Naomi Klein writes a powerful article on the issue of torture and America's history of it. She contrasts America's disgust and shame of the current Iraq, Guantanamo and secret prison torture scandals with the fact that America has been conducting and "teaching" torture ever since Vietnam. Of course most American civilians won't be aware of their country's role in training Latin American officers in vicious counterinsurgency programs like forceful interrogation or the Phoenix program which resulted in thousands of deaths of suspected Vietcong members under custody, but it is much worse when members of government like Senators or Congressmen profess ignorance of this.

See here for Our Amnesiac Torture Debate

I haven't posted on this for a long time because of school and work. During this time away, I thought about what's the real purpose of this blog, what is the main goal or theme, because I know I've covered many with the articles and sites I linked to. For now, I have to give a simple explanation and say the things I post here are about injustice in this world, in different forms and places but always about injustices.

This article from Counterpunch talks about the media's role during the Katrina aftermath.
It especially blasts the misrepresentation of looting and disorder by the media and describes the real circumstances behind the poverty in New Orleans.

A little-known yet brutal occupation exists quite close to North America, the situation in Haiti. Two websites that focus on the ongoing situation there and try to shed light on the atrocities happening include "Canada out of Haiti" and Zmag's Haiti watch.

Canada has been helping a UN force establish control and security in this Caribbean country. In 2004 former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was forced into exile after an opposition-led uprising spead rapidly whilst America and other leading nations urged Aristide to step down. However under the supervision of the UN and Canada, leading political and media activists have been jailed without trial, and even worse, Canadian-trained police have been alleged to have committed massacres in slum areas in Port-au-Prince and fire on unarmed protestors in demonstrations against the government.
This piece in the McGill daily explains a lot about the events and immediat history of the Haiti situation.

2005 seems to be the year of the disasters. The Tsunami, Katrina, now the Pakistan earthquake with tens of thousands dead. In addition there was Hurricanes Rita, Stan and the ensuing flooding which killed over a thousand in Central America.

Now that New Orleans has been destroyed and its population dispersed all over the country, it's time for the wealthy, the developers and corporate using federal and private-charity relief funds to rebuild and remake the city completely to benefit the rich and big business without having to deal with the poor who will be strongly discouraged from returning.
A horrendous idea? Yes, but is it true? Naomi Klein says it is.

The damage and suffering caused by Hurricane Katrina has been terrible, even more so as it seems that the city of New Orleans will be lost or completely evacuated for at least 2 months in order for authorities to clear it up and drain waters away.
The suffering of the people who were still in the city when Katrina struck has been prolonged and increased by slow, uncoordinated and insufficient relief efforts.
With all the coverage of the hurricane's aftermath by American media, one of the worst things has been the villification of people trapped in the city as criminals and gangsters as coverage has fixated at times on reports of snipers, rapes, gangs, etc.
This Zmag article talks about the unfair coverage by US media on Katrina and about some of the factors that has led to the weak relief efforts.
One damning factor is the occupation in Iraq because not only were budgets for emergency services weakened/ reduced to allow for funding for the Iraq war/occupation, but also manpower in the form of the state's (Louisiana) National Guardsmen were reduced because many of these Guardsman are fighting in Iraq where they were sent by their President.

Death, disorder and chaos

Well, the damage wrought by Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans and surrounding areas is turning out to be catastrophe. Not just the immense physical damage done to the city but the fates of the people still in the city, with all the chaos and disorder not to mention the suffering.

What is striking besides the suffering of people, is how seemingly slow and inefficient relief services are in reaching those in need. Of course there's numberous reports of disorder including looting, shootings and even rapes which is extremely sad.
The conclusion so far is that the events in New Orleans are resembling those of poor 3rd world countries, and nothing like the world's richest and supposedly most developed country.

To have a better understanding and empathy for those Palestinians, this Zmag article talks about the situation around a few small former Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
Around the former settlements of Ganim and Kadim (population: 300) lie the Palestinian city of Jenin and many smaller satellite villages.
As the article says: "According to a map made by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, there are currently five major trenches, three fixed checkpoints, two earthen mounds, and three roadblocks in the area – all barring Palestinian freedom of movement between villages as well as the city of Jenin, all purportedly to protect of the tiny settlements of Ganim and Kadim. "

What this means essentially is that tiny Israeli settlements exist at the expense of larger Palestinian towns around them as everything is geared towards the luxury and protection of the Israeli settlers while larger numbers of neighboring Palestinians are made to suffer from isolation and poverty due to lack of access to surrounding areas including fertile land, long waits through checkpoints for travel, poor infrastructure, barren land and general poor economic and physical conditions.

This is a long, extensive article on the Darfur crisis in Sudan and the sinister role of oil.

The Darfurian genocide has resulted in deaths of hundreds of thousands and the forced migration of millions to refugee camps across the border in Chad.
The author states that oil is the main reason for inactivity by the US who do not want to risk losing access to precious oil in Sudan, which they would if they imposed sanctions on it.
As well, the long-running civil war between the government and the oppressed South has only recently been ended with a tense peace agreement so the US is now eager to move in as have oil companies from other countries.

Millions in slavery today

Forced labour - a global problem as this BBC newsreport says.
Actually forced labour is too restrained and vague a term to describe what is essentially modern-day slavery and human trafficking.
From kidnapped teen prostitutes to sex slaves to child soldiers and labourers, the range of "forced labourers" is wide and happens all over the world, especially in South Asia, Latin America and West Africa.
12.3 million indeed.

The BBC has this in-depth section on modern-day slavery here. News reports, photos, videos, and statistics on this disturbing issue are presented.

Terrorism experts? Hardly.

A fine article on American media coverage and hyping up of "terrorists" and the terrorist threat. Many times, so-called terrorism experts never get into the real reasons why terorrists happen, such as political tensions and general rage against American foreign policies etc.

The Nation's Daily Outrage todayfeatures 5 ideas
on solutions addressing major issues. Regarding the world, eliminating poverty and curbing America's militarism sure look like good ideas, you can only wish that those in power get it, if ever.

The Gaza withdrawal has been seen in diferent lights by different people on different sides in the Middle East. Some see it as a cover for the Israelis to hold on to their settlements in the more precious land of the West Bank whilst seeming cooperative towards the Palestinians getting their own state but really just throwing a bone to the Palestinians in the form of barren Gaza, others see it as a great victory for the Palestinians. So one opinion is an Israeli victory while the other is a Palestinian victory. This spiked-online.com article says, it is neither.

From the troubles the Israeli army has been enduring in forcing out the settlers and dealing with anti-withdrawal protestors plus the heat that Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon has been receiving from politicians and some of his people, it's clear this is not an easy or desirable measure in pulling out from Gaza.
At the same time, the Palestinians seem to be unclear in who exactly will be running things, whether it's the PA, the official authority, or those other organisations like Hamas for instance.

Gwynne Dyer writes of how
basically the Israelis had to withdraw for their own safety.

Certainly when looking at scenes of the Israeli withdrawal, one sees and hears so much of the pain and anguish of many of the settlers and yes, one understands that they are losing their homes, yet compared to the suffering their Palestinian neighbors endure, the settlers' sadness seem like nothing. I mean, those settlers did get compensated by their government, plus they will move into new homes, they will not be homeless.
Here's a good article from the Guardian. The writer contrasts the circumstances of the settlers withdrawal with that of the Palestinians in Rafah when their homes were demolished by Israelis for "security reasons".

Ariel Sharon's speech on the Gaza pullout, something honest and surprising from a politican for a change.
He seemed to have compassion in acknowledging the Palestinians' sad plight:
"They are crowded into especially densely populated refugee camps, in poverty and suffering, in hothouses of increasingly rising hatred, without any horizon of hope."

