By Darren Schuettler
BANGKOK, May 22 (Reuters) - Each morning, Somying
waits on the canal near her Bangkok slum for the
iceboat that has become her lifeline.
"It's expensive but I need ice every day," the
33-year-old said of the 12 baht ($0.37) purchase that
keeps her lifesaving AIDS drug, Kaletra, from
perishing in hot season temperatures nearing 40
degrees centigrade (104 F)
A version that does not need refrigeration is
available in the United States, but not in Thailand
where the army-backed government is embroiled in a
patent dispute with its maker, U.S. pharmaceutical
giant Abbott Laboratories.
Abbott will not register the new version, Aluvia,
until Bangkok renounces its January decision to invoke
a compulsory licence under world trade rules which
allow governments to make or buy copycat versions of
drugs for public health measures.
Thailand, which has taken similar action on another
AIDS drug and a heart disease medicine in what it says
is a bid to widen access for its poor, wants Abbott to
cut its prices more.
The company is sticking to its last offer of $1,000
per patient a year, down from $2,200, but higher than
generic versions.
"The new pills would make it easier," said Somying,
whose monthly ice bill eats up nearly half the 800
baht she earns at home tying ribbons for a garland
maker.
"I wouldn't have to buy ice or carry around the cooler
anymore," she said outside the two-room shack she
shares with her two children, including a 13-year-old
son with AIDS.
Still, they are among the lucky ones.
WAITING FOR TREATMENT
Of the 8,000 Thais who need Kaletra, a so-called
second-line drug for people who develop resistance to
initial treatment, only 600 are receiving the drug --
and the older version at that.
Somying, who was forced to leave her cleaning job at a
sausage factory due to AIDS-related illnesses, still
pays 500 baht a month into an employee health plan to
receive Kaletra.
Without charitable donations, Somying, who lost her
husband to AIDS a decade ago, said her family would
not survive.
Her son, back in school six years after he walked out
when teachers tried to keep him away from other
children, receives the drug through the national
health scheme, which covers 80 percent of Thailand's
63 million people.
A former AIDS hotspot, Thailand has won praise for
reducing infections and expanding drug treatment to
100,000 of the 580,000 Thais living with AIDS. But it
now faces budget pressures as more people need
treatment, including expensive second-line drugs.
Somsit Tansuphaswadikul, a doctor at Bangkok's main
infectious disease hospital, said he has 30 patients
on Kaletra but could treat 70 more.
"There is a quota for second-line patients because of
the budget. Some patients may not get access because
it's not available, so they keep on with the old
regimen," he said.
The drug industry's defenders say Thailand, which is
spending $100 million on HIV-AIDS programmes this
year, is a middle-income nation that can afford higher
drug prices.
Bangkok says health care is already its second biggest
budget item after education, but it is worried about
the impact on trade relations with its major partner,
the United States.
"AXIS OF IP EVIL"
Health Minister Mongkol na Songkhla is in Washington
this week to meet trade officials who put Thailand on
a "priority watch list", citing a "weakening of
respect for patents" which could open the country to
trade retaliation.
"We only want access to drugs for people who have no
access.
We can't let them down," Mongkol told Reuters before
the trip he said was aimed at countering "bad
information" about his policy.
Mongkol, who acted after a coup ousted pro-business
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra last year, said he
may target two more drugs, not the 20-30 some reports
have cited.
Mongkol has won support from health groups such as
Doctors Without Borders and former U.S. President Bill
Clinton, whose foundation brokers deals with generic
drug makers to provide lower-priced drugs for
developing nations.
"No company will live or die because of high price
premiums for AIDS drugs in middle-income countries,
but patients may,"
Clinton said in backing Thailand and Brazil, which has
followed Bangkok in overriding the patent on
Efavirenz, an AIDS drug made by U.S.-based Merck & Co
Inc.
Washington has urged the Thais and drug firms to
negotiate.
Its envoy in Bangkok has also criticised a campaign
waged by the lobby group USA for Innovation, which has
indirect links to the drug industry. It accuses
Bangkok of stealing American intellectual property for
military benefit and forming part of an "axis of IP
evil".
Thailand plans to hire a U.S. public relations firm to
counter the attacks, but some say the slanging match
should be replaced by a serious multilateral debate on
how to provide affordable medicines to the world's
poor.
"Drugs are not a tape or CD or something like that. We
need to think about the human right to receive
treatment. It's the same all over the world," Somsit
said.
22 May 2007
Abduction of UN personnel in Sri Lanka
COLOMBO: Sri Lanka Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama on Monday expressed to a United Nations official the Government's concern about the abduction and detention of two U.N. staff members by the LTTE in February.
The Acting U.N. Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator and Representative and Resident Director of the World Food Programme, Jeff Taft Dick, was summoned to the Foreign Ministry in this regard. The Minister told Mr. Dick that the "failure" on the part of the U.N. to bring this matter to the notice of the Foreign Ministry until April 27 was "unacceptable".
Mr. Bogollagama maintained that the "failure" of the U.N. Office in Sri Lanka made it difficult for the Government to discharge its obligations under the 1994 U.N. Convention on the Safety of the U.N. and Associated Personnel, to which Sri Lanka is a party.
At a news conference here, the Minister said that Sri Lanka was surprised to note that the abduction and detention of these persons had not been brought to the notice of the U.N. Secretary-General, judging by statements made by the Secretary-General's spokesperson in New York on April 20.
