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Aug 14-31 2000
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tokyo progressive
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Jan 14, 2001 00:48 PST
|
In these issues
LISTED IN REVERSE ORDER
News and Commentary, Manning Marable on Racism & Prison Industrial
Complex
Aug 29 Burmese Activists Detained
Aug 28 News: Japan/ Racism/ Women/ Chomsky on Crime
Aug 26 Genetically modified posion
Aug 24 World News: Cassini Anniversary (Plutonium), Tokyo Disneyland,
etc.
Aug 24 Two articles on the death penalty
Aug 23 US elections: Ralph Nader
Aug 19 East Timor/ Hiroshima-Nagasaki
Aug 19 News from Japan
Aug 18 India: Petition to Prime Minister of Japan
Aug 15 Short news summaries
Aug 14 Iraq: 10 years after the bombing
Aug 14 "Rogue" States
Aug 14 Environment/Peace News
Aug 14 Frequently Asked Questions about ChocoPaul News
Date: Aug 14 2000 12:22:46 EDT
From: "Chocopaul News" <pa-@arenson.org>
Subject: Frequently Asked Questions
Paul's ChocoPaul Page News
WELCOME/FAQ
========================
url http:// arenson.org
email pa-@arenson.org
http://Chocopaul.listbot.com/
========================
MESSAGE 1 of 5 today FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Aug 14, 2000
Hi and welcome to the first 27 members. Today the message will be a
long
one as I have been setting everything up. People have questions about
the
organization of my site, so I hope the Questions and Answers below
answer
yours. If not, feel free to email me from the page or at
[pa-@arenson.org], without the brackets.
(1) Why is there an SIGNUP BUTTON on the first page?
I have found that most people do NOT join the list (which is an
essential
part of my site) unless I put it on a page all its own. Of course, some
see the SIGN UP
button and go no further, but it is very democratic: you do not HAVE to
join. You can just press ENTER without signing up. You can even read the
earlier list messages by going to XXXXXX later, but by putting the
SIGNUP
button only on the first page, I am hoping you will join. It makes my
job easier, which make the page more useful ultimately. If enough
people
hate it, I can of course change it. Let's see how it goes.
TIP: You can bypass the first page if you really want.
Just enter http://www.twics.com/~arenson/eric/index2.html
(2) How do I find information on a specific topic?
(a) To find longer articles and links to other sites on social and
political problems, look under the GREEN MENU CATEGORY [top] under the
various sub-categories such as America, Japan, Human Rights, etc.
(b) You can also use the search facilty lower down the page under HELP.
(c) Increasingly, I will be providing information direct into this list,
so be sure to check XXXXXXXXX to see if you might have missed
something
in a previous mailing.
(3) What kind of information is in JOURNALS?
These are student-written articles which may be of general interest.
Some,
but
not all, deal with social issues. All views are those the authors. The
primier issue of Hitotsubashi University Review will be out in a few
days
I hope.
(4) What are class pages?
Some classes have their own pages for communication between student and
student and student and instructor. if you are a student, you will have
been given the information for logging in to these pages. If you have
trouble, email me.
(5) How do I email you?
Use the form on the main page. If this does not work, use
pa-@arenson.org from an email program.
(6) What is ChocoPaul Mail?
This is Web based email Use this as your main address if you wish.
CP Mail is operated by an outside company who provide their own
assistance. Do not email me for help until you have first tried to
contact the help service of the mail company. If you have and they have
not responded, or their answer is unlclear or unhelpful, email me and I
will try to help if at all possible.
(7) Why am I asked a lot of ridiculous questions when signing up for CP
Mail?
These are things the email company wants to know, not me. Tell a lie
for
those questions which are required. The less you tell them, the
better,
since it is all for targeted advertising purposes, which I do not
condone
(it is the only way, however, to provide the free email account).
(8) What is CP Talk?
This is a forum for communicating with more than one user at a time. Use
it to find other users with similar interests, or to ask for help on a
partuclar research area. Feel free to start a new topic at any time.
Please be courteous.
Do not use this site to run a business. it is for communication between
people. I do not intend to moderate any discussions there, but will
participate as much as possible. Postings which are deemed abusive MAY
be
removed (meaning there is a
POSSIBILITY). If you feel I have wrongly removed a posting of yours,
send
me an email telling me why you think so. If I think you have a point, I
will acknowledge this.
(9) What is CP Chat?
CPC is for people who don't sleep. Use it to talk real time with other
visitors. I plan to be online around 11PM-12AM most BUT NOT ALL
evenings
(Japan Time, in NY that would be about 13 hours earlier in summer or
8-9AM, 7-8AM winter). Please be nice to others when you use this
facility. In addition to CP Chat, there are other chat "channels" out
there you can join if you are so inclined. This is an outside service
that has nothing to do with me.
(10) How can I contribute to your page?
Well, if you have some information which you think other would be
interested in reading, contact me by email. I MAY decide to include it
in
a featured article (research section-top green menu), or in this list.
There is also a link section for internet stuff. Post your link there
and, if I approve it, others will be able to access the link shortly
thereafter.
(11) What kind of things are appropriate as content?
I am interested in articles and links which question so-called
"establishment views" but which are repsonsible and rationally
presented. Generally, I am interested in presenting information from a
progressive (left-wing, pro-social change) point of view, but that is a
very broad and general guideline, obviously.
Articles that are not in this very broad category MAY be included if
they
contribute to a better understanding of the issue involved. All
decisions
on whether something gets included are mine.
Feel free to debate the merits of any articles, links or issues
presented
on this site in CPT or CPC. Remember that all views expressed anywhere
on this site are those of the author. CPP does not necessarily endorse
any argument that appears anywhere on this site.
(11) Why is it ChocoPaul?
Well, there is a well-known Japanese chocolate candy called Chocoballs.
And, well, er.....anyway, it is a long and uninteresting story. If you
have a suggestion for a new name, email me or, if you really must, talk
about it in CP Talk.
(12) So, does this have something to do with sex? I am underage and
impressionable.
I don't know. Anyway, as BALL and PAUL rhyme, that is what I am calling
this site.
Four more messages today: Environment, Peace, "Rogue States" and
Iraq.
Date: Aug 14 2000 12:19:58 EDT
From: "Chocopaul News" <pa-@arenson.org>
Subject: Environment/Peace News
Messages 2 and 3 of Aug 14
Short News and Links--Environment (Peace Below)
========================
url http:// arenson.org
email pa-@arenson.org
http://Chocopaul.listbot.com/
========================
Here are some possible items of interest. Check out the links (may not
work forever) if interested.
Conserve PNG Rainforests Through Community Based Eco-Forestry
Papua New Guinea (PNG) contains the largest intact tropical ancient
forest in the Asia Pacific region and the third largest on the planet.
Almost half of the country's accessible forests are already committed to
industrial logging. A new forest policy report by the World Wide Fund
for Nature (WWF), entitled "Forest Strategies for Community-Based
Forestry and Conservation in Papua New Guinea", states that "for far too
long, logging practices in our forests have been unsustainable and
unfair... ...foreign logging companies have reaped enormous profits and
wreaked environmental havoc while the rural resource owners have been
left with only the crumbs of the pie." Nearly the entire focus of forest
policy has been upon facilitating log export by transnational loggers.
Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/enalerts/965702032/index_html
U.S. Accused Of Environmental Crimes
August 4, 2000- Saipan CNMI/Amsterdam: Greenpeace activists joined
villagers in the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas (CNMI) in the
northern Pacific today to demand that the United States cleans up the
toxic legacy it has left there and in other areas of the Pacific and
Asia. The demand came as the local authorities accused US agencies of
"gross negligence and criminality" regarding their failure to protect
the people and environment of the Commonwealth.(1)
Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/enheadlines/965700046/index_html
U.S. Proposes to Use Forests to Fight Global Warming
The United States is proposing that countries get equal credit in their
Kyoto pledges from removal of carbon by growing forests as from actual
reductions in emissions. Clearly forests have a significant role to play
in storing carbon, and this should be reflected in carbon accounting.
But steps must be taken to ensure that other environmental
considerations such as biodiversity conservation and wilderness
ecosystem protection are not undermined by carbon forestry, and that the
benefits of the Kyoto targets are not watered down by providing a means
to dodge limiting emissions.
Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/enheadlines/965700213/index_html
Environmentalists Blast Plundering of Sakhalin Island
KHABAROVSK, RUSSIA, Aug 3 (IPS) - Increased oil and timber exploitation
on Sakhalin Island, combined with the liquidation of Russia's two key
federal environmental protection bodies, could lead to ecological
disaster for the island, warn environmentalists.
Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/enheadlines/965700470/index_html
Novartis Bows To Consumer Pressure
AMSTERDAM -- Novartis, one of the world’s leading producers of
genetically engineered seeds has informed Greenpeace that it will no
longer use genetically engineered ingredients (GE) in its food products
worldwide. Novartis is the first multinational company to commit to
non-GE standard in food globally.
Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/enheadlines/965700777/index_html
Short News and Links--Peace and Justice
========================
url http:// arenson.org
email pa-@arenson.org
http://Chocopaul.listbot.com/
========================
This is message 3 of Aug 14. Message 2 is above
Messages 4 and 5 follow.
Not all links may work
E Timor Protest at Gore L.A. Headquarters
Demonstrators carrying a giant Gore puppet will protest the renewal of
military ties with Indonesia at the Vice President's Los Angeles
campaign headquarters. The puppet will give guns to another puppet
representing the Indonesian military holding hostage refugees --a
reminder of the estimated 100,000 East Timorese currently in Indonesian
West Timor against their will.
Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/pnalerts/965847767/index_html
Concern Over Missing Human Rights Activist
Amnesty International is concerned for the safety of Jafar Siddiq
Hamzah, an Acehnese human rights activist who has reportedly gone
missing in Medan, North Sumatra, Indonesia.
Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/pnheadlines/965842505/index_html
Chile Supreme Court Rejects Pinochet Immunity
(Washington, DC, August 8, 2000) EHuman Rights Watch today hailed the
Chilean Supreme Court's decision to reject the appeal by Senator Augusto
Pinochet Ugarte against a lower court ruling stripping him of his
parliamentary immunity. The verdict, in which an overwhelming majority
of the court upheld the lifting of immunity, means that Pinochet should
now face trial for human rights violations committed at the start of his
seventeen-year dictatorship.
Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/pnheadlines/965844308/index_html
Texas Double Execution to Expose Capital Justice Flaws
International standards of justice and decency continue to be ignored in
the US capital of judicial killing, Amnesty International warned today,
as Texas prepares to kill the first two of six prisoners it has lined up
for execution in August.
Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/pnheadlines/965842238/index_html
| | From his observation point in Philadelphia, Ted Glicks reflects on the
|
differences between the social justice movement "then" and "now," this
week, on PeaceNet:
http://www.igc.org/igc/gateway/pnindex.html
Protest preparations continue for the Democratic National Convention.
Read about Rally Against Mass Incarceration, Police Brutality and the
Death Penalty this week on AntiRacismNet:
http://www.igc.org/igc/gateway/arnindex.html
This week on WomensNet, Jennifer Pozner looks at the importance, and
influence of women voters in "Election 2000: What's in it for us?"
http://www.igc.org/igc/gateway/wnindex.html
This and other news is from, among other places:
For PeaceNet: peacenet-new-@igc.topica.com
For EcoNet: econet-news-@igc.topica.com
For WomensNet: womensnet-ne-@igc.topica.com
For AntiRacismNet: antiracismnet--@igc.topica.com
Date: Aug 14 2000 12:22:52 EDT
From: "Chocopaul News" <pa-@arenson.org>
Subject: "Rogue" States
Paul's ChocoPaul Page News
American Policy: "Rogue States"
========================
url http:// arenson.org
email pa-@arenson.org
http://Chocopaul.listbot.com/
========================
This is Message 4 or 5 today. Hope I am am not inundating you.
August 14, 2000
ROGUE REMOVAL AS OFFICIAL U.S. FOREIGN POLICY
By Edward S. Herman
(See below)
*Preface from Paul--In a recent class discussion, I found that my
position
on US bases on Japan was shared by only a few. Many people in the room
wanted to BELIEVE that despite the fact that U.S. soldiers here often
commit crimes and noise and accidents threaten the peace and safety of
surrounding communities, the U.S. is basically "good intentioned". This
article may change a few people's minds. I hope so.
U.S. policy ("Democratic" or Republican) is about medical
deprivation and starvation, bombing raids, overthrowing governments,
and violation of international law. It has NOTHING to do with support of
democracy, freedom, or economic and social justice.
The fact that Japan is now at peace, does not mean there IS peace. U.S.
bases in Japan help to carry out American and corporatist policy. The
bases in Okinawa have been used to launch bombing raids against Vietnam
where 4,000,000 Vietnamese died. They have been used to bomb Iraq. They
house American nuclear weapons, a fact ignored by the Liberal Democratic
Party (Japan's ruling party), a party which has never voted against
America in the United Nations on the subject of nucelar weapons. In
essence, it means that ultimately the LDP and Japan's government regard
the horror of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as acceptable and justifiable by
maintaining the presence of U.S. troops on Japanese territory.
This originally appeared on ZNET as a commentary sent to Sustainer
Donors. Most of ZNET is free, but for those who are interested you can
check out ZNet at http://www.zmag.org and specifically the ZNet
Sustainer
Pages at http://www.zmag.org/Commentaries/donorform.htm
And now, Herman's article:
In her August 1 speech before the Republican National
Convention, Bush foreign policy adviser Condoleezza Rice
explained to the audience that Bush "recognizes that the
magnificent men and women of America's armed forces are not
a global police force. They are not the world's 911." On the
contrary, she said that in a Bush government these
magnificent men and women will not only defend our shores
and skies from any threats, they will "go forth to extend
peace, prosperity and liberty beyond our blessed shores."
And the Republican platform calls for the active pursuit of
a "rogue removal" strategy to take out outlaws that the
effete Clinton administration has merely sought to contain
("Bush plans to undermine 'rogue' states," Financial Times,
Aug. 2, 2000).
This of course does a grave injustice to Clinton, who has
used a full array of boycotts, sanctions, civilian medical
deprivation and starvation, bombing raids, inspections,
support of external dissidents, and inducements to the Iraq
military to overthrow the rogue leader Saddam Hussein. In
Yugoslavia as well, Clinton has used massive bombing,
sanctions, intervention in support of dissident parties,
Tribunal condemnations of Milosevic, and putting a price on
Milosevic's head as an inducement to dispatch the villain in
another multi-pronged rogue removal operation. The only
thing Clinton hasn't done is invade with U.S. troops to
dislodge these rogue state leaders.