He understood that life "without any horizon of hope" is a proven prescription for turning human beings into walking bombs.
That anger caused by this disparity would build up into rage and terror which would erupt into more fighting between Israeli military and Palestinian militants.

And the majority of Israelis seem to support Sharon's withdrawal plan from Gaza as this article says, and the withdrawal is going ahead of schedule.

Remember that shooting of some Brazilian illegal immigrant who was acting suspiciously in the London subway? And he was dressed suspiciously too. The police shot him dead then realised it was a big mistake.
Well the thing is, it turns out he was neither running through the subway or dressed in a bulky jacket. Footage shows his death was practically, done in cold blood.

The question must be, why did the police kill that man?? All their excuses have been proven dead wrong and false.

Here's a look at Afghanistan via a roundup of the state of affairs there by Reuter's Alertnet.
It has become Asia's poorest nation, and while the devastating conflicts and wars are well-known, it's also suffered terrible natural disasters including famine and flooding.

Lawlessness in rural areas, the presence of millions of mines and unexploded ordnance strewn throughout the countryside, and health crises including tuberculosis and cholera all blight the country though things seem to be improving in the main cities.

This article describes how hypocritical the cosy relationship between the US and Saudi Arabia is, especially given the US reasons to invade Iraq such as alleged involvement in 911 which we all know were fraudulent and for which the Saudis were more at fault. Yet, all is good for the Saudis given they're the number one supplier of oil in the world. In spite of their harsh, authoritarian, not to mention bigoted, regime, where the state religion happens to be the most fundamental extremist version (Wahhabism) of their faith, executions are carried out publicly and women are not allowed to drive, Saudi Arabia receives far less condemnation from the US and other western nations than Iraq, Iran and Cuba for instance.

In Gaza,an update on the exit of the settlers to make way for the Palestinians to their own land. Not surprisingly lots of violence, drama and threats from those settlers.

A short excerpt: "One policeman had burning acid thrown into his face and several people had bloody faces. Four officers were injured, police said. "

Sri Lanka peace at risk
following the assassination of Foreign Minister Kadirgama last Friday which has led to increased tension and fears of heavy violence to erupt in the country.

This island nation is currently under a state of an ongoing ceasefire to a long, brutal civil war between the Sinhalese and minority Tamils, many of which live in Toronto. The Tamils have long fought for a separate homeland on the island because of blatant discrimination by Sinhalese though their organisation, the LTTE, popularly called the Tamil Tigers is considered a terrorist group by many. The Tigers are suspected in the death of the Foreign Minister because of his outspokenness against them, though there's no real evidence.

Gaza pullout begins

Israel begins its much-anticipated and bitter withdrawal from the Gaza strip. 8,500 settlers are supposed to be moved out so that the land can be given back to the Palestinians to fully control which Israel has occupied since the Six day war of 1967. The Gaza land, however is only one piece of land owed to the Palestinians but settled by Israelis. The West bank is the other piece and is larger with 2.4 million Palestinians but still settled by Israel and there's fears that Israel is withdrawing from Gaza in order to consolidate their hold, both politically and militarily on the West bank.

Over the last few weeks, there's been some desperate tactics by settlers and anti-pullout Jewish radicals/extremists who strongly resist ceding any land to the Palestinians, including sending activists to the settlements to obstruct police and an emotional campaign to change Ariel Sharon's mind.

With this kind of mindset, it's hard to think who's worse, the Israeli government or the Israelis themselves. Mind you, I don't think all Israelis are like this, but certainly these activists and settlers represent a major part of Israeli society. In addition, many in Sharon's own right-wing party have fiercely criticsed his plan including former PM Benjamin Netahyahu who resigned from the cabinet in protest of the Gaza pullout.

These stories from Reuters Alertnet talk about the "forgotten" humanitarian crises, those that are largely unknown and unreported by most media.

-World's forgotten crises scream for attention
-Congo war tops AlertNet poll of 'forgotten' crises

The Congo war/conflict which has caused the most bloodshed of any war since WW2, the West Africa conflicts, the HIV/AIDS epidemic, the Colombian civil war, were all cited by experts as crises that are going on, little noticed, but still causing death,displacement and suffering.
Most telling is the fact that so much attention was paid to the tsunami and its high death toll that happened at the beginning of 2005, while several crises including the ones mentioned above have death tolls that dwarf the tsunami total, especially the Congo war which since the late 90s has resulted in the deaths of over 2 million.

Everyone knows about AIDS and that it affects so much people. For those in North America, AIDS hasn't reached a point where society is becoming devastated by it, but elsewhere it's a different story.
In Africa, there're some countries where at least a third of adult professionals including teachers, police and other workers are infected, and in Botswana, upwards of 40 percent of the total population is infected. In fact, deaths actually outnumber births in several Southern African countries.
Elsewhere AIDS is rising rapidly in India, China, SE Asia, the Caribbean and Russia.
AIDS in increasingly becoming a global tragedy as this article states.

Education, lifestyle changes, condoms and improved health care including cheaper drugs, these are all methods to combat AIDS.

A site with close-up photos, some graphic and sad, of crisis sites around the world. The site is amazing, and describes itself as the "web's ONLY daily magazine of uncensored news pictures online". Visit here and see.
They have a page on Niger, see here ,where there's a severe food shortage now.

However this is bizarre, the Niger president says there's no food shortage. In the very likely situation he's wrong, I say this kind of nonsense he says really reflects badly on African leaders, as it undermines their integrity. I mean, why are you denying there's a food crisis going on when hundreds of thousands of your people are starving?

Debt relief, trade justice and more aid were requests of NGOs and poor countries to the G8 at their summit this past July. While some debt relief and more aid were promised, trade justice in the form of removal of trade barriers and subsidies by developed countries was not achieved at all.
This article makes the case for an end to subsidies which rich countries such as US provide to their own farmers so giving them an huge advantage over farmers from poor countries on the world market.
This results in farmers of poor countries struggling to survive as they're overwhelmed by competition from richer countries and low prices. Also these farmers tend their farms manually, while those from rich countries often use mechanised methods. For example, there are about 25,000 American cotton farmers while Western African has over 5 million people who owe their living to cotton.

Blood and gravy- how (official) corruption goes on in Iraq with Halliburton. Besides Halliburton's extortion against competitors, its selfish and abominable behavior extends to its own employees, food servers who hail from poorer countries like Turkey and Phillipines. And just to show its evenhandedness, Halliburton treats American soldiers shabbily too, reserving low-quality, spoiled food for them. This other article also highlights the shabby treatment meted out to workers and soldiers as well, just scroll to the middle.
An excerpt:
"In videotaped testimony, Rory Mayberry told the hearing that instead of preparing meals for 600 Turkish and Filipino workers that were appropriate for their cultural practices and religious beliefs, KBR fed them "leftover food in garbage bags and boxes" after US troops had finished eating.
Mayberry said that on some occasions KBR also served "outdated or expired" food to soldiers, and that company bosses told employees not to follow time consuming sanitation rules issued by the military."

KBR is Kellogg Brown and Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton.

Why is Africa so poor?
Because the white man exploited it so much?
Because those Africans can't stop being so barbaric towards each other?
Why??
This is a great and quite lengthy article about the factors of Africa's poverty.
http://globalpolitician.com/articledes.asp?ID=966&cid=8&sid=59
I recently came across it after seeing it linked on a forum.
The site is full of good articles dealing with politics, news and world events so it's worth taking a long look at.