The Minister, who noted that the Government was also concerned by the reference in the U.N. statement to this `abduction' as an `arrest', said the circumstances relating to this incident could be perceived as an attempt by the U.N. authorities in Sri Lanka to shield the LTTE's criminal actions.
The Minister said that since the continued abduction of one of the U.N. staff was officially reported to the Government on April 27, the authorities concerned would proceed to take action in this matter.
Mr. Dick told the Minister that of the two staff members, one had already been released and that S.P. Thamilchelvan, head of the political wing of the LTTE, had agreed that the matter relating to the other would be reviewed further.
To inform U.N.
He reportedly told the Minister that the use of terminology of `arrest' was a mistake, and that the United Nations classified this as abduction. He said that he would convey the concerns of the Sri Lanka Government to the United Nations.
The military said that a soldier was injured when the LTTE cadres opened fire at a group of army soldiers at Neelapola in Trincomalee on Monday evening. The attack took place around 7.15 p.m. as the Army was conducting a foot patrol in the area.
In another incident, troops conducting clearing operations in the Pankulam area in Trincomalee, found stocks of ammunition. They included ammunition for 12.7mm machine guns, multi-purpose machine guns and T-56 rifles.
The military further reported that in Jaffna, civilians continue their cooperation with the Sri Lanka security forces by providing valuable information on hidden terror arms in the area.
The Acting U.N. Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator and Representative and Resident Director of the World Food Programme, Jeff Taft Dick, was summoned to the Foreign Ministry in this regard. The Minister told Mr. Dick that the "failure" on the part of the U.N. to bring this matter to the notice of the Foreign Ministry until April 27 was "unacceptable".
Mr. Bogollagama maintained that the "failure" of the U.N. Office in Sri Lanka made it difficult for the Government to discharge its obligations under the 1994 U.N. Convention on the Safety of the U.N. and Associated Personnel, to which Sri Lanka is a party.
At a news conference here, the Minister said that Sri Lanka was surprised to note that the abduction and detention of these persons had not been brought to the notice of the U.N. Secretary-General, judging by statements made by the Secretary-General's spokesperson in New York on April 20.
The Minister, who noted that the Government was also concerned by the reference in the U.N. statement to this `abduction' as an `arrest', said the circumstances relating to this incident could be perceived as an attempt by the U.N. authorities in Sri Lanka to shield the LTTE's criminal actions.
The Minister said that since the continued abduction of one of the U.N. staff was officially reported to the Government on April 27, the authorities concerned would proceed to take action in this matter.
Mr. Dick told the Minister that of the two staff members, one had already been released and that S.P. Thamilchelvan, head of the political wing of the LTTE, had agreed that the matter relating to the other would be reviewed further.
To inform U.N.
He reportedly told the Minister that the use of terminology of `arrest' was a mistake, and that the United Nations classified this as abduction. He said that he would convey the concerns of the Sri Lanka Government to the United Nations.
The military said that a soldier was injured when the LTTE cadres opened fire at a group of army soldiers at Neelapola in Trincomalee on Monday evening. The attack took place around 7.15 p.m. as the Army was conducting a foot patrol in the area.
In another incident, troops conducting clearing operations in the Pankulam area in Trincomalee, found stocks of ammunition. They included ammunition for 12.7mm machine guns, multi-purpose machine guns and T-56 rifles.
The military further reported that in Jaffna, civilians continue their cooperation with the Sri Lanka security forces by providing valuable information on hidden terror arms in the area.
21 May 2007
pride in colombo
it's hard to imagine that a place as lovely, complex, diverse and friendly as sri lanka has banned homosexuality and queer spirits. the laws still prohibit people from being open about their Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Transgendered-Queer (LGBTQ - did i cover most non-hetero sexualities?) sexuality, to the point of intimidation, humiliation, harassment, even imprisonment and torture. while the country promotes tourism and does little about the rampant prostitution, sex trade, paedophilia and human trafficking it seizes LGBTQ people from the lives they should lead, depriving them of essential human rights. for instance in the mid-1990s a lesbian conference here was shut down with participants being socially persecuted, even subjected to death threats. it's not an isolated incident but occurs quite often throughout asia and the developing South. it seems countries which preach uber-masculinity and patriarchy, a system with impossible ideals, stereotypes, practices and networks of power, is most conducive to threatening and masking people who live as multiply gendered. what is this lunatic normative system? how and why does this system prevail? how and why does it coincide with systems of violence, and why are the historically most violent countries, particulary in this region (afghanistan, bhutan, china, fiji, indonesia, iran, nepal, pakistan, samoa, to name a few), also the most irrational and unaccepting of LGBTQ sexualities?
perhaps people who are seen as outside the mainstream, just through their existence, question and rupture the very foundations of what is the staus quo, what is pushed as 'normal', what derives itself from the subjugation of a select, special group of people. it is the same seething system and political process that attempts to control men and women's bodies and minds, to put them into dichotomous categories, to blame the victim, and to maintain the administration of haves and have nots. it is the same system whereby women are seen as property, only as baby-producing machines who can then clean up after she is raped and tortured. if people were freer to live their lives in ways that do not hurt anyone or themselves i guess it would create too much compassion, happiness, tolerance, diversity and overall wellbeing...no? i cannot understand any partiarchal-hetero-ethnocentric system that perpetuates and thrives on the unhappiness and torment of any group of people, seen as a minority, deemed as outcasts and threats to 'morality'. how we define these values is completely subjective not to mention utterly irrelevant when we live in an age of accelerated globalisation and exchange of ideas/information/cusoms. how are we supposed to move ahead and get past differences in order to achieve full on human rights and wellbeing enhancement? eh?
