» Archive: November 2004
Callout: Bush in Halifax
::: Communique I: Callout :::
On Wednesday, December 1st, the commander-in-chief of the United States
war machine, George W. Bush, will dodge soft criticism in Parliament with
a photo-op in what his planners consider the sanctuary of Halifax.
We are calling for a day of action to express our contempt for America's
wars of conquest and the crimes that they entail - from the cages of
Guantanamo Bay to the rape and torture at Abu Ghraib.
Anti-imperialists greet Bush across Canada
Ottawa is the "Green Zone"! Become the Resistance Inside the Empire!
Check out this pamphlet on Canadian and American imperialism. It will be
distributed by the People's Global Action Bloc at the anti-Bush demos in
Ottawa this week.
The pamphlet has articles on:
- Canadian imperialism in the Middle East
- Canadian complicity in Haiti
- Canadian arms manufacturers
- Paul Martin's plan for an "L20"
- Immigration policy convergence between Canada and the US
- and much more!
Anti-imperialists, anti-capitalists, and anti-authoritarians from Ottawa,
Montreal, and Toronto will form an autonomous bloc to participate in the
demonstrations against Bush from November 29th to December 1st. On the
occasion of Bush's visit to Ottawa, the bloc is calling for direct
confrontation with the US and Canadian administrations, their policies of
imperialist aggression abroad (Iraq, Palestine, Haiti, Afghanistan) and
the construction of a racist and brutal continental 'security' perimeter
at home (Fortress North America). The bloc is based on the People's
Global Action (PGA) Hallmarks (www.agp.org).
How Africa Subsidizes U.S. Health Care
Check out this interesting and very serious editorial in Wapo by Sebastian Mallaby:
It isn't a surprise that Africa is short of doctors and nurses: The continent has 1.4 health workers per 1,000 people, compared with 9.9 per 1,000 in North America. What's shocking is that this shortage is partly created by rich countries. Poor nations such as Malawi and Zambia are paying to train medics who emigrate to staff the hospitals of the United States and Europe. We should be helping Africa. Instead, Africa is subsidizing us.
Not just slightly, either. Ghana trains 150 doctors annually; five years after graduation, 80 percent have left, according to Ghanaian data reported by the World Bank. For pharmacists, the proportion is about 40 percent; for nurses and midwives, it's about 75 percent -- which is why half the nursing posts in Ghana are vacant. Meanwhile, South African doctors emigrate at a rate of about 1,000 annually. In 2001, Zimbabwe graduated 737 nurses; 437 left for one country, Britain.
[.....]
And then there is another reform that applies specifically to one country. The United States must end its nutty overpayment for health care, which not only wastes billions but also sends price signals that depopulate hospitals in the poor world. Elliott Fisher of Dartmouth Medical School has demonstrated that regions of the United States with a high concentration of medics spend extra on health care without becoming healthier: This country actually has too many health workers. Meanwhile in Africa a single nurse can be responsible for 50 patients. Because of America's dysfunctional system, the global labor market is siphoning doctors from places where they are needed into places where they accomplish nothing measurable at all.
A Rose By Any Other Name...
Bradford Plummer, over at Mother Jones, explains why the Bush administration has done a meager job of Democracy promotion. Specifically, and with respect to the situation in the Ukraine, he notes that the
In cozying up with an increasingly imperialistic--Stalinist, almost-- Russia for the purposes of realpolitik in the WoT, the Bush administration has let a gathering and, quite possibly, grave geopolitical dynamic materialize. The parallel here, of course, is Georgia. Shevardnadze was pro-Russia, implicitly pro-Putin, and Saakashvili, a University of Columbia Law graduate, was pro-Westernization.
Although the Rose Revolution ended with a relative advantage for the forces of the West, Georgia and Saakashvili find themselves in a rather precarious geographic position: Russia still has de facto territorial control. Yet, Saakashvili remains optimistic. In an editorial in tomorrow's International Herald Tribune, Saakashvili speaks of the gains being made a year after the Rose Revolution. As he says:
The Future of Freedom
Is your government in a position to profit financially from terrorism? Are you? Would you like to be?