The writer of that article makes a great point, that Africa's poverty cannot be to any one specific reason but to a combination of factors involving both the Europeans and Africans. These factors include the horrendousness of colonialism, the kleptocratic and tyrannic native regimes and leaders, and neo-colonialism.

There's a terrible famine crisis occuring in Niger and it's no surprise who are among the main culprits to blame. Though the article doesn't give much details on how the IMF and EU through their economic programmes forced staple food prices high, I strongly believe that reasoning.
Given the huge focus given to the recent Live8 concerts and G8 meetings with their spotlight on ending African poverty, the world's richest countries must certainly react quickly and strongly to end or alleviate this crisis.

New Internationalist magazine has a feature section on the G8 protests with on-site reports and statements from NGOs.
A coalition of African civil organisations released this statement after the end of the G8 summit at Gleneagles, in which they listed the main goals that need to be achieved to truly help Africa's countries end their poverty and improve themselves. All 4 points are wothwhile but the first and forth one especially. Without debt relief, most African countries will be unable to spend much on their civil budget due to the crushing burden of their debts and the mounting interest payments.
The section also has a look behind the scenes of the summit from a member of a small NGO that was involved, and a staff member who was part of the demonstrations and wrote first-hand of the rough justice meted out by the police.

The after-events of the London bombings have caused much to be concerned about. But not from the typical muslim, extremist, asian or black male but from the police and authorities.
First was the shooting death of a Brazilian man who police thought was a terrorist. Turns out the police were wrong, terribly wrong. This new "shoot to kill" policy which ignorant governemnt and police officials think will prevent terrorists will only cause greater risk to Asians and blacks, deemed to be acting suspicious. Already mundane activites like driving a nice car or even running down a street will get a black man stopped by police, now with the terrorist suspicion, things could get much worse.

William Bowles has some thoughts on the flaws and cracks in the explanation of the London bombings.

Blair's bombs
Behind the tragic occurences of England's first and second suicide bombings lies the even more tragic and ongoing chain of bombings and conflict in Iraq. And thoughout this horror is the continuing fact of terrible suffering inflicted on Palestinians, Iraqis, and Afghans.
While the deaths and injuries suffered by innocent London bomb victims is terrible, it should be realised that powerful countries cannot continue to advantage and oppress weaker countries without suffering severe consequences.

More on the concerts, the G8 summit and its plans on poverty.
Here the writer Raymond Garcia in Swans, harshly criticises the G8's plan to fight poverty as well as the inability of the media specifically American to present the real facts concerning African poverty.
Not only do the rich/ G8 countries hoist conditions onto the poor countries to receive aid, but the IMF will be put in charge of it, in other words they're asking the fox to guard the chickens.

Excerpt from the story:
"And the sorry fact is that Sir Bob and the future Sir Bono contribute to maintaining this fiction by signing on to the programs of the G-8, which will continue to legitimize the corporate exploitation of the resources of poor countries."

As well, here's reflection on the G-8.

G8 summit-A fraud and a circus
so claims John Pilger in this article in the New Statesman. And indeed his claims do make a lot of sense. Amidst all the hype and cheer coming from the G8 summit (before the London bombing) and announcements by UK PM Blair and Chancellor Gordon Brown on debt relief and further measures to save Africa, the reality is that much of the aid and relief is inconsequential and trivial.
A few examples include: Under a section headed "G8 proposals for HIPC debt cancellation", it says that debt relief to poor countries will be granted only if they are shown "adjusting their gross assistance flows by the amount given": in other words, their aid will be reduced by the same amount as the debt relief. So they gain nothing.
and The second unmentionable is that debt payments are due to rise sharply from next year, more than doubling by 2015. This will mean not "victory for millions", but death for millions.
and One British arms client is Malawi, which pays out more on the interest on its debt than its entire health budget, despite the fact that 15 per cent of its population has HIV. Gordon Brown likes to use Malawi as example of why "we should make poverty history", yet Malawi will not receive a penny of the "victory for millions" relief.

Combined with the history of exploitation that European countries inflicted on Africa, with each major and even minor power controlling colonies across the continent, the control that western countries and corporations have over many African countries make it almost impossible for the countries to pull themselves up from the dire mess many of them are in. This other Zmag article states the means that western governments esepcially UK use to maintain their control over African nations to prevent them from truly becoming more self-sufficient and less poor.

All this just means that we should not be fooled into complacency and forgetfulness by the grand statements and good feelings generated by pop stars and G8 leaders, but that we realise that the road to eradicate poverty in the world is still a long way untravelled.

With regards to the Live8 concerts and Bono and other organisations' efforts to bring global poverty to the spotlight, there were many who felt that it was a grand spectacle with good intentions and spirit but excluded the very people who they were trying to help, in terms of sparcity of African participation in the concert performers as well as seeking the opinions of Africans themselves, as Cameroonian journalist writes in the NY Times.(you need to sign up to read this and other articles)

In Iraq, bombings there continued with high casualties caused near Baghdad by a suicide bomber in a fuel truck. There were reports of deaths being as high as 98 from Reuters, and over the weekend there were at least 12 suicide bombers.

While the recent terror attacks in London were very unexpected and the first major attack to hit England since 911, Iraq has also seen a large share of terror attacks for the month of June.

It's easy to realise why there's great sympathy and attention towards the English now but people must realise that throughout the world there's many who're also suffering from violence and wars.
One issue that many including myself didn't realise was the effects of the UN embargo on Iraq done to punish Saddam and his regime,but which exacted a huge cost on the population.
This article from New Internationalist magazine describes the toll of the embargo.

A series of blasts rocked London, England, as 3 subway stations and a double decker bus suffered bomb explosions. At least 37 people were killed and many hundreds wounded. Absolutely tragic.

However though the authorities quickly blamed the bombings on Islamic extremists and memories of 911 resurfaced as well as the importance of the "war on terror", it's important for the general public to not jump to conclusions but to consider all the relevant facts or details and use our minds carefully.
Already PM Blair and his analysts believe they have solved this attack as Blair "firmly blamed the series of London bombings on Islamic radicals".

I haven't been very productive recently with this blog as I've been caught up in other things. The Live8 concerts stirred up plenty of attention and debate over the G8 meeting, the G8 plans to fight poverty, what the intended strategy should be, the protests, and the concerts themselves.

This is an update on the situation in Afghanistan.

250,000 flock to Edinburgh for a largely peaceful protest for world poverty as the G8 leaders met to discuss issues including poverty itself. English Chancellor Gordon Brown made a speech about the "greatest moral crusade of our times" to a selected audience and doubtless other politicans including UK PM Tony Blair will speak out on the importance of ending poverty as well.
Of course, the Live8 concerts provided an optimistic backdrop to the G8 meetings that major action will be taken to help poor especially African countries but many are not convinced that the actions will be significant enough or that they will be mainly to benefit the G8 countries themselves.
George Monbiot of the UK's Guardian again expresses strong skepticism and criticism over the real agenda and effectiveness of the G8 talks and the results, in his latest article on the planned role of corporations to end poverty.

Michela Wrong makes a strong case for ensuring greater accountability and vigilance when giving aid to Africa. Note: she does not say to stop giving aid or stop the reduction of debt.

Interesting similarities between the US and Iran, aupposedly one of its greatest foes.

An update on the changing American mood towards Iraq.

Strong criticism of the G8's recently-announced plan to cancel debt of poor countries comes from the Guardian's George Monbiot. Here, he denounces the plan because of the "conditionalities" applied to poor countries in order to be deemed eligible to have their debt canceled. What conditions the rich G8 countries pass off as essential for poor countries to have is actually ways that poor countries have to give up control of their general affairs to foreign insititions such as the World Bank.

