Whatever happened to Africa?

I've been talking to a friend of mine, and we've come to the conclusion that Africa is largely ignored in the mainstream media. We hear some stories: mostly about AIDS (but not about things we need to hear about like the extortion of pharmaceutical companies, economic policies imposed by the West to prevent people from buying cheaper, generic drugs, etc.) and certain crises that have been neglected for so long that they can no longer be ignored by mainstream media. But even then, the issues aren't addressed like they should be, like Sudan.

Also, what does get through in the media tend to be the more profitable stories that are easily delivered and easily consumed. Africa has tons of crises with civil war and starving people being oppressed by despotic governments. Perhaps in today's world of entertainment, the countless stories of tragedy in Africa are just too hard to keep track of to the average viewer and get sucked into the memory hole?

I'd like to think it's not because the media is racist.

I know for certain that black people show up on camera. I know that's not the reason for the lack of coverage. As much as the rich elite might want to believe, Africans are not ghosts. So why does the West treat them like they don't exist?

"Three suspected resistance fighters and two policemen were killed in a clash in the southern Russian republic of Dagestan bordering war-torn Chechnya, police officials said.
. . .
Separatists have been fighting pro-Moscow forces in Chechnya for most of the past decade. The current war began in October 1999 as an intended quick Russian military operation that has unexpectedly met by stiff Chechen resistance.

It has since dissolved into a guerrilla war that continues to claim lives on both sides of the conflict on a nearly daily basis." - Aljazeera

I feel bad for being so ignorant on the matter. I've known of war and death in the region, but nothing about the details. It's strange that this kind of violence and turmoil occurs on the streets every day in some places and goes largely unnoticed in our society, even in the days of advanced technology. No amount of technology makes up for bad journalism or a lack of compassion for people, even if they are total strangers. Really, the two must go hand in hand. Is that why Fisk and Pilger are so good? Is that why our school textbooks don't read like Zinn? Why must everything be a commodity? It makes the real world seem so fake. The mainstream media doesn't care about the people that make their stories happen, they're just selling copies.

A plague of locusts threatens some parts of Africa:

"Without immediate attention to the plague of locusts, the FAO warned entire fields of maize, cassava and other staple regional crops would be destroyed.

An invasion by the voracious insects has already spread to 6.5 million hectares (16 million acres) of agricultural land in the Arab Maghreb nations of north Africa and the Sahel region to the south.

One tonne of locusts - a very small portion of an average swarm - eat as much food in one day as about 10 elephants or 25 camels or 2500 people."

This is a very serious situation and they need help immediately. The people in those countries are starving enough already. Hopefully international aid is underway. They need about 83 million dollars for the campaign to protect from the locusts, but the donations promised are well under what is needed.
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Wal-Mart has a frightening anti-union campaign.
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"WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House will project on Friday a record budget deficit expected to total between $425 billion and $450 billion for fiscal year 2004, government sources said.
...
A deficit topping $425 billion would be well above the shortfall of $374 billion in 2003, which was a record.
...

Bush has cited a recession and the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, including wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

A stronger economy that has lifted tax revenues in recent months led to the downward revision in the budget deficit, administration officials said.

Richard Kogan of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities suggested the administration had overstated the deficit in February "so that it could produce a lower, more realistic deficit estimate later in the year and claim the drop proved its tax-cut policies were working."

Republicans are expected to tout the revised forecast as a sign of progress in reducing the budget gap."

This reminds me a lot of the Federalist and Hamiltonian economics, only exponentially more insane.

No manual recounting for touch-screen voting? WTF? Florida was an extremely tight race in the 2000 presidential auction. In 15 counties in Florida, they will be using touch-screen voting machines that don't make printouts or paper trail of any kind, and are easily hacked, and there are all kinds of shady politics and shemes involved.

Plus, software instability alone is enough to reconsider the use of the machines without paper to keep track of votes. In 2002, South Carolina lost 436 votes to two machines in an election because of software trouble. When 537 votes in Florida determined the outcome between Bush and Gore, a mistake like that would be detrimental. Seriously, what the fuck?

more deforestation woes...

