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Nov -dec 2000 Archives
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tokyo progressive
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Jan 14, 2001 01:12 PST
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IN CORRECT ORDER
Nov 1 About the site and about Paul
Nov 8 Bore or Gush-Elections-U.S. and Japan issues
Nov 8: CPN 54: PeaceNet, MediaChannel, Japan Press Service, Clinton the
Boor and Gore the Bore
Nov 9 CPM 55: Stop Japan-made Nuclear Power Plant in Taiwan Now
Nov 15 CPN 56 Chile/CIA, Yugoslavia, U.S. Election Humor
Nov 22 American Terrorist School, Japan's Homeless, Earthquakes,
Clinton's legacy of death
Nov 29 Issue 58: AIDS, Japan Nuclear, Phillipine Dam, Chomsky Q and A,
and Vietnam: U.S. Lies
Dec 21 Changes-Zinn on U.S. Elections,Genentech/American Heart
Association Connection, Japanese History...
jan 10 2001 Bye bye Microsoft
Date: Nov 01 2000 02:24:29 EST
From: "Chocopaul News" <pa-@arenson.org>
Subject: About my Site, About me
= =
===============================================
ChocoPaul News # 52
Tokyo Progressive Website: http:// arenson.org
Email: pa-@arenson.org
This list: http://Chocopaul.listbot.com/
=============================================
Today's topic: ChocoPaul News
and Tokyo Progressive
What? Is this website in the news?
No. don't worry, the N.Y. Times and the Asahi Shimbun are not
writing about this website. If so, there would be less reason to
HAVE a website I suppose.
I just wanted to tell you about some more changes
I have made to this site (Again????!!!), and to introduce myself
to those of you who have recently joined, come here by accident, or
are just curious.
First, the changes. They are mainly cosmetic. Some of you have
said you have a hard time locating things. To make things clearer,
I have removed the famous GREEN MENU at the top. NO!!!! WAIT!!!
It is still there, but within the next week it should be gone. Forever!
Kaput!!! Why?
Well, historically the GREEN MENU items WERE my page. But as it
evolved,
I ran our of space and had to think of other ways of communicating.
And so I added more links. But it was hard to always fit them into
existing categories.
Next I launched ChocoPaul News. Since Microsoft is where these
newsletters reside, I didn't have to worry about running out of space.
But here too there was a problem. Some of you said they had seen the
articles
on other websites. Since I don't feel I have to reprint what is
already out there, more and more you see links to those sites, rather
than full articles.
So how will the new site be different?
Well, the Green Menu was a problem for another reason. It used
JAVA (a programming language--or was it JAVA SCRIPT??). But for those
of you with older browsers (version 3 and lower), there WAS no
menu. The script did not exist at that time, and it was as if
my site was speaking in an ancient and forgotten tongue. So, now:
(1) All menus items should be visible for everyone (so long as your
computer is on!).
(2) There will be 3 main topic menus:
Sites in Japanese (or mostly in Japanese)
Sites in English and other langauges
ChocoPaul News
Each will have its own submenus; for example
(taking SITES IN ENGLISH as an example):
Alphabetical listing
A
American foreign policy
American political parties
Alternative Media
|
B
|
C
|
I
Iraq
Israel and Palestine
|
Japanese Social Problems
Japanese NGOS
|
|
Middle East
etc
There will be cross listings so that if you look under Middle East
you should be able to find something about Israel AND Iraq.
Both LINKS to other sites and articles will be listed under each
category,
so it should be easier to find things.
Why the 3 MAIN topic menus?
Increasingly,this site is for two groups of people. One is in Japan
and has Japanese as its first language. The other is outside
Japan. Because I live in Japan, I want to help both groups
learn about the other.
In fact, there are a number of different people accessing (or who
MAY access) my site:
CP News has almost 90 subscribers, plus there 60 people who subscribe
to one of three other newslists for my English classes
(Discussion/Debate,
Alternative Media, Intercultural Communication). Some are on more than
one list. This will probably increase soon due to alliances with
other sites.
The majority of subscribers are in Japan. Some may have knowledge of or
interest in
"progressive" issues in Japan and want to know about similar issues
outside Japan. Some may be active in various groups (anti-Governor
Ishihara,
safe-food, anti-U.S. bases, NGOs, anti-Globalization, etc.) and want to
make contact with like-minded people in other places. Some may not have
had much information or interest in such groups or issues before
and want to find out more about both things in Japan and the rest
of the world.
Likewise, visitors from outside Japan may be activists or
consider themselves progressives, and they may have have little
knowledge
about the issues of concern in Japan. Or they may simply be curious.
And so I hope that both large groups of people will feel they are more
able to find what they are looking for. There are also some who ONLY
read CP News and do not visit my site. So I will make a greater effort
to use CP News to point people to items at my site as well as on other
sites.
What else will be different?
Well, I hope to expand what will be called PARTNER SITES. This is
basically
a form of publicity. If you make a link on your site to mine, I will
make
one
on my site to yours. It doesn't have to be political. Home pages
by individuals, companies with consumer-friendly products, etc. are
welcome
to link and be linked.
I only ask that people who use this feature treat others with
respect. I reserve the right NOT to link to sites which promote
exploitation of others, such as selling names or email addresses.
Tokyo Progressive/ChocoPaul News is itself strictly non-profit
and does endorse any business or make any money from the web site
and mailing lists.
I will keep some features and eliminate others. While not popular,
I will keep USER FORUMS since I believe that your input and
contributions
can make for a better site. Students generally use (AND ARE REQUIRED TO
DO SO)
their own class pages, but non-students should feel free to engage me or
others on issues or concerns of importance to you.
Finally, the location of my site will change. While presently hosted on
TWICS (JAPAN), I have elected to host with a GreenNet, a UK site
that belongs to the Association for Progressive Communications (APC).
Other sites
in this network are PeaceNet (U.S.), Japan-Computer Access, C2O
(Australia),
Sangonet (South Africa), etc. Our email address will also be provided
by
another site (C2O, Australia). Nevertheless, the current http address
and email address will remain. No need to lean a new one. Soon we will
have
mirror sites on other progressive networks as well--such as
Freespeech.org--for two reasons:
(1) When one site is down for any reason, another will be accessible
(2) If I run out of space (I am halfway there already), I will be
able to juggle available apace on these other hosts' networks.
I believe that progressive organizations should help publicize
each other, and it makes sense to host with them where possible.
One benefit of hosting with GreenNet, C2O and Freespeech.org
is that I will have more sources of links and information for
my site and CP News. I also hope many of these sites will become
PARTNER SITES, introducing their users to users in Japan and
users in Japan to their users.
Well, that's about it. To conclude, I have decided to post a few
Questions
and Answers. From time to time I am asked about myself or the site,
so I hope this will be interesting or useful.
Q. Why do you do this? Don't you have a life?
A. I ask myself the same questions all the time.
Q. When do you sleep?
A. Sleep? What's that?
Q. I see you are learning HTML. Your pages are becoming
more sophisticated.
A. I do NOT know much HTML. I use Netscape [Netcrap!] Communicator
and spend 6 hours observing others' pages to get something working
on my site. As with most things, I may think quickly but act
slowly.
I failed High School math with a 23 percent in Trigonometry,
yet somehow I now like the subject. Don't ask me why.
It is like music.. I can't sightread (sofegio)
to save my life, but in both cases I have learned enough (about
page layout and music making) to be able to convince people that
I have SOME skill. The end product is what is important:
being involved with people and helping people communicate
with one another.
I admit to running away from improving my skills, and making the
best of my limitations. But there are people with great skills
who have nothing to communicate, and people whose communication
is interrupted because they have not learned enough to get their
message across, Whether we are talking about learning/teaching a
langauge,
music making and enjoyment, or political and social activism, I
think it is most important to make others feel they have some
choice in their life, to allow people a voice to reach others
and help them hear what others are saying. I think
form is useful, but if I have to choose, I will take content
over form any time.
So, if you can help out, either by providing content (articles,
links, messages to me and others) or form (creative artwork,
layout suggestions, ideas on what else to include, omit or
modify to help maximise usefulness), I hope you will
email me at pa-@arenson.org
Q. You seem to be very critical of business. Why?
A. Good question. There are lots of companies that are not doing
anything
particularly bad. Just like there are a lot of people who are not
doing anything particularly harmful to others as individuals.
But in a capitalist economy, profit ultimately matters over
all else. This means production will be shifted to other
places to keep a company or national economy healthy. I
have to laugh or cry when I read that a company like NISSAN
is doing better. I don't think its president is losing sleep
over all the fired workers needed to get the company back to
being healthy, but how can we call a company which screws its
workers as healthy?
Or how about companies like Nike which employ something close
to slave labor in places like Indonesia in order to maintain
a high profit margin? Is that any better?
Would Nissan be a better company if it were Japanese managed
rather than French? No. It has had one of the worst cases of
bad union-management relations in Japanese history, way before
it hired a French executive officer.
Do most of us have a choice? No. Whether our companies make
computers used by the police in the former South African state
to oppress blacks (NEC, for example), nuclear power plants
where some workers' lives are expendable and the world's citizens
are
at risk by standard operating procedures (GE, Toshiba), or we work
for companies which sugar coat the news so as not to harm their
parent comanpies (NBC, subsidary of GE; Toshiba EMI banned an
anti-nuclear song by RC Succession), we can rarely influence
corporate
decisions enough to make a difference. Should we quit our jobs?
Some say anything else is hypocritical, but I disagree. We are all
part of a system that turns profit for induustry while hurting
others (whether our own friends and family, or people so far away
we can easily pretend they don't exist). In Japan we have
death from overwork, and massive loss of confidence by people
who thought their companies and government were looking out for
them.
Well, more and more people are seeing the lie for what it is,
and while we can rarely make an impact as individuals, we CAN
make an impact when united with others who share our concerns.
It is a fact that institutions like the WTO (an undemocratic,
even illegal organisation some would say), the IMF and World
Bank are unable to conduct business as usual anymore. While the
mainstream media tells us that those few who committed violence
at countless demonstrations these past two years are divorced
from reality or hurting their chances of gathering greater support
(here I partially agree), they never tell us about the violence
done TO people by these institutions, how Tanzania, for example,
in order to get funding, had to "globalize" its economy
and do away with costly spending programs on things like
education, health and social welfare.
But increasingly conservative groups like farmers,
self-interested groups like some labor unions, NGOs, and
political groups opposed to capitalism or imperialism
are finding common ground to work together, and it has put
corporations and governments on the defensive.
It doesn't mean that business and government are about to
reform, but it does mean that it is harder and harder for them to
do what they have always done. In that sense we are partially
successful. While mainstream media avoids the issue and
focuses on violence (and while some on the left argue pro
and con such issues), the larger point--that people of diverse
backgrounds, generations and experience have identified
a common cause and are able to work togther to acheive it, is
an important achievement and affirmation of the concept
of democratic change.
But no, I am not calling for people to shoot themselves in the
foot by quitting their jobs. Will they go out tomorrow
and win a revolution? No. Should they run away and live on a
commune (so popular an option for hippies in the 60s) rather
than stay on the job? I don't think that is very useful since it
does nothing to help others. I hope that this little web site
serves some good by helping people find others who have the same
concerns, by making links between one issue and another, by
inviting
debate and pointing toward a number of possibilities of involvement
depending on one's time and energy.
Q. I don't see anything on your page about whales. Are you
for or against whaling.
A. Good question. I don't know. I do know that many in Japan
(and Norway) paint this as a cultural issue, that the issue
is put in soft focus when we read about "the American" versus
"Japanese" view, when a group like Greenpeace, which is about as
far from corporate-government power as is possible, is seen as being
on
the side of the U.S. government and against Japanese culture. Yet
I see mostly conservative, or nationalist politicians on the
Japanese
side and very few conservationists. I also see many Japanese
conservationists on the side of Greenpeace.
And Denmark and Norway--cultural cousins--are bitter
enemies on this issue as well.
This is obviously not about culture alone. It seems to be about
posturing to get votes, like the Japanese politicians who
tell relatives of people possibly kidnapped by North Korea
they are doing something to help them, who suggest that North
Korea, to save face, pretend to find them in a third country.
(Will these "found" people continue to maintain the lie
and say they somehow ended up in a third country just to keep
putting the right-wing LDP political party back in power at
election time?)
It seems that science could answer this question, yet the mainstream
media either does not report on true scientific opinion OR
scientists of each country feel they have to support the
politicians of their own country, which is not science at all.
This brings us to another question, after I admit that I have eaten
whale
(because in at least one sense I agree with those who say there is
nothing less kind about eating beef). But neither do I have any
love for politicians and newspapers which obscure the truth and
play to nationalist sympathies. The world doesn't belong to
nations and I refuse to worship or defend such narrow interests
to the exclusion of others. So until the truth becomes clearer,
I have to admit I don't know. The other question:
Q. Shouldn't we love our country and respect it?
A. Sorry, I don't understand what you are saying. Where we
live is an accident of birth. If everyone loves their countries
equally, then no-one can be doing any wrong. But how about sports?
I guess I don't have much interest in national teams (made up, often
with players from other countries). But I prefer to see two
countries fighting on the soccer field to fighting on a battle
field.
Still, the way some people get excited about sports, it almost seems
like a kind of violence.
On the argument of whether Japan should use its Imperial anthem
and flag, I have to admit that even if a more neutral flag
or song (like Sakura-Cherry Tree) were chosen, the problem is
the politicians and neo-nationalists who seem almost in love
with the old Emperor system and even want to justify Japan's
past militarism, often using U.N. contributions and PKO activities
as an excuse for making Japan a kind of Imperial power again.
For the same reason I have no reason to salute the flag of the
greatest terrorist nation on earth, America: thousands incinerated
alive
in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 10s of millions since that time in
Vietnam, Korea, Chile, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Iraq, Yugoslavia,
East Timor.............
As the Pete Seegar song goes, 'my country's flag has been used for
wrapping lies.' and so has the Japanese flag. So the issue is
government officials who act like little Hitlers trying to force
school kids to worship a flag and a song and blind themselves
to their country's history. If a country is truly free, you
do not need to force people to do anything.
I will never burn a Japanese or American flag, but when I see
someone doing it I ask myself if I want to be associated with the
policies and politics that those flags symbolize. The answer is
a clear NO. Never!!!!
Q. Are you a communist or anarchist or something?
A. Seriously? Labels are labels. When I was a high school
student at John Adams HS in Queens, N.Y., I was kicked by a man
coming out of St. Patrick's Cathedral when I handed him a leaflet
protesting
the U.S. war on Vietnam. He called me a "fucking communist Jew
bastard".
Why I was there is that Cardinal Spellman, of St. Patricks, was an
active supporter of the U.S. death machine in Vietnam. So, when
this fine member of the church kicked me and called me names,
was I supposed to say, "I am NOT a communist". I did not belong
to any party and I did not particularly like the Soviet, Chinese or
North Korean governments, but as I opposed what my government was
doing, I was a communist in his eyes. Why deny it? We were
murdering hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people there (soon
to
climb well
over a million), and my sympathy was certainly with the Vietnamese.
Also
U.S. soldiers who either were deceived into thinking they were
fighting for something important and threw their own lives away
or had no other job opportunities other than to kill and die for
their
leaders. They were all victims of one kind or another.
(By the way, Ho Chi Minh, who DID once study in Boston, was so
impressed
with the American Declaration of Independence that he adopted it for
the North Vietnamese constitution,
but that does not mean I was a lover of North Vietnamese policies).
Simply,
America was attempting to destroy their country (their men, women
and children) in the name of anti-communism, freedom and democracy
and
I
was doing what I could to stop it and to prevent my country from
doing
the
killing in my name.
As usual with American policy, the claim that it was
killing people and subverting other governments in the name
of freedom and democracy was hypocricy ("pure shit" is
exactly what comes to mind). And so, why did I have to reason with
this man? In fact, my ideas are heavily influenced by a variety of
things including people who have called themselves or were
called communists, anarchists, believers in civil disobedience
(Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Henry Thoreau), and people with
dozens of other labels imposed on them or self-imposed. But that
does not mean that if one criticizes state-sponsored terrorism U.S.
style that I endorse repression by States such as China, the former
Soviet Union or wherever. That they choose to apply a certain
label to their society does not mean they deserve the label. That
someone is a victim of American death squads does not mean I
necessarily think they are angels.
(By the way, the U.S. media only reserves that term --death squad--
for unfriendly countries' militias or carefully avoids associating
America
with them in places like El Salvador, East Timor
or Chile even when they are actively supported by America or even
directed by the White House.)
Back to being a "Jew bastard". I am Jewish, but to
some that implies support of Israel (whose government practices
apartheid in its treatment of Palesinians and other Arabs in its
occupied
territories). I do NOT support the State of Israel or its policies
(nor does that make me a supporter of Yassar Arafat). As far as I
know,
I was conceived by two people who were married to each other, so I
am not a bastard, though in its common usage I was indeed a bastard
in his eyes.
So again, why deny it? Would he stop supporting State terrorism
by the U.S. military if I said I was a white, Anglo-Saxon,
Protestant,or
that I was a Republican? No. If he didn't know Lincoln had been a
Republican 100 years before, he mighthave called him a
communist,too!
In the U.S. and Japan, as everywhere else, there are people who
call themselves communist or anarchist or this or that who spend
a lot of time attacking each other or avoiding cooperating with
one another. This has changed recently as seen in the anti-WTO
and IMF/World Bank demonstrations where folks of all different
stripes
learned to cooperate with each other and hopefully learn from
each other. But a short answer to a short question. Am
I a communist or anarchist or something? Yes. Something.
But, mostly, I am a person.
I guess that7s more than enough for today. Will be back in several
days
with some news about the world.
In the meantime, please email me with:
(1) any other questions you have
(2) suggestions for my page (layout, content, etc.)
(3) difficulties you have
(4) requests to link my site to yours (And vice versa)
(5) "hellos" and "how are yous?"
(6) ????
Paul
pa-@arenson.org
Date: Nov 08 2000 10:33:00 EST
From: "Chocopaul News" <pa-@arenson.org>
Subject: Bore or Gush-Elections-U.S. and Japan issues
====================
===============================
ChocoPaul News Issue 53
Post (?) Election Issue
==================================
CPN is a mailing list attached to the Tokyo Progressive Website:
http://arenson.org If you are not a subscriber, you can become one by
visiting http://Chocopaul.listbot.com/ The email addreess is
pa-@arenson.org
I live in Japan. 21 years. Almost as long as I lived in the U.S.@ In
many ways, Japanese politics are now closer to my heart than what goes
on
in America, but I think that what happens there is of such significance
to
the rest of the world, that it should be of interest to readers based in
Japan, too.
When I left my day job, the Internet was reporting that Gore had won. I
came into school an hour later and a friend looked dejected. "Bush won",
he said. So, it was that close. (Now it seems that no-one knows who
won!!!)
Anyway, I should apologize to my friend for my unsympathetic response,
which was something like, "Who gives a flying fuck?" In truth, I too
had
a twinge of sadness, and yet I asked myself why. Why did I at once feel
empathy with my friend's dismay that Bush may have won and disgust at
the
thought of Gore becoming the next president?
Most of my friends, as far as I know, were Gore supporters, or at least
anti-Bush. I generally don't like to talk about politics with friends.
For one thing, I am not good at arguing. I get tongue-tied. For
another,
I am different than my father. I still remember that time back in the
1980s when he wrote me to tell me that he had broken off his friendship
with Bill the bus driver 'because that son of a bitch voted for Ronald
Reagan' (or Ray Gun, as some of us called him). Like my father, I tend
to
gravitate toward people who call themselves liberal, progressive,
socialist, communist, anarchist or radical. Yet I am sure some of my
friends are people who call themselves conservative, and unlike my
father
I do not make or break friendships on the basis of who people vote for.
I
know plenty of wonderful people whose political views make me want to
throw up, and I know a number of people who share my political views who
ALSO make me want to throw up because of their personal qualities.
That's
life.
The mainstream media has been downright cruel in portraying Ralph Nader
as
a destroyer for taking away votes from Gore, thereby laying on him the
blame for moving America to the right if Bush wins. My friends have been
less hypocritical, making constructive criticism of his candidacy, or a
good case for choosing the lesser of two evils, in this case, Gore.
I don't buy it, but basically I think my friends are arguing out of a
concern for decency. For the exact same reason, I feel that voting for
Nader made more sense. But based on rhetoric and public perception, as
well as historical reasons, I think my friends and I share an aversion
to
much of what the Republican Party has stood for. At one time, Democrats
were on the side of social welfare and civil rights, and their rhetoric
is
still very much in that vein at times. Republicans have always
identified
themselves as super patriots, as bigots, as homophobes and woman haters.
And there have been other times when the lesser evil argument has been
made. Now is not an exception.
But Secretary of State Albright under Clinton (not literally, like
Monica!) said that America was willing to pay the price of 5000 Iraqi
kids
dying each month (no exaggeration) in order to get Saddam Hussein out of
power. That is under a Democratic administration that has carried on
the
policies of Bush's father. The same administration in a show of
brutality
bombed Serbian civilians and inflated figures of Serbian crimes (which
were often real enough) in order to justify its Kosovo war as
humanitarian
intervention, causing far greater civilian casualties than Serbia had.
The same Democratic administration sold out to the insurance companies
rather than keep a promise to create national health insurance and sold
out gays in the military after first championing their cause. Over
their
two terms, the Democrats became more and more like Republicans. Dennis
Halliday, one of the highest UN officials in charge overseeing the
provision of food and medicine to Iraqi civilians had to quit over
horrendous U.S. interference in his work, where even ambulances have
been
blocked by Bill Clinton and Tony Blair because Othey can be converted
to
military weapons.O And recently his replacement has done the same out
of
anger at the sabotaging of relief efforts by Blair and Clinton.
I often tell my media studies students that America is the greatest
terrorist nation on earth, and some think I am saying it just for
effect.
But we have a great legacy of helping assassins in Chili, Indonesia,
etc.
carry out oppression and murder in order to protect American interests.
And that has not changed under the Democrats. To me the argument of
lesser
evil carries no weight, since 5000 Iraqi children continue to die,
Clinton
is a supporter of the death penalty and has even ok'd it against a
mentally handicapped person in his own state.
Where is the compassion of which he and Gore speak so much?
Like the Republicans, they are beholden to big business, and help to
push
policies via the World Bank, IMF and the WTO that help to impoverish the
rest of the world. At home NAFTA and WTO have destroyed jobs and
weakened
environmental protection and even caused the food supply to become less
safe as U.S. agribusiness imports Mexican strawberries with chemicals
banned under U.S. agricultural laws. Nike shoes make slaves of East
Timorese workers, and Clinton and Gore pretend they are on the side of
the
people? What people?
They are on the side of what spins the illusion that the American
economy
is
doing well. In reality, all leading indicators show that the poor are
STILL getting poorer and that in real terms wages are lower than 20
years
ago with people working more hours to bring home the same pay. And
social welfare has been destroyed. Lesser evil? No thanks.
So while the image of that buffoon Bush winning the presidency is
disturbing, and it made me wince when my friend told me that Bush had
won,
I would not really feel better hearing that Gore was president.
What does this mean for my students and other Japanese friends? In some
ways, the Democrats are perceived as worse when it comes to things like
trade sanctions. so I am not sure even people who call themselves
progressives would loose much sleep over a Bush victory. Clinton has
continued to work with his Japanese LDP (party) puppets to oppress the
Okinawan people and blackmail the Japanese people into thinking that
without the Americans Japan would be less safe. Clinton, a Democrat,
has
in the past supported the killing of hundreds of thosuands at Hiroshima
and Nagasaki, a war crime in my book.
