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May 1, 2005
FY Convenience
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Mai 1 – International Labour Day
In Germany, Labour Day was established as an official holiday in 1933 after the NSDAP rose to power. It was supposed to symbolize the newfound unity between the state and the working classes. Ironically, just one day later, on May 2, 1933, all free unions were outlawed and destroyed.
Wikipedia
Next to Labour Union rallies, Mai 1 in Germany is traditional a day of some riots in Berlin: German police arrest 65 in Berlin May Day clashes
Maybe the left is still alive …
Bernhard,
When are going to give us an update on the exploding frogs? Are birds killing them or is some sicko feeding them alka seltzer?
Inquiring minds want to know.
Posted by: dan of steele | May 1 2005 13:37 utc | 2
DoS – exploding toads -> Germany’s Exploding Toads
Best bet for now. Craws eating toads livers (but nothing else)- toads lung expand and blow up. Ugly but natural.
Krugman: A Gut Punch to the Middle
By now, every journalist should know that you have to carefully check out any scheme coming from the White House. You can’t just accept the administration’s version of what it’s doing. Remember, these are the people who named a big giveaway to logging interests “Healthy Forests.”
Sure enough, a close look at President Bush’s proposal for “progressive price indexing” of Social Security puts the lie to claims that it’s a plan to increase benefits for the poor and cut them for the wealthy. In fact, it’s a plan to slash middle-class benefits; the wealthy would barely feel a thing.
…
The administration and its apologists emphasize the fact that under the Bush plan, workers earning higher wages would face cuts, and they talk as if that makes it a plan that takes from the rich and gives to the poor. But the rich wouldn’t feel any pain, because people with high incomes don’t depend on Social Security benefits.
Cut an average worker’s benefits, and you’re imposing real hardship. Cut or even eliminate Dick Cheney’s benefits, and only his accountants will notice.
Posted by: Fran | May 2 2005 5:13 utc | 9
When will this become a topic. 30 years later – see the picture – and the effect of agent orange can still be seen in Vietnam. How long will this be ignored. We can not avoid seeing similar pictures from Iraq in 30 years, maybe even earlier, but we can work to avoid it happening in another place.
Posted by: Fran | May 2 2005 8:31 utc | 10
Sorry forgot to link the BBC article: The legacy of Agent Orange .
Posted by: Fran | May 2 2005 8:34 utc | 11
Jimmy Carter: Erosion of the Nonproliferation Treaty
As the review conference of the Nonproliferation Treaty convenes in New York this month, we can only be appalled at the indifference of the United States and the other nuclear powers. This indifference is remarkable, considering the addition of Iran and North Korea as states that either possess or seek nuclear weapons programs.
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The United States is the major culprit in this erosion of the NPT. While claiming to be protecting the world from proliferation threats in Iraq, Libya, Iran and North Korea, American leaders not only have abandoned existing treaty restraints but also have asserted plans to test and develop new weapons, including antiballistic missiles, the earth-penetrating “bunker buster” and perhaps some new “small” bombs. They also have abandoned past pledges and now threaten first use of nuclear weapons against non-nuclear states.
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Further to Thatcher’s poodle post from above:
I see hope that Blair may be going down and maybe helping to take Bush with him. The following from today’s Independent (here) appears pretty damning but I guess how much depends on how willing the American press are to publish the facts. (My emphasis)
A damning minute leaked to a Sunday newspaper reveals that in July 2002, a few weeks after meeting George Bush at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, Mr Blair summoned his closest aides for what amounted to a council of war. The minute reveals the head of British intelligence reported that President Bush had firmly made up his mind to invade Iraq and overthrow Saddam Hussein, adding that “the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy”.
Posted by: Juannie | May 2 2005 14:27 utc | 13
Why are they wondering that Iran would want it’s own nuclear weapons? From the Japan Times:
U.S. may allow nuke strikes over WMD – Proposal would reverse 10-year policy
WASHINGTON (Kyodo) The U.S. military is considering allowing regional combatant commanders to request presidential approval for pre-emptive nuclear strikes against possible attacks with weapons of mass destruction on the United States or its allies, according to a draft nuclear operations paper.
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Allowing pre-emptive nuclear strikes against possible biological and chemical attacks would effectively contradict a “negative security assurance” policy declared 10 years ago by the Clinton administration during an international conference to review the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
Posted by: Fran | May 2 2005 14:49 utc | 14
Oh for fuck’s sake. Why not just say it: “preventative nuclear strikes”
Posted by: slothrop | May 2 2005 14:53 utc | 15
@slothrop
“Couldn’t Do That. Wouldn’t Be Prudent.” H.W. Bush Sr.-September 11, 1992
Posted by: Uncle $cam | May 2 2005 15:21 utc | 16
Escobar
More & more obvious: U.S. wants civil war in order to breakup Iraq.