I was reading up some more about the Amazon and noticed some more articles about factors that lead to further deforestation and realized how we've really gotten ourselves into quite a pickle. Fires in the Amazon are accelerating the rate of deforestation and contributing to higher temperatures, less rainfall, and even high levels of pollution. Also, with the burning of forests, the land becomes "savannized," unable to process as much CO and CO2 as before, thereby reducing the ecosystems that make our planet safe to breathe on. Some of the fires are natural and simply add balance to nature by allowing plants and animals to live later; it's just a natural part of the cylce. However, others are not started by humans and we simply cannot afford to destroy as much forest as we do because we're having enough trouble with greenhouse gases as it is. Have we no respect for Gaia?

what would Buddha do?

A superhighway project in the Brazillian amazon could clear thousands of square kilometers of rainforest. The project is still under planning and consideration, but it if the Brazillian government gets its way. It will be built within four years, for the typical capitalist/mercantilist/imperialist bullshit reasoning governments and businesses are known for. It is supposed to bring in development and open trade to foreign investors in Europe and Asia. However, as Cícero Pereira da Silva Oliveira, who is the had of a union of workers in rural Trairão, said, "it will bring ruin to the region—more land grabbing, more drug trafficking. Total violence will arrive."

This on top of the environmental concerns:

"That would be a local disaster with global implications. During the 1990s, deforestation may have accounted for 10-20% of the carbon released into the atmosphere. Road development could deforest 30-40% of the Amazon by 2020, according to one estimate. But the paving of the BR–163 is supposed to be a different sort of roadworks, bringing growth that is ordered rather than chaotic, reducing social inequities rather than exacerbating them, preserving the Amazon rather than despoiling it." (from the article)

As the road is now, it has already brought trauma into the region. An indigenous tribe of people "was decimated by viruses brought by the settlers and expelled from its traditional territory" and the region of the highway has "the highest concentration of slave labour in the known world."

Let us try to stop this mess. Most governments have pledged their promise to pave the road, and it doesn't look like time is on our side either with deforestation accelerating, but I can bet that most people are with us in opposition to the destruction of our planet.

Something also needs to be done about the people of the region, though. The ardent advocates of the road project are involved in the Soya industry, which contributes to much of the deforestation and also employs few people. With other factors, the people in the forest are practically "condemned to poverty." Something needs to open up their lives to the rest of the world. There just has to be a better way.

sanctions are abominations

SINCE early last year, black African rebels in the Darfur region of Sudan have been in revolt against the country's Arab-led government, over many long-standing grievances. To crush the uprising, the government has armed an Arab militia, the janjaweed, and instructed it to kill, rape and terrorise black civilians. As a result, the United Nations says Darfur is now suffering a worse humanitarian crisis than anywhere else in the world. It reckons that 30,000 people have already died and more than 1m have been forced to flee their homes, often ending up in disease-ridden refugee camps. The US Agency for International Development said recently that, without help, 1m people may die, and that 300,000 will probably die whatever is done.

In the past few weeks, the world’s powers have been increasing the pressure on the Sudanese government, threatening sanctions and even talking of sending troops. On Monday July 26th, the European Union’s foreign ministers, meeting in Brussels, demanded that the UN pass a resolution threatening sanctions if Sudan’s government does not immediately take action to stop the conflict. Also on Monday, the 53-country African Union (AU) said it was trying to revive peace talks between the government and rebels, from which the rebels walked out last week. The AU is already sending a group of observers backed by around 300 troops, to monitor an oft-broken ceasefire between Darfur’s rebels and government forces. The UN is considering sending a peacekeeping force and, in the past few days, Britain, Australia and New Zealand have indicated their readiness to contribute troops. -The Economist

Something certainly needs to be done to stop the genocide in Sudan and similar measures need to be taken to protect the people of Zimbabwe in their struggle. However, I am irate that some people push for economic sanctions to get back at tyrants. The sanctions only hurt the people they are allegedly trying help by making the poor people even poorer and not really causing any harm to the oppressors. Just take a look at Iraq or Cuba, who were subject to economic sanctions. The sanctions were simply devastating to an already deprived and mistreated people.