Many Japanese foolishly return the same type of politicians to power,
perhaps because of a misplaced trust in security and continuity. But
the
LDP, whose politics are very similar to Republican0-Democrat, also has a
sizable membership which is nostalgic for the old Imperial days. While
outright racism is worse in the U.S., there is a lot of racism and
racialism here, particularly toward Koreans and Chinese who were once
colonial subjects. And just as the U.S. refused to compensate Japanese
Americans that it kept in concentration camps during World War II,
Japanese conservatives, supported by many citizens, claim they do not
have
to pay anything to former colonial subjects forced to serve as sex
slaves
and slave laborers. Everything is on a state-to-state basis, and the
governement rigidly sticks to its claim that all such disputes were
settled by treaty. The government also says it does not have to
apologize
any more for its treatment of colonials, although it pays lip service to
the feelings of the Chinese and Korean governments. But it NEVER
acknowledges the feelings of millions of ordinary people, including
Japanese who opposed militarism and colonialism and paid with their
lives.
The LDP always directs its public statements to foreign governments, but
there are many ordinary people in this country who themselves were
victims
of Japan's fascist past, and they have never received any apology
either.
What is even more upsetting is that nationalists still control the
education ministry and distort history; racist politicians continually
make arrogant and ignorant remarks and get elected. And school kids and
teachers are now forced by law to sing a prewar Imperial song and salute
the Imperial flag. Mindless patriotism seems to be the goal, and few
people raise their voice. When they do, the media doesn't pay much
attention, just like in the U.S. To the Washington Post, Ralph Nader
and
friends are helping Bush, and to the Japanese press, most
people of left-wing sympathies are ignored, despite the false claim in
both countries that the press is left wing.
Surprsingly, Japan's democracy is in better shape than America's:
people
actually do have a choice, and left wing politicians actually have a
great
many seats in local assemblies. The national electoral system favors
the
conservatives, but the local scene is very different. Unfortunately,
the
LDP and its friends in the national government have weakened local
autonomy and forced them to go along with military bases and nuclear
power
plants, things that bring benefit to the rich and powerful and its
friends
like the Ministry of Trade and Industry, the Federation of Economic
Organizations and the Employers Association in a society increasingly
divided on the basis of economic class.
And now, the government is forcing local governments, including
civilians,
to provide logistical support for U.S. forces in the event of
hostilities
outside Japan. Not that it hasn't happened before. Japanese government
and industrial support helped America-under both Democrats and
Republicans-murder millions in Vietnam. And in the U.N., the Japanese
government supports U.S. nuclear policy, which is like spitting on the
souls of the dead of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
What matters to me and some of my friends is putting an end to
neoliberalism and its enslavement of much of the SOUTH (Third World), of
dismantling the World Trade Organization, of sending U.S. soldiers home
and preventing right wing bigots from forcing narrow-minded patriotism
on
the people. We want to get the U.S. military out of all the countries
it
is in, stop the training of military despots, and bring about a true
democracy where there is caring for people of all social and economic
backgrounds. That will never come about by voting for the lesser evil.
What is called for is movementy building on the grassroots level. In
the
U.S., NaderNs campaign is one example of exactly that. I do not regret
telling people that if I were them, I would vote for Gore.
For those who are interested, here are some opinions of others who
supported Nader, taken from ZNET. I hope this helps present a
perspective that is lacking in the mainstream media.
Paul
U.S. Elections Acomments from ZNET
Barbara Ehrenreich:
I retain my respect for those of you have come down on the Gore side of
it. The risk to abortion rights, in case of a Bush victory, is a real
one,
and an understandable reason to choose Gore.
Feminism is not and cannot become a single-issue movement. While we
retained abortion rights under the Clinton-Gore administration, we lost
welfare - a blow not only to the about 4 million women who depended on
it
in 1996, but to uncounted others who would have turned to it as an
escape
from a violent relationship. For this and other reasons, political
scientist Gwendolyn Mink has called welfare reform "the most aggressive
invasion of women's rights in this century." The extent of the damage -
in
increased hunger, homeless, and possibly infant mortality-- is just
beginning to emerge. In the meantime, Gore boasts of welfare reform and
even claimed, in his acceptance speech at the Democratic Convention, to
have been the major force behind it. There are, in other words, feminist
reasons to reject Gore and to fear a Gore administration.
Edward Herman: Voting for Gore, given his support of the Clinton agenda,
that has included the Personal Responsibility Act, a savage crime bill,
support of capital punishment, the enhanced drug war, more arms, and the
commission of very serious war crimes overseas, would be a distinctly
immoral act. (3) Voting for Gore as a lesser evil will help consolidate
the power of the rightwing forces now controlling the Democratic Party
and
will reinforce all the regressive tendencies displayed by Clinton;
voting
for Nader will tell the Democrats that they cannot keep moving to the
right, and will possibly begin a movement that will either transform the
Democratic Party or, more likely, begin a third party that might compete
with the property parties. ) Bush will be terrible, but so will
Gore-Lieberman, and with Bush in office the Democrats will possibly
begin
to resist Republican policies that they supported when proposed by
Clinton.
Michael Albert: I am going to vote Nader/LaDuke for the positive reason
that I think that due to the remarkable levels of success they have had,
voting for them and then later working to translate the sentiments and
energy of their campaign into lasting activism is a far more positive
and
promising way to try to ensure more desirable short and long term
outcomes
in the U.S. and around the world than is voting for Al Gore, or not
voting
at all, for that matter.
Until societyNs institutions are fundamentally transformed, a sincere,
informed, growing and capable opposition will be the primary obstacle to
any president, any administration, and all elites doing added harm, and
also the primary factor forcing them to implement positive reforms.
Voting
Nader/Laduke, by empowering the idea of opposition, of dissent, and of
activism, by building mechanisms to advance these further, and by adding
to the prospects for electoral financial support, helps build for the
short and long term, ultimately even for the new institutions throughout
society that are the only way we can move from fighting against harm to
enjoying liberation.
Serge Halimi: Learning that some advocates for progressive causes are
currently campaigning AGAINST Ralph Nader under the pretext that voting
for him might "hurt Gore" seems to me close to repulsive. The notion
that
we cannot support - indeed should oppose - someone who has been with all
the way and all the time, in order to facilitate the election of someone
who, almost systematically, has endorsed and part-taken in policies
which
are at once pro-corporations and "free" trade, pro-welfare repeal,
pro-prison and death penalty, pro-Israel and right-wing dictatorships,
pro-war in the Gulf and in the Balkans defies logic as well as morality.
Nothing can breed political cynicism more than this constant imposition
of
a "choice" between the bad and the worse. Nader does not draw votes away
from anyone who would deserve a vote were Nader not in the race.
Normon Solomon: The Nader-LaDuke campaign has been an opportunity for
clarity about progressive principles and analysis. Whatever its flaws,
the
campaign deserves support because it represents a clear alternative to
the
corporate two-party system that has brought us such horrors as trade
agreements like NAFTA and GATT, welfare "reform" and the
prison-industrial
complex. One of the worst things about the Clinton-Gore administration
has
been the self-silencing by many progressives as they've morphed into
being
apologists for horrific policies coming out of the White House. Speaking
clearly and honestly is a necessary precondition for strong
social-justice
movements.
Doug Dowd: Why I am voting for Nader. As I am Italy, I have already
voted
for Nader, by absentee ballot. The NY Times calls him "The Spoiler," and
attacks him for his "willful prankishness" -- in themselves an
indication
of just how debased our poliitical life has become in the USA. I have
worked with two third parties in the past, with the Wallace campaign in
1948 and the Peace and Freedom campaign in 1968 -- both times for
essentially the same reason and against the same arguments for not doing
so: Dewey would be so much worse than Truman, Nixon would be so much
worse
than Humphrey; now, Bush so much worse than Gore. We who support Nader
know that Bush is a lame-brained marshmallow who will allow an already
scandalous set of conditions to become worse; but so will Gore, if with
a
different rhetoric, perhaps more slowly, perhaps with some improvements.
Perhaps. But it was Truman, not Dewey who brought us the Cold War and
who
went along with McCarthyism (except where it burned him). The damages
from
just that have been immeasurable, over the globe and here at home. And
would Humphrey have EVER brought Vietnam an end? Since the 80s, how
have
the Demos responded to Reaganism -- itself to some degree aided and
abetted by the gutlessness of the Demos? By becoming compassionate
conservatives, that's how. Setting all that aside (but not forgetting
it),
my prime reason in the past and now for working with a third party is
that
bad though our chances are for building a better society, they are zero
within the two-party system. Had our work for Wallace continued afterr
the
'48 election, up to this day, would we not now have a more promising
political system? We have to restart process again; this is the time,
once
more; and this time we must continue between elections. It's the others
who are the pranksters, and the games they play are, as always, deadly.
Tim Wise: With no ill regard or hostility towards those who just can't
bring themselves to do the same, I will be voting for Ralph Nader. I
understand the risks involved. But I also am fully aware of the risks
associated with continuing to play a game of "lesser of two evils" every
four years. The question for everyone should be simple: where do you
draw
the line and say enough to the compromised agenda of the Democratic
Party?
How much will we accept and for how long? I can no longer listen to
those
who insist that if we just suck it up and hold our nose ONE MORE TIME,
then everything will be fine,and next time it will be different. It
won't
be.
As a southerner, I have a special regard for the battles that were
fought
in this region to secure voting rights for citizens of color. And I also
know that Goodman and Schwerner and Chaney, and Liuzzo, and Reeb and
countless others did not die so we could vote for Al Gore as the "only
hope" for civil rights. And Ella Baker and Fannie Lou Hamer and the foot
soldiers of SNCC, and the brave men and women of color throughout the
South didn't fight for so ignoble and unsatisfying reward. And the
movement for full equality will not be secured by Al Gore, nor can it be
truly derailed by George Bush, whatever may happen in November. That
movement is greater than these men, stronger than their court
appointments; and if we forget that out of fear, we forget that far
meaner
and far stronger than these have been brought low by those who kept
their
eyes on the prize.
In the end of course, it's what we're doing the other 364 days of the
year
that really matters, in terms of building movements for social and
economic justice, reproductive freedom, civil rights, anti-militarism,
or
any other thing we might be involved in. But on that 365th day, this
time
around, I'll be voting for what I want, not what someone else tells me I
need to accept.
Tariq Ali: Even to those of us who live outside the USA, the Nader
campaign has been incredibly inspiring. I was recently criss-crossing
the
States on a book-tour, often in independent bookshops. The effect of
Nader
was electric and the only positive feature of an otherwise debased
campaign. The emergence of a Third Force well to the left of the
democratic Party would be a gain not just for the United States, but for
all those who are affected by the collateral damage inflicted by the
Empire. On the lesser evil argument, many outside the US might be
inclined
to see Bush as the lesser evil. He might be marginally less
interventionist and a little, tiny bit tougher on the thugs who rule
Israel. So it is utterly provincial of US liberals to prefer Gore. Don't
they realise they are in the heart of an Empire and have
responsibilities
to the rest of the world? A strong vote for Nader would cheer all those
who resist the depredations of the Empire.
Brian Tokar:
This election is about much more than Ralph Nader and his position in
the
polls relative to Gore and Bush. It is about the future of US
"democracy,"
and whether it is possible to halt the relentless decline of what's left
of our "democratic" institutions. Environmentalists and others have
learned to judge Gore on his dismal record, rather than his
faux-populist
rhetoric, and that's a good first step. But as long as we are limited to
two parties, equally beholden to Wall Street, the major investment banks
and global corporations, we will never regain the ability to shape the
real decisions that affect our lives.
While Nader and the Greens are far from perfect, and many Greens have
wholly abandoned broad-based movement building for the adrenaline-rush
and
false promises of electoral politics, Nader never hesitates to speak out
for genuine popular power and citizen initiative. For once, we can cast
a
'protest vote' that counts. A vote for Nader may not be an end in
itself,
but it may be a small step toward the renewal of a genuine,
community-based direct democracy that will some day offer real solutions
to our pressing environmental and social problems.
Philip Cunningham: A vote for Nader is a vote against an amoral system
that gives power and access to the highest bidder through the agency of
the blandest candidate.
Don't vote for Gore, he'll drag us into war. Gore crony Richard
Holbrook,
the insider's candidate for Secretary of State who wouldn't hesitate to
green light more humanitarian bombings to benefit his callous,
over-achiever's resume. That quintessential democrat ic insider and
"security" specialist should be in contention for war crimes trials
instead of peace prizes.
Don't vote for Bush, the true meaning of republican is no more lords.
America rejected the system of transfer of power from regal father to
spoiled brat son over two hundred years ago.
Vote for Nader and join the voice of a new generation coming of age. If
you don't vote, make your silence heard. If you vote, vote for Nader.
Brian Dominick: Why I support the campaign of Ralph Nader"
There's always been a strong debate within anarchist circles with regard
to the whole process of voting, especially in national elections. Most
of
us agree it's a good idea to vote on local "ballot initiatives" and the
like, where one can have a direct influence on whether a certain policy,
law or project is passed or denied.
But what about presidential elections? Well, normally, like most
anarchists, I have considered them pretty much inconsequential. Some
anarchists have voted for the lesser evil among the Big Two, just for
the
sake of trying to diminish the negative impact of the next presidential
administration. Others who discern a difference between the so-called
"liberal" candidate and his more conservative opponent, have not
considered the ordeal of voting for a "lesser evil" to be worthwhile.
Still others have been unable to discern the purported difference
between
the Democrat and Republican candidates, and honestly wouldn't know who
to
select. I have usually been in that last camp.
But this year is different. Unless you've been living under a rock for
the
past few months (in which case you aren't reading this...), you've heard
of the Green Party ticket of Ralph Nader/Winona LaDuke. Progressive and
alternative media outlets are abuzz with reports about this campaign,
and
even the mainstream media have been paying an unprecedented amount of
attention to this Green Party bid for the White House. You're also
aware,
however, that Nader stands a snowball's chance in hell at actually being
elected this year.
And if you're a typical anarchist, you may also not be very excited
about
the prospect of voting for the next leader of the world's last remaining
superpower, whether he be RepubliCrat or Green. Well, I'm not excited
about voting for my next ruler, either, whatever his good qualities (and
Nader is overwhelming with these, one must admit, however limited
radicals
and anarchists may consider his stances).
But I am excited about the prospects of Nader's campaign bringing more
and
more people into the folds of social movements. The attention he is
getting from sectors who haven't heard from the Left in a long time is
pretty exciting and impressive. And he's doing good things with it, for
the most part. He isn't just asking for votes, he's informing and
invigorating important constituencies, people who normally do not show
much interest in politics, or social movements.
The vote itself isn't the important thing. Voting for Nader will
contribute to the Green Party's shot at matching funds in 2000. But it
won't contribute to much else, admittedly. But supporting the Nader
campaign, registering it's significance and your own sympathy in the
eyes
of the mainstream media, and even in the eyes of a nervous Democrat like
Al Gore -- that does make a difference. Keeping Nader and his
unconventional ideas in the spotlight does introduce untold numbers of
people to the New New Left, bringing them one step closer to direct
contact with grassroots social movements.
In the end, no electoral campaign is going to DO what we anarchsits know
needs to be done to change the world. A well-run campaign like
NaderLaDuke's will raise the consciousness of people around the nation
with regard to numerous problems infecting our society, as well as
propose
essentially short-term "solutions." But most of those problems, we know,
have institutional roots much deeper than even a president, or even a
majority in congress, could realistically hope to cure through a system
which itself engenders those problems.
But when an electoral campaign has the ability to pique the interests of
those we've so far been unable to reach, and perhaps draw them closer to
forms of activism more direct and effective than voting -- that's the
kind
of campaign we should support, in one way or another. At the very least,
we should be encouraging people we know intend to vote to vote for
Nader.
We should be encouraging people with excitement about electoral politics
to volunteer, even and especially at this late stage, for the Nader
campaign. (What's the worst that can happen -- they lose their
pre-existing taste for electoral politics? At least it will give them
some
experience with organizing and activism!) We can hop around the web
favoring Nader in every poll we encounter. We can post pro-Nader
messages
to email listservs, and argue them amongs friends and coworkers and
family
members. We can register with the Green Party (if it's not too late in
your state) -- in some states that has a positive effect for the Green
Party's status. And we can vote, if we so choose.
So I'm supporting Nader's campaign precisely because I think, at least
indirectly, his campaign supports the community-based organizing and
activism which I do, and which I believe is what will really change the
world in which we live.
Date: Nov 08 2000 22:13:33 EST
From: "Chocopaul News" <pa-@arenson.org>
Subject: PeaceNet, MediaChannel, Japan Press Service, Clinton the Boor
and Gore the Bore
--> <--
===============
ChocoPaul News 54
A mailing list from TokyoProgressive:
http://arenson.org
Inquiries: pa-@arenson.org
============================================
O.K, a few more American election-related pieces. One is from Tim Wise,
a prominent figure in the anti-racism movement in the U.S. South. The
other is
about Bill Clinton and his defensive posture on a NY radio show the
other
day when he
was criticised by listeners who called in.
But first some announcements from our friends at other sites, including
PEACE NET, MediaChannel, and the Japan Press Service.
PeaceNet Alerts: November 8, 2000
Occupied Territories No Longer "Occupied" On TV News
Amid the constant flow of footage showing violent confrontations
between Palestinians and Israeli soldiers, a central fact of the
conflict has been missing from almost all network TV coverage: The West
Bank and Gaza are occupied territory.
Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/pnalerts/973624665/index_html
Children in Maryland's Jails
On October 16, the U.S. Department of Justice opened an investigation of
the Baltimore City Detention Center to examine possible violations of
the constitutional rights of inmates. The investigation was prompted in
part by a November 1999 Human Rights Watch report on conditions for
children in Maryland jails. Baltimore City Detention Center is a
crumbling, century-old facility, where juveniles are confined to dimly
lit, squalid cells crawling with cockroaches and rodents and subject to
extreme temperatures. Violence between inmates is rampant and often
involves crude "shanks," made from pieces of metal from air vents or old
light fixtures.
Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/pnheadlines/972998806/index_html
South Africa's Arms Trade: Further Progress Needed
In a 45-page report released today, "A Question of Principle: Arms Trade
and Human Rights," Human Rights Watch charged the South African
government with selling weapons to countries with serious human rights
problems, where an influx of weaponry could significantly worsen ongoing
abuses.
Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/pnheadlines/972999166/index_html
Immigration Detention Centers Need Improvements
"The INS has a long way to go before it can call these detention
facilities acceptable. INS detainees are not serving criminal sentences.
They are administrative detainees awaiting immigration proceedings, and
their treatment should reflect their administrative, non-criminal,
status," said Allyson Collins, senior researcher with Human Rights
Watch.
Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/pnheadlines/973056393/index_html
Madre: Some Notes On The Current Crisis In Palestine
US headlines and opinion pieces have presented a false symmetry between
Israelis and Palestinians in the current confrontations. The reality of
these street battles is that one of the world's best equipped armies is
confronting mostly young, unarmed stone-throwers with massive military
force.
Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/pnheadlines/973625935/index_html
SOUTH AFRICA: Civil Society Pushes for a People's Budget
JOHANNESBURG, Nov 3 (IPS) - Leading South African trade unions, NGOs and
churches have formed a grouping to agitate for a People's Budget.
Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/pnheadlines/973628802/index_html
United Kingdom: U-18S: Child Soldiers At Risk
"The United Kingdom is the only country in Europe which routinely sends
children under the age of 18 into armed conflict", said Amnesty
International today launching the new report entitled United Kingdom:
U-18s: Child soldiers at risk.
Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/pnheadlines/973629125/index_html
EL SALVADOR: Two Salvadorean Generals Cleared in Nuns' Murders
WASHINGTON, Nov 3 (IPS) - In a major setback to human rights groups, a
Florida jury Friday cleared two top former Salvadorean generals of
responsibility for the 1980 murders of four US churchwomen.
Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/pnheadlines/973630439/index_html
.. addresses:
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To subscribe to IGC-News send a message to
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*************************************************
MediaChannel News
The Gore/Bush contest was process as politics with the news media
crying, "Let the best marketing team win!"
http://www.mediachannel.org/views/oped/andersen.shtml
MEDIA MISPLAYED THE BLACK VOTE
Faye Anderson analyzes how the media $B!&(Jboth black and
mainstream $B!&(Jcovered the racial subtext of the election.
http://www.mediachannel.org/views/oped/anderson.shtml
CONVICTED BY AN IMAGE
Political prisoner Lori Berenson, in jail in Peru, was convicted
first by a dictator, and then by the press, reports
News Dissector Danny Schechter.
http://www.mediachannel.org/views/dissector/lori.shtml
DAILY MEDIA NEWS
Breaking news stories about the media internationally, from mainstream
and alternative sources.
http://www.mediachannel.org/news/today/
**FROM OUR AFFILIATES**
HOT STORIES
MediaChannel affiliates offer the latest news and opinion
on the world's top media stories. This week: Israel/Palestine Media
Bias,
Serbian Media and the pending AOL-Timer Warner merger.
http://www.mediachannel.org/news/hotstories
MEDIA ON THE MEDIA
* Global trade's media threat
* Invisible women athletes
* The power of grassroots media
And much, much more...
Plus: Streaming audio and video
http://www.mediachannel.org/news/mediareader/
PEOPLE'S POET SEEKS JUSTICE
Imprisoned and abused long after apartheid ended, South African
antiapartheid musician and poet Mzwakhe Mbuli may finally see freedom.
PLUS: Mbuli's song "What is Freedom" in RealAudio
http://www.mediachannel.org/front.shtml#mbuli
PROGRAMMING WITHOUT PATIENCE
The demand for instant ratings success, critics warn, proves
how economics endangers creativity.
http://www.mediachannel.org/front.shtml#deadline
WOMEN'S SECRET STORIES
When journalist Ashwini Sukthankar wrote about Indian lesbians,
she was, in part, betraying her own underground movement.
http://www.mediachannel.org/front.shtml#mbuli
MediaChannel welcomes this week's new affiliates:
Al Bawaba, BrazilMax, Pop Sustainability, Women's Enews,
Grassroots International, InterAction, Solidarity for Africa
International
http://www.mediachannel.org/
---------------------------------------------
AS THE MEDIA WATCH THE WORLD, WE WATCH THE MEDIA.
MediaChannel is a not-for-profit project of OneWorld and The Global
Center, and is produced by Globalvision New Media.
MediaChannel.org (http://www.mediachannel.org) is the first Web portal
dedicated to international media issues, and the premiere Internet
source
for analysis and information about the media. Driven by content from a
network of more than 500 international media organizations and
contributors.
MediaChannel explores areas such as freedom of expression, citizen
access to media, trends in media ownership, media arts and the
intersection of media and politics.
JAPAN PRESS SERVICE EXCERPTS
JPS 11-025
Court again rules state rejection of A-bomb disease designation illegal
TOKYO NOV 8 JPS -- The Osaka High Court ruled on November 7 that the
Health and Welfare Ministry was wrong in refusing to certify a
Kyoto-based
man's illness as A-bomb related. This follows next to a similar judgment
in
Nagasaki-based Matsuya Hideko case.
The high court upheld a lower court decision and dismissed the H&W
Ministry's appeal, saying that the 74-year old man's disease which
decreases white blood cells is related to his being A-bombed in
Hiroshima.