this week is pride week in sri lanka (mainly with events in colombo), which celebrates when the World Health Organisation removed homosexuality as a defined mental disorder and which highlights the living experiences of LGBTQ people. not many people have come out in sri lanka, even friends who are gay do not come out to everyone, not even to their family. as a straight person living, working, breathing, existing among many different people, i can support the cause to abolish ignorance on LGBTQ issues. it is an area where even human rights advocates with whom i work, do not even address the rights of LGBTQ nor sex workers nor people living with HIV. it;s a complete paradox to separate causes like that when one should be working to achieve humanism in a holistic manner.
one film i saw during the pride extravaganza, 'dangerous lives: coming out in the developing world', narrated by janeane garofolo, addressed the volatility and discrimination for LGBTQ people in the south. one shocking case, that i remember amnesty international and other human rights groups worked on around the turn of the millennium, was the cairo 52. cairo had become a gay mecca in recent times, like a bangkok, miami, kuala lumpur, but faced a massive legislative crackdown on gay culture, classifying LGBTQ, particularly men, as sodomists and sons of the devil. it is extremely difficult to experience queer life in muslim countries because it is seen as religious blasphemy, going against god's will, jilting the status quo. in this case, police cracked down on a queer nile river cruise, arresting 52 guys and subjecting them to unjustifed detainment, lack of access to legal resources, corrupt trials, abusive and squalid imprisonment for several years, immense torture and other injustices. after LGBTQ activists from around the world erupted a large scale campaign, the imprisoned were eventually liberated. an odd thing is that, with all the gay activists in the US lobbying, the liberation came after the US senate bullied egypt and threatened economic or trade barriers (and prevented the sale of its weapons to egypt, which goes to fight the kinds of people that US wanted to liberate) due to their violation of human rights. so is the arms and free trade, with such political and economic leverage, actually beneficial to gay people in developing countries? still trying to wrap my head around this one.
despite being freed from prison, the GTBQ guys were still subjected to discrimination, threats and harassment in their daily lives, forcing them to closet their existence. many of the 52 were able to seek political asylum in the north, and although they could connect with gay communities there they were forced into exile and to be away from the people and countries they love. in other circumstances, such as in sri lanka, lesbians are often thought to be mentally unstable and that they can be 'cured'. there are numerous cases around the world (e.g. colombia) where lesbians have been raped, tortured and killed by police and armed forces, with their families also subjected to violence, with the belief that men can fuck the lesbianism out of them. they are seen as contrary to what hetero men believe to be about women, that they should be made inferior and under their control. a lesbian with a happy partner, child, family and friends is a more powerful person who does not need the utility of men, who can manage their lives based on functionality better than how the status quo dictates. truly saddening and unfathomable. wot more can we do to eradicate these brutal hierarchies? who determines what is fair, just, moral, 'norml'?
one unfortunate aspect that is not discussed enough within this movement, at least from the developing countries' perspectives, is HIV and AIDS. sex and sexuality remain taboo subjects in the much of the south, so the promotion of safe sex and preventative methods against spreading HIV is generally absent from discussion and advocacy. you do see some HIV discussion within LGBTQ movements but most people in sri lanka, for instance, do not address the health concerns of this sexually and fluids-transmitting virus. LGBTQ and HIV do not necessarily go hand in hand, but there is so much misconception and ignorance about both and when talking about one it is important to raise the other. for instance, in another documentary about male sex workers in india, i suppose because the nature of their work and the taboo of being GBTQ, most sex workers do not think or discuss about HIV. some men are not tested, despite the proactive measures to make affordable testing available. many sex workers have wives, children, families to support and do not want their families to know about their work. so they may face stigma in getting tested. many sex workers think that HIV is only a disease from westerners, the poor, or that if they get HIV it is god's will/karma. or they think that if they only sleep with rich or upper caste men they will not get it. there are so many myths that these sex workers believe or follow in order to convince themselves that their means of work and economic prospects are not dangerous, wrong or risky. it may be easier to believe they are impervious because they are already crusading for awareness about homosexuality. but it can be seen as a falseity if you are open to yourself about one aspect of your sexuality by masking other risky, underground aspects, such as the vulnerability to HIV. again, it seems to be that it would disrupt their way of existence and job prospects, their means of survival. a really devastating, contradictory tragedy.
so i guess one way to bridge these two issues more successfully in the developing south would be to tackle the stigma permeating from religious and zealous nationalistic beliefs. in many cases throughout african countries and india HIV educators have used depictions from religion and spiritual cosmologies to get the point across about how to protect oneself from HIV and STI by using condoms and by being cautious about sexual encounters. by bringing up issues related to sexuality, that it is not just a tool for procreation, and getting people talking about sex more openly (in a non-exploitative, non-objectifying way) it can close the gap of ignorance to a better informed, healthy, happy, sexually satiated public. praps. in addition, people need to get off their arse and become activated on human rights and social justice causes!!! even if it just means writing a letter or calling your respectful bastard parliamentarian.
