Native Americans for Obama

The case against Chevron in Ecuador

Fire Is Born — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 22:46:48 EST

Chevron Using Six Public Relations Firms to Discredit Indigenous Groups In $27.3 Billion Environmental Case In Ecuador Lobbyists – Mac McLarty, John Breaux, Trent Lott, Mickey Kantor, Carla Hills and Others – Charged With Misrepresenting Facts Amazon Defense Coalition
20 November 2009 - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Karen Hinton at 703-798-3109 or karen [at] hintoncommunications.com
Mitch Anderson at 415-342-4783 or mitch [at] amazonwatch.org

Washington, DC – Chevron has retained at least twelve public relations firms and lobbyists to discredit claims of Amazon indigenous groups on the eve of an expected multi-billion dollar judgment against the oil giant in an environmental lawsuit in Ecuador, according to representatives of the tribes in the U.S.

Although Chevron is near the top of the list of highest-spending lobbyists in Washington, the campaign seems to be backfiring. Politico, one of the most influential publications on Capitol Hill, reported this week that Chevron's lobbying was "drawing fire from environmentalists, media ethicists, state pension funds, New York's attorney general, members of Congress, and even Barack Obama when he was a Senator."

The article also quoted Rep. Linda Sanchez (D - CA) as calling Chevron's lobbying "clumsy" and "very heavy handed". Sanchez - who on Tuesday characterized the Chevron lobbying as "extortion" in testimony before Congress – said she plans to write three letters to Members of Congress, blasting what she called the oil giant's "misguided approach" to dealing with the lawsuit from the indigenous groups.

Separately, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is investigating the company to determine if it is misleading its own shareholders about the financial risk from the Ecuador case, where damages are assessed at up to $27.3 billion, Politico reported.

An American legal advisor to the plaintiffs, Steven Donziger, criticized the public relations and lobbying effort. "Chevron is paying huge fees to lobby the U.S. government to inappropriately quash a legal case brought by indigenous tribes in the country where Chevron asked for the trial to be held," said Donziger, who has been working on the matter since it was filed in U.S. federal court in 1993.

The case, which alleges Texaco dumped billions of gallons of toxic waste in the Amazon from 1964 to 1990, was transferred from U.S. federal court to Ecuador in 2002 at Chevron's request. The oil giant filed 14 expert affidavits in the U.S. court praising Ecuador's court system, but later began a campaign to discredit those same courts once the evidence in the Ecuador trial pointed to its culpability.

The public relations firms working for Chevron include Hill & Knowlton, which represented the tobacco industry and – as it did in the debate over tobacco and cancer – has tried to deny a link between oil contamination and cancer; Edelman Worldwide, which is believed to be preparing a Wal-Mart-style political campaign against the indigenous groups in anticipation of an adverse court judgment; Sard Verbinnem, which handles financial press in an effort to stem a budding shareholder revolt against Chevron management for its handling of the case; Robinson Lerer Montgomery, a well-highly connected New York-based agency; Sam Singer and Associates, which handles the matter in the San Francisco area, where Chevron is located; and the Washington-based CRC Public Relations, which helped create a pro-Chevron video by former CNN correspondent Gene Randall to counteract a highly unflattering 60 Minutes segment on the legal case that broadcast earlier in the year.

The Randall video, which did not mention that it was paid for by Chevron, was blasted by the Columbia Journalism Review for "blurring the line between public relations and journalism." The President of CRC, Greg Mueller, spearheaded the Swift Boat campaign against John Kerry and is a former senior aide to Pat Buchanan.

U.S. settles Indian trust account lawsuit

Fire Is Born — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 00:57:22 EST

atimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-na-indian-settlement9-2009dec09,0,6296252.story latimes.com

U.S. settles Indian trust account lawsuit

The government will pay $3.4 billion to end a battle over claims that it mismanaged tribal royalties for more than a century. The settlement is the largest Native Americans have received from the U.S.

By Nicholas Riccardi

December 9, 2009

Reporting from Denver

The Obama administration on Tuesday announced it would pay Native Americans $3.4 billion to settle a class-action lawsuit that claimed the federal government cheated tribes for more than a century of royalties for oil, mineral and other leases.

The settlement ends a 13-year legal battle that led to 3,600 filings, millions of pages of discovery documents and 11 separate appellate decisions. It is the largest settlement Native Americans have ever received from the federal government, eclipsing the sum of all previous settlements, according to the plaintiff's lawyers.

The dispute stemmed from a 19th century decision to grant parcels of land to individual Indians and place the properties in trust accounts. For more than a century, the plaintiffs contended, the account holders were cheated out of their share of revenues that the federal government collects for leasing that land.

"We are here to right a past wrong," Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Tuesday at a Washington, D.C., news conference to announce the settlement, which still must be approved by Congress and the courts. He was joined by Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. and Elouise Cobell, the lead plaintiff in the class-action lawsuit.

"I expected this settlement 10 years ago," Cobell said. "Today we have an administration that is listening to us, an administration that is willing to admit the errors of the past."

The plaintiffs had estimated they were owed as much as $47 billion. Congress had considered, but did not pass, a nearly $8-billion settlement as recently as 2006.

Cobell said she had to weigh the possibility of winning a greater sum against the tough situations faced by many of the plaintiffs.

"Time takes a toll, especially on elders living in abject poverty," Cobell said. "Many of them died as we continued our struggle to settle this suit. Many more would not survive long to see a financial gain, if we had not settled now."

President Obama had specifically directed his Cabinet to settle the matter when he took office, Salazar said. The president issued a statement Tuesday praising the deal and urging Congress to swiftly finalize it and "correct this long-standing injustice."

"As a candidate, I heard from many in Indian country that the Cobell suit remained a stain on the nation-to-nation relationship I value so much," Obama said. "I pledged my commitment to resolving this issue, and I am proud that my administration has taken this step today."

The settlement, finalized Monday night after months of intense negotiations, provides a $1,000 cash payment to every individual who has a trust account and $2 billion for the federal government to buy back the land parcels, some of which have been subdivided so much over the decades as to become almost worthless.

The government would consolidate the parcels and then return them to tribes. It would also provide up to $60 million for scholarships for Native American children.

Salazar said he was also creating a commission to recommend how to manage the trusts in the future.

The trusts date back to the 1887 Dawes Act, which attempted to erode the tribal system by granting parcels of land to individual Native Americans.

The Indians were not allowed to control their new property. Instead, the land was placed in trust and the government promised to pay the owners royalties for oil and gas, grazing or recreational leases. For more than a century, however, Indians received little or no payment.

In the 1990s, Cobell, a banker and rancher in the Blackfoot Nation in Montana, decided to do something about it and filed a class-action suit, funded partly by nonprofit groups.

Now, the government and the plaintiffs will have to determine who gets paid and whose land can be bought. The records are in such disarray it is not clear how many individuals are affected by the settlement -- estimates range from 300,000 to 500,000 people.

Those affected are mainly in the western United States, with the greatest concentration in the Great Plains and Montana, attorneys said.

In Washington, both Salazar and Cobell said they hoped the settlement could help create a more trusting relationship between tribes and the government.

Carl W. Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond in Virginia, noted that Native American distrust of the government long predates the tough stance the Department of Justice took in litigating the lawsuit.

Still, he said, the settlement could change attitudes.

"The Obama administration has made an effort to reach out to Native Americans in a number of ways," he said. "In modern times, this is probably the biggest piece of litigation" against the government over mistreatment of Indians.

"In that way, this has a lot of symbolic impact," he said.

nicholas.riccardi@latimes.com

Viva Bolivia! Victory for indigenous people everywhere!

Fire Is Born — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 02:38:47 EST

AMERICAS, AMERICAS!...................................................

ps. I refuse to buy the "anti-American" verbage in some of the articles below. FIB

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Bolivia's Morales claims election victory BBC News - ‎4 hours ago‎ President Evo Morales has claimed victory in Bolivia's presidential election and appears set to serve a second five-year term. Exit polls suggest Bolivia's first indigenous leader polled at least 61%, defeating his conservative rivals. ...

Bolivia's Mor...

BBC News

Morales Headed for Re-election in Bolivia New York Times - Simon Romero, Andrés Schipani - ‎6 hours ago‎ Supporters of President Evo Morales of Bolivia celebrated his reelection at Murillo square in front of the presidential palace in La Paz on Sunday evening. By SIMON ROMERO LA PAZ, Bolivia — President Evo Morales and legislative candidates from his ...

Morales Heade...

New York Times

Bolivia's Morales claims landslide victory Press TV - ‎53 minutes ago‎ Bolivia's first indigenous president Evo Morales has claimed a landslide re-election victory in the country's presidential poll. According to the latest vote countess Morales has 'easily' won a second term in office. The victory comes as his social ...

Bolivia's Mor...

Press TV

Evo Morales claims landslide victory in Bolivian elections Times Online - ‎4 hours ago‎ Evo Morales, the Bolivian President, claimed a landslide re-election victory last night in elections seen as a referendum on his socialist reforms. Official results were not due until Monday but exit polls gave him 62 per cent of the vote to Manfred ...

Evo Morales c...

Times Online

Exit polls predict landslide victory for Morales Press TV - ‎6 hours ago‎ Three exit polls predict that Bolivian President Evo Morales has won a landslide re-election victory with an overwhelming 61 percent of the vote. His main rival, Manfred Reyes Villa, the candidate of the Progress Plan Party, trailed with around 23 ...

Exit polls pr...

Press TV

Bolivia election spectacle takes to the ring BBC News - ‎Dec 5, 2009‎ As Bolivia gears up for Sunday's presidential poll, the electoral battle is being played out in a La Paz wrestling ring, as the bbc's Andres Schipani reports. In one corner - dressed in blue tights - is "Son of the People" President Evo Morales; ...

Bolivia elect...

BBC News

Morales reaches out to middle class Aljazeera.net - Teresa Bo - ‎Dec 5, 2009‎ "These days some people in the middle class are saying: He is an Indian, he is indigenous but he gives us dignity. That's why I want to tell people in the middle class 'welcome to this revolutionary process'." Those were the words of Evo ...

Morales reach...

Aljazeera.net

Evo Morales on course to win second term in Bolivian elections guardian.co.uk - ‎9 hours ago‎ Bolivian president Evo Morales waves to supporters upon arrival at the polling station in Villa 14 de Septiembre. Photograph: Aizar Raldes/AFP/Getty Images Evo Morales appears on course for a big victory in the Bolivian elections tomorrow, ...

Evo Morales o...

guardian.co.uk

In Bolivia vote, Indian power a central issue The Associated Press - Frank Bajak - ‎Dec 4, 2009‎ CHARAGUA, Bolivia — In Bolivia's biggest municipality, a scrub-brush expanse of cattle ranches and hardscrabble farms, Sunday's national elections aren't all about Evo Morales. With Bolivia's first indigenous president expected to easily win ...

In Bolivia vo...

The Associated P...

Morales highly favored for re-election in Bolivia The Associated Press - Frank Bajak - ‎17 hours ago‎ LA PAZ, Bolivia — President Evo Morales, a coca-grower at odds with Washington but hugely popular at home for empowering Bolivia's long-suppressed indigenous majority, was expected to coast to re-election on Sunday. Such a victory would augur further ...

Morales highl...

The Associated P...

Bolivia's Morales talks tough on eve of election AFP - ‎Dec 5, 2009‎ LA PAZ — About five million Bolivians go to the polls Sunday in an election that is likely to deliver Evo Morales another five-year term in office and consolidate the anti-American president's hold on power. On the eve of the polls, Morales slammed CNN ...

Bolivia's Mor...

AFP

Bolivia's Morales wins new presidential term AFP - ‎19 hours ago‎ LA PAZ — Bolivia's leftist President Evo Morales won a landslide reelection victory in voting that also handed him unfettered control of Congress, according to exit polls. The results mean that Morales, a fiercely anti-US leader in the mold of his ...

Bolivia's Mor...

AFP

Bolivia's anti-US leader poised for re-election AFP - ‎18 hours ago‎ LA PAZ — Bolivian President Evo Morales, a fervent anti-US leader, looked poised to easily win re-election on Sunday thanks to overwhelming support from his country's indigenous majority. Bolivia's five million voters, who started going to the polls at ...

Bolivia's ant...

AFP

Bolivia prepares for national vote Aljazeera.net - ‎Dec 5, 2009‎ Voters in Bolivia are preparing to head to the polls for presidential and congressional elections with Evo Morales, the nation's first indigenous president, expected to win a second term in office. Surveys ahead of Sunday's vote indicated Morales had a ...

Bolivia prepa...

Aljazeera.net

Bolivian leader to change law to jail polls rival AFP - ‎Dec 1, 2009‎ LA PAZ — Bolivian President Evo Morales, seeking reelection in weekend elections, said Tuesday the law would be changed so a conservative opposition candidate and his running mate could be jailed for corruption. "We are going to change the law and the ...

Bolivian lead...

AFP

Morales coasting to new term Washington Times - Martin Arostegui - ‎7 hours ago‎ SANTA CRUZ, Bolivia | Bolivian President Evo Morales appeared headed for a decisive election win Sunday, a victory that opponents fear could lock the country into a socialist system modeled on that of Venezuelan ...

Morales coast...

Washington Times

Bolivia Voted for Evo Morales Hamsayeh.Net - ‎58 minutes ago‎ Dec. 07, 09 (Hamsayeh.Net) - Bolivians hit the voting stations across the country with their hope of re-electing their favorite President Evo Morales for another five-year term. Final results of the elections haven't been announced yet but it is ...

Bolivia Voted...

Hamsayeh.Net

Morales reelected as Bolivian president: exit polls AFP - ‎9 hours ago‎ LA PAZ — Bolivian President Evo Morales was handed a second term in office in elections Sunday, according to various early exit polls that suggested he won 62-63 percent of the ballots. His nearest rival, conservative former governor Manfred Reyes ...

Morales reele...

AFP

Voting begins in Bolivia elections Press TV - ‎17 hours ago‎ Polls have opened in Bolivia's general elections with incumbent President Evo Morales likely to win a second five-year term. Balloting began at 8 am (1200 GMT) amid tight security measures and was expected to continue for eight hours. ...

Voting begins...

Press TV

Landslide victory and Senate majority for Evo Morales in Bolivia MercoPress - ‎4 hours ago‎ Bolivian president Evo Morales won by a landslide majority in Sunday's general elections and according to exit polls has ensured the Senate two thirds majority needed to continue with his reforms program some of them considered controversial. ...

Landslide vic...

MercoPress

Bolivia's Morales set for re-election euronews - ‎18 hours ago‎ The following article has been retrieved from the archive and no longer contains the original video. Bolivia's President Evo Morales is expected to easily win re-election today. Opinion polls predict the leftist leader will take more than 50 percent of ...

Bolivia's Mor...

euronews

Through a Glass Darkly: The Elite Perspective on Bolivian Democracy Salem-News.Com - ‎Dec 5, 2009‎ The NY Times takes cheap shots at a President whose politics may more closely resemble democracy, than our own. (EUGENE, Ore.) - In this article I must take a detour from my normal reporting and instead comment on an article written in the New York ...

Through a Gla...

Salem-News.Com

Bolivians Prepare for Sunday Presidential Vote AS/COA Online - Carin Zissis - ‎Dec 3, 2009‎ For the past few months, polls have placed Bolivia's Evo Morales ahead of rivals in the presidential race. Figures published by La Razón earlier this week showed that the gap is ever widening as the country prepares for its December 6 election. ...

Bolivians Pre...

AS/COA Online

Bolivia to see presidential elections on Sunday RIA Novosti - ‎Dec 5, 2009‎ Bolivia will hold presidential elections on Sunday, with seven candidates expected to run against the incumbent president, Evo Morales. The candidates include three indigenous Americans, one woman, one former military official, a lawyer, ...

Bolivia to se...

RIA Novosti

Bolivian president on course to win second term Irish Times - ‎7 hours ago‎ Bolivian president Evo Morales, whose left-wing economic policies have made him broadly popular with Bolivia's poor but angered business leaders, was expected to win re-election yesterday, allowing him to expand state control over the economy. ...

Bolivian pres...

Irish Times

Assassination plot claim puts Morales in the driving seat Irish Times - ‎Dec 2, 2009‎ BOLIVIA'S FIRST ever indigenous president Evo Morales is set to sweep back into power in Sunday's presidential election after a campaign in which the opposition has been put on the defensive by the government's accusation that it was involved in an ...

Assassination...

Irish Times

Evo Morales Confident in Re-Election Victory on Sunday Periódico 26 - ‎Dec 5, 2009‎ According to the surveys, President Evo Morales is heading for a clear victory to secure his re-election as president of Bolivia until 2015. Surveys conducted by companies such as Ceprode, Ipsos and Mori Support, show that the Movement Towards ...

Evo Morales C...

Periódico 26

Bolivia's Morales and opposition fighting for control of Senate next Sunday MercoPress - ‎Nov 30, 2009‎ Bolivian president Evo Morales is set to win next Sunday's general election and could even manage 24 of the 36 Senate seats thus ensuring the full control of the future Pluri-national Legislative Assembly, according to the latest opinion polls. ...

Bolivia's Mor...

Colombia Reports

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VICTORY!!! The CLASS act is a class act, and ...

Fire Is Born — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 16:22:00 EST

... means not only the dignity for seniors and people with disabilities. It means "JOBS NOW" for the poorest and most deserving workers (like me) who will spend this mony TODAY. This program is billions of dollars in savings on institutional solutions that are never as good as staying home. Why not? I've been in this business for quite a few years, and really had many reasons to think about it. Trust me! Joe, where would you like to be when you get old? Because you will one day soon...

Finally something out there that made me really happy!

Merry Season, everyone! FIB

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Senate preserves long-term care program

By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR (AP) – 22 hours ago

WASHINGTON — Keeping faith with the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, the Senate voted Friday to preserve a new long-term care insurance program to help seniors and the disabled in its health overhaul bill.

But the vote exposed the difficulties Democratic leaders face in persuading their own moderates to stay united behind the sweeping legislation they hope to deliver to President Barack Obama. Eleven Democrats switched and voted with Republicans, warning that the program would turn into a drain on the federal budget and saddle future generations with even more debt.

Republicans fell short in a bid to strike the voluntary insurance plan on a 51-47 vote. They needed 60 votes to prevail. Two leading Democrats who shaped the health care bill, Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus of Montana and Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad of North Dakota, voted with the GOP — underscoring the gravity of the fiscal concerns.

Known as the CLASS Act, short for Community Living Assistance Services and Supports Act, the program would help seniors and disabled people stay in their own homes and avoid going into nursing homes. It had been a long-sought priority for Kennedy, the Massachusetts lawmaker who died this summer of brain cancer.

Workers would pay a modest monthly premium during their careers. If they become disabled, they would get a cash benefit of at least $50 a day. That can help pay for a home care attendant, for supplies and equipment, to make home improvements such as new bathroom railings, or defray nursing home costs. A version of the program is also in the health care legislation passed by the House. The Obama administration supports it.

Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., who led the effort to cut the long-term care plan from the bill, said it would add another unaffordable commitment to a government swamped with debt — and taxpayers would eventually get the bill.

"The CLASS Act is the same old Washington, same old smoke and mirrors, same old games," said Thune. "We are locking in future generations to deficits and debts as far as the eye can see."

But Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., said the program is projected to be fiscally sound for 75 years, based only on the premiums that workers would pay. As a further safeguard, the Senate voted to ensure that funds collected under the plan would only be used to pay out benefits — and not to cover other government obligations.

"This is a very creative idea of using individuals' money to contribute to their own long-term financial security if they're faced with disabilities," said Dodd. "It is a solid program that can make a huge difference for millions of Americans, allowing them to lead independent lives with dignity."

Sen. Joe Lieberman, the Connecticut independent who Democrats are counting on to support the final bill, also voted to strip the long-term care program from the bill.

Obama: More troops for Afghanistan, with exit plan By STEVEN R. Hurst

Fire Is Born — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 22:10:17 EST

Obama: More troops for Afghanistan, with exit plan By STEVEN R. HURST and DARLENE SUPERVILLE, Associated Press Writers Steven R. Hurst And Darlene Superville, Associated Press Writers 24 mins ago

WEST POINT, N.Y. – Declaring "our security is at stake," President Barack Obama ordered an additional 30,000 U.S. troops into the long war in Afghanistan Tuesday night, nearly tripling the force he inherited as commander in chief. He promised an impatient public he would begin bringing units home in 18 months.

The buildup to about 100,000 troops will begin almost immediately — the first Marines will be in place by Christmas — and will cost $30 billion for the first year alone.

In a prime-time speech at the U.S. Military Academy, the president told the nation his new policy was designed to "bring this war to a successful conclusion," though he made no mention of defeating Taliban insurgents or capturing al-Qaida terrorist leader Osama bin Laden.

"We must deny al-Qaida a safe haven," Obama said in spelling out U.S. military goals for a war that has dragged on for eight years. "We must reverse the Taliban's momentum. ... And we must strengthen the capacity of Afghanistan's security forces and government."

The president said the additional forces would be deployed at "the fastest pace possible so that they can target the insurgency and secure key population centers."

Their destination: "the epicenter of the violent extremism practiced by al-Qaida."

"It is from here that we were attacked on 9/11, and it is from here that new attacks are being plotted as I speak," the president said.

It marked the second time in his young presidency that Obama has added to the American force in Afghanistan, where the Taliban has recently made significant advances. When he became president last January, there were roughly 34,000 troops on the ground; there now are 71,000.

After the speech, cadets in the audience — some of whom could end up in combat because of Obama's decision — climbed over chairs to shake hands with their commander in chief and take his picture.

Obama's announcement drew less-wholehearted support from congressional Democrats. Many of them favor a quick withdrawal, but others have already proposed higher taxes to pay for the fighting.

Republicans reacted warily, as well. Officials said Sen. John McCain, who was Obama's Republican opponent in last year's presidential campaign, told Obama at an early evening meeting attended by numerous lawmakers that declaring a timetable for a withdrawal would merely send the Taliban underground until the Americans began to leave.

As a candidate, Obama called Afghanistan a war worth fighting, as opposed to Iraq, a conflict he opposed and has since begun easing out of.

A new survey by the Gallup organization, released Tuesday, showed only 35 percent of Americans now approve of Obama's handling of the war; 55 percent disapprove.

He made no direct reference to public opinion Tuesday night, although he seemed to touch on it when he said, "The American people are understandably focused on rebuilding our economy and putting people to work here at home."

"After 18 months, our troops will begin to come home," he said flatly.

In eight years of war, 849 Americans have been killed in Afghanistan, Pakistan and neighboring Uzbekistan, according to the Pentagon.

In addition to beefing up the U.S. presence, Obama has asked NATO allies to commit between 5,000 and 10,000 additional troops. The war has even less support in Europe than in the United States, and the NATO allies and other countries currently have about 40,000 troops on the ground.

He said he was counting on Afghanistan eventually taking over its own security, and he warned, "The days of providing a blank check are over." He said the United States would support Afghan ministries that combat corruption and "deliver for the people. We expect those who are ineffective or corrupt to be held accountable."

As for neighboring Pakistan, the president said that country and the United States "share a common enemy" in Islamic terrorists. "We are in Afghanistan to prevent a cancer from once again spreading through that country. But this same cancer has also taken root in the border region of Pakistan. That is why we need a strategy that works on both sides of the border."

The speech before an audience of cadets at the military academy ended a three-month review of the war, triggered by a request from the commanding general, Stanley McChrystal, for as many as 40,000 more troops. Without them, he warned, the U.S. risked failure.

The speech was still under way when the general issued a statement from Kabul. "The Afghanistan-Pakistan review led by the president has provided me with a clear military mission and the resources to accomplish our task," it said. McChrystal is expected to testify before congressional committees in the next several days.