Posted by: slothrop | May 2 2005 15:22 utc | 17
From the NYT Magazine The Way of the Commandos describing how the “Salvador Option” – fighting an insurgency with burtal paramilitaries under US control – has been implemented.
The officer in charge of the raid — a Major Falah — now made it clear that he believed the detainee had led them on a wild-goose chase. The detainee was sitting at the side of a commando truck; I was 10 feet away, beside Bennett and four G.I.’s. One of Falah’s captains began beating the detainee. Instead of a quick hit or slap, we now saw and heard a sustained series of blows. We heard the sound of the captain’s fists and boots on the detainee’s body, and we heard the detainee’s pained grunts as he received his punishment without resistance. It was a dockyard mugging. Bennett turned his back to face away from the violence, joining his soldiers in staring uncomfortably at the ground in silence. The blows continued for a minute or so.
[US Captain] Bennett had seen the likes of this before, and he had worked out his own guidelines for dealing with such situations. ”If I think they’re going to shoot somebody or cut his finger off or do any sort of permanent damage, I will immediately stop them,” he explained. ”As Americans, we will not let that happen. In terms of kicking a guy, they do that all the time, punches and stuff like that.”
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In Samarra, the commandos established a detention center at the public library, a hundred yards down the road from the City Hall. The library is a one-story rose-hued building surrounded by a five-foot wall. There is a Koranic inscription over its entrance: ”In the name of Allah the most gracious and merciful, Oh, Lord, please fill me with knowledge.”
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We walked through the entrance gates of the center and stood, briefly, outside the main hall. Looking through the doors, I saw about 100 detainees squatting on the floor, hands bound behind their backs; most were blindfolded. To my right, outside the doors, a leather-jacketed security official was slapping and kicking a detainee who was sitting on the ground. We went to a room adjacent to the main hall, and as we walked in, a detainee was led out with fresh blood around his nose. The room had enough space for a couple of desks and chairs; one desk had bloodstains running down its side.
…
That evening, as I was eating dinner in the mess hall at Olsen base, I overheard a G.I. saying that he had seen the Syrian at the detention center, hanging from the ceiling by his arms and legs like an animal being hauled back from a hunt. When I struck up a conversation with the soldier, he refused to say anything more. Later, I spoke with an Iraqi interpreter who works for the U.S. military and has access to the detention center; when I asked whether the Syrian, like the Saudi, was cooperating, the interpreter smiled and said, ”Not yet, but he will.”
One afternoon as I was standing near City Hall, I heard a gunshot from within or behind the detention center. In previous days, I saw or heard, on several occasions, accidental shots by commandos — their weapons discipline was far from perfect — so I assumed it was another negligent discharge. But within a minute or so, there was another shot from the same place — inside or behind the detention center.
WMD discovered: Revealed: Blair to upgrade Britain’s nuclear weapons
Tony Blair has secretly decided that Britain will build a new generation of nuclear deterrent to replace the ageing Trident submarine fleet at a cost of more than £10bn – a move certain to dismay thousands of Labour Party loyalists in the approach to polling day.
The disclosure that the decision has already been taken will expose Mr Blair – who has struggled throughout the election campaign to fend off accusations that he lied over the Iraq war – to fresh allegations of deception. He said last week that the decision would be taken after 5 May.
But The Independent has learnt that he has already decided to give the go ahead for a replacement for Trident to stop Britain surrendering its status as a nuclear power when the Trident fleet is decommissioned. The choice over the type of nuclear missile system that Britain will deploy is yet to be made. One Labour candidate described the new deterrent as “Blair’s weapons of mass destruction”.
The revelation comes as the United Nations hosts a five-yearly review of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, to which Britain is a signatory. The five nuclear powers in the treaty promise to work towards global nuclear disarmament. Mr Blair will therefore face accusations of hypocrisy, for pressing other states, such as Iran and North Korea, to renounce their suspect nuclear weapons programmes while planning a new British deterrent.
Google says: UK part of North America, not Europe
Blair and Howard agree.
Meanwhile, back in Afghanistan…
The United States is beefing up its military presence in Afghanistan, at the same time encircling Iran. Washington will set up nine new bases in Afghanistan in the provinces of Helmand, Herat, Nimrouz, Balkh, Khost and Paktia.
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When all is said and done, one cannot but wonder why the new military bases are being set up. Given that al-Qaeda is only a shadow of the past, the Taliban leaders are queuing up to join the Kabul government, and the US military is not interested in tackling the opium explosion, why are the bases needed?
A ray of light was shed on this question during the recent trip to Afghanistan by five US senators, led by John McCain. On February 22, McCain, accompanied by Senators Hillary Clinton, Susan Collins, Lindsey Graham and Russ Feingold, held talks with Karzai.
