Castro califica las torturas de EEUU como 'actos cobardes y vergonzosos'
Una partidaria de Fidel Castro. | Reuters
Fidel Castro critica a Cheney por justificar torturas
Dpa | La Habana
Actualizado jueves 28/05/2009 03:12 horasDisminuye el tamaño del texto Aumenta el tamaño del texto
El ex presidente cubano Fidel Castro criticó como un "acto cobarde y vergonzoso" el empleo de la tortura por parte de las autoridades de seguridad estadounidenses en interrogatorios contra sospechosos de terrorismo, y aseguró que Cuba jamás ha recurrido a métodos similares.
"Por dolorosas que fuesen las acciones contra el pueblo de Estados Unidos el 11 de septiembre de 2001, que todo el mundo condenó con energía, la tortura es un acto cobarde y vergonzoso que no puede ser jamás justificado", afirmó Castro, de 82 años, en una nueva 'Reflexión' publicada en medios de comunicación cubanos.
"En nuestro país, a pesar de los gravísimos peligros que durante decenas de años nos han amenazado, jamás se torturó a nadie para obtener información", señaló.
A cuentas del discurso de Cheney
En su artículo, el líder cubano cita ampliamente el discurso pronunciado el jueves de la semana pasada por el ex vicepresidente estadounidense Dick Cheney, minutos después de que el actual mandatario, Barack Obama, insistiera en cerrar la cárcel de la base naval de Guantánamo, erigida sobre suelo cubano.
En el discurso, el que fuera vicepresidente durante la administración de George W. Bush, defiende las acciones de seguridad emprendidas por el anterior gobierno en respuesta a los atentados del 11-S, como las invasiones de Afganistán e Irak, y el empleo de métodos de tortura para conseguir información.
Castro consideró que "independientemente de los miles de jóvenes norteamericanos muertos, mutilados y heridos en la guerra de Irak y los fabulosos fondos invertidos allí, cientos de miles de vidas de niños, jóvenes y ancianos, hombres y mujeres que no tuvieron culpa alguna del ataque a las torres gemelas han muerto en ese país después de la invasión ordenada por Bush".
Sospechas sobre el 11-S
Además, el ex jefe de Estado afirmó que Cheney no explicó por qué los atentados del 11 de septiembre pudieron organizarse "de forma relativamente fácil, qué noticias previas de la inteligencia poseía Bush, qué pudo hacerse para evitarlos. Bush llevaba ya casi ocho meses en la Presidencia. Se sabía que trabajaba poco y descansaba mucho. Constantemente se marchaba para su rancho de Texas".
Castro cita pasajes en los que Cheney relata cómo vivió el 11-S desde un búnker de mando, y considera al respecto: "La narración de Cheney evidencia que nadie había previsto aquella situación y le presta un flaco servicio al orgullo de los norteamericanos al suponer que alguien encerrado en una cueva, a 15 ó 20 mil kilómetros de distancia, podía obligar al presidente de Estados Unidos a ocupar su puesto de mando en el sótano de la Casa Blanca".
En su 'Reflexión', el primer secretario del gobernante Partido Comunista de Cuba afirma que Estados Unidos posee entre 5.000 y 10.000 cabezas nucleares, además de armas químicas, biológicas, electromagnéticas, y considera que "esas armas están en manos de quienes reclaman el derecho a utilizar la tortura".
Castro acusa además a Estados Unidos de haber recurrido al terrorismo contra Cuba, ya desde el mandato de Dwight Eisenhower. "No se trató de un grupo de acciones sangrientas contra nuestro pueblo, sino de decenas de hechos desde el propio año de 1959, que se incrementaron después a cientos de actos terroristas cada año".
"Miles de personas fueron afectadas, y la economía, cuyo objetivo es sostener la alimentación, la salud y los servicios más elementales del pueblo ha sido sometida a un implacable bloqueo que se aplica extraterritorialmente", añadió, en relación al embargo impuesto por Estados Unidos a la isla desde los años 60.
From elmund0.es May 29, 2009
Friday, May 29, 2009
Saturday, May 9, 2009
MORE ON THE DEMISE OF THE CELTIC TIGER
All about Ireland's boom times: Read it all at:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/10/ireland-financial-crisis-emigration
Here are some interesting snippets:
There are plenty of astonishing figures in this boom. There were 6,507 racehorses in training in Ireland in 1992, yet by 2008 some 12,119 thoroughbreds were kicking up the gallops. From four private aircraft, the numbers of helicopters and jets rose to an estimated 80, with more being bought in Ireland than in any other EU country. Where once there were only a few thousand people who could afford to follow Munster's rugby players abroad, an estimated 65,000 arrived in Cardiff in 2006 to watch them become European champions.
And now? Well, in the 2006 census there were 200,000 empty homes, a figure that will now have significantly worsened. Horses are being offered to trainers by hard-up owners, or being left by the side of the road, or even shot. "All those planes and helicopters are for sale," I am told by one businessman.
Still, for many, the good times had been grand. In the late 1980s, economists close to Fianna Fáil, the broadly centrist political party that has clung to power like few others in Europe, had slashed taxes, regulations and corporate rates in order to make Ireland third only to Hong Kong and Singapore as the world's most free-market country. The move, satirised by journalists as the "Doheny & Nesbitt School of Economics", after the pub they claim had given birth to it, would see 40 per cent of all American money invested in Europe wash up on Ireland's shores.
Ireland had two booms, explains Fintan O'Toole, commentator, critic and historian. The first came in the 1990s. Foreign investment offered work and opportunities to the well-educated, English-speaking workforce. The whole country rose on the tide, and many of those who emigrated in the 1980s came home. As the millennium turned, however, a parasite embedded itself in the economy. Recessionary interest rates set by the European Central Bank allowed Irish bank executives to borrow huge sums, which they lent to their chums in the property business (and sometimes to themselves). When Anglo Irish Bank, the worst offender, called in the government in December 2008, it had lent 15 people more than €500m each.
This money fuelled an explosive burst of confidence. A series of spectacular new buildings appeared downstream from those starving figures on the banks of the Liffey. The "Builders", as the big property developers are called, sold land to each other at spiralling prices. These men - they were all men - whose fathers might have ended up working on English construction sites, were commissioning skyscrapers not just in Ireland, but in New York, Chicago and London, arrowing around the globe on Falcon jets. They set an example that every Irishman who had ever put mortar to brick followed.
The Builders became glamour figures. In 1999, one of the most notorious bought a plot, perhaps a quarter of an acre, in Shrewsbury Road for Ir£3m, and then promptly sued the neighbour who had sold it to him in a boundary dispute. As he built his house, Sean Dunne, 54, compact, likeable, with neatly groomed grey hair and small, terrifying blue eyes, must have sensed he was where he wanted to be, a long way from his childhood in County Carlow, in southeast Ireland, where, as he once put it, "If me or my siblings needed a bath we went for a swim in the River Slaney."