The man who wants to be known as Takayasu Kuro won after 14 years of
court
struggle.
The presiding judge said that relationship can be recognized between
radiation and lack of white blood cells. He also said the "threshold
theory" which the government uses to reject applications for designation
cannot be regarded as an absolute standard. The theory denies radiation
effects if radiation is estimated to be less than a certain dose.
Commenting on the high court judgment, Akahata on November 8 said
that
it amounts to condemnation of the H&W Ministry system of certifying
A-bomb
disease which is far removed from what it should be. By mechanically
applying a set of data concerning the amount of radiation and the
distance
from the epicenter, the H&W Ministry has dismissed almost 70 percent of
applicants who want that their disease be designated by the state as
A-bomb
related.
The recent court rulings showed that this government policy must be
fundamentally reviewed, Akahata said.
The lawyers group for Takayasu on the same day went to Tokyo to ask
the
H&W Ministry to accept the judgment and not appeal to the Supreme Court
to
buy time.
The Japan Confederation of A and H Bomb Sufferers Organizations
(Hidankyo) published a statement appreciating the judgment as possibly
influential on similar pending lawsuits. The statement calls on the
government to immediately designate the plaintiffs in similar court
struggles in Sapporo and Tokyo, and change the government policy to
designating the disease by taking into account the actual condition of
A-bombing.
The Japan Council against A and H Bombs (Gensuikyo) published a
statement that the July Supreme Court judgment in Matsuya Hideko case
and
the latest high court judgment show that the argument of the government
and
the H&W Ministry isn't tenable. (end item)
JPS 11-026
First Japan-U.S. drill for Noncombatant Evacuation underway at Iwakuni
TOKYO NOV 8 JPS -- The first Japan-U.S. exercise for noncombatant
evacuation took place on November 7 at U.S. Iwakuni Marine Corps Air
Station in Yamaguchi Pref. supposed to be a "foreign country," as part
of
Japan-U.S. Keen Sword joint/bilateral exercises from Nov. 2 to Nov. 18.
Akahata on November 8 reported:
Similar operations had been carried out by the U.S. Forces alone.
The
latest bilateral exercises are for operations to meet "situations in
areas
surrounding Japan" under the new Japan-U.S. Guidelines-related War Laws.
In the exercise, 80 U.S. Marines in the role of U.S. and Japanese
citizens were flown from Iwakuni to the Japanese Ground Self-Defense
Force
Tsuiki Base in Fukuoka Pref. on Kyushu by three SDF CH-47 helicopters
and
C-130s from both forces and SDF C-1 transport aircraft.
U.S. Air Force F-16 fighters, FA-18 Hornet fighter/attacker and EA6B
Prowler electronic warfare planes flew over the sky of U.S. Iwakuni
base.
The Yamaguchi Prefectural Peace Committee monitored the exercise.
Yoshioka Mitsunori, committee chair, said, "Helicopters began flying
from
5:00 a.m. with all moves intensifying. We'll continue monitoring the
exercise till November 10 when the joint exercises involving U.S.
Iwakuni
Base end." (end item)
JPS 11-027
Part-time jobbers are increasing in the younger generation
TOKYO NOV 8 JPS -- As sweeping corporate restructuring continues and
the
unemployment rate keeps on increasing, job shortages, insecure
employment,
and unemployment are major concerns of the young people.
The number of young part-time jobbers, who work at lower wages and
in
unstable working conditions, has tripled in the last 18 years to reach
1.51
million in 2000.
The unemployment rate among young people between 15 and 24 has also
increased to be 9.1 percent in 1999, which was 2-4 times that of other
age
groups. Many of the young unemployed voluntarily quit their jobs, for
which
the Ministry of Labor report reasoned that they preferred quitting
because
the companies promised them no future.
A Ministry of Education report shows that 64 percent of the
part-time
jobbers who graduated from high schools wanted to get full-time jobs
before
graduation but failed. Nearly 70 percent of the part-time jobbers at
25-29
want to be full-time employees, according to the Labor Ministry.
Many of the part-time jobbers are worrying how they live and
complaining
about their low wages and lack of paid leaves and social insurance. They
are saying, "Many workers have died from overwork, and we can't get
jobs.
There is something wrong with such a society," "We need a law which can
protect part-time workers," and "Companies should increase jobs by
ending
overtime without pay." (end item)
JPS 11-028
Rally held in protest against U.S. missile destroyers' visits
TOKYO NOV 8 JPS -- Fukuoka citizens on November 7 protested against
recent frequent port calls by U.S. guided missile destroyers at Hakata
Port
in Fukuoka Prefecture in Kyushu Island and criticized the city for
approving the U.S. forces' access to the port.
About 100 people from peace organizations and trade unions made a
protest statement, calling on the city authority to take responsibility
for
local safety and not to allow any dangerous vessels to get into the city
port.
In less than one month starting October, Hakata Port was visited by
three U.S. naval vessels, including the USS Curtis Wilbur and the John
S.
McCain, which are nuclear capable and carry depleted uranium bullets.
Including these three, so far the city allowed five U.S. forces vessels
to
call since January 2000.
The Curtis Wilbur left the port on November 3 and the John S. McCain
was
to leave on November 8.
It is obvious that such a move being made by these vessels with
nuclear
capability are part of the ongoing Japan-U.S. joint bilateral military
exercises associated with the U.S.-ROK bilateral exercises, said the
vice
chair of the Fukuoka City employees Union.
Hakata Port must not be used by any military undertaking which could
involve the locality in war, he emphasized. (end item)
(E N D)
AND NOW THE TWO ELECTIOIN-RELATED ARTICLES$B!D(J..
No More Mister Fall Guy:
Why Nader and the Left Are NOT to Blame for
President
Bush
By Tim Wise
Well, the long knives are out. Media pundits, Democratic
Party officials, and I would suspect Al Gore himself before
long, have or will soon begin to do the predictable: search
out a scapegoat for why the Presidential election turned out
the way it did. With Gore having won the popular vote, and
yet having apparently lost in the electoral college, there
will be a cacophony of voices saying some constructive
things--like discussing the need for an instant
runoff/preference voting system that would better reflect
the will of the American public--but also blaming the
victory of George W. Bush squarely on the shoulders of the
Green Party and Ralph Nader. It had begun even before
midnight: television talking heads exclaiming that if Gore
lost, the blame could be laid at the door of Nader and those
presumed liberals and leftists that flocked to his campaign.
Few commentators challenged this analysis, and by the
morning after--as we await recounts in Florida that will
determine the outcome--it has become conventional wisdom
that Nader did indeed cost Gore the election, by swinging
Oregon, Florida, and perhaps even New Hampshire to Bush II.
Such is the sorry state of political analysis, not to
mention statistical interpretation, and such is the pathetic
state of the Democratic Party: so desperate to avoid
admitting its own mistakes that it would prefer to attack a
large segment of its progressive base, chastising them like
misbehaving children, as if somehow that will bring them
back to the fold. Not likely. And not a very smart move.
Most importantly, the Blame-Nader first school is wrong:
dead wrong about who is to blame for Gore's slim electoral
defeat. Here's why:
First, the notion that Nader voters would all have voted for
the Vice-President in the absence of their favorite from the
race, is nonsense. CNN exit polls show that only about 47%
of the Nader voters would have voted for Gore in a two way
race, while 21% would have voted for Bush and 30% would have
abstained from voting in the Presidential contest
altogether.
This is significant, especially in New Hampshire and Oregon,
where some are saying the Nader vote was the difference.
Looking at New Hampshire first, it is true that Bush's
margin of victory was only about 7,500 votes, and that Nader
received about 22,000 votes there. But based on the exit
polling data, if Nader hadn't been in the race, only a
little less than half of those Nader votes would have gone
to Gore, and a fifth would have gone to Bush, so that in the
end, Bush would have still won New Hampshire by about 1500
votes in all.
In Oregon, where it is a virtual article of religious faith
that Nader is to blame for the Bush victory, the hype, is
once again overblown and flatly wrong. Yes, Bush won the
state by a margin of only about 23,000 votes, and Nader
received the votes of 54,000. But once again, based on the
exit polls, had the race been only between Gore and Bush,
Gore would have gotten 47% of those 54,000, for a total of
around 25,400, Bush would have received 21% of those 54,000,
for a total of about 11,300, and in the end, Bush would
still have squeaked out a victory, by about 8,000 votes.
Which brings us to Florida. If ever there was a case to make
that Nader had been the spoiler for Gore, it would be here,
where the election will likely be decided by less than 2,000
votes. Clearly, one could look at Nader's 97,000 votes there
and say, with a degree of certainty approaching definitive,
that had Nader not been in the race, Gore would have beaten
Bush among Nader voters by a two to one margin, and that
would have been enough to capture Florida's 25 electoral
college votes and catapult him to the Presidency.
It is this fact which has me anticipating a degree of
vitriol, finger-pointing and Nader bashing truly beyond
anything we have seen thus far from the Democrats. And I
fear that some in the Nader camp may fall for it, and come
to regret their decision to vote for an alternative to this
broken two-party system. But they shouldn't, and here's why:
Think about this election the way you would any other
competition: perhaps, a football game. Just a few days ago,
for example, I watched as my hometown team, the Tennessee
Titans, beat the Pittsburgh Steelers thanks to a field goal
in the closing seconds of the game. Now, needless to say, if
the Titans kicker misses that field goal, the Steelers win
7-6. If he makes it, we win 9-7. It would have been easy to
say--and predictable and even true at one level--that if Al
Del Greco misses that field goal, he is to blame, and the
outcome was the result of that missed kick.
But then again, one could also look back at the entire game
and find a number of other things, which, had the Titans
done them right, the game wouldn't have come down to that
kick in the first place, and so those things could just as
logically be seen as the problem. An interception at a
crucial moment, a fumble, or a penalty flag that hurt an
offensive drive. Any one of those things goes differently,
and the Titans have more than enough points at the end of
the game, and don't need the 3 points that Del Greco can
give them. They can just run out the clock and hit the
showers as winners.
The same is true in the presidential contest. Sure, if Nader
isn't running, a plurality of his voters goes to Gore, and
he wins Florida. But taking that singular fact to be the key
factor, and making it, in effect, the missed field goal by
Gore as the clock runs out, is silly. There were, as with
the Titans game, plenty of other factors that could have and
should have gone Gore's way in Florida, but because they
didn't, Nader became a factor. And whose fault is that?
Consider this: Gore lost in Florida among white women (many
of those soccer moms who Clinton carried, and many of whom
would normally have been reached by a Democratic candidate
talking about education, health care, abortion, and other
key issues) by a 52-45 margin, with the Nader factor being
negligible among this group. And he lost among seniors: a
group that rightly should have been concerned about Bush's
plans to partially privatize social security: a plan that
twelve years ago, rendered Pierre DuPont (the only
Republican willing to float the concept), an asterisk in
American political history, and a laughingstock. Here too,
among the traditionally Democratic constituency of seniors,
the Nader factor was negligible.
Even more to the point, Bush received the votes of 12 times
more Democrats than Nader did, and 5.25 times more
self-identified liberals than Nader did in Florida,
indicating that progressive voters and those who might have
been seen as a natural lock for Gore, actually were stolen
not by the Greens, but by the Republicans.
Now folks, when your base is more likely to vote for George
W. Bush than Ralph Nader, this not only is bad news for
Nader, obviously, but also makes quite clear that Gore, not
Nader is to blame for his loss in Florida. In all, 19% of
voters there described themselves as liberal. If Nader got
3% of these, this represents a little less than 6/10ths of
the overall popular vote that could have been "taken" from
Gore by Nader voters on the left: those who are being blamed
for Gore's defeat. But if 16% of liberals voted for Bush
(which they did, for some reason), this represents 3% of the
total popular vote "stolen" from Gore by Bush voters on the
left. That 3% is more than the Nader total in Florida, which
was 2%.
The same thing happened in Oregon, where Bush outpolled
Nader among Democrats by a margin of 3.5 to 1, and where
Bush took 43% more of the self-described liberals than
Nader. And in New Hampshire, where Bush took six times more
Dems from Gore than Nader did, and twice as many
self-described liberals.
What all this means is simple: Al Gore has no one to blame
but himself, and his inability to rally voters sufficiently
around his watered-down agenda and lackluster campaign. Gore
actually lost nationwide among voters who said they
prioritized world affairs, despite the fact that Bush would
be hard-pressed to name a small fraction of world leaders,
and has no foreign policy experience whatsoever. And just to
make clear that Nader was not Gore's Achilles heel, consider
this: nationally, Bush got twice as many self-described
liberals as Nader did, over seven times more Clinton voters
than Nader did, and among those who said "government should
do more" (a typically liberal/progressive position
statement), Bush took eight times more of these natural
Democratic voters than did Nader.
Of course, it should not be necessary to say any of this. It
should be obvious that when an incumbent Vice-President, in
an administration that is generally given high marks for the
state of the economy, and who serves in time of relative
world peace, can't defeat a man who is probably the least
qualified, weakest Republican nominee in the past 36 years,
there is something amiss, and it isn't the third party
candidate.
Keep in mind, 66% of the American public says the nation is
on the right track. That is significantly more than said
this same thing in 1996, when only a little over half felt
that way. And yet, when almost half the population thought
the nation was not headed in the right direction, Bill
Clinton was able to put together a landslide victory.
Meanwhile, Gore, with two-thirds of the public happy about
the direction of the country, appears to have lost. How
could that possibly be the fault of Ralph Nader?
And of course, had Gore carried his own home state, along
with either Clinton's home state of Arkansas, or the
traditional Democratic stronghold of West Virginia, then
Florida would be an irrelevancy.
But don't look for that kind of honesty from the Democratic
Party, or Democrat-friendly spinmeisters in the media. When
in doubt, they always look left for a scapegoat, when the
real culprit for their troubles is looking back at them from
the mirror.
So don't believe the hype. If you voted for Nader, don't
feel guilty or conflicted for one minute. And don't mourn,
organize! After all, the next President of the United States
will be the weakest in decades, unable to get away with the
right-wing plans about which we have been warned. And the
Democrats, though we might not have actually cost them the
election, have been put on notice. They can no longer ignore
the voices of those committed to democratic (small-d)
principles.
In all, it's not that bad a day after all.
Tim Wise is a Nashville-based writer, lecturer and activist.
He can be reached at tjw-@mindspring.com
POSTSCRIPT FROM AMY GOODMAN (PACIFICA'S EMBATTLED HOST OF
THE AWARD-WINNING "DEMOCRACY NOW" )AND "PROJECT CENSORED's"
PETER PHILLIPS
| | NEWS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NOVEMBER 7, 2000
CONTACT: Amy Goodman (212) 209 2812/2811
ON ELECTION DAY, PACIFICA RADIO'S DEMOCRACY NOW!
AND WBAI ASK CLINTON THE HARD QUESTIONS
President Clinton's temper flares when asked questions on Ralph
Nader, death penalty, Middle East
New York City - When President Clinton called Pacifica Radio's
WBAI on election day morning to shore up the vote for Vice
President Al Gore and First Lady Hillary Clinton, he did not expect
to spend 30 minutes defending his administration's record on the
death penalty, the Middle East and racial profiling, among other
issues. But that is exactly what happened when he encountered
Amy Goodman, host of Pacifica's flagship newsmagazine
Democracy Now! and Gonzalo Aburto, host of WBAI's Alternativa
Latina.
The journalists confronted Clinton for flying back to Arkansas in
1992 during the presidential campaign to execute Ricky Ray
Rector, a mentally impaired man, questioned his administration's
support of sanctions against Iraq, killing thousands of children
every month, and asked him whether he would grant executive
clemency to Native American activist Leonard Peltier, who is
serving life sentence for murder at Leavenworth Penitentiary in
Kansas. This was the first time that Clinton has addressed the
Peltier case publicly.
The interview began with Goodman asking the President: "You are
calling radio stations telling people to vote. What do you say to
people who feel the two parties are bought by corporations and that
at this point their vote doesn't make a difference?" Clinton
responded that "there is not a shred of evidence to support that."
Clinton provided lengthy answers to Goodman's and Aburto's
questions, but got increasingly angry at their critical nature. At one
point he showed his famous temper, raising his voice at Goodman:
"You have asked questions in a hostile, combative and even
disrespectful tone." He agreed with Goodman's assertion that the
US "has the largest number of prisoners in the industrialized world"
(2 million by the latest counts), dodged a question on whether he
would issue an executive order banning racial profiling, saying "we
are trying to find a way to issue orders and rules and reservations
that end racial profiling" and finally lost his temper when Goodman
suggested that he was partly responsible for Green Party
candidate Ralph Nader's popularity "for having driven the
Democratic Party to the right."
"Now you listen to this, the other thing that Ralph Nader says is
that he is as pure as Ceasar's wife on the environment," Clinton
fumed, proceeding to rattle off the administration's
accomplishments. Goodman then countered with questions on the
death penalty and the administration's passage of NAFTA and
other free trade agreements, to which Clinton answered that "two
thirds of the American people support that."
Democracy Now!, Pacifica Radio's daily national grassroots
newsmagazine, airs Monday through Friday on community radio
stations around the country. Tomorrow's two-hour "Election 2000:
The Morning After" special will include the interview in full. Check
local listings. In the New York area, the election special will air on
November 8 on WBAI-FM 99.5 (8-10 am).
/*This message comes via the freepac list. */
|
Peter Phillips Ph.D.
Sociology Department/Project Censored
Sonoma State University
1801 East Cotati Ave.
Rohnert Park, CA 94928
707-664-2588
Date: Nov 09 2000 20:46:32 EST
From: "Chocopaul News" <pa-@arenson.org>
Subject: Stop Japan-made Nuclear Power Plant in Taiwan Now
TOKYO PROGRESSIVE PRESENTS:
===============
ChocoPaul News 55
TokyoProgressive website: http://arenson.org
Inquiries: pa-@arenson.org
This list http://Chocopaul.listbot.com/
============================================
From: "Taiwan Environmental Action Network \(TEAN\)"
<tean--@uclink4.berkeley.edu>
Dear friends,
Please help us spread this endorsement request.
*************************************
**Urgent! Please send your endorsement to
tean--@uclink4.berkeley.edu**
(Please reply ASAP, preferrably before November 10, 2000!)
Let the Future of a Nuclear-free Asia Begin in Taiwan!
-- Support the decision to halt Taiwan's 4th Nuclear Power Plant.
(NOTE FROM PAUL: This is more than just an Asian issue--
it is a business one for Japan, as the nuclear reactors are
JAPANESE MADE. So expect pro Japanese business elements in
the Japanese government and media to try to push the power
plant...KEEP READING BELOW and YES, PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION IF YOU
AGREE.
JUST
WRITE STUDENT OR OFFICE WORKER, etc. FOR "ORGANIZATION")
An unprecedented victory for anti-nuclear groups in Taiwan occurred on
October 27, 2000 when the Taiwanese government halted the construction
of a
fourth nuclear power plant on the island's northeastern coast. However,
this victory may be short-lived if the opposition's strong appeal for a
recall of the government's decision is realized. An umbrella
organization
of over 100 NGOs, drawing with them approximately 200,000 supporters
will
gather in Taipei for an anti-nuclear demonstration on November 12, 2000.
The construction of NPP4 on Taiwan is not just a matter of economics, as
the
opposition would like people to believe. Rather, it is about the lives
of
millions of people on Taiwan and across Asia. Halting the construction
of
NPP4 is the first step to curtailing nuclear exportation in Asia. It is
about choosing an alternative model of political and economic
development.
It is about long-run sustainable growth, rather than short-run power
supplies that fuel business operations.
Taiwan Environmental Action Network (TEAN) appeals to
environmental/social
justice organizations/ activists around the world to join forces in
solidarity with green and anti-nuclear groups in Taiwan to protest
against
the construction of Nuclear Power Plant No. 4 (NPP4).
To show your support, simply reply to tean--@uclink4.berkeley.edu
with
the following information
Name of Organization:
Contact Email:
Contact Address:
Organizer's Name:
Sincerely,
Taiwan Environmental Action Network (TEAN)
- a project of International Environmental Protection Association -
http://tean.formosa.org
http://tc.formosa.org/projects/noNuke/statement.htm
Contact us at tean--@uclink4.berkeley.edu or tean-@formosa.org
*******************************************************************
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
Taiwan: anti-nuclear victory may be recalled
An unprecedented victory for anti-nuclear groups in Taiwan occurred in
late
October 2000 when the Taiwanese government halted the construction of a
fourth nuclear power plant on the island's northeastern coast. However,
this victory may be short-lived if the opposition's strong appeal for a
recall of the government's decision is realized. An umbrella
organization
of over 100 NGOs, drawing with them approximately 200,000 supporters
will
gather in Taipei for an anti-nuclear demonstration on November 12, 2000.
Proponents of a nuclear-free Taiwan will carry a sunflower, symbolizing
solar energy and a smiling face. International Environmental Protection
Association-TEAN (Taiwan Environmental Action Network) appeals to
environment organizations around the world to join forces in solidarity
with
green and anti-nuclear groups in Taiwan to protest against the
construction
of Nuclear Power Plant No. 4 (NPP4).
The power plant, which will use two Japanese-made advanced boiling
water-type reactors, was originally scheduled to begin operation in 2004
and
to generate 2,700 megawatts of electricity once fully operative.
Corporate conspiracy involves U.S. nuclear industry
This is a joint project of General Electrics Corp. along with Japanese
corporate giants, Hitachi, Mitsubishi and Toshiba. In 1999, Taiwan has
three nuclear plants (six reactors); nuclear power accounted for 27
percent
of the electricity generated by Taiwan Power Corporation.
The aftermath of Chernobyl has taught the West to begin the phase-out of
commercial nuclear reactors and other dangerous nuclear technologies.
Yet,
these same governments, often in partnership with multinational
corporations
are exporting nuclear technologies abroad, this time to less and newly
developed nations. For example, the United States nuclear industry has
placed ample pressure on Taiwan's new government popularly elected only
in
April 2000, to reverse the decision to scrap NPP4. GE has won billions
of
dollars worth of contracts in the controversial $US 5.6 billion project,
and
is doing everything it can to keep the project alive.
Nuclear threat, not economics
Environmental justice is breached with the construction of NPP4. The
nuclear waste issue tops our concerns. The consequence of an additional
nuclear plant on Taiwan is far more out-reaching than many would expect.
A
Japanese researcher, Hiro Komura, a professor at Shizuoka University's
Department of Engineering conjectured that with prospects slim for the
construction of further nuclear power plants in Japan, the nuclear power
industry is attempting to survive by exporting plants to other Asian
countries, beginning with the construction of NPP4 in Taiwan.
The construction of NPP4 on Taiwan is not just a matter of economics, as
the
opposition would like people to believe. Rather, it is about the lives
of
millions of people on Taiwan and across Asia. It is about long-run
sustainable growth, rather than short-run power supplies that fuel
business
operations. The Taiwanese populace is concerned about the scarcity of
energy sources on Taiwan - many have been persuaded by proponents of
nuclear
power to believe that without the construction of Nuclear Power Plant
No.
4,
Taiwan would not be able to sufficiently meet the energy consumption
needs
of industry and the general public.
IEPA-TEAN seeks to dispel such a myth: according to the estimates of
Taiwan
Power Corporation, Taiwan has reserve power supplies at the rates of
19.2%,
17.7% and 12.5% through years 2005, 2006 and 2007 respectively. These
reserves are in fact greater than reserves of any year in the past
decade.