NATO and Ukraine
reporting on the Ukrainian elections has chimed in with press releases from the State Department, peddling a fairytale about a struggle between a brave and beleaguered democrat, Yushchenko, and an authoritarian Soviet nostalgic, the present Prime Minister, Viktor Yanukovych. All facts which contradict this morality tale are suppressed.
I confess to being a little suspicious when the CBC framed this story so unambiguously in Yushchenko's favour. I perpetually want to believe (despite everything I've learned) that when a certain side is given more weight, it's because they deserve it. Unfortunately, the source of the slant is almost always political. (CBC's The National contrasted images of huge crowds of Yushchenko supporters, and a handful of Yanukovych supporters, all dressed in military garb.)
In this case, I don't have any basis for wading into Ukrainian politics. But it seems the political motivation for the response in the west is clear. (Hint: it's not because they like fair elections and are willing to defend them.) Yushchenko is pro-NATO, Yanukovych is pro-Russia. That's all we need to make a decision (and all we need to decide which way to manipulate public opinion).
The rest is just details.
I'd say, if we're going to play power politics, let's be honest about it, from the media on down. The Canadian and US record on supporting democracy when it's not convenient for them (Haiti, anyone?) speaks for itself. So why pretend?
Tape reveals Israeli officer's grisly intent in shooting of schoolgirl
Chris McGreal, Guardian:
An Israeli army officer who repeatedly shot a 13-year-old Palestinian girl in Gaza dismissed a warning from another soldier that she was a child by saying he would have killed her even if she was three years old...A tape recording of radio exchanges between soldiers involved in the incident, played on Israeli television, contradicts the army's account of the events and appears to show that the captain shot the girl in cold blood...
The soldier in the watchtower radioed his colleagues after he saw Iman: "It's a little girl. She's running defensively eastward."
Operations room: "Are we talking about a girl under the age of 10?"
Watchtower: "A girl of about 10, she's behind the embankment, scared to death."
A few minutes later, Iman is shot in the leg from one of the army posts.
The watchtower: "I think that one of the positions took her out."
The company commander then moves in as Iman lies wounded and helpless.
Captain R: "I and another soldier ... are going in a little nearer, forward, to confirm the kill ... Receive a situation report. We fired and killed her ... I also confirmed the kill. Over."
Witnesses described how the captain shot Iman twice in the head, walked away, turned back and fired a stream of bullets into her body. Doctors at Rafah's hospital said she had been shot at least 17 times...
KLA thugs, Canada in Haiti
The latest issue of Seven Oaks Magazine is up; their "Seven Questions" features an exchange with Haitian-Canadian activist Jean Saint-Vil, author of a recent strongly-worded letter to Paul Martin.
Fenton's latest article "Kosovo Liberation Army helps establish "protectorate" in Haiti is also up.
Corollary
What's the flipside to the media's refusal to call politicians on their verifiable contradiction of fact (sometimes referred to as "bald faced lies")?
It's to thoroughly castigate them when they point out the obvious.
Naturally.
Canada-Palestine Film Festival
The Canada-Palestine Film Festival is happening this week in Halifax, and has a solid lineup of films.
A stunning disconnect
Murray Dobbin: "At no time in the past 50 years, at least, has Canada's élite been so openly contemptuous of its own country, or so eager to give up its self-appointed role of protecting Canada's unique place in the world. And at no time in this same period have 'ordinary' Canadians been more proud of their values and traditions and so confident in them."
Bush in Canada
The Killing Train: Bush is coming to Canada - Nov 30. Will we be ready?
It is imperative that the "spectre of protests" become a reality. Unfortunately, NDP leader Jack Layton's initial statements don't offer much: "NDP Leader Jack Layton said he hopes the President will meet with party leaders as well as the Prime Minister. He said he would congratulate the President for doing a better job of controlling emissions and air pollution than Canada has. He added he would raise concerns about missile defence."