Much of the country was going crazy. The German ambassador caused a diplomatic incident when he complained that Irish life had become coarse. The church, so long a moral force, was silent, muzzled by a succession of scandals involving paedophilia and the abuse of children in care.
According to O'Toole, "People bought into the idea that this wasn't just an economic boom - it was a national vindication, a healing, the sense that our bad past was gone, and gone for ever." But he warns against confusing a sense of humiliation with an understanding of the past: "One of the most ridiculous clichés about the Irish is that we are obsessed with history. In recent decades it's been the opposite; we have been living in a continual present, in the sense that now is the only place that ever existed."
So who is to blame for all this? The Builders? Well, only a fool would have mistaken them for angels. The banks? Certainly, Sean FitzPatrick, Anglo Irish's ex-chairman, makes Sir Fred Goodwin look prudent. But as O'Toole argues, such conjecture is to let the guilty go free: "To place all the blame with the banks is a cop-out. This was crony capitalism, a political problem. We've had two prime ministers in the past 20 years who were on the take - Ahern and Haughey. Which is a lot, considering we've only had five."
................. Beyond such glamour, the collapse of the property bubble has seen unemployment rise past 11 per cent, banks nationalised, the economy forecast to shrink by 8.3 per cent, negative equity engulf great swathes of the population, the nation's international credit rating downgraded, economists warn of national bankruptcy, and taxes rising by €4,000 for the average family. As Paul Krugman, the Nobel prize-winning economist, recently wrote, "As far as responding to the recession goes, Ireland appears to be really, truly without options."
I take a train out of Dublin to Adamstown, and step out into a weird semi-wilderness. The station is like the bridge of the Starship Enterprise, manned by a lone ticket collector almost mad with boredom. Outside, a single building stands in a churned-up field, the centrepiece of a new town once heralded as the model of Irish development. I follow the deserted road east, beside a plyboard fence announcing a yet to be built swimming pool - "Come in, the water's great" - until I come to two primary schools and a few apartments. It is playtime and all the children are clearly from elsewhere. Which, I confess, comes as a shock.
Mena Baskarasubramanian is from the south of India. Until three years ago, she was living in England, but her husband's job in the IT department of a bank ("I know," she cries. "I know,") had been reassigned to Dublin. "When we arrived I heard about Adamstown and so I came to look for a house," she tells me. "It was 2006 and you wouldn't believe it, people were queueing all night." She secured a two-bed apartment for her family for €300,000.
Now chairwoman of the local primary school, Mena explains that 95 per cent of the students are from non-Irish backgrounds, with 26 nationalities. With an open face and wonderful optimism, she talks of the connections she is making, the beginnings of a very Irish network of Croats and Kazaks, Brazilians and Somalis, and Indians, and, more importantly, her fears for it. "Because of the recession, people are going back to their countries. The Polish workers are going. Doctors are moving to the Middle East. I don't want to lose this beautiful structure we have at the moment."
The value of Mena's flat has fallen by €50,000, and many of the cranes over Adamstown are no longer moving. "Some of the units have been stopped. The retail spaces were supposed to be open last year." I ask if her small boy will take up hurling. "Probably. My daughter is becoming Irish, she loves Irish dancing. The other day, two children arrived not speaking a word of English, but after four days they were singing Irish songs, thanks to our four language-support teachers." Again, the enthusiasm falters. "Due to the cutbacks it's been reduced to two. We don't know what we'll do next year."
The Celtic tiger is dying, and nobody knows what will be left. Mena's fears - about jobs, about negative equity, about the community drifting away - are every woman's fears in Ireland. Some people tell me that this time it won't be like the 1980s, that with the whole world in recession there is nowhere for the young to go.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/10/ireland-financial-crisis-emigration
Here are some interesting snippets:
There are plenty of astonishing figures in this boom. There were 6,507 racehorses in training in Ireland in 1992, yet by 2008 some 12,119 thoroughbreds were kicking up the gallops. From four private aircraft, the numbers of helicopters and jets rose to an estimated 80, with more being bought in Ireland than in any other EU country. Where once there were only a few thousand people who could afford to follow Munster's rugby players abroad, an estimated 65,000 arrived in Cardiff in 2006 to watch them become European champions.
And now? Well, in the 2006 census there were 200,000 empty homes, a figure that will now have significantly worsened. Horses are being offered to trainers by hard-up owners, or being left by the side of the road, or even shot. "All those planes and helicopters are for sale," I am told by one businessman.
Still, for many, the good times had been grand. In the late 1980s, economists close to Fianna Fáil, the broadly centrist political party that has clung to power like few others in Europe, had slashed taxes, regulations and corporate rates in order to make Ireland third only to Hong Kong and Singapore as the world's most free-market country. The move, satirised by journalists as the "Doheny & Nesbitt School of Economics", after the pub they claim had given birth to it, would see 40 per cent of all American money invested in Europe wash up on Ireland's shores.
Ireland had two booms, explains Fintan O'Toole, commentator, critic and historian. The first came in the 1990s. Foreign investment offered work and opportunities to the well-educated, English-speaking workforce. The whole country rose on the tide, and many of those who emigrated in the 1980s came home. As the millennium turned, however, a parasite embedded itself in the economy. Recessionary interest rates set by the European Central Bank allowed Irish bank executives to borrow huge sums, which they lent to their chums in the property business (and sometimes to themselves). When Anglo Irish Bank, the worst offender, called in the government in December 2008, it had lent 15 people more than €500m each.
This money fuelled an explosive burst of confidence. A series of spectacular new buildings appeared downstream from those starving figures on the banks of the Liffey. The "Builders", as the big property developers are called, sold land to each other at spiralling prices. These men - they were all men - whose fathers might have ended up working on English construction sites, were commissioning skyscrapers not just in Ireland, but in New York, Chicago and London, arrowing around the globe on Falcon jets. They set an example that every Irishman who had ever put mortar to brick followed.
The Builders became glamour figures. In 1999, one of the most notorious bought a plot, perhaps a quarter of an acre, in Shrewsbury Road for Ir£3m, and then promptly sued the neighbour who had sold it to him in a boundary dispute. As he built his house, Sean Dunne, 54, compact, likeable, with neatly groomed grey hair and small, terrifying blue eyes, must have sensed he was where he wanted to be, a long way from his childhood in County Carlow, in southeast Ireland, where, as he once put it, "If me or my siblings needed a bath we went for a swim in the River Slaney."