Some excerpts from the article:
"Never mind that much of this debt - money lent by the World Bank and IMF to corrupt dictators - should never have been pursued in the first place. Never mind that, in terms of looted resources, stolen labour and now the damage caused by climate change, the rich owe the poor far more than the poor owe the rich. Some of the poorest countries have been paying more for debt than for health or education."

"That's the theory. In truth, corruption has seldom been a barrier to foreign aid and loans: look at the money we have given, directly and through the World Bank and IMF, to Mobutu, Suharto, Marcos, Moi and every other premier-league crook."

The article is full of facts and should cause anyone who regards the G8 countries and international institutions like the World Bank as good and saintly to take a second look at them and their policies.
Especially tragic is the case of Uganda which, as the article mentions near the end, in order to qualify for World Bank funding had to undergo privatisation of its water supplies, agricultural services and its commerical bank so that the country no longer had control over its own resources. In addition, Uganda had to impose fees on schools and health services that resulted in drops in attendance and collapse of health for the poor.

Gwynne Dyer, the renowned Canadian columnist and military expert, reviews an upcoming book on Mao that will supposedly expose the notorious Chinese Communist icon and his deceitfulness and cruelty to his people.
While I've always known that Mao was responsible for millions of deaths with his Great Leap forward program and the upheaval during the Cultural Revolution, I at least thought his Long March was heroic, not him personally but those others who marched and survived.

More aid needed though as the recent cancellation of 40b in debt was praised.

Indeed as this press release from the CADTM (Committee for the Abolition of the Third World Debt) says, much more must be done to truly help the poorest nations.
They have a whole list of criticism on the debt cancellation which should be considered carefully before we burst out into exuberance for the 3rd world.
Two of the more valid criticisms: "Only 5 % of the inhabitants of Developing Countries live in these 18 countries"
and "The financial burden of the operation on rich countries would amount to some 2 billion dollars a year, compared to 350 billion the G8 devote to farming subsidies or 700 billion they spend in military expenditure" meaning that clearly the G8 can afford to increase their foreign aid as well cancel more debt.

3 articles from the UK's Independent.

Americans turn against Bush
The first time that a major poll of Americans has registered that the majority do not believe in their administration's reasons and rationales for going to war in Iraq. The article mentions that the poll's result derives also from growing dissatisfaction with Bush and his party's policies including social security, judicial nominees and the terrorism.

For all those who feel that giving aid to African countries is a tremendous waste and undeserved, read this.
Africa cheated by West

Mugabe's actions
Zimbabwean President or dictator Robert Mugabe ordered thousands of shacks destroyed in a move aimed at the main supporters of the opposition. The grip he has over his country is almost absolute and there is no indication that his country can improve while he's in charge. Poverty, unemployment and famine have increased sharply while Mugabe maintains a strong hold on power with his state security forces.
An astounding fact from the article is that only 800,000 of the population of 12 million have "formal" work.

I just visited Arianna Huffington's recently-started but attention-getting blogsite for the first time. This is an interesting post by one of the guest writers on the controversy surrounding the coup that led to then-Prime Minister J-B Arisitide's forced resignation. From his credible account of events, America played a significant role in causing Aristide's removal and "exile".

Interesting, huh. Or rather, sinister. Either way, this is just another way that the US has trampled upon the rights of people whether though unlawful invasions based on false accusations, illegal occupation of a sovereign nation, the torture and molesting of prisoners of war and now, the encouragement of "slavery" by offering large bounties for captured "fighters". Of course, these incidents regarding the round-up of thousands of alleged fighters and sending them off to Guantanamo has been going on for a while now.
Certainly with their government's gungho attitude to fighting the "War on terrorism" the military will resort to anything to get those "terrorists".

Another example of the US military's zealousness in waging war on the terrorists at any cost is the cover-up in the death of their most famous casualty in Afghanistan, former NFL player Pat Tillman.
After releasing statements implying that Tillman was killed while heroically leading his squad in an ambush by enemy fighters, subsequent investigations revealed that Tillman was actually killed by friendly fire, essentially by his own countrymen, in a case of mistaken identity between different American army squads. However instead of telling the family right away, the military delayed and merely told the family the original and false details of his death were "incomplete".
His parents have spoken out against the military, denouncing them for their cover-up of the truth.

Excerpt of his father's remarks:
"I think they thought they could control it, and they realized that their recruiting efforts were going to go to hell in a handbasket if the truth about his death got out."

Kofi Annan visited a refugee camp during the weekend in Darfur,Sudan.
He met refugees who made desperate pleas to him for protection and aid.
Clearly the Sudanese government is doing nothing substantial to halt the attacks (which they instigated to quell a local rebellion) on
the Darfurians whilst continually making false assurances and promises to Western governments including stating that they are powerless to stop the militia.

Excerpt from the article "The lack of help for southern Sudan reveals a growing gap between rhetoric and reality as the G8 industrial nations prepare for their summit at Gleneagles in July, where fighting Africa's poverty will be high on the agenda."

Famed American economist Jeffrey Sachs talks about global poverty and developement and related issues including the UN's recent release of strategies to promote developement in poor countries by a panel headed by Sachs himself. Sachs also released a book called "The end of poverty" full of ambitious ideas with the ultimate goal of eradicating poverty by 2025.
Some consider Sachs' ideas to be too broad and unclear to be effective. Sachs answers back in the talk which he does with Mother Jones magazine.

This Counterpunch article describes the forgotten state of affairs in Afghanistan. How the US has virtually ignored the country and the negative reception Afghan president Hamid Karzai got on his recent visit to the America.

Also this article if the events in it are true which they should be, gives us a good idea of why the US continues to face steady attacks from resistance and insurgent fighters. If everything the US military does is atack with full force, no wonder they can't do any good in the locals' eyes.

Shiite protests occured in 3 Iraqi cities to protest the US occupation following young outspoken cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's call for protest.

What was funny Friday was the frontline story and picture and following controversy of tyrant Saddam Hussein in his drawers washing his clothes. And Hussein is going to sue the newspapers which published that embarrasing story. He was a terrible dictator who ruled his country with an iron fist as most dictators do, and killed many of his own citizens, mostly Kurds and Shiites. Now with these "candid" pictures of him he gets to be humiliated and robbed of dignity for the whole world.

It's ironic that the US army is going to have to investigate how this happened considering this was a harmless but fitting embarassment for Hussein unlike the Abu Ghariad affair- see "US military vowed to "aggressively" investigate how the photos of Iraq's ousted leader appeared in the paper". But then these pictures may have broken the Geneva convention rules for treatment of prisoners.

The death toll in Uzbekistan has risen to 745, this story in the Guardian says.
The UK through its foreign secretary Jack Straw spoke out against the politically-motivated violence and demanded access for journalists, Red Cross personnel and diplomats to investigate.
Condoleeza Rice also called for "political reform" but "the US appears to be reluctant to be too overtly critical of a state it regards as a key regional ally in its "war on terrorism". Uzbekistan has given it access to a strategically important air base."
Security has remained tight in Andijan, the city where the violence broke out while hundreds of refugees have fled to neighboring Kyrgyzstan.

Controversy continues over Newsweek's account in their May 9 edition, that interrogators flushed a Koran down a toilet among other things, to rattle Muslim prisoners in the Guantanamo military prison.
Afghanistan and Pakistan both condemned the magazine for the story which generated fierce anti-American demonstrations in Afghanistan and several Muslim countries.
Though American General Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said last week that his senior commander in Afghanistan had told him the riots were "not at all tied to the article." Regardless Newsweek is finding itself in a deep set of trouble as criticism piles in from the US adminstration, Republican Congressmen and foreign countries. And of course, even if the story turns out to have some hint of truth in it -re Abu Ghraid, Newsweek will be pressured to deny it and retract everything.

