» Archive: January 2005
Hear Tom Griffin on Haiti Human Rights, Co-op Radio Wednesday
Tune in at 7:00 P.M. PST, 10:00 EST, Wednesday, January 26th. The topic of discussion will be the University of Miami's recently released explosive human rights report. If at all possible, don't miss this show...Vancouver's Co-op Radio, with host Charles Boylan and "Wake-Up With Co-op" Correspondent Anthony Fenton.
Machiavelli
From the Philosophy- "Squashed Machiavelli" (part of squashed philosophers):
V: THE WAY TO GOVERN CITIES OR PRINCIPALITIES WHICH FORMERLY LIVED UNDER THEIR OWN LAWS
On acquiring states accustomed to living in freedom under their own laws, there are three courses open; to ruin them, to reside there in person, or to permit them freedom under a friendly oligarchy, drawing a tribute. He who would keep a formerly free city will hold it more easily by means of its own citizens.
For example, the Spartans established oligarchy in Athens and Thebes, nevertheless they lost them. The Romans dismantled Capua, Carthage, and Numantia and held them. They attempted to hold Greece as the Spartans held it, free with its own laws, and failed. For in truth he who becomes master of a city accustomed to freedom and does not destroy it, may expect to be destroyed by it, for it will always rally to the watchwords of liberty and its ancient privileges.
But when cities or countries are accustomed to live under a prince, and his family is exterminated, they, being accustomed to obey, cannot decide how to govern themselves. Such are very slow to take up arms, and a prince can secure them easily.
Haiti Human Rights Report
Last Tuesday the Center for the Study of Human Rights at the University of
Miami Law School issued a groundbreaking human rights report, based on
wide-ranging interviews with businessmen, grassroots leaders, gang members, victims of human rights violations, lawyers, human rights groups and police and
officials from the UN and the Haitian and U.S. governments, and observations in poor neighborhoods, police stations, prisons, hospitals and the state morgue. The report examines the violence committed against Haiti's poor majority, and
shows how institutions that should protect the poor- the police, the government,
the UN, the public health system- are actually contributing to the violence.
The report also sheds light on US government programs that employed current
government officials to undermine the authority of their elected predecessors.
The whole report, including compelling photographs, is available at www.ijdh.org.
Nazi Formerly Known as Prince
Charles Demers in Seven Oaks:
Nor was much of anything made of the fact that the fancy-dress party to which Harry wore the Nazi uniform had a “Colony and Native” theme, meaning that as Britain’s political elite engaged (along with their American allies) in the bloody process of re-colonizing Iraq, their sons and daughters – the British equivalents to America’s Bush Twins, or Canada’s noxious Justin Trudeau and Ben Mulroney – were partying in a form of blackface, luxuriating with the cruel imperial arrogance that is the privilege of those at the centres of wealth and power in the metropole.
In short, nothing at all was done to place the rich little shit’s display into any sort of historical, social, or political context – so as America and Canada and the United Kingdom commit to the dismantling of democratic rights at home, and engage in inevitably racialized imperialism in Haiti, Afghanistan and Iraq, we’ll pretend that the only harbinger of fascism on the horizon is the swastika wrapped ‘ironically’ around the arms of one of their privileged sons.
Stroumboulopoulos
George Stroumboulopoulos is going to host a "current affairs" show on CBC TV. Could be interesting, but it will ultimately depend on what kinds of producers he ends up with. (While we wait and see, say his name three times fast.)
In other media news, Michael Powell of the American FCC is stepping down, maybe related to his dad getting replaced by Condi Rice? The NYTimes sums up his record in the first paragraph: "the tightening of standards on decency and attempts to loosen restrictions on media ownership".
It will be interesting to see if the burgeoning media democracy movement in the US can have an effect on who replaces him.
Venezuela's Chavez nationalizes Venepal under workers' control
Have you seen The Take, Naomi Klein and Avi Lewis's documentary about Argentine workers' struggles to take control of the empty factories they used to work in?
What a difference a revolutionary government makes.
