There is a storm coming, and it hasn't hit yet.
The two smartest investors I've met in my life are Prince Al Waleed of Saudi Arabia and Warren Buffet...last January, Al Waleed bought into Citibank...he bought in at $30, and thought...he got the bargain of a lifetime. Citibank today: $4. Six months later, Warren Buffet was patient...and there's no smarter investor than Warren Buffet. He bought into Goldman Sachs at $150. Goldman Sachs today? In the 50's, high 40's. So, you have to say to yourself, somethings going on that the smartest investors in the world didn't see...
Your grandmother's investing wisdom doesn't necessarily apply right now.
The next Secretary of State, and the next President will be managing weakness, not strength.
(Previously, in post-Communist Russia and post-Tienamen China), we were strong and they were weak.
Managing weakness (overseas) while we are also weak will be a particular challenge for the next
Secretary of State.
-Thomas Friedman on Fareed Zakaria GPS 11/24
30 November 2008
Motivation
"In addition to deception and secrecy, the corporatocracy thrives on lethargy. It counts on us to remain passive, to accept its advertisements as gospel, to buy unconsciously and allow it to continue destroying our planet...
You personally have a great deal of power; it is essential that you allow your passions to rise up, channel them in ways that compliment your talents, and take action. The course you choose must come from your heart, not the dictates of anyone else. You simply need to step forward."
-John Perkins, The Secret History of American Empire
You personally have a great deal of power; it is essential that you allow your passions to rise up, channel them in ways that compliment your talents, and take action. The course you choose must come from your heart, not the dictates of anyone else. You simply need to step forward."
-John Perkins, The Secret History of American Empire
Interplast
I came across a remarkable NGO after reading Nicholas Kristof's piece today on acid attack victims in South Asia-Interplast. What remarkable work is being done by some of the bravest and truest heroes this world has to offer.
http://www.interplast.org/
Interplast on NPR:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90272832
Their mission statement:
Since 1969, Interplast has provided free life-changing surgery for children and adults with clefts, disabling burns and hand injuries. In Africa, Asia and Latin America, Interplast empowers and trains local doctors — and creates free access to surgical care where none previously existed.
28 November 2008
Take Three
Forty-three of the fifty-three African nations suffer from chronic hunger and low income levels; famine and drought periodically plague large areas; mineral resources are exploited by foreign industries that take advantage of lax regulations and corrupt officials to avoid investing their profits locally, thus perpetuating weak economies and incompetent governments; people are driven to violence, ethnic conflict, and Civil War; three million children die each year from hunger and hunger-related diseases; the average life expectancy for the continent is forty-six, approximately that of the United States in 1900; and 45 percent of the population is under the age of fifteen but will never realize their productive potentials because of hunger, cholera, yellow fever, malaria, TB, polio, HIV/AIDS, and war. Nearly thirty million Africans suffer from HIV, and millions of children have been orphaned by AIDS.
Africa brings all the issues together. It is, in a way, the last frontier of unabashed exploitation and it receives that dubious honor because we have allowed ourselves to be drugged into a stupor of self-deception. We succumb to television ads hawking cheap diamonds and gold. We brag about declining prices for laptops and cell phones. We waste gasoline and complain when the prices rise. We sweep the faces of diamond and gold miners and children poisoned by oil spills under the rug of materialistic greed.
Africa cups her hands and shouts to us. It is indeed time to change.
-John Perkins, The Secret History of American Empire
Africa brings all the issues together. It is, in a way, the last frontier of unabashed exploitation and it receives that dubious honor because we have allowed ourselves to be drugged into a stupor of self-deception. We succumb to television ads hawking cheap diamonds and gold. We brag about declining prices for laptops and cell phones. We waste gasoline and complain when the prices rise. We sweep the faces of diamond and gold miners and children poisoned by oil spills under the rug of materialistic greed.
Africa cups her hands and shouts to us. It is indeed time to change.
-John Perkins, The Secret History of American Empire
Secret History of the American Empire Take 2
The United States exemplified democracy and justice for about two hundred years. Our Declaration of Independence and Constitution inspired freedom movements on every continent. We led efforts to create global institutions that reflected our ideals. During the twentieth century, our leadership in movements promoting democracy and justice increased; we were instrumental in creating the Permanent Court of International Justice in The Hague, the Covenant of the League of Nations, the Charter of the United Nations, the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, and many U.N. Conventions.
Since the end of World War II, however, our position as leader has eroded, the model we presented to the world undermined by a corporatocracy hell-bent on empire building. We claimed to defend democracy in places like Vietnam; at the same time, we ousted and assassinated democratically elected presidents. High school students throughout Latin America understood that the United States had overthrown Chile's Allende, Iran's Mossadegh, Guatemala's Arbenz, Brazil's Goulart, Iraq's Qasim-even if our own students were unaware of such things. Washington's policies transmitted a confusing message to the world. Our actions undercut our most hallowed ideals.
-John Perkins
Since the end of World War II, however, our position as leader has eroded, the model we presented to the world undermined by a corporatocracy hell-bent on empire building. We claimed to defend democracy in places like Vietnam; at the same time, we ousted and assassinated democratically elected presidents. High school students throughout Latin America understood that the United States had overthrown Chile's Allende, Iran's Mossadegh, Guatemala's Arbenz, Brazil's Goulart, Iraq's Qasim-even if our own students were unaware of such things. Washington's policies transmitted a confusing message to the world. Our actions undercut our most hallowed ideals.
-John Perkins
The Elders
2008 is the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights 60th anniversary. It's
time for a global conversation about
human rights and the values that unite
us as one human family.
Human Rights 60th anniversary. It's
time for a global conversation about
human rights and the values that unite
us as one human family.
Military Industrial Empire Take One
America's move into the "Dark Continent," reported by Paul Salopek for the Chicago Tribune; without a doubt, the move propagated by an insatiable thirst for the minerals and oil lying beneath the red earth; without a doubt, the move propagated by the foreboding presence of America's new super-rival, China. And we ask; in what realm is America still the world's lone, undisputed superpower? In what realm is our influence undiminished? In what realm is our industrial corporate complex tenaciously unchallenged?
Paul Salopek, Chicago Tribune
Hearts and minds
Staff Sgt. Cynthia Ramirez sums up the mission of AFRICOM, the Pentagon's newest command: 'Hearts and minds. And we're showing the bad guys we can go anywhere.' (Tribune photo by E. Jason Wambsgans / January 13, 2008)
TADJOURA, Djibouti—In hundreds of military training programs from the Sahara to the Seychelles, the U.S. is quietly bolstering Africa's ragtag armies to fight extremism so the Pentagon won't have to.
Some experts have taken to calling this strategy—not always admiringly—"America's African Rifles" after an indigenous African unit organized by Britain to fight its bloody colonial wars of the 19th Century.
Over the past five years, 21 African countries have hosted military instructors in the biggest-ever U.S. training effort on the continent.
Green Berets have taught troops from impoverished Niger how to parachute from planes. Ugandans have been shown how to patrol their lakes in speedboats. And some 39,000 African troops have cycled through U.S. peacekeeping courses.
