» Archive: November 2003
New Dominion Site!
Underreported News is a daily compilation of links to news stories from a wide variety of sources around the world. The world they describe can be slightly different from the one recorded by the western press.
The Dominion is proud to host this effort, which has been undertaken by a group in Fredericton, NB who do a daily international news update on CHSR, a community radio station.
An informal update from the School of Americas
As I write thousands of people are approaching the gates of Fort Benning, in Columbus Georgia. Leigh, Anna and I traveled here after the protests in Miami, Florida, as did many other people.
A short update on Miami. In total over 300 people were arrested and to date only thirty have been arrested. We have heard reports of people being beaten, kept in cages without toilets and being hosed down periodically. The reports have been very disturbing, definitely an escalation of police violence from any other protest that i have ever been to, yet ironically it was almost one of the most passive. Starhawk said “I want to say that we often think that we live in the US with a great deal of privilige but I now know what it is like to walk down the street and be afraid of being arrested for walking, I know what it is like to see my friends snatched off the street for no reason, to be unsure if my friends will be in jail or not.”
read more...In a Brave New B.C., Even Kids Will Work for the Man
In the little world in which children have their existence, whosoever brings them up, there is nothing so finely perceived and so finely felt, as injustice.
-- Charles Dickens, Great Expectations
Believe it or not, Premier Gordon Campbell and the B.C. Liberals are about to bring child labour back to British Columbia after it had been banned by the province since the Depression years of the 1930s.
In early December, the Liberals will put in place regulations filling in the details of Bill 37, legislation passed in October that amends the Employment Standards Act to allow children as young as 12 years to work full-time.
These regulations are, appropriately, being implemented as our thoughts turn back to the time of Charles Dickens, who not only penned A Christmas Carol but also wrote about the terrible conditions of child labour in the time of the Industrial Revolution in England.
The child labour that the B.C. Liberals intend to permit isn't the innocent sort, like a paper route or a little help for the family business. A child as young as 12 years old will be allowed to work full-time at any occupation under provincial jurisdiction, no matter how dangerous, with only the consent of one parent. That includes farm labour, and working in a paint plant, gas station, restaurant, or door-to-door sales.
The Tyee
The Tyee is a new online paper in BC. Like the Dominion, it grew out of a frustration with the centralized ownership of other BC media.
Minister Murray Sells Out BC Parks with Bill 84
Vancouver, British Columbia - The introduction of the "Parks and Protected Areas Statutes Amendment Act" (Bill 84) by the Minister in charge of parks, Joyce Murray, has sent the surest signal yet that Minister Murray is unable -- or unwilling -- to stand up for the environment. Bill 84 is designed to sidestep environmental regulations for developments inside provincial parks.
Under the new legislation, which received first reading in the house Tuesday, November 18, discretion would be given to the Minister alone to decide if she is of the opinion that a proposed development is consistent with the recreational value of the park involved. The controversial Act also expands and clarifies opportunities for "directional" drilling under protected areas.
Orchard in Tory Merger 'Coup'
A group of conservatives, including David Orchard, are suing Peter Mackay over his attempted merger to 'unite the right' in Ontario's Superior Court. They argue that unanimous consent ought to be required to dissolve Canada's oldest party. The vote, which will take place on Dec. 6, only needs a two-thirds majority for the merger.
"David Orchard is on a personal agenda that has nothing to do with a new Conservative party or the PC Party or conservatism in general," said Stephen Harper.
"It is without merit and without substance," said Mackay.
David Orchard and his fellow plaintiffs claim the merger violates their party's ground rules and cite a long history of party membership opposed to mergers. Their case will be heard Nov. 26.
An Informal Update from Miami
Today was the intense day. We have heard that all countries signed a more basic version of the FTAA, an apertif as it were. Their goal is to fill it out by 2010 or even later. And that the Ministers were so far away that our vigorous chanting was in vain. A march left the convergence centre at 5:30 am. We didn't wake up in time, which was lucky as we found out later that the police had arrested people on that march and pepper-sprayed and tasered others.
