journalist. This is an edited translation of an article that appeared in Lebanon's Al-Akhbar newspaper on Thursday, 23 October 2008. From shniad at sfu.ca Mon Nov 3 11:53:23 2008 From: shniad at sfu.ca (Sid Shniad) Date: Mon, 03 Nov 2008 10:53:23 -0800 Subject: [R-G] President Obama: Making change the world can believe in Message-ID: <200811031853.mA3IrOeD019630@rm-rstar.sfu.ca> An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: not available Url: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/rad-green/attachments/20081103/1fdfbd97/attachment.txt From shniad at sfu.ca Mon Nov 3 12:09:09 2008 From: shniad at sfu.ca (Sid Shniad) Date: Mon, 03 Nov 2008 11:09:09 -0800 Subject: [R-G] On the brink Message-ID: <200811031909.mA3J99Qd026148@rm-rstar.sfu.ca> An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: not available Url: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/rad-green/attachments/20081103/200af572/attachment.txt From shniad at sfu.ca Mon Nov 3 12:12:30 2008 From: shniad at sfu.ca (Sid Shniad) Date: Mon, 03 Nov 2008 11:12:30 -0800 Subject: [R-G] How the Israel Lobby Took America to War Message-ID: <200811031912.mA3JCUuN005323@rm-rstar.sfu.ca> An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: not available Url: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/rad-green/attachments/20081103/f404b9aa/attachment.txt From shniad at sfu.ca Mon Nov 3 13:27:29 2008 From: shniad at sfu.ca (Sid Shniad) Date: Mon, 03 Nov 2008 12:27:29 -0800 Subject: [R-G] G-7 may sink into worst recession since 1930s Message-ID: <200811032027.mA3KRTxp000761@rm-rstar.sfu.ca> An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: not available Url: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/rad-green/attachments/20081103/c6968032/attachment.txt From fentona at shaw.ca Mon Nov 3 14:35:07 2008 From: fentona at shaw.ca (Anthony Fenton) Date: Mon, 3 Nov 2008 13:35:07 -0800 Subject: [R-G] Canada in the Congo War Message-ID: <20A6D67D-9D8C-4D2F-A7F9-86E20CAF0509@shaw.ca> November 3, 2008 "Looters? War" in the Congo UN report exposes role of Canadian mining companies by Jooneed Khan The Dominion - http://www.dominionpaper.ca The mining (looting) of Congolese coltan, which is needed for the manufacturing of cell phones, contributes to violence in the Congo. Photo: Nadine Wiepning MONTREAL, QUEBEC?The UN has failed the Congo tragically ever since the mineral-rich republic gained independence from Belgium in 1960. The alleged complicity of UN peacekeepers in the overthrow and assassination of elected Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba in 1961 gave way to a disastrous series of wars that continue to claim millions of lives. But the UN got one thing right in 2000: the Security Council mandated a panel of experts to investigate Western involvement in the extraction of the vast natural resources of Africa's bleeding giant. It was an unprecedented initiative. The US, Britain and France, the three major Western veto powers in the Security Council ? and three major beneficiaries of the pillage of the Congo under the prolonged dictatorship of General Mobutu from the early 1960s well into the 1990s ? must not have viewed it with favour. After the genocides in Rwanda, Burundi and Eastern Congo, and the 1996 overthrow of Mobutu by a joint Rwanda-Uganda invasion camouflaged behind Laurent-D?sir? Kabila, the latter had turned against his Western-backed tutors in 1998: war was raging in the Congo, with Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia actively supporting Kabila. Africa stood up to the new Western plan of exploiting the Congo's wealth by using Rwanda and Uganda as surrogates. The West's Plan B aimed at breaking up the huge country along provincial and ethnic lines, beginning with the two Kivu provinces in the east ? just as mineral-rich Katanga, abetted by the Belgians, had seceded soon after independence. "The war against the Congo is a looting war," the Deputy Minister of Mines, Mbaka Kawaya, told me in March 2001 in Kinshasa, where I was covering for La Presse the impact of the assassination of Kabila, shot to death two months earlier in his office. Spreading out on his desk maps of the East and North occupied by Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi, Kawaya explained: "Copper and cobalt are hard work and of low value. But diamond, gold and coltan are easy to dig and truck or airlift across the border, even as far as Bangui and Brazzaville." Days later, the Bush administration named Walter H. Kansteiner III to the post of US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs. He had done business in Apartheid South Africa, worked for Bush Sr and advised Bush Jr in the 2000 presidential campaign. Most of all, he advocated the dismemberment of the Congo. Within weeks, the first UN report was tabled at the Security Council: it was a huge bomb blast that was either underreported or misreported in the mainstream media. It pointed the finger at rich countries and international financial institutions as "facilitators or passive accomplices" of "the systematic and systemic looting" of the Congo. Beyond minerals, and coltan ? a natural mix of two high-conducting, heat-resistant metals much in demand in the electronics industry (cell- phones, computers, video games) and in astronautics ? the 53-page report denounced the plunder of the Congo's forests by Western "ecological" groups and holdings. It underlined the pervasive links between the war and the looting: theft of agricultural products (coffee, cattle), of money from banks, of factories dismantled and moved piece by piece, and coercive use of children by various militias and imposition of "taxes" of all sorts on the civilian population. The UN experts called for stiff sanctions against the authors of these economic crimes: an immediate embargo on the stolen resources and on arms delivery to rebel groups; an extension of the embargo to states that supported the rebels; a freeze on the assets of rebel groups, firms and individuals implicated in the looting; and an International Court to try those responsible and assess compensation for their victims. Nothing concrete was achieved. As late as this year, University of Ottawa law professor Craig Forcese, who worked with government, industry and NGOs to define the social responsibility of Canadian mining companies in developing countries, shook his head in desperation, feeling all these efforts had been in vain. **** Yet, the UN report on the Congo is a unique document. It is the first time such a study has been conducted under UN Security Council auspices, and it remains in the public domain as an official basis for action. Indeed, it has spurred Congolese civil society and opposition parties to push for the mining contract revision now under way in Kinshasa. The UN panel of experts produced two more reports. In November 2001, a 38-page annex to the April report concluded that "the looting of the Congo continues unabated." It proposed an "International Action Plan" that included a moratorium on the purchase of minerals and raw materials originating in the Congo and more support for the Congolese peace process and for institution- building in the wealthy yet impoverished country of 60 million, a country larger than Western Europe. The final report was published in October 2002. It named 85 companies, including five Canadian ones, whose extraction of the natural resources of the Congo was in violation of the ethical principles of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD, the club of wealthy, capitalist countries). The Canadian firms charged were First Quantum Minerals, Tenke Mining, International Panorama Resources, Harambee Mining, and Melkior Resources. According to the report, which also named scores of individuals involved in the "elite networks" busy ransacking the Congo, three-quarters of the firms were registered in North America and Western Europe. The 30-page document read like a John Le Carr? novel. It laid bare the links between carnage, terror, war, looting, theft and corruption, and between powerful states and companies and regional and local military and political actors as well as various crime syndicates. While Western governments, including Canada, ignored these findings, and the mainstream media trivialized them, the reports got quickly bogged down in controversy, with Uganda and Rwanda, proxies for the West, denouncing what they called the report's "harmful effects on peace efforts" in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The UN experts, including Jim Freedman of Canada, responded by accusing Rwanda and Uganda of "disguising" their occupation of the Congo by dressing their soldiers in militia outfits and staging fake "withdrawals" from Congolese territory. The Canadian UN ambassador defended them, saying, "The alleged violations were not specified," and, "The OECD ethical principles are voluntary, not compulsory." At a June 2003 meeting in Ottawa, Jim Freedman said, "Rebellions have become commercial enterprises. Wars have doubled in the '90s. Societies have become militarized. Conflicts are becoming commercialized. Wars open the way to profits. "Multinational corporations don't respond to moral appeals," he said, noting that the OECD simply calls on them to respect human rights, fight corruption, and show a civic spirit and transparency. The other UN experts reject that interpretation. "The OECD principles give governments a tool to pressure their companies, and if they don't act, they become accomplices" in the crimes their companies commit, said the panel when it published its October 2002 report. **** "How is it that Canadian tourists can be sued here for abuse of children overseas, but Canadian firms have impunity when it comes to looting of resources, human rights violations and devastation of the environment?" asked Ed Broadbent, former President of Rights and Democracy, and former leader of the New Democratic Party. Pushes for reform of mining laws gathered momentum when, in June 2005, the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade called on the government to compel extractive companies operating overseas to abide by stricter judicial, social and environmental norms. "It's a real breakthrough," said Joan Kuyek of MiningWatch. The then-Liberal government quickly adopted one of the committee's recommendations by setting up a "National Contact Point" (NCP) to investigate violations of the OECD principles by mining companies. The office turned out to be largely ceremonial, but the government also initiated a series of cross-Canada roundtables on the issue, involving civil servants, representatives of the extractive industries, experts and human rights and other civil society organizations. This exercise produced a 70-page consensus report in March 2007 which called on Canada to show world leadership by compelling its extractive companies to respect stricter human rights, developmental and environmental norms overseas. It noted that mining amounts to four per cent of Canadian GDP ($50.7 billion) and energy accounts for 5.9 per cent ($75.2 billion), supporting 638,000 jobs, and it asked that the "National Contact Point" (NCP) be replaced by a full-fledged Ombudsman equipped with biting judicial and investigatory powers. The new Conservative government received the report, and seems to have locked it away. Meanwhile, Anvil Mining was involved in a massacre of Congolese civilians in Kilwa. And, as former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said, "Two tsunamis a year" (resulting in 500,000 victims) continue to hit Eastern Congo, as a result of the "looters' war." Catapulted by the "peace process" and held aloft by 20,000 Blue Helmets of the United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Joseph Kabila, son of Laurent-D?sir?, is trying to keep the DRC safe for foreign investors. He is no Chavez or Morales, but Congolese civil society is pressing him hard to regain control of the country's resources for its own development. The UN reports have played a pivotal role in this ongoing process. The experts? panel tabled two more reports on the issue, well into 2003. Some were censored; most are unavailable today even on the UN website. Jooneed Khan writes on foreign affairs for La Presse. From shniad at sfu.ca Mon Nov 3 16:14:30 2008 From: shniad at sfu.ca (Sid Shniad) Date: Mon, 03 Nov 2008 15:14:30 -0800 Subject: [R-G] Top Obama Advisor Has Long Ties to Neocons Message-ID: <200811032314.mA3NEUnO023510@rm-rstar.sfu.ca> An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: not available Url: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/rad-green/attachments/20081103/92ee1f5b/attachment.txt From fentona at shaw.ca Mon Nov 3 16:57:57 2008 From: fentona at shaw.ca (Anthony Fenton) Date: Mon, 3 Nov 2008 15:57:57 -0800 Subject: [R-G] Two, three, many 'grand bargains'? Message-ID: Nov 4, 2008 http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JK04Ak01.html Two, three, many 'grand bargains'? By Jim Lobe WASHINGTON - As the United States waded ever deeper into the Indochinese quagmire in the early 1960s, Argentine revolutionary Che Guevara called for "two, three, many Vietnams" to bog down the superpower in unwinnable Third World conflicts which would drain its treasury and overstretch its military. While today's wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are not quite as costly - at least as a percentage of the gross domestic product - as then, Guevara's vision, echoed nearly 40 years later by Osama bin Laden, of an increasingly stressed hyperpower which now confronts its worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, must weigh heavily on whichever candidate moves into the White House on January 20. Indeed, even as both presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama talk about the urgency of sending thousands more troops to Afghanistan to cope with the growing Taliban threat - potentially magnified manifold by the ongoing insurgency across the border in the tribal territories of nuclear-armed Pakistan - the transition set to begin next Tuesday will offer the president-elect a critical window to contemplate possible exit strategies not only in southwest Asia, but also westward to the Mediterranean. A series of interlocking "grand bargains" backed by the relevant regional players as well as major global powers - aimed at pacifying Afghanistan; integrating Iran into a new regional security structure; promoting reconciliation in Iraq; and launching a credible process to negotiate a comprehensive peace between Israel and the Arab world - must offer a very tempting, if extremely challenging, prospect to any new resident at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Restoring stability to the Greater Middle East and reducing its on-the- ground troop presence would not only greatly reduce the US$15 billion dollars a month Washington spends on military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, the stress on the US military, and the unprecedented hostility among the world's more than one billion Muslims. It would also permit the new president to focus on tackling the global financial crisis and the deteriorating economic situation at home, including key issues such as healthcare and the declining middle class, that the public believes, as made clear by this election campaign, have been too long neglected. While no senior policy maker has yet used the phrase "grand bargain", the notion that the problems faced by Washington in the Greater Middle East - and thus, implicitly, the solutions, too - are deeply interconnected. General David Petraeus, who on Friday formally took over the reins of US Central Command, which covers the entire region and Central Asia and who is certain to have a major say in future strategy, clearly understands this as well as anyone. "Where Central Command can help is in looking at this overall challenge as a region, and helping regionally by looking not just at Afghanistan, but also of course Pakistan, at the Stans [former Soviet republics], Iran and even some of the other countries in the greater region that have been long involved, such as the kingdom of Saudi Arabia and some of the Gulf states, and even leaders in Lebanon," he told the New York Times in a September interview. In one indication of his thinking, Petraeus reportedly requested permission last week to meet with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the subject of a three-year-old diplomatic boycott by the Bush administration, only to be turned down by the White House. The notion of a "grand bargain" has been most commonly raised in recent years in connection with Iran in which, according to its most persistent proponents, former Bush Gulf experts Flynt and Hillary Mann Leverett, Washington would provide security guarantees to the Islamic Republic, normalize bilateral ties, and develop a cooperative approach to regional security - including Iraq and Afghanistan - in exchange for a halt to Tehran's alleged pursuit of nuclear weapons, support for Hezbollah, Hamas, and other groups Washington considers to be terrorists. But a "grand bargain" was also recently raised in connection with Afghanistan and Pakistan by two prominent experts, Pakistani journalist Ahmed Rashid, who has reportedly consulted with Petraeus, and New York University Professor Barnett Rubin, in the influential Foreign Affairs journal in which they called for a two-pronged strategy. The US and its NATO allies, they argued, should support efforts - which already appear to be underway - by the governments of both Afghanistan and Pakistan to reconcile with predominantly Pashtun Taliban insurgents on both sides of the border on the condition that they break all ties to al-Qaeda and other international terrorist groups. At the same time, Washington should pursue a "high-level diplomatic initiative designed to build genuine consensus on the goal of achieving Afghan stability by addressing the legitimate sources of Pakistan's insecurity", especially vis-a-vis India, which, along with China, Russia, and Iran, would be brought into the negotiations to provide the necessary assurances. The latter concept of a regional initiative backed by the great powers is not so different from the "new diplomatic offensive" proposed two years ago by the bipartisan Iraq Study Group (ISG) co-chaired by former Secretary of State James Baker, which was designed to stretch the withdrawal of US combat troops over a 15-month period. The ISG stressed the importance of directly engaging both Syria and Iran, as well as key Sunni-led Arab allies, in a regional framework, backed by the United Nations, the European Union, and other extra- regional powers, that would address the security needs of all of Iraq's neighbors and dissuade them from fueling sectarian conflict within Iraq. It also called for Washington to condition its future support for the Shi'ite-led Iraqi government on its efforts to reconcile with the country's Sunni community. Strongly objecting to any withdrawal timetable, Bush largely ignored these recommendations and instead "surged" tens of thousands more troops into Iraq to curb sectarian violence. Two years later, with the hoped-for national reconciliation still unrealized and the Iraqi government, increasingly influenced by Iran, refusing to sign a bilateral accord that would permit US troops to stay at least until 2011, a new president may wish to take the ISG report's back off the shelf. The ISG's "new diplomatic offensive" also linked the stabilization of Iraq and the securing of US interests in the Middle East to a comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace settlement for which a great-power framework, the quartet, already exists. While Bush has sought, albeit half-heartedly, to negotiate an Israeli-Palestinian accord - now considered out of his reach due to pending Israeli elections in February - over the past year, he has done nothing to encourage more- promising Turkish-mediated talks between Israel and Syria. In the last month, however, senior Israeli officials have called on their Arab neighbors to revive the 2002 Arab League Peace Initiative - originally a Saudi proposal to offer Israel normalized relations with all league members in exchange for its return to the 1967 borders and the establishment of a Palestinian state that would share Jerusalem - as the way forward on all fronts at the same time. Like the other three, this fourth possible "grand bargain" will depend critically on strong US backing, as well as that of the other great powers. And, as with the other three, much will hinge on the positions of Saudi Arabia - which not only launched the Arab Initiative, but also hosted talks last month between senior Taliban associates and the Afghan government and enjoys considerable influence in Pakistan - and Iran, whose geopolitical gains since the Iraq invasion have greatly enhanced its ability to play the spoiler from Afghanistan to the eastern Mediterranean. The outcome of Israel's elections will also weigh heavily in the balance. Nonetheless, if the Arab Initiative gains sufficient momentum to induce Tehran's allies, especially Syria and Hamas, to join the bandwagon, Iran, according to some analysts, will likely acquiesce, particularly if its security interests are addressed in the other possible bargains that the new president may be considering after next Tuesday's elections. Jim Lobe's blog on US foreign policy, and particularly the neo- conservative influence in the Bush administration, can be read at http://www.ips.org/blog/jimlobe/ . (Inter Press Service) From fentona at shaw.ca Mon Nov 3 17:01:48 2008 From: fentona at shaw.ca (Anthony Fenton) Date: Mon, 3 Nov 2008 16:01:48 -0800 Subject: [R-G] US division doesn't add up Message-ID: Nov 4, 2008 http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/JK04Df01.html US division doesn't add up By Syed Saleem Shahzad KARACHI - General David Petraeus, who took over last Friday as the new head of United States Central Command (CENTCOM) with overall responsibility for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, has arrived in Pakistan with Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Richard Boucher to push his plans in the South Asian theater of the "war on terror". This involves the dual task of government-led reconciliation with Taliban insurgents in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and the leveraging of diplomatic and economic initiatives with the countries influential in the war. Petraeus' arrival on Sunday coincided with two events. One was a US Predator drone strike which killed 25 people, including possibly an Arab commander, Abu Akash, in the North Waziristan tribal area in Pakistan. At the same time, militants and Pakistan, on Islamabad's initiative, agreed on a peace formula under which Pakistan has stopped military operations in the tribal areas and the militants have assured they will not unleash a "winter offensive" in Pakistan. (See A long, hot winter for Pakistan Asia Times Online, October 11, 2008.) Pakistan has already slowed operations in Bajaur Agency and shelved plans for operations in North Waziristan. All the same, the militants welcomed the month of November with unprecedented attacks, which, according to the militants, are a part of a carrot-and-stick game. On Friday, a suicide attack on a police office in Mardan, North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), killed four policemen. These were followed by three more suicide attacks at different locations and a rocket attack at Peshawar airport in NWFP that killed several security personnel. Tackling al-Qaeda Petraeus is credited with saving the United States from defeat in Iraq through his initiative to engage the indigenous tribal resistance especially the Sunnis, and getting them to turn against foreigners, that is al-Qaeda. If the same is planned for South Asia, it is sure to fail as al- Qaeda's traditions in the region are different from those in Iraq: al- Qaeda was a new phenomenon in Iraq, while it has been in South Asia for several decades. After September 11, 2001, and the invasion of Afghanistan that year, al-Qaeda became even closer to the local tribes who became a part of the Afghan resistance. After the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, a large number of al-Qaeda and Arab groups (not all Arab groups were al-Qaeda) based in Afghanistan went to Iraq, leaving behind a small group of Arabs. Most of them were trainers, like Iraqi Abu Akash, or ideologues like Abu Waleed Ansari, a Jordanian-Palestinian. Neither Ansari nor Abu Akash was directly linked with the hardcore of al-Qaeda. Ansari was more of cleric than a commander and he gave sermons to youths in North Waziristan to fight against foreign forces in Afghanistan. On the other hand, Abu Akash established a maaskar (training center) in North Waziristan at which he prepared youths for guerrilla battle. Through this process, a new Arabic-speaking tribal Pashtun generation was raised. Now, at a time when numerically al-Qaeda and Arab warriors in South Asia are insignificant, this breed of tribal Pashtuns has become the vanguard of al-Qaeda's cause. One could call them the neo-Taliban, and in most instances they have taken over the leadership of the Taliban. Veteran mujahideen leader Jalaluddin Haqqani was once close to the Pakistani establishment and he had a pure tribal mindset. But his sons Sirajuddin and Nasiruddin, who speak Arabic, lean towards Arabs and their cause. Qari Ziaur Rahman is another case in point in eastern Afghanistan and Pakistan. The Arabic-speaking commander of Pashtun ethnicity is closer to Arabs and there is no chance of him siding with the establishment in either country. There is no official word on whether Abu Akash has been killed, but even if he is dead he will have left a strong legacy. Abu Akash (or Abu Akasha as his comrades call him) is not a veteran of the Afghan jihad against the Soviets in the 1980s as he is in his mid-30s. He is an expert in explosives and guns and after arriving in North Waziristan he tapped Uzbeks and Tajiks of Central Asian origin to act as trainers. He also used his young trainees to control traffic in North Waziristan. This was a simple drill but some local tribes did not like it and in 2007 he was expelled to the Shawal region that spans the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. But he returned within a few months and blended even further into tribal society, so much so that he could speak the local dialects of Urdu and Pashtun and at one point Pakistani intelligence reported that they suspected Abu Akash was Punjabi, not Arab. Abu Akash and his likes will make it very difficult for Petraeus to divide and defeat the resistance, as in Iraq. Syed Saleem Shahzad is Asia Times Online's Pakistan Bureau Chief. He can be reached at saleem_shahzad2002 at yahoo.com (Copyright 2008 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing.) From fentona at shaw.ca Mon Nov 3 20:44:01 2008 From: fentona at shaw.ca (Anthony Fenton) Date: Mon, 3 Nov 2008 19:44:01 -0800 Subject: [R-G] American Oil Supply From Canada Imperiled Message-ID: <7D38C944-BD33-4B9A-8430-A982B02C156A@shaw.ca> America With No Plan for Oil Interruption Ironically, As Price Per Barrel Drops, American Oil Supply From Canada Imperiled Edwin Black November 3rd 2008 http://www.thecuttingedgenews.com/index.php?article=896 This continuing coverage on the oil weapon arises from the just released book, The Plan: How to Save America When the Oil Stops?or the Day Before (Dialog Press). Buy it here. Americans may be rejoicing about lower oil prices, but the law of unintended consequences and the vagaries of the global oil supply have begun to kick in. Ironically, oil may become dramatically scarcer for Americans--not as a result of manipulations by the OPEC oil cartel, but due the fragile economics of Canadian oil. America consumes some 20 million barrels of oil per day, about 70 percent of which is imported. But the number one supplier to the United States is close to home, our northern neighbor, Canada. The nation to the north sends some 2 million barrels of oil per day to the United States from Alberta in western Canada. This petroleum comes from a source commonly known as ?oil sands.? Oil sands are deposits of oily goop embedded in sand, and comprise about 95 percent of Canada?s massive petroleum reserve of approximately 180 billion barrels. That reserve was not globally recognized until 2003?near the time of the American invasion of Iraq. Prior to that, the environmentally threatening, water intensive, heavy industrial nature of oil sands extraction was considered too expensive to be considered economically viable. With oil prices telescoping toward $150 per barrel, the hyper-expensive oil sands process became viable, profitable, and the basis for a sudden American reliance on North American petroleum as a source of fuel. However, many observers feel that petroleum from Canadian oil sands is not economically feasible when the price of a barrel sinks below $80. In recent days, the price of oil has crashed to below $65 per barrel. At press time, some spot oil markets were down to $60 per barrel. That cost ineffectiveness has collided with a colossal global credit collapse to create a perfect storm that is pausing and slowing the needed Canadian oil supply expansion to the United States. Suncor Energy, a leading player in the oil sands, has already put the brakes on major plant upgraders and other expansion needed to satisfy the growing global market. For example, Suncor?s $16.2 billion Voyageur upgrader project, due to be completed by 2013, has now been postponed. Petro-Canada is likewise deferring some $10 billion worth of improvements scheduled for its Fort Hills enterprise. Multi-billion dollar cost overruns on Canadian oil projects have now become intolerable. In one case, a recent review of a Fort Hills oil project revealed a 50 percent cost overrun in a single year, costing almost $20 billion. . Petro-Canada CEO Ron Brenneman admitted, ?We haven?t thought our way through what the economics might look like? with regard to continuing future expansion. Among the Canadian headlines that rocked global oil circles was one in the Globe and Mail reading ?Oil Sands Projects Slashed as Credit Crisis Hits Alberta? and one in Reuters, ?Canada Oil Sands Slowdown May Halt Runaway Costs.? FirstEnergy Capital analyst, William Lacey, admitted, ?The big guys have all suddenly drawn a line in the sand that wasn?t there before.? Canadian oil supply is further complicated by a little-known reality. While Canada is a net oil exporter, pumping millions of barrels per week into the United States, it is also an importer in its eastern provinces of some 850,000 barrels per day from such countries as Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Egypt and Venezuela as well as the United Kingdom, Norway and other countries, Canadians have begun to ask why the nation sends the vast majority of its western oil product into the United States while Eastern Canada must import from overseas. If Canadian oil flows are reduced by virtue of dollar dynamics, it may dramatically decrease the American availability and force ever more reliance on a Persian Gulf supply that is now ramping down. Indeed, in response to the dip in global demand, the cratering world economic structure and the rise in the American dollar, OPEC nations have decreased production by some 1.5 million barrels per day and are now discussing further cuts. At the same time, America?s number two source of oil, Mexico, is beginning to cap its wells and wind down its oil export business, which is likely to run dry within a decade. All these intertwined dynamics of global oil supply only serve to emphasize the volatility, unpredictability and tenuousness of the fuel that currently propels some 98 percent of all transportation in the United States of America. Edwin Black is the New York Times bestselling investigative author of IBM and the Holocaust, Internal Combustion and his just released book, The Plan: How to Save America When the Oil Stops?or the Day Before (Dialog Press). More information about The Plan can be found at www.planforoilcrisis.com . http://www.planforoilcrisis.com/ From shimogamo at attglobal.net Tue Nov 4 06:10:32 2008 From: shimogamo at attglobal.net (Bill Totten) Date: Tue, 04 Nov 2008 22:10:32 +0900 Subject: [R-G] [BillTottenWeblog] A Nervous Nation Message-ID: <491049C8.8020401@attglobal.net> Clusterfuck Nation by Jim Kunstler Comment on current events by the author of The Long Emergency (Atlantic Monthly Press, 2005) www.kunstler.com (November 03 2008) This is a nervous nation. Though I'm usually allergic to paranoia, something makes me think that there's a back office in the US Treasury that is buying the entire Dow Jones Industrial Index at opportune moments - like fifteen minutes before the closing bell - at the direction of Mr Paulson. He seems to easily spend $50 billion a day on other dubious hand-outs. At that scale, buying the whole Dow would just take his walking-around money. The idea behind it, my paranoid fugue goes, is to jack up the stock market enough around election day to give the dimmer members of the voting public the idea that the financial fiasco is over and happy days are here again. You can't put this past the Republican party, despite John McCain's friendly turn on Saturday Night Live, consorting with "the enemy" for laughs. Apart from that, McCain has run the flat-out most scurrilous campaign I've ever seen, despite his reputation as a war hero and a sterling fellow among the senators. He's run a campaign of malicious innuendo and slander, seemingly aimed at voters who would have trouble qualifying for the Special Olympics. And you have to wonder whether he actually requested Vice-president Dick Cheney to lay that "kiss-of-death" endorsement on him at the last moment. It could only have been better if Mr Cheney borrowed some trick-or-treater's Darth Vadar costume for the grand occasion. What many people are nervous about, of course, is the chance of shenanigans with the voting tally. Just one minor feature of the general paralysis gripping this society has been our inability to get rid of those mischievous Diebold computerized voting machines that leave no paper trail. By the way, these touchscreen voting units are an example of the diminishing returns of technology. There was nothing wrong with the old mechanical units, but by making over-investments in complexity we've just created more problems for ourselves. This ought to be a warning to those in the thrall of techno-triumphalism. People are nervous not just because Mr Obama might be swindled out of a victory, but because John McCain might get elected. Credibility in his judgment dissolved about eleven minutes after he picked the Bombshell from Wasilla to be a heartbeat away from the oval office. Anyway, the Republican Party needs to crawl off to a dark hole somewhere and either pupate into something better or die - as the Whigs did in 1856. The Republican Party is not through wrecking America. They have three more months to destroy the US dollar and the economy that runs on it. And with Mr Paulson shoving out pallet-loads of bundled dollars to the likes of JP Morgan, so they can continue doing the very thing that provoked this financial fiasco - lending money recklessly to anyone with a pulse - they might just "get her done"! Other people are afraid that Mr Obama will hand out bales of money, too, only to a different class of people. I suppose he will. I hope he will show restraint and apply it to public works that benefit all Americans - such as my pet project of restoring passenger railroad service so people don't have to drive, for instance, from Atlanta to Louisville or Cleveland to Columbus. Even so, the new President will face not only a tide of woes created by his predecessor, but very likely, too, an obese and ineffectual federal bureaucracy unable to carry out even well-intentioned programs. He will take office in what may be the darkest economic year this country has ever faced. 2009 shows every sign of being worse than this one, with house foreclosures and car re-pos accelerating, companies hemorrhaging jobs, oil prices heading back up (with shortages possible), and a large new group of the formerly middle class growing restive and sore in the background. It will be an historic act of governance if he can keep the lid on all this. Many people will be worrying, of course, whether he will even survive. The ghost of JFK and the dashed hopes he represented (however real or illusory) still haunt this nation. Apart from the awful debt deflation and probable rebound hyper-inflation that will whipsaw the nation cross-eyed, the new president will face the energy question. I hope he learns the fundamental lesson: that the only way we can hope to become "energy independent" is to severely reform our car-dependent living arrangements and live more locally. Anybody who believes we're going to run the interstate highways and WalMart on solar, wind, tar sands (which belong to Canada, by the way), oil shale, methane gas, algae-diesel, or used fry-max? is going to be disappointed. We'll have to inhabit the terrain of North America differently - in traditional towns, villages, cities (scaled smaller, to a lower energy diet), as well as a productive agricultural landscape that will require more attention from live human beings (and maybe help from our friends, the animals). Much of the real work of the next president will be guiding a transition out of obsolete habits, practices, and expectations that we must shed whether we like it or not. The painful downscaling of the financial sector, from a bloated twenty plus percent of the US economy back to something more in the five percent range, is only the first of these agonies. The transition away from suburbia - our tragic misallocation of resources in an infrastructure for daily life with no future - will be even more harrowing because of the psychology of previous investment, which will provoke a misguided effort to sustain the unsustainable, and squander our dwindling resources in the process. I reject the label "gloom-and-doomer" where these difficult transitions are concerned. There's a lot about the way we live now that is disgusting, degrading, demoralizing, and socially toxic - from our suicidal diet of processed fat, salt, and corn syrup byproducts to the spiritually punishing everyday realm of the highway strip to the fantastic loneliness and alienation of a people made hostage to a TV-consumer nexus of corporate colonialism. Were done with that. We just don't know it yet. Mr Obama may not know it, either, but he is a trustworthy soul to hold our hands as we enter this unknown territory. http://jameshowardkunstler.typepad.com/clusterfuck_nation/2008/11/a-nervous-nation.html TO POST A COMMENT, OR TO READ COMMENTS POSTED BY OTHERS, please click on the word "comment" highlighted at the end of the version of this essay posted at http://billtotten.blogspot.com/ From shniad at sfu.ca Tue Nov 4 10:48:47 2008 From: shniad at sfu.ca (Sid Shniad) Date: Tue, 04 Nov 2008 09:48:47 -0800 Subject: [R-G] An Open Letter to Barack Obama (Ralph Nader) Message-ID: <200811041748.mA4Hmlne008591@rm-rstar.sfu.ca> An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: not available Url: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/rad-green/attachments/20081104/3763122c/attachment.txt From shniad at sfu.ca Tue Nov 4 10:47:00 2008 From: shniad at sfu.ca (Sid Shniad) Date: Tue, 04 Nov 2008 09:47:00 -0800 Subject: [R-G] Durban II: Canada should end its boycott Message-ID: <200811041747.mA4Hl080005121@rm-rstar.sfu.ca> An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: not available Url: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/rad-green/attachments/20081104/b35619a6/attachment.txt From fentona at shaw.ca Tue Nov 4 11:52:46 2008 From: fentona at shaw.ca (Anthony Fenton) Date: Tue, 4 Nov 2008 10:52:46 -0800 Subject: [R-G] =?iso-8859-1?q?The_Dynamic_Debut_of_Ra=FAl_Castro?= Message-ID: <0F8009F3-7DBD-4503-A7A7-A7F6BA379BA7@shaw.ca> The Dynamic Debut of Ra?l Castro: Picking up the broken pieces of storm-battered, but now oil-rich Cuba, and moving ahead, with mixed prospects ? Island slammed by monstrous storms, but turns down U.S. aid ? Reforming Cuba during an epoch when scarcity and low living standards no longer are inevitable ? Good news from the E.U. and Geneva ? Offshore oil bombshell Ever since the presidency formally changed hands on the occasion when Fidel Castro informally stepped down from his position as the island?s supreme leader, Cuba has been witnessing the build-up of its agricultural and industrial capabilities, and the country seemed to be on the brink of an economic epiphany. Although economic growth has been severely hampered as a result of the two Caribbean hurricanes that ferociously hit the island last summer, it now appears that the era of ?Ra?lism,? which has commenced in earnest, will continue to be positive in terms of growth and diversification in spite of nature?s cruel blows and the legacy from the past. Change seems to be in the air, as economic good times could be around the corner. In essence, even U.S. State Department spokesman John Casey, who has not been entirely convinced that a quasi-democratic transition is taking place there, acknowledges that ?Ra?lism? could lead to ?greater openness and freedom for the Cuban people.? [...] http://www.coha.org/2008/11/the-dynamic-debut-of-raul-castro-picking-up-the-broken-pieces-of-storm-battered-but-now-oil-rich-cuba-and-moving-ahead-with-mixed-prospects/ From critical.montages at gmail.com Tue Nov 4 13:20:39 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Tue, 4 Nov 2008 15:20:39 -0500 Subject: [R-G] Students Speak for Merits of Cool Damascus Message-ID: See, also, Jonathan Shannon, "Humanity's Highest Need? The Politics of Art and Culture in Syria" (a review of miriam cooke, Dissident Syria: Making Oppositional Arts Official, Durham: Duke University Press, 2007): . Students speak for merits of cool Damascus By Anna Fifield in Damascus Published: November 4 2008 01:58 | Last updated: November 4 2008 01:58 In the concrete forecourt of Damascus University, blonde Americans in skinny jeans and retro sunglasses mill around in the sunshine among Syrian students in white headscarves. Americans, Czechs, Japanese, Belarusans, Germans, Koreans, Britons, Malays: these Arabic language students are giving Damascus such a cosmopolitan air that a visitor could be excused for forgetting Syria's reputation for isolation. The Bush administration dubbed the country an outpost of tyranny, a state sponsor of terrorism. But now, thanks to its widely intelligible dialect and to the rejuvenation of the old city ? Damascus is becoming the "Prague of the Middle East" ? the Syrian capital is now the cool place to learn Arabic. "When I told people at home that I was coming to Syria to study, they were really worried," says Leah Wawro, a 20-year-old New Yorker studying Arabic in Damascus as part of her international relations degree at the University of St Andrews, Scotland. Caroline Guenther, a 21-year-old from Boston who is on the same course, says: "We had a choice of Cairo or Damascus ? and my mom really wanted me to go to Cairo ? but we thought this would be better." Since September 11 2001, western interest in the Middle East and demand for Arabic speakers has increased markedly. The Central Intelligence Agency in the US and Britain's MI6 are among the institutions crying out for Arabists. Alongside the bustling souk and the fabulous Omayad mosque in the old city, cool bars and caf?s with wi-fi have popped up, creating an enticing mix of the traditional and the trendy. "In the past Cairo, Tunis and Beirut were the centres for learning Arabic," says Ahmad Haji Safar, director of the Arabic Teaching Institute in Damascus, where 450 students from 60 countries study each term. He says demand is so high that he turns away as many as 700 students each term. Although classical Arabic ? the language of newspapers and government ? is understood across the Middle East, the spoken dialect differs so much from place to place that an Algerian and a Lebanese are as likely to converse in French as in Arabic. Colloquial Syrian bears the closest resemblance to classical Arabic, making it an attractive dialect for students. "I decided to come here because the Arabic is supposed to be better, the most standard," says Sina Thiessen, a 22-year-old student from Germany. Tuition fees are only $300 (?236, ?189) a term and the cost of living so low that students can get by on $400 a month. Some students in Damascus's language schools are Muslim, but as Syria gradually opens up to outside investment, others are learning Arabic so they can work for foreign companies in Syria or for academic reasons. "I'm studying Islamic history in Japan, so a lot of the books I need to read are in Arabic," says Megumi Okamoto, a 27-year-old graduate from Kobe University who arrived in Damascus a month ago. "But this culture is so different from Japan I'm a bit confused," she admits. Doron Davda, a 24-year-old from London, says it was a "natural step" to come to Damascus after completing his masters in Middle Eastern studies in the UK. "There is a general lack of understanding about the Middle East and this whole 'clash of civilisations'," says Mr Davda, who will return to London to work in the government service. In addition to the low price, Mr Davda says, Damascus has the allure of being "a little bit intrepid". "Everyone has been to Cairo and up and down the Nile but not many people have been to the 'axis of evil' of Syria," he says. Yoshie From shniad at sfu.ca Tue Nov 4 13:31:37 2008 From: shniad at sfu.ca (Sid Shniad) Date: Tue, 04 Nov 2008 12:31:37 -0800 Subject: [R-G] How McCain Could Win - Greg Palast Message-ID: <200811042031.mA4KVb0P012346@rm-rstar.sfu.ca> An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: not available Url: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/rad-green/attachments/20081104/ffcf4cea/attachment.txt From fentona at shaw.ca Tue Nov 4 15:10:22 2008 From: fentona at shaw.ca (Anthony Fenton) Date: Tue, 4 Nov 2008 14:10:22 -0800 Subject: [R-G] Military sees Obama as key to victory in Afghanistan Message-ID: Military sees Obama as key to victory in Afghanistan Democrat's popularity abroad will make European nations less reluctant to contribute more troops, generals believe http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20081104.wcampafghan04/BNStory/Afghanistan/home DOUG SAUNDERS From Tuesday's Globe and Mail November 4, 2008 at 3:08 AM EST LONDON ? In normally hawkish military and diplomatic circles, it is being called an "Obama boost": a widespread belief that the war in Afghanistan may be winnable only if Barack Obama is elected president tonight. To a surprising degree, military and government officials in the United States and Europe have pegged their hopes for victory in Afghanistan or a reduction in violence to Mr. Obama's ability to win over skeptical European audiences and persuade them to contribute large numbers of troops to a war that is widely seen to be in serious trouble. Amid fast-increasing violence and declining public support in Afghanistan, many top U.S., British and Canadian military commanders and government officials involved with the war say in private discussions that they believe the Afghan war will be lost unless a large number of additional soldiers and civil workers - a number that ranges from 60,000 to more than 100,000 - is sent to Afghanistan by the end of next year. There are currently about 64,000 troops in Afghanistan, including 2,500 Canadian soldiers. To bring about this effective doubling in troops at a time when NATO has had difficulty getting its member countries to contribute even 2,000 additional soldiers, officials are counting on an Obama victory. "The Europeans are likely to be more accommodating of the next administration to increase their own troop presence," said James Dobbins, who was President George W. Bush's envoy to Afghanistan. "And I think Obama, if he becomes the next president, is greatly more popular in Europe. So I think there's a honeymoon, and he'll have more leverage to increase troops ... the effect is there, and it's not negligible." Mr. Obama, whose campaign has focused on the war in Afghanistan far more than that of his Republican opponent, John McCain, has pledged to remove all U.S. soldiers from Iraq within 16 months and shift the military focus to Afghanistan. This would contribute as many as 40,000 soldiers to the Afghan war, though some analysts say that in practice the contingent would be more in the range of 25,000 to 30,000, or about half the required number. The other half would have to come from North Atlantic Treaty Organization countries, including Canada and most European countries, which have been reluctant to contribute more troops. This is where the military is putting its hopes on Mr. Obama. A British general said in an off-the-record briefing last month that he believes "a five-figure number" of soldiers can be made available by Western European countries including Britain, but are being held back because of a desire to avoid seeming to support the Bush administration. An Obama victory, he said, would provide an even greater number of troops. "I would say that there is a reasonable prospect of Obama getting the Europeans to do more," said Charles Kupchan, a former U.S. National Security Council director who is now a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. "One reason has to do with discomfort with President Bush, the war in Iraq, and U.S. foreign policy during the past eight years. And the discomfort with U.S. policy creates a domestic environment across Europe which makes it harder for European governments to step up to the plate in Afghanistan. Having Obama in the White House will engender goodwill, which will buy European governments more room for manoeuvre, more latitude to act." Also, European and Canadian voters, and to some extent governments, are seen to have lost any sense of purpose in the Afghanistan war, and to have developed a skepticism toward U.S. motives in the war. Because Mr. Bush has done so little to sell the war, there is a widespread sense that countries are seeking excuses to withdraw from the conflict. "That's an area, I think, where Obama will be able to work with his European allies to do a better job of selling the war to skeptical publics," Mr. Kupchan said. From shniad at sfu.ca Tue Nov 4 15:21:30 2008 From: shniad at sfu.ca (Sid Shniad) Date: Tue, 04 Nov 2008 14:21:30 -0800 Subject: [R-G] Britain's PM calls on Mideast governments to shore up IMF Message-ID: <200811042221.mA4MLUPf008310@rm-rstar.sfu.ca> An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: not available Url: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/rad-green/attachments/20081104/ede19c23/attachment.txt From shniad at sfu.ca Tue Nov 4 15:22:20 2008 From: shniad at sfu.ca (Sid Shniad) Date: Tue, 04 Nov 2008 14:22:20 -0800 Subject: [R-G] "We Must Rethink the International Economic System" - Archbishop Desmond Tutu Message-ID: <200811042222.mA4MMKXG011548@rm-rstar.sfu.ca> An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: not available Url: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/rad-green/attachments/20081104/b60cd79c/attachment.txt From shniad at sfu.ca Tue Nov 4 15:38:06 2008 From: shniad at sfu.ca (Sid Shniad) Date: Tue, 04 Nov 2008 14:38:06 -0800 Subject: [R-G] Military sees Obama as key to victory in Afghanistan Message-ID: <200811042238.mA4Mc6mi027109@rm-rstar.sfu.ca> An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: not available Url: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/rad-green/attachments/20081104/8e5df06a/attachment.txt From realiteee1 at yahoo.com Tue Nov 4 18:08:57 2008 From: realiteee1 at yahoo.com (james m nordlund) Date: Tue, 4 Nov 2008 17:08:57 -0800 (PST) Subject: [R-G] Today's the Day! VOTE! In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <659616.27184.qm@web50803.mail.re2.yahoo.com> Today's the day. Here are some resources to help you on this Election Day. Not sure if you're registered? Don't know where your local polling place is? Do you need to bring ID? You can find answers to these questions and more at . This website is maintained by the National Association of Secretaries of State, the nation's oldest nonpartisan professional association for public officials. Can't find your polling station? Find maps to your polling station by typing in your zip code at . Trouble at the polls? Before you take off for the polls, save this voter hotline in your cell phone: 1-866-OURVOTE. If you are told that your registration has been "caged," "purged," or challenged, or if a poll worker insists on offering you a provisional ballot (which is less likely to count) rather than a regular ballot, call for help. If you witness voter intimidation, voter fraud, distribution of partisan material at the polls, or broken voting machines, report it; Election Protection, the nation's largest voter protection coalition, will register your report in a national database and notify the appropriate elections officials. The hotline is administered by the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights under Law. The hotline 1-888-VE-Y-VOTA provides the same service in Spanish. Election Protection promises to "provide Americans from coast to coast with comprehensive voter information and advice on how they can make sure their vote is counted." Friends don't let friends forget to vote As former Secretary of the Treasury William E. Simon said, "Bad politicians are sent to Washington by good people who don't vote." Spread the word far and wide that getting up early or staying late at the polls on November 4 matters. Please pass on this voting information to at least four of your friends and family members. Thanks. Time to set him free... Because it is the RIGHT thing to do. Friends of Peltier http://www.FreePeltierNow.org ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To subscribe, send a blank message to freepeltiernow-on at mail-list.com To contact the list owner, send your message to freepeltiernow-list-owner at mail-list.com mail-list.com 1302 Waugh Dr. #438 Houston, Texas 77019 USA From realiteee1 at yahoo.com Tue Nov 4 18:09:55 2008 From: realiteee1 at yahoo.com (james m nordlund) Date: Tue, 4 Nov 2008 17:09:55 -0800 (PST) Subject: [R-G] Green Acts: candidates McKinney, Clemente: SF, NYC 11-4; etc.. In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <778664.99207.qm@web50808.mail.re2.yahoo.com> ADVISORY Green candidates McKinney & Clemente will be in SF, NYC on Election Night Distributed by the Green Party of the United States http://www.gp.org Press Advisory November 4, 2008 Cynthia McKinney Contact: John Judge, 202-584-1021, Press-secretary at runcynthiarun.org Rosa Clemente Contact: Mahdis Keshavarz, 425.591.8781, Mahdis at TheMakeAgency.com Green Party presidential candidates will be with community on Election Night in San Francisco and New York CIty PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE CYNTHIA MCKINNEY Cindy Sheehan for Congress Campaign Headquarters 1260 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA 8:00 pm [Washington, DC]---Presidential candidate and former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney will join Cindy Sheehan, anti-war activist and candidate for Congress, running against Rep. Nancy Pelosi in the San Francisco area, at the Campaign Headquarters with supporters of both candidates. WHEN: Tuesday, November 4, 2008 8:00 pm WHERE: 1260 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA WHO: Cynthia McKinney and Cindy Sheehan VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE ROSA CLEMENTE SB3 Bar 33 Ave B at 3rd Street, New York City, NY 8:00 pm-2:00 am Live Stream, 8PM Eastern Time, http://www.mogulus.com/greenpartyny [New York, NY]? East Village Restaurant SB3 to Host Diverse Local Community in New York City. Vice Presidential candidate Rosa Clemente (Green Party) will join a large group of community leaders at the SB3 Bar in the East Village to view the returns of the 2008 Presidential Elections. In what will prove to be a historic election regardless of its outcome. Clemente and other participants have encouraged and secured the attendance of a number of prominent members of communities of color throughout New York. ?In a year when there are an unprecedented number of women on the Presidential ballot as well as people of color, I feel it is important to offer a gathering place where New Yorkers can gather to watch these historic results,? said Clemente. WHEN: Tuesday, November 4, 2008 8:00 pm-2:00 am WHERE: SB3 Bar 33 Ave B @ 3^rd Street, New York, NY WHO: Rosa Clemente, VP Candidate, Green Party DJ K Salaam, DJ Sergio Vega, UMI, S.O.U.L. Purpose, J Love, Rebel Diaz. N.Y. Oil, Hakim. Khalil Al Mustafa Eight Great Reasons to vote McKINNEY in DC instead of Obama, Nader, McCain DC voters: Make your vote count on Election Day, Nov. 4, by voting for Cynthia McKinney for President, Rosa Clemente for Vice President, and the DC Statehood Green Party slate of candidates! Here's why: (1) Barack Obama doesn't need your vote! We already know that Obama will get a large majority of votes in Washington, DC, and will get all three of DC's Electoral College votes. You can vote for Cynthia McKinney in DC without worrying that John McCain will win. (2) Let's put John McCain in third place in DC! We can send a powerful message by making Republicans the 'third party' in DC, if Cynthia McKinney gets enough votes. If McCain comes in third behind Cynthia McKinney, it'll show how strongly DC voters reject the Bush-Cheney-McCain-Palin agenda! (3) Ralph Nader is running as an independent candidate. A vote for Mr. Nader will have no effect after Election Day. A vote for Green candidate Cynthia McKinney is an investment in America's progressive antiwar party. It will pay off for years to come, building the DC Statehood Green Party locally and the Green Party nationally. (4) Cynthia McKinney, Rosa Clemente, and the DC Statehood Green Party do not accept corporate campaign contributions. Democrats and Republicans take millions of dollars from corporations that have their own agenda and put profit ahead of human needs. The Green Party represents We The People, not powerful big-business interests. (5) Cynthia McKinney is a former six-term member of Congress (from Georgia) with a record of standing up for human rights and equality, leadership on the environment and foreign policy, speaking out against the Bush White House while most Democrats remained silent, speaking up on behalf of poor African American people in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Ms. McKinney was the first member of Congress to introduce a motion for impeachment of President Bush for high crimes and abuses of power. Rosa Clemente is a long-time community activist and Hip-Hop journalist. As two women of African ancestry, Cynthia McKinney and Rosa Clemente are uniquely dedicated to the interests of DC residents. (5) The Green Party supports DC statehood -- real democracy, self-government, full representation in Congress, and equality for residents of America's 'Last Colony.' Democratss removed the goal of DC statehood from the Democratic Party's national platform in 2004 and 2008. The Republican Party has never supported democracy for DC. When you vote for Cynthia McKinney, Rosa Clemente, and the DC Statehood Green slate, you vote for DC statehood and democracy! (7) Do you oppose the Bush-Cheney agenda: continuing US occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, threats to invade Iran, the anticonstitutional USA Patriot Act, the $700 billion bailout for Wall Street that doesn't help working Americans, immunity for telecomm companies that allowed spying on US citizens without warrant? Barack Obama and his fellow Democratic leaders support these Republican policies -- Obama even voted for increased war funding, the Wall Street bailout, and telecomm immunity. Obama opposes real universal health care (Single-Payer/Medicare For All). Like Republicans, he wants to leave for-profit insurance companies and HMOs in charge of our health care. While Obama promises "change we can believe in," an Obama presidency will maintain many of the worst Bush-Cheney policies. A vote for Cynthia McKinney is a vote for a real opposition party. It's a vote for bringing US troops home now, a strong social safety net and livable wages for middle- and low-income Americans, real universal health care, our constitutional rights and freedoms, solving America's fossil fuel addiction, an end to the disastrous 'war on drugs' and record incarceration of US citizens, and a lot more. Millions of people who plan to vote for Obama actually agree more with Cynthia McKinney, Rosa Clemente, and the Green Party. A vote for McKinney will send a strong message to the next White House on all these important issues! (8) DC needs a strong opposition party! Mayor Fenty and his fellow Democratic leaders have sold out to major developers, real estate moguls, and the Federal City Council (semi-secret roundtable of big-business lobbies). They've tried to take over the DC Public School system and privatize public property -- selling off valuable public land occupied by public schools, libraries, parks, housing for the needy, etc. Mayor Fenty & Co. are giving this land to big developers at firesale prices and displacing DC's current majority-black middle-income and low-income population. There's only one DC party that's standing up for DC residents and opposing the Fenty-Evans-Federal City Council privatization plan -- the DC Statehood Green Party. More information: ? Cynthia McKinney, for President of the United States http://www.runcynthiarun.com ? Rosa Clemente, for Vice President of the United States http://www.rosaclemente.com GP RELEASE Greens to progressive, antiwar, Obama & Nader voters: Invest your vote in McKinney GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES http://www.gp.org For Immediate Release: Sunday, November 2, 2008 Contacts: Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator, 202-518-5624, cell 202-904-7614, mclarty at greens.org Starlene Rankin, Media Coordinator, 916-995-3805, starlene at gp.org Greens appeal to progressive, independent, antiwar voters: invest your vote in McKinney & Clemente on Election Day ? Greens promote ten videos of McKinney speaking on major issues; Green leaders stress 'Green Imperative' of building a progressive US party ? Obama doesn't represent the views of millions of his own supporters who want real change in US politics; voters who seek a permanent alternative to two-party politics should vote for Green McKinney instead of independent Nader WASHINGTON, DC -- Green Party leaders are urging progressive, independent, and antiwar voters to invest their votes in a growing progressive, antiwar party on Election Day 2008 by voting for the Green Party presidential ticket: Cynthia McKinney for President, Rosa Clemente for Vice President. Greens are making a special appeal to Obama and Nader supporters to vote for the 'Green Imperative' on November 4. Ms. McKinney is currently featured in ten online videos in which she details her positions on major issues, including corporate bailouts, foreign policy, health care, the rights of Katrina survivors, and the Green challenge to two-party dominance. Links to the clips are listed below. "Millions of Americans who favor the Green Party's positions on the wars, health care, global warming, and other important issues plan to vote for Barack Obama, who doesn't share their views. It's not enough just to defeat John McCain and the GOP agenda," said Green vice presidential candidate Rosa Clemente. "Democrats have retreated over and over and voted for Bush-Cheney policies -- war funding, the unconstitutional US Patriotic Act, telecomm immunity, corporate handouts and taxbreaks, the death penalty, record incarceration rates, and a $700 billion Wall Street bailout that doesn't help working Americans. The only way to reverse the dangerous direction of US politics is to build a real opposition party. Voting for Cynthia McKinney and Rosa Clemente will strengthen a party that's dedicated to ecological, antiwar, and truly democratic values and doesn't take money and orders from corporations," Ms. Clemente added. Greens stressed that votes for the Green presidential candidates, as well as for Green candidates for state and local office, will also help some state Green Parties achieve or keep official party status in their states. For example, Iowa requires 2% in a presidential race to maintain a party's ballot line, Arkansas requires 3%, and Minnesota and Rhode Island each require 5%. Green Party leaders praised Ralph Nader for his strong political positions and have argued for his inclusion in the presidential debates (along with Ms. McKinney and other excluded candidates). But they said that votes for Mr. Nader would have no effect after Election Day, since he's running as an independent. Mr. Nader's Green run in 2000 helped put the Green Party on the political map, but his independent campaigns in 2004 and 2008 leave no lasting legacy. "A vote for the McKinney-Clemente ticket is an investment that will continue to pay off as the Green Party grows and challenges bipartisan corporate-money politics in the years to come. A vote for an independent like Ralph Nader is a valid protest vote, but does nothing to establish a permanent political alternative. The Nader campaign will be over after Election Day, while the Green Party is a permanent political fixture with the hope of achieving major party status in the coming years," said Sanda Everette, co-chair of the Green Party of the United States. Video clips: Cynthia McKinney on various issues, produced by Don DeBar ? Single Payer Health Care http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgBk-6s5Ntw ? Sustainable Investment instead of Corporate Bailouts http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aH5tIi1uejM ? Green Values: Grassroots Democracy, Peace Social Justice, Environmental Wisdom http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fAgjv9uLaI ? Green Party Seat At The Table will invite the Public http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6bn9ooLUvQ ? The Two Party Paradigms http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbN7pR7kDJs ? Restore Our Constitutional Rights http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0c5qEZuqHo ? Rebuild the Economy with Energy Efficient Cars http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3v1VqVb2Z8 ? Bring All The Troops Home http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2r2ZBz4tSI ? Katrina survivors right of return http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRYEdh5KBIE ? Oppose Africom http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDGOMY4gNVQ MORE INFORMATION Green Party of the United States http://www.gp.org 202-319-7191, 866-41GREEN Fax 202-319-7193 ? Green candidate database for 2008 and other campaign information: http://www.gp.org/elections.shtml ? Green Party News Center http://www.gp.org/newscenter.shtml ? Green Party Speakers Bureau http://www.gp.org/speakers ? Green Party ballot access page http://www.gp.org/2008-elections ? 2008 Green candidates to watch http://www.gp.org/2008-elections/candidate-news.php Cynthia McKinney/Rosa Clemente 'Power to the People' Campaign for the White House http://www.runcynthiarun.org http://votetruth08.com Cynthia McKinney on video http://www.youtube.com/user/RunCynthiaRun http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=RunCynthiaRun ? BreakTheMatrix.com interview, Oct. 19: http://www.breakthematrix.com/node/28047 ? Democracy Now! interview, Oct. 16: http://www.democracynow.org/2008/10/16/breaking_the_sound_barrier_third ? Music video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gx1NPlQjkqo Rosa Clemente on video ? Interview: Current TV/Rock the Vote http://current.com/items/89335393_the_organizer_and_green_party_vp_candidate_talks_about_her_inspirations From realiteee1 at yahoo.com Tue Nov 4 18:14:17 2008 From: realiteee1 at yahoo.com (james m nordlund) Date: Tue, 4 Nov 2008 17:14:17 -0800 (PST) Subject: [R-G] [epic] Rock the Vote for Peace in Iraq In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <844195.2079.qm@web50808.mail.re2.yahoo.com> As millions of war-affected Iraqis face a deepening humanitarian crisis, we all must do our part to support stronger, more responsive leadership in Washington. Here are three ways you can help over the next 24 hours. Rock the Vote TODAY (Tuesday, November 4th!) http://www.rockthevote.com/ Share the Humanitarian Pledge http://www.iraqactiondays.org/index.php?page=tell-a-friend with your friends. Invite them to join you in supporting genuine peace and relief for the people of Iraq. The pledge will be delivered to the new Congress and the next President of the United States. Contribute. Your generous gift allows us to continue our fight for lifesaving humanitarian assistance and protection for innocent Iraqi families affected by the war. Thanks in part to friends like you, we are seeing growing grassroots support for humanitarian action in Iraq. We saw it last April at Iraq Action Days; we are seeing it with the Humanitarian Pledge (now more than 14,000 strong and growing); and we just saw it in the great turnout at the Rutger's Iraq at the Crossroads symposium. http://thegroundtruth.blogspot.com/2008/10/rajiv-chandasekaran-how-early-us.html Just two weeks ago, Iraq War veteran Kevin Murphy and fellow law students hosted a phenomenal Iraq at the Crossroads symposium that brought together leading experts, aid officials, advocates and filmmakers to offer their recommendations to the next President of the United States. Rajiv Chandrasekaran delivered a powerful keynote address about the Green Zone's "neoconservative terrarium" and other Bush administration failures in Iraq. Over the next 24 hours, we have an opportunity to support leadership that invests in a better future for the people of Iraq. That's why we need your help to Rock the Vote, Tell a Friend about the Humanitarian Pledge, and Help Make EPIC Strong in our fight for a better, safer world for the people of Iraq and the United States. Thank you for your support! Sincerely, Erik K. Gustafson Executive Director Education for Peace in Iraq Center ---------- The Education for Peace in Iraq Center works to build peace through the advancement of human rights, humanitarian relief and sustainable development that benefits all Iraqis. If you received this message from a friend, you can sign up with EPIC. Support EPIC online or send your contribution to: Education for Peace in Iraq Center (EPIC) 900 Second St. NE, Suite 216 Washington, DC 20002 202-682-0208 Message processed for Education for Peace in Iraq Center by ActiveCharity.org. From realiteee1 at yahoo.com Tue Nov 4 18:32:55 2008 From: realiteee1 at yahoo.com (james m nordlund) Date: Tue, 4 Nov 2008 17:32:55 -0800 (PST) Subject: [R-G] URGENT: Stop Racist Voter Suppression- Take Action NOW! In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <330468.58857.qm@web50810.mail.re2.yahoo.com> IAC | About the IAC | IAC Books and Resources | Current Actions | Local Actions | Contact Us | Donate Urgent: Take Action Now to Stop Racist Voter Suppression Sign the online petition at http://www.iacenter.org/stopvotersuppression Online Petition Text: To: President Bush, Senator McCain, Governor Palin, Attorney General Mukasey, Governors of Key States, Congressional and Republican Party leaders and members of the media In the days leading up to a historic election, there has been a massive, illegal attempt to suppress votes, particularly among the poor, communities of color, and students. These tactics include: --In Ohio, the Republicans attempted to illegally challenge the registrations of 200,000 new voters. --Voters, like in West Virginia counties, have reported that electronic voting machines visibly changed their vote to John McCain when they tried to cast their vote for Barack Obama. --Students in Colorado, Virginia, and South Carolina were told that they would lose their scholarships and that their parents could no longer claim them as dependents on their tax returns if the students voted in their college towns. --In Georgia more than 50,000 voters were improperly purged from the voting rolls, a clear violation of federal laws that prohibit massive purging within 90 days of an election. Approximately 4,500 of them have been wrongly identified as ?non-citizens?. --In Indiana, Republican officials filed a lawsuit to close down early voting sites in three key Indiana cities?Hammond, Gary and East Chicago. Indiana?s population is only eight percent Black, but Black voters are heavily concentrated in the three cities targeted by the lawsuit. --In Florida, Ohio, Nevada, Virginia and Wisconsin, right wingers are using the Jim-Crow practice of 'caging,' where they send out mass mailings to low-income neighborhoods. If the letters come back unopened, then those voters are challenged at the polling place. These are just a few of the tactics that have come to light in the recent period which are part of an ongoing pattern of racist disenfranchisement--an illegal campaign to deliberately deprive people of the hard-won right to vote. I demand: ? Stop police intimidation of voters. ? Keep polls open until everyone has the opportunity to vote. ? Full emergency staffing of polling places to meet the widely-expected massive turnout. ? STOP all voter suppression ? count all ballots. Make your voice heard NOW! Sign the online petition and send a strong, clear message to the White House, Congress, Governors of Key States, and the media. You can sign online at http://www.iacenter.org/stopvotersuppression Anyone can subscribe. Send an email request to Action.News-subscribe at organizerweb.com Subscribing can also be done on the Web at http://www.organizerweb.com/mailman/listinfo/action.news From shimogamo at attglobal.net Tue Nov 4 20:42:10 2008 From: shimogamo at attglobal.net (Bill Totten) Date: Wed, 05 Nov 2008 12:42:10 +0900 Subject: [R-G] [BillTottenWeblog] Scenes From the Global Class War Message-ID: <49111612.6040201@attglobal.net> Scrawny Geese; No More Golden Egg by Michael Hudson www.counterpunch.com (October 27 2008) On Friday, October 24, the pound sterling dropped to just $1.58 (down from $1.73 earlier in the week, an enormous plunge by foreign-exchange standards), and the euro sunk to just $1.26, while Japan's yen soared by ten per cent. These shifts threatened to disrupt export markets and hence industrial sales patterns. Global stock markets plunged from five to nine per cent abroad, and there was talk of closing the New York market if stocks fell more than 1,000 points. Pre-opening trading saw the Dow Jones Industrial Average down the maximum limit of 550 points (largely on foreign selling) before bounding back to lose "only" 312 points as the dollar soared against European currencies. Friday's currency turmoil and stock market plunge was a case of the chickens coming home to roost from the class-war policies being waged by European and Asian industry and banking squeezing their domestic consumer markets - that is, labor's living standards - in favor of export production to the United States. The internal contradiction in this industrial and financial class warfare is now clear: To the extent that it succeeds in depressing labor's income, it stifles the domestic consumer-goods market. This disrupts Say's Law - the principle that "production creates its own demand", based on the assumption that employees will (or must) be paid enough to buy what they produce. This has not been true for many years in Europe and Asia. But production has been able to continue without faltering because of an international deus ex machina: consumer demand in the United States. This is not to say that no class warfare is being fought in the United States. Indeed, living standards for most wage earners today are down from the "golden age" of the late 1970s. But the US economy had its own financial deus ex machina to soften the blow: Alan Greenspan's asset-price inflation that flooded the banks with credit, which was lent out to homebuyers and stock market raiders. Rising home prices were applauded as "wealth creation" as if they were a pure asset, much like dividends suddenly being awarded to one's savings account. Homebuyers were encouraged to "cash out" on the rising "equity" margin, the (temporarily) rising market price of their homes over and above their (permanent) mortgage debt. So while most mortgage money was used to bid up the price of home ownership, about a quarter of new lending was reported to be spent on consumption goods. Credit card debt also soared. In the face of a paycheck squeeze, US consumers were maintaining their living standards by running further and further into debt. This could not go on for very long. It never has. Debt-financed bubbles can't last for more than a few years, even when fueled by a self-feeding inflation of asset prices in which households and corporate industry borrow more and more against the rising price of their collateral. But once the housing bubble burst the game was up. The game was up was up not only for the US economy, but also for foreign economies that had geared their industrial production to serve the US market rather than their own home markets. A global industrial slowdown is now threatened, and must continue until foreign domestic markets are nurtured - just the opposite trend from the recent generation of neoliberal anti-labor policies. To understand the dynamics at work, one needs to look at the balance of payments - not so much the balance of trade itself, but the currency speculation, international lending and arbitrage that has dominated exchange rates over the past two decades. Exchange rates no longer reflect relative wage levels, "purchasing power parity" or living costs as in times past. Today, they reflect the flow of international borrowing where interest rates are low and lending at a markup where credit is tight - and then hedging this arbitrage, and jumping on the bandwagon to speculate on which way currencies will go. In this way the balance of payments and currency values have been "post-industrialized" just as domestic economies themselves have been. Instead of promoting industrial growth based on a thriving home market, governments throughout the world have pursued a "post-industrial" financial strategy of "wealth creation". Japan's yen crisis - payback for the "carry trade" Nowhere has this been more the case in Japan, whose economy has remained in the doldrums ever since its bubble burst in 1990. For seventeen years straight, quarter after quarter, Japanese land prices fell, and so did stock market prices - and hence, the collateral pledged as backing for loans. This quickly left Japan's banks with negative equity. The Bank of Japan's response was to devise a way for them to rebuild their balance sheets - to "earn their way" out of the bad loans they had made. The policy was not to revive the faltering domestic market in Japan or its industrial corporations. From 1945 through 1985, Japanese had a model industrial banking system. But in 1985, US diplomats asked Japan to please commit economic suicide. Angered by the striking success of Japanese industry, US officials asked their compliant Japanese counterparts to raise the yen's exchange rate so as to make its industrial exporters less competitive, and in due course to flood its own economy with credit so as to lower interest rates, thereby enabling the Federal Reserve to flood the US market with enough cheap credit to give a patina of prosperity to the Reagan Administration. This policy - announced in the Plaza Accord of 1985 - led economist David Hale to joke that the Bank of Japan was acting as the Thirteenth Federal Reserve District and the Japanese government as the Republican Re-election Committee. Japan flooded its economy with credit, lowering interest rates and fueling the world's largest real estate bubble of the 1980s. The stock market also soared to reflect the rise in Japanese industrial sales and earnings. But after the bubble burst on December 31 1989, the mortgage debts and stock that that Japanese banks held in their capital reserves fell short of the valuation needed to back their deposit liabilities. To help bail out the banks, Japan's government urged them to engage in what has become known as the "carry trade": lending freely created yen credits to foreign financial institutions at remarkably low rates, for these borrowers to convert into other currencies to buy bonds or other assets yielding a higher rate. If the domestic Japanese market lacked credit-worthy borrowers, let them lend to foreigners. As a new source of revenue for the banks in place of loans to domestic real estate and industry, low interest rates enabled them to flood the global economy with credit. This served global finance by providing speculators and "financial intermediaries" with an opportunity to get a free arbitrage ride. Borrowing rates remained high within Japan itself. As veteran Japan watcher Richard Werner, author of Princes of the Yen (2003) recently described the situation to me, "while Japanese small firms were killed by the continued refusal of banks to expand credit (and many a small firm president was killed by having to sell a kidney to the loan sharks he was forced to resort to), foreign speculators received ample yen funds for a pittance". The silver lining to this credit creation was that Japanese exporters were aided as the conversion of yen into foreign currencies drove down the exchange rate. (Yen credit was "supplied" to global currency markets, and was spent to buy and hence bid up the price of euros, dollars, sterling and other currencies.) So the yen remained depressed, helping Japanese sales of consumer goods, while foreign borrowers were enabled to ride their own wave of asset-price inflation. Speculators could borrow at only a few percentage points interest in Japan, and convert their debt into foreign currency and lend to equally desperate countries such as Iceland at up to fifteen per cent. Hundreds of billions of dollars, euros and sterling worth of yen were borrowed and duly converted into foreign currencies to lend out at a markup. Arbitrageurs made billions by acting as financial intermediaries making income on the margin between low yen-borrowing costs and high foreign-currency interest rates. As Ambrose Evans-Pritchard wrote over a year ago in the Financial Times, "the Bank of Japan held interest rates at zero for six years until July 2006 to stave off deflation. Even now, rates are still just 0.5 per cent. It also injected some $12 billion liquidity every month by printing money to buy bonds. The net effect has been a massive leakage of money into the global economy. Faced with a pitiful yield at home, Japan's funds and thrifty grannies shoveled savings abroad. Banks, hedge funds, and the proverbial Mrs Watanabe, were all able to borrow for near nothing in Tokyo to snap up assets across the globe. BNP Paribas estimates this 'carry trade' to be $1,200 billion." All this was conditional on the ability of lenders to get a continued free ride. Now that the free lunch is over, Japan's postindustrial mode of rescuing its banking sector is coming home to roost. It is doing so in a way that highlights the inherent conflict between finance capitalism and industrial capitalism. Whereas industrial expansion is supposed to keep going - and can continue to do so as long as markets keep pace with production - debt bubbles end, usually abruptly as we are seeing today. Now that Iceland has gone bust, Hungary looks like it is following suit. As global currency markets no longer provide the easy pickings of the last decade, the yen carry trade is being wound down. This involves converting Icelandic currency, euros, sterling and other non-Japanese currencies back into yen to settle the debts owed to Japanese banks. This repayment - and hence re-conversion into yen - is pushing the yen's price up. This threatens to make Japanese exports higher-priced in terms of dollars, euros and sterling. Last week, Sony forecast that its earnings will fall as a result, and other Japanese companies face a similar squeeze in sales, not only from rising yen/dollar prices but from the global slowdown resulting from two decades of pro-financial anti-labor economic policies. Evans-Pritchard rightly accused the world's central banks of having created this mess. "It was they - in effect governments - who intervened in countless complex ways to push down the price of global credit to levels that warped behavior, as the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) has repeatedly noted. By setting the price of money too low, they encouraged debt and punished savings. The markets have merely responded with their usual exuberance to this distorted signal. Private equity was tempted to launch a takeover blitz at a debt-to-cashflow ratio of 5.4 because debt was made so cheap. The US savings rate turned negative because interest rates were held below inflation." He should better have said, asset-price inflation. Gains for wealth-holders at the top of the economic pyramid polarized economies. What was rising for the bottom ninety per cent was debt, not asset-price gains from easy money. Financing the US "trickle-down" economy from below The soaring yen and plunging foreign currency rates are the result of unwinding the Japanese "carry trade" strategy to rescue its banks. Japanese industry will pay the bill. And despite the fall in sterling and the euro, Europe's policy of emphasizing exports to the American market rather than to sell to its own domestic labor force looks pretty bad in view of the imminent economic slowdown in store. US consumer spending and living standards will have to fall - and it seems, to fall sharply - in order to finance the "trickle down" economy at the top. Current Treasury policy is to bail out the creditors, not the debtors. The banks are being saved, but not US industry, and certainly not the US wage earner/consumer. Instead of pursuing a Keynesian type of deficit spending in a manner that will increase employment (government spending on goods and services, infrastructure spending and transfer payments), the Treasury and Federal Reserve are providing money to the banks to buy each other up, consolidating the US financial system into a European-type system with only a few major banks. The financial system is to become monopolized and trustified, reversing two centuries of economic policy aimed at preventing financial dominance of the economy. None of the money being given to the banks really will trickle down, of course. Instead, the largest upward transfer of property in over seventy years will occur. The policy of giving money to the wealthiest sectors - these days the financial sector - turns the trickle-down economy into a euphemism for the concentration of wealth. The pretense is that America's economy needs the financial and property overhead in order for the "real" economy to "take off" again. But a stronger financial sector selling yet more debt to the economy at large threatens to deter recovery, not to speak of a new takeoff. Seeing the imminent shrinkage of the US market, lenders and investors are dumping their shares, not only those of US firms but also stocks in European and Asian export sectors. This is the "inner contradiction" of today's financial rescue operation. Finance itself cannot survive in the face of a stifled domestic "real" economy. So the world ought to be at an ideological turning point. But the last thing that Europe's oligarchy wants to see is higher labor standards. Nor does the US financial class. Europe and Asia put their faith in a US consumer-goods market rather than their own. The US financial sector found this appealing as long as consumption was financed by running into debt, not by workers earning more money or paying lower taxes. Industrial and political leaders throughout the world have been so anti-labor that there is little thought of raising domestic living standards via higher wage levels and a tax shift off labor and industry back onto property where progressive tax policies used to be based. Here's why it is impossible to go back to the past, as if this were some kind of normal condition that can be recovered. When Alan Greenspan flooded the mortgage market with credit, homeowners borrowed against ("cashed out" on) the rise in housing prices as if their homes were a piggy bank. The difference, of course, is that when one draws down a bank account there is less money in it, but no debt is involved to absorb future income in repayment schedules. "Equity loans" have left a debt residue, which now has turned into negative equity with loans still needing to be repaid. This will leave less for consumption. So US consumer spending will fall because of (1) no more easy mortgage or credit-card credit, (2) debt deflation as consumers repay past borrowing, "crowding out" other forms of spending, and (3) downsizing and job losses lead to falling wage income. Lower consumer spending means less sales by US and foreign manufacturers - especially those in countries whose currency is rising against the dollar (for example, Japan). Lower sales mean lower earnings, which mean lower stock prices. And in the stock market itself, price/earnings ratios are falling as the credit that fueled stock-market speculation by hedge funds and other arbitrageurs is cut back. So the combination of falling price/earnings ratios and falling earnings mean less in the denominator (earnings) to be multiplied into prices (earnings capitalized at the going interest rate). Declining stock market prices are reducing the coverage of corporate pension funds (as well as personal retirement accounts), requiring higher set-asides to fully fund these accounts. In the face of tightening bank credit, this will cut back new corporate spending on plant and equipment, further slowing the economy. As foreign exporters are rudely awakened the dream of an American demand, when will the point come at which Europe and Asia seek to build up their own domestic consumer markets as an alternative? The first problem is to overcome the ideological bias in which central bankers are indoctrinated, in a world where politicians have relinquished economic policy to bankers trained in Chicago School financial warfare against labor and even against industry. It probably is too much to hope that today's European central bankers and kindred economic managers will drop their neoliberal anti-labor ideology and see that without a thriving domestic market, their own industrial firms will languish. The solution must come from a revived political sector representing the interests of labor, and even of industry itself as it sees the need to revive domestic markets. _____ Michael Hudson is a former Wall Street economist He was Dennis Kucinich's chief economic advisor in the recent Democratic primary presidential campaign, and has advised the US, Canadian, Mexican and Latvian governments, as well as the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR). A Professor at University of Missouri, Kansas City Hudson is the author of many books, including Super Imperialism: The Economic Strategy of American Empire (new edition, Pluto Press, 2002) He can be reached via his website, mh at michael-hudson.com http://www.counterpunch.com/hudson10272008.html TO POST A COMMENT, OR TO READ COMMENTS POSTED BY OTHERS, please click on the word "comment" highlighted at the end of the version of this essay posted at http://billtotten.blogspot.com/ From fentona at shaw.ca Tue Nov 4 21:15:30 2008 From: fentona at shaw.ca (Anthony Fenton) Date: Tue, 4 Nov 2008 20:15:30 -0800 Subject: [R-G] Israel launches deadly airstrike in Gaza Message-ID: <4B8D34D9-0D90-4058-BC9F-F7E8E34C58EF@shaw.ca> Israel launches deadly airstrike in Gaza http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/11/04/gaza.violence/ GAZA CITY (CNN) -- Israel launched an airstrike Tuesday night on southern Gaza after clashing with Hamas militants in central Gaza, Palestinian sources and Israel Defense Forces said. Medical workers wheel a wounded man to hospital in the central Gaza strip on Tuesday after clashes. Medical workers wheel a wounded man to hospital in the central Gaza strip on Tuesday after clashes. Four were killed in the airstrike, which occurred east of Khan Younis, Palestinian sources said. They said a drone and an apache helicopter could be seen. Earlier fighting between Hamas militants and Israel Defense Forces killed one militant and injured three, bringing the total death toll to 5. The fighting occurred after dark when Israeli troops entered the eastern part of the Dir Albalah refugee camp in central Gaza, Palestinian sources said. IDF said it launched a small operation Tuesday evening after its forces uncovered a "ready-to-be-used tunnel" several meters from a security fence. The IDF said the tunnel -- dug from a civilian home -- was meant for abducting Israeli soldiers. The IDF said it exchanged fire with militants during the operation, which it said lasted a few hours. From critical.montages at gmail.com Wed Nov 5 01:21:55 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Wed, 5 Nov 2008 03:21:55 -0500 Subject: [R-G] Armenia and Azerbaijan Seek Peace over Enclave + Caucasian Knot May Be Untied in Moscow Message-ID: Caucasian Knot May Be Untied in Moscow: Armenia and Azerbaijan seek peace over enclave By Isabel Gorst in Moscow Published: November 4 2008 02:00 | Last updated: November 4 2008 02:00 Azerbaijan yesterday welcomed a thaw in relations with Armenia after the -presidents of the two countries pledged to find a political settlement to their 15-year conflict over the breakaway enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh. Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous enclave populated by ethnic Armenians, broke away from Azerbaijan during a violent war that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union. It has run its own affairs with support from Armenia, since a fragile ceasefire in 1994, although no state has recognised its independence. Ilham Aliev, the president of Azerbaijan, and his Armenian counterpart, Serzh Sarksyan held talks about Nagorno-Karabakh at a meeting outside Moscow this weekend hosted by Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian -president. The three men signed a declaration agreeing to intensify diplomatic efforts to resolve the dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh and to develop confidence building measures in the region. Khazar Ibrahim, a spokesman for Azerbaijan's foreign ministry, said, "This is the first ever document about Nagorno-Karabakh signed by the two heads of state. If we use the document and take practical steps we have a chance to move forward." He said Azerbaijan was prepared to consider allowing Nagorno-Karabakh some measure of self-determination, adding that "self-determination does not mean independence". Azerbaijan has demanded that Armenia withdraw troops from Nagorno-Karabakh and allow ethnic Azerbaijanis displaced during the war to return home. "Comprehensive confidence building will only be possible if both communities live together," he said. Western diplomats said the war in August between Russia and Georgia over Georgia's separatist regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia appeared to have given impetus to diplomatic efforts to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Azerbaijan has grown prosperous amid an oil boom, and has stepped up defence spending recently. However, the country has abandoned threats to retake Nagorno-Karabakh by force since the war in Georgia. Armenia, dependent on Georgia for access to the west since a blockade imposed by Azerbaijan and Turkey in the early 1990's, suffered economic losses during the August war when roads across Georgia to the Black Sea were closed. Mr Ibrahim said that Azerbaijan would invest in Nagorno-Karabakh's economic revival once the conflict was settled. "It is in everybody's interest, including Armenia's, that the conflict is resolved," he said. Armenia is willing to consider returning to Azerbaijan some territories surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh captured during the war, but insists that the autonomy of Nagorno-Karabakh itself is not negotiable. Karlen Avetissian, Nagorno-Karabakh's permanent envoy in Yerevan, the Armenian capital, said representatives of the mountain enclave wanted to be involved in negotiations about their fate. Like many in Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia, he expressed fears about spiralling Azerbajaini military spending in the absence of a peace deal between Yerevan and Baku following their conflict. For its part, Turkey sided with Azerbaijan in the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, but has recently taken steps to mend its fractured relationship with Armenia, using the impetus of President Abdullah Gul's "football diplomacy" in attending September's match between the two countries in Yerevan, the Armenian capital. With additional reporting by Haig Simonian in Zurich From critical.montages at gmail.com Wed Nov 5 01:32:27 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Wed, 5 Nov 2008 03:32:27 -0500 Subject: [R-G] Energy at Root of Karabakh Accord + Azerbaijan to End VOA, Other Foreign Broadcasts on Local Radio Message-ID: Energy at Root of Karabakh Accord 05 November 2008By Nikolaus von Twickel / Staff Writer The presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan have signed a declaration on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict at a meeting with President Dmitry Medvedev in a sign of the Kremlin's growing role and the importance of energy politics in the South Caucasus. Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan and Azeri President Ilham Aliyev signed the largely symbolic document at Medvedev's Maiendorf residence, just outside Moscow on Saturday. Armenia has traditionally been a staunch ally of Russia, while energy-rich Azerbaijan has maintained friendly ties with Georgia, but Moscow has been looking for greater cooperation with Azerbaijan on energy issues. The five-point document, published on the Kremlin's web site, says both countries will step up efforts to find a peaceful solution over Nagorno-Karabakh, an ethnic Armenian enclave inside Azerbaijan that broke away after a bloody conflict in the early 1990s that killed more than 30,000 and displaced more than 1 million. The declaration is the first such document signed by the heads of the two states since Russia mediated a cease-fire agreement in 1994. While it stresses the need for a political settlement based on international law, the document does not contain any significant commitments, such as to forego the use of force, nor does it mention the conflicting issues at the heart of the conflict, territorial integrity and national self-determination. The outcome of the meeting was not as significant as some may have hoped. "This was not much different than dozens of meetings before," Svante Cornell, research director at the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute, a joint U.S.