Soldiers in the Djibouti branch of this vast effort speak spare, unplaceable English. They are U.S. military trainers from Guam—Bravo Company, 1/294th Infantry Battalion.
"We've worked with hundreds of Kenyans, Ethiopians and now Djiboutians," said Staff Sgt. Albert Ignacio, 44, a fireplug of a man who had spent just 45 days at home during a three-year stint in Africa. "Africans are hungry for our help. They have so little. Most of the time, they don't even have ammo to shoot. We bring it."
In fact, the Pentagon has been bringing ammo and expertise to its African allies with a single-minded purpose since 9/11. Maintaining such programs will be one of the goals of AFRICOM. Yet in the Horn of Africa, the use of such proxy forces has had alarming results.
Critics say the administration's decision to back the Ethiopian invasion of Somalia in late 2006 has backfired, strengthening Somali extremist groups and damaging counterterrorism efforts. Today a deadly Islamist insurgency threatens to overrun the capital, Mogadishu, and topple a frail, U.S.-supported government. Inviting comparisons with Iraq, the violence has displaced roughly a million civilians.
Ignacio took a long view of U.S. involvement in Africa.
"We're back in Cold War mode," he said, recalling how he trained Honduran forces during Ronald Reagan's shadow conflicts with the Soviets in Central America. "When will we be done here? Not for a long time."
Paul Salopek, Chicago Tribune
Hearts and minds
Staff Sgt. Cynthia Ramirez sums up the mission of AFRICOM, the Pentagon's newest command: 'Hearts and minds. And we're showing the bad guys we can go anywhere.' (Tribune photo by E. Jason Wambsgans / January 13, 2008)
TADJOURA, Djibouti—In hundreds of military training programs from the Sahara to the Seychelles, the U.S. is quietly bolstering Africa's ragtag armies to fight extremism so the Pentagon won't have to.
Some experts have taken to calling this strategy—not always admiringly—"America's African Rifles" after an indigenous African unit organized by Britain to fight its bloody colonial wars of the 19th Century.
Over the past five years, 21 African countries have hosted military instructors in the biggest-ever U.S. training effort on the continent.
Green Berets have taught troops from impoverished Niger how to parachute from planes. Ugandans have been shown how to patrol their lakes in speedboats. And some 39,000 African troops have cycled through U.S. peacekeeping courses.
Soldiers in the Djibouti branch of this vast effort speak spare, unplaceable English. They are U.S. military trainers from Guam—Bravo Company, 1/294th Infantry Battalion.
"We've worked with hundreds of Kenyans, Ethiopians and now Djiboutians," said Staff Sgt. Albert Ignacio, 44, a fireplug of a man who had spent just 45 days at home during a three-year stint in Africa. "Africans are hungry for our help. They have so little. Most of the time, they don't even have ammo to shoot. We bring it."
In fact, the Pentagon has been bringing ammo and expertise to its African allies with a single-minded purpose since 9/11. Maintaining such programs will be one of the goals of AFRICOM. Yet in the Horn of Africa, the use of such proxy forces has had alarming results.
Critics say the administration's decision to back the Ethiopian invasion of Somalia in late 2006 has backfired, strengthening Somali extremist groups and damaging counterterrorism efforts. Today a deadly Islamist insurgency threatens to overrun the capital, Mogadishu, and topple a frail, U.S.-supported government. Inviting comparisons with Iraq, the violence has displaced roughly a million civilians.
Ignacio took a long view of U.S. involvement in Africa.
"We're back in Cold War mode," he said, recalling how he trained Honduran forces during Ronald Reagan's shadow conflicts with the Soviets in Central America. "When will we be done here? Not for a long time."
27 November 2008
Consumer Revolt
"Business is more powerful than government, and is more powerful than religion.
I don't think that any product should enter these lands that has been tarnished by child labor or sweatshop labor. And yet, its allowed by the World Trade Organization.
Wealth should be the ability to be generous."
-Anita Ruddock
I don't think that any product should enter these lands that has been tarnished by child labor or sweatshop labor. And yet, its allowed by the World Trade Organization.
Wealth should be the ability to be generous."
-Anita Ruddock
26 November 2008
meltdown
"In Bakersfield, Calif., a Mexican strawberry picker with an income of $14,000 and no English was lent every penny he needed to buy a house for $720,000...
That’s how we got here — a near total breakdown of responsibility at every link in our financial chain, and now we either bail out the people who brought us here or risk a total systemic crash. These are the wages of our sins. I used to say our kids will pay dearly for this. But actually, it’s our problem. For the next few years we’re all going to be working harder for less money and fewer government services — if we’re lucky. "
-Thomas Friedman on the meltdown
That’s how we got here — a near total breakdown of responsibility at every link in our financial chain, and now we either bail out the people who brought us here or risk a total systemic crash. These are the wages of our sins. I used to say our kids will pay dearly for this. But actually, it’s our problem. For the next few years we’re all going to be working harder for less money and fewer government services — if we’re lucky. "
-Thomas Friedman on the meltdown
American Empire, Take One
"Africa brings all the issues together. It is, in a way, the last frontier of unabashed exploitation and it receives that dubious honor because we have allowed ourselves to be drugged into a stupor of self-deception. We succumb to television ads hawking cheap diamonds and gold. We brag about declining prices for laptops and cell phones. We waste gasoline and complain when the prices rise. We sweep the faces of diamond and gold miners and children poisoned by oil spills under the rug of materialistic greed.
We forget that our own children will inherit that rug. They will be called upon to replace it. They will have to clean up the terrible messes we leave behind.
Africa cups her hands and shouts to us. It is indeed time to change. Together, we can lift up that carpet, remove the messes, and quite literally clean out the house we are about the hand over to our children."
-John Perkins, The Secret History of the American Empire
We forget that our own children will inherit that rug. They will be called upon to replace it. They will have to clean up the terrible messes we leave behind.
Africa cups her hands and shouts to us. It is indeed time to change. Together, we can lift up that carpet, remove the messes, and quite literally clean out the house we are about the hand over to our children."
-John Perkins, The Secret History of the American Empire
Society
Oh it's a mystery to me.
We have a greed, with which we have agreed...and you think you have to want more than you need...until you have it all, you won't be free.
Society, you're a crazy breed.
I hope you're not lonely, without me.
When you want more than you have, you think you need...and when you think more then you want, your thoughts begin to bleed.
I think I need to find a bigger place...cause when you have more than you think, you need more space.
Society, you're a crazy breed.
I hope you're not lonely, without me.
Society, crazy indeed...I hope you're not lonely, without me.
There's those thinkin' more or less, less is more,but if less is more, how you keepin' score?
It means for every point you make, your level drops.Kinda like you're startin' from the top...and you can't do that.
Society, you're a crazy breed.
I hope you're not lonely, without me.
Society, crazy indeed...I hope you're not lonely, without me
Society, have mercy on me.
I hope you're not angry, if I disagree.Society, crazy indeed.
I hope you're not lonely...
