» Archive: October 2004
Haiti Disinformation, Coup Connections, RCMP's dirty deeds
See the latest news on the latest UN-RCMP-Haitian police raids.
Fenton looks at the National Post's recent exercise in Haiti disinformation
Mother Jones looks closely at the International Rebulican Institute's coup-assistance and planning efforts.
Latest on Haiti
As always, check out the Haiti Action Committee's latest.
Read the latest interview with Flashpoints Correspondent Kevin Pina, transcribed and readable at Autonomy and Solidarity's new Haiti Resource Page.
Dr. Kwame Nantambu has written an extensive piece, "CARICOM-Haiti-U.S. Relations: Afrocentric View".
On Sudan
Good and Bad news out of the Sudan. Clearly the bad news is from Darfur, a western province of Sudan, and the better news is coming from the south. Via the HeadHeeb are links to a brief backgrounder on Dafur and the progress being made in the south:
While the situation in Darfur continues to slide into chaos and peace talks are deadlocked, enough peace has come to southern Sudan that an NGO is planning to court investors:
The organisation, Bread of Life Africa (BOLA), said the Southern Sudan provides good investment returns. [...] "Sudan was once the breadbasket of Africa before the war broke out and this is what we need to restore." says the BOLA’s general manager Malei Nthiwa.
[...]
Nthiwa says Kenyans and other international investors can invest in the region since the situation has improved. He says his organisation will sponsor volunteers to the region to go and help the local population in the region’s economic revival. He cited farming, livestock production, cottage industries and a wide range of other income generating activities as key investment areas.
Nthiwa's background includes a stint as sales and marketing manager for a Kenyan liquor firm, so he certainly has the skills to sell Sudan to prospective investors. Even so, it will be some time, if ever, before southern Sudan becomes an investor's paradise; the political status of the region hasn't been firmly decided, the autonomous government provided for by the 2002 Machakos accords has yet to establish a track record, and much of the local infrastructure has been destroyed in decades of civil war. Nthiwa realistically plans to concentrate on microcredit and cottage industry development during the initial stage of investment, which would not only suit his organization's ideology of economic empowerment but, for the time being, is likely to be much more practical.
Leadership?
Exactly what is leadership? And why is it so often—far too often in my estimation—used as a metric to define someone’s character—character, for that matter, is another one of those empty buzzwords that intends to inspire confidence of the person or people it refers to. But when you clearly try to understand this amorphous term it becomes very difficult to articulate the ways in which it has any bearing on reality. Further, it becomes incredibly maddening when one tries to apply this shapeless word to political polling and, even worse, political figures
Huuuuge News: Martin wanted to scrap CHA, join Iraq war
From the "News flash!!!!!!!" dept..
From all of the fuss that papers are making about Sheila Copps' revelations that Martin wanted to scrap the Canada Health Act and join the Iraq invasion, one would think that it wasn't already obvious. But it was. Copps' allegations just make it a bit more clear how blatantly the Liberal Party is contradicting its mandate to govern in the interest of Canadians, as opposed to corporations.
For example: the Feds have refused to allow any avenues of legal accountability to determine whether they're upholding the CHA, and one look at his public comments makes it pretty frickin' clear where he stands on the Iraq war (he's for it). The guy was repeated US propaganda points long after the US itself had all but admitting they were false, fergoshsakes.
Did no one notice this before now?
Trad goes Mainstream
Conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia says that "sexual orgies eliminate social tensions and ought to be encouraged".
Boston Globe: "Companies are spending millions of dollars to rid their products of trans fat on the assumption that anything other than a zero on the label will send sales plummeting."
Christian Science Monitor: "In September, the Ugandan government brought traditional medicine - herbs, animal parts, and minerals, with a dash of prayer - out of the bush and began to integrate it into its health system"
The Man, The Murderer, Christopher Columbus
"Indegenous People's Opposition to Celebration and Glorfication of Colonial Pirate Christoper Columbus"
The settler governments and peoples of North, Central and South America who occupy the lands of various Indigenous nations of peoples will again celebrate with holiday parades and festivals for the 512th year of the invasion of our sacred lands by the colonial pirate Christopher Columbus. Columbus was the beginning of the American holocaust against Indian peoples that claimed at least 60 million people from 1492 to the present.
Concannon, Fletcher on Violence in Haiti
Oregon's KBOO Radio report on Violence in Haiti
by Jacob Fenston, Brian Concannon, and Bill Fletcher
“Over the past week a new wave of violence has erupted in the
hurricane-ravished Haiti. The Associated Press has reported the beheadings
of several police officers in Haiti. The beheadings reportedly are the
work of supporters of ousted president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, in what
they’ve dubbed “Operation Baghdad.” But human rights groups in Haiti say
there’s little evidence that the beheadings were the work of Aristide
supporters. They blame the violence on government forces. KBOO’s Jacob
Fenston reports.”
Bevy of Haiti news and analysis
The Council on Hemispheric Affairs cuts through mainstream distortions like a hot knife through butter, with their latest "Violence in Haiti: Colin Powell and Gerard Latortue Blame Aristide, When the Blame Lies With Them."
Writing for People's Weekly World, Tim Pelzer discusses the recent escalation of repression in Haiti.
Also see the latest Flashpoints interview with Kevin Pina, transcribed and posted on Znet.