-Swedish think tank, said Tuesday by telephone from Tbilisi, Georgia. "All we have seen is basically two leaders committing themselves to solving the conflict." Alexei Malashenko, an analyst with the Moscow Carnegie Center, said the declaration was largely ceremonial. "The fact that Medvedev [presided over the talks) just means that both sides accept Russia as mediator," Malashenko said Tuesday. "Russia needed an urgent rehabilitation as peacekeeper in the region." Moscow's relations with the West worsened dramatically after it sent soldiers and tanks deep into Georgia to repel a Georgian military attack to reclaim its breakaway region of South Ossetia in August. The declaration also says negotiations should continue within the framework of the so-called Minsk Group, a 12-member body headed jointly by Russia, France and the United States, and overseen by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matthew Bryza and French Ambassador Bernard Fassier were at Maiendorf, an OSCE spokesman said by telephone from Vienna. Bryza, the senior U.S. diplomat overseeing the South Caucasus region, praised the result. "My country fully supports this document. The declaration shows that both presidents can work seriously towards solving this conflict," he said, Interfax reported Monday. Cornell said the declaration was a show of force by the Kremlin capitalizing on the weakness of the West, as the Georgian war in August, the global financial crisis and the leadership change in the United States would all work to cripple Western influence in the region. "There is a new geopolitical situation now," he said. Russia, he said, was offering a solution that would mean a loss of independence for Azerbaijan, possibly through the deployment of a Moscow-sponsored peacekeeping force on its territory. Cornell said Moscow was probably eyeing a "common state" solution, something that had been on the negotiating table back in the 1990s. This proposal, which had been rejected by Baku, focuses on bringing Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh together in a confederation. Carnegie's Malashenko said that while its influence in the region has grown, Russia would not go it alone. "To solve this conflict, you need more than one mediator; you need a group of mediators," he said. "Moscow won't act outside the format of the Minsk Group." Malashenko also denied that the talks might herald a weakening of Moscow's traditional support for Armenia. "I cannot imagine that one country will give one-sided support to one party, because this is impossible," he said. Both Azerbaijan and Armenia depend on trade routes through Georgia. Moscow has recently been courting Azerbaijan, which wants to sell more gas to Russia. Medvedev signed a cooperation agreement with Aliyev in Baku in July, and in Moscow this September both leaders discussed direct talks between Azerbaijan and Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh. Europe has also been making overtures to Azerbaijan as a vital supplier to a proposed new gas pipeline, which would reduce Western dependence on Russian energy. The Nabucco pipeline project has been backed both by the European Union and the United States. EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs will travel to Turkey and Azerbaijan this Wednesday to show Europe's commitment to the project, The Associated Press reported. Moscow has worried the EU by negotiating with Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan to commit to sending their Caspian Sea gas through Russia. It is also pushing South Stream, a rival pipeline project by state-controlled Gazprom, which is slated to cost some $13 billion. On energy, Azeris play Europe and Russia against the middle By Celestine Bohlen Bloomberg News Tuesday, November 4, 2008 BAKU, Azerbaijan: It is boom time in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan: the skyline is dense with cranes and high-rise buildings, and the streets of the port city on the Caspian Sea are clogged with luxury shops and traffic. Oil revenue has fueled the country's growth, and even as prices have plummeted, Azerbaijan's energy resources remain a valuable prize. Evidence of this is the tug-of-war between Russia and Europe over natural gas from the next phase of a project that's expected to at least double current production when it moves from the planning stage to completion. The competition is testing the former Soviet republic's ability to maintain its political balance in the months since Russia's invasion of Georgia heightened tensions between East and West. "As always, Azerbaijan is trying to find common ground with all sides," said Fariz Ismailzade, director of the Advanced Foreign Service Program at the Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy in Baku. Over the past two months, Russia and the United States, acting with the Europeans, have stepped up their attentions to this mostly Muslim nation of 8.5 million people. In addition to selling its gas, Azerbaijan wants to parlay the international interest into the resolution of its conflict over the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh, occupied by Armenians since a bloody ethnic war ended in 1994. It inched toward that goal in a meeting on Nov. 2, where the two sides agreed to resolve the dispute under Russian, U.S. and French mediation, easing tensions in the South Caucasus after two Azerbaijani oil-export routes were disrupted by the Georgian war. "This is our neighborhood, and everything that happens here worries us," says Novruz Mammadov, head of President Ilham Aliyev's foreign-policy department. Given its strategic location between the Caspian and Black seas, Azerbaijan is used to being in the middle. Since becoming independent in 1991, it has sought to minimize reliance on Soviet-era pipelines that go through Russia, a major trading partner and home to two million Azeris. At the same time, it has maintained neighborly relations. "We have a strategic partnership with Russia and with the U.S., and we don't see any contradiction," said Khazar Ibrahim, spokesman for the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry. Vice President Dick Cheney visited Baku in September, followed a month later by the U.S. deputy secretary of state, John Negroponte. In between, Aliyev, 46, was invited to Moscow for a one-day visit with President Dmitry Medvedev of Russia. The European Union's energy commissioner, Andris Piebalgs, is due in Baku this month. One topic of discussion is the natural-gas field Shah Deniz II, with reserves estimated to at least equal the nine billion cubic meters, or 318 billion cubic feet, produced by the project's first phase. That gas is now sold at home and to Turkey and Georgia. Once the second phase is developed, the Moscow-based Gazprom OAO, which holds a monopoly on Russian exports, wants to buy the gas to bolster reserves for future contractual commitments. The United States and the European Union want the new supplies sent directly to Europe through the proposed Nabucco pipeline, an $8 billion venture at the center of the region's efforts to reduce dependence on Russia. Diversification of sources and routes has been a European priority since January 2006, when Russia, which accounts for 25 percent of EU gas imports, briefly halted shipments over a price dispute with Ukraine, a transit country. Azerbaijan has yet to decide when it will develop Shah Deniz II and says it is waiting for the Europeans to make an offer. Azerbaijan can bide its time, Mammadov said. "We have said no to the Russians, for now," he said. "To the Europeans, we have said we are ready to be good partners: for oil, for gas, for transit; but they need this, not us." In trying to strike a balance between East and West, Aliyev is following in the footsteps of his father, whom he succeeded as president in 2003. Heydar Aliyev, a former KGB general, played a key role in securing one link with Europe that bypasses Russia: a $4 billion pipeline that, by 2005, was carrying Azerbaijani oil from the Caspian region through Georgia to Turkey's Mediterranean coast. Operated by the London-based BP, Europe's second-largest oil company, the pipeline now exports a million barrels of oil a day on average - roughly 1 percent of the world's supply. The International Monetary Fund predicts Azerbaijan's gross domestic product will total $53.2 billion this year, compared with $8.6 billion in 2004. Revenue will probably shrink in 2009 as declining economic growth worldwide slows demand for crude oil. Prices had fallen by 56 percent to about $65 a barrel Nov. 3 from a record $147.27 on July 11. For now, though, the signs of oil wealth are everywhere in Baku. In its old city, tycoons have rebuilt modern villas on narrow, winding streets in the style of the mansions of their 19th-century predecessors. Oil has always been key to the fortunes of Baku: Marco Polo spotted a gusher here in the 14th century. In the 1800s, it drew European families, including the Rothschilds and the Nobels, who rushed to profit from the region's hydrocarbons. Still, the dangers to Azerbaijan's thriving energy business from festering conflicts are all too evident. On Aug. 5, the BP pipeline was temporarily closed after an explosion on its Turkish portion, allegedly the work of Kurdish terrorists. That was followed by the closing of two oil-transit routes that cross Georgia because of its five-day war with Russia over the separatist region of South Ossetia. Azerbaijan has been able to leverage some of the interest in its energy resources to try to end its own "frozen conflict" over Nagorno-Karabakh, which has cost it 20 percent of its territory. Medvedev arranged the Nov. 2 meeting in Moscow at which Aliyev and the Armenian president, Serzh Sargsyan, agreed to seek a resolution - signaling Russia's willingness to play mediator in this dispute. "We have to find a way to have a peaceful, stable region," Ibrahim said. Azerbaijan to End VOA, Other Foreign Broadcasts on Local Radio By VOA News 31 October 2008 Authorities in Azerbaijan say they plan to halt local broadcasts by foreign stations by the end of the year. The chairman of Azerbaijan's National Television and Radio Council, Nushiravan Maharramli, says his country is not interested in granting local frequencies to foreign broadcasters. He says the change will affect the BBC, the British Broadcasting Corporation, U.S. financed Voice of America and Radio Liberty. The official says his country has been gradually implementing changes, having previously eliminated broadcasts by Russian, French and Turkish stations. The U.S. Broadcasting Board of Governors, the federal agency responsible for all U.S. government-supported, non-military international broadcasting, says it strongly objects to the proposal. A BBG Board Member, Steven J. Simmons, says the decision follows a "disturbing pattern" that began with harsh restrictions on private broadcasters within Azerbaijan two years ago and now directly impacts international media. A spokesman for the U.S. embassy in Baku, Terry Davidson, says it will be seeking clarification of the issue from the Azerbaijani government. He said in Azerbaijan, foreign broadcasters such as the Voice of America, the BBC and Radio Liberty have contributed greatly to enriching the space for public debate and understanding. Some information for this report was provided by AFP. From critical.montages at gmail.com Wed Nov 5 02:04:19 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Wed, 5 Nov 2008 04:04:19 -0500 Subject: [R-G] Chinese Growth Slows Sharply: What Is the Risk of a Hard Landing in China? Message-ID: Chinese Growth Slows Sharply: What Is the Risk of a Hard Landing in China? * China's GDP growth slowed to 9.9% in the first three quarters of 2008, or about 9% for Q3 alone, the fifth consecutive quarterly deceleration and lower than expected. Jan-Sept 9.9% growth is the slowest in five years and almost 2% lower than 2007 pace - Further slowing is likely next year perhaps below 7-8%, a level at which China will be unable to create new jobs * In a country with the potential growth of China hard landing would occur if the growth rate of the economy were to slow down to 5-6% as China needs a growth rate of 9-10% to absorb about 24 million new workers joining the labor force every year - macro indicators suggest China is heading for a hard landing (Roubini) * Industrial production continued to slow in September to 11.4% (12.8% in August and 16.4% in H1) and PMIs suggest manufacturing is in contraction. Urban Fixed Asset investment has slowed in real terms as the cost of investment goods has appreciated. Domestic demand provided much of the growth momentum, with exports detracting from growth (HS) Slowing housing sector, indicators like commodity demand point to even slower growth ahead * IMF lowered estimate to 9.7% growth in 2008 and 9.3% in 2009. private banks are lowering their estimates for 2009 with some expecting 8% (Morgan Stanley, UBS ) or lower (Credit Suisse 7.2% StanChart - 7.1%) * China likely to take further fiscal and monetary steps to promote growth particularly as slowing inflation provides an opening. It already cut interest rates, reserve requirements and loan curbs and reinstated export rebates and announced more infrastructure spending. Yet slowing fiscal revenue growth (3.1% in September) may limit fiscal response. * Chinese macro-economy early warning index stood at 105.3 points in September, 2.7 points lower than August, dropping for four straight months.six of ten components -industrial production, fixed assets investment, import and export volume, profit of industrial enterprises, loans of financial institutions, M2 and urban consumption remained in the "green light zone" in September. But Consumer retail sales and disposable income of urban residents were in the slightly-heated "yellow light zone", while the fiscal revenue was in the slightly-frigid "blue light zone". * January-September export growth by value slowed to about 20%, down from 28.9% in the year- earlier period and the weakest consumer confidence since 2003 (SARS) may mean that consumer spending (retail sales are growing at about 17% in real terms for the last four months) is overstating private consumption outlook * Wachovia: the recent slowdown in Chinese economic activity including industrial production may be exaggerated somewhat by the shutdowns associated with the Olympics, but the trend pace of Chinese economic growth appears to have downshifted * BNP: Growth in good exports lost steam in 1H08 in USD and volume terms while commodity prices inflated imports - shifting composition of exports has increased vulnerability to lower external demand. Exports, FAI and private consumption are all projected to post lower growth in 2H08 and 2009. Private consumption may be hurt by lower exports, the lagged impact of the inflation hike of late 2007-early 2008, a softening labor market and falling stock prices -> But growth expected to remain near 9% * WB: China's economic growth has moderated to a more sustainable pace in line with slowing global growth. Declining net exports are partly offset by rising domestic demand * MS: domestic demand is being supported by government policy to cushion against an external demand slowdown . Should external demand disappoint further, the government may step up spending on investment to support growth * StanChart: the era of double-digit growth in China may well be over and export growth may continue to slow through the end of the year and overall economic growth may continue to decelerate through 2009/10 after 9.5% growth in 2008 * Yu: with 24m people entering the workforce each year, China needs a growth rate of at least 9%. China's twin threat of worsening inflation and slowing export growth, both of which are surmountable, but concurrent reforms (especially in the capital market) will ensure adjustments in the country's economic structure for long-term progress. * ADB: Little evidence that China is rebalancing away from investment-led growth, but it is shifting investment sectors. Risk of entrenched inflation and overheating in some sectors * Credit Agricole: Should global demand reacelerate in 2009, China's trade surplus could widen, creating the risk of excess liquidity which could trigger equity bubbles and even more inflation pressure * Xie: China should increase infrastructure spending, slow appreciation, and encourage consumption to hedge against hard landing Nov 4, 2008 Associated Readings (15 Articles) AnalysisFinancial TimesNov 03, 2008 Chinese alarm bells AnalysisRGE MonitorNouriel RoubiniNov 04, 2008 The Rising Risk of a Hard Landing in China: The Two Engines of Global Growth ? U.S. and China ? are Now Stalling AnalysisCreidt SuisseNov 03, 2008 China the Growth Shock AnalysisAMP CapitalShane OliverOct 21, 2008 China's Slowdown AnalysisCitigroup Global MarketsKen PengOct 14, 2008 China: A Potential Return to Deflation NewsXinhuaNov 01, 2008 Chinese consumer confidence index drops slightly in September NewsBloombergKevin Hamlin and Li YanpingOct 19, 2008 China's Economic Growth Cooled to 9.9% in First Nine Months AnalysisMorgan StanleyQing Wang, Denise Yam and Katherine TaiOct 22, 2008 China: Sharper-than-Expected Slowdown in 3Q08 on Destocking AnalysisEconomist Intelligence UnitOct 21, 2008 China economy: Slowing down AnalysisUOB Kay HianOct 21, 2008 What could the inside structure of China's slowdown be? AnalysisStandard CharteredOctober 2008 Asia: Braving Crisis AnalysisHang Seng BankOct 09, 2008 Mainland China's Monetary Policy Easing Begins AnalysisBNP ParibasOct 06, 2008 The TARP has been approved, but the crisis is far from being over. China: Rapid response to weaker growth AnalysisGoldman SachsQ2 2008 China Economics Quarterly: Growth and CPI inflation moderated in 2Q2008, but inflation pressures remain worrisome AnalysisAsian Development Bank March 2008 People's Republic of China: Economic Outlook 2008 From fentona at shaw.ca Wed Nov 5 08:34:57 2008 From: fentona at shaw.ca (Anthony Fenton) Date: Wed, 5 Nov 2008 07:34:57 -0800 Subject: [R-G] The PR battle for the Caucasus Message-ID: <5A42C961-FEF1-41F3-9844-5D4EB7208F51@shaw.ca> http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/documentaries/2008/10/081029_caucases_doc.shtml http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/worldservice/docarchive/docarchive_20081103-1039a.mp3 The PR battle for the Caucasus The South Ossetian conflict, which began in early August this year, not only sparked a military war between Russia and Georgia, but a propaganda battle. It even made the front-page of PR Week magazine in the UK. Both countries have hired Western PR companies to help put across their messages. Georgia was first off the mark with what many say is a concerted effort to portray its fight with Russia as a conflict between "David and Goliath" and Russia as the major aggressor. From the outset, media channels of the Western world - primarily in the US - have been bombarded with press releases, interview offers and text messages. Some critics say that they have become more and more exaggerated and less in touch with reality. The Russians followed suit with their own PR effort. Adopting a very different style, they began primarily by using their own media outlets. Experts say that the Russians have been more targeted with their approach. Perhaps less concerned with their image abroad, they are said to have been more accurate in their version of events. James Rodgers examines this ongoing media war between Georgia and Russia - featuring archive clips of key events and interviews. The programme analyses who is winning the propaganda war and includes interviews with those who spun the war as well as with those who were spun to. First broadcast 3 November 2008 From mstainsby at resist.ca Wed Nov 5 13:30:53 2008 From: mstainsby at resist.ca (Macdonald Stainsby) Date: Wed, 05 Nov 2008 13:30:53 -0700 Subject: [R-G] I wish this were a parody, it's not... Message-ID: <4912027D.2030603@resist.ca> Terror, mentally ill threaten Games By KATHLEEN HARRIS, NATIONAL BUREAU CHIEF Edmonton Sun Nov 5/2008 Canada is facing the threat of terrorist attacks, disruption from mentally disturbed people and corruption from organized criminals as it plays host to the 2010 Olympic Games. Documents obtained by Sun Media through Access to Information show officials are also bracing for potential cost overruns, public health disasters and protests during the international sporting event in Vancouver-Whistler. One May 2007 RCMP threat assessment report warns that a thwarted terrorist plot to attack sites in Canada last year serves as a reminder that "not only must we monitor international terrorist plots directed toward the Olympics, but as well, those originating within Canada." The perception that Canada has shifted away from being a peacekeeping nation with a combat role in Afghanistan might increase the risk of becoming a target, the report suggests. But the documents, heavily censored and stamped "secret," suggest the most likely and immediate risk to Canada lies in financial security, with corruption the "inevitable byproduct" of vast sums of money and multi-million dollar profits associated with the Games. Another document predicts counterfeit production of official clothing will be rampant. "It is expected that counterfeit reproduction of these products will increase as the Games approach, translating into financial loss to taxpayers," the documents read. As for the risk posed by mentally unstable people, the reports suggest while some have a propensity for violence, most are disruptive. In Athens in 2004, a Canadian spectator jumped into the Olympic diving pool wearing a tutu and white tights with polka dots. During the same Games, an Irish-born former priest disrupted a marathon by pushing the race leader into the crowd, declaring he wanted to announce the second coming of Jesus. http://www.edmontonsun.com/SUNshineGirl/home.html From shniad at sfu.ca Wed Nov 5 16:17:38 2008 From: shniad at sfu.ca (Sid Shniad) Date: Wed, 05 Nov 2008 15:17:38 -0800 Subject: [R-G] On the Sea Again (Free Gaza) Message-ID: <200811052317.mA5NHcLY008885@rm-rstar.sfu.ca> An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: not available Url: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/rad-green/attachments/20081105/811e5ac5/attachment.txt From shniad at sfu.ca Wed Nov 5 16:18:04 2008 From: shniad at sfu.ca (Sid Shniad) Date: Wed, 05 Nov 2008 15:18:04 -0800 Subject: [R-G] Avraham Burg: Israel's new prophet Message-ID: <200811052318.mA5NI4Xq009436@rm-rstar.sfu.ca> An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: not available Url: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/rad-green/attachments/20081105/e358d06c/attachment.txt From critical.montages at gmail.com Wed Nov 5 17:43:04 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Wed, 5 Nov 2008 19:43:04 -0500 Subject: [R-G] Voters Pick Obama But Local Progressive Agendas Flop Message-ID: Voters pick Obama but local progressive agendas flop 6 hours ago WASHINGTON (AFP) ? Despite a landslide for Democrats in the White House race, Americans voted more conservatively on Tuesday in a myriad of referendums on banning gay marriage and abortion. Voters in some states rejected gay marriage rights and affirmative action and approved restrictions on adoption for unmarried couples. However, results were mixed as other referenda across the country -- some 35 states were asked to consider 153 ballot questions -- showed voters in favor of assisted suicide and against outright bans on abortion. In California, Florida, Arizona and Arkansas, voters rejected gay marriage. In Arkansas, they voted to prevent anyone who isn't married from adopting a child. The decision was decried by gay rights supporters who said it would limit their ability to adopt children. But voters rejected a near-total ban on abortion in South Dakota and Colorado and allowed assisted suicide in Washington state, making it the second US state after Oregon to allow the procedure for terminally ill people. Jennie Drage-Bower, senior election analyst with the National Conference of State Legislators, said abortion limits do not have a strong history. "Restriction on abortion has been on the ballot 23 times since 1980 and only five of those have been approved by voters," she said. "So that's not really an issue that voters historically have been receptive to on the ballot." In another politically charged issue, voters in five states were asked to rule on affirmative action, or targeted policies that aim to increase employment and education for minorities. In Nebraska the programs, which are often slammed by critics as showing unfair racial preferences, were rejected 58 percent to 42 percent. In Colorado, the result was still too close to call Wednesday. California's gay marriage ban passed with 52.1 percent to 47.9 percent against. Known as "Proposition 8," the proposal was trumpeted by conservative groups as the people's way of overturning the state Supreme Court's ruling in May that legalized gay marriage. Local media reported that a lesbian couple, who previously won the right to marry with the Supreme Court ruling, were to file a new suit to stop the referendum from coming into effect. The vote leaves thousands of same-sex couples who tied the knot in the ensuing months, including some celebrities including comedian Ellen DeGeneres who wed her long-time girlfriend Portia de Rossi in August. Japanese-American actor George Takei, who played Mr. Sulu in the long-running series "Star Trek", and who married his longtime partner Brad Altman in September, said his marriage would stay remain valid no matter what. "There's nothing in the language of Proposition 8 that says it's retroactive, so our marriage is going to be valid," he told a local TV channel. Takei and Altman were the first couple to receive a marriage license in West Hollywood when California began issuing them to gay couples on June 17. Arizona and Florida also passed similar referenda by large margins Tuesday, stating that marriage was the legal union between a man and a woman. Drage-Bower said the results were no surprise as same-sex marriage is generally unpopular. In the 30 statewide votes on the issue since 1998, "only one state (Arizona) has ever voted against a ban and every other proposed ban on same-sex marriage has been approved by voters," she said. "This is one of those measures that are really guaranteed to pass." Neil Giuliano, president of the gay rights group GLAAD, said he was saddened by the vote. "We are disappointed and disheartened by results in Arkansas, Arizona and Florida, where we saw laws passed that are intended to hurt loving, committed couples and families," he said. From shniad at sfu.ca Wed Nov 5 17:58:58 2008 From: shniad at sfu.ca (Sid Shniad) Date: Wed, 05 Nov 2008 16:58:58 -0800 Subject: [R-G] WIBDI: A Prism for the New Paradigm Message-ID: <200811060058.mA60wwrS011909@rm-rstar.sfu.ca> An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: not available Url: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/rad-green/attachments/20081105/13800c12/attachment.txt From shniad at sfu.ca Wed Nov 5 18:07:46 2008 From: shniad at sfu.ca (Sid Shniad) Date: Wed, 05 Nov 2008 17:07:46 -0800 Subject: [R-G] Still strong and free (on Canada's banks) Message-ID: <200811060107.mA617kir026246@rm-rstar.sfu.ca> An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: not available Url: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/rad-green/attachments/20081105/fdb6a3d3/attachment.txt From shimogamo at attglobal.net Thu Nov 6 01:35:24 2008 From: shimogamo at attglobal.net (Bill Totten) Date: Thu, 06 Nov 2008 17:35:24 +0900 Subject: [R-G] [BillTottenWeblog] The Battle for Obama's Economic Soul Message-ID: <4912AC4C.9070003@attglobal.net> by Robert Scheer Truthdig (October 21 2008) The battle for Barack Obama's economic soul is on in earnest, and it has nothing to do with the "European socialism" that John McCain attempted to use as an epithet against him. The Republican quickly dropped that line of attack, perhaps because the European Union's brand of democratic socialism has proved more effective in regulating the rapacious financial markets at the heart of the economic meltdown. Besides, the socialist British Labor Party has been President Bush's most loyal supporter of the Iraq occupation that McCain has made the test of true patriotism. It would be encouraging if the Democratic presidential candidate did indeed attempt to learn something from Europe's democratic, and barely socialist, governing left concerning the welfare of those who are not super-rich, that is, how to provide quality health care and education for all - but that is not what is happening. Instead, Obama has turned to the same American "free market" elite that views government as merely a corporate subsidiary. Even within that crowd, however, there are serious splits, and the more enlightened side seems to be winning. Key among the good guys is former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, who consistently challenged the radical anti-regulatory crusade of Alan Greenspan, his immediate successor at the Fed. Greenspan's all-too-successful effort to give the banking lobby everything it had ever dreamed of was abetted by two Clinton-era secretaries of the treasury, Robert Rubin and Lawrence Summers. Unfortunately, the two, who should have mustered the grace to depart public life in deep contrition over their failed policies, are prominent in the Obama campaign. Rubin, who pocketed tens of millions running Goldman Sachs before becoming treasury secretary, is the man who got President Clinton to back legislation by then-Senator Phil Gramm, Republican of Texas, to unleash banking greed on an unprecedented scale. What followed, thanks to a rare display of bipartisan teamwork, was a total dismantling of the regulatory regime that President Franklin D Roosevelt had put in place during the New Deal, thus undermining the finest legacy of the Democratic Party. Under the guidance of Rubin and Summers, Clinton signed off on the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act and the Commodity Futures Modernization Act, Gramm's two key pieces of legislation, during his final two years in the White House. The first beneficiary of that legislation was Citigroup, which was allowed to merge with Travelers Insurance, where Rubin became a director after leaving the government. In his position on the executive committee of a floundering Citigroup, Rubin insisted as late as January of this year that a serious crisis was not forming. In a January 31 article in Fortune headlined "Robert Rubin: What meltdown?" the subheading states: "In a talk on Wednesday [January 30], the Citigroup director said the current financial upheaval is just cyclical. And none of the blame that there was to assign went to Wall Street." The writer of the article, Katie Benner, quoted Rubin as saying that the problems were "all part of a cycle of periodic excess leading to periodic disruption", neatly exonerating his own bank of any responsibility, even though Citigroup had already written down over $24 billion in bad mortgage losses. At that time, Rubin was advising Hillary Rodham Clinton, while Obama, listening to Volcker, took the opposite tack, issuing a warning in a major address two months after Rubin's talk that the United States was experiencing the most profound economic crisis since the Great Depression. Obama specifically cited the legislation that Rubin had supported and cautioned, "Our free market was never meant to be a free license to take whatever you can get, however you can get it". Although Rubin came over to the Obama campaign after Hillary Clinton's defeat in the primaries, it does seem that Volcker and legendary investor Warren Buffett, another fierce critic of Clinton-era deregulation, are holding the floor for the time being. Buffett has been increasingly visible in the Obama campaign. More than five years ago, Buffett charged that the new investment devices, the "hybrid instruments" and "credit swaps" with which taxpayers are now stuck, were "financial weapons of mass destruction". Let's hope that a President Obama will keep Buffett and Volcker close. They are certainly not the European socialists conjured up in yet another mean-spirited and irrational outburst of the McCain campaign, and their vision for the country seems to extend beyond their own bank accounts. _____ Robert Scheer is the editor in chief of Truthdig and author of a new book, The Pornography of Power: How Defense Hawks Hijacked 9/11 and Weakened America. A Progressive Journal of News and Opinion. Editor, Robert Scheer. Publisher, Zuade Kaufman. Copyright (c) 2008 Truthdig, L.L.C. All rights reserved. http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20081021_the_battle_for_obamas_economic_soul/ TO POST A COMMENT, OR TO READ COMMENTS POSTED BY OTHERS, please click on the word "comment" highlighted at the end of the version of this essay posted at http://billtotten.blogspot.com/ From critical.montages at gmail.com Thu Nov 6 02:09:15 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Thu, 6 Nov 2008 04:09:15 -0500 Subject: [R-G] Masters of the Universe Message-ID: 'Masters of the universe' need to wake up to the real world By Aline van Duyn Published: October 31 2008 02:00 | Last updated: October 31 2008 02:00 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The focus now has become the nine US banks which are receiving $125bn of public money. They have spent or reserved $108bn for employee pay and bonuses in the first nine months of 2008, nearly the same as last year. From critical.montages at gmail.com Thu Nov 6 08:54:29 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Thu, 6 Nov 2008 10:54:29 -0500 Subject: [R-G] Illusions over Central Banks' Reserves Could Be Shattered Message-ID: Illusions over central banks' reserves could be shattered By Satyajit Das Published: October 22 2008 03:00 | Last updated: October 22 2008 03:00 The substantial reserves of central banks and their acolytes, sovereign wealth funds, are frequently cited in support of the case for a large pool of "unleveraged" liquidity, that is "real" money. These funds, some reckon, sit ready to support asset values across the globe. In reality, the available pool of money may be more modest than assumed. For example, China has close to $2,000bn in foreign exchange reserves. The reserves arise from dollars received from exports and foreign investment into China that are exchanged into renminbi. The central bank generates renminbi by printing money or borrowing through issuing bonds in the domestic market. The reserves are essentially "leveraged" using domestic "liabilities". The dollars acquired are invested in foreign currency assets, 60 per cent in dollar denominated US Treasury bonds, GSE paper (such as Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae debt) and other high-quality securities. China is exposed to price changes in these investments and currency risk through the mismatch between foreign currency assets funded with local currency debt. Deterioration in the credit quality of the US results in losses on investment through falls in the market value of the debt and a weaker dollar. Also, it is not easy to tap this liquidity pool. Given the size of the portfolios, it is difficult for large investors such as China to mobilise rapidly a large portion of these funds by liquidating their investments and converting them into the home currency without substantial losses. If the dollar assets lose value or access to them cannot be gained, China must still service its liabilities. It can print money but will suffer the economic consequences including inflation and higher funding costs. The position of emerging market sovereign investors with large portfolios of dollar assets is similar to that of a bank or leveraged hedge fund with poor quality assets. Wen Jiabao, China's premier, recently observed: "If anything goes wrong in the US financial sector, we are anxious about the safety and security of Chinese capital." The substantial build-up of foreign reserves in central banks of emerging markets and developing countries has puzzled economists. As identified by David Roche, of research boutique Independent Strategy, the build-up of central bank reserves is really a liquidity creation scheme that relies on the dollar's favoured position in trade and as a reserve currency. Deterioration in the US economy and the issue of more government debt to support the financial sector could increase pressure on the US sovereign rating and the dollar. US government support for financial institutions is approaching 6 per cent of GDP compared with less than 4 per cent at the time of the Savings and Loans crisis. This may set off a further phase in the global deleveraging as large losses on dollar investments slow down the international credit creation system. Gillian Tett of the FT coined the phrase "candy floss money". Financial technology spun available "real" money into an exaggerated bubble that ultimately, like its fairground equivalent, collapses. The emerging market reserves system is another dimension of this candy floss money. The perceived abundance of liquidity was, in reality, merely an illusion created by high levels of debt and leverage as well as the structure of global capital flows. As the financial system deleverages, it is becoming clear, unsurprisingly, that available capital is more limited than previously estimated. In recent years, money was cheap and other assets were expensive. As each of the global economy's credit creation engines breaks down and systemic leverage reduces, money becomes scarce and expensive triggering adjustments in asset prices in a reversal of the process. Mark Twain once advised: "Don't part with your illusions. When they are gone, you may still exist but you have ceased to live". In the current financial crisis, many illusions have been shattered. The quantum of available capital and the munificent resources of central banks and sovereign wealth funds may be another of the accepted "facts" that may be revealed to be an illusion. The writer is a risk consultant and author of Traders, Guns & Money: Knowns and Unknowns in the Dazzling World of Derivatives. From fentona at shaw.ca Thu Nov 6 09:32:55 2008 From: fentona at shaw.ca (Anthony Fenton) Date: Thu, 6 Nov 2008 08:32:55 -0800 Subject: [R-G] Obama Foreign Policy May Keep Some Bush Initiatives Message-ID: <8D0AF241-D4CF-4126-B36F-6B9722877D83@shaw.ca> Obama Foreign Policy May Keep Some Bush Initiatives (Update3) By Ken Fireman and Viola Gienger More Photos/Details http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aBhW.XKeco2Y&refer=us Nov. 5 (Bloomberg) -- President-elect Barack Obama is committed to a foreign policy of intense diplomatic engagement with allies and adversaries alike and an international approach to curb nuclear proliferation and terrorism. He will move to implement pledges to accelerate the U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq, build up American forces in Afghanistan and ask allies to play a bigger role in the fight against a resurgent Taliban, advisers say. Obama, 47, has cast his foreign policy approach as pragmatic rather than ideological, focused on diplomacy and partnerships and not hog- tied to Iraq. He calls it a more modern strategy for the boundary- blind threats of the 21st century. ``To all those watching from beyond our shores, our stories are singular, but our destiny is shared, and a new dawn of American leadership is at hand,'' Obama said in his victory speech in Chicago's Grant Park. ``To those who would tear the world down: We will defeat you. To those who seek peace and security: We support you.'' In a number of areas, there is likely to be continuity with the policies of President George W. Bush. China, Russia Obama has described a middle path on China much like Bush's, seeking expanded contacts while pressing for economic concessions. He has criticized Russia for supporting breakaway Georgian territories while eschewing confrontational measures such as expulsion from summits of the Group of Eight economic powers. While Obama has promised greater engagement in the search for a Middle East peace, he will likely be forced to wait until both Israelis and Palestinians sort out internal political conflicts. What much of the world may find surprising about Obama's foreign policy is that it will mark a far less dramatic shift in substance than many anticipate -- because Bush has moved in the same direction during his second term. Analysts point out that Bush has struck a deal with North Korea to contain its nuclear-arms development effort, accepted the idea of a timetable for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq, embraced talks with some elements of Afghanistan's Taliban rebels and contemplated opening a diplomatic outpost in Iran. Daunting Problems ``The Bush administration has, without acknowledging serious error, tacked away from many of the hallmarks of what it professed to believe in 2003 and 2004,'' when it pursued a unilateralist approach, said Andrew Bacevich, an international relations professor at Boston University. ``The change that Obama will bring is not going to be as great as many people imagine.'' Obama will face a daunting array of problems when he takes office Jan. 20: the fallout from a global financial crisis, two wars, the persistent threat of terrorism, the nuclear aspirations of hostile and potentially unstable regimes, a resurgent Russia, a rising China and a festering conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. CIA Director Michael Hayden, in a message to agency employees this morning, said Obama and his advisers will ``see the full range of capabilities we deploy'' to counter those threats in expanded briefings by Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnell and other intelligence officials. New Russian Missiles Obama had barely been declared the winner when Russia illustrated its expanding role. President Dmitry Medvedev today said Russia would deploy new missiles in Europe to counter a U.S. shield in Poland and the Czech Republic ``if necessary.'' Medvedev said he would place a short-range missile system designed to carry conventional warheads in Russia's Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad, wedged between Poland and Lithuania. The Russian leader addressed lawmakers in his first state-of-the- nation address since succeeding Vladimir Putin in May. If the challenges are high, so are the expectations of change, all over the world. ``The new leader of the U.S. must discount this idea, `If there is a problem we go in and bash them and force them to submit to us,''' said former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad in an Oct. 22 interview. Obama, he said, will be ``much more likely to bring about'' such a shift than his defeated Republican rival, John McCain, would have. Russian parliamentarian Sergei Markov, an ally of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, voiced a similar view. `Spoiled America' ``Obama is a rejection of the spoiled America of this century, and the rest of the world wants that,'' Markov said. ``If the old world order was Washington stamping its feet, the new world order will entail more cooperation with a range of countries,'' a view Obama is open to, he said in an interview. If much of the world will welcome Obama's approach, others are more hesitant. Chinese leaders aren't expecting big changes because Obama buys into a U.S. consensus that China is ``a one- party system that is fundamentally against American interests,'' said Shen Dingli, director of the Center for American Studies at Shanghai's Fudan University. Indian leaders, who enjoyed a warming relationship with the U.S. under Bush, may also be wary of departure from that policy. And Israeli leaders will watch Obama to see how far he goes to accommodate adversaries such as Iran. The Iranian regime, as well as al-Qaeda leaders, may view Obama's emphasis on engagement and negotiation as a sign of faltering U.S. resolve, said Danielle Pletka, an analyst at Washington's American Enterprise Institute and a former staff member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Perception of Weakness ``What we think of as multilateralism and internationalism is perceived as weakness by some,'' Pletka said. ``The problem is that those who perceive it that way are most likely to try to take advantage of it.'' There is wide agreement that Obama will embody a perceptual change in America's face to the world -- partly because he will be the first black president, partly because of life experiences that include a Kenyan father and a boyhood spent in Indonesia, and partly because he isn't Bush. ``The basic difference is going to be style,'' said Edward Walker, a former U.S. diplomat who is now a scholar at the Washington-based Middle East Institute. ``Obama is a much more open person, somebody that will at least listen to others, will have an interest in what they have to say,'' said Walker, who served as assistant secretary of state for Near East affairs and U.S. ambassador to both Israel and Egypt under President Bill Clinton. ``We've gotten a reputation of never listening to anybody.'' Early Test One early test for Obama, analysts said, is whether he can leverage his popularity abroad to win more European cooperation on Afghanistan, both to commit more troops and allow them to serve in the most dangerous parts of the country. He certainly means to try, said Ben Rhodes, one of Obama's senior foreign-policy advisers. ``You'll see more from the United States on a set of issues, but Obama is also going to want more from our allies,'' Rhodes said in an interview. Rhodes said the president-elect has repeatedly made clear that ``he is not going to anchor our national-security policy in Iraq. What you'll see is what he's outlined throughout the campaign, and that is a reorientation of American foreign policy away from that focus.'' Obama has pledged to quicken the pace of withdrawal by pressing Iraqis to take on more financial and military responsibility faster. He has talked of pulling out most U.S. combat troops within 16 months, leaving behind a residual force to train Iraqi troops and conduct counter-terrorism missions. ``We're not going to defeat terrorist networks that operate in 80 countries through an occupation of Iraq,'' the Illinois senator said in an Oct. 22 news conference. Afghan Conflict Attention and resources would be shifted to Afghanistan and the militant sanctuaries along its border with Pakistan, where Osama bin Laden may be lurking. Obama has said he would send at least two additional combat brigades, or about 7,000 soldiers, to bolster a U.S. force of 32,000 in Afghanistan. The Bush administration has given its blessing to sending three new brigades to Afghanistan and has repeatedly asked NATO allies to increase their participation, with only limited success. Obama also has said he would outlaw the use of torture and close the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, that critics say has stained America's global reputation. ``He has discussed tangible shifts on some of the core rule-of-law issues in the war on terror,'' Rhodes said. Such a change ``would send a fairly powerful signal to the world about the way in which America is going to prosecute the war on terror under an Obama administration.'' Forced by Failure Rhodes agreed that the Bush administration has moved toward positions espoused by Obama in several areas, adding that the shift has been largely forced by failure. ``Events have kind of drawn them in this direction because, frankly, there were approaches being taken that weren't working,'' he said. Pletka, who is critical of Bush's second-term shifts, agreed that ``on a number of issues we can expect a good deal of continuity.'' She said her most hopeful scenario for an Obama administration is that he opts for such continuity and moves quickly to dispel any ``misperceptions'' abroad about his toughness. Her worst-case analysis is that ``it's the second Carter administration,'' a rerun of a presidency in which U.S. weakness and irresolution ``set in motion a series of events that have seismic implications.'' Breaking With Bush Bacevich sees a different problem: that Obama's policies don't represent a sharp enough break with Bush. Obama remains committed to U.S. global military primacy and ``the proposition of a global war on terror as the proper response to Islamic radicalism,'' even if he thinks the central front is in Afghanistan rather than Iraq, said Bacevich, whose son died in Iraq. ``That's a difference in emphasis, but it doesn't seem to suggest a difference in strategy,'' he said. ``And that exemplifies the fact that even though there will be change, it won't mark a sharp break from the past.'' To contact the reporter on this story: Ken Fireman in Washington at kfireman1 at bloomberg.net ; Viola Gienger in Washington at vgienger at bloomberg.net. Last Updated: November 5, 2008 11:04 EST From fentona at shaw.ca Thu Nov 6 10:04:28 2008 From: fentona at shaw.ca (Anthony Fenton) Date: Thu, 6 Nov 2008 09:04:28 -0800 Subject: [R-G] Targeting Aristide In Exile References: Message-ID: By Stephen Lendman 06 November, 2008 http://www.countercurrents.org/lendman061108.htm Elected Haiti's president in 1990. Its first ever democratically chosen one. By a sweeping two-thirds majority. Took office in February 1991. Deposed by an army-led coup in September with all the earmarks of being made-in-Washington. Returned to office in October 1994. Served until February 1996. According to Haitian law, he couldn't succeed himself. Reelect in November 2000 with 90% of the vote. Took office in February 2001. Served until February 29, 2004 when, in the middle of the night, US marines deposed him and forced him into exile. He's now in South Africa where he remains larger than life. Haiti's symbolic leader. A man of the people. Dedicated to their welfare. Steadfast in his principles. Beloved and wanted back. Yet he's vilified in the press because of the good example he represents. Accused while in office and still now of all sorts of things. The way developing country democrats are always treated. Human rights abuses. Using armed gangs to crush dissent. Retain power. Political killings. Tolerating corruption. Connections to drugs trafficking. Profiting from it. Not a shred of it true. Not a word in the mainstream to expose it, denounce it, and set the record straight. Now four years later a resurrected charge. As unfounded as the others. On the Wall Street Journal's op-ed page by Americas writer, Mary O'Grady. Known for attacking democrats. Supporting repression. Right wing extremism. American imperialism and corporate power. She's excels in journalistic venom mirror opposite of the truth. Her latest on October 27, in an article titled: "Democrats for Despotism." About publicly-owned Haiti Telecommunications International called Teleco. The once state monopoly now compromised by de facto privatization. What's plagued Haiti before and since Aristide by opening its markets to private investors. Predators. Profiting at the expense of the people. Buying assets at well below fair value. Part of Washington's imposed neoliberalism in telecommunications and other areas. So that companies like Rectel, Haitel, Digicel and Comtel combined exceed Teleco in size and can take full advantage at the expense of poor Haitians. Even so, it hasn't contained O'Grady's brand of diatribe. Again targeting Aristide, but not for the first time. She called him a "dictator." Accused him while in office of "inciting violence against his political opponents." Being "renown for eliminating his enemies," she blamed Democrats for returning him to office. Claimed on return he "resumed his despotic ways." Enough so that "Haitians begged for US help" to remove him. Up to February 2004 when he "was finally run out of the country." Indeed so courtesy of dispatched US marines. And now a resurrected old canard. That "Aristide installed his accomplices in (Teleco) management positions and those accomplices then caused Teleco to enter into agreements with certain US and Canadian telecommunications carriers, granting them significantly reduced rates for services provided by Teleco in exchange for kickbacks, which further reduced those rates." That the post-Aristide US-installed Latortue "government opened (Teleco's) books and claimed the company had been looted." By "Aristide....stealing millions of dollars in telephone revenues." Not a shred of it true. Not a bit of evidence to support it, but they tried anyway. By filing suit that was later withdrawn. Some Background In July, the FCC fined IDT $1.3 million - the New Jersey telecom company run by one of John McCain's top fund raisers, Jim Courter. It was for failing (in 2003 and 2004) to file a contract for telephone service to Haiti. According to the FCC, IDT paid Teleco an illegally low rate for calls it handled between Haiti and the US. Courter was a New Jersey Republican congressman from 1979 - 1991. A former gubanatorial candidate as well, and one of McCain's 20 national finance co-chairmen until he resigned because the fine generated negative publicity. Portfolio magazine published two articles on the incident by freelance journalist Lucy Komisar. Hired by the Haiti Democracy Project (HDP) to write them. An organization infamous for vilifying Aristide and his government. Founded in November 2002, it's based in Washington. Staffed by former US government officials. Bankrolled by Haiti's right-wing Boulos family. Rudolph Boulos a prominent Haitian businessman. He and HDP have close ties to the Bush administration. This was an encore for Komisar who misreported earlier about Aristide. Unproved charges of corruption and other accusations. Typical corporate-sponsored agitprop. Directed at leaders who dare oppose Washington, neoliberalism, and instead pursue socially enlightened policies. In the case of Haiti, in the poorest country in the hemisphere. With its unimaginable level of poverty that Aristide was dedicated to alleviate. The human need his agenda addressed. His impressive successes in spite of overwhelming obstacles. Mostly from Washington under Democrats and Republicans. The reason why twice coups removed him and why Haitians want him back. In any capacity. Just his presence. To be home with his people. What America won't allow. Nonetheless, one day he will be. Why writers like O'Grady and Komisar keep resurrecting old canards. For figures like Aristide, they never die. They don't even fade away. The Teleco issue is about Aristide's supposed "corrupt" IDT dealings. The company paid Teleco 8.75 cents per minute for long-distance calls and not the FCC-established 23 cent rate (at the time) for other carriers. Komisar claimed IDT paid its fees to a Turks & Caicos company she identified as "Mount Salem." She then alleged that 5.75 cents went to Teleco and 3 cents to Aristide. That Turks & Caicos lawyer Adrian Corr was Aristide's legal counsel. That he ran "Mount Salem," and that he confirmed that "Aristide owned the shell." Her whole story was invented and bogus. By his own admission, Corr never represented Aristide. Never set up a shell company, and never kicked back funds to anyone as Komisar and O'Grady claim. O'Grady's article is about Fusion Telecommunications. Its 1999 contract with Teleco. That it violated FCC rules by granting the company a preferential rate. Access to Haiti's network "at a rate of 12 cents a minute, dropping to 11 cents after the first three million minutes each month" as opposed to "the FCC's official rate (of) 50 cents a minute, dropping to 46 cents in 2000." She also claimed an IDT "whisleblower alleged he was fired in 2003 for objecting to a deal in which IDT would get a low termination rate in exchange for depositing payments in an account for Aristide." Fusion denies it made any improper payments, and the FCC has no evidence it did. Not good enough for O'Grady who said "Haitians can be forgiven for not putting much stock in those words." Readers can be forgiven for questioning O'Grady's credibility. Komisar as well. For his part, Aristide was a parish priest before being elected president. He never had and today has no ownership stake in any company, including the so-called "Mount Salem." Ira Kurzban represents him as legal counsel. He refuted Komisar's accusations and stated: "Mr. Corr did not and does not represent President Aristide and President Aristide had no interest in or knowledge of any company - 'shell' or otherwise - set up in the Turks & Caicos for any purpose. Mr. Corr never set up 'Mount Salem,' any 'shell' company, or any other company for President Aristide." He added that: "these repeated false stories of corruption against President Aristide are part of a continuing disinformation campaign against (him) that began when he first took office in 1991." The same type charges levied against democrats like Hugo Chavez. The latest example in a trial just concluded in a Miami courtroom. About a suitcase filled with $800,000 for Argentina's President, Christina Kirchner. For her successful campaign last year. Both presidents denounced the accusation, but it's still front-page news in each country and currently in America. "Suitcasegate" The New York Times called it after a "wealthy Venezuelan businessman (was convicted of) acting as an 'unregistered agent' (for his country) on American soil." Unwarranted according to his lawyer who plans to appeal, and said the trial was a "political circus in which (his client) is a pawn of the US government." He earlier called the case politically motivated to embarrass the Chavez government. Venezuela's Foreign Minister, Nicolas Maduro, said the charges were "absolutely rigged" and that the defendant wasn't an "unregistered (Venezuelan) foreign agent." Contrast this case and accusations against Aristide to Wall Street's massive fraud. At the heart of the world's financial crisis. That goes unmentioned in mainstream reports. Lets criminals loot the federal treasury and puts taxpayers on the hook for the tab. The same ones defrauded by the scheme. Now left high and dry on their own while world-class democrats like Aristide and Chavez are pilloried. Accused of all kinds of bogus things. Even though Aristide is no longer Haiti's president. No matter because it's how Washington operates. With full support from its echo chamber in the press. From writers like Komisar and O'Grady well paid to comply. It's up to readers to reject their accounts. Not become hostage to their message, and rely on alternative news for the truth. There's plenty around and places to find it as readers of this web site know. Stephen Lendman is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization. He lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen at sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to The Global Research News Hour on RepublicBroadcasting.org Mondays from 11AM - 1PM US Central time for cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on major world and national topics. All programs are archived for easy listening. From shniad at sfu.ca Thu Nov 6 10:56:46 2008 From: shniad at sfu.ca (Sid Shniad) Date: Thu, 06 Nov 2008 09:56:46 -0800 Subject: [R-G] Canwest drops suit against Briemberg over parody Message-ID: <200811061756.mA6HukYA023029@rm-rstar.sfu.ca> An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: not available Url: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/rad-green/attachments/20081106/e2ecfdbb/attachment.txt From shniad at sfu.ca Thu Nov 6 12:03:45 2008 From: shniad at sfu.ca (Sid Shniad) Date: Thu, 06 Nov 2008 11:03:45 -0800 Subject: [R-G] Its time to register Friends of Israel as an agent of a foreign power Message-ID: <200811061903.mA6J3jBg025390@rm-rstar.sfu.ca> An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: not available Url: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/rad-green/attachments/20081106/479ce17a/attachment.txt From shniad at sfu.ca Thu Nov 6 12:08:19 2008 From: shniad at sfu.ca (Sid Shniad) Date: Thu, 06 Nov 2008 11:08:19 -0800 Subject: [R-G] Liars Message-ID: <200811061908.mA6J8JKw004040@rm-rstar.sfu.ca> An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: not available Url: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/rad-green/attachments/20081106/19c21799/attachment.txt From shniad at sfu.ca Thu Nov 6 12:10:13 2008 From: shniad at sfu.ca (Sid Shniad) Date: Thu, 06 Nov 2008 11:10:13 -0800 Subject: [R-G] Islamofascist slanders Message-ID: <200811061910.mA6JADEp007914@rm-rstar.sfu.ca> An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: not available Url: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/rad-green/attachments/20081106/2bde044d/attachment.txt From shniad at sfu.ca Thu Nov 6 12:13:54 2008 From: shniad at sfu.ca (Sid Shniad) Date: Thu, 06 Nov 2008 11:13:54 -0800 Subject: [R-G] What exactly does Obama mean when he talks of "change"? Message-ID: <200811061913.mA6JDsTo014894@rm-rstar.sfu.ca> An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: not available Url: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/rad-green/attachments/20081106/94287377/attachment.txt From shniad at sfu.ca Thu Nov 6 12:15:19 2008 From: shniad at sfu.ca (Sid Shniad) Date: Thu, 06 Nov 2008 11:15:19 -0800 Subject: [R-G] Auto industry collapse would crush U.S. economy: study Message-ID: <200811061915.mA6JFJkW017750@rm-rstar.sfu.ca> An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: not available Url: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/rad-green/attachments/20081106/0e26c7c5/attachment.txt From shniad at sfu.ca Thu Nov 6 14:39:44 2008 From: shniad at sfu.ca (Sid Shniad) Date: Thu, 06 Nov 2008 13:39:44 -0800 Subject: [R-G] War on Iran: bipartisan consensus in US? Message-ID: <200811062139.mA6Ldiv3017660@rm-rstar.sfu.ca> An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: not available Url: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/rad-green/attachments/20081106/fe184128/attachment.txt From shniad at sfu.ca Thu Nov 6 14:43:39 2008 From: shniad at sfu.ca (Sid Shniad) Date: Thu, 06 Nov 2008 13:43:39 -0800 Subject: [R-G] Makani's Post Election Musings 2008 Message-ID: <200811062143.mA6LhdCc024756@rm-rstar.sfu.ca> An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: not available Url: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/rad-green/attachments/20081106/fcb8bee1/attachment.txt From realiteee1 at yahoo.com Thu Nov 6 22:59:35 2008 From: realiteee1 at yahoo.com (james m nordlund) Date: Thu, 6 Nov 2008 21:59:35 -0800 (PST) Subject: [R-G] GP Acts: Thx pres cands McKinney & Clemente, congrats; etc.. In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <924702.1367.qm@web50812.mail.re2.yahoo.com> GP Acts: Thx pres cands McKinney & Clemente, congrats; etc.. GP RELEASE Greens thank pres. candidates McKinney & Clemente, congratulate Obama on historic win GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES http://www.gp.org For Immediate Release: Thursday, November 6, 2008 Contacts: Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator, 202-518-5624, cell 202-904-7614, mclarty at greens.org Starlene Rankin, Media Coordinator, 916-995-3805, starlene at gp.org Greens thank national candidates Cynthia McKinney and Rosa Clemente, congratulate Barack Obama on his historic White House victory WASHINGTON, DC -- The Green Party of the United States thanked Cynthia McKinney and Rosa Clemente, Green candidates for President and Vice President, for their strong national campaign in the 2008 election. The party also congratulated Barack Obama on his election to the White House today, and celebrated the election of America's first African American President. "Even though we competed with Sen. Obama for votes in the presidential race, we're thrilled that voters have elected an African American President, something unimaginable a generation ago. We're just as thrilled that our own presidential ticket -- Cynthia McKinney and Rosa Clemente are two women of African descent, and Ms. Clemente is Black Puerto Rican -- represented the voices of so many Americans who've been shut out of the system," said Clyde Shabazz, Green candidate for Congress in Michigan's 14th District. Greens noted that voters expressed a mandate for change in the hope that President-elect Obama would follow through on his pledge of "Change We Can Believe In" and reverse the dangerous direction that the country has taken. "Voters who were motivated by Barack Obama's message of change will now have to fight if they really want change to take place during the next four years," said Jill Bussiere, co-chair of the Green Party of the United States. "Rosa Clemente, our candidate for Vice President, talked about the Green Party's 'imperative' throughout the campaign. The Green Imperative will move forward during the Obama Administration, as people demand that change be more than a campaign slogan." MORE INFORMATION Green Party of the United States http://www.gp.org 202-319-7191, 866-41GREEN Fax 202-319-7193 ? Green candidate database for 2008 and other campaign information: http://www.gp.org/elections.shtml ? Green Party News Center http://www.gp.org/newscenter.shtml ? Green Party Speakers Bureau http://www.gp.org/speakers ? Green Party ballot access page http://www.gp.org/2008-elections ? 2008 Green candidates to watch http://www.gp.org/2008-elections/candidate-news.php Cynthia McKinney/Rosa Clemente 'Power to the People' Campaign for the White House http://www.runcynthiarun.org http://votetruth08.com http://www.rosaclemente.com DC RELEASE Statehood Greens to Dems: Use your new power, make DC a STATE THE DC STATEHOOD GREEN PARTY http://www.dcstatehoodgreen.org For immediate release: Thursday, November 6, 2008 Contact: Scott McLarty, DC Statehood Green Party Media Coordinator, 202-518-5624, cell 202-904-7614, mclarty at greens.org DC Statehood Greens to Democrats: Use your new power in Congress and the White House to grant DC statehood ? DC statehood can be enacted by a simple majority, without an amendment to the Constitution ? No reason to seek the 'DC Vote' (one voting seat in the US House) when DC statehood will afford full representation (two Senators, one Rep) and increase Democrats' power WASHINGTON, DC -- In the wake of an election giving Democrats strong control over both houses of Congress, the DC Statehood Green Party challenged the next Congress and President-elect Barack Obama to grant statehood to the District of Columbia. "Democrats in the US House and Senate now have the power to make DC a state," said TE Smith, native Washingtonian, Vietnam veteran, and DC Statehood Green activist. "Democrats would increase their own numbers in Congress, because the new state would have two Senators and one Representative, and these seats would be occupied by Democrats. The new Congress can enact statehood for the District through legislation requiring a simple majority, and without changing the US Constitution." Statehood Greens called on Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton and DC Vote, who have promoted legislation giving the District a single voting seat in the House, to support the call for statehood. "Why only seek 'DC voting rights,' which would give DC one vote, when Democrats in Congress can give us full statehood and three new voting seats?" asked Mr. Smith. "Statehood would give us more than representation -- it would give us freedom from control over the District's legislation, policies, and finances by Congress and the White House. We'd get the same rights and responsibilities that all other Americans have." DC Statehood Green Party leaders stressed that Congress could grant statehood to the District through legislation passed by a simple majority, without having to amend the US Constitution, which requires ratification by two thirds of the states. Congress would pass a bill altering the borders of the constitutionally mandated federal enclave, reducing it to the federal properties (land occupied by the White House, Capitol, Supreme Court building, Mall, etc., analogous to federal properties in many states). Statehood Greens noted the precedent for redrawing the District's border: in 1846, Congress gave Alexandria, originally part of DC, to Virginia. The bill would be enacted with at least 51% of the vote in Congress. DC residents would then vote on whether to ask Congress for statehood or some other option. (Poll results have shown that DC residents strongly favor statehood.) After this vote, Congress would vote to admit the new state to the union, by a simple majority -- as it admitted all other states after the initial thirteen that founded the United States of America. "Statehood for DC is part of the unfinished business of the Civil Rights Movement. We can fulfill the centuries-old dream of statehood, but we'll need the voices of everyone in District, including DC Vote and Ms. Norton, to demand that Congress give us our full constitutional rights, equality, and democratic self-government," said Joyce Robinson Paul, Statehood Green candidate US Statehood Representative in the 2008 election (http://www.statehood4dc.com/jrpaul/home). (The DC Statehood Green Party prefers to call the District's 'Shadow' congressional seats 'US Statehood Representative' and 'US Statehood Senator.') Statehood Green leaders said that statehood for DC would be permanent and irreversible, while Congress would always have the power to rescind Del. Norton's DC vote plan. Statehood Greens also warned that, if challenged in court, the DC vote bill may be overturned, since the US Constitution provides for voting seats in Congress solely to states (Article 1, Section 2). A decision by the US District Court for DC in 2000 (Adams v. Clinton) held that "the Constitution does not contemplate that the District may serve as a state for purposes of the apportionment of congressional representatives." According to this and other court opinions, only a constitutional amendment will allow the District one or more voting seats in Congress -- unless DC is granted statehood. MORE INFORMATION DC Statehood Green Party http://www.dcstatehoodgreen.org "Statehood Greens criticize Del. Norton and her fellow Democrats for omitting DC statehood from the 2008 Democratic platform draft" DC Statehood Green press release, August 20, 2008 http://www.gp.org/press/pr-state.php?ID=93 "Talking Points, Quotes on DC Voting Rights Bill, DC Statehood, and Democracy" DC Statehood Green press release, March 22, 2007 http://www.gp.org/press/states/dc/dc_2007_03_22.shtml DC Statehood Green Party monthly meeting: TONIGHT at UDC DC Statehood Green Party General Assembly Meeting Thursday, November 6, 2007 (tonight) 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm Monthly general meeting of the DC Statehood Green Party, Thursday, June 5, 7:00 pm at the University of the District of Columbia (UDC), near the Van Ness Metro Stop (Red Line), Building 39, second floor, probably room 203 (but check for signs posted in the building in case the room changes). If you enter campus from the main entrance on Connecticut Avenue, Building 39 is the wing of the main building on your left. On the agenda: 2008 election wrap-up; nominations for election of the new DC Statehood Green Party steering committee and delegates to the Green Party's National Committee. Everyone is welcome and encouraged to attend; all registered members of the party may vote in party decisions and elections. More information about the party: http://www.dcstatehoodgreen.org CONGRATULATIONS and thanks to our DC Statehood Green candidates for partisan office and for Advisory Neighborhood Commission for representing us in the 2008 election, and to Cynthia McKinney and Rosa Clemente, our presidential ticket! * * * * * The D.C. Statehood Green Party http://www.dcstatehoodgreen.org Join the DC Statehood Green discussion & news list: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dcsgp Join the list to receive press releases and important party announcements: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dcstatehoodgreennews From mstainsby at resist.ca Thu Nov 6 23:01:54 2008 From: mstainsby at resist.ca (Macdonald Stainsby) Date: Thu, 06 Nov 2008 23:01:54 -0700 Subject: [R-G] GP Acts: Thx pres cands McKinney & Clemente, congrats; etc.. In-Reply-To: <924702.1367.qm@web50812.mail.re2.yahoo.com> References: <924702.1367.qm@web50812.mail.re2.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <4913D9D2.4030006@resist.ca> They couldn't even must one-fifth of the vote Nader got. What's the point? james m nordlund wrote: > GP Acts: Thx pres cands McKinney & Clemente, congrats; etc.. > GP RELEASE Greens thank pres. candidates McKinney & Clemente, congratulate Obama on historic win > GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES From tchilds at resist.ca Thu Nov 6 23:11:16 2008 From: tchilds at resist.ca (tchilds at resist.ca) Date: Thu, 6 Nov 2008 22:11:16 -0800 (PST) Subject: [R-G] A Look Under the Hood of an Obama Administration - Joshua Frank Message-ID: <49334.24.87.34.192.1226038276.squirrel@mail.resist.ca> While the new 'president elect' has brought euphoria in his victory to take the helm of empire, (and I have surely felt that euphoria) I will not drop my guard or abandon work for the progressive left. Neo-liberalism/conservatism lurks under all the euphoria of the Obama presidency to be, and it will be as necessary as ever to continue to resist the empire's penchant to promote war, disregard the health of the planet, turn aside social justice and the notion of the common good for all. Meantime, progressive activism will have to remain the order-of-the-day. No doubt. Regards, TC nowpolling.ca "There's no way to delay that trouble comin' everyday." -- Frank Zappa =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= http://www.counterpunch.org/frank11062008.html It Could be a Long, Hard Struggle A Look Under the Hood of an Obama Administration By JOSHUA FRANK Tuesday?s celebration hangovers have finally started to wear off, and the pieces are beginning to fall into place. Change will be coming to Washington in January, but it is difficult to decipher what form it will take. Early clues, however, suggest that Barack Obama?s administration will prove unlikely to alter the fundamental political machinery that has led us into war and economic turmoil. Below is a brief summary of Obama?s potential choices for a few key roles in his administration. Chief of Staff Obama?s key White House position will go to Rep. Rahm Emanuel of Illinois. While Emanuel knows his way around the corridors of Washington, qualifying him in the traditional sense, this alone doesn?t mean he?s the guy you want drawing up Obama?s policy papers day after day. For starters, Emanuel is a shameless neoliberal with close ties to the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC), even co-authoring a strategy book with DLC president Bruce Reed. Without Emanuel, Bill Clinton would not have been able to thrust NAFTA down the throats of environmentalists and labor in the mid-1990s. Over the course of his career, Emanuel?s made it a point to cozy up to big business, making him one of the most effective corporate fundraisers in the Democratic Party. He?s also a staunch advocate of Israel?s occupation of Palestinian territories. Emanuel?s shinning moment came in 2006 as he helped funnel money and poured ground support into the offices of dozens of conservative Democrats, expanding his party?s control of the House of Representatives. Emanuel, who supports the War on Terror, and expanding our presence in Afghanistan, worked hard to ensure that a Democratic House majority would not alter the course of US military objectives in the Middle East. In short, Rahm Emanuel is not only a poor choice for Obama?s Chief of Staff; he?s one of the least progressive picks he could have made. While he may have decent views on abortion, tax policy, and social security, Emanuel?s broader vision is more of the same: war and corporate dominance. Treasury Secretary For arguably the most important position Obama will be appointing, the President-Elect may pick well-regarded economist Paul Volcker, former chairman of the Federal Reserve under Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan. Volker is one of Obama?s closest economic advisors and is thought to be the top-choice for the position of Treasury Secretary. During the late 1970s and early 1980s, Volker, in an attempt to cut inflation, dramatically raised interest rates, which helped the elite maintain value in their assets but strangled the working class as credit dried up. In his book, A Brief History of Neoliberalism, David Harvey writes that Volker personified one of the key facets of the neoliberal era. ?[Volker] engineered a draconian shift in U.S. monetary policy. The long-standing commitment in the U.S. liberal democratic state to the principles of the New Deal, which meant broadly Keynesian fiscal and monetary policies with full employment as a key objective, was abandoned in favour of a policy designed to quell inflation no matter what the consequences might be for employment. The real rate of interest, which had often been negative during the double-digit inflationary surge of the 1970s, was rendered positive by fiat of the Federal Reserve. The nominal rate of interest was raised overnight Thus began ?a long deep recession that would empty factories and break unions in the U.S. and drive detour countries to the brink of insolvency, beginning a long-era of structural insolvency?. The Volker shock, as it has since come to be known, has to be interpreted as a necessary but not sufficient condition of neoliberalism.? In supporting Henry Paulson?s bailout package, Volker would not re-regulate the banks nor provide more power to shareholders, he?s simply carry on one facet of neoliberalism: tightening federal budgets which inevitably will put great budgetary pressure on federal agencies. Another potential pick for the post is Robert Rubin, who served under Clinton in the same position and is currently Director and Senior Counselor of Citigroup. Rubin played a key role in abetting another neoliberal objective: deregulation. Where Volker was hung up on economic austerity, Rubin pushed for more deregulatory policies that ended up shifting jobs, and entire industries, overseas. Rubin even pushed for Clinton?s dismantling of Glass-Steagall, testifying that deregulating the banking industry would be good for capital gains, as well as Main Street. ?[The] banking industry is fundamentally different from what it was two decades ago, let alone in 1933," Rubin testified before the House Committee on Banking and Financial Services in May of 1995. ?[Glass-Steagall could] conceivably impede safety and soundness by limiting revenue diversification,? Rubin argued. While the industry saw much deregulation over the years preceding these events, the Gramm-Leach-Biley Act of 1999, which eliminated Glass-Steagall, extended and ratified changes that had been enacted with previous legislation. Ultimately, the repeal of the New Deal era protection allowed commercial lenders like Rubin?s Citigroup to underwrite and trade instruments like mortgage backed securities along with collateralized debt and established structured investment vehicles (SIVs), which purchased these securities. In short, as the lines were blurred among investment banks, commercial banks and insurance companies, when one industry fell, others could too. Robert Rubin is in part responsible for supporting the policies that pushed us to the brink of a great recession. When the subprime mortgage crisis hit, instability and collapse spread across numerous industries. Defense Secretary While Obama?s choice for this important role is speculative, quite a few fingers are pointing to Richard Holbrooke. After Gerald Ford's loss and Jimmy Carter's ascendance into the White House in 1976, Indonesia, which invaded East Timor and slaughtered 200,000 indigenous Timorese years earlier, requested additional arms to continue its brutal occupation, even though there was a supposed ban on arms trades to Suharto's government. It was Carter's appointee to the Department of State's Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, Richard Holbrooke, who authorized additional arms shipments to Indonesia during this supposed blockade. Many scholars have noted that this was the period when the Indonesian suppression of the Timorese reached genocidal levels. During his testimony before Congress in February 1978, Benedict Anderson of Cornell University cited a report that proved there never was a United States arms ban, and that during the period of the alleged ban; the US initiated new offers of military weaponry to the Indonesians at Holbrooke?s request. Over the years Holbrooke, who is philosophically aligned with Paul Wolfowitz and other neoconservatives, has worked vigorously to keep his bloody campaign silent. Holbrooke described the motivations behind his support of Indonesia's genocidal actions: "The situation in East Timor is one of the number of very important concerns of the United States in Indonesia. Indonesia, with a population of 150 million people, is the fifth largest nation in the world, is a moderate member of the Non-Aligned Movement, is an important oil producer -- which plays a moderate role within OPEC -- and occupies a strategic position astride the sea lanes between the Pacific and Indian Oceans ... We highly value our cooperative relationship with Indonesia." Other foreign policy advisors may also include the likes of Madeline Albright, the great supporter of Iraq sanctions, which killed hundreds of thousands of innocent people. Madeline Albright, when asked by Leslie Stahl of 60 Minutes about the deaths caused by U.N. sanctions, infamously condoned the deaths. ?I think this is a very hard choice,? she said. ?But the price--we think the price is worth it.? Samantha Power, that great cheerleader for humanitarian intervention, also has Obama?s ear and may even entice him to put U.S. forces in Darfur. ?With very few exceptions, the Save Darfur campaign has drawn a single lesson from Rwanda: the problem was the US failure to intervene to stop the genocide. Rwanda is the guilt that America must expiate, and to do so it must be ready to intervene, for good and against evil, even globally. That lesson is inscribed at the heart of Samantha of Power?s book, A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide. But it is the wrong lesson,? writes author Mahmood Mamdani in the London Review of Books. As Mamdani continues: ?What the humanitarian intervention lobby fails to see is that the US did intervene in Rwanda, through a proxy Instead of using its resources and influence to bring about a political solution to the civil war, and then strengthen it, the US signalled to one of the parties that it could pursue victory with impunity. This unilateralism was part of what led to the disaster, and that is the real lesson of Rwanda Applied to Darfur and Sudan, it is sobering. It means recognising that Darfur is not yet another Rwanda. Nurturing hopes of an external military intervention among those in the insurgency who aspire to victory and reinforcing the fears of those in the counter-insurgency who see it as a prelude to defeat are precisely the ways to ensure that it becomes a Rwanda.? The Next Step While the election of Barack Obama is a blow to George W. Bush-Republicanism and a gain for racial equality in this country, it is in many ways only a symbolic victory. The future of the U.S.?s foreign and economic agenda will continue to be saturated with ideologies and individuals that are directly responsible for our current predicament, both in the Middle East and domestically. Celebrating the end of the ugly Bush era is one thing. Celebrating the continuation of their policies with a different administration in the White House is quite another. With these prospective appointments, Obama seems to be moving backwards to Clintontime. This may be sufficient change for some, but it far from a progressive push toward social, economic, and environmental justice. For significant change to happen, the kind that is needed in order to mend the wounds of the Bush years, we have to put down our Obama signs and force Congress and the new administration to end the wars in the Middle East, and push for regulating the financial industry while providing true universal health-care and economic safety-nets for all Americans. Given the make up of his potential advisors, we're in for a long uphill battle. So let's drop our illusions and start organizing, beginning with a discussion of what ?organizing? even means in today?s political climate. Joshua Frank is co-editor of Dissident Voice and author of Left Out! How Liberals Helped Reelect George W. Bush (Common Courage Press, 2005), and along with Jeffrey St. Clair, the editor of the brand new book Red State Rebels: Tales of Grassroots Resistance in the Heartland, published by AK Press in July 2008. He can be reached at: brickburner at gmail.com From shniad at sfu.ca Fri Nov 7 11:54:15 2008 From: shniad at sfu.ca (Sid Shniad) Date: Fri, 07 Nov 2008 10:54:15 -0800 Subject: [R-G] London U. event likens Gaza to Ghetto Message-ID: <200811071854.mA7IsFNF008731@rm-rstar.sfu.ca> An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: not available Url: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/rad-green/attachments/20081107/75418b29/attachment.txt From shniad at sfu.ca Fri Nov 7 13:39:54 2008 From: shniad at sfu.ca (Sid Shniad) Date: Fri, 07 Nov 2008 12:39:54 -0800 Subject: [R-G] Quelle surprise! An Olympic cost overrun paid for by the public! Message-ID: <200811072039.mA7Kds5r003454@rm-rstar.sfu.ca> An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: not available Url: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/rad-green/attachments/20081107/6b0cda09/attachment.txt From shniad at sfu.ca Fri Nov 7 14:49:00 2008 From: shniad at sfu.ca (Sid Shniad) Date: Fri, 07 Nov 2008 13:49:00 -0800 Subject: [R-G] Come, Obama, Change My Life Message-ID: <200811072149.mA7Ln0HY018045@rm-rstar.sfu.ca> An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: not available Url: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/rad-green/attachments/20081107/15948b88/attachment.txt From shniad at sfu.ca Fri Nov 7 14:54:03 2008 From: shniad at sfu.ca (Sid Shniad) Date: Fri, 07 Nov 2008 13:54:03 -0800 Subject: [R-G] An Obama foreign policy will be a change in style, not substance Message-ID: <200811072154.mA7Ls3Tn026051@rm-rstar.sfu.ca> An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: not available Url: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/rad-green/attachments/20081107/02fc91c2/attachment.txt From shniad at sfu.ca Fri Nov 7 15:01:42 2008 From: shniad at sfu.ca (Sid Shniad) Date: Fri, 07 Nov 2008 14:01:42 -0800 Subject: [R-G] Obama picks pro-Israel hardliner for top post Message-ID: <200811072201.mA7M1gqk012513@rm-rstar.sfu.ca> An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: not available Url: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/rad-green/attachments/20081107/72d2ce8e/attachment.txt From shniad at sfu.ca Fri Nov 7 16:52:08 2008 From: shniad at sfu.ca (Sid Shniad) Date: Fri, 07 Nov 2008 15:52:08 -0800 Subject: [R-G] Big moves amid gathering gloom Message-ID: <200811072352.mA7Nq8uX026742@rm-rstar.sfu.ca> An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: not available Url: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/rad-green/attachments/20081107/3b91f009/attachment.txt From fentona at shaw.ca Fri Nov 7 17:29:09 2008 From: fentona at shaw.ca (Anthony Fenton) Date: Fri, 7 Nov 2008 16:29:09 -0800 Subject: [R-G] Vanishing Mountains: Coal mining in Appalachia Message-ID: <453BFE9C-1C5D-4D76-AC78-54A028C4929E@shaw.ca> November 7, 2008 http://www.dominionpaper.ca/articles/2093 Vanishing Mountains: Coal mining in Appalachia by Dana Kuhnline The Dominion - http://www.dominionpaper.ca Eight hundred thousand acres of land have been destroyed by mountaintop coal removal in Appalachia, and hundreds of thousands more are slated for the same process. Photo: Vivian Stockman CHARLESTON, WV, USA?"I say to you, what do you hold so precious in your own circle of life that you don't have a price on it? What would it be? For me, it's my home. For me, it's Appalachia. For me, it's the mountains. For me, it's a whole way of life that they're wiping out here, and nobody seems to care." This is what Larry Gibson has been telling people who make the pilgrimage to his home on Kayford Mountain, outside of Charleston, West Virginia. A not-to-be-missed destination for any tourists who want their hearts broken, Kayford is an island of green in a 12,000 acre wasteland of mountaintop removal coal mining. Mountaintop removal coal mining is a type of mining particular to Appalachia. The coal lies in thin horizontal seams, stacked up like the frosting in a layer cake. In the past, miners tunneled through the side of the mountain to scoop out the frosting, but current (and cheaper) practices allow giant machines to destroy the entire cake. Coal companies use diesel fuel and fertilizer to explode up to 800 feet of mountain to scoop out the coal. Afterward, some of the rubble is piled back where the mountain used to be, and some of it is piled into nearby valleys, creating valley fills. Eight hundred thousand acres of land have been destroyed in this way in Appalachia, and hundreds of thousands more are slated for the same process. The valley fills and loosened rock leach out heavy metals like selenium. According to fisheries biologist A. Dennis Lemly, these selenium discharges have affected fish in Mud River, West Virginia; fish have been found with spiral spines and two eyes on the same side of their heads. Coal processing leaves billions of gallons of toxic waste - called sludge - behind, a witch's brew of mercury, diesel from the explosives, and dozens of other deadly chemicals which are placed into unlined earthen structures called slurry dams or injected underground, often into abandoned underground coal mines. These toxins are free to seep into the ground water of nearby communities. One of these communities is Prenter, West Virginia, where a group of residents have started to organize to fight for clean water. According to a casual health survey they undertook, a staggering 97 per cent of Prenter residents have gallbladder disease. Brain tumours, thyroid cancer, and skin conditions are also common. In many homes in Prenter, the water leaves the faucet black or orange, and vegetables rot in the garden. A short video on YouTube features Prenter bathtub water tarnishing a penny. Citizens in Prenter have been lobbying state and national officials for nearly a year to get help, but officials say they can?t do anything ? because they can?t confirm coal has anything to do with the problems the community is facing. However, in a similar community in Mingo County, also located near known slurry injection sites, residents are also suffering from rare disease patterns. Ben Stout, an aquatic biologist at West Virginia?s Wheeling Jesuit University, has discovererd the same chemicals found in coal slurry ? including aluminum, arsenic, beryllium, and sulfuric acid - at rates thousands of times the legal limit in well water. I learned about mountaintop removal coal mining in 2005, when I moved to West Virginia to work on oral history and arts preservation. I unknowingly rented a house next to the state's largest mountaintop removal coal mining site, Hobet 21. In my first week, I was hiking behind my new house when suddenly the mountain stopped. I was at the edge of a cliff, and as far as I could see was grey rubble. A crane 13 stories tall (nicknamed Big John) scooped away loose rock to reveal a flat black surface. People I interviewed about the mine always said they hated it, but what could they do? This is one of the poorest areas in West Virginia, which in 2004 was ranked the 48th poorest state in the US, and money is money. The economy of West Virginia is built on coal. According to the West Virginia Office of Miners' Health Safety and Training, coal mining in West Virginia provides about 20,000 jobs in coal production, with 40,000 jobs total if you count jobs indirectly created by the mining industry. In the 1970s, before strip mining became prevalent, there were over 120,000 mining jobs in West Virginia. Currently, direct and indirect coal mining jobs make up about five per cent of the labour force of West Virginia, which produces 15 per cent of coal in the US, and makes up 50 per cent of the US' coal exports. Coal mining is one of few industries that exists here. Mountaintop removal coal mining could never happen in a rich community. For example, in Greenbrier County, West Virginia, a wealthy county with little coal mining history only a few hours away, members of the second home community vehemently fought a proposed wind farm on their mountains because of the damage to their viewshed and second home market. The same government officials that have refused to help Prenter citizens get clean water have supported the Greenbrier citizens in their fight to keep their view clear of unsightly windmills. Environmentalists working on this issue quickly realize that a few laws are not going to fix this problem. The mono-economy of Appalachia needs to be diversified, and the value system that tells us what is worth money and what is not needs a second look. Coal is profitable because it externalizes the costs of extraction and burning onto the surrounding communities and the government. Coal trucks tear up area roads; abusive employee treatment leads to disabled workers; bad water and air pollution lead to sickness. These are only a few of the costs government and communities must absorb in addition to the tax cuts and subsidies already provided to big coal. Even if we could put a price tag on the nearly 500 mountains that have been destroyed in Appalachia so far, the environmental costs alone would make the price of mountaintop removal coal too high. ?The coal company always talks about jobs - there are no jobs on a dead planet,? Judy Bonds, the Goldman Award-winning legend with Coal River Mountain Watch mining often says. ?I know that our community survived before there was electricity,? adds Virginia activist Kathy Selvage of Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards, ?But I don?t think we can survive without clean water, or air to breathe.? About 12 per cent of total energy consumption in Canada comes from coal (it's about 50 per cent in the US), and about 40 per cent of the coal Ontario Power Generation uses is Appalachian coal. The fact is, we live in a world where blow drying your hair in Canada blows up family cemeteries and pristine streams in Appalachia. Deforestation and coal processing in Appalachia is increasing the effects of global warming in Canada. In the words of English journalist and activist George Monbiot, ?Everything I have fought for and that all campaigners for social justice have ever fought for - food, clean water, shelter, security - is jeopardized by climate change.? Appalachian author Ann Pancake has said, "What we are doing to this land is not only murder; it is suicide." ?Something must be done. You have got to do something,? Larry Gibson tells his visitors. The Coal River Wind Project is trying to do something. The group is attempting to block a 6,600 acre mountaintop removal permit by proposing 440 megawatts of industrial scale wind on the mountain instead. Both Barack Obama and John McCain have publicly stated their opposition to mountaintop removal coal mining, yet both continue to support 'clean coal.? The 'clean' in 'clean coal' refers to carbon sequestration at power plants and not to the extraction process. Thus, 'clean coal' can still come from the ripped off mountain tops in Appalachia. Neither candidate has expressed support for the Clean Water Protection Act, which would curtail the use of most valley fills in Appalachia. This bill currently has 152 co-sponsors in the House but has not yet been introduced in the Senate. Dana Kuhnline lives in West Virginia where she works for The Alliance for Appalachia, a coalition of 13 non-profits with the goal of ending mountaintop removal and creating a just sustainable Appalachia. From shniad at sfu.ca Fri Nov 7 17:39:20 2008 From: shniad at sfu.ca (Sid Shniad) Date: Fri, 07 Nov 2008 16:39:20 -0800 Subject: [R-G] Volcker Makes Comeback as Part of Obama Brain Trust Message-ID: <200811080039.mA80dKVi016717@rm-rstar.sfu.ca> An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: not available Url: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/rad-green/attachments/20081107/51bdc0ef/attachment.txt From fentona at shaw.ca Fri Nov 7 21:22:12 2008 From: fentona at shaw.ca (Anthony Fenton) Date: Fri, 7 Nov 2008 20:22:12 -0800 Subject: [R-G] Fwd: Financial Chaos and the Crisis of Neoliberalism References: <33dd8914b0a8097d69282a1f00f148c6@socialistproject.ca> Message-ID: Financial Chaos and the Crisis of Neoliberalism A Workshop on Understanding the Credit Crisis and Its Implications for Wages, Pensions, American Power and Left Alternatives Coordinators: Greg Albo, community activist, Socialist Project and Professor of Political Economy, York University Adam Hanieh, CAIA and Political Science, McMaster University Tom Marois, Latin American Solidarity Activist and Development Studies, Queen's University Workshop 1 -- Marxian Views of Financial Capital and Credit Workshop 2 -- Capitalism, Neoliberalism and the Current Crises of WallStreet and Bay Street Workshop 3 -- Bank Bailouts or Socialist Alternatives? Video of the workshop is available here: www.socialistproject.ca/leftstreamed/fc.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~(((( Left Streamed Production ))))~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Produced by the Left Streamed Collective. Viewers are encouraged to distribute widely. Comments on the video and suggestions are welcome - write to info at socialistproject.ca For more analysis of contemporary politics check out 'Relay: A Socialist Project Review' at www.socialistproject.ca/relay From critical.montages at gmail.com Fri Nov 7 22:25:16 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Sat, 8 Nov 2008 00:25:16 -0500 Subject: [R-G] Thousands Demand Saakashvili Resignation Message-ID: Thousands Demand Saakashvili Resignation: November 8, 2008 Protesters Condemn President of Georgia By OLESYA VARTANYAN and MICHAEL SCHWIRTZ TBILISI, Georgia ? Thousands of antigovernment demonstrators poured into the streets of Georgia's capital, Tbilisi, on Friday, hoping to weaken the government of President Mikheil Saakashvili as it strives to maintain power despite a catastrophic war with Russia and a growing economic malaise at home. The large, though generally subdued, demonstration occurred one year after black-helmeted riot police officers violently quashed opposition protests in Tbilisi, pelting unarmed civilians with clubs and rubber bullets, and using tear gas and water cannons to chase the protesters from the streets. That event roused accusations domestically and internationally that the president's promises of democracy and reform, which he made upon taking power in a bloodless coup in 2003, had fallen short, leaving Georgia only slightly more democratic than the country's post-Soviet neighbors, including Azerbaijan, Armenia and Russia. But while Mr. Saakashvili is perhaps still off kilter after last year's political tumult and the war with Russia in August ? which many see as a humiliation for Georgia that the president may have provoked ? he remains popular and appears still to be very much in control. At Friday's protest, opposition politicians condemned Mr. Saakashvili's handling of the war and blamed the president for losing two separatist Georgian enclaves, South Ossetia, over which the war was fought, and Abkhazia. Russia has consolidated its control of both enclaves and now recognizes them as independent states, despite widespread international disapproval of the move. Protesting opposition members also repeated accusations of fraud in presidential and parliamentary elections held this year, and they called for early elections to be held in the spring. But the message was equally one of patience, with opposition leaders apparently using the protest to gauge the political mood just months after a majority of Georgians rallied to the side of Mr. Saakashvili in the face of a Russian invasion. "It is impossible to reach freedom in half an hour, one hour or two hours," Kakha Kukava, an opposition leader, told the protesters. Some of the demonstrators were disappointed in calls to wait, saying they would like Mr. Saakashvili and his team to be removed from power immediately, lest they provoke renewed fighting with Russia. "Saakashvili should go right now," said Eka Jipashvili, a protesters. "We need a new government that will be able to negotiate with Russia and will not worry us with ideas of new war." Few analysts, however, think Mr. Saakashvili's immediate removal is possible, given the fractured state of the opposition. Some central opposition figures skipped the protest, including Nino Burdzhanadze, a former speaker of the Parliament and an erstwhile confidant of Mr. Saakashvili, who broke with the president over the police crackdown last November. "I don't think the opposition is going to storm the president's office, storm Parliament and take over Georgia," said Lincoln Mitchell, a Georgia expert at Columbia University. Friday's demonstration appeared to be largely a victory for the Georgian government, which has been under increasing scrutiny internally and by backers in Western governments. The government has said it aspires to follow the democratic principles espoused by Mr. Saakashvili, but critics say it has receded in practice. The demonstration, which the government allowed, occurred without problems, and few police officers were on the streets. It was muted compared with last year's raucous protests. Back then, about 500 people were injured, though none fatally, in the police crackdown, which was the culmination of a month of political turmoil that had pushed the once enormously popular government of Mr. Saakashvili to the verge of implosion and that had stained relations with the president's allies in Europe and the United States. Yet Mr. Saakashvili survived politically, unexpectedly conceding to opposition demands and declaring early presidential elections that temporarily eased internal political tensions and foreign criticism. He won the elections, though there were accusations of fraud by the opposition. In a televised appeal made last month, Mr. Saakashvili said he had learned painful lessons from last year's police violence and vowed to prevent a recurrence. "We have all learned big lessons from Nov. 7," he said. "We have seen mistakes made by the Georgian authorities." He added: "Those events demonstrate how important it is for the government and the president to listen to the people, and how important it is to maintain dialogue even with minor groups." Olesya Vartanyan reported from Tbilisi, Georgia, and Michael Schwirtz from Moscow. Olesya Vartanyan reported from Tbilisi, and Michael Schwirtz from Moscow. From menecraj at shaw.ca Fri Nov 7 23:13:20 2008 From: menecraj at shaw.ca (Richard Menec) Date: Sat, 8 Nov 2008 00:13:20 -0600 Subject: [R-G] Warning: exquisite humour . . . Message-ID: Obama Win Causes Obsessive Supporters To Realize How Empty Their Lives Are From fentona at shaw.ca Fri Nov 7 23:20:56 2008 From: fentona at shaw.ca (Anthony Fenton) Date: Fri, 7 Nov 2008 22:20:56 -0800 Subject: [R-G] Our Obama Problem: A View From Europe Message-ID: Weekend Edition November 7 / 9, 2008 A View From Europe Our Obama Problem By JEAN BRICMONT http://counterpunch.com/bricmont11072008.html There are two factors to take into account in order to judge an election : what voters express by their vote and what the elected candidate is likely to do. In the case of the US presidential election, it would have been very depressing if the US population had elected McCain, after eight years of Bush. In fact, it is somewhat surprising that he still managed to get 48% of the popular vote, and that the Republican candidate did so well in states like Louisiana (remember Katrina ?). In that sense, the Left should welcome the Obama victory, not so much because he is ?African-American?, but because people who vote for him probably express a desire for change, and, in general, for progressive change : less war, a more balanced economic policy, and a more friendly attitude with respect to the environment. But the question of what the candidate will do is an entirely different matter. That depends on what he wants to do and what he can do. An American president has lots of power, but he is not a dictator and even a dictator would have to take into account relationships of forces. What Obama wants to do is not totally clear, but it is certain that he will not oppose the powers that be (Wall Street, big corporations, the pro-Israel lobby, etc.) that allowed him to win. He has at least demonstrated that much during the campaign. Of course, Obama has also to take onto account the pressure from below. But that is where the main problem arises : which pressure ? If some Americans are irritated by the Obamania in the United States, they would be even more so if they looked at what goes on abroad, especially in Europe. There is nothing I find more depressing than to see youth in the French banlieues being ?mobilized? for Obama, along with all of social democracy, show business and (enlightened) Zionists. I even saw some of those youths saying they will send a bullet-proof vest to Obama because they think that America will never allow an African-American to be president, as if somebody supported by Warren Buffett and, in fact, by most of the establishment, was a threat to America and in need of their help. In other words, the Obama problem is his extreme popularity in Europe, which is based both on his skin colour and on his ?image?. Because people don?t understand how much race relations in the United States have actually changed, they see Obama?s election as a sort of absolute miracle and, since the media present him as a strong alternative to Bush, and hardly report, for example, his plans to send more troops to Afghanistan, they think that he is far more progressive than he actually is. Of course, given the disastrous state of the Left worldwide, people desperately want to believe in something positive happening somewhere, and that only reinforces the illusions about Obama. Besides, there is hardly any Right in Europe that is anti-Obama. In fact the Right and most of current social-democracy love Obama because he will let them be openly pro-American again. Because the United States is less egalitarian (in an economic sense) than Europe, the social wage is smaller, there are weaker unions and fewer worker?s rights, the European elite views the United States as some sort of capitalist paradise. The problem with Bush is that he was so brutal, arrogant, inefficient and stupid that it became increasingly difficult for them to openly express their admiration for the United States. But now, everything changes -- by shifting the attention from social issues to ??race?? , they can turn the tables around and make the United States look like THE progressive country of the West. The very pro-American, ?New Left?, French daily Lib?ration has already suggested that the election of Obama is a lesson in democracy for France. Curiously, they cite long voting lines as evidence for this, while of course such lines in non-Western countries are taken as a sign of inefficiency or, worse, of the government?s intention to dissuade people from voting. A final problem is that Obama?s critics will automatically be suspected of racism. Already being ?anti-American? is identified by Zionists with being antisemitic, so with a African-American president, we can expect the worst of both worlds. The question therefore is, how much will Obama be able to get away with, if and when his foreign policy clashes with the expectations of his leftist European supporters ? Because of the strength of the illusions, it is of course very difficult to combat them before he has done anything. The only hope is that people will take him, not at his word, because he has not promised anything, but at what they think his word is, and will react furiously when he betrays their (unfounded) hopes. Only that can prevent the United States from escalating its wars in Afghanistan, Iraq or elsewhere. But the deepest problem is that, sixty years after the end of WW2, Europeans still see themselves as somehow dependent on the United States. For their elites, the reasons are clear and understandable, but the rest of us, including a big part of the Left, still put too much of our hopes in expecting the US population to elect a ?good prince?, as they have just done with Obama. We should determine our foreign policy, and our social model irrespective of American choices and we should not be afraid of talking with other countries, like Russia, China or Iran without worrying what Uncle Sam thinks. Europeans often view the United States as a model of democracy, but there can?t be anything more undemocratic than for us to determine our policies in a way that depends on elections in which we do not participate. The US population elects its president, not the Master of the Universe. This seems to be understood nowadays in Russia, Asia, Latin America and the Muslim world. Only in Europe do we still need to decolonize our minds. Jean Bricmont teaches physics in Belgium and is a member of the Brussels Tribunal. His new book, Humanitarian Imperialism, is published by Monthly Review Press. He can be reached at bricmont at fyma.ucl.ac.be . From critical.montages at gmail.com Fri Nov 7 23:25:17 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Sat, 8 Nov 2008 01:25:17 -0500 Subject: [R-G] Postcards to U.S. President Message-ID: From srobin21 at comcast.net Fri Nov 7 23:30:06 2008 From: srobin21 at comcast.net (Steven L. Robinson) Date: Fri, 7 Nov 2008 22:30:06 -0800 Subject: [R-G] How the faithful voted Message-ID: <145801c9416b$7173f260$54f2fea9@noir> How the faithful voted Stephen Bates The Guardian Friday November 7 2008 In recent presidential elections the religious right - basically white, evangelical Protestants - has been one of the most scrutinised portions of the electorate, with good reason. Although they make up fewer than a quarter of voters, for some decades now Republican strategists have recognised that they can be mobilised and reliably turn out to vote, particularly if juiced up on certain moral issues, such as abortion and homosexuality, both of which have been turned successfully into politically partisan causes. That gives them influence out of proportion to their numbers - which is why Republicans have targeted and cultivated them, while the Democrats have largely ignored them because of their antediluvian views. In tight elections such as 2000 and 2004 they certainly made the difference between defeat and victory for George Bush, particularly as they made common cause with white Catholic voters who had traditionally voted for the Democrats. Bush could certainly do the "God Talk" - the buzz words and phrases that convinced evangelicals that he was one of them - in a way that Al Gore (himself a southern Baptist) and John Kerry (a Catholic) either could not, or would not do. So how did God vote this time? Time magazine quotes James Dobson, leader of Focus on the Family, as telling Sarah Palin on his radio show a fortnight ago: "God's perfect will be done on November 4th," in which case He's let the religious right down rather badly this week. On the other hand, the early polling evidence is that, despite the fact that Barack Obama's team tried considerably harder to attract the Christian vote this time than Kerry - who employed one part-timer and a student to do "outreach" in 2004 - and despite widespread suspicion of John McCain among religious voters and lack of enthusiasm for him as a candidate - remember he called them once "agents of intolerance" - regular evangelical church-goers remained largely loyal to the Republicans. Initial analysis by the respected Pew Forum polling organisation seems to show that about 73% of born-again evangelicals voted for McCain/Palin - down from about 79% four years ago - while non-church goers voted in similar proportions for Obama. Among Catholics - who after all are the largest single denomination in the US and make up 27% of the entire electorate - the margin was much narrower: 52% of white Catholics who are regular Mass-attenders voted for McCain, 47% for Obama, while non-practising Catholics went 61% to 37% for Obama. The shift in the Catholic vote may be accounted for in the increasing proportion of Hispanic voters who opted for the Democratic candidate: of all Catholics - so including blacks and Hispanics - the proportions were 54% to 45% for Obama. Four years ago, the Catholic vote went to George Bush by five points. In any event, the stern and highly partisan warnings by some Catholic church leaders to their congregations not to vote for Obama because his views on abortion seem to have had only limited influence - something the bishops will now have four years to reflect upon (but probably won't). Of other Christian denominations, among non-evangelical Protestants, this week's vote split 52% to 46% for Obama - an almost precise reversal of four years ago - and other denominations: Jews and other faiths went by margins of 73-78% for Obama to 21-22% for McCain. There were gains too for Obama among regular church attenders: those attending services at least once a week: 43% of them voted for the Democratic candidate as opposed to 39% who voted for Kerry last time. It seems likely that many of the