Obama referred to a deteriorating military environment, but said, "Afghanistan is not lost."

The length of the presidential review drew mild rebukes from normally amiable NATO allies. There was sharper criticism from Republicans led by former Vice President Dick Cheney, who said the president was dithering rather than deciding.

Obama rebutted forcefully.

"Let me be clear: There has never been an option before me that called for troop deployments before 2010, so there has been no delay or denial of resources necessary for the conduct of the war," he told his audience of more than 4,000 cadets seated in Eisenhower Hall.

Most of the new forces will be combat troops. Military officials said the Army brigades were most likely to be sent from Fort Drum in New York and Fort Campbell in Kentucky; and Marines primarily from Camp Lejeune in North Carolina.

Officials said the additional 30,000 troops included about 5,000 dedicated trainers, underscoring the president's emphasis on preparing Afghans to take over their own security.

These aides said that by announcing a date for beginning a withdrawal, the president was not setting an end date for the war.

But that was a point on which McCain chose to engage the president at a pre-speech meeting with lawmakers before Obama departed for West Point. "The way that you win wars is to break the enemy's will, not to announce dates that you are leaving," McCain said later.

Obama's address represents the beginning of a sales job to restore support for the war effort among an American public grown increasingly pessimistic about success — and among some fellow Democrats in Congress wary of or even opposed to spending billions more dollars and putting tens of thousands more U.S. soldiers and Marines in harm's way.

Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., and liberal House Democrats threatened to try to block funding for the troop increase.

Sen. Carl Levin, the Michigan Democrat who chairs a military oversight panel, said he didn't think Democrats would yank funding for the troops or try to force Obama's hand to pull them out faster. But Democrats will be looking for ways to pay for the additional troops, he said, including a tax increase on the wealthy although that hike is already being eyed to pay for health care costs. Another possibility is imposing a small gasoline tax that would be phased out if gas prices go up, he said.

The United States went to war in Afghanistan shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, al-Qaida terrorist attacks on the United States.

Bin Laden and key members of the terrorist organization were headquartered in Afghanistan at the time, taking advantage of sanctuary afforded by the Taliban government that ran the mountainous and isolated country.

Taliban forces were quickly driven from power, while bin Laden and his top deputies were believed to have fled through towering mountains into neighboring Pakistan. While the al-Qaida leadership appears to be bottled up in Pakistan's largely ungoverned tribal regions, the U.S. military strategy of targeted missile attacks from unmanned drone aircraft has yet to flush bin Laden and his cohorts from hiding.

___

Steven R. Hurst reported from Washington. AP White House Correspondent Jennifer Loven and National Security Writer Anne Gearan contributed to this report.

Live Blogging Obama’s Afghan Speech

Fire Is Born — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 19:45:25 EST

December 1, 2009, 6:47 pm

Live Blogging Obama’s Afghan Speech

By JEFF ZELENY

Ruth Fremson/

The New York Times West Point cadets waited for President Obama to speak on Tuesday.

Setting the Scene | 7:11 p.m. Sheryl Gay Stolberg, who is on site at West Point, reports:

Many speeches have been delivered at the military academy, but never before have cadets heard orders directly from a commander-in-chief who could send them into a war zone.

There is a sense of anticipation in the air. A West Point official brought a handful of carefully selected cadets – seniors with impressive resumes – to speak to reporters.

Alexandra Rosenberg, 22, of Manhattan, is a Rhodes and Truman Scholar with plans of becoming a doctor. Eric Bernau, 21, of Rochester Minn., is the cadet public affairs officer, who spent a semester studying in China. And Tyler Gordy, 26, came to West Point after serving as an infantryman and getting wounded in Iraq. He is First Captain, supervising 4,000 cadets.

Ruth Fremson/

The New York Times One cadet was reading “The Kite Runner,” a novel set in Afghanistan, while he waited for the president to speak.

The three will be among those seated behind the secretary of state and secretary of defense for Mr. Obama’s speech, which Mr. Bernau described as “the most momentous day in our four years of the academy.”

“I mean, he’s the commander in chief, he’s our boss,” Mr. Bernau said. “It’s kind of like a shareholders meeting where you hear the strategy of the company.”

These cadets will graduate as second lieutenants and platoon leaders.

While Ms. Rosenberg will go to Oxford in the fall, the other two fully expect to be deployed, and have chosen the infantry as where they want to serve.

“This doesn’t make me nervous, it doesn’t scare me or anything,” Mr. Gordy said. “I have known this for five years now. What it does is give me a sense of direction.”

Speech Preparations | 6:47 p.m. President Obama’s address to the nation from the United States Military Academy at West Point will begin at 8 p.m. He left the White House after a daylong series of calls to foreign leaders, followed by a late-afternoon briefing to Congressional leaders.

By now, broad outlines of the speech are known: 30,000 more American troops will be sent to Afghanistan; the goal for beginning to withdraw the first wave of forces will be July 2011; the strategy is aimed at preventing Al Qaeda from returning to Afghanistan, where the Sept. 11 attacks were planned.

It is the president’s burden, of course, to explain why he believes the war in Afghanistan should be escalated.(...)"

U.S. residents fight for the right to hang laundry

Fire Is Born — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 21:53:38 EST

I say hang'em!

It is human, silent and unobtrusive. I say, ban the mow-blow-and-go "gardeners"- they are not. One of the special pleasures of travel in Central America are the old fashioned loundry rituals. There, it is not question of choice. Laundry is done by women's hands and is hang outside, watched carefuly, hastily carried inside when rain comes. For many women it is the only source of income. These women, I once thought, should also be awarded all those big green prizes that go to somebody else.

I think more hanging laundry would make our USA neighborhoods safer. Perhaps the sight of children playing ouside would return with it. fib

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November 18, 2009 | 1 comments

U.S. residents fight for the right to hang laundry

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U.S. residents fight for the right to hang laundry

Carin Froehlich has help from her granddaughter Ava as they hang some laundry in the front yard of her residence in Perkasie, Pennsylvania, November 12, 2009. REUTERS/Tim Shaffer

By Jon Hurdle

PERKASIE, Pennsylvania (Reuters) - Carin Froehlich pegs her laundry to three clotheslines strung between trees outside her 18th-century farmhouse, knowing that her actions annoy local officials who have asked her to stop.

Froehlich is among the growing number of people across America fighting for the right to dry their laundry outside against a rising tide of housing associations who oppose the practice despite its energy-saving green appeal.

Although there are no formal laws in this southeast Pennsylvania town against drying laundry outside, a town official called Froehlich to ask her to stop drying clothes in the sun. And she received two anonymous notes from neighbors saying they did not want to see her underwear flapping about.

"They said it made the place look like trailer trash," she said, in her yard across the street from a row of neat, suburban houses. "They said they didn't want to look at my 'unmentionables.'"

Froehlich says she hangs her underwear inside. The effervescent 54-year-old is one of a growing number of Americans demanding the right to dry laundry on clotheslines despite local rules and a culture that frowns on it.

Their interests are represented by Project Laundry List, a group that argues people can save money and reduce carbon emissions by not using their electric or gas dryers, according to the group's executive director, Alexander Lee.

Widespread adoption of clotheslines could significantly reduce U.S. energy consumption, argued Lee, who said dryer use accounts for about 6 percent of U.S. residential electricity use.

Florida, Utah, Maine, Vermont, Colorado, and Hawaii have passed laws restricting the rights of local authorities to stop residents using clotheslines. Another five states are considering similar measures, said Lee, 35, a former lawyer who quit to run the non-profit group.

'RIGHT TO HANG'

His principal opponents are the housing associations such as condominiums and townhouse communities that are home to an estimated 60 million Americans, or about 20 percent of the population. About half of those organizations have 'no hanging' rules, Lee said, and enforce them with fines.

Carl Weiner, a lawyer for about 50 homeowners associations in suburban Philadelphia, said the no-hanging rules are usually included by the communities' developers along with regulations such as a ban on sheds or commercial vehicles.

The no-hanging rules are an aesthetic issue, Weiner said.

"The consensus in most communities is that people don't want to see everybody else's laundry."

He said opposition to clotheslines may ease as more people understand it can save energy and reduce greenhouse gases.

"There is more awareness of impact on the environment," he said. "I would not be surprised to see people questioning these restrictions."

For Froehlich, the "right to hang" is the embodiment of the American tradition of freedom.

"If my husband has a right to have guns in the house, I have a right to hang laundry," said Froehlich, who is writing a book on the subject.

Besides, it saves money. Line-drying laundry for a family of five saves $83 a month in electric bills, she said.

Kevin Firth, who owns a two-bedroom condominium in a Dublin, Pennsylvania housing association, said he was fined $100 by the association for putting up a clothesline in a common area.

"It made me angry and upset," said Firth, a 27-year-old carpenter. "I like having the laundry drying in the sun. It's something I have always done since I was a little kid."

(Editing by Mark Egan and Paul Simao)

Read Comments (1) | Post a comment

Sez Me at 05:41 PM on 11/18/09
Has it occurred to anyone that when your neighbours can tell you that you can't hang your laundry out to dry, you might be getting a little short on that "freedom" we are all supposed to enjoy in our "free countries" here in North America?Reply | Report Abuse

A letter from a friend in Kabul

Fire Is Born — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 21:24:41 EST

Some time ago we said good bye to Duston who told us he would be going back to Kabul. So he went. Usually when incidents like the most recent Kabul bombing happen, one thinks of one's friends that could be there, in danger. And so I did as well, thinking he must be well anyway, most likely. Kabul is big (I thought). Not so. It is a small world after all. This is what came yesterday. fib

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Hibiscus Tea and Honey in Berlin

"Dear Friends,

At first, I should offer a quick explanation of this letter: I have not yet read any email replies you may have sent me since my last correspondence back around mid October or so. I am currently drinking Hibiscus Tea sweetened with a little honey in an Army Hospital in Berlin Germany. My Laptop Computer has not had internet for two weeks:

October 28th, 2009 began with a loud bang at exactly 6 AM Kabul time. Actually an explosion at the front gate to the Guesthouse where I was living. I don’t know if it was an RPG or Suicide Bomber, and will truly never know for a fact which one it was. The first explosion was followed by machine gun firing and then an RPG hit the front of the building. The Taleban killed the exterior gate residence guards, entered the front house and proceeded to kill as many UN Election Employees as possible before the Police arrived. A long and intense gun-battle ensued over the next hour and a half and the attackers were eventually killed around 7:30 AM. Some of my friends, and some employees, of the Guesthouse were also killed and many wounded during this incident.

I escaped physically unharmed within 90 seconds of the first sound of the attack.

The media incorrectly portrayed the building as the “UN Guesthouse” whereas technically it was a privately run guesthouse, and I referred to it in earlier email to you as the “Zoo”, because it had lots of animals and birds on the property. I do not know who survived other than I have a “story” of the massacre as I experienced it. I ended up with a large group of UN Election Employees who also survived as we hid together in the neighboring courtyard while the Taleban shot it out with the surviving guards, burned down the place and then shot it out again with the Police.

Around 7:40 AM , I was transferred by the Police to a temporary safe location, and then the Bank security man found me and I was taken to the big famous Hotel ( The Serena ) which is heavily guarded in downtown Kabul. Immediately after I arrived, I was standing in the Hotel Lobby , on the cell phone, calling the Germans who I work for, when a mortar round or RPG hit the Lobby. The glass exploded , and once again, I was not injured and everyone ran to the Hotel bunker to wait for the All Clear sign. The Hotel suffered nothing but broken glass and some jittered nerves, but for me, it was the second attack in less than two hours and I withdrew into my own little brain…..telling myself that no place was safe as it seemed like the terror was following me around that morning in Kabul.

Since then, I have stayed in German Army Hospitals except for the plane rides to Germany where I am now. I am receiving treatment for Psychological Trauma and am getting better quickly. I hope to be released to Outpatient within about 4 days. And then about a month more of Outpatient therapy and then final release back into the employment world when I will be able to totally navigate on my own. The goal is to prevent and reduce the long term possibility or impact of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder ( “PTSB”) which we all heard of with the Korean and Vietnam War Veterans and other traumatic incident survivors.

I shall not assign my survival that day to my training, skills, experience and quick thinking ( although I am told by many that it was a critical part of my actions and movement within the first minute of the attack ). I have been given yet another chance on the Planet by my Higher Power. I am no more “religious” today than I was a minute before 6 AM on October 28th; however I have grown substantially. My spirituality is stronger now than ever; and I am convinced that God has a Plan for me, I just need to follow the Steps and listen for His guidance on a daily basis.

Only once since then have I wanted or seriously thought of taking a drink, and I asked to be relieved of that notion, and it was granted. I take some light weight sleeping medication and hope to reduce the strength soon, then be totally free of it within two more weeks or so depending on what the Doctors say. I am receiving excellent medical care here in Germany, with three Doctors and a bevy of Nurses. I see a Trauma Specialist MD every other day and I am recuperating well.

My employment contracts ends in February so money is temporarily not a problem, and I have good insurance for the hospital expenses. So, for today, all I ask for is another chance to be free of my Weaknesses and Character Defects and look for the next path I am to take.

I totally and unconditionally TRUST.

Work the Steps. Turn it over to God. Clean House. Help Others.

With ALL my Love,

Duston"

Hope for a Restored Native America

Fire Is Born — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 20:39:17 EDT

"Dedicated to the seven generations that came before us
and the children of Indian Country today,
so their innocence and laughter may develop into wisdom
as they become the leaders of tomorrow."

Introduction

American Indian and Alaska Native cultures
hold children in a special place of honor. Children
are the gift of the Creator. The birth of a child is
celebrated and honored. Each tribe has its own
world view that tells the children their place
in the cosmos through stories and ceremonies.
The community has a sacred obligation to
instill in them the traditional knowledge of past
generations so their innocence and laughter may
develop into wisdom as they become the leaders
of the future.

For countless generations cradleboards were
used by Indian mothers to keep their infants
secure. Most cradleboards carry an umbilical
cord amulet to connect the child with past and
future generations throughout their life. We
know that in the same way, safe and nurturing
Indian communities enable Native children to
fully achieve their potential so we can honor and
continue the culture and traditions of the past
seven generations.

Unfortunately, all too often Native children
are born into circumstances that may be rich
in culture and love, but fail to meet their basic
needs of health, shelter, safety and education.
Every Indian child should have the right to
community-based, culturally appropriate
services that help them grow up safe, healthy,
and spiritually strong – free from abuse, neglect
and poverty. Our communities – tribal leaders,
parents, grandmothers, grandfathers, aunts,
uncles and families – have a vision of a restored,
safer, healthier Indian Country for our children.
Creating safe and supportive tribal communities
for our children today honors our ancestors as
well as the generations to come.

This FY 2009 Tribal Budget Request highlights key
aspects of the vision tribal leaders have expressed
to create a safe and healthy Indian Country for our
children. In developing these recommendations, we
recognize that addressing the years of under-funding
and backlogs that plague Indian Country will be
accomplished over time. The requests that follow do
not reflect the full need in Indian Country, but rather
are achievable first steps that we believe Congress
and the President should be able to support this year.

Tonight at the White House (for James)

Fire Is Born — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 20:36:56 EDT

I hope for all of us that the president's job, one day, will include mostly this sort of events. Wouldn't that be a wonderful and normal world? Peace!. fib

ps. Warning: the comments below are from the Earth. Educational, too.

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Obama stargazes from the South Lawn

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Recommend

After a three-hour meeting on Afghanistan, President Obama gets to have some fun tonight by stargazing with kids and astronauts.

It's Astronomy Night on the South Lawn, and our Oval colleague Traci Watson describes tonight's proceedings (as well as budget challenges facing NASA):

The president will spend this evening not curled up with briefing books but instead studying the heavens through telescopes. This "star party" on the White House lawn is meant to encourage kids to take an interest in science, and to that end Obama and the first lady have invited 150 local middle-school students to stargaze, too.

Unusually in Washington, Wednesday evening was shaping up to be crystal-clear and cloudless -- perfect for viewing the universe.

Much murkier is what's in store for any students who are inspired to become astronauts. In the next few weeks, Obama will have to decide whether to plow billions of extra dollars into NASA's budget. Without that infusion of cash, America's manned space program could not "continue in any meaningful way," according to a September report by space experts convened by the White House.

At the end of the star party, all 21 telescopes scattered across the backyard of the White House will be trained on the moon. That was where astronauts were headed in 2020 in the space plan announced by President Bush in 2004. Now Obama is rethinking that idea.

"We will certainly go back to the moon at some point," John Holdren, the president's science adviser, said as he toured the star party facilities a few hours before sunset. But he couldn't say when.

If Holdren wanted more expert advice, it was easily available. Also on hand for Obama's astronomy night was Sally Ride, the first U.S. woman in space and one of the experts who warned the administration that without significant new funding NASA's human space program is doomed to irrelevance.

Ride, who said she hadn't been at the White House for at least a decade, was enthusiastic about Obama's initiatives.

"There's not very much doubt about the value of science again" in this administration, she said

Ride, an astrophysicist, won't be the only one at the event who knows her way around a telescope. Amateur observers from the Washington area and professional astronomers will be operating the equipment for the first family and students.

Also on hand will be two high school teachers dressed as Galileo and Newton, operating replicas of the telescopes used by those early stargazers.

"We're either really cool or really crazy," said Dean Howarth, a teacher at McLean High School in McLean, Va., who gets to play Newton. "If we're not here this evening, it's because the people at the front gate wouldn't let us in.

(Posted by Traci Watson and David Jackson; photo by Pablo Martinez Monsivais, The Associated Press)

Honduras: Day 86

Fire Is Born — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 14:51:05 EDT

I pray for all Honduran people and for the just peace in Central America. fib

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The Road to Zelaya’s Return: Money, Guns and Social Movements in Honduras

Written by Benjamin Dangl

Monday, 21 September 2009

Nearly three months after being overthrown in a violent military coup, ousted Honduran president Manuel Zelaya has returned to Honduras. "I am here in Tegucigalpa. I am here for the restoration of democracy, to call for dialogue," he told reporters. The embattled road to his return tested regional diplomacy, challenged Washington and galvanized Honduran social movements.

THE NEW SLAVERY

Fire Is Born — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 12:01:07 EDT

A must see. fib

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http://www.leap.cc/cms/index.php?name=Web_Links&l_op=visit&lid=152

Have Mexican Dishwashers Brought California to Its Knees?

Fire Is Born — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 15:40:25 EDT

Have Mexican Dishwashers Brought California to Its Knees?

Posted by Daniel Griswold

An article published this week by National Review magazine blames the many problems of California on—take a guess—high taxes, over-regulation of business, runaway state spending, an expansive welfare state? Try none of the above. The article, by Alex Alexiev of the Hudson Institute, puts the blame on the backs of low-skilled, illegal immigrants from Mexico and the federal government for not keeping them out.

Titled “Catching Up to Mexico: Illegal immigration is depleting California’s human capital and ravaging its economy,” the article endorses high-skilled immigration to the state while rejecting the influx of “the poorly educated, the unskilled, and the illiterate” immigrants that enter illegally from Mexico and elsewhere in Latin America.

Before swallowing the article’s thesis, consider two thoughts:

One, if low-skilled, illegal immigration is the single greatest cause of California’s woes, how does the author explain the relative success of Texas? As a survey in the July 11 issue of The Economist magazine explained, smaller-government Texas has avoided many of the problems of California while outperforming most of the rest of the country in job creation and economic growth. And Texas has managed to do this with an illegal immigrant population that rivals California’s as a share of its population.

Two, low-skilled immigrants actually enhance the human capital of native-born Americans by allowing us to move up the occupational ladder to jobs that are more productive and better paying. In a new study from the Cato Institute, titled “Restriction or Legalization? Measuring the Economic Benefits of Immigration Reform,” this phenomenon is called the “occupational mix effect” and it translates into tens of billions of dollars of benefits to U.S. households.

Our new study, authored by economists Peter Dixon and Maureen Rimmer, found that legalization of low-skilled immigration would boost the incomes of American households by $180 billion, while further restricting such immigration would reduce the incomes of U.S. families by $80 billion.

That is a quarter of a trillion dollar difference between following the policy advice of National Review and that of the Cato Institute. Last time I checked, that is still real money, even in Washington.

Daniel Griswold • August 26, 2009 @ 11:34 am

Filed under: Immigration and Labor Markets; Trade

Tags: California, Cato, economic benefits, economic growth, economists, economy, federal government, government, growth, hud, illegal immigration, immigrants, immigration, jobs, latin america, legalization, Mexico, money, National Review, regulation, spending, tax, taxes, Texas, the economist, Trade, undocumented workers, washington, welfare, welfare state

Mexico now has one of the world's most liberal laws for drug users

Fire Is Born — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 16:10:06 EDT

Gracias a Dios! Thanks Obama Adminstration for not messing up with the neighbor's business.

Yes we can - too! fib

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Mexico's new drug use law worries US police By JULIE WATSON, Associated Press Writer Julie Watson, Associated Press Writer 47 mins ago MEXICO CITY – Mexico now has one of the world's most liberal laws for drug users after eliminating jail time for small amounts of marijuana, cocaine and even heroin, LSD and methamphetamine.

"All right!" said a grinning Ivan Rojas, a rail-thin 20-year-old addict who endured police harassment during the decade he has spent sleeping in Mexico City's gritty streets and subway stations.

But stunned police on the U.S. side of the border say the law contradicts President Felipe Calderon's drug war, and some fear it could make Mexico a destination for drug-fueled spring breaks and tourism.

Tens of thousands of American college students flock to Cancun and Acapulco each year to party at beachside discos offering wet T-shirt contests and all-you-can-drink deals.

"Now they will go because they can get drugs," said San Diego Police Chief William Lansdowne. "For a country that has experienced thousands of deaths from warring drug cartels for many years, it defies logic why they would pass a law that will clearly encourage drug use."

Enacted last week, the Mexican law is part of a growing trend across Latin America to treat drug use as a public health problem and make room in overcrowded prisons for violent traffickers rather than small-time users.

Brazil and Uruguay have already eliminated jail time for people carrying small amounts of drugs for personal use, although possession is still considered a crime in Brazil. Argentina's Supreme Court ruled out prison for pot possession on Tuesday and officials say they plan to propose a law keeping drug consumers out of the justice system.

Colombia has decriminalized marijuana and cocaine for personal use, but kept penalties for other drugs.

Officials in those countries say they are not legalizing drugs — just drawing a line between users, dealers and traffickers amid a fierce drug war. Mexico's law toughens penalties for selling drugs even as it relaxes the law against using them.

"Latin America is disappointed with the results of the current drug policies and is exploring alternatives," said Ricardo Soberon, director of the Drug Research and Human Rights Center in Lima, Peru.

As Mexico ratcheted up its fight against cartels, drug use jumped more than 50 percent between 2002 and 2008, according to the government, and today prisons are filled with addicts, many under the age of 25.

Rojas has spent half his life snorting cocaine and sniffing paint thinner as he roamed Mexico City's streets in a daze. Most days he was roused awake by police demanding a bribe and forcing him to move along, he said.

"It's good they have this law so police don't grab you," said Rojas, whose name, I-V-A-N, is tattooed across his knuckles.

Rojas hit bottom three weeks ago when he could not score enough money for drugs by begging and found himself shaking uncontrollably. He accepted an offer for help from workers from a drug rehabilitation center who approached him on the street.

"Drugs were finishing me off," said Rojas, whose 13-year-old brother died of an overdose eight years ago. "I lost my brother. I lost my youth."

Juan Martin Perez, who runs Caracol, the nonprofit center helping Rojas, said the government has poured millions of dollars into the drug war but has done little to treat addicts. His group relies on grants from foundations.

The new law requires officials to encourage drug users to seek treatment in lieu of jail, but the government has not allocated more money for organizations like Caracol that are supposed to help them.