25 November 2008
Death in the time of Cholera
disease outbreak, a symptom of the larger state of distress, the shuttering of public services, the dementia of a state of demise.
but alas, the eternal question: what is to be done?
the political settlements have collapsed, the political bickering is all that continues of the due process of law and governance; the people of zimbabwe have collapsed, famine, disease, hopelessness ravaged;
with no hope for a brighter future, people will lose the will to cope with the present.
what is to be done, when the will for action is exhausted before it has even begun? what is to be done, when the actors in this cruel drama spend all their time in rehearsal, producing nothing, and caring nothing for the audience streaming out of the theater?
what is to be done when the international community is so paralyzed by their own plight, that murderous dictators can move unabated through their killing fields without fear of justice?
what is to be done, when, in recent history, civilians in need of protection from their own governments have met with nothing but blind stares and empty promises? when there is simply no appetite in the West for leadership or contribution to peacekeeping forces, when the drift created turns into a tsunami of neglect, when the collateral damage of taking out the primary target is worth the strike, yet nobody is standing behind the trigger?
what is to be done with old Mr. Mugabe and his band of cronies, driving Zimbabwe into a ditch of colossal proportions?
The Secretary General of the UN commented on the situation in stark terms:
Mr Ban said he was deeply concerned that nearly half of the country's population of 12 million people could require food assistance and that many people were reportedly cutting back on their daily meals.
He added that he was distressed by the "collapse of health, sanitation and education services, and the consequent rapidly escalating cholera outbreak".
but alas, the eternal question: what is to be done?
the political settlements have collapsed, the political bickering is all that continues of the due process of law and governance; the people of zimbabwe have collapsed, famine, disease, hopelessness ravaged;
with no hope for a brighter future, people will lose the will to cope with the present.
what is to be done, when the will for action is exhausted before it has even begun? what is to be done, when the actors in this cruel drama spend all their time in rehearsal, producing nothing, and caring nothing for the audience streaming out of the theater?
what is to be done when the international community is so paralyzed by their own plight, that murderous dictators can move unabated through their killing fields without fear of justice?
what is to be done, when, in recent history, civilians in need of protection from their own governments have met with nothing but blind stares and empty promises? when there is simply no appetite in the West for leadership or contribution to peacekeeping forces, when the drift created turns into a tsunami of neglect, when the collateral damage of taking out the primary target is worth the strike, yet nobody is standing behind the trigger?
what is to be done with old Mr. Mugabe and his band of cronies, driving Zimbabwe into a ditch of colossal proportions?
The Secretary General of the UN commented on the situation in stark terms:
Mr Ban said he was deeply concerned that nearly half of the country's population of 12 million people could require food assistance and that many people were reportedly cutting back on their daily meals.
He added that he was distressed by the "collapse of health, sanitation and education services, and the consequent rapidly escalating cholera outbreak".
Books Not Bombs
Books Not Bombs....a video report on the state of development in Pakistan, courtesy of
Nicholas Kristof and the NY Times.
http://video.nytimes.com/video/2008/11/22/opinion/1194833601777/books-not-bombs.html#
Nicholas Kristof and the NY Times.
http://video.nytimes.com/video/2008/11/22/opinion/1194833601777/books-not-bombs.html#
24 November 2008
Odinga on Zimbabwe
After three members of The Elders were refused entry into Zimbabwe to observe the human rights situation and the overall deterioration of the country over the last months, Raila Odinga, Prime Minister of Kenya, remarked, ""The fact that Mugabe was a freedom fighter does not give him rights to own Zimbabwe and hang on to power."
This statement echoes loudly in the echelons of power in the African continent. Prior deeds, colonial conquests of previous decades, home grown revolutionary actions of the past, are often used as fodder for negligent and outright disgraceful leadership.
The test piece is Mr. Mugabe, who has clung to power, citing his role as an anti-imperialist revolutionary, while his country has completely deteriorated to the point of failed state. Once the breadbasket of the continent, Zimbabwe is now the basketacse. What a terrible shame.
While the politicans continue to bicker, the country crumbled; while Mugabe continues to plunder, the people starve and fall victim to curable disease. Jimmy Carter, one of The Elders refused entry into the country, remarked, "The crisis in Zimbabwe is much worse than anything we have imagined". What a terrible shame for humanity.
This statement echoes loudly in the echelons of power in the African continent. Prior deeds, colonial conquests of previous decades, home grown revolutionary actions of the past, are often used as fodder for negligent and outright disgraceful leadership.
The test piece is Mr. Mugabe, who has clung to power, citing his role as an anti-imperialist revolutionary, while his country has completely deteriorated to the point of failed state. Once the breadbasket of the continent, Zimbabwe is now the basketacse. What a terrible shame.
While the politicans continue to bicker, the country crumbled; while Mugabe continues to plunder, the people starve and fall victim to curable disease. Jimmy Carter, one of The Elders refused entry into the country, remarked, "The crisis in Zimbabwe is much worse than anything we have imagined". What a terrible shame for humanity.
23 November 2008
Power on Humanitarianism
Governments are guided primarily by national security and economic concerns, and large-scale suffering tends to register only when powerful domestic political constituencies force it onto the agenda...
History is laden with belligerent leaders using humanitarian rhetoric to mask geopolitical aims. History also shows how often ill-informed moralism has led to foreign entanglements that do more harm than good. But history shows the costs, too—in Rwanda and today in Darfur—of failing to prevent mass murder. The fate of future atrocity victims may turn on whether it is possible to find a path between blinding zeal and paralyzing perfectionism.
-Samantha Power, reviewing Gary Bass' Freedom's Battle
History is laden with belligerent leaders using humanitarian rhetoric to mask geopolitical aims. History also shows how often ill-informed moralism has led to foreign entanglements that do more harm than good. But history shows the costs, too—in Rwanda and today in Darfur—of failing to prevent mass murder. The fate of future atrocity victims may turn on whether it is possible to find a path between blinding zeal and paralyzing perfectionism.
-Samantha Power, reviewing Gary Bass' Freedom's Battle
little has changed
Recent figures from Darfur, courtesy of The Economist, which reports, "For all the vast international effort put into improving the situation in Darfur, the thousands of UN and diplomatic man-hours and the hundreds of millions of dollars in aid, little has changed."
About 2.7m people are now crowding into overflowing makeshift camps in Darfur itself, and about another 300,000 are in camps over the border in Chad. In all about 5m Darfuris, out of a population of 6m at the last official count in 2002, are either in camps or are relying on aid to survive. And as many as 300,000 have probably died as a result of the conflict.
Eleven humanitarian workers have been killed this year and 179 kidnapped. Some 237 aid vehicles have also been hijacked this year, already double the number for 2007. The UN in Darfur has moved to its highest level of alert before full evacuation. All non-essential staff have left.
20 November 2008
Democracy is Dissent
The questioning of authority is the bedrock of our system of government, and thus, if our system of ideals. Cornell West stated in a recent interview, "Real hope is grounded in a particularly messy struggle." And in this new age of hope, of "Yes we can," of a retreat of the forces of destruction in our government, a new breed begins to take hold; a new breed taken from the same mold as the old breed, differing in color more than substance and interest, red to blue, white to black, greed is still exemplified by the same innate characteristics. A recycling of the Clintonian-era; are there not new, more capable minds, deserving of positions of power in this new era of government? Why are the same faces, the same names, the same entrenched interests, being dug up, propped up, again and again? Is this the change that we bargained and hoped and voted for?