I hope that the rest of us who meet Bush in Ottawa can think of a few other things to raise. Perhaps mass murder in Iraq?
Little Brother
Little-Brother.ca keeps track of undereported news of interest to Canadians.
Haiti Report
Haiti Konpay is a new Haiti Solidarity organization based in Haiti. Check out their latest Haiti report, an extensive rundown of the latest on the ground Haitian realities.
The latest Flashpoints interviews with Kevin Pina are up "Haiti and Bush" at Znet and "Latortue Regime's Facade Crumbling" at Autonomy and Solidarity.
Days after GWB's re-selection we learned that Paul Martin will be the first of the primary war criminal heads-of-state to visit Haiti to have a look [from armoured SUV convoys] at his handiwork. Just like his daddy, Paul Martin Sr., who did so, for example, as number two man to Prime Minister Lester Pearson during the Vietnam War, Martin Jr. is helping to take the load off his war-mongering counterpart to the South in a show of "solidarity." Both Martin Sr. and Jr. now have experience at feigning neutrality while denying the reality of their own hawkish nature, not to mention actual involvement in these acts of aggression, war crimes, war propaganda, and war profiteering.
Discussed in the latest Pina interview is the resignation of electoral council member Roselor Julien, who was disgusted by, among other things, the $112 million proposal put forward by the Group of 184, the usual suspects led by Andy Apaid, sweatshop king, coup financier, and friend of Canada and Gildan Activewear, to bring electronic voting to Haiti. Will this be of the Diebold or Venezuelan type of setup? Either way, they'd better run on batteries, or Hydro Quebec had better make some fast bids on "reconstruction" projects.
Counterpunch posted an inspirational letter by jailed priest Gerard Jean-Juste, where he names names:
"I thank of all of you who advocate for my release, all who demand the release of all political prisoners, under the "de facto", illegal, unconstitutional Latortue-Alexandre government imposed facistically by the administration of Presidents G.W. Bush, Jacques Chirac, and Prime Minister Paul Martin."
Hobbits
If you didn't see the reports about tiny humans that lived in Indonesia 12,000 years ago, go check it out. The report says that it's entirely possible that the "hobbits", which--according to legend--had tools and language, are still alive somewhere in the jungle.
This raises all kinds of ethical questions. If they exist, do we make contact? What if they can be a part of human society? How do we treat them? Lots of ifs, but just knowing that they existed blurrs the artificially built-up uniqueness of "humanity". We spend a lot of time (in philosophy, psychology...) demonstrating how human language is unlike that of any other species. It's nice to have a species in play that destabilizes all of that.
And what a challenge to diverse, "multicultural" society. How would we deal with 3 foot furry humans running around in cities?
Purple Nation
(Results by county - bigger version)
Update: Here's the authoritative overview on election maps with counties, shading, and populations cartograms. Interesting.
Fallujah's Hospital
Body and Soul: "The press doesn't even blink at an admission that we're attacking hospitals in order to stop doctors from publicizing the harm done to innocent people."
Empire Notes: "The hospital was one of the primary initial targets of the assault, occupied by U.S. soldiers, with patients and doctors initially handcuffed."
NYTimes: "The hospital was selected as an early target because the American military believed that it was the source of rumors about heavy casualties. 'It's a center of propaganda,' a senior American officer said Sunday."
RadGeek: "These are war crimes being committed in front of our eyes. What is there to say about it, except to report on the latest atrocity? This is nothing less than the face of evil—and all of it being done in our names."
Rahul Majahan "One thing that snipers were very discriminating about – every single ambulance I saw had bullet holes in it. Two I inspected bore clear evidence of specific, deliberate sniping. Friends of mine who went out to gather in wounded people were shot at. When we first reported this fact, we came in for near-universal execration."
Iraq, Haiti, U.S. "elections," and the Canadian Settler-State
Please read Dahr Jamail's update from Iraq: "Carnage and Martial Law".
A report from jailed Haitian priest/political prisoner Gerard Jean-Juste, and an appeal for continued solidarity with Haiti.
