Dear Obama Friends,
For those of you who can, I'll meet you next Saturday in London (UK), at the Tottenham....
We wiil share our experiences and patos...
See you there,
Simone, your italian friend
Dear Obama Family,
please have a look at the new internet site of the White House (www.whitehouse.com)
Then, leave impression and suggestion to the new Us President, our beloved Obama.
He really needs our help!
Your italian friend,
Simone
Not only words this year..........let's move to save the Economy, the Peace and the International Relations.
These are the main facts we should reach, asap.
Fast, please !
Scores have been killed during a campaign of terror unleashed by Zimbabwe's rulers against illegal diggers in the east of the country
The young miner already recognised the sound of dogs as a terrifying harbinger of death but the dull thud of the helicopter blades was something new.
Minutes later a Zimbabwean air force helicopter swept over the hundreds of fleeing illegal diamond miners and mowed down dozens with machine-gun fire. After that the police arrived and unleashed the dogs that tore into the diggers, killing some and mutilating others. The police fired teargas to drive the miners out of their shallow tunnels and shot them down as they emerged.
How many died in the assault two weeks ago is not clear but the miners say it was at least scores. Some bodies remain unclaimed and unidentified in Mutare hospital mortuary.
"First we heard the helicopter and we knew it wouldn't be good but I thought it would just deliver soldiers," said the young miner, a former student who gave his name only as Hopewell.
"Then it came over us and started shooting. There was a man next to me, he had been digging near me, and the bullet went right through his head. Everyone was in panic. People ran but they didn't want to leave their finds behind so they were stopping to grab them and getting shot ... The police were waiting for us with the dogs. I was lucky. A dog ran for me but there was this woman, she was slower than me and it attacked her. I don't know what happened to her. I went back to my diggings a few days later but she hasn't come back."
The police and military have for weeks been conducting a bloody campaign, which Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights has described as "resembling a war", to drive thousands of illegal miners out of a recently discovered diamond field that some in the industry believe might be the richest in years.
The miners say hundreds have died. The opposition Movement for Democratic Change says it has the names of 140 people killed although there is common agreement that many have been buried without a word.
Chris McGreal: 'Bodies have turned up riddled with bullets' Link to this audio
The diamond fields around Chiadzwa, about 20 miles north-west of the town of Mutare in Zimbabwe's eastern Manicaland province, are a collection of shallow tunnels and open gullies dug out after the discovery of gems close to the surface two years ago set off the rush.
Thousands of illegal diggers moved in - estimates run between 10,000 and 30,000 including foreigners from across southern Africa - spending days or even weeks to discover only tiny diamonds worth no more than a couple of hundred US dollars. But that is several months' pay for many Zimbabweans as their country collapses under the weight of hyperinflation.
Many of the miners are professionals, such as teachers and civil servants, who have abandoned jobs that do not pay enough to feed their families. Others are students who have dropped out of university in the hope of making a quick fortune and subsistence farmers whose land has not produced a crop in years. And some have got very rich.
Mutare, on the border with Mozambique, has taken on the air of a frontier town filled with brash young men touting US dollars and an air of menace. The hotels are filled with miners and dealers. Luxury cars prowl the streets. Shops have filled with imported goods sold for American dollars and South African rand. Spend any amount of time in a hotel bar and periodically someone will approach with diamonds for sale.
The governor of Zimbabwe's central bank, Gideon Gono, has estimated there are more than 500 syndicates handling more than $1bn a month in illegally dug diamonds that are swiftly smuggled out of the country.
Now Zimbabwe's government, or at least members of its discredited ruling elite, are apparently trying to take control. The military and police have moved in to try to drive the illegal diggers out of plots the miners say are claimed by Grace Mugabe, the president's wife, and Joice Mujuru, the vice-president. Both areas are now known by the women's names.
Legal and opposition political sources in Mutare say the prime mover behind the military assault is the Zimbabwean air force chief, Perence Shiri, the former commander of the notorious Fifth Brigade which massacred about 20,000 people in Matabeleland in the mid-80s.