West continued, "We must move from symbol to substance." We must move from the symbol of change, the symbol of a new era, to actually implementing this change and what this means for the country; we must resist the temptation to backslide, to give in to the same vested, entrenched interests that have so badly damaged this country and economy over the last number of years, who have created the bipolar social atmosphere which has the capability of igniting if not smothered with the decency demanded November 4th.
Is this the continuation of the Empire? Is this the continuation of American hegemony? Is the the continued grasping for a unipolar world, ignorant of the realities of the geopolitical realm? Is this the desperation of the vested interests and military-industrial complex as their global influence, and thus, life blood, diminishes?
Obama has been rumored to have picked Eric Holden to be his new Attorney General; Holden, a Clinton holdover, is also a manifestation of the corporate interests of the United States and their historical and continuing repression of indigenous and impovershed cultures and communities around the globe. He has recently been defending one of the worst human rights violating US companies, Chiquita, in its lawsuit against Columbian working familes who have been targeted by death squads, funded by the fruit company. This follows in a long line of US imperialism and malevolence in the region, fueled by the agricultural interests of our large fruit growers, think: The United Fruit Company and the overthrow of two central american countries, and the propping up of the "Banana Republics" of the region for decades.
Lets hope Obama really does represent the change promised; lets hope new minds can be brought to the forefront; lets hope we can learn from the mistakes of the past, and move forward, not backwards, into the future.
"You cant lead the people if you dont love the people. You cant save the people if you wont serve the people."
-Cornell West
West continued, "We must move from symbol to substance." We must move from the symbol of change, the symbol of a new era, to actually implementing this change and what this means for the country; we must resist the temptation to backslide, to give in to the same vested, entrenched interests that have so badly damaged this country and economy over the last number of years, who have created the bipolar social atmosphere which has the capability of igniting if not smothered with the decency demanded November 4th.
Is this the continuation of the Empire? Is this the continuation of American hegemony? Is the the continued grasping for a unipolar world, ignorant of the realities of the geopolitical realm? Is this the desperation of the vested interests and military-industrial complex as their global influence, and thus, life blood, diminishes?
Obama has been rumored to have picked Eric Holden to be his new Attorney General; Holden, a Clinton holdover, is also a manifestation of the corporate interests of the United States and their historical and continuing repression of indigenous and impovershed cultures and communities around the globe. He has recently been defending one of the worst human rights violating US companies, Chiquita, in its lawsuit against Columbian working familes who have been targeted by death squads, funded by the fruit company. This follows in a long line of US imperialism and malevolence in the region, fueled by the agricultural interests of our large fruit growers, think: The United Fruit Company and the overthrow of two central american countries, and the propping up of the "Banana Republics" of the region for decades.
Lets hope Obama really does represent the change promised; lets hope new minds can be brought to the forefront; lets hope we can learn from the mistakes of the past, and move forward, not backwards, into the future.
"You cant lead the people if you dont love the people. You cant save the people if you wont serve the people."
-Cornell West
Do They Deserve Protection?
Many questions on life and humanity are contained in a letter sent on
behalf of 44 NGO's in the East of Congo, to the UN Security Council. The complete document is linked to at:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7738452.stm
This is one particulary moving section of the letter:
This letter presents a sad, cynical, tragic and very frustrating situation, which
reveals the misery in which the population of North Kivu are immersed. We
are anxious, afraid and utterly traumatised by the constant insecurity in which
we live. We don’t know which saint to pray to; we are condemned to death by
all this violence and displacement. We have been abandoned. Who will protect
us? Who will help us? The United Nations says that all human beings are born
free and equal in dignity and rights, but our dignity and our rights are violated
every day with hardly a cry of protest. Do we not deserve protection? Are we
not equal to others?
behalf of 44 NGO's in the East of Congo, to the UN Security Council. The complete document is linked to at:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7738452.stm
This is one particulary moving section of the letter:
This letter presents a sad, cynical, tragic and very frustrating situation, which
reveals the misery in which the population of North Kivu are immersed. We
are anxious, afraid and utterly traumatised by the constant insecurity in which
we live. We don’t know which saint to pray to; we are condemned to death by
all this violence and displacement. We have been abandoned. Who will protect
us? Who will help us? The United Nations says that all human beings are born
free and equal in dignity and rights, but our dignity and our rights are violated
every day with hardly a cry of protest. Do we not deserve protection? Are we
not equal to others?
19 November 2008
Corruption in Angola
The BBC Reported that Anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International rated Angola one of the 10 most corrupt countries in the world in 2005, noting that like many countries with oil resources it faces "inexplicable poverty and deprivation".Global Witness Reports:
The facts present a relatively stark case to the international community: at least $1 billion -- about a third of Angola’s total budget -- went missing last year. This missing money is about five times the $200 million that the United Nations barely managed to scrape together that year to feed one million internally displaced people dependent on international food aid.
Revenues from oil make up an estimated 90 percent of Angolan state income, yet they remain opaque. The government issues no clear figures and state oil companies remain unaudited and unaccountable.
Some startling stats from oil rich Angola:
In 2004, Human Rights Watch found the government could not account for US$4 billion spent between 1997 and 2002 Transparency International ranked Angola 142 out of 163 countries in the Corruption Perception Index just after Venezuela and before the Republic of the Congo with a 2.2 rating.
18 November 2008
Virunga
The continuing saga of the Virunga Mountain Gorillas, caught in the crossfire of the raging violence in the east of Congo. The endagered mammals are on the brink, encapsulated by the
untold suffering of the world's most unstable region. I wrote about this awhile back, after being moved by the National Geographic cover story on the murder of ten of the mountain gorillas a year back. And the delicate thread continues to unravel.
From today's NYTimes International Section:
Eastern Congo is home to almost a third of the world’s last 700 wild mountain gorillas (the rest are in nearby areas of Rwanda and Uganda). Now, there are no trained rangers to protect them. More than 240 Congolese game wardens have been run off their posts, including some who narrowly escaped a surging rebel advance last month and slogged through the jungle for three days living off leaves and scoopfuls of mud for hydration.
“We figured if the gorillas can eat leaves, so can we,” said Sekibibi Desire, who is staying in a tent near the other rangers.
This is just the latest crisis within a crisis. Congo’s gorillas happen to live in one of the most contested, blood-soaked pieces of turf in one of the most contested, blood-soaked corners of Africa. Their home, Virunga National Park, is high ground — with mist-shrouded mountains and pointy volcanoes — along the porous Congo-Rwanda border, where rebels are suspected of smuggling in weapons from Rwanda. Last year in Virunga, 10 gorillas were killed, some shot in the back of the head, execution style, park officials said.
“We figured if the gorillas can eat leaves, so can we,” said Sekibibi Desire, who is staying in a tent near the other rangers.
This is just the latest crisis within a crisis. Congo’s gorillas happen to live in one of the most contested, blood-soaked pieces of turf in one of the most contested, blood-soaked corners of Africa. Their home, Virunga National Park, is high ground — with mist-shrouded mountains and pointy volcanoes — along the porous Congo-Rwanda border, where rebels are suspected of smuggling in weapons from Rwanda. Last year in Virunga, 10 gorillas were killed, some shot in the back of the head, execution style, park officials said.