People talk about those who are willing to do direct action. Today I discovered that direct action is merely marching through the streets without a permit. Certainly the police in Miami did not want us to march through the streets. About 2000 people gathered at 7 am in downtown with puppets and drums. The police presence was intense, with hundreds in full out riot gear lining the streets. Very intimidating. The police tried to direct the march but the protesters chose their own route. Within half an hour the protesters were stranded with lines of police blocking streets in all directions. The police forced us out in front of the fence, where others armed with rubber bullets and tear gas were mounted on 'easy lifts' well above our heads. Water cannons, armoured vehicles and hundreds of other police also outfitted in riot gear lurked in the background. Six helicopters overhead (one or two may have been media) and their constant whining noise ensured that you did not forget that you were in a police state. There was an impasse for a while and then....
read more...Saanich First Nations Prepare Action Against Commercial Fishery
Five Saanich First Nations are preparing to take "unarmed, nonviolent action" to stop a possible commercial fishery for chum salmon in Saanich Inlet or Satellite Channel.
The Douglas Treaty Tribes of Saanich, made up of the Malahat, Pauquachin, Tseycum, Tsartlip and Tsawout bands, are also planning to hold their own commercial chum fishery -- without the blessing of the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans.
The bands are conducting a food fishery in Saanich Inlet now.
FTAA on FTAA
One of the more interesting articles over at StopFTAA.org quotes the FTAA web site extensively and interprets each passage.
The media reform network has a petition about the FTAA and media democracy.
The bottom line with the FTAA is simple: even if it's the best thing ever for everyone (and there is every indication that it isn't), it's happening in secret, in reference to secreat documents, so there's simply no way to know.
A simple way to guess at the content of negotiations is to ask who has access to the process of creation. In this case, it's politicians and corporate lobbyists who have the most access, as well as the most momentum. It's not hard to guess at who the result will benefit, and at whose expense.
Looking for basics? Global Exchange has a list of frequently asked questions.
My name is Moofius.
Matrix: Revolutions sucked, but The Meatrix communicates some basic facts about industrial farms in an entertaining format.
Georgia: The Obscured Background
US Military bases in Central Asia, from a global map.
When the press starts paying a lot of attention to a crisis previously-ignored country, but leaves out any mention of the reasons for the crisis. Sentences like this are a good warning that there's an unstated reason for the coverage:
Accused by opposition leaders of rigging the results of Nov. 2 parliamentary elections, Shevardnadze declared in a nationally televised news conference that wherever vote-counting irregularities occurred, they could be corrected but that the new parliament should be allowed to open later this month. (Seattle Times)...especially when they are not followed by any substantial information about the thousands of people demonstrating in the streets, or the justifications for calls for a 'civil disobedience campaign'.
There are dozens of civil wars in the world that get no coverage at all. So why did this nearly content-free story get in? The short answer is that US interests in central Asia are threatened. There's nothing wrong with that per se, but if the press was interested in understanding the situation in Georgia, they might drop the pretense of objectivity and say it outright: the only reason we're covering Georgia is because it forms a part of a major US military presence in the region.
A few Georgians and foreign journalists can fill in some of the missing bits.
'There are some problems in Pankisi, but I think it is mostly a social issue. I am not so worried about it. Anti-terrorism is not the only reason for the relationship between the United States and Georgia. Georgia is also the shortest route between the [oil reserves] of the Caspian Sea and Turkey.'
An international consor tium of oil companies including BP, America's Chevron, Russia's Lukoil and France's Total considers Georgia the ideal route by which oil from Azerbaijan and Central Asia can reach Turkey and the West.
BP recently sent a risk analyst to the area to explore opportunities for expansion. 'The pipelines will of course benefit from the military presence,' said a BP spokeswoman.
Vasily Streltsov: "In any case, one can affirm with confidence that the Americans have got their feet onto Georgian soil, and it is forever." (February 2002)
Gary Leupp: "The main body of U.S. forces began arriving on May 19, to refurbish two Soviet-era bases for indefinite American use and to implement 'Operation Train and Equip.' We should ask--as we should about the U.S. troops in the Philippines and Yemen--why are they there? ... Shevardnadze, in power since 1992, and now in his second term as president, retains few sentimental ties to the multinational union he once served. Instead, he has continuously sought to distance Georgia from Russia and to attach it instead to the U.S. camp."