perhaps people who are seen as outside the mainstream, just through their existence, question and rupture the very foundations of what is the staus quo, what is pushed as 'normal', what derives itself from the subjugation of a select, special group of people. it is the same seething system and political process that attempts to control men and women's bodies and minds, to put them into dichotomous categories, to blame the victim, and to maintain the administration of haves and have nots. it is the same system whereby women are seen as property, only as baby-producing machines who can then clean up after she is raped and tortured. if people were freer to live their lives in ways that do not hurt anyone or themselves i guess it would create too much compassion, happiness, tolerance, diversity and overall wellbeing...no? i cannot understand any partiarchal-hetero-ethnocentric system that perpetuates and thrives on the unhappiness and torment of any group of people, seen as a minority, deemed as outcasts and threats to 'morality'. how we define these values is completely subjective not to mention utterly irrelevant when we live in an age of accelerated globalisation and exchange of ideas/information/cusoms. how are we supposed to move ahead and get past differences in order to achieve full on human rights and wellbeing enhancement? eh?
this week is pride week in sri lanka (mainly with events in colombo), which celebrates when the World Health Organisation removed homosexuality as a defined mental disorder and which highlights the living experiences of LGBTQ people. not many people have come out in sri lanka, even friends who are gay do not come out to everyone, not even to their family. as a straight person living, working, breathing, existing among many different people, i can support the cause to abolish ignorance on LGBTQ issues. it is an area where even human rights advocates with whom i work, do not even address the rights of LGBTQ nor sex workers nor people living with HIV. it;s a complete paradox to separate causes like that when one should be working to achieve humanism in a holistic manner.
one film i saw during the pride extravaganza, 'dangerous lives: coming out in the developing world', narrated by janeane garofolo, addressed the volatility and discrimination for LGBTQ people in the south. one shocking case, that i remember amnesty international and other human rights groups worked on around the turn of the millennium, was the cairo 52. cairo had become a gay mecca in recent times, like a bangkok, miami, kuala lumpur, but faced a massive legislative crackdown on gay culture, classifying LGBTQ, particularly men, as sodomists and sons of the devil. it is extremely difficult to experience queer life in muslim countries because it is seen as religious blasphemy, going against god's will, jilting the status quo. in this case, police cracked down on a queer nile river cruise, arresting 52 guys and subjecting them to unjustifed detainment, lack of access to legal resources, corrupt trials, abusive and squalid imprisonment for several years, immense torture and other injustices. after LGBTQ activists from around the world erupted a large scale campaign, the imprisoned were eventually liberated. an odd thing is that, with all the gay activists in the US lobbying, the liberation came after the US senate bullied egypt and threatened economic or trade barriers (and prevented the sale of its weapons to egypt, which goes to fight the kinds of people that US wanted to liberate) due to their violation of human rights. so is the arms and free trade, with such political and economic leverage, actually beneficial to gay people in developing countries? still trying to wrap my head around this one.
despite being freed from prison, the GTBQ guys were still subjected to discrimination, threats and harassment in their daily lives, forcing them to closet their existence. many of the 52 were able to seek political asylum in the north, and although they could connect with gay communities there they were forced into exile and to be away from the people and countries they love. in other circumstances, such as in sri lanka, lesbians are often thought to be mentally unstable and that they can be 'cured'. there are numerous cases around the world (e.g. colombia) where lesbians have been raped, tortured and killed by police and armed forces, with their families also subjected to violence, with the belief that men can fuck the lesbianism out of them. they are seen as contrary to what hetero men believe to be about women, that they should be made inferior and under their control. a lesbian with a happy partner, child, family and friends is a more powerful person who does not need the utility of men, who can manage their lives based on functionality better than how the status quo dictates. truly saddening and unfathomable. wot more can we do to eradicate these brutal hierarchies? who determines what is fair, just, moral, 'norml'?
one unfortunate aspect that is not discussed enough within this movement, at least from the developing countries' perspectives, is HIV and AIDS. sex and sexuality remain taboo subjects in the much of the south, so the promotion of safe sex and preventative methods against spreading HIV is generally absent from discussion and advocacy. you do see some HIV discussion within LGBTQ movements but most people in sri lanka, for instance, do not address the health concerns of this sexually and fluids-transmitting virus. LGBTQ and HIV do not necessarily go hand in hand, but there is so much misconception and ignorance about both and when talking about one it is important to raise the other. for instance, in another documentary about male sex workers in india, i suppose because the nature of their work and the taboo of being GBTQ, most sex workers do not think or discuss about HIV. some men are not tested, despite the proactive measures to make affordable testing available. many sex workers have wives, children, families to support and do not want their families to know about their work. so they may face stigma in getting tested. many sex workers think that HIV is only a disease from westerners, the poor, or that if they get HIV it is god's will/karma. or they think that if they only sleep with rich or upper caste men they will not get it. there are so many myths that these sex workers believe or follow in order to convince themselves that their means of work and economic prospects are not dangerous, wrong or risky. it may be easier to believe they are impervious because they are already crusading for awareness about homosexuality. but it can be seen as a falseity if you are open to yourself about one aspect of your sexuality by masking other risky, underground aspects, such as the vulnerability to HIV. again, it seems to be that it would disrupt their way of existence and job prospects, their means of survival. a really devastating, contradictory tragedy.
so i guess one way to bridge these two issues more successfully in the developing south would be to tackle the stigma permeating from religious and zealous nationalistic beliefs. in many cases throughout african countries and india HIV educators have used depictions from religion and spiritual cosmologies to get the point across about how to protect oneself from HIV and STI by using condoms and by being cautious about sexual encounters. by bringing up issues related to sexuality, that it is not just a tool for procreation, and getting people talking about sex more openly (in a non-exploitative, non-objectifying way) it can close the gap of ignorance to a better informed, healthy, happy, sexually satiated public. praps. in addition, people need to get off their arse and become activated on human rights and social justice causes!!! even if it just means writing a letter or calling your respectful bastard parliamentarian.