The Jamaica Observer's John Maxwell writes powerfully about the U.S. "elections" in "A Lobotomy for Democracy"
Another must-read for "Canadians," Devin Burke of the Indigenous Peoples Solidarity Movement argues the necessity of "Building a "Canadian Decolonization Movement".
Macdonald Stainsby's latest on Canadian imperialism in the Arctic North.
Capture vs. Destroy in Fallujah
Justin Podur: "I don't think the American military is fighting to capture. Last I heard 500-pound bombs and depleted uranium shells from AC-130 gunships don't capture many people."
Haiti: Poverty's Abstract
Check out Jason Chesworth's "Haiti: Poverty's Abstract" at Scene and Heard, a solid publication which also has strong pieces on Canada-US relations and the Missile Defence fiasco.
In the context of missile defence, Jack Layton 'accidentally' brought up Haiti in the House of Commons during an exchange with Paul Martin:
Layton: Will he [Martin] say today that he will respect the values of
Canadians and say no to missile defence?
Paul Martin (Prime Minister, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, the Government of Canada will work with the U.S. administration on a vast multitude of files and we will certainly reflect our values; our values which are being reflected in Haiti at this very moment; our values which are being reflected in Afghanistan at this moment...Those are Canadian values and we will continue to push our value system wherever we are."
Translation: "Canadian values" expressed in Haiti and Afghanistan function to worsen the lives of the majority of these populations. If BMD is consistent with these values - which, since 'BMD is really all about the Project for a New American Century's designs on weaponizing space - then of course Canada will be along for the ride.
The Mourning After
Greg Palast: "Unless a third gender voted in Ohio, Kerry took the state... Pollsters ask, 'Who did you vote for?' Unfortunately, they don't ask the crucial, question, 'Was your vote counted?' The voters don't know." Palast argues that the media is lying to (ahem, misleading) us about votes, and exits polls.
If the mechanics of American democracy are fundamentally broken (and there's a pile of evidence to that effect), it's going to take a long time for anyone to admit it.
Mark Levine, chez Juan Cole: We're all Israelis Now. (But not in the way you'd expect from that title.)
David Grenier: Don't mourn, organize. A comprehensive list of alternatives to "moving to Canada", for Americans.
Voting machines are hackable: Slate, Wired News, Paul Krugman, News Review.
DailyKos has a long discussion of Ohio.
The NYTimes says that Bush supporters "anticipate a revolution".
On the lighter side (?), here are the covers of a few British papers on Thursday.
"I'm moving to Canada" achieves meme status
MarryAnAmerican.ca. "Now that George W. Bush has been officially elected, single, sexy, American liberals - already a threatened species - will be desperate to escape"
Scott Piatkowski thinks there are reasons for Americans to stick it out, though that's easy enough for Canadians to say.
In other news...
... B'Nai Brith official Adam Aptowitzer resigned for saying he supported terrorizing Palestinian civilians on the same show where Mohammed Elmasry said that Israelis in the military are legitimate military targets.
The difference? Canadian media (especially CanWest papers) ran front-page stories and lead editorials about Elmasry's comments, but ignored Aptowitzer for the most part.
But B'Nai Brith made him resign not because terrorizing civilians is wrong, but because they refuse to acknowledge that what Israel does is terrorism. From their statement: "[We] reiterate our position that the measures Israel is forced to take to protect itself against ongoing Palestinian terrorist attacks against its civilians constitute legitimate self-defence, and not 'state terrorism.' "
The Globe's coverage is fair in some ways, but in one specific way, it uses one of the most common techniques of the lazy or ideological (take your pick) journalist:
The groups said Mr. Aptowitzer's apparent endorsement of terrorism did not receive the same degree of scrutiny by the news media as Mohamed Elmasry's controversial statement on the same program...Reporters are not supposed to print their own opinions, so they simply relate claims that others make. This makes sense when the claim is either unprovable or difficult to prove, but makes no sense at all when it would take 5 minutes (at the most) to verify the claim.