Treatment is mandatory for third-time offenders, but the law does not specify penalties for noncompliance.

"This was passed quickly and quietly but it's going to have to be adjusted to match reality," Perez said.

Supporters of the change point to Portugal, which removed jail terms for drug possession for personal use in 2001 and still has one of the lowest rates of cocaine use in Europe.

Portugal's law defines personal use as the equivalent of what one person would consume over 10 days. Police confiscate the drugs and the suspect must appear before a government commission, which reviews the person's drug consumption patterns. Users may be fined, sent for treatment or put on probation.

Foreigners caught with drugs still face arrest in Portugal, a measure to prevent drug tourism.

The same is not true for Mexico, where there is no jail time for anyone caught with roughly four marijuana cigarettes, four lines of cocaine, 50 milligrams of heroin, 40 milligrams of methamphetamine or 0.015 milligrams of LSD.

That's what concerns U.S. law enforcement at the border.

"It provides an officially sanctioned market for the consumption of the world's most dangerous drugs," San Diego County Sheriff Bill Gore said. "For the people of San Diego the risk is direct and lethal. There are those who will drive to Mexico to use drugs and return to the U.S. under their influence."

Don Thornhill, a retired Drug Enforcement Administration supervisor who investigated Mexican cartels for 25 years, said Mexico's rampant drug violence will likely deter most U.S. drug users, and the new law will allow Mexican police to focus on "the bigger fish."

The Bush administration criticized a similar bill proposed in Mexico in 2006, prompting then-President Vicente Fox to send it back to Congress. But Washington has stayed quiet this time, praising Calderon for his fight against drug cartels — a struggle that has seen some 11,000 people killed since Calderon took office in 2006.

"We work with Mexico every day to combat illegal drugs and cartel violence," State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said when asked about the law. "And we look forward to continuing that cooperation."

_____

Associated Press writers Marco Sibaja in Brasilia, Vivian Sequera in Bogota, Harold Heckle in Madrid, Elliot Spagat in San Diego, Olga Rodriguez in Mexico City and Matt Lee in Washington contributed to this report.

In 2007 the top .01 percent of American earners took home 6 percent of total U.S. wages, a figure that has nearly doubled since 2000

Fire Is Born — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 12:20:26 EDT

I found this article on a trail of reads that started with CR's post below on the First Family Western touring.That's web browsing for you! Doug, thank you for your passionate posts advocating for the bottom 4% of US to get health insurance too. Here we learn about the TOP "decile". fib

"Though income inequality has been growing for some time, the paper paints a stark, disturbing portrait of wealth distribution in America. Saez calculates that in 2007 the top .01 percent of American earners took home 6 percent of total U.S. wages, a figure that has nearly doubled since 2000. "

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Income Inequality Is At An All-Time High: STUDY

huffingtonpost.com — Income inequality in the United States is at an all-time high, surpassing even levels seen during the Great Depression, according to a recently updated paper by University of California, Berkeley Professor Emmanuel Saez. The paper, which covers data through 2007, points to a staggering, unprecedented disparity in American incomes.

http://digg.com/politics/Income_Inequality_Is_At_An_All_Time_High_STUDY

Big Oil moves into Peruvian Amazon

Fire Is Born — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 17:41:48 EDT

Weeks after bloodshed, American oil moves into Peruvian Amazon, putting rainforest, possible archeological site at risk

(08/03/2009) "Barely six weeks after a dozen Amazon natives were gunned down by the Peruvian Army in the oil town of Bagua for protesting the cozy relationship between Big Oil and the government of President Alan Garcia, I find myself on the banks of the Mother of God River in Salvacion, Peru, wondering if all those folks died in vain. Any day now, the bulldozers will be moving in as Texas-based Hunt Oil Company – with the full go-ahead of the Peruvian government -- fires its first salvo in its assault against the million-acre pristine rainforest wilderness of the little-known and largely unexplored Amarakaeri Communal Reserve."

U.S. Can Do More For Honduras

Fire Is Born — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 12:09:14 EDT

As predicted, Barbara Lee D-CA had already signed the letter. I have this telepathic Rep.

How about yours? fib

ps. Honduras needs your opinion! Put your e-pen where your mind and heart is.

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U.S. Can Do More For Honduras

Rep. Grijalva is asking fellow members of Congress to sign a letter to President Obama urging him to increase the pressure on the coup regime in Honduras.

Ask your Representative to sign Rep. Grijalva's letter »

Action Spotlight

Urge Your Rep to Sign Grijalva Letter for More US Pressure on Coup Regime in Honduras

Talks between President Zelaya and the coup regime in Honduras broke down over the coup regime's refusal to accept the international demand for President Zelaya's return. The U.S. has so far failed to sufficiently pressure the coup regime.

Rep. Raul Grijalva is circulating a letter to President Obama, calling on him to denounce the repression in Honduras by the coup regime, and to freeze U.S. assets and suspend U.S. visas of coup leaders. Signers of the letter include Reps. McGovern, Conyers, and Serrano.

Urge your Representative to sign the Grijalva letter calling for more U.S. pressure on the coup regime.

57 progressive leaders stood up for a real public health insurance option. Sign the card to say thanks!

Fire Is Born — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 11:11:59 EDT

I have just thanked my Rep. Barbara Lee, CA. She is precious to have. I don't even have to call her. She knows what people want. fib

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57 progressive leaders stood up for a real public health insurance option. Sign the card to say thanks!

Lynn Woolsey, Raul Grijalva, Carolyn Kilpatrick, Jerry Nadler, Phil Hare, Lucille Roybal-Allard, Keith Ellison, Earl Blumenauer, Mel Watt, Donna Edwards, John Olver, Dennis Kucinich, Laura Richardson, Maxine Waters, John Conyers, Judy Chu, Maurice Hinchey, Hank Johnson, Diane Watson, Jackie Speier, Bill Pascrell, Lloyd Doggett, Marcy Kaptur, Mazie Hirono, Bob Filner, Linda Sanchez, Marcia Fudge, Barbara Lee, Andre Carson, Sheila Jackson Lee, Michael Honda, Jim McDermott, William Lacy Clay, Jim McGovern, Yvette Clarke, Eric Massa, Chellie Pingree, Jesse Jackson, Jr., Elijah Cummings, Bennie Thompson, Gwen Moore, Donald Payne, Fortney "Pete" Stark, Ed Towns, Corrine Brown, Alcee Hastings, Nydia Valezquez, Luis Gutierrez, Grace Napolitano, Albio Sires, John Tierney, Mike Capuano, Chaka Fattah, Jose Serrano, Sam Farr, Bill Delahunt, and Eddie Bernice Johnson.

Single Payer Gets A Vote!!

Fire Is Born — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 02:02:53 EDT

Single Payer Gets A Vote (Updated)

July 31, 2009

"Anthony Weiner is about to be the new hero of the progressive crowd after getting a promise from Nancy Pelosi to debate — and vote — on a single-payer plan to solve health care reform.

Weiner got that promise after he agreed to withdraw an amendment to essentially create Medicare for the whole nation in the Energy and Commerce Committee health care markup session this evening.

The Brooklyn-Queens Rep. looked a little surprised when Chairman Henry Waxman said Pelosi would allow that vote, and made Waxman repeat the deal to be sure it was clear and on the record.

It’s an especially big deal for advocates of a single health care system — who see it as cheaper and simpler than the complicated measure being drawn up — because they have been complaining that they have not even been able to get an airing of their position.

And having the vote of the floor of the House will force members to declare a position, and bring much more attention to the idea.

Update: Weiner, who high-fived Tammy Baldwin after getting the deal, crows in a quick press release:

“It’s a Better Plan and now it’s on Center Stage,” says Weiner

Washington, DC - Congressman Henry Waxman (D-CA), Chairman of the Energy & Commerce Committee announced today that Speaker Nancy Pelosi has pledged to give Single-Payer an up or down vote when healthcare reform is considered before year’s end.

Congressman Anthony Weiner (D-NY), Co-Chair of the Middle Class Caucus and member of the Energy & Commerce Committee who led the effort with Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI); Rep. Mike Doyle (D-PA); Rep. Elliot Engel (D-NY); Rep. Rep. Bobby Rush (D-IL); Rep. Janice Schakowsky (D-IL); and Rep. Peter Welch (D-VT), released the following statement:

“Single-payer is a better plan and now it is on center stage. Americans have a clear choice. Their Member of Congress will have a simpler, less expensive and smarter bill to choose. I am thrilled that the Speaker is giving us that choice.”

- Michael McAuliff"

Please sign the letter on health care to senators!

Fire Is Born — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 16:42:28 EDT

I like the ad too. fib

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http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/o/5649/t/4772/content.jsp?content_KEY=2697&tag=pob_pob_tw1

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Senators,

Some of your colleagues, such as Ben Nelson, are delaying action on President Obama's public health insurance option -- which would force private insurers to compete and lower health care costs for your constituents.

This is the latest tactic from an insurance industry that fears competition: Stop reform by stalling it. Kill momentum at all costs.

While 76% of Americans support the public option, sitting Democratic Senators have received $80 million from the health and insurance interests that oppose it.

Senators, which side will you choose? If you side with your constituents, don't delay reform. Keep working until the public option is passed.

We can't afford to wait.

Sincerely,

Military in Honduras Backs San Jose Accord

Fire Is Born — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 02:14:41 EDT

July 26, 2009 Military in Honduras Backs Plan on Zelaya By GINGER THOMPSON and BLAKE SCHMIDT

WASHINGTON — The Honduran armed forces issued a communiqué on Saturday indicating that they would not stand in the way of an agreement to return Manuel Zelaya, the country’s ousted president, to power.

Meanwhile, in Las Manos, a town along the border between Nicaragua and Honduras, Mr. Zelaya made his second symbolic appearance in two days, defying calls from foreign leaders to avoid any moves that might provoke violence in his politically polarized country.

The communiqué was drafted in Washington after days of talks between mid-level Honduran officers and American Congressional aides. Posted on the Honduran Armed Forces Web site, it endorsed the so-called San José Accord that was forged in Costa Rica by delegates representing President Zelaya and the man who heads the de facto Honduran government, Roberto Micheletti.

The accord, supported by most governments in the hemisphere, would allow Mr. Zelaya to return as president, although with significantly limited executive powers. Mr. Micheletti has steadfastly rejected Mr. Zelaya’s return as president.

In its communiqué, the Honduran military added its support to the proposal. Officials involved said it was meant to dispel any perceptions that the military would block civilian efforts to resolve the crisis.

The officials said the military communiqué was significant because it was the first sign of support for the San José Accord by a powerful sector of the de facto government. And the officials said it could make it more difficult for the Honduran Congress and Supreme Court to reject the accord when they consider it.

American officials who met here with the Hondurans said that they were two colonels who were concerned about the tensions generated by the political conflict.

Joy Olson, executive director of the Washington Office on Latin America, a nonprofit human rights group, said she was told that the officers were showing Congressional aides a recording of the day Mr. Zelaya was detained, as evidence that no abuses had been committed against him.

In the meantime, however, thousands of troops had been deployed to tighten security along the border to prevent Mr. Zelaya from returning. And thousands of his supporters defied government curfews and military roadblocks, by abandoning their cars and hiking for hours to reach the remote border post to see him.

Mr. Zelaya vowed to try a third time to re-enter Honduras. "We are ready to take this to its final consequences," he told his supporters. "We are not afraid.”

Ginger Thompson reported from Washington, and Blake Schmidt from Las Manos, Nicaragua.

NOBODY is going to "Bury My Heart at Walmart"

Fire Is Born — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 17:36:36 EDT

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"A 1,500 year old Native American stone mound was about to be bulldozed near Oxford, Alabama, and the earth used for a landfill to build a Sam's Club, a BIG BOX discount store owned by Walmart.
Protesters there have managed to stop the shovels temporarily but 320 acres of Sacred burial grounds, temples and sanctuaries are at risk.
An Oxford City council member reportedly said, "it ain't no sacred site, it was just used to blow smoke signals"!! Me thinks me smells the whiff of Colonialism in the forms of ignorance, Consumerism and Globalization...

JOIN US - both virtually via facebook and twitter for social media protests as well as live for the scheduled protest on-site for those few of you who can travel there in person. (10am 7/18/2009) "

"PETITION IN SUPPORT OF PAROLE OF LEONARD PELTIER"

Fire Is Born — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 21:44:46 EDT

I wanted to draw your attention to this important petition that I recently signed:

"PETITION IN SUPPORT OF PAROLE OF LEONARD PELTIER"

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/parole2008?e

I really think this is an important cause, and I'd like to encourage you to add your signature, too. It's free and takes less than a minute of your time.

Thanks!

I simply hope he will be free during Obama presidency.

Fire Is Born

From "Intercontinental Cry": Destruction of the Abatwa (Pygmy) Culture

Fire Is Born — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 14:43:20 EDT

Destruction of the Abatwa (Pygmy) Culture

July 18, 2009 at 9:18am |

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“The Abatwa are an example of the phenomenon feared by Subcomandante Marcos and the indigenous communities of the Chiapas region of Mexico, that of being so marginalized as a people that you just don’t matter any more.”

The Destruction of the Abatwa (Pygmie) Culture, produced for the 28-minute weekly cable public access program Indymedia Presents, takes a look at the largely-unnoticed struggle of the Abatwa People, more commonly known as the Pygmies.

Modern Abatwa life is a far cry from the past, when they were respected for being highly skilled traditional hunters. Today the Abatwa they have been so completely marginalized it’s like they do not exist.

This has been especially the case since 1973, when the Abatwa were thrown off their lands for an animal preserve. “The unintended consequence of the environmental victory was great destruction to Abatwa culture, and the loss of many lives.”

21 years later, the British Empire’s historical interference in Rwandan culture triggered a genocide of the Tutsi by the Hutu. As we watched on in terror, as many as 1,000,000 people were killed.

Nobody ever seemed to notice that the Abatwa were among them. Even now, few have ever reported that they were also targeted by the Hutu. The few reports that do exist, estimate between 10,000 and 30,000 Abatwa died during the months-long genocide. These are the forgotten victims.

Not much has changed since then. With fears occasionally rising that the genocide could happen again, the Abatwa find themselves being dragged to extinction. They are losing one percent of their population each year, and miscarriages are frequent because the Abatwa’s health is so extremely low and they have little or no access to aid, medicine, or social supports.

Some groups doing their best to help, like Caurwa and the Health Development Initiative – but even so, the Abatwa’s struggle for life is a losing one.

The Destruction of the Abatwa (Pygmie) Culture is the second in a series of films by Patricia Boiko from Pepperspray Productions. The first program examined the genocide in Rwanda, and how people can heal from such wanton horror.

Filed Under Abatwa • Africa • genocide • indigenous • Rwanda • video

Link to OAS.org Organization of American States

Fire Is Born — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 23:02:04 EDT

http://www.oas.org/newsclips/default.asp

2007 declaration of the major indigenous organizations in Honduras - why there is food shortage

Fire Is Born — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 17:54:15 EDT

These organizations totally support the return of Zelaya and condemn the coup. They were critical of certain policies of Zelaya in the past (however short his rule was), especially of his endorsement of the Plan Puebla Panama. However I record reading in the local press when in Honduras that Zelaya just have met with some indigenous leaders in June and promissed his support of their rights to land. The Garifuna leaders were also first to indicate certain rightist American organizations and individuals (Reich) as having hand in the coup, two days after the coup of June 28. OFRANEH found it also telling that the American Ambassador left the country the day prior to the coup.

fib

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DECLARATION FROM DURUGUBUTI

[transalated for RA by Rosalind Gil]

Garífuna, Lenca and Vía Campesina representatives have come together as part of the Foro de Biodiversidad: Territorio y Cultura (Forum on Biodiversity:
Lands and Culture) to declare that we honour the spirits of our ancestors who were massacred seventy years ago during the dictatorship of Tiburcio Crías and we declare that:

Faced with the offensive of the neo-liberal Plan Puebla-Panamá, a plan to reinforce neocolonialism amongst our peoples and to spread the powerful neo-liberal transport and maquila network, we raise our voices once again against the sacking of our lands and the breaking up of our social and political organizations; all of which is designed to expand the domination of the industrialized countries and their multi-national companies in Central America.

Destructive projects for so-called “integration and development” implemented by international financial organizations such as the FMI, BM, BID, USAID, UE, etc. are endangering the life and the cultures of our peoples. The “development” they put forth is based on economic profits that cause an imbalance to nature, which is an intimate part of our cosmology and from which many of us sustain ourselves.

The grave food shortage crisis in our country stems from a policy of agricultural production that is for export only. There is no existing plan for agricultural reform that guarantees a right to the land and to Food Sovereignty for Honduran campesinos.

The appropriation of biodiversity by the trans-nationals seriously endangers our survival. Biodiversity includes water, flora, and fauna, as well as our people’s traditional knowledge concerning conservation and rational use of resources.

The colonial policies put forth by Plan Puebla-Panamá are causing social conflicts that have led to repressive actions on the part of state security forces. These forces have adopted terror as a social-control strategy. The only ones who benefit from this strategy are the powerful elite, the transnational companies and financial organizations that put together the plan for economic domination.

Global warming and the need to satisfy the ferocious appetite of industry have grave consequences for the planet. Industry is responsible for climate change and is affecting us negatively in many ways.

Faced with the large number of totally asymmetrical Free Trade Agreements favouring a system based on exploitation and out of control consumerism that has caused the destruction of the planet:

WE DEMAND:

* Suspension of mega-projects in highly fragile ecological areas such as the Tigre and Patuca Dams (The MesoAmerican Biological Corridor), the Bahia de Tela where tourism is being developed and plans are in place to fill in the Laguna de Micos (RAMSAR 722). As well, efforts should be made to stop the destruction of many rivers and streams throughout the country.

* Immediate suspension of the existing Mining and Forestry law and of attempts to reform the law by trans-nationals and by members of the Congress who are being paid off. Immediate cancellation of the 300 mining concessions that have been granted (the equivalent of 30,000 square kilometers of the country). This will allow us to regain our national sovereignty, environmental balance, as well as respect for the land and cultural rights of the indigenous, black and campesino peoples of Honduras.

* Comprehensive agricultural reform, as well as a strategy for ensuring food supplies for the whole country. This strategy should respond to the needs of the people and not be designed to suit the needs of international financial organizations or the up and downs of the market.

* An indefinite moratorium on exploration and exploitation of hydrocarbons.
As well, a strategy should be developed and put in place to preserve energy.
The litigation process must, in the end, ensure that commitments to the Honduran people are kept. Our sovereignty and dignity must be put ahead of those of the trans-nationals and of the US Proconsul.

* Immediate ratification of the Cartagena Biosafety Protocol to stop the loss of our native seeds, especially corn seeds. Measures must be taken to save our native corn by identifying products made from genetically modified food. And in this way, with the reactivation of corn production, we will stop the massive importation of genetically modified seeds and cereals, and stop the importation and production of genetically modified varieties.

* Faced with global warming and the situation we have had to endure in Honduras since Hurricane Mitch, an increase in the intensity and number of storms, an increase in temperature and long periods of drought, we demand that a strategy be put in place for dealing with global warming and its effects on highly vulnerable areas such as the Caribbean coast, the southern area of the country, and in fact, the whole country.

* Rejection of the Ley Indigena (Indigenous Law) which was put together for the PAPIN-BID consortium and was created behind the backs of the indigenous peoples, violating OIT 169, which, we insist, must be enforced, beginning with the amendment of the Property Law which tries to do away with communal property.

* Faced with the systematic repression that we have had to endure, we, the indigenous peoples, black people, campesinos and environmental activists demand total respect for the human rights of the Honduran people and we demand that criminals be brought to justice.

Despite the on-going aggressions against our people, we are committed to intensifying our resistance. We will continue organizing, spreading information and training, as well as seeking ways of constructing a just and equitable society.

With the spirit of those who were massacred in Durgubuti, Talanquera, Astillero, Horcones and the spirits of Lempira, Etempica, Iselaca, Mota, Barauda and Satuye, we will continue our struggle with dignity.

San Juan Tela, Durugubuti
March 18, 2007.

OFRANEH (Honduran Black People’s Fraternal Organization) COPINH (The Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of
Honduras)
Vía Campesina
Grito de los Excluidos – Honduras

Brothers and Sisters, we invite you to join us by signing up at ofraneh@laceiba.com, copinhonduras@yahoo.es

http://www.rightsaction.org/urgent_com/Garifuna_Alert_042907.html

New monkey Species - the Mura's saddleback tamarin

Fire Is Born — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 02:40:48 EDT

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)

link to the official OFA blog of Christopher Hass:

Fire Is Born — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 14:08:02 EDT

This is the link to the official OFA blog of Christopher Hass:

http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/blog/obamaforamerica

Has the main Community blog been not accessible since May 26?

Let's regroup and continue our service. fib

When people are standing and police bullets killing - WE SHALL NEVER FORGET!

Fire Is Born — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 13:24:52 EDT

Thank you for the tears and the sunflowers, Obama Doug, my dear Friend!

fib

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PRESS RELEASE

N° 35/09

IACHR CONDEMNS ACTS OF VIOLENCE IN PERU

Washington, D.C., June 8, 2009—The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) strongly condemns the acts of violence that took place on June 5 in Bagua, in northern Peru, which have caused a number of deaths.

According to the information received, at least 30 people have died and others have been wounded, including indigenous leaders and members of the security forces, as a result of an operation by the National Police of Peru to break up a blockade that indigenous groups had maintained on the highway leading to the city of Bagua. The act of protest had been organized by indigenous peoples of the Peruvian Amazon region in response to legislative decrees affecting their property rights over their lands and territories. The Inter-American Commission reminds the State of its obligation to conduct a judicial inquiry into these acts of violence and repair the consequences.

The information received indicates that health centers in Bagua were not equipped to treat the large number of people injured. The IACHR calls on the Peruvian State to take the steps that are necessary to guarantee access to health care for all the injured.

The IACHR also calls on the parties to promote a process of dialogue to seek a solution that respects human rights. It is important to adopt mechanisms to prevent excessive use of force on the part of public agents in marches and protest demonstrations. As the IACHR has stated previously, “Criminalizing legitimate social mobilization and social protest, whether through direct repression of the demonstrators or through an investigation and criminal prosecution, is incompatible with a democratic society in which persons have the right to express their opinion.”

Finally, the IACHR has learned that on May 9 the government had declared a state of emergency. The Commission offers a reminder that Article 27 of the American Convention on Human Rights and Advisory Opinion 9/87 of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights specify the rights that cannot be suspended; these include, among others, the right to life, to physical integrity, and to the essential judicial guarantees necessary for these rights to be protected. In light of information received indicating that a number of people were arrested during the incidents with no report as to their identity or whereabouts, the IACHR calls on the Peruvian State to respect their right to physical integrity and to judicial guarantees.

A principal, autonomous body of the Organization of American States (OAS), the IACHR derives its mandate from the OAS Charter and the American Convention on Human Rights. The Inter-American Commission has the mandate to promote respect for human rights in the region and acts as a consultative body to the OAS in this matter. The Commission is composed of seven independent members who act in a personal capacity, without representing a particular country, and who are elected by the OAS General Assembly.

Useful Links

Read this press release in Spanish / Lea este comunicado de prensa en español

Press contact: María Isabel Rivero
Tel. (202) 458-3867
Cell: (202) 215-4142
E-mail: mrivero @oas.org

To subscribe to the IACHR press release mailing list, please type your e-mail address in this form.

From "Indian Country Today": Indigenous governor assassinated in Colombia

Fire Is Born — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 12:33:28 EDT

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

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Indian Country Today

Print this article

Indigenous governor assassinated in Colombia

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."

Dying and indigenous: languages

Fire Is Born — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 01:53:24 EDT

SCIENCE MAY ONE DAY, NOT TOO SOON, BE ABLE TO CLONE AN EXTINCT BIRD FROM PLIABLE PRESERVED GENES IN A SPECIMEN.