Much of the country was going crazy. The German ambassador caused a diplomatic incident when he complained that Irish life had become coarse. The church, so long a moral force, was silent, muzzled by a succession of scandals involving paedophilia and the abuse of children in care.
According to O'Toole, "People bought into the idea that this wasn't just an economic boom - it was a national vindication, a healing, the sense that our bad past was gone, and gone for ever." But he warns against confusing a sense of humiliation with an understanding of the past: "One of the most ridiculous clichés about the Irish is that we are obsessed with history. In recent decades it's been the opposite; we have been living in a continual present, in the sense that now is the only place that ever existed."
So who is to blame for all this? The Builders? Well, only a fool would have mistaken them for angels. The banks? Certainly, Sean FitzPatrick, Anglo Irish's ex-chairman, makes Sir Fred Goodwin look prudent. But as O'Toole argues, such conjecture is to let the guilty go free: "To place all the blame with the banks is a cop-out. This was crony capitalism, a political problem. We've had two prime ministers in the past 20 years who were on the take - Ahern and Haughey. Which is a lot, considering we've only had five."
................. Beyond such glamour, the collapse of the property bubble has seen unemployment rise past 11 per cent, banks nationalised, the economy forecast to shrink by 8.3 per cent, negative equity engulf great swathes of the population, the nation's international credit rating downgraded, economists warn of national bankruptcy, and taxes rising by €4,000 for the average family. As Paul Krugman, the Nobel prize-winning economist, recently wrote, "As far as responding to the recession goes, Ireland appears to be really, truly without options."
I take a train out of Dublin to Adamstown, and step out into a weird semi-wilderness. The station is like the bridge of the Starship Enterprise, manned by a lone ticket collector almost mad with boredom. Outside, a single building stands in a churned-up field, the centrepiece of a new town once heralded as the model of Irish development. I follow the deserted road east, beside a plyboard fence announcing a yet to be built swimming pool - "Come in, the water's great" - until I come to two primary schools and a few apartments. It is playtime and all the children are clearly from elsewhere. Which, I confess, comes as a shock.
Mena Baskarasubramanian is from the south of India. Until three years ago, she was living in England, but her husband's job in the IT department of a bank ("I know," she cries. "I know,") had been reassigned to Dublin. "When we arrived I heard about Adamstown and so I came to look for a house," she tells me. "It was 2006 and you wouldn't believe it, people were queueing all night." She secured a two-bed apartment for her family for €300,000.
Now chairwoman of the local primary school, Mena explains that 95 per cent of the students are from non-Irish backgrounds, with 26 nationalities. With an open face and wonderful optimism, she talks of the connections she is making, the beginnings of a very Irish network of Croats and Kazaks, Brazilians and Somalis, and Indians, and, more importantly, her fears for it. "Because of the recession, people are going back to their countries. The Polish workers are going. Doctors are moving to the Middle East. I don't want to lose this beautiful structure we have at the moment."
The value of Mena's flat has fallen by €50,000, and many of the cranes over Adamstown are no longer moving. "Some of the units have been stopped. The retail spaces were supposed to be open last year." I ask if her small boy will take up hurling. "Probably. My daughter is becoming Irish, she loves Irish dancing. The other day, two children arrived not speaking a word of English, but after four days they were singing Irish songs, thanks to our four language-support teachers." Again, the enthusiasm falters. "Due to the cutbacks it's been reduced to two. We don't know what we'll do next year."
The Celtic tiger is dying, and nobody knows what will be left. Mena's fears - about jobs, about negative equity, about the community drifting away - are every woman's fears in Ireland. Some people tell me that this time it won't be like the 1980s, that with the whole world in recession there is nowhere for the young to go.
Thursday, May 7, 2009
STORIES WE DO NOT READ IN THE US PRESS
FRENCH ROQUEFORT CHEESE AND AMERICAN BEEF
Gripped by an economic-crisis-induced fit of purchasing madness, I recently bought a nice square of that elegant blue French cheese--Roquefort..the lovely creamy, piquant cheese which is made of ewe's (sheep) milk and which is aged in cool limestone caves in southern France where it has been made since ancient times. Even the ancients knew and enjoyed this famous product of Gaul. The Roman historian and natural scientist Pliny the Elder (who died in the August 25, 79AD eruption of Vesuvius) wrote glowingly about the cheese in his "Natural History". It was very expensive!. A little triangle was over ten dollars! The price in the local market was much more than one would pay in France itself. Perhaps three times more....Why?
The answer: Our so wise, US government has had a 100% entry tax on this fine product since 1999. They were planning to raise the tax to 300%. That would make it simple out of reach for all except the Wall Street hedge fund managers to buy. Simply a way to punish the rest of us and the French? Yes indeed!
But the part of the story which disturbs me is why we have imposed this big import tax.
Since 1980 the EU block has put an embargo on American beef --our beef laden with hormones-- since the EU considers that American beef treated with hormones was detrimental to the health of the consumer it has prevented this beef from entering its markets. The US imposed import tax on French Roquefort cheese, Italian mineral water, Belgian chocolates, EU meats, grains and other foods were simply a reaction and a threat (a tit for tat) for the EU action.
Today Le Monde reports that some deal has been struck. The Obama government will not jump the tax to 300%---in return, the French and the rest of the EU will import American beef of the non-hormone-treated variety to the tune of 20,000 tons during the first three years and raising to 45,000 tons on the fourth year.
That's great for the EU farmer and consumer. Their beef should be cheaper and their farm products will have an expanded market---but what about the US consumer? Our government is too much under the influence of the beef lobby to label meat accordingly so we continue to have to eat growth-hormone treated beef. And perhaps now that the EU's markets are opened to the non-hormone treated variety, that scarce product on American shelves will be now even more difficult to find and more expensive.
We should all demand that our government label our meats, and demand hormone-free beef and other products from our producers.
To read the whole Le Monde piece see:http://www.lemonde.fr/europe/article/2009/05/06/b-uf-contre-roquefort-l-ue-et-les-etats-unis-passent-l-eponge_1189829_3214.html
On a related topic, a recent study, spanning the past decade, evaluated the food preference of more than one-half million 50-71 year-olds and the effects of their preferences on their mortality. It found that men and women eating the most meat were one-third more likely to die of a variety of causes over those who ate the least red meat. To read the facts about hormone treated American beef and how it decreases your life span read :http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_82019.html
rjk speaks
Gripped by an economic-crisis-induced fit of purchasing madness, I recently bought a nice square of that elegant blue French cheese--Roquefort..the lovely creamy, piquant cheese which is made of ewe's (sheep) milk and which is aged in cool limestone caves in southern France where it has been made since ancient times. Even the ancients knew and enjoyed this famous product of Gaul. The Roman historian and natural scientist Pliny the Elder (who died in the August 25, 79AD eruption of Vesuvius) wrote glowingly about the cheese in his "Natural History". It was very expensive!. A little triangle was over ten dollars! The price in the local market was much more than one would pay in France itself. Perhaps three times more....Why?
