Honduras' Carlos Pavon, right, and Donis Escuber hug after defeating El Salvador 1-0 and classifying for the 2010 World Cup at the end of a qualifying soccer match in San Salvador, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2009. (AP Photo/Claudio Cruz)
s ago
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — A soccer victory that clinched Honduras' first trip to the World Cup in almost 30 years is giving its people an exhilarating distraction from the divisive political crisis that has gripped the country for the last 3 1/2 months.
Negotiators are continuing talks on whether to reinstate ousted President Manuel Zelaya. But right now Hondurans are more interested in celebrating Wednesday night's 1-0 defeat of neighboring El Salvador.
Thursday was declared a national holiday and hundreds of thousands of people celebrated outside, many welcoming the team at the airport and others lining the streets to a church where the players attended Mass.
Next year's World Cup in South Africa will be Honduras' first since 1982.
(This version CORRECTS that it will be Honduras' first trip to World Cup in almost 30 years, sted 30 years)
Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
No comment. fib
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Leading Cuban dissidents cheer Obama's Nobel prize (AP) – 8 hours ago HAVANA
— Many of the 75 activists jailed in a 2003 Cuban government crackdown on political dissent are congratulating Barack Obama for winning the Nobel Peace Prize. In a letter released Monday to international journalists, 29 of those imprisoned six years ago said Obama "has become a global symbol, especially for us who, under difficult conditions, are defending Cubans' right to democracy."
In another letter, 21 of their wives, mothers and other female relatives also cheered Obama. Fifty-four dissidents remain imprisoned on allegations they conspired with the U.S. to topple Cuba's government. Those freed were granted medical parole or forced into exile in Spain. One was released after completing a six-year sentence.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jOSU7Ew6j4vlEn0d_L0eXG0A1w1gD9B9M09G0
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Zimbabwe News.Net
Sunday 11th October, 2009
Former Cuban president, Fidel Castro, has said he was obliged to acknowledge the Nobel Prize given to US President, Barack Obama, was a "positive measure," and especially important considering the "genocidal policies" of some former US presidents. He also said the decision was good compensation for the fact that the US had been defeated in Copenhagen when Rio de Janeiro was picked as a site for 2016 Olympic Games. In an article titled "Reflections," published on the Internet, 83-year-old Castro said while he did not always share the views of those who award the Nobel, Obama’s prize was "an appeal for peace and a search for solutions that lead to the survival of species." In his comments, he said: "Many will say that Obama has not yet earned the right to receive such a distinction. We prefer to see the decision as not so much a prize for the president of the US, but as a criticism of the genocidal policies pursued by a few presidents of that country, who led the world to the crossroads it is at today."
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http://www.zimbabwenews.net/story/553184
TALKING OF RACISM... fib
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The first town of freed African slaves in the Americas is not exactly where you would expect to find it — and it isn't exactly what you'd expect to find either. First, it's not in the United States. Yanga, on Mexico's Gulf Coast, is a sleepy pueblito founded by its namesake, Gaspar Yanga, an African slave who led a rebellion against his Spanish colonial masters in the late 16th century and fought off attempts to retake the settlement. The second thing that is immediately evident to vistors who reach the town's rustic central plaza: there are virtually no blacks among the few hundred residents milling around the center of town.
Mirroring Mexico's history itself, most of Yanga's Afro-Mexican population has been pushed to neighboring rural villages that are notable primarily for their deep poverty and the strikingly dark skin of their inhabitants. Mexico's independence from Spain and new focus on building a national identity on the idea of mestizaje, or mixed race, drove African Mexicans into invisibility as leaders chose not to count them or assess their needs. Now many blacks want to fight back by improving the shoddy education and social services available to them and are petitioning for the constitution to recognize Afro-Mexicans as a separate ethnic group worthy of special consideration. (See graphics of slavery and the Americas.)
"The two races that are most discriminated against here are the blacks and the indigenous — but it is more accepted against blacks," says Hemeregildo Fernandez, a doctor in Yanga and one of the few blacks still living in town. His office is tucked on a narrow street that juts off the main square, where the rotund man with warm brown skin and salt-and-pepper hair receives a fluctuating stream of patients. The majority of the black Mexican population works in agriculture, fishing or construction, and while, like Fernandez, some have achieved notable positions in coastal towns, he says, "Most blacks have no economic power." (Read a story about the indigenous custom of bride-selling.)
Many of the country's mexicanos negros (black Mexicans), as they are called, know that their ancestors arrived in chains on boats that docked at ports in the sultry, steamy state of Veracruz. But they don't know much else. Indeed, Afro-Mexicans say that much of the history of los mexicanos negros is untaught or ignored by the rest of the country. Apart from Yanga, Afro-Mexicans claim Vicente Guerrero, who served briefly as President in the early 19th century and gave his name to the state of Guerrero, as one of their own, as well as revolutionary José María Morelos, who was executed by the Spaniards in 1815. (Read a story about an indigenous mother who might lose her child because she doesn't speak English.)
