Category: Uncategorized

By Paul Street

*Opening comments in a debate with John K. Wilson, a former Barack Obama student and author of the book President Barack Obama: A More Perfect Union (Paradigm, 2009) The debate, held by The Open Univesity of the Left in Chicago on Thursday, August 27th, 2009, was titled, “Is Barack Obama A Progressive?”

Thank you, Open University. I didn’t really write a book about Barack Obama. I wrote a book about the United States ‘ corporate- and empire-captive, media-saturated dollar democracy in what I knew by late 2006 to be the dawning Age of Obama.

Is Barack Obama a progressive? John Wilson says “yes,” I say “no.”
But how much does the question really matter at the end of the day? Obama wasn’t selected to head the United Way or the White Sox. He’s chief executive of the American Empire. He is a politician above all – one who was selected to sit atop and, I think, to re-brand what the left-liberal political scientist Sheldon Wolin rightly calls “Democracy, Incorporated.”

Every four years millions of American voters are induced to put their political hats on, to hope a bit, and then to go back to sleep. To hope that a savior or at least a more effective manager can be installed in the White House to raise wages, roll back war and militarism, provide universal and adequate health care, rebuild infrastructure, fix the environmental crisis, reduce inequality, and generally make life more livable.

The savior can be named Jack or Bobby or Teddy or Gene or George or Jimmy or Bill or Hillary or John or Adlai or Barack. It doesn’t matter. Under the rules of what Wolin calls “corporate-managed democracy,” officially “electable” candidates who want a serious shot at lasting power subordinate themselves to what Ed Herman and David Peterson call “the unelected dictatorship of money,” which “vets the nominees of the Republican and Democratic parties, reducing the options available to U.S. citizens to two candidates, neither of whom can change the foreign or domestic priorities of the imperial regime.”

The Obama presidency so far is a chilling object lesson in the reach, power, and bipartisan nature of that “unelected dictatorship.” Obama is following what David Rothkopf, a former Clinton official, calls “the violin model: you hold power with the left hand and you play the music with the right.” In other words, you gain and hold the presidency with populace-pleasing progressive-sounding rhetoric but you govern, you make policy, in service to existing dominant institutions.

ZMag for more

The Afghan chessboard

Does it matter who will win the Afghan presidential election – Hamid Karzai or Abdullah Abdullah? Not that much, as this was an election to legitimize the US and NATO occupation of parts of the country not controlled by the Taliban. But in terms of the New Great Game in Eurasia, as Pepe Escobar argues, that’s when the grand American strategy can be perceived in full bloom : it involves nothing less than rehabilitating the “evil” Taliban. Anything goes when it comes to Washington trying to establish an energy corridor from the Caspian to South Asia, bypassing Russia.

The Real News for more

By TINA ROSENBERG

Jillian Tamaki

In the late 1970s, a Ph.D. student named Monica Das Gupta was conducting anthropological fieldwork in Haryana, a state in the north of India. She observed something striking about families there: parents had a fervent preference for male offspring. Women who had given birth to only daughters were desperate for sons and would keep having children until they had one or two. Midwives were even paid less when a girl was born. “It’s something you notice coming from outside,” says Das Gupta, who today studies population and public health in the World Bank’s development research group. “It just leaps out at you.”

Das Gupta saw that educated, independent-minded women shared this prejudice in Haryana, a state that was one of India’s richest and most developed. In fact, the bias against girls was far more pronounced there than in the poorer region in the east of India where Das Gupta was from. She decided to study the issue in Punjab, then India’s richest state, which had a high rate of female literacy and a high average age of marriage. There too the prejudice for sons flourished. Along with Haryana, Punjab had the country’s highest percentage of so-called missing girls — those aborted, killed as newborns or dead in their first few years from neglect.

Here was a puzzle: Development seemed to have not only failed to help many Indian girls but to have made things worse.

It is rarely good to be female anywhere in the developing world today, but in India and China the situation is dire: in those countries, more than 1.5 million fewer girls are born each year than demographics would predict, and more girls die before they turn 5 than would be expected. (In China in 2007, there were 1.73 million births — and a million missing girls.) Millions more grow up stunted, physically and intellectually, because they are denied the health care and the education that their brothers receive.

NY Times for more

ANALYSIS by Anat Matar – Haaretz

The writer is a lecturer in Tel Aviv University’s Department of Philosophy.

Several days ago Dr. Neve Gordon of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev published an opinion piece in the Los Angeles Times. In that article he explained why, after years of activity in the peace camp here, he has decided to pin his hopes on applying external pressure on Israel – including sanctions, divestment and an economic, cultural and academic boycott.

He believes, and so do I, that only when the Israeli society’s well-heeled strata pay a real price for the continuous occupation, will they finally take genuine steps to put an end to it.

Gordon looks at the Israeli society and sees an apartheid state. While the Palestinians’ living conditions deteriorate, many Israelis are benefiting from the occupation. In between the two sides, Israeli society is sinking into complete denial – drawn into extreme hatred and violence.

The academic community has an important role to play in this process. Yet, instead of sounding the alarm, it wakes up only when someone dares approach the international community and desperately call for help.