Not surprisingly, journalists will fact-check claims that they know are wrong. But it's always a judgement call whether they do it or not, so it's just another way ideology works in the media: marginal claims that are true are mere assertions, while claims by the powerful are uncritically raised to fact.
This case particular case is minor, but it's worth noting that there are choices and value judgements happening all the time, and it's worth understanding where and how.
"Rejoicing has been limited"
Inter Press News has coverage of reactions around the world, from Indians celebrating a win by an Indo-American Republican to the report from the middle east, where "Rejoicing has been rare."
Mediageek looks at implications for media issues. "I have no amazing analysis as to why Bush won, or why the Republicans managed to firm up their domination in both houses of Congress. It sucks, but we'll live. We may even be able to galvanize more opposition. I'd be lying if I didn't say that four years of the corrupt Bush administration has been good for oppositional and independent media."
Wonkette's Post-Election Media Glossary is pretty funny.
Jason Kottke: "Half the country is not stupid. We're all stupid."
Election and After
Bush's post-election press conference. "Now that I've got the will of the people at my back, I'm going to start enforcing the one-question rule."
Canada 2.0. "You'll be hearing a lot of 'I'm moving to...' the next couple days. Well, I'm not moving anywhere. I'm staying put. The borders? Well, that's another story."
Harpers: Electing to Leave
Black Box Voting is pointing out some basic facts that haven't changed since they were reported months ago. Namely: new voting machines are extremely vulnerable to hacker attack, have been proven to be so, and nothing has changed since then. "Black Box Voting is conducting the largest Freedom of Information action in history."
One problem: to reverse anything at this point involves getting people to admit that the entire American electoral system is corrupt. It's possible that it's not, but if you can hack in and add 100 votes, why can't you hack in and at 3 million? No paper trail. It sounds wacky, but the point is that we currently have no way to gauge the level of fraud and miscounted votes that are happening. It just feels better to "know" that he would have won anyway. Shrug.
1,049 federal rights depend on marital status. Implications.
BoingBoing: A purple nation
Justin Podur: "But today the American people have answered as well. They lined up behind their killer leaders when they could have rejected them. That doesn’t leave a lot of room for hope, other than about the key questions of how, what it will take, when they will (and whether they’ll get a chance to) change their minds."
Rob Maguire: "David Lazarus of the SF Chronicle tallied up various alternative options for that proverbial warchest of tax money."
DailyKos: "The big silver lining, and it's significant, is that Kerry won't be tarred for cleaning up Bush's mess. Had Kerry gotten us out of Iraq, he would've been blamed for "losing the war". Now Bush will ineptly lose it for himself. Kerry would've been forced to make sense of a mess of a budget. Now Bush will be responsible for his own half-trillion dollar deficits." As silver linings go, it's thin.
AnarchoGeek: "Uruguay has high poverty and unemployment and abortion is illegal, just like the republicans want to make it in the US. But, in Uruguay when they try and privatize the state water company 60% come out and vote it down. That wouldn't happen in the US where we go around invading other countries so we can privatize THEIR state industries (iraq). Frente Amplio will sellout the social movements out, they will sign agreements with the IMF, they will do what leftist governments do. But at least they are living in the same world as everybody else."
William Gibson: "Second terms, historically, are not cakewalks. And absolute power corrupts absolutely. Absolute power, this very moment, is patiently eroding the membranes containing the coming year's inevitable debacles and scandals. Unless you don't believe that absolute power corrupts absolutely, how can that be otherwise?"
BoingBoing: "Tuesday was a tough night for those of us who hoped to wake up with a new American president instead of a one-way ticket to The Republic of Jesusistan."
Lawrence Lessig likes this comment: "I’m going to spend time these next few days looking for the America in my heart. It may be a while before I see it anywhere else."
Juan Cole is talking strategy: "There are other such strategies that could be adopted. But it seems clear. In 2008, the Democrats have to find a way to get back a couple of big red states. They can't do that unless they find canny ways to defuse the cultural issues the Republicans have been deploying so effectively."