Black Mexican activists estimate the population of Afro-Mexicans at about 1 million, but there are no official figures. Earlier this year, they petitioned the National Institute of Statistics and Geography to include the Afro-Mexican population as a separate category in the next census, in 2010. Official statistics do not recognize blacks as a separate ethnic group (56 indigenous groups are officially accredited, the largest ones being the Nahuatl and the Maya, numbering more than 2 million each). As a result, Afro-Mexicans say they have been left out of institutional programs and are without a cultural identity. The group Mexico Negro A.C. is linking with similar Afro-descendant organizations in Latin America that have achieved success in securing better treatment. "We no longer want to be detained by security agents in our own country who say that in Mexico there are no blacks," says Rodolfo Prudente Dominguez, an activist with Mexico Negro.
The Afro-Mexicans face considerable hurdles. Prevailing stereotypes paint the group as happy to live the simple life apart from the rest of society, with no interest in education. The all-black shantytowns near Yanga lack schools, and eager young migrants who move to bigger cities for work complain of blatant discrimination. A report released late last year by Mexico's Congress said that roughly 200,000 black Mexicans who reside in the rural areas of Veracruz and Oaxaca and in tourist cities like Acapulco are out of the reach of social programs like employment support, health coverage, public education and food assistance.
Afro-Mexican culture expert Luz Maria Montiel acknowledges that blacks are particularly marginalized and excluded, to the point that it is impossible to find any mention of them in official records. Yet she argues that it is impractical for blacks to seek constitutional recognition. "It would be impossible to make a law for each of the populations that make up our multicultural nation," she says. Dominguez disagrees: "We are a totally different cultural group from indigenous groups and mestizos of our country, with a particular lifestyle and characteristics that do not respond to public policies that are designed for indigenous grouPS.
AN OPEN LETTER TO THE US CONGRESS
Heed this or enjoy your last term in US Congress
We, the people, DEMAND that a strong condition-free PUBLIC OPTION be included in whatever Health Care Reform legislation you enact. We will be watching your actions closely, so, keep the following in mind before casting your vote. Make it count for all Americans :-
Health Care Reform is MEANINGLESS if:
1. There is no Public Option ( with clear path to SINGLE PAYER, No Co-ops, No Triggers ).2. Everybody is not covered. (Without Exception)3. Coverage can be denied based on “Pre-existing” conditions.4. It does not contain Patients’ Rights.5. Strict Regulations are not imposed on insurance plans.6. Affordability and costs to consumers, as well as providers, are not addressed.7. Accessibility, delivery and quality are not maintained and/or improved.8. There’s NO oversight from medical, financial and national security perspectives.9. Profit motive is NOT REMOVED.10. Innovation, Research guidelines and funding are not addressed.
Health Care For Patients, NOT For Profit because Health Care For Profit is Health Care DENIED.
Under NO CIRCUMSTANCES should an insurance middleman come between a patient and his/her doctor - especially, if the insurance middleman stands to gain from it.
Insurance and Employers have no business being in Health Care. They contribute nothing towards it
President Arias had proposed certain points of resolutions to be discussed. In the end, however, it will be the two Honduran delegations to give the final proposal of agreement. Arias said he feels that after yesterday's talks the parties became more flexible. In particular Arias hopes that the agreement will contain the clause that Zelaya would regain power as president but will form a cabinet of reconciliation and unity that would offer security to all Honduran people (“un Gabinete de unidad y reconciliación que le da seguridad al pueblo hondureño”).
The two Honduran parties arived yestarday at 10 a.m. And from the airport directly proceded to the house of Arias.
“The delegation of Manuel Zelaya has in it: Arístides Mejía, the ex-minister of Defense; Milton Jiménez, designated for the Vice-presidency and the ex-chancellor, as well as Enrique Flores Lanza, secretary of the Presidency.
The delegation of mister Roberto Micheletti constitutes of Carlos López, chancellor of the Republic; Arturo Corrales, the president of the Party of Unity and Change (Partido Innovación y Unidad - PINU); Mauricio Villeda, a candidate for the Vice-presidency of the Partido Liberal, and Vilma Cecilia Morales, the ex-president of the Supreme Court of Justice.”
Translation from La Prensa edition Costa Rica by fib
Pic from El Tiempo, Honduran edition:
(AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
A supporter of Honduras' ousted President Manuel Zelaya, from the Garifuna Indian community, burns incense in a bucket near soldiers during a road blockade protest in Tegucigalpa, Thursday, July 16, 2009. The incense is believed to expel bad spirits.
I am simply glad that an indogenious tribe's name was used to name a species. I bet though the Muras had their own name for the animal - their language is now apparently extinct. I once read a Carib-English dictinary, and half of the text were zoological and botanical items. (I used to do such things before the Obama era.)