What can I do?
17 November 2008
Angolagate
From Global Witness; the trials and tribulations of resource-rich Angola, a place where the outrageously-rich rub elbows with the devastatingly poor a place where the ruling elites have taken the concept of corruption to a new level; a place that is being courted by all global powers, eager to tap into the vast oil and diamond reserves contained in its territory. Global Witness does remarkable work in the arena of global corruption investigation...
Angolagate trial opens - Global Witness comment
Press Release – 03/10/2008
Angolagate trial - 3rd October 2008
Global Witness welcomes the start of the long awaited Angolagate trial taking place in Paris from October 6th 2008. This long running judicial investigation covers a dark period in Angola's turbulent and troubled history and dissects in intimate detail the geopolitical machinations of various nation states in the post cold war period. It will show how Russian, American and French geopolitical interests tangoed with a morally blind international banking and oil trading system to set up the looting of the Angolan state - which continues to this day to the overall detriment of the long suffering Angolan population.
Global Witness believes that for anything positive to come out of this politically embarrassing trial for the French and Angolan establishment, then lessons must be learned. Many of the key players in this decade long saga are still in positions of government and considerable power utilising the networks and financial systems that were established to covertly arm the ruling Angolan regime.
Key Angolan officials - from the President down - personally benefited to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars in kickbacks or bribes - usually described as ‘commissions'. Many of these officials still hold their governmental positions or have gone onto increase their personal power base ensuring that the Angolan state has become their own private business enterprise.
Commentators, regulators and law enforcement officials must look beyond the focus of the trial - the French political and corruption scandal - to the much bigger scandal of how a resource rich but desperately poor country had and is having its natural resources looted for the benefit of a small Angolan kleptocratic elite which included and includes key middlemen and corporate interests.
The banks, oil trading companies, financial institutions, regulators, arms procurement companies, offshore financial centres and governments that were involved in this sage must ensure that the middlemen and government officials that personally enriched themselves with the wealth of the Angolan state must not be allowed to do so again. A significant percentage of the Angolan population still have no access to clean water, education, food or medical attention which should be considered a crime against humanity for a country which is Africa's top oil producer.
Angolagate trial opens - Global Witness comment
Press Release – 03/10/2008
Angolagate trial - 3rd October 2008
Global Witness welcomes the start of the long awaited Angolagate trial taking place in Paris from October 6th 2008. This long running judicial investigation covers a dark period in Angola's turbulent and troubled history and dissects in intimate detail the geopolitical machinations of various nation states in the post cold war period. It will show how Russian, American and French geopolitical interests tangoed with a morally blind international banking and oil trading system to set up the looting of the Angolan state - which continues to this day to the overall detriment of the long suffering Angolan population.
Global Witness believes that for anything positive to come out of this politically embarrassing trial for the French and Angolan establishment, then lessons must be learned. Many of the key players in this decade long saga are still in positions of government and considerable power utilising the networks and financial systems that were established to covertly arm the ruling Angolan regime.
Key Angolan officials - from the President down - personally benefited to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars in kickbacks or bribes - usually described as ‘commissions'. Many of these officials still hold their governmental positions or have gone onto increase their personal power base ensuring that the Angolan state has become their own private business enterprise.
Commentators, regulators and law enforcement officials must look beyond the focus of the trial - the French political and corruption scandal - to the much bigger scandal of how a resource rich but desperately poor country had and is having its natural resources looted for the benefit of a small Angolan kleptocratic elite which included and includes key middlemen and corporate interests.
The banks, oil trading companies, financial institutions, regulators, arms procurement companies, offshore financial centres and governments that were involved in this sage must ensure that the middlemen and government officials that personally enriched themselves with the wealth of the Angolan state must not be allowed to do so again. A significant percentage of the Angolan population still have no access to clean water, education, food or medical attention which should be considered a crime against humanity for a country which is Africa's top oil producer.
An Important Question
"What should the world’s strongest and (still) richest country do when famine or conflict strike places whose own governments will not or cannot help, where America has no direct interest, but where averting a humanitarian disaster may require military intervention?
...And yet a strong moral case remains for forceful outside intervention in desperate cases. Would the world still do nothing if it had a second chance to avert genocide in Rwanda? And the practical case is stronger than the failures suggest. From the Balkans to Liberia to Sierra Leone to Kosovo, armed intervention has, on balance, helped to end or forestall catastrophes.."
-The Economist Nov. 13th Print Edition
...And yet a strong moral case remains for forceful outside intervention in desperate cases. Would the world still do nothing if it had a second chance to avert genocide in Rwanda? And the practical case is stronger than the failures suggest. From the Balkans to Liberia to Sierra Leone to Kosovo, armed intervention has, on balance, helped to end or forestall catastrophes.."
-The Economist Nov. 13th Print Edition
Words
"When elephants fight, its the grass that suffers."
-Swahili Saying
"We are witnessing a fundamental reassessment of the value of every asset everywhere in the world."
-Kevin Warsh, Fed Governor
-Swahili Saying
"We are witnessing a fundamental reassessment of the value of every asset everywhere in the world."
-Kevin Warsh, Fed Governor
New Nikes...
In 2005, Jim Keady and Leslie Kretzu lived with Nike factory workers in Indonesia…these are their words….
We slept on thin mats on an uneven cement floor covered in shelf paper, which had a constant layer of ash and grit from the burning garbage, factory pollution, and car exhaust fumes. The toilets drained into open sewers on both sides of every street. Because of the sewers, the village was infested with fist-sized cockroaches and the biggest rats we’d ever seen.
Try on these shoes. You are a 20-something adult working 8am to 8pm, Monday through Saturday and sometimes Sunday. That doesn’t include travel time or preparing yourself for work. You don’t have the money to celebrate a friend’s birthday. You can’t afford a radio or even think about a television. You haven’t bought yourself something new to wear in over 2 years. When you get home at the end of the day, you have to spend 30-45 minutes doing your laundry by hand. You don’t have many clothes, and whatever you wear is visibly dirty at the end of the day. You’re exhausted. You can feel the tired in your bones. You’re afraid that if you speak up, you’ll lose your job. And the multinational company that you work for is telling the world that they’ve made serious changes, and consumers need not worry….unfortunately, it wasn’t just Nike workers who lived in these conditions and on these wages. We spoke to people producing for Adidas, Reebok, The Gap, Old Navy, Tommy Hilfiger, Polo/Ralph Lauren, Lotto, Fila, and Levi’s. All earned the same poverty wages, lived in the same types of slums, and had the same requests of their corporate buyers: give us higher wages and the freedom to organize independent unions.
…If Nike were to double all of their workers’ wages in Indonesia, it would cost them approximately 7% of their $1.63 billion advertising budget. If Nike redirected a portion of their advertising budget to paying the factory more money per good, we could see most of these sweatshop labor conditions vanish.”
We slept on thin mats on an uneven cement floor covered in shelf paper, which had a constant layer of ash and grit from the burning garbage, factory pollution, and car exhaust fumes. The toilets drained into open sewers on both sides of every street. Because of the sewers, the village was infested with fist-sized cockroaches and the biggest rats we’d ever seen.