29 April 2007
louder than bombs
hey
there are power shortages so i want to get across a few things, frantically and as fast as i can, in the distance i can hear the practicing of SL forces for its missile attacks; my house is shaking; there is curfew:
no, things have worsened. long story, but i went to watch the cricket match world cup final at a big cricket grounds last nite, which was mad in itself. luck and intuition made me leave right at half-time around 130am. when my flatmate, her beau who is visiting since yesterday from sweden, and i went back to our flat to find the power cut off. then the bombing started. ltte now has over 5 aircrafts with good pilots who bombed the main fuel station supplier (near the international airport), parts of the international airport, the harbour and some other areas in colombo. so fighting has started in colombo. about 2 weeks ago the bombing took place 8km from the international airport, so my friends who arrived/departed were ok, but shaken up.
now in SL there is very weak surveillance and military strategy. so after these mysterious attacks, during the match when the whole country was watching cricket, crowdedly gathered, the confused SL forces shot back into complete darkness...so they were firing at anything, often hitting buildings, residences, businesses in colombo, alot of 'collateral damage'. i dont think anyone was hurt or killed. it looked like fireworks. but the first time i heard bombs right in my sweet little neighbourhood in Colpetty.
there were 2 main attacks by ltte, from 130-140 am, then again at 330am or so. the counter attacks by SL forces went on until 5am. i was receiving security calls and calls from friends (luckily cell phone working during this time - even tho they are dastardly evil machines) all through the nite. we are all tired and distraught, but coping and relatively safe, showered by rain this sunday not bombs. we are not sure what will happen next. most likely there will not be another attack for at least a week, as tigers have to prepare. but there is a curfew and i cannot go long distances.
i have been hanging out most of the day, drinking tea, arrack (a coconut whisky) and smoking fiendishly with my greek friend in his guesthouse garden. he is one of the lucky few who will leave this country on thurs. so sad to see a good friend leave - even tho he's only been here a few months...the president of this fukt up country and 70 parliament ministers have rightfully fukt off but done so by using state funds to go on an excursion to support the cricket team in barbados. i hope he is having a nice time drinking coconut rum while his country is being bombed to bits. maybe he will suddenly mysteriously be disappeared or have committed suicide, like the pakistani cricket coach who was strangled after losing the match.
the priorities are fukt here. not sure what un will do and if we have to be evacuated. hard to say. hard to get any info from them. now it is the vesak holiday, where normally everyone celebrates "lord' buddha's birthday, day of enlightment, and deathdate. they decorate houses and streets with paper lanterns, give out free food, and have massive lit up billboards of plastic shaped buddhas. tacky is the thing for sri lanka, in all aspects of life. there are no political or surveillance strategies, only hideous cheeky teledramas, embarassing crotch grabbing and pissing into the wind with sarongs flapping. i was talking all day with some ex-pat sri lankans living in singapore who sell everything from solar panels to arms to aircrafts. their company has sold second hand helicopters and airplanes from soviet russia to SL govt, because govt wants it cheap. (whereas tigers are getting trained by thais and getting top notch crafts from pakistan, india etc who knows).
now the president, after losing the cricket match to Australia, is prolly pandering to US to get more funds and arms from them to blindly w.a.s.t.e. and shoot at anything here, including its own civilians. so the sri lankans in singapore were saying that they tried to warn the govt to invest in surveillance and intelligence technology, but govt does not want and says there is no need....yet they cannot even find the 3 planes that attacked last nite. it takes about 45 min to get back to the north to safely land so i dont know how they could not track these planes and cannot find tiger aircrafts nor runways. priorities are fukt. the govt knows what is going on and know more than what they are revealing, as usual, but costing and risking many people's lives. this is a sick game for them, a test of strength and brutal masculinity. on both sides. at least, thus far, the ltte has made very strategic targets, to bomb military bases, fuel and power stations, harbours etc, whereas the govt is blindly shooting at orphanages, internally displaced peoples, any civilians and they are even suspected of planting the bombs on buses (near vavuniya and hikkaduwa in previous months) in order to get more funding from the west in order to fight the so-called terrorism. no one remembers that the jvp party who has a stronghold in the govt parliament, was once a terrorist group massacring everyone suspected of not supporting them. and many sri lankans are too ignorant and daft to critically analyse the situtation. oddly, there was no mention of the attacks in the papers today nor on the news, only about sri lanka losing the world cup. for fuck sakes! so if it not printed in the media or on tv no one knows in the rest of the country. even tho most ppl in colombo felt it and saw it last nite. i am strangely tranquil and i will leave the country if my intuition, which is usually strong, tells me to leave. even my greek friend says that his ngo back in greece could help me find job to work in eco-tourism...so i am waiting to see what opportunities or circumstances arise. i do not feel too threatened yet, despite seeing shrapnel and bits from buildings falling into my lovely courtyard, under my lime tree which is dropping mad, massive limes. so no good news to report. it is a week long buddhist holiday, yet i have lots of work to do and keep busy. today is a day of reflection and attempt to make sense of what i am doing here.
let's see what happens these coming weeks/months. take care of yourselves. the world that we grew up with, its comforts and privilege has fallen apart. even water and power shortages are felt in the us. so we are slowly waking from our coccoons to a reality that is a nightmare in which we have already too much fukt up any plan for getting out of it. i wish i could be more optimistic. hope you and your families are safe. there is only a few more years left of oil so enjoy the commodities and conveniences that we have and keep spreading the word. missing you and hope to see you again very soon!