The Muras of Brasil, like the Caribs (Caripuna) of the Caribbean Islands and their Carin'a cousins in Venezuela were very powerful tribes and the fiersest fighters for their freedom. They were not much liked by the invaders, being the bad Indians, and accused of all forms of savagery.
So, we found the Mura monkey. Pity the language is lost.
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New monkey discovered in Brazilian Amazon
Tue Jul 7, 2009 2:50pm EDT
RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Researchers have discovered a new sub-species of monkey in a remote part of the Amazon rain forest, a U.S.-based wildlife conservation group said on Tuesday.
The newly found monkey was first spotted by scientists in 2007 in the Brazilian state of Amazonas and is related to the saddleback tamarin monkeys, known for their distinctively marked backs, the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) said.
The small monkey, which is mostly gray and brown and weighs 213 grams (0.47 pound), has been named the Mura's saddleback tamarin after the Mura Indian tribe of the Purus and Madeira river basins where the new sub-species was found.
It is 240 millimeters (9.4 inches) tall with a 320 millimeter (12.6 inch) tail.
"This newly described monkey shows that even today there are major wildlife discoveries to be made," Fabio Rohe, the lead author of a study confirming the new discovery, said in a statement released by the WCS.
The study found that the monkey is threatened by development projects in the region, including a major highway through the forest that is being paved and which could fuel deforestation.
"This discovery should serve as a wake-up call that there is still so much to learn from the world's wild places, yet humans continue to threaten these areas with destruction," Rohe said.
(Reporting by Stuart Grudgings; Editing by Philip Barbara)
Our support for the Columbian government was forged in the eight years of Bush administration.
President Obama's administration should closely monitor all human rights abuses south of our border. Only then our south border will be safeand crime will stop "percolating"al Norte. fib
Print this article
Originally printed at http://www.indiancountrytoday.com/archive/48607197.html
"Indigenous Colombian leader Robert DeJesus Gaucheta was beaten to death by unidentified assailants near his home in the southwestern territory of Cauca May 18, several months after he and other officials had requested protection due to receiving numerous death threats.
Gaucheta was the vice governor of the Nasa Reservation of Honduras which extends more than 93,860 acres and includes approximately 7,000 Nasa people. His predecessor, Vice Governor Jose Goyes Santa Cruz, survived an assassination attempt June 8, 2008 in Gaucheta’s home town of Morales. Gaucheta was well-known for his leadership during the large scale national protests called the Minga, or commotion of the peoples in Colombia last year.
According to press statements sent by Vicente Otero, press liaison for the Regional Indigenous Council of Cauca, Gaucheta had long been a vocal critic of the government’s plans to hand over indigenous land to mining interests, and recently spoke out against attempts by unnamed groups to start growing illicit crops.
Sources in CRIC and in the National Indigenous Organization of Colombia reported that since December 2008, Gaucheta and other indigenous leaders had been receiving threats through text messages and phone calls, and they were attributing the threats to the “Black Eagles,” famous in Colombia for being ex-paramilitaries with ties to the drug trade. Otero said indigenous broadcasters, including Alfredo Campo of the “Our Stereo Voice of Morales” radio show, have been and continue to be threatened.
CRIC and other indigenous officials approached the Colombian Interior Ministry and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights about the threats in September 2008. IACHR also approached Colombian authorities to request protection for Gaucheta and 20 other indigenous leaders. According to all of the indigenous sources no protection plans were ever realized.
Indigenous and allied organizations throughout Colombia are renewing their calls for protection, focusing not only on the unsolved beating death of Gaucheta, but also the killing of indigenous resident Nilvany Cruz Zambrano who also lived in Morales. Zambrano was shot to death the day after Gaucheta’s funeral; indigenous sources reported that she was caught in the crossfire between national police and “illegal actors.”
“The Indigenous Regional Council of Cauca joins in the mourning by all indigenous communities of the death of the traditional indigenous leader, Robert DeJesus Gaucheta,” the release said. “…and reiterates its call to the national and international community on behalf of the indigenous communities of Agua Negra, Chimborazo and Honduras. … to urge the cessation of threats by paramilitary groups and to urge the Colombian government to stop avoiding its responsibility and provide sufficient guarantees that are needed to defend the lives and human rights of traditional indigenous authorities and their families, many of whom find themselves in a situation of forced displacement.”
Counting Zambrano’s murder, ONIC says 1,255 indigenous were killed by paramilitaries, drug traffickers and official forces since January 2002, although the Colombian government refuses to acknowledge that official forces have ever assassinated any of the victims. According to the official government tally, 40 indigenous were killed in 2007 and 66 in 2008."
On November 28, 1897, Spain granted autonomy to Puerto Rico after the Independence Party’s coup of September 23, 1868, El Grito de Lares. General elections were held in March/July of 1898 and Puerto Rico's autonomous government began to function, but not for long.