It is not at all clear that the Republicans in power will
go beyond Clinton in dealing with rogues, but they must
differentiate themselves from him, especially as they are
obliged to justify their intention to greatly enlarge the
already immense military budget. They have to claim a plan
for important "national security" action that Clinton wasn't
already doing. It is awkward for the Republicans that in the
case of Iraq he has pursued with genocidal energy the
subversion process installed under Bush One. The anti-
missile boondoggle is aimed at that other great national
security threat, North Korea, whose leaders might someday in
the far distant future have the power to commit national
suicide by sending off a missile across the ocean. The
Republicans are eagerly pushing that boondoggle, no doubt
hoping that the possible rapprochement between North and
South Korea will not force them to look for a boondoggle
rationale elsewhere. But this boondoggle will not advance
the cause of removing the rogue state leadership.
According to Condoleeza Rice, the need for a defense against
missiles "at the earliest possible date" results from the
fact that rogue efforts to acquire long-range missiles are
aimed strictly at "blackmail." The rogues couldn't want
missiles for "defense" as this peace-loving country
obviously seeks overwhelming military power and an
anti-missile defense system only because of our "special
responsibilities to keep the peace"! Could the Romans at the
height of their imperial power have been more brazenly and
self-righteously self-serving?
Ms. Rice implies that Clinton's policy was only to provide a
global "police force" and "911," without any larger
rationale. But Clinton's foreign policy has surely been
designed for corporate service, and he has been doing his
subversion dirty work partly because he, like the
Republicans, is devoted to the U.S. "national interest" in
creating a global system hospitable to U.S. transnational
corporations. But Clinton also feels the need to lean over
backwards to show that he and the Democrats are not "soft"
and will be at least as ready as the Republicans to beat up
a Grenada, Nicaragua, Iraq, etc., and to put the national
(corporate) interest first. The Republicans do not have to
prove their patriotic willingness to bomb and their devotion
to a corporate interest they serve so undeviatingly; which
is why they sometimes have to extricate the country from
wars in which the Democrats are bogged down (Korea,
Vietnam). On the other hand, the Republicans are possibly
closer to the military-industrial complex than the Democrats
(Lockheed's head couldn't contain his enthusiasm at the
prospect of a Bush presidency; Lynne Cheney is on his board
of directors at $125,000 a year); they have more intimate
ties to the oil industry (Bush and Cheney both come right
out of the business); and the Republicans nurture a larger
contingent of ideological crazies than the Democrats (Rice
is a Bush team "moderate," allegedly fending off Richard
Perle and Paul Wolfowitz and other hardline warriors). This
makes the contest over who is more prone to imperialistic
excesses a close one.
But it is notable how, with the end of the Soviet Union and
its modest "containment" of the United States, subversion of
foreign enemies has become more open and brazen. Clinton
carried it pretty far, and the Republicans are now saying
that subversion is going to be official policy and will be
carried farther. There is still that small genuflection to
"morality" in describing the targets as "rogues," the
follow-on to the designation as "terrorist" states of
several years back. But the right to name a country as a
"rogue" and then proceed to take systematic action to
displace the rulers and install new ones is now presented as
entirely reasonable. No questions have been raised in the
U.S. media about the assertion of this right and its
relation to the supposed rule of law in international
affairs. The liberal Boston Globe editorially congratulates
the Republicans for their platform call for rogue removal
("Being Clear About Saddam," Aug. 8). For the loyal media,
the effective law is what their leaders say and do.
The word "subversion" is of course not used to describe the
Republican plans in foreign policy. That is an old-fashioned
term of the Cold War years, like terrorism, that designated
Soviet efforts to overthrow governments by KGB
disinformation and propaganda, economic destabilization by
boycotts and sanctions, buying politicians, and encouraging
violence and assassinations. These were precisely the
tactics used by the CIA and other arms of the U.S. security
state in Latin America and globally, as described so
compellingly by former CIA operative Philip Agee in his book
Inside the Company, but as the mainstream media took for
granted our natural right to subvert, an invidious word like
subversion was never applied to us. And it reamins out of
service today. (For an analysis of this natural right, and
the forms of subversion used by the U.S. in Latin America,
see my Real Terror Network, 132-5.)
Another reason why we don't subvert is that all our efforts
to deal with rogues are based on our concern for our
"national security," one of the most elastic phrases in the
English language. If a government that takes power in a
distant country threatens to tax a U.S. company more
heavily, this is a national security problem. By posing such
a threat that government has demonstrated its hostility and
unreasonableness--it has done something to which we object,
and it has failed to recognize the neoliberal truth that
such higher taxes are unsound, etc. Of course, on this
conception of national security, anybody who does not do our
precise bidding constitutes a national security threat and
can reasonably be called a rogue. This is obviously a
perfect intellectual instrument of a policy of aggressive
imperialism.
Another important feature of national security is that, like
"Hoover's law"--i.e., the smaller the number of Communists
the greater their subversive threat--we have a "National
Security threat law," which says that the more powerful this
country and the greater its military superiority over others
the more fearsome and intolerable are any challenges to its
desires abroad. This law is a symptom of that sickness known
as the "pitiful giant syndrome," which causes our
military-political elite to fret and gnash their teeth at
our supposed helplessness in combating all these external
menaces.
Possibly there is in all this a trace of insincerity and a
bit of calculated rationalization for the desire to maintain
superiority and to intervene freely at our own discretion.
But it may be an internalized truth for many. The
military-industrial complex certainly needs rationales for
the growing military budget, and threat inflation has a long
history in the serial Cold War "gaps" that weren't there.
The Bush Two gang have their work cut out for them in
justifying escalated military expenditures in the
post-Soviet threat era, but the mainstream media can always
be relied on to help. And Bush Two's prospective unlimited
service to Greed Inc. may make it necessary for our
"magnificent men and women" in the armed services to work
over some of those less magnificent men and women, victims
of the "miracle of the market," needing pacification at
home, as well as abroad.
Date: Aug 14 2000 12:27:37 EDT
From: "Chocopaul News" <pa-@arenson.org>
Subject: Iraq: 10 years after the bombing
Paul's ChocoPaul Page News
(1) Mass Media Ignores Iraq Bombing
By David Cromwell
(2) 21ST CENTURY GENOCIDE: A MISSION OF PEACE TO IRAQ
by David Edwards
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THIS IS MESSAGE 5 of 5 for today.
Aug 14
These were originally published in the Sustainer Forum of ZNET.
To get information on subscribing and the regular (free) ZNET offerings
please see ZNet at http://www.zmag.org and
specifically the ZNet Sustainer Pages at
http://www.zmag.org/Commentaries/donorform.htm
August 6th is the tenth anniversary of the Iraq Sanctions.
The Unreporting of Iraq
By David Cromwell
As the 10th anniversary of the devastating UN economic
sanctions against Iraq approaches (6th August), it is clear
that even the 'liberal' and 'independent' press is sweeping
the matter under the carpet. If the government propaganda
merchants in Washington and London don't even mention the
dreadful suffering of the Iraqi people, then 'news'
journalists can convince themselves that (a) it's not
happening; (b) even if it is happening, it canft be
important.
Recently, there was a brouhaha about Norman Finkelstein's
book "The Holocaust Industry' concerning the profits made
out of the sufferings of the Jews - and the other many
victims - of the Nazi period. Columnist Natasha Walter,
writing in the London-based Independent newspaper, broadened
the discussion somewhat, but still within rigid parameters
appropriate to the 'free press'. She wrote accurately 'that
Americans - and the British are the same - would rather
wring their hands over the Holocaust than over their own
crimes against humanity'. The implication was that such
crimes - negro slavery and colonialism, for example - all
belonged to the distant past. Today, goes the argument, the
United States - with Britain in a loyal supporting role - is
the defender of freedom against tyrants the world over.
But not only is there an ongoing US-driven holocaust which
is denied or ignored by western elites, it is rarely even
remarked upon in respectable society. We are talking here of
the hidden holocaust that extends beyond the historical
genocide of native American peoples and the enslavement of
black people, dreadful as those events were. Millions of
people have died, and many more millions condemned to lives
of misery and torture, as a result of US interventions in
the Philippines, Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Guatemala,
Chile, Brazil, Kosovo, Iraq and elsewhere. Take the
following example. The US (and British) actively supported
Suharto's bloody coup in Indonesia in 1965-66 when over a
million were killed, followed by Indonesia's invasion of
East Timor in 1975, which resulted in around 200,000 deaths.
But these are inconvenient facts which obscure the westfs
self-image as the egood guysf. (And, letfs face it, since
World War II ethe westf has increasingly become synonymous
with powerful US political and business interests). The very
question of how benign are the great western powers with
their proud notions of 'democracy', 'fair play' and 'respect
for law and order' just does not arise. It is what
therapists refer to as ethe elephant in the roomf. Everyone
sees it, but in polite company social etiquette dictates
that nobody mentions it. It just isnft the done thing.
Letfs do our damnedest to make it the done thing. Consider
the Gulf War desert massacre in 1990-1991. General Norman
eStormin' f Schwarzkopf admitted that at least 100,000 Iraqi
soldiers had been killed. Many of them died not on the
battlefield, but while fleeing in retreat. This was the
infamous Basra road eturkey shootf of Saddam's coerced and
demoralised conscript army of mostly Kurds and Shia - the
same oppressed minorities for which western leaders
professed concern. And then there is the dreadful toll of
Iraqi civilian deaths in the intense bombing campaign.
According to American and French intelligence reports, over
200,000 died. All of this was barely mentioned in the
'quality' press at the time and is now all but forgotten.
The Iraqi holocaust continues today in the guise of
'economic sanctions'. Over half a million children under the
age of five, and over one million Iraqis in all, have died
for want of adequate medication, food or safe water
supplies. But Bill Clinton and Tony Blair tell us
confidently that it's all Saddam's fault and so our
investigative journalists and hard-bitten editors back off,
appeased. When the media is challenged to pursue the matter
further - these are huge crimes against humanity, after
all - they react angrily: eWefve already covered the issue.
We did an article a few months agof. This was the response I
received when I attempted to interest several British
broadsheets in a well-attended public meeting in London
protesting the Iraqi sanctions. David Edwards, who was
similarly rebuffed by The Guardian when trying to place an
article on the 10th anniversary of the sanctions, wrote
recently about the media: eThe main extraordinary unwritten
rule is: THOU SHALT NOT QUESTION WHAT WE DO! Because,
perhaps even unconsciously, they know that they are so
totally open to criticism, so compromised, self-deceived and
deceiving, that they cannot risk any probing or examination.
f
And yet... here is a massive 'story' should anyone brave
enough in the mainstream media wish to pursue it. Denis
Halliday, former coordinator of the UN's eoil for foodf
programme in Baghdad, resigned in 1998, accusing the west of
'genocide'. Hans von Sponeck, his successor, resigned
earlier this year, stating that an entire generation of
Iraqi people was being 'destroyed'. Somehow, none of this
raises more than a brief murmur amongst broadcasters and
journalists. Why is this?
There is, of course, no conspiracy. It's more subtle,
powerful and pervasive than that, as Noam Chomsky, Edward
Herman, David Edwards and others have demonstrated. At one
level it's market forces at work - the requirement to
satisfy the constraints and priorities of advertisers and
corporate owners, for example. But there is also a
reluctance in the media, bordering on fear, to confront
political and business elites. Stir in, too, lashings of
lustful journalistic longings to belong to the higher
circles of power. eMr President, Foreign Secretary, Defense
Minister - speak to me, please. Me, me, me!f Most
journalists love having direct access to the corridors of
power. 'According to sources inside the Cabinet...', 'It is
understood that the Prime Minister feels that...', etc.,
etc. No wonder journalist John Pilger, a distinguished
exception, describes the majority of his professional
colleagues as ethe essential foot soldiers in any network
devoted to power and propagandaf.
But powerful interests do not rely solely on a network of
complacent journalists. These days the military
establishment have their own spin doctors. Martin Howard,
the intriguingly titled edirector of newsf at the UK
Ministry of Defence (MoD), has been diligent in waging a
bizarre propaganda war in support of the continued illegal
British and American bombing of Iraq. His remit is
ostensibly to scour the letters pages of the British press
for anti-Nato sentiments and to respond with the full force
of his position. His responses are exemplars of obfuscation
and duplicity. A recent contribution in The Independent
defended the US and the UK patrols of the eno-flyf zones
which were set up, he said, to protect northern Kurds and
southern Shiites. However, while UN resolutions call for the
protection of Iraqi minorities there is no stipulation for
military enforcement of the zones, as claimed by Howard.
However, as even the establishment New York Times reported
on 25 February 1998, eno United Nations resolutions created
the restricted zonesf. This has not stopped the zones
growing in size over the years. When President Clinton
ordered missile attacks against Iraq on September 3 and 4,
1996, he admitted during his weekly radio address, eI
ordered the attacks in order to extend the no-fly zonef.
This was done unilaterally, without authorisation from the
UN. But when has the US ever sought authorisation from the
UN to pursue its own agenda?
In his letter to The Independent, MoD spin doctor Martin
Howard claims that British or American aeroplanes were not
responsible for the deaths, reported in the same newspaper,
of several Iraqis on 17 May this year. eNato planes werenft
flying that dayf, he claimed, as the reporter could have
determined if only ehe had bothered to checkf with Howard.
Of the 300 Iraqis that have been killed, and another 800
injured, in the 18 months of intense bombings since December
1998, Howard had nothing to say. He goes on to proclaim
support for UN security council resolutions. Yet there is no
mention of UN resolution 687, paragraph 14, which calls for
regional disarmament as the basis for reducing Iraq's
arsenal of weapons.
The truth is that by arming Iraq's neighbours in the Middle
East, the west is contravening the same UN resolution which
it uses to maintain arguments for sustaining economic
sanctions against Iraq. Peter Hinchcliffe, former British
ambassador to Kuwait, and like Howard an enthusiastic
revisionist, recently regurgitated in the British press the
US and UK government line that courtesy of the UN's eoil for
foodf programme, Saddam ecould have chosen to feed the Iraqi
people (and treat them)f. Never mind that once UN expenses
and reparations to Kuwait and big business have been creamed
off, just $190 is left per head of population per year.
Denis Halliday, who has actually seen at first hand the
devastating effects on the Iraqi people, politely described
this sum as epitifully inadequatef. According to the UN
Children's Fund, the sanctions are killing of up to 200
children under the age of five every day. Even on a eslow
news dayf, the US and British public are left uninformed of
what their governments are doing in their name. Journalists
call this surreal and deadly state of affairs emaintaining
professionalismf.
How can we reconcile these ghastly facts with the widespread
belief in the essential goodness of our 'liberal-democratic
west'? We cannot. eOur boasted civilisationf, said the
writer Jack London, eis based upon blood, soaked in blood,
and neither you nor I nor any of us can escape the scarlet
stains.f Far from living in a benign society, we are
actually living under a monstrous system that promotes power
and profit above concern for justice and life. We must
suspect that those elite few who benefit most from the
present arrangement are fully aware of this fact.