NO EXTINCT LANGUAGE HAS SUCH A HOPE - IF THE DATA AND A SUFFICIENT DESCRIPTION ARE LACKING. THOUSANDS OF NATIVE AMERICAN LANGUAGES ARE ALREADY GONE FOREVER! WITHOUT TRACE, OR A RECORD OF A FEW WORDS. GONE WITH THEIR PEOPLE.

THE LANGUAGES STILL LIVING ARE SLOWLY GOING AWAY WITH EVERY ELDER PERSON WHO PASSES AWAY WITHOUT BEING RECORDED. I HAVE WITNESSED SUCH DEATHS AMONG THE GARIFUNA IN DIASPORA IN CENTRAL AMERICA'S CARIBBEAN COAST. THESE DEATHS ARE DOUBLY PAINFUL WITH LOSS.

LET'S MAKE THE WORLD AWARE THAT DYING HUMAN LANGUAGES DESERVE THE SAME AMOUNT OF COMPASSION, ADVOCACY AND FINANCIAL SUPPORT AS ALL THE ENDANGERED ANIMAL SPECIES WE ALL KNOW ABOUT. fib
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http://www.colorlines.com/article.php?ID=545

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"Having Their Say

By Kari Lydersen

Young marvels at the words that don’t have translations in English, like a word meaning “descending through forest to the sea.”

UNESCO lists almost 2,500 languages worldwide as “endangered,” meaning they are at risk of falling out of use and even disappearing as fluent native speakers die and younger generations fail to take up the language. A bulk of endangered languages are the tongues of indigenous groups who have been colonized or encroached upon by a dominant culture and forced or coerced to give up their native language. In the past, students were beaten for speaking their language in strict boarding schools in the United States and Australia. More recently in parts of the U.S. and countless other regions worldwide, people feel cultural and economic pressure to switch to the dominant language, seeing it as a means of opportunity and feeling a sense of shame in their indigenous identity.

But recent years have also seen a resurgence in the interest to preserve indigenous languages among academics, nongovernmental organizations and indigenous communities. In many cases, young people, who did not grow up speaking their native language, are now studying and embracing it as a way to understand and celebrate their heritage and connect with their elders.

Benjamin Young is a perfect example.(...)"

President Barack Obama has fulfilled his promise to appoint a high-level White House advisor on Indian affairs.

Fire Is Born — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 01:42:19 EDT

Photo courtesy Congressman Dale Kildee’s office

Kimberly Teehee, a member of the Cherokee Nation, has been appointed senior policy advisor by President Barack Obama. As a member of the Domestic Policy Council, Teehee will advise the president on issues affecting Indian country.

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Indian Country Today

Print this article

‘Elated and excited’

Originally printed at http://www.indiancountrytoday.com/home/content/48250207.html

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama has fulfilled his promise to appoint a high-level White House advisor on Indian affairs.

On June 15, Obama announced his selection of Kimberly Teehee for the newly created position of senior policy advisor for Native American Affairs. As a member of the Domestic Policy Council, Teehee will advise the president on issues affecting Indian country.

Obama announced Teehee’s appointment in videotaped remarks during the mid-year conference of the National Congress of American Indians, which took place June 14 – 17 at the Seneca Niagara Casino in Niagara Falls, N.Y.

“She is rightly recognized as an outstanding advocate for Indian country, and she will provide a direct interface at the highest level of my administration, assuring a voice for Native Americans during policy making decisions,” said Obama.

Teehee is expected to begin on July 1.

“I was elated and excited when I received the news of my appointment last week,” she said. “I am truly humbled and honored by this appointment. I look forward to joining the White House Domestic Policy Council and advising President Obama on issues impacting Indian country.”

Along with the announcement of Teehee’s appointment, Obama also said the White House would hold a Tribal Nations Conference in the fall – the fulfillment of another promise he made on the campaign trail.

“President Obama is committed to strengthening and building on the nation-to-nation relationship between the United States and tribal nations,” Teehee said. The fall conference will give “tribal leaders an opportunity to assist the president in developing an agenda for Indian country.”

A member of the Cherokee Nation, she has a sturdy resume of experience as an advocate for Indian country during her student years and in her work in Washington.

She received a Bachelor of Arts in political science from Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, Okla., and a Juris Doctor from the University of Iowa – College of Law. While in law school, Teehee was honored with the Bureau of National Affairs Award and served in leadership positions in the National Native American Law Student Association and the Iowa Native American Law Student Association.

Teehee worked for the Democratic National Committee as deputy director of Native American Outreach for the committee’s first Indian desk. She also has held various positions with the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, including law clerk in the Division of Law and Justice. She served as director of Native American outreach for the Presidential Inaugural Committee for President Clinton’s second inauguration.

Since January 1998, Teehee has been senior adviser to Congressman Dale Kildee, D-Mich., co-chair of the House of Representatives’ Native American Caucus.

“President Obama has made an excellent choice in Kim Teehee. I have worked with Kim for over a decade, and I have always found her to be a thoughtful, dedicated and passionate advocate for our Native American population,” Kildee said. “The president has made it clear that he is committed to strengthening the relationship between the United States and tribal nations and I am confident that Kim will be instrumental in achieving that goal. I congratulate Kim on this exciting opportunity and I commend the president on his choice.”

National Indian Gaming Association Chairman Ernie Stevens Jr. also had high praise for her.

“Kimberly is the right choice. She has her feet fully planted in Indian country and knows the critical domestic issues our Indian people face today. I am confident she will represent the best interests of all of Indian country in the White House.”

As Kildee’s senior advisor, Teehee advised more than 100 members of the bi-partisan Native American Caucus. She wrote speeches, testimony and legislation relating to Native American issues and works closely with House leadership, committee and Senate staff. She also coordinated with tribal leaders and organizations from across the country.

Teehee was born in Chicago, but grew up in Claremore, Okla., where her parents moved as part of a federal relocation assistance program for American Indians. Teehee and her family speak fluent Cherokee.

“My parents are very proud of me,” she said. “Most of my family lives in northeastern Oklahoma and most are public servants working for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Indian Health Service, or tribal government, as school teachers or in law enforcement. Like many Native families, they know what it feels like to struggle, especially in these challenging times. They are thrilled that President Obama is committed to improving the lives of Native Americans.”

Teehee’s appointment does not require Senate approval.

She joins a number of American Indians that Obama has chosen for high profile positions in his administration.

Jodi Gillette, a member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, is the deputy associate director for White House intergovernmental affairs office; Larry EchoHawk, Pawnee of Oklahoma, was recently confirmed as head of the BIA; and Yvette Roubideaux, a member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe of South Dakota, is director of IHS. Additionally, Mary Smith, Cherokee, is assistant attorney general for the Department of Justice; and Hilary Tompkins, a member of the Navajo Nation, has been nominated as solicitor of the Department of the Interior but has not yet been confirmed.

Teehee’s appointment comes at a time when the Obama administration is launching a new initiative to improve law enforcement efforts in Indian country.

Associate Attorney General Tom Perrelli announced the plan in his address to the more than 500 attendees at the NCAI conference and in a press release on the Justice Department Web site.

Later this year, Attorney General Eric Holder will convene a Tribal Nations Listening Conference to confer with tribal leaders on how to address the chronic problems of public safety in Indian country and other important issues affecting tribal communities, Perrelli said.

A series of regional summits to seek tribal representatives’ input in setting the agenda will be held before the conference.

Among the issues to be discussed are law enforcement policy and personnel; communications and consultation; grants and technical assistance; detention facilities; federal prosecution in Indian country; tribal court development; domestic violence; drug courts and substance abuse; federal litigation involving tribes; and civil rights. No locations or dates have been announced.

How to prevent illegal imigration? Here's AGROS....

Fire Is Born — Sat, 16 May 2009 15:17:22 EDT

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How does Agros’s model affect the problem of illegal immigration into the United States?

There are many reasons why immigrants leave the rural countryside and come to the United States. Among them are the conditions of extreme poverty in which people live and the lack of opportunities that enable families to overcome their poverty. Many of the people coming to the U.S. illegally are “economic migrants” - people who come in search of work. Poverty conditions and lack of work opportunities at home mean that these economic migrants are willing to leave their families, risk their lives, and find work in some of the least desirable conditions - often as menial laborers and minimum wage workers. Steady work is better than no work, and minimum wage in the U.S. is often more than they can earn in an entire day in their native country.

Throughout Central America, political and economic conditions are such that no matter how hard people work, 60 percent are earning less than $1 per day and 40 percent are living below the poverty line. Unemployment and underemployment are rampant in the rural areas. There are simply not enough jobs to go around and no hope that circumstances will change any time soon.

By helping rural families purchase land and build thriving communities, Agros provides an alternative for people who believe their only option is to migrate into the city or into another country, such as the U.S. Agros enables families to stay together and to generate income within their own countries and communities. Agros helps families create a livelihood for themselves that can be passed on to their children. As conditions improve, the motivation for becoming an economic migrant disappears. Families stay together, communities are strengthened, and lives are transformed.

How do Agros projects help women?

Women in developing countries and across Central America face grave challenges. As the primary caretakers of families and children, they are on the front lines of hunger, malnutrition and death in their families. Agros’ programs cannot be successful or have a lasting impact if the health of women is in jeopardy.

Many women in rural Central America:

Lack access to prenatal care and are isolated from modern health facilities
Get married as adolescents, start families at a young age, and don’t know how to plan the size of their families
Have a difficult time keeping their children healthy and well-nourished because they don’t know how, or don’t have the resources to prepare a well-balanced meal and lack knowledge of basic sanitation
Are of poor health themselves because they sacrifice food and other resources for their children and are continuously breast feeding due to multiple consecutive births

Agros’ programs address the needs of women and children by creating a positive cycle of change. We help women achieve:

Education: For young girls who would otherwise marry young and start families when they are little older than children themselves, Agros provides opportunities for them to go to school. Educated girls tend to marry later and their children tend to be healthier.
Literacy training: Agros offers literacy training to adults, giving both men and women who were not able to go to school the opportunity to learn how to read and write.
Financial independence: Agros trains women to manage a savings account and family finances because women tend to invest in their families.
Business expertise: Through microenterprise development, Agros teaches women skills they can use to start their own businesses. Agros also teaches women (and their children) how to raise small animals close to home to generate income.
Family planning and health care: Many women have had more than 5 children and have never received a gynecological exam or had access to prenatal care.
Through the women’s health initiative:
- Women learn about their bodies in a way that promotes self-esteem. Women with greater self-esteem become active in community organization. They get involved in village decision-making and develop leadership skills.
- Women receive regular physical exams, many for the first time in their lives.
- Agros works within the local culture to provide education about birth spacing and birth control so that women and their husbands can make informed decisions about family planning.

People talk a lot about the importance of “sustainable development.”

How are Agros’ methods sustainable?

Sustainable development is an important element of Agros’ work. Agros works to create sustainability in three primary areas: in the environment, in family economics, and in community organizations.

Environmental sustainability begins by providing families with land. People take better care of and are more concerned about a resource over which they have ownership. Agros then provides training and technical assistance regarding the use and stewardship of this land. This includes the construction of composting latrines, improved wood burning stoves, and education on soil conservation, organic composting, and agro-forestry techniques.
Economic sustainability begins with improved production of basic grains. When a family produces more food on less land, they become more confident in their ability to feed themselves. With food security established, they begin to try things they’ve never done before, for instance, growing foods that they can sell in the market and use to generate income. Once families begin to generate a stable income, they can begin to pay back their land loans. And once their loans have been repaid (typically within 10 years), they become self-sustaining owners of their own land. From this land, they are able to generate an on-going, stable income and provide an environment in which their children can thrive.
Community sustainability is attained in two ways. First, we help give rural families the training to create a local community government that looks to the entire community for participation and decision-making. This becomes the backbone for civic responsibility and participation. It also becomes the primary way communities continue to thrive long after Agros has departed. The second way is through the Noemí Fund.

Major victory for indigenous rights in Brasil - an important precedent for future court cases.

Fire Is Born — Tue, 12 May 2009 02:39:19 EDT

Brazil clears Indian reservation By Gary Duffy
BBC News, Sao Paulo

Brazilian police and soldiers have begun an operation to remove non-indigenous residents from an Indian reservation in northern Brazil.

The operation follows a landmark ruling by the country's Supreme Court that the Raposa Serra do Sol reservation should be solely for indigenous people.

The non-indigenous rice farmers and farm workers say they are victims of "legalised robbery".

But the authorities say they will be properly compensated.

In March, Brazil's Supreme Court ruled that the area in the northern border state of Roraima should be maintained as a single continuous territory exclusively for use by the indigenous population.

The decision was hailed as a major victory for indigenous rights, and was also regarded as setting an important precedent for future court cases.

However, the ruling was also a defeat for the non-indigenous rice producers and farm workers who lived and worked in the area, and who said their removal would undermine the economy of Roraima.

Around 300 police and soldiers are now reported to have begun an operation to remove any remaining rice producers and farm workers from the 1.7 million hectare reservation.

There were said to be around 30 non-indigenous families in the reservation as the deadline approached, but the authorities say force will only be used if they meet with violent resistance.

Some of the rice producers have been criticised for destroying farm buildings as they left the area.

Late on Friday the authorities reported that there had been no violence as a result of the first day of the operation to remove non-indigenous residents from the area.

While around 20 families of small rice producers were still in Raposa Serra do Sol, they were only there because of logistical problems, and would be given help to move their belongings, officials said.

'Human zoo'

The court ruling was greeted as a victory by the indigenous population

As this sensitive operation was getting underway, the governor of Roraima, Jose de Anchieta Jr, was accused of racism by the state agency which looks after indigenous rights.

The governor said the federal government had not provided sufficient resources for the local indigenous population to live in the reservation, which he said had unfortunately been turned into a "human zoo."

The authorities insist they will provide the necessary support.

The reservation, which is in the far north of Brazil on the border with Venezuela and Guyana, is home to around 20,000 indigenous people.

Officials say the operation to ensure the Supreme Court ruling has been obeyed could take some days to complete.

Learn useful survival skills while surviving spam by Rev. Mary:

Fire Is Born — Sun, 10 May 2009 21:17:00 EDT

Wayfinding, or Non-Instrument Navigation

Dennis Kawaharada

(Photo below: Swells Help a Navigator Hold a Course in the Daytime)

Introduction

Before the invention of the compass, sextant and clocks, or more recently, the satellite-dependant Global Positioning System (GPS), Polynesians navigated open ocean voyages without instruments, through careful observation of natural signs. (See "Hawaiians as Seaman and Navigators".)

Navigator Nainoa Thompson of the Polynesian Voyaging Society, who was taught by Mau Piailug, a master navigator from Satawal in Micronesia, explains how a star compass is used to tell direction without instruments: "The star compass is the basic mental construct for navigation. We have Hawaiian names for the houses of the stars-the places where they come out of the ocean and go back into he ocean. If you can identify the stars, and if you have memorized where they come up and go down, you can find your direction. The star compass is also used to read the flight path of birds and the direction of waves. It does everything. It is a mental construct to help you memorize what you need to know to navigate.

"How do we tell direction? We use the best clues that we have. We use the sun when it is low on the horizon. Mau has names for how wide and for the different colors of the sun path on the water. When the sun is low, the path is tight; when the sun is high it gets wider and wider. When the sun gets too high you cannot tell where it has risen. You have to use other clues.

"Sunrise is the most important part of the day. At sunrise you start to look at the shape of the ocean-the character of the sea. You memorize where the wind is coming from. The wind generates the swells. You determine the direction of the swells, and when the sun gets too high, you steer by them. And then at sunset we repeat the observations. The sun goes down-you look at the shape of the waves. Did the wind change? Did the swell pattern change? At night we use the stars. We use about 220 stars by name-having

(...)"

Civilians and the international security strategy in Afghanistan

Fire Is Born — Sun, 10 May 2009 15:15:43 EDT

Caught in the Conflict
______________________________________________________
Civilians and the international
security strategy in Afghanistan

A briefing paper by ten NGOs operating in Afghanistan for the
NATO Heads of State and Government Summit, 3-4 April 2009

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http://www.theirc.org/resources/2009/caught-in-the-conflict-afghanistan-report-april-2009-pdf.pdf

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The occupation of Wounded Knee - do not miss it this coming Monday on PBS

Fire Is Born — Sat, 09 May 2009 21:27:20 EDT

Premiering May 11, 2009 on PBS

Film Description

On the night of February 27, 1973, fifty-four cars rolled, horns blaring, into a small hamlet on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Within hours, some 200 Oglala Lakota and American Indian Movement (AIM) activists had seized the few major buildings in town and police had cordoned off the area. The occupation of Wounded Knee had begun. Demanding redress for grievances—some going back more than 100 years—the protesters captured the world's attention for 71 gripping days.

With heavily armed federal troops tightening a cordon around meagerly supplied, cold, hungry Indians, the event invited media comparisons with the massacre of Indian men, women, and children at Wounded Knee almost a century earlier. In telling the story of this iconic moment, the final episode of We Shall Remain will examine the broad political and economic forces that led to the emergence of AIM in the late 1960s as well as the immediate events—a murder and an apparent miscarriage of justice—that triggered the takeover. Though the federal government failed to make good on many of the promises that ended the siege, the event succeeded in bringing the desperate conditions of Indian reservation life to the nation's attention. Perhaps even more important, it proved that despite centuries of encroachment, warfare, and neglect, Indians remained a vital force in the life of America.

Mother Nature: Indigenous Wisdom Against Climate Change

Fire Is Born — Sat, 09 May 2009 18:58:00 EDT

Indigenous Wisdom Against Climate Change

Stephen Leahy* - Tierramérica**

Western Shoshone leader Carrie Dann.

Credit:Courtesy of Carrie Dann

ANCHORAGE, Alaska, Apr 28 (IPS) - While industrialised countries like Canada continue to emit ever-higher levels of greenhouse-effect gases, indigenous peoples around the world are working to survive and adapt to an increasingly dangerous climate.

Over millennia, indigenous peoples have developed a large arsenal of practices that are of potential benefit today for coping with climate change, including some holistic and refreshingly practical ideas.

"Why not give automobiles and planes a day of rest? And then later on, two days of rest. That would cut down on pollution," suggested Carrie Dann, an elder from the Western Shoshone Nation, whose ancestral lands extend across the western United States.

Dann, winner of the 1993 Right Livelihood Award - known as the Alternative Nobel Prize - for her efforts to protect ancestral lands, made her proposal before the 400 delegates gathered in Anchorage, Alaska, Apr. 20-24 for the Indigenous Peoples' Global Summit on Climate Change.

Dann warned that Mother Nature is getting warmer and the "fever" needed to be cured. "We see many range (grassland) fires in my territory, it is getting so hot," she said.

To prevent similar uncontrolled wildfires that have burned up large portions of Australia and killed hundreds of people in recent years, the Aborigines of Western Arnhem Land, in the Northern Territory, are using traditional fire practices to reduce such wildfires.

Preventing these fires also reduces greenhouse gas emissions and, for the first time in the world, these Aborigines have sold 17 million dollars' worth of carbon credits to industry, generating significant new income for the local community, according to a report presented in Anchorage.

Australia's Aborigines have traditionally used controlled burning following the rainy season to create barriers to stop the intense wildfires later during the dry season.

Wildfires account for a substantial portion of Australia's carbon emissions and have been very destructive. However, in recent years few Aborigines live on the land any more so there have been fewer controlled burns. But now there is a new role to play in the fight against global warming.

According to Sam Johnston, of the Tokyo-based United Nations University, a summit co-sponsor, it is in the world's best interest to take into account indigenous peoples' traditional knowledge.

In Asia, indigenous people are developing diverse crop varieties and utilising different cropping patterns, Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, Filipina leader and chair of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, told the delegates.

They are also involved in sustainable agro-forestry and energy production based on small-scale biomass and micro-dam projects.

On the Indonesian island of Bali, indigenous peoples are doing reef rehabilitation work and protecting mangroves. In the Philippines, they are mapping ancestral waters and developing an integrated management plan.

"Many are doing these things on their own, with no support," said Tauli-Corpuz.

In Honduras, faced with increasing hurricane strikes and drastic weather changes, the Quezungal people have developed a farming method that involves planting crops under trees so the roots anchor the soil and reduce the loss of harvests during natural disasters.

Indigenous peoples in Guyana have adopted a nomadic lifestyle, moving to more forested zones during the dry season, and are now planting manioc, their main staple, in alluvial plains where it was previously too moist to grow crops.

Farmers in Belize are returning to traditional agricultural practices and moving up to higher ground, other delegates reported.

In Africa, the Baka Pygmies of southeast Cameroon and the Bambendzele of Congo have developed new fishing and hunting methods to adapt to a decrease in precipitation and an increase in forest fires.

Although indigenous peoples have great capacity to adapt, many treaties and international laws guarantee their rights to food and traditional livelihoods, but climate change threatens all of this, according to Andrea Carmen, a member of the Yaqui Indian Nation, of the U.S. southwest.

When the chiefs of the tribes in the western Canadian province of Alberta declared that there should be no more oil production from tar sands, they were ignored, said Carmen who is also executive director of the International Indian Treaty Council.

Alberta's tar sands oil projects are the major reason why Canada's latest greenhouse gas inventory increased four percent from 2006 to 2007. That increase puts the country 33.8 percent over its commitments established in the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, in force since 2005.

But indigenous peoples are also wary of recent actions by governments and industries undertaken in response to climate change, such as building wind farms and biofuel plants, because these are often located on or directly affect their lands and livelihoods, says Gunn-Britt Retter, of Finland's Saami Council.

"We have the knowledge of how to live through these climate changes. We need to use traditional knowledge to help all our cultures live through these changes," Retter said.

"Our message to the world is that we need full and effective participation at the national and international levels in order for our cultures to survive these changes," he added.

It has been 17 years since the first U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change meetings were held to solve the climate crisis, said Sheila Watt-Cloutier, the former head of the Inuit Circumpolar Council.

"We must act quickly... This is the last chance to take control," she told the delegates by videoconference from her home in Iqaluit, Nunavut, Canada. "The world needs the wisdom of our cultures."

** Not for publication in Italy.

(*Correspondent Stephen Leahy's travel to Alaska was financed by the United Nations University and Project Word, a U.S.-based non-governmental organisation for media diversity. This story was originally published by Latin American newspapers that are part of the Tierramérica network. Tierramérica is a specialised news service produced by IPS with the backing of the United Nations Development Programme, United Nations Environment Programme and the World Bank.) (END/2009)

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Tuesday that the time is right to debate legalizing marijuana for recreational use in California

Fire Is Born — Sat, 09 May 2009 18:20:35 EDT

Good move! Ammiano needs back up. fib

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Governor says he's open to debate on legal pot

Wyatt Buchanan, Chronicle Staff Writer

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

(05-06) 04:00 PDT Sacramento - --

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Tuesday that the time is right to debate legalizing marijuana for recreational use in California.

The governor's comments were made as support grows nationwide for relaxing pot laws and only days after a poll found that for the first time a majority of California voters back legal marijuana. Also, a San Francisco legislator has proposed regulating and taxing marijuana to bring the state as much as $1.3 billion a year in extra revenue.

Schwarzenegger was cautious when answering a reporter's question Tuesday about whether the state should regulate and tax the substance, saying it is not time to go that far.

But, he said: "I think it's time for debate. I think all of those ideas of creating extra revenues - I'm always for an open debate on it."

The governor said California should look to the experiences of other nations around the world in relaxing laws on marijuana.

Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, has introduced a bill to regulate marijuana like alcohol, with people over 21 years old allowed to grow, buy, sell and possess cannabis - all of which are barred by federal law.

California voters in 1996 legalized marijuana for medical use with permission from a physician.

