The Dominion - 25

Potable Politics

Sat, 25 Mar 2006 22:30:55 +0000

Will water put the <em>Zapatismo</em> into Mexico's big city politics?

Mexicans protest against the privatization of water and the 4th World Water Forum photo: IndyMedia Mexico

The 4th World Water Forum has drawn to a close in Mexico City, but the debate over who will provide clean drinking water in regions throughout the country has only just begun. In Guadalajara, Mexico's second most populous city, drinking water is a private business. The local water company was sold to multi-national corporations in 1998, since then the price of water has doubled, causing public uproar.

The Jalisco state government and the federal government devised a plan--called Arcediano--to build an elaborate water diversion scheme costing nearly $US 1 billion.

Mexican President Vincente Fox is expected to visit Guadalajara in April to finalize the deal that will divert water from Rio Santiago. However, Jalisco's state water authority and non-governmental organizations have warned that Arcediano is doomed to fail; their studies show the river is highly contaminated with heavy metals. The project is also expected to flood a large section of forestland that is already threatened by poorly planned urban sprawl.

¨We're in a difficult position here,¨ says a Guadalajara taxi driver. ¨Nobody wants to privatize water but nobody trusts the government to manage the water.¨ Scientists say there are other, cleaner, and more affordable ways to bring potable water to the city, leading citizens to demand an alternative plan.

Guadalajana is not alone in its struggle for clean water. With a population of over 100 million, Mexico has fewer than five million citizens who live in cities with a high availability of water. According to Mexico's Secretary of Social Development (SEDESOL), 26 million Mexicans live in cities where water availability is "extremely low."

A column in Guadalajara's Público newspaper argues that Mexico needs a broader approach to its commitment to clean water, tying in the scientific and technological components, with the legislative and the educational components. Despite the hype of the forum and the vocal concern of citizens in Mexico's cities, however, political candidates at the local, state and federal level have been largely silent on the issue.

La otra campaña could offer a response to the politicians' silence and give citizens a voice. Over the past four months, la otra campaña ("the other campaign") led by Subcomandante Marcos (also known as Delegado Zero) has been travelling across Mexico. The aim of the campaign, leading up to the July 2nd presidential election, is to gain a better understanding of citizens' concerns in different parts of the country.

Denouncing all political candidates in favour of direct action to protect local self-dermination, Marcos has tapped into widespread political cynicism and is building support for reducing the plight of Mexico's indigenous people.

According to University of Guadalajara sociology professor Dr. Jorge Regalado, citizens across the country are looking for the kind of resistance the Zapatistas have developed in their home state of Chiapas.

¨The people from the government ignore us. We are interested in water, not money, because we can't drink money,¨ says a campesino woman in Querétaro in central Mexico.

When la otra campaña visited Querétaro in central Mexico, Marcos proposed that followers form brigades to stop the drilling of 14 industrial wells in El Batán, which threaten to disrupt the area's most important aquifier.

Such calls to action are not uncommon in rural areas where the Zapatistas have advanced local self-determination in autonomous communities they call Caracoles. However, residents of Guadalajara have difficulty seeing the relevance of a peasant-based movement in a cosmopolitan city of eight million people.

Perhaps the biggest question facing la otra campaña is how to inspire Mexican solidarity along the principles of an open social movement. According to Regalado, one of the major drawbacks to the Zapatista movement is the fact that the Sixth Declaration of the Lacondon, the Zapatistas' constitution from below and to the left, excludes a significant portion of Mexican society.

¨People are tired of political corruption and feel the economy is not fair to the average person, but the Zapatistas´ are limiting their message to an indigenous struggle and excluding the rest of us,¨ says a student in Guanajuato.

Dr. Jorge Regalado says one of Marcos' central objectives should be creating the "urban Zapatista."

The potential is here, says Regalado. He notes that despite its traditionally conservative voting record, the citizens of Guadalajara have demonstrated the power and potential of citizen-based movements before. After organizing a massive movement of "the indebted" following the peso crisis in the mid 1990s, Regalado says Guadalajara and the state of Jalisco have the ability to pull together a diverse crowd around common goals.

There are strong indications that adherents to la otra campaña may achieve some of the results they seek by showing the applicability of the Zapatistas' "other way" to Mexico's big city problems. With water accessibility becoming a major concern throughout the country, it has the potential to become the focal point of a broader social movement, linking rural and urban
communities around the progressive changes Mexicans demand.

Van Ferrier wonders if water will be the issue that puts the Zapatismo into Mexico's big city politics.

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Sat, 05 Feb 2005 18:20:00 +0000

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Dam Locally, Warm Globally

Fri, 04 Feb 2005 22:40:54 +0000

Boreal forest, aboriginal peoples threatened by new push for exploitation

Canada's boreal forest is among the largest intact forest ecosystems in the world. Photo: Natural Resources Defence Council

Around 400 kilometers north of Winnipeg lies Asatiwisipe Aki (Poplar River First Nation), an Ojibway people. The remote community is comprised of roughly 1,200 members, of which over 900 are on reserve. The traditional Asatiwisipe Aki territory, delineated by the registered trapline district of Poplar, lies between 50 and 55 degrees north latitude and extends far east from Lake Winnipeg, almost reaching the Ontario border.

As set out in Treaty 5, the Asatiwisipe Aki Reserve #16 is located at the mouth of the Asatiwisipe (Poplar River). The area is host to a number of rivers that flow west through a pristine landscape (the boreal forest), which plays a critical role in the global and local ecosystems. The trees and peatlands of the vast northern boreal forest comprise one of the planet's largest carbon reservoirs. Boreal forests retain carbon that, if released, would accelerate global warming. Its wetlands filter millions of gallons of water each day.

In 1998, the Manitoba government, the Manitoba Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, and the Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak (MKO - Cree consortium for northern Manitoba) signed an Memorandum of Understanding in which it was stipulated that "Protected areas will not infringe upon any existing aboriginal or Treaty rights of First Nations peoples."

In spring 2000, protected area designation was sought for the remaining traditional territory in a proposal to the Manitoba government.