Boston cops protesting the DNC!

BOSTON (Reuters) - Demonstrators outside this year's Democratic National Convention will include the usual suspects -- peace activists, environmentalists and the like -- as well as some new faces: the police.

Disgruntled members of the Boston Police Patrolmen's Association, who have been locked in a protracted labor dispute with the city, plan to hound and heckle Boston Mayor Tom Menino during the four-day convention that opens in one week.

Sounds pretty tight. Hopefully the NYC police will chime in and do their part for the Republican National Convention, too.
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Hmmm... Trickle-up economics?

Apparently the Washington Post did an analysis of the Bush Administration tax plan and found that the tax cuts on the wealthy put the burden on the poorer folk. Well, isn't it obvious? Now, there's supposed to be a second round of them, which would make the distribution of wealth even worse in the country. Apparently, even Bush realized that it was a dumb plan, but he doesn't really sound too smart when he says it.

According to a transcript, the president, George Bush, questioned the strategy. "Haven't we already given money to rich people? This second tax cut's gonna do it again," he reportedly said. "Shouldn't we be giving money to the middle?"

You have to wonder who exactly these economists that they hire are and where they got their degrees. More importantly, you have to question who picks them in the first place. Obviously the people that are making economic decisions for their countries and the world wouldn't know decent economics if Joseph Stiglitz was biting them in the ass.

head of Gaza police kidnapped

JERUSALEM, July 16 -- The top police officer in the Gaza Strip was kidnapped Friday by Palestinian gunmen, who paraded him through the streets of a refugee camp and accused him of stealing $22 million in public funds, Palestinian security officials and eyewitnesses said. The gunmen later released the officer unharmed and said the incident was intended to publicize his corruption. - Washington Post

Damn. The violence there seems to escalate every day. Also, I'm worried about how much the Israeli civilians are being indoctrinated by propaganda. About 80% of the Israeli's use television as their main source of news, but the coverage about those issues is definitely lacking. They will likely hear of the conflict, but not much of the political issues surrounding it. So, while it is reasonable to be aggravated by that kind of violence, there won't likely be rational discussion of the corruption that is taking place. Also, in the coverage of the Israel/Palestine conflict they see on TV, " there is almost nothing on the news about the history or origins of the conflict and viewers are extraordinarily confused about this." So, no wonder the Israeli people are irrationally supporting what has become known as "Apartheid wall." They've been misled by the media about many things, among them that the Israel occupying Palestinian territories was actually the other way around. No wonder public opinion has changed from overwhelming opposition to the building of the wall to nearly 80% of Israeli citizens supporting it.

Apparently, Clinton thinks North Korea is a bigger threat than Iraq right now (quite possibly true. Hell, Israel is probably a bigger threat to peace than Iraq). However, he's a big hypocrite with one of the worst human rights records in modern history, so I suppose I'd take his advice on foreign policy like I'd take advice about driving from a drunken man from the Renaissance that got sent to the future...

Essentially, his logic is that they pose a much greater threat to the security of the world, which might actually be true. However, he doesn't think that the doctrine of pre-emptive war would be effective here because, well, this country can actually defend itself and an invasion would likely piss them off and then North Korea might actually invade South Korea, making everything even worse. While he says the doctrine of preemtive war is "laudable in principle," he doesn't like it in practice. Well, that's a no-brainer. Any unnecessary military invention tends to escalate the violence. Obviously, invading a country with guns ablazing is a bad idea when it puts many civilians at risk in a politically unstable region that is devastated by years of economic sanctions. I'd think Clinton would have learned that after two terms of experience with similar interventions.

Anyways, I think this could be a tactic to bring attention away from the horrible things happening in Iraq with the US-appointed interim government. Democracy is looking pretty grim in Iraq when one of the first things the new government does is declare its right to martial law, the election will probably occur well after the latest date the UN said it could take place, and the interim prime minister is accused of shooting six suspected insurgents in a police station with a pistol.

The Economist has an informative overview of the AIDS situation right now.