BUCHANAN: “… We liberated Puerto Rico. We offered Puerto Rico the freedom to go independent, to go commonwealth, to go statehood.”
The Spanish American War broke out and on July 25, 1898 when Puerto Rico was invaded by the U.S. The Spanish forces retreated and on October 18, 1898 Puerto Rico's autonomous government was officially changed to an American military government. The Treaty of Paris was signed and it stated that Spain was to cede Puerto Rico, Guam and Philippines to the U.S. Under this treaty Cuba would become a protectorate of the U.S. The Foraker Act of 1900, changed Puerto Rico’s military government to a civil government.
The President of the U.S. appointed the governor, cabinet and delegates. Puerto Ricans were distressed after having been granted autonomy by Spain, it had now taken a step back to colonialism. On March 2, 1917 President Woodrow Wilson signed the Jones Law. Granting Puerto Ricans American citizenship.
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Hardball, April 20, 2009 (guests Pat Buchanan and Lawrence O’Donnell)http://bit.ly/SyCk6
MATTHEWS: OK, let me ask you about—let‘s get to the facts here before we move on, a little history here. We have two veterans here of history…. What is the legitimate complaint by Latin America against the United States, Lawrence, because Pat says you‘ve got one. What is it? In terms of Latin America, where have we been bad? Where have we been bad. Let‘s hear the worst….
The double standards of the United States politics is what bothers and enfuriates Latin Americans as well as the rest of the world. The U.S. wants to have policies for their own protection and will not grant the same courtesy to other countries. Nuclear weapons, torture, invasion of other countries… etc.
The great historian, Pat Buchanan, was totally misinformed as to what he called the “liberation” of Puerto Rico from the Spanish, when the Spain had already given them the autonomy!
BUCHANAN: Sergeant Batista came to power, I believe, in 1932 under— ‘34, under the Good Neighbor” policy of FDR. He was in power to 1959. Is that our fault, or is it Cuba‘s fault that they can‘t get rid of dictators? Good heavens, there‘s been dictators all over that place. Juan Peron—that‘s all our fault? Blame America first because we did it all!
You indicate that Obama should not be fraternizing with dictators as Chavez but let me help you Pat with a bit of the history this since you seem to be a bit cloudy in this matter. The U.S. was fraternizing with dictators when they gave the green light and back-up to Battista to do as he pleased.
On April of 1933 U.S. Ambassador Benjamin Sumner Welles was sent to Cuba to mediate differences between the government and opposing political groups and he said to Battista, "I will lay down no specific terms; the matter of your government is a Cuban matter and it is for you to decide what you will do about it." To Batista, this was an invitation to rule. So on September 4, 1933 an uprising known as the "Revolt of the Sergeants," Batista took over the Cuban government and he emerged as self-appointed chief of the armed forces and a favored U.S. strong man.
From 34 to 40 Batista ran the country with puppet presidents and was a friend of the U.S. and the mafia until 1940 when defeated Grau San Martín in the first presidential election under a new Cuban constitution and U.S. trade relations increased. But in 1944 Grau San Martin was elected president Batista was forced to relinquish control.
On March 10 1952, 23 months before the upcoming elections (because he was sure to lose) Batista took over the government against elected Cuban president Carlos Prío Socorras. FYI: Also running in that election (for a different office) was a young, energetic lawyer named Fidel Castro. On March 27 Batista's government was formally recognized by U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Note Pat Buchanan: Batista was acting as a dictator at this point because he did not get elected with total and full support from the U.S.
Batista opened the way for large-scale gambling in Havana, and he reorganized the Cuban state so that he and his political appointees could harvest the nation's riches. He announced that his government would match, dollar for dollar, any hotel investment over $1 million, which would include a casino license, and Lansky became the center of the entire Cuban gambling operation. Under Batista, Cuba became profitable for American business and organized crime making Havana the "Latin Las Vegas," a playground of choice for wealthy gamblers, and very little was said about democracy, or the rights of the average Cuban.
What is your opinion? fib
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By Herman Baca, President Committee on Chicano Right
With Tuesday’s special election, California voters will vote whether or not to raise taxes to supposedly address the state’s $42 billion dollar hemorrhaging deficit. With California being the most heavily taxed state in the U.S. with one of the highest unemployment rate (over 10%), the question for voters and especially poor people is: how should we vote?
Our organization that has dealt with issues affecting poor people for over 40 years, has taken the position that voters cast an unequivocal NO VOTE on all of the propositions on Tuesday’s special election.
In urging a NO VOTE the issue to our organization is the lack of accountability from political elected representatives, and the need for them to begin meeting the needs of residents, small businesses, poor people, instead of the vested interests in Sacramento.
The strongest politic argument for a NO VOTE is that voters take note as to what has happened in National City (NC) after a similar proposition was railroaded by vested interest politicians and supporters that saddled the city with one of the highest sales tax rate (9 3/4%) in California.