There are historical grounds for Asatiwisipe Aki to pursue protection for the surrounding environment, and there has always been external interest in exploitation of the area's resources. Logging interests offered to open up the area with an all-weather road, but the offer was refused by the Cree Elders. They also refused the promises of jobs, economic prosperity, and the modern life.

In the philosophy of the Asatiwisipe Aki elders: "The Creator has given us life, he has given us land to live from, without that land our people will die." Stewardship of the land for future generations is inculcated, as preservation of the intact boreal forest region is key to the Asatiwisipe Aki world vision.

Logging is not the only concern for First Nations in the boreal forest. Environmental NGO Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) issued an alert on 19 October 2004 that the government of Manitoba had given the "green light to yet another dam that could have far-reaching consequences for the wildlife and indigenous people of Canada's boreal forest."

NRDC noted that many First Nations communities are largely dependent on the boreal forest for survival. Previous hydropower developments had already wreaked havoc on First Nations people: flooding the forest, ruining ancestral waterways, clogging lakes and rivers with sediment, and destroying aquatic life.

Fluctuations in water levels still pose a danger of erosion to sacred burial sites. According to NRDC, promises from Manitoba Hydro and the governments of Manitoba and Canada to alleviate this terrible damage have not been fulfilled.

Now Manitoba Hydro wants to build the Wuskwatim dam. This is to be the first in a series of hydroelectric projects, further threatening the boreal forest by cutting roads and transmission lines through some of North America's last unspoiled wilderness. The plans to construct hydroelectric projects in Manitoba's boreal forest are in large part to supply US consumers.

NRDC has joined with other environmental groups and First Nations in a campaign to save this pristine forest region. There is an ambitious proposal to create a United Nations World Heritage Site out of 4.3 million hectares in Manitoba and Ontario. The site would include two provincial parks in addition to the traditional territories of involved First Nations. The proposal has federal government backing, but the governments of Manitoba and Ontario have yet to publicly support it.

Most of the world's original forests have already been cut. However, about 80 percent of the Canadian boreal forest is still undefiled. Most of the 1.3 billion acre Canadian Boreal is predominantly owned by the government and inhabited by First Nation peoples. They live in and rely on the forests for their food, their livelihoods, and their spiritual connection to the world.

Don Sullivan, executive director of the environmental group Boreal Forest Network (BFN), asks, "If diversity is the key to life then why are we globally moving toward homogeneous economy - one based on the need to consume at all costs? Protecting and preserving a 4.3 million hectare intact boreal landscape will in its own little way affirm the need to both protect a fully functioning intact boreal ecosystem and a culture and by doing so, all of humanity will be richer for it."

"The BFN support the five First Nation communities who are seeking to have their traditional territories nominated as part of a World Heritage Site, as we see it as a way for these communities to move forward with their aspiration to manage, plan, control and protect the natural resources in their traditional territories and a step forward towards protecting the foundation of their culture - the natural resources. For us the most endangered species on the planet are the indigenous peoples and cultures who still practice their traditional ways. A culture that still hunts, fish, trap and use the plants (a culture that is not yet alienated from nature) requires, no demands, a healthy fully functioning ecosystem. A culture that seek balance with nature rather then domination of nature is worth learning from and certainly worthy of respected."

The two lead First Nations working on the World Heritage Site proposal and sustainable development on their own traditional territories are Asatiwisipe Aki and Pikangikum First Nation in Ontario. Paungassi First Nation and Little Grand Rapids First Nation in Manitoba are also part of the World Heritage Site proposal. Bloodvein First Nation of Manitoba is the unofficial fifth community.

Louis Young is a former Chief of Bloodvein First Nation who supports World Heritage Site designation. "We are working to ensure that your children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren have air to breathe."

At the 2004 World Conservation Congress in Bangkok, Thailand, Canada, and Russia were urged to "recognize, preserve and, protect ecological processes through which the overall health of boreal forest regions" and "acknowledge and respect the role of indigenous peoples in achieving conservation goals while respecting their traditional land management regimes and knowledge, in all conservation efforts."

Congress delegate Susan Casey-Lefkowitz of NRDC said, "This recommendation clearly signals the international importance of the ecological and cultural values of the Boreal." Casey-Lefkowitz emphasized the "innovative ways" in which, especially First Nations, are protecting the Boreal.

Elder Edward Valiquette speaks of the importance of traditional values: "We need to protect our land, to tell people what to do and not to do. The Elders did that. When they spoke everyone listened."

Relatively untouched, Canada's vast boreal forest is once again being threatened. Kim Petersen finds a small Ojibway community on the front lines of its defence.

Biking Uphill: The Otesha Project

Fri, 04 Feb 2005 22:19:37 +0000

photo: The Otesha Project

At 18-years-old, Simon Moll had to make a decision. It was either go back to school after his Canada World Youth experience in Vietnam, or bike across Canada for a cause he believed in. He chose the latter. One year later, Moll is one of three coordinators of the Otesha Project's Coast2Coast bike tour, aimed to educate Canada's youth on environmental issues.

"We always tell them, 'Be the change you want to see,'" says Moll, who will start the second Otesha tour this April.

The idea for Otesha (Swahili for "reason to dream") was born in Kitale, Kenya in February, 2002 to Jocelyn Land-Murphy and Jessica Lax. The then 21-year-olds were studying sustainable development in a traveling field school when they caught a glance of Canada from the outside. According to their website, the view wasn't pretty: "There is no doubt that our current way of life is harming the planet and its inhabitants." Determined to make a change, they created the Otesha Project with the hope to "empower our generation to take action towards a sustainable future. [The project] is based on the belief that there are alternatives to our consumer society, and that we all have the opportunity to have a positive impact." Action came in the form of four bicycle tours, one of which takes participants from the Pacific Coast to Canada's Atlantic East.

"The process is like a product," Moll says of the Coast2Coast tour. Last year, he and 32 other members of the Otesha Project completed the 164 day trip, biking the entire country from Spring until Fall. But the tour is more than just scenery; participants made over 250 presentations at schools and community centres, with a total estimated audience of more than 12,000 youth. At an average of 100 km a day, that's no easy task. Moll suggests that the tour itself is a metaphor for projects like Otesha, working for change and awareness. "I always say my favorite part was biking up hills," he says. "When you have an understanding of a world you want, the top doesn't matter. It's the hope that's driving you on."