Try on these shoes. You are a 20-something adult working 8am to 8pm, Monday through Saturday and sometimes Sunday. That doesn’t include travel time or preparing yourself for work. You don’t have the money to celebrate a friend’s birthday. You can’t afford a radio or even think about a television. You haven’t bought yourself something new to wear in over 2 years. When you get home at the end of the day, you have to spend 30-45 minutes doing your laundry by hand. You don’t have many clothes, and whatever you wear is visibly dirty at the end of the day. You’re exhausted. You can feel the tired in your bones. You’re afraid that if you speak up, you’ll lose your job. And the multinational company that you work for is telling the world that they’ve made serious changes, and consumers need not worry….unfortunately, it wasn’t just Nike workers who lived in these conditions and on these wages. We spoke to people producing for Adidas, Reebok, The Gap, Old Navy, Tommy Hilfiger, Polo/Ralph Lauren, Lotto, Fila, and Levi’s. All earned the same poverty wages, lived in the same types of slums, and had the same requests of their corporate buyers: give us higher wages and the freedom to organize independent unions.
…If Nike were to double all of their workers’ wages in Indonesia, it would cost them approximately 7% of their $1.63 billion advertising budget. If Nike redirected a portion of their advertising budget to paying the factory more money per good, we could see most of these sweatshop labor conditions vanish.”
14 November 2008
Corporatocracy
I am as proud an American as anyone else with the election of Barack Obama to be the next leader of this country; however, one thing always disturbs me when it crosses my eyes; the fact that Obama raised more than $600 million for his election campaign. This astonishing amount was contributed to by regular citizens, donating $5, $10, $20 at a time; but the vast majority came from the corporatocracy of this nation, to support their deeply entrenched special interests; the same interests that have taken complete control of our government over the last 8 years. This reminds me of the change really needed in this country, and least likely to occur, while our politicians are beholden to the major corporations and the wealthy who control them. David Brooks writes, "It is all a reminder that the biggest threat to a healthy economy is not the socialists of campaign lore. It’s C.E.O.’s. It’s politically powerful crony capitalists who use their influence to create a stagnant corporate welfare state."
We see Obama and the democrats walking this dangerous path already, pushing for the bailout of an industry that needs to live and die by the rules of capitalism, the big 3 of Detroit, who have shunned innovation in favor of intervention, and must be made to pay the price of reality.
"Granting immortality to Detroit’s Big Three does not enhance creative destruction. It retards it. It crosses a line, a bright line. It is not about saving a system; there will still be cars made and sold in America. It is about saving politically powerful corporations. A Detroit bailout would set a precedent for every single politically connected corporation in America. There already is a long line of lobbyists bidding for federal money. If Detroit gets money, then everyone would have a case. After all, are the employees of Circuit City or the newspaper industry inferior to the employees of Chrysler?"
-David Brooks
"The corporatocracy makes a show of promoting democracy and transparency among the nations of the world, yet its corporations are imperialistic dictatorships where very few make all the decisions and reap most of the profits. In our electoral process-the very heart of our democracy-most of us get to vote only for candidates whose campaign chests are full; therefore, we must select from among those who are beholden to the corporations and the men who own them. Contrary to our ideals, this empire is built on foundations of greed, secrecy, and excessive materialism."
-John Perkins, The Secret History of American Empire
We see Obama and the democrats walking this dangerous path already, pushing for the bailout of an industry that needs to live and die by the rules of capitalism, the big 3 of Detroit, who have shunned innovation in favor of intervention, and must be made to pay the price of reality.
"Granting immortality to Detroit’s Big Three does not enhance creative destruction. It retards it. It crosses a line, a bright line. It is not about saving a system; there will still be cars made and sold in America. It is about saving politically powerful corporations. A Detroit bailout would set a precedent for every single politically connected corporation in America. There already is a long line of lobbyists bidding for federal money. If Detroit gets money, then everyone would have a case. After all, are the employees of Circuit City or the newspaper industry inferior to the employees of Chrysler?"
-David Brooks
"The corporatocracy makes a show of promoting democracy and transparency among the nations of the world, yet its corporations are imperialistic dictatorships where very few make all the decisions and reap most of the profits. In our electoral process-the very heart of our democracy-most of us get to vote only for candidates whose campaign chests are full; therefore, we must select from among those who are beholden to the corporations and the men who own them. Contrary to our ideals, this empire is built on foundations of greed, secrecy, and excessive materialism."
-John Perkins, The Secret History of American Empire
13 November 2008
once again.
"The international community failed to stop Rwanda’s genocide and promised not to let it happen again. Has the world forgotten so quickly?"
-Editorial, NYTimes
The East of Congo teeters on the brink of the next, great, African war. The same fertile lands were already the stage for the last, great, African war, where up to 5 million are thought to have perished, forgotten by the Western world, left to the cruel fate of the developing world; of death without a voice.
And once again, it is the mineral riches under those fertile lands that are attracting the attention of the region's unscrupulous legions; soldiers from Zimbabwe, Angola, and Rwanda are already thought to be on the ground in the region, fighting alongside the numerous militias and the undisciplined, pillaging, and corrupt Congolese National Army. And it all boils down to a simple equation: who controls the land controls what lies beneath the land; and who controls the land is the one with the biggest guns, and the least respect for human rights. This is an equation that has played out to devastating consequence throughout the continent, and throughout the world, for the entire twisted, turning length and breadth of human history. And now it plays out, in real time, in front of our eyes, daring us to avert our attention, once again; daring us to allow unconscionable acts to occur, once again; daring us to test the advancement of our culture, of our civilization, once again.
from the BBC:
International efforts to bring peace to the region are increasingly focussed on the way that factions in the region have been using its mineral wealth to buy arms.
The war has become a private racket with minerals providing the motive for carrying on fighting
The untapped wealth of the forested landscape is worth billions of dollars but only a tiny fraction of that reaches the pockets of ordinary citizens.
The recent battles in the eastern Kivu region partly stem from the same Hutu-Tutsi rivalry which prompted the Rwandan genocide of the 1990s but crucially, the fighting is financed by Kivu's buried treasure.
Many people complain that the natural riches of the region are the main cause of their misery.
-Editorial, NYTimes
The East of Congo teeters on the brink of the next, great, African war. The same fertile lands were already the stage for the last, great, African war, where up to 5 million are thought to have perished, forgotten by the Western world, left to the cruel fate of the developing world; of death without a voice.
And once again, it is the mineral riches under those fertile lands that are attracting the attention of the region's unscrupulous legions; soldiers from Zimbabwe, Angola, and Rwanda are already thought to be on the ground in the region, fighting alongside the numerous militias and the undisciplined, pillaging, and corrupt Congolese National Army. And it all boils down to a simple equation: who controls the land controls what lies beneath the land; and who controls the land is the one with the biggest guns, and the least respect for human rights. This is an equation that has played out to devastating consequence throughout the continent, and throughout the world, for the entire twisted, turning length and breadth of human history. And now it plays out, in real time, in front of our eyes, daring us to avert our attention, once again; daring us to allow unconscionable acts to occur, once again; daring us to test the advancement of our culture, of our civilization, once again.
from the BBC:
International efforts to bring peace to the region are increasingly focussed on the way that factions in the region have been using its mineral wealth to buy arms.