Quite interesting indeed. A blog on a major media website, American no less, and taking an issue on national security andpointing out and criticising government policy.
Take a read here.

Greg Palast,author of "The best democracy money can buy" is up to his detailed, investigative reporting again, this time over the warning remarks made by American Secretary of State, Condoleeza Rice to the newly-elected president, Alfredo Palacio of Ecuador. This article in the Nation describes how Ecuador with 60 percent of its citizens living under brutal poverty, is burdened with a loan from the World Bank under which over 70 percent of its oil revenue profits must be paid back to bondholders.
Apparently the reason why Ecuador's new president has attracted negative attention from the American adminsitration and media is he wants Ecuador to retain a little more of its oil profits to reduce poverty like supporting social-services programs instead of paying them off to bondholders.

An excerpt from the article:
Given the oil windfall, Palacio sees no need to follow Gutierrez's path to economic asphyxiation. "It is impossible that they condemn us not to have health, not to have education," he told me. He made it clear that handing over 90 percent of his nation's new oil wealth would not stand.

The headline of this article says it all.
The writer focuses on the upheaval in Iraq, and makes a good point that because most foreign reporters/journalists only work in areas where American/Allied forces are, and the majority of the country is not under control of the Americans, it means that there's so much that's going on that's being missed by the Western media.
Many issues are described here, with the unsuitability of American military tactics to fighting and maintaining order, and the need for more troops to restore peace. Of course, with more troops will be greater bitterness and anger at the US and consequently greater resistance.

On Iraq,this article taken from the Toronto Star describes how the US media has largely ignored the huge destruction that's happening in Iraq these past weeks.


Look at this picture of a protest on 9/11. Not in Iraq or the Middle East, not France or elsewhere in Europe but right in the homeland.

Further news regarding Uzbekistan unrest- aftermath as Uzbeks bury their dead. Their president Karimov actually said "no order had been given to troops to fire in Andizhan". Sure, I bet he did. There's been a little condemnation or reproach towards this event from the US, which isn't surprising given that Uzbekistan has been an ally ever since the "War on terror" was declared after 9/11.

This is a good article in the Guardian of the UK describing the favorable relationship between the US and Uzbekistan which includes use of facilities and "interrogators" in return for financial support by the US and also, looking the other way at the oppression and abuses commited by the Uzbek government, which the article gives a better idea of as well. Indeed, the Uzbekistan dictator Karimov seems to have taken a page out of the US foreign policy playbook when he oppresses his people and tries to destroy the opposition movements while justifying his actions as crushing Islamic extremisn, in other words "terrorism".

Violence worsens in Uzbekistan
Now it is more likely that hundreds of people have been killed in fighting in the eastern city of Andijan, the majority of them civilians.

While in Mogandishu,Somalia thousands of militia fighters have begun withdrawing. Hopefully this is a sign of greater stability and peace in the near future. This country has been wracked by civil warfare and anarchy for over 14 years since the dictator Siad Barre was overthrown in 1991. Remember this is the country where the events in the book and movie "Black Hawk Down" happened. Clearly this is a wild place where there's not even a main warlord or dictator and the rule of the gun run the land.

Fighting between soldiers and rebels leads to death of dozens in Uzbekistan

Bloodshed broke out in another Central Asian country as government forces tried to restore order which stemmed from anti-government demonstrations and a group of armed men breaking into a prison and freeing inmates who had been jailed for allegedly belonging to an outlawed Islamic group that wants to overthrow the government which many say is inefficient and dictatorial.

Some background information on the situation there describing why the government is hated by people and why it's actually supported by different allies-...secular rule at any cost is better than the threat from Islamists.

In Iraq, the violence mounts, with the death toll rising to almost 400 in the last 2 weeks.

Regarding the panic over the accidental appearance of a small plane in restricted airspace over Washington D.C. yesterday, Justin Raimondo of antiwar.com writes a good article mentioning this and the chaos in Iraq. He makes several pertinent points regarding the current US policy and its hollow "successes" in Afghanistan and Iraq. Especially how inspite of the billions spent on the "War on Terror" and invading Iraq, a small plane causes so much fear to officials in the capital. He gives a nice summary of all the main criminal acts and blunders the US under GWBush has commited after 911.

A special report of the current aftermath of the tsunami disaster with a brief summary and reports in the different countries. While the massive outpouring of support and aid for the Asian victims by people and governments of the West was tremendous and encouraging, things haven't been good at all for many of the victims themselves.

Note the report on Sri Lanka where it says the government is doing all it can to aid hoteliers recover whilst preventing fishermen to rebuild their coastal villagers.
Also note Indonesia where the army has used a truce made after the tsunami with local resistance/separatists to take further action against them.

Sadly a recurring theme can be seen to exist in different countries whereby the government puts more emphasis in helping foreign nations than in its own citizens. It seems those in power have different agendas for their priority instead of helping the poor and suffering like generating more business investment or projecting themselves as a regional power, like India. It's the common or poor who bear the brunt for these agendas of course, so those in power disregard them without much inconvenience.

Another worthy magazine

The New Internationalist, from the UK or Britain, is a very interesting and well-written magazine whose sole focus is global (social) justice. As such, it covers a wide range of topics including human rights, conflicts and the war on terror, poverty and homelessness, and the vast economic inequality between developed and developing countries.
The magazine's scope is worldwide though it's not a household name. Besides special reports, media reviews and photo gallery of scenes in the 3rd world, a truly great feature of its website is that the entire content of each issue is accessible online, free of charge to all visitors, and only 6 weeks after each issue is released. For the most recent issue where the main topic is Street children around the world, click here.

So now GWBush and company have taken hold of prized former-Soviet republics Ukraine and Georgia they feel strong enough to start fights with Russia herself. See "...George Bush risked a further deterioration in relations with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin,.."
Many see the tightening relationship between the West specifically the US, and nations like Ukraine which involves economic and military cooperation as signs that the US is trying to encircle and gain political advantage over Russia by replacing Russia's regional influence with that of the US.
In return Russia is trying to strengthen its relationships with nearby rising powers India and China to form a rival axis of world power to compete against the West, especially over access to increasingly scarce oil supplies in the near future.
See this article on Proposal of strategic partnership by Chinese premier on visit to India April 2005.
and from 2002,"Delhi-Beijing-Moscow axis: Old romance rekindled"

Here's several media blogs ie. blogs written by staff of media organisations, which all deal with injustice issues like corruption, hegemony and media bias.

From the Nation, the Daily Outrage which posts critiques on aspects of American politics and society.

Antiwar.com's blog deals with issues around the world including not just America but Iraq, Europe and elsewhere.

CSmonitor has several blogs, including these two where correspondents post on location from Africa and Iraq.

I haven't been posting much these past weeks.
Things in Iraq have gone extremely crazy,not to say they haven't already.
But this past week's toll has been tragically high as this shows.

A speech by Hugo Chavez at the World Social Forum 2005.
Regarded as a semi-dictator and derided as a socialist lunatic by many in the press he's nonetheless a tremendous inspiration and much-loved leader to many people in his country of Venezuela and elsewhere. Read his speech and decide how true his words ring.

"The health system was privatized; that cannot be privatized because it’s a fundamental human right—health, education, water, energy, public services—they cannot be given to private capital that denies those rights to the people."