The answer: Our so wise, US government has had a 100% entry tax on this fine product since 1999. They were planning to raise the tax to 300%. That would make it simple out of reach for all except the Wall Street hedge fund managers to buy. Simply a way to punish the rest of us and the French? Yes indeed!
But the part of the story which disturbs me is why we have imposed this big import tax.
Since 1980 the EU block has put an embargo on American beef --our beef laden with hormones-- since the EU considers that American beef treated with hormones was detrimental to the health of the consumer it has prevented this beef from entering its markets. The US imposed import tax on French Roquefort cheese, Italian mineral water, Belgian chocolates, EU meats, grains and other foods were simply a reaction and a threat (a tit for tat) for the EU action.
Today Le Monde reports that some deal has been struck. The Obama government will not jump the tax to 300%---in return, the French and the rest of the EU will import American beef of the non-hormone-treated variety to the tune of 20,000 tons during the first three years and raising to 45,000 tons on the fourth year.
That's great for the EU farmer and consumer. Their beef should be cheaper and their farm products will have an expanded market---but what about the US consumer? Our government is too much under the influence of the beef lobby to label meat accordingly so we continue to have to eat growth-hormone treated beef. And perhaps now that the EU's markets are opened to the non-hormone treated variety, that scarce product on American shelves will be now even more difficult to find and more expensive.
We should all demand that our government label our meats, and demand hormone-free beef and other products from our producers.
To read the whole Le Monde piece see:http://www.lemonde.fr/europe/article/2009/05/06/b-uf-contre-roquefort-l-ue-et-les-etats-unis-passent-l-eponge_1189829_3214.html
On a related topic, a recent study, spanning the past decade, evaluated the food preference of more than one-half million 50-71 year-olds and the effects of their preferences on their mortality. It found that men and women eating the most meat were one-third more likely to die of a variety of causes over those who ate the least red meat. To read the facts about hormone treated American beef and how it decreases your life span read :http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_82019.html
rjk speaks
Sunday, May 3, 2009
LE GRIPPE PORCINE- THE FRENCH VIEW
From Le Monde, Paris (May 2, 2009)
What news about “Le Grippe Porcine” in Paris"
http://www.lemonde.fr/planete/article/2009/05/02/grippe-le-mexique-se-veut-rassurant-l-oms-dans-le-flou_1188223_3244.html#ens_id=1185166
The French paper Le Monde reports that “More than a week after the appearance in Mexico of the swine flu, the risks of a world pandemic and the gravity of the disease remain blurry (“flou demeure”)."
What news about “Le Grippe Porcine” in Paris"
http://www.lemonde.fr/planete/article/2009/05/02/grippe-le-mexique-se-veut-rassurant-l-oms-dans-le-flou_1188223_3244.html#ens_id=1185166
The French paper Le Monde reports that “More than a week after the appearance in Mexico of the swine flu, the risks of a world pandemic and the gravity of the disease remain blurry (“flou demeure”)."
"The virus (A H1N1) has caused twenty deaths –nineteen in Mexico and one in the USA—and it has been reported from nineteen countries.” This international journal of record adds however, an interesting new twist on the way the germ may be transmitted.
In Canada
On Saturday, in Ottawa, (Canada) officials have announced that for the first time in the epidemic, the swine flu virus--H1V1—the human swine flu--has gone the other way--by infecting previously healthy porkers in a Canadian facility---while the source of the infection was probably an agricultural worker who arrived from Mexico. The officials add that both the man and all the hogs have been or are in the process of being cured. After analysis the experts confirmed that the pigs caught the human virus, adding that the sanitary and health authorities have stated that “the risque that these hogs can transmit the virus (back) to people is very slight."
"This announcement could have overall repercussion on the commerce of about fifteen countries," states the Le Monde article, "of which China and Russia, have large hog markets, and have interdicted or restrained the importation of pork and pork products derived from Canada, the US and Mexico. These three countries have appealed Saturday in a common declaration “ to avoid adding to the fear of the porcine flu by uselessly limiting commerce”.
"This announcement could have overall repercussion on the commerce of about fifteen countries," states the Le Monde article, "of which China and Russia, have large hog markets, and have interdicted or restrained the importation of pork and pork products derived from Canada, the US and Mexico. These three countries have appealed Saturday in a common declaration “ to avoid adding to the fear of the porcine flu by uselessly limiting commerce”.
In Egypt.
"According to World Health Organization (WHO), Egypt has begun to cull about 250,000 pigs raised on its territory, while that organization reports there is no evidence of any one person contaminated by swine flu in that country. While at the UN, in this regard, the FAO (the organisation united for food and agriculture stated in a communique that pork meats are not a source of infection when they are prepared according to the standard rules of hygiene.”
In Mexico.
In Mexico.
"Saturday, the Mexican authorities have determined that the virus seems to be in a “phase of stabilization”, but they judge at the same time, it is premature to announce a decline of the epidemic. After examining more than 1300 analyses the Minister of Health, Jose Angel Cordova has announced that each day we observe a diminution of the occurrence of grave cases, and mortality has diminished. In another sign of hope, the last confirmed deaths were announced on the 28th of April.
The balance sheet on the swine flu in Mexico, considered the source (“le foyer”) of the A H1N1 flu, is reported as 454 confirmed cases, or 57 more than in most-recent accounts, but only three new deaths have been tabulated. The (government) activities continue the process of “continuing the a slow down” having maintained as of Wednesday, the closing of restaurants, bars, cinemas, and tourist sites.
"In addition, some of these actions for health and sanitation have been (also) initiated in the subway (metro) where at present only a single main line remains in operation to avoid transportation chaos."
In spite of the declarations coming from Mexico, the WHO has indicated Saturday, that not knowing “when the pandemic is serious or benign--- we can not critique the Mexican government which must face a very complicated situation and which has been exceptionally cooperative when we have demanded information. This statement was made by Dr Michael Ryan, director of WHO research on world-alert-and-actions-in-the-case-of-an-epidemic". According to those in charge, the evolution of the situation “in the coming days in Europe will permit us to determine at which point the mutant virus is propagated, and if necessary the conditions for raising the pandemic alert to the maximum of level 6. The WHO had declared Wednesday the level to phase 5 or an “imminent” pandemic alert.