The worn-out slogan that everybody raises in this context is “academic freedom,” but it is time to somewhat crack this myth.

The appeal to academic freedom was born during the Enlightenment, when ruling powers tried to suppress independent minded thinkers. Already then, more than 200 years ago, Imannuel Kant differentiated between academics whose expertise (law, theology, and medicine) served the establishment and those who had neither power nor proximity to power. As for the first, he said, there was no sense in talking about “freedom” or “independent thought” as any use of such terminology is cynical.

Since then, cynicism has spread to other faculties as well. At best academic freedom was perceived as the right to not ask troubling questions. At worst was the right to harass whomever asked too much.

When the flag of academic freedom is raised, the oppressor and not the oppressed is usually the one who flies it. What is that academic freedom that so interests the academic community in Israel? When, for example, has it shown concern for the state of academic freedom in the occupied territories?

This school year in Gaza will open in shattered classrooms as there are no building materials there for rehabilitating the ruins; without notebooks, books and writing utensils that cannot be brought into Gaza because of the goods embargo (yes, Israel may boycott schools there and no cry is heard).

Hundreds of students in West Bank universities are under arrest or detention in Israeli jails, usually because they belong to student organizations that the ruling power does not like.

The separation fence and the barriers prevent students and lecturers from reaching classes, libraries and tests. Attending conferences abroad is almost unthinkable and the entry of experts who bear foreign passports is permitted only sparingly.

On the other hand, members of the Israeli academia staunchly guard their right to research what the regime expects them to research and appoint former army officers to university positions. Tel Aviv University alone prides itself over the fact that the Defense Ministry is funding 55 of its research projects and that DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency in the U.S. Defense Department, is funding nine more. All the universities offer special study programs for the defense establishment.

Haaretz for more

(Submitted by Ingrid B. Mork)

By Maddy Savage, BBC News, Copenhagen

Rush hour in Denmark’s capital seems anything but rushed.
City workers glide through the streets – trousers tucked into their socks and briefcases slung on to the side of their bicycles.
Some even have children following on behind, wrapped in waterproofs and perching on special trailers known as cargo bikes.
The air feels fresh and there is not a traffic jam in sight.
With less than four months to go until Copenhagen hosts the United Nations climate change summit, the city has announced its vision to become the world’s best city for cyclists.

In Copenhagen, a third of people already cycle to work, school or university.

There are about 350km (217 miles) of cycle routes around the city.
Cyclists have priority over cars and pedestrians at many major junctions and traffic lights.

It’s a big part of our culture and with all the environmental problems, even more people are starting to use a bike instead: Bettina, cyclist.

City officials have just announced their plans to get half of commuters using bikes by 2015.

“The city has worked consistently to improve things for cyclists,” said Andreas Rohl, who is in charge of the city’s cycling programme.

“Everything you see in Copenhagen today is due to decisions taken back in the 70s and early 80s.

“For people here, going on a bicycle is a bit like brushing your teeth, you don’t think much about it!”

He said the new targets for cyclists were “realistic but very ambitious”.

Common to be car-free
Two of the city’s main bridges have recently had a makeover to help encourage more people to cycle.

One is now completely car-free, the other has been developed to include double cycle lanes on both sides.

The city is planning to widen other existing cycle lanes.

It is also considering congestion charging although the legal procedures to do this are not yet in place.

BBC for more

By B. R. Gowani
Christiane Amanpour (CNN program on Generation Islam), Eboo Patel, and others in the United States are busy advocating the education of Muslim children in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Palestine. The belief underlying this policy was simplistically summed up by Eboo Patel’s concluding statement quoted in the Washington Post: “The safety of a child in Kansas City may depend on who wins the battle of the schools in Kandahar.”

This immature gibberish goes on and on. People wanting to remain in limelight or hold on to their jobs have to write something to maintain their positions.

September 2001 was the only time the Muslim militants attacked the US and caused deaths of innocents. In these Muslim areas, however, the populace continues to be terrorized. Many children in Kandahar, Afghanistan, have lost their limbs and lives because of US bombing.

Presently, the children of Kansas have no fear from the Muslim militants. It is the US corporations who are adding to the terror and whose “downsizing” (firing) is laying off their parents. The US government is increasing the terror by cutting off social programs and the greedy capitalists are bankrupting their country. The dominant media strives to keep the common people confused. It is these harmful elements on which the safety of the children in Kansas (other parts of the US, and around the world) depends.

No one is talking about resolving the existing unfair state of affairs in the Muslim majority conflict areas: whether exploitation in Afghanistan, Palestine, etc. Either they have no insight into the real problems being faced there or they are so accustomed to the unfair and tainted policy view point of the west that they fail to see the true reality of these situations (true problems and possible custom solutions).

No one can deny the importance and benefits of education, especially, the one which can teach students to think critically and question the hypocrisy, consumerism, and indoctrination which are being peddled in the name of democracy, religion, and business. The problem arises, however, with the type of education the US provides to the Muslim children.