(In 1993 reserves were 4.2%; in 1996, 5.6%; and in 1996, 7.7%.)
Therefore,
even forgoing the construction of NPP4 and in the absence of
alternatives,
Taiwan will not have to worry about power supplies for at least 7 years
to
come.
If the construction of Nuclear Power Plant No. 4 continues, it is
estimated
to produce a total of 992,500 barrels of low-level radioactive nuclear
wastes and 7,313 metric tons of high-level radioactive nuclear wastes,
along
with Plants Nos. 1, 2 and 3 in forty years' time. The Taiwan government
concedes that at the moment there is no viable solution in Taiwan (or
elsewhere) to deal with additional hazardous wastes.
Viable alternatives exist
However, the current Taiwan government is committed to promote
alternative
measures through the Ministry of Economics in order to provide
sustainable
electric power for generations to come. The government has already
proposed
to open up power generation to private operation and to promote
liberalization of the industry. Alternative plans will diversify and
decrease the risks of supply shortage, benefit regional balance in
electric
power, increase demand internal to the industry and create employment
opportunities. IEPA-TEAN applauds this move to alternative energy
sources.
History of dumping
Taiwan already has a history of haphazard dumping of toxic wastes both
on
the island and abroad. Taiwan currently stores the nuclear waste
already
generated on Orchid Island, home to an indigenous minority under grave
threat of cultural extinction. Recent attempts at dumping wastes on
cash-strapped neighbors like North Korea and the Marshall Islands
fortunately have proven unsuccessful. Urban structures built upon
cobalt-laden bars still today have people living in them. The source of
these bars has yet to be established, but the tragedy shows in the most
graphic possible terms how the Taiwan government has failed in its
responsibility to properly handle radiation contamination problems.
These
violations of basic human rights are unacceptable to the international
community. The construction of NPP4 would only exacerbate these and
like
problems of environmental concern.
Politics in control, not the environment
An environmental concern has turned intensely political. The
Kuomintang,
the previous authoritarian ruling party now the opposition, has joined
forces with other opposition parties to co-opt the current unraveling of
events surrounding the construction of NPP4 to fuel political fervor
against
the newly elected government. The Kuomintang Party, New Party and
People
First Party not only demand for the recall of the current government's
decision to halt the construction of NPP4, but also for the impeachment
of
the newly elected president and vice president! IEPA-Taiwan condemns
such
politicking and urges international organizations to join us in support
of
a
nuclear-free Taiwan.
Endorse a nuclear-free Taiwan, Asia
Let us stand in solidarity with Taiwanese environmental NGOs as they
march
through downtown Taipei to support the government's decision and counter
the
opposition's demand for the continual construction of NPP4. The
promise
of
a sustainable nuclear-free Asia begins in Taiwan.
Once again:
To show your support, simply reply to tean--@uclink4.berkeley.edu
with
the following information
Name of Organization: EXAMPLE XYZ university (student)
Contact Email: EXAMPLE: str92-@XYXUNIV.edu.jp
Contact Address: EXAMPLE: 123 Four-Chome, Yostukoshi-shi, Japan
Organizer's Name: EXAMPLE: Taro Tanaka
Date: Nov 15 2000 02:52:55 EST
From: "Chocopaul News" <pa-@arenson.org>
Subject: CPN 56 Chile/CIA, Yugoslavia, U.S. Election Humor
= =
===============================================
ChocoPaul News # 56
Tokyo Progressive Website: http://arenson.org
Email 1: pa-@arenson.org
Email 2: tokyopro-@c2o.org
CPN maililng list: http://Chocopaul.listbot.com/
=============================================
In this issue:
(A) Some changes relating to TokyoProgressive
(B) ESSAY Links: CIA-supported atrocities in Chile
Yugoslavia, Birth of a U.S. Client State
Fanciful Thoughts on a Strange Election (Humor)
(C) NEWS LINKS
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
(A) CHANGES
Well, we have finally got MOST of the site onto GreenNet and our
old host will soon be a thing of the past. That means I can write
to my brothers, cousins and friends in the U.S. and talk about our
upcoming
reunion at the end of the year(a sorely needed break,
as much as I like doing this).
It also means you should know the following:
~~~~~~~~~~~
Emailing Me
~~~~~~~~~~~
Our email addresses are as follows:
MAIN: pa-@arenson.org
ALTERNATIVE: tokyopro-@c2o.org
BACKUP: c-@arenson.org
The main one will ALWAYS be ok, as it is an alias to
my email provider. That provider is, at least for
the next year, the alternative. If the provider changes,
the ALTERNATIVE will change but the main will likely stay
the same (as long as I pay my 15 dollars a year!).
The backup is a different address and can be used when you think I have
not received something at the other two.
The MAIL TO PAUL form on my page also points to my current provider.
In the near future there may be a new form.
Please do NOT use any other email address,
as I am no longer using them. This means that
STELLARSITE, SDF.LONESTAR, ARBORNET, TWICS and anything else are
NO LONGER BEING USED to RECEIVE MAIL (twics will continue to
be an address you will see as I have that account through the new
year, but why not make a fresh start and delete that address from
your address books?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
TokyoProgressive and ChocoPaul NEWS
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The web page and signup for the mailing list are, as noted, hosted
on GreenNet (UK). Like the c2o email address, it is a member of the
Association
for Progressive Communication (APC). There are also MIRROR SITES
under construction-two in the United States (Cafe Progressive)
and Freespeech.org) and possibly others.
When you log on to http://arenson.org, you will generally be
magically transported ("Beam me Up, Scotty") to the GreenNet
site. If and when it is down, I will try to redirect you to
one of the other sites. However, it may take a few hours until
I realize there is a problem, so you can save yourself some hassle
by noting the addresses of the MIRROR sites (bookmark the HELP page).
Don't try it just yet as I have not finished uploading and there
will likely be some dead ends.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Other Things
~~~~~~~~~~~~
A new search page is being readied. The old one
searches pages on the older Service Provider's machine
and is not up to date. This may take a while.
Also, some songs will not play yet. This is being remedied.
If you see ads on MY pages, this is the fault of the
program I used to download and fix my pages....They
should disappear in the very near future. If you see ads on
any other pages, they are inserted by one of the services
I am using. I do not endorse any product, needless to say.
If one of the PARTNER sites (a site which
shares a mutual link with mine) is a commercial entity,
they may not advertsise on my site. Again, do
not endorse any product and I do not make any money from
the operation of this site.
And now...
(B) LINKS
These are recent Sustainer page contributions. See the Znet
page to find out how you can get commnetaries in your mailbox
everyday:
http://www.zmag.org/commentaries/donorform.htm
--Betrayed Redemption in Chile, Viljay Prashad, on the history of
U.S. assisted murder in Chile and Clinton's ulterior motives
in exposing this atrocity(but not others in which the U.S.
has been complicit).
http://www.zmag.org/ZSustainers/ZDaily/2000-11/15prashad.htm
--Yugoslavia, Birth of a U.S. Client State, Nikos Raptis
http://www.zmag.org/ZSustainers/ZDaily/2000-11/12raptis.htm
--Fanciful Thoughts on a Strange Election (Humor), Robin Hahnel
http://www.zmag.org/ZSustainers/ZDaily/2000-11/10hahnel.htm
(C) NEWS FROM PEACENET, ETC.
Death Row Roll Call: November 2000
The death penalty hasn't been much of an issue in Election 2000 with
both Al Gore and George Bush staunchly supporting capital punishment.
But in what looks to be more than just coincidence, the number of
scheduled executions rises dramatically in November across the country
but particularly in Texas where six (5 post- election) inmates are
slated to die.
Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/pnalerts/974234468/index_html
Veterans call for an End to Sanctions Killing Iraq's People
As veterans of the U.S. military, we know that there is no honor in the
kinds of actions the U.S. has carried out against people around the
world. How can we be proud of this country and its military when
hundreds of people in Iraq, mostly infants and children, are dying daily
because of the ongoing sanctions? How can we be proud of this country
and its military when thousands of innocent civilians where killed by
the bombings of civilian facilities during the Gulf war? How can we be
proud of this country and its military for the deaths of thousands at
the hands of SOA graduates (School of the Americas, a U.S. Military
school for Terrorists?
Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/pnalerts/974232089/index_html
Cuba UN Vote
The UN General Assembly voted today, November 9, 2000, once again
overwhelmingly for a resolution in favor of ending the U.S. sanctions
against Cuba.
Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/pnheadlines/974232444/index_html
Mideast: Mass Arrests And Police Brutality
"A culture of impunity around the Israeli police is resulting in police
brutality, ill treatment, threats and beatings," according to a new
report issued today by Amnesty International.
Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/pnheadlines/974233930/index_html
MEXICO: Paramilitaries in Chiapas Make Show of Strength
MEXICO CITY, Nov 13 (IPS) - One of the paramilitary groups active for
the past five years in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas made a show
of strength as President-Elect Vicente Fox prepares to swear in on Dec
1.
Read More...
http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/pnheadlines/974235668/index_html
And finally, a student asked me the other day how one can inform herself
on the issues that go uncovered or undercovered, as well as how one
can know if what appears in the "alternative press" is reliable.
Good questions...these are not easy tasks. But first comes a curiousity
about why certain stories one reads about seem to be told from a certain
point of view, one that generally excludes the interests of people
on the bottom wrung of the societal ladder. And then one needs to read
and read and keep reading,
noting the links between various issues and which writers seem to
be in agreement. Where authors site their sources you can try to
go to those sources. But ultimately, one needs to begin with
an assumption that those in power (including the media) are NOT
unbiased, that they are NOT objective in presenting their version
of the truth. In time, even the mainstream press picks up on stories
often only reported in the alternative press...as we see with Chile,
Yugoslavia, etc.
But I agree it is no easy task.
Date: Nov 22 2000 02:08:02 EST
From: "Chocopaul News" <pa-@arenson.org>
Subject: American Terrorist School, Japan's Homeless, Earthquakes,
Clinton's legacy of death
][
=================================
TokyoProgressive's ChocoPaul News
Issue # 57
URL: http: arenson.org Email: tokyopro-@c2o.org
=============================================================
In today's issue:
TOP
(1) Tokyo Homeless, Tokyo Earthquakes (links to New Observer)
MIDDLE
(2) an article by Edward Herman on Clinton's foreign
policy, criticizing liberals who say it is
humane and progressive.
(from ZNET, please see their sustainer page and
consider subscribing. info at page bottom)
BOTTOM
(3) Creative Protests Against U.S. Military (links to Indy Media)
-------------------------------------------------
TOP
Recommending: THE NEW OBSERVER (http://www.twics.com/~anzu/)
Featuring:
Japan's Homeless
Waiting for the Big One: Tokyo's Grand Reconstruction Plan
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
MIDDLE
Note from Paul
Although the election of the U.S. president is (more or less) over,
this is a good article for those who need to understand why
some of us do not believe choosing the lesser of two evils
is valid. For Japan-based readers who often say that the U.S.
presents a more democratic, open model than Japanese politics,
or who think the U.S. military should be allowed to stay here
and "protect" Japan, please read the list of crimes
America has been involved in and reconsider. As Oe
Kenzaburo said yesterday in the Asahi Shimbun, by playing
host to the U.S. military, Japan is also partly guilty of these
crimes.
LIBERAL APOLOGETICS FOR IMPERIALISM: PAUL STARR AND THE AMERICAN
PROSPECT
ON
CLINTON'S FOREIGN POLICY
Edward S. Herman
The American Prospect (TAP) magazine, edited by Robert Kuttner and Paul
Starr, with Robert Reich as "National Editor," is a liberal magazine par
excellence, and has frequent articles on domestic policy issues that
represent the best of traditional liberalism, opposed to welfare
"reform"
and the evolving systems of social and economic injustice. They have
regularly criticized Clinton and the Democrats for their numerous
failings
on these domestic issues, despite a basically pro-Democrat alignment.
The
magazine largely eschews foreign policy, however, but when it does touch
upon that area it does so lightly and superficially, and its editorial
bias
approaches complete apologetics for Clinton's (and U.S.) foreign policy.
I noted in an earlier ZNet Commentary ("What Is Liberalism?") that Paul
Starr had written a crude and uninformed apologia for Clinton's Kosovo
policy in TAP ("The Choice in Kosovo," May-June 1999), and that the
magazine
had refused to publish any critical response to that awful piece (there
were
at least two letters submitted). Co-editor Kuttner himself has largely
steered clear of foreign policy issues, but he has ventured his judgment
that "On balance" the United States is "a force for good in the world,"
and
he chastised radicals for allegedly blaming the United States for most
of
the world's ills ("Why Liberals Need Radicals," May 22, 2000). Several
months later, he had a few further sentences on foreign policy:
Clinton's
record is a "mixed bag"--good on the Middle East and Ireland, "better
late
than never" on Kosovo, a failure on Russia, and too solicitous of
investors
in policy toward the World Trade Organization, IMF, etc. ("Did Clinton
Succeed Or Fail?," August 28, 2000).
A new foray was offered TAP readers on November 20, 2000 with Paul
Starr's
"War, Peace and the Election." Starr loves Clinton's foreign policy, and
is
worried that a Bush victory would make us less aggressive in "nation
building" and doing things that would allegedly prevent wars:
"Bill Clinton's foreign policy has succeeded so well that Americans take
its
success for granted. The intervention in Kosovo carried considerable
risks,
but it ended the genocidal Serbian attacks on the Kosovars that had sent
them fleeing across their borders and threatened to destabilize the
region."
[The fall of Milosevic one year later, "fully vindicating the original
intervention...Kosovo was Clinton's finest hour."]
"The breakdown of the peace in the Mideast is a reminder that not every
initiative of the administration has come to a successful conclusion,
but
Clinton can scarcely be faulted for his persistence as a peacemaker
there."
Before analysing the above statements, it should be noted that Starr
fails
to say one word about at least seven major foreign policy episodes (and
debacles) that a non-apologist would recognize as deserving of some
weight:
1. COLOMBIA: At the same time as he was apologizing for what the United
States did in Guatemala in earlier years, Clinton was escalating U.S.
involvement in a major counterinsurgency war that once again, as in
Guatemala, supported a genocidal military- paramilitary apparatus. This
apparatus, funded on an increasing scale by Clinton, has caused many
more
refugees and deaths of innocent civilians over the past three years than
the
numbers of Albanian victims of Serb attacks in Kosovo in the three years
prior to the Nato bombing.
2. IRAQ: John and Karl Mueller state in Foreign Affairs (May- June 1999)
that the "sanctions of mass destruction" imposed by Clinton and Blair
have
killed more civilians in Iraq than "all the weapons of mass destruction
in
human history." More children are dying there EACH MONTH as a result of
the
policy of sanctions than the Serbs killed in Kosovo in the year before
the
Nato bombing.
3. HAITI: After first extending Bush's policy of undermining the OAS
sanctions and brutally forcing back refugees (or imprisoning them in
Guantanamo), Clinton then dragged his feet following the overthrow of
Aristide by the military junta, and did not intervene there until after
over
3,000 civilians had been butchered; he then engineered a friendly exit
for
the leader of this slaughter. In "restoring democracy" he allowed the
elected president to return on condition that he adopt the harsh
neoliberal
policy of Washington's candidate in the 1990 election, who had received
14
percent of the vote.
4. RWANDA: Clinton not only stood by during the holocaust in Rwanda, his
administration actively fought even modest interventions that might have
stemmed the genocidal tide, and Secretary of State Warren Christopher
instructed his staff to avoid using the word "genocide" to describe
events
in Rwanda. But of course Clinton did apologize later.
5. EAST TIMOR: Although Indonesian military and military- sponsored
militia
killed more East Timorese even before the August 30, 1999 referendum
than
the Serbs killed Albanians in Kosovo in the year before the Nato
bombing,
and intelligence reports six months before the referendum disclosed
Indonesian plans to kill and destroy on a really large scale if
Indonesia
lost the referendum, Clinton did nothing whatsoever to interrupt the
pre-referendum killing or prevent the subsequent death and devastation.
Even
after 85 percent of the population had been driven out and 70 percent of
the
country destroyed, Clinton's line was that it remained Indonesia's
responsibility to deal with the situation. Only after the
post-referendum
massacres were largely concluded, and under international pressure, did
Clinton finally call off his friends. For the next year he did nothing
to
help the more than 100,000 East Timorese held hostage by Indonesian
militas
in West Timor.
Before the Indonesian financial crisis, and Suharto's exit following his
failure to follow IMF orders and consequent loss of U.S. support and
control, Clinton had gotten along wonderfully well with Suharto--"our
kind
of guy" was the language quoted in the New York Times at the time of
Suharto's visit to Washington in 1995.
6. TURKEY: Turkey has behaved toward its Kurds at least as badly as the
Serbs treated Kosovars, and during the 1990s killed and made into
refugees
many more Kurds than the Serbs did Kosovars. But Clinton gave massive
aid
to
Turkey throughout his term of office, supported it in every possible
way,
and made no complaint about its treatment of Kurds, which Starr would
label
"genocidal" if Turkey was not a Clinton-supported client state.
7. RUSSIA: Clinton's policy toward Russia was unrestrained support for
rapid
privatization and an open economy, under conditions where these would
necessarily have catastrophic effects; and they have produced a broken
society, immense robbery of state assets, a collapse of the productive
economy, and a new authoritarianism with a democratic facade. Kuttner at
least notes that this policy was a failure, even if only in a phrase;
Starr
ignores it.
Returning to Kosovo: Paul Starr's ignorance concerning the Kosovo
conflict
is profound, and he simply reproduces Nato apologetics as established
truth.
The "genocidal Serbian attack" that sent the Kosovars "fleeing across
their
borders" was not "genocidal" and was the result of Nato policy, not the
cause. The total number killed on all sides in Kosovo in the year before
the
bombing was estimated to be approximately 2,000; and even during the
bombing
when there were many killings and larger numbers of expulsions, there
were
only several thousand deaths overall and people were not put on trains
to
death camps but were pushed across borders, in large measure as a
military
measure. Expulsions were greatest where fighting was heaviest, mainly in
areas controlled by the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), and top Nato
officials
now admit that KLA guerillas were "constantly on the phone to Nato," and
that Nato had "instigated" a major KLA offensive (Paul Richter, Los
Angeles
Times, June 10, 2000).
As Canadian OSCE observer Rollie Keith stated, it was the Nato bombing
that
"turned a human rights crisis into a disaster." Jiri Dienstbier, the UN
rapporteur for human rights in Kosovo, and a former Czech foreign
minister
under Vaclav Havel, recently estimated that 330,000 Serbs, Roma and
other
non-Albanians have been driven from their homes in Kosovo under UN
occupation, and he says that the intervention "has not solved any human
problems, but only multiplied the existing problems." It is true that
Clinton "won" and taught the Serbs a lesson (namely, don't mess with
us), a
lesson taught in earlier Reagan and Bush triumphs (Grenada, Panama). But
only a Clinton ideologue and propagandist, or victim of the propaganda
system, could regard this intervention as creditable (and both Kuttner
and
Starr so regard it).
On the Middle East, both Kuttner and Starr give Clinton credit for
trying
to
be a "peacemaker." That he was strictly a front man for Israeli
interests
and did absolutely nothing toward ending the conflict with justice; that
Oslo was an attempt to force upon the Palestinians acceptance of their
military defeat and weakness, including expropriation, ending of any
right
of return, and second or third class citizenship; and that Clinton was
therefore a "peacemaker" only in an Orwellian sense, never occurs to
Starr
(or Kuttner). Israeli analyst Amira Hass, writing in Ha'aretz (Oct. 23,
2000), says that seven years after Oslo, Israel "has security and
administrative control of 61.2 percent of the West Bank...[which] has
enabled Israel to double the number of settlers in 10 years, to enlarge
settlements, to continue its discriminatory policy of cutting back water
quotas for three million Palestinians, to prevent Palestinian
development
in
most of the area of the West Bank, and to seal an entire nation into
restricted areas, imprisoned in a network of bypass roads meant for Jews
only. So that 200,000 Jews have freedom of movement, about three million
Palestinians are locked into their Bantustans until they submit to
Israeli
demands....the bloodbath that has been going on for three weeks is the
natural outcome of seven years of lying and deception, just as the first
intifada was the natural outcome of direct Israeli occupation."
In short, the Oslo agreement was a hugely biased construct designed to
legitimate Israel's property seizures and consolidate its superior
rights,
arrangements that are sometimes denounced in the Israeli press (but
never
here) as worse than those in apartheid South Africa. Outbursts under
this
system of injustice were absolutely inevitable; and as journalist Robert
Fisk notes, the only thing surprising about the collapse is "our
continued
inability to grasp what happens when a whole society is pressure cooked
to
the point of explosion." (The Independent, Oct. 13, 2000). In an
important
sense, however, explosions from below are functional, as the U.S. and
Israeli bias is so extreme that the victims throwing stones are quickly
labelled terrorists, the army shooting to kill with high powered
weaponry
is
once again only retaliating to irrational violence. So more weapons and
greater repression are justified to meet a problem based on structured
injustice.
But for Starr (and Kuttner), working strictly within the blinders of the
U.S. establishment's unlimited backing of Israeli interests (and de
facto
acceptance of deep racism and injustice), Clinton's role in heating up
the
pressure cooker was creditable.
Four of the seven cases listed above, that Paul Starr failed to mention,
had
this double characteristic: the killings exceeded those carried out by
the
Serbs in Kosovo for the year before the bombing; and they were carried
out
by "our kinds of guys" for Bill Clinton (the Indonesian military, the
Turkish army, the Colombian military and affiliated paramilitaries, the
Haitian military long supported by the United States [Cedras, the killer
who
took power when Aristide was deposed, had been recommended as head of
the
army by the U.S. Embassy]). In the case of Iraq and Saddam Hussein, the
killings by sanction have been vastly greater than Serb killings, and
they
are allocable to Bill Clinton--as Albright stated on national TV, the
500,000 Iraqi child deaths have been "worth it." In the case of Rwanda,
Clinton just didn't give a damn. With Russia, weakening the country
militarily and making the transformation away from socialism--and social
democracy as well-- irreversible, were the greatest concerns of Clinton
and
his associates; the immense human costs appear to have been given zero
weight.
An incredibly bad record, and in fact a very good case can be made that
Clinton should qualify for a war crimes trial (see my "Clinton Is The
World's Leading Active War Criminal," Z Magazine, December 1999). But by
misreading the Kosovo and Middle East record, and suppressing most of
the
information relevant to evaluating Clinton's foreign policy, Paul Starr
makes Clinton into a great foreign policy leader.
Liberalism has fallen far in our time; in fact, as evidenced by Paul
Starr
and TAP, it is a propaganda arm of the imperial state. In his classic
statement of liberal principles, L. T. Hobhouse asserted that "it is of
the
essence of Liberalism to oppose the use of force, the basis of all
tyranny"
(Liberalism, Oxford University Press, 1964 [first published in 1911], p.
27). But with an imperial state, force is in constant use, under the
cover
of bringing civilization to backward peoples or otherwise doing good
(recently, allegedly protecting human rights and bringing stability). It
is
striking to see how the liberals can recognize that a man like Clinton
will
sell out his own poor people to win a few votes (in the Personal
Responsibility Act), but can convince themselves that he operates on
high
principle in places like Kosovo or the Middle East. It is obvious also
why
they must block out of their minds East Timor and other inconvenient
scenes
of mass death and betrayal to maintain their patriotic and loyalist
image
of
their leader in action.