As for the rest of society, the depiction of reality
presented here is such a disturbing notion that many would
rather reject it outright than question the lies they are
fed daily by the media. But then, as George Orwell once
wrote, 'If liberty means anything at all, it means the right
to tell people what they do not want to hear.' Only then can
we prevent another Vietnam. Another East Timor. Another
Iraq.
--- ---
21ST CENTURY GENOCIDE: A MISSION OF PEACE TO IRAQ
By David Edwards
In a recent article in the Guardian, Madeleine Bunting
asked: "Let's be honest, who cares much about politics
beyond a small elite of professional politicians? When did
you last have a raging row - or even brief conversation -
with anyone about politics?"
The short answer to Bunting's first question - "Who
cares?" - is simple: people like Jo Baker, Bristol
mother-of-three, who, on August 11, will join four other
women ranging between 30 and 76 years of age, in flying out
to Iraq to mark the tenth anniversary of sanctions. For them
politics is not merely of interest, it is a matter of life
and death.
According to Unicef, the United Nations Children's Fund,
4,000 more children under five are dying every month in Iraq
than would have died had Western sanctions not been imposed.
Over the ten years that these US and British-led sanctions
have been in place, 500,000 extra children under five have
died.
The team have decided to go as an all-women delegation, as
an act of solidarity with Iraqi women, and to bear witness
to the devastating ways in which British foreign policy is
impacting on their lives through sanctions and the bombing
which goes on almost daily. It will focus on women's issues
like childbirth and the death of children.
The women will be visiting Iraq's second city, Basra, in the
south of the country, scene of the worst poverty: "There are
terrible problems with birth defects and leukaemia, which
have been linked to the use of around 350 tons of depleted
uranium munitions during the war," Baker says. "They don't
have enough drugs for chemotherapy; they don't have enough
blood, enough oxygen, and anaesthetics. Women are having
caesarean operations without anaesthetics; it's just
horrendous. There are no proper pain killers."
The women are also hoping to examine levels of environmental
damage and to interview Dr. Huda Ammash an environmental
biologist and professor at Baghdad University. Dr. Ammash
has described "an unprecedented catastrophe" in Iraq, with
much of the country "turned into a polluted and radioactive
environment".
Alongside Jo will be the equally remarkable Peggy Preston,
76, an ex-WAAF servicewoman. Peggy served on a bomber
station at Coningsby during the Second World War. The
experience of seeing her friends in the RAF being killed and
learning of the firestorms inflicted on Hamburg and other
cities in Germany taught her an invaluable lesson: "I
learned that it is not enough to just toe the line. I began
my service believing that I really was fighting a war to end
all wars. Since then I have tried as hard as I can to spread
peace around the world. From 1968 to 1973, at the height of
the war, I lived in Vietnam. I've always wanted to
understand what people in other countries are experiencing
and suffering. We Westerners can always get out of these
terrible situations, the least we can do is share in their
experience and show solidarity."
Preston will be returning to Iraq for the first time since
visiting the country as part of the Gulf Peace Team in
January 1991: "We know that the situation has deteriorated
dramatically since 1991," she told me. "Then, the loss of
electricity, lack of clean water, spread of disease and bomb
damage were laying the foundations for disaster. Today,
malnutrition, cancer, typhoid and diarrhoea have reached
truly epidemic proportions as the country is routinely
denied food and medical supplies by sanctions."
In response to this horror, Denis Halliday, former UN
Assistant Secretary-General and UN Humanitarian Coordinator
resigned from the UN in 1998, describing Western policy as
"genocidal". His successor, Hans von Sponeck, also resigned
on February 13 of this year, asking, "How long should the
civilian population of Iraq be exposed to such punishment
for something they have never done?" Two days later, Jutta
Burghardt, head of the World Food Programme in Iraq, also
resigned, saying privately that what was being done to the
people of Iraq was intolerable.
Steadfastly ignoring these authoritative and credible
dissident voices, the British and US governments continue to
claim that Iraq's holocaust is the sole responsibility of
Saddam Hussein. Peter Hain, Minister of State, for example,
has written: "The 'oil for food' programme has been in place
for three years and could have been operating since 1991 if
Saddam had not blocked it. The Iraqi people have never seen
the benefits they should have."
Denis Halliday rejects this claim out of hand: "There is no
basis for that assertion at all. The Secretary-General has
reported repeatedly that there is no evidence that food is
being diverted by the government in Baghdad. We have 150
observers on the ground in Iraq. Say a wheat shipment comes
in from god knows where, in Basra, they follow the grain to
some of the mills, they follow the flour to the 49,000
agents that the Iraqi government employs for this programme,
then they follow the flour to the recipients and even
interview some of the recipients - there is no evidence of
diversion of foodstuffs whatever ever in the last two years.
The Secretary-General would have reported that.
Halliday argues that shortage of food and medical supplies
is the direct responsibility of Washington and London: "They
have deliberately played games through the Sanctions
Committee with this programme for years - it's a deliberate
ploy. For the British Government to say that the quantities
involved for vaccinating kids are going to produce weapons
of mass destruction, is just nonsense. That's why I've been
using the word 'genocide ', because this is a deliberate
policy to destroy the people of Iraq. I'm afraid I have no
other view at this late stage."
Halliday and many other peace campaigners are concerned at
the possibility of massive bombing ahead of the upcoming
U.S. presidential election:
"One great fear I think many of us have is that Richard
Butler (former Unscom director) is talking publicly on his
concern that something is going on within Iraq; that they
are possibly rebuilding their weapons of mass destruction.
These are extremely dangerous comments, for which there is
no basis in fact that I'm aware of. This scaremongering, in
my view, is preparing the possibility for Clinton and the
Pentagon and others to bomb Iraq again in another December
'98-style attack."
Justification for such an attack might be provided by plans
for Hans Blix to return to Iraq with his Unmovic (UN
Monitoring, Verification, and Inspection Commission)
inspectors at the end of August. Baghdad has not changed its
position on UN Resolution 1284 and has not indicated that it
will allow Blix 's team to enter the country. Halliday warns
that this rejection could provide the pretext for another
military aggression: "The fear is that this will be a clear
excuse for Clinton to say, 'Well, there you are; Butler must
be right. We'd better go in and bomb the country.'"
Iraq's refusal to accept 1284 is understandable enough,
given that it refers only of a temporary suspension of
sanctions if inspectors are allowed back into the country:
an offer, which after the death of half a million children,
is to say the least, too little too late. Resolution 1284
should also be viewed within the context of the American
position, which insists that economic sanctions will +never+
be lifted while Saddam Hussein is in power: "That needs to
be retracted," Halliday says. "If that happened we might see
a breakthrough. Right now, as far as I know, the U.S. is
encouraging and financing opposition based on that premise,
and I think Al Gore has been saying just that recently: that
removing Saddam Hussein will be one of his goals. In fact I
believe that both presidential candidates are signed up to
that idea".
Halliday fears that a major bombing campaign would have
political appeal for Clinton in support of Al Gore: "He can
say 'Al asked me to do it; Al's a tough guy. Al will take
care of this Saddam,' as they call him. 'You can trust Al,
he knows how to handle these 'rogue states'. This is not
another Bush, the guy who failed in '91, this is someone
new'. This would be a beautiful opportunity to bolster his
image."
There are a few small signs of hope for the people of Iraq.
Several large private corporations are now opposed to econom
ic sanctions. The chief executives of Mobil Oil and
Caterpillar tractors have both called for an end to the
economic embargo. It has now become respectable to oppose
economic sanctions whereas a few years ago it was deemed
unthinkable. More and more people are becoming deeply
concerned about the fate of the Iraqi people. "It 's a
dramatic change," Halliday says. "It's like people are
seeing the writing on the wall and they're preparing
themselves to change sides, which is very encouraging. I
think many governments are like that, but not,
unfortunately, that I can see, the decision makers in
Washington and London.
Jo Baker asks people in the South West to support her and
Peggy Preston's action in any way they can: "We're asking
people to fax or email Tony Blair and ask him to lift
economic sanctions, and tell him that more bombing is
totally unacceptable."
-----------------------------------------------
The next note or notes will be in about 8 days or so.
In the meantime, send any feedback, comments, requests, etc. to
Paul from the main page.
(Login to arenson.org and follow the links)
Chocopaul News Update # 15
=============================================
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this list http://Chocopaul.listbot.com/
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TODAY--News on Women, the Environment, Peace, Human Rights, etc.
We have 33 members. Previous messages can
be found online (see above).
Previous topics:
14) Iraq Sanctions
13) "Rogue States" (By its own definition, U.S. is such a state)
12) Environment/Peace News
11) FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS)
10-4) Japan Topics (Okinawa, Hinomaru)
and more...
TODAY'S NEWS
(1) WOMEN
BURKINA FASO: Women Demand Share of Debt Cancellation Benefits
OUAGADOUGOU, Aug 9 (IPS) - The women of Burkina Faso are demanding their
share of a 700 million US dollar windfall that comes to the government
through the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative.
Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/wnheadlines/966012355/index_html
MEXICO CITY, Aug 7 (IPS) - Women's organisations launched a national
offensive Monday in Mexico against the criminalisation of abortion,
after president-elect Vicente Fox's party members in the state of
Guanajuato passed a new law to punish the practice.
Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/wnheadlines/966015392/index_html
BRAZIL: Rural Women March to Demand a Better Life
RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug 10 (IPS) - More than half of Brazil's rural women
begin working before they reach age 10, they toil as long as 18 hours
each day and many of their rights are ignored, denounced the leaders of
a protest march in Brasilia Thursday.
Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/wnheadlines/966017685/index_html
(2) Environment
Australia is famous for its Koalas, Kangaroos, and other plants and
animals; and is considered a "mega-diverse" country with some 10 percent
of the world's species. But Australia has one of the highest rates of
current and ongoing land clearing in the world, with grave and tragic
impacts upon habitat, climate and sustainability. Below you will find a
news article and an action alert from the Australian Conservation
Foundation. Please email the Australian Prime Minister to express your
concern.
Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/enalerts/965963693/index_html
Most Nuclear Sites Will Never Be Cleaned
More than two-thirds of the government sites involved in decades of
nuclear bomb production will never be completely cleaned of
contamination, according to a study by the National Academy of Sciences.
Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/enheadlines/965961392/index_html
Opposition Continues to India's Tehri Dam
The new cause taken up by Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) chief Ashok
Singhal, that of saving the river Ganga from the onslaught of the Tehri
dam is almost three decades old.
Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/enheadlines/965962371/index_html
Potent New Greenhouse Gas Discovered
A new atmospheric pollutant has been discovered. The chemical is present
at low concentrations but the concentration is rising at about six
percent annually.
Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/enheadlines/965962845/index_html
(3) Peace , Human Rights and Globalisation
World Bank Breaks Promise to Awa Indians
Brazil has violated its own constitution and the World Bank has flouted
its Operational Directive by failing to demarcate Aw$B!&(JIndian
territory
-
although funds were made available 18 years ago to do so. This has lead
to the deaths of unknown numbers of uncontacted Aw$B!&(Jand the
destruction
of their land. The demarcation has been blocked largely by businessmen
and politicians who have large landholdings on Aw$B!&(Jland.
Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/pnalerts/966358890/index_html
The USA's Hour of Shame
The US death penalty continues to be one of the world's human rights
scandals, Amnesty International said today condemning the two executions
carried out in Texas yesterday.
Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/pnheadlines/966354874/index_html
College's Negotiations with Sodexho-Marriott Break Down Amid Prison
Controversy
Olympia, WA. Students from Evergreen State College declared victory
today in a two-month long struggle to keep a catering company tied to
the for-profit private prison industry from taking over the school's
food service contract.
Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/pnheadlines/966355923/index_html
COLOMBIA: More Massacres, More Army Complicity?
Paramilitaries murdered eight people, one of them a 17-year old girl, on
Aug. 7 in a rural area of Sardinata, Norte de Santander department. At
least nine more people were found murdered and four others disappeared
by paramilitaries on Aug. 8 in the municipalities of Villanueva, near
Cartagena in Bolivar department; and San Diego, Cesar department.
Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/pnheadlines/966357800/index_html
Pacifists Admit Conspiracy to Promote Nonviolence
In the wake of the protests at the Republican National Convention in
Philadelphia last week, that city's police chief, John Timoney, has
called for a federal investigation into what he has called a nationwide
conspiracy. Since the great bulk of the protests consisted of nonviolent
civil disobedience, we can only assume he refers to a conspiracy to
commit such acts.
Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/pnheadlines/966358428/index_html
Police Harrass Artists and Activists
At approximately 9:30 AM today,a handful of activists in association
with Global Exchange (An anti-globalization/social justice activist
group organizing during the week of the DNC) were harrassed by an
overwhelming number of police while setting up an art installation in
downtown Los Angeles.
Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/pnheadlines/966359638/index_html
NewsDay
August 13, 2000
Alleged Terrorist Among Them
His link to Haiti murders sparks protests
By Ron Howell, Staff Writer
Emmanuel Constant, who goes by the nickname Toto, was once
the leader of a right-wing organization named the Front for
the Advancement and Progress of Haiti, which was linked to
numerous killings, beatings and kidnapings in Haiti during
the early 1990s.
Constant has admitted that while he was in Haiti he was a
paid informant of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. Some
human rights groups say the United States was effectively
using Constant's organization to repress the poor masses
of Haitians who were insisting on the return of former
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, overthrown in a 1991
military coup. There have long been suspicions that
the United States had a role in the coup itself:
http://www.newsday.com/news/daily/nytoto13.htm
Today's messages from Women's Net, Peace Net, Eco Net and the Black
Radical
Cogress, among others. Fair-use guidelines applied
for non-commercial usage.
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Thanks
Date: Aug 18 2000 23:28:33 EDT
From: "Chocopaul News" <pa-@arenson.org>
Subject: India: Petition to Prime Minister of Japan
ChocoPaul Page News (#16)
URGENT PETITION PLEASE SIGN AND SEND NOW
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PETITION TO JAPANESE EMBASSY IN INDIA
FROM: FRIENDS OF THE EARTH JAPAN
Background information at:
http://www.angelfire.com/journal/nagini/kudremukh.html
If you agree with the petition below, please IMMEDIATELY send email to
the below addresses:
SUGGESTED MESSAGE:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
To: es-@bgl.vsnl.net.in
CC: tomot-@foejapan.org
" I support the letter to the Japanese Prime Minister by Hisako
Motoyama
(Development Finance and Environment Programme, Friends of the Earth -
Japan) and
Leo F. Saldanha (Environment Support Group Bangalore,INDIA) opposing
the
possible extension of the mining lease in the Kudremukh National Park
and
the involvement of Japanese corporations in importing iron ore from this
area."