It's hope that Otesha offers to their youthful audience. Presentations usually include personal storytelling, slideshows, and theatre, all outlining better environmental choices accessible to young people. For example, a play performed by Otesha addresses the choices one makes in a typical hour of the day, including personal water use, food and fair trade, clothing choices and getting creative with all of the above. Moll says that kids aren't always given enough credit when it comes to their interest in these issues. "They're really responsive," he says, adding that the inspiration doesn't end when the presentation does. Students are given postcards, on which they record their environmental efforts and aspirations, and send them back to Otesha.

Moll admits he's a "hopeful hooligan," and finds fulfillment in living his values. Like many of the Otesha members, he believes his international experience gave him a unique view of Canada, and the drive to concentrate on becoming the change, locally. "We have to understand that we're part of the problem," Moll says. "But we're also part of the solution."

This summer, the Otesha Project embarks on its cross-Canada bike tour, practicing and preaching sustainable living. Shannon Hines finds out more.

Canadian Media Missing from World Social Forum

Fri, 04 Feb 2005 20:56:54 +0000

The Canadian media have been criticized for their lack of coverage of the World Social Forum in Porto Allegre, Brazil this year. While Canadian and American media flocked to Davos, Switzerland to cover the World Economic Forum, an exclusive gathering of CEOs, celebrities and world leaders, they were, according to critics, completely missing in action from this year's Social Forum.

Paradoxically, the meeting of 100,000 representatives of social movements in East Asia, India, the Middle East, Africa, Oceania, Europe and the Americas was the largest ever and was touted by some attendees as a breakthrough for global justice movements.

The Globe and Mail and Toronto Star did not run any stories on the World Social Forum. And while the CBC web site featured three wire stories that mentioned the Social Forum, it featured 24 stories on the World Economic Forum.

Dr. Elizabeth Smythe, a professor of political science at Concordia University College in Edmonton who attended this year's forum, said that the lack of attention to the Social Forum is part of a larger pattern in Canadian media coverage. "Much of the focus even of our news is on isolated events, individuals and what might more broadly be called infotainment... [not on] social structures and economic processes that generate inequality."

"When media focus on politics, it is often in the context of electoral competitions and scandals of individual politicians, not on citizens participating in their community life... what the WSF is about."

PEI Considers Banning Genetically Modified Crops

Fri, 04 Feb 2005 20:56:16 +0000

The provincial government of Prince Edward Island has attracted international attention with its plan to hold hearings on a possible ban on the growth of genetically modified (GM) crops. US and Canadian experts and citizens groups opposed to GM foods are directing their energies to setting a precedent on the island province.

Industry groups like the PEI Federation of Agriculture are urging a more cautious approach. "We need to make sure that any decisions that affect farmers are based on truth and science," a spokesperson was quoted as saying. "Right now, GMOs are legal crops in Canada, approved by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency."

Critics of GM crops also claim the side of truth and science, arguing that new organisms were approved because of corporate political pressure, not because they were proven safe -- a process they say would take years. Other critics say that GM crops are a sophisticated and possibly dangerous means of asserting corporate power insofar as they are used to control the food production process and extract profit with no benefit to Canadians.

Polls have shown that as many as 70 per cent of Canadians want GM foods labeled, but citizens' groups say that the government has been intransigent.

"Ottawa has ignored Canadians' repeated calls for a public debate on GE foods. The federal government has done nothing to address concerns about the potential harmfulness of these products to our health, environment, and economy," says Nadège Adam of the Council of Canadians.

Several municipalities in Canada have passed resolutions banning the cultivation of GM crops. Except in Europe, where distribution without clear labeling is largely banned, banning the sale of GM crops is another matter. An estimated 60 per cent of processed food in North America contains some GM material.

Industry groups have not responded directly to criticism from citizens' groups, instead focusing on economic arguments. "If the PEI government decides it wants to seriously consider a GMO ban, it had better make darn good and sure those markets really do exist for the non-GMO products -- enough to sustain producers who are currently making a living on GMO products," the PEI Federation of Agriculture spokesperson was quoted as saying.

Canadian Press: Hearings spark interest in possible P.E.I. ban on genetically modified crops

» Council of Canadians: PEI to go GE-free?

Haiti and the Globe

Fri, 04 Feb 2005 08:02:16 +0000

Facts, research missing in action

Demonstrators in Cap Haitien demanding the return of Aristide. The banner reads: "Operation Baghdad is a plot by Group 184 to put an end to Lavalas. They will Fail!" Engler says that Canadian reporters have uncritically reported that "Operation Baghdad"--the alleged name given to the beheading three police officers--was a committed by Aristide supporters. Photo: HaitiAction.net

The Globe and Mail, Canada's national newspaper, finally decided to report on Canadian operations in Haiti. In Saturday's paper Marina Jimenez wrote about Canada's ongoing role in the hemisphere's poorest nation.

But did Jimenez look into the veracity of Paul Martin's claim that there are no political prisoners in Haiti? Did she discuss why Canada has released aid--and demanded other governments do likewise--to a regime with absolutely no democratic legitimacy? (This only two years after refusing aid to Haiti's democratic government based on claims of electoral irregularities in seven of 7000 elected positions.)

Did Jimenez focus on Canada's connection, as head of the United Nations police force, to the increasingly murderous Haitian police, who target poor youth and even journalists who witness their misdeeds?

Surely a responsible journalist owes it to her readers to check out "facts" before citing them or at least to report conflicting versions of what is going on.

No. While Jimenez at least quoted a Haitian saying "you, the Canadians, the French and the Americans... sent Mr. Aristide into exile" the article mostly focused on the tough job facing a brave Quebec City police officer who volunteered to help out. (This is one of the few times I have seen the mainstream media report that Haitians believe Canada helped overthrow their elected government, even though on a recent trip there every Haitian I interviewed said as much.)