evangelicals who voted for Obama came from black churches - a result of the increased registration drive by the Obama team and the attraction of having a black candidate. That may have had a downside for liberals as socially conservative black Christian voters are probably responsible for anti-gay marriage amendments being passed in states such as California. It is to say the least ironic that the Republicans have largely ignored the black vote, despite its perceived social conservatism - and probably they could never have won it against Obama, who took over 90% of the black vote this year anyway - but they have smugly subsided into being an overwhelmingly white party at a time of increasing US ethnic diversity. Two years ago, when I was researching a book on American religious influence on politics (God's Own Country, Hodder and Stoughton 2007) Richard Land, the chief Washington lobbyist for the Southern Baptist Convention, a largely white gathering, happily told me that Republicans were steadily building a solid majority because they were outbreeding Democrats (because the latter, of course, aborted their babies) but that at least has proved to be not only inane but wishful thinking. What messages do these figures give to Republican strategists licking their wounds this weekend? Probably that the white evangelicals continue to form their most reliable constituency and that moral issues will remain the bedrock of their support. Whether this will enable the party to reach out to the wider, more diverse electorate and to be seen as less obsessive about gay people and abortion remains to be seen; but they will draw comfort from the fact that Obama's popularity will probably not last as the recession continues and disengagement in Iraq takes longer than anticipated. If they continue to pander to the religious right though they will find it hard to build a majority, or a convincing narrative, to appeal to less committed voters. Doubtless at this weekend's Republican post-mortems on the result some will be arguing that the trouble was that this year's campaign was not conservative enough, or sufficiently firm in its commitments to religious voters on issues such as abortion. If that is the case, the party's strategists should cast a glance at the experience of British Conservatives - if, that is, modern Republicans deign to look abroad for any possible lessons on any subject whatsoever - and observe how the Tory right's messianic obsession with the wickedness of the European Union helped cast it into outer electoral darkness for the 1997 and 2001 general elections here. Republicans may be tempted to note that if only three voters in every 100 had voted Republican instead of Democrat, John McCain would have won and therefore conclude that the push need not be so great next time. In some swing states Obama won that would be true: Indiana one point, Ohio and Virginia five points, but not in all: Nevada 12 points, New Mexico 15 points, Pennsylvania 11 points. Moreover, those majorities indicate changing demographics: more Hispanic voters, more younger professionals in swing states. There are even signs that the evangelical vote is changing: younger evangelicals are not so obsessed as older ones with some issues: they are pretty hot still on abortion, but much more concerned about climate change as an issue. And even they are affected as much as any other voters by the credit crunch. But probably, since no one likes to concede a mistake, Republicans strategists will conclude that the religious right can be stirred to outrage once more in 2012 and that they will provide the perfect base from which to work. And who would be the best candidate to talk the God Talk next time round? Step forward Sarah Palin ... http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/nov/07/uselections2008-usa This email was cleaned by emailStripper, available for free from http://www.papercut.biz/emailStripper.htm From shimogamo at attglobal.net Sat Nov 8 01:58:13 2008 From: shimogamo at attglobal.net (Bill Totten) Date: Sat, 08 Nov 2008 17:58:13 +0900 Subject: [R-G] [BillTottenWeblog] History and Hope Message-ID: <491554A5.90105@attglobal.net> by John Michael Greer The Archdruid Report (November 05 2008) Druid perspectives on nature, culture, and the future of industrial society I'd meant to talk in this week's Archdruid Report post about the peak oil conference I attended last weekend in suburban Detroit. Still, that will have to wait for next time, as last night's election results deserve a comment of their own. Mind you, I intend to leave the political implications for others to discuss. The separation of church and state has been denounced by far too many people, on the left as well as the right, who have forgotten that it was originally put there to protect churches from political interference, not vice versa. It is nonetheless one of the essential foundations of the religious liberty that enables me to practice my Druid faith; one of the lessons I draw from this is that, as the head of a religious organization, I have the civic duty to keep my mouth shut about matters of partisan politics. There will no doubt be a banquet of political discussion in the months ahead of us lavish enough to satisfy even the most eager palate. What I want to discuss just now, though, has less to do with the candidates in the presidential election now ended, than with the millions of ordinary people who filed into polling places yesterday and decided between them. All through the last two years or so, since Barack Obama began what seemed at the time like an improbable quest for the US presidency, one concern expressed repeatedly by the media and ordinary people alike was the possibility that the election would end up being about the issue of race. In a certain sense, that was indeed what happened - but in a very unexpected sense. Some four decades after the assassination of Martin Luther King, the American people had the chance to judge an African-American candidate, in King's words, not by the color of his skin but by the content of his character - and by and large, they rose to that not inconsiderable challenge. There may well have been some who voted for Obama because of his ethnic background, just as there were doubtless some who voted against him for that reason; but even among those who voted for his opponent, there were many who did so not because of Obama's race, but simply because they disagreed with his policy proposals, just as if he were any other candidate. That is an achievement of immense scope. It may just turn out that this nation has at long last begun to heal the old wound of racial hatred that has riven America right down to its core since the first days of European settlement. So deep a wound will not close at once; as Wendell Berry pointed out some years ago in a book too rarely read, the scar tissue of the racial divide reaches all through our national psyche, on all sides of the various color lines that still wall us away from each other - and from ourselves. Still, it's no little thing that a majority of voters in Virginia, the heart of the old Confederacy; in Indiana, where a quarter of all adult males belonged to the Ku Klux Klan a mere seventy years ago; and in this nation as a whole, voted for the first time in history to send a black man to the White House. We have no way of knowing in advance what kind of president Barack Obama will turn out to be, or how history will regard his tenure. He's proven himself in a difficult campaign to be resourceful, energetic, thoughtful, and almost superhumanly cool under pressure, but many people have arrived at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue with abilities like these, and some of them have crashed and burned. Many of the cards in the hand he'll have to play will be dealt him by decisions made months and years beforehand, or by circumstances nobody can control. Still, a door has been opened, and I can't help but think that America will be better off from the simple fact that the highest levels of its political system are no longer exclusively reserved to the fraction of its population that happens to be white. Nor is yesterday's impact limited to issues of race; I think it almost certain that America's first woman president will be inaugurated within a decade, and it's even odds which of the two major parties will nominate her. The broadening of the pool of potential talent this implies will be desperately needed in the years to come. It's unfortunate, though it was probably inevitable, that the major issues of this moment in history were barely mentioned by any party, major or minor, in the presidential campaign. Over the next decade or so, the United States will have to work out a way to stand down from a global military-economic empire it can no longer afford to maintain; it will have to find the money and the means to replace a mostly fictive economy based on the manipulation of baroque financial instruments with a real economy based on the production of goods and services for people; it will have to make good on decades of malign neglect inflicted on the national infrastructure on nearly every level, even as it struggles to convert a suburban landcape viable only in an age of cheap abundant fossil fuels to something that makes sense in the world of scarce and expensive energy ahead of us. Few of the changes that will be imposed by these necessities will be popular. Many, in fact, will be bitterly resented, and none of them will come cheaply. We have wasted so many opportunities and poured so many of our once-abundant resources into a decades-long joyride that the next few years will almost certainly impose one wrenching challenge after another on a society that the recent past has left very poorly equipped to face them. Our history is among the heaviest burdens we face, because the habits we learned during America's imperial zenith are among the things that are most necessary to unlearn in the new and far more multipolar world dawning around us. Still, I find myself feeling a bit more hopeful than before, for the burden of racial hatred was also profoundly rooted in American history and identity, and the verdict of last night's election suggests that it has turned out to be subject to change. I think of the difference forty years has made, from 1968, when an assassin's bullet cut down Martin Luther King and inner cities across America exploded in violence, to 2008, when a nation's ballot sent Barack Obama to the presidency and many of those same inner cities celebrated straight through the night. We live in a different country now, and the possibility that Americans might be able to rise to the massive challenge of the deindustrial transition has become just slightly harder for me to dismiss out of hand. Still, that turn of history's wheel is still ahead of us, and we will have to wait and see. _____ ?John Michael Greer has been active in the alternative spirituality movement for more than 25 years, and is the author of a dozen books, including The Druidry Handbook (2006) and The Long Descent (2008). He lives in Ashland, Oregon. http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com/2008/11/history-and-hope.html TO POST A COMMENT, OR TO READ COMMENTS POSTED BY OTHERS, please click on the word "comment" highlighted at the end of the version of this essay posted at http://billtotten.blogspot.com/ From shniad at sfu.ca Mon Nov 3 11:58:26 2008 From: shniad at sfu.ca (Sid Shniad) Date: Mon, 03 Nov 2008 10:58:26 -0800 Subject: [R-G] Boycott Veolia action in Bilbao - Palestinian BDS campaign - november 1st (fwd) Message-ID: <200811031858.mA3IwQAj000030@rm-rstar.sfu.ca> An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: not available Url: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/rad-green/attachments/20081103/00142dd4/attachment.txt From critical.montages at gmail.com Sat Nov 8 08:09:56 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Sat, 8 Nov 2008 10:09:56 -0500 Subject: [R-G] Brazil Oilfield May House '100bn Barrels' Message-ID: Brazil oilfield may house '100bn barrels' By Jonathan Wheatley in S?o Paulo Published: November 7 2008 23:55 | Last updated: November 7 2008 23:55 Brazil's newly discovered "pre-salt" oilfields may contain more than 100bn barrels, Haroldo Lima, head of the industry regulatory, said on Friday. Mr Lima said just the pre-salt oilfields already under concession may contain between 50bn and 80bn barrels and that the total area could surpass 100bn barrels. EDITOR'S CHOICE Lex: Brazilian banks - Nov-03 Wave of mergers set to break in Brazil - Nov-07 S?o Paulo mayoral race turns dirty - Oct-16 Lula's power base faces local polls test - Oct-03 Brazil's low exposure may dilute turmoil - Oct-15 Brazil steps in to shore up real - Oct-09 If so, the new fields would propel Brazil up the world league table of oil producing nations. Brazil currently has reserves of about 12.6bn barrels (or 14.4bn barrels of oil equivalent if natural gas is included), according to a statistical review produced by BP of the UK, a standard industry reference. That compares with 79.4bn barrels of oil in Russia, for example, or 101.5bn in Kuwait, according to BP. "Dimensions are so big that we still don't have a good vision of what this means for Brazil," Mr Lima told reporters in Rio de Janeiro. The pre-salt oilfields ? as their name suggests ? are trapped beneath a layer of salt under about 7,000 metres of sea water and rock and are among the most inaccessible on earth. The geological formation of which they are part is about 800 km long and 200 km wide, running up the southern Brazilian coast from the Santos Basin, about 200 km offshore. The deposits were discovered in 2007 and since then the government has suspended its annual auctions of concessions of geographical "blocks", in which oil companies accept exploratory risk in return for rights over any oil and gas they may discover. Every well so far sunk into the pre-salt fields has struck oil ? a hit rate of 100 per cent compared with about 15 per cent common in new areas in Brazil. Ministers have likened selling concessions in pre-salt fields to selling winning lottery tickets and the government is preparing a new regulatory framework for the pre-salt fields. But 10 concessions in the Santos Basin had been sold before the government realised the potential of the new fields. The areas under concession form a minority of the total pre-salt area, suggesting Mr Lima's estimate may be very conservative. From fentona at shaw.ca Sat Nov 8 09:51:02 2008 From: fentona at shaw.ca (Anthony Fenton) Date: Sat, 8 Nov 2008 08:51:02 -0800 Subject: [R-G] Fwd: Hopey Heals a Hemisphere References: Message-ID: http://www.borev.net/2008/11/hopey_heals_a_hemisphere.html > > Hey did you hear about those elections? Whathisname won, you know, > "that one." You may have read something about it. Anyway the city of > Washington turned into one big crazy street party and your editor > became instantly and ridiculously drunk and then hung over, which is > to say we didn't post anything yesterday, because of democracy. As > it turns out, our whole entire "back yard" seems to have an opinion > on this Obama character, too. It's funny to watch all the DC "think > tank" ding dongs say they want the next president to "pay more > attention" to the region while the region is like, "no, really just > stay the fuck out of our way, thanks." We've got a roundup of Latin > American Obama reactions, after the jump. But first, let's all share > a laugh at the way the New York Times introduced a comment from > Venezuela: > "Even in lands whose leaders are no friends of Washington, the > election outcome cut through official propaganda to touch some > people." > Because, you know, "official propaganda" is the only information > available in Venezuela? Because there's no...internet? Or CNN? Or > hundreds of daily newspapers? And the Venezuelan government would > want to keep the people from hearing about U.S. elections? > Seriously, what does this mean? Moving on... > Hey waddaya know? Rich Venezuelans and poor Venezuelans reacted > exactly opposite to the election, as always, except for the part > where everybody hates Bush and likes Obama > Chavez weighs in: ``The historic election of an Afro-descendant to > the head of the most powerful country in the world is a sign that > the change that's been carried out in South America may be reaching > the doorstep of the U.S.'' Ha ha, nice touch. > Evo's like great, yeah, fuck off: "My greatest wish is that Mr. > Obama can end the Cuba embargo, take troops out of some countries, > and also surely relations between Bolivia and the United States will > improve." > Lula, too: ``I hope the blockade of Cuba ends, because it no longer > has any justification in the history of humanity.'' > Crisitina channels her inner Princess Leia: `I know we can count on > you, and I want you to know that you can count on my sincere > friendship.'' > This being the Castro administration's 23rd odd US president, they > are, hilariously, resigned: "If Obama takes some action to ease the > embargo, it would be welcomed and of course it would be of help, but > we're prepared for conditions to remain the same." In other words, > whatevs. > No comment from President Death Squad, although the former US > ambassador to Colombia says ``Obama will criticize Uribe harshly, > something Bush never did, and will be tougher on him over human > rights abuses.'' Sweet. > Read more? > From mstainsby at resist.ca Sat Nov 8 18:56:30 2008 From: mstainsby at resist.ca (Macdonald Stainsby) Date: Sat, 08 Nov 2008 18:56:30 -0700 Subject: [R-G] Everyone's Downstream II: November 22nd, 23rd Message-ID: <4916434E.5070706@resist.ca> **please forward to contacts who may have interest** Everyone's Downstream II: Stop Playing Games With Our Lives To be held November 22nd, 23rd at The Edmonton Native Friendship Centre 11205 101 Street NW (Edmonton, AB) Both days to begin at 9am cost for both days--suggested donation: $0-$15-- unemployed $10-$20-- under employed/student $20-up-- full time, $35-- NGO or otherwise represented. **NO ONE TURNED AWAY FOR LACK OF FUNDS** This event is co-presented by OilSandsTruth.org [OST] with the Indigenous Environmental Network [IEN] And on Friday November 21, 2008 at the University of Alberta: Dominion Launch of "State of Mine: An investigation of Canada's extractive industries," presented by Apirg with help from OST. please check back at the website for room, address & time of event. *** Why Everyone's Downstream II? In the words used by the oil industry, the ?upstream? location of an oil operation is where the oil is extracted. Everything else is ?downstream,? from pipelines to refineries or even an upgrader located close by. Everyone's Downstream II (November 22, 23 2008) is a conference designed to explore ?further downstream? than usual. From many refinery, pipeline and proposed development locations we will hear the voices of front line communities resisting further tar sands encroachments in many places throughout North America. This will include locations in areas commonly thought of as Central and Eastern Canada as well as several locations throughout the lower 48 United States. We will also go into depth with many of the peoples and issues being resisted in both British Columbia and Alberta, in relation to the 2010 Winter Olympic Games and the Tar Sands respectively. From the environment to war, housing and self determination both massive developments not only are making human lives and ecological survival far more difficult, but are also being carried out by many of the same corporations, along with participants in the North American Competitiveness Council (NACC). Speaking with activists, scholars and front line community members from both regions, Everyone's Downstream II will explore the links between Olympic and Tar Sand development-- as well as commonality in resistance, struggle and solidarity across many time zones, locations and identities for both the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver and Whistler, and the continent wide Tar Sands Gigaproject. The night before Everyone's Downstream II, The Dominion: Canada's Grassroots News Cooperative will be launching "State of Mine." Canadian mining and exploration companies have created conflict from Northern BC to Thailand to Congo and back to rural Nova Scotia. Around the world, anti-mining networks have sprung up, spearheaded by communities who realize they have more to lose than to gain from open-pit megaprojects on their lands. State of Mine: An investigation of Canada's extractive industries is the collected work of dozens of independent journalists, our effort to jump-start a much needed national debate about the future of mining. We include stories from communities spanning the globe ? more stories than we could fit in this, our biggest issue ever. Join Dominion editors Dru Oja Jay and Dawn Paley for the launch of State of Mine, Friday, November 21 at the University of Alberta. Come out and learn how you can participate in Canada's grassroots news cooperative! State of Mine Launch is an Ap!rg/OST co-sponsored event. Please watch for updates with room and time of the Dominion launch event. The conference is co-sponsored by the Indigenous Environmental Network [IEN] with OilSandsTruth.org [OST] Currently confirmed panels (Please check back, panels subject to change): **Downstream by River & Downstream by Industry** (9:00am until 12:00pm) Casey Camp, Ponca Nation. Tar sands refinery expansion in major refinery "hub" of Oklahoma. Kandi Mossett, Fort Berthold Indian Reservation (territory of Mandan, Arikara and Hidatsa), tar sands refinery plans. Eriel Deranger, Rainforest Action Network [RAN] tar sands campaign, Athabasca Chipewyan/Dene First Nation. Development of tar sands in Northern Saskatchewan. George Poitras, member, Mikisew Cree First Nation. Impacts of tar sands develpment on Fort Chipewyan. Dru Oja Jay, Editor, Dominion news cooperative (Montr?al). Tar sands expanding into Petro Canada refinery in Qu?bec? Dustin Johnson, Tsimshian Nation and coordinator of North Coast Enviro Watch. Proposed Enbridge Gateway Pipeline, LNG Port near Kitimat, major Container Port near Prince Rupert and super oil and gas tanker traffic. Lunch Break 1:00pm- 2:30pm 2010 Winter Olympics and Tar Sands Development: Stop Playing Games with Our Lives Introduction to the Tar Sands and 2010 Games as issues that must be connected. --Clayton Thomas-Muller, Indigenous tar sands campaigner for the Indigenous Environmental Network [IEN] Trade Deals and massive developments: --The Security and Prosperity Partnership [SPP] and Tar Sands Development. Gordon Laxer, Director, Parkland Institute. --The SPP and development around the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver. Garth Mullins, social activist and writer with the Olympics Resistance Network (Vancouver) 2:45pm-4:00pm Greenwashing and massive developments --corporate greenwashing in the Alberta Tar Sands. Petr Cizek, independent environmental consultant and PhD Candidate, Faculty of Forestry, UBC & map designer for OilSandsTruth.org (by live audio feed) --The Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC) & Greenwashing efforts. Dawn Paley, contributing editor with the Dominion news cooperative 4:15pm-5:30 Massive Developments and connections to Wars of Aggression -- Tar Sands feeding the War on Iraq? Ricardo Acu?a, Executive Director, Parkland Institute -- 20th Century Wars and their ties to Olympic Games. Dustin Johnson, member Native 2010 Resistance, coordinator North Coast Enviro Watch. Sunday November 23, 2008. 9:00am-11:00am labour, housing crises, gender violence and other social impacts of massive developments. -- Albertan Tar Sands Boom and the housing crisis. Albertans Demand Affordable Housing (ADAH) --Temporary Foreign Worker programs expanding throughout Alberta. United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) and the struggles at the Maple Leaf plant in Edmonton. -- 2010 Winter Olympics and the housing crisis. Carol Martin, Nisga'a/ Gitxsan nation, Downtown Eastside Women's Centre (DEWC). coffee break 11:15am-1:00pm Impacts of massive developments on indigenous self determination --Impacts of the tar sands on indigenous communities in the Athabasca Region. Mike Mercredi, community member, Fort Chipewyan --Impacts of the 2010 Olympic Games on indigenous communities across British Columbia. Kanahus Pellkey, Secwepemc Nation and member, Secwepemc Native Youth Movement. Lunch Break 2:30pm- close: Closing Panel: 2010 Olympics and Tar Sands Gigaproject: Where do we go from here? ********* Website home of Everyone's Downstream II: http://oilsandstruth.org/everyone039s-downstream-ii-stop-playing-games-with-our-lives EDSII Event Facebook Group: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=42907433053 IEN Tar Sands Campaign: http://www.ienearth.org/cits.html Oil Sands Truth Facebook Group: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=8351822347 From critical.montages at gmail.com Sat Nov 8 19:56:13 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Sat, 8 Nov 2008 21:56:13 -0500 Subject: [R-G] Cuban Ballet Marks 60th Anniversary Message-ID: Cuban Ballet Marks 60th Anniversary: Yoshie From realiteee1 at yahoo.com Sat Nov 8 21:34:50 2008 From: realiteee1 at yahoo.com (james m nordlund) Date: Sat, 8 Nov 2008 20:34:50 -0800 (PST) Subject: [R-G] Going Forward to Stop the Crimes of Our Government In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <877930.32245.qm@web50803.mail.re2.yahoo.com> The World Can't Wait Stop the Crimes of Your Government Donate | Local Chapters | Store http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/1170/t/5806/event/index.jsp?event_KEY=46404 You are invited: National meeting of The World Can't Wait Nov 22/23 Chicago Register Here or call 866 973 4463 Be part of analyzing the new political situation we're in, deciding how World Can't Wait will go forward, and making immediate plans to confront the crimes of your government. Join Ongoing World Can't Wait efforts: NO torture in our names - Dismantle the US torture state and FIRE John Yoo, the author of the "torture memos" in the Bush White House, now at UC Berkeley Law School. "We Are Not Your Soldiers" Tour to high school classrooms, resisting military recruiting beginning Nov 19, Atlanta!" james m, I was on 125th Street in Harlem Tuesday night, and down through Manhattan until late, among people dancing in the streets, honking horns, blocking streets with joy at the election of Barack Obama. As we promised, World Can't Wait was at Grant Park (left, with banner reading, "No More Wars for Empire") and other locations around the country, talking with people, experiencing the moment, and yes...arguing with and learning from people on what they think Obama will change. My favorite moment was an exchange with an African American woman, age 75. I was wearing the orange "no attack on Iran" t-shirt. She pointed to it and said, "I see you haven't drunk the kool-aid...You know, that's what Obama wants to do!" The World Can't Wait! Stop the Crimes of Your Government! People are dancing with joy to see Republicans voted out after the 8 miserable years under the Bush regime. Many are placing huge hope in Obama's election. But, based on what president-elect Obama says, and who he has already chosen for his team, he will preside over changes we don't want and shouldn't get sucked into supporting. Some hard facts & questions: What is there to celebrate in an Obama presidency? Making us feel good about the country again when Obama is trying to unite us to behind what he calls "the good war" in Afghanistan? While people in the US were lining up to vote, a US air strike on an Afghan wedding party killed 34 civilians. Another strike killed 7 more yesterday. Obama, the "anti-war" candidate, wants to leave 50 to 80,000 troops in Iraq, and move more combat brigades to Afghanistan. He promises to increase the US military by 92,000, ready to project American empire further on the lives of kids in high school now. Obama proposed sending drones and special forces into Pakistan - a sovereign country - and the Bush regime secretly began attacks on Pakistan in July, which have killed scores of civilians, as part of the Bush doctrine of pre-emptive war. How could we celebrate "national unity" when Obama's vote for the FISA law opens the way for unprecedented political repression and spying on the people? People expected Obama, who taught Constitutional law, to protect their rights, but Obama went out of his way to make an unpopular vote to bolster the "war on terror" and set the basis for expanded political repression. He voted for an amended USA PATRIOT Act that had more draconian curbs on political protest than the 2001 version. How can we feel Obama is "for the people" when he put all his backing behind the bailout of Wall Street banks, but tells the people only to have faith in their leaders? When he supports the notoriously racist death penalty, and blames Black people themselves for the huge prison population? When he finds "common ground" with the most rabid Christian fundamentalist plans to do away with abortion and gay marriage? The ban on gay marriage passed in California, benefiting from Obama's expressed opposition to gay marriage. In the face of huge crimes perpetrated by the Bush regime,.Obama said, "I think you reserve impeachment for grave, grave breaches, and intentional breaches of the president's authority." There is a responsibility and a way for us to act: This is not the time to "wait and see" what Obama will do after January 20, or after 6 months or a year...or never, because if he does what's in the peoples' interests he won't be re-elected? He's telling us what he will do, and the worst thing would be to get passive in the face of more crimes being done in our name. There is a force to join with that will firmly oppose this program. World Can't Wait will be here, organizing a movement of resistance with a realistic aim -- to bring these crimes and this whole direction to a stop. If you don't want to join us now, remember what we're saying, and when it does become clear to you that the crimes of your government - not matter who is president -- have to be stopped, join with the kind of movement that CAN make that happen. Only the independent action of the people can create the conditions where those in power can be forced to act in accordance with our demands. This is the change we can believe in. Stop thinking like an American, and start thinking like someone who cares for the whole planet. Join the World Can't Wait. Support the "We Are Not Your Soldiers" tour of high schools in opposing military recruiters. Join the demand to end torture and dismiss, disbar and prosecute John Yoo and other high Bush administration officials for war crimes. Attend the national meeting of The World Can't Wait Nov 22/23 Chicago. Debra Sweet, Director, The World Can't Wait - Drive Out the Bush Regime World Can't Wait - info at worldcantwait.org - 866.973.4463 - 305 W. Broadway #185, NY, NY 10013 Send checks or money orders, payable to "World Can't Wait": World Can't Wait 305 W. Broadway #185 New York, NY 10013 For sponsorship level donations, or if you wish to make stock donations please contact our development director Samantha Goldman samantha at worldcantwait.org, 347-581-2677. To make a tax-deductible donation of $100 or more in support of WCW's educational activities, please make checks out to "The Alliance for Global Justice," a 501(3)(c) organization, and designate "for WCW" in the check memo line. From realiteee1 at yahoo.com Sat Nov 8 21:56:50 2008 From: realiteee1 at yahoo.com (james m nordlund) Date: Sat, 8 Nov 2008 20:56:50 -0800 (PST) Subject: [R-G] Letter from Leonard In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <130695.44363.qm@web50803.mail.re2.yahoo.com> Forwarded on behalf of the Leonard Peltier Defense Offense Committee November 5, 2008 My Relatives and Friends, Last night a change in this country took place that not too long ago many people said would never happen. An African-American was elected to the White House and by a major landslide, which gives him a mandate by the public to fulfill his promises. This landslide indicates the people have placed their hope with this man they call their president for a change in this country. HOPE. There have been times if I can even recall what it really means to have hope that justice is right around the corner. I've been mislead and disappointed so many times that I would soon see justice and to have it denied upon a technicality in legal appeals. Or like what happened eight years ago. Everyone placed their hope and trust with a couple named Bill and Hillary, but we were betrayed at the last minute. I know that many of my friends, family and supporters were crushed. I began to feel the weight and pressure of a lifetime being unjustly imprisoned began to crowd me into a corner of my cell and then in my mind. But, it was this thing that has been our battle cry for so many years, "In the Spirit of Crazy Horse". I remembered what he stood for and remained a warrior until his last breath. It is a strength that we stand upon when we are right. We were right to be in Oglala and we were right to be prepared to defend ourselves. What wasn't right is that a jury never got to hear any of this testimony, and the rest of the trial was a product of the fabrication and then manipulation of the FBI. This spirit of Crazy Horse is a spirit of being in total resistance to the wrongs perpetuated towards your people, community, family and yourself. Some of us called it outrage, but that is just merely an emotion without resolving the issue. It is when we make a conscious choice to try and balance the wrongs in this society that we are being compelled by this spirit of resistance to stand in defense of the wronged. That spirit cannot be conquered, and I refused to submit and give in when it appeared there may be no hope. It was because of the letters of support and encouragement from so many people that I continued on for another eight years. And now people seem to feel there is a change blowing in the wind and that the election of Obama is a manifestation of that change. I sincerely hope so, because I am now 64 years old and coming up on my 33 year of being confined and fighting for justice and my freedom, Obama may be my last chance at securing my freedom. If there is one thing I learned from earlier campaigns on my clemency is that he won't just be able to do it by himself. He is going to need your support in the form of public opinion on the case. That isn't going to happen until we can create education and awareness on the circumstances of my case across this country and send letters. Be a Branch Support Group to help create public opinion. My case has to be a national issue on justice denied, it may sound easy, but it isn't. The FBI has been an opposing force in attempting to discredit my cause and that of Native people since they focused their attention on the American Indian Movement in the 1970's. When it appeared that Clinton might actually grant clemency, the agents went and demonstrated at the White House and utilized their resources to create doubt in the mind of Clinton. So in the national awareness goals of the branch support groups it is going to be your challenge to keep the public interest focused. It is also another hope that with a whole generation of people who were born after my wrongful conviction that there will be a renewed source of energy and actions. One point that I would like everyone to focus on right now is a "30 year law" regarding my sentence and parole. At the time I was convicted, the guidelines said: "Any prisoner, .shall be released on parole. after serving thirty years of each consecutive term or terms of more than forty-five years including any life term, whichever is earlier: Provided, however, That the Commission shall not release such prisoner if it determines that he has seriously or frequently violated institution rules and regulations or that there is a reasonable probability that he will commit any Federal, State, or local crime." 28 U.S.C. section 28 U.S.C. 4206(d) I've served more than 30 years of this sentence and have been considered a model prisoner And the likelihood of committing any crimes is non-existent due to my age and the humanitarian work I've pursued to help my people since my incarceration. According to this law, they have to grant me a parole to my next sentence. But as we've learned from the past, we cannot take anything for granted so your letters should be focused on this law to the parole commission and congressional leaders. If the commission complies with the letter and spirit of this law, we will have made a significant step towards my freedom and we will need to maintain and increase this momentum. The Committee and I have been discussing several ideas and projects to make this a pro-active campaign. We are currently rebuilding the former LPSG's into LPBSG's. This is necessary due to a breakdown with the former Leonard Peltier Defense Committee. I had to turn to my sister and niece to help me rebuild my defense committee from scratch. We had no files, records, and merchandise. We have not been able to make contact with the former coordinator of the LPDC. We are still hoping to resolve this issue, but until then we needed to keep moving with the campaign. We still need all of our former contacts and supporters to reconnect with us and to update the information so that my Committee can handle correspondence and contributions. We need everyone who has supported me to contact the LPDOC and sign onto our listserv so that you can be updated with information on progress or activities needed in my campaign. I will need everyone to work with my Committee and clear any action with the appropriate people within the Committee. It is important that we all work together cohesively, instead of scattering our efforts or resources. We do not intend to discourage ideas or creativity, but we would like to incorporate such ideas into a unified larger effort and not act prematurely on some plans we may have not disclosed due to timing or details being worked out. Some of the projects we have discussed are conducting rides, walks, runs and events across the country to create this awareness of my case. We are initiating efforts to ask bands and artists to host fundraisers in their area. We've talked about strategies we could undertake to further my cause, but a lot will depend on how quickly people come to form my BSG and start organizing in their area. I also understand that some of us have personality issues with other people. I hope that many of you can pray or find a way to rise above this obstacle and work together for one common purpose. I would like to see so many of my supporters come together in a show of solidarity. If there really is a change in the air, we will need each other to bring about change in so many other areas. For me it has been about our culture and right to be who we are, but foremost it has been the children and the next generation. WE were supposed to leave a better world behind for them and how much have we accomplished? I know that somehow and someway my sacrifice will not be in vain and that the years I've endured this pain of loneliness and suffering in confinement will make a better world for those children and coming generations. That along with my freedom is my hope, but I will not be able to fulfill it without you. So take a few minutes and educate yourself on the injustices of my case. It may shock and outrage you, but you can do something about it, so join us. In the Spirit of Crazy Horse, Leonard Peltier Time to set him free... Because it is the RIGHT thing to do. Friends of Peltier http://www.FreePeltierNow.org ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To subscribe, send a blank message to freepeltiernow-on at mail-list.com To contact the list owner, send your message to freepeltiernow-list-owner at mail-list.com mail-list.com 1302 Waugh Dr. #438 Houston, Texas 77019 USA From shimogamo at attglobal.net Sun Nov 9 07:34:01 2008 From: shimogamo at attglobal.net (Bill Totten) Date: Sun, 09 Nov 2008 23:34:01 +0900 Subject: [R-G] [BillTottenWeblog] Farmer in Chief Message-ID: <4916F4D9.9010603@ashisuto.co.jp> The Food Issue by Michael Pollan The New York Times (October 12 2008) (The original version of this article, at the URL at the end of this post, contains links to several reference materials.) Dear Mr President-Elect, It may surprise you to learn that among the issues that will occupy much of your time in the coming years is one you barely mentioned during the campaign: food. Food policy is not something American presidents have had to give much thought to, at least since the Nixon administration - the last time high food prices presented a serious political peril. Since then, federal policies to promote maximum production of the commodity crops (corn, soybeans, wheat and rice) from which most of our supermarket foods are derived have succeeded impressively in keeping prices low and food more or less off the national political agenda. But with a suddenness that has taken us all by surprise, the era of cheap and abundant food appears to be drawing to a close. What this means is that you, like so many other leaders through history, will find yourself confronting the fact - so easy to overlook these past few years - that the health of a nation's food system is a critical issue of national security. Food is about to demand your attention. Complicating matters is the fact that the price and abundance of food are not the only problems we face; if they were, you could simply follow Nixon's example, appoint a latter-day Earl Butz as your secretary of agriculture and instruct him or her to do whatever it takes to boost production. But there are reasons to think that the old approach won't work this time around; for one thing, it depends on cheap energy that we can no longer count on. For another, expanding production of industrial agriculture today would require you to sacrifice important values on which you did campaign. Which brings me to the deeper reason you will need not simply to address food prices but to make the reform of the entire food system one of the highest priorities of your administration: unless you do, you will not be able to make significant progress on the health care crisis, energy independence or climate change. Unlike food, these are issues you did campaign on - but as you try to address them you will quickly discover that the way we currently grow, process and eat food in America goes to the heart of all three problems and will have to change if we hope to solve them. Let me explain. After cars, the food system uses more fossil fuel than any other sector of the economy - nineteen percent. And while the experts disagree about the exact amount, the way we feed ourselves contributes more greenhouse gases to the atmosphere than anything else we do - as much as 37 percent, according to one study. Whenever farmers clear land for crops and till the soil, large quantities of carbon are released into the air. But the 20th-century industrialization of agriculture has increased the amount of greenhouse gases emitted by the food system by an order of magnitude; chemical fertilizers (made from natural gas), pesticides (made from petroleum), farm machinery, modern food processing and packaging and transportation have together transformed a system that in 1940 produced 2.3 calories of food energy for every calorie of fossil-fuel energy it used into one that now takes ten calories of fossil-fuel energy to produce a single calorie of modern supermarket food. Put another way, when we eat from the industrial-food system, we are eating oil and spewing greenhouse gases. This state of affairs appears all the more absurd when you recall that every calorie we eat is ultimately the product of photosynthesis - a process based on making food energy from sunshine. There is hope and possibility in that simple fact. In addition to the problems of climate change and America's oil addiction, you have spoken at length on the campaign trail of the health care crisis. Spending on health care has risen from five percent of national income in 1960 to sixteen percent today, putting a significant drag on the economy. The goal of ensuring the health of all Americans depends on getting those costs under control. There are several reasons health care has gotten so expensive, but one of the biggest, and perhaps most tractable, is the cost to the system of preventable chronic diseases. Four of the top ten killers in America today are chronic diseases linked to diet: heart disease, stroke, Type 2 diabetes and cancer. It is no coincidence that in the years national spending on health care went from five percent to sixteen percent of national income, spending on food has fallen by a comparable amount - from eighteen percent of household income to less than ten percent. While the surfeit of cheap calories that the US food system has produced since the late 1970s may have taken food prices off the political agenda, this has come at a steep cost to public health. You cannot expect to reform the health care system, much less expand coverage, without confronting the public-health catastrophe that is the modern American diet. The impact of the American food system on the rest of the world will have implications for your foreign and trade policies as well. In the past several months more than thirty nations have experienced food riots, and so far one government has fallen. Should high grain prices persist and shortages develop, you can expect to see the pendulum shift decisively away from free trade, at least in food. Nations that opened their markets to the global flood of cheap grain (under pressure from previous administrations as well as the World Bank and the IMF) lost so many farmers that they now find their ability to feed their own populations hinges on decisions made in Washington (like your predecessor's precipitous embrace of biofuels) and on Wall Street. They will now rush to rebuild their own agricultural sectors and then seek to protect them by erecting trade barriers. Expect to hear the phrases "food sovereignty" and "food security" on the lips of every foreign leader you meet. Not only the Doha round, but the whole cause of free trade in agriculture is probably dead, the casualty of a cheap food policy that a scant two years ago seemed like a boon for everyone. It is one of the larger paradoxes of our time that the very same food policies that have contributed to overnutrition in the first world are now contributing to undernutrition in the third. But it turns out that too much food can be nearly as big a problem as too little - a lesson we should keep in mind as we set about designing a new approach to food policy. Rich or poor, countries struggling with soaring food prices are being forcibly reminded that food is a national-security issue. When a nation loses the ability to substantially feed itself, it is not only at the mercy of global commodity markets but of other governments as well. At issue is not only the availability of food, which may be held hostage by a hostile state, but its safety: as recent scandals in China demonstrate, we have little control over the safety of imported foods. The deliberate contamination of our food presents another national-security threat. At his valedictory press conference in 2004, Tommy Thompson, the secretary of health and human services, offered a chilling warning, saying, "I, for the life of me, cannot understand why the terrorists have not attacked our food supply, because it is so easy to do". This, in brief, is the bad news: the food and agriculture policies you've inherited - designed to maximize production at all costs and relying on cheap energy to do so - are in shambles, and the need to address the problems they have caused is acute. The good news is that the twinned crises in food and energy are creating a political environment in which real reform of the food system may actually be possible for the first time in a generation. The American people are paying more attention to food today than they have in decades, worrying not only about its price but about its safety, its provenance and its healthfulness. There is a gathering sense among the public that the industrial-food system is broken. Markets for alternative kinds of food - organic, local, pasture-based, humane - are thriving as never before. All this suggests that a political constituency for change is building and not only on the left: lately, conservative voices have also been raised in support of reform. Writing of the movement back to local food economies, traditional foods (and family meals) and more sustainable farming, The American Conservative magazine editorialized last summer that "this is a conservative cause if ever there was one". There are many moving parts to the new food agenda I'm urging you to adopt, but the core idea could not be simpler: we need to wean the American food system off its heavy 20th-century diet of fossil fuel and put it back on a diet of contemporary sunshine. True, this is easier said than done - fossil fuel is deeply implicated in everything about the way we currently grow food and feed ourselves. To put the food system back on sunlight will require policies to change how things work at every link in the food chain: in the farm field, in the way food is processed and sold and even in the American kitchen and at the American dinner table. Yet the sun still shines down on our land every day, and photosynthesis can still work its wonders wherever it does. If any part of the modern economy can be freed from its dependence on oil and successfully resolarized, surely it is food. How We Got Here Before setting out an agenda for reforming the food system, it's important to understand how that system came to be - and also to appreciate what, for all its many problems, it has accomplished. What our food system does well is precisely what it was designed to do, which is to produce cheap calories in great abundance. It is no small thing for an American to be able to go into a fast-food restaurant and to buy a double cheeseburger, fries and a large Coke for a price equal to less than an hour of labor at the minimum wage - indeed, in the long sweep of history, this represents a remarkable achievement. It must be recognized that the current food system - characterized by monocultures of corn and soy in the field and cheap calories of fat, sugar and feedlot meat on the table - is not simply the product of the free market. Rather, it is the product of a specific set of government policies that sponsored a shift from solar (and human) energy on the farm to fossil-fuel energy. Did you notice when you flew over Iowa during the campaign how the land was completely bare - black - from October to April? What you were seeing is the agricultural landscape created by cheap oil. In years past, except in the dead of winter, you would have seen in those fields a checkerboard of different greens: pastures and hayfields for animals, cover crops, perhaps a block of fruit trees. Before the application of oil and natural gas to agriculture, farmers relied on crop diversity (and photosynthesis) both to replenish their soil and to combat pests, as well as to feed themselves and their neighbors. Cheap energy, however, enabled the creation of monocultures, and monocultures in turn vastly increased the productivity both of the American land and the American farmer; today the typical corn-belt farmer is single-handedly feeding 140 people. This did not occur by happenstance. After World War II, the government encouraged the conversion of the munitions industry to fertilizer - ammonium nitrate being the main ingredient of both bombs and chemical fertilizer - and the conversion of nerve-gas research to pesticides. The government also began subsidizing commodity crops, paying farmers by the bushel for all the corn, soybeans, wheat and rice they could produce. One secretary of agriculture after another implored them to plant "fence row to fence row" and to "get big or get out". The chief result, especially after the Earl Butz years, was a flood of cheap grain that could be sold for substantially less than it cost farmers to grow because a government check helped make up the difference. As this artificially cheap grain worked its way up the food chain, it drove down the price of all the calories derived from that grain: the high-fructose corn syrup in the Coke, the soy oil in which the potatoes were fried, the meat and cheese in the burger. Subsidized monocultures of grain also led directly to monocultures of animals: since factory farms could buy grain for less than it cost farmers to grow it, they could now fatten animals more cheaply than farmers could. So America's meat and dairy animals migrated from farm to feedlot, driving down the price of animal protein to the point where an American can enjoy eating, on average, 190 pounds of meat a year - a half pound every day. But if taking the animals off farms made a certain kind of economic sense, it made no ecological sense whatever: their waste, formerly regarded as a precious source of fertility on the farm, became a pollutant - factory farms are now one of America's biggest sources of pollution. As Wendell Berry has tartly observed, to take animals off farms and put them on feedlots is to take an elegant solution - animals replenishing the fertility that crops deplete - and neatly divide it into two problems: a fertility problem on the farm and a pollution problem on the feedlot. The former problem is remedied with fossil-fuel fertilizer; the latter is remedied not at all. What was once a regional food economy is now national and increasingly global in scope - thanks again to fossil fuel. Cheap energy - for trucking food as well as pumping water - is the reason New York City now gets its produce from California rather than from the "Garden State" next door, as it did before the advent of Interstate highways and national trucking networks. More recently, cheap energy has underwritten a globalized food economy in which it makes (or rather, made) economic sense to catch salmon in Alaska, ship it to China to be filleted and then ship the fillets back to California to be eaten; or one in which California and Mexico can profitably swap tomatoes back and forth across the border; or Denmark and the United States can trade sugar cookies across the Atlantic. About that particular swap the economist Herman Daly once quipped, "Exchanging recipes would surely be more efficient". Whatever we may have liked about the era of cheap, oil-based food, it is drawing to a close. Even if we were willing to continue paying the environmental or public-health price, we're not going to have the cheap energy (or the water) needed to keep the system going, much less expand production. But as is so often the case, a crisis provides opportunity for reform, and the current food crisis presents opportunities that must be seized. In drafting these proposals, I've adhered to a few simple principles of what a 21st-century food system needs to do. First, your administration's food policy must strive to provide a healthful diet for all our people; this means focusing on the quality and diversity (and not merely the quantity) of the calories that American agriculture produces and American eaters consume. Second, your policies should aim to improve the resilience, safety and security of our food supply. Among other things, this means promoting regional food economies both in America and around the world. And lastly, your policies need to reconceive agriculture as part of the solution to environmental problems like climate change. These goals are admittedly ambitious, yet they will not be difficult to align or advance as long as we keep in mind this One Big Idea: most of the problems our food system faces today are because of its reliance on fossil fuels, and to the extent that our policies wring the oil out of the system and replace it with the energy of the sun, those policies will simultaneously improve the state of our health, our environment and our security. I. Resolarizing the American Farm What happens in the field influences every other link of the food chain on up to our meals - if we grow monocultures of corn and soy, we will find the products of processed corn and soy on our plates. Fortunately for your initiative, the federal government has enormous leverage in determining exactly what happens on the 830 million acres of American crop and pasture land. Today most government farm and food programs are designed to prop up the old system of maximizing production from a handful of subsidized commodity crops grown in monocultures. Even food-assistance programs like WIC and school lunch focus on maximizing quantity rather than quality, typically specifying a minimum number of calories (rather than maximums) and seldom paying more than lip service to nutritional quality. This focus on quantity may have made sense in a time of food scarcity, but today it gives us a school-lunch program that feeds chicken nuggets and Tater Tots to overweight and diabetic children. Your challenge is to take control of this vast federal machinery and use it to drive a transition to a new solar-food economy, starting on the farm. Right now, the government actively discourages the farmers it subsidizes from growing healthful, fresh food: farmers receiving crop subsidies are prohibited from growing "specialty crops" - farm-bill speak for fruits and vegetables. (This rule was the price exacted by California and Florida produce growers in exchange for going along with subsidies for commodity crops.) Commodity farmers should instead be encouraged to grow as many different crops - including animals - as possible. Why? Because the greater the diversity of crops on a farm, the less the need for both fertilizers and pesticides. The power of cleverly designed polycultures to produce large amounts of food from little more than soil, water and sunlight has been proved, not only by small-scale "alternative" farmers in the United States but also by large rice-and-fish farmers in China and giant-scale operations (up to 15,000 acres) in places like Argentina. There, in a geography roughly comparable to that of the American farm belt, farmers have traditionally employed an ingenious eight-year rotation of perennial pasture and annual crops: after five years grazing cattle on pasture (and producing the world's best beef), farmers can then grow three years of grain without applying any fossil-fuel fertilizer. Or, for that matter, many pesticides: the weeds that afflict pasture can't survive the years of tillage, and the weeds of row crops don't survive the years of grazing, making herbicides all but unnecessary. There is no reason - save current policy and custom - that American farmers couldn't grow both high-quality grain and grass-fed beef under such a regime through much of the Midwest. (It should be noted that today's sky-high grain prices are causing many Argentine farmers to abandon their rotation to grow grain and soybeans exclusively, an environmental disaster in the making.) Federal policies could do much to encourage this sort of diversified sun farming. Begin with the subsidies: payment levels should reflect the number of different crops farmers grow or the number of days of the year their fields are green - that is, taking advantage of photosynthesis, whether to grow food, replenish the soil or control erosion. If Midwestern farmers simply planted a cover crop after the fall harvest, they would significantly reduce their need for fertilizer, while cutting down on soil erosion. Why don't farmers do this routinely? Because in recent years fossil-fuel-based fertility has been so much cheaper and easier to use than sun-based fertility. In addition to rewarding farmers for planting cover crops, we should make it easier for them to apply compost to their fields - a practice that improves not only the fertility of the soil but also its ability to hold water and therefore withstand drought. (There is mounting evidence that it also boosts the nutritional quality of the food grown in it.) The USDA estimates that Americans throw out fourteen percent of the food they buy; much more is wasted by retailers, wholesalers and institutions. A program to make municipal composting of food and yard waste mandatory and then distributing the compost free to area farmers would shrink America's garbage heap, cut the need for irrigation and fossil-fuel fertilizers in agriculture and improve the nutritional quality of the American diet. Right now, most of the conservation programs run by the USDA are designed on the zero-sum principle: land is either locked up in "conservation" or it is farmed intensively. This either-or approach reflects an outdated belief that modern farming and ranching are inherently destructive, so that the best thing for the environment is to leave land untouched. But we now know how to grow crops and graze animals in systems that will support biodiversity, soil health, clean water and carbon sequestration. The Conservation Stewardship Program, championed by Senator Tom Harkin and included in the 2008 Farm Bill, takes an important step toward rewarding these kinds of practices, but we need to move this approach from the periphery of our farm policy to the very center. Longer term, the government should back ambitious research now under way (at the Land Institute in Kansas and a handful of other places) to "perennialize" commodity agriculture: to breed varieties of wheat, rice and other staple grains that can be grown like prairie grasses - without having to till the soil every year. These perennial grains hold the promise of slashing the fossil fuel now needed to fertilize and till the soil, while protecting farmland from erosion and sequestering significant amounts of carbon. But that is probably a fifty-year project. For today's agriculture to wean itself from fossil fuel and make optimal use of sunlight, crop plants and animals must once again be married on the farm - as in Wendell Berry's elegant "solution". Sunlight nourishes the grasses and grains, the plants nourish the animals, the animals then nourish the soil, which in turn nourishes the next season's grasses and grains. Animals on pasture can also harvest their own feed and dispose of their own waste - all without our help or fossil fuel. If this system is so sensible, you might ask, why did it succumb to Confined Animal Feeding Operations, or CAFOs? In fact there is nothing inherently efficient or economical about raising vast cities of animals in confinement. Three struts, each put into place by federal policy, support the modern CAFO, and the most important of these - the ability to buy grain for less than it costs to grow it - has just been kicked away. The second strut is FDA approval for the routine use of antibiotics in feed, without which the animals in these places could not survive their crowded, filthy and miserable existence. And the third is that the government does not require CAFOs to treat their wastes as it would require human cities of comparable size to do. The FDA should ban the routine use of antibiotics in livestock feed on public-health grounds, now that we have evidence that the practice is leading to the evolution of drug-resistant bacterial diseases and to outbreaks of E coli and salmonella poisoning. CAFOs should also be regulated like the factories they are, required to clean up their waste like any other industry or municipality. It will be argued that moving animals off feedlots and back onto farms will raise the price of meat. It probably will - as it should. You will need to make the case that paying the real cost of meat, and therefore eating less of it, is a good thing for our health, for the environment, for our dwindling reserves of fresh water and for the welfare of the animals. Meat and milk production represent the food industry's greatest burden on the environment; a recent UN study estimated that the world's livestock alone account for eighteen percent of all greenhouse gases, more than all forms of transportation combined. (According to one study, a pound of feedlot beef also takes 5,000 gallons of water to produce.) And while animals living on farms will still emit their share of greenhouse gases, grazing them on grass and returning their waste to the soil will substantially offset their carbon hoof prints, as will getting ruminant animals off grain. A bushel of grain takes approximately a half gallon of oil to produce; grass can be grown with little more than sunshine. It will be argued that sun-food agriculture will generally yield less food than fossil-fuel agriculture. This is debatable. The key question you must be prepared to answer is simply this: Can the sort of sustainable agriculture you're proposing feed the world? There are a couple of ways to answer this question. The simplest and most honest answer is that we don't know, because we haven't tried. But in the same way we now need to learn how to run an industrial economy without cheap fossil fuel, we have no choice but to find out whether sustainable agriculture can produce enough food. The fact is, during the past century, our agricultural research has been directed toward the goal of maximizing production with the help of fossil fuel. There is no reason to think that bringing the same sort of resources to the development of more complex, sun-based agricultural systems wouldn't produce comparable yields. Today's organic farmers, operating for the most part without benefit of public investment in research, routinely achieve eighty to 100 percent of conventional yields in grain and, in drought years, frequently exceed conventional yields. (This is because organic soils better retain moisture.) Assuming no further improvement, could the world - with a population expected to peak at ten billion - survive on these yields? First, bear in mind that the average yield of world agriculture today is substantially lower than that of modern sustainable farming. According to a recent University of Michigan study, merely bringing international yields up to today's organic levels could increase the world's food supply by fifty percent. The second point to bear in mind is that yield isn't everything - and growing high-yield commodities is not quite the same thing as growing food. Much of what we're growing today is not directly eaten as food but processed into low-quality calories of fat and sugar. As the world epidemic of diet-related chronic disease has demonstrated, the sheer quantity of calories that a food system produces improves health only up to a point, but after that, quality and diversity are probably more important. We can expect that a food system that produces somewhat less food but of a higher quality will produce healthier populations. The final point to consider is that forty percent of the world's grain output today is fed to animals; eleven percent of the world's corn and soybean crop is fed to cars and trucks, in the form of biofuels. Provided the developed world can cut its consumption of grain-based animal protein and ethanol, there should be plenty of food for everyone - however we choose to grow it. In fact, well-designed polyculture systems, incorporating not just grains but vegetables and animals, can produce more food per acre than conventional monocultures, and food of a much higher nutritional value. But this kind of farming is complicated and needs many more hands on the land to make it work. Farming without fossil fuels - performing complex rotations of plants and animals and managing pests without petrochemicals - is labor intensive and takes more skill than merely "driving and spraying", which is how corn-belt farmers describe what they do for a living. To grow sufficient amounts of food using sunlight will require more people growing food - millions more. This suggests that sustainable agriculture will be easier to implement in the developing world, where large rural populations remain, than in the West, where they don't. But what about here in America, where we have only about two million farmers left to feed a population of 300 million? And where farmland is being lost to development at the rate of 2,880 acres a day? Post-oil agriculture will need a lot more people engaged in food production - as farmers and probably also as gardeners. The sun-food agenda must include programs to train a new generation of farmers and then help put them on the land. The average American farmer today is 55 years old; we shouldn't expect these farmers to embrace the sort of complex ecological approach to agriculture that is called for. Our focus should be on teaching ecological farming systems to students entering land-grant colleges today. For decades now, it has been federal policy to shrink the number of farmers in America by promoting capital-intensive monoculture and consolidation. As a society, we devalued farming as an occupation and encouraged the best students to leave the farm for "better" jobs in the city. We emptied America's rural counties in order to supply workers to urban factories. To put it bluntly, we now need to reverse course. We need more highly skilled small farmers in more places all across America - not as a matter of nostalgia for the agrarian past but as a matter of national security. For nations that lose the ability to substantially feed themselves will find themselves as gravely compromised in their international dealings as nations that depend on foreign sources of oil presently do. But while there are alternatives to oil, there are no alternatives to food. National security also argues for preserving every acre of farmland we can and then making it available to new farmers. We simply will not be able to depend on distant sources of food, and therefore need to preserve every acre of good farmland within a day's drive of our cities. In the same way that when we came to recognize the supreme ecological value of wetlands we erected high bars to their development, we need to recognize the value of farmland to our national security and require real-estate developers to do "food-system impact statements" before development begins. We should also create tax and zoning incentives for developers to incorporate farmland (as they now do "open space") in their subdivision plans; all those subdivisions now ringing golf courses could someday have diversified farms at their center. The revival of farming in America, which of course draws on the abiding cultural power of our agrarian heritage, will pay many political and economic dividends. It will lead to robust economic renewal in the countryside. And it will generate tens of millions of new "green jobs", which is precisely how we need to begin thinking of skilled solar farming: as a vital sector of the 21st-century post-fossil-fuel economy. II. Reregionalizing the Food System For your sun-food agenda to succeed, it will have to do a lot more than alter what happens on the farm. The government could help seed a thousand new polyculture farmers in every county in Iowa, but they would promptly fail if the grain elevator remained the only buyer in town and corn and beans were the only crops it would take. Resolarizing the food system means building the infrastructure for a regional food economy - one that can support diversified farming and, by shortening the food chain, reduce the amount of fossil fuel in the American diet. A decentralized food system offers a great many other benefits as well. Food eaten closer to where it is grown will be fresher and require less processing, making it more nutritious. Whatever may be lost in efficiency by localizing food production is gained in resilience: regional food systems can better withstand all kinds of shocks. When a single factory is grinding twenty million hamburger patties in a week or washing 25 million servings of salad, a single terrorist armed with a canister of toxins can, at a stroke, poison millions. Such a system is equally susceptible to accidental contamination: the bigger and more global the trade in food, the more vulnerable the system is to catastrophe. The best way to protect our food system against such threats is obvious: decentralize it. Today in America there is soaring demand for local and regional food; farmers' markets, of which the USDA estimates there are now 4,700, have become one of the fastest-growing segments of the food market. Community-supported agriculture is booming as well: there are now nearly 1,500 community-supported farms, to which consumers pay an annual fee in exchange for a weekly box of produce through the season. The local-food movement will continue to grow with no help from the government, especially as high fuel prices make distant and out-of-season food, as well as feedlot meat, more expensive. Yet there are several steps the government can take to nurture this market and make local foods more affordable. Here are a few: Four-Season Farmers' Markets. Provide grants to towns and cities to build year-round indoor farmers' markets, on the model of Pike Place in Seattle or the Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia. To supply these markets, the USDA should make grants to rebuild local distribution networks in order to minimize the amount of energy used to move produce within local food sheds. Agricultural Enterprise Zones. Today the revival of local food economies is being hobbled by a tangle of regulations originally designed to check abuses by the very largest food producers. Farmers should be able to smoke a ham and sell it to their neighbors without making a huge investment in federally approved facilities. Food-safety regulations must be made sensitive to scale and marketplace, so that a small producer selling direct off the farm or at a farmers' market is not regulated as onerously as a multinational food manufacturer. This is not because local food won't ever have food-safety problems - it will - only that its problems will be less catastrophic and easier to manage because local food is inherently more traceable and accountable. Local Meat-Inspection Corps. Perhaps the single greatest impediment to the return of livestock to the land and the revival of local, grass-based meat production is the disappearance of regional slaughter facilities. The big meat processors have been buying up local abattoirs only to close them down as they consolidate, and the USDA does little to support the ones that remain. From the department's perspective, it is a better use of shrinking resources to dispatch its inspectors to a plant slaughtering 400 head an hour than to a regional abattoir slaughtering a dozen. The USDA should establish a Local Meat-Inspectors Corps to serve these processors. Expanding on its successful pilot program on Lopez Island in Puget Sound, the USDA should also introduce a fleet of mobile abattoirs that would go from farm to farm, processing animals humanely and inexpensively. Nothing would do more to make regional, grass-fed meat fully competitive in the market with feedlot meat. Establish a Strategic Grain Reserve. In the same way the shift to alternative energy depends on keeping oil prices relatively stable, the sun-food agenda - as well as the food security of billions of people around the world - will benefit from government action to prevent huge swings in commodity prices. A strategic grain reserve, modeled on the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, would help achieve this objective and at the same time provide some cushion for world food stocks, which today stand at perilously low levels. Governments should buy and store grain when it is cheap and sell when it is dear, thereby moderating price swings in both directions and discouraging speculation. Regionalize Federal Food Procurement. In the same way that federal procurement is often used to advance important social goals (like promoting minority-owned businesses), we should require that some minimum percentage of government food purchases - whether for school-lunch programs, military bases or federal prisons - go to producers located within 100 miles of institutions buying the food. We should create incentives for hospitals and universities receiving federal funds to buy fresh local produce. To channel even a small portion of institutional food purchasing to local food would vastly expand regional agriculture and improve the diet of the millions of people these institutions feed. Create a Federal Definition of "Food". It makes no sense for government food-assistance dollars, intended to improve the nutritional health of at-risk Americans, to support the consumption of products we know to be unhealthful. Yes, some people will object that for the government to specify what food stamps can and cannot buy smacks of paternalism. Yet we already prohibit the purchase of tobacco and alcohol with food stamps. So why not prohibit something like soda, which is arguably less nutritious than red wine? Because it is, nominally, a food, albeit a "junk food". We need to stop flattering nutritionally worthless foodlike substances by calling them "junk food" - and instead make clear that such products are not in fact food of any kind. Defining what constitutes real food worthy of federal support will no doubt be controversial (you'll recall President Reagan's ketchup imbroglio), but defining food upward may be more politically palatable than defining it down, as Reagan sought to do. One approach would be to rule that, in order to be regarded as a food by the government, an edible substance must contain a certain minimum ratio of micronutrients per calorie of energy. At a stroke, such a definition would improve the quality of school lunch and discourage sales of unhealthful products, since typically only "food" is exempt from local sales tax. A few other ideas: Food-stamp debit cards should double in value whenever swiped at a farmers' markets - all of which, by the way, need to be equipped with the Electronic Benefit Transfer card readers that supermarkets already have. We should expand the WIC program that gives farmers'-market vouchers to low-income women with children; such programs help attract farmers' markets to urban neighborhoods where access to fresh produce is often nonexistent. (We should also offer tax incentives to grocery chains willing to build supermarkets in underserved neighborhoods.) Federal food assistance for the elderly should build on a successful program pioneered by the state of Maine that buys low-income seniors a membership in a community-supported farm. All these initiatives have the virtue of advancing two objectives at once: supporting the health of at-risk Americans and the revival of local food economies. III. Rebuilding America's Food Culture In the end, shifting the American diet from a foundation of imported fossil fuel to local sunshine will require changes in our daily lives, which by now are deeply implicated in the economy and culture of fast, cheap and easy food. Making available more healthful and more sustainable food does not guarantee it will be eaten, much less appreciated or enjoyed. We need to use all the tools at our disposal - not just federal policy and public education but the president's bully pulpit and the example of the first family's own dinner table - to promote a new culture of food that can undergird your sun-food agenda. Changing the food culture must begin with our children, and it must begin in the schools. Nearly a half-century ago, President Kennedy announced a national initiative to improve the physical fitness of American children. He did it by elevating the importance of physical education, pressing states to make it a requirement in public schools. We need to bring the same commitment to "edible education" - in Alice Waters's phrase - by making lunch, in all its dimensions, a mandatory part of the curriculum. On the premise that eating well is a critically important life skill, we need to teach all primary-school students the basics of growing and cooking food and then enjoying it at shared meals. To change our children's food culture, we'll need to plant gardens in every primary school, build fully equipped kitchens, train a new generation of lunchroom ladies (and gentlemen) who can once again cook and teach cooking to children. We should introduce a School Lunch Corps program that forgives federal student loans to culinary-school graduates in exchange for two years of service in the public-school lunch program. And we should immediately increase school-lunch spending per pupil by $1 a day - the minimum amount food-service experts believe it will take to underwrite a shift from fast food in the cafeteria to real food freshly prepared. But it is not only our children who stand to benefit from public education about food. Today most federal messages about food, from nutrition labeling to the food pyramid, are negotiated with the food industry. The surgeon general should take over from the Department of Agriculture the job of communicating with Americans about their diet. That way we might begin to construct a less equivocal and more effective public-health message about nutrition. Indeed, there is no reason that public-health campaigns about the dangers of obesity and Type 2 diabetes shouldn't be as tough and as effective as public-health campaigns about the dangers of smoking. The Centers for Disease Control estimates that one in three American children born in 2000 will develop Type 2 diabetes. The public needs to know and see precisely what that sentence means: blindness; amputation; early death. All of which can be avoided by a change in diet and lifestyle. A public-health crisis of this magnitude calls for a blunt public-health message, even at the expense of offending the food industry. Judging by the success of recent antismoking campaigns, the savings to the health care system could be substantial. There are other kinds of information about food that the government can supply or demand. In general we should push for as much transparency in the food system as possible - the other sense in which "sunlight" should be the watchword of our agenda. The FDA should require that every packaged-food product include a second calorie count, indicating how many calories of fossil fuel went into its production. Oil is one of the most important ingredients in our food, and people ought to know just how much of it they're eating. The government should also throw its support behind putting a second bar code on all food products that, when scanned either in the store or at home (or with a cellphone), brings up on a screen the whole story and pictures of how that product was produced: in the case of crops, images of the farm and lists of agrochemicals used in its production; in the case of meat and dairy, descriptions of the animals' diet and drug regimen, as well as live video feeds of the CAFO where they live and, yes, the slaughterhouse where they die. The very length and complexity of the modern food chain breeds a culture of ignorance and indifference among eaters. Shortening the food chain is one way to create more conscious consumers, but deploying technology to pierce the veil is another. Finally, there is the power of the example you set in the White House. If what's needed is a change of culture in America's thinking about food, then how America's first household organizes its eating will set the national tone, focusing the light of public attention on the issue and communicating a simple set of values that can guide Americans toward sun-based foods and away from eating oil. The choice of White House chef is always closely watched, and you would be wise to appoint a figure who is identified with the food movement and committed to cooking simply from fresh local ingredients. Besides feeding you and your family exceptionally well, such a chef would demonstrate how it is possible even in Washington to eat locally for much of the year, and that good food needn't be fussy or complicated but does depend on good farming. You should make a point of the fact that every night you're in town, you join your family for dinner in the Executive Residence - at a table. (Surely you remember the Reagans' TV trays.) And you should also let it be known that the White House observes one meatless day a week - a step that, if all Americans followed suit, would be the equivalent, in carbon saved, of taking twnty million midsize sedans off the road for a year. Let the White House chef post daily menus on the Web, listing the farmers who supplied the food, as well as recipes. Since enhancing the prestige of farming as an occupation is critical to developing the sun-based regional agriculture we need, the White House should appoint, in addition to a White House chef, a White House farmer. This new post would be charged with implementing what could turn out to be your most symbolically resonant step in building a new American food culture. And that is this: tear out five prime south-facing acres of the White House lawn and plant in their place an organic fruit and vegetable garden. When Eleanor Roosevelt did something similar in 1943, she helped start a Victory Garden movement that ended up making a substantial contribution to feeding the nation in wartime. (Less well known is the fact that Roosevelt planted this garden over the objections of the USDA, which feared home gardening would hurt the American food industry.) By the end of the war, more than twenty million home gardens were supplying forty percent of the produce consumed in America. The president should throw his support behind a new Victory Garden movement, this one seeking "victory" over three critical challenges we face today: high food prices, poor diets and a sedentary population. Eating from this, the shortest food chain of all, offers anyone with a patch of land a way to reduce their fossil-fuel consumption and help fight climate change. (We should offer grants to cities to build allotment gardens for people without access to land.) Just as important, Victory Gardens offer a way to enlist Americans, in body as well as mind, in the work of feeding themselves and changing the food system - something more ennobling, surely, than merely asking them to shop a little differently. I don't need to tell you that ripping out even a section of the White House lawn will be controversial: Americans love their lawns, and the South Lawn is one of the most beautiful in the country. But imagine all the energy, water and petrochemicals it takes to make it that way. (Even for the purposes of this memo, the White House would not disclose its lawn-care regimen.) Yet as deeply as Americans feel about their lawns, the agrarian ideal runs deeper still, and making this particular plot of American land productive, especially if the First Family gets out there and pulls weeds now and again, will provide an image even more stirring than that of a pretty lawn: the image of stewardship of the land, of self-reliance and of making the most of local sunlight to feed one's family and community. The fact that surplus produce from the South Lawn Victory Garden (and there will be literally tons of it) will be offered to regional food banks will make its own eloquent statement. You're probably thinking that growing and eating organic food in the White House carries a certain political risk. It is true you might want to plant iceberg lettuce rather than arugula, at least to start. (Or simply call arugula by its proper American name, as generations of Midwesterners have done: "rocket".) But it should not be difficult to deflect the charge of elitism sometimes leveled at the sustainable-food movement. Reforming the food system is not inherently a right-or-left issue: for every Whole Foods shopper with roots in the counterculture you can find a family of evangelicals intent on taking control of its family dinner and diet back from the fast-food industry - the culinary equivalent of home schooling. You should support hunting as a particularly sustainable way to eat meat - meat grown without any fossil fuels whatsoever. There is also a strong libertarian component to the sun-food agenda, which seeks to free small producers from the burden of government regulation in order to stoke rural innovation. And what is a higher "family value", after all, than making time to sit down every night to a shared meal? Our agenda puts the interests of America's farmers, families and communities ahead of the fast-food industry's. For that industry and its apologists to imply that it is somehow more "populist" or egalitarian to hand our food dollars to Burger King or General Mills than to support a struggling local farmer is absurd. Yes, sun food costs more, but the reasons why it does only undercut the charge of elitism: cheap food is only cheap because of government handouts and regulatory indulgence (both of which we will end), not to mention the exploitation of workers, animals and the environment on which its putative "economies" depend. Cheap food is food dishonestly priced - it is in fact unconscionably expensive. Your sun-food agenda promises to win support across the aisle. It builds on America's agrarian past, but turns it toward a more sustainable, sophisticated future. It honors the work of American farmers and enlists them in three of the 21st century's most urgent errands: to move into the post-oil era, to improve the health of the American people and to mitigate climate change. Indeed, it enlists all of us in this great cause by turning food consumers into part-time producers, reconnecting the American people with the American land and demonstrating that we need not choose between the welfare of our families and the health of the environment - that eating less oil and more sunlight will redound to the benefit of both. _____ Michael Pollan, a contributing writer for the magazine, is the Knight Professor of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author, most recently, of In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto (2008). Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/12/magazine/12policy-t.html?_r=1&oref=slogin TO POST A COMMENT, OR TO READ COMMENTS POSTED BY OTHERS, please click on the word "comment" highlighted at the end of the version of this essay posted at http://billtotten.blogspot.com/ From fentona at shaw.ca Sun Nov 9 10:45:06 2008 From: fentona at shaw.ca (Anthony Fenton) Date: Sun, 9 Nov 2008 09:45:06 -0800 Subject: [R-G] Oil party hits the skids Message-ID: <8FF4583A-85E9-4620-A67A-4FB2A90AD8B2@shaw.ca> Oil party hits the skids Claudia Cattaneo and Carrie Tait, Financial Post Published: Saturday, November 08, 2008 Gavin Young/Canwest News Service http://www.financialpost.com/story.html?id=942462 CALGARY -The other day, John Davis, a money manager to Calgary's uber- rich, was walking along a downtown street and saw a man pull out of the parking lot of a gleaming office tower in a splashy Mercedes. In the side windows of the car were "For Sale" signs. The driver would settle for 40 grand. "I just thought, 'Now I have seen everything.' If you own a Mercedes, it would be kind of embarrassing to post a 'For Sale' sign on your window," said Mr. Davis, senior vice-president at Corporate Planning Associates. It's an indication of how much and how quickly Calgary -- a city sprinkled with "Beemers" parked on heated driveways -- has changed in the past few months. Sure, the whole world is taking it on the chin from the financial meltdown. But Calgary thought it was invincible, its latest boom being so big and lasting so long. Downturns have been wiped from the city's collective memory. Fancy stores were rushing in. High-end car dealerships such as Aston Martin opened their doors. Second and third homes were snapped up on ski hills, the West Coast and Arizona. Houses were bulldozed to make room for mansions, while new country estates devoured the ranchland surrounding the city. And Calgarians happily regarded paying high gasoline prices as part of their civic duty. That was then. Mr. Davis can pinpoint the precise day Calgary's cockiness faded: Oct. 10. The stock market's energy group, where Calgarians hoard their wealth, had just wrapped up a 25% nose-dive, deepening losses to 60% from the June 18 high. "The last time we went through a bear market it was technology driven," Mr. Davis said. "Calgarians didn't have any skin in that game. Their energy holdings just kept going up and up and up, and so [the tech bubble] was something affecting the rest of the world. Whereas this is affecting us, and it's affecting us more severely than the broader market." In the past month, some $30-billion in oil sands plans has been put on ice. Conventional oil and gas projects will be funded next year only if there's enough cash to support them. Companies that had been tossing around billions of dollars without blinking have turned frugal. With oil prices nearly 60% lower than they were in July, the city is bracing for a downturn that could stretch one to two years. According to Richard Corriveau, regional economist for Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp., Alberta's growth rate is set to shrink to a paltry 1.9% next year, and it could drop further depending on what happens to the oil sands. That's a seismic shift from the 6.5% growth experienced in 2006 -- so high Alberta was likened to China. The province's output grew 3.3% in 2007. While certainly slowing, Mr. Corriveau said Alberta will still outpace the rest of the country. Yet, the belt-tightening is affecting all corners of the city. Charities have accepted that the easy money that used to come their way will be tougher to find. Ruth Ramsen-Wood, president of the United Way of Calgary and Area, said her organization set its 2008 fundraising goal at $52-million, up just 3% from its 2007 target. But getting to this goal is going to be a slog. Some major individual donors -- those who chip in around $25,000 to $30,000 and whose wealth is closely tied to the stock market -- are stalling. "They are just saying, 'I don't know yet,' " said Ms. Ramsden-Wood. "We won't be cruising in over [our] goal this year," she said. Mr. Davis, the money manager, said many of the executives he looks after are putting on hold plans for charitable foundations. The city's Bentley and Aston Martin dealerships, which live off Calgary's oil money, started to feel the effects of the slowdown about six or seven weeks ago. "We've already seen a little bit of a slowdown," said Andrew Baker, who has been selling top-of-the-line vehicles such as Bentleys and Porsches for 17 years. "I have to admit, it has been a little bit challenging the last few weeks." The last time Mr. Baker saw a similar stall in sales was in 1991-92, when the stock market crashed in the United Kingdom, where he was working for Porsche. "I'd like to think what we're going through is temporary," he said. High-end restaurants that were feasting on customers with fast cash and fancy tastes are seeing volatility. "As soon as the first real wave of [market] craziness came in, a month back or so, we did about a week of service where we noticed a little bit of drop," said Devin Morrison, general manager of Teatro Restaurant, where an average meal for four people rings in around $400, but it isn't unusual to see big spenders drop $900 in a sitting. "But aside from that, really nothing crazy." Though Teatro escaped October's mess, Mr. Morrison said his colleagues in the hospitality industry are talking about the consequences of the slowdown. Some of the biggest declines have been in residential real estate values that were once cause for bragging. The Calgary Real Estate Board this week said October condo sales were down 20.36% from last year, while single-family home sales dropped by 26.33%. The average condo sold for $289,148, a drop of 12.81%, while the average single- family home was down 0.7% to $449,100. Meanwhile, Calgary's office market, where the vacancy rate two years ago was nonexistent, is loosening up dramatically. With five office towers launched during the heyday and soon scheduled for completion, the vacancy rate could soar between 11-12% in the next three to four years, said Randy Fennessey, president of Colliers International's Calgary office. "It's too early to hit the panic button on the Calgary market," he said. However, "we will certainly be negatively impacted by the events unfolding in the world economy." Mr. Fennessey sees more space coming up as distressed companies merge, but that will be tempered by the continuing influx of oil multinationals moving into the oil sands. "Companies like [Parisbased] Total that were renting 9,000 square feet a few years ago, their growth curve has been tremendous," he said. "Now they are leasing 100,000 square feet and change. And they are continuing to grow. Others out there are similar." While there has been buzz about layoffs, they haven't yet materialized. Headhunter Mark Hopkins, a partner at Conroy Ross Partners Ltd., said he hasn't seen a slowdown in oil and gas recruiting yet, but demand for talent is shifting. Smaller companies and start-ups that used to be big hirers are scaling back, while bigger companies with solid financial positions are still moving ahead. As companies complete their budgets for 2009, it is likely there will be more emphasis on filling essential positions, and less on growth positions, Mr. Hopkins said. Mr. Davis said he watched the wealth of his clientele explode during the oil bull market of the past decade. Among his clients, the average net worth rose to $25-million to $30-million, from $5-million. Indeed, many were planning their retirement parties. Now purchases like private planes and vacation properties have been put on hold. The crash is forcing them to rethink all their plans, he said. "They are feeling poorer." --------- OIL SANDS PULLBACK Among those pulling back on spending are: Suncor Energy Inc. is holding off on its Voyageur expansion plans. It has cut about $4-billion from its 2009 spending budget. Value Creation Inc. delayed construction on an upgrader. It had a $4- billion price tag. Nexen Inc. and partner OPTI Canada Inc. have indicated expansion plans at their Long Lake project will be delayed. Statoil ASA and Total SA are holding off on upgraders. Petro-Canada is considering pushing back an upgrader at its Fort Hills project. That would provide it a savings of $10-billion. Royal Dutch Shell PLC delayed any further expansion of its Athabasca project. The next expansion would have cost around $12-billion. Companies such as Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., Talisman Energy Inc. and EnCana Corp. are cutting spending on conventional oil and gas projects, but budgets have not been finalized. From fentona at shaw.ca Sun Nov 9 11:15:25 2008 From: fentona at shaw.ca (Anthony Fenton) Date: Sun, 9 Nov 2008 10:15:25 -0800 Subject: [R-G] Obama advisers discuss preparations for war on Iran References: <20081109130904.NP66N.236647.root@mp13> Message-ID: <0C1B7F77-C8D4-4DDC-B999-776D730658EE@shaw.ca> http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/nov2008/iran-n06.shtml World Socialist Web Site Obama advisers discuss preparations for war on Iran By Peter Symonds 6 November 2008 On the eve of the US elections, the New York Times cautiously pointed on Monday to the emergence of a bipartisan consensus in Washington for an aggressive new strategy towards Iran. While virtually nothing was said in the course of the election campaign, behind-the-scenes top advisers from the Obama and McCain camps have been discussing the rapid escalation of diplomatic pressure and punitive sanctions against Iran, backed by preparations for military strikes. The article entitled ?New Beltway Debate: What to do about Iran? noted with a degree of alarm: ?It is a frightening notion, but it not just the trigger-happy Bush administration discussing?if only theoretically ? the possibility of military action to stop Iran?s nuclear weapons program? [R]easonable people from both parties are examining the so- called military option, along with new diplomatic initiatives.? Behind the backs of American voters, top advisers for President-elect Barack Obama have been setting the stage for a dramatic escalation of confrontation with Iran as soon as the new administration takes office. A report released in September from the Bipartisan Policy Center, a Washington-based think tank, argued that a nuclear weapons capable Iran was ?strategically untenable? and detailed a robust approach, ?incorporating new diplomatic, economic and military tools in an integrated fashion?. A key member of the Center?s task force was Obama?s top Middle East adviser, Dennis Ross, who is well known for his hawkish views. He backed the US invasion of Iraq and is closely associated with neo-cons such as Paul Wolfowitz. Ross worked under Wolfowitz in the Carter and Reagan administrations before becoming the chief Middle East envoy under presidents Bush senior and Clinton. After leaving the State Department in 2000, he joined the right-wing, pro-Israel think tank? the Washington Institute for Near East Policy?and signed up as a foreign policy analyst for Fox News. The Bipartisan Policy Center report insisted that time was short, declaring: ?Tehran?s progress means that the next administration might have little time and fewer options to deal with this threat.? It rejected out-of-hand both Tehran?s claims that its nuclear programs were for peaceful purposes, and the 2007 National Intelligence Estimate by US intelligence agencies which found that Iran had ended any nuclear weapons program in 2003. The report was critical of the Bush administration? s failure to stop Iran?s nuclear programs, but its strategy is essentially the same? limited inducements backed by harsher economic sanctions and the threat of war. Its plan for consolidating international support is likewise premised on preemptive military action against Iran. Russia, China and the European powers are all to be warned that their failure to accede to tough sanctions, including a provocative blockade on Iranian oil exports, will only increase the likelihood of war. To underscore these warnings, the report proposed that the US would need to immediately boost its military presence in the Persian Gulf. ?This should commence the first day the new president enters office, especially as the Islamic Republic and its proxies might seek to test the new administration. It would involve pre-positioning US and allied forces, deploying additional aircraft carrier battle groups and minesweepers, [and] emplacing other war materiel in the region,? it stated. In language that closely parallels Bush?s insistence that ?all options remain on the table?, the report declared: ?We believe a military strike is a feasible option and must remain a last resort to retard Iran?s nuclear program.? Such a military strike ?would have to target not only Iran?s nuclear infrastructure, but also its conventional military infrastructure in order to suppress an Iranian response.? Significantly, the report was drafted by Michael Rubin, from the neo- conservative American Enterprise Institute, which was heavily involved in promoting the 2003 invasion of Iraq. A number of Obama?s senior Democratic advisers ?unanimously approved? the document, including Dennis Ross, former senator Charles Robb, who co-chaired the task force, and Ashton Carter, who served as assistant secretary for defense under Clinton. Carter and Ross also participated in writing a report for the bipartisan Center for a New American Security, published in September, which concluded that military action against Iran had to be ?an element of any true option?. While Ross examined the diplomatic options in detail, Carter laid out the ?military elements? that had to underpin them, including a cost/benefit analysis of a US aerial bombardment of Iran. Other senior Obama foreign policy and defense advisers have been closely involved in these discussions. A statement entitled, ?Strengthening the Partnership: How to deepen US-Israel cooperation on the Iranian nuclear challenge?, drafted in June by a Washington Institute for Near East Policy task force, recommended the next administration hold discussions with Israel over ?the entire range of policy options?, including ?preventative military action?. Ross was a taskforce co-convener, and top Obama advisers Anthony Lake, Susan Rice and Richard Clarke all put their names to the document. As the New York Times noted on Monday, Obama defense adviser Richard Danzig, former navy secretary under Clinton, attended a conference on the Middle East convened in September by the same pro-Israel think tank. He told the audience that his candidate believed that a military attack on Iran was a ?terrible? choice, but ?it may be that in some terrible world we will have to come to grips with such a terrible choice?. Richard Clarke, who was also present, declared that Obama was of the view that ?Tehran?s growing influence must be curbed and that Iran?s acquisition of a nuclear weapon is unacceptable.? While ?his first inclination is not to pull the trigger,? Clarke stated, ?if circumstances required the use of military force, Obama would not hesitate.? While the New York Times article was muted and did not examine the reports too deeply, writer Carol Giacomo was clearly concerned at the parallels with the US invasion of Iraq. After pointing out that ?the American public is largely unaware of this discussion,? she declared: ?What makes me nervous is that?s what happened in the run-up to the Iraq war.? Giacomo continued: ?Bush administration officials drove the discussion, but the cognoscenti were complicit. The question was asked and answered in policy circles before most Americans know what was happening? As a diplomatic correspondent for Reuters in those days, I feel some responsibility for not doing more to ensure that the calamitous decision to invade Iraq was more skeptically vetted.? The emerging consensus on Iran in US foreign policy circles again underscores the fact that the differences between Obama and McCain were purely tactical. While millions of Americans voted for the Democratic candidate believing he would end the war in Iraq and address their pressing economic needs, powerful sections of the American elite swung behind him as a better vehicle to prosecute US economic and strategic interests in the Middle East and Central Asia? including the use of military force against Iran. From fentona at shaw.ca Sun Nov 9 19:14:41 2008 From: fentona at shaw.ca (Anthony Fenton) Date: Sun, 9 Nov 2008 18:14:41 -0800 Subject: [R-G] Stainsby: World's Crudest Extraction Message-ID: <4B535679-22C0-47DB-B505-168D6514743B@shaw.ca> Mining November 8, 2008 http://www.dominionpaper.ca/articles/2124 World's Crudest Extraction At the tar sands they?re digging up dirty fuel by Macdonald Stainsby The Dominion - http://www.dominionpaper.ca As if in allegiance to the tar sands gigaproject, a convoy of trucks drives out of the mines near Fort McMurray. Photo: Luc Bourgeois? lucbourgeoisphoto.org. EDMONTON, ALBERTA?When the Albertan government recently put forward $25 million to counter the negative press around tar sands mining, Premier Ed Stelmach strained credulity by stating: "In terms of David and Goliath, I've been in this position before, and now I'm here." According to Stelmach, David was the largest industrial project on Earth, with nearly $200 billion in investment, being picked on by what he imagined were the God-like powers of environmental campaigners. The goal of the $25 million was to make the tar sands seem like just another source of petroleum, including re-branding the massive undertaking as the ?oil sands.? Of course, now that the price of oil has risen so high, it seems any ?oil? is good ?oil.? But what if it isn't really even oil? Those who read the Dominion's tar sands special issue from 2007 are likely already aware that the bulk of today's tar sands production includes digging out northern Alberta's boreal forest at an astronomical rate in order to create what are by far the world's largest strip mines. Sometimes digging to levels of over 100 metres or 300 feet deep, it can take anywhere between two and four tonnes of earth to produce just one barrel of oil. At a rate currently approximating 1.3 million barrels of ?mock? (synthetic) crude, the rate of mining in the Athabasca region is far beyond that of any other process in the world. But energy corporations, along with the Albertan, Canadian and American governments, are doing whatever they can to hide this basic information, instead simply calling the tar sands ?heavy oil,? perhaps a little dirtier, perhaps more expensive but generally just another hydrocarbon. Alberta's boreal desert: the tar sands. Photo: Luc Bourgeois? lucbourgeoisphoto.org. Some of the realities of the tar sands mining process, however, are coming to light across North America, through not only the work of those opposed to the destructive process, but also because of ?errors? being committed by the producers themselves. On April 29, 2008, Albertans awoke to discover that ?hundreds of ducks [were] dead or dying after landing on a Syncrude tailings pond,? the second largest of Syncrude?s tailings ?ponds,? which, alongside Suncor?s, is one of the two original and still largest mining operations in the region. The event helped focus the media and the public?s attention on the ticking time bombs of waste water produced in the mining of the tar sands. All mining operations in the world today, whether gold, nickel, cadmium or uranium produce waste, which is mixed with water in tailings ponds, and which will not settle or separate for centuries. However the scale of the waste, composed of very toxic materials unleashed through the mining of tar sands, is practically beyond comprehension. So, too, are the massive piles of sulphur extracted as a by-product of the ?slurry? upgrading process, which separates the bitumen (pre-fuel) from the sands. The final product ? after digging, upgrading and ultimately refining ? is a mock crude that can become gasoline (though it produces a much smaller proportion per barrel than ?regular sweet crude?), diesel and more. But the mining process is needed because the regular carbon breakdown and evolution of the tar sands are being artificially sped up by several millions of years. This is why the tar sands are so expensive to make into mock oil and take so much input in terms of energy, money, water, labour and ecological destruction to extract. The largest trucks in the world are carrying hundreds of tonnes of mined land to the slurries in order to get this done. The contractors who carry this out are generally among those corporations who would help other forms of mining across North America and around the world, such as Caterpillar. It is perhaps fitting that Canada, which is home to the investors and head offices of the mining corporations with the worst track records of violating human rights in the Global South, would also have the largest and most destructive mining operation on the face of the earth. But there is no ?poetic justice? here, rather just a local version of the victimization of primarily indigenous communities who live near theses massive mining projects that occurs around the world. Celina Harpe, an elder from the Cree community in the northern Albertan village of Fort MacKay, has seen the impacts of the tar sands development first hand. ?They ruined our water, the air, pretty much everything else. The animals, the berries, all our livelihood ? that?s what we used to live on,? she explains. ?The fish; there?s no more. We can?t eat fish from the river, we can?t drink the water, we get sick from all that pollution. People are dying of cancer, whereas it never used to be like that. And I?m sure, I?m very positive that this has got something to do with the air and the water. The pollution is doing something to our people.? Similar to operations across Latin America and Africa, the people who call the region being mined home are not given the opportunity for ?free, prior, and informed consent? that the recent United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples declares necessary. Canada was one of the four countries, along with New Zealand, Australia and the United States, to opt out of signing this declaration. Hosting the offices of mining corporations both operating in the Global South and carrying out multiple projects at ?home? is surely one of the major reasons why Ottawa voted against the ratification of that historic document. ?First Nations in the region impacted by the tar sands development in Alberta have been stuck in a regulatory process that has degraded their sovereignty by forcing them to engaged in a multi-stakeholder process that in no way recognizes their unique nation-to-nation relationship with Canada,? says Clayton Thomas-Muller, tar sands campaigner for the Indigenous Environmental Network. The Albertan government is working overtime to obfuscate the actual environmental and human costs of producing mock oil from mining the tar sands. While they are spending enough money on the campaign to make most grassroots activists drool, it will be a test of their communication prowess to see if they can create the perception that ?the oil sands will become an increasing source of interest as a secure, abundant energy supply. The oil sands are definitely on the world's radar screen,? as Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach would have us believe. Invoking the war on terror and the global energy crunch, Stelmach has accused tar sands detractors of not only sending out misinformation, but ?even worse, they could serve to jeopardize this country's [the United States?] energy security at a time when Asian markets are clamouring for oil." The result, he says, would be North America being pushed to rely upon countries such as Saudi Arabia or Iran for conventional oil supplies. ?In the province of Alberta, industry dominates all provincial regulatory and enforcement bodies and the stacks are against First Nations,? says Muller. Those activists who wish to see the tar sands understood as a massive escalation in both the mining of the earth and the extinguishing of First Nations in the region already have a major asset on their side: the truth, along with the continued errors of tar sands producers in their giant strip mining operations. Canadian mining corporations are being exposed as among the worst practitioners of corporate social responsibility the world over, from Guatemala to Australia to Chile. They must also be called out for using the same approach in the tar sands ? not just for the multiple ways they impact climate change, deforestation and more, but also as the initiators of the largest strip mine ever conceived by human beings. For decades, the indigenous populations living in North America have contended with the twins of mining and energy. In a few cases, such as uranium mining, energy and mining coincide in a single project. They do so again with a vengeance in the largest industrial project in human history ? the tar sands, a gigaproject of strip mining the earth to send mock oil to the United States and leave a vast wasteland of poisoned land, human beings and giant lakes of waste in their wake. With companies such as Barrick Gold going around the planet in search of its namesake precious metal, it is noteworthy that Canada's tar sands operations ? using clean natural gas to produce this massive amount of dirty mock oil ? can be seen as turning gold into lead at home. Macdonald Stainsby is an avid hitchhiker and works for Oil Sands Truth. From fentona at shaw.ca Sun Nov 9 19:55:27 2008 From: fentona at shaw.ca (Anthony Fenton) Date: Sun, 9 Nov 2008 18:55:27 -0800 Subject: [R-G] =?windows-1252?q?Obama=92s_Pentagon-in-Waiting?