After the talks, McCain, the No 2 Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he was committed to a “strategic partnership that we believe must endure for many, many years”. McCain told reporters in Kabul that America’s strategic partnership with Afghanistan should include “permanent bases” for US military forces. A spokesman for the Afghan president told news reporters that establishing permanent US bases required approval from the yet-to-be-created Afghan parliament.
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Media reports coming out of the South Asian subcontinent point to a US intent that goes beyond bringing Afghanistan under control, to playing a determining role in the vast Eurasian region. In fact, one can argue that the landing of US troops in Afghanistan in the winter of 2001 was a deliberate policy to set up forward bases at the crossroads of three major areas: the Middle East, Central Asia and South Asia. Not only is the area energy-rich, but it is also the meeting point of three growing powers – China, India and Russia.
On February 23, the day after McCain called for “permanent bases” in Afghanistan, a senior political analyst and chief editor of the Kabul Journal, Mohammad Hassan Wulasmal, said, “The US wants to dominate Iran, Uzbekistan and China by using Afghanistan as a military base.”
Encircle Iran and Russia, block China and India. How many enemies do these people think we can handle at one time? Note that Sens. Clinton and Feingold were at the meeting – isn’t anyone inside of govt. opposed to empire?. Living in this country sometimes makes me feel like I’m riding in a Death Star designed by Rube Goldberg and piloted by the three stooges.
Posted by: lonesomeG | May 2 2005 18:35 utc | 22
There, that proves it! After my surgery I feel just…..nnnnnngh…
Posted by: Nugget | May 2 2005 18:44 utc | 23
More taxpayer dollars at work in Iraq.
His career in Baghdad was brief. And it ended badly.
On a blistering July afternoon, three MP5 submachine guns were pointed at Alabama businessman Robert Isakson inside the fortified Green Zone of lawless Baghdad. The men carrying the weapons wanted his money and his security pass.
As Isakson tells it, they also wanted his guns, leaving him unarmed in a mess of a country and banned from its safest haven.
“We were defenseless,” says the former cop and FBI agent from Mobile. He had come to Iraq to help rebuild the devastated country, accompanied by his 14-year-old son, Bobby. Now, after less than a month, they were being expelled at gunpoint.
By Americans.
The gunmen and Isakson all worked for Custer Battles LLC, a Rhode Island-based contracting firm now mired in lawsuits and a criminal investigation by the Pentagon. Isakson claims company employees ordered him out because he refused to help defraud the U.S. government.
It is one allegation on a long list.
Custer Battles security guards have also been accused of firing at unarmed civilians. They have been accused of crushing a car filled with Iraqi children and adults. They have been accused of unleashing a hail of bullets in a Baghdad hotel, only to discover, when the dust literally settled, that they had been shooting at each other.
The company is under investigation by the Department of Defense for allegedly overcharging the government millions by making up invoices for work never done, equipment never received, and guards who didn’t exist.
Animal House goes to Iraq with expensive and deadly consequences. BTW, why would anyone contract with an outfit called Custer Battles? You know your entire investment will be wiped out.
Posted by: lonesomeG | May 2 2005 18:59 utc | 25
Are we loosing everything that makes humans human? What is happening to this world, what has happened to compassion? Is the only thing that counts in this world today greed, money and power?
Tsunami Victims Face Land Loss
(AP) Still reeling from the loss of her two sons, sister and brother-in-law to the tsunami, Yuphin Chotipraphatsorn is facing another disaster: Developers want to take away all she has left — the land where her house once stood and her family lived.
She is among thousands of Thais in the six provinces hit by December’s deadly waves now threatened with eviction from land the government or private enterprises claim is not theirs. Many say they could lose property or homes where their families lived for decades, if not centuries.
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But the villagers are determined to stop the company.
The government has instructed officials to inspect the disputed land and find a compromise, but Sunee Hathatham, an official in the Land Department in Phang Nga province, predicted the fight would have to be settled in court.
“The total loss from the tsunami has given us courage to stand up and fight because we have nothing to lose,” said Yuphin, turning to look at what is left of her house — a concrete foundation.
“Where do they want us to go?” she added. “Our families died here and we feel deeply attached to this place.”
Posted by: Fran | May 2 2005 19:28 utc | 26
Note that Sens. Clinton and Feingold were at the meeting – isn’t anyone inside of govt. opposed to empire?.
No – it is consense of the political class in the US. Do not expect anything different from the Democrats. When you look at Clintons actions you will see they fit nicly into the project.
Agreed, b. My comment was really a wail and not a question. The third rail of American foreign policy is the unchallenged assumption that the US is an empire and should do whatever it takes to maintain dominance, unchallenged, indefinitely. No one in the existing order seems willing to publicly question that premise or point out the risks and costs of such a policy. We really do need a third party to get this issue on the table.
Posted by: lonesomeG | May 2 2005 19:48 utc | 28
I think it is time for something on the conservatives battling for more control of PBS and NPR. There was an article in the NYT today. Nothing is sacred to these barbarians in the White House!