Police Attack Peaceful Protest at York University
Recent trends of harassment and intimidation of student dissidents came to
a head yesterday at York University, as security worked with police to
forcibly disperse a demonstration marking the inauguration of US President George W. Bush.
Gov. Schwarzenegger's first execution
It's not the first time that he's denied clemency, but this one didn't make it past Federal Appeals.
It's hard to find any news on this execution. Here's one from SignOnSandiego.com
Autonomy and Health
Crooked Timber has an interesting discussion of the relationship between autonomy and health, as well as a look at Yasmin a British flick about Muslims post-911.
Odd Happenings in Fallujah
** Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches **
** http://dahrjamailiraq.com **
January 18, 2005
Odd Happenings in Fallujah
“The soldiers are doing strange things in Fallujah,” said one of my
contacts in Fallujah who just returned. He was in his city checking on
his home and just returned to Baghdad this evening.
MINISTER PETTIGREW ATTENDS MEETING ON UN REFORM
Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew, at the invitation of Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Ernesto Derbez, today attended the Senior Officials Meeting of the Group of Friends on United Nations Reform in Mexico City, Mexico. The Group met on January 16 and 17 to discuss the next steps in effecting the reform of the multilateral organization in light of the December 2, 2004, report of the UN Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change.
I've Been To The Mountaintop
Happy Martin Luther King Day....
Thank you very kindly, my friends. As I listened to Ralph Abernathy in his eloquent and generous introduction and then thought about myself, I wondered who he was talking about. It's always good to have your closest friend and associate say something good about you. And Ralph is the best friend that I have in the world.
I'm delighted to see each of you here tonight in spite of a storm warning. You reveal that you are determined to go on anyhow. Something is happening in Memphis, something is happening in our world.
"Mohammed" is the fifth most popular name in Britain
The Christian Science Monitor has a story on the changing trends in baby naming.
Crisis lifts Sri Lankan Marxists
CS Monitor: "For the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), a disciplined and once powerful and brutal Marxist movement, the tsunami is proving to be a vehicle for its vision of people's liberation and its own popular comeback."
The Exploitation Of Migrant Workers In Canada
kuro5hin.org: "Canada has relied on migrant labour to literally build the nation. Chinese migrant workers built the national railroad. South Asian migrant workers tamed the fields of Western Canada. Today, migrant workers are indispensable in domestic work, construction and agriculture. But despite their importance, they have always been denied basic human rights and citizenship and remain the most marginalized labour force in Canada."
Drop the Debt?
Available as a printable pdf poster, from the excellent Social Design Notes.
Best Muslim Blog
alt.muslim is hosting "best muslim blogs" awards. Many links to interesting web sites and specific posts; a good introduction.
Disasters
Body and Soul: "Empathy comes naturally to most human beings. Sustained empathy does not."
The Honesty of BusinessWeek
Yikes. BusinessWeek (and the business press in Canada, to a less dramatic extent) really is a must-read for folks who want to keep track of what's really going on.
ecretary of State-designate Condoleezza Rice has been spending time at Foggy Bottom interviewing employees to get a feel for the place -- and identify possible high-level appointments. Rather than fundamentally reshaping the State Dept. bureaucracy, insiders think she will elevate some career Foreign Service officers sympathetic to the Bush Administration's hard-line worldview. Such a move allows Rice to place careerists in high positions -- as outgoing Secretary Colin L. Powell did -- thus fostering staff loyalty while putting ideological soulmates in key slots.No wait, lie to me. I like that better.
Malaria
Malaria is already one of the world's most virulent killers. The disease causes as many as 500 million acute illnesses and kills 1.5 million people each year. Worse, the parasites that cause malaria have built up resistance to the drugs commonly used to treat it, chloroquinine and mefloquine. Often the only alternatives are low-tech, such as mosquito nets treated with insecticide. "They're easy to make," says Han Heijnen, a World Health Organization adviser in New Delhi. "You just have to leave the net in the solution for half an hour."