= Message-ID: <9DD002D6-9E2F-4AC7-BB74-DDA458E2FFCB@shaw.ca> Obama?s Pentagon-in-Waiting Center for a New American Security Widely Viewed as Source of People and Ideas By Spencer Ackerman 11/8/08 2:20 PM http://washingtonindependent.com/17710/obama The rumor started to spread last week. if Sen. Barack Obama won the presidential election, Michele Flournoy would resign from the Center for a New American Security Thursday following the election. Friday at the latest. It?s not difficult to understand why the talk circulated. Flournoy boasts an enviable resume. A veteran of the Clinton Pentagon, she worked on counter-proliferation issues before playing a large role in shaping the 2001 Quadrennial Defense Review, an overview of defense strategy and its implementation. After leaving government service, Flournoy took a high-profile job at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a prominent Washington policy organization, before co-founding the Center for a New American Security, an increasingly influential defense think tank, in 2007. It?s not just Flournoy. CNAS, as it?s known, is widely considered a likely feeder for the Obama Pentagon, though the organization disputes this ? preferring to bill itself as nonpartisan. What CNAS does not dispute is that, over the course of the past two years ? overnight, in Washington terms ? it has emerged as an energetic center for studying contemporary defense issues, including Iraq, counterinsurgency and the national-security effects of climate change. CNAS fellows like John Nagl, Colin Kahl, Vikram Singh, Shawn Brimley, Nate Fick and Roger Carstens will likely be key players in the defense debates of the next several years ? whether they join an Obama administration or not. If they do join the administration, however, expect counterinsurgency to be a major focus of the next Pentagon team. ?There are many good policy organizations in the current national- security debate, and the team at CNAS should be recognized for their important contribution,? said Rudy DeLeon, deputy secretary of defense in the Clinton administration. ?In particular, they have helped give field- and company-grade officers a clear voice in the policy discussion.? For years, Flournoy has been touted as the odds-on favorite to be the country?s first woman secretary of defense. While Obama isn?t believed to be considering her for that position, many in Washington defense circles are saying that she?s a shoo-in for an important Pentagon job, as is CNAS?s other co-founder, Kurt Campbell, another veteran of the Clinton Pentagon and National Security Council staff. As of Friday afternoon, though, Flournoy was still at her desk at the Center for a New American Security. ?She is still employed here,? said Price Floyd, a spokesman for CNAS. ?In fact, she?s in the office today.? Similarly, Floyd said he is unaware if the Obama transition team has approached the think tank?s leaders and fellows. ?I have no idea. Not a clue,? he said. ?If they had, the saying in Washington is those who know, don?t say, and those who say, don?t know. I don?t fit in that category.? CNAS fellows and leaders declined to comment for this article. From its inception, CNAS has demonstrated an ability to ?punch above our weight,? as Floyd put it. The think tank?s launch event, in June 2007, was at the baroque Willard Hotel near the White House ? a favored locale for CNAS gatherings, owing both to its grandeur and its proximity to the think tank?s offices at 13th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue NW. Among the featured speakers were former Defense Sec. William Perry; Sens. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) and Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.); Princeton University?s Anne-Marie Slaughter, and Philip Zelikow, then counselor to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. The introductory panel was moderated by former Secretary of the Navy Richard Danzig, Obama?s chief defense adviser and a potential secretary of defense. A keynote was delivered by Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), then the front- runner for the Democratic presidential nomination. At the time, many believed that CNAS would be a feeder for her administration. Floyd disputed that ? ?we got that rap, that we were Hillary?s shadow, in-waiting? Pentagon, he remembered ? and added that the goal of the organization was always to be bipartisan, but not bipartisan for its own sake. ?We bring people together,? Floyd said, ?not for a lowest-common- denominator bipartisanship, but for pragmatic solutions for problems we face.? CNAS papers are often vetted through an informal peer-review process, with experts at liberal, centrist and conservative think tanks. Still, some progressives have said that CNAS occasionally substitutes received wisdom for rigor. ?I think CNAS?s work on Iraq, in particular, has been unduly tied to the conventional wisdom,? said Matthew Yglesias, a leading liberal blogger for the Center for American Progress, another Washington policy organization, ?and sometimes seems more focused on trying to find ways to appear judicious and moderate than on trying to find solutions that are equal to the scale of the problem.? Much as Iraq has shaped the defense establishment over the past five and a half years, so too has it shaped CNAS. Its first Iraq policy, ?Phased Transition: A Responsible Way Forward and Out of Iraq,? argued against firm deadlines for withdrawing U.S. troops, but also rejected an indefinite commitment to the country. While several fellows, including Nagl and Kahl, have expressed support for President George W. Bush?s 2007 troop surge, CNAS?s follow-up paper, ?Shaping the Iraq Inheritance? ? written by Kahl, Flournoy and Brimley ? focused on how to accomplish a withdrawal of U.S. forces without leaving a political and security vacuum behind. Floyd contended that CNAS?s Iraq position has become the Washington consensus position. We were able to describe a responsible withdrawal,? he said, ?and, in essence, the discussion is how to do that. It?s not if it will be done.? Counterinsurgency, however, is probably the defense issue most closely associated with the think tank. Before Nagl retired from the Army this summer, he was one of the service?s leading counterinsurgency scholar- advocate-practitioners ? putting counterinsurgency theory into practice as a battalion commander in Iraq and helping write the landmark 2006 Army/Marine Corps counterinsurgency field manual. At CNAS, Nagl put forward a provocative proposal to create a corps within the Army devoted to training foreign military forces in how to suppress internal rebellions. Several attendees of this week?s Counterinsurgency Leaders? Conference at Ft. Leavenworth, Kan., openly speculated whether Nagl would be made deputy assistant secretary of defense for special operations, low-intensity conflict and stability operations, the key civilian Pentagon brief for irregular warfare. Nagl is hardly alone. Kahl, a veteran of the Office of the Secretary of Defense, is another leading counterinsurgency expert, focusing on Iraq, to which he?s made numerous trips in the brief time he?s been at CNAS. Fick, a Dartmouth graduate and Marine veteran of both Iraq and Afghanistan ? where he taught at Kabul?s Afghanistan Counterinsurgency Academy ? has achieved a degree of prominence in both counterinsurgency circles and popular culture. A book chronicling his platoon?s place in the Iraq invasion, ?Generation Kill,? was recently made into an HBO mini-series by David Simon, co-creator of ?The Wire.? Fick and Singh, who served in a variety of nonpolitical Pentagon jobs during the Bush administration, spent the late summer traveling through Afghanistan. They became two of the earliest and most prescient advocates of negotiating with elements of the Taliban, an initiative since pursued by the government of Hamid Karzai. Prominent counterinsurgents give CNAS top marks, and view the absorption of its scholars into an Obama administration as an indicator of the new president?s embrace of counterinsurgency. ?I?ve been following CNAS since its inception, know many of the personnel there and, bottom-line, have been quite impressed with their analysis and recommendations on the important issues associated with national security,? said Dave Dilegge, editor of Small Wars Journal, a blog that has become the virtual forum of the counterinsurgency community, in an email. ?The thing that impresses me the most is, that while conventional wisdom has held that CNAS was the ?holding ground? for an Obama administration, their work reflects a nonpartisan stance that would stand well in any administration ? Democrat or Republican. When it comes to issues concerning irregular warfare and a whole government approach to complex operations, they have some of the best and brightest.? Floyd said the focus of several of CNAS?s scholars on counterinsurgency reflects the think tank?s broader mission to take fresh approaches to national security. ?On the face of it,? Floyd said, it was fair to view CNAS as a counterinsurgency-heavy organization. ?But more important,? Floyd added, ?is that it?s not so much that as that we?re looking at the current and future challenges of the United States. Right now a lot of our scholars have come to the conclusion that the best ways to deal with them are through counterinsurgency and counterinsurgency-like ideas.? From critical.montages at gmail.com Mon Nov 10 02:01:30 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2008 04:01:30 -0500 Subject: [R-G] Secret Order Lets U.S. Raid Al Qaeda "Anywhere in the World" Message-ID: November 10, 2008 Secret Order Lets U.S. Raid Al Qaeda in Many Countries By ERIC SCHMITT and MARK MAZZETTI WASHINGTON ? The United States military since 2004 has used broad, secret authority to carry out nearly a dozen previously undisclosed attacks against Al Qaeda and other militants in Syria, Pakistan and elsewhere, according to senior American officials. These military raids, typically carried out by Special Operations forces, were authorized by a classified order that Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld signed in the spring of 2004 with the approval of President Bush, the officials said. The secret order gave the military new authority to attack the Qaeda terrorist network anywhere in the world, and a more sweeping mandate to conduct operations in countries not at war with the United States. In 2006, for example, a Navy Seal team raided a suspected militants' compound in the Bajaur region of Pakistan, according to a former top official of the Central Intelligence Agency. Officials watched the entire mission ? captured by the video camera of a remotely piloted Predator aircraft ? in real time in the C.I.A.'s Counterterrorist Center at the agency's headquarters in Virginia 7,000 miles away. Some of the military missions have been conducted in close coordination with the C.I.A., according to senior American officials, who said that in others, like the Special Operations raid in Syria on Oct. 26 of this year, the military commandos acted in support of C.I.A.-directed operations. But as many as a dozen additional operations have been canceled in the past four years, often to the dismay of military commanders, senior military officials said. They said senior administration officials had decided in these cases that the missions were too risky, were too diplomatically explosive or relied on insufficient evidence. More than a half-dozen officials, including current and former military and intelligence officials as well as senior Bush administration policy makers, described details of the 2004 military order on the condition of anonymity because of its politically delicate nature. Spokesmen for the White House, the Defense Department and the military declined to comment. Apart from the 2006 raid into Pakistan, the American officials refused to describe in detail what they said had been nearly a dozen previously undisclosed attacks, except to say they had been carried out in Syria, Pakistan and other countries. They made clear that there had been no raids into Iran using that authority, but they suggested that American forces had carried out reconnaissance missions in Iran using other classified directives. According to a senior administration official, the new authority was spelled out in a classified document called "Al Qaeda Network Exord," or execute order, that streamlined the approval process for the military to act outside officially declared war zones. Where in the past the Pentagon needed to get approval for missions on a case-by-case basis, which could take days when there were only hours to act, the new order specified a way for Pentagon planners to get the green light for a mission far more quickly, the official said. It also allowed senior officials to think through how the United States would respond if a mission went badly. "If that helicopter goes down in Syria en route to a target," a former senior military official said, "the American response would not have to be worked out on the fly." The 2004 order was a step in the evolution of how the American government sought to kill or capture Qaeda terrorists around the world. It was issued after the Bush administration had already granted America's intelligence agencies sweeping power to secretly detain and interrogate terrorism suspects in overseas prisons and to conduct warrantless eavesdropping on telephone and electronic communications. Shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks, Mr. Bush issued a classified order authorizing the C.I.A. to kill or capture Qaeda militants around the globe. By 2003, American intelligence agencies and the military had developed a much deeper understanding of Al Qaeda's extensive global network, and Mr. Rumsfeld pressed hard to unleash the military's vast firepower against militants outside the combat zones of Iraq and Afghanistan. The 2004 order identifies 15 to 20 countries, including Syria, Pakistan, Yemen, Saudi Arabia and several other Persian Gulf states, where Qaeda militants were believed to be operating or to have sought sanctuary, a senior administration official said. Even with the order, each specific mission requires high-level government approval. Targets in Somalia, for instance, need at least the approval of the defense secretary, the administration official said, while targets in a handful of countries, including Pakistan and Syria, require presidential approval. The Pentagon has exercised its authority frequently, dispatching commandos to countries including Pakistan and Somalia. Details of a few of these strikes have previously been reported. For example, shortly after Ethiopian troops crossed into Somalia in late 2006 to dislodge an Islamist regime in Mogadishu, the Pentagon's Joint Special Operations Command quietly sent operatives and AC-130 gunships to an airstrip near the Ethiopian town of Dire Dawa. From there, members of a classified unit called Task Force 88 crossed repeatedly into Somalia to hunt senior members of a Qaeda cell believed to be responsible for the 1998 American Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. At the time, American officials said Special Operations troops were operating under a classified directive authorizing the military to kill or capture Qaeda operatives if failure to act quickly would mean the United States had lost a "fleeting opportunity" to neutralize the enemy. Occasionally, the officials said, Special Operations troops would land in Somalia to assess the strikes' results. On Jan. 7, 2007, an AC-130 struck an isolated fishing village near the Kenyan border, and within hours, American commandos and Ethiopian troops were examining the rubble to determine whether any Qaeda operatives had been killed. But even with the new authority, proposed Pentagon missions were sometimes scrubbed because of bad intelligence or bureaucratic entanglements, senior administration officials said. The details of one of those aborted operations, in early 2005, were reported by The New York Times last June. In that case, an operation to send a team of the Navy Seals and the Army Rangers into Pakistan to capture Ayman al-Zawahri, Osama bin Laden's top deputy, was aborted at the last minute. Mr. Zawahri was believed by intelligence officials to be attending a meeting in Bajaur, in Pakistan's tribal areas, and the Pentagon's Joint Special Operations Command hastily put together a plan to capture him. There were strong disagreements inside the Pentagon and the C.I.A. about the quality of the intelligence, however, and some in the military expressed concern that the mission was unnecessarily risky. Porter J. Goss, the C.I.A. director at the time, urged the military to carry out the mission, and some in the C.I.A. even wanted to execute it without informing Ryan C. Crocker, then the American ambassador to Pakistan. Mr. Rumsfeld ultimately refused to authorize the mission. Former military and intelligence officials said that Lt. Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, who recently completed his tour as head of the Joint Special Operations Command, had pressed for years to win approval for commando missions into Pakistan. But the missions were frequently rejected because officials in Washington determined that the risks to American troops and the alliance with Pakistan were too great. Capt. John Kirby, a spokesman for General McChrystal, who is now director of the military's Joint Staff, declined to comment. The recent raid into Syria was not the first time that Special Operations forces had operated in that country, according to a senior military official and an outside adviser to the Pentagon. Since the Iraq war began, the official and the outside adviser said, Special Operations forces have several times made cross-border raids aimed at militants and infrastructure aiding the flow of foreign fighters into Iraq. The raid in late October, however, was much more noticeable than the previous raids, military officials said, which helps explain why it drew a sharp protest from the Syrian government. Negotiations to hammer out the 2004 order took place over nearly a year and involved wrangling between the Pentagon and the C.I.A. and the State Department about the military's proper role around the world, several administration officials said. American officials said there had been debate over whether to include Iran in the 2004 order, but ultimately Iran was set aside, possibly to be dealt with under a separate authorization. Senior officials of the State Department and the C.I.A. voiced fears that military commandos would encroach on their turf, conducting operations that historically the C.I.A. had carried out, and running missions without an ambassador's knowledge or approval. Mr. Rumsfeld had pushed in the years after the Sept. 11 attacks to expand the mission of Special Operations troops to include intelligence gathering and counterterrorism operations in countries where American commandos had not operated before. Bush administration officials have shown a determination to operate under an expansive definition of self-defense that provides a legal rationale for strikes on militant targets in sovereign nations without those countries' consent. Several officials said the negotiations over the 2004 order resulted in closer coordination among the Pentagon, the State Department and the C.I.A., and set a very high standard for the quality of intelligence necessary to gain approval for an attack. The 2004 order also provided a foundation for the orders that Mr. Bush approved in July allowing the military to conduct raids into the Pakistani tribal areas, including the Sept. 3 operation by Special Operations forces that killed about 20 militants, American officials said. Administration officials said that Mr. Bush's approval had paved the way for Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates to sign an order ? separate from the 2004 order ? that specifically directed the military to plan a series of operations, in cooperation with the C.I.A., on the Qaeda network and other militant groups linked to it in Pakistan. Unlike the 2004 order, in which Special Operations commanders nominated targets for approval by senior government officials, the order in July was more of a top-down approach, directing the military to work with the C.I.A. to find targets in the tribal areas, administration officials said. They said each target still needed to be approved by the group of Mr. Bush's top national security and foreign policy advisers, called the Principals Committee. From critical.montages at gmail.com Mon Nov 10 02:09:47 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2008 04:09:47 -0500 Subject: [R-G] Obama Quashes Iran's Hopes for Change Message-ID: Obama quashes Iran's hopes for change By Jim Muir BBC News, Tehran If anybody had hoped that Barack Obama's election victory would lead to a swift breakthrough in Washington's relations with one of its toughest adversaries, Iran, the honeymoon seems to be over before it even began. Many Iranians, including some officials, were thrilled by the stunning election victory, seeing it as offering hope of a radical change in US foreign policy and relations. The two countries have had no diplomatic relations since shortly after the Islamic revolution in 1979, and tensions have risen recently over Iran's nuclear programme. Both Mr Obama and his future vice-president, Senator Joseph Biden, have in the past advocated unconditional dialogue with Iran. That was one reason behind the excitement generated in Iran by their election success. No 'knee-jerk' response That excitement led the country's quixotic president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to break with precedent and send a congratulatory message to the American president-elect. But it swiftly became apparent that a whirlwind romance was out of the question, as political problems sprang up on both sides. In Iran, both Mr Ahmadinejad's initiative and Mr Obama's cagey response drew fierce attacks from rival hard-line circles, where the political atmosphere is already heating up sharply in advance of Iranian presidential elections next June. On the American side, while Barack Obama responded gracefully and personally to messages of congratulation from other world leaders, he held back from doing so with Mr Ahmadinejad, mindful of the political implications of such a gesture. He said he would be reviewing the Iranian president's letter and responding appropriately, rather than reacting in a "knee-jerk fashion". But Mr Obama made it clear that he will not be a soft touch when it comes to Tehran. "Iran's development of a nuclear weapon I believe is unacceptable. We have to mount an international effort to prevent that from happening," he said. "Iran's support of terrorist organisations, I think, is something that has to cease." The Speaker of the Iranian parliament, Ali Larijani - who has been sharply at odds with President Ahmadinejad over parliament's impeachment last week of the latter's interior minister - described Mr Obama's comments as a step in the wrong direction. "It signals a continuation of the erroneous policies of the past," he said. "Change has to be strategic, not just cosmetic." Hard-line Iranian newspapers on Sunday took up the theme of continuing American hostility to Iran and a common policy shared by Republicans and Democrats alike. Some also pointed out that one of Mr Obama's first actions was to appoint as his chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, whose background reportedly includes volunteer service in the Israeli army. Reformist support Some also criticised Mr Ahmadinejad directly for stretching out his hand to the American president-elect. The right-wing daily Jumhouri Islami said his initiative was wrong on several counts. If it was a prelude to reopening a dialogue with Washington, it said, such issues were of a magnitude which only Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was qualified to address. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad - file photo President Ahmadinejad sent Mr Obama a congratulatory letter Ironically, the main voices raised in support of Mr Ahmadinejad's overture came from the reformist camp, which favours dialogue with Washington and which is normally at loggerheads with the president. The issue of opening a direct dialogue between Washington and Tehran is clearly a political minefield for both sides. But that does not necessarily mean it will not happen. As he pointed out in his remarks about President Ahmadinejad's letter, Mr Obama's hands are in any case tied until he takes office in January. The economic and financial crisis will then be his obvious first priority. But he has already singled out Iran and its pursuit of nuclear technology as a compelling foreign policy issue to be addressed, and he has not so far drawn back from the idea of direct talks, an approach long championed by Senator Biden. Shark-pool Back in Tehran, much will depend on the position taken by Ayatollah Khamenei. His addresses are often very tough on the United States. But some Iranian officials say that he is not against a direct dialogue, if it is without preconditions and Iran's dignity is respected. There is even some speculation about who might be qualified and authorised to conduct talks from the Iranian side. Students in Iran - 3/11/2008 The US remains unpopular with many Iranians Only if a dialogue had the clear support of the Leader - who cannot be criticised - would it be likely to resist being torn to shreds in the shark-pool of Iranian factional politics. If direct talks did get under way, it would clearly not be plain sailing. Iranian officials and leaders remain adamant about what they see as their absolute right to pursue nuclear fuel enrichment, which they insist is only for peaceful power-generation purposes. The Americans and others - apparently including Mr Obama - are convinced that Tehran is actually seeking to develop nuclear arms, and insist it must stop enrichment operations in exchange for imports of ready-enriched nuclear fuel and other inducements. Some reformist leaders have suggested that the ascendant hard-liners don't really want normalisation with the US, on the grounds that continuing tension allows them to focus on external threats and silence their domestic critics. From critical.montages at gmail.com Mon Nov 10 08:46:24 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2008 10:46:24 -0500 Subject: [R-G] Obama to Back Ailing Ethanol Makers, Follow Failed Bush Policy Message-ID: When it comes to ethanol, Obama is not even neoliberal -- just pork-barrel. -- Yoshie Obama to Back Ailing Ethanol Makers, Follow Failed Bush Policy By Mario Parker and Kim Chipman More Photos/Details Nov. 6 (Bloomberg) -- President-elect Barack Obama plans to support unprofitable U.S. ethanol producers and pursue the same policies that failed George W. Bush. Obama, the Democratic senator from Illinois, the second- biggest corn-growing state, will maintain Bush's goal requiring fuel producers use at least 36 billion gallons of biofuels in 2022, said Heather Zichal, the campaign's senior energy adviser. The ethanol industry, which loses about 66 cents a gallon at current prices, will receive at least as much support as from the current administration, including tax credits to spur consumption, she said. ``Obama recognizes how important the renewable and biofuels industry is to creating jobs and meeting our goal of reducing dependence on foreign oil,'' Zichal said in a Nov. 3 interview. ``He's fully committed to it and sees tremendous value in the renewable fuels standard and continuing down this path.'' Ethanol makers are collapsing after wrong-way bets on corn prices overwhelmed $20 billion in federal aid and government- guaranteed demand for the fuel additive. VeraSun Energy Corp., the second-largest producer, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Oct. 31. Bush's approach has been criticized for hurting the environment, increasing global food prices and contributing to riots from Haiti to Egypt. Earlier this year, at least 51 members of his own party, led by Texas Governor Rick Perry, called for relaxing the policy. Distillers struggle to make money because costs to produce ethanol are rising while increasing supplies drive down prices of the fuel. U.S. output climbed to a record 647,000 barrels a day in August, more than double the 318,000 barrels a day in June 2006, when VeraSun had its initial public offering, according to the U.S. Energy Department. Farm Politics Rising feed costs caused third-quarter profit to plunge 92 percent at Tyson Foods Inc., the nation's largest meat producer. Pilgrim's Pride Corp. said Sept. 25 it may breach a credit covenant because of a ``significant'' loss in the quarter ended Sept. 27. Pilgrim's Pride shares dropped 24 percent on Oct. 17 amid speculation the company may file for court protection from creditors. Record prices for corn, soybeans and wheat in the past 12 months helped boost net farm income to a record $95.7 billion this year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. There are about 2 million farmers in the U.S., according to the USDA. Farm belt states that voted Republican in 2004, including Colorado, Indiana, Iowa and Ohio, went to Obama this time. `Zero Margins' ``We know that corn farmers like ethanol very, very much,'' said Pavel Molchanov, an analyst at Raymond James & Associates in Houston. ``Corn farmers have a lot of political influence in swing states such as Iowa and Missouri. Certainly ethanol continues to enjoy some support because of its political and electoral significance.'' Corn futures traded in Chicago more than doubled in the past three years to almost $8 a bushel as worldwide demand expanded to make sweeteners and fuel. U.S. ethanol prices dropped 5 percent because output from new mills grew faster than demand, damaging profit for distillers. ``Obama has clearly said part of his energy policy has been for renewable fuels, including ethanol,'' said Ronald Miller, chief executive officer of Aventine Renewable Holdings Inc., a Pekin, Illinois-based ethanol producer, which delayed the opening of a plant in Aurora, Nebraska, until the second quarter. Producers ``are managing the day-to-day business on near zero margins,'' he said. Advanced Biofuels Obama, 47, plans to spend $150 billion over 10 years to develop renewable fuels and to create 5 million so-called green collar jobs. He will also require at least 60 billion gallons of advanced biofuels be produced by 2030. Ethanol is a form of alcohol created by fermenting and distilling the starches from corn and other crops. Bush's Energy Independence and Security Act, passed in December, called for ethanol production to more than double to 15 billion gallons in 2015 from 6.5 billion last year. The U.S. pays oil refiners 51 cents in tax credits for each gallon of ethanol they blend into regular gasoline. A 54 cent-a-gallon tariff is slapped on imports from Brazil to protect and stimulate U.S. production. Obama supports the mandate and wants to expand it and move toward so-called cellulosic ethanol, Zichal said. Cellulosic ethanol is derived from non-food crops such as switch grass and wood chips. Speaking in Missouri in July, Obama said corn-based ethanol isn't ``our best strategy'' because of its impacts on food, adding the current additive will usher in commercial production of cellulosic. Bad Hedges ``He very much sees it as an important bridge fuel and important source of revenue for many rural communities but something that is the beginning of hopefully a greater investment and greater commitment to advanced biofuels,'' Zichal said. Falling margins caused Gateway Ethanol LLC, Heartland Ethanol LLC, LiquidMaize LLC, Greater Ohio Ethanol, Glacial Lakes Corn Processors and Abengoa SA to curtail production. Biofuel Energy Corp., based in Denver, said in August that it didn't have enough money to cover $46 million in losses on contracts for corn, ethanol and the natural gas used to run its distilleries. The company locked in third- and fourth-quarter corn costs of $7.01 and $6.90 a bushel, respectively. Corn plunged to about $4 a bushel for December delivery on the Chicago Board of Trade. Failure stems from ``the way they operate their companies rather than the government support,'' said Ian Horowitz, an analyst at Soleil Securities Corp. in New York. ``You can't policy your way out of bad hedging positions.'' To contact the reporters on this story: Mario Parker in Chicago at mparker22 at bloomberg.net; Kim Chipman in Chicago at 1927 or kchipman at bloomberg.net. Last Updated: November 5, 2008 19:00 EST From fentona at shaw.ca Mon Nov 10 10:10:00 2008 From: fentona at shaw.ca (Anthony Fenton) Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2008 09:10:00 -0800 Subject: [R-G] Vancouver's Corriente Resources is in deep in Ecuador Message-ID: <46DF9656-27FE-43AB-8EE2-5A4CAF773E2C@shaw.ca> November 10, 2008 http://www.dominionpaper.ca/articles/2054 How Good is Canada?s Word? Vancouver's Corriente Resources is in deep in Ecuador by Jennifer Moore The Dominion - http://www.dominionpaper.ca Members of the indigenous Shuar Nation and Mestizo farmers march against proposed mining developments. Canadian mining companies have been conducting large amounts of mineral exploration against the will of local residents in various regions of Ecuador. Photo: Jennifer Moore QUITO, ECUADOR??Companies should respect society and the environment,? said former Canadian International Trade Minister Michael Fortier during a recent visit to Ecuador. ?And if they don?t, we will not approve of their continued operations.? The Ecuadorian capital was the final stop on Fortier?s Latin American tour in mid-August, which also included Mexico and Panama. Canadian capital makes up over 90 per cent of the money being invested in Ecuador?s nascent metal mining sector. The industry has been in development for about 15 years but has yet to see any large-scale mineral projects go into production despite dozens planned. Widespread local opposition during a period of policy change has led companies to lobby hard for political support from the Canadian government. And since the Ecuadorian National Constituent Assembly passed a decree on April 18 toughening up mining regulations, Canadian government officials have stepped up their support for the over 25 Canadian- financed companies exploring in Ecuador. The decree ordered most mineral concessions revoked for various reasons, including proximity to headwaters, overlap with protected natural areas, concessions obtained through government officials with insider knowledge and failure to consult with local communities. Both Fortier and Canadian ambassador to Ecuador Christian Lapointe have expressed concern to the Ecuadorian government over the decision. The Intag region, in northwestern Ecuador, is one of many areas in the country threatened by proposed mining concessions. Photo: Dawn Paley But it is likely that a combination of political pressure from Canada and a lack of political will from President Rafael Correa?s government (which favours mining to bolster state revenue) will leave most criteria for revoking mineral concessions unapplied. Large-scale metallic mining activities, however, have been suspended until a new mining law is approved. The law, anticipated to replace the government decree, has had extensive industry input and will likely be approved by an interim congress now that Ecuador's new Constitution has been approved by a referendum. Despite these developments, Canada is keeping the pressure on. Before Canadian elections were called on September 7, Fortier announced that Prime Minister Stephen Harper would travel to Ecuador to meet with Correa. It would be surprising if mining is not on his agenda. Collective rights disregarded Despite Fortier?s assurances, Canada?s help for mining companies does not ensure respect for communities acting in defence of their rights and their environment. Shortly after President Correa?s January 2007 inauguration, a nationwide movement against mining began to coalesce. The rural, environmental, and indigenous organizations in the coalition have emphasized the lack of respect for communities' right to consultation guaranteed in the current constitution. Many of these groups have been lobbying for a provision that would require local consent for mining activities to be included in the new constitution, although this has ultimately been opposed by the government. Alberto Acosta, the former Minister of Energy and Mines and past President of the National Constituent Assembly, said that in lieu of community consultation, "Companies have specialized in how to divide communities," leading to "near civil war" in parts of the country. Familiar strategies to divide communities include fabricating charges against mining opponents, allegations often made by third parties with a known connection to mining companies. Threats and the use of force have also been employed. And corporate-community relations programs that are often aimed at particular individuals or groups within a community fostering or aggravating strong differences over mining are widely seen as buying the 'social license' that companies need. The April mining decree included the failure to consult with communities as one of the criteria for revoking mineral concessions. However, protecting companies appears to be Canada?s priority. Ian Harris, Senior VP of EcuaCorriente, a subsidiary of Vancouver- based Corriente Resources Inc., recently wrote that, ?The Canadian Embassy in Ecuador has worked tirelessly to affect change in the mining policy ? including facilitating high-level meetings between Canadian mining companies and President Rafael Correa.? Another industry leader commented that the embassy has reminded the President and his ministers to respect Canada?s Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (FIPA) with Ecuador. Amongst other things, the FIPA says that Canadian investments cannot be expropriated ?without prompt and adequate compensation.? Compensation is not ensured in the mining decree, which orders revocation of mineral concessions without compensation. Under the investment agreement, companies also have ?access to binding international arbitration for disputes arising from a breach of the treaty,? notes Michael O?Shaughnessy from the Department of Foreign Affairs. So far, the partial application of the mining decree has meant that the companies have apparently not felt the need to seek recourse under the treaty. However, the question remains as to whether the treaty is also playing a role in limiting the application of the decree. Indiscriminate support Further challenging Fortier?s claim is Canadian government support for companies with a questionable human rights record. In one strange twist of events, the Ottawa-based research and advocacy organization MiningWatch Canada received ?malicious? letters from two indigenous representatives, including Shuar leader Ruben Naichap. The letter included ?bizarre accusations of genocide and that we were somehow paying people to blockade the road,? says Communications and Outreach Coordinator Jamie Kneen. What MiningWatch had done was post information on its website about heavy military repression against anti-mining resistance in the area pertaining to Corriente Resources? Mirador Project. A report submitted by several Quito-based human rights organizations to the Inter American Commission of Human Rights describes human rights violations resulting from this incident. It was later verified that the correspondence from Naichap was written on a computer owned by Corriente Resources. Corriente is one of a handful of companies banking on an extensive gold and copper mining district in Ecuador?s Southern Amazon. Their mineral concessions include a 20km by 80km band across five counties in two provinces. Company representatives have also enjoyed regular discussions with the Ministry of Mines and Petroleum, have had input into the country's mining law, and have attended a meeting with top Ecuadorian officials along with seven other companies that was facilitated by the Canadian embassy shortly after the mining decree was announced. MiningWatch, on the other hand, is still waiting for a response to a letter to the embassy sent over a year ago about why the Canadian government supports Corriente. Kneen wants to know why ?one of the companies at the centre of one of the hottest conflicts where people have been shot at, tear gassed, a congressman has been taken hostage for about three days... and that has had a stop work order, [is] being treated as a respectable corporate citizen.? A Fair Deal? Despite this conflict ? or perhaps because of it ? Corriente has also run the highest profile pro-mining publicity campaign of any company in Ecuador. Using the slogan ?A Fair Deal,? the campaign focuses on the promise of jobs and development. But its questionable choice of local collaborators is suspected to have undermined indigenous organizations and aggravated tensions in the Amazon region. Don Clarke, vice president of sustainable development for Ecuacorriente, promotes himself as a specialist in facilitating company relations with indigenous communities. Writing for the Canadian Foundation for the Americas (FOCAL), Clarke says, ?Companies that lack the corporate capacity to understand indigenous issues quickly encounter issues that can dramatically impact their bottom line and render the business environment hostile.? This may be true, given that areas desired by extractive industry increasingly include indigenous territories. Clarke?s approach in Ecuador has been challenged by indigenous organizations, especially given the support he has provided to such controversial representatives as Ruben Naichap, who signed one of the letters that MiningWatch received last year. As early as 1998, two regional Shuar federations from the Southern Amazon publicly denounced Naichap for ?conflictual, divisionist and individualistic behaviour that has caused serious problems within their communities.? In 2007, a Shuar Association that groups together indigenous communities near one of Corriente?s main projects also expelled Naichap for aggression and corruption. Naichap has worked closely with Don Clarke over the last year and a half, becoming a sort of national and international emissary on behalf of Corriente and the large scale mining industry in general. Clarke indicates that Corriente has a ?Memorandum of Understanding? with Ruben Naichap?s Shuar Federation, one of two in the Province of Zamora Chinchipe. The agreement includes regular financial support that, Clarke says, he believes the "communities manage appropriately.? In addition, it includes stipulations about labour and services and is viewed as a step toward an eventual Impact Benefit Agreement. Mar?a Belen P?ez, from Quito-based Pachamama Foundation, says that money provided by companies in such cases ?provokes tension, aggravates conflicts and without doubt arrives at extremes of violence.? Angel Awak is President of the nationally-recognized Shuar Federation of Zamora Chinchipe, which works with Amazonian and nationwide indigenous organizations that are highly critical of mining. Awak attributes the 'grave conflict' that they are experiencing to mining and other extractive industries. He says money causes problems, particularly at the level of the community where ?it is used to buy people?s conscience and begins to divide families.? He is also worried about a group that is said to be forming to confront mining opponents. Naichap is believed to be involved with this new organization. Clarke responds by saying, ?Our company has always been open to work with anyone that wants to be worked with... It?s not the role of the company to decide who?s legitimate or not, our role is to work with stakeholders.? But given his stated expertise in community relations, his easy dismissal of the tension his company generates begs the question about how ?corporate capacity to understand indigenous issues? is being used. And whether ?a hostile environment? might actually work in the company?s interest to mask and weaken opposition to their particular projects. A little respect ?To enter, one should have permission,? considers Awak, ?Just like going into someone?s house.? ?This small group of people [referring to Naichap] is speaking out because they have the resources to do so. For those of us who are on the defense, we just don?t have resources for the world to hear us" he continued, adding, "Our people need quality education and healthcare, but without destruction." With state forces aligned on the side of industry, and coalitions of indigenous organizations and environmental groups fighting to prevent mining from taking place without local consent, the struggle in Ecuador is far from over. As a result of President Correa?s support for the mining industry, however, the fight might move from national politics to tough battles at the local level. MiningWatch Canada's Kneen suggests that Fortier needs to keep his word. ?We?re not saying that Canadian businesses don?t deserve some level of support,? he explained. But, he said, ?Historically, Canada?s objectives internationally have included democratic development and protection of human rights... If those are still being respected we need to see how these decisions are being made.? Jennifer Moore is an independent print and broadcast journalist currently based in Ecuador. From shniad at sfu.ca Mon Nov 10 11:40:14 2008 From: shniad at sfu.ca (Sid Shniad) Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2008 10:40:14 -0800 Subject: [R-G] Turning the Pages Back to Marx and Keynes Message-ID: <200811101840.mAAIeEDQ021655@rm-rstar.sfu.ca> An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: not available Url: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/rad-green/attachments/20081110/896632c4/attachment.txt From shniad at sfu.ca Mon Nov 10 11:41:10 2008 From: shniad at sfu.ca (Sid Shniad) Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2008 10:41:10 -0800 Subject: [R-G] Yet another controversial Obama appointment Message-ID: <200811101841.mAAIfAma023477@rm-rstar.sfu.ca> An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: not available Url: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/rad-green/attachments/20081110/60b13251/attachment.txt From suzannedk at yahoo.com Mon Nov 10 11:55:04 2008 From: suzannedk at yahoo.com (Suzanne de Kuyper) Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2008 10:55:04 -0800 (PST) Subject: [R-G] Obama New Appointment Message-ID: <996812.59841.qm@web30902.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Would not appear. "page not found" From menecraj at shaw.ca Mon Nov 10 12:10:26 2008 From: menecraj at shaw.ca (Richard Menec) Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2008 13:10:26 -0600 Subject: [R-G] Can We Talk About the Real Obama Now? Message-ID: Wednesday, November 5, 2008 CAN WE TALK ABOUT THE REAL OBAMA NOW? Sam Smith Over the past few weeks I've been a good boy. I've placed everything having to do with the real Barack Obama into a futures file and spent my time on the far grimmer matter of the real John McCain and Sarah Palin. Now the party is over and it's time for people to put away their Barack and Michelle dolls and start dealing with what has truly happened. This, I admit, is difficult because the real Obama doesn't exist yet. He follows in the footsteps of our first postmodern president, Bill Clinton, who observed the principles outlined by scholar Pauline Marie Rosenau: Post-modernists recognize an infinite number of interpretations . . . of any text are possible because, for the skeptical post-modernists, one can never say what one intends with language, [thus] ultimately all textual meaning, all interpretation is undecipherable.. . . Many diverse meanings are possible for any symbol, gesture, word . . . Language has no direct relationship to the real world; it is, rather, only symbolic. As James Krichick wrote in the New Republic, "Obama is, in his own words, something of a Rorschach test. In his latest book, The Audacity of Hope, he writes, 'I am new enough on the national political scene that I serve as a blank screen on which people of vastly different political stripes project their own views.' " This is remarkably similar to Ted Koppel's description of Vanna White of TV's Wheel of Fortune: "Vanna leaves an intellectual vacuum, which can be filled by whatever the predisposition of the viewer happens to be." Obama has left the same kind of vacuum. His magic, or con, was that voters could imagine whatever they wanted and he would do nothing to spoil their reverie. He was a handsome actor playing the part of the first black president-to-be and, as in films, he was careful not to muck up the role with real facts or issues that might harm the fantasy. Hence the enormous emphasis on meaningless phrases like hope and change. Of course, in Obama's postmodern society -- one that rises above the purported false teachings of partisanship -- we find ourselves with little to steer us save the opinions of whatever non-ideologue happens to be in power. In this case, we may really only have progressed from the ideology of the many to the ideology of the one or, some might say, from democracy to authoritarianism. The Obama campaign was driven in no small part by a younger generation trained to accept brands as a substitute for policies. If the 1960s had happened like this, the activists would have spent all their time trying to get Martin Luther King or Joan Baez elected president rather than pursing ancillary issues like ending segregation and the war in Vietnam. Obama himself took his vaunted experience in community organizing and turned its principles on its head. Instead of empowering the many at the bottom, he used the techniques to empower one at the top: himself. It is historic that a black has been elected president, but we should remember that Obama was not running against Bull Connor, George Wallace or Strom Thurmond. Putting Obama in the same class as earlier black activists discredits the honor of those who died, suffered physical harm or were repeatedly jailed to achieve equality. Obama is not a catalyst of change, but rather its belated beneficiary. The delay, to be sure, is striking; after all, the two white elite sports of tennis and golf were integrated long before presidential politics, but Washington - as Phil Hart said of the Senate - has always been a place that always does things twenty years after it should have. There is an informative precedent to Obama's rise. Forty-two years ago Edward Brooke became the first black senator to be elected with a majority of white votes. Brooke was chosen from Massachusetts as a Republican in a state that was 97% white. Jason Sokol, who teaches history at the University of Pennsylvania, wrote in History News Network: |||| On Election Day, Brooke triumphed with nearly 60 percent of the vote. Newspapers and magazines hummed with approval. The Boston Globe invoked a legacy that included the Pilgrims, Daniel Webster, and Charles Sumner, offering the Bay State as the nation's racial and political pioneer. Journalist Carl Rowan was among the unconvinced. For whites, voting for Brooke became "a much easier way to wipe out guilt feelings about race than letting a Negro family into the neighborhood or shaking up a Jim Crow school setup." Polling numbers lent credence to Rowan's unease. They showed that only 23 percent of Massachusetts residents approved of a statewide school integration law; just 17 percent supported open housing. |||| That's the problem with change coming from the top, as Obama might have heard when he was involved in real community organizing. It also helps to explain why there have been no more Catholic presidents since John Kennedy. Symbolism is not the change we need. Getting at the reality of Obama is difficult. He performs as the great black liberal, but since he is one half white and one half conservative, that doesn't leave him a lot of wiggle room. To be sure, in the Senate he got good ratings from various liberal groups, but two things need to be remembered: First, liberals aren't that liberal any more. Thus getting a 90% score merely means that you went along with the best that an extremely conservative Democratic Party was willing to risk. This is not a party that would, in these times, have passed Social Security, Medicare or minimum wage. In fact, many liberals aren't much interested in economic issues at all - especially that portion of the constituency that controls the money, the media and the message. Second, politicians reflect their constituency. Obama's constituency is no longer Illinois. He has a whole new set of folks to pander to. There is one story from Chicago, however, that remains relevant. A citizen walks into his alderman's office looking for a job. "Who sent you?" he asks. "Nobody," he replies. Says the staffer: "We don't want nobody nobody sent." Who sent Barack Obama remains a mystery. He has risen from an unknown state senator to president in exactly four years and that only happens when somebody sends for you. The black liberal image falters on a number of other scores including Obama's affection for extreme right wingers like Chuck Hagel and an obvious indifference to anybody who votes like, say, a state senator from Hyde Park. Think back over the campaign and try to recall a single instance when Obama reached out to the progressive wing of the Democratic Party or to the better angels of the Congressional Black Caucus. Instead his ads attacked as 'extreme' the single payer health insurance backed by many of his own supporters, he dissed ACORN and Colin Powell was as radical a black as he wanted to be seen palling around with. The key issue that has driven Obama throughout his career has been Obama. He has achieved virtually nothing for any other cause. His politics reflects whatever elite consensus he gathers around himself. This is why his "post partisanship" needs to be watched so carefully. If Bernie Sanders and John Conyers don't get to White House meetings as often as Chuck Hagel, Obama will glide easily to the right, as every president has done over the past thirty years. If liberals, as they did with Clinton, watch without a murmur as their president redesigns their party to fit his personal ambitions, then the whole country will continue to move to the right as well. Since the real Obama doesn't exist yet, it is impossible to predict with any precision what he will do. But here is some of the evidence gathered over the past months that should serve both as a warning and as a prod to progressives not to take today's dreams as a reasonable facsimile of reality: Business interests Advisor Cass Sunstein told Jeffrey Rosen of the NY Times: "I would be stunned to find an anti-business [Supreme Court] appointee from either [Clinton or Obama]. There's not a strong interest on the part of Obama or Clinton in demonizing business, and you wouldn't expect to see that in their Supreme Court nominees." Obama supported making it harder to file class action suits in state courts. David Sirota in the Nation wrote, "Opposed by most major civil rights and consumer watchdog groups, this big business-backed legislation was sold to the public as a way to stop 'frivolous' lawsuits. But everyone in Washington knew the bill's real objective was to protect corporate abusers." He voted for a business-friendly "tort reform" bill He voted against a 30% interest rate cap on credit cards He had the most number of foreign lobbyist contributors in the primaries He was even more popular with Pentagon contractors than McCain He was most popular of the candidates with K Street lobbyists In 2003, rightwing Democratic Leadership Council named Obama as one of its "100 to Watch." After he was criticized in the black media, Obama disassociated himself with the DLC. But his major economic advisor, Austan Goolsbee, is also chief economist of the conservative organization. Writes Doug Henwood of the Left Business Observer, "Goolsbee has written gushingly about Milton Friedman and denounced the idea of a moratorium on mortgage foreclosures." Added Henwood, "Top hedge fund honcho Paul Tudor Jones threw a fundraiser for him at his Greenwich house last spring, 'The whole of Greenwich is backing Obama,' one source said of the posh headquarters of the hedge fund industry. They like him because they're socially liberal, up to a point, and probably eager for a little less war, and think he's the man to do their work. They're also confident he wouldn't undertake any renovations to the distribution of wealth." Civil liberties He supports the war on drugs He supports the crack-cocaine sentence disparity He supports Real ID He supports the PATRIOT Act He supports the death penalty He opposes lowering the drinking age to 18 He supported amnesty for telecoms engaged in illegal spying on Americans Conservatives He went to Connecticut to support Joe Lieberman in the primary against Ned Lamont Wrote Paul Street in Z Magazine, "Obama has lent his support to the aptly named Hamilton Project, formed by corporate-neo-liberal Citigroup chair Robert Rubin and other Wall Street Democrats to counter populist rebellion against corporatist tendencies within the Democratic Party. . . Obama was recently hailed as a Hamiltonian believer in limited government and free trade by Republican New York Times columnist David Brooks, who praises Obama for having "a mentality formed by globalization, not the SDS." Writes the London Times, "Obama is hoping to appoint cross-party figures to his cabinet such as Chuck Hagel, the Republican senator for Nebraska and an opponent of the Iraq war, and Richard Lugar, leader of the Republicans on the Senate foreign relations committee. Senior advisers confirmed that Hagel, a highly decorated Vietnam war veteran and one of McCain's closest friends in the Senate, was considered an ideal candidate for defense secretary. Richard Lugar was rated 0% by SANE. . . rated 0% by AFL-CIO. . . rated 0% BY NARAL. . . rated 12% by American Public Health Association. . . rated 0% by Alliance for Retired Americans. . . rated 27% by the National Education Association. . . rated 5% by League of Conservation Voters. . . He voted no on implementing the 9/11 Commission report. . . Vote against providing habeas corpus for Gitmo prisoners. . .voted no on comprehensive test ban treaty. . .voted against same sex marriage. . . strongly anti-abortion. . . opposed to more federal funding for healthcare. . .voted for unconstitutional wiretapping. . .voted to increase penalties for drug violations Chuck Hagel was rated 0% by NARAL. . . rated 11% by NAACP. . . rated 0% by Human Rights Coalition. . . rated 100% by Christian Coalition. . . rated 12% by American Public Health Association. . . rated 22% by Alliance for Retired Americans. . . rated 36% by the National Education Association. . . rated 0% by League of Conservation Voters. . . rated 8% by AFL-CIO. . . He is strongly anti-abortion. . .voted for anti-flag desecration amendment. . .voted to increase penalties for drug violations. . . favors privatizing Social Security Ecology Obama voted for a nuclear energy bill that included money for bunker buster bombs and full funding for Yucca Mountain. He supports federally funded ethanol and is unusually close to the ethanol industry. He led his party's reversal of a 25-year ban on off-shore oil drilling Education Obama has promised to double funding for private charter schools, part of a national effort undermining public education. He supports the No Child Left Behind Act albeit expressing reservations about its emphasis on testing. Writes Cory Mattson, "Despite NCLB''s loss of credibility among educators and the deadlock surrounding its attempted reauthorization in 2007, Barack Obama still offers his support. Even the two unions representing teachers, both which for years supported reform of the policy to avoid embarrassing their Democratic Party 'friends,' declared in 2008 that the policy is too fundamentally flawed to be reformed and should be eliminated." Fiscal policy Obama rejected moratoriums on foreclosures and a freeze on rates, measures supported by his primary opponents John Edwards and Hillary Clinton He was a strong supporter of the $700 billion cash-for-trash banker bailout plan. Two of his top advisors are former Goldman Sachs chair Robert Rubin and Lawrence Summers. Noted Glen Ford of black Agenda Report, "In February 1999, Rubin and Summers flanked Fed Chief Alan Greenspan on the cover of Time magazine, heralded as, 'The Committee to Save the World.' Summers was then Secretary of the Treasury for Bill Clinton, having succeeded his mentor, Rubin, in that office. Together with Greenspan, the trio had in the previous year labored successfully to safeguard derivatives, the exotic 'ticking time bomb' financial instruments, from federal regulation." Robert Scheer notes that "Rubin, who pocketed tens of millions running Goldman Sachs before becoming treasury secretary, is the man who got President Clinton to back legislation by then-Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas, to unleash banking greed on an unprecedented scale." Obama's fund-raising machine has been headed by Penny Prtizker former chair of the Superior Bank, one of the first to get into subprime mortgages. While she resigned as chair of the family business in 1994, as late as 2001 she was still on the board and wrote a letter saying that her family was recapitalizing the bank and pledging to "once again restore Superior's leadership position in subprime lending." The bank shut down two months later and the Pritzker family would pay $460 million in a settlement with the government. Foreign policy Obama endorsed US involvement in the failed drug war in Colombia: "When I am president, we will continue the Andean Counter-Drug Program." He has expressed a willingness to bomb Iran and won't rule out a first strike nuclear attack. He has endorsed bombing or invading Pakistan to go after Al Qaeda in violation of international law. He has called Pakistan "the right battlefield ... in the war on terrorism." He supports Israeli aggression and apartheid. Obama has deserted previous support for two-state solution to Mid East situation and refuses to negotiate with Hamas. He has supported Jerusalem as the capitol of Israel, saying "it must remain undivided." He favors expanding the war in Afghanistan. Although he claims to want to get out of Iraq, his top Iraq advisor wrote that America should keep between 60,000 and 80,000 troops in Iraq. Obama, in his appearances, blurred the difference between combat soldiers and other troops. He indicated to Amy Goodman that he would leave 140,000 private contractors and mercenaries in Iraq because "we don't have the troops to replace them." He has called Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez an enemy of the United States and urged sanctions against him. He claimed "one of the things that I think George H.W. Bush doesn't get enough credit for was his foreign policy team and the way that he helped negotiate the end of the Cold War and prosecuted the Gulf War. That cost us $20 billion dollars. That's all it cost. It was extremely successful. I think there were a lot of very wise people." He has hawkish foreign policy advisors who have been involved in past US misdeeds and failures. These include Zbigniew Brzezinski, Anthony Lake, General Merrill McPeak, and Dennis Ross. It has been reported that he might well retain as secretary of defense Robert Gates who supports actions in violation of international law against countries merely suspected of being unwilling or unable to halt threats by militant groups. Gays Obama opposes gay marriage. He wouldn't have photo taken with San Francisco mayor because he was afraid it would seem that he supported gay marriage Health Obama opposes single payer healthcare or Medicare for all. Military Obama would expand the size of the military. National Service Obama favors a national service plan that appears to be in sync with one being promoted by a new coalition that would make national service mandatory by 2020, and with a bill requiring such mandatory national service introduced by Rep. Charles Rangel. He announced in Colorado Springs last July, "We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives we've set. We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded." On another occasion he said, "It's also important that a president speaks to military service as an obligation not just of some, but of many. You know, I traveled, obviously, a lot over the last 19 months. And if you go to small towns, throughout the Midwest or the Southwest or the South, every town has tons of young people who are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. That's not always the case in other parts of the country, in more urban centers. And I think it's important for the president to say, this is an important obligation. If we are going into war, then all of us go, not just some." Some have seen this as a call for reviving the draft. He has attacked the exclusion of ROTC on some college campuses Presidential crimes Obama aggressively opposed impeachment actions against Bush. One of his key advisors, Cass Sunstein of the University of Chicago Law School, said prosecuting government officials risks a "cycle" of criminalizing public service. Progressives Unlike his deferential treatment of right wing conservatives, Obama's treatment of the left has been dismissive to insulting. He dissed Nader for daring to run for president again. And he called the late Paul Wellstone "something of a gadfly" Public Campaign Financing Obama's retreat from public campaign financing has endangered the whole concept. Social welfare Obama wrote that conservatives and Bill Clinton were right to destroy social welfare, Social Security Early in the campaign, Obama said, "everything is on the table" with Social Security. .................... As things now stand, the election primarily represents the extremist center seizing power back from the extremist right. We have moved from the prospect of disasters to the relative comfort of mere crises. Using the word 'extreme' alongside the term 'center' is no exaggeration. Nearly all major damage to the United States in recent years - a rare exception being 9/11 - has been the result of decisions made not by right or left but by the post partisan middle: Vietnam, Iraq, the assault on constitutional liberties, the huge damage to the environment, and the collapse of the economy - to name a few. Go back further in history and you'll find, for example, the KKK riddled with members of the establishment including - in Colorado - a future governor, senator and mayor after whom Denver's airport is named. The center, to which Obama pays such homage, has always been where most of the trouble lies. The only thing that will make Obama the president pictured in the campaign fantasy is unapologetic, unswerving and unendingly pressure on him in a progressive and moral direction, for he will not go there on his own. But what, say, gave the New Deal its progressive nature was pressure from the left of a sort that simply doesn't exist today. Above are listed nearly three dozen things that Obama supports or opposes with which no good liberal or progressive would agree. Unfortunately, what's out there now, however, looks more like a rock concert crowd or evangelical tent meeting than a determined and directed political constituency. Which isn't so surprising given how successful our system has been at getting people to accept sights, sounds, symbols and semiotics as substitutes for reality. Once again, it looks like we'll have to learn the hard way. ============== Fresh Ink is an alternative news service Join us! https://booksinternationale.info/mailman/listinfo/freshink ============== From critical.montages at gmail.com Mon Nov 10 13:08:30 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2008 15:08:30 -0500 Subject: [R-G] Obama's Indian: The Many Faces of Sonal Shah Message-ID: Weekend Edition November 7 / 9, 2008 The Many Faces of Sonal Shah Obama's Indian By VIJAY PRASHAD Barack Obama has appointed John Podesta to run his transition. During the lean years of the Bush administration, Podesta, native of Chicago, ran a shadow cabinet for the Democrats. Since 2003, the home of this government-in-exile has been the Center for American Progress (CAP), a liberal think tank set-up to rival the Heritage Foundation and the American Enterprise Institute. The money, about $10 million per year, came from George Soros, Peter Lewis, Marion Sandler and Herb Sandler ? the main liberal financiers. CAP has its set of fellows. Many of them worked in some capacity within the Clinton administration (where Podesta was Chief of Staff). There are hard-nosed people like Rudy deLeon (who went through every Defense secretariat in the Clinton years) and Jeanne Lambrew (who served as a health analyst in the National Economic Council during the waning years of the Clinton administration). But there are also the fresh faces, young people who came to Washington with glowing references from the Ivy League. Others marched over from the Hill, after serving various terms as staff members for the Democratic warhorses. They have been groomed to be part of the next Democratic administration. Their hibernation is over. Obama has called. The likely suspects have picked up the phone and moved to the transition headquarters. Among them is a former CAP fellow and now Google employee, Sonal Shah. Shah is well known in the South Asian American community, and is a fixture in the Washington liberal circuit. The latter know her for her Democratic credentials, most of which seem to lie somewhere between neo-liberalism and welfare liberalism. The bleeding heart pauses, but then ticks again to the tune of pragmatism. This is perfect material for the CAP, which is hardly enthusiastic about the Democratic Leadership Council's total commitment to triangulation (which means capitulation to conservatism), but it is not averse to a little political calculus itself. Shah, a product of the University of Chicago, shined her corporate shoes at Anderson Consulting (who was Enron's accountant), which probably made it easier for her to go into Clinton's Treasury Department, where she helped Robert Rubin put a U. S. stamp on the post-1997 Asian economic recovery. The corporate side was balanced with an interest in the ideology of "giving back." When Bush took office, Shah went to the Center for Global Development, and while there joined her brother Anand in forming Indicorps. Knowing full well the desire among many South Asian Americans to give back to their homeland, the Shahs created an organization to help them go and volunteer in India, to do for them what the Peacecorps did for young liberals in the 1960s. Shah left the CAP to work for Goldman Sachs, and then went to Google. Shah's story is not unlike that of most of the CAP fellows, many of whom honed their dexterity at trying to reconcile the irreconcilable, capital and freedom, private accumulation and human needs. But there is a less typical side to the Shah story. Born in Gujarat, India, Shah came to the United States as a two-year old. Her father, a chemical engineer, first worked in New York before moving to Houston, and then moving away from his education toward the stock market. The Shahs remain active in Houston's Indian community, not only in the ecumenical Gujarati Samaj (a society for people from Gujarat), but also in the far more cruel organizations of the Hindu Right, such as the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), the Overseas Friends of the BJP (the main political party of the Hindu Right) and the Ekal Vidyalaya. Shah's parents, Ramesh and Kokila, not only work as volunteers for these outfits, but they also held positions of authority in them. Their daughter was not far behind. She was an active member of the VHPA, the U. S. branch of the most virulently fascistic outfit within India. The VHP's head, Ashok Singhal, believes that his organization should "inculcate a fear psychosis among [India's] Muslim community." This was Shah's boss. Till 2001, Shah was the National Coordinator of the VHPA. In 2004, I ran into Shah at the South Asian Awareness Network conference in Ann Arbor, Michigan. At an earlier panel I questioned her links to the Hindu Right, and so asked people to be wary about her organization, Indicorps. She was furious, and we had a bitter exchange in the Green Room. But at no point did she deny her active connections to the Hindu Right. Her brother, Anand, wrote to me not long after, concerned that Indicorps, which he runs full-time from India, would be tainted by our tussle. "I was curious about Sonal's own personal relationship with the VHPA," I wrote back, "That sparked some concern for me. Of course we are free to have our multiple associations, and there is no expectation that all our affiliations necessarily influence each other. That necessity is granted, although it is my understanding that the VHPA is a very disciplined organization that demands a lot from its members ? notably congruence in all the work that they do. Which is why I raised the question." And so I raise the question again. Don't Cry for her, Gujarat. Gujarat was once a tolerant society, made vibrant by its role in the Indian Ocean trade. People of all faiths lived there with the kind of pre-modern conviviality that did not always include respect for each other, but which did not at least dissolve into the kind of virulence on display in recent years. Certainly, oppressed castes bore the full brunt of an unequal social order, but even for them there was escape into Islam and there was a history of protest against the madness of caste rigidity. Gujarat gave us Gandhi, who went off to South Africa to learn his politics and returned to his state in 1915 to incubate the massive nation-wide movement he was to lead. In November 1917, Gandhi launched a major campaign among the Gujarati peasantry at the town of Godhra. He began his meeting there by tearing up the oath of loyalty to the King, making it clear that the new grammar of Indian politics did not require such obescience. From Godhra, charged Gandhian activists went into the villages of Gujarat to organize the peasantry against the many abuses of colonialism. The uprising that resulted, historian David Hardiman points out, made the area "the strongest center of rural nationalism in India." From Godhra, in 1917, went the quiet fury of freedom. In 2002, other elements came out of Godhra, showing us how different today's Gujarat is from its own history. This time Godhra was the flashpoint not for rural protest against tyranny, but for the forces of Hindu fascism. A disputed train fire that killed fifty-eight people (most of whom were activists of the Hindu Right) led to a massive pogrom against impoverished Muslim families and modestly well-off Muslim merchants. Even the normally reticent Human Rights Watch could not hold back, and its report's title revealed not only the anger of the investigators but also their own principle finding, "We have no orders to save you" State Participation and Complicity in Communal Violence in Gujarat (April 2002). The Hindu Right let loose its warriors who killed two thousand people and displaced several thousand more. The state apparatus either stood by or actively participated in the torment. Investigators who traced the line of violence routinely met people who told them, "They killed my whole family." The carnage was ghastly. Historian Tanika Sarkar wrote of a "breathless climate of terror," as people fled their homes for poorly managed relief camps, afraid not only of the organized mob but also of the police. People couldn't sleep, afraid that their tormentors would come again. Chief Minister Narendra Modi came to one area and told the terrified residents, "You will be taken care of." The language chills: he might have meant that the state will protect them, or that it would punish them. His scowl and his brazen defense of his mobs was no comfort. Gujarat remains a manufacturing center, but in the 1970s the social basis of industry changed. From the 1910s to the 1970s, the textile factories hired large numbers of workers, most of whom were members of the Gandhian trade union, the Majoor Mahajan Sangh (MMS). They had their various grouses with the system, but most had grown accustomed to the rhythms of industrial society. When a major riot between Hindus and Muslims broke out in the Gujarati city of Ahmedabad in 1969, the police moved their headquarters to the MSS office, and the union and the state jointly helped to calm things down. But in the 1970s, the large textile factories snuffed their fires, sending their workers from the formal into the informal economy. The social infrastructure of the towns and cities collapsed. Workers went into the piecework economy, driving the economic fortunes of the big businessmen through the roof but at the cost of the workers' health and social dignity. Globalization arrived in Gujarat. The disgruntled workers regrouped out of the MSS into the arms of the newly aggressive Hindu Right, which welcomed their grievances and reshaped their dignity around hatred of Muslims and oppressed castes. The riot of 1993 was a dress rehearsal for the pogrom of 2002. Lumpen-capitalism led to the social collapse of Gujarat. In mid-March 2002, a few weeks after the pogrom, sociologist Jan Breman went to meet MSS's secretary general, who sorrowfully recounted his inability to reach the police during the killings. It is a sign of the eclipse of the Gandhian platform in favor of what has been called the Vedic Taliban. The Vedic Taliban includes not only the BJP, the party in power during the Gujarat killings, but also a host of organizations known as the Sangh Parivar. These include groups whose U. S. affiliate drew in Sonal Shah's parents, and to which she also gave her time and energy. This is not in the distant past. In 2004, while at the CAP, Sonal Shah gave the keynote address in Miami for the Ekal Vidyalaya Foundation of the USA. The Ekal Vidyalaya is an organization given over to "education" in tribal areas of India. It is the policy of the Ekal Vidyalaya to organize tribal peoples into the "Hindu community" and to eschew the Christianity and animism that many practice. The climate created by the Ekal Vidyalaya and the VHP in the tribal areas of India led to the recent massacres of Indian Christians. Sonal Shah's father Ramesh is in charge of the Ekal Vidyalaya in the U. S. She didn't take the time in Miami to raise these concerns. Rather she talked about her Indicorps project, which has sent volunteers to work with groups like Ekal Vidyalaya. The language of social justice and cultural rights work well to cover over the fascism that is otherwise being promoted. In 2004, the hard Right government in Gujarat honored Shah with the Pride of Gujarat (Gujarat Garima) award. Sonal Shah could not attend, but her brother was there, to get the award from Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, in the presence of the venomous Narendra Modi. Hold It In Your Heart. Obama's campaign was monumental. The energy unleashed within the country was something to behold. The small dissident wings of the anti-war and anti-free trade movements had not been able to cultivate such a massive wave, and even as many of us had our doubts about this or that element of the Democratic agenda, it was hard to be unmoved by the urgent enthusiasm of the people. Obama himself was super, a disciplined candidate who not only carried the weight of history lightly, but also made sure to remain unruffled by the riotous attacks of the Republicans. Coming to power with an incredibly efficient campaign, it is therefore all the more surprising that he had to turn to the likes of Podesta to form his governing team. But this is also no surprise. Podesta played a role in the mysterious Democracy Alliance, the group of high rollers around the Democratic Party who were frustrated with the Clinton theory of triangulation and wanted a more robust liberalism to command their party (it was for a time presided over by Rob McKay, the Taco Bell heir who gave some of his millions to finance the San Francisco living wage battle). The Democracy Alliance came together to bridge the gap between the two arguments that tore at the Democratic Party in the Bush years. The principled argument ran between those who pushed a more liberal strategy and those who wanted to take Clintonian pragmatism to its limit. The organizational argument took place between those who felt that the Democratic Party should compete in all fifty states (Howard Dean) and those who wanted to maintain the focus on the fourteen competitive states (Rahm Emanuel). This was a bitter battle. Podesta's calmness usefully held these two sections together. His CAP, in fact, not only became a neutral ground for these two sections of the Democratic Party, but it also had ambitions to link the Party to the various progressive movements that lay on its outer rim and beyond. Many of the Centers' ideas, however, strayed far from progressivism, keener to be bold against its base (such as teacher's unions) than against the world of finance. A recent study complained about teacher absence in the public schools (ten days a year), something that disproportionately impacted students in low-income neighborhoods. But not a word about the ruin of social welfare by the Clinton White House that resulted in the lack of institutions to shore up parents, teachers and students in these neighborhoods. For our intrepid liberals it is far easier to utilize their calculus of triangulation to blame the teachers. On foreign policy, the champions of humanitarian interventionism based at the CAP remain confident, regardless of the failures in Afghanistan and Iraq. These are blamed on Bush's incompetence rather than on the exhaustion of U. S. imperialism. To revive their interventionist fantasies, the CAP liberals use Darfur. It stiffens the spine. John Prendergast holds the reins here, running the ENOUGH project of the CAP. He is committed to the merits of doing something in Darfur, but has little sense of the role that "Darfur" plays within the U. S. in keeping the terminally ill concept of humanitarian interventionism alive (for more on this, look for Mahmood Mamdani's Survivors and Saviors, coming out in 2009). Right after Obama's election, Predergast co-wrote a letter to the president-elect asking Obama to "lead a concerted international peace surge for Sudan." This letter went out just as violence increased in the Great Lakes region of Africa (ground-zero for the Cell-Phone Wars of our day; the region is the source of coltan, an essential element for cell-phones) and as Israel's armies once more struck the civilian populations of Gaza. Not a word from CAP on this. Nor on the Gujarat violence, or the killing of the Christians by the Hindu Right. No humanitarian interventionism when this affects U. S. imperial interests. Which is why Shah's own far Right commitments in India are not contradictory to those of the CAP liberals; many of them have similar commitments to the far Right in Israel or in other parts of the world. When asked to name his favorite books, Obama mentioned that one of them is Gandhi's The Story of My Experiments with Truth. I encourage him to go to his edition (mine is the Beacon Press one from 1957) and turn to page 155. There he will find a simple sentence, "It has always been a mystery to me how men can feel themselves honored by the humiliation of their fellow-beings." The Hindu Right thrives on the humiliation of Indian Muslims, Christians, and oppressed castes, and it derives its social power from those who are survivors of the failed experiment in globalization. Those millions, like myself, who feel a joy in snubbing the Bush dynamic and the entire history of social exclusion in the United States should demand that our hopes be held to a higher standard. Not to the howling dogs, but to the doves. Vijay Prashad is the George and Martha Kellner Chair of South Asian History and Director of International Studies at Trinity College, Hartford, CT His new book is The Darker Nations: A People's History of the Third World, New York: The New Press, 2007. He can be reached at: vijay.prashad at trincoll.edu From hunterbadbear at hunterbear.org Mon Nov 10 14:13:20 2008 From: hunterbadbear at hunterbear.org (Hunter Gray) Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2008 14:13:20 -0700 Subject: [R-G] St. Johns, Apache County, Arizona Message-ID: <00e301c94379$2b06f5b0$0400a8c0@computer> NOTE BY HUNTER BEAR: [NOVEMBER 10 2008] Sometime today, the eight year old boy at St. Johns, Arizona alleged to have shot and killed his father and his father's friend with his .22 rifle, will have his first court appearance -- and all indications are that he'll be charged with premeditated first degree murder. The draconian nature of this version of criminal justice in the case of a third grader has surprised much of the country -- but, although it did cause me to lift an eyebrow, I can't say I am all that surprised. [When I was a kid, it took two years for thinking people at Flagstaff to get a padded cell at our local hospital for those especially challenged in the mental sense.] Apache County is Arizona's longest county and covers much of the state's far northeast. Arizona, a very large state, of course, has only 15 counties. Until fairly recently, it had only 14 -- but a new one was carved out on the state's western edge along the Colorado River. The three northeastern counties -- Coconino, Navajo, and Apache -- are huge geographically and include much of the vast Navajo Nation [which is bigger than the state of West Virginia]. Coconino is my home county and, depending on with whom you speak, is either the biggest geographically or the second biggest in the United States. Our list members may recall that only a few days before this tragedy at Apache's St Johns, I posted on the fact that a Navajo sheriff had just been elected in Apache County -- a truly historic breakthrough and a testimonial to the '65 Voting Rights Act and the great determination of the Dine' [Dineh] people. St. Johns is far south of Apache County's Navajo country. It's a small town, county seat -- no more than four thousand folks in and close around it. Originally pretty much a Mormon settlement, it's now more diverse and has several churches, including a Catholic one which has involved the members of the tragedy family. It's not at all unusual for smaller boys in the rural and small town West to get their first rifle early on. I had my first .22 Winchester when I was seven -- but did have plenty of all around adult supervision. And I've done likewise with some of my offspring. [This may horrify some people -- but that's Our Way and, if this troubles you, well, enjoy your horrification. Most of us have never been accused of shooting our parents.] St. Johns, heavily dependent on livestock -- cattle, sheep, horses and an occasional tourist -- is on the edge of the White Mountains. It's in those that the Little -- Little -- Colorado River heads and it's much around the St. Johns region. Sometime in the 1880s, a man named John Brewer came down from Colorado with his Ute Indian wife and children, driving a wagon and some extra horses. Mr Brewer was one of three survivors of the Lost Adams Diggings situation. Everyone else had been sent into Eternity by the Apaches who were understandably upset when the Americans violated an agreement not to intrude into a sacred Apache area in the gold canyon. Of the three survivors, one disappeared soon after he was found. His co-survivor and fellow traveler, Adams, leader of the ill-fated expedition, spent the rest of his life searching fruitlessly for the lost canyon and its considerable treasure. He was always impaired by his total lack of any cogent sense of direction. Escaping by himself and rescued by friendly Indians, John Brewer eventually wound up in Colorado and his account of the gold hunting expedition, the initially friendly contacts with the Apaches, and the other subsequent happenings is clear, detailed, and admirably lucid -- given the fact that this was all totally unmapped turf. Years later, in describing some of the geography he had noted in the general gold canyon setting and per his own escape, Brewer was told that that was similar to the country around what is now St. Johns. So he came into that setting, stayed at the Tenney ranch, and searched -- and found nothing. Today, the name Brewer is found around the region but I don't know if there is any relationship to the long ago searcher. Like hundreds of others, I have -- as I've noted -- my own idea of the whereabouts of the Lost Adams Diggings and I can say that "my idea" definitely includes geography that's extremely similar to that around St. Johns -- as well as some other pertinent landmarks given by the intrepid Brewer. [I could say much more but, of course, I won't.] http://hunterbear.org/lost_adams_diggings.htm The circumstances involving this contemporary kid's alleged murders remain extremely murky and provocative. His family was split, his father had custody of him, and the mother had recently paid them a visit from Mississippi. Lots to think about, much on which to speculate. We'll be hearing a great deal more in due course for sure. I personally hope that, whatever the circumstances, the kid gets a fair deal. My hopeful hunch is that sensible and sensitive public opinion in Arizona especially will force at least some approximation of that. I've never really thought much over the years about St. Johns. As towns go, it's nothing special. But I have a strange memory of the place -- 'way back in my own time, a little more than 48 years ago. It was mid-May, 1960, and I was on my way with my coyote, Good, to the District Ranger Station at Alpine, Arizona -- Apache National Forest. There I was due to embark on the journey south via rough road and then, accompanied by a mule skinner packing my groceries and other things, the very, very long mule trail 'way 'way up to spend the whole summer as fire lookout on Bear Mountain -- the most remote lookout in all of Arizona. And with no other humans anywhere around me in that most pleasant and extremely vast wilderness region. On the way to Alpine, I entered St. John's, smaller then than now -- but not much. Dusty side streets, hitching posts and water troughs for horses, small town businesses. A few folks on the slim sidewalks. I had no sooner gotten into the town when I noticed an old rattle-trap junker pickup following me, damn near bumper-to-bumper. My earned paranoia was diluted somewhat when I saw the two women in its cab. I am often mistaken, for better or worse, for "someone" that "someone knows." I should also add that I'm often followed around department stores by people whose business it is to grab shoplifters. [I assure All reading this that I am Not and never have been a shoplifter.] But back in that day, I couldn't figure out what those two women were up to. I've always believed in meeting challenges directly. So when I reached the far edge of the little town, I pulled over, told my coyote buddy I'd be right back, and stepped out. They disembarked. One, with a sack slung over her shoulder, was a heavy woman with a lined Southwestern face. The other, not unattractive by any means, appeared to be her daughter. There was a rather drab quality about each. Levi-clad and with boots, I was wearing my brown, wide-brimmed Stetson, molded somewhat to my taste and by rough weather. [It was five years old then and I still occasionally wear it to this very day.] In traditional rural Southwestern fashion, I touched its front brim and, reverting momentarily to my early Teen Explorer Scout days, asked, "Can I do something for you good ladies?" The response was a little stunning. "Would you buy one of our newspapers?", the older woman asked with a kind of intensity. "A newspaper?" I exclaimed. "Well, sure," said I. And so she pulled one out of her sack. It was a quarter. I gave her a dollar bill, and she laboriously counted out the change. Then, without another word, they got back into their pickup and turned around in a dusty whirl. I got into my vehicle, glanced at the paper -- just a regular small town Western weekly: water rights, mostly family news, church doings, a few business ads, a few classifieds. I was on top of Bear Mountain some hours later [with the paper]. And, as I've indicated before, my great little coyote eventually left home to get married. When the summer was over, I was on my way to Wisconsin for my first college teaching job -- and Eldri -- and then to Mississippi and far beyond. I kept the paper, oddly, for months -- well into Wisconsin. Then I finally tossed it. I've passed through St. Johns a number of times in the years since. But I never saw the two women again. So when I do think of St. John's, I always think of those two -- and their somewhat innovative salespersonship -- and I do hope that that little paper continues to function. The journalism business has been having a rough row to hoe these days. But now, when I think of St. Johns, I hope that. whatever the circumstances, that little kid gets a truly square deal. Yes, it is a strange place. And that kid is one of the least and one of the littlest of our brethren. Hunter [Hunter Bear] HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk Protected by Na?shdo?i?ba?i? and Ohkwari' Check out our Hunterbear website Directory http://hunterbear.org/directory.htm [The site is dedicated to our one-half Bobcat, Cloudy Gray: http://hunterbear.org/cloudy_gray.htm See our Community Organizing Course [With new material] http://hunterbear.org/my_combined_community_organizing.htm And see Hunter's Movement Life Interview: http://hunterbear.org/HUNTER%20BEAR%20INTERVIEW%20CRMV.htm From shniad at sfu.ca Mon Nov 10 15:46:10 2008 From: shniad at sfu.ca (Sid Shniad) Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2008 14:46:10 -0800 Subject: [R-G] Can you say "c-o-r-r-u-p-t-i-o-n"? Message-ID: <200811102246.mAAMkADN015553@rm-rstar.sfu.ca> An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: not available Url: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/rad-green/attachments/20081110/e3b3b158/attachment.txt From mstainsby at resist.ca Mon Nov 10 17:03:07 2008 From: mstainsby at resist.ca (Macdonald Stainsby) Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2008 17:03:07 -0700 Subject: [R-G] Obama New Appointment In-Reply-To: <996812.59841.qm@web30902.mail.mud.yahoo.com> References: <996812.59841.qm@web30902.