Shiri oversaw the bloody military campaign of beatings and killings in Manicaland earlier this year that terrorised voters into supporting Robert Mugabe in June's presidential election.
He sent the helicopter gunships into the diamond fields three weeks ago. The police were already letting loose ferocious dogs, killing some miners and maiming others. One police tactic is to use teargas to drive them out of the tunnels, causing stampedes in which some have been crushed. The miners say that in some cases the police shoot down the men, blinded by teargas, as they flee.
One described how there is shooting nearly every day and particularly at night. "There were three of us mining together. In the night a policeman came and shot my friend, twice in the chest. We ran away but came back. He was still alive. We carried him to a hospital but he died," he said.
A policewoman working in Chiadzwa said she saw a pile of 50 bodies after one helicopter attack. "There were a lot of bodies. They were piled up. I don't know what happened to them. Some of the dead are just buried secretly," she said. "Miners are killed every day. The orders to the police are to shoot them if they find them digging but many of the police do not want to carry out those orders. These are ordinary people like us."
The situation has got so bad that some miners are now arming themselves and fighting back. The state-run press has reported that several police officers have been killed in shoot-outs.
But none of that deters the men who continue to work the diamond fields. "The risks are worth it," said Hopewell. "Some miners have run away but most of us don't leave for long. We hear stories of giant diamonds. I've already sold enough to make more money than I have made in five years. I have bought food for my mother and father. I have bought a television and a DVD from South Africa. Next I will buy a car. If they don't kill me," he says, and laughs.
A De Beers subsidiary held the exploitation rights to the fields but let them expire in 2006 because, according to industry sources, it believed the diamonds to be of poor quality. A British firm, African Consolidated Resources, bought the rights but it was ousted by the government when large quantities of high quality diamonds were discovered a short dig under the surface. Theoretically the diamond fields were then taken over by the state-owned Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation but the illegal diggers moved in so fast it was unable to assert control.
Some economists speculate that Zimbabwe's rulers look on the diamond fields as a new source of US dollars now that the country's foreign reserves have largely been spent and the collapse of agriculture, industry and tourism means there is little new money coming in. But given the bitter experience of recent years Zimbabweans have little reason to believe that if the ruling elite gets control of the diamond fields, the revenues will be used to rescue the country.
Invasion alert!
Armed intervention is now on the cards - here's why
Zambia, one of Zimbabwe's neighbouring countries, stations its crack 2nd battalion troops at the Tug Argan barracks in the Copperbelt city of Ndola. Zambia's Commandos are at the nearby Mushili depot. Recently both units have been training, in joint operations with the army of Botswana, another of our neighbouring states. The prospect - nothing less than the armed invasion of Zimbabwe.
This scenario has grown more and and more likely over the past few days, as the tone of international condemnation of Robert Mugabe becomes strident, and the possibility of armed intervention in Zimbabwe is at last given serious consideration.
Those famous voices who previously called for negotiations are now calling for action. Former Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, even ponderous British Prime Minister Gordon Brown - all have declared that enough is enough.
These tough-talking leaders have clearly and jointly reached the conclusion that Zimbabwe is collapsing and its people suffering unforgivably - something that commentators such as your own Moses Moyo have been telling them for months, even years.
It's the appalling cholera epidemic, first highlighted on this site, that has brought them to this conclusion. It has taken the pitiful and highly preventable deaths of thousands of innocent Zimbabweans to remove the scales from their eyes.
Underlying the many tough statements this last weekend was the unmistakable implication that if Mugabe can't be persuaded to step down - and he can't - then the next step is armed intervention. But not by troops from America, or Britain, or anywhere in Europe.
The unspoken rule is that such military action cannot, for all the usual historical and political reasons, be taken by White troops, from White countries. The soldiers who cross the border into Zimbabwe must be African. And as South Africa, under its wishy-washy leadership, cannot be relied upon, we expect it will be our brothers from Botswana and Zambia who will be asked to lead the way.
My source in Zambia told me: "Our forces are fully equipped, especially with Ak47's and Katyusha rocket launchers and tanks. The plan is for Botswana troops and Zambian units to invade simultaneously from their own borders, catching Mugabe's men in a pincer movement."