YOUR NAME
YOUR COUNTRY
ORGANIZATION,University Name, etc. if possible,
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The letters will be sent to the Japanese Embassy in Delhi to make it
before the Prime Minister's departure from India on Wednesday, so please
do this right now if you agree.
BELOW: (1) EXPLANATION
(2) LETTER TO PRIME MINISTER MORI
| | Endorse Letter to Japanese PM Not to Support Iron Ore
|
Imports from Kudremukh National Park, India
| | Dear Friends,
The Japanese Prime Minister is starting his visit to India on Sunday
evening, 20 August 2000. He is first arriving in the South Indian city
|
of
| | Bangalore to start his four day visit, and here he will have a key
|
business
| | meeting with Japanese investors in India.
On learning about this visit we felt it would be a great opportunity to
draw the Prime Minister's attention to the devastation of the invaluable
shola forests of Kudremukh National Park in the mountainous Western
|
Ghats,
| | due to mining for iron ore, of which Japan is a major importer. India's
largest iron ore mining company, the Kudremukh Iron Ore Company Ltd.
(KIOCL), has been mining here for over two decades causing serious
damage
to vast stretches of forests, the rivers they support, wildlife and
human
health and environment.
As the long term mining lease of the company expired last year, work is
continuing only on the basis of a short lease. The future of KIOCL is
entirely reliant on securing further a long mining lease, of 20 years,
|
not
| | just in the existing mined areas, but in new forest areas as well.
|
There
| | is groundswell of opposition to extending the lease. Even so, the
Karnataka State and Indian Governments are keen to privatise the
company,
merely for sustaining foreign exchange earnings from this 100% EOU.
Japanese imports and/or involvement is crucial to the sustenance of the
company and its privatisation effort.
As this decision will be taken over the next several months, we believe
that it is an excellent opportunity to focus the attention of the
|
visiting
| | Prime Minister to our serious concerns, and hopefully this will ensure a
withdrawal of Japanese investment.
In this regard, we have been working with Friends of the Earth - Japan,
over the past several weeks, and Hisako Motoyama of Development Finance
|
and
| | Environment Programme has prepared a letter that we plan to send to the
Japanese Prime Minister on arrival in Bangalore, India. The same letter
will also be released to the Press.
It would be wonderful if this letter was widely endorsed, in
|
demonstrating
| | your concern for the wonderful forests and wildlife of Kudremukh
National
Park in the Western Ghats of India.
Please send your endorsements NAME-ORGANISATION-ADDRESS to
es-@bgl.vsnl.net.in (Address and Tel/Fax details at the end of this
|
email)
| | and you may mark a copy to Hisako: moto-@foejapan.org
Whilst the deadline to make your endorsments for the Bangalore Release
is
Saturday, 19 August 3 pm (IST), endorsements may be sent till Tuesday,
23
August. We will send them to the Japanese Embassy in Delhi to make it
before the Prime Minister's departure from India on Wednesday.
(For more information on the issue, please visit
http://www.angelfire.com/journal/nagini/kudremukh.html)
Thank you and best regards
Leo Saldanha
Coordinator
Environment Support Group
August 18, 2000
PS: Kindly circulate this appeal widely. Thank you.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
LETTER TO JAPANESE PRIME MINISTER
August 18, 2000
Mr. Yoshiro Mori
Prime Minister of Japan
An Appeal Not to Support Imports of Iron Ore Excavated in the Kudremukh
National Park, India
Dear Mr. Mori,
We are very much concerned with the possible extension of mining lease
in
the Kudremukh National Park and the involvement of Japanese corporations
|
in
| | importing iron ore from this area.
The Kudremukh National Park in Karnataka, India, is one of the most
important world natural heritages. It forms an important area of the
Western Ghats forests that are known for rich bio-diversity and
|
invaluable
| | ecosystems. Three major rivers that provide water and critical natural
resources for local people also originate in this area.
However, the mining operations of the Kudremukh Iron Ore Company Ltd
(KIOCL) has resulted in serious negative impacts on the natural habitats
|
in
| | the Park. Presently the KIOCL is seeking extension of the mining lease
|
in
| | this area for another 20 years and also planning expansion of mining
|
areas.
| | This will be a great threat to this area that is already seriously
|
damaged.
| |
For the past several years, Japanese major trading companies and steel
companies have been importing and buying a million tons of iron ore
produced in this area annually. Trading about one thirds of the total
production of the KIOCL, these companies have supported KIOCL's
|
destructive
| | activities. Without recognising their environmental responsibilities,
those companies are still interested in continuing to purchase iron ore
from this area, if and when the mining lease is extended.
We are aware that without commitment of those Japanese companies to
purchase the products, the KIOCL's environmentally irresponsible
|
operations
| | are not possible. We are also aware that support of Japanese public
|
export
| | credit agencies, namely, the Japan Bank of International Cooperation and
the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, will be critical
encouragement for trading decisions of the companies. Thus we strongly
urge you not to provide public support to those Japanese companies that
|
are
| | going to trade natural resources exploited in environmentally
destructive
manner. As the two public export credit agencies now have environmental
policies, we request you to implement them in responsible and meaningful
manner.
Most respectfully,
Hisako Motoyama
Development Finance and Environment Programme
Friends of the Earth - Japan
3-17-24-2F, Mejiro, Toshima, Tokyo 71-0031, Japan
Tel: 03-3951-1081 Fax: 03-3951-1084
Email: moto-@foejapan.org
Leo F. Saldanha
Environment Support Group
S-#, Rajashree Apartments, 18/57, 1st Main Road
S. R. K. Gardens, Jayanagar
Bannerghatta Road, Bangalore 560 004. INDIA
Telefax: 91-80-6341977
Fax: 91-80-6723926 (PP)
Email: es-@bgl.vsnl.net.in
Cc:
Mr. Kiichi Miyazawa
Minister of Finance
Mr. Takeo Hiranuma
Minister of International Trade and Investment
Mr. Hirodi Yasuda
Governor of Japan Bank of International Cooperation
ENDORSERS:
People's Forum 2001, Japan
Yoichi Kuroda
Coordinator, Japan Tropical Forest Action Network
Hiroyuki Tiba
Kimiko Mugishima
Philip Carter
Environmental Writer, Osaka, Japan
Bittu Sahgal
Mumbai, India
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
WE HAVE MOVED : OUR NEW ADDRESS
Environment Support Group (R)
S-3, Rajashree Apartments
18/57, 1st Main Road
S. R. K. Gardens
Jayanagar
Bannerghatta Road
Bangalore 560 041. INDIA
Telefax: 91-80-6341977
Fax: 91-80-6723926 (PP)
Email: es-@bgl.vsnl.net.in
|
______________________
Coming soon:
(1)Japanese teachers punished in violation of
Japanese constitution for expressing opposition to
national flag and anthem use in schools
(2) More news and opinion from Japan
(3) Howard Zinn on the evil of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki
(4) Why the West (includes Japan) ignores murder and terror by the
Indonesian government
More
Date: Aug 19 2000 06:28:50 EDT
From: "Chocopaul News" <pa-@arenson.org>
Subject: East Timor/ Hiroshima-Nagasaki
Chocopaul Page News # 18
=============================================
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==============================================
2 ESSAYS:
(1) EAST TIMOR-Scott Burchill (Australian academic)
(2) HIROSHIMA-Howard Zinn (American historian and peace
activist)
Preface by Paul
Z Magazine and its website are an invaluable resource for people who
are
unhappy with the lies of the mainstream media on issues such as war and
peace, free trade, racism, militarism,, etc. The greater part of the web
site is free, yet there are daily commentaries for a nominal
contribution
of 5 dollars or more per month (500+yen or more). See
http://www.zmag.org
and specifically the ZNet Sustainer Pages at
http://www.zmag.org/Commentaries/donorform.htm if you would like to
subscribe.
The mainstream media has lied with particular vigor when it comes to
Indonesia (ignored genocide in East Timor for 25 years), Iraq (ignores
hundreds of thousands of deaths caused by sanctions) and Kosovo (printed
known falsehoods about the degree of Serbian criminality in order to
justify Nato bombing). A report just yesterday referred to protestors
who "allege" that anti-Iraq sanctions have killed many people, even
though
a new UN report demonstrates it to be a fact on a par with some of the
worst atrocities of Hitler. U.N. official Dennis Halliday, who resigned
his U.N. Food administrator job in protest of the U.S.-led sanctions now
comes under attack for being one sided, but the reality is that the U.S.
has, with its sanctions murdered at least 5000 Iraqi children per month
over the last 10 years. Our mainstream media has shamefully neglected
this story and thus, in essence, is guilty of manipulating public
opinion.
So much about living in free societies.
In the first article, read an Australian academic on why countries like
the U.S., Australia and, yes, Japan have ignored the crimes of the
Indonesian government.
In the second article, progressive historian Howard Zinn criticizes the
recent revisionism in the United States which tries to justify the
dropping of the atomic bombs during World War II. Recall that just a few
years ago, the Smithsonian Institute was forced to cancel a large part
of
its exhibit on the atomic bombings due to right wing pressure. And up
until recently, you could buy atomic bomb earrings at an American
government-run museum on the nuclear weapons.
To me it is odd that the Japanese government actually supports the use
of
American nuclear weapons by its refusal to respond to revelations of
previously secret documents that show the U.S. maintains such weapons in
Japan. The fact that Japan never votes against the U.S. nuclear
position
in the U.N. and has signed a military cooperation agreement with the
U.S.
makes Japan an accomplice in America's crimes around the globe.
ARTICLE ONE
Indonesia: Heroes and Villains
By Scott Burchill
(ARTICLE TWO IS BELOW)
In his first lecture on Indonesian soil after being banished
for 26 years, Benedict Anderson spoke about the bewildered
expression on the faces of his Indonesian students over the
years at Cornell University whenever he asked them "who in
Indonesia today do you admire and look up to?"
Anderson regards the inability of his young Indonesian
students to name their national heroes as a terrifying
indictment of a deformed political culture, dominated in
recent years by monsters such as Suharto, Murdani and
Wiranto.
However, the same question posed to young Americans or
Australians would have elicited a similar response. In the
media of both countries, Indonesia has been a regular source
of bad news. This is not entirely surprising, given the
brutality and corruption of the Suharto dictatorship and the
occupation of East Timor.
But why have we not heard about the inspiring and courageous
dissenters who, at great personal risk, resisted the New
Order regime and everything that it stood for? Why did they
remain anonymous when their counterparts in Eastern Europe -
the 'refuseniks' - were so publicly lauded in the West? The
answers to these questions tell us much about our own
diplomatic culture.
While Alexander Solzhenitsyn was feted in the West for his
personal indictment of Stalin's gulags, Indonesia's
Pramoedya Ananta Toer never appeared on the radar screens of
Western political elites. The author of the acclaimed Buru
Quartet and The Mute's Soliloquy, which recounts his
horrific experiences while incarcerated on Buru Island from
1969 to 1979, wasn't the kind of political prisoner that
interested Washington or Canberra during the Cold War - he
was a man of the left.
No-one who has read Pramoedya's memoirs would be under any
misapprehensions about the true nature of the Suharto
regime, which probably explains why his books never found
their way onto the shelves of the Jakarta lobby in
Australia: for them, Suharto's crimes were always a case of
see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil.
Similarly, Carmel Budiardjo's detention without trial
(1968-71) and her efforts to free her fellow political
prisoners, detailed in Surviving Indonesia's Gulag, was
unlikely to be reviewed by those promoting the closest
possible relationship between Canberra and the dictatorship
in Jakarta.
Budiardjo also founded TAPOL to campaign on behalf of
Indonesia's prisoners of conscience, remarkably an
organisation and a cause almost unknown in Australia and the
US. Given his predilection for quoting the number of human
rights representations he made while Australia's foreign
minister, it would be interesting to know how many Gareth
Evans made on behalf of tapols (Indonesian political
prisoners) during his term. One suspects not many, and
possibly none.
There are hundreds of others with even lower profiles, such
as the elderly sisters who run the Research Institute for
Victims of the '65-'66 Killings outside Jakarta while under
constant harassment and the threat of attack. They work
quietly with extraordinary courage to account for the crimes
of their country's leaders. These remarkable people deserve
the support of Australia and the United States, but are
unlikely to ever receive it.
Pramoedya, Budiardjo, Colonel Abdul Latief and thousands
more were not only the victims of a cruel and sadistic
regime, they shared another unfortunate fate. They had the
misfortune to be the political prisoners of a government
ideologically allied to the West. By definition they became
invisible.
Suharto was not only anti-communist, he was also admired in
Australia for bringing "stability" to the region. According
to Opposition leader Kim Beazley, "Australians pay far too
little attention to the value ... of the stability" which he
"brought to the Indonesian archipelago" - without detailing
just what was being "stabilised" there, such as political
repression, the denial of basic human rights, endemic
corruption, sadistic cruelty, torture and mass murder. Over
32 years Suharto's "stability" took a minimum of 800,000
lives and possibly as many as 2 million in both Indonesia
proper and East Timor, a record as vile as Pol Pot's and
infinitely worse than Saddam's or Milosevic's.
A reckoning is due, if not immediately. An editorial in The
Jakarta Post last April puts this and Suharto's forthcoming
corruption trial in their proper perspective:
"If the goal is to show that justice will be upheld in this
country, then surely corruption, as bad as it is, is the
least sinful misdeed that Suharto committed during his 32
years of tyrannical rule. What about the atrocities, from
the summary executions of suspected communists to the
killing of people in East Timor, Irian Jaya, Aceh and
Tanjung Priok? If the government wants to show that justice
and the rule of law prevail in this country, then these and
other heinous crimes committed during his reign should be
the reasons for the prosecution of Suharto. Not corruption."
Even if former Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam still
believes that "[former] President Suharto is a reasonable
and honourable man" and the foreign editor of The Australian
thinks that "in human rights there is a case for Suharto"
(Greg Sheridan), a growing number of courageous Indonesians
are no longer frightened of speaking and confronting the
truth. They are the real heroes of their country. To find
them, however, our leaders will need to stop consorting with
"the elite...that implemented fascism and ran the country by
terror" (Pramoedya Ananta Toer) and focus their attention on
those Indonesians struggling against enormous odds to
restore pride and honour to their country.
Scott Burchill
Lecturer in International Relations
School of Australian and International Studies
Deakin University
221 Burwood Highway
Burwood Victoria 3125
AUSTRALIA
ARTICLE TWO
Downfall
By Howard Zinn
I am surprised that my friend Hans Koning, a stalwart
protester against the war in Vietnam, seems to have been
taken in by the argument of Richard Frank, in his review of
Frank's DOWNFALL. Yes, we must all be willing to reconsider
our most hardened judgements in the light of new evidence.
But there is nothing in Frank's argument -- however
assiduous his research -- to make those of us who see the
atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as an unspeakable
atrocity change our minds.