Ammiano said he was pleased the governor is "open-minded" on the issue and added that he was sure the two could "hash it out."

Under Ammiano's proposal, the state would impose a $50-an-ounce levy on sales of marijuana, which would boost state revenues by about $1.3 billion a year, according to an analysis by the State Board of Equalization. Betty Yee of San Francisco, who chairs the Board of Equalization, supports the measure.

"This has never just been about money," said Ammiano, who has long supported reforming marijuana laws. "It's also about the failure of the war on drugs and implementing a more enlightened policy. I've always anticipated that there could be a perfect storm of political will and public support, and obviously the federal policies are leaning more toward states' rights."

An ABC News/Washington Post poll last week found that 46 percent of Americans favored legalization of small amounts of pot for personal use, double the number who supported that a decade ago. A Field Poll also released last week found that 56 percent of California voters supported legalizing and taxing marijuana.

In March, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said the federal government would take a softer stance on medical marijuana dispensaries, with drug enforcement agents targeting only those who violate state and federal law. California is one of 13 states that allow marijuana use with a doctor's recommendation.

Many law enforcement organizations oppose changes in marijuana laws. The California Police Chiefs Association, in a report last month, concluded that marijuana dispensaries constitute "a clear violation of federal and state law; they invite more crime; and they compromise the health and welfare of law-abiding citizens."

But the head of that association said he, too, is open to a debate on legalizing pot.

"We keep walking around the 5,000-pound elephant in the room, which is should marijuana be legal?" said Bernard Melekian, president of the association and chief of police in Pasadena.

The Board of Equalization analysis predicts that legalization would drop the street value of marijuana by 50 percent and increase consumption by 40 percent.

Bruce Mirken, spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project, which advocates legalization, said the governor's comments about marijuana are part of a "tectonic shift" in attitudes toward the issue.

"I think, frankly, the public is going to drag the politicians into doing what is right," he said.

Chronicle staff writer Matthew Yi contributed to this report. E-mail Wyatt Buchanan at wbuchanan@sfchronicle.com.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/05/06/MNO617F929.DTL

This article appeared on page A - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle

"A little known chapter in Canada's past, when it forcibly assimilated aboriginal youths..."

Fire Is Born — Thu, 07 May 2009 22:44:57 EDT

The USA has this chapter in its history as well. Canadians have apologized, Australians have apologized, the Pope has apologized! Time for us to say “we are sorry”! fib

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A retrospective of Inuit assimilation hits screens

18 hours ago TORONTO (AFP)

— A little known chapter in Canada's past, when it forcibly assimilated aboriginal youths by taking them away from their parents, was highlighted this week in a new documentary. "The Experimental Eskimos" screened for the first time at Toronto's Hot Docs Festival, the largest in North America. It tells the story of three adolescent boys who in l962 and l963 were sent to school in Ottawa, 2,900 kilometers (l,800 miles) south of their homes in the Canadian Arctic. Government documents show the purpose was to create leaders among a group that had only recently left their nomadic lives. "The question was, can Eskimos be civilized?" asked Peter Ittinuar, one of the men in the film. Addressing a Toronto audience after a packed screening of the film, he noted: "We were the guinea pigs." The tiny experiment eventually included some two dozen bright boys and girls who agreed to join the program.

On a broader scale, 150,000 Indian, Metis and Inuit, as they were later called, were forced into Christian Church-run boarding schools beginning in 1874 in an effort to integrate them into society. Survivors of the residential schools allege abuse by headmasters and teachers, who stripped them of their culture and language. They say their schooling left them disconnected from their families, communities and feeling "ashamed" of being born native. Ittinuar told AFP that Pope Benedict XVI's acknowledgment last week of Indian, Metis and Inuit students' suffering was "hugely significant -- it is connected to what we went through." Prime Minister Stephen Harper last year also apologized for the residential school abuses.

The three boys profiled in the film went on to become leaders who were instrumental in the creation of Nunavut, the world's largest self-governing aboriginal territory in Canada's far north. Footage from the l970s and l980s show the brash and articulate long-haired young men dressed in suits making their case to politicians, including then prime minister Pierre Trudeau. They succeeded in getting recognition within the constitution for Canada's first peoples. But the early years of being separated from their parents and uprooted from their culture took its toll.

In the film, the men speak of their anguished pasts, which included alcoholism, failed relationships, and run-ins with the law. "It took decades before I could tell my story as I lived it," recounts Zebedee Nungak, one of the three men shown in the film. "We have served as leaders and that's good. But each one of us has lived with addictions and dysfunctions." "At the time, you wonder why things are happening to you," remarked Ittinuar, who was Canada's first Inuit Member of Parliament. "The film has helped bring closure," he said, adding: "I'm OK -- I even play golf, and if that isn't middle class, what is." Ittinuar is now a negotiator at Canada's Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs. "I totally lost my language for awhile," said Eric Tagoona in the film. "I couldn't even talk to my parents." Tagoona insisted he was not going to consider himself a victim. Yet he is the most striking casualty. The former high powered lobbyist, who headed the national Inuit group, Inuit Tapirisat Kanatami, now lives as a hermit without a telephone in the isolated Arctic hamlet of Baker Lake.

Director Barry Greenwald told AFP the social experiment on the one hand did wrench the boys from their culture. "And this was at a time when young men are supposed to be learning traditional skills of hunting and building a kayak." When they returned, they were known as "The White Boys from Ottawa." On the other hand, they were given an education and a sophistication that enabled them to become leaders in a remarkably short time. "The big irony here is that the bureaucrats would never have predicted that these men were going to be the activists in the establishment of aboriginal rights." Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved. More »

The Río Negro Memorial Quilt in Guatemala

Fire Is Born — Wed, 06 May 2009 02:22:01 EDT

The Río Negro Memorial Quilt is a collaborative project between The Advocacy Project and Maya Achí villagers in Guatemala who suffered from a series of devastating massacres in the early 1980s. The massacres occurred after the villagers from one community, Rio Negro, refused to move and make way for the Chixoy Dam, which was built by the government with funds from the World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank. A total of 28 communities were affected by the dam.

The survivors of Rio Negro were moved to a settlement at Pacux, in Rabinal, but they never gave up their struggle for justice and formed a community association, ADIVIMA (the Association for the Integral Development of the Victims of Violence in the Verapaces, Maya Achi). Their brave campaign won admiration and support from a wide range of activists. By the mid 1990s, ADIVIMA’s community-based approach was widely replicated.

AP first worked with ADIVIMA in 1999, when AP staffer Peter Lippman visited to profile their campaign and tell the story of Rio Negro. The next year, AP helped leaders of ADIVIMA to present their case at the World Bank in Washington. Between 2003 and 2008, AP sent five Peace Fellows to support ADIVIMA’s advocacy.

ADIVIMA pursues a three-pronged approach. At the community level, it seeks to rebuild the lives of survivors through development projects, education, exhumations and legal cases. Nationally, ADIVIMA has been pressing the government to pay damages for the murders and forced relocation. Internationally, its friends have taken cases to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and even the Spanish courts. These efforts achieved a major breakthrough in 2008, when the government finally agreed to pay reparations. The negotiations are scheduled to end this summer.

In the villages themselves, Heidi McKinnon, ADIVIMA’s current Peace Fellow, has been helping women who lost relatives in Rio Negro to weave a memorial quilt to commemorate those who died in the massacres. The quilt was launched on December 10, 2008, in Santa Fe, before moving to Washington. During 2009, it will be used by the weavers and their friends to keep the memory of Rio Negro alive, and generate support for a large artisanal project in the 28 communities that were affected by the Chixoy Dam.

AP will support all aspects of this ambitious campaign to restore the identity of those who died, and help ADIVIMA develop a model that can benefit all communities that suffered during the genocide."

BLOG FOR CHANGE - Advocacy Project

Fire Is Born — Wed, 06 May 2009 01:29:15 EDT

Peace Fellows write at least one weekly blog during their posting abroad. Their blogs help to bring alive the work of their hosts and allows them to communicate with friends, universities, and community groups back home that are following their work. Several fellows have also used blogs to raise funds for their partners and their own travel costs. Feel free to comment on their blogs.

The pages also carry AP diaries and staff blogs (2003-2008), which are arranged by country, year and author (below and right). AP also publishes a weekly digest of blogs throughout the summer through our online news service. To subscribe send a blank email to advocacynet-subscribe@advocacylists.org.

Read the Latest Blogs!

The new report "reinforces in a strong way the tremendous diversity and variability of population groups in Africa."

Fire Is Born — Wed, 06 May 2009 00:55:41 EDT

So much for the "black race"! fib

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Back to Article

Vast language, gene study unveils our history

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.

New insights into Africa

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 project led way

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

Barack Obama hints at tougher line on Israel - from The Times

Fire Is Born — Tue, 05 May 2009 23:34:18 EDT

From The Times

May 5, 2009

Barack Obama hints at tougher line on Israel

"The Obama Administration has signalled a tougher approach towards Israel ahead of fresh talks on the Middle East peace process by insisting it must endorse the creation of an independent Palestinian state.

“Israel has to work toward a two-state solution,” declared Vice-President Joe Biden today in a speech to the annual conference of a powerful pro-Israel lobby group in Washington.

“You’re not going to like my saying this,” he warned the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac) before adding that the Jewish state should not build any more settlements on Palestinian territory, and should “dismantle existing outposts and allow Palestinians freedom of movement”.

President Obama later held a White House meeting with Shimon Peres, his Israeli counterpart, who holds a largely ceremonial position. But the US Administration’s message appeared to be addressed to the new right-wing Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who is due to visit the White House on May 18.(...)"

WE SHALL REMAIN! - do not miss tonight on PBS

Fire Is Born — Mon, 04 May 2009 20:31:40 EDT

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Premiering May 4, 2009 on PBS

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Film Description

In February of 1909, the indomitable Chiricahua Apache medicine man Geronimo lay on his deathbed. He summoned his nephew to his side, whispering, “I should never have surrendered. I should have fought until I was the last man alive.” It was an admission of regret from a man whose insistent pursuit of military resistance in the face of overwhelming odds confounded not only his Mexican and American enemies, but many of his fellow Apaches as well.

Born around 1820, Geronimo grew into a leading warrior and healer. But after his tribe was relocated to an Arizona reservation in 1872, he became a focus of the fury of terrified white settlers, and of the growing tensions that divided Apaches struggling to survive under almost unendurable

Very old news: Ancient tsunami 'hit New York' By Molly Bentley

Fire Is Born — Sun, 03 May 2009 22:51:03 EDT

Such a wave today would flood Wall Street and the Long Island Expressway

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.

If we're wrong, it was one heck of a storm
Steven Goodbred
Vanderbilt University

It may have been a large storm, but evidence is increasingly pointing to a rare Atlantic Ocean tsunami.(...)"

Human Rights Watch: World Report 2009 Events of 2008

Fire Is Born — Sun, 03 May 2009 16:47:59 EDT

World Report 2009

Events of 2008

January 14, 2009

The 19th annual World Report summarizes human rights conditions in more than 90 countries and territories worldwide. It reflects extensive investigative work undertaken in 2008 by Human Rights Watch staff, usually in close partnership with human rights activists in the country in question.

Sixty years after the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the governments demonstrating the clearest vision on international rights protections, sadly, are those seeking to undermine enforcement. In their foreign policies and in international fora, they invoke sovereignty, non-interference, and Southern solidarity to curb criticism of their human rights abuses and those of their allies and friends. Governments that champion human rights need urgently to wrest back the initiative from these human rights spoilers.

Legacy PDF: Read this Report Online Get the Report

Download the World Report (PDF, 4.47 MB)
Purchase this report online

Decriminalizing All Drugs: The Case of Portugal - by Noel Brinkerhoff

Fire Is Born — Sat, 02 May 2009 14:39:20 EDT

Decriminalizing All Drugs: The Case of Portugal

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

When Portugal decided in 2001 to become the first nation in Europe to eliminate criminal penalties for possession of all drugs, from marijuana to heroin, critics warned that the decision would result in “drug tourists” flocking to the conservative Catholic country. Legalizing drugs would surely exacerbate Portugal’s narcotics problem and its high levels of hard-drug use, lamented opponents.

But a new study commissioned by the Cato Institute found illegal drug use among teens in Portugal has declined since the government did away with criminal drug penalties for possession and expanded therapy services. It also discovered that rates of new HIV infections caused by the sharing of dirty needles had dropped, while the number of people seeking treatment for drug addiction more than doubled. The startling news out of Portugal comes at a time when some lawmakers in U.S. are reconsidering punitive drug laws. In addition to debates going on in legislatures in New York, California and Massachusetts, U.S. Senators Jim Webb (D-VA) and Arlen Specter (R-PA) have proposed that Congress create a national commission to examine prison and drug reforms. It is worth noting that Portugal did not decriminalize drug trafficking. -Noel Brinkerhoff Drugs in Portugal: Did Decriminalization Work? (by Maia Szalavitz, Time) Drug Decriminalization In Portugal (by Glenn Greenwald, CATO Institute) (PDF)

Justice Department Moves to Equalize Cocaine Sentencing For All Races - by Noel Brinkerhoff

Fire Is Born — Sat, 02 May 2009 14:10:09 EDT

Justice Department Moves to Equalize Cocaine Sentencing For All Races

Friday, May 01, 2009

The federal government may finally be moving towards eliminating the unequal sentencing in U.S. drug laws that punish users of crack more than cocaine. Key government and judicial officials testified at a congressional hearing on Wednesday that the disparity in federal mandatory sentencing for crack users has unfairly targeted African Americans since the 1980s, when the so-called “crack laws” were first installed.

Following on President Barack Obama’s call during the 2008 campaign for changes in drug laws, Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer said a “growing number of citizens view it as fundamentally unfair” to make crack users caught possessing five grams of the drug to serve the same amount of prison time as those busted for holding 500 grams of cocaine. Breuer was joined by U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton, an African-American, who said, “Jails are loaded with people who look like me.” Senate Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin (D-IL), who chairs the subcommittee on crime and drugs, noted that in 2007, 82% of people convicted on crack possession charges were black, and 9% were white. The push from the Obama administration is expected to improve the chances of drug reforms being passed by Congress, following earlier unsuccessful attempts by both Democrats and Republicans to equalize sentences between cocaine and crack offenders. -Noel Brinkerhoff Justice Department Backs Plan to Eliminate Cocaine Sentencing Disparity (by Carrie Johnson, Washington Post) Obama seeks to change crack sentences (by Larry Margasak, Associated Press) United States Sentencing Commission (see Debate section) (AllGov)

For "Blue Blue" - a re-post from December

Fire Is Born — Sat, 02 May 2009 13:40:15 EDT

"a must read.

I WATCHED BILL MOYERS' JOURNAL ALMOST CONSISTENTLY SINCE MARCH THIS YEAR. HE WAS ALWAYS AHEAD AND HE WAS ALWAYS RIGHT. AND MORE THAN RIGHT. THIS VERY LONG ARTICLE CAME TO MY ATTENTION WHEN READING THE TRANSCRIPT TO HIS LAST PROGRAM ON NOV 28, WHERE HE INTERVIEWED THE AUTHOR. CAN WE EXPECT OBAMA FAMILY TO PLANT A "VICTORY GARDEN" IN THE WHITE HOUSE? MICHAEL POLLAN HAS ALREADY COUNTED THE AVAILABLE ACREAGE. FIRST COMES THE PUPPY THOUGH! fib"

photos by fib

5/2/09 And today we have the puppy and the Victory garden! fib

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Food market in Sicily

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"October 12, 2008

The Food Issue

Farmer in Chief By MICHAEL POLLAN

Dear Mr. President-Elect,

It may surprise you to learn that among the issues that will occupy much of your time in the coming years is one you barely mentioned during the campaign: food. Food policy is not something American presidents have had to give much thought to, at least since the Nixon administration — the last time high food prices presented a serious political peril. Since then, federal policies to promote maximum production of the commodity crops (corn, soybeans, wheat and rice) from which most of our supermarket foods are derived have succeeded impressively in keeping prices low and food more or less off the national political agenda. But with a suddenness that has taken us all by surprise, the era of cheap and abundant food appears to be drawing to a close. What this means is that you, like so many other leaders through history, will find yourself confronting the fact — so easy to overlook these past few years — that the health of a nation’s food system is a critical issue of national security. Food is about to demand your attention.

Complicating matters is the fact that the price and abundance of food are not the only problems we face; if they were, you could simply follow Nixon’s example, appoint a latter-day Earl Butz as your secretary of agriculture and instruct him or her to do whatever it takes to boost production. But there are reasons to think that the old approach won’t work this time around; for one thing, it depends on cheap energy that we can no longer count on. For another, expanding production of industrial agriculture today would require you to sacrifice important values on which you did campaign. Which brings me to the deeper reason you will need not simply to address food prices but to make the reform of the entire food system one of the highest priorities of your administration: unless you do, you will not be able to make significant progress on the health care crisis, energy independence or climate change. Unlike food, these are issues you did campaign on — but as you try to address them you will quickly discover that the way we currently grow, process and eat food in America goes to the heart of all three problems and will have to change if we hope to solve them. Let me explain.(...)

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http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/12/magazine/12policy-t.htm?_r=2&pagewanted=all

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quick link in comments

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Mexico: Hold Military to Account on Rights Abuses

Fire Is Born — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 19:49:02 EDT

Mexico: Hold Military to Account on Rights Abuses Flawed Military Justice System Undermines Security and Antidrug Efforts April 29, 2009

Mexican Army special forces parade commemorating the 198th anniversary of Mexico’s independence at the Zócalo Square in Mexico City, September 16, 2008.

The need to improve public security in Mexico is clear... But, to be effective, any strategy to address security must also deal with the rampant impunity for military abuses committed during public security operations.

José Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at Human Rights Watch

(Mexico City) - Mexico is failing to hold members of the military who commit human rights violations accountable, undercutting its efforts to curb drug-related violence and improve public security, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.

The 76-page report, "Uniform Impunity: Mexico's Misuse of Military Justice to Prosecute Abuses in Counternarcotics and Public Security Operations," details 17 cases involving military abuses against more than 70 victims, including several cases from 2007 and 2008. The abuses include killings, torture, rapes, and arbitrary detentions. Not one of the military investigations into these crimes has led to a conviction for even a single soldier on human rights violations. The only civilian investigation into any of these cases led to the conviction of four soldiers.

"The need to improve public security in Mexico is clear," said José Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at Human Rights Watch. "But, to be effective, any strategy to address security must also deal with the rampant impunity for military abuses committed during public security operations."

The abuses continue because they go unpunished, the report says, in large part because most cases are investigated and prosecuted by the military itself through a system that lacks basic safeguards to ensure independence and impartiality.

Among the problems with the military justice system are that the secretary of defense wields both executive and judicial power over the armed forces, military judges have little job security and may reasonably fear that they will be removed if they adopt decisions that the secretary dislikes, civilian review of military court decisions is very limited, and there is virtually no public scrutiny of military investigations and trials.

As a result, the report says, the Mexican military court system is failing miserably to provide justice in cases involving military abuses against civilians. In a May 2007 case, for example, soldiers detained eight people after a shootout between the military and alleged drug traffickers. Soldiers took the detainees, none of whom were involved in the shootout, to military installations, where the soldiers beat and kicked four of them, placing their heads in black bags, and forcing them to lie on the floor blindfolded. A federal prosecutor requested that the military investigate the soldiers. The military closed its criminal investigation in a month and sent it to the archives, arguing there was no evidence that the soldiers had committed a crime.

In another example from August 2007, five soldiers detained a man, held him incommunicado in military installations for over 24 hours, beat and kicked him, placed a cloth bag on his head, tied his arms and feet, poured water on his face while they hit his abdomen, and applied electric shocks to his stomach. A federal prosecutor requested that a military prosecutor investigate the case. Despite the existence of medical exams documenting the torture, the military closed its investigation, determining it did not find evidence that the soldiers had committed a crime.

The report notes that Human Rights Watch asked senior Ministry of Defense officials in January 2009 for examples of serious human rights violations prosecuted by the military that resulted in the conviction and imprisonment of military personnel. The officials responded that there had been many such cases, but were only able to recall one case, from 1998. Despite repeated requests from Human Rights Watch, the Ministry of Defense has failed to provide a list of such cases and a copy of the decision in the 1998 case.

The military invokes the Code of Military Justice, which grants jurisdiction to military courts when military officers commit common crimes while "in service," and a strained constitutional interpretation to justify exerting jurisdiction over the abuse cases, the report says. Civilian prosecutors have generally backed off when the military seeks jurisdiction over a case.

But this outcome is not prescribed by Mexico's Constitution, which allows for military jurisdiction only for "crimes and faults against military discipline." It is also inconsistent with a recent binding Supreme Court decision, which defined military "service" as "performing the inherent activities of the position that [he or she] is carrying out." While the court did not explicitly state that all military abuses against civilians should be sent to civilian prosecutors and courts, serious abuses such as rape and torture clearly cannot be considered "inherent activities" of the military. The military's practice is also inconsistent with international standards requiring effective, independent investigation and prosecution of abuses.

"Mexico has failed to take the issue of military abuses seriously," said Vivanco. "Until it does, its stated commitment to the rule of law means very little."

A Human Rights Watch delegation led by Executive Director Kenneth Roth presented the report's findings this week to several members of President Calderón's cabinet, including the interior minister, the federal attorney general, and the military attorney general. Human Rights Watch urged the Calderón administration to ensure that serious military abuses against civilians are prosecuted by civilian officials in civilian courts.

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Human Rights Watch: Letter to Secretary Clinton on Blockade of Gaza Strip

Fire Is Born — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 19:41:07 EDT

Letter to Secretary Clinton on Blockade of Gaza Strip April 30, 2009 Related Materials: Israel/Egypt: Choking Gaza Harms Civilians Israel/US: Clinton Should Press to End Gaza Blockade US/Israel: Bush Should Press for End to Gaza Closure

Dear Secretary Clinton,

I am writing in regard to your April 22 comments on Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip. Your characterization of Israel's policy greatly understates the extent and impact of the border closure, which amounts to the collective punishment of Gaza's civilian population - a serious violation of international law. Instead of downplaying the consequences of this blockade, we ask that you use the influence of the United States and your office to press Israel to end this policy which purposefully punishes civilians as a way to pressure Hamas. We also urge you to press Egypt, which has largely cooperated with Israel's blockade, to allow humanitarian assistance through the Rafah crossing, which it controls.

Human Rights Watch recognizes Israel's right to defend itself against attacks by Palestinian armed groups in Gaza, and we have consistently condemned the continuing rocket attacks against Israeli civilians and civilian property. But lawful means of self-defense do not include harming civilians in Gaza. In our view, the United States - Israel's most important political, military and financial backer - has an obligation to strongly criticize and disassociate itself from policies that constitute unlawful collective punishment.

At a House Committee on Foreign Affairs hearing on April 22, in response to questions from Rep. Keith Ellison about the situation in Gaza, you replied that "the crossings are no longer completely closed [and] there are many items that are being transported through the crossings." You said that you had "urged the Israeli government to open the crossings as much as possible commensurate with its legitimate security needs." However, you added, "there are many items that are being transported through the crossings" into Gaza, and "a lot of what has been said was not permitted to cross is just not accurate."

Your suggestion that the blockade of Gaza is not as severe as "what has been said" seems to reflect a desire to minimize the severity of the blockade which continues to exact an enormous toll on Gazan civilians. Human Rights Watch researchers recently conducted a fact-finding mission in Gaza and saw firsthand this harmful impact, especially on women and children. Months after Israel's 22-day military campaign, vulnerable civilians continue to bear the brunt of severe restrictions on basic necessities and other needed supplies.