Surely a responsible journalist owes it to her readers to check out "facts" before citing them or at least to report conflicting versions of what is going on. Instead Jimenez writes that Aristide "from his South Africa exile" is "funding" and "directing" a "war." She reports about an "Operation Baghdad" (also used in the front-page teaser) that is supposedly a pro-Aristide campaign to murder police officers, but makes no mention that independent observers say this is an invention of the interim government. Or that on December 16 in Cap Haitien more than ten thousand pro-constitution demonstrators marched behind a banner claiming "Operation Baghdad" was a plot created by the pro--coup forces to demonize Lavalas supporters.

Nowhere in the 2500-word article is it mentioned that the Caribbean community recently reaffirmed its rejection of Haiti's current government until elections are held. Nor did Jimenez, or the rest of Canada's mainstream media, report on the recent murder of Haitian journalist Abdias Jean. According to Reuters and the Associated Press--news services that Canadian media use regularly--Haitian National Police killed Jean after he witnessed the police execute three people in the slum of Village de Dieu.

These killings come on the heels of an exhaustive human rights report by the University of Miami School of Law Center for the Study of Human Rights confirming the brutality of the installed Gérard Latortue regime.

Don't reporters at the Globe and Mail do at least some minimal background research before they go off on a foreign assignment? If Jimenez had read the University of Miami report she would have known about the growing role of former military thugs within Haitian police ranks. The report includes an interview with Andy Apaid, an American sweatshop owner and head of Group 184, a Canadian and U.S. funded organization that was instrumental in overthrowing the elected government. Apaid discusses his patronage of a gang that terrorizes Lavalas supporters in Cite Soleil. The report, which focuses on U.S. involvement in Haiti, also documents Canada's role in undermining Haiti's elected government through strategic funding of a "human rights" organization. It also reveals that the second highest official in the current "justice" ministry is currently on the payroll of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and has been for more than four years. This is the ministry that is ultimately responsible for over 700 political prisoners and an unknown number of random killings by the Haitian National Police.

The mainstream media seems almost totally unwilling to highlight Canada's connection to the coup and aftermath of violent political repression. After my return from Haiti I sent an opinion to most of the major papers in the country. Even though the article was politically tame, well edited and of proper length no paper was interested. The foreign affairs editor at the Toronto Star wavered on a news piece I submitted a couple of weeks ago and then told me the paper already has a free-lance journalist, Reed Lindsay, there. I like Lindsay's work but his reporting barely touches on Canada's involvement in Haiti (he is from the U.S.). When I sent the same news article to Paul Knox, the foreign editor at the Globe and Mail, he told me he couldn't use it "as it has a lot of commentary and opinion woven through it."

I find this ironic after reading Jimenez' article. Is there no "commentary" in a story that focuses on a brave Canadian police officer who only wants to help Haitians? When an American reporter goes to Iraq and writes a laudatory profile about a brave Marine doing his job we see the "point" of the article as justifying an illegal U.S. invasion. But, of course in our case, it is "commentary" only when a story challenges the dominant assumption of Canada as a force for good in the world.

Canada's role in Haiti needs to be exposed to a wide audience. Haitians need the left voices already within Canada's dominant media – Naomi Klein, Linda McQuaig and Rick Salutin come to mind – to use their precious space to expose the Liberal government's criminal actions in Haiti. The media's culpability in Haiti's destruction also provides a stark reminder of the importance of a left media. We need to support progressive media by passing articles along, publicly promoting it and most of all providing left media with the financial resources necessary to expand. We need to build a climate where corporate (and CBC) media lies and omissions can't hide the killing of thousands of our fellow human beings.

Returning from Haiti, Yves Engler looks at the Globe and Mail's coverage of Haiti and finds that key facts are missing.

Former Reporters Attempt Fox Shutdown

Thu, 03 Feb 2005 20:50:22 +0000

Accusing Fox News Corporation of "intentionally airing false and distorted news reports," former reporters Steve Wilson and Jane Akre have filed a challenge against the company's license to broadcast using publicly owned airwaves.

The reporters, who worked for Fox in 1996 and 1997, say the station ordered them to put a favourable slant on an investigative report about growth hormones that were manufactured by Monsanto Corporation and administered to dairy cattle to improve milk production. "The FCC has said that rigging or slanting the news is a most heinous act against the public interest," Wilson was quoted as saying. "If the FCC is concerned about obscenity, there is nothing more obscene than lying to the public."

A Fox official called the petition "an attempt to re-litigate something that has already been tried in court." Linger was referring to a drawn-out court battle that Akre and Wilson finally lost. After three judges found in favour of Akre and Wilson on six separate occasions, their rulings were overturned by an appeals court. The final judge's finding did not dispute evidence that Fox had "distorted" reporting but instead determined that distorted reporting was not illegal.

» Tampa Tribune: Ex-WTVT Reporters File Petition With FCC

» Wilson and Akre: FoxBGHSuit.com

Competing Visions: Social Forum, Economic Forum

Thu, 03 Feb 2005 20:45:44 +0000

Tony Blair discussed climate change and AIDS in Africa, the world's two richest men lamented the US dollar's continued decline and growing US debt, and the Chinese economy was extensively discussed at the World Economic Forum. An exclusive gathering of CEOs, celebrities, and world leaders, the conference is held yearly in the resort town of Davos, Switzerland. While speeches by Tony Blair and Jacques Chirac highlighted the plight of the poor, reports indicate that discussion was dominated by China's rapid economic growth and the "excitement" of renewed energy for World Trade Organization talks.

According to BusinessWeek magazine, one of the issues of concern in China is rapid salary growth and the "growing shortage of single women workers willing to accept very low wages." Representatives from US and Japanese multinationals discussed "how to get your profits out of China." Other sessions focused on China's growing influence in design, consumer electronics, and culture. "It's phenomenal," Bill Gates said of China. "It's a brand new form of capitalism."

World Trade Organization talks have been stalled over conflicts between poor and rich countries regarding agricultural subsidies. Another popular session looked at ways to market products to poor people, or what facilitators called the "bottom of the pyramid."