Frank points to the fact that the discussions of a
negotiated peace with the Japanese cabinet "led nonetheless
to the unanimous rejection, and 'with contempt' of the
Allied ultimatum issued from Potsdam." Yes, unanimous
rejection, because the Allied ultimatum was for
unconditional surrender, and the Japanese were ready to
surrender, if one condition could be met -- the retention of
the Emperor. On July 13, 1945,Foreign Minister Togo wired
Ambassador Sato, sent to Moscow precisely to find a
negotiated way out of the war: "Unconditional surrender is
the only obstacle to peace....It is his Majesty's heart's
desire to see the swift termination of the war."
The argument has been made before, that the Japanese
military were fanatics who would never surrender, and Frank
makes it even more dramatic by describing the Japanese
military plan, "Ketsu-Go", to go into effect upon an Allied
invasion, as "prepared to sacrifice the lives of twenty
million Japanese." And only after such a massive sacrifice
could they, with honor, negotiate a peace.
It is a preposterous argument. If they were such fanatics,
requiring twenty million Japanese deaths before they could
surrender, why did they, in fact, surrender after hundreds
of thousands of deaths in Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Clearly,
as was concluded by the U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey, which
interviewed the Japanese decision-makers right after the
war, Japan was on the verge of surrender, and would have
done so even without the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Yes, those bombings speeded things up, but so would a U.S.
acceptance of the one condition the Japanese asked, the
sanctity of the Emperor -- and without that horrendous loss
of life and prolonged suffering.
If that condition were accepted, none of the horror
scenarios conjured up by Frank would need to occur.
Without the atomic bombs, Frank postulates, the "next
non-atomic move" (Koning's words) would have been a series
of bombing raids to destroy Japan's rail system and cause a
famine in the cities. "Would it then," Koning asks, "have
been more humane to bank on famine as leading to a Japanese
surrender?"
We are being given the typical multiple-choice test, in
which the tester assumes we are too dumb to think outside
the given alternatives. In this case, we are confronted with
three options: a) drop the bombs; b) invade Japan; c) starve
the Japanese population. And so we are hemmed in to the
conclusion (because we seek the humanitarian solution) that
dropping the bombs is "more humane". But there is once
again, the alternative suggested by Ambassador Joseph Grew,
who knew Japan well, that we not insist on "unconditional"
surrender, just on "surrender", and agree to keep the
emperor.
Why was this not done, if it was by far the most life-saving
of the alternatives? Because, simply put, our leaders did
not have the humanitarian concerns which I assume motivate
Frank, and which I know motivate Hans Koning. They were not
looking for the alternative that would be least costly in
human life. Their motives were political and strategic. Yes,
as Gar Alperovitz and his team of researchers documented in
great detail in THE DECISION TO DROP THE ATOMIC BOMB, there
is strong evidence that Truman was listening to his closest
advisor, James Byrnes, who saw the bomb as showing off
American power to the Russians. Byrnes said the bomb "could
let us dictate the terms of ending the war."
There was another political motive, this time domestic. In
his recent book, FREEDOM FROM FEAR, Davfid Kennedy quotes
Secdretary of Stae Cordell Hull advfising Byrnes, before the
Potsdam Conference which decided on unconditional surrender,
that "terrible political repercussions would follow in the
U.S." if the unconditional surrender princiople would be
abndoned. The president would be "crucified" if he did that,
Byrnes said. Kennedy writes: "Byrnes accordingly repudiated
the suggestions of Leahy, McCloy, Grew and Stimson". (All of
whom were willing to relax the "unconditonal surrender"
demand just enough to permit the Japanese their face-saving
requirement for ending the war -- the retention of the
emperor.)
Can we believe that our political leaders would consign
hundreds of thousands of people to death or lifelong
suffering because of "political repercussions" at home? The
idea is horrifying, yet we can see in recent history a
pattern of presidential ambition considered more important
than human life. The tapes of John F. Kennedy reveal him
weighing withdrawal from Vietnam against the upcoming
election. Transcripts of Lyndon Johnson'sWhite House
conversations show him deciding gainst withdrawal from
Vietnam, because "They'd impeach a president...wouldn't
they?"
Just before the Gulf War, President Bush's aide Sununu was
reported "telling people that a short sucessful war would be
pure political gold for the President and would guarantee
his election." And is not the Clinton-Gore support for the
"Star Wars"anti-missile program (against all scientific
evidence or common sense) prompted by their desire to be
seen by the voters as tough guys, even if it leads to a
dangerous arms race?
Frank starts with the premise that either an invasion or
famine would be necessary to bring about a Japanese
surrender, and adds to those huge numbers of casualties an
estimate as to how many Chinese would die in Japanese work
camps if a surrender were delayed. Combining a false premise
with a guess, he concludes that the bombing of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki was more merciful. He also, according to Koning
(and I hope Hans would not go along with this idea, though
he reports it without comment) wonders why we would not
rather kill Japanese in Hiroshima than Chinese in work
camps. The odious implication is that the Japanese civilians
of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are "more expendable" than the
Chinese prisoners, because, presumably, they bear some
degree of guilt for their government's cruelties.
I would conclude with one question to Richard Frank, to Hans
Koning, and to any other American who becomes convinced that
droppping the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki "saved
lives". Imagine a situation in which we were in a brutal
war, coming to its end soon but we knew not when, and we
were told that by killing 100,000 American children we would
"perhaps" or "probably" (none of the evidence produced by
Frank can lead us to use the word "certainly") bring the war
to an immediate end and save many more lives than that
l00,000. Would we agree to it?
And (okay, more questions) if we would react to that
suggestion with horror, as I am supposing, does it not mean
that the lives of Japanese children are less valuable to us
than the lives of American children? And does not the
bombing, not only of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but of any
civilian population, anywhere, depend on the same morally
unacceptable judgement?
REQUEST: If you would like to discuss these or any other issues,
please
visit http://www.arenson.org and join ChocoPaul Talk. Feel
free
to create a new topic. You might also suggest some questions
for
a poll in Vote (the current poll has has only a few people
voting.)
Also welcome, other articles. If you have written something
yourself or
know of a good article somewhere else, please let me know.
Use the email form on the main page or send to
pa-@arenson.org
Thanks,
paul
Coming in about a week: Alphabetical index (I have promised a week now
for
3 months, but it is nearing completion and should make finding things
immensely easier.
Next issue in about 3 days or so. I gave you a lot to read this
weekend,
so I think everyone needs a rest, right?
Chocopaul Page News # 19
=============================================
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Bush-Gore-Gush Bore: What about Nader?
=============================================
Hi. As you know, I am based in Japan. The longer I am here, the more
distant American politics become. And yet, American politics and
policies impact (I remember when this word was only a noun
when I left America 20 years ago) on life in Japan, as they do
on most of the world. And so I strive to present information and
opinion that will be of interest to people of progressive inclination
no matter where they might live.
Recently Z Magazine editor and activist Michael Albert wrote
an article on the Nader candidacy, confronting head-on the
argument made by some on the left that whatever Gore's faults,
votes for Nader may make it more likely that Bush could win.
The response has been great, and if anyone is interested, I can
print some of the responses.
Please do let me know what you are interested in too in the
way of news and commentaries. I want to provide a balance
of stuff of interest to people wherever you may be.
Some of the people whose commentaries I am reprinting
(notably Chomsky, Albert and Zinn) have forums on Z Net,
and I would be happy to pose any questions to them and
carry their responses. they generally answer all serious
inquiries.
And now, the commentary:
Lesser Evil?
By Michael Albert
The general anti-Nader argument is very simple. To vote/work
for Nader means not voting/working for Gore. That's
uncontestable. In states with close Gore/Bush ratings, Gore
could lose enough votes to Nader for Bush to win the state,
and ultimately the election. That's also uncontestable.
Thus, and here is the leap in logic, if one thinks that Bush
has a worse White House agenda than Gore, one should vote
for Gore and not for Nader. In short, a vote for Nader is a
vote for Bush.
The most frequent reply to this lesser evil argument either
(1) disputes that Bush is that much worse than Gore, or (2)
urges that voting for Nader sends a message to the Democrats
that they are missing the boat and need to move left to win
wider support.
The main problem with the anti-Nader argument is that it
assumes that what matters most about an election or an
administration is the positions the candidates and their
parties want to pursue, rather than what they can get away
with.
The main problems with the noted pro-Nader replies are that
(1) Bush and the Republicans are -- because of the differing
constituencies backing them -- considerably worse than Gore
and the Democrats and (2) at most the Democrats would learn
from losing a close election due to Nader's appeal that they
need to change their image a little--their reality being
another thing entirely.
What seems missing on both sides, therefore, is recognition
that the most important impact of the Nader campaign will be
changing the political climate in the country by energizing
the left, and that our arguments need to take account of
this impact. Take the cases most often bandied about:
Supreme Court Justices, taxes, police violence, abortion,
and interventionism. The issue isn't can we plausibly
predict that Bush's preferred agenda for each of these
policy areas would be sufficiently worse than Gore's to
adversely impact many suffering people. Of course it would.
The issue is, if lots of people throughout the country
support and vote for Nader, thereby awakening not only hope
but also organizational clout and commitment, will either
Gore or Bush be as able as otherwise to pursue their full
agendas on these issues?
In other words, the real choice is Gore winning without
Nader getting lots of support and therefore with a typically
un-aroused populace that will allow him to pursue his full
corporate agenda nearly unopposed, versus Bush (or maybe
still Gore) winning but with Nader getting lots of support
and therefore with a highly aroused sector of the populace
impacted very positively by Nader's campaign and ready to
fight up a storm. The correct comparison isn't the will of
Bush versus the will of Gore -- it is what Bush (or Gore)
will do with a 10% Nader constituency fighting on, versus
what Gore will do with no such on-going, galvanized, and
organized opposition contesting government policy-making,
plus, as well, what the emerging opposition will mean in
future elections, and general movement development.
What is odd, therefore, about the lesser evil discussion is
that it stacks the deck against third party politics by
simply ruling out, tout court, the whole reason for Nader's
campaign, it's whole logic and purpose, and thus its real
value -- and not only in the long term, but in the short
term as well. The discussion most often assumes, that is,
that the only thing that matters about an election is who
wins it -- not the election's impact on constituencies
supporting or opposing candidates, and on movement
organization and commitment. It assumes, in other words,
that nothing substantial can ever be accomplished
electorally (or otherwise, with just a little tweaking of
the argument) unless it occurs by some kind of overnight
miracle that wins all things sought in one swoop. If Nader
could win, then it would be okay to vote for him, but we
can't participate in an extended process of work and
organizing needed as a prerequisite to later winning major
gains and even eventual electoral power. The discussion
denies that with elections, you lose, you lose, you lose --
and then you win -- and thus all those losses weren't really
losses at all, but were, instead, part of a process of
building eventually definitive support. And, more, the
discussion denies that the supposed debit of having pushed
some elections in the short term from tweedle dumb to
tweedle dumber (and more vile), were not such large debits
as they might seem, either, because the electoral swing to
the right was offset by the fact that tweedle dumber then
had to operate against a far more aroused and organized
populace constraining his options.
Reasonable people might still plop down on either side of
this debate $B!&(Jdespite that given the seriousness of their
efforts every vote for Nader/Laduke seems like it will be a
step in a movement path forward, another tally toward Green
electoral finances, another person likely ready to continue
dissenting beyond election day, whereas every vote for Gore
seems like it will enlarge resignation and whether
intentionally or not pave the way for people throwing up
their hands as if their task is done once the have elected
Gore to gently commandeer our futures further into the maws
of big capital.
What certainly isn't reasonable, however, at least for
leftists, is to let liberals redefine the lesser evil
discussion in a way that presumes that elected officials are
invulnerable to pressure, that vote outcomes matter more
than the consciousness and organization of constituencies,
and that movement organizing impacts what occurs in the
short term and what is possible in the long term only by
miracles as opposed to the hard work of losing, losing,
losing on the road to winning.
==============================================
Reminders:
Please email me (from the main page) and let me
know:
(1) What you are enjoying in Chocopaul News and my site itself
(2) What other things you would be interested in reading or knowing
about
(3) If you have any information you would like to share with
people who read this list or visit my site
My apologies to people I have not responded to in recent
weeks. Getting this up and working consumed the better
part of my summer vacation from one of my 6 jobs. If
you have been waiting for a response for so long now
that moss is growing between your keys, please write
again.
Paul
main site page http:// arenson.org
Things start here. Research pages are on top. Mail and lists etc. are
below.
Try out the new alphabetical (abc) search facility.
email pa-@arenson.org
You can also use the form just after you enter the site (click on the
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Please also tell your friends about the site. They can join the
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ChocoPaul Page News # 20
There are currently 42 subscribers!
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DEATH PENALTY
=============================================
Two more from the U.S. Both on the death penalty, which should make
them
relevant to readers in Japan (where it now appears there is more
--misguided in my view-- support for the death penalty than in the U.S.
Japan also has a VERY big problem, of which most people are not aware,
with false convictions and innocent people being imprisoned. So I hope
this is of interest to Japan-based readers.
The first is on the different treatment of blacks and whites under the
American (in) justice system. The second is by a lesbian-gay activist
who
questions the failure of fellow activists to oppose the death penalty in
their attempt to fight hate crimes.
Japan-related news will be coming in a few days.
These commentaries are a premium sent to Sustainer Donors of
Znet. To learn more about the project and join folks can consult ZNet at
http://www.zmag.org
and specifically the ZNet Sustainer Pages at
http://www.zmag.org/Commentaries/donorform.htm
For a discussion of the logic of the
program, again, anyone can access
http://www.zmag.org/Commentaries/donorform.htm
ARTICLE ONE
Cop Killer
By Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman
Cop killer$B!D(J.No, we are not talking about Mumia Abu-Jamal. After a
trial
that the National Journal's Stuart Taylor called
"grotesquely unfair" and that included "fabricated
evidence," Abu-Jamal was convicted of killing a Philadelphia
police officer. He now sits on death row.
We are talking about alleged cop killer Stuart Charles
Alexander. If convicted, will Alexander end up on death row?
Not likely.
That's because Abu-Jamal is black, while Alexander is white.
Abu-Jamal is a journalist, Alexander is a businessman.
Last week, Alexander, who owns a sausage factory in San
Leandro, California, allegedly shot and killed two federal
meat inspectors and one state meat inspector who were
visiting his factory.
According to news reports, after killing the three
inspectors, Alexander chased a fourth inspector for a couple
of blocks down the street, took one shot and missed. He then
returned to his sausage factory, walked inside, fired some
more shots, went outside and surrendered to police without
resistance.
A videotape from a security camera inside Alexander's Santos
Linguisa sausage factory "clearly depicts" Alexander killing
the three meat inspectors, San Leandro police told reporters
last week.