Updates on Iraq (not good at all):

"New wave of mass attacks in Iraq has dimmed the euphoria
in Washington circles."

"Rocky road ahead for new Iraq government"

A successful case against a big corporation for its doing business with a country whose regime has carried out severe injustice in this case torture, rape and murder to facilitate the activites of the corporation:
"Unocal had agreed to pay to settle a long-running lawsuit charging the oil company with assisting and encouraging the torture, murder and rape of Burmese villagers by government soldiers so that Unocal could build a gas pipeline."
Take a read.

It's good to see students take solid action against a corporation doing business with a country where substantial human-rights abuses take place. This is actually good for two reasons,one: it highlights abuses and injustice commited by the country's regime.
two: it creates resistance to a large corporation by indicating that they cannot expect to go untarnished for profiting from and exploiting developing countries where people are suffering and dying and holds the corporations accountable for this.

Various student committees at Harvard University in the US working together caused their school to divest (sell its shares) from Chinese oil giant PetroChina which by investing and operating in Sudan so funding its regime and helping it stay in power and continue its alleged war crimes.
Not satisfied with this small victory, the student activists want their school to divulge all its Sudan-related investments and divest from those, as well as convince states to divest their Sudan-related shares in their pension funds.

The editorial director of The Nation, America's oldest weekly opinion journal or political newsmagazine gives his take on why The Nation has managed to survive so long and consequently, on the relevance of opinion journals in today's world- that they're not for profit but to make points and promote ideas and opinions, whether supporting the left or the right.
As the writer states of The Nation,near the end:
"You need to run one of these magazines like a business or else you will be out of business. But if a business is all you are, you will be out of business, too."

Besides all the above,the article also includes a small but true description of the difference between the left and right(conservative) political views including: "That helps explain why the right is always so well-funded. Because it is validating the world view of people who have a ton of money."

A high-ranking officer albeit Australian says it mostly like it is on the "global war on terrorism".
The "war part is all about politics and terrorism is merely a tactic".

It is so sad that deep inequalities exist among nations and regions in the world. It is also sad that this exists in developed countries as described here in Canada. The old cliche "Life ain't fair" certainly rings true in this case as it shows that intelligence, education and experience don't replace the drawback of being a different ethnicity than caucasian (white).
I have to point out though that Canada is still a good place for immigrants in terms of physical safety and cultural tolerance and diversity, especially its main city of Toronto.

Worse events have happened such as England where "race riots" broke out in 2001 in several cities between Asians and whites. And the Netherlands, supposedly one of the most liberal and tolerant European nations, where anti-muslim resentments continue to grow and attacks on muslim institutions have occured after the murder of a Dutch film-maker.

All this is not it's just to show that even amidst the wealth and prosperity of "Western" nations serious racial and economical divisions and tensions exist.

Haven't been posting much this weekend because of distractions. Nevertheless events in the world keep on going and things get crazier and worse. This article touches up on some really interesting things about America's recent military policies.

God bless this brave young woman as well as the many innocents dead in Iraq.
Another story about her. How I wish I could possess only some of her courage, drive and compassion.

Further bloodshed in Iraq including the shooting down of a commercial helicopter last week which ended in the deaths of all its passengers who were most likely "mercenaries".

There's this female Iraqi blogger in Baghdad called riverbend, and she's gaining a lot of attention for her brave and bold writing or blogging while in her city.
Alternet has an interview with her as well an excerpt of her blog entries which are being published as a book soon. just from this excerpt you will get a sense of how poor the citizens of Baghdad have become since the occupation with water and electricity being scarce and treasured and random raids by American forces occuring at all times of the night.

Riverbend's blog
Excerpt from Alternet of her blog from a collection of blog entries which is being published into a book. These entries talk about the events of one particularly bad day for Riverbend, a raid on one of her neighbors, the hatred and shame by Iraqis following the disturbing controversy of Abu Ghraid and the Iraqi Council.

A small taste of her blog:
"Prominent, popular politicians and public figures don’t want to be tied to American apron strings -- this includes lawyers, political scientists, writers, and other well-known people. Not because they are American apron-strings per se, but because this is an occupation (by American admission, no less). No matter how much CNN and the rest try to dress it up as a liberation, the tanks, the troops, the raids, the shootings (accidental or otherwise), and the Puppet Council all scream occupation."

Disaster Capitalism

Naomi Klein writes in the Nation about the financial dealings that go on for relief and development projects in developing countries. Things like reconstruction, foreign aid development and disaster relief are described here. Taking place in countries like Iraq, Haiti and Thailand these projects often end up being for the benefit of those other than the ones who need it the most.
To address problems of poverty and underdevelopement in poor countries, international developement is often cited as the best solution. However as laudable and grand as its aims may be, international developement often fails to make much of an impact in these countries, despite following the policies set forth by international bodies such as the WorldBank and WorldTrade Organisation. The above linked story goes a long way in showing why. Tragically politics is always involved in any aspect of world events, even for something as supposedly magnanimous as foreign developement.

This is about the negative effect of the World Bank's policies in Bolivia.

Walmart-more compassionate about society OR just trying to fool the public?

You should know which of the above I believe in about Walmart's recent push to improve its public image by newspaper and tv ads, donating to journalism schools and sponsoring an ABC news segment.
One thing that can't be denied is that giant chain stores like Walmart are only increasing in popularity and presence. Whether that's such a good thing is one that I'm very uncertain about.
And I am aware that poor people can afford much more at Walmart at most other stores.

Major demonstrations occured yesterday including attacks on the Japanese consulate in Shanghai which caused the Japanese government to make an official complaint today as thousands of Chinese voiced their strong anger at perceived Japanese arrogance and insensitivity towards their country's war crimes during World War 2. On Saturday and in the last few weeks, major cities saw large street protests against Japanese actions specifically the recent approval of school textbooks by the Japanese government which "glossed over" or downplayed atrocities that happened in World War 2 such as the "Rape of Nanking" which devastated the city and saw hundreds of thousands of its populations killed by the Japanese army.

Violence as protests grow and emotions flare and their roots

This article talks about the situation of Haiti and its coup last year which led to President Jean-Bertrand Aristide being overthrown and forced out. On why Aristide was perceived widely as a corrupt and brutal leader:
"The North American liberal elite feels it can sit in judgment on the leaders of movements in Latin America who dare to challenge U.S. hegemony. Never mind that these leaders had the overwhelming support of the poor in their countries."

From an article in the Guardian of England speaking out on circumstances behind recent coups in former Soviet republics like Kyrgzstan:
"This myth of the masses spontaneously rising up against an authoritarian regime now exerts such a grip over the collective imagination that it persists despite being obviously false: try to imagine the American police allowing demonstrators to ransack the White House, and you will immediately understand that these "dictatorships" in the former USSR are in reality among the most fragile, indulgent and weak regimes in the world."

From the same site, on the situation in Iraq and the US occupation.
Things are going bad for the US and the poor US soldiers as hatred and rage against them grows and mounts with each passing month.

As the losses keep mounting for the US as well as Iraqis, the US army is desperate to gain new recruits as told in this Counterpunch article.

From alternet.org, a news log/blog on the war in Iraq .

Here's a small taste of the posts from it: Reservists and guardsmen now comprise almost half of the 150,000 troops currently in Iraq

The reconstruction of Iraq could become the "biggest corruption scandal in history.
Both are among the lesser-known but most troubling aspects of the situation in Iraq.

A personal account from a BBC correspondent in Congo, actually written a few years ago. It seems things have not changed one bit in terms of the suffering going on there and the mass indifference from the west especially media. A brief description of the situation in Eastern Congo.
Though many newsources refer to the country as Congo, its full name is the Democratic Republic of Congo. It was formely called Zaire and a colony of Belgium who exploited its vast natural resources while oppressing the native peoples.