a bit of a ramble...but trying to take advantage of my access to internet/power. shit another bomb just went off as i post this....it feels like an earthquake or when a subway is about to arrive at a platform or when your intestines and bowels cut loose. not sure if this will turn into riots. cheers.
lots of love
b
there are power shortages so i want to get across a few things, frantically and as fast as i can, in the distance i can hear the practicing of SL forces for its missile attacks; my house is shaking; there is curfew:
no, things have worsened. long story, but i went to watch the cricket match world cup final at a big cricket grounds last nite, which was mad in itself. luck and intuition made me leave right at half-time around 130am. when my flatmate, her beau who is visiting since yesterday from sweden, and i went back to our flat to find the power cut off. then the bombing started. ltte now has over 5 aircrafts with good pilots who bombed the main fuel station supplier (near the international airport), parts of the international airport, the harbour and some other areas in colombo. so fighting has started in colombo. about 2 weeks ago the bombing took place 8km from the international airport, so my friends who arrived/departed were ok, but shaken up.
now in SL there is very weak surveillance and military strategy. so after these mysterious attacks, during the match when the whole country was watching cricket, crowdedly gathered, the confused SL forces shot back into complete darkness...so they were firing at anything, often hitting buildings, residences, businesses in colombo, alot of 'collateral damage'. i dont think anyone was hurt or killed. it looked like fireworks. but the first time i heard bombs right in my sweet little neighbourhood in Colpetty.
there were 2 main attacks by ltte, from 130-140 am, then again at 330am or so. the counter attacks by SL forces went on until 5am. i was receiving security calls and calls from friends (luckily cell phone working during this time - even tho they are dastardly evil machines) all through the nite. we are all tired and distraught, but coping and relatively safe, showered by rain this sunday not bombs. we are not sure what will happen next. most likely there will not be another attack for at least a week, as tigers have to prepare. but there is a curfew and i cannot go long distances.
i have been hanging out most of the day, drinking tea, arrack (a coconut whisky) and smoking fiendishly with my greek friend in his guesthouse garden. he is one of the lucky few who will leave this country on thurs. so sad to see a good friend leave - even tho he's only been here a few months...the president of this fukt up country and 70 parliament ministers have rightfully fukt off but done so by using state funds to go on an excursion to support the cricket team in barbados. i hope he is having a nice time drinking coconut rum while his country is being bombed to bits. maybe he will suddenly mysteriously be disappeared or have committed suicide, like the pakistani cricket coach who was strangled after losing the match.
the priorities are fukt here. not sure what un will do and if we have to be evacuated. hard to say. hard to get any info from them. now it is the vesak holiday, where normally everyone celebrates "lord' buddha's birthday, day of enlightment, and deathdate. they decorate houses and streets with paper lanterns, give out free food, and have massive lit up billboards of plastic shaped buddhas. tacky is the thing for sri lanka, in all aspects of life. there are no political or surveillance strategies, only hideous cheeky teledramas, embarassing crotch grabbing and pissing into the wind with sarongs flapping. i was talking all day with some ex-pat sri lankans living in singapore who sell everything from solar panels to arms to aircrafts. their company has sold second hand helicopters and airplanes from soviet russia to SL govt, because govt wants it cheap. (whereas tigers are getting trained by thais and getting top notch crafts from pakistan, india etc who knows).
now the president, after losing the cricket match to Australia, is prolly pandering to US to get more funds and arms from them to blindly w.a.s.t.e. and shoot at anything here, including its own civilians. so the sri lankans in singapore were saying that they tried to warn the govt to invest in surveillance and intelligence technology, but govt does not want and says there is no need....yet they cannot even find the 3 planes that attacked last nite. it takes about 45 min to get back to the north to safely land so i dont know how they could not track these planes and cannot find tiger aircrafts nor runways. priorities are fukt. the govt knows what is going on and know more than what they are revealing, as usual, but costing and risking many people's lives. this is a sick game for them, a test of strength and brutal masculinity. on both sides. at least, thus far, the ltte has made very strategic targets, to bomb military bases, fuel and power stations, harbours etc, whereas the govt is blindly shooting at orphanages, internally displaced peoples, any civilians and they are even suspected of planting the bombs on buses (near vavuniya and hikkaduwa in previous months) in order to get more funding from the west in order to fight the so-called terrorism. no one remembers that the jvp party who has a stronghold in the govt parliament, was once a terrorist group massacring everyone suspected of not supporting them. and many sri lankans are too ignorant and daft to critically analyse the situtation. oddly, there was no mention of the attacks in the papers today nor on the news, only about sri lanka losing the world cup. for fuck sakes! so if it not printed in the media or on tv no one knows in the rest of the country. even tho most ppl in colombo felt it and saw it last nite. i am strangely tranquil and i will leave the country if my intuition, which is usually strong, tells me to leave. even my greek friend says that his ngo back in greece could help me find job to work in eco-tourism...so i am waiting to see what opportunities or circumstances arise. i do not feel too threatened yet, despite seeing shrapnel and bits from buildings falling into my lovely courtyard, under my lime tree which is dropping mad, massive limes. so no good news to report. it is a week long buddhist holiday, yet i have lots of work to do and keep busy. today is a day of reflection and attempt to make sense of what i am doing here.
let's see what happens these coming weeks/months. take care of yourselves. the world that we grew up with, its comforts and privilege has fallen apart. even water and power shortages are felt in the us. so we are slowly waking from our coccoons to a reality that is a nightmare in which we have already too much fukt up any plan for getting out of it. i wish i could be more optimistic. hope you and your families are safe. there is only a few more years left of oil so enjoy the commodities and conveniences that we have and keep spreading the word. missing you and hope to see you again very soon!