Alexander and one of the inspectors each placed a call for
help to local police minutes before the shootings. State
officials charged Alexander with three counts of murder.
Federal officials charged Alexander with two counts of
murder -- two of the federal inspectors worked for the U.S.
Department of Agriculture.
According to news accounts, meat inspectors closed the
facility in January for not properly heating sausage that
was labeled as fully cooked and for not using expiration
dates on meat. The inspectors shut down the facility in
January after Alexander refused to comply with the law.
The plant was reopened earlier this month.
A sign outside Alexander's sausage factory read: "To all of
our great customers, the USDA is coming into our plant
harassing my employees and me, making it impossible to make
our great product. Gee, if all meat plants could be in
business for 79 years without one complaint, the meat
inspectors would not have jobs. Therefore we are taking
legal action against them."
Nowhere in any of the more than 60 articles that have
appeared about Alexander's killings have the words "cop
killer" appeared. Yet, when referring to Abu-Jamal, news
reporters feel obliged to refer to him as "cop killer" as if
it were his newly adopted name, as when the Philadelphia
Inquirer earlier this year headlined an article: "Antioch
College Invites Cop-Killer as Commencement Speaker."
Every day in this country, meat inspectors and other law
enforcement officials are cracking down on corporate crime
and violence. And every day, they meet resistance,
harassment and threats from corporate executives
indoctrinated in a radical, reckless, and lawless political
ideology.
"There is a great deal of friction and turmoil on the front
lines of federal meat inspectors," said Bobby Harnage,
president of the American Federation of Government
Employees. "The deaths of the three meat inspectors was
senseless -- they were killed trying to protect consumers."
Recent surveys indicate that corporate crime and violence is
on the uptick. According to a survey released earlier this
year by KPMG's Integrity Management Services unit, employees
are observing a high level of serious illegal and unethical
conduct on the job, workers perceive management as unable or
unwilling to deal with unethical conduct, and employees are
discouraged from reporting unethical conduct.
And earlier this month, a survey by the National White
Collar Crime Center found that one in three American
households are now the victim of white collar crime and that
there is growing public concern with the seriousness of
white collar crime and the criminal justice system's ability
to control it.
Neither of these surveys was reported in the mainstream
corporate media. Nor did the mainstream corporate media
report on a survey conducted by former Washington Post
reporter Morton Mintz and published this month in Nieman
Reports.
Mintz's survey found that corporate newspaper editorial
writers rarely condemn corporate crime and other wrongdoing.
He surveyed 124 leading editorial writers, columnists, and
commentators about what they had said about egregious
corporate behavior during the ten years ending December
1998.
Mintz concluded from the responses he received, and from the
large number of writers who failed to respond to his
inquiry, that "it's fair to say that it's a rare day in
3,650 days when the national media expose Americans to
opinions on corporate wrongdoing."
Political, corporate, and media elites have little time for
and little respect for the victims of corporate crime and
violence. They will rant and rave about Abu-Jamal, but
hardly give the time of day to Alexander and his rampage.
It's time that we begin to give a little respect to those
who put their lives on the line to protect us against the
ravages of the corporate criminals. Call your local
newspaper editorial offices and urge them to take a strong
stance against corporate crime. Support your local corporate
crime police. Condemn corporate brutality.
Russell Mokhiber is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based
Corporate Crime Reporter. Robert Weissman is editor of the
Washington, D.C.-based Multinational Monitor. Mokhiber and
Weissman are co-authors of Corporate Predators: The Hunt for
MegaProfits and the Attack on Democracy (Monroe, Maine:
Common Courage Press, 1999,
http://www.corporatepredators.org)
(c) Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman
ARTICLE TWO:
Toys, the Death Penalty and the Gay Movement
by Leslie Cagan
In case you missed it, the Week in Review section of the
7/23/00 Sunday New York Times ran a most incredible piece.
Instead of summarizing from it, let me just quote a few
choice sentences:
"Never Say Die, Just Execute.
Death Row Marv....is the latest toy from McFarlane Toys...
Marv, who apparently needs no last name, is railroaded to
the electric chair, condemned to die for what he regards as
a justifiable revenge killing. The battery-operated toy,
which is sold in specialty shops and music stores for about
$20 and marketed for ages 13 and up, is not for the faint of
heart: 'Watch Marv convulse as the switch is thrown,' say
the words on the box, 'then hear him say, 'That the best you
can do?'' His eyes 'glow red as he fries.' The toy's typical
buyer is the 15-to-45-year-old male.
'Our first production was completely sold out in pre-order
sales, before we even shipped,' said Beau Smith, director of
marketing at McFarlane Toys..."
On July 27th, a press conference organized by New York City
Councilmember Bill Perkins had to be postponed because there
were conflicting press conferences at City Hall. Perkins has
introduced a resolution that, if passed, will have the New
York City Council supporting a moratorium on death penalty
executions. It turns out that one of the conflicts was a
press conference announcing support from some of the
lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender community for Hillary
Clinton in her bid for election to the Senate. What about
her support for the death penalty? Why isn't the death
penalty a gay issue?
At the same time, the cries for hate crimes legislation are
as loud as ever. I'm sure I am in the minority in the lgbt
community - although I also know I am not alone on this -
when I say that it is troubling to see how much effort goes
into hate crimes legislation, especially when compared to
what goes into working to stop such crimes from happening in
the first place.
While I understand some of the logic of hate crimes
legislation (both locally and at the state level) it seems
that the gay movement puts disproportionate resources and
energies into fighting for bills to punish people after the
fact, as opposed to getting to the core of the problem and
working to stop hate crimes before they happen. For
instance, what about working to put into place programs in
public school that address and confront hate and violence?
I'm concerned that the emphasis on hate crimes legislation
seems to rely on laws to remedy extremely deep problems in
this culture. Laws can certainly help, but just a quick look
at civil rights legislation and how that has altered - or
not - race relations, or challenged racism, should shed some
light here.
My criticism of hate crimes legislation is heightened by the
ever-increasing use of police, prisons and other coercive
arms of the state. I hope the lgbt movement - literally born
in a fight against the police - does not end up being one
more reinforcement of abusive policing.
On top of all this, a recent email alert from the Executive
Director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (the
national lgbt organization positioned as the progressive
wing of this movement) explained that the only way to pass
the Congressional hate crimes bill is as part of what they
called "the must-pass annual defense act." I assumed they
were referring to the military appropriations act!
Once again, here is an example of seeing something that
impacts on us all (the military budget) as a "non-gay" issue
and therefore not something our leadership should be
addressing. And it is exactly in such moments that we see
the limits of identity politics. (Please do not get me
wrong, I am not one of those who suggest that identity
politics have undermined class unity and distracted us from
the "real" issues.)
A serious effort throughout this country is needed to
confront the reality of hate crimes...be they against lgbt
people, people of color, women, the disabled or others. But
to address this issue in isolation is to feed the
law-and-order frenzy across the nation, evidenced in
everything from lgbt Gore supporters claiming that Bush is
soft on crime because he does not rigorously support hate
crimes legislation (yes, it gets this convoluted and weird)
to the successful marketing of "Death Row Marv", the toy
execution.
There is a madness in this land. If we are to successfully
cure this problem the leaders of our social change movements
must be pushed by their constituents to see the big picture
and do the right thing. In this instance, it is time for the
lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender movement to stop its love
affair with hate crimes legislation and get serious about
confronting the causes of such crimes in the first place.
And one critical step is that we must stand with others
calling for an end to the death penalty.
===========================================
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Tomorrow:
Japan-related news
Other activism-related news
Date: Aug 26 2000 23:24:21 EDT
From: "Chocopaul News" <pa-@arenson.org>
Subject: Genetically modified posion
ChocoPaul News # 22
51 1/2 subscribers on 3 continents!
Now with added vitamins and minerals!!
No artificial ingredients!!!
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Sunday, August 27 (from Cyberbrook-quoted under FAIR USE principles)
Research shows Genetically Modified corn kills monarch butterflies:
A two-year field study on the effects of genetically engineered (GE)
corn
backs up evidence that pollen from the GE crop can kill monarch
butterflies.
An Iowa State University study published in the science journal
Oecologia
concluded that the risk to monarch butterflies "may be substantial," in
line with the results of a 1999 laboratory study from Cornell
University.
The Iowa study warned: "The ecological effects of transgenic
insecticidal
crops need to be evaluated more fully before they are planted over
extensive areas."
It urged cereal manufacturers like Kellogg's to stop using untested GE
foods.
(NOTE to Japanese readers: Kellogs uses non GM/GE corn in Europe, where
public pressure on the company is great. To my knowledge, Kellogs uses
GE/GM corn in its Japan products, so beware or consider contacting the
company and threatening to boycott unless it follows suit here---Paul)
"Kellogg's can no longer ignore doctors and scientists who have warned
that these foods may not be safe for our children or our environment,"
said genetic engineering specialist Charles Margulis.
The US Environmental Protection Agency has already allowed 8.1 million
hectares (20 million acres) of insecticidal Bt corn to@be grown in the
United States and has postponed its review of GE crops for another year
"Bt corn only benefits the biotech industry while putting consumers and
the environment at risk," Margulins said.
"While the world is rejecting these genetically contaminated foods," he
added, "Kellogg's continues to force feed Americans and Japanese
unlabeled
GE foods."
"Kellogg's is obviously willing to put its biotech buddies ahead of its
customers, and monarch butterflies, when it comes to safe food and the
environment."
Greenpeace said it was preparing a series of legal challenges to the
Environmental Protection Agency's registration of Bt crops.
Two companies that produce the genetically altered corn known as Bt
corn,
Monsanto and Novartis, harshly criticized the Cornell University study
when it was released last month.
Look for more on this issue in the coming weeks.
Date: Aug 28 2000 13:38:25 EDT
From: "Chocopaul News" <pa-@arenson.org>
Subject: News: Japan/ Racism/ Women/ Chomsky on Crime
August 29,2000
Chocopaul Page News # 23
=============================================
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Japanese NEWS Women's NEWS Environmental NEWS
Anti-Racism Net
=============================================
Announcement: ChocoPaul Mail is down due to provider troubles.
As well, email addressed to xx-@arenson.org
is delayed. Please resend if possible to
aren-@twics.com---hopefully this problem will
be resolved soon (with a more reliable server).
If anyone has been using ChocoPaul Mail
and has experienced trouble, please let
me know about it.
And now, the news:
SECTION ONE: Anti Racism Net excerpts
-Racial profiling
-Immigrant deaths hit record high
-Police Brutality in New York
SECTION TWO: Reply by Noam Chomsky to a ZNET forum inquiry
on crime, police control, minorities
SECTION THREE: Japan Press Service excerpts
-Military: Fiscal 2001 proposal would terrorize Asia
-Kanagawa: Field Exercises protested by peace groups
-Agriculture: Fighting for food security/against WTO
-Okinawa: Avoiding 15-year limit in discussions on new base
SECTION FOUR: Womens Net excerpts
-Nairobi: Food Security
-Africa: Illegal abortions kill
-Harare: Women leaders
-Pakistan: Breast Feeding
-Sri Lanka: Multinational Tobacco Companies
-UN: Gender Violence
-Abortion in Mexico
SECTION ONE: From ANTI-RACISM NEW
http://www.igc.org/igc/gateway/arnindex.html
*****************
Headline: On Racial Profiling and the Michigan State Police Report
A couple of weekends ago, the Southwest Michigan Coalition Against
Racism and Police Brutality conducted a community workshop in Kalamazoo
on racial profiling. From the questions that followed after my
presentation, one thing that stood out is that although we hear about
all these terms in the media like "driving while Black", "police
brutality", "racial profiling", most of us don't really know what all
this means.
Read More at
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/arnheadlines/967121998/index_html
*****************
Headline: Record Number of Deaths Among Immigrants Crossing U.S. -
Mexico Border
The number of deaths yearly among migrants illegally crossing into the
U.S. at the Mexican border has increased 400 percent since the mid
1990s, according to a California-based immigrants rights group. Since
1995, nearly 550 immigrants have perished.
Read More at
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/arnheadlines/967122308/index_html
*****************
Headline: "Consent Decree" to Curb NYPD Abuses Needed
New Police Commissioner Should Cooperate with Justice Department
(New York, August 24, 2000) -- The U.S. Justice Department has
reportedly reached an impasse in its negotiations with New York City
officials to reach an agreement on how to implement overdue NYPD
reforms.
Read More at
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/arnheadlines/967237994/index_html
SECTION TWO: Chomsky reply about crime
From: "Faraz Hussain"
| |
Professor Chomsky,
I would like to understand the relation between police
control and crime rate,does increasing police control only
result in controlling and discriminating against the weaker
section of the population,does it not have any effect on the
overall crime rate,would like to understand better with New
York as a case in point.
Alternatively what immediate measures/approach should be
taken to reduce crime rate,that may not result in police
brutality.
thanks for your time,
Faraz.
|
"First, it's worth bearing in mind that crime rates
in the US are not off the spectrum. They have
historically been towards the high end of the
industrial societies, but apart from killings with
guns -- a reflection of the gun culture, not crime
-- they are within the spectrum. What has been
unusual about the US, since the '60s but
particularly in the past 20 years, is fear of
crime, which is something quite different from
crime. Many criminologists attribute this
extraordinary fear of crime to media manipulation
and cynicism of politicians, but I suspect there
is something deeper. The US is an unusually
frightened society in many ways: fear of crime,
drugs, terrorists, aliens,.... -- quite broad
categories. I suspect that in part lies beyond
the popular support (which seems to be real) for
something as crazy (and harmful to US security) as
Star Wars and its progeny (the latest being
National Missile Defense). Interesting topic, I
think, not well explored to my knowledge.
Another staple among at least the more serious
criminologists is that the criminal justice system
has always been to a large extent a system for
controlling "the dangerous classes" -- those who
threaten privilege. One leading US jurist, senior
Judge Bazelon, once observed that Congress
"envisions the criminal process as a vast engine
of social control." That seems about right.
There are many illustrations. One is the radical
difference in treatment of white collar vs. street
crime, the former vastly more destructive, but
pretty much off the agenda. The fraudulent "drug
wars" are another recent example, but it goes way
back.
I'd suggest that you rethink your question, in the
light of such matters as these. Thus, more police
on the streets won't in the least reduce corporate
and other kinds of "white collar" crime. It may
well enhance the system of social control. It
should also be recognized, however, that the
primary victims of street crime are the poor, and
for them protection from it is important.
As for the New York experience (and other similar
cases) there is much dispute. Crime rates have
declined in recent years, but that seems pretty
much independent of particular police practices.
It probably has to do, to no small extent, with
the increase of low-paying jobs and demographic
changes (relative decline in the sectors of the
population that tend to commit street crimes and
the like).
A good comprehensive source on these matters is
Randall Shelden's new book _Controlling the
Dangerous Classes_, a critical history of the
criminal justice system.