BOTTOM
From the Independent Media Center
INDEPENDENT MEDIA CENTER of ATLANTA
http://atlanta.indymedia.org
FOCUS ON THE SCHOOL OF THE AMERICAS (AMERICAN GOVERNMENT SCHOOL
FOR TERRORSTS): The IMC Reports from Fort Benning,
Columbus, GA, the day following a weekend of protests, vigils and
actions
surrounding the School of the Americas.
OVERVIEW
This weekend between 10-12,000 people gathered outside the entrance to
the
US Army Reservation, Fort Benning, in Columbus, GA to try once again to
shut
down the School of the Americas. SOA Watch, an organization founded by
Maryknoll Priest Father Roy Bourgeois in 1990, has gathered at this
time
every year at Fort Benning in memory of six Jesuit priests, their
housekeeper and her daughter, that were killed Nov 19, 1989 in El
Salvador
by graduates of the School of the Americas. The vigil has grown
steadily
and for the past several years has included acts of non-violent civil
disobedience. Referred to as "crossing the line", activists march in a
solemn funeral procession onto base property carrying caskets and
crosses
with names of those killed in Central and South America by SOA grads.
This
year a total of 3600 people crossed the line, leading to over 2100
arrests.
For more information on the School of the Americas, you can find SOA
Watch's
website at http://www.soaw.org.
----------------------------------------------------------
CITY POLICE TARGET COLUMBUS YOUTH
by S. Al Maneer and W. Goodwin
Three children are kidnapped by Columbus police after being told they
would
*not* be arrested for trying to leave Fort Benning.
http://atlanta.indymedia.org/display.php3?article_id=373&group=webcast
AFFINITY GROUP SNEAKS ONTO BASE THROUGH WOODS
by W. Goodwin
Civil Disobedience to close the SOA! - Shortly after the 1st funeral
procession began this morning, an affinity group from Missouri
performed
an
individual act of civil disobedience by entering Ft. Benning from a
nearby
city park.
http://atlanta.indymedia.org/display.php3?article_id=360&group=webcast
GIANT PUPPETS TO TAKE FORT BENNING!
Puppeteers from across the country are converging this weekend on Ft.
Benning Georgia to protest the continued operations of the School of
the
Americas. Two stories.
http://atlanta.indymedia.org/display.php3?article_id=331&group=webcast
http://atlanta.indymedia.org/display.php3?article_id=317&group=webcast
BUDDHIST MONKS MARCH ON FORT BENNING
by W.B. Reeves & W. Goodwin
Buddhist monks and friends march more than 120 miles from Atlanta to
Columbus and Arrive at the main gate of Fort Benning at 11:45 am.
http://atlanta.indymedia.org/display.php3?article_id=316&group=webcast
---------------------------------------------------------------
PHOTOS:
ENDLESS FUNERAL PROCESSION
by Wajid Jenkins & Unknown Photographer
The first wave of line crossers. A solemn funeral procession, as
vigilers
crossed the line onto Ft. Benning carrying crosses and caskets. The
Army
estimated 3500 crossed, SOA Watch estimated 3600.
http://atlanta.indymedia.org/display.php3?article_id=374&group=webcast
SCANNED BAN & BAR LETTER
By F. Salerno
An example of the letter received by over 2100 people arrested for
crossing
onto Fort Benning property.
http://atlanta.indymedia.org/display.php3?article_id=372&group=webcast
DIE-IN AT HIGH NOON
by e!i
Demonstrators imitate SOA victims forcing MPs to "bloody" their hands
as
bemused rangers look on.
http://atlanta.indymedia.org/display.php3?article_id=343&group=webcast
THE FIRST LINE CROSSING
by e!i
At 11:45 nearly approximately 3,400 demonstrators marched on Ft Stuart
with
crosses and coffins
http://atlanta.indymedia.org/display.php3?article_id=341&group=webcast
6 PHOTOS OF THE SATURDAY PUPPET PARADE
by e!i
CDU Carpenters, skeletons, and robber barons were all part of the
11-18-00
SOA protests
http://atlanta.indymedia.org/display.php3?article_id=334&group=webcast
-------------------------------------------------------------
MPEG VIDEO:
CROWD DANCING AT VIGIL
By Pedro
15 second mpeg of vigilers dancing to music outside the Fort Benning
gates.
http://atlanta.indymedia.org/display.php3?article_id=354
VIDEO OF FATHER ROY BOURGEOIS LOOKING ON AS PROCESSION ENTERS BASE
by Pedro
Shouting "Presente!", Marchers Enter the Base, carrying Crosses
symbolizing
the Victims of U.S. Imperialism in South America.
http://atlanta.indymedia.org/display.php3?article_id=345
THREE VIDEOS OF THE PUPPET PROCESSION
By Pedro
Puppet Parade
http://atlanta.indymedia.org/display.php3?article_id=355
Puppets at the Gate
http://atlanta.indymedia.org/display.php3?article_id=358
Puppets After Crossing Line
http://atlanta.indymedia.org/display.php3?article_id=359
---------------------------------------------------------------
MORE STORIES:
For more articles about these actions, check back throughout the week
with
the Independent Media Center of Atlanta at http://atlanta.indymedia.org
---------------------------------------------------------------
To subscribe to ZNET SUSTAINER PROGRAM and get a commentary a day,
to keep the doldrums away:
--> You can access the Account Page and also the Commentary Zine page
with
links to the Sustainer's Forums as well, all from the ZNet top page
(http://www.zmag.org/weluser.htm) -> Sustainers can also check out the
bio
page for commentators, which also lists each writer's commentaries and Z
articles, at: http://zmag.org/bios.)
=============================================================
URL: http: arenson.org Email: tokyopro-@c2o.org
=============================================================
Date: Nov 28 2000 00:31:20 EST
From: "Chocopaul News" <pa-@arenson.org>
Subject: Shell Oil censors Web Site, Voting Rights for non Japanese,
Japanese women and workers
][
=================================
TokyoProgressive's ChocoPaul News
Issue # 58
URL: http: arenson.org Email: tokyopro-@c2o.org
Summaries of articles in this issue:
1 JAPAN NEWS--Voting Rights for Koreans Still Hanging
My discussion and debate students are lucky: this is
the topic for next week's class. What are the issues
of ethnicity, Japan's colonial legacy, and nationalist
idoelogy behind the issue of voting rights for
"foreign" residents, most of who were born here?
2 JAPAN NEWS--Women Find Strength in Uncertain Times
Is the election of Etsuko Kawada, whose son contracted HIV due
to the greed of the Green Cross Corporation and its friends
in Academia and the Ministry of health, a sign that women
have new opportunities as male-dominated social and political
entities crumble?
3 JAPAN NEWS--Corporate Changes Throw Labour into Turmoil
IT (Information Technology) is touted as the wave of the future,
but things have never been worse for workers in Japan, whose
unemployment figures are much worse than the government and
mainstream media report.
4 SHELL OIL COMPANY CENSORSHIP OF WEBSITE (quoted)
It appears that the Shell Oil Company has been accused of
environmental crimes and has successfully shut down
this web site on at least one occasion. Under British law,
it is possible to do this sort of thing very easily.
Note that efforts in other countries could have
a chilling effect on the Internet as a source of alternative
news and information as the capitalist economies strive to make
it one big shopping center devoid of serious political and
social conduct. The FBI has been installing devices at U.S.
providers' facilities, just like the British police.
In Japan, a regressive wiretapping law was recently passed, giving
the police sweeping powers, despite the fact that the police
have illegally wiretapped for years against progressive
activists. Will the Japanese governments' aggressive new
IT policy be combined with censorship British and American
style? Not to mention the CIA'S project Echelon, which spies
on all telephone, fax, internet, etc. traffic worldwide (yes,
yours and mine too!).
-----------------------------
Voting Rights for Koreans Still Hanging
By Suvendrini Kakuchi
TOKYO, Nov 20 (IPS) - Debates about giving voting rights to
foreigners who live permanently in Japan are not new, but a
growing number of Japanese now agree that such rights be given
though it remains a very emotional issue here.
As a sign of how touchy the issue is -- especially with regard
to giving voting rights to ethnic Koreans -- steadfast opposition
among senior politicians is expected to delay acceptance of a new
bill in the Parliament or Diet that would allow foreign residents
to vote in local elections.
The new proposal, debated by legislators last week with no
quick resolution in sight, seeks to allow resident Koreans,
Japan's largest minority, to vote.
Ethnic Koreans, most of them forcibly brought to Japan during
the country's colonisation of the Korean peninsula between 1910
and 1945, and their descendants, make up 900,000 of Japan's 1.5
million foreign population.
Of the 630,000 permanent residents in Japan today, 600,000 are
ethnic Koreans. Many struggle with discrimination in a country
that is a mostly homogenous society.
But new polls conducted on the issue indicate widening public
support for extending voting rights to foreigners, especially
among younger generation.
A new survey by a student body at the prestigious Tokyo
University -- which polled more than 700 people attending 20
universities across Japan -- showed an overwhelming 90 percent of
respondents supporting the bill giving voting rights to permanent
residents.
But even the Korean population in Japan is split on the bill.
Forty four-year-old Pak Yu Cha, a second-generation Korean who
has decided not to take Japanese nationality, says she supports
voting rights for ethnic Koreans.
''I support local voting rights because I reject the Japanese
argument that voting rights should not be given to foreigners
unless they have Japanese nationality. This law means that we
foreigners are not whole people with rights to vote that must be
respected,'' she says.
But Pak, who does not speak Korean, says she has no plans to
leave Japan because this is where she was born and raised. Her
parents did not apply for Japanese citizenship because they had
hoped to return to North Korea one day.
But some Koreans of North Korean descent do not want voting
rights, which they say should not be extended to foreigners.
Chongryon, North Korea's official association in Japan, resists
assimilating ethnic Koreans into Japanese society. It has its own
schools and other institutions such as banks.
Kan, a 71-year-old Korean who escaped to Japan in 1952 during
the Korean War, says the new voting bill does not matter to him at
all.
Kan, a rich businessman, married an ethnic Korean in Japan and
fought both official and social discrimination, such as having no
rights to national pension benefits on the basis of his foreign
background.
''I toyed with the idea of changing my nationality to become a
Japanese. But at that time being naturalised meant overcoming many
barriers such as a clause that required me to change my name to a
Japanese one. I just gave up,'' he explains.
Kan's remarks highlight the social issues behind the debate on
voting rights for foreign residents, especially Koreans. Indeed,
the bill reflects debates stemming from the rapid
internationalisation of Japanese society in the past decade.
''What we should really be debating is how Japan intends to
meet the challenges of globalisation. Within Japan there is likely
to be much more diversity of ethnic groups and cultures in the
21st century,'' the 'Mainichi' daily newspaper recently pointed
out.
Japan's economic woes have forced the government to reconsider
its support for its strict immigration policy, which resists
opening the door to foreigners. Supporters of less immigration
contend the influx will provide a threat to the nation's
homogeneity.
On this basis, the 'Mainichi' newspaper rebukes older
politicians such as the secretary general of the powerful Liberal
Democratic Party (LDP), Hiromu Nonaka, who want to tie the new
bill to Japan's wartime repatriations.
Still, the issue of voting rights for Koreans has become a
political decision, criticises the Japanese media. It also says
some politicians oppose the voting-rights bill because it is
supported by the South Korean government.
The bill was submitted by New Komeito party and the
Conservative Party, the smaller two parties in the current
tripartite coalition leading the government.
Analysts point out that the underlying reason for Komeito's
backing of the bill is its affiliation with the religious
organisation Soka Gakkai, of which a large number of ethnic
Koreans are members.**
***************************************
**Note from Paul for U.S. readers---Despite this fact, New Komeito
is NOT considered a politically progressive party in Japan, nearly
always supporting neoliberalist/pro-U.S. military policies-- and they
do not take part on most of the grassroots based
human rights activities. I can say this, having been a
founding member of the Japan Human Rights Appeal which worked
with other anti-racism groups, progressive groups---**
***************************************
Opinions on the bill are mixed in the powerful Liberal
Democratic Party, which has consistently supported the deeply
entrenched policy that requires foreigners to take on Japanese
citizenship in order to obtain the right to vote.
For instance, Nonaka has suggested that voting rights be
limited to permanent residents and their descendants who have been
living in Japan prior to the end of World War II.
Yoshiro Kimura, a LDP politician, said it is better for Japan
to enact laws that would make the naturalisation process easier
for foreigners rather than give them suffrage.
Other opponents of the bill, such as the Kagawa prefectural
assembly in southern Japan that adopted a resolution opposing it,
argues that Japan's Constitution states that the right to choose
public officials does not apply to foreign residents.
The debates on voting rights will not end anytime soon, say
people like Kan, the ethnic Korean businessman. This is because
foreigners can never expect to be treated as Japanese in Japan, he
argues.
''Even if we did become Japanese, we will still be considered
outsiders because of the age-old Japanese family registration
system that continues to document the family background of the
applicant. That's the reality, so why the fuss over giving limited
voting rights?'' Kan asks. (END/IPS/ap-ip-hd/sk/js/00)
Origin: Manila/POLITICS-JAPAN/
----
[c] 2000, InterPress Third World News Agency (IPS)
Women Find Strength in Uncertain Times
By Suvendrini Kakuchi
TOKYO, Nov 6 (IPS) - Japan's lingering political and economic
malaise has given new strength to women, who find that hard times
have freed them from old constraints that forced them to take
second place to men.
''More men than women are in despair over the 'fall' of Japan,
as analysts describe the current national situation,'' says Kaori
Sasaki, 45, who recently launched the highly successful website
called eWoman. ''For energetic and ambitious Japanese women, the
time cannot be better.''
Indeed, as experts point out, the rising number of bankruptcies
and lack of political leadership in Japan have squarely toppled
the earlier era where men, not women, commanded respect and
admiration in Japanese society.
They point to the sagging popularity of men seen in almost
daily media reports about top male businessmen or politicians
accused of bad management, bribe-taking or unscrupulous behaviour.
These, critics say, are responsible for Japan's dwindling economic
fortunes and decreasing international stature.
Last week, the Japanese public was treated to the dirty details
of the bankruptcy of Sogo Department Store, one of the country's
leading chain stores that symbolised Japan's postwar economic
success.
Its former chairman, 88-year-old Hiroo Mizushima, apologised to
the public on Nov. 1 for the collapse of the glitzy store chain.
He is facing a lawsuit for mismanagement that led to the company's
collapse. Two other male executives had committed suicide when
Sogo declared bankruptcy.
Women politicians may also be experiencing a boom in popular
support.
Just weeks ago, Etsudo Kawada, who campaigned on a platform
supporting the rights of patients and consumers, won a Tokyo by-
election. She had earlier won a lawsuit against a male doctor
whose clinic had given her son tainted blood with HIV.
In comparison to the dismal picture in established business and
political circles, Sasaki's eWoman portrays a scenario of many
different opportunities for women at this time.
The site eWomen, which now boasts of 50,000 subscribers after
its launch in September, is one of a dozen such sites aimed at
women. But Sasaki says the free website aims to help ordinary
women launch their own careers in a country that is still largely
male-dominated when it comes to career advancement.
Women directors or general managers accounted for just 2.1
percent of the total in 1999, according to the Management and
Coordination Agency. Figures for women department heads were also
at a mere 3.4 percent, and section chiefs at 8.2 percent.
But these shocking statistics have actually helped launch the
age of the woman in Japan, says Kazue Suzuki, a freelance reporter
specialising in gender issues.
''Now women can turn around and say, 'look its time for women
to take over because the way men lead Japan is not going to work
any more','' she argues.
The Internet has provided a crucial opportunity for women in
Japan. Sasaki points out that Japanese women have to juggle work
and career -- and her website allows women to do both.
The site offers a variety of information on jobs, career
counseling, parenting advice, and social tips that include how to
spend a quiet evening with your husband or lover.
''The site is an example of how women want Japan to be hard
driven, but at the same time a society that still has a lot of
time for family and social life,'' explains Sasaki.
At the top of the list of problems faced by career-seeking
women is household chores. Surveys by the Prime Minister's gender
equality section reveals, after all, that less than 20 percent of
Japanese men take responsibility for family care.
''When I was just entering the job market, it was common for
women to still choose between family and career because Japanese
men were supposed to the breadwinners,'' explains Sasaki. ''But
today I believe that women can have both.''
Japan's changed younger generation also represents the
challenges faced by men in the country.
Teenage mothers sporting tanned skin and trendy mini-skirts are
a far cry from their own mothers, who retired to be homemakers
once they have gotten married.
Yuko Hayashi, a 20-year-old mother with two children, plans to
go back to school in a few years' time. ''I asked my husband to
cooperate and he has agreed. We have asked his parents to help
with babysitting,'' she says.
Masami Ohinata, a professor of psychology and women's studies
at Keisen Jogakuen College, says younger women now have more
courage to follow their own paths while ignoring social pressures
to follow the traditional image of a good mother.
Thirty-year-old Mayumi Takahashi, who works as an aerobic
instructor, agrees. She lives with her parents and is planning to
find work soon on a cruise ship to be able to see the world.
''I would never live like my mother when she was young. I think
Japan will have more women like me in the future, a situation that
will make the country a much more interesting place to live in,''
Takahashi laughs. (END/IPS/ap-dv-ip/sk/js/00)
Origin: Manila/DEVELOPMENT-JAPAN/ IPS
----
Corporate Changes Throw Labour into Turmoil
By Suvendrini Kakuchi
TOKYO, Nov 22 (IPS) - His work can get tedious and at times, 31-
year-old bureaucrat Hirofumi Sato finds himself thinking of his
former job in the private sector. But he says he snaps out of such
moments quickly, and insists that his decision to switch careers
three years ago was a wise move.
''At least, for the moment, government workers do not have to
worry about being fired,'' he says. ''That's why I made the change
even though my former job was more exciting.''
Sato, in fact, is right in considering himself fortunate. All
over Japan, more and more workers are ending up unemployed, and
labour experts predict the situation to worsen in the coming
months.
The country's unemployment rate already reached a record high in
September -- 4.7 percent, or 3.2 million people -- according to
the Management and Coordination Agency. But labour experts say the
''real'' unemployment rate is much higher, reaching as much as 10
percent in this country of CXCC people.
''Japan's unemployment figure is grossly understated because it
reflects only the number of people who report they have no jobs,''
says Susumo Saito, director of the Trilateral Institute Inc., a
private economic think tank.
He adds,''It does not take into account the large number of job
seekers and the category where people have just given up hope for
re-employment because the situation is so hopeless.''
Official statistics show that there are about 9.4 million
Japanese currently looking for work. Saito says this number at
least must be added to the country's official unemployment figure
if the real situation is to be reflected.
The government acknowledges that the Japanese job market can take
only half the number of people seeking work. According to experts,
corporate restructuring brought on by the prolonged recession and
globalisation is mainly to blame for the country's dismal labour
situation.
In a country where lifetime employment used to be a given, such
conditions have proved to be a particularly heavy psychological
burden for many people.
Managers Union chief Hiromitsu Yamazaki notes, for example,
that there are hundreds of middle-aged men who suffer from
depression but are not counted as unemployed because they are too
sick to register as such.
Those still punching in the clock are also under stress as they
worry over impending unemployment or try to cope with an ever
increasing workload. In truth, a Labour Ministry survey conducted
in August indicates that two-thirds of those who are still
employed fear they may be out of work soon.
Many Japanese workers also say they are now spending more hours --
five to six on average -- on unpaid overtime as they scramble to
keep up with the restructuring moves in their companies.
Experts say a rise in 'karoshi', or death from overwork, can
only be expected to rise from the current 10,000 cases recorded
annually by the Labour Ministry.
Saito says suicides stemming from work-related problems on the
increase as well. Last year, Japan recorded 33,048 suicides, a
sharp rise from the 21,346 posted in 1990. Statistics show that
more than 74 percent of the men over 40 who took their lives last
year did so because of work problems.
Meanwhile, Yamazaki says that Japanese society will also soon
have to deal with a growing gap between workers with steady but
small paychecks and part-time and contract workers who bring home
substantial sums.
''You can see the trend even now where financial liberalisation
has helped develop profit-driven securities companies, which
employ a younger sectorthat receives double or treble the salary
of the average worker who has put in 20 to 30 years for his
company,'' he says.
In truth, Mayumi Ofuku of the Electrical Workers Union says the
electronic industry has recorded the biggest changes in the last
few years as Japan shifts away from ''traditional'' manufacturing
to the IT (information technology) industry.
It is the IT industry that is moving away fast from salaried
workers and taking on younger contract workers, says Ofuku.
Salaries in this sector depend on innovation rather than the
seniority of the employees, he points out, adding that the trend
is bound to have an impact on how unions deal with management.
At present, Japanese unions, which represent about 20 percent of
the total number of the workforce, still use the method of
collective bargaining in negotiating salaries. But Ofuku says
tactics and focus will have to change as workers develop separate
contracts with different companies.
He says unions will then have to focus on individual needs, and
even the old ''spring campaign'', when unions come together to
demand higher salaries, will be replaced with demands for better
working conditions.
Ofuku predicts such demands would include less overtime, better
part-time conditions and paid holidays. (END/IPS/ap-lb-if/CCB/00)
Origin: Manila/RIGHTS-JAPAN/
----
[c] 2000, InterPress Third World News Agency (IPS)
SHELL OIL: Corporate Criminal Attempts to Censor Website
| | A very interesting website detailing Shell's nuclear
interests and the resulting dumping after the facility was
closed is available for a very short time only at:
www.nuclearcrimes.com
The website will shortly be closed thanks to Shell's
clout. This will be the second time they have suceeded in
doing so despite evidence which does not support their
denials.
The website was created by: john-@journalist.com
Further info also from da-@hedweb.com
|
BACKGROUND....
| | The computer which hosts www.oilcompanies.org is now hosting a
new site about nuclear testing, and waste dumping, by our old
friends Shell.
The site is at www.nuclear-crimes.com
Shell's solicitors have leant on a previous host of this site,
and are now leaning on us. Naturally, they don't want anything
to get to open court, so we're not particularly quaking.
The letter from their solicitor is copied below for interest.
|
| |
-- Letter from solicitor for Shell, to internet hoster --
Direct fax 020 7716 3709
sv-@djfreeman.com
By post and e-mail
22 November 2000
Our ref SVN/01131999
Dear Sir
Shell's Nuclear Crimes Site
We are writing on behalf of Shell International Limited and their
|
associated
| | companies, for whom we act.
We refer to a website called Shell's Nuclear Crimes, the web address of
|
which
| | is www.nuclear-crimes.com. The registrar of this site is Easyspace.com
|
and it
| | is our understanding that you provide the name servers for this site.
The website contains a number of false and defamatory allegations
against
|
our
| | clients including an assertion that they operated a nuclear reactor in
|
the
| | 1960s at their Thornton research centre and that the demolition of this
fictitious reactor represented a serious hazard to public safety.
You will be aware that you have a duty to take reasonable care not to
|
cause or
| | contribute to the publication of defamatory material by means of your
|
service.
| | We would draw your attention to the recent case of Godfrey -v- Demon
|
Internet
| | Limited in which it was held that an internet service provider who was
|
aware
| | that defamatory material had been posted on its site but chose not to
|
remove
| | it could be held liable in defamation and could not rely on the defence
|
of
| | innocent dissemination. The offending material in this case is
|
defamatory of
| | our clients, and is capable of causing damage to its public reputation.