NC a blue color worker community comprised of so-called minority residents; 65% of Mexican ancestry, 16% Filipinos, 7% others and 12% Anglo with 19% of its residents living under the poverty line is the poorest city in San Diego County, and the 3rd poorest in California. For voters who want to know what will happen to California communities and especially poor people if Governor Schwarzenegger and state politicians succeed in convincing voters to vote yes, then NC is the perfect political case study.
Before California had a deficit, NC politicians created (from a surplus) a $6 million dollar deficit. The reasons for the deficit was that like drunken teenagers with dad’s credit card NC politicians over spent during the worst economic crisis since the 1930 depression on non-essentials such as:
· Bonuses for top management, salary increase for public employees, and a golden parachute pension fund employees that allows police, firemen, and city employees (political contributors) to retire after 30 years of service with 90% of their pay while contributing zero into the fund!
· $70,000 statues, 2.5 million dollar loans to out of the country developers, $25,000 for a Charger survey, etc.
· A number of raises to the Mayor’s “personal” secretary,
· Contracting a lobbyist for Sacramento.
With unemployment increasing, car dealer-ships closing, house foreclosures, etc. NC’s Mayor and City Council have added insult to financial injury just two short weeks after Chula Vista voters defeated a similar tax proposition (A), and right before Tuesday’s special election by arrogantly voted again to dole out raises and “bonuses” to NC executives and managers.
· The above is aside from the mayor and council granting $145,00.00 in 2008 to the same city’s executives and managers as a “one-time” retention incentive and bonuses of 5% to 6% and,
· In 2007, $20,000 bonuses, also to the highest paid city administrators and $22,000 and a $750 car allowance to NC do nothing City Attorney George Eiser III.
The above bonuses and raises were granted to bureaucrats, most who earn over $100,000 while NC residents, the poorest in SD County struggle daily to put food on their tables, clothes on their children’s backs, pay rent, and pay for the basic essentials of life.
Governor Schwarzenegger’s and his vested interested groupies will spend millions up until election day using “scare tactics,” that police, fire will be cut back, gangs will take over, houses will burn down etc. to frighten and convince voters to vote yes, like NC politicians did.
As NC politicians have proven, after levying the highest tax on the poorest people in California; politicians will never, ever be accountable to residents, taxpayers or voters, once they get your money.
Don’t be mislead, send a message to all politicians, VOTE NO on Tuesday on all the State propositions.
So much for the "black race"! fib
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Back to Article
David Perlman, Chronicle Science Editor
Friday, May 1, 2009
(04-30) 19:58 PDT
-- American scientists working with colleagues in six African nations and Europe have been boldly tracing the genetic roots of all humanity for the past 10 years, and their first results have just started coming in.
The effort - the most ambitious of its kind ever undertaken - is an attempt to learn in detail how remarkably diverse humans are; how our varied genes make some of us susceptible to deadly diseases and some immune; and just where in Africa our human ancestors first moved out of the continent more than 50,000 years ago to populate the world.
The researchers examined the genes and historical linguistics among thousands of remote African tribal peoples, carrying on a long and once-controversial study begun more than 50 years ago by Stanford geneticist Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza and continuing today in partnership with Stanford mathematician Marcus Feldman.
Geneticist Sarah A. Tishkoff of the University of Pennsylvania is leading the latest project with support from African researchers in Cameroon, Mali, Tanzania, Kenya, Nigeria and Sudan. The first results were reported Thursday in the online journal Science Express.
Over the past decade, the researchers analyzed the genes and languages of more than 3,000 people in 121 population groups across the most isolated regions of Africa, plus 60 in Europe, and four groups of African Americans in various states across the United States. All of the participants volunteered blood samples for gene analysis, the scientists said.
Tishkoff's team also combined clues from the most ancient languages of Africa with their knowledge of the 2,000 languages now spoken on that continent. The scientists also examined the genomes of all the individuals they studied, and from all of that drew a picture of historic migration patterns among the many African population groups, linking them to the origins of African Americans in greater detail than ever before.
One of Tishkoff's colleagues, Dr. Muntaser Ibrahim, a molecular biologist at the University of Khartoum's Institute of Endemic Disease in Sudan, said in a phone interview from Khartoum that the project has revealed "spectacular insights into the history of African populations and indeed the origins of all mankind."
Because such projects in the past required drawing blood samples from so many thousands of African hunter-gatherers in isolated tribes, some scientists had branded them as unethical. But Ibrahim said that won't be an issue this time.
"These remote people are unique genetically, and they have been very, very cooperative because they too would like to know about their past," he said. "The notion that these remote people are not interested in genetics is not at all true."
Christopher Ehret, a noted specialist in African historical linguistics at UCLA and a member of Tishkoff's team, said his analysis of tribal languages revealed striking patterns of migration across Africa.