Armen Khanbabyan: "The fundamental goal of Washington and the West as a whole is to establish firm and long- term control over the energy resources of Central and Upper Asia. This explains the appearance of their bases along the notorious 'arc of instability,' from Kyrgyzstan and Afghanistan to Georgia."
The continued failure of US foreign policy to take long term consequences into account over short term corporate profits aside, there is a basic problem with this kind of journalism. Because it fails to note the obvious reason that Georgia is covered at all--US interests in oil, military presence, and regional influence--it is objectively non-objective.
(Objectivity is a misleading goal at best. What I wish to emphasize is that such reports leaves out obviously essential information.)
Most importantly, it fails fundamentally at what journalism is supposed to do: provide the means for readers to understand the subject under examination.
MPs Pass Bill to Put Herbs Under Food Directorate
"Parliament passed a bill Oct. 22 to place natural health products (NHPs) under a food directorate rather than a drug directorate.""Many MPs voted across party lines to carry the bill. A historic act itself because while many nations are moving under pharmaceutical company pressure to restrict the use of dietary supplements and herbs, Canada is now moving in the opposite direction."
"In order to become law, the bill now must go to the Standing Committee on Health for examination and hearings before it returns to the House for third and final reading."
Gagged and Bound
Aljazeera.Net: "US occupation soldiers handcuffed and firmly wrapped masking tape around an Iraqi man's mouth as they arrested him for speaking out against occupation troops."
Independent: "American jeans, Florida orange juice and dozens of other US products could double in price from next month because of a growing transatlantic trade war."
Christian Science Monitor: "Pressured for time, and hoping to avoid political controversy, the Ministry of Education under the U.S.-led coalition government removed any content considered "controversial," including the 1991 Gulf War; the Iran-Iraq war; and all references to Israelis, Americans or Kurds. 'Entire swaths of 20th-century history have been deleted,' says Bill Evers, a U.S. Defense Department employee and one of three American advisers to the Ministry of Education."
UPI: "The Supreme Court agreed Monday to decide whether the Constitution extends to the cells of terror suspects at the U.S. Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba."
Howardina Pindell Response to 'A Serious Lack'
Dear Max,
Thank you for letting me read your article. It is excellent. I wrote a 23 page article about the first Gulf War and no one would publish it. One place told me it was too honest. I also did an anti Gulf War painting that traveled with my traveling show in the early and mid 90's. Some places (Atlanta and Cleveland , Ohio) were really angry at my politics and wanted the show closed down. In one case the director of the gallery was badly harrassed for having my show and one of my political pieces was stolen from the show. I also received harassing phone calls. Political work is not exactly embraced in this country.
However, my current experience in San Francisco was very positive and supportive compared to New York in terms of my politics.
Howardina Pindell
Howardina Pindell is an American political artist and has been active since the 1970's.
(Read Max Liboiron's article, A Serious Lack: American Visual Artists and Imperialism)
67th Govenor General's Awards
The Govenor General's Literary Award for English language fiction has been given to Douglas Glover for his novel Elle. He is a Canadian living in New York State. The Govenor General's Awards are in their 67th year and are now worth $15,000 each.
Pull their toenails out, just not in the US
Toronto Star: Critics condemn U.S. torture by proxy
"There have been a series of these renditions, mainly to countries in the Middle East," says Tom Malinowski, director of Human Rights Watch's office in Washington. "We don't really know how many people have been sent there, because it's kept highly secret."
Defining Resistance
Scott Ritter discusses Iraqi resistance to the occupation.
Indeed, a standard quotient among counterinsurgency experts is that for every 100 active insurgents fielded, there must be 1,000 to 10,000 active supporters in the local population... The growing number, sophistication, and diversity of attacks on US forces suggests that the resistance is growing and becoming more organized - clear evidence that the US may be losing the struggle for the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people.
Sponsor of Outlaws
George Monbiot: Backyard terrorism
"If any government sponsors the outlaws and killers of innocents," George Bush announced on the day he began bombing Afghanistan, "they have become outlaws and murderers themselves. And they will take that lonely path at their own peril." I'm glad he said "any government", as there's one which, though it has yet to be identified as a sponsor of terrorism, requires his urgent attention.