One commentator in the business press noted the contradiction in Davos between "voting poverty the number one problem facing the world today" at a Davos "town hall meeting" and "the same people in effect voting for elegance by donning black-tie and long gowns to celebrate their endeavours." A downside was that, for some, Davos is an occasion "to congratulate each other on how important they are."

An annual protest against the Davos gathering, the World Social Forum in Porto Allegre, Brazil drew a record-breaking 100,000 social justice activists from around the world. Thousands of groups and issues were represented, from Mexican farmers to Indian social movements to Korean trade unionists.

The Forum is mainly a networking session for activists to form international alliances to counter the increasingly concentrated global reach of corporations. A Chicago Tribune report mentioned several European Union delegations sent to strengthen ties between workers in rich and poor countries.

While theoretical debates abound about alternatives to global capitalism, concrete campaigns also emerged from the wildly diverse social forum. Prominent this year were calls to cancel the debt of countries hit hard by the tsunami last December.

BusinessWeek: Talking Chinese at Davos

BusinessWeek: Beyond Davos' Glamour and Glitz

The Star (S. Africa): Big business guns aim aid at Africa

Asia Times: Davos meet recharges Doha Round of WTO talks

Business Report (S. Africa): Bill Gates tells Davos the dollar is going down and his money is elsewhere

Chicago Tribune: Global counterforum draws over 100,000 social activists

Inter Press: World Social Forum: The Risks Posed by Success

AllAfrica.com: World Social Forum: Is It Africa's Turn Next?

Destruction or development: the war on drugs in Afghanistan

Thu, 27 Jan 2005 09:37:56 +0000

At the insistence of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, the U.S. has agreed not to follow through with a planned aerial spraying program intended to eradicate opium production in Afghanistan. In November, the Bush administration raised its drug-busting budget in Afghanistan from $130 million to $780 million with $300 million earmarked for eradication programs, half of which was to fund the aerial spraying of opium fields.

Habibullah Qaderi, the newly appointed counter-narcotics minister, cited that taking away the livelihood of farmers would lead to security problems in certain parts of the country. While re-stating the Afghan government's committment to halting cultivation, Qaderi insisted that the economics behind the country's opium problem must be taken into consideration.

In providing 87% of the world's opium and heroin derivatives, Afghanistan has become economically dependent on the drug trade. Opium crops yield ten times the income of traditional crops for growers, contributing $4 billion in profits in 2004 (amounting to 60 percent of the country's legal economy) and employing 2.3 million people, with up to 30% of households dependent on the cultivation of opium for their income.

Because of this dependency, the Afghan government is concerned that while spraying programs may slow the trade in the short term, it will only do so at the cost of leaving a large portion of the population without a livelihood. Without international aid money to subsidize alternative sources of income, he stated, security problems would inevitably arise. And with local and parliamentary elections scheduled for this spring, the issue of security is weighing heavily on Karzai's government.

From the perspective of the U.S. government, however, the drug trade in Afghanistan is also a source of income for Al Qaeda and Taliban elements still operating in the country, making the war on drugs also part of the war on terror. While concerted efforts have been made to train an Afghan police force to cut off the drug trade, counter-narcotics personnel are severly understaffed, and with international troops in the country without a drug enforcement mandate, Afghan resources are stretched impossibly thin.

Experts point to a more widespread, if lower profile, problem associated with opium cultivation in Afghanistan. With addiction rates in neighboring countries like Pakistan and Iran significantly higher than average, the death toll from AIDS and drugs in the region will ultimately far exceed deaths from terrorist acts. U.S. recognition of this aspect of the opium trade has been slow in coming. With only 10% of narcotics arriving in the U.S. coming from Afghanistan, it wasn't until the U.N. declared the country at risk of becoming a narco-state that the U.S. administration raised its committed funds to $780 million.

The only other country named a narco-state is Colombia, where the U.S. government spent over $2 billion between 2000 and 2003 on a similarly designed program with mixed results. Despite large-scale eradication, coca production in the country has remained steady, to the extent that two grams of cocaine bought in the U.S. are now one fifth the price in 1981. While Colombia government officials have lauded the program as a "resounding success", the Washington Office on Latin America dubbed the war on drugs in the southern hemisphere a failure.

Ustina Markus, an analyst writing for ISN Security Watch, fears that the Afghan aid package may suffer a similar failure. "Given that a massive aid package had little impact on stopping the Columbian drug trade," Markus writes, "the prospects for Afghanistan are not good."

With doubts surrounding the potential of short-sighted eradication programs as an alternative solution, analysts are stressing that a long-term, well thought out committment to economic recovery will be the most effective means to halting the cultivation of opium in Afghanistan. But while farmers are unlikely to voluntarily stop growing opium without some kind of financial incentive, subsidies for legal crops could cost more than forced eradication in a country where long periods of drought make alternative crops difficult to grow, and where roads, irrigation networks and markets have been devastated after decades of war.

While finding a means to developing alternative sources of income for Afghan farmers may prove a difficult task, the consequences of failing to do so are relatively simple. Abdul Wahid, a former opium producer who switched to traditional crops after officials told him to "wait and see", states, "If we get help, maybe it's gone for good. If not, we'll plant again."

Nathan Lepp

» Christian Science Monitor: Crop spraying draws controversy in Afghan drug fight

» Eurasianet: Afghanistan's antidrug minister vows action but says farmers need aid, alternative incomes

» ISN Security Watch: War, drugs and the war on drugs

» Sydney Morning Herald: Quality drugs, by the kilo

Report Examines Low New Brunswick Social Assistance Benefits

Fri, 21 Jan 2005 03:04:56 +0000

A recent report from the School of Social Work at the University of Moncton shows that people relying on social assistance in New Brunswick have lower incomes and spend much more of their incomes on housing compared to those on social assistance in other Canadian provinces.

The report, authored by Chantal Bourassa and Ysabel Provencher, concludes that in all categories studied – single employable, single with disability, single with one child, and a couple with two children – New Brunswickers on social assistance receive incomes substantially lower than other provinces.