a bit of a ramble...but trying to take advantage of my access to internet/power. shit another bomb just went off as i post this....it feels like an earthquake or when a subway is about to arrive at a platform or when your intestines and bowels cut loose. not sure if this will turn into riots. cheers.
lots of love
b
15 January 2007
Peace Haven villa
Some friends and I have found a villa that rents for $120/nite so with 8 people it is a very cheap place to stay. The best part is that the cook there can make anything, so long as we go with him to market to select the fish or vegetables. Very tranquil and perched on clifftop, overlooking the rough sea. We have to walk 10-mintues to get to a suitable swimmable bay but the walk takes us past natural blowholes, water buffalo, cow-herders, capsized boats, and tiny seaside shacks that sell toddy (moonshine made from coconuts). Well worth the long 6-hour drive on dusty, dodgy roads.
Tangalle
What is unusual about Sri Lanka is how you wouldn’t actually think there was a war given the pockets of peace and lovely quiet towns. In Tangalle there are the liveliest markets, water buffaloes grazing on clifftops, and hypnotic, paradisical sunsets!
At the port some friends and I discussed with the fishermen about the day’s catches. It is definitely noticeable these past few months how the impact of the rising oil prices, inflation rates and devalued currency have affected the fishermen, saying that have to charge higher prices to cover the cost of fuel and other operational costs.
Down South 2 years after Tsunami
Late last year I traveled south a couple times to Tangalle and Hikkaduwa, seaside towns known for the fish and surfing. It’s still strange to see the wreckage of the tsunami 2 years afterwards. Although many houses, hotels, businesses have been rebuilt, and most people have recovered from the onslaught of the ‘benevolence’ of NGOs, people enter into a new phase of recovery, from the decline in the tourist industry due to heightened conflict. Around the New Year a bus bomb exploded on the main road, a few km outside Hikkaduwa, killing about 15 people. Tourism has dropped significantly and the rupee has devalued, putting pressure on everyone. This is the same pressure that people in the East and North have felt, probably for the last 23 years; only it is even more unbearable to think that very little has been done to reconstruct the communities hit by the tsunami, due to the constant gunfire and slaughter.
04 October 2006
Claymore mine in Wellawatte
a claymore mine was planted in wellawatte, my old neighbourhood, at the end of my old street, hidden in refuse. it wasnt detonated and no one was hurt. it is suspected to be aimed at a passing train on the seaside train tracks. numerous wealthy tamil businessmen have been kidnappped this month as well, with speculations that they support the tigers. it may be the karuna faction behind these abductions. however, karuna faction (a rival guerilla group from tigers - somewhat in cahoots with GoSL) is nearly defunct, so it is suspicious about who is behind these kidnappings. it seems like GoSL forces are defeating ltte forces in jaffna area by way of killing more civilians. then there are reports that tiger affiliates in london are knocking on tamils' doors asking for 2000 quid per household to support tigers. they obtained residents' info through the election registration, apparently. but media is wild and it's difficult to get all the stories.
our peace demo in main roundabout in colombo was cancelled today cos jvp and jhu suppporters took to the streets to protest the norwegians (claiming that they are partnering with ltte - even tho they are just facilitating peace talks and invited by the government at the time of the ceasefire agreement) and protesting all ngos (claiming that any humanitarian assistance in the north and east is going to support the tigers and division of the state). all a bit mad.
check out:
tamilnet.com
our peace demo in main roundabout in colombo was cancelled today cos jvp and jhu suppporters took to the streets to protest the norwegians (claiming that they are partnering with ltte - even tho they are just facilitating peace talks and invited by the government at the time of the ceasefire agreement) and protesting all ngos (claiming that any humanitarian assistance in the north and east is going to support the tigers and division of the state). all a bit mad.
check out:
tamilnet.com
03 October 2006
underground tunnels in Saudi built by the newest forms of slavery
managed to participate in 5K peace run the other day, initially aimed for 10 but didnt last for the whole thing. i am useless compared to the other participants, most under the age of 20 who managed to run 21K, all barefoot on the steaming broken asphalt of colombo. absolutely incredible to see these children run that long. we'll have to keep running, shouting, cheering, cartwheeling for peace in sri lanka, and prolly for a long time to come, in terms of attaining a sustainable process.
i've also been speaking alot lately with former migrants who went to the middle east to work. they are back, some drive three-wheelers, some own small businesses like corner shops or shalwar boutiques, some are in IT. a confluence of issues send them in search of work, namely to find opportunities that were diminished here due to the conflict, to save money to return to their familiies or to start a small business back in SL, or due to poor recruitment or trafficking. the middle east is the most common destination for SL migrants, about 50% are women who go there to work as domestic helpers, in nursing homes or nurses. after the phase out of the Agreement on Textile and Clothing, about 120,000 retrenched workers went abroad, most likely to the middle east. in the case of the men migrants i;ve run into or spoken to recently, they go to work as hard labourers in saudi arabia, bahrain, kuwait. they find jobs in construction, mining, oil rigging etc. they have said that awhile ago (1980s) they used to go to iraq and kuwait to help with underground construction, now it seems they are sent to the insanely rich, untouchable, unaccountable kingdoms of saudi arabia, jordan, dubai...