For the past 55 years it has been running a terrorist training camp, whose victims massively outnumber the people killed by the attack on New York, the embassy bombings and the other atrocities laid, rightly or wrongly, at al-Qaida's door. The camp is called the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, or Whisc. It is based in Fort Benning, Georgia, and it is funded by Mr Bush's government.
Counterpunch Selections
Counterpunch runs a lot of interesting articles among other repetitive, but probably necessary, rhetoric. I try to do an occasional roundup of these.
In another path is possible, Robert Pollin thinks hard about practical, immediately available alternatives to US economic policy of the last 30 years. Among these is the always interesting Tobin Tax (a small tax on stock market trades), which Pollin sees as the principle way to cut across the complexities of regulating contemporary markets.
Ted Honderich, who is a sensible human being (and a philosopher) argues that "the Palestine suicide bomber does have a moral right to her act of terrorism". Before I'm strung up, I'll leave it to Ted. An excerpt:
There are two ways for a people to get and keep things, these being violence and negotiation. It has been said at every stage of the conflict in Palestine that the Palestinians must give up violence and negotiate.
That is typically to forget something. Negotiation is the means for getting and keeping things of the party whose position and ultimate power is stronger. Violence is the means of the other party, the party with no other means. It is in the interest of each party and their supporters to condemn or resist the means of the other. It is the responsibility of moral thinking to try to see what is right.
Benjamin Dangl and Kathryn Ledebur say that US inflexibility on Coca crop destruction is responsible for much of Bolivia's current mess.
Noah Leavitt discusses international law and the American legal system.
Robert Fisk talks about the fear and violence of American soldiers in Iraq, mentioning that one Captain Cirino refers to the enemy as "Syrian-trained terrorists and local freedom fighters."
But on the ground in Iraq, Americans have a licence to kill. Not a single soldier has been disciplined for shooting civilians--even when the fatality involves an Iraqi working for the occupation authorities. No action has been taken, for instance, over the soldier who fired a single shot through the window of an Italian diplomat's car, killing his translator, in northern Iraq. Nor against the soldiers of the 82nd Airborne who gunned down 14 Sunni Muslim protesters in Fallujah in April.
Uri Avnery examines the credibility the Israeli military when it comes to responsibility for dead civilians.
Rick Giombetti interviews David Healy, the author of Let Them Eat Prozac. He's also the guy that U of T cancelled the job offer on after he came out as critical of the Pharmacos.
Remembering
Dead British soldiers, WWI.
When Remembrance Day rolls around, I usually make a point of re-reading Wilfred Owen's Dulce Et Decorum Est.
My friend, you would not tell with such high zestOr my father Tom Jay's Bangor.
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.
When it comesIf one wishes to remember those who fought and died, a repetition of the literary experience of their own all-too-real horrors seems appropriate.
it will be quick.
The heat will peel
your old sweetheart like a grape.
Light blinded
she searches bravely
for her moaning children.
I have trouble identifying with the many glorifications of war that are the dominant themes of remembrance day. It's quite possible that many did indeed die for the freedoms we now enjoy.
But if we value those deaths, do we not owe it to future recruits to thoroughly examine the ways in which they not necessary?
Were the deaths of 450,000 British troops lost in a single battle of the "Great War" necessary for eventual peace? Could most of World War II have been prevented if American corporations hadn't stuck around in Germany for so long? What freedom, exactly, was preserved by the invasions of Cuba and Vietnam?
Answering these questions ranges from complicated to dead simple, no pun intended. Scholars may debate what imperial motives exacerbated the conflict of World War I, but other cases don't need too much debate. For example:
After World War I, the United States went on a chemical weapons binge, producing millions of barrels of mustard gas and Lewisite. Thousands of US troops were exposed to these chemical agents in order to "test the efficacy of gas masks and protective clothing".It is these unambiguous cases--which continue to perpetuate themselves with their own self-contained logic and fragmented priorities--that it is possible to combat here and now.
As remembrance goes, this is the least we can do today.
Accountability isn't for just anyone
NUPGE: "The B.C. Liberals have gagged their own human resources ministry to keep secret the number of people who will be cut off social assistance when a two-year cut-off rule takes effect next April 1. First, Human Resources Minister Murray Coell refused when questioned in the legislature to disclose the information. Now, the ministry has been silenced."