For example, Israel's border restrictions, which it tightened 22 months ago, are preventing the reconstruction of civilian structures and property that were destroyed or heavily damaged during the recent hostilities. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimates that the fighting destroyed or badly damaged 21,000 residences, and thousands of people remain homeless today because of Israel's ban on building materials, including concrete.

Other restrictions are even more arbitrary and unjustified by legitimate security needs. UNICEF, for example, is currently awaiting Israeli approval for eight categories of educational items needed in Gaza, including musical instruments, math kits, and sports clothes. Israeli media and human rights groups report that during the past month, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) prevented an Israeli vegetable growers' association from shipping pumpkins, kiwis and avocados to Gaza. The entry of food into Gaza continues to be highly restricted, as the IDF has not implemented a March 22, 2009 Israeli Cabinet decision promising to permit food to enter Gaza on an unrestricted basis.

In some cases, the Israeli restrictions on what can enter Gaza are placing even Israeli citizens at risk. According to the United Nations Mine Action Service, de-mining teams are still unable to bring into Gaza the explosives they need to destroy unexploded ordinance left over from the war. As a result, armed groups in Gaza apparently from Hamas have appropriated approximately 5,000 tons of unexploded weapons that the IDF had fired during the fighting, including high explosives, before de-mining teams could destroy the munitions. The explosives in these weapons might be used against civilians in Israel.

As you know, Israel continues to exercise full control of Gaza's borders and airspace, with the exception of the Rafah crossing with Egypt. While Israel is entitled to inspect goods entering Gaza, any restrictions should be for specific security reasons and not to block humanitarian aid or other necessary civilian goods. Overly broad restrictions on such basic goods violate international humanitarian law, which restricts a government with effective control over a territory from blocking goods essential to the survival of the civilian population.

The restrictions also violate Israel's duty as an occupying power to safeguard the health and welfare of the occupied population, and amount to collective punishment against civilians.

Israel has consistently failed to provide specific security justifications for its refusal to allow many basic goods to enter Gaza, or its restrictions on the types and quantities of civilian goods allowed in.

Security concerns also fail to explain Israel's refusal to open the Karni or Sufa crossings. If fully opened, the Karni crossing could securely process more aid shipments per day than any other crossing, thanks to security scanners donated by USAID that are currently sitting idle. Nor has Israel provided any security rationale for its ban on exports from Gaza for more than a year, with the exception of several truckloads of flowers to Europe.

The civilians affected by Israel's blockade include Gaza's 750,000 children. The Israeli offensive destroyed seven schools in northern Gaza and damaged 157 others, according to OCHA; meaningful repairs cannot be made unless Israel permits building materials to enter Gaza. According to UNRWA, 14 percent of water samples in Gaza are contaminated, and the number of cases of children under three years old with acute diarrhea passed the "alert" level in March. More than 22,000 children in Gaza still have no access to piped water.

The needs of the war-wounded and the chronically ill are also of notable concern. As of April 21, the UN reported that 65 "essential drug items" were still out of stock at Gaza's Central Drug Store, including medicines for chronic diseases. In February, Human Rights Watch interviewed a double-amputee who suffered "phantom pain" from his missing legs; his cousin, a pharmacist, said he needed pain medication that was not available.

On average, 132 trucks with goods entered Gaza each day in March, one-quarter of them with humanitarian aid. This marks an improvement of 17 percent from February, but remains far below the 475 daily trucks that entered Gaza prior to Hamas's takeover in June 2007. According to recent news reports, hundreds of truckloads worth of aid are "rotting" on the Egyptian side of the border.

The humanitarian aid and reconstruction material entering Gaza is far from enough, and US pressure is needed to ensure that Israel meets its obligations under international law, and that Egypt assists humanitarian deliveries to a civilian population in need.

Madame Secretary, the civilians of Gaza are suffering as a consequence of Israel's crippling blockade. Rather than minimizing their suffering, we hope you will use your influence to press Israel to end its blockade, and that your public comments will reflect this concern.

Sincerely,

Sarah Leah Whitson

Executive Director

Middle East and North Africa division

REPORTS TITLES PAGE 3 FROM HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH - click and download - "BEAT THE PRESS"

Fire Is Born — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 13:37:01 EDT

“It’s an Everyday Battle” Censorship and Harassment of Journalists and Human Rights Defenders in Sudan February 18, 2009
The Christmas Massacres LRA attacks on Civilians in Northern Congo February 16, 2009
“There is No Protection” Insecurity and Human Rights in Southern Sudan February 12, 2009
Workers in the Shadows Abuse and Exploitation of Child Domestic Workers in Indonesia February 11, 2009
"Are You Happy to Cheat Us?" Exploitation of Migrant Construction Workers in Russia February 10, 2009
"We Are Like Forgotten People" The Chin People of Burma: Unsafe in Burma, Unprotected in India January 27, 2009
United States: The Employee Free Choice Act A Human Rights Imperative January 27, 2009
Up in Flames Humanitarian Law Violations and Civilian Victims in the Conflict over South Ossetia January 23, 2009
Crisis without Limits Human Rights and Humanitarian Consequences of Political Repression in Zimbabwe January 22, 2009
On the Margins Rights Abuses of Ethnic Khmer in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta January 21, 2009

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Decades of Disparity Drug Arrests and Race in the United States - FROM hrw REPORTS

Fire Is Born — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 13:30:05 EDT

Decades of Disparity

Drug Arrests and Race in the United States March 2, 2009

This 20-page report says that adult African Americans were arrested on drug charges at rates that were 2.8 to 5.5 times as high as those of white adults in every year from 1980 through 2007, the last year for which complete data were available. About one in three of the more than 25.4 million adult drug arrestees during that period was African American.

Read the Report Get the Report

Download full report (PDF, 535 KB)
Download full report with cover (PDF, 585.04 KB)
Purchase a printed copy of this report

Table of Contents

Human Rights Watch has reports for you - 165 pages of titles just to click

Fire Is Born — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 13:19:45 EDT

Uniform Impunity Mexico's Misuse of Military Justice to Prosecute Abuses in Counternarcotics and Public Security Operations April 29, 2009
Under Cover of War Hamas Political Violence in Gaza April 20, 2009
Service for Life State Repression and Indefinite Conscription in Eritrea April 16, 2009
Forced Apart (By the Numbers) Non-Citizens Deported Mostly for Nonviolent Offenses April 15, 2009
A Dying Practice Use of Cluster Munitions by Russia and Georgia in August 2008 April 14, 2009
Open Secret Illegal Detention and Torture by the Joint Anti-terrorism Task Force in Uganda April 8, 2009
“You Can Die Any Time” Death Squad Killings in Mindanao April 6, 2009
Testing Justice The Rape Kit Backlog in Los Angeles City and County March 31, 2009
From Horror to Hopelessness Kenya’s Forgotten Somali Refugee Crisis March 30, 2009
No Direction Home Returns from Guantanamo to Yemen March 28, 2009

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Episodes of American history on PBS now – not to be missed: “We Shall Remain!”

Fire Is Born — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 13:29:25 EDT

Episodes of American history on PBS now – not to be missed: “We Shall Remain!”

After the Mayflower

Tecumseh's Vision

Trail of Tears

Watch it here:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/weshallremain/

Episode 3 “Trail of Tears” with Wes Studi, a Cherokee!

Wes Studi (Cherokee), Actor, “Major Ridge”

“Born in Norfire Hollow, Oklahoma, Wes Studi spoke only his native Cherokee language until the age of five. Early in his career, Studi submitted two short stories for a Cherokee Nation newsletter and at the request of his program director, expanded upon those stories and wrote the children’s books, The Adventures of Billy Bean and More Adventures of Billy Bean. Studi went on to pursue acting and first caught the attention of the public in Dances with Wolves, and then as Magua in The Last of the Mohicans. Studi has since appeared in more than fifty film and television productions.” Read about the cast here:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/weshallremain/behind_the_scenes/episode_3_cast_bios#wStudi

This series needs 100,000 “Episodes”! At least. And always remember, President Obama is aka “Awe Kooda Bilaxpak Kuuxshish”:

http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/fib/gGxF9Z

In the Americas NAMES is serious stuff!! fib

(another) 100 days of this site, too!

Fire Is Born — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 12:25:04 EDT

"Fire"--

Tomorrow will mark the President's hundredth day in office. A lot of attention will be given to this largely symbolic day, and the truth is that what we do every day after it will be just as important -- if not more. But our accomplishments in this time have been remarkable, and they're having real effects on people and communities throughout the country.

You built the movement that made this possible, and it's up to you to show Americans that real change can happen when ordinary citizens work together.

Explore this interactive map to learn about the progress we've made in the last 100 days and the stories of real Americans whose lives have already been touched. Then spread the word by passing it along to your friends and family.

With the country in crisis, the President took office and acted quickly to restore confidence and stability to our economy. But just as important were the steps we've taken toward building a new foundation for our prosperity, so that we never go back to the system that led us to crisis in the first place.

In just one hundred days, we've made crucial investments to create jobs and improve education, energy, and health care. All of this is a down payment for a new economic vision -- one where skilled workers fuel our economy rather than debt and speculation; one where American leadership on clean energy fuels 21st century innovation; and one where families and businesses are no longer weighed down by crushing health care costs.

Delivering on the promise of change is the reason we built this movement. Now, President Obama is counting on all of us to build support for this foundation and create a lasting recovery for America.

Take a look now at these critical first steps we've taken together and pass it on for others to see:

http://my.barackobama.com/100days

This new direction would not have been possible without you. But our biggest tests are yet to come, and the future is ours to shape. Let's seize this moment together so history will show that, at this defining crossroads, a generation of Americans put their country on the path to long-term security and prosperity.

Thank you,

David Plouffe

BLOGGING IN TIMES OF SWINE FLU...

Fire Is Born — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 15:23:14 EDT

...IS SAFE!

JUST "HELLO" TO MY FELLOW O BLOGGERS...

HAVE A GOOD MONDAY!

ALOHA FROM CALIFORNIA.

fib

World 'well prepared' for virus

Fire Is Born — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 16:54:29 EDT

World 'well prepared' for virus

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.

SWINE FLU

Swine flu is a respiratory disease found in pigs

Human cases usually occur in those who have contact with pigs

Human-to-human transmission is rare and such cases are closely monitored

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.

FLU PANDEMICS

1918: The Spanish flu pandemic remains the most devastating outbreak of modern times - infecting up to 40% of the world's population and killing more than 50m people, with young adults particularly badly affected

1957: Asian flu killed two million people. Caused by a human form of the virus, H2N2, combining with a mutated strain found in wild ducks. The elderly were particularly vulnerable

1968: An outbreak first detected in Hong Kong, and caused by a strain known as H3N2, killed up to one million people globally, with those over 65 most likely to die

It is spread mainly through coughs and sneezes.

Suspected cases have been detected beyond Mexico, the US and Canada

Ten New Zealand students from a group which visited Mexico have tested positive for Influenza A, making it "likely" they are infected with swine flu
In France, a top health official told Le Parisien newspaper there were unconfirmed suspicions that two individuals who had just returned from Mexico might be carrying the virus
Spain's health ministry says three people who returned from a trip from Mexico with flu symptoms are in isolation and being tested
In Israel, medics are testing a 26-year-old man who has been taken to hospital with flu-like symptoms after returning from a trip to Mexico

Mexican shutdown

“ There is a sense of chaos in hospitals and we do not know what to do ”
BBC reader Antonio Chavez, Mexico City

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.

Are you in Mexico or the US? Do you know someone who has been affected by the outbreak? Tell us your experiences by filling in the form below.

A selection of your comments may be published, displaying your name and location unless you state otherwise in the box below.

Story from BBC NEWS:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/8019566.stm

Published: 2009/04/26 19:36:37 GMT

© BBC MMIX

Five less known videos from the Summit of Americas

Fire Is Born — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 15:07:39 EDT

The situation in Appalachia

Fire Is Born — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 13:42:45 EDT

Urgent: President Obama About to Act on Mountaintop Removal Mining

In only hours, we expect President Obama's agencies to decide whether to keep his campaign promise and end mountaintop removal mining—a devastating practice that has destroyed hundreds of mountains and thousands of miles of streams in Appalachia.

This is one of the most critical moments in our years-long fight to stop this environmental tragedy.

But, even as you read this, the powerful lobbying forces of King Coal are banging on the White House door, urging Obama to break his promise. Coal's forces run deep and are gathering. They know that Obama is about to make a decision. Their voices are loud.

We need to be louder.

But we must act fast. Decisions are expected as early as tomorrow, and Tuesday is a big day in court.

Please act now. Tell President Obama not to support Bush administration policies that continue the irreversible and destructive practice of mountaintop removal. Urge President Obama to keep his promise to enforce the Clean Water Act and let science lead policies on coal mining.

We have reasons to be concerned about Obama's decision. Some in his administration have publicly stated that most pending permits for mountaintop removal mining "will not raise environmental concerns." There are nearly 100 permits poised to bury and permanently destroy 432 valleys and 213 miles of streams in Kentucky and West Virginia alone. Permits that were halted are now being reviewed.

Tell President Obama to finally take action and prevent the permanent devastation of some of the world's oldest mountains—and the communities that surround them. Don't let dirty coal win! Talk is cheap, it's time that President Obama make his words the law.

Please act today. It soon could be too late.

Subject:

Dear President Obama,

(Edit Letter Below)

The situation in Appalachia is dire. Mountaintop removal is continuing there today, and hundreds of new permits could be issued that would wipe out 200 miles of streams on top of the 2000 miles already destroyed. Your agencies have yet to stop the terrible destruction of mountaintop removal mining. This week, your agencies will announce in a court case whether or not they will reverse the policies that have allowed this disaster to occur. We are writing to urge you in the strongest terms to ensure that your agencies stop mountaintop removal immediately. We know you have expressed your personal concerns about the widespread and irreversible damage being done to the mountains, forests, streams and communities in the Appalachian coal fields. You have called it an environmental disaster. Mountaintop removal mining harms not only aquatic ecosystems and water quality, but also destroys hundreds of acres of healthy forests and fish and wildlife habitat, including habitat of threatened and endangered species, when the tops of mountains are blasted away. This extremely destructive form of coal mining is drastically altering the natural resources and heritage of this important region of the country, permanently destroying forests, mountains, and polluting streams in communities across the region. Residents of the surrounding communities are threatened by rock slides, catastrophic floods, poisoned water supplies, constant blasting, destroyed property, and lost culture. As a result, many have been fighting the practice for years. Mountaintop removal mining takes place in many states in the Appalachian region, including West Virginia, Kentucky, southern Virginia, and eastern Tennessee. Yet, concrete action to end the mountaintop removal has not been implemented, let alone enforced. While Administrator Jackson has announced a review of all permits, the policies of the last administration are still in place. There is no indication that destructive permits will not be issued. There has been no announcement that mountaintop removal will be stopped for good. No streams are safe today. Please, Mr. President, direct your agencies to stop this irreversible destruction now. Please ensure that the permanent devastation of some of the world's oldest mountains -- and the communities that surround them is ended, once and for all. Make your agencies implement your promises, not break them. Undo changes made to the Clean Water Act and stop all pending permits. Thank you for your leadership on the issue of mountaintop removal mining. Sincerely,
[Your name]
[Your address] Take Action on this Issue Send your message to:

EPA, Acting Assistant Administrator for Water Mike Shapiro
EPA, Administrator Lisa Jackson
Interior Dept., Deputy Secretary David Hayes
Justice Dept., Energy & Natural Resources Division John Cruden
President Barack Obama
White House Council on Environmental Quality, Amelia Salzman

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Latin America Changes By BENJAMIN DANGL

Fire Is Born — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 19:48:07 EDT

April 16, 2009

Hungers Strikes in Bolivia, Summits in the Caribbean Latin America Changes

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

From the horse's mouth

Fire Is Born — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 14:28:44 EDT

Since the paper press seems to be falling apart, we have not much other choice but get to the sources ourselves. This particular source happens to be in Spanish, so learn it quick, if interested. It is called "Reflectons of the comrade Fidel"and appears to be almost daily commentaries on the events of the world. Now that our emissaries found that Fidel is well indeed, here it is. fib

Actually, you do not have to take Spanish lessons. It is all translated to three other languages in situ (click English). Wow! The force of propaganda! fib

R e f l e x i o n e s d e l C O M P A Ñ E R O F i d e l

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• Obama y el bloqueo
22.Abril.09
Ayer me refería al ángulo cómico de la "Declaración de Compromiso de Puerto España". Hoy podríamos referirnos al ángulo dramático. Espero que nuestros amigos no se ofendan. Entre el documento que nos llegó como proyecto para ser sometido por los anfitriones de la Cumbre y el que en definitiva se publicó había diferencias.

(YESTERDAY I referred to the comic angle of the "Declaration of Commitment of Port of Spain."
Today we could refer to the dramatic angle. I hope that our friends will not be offended. Between the document that reached us as a draft to be submitted to the Summit hosts and the definitive one that was published, there were differences. In the last-minute rush, there was no time for anything. Certain points had been discussed in long meetings in the weeks leading up to the event. At the last minute, proposals such as the one presented by the Bolivian delegation complicated things even more. )
• Sueños delirantes
21.Abril.09
No me explicaba la causa de la euforia que expresan algunos de los participantes en la Cumbre de Puerto España. Hice un gran esfuerzo y leí la famosa Declaración de Compromiso, aprobada en esa "Cumbre de las Américas".

• La Cumbre Secreta
20.Abril.09
Ni representados ni excomulgados en la Cumbre de Puerto España pudimos conocer hasta hoy lo que allí se discutió. Nos hicieron concebir a todos las esperanzas de que la reunión no sería secreta, pero los dueños del espectáculo nos privaron de tan interesante ejercicio intelectual.

• Militares con criterios acertados
16.Abril.09
No se sabe cuántas personas en Estados Unidos le escriben a Obama y cuántos temas diferentes le plantean. Es evidente que no puede leer todas las cartas y abordar cada uno de los asuntos, porque no le alcanzarían las 24 horas del día y los 365 días del año. Lo que sí es seguro es que los asesores, apoyados por las computadoras, equipos electrónicos y celulares responden todas las cartas.

• ¿Tiene la OEA derecho a existir?
15.Abril.09
Hoy hablé con franqueza de las atrocidades cometidas contra los pueblos de América Latina. Los del Caribe ni siquiera eran independientes cuando la Revolución Cubana triunfó.

Today in History: April 22

Fire Is Born — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 12:15:47 EDT

For my Friend, CR. fib

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Today in History: April 22 sources | archives | yesterday | tomorrow Earth Day

Earth Day was first observed on April 22, 1970, when an estimated 20 million people nationwide attended the inaugural event. Senator Gaylord Nelson promoted Earth Day, calling upon students to fight for environmental causes and oppose environmental degradation with the same energy that they displayed in opposing the Vietnam War.

In July 1970, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was established in response to the growing public demand for cleaner water, air, and land—its mission to protect the environment and public health. Earth Day also was the precursor of the largest grassroots environmental movement in U.S. history and the impetus for national legislation such as the Clean Air and Clean Water acts. By the twentieth anniversary of that event, more than 200 million people in 141 countries had participated in Earth Day celebrations.

At the turn of the twenty-first century, the EPA was announcing new requirements for improving air quality in national parks and wilderness areas and establishing regulations requiring more than 90 percent cleaner heavy-duty highway diesel engines and fuel.

See the special presentation Chronology of Selected Events in the Development of the American Conservation Movement in the collection The Evolution of the Conservation Movement, 1850-1920 to learn about milestones in U.S. efforts to preserve and protect the Earth. These efforts include the designation of some of America's most majestic national parks such as Mt. Rainier, Yosemite, Acadia, and the Grand Canyon.

John Burroughs, John Muir, and Luis Agassiz Fuertes (at the outset of his career as the nation's most notable ornithological painter since Audubon) were among the scientists, naturalists, and artists who produced an album documenting the 1899 Harriman Alaska Expedition. As such, they can be considered political and cultural progenitors of Earth Day. See also the Albert K. Fisher Papers—Fisher was a member of the Harriman Expedition from Meeting of Frontiers, a bilingual, multimedia English-Russian digital library that tells the story of the American exploration and settlement of the West, the parallel exploration and settlement of Siberia and the Russian Far East, and the meeting of the Russian-American frontier in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest.

Bird Painting, Louis Agazzis Fuertes, artist, July 22, 1899,

The Harriman Alaska Expedition: Chronicles and Souvenirs (page 190), May to August 1899.
The Evolution of the Conservation Movement, 1850-1920

The collection The Evolution of the Early Conservation Movement, 1850-1920, demonstrates that works of art are integral to the legacy of the early conservation movement. Search this collection using the terms Thomas Moran or Currier & Ives for examples of such art.
The American Environmental Photographs, 1891-1936: Images from the University of Chicago Library collection documents natural environments, ecologies, and plant communities in the United States at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century. Its essay: “Ecology and the American Environment,” explores the collection that documents scientific concerns that helped lead to the current environmental movement.
Reclaiming the Everglades: South Florida's Natural History, 1884-1934 links to an essay: “Exploitation and Conservation” which showcases a historical episode with many of the same issues as Earth Day. The collection includes photographs, personal correspondence, and maps from 1884 to 1934 and foreshadows today’s environmental movement.
Mapping the National Parks documents the history, cultural aspects, and geological formations of areas that eventually became National Parks. The collection consists of approximately 200 maps dating from the 17th century to the present. Browse the Subject Index for a variety of maps; each map is also a primary source that tells the story of the region as well as of the park through the history of its mapping.
See these Today in History pages to learn more about events in U.S. conservation history, and individuals whose intellectual or artistic legacy influenced the movement:
- Establishment of the National Park Service, April 5
- The Governors' Conference on the Conservation of Natural Resources, May 13
- Henry David Thoreau, July 12
- Thomas Moran, February 12
- John Muir, July 19
- John Burroughs, April 3
To learn more about major environmental legislation currently before the U.S. Congress, search on environmental protection and conservation in THOMAS. It is also possible to search for a bill by its number or its name. For example, search either under S. 134 or Gaylord Nelson Apostle Islands Stewardship Act to find a bill to direct the Secretary of the Interior to study whether the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore should be protected as a wilderness area. (Search in Touring Turn-of-the-Century America: Photographs from the Detroit Publishing Company, 1880-1920 on the term Apostle Islands to see images of the area discussed in the legislation.)
See the Earth Decade Reading List available through the Library's Science Reading Room.
The Library's Science Reference Services Section develops Science Tracer Bullets, which are guides to the literature on topics of current interest. Search on the keyword environment to locate, for example, a Tracer Bullet on Biodiversity, or, for the budding environmental scientist, Environmental Science Projects. Similarly, the Division has created Selected Internet Resources—see their page on the environment.

Top sources | archives | yesterday | tomorrow The Library of Congress | LegalLast Updated: 03/16/2009

Goldman award for two activists behind Saramaka People v. Suriname

Fire Is Born — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 03:24:33 EDT

Download print-quality version

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"(...) When the Suriname government failed to completely suspend the [Chinese logging] projects and comply with the other recommendations of the IACHR, the IACHR took the claim to the Inter-American Court, a legally binding body of which Suriname is a member.

The judgment of the Court in Saramaka People v. Suriname not only provides the basis for the legal recognition and protection of Saramaka territory, with respect to land rights and prior informed consent, but also creates a legal framework for the rights of all indigenous and tribal peoples in Suriname. Pursuant to the Court’s orders, this includes “their rights to manage, distribute, and effectively control such territory, in accordance with their customary laws and traditional collective land tenure system.” In January 2008, the Suriname government publicly declared that it would fully implement the judgment of the Court.

A New Precedent for Indigenous and Tribal Peoples
The Saramaka ruling is also significant at an international level. In the ruling, which applies across the hemisphere, the Court held that resource exploitation concessions may only be granted in indigenous or tribal territories subject to four conditions: indigenous and tribal peoples’ effective participation must be secure; there must be reasonable benefit-sharing; there must be a prior environmental and social impact assessment; and states have a duty to implement adequate safeguards and mechanisms in order to ensure that these activities do not significantly affect the traditional lands and natural resources of indigenous and tribal peoples.