"When people move, they borrow words from the people where they settle," he said. Those new words inserted into older languages, he said, can tell us when the newcomers arrived.
For example, Ehret said, the "click" language still spoken among people as varied as the San of South Africa, the Pygmy tribes of Central and West Africa and the Hadze people far to the east may well be the original spoken language of all humans - and the genes of those distant click speakers indicate they share a common ancestry, the scientists noted.
Scott M. Williams of Vanderbilt University, who searched for disease-causing genes among the most remote African populations, said he found genetic evidence of ancient susceptibility to disorders as varied as hypertension, prostate cancer and the lactose intolerance that is common today both among African Americans and other American ethnic groups.
The ancient migration patterns that the scientists followed indicated to them that the very first true humans must have emerged on the evolutionary scene nearly 200,000 years ago somewhere in southern Africa, near where Namibia is now, Tishkoff said.
And while most of today's African American ancestors originated from West Africa during the infamous slave trade, Ehret and Tishkoff found strong evidence that many of those West African people came from groups that had migrated from the continent's eastern areas.
Stanford's Cavalli-Sforza and Feldman spent decades on what they called their Human Genome Diversity Project, and it continues today at Stanford's Morrison Institute.
The two Stanford leaders "paved the way for scientists like myself," said Tishkoff.
"They were the first to characterize global patterns of genetic variation and to show correlations between genetic and linguistic evolution," she said. "This is just the beginning of even more detailed studies of genetic variation in African and African American populations."
In a telephone interview from Italy on Thursday, Feldman said the new report "reinforces in a strong way the tremendous diversity and variability of population groups in Africa."
And the Tishkoff team's finding of such varied historical migration patterns in West Africa surely means any attempt by African Americans to learn the true origin of their earliest ancestors in Africa will be difficult, Feldman said."
E-mail David Perlman at dperlman@sfchronicle.com.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/05/01/MN2317BI4Q.DTL
This article appeared on page A - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle
A huge wave crashed into the New York City region 2,300 years ago, dumping sediment and shells across Long Island and New Jersey and casting wood debris far up the Hudson River.
The scenario, proposed by scientists, is undergoing further examination to verify radiocarbon dates and to rule out other causes of the upheaval.
Sedimentary deposits from more than 20 cores in New York and New Jersey indicate that some sort of violent force swept the Northeast coastal region in 300BC.
It may have been a large storm, but evidence is increasingly pointing to a rare Atlantic Ocean tsunami.(...)"
There are two cases in Honduras, one person DEPORTED from USA, another returning from Mexico
(as I was afraid). fib
http://scienceblogs.com/aetiology/2009/04/swine_flu_central_south_americ.php
Why all this has happened?
A week ago, when you thought about Mexico priorities, what came on your mind? WAR ON DRUGS, CARTELS, THE MILITARY IN CIUDAD JUAREZ, DEATHS AND KIDNAPPINGS... Now we have a REAL human/animal problem to deal with, not a legislation-created problem!!!!
Stop the nonsense of THE WAR ON DRUGS! That's my take on the policy.
We shall see soon where the pig flu originated. I am openly curious. After all it could be Northern people and southern pigs. A mutation on human-animal virus. But - just to safely locate pigs in the history of the Americas - they came here from Europe, and damaged a lot of local life since. fib
Update 1: April 28 11:08 pm PDT
It most likely originated from pigs only, two of them:
http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/fib/gGxpJW
Update 2: It did travel south of Mexico. Two to Honduras - one of the persons was deported from the USA:
http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/fib/gGxpJJ
The international community is better prepared than ever to deal with the threatened spread of a new swine flu virus, a top UN health chief has said.
Dr Keiji Fukuda said years of preparing for bird flu had led to improved stocks of anti-virals worldwide.
The World Health Organization says the outbreak may become a pandemic.
Canada has become the latest country to confirm cases of the virus in humans after as many as 81 deaths in Mexico and 20 non-lethal cases in the US.
The cases were recorded at opposite ends of the country: two in British Columbia in the west, and four in the Atlantic province of Nova Scotia.
In the US, eight cases were confirmed among New York students, seven in California, two in Texas, two in Kansas and one in Ohio.
"There is no need for Americans to panic," the White House said.
Several countries in Asia and Latin America have begun screening airport passengers for symptoms.
There is currently no vaccine for the new strain of flu but severe cases can be treated with antiviral medication.
Symptom puzzle
Speaking in Geneva, a WHO expert said the swine flu virus could be capable of mutating into a more dangerous strain but that more information was needed before raising the WHO's pandemic alert phase.
Only a handful of the Mexican cases have so far been laboratory-confirmed as swine flu, while in the US confirmed cases had only mild symptoms.
Health experts want to know why some people become so seriously ill, while others just get a bit of a cold, the BBC's Imogen Foulkes reports from Switzerland.
The WHO added that there was no evidence to suggest the outbreak was a bio-terrorist attack.