And what kind of education the United States is going to impart to the children of Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Palestine? It will be:

A for America
B for Bill Gates
C for Coca Cola
D for Disney Land
E for Elections (US style)
F for Free Trade (Capitalist style)
G for Guantanamo Bay
H for Hollywood
I for Israel
J for Jobs (prepare yourself to work for corporations)
K for KFC (add to the global obesity)
L for Lobbies (welfare groups for our Congresspersons)
M for Monsanto (false marketing leading to mass suicides)
N for National security (of the US)
O for Oprah (the power of media)
P for Pentagon (Defender of exploitative capitalism)
Q for Questioning (only US has the right to question)
R for Rendition (CIA sponsored tour)
S for September 11
T for Terrorists (no concern for innocents)
U for Uber power (the one and only that matters)
V for Victim (perceived, i.e., US)
W for Wal-Mart (hoard and greed)
X for Xmas (commercialize God)
Y for “Yes, Master” (you should utter to survive)
Z for Zeal (to privatize all)

This is exactly what the children of Palestine, Afghanistan, and Pakistan do not need. What they need is good applicable education that makes them capable of leading their nations; and places them on a path to make them valued members of the Global Village but with a unique identity that is their own; while contributing to a local based economy not run from white capitals.

The high rate of illiteracy was prevalent even before the 1990s: this is not a new phenomenon. There was no terrorism then, except the PLO’s fight for the liberation of Palestine from the terrorism of the state of Israel. (PLO was a secular organization and had many Christian members too.) However, what is new is the unmindful and fanatical terrorism of a few Muslim militants. Many of these monstrous creatures are the creation of the US itself or its unjust policies. These Muslim militants have proved themselves fanatics on a par with the capitalist fanatics of the United States.

One point to consider is that more essential education of the masses in these areas may mean greater scrutiny of unfair practices of the West and its local puppets. An educated student can now recognize the attitudes of anger and outrage that is raised in the west when one of them dies vs. the deafening silence and indifference when thousands of his/her country men die.

Education and Independent thinking

The 99% literacy rate in the US indicates that most of its people can read simple directions to manage their life. It does not mean people have critical skills or are tolerant of other people or cultures or are devoid of racial and communal tendencies. The recent example of racialism and communalism is the detaining and interrogating of Shah Rukh Khan at New Jersey airport.

Shah Rukh Khan is considered the world’s most famous actor. He has faced similar harassment in England too. The problem is his name, color, and religion. He told the officer that he is an actor and that should have ended his ordeal right then as the officer just had to Google his name or had he gone on Youtube, he would have come across thousands of articles and videos. If the actor had been defiant or uncooperative, than one could understand — though never justify — the officer’s behavior. Khan was out after an hour or so. Many ordinary people meet a different fate.

So this incident reeks of plain and simple racism.

How about educating these kinds of officers?

B. R. Gowani can be reached at brgowani@hotmail.com

Om Puri in My Son the Fanatic

Written by John Lasker

Mining in DRC

A Canadian mining company is prepared to bring hundreds of millions of dollars in gold out of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, one of Africa’s most embattled and poorest countries. One expert says that to extract gold, the company will have to cut a deal with a violent African militia.

In an attempt to derail fresh violence in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the UN is calling on governments and other agencies to raise nearly $40 million in emergency funding for extra security. The UN says escalated fighting between the notorious “FDLR” or Forces Democatiques de Liberation du Rwanda militia and the DRC military is forcing thousands of Congolese to flee their homes.

“There are widespread reports…of atrocities including accusations of murder, rape and torture, on the part of the FDLR rebels,” said UN spokesperson Ron Redmond to the newswire Agence France-Press in late July. “Fleeing populations also report arbitrary arrests, kidnappings, extortion and forced taxation by the FDLR and various armed groups backing the Rwandan Hutu rebels.”

The DRC government has said the incidents are related to its latest military offensive to root out the FDLR.

The region was believed to be under a relative peace since earlier this year after General Laurent Nkunda — the infamous leader of another violent militia group — was finally apprehended. But as is often the case in eastern DRC, where a resource war involving several nations and many militias has been waged on-and-off for the last ten years, true peace never lasts long.

Toward Freedom for more

On Troops That Don’t Depart, Experts Who Never Leave the Scene, an Air Force That Suddenly Wasn’t There, and a War That No Longer Needs a Justification

By Tom Engelhardt

The Bush administration invaded Iraq in March 2003 with a force of approximately 130,000 troops. Top White House and Pentagon officials like Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz were convinced that, by August, those troops, welcomed with open arms by the oppressed Iraqis, would be drawn down to 30,000-40,000 and housed in newly built, permanent military bases largely away from the country’s urban areas. This was to be part of what now is called a “strategic partnership” in the Middle East.

Almost five and a half years later, the United States still has approximately 130,000 troops in Iraq. Top administration officials are now talking about “modestly accelerated” rates of troop withdrawal, if all goes well. By August 2010, the Obama administration expects to have only 30,000-50,000 troops housed mainly on American mega-bases largely away from urban areas, part of a special American/Iraqi strategic partnership in the region.
This passes for progress in Iraq.

A History of the Bicycle in Iraq

TomDispatch for more