Where are the new medicines on the market to fight this scourge -- especially at this critical moment? Unfortunately, malaria research has for decades been hobbled by the fact that the disease no longer affects the affluent parts of the world. So few companies have paid much attention. Aid donors won't be rushing huge quantities of new malaria medicines to help tsunami victims.
Kosovo Bombing and Pilger
A month after publication, and five years after the fact, John Pilger has a great summary of NATO's crimes in the former Yugoslavia, Calling the Kosovo Humanitarians to Account.
This is just amazing:
In the bombing campaign that followed, it was state-owned companies, rather than military sites, that were targeted. NATO's destruction of only 14 Yugoslav army tanks compares with its bombing of 372 centers of industry, including the Zastava car factory, leaving hundreds of thousands jobless. "Not one foreign or privately owned factory was bombed," wrote Clark.
While Pilger is dropping that bomb (figuratively speaking), you might as well go and read Iraq: The Unthinkable Becomes Normal, another excellent piece. Another zinger:
Like the Butler report in the UK, which detailed all the incriminating evidence of Blair's massaging of intelligence before the invasion of Iraq, then pulled its punches and concluded nobody was responsible, so the Kean report makes excruciatingly clear what really happened, then fails to draw the conclusions that stare it in the face. It is a supreme act of normalizing the unthinkable. This is not surprising, as the conclusions are volcanic.
The most important evidence to the 9/11 Commission came from General Ralph Eberhart, commander of the North American Aerospace Defense Command (Norad). "Air Force jet fighters could have intercepted hijacked airliners roaring towards the World Trade Center and Pentagon," he said, "if only air traffic controllers had asked for help 13 minutes sooner. ... We would have been able to shoot down all three ... all four of them."
Why did this not happen?
The Kean report makes clear that "the defense of U.S. aerospace on 9/11 was not conducted in accord with preexisting training and protocols. ... If a hijack was confirmed, procedures called for the hijack coordinator on duty to contact the Pentagon's National Military Command Center (NMCC). ... The NMCC would then seek approval from the office of the Secretary of Defense to provide military assistance... "Uniquely, this did not happen. The commission was told by the deputy administrator of the Federal Aviation Authority that there was no reason the procedure was not operating that morning. "For my 30 years of experience ..." said Monte Belger, "the NMCC was on the net and hearing everything real-time. ... I can tell you I've lived through dozens of hijackings ... and they were always listening in with everybody else."
But on this occasion, they were not. The Kean report says the NMCC was never informed. Why? Again, uniquely, all lines of communication failed, the commission was told, to America's top military brass. Donald Rumsfeld, secretary of defense, could not be found; and when he finally spoke to Bush an hour and a half later, it was, says the Kean report, "a brief call in which the subject of shoot-down authority was not discussed." As a result, Norad's commanders were "left in the dark about what their mission was."
The report reveals that the only part of a previously fail-safe command system that worked was in the White House where Vice President Cheney was in effective control that day, and in close touch with the NMCC. Why did he do nothing about the first two hijacked planes? Why was the NMCC, the vital link, silent for the first time in its existence? Kean ostentatiously refuses to address this. Of course, it could be due to the most extraordinary combination of coincidences. Or it could not.
Haitian Intifada and Solidarity
Stan Goff's latest Haiti analysis, "The Haitian Intifada," is now available for all to read. Part One and Part Two.
Thanks to Vancouver-based blogger Arnie Hoffman for this heads up...
Have a look at Yves Engler's latest, "Haiti Solidarity." Engler went to Haiti at the end of December to investigate conditions since Aristide's ouster on February 29th, 2004.
In case you missed Roger Annis's "Against All Odds: Haitians Protest Illegal Regime, Foreign Occupation," it appeared again in the latest edition of Seven Oaks Magazine
Leonard Asper, Emperor of the Known Universe
The CanWest Global Contract for freelancers has some curious language.
Freelancer hereby irrevocably grants and assigns to CanWest all rights of every kind in and to the Content (including copyright), and agrees that CanWest shall have the right to exclusively use and exploit the Content in any manner and in any and all media, whether now known or hereafter devised, throughout the universe, in perpetuity. For greater certainty, Freelancer shall have no right to re-sell or re-publish the Content without CanWest's express written permission.CanWest: not just "global" anymore.