4 million dead-Dec. 2004
The Congo war/conflicts/tragedy continues to extract a grim toll from Congolese civilians with hunger and disease causing most of the deaths.

Poll shows Congo war is world's top forgotten (and ignored) crisis
Describing the results of a recent Reuters poll of experts on which "forgotten" crises should be focused on by the media, Africa featured in the results with Congo, Uganda and Sudan topping.

The Western media is accused by experts "of routinely ignoring emergencies in countries of little geopolitical significance for big powers despite the enormous scale of suffering." A great point presented in this one sentence.


War poverty forces locals into sex trade with UN troops
This in itself is a major tragedy of the Congo war, however delving into the article one finds even more disturbing examples of how depraved the situation there is. Apparently many "Congolese tolerate the sex trade with the UN soldiers" because unlike the local militias the UN troops actually pay for their sex. War causes many horrible actions and the mass rape and kidnapping of women and girls is one of them.
Not content with having cheap sex with young girls, some UN soldiers have also been accused of rape. These poor women have suffered double tragedies, that of having to live in extreme poverty and turmoil because of the fighting and instability and then being forced by poverty to have sex with soldiers who are supposed to protect them, but who exploit them by paying them a dollar.

If you want to get a better understanding of why Iraqi "insurgents" or resistance battle against American forces in spite of overwhelming odds, read this brief post of an American soldier's sad experience in Iraq during his tour of duty.

A village protest turns into violent riot of thousands
Thousands of protestors and thousands of riot police that is. This happened in a coastal province in China where apparently violent and mass rural demonstrations have become increasingly common because of growing economic developments which have led to mounting corruption, mass layoffs and increasing construction which cause high pollution or displace many people from their homes. Beside rural villages and displaced persons, protests have even broken out over frustrations over unemployment as happened in Shenzhen at a job fair.
The government actually said over 58,000 protests occured last year with more than 3 million people taking part (from the guardian article described above).
This is a natural escalation from the widening urban-rural income gap that has been going on in China while it undergoes its economic boom. Note: this article was written in 2004.

The elections held in Iraq and Palestine don't mean a great new flourishing of democracy and freedom in the Middle East. As maintained in this article, manipulations were involved in the elections to ensure favorable results for candidates and parties that had American support and backing.
The UK's Independent paper has this commentary on methods America is utilising in Iraq to ensure ongoing political and military control over that country.

People please realise that elections by themselves do NOT mean successful democracy regardless of huge voter turnout. While democratic elections have led to significant improvements in some countries, South Africa and Malysia for example, many times elections have been tampered or manipulated or even overturned by major powers (see Chilean coup of 1973 and Augusto Pinochet) to bring on candidates who then proceed to loot or oppress their own countries.

An interesting piece, with more than a little truth in it, about illusions of civil society regarding political changes. It describes the funding of foreign political groups as well as the growing use of manipulative acts in American politics such as having "fake" reporters and think-tanks whose main purpose is more creating propaganda rather than ideas. This can already clearly be seen in the town-hall meetings with GWBush where the partisan audience is pre-selected and their questions are pre-approved before actually being asked to the President.

Tens of thousands of Shiite Iraqis marched in the streets of Baghdad yesterday to protest the US occupation yesterday, the anniversary of the fall of Baghdad to US forces 2 years ago. Sunni Iraqis also plan to protest the US occupation but at at another date and place.

An insightful and revealing article on the event of last Saturday's major attack on the notorious Abu Ghraid prison which wounded 44 American troops and dozens of Iraqi militants.


Even if they were really smuggling, was it right to kill them? Latest violence concerning Israeli soldiers in the Gaza Strip in Palestine.

In southern Iraq, a zealous young cleric rallies support against US occupation with his militia, which after suffering heavy losses in hard fighting with US forces last year, is regrouping and on the rise again. Clearly the US army does not have full control over a large part of the country though it's also accurate to say the US does not have much support in most of the country either.

The injustice of Bush's sale of fighter jets to Pakistan and offer of military arms supply to India. Escalation of tensions, increased chance of war, higher destructiveness of war if it does break out and the use of large sums of valuable money to buy these high-tech weapons of destruction which instead could have been used for building schools, housing and improving infrastructure- there's a wide choice of reasons. Indian academic and peace activist Mr. P. Bidwai explains all this in further detail.

I've come across another interesting independent mediasite online. INTHEFRAY is an online magazine that looks at social issues such as race,belief and class in countries all over the world both rich and developing. It is primarily concerned with social justice and activism. I've only started visiting it last week so I haven't read much yet. It's definitely worth a look.

Fighting rages on in Chechnya.
Then again, fighting has been raging on for over 5 years. Currently we are in the second Chechnya war, the first which lasted between 1994 and 1996.

Chechnya war is largely ignored which is not surprising since the war takes place in a small obscure, mountainous Central Asian region. Terrible atrocities have been commited against the locals who fight back with fierce guerilla tactics and extreme measures like suicide bombings.
Also similarities have been made to the Afghan war in that though controlling the cities, vastly numerically and technologically-superior Russian military forces are being tied down in a brutal war and suffering heavy losses by local resistance hiding out in the countryside who doggedly refuse to allow occupiers (Soviets in Afghanistan-1980s) total control of their nation.

As fighting rages on in Iraq whilst GWBush keeps on coming up with new reasons to justify the invasion and the US Army desperately tries to boost enrollment of recruits, the American casualty rate climbs upwards steadily and daily. Countless Iraqi civilians suffer from the effects of occupation, seeing their country afflicted with crime and destruction when not being victims of fighting or arrests by US forces. Widespread opinion maintains that this suffering and instability is the fault of the "terrorists" or "extremists" who are evil and don't want their country to prosper. People don't seem to realise that maybe these "extremists" represent the majority of Iraqis who want American forces out. The resistance is indeed putting up good resistance against American forces and show no signs of defeat.
Immense damage and death has been caused by both Americans and insurgents/resistance forces. One of them is the invader but is generally perceived as the "good" side.
Look at this site to see some graphic and horrendous images from the Iraqi occupation. Some of them are disturbing. There's a lot of debate over the righteousness of the invasion of Iraq and most of it centers around GWBush and his administration and whether they were right or wrong. It's easy to forget or overlook the suffering of the Iraqi people themselves. It seems that everytime the injustice of the invasion and occupation comes up, Saddam keeps coming up as an convenient excuse for justifying the actions of the Americans.

There's some parallels with the Vietnam war. While much was made of the Communist threat and the role of Americans in defending the South from the North, a lot of suffering was inflicted by the Americans on the North Vietnamese and South Vietnamese peasants.
This is an excerpt from Jane Fonda's book on her visit to North Vietnam and how she broadcast messages from Hanoi appealing to US pilots of the damage done to dykes which when destroyed could drown civilians. The sadness should be for your country, your soldiers. They don't know why they are fighting us

Brief insight into sheer plight of Zimbabwe from CSM

You can't argue with this- more billionaires and millionaires, more poor people.

While the situation in Iraq receives lots of media attention regularly, though ironically the more violence and instability that happens the less the coverage (whereas the more optimistic or supposedly positive, the coverage picks up again like in the recent elections)
Afghanistan features little in the media 2 years after the invasion.
There was some publicity with US First Lady Laura Bush's visit last week. But regarding everything else such as the aftermath of the elections and the conflict and poverty afflicting much of that country, nothing.