This website had previously been hosted by Easyspace but they removed
the
|
site
| | from their service once we notified them of the defamatory material
|
contained
| | in it.
What steps you take to deal with this defamation are of course entirely
|
up to
| | you but meanwhile our clients' rights are expressly reserved.
Yours faithfully
21 November 2000
Solicitors
43 Fetter Lane
London EC4A 1JU
Tel 020 7583 4055
Fax 020 7353 7377
DX 103 London
www.djfreeman.co.uk
|
Articles and information reprinted without
permission for non-commercial purposes.
TokyoProgressive's ChocoPaul News
Issue # 58
URL: http: arenson.org Email: tokyopro-@c2o.org
=============================================================
Date: Nov 29 2000 21:57:21 EST
From: "Chocopaul News" <pa-@arenson.org>
Subject: Issue 58: AIDS, Japan Nuclear, Phillipine Dam, Chomsky Q and
A, and Vietnam: U.S. Lies
~
=================================
TokyoProgressive's ChocoPaul News
Issue # 58
URL: http://arenson.org Email: tokyopro-@c2o.org
=============================================================
How to subscribe to this newsletter: Go to the URL above, click
the "TV" that says C L I C K, and then click on the button inviting
you to sign up. Or, go here:
http://chocopaul.listbot.com/cgi-bin/subscriber?Act=subscribe_list&list_id=Chocopaul
In today's issue:
Many things of interest to read. Please save this newsletter and read
when you
have a chance. Better yet, send a copy to a read who is not yet
receiving CP News and suggest they sign up. By doing so you increase
readership, not only of this newsletter, but of alternative media in
general. I hope you agree that is a worthwhile goal.
Paul
SECTION ONE: ALTERNATIVE MEDIA ON THE WEB: MediaChannel
SECTION TWO: JAPANESE NUCLEAR POWER/GOVERNMENT IRRESPONSIBILITY 2-items
SECTION THREE: JAPANESE BANKS FUND ILLEGAL DAM IN PHILLIPINES THAT
MAY CAUSE ENVIRONMENTAL DESTURCTION: NGOs SAY "NO"
SECTION FOUR: CHOMSKY CHAT EXCERPTS--Noam Chomsky often provides
an on-target analysis of contemporary issues. Read
some of the exchanges between Noam and participants
in the ZNET Sustainer forum
SECTION FIVE: VIETNAM: U.S. CONTINUES TO DENY TRUTH DESPITE
CLINTON APOLOGY
and a link to John Pilger's excellent article in the New Statesman,
"The price of Vietnam being allowed to come out of isolation was the
destruction of its health services."
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
SECTION ONE: ALTERNATIVE MEDIA ON THE WEB: MediaChannel
**SPECIAL REPORT: AIDS AND THE MEDIA**
MEDIA'S DUTY
How can the media improve coverage of the medical,
social and economic crisis of AIDS? A special report
for World AIDS Day, December 1.
http://www.mediachannel.org/originals/aids.shtml
THE MEDIA RESPONSE
Media response is hardly in keeping with the grave threat
of the pandemic. Danny Schechter asks:
What's gone wrong, and how can we fix it?
http://www.mediachannel.org/views/dissector/aids.shtml
CHICKEN CENSORSHIP AND ONLINE ACTIVISM
The two chickens starring in an art gallery exhibit also had
their own Webcam show - until animal activists shut it down.
http://www.mediachannel.org/arts/perspectives/chickens/front.shtml
DAILY MEDIA NEWS
Breaking news stories about the media internationally,
from mainstream and alternative sources.
http://www.mediachannel.org/news/today/
CLIMATE CHANGE, INDY MEDIA STYLE
The Climate Independent Media Center shares the IMC vision
that takes the mainstream media to the mat.
http://www.mediachannel.org/front.shtml#IMC
MediaChannel welcomes our new affiliates:
Stichting Small World Media Nederland, Africa Online,
Ascribe, Safundi, Tocsin
http://www.mediachannel.org/
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
SECTION TWO: JAPANESE NUCLEAR POWER/GOVERNMENT IRRESPONSIBILITY
From the Citizens' Nuclear Information Center (CNIC)
Cooling Pumps Stop Simultaneously at Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant
On 19 November 2000, all three cooling circulation pumps of
Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant's spent fuel storage facility seized
to operate. One of the three pumps was not operating due to a
periodic inspection. A procedural deviation caused the other two
to simultaneously seize operation at 10:29 a.m. One pump was
restarted 9 minutes later, and the other restarted 24 minutes
later. The plant's operator, the Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd. (JNFL),
reported the incident to the Science and Technology Agency
(STA) at 1:00 p.m. However, the incident was made public on the
following day because the 19th was a Sunday and the STA
lacked in staff who could give instructions to JNFL on whether
to make the incident public or not.
This incident highlighted the fact that there is a serious defect
in the safety of the fuel pool cooling system. This type of incident
was not assumed in the safety review of the facility. This
incident was an "unexpected incident" to the operator and the
regulators. It is stated in the safety review document that
because there are multiple pumps even if one pump seizes to
operate, the safety of the cooling system will not be lost. It was
also stated that periodic inspections can be conducted safely
without loosing the ability of the cooling system. In other words,
the facility was deemed safe without an evaluation of a possible
incident where all three pumps would seize operation.
As it was pointed out following the JCO accident [TOKAIMURA
NUCLEAR CRITICALITY ACCIDENT IN WHICH TWO OWRKERS DIED LAST YEAR]
nuclear facilities should be built according to a fail-safe/fool-proof
design so that procedural deviation does not result in breaching
safety.
This must be applied to all nuclear facilities including storage
facilities like the one involved in this incident. It must also be
pointed out that both reports to the STA and to the public from
JNFL lacked in promptness. All incidents must immediately be
reported to the public irregardless of the criteria of "seriousness"
according to the regulators.
Meanwhile, the Japan Press Service reports...
Bill to promote N-plants rammed through Lower House
TOKYO NOV 29 JPS -- The ruling parties on November 28 railroaded
through
the bill to promote nuclear power plants in the House of Representatives
plenary session after only three-hours of committee discussion.
In the Committee on Commerce and Industry meeting, Yoshii Hidekatsu
of
the Japanese Communist Party said that gorgeous public facilities were
constructed in municipalities in return for the construction of a
nuclear
power station. But he pointed out that these local governments are
heavily
burdened with expenditure for maintaining those facilities. The bill
would
only accelerate financial crisis both at the national and local levels
rather than boosting the local economy, he argued.
To secure future energy, he proposed that power companies use the
existing energy sources more effectively and research and development be
pursued for alternative renewable energy.
Ignoring his argument, the ruling parties rushed to get the bill
approved
by the Lower House committee after only three-hours of discussion and
then
bulldozed it through the subsequent Lower House plenary session.
While many ruling party members never showed up to the committee, the
rest who were present were dozing, reading a paperback, and even
e-mailing.
They showed no interest in discussions over Japan's future energy issue,
an
opposition party member complained.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
SECTION THREE: NGOs AND LOCAL PEOPLE OPPOSE JAPANESE FUNDED DAM
By Suvendrini Kakuchi
TOKYO, Oct 30 (IPS) - The massive San Roque dam now being
constructed in the Philippine north was supposed to be the answer
to that country's power problems. To its Japanese funders,
however, it seems to have become a monumental headache.
Opposition against the dam has been relentless almost from the
very beginning, and now there are at least 44 Philippine and
international non-government organisations (NGOs) that have said
they are against it.
According to these groups, the hydroelectric project, which when
completed in 2004 will become the 12th largest dam in the world,
has serious environmental and social impacts that have not been
taken into consideration.
A Philippine legislator even visited Tokyo last week in a bid
to stop Japanese funding for it. ''Our last resort to protect our
livelihood from the dam is to tell the Japanese people about our
fears,'' Philippine Congressman Ronald Casalan told the press here
on Friday.
''I am asking whether the Japanese public is satisfied that
their own tax money is used this way -- to destroy the environment
and cause harm to indigenous people,'' he said.
Japanese activists have also joined the fray, saying the project
is yet another example of how Japan continues to use public money
to fund environmentally destructive projects abroad despite its
supposed reforms in its aid policies.
Ikuko Matsumoto of Friends of the Earth Japan says this is much
against the wishes of the Japanese people and clashes with Tokyo's
pledge to use its overseas development aid (ODA) for environment
protection.
Proponents of the 1.19 billion-dollar San Roque dam, however, say
it will generate as much as 345 megawatts of power, as well as
provide irrigation for 87,000 hectares of land in the lowlands.
The dam, which is now about 40 percent finished, is being built
on the Agno River that flows from the Cordillera mountain range in
the northern Philippines.
While the dam is not an official Japanese ODA project, its
funding comes from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation
(JBIC) that is considered to be on par with the World Bank.
The JBIC was formed in October 1999, and is the result of the
merger of the Export-Import Bank of Japan and the Overseas
Economic Cooperation Fund, the two institutions that represented
the low-interest, loan disbursement sectors of Japanese ODA.
In October 1998, the Eximbank had approved a 302 million-dollar
loan to the dam's private developers and later also took into
consideration an additional 400 million-dollar loan. Largely
because of mounting criticism against the project, however, the
initial loan has yet to be disbursed in full.
Interestingly, the San Roque Power Corporation (SRPC) is owned by
a consortium dominated by Japanese companies. The giant Marubeni
Corporation owns 41 percent of SRPC while the utility firm Kansai
Electric has 7.5 percent.
Although the New York-based Sithe Energies Inc. has the
majority share of 51 percent, this company is believed to be 29
percent owned by Marubeni.
A Philippine cybernewspaper recently quoted SRPC manager Raymond
Cunningham as saying that power from the dam ''can be relied on
day and day out. It is very valuable power most other plants would
not generate''.
But Casalan said here that the project is ''illegal'' as it goes
against the wishes of indigenous folk. It is a clear violation of
the Philippines' Indigenous People's Rights Act of 1997, said the
Philippine lawmaker, who belongs to the Ibaloi tribe that is going
to be directly affected by the San Roque dam.
Casalan said that while some villages living downstream have
endorsed the project, Benguet province, which is situated in the
upstream area, is against it. He added that the Ibaloi and other
tribal groups living upstream are angry because they will lose
their water supply once the dam is completed.
He said these tribes constitute at least 500 households that eke
a livelihood out of rice farming, although other Philippine
activist groups say about 2,000 Ibaloi families will be affected.
Casalan and many green groups say the San Roque Dam will also
destroy these tribes' farmlands as a result of silt and sediment
collected in the upstream when the downflow is interrupted because
of the dam.
In addition, some activists say 1.2 million people living on
the plains are at risk in the event that the dam is damaged and
water overflows.
Ironically enough, Philippine officials, aided by foreign
consultants, have argued that the dam would actually prevent
flooding in the area.
A JBIC spokesperson, meanwhile, has said that environmental
assessments regarding the dam have been conducted, including two
just this year. But he did not elaborate on what the assessments
were.
Another spokesperson for the Bank said that in response to the
complaints raised by the indigenous tribes in the project area,
JBIC officials recently conducted a fact-finding mission in the
Philippines and returned just late last week.
Casalan said his people would be willing to let the project be on
two conditions. One is if there is a ''concrete plan to relocate
and pay compensation to the thousands of families who will have to
move out''.
''Also,'' he said, ''we want an environmental assessment to be
conducted to guarantee that the indigenous people will have a
water management project in place to carry on as rice farmers
after the dam stops their water (supply).''
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
SECTION FOUR: ChomskyChat Excerpts from ZNET
QUESTION:
| | A few months back, an article in the NY Times cited the popularity of
SUVs
as a strong indication that we are living in a 'culture of fear' (or
something to this phrase's effect). To this list I would also add many
seemingly disparate things: the rising popularity of violent media
|
content,
| | increasing amounts of job insecurity, more cops, prisons, more debate on
guns, the rise of post modernism in the university (as opposed to a
less-vacuous political climate), and even little things like the rise in
popularity of attack dogs as pets.
|
| | Does the professor think that making connections between these phenomena
|
has
[NOTE--Paul is not sure what an SUV is, being out of the U.S.
for 21 years, but the dictionary says it is a SPORTS UTILITY
VEHICLE. Not sure of the connection, but Chomsky's answer
is still intereresting.]
ANSWER:
It's been evident for many years that the US is unusual among
comparable societies in its levels of paranoia, on a very wide range
of issues. There are remarkably high levels of fear of all sorts of
things: crime, terror, aliens among us, judgment day,..., and also
fanatic cultism on a very wide range of issues. Not long ago children
were taught in school to climb under desks to protect themselves from
atomic explosions. Now in professional middle class communities, with
virtually no crime, one hears alarms going off randomly in houses and
cars. Off the record, the police say they don't pay much attention to
them, because the probability that it is something other than a false
alarm is extremely slight. My own suspicion is that the pressure for
suicidal policies like the "national missile defense," against the
advice of every rational analyst, including intelligence services, may
be driven in part by this paranoid-cultish streak. In part it has
been artificially engendered: whipping up the population to fear crime
(a code word for Blacks), drugs (ditto), terrorism (meaning dirty
Ey-rabs), welfare mothers (by implication Black) riding Cadillacs to
pick up the hard-earned money we are giving them, etc. These
have been perfectly conscious political and media campaigns for years,
picking up steam 20 years ago with the onset of neoliberal programs
that were likely to harm the large majority of the population, and
with the increasing difficulty of conjuring up a Russian threat. In
large part it may be the result of having too much power and too long
a record of beating everyone to a pulp -- centuries in the US case.
Not good for the psyche, and it may tend to lead to a not totally
unjustified fear that others are resentful, and trying to "take away
from us what is rightly ours."
Noam Chomsky
QUESTION: [The answer--about whether Australia supported Indonesia
and thus blocked U.S. efforts to stop the killing in East Timor--is
less interesting than what Chomsky says about U.S. non-action
action against Indonesia]
...have you been able to reconcile your view
| | about preventing post-ballot violence in E Timor with the story in the
Australian media that the US wanted to act more strongly against
|
post-ballot
| | violence but was blocked by Australia. Eg. to quote Toohey, "The ABC's
|
Four
| | Corners noted that the head of the Foreign Affairs Department, Ashton
Calvert, in February last year vigorously rejected calls from a senior
United States State Department official, Stanley Roth, for peacekeeping
troops to be deployed before the August 30 ballot."
another piece of evidence that goes with this is it explains the suicide
|
of
| | an Australian intelligence liason officer last year. Quoting Toohey
again,
"one of the most plausible explanations for Mr Jenkins's distress is
that
|
he
| | had been punished for refusing to cut back on the flow of crucial
intelligence to the US which undermined the Australian policy of
trusting
|
Mr
ANSWER:
I was following the Australian reports all year, mostly about alleged
comments by Stanley Roth. I also wrote about the suicide of the
liaison officer. It's possible that he was frustrated about the
unwillingness of Australian intelligence to release everything it
knew, but this is almost irrelevant to the question of US policy. The
US had more than ample intelligence to comprehend that the commando
forces it was training in 1998, with British arms, were entering East
Timor along with thousands of others soldiers to organize "Operation
Clean Sweep" from late 1998, a terror campaign which by early 1999 far
surpassed anything reported from Kosovo before the NATO bombing. Even
without access to intelligence information one could know most of
that. As for Roth, possibly he was a maverick; we don't know. What
we do know is that the US and UK maintained their policy of support
for Indonesian atrocities, on the principle that "it is their
responsiblity and we don't want to take it away from them," until well
after the predicted final atrocities had been virtually consummated;
it was reiterated on Sept. 8. Also, US-Indonesian forces were
engaged in joint operations up to a few days before the referendum,
and Britain was actually flying Hawk jets to Indonesia until several
days after the UN peacekeeping forces landed. Without continuing,
there's no problem of reconciliation.
Bear in mind that decent Australians, like Brian Toohey, were pressing
hard to get their government to do something to deter the atrocities
taking place on their doorstep, and to prevent the worse ones that US
and British governments knew were coming, even without secret
intelligence. Some may have managed to convince themselves that the
Australian government, the focus of their anger, was preventing
actions that the US wanted to carry out. That's extremely unlikely,
however. If Clinton had wanted to call off the generals, he could
have done it at any time, not just at the APEC meeting in
mid-September, when he was under enormous pressure. More
accurate is the report of an Australian journalist there: Washington
had been saying that it had "no dog in that race," but now it has a
big dog, Australia.
QUESTION:
| | What's going on in Haiti right now? I know about it being a hellhole
|
largely
| | because of the United States, and all the rest. But I recently read an
article in Reuters about the upcoming presidential election which says
|
that
| | all the other canidates opposing Jean Bertrand Aristide have not done
much
campaigning because they fear violence against them, the same with
opposition
parliamentarians, and that pipe bombs are going off allegedly planted by
Aristide's party, and they've closed the schools, and so on.
|
ANSWER:
The situation in Haiti is awful. The economy, such as it was, has
collapsed, though the rich stay rich. The charges against Aristide
and Lavalas unfortunately have warrant, how much is not entirely
clear, but it's not pretty; that much is clear. The hopes that had
been raised in 1990-1, after a century of severe suffering, on top of
a terrible earlier history, have been almost completely dashed. The
US did finally allow Aristide to return, but after 3 years of vicious
terror, and under conditions that virtually guaranteed disaster: the
condition was that he adopt the harsh neoliberal program of his
opponent in the 1990 election, the US candidate, who got 14% of the
vote. This is considered a "triumph of democracy" and the prize
example of the "Clinton doctrine." Since then Aristide and those close
to him have dragged their feet on implementing the program, but what
has been implemented has had effects that are even more severe than on
partially functioning countries. But that's not the whole story. A
lot of the problems by now have internal causes, never dissociated
from what happened from the outside, but not fully attributable
to them.
It's not the only case. Unfortunately, the normal case.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
SECTION FIVE: VIETNAM: U.S. CONTINUES TO DENY TRUTH DESPITE
CLINTON APOLOGY
Please consider being a ZNET Sustainer and getting these commentaries
in your mailbox every day. Without alternative media
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Even now, we lie to ourselves about Vietnam
By Robert Jensen
Bill Clinton has always been keen on apologizing, for himself and on
behalf
of the nation. He has apologized not only for a sex scandal, but for
U.S.
support of repression in Guatemala and for slavery.
One might contest the motivation for, or the phrasing of, the apologies
--
Were they offered for the right reason? Did they go far enough? -- but
at
least they were offered.
There is one act of contrition, however, that Clinton -- or any American
leader-- has not been able to make.
On his way to Hanoi last week, when asked if he thought the United
States
owed the people of Vietnam an apology, 25 years after the end of the
war,
Clinton said, simply, "No, I don't."
Some have offered a personalized explanation: As a man who avoided the
draft
during that war, Clinton has to stand tough today. But another
possibility
deserves consideration: To apologize for crimes against the people of
Vietnam would be to admit that the stories we tell ourselves about our
conduct in the world -- then and now -- are a lie.
To apologize would be to acknowledge that while we claimed to be
defending
democracy, we were derailing democracy. While we claimed to be defending
South Vietnam, we were attacking the people of South Vietnam.
To apologize now would be to admit that the rationalizations for
post-World
War II U.S. foreign policy have been, and are still today, rhetorical
cover
for the power politics of an empire.
The standard story in the United States about that war is that in our
quest
to guarantee peace and freedom for Vietnam, we misunderstood its
history,
politics and culture, leading to mistakes that doomed our effort. Some
argue
we should have gotten out sooner than we did; others suggest we should
have
fought harder. But the common ground in mainstream opinion is that our
motives were noble.
But we never fought in Vietnam for democracy. After World War II, the
United
States supported and financed France's attempt to retake its former
colony.
After the Vietnamese defeated the French in 1954, the Geneva Conference
called for free elections in 1956, which the United States and its South
Vietnamese client regime blocked. In his memoirs, President Eisenhower
explained why: In free elections, the communists would have won by an
overwhelming margin. The United States is all for elections, so long as
they
turn out the way we want.
The central goal of U.S. policy-makers in Vietnam had nothing to do with
freedom for the Vietnamese people, but instead was to make sure that an
independent socialist course of development did not succeed. U.S.
leaders
invoked Cold War rhetoric about the threat of the communist monolith but
really feared that a "virus" of independent development might infect the
rest of Asia, perhaps even becoming a model for all the Third World.
To prevent the spread of the virus, we dropped 6.5 million tons of bombs
and
400,000 tons of napalm on the people of Southeast Asia. Saturation
bombing
of civilian areas, counterterrorism programs and political
assassination,
routine killings of civilians and 11.2 million gallons of Agent Orange
to
destroy crops and ground cover -- all were part of the U.S. terror war
in
Vietnam, as well as Laos and Cambodia.
This interpretation is taken as obvious in much of the world, yet it is
virtually unspeakable in polite and respectable circles in this country,
which says much about the moral quality of polite and respectable people
here.
Why is the truth about our attack on Vietnam so difficult to
acknowledge? I
think it is not just about Vietnam, but about a larger truth concerning
our
role in the world. We are the empire. Especially in the past
half-century,
we have supported repressive regimes around the world so long as they
served
elite interests. We have violated international law in countless
invasions
and interventions. While talking about the inviolate nature of human
rights,
we have trampled those rights and the legitimate aspirations of
liberation
movements.
In many ways, the Vietnam War was the defining act of the United States
as
empire, an aggression that was condemned around the world and at home,
but
pursued nonetheless, as the body count went into the millions. It is the
linchpin of our mythology about ourselves.
In his last years on Earth, Martin Luther King Jr. understood this, as
he
began to speak out forcefully against the war: "If America's soul
becomes
totally poisoned, part of the autopsy must read `Vietnam,' " King said
in
1967.
If he were alive today, I don't know whether King would give up on the
soul
of America and write a final autopsy report. But I am confident he would
argue forcefully that the future is lost so long as we let stand the
poisonous distortions of history.
Jensen teaches journalism at the University of Texas at Austin. He can
be
reached at rjen-@uts.cc.utexas.edu.
PLEASE CLICK THE LINK BELOW TO READ:
"The price of Vietnam being allowed to come out of isolation was the
destruction of its health services"
By John Pilger, New Statesman 27th November 2000
http://www.zmag.org/viethealth.htm
(EXCERPT: The Americans have spent millions of dollars
on the highly politicised exercise of looking for bone fragments of
downed American pilots. Not a cent has gone to remove 3.5 million
landmines,
or to compensate the victims of Agent Orange. This defoliant was an
American weapon
of mass destruction containing the carcinogenic dioxin. In 1970, a
Senate
report
estimated that "the US had dumped [on southern Vietnam] a quantity of
toxic
chemical amounting to six pounds per head of population".
Had Clinton visited the giant Tu Du Hospital, he would have grimaced
at the rows of malformed newborn babies. .... Vietnam's battles will not
be over
until the enduring debt they are owed by an invader is paid in full).
========================================
TokyoProgressive's ChocoPaul News
URL: http://arenson.org Email: tokyopro-@c2o.org
=============================================================
Date: Dec 21 2000 18:14:24 EST
From: "Chocopaul News" <pa-@arenson.org>
Subject: Changes-Zinn on U.S. Elections,Genentech/American Heart
Association Connection, Japanese History...
=================================
TokyoProgressive's ChocoPaul News
Issue # 59
URL: http://arenson.org Email: tokyopro-@c2o.org
=============================================================
Welcome back! You may have been wondering where we were the last 2
(3?)
weeks.