Posted by: diogenes | May 2 2005 20:12 utc | 30
Riverbend:
Saved by the Carrots…
These last few days have been explosive- quite literally. It started about 4 days ago and it hasn’t let up since. They say there were around 14 car bombs in Baghdad alone a couple of days ago- although we only heard 6 from our area. Cars are making me very nervous lately. All cars look suspicious- small ones and large ones. Old cars and new cars. Cars with drivers and cars parked in front of restaurants and shops. They all have a sinister look to them these days.
…
“I was near the explosion!” F. said excitedly as he neared the house. My aunt grabbed him by the shoulders and began inspecting him- his face, his neck, his arms.
“I’m fine mother…” he shrugged her off as she began a long prayer of thanks interspersed with irrational scolding about how he should be more careful.
“Did anyone get hurt?” I asked E., dreading the answer. E. nodded and held up three fingers.
“I think three people were killed and there are some waiting for the cars to take them to the hospital.”
Back in the house, E. and I decided he’d go back and see if he could help. We gathered up some gauze, medical tape, antiseptic and a couple of bottles of cold water. I turned back to my cousin after E. had left. He was excited and tense, eyes wide with disbelief. His voice was shaking slightly as he spoke and his lower lip trembled.
“I was just going to cross the street but I remembered I should buy the carrots” He spoke rapidly, “So I stopped by that guy who sells vegetables and just as I was buying them- a big BOOM and a car exploded and the one next to it began to burn… If I hadn’t stopped for the carrots…” The cousin began waving his arms around in the air and I leaned back to avoid one in the face.
My aunt gasped, stopping in the living room, “The carrots saved you!” She cried out, holding a hand to her heart. My cousin looked at her incredulously and the color slowly began to return to his face. “Carrots.” He murmured, throwing himself down on the sofa and grabbing one of the cushions, “Carrots saved me.”
E. came home an hour later, tired and disheveled. Two people had died- the third would probably survive- but at least a dozen others were wounded. Every time I look at my cousin, I wonder- gratefully- how it was that we were so lucky.
read the rest here. No words needed – everything is improving, right?
Posted by: Fran | May 2 2005 21:41 utc | 31
The U.S. military is considering allowing regional combatant commanders to request presidential approval for pre-emptive nuclear strikes
General Jack D. Ripper, you’re wanted on the white courtesy phone…
Posted by: Fast-Moving Cloud | May 2 2005 21:42 utc | 32
Christian Peacemaker Teams: Iraq 2005: Five detainee stories
Posted by: Nugget | May 2 2005 22:46 utc | 33
BAGHDAD, Iraq – A photographer for a Baghdad newspaper says Iraqi police beat and detained him for snapping pictures of long lines at gas stations. A reporter for another local paper received an invitation from Iraqi police to cover their graduation ceremony and ended up receiving death threats from the recruits. A local TV reporter says she’s lost count of how many times Iraqi authorities have confiscated her cameras and smashed her tapes.
All these cases are under investigation by the Iraqi Association to Defend Journalists, a union that formed amid a chilling new trend of alleged arrests, beatings and intimidation of Iraqi reporters at the hands of Iraqi security forces. Reporters Without Borders, an international watchdog group for press freedom, tracked the arrests of five Iraqi journalists within a two-week period and issued a statement on April 26 asking authorities “to be more discerning and restrained and not carry out hasty and arbitrary arrests.”
While Iraq’s newly elected government says it will look into complaints of press intimidation, local reporters said they’ve seen little progress since reporting the incidents. Some have quit their jobs after receiving threats – not from insurgents, but from police. Most Iraqi reporters are reluctant to even identify themselves as press when stopped at police checkpoints. Others say they won’t report on events that involve Iraqi security forces, which creates a big gap in their local news coverage.
“Tell me to cover anything except the police,” said Muth’hir al Zuhairy, the reporter from Sabah newspaper who was threatened at a police academy.
The fall of Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship resulted in unprecedented freedom for Iraqi journalists, who’d suffered torture and prison terms for criticizing the former regime. More than 150 new newspapers and several local TV and radio stations sprang up immediately after the war began – one of the biggest success stories of the U.S.-led invasion. In recent months, however, Iraqi police have begun cracking down on local journalists, creating a wave of fear reminiscent of Saddam’s era.
“If things carry on like this, we will have to carry weapons along with our cameras and recorders,” said Israa Shakir, editor of Iraq Today, an independent Baghdad newspaper. “Under such circumstances, we should be worried about the future of democracy.”
Although Baghdad is the main hub for Iraqi journalists, complaints have poured in from other provinces, said Ibrahim al Sarraj, director of the Iraqi Association to Defend Journalists. In southeastern Iraq, he said, a weekly newspaper was shut down in October for criticizing the governor of the Wasit province. A judge related to the governor sentenced two editors to several months in prison, Sarraj said. The court papers accused the men of “cursing and insulting” the politician.