The war has become a private racket with minerals providing the motive for carrying on fighting
The untapped wealth of the forested landscape is worth billions of dollars but only a tiny fraction of that reaches the pockets of ordinary citizens.
The recent battles in the eastern Kivu region partly stem from the same Hutu-Tutsi rivalry which prompted the Rwandan genocide of the 1990s but crucially, the fighting is financed by Kivu's buried treasure.
Many people complain that the natural riches of the region are the main cause of their misery.
cushioned on top
Keep in mind...when the rich are facing economic difficulty, the money hose connects to the Treasury hydrant and Bernanke and Paulson crank that pressure up high; money is sprayed with reckless abandon, fiscal responsibility, simply an afterthought in the face of wealthy distress. ...yet, during the Rwandan Genocide of 1994, when hundreds of thousands were already slaughtered, lying in the streets of Kigali and littered throughout the countryside, it was the US Government that groveled over the funds for the maintenance of 50 Armored Personnel Carriers, calling them too expensive to deploy; also haggled over and dismissed was using US Military technology to jam the hate radio that was fueling the slaughter; this was a matter of $8500 per hour. Our self-interested frugality led to the immediate and continued slaughter of hundreds of thousands of lives.
As we continue to hose down our wealthy taxpayers and wealthy financial institutions with a seemingly unending supply of taxpayer dollars, lets remember the fickleness of our past, and remind ourselves that the self interests of those in the ruling class of this country so often contradict what is both right, and also in the interest of humanity, and so often, of the masses of our own country.
From PBS Frontline:
Six weeks into the genocide, the U.N. and U.S. finally agree to a version of Gen. Dallaire's plan: nearly 5,000 mainly African U.N. forces will be sent in and the U.N. requests that the U.S. provide 50 armored personnel carriers (APCs).
Bureaucratic paralysis continues. Few African countries offer troops for the mission and the Pentagon and U.N. argue for two weeks over who will pay the costs of the APCs and who will pay for transporting them.
It takes a full month before the U.S. begins sending the APCs to Africa. They don't arrive until July.
(Pentagon memo)
"We have … concluded jamming is an ineffective and expensive mechanism.… International legal conventions complicate airborne or ground based jamming and the mountainous terrain reduces the effectiveness of either option. … It costs approximately $8500 per flight hour … "
As we continue to hose down our wealthy taxpayers and wealthy financial institutions with a seemingly unending supply of taxpayer dollars, lets remember the fickleness of our past, and remind ourselves that the self interests of those in the ruling class of this country so often contradict what is both right, and also in the interest of humanity, and so often, of the masses of our own country.
From PBS Frontline:
Six weeks into the genocide, the U.N. and U.S. finally agree to a version of Gen. Dallaire's plan: nearly 5,000 mainly African U.N. forces will be sent in and the U.N. requests that the U.S. provide 50 armored personnel carriers (APCs).
Bureaucratic paralysis continues. Few African countries offer troops for the mission and the Pentagon and U.N. argue for two weeks over who will pay the costs of the APCs and who will pay for transporting them.
It takes a full month before the U.S. begins sending the APCs to Africa. They don't arrive until July.
(Pentagon memo)
"We have … concluded jamming is an ineffective and expensive mechanism.… International legal conventions complicate airborne or ground based jamming and the mountainous terrain reduces the effectiveness of either option. … It costs approximately $8500 per flight hour … "
The True Test
At the beginning of the 19th century, Britain was the world's superpower. By the end of the 20th it was America.
The transition was preceded by two world wars. Some time this century, the balance of power will change again. Mr. Obama has inherited a world of pressing troubles. But as he tackles them, he will need to keep an eye on the longer game; how to prepare for the day when America may no longer be the sole superpower and only the first or second of many big powers. To manage that transition peacefully and still promote the spread of free markets and liberal democracy: that will be the mark of a truly great president for the 21st century.
-The Economist
the situation
every indicator, every story, every ounce of data that crosses my personal radar screen screams of a cataclysmic recession, of a fundamental change in the economic order, of a reorganization of American life; as people spend less, the economic wheels slow, and grind to a halt; we need to take this time to look within, to see what is important, to see what we already have, and understand that it is enough. as people continue living their lives, the dominos all around us continue to fall; until we are directly affected by this fundamental change, we will not come to the necessary understandings. understanding that retail is not therapy. understanding that what we own is not what we are. and this will trickle up, not down; trickle up to the Champagne and Caviar crowd that has for so long feasted like vultures on the lower classes; the ceiling will lower;
the great equalizer approaches, as the government scrambles to keep the lofty elevated, and the downtrodden depressed and subservient. except this time is different....
“When the Champagne and caviar crowd is in trouble, there is no conceivable limit to the amount of taxpayer money that can be found, and found quickly.
But when it comes to ordinary citizens in dire situations — those being thrown out of work or forced from their homes by foreclosure or driven into bankruptcy because of illness and a lack of adequate health insurance — well, then we have to start pinching pennies. That’s when it’s time to become fiscally conservative. President Bush even vetoed a bill that would have expanded health insurance coverage for children.
We can find trillions for a foolish war and for pompous, self-righteous high-rollers who wrecked their companies and the economy. But what about the working poor and the young people who are being clobbered in this downturn, battered so badly that they’re all but destitute? Can we find any way to help them?”
-Bob Herbert
the great equalizer approaches, as the government scrambles to keep the lofty elevated, and the downtrodden depressed and subservient. except this time is different....
“When the Champagne and caviar crowd is in trouble, there is no conceivable limit to the amount of taxpayer money that can be found, and found quickly.
But when it comes to ordinary citizens in dire situations — those being thrown out of work or forced from their homes by foreclosure or driven into bankruptcy because of illness and a lack of adequate health insurance — well, then we have to start pinching pennies. That’s when it’s time to become fiscally conservative. President Bush even vetoed a bill that would have expanded health insurance coverage for children.
We can find trillions for a foolish war and for pompous, self-righteous high-rollers who wrecked their companies and the economy. But what about the working poor and the young people who are being clobbered in this downturn, battered so badly that they’re all but destitute? Can we find any way to help them?”
-Bob Herbert
12 November 2008
Bailing out Detroit, and everyone else.....
Tom Friedman on the looming auto industry bailout...
I would add other conditions: Any car company that gets taxpayer money must demonstrate a plan for transforming every vehicle in its fleet to a hybrid-electric engine with flex-fuel capability, so its entire fleet can also run on next generation cellulosic ethanol.
Lastly, somebody ought to call Steve Jobs, who doesn’t need to be bribed to do innovation, and ask him if he’d like to do national service and run a car company for a year. I’d bet it wouldn’t take him much longer than that to come up with the G.M. iCar.
I would add other conditions: Any car company that gets taxpayer money must demonstrate a plan for transforming every vehicle in its fleet to a hybrid-electric engine with flex-fuel capability, so its entire fleet can also run on next generation cellulosic ethanol.
Lastly, somebody ought to call Steve Jobs, who doesn’t need to be bribed to do innovation, and ask him if he’d like to do national service and run a car company for a year. I’d bet it wouldn’t take him much longer than that to come up with the G.M. iCar.