They're Not Resisting, They're Terrorizing
Reuters: "The Los Angeles Times has ordered its journalists to stop describing anti-American forces in Iraq as resistance fighters, saying the term romanticises them and evokes World War II-era heroism."
Washington Post: "I visited a public school in Northwest Washington. Some friends were holding a benefit to raise money for a library that had no books, desks, chairs or computers."
Ha'aretz: "Recently, several articles appearing in the West (most of them written by Jewish commentators) questioned whether it was a mistake to establish the State of Israel along ethnic lines - as a Jewish state."
Assaf Oron: "This is the image I keep receiving here: On one side is a democracy stuck in an impossible region and trying to make the best of it. On the other is a demonic entity called the Palestinian Authority, whose heads seem bent on continuing to terrorize Israel's defenseless civilians. Everything Israel's army does is clearly out of self-defense, and as long as there's terror, there's justification to do even more... The only true part in this image is that my compatriots in Israel are at risk of terror attacks. All the rest is blatantly false."
Charleston Gazette: "Still other [private military firms hired by the US government], like Executive Outcomes, engage in actual combat. Using former soldiers from apartheid South Africa, Executive Outcomes fought on both sides of some armed conflicts, such as the bitter battles in Angola. Some PMFs help provoke violent coups. During the first Gulf War, one of every 100 Americans in that region worked for a PMF. Today in Iraq, one of every 10 Americans works for a private military contractor."
The Age: "While the bloody Israeli-Palestinian conflict captures headlines, for many Israelis a more intractable problem is now the daily struggle to get by."
Barlow, Layton on Tape
Vancouver's Working TV has video of recent speeches by Jack Layton and Maude Barlow.
Layton does the usual slamming of Paul Martin, much of which is probably worth looking into, but the most interesting bit is his articulation of the NDP's plan to take a broader political approach--not just getting elected, but supporting and working with a variety of activist groups on issues not directly related to electioneering.
Barlow has a much broader view, talks about social movements around the world, and presents her point of view of the Cancun WTO meeting.
There's also audio available of a recent speech Stephen Lewis gave at CUPE's annual meeting.
Political Geekery
Doc Searls takes note of what software various US Presidential candidates are using to host their web sites.
Being curious, I checked to see if the same trend (right-wing uses Microsoft, left uses Linux) applies in Canada. The results are pretty similar, with the exception of the PC party (though they do, for the moment, have that word "progressive" in their title...)
Alliance: Microsoft IIS on Windows 2000
NDP: Apache on Linux
PC: Apache on FreeBSD
Liberal: Microsoft IIS on Windows 2000
Green Party: Apache on FreeBSD
There Is No Cure For Rape - Canadian Residential Schools
Apparently, the federal government is about to initiate a programme to address past wrongs regarding Natives in residential schools. For those not familiar, residential schools were set up to assimilate Natives into Euro-Canadian culture and rid them of their Indianess.
Beatings were regular if they tried to converse in their native tongue, and in one school in British Columbia, they had nails put through their tongues if they spoke their language. Add to this the rampant sexual abuse that came upon these youth and you have a lethal combination that can, and did, cause damage to be suffered for generations to come. Realistically, we are speaking of situations most of us could never comprehend. The last residential school closed in the 1980’s.
Return to Slavery?
When the gap between rich and poor is not large enough - find some poorer folks who are willing work harder for less. Even the WSJ seems put off.Logistics
"Honestly, it's a little tougher than I thought it was going to be... If we have to, we just mow the whole place down, see what happens. You're dealing with insane suicide bombers who are killing our people, and we need to be very aggressive in taking them out."
Actively oppose gay unions, Nunavut MLAs urge
( CBC North ) - Several Nunavut MLAs are calling on the territorial government to denounce same-sex marriages.They say most people in the territory are opposed to same-sex unions and they want the government to publicly voice its opposition to Ottawa.
Given that the Territory of Nunavut has the highest suicide rate in Canada, high rates of alcoholism, a serious lack of affordable housing, rampent unemployment, and an inadaquate health care system one would think this government could direct its attention in far more productive ways than worrying about whether or not both people standing at the alter or in front of the judge shaved their beards that morning our not.