For example, a single employable person in New Brunswick received a mere $3,383 in 2003. In Quebec, Ontario, and British Columbia, this figure was anywhere between $6,000 and $7,000. For this category, the "low income cutoff" (the "poverty line") is $13,558. The single employable person therefore reaches only 25 per cent of this figure. Other categories fare slightly better, as a couple with two children hits the high level at 80 per cent of their poverty line.

Perhaps the most shocking figures in the report concern the percentage of social assistance benefits that go towards housing. A single employable person simply cannot afford housing, as the average rent for a bachelor or one-room apartment in any New Brunswick city far exceeds the monthly assistance.

The report also reminds that working full-time at the New Brunswick minimum wage will still not get a person above the poverty line. For those on social assistance, the situation is much more grim. The authors call on the provincial government to raise the minimum wage and social assistance benefits in order to help people rise out of poverty.

» Mascaret Magazine: Wage and Welfare in New Brunswick

UN Report: Ending Global Poverty "Utterly Affordable"

Thu, 20 Jan 2005 08:24:35 +0000

A UN report released this week called on industrialized nations to double their foreign aid budgets in order to meet the UN's Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) designed to lift 500 million people out of poverty by 2015.

Headed by Columbia University economist, professor Jeffrey D. Sachs, the report predicts that the MDGs are achievable only if developed nations increase foreign aid budgets from one-quarter of one per cent to one-half of one per cent of GDP. The previous commitment by wealthy nations to allocate 0.7 percent of GDP to aid has been met by only a handful of countries. The US places at the back of the pack at 0.15 per cent.

Sachs recommends focusing on at least a dozen poor but well-governed nations - including Ghana, Senegal, Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania and Mozambique - as a kick-start for the plan. He specifically focuses on some "quick win" policies such as eliminating school fees and providing free mosquito nets in areas where malaria is endemic, along with more far-reaching investment projects in infrastructure, health, agricultural productivity and education.

Critics of the report argue that while its intention is admirable, the plan is nothing more than a band aid solution that ignores the need for deeper political and social change in the developing world. They observe that simply infusing cash into developing economies is not always money well spent, particularly in an environment where corruption and mismanagement disrupt real development. Yet a growing body of economic literature, including a recent report by the Center for Global Development in Washington, suggests that the potential for aid to boost growth is significant, even in countries lacking infrastructure and sound economic policies. Supporters of the UN report argue that if aid is directed to carefully chosen projects in countries that are likely to use it well, the potential for positive results increases significantly.

Professor Dani Rodrik of Harvard University warns that cynical criticism may be dangerously close to recommending doing nothing at all. "[The UN report] has the potential to making a difference in a number of countries that take this opportunity and put it to good use," he said. "One has to ask the question: If not this, what else?"

» The New York Times: U.N. proposes doubling of aid to cut poverty

» The Washington Post: Fighting global poverty

» The Economist Global Agenda: Whatever it takes

» UN Millenium Project: Overview of "A Practical Plan to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals"

Photo Essay: Zapatistas

Tue, 18 Jan 2005 20:54:03 +0000

Reflecting on Ten Years of Resistance in Chiapas

On New Year's Day 1994, the day the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) went into effect, 3,000 poorly armed indigenous peasants seized 6 towns in Chiapas, Mexico's southernmost state. The Zapatistas demanded work, land, housing, food, healthcare, education, autonomy, freedom, democracy, justice and peace. Their rebellion wasn't an attempt to seize state power; the Zapatistas' stated goal was to draw attention to brutal poverty and ill-effects of NAFTA, which they called a "death sentence". NAFTA allowed heavily-subsidized US crops to flood the Mexican market, eliminating market access for millions of small farmers. As a precondition to the agreement, the Mexican government removed Article 27 from the constitution, an amendment dating to the first Mexican revolution which guaranteed communal land access for small farmers. The Zapatistas' uprising received worldwide attention, and drew much of its support from tens of thousands, particularly in North America and Europe. In the days following the insurgency, the army counter-attacked. Their capacity to destroy the Zapatistas was undisputed, but there was too much popular support behind the rebels; 100,000 rallied in Mexico City, chanting "we are all Zapatistas", and support demonstrations erupted at Mexican embassies and consulates around the world. Twelve days after fighting began, the army agreed to a ceasefire. After a series of fruitless negotiations with the government for indigenous rights and autonomy, three federal administrations, and a 2001 march on the capital drawing hundreds of thousands of supporters and the attention of the world media, the Zapatistas say they are coming to grips with the old maxim, "if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself." Unable to compel the government to negotiate in good faith, they are creating their own political structures, schools, health clinics and economic cooperatives. This photo essay looks back at eleven years of zapatismo, and provides a window onto the future of what the New York Times called "the first post-modern Latin American revolution."

Zapatista activists in Oventic Caracole.

The rebellion itself consisted of 3000 or so Zapatistas taking over 5 towns, including the tourist Mecca San Cristobal de las Casas. Prior to New Year's Day 1994, people in Chiapas used all the classic protests: sit-ins, road blocks and demonstrations, but no one listened. According to human rights groups, the Zapatistas never violated the Geneva Convention, both during and after the armed phase of the rebellion. The same cannot be said for the Mexican Army.

A child in the Zapatista refugee camp of San Pedro Polho.

After the 1997 Acteal Massacre where paramilitaries killed 45 unarmed indigenous men, women and children as they prayed in their church, thousands of Zapatista supporters fled their homes and ended up in this overcrowded camp.

According to the Mexican Government, 80 percent of Chiapas' municipalities are facing "acute marginalization". Chiapenco children, like this boy in San Pedro Polho, have a one in five chance of dying before age five.

The sun slips through the clouds in the Los Altos (the highlands) region. Geographically, Chiapas is one of Mexico's most diverse and beautiful areas.

70 percent of Chiapas's dwellings are overcrowded, 51 percent have earthen floors and more than 35 percent lack drainage or electricity, even though Chiapas produces 60 percent of the hydro electric power used in Mexico City. These objective realities, along with 500 years of cultural destruction and humiliation for Mexico's (and Canada's) indigenous, created the conditions for rebellion.