Strangeness
Carolyn Parrish says what everything is thinking, gets reprimanded by the PM.
Silver Lining
Watching the aerial shot of John Kerry's motorcade wind its way to Faneuil Hall where Kerry is to make his concession speech is plaintive. It looks too much like a funeral; and in many ways it very much is one. After promising it’s supporters that all the votes would be counted, the Kerry Campaign has conceded the election before all the provisional and absentee ballots have been counted. A passage from a Yeats poem seems apt: “The ceremony of innocence is drowned; the best lack all convictions, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.”
The Future
So it's the day after election day in the U.S., and Kerry has conceded to Bush. Americans have pretty much given the Bush administration another four year mandate. I admit, I watched the election last night for political entertainment value (made popcorn, looked for the Jon Stewart show). However, today I feel pretty shocked at what just happened. What happened? I guess I hadn't *really* considered that when the election was over, the "undecided vote" or the mobilization to "get out the vote" would lead Bush to win a popular majority by a few million. Perhaps Dru is right, that the voting system has its own corruptions. But regardless, I feel like I woke up today next to my big sister, who is now knowingly going to proceed to bully people who are weaker than her, spend gross amounts of money on luxury items while other members of our family starve and/or die of AIDS, and also continue to make a giant mess of things and generally abuse the resources of our house.
The commentators are saying that there will be no more excuses made along the lines that American people are not responsible for the actions of their government. I wonder if this is true. Anyway, it seems like it will take some time before the consequences of this unfathomable result will become clear. I certainly hope the commentators are wrong when they say that this marks a "conservative revival" in the US. I guess I'll just pack up my dream of Canada (which will likely get sucked down the neo-conserv tube, if the US goes this way) and all my hopes for a greener, just world.... where do we go now?
I'm going to bed...
...but it's worth noting that there are all kinds of reports of suspected fraud, lawsuits to keep precincts from voting, and other gross tactics... mostly in Ohio.
Joshua Marshall has been discussing it.
Republicans kicked foreign observers out of voting stations in Ohio.
Double Standard? Double Standard!
Remember how Mohammed Elmasry, the president of the Canadian Islamic Congress, was all over the papers because he said that all Israelis over 18 are in the military, and thus are legitimate military targets? According to a hanful of Canadian papers, "he must step down". Ignoring for the moment that he said this in the context of declaring himself in opposition to suicide bombing, a friend just pointed out something from the transcript, which dozens of journalists either a) never bothered to read, or b) are willfully ignoring.
Here's a relevant excerpt:
MC: Welcome back to the Michael Coren Show. We’re taking about defining terrorism and the term is thrown around. And I will be absolutely honest with you, it seems to me left and right are both using this for their own ends and the truth is suffering; surely the answer lies somewhere in the middle. Let’s talk about the Israel and Palestine issue; who is the terrorist? There are many Palestinians who will say that we have lost so many women and children when involved in this struggle, why do you call some of our people terrorist?Adam: Well I think the use of the word terrorist has to be changed. I think the real purpose here of the word is to define the users of terror. Terror is a tool, terror is a means to an ends. And it depends on the moral reasoning of using that tool to define its acceptability. You look at a hammer, a hammer can be used to build a house, hammer in a nail, or break someone’s skull. Clearly, one of those three examples is morally unacceptable. When Israel uses terror to go in and I say, it uses terror to destroy a home and convince people, you know, [to] be terrified of what the possible consequences are; I say that, that, is an acceptable use of [it], to terrify someone.
MC: Is it?
Adam: Well, I say so, because when the alternative is these people walk in there and will blow themselves up and blow up 20 other innocent civilians, I’d say that is a morally unacceptable use of terror.
But it's not that we didn't already know that the media values Israeli lives more than Palestinian lives.
Waiting for the End of the World
Until it's over, meet your election-obsessing needs with these:
An interview with Arundhati Roy.
Updates on the electoral vote.
The Daily Kos for pan-American election updates.