Basically, the people are beginning to get more funding from the politicians, but it's really only quieting some activist groups, not solving problems. A lot of woes are still political issues, like laws that restrict the distribution of cheaper generic drugs in certain countries, making it even harder for people to get AIDS/HIV care.

Notable problems:

"The first reason for this is that Congress requires at least one-third of the prevention money to be spent on programmes that focus on sexual abstinence. Practice has shown that such an approach does not work—at least it does not work without an equal or greater emphasis on the use of condoms. Condoms are included in the “ABC” (Abstain, Be faithful, use a Condom) acronym that has been coined to describe this part of PEPFAR. But activists fear that the importance of condom use is being played down for religious reasons.

Nor are the activists pleased with the plan’s arrangements on antiviral drugs, which are supposed to reach 200,000 people by the end of this year and many more in future years. Those groups that have so far been awarded contracts under the plan have no choice but to deploy medicines approved by America’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA). That might sound reasonable, but most such drugs are branded American products. Cheaper (foreign-made) generics are not permitted without FDA say-so, despite the fact that many have been approved by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

A third source of unhappiness is to be found in some of the countries where the cash is being spent. While recipient governments say they are grateful for the money, local officials—in Uganda and Rwanda, for example—complain privately that they have not been adequately consulted in the plan’s projects for their countries, and are worried these may not fit in with national strategies to fight the disease. This lack of consultation may be teething trouble. Randall Tobias, Mr Bush’s global AIDS co-ordinator (pictured above at the Bangkok conference), says it is PEPFAR’s intention to collaborate with local health ministries."

Essentially, while there is money being thrown at the issues, there is no real confrontation to the problem. Some tactics are offensive to other cultures or just plain stupid. Also, AIDS care in the United States is slow and underfuned (and we're among the wealthiest people in the world). There are nearly 60,000 people on the ADAP waiting list for AIDS care in the United States. So, imagine a place like Africa or Asia (1 in 4 new cases of HIV are from Asia) where AIDS is more widespread. Something is very wrong here.

Anarchism in Spain

I just got my wisdom teeth pulled, so I'm not much in the mood for writing, but my friend Sean just finished up a huge article about Spanish Anarchism and posted it on Wikipedia. I'm going to have to read it, he's a bright kid. Definitely check it out if you're into that kind of thing.

On a different note, bad news for the environment. They're still going to build a waste site in Nevada despite it being illegal.

Wall is declared illegal, but Israel continues contruction....

"The International Court of Justice has ruled that the barrier Israel is building in the West Bank is illegal and has demanded reparations for Palestinians affected by it. There will now be pressure for sanctions to make Israel stop building the barrier but its construction is likely to continue." - The Economist

It's a pretty informative article. I'd suggest reading it. It doesn't really help you understand much history, but there is some background and it should bring you up to date on what's happening.

Hopefully the UN declaring the wall illegal will be a step toward Palestinian liberation. However, it is unlikely because world court decisions like this are non-binding and pretty much useless for enforcing international law. I'm sure Israel will refuse to halt construction of their 390 mile wall, which consists of "concrete walls, barbed-wire fences, trenches and patrol roads." And there isn't likely to be much objection to Israel's refusal as actions taken against Israel would likely be vetoed by the United States or some other countries of the council with veto-power.

I'm thoroughly pissed about how things work in international courts now. I was hoping there would be justice, but I suppose that I should have simply referred to the history of US and others' military interventions since the Declaration of Human Rights and other international laws and treaties have been passed for ample confirmation that such declarations only serve to conceal the arbitrary rule of capitalist empires (i.e. corporations). There are no human rights in despotism.

silly machines. . .