It is advising all countries to be vigilant for seasonally unusual flu or pneumonia-like symptoms among their populations - particularly among young healthy adults, a characteristic of past pandemics.
Officials said most of those killed so far in Mexico were young adults - rather than more vulnerable children and the elderly.
It is unclear how effective currently available flu vaccines would be at offering protection against the new strain, as it is genetically distinct from other flu strains.
Sick travellers
H1N1 is the same strain that causes seasonal flu outbreaks in humans but the newly detected version contains genetic material from versions of flu which usually affect pigs and birds.
It is spread mainly through coughs and sneezes.
Suspected cases have been detected beyond Mexico, the US and Canada
Mexican shutdown
Officials in Mexico confirmed that 20 people had died from the virus while another 61 deaths were suspected cases of swine flu.
With Mexico City apparently the centre of infection, many people are choosing to leave the city, the BBC's Stephen Gibbs reports.
Schools, universities and even most bars and restaurants will remain closed for several days and though Sunday church services are going ahead, priests have been asked to give Communion in the hand rather than on the tongue.
There are those that are beginning to worry about the effects swine flu is having on their livelihoods and the Mexican economy in general, our correspondent says.
Fear of the virus is expected to persuade many tourists to cancel their holidays and Mexican exports are already beginning to be affected.
Russia has banned imports of raw pork and pork products from Mexico and the US states of California, Texas and Kansas until further notice as a precaution.
More than 1,300 people have been admitted to hospital with suspected symptoms since 13 April.
Emergency measures in place allow individuals suspected of having the virus to be isolated without fear of legal repercussions.
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April 16, 2009
By BENJAMIN DANGL
After Bolivia beat the Argentine soccer team led by legendary Diego Maradona by 6 to 1, Maradona told reporters, "Every Bolivia goal was a stab in my heart." Bolivia was expected to lose the April 1 match as Argentina is ranked as the 6th best soccer team in the world, and Maradona enjoys godlike status among soccer fans. This story of David and Goliath in the Andes is just one of various events shaking up the hemisphere.
Bolivian President Evo Morales just completed a five day hunger strike to push through legislation that allows him to run again in general elections this December. And at this weekend’s Summit of the Americas US President Barack Obama will meet with Latin American presidents who may end up giving some economic advice to their troubled neighbor in the north.
Evo Morales on a Hunger Strike
When opposition party members in Bolivia left a Congress session on April 9, refusing to pass a bill that would allow for general elections in December of this year, Evo Morales began a hunger strike while thousands of government supporters rallied in the streets in support of the bill. Morales began the fast to pressure opponents into passing the legislation, which in addition to enabling elections, would give indigenous communities broader representation in parliament and give Bolivian citizens living abroad the right to vote in the December elections. The opposition blocked the bill in part because they said it would give Morales more power and did not significantly prevent the possibility of electoral fraud. On April 12, opposition members returned to Congress when Morales agreed to changes regarding a new voter registry.
During his hunger strike, Morales slept on a mattress on the floor in the presidential palace and chewed coca leaves to fight off hunger. Morales said that this was the 18th hunger strike he participated in; before becoming president, Morales was a long-time coca farmer, union organizer and congressman. He said the longest hunger strike he had been on lasted 18 days while he was in jail, according to Bloomberg. But Morales wasn’t alone: 3,000 other MAS supporters, activists, workers and union members also participated in the hunger strike, including Bolivians in Spain and Argentina.
Early in the morning on April 14, once it was official that the Senate passed the bill, Morales ended his strike. "Happily, we have accomplished something important," he told reporters. "The people should not forget that you need to fight for change. We alone can't guarantee this revolutionary process, but with people power it's possible."
This controversy erupted just weeks after Bolivia’s new constitution was approved in a January 25 national referendum. Among other significant changes, the constitution grants unprecedented rights to the country’s indigenous majority and establishes a broader role for the state in the management of the economy and natural resources.
Summit of the Americas: Cuba, Obama and Chavez
On April 17-19 the Summit of the Americas will take place in Trinidad and Tobago. Most of the hemisphere’s presidents will be in attendance. It will also mark the first meeting between Presidents Barack Obama and Hugo Chavez.
Before the larger Summit begins, a Summit for the Bolivarian Alternative of the Americas (ALBA) will take place in Venezuela from April 14-15. Those planning to attend this gathering include President Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua, Evo Morales, Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo, and others. Chavez announced that this ALBA meeting will take place with the objective of formulating common positions to bring to Trinidad and Tobago, including plans regarding the formation of a regional currency, called the Sucre. These leaders are also likely to lead the push for an end to the blockade against Cuba.
Chavez said that if the US wants to come to the Summit "with the same excluding discourse of the empire – on the blockade – then the result will be that nothing has changed. Everything will stay the same… Cuba is a point of honor for the peoples of Latin America. We cannot accept that the United States should continue trampling over the nations of our America."