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <4918CBBB.7070308@resist.ca> http://tinyurl.com/5mz4fj Suzanne de Kuyper wrote: > Would not appear. "page not found" > > From shniad at sfu.ca Mon Nov 10 17:28:08 2008 From: shniad at sfu.ca (Sid Shniad) Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2008 16:28:08 -0800 Subject: [R-G] Federal Reserve refusing to identify recipients of $2 trillion in emergency loans Message-ID: <200811110028.mAB0S8Xx009329@rm-rstar.sfu.ca> An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: not available Url: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/rad-green/attachments/20081110/ba90aa22/attachment.txt From tchilds at resist.ca Mon Nov 10 17:38:15 2008 From: tchilds at resist.ca (tchilds at resist.ca) Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2008 16:38:15 -0800 (PST) Subject: [R-G] Andrew Nikiforuk on the Alberta Tar Sands - video resource Message-ID: <62437.64.85.36.244.1226363895.squirrel@mail.resist.ca> Andrew Nikiforuk, a journalist and author from Alberta, explains how detrimental the exploitation of the tar sands are for all Canadians. Click link below to access video talk. http://pasifik.ca/node/2323 From shniad at sfu.ca Mon Nov 10 17:35:37 2008 From: shniad at sfu.ca (Sid Shniad) Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2008 16:35:37 -0800 Subject: [R-G] A Holy Union for a Deuce of a Swindle Message-ID: <200811110035.mAB0Zb5l019987@rm-rstar.sfu.ca> An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: not available Url: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/rad-green/attachments/20081110/fc2ca9c5/attachment.txt From shimogamo at attglobal.net Mon Nov 10 18:19:39 2008 From: shimogamo at attglobal.net (Bill Totten) Date: Tue, 11 Nov 2008 10:19:39 +0900 Subject: [R-G] [BillTottenWeblog] The Food and Farming Transition Message-ID: <4918DDAB.9050505@ashisuto.co.jp> MuseLetter 199 (November 2008) by Richard Heinberg The only way to avert a food crisis resulting from oil and natural gas price hikes and supply disruptions while also reversing agriculture's contribution to climate change is to proactively and methodically remove fossil fuels from the food system. The removal of fossil fuels from the food system is inevitable: maintenance of the current system is simply not an option over the long term. Only the amount of time available for the transition process, and the strategies for pursuing it, can be matters for controversy. Given the degree to which the modern food system has become dependent on fossil fuels, many proposals for de-linking food and fuels are likely to appear radical. However, efforts toward this end must be judged not by the degree to which they preserve the status quo, but by their likely ability to solve the fundamental challenge that will face us: the need to feed a global population of seven billion with a diminishing supply of fuels available to fertilize, plow, and irrigate fields and to harvest and transport crops. If this transition is undertaken proactively and intelligently, there could be many side benefits - more careers in farming, more protection for the environment, less soil erosion, a revitalization of rural culture, and more healthful food for everyone. Some of this transformation will inevitably be driven by market forces, led simply by the rising price of fossil fuels. However, without planning the transition may be wrenching and destructive, since market forces acting alone could bankrupt farmers while leaving consumers with few or no options. The Transition ----------------- To remove fossil fuels from the food system too quickly, before alternative systems are in place, would be catastrophic. Thus the transition process must be a matter for careful consideration and planning. In recent years there has been some debate on the problem of how many people a non-fossil fueled food system can support. The answer is still unclear. But we will certainly find out, because there is likely to be no alternative, given that substitute liquid fuels - including coal-to-liquids, biofuels, tar sands, and shale oil - are all problematic and cannot be relied upon to replace cheap crude oil and natural gas as these deplete. There are reasons for hope: a recent report on African agriculture from the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) suggests that "organic, small-scale farming can deliver the increased yields which were thought to be the preserve of industrial farming, without the environmental and social damage which that form of agriculture brings with it". Nevertheless, given that we do not know whether non-fossil fuel agriculture can in fact feed a population now approaching seven billion - and given that current fuels-based agriculture cannot be relied upon to do so for much longer, given the reality of fuel depletion - the prudent path forward would surely be to tie agricultural policy to population policy. Indeed, coordination will be essential also between agriculture policies and education, economic, transport, energy policies. The food system transition will be comprehensive, and will require integration with all segments and aspects of society. This document is intended to serve as the basis for the beginning of that planning process. Our aim is to develop a template that can be used to strategically plan the transition of food and farming across the world, region by region, and at all scales (from the farm to the community to the nation), beginning here in the UK. Elements of Transition --------------------------- The following are some key strategic elements of the food systems transition process that will need to be addressed at all levels of scale, from the household to the nation and beyond. Re-Localization In recent decades the food systems of Britain and most other nations have become globalized. Food is traded in enormous quantities - and not just luxury foods (such as coffee and chocolate), but staples including wheat, maize, meat, potatoes, and rice. The globalization of the food system has had advantages: people in wealthy countries now have access to a wide variety of foods at all times, including fruits and vegetables that are out of season (apples in May or asparagus in January), and foods that cannot be grown locally at any time of year (eg, avocadoes in Scotland). Long-distance transport enables food to be delivered from places of abundance to areas of scarcity. Whereas in previous centuries a regional crop failure might have led to famine, its effects now can be neutralized by food imports. However, food globalization also creates systemic vulnerability. As fuel prices rise, costs of imported food go up. If fuel supplies were substantially cut off as the result of some transient event, the entire system could fail. A globalized system is also more susceptible to accidental contamination, as we have seen recently with the appearance of toxic melamine in foods from China. The best way to make our food system more resilient against such threats is clear: decentralize and re-localize it. Re-localization will inevitably occur sooner or later as a result of declining oil production, since there are no alternative energy sources on the horizon that can be scaled up quickly to take the place of petroleum. But if the transition process is to unfold in a beneficial rather than a catastrophic way, it must be planned and coordinated. This will require deliberate effort aimed at building the infrastructure for regional food economies - ones that can support diversified farming and reduce the amount of fossil fuel in the British diet. Re-localization means producing more basic food necessities locally. No one advocates doing away with food trade altogether: this would hurt both farmers and consumers. Rather, what is needed is a prioritization of production so that lower-value food items (which are typically staple calorie crops) are mostly sourced from close by, with most long-distance trade left to higher-value foods, and especially those that store well. This decentralization of the food system will result in greater societal resilience in the face of fuel price volatility. Problems of food contamination, when they appear, will be minimized. Meanwhile, revitalization of local food production will help renew local economies. Consumers will enjoy better quality food that is fresher and more seasonal. And transport-related climate impacts will be reduced. Each nation or region will need to devise its own strategy for re-localizing its food system, based on a thorough initial assessment of vulnerabilities and opportunities. The following are some general suggestions that are likely to be applicable in most instances: * The process will benefit enormously from policy support at both national and regional levels. This could include, for example, the provision of grants to towns and cities to build year-round indoor farmers' markets. * Food-safety regulations should be made appropriate to the scale of production and distribution, so that a small grower selling direct off the farm or at a farmers' market is not regulated as onerously as a multinational food manufacturer. While local food may have safety problems, these will inevitably occur on a smaller scale and will be easier to manage because local food is inherently more traceable and accountable. * Governments can require that some minimum percentage of food purchases for schools, hospitals, military bases, and prisons are sourced within 100 miles of the institutions buying the food. Channelling even a small portion of institutional food purchasing to local growers would greatly expand opportunities for regional producers while improving the diet of people whom these institutions feed. * Cities and towns can rework their waste management systems so as to collect food scraps that can then be converted to compost, biogas, and livestock feed - which can in turn be made available to local growers. But government can do only so much. Consumers must develop the habit of preferentially buying locally sourced foods whenever possible, and they can be encouraged in this by "Buy Local" educational literature distributed by retailers - who can also assist by clearly labeling and prominently displaying local products. Growers themselves must rethink their business strategies. Instead of growing specialty crops for export, they must plan a transition to production of staple foods for local consumption. They must also actively seek local markets for their food. The Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) movement provides a business model that has proven successful in many communities. Small producers can also create informal co-ops to acquire machinery (such as small threshing machines for cereal and oilseed processing or micro hydro turbines for electricity). The strategy of re-localizing food systems will be more challenging for some nations and regions than others. Given that the food footprint of London encompasses essentially all of England, the challenge for Britain is greater than is the case for many other nations. More urban gardens and even small animal operations (with chickens, ducks, geese, and rabbits) within London and other cities should be encouraged, but even then it will be necessary to source most food from the countryside, delivering it to the city by rail. Thus re-localization should be seen as a process and a general direction of effort, not as an absolute goal. Energy As society turns away from fossil fuels, the energy balance of farming must once again become net positive. However, the transition process will be complex and problematic. Farms will still need sources of energy for their operations, and will need to provide much or all of that energy for themselves. Meanwhile, farmers could also take advantage of opportunities to export surplus energy to nearby communities as a way of increasing farm income. Farms must be powered with renewable energy. However, many energy needs on farms - such as fuel for tractors and other machinery - are currently difficult to fill with anything other than liquid fuels, which currently come in the form of diesel or petrol made from crude oil. Farmers should first look for ways to reduce fuel needs through efficiency or replacement of machines with animal power or human labor. This is most likely to be economically feasible in dairy, meat, vegetable, fruit, and nut operations. Where fuel-fed machinery is still required, which is likely to continue being the case for grain production, ethanol or biodiesel made on-site could supplement or replace petroleum. Farmers could aim to apportion one-fifth of their cropland to production of biofuels for their own use. Many other farm operations require electricity, and this can be generated on-site with wind turbines, solar panels, and micro-hydro turbines. Effort first must be devoted to making operations more energy-efficient. Because these technologies require initial investment and pay for themselves slowly over time, assistance from government and from financial institutions in the form of grants and low-interest loans could be instrumental in helping farmers overcome initial economic hurdles toward energy self-sufficiency. Eventually farmers are capable of being not just self-sufficient in energy, but of producing surplus energy for surrounding communities. Much of this exported energy is likely to come in the form of biomass - agricultural and forestry waste that can be burned to produce electricity. While farmers can also grow crops for the production of biofuels, the ecological and thermodynamic limits of this energy technology require that the scale of production be deliberately restricted. Otherwise, society's demand for fuel could overwhelm farmers' ability to produce food - and food must remain their first priority. In exporting biomass from the farm, growers must always keep in mind the productive capacity of sustainable agricultural systems, and they must strictly monitor soil health and fertility. The transition of farms to renewable energy will require planning. Farmers, ideally with the assistance of regional and national agencies, should plan to increase energy efficiency, to reduce fossil fuel inputs, and to grow renewable energy production according to a staged, integrated program designed for the unique needs and capabilities of each farm. As a general guideline, the plan should aim to reduce oil and natural gas inputs by at least half during the first decade. Soil Fertility In industrial agriculture, soil fertility is maintained with inputs provided from off-site. Of these inputs, the most important are nitrogen and phosphorus. Nitrogen comes from ammonia-based fertilizers made from fossil fuels - principally, natural gas. Phosphorus comes from phosphate mines in several countries. While sufficient low-quality phosphate deposits exist to supply world needs for many decades, high-quality deposits that are currently being mined are quickly depleting, which means that phosphate prices will likely rise within the next few years. {1} Both nitrogen and phosphorus are essential to agriculture. And our current ways of supplying both are clearly unsustainable. Unless alternative ways of maintaining soil fertility are quickly found, a crisis looms. The long-term solution will surely depend on a two-fold strategy: designing farm systems that build fertility through crop rotations, and recycling nutrients. Crop rotation can help with maintaining nitrogen levels. Simply planting a cover crop after the fall harvest significantly reduces nitrogen leaching while cutting down on soil erosion. Meanwhile, introducing leguminous crops into the rotation cycle replaces nitrogen. Cleverly designed polycultures can sustainably produce large amounts of food, as has been shown not only by small-scale "alternative" farmers in Britain and America, but also by large rice-and-fish farmers in China and giant-scale operations (up to 15,000 acres) in Argentina. There, farmers employ an eight-year rotation of perennial pasture and annual crops: after five years grazing cattle on pasture, farmers then grow three years of grain without applying fertilizer. The need for herbicides is also dramatically reduced: weeds that afflict pasture cannot survive the years of tillage, and weeds of row crops don't survive years of grazing. Most industrial farmers have left behind the practice of cover cropping because commercial fertilizers have become the cheaper option. That cost equation is about to shift. It is therefore important that farmers begin planning for higher fertilizer prices now by gearing up their rotation cycles and building natural soil fertility ahead of the immediate need. In industrial agriculture, the soil is treated as an inert substance that holds plants in place while chemical nutrients are applied externally. Without efforts to maintain natural fertility, over time organic matter disappears from the soil, along with beneficial soil micro-organisms. In the future, as chemical fertilizers become more expensive, farmers will need to devote much more attention to the practice of building healthy soil. But rebuilding nutrient-depleted soil takes, at minimum, several years of effort. Traditional farmers increase organic matter in topsoil through the application of compost - which not only builds soil fertility, but also improves the soil's ability to hold water and thus withstand drought. There is also mounting evidence that food grown in properly composted soil is of higher nutritional quality. Currently, in typical modern cities, consumers, retailers, wholesalers and institutions discard enormous quantities of food. Some communities have already instituted municipal programs for composting of food and yard waste; such programs could be expanded and made mandatory, with compost being given free to local farmers. This would reduce the amount of garbage going to land fills, as well as farmers' needs for fertilizers and irrigation, while improving the nutritional quality of the British diet. In addition, recent research with "terra preta" (also known as "bio char"), a charcoal-like material that can be produced from agricultural waste, suggests that its introduction to soils could reduce plants' need for nitrogen by twenty to thirty percent while sequestering carbon that would otherwise end up in the atmosphere. The potential of composting and the use of terra preta to mitigate the climate crisis is hardly trivial: a one-percent increase of soil organic matter in the top 33.5 centimetres of the soil is equivalent to the capture and storage of 100 tonnes of atmospheric carbon dioxide per square kilometre of farmland. Ultimately, there is no solution to the phosphorus supply problem other than full-system nutrient recycling. This will entail a complete redesign of sewage systems to recapture nutrients so they can be returned to the soil - as Chinese farmers learned to do centuries ago. But if sewage systems (or simpler variants) are to become primary sources of phosphorus and other soil nutrients, they cannot continue to be channels for the disposal of toxic wastes. It is essential that separate waste streams be developed for the disposal of all pharmaceuticals, household chemicals, and industrial wastes. Thus the problem of soil fertility is one that farmers cannot solve on their own: it is a crisis of the food system as a whole, and must be addressed contextually and holistically. Diet The consumer is as important to the food system as the producer. During recent decades, consumer preferences have been shaped to fit the industrial food system through advertising and the development of mass-marketed, uniform, packaged food products that, while often nutritionally inferior, are cheap, attractive, in some cases even physically addictive. The advent and rapid proliferation of "fast food" restaurants has likewise fostered a diet that is profitable to giant industrial agribusiness, but disastrous to the health of consumers. However lamentable these trends may be from a public health standpoint, they are clearly unsustainable in view of the energy and climate crises facing modern agriculture. Because processed and packaged foods and fresh foods imported out of season add to the energy intensity of the food system, rich and poor alike must be encouraged to eat food that is locally grown, that is in season, and that is less processed. Public education campaigns could help shift consumer preferences in this regard. A shift toward a less meat-centered diet should also be encouraged, because a meat-based diet is substantially more energy intensive than one that is plant-based. Government can help with a shift in diet preferences through its own food purchasing polices (see "Re-Localization", above). The process can be helped even further by a more careful official government definition of "food". It makes no sense for government efforts intended to improve the nutritional health of the people to support the consumption of products known to be unhealthful - such as soda and other junk food. Farming Systems During the past few decades farming has become more specialized. Today, a typical farm may produce only meat of a single kind (turkey, chicken, pork, or beef), or only dairy, or a single type of grain, vegetable, fruit, or nut. This narrow specialization seemed to make economic sense in the era of cheap transport and cheap farm inputs. But because nature is diverse and integrated, the deliberate elimination of diversity on the farm has led to problems at every step. For example, animal feedlot operations (also known as concentrated animal feed operations, or CAFOs) produce enormous amounts of waste that end up in massive manure lagoons that pollute ground water and foul the air. Meanwhile, grain diets fed to the animals result in digestive problems requiring the large-scale administration of antibiotics that find their way into both the human food system and ground water, and that lead to antibiotic resistance among disease organisms that afflict humans. Farm specialization also impacts the grain or vegetable grower: soils that annually produce these crops need a regular replenishment of nitrogen; but if the farmer keeps few animals, there may be no option other than to import fertilizers from off-site. By switching to multi-enterprise diverse systems, farmers can often solve a range of problems at once. Feeding much less grain to livestock while giving them access to pasture that is in rotation with other crops maintains soil fertility while leading to better animal health and higher food quality. The farmer, the environment, and the consumer all benefit. The post-hydrocarbon food transition may also compel a rethinking of the size of farm operations. The mechanization of farm operations and the centralization of food systems favored larger farms. However, as fuel for farm machinery becomes more costly, and as farming once again involves more labor, smaller-scale operations will once again be profitable. In addition, a smaller scale of operations will be needed as farms become more diverse, since farmers will have more system elements to monitor. Agriculture will thus become more knowledge-intensive, requiring a curious, holistic attitude on the part of farmers. In urban areas, micro-farms and gardens - including vertical gardens and rooftop gardens that in some cases include small animals such as chickens and rabbits - could provide a substantial amount of food for growers and their families, along with occasional income from selling seasonal surpluses at garden markets. Farm Work With less fuel available to power agricultural machinery, the world will need many more farmers. But for farmers to succeed, some current agricultural policies that favor larger-scale production and production for export will need to change, while policies that support small-scale subsistence farms, gardens, and agricultural co-ops must be formulated and put in place - both by international institutions such as the World Bank, and also by national and regional governments. Currently the UK has 541,000 farmers, depending on how the term is defined. In the UK in 1900, nearly forty percent of the population farmed; the current proportion is less than one percent. Today, the average farmer is nearing retirement age. In nations and regions where food is grown without machinery, a larger percentage of the population must be involved in food production. For example, farmers make up more than half the populations of China, and India, Nepal, Ethiopia, and Indonesia. While the proportion of farmers that would be needed in Britain if the country were to become self-sufficient in food grown without fossil fuels is unknown (that would depend upon technologies used and diets adopted), it would undoubtedly be much larger than the current percentage. It is reasonable to expect that several million new farmers would be required - a number that is both unimaginable and unmanageable over the short term. These new farmers would have to include a broad mix of people, reflecting the UK's increasing diversity. Already growing numbers of young adults are becoming organic or biodynamic farmers, and farmers' markets and CSAs are also springing up across the country. These tentative trends must be supported and encouraged. In addition to Government policies that support sustainable farming systems based on smaller farming units, this will require: * Education: Universities and community colleges must quickly develop programs in small-scale ecological farming methods - programs that also include training in other skills that farmers will need, such as in marketing and formulating business plans. Apprenticeships and other forms of direct knowledge transfer will also assist the transition. * Financial Support: Since few if any farms are financially successful the first year or even the second or third, loans and grants will be needed to help farmers get started. * A revitalization of farming communities and farming culture: Over the past decades UK rural towns have seen their best and brightest young people flee first to distant colleges and then to cities. Farming communities must be interesting, attractive places if we expect people to inhabit them and for children to want to stay there. Seeds Today's seed industry is centralized and reliant upon the very fuel-based transport system whose future viability is in question. Most commercial seeds are of hybrid varieties, so that farmers cannot save seed but must purchase new supplies each year. Worldwide, a growing proportion of the commercial seeds that are available are genetically modified. GM seeds have primarily been developed by chemical companies to support the sale of their proprietary herbicides. The promise of more nutritious foods, or crops that can produce biofuels more efficiently, is years from realization. Given that the need for transition is immediate, efforts to build a post-fossil fuel food system cannot wait for new technologies that may or may not appear or succeed. In any case, the GM seed industry is based upon current systems of transport, and fuel-based inputs such as chemical fertilizers and herbicides, that are all inextricably tied to the wider fossil-fuel based provisioning systems of society. Thus GM crops would be unlikely to be of much help in the transition in any case. What is needed instead is a coordinated effort to identify open-pollinated varieties of food crops that are adapted to local soils and microclimates, and a program to make such seeds available to farmers and gardeners in sufficient quantities. In addition, local colleges must begin offering courses on the techniques of seed saving. Processing and Distribution Systems The transition process will undoubtedly be fraught with challenges to food processing and distribution systems, which currently rely on large energy inputs and long-distance transport. For example, the meat industry now depends upon centralized facilities for slaughtering livestock - which must be transported long distances to these facilities. Re-localizing food systems will entail creating incentives for the emergence of smaller, more localized slaughterhouses and butcher shops. One interim solution would be for a fleet of mobile abattoirs to go from farm to farm, processing animals humanely and inexpensively. Many health regulations were originally designed to check abuses by the largest food producers, but such regulations may now inhibit the development of smaller-scale and more localized processing and distribution systems. For example, farmers should be able to smoke a ham and sell it to their neighbours without making a huge investment in nationally approved facilities. A small producer selling direct from the farm or at a farmers' market should not be subject to the same food safety regulations as a multinational food manufacturer: while local food may occasionally have safety problems, those problems will be less catastrophic and easier to manage than similar problems at industrial-scale facilities. Food processors must look for ways to make their present operations more energy efficient, while government, consumers, and retailers find ways to reduce the need for food processing and also for food packaging. This gradual shift will require institutional support for families in storing, processing, cooking, and preserving food within the home. Meanwhile, in view of inevitable problems with existing transport systems, national and regional food storage systems must be reconsidered. Reserves of grain, sufficient to provide for essential needs during an extended food crisis, should be kept and managed to avoid spoilage. Packaging of food should be regulated to minimize the use of plastics, which will become more scarce and expensive as oil and gas deplete - and which are implicated as sources of toxins in any case. Government should institute policies that prioritize the distribution of food within the nation by rail and water, rather than by road, as trucks are comparatively energy inefficient. Supermarkets are currently the ultimate distribution sites for food in most instances. However, this model presupposes near-universal access to automobiles and petrol. A resilient food system will require smaller and more widely distributed access points in the forms of small shops and garden or farm markets. Government regulations and tax incentives can help accomplish that shift. Wholesalers and distributors will have a changed role in a transitioning food system. They will still be needed to manage the supplies of various seasonally produced foods moving from producers to consumers. However, rather than favoring large producers and giant supermarket chains, they must alter their operations to serve smaller, more distributed farms and gardens, as well as smaller and more distributed retail shops. Resilience Action Planning ------------------------------- The transition process will succeed by creating more resilience in food systems. Resilient systems are able to withstand higher magnitudes of disturbance before undergoing a dramatic shift to a new condition in which they are controlled by a different set of processes. One quality of resilience is redundancy - which is often at odds with economic efficiency. Efficiency implies both long supply chains and the reduction of inventories to a minimum. This "just-in-time" delivery of products reduces costs - but it increases the vulnerability of systems to disturbances such as fuel shortages. As more attention is paid to resilience and less to economic efficiency, redundancy and larger inventories are seen as benefits rather than liabilities. Other resilience values include diversity (as opposed to uniformity), and dispersion (rather than centralization) of control over systems. Building resilience into our food systems as we move toward a post-fossil fuel economy will entail all of the Elements of Transition detailed above. It will also require planning at four levels: Government, Community, Business, and Individual or Family. At each level the planning process will necessarily be somewhat different. The purpose of this section is to delineate the main planning steps that will make sense at each of these levels. In some instances, steps within an action plan can or should be undertaken concurrently. In any case, what is offered here is merely a skeletal outline for a process that must be developed to fit unique needs of those it will serve. Government The following steps are applicable at any level of government - national, regional, or local. At the highest level of scale (the nation), each step will itself be the subject of planning and delegation. At the lowest level of scale (small villages), government may lack the capacity to undertake any of these steps and can do more than offer symbolic official support to volunteer citizen initiatives. 1. Assess the existing food system. Begin with a study of current systemic vulnerabilities and opportunities. How are farm inputs currently sourced? How much food is currently imported? What proportion of those food imports are staples, and what proportion are luxury foods? What are the environmental costs of current agricultural practices? How would the current food system be impacted by fuel shortages and high prices? 2. Review policies. How are current policies supporting these vulnerabilities and environmental impacts? How can they be changed or eliminated? Are there policies already in place that are likely to help with the transition? How can these latter policies be strengthened? 3. Bring together key stakeholders. Organizations of farmers, food processing and distributing companies, and retailers must all be included in the transition process. Many will wish simply to maintain the existing system; however, it must be made clear that this is not an option. Many companies involved in the food system will need to change their business model substantially. 4. Make a plan. The transition plan that is formulated must be comprehensive and detailed, and must contain robust but attainable targets with timelines and mechanisms for periodic review and revision. A scoping exercise must be undertaken to assess the impact of the plan on agricultural output and to quantify the changes in kinds of commodities produced and in their volumes and prices. Simon Fairlie's paper, "Can Britain Feed Itself?", is an initial attempt at such an exercise, and can be used as a model to be built upon and supplemented {2}. 5. Educate and involve the public. The public must not only be informed about the government-led aspects of the transition process, but must be included in it to the extent that is practical. Citizens must be educated about food choices, gardening opportunities, and ways to access food from local producers. Their successes and challenges in adaptation will inform new iterations of the plan. 6. Shift policies and incentives. This is the key responsibility of government, as it either limits or enhances the ability of community groups, businesses, and families to engage in the transition process. Policy changes must reflect stakeholder input, but must nevertheless be designed primarily to further the Elements of Transition, rather than the short-term interests of any particular stakeholder group. 7. Monitor and adjust. An undertaking of this magnitude will inevitably have unforeseen and unintended impacts. Thus it is essential that progress be continually be reviewed with an eye to making adjustments to pace and strategy, while maintaining absolute adherence to the central task of methodically removing fossil fuels from the food system. Community The following are action steps for adoption by voluntary community groups, as opposed to governments (see above). The Transition Network provides an excellent model for this kind of community action. Such efforts seem to work best when the scale of community is such that meetings are manageable in size and meeting participants need not travel long distances. Thus in large cities, neighborhoods could apply Resilience Action Planning while sending delegates to occasional city-wide coordinating meetings. The overlap and mutual support between community organizations and local government efforts must be a matter for discussion and negotiation. 1. Assess the local food system. This assessment process should be undertaken in cooperation with government, so as not to duplicate tasks. Volunteer citizen groups are in position to provide perspectives that otherwise might elude government assessment efforts - such as opportunities for community gardens, or problems with access to food from local producers. 2. Identify and involve stakeholders. Local growers, shop owners, public kitchens, restaurants, schools, and other institutions that produce or serve food should all be contacted and invited to join a voluntary re-localization initiative and to offer input into the process. 3. Educate and involve the public. Community groups can stage public events to raise awareness about food transition issues. "Buy local" brochures and pamphlets, paid for and distributed by a consortium of local businesses (but organized by volunteer groups), can list local producers, farm markets, restaurants, and shops. 4. Develop a unique local strategic program. This can include farmers' markets, CSAs, school lunch programs, and public kitchens, networked with local producers, including community gardens. The program, based on input from stakeholders, should feature targets and timelines developed through a "backcasting" process, beginning with a collaborative exercise aimed at envisioning the local food system as it might look in 2025 after fossil fuels have ceased to play a role. 5. Coordinate with national programs. Local volunteer efforts can play a significant role in informing national government policies, and in implementing the national transition strategy. However, this will require the maintenance of open channels of communication, which in turn will be the responsibility of both government and the local groups. 6. Support individuals and families. Individuals are likely to change food habits and priorities only if they see others doing so as well, and if they feel that their efforts are supported and valued. Community groups can help by establishing new behavioral norms through public events and articles in local newspapers. Practical help can be offered via canning parties, garden planting and harvest parties, and gleaning programs. Local food and gardening experts can be made available to answer questions and concerns. Neighborhood food storage facilities can also be created to supplement household cupboards. 7. Monitor and adjust. All of these efforts must be continually adjusted to assure that all segments of the community are included in the transition process, and that the process is working as smoothly as possible for all. Business Relevant businesses include farms, shops, processors, wholesalers, and restaurants. However, the following steps could also be useful to organizations such as schools, colleges, and hospitals that dispense food as an ancillary part of their operations. 1. Assess vulnerabilities. Every business or organization that is part of the food system must take an honest look at the inevitable impacts of higher fuel prices, and fuel scarcity, on its operations. Examine scenarios based on a doubling or tripling of fuel costs to highlight specific vulnerabilities. 2. Make a plan. Develop a business model that works without - or with continually shrinking - fossil fuel inputs. Then "backcast" from that imagined future condition, specifying time-related targets. 3. Work with government and community groups. Given the fact that government will be developing regulations to reduce fuel use in the food system, and that community organizations will be offering support to local farmers and food shops that spearhead the transition, it makes good business sense to lead the parade rather than lagging at the rear. 4. Educate and involve suppliers and customers. No business is an island. The transition will flourish through strengthened relationships on all sides. 5. Monitor and adjust. For businesses, one obvious and essential criterion of success is profitability. The bottom line will help indicate which adaptive strategies are working, and which ones need work. However, negative financial feedback is no reason to abandon the essential goal of transition. Individual and Family 1. Assess food vulnerabilities and opportunities. Whether at a family meeting or by oneself over a cup of tea, take a long honest look at your typical monthly food purchases and give careful thought to the implications. How much of your food comes from within 100 miles? How much is packaged and processed? How many meals are meat-centered? Where do you shop? How would you be impacted if food and fuel prices doubled or tripled? 2. Make a plan. Create an ideal food scenario for yourself, including diet, shopping habits, and gardening goals. Then "backcast" a series of time-related goals. Write these prominently on a calendar and attach it to the front of your refrigerator. 3. Garden. Even if you don't have access to a plot of land, you can still grow sprouts in a jar or a few food plants in a window box. Look for opportunities to contribute work to a community garden. Develop your skills by seeking out gardening mentors. 4. Develop relations with local producers. Even if you have a large garden you probably can't grow all the food you eat. Rather than shopping at a supermarket, begin to frequent your local farmers' market, or join a CSA. 5. Become involved in community efforts. Get to know your neighbors and compare gardening experiences with them. Together, form a "tool library" from which members can check out garden tools and gardening books. Organize or participate in planting, harvesting, food-swapping, gleaning, and canning parties. 6. Monitor and adjust. At the end of each month, revisit your plan and revise it if necessary. Links ----- {1} http://www1.fipr.state.fl.us/PhosphatePrimer {2} http://transitionculture.org/wp-content/uploads/2007/CanBritain.pdf _____ This essay is excerpted from a larger document-in-process, a co-publication of the Soil Association and Post Carbon Institute, that will be released in somewhat different versions in the UK and in the US, both in mid-November. (c) 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 Post Carbon Institute Post Carbon Institute is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization incorporated in the United States. http://globalpublicmedia.com/museletter_199_the_food_and_farming_transition TO POST A COMMENT, OR TO READ COMMENTS POSTED BY OTHERS, please click on the word "comment" highlighted at the end of the version of this essay posted at http://billtotten.blogspot.com/ From tchilds at resist.ca Mon Nov 10 19:44:17 2008 From: tchilds at resist.ca (tchilds at resist.ca) Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2008 18:44:17 -0800 (PST) Subject: [R-G] Presto Change-o - Jim Kunstler Nov. 10, '08 Message-ID: <49450.24.87.34.192.1226371457.squirrel@mail.resist.ca> >>>>>The current occupant of the White House, however, has sedulously prepared for his successor the biggest shit sandwich the world has ever seen, and there is naturally some concern that Mr. Obama might choke on it. .... The economy-to-come is one of rigor and austerity. It is not the kind of thing that a nation of overfed clowns is used to.<<<<< http://www.kunstler.com/index.html The Clusterfuck Nation Chronicle: Commentary on the Flux of Events ~ Published every Monday, est. 2001 November 10, 2008 Presto Change-o As the election campaign ground on like a 3000-mile race between a greyhound and an armadillo, the media kept harping on Barack Obama's vague promises of "change." We now know what the main promise was: regime change, right here in the USA, not in some place where the natives wear strange headgear. Mr. Obama's victory was a moment of epochal exhilaration, not least because he appears to be a decent and intelligent person self-made from a humble background -- someone who has personally bought tube socks in the K-mart, worried about money, and made many trips in a subway car. The current occupant of the White House, however, has sedulously prepared for his successor the biggest shit sandwich the world has ever seen, and there is naturally some concern that Mr. Obama might choke on it. The dilemma is essentially this: the consumer economy we all knew and loved has died. There will be pressure from nearly every quarter to keep it hooked up to the costly life support machines even though it is dead. A different economy is waiting to be born, but it is nothing like the one that has died. The economy-to-come is one of rigor and austerity. It is not the kind of thing that a nation of overfed clowns is used to. Do we even have a prayer of getting to it, or are we going to squander our dwindling resources on life support for something that is already dead? A case in point: the car industry. The Big Three, all functionally bankrupt, are now lined up for bail-outs from the treasury's bottomless checking account. Personally, I believe the age of Happy Motoring is over. Many Americans have already bought their last car -- they just don't it yet. The current low-ish price of oil is a total fake-out, having to do much more with asset-dumping in the paper markets than the true resource supply-demand equation. Most of the world (the media for sure) has ignored preliminary leaks from the International Energy Agency's (IEA) forthcoming report which forecasts global oil depletion to be 9.1 percent in 2009. This is a staggering figure, very likely to offset whatever slack we see in global demand from the worldwide economic crisis. In fact, the global oil markets are poised for the most severe dislocations ever seen, meaning it's a toss-up what happens first in the USA: a major leg back up in oil prices, or shortages, hoarding, and rationing. For my money (literally) there are only two main reasons that any portion of the car industry should be rescued at the present time: one, because we need somebody to manufacture engines for military vehicles, and two, because we need somebody to manufacture rolling stock for the revival in passenger railroad service that will have to be a centerpiece of the future economy if we want to remain a civilized nation. Even the progressive factions of the public may be in for much more "change" than they bargained for. The global economy as we knew it is finished (despite British PM Gordon Brown's fatuous suggestion that we are ready to formalize it). The world is about to lose its "flatness" (sorry Tom Friedman) and get much rounder. For one thing, the racket of American "consumers" gobbling up the output of Asian factories in exchange for paper promises is over. For the moment, the Chinese are struggling with epic factory closures with the sudden prospect of a restive lumpenproletariet. The situation there is bound to get worse. Before long, these broke-and-hungry masses may actually challenge the present government. In the meantime, there's no telling what the (unelected) Chinese government might do either to keep itself in power, or genuinely defend its country's perceived economic interests. One thing is self-evident: we are not returning to the old racket of toys-for-treasury-bills. One thing China might do in economic self-defense is shed whatever US dollar-denominated paper is moldering in their vaults before it becomes valueless altogether. As global trade relations wither, and they will, the US will be thrust back on its own devices, at the same time that oil resources grow punishingly scarce. Mr. Obama will have to contend with the necessary radical reform of all the activities necessary for daily life here. Near the top of the list -- invisible to most of the public so far -- will be the question of how we produce the food we need. Industrial farming is done, just as suburbia is toast. Mr. Obama will have to apply plenty of ass-time to the first stages of negotiating this bottleneck. I don't even know what he can do policy-wise, though he can certainly make it plain to the public that we have to grow more of our food close to home and do it with fewer engines and fewer oil-based soil supplements. It is a problem of such surpassing difficulty that it was not even close to being in the election arena. The transition will probably occur by means of "emergence." Self-evident necessity will prompt different behavior and different ways of doing things. Sooner or later, the new arrangements will self-organize -- if we don't squander resources defending an unsustainable status quo. One thing we can certainly predict is that growing our food will require more human labor and attention -- meaning there will be plenty of work for people currently losing their jobs at The Footlocker and Arby's, but it's far from certain whether they will be happy in their new vocations. We're going to have to resume making things in the USA again, too, probably at a more modest scale, and probably fewer things than we are used to. We have no idea yet how this is going to happen. Like agriculture, manufacturing culture may have to return, if at all, emergently, as individuals and communities see opportunity in advantages like proximity to water-power and water transport. My guess is that corporate enterprise as we have known it -- at the continental and global scale -- is done for. I would not bet on any of the Fortune 500 carrying on the manufacturing work of the future using the plants-and-equipment that are familiar to them. The manufacturing of the future may be more like cottage industry than Proctor and Gamble. Yet, obviously, there will be tremendous efforts to prop up failing corporate enterprise and prevent natural bankruptcies from occurring. Similarly, the retail part of the economy. Many observers think that Wal-Mart and its clones are immune to the larger forces swirling around us. Just because many cash-strapped people are hunting for bargains at WalMart these days does not insure the survival of the Big Box model very far into the future. In fact, in every trend we can see -- from the oil markets to events in China to the impoverishment of the US working class to the coming crisis in truck transport -- you can easily discern fatal weaknesses in this model. Local retail (and its support structures) is coming back. We just don't know how, yet, and we don't know how much capital and effort will be squandered trying to rescue WalMart, when the time comes. But the imperative re-scaling of commerce in America also represents huge opportunities for young people to get into their own businesses. Mr. Obama will preside over the potential restructuring of all our systems, some of them in ways he and his supporters have not imagined. We haven't begun to see where fate will take higher education, but my guess is that it will no longer be a "consumer" activity, and that the hypertrophied land-grant diploma mills will have to to shrink or die as state financial support withers away, and all sorts of unnecessary professions from "public relations" to "marketing" cease to require certified graduates. The luxurious central high schools, utterly addicted to their yellow school bus fleets, will be left as a problem for the states and municipalities. I don't believe they can be rescued, and they are already failing in many other ways, not least, educating and properly socializing young humans. In the months just ahead, Mr. Obama will certainly be swamped with straight-ahead cash problems in every area of American life, from the foundering pension funds to the bankrupt state treasuries to the beggaring corporations to the starkly dispossessed and hungry masses of the jobless and re-poed. I wasn't kidding when I came up with the label, "the long emergency," to describe the storm that we are heading into, along with Mr. Obama. Of course, the current president -- and Mr. Obama has been shrewd to point out there is only one president in office at a time --has more than two months to wreak additional havoc in the financial system. Right now, he's asking Mr. O, "...do you want fries with that sandwich I made for you?" From shimogamo at attglobal.net Mon Nov 10 20:42:19 2008 From: shimogamo at attglobal.net (Bill Totten) Date: Tue, 11 Nov 2008 12:42:19 +0900 Subject: [R-G] [BillTottenWeblog] The Food and Farming Transition Message-ID: <4918FF1B.3000201@attglobal.net> MuseLetter 199 (November 2008) by Richard Heinberg The only way to avert a food crisis resulting from oil and natural gas price hikes and supply disruptions while also reversing agriculture's contribution to climate change is to proactively and methodically remove fossil fuels from the food system. The removal of fossil fuels from the food system is inevitable: maintenance of the current system is simply not an option over the long term. Only the amount of time available for the transition process, and the strategies for pursuing it, can be matters for controversy. Given the degree to which the modern food system has become dependent on fossil fuels, many proposals for de-linking food and fuels are likely to appear radical. However, efforts toward this end must be judged not by the degree to which they preserve the status quo, but by their likely ability to solve the fundamental challenge that will face us: the need to feed a global population of seven billion with a diminishing supply of fuels available to fertilize, plow, and irrigate fields and to harvest and transport crops. If this transition is undertaken proactively and intelligently, there could be many side benefits - more careers in farming, more protection for the environment, less soil erosion, a revitalization of rural culture, and more healthful food for everyone. Some of this transformation will inevitably be driven by market forces, led simply by the rising price of fossil fuels. However, without planning the transition may be wrenching and destructive, since market forces acting alone could bankrupt farmers while leaving consumers with few or no options. The Transition ----------------- To remove fossil fuels from the food system too quickly, before alternative systems are in place, would be catastrophic. Thus the transition process must be a matter for careful consideration and planning. In recent years there has been some debate on the problem of how many people a non-fossil fueled food system can support. The answer is still unclear. But we will certainly find out, because there is likely to be no alternative, given that substitute liquid fuels - including coal-to-liquids, biofuels, tar sands, and shale oil - are all problematic and cannot be relied upon to replace cheap crude oil and natural gas as these deplete. There are reasons for hope: a recent report on African agriculture from the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) suggests that "organic, small-scale farming can deliver the increased yields which were thought to be the preserve of industrial farming, without the environmental and social damage which that form of agriculture brings with it". Nevertheless, given that we do not know whether non-fossil fuel agriculture can in fact feed a population now approaching seven billion - and given that current fuels-based agriculture cannot be relied upon to do so for much longer, given the reality of fuel depletion - the prudent path forward would surely be to tie agricultural policy to population policy. Indeed, coordination will be essential also between agriculture policies and education, economic, transport, energy policies. The food system transition will be comprehensive, and will require integration with all segments and aspects of society. This document is intended to serve as the basis for the beginning of that planning process. Our aim is to develop a template that can be used to strategically plan the transition of food and farming across the world, region by region, and at all scales (from the farm to the community to the nation), beginning here in the UK. Elements of Transition --------------------------- The following are some key strategic elements of the food systems transition process that will need to be addressed at all levels of scale, from the household to the nation and beyond. Re-Localization In recent decades the food systems of Britain and most other nations have become globalized. Food is traded in enormous quantities - and not just luxury foods (such as coffee and chocolate), but staples including wheat, maize, meat, potatoes, and rice. The globalization of the food system has had advantages: people in wealthy countries now have access to a wide variety of foods at all times, including fruits and vegetables that are out of season (apples in May or asparagus in January), and foods that cannot be grown locally at any time of year (eg, avocadoes in Scotland). Long-distance transport enables food to be delivered from places of abundance to areas of scarcity. Whereas in previous centuries a regional crop failure might have led to famine, its effects now can be neutralized by food imports. However, food globalization also creates systemic vulnerability. As fuel prices rise, costs of imported food go up. If fuel supplies were substantially cut off as the result of some transient event, the entire system could fail. A globalized system is also more susceptible to accidental contamination, as we have seen recently with the appearance of toxic melamine in foods from China. The best way to make our food system more resilient against such threats is clear: decentralize and re-localize it. Re-localization will inevitably occur sooner or later as a result of declining oil production, since there are no alternative energy sources on the horizon that can be scaled up quickly to take the place of petroleum. But if the transition process is to unfold in a beneficial rather than a catastrophic way, it must be planned and coordinated. This will require deliberate effort aimed at building the infrastructure for regional food economies - ones that can support diversified farming and reduce the amount of fossil fuel in the British diet. Re-localization means producing more basic food necessities locally. No one advocates doing away with food trade altogether: this would hurt both farmers and consumers. Rather, what is needed is a prioritization of production so that lower-value food items (which are typically staple calorie crops) are mostly sourced from close by, with most long-distance trade left to higher-value foods, and especially those that store well. This decentralization of the food system will result in greater societal resilience in the face of fuel price volatility. Problems of food contamination, when they appear, will be minimized. Meanwhile, revitalization of local food production will help renew local economies. Consumers will enjoy better quality food that is fresher and more seasonal. And transport-related climate impacts will be reduced. Each nation or region will need to devise its own strategy for re-localizing its food system, based on a thorough initial assessment of vulnerabilities and opportunities. The following are some general suggestions that are likely to be applicable in most instances: * The process will benefit enormously from policy support at both national and regional levels. This could include, for example, the provision of grants to towns and cities to build year-round indoor farmers' markets. * Food-safety regulations should be made appropriate to the scale of production and distribution, so that a small grower selling direct off the farm or at a farmers' market is not regulated as onerously as a multinational food manufacturer. While local food may have safety problems, these will inevitably occur on a smaller scale and will be easier to manage because local food is inherently more traceable and accountable. * Governments can require that some minimum percentage of food purchases for schools, hospitals, military bases, and prisons are sourced within 100 miles of the institutions buying the food. Channelling even a small portion of institutional food purchasing to local growers would greatly expand opportunities for regional producers while improving the diet of people whom these institutions feed. * Cities and towns can rework their waste management systems so as to collect food scraps that can then be converted to compost, biogas, and livestock feed - which can in turn be made available to local growers. But government can do only so much. Consumers must develop the habit of preferentially buying locally sourced foods whenever possible, and they can be encouraged in this by "Buy Local" educational literature distributed by retailers - who can also assist by clearly labeling and prominently displaying local products. Growers themselves must rethink their business strategies. Instead of growing specialty crops for export, they must plan a transition to production of staple foods for local consumption. They must also actively seek local markets for their food. The Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) movement provides a business model that has proven successful in many communities. Small producers can also create informal co-ops to acquire machinery (such as small threshing machines for cereal and oilseed processing or micro hydro turbines for electricity). The strategy of re-localizing food systems will be more challenging for some nations and regions than others. Given that the food footprint of London encompasses essentially all of England, the challenge for Britain is greater than is the case for many other nations. More urban gardens and even small animal operations (with chickens, ducks, geese, and rabbits) within London and other cities should be encouraged, but even then it will be necessary to source most food from the countryside, delivering it to the city by rail. Thus re-localization should be seen as a process and a general direction of effort, not as an absolute goal. Energy As society turns away from fossil fuels, the energy balance of farming must once again become net positive. However, the transition process will be complex and problematic. Farms will still need sources of energy for their operations, and will need to provide much or all of that energy for themselves. Meanwhile, farmers could also take advantage of opportunities to export surplus energy to nearby communities as a way of increasing farm income. Farms must be powered with renewable energy. However, many energy needs on farms - such as fuel for tractors and other machinery - are currently difficult to fill with anything other than liquid fuels, which currently come in the form of diesel or petrol made from crude oil. Farmers should first look for ways to reduce fuel needs through efficiency or replacement of machines with animal power or human labor. This is most likely to be economically feasible in dairy, meat, vegetable, fruit, and nut operations. Where fuel-fed machinery is still required, which is likely to continue being the case for grain production, ethanol or biodiesel made on-site could supplement or replace petroleum. Farmers could aim to apportion one-fifth of their cropland to production of biofuels for their own use. Many other farm operations require electricity, and this can be generated on-site with wind turbines, solar panels, and micro-hydro turbines. Effort first must be devoted to making operations more energy-efficient. Because these technologies require initial investment and pay for themselves slowly over time, assistance from government and from financial institutions in the form of grants and low-interest loans could be instrumental in helping farmers overcome initial economic hurdles toward energy self-sufficiency. Eventually farmers are capable of being not just self-sufficient in energy, but of producing surplus energy for surrounding communities. Much of this exported energy is likely to come in the form of biomass - agricultural and forestry waste that can be burned to produce electricity. While farmers can also grow crops for the production of biofuels, the ecological and thermodynamic limits of this energy technology require that the scale of production be deliberately restricted. Otherwise, society's demand for fuel could overwhelm farmers' ability to produce food - and food must remain their first priority. In exporting biomass from the farm, growers must always keep in mind the productive capacity of sustainable agricultural systems, and they must strictly monitor soil health and fertility. The transition of farms to renewable energy will require planning. Farmers, ideally with the assistance of regional and national agencies, should plan to increase energy efficiency, to reduce fossil fuel inputs, and to grow renewable energy production according to a staged, integrated program designed for the unique needs and capabilities of each farm. As a general guideline, the plan should aim to reduce oil and natural gas inputs by at least half during the first decade. Soil Fertility In industrial agriculture, soil fertility is maintained with inputs provided from off-site. Of these inputs, the most important are nitrogen and phosphorus. Nitrogen comes from ammonia-based fertilizers made from fossil fuels - principally, natural gas. Phosphorus comes from phosphate mines in several countries. While sufficient low-quality phosphate deposits exist to supply world needs for many decades, high-quality deposits that are currently being mined are quickly depleting, which means that phosphate prices will likely rise within the next few years. {1} Both nitrogen and phosphorus are essential to agriculture. And our current ways of supplying both are clearly unsustainable. Unless alternative ways of maintaining soil fertility are quickly found, a crisis looms. The long-term solution will surely depend on a two-fold strategy: designing farm systems that build fertility through crop rotations, and recycling nutrients. Crop rotation can help with maintaining nitrogen levels. Simply planting a cover crop after the fall harvest significantly reduces nitrogen leaching while cutting down on soil erosion. Meanwhile, introducing leguminous crops into the rotation cycle replaces nitrogen. Cleverly designed polycultures can sustainably produce large amounts of food, as has been shown not only by small-scale "alternative" farmers in Britain and America, but also by large rice-and-fish farmers in China and giant-scale operations (up to 15,000 acres) in Argentina. There, farmers employ an eight-year rotation of perennial pasture and annual crops: after five years grazing cattle on pasture, farmers then grow three years of grain without applying fertilizer. The need for herbicides is also dramatically reduced: weeds that afflict pasture cannot survive the years of tillage, and weeds of row crops don't survive years of grazing. Most industrial farmers have left behind the practice of cover cropping because commercial fertilizers have become the cheaper option. That cost equation is about to shift. It is therefore important that farmers begin planning for higher fertilizer prices now by gearing up their rotation cycles and building natural soil fertility ahead of the immediate need. In industrial agriculture, the soil is treated as an inert substance that holds plants in place while chemical nutrients are applied externally. Without efforts to maintain natural fertility, over time organic matter disappears from the soil, along with beneficial soil micro-organisms. In the future, as chemical fertilizers become more expensive, farmers will need to devote much more attention to the practice of building healthy soil. But rebuilding nutrient-depleted soil takes, at minimum, several years of effort. Traditional farmers increase organic matter in topsoil through the application of compost - which not only builds soil fertility, but also improves the soil's ability to hold water and thus withstand drought. There is also mounting evidence that food grown in properly composted soil is of higher nutritional quality. Currently, in typical modern cities, consumers, retailers, wholesalers and institutions discard enormous quantities of food. Some communities have already instituted municipal programs for composting of food and yard waste; such programs could be expanded and made mandatory, with compost being given free to local farmers. This would reduce the amount of garbage going to land fills, as well as farmers' needs for fertilizers and irrigation, while improving the nutritional quality of the British diet. In addition, recent research with "terra preta" (also known as "bio char"), a charcoal-like material that can be produced from agricultural waste, suggests that its introduction to soils could reduce plants' need for nitrogen by twenty to thirty percent while sequestering carbon that would otherwise end up in the atmosphere. The potential of composting and the use of terra preta to mitigate the climate crisis is hardly trivial: a one-percent increase of soil organic matter in the top 33.5 centimetres of the soil is equivalent to the capture and storage of 100 tonnes of atmospheric carbon dioxide per square kilometre of farmland. Ultimately, there is no solution to the phosphorus supply problem other than full-system nutrient recycling. This will entail a complete redesign of sewage systems to recapture nutrients so they can be returned to the soil - as Chinese farmers learned to do centuries ago. But if sewage systems (or simpler variants) are to become primary sources of phosphorus and other soil nutrients, they cannot continue to be channels for the disposal of toxic wastes. It is essential that separate waste streams be developed for the disposal of all pharmaceuticals, household chemicals, and industrial wastes. Thus the problem of soil fertility is one that farmers cannot solve on their own: it is a crisis of the food system as a whole, and must be addressed contextually and holistically. Diet The consumer is as important to the food system as the producer. During recent decades, consumer preferences have been shaped to fit the industrial food system through advertising and the development of mass-marketed, uniform, packaged food products that, while often nutritionally inferior, are cheap, attractive, in some cases even physically addictive. The advent and rapid proliferation of "fast food" restaurants has likewise fostered a diet that is profitable to giant industrial agribusiness, but disastrous to the health of consumers. However lamentable these trends may be from a public health standpoint, they are clearly unsustainable in view of the energy and climate crises facing modern agriculture. Because processed and packaged foods and fresh foods imported out of season add to the energy intensity of the food system, rich and poor alike must be encouraged to eat food that is locally grown, that is in season, and that is less processed. Public education campaigns could help shift consumer preferences in this regard. A shift toward a less meat-centered diet should also be encouraged, because a meat-based diet is substantially more energy intensive than one that is plant-based. Government can help with a shift in diet preferences through its own food purchasing polices (see "Re-Localization", above). The process can be helped even further by a more careful official government definition of "food". It makes no sense for government efforts intended to improve the nutritional health of the people to support the consumption of products known to be unhealthful - such as soda and other junk food. Farming Systems During the past few decades farming has become more specialized. Today, a typical farm may produce only meat of a single kind (turkey, chicken, pork, or beef), or only dairy, or a single type of grain, vegetable, fruit, or nut. This narrow specialization seemed to make economic sense in the era of cheap transport and cheap farm inputs. But because nature is diverse and integrated, the deliberate elimination of diversity on the farm has led to problems at every step. For example, animal feedlot operations (also known as concentrated animal feed operations, or CAFOs) produce enormous amounts of waste that end up in massive manure lagoons that pollute ground water and foul the air. Meanwhile, grain diets fed to the animals result in digestive problems requiring the large-scale administration of antibiotics that find their way into both the human food system and ground water, and that lead to antibiotic resistance among disease organisms that afflict humans. Farm specialization also impacts the grain or vegetable grower: soils that annually produce these crops need a regular replenishment of nitrogen; but if the farmer keeps few animals, there may be no option other than to import fertilizers from off-site. By switching to multi-enterprise diverse systems, farmers can often solve a range of problems at once. Feeding much less grain to livestock while giving them access to pasture that is in rotation with other crops maintains soil fertility while leading to better animal health and higher food quality. The farmer, the environment, and the consumer all benefit. The post-hydrocarbon food transition may also compel a rethinking of the size of farm operations. The mechanization of farm operations and the centralization of food systems favored larger farms. However, as fuel for farm machinery becomes more costly, and as farming once again involves more labor, smaller-scale operations will once again be profitable. In addition, a smaller scale of operations will be needed as farms become more diverse, since farmers will have more system elements to monitor. Agriculture will thus become more knowledge-intensive, requiring a curious, holistic attitude on the part of farmers. In urban areas, micro-farms and gardens - including vertical gardens and rooftop gardens that in some cases include small animals such as chickens and rabbits - could provide a substantial amount of food for growers and their families, along with occasional income from selling seasonal surpluses at garden markets. Farm Work With less fuel available to power agricultural machinery, the world will need many more farmers. But for farmers to succeed, some current agricultural policies that favor larger-scale production and production for export will need to change, while policies that support small-scale subsistence farms, gardens, and agricultural co-ops must be formulated and put in place - both by international institutions such as the World Bank, and also by national and regional governments. Currently the UK has 541,000 farmers, depending on how the term is defined. In the UK in 1900, nearly forty percent of the population farmed; the current proportion is less than one percent. Today, the average farmer is nearing retirement age. In nations and regions where food is grown without machinery, a larger percentage of the population must be involved in food production. For example, farmers make up more than half the populations of China, and India, Nepal, Ethiopia, and Indonesia. While the proportion of farmers that would be needed in Britain if the country were to become self-sufficient in food grown without fossil fuels is unknown (that would depend upon technologies used and diets adopted), it would undoubtedly be much larger than the current percentage. It is reasonable to expect that several million new farmers would be required - a number that is both unimaginable and unmanageable over the short term. These new farmers would have to include a broad mix of people, reflecting the UK's increasing diversity. Already growing numbers of young adults are becoming organic or biodynamic farmers, and farmers' markets and CSAs are also springing up across the country. These tentative trends must be supported and encouraged. In addition to Government policies that support sustainable farming systems based on smaller farming units, this will require: * Education: Universities and community colleges must quickly develop programs in small-scale ecological farming methods - programs that also include training in other skills that farmers will need, such as in marketing and formulating business plans. Apprenticeships and other forms of direct knowledge transfer will also assist the transition. * Financial Support: Since few if any farms are financially successful the first year or even the second or third, loans and grants will be needed to help farmers get started. * A revitalization of farming communities and farming culture: Over the past decades UK rural towns have seen their best and brightest young people flee first to distant colleges and then to cities. Farming communities must be interesting, attractive places if we expect people to inhabit them and for children to want to stay there. Seeds Today's seed industry is centralized and reliant upon the very fuel-based transport system whose future viability is in question. Most commercial seeds are of hybrid varieties, so that farmers cannot save seed but must purchase new supplies each year. Worldwide, a growing proportion of the commercial seeds that are available are genetically modified. GM seeds have primarily been developed by chemical companies to support the sale of their proprietary herbicides. The promise of more nutritious foods, or crops that can produce biofuels more efficiently, is years from realization. Given that the need for transition is immediate, efforts to build a post-fossil fuel food system cannot wait for new technologies that may or may not appear or succeed. In any case, the GM seed industry is based upon current systems of transport, and fuel-based inputs such as chemical fertilizers and herbicides, that are all inextricably tied to the wider fossil-fuel based provisioning systems of society. Thus GM crops would be unlikely to be of much help in the transition in any case. What is needed instead is a coordinated effort to identify open-pollinated varieties of food crops that are adapted to local soils and microclimates, and a program to make such seeds available to farmers and gardeners in sufficient quantities. In addition, local colleges must begin offering courses on the techniques of seed saving. Processing and Distribution Systems The transition process will undoubtedly be fraught with challenges to food processing and distribution systems, which currently rely on large energy inputs and long-distance transport. For example, the meat industry now depends upon centralized facilities for slaughtering livestock - which must be transported long distances to these facilities. Re-localizing food systems will entail creating incentives for the emergence of smaller, more localized slaughterhouses and butcher shops. One interim solution would be for a fleet of mobile abattoirs to go from farm to farm, processing animals humanely and inexpensively. Many health regulations were originally designed to check abuses by the largest food producers, but such regulations may now inhibit the development of smaller-scale and more localized processing and distribution systems. For example, farmers should be able to smoke a ham and sell it to their neighbours without making a huge investment in nationally approved facilities. A small producer selling direct from the farm or at a farmers' market should not be subject to the same food safety regulations as a multinational food manufacturer: while local food may occasionally have safety problems, those problems will be less catastrophic and easier to manage than similar problems at industrial-scale facilities. Food processors must look for ways to make their present operations more energy efficient, while government, consumers, and retailers find ways to reduce the need for food processing and also for food packaging. This gradual shift will require institutional support for families in storing, processing, cooking, and preserving food within the home. Meanwhile, in view of inevitable problems with existing transport systems, national and regional food storage systems must be reconsidered. Reserves of grain, sufficient to provide for essential needs during an extended food crisis, should be kept and managed to avoid spoilage. Packaging of food should be regulated to minimize the use of plastics, which will become more scarce and expensive as oil and gas deplete - and which are implicated as sources of toxins in any case. Government should institute policies that prioritize the distribution of food within the nation by rail and water, rather than by road, as trucks are comparatively energy inefficient. Supermarkets are currently the ultimate distribution sites for food in most instances. However, this model presupposes near-universal access to automobiles and petrol. A resilient food system will require smaller and more widely distributed access points in the forms of small shops and garden or farm markets. Government regulations and tax incentives can help accomplish that shift. Wholesalers and distributors will have a changed role in a transitioning food system. They will still be needed to manage the supplies of various seasonally produced foods moving from producers to consumers. However, rather than favoring large producers and giant supermarket chains, they must alter their operations to serve smaller, more distributed farms and gardens, as well as smaller and more distributed retail shops. Resilience Action Planning ------------------------------- The transition process will succeed by creating more resilience in food systems. Resilient systems are able to withstand higher magnitudes of disturbance before undergoing a dramatic shift to a new condition in which they are controlled by a different set of processes. One quality of resilience is redundancy - which is often at odds with economic efficiency. Efficiency implies both long supply chains and the reduction of inventories to a minimum. This "just-in-time" delivery of products reduces costs - but it increases the vulnerability of systems to disturbances such as fuel shortages. As more attention is paid to resilience and less to economic efficiency, redundancy and larger inventories are seen as benefits rather than liabilities. Other resilience values include diversity (as opposed to uniformity), and dispersion (rather than centralization) of control over systems. Building resilience into our food systems as we move toward a post-fossil fuel economy will entail all of the Elements of Transition detailed above. It will also require planning at four levels: Government, Community, Business, and Individual or Family. At each level the planning process will necessarily be somewhat different. The purpose of this section is to delineate the main planning steps that will make sense at each of these levels. In some instances, steps within an action plan can or should be undertaken concurrently. In any case, what is offered here is merely a skeletal outline for a process that must be developed to fit unique needs of those it will serve. Government The following steps are applicable at any level of government - national, regional, or local. At the highest level of scale (the nation), each step will itself be the subject of planning and delegation. At the lowest level of scale (small villages), government may lack the capacity to undertake any of these steps and can do more than offer symbolic official support to volunteer citizen initiatives. 1. Assess the existing food system. Begin with a study of current systemic vulnerabilities and opportunities. How are farm inputs currently sourced? How much food is currently imported? What proportion of those food imports are staples, and what proportion are luxury foods? What are the environmental costs of current agricultural practices? How would the current food system be impacted by fuel shortages and high prices? 2. Review policies. How are current policies supporting these vulnerabilities and environmental impacts? How can they be changed or eliminated? Are there policies already in place that are likely to help with the transition? How can these latter policies be strengthened? 3. Bring together key stakeholders. Organizations of farmers, food processing and distributing companies, and retailers must all be included in the transition process. Many will wish simply to maintain the existing system; however, it must be made clear that this is not an option. Many companies involved in the food system will need to change their business model substantially. 4. Make a plan. The transition plan that is formulated must be comprehensive and detailed, and must contain robust but attainable targets with timelines and mechanisms for periodic review and revision. A scoping exercise must be undertaken to assess the impact of the plan on agricultural output and to quantify the changes in kinds of commodities produced and in their volumes and prices. Simon Fairlie's paper, "Can Britain Feed Itself?", is an initial attempt at such an exercise, and can be used as a model to be built upon and supplemented {2}. 5. Educate and involve the public. The public must not only be informed about the government-led aspects of the transition process, but must be included in it to the extent that is practical. Citizens must be educated about food choices, gardening opportunities, and ways to access food from local producers. Their successes and challenges in adaptation will inform new iterations of the plan. 6. Shift policies and incentives. This is the key responsibility of government, as it either limits or enhances the ability of community groups, businesses, and families to engage in the transition process. Policy changes must reflect stakeholder input, but must nevertheless be designed primarily to further the Elements of Transition, rather than the short-term interests of any particular stakeholder group. 7. Monitor and adjust. An undertaking of this magnitude will inevitably have unforeseen and unintended impacts. Thus it is essential that progress be continually be reviewed with an eye to making adjustments to pace and strategy, while maintaining absolute adherence to the central task of methodically removing fossil fuels from the food system. Community The following are action steps for adoption by voluntary community groups, as opposed to governments (see above). The Transition Network provides an excellent model for this kind of community action. Such efforts seem to work best when the scale of community is such that meetings are manageable in size and meeting participants need not travel long distances. Thus in large cities, neighborhoods could apply Resilience Action Planning while sending delegates to occasional city-wide coordinating meetings. The overlap and mutual support between community organizations and local government efforts must be a matter for discussion and negotiation. 1. Assess the local food system. This assessment process should be undertaken in cooperation with government, so as not to duplicate tasks. Volunteer citizen groups are in position to provide perspectives that otherwise might elude government assessment efforts - such as opportunities for community gardens, or problems with access to food from local producers. 2. Identify and involve stakeholders. Local growers, shop owners, public kitchens, restaurants, schools, and other institutions that produce or serve food should all be contacted and invited to join a voluntary re-localization initiative and to offer input into the process. 3. Educate and involve the public. Community groups can stage public events to raise awareness about food transition issues. "Buy local" brochures and pamphlets, paid for and distributed by a consortium of local businesses (but organized by volunteer groups), can list local producers, farm markets, restaurants, and shops. 4. Develop a unique local strategic program. This can include farmers' markets, CSAs, school lunch programs, and public kitchens, networked with local producers, including community gardens. The program, based on input from stakeholders, should feature targets and timelines developed through a "backcasting" process, beginning with a collaborative exercise aimed at envisioning the local food system as it might look in 2025 after fossil fuels have ceased to play a role. 5. Coordinate with national programs. Local volunteer efforts can play a significant role in informing national government policies, and in implementing the national transition strategy. However, this will require the maintenance of open channels of communication, which in turn will be the responsibility of both government and the local groups. 6. Support individuals and families. Individuals are likely to change food habits and priorities only if they see others doing so as well, and if they feel that their efforts are supported and valued. Community groups can help by establishing new behavioral norms through public events and articles in local newspapers. Practical help can be offered via canning parties, garden planting and harvest parties, and gleaning programs. Local food and gardening experts can be made available to answer questions and concerns. Neighborhood food storage facilities can also be created to supplement household cupboards. 7. Monitor and adjust. All of these efforts must be continually adjusted to assure that all segments of the community are included in the transition process, and that the process is working as smoothly as possible for all. Business Relevant businesses include farms, shops, processors, wholesalers, and restaurants. However, the following steps could also be useful to organizations such as schools, colleges, and hospitals that dispense food as an ancillary part of their operations. 1. Assess vulnerabilities. Every business or organization that is part of the food system must take an honest look at the inevitable impacts of higher fuel prices, and fuel scarcity, on its operations. Examine scenarios based on a doubling or tripling of fuel costs to highlight specific vulnerabilities. 2. Make a plan. Develop a business model that works without - or with continually shrinking - fossil fuel inputs. Then "backcast" from that imagined future condition, specifying time-related targets. 3. Work with government and community groups. Given the fact that government will be developing regulations to reduce fuel use in the food system, and that community organizations will be offering support to local farmers and food shops that spearhead the transition, it makes good business sense to lead the parade rather than lagging at the rear. 4. Educate and involve suppliers and customers. No business is an island. The transition will flourish through strengthened relationships on all sides. 5. Monitor and adjust. For businesses, one obvious and essential criterion of success is profitability. The bottom line will help indicate which adaptive strategies are working, and which ones need work. However, negative financial feedback is no reason to abandon the essential goal of transition. Individual and Family 1. Assess food vulnerabilities and opportunities. Whether at a family meeting or by oneself over a cup of tea, take a long honest look at your typical monthly food purchases and give careful thought to the implications. How much of your food comes from within 100 miles? How much is packaged and processed? How many meals are meat-centered? Where do you shop? How would you be impacted if food and fuel prices doubled or tripled? 2. Make a plan. Create an ideal food scenario for yourself, including diet, shopping habits, and gardening goals. Then "backcast" a series of time-related goals. Write these prominently on a calendar and attach it to the front of your refrigerator. 3. Garden. Even if you don't have access to a plot of land, you can still grow sprouts in a jar or a few food plants in a window box. Look for opportunities to contribute work to a community garden. Develop your skills by seeking out gardening mentors. 4. Develop relations with local producers. Even if you have a large garden you probably can't grow all the food you eat. Rather than shopping at a supermarket, begin to frequent your local farmers' market, or join a CSA. 5. Become involved in community efforts. Get to know your neighbors and compare gardening experiences with them. Together, form a "tool library" from which members can check out garden tools and gardening books. Organize or participate in planting, harvesting, food-swapping, gleaning, and canning parties. 6. Monitor and adjust. At the end of each month, revisit your plan and revise it if necessary. Links ----- {1} http://www1.fipr.state.fl.us/PhosphatePrimer {2} http://transitionculture.org/wp-content/uploads/2007/CanBritain.pdf _____ This essay is excerpted from a larger document-in-process, a co-publication of the Soil Association and Post Carbon Institute, that will be released in somewhat different versions in the UK and in the US, both in mid-November. (c) 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 Post Carbon Institute Post Carbon Institute is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization incorporated in the United States. http://globalpublicmedia.com/museletter_199_the_food_and_farming_transition TO POST A COMMENT, OR TO READ COMMENTS POSTED BY OTHERS, please click on the word "comment" highlighted at the end of the version of this essay posted at http://billtotten.blogspot.com/ From critical.montages at gmail.com Mon Nov 10 21:27:53 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2008 23:27:53 -0500 Subject: [R-G] Desconocen liberales resultados electorales en Managua Message-ID: Desconocen liberales resultados electorales en Managua La jornada del d?a despu?s de las elecciones se ha caracterizado por la violencia en las calles. Simpatizantes liberales y sandinistas chocaron en varios puntos de la capital. Notimex / La Jornada On Line Publicado: 10/11/2008 21:37 Managua. La alianza opositora liberal anunci? este lunes el desconocimiento de los resultados electorales en Managua, que favorecen por cuatro puntos al candidato del Frente Sandinista de Liberaci?n Nacional (FSLN) en los comicios municipales de la v?spera. Poco antes, un enfrentamiento entre sandinistas y liberales dej? dos heridos de bala y un lesionado por una pedrada, seg?n im?genes de la televisi?n privada. Los sandinistas atacaron a pedradas y sitiaron la casa de campa?a del Movimiento Vamos con Eduardo, del liberal Eduardo Montealegre, al sur de la capital. Fueron escuchados disparos de morteros de fabricaci?n casera y de armas de fuego, mientras que los dos bandos se acusaron de realizar disparos con armas de fuego. Una camioneta que se encontraba en el estacionamiento de la sede opositora fue incendiada. Los manifestantes sandinistas se retiraron hacia El Zumen, a pocas cuadras del lugar, as? como en la rotonda de El Periodista y Metrocentro, en la zona c?ntrica de la capital. El aspirante opositor a la vicealcald?a, Enrique Qui?onez, conden? los hechos de violencia y desconoci? en nombre de su organizaci?n los resultados preliminares del Consejo Supremo Electoral (CSE). "Fue una derrota del Frente Sandinista en Managua", asegur?. La jornada del d?a despu?s de las elecciones se ha caracterizado por la violencia en las calles de Managua. Simpatizantes liberales y sandinistas chocaron en varios puntos de la capital con un saldo de cinco heridos, uno de ellos grave. El CSE, en el ?ltimo dato de resultados en la p?gina de internet, inform? que el FSLN gan? 91 municipios, 49 el partido Liberal Constitucionalista, y tres la Alianza Liberal Nicaraguense. Con m?s del 80 por ciento de los votos contados, el partido de gobierno obten?a 91 localidades. El domingo, se hab?a anunciado 98 municipios en poder el FSLN. En 2004, el FSLN logr? el triunfo en 87 municipios y las principales cabeceras departamentales. La c?pula del Consejo Superior de la Empresa Privada (Cosep) llam? por su parte a la cordura y la calma, pero pidi? a las autoridades electorales un recuento de los votos para "respetar la decisi?n popular". El Cosep se declar? en sesi?n permanente ante los hechos de violencia que empa?an el proceso electoral y la imagen del pa?s, afirm? su presidente Jos? Adan Aguerri. From critical.montages at gmail.com Mon Nov 10 22:04:48 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Tue, 11 Nov 2008 00:04:48 -0500 Subject: [R-G] RSS Reception for Sonal Shah + Indian-American Groups Protest Sonal Shah's Appointment + Message-ID: Indian-American groups protest Sonal Shah's appointment 10 Nov 2008, 2000 hrs IST, PTI NEW YORK : Three Indian-American groups have protested the appointment of Sonal Shah in US President-elect Barack Obama's transition team, claiming that she is closely associated with the VHP and warned against Hindutva "infiltration" into the power centres of the US society. In a joint statement, Indian Coalition Against Genocide and Indian American Coalition for Pluralism and Non Resident Indians for a Secular and Harmonious India said they are holding consultations among themselves and like-minded Indian-American leaders on the issue. The organisations have asked Shah to clarify her position about her association with the VHP and its "mother organisation" RSS. The statement said they have avowed to increase their efforts to "educate the American politicians and business leaders about the attempts by the Hindu ultra-nationalist Hindutva movement to infiltrate the power centres of the US society by giving big donations and through volunteer work." The Coalition Against Genocide was instrumental in getting the visa of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi revoked in 2005, it recalled and voiced concerns that an attempt might be made to get his visa reinstated. After India media reports linked Shah to the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, her brother Anand Shah had said the 40-year economist's family had nothing to do with the VHP or the Gujarat government. Shah was on November 6 named in a 15-member team which will oversee smooth transition of power from the Bush Administration to the incoming Obama dispensation. RSS reception for Sonal Shah DH News Service, New Delhi: Gujarati expatriate Sonal Shah, an economist who has now been appointed an advisory member by US President-elect Barack Obama, would be invited by the RSS and accorded a public reception at her village in Gujarat. Shah's father Ramesh Shah, who has strong RSS affiliations, has been approached by the Sangh outfits to make arrangements for her visit to her native village Gabat in Sabarkantha. Asked to comment on Sonal Shah's association with the Sangh Parivar, the RSS national executive member Ram Madhav told Deccan Herald that her father had been "a staunch supporter of the RSS". He, however, denied that she herself was associated with the RSS. "Where are women in the RSS?" he quipped. "She has been a Democrat for the last 20 years and has worked very hard for the victory of Obama for the last six months," said Madhav. "She is from the family of the RSS... There is nothing wrong with it," he said. The Shah family migrated to the US in 1970 and has been active in the overseas VHP activities. Shah's father had headed the Ekal Vidyalaya Foundation, which collects funds from the US residents to support the tribal schools in India run by Vanvasi Kalyan Parishad, one of the oldest RSS outfits working in the tribal areas in India. Appointment sparks protest in US New York, pti: Three Indian-American groups have protested the appointment of Sonal Shah in American President-elect Barack Obama's transition team, claiming that she is closely associated with the Vishwa Hindu Parishad. They warned against Hindutva "infiltration" into the power centres of the US society. From critical.montages at gmail.com Mon Nov 10 22:09:45 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Tue, 11 Nov 2008 00:09:45 -0500 Subject: [R-G] The Dark Side of Hindu Nationalism? Message-ID: November 3rd, 2008 The dark side of Hindu nationalism? Posted by: Alistair Scrutton The slow peeling of the onion around the involvement of Hindu militants in the Malegaon and Modasa bomb blasts [LINK: ] last month in the western states of Maharashtra and Gujarat in September has shown a murky network of religious radicals that may have both implications for India's politics as well as its anti-terrorist policies. For years, bombs in India have mostly been blamed on Islamist militants [LINK: ]. Even attacks on mosques were often blamed on Islamists seeking to spark communal tensions between India's majority Hindus and minority Muslims. Both national and international press have focused on the growing Indian-born Islamist militants who are trying to attack the Indian state. A widespread crackdown on suspected Islamist militants following the bomb attacks this year that killed scores of people in several Indian cities led Muslim leaders to accuse authorities of conducting a witch hunt [LINK: ] and reinforcing stereotypes about their community But the recent revelations of possible involvement of Hindu militants in some bomb blasts show that the Indian state could be soon fighting a anti-terrorist war on two fronts. Five people were killed in the Malegaon and Modasa blasts that hit the two Muslim-dominated towns within minutes of each other on Sept. 29. In a thoughtful article in the Mail Today [LINK: ], Manoj Joshi wrote that a series of mysterious and unresolved attacks in recent years that, with hindsight, may have been the work of Hindu militants. What is also worrying for India are the links of former army officials in the Malegaon attacks. They have been arrested as part of what police say is a "larger conspiracy." How deep does this Hindu militancy go? The Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) appears to be uneasy with these revelations, with reports the suspected in the blasts are linked to the BJP youth wing. BJP president Rajnath Singh has defended one of the accused in the Malegaon. blasts, breaking a party line that saw the party condemn terrorism and allow the law to take its course. But outspoken comments by Singh are hardly likely to benefit a party that is fighting crucial state elections this year, seen as a dress rehearsal for general elections due by May, 2009. Only a month ago the BJP appeared to be on the offensive, attacking the ruling Congress government over its failure to stop serial blasts around Indian cities that have killed scores of people. Now it appears more on the defensive, uneasy about the possibility Hindus are involved in terrorism. One thing appears certain. As elections approach, the question of how India deals with violence from its Hindu or Muslim militants will come to the forefront. From critical.montages at gmail.com Mon Nov 10 22:56:20 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Tue, 11 Nov 2008 00:56:20 -0500 Subject: [R-G] ARGENTINA: Newspaper Brings to Light Abuses against Poor Farmers Message-ID: ARGENTINA: Newspaper Brings to Light Abuses against Poor Farmers By Marcela Valente BUENOS AIRES, Nov 10 (IPS) - Small farmers in the northern Argentine province of Santiago del Estero are publishing their own newspaper in an attempt to raise awareness about the constant abuses they suffer at the hands of wealthy landowners, who are encroaching on their small plots of land. The 4,000 copies of the first edition of El Ashpulitu, which means "full of earth" in the Quechua indigenous language, were distributed to local communities in the area in October. The paper provides news coverage on questions of local interest such as the struggle against water shortages, and reports abuses like violent evictions from land and arbitrary arrests by the police and private security guards working on behalf of agribusiness and landowners. Santiago del Estero, which is in the heart of the semi-arid Chaco grasslands and subtropical forest region in northern Argentina, has a population of just 800,000 people, 34 percent of whom live in rural areas. The Campesino (peasant) Movement of Santiago del Estero (MOCASE), which groups nearly 9,000 families who are defending their legal right to the land they have worked for at least 20 years, and for several generations in many cases, is producing the paper as part of a Ministry of Social Development community newspaper programme called "Contalo vos" (roughly, You Tell It). The programme provides logistical and material support -- but not funding -- to help community organisations produce their own publications. "Here (in the Santiago del Estero countryside), many people lack electricity, so they have no TV or Internet, and don't have any idea of the impact that what is happening to them can have in other places," MOCASE member Diana Gagliano, the director of El Ashpulitu, told IPS. The main focus of the newspaper, which will come out every two months, is the suffering of local farming communities that have come under threat from the expansion of soybeans. According to official statistics, between 2002 and 2006, more than 500,000 hectares were deforested to make way for genetically modified soybeans, Argentina's main export crop. The advance of monoculture, besides destroying the area's natural biodiversity, is also undermining the very survival of campesinos who have lived and farmed in the region for generations. By law in Argentina, people can claim ownership of a plot of land if they can prove that they have lived on and worked it for at least 20 years. According to the Centre for Legal and Social Studies (CELS), a local human rights group that specialises in legal advocacy, 73 percent of campesino families in Santiago del Estero have worked the land for more than two decades. CELS and other organisations of human rights lawyers provide assistance to and represent the families grouped in MOCASE. The newspaper, which will also be picked up by community radio stations, is aimed at drawing attention to the problems faced by campesino families in Santiago del Estero, both within local communities -- through the print edition -- and around the world -- by means of its on-line edition (http://www.agenciaelnaciente.com.ar/inicio/). The biggest concerns of local campesinos are the violations of their rights by police, private security guards, landowners and even judges. "Anything that helps reveal what is going on here is useful," MOCASE activist Adolfo Farias told IPS from Santiago del Estero, referring to the new publication. "There is a great deal of censorship in the media; the only ones who pay any attention to us are some alternative media outlets," he complained. "For years, but much more so in recent months, our resistance to an agricultural production model that consists of vast monoculture plantations of soybeans has met with repression by 'para-police' groups and arrests ordered with the complicity of the local political and judicial powers-that-be," said Faria. He was referring to off-duty police officers and armed men in civilian dress who burst into the humble dwellings of local campesinos by day or night, hitting people and yelling insults and false accusations, and dragging them off to jail, where sometimes they are held for months. According to MOCASE, the armed men are sent by landowners and agribusiness interests who want to get their hands on the campesino families' land. In September, dozens of small farmers, men as well as women, were hauled off to jail in this kind of illegal operation in the villages of Atamisqui, Pinto, Monte Quemado, Qumil?, Tintitna and Termas de Rio Hondo, while their homes were sacked and damaged, and some of their belongings were stolen, the movement complains. In a conversation with IPS, MOCASE leader ?ngel Strapazz?n said that "a major offensive" carried out over the last few months led to more than 50 arbitrary arrests of local campesinos. But the detainees were released thanks to the pressure brought by the movement, which held protests and filed legal complaints. However, more than 150 members of the movement are facing legal charges and arrest warrants. "The provincial government wants Santiago del Estero to become the new pampas and produce forage for the world," said Strapazz?n, referring to the GM soy grown in the province, much of which ends up in animal feed in industrialised countries. Small, medium and large farmers in Argentina held a series of lengthy nationwide strikes and roadblocks between March and July, blocking the transportation of agricultural products, to demand a reduction in the government's tax on exports of soybeans and other farm products. The conflict caused food shortages and triggered a major political crisis. "After four months of inactivity and strikes, which enjoyed strong support from the mainstream media, many agribusiness interests around here felt a sense of triumph, and September was a really tough month for campesinos, with raids, beatings and the arrests of 50 people," said the activist. MOCASE now hopes that the newspaper will at least help bring to light the abuses they have been suffering. (END/2008) From fentona at shaw.ca Tue Nov 11 00:26:15 2008 From: fentona at shaw.ca (Anthony Fenton) Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2008 23:26:15 -0800 Subject: [R-G] Farley Mowat's Last Book? Maybe Not Message-ID: <5C51836E-B8AD-4396-BFCA-1ACD4584C6B2@shaw.ca> Weekend Edition November 7 / 9, 2008 An Autobiographical Experiment Farley Mowat's Last Book? Maybe Not By PAUL WATSON Farley Mowat has written his last book. Well maybe. At 87, he says that writing is like breathing and Farley is very much still breathing so I'm not so sure that Otherwise will be his last