He told me that there would certainly be public enthusiasm in both Zambia and Botswana for an enforced end to the Zimbabwean dictatorship. For months economic and political refugees have crowded across the borders of both countries. Now they still come - and they bring cholera with them.
Zambia observers also believe that the fight, if it came to one, would not be a long one. Zimbabwe's troops, as also revealed exclusively on these pages, are already rioting, and staging pitched battles with police in the Harare streets. They are thought to have no stomach for a battle to save Mugabe.
Meanwhile the international calls for action have also included a suggestion that Mugabe be brought to trial at the international court at the Hague. But, I must point out, that won't happen if we get our hands on him first. We have a swifter justice to exact.
Dear Friends,
check this link and leave a comment, if you like :
http://www.cronachemaceratesi.it/?p=1733
It is a Special Award called 'Il Maceratese dell' Anno', held by 'Il Resto del Carlino' -italian newspaper-...seems I'm one of the candidate(due of my work for the Obama Campaign) !!
Thanks,
My dear friend,
the adventure with Martin is finished....thanks for all the support. We finished strong...all we learned is in our background, now !
Be ready and fired, for next President !
My dear friends,
Happy Thanksgiving Day !
Please pass my cheers to all your freinds and families met in your reunions !!
Your friend from Italy,
Please join the Fulton County Team in order to support Jim Martin as next Us Senator, on behalf of President Obama !
SImone
Hope you will enjoy this picture, in a italian online newspaper...
http://www.cronachemaceratesi.it/galleria/?album=5&gallery=23&pid=558
And of course support Martin, in the upcoming run-off !
My dear all,
after a week (of partial rest) it is time to move again.
So, Martin's time.
Please help his Team and share your effort in order to elect him next Dec. 2nd.
This run-off is very special, and our President Elected will surely join us in this, visiting Atlanta very soon.
Come on!
Your italian friend
Cari amici di Obama,
durante il fine settimana il nostro HQ organizza il 'canvass door to door' (promozione elettorale porta a porta).
Oggi, con Julma (la mia sorella maggiore americana) abbiamo percorso esattamente 10,4 km....a piedi ! Abbiamo bussato 143 porte (il numero è preciso, in quanto dobbiamo presentare un 'canvass report' alla fine) e siamo venuti in contatto con numerosissime persone, in maggioranza afro-americani, che sono stati entusiasti di vederci...e di conoscermi, vista la mia provenienza oltreoceano.
Questo per promuovere il voto anticipato (in Georgia si può già votare, per evitare lunghe file il 4 Novembre, giorno ufficiale delle Elezioni).
Domani sarà un'altra giornata di canvass...poi avremmo tempo nei giorni prossimi di inserire tutti i dati nel data base dello Stato della Georgia.
What do you think....President Obama...sounds good ??? Yes, we can !
My friends,
our dues today is call the volunteers strongly involved in the Campaign for a 'Training Session' scheduled for next Saturday.
If someone not previously contacted wants to know more, please call the MLK Office at 404-584-2006. Details are ready to be sent, with Location Map.
Go on, Go Obama !
Your friend, inside Atlanta,
Carissimi amici,
Oggi e' l'ultimo giorno per la registrazione del 'voto anticipato' in tutti gli Stati Uniti.
Tantissimi volontari sono fuori per le strade di Atlanta alla ricerca di coloro che ancora non sono registrati....ultime ore decisive ai fini di questo scopo !
Ieri ho fatto parte del gruppo di 7 volontari diretti a East Lake (Sud Atlanta), vicino al Campo di Golf degli Us Tournaments.
Abbiamo ottenuto fantastici risultati !
Forza...ultime ore per il Vote Registration Drive !!!
Ciao da Atlanta, GA
we are ready to depart, right now, to start the Voter Registration Drive !
Our 'captain', Dwayne, is teaching all necessary tips for a fast start!
We all are firing, now!
Go on, GO OBAMA !
Your italian friend, in Atlanta