In spite of the declarations coming from Mexico, the WHO has indicated Saturday, that not knowing “when the pandemic is serious or benign--- we can not critique the Mexican government which must face a very complicated situation and which has been exceptionally cooperative when we have demanded information. This statement was made by Dr Michael Ryan, director of WHO research on world-alert-and-actions-in-the-case-of-an-epidemic". According to those in charge, the evolution of the situation “in the coming days in Europe will permit us to determine at which point the mutant virus is propagated, and if necessary the conditions for raising the pandemic alert to the maximum of level 6. The WHO had declared Wednesday the level to phase 5 or an “imminent” pandemic alert.
In France.
In France, 22 cases of possible flu are already under evaluation, while, two cases have been confirmed Friday night. Seven persons who have returned from Mexico and constitute “probable” cases have been hospitalized in the Paris region, and in Aquitane. And as well, the inter-ministerial group (Paris) has decided to advise against school trips to destinations in Mexico, New York, or those trips planned to pass through New York.
In the US.
In France, 22 cases of possible flu are already under evaluation, while, two cases have been confirmed Friday night. Seven persons who have returned from Mexico and constitute “probable” cases have been hospitalized in the Paris region, and in Aquitane. And as well, the inter-ministerial group (Paris) has decided to advise against school trips to destinations in Mexico, New York, or those trips planned to pass through New York.
In the US.
"On their side, the US has counted 160 confirmed cases (against 143 previously reported) in 21 states, but for the most part these are not serious cases. One death was reported in Texas. Faced with the unknown swine flu, President Barak Obama has explained that he would prefer to take too much precautions too early rather than not enough. The American health authorities do not exclude the possibility that the initial source of the virus (A H1N1) was found in the USA."
In China
In China, about fifty Mexican have been placed in isolation, the authorities having ordered these measures of quarantine after having identified on their soil the discovery of the Mexican disease—this reported on Sunday according to a diplomatic Mexican source in China. Mexico has reproached Peking, who previously suspended flights with Mexico, “of having isolated in an unjustified manner, Mexicans who have presented no symptoms.” In reprisal, Mexico has recommended to its traveling nationals to” avoid travel to China.”
In China
In China, about fifty Mexican have been placed in isolation, the authorities having ordered these measures of quarantine after having identified on their soil the discovery of the Mexican disease—this reported on Sunday according to a diplomatic Mexican source in China. Mexico has reproached Peking, who previously suspended flights with Mexico, “of having isolated in an unjustified manner, Mexicans who have presented no symptoms.” In reprisal, Mexico has recommended to its traveling nationals to” avoid travel to China.”
Saturday, May 2, 2009
WORLD RECESSION--THE VIEW FROM PARIS
From: Le Monde.
Recession--the Financial Cirsis.
Recession--the Financial Cirsis.
http://www.lemonde.fr/la-crise-financiere/article/2009/04/23/recession_1184430_1101386.html#ens_id=1172969.
What do we hear in these last months? The birds of bad news, the media, have pressed the characteristics, nourished the uncertainty, fed the collective psychosis, and for a few, invented a world crisis which (of course) butters their bread. In brief, the press is so much used to hearing reproach of its interest in catastrophism that one is almost relieved by the (actual) news from the economic front.
God knows if they are wrong. In London, the government of Gordon Brown has presented this Wednesday, 22 of April, a “war budget": a massive injection of public money to sustain the economy. It is an historic public deficit in peace time (12.4 % of the PIB , to be doubled in one year), an explosion of British debt in three years to come and put vigorous fiscal pressure to re-enforce the high revenue. This a “return of class warfare” blared the Daily Telegraph. To say the least, it is the end of the love affair over the last fifteen years between the workers and the City. To the point where it raises the specter of an intervention of international monetary funds (FMI) plan for London as in 1976.
In Washington, the news of the previsions (specter) of the FMI had the effect of a cold shower. Again in January the Fund banked on a light progress of 0.5% world growth. The prediction however for 2009 showed (rather) a decline of 1.3%. (Though) the Chinese growth was +6.5% and India’s at +4.5% but these did not compensate for the decline in the other countries, and particularly compared to the USA at -2.8%. The perspectives are particularly somber in Europe with a decline in growth of 4.2% in the Euro-zone, and nearly -5.6% in Germany.
In Paris, finally, the economic minister, Christine Legarde sees “positive signals” in the automobile and real estate industries, while the Budget Minister Eirc Woerth, estimates that “the slope of the graph has started to level off”, while the Prime Minister Francois Fillon, seems closer to reality when he predicted a “strong recession” this year: and a fall of FMI growth of 3%, and unemployment which may pass the bar of 10% of the active population.
Without doubt this black scenario goes (well) to re-launch the debate on the economic choices of the government in the days ahead of the mobilization of May Day. The relative orthodox budget to which it is not taken to be contested, as in the majority, by all those who press for the adoption , by income tax and public dispensing, these measure re-launch more vigorously. And thus we are.
What do we hear in these last months? The birds of bad news, the media, have pressed the characteristics, nourished the uncertainty, fed the collective psychosis, and for a few, invented a world crisis which (of course) butters their bread. In brief, the press is so much used to hearing reproach of its interest in catastrophism that one is almost relieved by the (actual) news from the economic front.
God knows if they are wrong. In London, the government of Gordon Brown has presented this Wednesday, 22 of April, a “war budget": a massive injection of public money to sustain the economy. It is an historic public deficit in peace time (12.4 % of the PIB , to be doubled in one year), an explosion of British debt in three years to come and put vigorous fiscal pressure to re-enforce the high revenue. This a “return of class warfare” blared the Daily Telegraph. To say the least, it is the end of the love affair over the last fifteen years between the workers and the City. To the point where it raises the specter of an intervention of international monetary funds (FMI) plan for London as in 1976.
In Washington, the news of the previsions (specter) of the FMI had the effect of a cold shower. Again in January the Fund banked on a light progress of 0.5% world growth. The prediction however for 2009 showed (rather) a decline of 1.3%. (Though) the Chinese growth was +6.5% and India’s at +4.5% but these did not compensate for the decline in the other countries, and particularly compared to the USA at -2.8%. The perspectives are particularly somber in Europe with a decline in growth of 4.2% in the Euro-zone, and nearly -5.6% in Germany.
In Paris, finally, the economic minister, Christine Legarde sees “positive signals” in the automobile and real estate industries, while the Budget Minister Eirc Woerth, estimates that “the slope of the graph has started to level off”, while the Prime Minister Francois Fillon, seems closer to reality when he predicted a “strong recession” this year: and a fall of FMI growth of 3%, and unemployment which may pass the bar of 10% of the active population.