I've been having computer problems lately. Sorry about teh m4j0r lack of updates recently. I'm trying to get everything working and stuff, but I've got a three day meet this weekend, so it's going to be tough to get the updates in. In the meantime, I recommend you go look for your own media (or make some):

Infoshop this place is the shit for anarchists and stuff.
Indymedia this is the independent news source. tons of stuff from ordinary people all over the world.
These places have loads of news:
Reuters
Al Jazeera
Washington Post
NY Times
The Nation
The Economist (maybe a bit of capitalist edge at times, but good objective news)
Yahoo! News is good, but their AP section is best:
The Guardian
AlterNet

Blogs to check:
This Modern World is a neat little thing
http://www.tothebarricades.tk/ is sean's site. very good.
anti-war blog. not much more to it than that
AMERICAblog: Because a great nation deserves the truth

Ummm... I could put more, but I don't know if anyone has the time to read all of that stuff. Be sure to check it out. Woot! Taking back and improving our media one post at a time! (sounds odd when I just linked to a bunch of mass media/ corporate giants' sites, but there's nothing wrong with using a free resource)

Sean pointed out a great review(critique) of F 9/11 by Robert Jensen. Basically it points out all the flaws in its argument. I think that the most fundamental problem of the movie is that it's more of a polemic than a real analysis. A lot of the flaws he points out in Bush are flaws that most presidents have had since WW2, and all of his answers to the problems seem to be to get Bush out of the White House. So, check out the article. Michael Moore got owned.

Sean also points out some irony in the movie's purpose. It's on its way to being the highest-grossing documentary of all time, but:
Unfortunately, while the movie is spreading information about Bush and Co.'s war profiteering exploits, it is may also end up filling the pockets of the Carlyle Group, one of the most infamous war profiteers with direct links to the Bush family. On Tuesday June 21, the previous owners of Loews Theatres in the United States agreed to sell the theatres to Bain Capital, The Carlyle Group and Spectrum Equity Investors for $2.0 billion"
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Hmm... Kerry picks Edwards for VP running mate. Interesting. I was hoping for Kucinich, but I hope for a lot of things that never end up happening. I guess it's a good tactic for the Democrats because he was pretty popular in the primaries and he's a Southerner, which could attract some votes in the South from the states that are generally more likely to vote Republican.
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By Louis Charbonneau

VIENNA (Reuters) - U.N. nuclear watchdog head Mohamed ElBaradei hopes to get Israel to begin talks on ridding the Middle East of nuclear weapons, whether it admits to having them or not, when he flies to the Jewish state on Tuesday.

Under its policy of "strategic ambiguity," Israel neither admits nor denies having nuclear arms. But international experts believe Israel has from 100 to 200 warheads based on estimates of the amount of plutonium its reactors have produced.

ElBaradei had wanted to get the Israelis to abandon their ambiguity policy, Western diplomats said, but Israel has made clear this is impossible at present.

"There are no signs of a policy change in Israel," said a diplomat close to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which ElBaradei heads.

The diplomat, who declined to be identified, said ElBaradei would not be pushing Israel to abandon the policy, which it has kept up for decades for fear of sparking a regional arms race.

But the diplomat said ElBaradei intended to "promote the concept of a nuclear free zone in the Middle East" in meetings with senior Israeli officials including Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom.

Israel is the only Middle East country not to have signed the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). This keeps it exempt from opening up its nuclear program to U.N. inspectors.

During his visit, ElBaradei is to tour Israel's atomic facilities -- except for the reactor at the desert town of Dimona, where independent experts believe the Jewish state has produced plutonium.

Hopefully they will tighten up scrutiny of Israel. I'm tired of them getting off easy on their militarism. To the region, Israel is probably one of the biggest threats to peace but everyone kisses their asses because they're U.S. allies. Plus, people are afraid of criticizing Israeli policies because people like to throw around the word "anti-semite."
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I heard about the booing of Cheney at the Yankees game, but seeing this quote from David Letterman on Infoshop makes it that much more significant... and funny.

Dick Cheney was at the ball game last night. During the 7th inning they showed him on the jumbotron at Yankee Stadium and everyone started booing him. You know Dick Cheney has a temper. He went a little crazy and went around the stadium and grabbed everyone that booed him and then he ran them all around naked on a leash. -- David Letterman
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This are heating up "Four Palestinians and an Israeli army officer have been killed in exchanges of fire around the Ain Bait Ilma refugee camp in the northern West Bank town of Nablus, Israeli and Palestinian security sources said.

The shooting occurred early on Tuesday during an attack by an elite wing of the Israeli occupation army on the camp. Three soldiers were wounded, one seriously, in the ensuing firefight.