Military patrol outside the Zapatista community of Francisco Gomez in the Ocosingo region, 1999. At the height of tensions, observers estimate that 60 000 troops or one-third of the Mexican federal Army was stationed in Chiapas. There are deep seated economic and political interests in Chiapas, a state rich in oil, uranium, timber and other resources. In 1994, Chase Manhattan Bank sent a memo to high-ups in the Mexican Army urging them to "eliminate the Zapatistas to demonstrate effective control of the national territory."

Military base in the Los Altos region, 2004.

Vicente Fox of the rightist National Action Party was elected president in 2000, ending 71 years of one party rule in Mexico. During the campaign, he promised to end the conflict in Chiapas in "fifteen minutes". Although he removed some troops, there are around 18,000 in Chiapas today. The occupation continues.

Members of the Junta of Buen Goberino for Los Altos region stand in their office, Oventic Caracole, 2004.

In 2003, the armed wing of the Zapatistas passed the power of governance off to a civilian political authority; the Juntas of Buen Goberino (good government boards). This shift represents a key development for the movement- cemented autonomy. The Zapatistas say they need to create their own structures, functioning outside the hegemony of state political power or "free-market" domination.

A member of Mujures por la dignidad (women for dignity) a 1,000 member Zapatista cooperative, weaving art-crafts. photo: James Daria

Zapatista women are empowering themselves economically as well as socially. Several women-run cooperatives have sprouted up, producing blankets, crafts, hammocks, etc.

Mural for women's education and dignity in Oventic. Photo: James Daria

It is safe to say that indigenous women in Chiapas are at the bottom of the world's socio-economic hierarchy. According to Commandante Ramona, the martriarch of the Zapatistas, "Women have been the most exploited... We get up at three in the morning to prepare corn for our husband's breakfast and we don't rest until late at night. If there is not enough food we give it to our children and our husbands first. So the women now have decided to take up arms and become Zapatistas."

Women comprise fifty percent of EZLN (the Zapatista armed wing)'s leadership. One third of those fighting on New Year's Day 1994 were women.

A farmer tests his corn for genetic contamination.

Genetic Modification has become a global consumer issue; in Chiapas it is a question of identity. The Mayans consider themselves, "the people of the corn"; when you change the corn, you're changing them. These farmers walked for eight hours to bring samples from families in their area to be tested for contamination. All the tests came out negative, but they say that could change any day.

Activists putting the finishing touches on boots at a Zapatista run workshop.

Even key Zapatista activists still can't afford proper footwear. In response to this need, the movement started the 1st of January boot cooperative, which sells high quality boots at cost to local communities. The factory is a thriving example of worker self-management. According to one of the volunteer employees: "We have no owner. Here we are all equals. When there is something necessary, or when problems arise, all jobs have problems, then we have a meeting or a discussion in general. If we want to make something without consulting the rest, we can't do that. We must present that job on behalf of everyone."

Students crowd the classroom at the autonomus Zapatista school in Francisco Gomez.

Education is a key demand of the Zapatistas. In many regions, government schools simply don't exist. Government schools neglect indigenous history and are inaccessible to many communities. The Zapatistas have opened dozens of their own schools, with volunteer teachers giving free classes in local languages (tzotzil in this community), Spanish, math, humanities and natural sciences.

Chris Arsenault is a Halifax based freelance writer. He has covered the situation in Chiapas for CBC radio, the Halifax Herald and Z Magazine. Chris has also worked with Students Taking Action in Chiapas and the Black Star Boot Cooperative, grassroots organizations working on the ground in Chiapas.

For further reading, visit Global Exchange, Chiapas Independent Media Centre, and Z Magazine.

11 years after what the New York Times called the first "post modern revolution", Chris Arsenault brings back words and images from Chiapas, Mexico.

Books, January 2005

Thu, 13 Jan 2005 01:18:52 +0000

King's (Mere)
Dueck, Nathan
Turnstone Press, 2004

What a shock to find the private voice of William Lyon Mackenzie King exhumed and tampered with, blasted open, and then to find Dueck twirling underneath catching pieces of King on his tongue. This frenetic collection is a poetic interpretation of the life of the former prime minister, reconstructed through examination of his letters and diaries, as well as from news sources of the time and subsequent scholarly analysis of King's personality and career. Dueck veers from straightforward if elliptical commentary on King's famous relationship with his mother-- "She was a widow under glass framed by a window. King wrote of looking at her through the book open to the hills of her lap. The sun's tongue dawned on her and blinded me"-- to garbled strings of association and wordplay-- "a malaise/ mother? my belle?/ la belle hells/ without mercy/ this mailman/ whore son/ rise sun/ her(i)son/ rex within/ earshot up/ humped/ like dogs/ he feared/ on his/ route". There may be just a touch too much space left for the reader in this ambitious project; those who are unfamiliar with the events and characters of King's life do not get much from Dueck in the way of explanation. However, Dueck may be well within his rights in telling us to look King up in a Who's Who rather than expecting him to baby us along. --Linda Besner

Teethmarks
Queyras, Sina
Nightwood Editions, 2004

Sina Queyras' first book, Slip, was named "2002's sexiest book of poetry" by Tanis McDonald at Prairie Fire, and her second collection continues to offer stunning erotic moments: "There is dust on your lines, she says, dull wit cramps your damp bed. Crack/ your spine: it's about desire, the triangulation of,/ intensity of the other, not self, split in two". Yet in Teethmarks, Queyras seems to be deliberately moving away from the sexual territory covered in Slip, and to be delving into new subjects, like the relationship between mother and daughter, or American politics. The former is achieved largely through "untitled film stills"-- a more fragmented, imagistic form than that evident in Queyras' earlier work. This innovative section walks a precarious line between the accessible and the overly personal. The poet's political voice is boldly empathetic, and "Me Victorious" is perhaps the fiercest and most fervent piece in a competent and explorative second collection. --Matthew J.Trafford