In the northern town of Baqouba, a cameraman for a local TV station was filming a mosque when Iraqi troops detained him on April 9 for trespassing “in a prohibited place” and for shooting videos that could be used to help insurgents. He’s still in custody, said Salah al Shakerchi, one of the man’s colleagues at Al Diyar TV.
“There was no warrant. It was totally illegal, and he’s being kept in poor conditions,” Shakerchi said. “That’s all we know. We have had no further contact with him.”
Several Interior Ministry officials didn’t return phone messages seeking comment on the journalists’ complaints……
Posted by: Nugget | May 2 2005 23:21 utc | 34
Posted by: Nugget | May 3 2005 0:32 utc | 36
The ladys in our office like to listen to Limblowhard once in a while. Today blowhard was talking about Laura Bushs roasting ol George at the correspondants dinner. A right wing christian group came out with a statement saying she shouldn’t have done that because it was degrading to her husband and the woman is always supposed to obey and not embarrass him according to Ephesians.
Limblowhard actually made the statement that this was probably a liberal group portraying themselves as conservative trying to make a point. I’m sure he said it jokingly, but I’m not really sure, but with his massive audience of wing nuts, I’m sure some took him serious.
That fu– is so caught up in his bullshit he doesn’t know if life is real or not. Talk about throwing conspiracies out for his listeners. He really done to much oxy.
Posted by: jdp | May 3 2005 0:48 utc | 37
Iraq, Afghanistan wars preventing proactive moves
WASHINGTON — The strains imposed by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have made it far more difficult for the U.S. military to beat back new acts of aggression, launch a pre-emptive strike or prevent conflict in another part of the world, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff concluded in a classified analysis presented to Congress today.
In a sober assessment of the Pentagon’s ability to deal with global threats, Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers concluded that the American military is at greater risk this year than last year of being unable to properly execute the missions for which it must prepare around the globe…..
Posted by: Nugget | May 3 2005 3:01 utc | 38
Quote (from above link):
United States military would still be able to win any war the president asked it to fight. It would just be more difficult to win in the time frame and with the number of troops detailed in the Pentagon’s myriad contingency plans.
“The assessment is that we would succeed, but there would be higher casualties and more collateral damage,” said one senior Defense official. “We would have to win uglier.”
————
What a crap! Makes you puke!
Posted by: vbo | May 3 2005 3:43 utc | 39
Jérôme,
are you aware of this windmill place, La Muela in Spain. I would titel it: “Wind blows in good life”. Well, it’s a great story, and maybe a little sign of hope for us too. I always thought that alternative energies are the big business of the future. I do not understand why those super-managers with all their super-bonuses and all their cash, they do not know how to invest, are not finally getting into alternative energies – a real puzzle to me. But hey, I am only a lay person, so what!
Windfall: How turbines have stirred up rural Spain – For years La Muela was only known for a stiff wind that brought cold winters. Now, alternative energy has generated an extraordinary economic boom.
Each year, the giant electricity companies that run the windmills pay about € 1m (£600,000) to La Muela’s local council in royalties and land rents, and another €500,000 to private landowners, who receive €2,000 or €3,000 annually per windmill, according to their power. Most turbines generate between 600 and 800kw per hour but some as tall as 24-storey skyscrapers produce 2,000kw/h.
After knowing only hardship for generations, La Muela’s residents have stumbled on a windfall that has changed their lives. The fierce north wind that gives La Muela its Siberian winters has also made its fortune.
The council has ploughed its money into, among other ventures, a booming industrial park outside the village that produces goods including rustic furniture, Ferrari automobile parts and field tents for the Spanish army. The surrounding area enjoys the use of three heated indoor swimming pools – one Olympic-sized – three jacuzzis, three outdoor pools and a cafeteria. The second phase of the sports complex – being built – includes a football pitch, tennis, squash and pelota courts, and running tracks.
Posted by: Fran | May 3 2005 4:57 utc | 40
Greg Palast: GROUND ZER0-ZER0-ZER0 – Greg Palast reports from Center of the World, Ecuador
Posted by: Fran | May 3 2005 14:08 utc | 41
Laura Bush at the press club. I don’t know, but lately I feel that most caroons are not really funny anymore – its a good one, but sad.
Posted by: Fran | May 3 2005 14:16 utc | 42
From Nugget’s post:
WASHINGTON — The strains imposed by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have made it far more difficult for the U.S. military to beat back new acts of aggression, launch a pre-emptive strike or prevent conflict in another part of the world, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff concluded in a classified analysis presented to Congress today.”
BREAK OUT THE CHAMPAGNE. They might have to withdraw Bolton’s nomination & actually negotiate now…not enough troops to be bellicose.