Moussaoui and 9/11
Zacharias Moussaoui, the alleged "20th hijacker" and his pending trial has been the best kept media secret of the past three years.
The Washington Post published an article today about the latest Supreme Court filing and the intense secrecy surrounding it.
For a brief context of Moussaoui's trial and the legal battles involved, here are a few other articles of interest:
CACI has a vast database of articles regarding the case. Why has CACI keeping such tabs? Well, you may remember their fantastic work as a defense contractor providing such Pentagon outsourced jobs as: interrogation of detainees at Abu Ghraib and 'Gitmo'. You could spend an entire afternoon on their website leaving you with more questions than answers.
Canada strikes 'Black Gold' in Cuba
Read about Castro's X-mas present to Cuba.
Canadian Money Laundering in Haiti
On the same day that the IMF announces $17 million for "post-conflict" reconstruction in Haiti, Canada announces approximately the same amount to be allocated to Haiti's elections, slated for later this year. Canada's contribution to Haiti's election process exceeds that of both the U.S. and the EU. These both come within days of the World Bank's forking some $73 million to the puppet regime, though only after Haiti paid off its odious $53 million debt to the World Bank. And how did it pay this debt off? Why, with the help of a $12.7 million grant from Canada. Important to note that the World Bank, IMF, Canada, EU, U.S., all withheld money from the Haitian government under Aristide, beginning in 2000 after the legitimate elections that were fraudulently labelled as fraudulent by the OAS and other putschists.
Canada's financial committments are publicly framed in the context of "support to Haiti through the ICF (Interim Cooperation Framework), which emerged from the donor's conference held in July. Canada was also top donor at this event, and we now are beginning to see how they plan on spending the $180 million thus committed. Peruse the ICF (.pdf) document, and you'll see that there is a disturbing amount of emphasis on the need for "reintegrating" former Haitian soldiers into society. They don't specify how this is to be done, only that it is to be done, in the midst of eventually building a 20,000 strong [presumably highly repressive] police force. This should be seen in relation to the recent announcement that former soldiers would be receiving back-pay for their efforts as part of a $29 million 'death squad welfare' package, a move that Congresswoman Maxine Waters and 13 other members of congress have condemned. Some obvious questions arise given the scenario above are: how much of this (bloody) $29 million is coming from Canada, and how much of Canadian cash is going to be used to buy weapons now that the 13-year U.S. arms embargo on Haiti has been lifted?
Digital Canada
Can a country digitize everything it has ever written?
Michael Geist proposes digitizing every Canadian book, ever.
Jack Layton Interview
The Dominion has an interview scheduled with Jack Layton this coming wednesday. Do you have any questions you'd like to have Mr. Layton answer? Post your responses here.
'The Salvador Option'
The Pentagon May Put Special-Forces-led Assassination or Kidnapping Teams in Iraq
Check out this Newsweek article for an account of the Pentagon's latest modest proposal for fighting 'terrorism'.... Such things are seldom discussed so openly in the mainstream media.
Latest Haiti
A bunch of news, commentary, and analysis on Haiti to peruse:
*Attorney Tom Griffin appeared on NPR on January 6th, revealing some of his extensive findings from a recent investigative trip to Haiti...Should you tune in, you'll also hear Griffin's interesting exchange with NPR's correspondent in Haiti, Amelia Shaw. Shaw, who the NPR assures is a credible and objective journalist, also works for Population Services International, a USAID-funded Republican front group, on whose Board of Directors sits none other than Frank Carlucci, head of the Carlye Group and former Defense Secretary under Ronald Reagan.
*Socialist Voice's Roger Annis breaks down some analysis with a Canadian focus, as does Tim Pelzer, writing for People's Weekly World.
*In a very important piece anthropologist Greg Beckett explores the "Silencing of the Present in Haiti."