Without doubt this black scenario goes (well) to re-launch the debate on the economic choices of the government in the days ahead of the mobilization of May Day. The relative orthodox budget to which it is not taken to be contested, as in the majority, by all those who press for the adoption , by income tax and public dispensing, these measure re-launch more vigorously. And thus we are.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
APRIL 21, 2009 NEWSPAPER GLEANINGS
FEAR OF DEFLATION IN SPAIN
Fear of Deflation in Spain Raises. Prices dipping everywhere in Spain have signaled the possibility of a deflationary spiral..and similarities to the Great Depression and the “Lost 90s Decade” of Japan.
Deflation is defined as a general decline in prices of goods and services. Prices of goods and services rise gradually in a normal economy at about 3% annually (more or less). It indicates a healthy demand and a growing economy. Economists begin using the term "deflation" when normal inflation disappears (i.e. when inflation reaches 0% ). A deflationary period may occur when a nation’s weakened economy causes employment to falter, unemployment rises and with (fewer euros or dollars in circulation) the result is a weak demand for goods. This encourages retail companies to lower prices to stimulate sales. When such remediation does not generate results, companies resort to lay-offs of workers and to lowering prices still further. The increased unemployment only intensifies weak demand for goods and services and the process of falling prices, decreased demand for goods and increased lay-offs causes a complex of events that reinforces itself through a feedback loop to produce a vicious cycle. The country may continue into a generalized downward economic spiral.
In Spain, prices are reported to be falling “everywhere”—restaurants, pharmacies, supermarkets, and even fashion retailers. In March, Spain was the first euro-zone nation to report a negative inflation rate (thus meeting the definition of deflation). Inflation in Spain has averaged about 3.5% annually) Though the negative rate for March was small, only -0.1 percent inflation and this was reflected mostly in food (fish was down 6%, and sugar down 6%--these are areas where prices can fluctuate wildly and seasonally), there are concerns among economists since there were as well declines in prices of footwear, electronics, medical treatment and drugs. And with the nation’s jobless rate at nearly 16% (and nearly one third of workers in the under 25 age group unemployed) the falling prices cause economists worry that Spain is at the edge of a deflationary period.
Other nations in the euro-zone such as Portugal, Luxembourg, and Ireland have also reported drops in prices. See Paul Krugman’s piece on Ireland (“Ireland go Broke” in the NY Times and below).
Germany, the big economy of Europe, reported an 8% drop in wholesale price from a year ago, while Japan the Asian economic workhorse posted a 2.2% decline during the same period. Back here in the USA we registered a Consumer Price Index (CPI)fall of 0.1% in March (but if one excludes volatile food and energy prices that value was interpreted as a positive 0.2%). That negative value is the first time since 1955 that that the CPI has gone negative. So we will continue to evaluate these data and see what happens in April. To be continued.
Germany, the big economy of Europe, reported an 8% drop in wholesale price from a year ago, while Japan the Asian economic workhorse posted a 2.2% decline during the same period. Back here in the USA we registered a Consumer Price Index (CPI)fall of 0.1% in March (but if one excludes volatile food and energy prices that value was interpreted as a positive 0.2%). That negative value is the first time since 1955 that that the CPI has gone negative. So we will continue to evaluate these data and see what happens in April. To be continued.
FATTIES CAUSE GLOBAL WARMING!
The UK tabloid "Sun" (http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article2387203.ece) featured on its front page a glaring headline "Fatties cause global warming!" and included rear end pictures of several large British bums!
“Are these fatties causing global warming?” the paper asks under these unflattering rear-end pictures. The rise in the number of overweight people—who eat more (and use their cars more than walk)—so they say—is a major cause of added CO2 gas emissions. CO2 is the gas which effectively absorbs earth long-wave radiation..heating the earth's atmosphere and causing global warming. According to the Sun (which quotes the World Health Organization), a billion extra tons of carbon dioxide gas is generated each year by overweight people—thus speeding up global heating, polar ice cap melting and even the death of polar bears. Furthermore the demand for meat-- a particularly high energy food-- is increasing around the world and will soon reach USA standards. That’s not good for the planet. The Sun reports that a “staggering 40% of Americans are obese, among the 300 million world-wide (fatties).” I guess their point is that eating meat to is more likely to make you fat, and production of animal protein consumes more energy and generates more carbon (very much more--to see how much look back on my blog) than vegetable production. But let's not blame the obese when major companies are pumping carbon into the air by the millions of tons, when many of us drive vehicles which get only 12-15 miles per gallon, when we heat empty houses to tropical levels of temperature in winter and cool them till the windows frost on the inside in summer. Fatties are the last place we have to look for improvement on this score. But the bums were eye catching!
PIRACY ON THE HIGH SEAS!
Piracy has been a big topic in the news lately. The Somali teenager, who under a flag of truce went onto the USS Bainbridge to make a deal for the release of Captain Phillips, is now in New York. He and his parents claim he is a juvenile. But that would certainly crimp the style of the elements in our government and judicial system who would like to make a political point. His s captors claim he is over eighteen. From the pictures I have seen of him I would estimate that he is about sixteen or seventeen. But we can be sure that if there is any question...he will be judged an adult and tried accordingly. There are many questions about this case. Was he attempting to make a deal for Phillips by cooperating with the Navy? Was he on board under a flag of truce when his compatriots were shot by the Navy snipers? If so his legal status might be judged very different. Does the USA even have legal jurisdiction over this youngster? In the rush to judgment to characterize the Somali boy as a “pirate” and a killer we may be simply rushing to misjudgement. Hey he's only a scared black kid, facing the US Navy and angry NY crowds.
KRUGMAN'S "ERIN GO BROKE"
Not Erin Go Bragh! (i.e. "Ireland Forever") but, "Erin go Broke" (by Paul Krugman, NY Times) See: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/20/opinion/20krugman.html?
The informative and entertaining Mr Krugman, in response to a question regarding the worst case scenario for America’s aling economy retorted: “America can turn Irish!” No, he was not impugning Ireland’s culture, history, beer, or its hardworking friendly people…but their economic plight and Dublin's response to the recession--that's what bothers Mr Krugman.
What troubles him so much about Ireland's response to the recesion? Ireland’s GDP (gross domestic production) will likely soon fall more than 10% from its peak value--according to Krugman and that’s a line that divides a simple recession from a depression. But to add insult to Krugman’s sense of injury, the Irish--to satisfy nervous lenders--are raising taxes and slashing spending. These are policies that Mr. Krugman says will only deepen the slump and make things worse.