Two of the four Palestinians were resistance fighters while the others were civilians, Palestinian security and hospital sources said... [they] were named as 52-year-old doctor Khalid Salah and his 15-year-old son Muhammad." - Aljazeera
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This is some pretty scary shit and a moving article.

Baghdad has confirmed that a US bombing raid on Falluja took place after consultation with the appointed interim government.

Hospital sources in the town said at least 12 people were killed and five more wounded, listing women and children as among the victims.

But interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi justified the decision to bomb on Tuesday, insisting that the two tonnes of explosive dropped had targeted a hide-out for alleged supporters of the fugitive Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

The PM insisted the raid hit "terrorists" who "kill innocent Iraqis and destroy schools, police stations and hospitals with booby-trapped cars and jackets stuffed with explosives".

However, local residents did not accept the explanation.

"They talk about terrorists, but these are just families," said a man belonging to an angry crowd of locals who gathered at the lip of a large crater gouged by the blast.

The six bombs used in the air raid left little of the target. Many residents began to dig around the massive crater in search of more bodies following the attack.

Do I smell hypocrisy?

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration is expressing steadfast opposition to reviving the military draft despite the stress placed on America's all-volunteer force by large-scale operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"I just can't imagine it," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said last week when asked under what circumstances it might be necessary to resume the draft.

"As a matter of fact, despite all the talk about the stress on the force, today we still are having very good results with respect to recruiting and retention. And we do not have a problem of attracting and retaining the people we need in the military," Rumsfeld said.

No problems attracting people they need in the military? You say that, but you have the involuntary recall to action of people that already served. That sounds to me like they're short on volunteers for service. At least we've got time to build up an opposition. Congress is reluctant to reinstate the draft during an election year and there's very little support right now on the bills proposing to bring it back.
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"We still believe, on America's 228th birthday, that freedom has the power to change the world," Bush said in remarks laced with references to God and the courageous character of the U.S. military.

"We are proud of our founders, but I know that the founders would be proud of America today," Bush said. "They would see a nation that is the world's foremost champion of liberty. They would see a nation which stands strong in the face of violent men."

Also, I think about what bush said at his speech about not being able to nogotiate with "terrorists."

"You can't talk sense to them. You can't negotiate with them. You cannot hope for the best with these people. We must be relentless and determined and do our duty."

Then, I think how much that sounds like one of those Islamic extremist terrorist guys that they talk about and am again reminded of how is words compare to horrible dictators like Francisco Franco (because the left like to compare him to Hitler and Franco... a lot).
Bush: "You are either with us, or against us."
Franco: "Those who are not with us are against us" (or something to that extent. I'm not going to bother looking it up. It's just a translation from Spanish anyways. I'm not even concerned because the comparison is made too often) Maybe it would be more orginal to go for something less overused like Ezra Pound's broadcasts to Italy. Someone also recommended Joseph DeMaistre and George Lincoln Rockwell.

Maybe something to look into? I enjoy a good critique of American policies, but I've seen to many Hilter/Third Reich or Franco/Fascism comparisons to really bother reading them. I mean, I'm an anarcha-feminist, so of course I enjoy reading good leftist literature, but a lot of it is really predictable and unorginal these days. If I can barely stand to listen to their crap, I doubt the moderates/ conservatives in power will take them seriously. Obviously it's a good thing that people are discussing and critiquing the government and stuff, but it doesn't do much good if you keep putting out the same crap all the time.

Honestly, if it didn't get through before, you should make your argument less cynical and more objective so more people will take it seriously. I really think that the leftist intelligentsia is too comfortable. It's like most of them live in a comfort bubble of wealth and have some kind of subcultural heirarchy that they do well in. It seems to me that most social change is coming from the result of poor and working class folks actually getting off their asses and doing stuff rather than this armchair/rich coffee house craptivism that seems to be dominating the left these days. Granted we need some intellectualalism to pump out criticism cure ignorance to help make social change, but something about the system just isn't working.

polio outbreaks in nigeria

Shit. This is bad news.