Eduards and Jabini guaranteed territorial rights not just for the Saramaka, but all of the Maroons and indigenous people of Suriname. In addition, because the case was settled by the binding Inter-American Court, Eduards and Jabini changed international jurisprudence so that free, prior and informed consent will be required for major development projects throughout the Americas. They saved not only their communities’ 9,000 square-kilometers of forest, but strengthened the possibility of saving countless more.

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Geneva conference has been called to assess international progress in fighting racism and xenophobia

Fire Is Born — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 02:50:03 EDT

UPDATED ON:
Sunday, April 19, 2009
12:26 Mecca time, 09:26 GMT

FOCUS
Geneva searches for the right words

By Alan Fisher

The conference is meant to assess progress made against racism in recent years [REUTERS]

Over the next few days, in Geneva's expensively furnished hotel rooms, United Nations officials will work frantically with words.

They will be balancing them for meaning, intention and implication as they search for a means to label their anti-racism conference, which convenes in the Swiss city on Monday, as a huge success.

As always with events of this kind, officials work for months behind the scenes, preparing the wording for the final document - the communique which will be issued at the end of the meeting, agreed by all participants.

However, the words have already caused problems for a number of countries. The US does not like the way things are shaping up, and has decided it will not be sending a delegation to Geneva.

It is not the first country to withdraw from the conference, but it is the biggest and most diplomatically significant.

Australia, Sweden, Italy, Israel and Canada are also boycotting the meetings and other countries may join this list before the first session is brought to order on Monday morning.

Durban dispute

"[The conference]singles out one particular conflict and prejudges key issues that can only be resolved in negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians"

US state department spokesman

The five-day Geneva conference has been called to assess international progress in fighting racism and xenophobia since the UN's first conference against "racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance," which was held in Durban, South Africa in September 2001.

It is in Durban where the roots of the contention began.

There, discussions became heated and angry over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the legacy of slavery.

As events came to a climax, Israeli and US delegations walked out. They said they found the draft document, which equated Zionism with racism, unacceptable.

'Islamophobia'

Many Muslim nations see the Geneva conference as an opportunity to highlight what they see as Islamophobic tendencies in the west.

They point to the row over the Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, first published in 2006, and a number of controversial films produced in Europe since as clear examples of growing Islamophobia.

The Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), which represents 56 countries, would like to see "defamation of religion" defined as racist behaviour.

There had been high hopes that the US would have a delegation sitting at the table on Monday morning, given a change in administration in Washington and the new world view of Barack Obama, the US president.

But over the weekend, the US delegation pulled out saying that despite significant changes in the draft document - many of which they specifically requested - there remained many things they deem unacceptable.

For example, they believe defining defamation of religion as racism impacts significantly on the freedom of speech.

A spokesman for the US State Department said the proposed final document "singles out one particular conflict and prejudges key issues that can only be resolved in negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians".

"The United States also has serious concerns with relatively new additions to the text regarding 'incitement', that run counter to the US commitment to unfettered free speech," he said.

The US decision has been welcomed by pro-Israel groups who thought the conference was simply an excuse for "Jew-bashing" but some senior politicians, including Obama's leading allies, say the decision goes against the new administration's policy of engaging with those they agree and disagree with.

Words are important, but it is the actions of the US and others which are proving significant at the moment.

Source: Al Jazeera

Tomorrow is the Earth Day

Fire Is Born — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 01:49:01 EDT

40 groups and individuals recognized for outstanding achievement in protecting the environment.

Fire Is Born — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 01:17:53 EDT

U.S. EPA Honors 8 Southern California Environmental Heroes California Desk April 20, 2009 40 groups and individuals recognized for outstanding achievement in protecting the environment.

SAN FRANCISCO - During the agency's 11th annual Environmental Awards Ceremony in San Francisco Thursday, U.S. EPA acting Regional Administrator Laura Yoshii recognized eight Southern California organizations and individuals in recognition of their efforts to protect and preserve the environment in 2008.

"It is a great pleasure and honor that we can recognize the innovative and important environmental work achieved by this year´s impressive group of organizations and individuals, and the example they set for all of us to follow," Yoshii said. "This year's winners and nominees have made superb efforts to protect and preserve our air, water and land, and increased awareness of the environmental challenges we all face."

The Pacific Southwest´s Environmental Awards program acknowledges commitment and significant contributions to the environment in California, Arizona, Nevada, Hawaii, Pacific Islands and tribal lands. Forty groups and individuals were selected from over 200 nominees received this year from businesses, local, government officials, tribes, media, environmental organizations and community activists.

The Southern California winners are:

Million Trees Los Angeles: A City Of Los Angeles Green Initiative, Los Angeles

Last year, the Million Trees Los Angeles initiative engaged tens of thousands of individuals, businesses, and community groups in tree planting and maintenance -- increasing L.A.´s annual tree planting tenfold and creating a legacy of environmental activism. The trees will benefit the environment for generations to come, providing shade for cooling, reducing electricity demand for air conditioning, and, in turn, lowering greenhouse gas emissions. In addition to tree planting, the initiative includes community organizing and civic engagement, environmental education, and career opportunities in green industries – all which engage schools, residents and businesses to work collectively. The initiative also hosted the nation´s largest 2008 "Get Your Green On" Environmental Youth Conference, with over 5,000 youth participants, plus teachers and parents. The conference offered opportunities for ongoing environmental activism through community organizations, volunteering, service learning and careers.

Manhattan Beach Planet Pals: Manhattan Beach

Planet Pals is a non-profit organization whose mission is to raise environmental awareness through education, create a sustainable school, and encourage people to "take a step" to make a difference. Planet Pals offers a walk-to-school program, trash-free lunches, newsletter earth tips, suggestions on removing harmful cleaning supplies and pesticides from campuses, recycling and composting education, e-waste fundraisers, energy saving tips and more. Their "Trash Free Tuesday" program started with 650 students using 40 Hefty trash bags per day at lunch, and they are now down to an average of two bags a day -- and a record low of only 1/2 a bag! Planet Pals was started in 2007 by parent volunteers in Manhattan Beach, who continue to work with school personnel, city leadership, and the private sector to support sustainability programs and environmental education for the local school district.

Ramona Band of Cahuilla: Anza

The Ramona Band of Cahuilla Indians of Southern California has become the first fully "off grid" reservation with 100 percent renewable energy power for all facilities. Over the past decade, the tribe received funding from the Department of Energy, Housing & Urban Development and other agencies to build a sun and wind-powered energy system, and develop an ecotourism and training business. The tribe is now developing an ecotourism center as a renewable energy destination resort. The Eco-Center will also teach people about Cahuilla culture. The training component will provide consulting and ecotourism start-up business services to enable other tribes to replicate or adapt this model for business development. Once the Eco-Center opens in late 2010, the tribe will have the only Native American-owned facility to train other rural/remote tribes to adapt this model for economic development.

University of California, Irvine: Sustainable Transportation Program

UC Irvine´s Sustainable Transportation Program is reducing congestion, improving air quality, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions by providing alternatives to one-person-per-car driving. The program eliminates more than 39 million vehicle-miles travelled, more than 19,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions, and saves the university community more than $21 million annually. The university achieved a 1.87 Average Vehicle Ridership, the highest for any employer of comparable size in Southern California. The program includes one-on-one commuter counseling, construction of an extensive network of bike/pedestrian paths, retrofitting the entire campus shuttle fleet to operate on biodiesel, and specialized nitrogen oxides traps to further reduce shuttle emissions. Other actions include replacing traffic lights with LEDs, timing traffic lights to reduce fuel-burning waits, improving shuttle service, and restricting car parking by students.

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Santa Ynez Chumash Environmental Office and Chumash Casino Resort Facilities Management Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians Santa Ynez The Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Mission Indians has become a leader in greening casino and resort operations. Their green strategies include installing a white roof to cool their casino building; waste sorting and recycling; a composting and kitchen oil and grease management program; and reuse/recycling of used uniforms. To save water, the tribe installed a gray water drip irrigation system, low-flow toilets and showerheads, waterless urinals, and landscaping with native and low-water plants. To save energy, they provide shuttle buses -- reducing 800 car trips per year. They´ve installed an advanced heating and cooling system, compact fluorescent and LED lights, including LEDs on slot machines, and a reflective liner on their building shell. Employees use "Green Seal" certified cleaners, microfiber mops, and battery operated cleaning equipment. These changes save money, increase productivity, reduce environmental impacts and make the Chumash Resort and Casino a safer, healthier place to work and play.

Lenore Lamb: Pala Band of Luiseno Mission Indians, Pala

Lenore Lamb, Pala EPA Coordinator, has been instrumental in the success of the tribe´s environmental programs and influential in securing funding for critical environmental programs. Viewed by other tribes as an expert in solid waste, she is frequently consulted on solid waste enforcement issues and general solid waste management questions. Lamb secured funding for and oversaw the design and construction of the tribe´s new model transfer station, which opened in 2008. The first of its kind in the Pacific Southwest, it includes an area for electronic waste collection, a green waste and composting program, and a secured hazardous waste collection location. Lenore has not only made significant contributions to improving the environment at Pala, she has contributed to improving environmental conditions throughout Indian Country.

Ryan McMullan: Toyota Motor Sales, Torrance

Ryan McMullan, an Environmental Resource Specialist with Toyota Motor Sales in Torrance, California, has led Toyota´s efforts to eliminate waste. Because of his initiative and the efforts of Toyota´s associates, Toyota´s vehicle distribution centers send less than four ounces of waste to the landfill for each vehicle processed, and their parts operations saved 17.6 million pounds of wood and cardboard in 2008. McMullan´s work has had tremendous regional and national impacts, with the company´s headquarters and nine facilities achieving Zero Waste to landfill, ten plants achieving 95 percent waste reduction, and 12 distribution centers achieving over 90 percent recycling rates. His efforts have saved more than 110,000 trees, and conserved the equivalent of 1.6 million gallons of gas through recycling materials. Ryan McMullan is a key regional environmental leader who has played a critical role in Toyota´s efforts to improve the environment, set aggressive goals, and educate the public and others in the business community.

Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company: Corporate Go Green Initiative, Palmdale

Lockheed Martin´s Corporate Go Green initiative, "Conserve Today, Preserve Tomorrow," is the motivating force for the company and its employees in Palmdale, California. Among its successes, the company conserved 20 million gallons of water since 2005 by identifying the most significant water usage and implementing conservation techniques in key areas. Lockheed also reduced 1.8 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions by diverting more than 1,000 tons of materials from landfill disposal in 2008, replaced gasoline-powered vehicles with electric vehicles, and renovated an existing building to LEED silver status. Lockheed Martin also extends its environmental commitment to others by partnering with the local fire department, high schools and the EPA to provide teachers with laboratory chemical safety and environmental education awareness.

For the complete list of winners, visit: http://www.epa.gov/region09/awards. Beginning today and throughout the coming weeks, a series of blogs will feature several of the winners at: http://blog.epa.gov/blog/2009/04/16/pacific-southwest-environmental-awards-we-are-inspired/

Obama cool meets Chavez mania at Americas summit

Fire Is Born — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 00:46:17 EDT

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Obama cool meets Chavez mania at Americas summit

By Patrick Markey
Posted 20 April 2009 @ 10:38 am EST
PORT OF SPAIN - If President Barack Obama needed a reminder that times have changed in the Americas, his fellow presidents gave him one when Air Force One touched down in Trinidad and Tobago for a regional summit.

Four years ago when his predecessor George W. Bush flew into Argentina for the last Summit of the Americas he was greeted by rock-tossing protesters and an alternative summit led by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, raging against "the evil empire."

This time, the U.S. president was met by smiles, the cheery clang of Caribbean steel drums and prime ministers and presidents seeking out his autograph. Chavez even told the young U.S. leader, twice: "I want to be your friend."

"This is the Obama summit," one Brazilian diplomat said.

An observation blimp circled over the conference center in Port of Spain, where a cruise ship housed journalists and white-jacketed police guarded perimeters as Obama and other leaders brainstormed on the economy, energy and security.

Obama had to parry demands to lift the U.S. embargo on Cuba and got a history lesson about U.S. imperialism from Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega. But the positive vibes surrounding the young U.S. leader were hard to ignore.

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe was one of several leaders who obtained a prized Obama signature. He showed off a scribbled message from Obama: "To President Uribe, with admiration."

"Barack Obama signed this little letter for me ... I'm going to send this to get framed," he joked with reporters outside the summit conference hall.

At one official photo, Obama chatted easily with leftists like Chavez, who have made America-bashing the heart of their political personalities.

Even an "alternative" summit was friendly.

In Argentina, Chavez rallied thousands of protesters to rage against Bush and free trade.

But in Trinidad, a small group of demonstrators taking part in a "drummit summit" played drums, displayed Cuban flags, and hoisted posters carrying images of both Chavez and Obama.

Chavez was greeted as always by mobs of reporters. A scuffle involving journalists crushing to reach the Venezuelan leader prompted summit hosts to briefly restrict media coverage of some events on Saturday.

But Obama's "listen and learn" approach won over more than a few of the hemisphere's most powerful figures. Chavez presented him with a book by a Uruguayan leftist. It shot to No. 2 on Amazon.com's best-seller list on Sunday.

"He's a cool man," St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves said before the closing ceremony. "He's an intellectual ... he wants to have a fresh start." Read the full article of: http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/20090420/obama-cool-meets-chavez-mania-americas-summit.htm

GOT LITHIUM?

Fire Is Born — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 17:09:27 EDT

ANALYSIS-Bolivia holds key to lithium, the battery car metal

Tue Apr 14, 2009 3:00pm BST

* Lithium demand to outstrip other battery metals

* Mining Bolivia's lithium wealth won't be easy

* Electric cars to fuel the increase in lithium

By Michael Taylor

LONDON, April 14 (Reuters) - Minor metal lithium is set to charge ahead to become the top material for batteries and vital for electric transport, but supplying any spike in demand could be fraught with difficulties.

Bolivia, a poor but resource-rich country governed for the past three years by leftist Evo Morales, has about 50 percent of the world's lithium deposits at about 5.4 million tonnes.

But Morales has an uneasy relationship with the United States and big business -- having already nationalized energy, mining and telecommunications companies.

"It's not open to investment," said Charles Kernot, a mining analyst at Evolution Securities. "If you can't get agreement from the Bolivian authorities, then no major mining company would be able to get in and develop the projects."

"I would be cautious ... the geology is pretty straight forward, it's just the politics of getting in to develop the asset."

Despite Morales' anti-capitalist rhetoric, some miners are already vying for control of Bolivia's mineral riches, with the amount produced currently in the country negligible.

Global lithium carbonate supply was approximately 100,000 tonnes in 2008, up 2,000 tonnes from 2007, while consumption was a little higher at 105,000 tonnes -- up 2 percent year-on-year.

"Some far-sighted companies are already attempting to secure the rights to mine lithium in Bolivia's Uyuni salt flats," said Carl Firman, an analyst at Virtual Metals, adding that the metal is mined as a by-product in clays, brines, salts or hard rock.

"This will be fraught by political complexities, as Bolivia will not simply allow its lithium to be mined and exported elsewhere for downstream processing and fabrication," he added.

The top priority of the government of President Morales is to maximize the benefits that Uyuni may bring to Bolivians.

The global auto industry is already seeing the potential of such a light, energy-efficient and quickly rechargeable metal, with future demand set to outstrip other battery metals such as lead, nickel and cobalt.

Demand for lithium-ion batteries, widely used in mobile phones, digital cameras and laptop PCs, is expected to continue rising due to its growing use in hybrid and electric vehicles.

"Lithium will continue to grow and has been growing over the last 30 years," said Tony Jeffery, managing director at AGM Batteries in Scotland. "It will replace lead and cadmium for obvious reasons -- because these materials are toxic."

"It is a hot topic at the moment and that is purely down to global warming and the fact that the Japanese car manufacturers are technologically ahead of their U.S. counterparts," said Virtual Metals' Firman.

"General Motors and Chrysler are trying to use more sustainable technologies and lithium is lighter, more durable and makes for longer lasting batteries."

Prices for lithium carbonate are currently $5.3/$5.7kg.

The amount of lithium used in hybrid vehicles varies depending on the technology, but a plug-in electric hybrid may contain 15-20kg of lithium and typical eight-cell laptop battery is made out of about 5 grams of lithium.

"There is a general opinion in the industry that lithium-ion will be the successor to nickel metal hydride (Ni-mh)," a spokesman at Toyota, the world's biggest car maker, said.

"Lithium-ion batteries have a greater energy density than Ni-mh so that more energy can be held and subsequent greater output from the same size of battery."

LITHIUM ON TOP

Among other metals, about 25 percent of cobalt refined production was used for batteries in 2007, while around 40 percent of lead is used in car replacement batteries and 6-7 percent of nickel production currently goes into hybrid vehicles.

"Electric bicycles is a market that has come out of nowhere in the last five years," said Stephen Briggs, analyst at RBS Global Banking & Markets. "It accounts for a significant tonnage of lead out of nowhere five years ago -- that may well be threatened."

As the lightest metal known, lithium weighs 0.5 grams per cubic centimeter (g/cm3), while nickel is 8.9g/cm3 and lead 11.3g/cm3.

"The other area under threat is traction-batteries where you power forklift trucks, golf carts and those that whizz around airports," RBS' Briggs added.

And last month (March 11), engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found a way to make lithium batteries that are smaller, lighter, longer lasting and capable of recharging in seconds.

Maker of lithium-ion batteries for the military, medial and industrial applications, AGM Batteries is currently working with Warwick University to supply lithium-based battery system for a moon-orbiting satellite due to be launched in 2012.

"There have been batteries using lithium for about 30 years," AGM's Jeffery said. "They are not very new (but) they are new in comparison with nickel, cadmium and lead."

(Reporting by Michael Taylor; editing by William Hardy)

President Obama noted today in Trinidad that Evo Morales is the first elected indigenous president in the Americas (when asked about issues of "race")

Fire Is Born — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 16:54:34 EDT

Bolivia: The Rise of Evo Morales

BY Tupac Saavedra

Evo Morales, former coca grower and Aymara leader, surprised Bolivia's political elite by winning 53.7 percent of the vote in the December 2005 elections.

I live in downtown La Paz, about 10 minutes away from the government palace. In the last couple of years, I've watched history unfold just outside my window.

I've seen tens of thousands of Aymara Indians from nearby shantytowns and peasants from remote corners of Bolivia marching into the city. They come bearing sticks and colorful flags and some of them are armed with dynamite. They demand everything from presidential resignations to rollbacks of tax increases on the poor to the nationalization of oil and gas reserves. I've watched violent clashes between protestors and government troops and seen my country on the verge of a civil war.

In the October 2003 uprisings against former president Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada, more than 60 people died. And in summer 2005, street protests forced then president Carlos Mesa to resign.

Bolivia's social movements have gained power. They have taken down two presidents in the last two years, and now they have elected one of their own.

Forty-six-year-old Evo Morales Aima, former coca grower and Aymara leader, surprised Bolivia's political elite by winning 53.7 percent of the vote on December 18, easily defeating U.S. educated Jorge Tuto Quiroga. As Washington, D.C., sees it, Morales's victory is part of an unwelcome shift to the left in Latin American politics. But for Bolivians, especially for the majority of poor Indians, Bolivia's first indigenous president represents hope for real change.

Evo Morales and his vice-presidential running mate, Alvaro Garcia Linera, together on stage at the closing night of their campaign in La Paz.

I followed Morales during the last few weeks of his election campaign. Sometimes it seemed unreal that a man who wore the same pair of blue Nike sneakers regardless of the occasion was drawing so much attention and could be Bolivia's next president. The Indian activist from humble beginnings was now surrounded by hordes of international reporters from Reuters, AFP, AP, CNN, Fox, and BBC. Morales jokingly called us "paparazzi," but the night before the election, he took me aside and asked, "Do you know what the word 'paparazzi' really means?"

Morales waited for the election results at his home city of Cochabamba, set in the high valleys between the Andes and the Amazon. "It looked like any regular family gathering," said my friend Rodrigo Penaloza, who was there. "Food on the table, soda drinks, meat and potatoes. People ate from common plates in the traditional aptapi style of the Andes." He said that after television estimates projected a Morales win, "neighbors walked in freely to congratulate Evo, and his cell phone began ringing nonstop."

"One of the first calls came from Venezuela," Penalosa said. "It was President Hugo Chavez himself." Argentina's president, Nestor Kirchner, also called personally to congratulate him, and representatives phoned from Cuba and Brazil on behalf of Fidel Castro and Lula da Silva.

One of the most controversial issues behind the Morales campaign has been its support for the legal production of coca leaf, Bolivia's principal crop, and one the United States is trying to eradicate.

I waited for Morales with thousands of others on Bush Square in Cochabamba. People held whipala (the Quechan and Aymaran word for "banner") flags, danced and sang in celebration of Morales's victory, and let out a massive cheer when he arrived. Morales began his political career as a leader of the Federation of Coca Growers. His union supporters were out in force for Morales's first public appearance since victory was declared. He delivered an emotional speech.

The grassroots movement behind Morales is demanding nationalization of Bolivia's resources, particularly natural gas, and greater opportunity for the country's impoverished majority.

"This leaf," Morales said, holding a coca leaf in his hands, "gave birth to this political instrument," referring to his party, Movement Toward Socialism, also known as MAS.

Morales told the crowd that efforts by the U.S. to eradicate coca crops was "merely an excuse to build [U.S.] military bases and justify the [foreign] military presence in our country, and said the program "has not proved to be effective."

He also stressed that he does not want to have a country where drug production runs rampant.

Morales plans to fight drug trafficking, including instituting a "zero tolerance" cocaine program. His proposed program will start with an in-depth study to determine how much of the current crop is used for traditional medical and religious purposes and how much is used in the manufacture of cocaine. He says he will only allow coca leaf production for legal uses.

For thousands of years Aymara and Quechua Indians have used the leaves legally for medicinal and sacred purposes. These traditional uses don't involve any chemical processing, and the coca leaf, which is commonly chewed, is not considered a drug. The production of cocaine, largely for export, requires vast numbers of coca leaves and extensive chemical treatment.

"The U.S. should be equally responsible for diminishing the cocaine market within the United States as it is in fighting the drug elsewhere," Morales continued. He offered to work with the United States on alternative drug prevention programs, but added, "It would have to be a relationship of mutual respect and not of submission."

In 2003, Bolivians took to the streets of La Paz and set fire to government buildings in what became known as the "Black February" riots.

The issue of respect is central to the social movement that carried Morales to power. Seventy percent of Bolivia's population is indigenous and poor. Since the Spanish colonial conquest, they have been exploited and oppressed. Until 1952, indigenous people were not even allowed to vote. The agrarian revolution of the early 1950s took land from the rich landlords and gave it back to the indigenes, along with the right to vote. But that revolution didn't change the power structure, and the government remained in the hands of a wealthy, light-skinned, Westernized elite. In recent years, that elite has sold off the country's natural resources -- oil and natural gas -- to multinational corporations.

Today the grassroots movement behind Morales is demanding nationalization of Bolivia's resources, particularly natural gas. They want the profits to be used for social spending to benefit the impoverished majority in what is Latin America's poorest country. This is the real challenge for Morales. Several of the more radical groups supporting his campaign have already issued ultimatums to Morales: Nationalize or face the consequences.

"We have an enormous responsibility to change our history," Morales told his post-election rally. "The neo-liberal model has blocked the economic growth of our nation."