Suspected Darfur perpetrators to be tried in ICC (International Criminal Court)

Time to wake up to the truth. Modern America's decline?

Very incredible to believe, blame it on the drunkard. If this was really so, this means the most powerful nation on Earth based their whole invasion of Iraq on the lies of some crazy lying scam-artist.

Hezbullah accused of offering money to fundamentalist fighters to launch (suicide) attacks in Israel. It is known that Iran is the main supporter/ sponsor of Hezbullah but it seems the article's headline is a bit too presumptive. The article itself offers scant evidence that Iran directly offered cash for bombs to break Palestinian truce.

People who think Iraq has undergone so much benefits since the US invasion and question why Iraqis aren't grateful enough to the US and why there are so many anti-US critics and advocates regarding Iraq should read this thoroughly.

Update on Lebanon

Syrian troops continue to pull out to meet UN and US demands for total withdrawal before the upcoming elections. Fears and suspicions abound of civil unrest as Lebanon gets ready for its parliamentary elections in May. Still members of the different factions have been making efforts to unite and find common ground to prevent unnecessary bloodshed and agree on issues they can work on to improve their nation.

Mugabe wins elections in Zimbabwe after securing a majority with his ZANU-PF party. This isn't unexpected given Mugabe's rule over his country and the conditions under which the election was held, with alleged fraud, voter intimidation and threats to withhold food for rural citizens if they voted for the opposition.

US intelligence ‘dead wrong’ on Iraq threat

Yet weren't they saying Iraq had no WMDs back then, specifically fall of 2003? GWBush certainly wasn't listening then and even more damning is now, he accuses the intelligence community of not having the very information... which they had on Iraq and he didn't choose to listen to?
GWBush and his administration actually interfered, even tampered with the findings of the intelligence agencies back then to justify their invasion of Iraq.
I try to be more objective in my blogging but with today's findings and hypocrisy by GWBush, it's impossible to hold back my disgust for him.
Mugabe, Bush, Hussein... same injustice but in different forms.

Elections are underway in Zimbabwe as the oppostion tries to win an improbable victory inspite of dirty tricks and intimidation by incumbent ruler Robert Mugabe and his ruling party. These last few years have seen Zimbabwe slide deeper and deeper into a morass as Mugabe has turned into a despot with his diatribes,tightening of control over society using his feared state security srvice and his encouragement of armed invasions of white-owned farms and jailing of opposition party members and journalists. Once considered one of the most prosperous African countries Zimbabwe is now wrought with corruption, instability, repression and famine.

Report on Darfur

From the land of Great Britain comes this report which criticises the international community including Britain for its feeble response to the Darfur crisis in Sudan. The report was drafted by a committee made up of MPs who said the international community were too engrossed in securing an end to the Sudanese civil war between the government and the rebel South to pay much attention to the developing Darfur crisis. Though ending the decades-long civil war was important, ignoring the situation in Darfur has allowed it to escalate to the point where at least 2 million people have been made refugees and over 150,000 killed. Blame was not just cast on the UN, Britain and other governments but also Sudan itself.

Urgent action by Britain and other developed nations is being called for especially as the Darfur crisis is in danger of becoming history repeated, specifically the Rwanda genocide and inspite of the many obstacles to intervention. Skeptics can say why should Europeans and Americans (though with their actions of this milennium who can really trust them with intervening in another country) take the responsibility to go into a distant and poverty and war-stricken country to improve matters, and it's a valid point. However there is just a small matter of these Europeans specifically Britain, being the former masters and rulers of some of these distant, chaotic countries like Rwanda and so are responsible in some measure for the situation in these countries such as ethnic and religious tension and inequality.

Intervention does not necessarily mean armed invasion and occupation like what happened to Iraq but less or non-violent means like aerial surveillance and establishing protected zones for refugee camps and settlements as well providing more aid to the African Union which has cease-fire observers and a small force of 3000 soldiers in Darfur.


Information on the Sudan (2nd) civil war which was recently ended officially with an agreement between the government and the SPLA (Sudanese People's Liberation Army).

I haven't been posting much on Africa this past year so I'm going to at least post briefly on a few issues going on. There hasn't been much focus on Africa in the mainstream media which isn't unusual given that there's never an ongoing coverage of Africa.

The Sudan crisis in Darfur has been going on for 2 years as the UN tries to punish suspected war criminals by trying them before the International Criminal Court (ICC). On Tuesday the UN voted to impose sanctions as well strengthen an arms embargo against Sudan to punish it for its lack of serious action to rein in the guilty parties and stop the mass killings, with a list of offenders to be drawn up by a Security council committee. The death toll is indeed shocking with at least over 150,000 dead in the Darfur conflict which the Sudanese government has done little to resolve or stop.

The UN has also voted to send a peace-keeping force to Southern Sudan to support a recent peace settlement which ended a decades-long war between the SPLM and Sudanese government.

The Army is seeking 101,200 new active-duty Army and Reserve soldiers this year alone........On the same topic as my recent post link regarding the desperation of the US Army to replenish its troop strength, this NY Times story goes into more detail about the immense difficulties and pressures that Army recruiters face in doing their job. I feel for them, especially the guy who applied for conscientous objector status after hearing from some of the people he recruited after their service in Iraq. Of course it's difficult to get guys into the Army now, like I said, those Americans (surprisingly) aren't as foolish as the rest of us think. I honestly think it'd be impossible, both morally and psychologically to be a recruiter, going into malls and universities and telling kids to give up their normal life and sign up for something that they're going to put their lives on the line for. Defending your country or an ally is one thing but invading and occupying a country without much support from the local population is unjust. A recruiter with real conscience and honor should tell all potential recruits that joining the Army is not just a way to travel the world and learn new skills but go into hostile places and risk your life and limbs whilst enduring hate and contempt from the locals which isn't even really meant for you but your commanding officers, government and brash, dishonest and unjust President.

The obsolescence of newspapers and journalism?

Much has been made of the growing popularity and power of bloggers with regards to news reporting and the lessening effectiveness of newspapers. Some are saying that newspapers may be losing their relevance to the bloggers. That may be true but mainly because people are reading news on the internet more than from newspapers and even then, a lot of people do browse the online forms of media outlets like BBC, MSNBC and even the notorious Fox News.

I don't agree with this assumption at all. The faults of mainstream media have been well publicised and critiqued as mainstream media is perceived to be pandering to whims of and controlled by agendas of government and corporate interests as well as riveting but frivolous headlines to draw viewers/readers like the Martha Stewart and Michael Jackson cases.
However I think that too little credit has been given to the original role of journalism and
media in society.

The reporting of news and events in the world is mostly done by journalists and media organisations.
While bloggers link to each other, they also derive most of their news and opinions references/links from media sources. Without the news from media journalists and correspondents on or near the spot, bloggers would not be able to do their work effectively.
So it's not like bloggers are replacements or competitors with journalists but rather serve to complement each other in that bloggers can offer a more opinionated view as well as provide fact checks to works of journalism to prevent media disinformation such as happened with the revelation of White House "reporter" Jeff Gannon as a member of an alleged pro-Republican organisation.

While there's some serious problems regarding the credibility of journalism, blogs by themselves are not the answer but fixing and improving upon the quality of reporting is. There is definitely a role for blogs in the media environment and inspite of the controversies including CNN's Eason Jordan for instance, weblogs can only be seen as a benefit to newsreaders.
Blogging is not a replacement or alternative but a modern, substantial enhancement for journalism.

See here to read aout the conference on blogging, journalism and credibility that was held at Harvard University in January to discuss the current and changing media environment in which people are still trying to determine how best blogs fit in with journalism and big media.