*The Haiti Information Project has posted the usual heavily supressed realities of the UN misdeeds with the pictures to prove it, "UN Occupies Bel Air," and UN Helps Squash Followers of Aristide in Haiti." [Canadian readers note: whenever you see "UN" bear in mind that the CIVPOL aspect of the mission is commanded by the RCMP's David Beer, while all UN logistics are being coordinated by members of Canadian Forces.]
*Last but not least, the Narconews's Benjamin Melancon looks behind the recent debt and dependency issues and activity at the World Bank in his "Wealthy Nations Give Haiti Under Dictatorship Aid Denied Democracy."
Chief Justice
The Globe has an interesting feature on Canada's Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin.
"I think that people are coming to understand better and better . . . that it is not a political role; that it is not a partisan role. People understand that while they may not agree with every decision, the institution -- and the fact we have an institution to decide these difficult issues -- is absolutely necessary to our society and our democracy."
Canadian Labour, Tsunami
Canadian Labour Unions donated over one million dollars to disaster relief.
US prior knowledge confirmed
Richard Norton-Taylor in The Guardian confirms that U.S. military on Diego Garcia was warned of the imminent disaster.
If you haven't yet read Michael Chussodovsky's breakdown of events on Dec. 26th, I highly recommend that you do before the 'tsunami of disinformation' washes away all perspective on this horrific event.
Tom Delay
US House Majority Leader Tom Delay has an explanation for why it was the non-Christians who got hit by the Tsunami. He got up Tuesday morning and read from Matthew 7 in a church on Capitol hill.
And everyone who listens to these words of mine, but does not act on them, will be like a fool who built his house on sand:Amazing.
The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew, and buffeted the house, and it collapsed and was completely ruined.
Taking Aim on Tsunami
Do yourself a favour and listen to this program and keep your eye on the bouncing ball.
Affirmative Action, Cuban Style
by Fitzhugh Mullan, M.D.
New England Journal of Medicine
Volume 351:2680-2682 December 23, 2004 Number 26
http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/351/26/2680
"I feel as if I'm standing on the backs of all my ancestors. This is a huge
opportunity for me," Teresa Glover, a 27-year-old medical student, told me
during a recent visit to her medical school. "Nobody in my family has ever
had the chance to be a doctor." Glover's mother is a teacher, and her father
a dispatcher for the New York subway system. Her background is a mix of
African American, Barbadian, and Cherokee. She graduated from the State
University of New York at Plattsburgh. "I wanted to be a doctor, but I
wasn't sure how to get into medicine. I had decent grades, but I didn't have
any money, and even applying to medical school cost a lot."
Further Reading on Tsunami pre-knowledge
Read Chussodovsky's account of the Tsunami warnings.
Creative Communists
After Bill Gates accused folks critical of copyright of being Communists, a bunch of free culture types have embraced the label, making red insignia and flags with the Copyleft symbol on them.
Cute story of the day
Reuters: "A 120-year-old giant tortoise living in a Kenyan sanctuary has become inseparable from a baby hippo rescued by game wardens, officials said on Thursday."
They Found a Senator!
CNN.com: House Democrats to challenge Ohio electoral votes
In a letter to congressional leaders Wednesday, members of the group said they will take the action because a new report by Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee found "numerous, serious election irregularities," particularly in Ohio, that led to "a significant disenfranchisement of voters."(For those who don't remember the "we need a senator" bit from the 2000 elections, check out the clip from Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 911 [7MB, windows media])
Update: None of this is to suggest that the Democrats have any guts.
Podur on Colombia
Over at ZNet, Justin Podur has a three part series on the last year in Colombia: 1, 2, 3.
From the horse's mouth, again
BusinessWeek: "As a former business leader, Treasury Secretary John W. Snow is well aware of difficulties that Washington policymakers can cause for Corporate America. So it's not surprising that when company chieftains complain about the costs of complying with the Sarbanes-Oxley corporate-reform laws, he listens."
MasterCard donates revenue it gets from tsunami offerings
Written by CBC News Online staff
TORONTO - MasterCard Canada said Wednesday it will donate all the revenue it makes on tsunami relief offerings to certain charities.