Making changes to the appearance and functionality of the web site.
The major changes:
--1--A new search facility will allow you to search TokyoProgressive
for both Japanese and English keywords (still a work in progress
as many older pages have cryptic names and the technology
doesn't always work 100 percent effectively).
For those interested in social issues and cultural aspects of
Japan often from an alternative viewpoint, there is a seach facility for
William Wetherall's page.
You can also search a very big Japanese alternative network
called Japan Computer Access (a member of the Association for
Progressive Communication like us), their Korean counterpart,
the Electronic Frontier Federation (Internet Privacy issues)
and ZNET (the premier left-wing American site). These searches are-
so far-only in English.
Two soon-to-be partner sites are listed for you to past in to an
Internet-Search
box as well: psycologist Dennis Fox, University of Illinois, and
Darrell
Moen of
the Shibaura Institute of Technology, whose site covers similar ground
as
mine. He
has a wealth of links, including film transcripts.
Finally, for those not quite sure WHAT (or WHO? ) they are searching for
(or why?),
there is the famous Takakuwa list of 100s of speciality search engines,
on
all
continents!!!!!!!!!!
--2--Music! 30 minutes of songs (with lyrics) but a not-so-famous
singer
named
Paul. By the way, some are asking why the page is known as ChocoPaul.
This is
an old joke between my friend Sadako (now rumored to be travelling in
Latin America)
and me having to do with chocolate's ability to appeal the same area of
the brain as
love. As there is a fanous chocolate in Japan known as Chocoball with a
cute little
cartoon character, I appropriated it for my site.
--3-- A remote control. A remote control??? Some said that my page
needs
more
humor, so why not? Besides, it may be easier to navigate the site for
some.
I think it is easier for me too. Anyway, enjoy. (if your browser is
old--in the
Internet world that is not very old at all-- theremote control may not
work,
so just use the regular text-links.)
--4--A slightly improved email facility with several more options.
Look for more news from and about Partner sites in 2001. And do use
the
SAY HELLO
function to talk to other users and/or introduce yourself. I would love
to know
a little more about the readers of this site.
And now, I am off to Islip, Bloomfield, Palm Beach and Seattle. See you
in mid
January. I may STILL be able to read email, but my friends urge me to
take
a rest from that.
Oh, and here are a couple of articles from ZNET.
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ARTICLE ONE
Busted: the Genentech/American Heart Association Connection
By Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman
ARTICLE TWO
TENNIS ON THE TITANIC
By Howard Zinn (recommended by Matt Daemian
[?]
to Robin Williams in Good Will Hunting.
The two are actually neighbors and friends)
Zinn is the historian who wrote A People's History of the United States
NEWS from the JAPAN PRESS SERVICE (including a worrying new textbook
that
praises Japan's wartime history. Like Zinn, we in Japan have our
Ienaga Saburo who writes honestly on Japan and its Imperial history, but
whose textbooks have been censored. He has lost many a court
battle against the defenders of Japanese myth, the Ministry of
Education,
also known
as the Ministry of Disinformation. In Japan, like the U.S., history
is sanitized, and we need more people like Zinn and Ienaga to help us
discover the
truth that our governments and guaradians of information hide or distort
PLUS Information from the Global Internet Liberty Campaign
Newsletter
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Busted: the Genentech/American Heart Association Connection
By Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman
For years, Genentech Inc.'s clotbuster drug tPA has been used to treat
heart
attacks.
Last year, the American Heart Association published guidelines for
physicians advising that tPA be used to treat strokes.
Whether these new guidelines will help stroke patients or not is an open
question. Whether it helps Genentech's bottom line is decided -- it
will.
Dr. Jerome Hoffman, professor of medicine at the UCLA Medical School,
sat
on
the American Heart Association panel that hashed out the new guidelines.
He
was the only member of the panel who raised serious questions about
recommending using tPA to treat strokes.
Dr. Hoffman says there is clear-cut evidence that clotbusters are
helpful
in
treating heart attack patients.
But when it comes to treating stroke, there is a great deal of
controversy.
While clotbuster drugs do some good in treating stroke, they also can
cause
bleeding in the brain.
"The Food and Drug Administration approved this drug to treat stroke on
the
basis of a single study by the National Institutes of Health, which I
find
worrisome," Dr. Hoffman said. "The study shows a marginal benefit in a
very
small number of stroke patients. Furthermore, I believe that study
conflicts
with evidence from some other studies that show increased risks with use
of
these drugs."
In the previous version of its guidelines, the American Heart
Association
recommended using clotbusters for stroke. "But they gave it a guarded
recommendation," Dr. Hoffman told us. "Last fall they were reconsidering
it.
And a proposal had been made to upgrade it to a class one recommendation
--
slam dunk -- definitely use it."
The American Heart Association calls itself "the largest voluntary
health
organization dedicated to fighting heart disease and stroke."
According to the group's 1999 annual report, it has received $1 million
or
more from some of the nation's largest pharmaceutical companies,
including
Bristol-Myers Squibb, Hoechst Marion Roussel, Novartis, Pfizer,
AstraZeneca,
SmithKline Beecham -- and Genentech.
Curious to find out more details, we called on the Association acting
science chief Dr. Rodman Starke.
Dr. Starke said that over the past 10 years, Genentech had given more
than
$10 million to the American Heart Association, including $2 million to
build
the Association's conference center in Dallas, Texas, making it one of
the
group's top corporate donors.
Did Genentech get anything in return for building the conference center?
"We put up a plaque inside the conference center thanking Genentech for
its
contribution and have allowed the company to hold a meeting of its sales
reps at the conference center," Dr. Starke said.
We questioned whether Genentech's largesse created an environment
conducive
to the writing of guidelines calling on physicians to treat stroke with
Genentech's tPA -- over the informed objections of one of the panelists
--
Dr. Hoffman.
"Poppycock," Dr. Starke says. "There is no influence of any corporate
supporters of what the guidelines are going to say. The guidelines
wouldn't
be any good if people would point to them and say -- well these were
bought."
We asked Dr. Hoffman whether he believed that the Genentech money
influenced
the American Heart Association on tPA.
"I don't have reason to believe that there is a quid pro quo with anyone
in
the American Heart Association," he said. "On the other hand, many of
the
volunteers on the panel have worked for drug companies, and while people
who
do research for drug companies often deny that this has any affect on
their
science, studies show it does have an effect -- results tend to be
better
for proprietary research than for non-proprietary research."
Dr. Starke said he would get us the conflict information on the people
who
developed and wrote the guidelines for treating stroke. But then an
American
Heart Association spokesperson called us to say that the conflict
reports
were "confidential," and that we couldn't have them. Instead, he would
set
us up with a Mary Fran Hazinski, a co-editor of the guidelines. She
would
give us what we needed to know about possible conflicts.
Hazinski said she wanted us to know that the guidelines went through 10
or
11 layers at the American Heart Association before being released.
She said that she didn't have access to the conflict statements for all
of
the people involved in the process, but that she recalled that one or
two
of
the panelists may have received a grant from Genentech.
She wasn't sure, she said, whether the people involved in the process
were
required to disclose any and all money -- speaking fees, for example --
received from Genentech. She said she didn't even know about Genentech's
$10
million in contributions to the American Heart Association -- until we
told
her -- and she was writing and editing the guidelines recommending tPA
for
stroke.
"I think it is wonderful that I never knew about the Genentech funding,"
Hazinski said. "Clearly it could not have influenced me if I didn't know
about it."
Anyone who knows a young doctor knows that they are showered with gifts,
and
trips and speaking invitations from drug companies. Drug company
largesse
knows no bounds.
Most doctors express astonishment that anyone would think that these
gifts
and trips would affect their behavior. But as Dr. Hoffman points out,
there
is a large literature documenting the many ways that it does in fact
affect
physician behavior.
"Of course it affects physician behavior," he says.
That's why he refuses to take anything -- a canvas bag, a notepad, a
trip
to
the Bahamas, or a speaking fee -- from drug companies.
And so should the American Heart Association, no matter how sweet the
corporate candycane.
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. They are co-authors of Corporate Predators: The
Hunt
for MegaProfits and the Attack on Democracy (Monroe, Maine: Common
Courage
Press, 1999).
(c) Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman
TENNIS ON THE TITANIC
By Howard Zinn
As the prize of the presidency lurched wildly back and forth in the last
days of the year, with the entire nation hypnotized by the spectacle, I
had
a vision. I saw the Titanic churning through the waters of the North
Atlantic toward an iceberg looming in the distance, while passengers and
crew were totally concentrated on a tennis game taking place on deck.
It is not just a phenomenon of this particular election. In our
election-obsessed culture, everything else going on in the world - war,
hunger, official brutality, sickness, the violence of everyday life for
huge
numbers of people - is swept out of the way, while the media insist we
watch
every twist and turn of what candidates say and do. Thus, the
superficial
crowds out the meaningful, and this is very useful for those who do not
want
citizens to look beneath the surface of the system.
In the shadows, and hidden by the dueling of the candidates (if you can
call
it a duel when the opponents thrust and lunge with plastic swords) are
real
issues of race and class, war and peace, which the public is not
supposed
to
think about, as the media experts pontificate endlessly about who is
winning, and throw numbers in our faces like handfuls of sand.
For instance, as the Gore-Bush contest rose to a frenzy, the media kept
referring -- to the Hayes-Tilden election of 1876. The education that
the
public received about this was typical of what passes for history in our
schools, our newspapers, our television sets. That is, they learned how
the
Founding Fathers, in writing the Constitution, gave the state
legislators
the power to choose Electors, who would then choose the President.
We were told how rival sets of electors were chosen in three states, and
how
Samuel Tilden, the Democrat, had 250,000 more popular votes than the
Republican , Rutherford Hayes, and needed only one more electoral vote
to
win the Presidency. But when a special commission, with a bare
Republican
majority, was set up by Congress to decide the dispute, it gave all
three
states to Hayes and thus made him President.
This was very interesting and informative about the mechanics of
presidential elections and the peculiar circumstances of that one . But
it
told us nothing about how that "Compromise of 1877", worked out between
Republicans and Democrats in private meetings, doomed blacks in the
South
to
semi-slavery. It told us nothing about how the armies that once fought
the
Confederacy would be withdrawn from the South and sent West to drive
Indians
from their ancestral lands. It told us nothing about how Democrats and
Republicans, while fencing with one another in election campaigns, would
now
join in subjecting working people all over the country to ruthless
corporate
power, how the United States army would be used to smash the great
railroad
strikes of 1877.
These were the facts of race and class and Western expansion concealed
behind the disputed election of 1877. The pretense in disputed elections
is
that the great conflict is between the two major parties. The reality is
that there is an unannounced war between those parties and large numbers
of
Americans who are represented by neither party.
The ferocity of the contest for the presidency in the current election
conceals the agreement between both parties on fundamentals. Their
heated
disagreement is about who will preside over maintaining the status quo.
Whoever wins, there may be skirmishes between the major parties, but no
monumental battles, despite the inflated rhetoric of the campaign. The
evidence for this statement lies in eight years of the Clinton-Gore
administration, whose major legislative accomplishments were part of the
Republican agenda.
Both Gore and Bush have been in agreement on the continued corporate
control
of the economy. Neither has had a plan for free national health care,
for
extensive low-cost housing, for dramatic changes in environmental
controls,
for a minimum income for all Americans, for a truly progressive income
tax
to diminish the huge gap between rich and poor. Both have supported the
death penalty and the growth of prisons. Both believe in a large
military
establishment, in land mines and nuclear weapons and the cruel use of
sanctions against the people of Cuba and Iraq. Both supported the wars
against Panama, Iraq, and Yugoslavia.
Perhaps when the furore dies down over who really won the election ,
when
the tennis match is over and we get over the disappointment that our guy
(is
he really our guy?) didn't win, we will finally break the hypnotic spell
of
the game and look around. We may then think about whether the ship is
going
down and if there are enough lifeboats, and what should we do about all
that.
This is not the Titanic. With us, there is still time to change.
--------
==============================================
[1] Mainland China's new Net censorship rules
===============================================
In its fight against online democracy activists, Mainland China trying
several new approaches that may include Western technology.
Chinese officials have launched a special Golden Shield Project, which
will
include web surveillance cameras in public places and registration files
on
every man, woman and child in the country. The idea is to help
government
agents shut down demonstrations or other such activity with greater
speed.
The Project will also include filtering software to find and block out
politically taboo messages along the Information Superhighway. What is
notable about this endeavor is that several major Western companies,
including Cisco, Sun Microsystems and Nortel Networks are marketing
their
products and expertise to Communist Chinese leaders for use within the
Golden Shield.
Besides these measures, Beijing has also announced new heavy
restrictions
on
Internet news reporting. Under these rules, private websites cannot
publish
"news" unless they first get approval from Communist officials. After
receiving the blessing of the government, these websites still cannot
report
the news themselves, but generally must use content provided by
state-run
news agencies under special contracts. Even after jumping over these
hurdles, the operators of these webpages must hire a cadre of experts to
oversee their operations-experts who essentially would have to come from
government owned news bureaus.
Human rights groups and free speech advocates have voiced fears that
these
developments will severely curtail online expression, and have expressed
considerable dismay over the apparent willingness of Western firms to
cooperate with Chinese censors. Judy M. Chen of Human Rights in China
said
that "the full potential of the Internet to contribute to China's
political
and social development needs to be fostered by strong and principled
adherence to agreed global standards of human rights - freedom of
expression
and information. Companies which claim to support such values should, at
the
very least, demonstrate their unwillingness to be associated with the
use
of
technology for repression by avoiding selling such equipment to the
security
services in China."
The Digital Freedom Network (DFN-a GILC member) posted Ms. Chen's
comments
under
http://dfn.org/focus/china/multinationals.htm
Read Martin Fackler, "The Great Fire Wall of China?" Associated Press,
Nov.
8, 2000 at
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/tech/DailyNews/chinanet001108.html
See also "China targets 'enemies' on net," BBC News, Nov. 7, 2000 at
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/asia-pacfic/newsid_1010000/1010708.st
m
======================================================
[2] Only 7 new domain names approved
======================================================
Will we soon see many new Internet domain names, including .health,
.union
and so forth? Not exactly.
That is according to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and
Numbers
(ICANN). ICANN, which is charged with handling the Internet domain name
system, decided to approve only 7 new domain names: .biz, .pro, .coop,
.museum, .aero, .name, and .info. The decision came despite increasing
evidence that desirable space in current domain names like .com and .org
was
quickly disappearing, and the opinions of numerous technologists that
perhaps millions of new domain names could be introduced without a
significant threat to Internet stability. Moreover, the application
process
itself was apparently hamstrung by ICANN's self-described "very
stringent
criteria," which included a $50,000 nonrefundable application fee-a fee
that
seemed to discourage many potential proposals to benefit private
individuals
and noncommercial groups (such as .humanrights).
ICANN's refusal to approve these new domain names has sparked
considerable
protests, particularly from failed applicants. Duncan Pruett of the
International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) lamented
ICANN's
refusal to back his organizations' proposal from .union, and said that
"the
ICANN Board's suggestion that the ICFTU, whose affiliates include 216
national trade union centres from all over the world, is not
representative
of the global trade union community is astonishing. While some board
members
had certainly done their homework, others seemed to do little justice to
proposals which represent large investments of time and money."
Similarly,
the World Health Organization, whose application for .health was also
rejected, said that it was "extremely disappointed with this outcome"
and
that it would "begin immediately to explore ways of recourse."
Meanwhile, ICANN is also facing criticism over its decision to conduct a
"clean-sheet" study regarding its internal structures and procedures.
Many
experts fear that this study may lead to the end of ICANN public
elections
and cause the organization to become even less democratic than before.
An official ICANN press release on the introduction of new Top-Level
domains
is located at
http://www.icann.org/announcements/icann-pr16nov00.htm
An ICFTU press release on ICANN's rejection of .union is available at
http://www.icftu.org/displaydocument.asp?Index=991211910&Language=EN
For more on the WHO's response to ICANN's domain name decision, see
http://www.who.int/inf-pr-2000/en/state2000-10.html
For comments from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU-a GILC
member)
regarding this process, click
http://www.internetdemocracyproject.org/ACLUcomments.htm
For further analysis, read Ben Charny, "Did ICANN help the rich get
richer?"
ZDNet News, Nov. 17, 2000 at
http://www.zdnet.com/filters/printerfriendly/0,6061,2655497-2,00.html
See also Mark Ward, "New net domains remain in short supply," BBC News
Online, Nov. 21, 2000 at
http://news.bbc.co.uk/low/english/sci/tech/newsid_1033000/1033835.stm
For further background information, visit
http://www.internetdemocracyproject.org
====================================================
[3] French court ruling boosts blocking
====================================================
A French court ruling against a major web portal company could have a
serious detrimental impact on Internet free speech.
Yahoo was recently sued for allowing auctions of Nazi memorabilia on its
site in the United States. The suit was made pursuant to French laws
that
generally prohibit such goods from even being advertised, much less
sold.
The court ruled against Yahoo and required the company to block French
Internet users from accessing the webpages in question within three
months.
If Yahoo fails to comply, it will have to pay fines amounting to US
$13,000
per day.
The ruling has generated criticism from a number of experts. In a press
release, Imaginons un réseau Internet solidaire (IRIS-a French GILC
member)
argued that the court's decision was distressing because it imposed
filtering on the basis of French citizenship (supposedly deduced from
the
ISP's IP number) or on the basis of a mere declaration of citizenship.
Moreover, IRIS contended that the ruling even went beyond the bounds of
French law, which does permit people to view such materials.
Similarly, Alan Davidson of the Center for Democracy and Technology
(CDT-a
GILC member) said that the ruling "would lead to a
lowest-common-denominator
world where the most restrictive rules of any country would govern all
speech on the Internet. What happens when the government of China
decides
to
prosecute a human rights group in the U.S. for publishing dissident
materials that are legal here but illegal there?"
Since the decision, Yahoo has stated that it will defy the court ruling
on
jurisdictional grounds. The firm also insisted compliance with the
court's
edict would be impossible because current computer programs to block
questionable Internet content are not effective. However, there is now a
similar push to block Yahoo sites in Germany, where prosecutors are
planning
to sue the corporation for allowing the sale of Hitler's "Mein Kampf" to
German citizens, which is forbidden under German law.
An English-language translation of the decisions is posted at
http://www.istf.org/archive/yahoo_france.html
IRIS's press release (in French) is posted at
http://www.iris.sgdg.org/info-debat/comm-yahoo1100.html
More information on developments in Germany is available from Steve
Kettmann, "German Hate Law: No Denying It," Wired News, Dec. 15, 2000 at
http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,40669,00.html
Read Simon Johanson, "Toben says he won't return for German trial," The
Age
(Australia), Dec. 13, 2000 at
http://www.theage.com.au/frontpage/2000/12/13/FFXA25UEOGC.html
See also Steve Gold, "Germany Landmark Nazi Ruling," Newsbytes, Dec. 12,
2000 at
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/00/159301.html
For more on Yahoo's refusal to abide by the French court ruling, see
"Yahoo!
Will Ignore Ban," CBS News, Nov. 20, 2000 at
http://cbsnews.com/now/story/0,1597,250927-412,00.shtml
See also Pierre-Antoine Souchard, "France Calls for Net 'Zoning',"
Associated Press, Nov. 21, 2000 at
http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A46742-2000Nov20.html
====================================================
[4] New Australian net censorship rules
====================================================
Cyberliberties groups are warning that new South Australian rules may
have
a
chilling effect on Internet expression.
While details are sketchy, the South Australian Attorney-General, Trevor
Griffin said that the bill would "make it illegal to make available
online
matter which would be illegal if left in a public place offline."
However,
the legislation would apparently include criteria that had previously
been
used for films and video tapes, which are more restrictive than those
applicable to books, pamphlets and other printed materials. Furthermore,
the
proposal may make it illegal simply to make sexually explicit material
available via the Internet, even if it is legal to distribute such
materials
to adults by regular mail throughout Australia. Hence, experts are
suggesting that these rules would in fact ban material online that is
legal
offline, contrary to Mr. Griffin's assertions. The SA State legislation
is
apparently intended to complement and enforce Commonwealth legislation,
which became effective on 1 January 2000 and similarly censors material
online that can legally be published and distributed offline.
Not surprisingly, free speech advocates have fiercely resisted this
plan.
Electronic Frontiers Australia (EFA-a GILC member) issued a statement
arguing that "parents are better placed than Governments to determine
whether a problem exists with their child's use of the Internet."
Indeed,
the group noted that potentially far-reaching impact the proposal would
have, and said that "The physical location of Internet content is a
matter
of little relevance. A content provider in any Australian State or
Territory
can have content hosted elsewhere in Australia or any other country." In
the
end, EFA held that such "legislative attempts to regulate content on the
Internet should be abandoned."
See EFA's coverage of this issue by visiting
http://www.efa.org.au/Campaigns/sabill.html
Read Megan McAuliffe, "South Australian government censors Net," ZDNet
Australia, Nov. 9, 2000
http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/dailynews/story/0,2000011358,20106865,00.htm
====================================================
[5] US court rulings support anonymous Net speakers
====================================================
Several recent court rulings may help protect the anonymity of speakers
online.
In one of these cases, Melvin v. Doe, a Pennsylvania jurist, Joan Orie
Melvin, tried to discover the identity of her online critics as part of
a
defamation lawsuit. State court Judge R. Stanton Wettick Jr. ruled that
"anonymous Internet speakers, unlike the national media, are vulnerable
because they lack power or money. Without anonymity, speakers will be
less
willing to express controversial positions because of fears of
reprisal."
He
held that the identity of defendant may not be disclosed until that
person
has had an opportunity to prove that the defamation lawsuit is
groundless.
Ann Beeson of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU-a GILC member),
who
was a part of the litigation team, noted the importance of this ruling,
explaining that "[u]ntil today, a public official or employer claiming
defamation could get a court to disclose the name of an anonymous Web
author
simply by filing a lawsuit."
Similarly, in New Jersey, Dendrite International sued four anonymous
Internet users (including two purported employees) for their statements
about the company. New Jersey Superior Court Judge Kenneth C. MacKenzie
denied Dendrite's request to unmask these speakers. Subsequently, Paul
Levy
of Public Citizen (which intervened in the case) praised the decision:
"By
setting forth strict evidentiary standards for compelled identification,
and
then showing that these standards can produce real protection for
anonymity,
this decision is a tremendous victory for free speech."
For an ACLU press release regarding the Melvin decision, click
http://www.aclu.org/news/2000/n111500a.html
Continued in next message
Date: Dec 21 2000 18:20:55 EST
From: "Chocopaul News" <pa-@arenson.org>
Subject: Part II (Issue 59) CPN
Continued from GILC/American Civil Liberties Union
====================================================
[6] Indian portal case threatens online speech
====================================================
Should a person be held responsible for questionable Internet content
that
is located on another person's website?
That is the question being posed by an upcoming criminal trial against
the
proprietors of an Indian search engine. The case arose when a law
student
complained that Rediff.com allowed access to pornographic material.
Subsequent police inquiry revealed that the website did not create or
contain any such files, and acted as a normal general purpose portal for
all
types of Internet content. Nevertheless, Judge S. Bhosie claimed that
search
engines ought to incorporate filters to block out objectionable sites,
and
ordered that Rediff directors be put on trial. The defendants could be
sentenced to two years in prison.