Ironically the trouble started when Ireland became too much like America. It jumped wholeheartedly into risky, ungoverned, entrepreneurship. Only last year, the reactionary Heritage Foundation of the USA, darling of the Bush White house, classified Ireland as the "third freest” economy in the world" after Singapore and Hong Kong. They, the Heritage “alternate reality” gang, viewed the lack of banking regulations as “just barmy”. These weak regulations led to Ireland to become, according to Professor Krugman, "a cool, snake-free version of coastal Florida” as regards it ubiquitous and over-zealous housing-construction sector. Then when overbuilding and falling prices burst the housing and construction bubble and, as in the USA, many investors and home buyers were left with negative equity. Only, in a smaller economy and smaller nation the impact was more severe and more widespread. The Irish banks took a heavy hit. But the Dublin government which had expanded with the bubble economy also got burned. Its revenues collapsed with “Mick the carpenter’s” income. As home-mortgage defaults increased to a tidal wave, the banks began to falter. Government had to protect their citizen’s accounts and pledged to purchase the bank's bad assets. This of course with citicen's tax monies to the tune of more than twice the country’s GDP (estimated by this author at $160 billion dollars) according to Krugman. That would be equivalent to about $30 trillion dollars in US terms. The Irish taxpayers are paying for the bad judgment and lack of risk-aversion of the Irish banking class. Does this sound familiar?
To reassure lenders who worried about long term Irish solvency the government was forced (by the threat of increased risk premiums) to raise taxes and cut spending. Bad news for a smooth recovery according to Krugman. But given the circumstances Irish government has few options.
In regard to the US, we haven’t reached the point where our financial solvency is in question, our present national debt is estimated at $11.1 trillion while our GDP (estimated for April 2009) at $14.2 trillion thus: 11.1/14.2 = 0.78, or approximately 78% of GDP. See: http://forecasts.org/gdp.htm. Thus our Debt to GDP ratio is close to 80%, that is considerably higher that what it had been in the past and higher than many western industrialized nations.
A CHANGE OF COURSE ON TORTURE PROSECUTIONS
Today the President has signaled that he is in favor of prosecuting those such as Mr Jay Bybee and Mr Yoo who signed documents which facilitated what some persist in calling enhanced interrogatin (as does Wolf Blitzer on CNN--Come on Wolf!) On the other hand, Congressman Jerry Nadler, knows how to call a spade a spade.
Today the President has signaled that he is in favor of prosecuting those such as Mr Jay Bybee and Mr Yoo who signed documents which facilitated what some persist in calling enhanced interrogatin (as does Wolf Blitzer on CNN--Come on Wolf!) On the other hand, Congressman Jerry Nadler, knows how to call a spade a spade.
(See:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/20/senior-judiciary-committe_n_189026.htmlnot Mr Nadler the senior Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, called Monday for the impeachment of federal judge Jay Bybee, one of the principal authors of the torture memos which were released last week by the Obama administration.
"He ought to be impeached," Nadler said, in an interview with the Huffington Post (agreeing with the NY Times editorial of the preceeding day). "It was not an honest legal memo. It was an instruction manual on how to break the law." Nadler said it all in a nutshell! Kudos to Mr. Nadler.
Nadler, is a New York congressman, and chairman of Judiciary Committee and member of the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties Subcommittees. Bybee is currently serving a lifetime term on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. He was appointed in 2003 and confirmed before it was publicly known that he had authorized the torture of detainees. This man certainly does not belong in any judicial setting where they read the American Constitution. He had made a mockery of it. Impeach him! Yoo belongs in jail! Once these "fruits on the ground" under the tree are collected. Then we can go for the ones on the lower branches and finally justice should come to those on the top of the tree--especially to Cheney and Bush who directed all this madness from their mad tree house.
WATER CATASTROPHY IN THE WEST BANK
The head of the World Bank has indicated today (April 22, 2009) as reported in Il Manifesto.It that a crisis is brewing in the occupied territories: "Israelis Use of Scarce Water in the Territories leading to a humanitarian crisis" reports Il Manifesto.
See: http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2008/s2549566.htm
See: http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2008/s2549566.htm
My translation from the Italin follows:
Israel: the head of the World Bank today indicated that the Israelis (settlers) consume as much water as four Palestinians. It (their action) is called the "thirsty ('sete'=dry or thirsty) torture" for the Palestinians. The distribution of water according to the Israelis and Palestine agreement of Oslo in 1995, must be modified immediately if one wants to put and end to the discrimination that will provoke a castastrphy in the occupied territories."
Other sites: http://washmena.wordpress.com/2009/04/22/palestine-world-bank-reports-assesses-restrictions-on-water-development/
This report was only lightly covered in the western press. Too bad!
ONLY WHEN THE TIDE GOES OUT, CAN YOU SEE THE NUDE BATHERS
So said Warren Buffett..as quoted by Tom Friedman in the NY Times (April 22, 2009) What did he mean? Bubble economies –like our housing embroglio—can hid a lot of rot. “In our case, the excess consumer demand and jobs created by our credit and housing bubbles have masked not only our weaknesses in manufacturing and other economic fundamentals, but something worse: how far we have fallen behind in educaton during the Bush years. Friedman takes up the case of K-12 education and how much its decline is now costing us. Friedman points out that in the 50s and 60s the US dominated the world in education…and the world economy. By the 70s and 80s we still had a slim lead…but today we have fallen way behind in numbers of graduates (per capita) and their quality. Based on data Friedman quotes from a study entitled “Economic Impact of the Achievement Gap in American Schools” ( by McKinsey Consultants) the US ranked 25th (out of 30 countries) in math and 24th in science. Our students are on a par with Portugal and the Slovak Republic. More significantly the longer the students were in school the more they lagged behind, suggesting that they are not stupid but the system is! “They are being prepared for $7-12 dollar an hour jobs not $40 to 50 dollar an hour or more jobs," writes Friedman. This has its economic implications. The report concludes that had the education gap been closed when it was first noted (in 1983, when a study entitled> “A Nation at Risk” was published) the GDP in 2008 would have been $ 1.3 to $2.3 trillion dollars higher than it is now!
RECESSION EXPOSED WEAKNESSES IN JOBLESS BENEFITS
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Recession-exposes-holes-in-apf-14284950.html
Leaving aside the medical plan that many loose when they leave their jobs and the fact that the USA ranks 44th in the world as to the quality and efficay of its public safety net services, workers here in the US suffer more and longer than other western industrialized nations when the economy falters. Out social security safety-net so maligned by the GOP (not to mention how it was undermined) was designed not only for the welfare of the workers but to help pump money back into an aling economy. Think of social security payments as a bailout for workers. The money paid out goes through the hands of the unemployed and into those of the small businessman and thus help sustain the local economy which depends on worker’s daily and weekly purchases.