Spine
by K.I Press
Gaspereau Press, 2004

Spine is poetry about the physical and imaginative properties of books, in which classic characters are revisited and darkly revised. Press also takes us behind the chosen typeface with the broken "Joanna", into the editor's office in the satirical "Slush Pile", and into the mind of the great publisher Aldus Menutius in "Hurry, Slowly". Books and the act of reading form the allusive and emotional backbone of the literary addict. Spine, however, is far from a bibliophile's affectionate romp through the canon. Moments of literary comfort contend with that creeping sense that this fulfillment comes at a price; perhaps, while devotedly reading, one is missing out on something called "real life" found elsewhere. Nostalgia, too, Press evades, inviting us to love old books only "sadly/ seeing why we loved them/ then". Most satisfying is when Press weaves allusions into larger abstractions to show the formative powers of the literature we've consumed. This shows up in a meditation on "Buoyancy", in which "Everyone's a suicide/ bomber these days fits happen/ on every living-room floor, you'd think/ we still believed in Freud,/ in eating men like air, in crying". Though its organization feels random at times, Spine's poetic range awakens its readers to the greater implications of the very act being performed. -- Jane Henderson

Global Profit and Global Justice
Deb Abbey
New Society, 2004

This essential tool for socially concerned investors and consumers addresses one of the unavoidable truisms of our time: "With governments becoming increasingly reluctant to put restrictions on business, consumer activism is one of the ways that citizens can affect global and national social policy. In some ways, it's becoming better to shop than to vote". Abbey and her four other contributors address the main categories of investing, consuming, and giving. Several different types of investment funds are profiled to explain their relative histories and goals, and a number of companies are examined to explain why the authors include them in the "ethical fund" category. In terms of consumption, Abbey discusses the history and efficacy of consumer boycotts, and describes the factors that allow consumers to make informed and conscientious purchases. She also points to relevant and extremely useful websites, like www. responsibleshopper.org, and www.IdealsWork.com. Finally, the handbook gives some keen advice on how to customize the most effective giving strategy based on your ideals and your donation budget. -- Amanda Janes

Besner, Trafford, Henderson and Janes review new work by Nathan Dueck, Sina Queyras, K.I. Press, and Deb Abbey

Depo-Provera and Bone Loss

Tue, 11 Jan 2005 04:35:49 +0000

Women's health groups say "I told you so"

Depo-Provera, a progesterone derived from soybeans, is a long-acting, injectable contraceptive that works by inhibiting the secretion of hormones responsible for ovulation and thickening the uterine lining.

On November 18, Pfizer Canada Inc. released a safety update on their long acting, injectable contraceptive Depo-Provera (medroxyprogesterone acetate), citing ongoing research that points to significant Bone Mineral Density (BMD) loss amongst its users. Pfizer warns health care professionals that "bone loss is greater with increasing duration and may not be completely reversible. It is unknown if the use of Depo-Provera during adolescence or early adulthood, a critical period for bone accretion, will reduce peak bone mass and increase the risk of osteoporotic fracture in later life."

Women's health groups say that the findings come as no surprise. For decades, activists have challenged the manufacturers and drug regulating bodies regarding both the political and health implications of the drug that is disproportionately prescribed to marginalized women at home and abroad.

Depo-Provera was first approved in the US in 1960 as a treatment for endometriosis and endometrial carcinoma. Despite persistent lobbying from Pharmacia and Upjohn, the original manufacturers of the drug before it was acquired in 2003 by Pfizer, the FDA would not approve it as a method of birth control in the US, citing doubts about long term effects and potential connections to cancer.

While Pharmacia lobbied for approval in the US, Canada and Europe, the drug was being exported to poor countries as part of a global population control strategy, despite the opposition from health groups in most of the affected countries. The export of Depo-Provera is often discussed in the same vein as the infamous Dalkon Shield IUD, banned in the US for its abysmal safety record, but continually sold to the underdeveloped world at a 48% discount.

In 1985, Pharmacia and Upjohn again challenged the FDA for approval, without success. At the same time women's and community health groups across the country formed the Canadian Coalition on Depo-Provera- an umbrella group of over 80 Canadian organizations. They lobbied not to have the drug approved for contraceptive use in this country because of their concerns about what was yet unknown about Depo-Provera and about the social misuse of the drug that had already been witnessed.

In addition, they demanded the creation of a registry of Depo users, both for purposes of tracking long-term effects and to ensure that if problems with the drug were discovered the women could be easily contacted. This registry was never created. They were successful in their request for a set of nation-wide hearings to be made available to women with experience with the drug, which took place in 1986. Following these hearings, Health Canada again denied approval of the drug.

Finally, in 1992 the drug was approved in the US, and then in 1997 in Canada. Consistent with current Health Canada policy, the data from the trials on which these approvals were made was never made available to the public.

Information that has been made available by the drug companies says that a woman needs to be extremely healthy in order for her body to cope with persistent levels of synthetic progesterone. A detailed history and physical exam is suggested before prescription, with periodic reevaluations throughout the course of use.

According to many critics, Depo-Provera is targeted at women on the margins of North American society, women who have inadequate access to health care and who usually suffer disproportionately from poor health.

Women in Canada have long been outspoken about the effects of Depo-Provera. In their 1991 letter to then federal Health and Welfare minister Benoit Bouchard, the Canadian Coalition on Depo-Provera pointed to a growing body of research connecting Depo use to breast cancer and osteoporosis. In addition, they cautioned about the side effects reported by women which include irregular or no menstrual periods, weight gain, decreased libido and depression.

In response to Pfizer's announcement, the Canadian Women's Health Network (CWHN), pointing to the history of the drug's approval, said that "women's health groups can be a far more reliable and informed source than either the drug companies or Health Canada." Madeline Boscoe, executive director of the CWHN and co-founder of the Canadian Coalition on Depo-Provera says that "my frustration is that they didn't listen to us and now our worries have come true."

According to groups like the CWHN, the history of women's medicine is characterized by such a silencing of women. In what they call repeated cases of experimentation without consent, such as Depo-Provera or last year's hormone replacement therapy revelations, women are consistently reassured that the pharmaceuticals they are using are safe, only to learn after the fact that their therapies are potentially doing more harm than good.

Women's groups have long warned about the risks associated with the contraceptive Depo-Provera. Lisa Nussey wonders why they were ignored.