In Bolivia, neo-liberalism is the name given to a series of economic reforms that began in 1985. World Bank and the International Monetary Fund encouraged the Bolivian government to privatize government-run industries and search for international investors in order to spark a depressed economy. Bolivia sold its national oil and gas company, YPFB, and signed more than 70 generous contracts with multinational energy giants, granting them permission to exploit Bolivia's extensive natural gas reserves. Claims of mismanagement and corruption have plagued the decision ever since.

Evo Morales with a traditional Yatiri (Aymara healer and clairvoyant) at the close of his campaign in La Paz.

Water systems have also been privatized, but not without the fierce resistance of several civic organizations. In April 2000, an uprising in the city of Cochabamba, provoked by a huge hike in water rates, forced Aguas del Tunari, a subsidiary of the U.S. company Bechtel, to stop the privatization and leave town. Similar protests nearly drove another Bechtel subsidiary, Aguas del Illimani, out of the city of El Alto in 2005.

Morales has won the hearts of the indigenous majority, but many Indian activists remain skeptical of any Bolivian government in La Paz. "The state has always been there to exploit us, the poor," says indigenous leader Felipe Quispe (El Mallku).

"Some factions of Bolivia's radical left think the post-colonial state as it is known today should not even exist," reporter Luis Gomez told me. "There should only be self-governing indigenous states."

Bolivia could be entering a period of radical change. Beyond legalizing coca growing and nationalizing natural gas, Morales also has a desire to make Bolivian agriculture 100 percent organic and to prevent genetically modified seeds and products from entering the local markets.

"For the first time in our history, Bolivia will have a government that is in the hands of the poor and that works for the poor," says Ivan Canelas, a newly elected senator from the MAS party and a firm believer in Morales.

But Bolivia's first indigenous president has his work cut out for him. He must deal with a volatile mix of long-suppressed Indian aspirations, the demands of coca growers and drug traffickers, the hostility of Washington, and the urgent need for economic development in a desperately poor country.

Yet another country in Latin America is turning away from two decades of conservative U.S. economic policies. Everybody will be watching what Evo Morales does next.

Tupac Saavedra is a reporter and documentary filmmaker who divides his time between California and his home in Bolivia.

Related Story

Watch our story "Leasing the Rain," about the Cochabamba water wars.

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Welcome to the Caribbean!

Fire Is Born — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 19:28:29 EDT

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LAST RESORTS

The Cost of Tourism in the Caribbean (New Edition)

by Polly Pattullo

The Caribbean has the fortune—and misfortune—to be everyone's idea of a tropical paradise. Its sun, sand, and scenery attract millions of visitors each year and make it a profitable destination for the world's fastest growing industry. Tourism is increasingly touted as its only hope of creating jobs and wealth—literally, the islands' last resort.

Last Resorts examines the real impact of tourism on the people and landscape of the Caribbean. It explores the structure of ownership of the industry and shows that the benefits it brings to the region do not live up to its claims. New developments in ecotourism, sex tourism, and the burgeoning cruise industry are not changing this pattern of short-term exploitation of the region's resources. The book shows how Caribbean societies are corrupted by tourism and its culture turned into floorshow parody.

This new edition has been extensively revised and updated. It gives voice to people inside the tourism industry, its critics, and tourists themselves, and offers vital insights into a phenomenon that is central to the globalized world of today.

Table of Contents

Foreword
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
1. The Lock and the Key: History and Power
2. Linkages and Leakages: The Planning Factor
3. From Banana Farmer to Banana Daiquiri: Employment
4. “Like an Alien in We Own Land”: The Social Impact
5. Green Crime, Green Redemption: The Environment and Ecotourism
6. The Holiday and Its Makers: The Tourists
7. Sailing into the Sunset: The Cruise Ship Industry
8. Reclaiming the Heritage Trail: Culture and identity
9. New Footprints in the Sand: The Future
Select Bibliography
Index

About the Author
POLLY PATTULLO has written widely about the Caribbean region. She works for the Guardian and Caribbean Insight in London and co-founded a tour operating company in the Eastern Caribbean.

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Readings for the Summit

Fire Is Born — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 19:18:39 EDT

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MEXICO'S HOPE

An Encounter with Politics and History

by James D. Cockcroft

"Mexico's Hope is recommended reading for anyone wanting a succinct and articulate overview of contemporary Mexican politics and economic development." — THE MIDWEST BOOK REVIEW

Mexico's Hope tells the dramatic story of the making of modern Mexico. In the course of providing compelling analysis of the causes for the vast divide between Mexico's rich and poor, James Cockcroft illuminates the stark contrast between the country's corrupt political system and its people's democratic aspirations.

Mexican economic development is distorted and uneven, Cockcroft explains, because of a longstanding collusion between foreign interests and a domestic ruling class. He describes why important challenges to elite power, including the revolution of 1910-1920 and the 1968 student rebellion, failed to break the grip of the dominant classes.

With particular attention to the contributions of women, Indians, workers, and peasants, Mexico's Hope is informed by the conviction that the country's most promising prospects today lie in the quest of its poorest people for social justice and democracy—from the recent Zapatista uprisings in Chiapas to ongoing electoral efforts on the left.

About the Author
JAMES D. COCKCROFT has written and edited many books, includingIntellectual Precursors of the Mexican Revolution, 1900-1913 (1968), Mexico (1984) Outlaws in the Promised Land (1986), and Neighbors in Turmoil (1989).

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An acute food crisis has struck the world in 2008. This is on top of a longer-term crisis of agriculture and food that has already left billions hungry and malnourished. In order to understand the full, dire implications of what is happening today it is necessary to look at the interaction between these short-term and long-term crises. Both crises arise primarily from the for-profit production of food, fiber, and now biofuels, and the rift between food and people that this inevitably generates.

May 2008

Healing the Rift: Metabolic Restoration in Cuban Agriculture
Rebecca Clauson

As John Bellamy Foster explained in “The Ecology of Destruction” (Monthly Review, February 2007), Marx explored the ecological contradictions of capitalist society as they were revealed in the nineteenth century with the help of the two concepts of metabolic rift and metabolic restoration. The metabolic rift describes how the logic of accumulation severs basic processes of natural reproduction leading to the deterioration of ecological sustainability. Moreover, “by destroying the circumstances surrounding that metabolism,” Marx went on to argue, “it [capitalist production] compels its systematic restoration as a regulating law of social reproduction”—a restoration, however, that can only be fully achieved outside of capitalist relations of production.1

May 2007

Who is Threatening Our Dinner Table? The Power of Transnational Agribusiness
Byeong-Seon Yoon

In December 2005, anti-liberalization and antiglobalization protest groups around the globe gathered in Hong Kong where the Sixth World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference was being held. Farmers’ groups that were part of the Hong Kong gathering took the position that agricultural trade rules should be impartial to all World Trade Organization (WTO) member countries and not determined by a handful of agriculture-exporting countries. What suddenly prompted these farmers to come together in this way over the issues of food sovereignty and the expansion of farmers’ rights?

November 2006

The Bread of Conquest
A Book Review by Sasha Lilley

Richard A. Walker, The Conquest of Bread: 150 Years of Agribusiness in California (New York: The New Press, 2004), 382 pages, hardcover $27.95.

The agony and the ecstasy are intertwined in California’s countryside. Artichokes, freestone peaches, and Gravenstein apples are but a few of the vast number of crops grown in the Golden State, which were it a country, would be the sixth leading agricultural exporter in the world. For the workers whose hands create wealth out of nature, the agony has been ever-present, from the bloody repression of the 1913 Wobbly-led Wheatland hop pickers strike to the recent attempt by Southern California grocery workers to hold onto their health care and pensions.

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A Precarious Existence: The Fate
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Fred Magdoff

The number of people living a precarious existence has been increasing in many countries of the world, with hunger all too widespread. There are approximately 6 billion people in the world, with about half living in cities and half in rural areas. Between the poor living in cities and those in rural areas, a vast number of the world’s people live under very harsh conditions. It is estimated that that about half of the world’s population lives on less than two dollars per day, with most of those either chronically malnourished or continually concerned with where their next meal will come from. Many have no access to clean water (1 billion), electricity (2 billion), or sanitation (2.5 billion).

February 2004

Rice Imperialism: The Agribusiness Threat to Third World Rice Production
Matthew Clement

Food is an essential human need. All cultures involved in settled agriculture have produced food and food production is basic to all culture. The seed used in agricultural cultivation is the product of thousands of years of cultural development. Most of this development of food crops over the millennia has occurred in regions that are now in the periphery of the capitalist world economy. In recent years, however, agribusiness corporations located in the rich nations of the core have attempted to patent various forms of food crops, such as basic grains, and then to monopolize these patented grain varieties, creating dependence on seeds of the agribusiness corporations. When such practices involve, as in recent years, a crop such as rice on which much of the world’s population depends for subsistence, the implications are enormous and potentially disastrous for the world’s poor.

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World Poverty, Pauperization
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Samir Amin

A discourse on poverty and the necessity of reducing its magnitude, if not eradicating it, has become fashionable today. It is a discourse of charity, in the nineteenth-century-style, which is does not seek to understand the economic and social mechanisms that generate poverty, although the scientific and technological means to eradicate it are now available.

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The Only Road Is Practice
Michael A. Lebowitz

I am certain that, like many people these days, the first thing on your mind is the question of the referendum on reform of the Bolivarian Constitution—what the defeat means and where do we go from here. What I want to talk about today is not on that topic specifically, but it is related. Some people have said lately that they don’t know what the word socialism means. That was certainly a question raised about the proposed reforms. There were people who were determined to generate confusion and fear, and they were asking, what is all this talk about socialism in the constitution? Are we talking about Stalinism? Are we talking about an authoritarian society?

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The Guerrilla in Colombia: An Interview with Rodrigo Granda, Member of the FARC-EP International Commission
Rodrigo Granda interviewed by Jean Batou

Rodrigo Granda is a member of and the leading international spokesperson for the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia-Ejército del Pueblo, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People’s Army (FARC–EP). His name gained global prominence in December 2004 when he was kidnapped in Venezuela and handed over to Colombian authorities by a number of Venezuelan National Guard soldiers seeking a reward placed on his head by the Colombian government. At the time of his capture Granda was attending a meeting of the Bolivarian Peoples Movements in Caracas. Granda’s kidnapping in Venezuela at the instigation of the Colombian government created an international dispute between Venezuela and Colombia. He was released in 2007 in response to pressures exerted on the Colombian government by French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

March 2008

Socialist Strategies in Latin America
Claudio Katz

The Latin American left is once again discussing the paths to socialism. The correlation of forces has changed through popular action, the crisis of neoliberalism, and U.S. imperialism’s loss of offensive capability. It is no longer relevant to juxtapose a revolutionary political period of the past with a conservative present. The social weakness of the industrial working class does not impede anti-capitalist progress, which depends on the exploited and the oppressed uniting in common struggle.

September 2007

Dual Power in the Venezuelan Revolution
George Ciccariello-Maher

Too often, the Bolivarian Revolution currently underway in Venezuela is dismissed by its critics—on the right and left—as a fundamentally statist enterprise. We are told it is, at best, a continuation of the corrupt, bureaucratic status quo or, at worst, a personalistic consolidation of state power in the hands of a single individual at the expense of those “checks and balances” traditionally associated with western liberal democracies. These perspectives are erroneous, since they cannot account for what have emerged as the central planks of the revolutionary process. I will focus on the most significant of these planks: the explosion of communal power.

September 2007

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Revolt in Latin America

July-August 2007

New Wings for Socialism
Michael A. Lebowitz

Seventeen years ago, in 1990, I began an essay with a poem of Bertolt Brecht. It was a poem about a man in Europe in the Middle Ages who put on "things that looked like wings," climbed to the roof of a church, and tried to fly. He crashed, and the bishop who passed by said, "No one will ever fly."

April 2007

Our February 2007 Issue

Brazil Under Lula: An MR Survey

February 2007

Socialism and the Knowledge Economy: Cuban Biotechnology
by Agustín Lage Dávila

As authoritatively stated in an editorial in Nature, vol. 436, issue 7049 (July 2005), “Cuba has developed a considerable [scientific] research capability—perhaps more so than any other developing country outside of Southeast Asia.” Cuba has been especially successful in establishing a biotechnology industry that has effectively introduced drugs and vaccines of its own, along with a nascent pharmaceutical industry that has achieved considerable success in exports. Its agriculture and health sectors have been strong beneficiaries of its scientific research. As Nature observed: “It is worth asking how Cuba did it, and what lessons other countries might draw from it.” Indeed, the Cuban case is all the more surprising since it is not only a poor country, but one that has been confronted for decades by a ruthless embargo imposed by the United States, which has been extended to scientific knowledge. Moreover, much of Cuba’s scientific progress has occurred in the decade and a half since the fall of the Soviet Union, which previously had aided it economically and technologically.

December 2006

Prevention and Solidarity: Democratizing Health in Venezuela
Claudia Jardim

Halfway up the hill, in a semi-finished, rustic house, a sheet divides the consulting room from the treatment room. Rarely is there a need to identify oneself upon arrival. “How are you Mr. Antonio, has your pressure decreased?” says the fifty-three-year-old Venezuelan nurse Carlota Núñez. Antonio goes in and, little by little, the inhabitants of the neighborhood Las Terrazas de Oropeza Castillo, municipality Sucre, Caracas move through the waiting room.

January 2005

After the Referendum: Venezuela Faces New Challenges
Marta Harnecker

With President Hugo Chávez’s victory in the August 15 referendum, the Venezuelan opposition suffered the third great defeat in its struggle to end his government. The unprecedented recall referendum ratified Chávez’s presidency by a margin of two million votes and was declared valid unanimously by the hundreds of international observers who scrutinized it.

November 2004

The Greening of Venezuela
David Raby

With all the hullabaloo about Chávez’s alleged authoritarianism, opposition strikes and demonstrations, and a possible recall referendum, you could be forgiven for thinking that nothing constructive is being done in Venezuela and that the nation’s energies are entirely absorbed by political mud-slinging. Indeed, that’s just what the corporate media would like you to think.

November 2004

Haiti Matters!
Charles McCollester

Arriving at the Hotel Oloffson in Port-au-Prince on the eve of the new year, 2004, the bicentennial of Haiti’s independence, tension was thick in the air. Street violence was mounting but still mostly under control. Clashes took place between opposition demonstrators and police or between anti- and pro-Aristide forces. Since the hotel is near the university and its hospital, we witnessed several groups of 100 to 200 anti-Aristide student demonstrators jogging in cadence toward police with signs and banners shouting slogans—A bas Aristide! Down with Aristide! Since my previous trip in June, anti-Aristide slogans had blossomed in some areas of Port-au- Prince, while pro-Aristide graffiti retained its hold in the poorest districts, smaller towns, and rural areas. Our visit to the towns of Fondwa and Jacmel in the south was eventful in the normal Haitian way, but peaceful. Back in the capital, at the end of our five-day trip up-country, cars were being torched, boulders rolled on roads, and gas stations and banks closed in antigovernment actions.

September 2004

Cuba: The Next Forty-Five Years?
István Mészáros

This year Cuba will be celebrating the forty-fifth anniversary of its victorious revolution: a great historic achievement. And when we bear in mind that the Cuban revolution—the long sustained action of a nation of just eleven million people—survived for forty-five years against all odds, successfully confronting the declared enmity, the U.S.-dictated international political encirclement and economic blockade, as well as the ever renewed attempts to subvert and overthrow the post-revolutionary order by the world’s most preponderant economic and military power, even this simple fact puts forcefully into relief the magnitude and the lasting significance of the ongoing Cuban intervention in the historical process of our time. We are all contemporaries to an achievement whose reverberations reach well beyond the confines of the tendentiously propagandized “American Hemisphere,” offering its hopeful message to the rest of the world.

January 2004

U.S. Offensive in Latin America: Coups, Retreats, and Radicalization
JAMES PETRAS

The worldwide U.S. military-political offensive is manifest in multiple contexts in Latin America. The U.S. offensive aims to prop up decaying client regimes, destabilize independent regimes, pressure the center-left to move to the right, and destroy or isolate the burgeoning popular movements challenging the U.S. empire and its clients. We will discuss the particular forms of the U.S. offensive in each country, and then explore the specific and general reasons for the offensive in contemporary Latin America. In the concluding section we will discuss the political alternatives in the context of the U.S. offensive.

May 2002

The Argentine Crisis
JOSEPH HALEVI

Historically, monetary crises have been related to hyperinflation, from which Argentina has often suffered. Hyperinflation is generally viewed as a calamity leading to the destruction of the capitalist monetary system of circulation. In the present Argentine crisis, however, there has been a complete implosion of economic and monetary relations due to hyperdeflation. This is the strangulation of the economy by the requirement to pay an unsustainable debt.

April 2002

Argentina: An Alternative Proposal to Overcome
the Crisis
LUIS BECERRA, ET AL.

“There is no alternative” has always been wishful thinking at best, at worst a deliberate lie, on the part of the ruling powers. From out of the ruins to which neoliberalism has brought Argentina, its onetime much-heralded model of success, now come the unsilenced voices of radical economists. We present here an English translation of a proposed alternative solution to the Argentine crisis. The proposal was set out on January 24, 2002, by Argentine economists as a starting point for discussion within the emerging popular movement.—The Editors

April 2002

The Unemployed Workers Movement in Argentina
JAMES PETRAS

Latin America has witnessed three waves of overlapping and interrelated social movements over the last twenty-five years. The first wave, roughly from the late 1970s to the mid-1980s, was largely composed of what were called “the new social movements.” They included human rights, ecology, feminist, and ethnic movements as well as Non-Government Organizations (NGOs). Their leadership was largely lower middle class professionals, and their policies and strategies revolved around challenging the military and civilian authoritarian regimes of the time.

January 2002

Open Veins of Latin America

Fire Is Born — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 17:49:11 EDT

Open Veins of Latin America From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search Open Veins of Latin America Author Eduardo Galeano Country Uruguay Language Spanish Genre(s) Essay Publisher Siglo XXI Editores (Original), Monthly Review Press (English translation) Publication date 1971 Media type print

Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent (in Spanish Las venas abiertas de América Latina) is an essay written by Uruguayan journalist Eduardo Galeano in 1971.

In the foreword for the 1997 edition, Chilean novelist and close relative of former Chilean President Salvador Allende, Isabel Allende says that "after the military coup of 1973 I could not take much with me: some clothes, family pictures, a small bag of dirt from my garden, and two books: an old edition of the Odes by Pablo Neruda and the book with the yellow cover, Las Venas Abiertas de America Latina."

Contents [hide]

[edit] Plot summary

In Open Veins of Latin America Galeano analyzes the history of Latin America as a whole from the time period of the European discovery of the New World to contemporary Latin America arguing against European and later U.S. economic exploitation and political dominance over the region.

[edit] Background

Open Veins of Latin America was written by Eduardo Galeano in Uruguay in 1971. During this period Galeano was working as a journalist, editing books, and was employed in the publishing department of the University of Montevideo. Galeano states that "it took four years of researching and collecting the information I needed, and some 90 nights to write the book". [1] Shortly after the publishing of Open Veins of Latin America, in 1973, a military junta took power in Uruguay forcing Galeano into exile. As a result of the book's left-wing perspective it was banned during the military governments of Chile, Argentina and Uruguay.

[edit] References

^ "Writer Without Borders" July 14, 2006 In These Times

[edit] External links

[hide] v • d • e Works by Eduardo Galeano Books

Days and Nights of Love and War (1978) · Genesis (Memory of Fire Trilogy, Part 1) (1982) · Faces and Masks (Memory of Fire Trilogy, Part 2) (1984) · Century of the Wind (Memory of Fire Trilogy, Part 3) (1986) · Soccer in Sun and Shadow (1995) · Upside Down (2000) · Voices of Time (2004)

Essays Open Veins of Latin America (1971)

Obama and the World: Summit of the Americas 2009

Fire Is Born — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 13:02:47 EDT

UPCOMING EVENTS

Summit of the Americas 2009

The 5th Summit of the Americas is a regional meeting of all 34 democratically elected leaders of the nations of the Western Hemisphere from April 17-19 in Trinidad and Tobago.

Participate now in the town hall in the historic Summit of the Americas and contribute to a vital discussion about issues that impact the entire Western Hemisphere.

The Summit of the Americas brings together the 34 democratically-elected leaders of the hemisphere and provides a unique mechanism for the heads of state and heads of governments to discuss solutions to common political, economic, and social problems in a multilateral and comprehensive way.

The 2009 Summit of the Americas will be held in Trinidad and Tobago, April 17-19, under the theme of "Securing our Citizens Future by Promoting Human Prosperity, Energy Security and Environmental Sustainability." The 2009 Summit is an opportunity for the United States to demonstrate that America remains a reliable partner in the hemisphere, committed to working with our neighbors in a spirit of partnership to uphold our shared values and pursue policies that bring direct benefits to all peoples of the Americas. The United States is at a critical moment in our relationship with the region, and we will remain engaged with a positive agenda. We face more challenges ahead, but the Summit provides a framework within which to address these challenges.

Prior Summits of the Americas were held in Miami, Florida (1994); Santiago, Chile (1998); Quebec, Canada (2001); Monterrey, Mexico (2004); and Mar del Plata, Argentina (2005).

For more information, visit:

the State Department 2009 Summit of the Americas page;
the State Department's "Fifth Summit of the Americas 2009, Trinidad and Tobago" Facebook page;
the Fifth Summit of the Americas website, for this year's host country, Trinidad and Tobago;
U.S. Permanent Mission to the Organization of American States website; and
the Organization of American States Summits Secretariat.

From the White House

Fire Is Born — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 12:48:12 EDT

Wednesday, April 15th, 2009 at 10:22 am

Secretary Clinton’s Digital Town Hall for Summit of the Americas

Dipnote, the State Department blog, gives us the details:

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will conduct Digital Town Hall of the Americas, a live web-based discussion, from the Dominican Republic on Friday, April 17, 2009, in anticipation of the Fifth Summit of the Americas to be held April 17-19 in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.

The event will provide an opportunity for Secretary Clinton to launch a conversation with citizens from across the Western Hemisphere to discuss the Summit’s themes of securing our citizens’ future by promoting human prosperity, energy security and environmental sustainability, as well as the situation in Haiti, where she will visit and attend meetings on Thursday, April 16.

The State Department has their Social Media Hub dedicated to the Summit, which will host 34 democratically elected leaders from the Western hemisphere. Catch the webcast there on Friday and go over and get engaged with the questions in the meantime.

WE SHALL REMAIN - watch online Part One

Fire Is Born — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 00:57:43 EDT

back to films

PBS Television Series
At the heart of the project is a five-part television series that shows how Native peoples valiantly resisted expulsion from their lands and fought the extinction of their culture -- from the Wampanoags of New England in the 1600s who used their alliance with the English to weaken rival tribes, to the bold new leaders of the 1970s who harnessed the momentum of the civil rights movement to forge a pan-Indian identity. We Shall Remain represents an unprecedented collaboration between Native and non-Native filmmakers and involves Native advisors and scholars at all levels of the project.

From new York times: Obama and Cuba

Fire Is Born — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 15:20:20 EDT

Obama Opens Door to Cuba, but Only a Crack

"Instead of lifting the trade embargo with Cuba, enacted in the 1960s in an unsuccessful attempt to force a change in government after Fidel Castro came to power, Mr. Obama is using his executive power to repeal Mr. Bush’s tight restrictions and the looser restrictions under President Bill Clinton so that Cuban-Americans can now visit Cuba as frequently as they like and send gifts and as much money as they want, as long as the recipients are not senior government or Communist Party officials.

Mr. Obama is also allowing telecommunications companies to pursue licensing agreements in Cuba, in an attempt to open up communications there by increasing access to cellphones and satellite television. In a sign that the Cuba issue is a delicate one, the president left it to senior aides to explain his decision."

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