THE ONLY WAY TO RESTRAIN THESE VAMPIRES IS TO CUT OFF THEIR SUPPLY OF CANNON FODDER.
Posted by: jj | May 4 2005 1:42 utc | 43
Quote of the day: “We can’t control (the disease) with principles that are Manichean, theological, fundamentalist and Shiite,” Pedro Chequer, director of Brazil’s AIDS program and chair of the national commission that decided to refuse the grants, said, adding that the commission — which includes cabinet ministers, scientists and AIDS advocates — viewed the Bush administration policy as “interference that harms the Brazilian policy regarding diversity, ethical principles and human rights.”
Link
Posted by: biklett | May 4 2005 2:02 utc | 44
Tom Engelhardt suggests that as the US squanders blood and treasure on its Iraq adventure, its “near abroad” zone (S America) is declaring independence, forming coalitions, and generally getting uppity.
Engelhardt asks a question I’ve actually been pondering for quite some time: was there a winner of the Cold War, or only two losers?
Love this story in the Guardian this morning. No more need to invade countries to liberate the people – Bollywood is doing it much more effectively.
Bowled over by Bollywood romances, young Afghans choose love matches
Inspired by Bollywood romance and emboldened by wider social freedom, increasing numbers of starry-eyed young Afghans are defying an age-old custom of arranged marriage in favour of “love marriages”.
Every month dozens of couples discreetly slip through the doors of Kabul’s 17 local courts to seek recognition of their secret relationships, according to Judge Omah Alizou, president of the city family court. “We had three cases in this court alone over the past week,” she said, waving a register filled with passport photos of young romantics. “Their parents don’t approve the engagement, so we solve the problem.”
…
Indian and Hollywood movies, widely available on TV or pirated DVDs, provide ideas about what romantic relationships involve. Text messaging and email offer the means to discreetly try them out. Noor said Bollywood romances, full of swooning heroines and old-school chivalry, were his favourite films. “I like it when the boy takes the girl on his shoulder,” he said. “But movies are not the truth. I want to have the same, but in real life.”
Posted by: Fran | May 4 2005 5:26 utc | 46
Another Guardian article worth reading. It looks as if the world slowly starts to stand up to the bulling by the US.
Brazil spurns US terms for Aids help
Brazil yesterday became the first country to take a public stand against the Bush administration’s massive Aids programme which is seen by many as seeking increasingly to press its anti-abortion, pro-abstinence sexual agenda on poorer countries.
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The demand from the US administration, heavily influenced by the religious right, follows what is known as the “global gag” – a ban on US government funds to any foreign-based organisation which has links to abortion. This has resulted in the removal of millions of dollars of funding from family planning clinics worldwide.
I especially liked the following paragraph – how about Gannon/Guckert?!
Campaigners applauded Brazil’s rejection of $40m for its Aids programmes because it refuses to agree to a declaration condemning prostitution.
The government and many Aids organisations believe such a declaration would be a serious barrier to helping sex workers protect themselves and their clients from infection.
Posted by: Fran | May 4 2005 5:35 utc | 47
Afghanistan is still very bleak, Fran, and horror stories like these are not uncommon and suggest that ‘tradition’ is by no means receding:
AFGHANISTAN: Woman executed for adultery
BADAKHSHAN, 3 May (IRIN) – It’s less than a week since the tiny Afghan village community witnessed the execution of 25-year-old Bibi Amena for adultery, but by Tuesday life appeared to have returned to normal. Bibi was sentenced to death by local religious leaders in the Spingul valley in the isolated northeastern province of Badakhshan.
Her crime was to be found in the company of a man she was not married to.
After two days of investigation and community gatherings the Shura [community council] passed the verdict. The boy [she was found with] was given 40 lashes and the woman killed,” Mohammad Azim, one of Amena’s paternal uncles, told IRIN.
…But Amena’s tragic end, battered to death by rocks and her body rolled unceremoniously into a shallow grave, has not even raised eyebrows in a community that has witnessed at least one other recent execution of a woman accused of adultery.
“Seyahmoi [a 30-year-old woman] was shot dead in front of the community because she was a prostitute,” a resident who declined to be named, told IRIN.
The new Afghanistan, which professes respect for the rule of law and women’s rights are acknowledged, seems a long way from this village, even though it’s only 30 km north of the provincial capital, Faizabad…
Afghan women raped, strangled
KABUL, May 2nd (Reuters) — Authorities have found the bodies of three Afghan women, one of whom worked for an aid group, who were raped, strangled and dumped with a warning for women not to work for such groups, an official said.
Aid workers in Afghanistan have been the target of Taliban insurgents, especially in the insurgency-plagued south and east of the country, but the three women were found in the northern province of Baghlan, where Taliban rebels are not active.
“This is retribution for those women who are working in NGOs and those who are involved in whoredom,” said a Western security official, citing the warning, a copy of which he had obtained.