RECESSION EXPOSED WEAKNESSES IN JOBLESS BENEFITS
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Recession-exposes-holes-in-apf-14284950.html
Leaving aside the medical plan that many loose when they leave their jobs and the fact that the USA ranks 44th in the world as to the quality and efficay of its public safety net services, workers here in the US suffer more and longer than other western industrialized nations when the economy falters. Out social security safety-net so maligned by the GOP (not to mention how it was undermined) was designed not only for the welfare of the workers but to help pump money back into an aling economy. Think of social security payments as a bailout for workers. The money paid out goes through the hands of the unemployed and into those of the small businessman and thus help sustain the local economy which depends on worker’s daily and weekly purchases.
But our present system, designed in 1935--that was 74 years ago--and now there are many shortcomings that may not be effective and ironically may be actually helping to fuel the recession. For example, this report points oth there are more part-time workers today, but the 1935 program was designed for full time workers and many of these are shut out of benefits because it serves only those looking for full time work. Unemployment lasts much longer now. Not the six months and 2 weeks (26weeks of help) established in 1935. The recession has been in progress now since 2007! Many workers have run through their 26 week (now it has been extended to 33 weeks) benefits. When that happens these families cut back on expenditures (exacerbating the local economic situatuation—and then dip into their savings. But when saving are gone--or are non-existant--they have no other recourse but penury. Estimates are that some one third of the total unemployed have run through their benefits.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
WHY WE CAN'T GO TO DURBAN II
The workings of Mr. Obama's cool and logical mind escapes me. Durban II, the UN-sponsored conference in Geneva on world racism is, according to our President (the great advocate for change), too dangerous a place for the USA to attend. We might be exposed to some bad thoughts and words there---things there about Zionism and Israel. So Mr. Obama has decided (along with Canada, Austrailia and Israel) to boycott Durban II. As a consequence, the USA, the earth's most powerful nation, will have no say regarding the world's dispossesed and marginalized people. We will have no voice regarding the evils of world racism. As former Congresswoman and Green Party Presidential candidate Cythia McKinney stated today in San Francisco's Bayview Newspaper: "We heard the same palaver in 2001 from the same forces inside our country, basically that a discussion of Zionism, in the context of such a conference, would be anti-Semitic; therefore all the world’s dispossessed and marginalized people must continue to suffer and sacrifice while muting their grievances so that no discussion of Israel would take place on the world stage in this context."
In Brooklyn New York where I was raised, youngsters of the fifties, learned to chant that old doggerel: "Sticks and stones will hurt my bones...but names will never harm me." In those halcyon days, those sentiments seemed to fit in well with our sense of entitlement as post-WW II Americans. Our elders fought a great war--one in which many of our dads, friends and neighbor's died, just so we could be "free-speech Americans". We lived at a time when those sun-bleached little war flags still hung in our neighbor's front windows. We knew kids whose fathers or older brothers went to war but never came home...like Pete Franza, my next door neighbor's brother. So that oft-chanted doggerel seemed to fit with our underlying philosophy. It was a child's rendition of our First Amendment Rights. If Congress and the Nazis could not abridge our right to speech--- who would dare? We were raised to think that Free Speech was a good, a God-given right. Furthermore it was guaranteed by our Constitution.
Decades later, that sense of entitlement was further supported in the famous court case, Texas v. Johnson, 491 U.S. 397 (1989). Some of us learned then how the Supreme Court reversed the conviction of Gregory Lee Johnson for burning an American flag by a 5-4 vote. Justice William J. Brennan, Jr. asserted that "if there is a bedrock principle underlying the First Amendment, it is that government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea offensive or disagreeable." (See Wikipedia, First Amendment)
We lived by those ideals-- we hoped our new Obama Administration would too.
Apparently not.
The US, led by the nose by our tough little Mid East ally, Israel-- a nation which armed to its teeth, stands up fiercely to a wide array of hostile nations around its borders with no fear, but claims it is too frightened of the possibility of harsh words at Durban II to attend that conference. Just what words are they afraid of? That the rest of the world will focus negatively on Israel's treatment of their Arab-citizen minorities? Or the harsh policies and statements of their new, foreign minister Avigador Lieberman who would have Israeli Arab citizen-rights subject to a loyalty oath? (Does that remind one of 15th Century Spain?) Or perhaps their harsh treatment of Palestinians in the occupied territories? And more recently, and more seriously their over-the-top military action in Gaza?
Perhaps these Israeli actions actually need a good airing in the world press. In the end, after that exposure would they be classified as a racist state? Perhaps not. But why should we in the US, a nation which flies its First Amendment rights with pride, act in a way which shields these issues from open discussion, and in the process deny the truly disposed and ill-treated their fair hearing in the world forum?
In Brooklyn New York where I was raised, youngsters of the fifties, learned to chant that old doggerel: "Sticks and stones will hurt my bones...but names will never harm me." In those halcyon days, those sentiments seemed to fit in well with our sense of entitlement as post-WW II Americans. Our elders fought a great war--one in which many of our dads, friends and neighbor's died, just so we could be "free-speech Americans". We lived at a time when those sun-bleached little war flags still hung in our neighbor's front windows. We knew kids whose fathers or older brothers went to war but never came home...like Pete Franza, my next door neighbor's brother. So that oft-chanted doggerel seemed to fit with our underlying philosophy. It was a child's rendition of our First Amendment Rights. If Congress and the Nazis could not abridge our right to speech--- who would dare? We were raised to think that Free Speech was a good, a God-given right. Furthermore it was guaranteed by our Constitution.
Decades later, that sense of entitlement was further supported in the famous court case, Texas v. Johnson, 491 U.S. 397 (1989). Some of us learned then how the Supreme Court reversed the conviction of Gregory Lee Johnson for burning an American flag by a 5-4 vote. Justice William J. Brennan, Jr. asserted that "if there is a bedrock principle underlying the First Amendment, it is that government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea offensive or disagreeable." (See Wikipedia, First Amendment)
We lived by those ideals-- we hoped our new Obama Administration would too.
Apparently not.
The US, led by the nose by our tough little Mid East ally, Israel-- a nation which armed to its teeth, stands up fiercely to a wide array of hostile nations around its borders with no fear, but claims it is too frightened of the possibility of harsh words at Durban II to attend that conference. Just what words are they afraid of? That the rest of the world will focus negatively on Israel's treatment of their Arab-citizen minorities? Or the harsh policies and statements of their new, foreign minister Avigador Lieberman who would have Israeli Arab citizen-rights subject to a loyalty oath? (Does that remind one of 15th Century Spain?) Or perhaps their harsh treatment of Palestinians in the occupied territories? And more recently, and more seriously their over-the-top military action in Gaza?
Perhaps these Israeli actions actually need a good airing in the world press. In the end, after that exposure would they be classified as a racist state? Perhaps not. But why should we in the US, a nation which flies its First Amendment rights with pride, act in a way which shields these issues from open discussion, and in the process deny the truly disposed and ill-treated their fair hearing in the world forum?
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