Last, but by no means least [or exhaustive], Global Research has posted an important piece by Haiti's former drug czar and defense minister and one of Haiti's most widely respected political actors, Patrick Élie, who dates the origins of this year's coup to the assassination of journalist Jean Dominique on April 3, 2000.
Re-electing imperialists in Australia
Check out the Perth Indymedia site [quick, before their harddrives are stolen!] and find out all about how John Howard got a fourth consecutive term, including a platform that keeps Aussie troops in Iraq and that refuses to own up to the genocide perpetrated against indigenous peoples.
Killing Train
Justin Podur's excellent analysis of international issues and Canadian foreign policy now appears at KillingTrain.com.
Go... North?
Paul Martin has his eyes on the Arctic. But no one in the mainstream is talking about the people that live there.
Amnesty says the Canadian government has been ignoring violence against aboriginal women.
If you read that Concordia denied Ehud Barak the right to speak on campus (which is dumb), you might as well read about Barak's constantly referred-to "generous offer". (The short version: it wasn't.)
Media Democracy Day is happening in Montreal! (October 18, Concordia)
Scott Brison is talking about selling off government-owned buildings. P3's: no matter how often they fail miserably, they're still great!
Monsanto's court victory over Percy Schmeiser is having a ripple effect for the corporate control of seeds.
FBI in UK
The FBI managed to steal a hard drive from an Indymedia server in the UK, without laying any charges. An update from infoshop.org.
Newsdesk.org: "A 215-year-old law originally written to address piracy... is at the heart of litigation targeting some of the world's largest energy corporations."
More on the Nigerian suit against Shell.
In more recent news, the Nigerian army is attacking people in the Niger Delta.
Costa Rican Banana workers are suing three US corporations over their pesticide use.
Thousands of workers are protesting plant sell-offs in China, the government of which is not known for its tolerance of that kind of thing.
After one of the biggest strikes in the country's history, South African unions reached a deal with the government.
200,000 Dutch folk protested their right-wing governent's austerity plan.
An interesting discussion of the situation in Nepal, where militant Maoists control between 50 and 80 per cent of the countryside.
The US "pullout" of South Korea is being slowed down. Kind of like that other "pullout", in Gaza?
Right-wing "women's organizations" have been chosen to train Iraqi women in civic participation. That'll be good.
50,000 people marched in Germany in opposition to government cuts of social services. (Curious how corporate welfare doesn't get cut very often.)
Racial Profiling at Concordia
Read this first-hand account of Canada's Police State in action: "What Happened to me Today at Concordia University"
In related news, see below Alexa McDonough's recent "Speech to the Muslim community council of Ottawa-Gatineau."
McDonough's Letter to Pettigrew on Haiti
Below is a letter sent to Pierre Pettigrew by NDP foreign affairs critic Alexa McDonough last week. She clearly needs to be pressured to take a *much* stronger stand than that demonstrated in the letter. The timing is now crucial, as parliament has resumed.
You can contact McDonough, e-mail: mcdona0@parl.gc.ca, or call her office at 613-995-7614, or her assistant Anthony Salloum: 613-794-1070.
Haiti News Watch I
This news analysis is brought to you by Haiti News
Watch (HNW)
Article:
Associated Press (AP) - Stevenson Jacobs
"Aristide's partisans have begun an urban guerrilla
operation that they call Operation Baghdad," human
rights activist Jean-Claude Bajeux said Saturday. "The
decapitations are imitative of those in Iraq, and they
are meant to show the failure of U.S. policy in
Haiti."
Urgent Haiti Action in Canada
Stop the new wave of Violent repression in Haiti, details here. Demand that there be a parliamentary investigation into the widespread human rights abuses since Aristide's ouster. Demand an investigation into Canada's role in the ouster and Ottawa's connections to Haiti's elite and paramilitaries.
New foreign affairs minister Pierre Pettigrew:
Ottawa Office: 613-995-1851, E-mail: pettigrew.p@parl.gc.ca
Continue...
Paramilitaries Shoot Aristide Supporters
More Breaking News from the Haiti Information Project as the repression of pro-constitutionalists reaches new levels.
Urgent Haiti Action Alert
First, read about the stand-off at the independent radio station Caraibes which resulted in the illegal arrests of former [see: overthrown] Lavalas officials.
Next, read about the aftermath, how the arrests went down, and the gamut of human rights abuses that have taken place since Aristide supporters demonstrated for his return en masse beginning September 30th.
Finally, follow the advice [and directions] of the Haitian Lawyers Leadership and take URGENT ACTION against these illegal detentions and human rights abuses.
Canadian contact information to follow...
Haiti Protests: UN/Brazilian Troops Stand-by as Haitian Police Provoke Violence
On September 30, supporters of Aristide took to the streets commemorating the 13-year anniversary of his first overthrow and were fired upon indiscriminately while UN troops stood by.
Haiti Slum Under Siege
October 2, 2004
Haiti slum under siege
Haiti Information Project (HIP)
Port au Prince,Haiti (HIP)– A slum in the capital is
under siege from the Haitian National Police (HNP)
following three days of violence and unrest.
Read on at www.haitiaction.net
OCAP, Robin Hood
The folks at the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) stole $3,500 of food and essentials from an upscale Toronto grocery store and distributed it to low-income families in the metro area. They sent the bill to Dalton McGuinty. Their premise is that welfare rates need to be raised until they are enough for people to rent an apartment and eat food all month.