The note was found attached to the chest of one of the dead women, he said…
Posted by: Nugget | May 4 2005 6:20 utc | 48
To measure the impact of ad campaigns, VNU, the parent company of television-audience measurement firm Nielsen Media Research, and Arbitron, the media research firm, are developing an experimental program called Project Apollo that takes the concept of viewer tracking to a level of unprecedented detail.
The project, which the companies hope to roll out on a trial basis next year, will require participants to carry a pager-sized device that records all advertising messages to which its wearer is exposed. Participants will also record everything they buy, so that advertisers can figure out exactly which messages made an impact.
“This fulfills a dream the industry has had for years: the ability to measure what a consumer is exposed to and their resulting behavior in the marketplace,” said Thom Mocarsky, vice president of communications at Arbitron.
The companies plan eventually to incorporate data from 30,000 U.S. households into Project Apollo, Mocarsky said. The planned trial will include between 4,000 and 6,000 households. In exchange for providing their data, participants will receive a combination of cash and products.
But the project involves more than just asking participants to share their viewing and shopping activities. Project Apollo’s creators intend to electronically record marketing messages to which participants are exposed by embedding an audio code into ads that can be automatically picked up by portable devices.
(from Wired)
there’s more. it’s all creepy2max. and I ask myself who the hell would actually volunteer for this kind of totalitarian corporate surveillance?
I know Nugget, (and thanks for the links) that women in Afganistan are still in a dyer situation. However, it seemed amazing to me that Bollywood in the end might start a transformation. It will take a while, but it means new ideas are infiltrating the thinking of the young. To me it is a little ray of hope on the horizon, and I am just not yet willing to give up the hope for a better world – I know naive, but to me better then just giving up. It motivates me to keep working for improvement, however small it may be. 🙂
Posted by: Fran | May 4 2005 6:54 utc | 50
Hopefully,
Sombody can reach into the goody box to help pay for this:
LINK
Posted by: FlashHarry | May 4 2005 10:37 utc | 51
Der Spiegel on German American relations (in English) Goodbye Uncle Sam?
The day before flying to Europe to bridge the deep chasm dividing the Old and New Worlds, President George W. Bush was asked to size up German-American relations.
His answer: “Almost the same as with France.”
Ouch.
…
Feel any safer? US Eases Saudi Visa Restrictions
Comment from Buzzflash:
Okay, 15 of 19 9/11 hijackers were Saudis, Bin Laden is Saudi, and the Saudi brand of Islam, Wabbhism is the main formentor of terrorism. So Bush, using his Carlyl profiteering nogging eases visas to US for Saudis.
And I might add, make it more difficult for allies to receive visas.
Posted by: Fran | May 4 2005 11:14 utc | 53
Washington Post Marijuana Becomes Focus of Drug War
The focus of the drug war in the United States has shifted significantly over the past decade from hard drugs to marijuana, which now accounts for nearly half of all drug arrests nationwide, according to an analysis of federal crime statistics released yesterday.
The study of FBI data by a Washington-based think tank, the Sentencing Project, found that the proportion of heroin and cocaine cases plummeted from 55 percent of all drug arrests in 1992 to less than 30 percent 10 years later. During the same period, marijuana arrests rose from 28 percent of the total to 45 percent.
Coming in the wake of the focus on crack cocaine in the late 1980s, the increasing emphasis on marijuana enforcement was accompanied by a dramatic rise in overall drug arrests, from fewer than 1.1 million in 1990 to more than 1.5 million a decade later. Eighty percent of that increase came from marijuana arrests, the study found.
The rapid increase has not had a significant impact on prisons, however, because just 6 percent of the arrests resulted in felony convictions, the study found. The most widely quoted household survey on the topic has shown relatively little change in the overall rate of marijuana use over the same time period, experts said.
“In reality, the war on drugs as pursued in the 1990s was to a large degree a war on marijuana,” said Ryan S. King, the study’s co-author and a research associate at the Sentencing Project. “Marijuana is the most widely used illegal substance, but that doesn’t explain this level of growth over time. . . . The question is, is this really where we want to be spending all our money?”
…
I regard this war on marihuana as plain stupid. Smoking pod doesn´t kill people. Alcohol, heroin, crack, meth do kill people.
As experiences in other countries show, leagalizing or at least not criminalizing dope is a much better (and cheaper) strategy against dangerous drugs and drug crimes. Why is that so difficult to learn?
Now I know why Bush wants Chavez out! It looks as if Chavez as a real ‘mandate’! Interesting Numbers and Chavez sure seems to be a colorful person.
Opposition Poll: Venezuela’s Chavez Approval Rating at 70.5%
Posted by: Fran | May 4 2005 15:53 utc | 55
AIPAC: The mask slips: Pentagon analyst charged with passing secret information to Israeli group
WASHINGTON – The FBI arrested a Pentagon analyst Wednesday on charges that he illegally passed classified information about potential attacks against U.S. forces in Iraq to employees of a pro-Israel group.