In a recent column, Fidel Castro noted that Obama planned to lift travel and remittance restrictions to Cuba, but that that wouldn’t be enough – the blockade still needs to be lifted. "[N]ot a word was said about the harshest of measures: the blockade," Castro wrote. "This is the way a truly genocidal measure is piously called, one whose damage cannot be calculated only on the basis of its economic effects, for it constantly takes human lives and brings painful suffering to our people. Numerous diagnostic equipment and crucial medicines -- made in Europe, Japan or any other country -- are not available to our patients if they carry U.S. components or software."
The blockade against Cuba will likely be a hot topic of debate at this weekend’s Summit, and will be partly fueled by tension between Obama and Chavez. Explaining the failure of the Bush administration in the region, Obama once said, it is "No wonder, then, that demagogues like Hugo Chavez have stepped into this vacuum. His predictable yet perilous mix of anti-American rhetoric, authoritarian government, and checkbook diplomacy offers the same false promise as the tried and failed ideologies of the past."
Yet a closer look at the region will show that the rise of leaders like Chavez is a result of more than just neglect on the part of the empire – it has to do with the disastrous impact of neoliberalism in the region, and a desire among Latin Americans to seek out alternatives. Considering the current economic crisis in the US, Obama could learn a thing or two from the policies of leaders like Chavez, who is incredibly popular in Venezuela, works in solidarity with many of the region's leaders, and has developed sucessful economic policies in his country. At the upcoming Summit, Obama should put into action something he said when meeting with the G20: "We exercise our leadership best when we are listening."
Latin America Changes
Those expecting an end to the same old Cold War tactics toward Latin America from Washington may be surprised when Obama continues to treat the region as a backyard. Yet whether or not the perspective from Washington changes, Latin America is certainly a different place than it was 30 years ago.
I asked Greg Grandin, a professor of history at New York University, and the author, most recently, of Empire's Workshop, if another US-backed coup such as the one that happened against socialist Chilean President Salvador Allende in 1973 would be possible in today’s Latin America. He said, "I don’t think it would be possible. There isn’t a constituency for a coup. In the 1970s, US policy was getting a lot more traction because people were afraid of the rise of the left, and they were interested in an economic alliance with the US. Now, the [Latin American] middle class could still go with the US, common crime could be a wedge issue that could drive Latin America away from the left. But US policy is so destructive that it has really eviscerated the middle class. Now, there is no domestic constituency that the US could latch onto. The US did have a broader base of support in the 1970s, but neoliberalism undermined it."
Grandin explained that in the 1960s and 1970s, security agencies in Latin America built up their relationship with Washington to "subordinate their interests to the US’s cold war crusade." There was a willingness among the Latin American middle class to do this, Grandin explained, and the US was also interested in building the infrastructure and networks to ensure that the region’s new dictators’ fanaticism could be led by anti-communism. "Now in South America, there has been a wide rejection to subordinate their military to the US," Grandin explained. "In a 2005 defense meeting in Quito, Ecuador [former US Secretary of Defense Donald] Rumsfeld attempted to elevate the war on terror in the region [as a military priority], and it was roundly rejected. … As of now, I don’t think there has been a willingness for Latin America to serve as an outpost of this unified war [on terror]."
Grandin wrote in a 2006 article that the Pentagon has tried to "ratchet up a sense of ideological urgency" in the war on terror in Latin America. but these pleas have fallen on deaf ears. "The cause of terrorism," said Brazil's Vice President José Alencar, "is not just fundamentalism, but misery and hunger."
However, the Latin America Obama will visit this weekend is already significantly different than the one Rumsfeld tried to convince in 2005. Obama’s counterparts in the south are generally more independent and leftist than they were even four years ago. But all that can change, and at least some of it depends on how Obama works with – or ignores - the region.
Outside of Obama’s influence, one question remains: will changes made by leftist leaders in Latin America be irrevocable, even if the right regains power in the region in the next five years? Not according to political analyst Laura Carlsen of the Americas Program in Mexico City, "In order for that to happen it would take more than just a change in the government, and I find it unlikely for anything like that to happen in the short term. It took years for the left in power to build up these social movements and the development of alternatives. It was the result of that process that brought these governments into power, and to reverse it you would have to silence or repress these movements."
I asked Grandin the same question. "It depends," he said, "the changes seemed pretty irrevocable in the 1970s and with Reaganism and militarism… The failure of neoliberalism is certain, but it’s hard to say what the response will be in the long term."
This weekend’s summit, where Obama and Chavez will shake hands for the first time, might offer some glimpses into the region’s future.
Benjamin Dangl is the author of "The Price of Fire: Resource Wars and Social Movements in Bolivia," (AK Press). He is an editor at UpsideDownWorld.org, a website on activism and politics in Latin America, and TowardFreedom.com, a progressive perspective on world events. Email bendangl(at)gmail.com