Nigerian children pay the price of polio vaccine ban as polio outbreak hits
03 Jul 2004
(Link)

An outbreak of polio has hit children in the Nigerian state of Kano. Kano is one of the muslim states that had boycotted the use of the polio vaccine. Many muslim states in Nigeria banned the polio vaccine because those in charge said the Americans were using the vaccines to make their population infertile. Many of them said the vaccine would also be used to spread AIDS in the region. Despite appeals from neighbouring countries to vaccinate its population, the conspiracy theorists in Nigeria got their way.

Now, as expected, polio is beginning to spread among children in the region. Now the local authorities are appealing for urgent assistance.

The World Health Organisation has sent a team to the area. The team has confirmed that the outbreak is polio.

It was only during the month of May this year that officials in Kano decided to resume vaccinations because the new batch came from Indonesia, a muslim country. Unfortunately, this massive delay is going to be paid for by scores of children, who could end up being crippled for life (as well as dying).

Polio is very rare in the world today. Vaccinations, which are done worldwide, have managed to nearly eradicate the disease. If the ‘wise’ men of those regions of Nigeria had decided to see sense a long time ago, polio would most probably not exist in Nigeria today. Why didn’t they ask for batches from muslim countries a year ago? Why did they wait so long? Everyone, the WHO, their neighbours, even their own population was begging them to see sense.

NEW ORLEANS -- Nearly 200 former soldiers who live in Louisiana will be involuntarily recalled to active duty and could be sent to Iraq or Afghanistan, military officials said.

Twenty-five former National Guard soldiers and 171 former Army members in Louisiana will be notified, some as early as Tuesday, that they are to report for active duty within 30 days, said Andrea Wales, spokeswoman for Army's Human Resources Command in St. Louis. -Associated Press.

I've mentioned the involuntary call to service before, but now that it's actually happening, it seems much worse. It's like we're that much closer to a draft.

Damn. Talk about the kind of news that will ruin your day.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Army has charged four soldiers, three of them with manslaughter, after the drowning of an Iraqi prisoner who was pushed off a bridge, while a senior general criticized U.S. military detention policies, officials said on Friday.

The soldiers, on patrol near the city of Samarra 60 miles north of Baghdad on Jan. 3, pushed two Iraqis off a bridge at nighttime into the Tigris River after picking up the men on a curfew violation, officials said. One Iraqi drowned, while the other got out of the river.

This is truly scary shit. I don't understand why our troops are so hostile to the civilians over there. It usually means extremely low morale, which would make sense because of all the factors like car bombings, the involuntary call to service, being lied to about the motives for being sent to war, etc.
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Interesting news at Reuters:
The pace of job growth has "slowed sharply in June" as less than half of the predicted number of jobs were created. In fact, the "manufacturing sector lost 11,000 jobs." Many predict a "leveling off in the pace of the economy" while the boom in number of jobs is a sign of lower corporate profits. Some say there are good signs of the economy getting better, but this might just be the aristocracy talking. One should remember that the actual quality of the job market has declined significantly with the boom in jobs. It was noticed that "that wages are not keeping up with the costs that people are facing" and the increase of jobs has actually caused the average workweek to get shorter, back to where it was in December. It's uncertain if the decline in growth will continue, but the changes seen so far have fallen short of greatness.

Also, for the first time in 4 years, "the U.S. central bank raised official interest rates a quarter percentage point on Wednesday."

GM is reported to have "double-digit declines in their U.S. sales during June, a drag on the economy not only because automakers are big employers but also major users of materials for manufacturing." The rise in energy prices is probably the most significant factor, especially considering the hike in gas prices recently.

Venezuala Watch

My cousin sent me an article about crisis in Venezuela from the Nation. It appears as though the Venezualan wealthy and the US are supporting a coup to oust Hugo Chávez, who "is the best thing that has happened to Venezuela's poor in a very long time. His government has actually delivered on some of its promises, with improved literacy rates and more students getting school meals. Public spending has quadrupled on education and tripled on healthcare, and infant mortality has declined. The government is promoting one of the most ambitious land-reform programs seen in Latin America in decades." The economy has growing steadily during his rule, but there has been about a 4 decline of GDP that are likely the result of "oil strikes, a coup attempt and capital flight." The US-backed coup attempt in 2002 failed because millions rallied for Chávez. I'd link to the article, but it's only available to subscribers. I'll put up the whole thing in a comment if you want. The line breaks might mess up in there, so I could email it to you if you want it that badly.