book. He does insist it will be the last book he goes on a promotion tour with. And he continues to write every day, tapping out the words on an old 1910 Underwood. (Where he finds those ribbons is a mystery.) Farley Mowat is considered the greatest living Canadian writer today and his 40 books have made him a legend and a national literary treasure. His book Sea of Slaughter illustrates the 500 years of exploitation that decimated life in the oceans of the North Atlantic. It was such a damning expose that Farley was prohibited from doing a book tour in the United States which led to his writing the book My Discovery of America. "Otherwise" deals with the years of Farley's life between 1937 and 1948. The book, based largely on his meticulously detailed journals is part of an "autobiographical experiment" to retrace those formative years that helped determine the path his life would take. "I've gone back and relived my life through my journals mostly, and what memories are still available to me in my antiquated state, in an attempt to discover who and what I was and why I lived the life I have," Farley says. Much of the book focuses on the period after he returned from World War II in Europe and was attempting to focus on a path for his life. "And this I was helped to achieve by the animals I was encountering," Mowat says. "I went to the Arctic and I was meeting wolves and caribou and all sorts of other animals and they helped me find myself -- re- establish a feeling of worthiness of existence, and that's really what the book is all about." Farley has long referred to the non-human world as the "Others" and he like I, believe that the others are far wiser than we humans. I have known Farley as a friend for over 25 years and it has always been one of the great honours in my life to have a friend who was such an inspiration to me when I was in High School. His book Never Cry Wolf was required reading in Grade Ten. Since then he has written the forward to my book Seal Wars and has served as our International Chair. In response to media reports that this may be Farley's last book, he said "Writing is my function -- it's the only function I've got that really works and has worked for the last 50 years," Mowat says. "I would be a fool to give it up, so I will continue to write, but whether I publish or not, it remains very much in the air. I am not anxious at all to publish any more books." Farley has an enormous sense of humor, a characteristic absolutely essential if you choose to side with the others against arrogance of humanity. A few years ago Media magnate Conrad Black, the Rupert Murdoch of the Great White North attempted to expose Farley as a fraud in the pages of the intellectual literary magazine Saturday Night that Black had purchased and then degraded. The author John Goddard who was more hitman than writer, savaged Farley and called him "Hardly Know-it". His big expose with a cover depicting Farley with a Pinocchio nose was to suggest hat Farley was not telling the truth in the pages of his books. "He makes things up and fabricates and exaggerates his stories," according to the writer. Farley defused the entire scandal by simply pointing out that he was a story teller and a writer of fiction. He uses fiction to convey ideas and when he writes non-fiction it is non-fiction but Goddard made the mistake of suggesting that Farley's fiction books were non-fiction. In the end, Farley was exonerated and acclaimed, Goddard was dismissed as a hired poison pen and Conrad Black, well Mr. Black is serving time in prison for bribery and fraud in the United States. I was very touched when Farley in a CTV interview on the morning of November 3rd said that his proudest achievement has little to do with his books. At the top of the list, he said, is the fact that the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has named their ship -- one which intervenes to protect seals and whales from illegal hunting -- after him. "She single-handedly, with her crew of volunteers, engages the whole of the commercial whaling fleet of the world and has done for 20 years," Mowat says. "She engages those who are trying to exploit the seal populations and she fights for the survival of life in the seas, and to have my name on the bow and stern is one of, if not the greatest, compliment ever paid to me." The honour is of course ours. To have Farley's name on the bow of our ship is something all of us in Sea Shepherd are very proud of. Captain Paul Watson is director of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. From fentona at shaw.ca Tue Nov 11 00:27:36 2008 From: fentona at shaw.ca (Anthony Fenton) Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2008 23:27:36 -0800 Subject: [R-G] Will Obama Presidency Ease Barriers to Politically Outspoken Black Athletes? Message-ID: November 10, 2008 Will Obama Presidency Ease Barriers to Politically Outspoken Black Athletes? http://www.democracynow.org/2008/11/10/will_obama_presidency_ease_barriers_to Professional athletes, especially African American athletes, have long been rebuked for speaking out on political issues. Could the Obama presidency herald a change? We speak to sportswriter David Zirin, author of A People?s History of Sports in the United States. [includes rush transcript] Guest: Dave Zirin, author of a number of books about politics and sports. His latest is A People?s History of Sports in the United States. He is a regular contributor to The Nation magazine and writes a weekly column called ?Edge of Sports.? ... JUAN GONZALEZ: The historic 2008 presidential election has seen the world of politics enter the world of sports to an extent not seen in this country in a generation. More athletes are using their national platform to speak out than they have in recent memory. But, as so often happens in sports, athletes are reprimanded for trying to make their voices heard. Take what happened last week during a nationally televised football game on Thursday night, two days after Election Night. Near the end of the game, Denver Broncos wide receiver Brandon Marshall caught the winning touchdown pass against the Cleveland Browns. Marshall?s plan was to then take out a black-and-white glove and hold it up to the sky as a symbol of unity. But his teammates stopped him on the field for fear of risking a penalty that could have cost them the game. Marshall was asked about it afterwards in a post-game wrap up. INTERVIEWER: Alright, Brandon, I?ve got to ask you. At the end of the ballgame, I saw you fooling with your gloves or something. You was about to go do something. What did you have in mind? BRANDON MARSHALL: Well, I mean, this was a historical year for America. And, you know, when we look at the forty-fourth president, Barack Obama, he inspired me, and not just me and my teammates, but the nation. And back in the ?68 Olympics, you know, a couple of our track stars sat on a podium, and they threw up their Black Panther sign just for black power and liberation. But in my own way, I wanted to pay respect to our nation and the progress we made, so I got a white glove painted black half and half. And it?s not about black power, and it?s not about white or black; it?s about USA, red, white and blue. And that?s what I was going to do, but Stokley came and said, ?It?s too close of a ballgame. You might get flagged. So put it back in.? INTERVIEWER: Where is it? Where is it? BRANDON MARSHALL: I got rid of it. Old Vet told me to get rid of it. INTERVIEWER: You got that right. AMY GOODMAN: Denver Broncos? Brandon Marshall. He was later criticized by pundits on ESPN and in the sports blogosphere for the planned gesture. But sportswriter Dave Zirin thinks otherwise. He writes: ?Instead of derision, Marshall merited our respect?sports fan or not? which should actually be exponentially higher since he was willing to take this risk when the game was on the line. The image of a pro football player raising a black-and-white hand to the skies forty years after Smith and Carlos and two days after the election of a black president in a country built on slavery could have echoed through the ages.? Well, Dave Zirin joins us now from Washington, D.C., author of many books on politics and sports?his latest, A People?s History of Sports in the United States?a regular contributor to The Nation, and writes a weekly column called ?Edge of Sports.? Welcome, Dave Zirin. Your thoughts, again, on Brandon Marshall? DAVE ZIRIN: Well, it?s interesting, because you hear the kind of camaraderie and laughter when he was describing what he did, but the sports media really came down on him like a ton of bricks. And I just want to repeat my respect for him for what he did, because, first of all, he was doing it for a team, the Denver Broncos, which actually has a formal policy against bringing politics into the locker room, so a very straitlaced, anti-political, frankly, anti- progressive, atmosphere that tries to stifle free speech among athletes. And the second thing, I mean, the game was on the line, so you talk about trying to do a political gesture where it actually means something. I mean, I think that could have been something that would have been an educational moment for sports fans. And lastly, the NFL does not have guaranteed contracts. So you talk about risking something, I mean, he was risking everything. And I think it would have been a great moment. JUAN GONZALEZ: And, Dave, how difficult has it become for professional athletes these days? I think back to the days when Bill Walton was an antiwar opponent with the Portland Trailblazers. How difficult these days is it for athletes to speak their mind? DAVE ZIRIN: Well, it?s always been difficult, particularly over these last twenty years, when sports has morphed into this trillion-dollar corporate business. But I?ll tell you something. Since Hurricane Katrina in 2005, there has been a real buzz, where athletes are starting to be more political and speak out. And I?ve never seen anything like it with this election season. I mean, that wall between sports and politics hasn?t just been breached, it?s been obliterated. I mean, and I?m not just talking about Barack Obama shooting three- point shots in front of the troops or Sarah Palin dropping the puck at a hockey game and getting booed off the ice, although that was very funny. I?m talking about other things, like people like LeBron James, the basketball star, wearing Obama shirts and holding fundraisers; NBA players Baron Davis and Chauncey Billups holding fundraisers, as well; Carmelo Anthony saying he was going to score forty-four points in a game on Wednesday in tribute to the forty-fourth president; Kevin Garnett writing ?vote for change? on his sneakers going out on the court. I mean, we really are in some uncharted territory, or at least territory we haven?t seen for decades. AMY GOODMAN: Dave Zirin, when I opened Juan?s paper yesterday, the New York Daily News, I was surprised to see a column by you, and the headline was this question: ?Did Tiger Woods Pave Barack Obama?s Path? Are You Joking?? DAVE ZIRIN: ?Are you joking?? Let me tell you something. The sports world will always try to break its arm patting itself on its back when it comes to progress and trying to say that it reflects the sports world?s progress on issues. A column was written in the Orlando Sentinel by Mike Bianchi that made a very simple argument. It said that because so many millions of white Americans have been cheering for years for people like Tiger Woods and Michael Jordan, that really paved the way for Obama?s victory. And I thought that was rather ridiculous, and let me say why. First of all, I mean, whites have been cheering for African American athletic achievement, you know, since the times of slavery. I mean, this was something that happened on plantations, and that didn?t necessarily lead to political progress. Second of all, there?s a big difference between cheering for somebody?s athletic achievement and accepting their political leadership. I mean, it?s night and day, apples and oranges, Sarah Palin and Amy Goodman. These are very different worlds. And then, lastly, the fact that Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods and Tony Dungy were held up?Tony Dungy, who?s a very successful African American football coach?was very bizarre to me. I mean, first of all, Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods are two of the most aggressively apolitical athletes that have existed on the sports scene in some time. They?re the exemplars of the apolitical athlete. And Tony Dungy, while being a man of great respect who?s held in high regard, is also somebody with close ties to Focus on the Family and the anti-gay marriage movement. So you think about why people waited on line for so many hours to vote for Barack Obama, I think it was to move away from a lot of the politics that people like Woods, Jordan and Dungy actually represent. AMY GOODMAN: Do you see a connection between the corporatization of sports and the silencing of dissent, Dave Zirin? I also said we were going to have Etan Thomas on, NBA star, plays for the Washington Wizards, but we can?t seem to get him on the line, so we?ll have him on another day. But Dave? DAVE ZIRIN: Well, I?ll tell you, I do think that there is a very strong connection. I write for Slam magazine, which is a basketball magazine, and I speak to a lot of NBA players. And what?s interesting is that there are two names that all NBA players seem to know, and those names are Craig Hodges and Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf. And what those two players have in common is that they both took political stands in the 1990s, and they were both drummed out of the league. And they know those names, because their agents, their managers, they say to them, ?Look, you are risking the attendant privileges that come with being a professional athlete if you speak out.? And that?s why, to me, one of the great quotes of this election season was when Baron Davis, the point guard for the LA Clippers, he was doing organizing in the presidential race, and he was told by his manager, ?Look, if you do this, you?re going to risk your endorsement deals.? And Baron Davis?s response was, ?Like a give a bleep.? And he didn?t say ?bleep.? I mean, I?m just making the point that that?s the only way this is going to change, is that if athletes refuse to be brands, refuse to be empty vessels for product placement and start to say, ?You know what? I?m not just a robot with legs. I have a mind, as well as a body. I have this hyper-exalted brought-to-you-by-Nike platform. I?m actually going to do something with it.? JUAN GONZALEZ: And, Dave, of course, all of these athletes were acting within the realm of a political election, not necessarily a social cause, although obviously many see the election of Barack Obama as part of a social movement. How hard is it for them, when it comes to social causes, to be able to speak out? DAVE ZIRIN: Well, that?s what?s going to be very interesting about this. I mean, passion, particularly political passion, abhors a vacuum. And you?ve had so many athletes, as well as so many sports fans, for that matter, devote passion into this election season. It?s going to be very interesting to see where that passion goes moving forward. I mean, people get politicized around all kinds of issues. And in this case, it was a movement to elect the first African American president. Is that just going to die right now, or is it going to move forward? I mean, that is really, to me, an unanswered question. And whether people stay on the frontlines and don?t just say, ?Yeah, we elected Obama,? but we actually want results on bringing the troops home from Iraq, on having real aid for working families, and if Obama drags his feet on these issues, if people actually stand up and say, ?Wait a minute. You made promises. You promised us hope and change. We?re going to stand for that,? and if that really gets into the world of sports and athletes, that could be a fascinating development. AMY GOODMAN: Dave Zirin, we?re going to leave it there. Thanks so much. Among his books, his latest, A People?s History of Sports in the United States. From critical.montages at gmail.com Tue Nov 11 10:41:29 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Tue, 11 Nov 2008 12:41:29 -0500 Subject: [R-G] M K Bhadrakumar on India's Alliance with the USA/Israel Message-ID: India seeks 'velvet divorce' from Iran By M K Bhadrakumar Amid the rubble of the Middle East policy of the George W Bush-Ehud Olmert duo, there has been a true success story. The United States and Israel have largely succeeded in snatching India from the "other" side of the Middle Eastern geopolitical divide. This became evident more than once in the past week. On October 26, US forces based in Iraq attacked the Syrian border village of Sukkaryiah. The attack triggered outrage regionally. Even the Arab League, which has an ambivalent attitude toward Damascus, felt compelled to condemn Washington. But Delhi looked away. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who paid a five-day visit to India in June - the first visit by a Syrian head of state in more than three decades - must be bemused why Delhi didn't say at least what was so patently obvious, namely, it is wrong to violate the territorial integrity of a sovereign country. Only in June had an Indian spokesman claimed that Assad's visit "further consolidated the excellent relations that exist between India and Syria and identified new areas of bilateral cooperation". This dichotomy in India's diplomacy with regard to the Muslim Middle East - excellent photo opportunities not quite translating as official policy and ultimately degenerating as publicity exercises in the competitive environment of Indian politics - was again on display during the weekend visit to Tehran by Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, from October 31 to November 2. Kashmir issue in focus Mukherjee's visit was badly timed. Only a few weeks had passed since Delhi hosted two visits by the Israeli and US army chiefs, Avi Mizrahi and George Casey, to the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir in a clear policy departure from past practice. The visits marked a quantum leap in US-Israel-India security cooperation. It provoked some sharp comments in the official Iranian media - about Delhi opening the door to Israeli and US involvement in the "Kashmir problem" against the backdrop of the Islamic militancy in the adjoining Pakistani tribal areas and in Afghanistan. Just four days before Mukherjee arrived in Tehran, the Tehran Times newspaper, which is credited with reflecting Iranian thinking, featured an article roundly condemning the Indian stance on the Kashmir issue. Titled "The Black Day of Kashmir - 61 years of pain", the article was ostensibly meant to coincide with the anniversary of the Indian military intervention in Kashmir on October 27, 1947, which it called "one of the darkest chapters in the history of South Asia". The article amounted to an unvarnished endorsement of the Pakistani point of view. It said, "India continues to defy the world by denying Kashmiris their inalienable right to determine their destiny ... The atmosphere of tension in India-Pakistan relations has engendered instability and insecurity in South Asia. The urgency of the situation and the need to resolve the dispute as soon as possible cannot be over-emphasized ... The world's Muslims will always stand by the Kashmiris until they succeed in their struggle to attain the right to self-determination." The lengthy article recalled Iran's "deep-rooted spiritual and cultural bonds with the people of Kashmir" and went on to fondly underscore that in Tehran, Kashmir is known as "Little Iran" - Kashmir-Iran-e-saghir. Such rhetoric on the eve of a foreign minister-level visit from India hardly served the purpose of a "curtain-raiser", except to warn Delhi in advance that it cannot be business as usual in Iran-India relations and that the chill in bilateral ties and the dissipation of mutual understanding must not be lightly taken as a mere hiccup. Simply put, if Delhi's intention was to project a semblance of normalcy in India's relations with Iran and to create a favorable impact thereby on Muslim opinion in India, Tehran decided it would not play ball. Washington and Tel Aviv must be quietly chuckling. Up until some three years ago, there was a constant refrain in India-Iran political exchanges - that their relationship constituted a factor of peace and stability in the region. But the mantra was completely lacking in the pronouncements of the two sides during Mukherjee's visit. The two countries are drifting apart. Indian naval deployment Mukherjee candidly admitted that "in this changing context, we need to look at India-Iran relations afresh". Indeed, that "context" is dramatically changing. A fortnight before the visit, Delhi deployed for the first time ever a warship in the Persian Gulf region, which will operate in close coordination with the Western navies under the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in the region. Mukherjee assertively said in Tehran, "India has a natural and abiding stake in the safety and security of the sea lanes of communication from the Malacca Strait to the Persian Gulf." But Delhi didn't consult Tehran beforehand. Delhi instead approached Oman for assistance in berthing facilities for its warship. Tehran, meanwhile, views the Western naval deployments in the Persian Gulf with alarm. Last week, Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mohammadi criticized the expansion of NATO to the east and called on regional governments to "distance themselves from competitive and hostile policies". Tehran would have most certainly noted Delhi's decision to host a large-scale naval exercise with the US along India's western coast in late October in which the nuclear-powered American aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan and US nuclear submarines and frigates participated. Iran has since announced the opening of a new naval base in the southern port of Jask in the eastern part of the Strait of Hormuz. According to the chief of the Iranian navy, Admiral Habibollah Sayari, "With this new naval base, a new line of defense was created in the Persian Gulf. If necessary, we can prevent any enemy from entering the Persian Gulf's strategic area." Sayari announced that Iran proposed to build yet another naval base to establish "an impenetrable line of defense at the entrance to the Sea of Oman". He added, "If the enemy goes insane, we will drown them at the bottom of the Indian Ocean and the Sea of Oman before they reach the Strait of Hormuz and the entrance to the Persian Gulf." Curiously, the Iranian announcement coincided with the consultations of Indian National Security Advisor M K Narayanan in Oman regrading an Indian proposal that the sultanate provide berthing facilities for the Indian warship deployed in the region. Though Mukherjee's visit to Tehran ended on Sunday, it has not yet been revealed whether President Mahmud Ahmadinejad received him. A call on the Iranian president - and, perhaps Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei - was customary for visiting Indian foreign ministers in the halcyon days of the India-Iran strategic partnership. In another sign of the change in the Iranian mood, Tehran "downgraded" the Joint Economic Commission with India. Mottaki is no longer its co-chairman, as is the practice with Iran's other major interlocutors and partner countries. Thus, a series of icebergs has been lately slicing through the hull of the Titanic that used to be the grand old India-Iran "strategic partnership". A disaster was waiting to happen ever since India voted against Iran at the International Atomic Energy Agency three years ago following US President George W Bush's entreaties with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Pipedream of energy cooperation At the root of it lies unprecedented US-Israeli interference in India's Iran policy. Such interference is nothing new since the early 1990s, when Delhi established diplomatic relations with Israel. Delhi skillfully navigated the relationship with Iran, despite the robust growth of ties with Israel on a parallel track. However, things began changing three to four years ago as Indian foreign policy in the region began getting more "security-centric" and Israel was elevated as a pivotal relationship. Today, in the Iranian perception, Delhi's avowal that it is capable of buttressing the India-Iran relationship from the predatorial skill of US and Israeli diplomacy lacks credibility. Tehran used to respect India's perceived political will to retain its autonomy of action and thinking on regional issues. That confidence seems to have evaporated. Mottaki forcefully pleaded with Mukherjee that the two countries should focus on a relationship that served their "real interests" rather than fall into the "conspiracies of foreign powers" which hatch "mischief aimed at sowing discord" in Iran-India relations. The litmus test is the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline project. It is obvious that Delhi is dragging its feet on the project, despite its great potential to boost India's energy security - all because of US and Israeli pressure. Tehran finds itself in a dilemma. No doubt it is keen to partner with India in the project, but Tehran realizes that political will is lacking in Delhi. At the same time, Tehran cannot cut out India altogether as it estimates it is only logical that some day soon, under a different leadership in Delhi, India will revert to this project in its compelling self-interest. The Iranian frustration showed when Oil Minister Gholamhossein Nozari told the media soon after Mukherjee concluded his visit, "Considering that we have lost many opportunities in the 'peace pipeline' project due to India's procrastination, we have told that country to engage more actively." The US$7.5 billion, 2,700-kilometer pipeline has been in discussion for almost two decades. The pipeline is to begin from Iran's Assalouyeh energy zone in the south and stretch over 1,100 kilometers through Iran. In Pakistan it is to pass through Balochistan and Sindh before linking up Rajasthan and Gujarat in western India. Strategy toward Afghanistan Again, the geopolitics of the region dictate that Delhi and Tehran explore the frontiers of a common strategy towards Afghanistan at a time when the Taliban's resurgence is apparent and its induction by the US into a coalition government in Kabul in the not-too-distant future appears highly probable. Mukherjee could have conceivably utilized the visit for such purpose. The Iranian side indeed appeared keen for purposeful dialogue on Afghanistan. But Delhi isn't willing. The priority in the Indian mindset is to harmonize its regional policies with the US (and Israel) as regards the "war on terror". That includes Delhi's Afghan policy. The powerful chairman of Iran's Expediency Council and former president, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, told Mukherjee, "Resolving the current crisis in Afghanistan requires extensive cooperation between Iran, India and Pakistan. This cooperation can bring tranquility to the region ... The experience of the Soviet Union in this country [Afghanistan] shows that the path the West is now treading in Afghanistan will not yield the desired results. The signs that are currently observed in Afghanistan show that the West is not capable of resolving the problems of this country." Mukherjee responded, "No country outside the region can find a solution to the problems of regional countries and the regional states themselves should resolve the problems through cooperation with each other." He added that India, Iran and Pakistan could play "important roles in regional events" and their cooperation would "help establish peace and stability" in the region. The Indian timidity is despite the fact that India and Iran were staunch allies supporting the anti-Taliban alliance until the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. Delhi would be aware that Tehran has sharply reacted to the current US, British, Saudi and Pakistani efforts to accommodate the Taliban. Actually, the Indian and Iranian positions have striking similarity insofar as neither thinks there is anything conceivable as "good Taliban". Yet, Delhi shies from coordinating with Tehran lest it tread on US-Israeli sensitivities. The Obama factor So far so good. But what happens if a Barack Obama presidency moves toward normalization of relations with Iran? Indeed, Russia and China seem to be getting ready for such an eventuality. Iran's admission into the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) as a full member has now become a certainty, with both the Russian and Chinese prime ministers affirming their support of the Iranian candidacy. Iran has been offered membership of the Black Sea Union. Russia is forming a gas cartel with Iran. (The SCO comprises China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.) Above all, Delhi will face a new situation if Obama revisits the "war on terror". As well-known Lebanese commentator Rami Khouri thoughtfully wrote, "US-backed governments in half a dozen countries are losing their battles and political confrontations with Islamist-led indigenous oppositions, and have to form national unity governments or explore other means of power ... The American-Afghan tentative move to engage the Taliban politically is ... a welcome sign that Washington is finally learning the value of seeing and resolving conflicts in their wider local and regional context. We may well see something similar happen in Iraq, including American-Iranian-Saudi-Syrian contacts in the near future." During his visit to Tehran, Mukherjee characterized the Persian Gulf as India's "proximate neighborhood", but there is no evidence Delhi has thought through its Middle East policy against the backdrop of impending shifts and realignments in the geopolitics of the region. Creative diplomacy lies in keeping all options open at a time of extreme volatility in regional politics. On the other hand, it is a measure of the success of the US-Israeli diplomacy in recent years that Delhi increasingly finds itself at odds with Tehran's growing ambitions as a regional power, whereas sufficient elbow room is available for them to co-exist. There is no real clash of interests between India and Iran. So, ultimately, who is to blame - Washington, Tel Aviv or New Delhi? As far as Tehran is concerned, it is countering the US's containment strategy and India's political support is no more an imperative need in the denouement of the Iran nuclear file. Moreover, as Iran's engagement by the West advances, Tehran will have no dearth of partners for energy cooperation. Least of all, the Gulf Cooperation Council states themselves are seeking accommodation with Iran and, arguably, they won't need India as a "balancer". The net result is that any weakening of India's strong ties with Iran at the present juncture can only debilitate Delhi's overall foreign policy in the Persian Gulf region in the critical period that lies ahead. Delhi may ruffle feathers not only in Tehran but in regional capitals too - apart from Islamabad - if it presses ahead with the claim to be the pre-eminent power between the Persian Gulf and the Malacca Strait. The Persian Gulf is a tough neighborhood and any grandstanding will not pass unnoticed. With only a fortnight to go for Manmohan to pay his first-ever visit to Saudi Arabia, Riyadh abruptly sought a postponement. If there is any political symbolism behind the Saudi move, it will surely emerge. Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar was a career diplomat in the Indian Foreign Service. His assignments included the Soviet Union, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Germany, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Kuwait and Turkey. From shniad at sfu.ca Tue Nov 11 14:20:28 2008 From: shniad at sfu.ca (Sid Shniad) Date: Tue, 11 Nov 2008 13:20:28 -0800 Subject: [R-G] A song to Remembrance Day Message-ID: <200811112120.mABLKSol022209@rm-rstar.sfu.ca> An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: not available Url: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/rad-green/attachments/20081111/b0f99f4a/attachment.txt From shniad at sfu.ca Tue Nov 11 14:41:26 2008 From: shniad at sfu.ca (Sid Shniad) Date: Tue, 11 Nov 2008 13:41:26 -0800 Subject: [R-G] Obama's Bailout Bunch Brings Us More of the Same - Bloomberg Message-ID: <200811112141.mABLfQmk017947@rm-rstar.sfu.ca> An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: not available Url: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/rad-green/attachments/20081111/c8bb922c/attachment.txt From shniad at sfu.ca Tue Nov 11 14:49:44 2008 From: shniad at sfu.ca (Sid Shniad) Date: Tue, 11 Nov 2008 13:49:44 -0800 Subject: ACLU Calls On Obama To Close Guantánamo On Day One Of Presidency Message-ID: <200811112149.mABLniG7028680@rm-rstar.sfu.ca> An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: not available Url: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/rad-green/attachments/20081111/77c6a765/attachment.txt From shniad at sfu.ca Tue Nov 11 14:56:38 2008 From: shniad at sfu.ca (Sid Shniad) Date: Tue, 11 Nov 2008 13:56:38 -0800 Subject: [R-G] Palestine: A Bone in America's Throat -- Jeff Halper Message-ID: <200811112156.mABLuct1007551@rm-rstar.sfu.ca> An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: not available Url: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/rad-green/attachments/20081111/fb7c65b1/attachment.txt From shniad at sfu.ca Tue Nov 11 15:03:29 2008 From: shniad at sfu.ca (Sid Shniad) Date: Tue, 11 Nov 2008 14:03:29 -0800 Subject: [R-G] Surviving A Coming USD Collapse Message-ID: <200811112203.mABM3T4O016088@rm-rstar.sfu.ca> An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: not available Url: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/rad-green/attachments/20081111/eb8bc98a/attachment.txt From shniad at sfu.ca Tue Nov 11 15:29:15 2008 From: shniad at sfu.ca (Sid Shniad) Date: Tue, 11 Nov 2008 14:29:15 -0800 Subject: [R-G] Terrorizing Dissent (video online) Message-ID: <200811112229.mABMTFkJ022121@rm-rstar.sfu.ca> An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: not available Url: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/rad-green/attachments/20081111/b97ef793/attachment.txt From shimogamo at attglobal.net Tue Nov 11 18:13:41 2008 From: shimogamo at attglobal.net (Bill Totten) Date: Wed, 12 Nov 2008 10:13:41 +0900 Subject: [R-G] [BillTottenWeblog] Presto Change-o Message-ID: <491A2DC5.70308@attglobal.net> Clusterfuck Nation by Jim Kunstler Comment on current events by the author of The Long Emergency (Atlantic Monthly Press, 2005) www.kunstler.com (November 10 2008) As the election campaign ground on like a 3000-mile race between a greyhound and an armadillo, the media kept harping on Barack Obama's vague promises of "change". We now know what the main promise was: regime change, right here in the USA, not in some place where the natives wear strange headgear. Mr Obama's victory was a moment of epochal exhilaration, not least because he appears to be a decent and intelligent person self-made from a humble background - someone who has personally bought tube socks in the K-mart, worried about money, and made many trips in a subway car. The current occupant of the White House, however, has sedulously prepared for his successor the biggest shit sandwich the world has ever seen, and there is naturally some concern that Mr Obama might choke on it. The dilemma is essentially this: the consumer economy we all knew and loved has died. There will be pressure from nearly every quarter to keep it hooked up to the costly life support machines even though it is dead. A different economy is waiting to be born, but it is nothing like the one that has died. The economy-to-come is one of rigor and austerity. It is not the kind of thing that a nation of overfed clowns is used to. Do we even have a prayer of getting to it, or are we going to squander our dwindling resources on life support for something that is already dead? A case in point: the car industry. The Big Three, all functionally bankrupt, are now lined up for bail-outs from the treasury's bottomless checking account. Personally, I believe the age of Happy Motoring is over. Many Americans have already bought their last car - they just don't it yet. The current low-ish price of oil is a total fake-out, having to do much more with asset-dumping in the paper markets than the true resource supply-demand equation. Most of the world (the media for sure) has ignored preliminary leaks from the International Energy Agency's (IEA) forthcoming report which forecasts global oil depletion to be 9.1 percent in 2009. This is a staggering figure, very likely to offset whatever slack we see in global demand from the worldwide economic crisis. In fact, the global oil markets are poised for the most severe dislocations ever seen, meaning it's a toss-up what happens first in the USA: a major leg back up in oil prices, or shortages, hoarding, and rationing. For my money (literally) there are only two main reasons that any portion of the car industry should be rescued at the present time: one, because we need somebody to manufacture engines for military vehicles, and two, because we need somebody to manufacture rolling stock for the revival in passenger railroad service that will have to be a centerpiece of the future economy if we want to remain a civilized nation. Even the progressive factions of the public may be in for much more "change" than they bargained for. The global economy as we knew it is finished (despite British PM Gordon Brown's fatuous suggestion that we are ready to formalize it). The world is about to lose its "flatness" (sorry Tom Friedman) and get much rounder. For one thing, the racket of American "consumers" gobbling up the output of Asian factories in exchange for paper promises is over. For the moment, the Chinese are struggling with epic factory closures with the sudden prospect of a restive lumpenproletariet. The situation there is bound to get worse. Before long, these broke-and-hungry masses may actually challenge the present government. In the meantime, there's no telling what the (unelected) Chinese government might do either to keep itself in power, or genuinely defend its country's perceived economic interests. One thing is self-evident: we are not returning to the old racket of toys-for-treasury-bills. One thing China might do in economic self-defense is shed whatever US dollar-denominated paper is moldering in their vaults before it becomes valueless altogether. As global trade relations wither, and they will, the US will be thrust back on its own devices, at the same time that oil resources grow punishingly scarce. Mr Obama will have to contend with the necessary radical reform of all the activities necessary for daily life here. Near the top of the list - invisible to most of the public so far - will be the question of how we produce the food we need. Industrial farming is done, just as suburbia is toast. Mr Obama will have to apply plenty of ass-time to the first stages of negotiating this bottleneck. I don't even know what he can do policy-wise, though he can certainly make it plain to the public that we have to grow more of our food close to home and do it with fewer engines and fewer oil-based soil supplements. It is a problem of such surpassing difficulty that it was not even close to being in the election arena. The transition will probably occur by means of "emergence". Self-evident necessity will prompt different behavior and different ways of doing things. Sooner or later, the new arrangements will self-organize - if we don't squander resources defending an unsustainable status quo. One thing we can certainly predict is that growing our food will require more human labor and attention - meaning there will be plenty of work for people currently losing their jobs at The Footlocker and Arby's, but it's far from certain whether they will be happy in their new vocations. We're going to have to resume making things in the USA again, too, probably at a more modest scale, and probably fewer things than we are used to. We have no idea yet how this is going to happen. Like agriculture, manufacturing culture may have to return, if at all, emergently, as individuals and communities see opportunity in advantages like proximity to water-power and water transport. My guess is that corporate enterprise as we have known it - at the continental and global scale - is done for. I would not bet on any of the Fortune 500 carrying on the manufacturing work of the future using the plants-and-equipment that are familiar to them. The manufacturing of the future may be more like cottage industry than Proctor and Gamble. Yet, obviously, there will be tremendous efforts to prop up failing corporate enterprise and prevent natural bankruptcies from occurring. Similarly, the retail part of the economy. Many observers think that Wal-Mart and its clones are immune to the larger forces swirling around us. Just because many cash-strapped people are hunting for bargains at WalMart these days does not insure the survival of the Big Box model very far into the future. In fact, in every trend we can see - from the oil markets to events in China to the impoverishment of the US working class to the coming crisis in truck transport - you can easily discern fatal weaknesses in this model. Local retail (and its support structures) is coming back. We just don't know how, yet, and we don't know how much capital and effort will be squandered trying to rescue WalMart, when the time comes. But the imperative re-scaling of commerce in America also represents huge opportunities for young people to get into their own businesses. Mr Obama will preside over the potential restructuring of all our systems, some of them in ways he and his supporters have not imagined. We haven't begun to see where fate will take higher education, but my guess is that it will no longer be a "consumer" activity, and that the hypertrophied land-grant diploma mills will have to to shrink or die as state financial support withers away, and all sorts of unnecessary professions from "public relations" to "marketing" cease to require certified graduates. The luxurious central high schools, utterly addicted to their yellow school bus fleets, will be left as a problem for the states and municipalities. I don't believe they can be rescued, and they are already failing in many other ways, not least, educating and properly socializing young humans. In the months just ahead, Mr Obama will certainly be swamped with straight-ahead cash problems in every area of American life, from the foundering pension funds to the bankrupt state treasuries to the beggaring corporations to the starkly dispossessed and hungry masses of the jobless and re-poed. I wasn't kidding when I came up with the label, "the long emergency", to describe the storm that we are heading into, along with Mr Obama. Of course, the current president - and Mr Obama has been shrewd to point out there is only one president in office at a time - has more than two months to wreak additional havoc in the financial system. Right now, he's asking Mr O, "... do you want fries with that sandwich I made for you?" _____ My new novel of the post-oil future, World Made By Hand, is available at all booksellers. http://jameshowardkunstler.typepad.com/clusterfuck_nation/2008/11/presto-change-o.html TO POST A COMMENT, OR TO READ COMMENTS POSTED BY OTHERS, please click on the word "comment" highlighted at the end of the version of this essay posted at http://billtotten.blogspot.com/ From critical.montages at gmail.com Tue Nov 11 19:57:04 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Tue, 11 Nov 2008 21:57:04 -0500 Subject: [R-G] Patrick Cockburn: The US can quit Iraq, or it can stay. But it can't do both Message-ID: Patrick Cockburn: The US can quit Iraq, or it can stay. But it can't do both Iraqis have a clear idea who they believe funds their secret police Tuesday, 11 November 2008 If it ever comes to court it should be one of the more interesting libel cases of the decade. The Iraqi National Intelligence Service is threatening to sue Ahmed Chalabi, the Iraqi politician, for asking who pays for it. "It is somewhat curious," says Mr Chalabi, "that the intelligence service of a country which is sovereign ? that no one really knows who is funding it." In fact there are very few Iraqis who do not believe they have a very clear idea of who funds Iraq's secret police. Its director is General Mohammed Abdullah Shahwani, who once led a failed coup against Saddam Hussein, and was handpicked by the CIA to run the new security organisation soon after the invasion of 2003. He is believed to have been answering to them ever since. The history of the Iraqi intelligence service is important because it shows the real distribution of power in Iraq rather than the spurious picture presented by President Bush. It explains why so many Iraqis are suspicious of the security accord, or Status of Forces Agreement, that the White House has been pushing the Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Malki to sign. It reveals the real political landscape where President-elect Barack Obama will soon have to find his bearings. For all Mr Bush's pious declarations about respecting Iraqi sovereignty, General Shahwani is reported to work primarily for American intelligence. The intelligence service is "not working for the Iraqi government ? it's working for the CIA," Hadi al-Ameri, a powerful Shia lawmaker, was quoted as saying three years ago. "I prefer to call it the American Intelligence of Iraq, not the Iraqi Intelligence Service." It seems that not much has changed since then. The intelligence service does now appear in the Iraqi budget as being in receipt of $150 million, though this seems somewhat measly given the extent of its operations, which includes running paramilitary units. One of its main missions is to spy on Iranians on behalf of the US, employing much the same cadre of intelligence officers who carried out this task for Saddam Hussein. Fear of covert US control is one of the reasons why the Iraqi government has been so intent on insisting that all US forces be out of Iraq by the end of 2011. The latest draft of the security accord has dropped mention of US troops staying behind for training, or making the US withdrawal conditional on improved security in Iraq being maintained. The American position in Iraq has always been undermined by the fear that, whatever they claimed to be doing in Iraq, their long-term objective was to rule the country. The overthrow of Saddam Hussein, one of the world's more disastrous leaders, was generally popular in Iraq. But the occupation was disliked by the majority of Iraqis from the beginning. The result of this is that over the last five and a half years America has always been politically weak in Iraq. Put simply, it has very few friends among Iraqis outside Kurdistan. The Shia and Sunni communities have, for their own ends, made tactical alliances with the occupier, but never wanted a permanent presence. Once Iraqis and their neighbours no longer fear that the US intends to rule Iraq directly or indirectly through local nominees then America's position becomes much stronger. This should be good news for Barack Obama. He wants US combat troops out in 16 months. The Iraqi government largely agrees. But if the presidential election proved anything it was that neither candidate knew much about what was happening Iraq. John McCain claimed absurdly that the US was on the verge of victory, and during his visits to the Green Zone his staffers annoyed US embassy officials by requesting them not to wear helmets and body armour when standing next the candidate. McCain's people feared this might undermine in the eyes of American television viewers their candidate's claim that US prospects in Iraq were rosier than had been reported. The key to the US conducting an orderly retreat from Iraq is that this retreat should be real and the US should not try to control essential Iraqi state institutions like the intelligence service. It is also crucial that Obama seriously negotiate with the Iranians. So long as the Iranian leadership thinks that Iraq might be the launching pad for an attack on Iran it will never be in Iranian interests for Iraq to be stabilised. The same is true of Syria. A problem for Obama is that McCain's quite false claim that America's position in Iraq has become stronger has been largely accepted by the US media so any compromise with Iran can be portrayed as a sell-out. From critical.montages at gmail.com Tue Nov 11 20:02:51 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Tue, 11 Nov 2008 22:02:51 -0500 Subject: [R-G] New Bent on the Cuban Revolution Message-ID: November 6th, 2008 Cultural Crossroads: Babak Salari - Web exclusive! New bent on the Cuban revolution Stefan Christoff Montreal is a vibrant international center for artistic expression and culture production. Cultural Crossroads is a new interview series on hour.ca that features in depth conversations with Montreal's leading artists and cultural actors, all who of whom are inspiring new and innovative forms of artistic expression and thinking here and around the world. Cultural Crossroads interviews Iranian-born Montrealer Babak Salari on his new book of photography about Cuba's queer artistic scenes Representations of Cuban culture internationally are often turned into symbols or clich?s of a post-revolutionary society. Images of Cuba's revolutionary era adorn t-shirts, websites and apartment walls around the world. But seldom are the contemporary voices from the social and cultural edges of Cuba featured. Montreal photographer Babak Salari has recently published a book on queer culture in Cuba, which directly explores the new modes of social dissent within Cuban society as expressed by queer artists and intellectuals, communities historically marginalized in Cuba. Salari's book Faces, Bodies, Personas: Tracing Cuban Stories not only offers striking photography, but is also documents the complexities of queer identity in Cuba within Cuban elite cultural milieus and at a popular level. As the fiftieth anniversary of Cuba's revolution approaches, Babak Salari's book is an extremely important document on Cuban society today, recorded by a world class photographer who has documented the lives of the oppressed in multiple corners of the world - the Middle, East Asia and Latin America. Here Hour journalist Stefan Christoff speaks with Salari concerning his most recently published work for our monthly online in-depth interview series, Cultural Crossroads. Hour: In the opening commentary for the book, your portraits are presented as a documentation of life on the edges of Cuban society - a revolutionary society - can you expand on this point? Babak Salari: A focal point for my photography is those who are marginalized: those impacted by war, those forced into exile and also minorities in any society living without full rights. The project in Cuba was based on exploring the margins of society. It began in 2001, focusing on the most marginalized queers in Cuba - people who never have a chance to talk. The second part in the book is focused on queer artists who are expressing themselves in Cuba. For many years queer artists represented a taboo culture in Cuba, as queers generally couldn't express themselves openly but queer artists were celebrated - a major social contradiction. Bringing together these two realities was a goal for the book, a project highlighting both the queer community of Cuba generally, but also specifically highlighting queer Cuban artists and intellectuals. A key goal for the entire project and those Cuban artists collaborating on the project, including poet Jorge Espinosa Mendoza and writer Roberto Zurbano Torres, was to bring these two realities, these two distinct queer experiences in Cuba, together within the same cover. Many queer Cuban artists have gained national attention and can express themselves through their art, although their sexuality remained taboo, remained in the closet. Hour: Portraits in the book are very intimate; the photos seem to capture the moments between the private world and the public world for queers in Cuba. Can you talk about that experience, interacting, mapping and photographing these moments in Cuba? Salari: After spending two years in Cuba, people allowed me access to their daily experiences, their daily lives. It took time to gain this trust given my status in Cuba as an outsider. Photos in the book capture the human moments of queers in Cuba, both the public and private moments, attempting to portray extremely complex identities. Hour: Today, there is growing international recognition of art produced in Cuba. In Montreal this past year at the Mus?e des beaux-arts featured a major exhibition focusing on Cuban art, featuring revolutionary imagery that continues to serve as an inspiration for many on the left internationally. What are your thoughts on the role of contemporary art in Cuban society, as compared to classic Cuban revolutionary art? Can you address how your photography addresses that artistic intersection between contemporary dissent in Cuban society and art's historical role as a revolutionary force in Cuba? Babak Salari: My photography on Cuba explores the parts of society that are hidden. Many understand Cuba in clich?s, which are reinforced through activities on most tourist trips to the country. However, my work touches on the more subtle, unknown elements in Cuban society, powerful elements of current Cuban culture not widely known. Cuba is so often defined through clich? imagery: Che Guvera emblems, or revolutionary imagery, or Salsa dancing - all which are important to Cuban society, but Cuba is home to much more complexity. Today queer culture in Cuba is recognized but not always openly, like within the work of nationally celebrated artists like theatre director Carlos D?az. Such artists represent new changes taking place within Cuba, as part of an internal struggle for change. It is through modern Cuban dance, literature and art that you can best learn about new social modes within Cuba. Cuban society felt familiar to me as an Iranian who also experienced revolution. In Iran, many people, especially artists and revolutionaries, are very familiar with Cuban politics and culture - but not the contemporary complexities that we are discussing, especially not queer culture. Hour: One understanding of change in Cuba, common in North America, is defined by the country's transfer to a free market economy. Creating a 'free market' economy certainly isn't the only possible framework for post-revolutionary change in Cuba. Through your photography, you can feel the tensions within many Cuban artistic circles on the different possibilities for change in Cuba, can you address these complexities? Salari: In discussing these issues with Cuban artists and intellectuals it is apparent that change in Cuba is constant, it is ongoing. Artists featured in the book, operating within the social circles in Cuba that are familiar to me, are all pushing for indigenous ideas for change; for change to take place from within Cuban society. As someone from Iran who has experienced exile for a quarter of a century, the current issues being addressed in Cuba are familiar to me in a way. Many Cubans featured in the book also explored possibilities of leaving Cuba and trying to push for change in exile. However, those featured in the book choose to stay, to push for change from within, which is an important current to the book. My own experience of exile has defined my life and also my relationship to Iran, so these questions had a special resonance to my own experience. Traces of change are apparent in Cuba today. Many artists express themselves by pushing against social barriers, queer artists especially. In contradiction to that internal process of change in Cuba is the U.S.-driven change which aims to impose a capitalist market society in Cuba, modeled after the U.S., which obviously will only increase social inequities. In Cuba there is free medical care, easily accessible across the country for all, while in the U.S. many die because of lack of medical treatment. So it is clear why many in Cuba struggling for change also oppose the possibility of a "U.S.-modeled change" being imposed on Cuba. For real change to happen in Cuba it is critical to support those fighting for positive change within Cuban society. [Real] change is not about breaking open Cuban markets to U.S. investments, or trying to turn Cuba into a giant American casino. Cuba is very complex; there are many races in Cuba, many different cultures and origins. It is very interesting to view and try to document this process of change taking place within Cuba, a process not apparent to most looking at Cuba from the outside. Hour: How did your own experiences with revolution and revolutionary culture in Iran shape your photographic work and experiences in Cuba? Salari: In Iran, many from my generation are familiar with the Cuban revolution and were influenced by Cuban revolutionary culture. Iran has experienced an entirely different history, has a very different culture and different traditions, still, many in Iran closely followed Cuba. Many in Iran are very supportive towards the Cuban revolution. After experiencing exile from Iran, exile from a revolution, my thoughts on Cuba became more critical and complex. It is from this point on that my interest in exploring the edges of Cuban society developed. In Cuba, it was striking to see reflections of my own background and past experiences within revolutionary Iran. Experiences in Iran lead me to ask more complicated questions concerning present day Cuba, leading me to explore the margins of Cuban society, a process that finally lead to the photography book. Faces, Bodies, Personas: Tracing Cuban Stories (Janet 45 Press, $30) For more info, visit printing.janet45.com For Babak Salari's website, see www.babaksalari.com From tchilds at resist.ca Tue Nov 11 21:05:53 2008 From: tchilds at resist.ca (tchilds at resist.ca) Date: Tue, 11 Nov 2008 20:05:53 -0800 (PST) Subject: [R-G] Earth Liberation Front to Obama: Protect the environment or ELF will Message-ID: <64119.64.85.36.244.1226462753.squirrel@mail.resist.ca> http://mostlywater.org/media_release_elf_press_office_obama_protect_environment_or_elf_will ELF Press Office to Obama: Protect the Environment or the ELF Will Contributed by Anonymous on Tue, 2008-11-11 19:22. In sections: Turtle Island United States Environment Resistance FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE November 11, 2008 EARTH LIBERATION FRONT PRESS OFFICE TO NEW OBAMA ADMINISTRATION: PROTECT THE ENVIRONMENT OR THE ELF WILL Washington, D.C. - The North American Earth Liberation Front Press Office (NAELFPO) challenged the incoming Obama Administration Tuesday to take immediate action to reverse the trend of global warming and environmental destruction. "The incoming Obama Administration's plan for the environment, or lack thereof, may very well influence the activities of the Earth Liberation Front throughout the next four years," stated Lisa Nesbitt, one of four new press officers for the NAELFPO. "The $150 million in damages caused by the ELF in the last decade to environmentally destructive corporations was, in part, a direct response to the refusal of the U.S. Government to take necessary measures to stop environmental destruction." The Earth Liberation Front, or ELF, is an international, underground movement consisting of autonomous groups of people who engage in direct actions to protect the planet. Formed in 1992 in Brighton, England as an offshoot of the Earth First! organization, the ELF has been active in the United States since 1996. Since that time the group has conducted dozens of actions across the country and North America resulting in over $150 million in damages. Notorious ELF actions have included the $24 million arson attack at Colorado's Vail Ski Resort in 1998 and the $50 million arson attack on a five-story condominium project in San Diego, CA in 2003. Since the year 2001, the ELF has been considered the top domestic terror threat by the F.B.I. "The U.S. Government has refused to sign the Kyoto Protocol, refused to permanently protect the Artic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), refused to stop the logging of national forests, and refused to heighten the Energy Act standards for light cars, trucks and commercial vehicles - the greatest contributor to global warming," Nesbitt continued. "We have one message for the incoming Obama Administration: act to protect the environment or the ELF will." First established in 2000 as the public face of the Earth Liberation Front direct action movement, the NAELFPO returned on October 31, 2008 opening its doors to four new regional offices and press officers in the United States: Lisa Nesbitt (Northeastern Bureau); Tomas Peterson (Northwestern Bureau); Kristina Sanchez (Southwestern Bureau); and Jason Crawford (Midwest Bureau). NAELFPO can be found on the web at: http://www.elfpressoffice.org Contact: North American Earth Liberation Front Press Office (NAELFPO) Tel: (202) 521-1482 Email: info at elfpressoffice.org http://www.elfpressoffice.org From srobin21 at comcast.net Tue Nov 11 22:43:47 2008 From: srobin21 at comcast.net (Steven L. Robinson) Date: Tue, 11 Nov 2008 21:43:47 -0800 Subject: [R-G] Obama wins over the 'decent left' Message-ID: <115d01c94489$a2aa06f0$54f2fea9@noir> Obama wins over the 'decent left' Louis Proyect November 11, 2008 When candidate Obama selected Samantha Power to be his foreign policy adviser, this was a clear signal that he endorsed the idea of liberal imperialist intervention that she embodied. In contrast to Bush's "failed" interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan, Power stood for a more adroit application of imperial power. Like Obama, she thought that the invasion of Iraq was ill-advised but did little to offer resistance to it. Indeed, the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy that she has long been associated with has collaborated with the Pentagon in figuring out how to deploy anthropologists and other academic experts into the battlefield in order to deal with restive native populations. Among the first proponents of liberal imperialist intervention, best known as the 'decent left' in Great Britain, to get on the Obama bandwagon was Marc Cooper, an enemy of the Latin American revolution who has labored mightily on behalf of outfits like the National Endowment for Democracy bent on subverting genuine democracy in Venezuela and elsewhere. The British "decent left" has also shifted its allegiance from the Republican Party to Obama's muscular liberalism. His more obnoxious supporters can be found at "Harry's Place", a blog infected with hatred for political Islam and the radical left. One of them, a Likudist who signs his posts David T., recently chided Alice Walker in an entry titled Nutters: "We're Already Disappointed by Obama" for her temerity in stating: Each time Mr Obama has said "we will kill" Osama bin Laden I have felt a testing of my confidence in his moral leadership. And I support him, and demonstrated that support, to the very limits of my finances and my strength. Could it be that, like millions of children around the globe, who are taught "Thou shalt not kill", I am reacting with disappointment and shock to someone blatantly declaring their intention to kill a specific person? One can understand why David T. would be upset by Alice Walker given his complaint on October 30th: "I'm sorry, but I have now completely lost faith in this Government's ability to counter the Islamism in the United Kingdom." One of the earliest "Marxist" supporters of the invasion of Iraq was Norm Geras, who helped write the Euston Manifesto. He too is smitten with Obama and has also rebuffed Alice Walker in a November 6th entry. It appears that the "decent left" and the Republican right are both wedded to the methodology of "talking points". Time after time, I have seen some salvo directed against Hugo Chavez repeated by Cooper, Geras, Harry's Place and the like. Apparently, a dispatch from the Israeli press helped wean Geras away from Dubya into the "change" camp: Here you can listen to some former generals of the IDF and Mossad officials getting behind Obama for the presidency. According to a report in the Jerusalem Post, the video - made by the Jewish Council for Education and Research - is misleading, with some of those concerned now saying that their words have been taken out of context. But with the exception of the contribution of Uzi Dayan, quoted to that effect by the JP, it's hard to see the context that would make what these men say anything but a warm endorsement of Obama's candidacy. Probably the highest-profile endorsement from the pro-war, pro-intervention "left" came from Christopher Hitchens. On October 13th, Hitchens advised his Slate readership to vote for Obama, stating: "I used to call myself a single-issue voter on the essential question of defending civilization against its terrorist enemies and their totalitarian protectors, and on that "issue" I hope I can continue to expose and oppose any ambiguity. Obama is greatly overrated in my opinion, but the Obama-Biden ticket is not a capitulationist one, even if it does accept the support of the surrender faction, and it does show some signs of being able and willing to profit from experience." Perhaps the best way to understand Hitchens's conversion is just as another sign of neoconservative disaffection from the McCain-Palin ticket. From that perspective, he might be grouped with David Brooks, Christopher Buckley and other Republican Party apostates who shared his view that Sarah Palin is "a deceiving and unscrupulous woman utterly unversed in any of the needful political discourses but easily trained to utter preposterous lies and to appeal to the basest element of her audience." Given Hitchens's performance over the past 7 years, this only confirms once again that it takes a thief to catch a thief. But there is probably no better example of the politics behind all this than George Packer's long article in the current New Yorker magazine titled "The New Liberalism". Like some other supporters of the war in Iraq, Packer has had a change of heart no doubt inspired by the failure of the intervention to produce the desired results. Packer frames his discussion in terms of two different perceptions of what an Obama administration might hold in store. The first comes from Cass Sunstein, the Harvard law professor and author who was Obama's long-time colleague at the University of Chicago Law School. Looking into the Obama ink-blot, Sunstein sees a "visionary minimalist": Sunstein's Obama is the post-partisan one. He calls Obama a "visionary minimalist," meaning someone who wants to pursue large goals in a way that offends the deepest values of as few people as possible. Governing in this way would make him distinctly un-Rooseveltian. F.D.R. entered office with broad good will and a platform that offered almost all things to all people, but by the time he ran for reelection in 1936 his Presidency had become aggressively partisan: he attacked "economic royalists" and said of them, "They are unanimous in their hate for me-and I welcome their hatred." In 2007, Paul Krugman, the Times columnist who recently won the Nobel Prize in Economics, commended these remarks to Obama, advising him to sharpen his ideological edge, and warning that his search for common ground with Republicans would be his undoing. But Sunstein said of Obama, "I think he believes-and this is his big split from Krugman-that if you take on board people's deepest commitments, or bracket them, show respect for them, then you make possible larger steps than would otherwise be imagined." It would not be Obama's way to trumpet the arrival of a new era of liberalism-a word, Sunstein said, that is too laden with baggage, and too much of a fighting word, for Obama's taste. Sunstein had a debate with Robert Kuttner at Harvard University in September. Probably more than any other Democrat, Kuttner is associated with the idea that Obama should carry out a new New Deal. Packer reports: "Sunstein's minimalism is exactly what's not called for," Kuttner told me, and he later added, "We're on the verge of Great Depression Two. All bets are off. The people who talk about post-liberal, post-ideological, they have been completely overtaken by events. It's the same abuses, the same scenario, that led to the crash of '29. It's the same dynamics of the financial economy dragging down the real economy-these are enduring lessons. Everybody who was talking about being in a kind of post-liberal world, they're the ones who don't have much purchase on what's going on. The question is whether Obama will come to this." The answer will depend in part on the advisers he chooses. In Kuttner's mind, the deficit hawks and deregulators of the Clinton Administration-Robert Rubin, Lawrence Summers-have been discredited by the financial crisis, and he thinks that it would be a big mistake for Obama to give them powerful roles in his Administration. (Summers is considered a likely candidate for Treasury Secretary, and his top economic advisers are connected with the Hamilton Project, a center-left affiliate of the Brookings Institution.) But, beyond macroeconomics, Kuttner, who plans to hold a conference in Washington called "Thinking Big," shortly before Obama's Inauguration, thinks that the Democrats have a clear political agenda: "the reclamation of an ideology." Oddly enough, Packer has little to say about the foreign policy imperatives that Obama is expected to obey. The words Iraq and Afghanistan are not mentioned once. Given his tarnished reputation about such matters, one supposes that the less said the better. Leaving aside Obama's "change" mantra, the foreign policy of the new administration will most certainly hew closely to that of the Clinton administration. If you keep in mind that much of the "decent left" emerged out of the pro-war fervor during the Clinton years among Western journalists and intellectuals who convinced themselves that Milosevic was the new Adolph Hitler, it is not that surprising that the same people are coming home like the Prodigal Son. After all, in the final analysis, it has been the blood-drenched Wilsonian idealism of the WWI era that has united hawk and dove alike in its determination to police the world in the interests of multinational corporations under the banner of human rights. http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2008/11/11/obama-wins-over-the-decent-left / This email was cleaned by emailStripper, available for free from http://www.papercut.biz/emailStripper.htm From critical.montages at gmail.com Wed Nov 12 00:06:50 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Wed, 12 Nov 2008 02:06:50 -0500 Subject: [R-G] Juan Cole: Abnormality Besieges Palestinians Message-ID: The UN warns that it is running out of food to distribute in Gaza [LINK: ], putting the civilian population there at severe risk, as a direct result of an Israeli food blockade. A food blockade? That is a war crime! Why aren't the people ordering the malnourishment of a civilian population under foreign military occupation being arrested and taken to the Hague for trial? I mean, people in the US are routinely arrested for animal abuse because they kept their pets malnourished [LINK: ]. Wouldn't it be a crime to do that to Palestinian children? Even less dire situations are still harming the Palestinians. Jeremy Bowen of the BBC reports on the abnormal situation of the Palestinians in Hebron [LINK: ] under Israeli occupation: ' When I was there last week the school's windows were catching the morning sun as Mohammed, eight, teetered in the entrance of his home, holding on to the doorframe. He has cerebral palsy, so his big brother Amjad, 12, parks his wheelchair, puts on the brake and lifts him in. A Palestinian woman and child walk behind an Israeli soldier in Hebron Israeli troops protect the Jewish settlers, and impose restrictions on Palestinians. He's been doing it since Mohammed started school two years ago. They wave goodbye to their mother and set off. But they don't turn down the alley to get to school, which should be only two minutes away, even for a boy in a wheelchair. About the time that Mohammed was born, the Israeli army blocked the alley with a high concrete barrier. Last week Mrs Taha told the BBC that the Israelis had ignored requests to open it to make it easier for him to get to school. The barrier was put there by the army, to make life easier and safer for the Jewish settlers who sometimes use the street on the other side. ' The walls and checkpoints that enclose the Palestinians often make their lives hell, but pale in significance before their continued statelessness. A stateless person ultimately has no rights, and can be robbed, relocated, and even killed with no recourse. The statelessness of over 3 million Palestinians is among the great ongoing crimes of the 21st century, allowing them to be continually besieged, as civilians, deprived of basic services, and to some extent even of enough food (15 percent of Gazan children are malnourished as a direct result of Israeli actions). In essence, they are slaves to the Israelis. So why can the BBC do a story like this, which frankly says, "A small community of Israelis lives in the centre of Hebron, in defiance of international laws that forbid an occupying power to settle its own people on the territory it has captured. A strong force of Israeli combat troops protects the settlers, and has imposed years of restrictions on the Palestinians who live near them." Why is such a passage never present in any major publication or broadcast originating in the United States? Here is something else that is not exactly front page news in the News Island of the United States: A blockade-busting aid boat landed in Gaza, with several European lawmakers aborad [LINK: ], and met with Hamas leader Ismail Haniya. So Haniya vowed eternal jihad, right? Nope: ' Following intensive negotiations with Hamas, the de facto leadership of Gaza, a group of European parliamentarians has been told by the organization that it will accept a Palestinian state within the internationally recognized 1967 borders as well as offer Israel a long-term ceasefire. The delegation of 11 from Britain, Ireland, Switzerland and Italy, managed to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza on Saturday morning after their boat, the Dignity, sailed from Cyprus to Gaza, shadowed part of the way by an Israeli naval vessel. The group had originally tried to enter Gaza from Israel's Erez border crossing but was refused permission by the Israeli authorities to cross. Another attempt to enter the territory from Egypt's Rafah terminal was denied by the Egyptian authorities. This was the third successful boat trip made by the Dignity into Palestinian coastal waters despite warnings by Israel that action would be taken to stop the vessel. On board was a ton of medical aid and desperately needed medical equipment. Despite the threats of naval intervention, in the end Israel backed down after realizing it would have gained more bad publicity if it had detained and harassed a boatload of international politicians carrying humanitarian aid. The aim of the visit was to protest Israel's economic embargo and closure of Gaza's borders, assess humanitarian conditions on the ground, and to hold talks with Ismail Haniya, the leader of Hamas. Haniya was questioned about his organization's previous offer of a 20-year hudna or truce with Israel in exchange for the Israeli government recognizing the national rights of Palestinians. British parliamentarian Clare Short, who served in the cabinet of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, asked the Hamas leadership to repeat the offer, which he did. Haniya was also questioned by delegation leader Baron Nazir Ahmed, a Pakistani-born member of the House of Lords, about Hamas' relationship with Iran. "Our ties with Iran are like those with other Muslim states. We are prepared to accept a Palestinian state within the internationally recognized borders of 1967. Our conflict is not with the Jews, our problem is with the occupation," Haniya said.' Note that Gaza does not have an airport because the Israelis won't allow one, and that the Israelis control Gaza's borders and port, keeping out anything and anyone they like, including food and fuel. I'd say that is tantamount to slavery. -- Posted By Juan Cole to Informed Comment at 11/12/2008 12:17:00 AM From critical.montages at gmail.com Wed Nov 12 00:20:40 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Wed, 12 Nov 2008 02:20:40 -0500 Subject: [R-G] China's Bazooka Beats Henry Paulson's Peashooter: William Pesek Message-ID: China's Bazooka Beats Henry Paulson's Peashooter: William Pesek Commentary by William Pesek Nov. 12 (Bloomberg) -- South Korea may owe China a debt of gratitude. Officials in Beijing managed to do what their counterparts in Seoul couldn't: create a bit of optimism about Korea's economy. They did so with a massive $586 billion stimulus package, a step that upstaged Henry Paulson's $700 billion rescue plan in Asian capitals. So much for the U.S. Treasury secretary's bazooka. That was the financial weapon Paulson threatened to aim at the U.S. credit crisis in July. Three months on, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is still sliding, U.S. consumers are worried and world leaders are biting their nails. China's bazooka is proving to pack more firepower among economists. Yet will spending a fifth of gross domestic product to prop up growth work? Not necessarily. Asia should curb its enthusiasm about China's ability to shield the nation's 1.3 billion people from a global slump. There's a chance some investors are already pricing in that risk. After rallying early this week, stocks slid yesterday on concerns about a worsening global outlook. News that Australian business confidence fell to the lowest level on record was a reminder of obstacles facing the Asia-Pacific region. It's far from clear that China has the domestic wherewithal to keep growth as close to 10 percent as Communist Party bigwigs would like. Economists generally see 10 percent as what's needed to produce enough jobs to keep living standards rising and to maintain social stability. External Influences No one doubts China's financial resources. It has about $2 trillion of currency reserves to lavish on low-rent housing and roads, railways and airports, and tax deductions for purchases of fixed assets such as machinery. It has banks, even the publicly traded ones, at its disposal to plug any economic holes that suddenly appear. Yet the external picture matters more. China relies heavily on exports to produce growth. Anyone who doubts that need only look at how quickly the government's focus has gone from inflation to deflation. Data released yesterday show why. China reported the slowest export growth in four months in October, while inflation cooled to the slowest pace in 17 months. ``As the contribution of trade to China's growth dissipates, we expect further measures to be introduced aimed at stimulating consumption and investment in the domestic economy,'' says Jing Ulrich, chairwoman of China equities at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in Hong Kong. Collision Course The trouble is, such plans must be financed. That could prompt China to sell hundreds of billions of dollars of U.S. Treasury and agency securities, or at least slow its purchases. The result would be sharply higher U.S. rates. ``China's need for money will collide with the ramp-up of U.S. borrowing, expected to be between $1.5 trillion and $2 trillion because of the massive U.S. budget deficit,'' Tony Crescenzi, chief bond strategist at Miller Tabak & Co. in New York, wrote in a note to clients. It raises questions about whether the U.S. can really borrow its way out of this crisis, John Maynard Keynes-style. The same goes for monetary policy as the Federal Reserve joins Japan in cutting rates toward zero. Will investors stand for the U.S. passing along massive liabilities to future generations and the dollar's value dwindling? Steady Yuan Commodity prices are another wrinkle. By stabilizing world prices, China's stimulus plans will benefit commodity producers more than buyers. Global inflation helped precipitate the U.S.'s financial woes, and drops in the prices of oil, food and other key commodities are a plus for American households. China's pump priming may work at cross purposes with the U.S. Also, without big upward revaluations in China's currency, stimulus efforts remain more a domestic affair than a global one. If the yuan holds near current levels, it's not clear how Asia, Europe or the U.S. will benefit. That's especially so with spending focused on infrastructure. While some multinational companies may profit from China's largess, the U.S. job market probably won't. There are other reasons to doubt China's economic omnipotence. China's lack of a thriving secondary debt market to multiply the central bank's efforts is a problem in the best of times. It's an even bigger impediment with global credit markets effectively frozen. Rate cuts by the People's Bank of China may lack the oomph the economy needs. Bigger Bazooka The emphasis on boosting growth with new roads, bridges and dams is questionable, too. Such projects didn't enliven growth as much as advertised in the 30 years since China's economic- modernization process began. What propelled growth to recent heights was trade, particularly China's succession into the World Trade Organization in 2001. That's not to say China's efforts won't be a hit at this weekend's meeting of the Group of 20 nations in Washington. ``China showed the G-20 with this package that it is a big player in the world economy, capable of contributing to global economic stability,'' Carl Weinberg, chief economist at High Frequency Economics in Valhalla, New York, said in a report. Contributing to the global economy in its time of need is one thing. Saving it is quite another. Just like the outgunned Paulson, China may need to find a bigger bazooka. (William Pesek is a Bloomberg News columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.) To contact the writer of this column: William Pesek in Seoul at wpesek at bloomberg.net Last Updated: November 11, 2008 15:01 EST From critical.montages at gmail.com Wed Nov 12 00:39:23 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Wed, 12 Nov 2008 02:39:23 -0500 Subject: [R-G] =?windows-1252?q?ADC_on_Anti-Arab_Remarks_of_Emanuel=92s_Fa?= =?windows-1252?q?ther?= Message-ID: ADC on Anti-Arab remarks of Emmanuel's father Tuesday, November 11th, 2008 I just received the following email from the ADC: The American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee urges you to take immediate action by using the contact info below to express your disappointment to President-Elect Obama and Congressman Rahm Emmanuel for the detestable anti-Arab remarks Emmanuel's father made this past week. ADC wrote a letter [LINK: ] to Congressman Emmauel and President-Elect Barack Obama asking the congressman to publicly repudiate the derogatory comments his father made. Benjamin Emmanuel was quoted by numerous Israeli and American publications [LINK: ] as saying "Obviously he will influence the president to be pro-Israel. Why wouldn't he be? What is he, an Arab? He's not going to clean the floors of the White House." There should be no place for such demeaning rhetoric and these comments are contrary to the very type change the President-Elect promised he would bring to America. Contact President-Elect Obama by fax at 202.228.5417 or through this online contact form [LINK: ]. Contact Congressman Emmanuel by fax at 202.225.5603 or via E-mail at emma.jurado at mail.house.gov Here is some language I wrote up the a few days ago that may be useful in formulating a response: The anti-Arab remark made by Rahm Emanuel's father is not consistent with the spirit of change and ethnic equality that President Elect Obama promises to bring to the White House. Arab Americans have put great hope in his election. They believe that they have a part to play in building a new and more equal America. A public statement by Rahm Emanuel explaining that he does not approve of his father's remark would go a long way in reassuring us that the president elect and new administration value Arab Americans. We all hope to move beyond the divisiveness of the past to create a future of mutual respect. By distancing himself from his father's remark, Rahm Emanuel will demonstrate that he does not share his father's opinion of Arabs and will help the new administration act as an honest broker in the Middle East and at home. From critical.montages at gmail.com Wed Nov 12 00:49:02 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Wed, 12 Nov 2008 02:49:02 -0500 Subject: [R-G] The Secret Life of Syrian Lingerie Message-ID: Insha'Allah. SYRIA: Secret world of sexy women's lingerie "Look within your culture to discover the unexpected. What it might be hiding from you can give you a shock." That is how designer Rana Salam ended a talk about her book of undergarments, "The Secret Life of Syrian Lingerie," at American University of Beirut. "Secret Life" takes readers on a tour of the hidden intimacies and gaudy traditions of an outwardly rather conservative Arab country. Salam (right) told listeners at her talk that "flamboyancy and excitement" characterized her three-week visit to Damascus to research the book. Walking around the old traditional marketplace, taking in sights of flashy and exotic undergarments, made her wonder if anyone living in a Muslim country would dare wear them. Shortly afterward, she was shocked to learn that five to six factories in Damascus alone produce one of the country's most sought-after exports, sold in markets in the Persian Gulf and North Africa. Made with Chinese toys and other accessories, the collection of underwear Salam gathered includes bras and G-strings decorated with coconut shells, television remote controls, glow-in-the-dark toys and singing birds as well as edible lingerie with a variety of flavors. Salam called them works of art. She said she visited the factories as attempt to "get into the brains of these designers, to know where all the creative ideas are coming from." As she put it, "These are people who lack basic education about design but tend to produce one of the most creative pieces of work my eyes ever witnessed." When asked about her favorite pieces, Salam excitedly pointed out two: The first resembles a nest filled with singing birds, and the second is a curtain shaped bra that opens and closes by remote control. A graduate of Britain's Royal College of Art, Salam has been running her own London-based design studio for over a decade. She is well known for employing Middle Eastern popular art and culture in her work, merging it with the latest design technology to create unique visions. ? Khaled Hijab in Beirut Photos: Samples of Syrian underwear designer Rana Salam (middle picture) discovered in Damascus. Credit: Delphine Minoui / For The Times From critical.montages at gmail.com Wed Nov 12 02:23:37 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Wed, 12 Nov 2008 04:23:37 -0500 Subject: [R-G] Former Rebels Put Rwanda under Spotlight Message-ID: Former rebels put Rwanda under spotlight By Matthew Green in Goma Published: November 11 2008 23:26 | Last updated: November 11 2008 23:26 Rwanda has sought to portray itself as little more than a bystander to unfolding scenes of advancing rebels again forcing refugees to scatter across the border in eastern Congo. But in interviews with the Financial Times, former rebels and independent observers on the ground said the uprising ? led by Laurent Nkunda, the renegade Congolese general ? relies heavily on recruitment in Rwanda and former or even active Rwandan soldiers. Nkunda: 25 per cent of his army is said to be Rwandan EDITOR'S CHOICE Congo campaign to drive out peacekeepers - Nov-09 Editorial Comment: Conflict in Congo - Nov-09 Congo faces fresh cataclysm - Nov-06 Rebel grip tightens in eastern Congo - Nov-02 Congo's truce holds as rebels close in - Oct-31 Congo rebels 'cease fire' as UN urges restraint - Oct-30 Former rebels point to a close and, complex relationship in which Rwanda's ?government is able to exert considerable leverage on Mr Nkunda. Paul Kagame, the president, has sought to distance Rwanda both from the Congo crisis and international diplomatic efforts to resolve it. At a press conference in Kigali, the capital, last week he said: "What have I to do with what is going on in the Congo?" The answer lies partly in the hillside villages and refugee camps in Rwanda that are a vital recruiting ground for Mr Nkunda's CNDP movement. Former rebels say that in the past few years he has recruited Congolese Tutsi refugees there, as well as Rwandan nationals, who often are former soldiers acting as mercenaries. Military experts say Rwandans make up at least 25 per cent of his 4,000 to 6,000-strong army. One Rwandan told the FT he had left his cassava farm in March to join six countrymen in the rebellion, but deserted his platoon commander post this month because he had not been paid. "I was looking for money," said the former Rwandan army soldier. "There was no payment, that's why I left." The United Nations mission in Congo says 73 Rwandans, mainly combatants, were repatriated after leaving Mr Nkunda's forces last year. A further 76 followed between January and September 10 this year. Human rights workers say many more are likely to stay in the rebel ranks ? those that have left say would-be deserters are beaten or executed. Rwanda says the recruitment is clandestine and without its support. But human rights activists say it could try harder to stop recruitment. UN officials suspect the CNDP has a network of financial backers that stretches from Rwanda to South Africa and the US. According to another rebel who recently deserted, units of Rwandan soldiers have fought next to Mr Nkunda's forces during the past few years. "There were groups of soldiers from Rwanda who were with us," he said. He said his uncle, a Rwandan army officer, continued to receive his salary while fighting with Mr Nkunda, and that Rwandan troops who wanted to visit home were given border passes. Other former fighters have described using razor blades to remove the Rwandan flag from uniforms sent to Mr Nkunda's forces. Evidence of more recent Rwandan support surfaced on October 29, when Uruguayan peacekeepers and international journalists reported seeing Rwandan tanks and artillery firing across the border at Congolese troops defending Goma. Mr Nkunda's latest offensive secured a chunk of territory that connects the plateau around his headquarters with a strip of land along the border that might ease infiltration of men or weapons from Rwanda. Mr Nkunda and the Rwandan government, military and business elite share a history from before the 1994 genocide of Rwanda's Tutsi minority. Mr Nkunda, a Congolese Tutsi, began his military career as an intelligence officer in the guerrilla army Mr Kagame, a Rwandan Tutsi, used to stop the massacre and seize power. Mr Kagame launched invasions of Congo in 1996 and 1998 and supported uprisings that Rwandan officials maintain were aimed at neutralising the threat posed by ethnic Hutu fighters who fled following the genocide. The Congolese government of Joseph Kabila, the president, has periodically adopted the exiled Hutu militias to bolster its weak authority in the east, putting it at odds with Kigali. Mr Nkunda may have reduced his dependence on Rwanda by marshalling significant support from a part of the Congolese political elite that feels marginalised by Mr Kabila, but the government still wields considerable influence. Diplomats say Mr Kagame intervened personally to dissuade Mr Nkunda from over-running Goma when he reached the edge of the city late last month . From shimogamo at attglobal.net Wed Nov 12 02:29:58 2008 From: shimogamo at attglobal.net (Bill Totten) Date: Wed, 12 Nov 2008 18:29:58 +0900 Subject: [R-G] [BillTottenWeblog] An Open Letter to Barack Obama Message-ID: <491AA216.8010602@attglobal.net> On expectations, responsibilities and a new reality that is almost more than the heart can bear by Alice Walker TheRoot.com (November 04 2008) Dear Brother Obama, You have no idea, really, of how profound this moment is for us. Us being the black people of the Southern United States. You think you know, because you are thoughtful, and you have studied our history. But seeing you deliver the torch so many others before you carried, year after year, decade after decade, century after century, only to be struck down before igniting the flame of justice and of law, is almost more than the heart can bear. And yet, this observation is not intended to burden you, for you are of a different time, and, indeed, because of all the relay runners before you, North America is a different place. It is really only to say: Well done. We knew, through all the generations, that you were with us, in us, the best of the spirit of Africa and of the Americas. Knowing this, that you would actually appear, someday, was part of our strength. Seeing you take your rightful place, based solely on your wisdom, stamina and character, is a balm for the weary warriors of hope, previously only sung about. I would advise you to remember that you did not create the disaster that the world is experiencing, and you alone are not responsible for bringing the world back to balance. A primary responsibility that you do have, however, is to cultivate happiness in your own life. To make a schedule that permits sufficient time of rest and play with your gorgeous wife and lovely daughters. And so on. One gathers that your family is large. We are used to seeing men in the White House soon become juiceless and as white-haired as the building; we notice their wives and children looking strained and stressed. They soon have smiles so lacking in joy that they remind us of scissors. This is no way to lead. Nor does your family deserve this fate. One way of thinking about all this is: It is so bad now that there is no excuse not to relax. From your happy, relaxed state, you can model real success, which is all that so many people in the world really want. They may buy endless cars and houses and furs and gobble up all the attention and space they can manage, or barely manage, but this is because it is not yet clear to them that success is truly an inside job. That it is within the reach of almost everyone. I would further advise you not to take on other people's enemies. Most damage that others do to us is out of fear, humiliation and pain. Those feelings occur in all of us, not just in those of us who profess a certain religious or racial devotion. We must learn actually not to have enemies, but only confused adversaries who are ourselves in disguise. It is understood by all that you are commander in chief of the United States and are sworn to protect our beloved country; this we understand, completely. However, as my mother used to say, quoting a Bible with which I often fought, "hate the sin, but love the sinner". There must be no more crushing of whole communities, no more torture, no more dehumanizing as a means of ruling a people's spirit. This has already happened to people of color, poor people, women, children. We see where this leads, where it has led. A good model of how to "work with the enemy" internally is presented by the Dalai Lama, in his endless caretaking of his soul as he confronts the Chinese government that invaded Tibet. Because, finally, it is the soul that must be preserved, if one is to remain a credible leader. All else might be lost; but when the soul dies, the connection to earth, to peoples, to animals, to rivers, to mountain ranges, purple and majestic, also dies. And your smile, with which we watch you do gracious battle with unjust characterizations, distortions and lies, is that expression of healthy self-worth, spirit and soul, that, kept happy and free and relaxed, can find an answering smile in all of us, lighting our way, and brightening the world. We are the ones we have been waiting for. In Peace and Joy, Alice Walker (c) 2008, Alice Walker (c) TheRoot.com http://www.theroot.com/id/48726 TO POST A COMMENT, OR TO READ COMMENTS POSTED BY OTHERS, please click on the word "comment" highlighted at the end of the version of this essay posted at http://billtotten.blogspot.com/ From critical.montages at gmail.com Wed Nov 12 02:46:16 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Wed, 12 Nov 2008 04:46:16 -0500 Subject: [R-G] LEBANON: Broken Bones and Body Bags: Horrors Facing Ethiopian Domestic Workers Message-ID: Broken bones and body bags: horrors facing Ethiopian domestic workers By Tania Tabar Special to The Daily Star Tuesday, November 11, 2008 BEIRUT: At the Ethiopian Consulate in Beirut, a poster declares "Ethiopia: 13 weeks of sunshine" as two officials sit at their desks. The three chairs in the waiting room are usually occupied these days: In just one recent week, the mission heard of one Ethiopian domestic worker who died a suspicious death and another who is in hospital with both legs broken, possibly paralyzed, and can only communicate by blinking her eyes. The previous week, a woman walked in shaking. When the social officer asked her what was wrong, she replied that her "Madame" - her employer - threatened her with a knife. It has long been the case that women from impoverished countries like Ethiopia come to Lebanon to work, that many encounter abuse and even violence, and that most find they have nowhere to turn. Elinore Molla and Victoria Andarge, two Ethiopian women who are involved with the Full Gospel Church in Beirut, have turned an apartment they are renting into a makeshift sanctuary for women who flee their employers after facing some sort of abuse. "The consulate doesn't have a resting room. Women sleep under the cars [outside the consulate], so many guys come and harass them. They are only 20 years old with a future and destiny. I take the decision in my life to suffer for them," said Molla, 27, who is originally from Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa. Molla first found out about the women sleeping underneath the cars about a year ago. "When I was walking I saw the girls," she recalls. "I found four girls ... I was shocked. They said, 'help us.'" She took them into her home, which today houses about two dozen women at any given time. "I'm Christian, I'm a believer," she told The Daily Star. "Everyday I see my people and my nation, with no one to take responsibility. The idea comes from God - helping protect someone who was abused. I ask the girl when I take her to my home: 'What's the problem with your sponsor?' And she says, 'so many things.'" The head of the social affairs office at the Ethiopian Consulate, who preferred not to be identified by name, confirmed that women continue to sleep under cars near the mission until this day. There are several problems with the situation of domestic migrant workers in Lebanon, she explained: "It is not only Ethiopian workers facing problems, but because women from other countries stopped signing contracts, the number of Ethiopians increased." There is currently no reliable data, but the consulate estimates the number of Ethiopian workers in Lebanon to be between 40,000 and 50,000, a substantial increase since the number of women coming from Sri Lanka and the Philippines dropped off following the 2006 war with Israel - and attendant stories of abuse and neglect. The Ethiopian government officially barred its own women from coming to Lebanon earlier this year, but many are now traveling here through third countries. The head of the consular section, who also did not want to be named, said that problems frequently begin from the day of arrival. Many sponsors do not adhere to the terms of the contracts, he explained, such as duration, remuneration, and hours of work expected. What is even more problematic, he added, is when agencies do not take responsibility when a woman files a complaint, paving the way for a volatile relationship between the workers and their employers. "We are facing a lot of problems," he said. "One problem is by the housemaids, second by the sponsors. Since we are foreigners to this country we have a different culture, so from the beginning it is difficult for her to get accustomed. "But I want to turn to the sponsors' problem," he added. "There are a lot of problems from sponsors, they don't pay salaries on time, they treat them aggressively, they don't get enough food, and they don't provide shelter." According to the consulate, some 70 percent of employers who employ Ethiopians don't pay their employees on a monthly basis. "Sometimes they close the balcony and make them sleep on the floor," added the head of the social affairs office, "and they beat her to make her understand. That's why she becomes aggressive toward agencies, the consulate and herself." Most troubling of all, the mission says it has been sending a record number of corpses back to Ethiopia. The consulate estimates that 150 women have died in a little more than a year, and there is no accountability. In one recent case, Mekdes Tesfaye Tefera's corpse was found with a noose around her neck. But the consulate has doubts that this was a self-inflicted death and has filed a police report. "They always say, 'she killed herself,'" the social affairs officer said. In the case of Zebiba Kedr, who is currently hospitalized, the consulate is working on having charges laid against the woman for whom she was working. The employers have stated that Kedr fell from the 12th floor of their building, but the head of the consular section said that when he went to see her in the hospital and asked her "Madame" had pushed her, she indicated 'yes' by blinking her eyes. Stories like these make the unofficial shelter run by Molla and Andarge even more essential. Andarge said the agencies were the main problem, accusing them of "playing a game" with people's lives. The government needs to get involved, she added, and make sure the agencies take responsibility for the women and how they are treated. The consulate representatives said they had an agreement with all the agencies that said the latter were to be responsible for the women they bring to Lebanon, and that this is why mission does not have a shelter. The nongovernmental organization Caritas offers a safehouse for workers who are flee their employers' homes, but Molla said that these spaces are usually reserved for those who are very sick or have psychological problems. Molla is one of the lucky ones. She came to Lebanon when she was 17 years old and says she has always been well treated by her employer. "She is like my mom, she is Lebanese, and she supports me. I love her," Molla told The Daily Star. But since she regards her own experience as the exception rather than the rule, she discourages other Ethiopian women from traveling to Lebanon for work - a process which she described as getting easier by the day. "The Lebanese name is collapsing everywhere," she said, explaining that in Addis Ababa, Lebanon's reputation is causing fewer and fewer would-be migrant workers to sign up. To compensate, she added, the recruiters have started concentrating on women from remote villages. Molla said she tells women in Ethiopia "what is going on" in Lebanon, "and that it's better to stay in your country, because you still have hopes there. Here there are no hopes." Nonetheless, a young woman now staying at the makeshift safehouse said she would like to stay here and support her family back home - if her employers here were to treat her well. Andarge believes there is hope to change the situation and has already noticed changes in public opinion and awareness. New York-based Human Rights Watch recently conducted a hard-hitting campaign on the plight of migrant domestic workers in Lebanon, and last month the American University of Beirut hosted a conference and roundtable discussion on the issue. Some of the students were appalled at what they heard, she said, and their reaction was a pleasant "surprise." "It will be changed," Andarge said with tears in her eyes. "We just need strong people." Lebanon: Migrant Domestic Workers Dying Every Week Most Deaths From Suicides or in Botched Escapes (Beirut, August 26, 2008) ? The high death toll of migrant domestic workers in Lebanon, from unnatural causes, shows the urgent need to improve their working conditions, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch called on the official steering committee tasked with improving the situation of migrant domestic workers in Lebanon to investigate the root causes of these deaths and develop a concrete national strategy to reduce them. Since January 2007, at least 95 migrant domestic workers have died in Lebanon. Of these 95 deaths, 40 are classified by the embassies of the migrants as suicide, while 24 others were caused by workers falling from high buildings, often while trying to escape their employers. By contrast, only 14 domestic workers died because of diseases or health issues. (For basic details of cases compiled by Human Rights Watch, please visit: http://www.hrw.org/pub/2008/women/Lebanon.MDW.Annex.082608.pdf.) "Domestic workers are dying in Lebanon at a rate of more than one per week," said Nadim Houry, senior researcher at Human Rights Watch. "All those involved ? from the Lebanese authorities, to the workers' embassies, to the employment agencies, to the employers ? need to ask themselves what is driving these women to kill themselves or risk their lives trying to escape from high buildings." Interviews with embassy officials and friends of domestic workers who committed suicide suggest that forced confinement, excessive work demands, employer abuse, and financial pressures are key factors pushing these women to kill themselves or risk their lives. An official at the Philippines embassy told Human Rights Watch about one Filipina worker whose employers accused her of stealing a piece of jewelry. The employers beat her and locked her inside the house, he said. She ended up committing suicide. Other