Noam Chomsky"
SECTION THREE: Japan News
JPS 08-098
U.S. field hospital exercises carried out in a town area
TOKYO AUG 28 JPS -- In complete disregard of local opposition, the
U.S.
Forces on August 27 carried out comprehensive field hospital exercises
in
the populated city of Sagamihara in Kanagawa Prefecture as scheduled.
Conducted under the command of a medical brigade with the U.S. Army
stationed in the U.S. mainland, the exercises became the first of this
kind in 25 years since the Vietnam War. The U.S. Navy and the Air Force
stationed in Japan participated in the exercises in the U.S. Sagami
Supply
Depot.
Outside the base, city office staff members in charge of base-related
affairs monitored the exercises.$B!!(BThe Kanagawa Prefectural Peace
Committee and the local branch of the New Japan Women's Association
staged
a protest.
Watching the exercises proceed, a woman said, "When I recently moved
into this town, I had no idea that this city houses such a dangerous
spot." Another person who works at a nearby factory said, "With the U.S.
base, we cannot see what will happen ahead." (end item)
JPS 08-099
Govt to introduce midair refueling aircraft for Air SDF
TOKYO AUG 28 JPS -- In the budget request for FY 2001, the Defense
Agency proposes purchasing a 23.8 billion yen midair refueling aircraft
for the Air Self-Defense Force. The Liberal Democratic Party's joint
panel
related to defense issues on August 25 endorsed it.
Akahata on August 27 said that the introduction of the aircraft would
terrify Asian countries because it would mean Japan becoming an even
greater military power, running counter to the recent growing movement
in
Asia towards solving disputes through peaceful means.
The agency has once raised this demand to implement the current
"mid-term defense buildup plan" (1996-2000), but because of criticism
from
China and other neighboring countries, proposed it to be achieved within
the next five-year plan (2001-2005).
In the 1970s, the government declared in the Diet that it would not
seek to possess midair refueling aircraft. (Prime Minister Kakuei
Tanaka,
on April 10, 1973 in the House of Councilors Budget Committee)
Both the ASDF's F-15 anti-aircraft fighters and F-4 fighters, which
will be deployed from next September with greater capability for ground
attack than the F4's, are equipped with midair refueling devices. The DA
plans to deploy 130 F-2 fighters in total.
The introduction of a midair refueling aircraft indicates that Japan
will have a major air force capable of launching a full-fledged attack
against the neighboring countries. This would infringe even on Japan's
"exclusively defense-oriented policy." (end item)
JPS 08-094
Japanese farmers resolve to overcome agriculture crises
TOKYO AUG 28 JPS -- The National Federation of Farmers Movement held
a
three-day discussions on August 23-25 in Yoshida Town of Niigata
Prefecture with about 320 members attending.
Yoshida Town is one of Japan's biggest rice-producing districts,
where
many farmers have become members of the federation and the organ paper
"Nomin," meaning "farmer" in Japanese, are widely read.
In the key-note speech, Setsuo Kobayashi, federation's standing board
representative, drew attention to the continuous sharp decline in prices
of Japanese farm products caused by rapid increases in import of rice,
vegetables and fruits. He called for restrictions to be put urgently on
agricultural product imports and for measures to be taken to stop a free
fall in the prices of Japanese crops.
The participants discussed their experiences and ideas on ways to
overcome these crises in cooperation with consumers, distributors, and
producers.
They resolved to develop anew movements by taking advantage of the
fact
that 90 percent of consumers who showed an opinion poll they want to eat
Japan-made safe products.
The producer price of rice has been falling since 1995 when the World
Trade Organization (WTO) set the liberalization of imported grain to
Japan.
A farmer reported that a family farmer had no choice but to endure
reduced rice acreage due to a deficit, complaining that the lowest ever
rice price prevented the family from carrying on farming.
The farmers decided to carry out a campaign to collect signatures
calling on all municipalities to demand that the government safeguard
the
nation's agriculture. (end item)
JPS 08-095
Panel on new U.S. base in Okinawa avoids "15-year termination" issue
TOKYO AUG 28 JPS -- The central government and Okinawa's local
governments met on August 25 in Tokyo to discuss details of the plan to
construct a state-of-the-art U.S. Marine Corps base in Nago City.
The new base has been planned as the substitute for the U.S. Marine
Crops Futenma Air Station in Ginowan City in Okinawa.
Both sides, including the Okinawa Prefecture governor and mayors of
Nago City and two other municipalities, agreed that the issue of a
15-year
time limit for the new U.S. base would not be discussed.
While arguing that the new base should be as small as possible with
enough measures for safety and environmental protection, they also
agreed
that it should be designed to provide functions which U.S. Futenma Air
Station had and functions as a civil airfield.
This indicates that the full-scale work that has just begun is aimed
at
maintaining an operational sortie base of U.S. Marine Corps unit in
Okinawa, accompanying a function as a civil airport, said Akahata on
August 26.
On imposing a 15-year term limit on the new U.S. base, the local side
maintained that it should be discussed separately. But the central
government declined to prepare another table.
Koshin Nakamoto, deputy secretary general of the Nago Council against
U.S. On-Sea Heliport, criticized the Okinawan governor and mayors for
"deceptively continuing to call for 'separate consultation' even though
their assertion has been rejected."
Even a conservative Nago City assembly member supporting the new base
plan says that it is quite impossible to strike a separate deal on the
'15-year limit issue' and the 'basic plan' because everything concerns
details of the agreement on the use of the new base.
In Nago, various new base plans have been published associated by
major
construction companies in Japan and the U.S., including a call for the
reclamation of the sea at about 3 kilometers off the Henoko district of
the city.
Sogi Kayo of the Association of Dugong said, "A military base for war
is incompatible with local residents' peace and the environment."
"Ever since the Henoko district was named as the new base site for
U.S.
war operations, the residents have felt as if they were sentenced to
death. There is no alternative but to stop the base plan," he said.
(end
item)
SECTION FOUR: WomensNet News
KENYA: Increasing The Role Of Women In Production
NAIROBI, Aug 14 (IPS) - Worried at the diminished food prospects and
deepening hunger, Kenyan women are challenging the government of
President Daniel arap Moi to develop gender sensitive agricultural
policies. They say this is necessary if the East African country is
serious about attaining food security.
Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/wnheadlines/966613577/index_html
AFRICA: Abortions Continue to Kill Women and Teenagers
PARIS, Aug 15 (IPS) - Women and teenagers in Africa continue to die at
alarming rates because of unsafe abortions, a new report from the French
Centre of Population and Development (CEPED) says.
Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/wnheadlines/966613816/index_html
AFRICA: Defining The Role Of Women Leaders
HARARE, Aug 17 (IPS) - Women activists in southern Africa say efforts by
the region's first ladies to uplift the status of rural women may be
nothing but a disguise to prop up their husbands.
Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/wnheadlines/966614130/index_html
PAKISTAN: TNCs Diluting Breast-feeding Law, say Activists
ISLAMABAD, Aug 14 (IPS) - Under pressure from the transnational baby
food industry, Pakistan's government is taking the teeth out of a
proposed law to promote healthy infant feeding, say breast-feeding
protection groups.
Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/wnheadlines/966615200/index_html
ASIA: Big Tobacco Smokescreen Spawns New Lifestyle Among Women
CHICAGO, Aug 19 (IPS) - In Sri Lanka, discotheques have become the
latest hunting ground for a tobacco multinational in search of promising
clients. Not only does the tobacco giant in this South Asian
island-nation promote regular discos for teenagers and young adults, but
it floods such nights of dancing with recruits who hawk cigarettes to a
select group - young women.
Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/wnheadlines/966615620/index_html
UNIFEM Funds 17 New Projects to Eliminate Gender Violence
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 15 (IPS) - The UN Development Fund for Women
(UNIFEM) has been flooded with requests for seed money to finance new
projects to fight violence against women worldwide. UNIFEM Executive
Director Noeleen Heyzer says she has received close to 200 proposals
this year with funding requests totalling about 12.5 million dollars.
Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/wnheadlines/966615841/index_html
MEXICO: Abortion Law Hints at PAN Morals and Identity
MEXICO CITY, Aug 16 (IPS) - A faction of the National Action Party (PAN)
that is known for criticising miniskirts and ''immoral'' works of art
has unleashed a national debate on abortion using its new-found power as
the party of president-elect Vicente Fox, while facing internal debate
on ideological identity.
Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/wnheadlines/966616066/index_html
August 30,2000
Chocopaul Page News # 24
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JAPANESE POLICE DETAIN BURMESE ACTIVISTS
=============================================
This is being printed as received by another newsletter.
While having no connection to the group mentioned,
I am not surprised that the Japanese police arrested
members of the group. This is common in Japan, where
police intimiadation includes about 22 days of detention,
normal and legal but still used against dissenters, whereupon
they are generally released without charge.
In theory the detention time is to allow for possible prosecution,
but Japanese police basically use this time to intimidate and
gather information on the people protesting. Of course it is
not limited to Japan (police around the world act like goons
to break up or hinder dissent). But people should be aware
of it because Japan has a very poor record where treatment of
protestors is concerned.
Moreover, Japanese media generally pays little attention
to democratic protest activity. As everywhere, the corporate
controlled,
politically connected media is more concerned with
business than with people's rights. Therefore, you will
not read about arrests and treatment of the arreested very
frequently in Japan.
Those so inclinded are welcome to express their moral support to
for the Burmese activists at the number/address below.
Date: Tue, 29 Aug 2000
From: "TIN KYI" <tin-@tkf.att.ne.jp>
6 Activists were detained while protest at the Myanmar Embassy.
The six activists have been detained today in front of the Myanmar
embassy.
On the morning of Aug 29, 2000 thirty activisits from the Tokyo base
League
for Democracy in Burma handcuff themselves at the main gate of the
Myanmar
Embassy at Shinagawa ward Tokyo. Since August 24, 2000, Burmese
Democracy
champion Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and some of the leaders from NLD have
been
standoff with Myanmar military junta at Dala close to capital , Rangoon.
The
International community has expressed its outrage at the Myanmar Junta's
blockade of Aung San Suu Kyi in the country and warned it will be
regarded
as responsible for her safety.
But Japanese Government was silent and says that they are still watching
and
thinking what to do. The activists said thay want to made a appeal to
the
Japanese governemnt to assist in alleviating this crisis by requesting
the
Myanamr military junta to lift this blockage and give Daw Aung San Suu
Kyi
freedom of movement neccessary for her party activities. They made a
call
to
The Foreign Ministry of Japan and have a appointment to meet at 1:00 pm
at
the office. The activists voluntary released the handcuff and peacefully
ended their avtivities. As then the MPD order the police from Shinagawa
ward
to arrest the activics. All of the activists were not arrest but six
persons
were detained at the front of the Embassy including the leader of the
group.
The name of the persons detainted are
1/ Khin Maung Zaw
2/ Win Soe
3/ Maung Maung Myint
4/ Zaw Zaw
5/ Zaw Lin Han
6/ Soe Naing
They are face to detained for a time being and we all alert to the
communities around the world to appeal for their immediate release and
protest the Japanese government's stand on this humanrights abuse to the
people in their country.
League for democracy in Burma
Rm 502, APTO Bldg
7-18-1, Takinogawa, Kita -ku
Tokyo 1140023
Japan
Tel / Fax 813 3916 4996.
All views expressd are those of the authors
-------------------------------------
ChocoPaul News # 25
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NEWS SUMMARY from the following sources:
For PeaceNet: peacenet-new-@igc.topica.com
For EcoNet: econet-news-@igc.topica.com
For WomensNet: womensnet-ne-@igc.topica.com
For AntiRacismNet: antiracismnet--@igc.topica.com
For Japan Press Service:
http://www.twics.com/~jpspress/daily/daily-home.html
Commentary from ZNET, part of a donor-funded series at the following
addresses:
For ZNET Main Page: http://www.zmag.org
ZNET Donor Form: http://www.zmag.org/Commentaries/donorform.htm
--------------------------------------------------------------------
CONTENTS
News Alerts (Palestinians, Star Wars, Anti-IMF Demonstrations, East
Timor,
Nigeria, India, Papua New Guinea, United Nations)
Japan Press Service Summary (Corporations profit while the people
suffer,
Major Japanese Daily
confirms that Japan and U.S. have secret agreement on nuclear weapons
despite Prime Minister's
Lies to the contrary.)
ZNET Commentary: Professor Manning Marable on Racism and the American
Prison-Industrial
Complex
PeaceNet Alerts: August 30, 2000
Palestinian Refugee Children^Òs Center Attacked
On Sunday, August 27, arsonists attacked the Ibdaa children^Òs cultural
and community center in Deheishe Refugee Camp, near Bethlehem in the
West Bank.
Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/pnalerts/967597171/index_html
Stop the US Star Wars Project
One of the indispensable radar stations is the Thule radar in Greenland
that is colonized by Denmark. Strangely enough the Greenlanders are
opposed to becoming a missile target for the purpose of protecting the
aggressors from retaliation.
Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/pnalerts/967598047/index_html
S26 Calls for Action
People's Global Action Against "free" trade and WTO is again calling for
worldwide demonstrations and actions against the Annual Meeting of the
International Monetary Fund / World Bank (IMF/WB) which will be held in
Prague, Czech Republic.
Read More...
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One Year Later, East Timor Still Needs Justice and Security
"East Timor has begun to rebuild from last year's destruction, but much
still needs to be done to assure justice and security for the world's
newest country," said John M. Miller, spokesperson for the East Timor
Action Network/U.S.
Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/pnheadlines/967598453/index_html
EAST TIMOR: UNTAET, Justice and Refugees One Year After the Ballot
The highest standards of human rights must be upheld by the UN in East
Timor, Amnesty International said in a new report on the United Nations
Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET). The UN must apply
the same human rights standards it expects other governments to apply
elsewhere.
Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/pnheadlines/967599887/index_html
NIGERIA: Assessing Clinton's Visit
LAGOS, Aug 28 (IPS)- Nigerians are counting the blessings and costs of
the visit by American President Bill Clinton which ended early Monday in
Abuja, their nation's capital.
Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/pnheadlines/967599642/index_html
Outcry At Action Against Indian Dam Protestors
WASHINGTON, Aug 24 (IPS) - Human rights and environmental groups are
condemning state police in India for preventing about 500 people from
attending a public hearing on a controversial dam planned for the
Narmada river.
Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/enheadlines/967433927/index_html
Cable May Be Funded Through PNG Timber Sales
OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY In a shockingly shameful proposal, an Australian
telecommunications company is seeking to finance 50% of a fibre-optic
cable from Papua New Guinea (PNG) to Australia through sale of large
amounts of PNG rainforest logs to China.
Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/enheadlines/967434022/index_html
UN On Wrong Track In Environmental Protection
WASHINGTON, Aug 24 (IPS) - The UN Secretary-General's support of UN
partnerships with corporations threatens to undermine local and
international efforts to protect the environment, warn civil society
groups.
Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/enheadlines/967434463/index_html
JPS 08-110
Job security and consumption tax-free food are the key to economic
recovery
TOKYO AUG 31 JPS -- Government statistics show that personal
spending
of
working people for July in real terms declined by 3.6 percent from a
year
before.
Overall household spending has declined for 7 straight years from
1993
to 1999.
The unemployment rate for July is still at the worst level of 4.7
percent.
Akahata's editorial of August 31 said that increased corporate
profits
and investment are hardly conducive to economic recovery.
A survey by a private institution shows that dismissals through
corporate restructuring have reduced workers' earnings by more than 5
trillion yen (47.1 billion dollars). The ultra-low interest rate policy
throughout the 1990s enabled banks and big corporations to siphon off 30
trillion yen (283 billion dollars).
Corporations are gaining profits by usurping the people's income.
This
in no way helps improve employment and personal consumption.
A Bank of Japan survey shows clearly that 60 percent of the surveyed
said they don't want to spend money because they are concerned about
their
job and income security. The government must legally regulate worker
dismissals and establish rules to increase jobs.
The extraordinary financial policy of maintaining interest rates at
abnormally low level must be immediately changed.
The task now is for the government to exempt food from the
consumption
tax. No doubt this will encourage personal consumption. (end item)
TOKYO AUG 31 JPS -- Asahi Shimbun, one of Japan's largest
newspapers,
on
August 30 reported that declassified U.S. documents show the "whole
picture
of Japan-U.S. secret agreements, under which Japan has turned blind eye
to
U.S. nuclear weapons on board warships entering ports without prior
consultation."
The Asahi report confirms what Japanese Communist Party Chair
Tetsuzo
Fuwa revealed during March and April during his one-on-one debate with
prime ministers in the Diet.
This latest revelation of secret agreements will make it more
difficult
for Japan's government to continue to deny the existence of such secret
agreements.
Fuwa has disclosed a secret agreement in a document called "Record
of
Discussion" (*) concerning the Japan-U.S. Treaty of Mutual Cooperation
and
Security. The agreement was signed on January 6, 1960 by Japan's Foreign
Minister Aiichiro Fujiyama and U.S. Ambassador to Japan Douglas
MacArthur
2nd.
When Fuwa showed the original text of the "Record of Discussion" and
its
Japanese translation before the Diet committee, the government insisted
that no such document existed and refused to raise the matter with the
U.S.
government.
Asahi's revelation was based on a document included in the
Congressional
Briefing Book, a State Department file declassified at the U.S. National
Archives, which confirmed that the U.S., since the beginning of
bilateral
negotiations, had regarded the "Record of Discussion" as an integral
part
of the treaty agreements.
P.M. Yoshiro Mori on August 30 told the press that there is no
secret
agreement between Japan and the U.S.
* * *
Japan Press Service has published a booklet in its Japan Press
Weekly
Special Issue in August, titled "Nuclear Deception--Japan-U.S. Secret
Agreements."
(*) The full text of the Record of Discussion is as follows:
Treaty of mutual cooperation and security
Record of Discussion
Tokyo June 1959
1. Reference is made to the draft exchange of notes concerning the
implementation of Article VI of the Treaty, the operative part of which
reads as follows:
"Major changes in the deployment into Japan of United States armed
forces, major changes in their equipment, and the use of facilities and
areas in Japan as bases for military combat operations to be undertaken
from Japan other than those conducted under Article V of the said
Treaty,
shall be the subjects of prior consultation with the Government of
Japan."
2. The notes were drawn up with the following points being taken into
consideration and understood:
A. "Major changes in their equipment" is understood to mean the
introduction into Japan of nuclear weapons, including intermediate and
long-range missiles as well as the construction of bases for such
weapons,
and will not, for example, mean the introduction of non-nuclear weapons
including short-range missiles without nuclear components.
B. "Military combat operations other than those conducted under
Article
V" is understood to mean military combat operations that may be
initiated
from Japan against areas outside Japan.
C. "'Prior consultation' will not be interpreted as affecting
present
procedures regarding the deployment of United States armed forces and
their
equipment into Japan and those for the entry of United States military
aircraft and the entry into Japanese waters and ports by United States
naval vessels, except in the case of major changes in the deployment
into
Japan of United States armed forces."
D. Nothing in the exchange of notes will be construed as requiring
"prior consultation" on the transfer of units of United States armed
forces
and their equipment from Japan. (end item)
Racism, Prisons and the Future of Black America
By Manning Marable
There are today over two million Americans incarcerated in
federal and state prisons and local jails throughout the
United States. More than one-half, or one million, are black
men and women. The devastating human costs of the mass
incarceration of one out of every thirty-five individuals
within black America are beyond imagination. While civil
rights organizations like the NAACP and black institutions
such as churches and mosques have begun to address this
widespread crisis of black mass imprisonment, they have
frankly not given it the centrality and importance it
deserves.
Black leadership throughout this country should place this
issue at the forefront of their agendas. And we also need to
understand how and why American society reached this point
of constructing a vast prison industrial complex, in order
to find strategies to dismantle it.
For a variety of reasons, rates of violent crime, including
murder, rape and robbery, increased dramatically in the
1960s and 1970s. Much of this increase occurred in urban
areas. By the late 1970s, nearly one half of all Americans
were afraid to walk within a mile of their homes at night,
and 90 percent responded in surveys that the U.S. criminal
justice system was not dealing harshly enough with
criminals. Politicians like Richard M. Nixon, George Wallace
and Ronald Reagan began to campaign successfully on the
theme of “Law and Order.EThe death penalty, which was
briefly outlawed by the Supreme Court, was reinstated.
Local, state and federal expenditures for law enforcement
rose sharply.
Behind much of anti-crime rhetoric was a not-too-subtle
racial dimension, the projection of crude stereotypes about
the link between criminality and black people. Rarely did
these politicians observe that minority and poor people, not
the white middle class, were statistically much more likely
to experience violent crimes of all kinds. The argument was
made that law enforcement officers should be given much
greater latitude in suppressing crime, that sentences should
be lengthened and made mandatory, and that prisons should be
designed not for the purpose of rehabilitation, but
punishment.
Consequently, there was a rapid expansion in the personnel
of the criminal justice system, as well as the construction
of new prisons. What occurred in New York State, for
example, was typical of what happened nationally. From 1817
to 1981, New York had opened 33 state prisons. From 1982 to
1999, another 38 state prisons were constructed. The state’s
prison population at the time of the Attica prison revolt in
September 1971 was about 12,500. By 1999, there were over
71,000 prisoners in New York State correctional facilities.
In 1974, the number of Americans incarcerated in all state
prisons stood at 187,500. By 1991, the number had reached
711,700. Nearly two-thirds of all state prisoners in 1991
had less than a high school education. One third of all
prisoners were unemployed at the time of their arrests.
Incarceration rates by the end of the 1980s had soared to
unprecedented rates, especially for black Americans. As of
December 1989, the total U.S. prison population, including
federal institutions, exceeded one million for the first
time in history, an incarceration rate of the general
population of one out of every 250 citizens.
For African Americans, the rate was over 700 per 100,000, or
about seven times more than for whites. About one half of
all prisoners were black. Twenty-three percent of all black
males in their twenties were either in jail or prison, on
parole, probation or awaiting trial. The rate of
incarceration of black Americans in 1989 had even surpassed
that experienced by blacks who still lived under the
apartheid regime of South Africa.
By the early 1990s, rates for all types of violent crime
began to plummet. But the laws, which sent offenders to
prison, were made even more severe. Children were
increasingly viewed in courts as adults, and subjected to
harsher penalties. Laws like California’s “three strikes and
you’re outEeliminated the possibility of parole for repeat
offenders. The vast majority of these new prisoners were
non-violent offenders, and many of these were convicted of
drug offenses that carried long prison terms. In New York, a
state in which African Americans and Latinos comprise 25
percent of the total population, by 1999 they represented 83
percent of all state prisoners, and 94 percent of all
individuals convicted on drug offenses.
The pattern of racial bias in these statistics is confirmed
by the research of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights,
which found that while African Americans today constitute
only 14 percent of all drug users nationally, they are 35
percent of all drug arrests, 55 percent of all drug
convictions, and 75 percent of all prison admissions for
drug offenses. Currently, the racial proportions of those
under some type of correctional supervision, including
parole and probation, are one-in-fifteen for young white
males, one-in-ten for young Latino males, and one-in-three
for young African-American males. Statistically today, more
than eight out of every ten African-American males will be
arrested at some point in their lifetime.
The latest innovation in American corrections is termed
“special housing unitsE(SHU), but which prisoners also
generally refer to as The Box. SHUs are uniquely designed
solitary confinement cells, in which prisoners are locked
down for 23 hours a day for months or even years at a time.
SHU cellblocks are electronically monitored, prefabricated
structures of concrete and steel, about 14 feet long and 8 ½
feet wide, amounting to 120 square feet of space. The two
inmates who are confined in each cell, however, actually
have only about 60 square feet of usable space, or 30 square
feet per person.
All meals are served to prisoners through a thin slot cut
into the steel door. The toilet unit, sink and shower are
all located in the cell. Prisoners are permitted one hour
“exercise timeEeach day in a small concrete balcony,
surrounded by heavy security wire, directly connected with
their SHU cells. Educational and rehabilitation programs for
SHU prisoners are prohibited.
As of 1998, New York State had confined 5,700 state
prisoners in SHUs, about 8 percent of its total inmate
population. Currently under construction in Upstate New York
is a new 750-cell maximum security SHU facility, which will
cost state taxpayers $180 million. Although Amnesty
International and human rights groups in the U.S. have
widely condemned SHUs, claiming that such forms of
imprisonment constitute the definition of torture under
international law, other states have followed New York’s
example. As of 1998, California had constructed 2,942 SHU
beds, followed by Mississippi (1,756), Arizona (1,728),
Virginia (1,267), Texas (1,229), Louisiana (1,048) and
Florida (1,000). Solitary confinement, which historically
had been defined even by corrections officials as an extreme
disciplinary measure, is becoming increasingly the norm.
The introduction of SHUs reflects a general mood in the
country that the growing penal population is essentially
beyond redemption. If convicted felons cease to be viewed as
human beings, why should they be treated with any humanity?
This question should be elevated and discussed in every
African-American and Latino neighborhood, community center,
religious institution and union hall across this country.
Because the overwhelming human casualties of this racist
leviathan are our own children, parents, sisters and
brothers. Those whom this brutal system defines as being
“beyond redemptionEare ourselves.
--
What are the economic costs for American society of the vast
expansion of our prison-industrial complex? According to
criminal justice researcher David Barlow at the University
of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, between 1980 and 2000, the
combined expenditures of federal, state and local
governments on police have increased about 400 percent.
Corrections expenditures for building new prisons, upgrading
existing facilities, hiring more guards, and related costs,
increased approximately one thousand percent. Although it
currently costs about $70,000 to construct a typical prison
cell, and about $25,000 annually to supervise and maintain
each prisoner, the U.S. is currently building 1,725 new
prison beds per week.
The driving ideological and cultural force that rationalized
and justifies mass incarceration is the white American
public’s stereotypical perceptions about race and crime. As
Andrew Hacker perceptively noted in 1995, “Quite clearly,
‘black crimeEdoes not make people think about tax evasion
or embezzling from brokerage firms. Rather, the offenses
generally associated with blacks are those . . . involving
violence.EA number of researchers have found that racial
stereotypes of African Americans—as “violent,E“aggressive,E
“hostileEand “short-tempered”—greatly influence whitesE
judgments about crime. Generally, most whites are inclined
to give black and Latino defendants more severe judgments of
guilt and lengthier prison sentences than whites who commit
identical crimes. Racial bias has been well established
especially in capital cases, where killers of white victims
are much more likely to receive the death penalty than those
who murder African Americans.
The greatest victims of these racialized processes of
unequal justice, of course, are African-American and Latino
young people. In April 2000, utilizing national and state
data compiled by the FBI, the Justice Department and six
leading foundations issued a comprehensive study that
documented vast racial disparities at every level of the
juvenile justice process. African Americans under age 18
comprise 15 percent of their national age group, yet they
currently represent 26 percent of all those who are
arrested.
After entering the criminal justice system, white and black
juveniles with the same records are treated in radically
different ways. According to the Justice Department’s study,
among white youth offenders, 66 percent are referred to
juvenile courts, while only 31 percent of the
African-American youth are taken there. Blacks comprise 44
percent of those detained in juvenile jails, 46 percent of
all those tried in adult criminal courts, as well as 58
percent of all juveniles who are warehoused in adult prison.
In practical terms, this means that for young African
Americans who are arrested and charged with a crime, that
they are more than six times more likely to be assigned to
prison that white youth offenders.
For those young people who have never been to prison before,
African Americans are nine times more likely than whites to
be sentenced to juvenile prisons. For youths charged with
drug offenses, blacks are 48 times more likely than whites
to be sentenced to juvenile prison. White youths charged
with violent offenses are incarcerated on average for 193
days after trial; by contrast, African-American youths are
held 254 days, and Latino youths are incarcerated 305 days.
What seems clear is that a new leviathan of racial
inequality has been constructed across our country. It lacks
the brutal simplicity of the old Jim Crow system, with its
omnipresent “whiteEand “coloredEsigns. Yet it is in many
respects potentially far more devastating, because it
presents itself to the world as a system that is truly
color-blind. The black freedom struggle of the 1960s was
successful largely because it convinced a majority of white
middle class Americans that it was economically inefficient,
and that politically it could not be sustained or justified.
The movement utilized the power of creative disruption,
making it impossible for the old system of white prejudice
and power to function in the same old ways it had for
decades. For Americans who still believe in racial equality
and social justice, we cannot stand silent while millions of
our fellow citizens are being destroyed all around us. The
racialized prison industrial complex is the great moral and
political challenge of our time.
For several years, I have lectured in New York’s famous Sing
Sing prison, as part of a master’s degree program sponsored
by the New York Theological Seminary. During my last visit
several months ago, I noticed that correctional officials
had erected a large yellow sign over the door at the public
entrance to the prison. The sign reads: “Through these doors
pass some of the finest corrections professionals in the
world.EI asked Reverend Bill Webber, the director of the
prison’s educational program, and several prisoners what
they thought about the sign. Bill answered bluntly,
“demonic.EOne of the M.A. students, a 35-year-old Latino
named Tony, agreed with Bill’s assessment, but added, “let
us face the demon head on.EThere are now over two million
Americans who are incarcerated. It is time to face the demon
head on.
Dr. Manning Marable is Professor of History and Political
Science, and the Director of the Institute for Research in
African-American Studies, Columbia University.
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