Larry Franklin, 58, of Kearneysville, W. Va., turned himself in Wednesday morning, FBI spokeswoman Debra Weierman said. He was scheduled to make an initial appearance in U.S. District Court in Virginia later Wednesday, Weierman said.
Franklin, who specialized on Iran and Middle Eastern affairs, allegedly gave the information to two people not entitled to receive it at a luncheon meeting at a restaurant in Arlington, Va., in June 2003, the Justice Department said in a statement. The people at the lunch were employees of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a law enforcement official said on condition of anonymity because they are not identified in court papers.
FBI agents twice searched AIPAC offices as part of the investigation about whether Israel improperly obtained classified U.S. information on Iran. They also have interviewed two AIPAC employees about whether Franklin gave them classified information that wound up in Israel’s hands.
AIPAC said it gave the FBI files related to those same two employees, who previously were identified — Steve Rosen, the director of research, and Keith Weissman, deputy director of foreign policy issues.
Neither still works for the group.
AIPAC declined to comment Wednesday.
It was not immediately clear how the information related to Iran.
Posted by: Nugget | May 4 2005 15:55 utc | 56
@B
The answer to your question is that revenue from hard drugs feeds the coffers of Carlyle and CIA. Legalisation would ruin that stream. Whereas pot is more an agricultural commodity?
A fall in hard-drug enforcement doesn’t surprise me at all.
^The above is pure conjecture.
Posted by: rapt | May 4 2005 15:58 utc | 57
More progress in Iraq. They a good educational system, and most Iraqis were well educated. Seems thats part of the past too.
Iraq’s Institutions of Higher Education
There are more interessting articles on Raed’s side and he seems to do a great job getting medecines to Falluja.
Posted by: Fran | May 4 2005 16:20 utc | 58
And I just saw there is also an article by Plutonium Page (who some of you might know from dKos) on the same topic – i.E. Universities.
Collateral damage: 84% of Iraq’s universities destroyed in the war
Since the start of the war of 2003 some 84% of Iraq’s higher education institutions have been burnt, looted or destroyed while four dozen academics have been assassinated and many more brave daily threats, according to an analysis of the system’s reconstruction needs released today by the United Nations University.
And the headline by Imad Khadduri on FreeIraq:
“Repairing Iraq’s higher education system is in many ways a prerequisite to the long term repair of the country as a whole.”
The rest is in Arab. But here the Link anyway, as he also posts in English.
Posted by: Fran | May 4 2005 16:28 utc | 59
Collateral damage: 84% of Iraq’s universities destroyed in the war
wasn’t that the point? destroy the libraries, the museums, the universities, the intelligentsia. that’s how colonialism works.
Rising youth literacy in Iraq 1980 – 1990
Early in his rule, Saddam was credited with creating one of the strongest school systems in the Middle East. Iraq won a UNESCO prize for eradicating illiteracy in 1982. Literacy rates for women were among the highest of all Islamic nations, and unlike most Middle East school systems, Iraqi education was largely secular.
By the end of the 1980s, shortly before the U.S. aggression against Iraq began, 87% of the Iraqi public was literate. In other words, about twice as many people could read and write than could 15 years earlier.
The embargo was disastrous on the Iraqi educational system. For instance, even pencils were not allowed to be imported. The U.S. placed these in the “dual-use” category of imports. Since there are few trees for wood in Iraq, pencils became rare. Anti-embargo human rights groups brought pencils to Iraq during the sanctions, but it was only a drop in the bucket for the actual needs.
Despite the hardships, Iraqis were still learning to read and write. At the height of the embargo in 1995, 89.7% of Iraqi males were literate and 45% of the female population could read and write. The sanctions took their highest toll on Iraqi women.
Even in March 2003, most figures from international organizations stated that Iraq still had a literacy rate of over 60%. Two years later, and the rate is under 40%. To make it simple, about two of every three Iraqis today can not read or write.
This decrease in literacy fits U.S. imperialistic aims. If the people can not read or write, they can not understand all the diabolical effects of the occupation. To them, they worry about eating and having electricity. Reading is secondary. With an enslaved population like this, there is little hope that a “normal” life will return to Iraqis for decades.
Most educators in Iraq today fight to have text books or pencils. If they get table scraps, they are happy because that is better than nothing. However, table scraps will be the only offerings coming for a long time.
The U.S. is currently building 14 permanent bases in Iraq. U.S. firms have bilked the Iraqis out of untold billions of dollars. Every day that passes is another day when the illiteracy rate in Iraq rises. The public has no time to worry about literacy. This enslavement is powerful and lasting….
Posted by: Nugget | May 4 2005 18:45 utc | 61