suicide cases point to financial pressures faced by these workers who are not entitled to the minimum wage in Lebanon. Sarada Phuyal, a Nepalese national, hung herself on March 17, 2008. Human Rights Watch interviewed another Nepalese who worked in the same household: "Sarada was depressed because she had a lot of pressure from her husband to send money. Her husband was very sick. The money she was sending was all spent on medical costs. She was very upset about this because she wanted the money for her children to go to school." "These suicides are linked to the isolation and the difficult working conditions these workers face in Lebanon," Houry said. "While the Lebanese authorities cannot guarantee these women happiness, they should guarantee them the right to move freely, to work in decent conditions, to communicate with their friends and families, and to earn a living wage." A 2006 survey of 600 domestic workers in Lebanon conducted by Dr. Ray Jureidini, of the American University in Cairo, found 31 percent of the women saying that their employers did not allow them to leave the home. Many domestic workers who find themselves locked up attempt to escape through balconies or windows. Since January 2007, Human Rights Watch has compiled 24 cases of domestic workers who died as a result of falling from a high-story building. In eight additional cases, the worker injured herself but survived the fall. "Many domestic workers are literally being driven to jump from balconies to escape their forced confinement," Houry said. While police reports usually classify cases where domestic workers fall from balconies as suicide, this classification is highly suspect. Human Rights Watch interviewed two domestic workers who had fallen from balconies but survived the fall. In both cases, they stated that they were trying to flee employers who either had mistreated them or locked them in. Kamala Nagari, a Nepalese national who injured herself on February 20, 2008 while trying to escape, told Human Rights Watch from her hospital bed: "I was locked in for two days, and they [the employers] did not give me food and water. Then after two days, I wanted to run away. The apartment was on the fifth floor. I tried to go down using cable wires running along the wall of building. The cable broke, and I do not remember what happened afterwards." Officials working at the migrants' embassies echoed this finding: "Most deaths resulting from a building fall are failed attempts to escape," a labor attach? told Human Rights Watch. A former ambassador put it more bluntly: "Don't call this an embassy. We have become a funeral parlor. People die. Natural deaths, accidents, suicide. When they try to run away, accidents happen." Lebanese police generally investigate death cases but interviews with lawyers representing domestic workers and officials working at the migrants' embassies as well as a review of investigators' notes in three separate police investigations reveal many flaws. First, the police do not always investigate whether the employer mistreated the employee, and when they do, they limit themselves to general questions and accept the employer's testimony without cross-checking their statements with information from neighbors or the family of the domestic worker. Second, in cases where the domestic worker survives a fall, police often interview her without the presence of a translator and generally ignore the motives that led her to escape. "When employers lock someone up inside a home, they are committing a crime and the police should treat it as such," Houry said. Human Rights Watch urged the official steering committee tasked with improving the status of domestic workers, which includes members of various relevant ministries, the police force and certain international organizations and NGOs, to begin tracking cases of such deaths and injuries, to ensure that the police properly investigate them, and to develop a concrete strategy to reduce the deaths of domestic workers. This strategy should include combating the practice of forced confinement and improving working conditions and labor law protections. Human Rights Watch also urged governments of migrants' countries to increase the services at their embassies and diplomatic missions in Lebanon by providing counseling and shelter for workers in distress. Middle East/North Africa: Treat Domestic Workers Fairly This Ramadan Employers Should Reflect on Responsibilities to Respect Rights of Domestic Workers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . In Lebanon, which employs an estimated 200,000 domestic workers, primarily from Sri Lanka, the Philippines, and Ethiopia, the most common complaints made by domestic workers include non-payment or delayed payment of their wages, forced confinement to the workplace, no time off, and verbal, as well as physical, abuse. According to a 2006 survey of 600 migrant domestic workers conducted by Dr. Ray Jureidini of the American University of Cairo, 56 percent said they work more than 12 hours a day and 34 percent have no regular time off. These difficult work conditions have had deadly consequences as recently released research by Human Rights Watch shows that migrant domestic workers in Lebanon are dying at a rate of one per week, most often from suicide and during failed attempts to escape from their employers Saudi households employ an estimated 1.5 million domestic workers, primarily from Indonesia, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, and Nepal. While no reliable statistics exist on the exact number of abuse cases, the Saudi Ministry of Social Affairs and the embassies of labor-sending countries shelter thousands of domestic workers with complaints against their employers or recruiters each year. Excessive workload and unpaid wages, for periods ranging from a few months to 10 years, are among the most common complaints. The kingdom's Labor Law excludes domestic workers, denying them rights guaranteed to other workers, such as a weekly rest day and overtime pay. Many domestic workers must work 18 hours a day, seven days a week. Some domestic workers face imprisonment or lashings for spurious charges of theft, adultery, or "witchcraft". In the United Arab Emirates, in-house Sri Lankan domestic workers who live with their employers almost always are paid fixed monthly salaries without payment for overtime. Many migrant domestic workers face workplace abuses such as non-payment or underpayment of wages; wage exploitation; forced confinement in the workplace; excessively long working hours; and no rest days. In Morocco, child domestic workers as young as five or six routinely toil in private homes one hundred or more hours per week without rest breaks or days off. Their employers frequently abuse them physically and verbally, deny them an education, and sometimes even deny them adequate food and medical care. Some girls also suffer sexual harassment by employers or employers' family members. Abused and isolated from family and peers, too many child domestics suffer lasting physical and psychological harm. From suzannedk at gmail.com Wed Nov 12 04:17:35 2008 From: suzannedk at gmail.com (Suzanne de Kuyper) Date: Wed, 12 Nov 2008 12:17:35 +0100 Subject: [R-G] Patrick Cockburn: The US can quit Iraq, or it can stay. But it can't do both In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: I think that Mr. Cockburn is wrong. The U S laws of empire enable them to have it both ways. The EU has been ratifying these laws, only now beginning to choke on them. Read "Gobal War on Liberty" by Jean-Claude Paye. His study lays all out very calmly, clearly. All the human rights laws are crumbling in the West, as the money chaos escalates, wars of choice continue inexorably, the waters rise. His book is seminal. Suzanne de Kuyper Amsterdam On Wed, Nov 12, 2008 at 3:57 AM, Yoshie Furuhashi < critical.montages at gmail.com> wrote: > < > http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/patrick-cockburn-the-us-can-quit-iraq-or-it-can-stay-but-it-cant-do-both-1009598.html > > > Patrick Cockburn: The US can quit Iraq, or it can stay. But it can't do > both > Iraqis have a clear idea who they believe funds their secret police > Tuesday, 11 November 2008 > > If it ever comes to court it should be one of the more interesting > libel cases of the decade. The Iraqi National Intelligence Service is > threatening to sue Ahmed Chalabi, the Iraqi politician, for asking who > pays for it. > > "It is somewhat curious," says Mr Chalabi, "that the intelligence > service of a country which is sovereign ? that no one really knows who > is funding it." > > In fact there are very few Iraqis who do not believe they have a very > clear idea of who funds Iraq's secret police. Its director is General > Mohammed Abdullah Shahwani, who once led a failed coup against Saddam > Hussein, and was handpicked by the CIA to run the new security > organisation soon after the invasion of 2003. He is believed to have > been answering to them ever since. > > The history of the Iraqi intelligence service is important because it > shows the real distribution of power in Iraq rather than the spurious > picture presented by President Bush. It explains why so many Iraqis > are suspicious of the security accord, or Status of Forces Agreement, > that the White House has been pushing the Iraqi prime minister Nouri > al-Malki to sign. It reveals the real political landscape where > President-elect Barack Obama will soon have to find his bearings. > > For all Mr Bush's pious declarations about respecting Iraqi > sovereignty, General Shahwani is reported to work primarily for > American intelligence. The intelligence service is "not working for > the Iraqi government ? it's working for the CIA," Hadi al-Ameri, a > powerful Shia lawmaker, was quoted as saying three years ago. "I > prefer to call it the American Intelligence of Iraq, not the Iraqi > Intelligence Service." > > It seems that not much has changed since then. The intelligence > service does now appear in the Iraqi budget as being in receipt of > $150 million, though this seems somewhat measly given the extent of > its operations, which includes running paramilitary units. One of its > main missions is to spy on Iranians on behalf of the US, employing > much the same cadre of intelligence officers who carried out this task > for Saddam Hussein. > > Fear of covert US control is one of the reasons why the Iraqi > government has been so intent on insisting that all US forces be out > of Iraq by the end of 2011. The latest draft of the security accord > has dropped mention of US troops staying behind for training, or > making the US withdrawal conditional on improved security in Iraq > being maintained. > > The American position in Iraq has always been undermined by the fear > that, whatever they claimed to be doing in Iraq, their long-term > objective was to rule the country. The overthrow of Saddam Hussein, > one of the world's more disastrous leaders, was generally popular in > Iraq. But the occupation was disliked by the majority of Iraqis from > the beginning. > > The result of this is that over the last five and a half years America > has always been politically weak in Iraq. Put simply, it has very few > friends among Iraqis outside Kurdistan. The Shia and Sunni communities > have, for their own ends, made tactical alliances with the occupier, > but never wanted a permanent presence. Once Iraqis and their > neighbours no longer fear that the US intends to rule Iraq directly or > indirectly through local nominees then America's position becomes much > stronger. > > This should be good news for Barack Obama. He wants US combat troops > out in 16 months. The Iraqi government largely agrees. But if the > presidential election proved anything it was that neither candidate > knew much about what was happening Iraq. > > John McCain claimed absurdly that the US was on the verge of victory, > and during his visits to the Green Zone his staffers annoyed US > embassy officials by requesting them not to wear helmets and body > armour when standing next the candidate. McCain's people feared this > might undermine in the eyes of American television viewers their > candidate's claim that US prospects in Iraq were rosier than had been > reported. > > The key to the US conducting an orderly retreat from Iraq is that this > retreat should be real and the US should not try to control essential > Iraqi state institutions like the intelligence service. It is also > crucial that Obama seriously negotiate with the Iranians. So long as > the Iranian leadership thinks that Iraq might be the launching pad for > an attack on Iran it will never be in Iranian interests for Iraq to be > stabilised. > > The same is true of Syria. A problem for Obama is that McCain's quite > false claim that America's position in Iraq has become stronger has > been largely accepted by the US media so any compromise with Iran can > be portrayed as a sell-out. > > _______________________________________________ > Rad-Green mailing list > Rad-Green at lists.econ.utah.edu > To change your options or unsubscribe go to: > http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/rad-green > From critical.montages at gmail.com Wed Nov 12 09:42:27 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Wed, 12 Nov 2008 11:42:27 -0500 Subject: [R-G] Tariq Amin-Khan: Plan Espoused by Obama's Top Pakistan Adviser Is Ill-advised Message-ID: November 12, 2008 Obama's vision for Pakistan Tariq Amin-Khan: Plan espoused by Obama's top Pakistan adviser is ill-advised. Bio Tariq Amin-Khan is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Politics and Public Administration at Ryerson University. In addition to a PhD in Social and Political Thought from York University in Toronto, he holds a Master's degree in South Asian Studies from the University of Toronto, and a Bachelor of Law from the University of Karachi in Pakistan. The title of his doctoral thesis is Theorizing the Post-Colonial State in the Era of Capitalist Globalism. From shniad at sfu.ca Wed Nov 12 11:49:59 2008 From: shniad at sfu.ca (Sid Shniad) Date: Wed, 12 Nov 2008 10:49:59 -0800 Subject: [R-G] Close Guantanamo Bay - National Lawyers Guild Message-ID: <200811121849.mACInxXZ001907@rm-rstar.sfu.ca> An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: not available Url: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/rad-green/attachments/20081112/113ed37f/attachment.txt From shniad at sfu.ca Wed Nov 12 13:13:26 2008 From: shniad at sfu.ca (Sid Shniad) Date: Wed, 12 Nov 2008 12:13:26 -0800 Subject: [R-G] Effort aims to counter Christian Zionism Message-ID: <200811122013.mACKDQis011339@rm-rstar.sfu.ca> An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: not available Url: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/rad-green/attachments/20081112/8b51af1c/attachment.txt From shniad at sfu.ca Wed Nov 12 13:31:56 2008 From: shniad at sfu.ca (Sid Shniad) Date: Wed, 12 Nov 2008 12:31:56 -0800 Subject: [R-G] Battle for Holocaust Assets Roils Israel Message-ID: <200811122031.mACKVu3u007686@rm-rstar.sfu.ca> An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: not available Url: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/rad-green/attachments/20081112/5e1b019b/attachment.txt From gmeyerson at triad.rr.com Wed Nov 12 14:29:15 2008 From: gmeyerson at triad.rr.com (Gregory Meyerson) Date: Wed, 12 Nov 2008 16:29:15 -0500 Subject: [R-G] IEA report Message-ID: <1D2452C2-4E43-4DF4-AC8B-A83F0C934071@triad.rr.com> http://www.theoildrum.com/node/4735#more check out oil drum assessment of IEA report that marketwatch claims debunks peak oil (that is, until 2030). it is worthwhile comparing the two (marketwatch) and oil drum accounts of the report. here is the lead p in executive summary of IEA report: The world?s energy system is at a crossroads. Current global trends in energy supply and consumption are patently unsustainable ? environmentally, economically, socially. But that can ? and must ? be altered; there?s still time to change the road we?re on. It is not an exaggeration to claim that the future of human prosperity depends on how successfully we tackle the two central energy challenges facing us today: securing the supply of reliable and affordable energy; and effecting a rapid transformation to a low-carbon, efficient and environmentally benign system of energy supply. What is needed is nothing short of an energy revolution. This World Energy Outlook demonstrates how that might be achieved through decisive policy action and at what cost. It also describes the consequences of failure. From critical.montages at gmail.com Wed Nov 12 14:33:16 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Wed, 12 Nov 2008 16:33:16 -0500 Subject: [R-G] Cohabitation in Syria Message-ID: Sex outside marriage is legal in Syria, lawyer says Live together 'legally', Syrian couples urged Unwed couples living together happens mostly in Damascus (File) DUBAI (Haian Nayouf, AlArabiya.net) A Syrian rights activist urged couples who live together outside of wedlock ? cohabiting ? to sign a contract stipulating the rights of both parties. Abdullah Ali, a lawyer, said cohabitation is "a verbal contract between a man and a woman who live together outside marriage and share various aspects of their lives." The prevalence of this living arrangement ? found mostly in the capital Damascus ? was brought into the open after the state-owned newspaper Al-Thawra ran a story about cohabiting couples in 2006. Ali told AlArabiya.net that the law does not prohibit sexual relationships between unmarried couples -- as long as both are adult and single -- and can thus be legally recognized. "This relationship is only criminalized in case one party or both are married," he said. The contract, he argued, will avoid potential problems such as parental or financial disputes. "The contract will comprise of the terms and conditions both agree to, provided they do not violate laws already in force as far as parenting and inheritance are concerned." Ali said children would likely be the most contentious issue, as their legitimacy in the eyes of the law could pose a problem. Couples don't resort to cohabiting because marriage is too costly, Ali said, noting that most unmarried couples who live together already have a home. "I think it is a rebellion against the institution of marriage and the way it legitimizes sexual relationships," he said. Syrian sociology professor, Hossam Al-Saad, also said financial problems are not the main factor, but that they play an important role. He said much more scientific study is needed on the phenomenon of cohabitation in Syria. "Studies about this issue seem like taboo, and cohabiting couples refuse to talk to researchers, so we don't have accurate data," Saad told AlArabiya.net. (Translated from Arabic by Sonia Farid). From critical.montages at gmail.com Wed Nov 12 14:41:25 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Wed, 12 Nov 2008 16:41:25 -0500 Subject: [R-G] Recalling La Dolce Vita in Eritrea Message-ID: Eritrea's Struggle Begins Anew Relics of a Long-Gone Era in Eritrea October 5, 2008 Journeys Recalling La Dolce Vita in Eritrea By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN WE were covered in soot, sitting on rock-hard benches, hot, sweaty and crawling along at maybe five miles an hour. But we were loving every minute of it, chugging straight up a mountainside, puff by puff, in a 1938 steam train built by the Italians when Eritrea was the jewel in their African crown. Outside our windows unfurled a sun-blasted landscape untouched by modernity ? stone walls, trickling waterfalls, boys tugging camels, women with beautifully braided hair and gold hoops through their noses trudging up the mountain paths. The sky was impossibly blue ? it always seemed to be like that here ? and from the railway tracks 7,000 feet above sea level, we could see for hundreds of miles in each direction. "More popcorn?" our hostess asked. The whole creaky carriage car was redolent with the irresistible smell of freshly popped popcorn. "Yes!" I said. "More popcorn!" Eritrea, for better and for worse, is a nation locked in a time capsule. Visiting here is like spending your vacation in a vintage shop. Old men in dapper Fedora hats and antique Italian shades haunt Harnet Avenue, the palm-studded main drag in Asmara, the capital. The city itself is a showcase for some of the world's boldest, most whimsical examples of 1930s Art Deco architecture, perfectly preserved by the thin desert air. There's the Cinema Impero, built in 1937, with a facade that looks like a circuit board. And Bar Zilli, with its curved walls and porthole windows. Most of these are not museum pieces and are still being used and lived in, relics from a long-gone era somehow still alive. One exception is a very unusual, now shuttered gas station more akin to an airplane, or a space ship about to take off. I took a stroll one day and suddenly came upon its long concrete wings just hanging there in the air. The gas station almost looks like its levitating. As barefoot women in traditional gauzy white shawls slipped past, I stood there thinking: when did this thing land here? Asmara the architectural marvel is not so much the purposeful result of a hard-fought preservation battle. No. There were battles, real ones, and it was Eritrea's bloody history of conflict and civil war that has kept this little-known sliver of a country along the Red Sea hermetically sealed to the outside world. The result is a surreal, out-of-body tourist experience, where you feel dislocated from just about everywhere else, but euphoric and inspired by what is in front of you. Africa? The Mediterranean? The Middle East? South Beach? It's hard to pinpoint exactly what Eritrea feels like. There's almost no crime. Asmara is known as one of the safest cities in Africa. Most people don't even bother to lock up their bikes. The climate is ideal, 70s and 80s during the day, 60s at night. The hotels are cheap but rich with character. On the coast, the beaches are deserted. And the water? Evian clear. If all this sounds too good to be true, it isn't. But it does come with a hefty caveat. American-Eritrean relations are at a historic low point, with American officials accusing the Eritrean government of sponsoring terrorism in Somalia. It's a long story, having to do with the chaos in Somalia and the poisonous relationship between Eritrea and its much larger neighbor, Ethiopia, which happens to be America's new B.F.F. (best friend forever) in Africa and is currently occupying Somalia. The Eritreans paint themselves as victims of a Western conspiracy. The accusations and counteraccusations could have some tourist fallout because the United States has made it hard for Eritreans to get visas and the Eritreans may do the same. So far, though, that doesn't seem to be happening, and tourists, especially design buffs, are trickling in. Eritrea is pushing its tourism industry and the Eritrean ambassador to Washington told me that he continues to process hundreds of visas for American tourists and that this summer there were several large American tour groups. Once in Eritrea, though, the paperwork is not over. You must apply for permits to travel outside of Asmara and explain where you will be staying and for how long. It all sounds kind of Orwellian. And it is, indeed, a drag. My advice: Be patient and follow the rules. Eritrea has always been a bit of a hot potato. It was colonized by the Italians at the end of the 19th century, seen as strategic because of its location at the mouth of the Red Sea. Italy didn't have many colonies, and Eritrea became the canvas for its overseas dreams. Italian professionals and artisans flooded into Asmara and built shoe factories, laboratories, plazas, hotels, the railroad and even an alpine-style cable car. Between 1936 and 1941, Italy's Fascist rulers transformed dry, dusty, little Eritrea into one of the most industrialized, modern colonies in all of Africa. The one blight, though, was a harsh apartheid system that prevented Eritreans and Italians from living, working or even drinking together. Not long after the Italians were defeated in World War II, Eritrea was colonized again ? this time by Ethiopia, next-door. In response, Eritreans launched a guerilla war. Men and women, Christians and Muslims, farm boys and physicians fought together in the trenches for their country's liberation. Eritreans call this period "the struggle." And after 30 years of struggling, they won. Eritrea became independent to much fanfare and optimism across the world. Its leader was a lionized guerilla hero. The year was 1993. Since then, that guerilla hero, President Isaias Afewerki, who is tall, handsome and mustached and has been called Africa's Tom Selleck, has struggled to find his way. He has rejected most foreign aid, no small feat in Africa, especially in the Horn of Africa, one of the most reliably chaotic and famine-prone regions on the planet. But Eritrea's economy suffers, with long bread and milk lines (though as tourists we had no problem stuffing ourselves on homemade tagliatelle and gelato), and many young Eritreans are tied up in the military. Since independence, Eritrea, population 5 million, has gone to war (or nearly gone to war) with just about all of its neighbors: Somalia, Ethiopia, Yemen, Djibouti and Sudan. The worst conflict was in 1998-2000, when Eritrea and Ethiopia battled over a seemingly insignificant border town. As many as 100,000 people were killed. So it's not hard to see where Eritrea gets its bunker mentality from. I traveled to Eritrea last fall with my wife, Courtenay, from Nairobi, Kenya, where I am based as The Times's bureau chief for East Africa. We flew on Nasair, a regional airline, to Asmara. The minute we landed at Asmara International, I was struck by how bright the light was. Asmara is located on a stony plateau, 7,700 feet above sea level. It is essentially a city above the clouds. Asmara became an Art Deco laboratory during the 1930s for designs that seemed, well, just too out there for mainland Italy. Rationalism, Novecento, neo-Classicism, neo-Baroque and monumentalism are among the varied avant-garde styles played with here. The result today is hundreds of aging, sherbet-colored buildings that are still standing, some needing a coat of paint ? or two ? but otherwise intact. With its plentiful palms and sunshine, the whole city has a decidedly Miami Beach vibe, minus the miniskirts and Ferraris. The star of the show, and for good reason, is the Fiat Tagliero gas station, designed in 1938 by Giuseppe Pettazzi to look like an airplane, a spaceship or possibly a bat. Mr. Pettazzi's extraordinary flourish was the concrete wings that jut out a total of more than 90 feet. The municipal authorities at the time required him to build pillars under the wings so they wouldn't collapse, which was an unforgivable insult to Mr. Pettazzi. According to local legend, Mr. Pettazzi installed detachable pillars, and at the station's opening, he pulled out a pistol and forced the builder to remove the supports. Needless to say, the wings are still there. We saw many of these modernist gems as we strolled around Harnet Avenue. The whole city, with its broad boulevards and wide sidewalks, was laid out with the passeggiata, or evening stroll, in mind. At sunset, thousands of people hit the main drag and you can feel the communal spirit, going back to the days of the struggle. "Do not talk about self," read one sign in English. "It will be done when you leave." It was in this collective, understated spirit that Eritreans built a most original war memorial. Eritreans chose not to put up a statue of Mr. Isaias or some other famous man but of a pair of giant sandals ? yes, sandals. The shida sandal, a $3 black plastic shoe that is actually quite uncomfortable unless you're hiding in a bunker and have bigger worries, is the official symbol of the struggle. In the center of town is a pair of 20-foot-long sheet metal shidas. In the 1980s, Eritrean rebels built a mobile shida machine underground that survived countless bombings. The sandals became legendary. We found most people here friendly, unless the subject was politics, which then seemed to bring out a prickly side. Eritreans are fiercely proud of their independence and reluctant to criticize their government, which has jailed political opponents. "The problem with Eritrea," explained an Eritrean friend who has left the country, "is that half of my friends are in prison and the other half put them there!" After a few days in Asmara, we headed to Massawa, Eritrea's swelteringly hot and therefore not surprisingly sleepy beach town. We took the steam train about a quarter of the way and then had a driver meet us and went by road for the rest. The train was built by the Italians starting in 1887 and still operates, though mostly for tourists. Along the way, the train stopped many times to load up on coal. "The engine's good," the train's equally ancient engineer, Seyoum Kidane, reassured me. "Just a little leakage." Massawa is hot, moist, quiet and battle-scarred. It's a place where you can see the cost of the struggle, like the Ottoman-era buildings with their roofs blown off and sea walls raked by machine-gun fire. There is a beautifully decrepit old bank building along the water where we picked our way through the cobwebs and rubble and found an enormous safe still half open (somebody had already cleaned it out). Some of the world's most spectacular diving is in the Red Sea. There are a few dive shops in Massawa with rentable gear and boats to take you to the Dahlak Archipelago, which includes more than 200 islands and dozens of wrecks. At night, when it cooled down a bit (it was still probably about 90 degrees), we took a stroll. The roads by the port are straight, wide and empty. The 300-year-old Ottoman quarter, on the other hand, is a maze of little alleyways and crumbling coral houses. The smell of frankincense wafted from under the beaded curtains of the bars. Shirtless old men sat at tables in the open air, draining beer from unmarked brown bottles and slapping down dominoes. There is not a lot going on in Massawa but that's part of the appeal. We had dinner at an outdoor fish restaurant called Sallam. The fish was barbecued Yemeni-style by slicing it in half, smacking the whole thing against the walls of a fire pit and baking it to a black crisp. It arrived on plastic plates with the meat dropping off the bone by the handful. It was cheap ? $20 for four. And delicious. In many ways, the story of Eritrea is the story of modern Africa, so much promise melting into so many problems. In just 15 years, Eritrea has gone from being the darling of the West, the egalitarian, crime-free, little-country-that-could, to a struggling, closed-off society, which, in a way, makes it all the more interesting to peek into. Modernity will eventually come, hopefully peacefully, and until then Eritrea will remain a remarkably authentic, singular place to visit. IF YOU GO GETTING THERE One of the cheaper ways to get to Eritrea from the United States is to fly on EgyptAir (www.egyptair.com.eg) from New York to Cairo and then connect in Cairo to Asmara. A round-trip ticket is around $1,700. Other flight options include Lufthansa (www.lufthansa.com) from Frankfurt, with a short stop in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Or Eritrean Airlines (www.flyeritrea.com) from Frankfurt or Rome. There is also Nasair (www.nasairgroup.com) from Nairobi, Kenya, which we used. A good travel agent to finesse these details is Travel Inn, in Marbella, Spain (34-952 82-9017; www.arrakis.es/~travel_inn/). WHERE TO STAY Italia Albergo (13 Nakfa Avenue; 291-1-120740; www.albergoitaliaasmara.com) is a gorgeous old-school hotel right in the center of town. The Albergo was actually Eritrea's first hotel, opened in 1899 and refurbished three years ago. Its lavishly appointed suites include big marble bathrooms, Corinthian columns and balconies that swing open to the street. Single rooms are $88 and double rooms are $132. (In Eritrea, prices are typically quoted in either dollars or nakfa, the local currency, with a current exchange rate of 15 nakfa to the dollar.) Book ahead for October and November, the busiest tourist time of year, thanks to the idyllic weather. The hotel does not accept credit cards. In Massawa, we stayed at the Red Sea Hotel (291-1-552839), right on the water. The rooms were clean, simple and, thankfully, air-conditioned, with a double room costing $32. WHERE TO EAT Asmara has excellent, inexpensive food. Lunches are usually no more than $10 and dinners $20. The Albergo serves up tasty Continental cuisine in a dining room that is nothing less than elegant. We also enjoyed Casa Degli Italiani (Mengesha Yohannes Street, 291-1-120791), the old Italian club from the Fascist days, with a huge Italian flag still flapping. The service is slow, but it lets you admire the pigeons in the courtyard. Most importantly, the mozzarella is home-made and the spaghetti Bolognese (110 nakfa, or about $7) is excellent. There are also some great local finds, like the Blue Bird Restaurant (291-1-117965). Eritrean food is a lot like Ethiopian food: mashed-up lentils; beef with peppers; spongy injera bread ? all washed down with tej, a honey wine served in grenade-shaped decanters. Dinner for two should run about 160 to 200 nakfa. We found a very helpful travel agent in Asmara ? Tedros Kebbede, of Travel House International, (291-7111-487, www.travelhouseeritrea.com). Mr. Kebbede can arrange guided tours, drivers and trips on Eritrea's steam train. He can also help with hotels in Massawa. From shniad at sfu.ca Wed Nov 12 15:47:06 2008 From: shniad at sfu.ca (Sid Shniad) Date: Wed, 12 Nov 2008 14:47:06 -0800 Subject: [R-G] Avichay Sharon - Breaking The Silence Message-ID: <200811122247.mACMl6DD019563@rm-rstar.sfu.ca> An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: not available Url: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/rad-green/attachments/20081112/b7ba2e9e/attachment.txt From news at ckut.ca Wed Nov 12 15:51:48 2008 From: news at ckut.ca (CKUT Community News Collective) Date: Wed, 12 Nov 2008 17:51:48 -0500 Subject: [R-G] support CKUT !! Message-ID: <491B5E04.7040104@ckut.ca> +++ En fran?ais ci-bas +++ dear friends and collaborators, Tune-in to Off the Hour and En Profondeur, 5-6pm during funding drive and pledge your support. To pledge during CKUTs Annunal Funding Drive, call: 514-907-9424 Give online: https://secure.ckut.ca/fddb/donors/new Why? *for 20-years CKUT has broadcast independent news programming; *CKUT was the first station in Canada to carry Alternative Radio, airing the program weekly for two decades; *for seven years CKUT has coordinated the Annual Homelessness Marathon, a 14-hour national radio program on poverty in Canada; *over the past 13-years CKUT has produced Native Solidarity News and for 18-years CKUT has aired Amandla with a focus on news from Africa; *for more than a decade CKUT has produced a daily Community News magazine called Off the Hour, including En Profondeur Monday's edition in French; *for nearly a decade CKUT has broadcast a weekly Community News program for the Arab and Muslim community and a Palestinian radio program for six years; *CKUT airs headlines from the award-winning program Democracy Now! weekdays at 8am with journalist Amy Goodman; For these reasons (and more), please pledge your support today... CKUT 90.3fm in Montreal is currently running it's 21st annual funding drive from Nov. 13th-23rd. CKUTs community news department is requesting your solidarity. Our Goal for 2008: $50,000. Thank You! ****************************** CherEs amiEs et collaboratrices, collaborateurs, Soyez ? l'?coute de Off the Hour et En Profondeur entre 17h et 18h durant la campagne de financement, et faites un don! Pour faire une promesse de don durant la campagne de financement, appellez CKUT au 514-907-9424 ou faites un don en ligne: https://secure.ckut.ca/fddb/donors/new Pourquoi? *Depuis 20 ans, CKUT produit et diffuse des nouvelles de fa?on ind?pendante; *CKUT est le premier diffuseur canadien de Alternative Radio. Le programme a ?t? diffus? chaque semaine pendant deux d?cennies; *Depuis 7 ans, CKUT a coordonn? le marathon annuel des sans-abris, 14h de programmation en direct sur la pauvret? au Canada; *Depuis 13 ans, CKUT produit Native Solidarity News et diffuse depuis 18 ans l'?mission Amandla, nouvelles de l'Afrique; *CKUT produit aussi, depuis plus de 10 ans, une ?mission de nouvelles communautaire quotidienne. Off the Hour a une ?dition francophone, En profondeur, tous les lundis; *Il y a pr?s de 10 ans que CKUT diffuse une ?mission de nouvelles communautaire pour la communaut? arabe et musulmane, et un programme de radio palestinien (depuis 6 ans); *tous les matins d?s 8h, en semaine, vous pouvez entendre les manchettes de Democracy Now!, un programme de nouvelles ayant re?u plusieurs prix, avec la journaliste Amy Goodman; Pour toutes ces raisons.... Entre le 13-23 novembre, le collectif de nouvelles de CKUT a besoin de votre support, ? l'occasion de la 21?me campagne de financement annuelle. Pour ces raisons, et bien d'autres, soyez solidaires et faites un don pour une radio ind?pendante communautaire de qualit?. Notre objectif pour 2008: 50 000$ Merci! From critical.montages at gmail.com Wed Nov 12 16:35:15 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Wed, 12 Nov 2008 18:35:15 -0500 Subject: [R-G] Schoolgirls Attacked with Acid in Afghanistan (Al Jazeera, 12 Nov 08) Message-ID: Schoolgirls Attacked with Acid in Afghanistan (Al Jazeera, 12 Nov 08) From shniad at sfu.ca Wed Nov 12 17:19:03 2008 From: shniad at sfu.ca (Sid Shniad) Date: Wed, 12 Nov 2008 16:19:03 -0800 Subject: [R-G] Dont Support Our Troops Message-ID: <200811130019.mAD0J3p8028282@rm-rstar.sfu.ca> An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: not available Url: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/rad-green/attachments/20081112/fad35a84/attachment.txt From shniad at sfu.ca Wed Nov 12 17:35:05 2008 From: shniad at sfu.ca (Sid Shniad) Date: Wed, 12 Nov 2008 16:35:05 -0800 Subject: [R-G] Ad Hoc Committee to Stop the Bush War Pact Message-ID: <200811130035.mAD0Z6r7027316@rm-rstar.sfu.ca> An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: not available Url: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/rad-green/attachments/20081112/d430b55a/attachment.txt From critical.montages at gmail.com Wed Nov 12 23:05:40 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Thu, 13 Nov 2008 01:05:40 -0500 Subject: [R-G] 88 Keys in Cuba (Al Jazeera, 12 Nov 08) Message-ID: "Elizabeth Jones' film 88 Keys in Cuba examines how Irishman Ciaran Ryan was inspired to come to the rescue of the island's pianos with money raised by the music community back home." -- Al Jazeera 88 Keys in Cuba, Part 1 88 Keys in Cuba, Part 2 Yoshie From critical.montages at gmail.com Thu Nov 13 00:23:29 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Thu, 13 Nov 2008 02:23:29 -0500 Subject: [R-G] Obama's Policy toward Afghanistan and Its Neighbors Message-ID: In his effort to restore US hegemony, Obama's best bet would be to take full cognizance of the conflicting interests of regional powers and see how he can play them against one another and get each to look to America to contain the others while obstructing the bilateral and multilateral relations in the region that are independent of America. -- Yoshie Obama to Explore New Approach in Afghanistan War By Karen DeYoung Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, November 11, 2008; A01 The incoming Obama administration plans to explore a more regional strategy to the war in Afghanistan -- including possible talks with Iran -- and looks favorably on the nascent dialogue between the Afghan government and "reconcilable" elements of the Taliban, according to Obama national security advisers. President-elect Barack Obama also intends to renew the U.S. commitment to the hunt for Osama bin Laden, a priority the president-elect believes President Bush has played down after years of failing to apprehend the al-Qaeda leader. Critical of Bush during the campaign for what he said was the president's extreme focus on Iraq at the expense of Afghanistan, Obama also intends to move ahead with a planned deployment of thousands of additional U.S. troops there. The emerging broad strokes of Obama's approach are likely to be welcomed by a number of senior U.S. military officials who advocate a more aggressive and creative course for the deteriorating conflict. Taliban attacks and U.S. casualties this year are the highest since the war began in 2001. Some military leaders remain wary of Obama's pledge to order a steady withdrawal of combat forces from Iraq, to be completed within 16 months -- an order advisers say Obama is likely to give in his first weeks in office. Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has called a withdrawal timeline "dangerous." Others are distrustful of a new administration they see as unschooled in the counterinsurgency wars that have consumed the military for the past seven years. But conversations with several Obama advisers and a number of senior military strategists both before and since last Tuesday's election reveal a shared sense that the Afghan effort under the Bush administration has been hampered by ideological and diplomatic constraints and an unrealistic commitment to the goal of building a modern democracy -- rather than a stable nation that rejects al-Qaeda and Islamist extremism and does not threaten U.S. interests. None of those who discussed the subject would speak on the record, citing sensitivities surrounding the presidential transition and the war itself. As Obama begins to formulate his Afghan war policy, some senior military strategists have begun to question the U.S. commitment to Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who is expected to run for reelection next year but is widely considered weak and ineffective. Some European and NATO officials have suggested that an assembly of tribal elders should select the country's next leader, an idea the State Department has rejected. Obama advisers have emphasized that a sharper focus on al-Qaeda does not mean pulling back on the Afghan ground war. Obama called early in the campaign for deploying two or three additional U.S. combat brigades to Afghanistan. Bush has already approved such an increase, although the timing of the deployments, likely to begin next spring, depends on the drawdown of forces from Iraq. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Mullen, frustrated by the performance of NATO allies whose troops make up more than half the total foreign force in Afghanistan, have already planned for a more overt and forceful U.S. leadership role in the war, as well as more direct involvement by U.S. forces in fighting the Taliban in southern and western Afghanistan. Some NATO military officials said enhanced U.S. leadership would be welcome, as long as it was not seen as a "takeover bid," said one senior European officer whose country has troops fighting as part of the NATO coalition in Afghanistan. While the U.S. military has long criticized some NATO members for lacking combat zeal and expertise in Afghanistan, many European officers resent what they see as U.S. arrogance. The NATO officer suggested that Obama, whose election was greeted with wide approval in Europe, may have more success than Bush in persuading other alliance members to increase their fighting forces in Afghanistan. "I think you'll find the new president would then be able to persuade a number of European nations who have not liked this administration's way of doing business to come in behind them," he said. At Mullen's direction, the map of the Afghanistan battle space is being redrawn to include the tribal regions of western Pakistan. U.S. military and intelligence leaders have delivered forceful messages to Pakistani officials on the need to step up attacks against Taliban and al-Qaeda sanctuaries in their territory. Obama, advisers said, plans to intensify the U.S. military and intelligence focus on al-Qaeda and bin Laden. Intelligence officials say the search is already as intensive as ever, even as they emphasize that the decentralized al-Qaeda network would remain a threat without him. Bush administration officials have publicly played down the importance of a single individual in the broad sweep of their anti-terrorism offensive. One week after the election, the Obama team is far from fleshing out how it will bring bin Laden closer to the forefront of the U.S. counterterrorism agenda, both rhetorically and substantively. Although Obama last week received his first high-level intelligence briefing as president-elect, members of his national security transition teams are still studying briefing materials the Bush administration has prepared for them. They have yet to fully examine available military and intelligence resources and how they are currently being used, and have not yet plotted their diplomatic approach to Pakistan, where U.S. intelligence officials believe bin Laden is hiding. While emphasizing the importance of continuing U.S. operations against Pakistan-based Taliban fighters who attack U.S. forces in Afghanistan, the incoming administration intends to remind Americans how the fight against Islamist extremists began -- on Sept. 11, 2001, before the Afghanistan and Iraq wars -- and to underscore that al-Qaeda remains the nation's highest priority. "This is our enemy," one adviser said of bin Laden, "and he should be our principal target." Obama said during the campaign that his administration would explore talks with countries such as Iran and Syria, rejecting bedrock Bush policy and rhetoric that some U.S. military officials believe may have outlived their usefulness. Iran, on Afghanistan's western border, has played a mixed role over the years, at times indirectly cooperating with U.S. objectives and at times assisting the extremists. The Bush administration has kept Tehran at arm's length, but "as we look to the future, it would be helpful to have an interlocutor" to explore shared objectives, said one senior U.S. military official. The Iranians "don't want Sunni extremists in charge of Afghanistan any more than we do," he said. Advisers also said Obama is open to supporting discussions between the Afghan government and "reconcilable" elements of the Taliban, a nascent effort of which the State Department has been fairly dismissive. Although it supports the terms the Afghan government has laid down -- abandoning violence and accepting the Afghan constitution -- the Bush administration sees "no serious indication from anybody on the Taliban side that they're interested," Assistant Secretary of State Richard A. Boucher said. "They keep hijacking buses, killing people and chopping their heads off. These are not people who have shown any serious desire to negotiate." But the Pentagon, at least rhetorically, has left the door open wider. Senior officers describe a substantial portion of Taliban foot soldiers as more opportunistic than ideologically committed. Gates has spoken openly about the possibility of reconciliation, saying, "at the end of the day, that's how most wars end. . . . That's ultimately the exit strategy for all of us." Gen. David D. McKiernan, commander of NATO and U.S. troops in Afghanistan, said during a recent visit to Washington that the idea of "reconciliation, I think, is appropriate, and we'll be there to provide support within our mandate." At the White House, presidential adviser Lt. Gen. Douglas E. Lute is leading an interagency assessment of the Afghanistan war, scheduled to be finished this month, that administration officials said will focus on enhancing support for provincial and local governments and building the Afghan police. Lute plans to travel to Brussels to summarize the review for NATO. At the Pentagon, Mullen is overseeing an Afghanistan and Pakistan transition strategy and force-structure review by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, while Gen. David H. Petraeus, the former Iraq commander sworn in last month as head of the U.S. Central Command, is drawing up plans for his wider new responsibilities, which include Iraq and Afghanistan. Mullen and Petraeus will remain in place when the Bush administration's civilian policymakers leave office in January. Petraeus, a senior Defense official said, has indicated he agrees with Obama's more regional approach to Afghanistan and welcomes "a debate about goals and how much is enough" in terms of nation-building there. "We are not going to seize the flag there and go home to a victory parade," this official said. Thursday, November 13, 2008 - 07:00 AFP News Briefs List Iranian diplomat kidnapped, guard killed in Pakistan: police Unidentified gunmen kidnapped an Iranian diplomat Thursday, killing his Pakistani police guard in the latest attack in the northwestern province bordering Afghanistan, police said. Hashmatullah Atharzadeh was on his way to the consulate in Peshawar, capital of North West Frontier Province, when unknown assailants attacked his car, police officer Banaras Khan said. "The attackers sprayed bullets, forcing the car to stop and then dragged out the diplomat while his police guard was killed," Khan told AFP. They took away the diplomat in their own vehicle, another police officer, Abdul Qadir said. The ambush took place close to where unknown gunmen killed an American aid worker and his local driver on Wednesday. In August a US diplomat escaped unhurt in the city after gunmen opened fire on her car. Suspected Taliban militants kidnapped Afghan Consul General Abdul Khaliq Farahi nearly two months ago and are still holding him. And two weeks ago a brother of an Afghan minister was also kidnapped and remains untraced. The incidents come amid an ongoing offensive by the Pakistani military in the tribal region of Bajaur and the scenic Swat valley, during which more than 2,000 militants have been killed over the past few months. Nov 12, 2008 India reels over Obama's silence By M K Bhadrakumar Diplomatic predicaments can at times be almost laughable. Indian officials were scurrying around like headless chickens because 120 anxious hours had passed and United States president-elect Barack Obama had not yet put a phone call through to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh - as he has done to at least nine other heads of state. The Indians could learn a thing or two from the Kremlin. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev found himself exactly in Manmohan's predicament when by November 8 his Kremlin telephone still had not rung. But 43-year-old Medvedev did a smart thing. He put a call through to Chicago to the 47-year old president-elect. The Kremlin thereupon went ahead and publicized the conversation in an upbeat account. A budding controversy was nipped before it could blossom. Kashmir issue reviving Young people move real fast. The embarrassment is acute in Delhi since 76-year-old Manmohan committed an incredible gaffe in the runup to the US elections in late September by telling the 65-year-old US President George W Bush that Indians "loved" him - ignoring how fast the American people's equation with their lameduck leader was deteriorating. Delhi finds it appalling that Obama phoned Pakistani leader Asif Zardari on Saturday and the two leaders reportedly discussed the Kashmir issue. External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee promptly reacted, invoking the Simla Accord of 1972 as the cornerstone of India-Pakistan relations, which rules out third-party mediation over the disputed territory of Kashmir. It is a long while since an Indian statesman mentioned the Simla Accord. It is a "back-off" message and it comes amid reports that in a move to inspire Islamabad to perform better in the "war on terror", the incoming US administration may coax India into a settlement of the Kashmir problem and that Obama proposes to appoint former US president Bill Clinton as special envoy to undertake a sustained mediatory mission between India and Pakistan. Indians might have fondly overlooked Clinton's incurable flaws and warmed to him as president, but his anointment as Kashmir envoy will not go down well. Public opinion would see it as a failure of the government's foreign policy. And the ruling Congress party is gearing up for a string of tough provincial and federal elections. However, Obama may also be unwittingly exposing some of the fallacies underlying the Manmohan government's foreign policy - China, the war in Afghanistan and nuclear non-proliferation. Floundering dreams Indian strategists blithely assume that Washington ascribes crucial importance to building up India as a counterweight to China. They estimate India stands to gain from the US's containment strategy towards China. But a containment strategy towards China may be the last thing on Obama's mind. China is a key player in any US effort to rebuild the global financial architecture, and Beijing is behaving like a "stakeholder". The Indian obsession with "great-power" status looks out of place in the changed context. George W Bush administration officials constantly drilled into Indian ears the importance of Delhi taking on responsibilities for the management of the world order. They visualized India as a junior partner in the strategy to control the waterway between the Persian Gulf and the chokepoint of the Malacca Strait through which the bulk of China's oil imports is transported. Similarly, the Bush administration prodded Delhi to seriously consider military involvement in Afghanistan. Against the backdrop of the US-India civilian nuclear deal, audacious Indian strategists began fancying Delhi and Washington would move towards a "serious conversation" as regards the "full range of issues relating to Pakistan's political and strategic future". Obama's Afghan strategy Obama threatens to shake up the daydreamers in Delhi. His top priority is to seek an exit strategy in Afghanistan. He will be wary of following in the tragic footsteps of president Lyndon Johnson who, like him, inherited a war (Vietnam), which ultimately consumed his presidency and destroyed his political life. Obama could as well have delivered LBJ's famous Great Society speech of May 1964 at the University of Michigan commencement. He is at a comparable point in the march of American history and politics. Equally, Obama empathizes with Pakistan's plight. He would assess that the moral and political responsibility for destabilizing Pakistan primarily lies with Washington and that as long as the Afghan war continues, Pakistan will remain in the vortex of volatility, which will affect regional stability. He may not necessarily opt for Central Command chief General David Petraeus' strategy of "surge" first followed by negotiations with the Taliban, but his campaign rhetoric that he is determined to win the Afghan war must be seen in its entire context. Washington accepts Pakistan has special interests in Afghanistan and the US needs to accommodate them. These include security guarantees against perceived Indian threats as well as regard for the Durand Line that separates Afghanistan and Pakistan. It shouldn't come as a surprise to Delhi if the US seeks a rollback of the scale of the Indian presence in Afghanistan. Even-handed policy Two, Obama will actively seek to improve India-Pakistan relations so that they become predictable. His inclination to bring in Clinton as special envoy must be seen from this perspective. He needs someone with persuasive skill to influence Delhi, while he focuses on Pakistan and the war. But Obama cannot be naive enough to conclude that his route to Afghan settlement lies through the treacherous minefields of the 60-year-old Kashmir dispute. Nor is Clinton unaware that India will never accept any redrawing of its boundaries. And Indians are famous for hunkering down, as he learned in the late 1990s when they went nuclear. Clinton would know his task essentially would be to probe the Indian offer to make the borders separating the two parts of Kashmir "irrelevant" within the overall framework of a durable peace process with Pakistan. Therefore, the high probability is that despite his fondness for travel, good food and diplomacy, he may still be reluctant to take up the challenging assignment in South Asia. Compared to the Cold War era when India withstood the hostile US stance on the Kashmir issue, it is in a far happier position today on the world arena. So, why are Indians going ballistic? The problem lies elsewhere. The Manmohan government frittered away a rare four-year spell of relative calm to provide responsive government in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K). A colossal failure of leadership in Delhi and massive political ineptitude locally in J&K incrementally sapped India's strong position. The consequent alienation of Kashmiri people runs deep. The challenge facing Delhi is to hold free and fair elections to the provincial assembly in J&K due in December, and to facilitate the formation of a government which the international community will regard as democratically elected. Delhi's fear is that any talk of US mediation may embolden Kashmiri secessionists. On balance, Obama can be expected to pursue an even-handed policy towards the two South Asian rivals India and Pakistan. But herein lies the rub. The expectation in Delhi is that the US ought to build up India as the pre-eminent power in the region. This is the real source of the angst among the Indian elite and strategists, even though the Obama administration will continue with the US policy to seek a strong relationship with India in the sphere of military and intelligence cooperation. Nuclear deal may unravel Meanwhile, a potentially debilitating discord is appearing on the horizon. Obama supported the nuclear deal with India, which was recently ratified by the US Congress. But now it transpires, following "leaks" from Washington, that as early as September 23, Obama had written to Manmohan that his administration would regard the deal with India as a "central element" of the US's nuclear weapons policy. He put on record that his administration would press for the US's ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) "at the earliest practical day". Furthermore, he said his administration would "launch a major diplomatic initiative" to ensure that CTBT came into force. Obama added he would also pursue negotiations on a "verifiable, multilateral treaty" to end production of fissile material for nuclear weapons. Both with regard to the CTBT as well as an immediate moratorium on the production of fissile material, he wrote, "I very much hope and expect India will cooperate closely with the United States in these multilateral efforts". Curiously, the Manmohan government kept the letter under wraps until it became public knowledge last week. It was apprehensive that the letter challenges the official contention that the deal accords recognition to India as a nuclear weapons state. The letter touches a raw nerve. There is apprehension that Obama's thinking will be integrated into new US disarmament proposals that draw India into the global nuclear order through the CTBT and the fissile material production ban and impose on India a more stringent accounting of its nuclear material. Delhi's priority is to use the deal to provide the context to access to sensitive US military technology within the overall framework of the "strategic partnership". Surely, there is a grey area here. Did the Bush administration negotiate the deal with transparency? Hard to say. Are Indians so dumb as to be led up the garden path and hustled into a deal full of ambiguities? Not really. Only Bush and Manmohan would know. It appears India and the US have a growing need to retain Manmohan and Bush in their current jobs as lifetime heads of governments so that the strategic partnership can go from strength to strength. Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar was a career diplomat in the Indian Foreign Service. His assignments included the Soviet Union, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Germany, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Kuwait and Turkey. Nov 5, 2008 India seeks 'velvet divorce' from Iran By M K Bhadrakumar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Strategy toward Afghanistan Again, the geopolitics of the region dictate that Delhi and Tehran explore the frontiers of a common strategy towards Afghanistan at a time when the Taliban's resurgence is apparent and its induction by the US into a coalition government in Kabul in the not-too-distant future appears highly probable. Mukherjee could have conceivably utilized the visit for such purpose. The Iranian side indeed appeared keen for purposeful dialogue on Afghanistan. But Delhi isn't willing. The priority in the Indian mindset is to harmonize its regional policies with the US (and Israel) as regards the "war on terror". That includes Delhi's Afghan policy. The powerful chairman of Iran's Expediency Council and former president, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, told Mukherjee, "Resolving the current crisis in Afghanistan requires extensive cooperation between Iran, India and Pakistan. This cooperation can bring tranquility to the region ... The experience of the Soviet Union in this country [Afghanistan] shows that the path the West is now treading in Afghanistan will not yield the desired results. The signs that are currently observed in Afghanistan show that the West is not capable of resolving the problems of this country." Mukherjee responded, "No country outside the region can find a solution to the problems of regional countries and the regional states themselves should resolve the problems through cooperation with each other." He added that India, Iran and Pakistan could play "important roles in regional events" and their cooperation would "help establish peace and stability" in the region. The Indian timidity is despite the fact that India and Iran were staunch allies supporting the anti-Taliban alliance until the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. Delhi would be aware that Tehran has sharply reacted to the current US, British, Saudi and Pakistani efforts to accommodate the Taliban. Actually, the Indian and Iranian positions have striking similarity insofar as neither thinks there is anything conceivable as "good Taliban". Yet, Delhi shies from coordinating with Tehran lest it tread on US-Israeli sensitivities. Sharp interest rate rise brings IMF package a step closer By Farhan Bokhari in Lahore Published: November 13 2008 02:00 | Last updated: November 13 2008 02:00 Pakistan's central bank -yesterday brought the country a step closer to a crucially needed loan from the International Monetary Fund by raising its key interest rate by 200 basis points to 15 per cent. A rate rise was specified as a necessary condition to secure an IMF loan in negotiations between the fund and Pakistan's finance officials. Inflation is running at about 25 per cent - the highest in 30 years. "Steps have been taken over the last few months aimed at addressing emerging challenges but we have to tighten monetary policy to achieve price stability" Shamshad Akhtar, governor of the central bank - the State Bank of Pakistan - said. "It was the toughest decision of my life. The IMF programme will be good for Pakistan as we need to be disciplined." Yesterday's increase followed the central bank's decision in July to raise interest rates by 100 basis points to 13 per cent. Ms Akhtar revealed that Pakistan's current account deficit had almost doubled in the first four months of the financial year ending next June, rising to about $5.9bn (?4.7bn, ?3.9bn) for the July-October period compared to $3bn for the same period a year ago. Economists warned that the rate increase was likely to further hit prospects for large employers, such as those in the textile sector, forcing companies to consider reducing output due to the higher cost of borrowing and the effects of a general global slowdown. "As we enter in to an IMF programme, the effects will include a significant economic slowdown for Pakistan. The government faces a major challenge in managing a slowing economy as it will have to cut expenditure to reduce the budget deficit," said Pervez Tahir, a Pakistani economist. Mr Tahir echoed growing criticism of the government for unnecessarily delaying negotiations with the fund. "The IMF approach should have been made four to six months ago when Pakistan's economy was in a healthier position. Now, the delay means that the fund will -dictate conditions." A senior finance ministry official in Islamabad said, after yesterday's increase, Pakistan had met most of the IMF's conditions. "The remaining issue is basically that of some agreement on adjustment of electricity tariffs. The rest is all pretty much settled," he said. Western economists warned that a slowdown would pose the challenge of finding ways to protect the poor who make up almost a third of the 165m population. "Having so many very poor people presents a potentially explosive situation. If there is further unemployment and cuts in . . social expenditures, there may well be a public backlash," said one. Forced Marriage By: Kian Mokhtari Noises coming out of the White House maybe signaling a US shift away from waging war on the Taliban. With news that the Bush administration is seriously considering holding talks with the militant Afghan group, came the announcement from Pakistani and Afghan officials that there was political will on both sides of the border to engage the Taliban in dialogue. Fifty delegates met on the second day of a "mini-Jirga" in Islamabad, following reports of secret negotiations with top Taliban commanders in a bid to end the bloodshed in both countries. Sources within the Jirga said they would form a group sanctioned by the Afghan and Pakistani militaries and governments to "engage the Taliban in serious negotiations for finding a peaceful solution." And thus around seven years of indiscriminate murder, bloodshed, mayhem and instability caused by the ill thought out US invasion of Afghanistan looks to be coming to an end soon. The end result is far from what was expected by the US public who has been paying for both wars. Not only was there not a clear victory to speak of in either theatre, the US and its allies in the war against terrorism are now busy trying to make peace with the "terrorists." There is not a breath left on Capital hill to continue the campaign in Afghanistan. There is neither the political will nor the financial muscle to wage war. Even the US military has had enough and cannot stomach Taliban's asymmetric fighting techniques. And all the while Taliban has been becoming bolder in its tactics and more audacious in its attacks both in Pakistan and Afghanistan. But the question is how can the two US allies now make peace with an emboldened Taliban that has asked for nothing less than the removal of both Afghan and Pakistani government apparatuses from power altogether? The race is quite obviously on for the Bush administration to tie up the loose ends before it leaves office in just over two months' time. But it is not as simple as that. Taliban is signaling that it is willing to talk peace while at the same time it is waging a full campaign against the NATO-led coalition and the Pakistani security forces. Emboldened by the fact that the US and its allies have no desire to carry on the fight, Taliban will now take the fight to the two governments it bitterly opposes, until it gets most of what it wants. The militant group will be able to force the rest out of both countries in due course. Because ?so the thinking goes- if the US, NATO and Pakistani military could not defeat the Taliban militants over seven bloody years, why should the group not want the whole cake and eat it too? There maybe new efforts to get some kind of a negotiated settlement out of the Taliban militants but the fact cannot be denied that, at this late stage, it will take a lot more than the US, Afghan and Pakistani governments are willing to give to satisfy the militant group's appetite. Forced marriages very seldom work to the advantage of all the parties involved. November 12, 2008 Turkish Leader Volunteers to Be U.S.-Iran Mediator By SABRINA TAVERNISE ANKARA, Turkey ? Turkey wants to be the mediator between the new Obama administration and Iran, using its growing role in the Middle East to bridge the divide between East and West, said Turkey's prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Mr. Erdogan said in an interview on Sunday that Barack Obama's election opened new opportunities for a shift in relations between the United States and Iran, Turkey's neighbor. Mr. Obama said during his campaign that he would consider holding talks with Iran, something the Bush administration has long opposed. Mr. Erdogan described the note of congratulations sent to Mr. Obama last week by the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, as "a step that has to be made use of." "We are ready to be the mediator," Mr. Erdogan said, before going to the United States to attend a meeting about the global economic crisis. "I do believe we could be very useful." The United Nations has placed sanctions on Iran for a nuclear program that the United States and other nations say is working to develop a nuclear bomb. Iran says the program is peaceful. Turkey supports the position of its Western allies but argues that the sanctions are weakening Iranian reformists. "We watch the relations between Iran and U.S. with great concern," Mr. Erdogan said. "We expect such issues to be resolved at the table. Wars are never solutions in this age." Turkey fears an economically and politically isolated Iran, which supplies it with its principal alternative to Russian energy. It also wants to avoid another military conflict on its borders. "They are deathly afraid of what might come," said a Western official who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter. "They don't want a repeat of Iraq." Turkey argues that it is uniquely positioned to facilitate talks between Washington and Tehran. It is a NATO member, and it secured a nonpermanent seat on the United Nations Security Council last month. It is a Muslim country that has renewed relations with its Middle Eastern neighbors in recent years, achieving a breakthrough in May by bringing Israel and Syria together for talks for the first time in years. But Western officials express skepticism that Turkey, a member of the Western alliance, could succeed as an impartial moderator between Washington and Tehran. Turkey's relationship with Iran is complex. The nations have energy and cultural ties but vie for political influence in the region. And despite the Islamic tint of Mr. Erdogan's government, Turkey is constitutionally secular and has deep ideological differences with Iran. "They know that being a mediator between the West and Iran is really risky," said the Western official who requested anonymity. "It's going to put them in the wrong place." Still, with a new American administration and a president-elect who has said he intends to make broad changes in foreign policy, there may be opportunities. "The ice will start shifting again in interesting and different ways," the official said. After its founding in the 1920s, Turkey cut off relations with its Muslim neighbors, even changing its alphabet from Arabic to Latin. It has been a close ally of the United States, supporting Washington throughout the cold war, but it had little voice of its own in international affairs. Since Mr. Erdogan's party came to power in 2002, however, Turkey has hosted presidents, prime ministers and kings of at least six Middle Eastern countries, including Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Syria and Qatar. Mr. Ahmadinejad visited this summer. Neighboring countries now account for 30 percent of Turkey's foreign trade, up from 8 percent before Mr. Erdogan's party was elected, said Ahmet Davutoglu, Mr. Erdogan's top foreign policy adviser. "Our principle in foreign policy is we're against earning enemies," Mr. Erdogan said. The government has also expanded ties outside the region ? announcing plans to open 15 new embassies in sub-Saharan Africa, up from 12 ? and has tried to rethink relationships at home. Last month, Turkish officials held talks with Massoud Barzani, the leader of the Kurdish enclave in northern Iraq, a move that would have been unthinkable a year ago. "This is no longer a country that makes foreign policy decisions based on 'What would the West think?' " said Soner Cagaptay, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Mr. Davutoglu said that a diversified foreign policy was just good business, and that the shift did not mean that Turkey was exchanging one alliance for another. "No one should misunderstand that Turkey is now focusing more on Middle Eastern diplomacy than NATO ? no," he said. "If we are more influential in the Middle East, it is an asset for our process in Europe, it is an asset in NATO." There have been missteps, as when officials of the militant Palestinian group Hamas visited in 2006, but Turkey quickly backpedaled after Israel and the United States protested. "They've been very helpful," the Western official said of the Turks. And though diplomacy with Iran is a long way from succeeding, the official said that "one of the things that could help is a fellow Muslim country that is trying to lead Iran in a different direction." Mr. Erdogan, for his part, said Mr. Obama's election offered a chance for the United States to regain the trust of the world and reclaim "an image that's been lost." He said that the United States had "declared certain values firmly at the start of the 21st century," but that "not only did they not advance, they stepped backward." "For me," the prime minister said, "it's very important to put these values into practice." Mr. Erdogan, who is finishing his sixth year as prime minister, offered Mr. Obama some advice: "Maintain the steadiness of your spine, but don't engage in fights." Sebnem Arsu contributed reporting from Ankara, Istanbul and Erzurum, Turkey. From critical.montages at gmail.com Thu Nov 13 01:54:15 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Thu, 13 Nov 2008 03:54:15 -0500 Subject: [R-G] US Lost a Nuclear Bomb in Greenland + Radioactive Legacy of 'Lost Bomb' Message-ID: Page last updated at 18:14 GMT, Monday, 10 November 2008 Mystery of lost US nuclear bomb Declassified US government video of Thule clear-up By Gordon Corera BBC News security correspondent, northern Greenland The United States abandoned a nuclear weapon beneath the ice in northern Greenland following a crash in 1968, a BBC investigation has found. Its unique vantage point - perched at the top of the world - has meant that Thule Air Base has been of immense strategic importance to the US since it was built in the early 1950s, allowing a radar to scan the skies for missiles coming over the North Pole. The Pentagon believed the Soviet Union would take out the base as a prelude to a nuclear strike against the US and so in 1960 began flying "Chrome Dome" missions. Nuclear-armed B52 bombers continuously circled over Thule - and could head straight to Moscow if they witnessed its destruction. Greenland is a self-governing province of Denmark but the carrying of nuclear weapons over Danish territory was kept secret. 'Darker story' But on 21 January 1968, one of those missions went wrong. Pilots recount Thule crash We reunited two of the pilots, John Haug and Joe D'Amario, 40 years on to tell the story of how their plane ended up crashing on the ice a few miles out from the base. In the aftermath, military personnel, local Greenlanders and Danish workers rushed to the scene to help. Eventually, a remarkable operation would unfold over the coming months to recover thousands of tiny pieces of debris scattered across the frozen bay, as well as to collect some 500 million gallons of ice, some of it containing radioactive debris. A declassified US government video, obtained by the BBC, documents the clear-up and gives some ideas of the scale of the operation. The high explosives surrounding the four nuclear weapons had detonated but without setting off the actual nuclear devices, which had not been armed by the crew. The Pentagon maintained that all four weapons had been "destroyed". This may be technically true, since the bombs were no longer complete, but declassified documents obtained by the BBC under the US Freedom of Information Act, parts of which remain classified, reveal a much darker story, which has been confirmed by individuals involved in the clear-up and those who have had access to details since. The documents make clear that within weeks of the incident, investigators piecing together the fragments realised that only three of the weapons could be accounted for. Even by the end of January, one document talks of a blackened section of ice which had re-frozen with shroud lines from a weapon parachute. "Speculate something melted through ice such as burning primary or secondary," the document reads, the primary or secondary referring to parts of the weapon. By April, a decision had been taken to send a Star III submarine to the base to look for the lost bomb, which had the serial number 78252. (A similar submarine search off the coast of Spain two years earlier had led to another weapon being recovered.) But the real purpose of this search was deliberately hidden from Danish officials. One document from July reads: "Fact that this operation includes search for object or missing weapon part is to be treated as confidential NOFORN", the last word meaning not to be disclosed to any foreign country. "For discussion with Danes, this operation should be referred to as a survey repeat survey of bottom under impact point," it continued. 'Failure' But the underwater search was beset by technical problems and, as winter encroached and the ice began to freeze over, the documents recount something approaching panic setting in. US 'abandoned nuclear bomb' As well as the fact they contained uranium and plutonium, the abandoned weapons parts were highly sensitive because of the way in which the design, shape and amount of uranium revealed classified elements of nuclear warhead design. But eventually, the search was abandoned. Diagrams and notes included in the declassified documents make clear it was not possible to search the entire area where debris from the crash had spread. We tracked down a number of officials who were involved in dealing with the aftermath of the incident. One was William H Chambers, a former nuclear weapons designer at the Los Alamos nuclear laboratory who once ran a team dealing with accidents, including the Thule crash. "There was disappointment in what you might call a failure to return all of the components," he told the BBC, explaining the logic behind the decision to abandon the search. "It would be very difficult for anyone else to recover classified pieces if we couldn't find them." The view was that no-one else would be able covertly to acquire the sensitive pieces and that the radioactive material would dissolve in such a large body of water, making it harmless. Other officials who have seen classified files on the accident confirmed the abandonment of a weapon. The Pentagon declined to comment on the investigation, referring back to previous official studies of the incident. But the crash, clear-up and mystery of the lost bomb have continued to haunt those involved at the time - and those who live in the region now - with continued concerns over the environmental and health impact of the events of that day in 1968. Page last updated at 19:05 GMT, Monday, 10 November 2008 Radioactive legacy of 'lost bomb' By Gordon Corera Security correspondent, BBC News, Thule, Greenland The crash of a B-52 aircraft, armed with nuclear warheads, in north-west Greenland back in 1968 has left a lasting legacy, according to those involved in the clear-up and those who live in the region now. There are claims of long-term damage to the environment and to the health of individuals, allegations disputed by the governments involved. Following the fire aboard the aircraft, the high explosives surrounding the nuclear weapons exploded but without setting off the actual nuclear devices, which were not armed. Three of the four bombs being carried by the plane smashed on to the ice and broke into tiny fragments. Radioactive material was widely dispersed across the ice and was also thrust into the sky in a plume of smoke, declassified documents show. Danish workers rushed to the scene of the crash, near Thule, and were heavily involved in clearing up the wreckage in the subsequent weeks and months as part of an enormous US military operation. However, some of those workers believe not enough thought was given to their safety, given the presence of radioactive material from the bombs on board the plane. "I was never given any protective equipment; I just went out in whatever you normally wore at work," recalls Jeffrey Carswell. "You had this special team with the airmen in full protective equipment climbing on top of these 50,000 gallon drums and containers and I was down there, on a daily basis, (with) no protective equipment." 'Limited impact' One of the weapons melted through the ice and sank into the bay below where it was abandoned, after a submarine search failed to locate it. S government scientists conducted numerous studies to try to work out what would happen and eventually decided that if they could not recover the remaining parts of the bomb, then no-one else could. They also decided that the environmental impact would be limited because the material had been dispersed in such a large body of water. "The bottom of the ocean is not a bad place in terms of environmental effects," William H Chambers, formerly of Los Alamos Nuclear Laboratory, told BBC News. Before the base was established in 1953, the land was home to the local Greenlanders, who were then relocated 60 miles further north up the coast to the village of Qannaq. In Qannaq, hunting is still an integral part of life and livelihood; some of the hunters believe they have seen the effects of the 1968 crash's radioactive material. "There were two times when I hunted, when the seal's insides were dried out. Something must have happened to them," Ussaaqqak Qujaukitsoq told me on the waterfront of the village. "If we think about the walruses and the other birds that have eating grounds on the bottom of the ocean, we will see the impact of it." Other villagers, who went to the crash, also complain of undiagnosed, unusual illnesses. And the workers at the crash site, like Jeffrey Carswell, also believe they have paid a price. "I was referred to a specialist and they discovered I had a particular condition that needed to be operated [on] straight away," Mr Carswell told me. "My doctor said that my particular condition was caused by exposure to radiation and plutonium. "As we found out when we started talking to colleagues, a lot of those of us who were there at the time had problems of various types, all sorts of shocking problems that is, for sure, linked to what happened at Thule." The workers have taken a case through Europe's courts, arguing that Denmark failed to abide by a European directive requiring their health be monitored. To date, they have been unsuccessful. "There are four petitioners included in this case," explains their lawyer Ian Anderson. "Two of them have died of radiation illnesses and they are being represented by their next of kin. Two of them are seriously ill with radiation-related conditions. "The case is quite simple: had they been medically monitored from the year 2000 when that directive came in to force, their conditions would have been detected at an earlier stage with a much better prognosis." But the Danish government is adamant there is no hard evidence to suggest a long-term health impact. "We have found no link between the crash and the illness of the Thule workers," says Kaare Ulbak, from the Danish National Institute of Radiation Protection. "We have very good registers for cancer incidents and cancer mortality and we have made a very thorough investigation." According to Dr Ulbak, between 0.5kg and 1kg of plutonium has been on the seabed, seeping into the marine environment over the years, but surveys show that this also poses no danger to humans in the region. But former workers believe that the lack of proof of a link between the crash and their ill-health is precisely because they have not been monitored over time in a way that would allow such a link to be proved. The head of the Association of Former Thule Workers, Jens Zieglersen, who also helped at the crash, remains unconvinced. "I think it's a cover-up. We are getting older and the Danish authorities and the Danish government will wait and keep their mouths sealed for another 15, 20 years; then there's no-one left that remembers and who was a part of the accident back in the days of '68." It is now 40 years since the crash of the B-52. But for those who were in Thule then and for those living in the region now, life and death is still defined by the events of that day. From critical.montages at gmail.com Thu Nov 13 02:04:02 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Thu, 13 Nov 2008 04:04:02 -0500 Subject: [R-G] Germany to Extradite Rwandan President's Aide to France Message-ID: Germany to extradite Rwandan president's aide to France www.chinaview.cn 2008-11-13 00:25:12 BERLIN, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) -- Germany is to extradite Rose Kabuye, a Rwandan presidential aide, to France after a local court in Frankfurt approved the extradition request on Wednesday. However, the specific date for extradition would be decided by France, said the court. Kabuye, 47, a former guerrilla leader and mayor of the Rwandan capital Kigali, was arrested when she landed at Frankfurt airport on Sunday. Germany's move has threatened to exacerbate a diplomatic dispute between Germany and Rwanda. The central African country has ordered the expulsion of the German ambassador in protest, and it has also recalled its own top diplomat from Berlin. Kabuye and eight other Rwandans are wanted for questioning in France about the 1994 assassination of Hutu president Juvenal Habyarimana, which triggered the genocide in the poverty-stricken country. Habyarimana was killed when his plane was shot down. According to German media, after her arrest, Kabuye agreed to a fast-track extradition from Germany to France. Earlier on Tuesday, the German Foreign Ministry said that the German ambassador in Kigali would "leave the country at Rwanda's request and travel to Berlin for consultations." Rwandan President Paul Kagame, who was in Germany to give a lecture Monday evening to business executives, visited Kabuye in prison on Tuesday and said she was upbeat. Before a German judge, Kabuye denied the French allegations of murder and membership in a terrorist organization, German news agency DPA reported. Kagame aide faces extradition to France By William Wallis in London and Peggy Hollinger in Paris Published: November 9 2008 23:34 | Last updated: November 9 2008 23:34 Rose Kabuye, the chief of protocol to President Paul Kagame of Rwanda, was facing extradition to France on Sunday after German police arrested her in connection with her alleged involvement in the incident that sparked the Rwandan genocide in 1994. It is the first time a warrant has been executed since French and Spanish judges sought to use the principle of universal jurisdiction to indict members of the Rwandan administration, including Mr Kagame himself, for their alleged complicity in past war crimes. Mr Kagame said in a recent interview with the FT that his country would consider charging French nationals who allegedly played a role in the killings as allies of the former regime, if the indictments in European courts were not reversed. He described them as "arising out of abuse of the principle of universal jurisdiction by individual states" and argued that Rwanda's sovereignty was being violated and its ability to conduct international relations hampered. A Rwandan presidency official told the FT that Mrs Kabuye was being held in Frankfurt in connection with an international arrest warrant issued in 2006 by a French judge, Jean-Louis Brugui?re. She was travelling on a diplomatic passport, the official said, before a visit by Mr Kagame to the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. Mr Brugui?re charged nine senior Rwandan officials, including Mrs Kabuye, for alleged complicity in shooting down the plane carrying former president Juvenal Habyarimana and his Burundian counterpart in April 1994. The incident triggered the mass slaughter of minority ethnic Tutsis. Rwandan officials have always claimed the plane was shot down on Sunday maintained that Mrs Kabuye was innocent and appealed for her immediate release in a letter to the German authorities. Mrs Kabuye elected at a court hearing on Sunday to go straight to Paris to "clear her name" rather than challenge the warrant in Germany, the Rwandan official said. Her arrest is likely to cause ructions in an already heated dispute between Rwanda and France over the events that led to the slaughter of some 800,000 Tutsis. Mr Brugui?re retired last year. Mrs Kabuye's lawyer, Lef Forster, said it was not clear whether the French public prosecutor would detain her and go ahead with the case when she arrives in Paris. From critical.montages at gmail.com Thu Nov 13 02:13:08 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Thu, 13 Nov 2008 04:13:08 -0500 Subject: [R-G] Local Reports of Rwandan Infiltration into DR Congo + African Union May Intervene in Congo; Analysts See Wider War Message-ID: Local reports of Rwandan infiltration into DR Congo Tuesday 11 November 2008 Congolese rebel leader Laurent Nkunda claims he is not receiving help from neighbouring Rwanda. But locals in North Kivu province tell FRANCE 24's Arnaud Zajtman there is an influx of Rwandan arms and troops from across the border. Conflict in North Kivu The DR Congo's eastern province of North Kivu has been rocked since late August by heavy clashes between an estimated 4,000-men rebel force and some 20,000 army troops. FRANCE 24 reports. The rebellion led by former General Laurent Nkunda is an echo of the war that tore through the country between 1998 and 2003. This Congolese Tutsi, a former member of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (Tutsi), signed two peace agreements with the country's regular army: first in September 2007, then at the Goma peace conference in January 2008. Each time, his CNDP movement resumed fighting against the government's forces. On October 25, he launched an offensive aimed at taking control of the region's largest city, Goma. The UN peacekeepers deployed in the region are allowed to use force when civilians are at risk. However, they are accused of interpreting their mandate in a restrictive way, remaining passive as thousands of displaced people join makeshift camps. A sworn enemy of the late President Laurent Kabila, he is being accused of numerous crimes committed during the war and is the target of an international arrest warrant. The local chieftain has taken over his native province of North Kivu, running public services and raising taxes. African Union May Intervene in Congo; Analysts See Wider War By Franz Wild and Heba Aly Nov. 12 (Bloomberg) -- African nations will intervene in the conflict in Congo unless warring parties agree to a cease- fire, a Tanzanian official said, as analysts warned of a growing risk the violence may erupt into a regional war. ``Africa must intervene and it will,'' Tanzanian Foreign Minister Bernard Membe said in a speech today in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan. If hostilities aren't halted, ``it will prompt military action'' by the African Union, he said. Membe, in Sudan to take part in an initiative aimed at ending the conflict in Darfur, said he was speaking on behalf of Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete, chairman of the AU. His comments come after Congo's allies in the 15-nation Southern African Development Community on Nov. 9 offered military assistance to Congo's government, which is trying to thwart advances by the rebel army led by renegade General Laurent Nkunda. Angola, a SADC member, will send troops to Congo to support the government army, the Associated Press reported today, citing Deputy Foreign Minister Georges Chicoty. Nkunda's spokesman has said Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda may join the fighting if they feel their borders are threatened by foreign forces. ``We're seeing moves toward a regional war,'' said Rebecca Feeley, a researcher on Congo for The Enough Project, a Washington-based project of the Center for American Progress that seeks solutions to conflicts around the world. ``It's more possible than it's been since 2003.'' Africa's World War Some of the states that may be drawn into the conflict also fought in the central African nation's civil war that started in 1998 and became known as Africa's World War. Rwanda, Uganda, and Burundi then backed various rebels groups, while Angola, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Chad and Sudan supported the government of President Laurent Kabila and, after his assassination in 2001, his son, the current leader Joseph Kabila. The conflict, which ended in 2003, was the deadliest since the Second World War, killing at least 4 million people, mainly from disease and starvation. Congo now accuses neighboring Rwanda of supporting Nkunda's rebellion, which on Oct. 29 advanced to within 10 kilometers (6 miles) of Goma, the capital of North Kivu province. Rwanda denies the allegation. Nkunda says he's fighting to protect Congo's Tutsi minority from ethnic Hutu militias that took refuge in eastern Congo after participating in the genocide in neighboring Rwanda in 1994. ``There are no Rwandese troops in the Congo,'' President Paul Kagame told Bloomberg Television yesterday in an interview in Frankfurt. ``Rwanda is very much interested in peace in the Congo. We now have peace in our country and we are aware that peace in our country cannot last for long, unless neighbors are at peace.'' Rwandan Support Rwandan forces supported a rebellion in Congo in 1996 that overthrew dictator Mobutu Sese Seko and a second one two years later after Kabila turned his back on his former allies. Angolan forces, which supported Congo's government in the last war, may return to support the army, which has failed to defeat Nkunda, Feeley said yesterday in an interview in Goma. Rwanda shares Nkunda's animosity for the mainly Hutu Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, or FDLR, which allegedly took part in the Rwandan genocide. Congo denies UN allegations it is cooperating with the FDLR, which Rwanda cites as a threat to its security. More than two months of fighting between the two parties forced at least 250,000 civilians to flee. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon yesterday said 100,000 people driven from their homes by the recent fighting are ``cut off'' from humanitarian aid, a situation he called ``serious and dire.'' Addition UN Troops The UN Security Council said it is ready to send an additional 3,000 peacekeepers to Congo to help it fulfill its mandate of protecting the civilian population caught up in the fighting. Mission head Alan Doss says his 16,500 troops are overstretched in a country a quarter the size of the U.S. UN officials said last week that Angolan troops arrived in Congo on Nov. 3 to help Kabila's forces, Associated Press reported on Nov. 7. UN Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Edmond Mulet said there was no evidence of their arrival. Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda may again attack Congo if the SADC countries decide to intervene, Bertrand Bisimwa, a spokesman for Nkunda's CNDP, said in an interview yesterday. ``If the guys from SADC join the dance, those who were fighting against them will then also come back in,'' Bisimwa said. ``They will want to secure their borders.'' `Important Role' Rwanda has not done enough to ensure the CNDP doesn't use its soil for activities which support the movement, Jendayi Frazer, the U.S.'s top diplomat to Africa, said on Oct. 30. The emphasis on a meeting between Kabila and Kagame in the Kenyan capital Nairobi on Nov. 7 implies Western leaders think Rwanda has an important role to play in Congo's conflict, Feeley said. ``I don't think we're being told the truth about Rwanda's involvement here,'' she said. Congo's government has refused to negotiate with Nkunda directly, a stance it should alter to prevent the conflict from escalating, said Onesphore Sematumba of the Goma-based research group, Pole Institute. ``We can't even sustain a war,'' Sematumba said in an interview today. ``It doesn't matter who started the war. Do we have the right to take the population hostage?'' To contact the reporters on this story: Franz Wild in Kinshasa via Johannesburg at pmrichardson at bloomberg.net; Heba Aly in Khartoum via Johannesburg at pmrichardson at bloomberg.net. Last Updated: November 12, 2008 09:11 EST Afshin Rattansi speaks to Congolese journalist, Antoine Roger Lokongo about U.S.-backed Rwanda and the proxy war involving Coltan, the mineral in every mobile phone, laptop and iPod. From critical.montages at gmail.com Thu Nov 13 02:16:45 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Thu, 13 Nov 2008 04:16:45 -0500 Subject: [R-G] New Exhibit Examines Art in War-Torn Afghanistan Message-ID: New Exhibit Examines Art in War-Torn Afghanistan Living Traditions Exhibit Explores Art in War-torn Afghanistan By Aryn Baker Friday, Oct. 17, 2008 A major art exhibition has opened in the Afghan capital Kabul. Given its location in a war-torn country known better for anarchy than aesthetics, this is remarkable. But even if one were to ignore that fact, Living Traditions, an exhibition of contemporary pieces from Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan, is extraordinary on its own merits as a moving meditation on modernity, tradition, beauty and horror. Running until Nov. 20 at the elegant Queen's Palace, in the newly renovated gardens of the Mughal era Emperor Babur, the exhibition has been expertly brought together by former Tate Gallery curator Jemima Montagu, and features modern interpretations of two genres that have long defined the region: calligraphy and miniature painting. "I wondered if it was possible to bring contemporary art to Afghanistan while at the same time going back to the traditions of the past and seeing how they still have links to modern day," says Montague, who now works with Turquoise Mountain, a foundation dedicated to revitalizing Afghanistan's cultural heritage. Among the 15 participating artists is British-Iranian Jila Peacock, who plays with the Persian calligraphic practice of turning poetic verses into images of plants and animals. Peacock takes this one step further, breathing life into the images through mesmerizing animation accompanied by music and readings from the 14th century poet Hafez. The work of Khadim Ali, an Afghan born as a refugee in Pakistan, incorporates classical miniature techniques honed at Lahore's renowned National College of Arts. He uses the flat planes, thick gouache, gold leaf and impeccable brushwork, all typical of 18th century Mughal miniatures, to portray scenes from the Shahnameh, a Persian epic familiar to Afghan children. Ali is a member of Afghanistan's Hazara minority, and his people's persecution by the Taliban during the late stages of the civil war is also reflected in the dark panels of his miniatures. His Herculean hero, Rustam, is ambiguous, portrayed as a demonic figure with horns and a monster's face, often bristling with an arsenal of modern weapons ? AK-47s, bayonets and grenade launchers. This is an allusion to Taliban videos in which militants declare themselves to be the new Rustam. Nothing is sacred, Ali seems to be saying. Even heroes can be co-opted. Another renowned miniaturist, the Pakistani Muhammad Imran Qureshi, has contributed an installation entitled "Changing Times." In the pools of light coming through the exhibition venue's French windows, he has painted the delicate foliage common to traditional miniatures. They were executed at different moments of the day, indicating the passage of time, but also the ravages of history: it is as if the building's marble floors are witnesses to Afghanistan's eras of light and destruction. Some are filled in completely, others are more fragmented, as if indicating the slow state of reconstruction in Afghanistan today. Qureshi, who teaches modern miniature painting at the National College of Arts in Lahore, was nervous at first about coming to Afghanistan. But this exhibition, bringing together work from three countries that suffer contentious relations even if they share a common heritage, has opened his eyes, he says. "We all live next door to each other, but there is no communication between our peoples. This experience may be able to bring about understanding, tolerance and the beginnings of change." From shimogamo at attglobal.net Thu Nov 13 03:41:40 2008 From: shimogamo at attglobal.net (Bill Totten) Date: Thu, 13 Nov 2008 19:41:40 +0900 Subject: [R-G] [BillTottenWeblog] Lest We Forget Message-ID: <491C0464.9000202@attglobal.net> Could the First World War have been stopped? by George Monbiot Published in the Guardian (November 11 2008) Like most people of my generation, I grew up with a mystery. I felt I understood the Second World War. The attempt to dominate and destroy, to eliminate the people of other races - though raised to unprecedented levels by the Nazis - is a familiar historical theme. The need to stop Hitler was absolute, and the dreadful sacrifices of the Second World War were unavoidable. But the First World War, which ended ninety years ago today, seemed incomprehensible. The class interests of the men sent to kill each other were the same. While Germany was clearly the aggressor, the outlook of the opposing powers - seeking to expand their colonies and to dominate European trade - was not wildly different. Ugly as the German state was, no one could characterise the war at its outbreak - with Tsarist Russia on the side of the Entente Powers - as a simple struggle between democracy and dictatorship. Neither did this resemble the current war in Iraq, in which legislators send the children of another class to die. The chances of being killed were at least five times higher for men who had been students at Oxford or Cambridge in 1914 than they were for manual workers {1}. The First World War was an act of social cannibalism, in which statesmen and generals on both sides murdered their own offspring. How could it have happened? On July 1st 1999, consumed by the urge to understand the war before the century was over, I visited Thiepval on the Somme. This was the anniversary of the first great attack on the German salients, which caused devastating losses for British and Irish troops. Men carrying flutes and dressed in orange sashes - commemorating the Ulster Division - paced about. Beneath the arches of the Lutyens memorial a circle of evangelical Christians hugged and screamed and ululated, while a little boy dressed in combat gear played around their legs with a plastic machine-gun. I goggled at the names on the monument - the 73,000 commemorate only the British and South Africans who fell on the Somme and whose bodies were not recovered - but I couldn't grasp the scale of what I saw. Dizzied by these conflicting sights, unable to connect, I wandered behind the old German lines and into a field of sugar beet. Walking between the rows, trying to clear my head, I noticed a spherical pebble. I picked it up. It was strangely heavy. Then I looked around and saw that the field was covered with the same odd little balls. Almost every stone was in fact metal. Within a minute I picked up more grapeshot than I could hold. I found shell casings, twisted bullets, fragments of barbed wire, chips of armour plating. I stopped, overwhelmed by shock and recognition. It was a field of lead and steel; and every piece had been manufactured to kill someone. There are plenty of words to describe the horrors of World War Two. But there were none, as far as I could discover, that captured the character of the First World War. So I constructed one from the Greek word ephebos, a young man of fighting age. Ephebicide is the wanton mass slaughter of the young by the old. But how did it happen, and why? In his fascinating book The Last Great War, published a fortnight ago, Adrian Gregory shows that the notion that Britain was carried to war on a wave of patriotic enthusiasm is false {2}. The crowds that gathered around Buckingham Palace and in Downing Street when war was declared seem to have been more curious than excited. Most people appear to have greeted the war with resignation or dismay. Nor does voluntary enlistment provide clear evidence of enthusiasm. It is true that some wanted to fight, and others saw war as a more exciting prospect that working in a dead-end office job {3}. But Gregory shows that voluntarism wasn't all that it seemed. For many men fighting was the only employment on offer. The largest numbers volunteered not at the very beginning of war, but after the disaster at Mons on August 24th, when it became clear that there was a genuine threat to national defence {4}. The speed with which the war began and Britain joined made effective resistance impossible to organise. By the time the anti-war meetings had been called, it was too late. And by then there was a genuine need to stop Germany. It was as rational to seek to curtail German expansionism in August 1914 as it was in September 1939. But the narratives, like Gregory's, which suggest that World War One was inevitable begin late in the sequence of events {5}. Another anniversary, almost forgotten in this country, falls tomorrow. On November 12th 1924, Edmund Dene Morel died. Morel had been a shipping clerk, based in Liverpool and Antwerp, who had noticed, in the late 1890s, that while ships belonging to King Leopold were returning from the Congo to Belgium full of ivory, rubber and other goods, they were departing with nothing but soldiers and ammunition. He realised that Leopold's colony must be a slave state, and launched an astonishing and ultimately successful effort to break the king's grip {6}. For a while he became a national hero. A few years later he became a national villain. During his Congo campaign, Morel had become extremely suspicious of the secret diplomacy pursued by the British foreign office. In 1911, he showed how a secret understanding between Britain and France over the control of Morocco, followed by a campaign in the British press based on misleading foreign office briefings, had stitched up Germany and very nearly caused a European war {7}. In February 1912 he warned that "no greater disaster could befall both peoples [Britain and Germany], and all that is most worthy of preservation in modern civilization, than a war between them". {8} Convinced that Britain had struck a second secret agreement with France, that would drag us into any war which involved Russia, he campaigned for such treaties to be made public; for recognition that Germany had been hoodwinked over Morocco and for the British government to seek to broker a reconciliation between France and Germany. In response British ministers lied. The prime minister and the foreign secretary repeatedly denied that there was any secret agreement with France {9}. Only on the day before war was declared did the foreign secretary admit that a treaty had been in place since 1906. It ensured that Britain would have to fight from the moment Russia mobilised. Morel continued to oppose the war and became, until his dramatic rehabilitation after 1918, one of the most reviled men in Britain. Could the Great War have been averted if, in 1911, the British government had done as Morel suggested? No one knows, as no such attempt was made. Far from seeking to broker a European peace, Britain, pursuing its self-interested diplomatic intrigues, helped to make war more likely. Germany was the aggressor; but the image of affronted virtue cultivated by Britain was a false one. Faced, earlier in the century, with the possibilities of peace, the old men of Europe had decided that they would rather kill their children than change their policies. www.monbiot.com References: 1. Adrian Gregory, 2008. The Last Great War: British society and the First World War, page 290. Cambridge University Press. 