07 November 2008
another lost opportunity?
Iran's leader sent a letter to President-Elect Obama yesterday, congratulating him on his victory, for being the new voice of the people. Let's hope that Obama does not retreat from
his stance of open communication and dialogue as the path forward in the multi-polar world; lets
hope that the days of hard-line rhetoric are history, and that a new era of understanding and diplomacy can usher in a newer, more peaceful, and more open world order than we have experienced over the last 8 years of failed policies.
Let's hope that reason can win out over fear; let's hope that clarity can reign over confusion.
We approached a similar scenario of hope with our historic middle eastern ally after 9/11; this opportunity was completely wasted and blundered by an arrogant and ignorant Bush administration.
(I wrote about this back in June, titled: Lost Opportunities-
http://jeffdow.blogspot.com/2008/06/lost-opportunities.html)
Lets hope Obama can provide the real change we need with our foreign policies.
his stance of open communication and dialogue as the path forward in the multi-polar world; lets
hope that the days of hard-line rhetoric are history, and that a new era of understanding and diplomacy can usher in a newer, more peaceful, and more open world order than we have experienced over the last 8 years of failed policies.
Let's hope that reason can win out over fear; let's hope that clarity can reign over confusion.
We approached a similar scenario of hope with our historic middle eastern ally after 9/11; this opportunity was completely wasted and blundered by an arrogant and ignorant Bush administration.
(I wrote about this back in June, titled: Lost Opportunities-
http://jeffdow.blogspot.com/2008/06/lost-opportunities.html)
Lets hope Obama can provide the real change we need with our foreign policies.
An Absolute Waste
"Many people have died for nothing. Why?"
-a caller to BBC News, concerning the renewed fighting in Eastern Congo
There is not even the cloak of revolution, the veil of idealism, covering the violence in the East of The Democratic Republic of Congo.
There is nothing but deeply ingrained ethnic hatred, brewed from the storm of the Rwandan Genocide of 1994, combined with the omnipresent greed that drives violence and agression worldwide. A brutal combination, a deadly cocktail, for the innocent victims of Congo, who have already endured so much suffering and destruction.
-a caller to BBC News, concerning the renewed fighting in Eastern Congo
There is not even the cloak of revolution, the veil of idealism, covering the violence in the East of The Democratic Republic of Congo.
There is nothing but deeply ingrained ethnic hatred, brewed from the storm of the Rwandan Genocide of 1994, combined with the omnipresent greed that drives violence and agression worldwide. A brutal combination, a deadly cocktail, for the innocent victims of Congo, who have already endured so much suffering and destruction.
words.
"To search for the Buddha outside ourselves is like trying to grasp flowing water. We only come up empty handed."
"As long as experiences are seen as seperate from the consciousness, the essence of mind and reality remains unrealized."
-Ian Baker
"As long as experiences are seen as seperate from the consciousness, the essence of mind and reality remains unrealized."
-Ian Baker
05 November 2008
Sitting
"Remain sitting at your table and listen.
Do not even listen; simply wait.
Do not even listen; simply wait.
Do not even wait; be quite still and solitary.
The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked;
it has no choice; it will roll in ecstasy at your feet."
The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked;
it has no choice; it will roll in ecstasy at your feet."
-Franz Kafka
04 November 2008
Herbert on America
A truly fantastic "state of affairs" piece of writing from Bob Herbert in today's New York Times,
titled, Beyond Election Day:
titled, Beyond Election Day:
Conservative commentators had a lot of fun mocking Barack Obama’s use of the phrase, “the fierce urgency of now.”
Noting that it had originated with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Senator Obama made it a cornerstone of his early campaign speeches.
Conservatives kicked the phrase around like a soccer ball. “The fierce urgency of now,” they would say, giggling. What does it mean?
Well, if your house is on fire and your family is still inside, that’s an example of the fierce urgency of now.
Something like that is the case in the United States right now as Americans go to the polls in what is probably the most important presidential election since World War II. A mind-boggling series of crises is threatening not just the short-term future but the very viability of the nation.
The economy is sinking into quicksand. The financial sector, guardian of the nation’s wealth, is leaning on the crutch of a trillion-dollar taxpayer bailout. The giant auto companies — for decades the high-powered, gas-guzzling, exhaust-spewing pride of American industry — are on life support.
As the holiday shopping season approaches, the nation is hemorrhaging jobs, the value of the family home has plunged, retirement plans are shrinking like ice cubes on a hot stove and economists are telling us the recession has only just begun.
It’s in that atmosphere that voters today will be choosing between the crisis-management skills of Senator Obama, who has enlisted Joe Biden as aide-de-camp, and those of Senator John McCain, who is riding to the rescue with Sarah Palin and Joe the Plumber in tow.
As important as this choice has become, the election is just a small first step. What Americans really have to decide is what kind of country they want.
Right now the United States is a country in which wealth is funneled, absurdly, from the bottom to the top. The richest 1 percent of Americans now holds close to 40 percent of all the wealth in the nation and maintains an iron grip on the levers of government power.
This is not only unfair, but self-defeating. The U.S. cannot thrive with its fabulous wealth concentrated at the top and the middle class on its knees. (No one even bothers to talk about the poor anymore.) How to correct this imbalance is one of the biggest questions facing the country.
The U.S. is also a country in which blissful ignorance is celebrated, and intellectual excellence (the key to 21st century advancement) is not just given short shrift, but is ridiculed. Paris Hilton and Britney Spears are cultural icons. The average American watches television a mind-numbing 4 1/2 hours a day.
At the same time, our public school system is plagued with some of the highest dropout rates in the industrialized world. Math and science? Forget about it. Too tough for these TV watchers, or too boring, or whatever.
“When I compare our high schools with what I see when I’m traveling abroad,” said Bill Gates, “I am terrified for our work force of tomorrow.”
The point here is that as we approach the end of the first decade of the 21st century, the United States is in deep, deep trouble. Yet instead of looking for creative, 21st-century solutions to these enormous problems, too many of our so-called leaders are behaving like clowns, or worse — spouting garbage in the public sphere that hearkens back to the 1940s and ’50s.
Thoughtful, well-educated men and women are denounced as elites, and thus the enemies of ordinary Americans. Attempts to restore a semblance of fiscal sanity to a government that has been looted with an efficiency that would have been envied by the mob, are derided as subversive — the work of socialists, Marxists, Communists.
In 2008!
In North Carolina, Senator Elizabeth Dole, a conservative Republican, is in a tough fight for re-election against a Democratic state senator, Kay Hagan. So Ms. Dole ran a television ad that showed a close-up of Ms. Hagan’s face while the voice of a different woman asserts, “There is no God!”
Americans have to decide if they want a country that tolerates this kind of debased, backward behavior. Or if they want a country that aspires to true greatness — a country that stands for more than the mere rhetoric of equality, freedom, opportunity and justice.
That decision will require more than casting a vote in one presidential election. It will require a great deal of reflective thought and hard work by a committed citizenry. The great promise of America hinges on a government that works, openly and honestly, for the broad interests of the American people, as opposed to the narrow benefit of the favored, wealthy few.
By all means, vote today. But that is just the first step toward meaningful change.
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