Yay! Let's all steal Michael Moore's movie! A Michael Moore bashing site posted a bootleg of F 9/11, and they're holding him to Michael Moore's word that he'd like his movie to be shared on the net. This is apparently what he thinks:
"I don’t agree with the copyright laws and I don’t have a problem with people downloading the movie and sharing it with people. As long as they’re not doing it to make a profit, you know, as long as they’re not trying to make a profit off my labor. I would oppose that."

So, if that's the case, let's all start downloading with BitTorrent. Hurry up, we need more bandwith so more people can download the movie and enjoy it. Hahaha! ;)

RAFAH, Gaza Strip (Reuters) - Israeli forces shot and killed a 9-year-old Palestinian boy playing soccer in a Gaza refugee camp Thursday as tanks rolled in to search for tunnels used by militants, witnesses said.

"We were playing soccer when Israeli tanks ... started firing inside the camp and toward us," said Bashir Abu Jlidan, 18, a resident of Rafah refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip.
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HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hundreds of thousands of people in white shirts poured onto the streets of Hong Kong on Thursday to challenge Beijing's refusal to allow them to elect their own leaders and to vent their frustration at Chinese rule.

Old people joined mothers carrying children in chanting "Return power to the people, fight for democracy" as they streamed for kilometers (miles) from a park to government offices in the heart of the city, waving green and black banners and carrying umbrellas to shield themselves from the sun.

Hundreds were treated for heat exhaustion as temperatures soared to 36 degrees Celsius (97 degrees Fahrenheit).

"I am here to tell Beijing that we want democracy, we want to elect our own chief executive," said construction worker Chan Sum Kee, 54, who like many others was protesting for the first time.

The demonstration, on the seventh anniversary of the former British colony's return to China, gave Beijing a taste of what it fears most, a mass show of public dissent.

But pro-democracy activists were quick to stress that what Hong Kong people wanted was more freedom under Chinese rule.

"We are here today to fight for democracy," said veteran campaigner Martin Lee. "Not a single person here wants independence."

Protest is beautiful:

Keep in mind that all these people showed up in really hot and humid weather for the protest.

Note: the Chinese government is up to some dirty tricks to stifle dissent.
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The Economist has a good article that explains a lot about the prisoner ordeal at Guantanamo. I knew that the prisoners' rights tohabeass corpus had to do with some international treaties and stuff, but I didn't realize how much the US was pwn3dz0r3d. See, they thought the Eisentrager ruling gave them "limitless rights in handling foreign prisoners without interference from American courts," but that was only when the prisoners were given the charges to be filed against them. The people in Guantanamo hadn't been told what they were being charged of. So, the Supreme Court "rejected the Bush administration’s attempt to use the base to keep the men in a legal black hole. Guantanamo Bay, while leased to America in perpetuity, remains formally Cuban territory. But the court ruled that America is in effective control of the enclave, and that federal courts therefore have jurisdiction. Now, the detainees will be able to petition for habeas corpus, the right to be brought before a court to determine whether they have been lawfully detained." So, the prisoners are going to court and it's going to totally embarrass the administration, especially considering that a lot of the prisoners are from countries the US isn't at war with right now. That's what happens when you try to fuck with people's rights.

However, the court decisions didn't decide declare the guilt or innocence of the prisoners and only released them. Also, they "left open the possibility that American citizens could still be detained without full trials, perhaps being processed instead by military tribunals," which violates the Bill of Rights as far as I can tell.
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An Israeli helicopter fired 4 missiles at a Palistinian media building. Apparently the Israeli army hasn't done anything to prevent injuring journalists as "at least 10 journalists have been killed by Israeli troops since the start of the Al-Aqsa Intifada in late August 2000, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Information."-Aljazeera