2. ibid, pages 9-17; 24-30. 3. ibid, page 31. 4. ibid, page 32. 5. Another example is Gary Sheffield, November 2008. The Origins of World War One. BBC Online. http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwone/origins_01.shtml 6. See Adam Hochschild, 1999. King Leopold's Ghost. Pan Macmillan, London. 7. F Seymour Cocks, 1920. E D Morel: the man and his work. George Allen & Unwin, London. The text of this book is available at: http://ia331337.us.archive.org/3/items/edmorelmanhiswor00cockuoft/edmorelmanhiswor00cockuoft_djvu.txt 8. ED Morel, 1912. Morocco in Diplomacy. Quoted by F Seymour Cocks, ibid. 9. Asquith denied it on March 10th 1913 and March 24th 1913. Grey denied it on April 28th 1914 and June 11th 1914. Copyright (c) 2006 Monbiot.com http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2008/11/11/lest-we-forget/ TO POST A COMMENT, OR TO READ COMMENTS POSTED BY OTHERS, please click on the word "comment" highlighted at the end of the version of this essay posted at http://billtotten.blogspot.com/ From critical.montages at gmail.com Thu Nov 13 10:12:38 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Thu, 13 Nov 2008 12:12:38 -0500 Subject: [R-G] Turkey and Iraqi Kurds: Conflict or Cooperation? Message-ID: Turkey and Iraqi Kurds: Conflict or Cooperation? Middle East Report N?81 13 November 2008 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY At a time when rising Arab-Kurdish tensions again threaten Iraq's stability, neighbouring Turkey has begun to cast a large shadow over Iraqi Kurdistan. It has been a study in contrasts: Turkish jets periodically bomb suspected hideouts of the banned Kurdistan Workers Party (Partiya Karker?n Kurdistan, PKK) in northern Iraq, and Ankara expresses alarm at the prospect of Kurdish independence, yet at the same time has significantly deepened its ties to the Iraqi Kurdish region. Both Turkey and Iraq's Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG, a term Turkey studiously avoids) would be well served by keeping ultra-nationalism at bay and continuing to invest in a relationship that, though fragile and buffeted by the many uncertainties surrounding Iraq, has proved remarkably pragmatic and fruitful. Ankara's policy toward Iraq is based on two core national interests: preserving that country's territorial integrity and fighting the PKK, whose rebels use remote mountain areas on the border as sanctuary and staging ground for attacks inside Turkey. From Turkey's perspective, Iraq's disintegration would remove a critical counterweight to Iranian influence and, more ominously, herald the birth of an independent Kurdish state in northern Iraq, thus threatening to inflame Kurdish nationalist passions inside Turkey. As a result, it has sought to prevent the sectarian conflict in Iraq's centre from escalating, Iraqi Kurds from seceding and the PKK from prospering. There is broad consensus in Turkey regarding these goals. However, opinions diverge on how best to achieve them. Members of the Kemalist-nationalist establishment ? the Turkish armed forces, powerful parts of the bureaucracy, the Republican People's Party and the Nationalist Movement Party ? view the KRG and the Kurdish national ideal it represents as an existential threat. They are convinced that a far more aggressive posture toward the KRG is required to force it to stop protecting the PKK. As a result, they advocate isolating it diplomatically, limiting its authority to the pre-2003 internal boundaries and keeping it economically weak. Pro-European liberal circles, the ruling religious-conservative Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalk?nma Partisi, AKP) and Kurdish elites take a different view. They see the landlocked Kurdistan federal region as vulnerable and having little choice but to rely on Turkey for protection (for example, from a resurgent central Iraqi state) and economic prosperity. They view the area as a potential buffer between Turkey and the rest of Iraq which, in the event of a U.S. withdrawal, could revert to civil war. They believe the best way to combat the PKK is to persuade the KRG to do so. For these reasons, they advocate stronger diplomatic, political and economic ties with the KRG in order to extend Turkish influence, cement the Kurdistan federal region more solidly within Iraq and ensure action is taken against the PKK. Divisions have yielded a measure of confusion, but the end-result has been a strikingly pragmatic and largely effective compromise between the AKP and the more traditional establishment, combining military pressure, politics, diplomacy and economic incentives. On the issue of Iraq's political future, Turkey has come to accept that the question no longer is whether it will be a federation or a unitary state but rather what type of federation will arise and with what degree of decentralisation. It also has steered a middle course in the struggle over Kirkuk, disputed between Kurds, Arabs, Turkomans and others. In particular, it stopped relying on the Turkoman population for its main leverage points, instead insisting on preserving the city's multi-ethnic/religious fabric. In so doing, it can hinder the Kurds' exclusive claim to the oil-rich region without which the KRG would probably lack the economic autonomy necessary for genuine independence. Turkey has proved adroit in other ways too. It has deepened economic ties with the Kurdish area while holding back on providing material aid to its energy sector or allowing the KRG to export oil and gas through its territory until Iraq has adopted a federal hydrocarbons law ? a step which Ankara considers critical to that country's territorial integrity. Finally, Turkey has mounted limited military cross-border operations against the PKK, designed more to pressure the KRG to take action and convince the U.S. to use its own leverage than to crush the Kurdish movement ? overall, a far more effective way of dealing with this perennial challenge than serial Turkish bombing, whose military impact (as opposed to any temporary political benefits) is highly questionable. In short, Turkey has both pressured and reached out to Iraq's Kurdish authorities, concluding this is the optimal way to contain the PKK, encourage Iraqi national reconciliation and tie the Kurds more closely with the central state. There have been real benefits for the KRG as well. The slowly warming relationship is based on its realisation that U.S. forces may draw down significantly in the next two years, leaving the Kurds increasingly dependent on the federal government and neighbouring states such as Turkey and Iran. Under this scenario, Turkey would be a more useful partner to the Kurds than either Baghdad or Tehran, because of the prospect it offers of access to the European Union (which, even at Ankara's current customs union relationship to Brussels, would exceed as an economic magnet anything even an oil-rich Iraq would offer); its availability as a trans-shipment country for Kurdish oil and gas; its ability to invest in major infrastructure projects; and the better quality of the goods it sells to Iraq's Kurdistan federal region. The result has been a (still fragile) victory for pragmatism over ultra-nationalism on both sides of the border. Rapprochement between Turkey and the KRG will not solve all problems, nor root out the unhelpful spasms of nationalist rhetoric that intermittently contaminate political discourse. More is required to lay the foundations of a lasting, stable relationship, including a peaceful, consensus-based solution to the Kirkuk question. But, amid the many uncertain prospects facing Iraq, this at least is one development to be welcomed and nurtured. Istanbul/Brussels, 13 November 2008 FULL REPORT: From shniad at sfu.ca Thu Nov 13 10:42:31 2008 From: shniad at sfu.ca (Sid Shniad) Date: Thu, 13 Nov 2008 09:42:31 -0800 Subject: [R-G] CPP Investment Board unfazed by short-term losses Message-ID: <200811131742.mADHgVNh020982@rm-rstar.sfu.ca> An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: not available Url: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/rad-green/attachments/20081113/cbe6859c/attachment.txt From shniad at sfu.ca Thu Nov 13 10:59:27 2008 From: shniad at sfu.ca (Sid Shniad) Date: Thu, 13 Nov 2008 09:59:27 -0800 Subject: [R-G] Former Goldman Sachs chair sees coming slump worse than Depression Message-ID: <200811131759.mADHxRRw005246@rm-rstar.sfu.ca> An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: not available Url: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/rad-green/attachments/20081113/3ba3dcf7/attachment.txt From critical.montages at gmail.com Thu Nov 13 11:16:00 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Thu, 13 Nov 2008 13:16:00 -0500 Subject: [R-G] The Ayatollah Begs to Differ: The Paradox of Modern Iran Message-ID: Excerpt: 'The Ayatollah Begs To Differ: The Paradox Of Modern Iran' by Hooman Majd The Ayatollah Begs to Differ: The Paradox of Modern Iran By Hooman Majd Hardcover, 288 pages Doubleday List Price: $24.95 NPR.org, September 25, 2008 ? PERSIAN CATS The cat, a sinewy black creature with dirty white paws, darted from the alley and jumped across the joob, the narrow ditch by the curb, onto the sidewalk on Safi Alishah. It took one look at me, and then fled down the road toward the Sufi mosque. "That's the neighborhood laat!" exclaimed my friend Khosro, a longtime resident of the no-longer-chic downtown Tehran street. "He's the local tough, and he beats up all the other cats. Every time my mother's cat goes out he gets a thorough thrashing and comes back bruised and bloodied." "Why?" I asked. "He just beats the crap out of any cat he doesn't like, which is most cats, I guess." "And no one does anything about it?" I asked naively. "No. What's there to do? Every neighborhood has a laat." *** Iranians are not known to keep indoor pets. Dogs are, of course, unclean in Islam, and as such are not welcome in most homes (although not a few Westernized upper-class Tehranis do keep dogs, but generally away from public view). Cats, Islamic-correct, are far more common, although unlike their Western counterparts Iranians don't so much own their cats as merely provide a home for them and feed them scraps from the table. That is, when the cats want a home. Persian cats, and I mean Persian as in nationality, are (to use a favored expression in Washington) freedom-loving animals, and they wander outdoors, particularly in neighborhoods where there are houses rather than apartments. They do so as often as they like, which seems to be quite often, and they get pregnant, they have fights, and they even change their domicile if they happen to stumble across a better garden or, as is usually the case, a more generous feeding hand. Such as Khosro's mother's cat, who appeared at her house one day and took a fancy to her. Persians, despite having been best known in the West for really only two things, prior to their fame for Islamic fundamentalism, that is, cats and carpets, spend an awful lot of time pondering carpets and virtually no time thinking about cats. The Persian cats we know in the West, the ones with the impossibly flat faces and gorgeous silky hair, are not as common in Iran as one might think, or hope, and there is a national obsession neither about them nor about their less sophisticated cousins, the cats one sees on every street, in every alley, and in the doorways, kitchens, and gardens of many homes. And some of those cats are just by nature, well, laat. *** Laat, like many other Persian words, can be translated in different ways, and some dictionaries use the English "hooligan" as the definition, although it is in fact wildly inaccurate. The laat holds a special place in Iranian culture: a place that at times can be compared to the popular position of a mafioso in American culture, albeit without the extreme violence associated with him, and at other times a place of respect and admiration for the working-class code he lives by. Hooligans are anarchic; laat fight only when necessary and to establish their authority. Iran's cultural history of the twentieth century prominently featured the laat and with perhaps more affection the jahel, the onetime laat who had elevated himself to a grand position of authority and respect in a given urban neighborhood. The jahel, a sort of street "boss," occupied himself with many different illegal and quasi-legal activities but, unlike gang leaders in America, rarely found himself the target of police investigations, partly because the police were often from his social class, partly because the police were doled out many favors by him, and partly because the governments under the Shah were loath to disrupt or antagonize a class of society that could be relied upon for support should it become necessary to buy it. The last Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, when forced to flee the country in 1953 (in the face of a popular uprising in favor of Prime Minister Mossadeq), found great use in the jahels and laats of South Tehran when the coup organizers intent on restoring him to power (financed and organized by the CIA) hired a prominent and formerly pro-Mossadeq laat, Shaban Jafari, better known as Shaban Bimokh (Shaban the "Brainless"), to successfully lead a counter-uprising in the streets of Tehran and mercilessly beat any anti-Shah demonstrators they came across. Using street-savvy toughs rather than the military (which was anyway unreliable and caught between the authority of the democratically elected prime minister and that of the Shah) gave the Shah the cover of populist sentiment in his favor, not to mention the convenience of violent reprisal perpetrated in his name, rather than directly by him or his forces. *** The laats and jahels came from the lower and therefore deeply religious strata of Iranian society and were strong believers in Islam themselves, but they were notorious drinkers and womanizers, not to mention involved in prostitution and drugs. The jahel code, at least they themselves believed, was one of ethics and justice, Shia ethics, and the occasional sin would be repented for later, as is possible in Shia Islam. The code extended to their dress: black suits, white tieless shirts, and narrow-brimmed black fedoras perched at an angle high on their heads. A cotton handkerchief was usually to be found in their hands as a sort of fetish, and the famous jahel dance in the cafes of working-class Tehran involved slow, spinning movements with the handkerchief prominently waved in the air. The jahel, and the laat to a lesser degree, represented the ultimate in Iranian machismo, Iranian mardanegi, or "manliness," in a supremely macho culture. Upper-class youths affected their speech, much as upper-class white youths in America affect the speech of inner-city blacks. There was, and still is, a perverse male and sometimes female fascination with the culture of the laat that invades even the uppermost echelons of Tehran society. At a dinner party in early 2007, in the very chic and expensive North Tehran Elahieh district at the home of an actor who has lived in America, a young man who serves as a guide and translator for foreign journalists (some of whom were in the room) peppered his speech with vulgar curse words that would ordinarily have been out of bounds in mixed company, or at least unfamiliar mixed company. "You probably don't like me," he said as he pulled up a chair next to my seat, having noticed my occasional winces in the preceding minutes. He helped himself to a large spoonful of bootleg caviar on the coffee table in front of him. "Because I swear so much," he mumbled with his mouth full. "But I'm a laat, what can I do?" I hesitated, wanting to point out that a laat would hardly be eating caviar in a grand North Tehran apartment, nor would he ever employ the language I'd heard in front of women, not unless he was getting ready for a fight. "No," I replied instead. "I have no problems with swearing." "I'm a laat," he repeated, as if it were a badge of honor. "I'm just a laat." His wife, seated on my other side, giggled nervously, glancing at the other women around the table whose smiles gave tacit approval to his macho posturing. What would a real South Tehran laat make of this scene? I wondered. *** Despite their seemingly secular ways, at least in terms of drinking, partying, and involvement with prostitutes, the working-class laatsand jahels had been ardent supporters of the Islamic Revolution of 1979, and even though some royalists had suggested they be bought again, as they were in 1953, the Shah seemed to realize that times had changed and Khomeini's pull, which unlike Mossadeq's encompassed virtually all of Iran's opposition, was too strong to be countered with cash. Islam's promise of a classless society, along with the promise of far more equitable economic opportunities in a post-monarchy nation, was appealing enough in working-class neighborhoods, but what's more, unlike the intellectuals and aristocrats who surrounded Mossadeq, those fomenting this revolution were, after all, from the 'hood. As such, the street toughs and their jahel bosses, the xber-laats if you will, had assumed that an Islamic state would not necessarily infringe on their territory, but the clerics who brought about the revolution weren't going to let a bunch of thugs (in their minds) have the kind of authority that they considered exclusively reserved for themselves. The jahel neighborhood authority, along with its flamboyance of style and dress, also quickly went out of favor, replaced by cleric-sanctioned and much-feared paramilitary committees known as komiteh (the Persian pronunciation of the word), which undoubtedly numbered among their ranks many former laats. In the few years of its existence the komiteh, often reporting directly to a cleric, involved itself in almost all aspects of life in each neighborhood where it was set up, and apart from enforcing strict Islamic behavior on the streets, it functioned as a sort of quasi-court where all manner of complaints were investigated. Among those complaints in the early days of the revolution were charges of corruption lodged against businessmen or the merely wealthy, usually by former employees but sometimes by jealous rivals, that resulted in further investigations by real courts and sometimes the confiscation of assets, a satisfying result for the early communist and left-wing supporters of the Islamic Republic who numbered among them the now-archenemy Paris- and Iraq-based Mujahedin, as they're known to most Iranians (but referred to as monafeghin, "hypocrites," by the government), or the MEK (for Mujahedin-e-Khalq), as they're known in the West. (The political left had also been undoubtedly pleased to watch as the new government nationalized many of the larger private enterprises in Iran, a program that has been in various stages of undoing since Khomeini's death in 1989 and whose undoing continues today, even under an administration more ideological than the pragmatist and reformist governments that preceded it.) *** The laats who joined a komiteh or even the Revolutionary Guards in the dramatic aftermath of the revolution may have thought of themselves as finally empowered politically, but they quickly learned that in an Islamic government, all real authority would rest with the clergy. In one of the first acts of the post-revolution government, ostensibly for Islamic reasons but also as a show of just who was in charge, Tehran's infamous red-light district, Shahr-e-No, or "New City," the stomping ground of many a jahel and laat, was shut down and razed. Today, the old district is bordered by a broad avenue lined with shops selling surplus military wear, including, as I saw myself, U.S. Desert Storm boots in mint condition and an assortment of other U.S. military clothes and footwear newly liberated from Iraq. On the day I was there, and as I was examining the various articles for sale in a storefront, an old man shuffled by slowly, wearing a dirty black suit and loafers with the heels pushed down. "See him?" asked the friend who had brought me, a child of South Tehran who spent many a day of his youth in the Shahr-e-No neighborhood. "He used to walk up and down this street, just like he is now, in the old days. But he was a big guy then." *** Today, while laats still abound in urban areas, the jahel is but a fragment of memory for most Iranians, to be seen in the occasional old Iranian movie or to be talked about nostalgically. Once in a while, one can bump into one (or someone who at least affects the look) on the streets of downtown Tehran or farther south, as I did on Ferdowsi Avenue, just off Manouchehri, a street lined with antiques dealers, on a few occasions in the past few years. Among the Jewish shop owners and other stall vendors, one heavyset older man works out of an impossibly narrow shop carved into the side of a building. His dusty window displays an array of old rings, bracelets, and other jewelry, the odd off-brand man's watch here and there, and he himself sits on an old stool just outside on the pavement. He wears a black suit, a slightly discolored white shirt, and a narrow-brimmed black fedora one size too small on the top of his obviously balding head. His thick black mustache, from which years ago he may have dramatically plucked a hair with his fingers to show good faith in a deal, is dyed, the reddish tint of the henna showing on the outermost hairs. His only concession to the Islamic state of affairs is the day-old growth of beard surrounding the mustache: snowy white growth that betrays the dyed mustache even more startlingly than the henna hue. I don't know if he was ever a jahel, but it seems likely that he was. He sits there on Ferdowsi, keeping his own hours, like a toothless old cat, a reminder for those who might care that the neighborhood's top laat is not what he used to be. *** The Javadieh neighborhood of South Tehran was once the city's roughest; to the young male residents it was known as "Texas," presumably because of the association in Iranian minds of that state with the lawless Wild West. A rough neighborhood, though, meant poor and run-down but not necessarily dangerous in the way we might think in the West. Upper-class Iranians would never have ventured into Javadieh; they still don't, but not out of fear, rather because of the strict Iranian delineation between the classes. Some upper-class wealthy young males may want to affect the macho posturing of the lower-class laat, but they would never sit down with one and have a chat over a cup of tea. Nor would they know how to deal with a chaghoo-kesh?"knife-puller" literally, but someone who lives by his knife. Guns have never been popular among Iranian toughs, mainly because they kill more often than maim, but also because guns in Iran have been associated with armed struggle or revolution rather than self-defense or criminal activity. As such, governments, whether under the Shahs or in the Islamic Republic, have zero tolerance for guns, which they have viewed as threats to their power, but have had a wide tolerance for knives and other fighting equipment. Knife fights, common enough even today, rarely end with serious injury, although on occasion death does occur, as it did recently on the street where I was staying when a fight broke out between two young men over the affections of a local girl, with whom neither had relations but whom each felt was his. The thrust of a knife, a little too hard and a little too close to the heart, probably unintentional, resulted in death, and the onetime chaghoo-kesh was transformed from street thug to murderer in an instant. But usually a knifing is meant to cut rather than kill, and in the old street tradition a knife fight begins with one or both of the men cutting themselves on the chest, to draw blood and to demonstrate the fearlessness of the fighter. That disregard for one's own well-being extended easily into the practice of fearless suicide missions performed by the all-volunteer Basij forces during the Iran-Iraq war. Copyright 2008 by Hooman Majd. Reprinted by permission of Doubleday. Majd Reads from 'The Ayatollah Begs to Differ' Misconceptions about Iran The Female Experience in Iran Is Iran Cosmopolitan? The Supreme Leader The Tradition of Taarof From shniad at sfu.ca Thu Nov 13 11:30:02 2008 From: shniad at sfu.ca (Sid Shniad) Date: Thu, 13 Nov 2008 10:30:02 -0800 Subject: [R-G] Abnormality Besieges Palestinians Message-ID: <200811131830.mADIU2wt008648@rm-rstar.sfu.ca> An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: not available Url: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/rad-green/attachments/20081113/db31fb0e/attachment.txt From shniad at sfu.ca Thu Nov 13 11:32:53 2008 From: shniad at sfu.ca (Sid Shniad) Date: Thu, 13 Nov 2008 10:32:53 -0800 Subject: [R-G] Olmert: Arabs Suffer 'Intolerable' Discrimination Message-ID: <200811131832.mADIWrJo014611@rm-rstar.sfu.ca> An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: not available Url: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/rad-green/attachments/20081113/ca160002/attachment.txt From shniad at sfu.ca Thu Nov 13 11:33:51 2008 From: shniad at sfu.ca (Sid Shniad) Date: Thu, 13 Nov 2008 10:33:51 -0800 Subject: [R-G] Darfur: the dangers of celebrity imperialism Message-ID: <200811131833.mADIXprg016409@rm-rstar.sfu.ca> An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: not available Url: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/rad-green/attachments/20081113/76b3416d/attachment.txt From shniad at sfu.ca Thu Nov 13 11:32:04 2008 From: shniad at sfu.ca (Sid Shniad) Date: Thu, 13 Nov 2008 10:32:04 -0800 Subject: [R-G] The Unfolding Crisis and the Relevance of Marx Message-ID: <200811131832.mADIW4dY012746@rm-rstar.sfu.ca> An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: not available Url: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/rad-green/attachments/20081113/cb101a91/attachment.txt From critical.montages at gmail.com Thu Nov 13 13:34:29 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Thu, 13 Nov 2008 15:34:29 -0500 Subject: [R-G] China Plans 10 Major Steps to Spark Growth Message-ID: The "New Deal with Chinese Characteristics" is more ambitious than what Washington has come up with so far, and what Obama is likely to offer in the near future, but is it still too little too late, especially in light of "The Realities of China Today" (Martin Hart-Landsberg, -- see five excerpts from this article below)? -- Yoshie "One critical but often overlooked explanation for China's manufacturing competitiveness is that approximately 70% of manufacturing work is done by migrants. Over the last 25 years, some 150-200 million Chinese have moved from the countryside to urban areas in search of employment. Although the great majority of these migrant workers have moved legally, they suffer enormous discrimination. For example, because they remain classified as rural residents under the Chinese registration system, not only must they pay steep fees to register as temporary urban residents, they also have no rights to the public services available to urban born residents (including free or subsidized education, health care, housing and pensions). The same is true for their children, even if they are born in an urban area." "Chinese wages as a share of GDP have fallen from approximately 53% of Gross Domestic Product in 1992 to less than 40% in 2006. Private consumption as a percent of GDP has also declined, falling from approximately 47% to 36% over the same period": ". . . [T]he [East Asian] region's export/GDP ratio grew from 24% in 1980 to 55% in 2005. By comparison, the world average in 2005 was only 28.5%." "Between 1992-3 and 2004-5, the East Asian share of China's final goods exports declined from 49.5% to 26.5%, while the OECD share (excluding Japan and Korea) increased from 29.3% to 50.1%." "According to various estimates cited by the Asian Development Bank, it appears that the percentage of Asian exports consumed within Asia ranges from a high of 22% to a low of only 11%." Un ? New Deal ? ? la chinoise mardi 11 novembre 2008, par Martine Bulard China plans 10 major steps to spark growth GOV.cn Monday, November 10, 2008 China will take 10 major steps to stimulate domestic consumption and growth as it turns to an "active" fiscal policy and "moderately easy" monetary policy, an executive meeting of the State Council said on Sunday. Here are the 10 major steps: -- Housing: Building more affordable and low-rent housing and speeding the clearing of slums. A pilot program to rebuild rural housing will expand. Nomads will be encouraged to settle down. -- Rural infrastructure: Speeding up rural infrastructure construction. Roads and power grids in the countryside will be improved, and efforts will be stepped up to spread the use of methane and to ensure drinking water safety. This part of the plan also involves expediting the North-South water diversion project. Risky reservoirs will be reinforced. Water conservation in large-scale irrigation areas will be strengthened. Poverty relief efforts will be increased. -- Transportation: Accelerating the expansion of the transport network. That includes more dedicated passenger rail links and coal routes. Trunk railways will be extended and more airports will be built in western areas. Urban power grids will be upgraded. -- Health and education: Beefing up the health and medical service by improving the grass roots medical system. Accelerating the development of the cultural and education sectors and junior high school construction in rural western and central areas. More special education and cultural facilities. -- Environment: Improving environmental protection by enhancing the construction of sewage and rubbish treatment facilities and preventing water pollution in key areas. Accelerating green belt and natural forest planting programs. Increasing support for energy conservation and pollution-control projects. -- Industry: Enhancing innovation and industrial restructuring and supporting the development of the high-tech and service industries. -- Disaster rebuilding: Speeding reconstruction in the areas hit by the May 12 earthquake. -- Incomes: Raising average incomes in rural and urban areas. Raising next year's minimum grain purchase and farm subsidies. Increasing subsidies for low-income urban residents. Increasing pension funds for enterprise employees and allowances for those receiving special services. -- Taxes: Extending reforms in value-added tax rules to all industries, which could cut the tax corporate burden by 120 billion yuan (about 17.6 billion U.S. dollars). Technological upgrading will be encouraged. -- Finance: Enhancing financial support to maintain economic growth. Removing loan quotas on commercial lenders. Appropriately increasing bank credit for priority projects, rural areas, smaller enterprises, technical innovation and industrial rationalization through mergers and acquisitions. These 10 moves are expected to have positive effects on cement, iron and steel producers amid a boom in infrastructure investment. Commercial lenders will benefit as loan ceilings are abolished, and medium-sized and small companies are likely to benefit from preferential policies. Editor: Mo Hong'e Source: Xinhua China's 4 trillion yuan stimulus to boost economy, domestic demand GOV.cn Sunday, November 9, 2008 China said on Sunday it will loosen credit conditions, cut taxes and embark on a massive infrastructure spending program in a wide-ranging effort to offset adverse global economic conditions by boosting domestic demand. This is a shift long advocated by analysts of the Chinese economy and by some within the government. It comes amid indications that economic growth, exports and various industries are slowing. A stimulus package estimated at 4 trillion yuan (about 570 billion U.S. dollars) will be spent over the next two years to finance programs in 10 major areas, such as low-income housing, rural infrastructure, water, electricity, transportation, the environment, technological innovation and rebuilding from several disasters, most notably the May 12 earthquake. The policies include a comprehensive reform in value-added taxes, which would cut industry costs by 120 billion yuan. Commercial banks' credit ceilings will be abolished to channel more lending to priority projects, rural areas, smaller enterprises, technical innovation and industrial rationalization through mergers and acquisitions. The decision was announced on Sunday by the State Council, or cabinet, after Premier Wen Jiabao presided over an executive meeting on Wednesday. The meeting decided that credit expansion must be "rational" and "target spheres that would promote and consolidate the expansion of consumer credit." With 100 billion yuan from current-year central government funds and another 20 billion yuan brought forward from next year's budget for post-disaster reconstruction, the fourth quarter is expected to see a total investment of 400 billion yuan across the nation. "With the deepening of the global financial crisis over the past two months, the government must take flexible and prudent macro-economic policies to deal with the complex and changing situation," said the meeting. The meeting also announced that China will adopt "active" fiscal and "moderately active" monetary policies and map out more forceful measures to expand domestic demand, speed up the construction of public facilities and improve living standards of the poor to achieve "steady and relative fast" economic growth. The macro-economic policy changes announced on Sunday are one of only a few major shifts during the 30 years since the beginning of reform and opening up in 1978. The most recent modification was in December, when the government resorted to a combination of "tight" monetary policy and "prudent" fiscal policy to fight inflation. With the monthly consumer price index, the main gauge of inflation, expected to drop further through year-end -- after plunging from a 12-year high of 8.7 percent in February to 4.6 percent in September -- the focal task of macro-economic control has shifted from beating inflation to sustaining economic growth. The past three months have seen a series of stimulus policies: interest rate cuts, lower bank reserve requirement ratios, tax changes, higher credit quotas and the injection of central government funds to infrastructure construction. The meeting decided that higher investment must be able to facilitate economic restructuring, promote growth potential by channeling investment to where it's most needed and spur private consumption. Although the economy has maintained double-digit growth for years, fixed-asset investment and exports have dwarfed consumption as the two pillars of expansion. With global recession clearly in view, China must sustain itself by exploiting the domestic market to offset weaker demand abroad. The meeting identified the ongoing world economic adjustment as "a new opportunity" for China to speed industrial restructuring, introduce advanced technologies and talents from abroad. Despite challenges, China has a great potential to develop its domestic demand and a solid financial system, the meeting noted. "As long as we take the right measures in a resolute and timely way to grasp the chance and rise to the challenges, we will surely secure steady and relative fast economic growth," the meeting noted. Editor: Yao Source: Xinhua From critical.montages at gmail.com Thu Nov 13 14:22:17 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Thu, 13 Nov 2008 16:22:17 -0500 Subject: [R-G] Deprogramming Jihadists Message-ID: What would Foucault say about Psychiatry with Islamic Characteristics? -- Yoshie November 9, 2008 Deprogramming Jihadists By KATHERINE ZOEPF The sunset prayer had just ended, and Sheik Ahmad al-Jilani was already calling his class to order. When the latecomers slipped into the front row, Jilani nodded at them briskly. "Young men," he began, "who can tell me why we do jihad?" The members of the class were still new and a bit shy. Jilani clasped his hands and smiled encouragingly. Before him, sitting in school desks, were a dozen young Saudi men who had served time in prison for belonging to militant Islamic groups. Now they were inmates in a new rehabilitation center, part of a Saudi government initiative that seeks to deprogram Islamic extremists. Jilani has been teaching his class, which is called Understandings of Jihad, since the center was established early last year. A stout man who makes constant, self-deprecating references to his weight, the sheik is an avuncular figure, popular with his students. On this chilly evening he had on a woolly, brocade-trimmed bisht, the cloak that Saudi men wear on formal occasions or in cool weather, which gave him a slightly imposing air. But behind his thick glasses, his eyes shone warmly as he surveyed the classroom. Finally, someone answered: "We do jihad to fight our enemies." "To defeat God's enemies?" another suggested. "To help weak Muslims," a third offered. "Good, good," Jilani said. "All good answers. Is there someone else? What about you, Ali?" Ali, in the second row, looked away, then faltered: "To . . . answer . . . calls for jihad?" Jilani frowned slightly and wrote Ali's answer up on the white board behind him. He read it out to the class before turning back to Ali. "All right, Ali," the sheik said. "Why do we answer calls for jihad? Is it because all Muslim leaders want to make God's word highest? Do we kill if these leaders tell us to kill?" Ali looked confused, but whispered, "Yes." "No ? wrong!" Jilani cried as Ali blushed. "Of course we want to make God's word highest, but not every Muslim leader has this as his goal. There are right jihads and wrong jihads, and we must examine the situation for ourselves. For example, if a person wants to go to hajj now, is it right?" The class chuckled obligingly at Jilani's little joke. The month for performing hajj, the holy pilgrimage to Mecca that observant Muslims hope to complete at least once in their lives, had ended five weeks earlier, and the suggestion was as preposterous as throwing a Fourth of July barbecue in November. "Well, just as there is a proper time for hajj, there is also a proper time for jihad," Jilani explained. Jilani's students, who range in age from 18 to 36, are part of a generation brought up on heroic tales of Saudi fighters who left home to fight alongside the mujahedeen in Afghanistan during the 1980s and who helped to force the Soviets to withdraw from the country. The Saudi state was essentially built on the concept of jihad, which King Abdul Aziz al-Saud used to knit disparate tribal groups into a single nation. The word means "struggle" and in Islamic law usually refers to armed conflict with non-Muslims in defense of the global Islamic community. Saudi schools teach a version of world history that emphasizes repeated battles between Muslims and nonbelieving enemies. Whether to Afghanistan in the 1980s or present-day Iraq, Saudi Arabia has exported more jihadist volunteers than any other country; 15 of the 19 hijackers on Sept. 11 were Saudis. But jihad can go too far. The Saudi government has condemned the Sept. 11 attacks and arrests jihadists who attempt to enter Iraq. Some Saudi veterans of overseas jihads have adopted one form of the doctrine of takfir, in which a Muslim is judged by another Muslim to be an unbeliever. Because traditional Islamic law calls for the execution of apostates, some have used takfir to justify attacks on the Saudi state. In recent years, these attacks have raised fears that the chaos in some of the world's conflict zones is being brought home to Saudi Arabia by radicalized jihadists. The Saudi government thus finds itself in the awkward position of needing to defend the principle of jihad to its citizens while discouraging them from actually taking up arms. One step it has taken is simply to talk to those who have proved to be most vulnerable to the temptations of jihad, the captured militants themselves. As Jilani put it to me, "The kingdom of Saudi Arabia has the confidence to fight thoughts with thoughts." Jilani and his colleagues are not just fighting a war of ideas. Though the Saudi government tends to explain its rehabilitation program in purely Islamic terms, as an effort to correct theological misunderstandings, the new program also addresses the psychological needs and emotional weaknesses that have led many young men to jihad in the first place. It tries to give frustrated and disaffected young men the trappings of stability ? a job, a car, possibly a wife. Though international human rights groups continue to sound the alarm about Saudi Arabia's habit of detaining suspects without charging them and of punishing certain crimes with floggings and amputations, these young men seem to have become the subjects of a continuing experiment in counterterrorism as a kind of social work. If the Saudi rehabilitation program succeeds, it could reduce the ranks of dangerous extremists and have a far-reaching impact: domestic and regional stability and, though it's not a stated goal, increased safety for potential targets in the West. Program administrators claim that the Saudi initiative could also provide a model for other Muslim countries struggling with Islamic militancy. They say that Saudi Arabia ? home to Islam's two holiest cities, Mecca and Medina ? has an unmatched moral authority among the world's Muslims and is uniquely placed to find the intellectual and spiritual vulnerabilities of organizations like Al Qaeda and to fight Islamic extremism on its own terms. Though the exact nature of the role that religious belief plays in the recruitment of jihadists is the subject of much debate among scholars of terrorism, a growing number contend that ideology is far less important than family and group dynamics, psychological and emotional needs. "We're finding that they don't generally join for religious reasons," John Horgan told me. A political psychologist who directs the International Center for the Study of Terrorism at Penn State, Horgan has interviewed dozens of former terrorists. "Terrorist movements seem to provide a sense of adventure, excitement, vision, purpose, camaraderie," he went on, "and involvement with them has an allure that can be difficult to resist. But the ideology is usually something you acquire once you're involved." Other scholars emphatically disagree, stressing the significance of political belief and grievance. But if the Saudi program is succeeding, it may be because it treats jihadists not as religious fanatics or enemies of the state but as alienated young men in need of rehabilitation. In 2004, the Saudi Interior Ministry started the Munasaha, or Advisory Committee, program, to reform prison inmates convicted of involvement in Islamic extremism. Abdulrahman al-Hadlaq, the program administrator, says that a committee of senior Saudi clerics interviews inmates about their beliefs before placing them in appropriate classes. Enrollment in the Munasaha program is not voluntary, and Human Rights Watch reports that some participants have been in detention for months or even years without trial or access to lawyers. But graduates of the program say the treatment is far from harsh. In January 2007, the Interior Ministry began renting small vacation compounds in the Riyadh suburb of al-Thumama. Half-a-dozen adjoining compounds now house the Care Center, a post-prison continuation of the Munasaha program offering more intensive rehabilitation activities. Each compound holds up to about 20 men, who study, eat and sleep together for the duration of the program. On arrival, each prisoner is given a suitcase filled with gifts: clothes, a digital watch, school supplies and toiletries. Inmates are encouraged to ask for their favorite foods (Twix and Snickers candy bars are frequent requests). Volleyball nets, PlayStation games and Ping-Pong and foosball tables are all provided. The atmosphere at the center ? which I visited several times earlier this year ? is almost eerily cozy and congenial, with mattresses and rugs spread on stubbly patches of lawn for inmates to lounge upon. With few exceptions, the men wear their beards untrimmed and their thobes, the long garments that most Saudi men wear, cut above their ankles in the style favored by those who wish to demonstrate strict devotion to Islam. The men are pleasant but many seem a bit puffy and lethargic; one 19-year-old inmate, Faisal al-Subaii, explained that they are encouraged to spend most of their daytime hours in either rest or prayer. In Saudi Arabia, psychological disorders are often understood as the results of a person finding himself somehow outside the traditional circle of family and community. Most of the counseling that the inmates receive is focused on helping them to develop more healthful family relationships. "We use Western psychiatric techniques together with Islamic techniques," T. M. Otayan, the center's staff psychologist, says, referring to the intensive religion classes. A number of the inmates have received diagnoses of antisocial personality disorder, he adds, but he claims serious mental illness among the former jihadists is rare. Though it might seem out of place in a society whose religion proscribes the representation of animal or human forms, art therapy is practiced. Awad al-Yami, who studied the subject at Penn State, leads the classes, and chalk drawings by former jihadists decorate the walls of his classroom. Although the sketches ? mostly ornate Arabic calligraphy and depictions of flowers ? do not especially suggest that demons are being wrestled with, art therapy helps inmates to examine the consequences of their actions, Yami says. "I ask them, 'If you blow up a car, what will happen?' The paper gives them a safe place to express some destructive emotions." Most prisoners complete the program within two months. Upon release, each former jihadist is required to sign a pledge that he has forsaken extremist sympathies; the head of his family must sign as well. Some also receive a car (often a Toyota) and aid from the Interior Ministry in renting a home. Social workers assist former jihadists and their families in making post-release plans for education, employment and, usually, marriage. "Getting married stabilizes a man's personality," Hadlaq says. "He thinks more about a long term future and less about himself and his anger." Other countries have experimented with efforts to rehabilitate Islamic extremists. In Egypt and Yemen, moderate clerics counsel prisoners accused of militant activity. The Religious Rehabilitation Group in Singapore has been widely praised for reducing the influence of the Jemaah Islamiyah terrorist organization. But the Saudi approach is unusual and, according to Bernard Haykel, a professor of Near Eastern studies at Princeton University, "is consistent with Saudi history in that you try through nonviolent means to cajole, to bribe, to buy off the opposition." Sheik Jilani likes to encourage class discussions by asking the men to share their experiences, and on one of the occasions I visited, he asked a student named Azzam to explain why he spent five months in Iraq. Referring to the infamous Mahmudiyah killings of 2006, Azzam replied that he had seen an article on the Internet about "the little girl named Abeer who was raped and killed by the Americans." "I felt so much sympathy for the Muslims," Azzam continued. "The infidel rape women and kill children. I decided then that I should join the Muslims in Iraq in order to drive the Americans out." The desert evening was growing chilly. Jilani removed his bisht and handed it to a shivering student. He turned back to Azzam. "Tell us, Azzam. What did you find in Iraq? Did you feel good when you went there?" Azzam frowned. "To tell you the truth, I didn't find what I was expecting," he said. "In Iraq, even the Muslims fight each other. I was expecting them to be well organized, but they weren't." Jilani nodded. "So did you fight?" "I didn't have the chance," Azzam said, sounding defensive. "For months, we went from safe house to safe house. There wasn't anything to do ? no action, no training. Finally, they asked me to be a suicide bomber. But I know that suicide is forbidden in Islam, so I came back home." Many of the former jihadists seemed to feel unappreciated, their sense of injury plain. Jilani and his colleagues encourage the former militants to examine those feelings, even to think of themselves as victims. Yes, they were tricked and manipulated by deviant ideology (a favorite Saudi catchphrase for Islamic extremism), but now they have a chance to turn back. Of all the concepts addressed in classes at the rehabilitation center, takfir is the one that tends to evoke the most anger among mainstream Saudi Muslims. The idea that there's a slippery slope from jihad to takfir comes up regularly in discussions with Saudi clerics. "Some of our young people don't listen to the right scholars," Jilani told me. "First they start to think that they have the right to go to jihad at any time. After that, they start to think that we have the right to kill any non-Muslim. "Then they start to say that our leaders are kuffar, infidels," the sheik continued. "After that they start to say that our scholars, too, are kuffar. Before long, they've declared war against the whole world." The Saudi government has recently intensified efforts to fight extremism and to turn public sympathy away from terrorist groups. Several prominent clerics have taken public stands against Al Qaeda, and late last year Saudi Mufti Sheik Abd al-Aziz bin Abdallah Al al-Sheik issued a fatwa prohibiting Saudi youth from traveling overseas to wage jihad. The Ministry of Islamic Affairs has initiated a new program called Serenity to fight terrorism online by drawing terrorist recruiters into one-on-one ideological chat-room combat with moderate-minded clerics. The government maintains that no graduates of the Munasaha program have returned to violence. But the program is still relatively new, and there are unanswered questions. Is the government dealing with captured militants while really failing to address the root causes of extremism? Will released extremists, now counted as successes, eventually return to jihad? A consulting psychiatrist at the King Faisal hospital in Riyadh says that to truly fight jihadism would mean fundamentally changing how Islam is taught in Saudi schools and mosques in a way that the Saudi government has until now been unwilling to attempt. "The government is never going to say, full stop, that jihad is wrong," he explains. The doctrine is an integral part of Islamic law, and arguing against it would raise the ire of religious scholars and possibly call the Islamic credentials of the Saudi government into question. And global jihad is still a socially acceptable path for a young Saudi man with few options, the psychiatrist says. "You have a young man who's depressed, frustrated with life, maybe he fails an exam. He can go from being a loser, a failure, to being a jihadi, someone with status." How and why violent extremists come to leave their organizations are a fairly new focus in academic studies of terrorism. Horgan's findings ? that simple fear and disillusionment can play a major role in an individual's decision to disengage from his group ? seem to be echoed by a recent RAND Corporation report on the demise of terrorist groups, which found that efforts by police and intelligence agents to create intense internal pressure within terrorist groups are more successful at fighting extremism than military actions. Consider Abu Sulayman, a stocky 32-year-old who spent more than three years in prison at Guant?namo and says he fought alongside Osama bin Laden at Tora Bora. Abu Sulayman spoke on the condition that I would use only his old nom de guerre. He completed the Munasaha program but was released shortly before the Care Center was established; he joked that he envies the current batch of former jihadists their "resort vacation." "Getting captured and Guant?namo ? it was all a good lesson," Abu Sulayman told me. "I mean, the main idea of jihad is good ? no one disagrees with that." His first jihad was in 1996, when he traveled to the Philippines to fight with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. "They had guys from everywhere, all these different countries, working together," Abu Sulayman said. "The majority are always Saudis." In 1997, Abu Sulayman went on to Afghanistan. Four years later, after his second trip to the country, he grew disillusioned with bin Laden and planned to leave for the Philippines because "Chechnya said they didn't need anyone at the moment." Instead, he was captured. Today he notes that the Qaeda camps where he worked as a training instructor offered him clear professional advancement. His new life ? in a middle-class Jeddah suburb, doing shift work at an electrical company ? doesn't provide the same sense of purpose. Even so, he has little regard for those who have followed in his footsteps. "Most people just want to carry weapons," Abu Sulayman said. They do not, as he put it, have especially sophisticated religious arguments. "For me, it was always more about the feeling that I wanted to help the Muslims. But jihad is complicated. If you're heading to Afghanistan or Iraq, do you really have the facts you need to get involved on the right side? "With Al Qaeda, the training was really excellent," Abu Sulayman went on. "These people they've got going to Iraq nowadays, they have no training, so they're just sent to explode themselves. "Now our government is saying: 'Don't go to Iraq. It's not in our interests,' " Abu Sulayman continued. "Now I think, At least I did something with my life. I went out and fought for my beliefs, and I found that things were not as I had planned. But at least I fought for my beliefs. God knows my heart." The sheiks who were charged with rehabilitating him were startled by his easygoing attitude, Abu Sulayman recalled. Even though Saudi public opinion has largely turned against Al Qaeda, many Saudis remain concerned that American-led efforts to fight terrorism are anti-Muslim and are infuriated by Guant?namo. "They thought that after all this time in Guant?namo I'd have some hate in me," Abu Sulayman told me. "But I never look back. I said, 'O.K., now I'll start a new life.' " Katherine Zoepf, who writes regularly for The Times, is working on a book about young women in the contemporary Arab world. From critical.montages at gmail.com Thu Nov 13 14:47:48 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Thu, 13 Nov 2008 16:47:48 -0500 Subject: [R-G] On Fidel Castro's Book "Peace in Colombia" Message-ID: On Fidel Castro's book Peace in Colombia ? Ethical responsibility and revolutionary commitment Pedro de la Hoz DURING recent months various events in Colombia have been commented on by Fidel in his habitual "Reflections," published in the Cuban press. The humanitarian operation sponsored by Venezuelan President Hugo Ch?vez, which culminated in the release on January 10 of Clara Rojas and Consuelo Gonz?lez, held by the guerrilla forces. Then came the military incursion of March 1, with U.S. assistance, and the massacre on Ecuadorian territory of combatants in the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and young people of other nationalities, in flagrant violation of the sovereignty of a foreign country, condemned a few days later in the R?o Group meeting in the Dominican capital. And then the release of former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt and another 14 people in an action that relied on U.S. logistic support and intelligence, all of which motivated successive appreciations by the leader of the Cuban Revolution on the connotations of the events and their political and ethical implications in Latin America and the Caribbean. Starting from a question that he asks himself ? Was I objective and fair in my analysis of Marulanda and the Communist Party of Colombia in the "Reflections" published on July 5, 2008? ? Fidel wrote La paz en Colombia (Peace in Colombia), the revealing title of a book published by Editora Pol?tica, on which he spent 400 long and arduous hours of documentation, analysis and drafting. In the book, Fidel develops three central ideas: one, the characterization and development of the deceased FARC chief, the evolution of the guerrilla movement and his role in the complex Colombian political framework; secondly, the incidence of the oligarchic power, its instruments of exploitation and repression and its alliance with U.S. imperialism in the genesis of and constant exercise of violence; and thirdly, the real nature of Cuba's links with the Latin American revolutionary movements and its long and sustained contribution to the search for a just, realistic and humanitarian solution to the armed conflict that is bleeding Colombia. This country, Andean and Caribbean at the same time, is a long and ancient wound festering in the body of the continent. Even before Jorge Eli?cer Gait?n was assassinated in a Bogot? street on April 9, 1948, the day on which the spiral of violence that continues up until today took on impulse, the nation experienced many pages of terror. In another of his "Reflections" (July 17, 2008), Fidel, who was in Colombia during known tragic events such as El Bogotazo, recalls having read "news on the massacres that were taking place in rural areas under the conservative government of Ospina P?rez. Normally, there was news of dozens of campesinos killed in those days." La paz en Colombia is not a speculative essay, but a testimony that adheres to the objectivity of events. From its opening chapters ? in which he summarizes the First and Second Declaration of Havana (1960 and 1962), essential for an understanding of the response of the Cuban government and people to the harassment of the empire and its subjected Latin Americans ? until the final one ? where he contrasts the memoirs of former Colombian president Andr?s Pastrana with his own recollections of the issues covered in his talks with the former, and publishes Pastrana's words on the "transparency, sincerity, loyalty and friendship toward Colombia" of the Cuban leader, Fidel gives precedence to documentary exposition. In that context, the historical leader of the FARC (his real name was Pedro Antonio Mar?n) is perceived via the excellent testimonies of writer Arturo Alape and he sees himself in the so-called Cuadernos de Marulanda (Marulanda Notebooks). One key witness in terms of understanding the intrigues in the peace negotiations in Pastrana's time is widely quoted in the book: Jos? Arbes?, an official in the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, who was present at the negotiations in Caigu?n in January 2001, and then had meetings with Marulanda. Likewise extremely interesting are the references written by Jacobo Arenas (the nom de guerre of Luis Morantes), author of Diario de la resistencia de Marquetalia (Diary of the Marquetalia Resistance, 1972), and a member of the Colombian Communist Party who joined the FARC and contributed to the ideological training of the guerrilla cadres. Arenas died in 1990, after having been one of the principal architects of the Uni?n Patri?tica Movement, in which the FARC and other forces were grouped to participate in the public political scenario. During the government of Belisario Betancur, two presidential candidates, eight Congress members, 13 deputies, 70 councilors and 11 mayors and thousands of their members were assassinated by paramilitary groups, the security forces and drug trafficking hired killers. The book also reveals the decisive Cuban mediation in the release in 1996 of Juan Carlos Gaviria, taken hostage by the Dignidad por Colombia Movement ? an episode so bizarre that Fidel approaches it in a chapter titled "Fictional Events;" and even before in the peaceful solution to the crisis brought about on February 27, 1980 by the occupation and taking of hostages in the embassy of the Dominican Republic in Bogot?. The transcript of long excerpts of Fidel's talks with the guerrilla commanders of the Sim?n Bol?var Coordinating Committee in Havana in 1991, evidences the respect with which the leader of the Revolution handled the delicate issue of the insurgency in that South American country. With the aim of living a more precise idea of the context in which popular struggles developed in former decades on the continent, in the face of imperial interference and crimes, Fidel includes in his exposition details of the internationalist coordination that contributed to the Sandinista's triumph over the Somoza dictatorship in 1979, and the brutal Yankee aggression against Grenada in 1983, which cost the lives of Cuban internationalists on that Caribbean island working on a noble civil mission. With total frankness and absolute transparency, and starting from the mass of information handled, Fidel defines Marulanda as a leader who "understands the realities of the country and the period in which it befell him to live. He was far from being the bandit and drug trafficker that he was painted by his enemies. "At another point he states: "He did extraordinary things with guerrilla units that, under his personal leadership, penetrated deep into enemy territory. Whenever anybody failed to fulfill a similar mission, he was always ready to demonstrate that it was possible." But at the same time, with honesty and a knowledge of the cause, Fidel states from the beginning: "My disagreement with Marulanda's conception is based on living experience, not as a theoretician but as a politician who confronted and had to solve very similar problems as a citizen and as a guerrilla fighter, only that his were more complex and difficult." And toward the end he argues: "I disagreed with the FARC chief over the rhythm he assigned to the Colombian revolutionary process, his idea of an excessively prolonged war? My opposition is known to holding prisoners of war, implementing policies that humiliate them or subjecting them to the extremely hard conditions of the selva. In that way they will never hand over their weapons, even though the combat is lost. Neither was I in agreement with the taking and holding of civilians at a remove from the war." In relation to the Communist Party of Colombia, Fidel describes how, as in other similar formations in Latin America, "they were disciplined members of the International while it formally existed," under the line of the Communist Party of the USSR. In the case of Cuba, not without contradictions and tensions, unity prevailed among the revolutionary forces. The programmatic disagreements between the Colombian Party and the insurrectionary movements in diverse stages of that country's history, do not in any way imply any devaluation of their selfless members." Among the conclusions to be derived from reading this book, there are two that should be underlined: the interested and pernicious conduct of U.S. imperialism in the Colombian conflict on the one hand, and on the other, the value of revolutionary principles. Only from a profound commitment to the truth, justice, the destiny of the peoples and the Mart? faith in human betterment can a book like this be conceived. A contribution of this magnitude to an understanding of the dramatic vicissitudes of Colombian history throughout the last 60 years is possible given the political education, analytic lucidity and the elevated ethics of a man whom an eminent Colombian, Gabriel Garc?a M?rquez deemed: "His vision of Latin America in the future is the same as that of Bol?var and Mart?, a integrated and autonomous community, capable of moving the destiny of the world." Revela Fidel Castro que discrepa con las FARC por su estrategia militar y los plagios ? Su libro La paz en Colombia fue presentado en La Habana por el ex diplom?tico Jos? Arbes? Revela Fidel Castro que discrepa con las FARC por su estrategia militar y los plagios ? Afirma el ex mandatario que admira la "firmeza" y la disposici?n a luchar de Manuel Marulanda Gerardo Arreola (Corresponsal) La Habana, 12 de noviembre. Fidel Castro revel? que no s?lo discrepa con las Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) por su trato a los prisioneros y los secuestros de civiles, sino tambi?n por su estrategia militar, pero dijo que admira la "firmeza" y la "disposici?n a luchar hasta la ?ltima gota de sangre" del desaparecido jefe de ese grupo guerrillero, Manuel Marulanda V?lez. Los comentarios de Castro, junto con documentos in?ditos, desclasificados de los archivos cubanos, aparecieron aqu? hoy en el libro La paz en Colombia. El ex presidente cubano, de 82 a?os de edad, alejado de la vida p?blica por enfermedad desde julio de 2006, ya hab?a tocado el punto en un art?culo publicado el pasado 5 de julio. En el volumen abri? sus expedientes y, adem?s del caso colombiano, abord? otros asuntos, como las experiencias guerrilleras de Centroam?rica y la invasi?n estadunidense a la isla de Granada en los a?os 80 del siglo pasado. En la presentaci?n del libro intervino un personaje que fue decisivo en las relaciones cubanas con el hemisferio, el veterano operador pol?tico Jos? Arbes?, ex jefe de la Secci?n de Intereses en Washington, quien dirige desde hace dos d?cadas la Secci?n Am?rica del Comit? Central del Partido Comunista de Cuba. "Lo m?s importante es que en este libro se aborda algo que ha estado oculto", dijo Arbes?. "El papel de Cuba en favor de la paz en Colombia". Arbes? es el ejemplo t?pico del funcionario que trabaja fuera de los reflectores. Casi no tiene actividades p?blicas y con otra nomenclatura ocupa el cargo que tuvo durante tres d?cadas Manuel Pi?eiro Losada, el legendario comandante Barbarroja, muerto en 1997 y por cuya oficina virtualmente pasaron generaciones enteras de l?deres y activistas de la izquierda latinoamericana. Hace tres d?cadas que Cuba favorece una soluci?n negociada y pac?fica al conflicto colombiano, dijo Arbes?, con voz apenas audible. "Ni el ej?rcito puede derrotar al movimiento guerrillero ni el movimiento guerrillero va a derrotar al ej?rcito". Subray? que, aunque Cuba ha mantenido relaciones con los rebeldes colombianos, no les ha facilitado armas o financiamiento. En el libro, Castro dedic? varios tramos a construir su juicio sobre Marulanda, con quien dijo que compart?a una circunstancia com?n al comienzo de sus respectivos movimientos revolucionarios: la falta de una ideolog?a revolucionaria y de un programa. "No cuestiono en lo m?s m?nimo su honradez ni la del Partido Comunista de Colombia", se?al? el ex mandatario. "Por el contrario, merecen respeto, porque fueron revolucionarios, luchadores antimperialistas". Relat? que discrepaba de Tirofijo "por el ritmo que asignaba al proceso revolucionario de Colombia, su idea de guerra excesivamente prolongada" y la tesis de crear primero un ej?rcito de 30 mil hombres. Las FARC "por sus concepciones operativas, nunca cercaron ni obligaron a la rendici?n a batallones completos con el apoyo de artiller?a, unidades blindadas y fuerza a?rea a su favor", apunt?. "Es conocida mi oposici?n a cargar con los prisioneros de guerra, a aplicar pol?ticas que los humillen o someterlos a las dur?simas condiciones de la selva. De ese modo nunca rendir?an las armas, aunque el combate estuviera perdido. Tampoco estaba de acuerdo con la captura y retenci?n de civiles ajenos a la guerra". "Debo a?adir que los prisioneros y rehenes les restan capacidad de maniobra a los combatientes", a?adi? el l?der cubano. "Admiro, sin embargo, la firmeza revolucionaria que mostr? Marulanda y su disposici?n a luchar hasta la ?ltima gota de sangre". En su comentario de julio, Castro record? que, despu?s de respaldar a las guerrillas latinoamericanas, se manifest? contra la lucha armada en la regi?n, tras el hundimiento de la Uni?n Sovi?tica y en condiciones "muy diferentes a las de Cuba, Nicaragua y otros pa?ses en las d?cadas del 50, 60 y 70 del siglo XX". El 24 de julio de 1993, a?o y medio despu?s del derrumbe sovi?tico, Castro habl? por primera vez en p?blico de rectificar la v?a armada. Fue en La Habana, en la clausura del Foro de Sao Paulo, el frente de partidos latinoamericanos de izquierda. "Les est? hablando alguien que particip? en la lucha armada y que apoy? al movimiento revolucionario armado, de lo cual no nos arrepentimos", dijo entonces el l?der cubano. "Pero vemos con claridad que ahora, en este momento, en estas circunstancias, no es el camino m?s prometedor". Cuando Castro dijo esas palabras ya se hab?an firmado los acuerdos de paz en El Salvador, se abr?an negociaciones en Guatemala y hac?a una d?cada se hab?a iniciado la primera de varias rondas de encuentros entre las FARC, otros grupos guerrilleros y los sucesivos gobiernos colombianos. Paralelamente, desde que reanud? relaciones diplom?ticas con Colombia en 1991, Cuba ha mantenido fluido di?logo pol?tico con los gobiernos de C?sar Gaviria, Ernesto Samper, Andr?s Pastrana y Alvaro Uribe, una de cuyas piezas fundamentales ha sido el respaldo a los intentos de negociaciones de paz, que incluyen a los del Ej?rcito de Liberaci?n Nacional. From srobin21 at comcast.net Thu Nov 13 23:11:15 2008 From: srobin21 at comcast.net (Steven L. Robinson) Date: Thu, 13 Nov 2008 22:11:15 -0800 Subject: [R-G] Big defeat for Chevron in San Francisco Bay Area Message-ID: <05ac01c9461f$cd7076c0$54f2fea9@noir> (The Mayor of Richmond, California is Gayle McLaughlin, a Green Party member and a leader in the campaign to tax Chevron and defeat the pro-Chevron members of the Richmond City Council. SR) Richmond Voters to Chevron: Enough! Robert Gammon East Bay Express November 13, 2008 Richmond voters delivered a body blow to Chevron last week, loosening its stranglehold on city politics and forcing it to cough up more money for city services. That's according to the most recent update in ballot counting by the Contra Costa County Elections Division. The counting is nearly complete, and the remaining provisional ballots are not expected to change the outcome of the Richmond contests. In the city council race, "The Chevron Five" is no more as two members of the group that has voted with the oil giant over the years were voted out of office. Political newcomer Jeff Ritterman, chief of cardiology at Kaiser Richmond who ran a get-tough-on-Chevron campaign, won the most votes with 16.2 percent. Coming in second with 15.5 percent was incumbent Tom Butt, a longtime critic of the oil giant's power over Richmond. And taking third was incumbent Nat Bates, a Chevron supporter, with 15.2 percent. Those three were all elected to the council, and as a result, Chevron will no longer have a majority of supporters on the panel. In addition, voters approved Measure T, a manufacturing tax that could generate up to $26 million annually, of which up to $16 million could come from Chevron each year. Both Butt and Ritterman were strong proponents of the measure. Chevron attempted to defeat it. Apparently just missing out on a council seat was Jovanka Beckles, another political newcomer who ran on a slate with Ritterman, Butt, and Measure T. Beckles got 14.8 percent of the vote. She is currently just 331 votes behind Bates, but it doesn't appear likely that she can make up that ground when the provisional ballots are counted. Provisionals are ballots that poll workers hand out to voters on Election Day if their names do not appear on the official registration rolls for that polling station. Two members of the Chevron Five that were voted out of office were John Marquez, who came in fifth with 12.8 percent of the vote, and Harpreet Sandhu, who came in seventh with 7.7 percent. http://www.eastbayexpress.com/blogs/richmond_voters_to_chevron__enough_/Cont ent?oid=866046 This email was cleaned by emailStripper, available for free from http://www.papercut.biz/emailStripper.htm From srobin21 at comcast.net Thu Nov 13 23:15:03 2008 From: srobin21 at comcast.net (Steven L. Robinson) Date: Thu, 13 Nov 2008 22:15:03 -0800 Subject: [R-G] Doctor Doom -The Worst Is Not Behind Us Message-ID: <079301c94620$558fb930$54f2fea9@noir> Doctor Doom -The Worst Is Not Behind Us Nouriel Roubini Forbes November 13, 2008. It is useful, at this juncture, to stand back and survey the economic landscape--both as it is now, and as it has been in recent months. So here is a summary of many of the points that I have made for the last few months on the outlook for the U.S. and global economy, as well as for financial markets: --The U.S. will experience its most severe recession since World War II, much worse and longer and deeper than even the 1974-1975 and 1980-1982 recessions. The recession will continue until at least the end of 2009 for a cumulative gross domestic product drop of over 4%; the unemployment rate will likely reach 9%. The U.S. consumer is shopped-out, saving less and debt-burdened: This will be the worst consumer recession in decades. The prospect of a short and shallow six- to eight-month V-shaped recession is out of the window; a U-shaped 18- to 24-month recession is now a certainty, and the probability of a worse, multi-year L-shaped recession (as in Japan in the 1990s) is still small but rising. Even if the economy were to exit a recession by the end of 2009, the recovery could be so weak because of the impairment of the financial system and the credit mechanism that it may feel like a recession even if the economy is technically out of the recession. --Obama will inherit an economic and financial mess worse than anything the U.S. has faced in decades: the most severe recession in 50 years; the worst financial and banking crisis since the Great Depression; a ballooning fiscal deficit that may be as high as a trillion dollars in 2009 and 2010; a huge current account deficit; a financial system that is in a severe crisis and where deleveraging is still occurring at a very rapid pace, thus causing a worsening of the credit crunch; a household sector where millions of households are insolvent, into negative equity territory and on the verge of losing their homes; a serious risk of deflation as the slack in goods, labor and commodity markets becomes deeper; the risk that we will end in a deflationary liquidity trap as the Fed is fast approaching the zero-bound constraint for the Fed funds rate; the risk of a severe debt deflation as the real value of nominal liabilities will rise, given price deflation, while the value of financial assets is still plunging. --The world economy will experience a severe recession: Output will sharply contract in the Eurozone, the U.K. and the rest of Europe, as well as in Canada, Japan and Australia/New Zealand. There is also a risk of a hard landing in emerging market economies. Expect global growth--at market prices--to be close to zero in Q3 and negative by Q4. Leaving aside the effects of the fiscal stimulus, China could face a hard landing growth rate of 6% in 2009. The global recession will continue through most of 2009. --The advanced economies will face stag-deflation (stagnation/recession and deflation) rather than stagflation, as the slack in goods, labor and commodity markets will lead advanced economies' inflation rates to become below 1% by 2009. --Expect a few advanced economies (certainly the U.S. and Japan and possibly others) to reach the zero-bound constraint for policy rates by early 2009. With deflation on the horizon, zero-bound on interest rates implies the risk of a liquidity trap where money and bonds become perfectly substitutable, where real interest rates become high and rising, thus further pushing down aggregate demand, and where money market fund returns cannot even cover their management costs. Comment On This Story Deflation also implies a debt deflation where the real value of nominal debts is rising, thus increasing the real burden of such debts. Monetary policy easing will become more aggressive in other advanced economies even if the European Central Bank cuts too little too late. But monetary policy easing will be scarcely effective, as it will be pushing on a string, given the glut of global aggregate supply relative to demand--and given a very severe credit crunch. --For 2009, the consensus estimates for earnings are delusional: Current consensus estimates are that S&P 500 earnings per share (EPS) will be $90 in 2009, up 15% from 2008. Such estimates are outright silly. If EPS falls--as is most likely--to a level of $60, then with a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 12, the S&P 500 index could fall to 720 (i.e. about 20% below current levels). If the P/E falls to 10--as is possible in a severe recession--the S&P could be down to 600, or 35% below current levels. And in a very severe recession, one cannot exclude that EPS could fall as low as $50 in 2009, dragging the S&P 500 index to as low as 500. So, even based on fundamentals and valuations, there are significant downside risks to U.S. equities (20% to 40%). Similar arguments can be made for global equities: A severe global recession implies further downside risks to global equities in the order of 20% to 30%.Thus, the recent rally in U.S. and global equities was only a bear-market sucker's rally that is already fizzling out--buried under a mountain of worse-than-expected macro, earnings and financial news. --Credit losses will be well above $1 trillion and closer to $2 trillion, as such losses will spread from subprime to near-prime and prime mortgages and home equity loans (and the related securitized products); to commercial real estate, to credit cards, auto loans and student loans; to leveraged loans and LBOs, to muni bonds, corporate bonds, industrial and commercial loans and credit default swaps. These credit losses will lead to a severe credit crunch, absent a rapid and aggressive recapitalization of financial institutions. --Almost all of the $700 billion in the TARP program will be used to recapitalize U.S. financial institutions (banks, broker dealers, insurance companies, finance companies) as rising credit losses (close to $2 trillion) will imply that the initial $250 billion allocated to recap these institutions will not be enough. Sooner rather than later, a TARP-2 will become necessary, as the recapitalization needs of U.S. financial institutions will likely be well above $1 trillion. --Current spreads on speculative-grade bonds may widen further as a tsunami of defaults will hit the corporate sector; investment-grade bond spreads have widened excessively relative to financial fundamentals, but further spread-widening is possible, driven by market dynamics, deleveraging and the fact that many AAA-rated firms (say, GE) are not really AAA, and should be downgraded by the rating agencies. --Expect a U.S. fiscal deficit of almost $1 trillion in 2009 and 2010. The outlook for the U.S. current account deficit is mixed: The recession, a rise in private savings and a fall in investment, and a further fall in commodity prices will tend to shrink it, but a stronger dollar, global demand weakness and a larger U.S. fiscal deficit will tend to worsen it. On net, we will observe still-large U.S. twin fiscal and current account deficits--and less willingness and ability in the rest of the world to finance it unless the interest rate on such debt rises. --In this economic and financial environment, it is wise to stay away from most risky assets for the next 12 months: There are downside risks to U.S. and global equities; credit spreads--especially for the speculative grade--may widen further; commodity prices will fall another 20% from current levels; gold will also fall as deflation sets in; the U.S. dollar may weaken further in the next six to 12 months as the factors behind the recent rally weather off, while medium-term bearish fundamentals for the dollar set in again; government bond yields in the U.S. and advanced economies may fall further as recession and deflation emerge but, over time, the surge in fiscal deficits in the U.S. and globally will reduce the supply of global savings and lead to higher long-term interest rates unless the fall in global real investment outpaces the fall in global savings. Expect further downside risks to emerging-markets assets (in particular, equities and local and foreign currency debt), especially in economies with significant macro, policy and financial vulnerabilities. Cash and cash-like instruments (short-term dated government bonds and inflation-indexed bonds that do well both in inflation and deflation times) will dominate most risky assets. So, serious risks and vulnerabilities remain, and the downside risks to financial markets (worse than expected macro news, earnings news and developments in systemically important parts of the global financial system) will, over the next few months, overshadow the positive news (G-7 policies to avoid a systemic meltdown, and other policies that--in due time--may reduce interbank spreads and credit spreads). Beware, therefore, of those who tell you that we have reached a bottom for risky financial assets. The same optimists told you that we reached a bottom and the worst was behind us after the rescue of the creditors of Bear Stearns in March; after the announcement of the possible bailout of Fannie and Freddie in July; after the actual bailout of Fannie and Freddie in September; after the bailout of AIG in mid-September; after the TARP legislation was presented; and after the latest G-7 and E.U. action. In each case, the optimists argued that the latest crisis and rescue policy response was the cathartic event that signaled the bottom of the crisis and the recovery of markets. They were wrong literally at least six times in a row as the crisis--as I have consistently predicted over the last year--became worse and worse. So enough of the excessive optimism that has been proved wrong at least six times in the last eight months alone. A reality check is needed to assess risks--and to take appropriate action. And reality tells us that we barely avoided, only a week ago, a total systemic financial meltdown; that the policy actions are now finally more aggressive and systematic, and more appropriate; that it will take a long while for interbank and credit markets to mend; that further important policy actions are needed to avoid the meltdown and an even more severe recession; that central banks, instead of being the lenders of last resort, will be, for now, the lenders of first and only resort; that even if we avoid a meltdown, we will experience a severe U.S., advanced economy and, most likely, global recession, the worst in decades; that we are in the middle of a severe global financial and banking crisis, the worst since the Great Depression; and that the flow of macro, earnings and financial news will significantly surprise (as during the last few weeks) on the downside with significant further risks to financial markets. I'll stop now. Nouriel Roubini, a professor at the Stern Business School at New York University and chairman of Roubini Global Economics, is a weekly columnist for Forbes.com. http://www.forbes.com/opinions/2008/11/12/recession-global-economy-oped-cx_n r_1113roubini.html This email was cleaned by emailStripper, available for free from http://www.papercut.biz/emailStripper.htm From critical.montages at gmail.com Fri Nov 14 00:20:36 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Fri, 14 Nov 2008 02:20:36 -0500 Subject: [R-G] Settlers Who Long to Leave the West Bank Message-ID: November 14, 2008 Settlers Who Long to Leave the West Bank By ETHAN BRONNER RIMONIM, West Bank ? Surrounded by hostility, living on land most of the world wants turned over to Palestinians for a state, they meet quietly in Jewish settlements like this one, plotting the future. But these besieged West Bank settlers, widely viewed as an obstacle to peace, want only one surprising thing: to get out. While the vast majority of settlers vow never to abandon the heart of the historic Jewish homeland ? these ancient and starkly beautiful hills whose biblical names are Judea and Samaria ? thousands of other settlers say they want to move back to within the pre-1967 borders of Israel. They say the West Bank settlement enterprise ? at least that part beyond the barrier of wall and fence Israel has been building ? is doomed and their lives are at risk. Many say something else as well: The Israeli occupation of land claimed by the Palestinians is wrong and they want no part of it. But their houses are worthless, and they are stuck. They want help. "I came here 25 years ago to live in the countryside and raise my family," said David Avidan as he sat in a neighbor's living room here one recent evening to discuss an exit strategy. "We wanted to resettle the whole land of Israel," he added. "But now when I see how our soldiers treat Palestinians at the checkpoints, I am ashamed. I want us to get out of here. I want two states for two people. But I can't get any money for my house and I can't leave." There are 280,000 settlers in the West Bank (200,000 more Israeli Jews live in East Jerusalem, also captured in 1967), and the vast majority are firmly committed to staying and oppose a Palestinian state here. But 80,000 of them live beyond the barrier, and surveys indicate that many would leave. If they did, others might follow voluntarily. "We did a survey three years ago and again last year, and the results were the same," said Avshalom Vilan, a Parliament member from the left-wing Meretz Party. "Half the settlers beyond the barrier are ideologically motivated and do not want to move. But about 40 percent of them are ready to go for a reasonable price." Mr. Vilan is a leader of a movement called Bayit Ehad, or One Home, which wants a law budgeting $6 billion to buy the homes of 20,000 families so they can start over inside Israel. Much of the leadership of the governing centrist Kadima Party and the left-leaning Labor Party supports the law in principle, and the government has heard several presentations about it. But the leadership has stopped short of supporting passage of the law now for fear of creating an explosive rift in Israeli society. There is also concern that such a step would amount to giving away an asset without getting anything in return from the Palestinians ? a unilateral act similar to the withdrawal from Gaza three years ago, which strengthened the militant Islamist group Hamas and is seen in Israel as a failure. The law's advocates say Gaza is a false analogy because a settler withdrawal from the West Bank would strengthen the Palestinian Authority under President Mahmoud Abbas. The authority is trying to convince the Palestinian public that two states are possible. The advocates add that the whole point is to start the movement early in order to encourage others to follow suit and begin an orderly process for a politically and emotionally complex undertaking. Nothing will happen before elections in February, but the law's advocates hope that if Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni of Kadima wins enough votes to form the next government, she will move ahead with it quickly. Ms. Livni has said that as soon as there is a framework for a two-state solution, she is willing to look more seriously at passing the law. Settlers who have taken a stand in favor of such a move say life has been hard. Benny Raz, 55, who has lived with his family in the settlement of Karnei Shomron since the mid-1990s, began to call for a way out in the past few years, asking the government to buy his house and those of his fellow settlers. "My neighbors looked at me like I was a traitor or from another planet," he recounted. He said that he was fired from his job in charge of settlement bus drivers and that his wife's sandwich stand was boycotted and driven out of business. "I get threatening phone calls telling me I am going to be killed," he said. "Today, I carry a gun because I am afraid of the Jews, not the Arabs." Herzl Ben Ari, mayor of Karnei Shomron, said that Mr. Raz was fired for incompetence and that the sandwich stand had hygiene problems, both unrelated to his political activities. Dani Dayan, chairman of the settlers' council, said that while real estate in a few communities had lost value, most houses in West Bank settlements still fetched high prices. "This bill is psychological," he said in reference to the proposed law. "They want to put pressure on us and on the Israeli public to give the illusion that our fate is already doomed. They like to say that everybody knows that in the end these communities will not exist. I say the opposite. More and more people here and abroad are beginning to understand that there is not going to be a Palestinian state here." Some houses that have been abandoned by settlers unwilling to stay have been filled by young religious families that pay minimal rent and are directed there by the settlers' leadership. Mr. Vilan, the leftist lawmaker, said that under his law, moving into settlement houses bought by the government would be an offense punishable by up to five years in prison. One Home has held several dozen meetings around West Bank settlements urging those who want to leave to become active in the movement. At a meeting here in Rimonim, several people said they were afraid that what had happened to Mr. Raz would happen to them. One of those whom Mr. Raz helped persuade at an earlier meeting was Monika Yzchaki of the Mevo Dotan settlement, which like Mr. Raz's settlement is in the northern half of the West Bank and is on the other side of the barrier. She moved there 16 years ago with her husband and young children. "We came for a house we could afford in a good environment," she said by telephone. "Many don't understand that there are a lot of us who are not extremists or crazy. Now I have to show a passport at the barrier to get home. I am now living in Palestine. It used to be that I thought it was my country and they thought it was theirs. Today it is very clear it is their country." She added, "I can name 40 families that want to leave but are afraid to say it aloud." Asked for her view of a Palestinian state, she said: "I think there should be a two-state solution. You cannot live with people who don't have independence. They have to learn their own language, teach their children their own heritage. But that is their problem. My problem is that my government has left me behind." From critical.montages at gmail.com Fri Nov 14 00:32:43 2008 From: critical.montages at gmail.com (Yoshie Furuhashi) Date: Fri, 14 Nov 2008 02:32:43 -0500 Subject: [R-G] Islamists Continue Advance Through Somalia Message-ID: November 14, 2008 Islamists Continue Advance Through Somalia By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN NAIROBI, Kenya ? Islamist militias in Somalia on Thursday continued their steady and surprisingly uncontested march toward the capital, Mogadishu, capturing a small town on the outskirts of the city. Several dozen Islamist fighters poured into Elasha Biyaha, which is 11 miles southwest of Mogadishu, after government-allied militias fled. No shots were fired, but residents feared it was only a matter of time. "Many people are now on the verge of fleeing," said Yusuf Abdi Nur, a shopkeeper in Elasha Biyaha. The tense but bloodless capture of Elasha Biyaha was a carbon copy of what happened in Merka, a strategic port town, on Wednesday, when hundreds of heavily armed Islamist militants took over the town after government-allied troops beat a hasty retreat. But the siege of Elasha Biyaha on Thursday was carried out by a different wing of the Islamist movement, according to residents and the Islamists themselves. What seems to be emerging is an accelerating scramble among Somalia's rival Islamist factions to seize control of areas that the weak transitional government can no longer defend. The government has been hobbled by infighting and plagued by defections to the Islamists, and seems on the brink of collapse. Many towns in southern Somalia, including Merca, Chisimayu, Qoryooley and Buulo Mareer, are now firmly in the hands of the Shabab, the most militant wing of the Islamists and a group the Bush administration has designated a terrorist organization. The Shabab commanders are fighting to turn Somalia into an Islamic state and they often impose strict Islamic law in their zones of control. On Thursday, residents said the newly arrived clerics in Merca announced that all shops from now on would be closed during prayer time. But other parts of Somalia ? such as Beledweyne on the Ethiopian border, and Giohar, north of Mogadishu ? are now falling under the control of a more moderate insurgent group, the Islamic Courts Union. This group receives strong support from Somalia's influential business community, and often the population. In Mogadishu, the government is clinging to a few shrinking enclaves, like the port, airport and the presidential palace ? all of which are frequently shelled. Much of the rest of the city is controlled by Islamist groups and clan militias. On Thursday, Abdirahin Isse Adow, a spokesman for the Islamic Courts Union, said it was his group that had taken over Elasha Biyaha, in order to "bring back peace and security." "We don't want these people to feel insecurity, then evacuate," he said, referring to intense fighting earlier in the year that displaced hundreds of thousands of Somalis. Many residents said they were happy to see the Islamic gunmen. The Islamic Courts Union and the Shabab used to be allies. In the summer of 2006, their combined forces ousted the predatory warlords that had controlled Mogadishu. For the first time since Somalia's central government collapsed in 1991, many Somalis said they experienced peace. But a few months later, Ethiopian forces routed the Islamist troops and brought Somalia's transitional government to Mogadishu, which set off some of the most intense warfare Somalia has ever seen. Thousands of civilians have been killed since early 2007, with different Islamist groups waging relentless attacks on government and Ethiopian forces and sometimes battling it out themselves. Mohammed Ibrahim contributed reporting from Mogadishu, Somalia November 13, 2008 Islamist Insurgents Take Somali Port City Without a Fight By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN NAIROBI, Kenya ? Another major city in Somalia fell without a shot to Islamist insurgents on Wednesday, with Islamist guerrilla fighters seizing the strategic port of Merka, residents and Somali officials said. The Islamists are now in control of a large and rapidly growing swath of south-central Somalia, and the weak transitional government seems too paralyzed by infighting to do much about it. The government, which is recognized internationally and backed by Ethiopian troops, has repeatedly urged the United Nations to send in peacekeepers to quell the insurgency and stabilize the country. But with the continuing conflicts in eastern Congo and the Darfur region of Sudan, another major international peacekeeping effort in the region seems unlikely at the moment. Hundreds of fighters rolled into Merka around 8 a.m. on Wednesday in heavily armed pickup trucks, meeting no resistance because government-allied militias had fled the night before, according to residents. Merka is only 60 miles south of Mogadishu, Somalia's bullet-pocked capital, and Somali officials warned that the Islamists were now planning to lay siege to Mogadishu. "We know their grand plan," said Abdi Awaleh Jama, an ambassador at large for the transitional federal government. "But we're not going to run away. We're going to fight with whatever we have." But, he added, "we need help ? urgently." The Islamists have been steadily gobbling up territory ? Merka, Kismayu, Bulo Marer, El Dheer and Qoryooley ? and now control many strategic areas across the country. They seem to be fast approaching Mogadishu, from the north and from the south. In some areas, they have begun imposing a strict interpretation of Islamic law, even stoning to death a young Somali who said she had been raped. The Islamists convicted her last month of adultery. United Nations officials said she may have been as young as 13. The American government has accused the Islamists of sheltering terrorists from Al Qaeda responsible for killing Americans. But many Somalis are so eager for law and order that they are embracing the Islamists. On Wednesday, residents in Merka said they poured into the streets to welcome the Islamist gunmen. "I am very happy with them," said Axmed Warfaa, an elder in the town. "I am Muslim, and our religion is fair." The Islamist fighters, part of a group called the Shabab, which the Bush administration has designated a terrorist organization, quickly took over Merka's police station and government buildings, residents said. The fighters seemed organized, with many wearing green uniforms. They addressed a crowd that gathered in one of Merka's public squares, telling people to stay calm and to put aside clan differences and unite under the banner of Islam, according to accounts from residents. Merka's previous officials fled to a suburb of Mogadishu. In Mogadishu, the transitional government seems to be embroiled in another round of infighting. Officials allied with the president, Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, are accusing the prime minister, Nur Hassan Hussein, of secretly helping the Islamists. Some of the president's men have gone as far as to say that Ethiopian forces, which have been in Somalia for almost two years helping to prop up the government, now work with the insurgents. Ethiopian officials are blaming Somalia's leaders for not making peace with Islamist clerics, who enjoy a large degree of popular support. When the Islamists briefly ruled much of Somalia in 2006, many Somalis considered that period the most peaceful era since the central government imploded in 1991. The Ethiopians, with American help, overthrew the Islamists in 2006, and an intense guerrilla war has raged ever since, with thousands of civilians killed. The Ethiopians seem to be running out of patience. They recently indicated they would withdraw their troops soon, a move that many Somalis believe would spell the end of the government. "Yes, it's bad," Mr. Abdi said about the fall of Merka and the overall status of the government. "These Islamists are terrorists. The American Congress and administration have to wake up. We have a common interest in defeating them." Complicating matters is the fact that Merka has been home to a major United Nations operation to bring in food. Somalia has been on the brink of a famine for much of the past year, because of drought, conflict-related displacement and high global food prices. Millions of people need emergency rations to survive. United Nations officials said on Wednesday that Merka's port was crucial to keeping people alive. More than 24 million pounds of food passed through the port in October alone, feeding as many as 850,000 people. Peter Smerdon, a spokesman for the United Nations World Food Program, said local United Nations employees in Merka were trying to speak to the new Islamist authorities about continuing the life-saving operations. The United Nations does work in several other areas in Somalia controlled by the Islamists. In the past, United Nations officials have said they faced less interference in some Islamist areas than in those under nominal government control. Yet Islamist insurgents have been widely blamed for assassinations of aid workers. Mohammed Ibrahim contributed reporting from Mogadishu, Somalia. From shimogamo at attglobal.net Fri Nov 14 05:27:59 2008 From: shimogamo at attglobal.net (Bill Totten) Date: Fri, 14 Nov 2008 21:27:59 +0900 Subject: [R-G] [BillTottenWeblog] We're All Minskyites Now Message-ID: <491D6ECF.9090300@attglobal.net> by Robert Pollin The Nation (November 17 2008 edition) As the most severe financial crisis since the 1930s Depression has unfolded over the past eighteen months, the ideas of the late economist Hyman Minsky have suddenly come into fashion. In the summer of 2007, the Wall Street Journal ran a front-page article describing the emerging crisis as the financial market's "Minsky moment". His ideas have since been featured in the Financial Times, BusinessWeek and The New Yorker, among many other outlets. Minsky, who spent most of his academic career at Washington University in St Louis and remained professionally active until his death, in 1996, deserves the recognition. He was his generation's most insightful analyst of financial markets and the causes of financial crises. Even so, most mainstream economists have shunned his work because it emerged out of a dissident left Keynesian tradition known in economists' circles as post-Keynesianism. Minsky's writings, and the post-Keynesian tradition more generally, are highly critical of free-market capitalism and its defenders in the economics profession - among them Milton Friedman and other Nobel Prize-winning economists who for a generation have claimed to "prove", usually through elaborate mathematical models, that unregulated markets are inherently rational, stable and fair. For Friedmanites, regulations are harmful most of the time. Minsky, by contrast, explained throughout his voluminous writings that unregulated markets will always produce instability and crises. He alternately termed his approach "the financial instability hypothesis" and "the Wall Street paradigm". For Minsky, the key to understanding financial instability is to trace the shifts that occur in investors' psychology as the economy moves out of a period of crisis and recession (or depression) and into a phase of rising profits and growth. Coming out of a crisis, investors will tend to be cautious, since many of them will have been clobbered during the just-ended recession. For example, they will hold large cash reserves as a cushion to protect against future crises. But as the economy emerges from its slump and profits rise, investors' expectations become increasingly positive. They become eager to pursue risky ideas such as securitized subprime mortgage loans. They also become more willing to let their cash reserves dwindle, since idle cash earns no profits, while purchasing speculative vehicles like subprime mortgage securities that can produce returns of ten percent or higher. But these moves also mean that investors are weakening their defenses against the next downturn. This is why, in Minsky's view, economic upswings, proceeding without regulations, inevitably encourage speculative excesses in which financial bubbles emerge. Minsky explained that in an unregulated environment, the only way to stop bubbles is to let them burst. Financial markets then fall into a crisis, and a recession or depression ensues. Here we reach one of Minsky's crucial insights - that financial crises and recessions actually serve a purpose in the operations of a free-market economy, even while they wreak havoc with people's lives, including those of tens of millions of innocents who never invest a dime on Wall Street. Minsky's point is that without crises, a free-market economy has no way of discouraging investors' natural proclivities toward ever greater risks in pursuit of ever higher profits. However, in the wake of the calamitous Great Depression, Keynesian economists tried to design measures that could supplant financial crises as the system's "natural" regulator. This was the context in which the post-World War II system of big-government capitalism was created. The package included two basic elements: regulations designed to limit speculation and channel financial resources into socially useful investments, such as single-family housing; and government bailout operations to prevent 1930s-style depressions when crises broke out anyway. Minsky argues that the system of regulations and the bailout operations were largely successful. That is why from the end of World War II to the mid-1970s, markets here and abroad were much more stable than in any previous historical period. But even during the New Deal years, financial market titans were fighting vehemently to eliminate, or at least defang, the regulations. By the 1970s, almost all politicians - Democrats and Republicans alike - had become compliant. The regulations were initially weakened, then abolished altogether, under the strong guidance of, among others, Federal Reserve chair Alan Greenspan, Republican Senator Phil Gramm and Clinton Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin. For Minsky, the consequences were predictable. Consider the scorecard over the twe