Bhosie apparently disregarded arguments made by numerous experts that
filtering software programs are flawed and block out many types of
valuable
Internet speech, including sites that have no adult content whatsoever.
A
Rediff spokesperson held that "[e]ven God cannot alter the way a search
engine works. Either you ban Indian sites from using search engines,
which
is a ridiculous idea, or you live with the fact that any Indian user
will
be
able to access porn sites."
Read Manu Joseph, "Porn a Thorn for Indian Portal," Wired News, Dec. 4,
2000
at
http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,40432,00.html
====================================================
[7] Yahoo's new "inspector" hurts free expression
====================================================
One of the world's most popular websites is launching a new program that
may
severely curtail Internet expression.
A Yahoo executive admitted that the firm will hire a special "inspector"
to
monitor its Messenger system for questionable content. Martina King, the
managing director of Yahoo in the United Kingdom, said that her company
is
working with law enforcement officials as part of this project. Under
this
plan, if the inspector discovers certain types of "unacceptable use,"
the
police will be notified and joint operations will be carried out to
silence
or prosecute the offender. Oddly enough, she even said that if these
officials suggest Yahoo should shutdown its chat rooms as a proper way
to
deal with the purported problems of adult material, she would carry it
out,
as part of "a zero-tolerance strategy."
King has further suggested that Yahoo may require computer users to
register
using credit card information, then transfer this data along to the
police.
It is unclear what effect these measures will have on Internet privacy
as
well as freedom of expression.
Read Richard Barry & Wendy McAuliffe, "Yahoo! vows to stop pedophiles,"
ZDNet News, Nov. 24, 2000 at
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2656730,00.html
====================================================
[8] US candidate sites blocked by filters
====================================================
A number of American politicians are thinking twice about the supposed
virtues of Internet filtering software.
This comes after the websites of several government office seekers were
blocked by such programs as CyberPatrol. Jeffery Pollock, a conservative
Christian candidate for the United States House of Representatives, said
that he "was quite baffled" when his election homepage was shutout.
Pollock
had previously stated that "We should demand that all public schools and
libraries install and configure Internet Filters." He later commented,
"Now
to find out that a lot of schools may have filtered out my Web site is
very
disturbing to me."
Indeed, these concerns were bolstered by a recent study by Peacefire (a
GILC
member) and NetElection.org. Entitled "Blind Ballots: Web Sites of U.S.
Political Candidates Censored by Censorware," this report showed that
together, filtering software packages such as CyberPatrol and N2H2 Bess
censored dozens of websites, including the homepages of several
prominent
incumbent elected officials. The report concluded that "[w]hile blocking
software companies often justify their errors by pointing out that they
are
quickly corrected, this does not help any of the candidates listed
above.
Their campaigns have been sabotaged in our public schools and libraries,
and
corrections made after Election Day do not help them at all."
The joint Peacefire/NetElection.org "Blind Ballots" study is available
under
http://peacefire.org/blind-ballots/
See Lisa M. Bowman, "Filtering programs block candidate sites," ZDNet
News,
Nov. 8, 2000 at
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2651471,00.html
=====================================================
[9] US gov't conducts blackbag net tapping break-ins
=====================================================
Privacy advocates are alarmed over revelations that United States law
enforcement officials have conducted secret break-ins to steal
passwords,
encryption keys and other types of sensitive computer-related
information.
Previously, US government officials had sought new laws that would allow
them to conduct these so-called "blackbag" jobs. These proposals came in
the
form of both stand alone bills (such as the Cyberspace Electronic
Security
Act) and provisions within other pieces of legislation (including a
recent
anti-Methamphetamine plan). Despite the fact that these proposals never
did
become law, recent court documents reveal that government officials have
now
gone ahead and conducted at least one break-in. Operatives from the
Federal
Bureau of Investigation (FBI) got a court's permission to
surreptitiously
enter a private building and use "recovery methods which will capture
the
necessary key-related information and encrypted [computer] files." While
neither the FBI nor Federal prosecutors have been forthcoming with
information about the break-in, reports indicated that government agents
installed a keystroke-capture device so that they could intercept
virtually
anything that was typed into a particular computer, including password
information.
It is unclear at this point how many other buildings have been invaded
by
Federal agents or whether all of the targets of such break-ins were
actually
criminals at all. David Sobel of the Electronic Privacy Information
Center
(EPIC-a GILC member) worries: "If we're now talking about expanding
(black
bag jobs) to every case in which the government has an interest where
the
subject is using a computer and encryption, the number of break-ins is
going
to skyrocket. Break-ins are going to become commonplace."
The court order is available at
http://www.epic.org/crypto/breakin/order.pdf
The FBI's prior application is located under
http://www.epic.org/crypto/breakin/application.pdf
Read Declan McCullagh, "FBI Hacks Alleged Mobster," Wired News, Dec. 6,
2000
at
http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,40541,00.html
See also George Anastasia, "Scarfo case could test cyber-spying tactic,"
Philadelphia Inquirer, Dec. 5, 2000, at
http://inq.philly.com/content/inquirer/2000/12/04/front_page/JMOB04.htm
For more on the Cyberspace Electronic Security Act, visit
http://www.epic.org/crypto/legislation/cesa/
For background information on the anti-Methamphetamine bill, read the
following press release on this subject from the American Civil
Liberties
Union (ACLU-a GILC member):
http://www.aclu.org/news/2000/n072500a.html
===================================================
[10] Carnivore spyware report criticized
===================================================
Controversy continues to grow over a US government spyware program.
The device, known as Carnivore, is attached to the server of a given
Internet service provider. It intercepts all Internet transmissions that
come through the server, then parses out pertinent material, based on
chosen
keywords. The US Department of Justice (DoJ) has confirmed that
Carnivore
can monitor private e-mail messages as well as activity on the World
Wide
Web and in chat rooms. The US Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI)
then
decides which particular communications it believes it is entitled to
review.
After considerable public outcry, the US government commissioned an
"independent" review panel to see whether Carnivore complies with
Federal
wiretapping laws, which, however, contained a large number of White
House
insiders, including a former Clinton information policy advisor, and a
former Justice Department official. In a draft report, the panel ignored
questions about the constitutionality of Carnivore and did not conduct a
number of key tests due to an apparent lack of resources. Despite the
apparent failure of the team to address these root issues, and despite
confirming reports that "Carnivore can collect everything that passes by
on
the Ethernet segment to which it is collected," the panel somehow
concluded
that the system "protects privacy and enables lawful surveillance better
than alternatives." The report also contained curiously condescending
language saying that "the public, service providers and privacy
advocates
... do not understand how electronic surveillance works."
The report was savaged by many organizations. In formal comments
submitted
to the DoJ, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU-a GILC member)
mentioned that "[w]hen the 'independent review' ... was announced, we
expressed substantial reservations about both the independence of the
reviewers and the proposed scope of their review. ... Having now read
the
report, which we note was itself redacted and subject to the sanitizing
authority of the Justice Department, our concerns have been reinforced."
Among other things, the ACLU pointed out that "despite repeated
assertions
to the contrary from the FBI, the report concludes that Carnivore has no
effective auditing function that would expose and prevent abuses."
Moreover,
while "the review team recommends against the immediate public release
of
Carnivore source code, out of the fear that Internet users will use the
information to exploit its weaknesses," the ACLU argued that "[t]his
fear
is
belied by the detailed descriptions (contained within the report) of
numerous Carnivore flaws."
In short, as David Sobel from the Electronic Privacy Information Center
(EPIC-a GILC member) pointed out in his comments to the DoJ, "Despite
FBI
claims that the review has vindicated Carnivore, it has actually
validated
many of the privacy concerns that have been voiced by the public and
members
of Congress. Internet users won't find much comfort in the review team's
report. Private communications are very much at risk."
The Final version of the Carnivore review team report is available (in
PDF
Format) under
http://www.usdoj.gov/jmd/publications/carniv_final.pdf
To see EPIC's collection of Carnivore FOIA documents, click
http://www.epic.org/privacy/carnivore/foia_documents.html
The ACLU's comments on the review team draft report are available under
http://www.aclu.org/news/2000/carnivore_comments.html
EPIC's comments on the review team draft report are posted at
http://www.epic.org/privacy/carnivore/review_comments.html
A critique of the IITRI report by a special panel of experts (including
Matt
Blaze, Steven Bellovin and others) can be seen at
http://www.crypto.com/papers/carnivore_report_comments.html
See D. Ian Hopper, "'Carnivore' Report Questioned," Associated Press,
Nov.
22, 2000 at
http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/tech/DailyNews/carnivore001122.html
See also Brian Krebs, "Senate Judiciary Committee Keeps Pressure On
FBI's
Carnivore," Newsbytes, Nov. 28, 2000 at
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/00/158690.html
==========================================================
[11] UK plan: keep everyone's emails for 7 yrs
==========================================================
Here's an idea to stop cybercrime: let the government collect and read
all
email messages sent along the network, then keep those messages for
several
years at a time.
That's apparently the plan being considered by the British Home Office.
Several law enforcement agencies in the United Kingdom (including M.I.5,
M.I.6 and others) are seeking laws to record every email and phone call
made
(as well as every webpage accessed) in the nation and retain the records
for
7 years. Implementation of this "data warehouse" scheme is expected to
cost
several million pounds. The proposal was revealed in a restricted
document
written by Roger Gaspar of the British National Intelligence Service on
behalf of several groups, including Great Britain's Government
Communications Headquarters (GCHQ). GCHQ in the past has been linked
with
ECHELON, a super-secret system designed to intercept communications from
around the world that principally operated by the US National Security
Agency (NSA).
These revelations have ignited a firestorm of criticism. Opposition
party
leader Lord Cope stated that he and many other people "are sympathetic
to
the need for greater powers to fight modern types of crime. But vast
banks
of information on every member of the public can quickly slip into the
world
of Big Brother." Indeed, a number of observers believe that the plan
would
violate numerous international accords, including the Human Rights Act
and
the European Union data privacy directive. Not surprisingly, the office
of
the European Data Protection Commissioner has said it has "grave
concerns"
about the entire project. Additionally, John Wadham from the National
Council for Civil Liberties (Liberty-a GILC member) warned that if the
proposal is approved, "we will challenge this in the courts in this
country
and the European court of human rights."
Read Kamal Ahmed, "Secret plan to spy on all British phone calls," The
Observer, Dec. 3, 2000 at
http://www.observer.co.uk/Print/0,3848,4099838,00.html
The original proposal paper is available online under
http://cryptome.org/ncis-carnivore.htm
For more of John Wadham's remarks, see Richard Norton-Taylor, "Spies
seek
access to phone, email and net links," The Guardian, Dec. 4, 2000 at
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,406439,00.html
====================================================
[12] Euro anti-privacy treaty receives backlash
====================================================
Controversy continues to swirl around a new version of a proposed
cybercrime
convention, which privacy advocates say will allow massive government
surveillance online.
Among other things, this new draft of a Council of Europe proposal would
have signatory countries enact laws that might make it easier for
government
agents to search computers and conduct real-time surveillance on private
citizens through telecommunications networks. The convention includes
provisions which may allow law enforcement officials greater access to
many
types of personal security information, such as encryption keys.
Additionally, the scheme could make Internet service providers (ISPs)
liable
for their customers' content, and may lead ISPs to monitor and retain
records on customer activities. Furthermore, the draft treaty mandates
signatories to create new harsh penalties for copyright infringement.
Minor changes were made to the convention partly in response to a
previous
Global Internet Liberty Campaign statement, which had condemned an
earlier
draft of the treaty. Subsequently, the Campaign said in a second letter
that
"To our dismay and alarm, the convention continues to be a document that
threatens the rights of the individual while extending the powers of
police
authorities, creates a low-barrier protection of rights uniformly across
borders, and ignores highly-regarded data protection principles.
Although
some changes have been made ... we remain dissatisfied with the
substance
of
the convention. We question the validity of the process that still
endures
a
closed environment and secrecy." In addition, many companies have
expressed
anxiety because they fear they will burdened with high installation
costs.
This has apparently already happened in the Netherlands, where Dutch
Internet service providers (ISPs) have passed along the costs to
ordinary
computer users by raising access fees by up to 25%. Yet despite these
apparent problems, similar anti-cybercrime proposals are sprouting up
around
the world, from Hong Kong to Germany.
To read the latest draft (no. 24 rev. 2) of the treaty, click
http://conventions.coe.int/treaty/EN/projets/cybercrime24.htm
The GILC letter in response to version 24-2 of the cybercrime convention
is
posted at
http://www.gilc.org/privacy/coe-letter-1200.html
For a German translation, of this statement, click
http://www.quintessenz.org/gilc-coe-de-1200.html
A French translation is available at
http://www.iris.sgdg.org/actions/cybercrime/gilc-coe-fr-1200.html
To see the first GILC statement, click
http://www.gilc.org/privacy/coe-letter-1000.html
For the latest press coverage on this subject, see Mark Ward,
"Cybercrime
treaty condemned," BBC News Online, Dec. 18, 2000 at
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1072000/1072580.stm
"Cybercrime pact steps on privacy, groups say," Reuters, Dec. 14, 2000
at
http://www.cnn.com/2000/TECH/computing/12/14/cybercrime.reut/index.html
Read Robert Lemos, "Cybercrime treaty still doesn't cut it," ZDNet News,
Dec. 13, 2000 at
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2664493,00.html
For a special dossier of cybercrime materials created by Imaginons un
Reseau
Internet Solidaire (IRIS-a GILC member), visit
http://www.iris.sgdg.org/actions/cybercrime
For additional background information, visit the Center for Democracy
and
Technology website under
http://www.cdt.org/international/cybercrime/
For more on the plight of Dutch ISPs, see Joris Evers, "Dutch ISPs to
Pass
Along Cybercrime Costs," IDG News, Dec. 4, 2000 at
http://www.thestandard.com/article/display/0,1151,20571,00.html
For more on the Hong Kong government's new cybercrime plans, see Adam
Creed,
"Hong Kong Govt Proposes New Laws To Tackle Cyber Crime," Newsbytes,
Dec.
4,
2000 at
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/00/158894.html
For more on recent German plans for Internet surveillance, read Rick
Perera,
"German Officials Warn of Net 'Big Brother'," IDG News, Dec. 6, 2000 at
http://www.thestandard.com/article/display/0,1151,20635,00.html
==========================================================
[13] New Zealand gov't unveils cybertapping plan
==========================================================
A recent New Zealand government proposal may significantly erode online
privacy.
The Crimes Amendment Bill would apparently allow law enforcement agents
to
secretly break into the computers of unsuspecting users. Under the
proposal,
individuals could be forced to divulge their passwords or hand over
their
encryption keys to the government. In addition, Internet service
providers
and other communications companies may have to build spyware into their
networks to fulfill the requirements of New Zealand security forces.
Observers have noted similarities between this scheme and similar
measures
adopted in other countries, such as the British Regulation of
Investigatory
Powers Act (RIP) and the United States Communications Assistance for Law
Enforcement Act (CALEA).
While the plan is supposedly meant to deter cybercrime, critics claim
that
the Bill is really designed to expand police surveillance powers on a
massive scale. To wit, New Zealand's Information Minister Paul Swain,
claimed that he had been given "an absolute assurance that law-abiding
citizens who are not involved in criminal activity have nothing to fear
from
this legislation." However, it is not clear just what specific language
would safeguard citizens from unnecessarily intrusive government
behavior.
Not surprisingly, the Bill has run into considerable opposition. Keith
Locke, a member of New Zealand's Parliament, called the legislation
"draconian" and is supporting a petition drive to keep law enforcement
officials from intercepting email transmissions. He also called on
fellow
politicians to extend the comment period for the proposal (which
currently
ends on February 9), saying that the "Internet is abuzz with protest"
and
that the short timeframe for submissions may prevent these dissenting
voices
from being heard.
For more on the Crime Amendment Bill, see Nicky Hager, "International
co-operation in internet surveillance," Heise Telepolis, Nov. 22, 2000
at
http://www.heise.de/tp/english/special/enfo/4306/1.html
For more of Keith Locke's comments, read Adam Creed, "New Zealand MP
Unhappy
With Anti-Hacking Bill Process," Newsbytes, Nov. 30, 2000 at
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/00/158760.html
14 skipped for space reasons
==========================================================
[15] Yahoo unveils crypto email service
==========================================================
One of the world's largest search engine companies will soon offer
encrypted
email service.
To do this, Yahoo has teamed up with Zixit Corporation to add an
encryption
function into its free email software. Under this system, users who
receive
encoded transmissions will receive special notifications. The recipients
would then click links contained within the notification messages to
read
the underlying encrypted emails, via securedelivery.com, which is run by
Zixit. However, Yahoo has already informed potential applicants that
"this
is not an end-to-end secure service." Specifically, email messages sent
under this plan are only encrypted after they travel from users'
computers
to Yahoo's servers. The entire system should be operational sometime
within
the next few months.
Yahoo's new encrypted web-based email program is just one of several
emerging technologies that are just now becoming available to consumers.
Several weeks ago, Hush Communications and Cyber-Rights &
Cyber-Liberties
UK
(a GILC member) joined forces to create a free service,
Cyber-Rights.Net,
which allows users to send and receive email that is encrypted and
secured
from end-to-end, assuming both the recipient and the sender use Hushmail
on
their computers. Because the system is web-based, registrants can
utilize
Cyber-Rights.Net from any location in the world that has Internet
access.
Cyber-Rights.Net is part of a campaign against the controversial British
Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIP) 2000, which passed into law
this past October and has been heavily criticized by privacy advocates.
Read Dick Kelsey, "Yahoo Intros Encrypted E-mail Delivery," Newsbytes,
Nov.
29, 2000 at
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/00/158750.html
See Paul Festa, "Yahoo! delivers encrypted email," CNet News, Nov. 29,
2000
at
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-3901784.html
The Cyber-Rights.net homepage is located at
http://www.cyber-rights.net
==========================================================
[16] UK workplace Net surveillance woes
==========================================================
New questions have arisen over the extent to which British bosses can
monitor their workers online.
These questions come after the British Parliament enacted the
much-maligned
Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIP), which many people feel
will
enable government agents to conduct wide scale searches into the
activities
of private Internet users. The Act includes language stating that
employers
have a legal right to monitor their workers. Since then, the British
Data
Protection Commission has issued a draft code that would place
restrictions
on this supposed right, including fines against firms that violate the
code.
Yet despite these restraints, a Commission spokesperson claimed that
they
did not contradict the language of RIP.
This series of events has led to considerable confusion. The British
Chamber
of Commerce is now arguing that companies should ban all non-business
use
of
their email systems to avoid liability under the code. By contrast, a
Data
Protection Commission spokesman suggested that corporations "should look
at
the real risks and introduce solutions that are least intrusive." It is
not
known whether the draft will be revised to further protect the privacy
of
employees before it is scheduled to become law in the spring.
Read Will Knight, "Could employers ban personal email?" ZDNet UK, Nov.
28,
2000 at
http://www.zdnet.co.uk/news/2000/47/ns-19354.html
See also Jane Wakefield, "Cable company sacks six for email 'misuse',"
ZDNet
UK, Nov. 29, 2000 at
http://www.zdnet.co.uk/news/2000/47/ns-19364.html
==========================================================
[17] Airline wants IDs of protest site's visitors
==========================================================
A major US air carrier is trying to discover personal information about
its
online critics.
United Airlines is seeking to identify visitors to www.the-mechanic.com,
which purportedly was popular with union member employees. United had
previously gone to court and won a restraining order that banned its
mechanics from taking part in certain labor-related job actions (such as
strikes). However, the company went further by getting a subpoena for
data
regarding 30 or so people who had posted messages on the message board
of
the aforementioned site. It tried to justify its action by claiming that
merely expressing views through the Internet was tantamount to engaging
in
the sort of job actions that were banned in the restraining order. In
the
words of United spokesperson Andy Plews, "It is clear the temporary
restraining order is not being complied with."
Dennis Sanderson, who runs www.the-mechanic.com, vehemently objected to
these suggestions from airline officials, and noted the intimidating
nature
of United's court maneuvers: "The objective of the whole thing is to
shut
the Web site down. I'm no constitutional lawyer, but don't people have a
right to disagree with corporate management?" For his part, Sanderson
not
only denied taking part in any job action, but said he had no official
role
in the union that represents United's mechanics and had not received any
sport from the group.
See Marilyn Adams & David Field, "United Seeks Identities of Web Site's
Users," USA Today, Nov. 28, 2000 at
http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/cti846.htm
Japan Press Daily Service
Japan Press Service
Phone:+81-3-3423-2381 Fax:+81-3-3423-2383
FIRST TRANSMISSION, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2000
JPS 12-078
TOKYO DEC 21 JPS -- Nakasone Yasuhiro, then Defense Agency director
general told the U.S. in 1970 that Japan would approve U.S. nuclear
weapons
to be brought into Japan in an emergency.
Asahi Shimbun reported this on December 20 based on declassified
U.S.
documents that included a record of a secret meeting Nakasone had with
U.S.
Defense Secretary Melvin Laird.
The paper also reported that Nakasone, Liberal Democratic Party
House
of
Representatives member and former prime minister (1982 to 1987) said,
"It
was possible that I made such remarks."
Asahi Shimbun pointed out that the Japanese Communist Party in the
Diet
in 1972 criticized Nakasone for willingly accepting the possible
bringing
in of U.S. nuclear weapons to Japan.
Fuwa Tetsuzo, JCP Secretariat head at the time, in the House of
Representatives Budget Committee meeting in March 1972 showed a 140-page
confidential record of Nakasone's September 1970 visit to the U.S.,
which
was signed by Nakasone himself.
Quoting the record, Fuwa blamed Nakasone for having told Laird that
the
U.S. should reserve the right to introduce or reintroduce nuclear
weapons
in Japan, as it was the subject of prior consultation between the two
countries.
Defense Agency Director General Esaki Masumi at the time said, "My
understanding is that there is no such official record."
In answer to Fuwa, Sato Eisaku, prime minister at the time said, "I
think he should have refrained from stating such things, but that was
his
personal opinion. It's impossible to check all of personal opinions (of
cabinet members)."
Akahata on December 21 reported that Nakasone on December 20 at a
news
conference in the Diet withdrew the comment he earlier made to Asahi
Shimbun, saying, "I have never told the U.S. that I would approve U.S.
bringing of their nuclear weapons into Japan." (end item)
JPS 12-080
Historians and educators jointly call for truth of history to be
defended
TOKYO DEC 21 JPS -- Sixty historians and educationists on December
19
issued an appeal to express deep concern about the plan for the
publication
of a junior high school history textbook that praises Japan's war of
aggression.
The history textbook, which the Association for Creating a New
History
Textbook has applied for authorization, describes a myth of ancient gods
(emperor's ancestors) as a historical fact, and justify the Pacific War
as
a war of liberation of Asia.
The appeal points out that the right to publish a textbook should
never
be abused to carry false statements or ficticious stories.
It also criticizes the textbooks for denying academic achievements
of
historical science and studies. (end item)
Date: Jan 10 2001 02:18:48 EST
From: "Chocopaul News" <pa-@arenson.org>
Subject: Bye Microsoft, Hello Topica
Notice to CP News members
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
ChocoPaul News is moving to a new server.
Please be pateint while things are being set up.
Among new features will be a second list (optional)
for interacting with other readers of ChocoPaul
News and the Tokyoprogressive website.
You may receive a message regarding the new
server from our new host, Topica.
I will be back soon with a new newsletter.
paul
PS This only affects CP News, not various class lists, at leastfor the
present time.
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