The credit card company made the announcement after taking some heat over the fees charged on donations to charities following the Dec. 26 earthquake and tsunami that devastated many countries in southeastern Asia.
Tsunami Aid = 42 hours of war
pseudorandom: When Does $350 Million Equal 42 Hours?
According to this story in the Chicago Sun-Times, the war in Iraq has cost $130 billion to date (per the Office of Management and Budget). Given that we invaded Iraq 20 March 2003, that comes to 656 days since the invasion, which in turn equals $198,730,732 per day.
In other words, the total amount committed by the US government to date for tsunami relief -- $350,000,000 -- equals 42.27 hours of the cost of the war in Iraq. Just to put things in perspective.
Why Are the Impoverished and Disenfranchised Haitian People Being Forced to Pay
Debt Breeds Dependency Equals Foreign & Corporate Domination
by Marguerite Laurent
Why is war-torn Iraq giving $190,000 to Toys R Us? For the same reason the
Haitian people are being forced to pay the bloody Haitian military ten years
back pay. It's what Naomi Klein calls "the upside-down morality." (See Naomi
Klein's article on Iraq. "Why is war-torn Iraq giving $190,000 to Toys R Us? Iraqis are still being forced to pay for crimes committed by Saddam" by Naomi Klein, Saturday October 16, 2004, The Guardian )
Aid Tops $3B
BBC: Tsunami aid pledges top $3bn
I'd like to see a similar leading story eight months from now, detailing how much of those "pledges" actually got through. There has been ample mention of the US, for example, falling through on its media-frenzy-fuelled promises of aid, only to reneg when the tragedy disapears from the headlines (but not from reality).
But the media won't devote resources (or prominent space) to covering these failures. It's already ancient history, and who wants to worry about that?
Canada appoints Secretary of Propaganda as U.S. Ambassador
Frank McKenna, Chairman of the Board of CanWest Global and former New Brunswick premier has accepted the offer to become the next Ambassador to the U.S.
Now we hold our breath and see if the U.S. government would like to have even closer ties to our media and newspapers and approve his appointment.
What do you believe, but can't prove?
"What do you believe, but cannot prove?"
That was the question asked of a whole bunch of "name" scientists and thinkers, mostly white men. The answers are varied and interesting.
Tsunami Deaths could have been prevented
According to this article, the US NOAA knew about the Tsunami hours beforehand, but didn't warn any of the governments of the countries affected (they "emailed Indonesian officials, and that's all). If the funding had come through to build a warning system, thousands of lives could have been saved, but apparently that wasn't even what was needed in this specific case.
Canada's Export Development Corporation
This article by Asad Ismi from 2001 provides a broad overview of Canadian companies, subsidized by taxpayers, who are wreaking havoc in the third world.
Jennifer Garner and the CIA
Oh, just for fun, watch this clip of Jennifer Garner earnestly appeal to your better judgement and sign up today!
Michael Albert and Conspiracy Theory
Since you've spent the past two weeks being badgered by your Brother-in-law on your political beliefs and called, "Conspiracy Theorist", by your Uncle at Christmas dinner, check out this piece by Parecon author, Michael Albert.
"Actually Uncle Dick, I'm an Institutional Theorist, thank-you very much."
Useful.
How to fix Mom's computer. (Spyware removal.)
Pony Up
BusinessWeek: "Companies and individuals are allowed to open their wallets to underwrite the celebration of George W. Bush's reelection, and as of Dec. 23 business interests have anted up nearly $8 million. At least 28 defense contractors, energy giants, financial firms, Big Tobacco, techies, and health-care companies have ponied up $100,000 or more, according to a BusinessWeek analysis of the latest donor list posted on the 2005 inaugural Web site."
Nicest Terrorists You'll Ever Meet
Rob Maguire: Nicest Terrorists You'll Ever Meet
Rob has been spending the holidays in the Israel and the West Bank, and posting some interesting updates on his web site, which normally features photography and updates on political and cultural life in Armenia.