some interesting overlap has become more apparent with their stories. several of these former migrants have discussed that they were working on building massive underground tunnels in the Saudi Arabian deserts, the size of superhighways. some were located fairly close (maybe 20km) to oil pipelines, but these tunnels ultimately connect all over the country, potentially connecting across the middle east one day. these tunnels have the potential to house planes, missiles, housing/bunkers, storage, various kinds of infrastructural needs. some workers have said that many of these internal structures already exist. it's easy to be skeptical. then they say that the industry often hires the cheap, (initially) non-english speaking labourers because no one will really talk about it or question the work, just do the job for a short time then leave. some say that managers, engineers and other designers are from the North (finland, norway, sweden). one family man i know quite well had been there for several years, worked in various positions including in an office part. they always checked to make sure that the workers did not take any documentation out of the workplace. often these unknown, vague corporate entities prefer to hire sri lankans because as one former migrant says, they do not eat all the time, or not as much as filipinos or bangladeshis. maybe it's a running joke.
again, it is easy to be skeptical. but it is also hard to ignore the possibility that countries that are outside the radar, in terms of weapons-inspections or any kind of accountability, recruit cheap labour to build their grids and star wars empires. what could all this construction be for other than the smooth access of immediate crude oil to satiate the 40% of total consumption by the world's militaries? what could we possibly need all this oil for other than to put into research and designing the world's most dangerous weaponry to be used in the most unconscionable destruction of humanity?...should the time come. what better way to characterize the perpetuation and existence of poverty than the idea that people made poor by crap international financial loans, conflicts, natural disasters, preventable disease and deprivation by the North, are sent abroad as labourers, furthering their economic dependence on this new form of slavery, in order to service the unfathomably rich, as part of their scheme to safeguard themselves against other rich kingdoms (also rotten with obese filthy scoundrels), by creating massive labyrinths crammed with anti-humanity killing machines???! this notion, fragmented and scotch-taped together by a number of former migrants, of the same ethnicity and background, makes these spossedly 'new' international torture chambers look like playgrounds.
i've also been speaking alot lately with former migrants who went to the middle east to work. they are back, some drive three-wheelers, some own small businesses like corner shops or shalwar boutiques, some are in IT. a confluence of issues send them in search of work, namely to find opportunities that were diminished here due to the conflict, to save money to return to their familiies or to start a small business back in SL, or due to poor recruitment or trafficking. the middle east is the most common destination for SL migrants, about 50% are women who go there to work as domestic helpers, in nursing homes or nurses. after the phase out of the Agreement on Textile and Clothing, about 120,000 retrenched workers went abroad, most likely to the middle east. in the case of the men migrants i;ve run into or spoken to recently, they go to work as hard labourers in saudi arabia, bahrain, kuwait. they find jobs in construction, mining, oil rigging etc. they have said that awhile ago (1980s) they used to go to iraq and kuwait to help with underground construction, now it seems they are sent to the insanely rich, untouchable, unaccountable kingdoms of saudi arabia, jordan, dubai...
some interesting overlap has become more apparent with their stories. several of these former migrants have discussed that they were working on building massive underground tunnels in the Saudi Arabian deserts, the size of superhighways. some were located fairly close (maybe 20km) to oil pipelines, but these tunnels ultimately connect all over the country, potentially connecting across the middle east one day. these tunnels have the potential to house planes, missiles, housing/bunkers, storage, various kinds of infrastructural needs. some workers have said that many of these internal structures already exist. it's easy to be skeptical. then they say that the industry often hires the cheap, (initially) non-english speaking labourers because no one will really talk about it or question the work, just do the job for a short time then leave. some say that managers, engineers and other designers are from the North (finland, norway, sweden). one family man i know quite well had been there for several years, worked in various positions including in an office part. they always checked to make sure that the workers did not take any documentation out of the workplace. often these unknown, vague corporate entities prefer to hire sri lankans because as one former migrant says, they do not eat all the time, or not as much as filipinos or bangladeshis. maybe it's a running joke.
again, it is easy to be skeptical. but it is also hard to ignore the possibility that countries that are outside the radar, in terms of weapons-inspections or any kind of accountability, recruit cheap labour to build their grids and star wars empires. what could all this construction be for other than the smooth access of immediate crude oil to satiate the 40% of total consumption by the world's militaries? what could we possibly need all this oil for other than to put into research and designing the world's most dangerous weaponry to be used in the most unconscionable destruction of humanity?...should the time come. what better way to characterize the perpetuation and existence of poverty than the idea that people made poor by crap international financial loans, conflicts, natural disasters, preventable disease and deprivation by the North, are sent abroad as labourers, furthering their economic dependence on this new form of slavery, in order to service the unfathomably rich, as part of their scheme to safeguard themselves against other rich kingdoms (also rotten with obese filthy scoundrels), by creating massive labyrinths crammed with anti-humanity killing machines???! this notion, fragmented and scotch-taped together by a number of former migrants, of the same ethnicity and background, makes these spossedly 'new' international torture chambers look like playgrounds.
27 September 2006
Aku
Aku by Chairil Anwar (famous Minangkabau poet - indigenous group in West Sumatra, Indonesia, which are the largest matrilineal society in the world)
If my time should come
I'd like no one to entice me.
Not even you.
No need for those sobs and cries.
I am but a wild animal
Cut from its kind.
Though bullets should pierce my skin
I shall still strike and march forth.
Wounds and poison shall I take aflee. Aflee
'Til the pain and pang should disappear.
And I should care even less.
I want to live
for another thousand years.
If my time should come
I'd like no one to entice me.
Not even you.
No need for those sobs and cries.
I am but a wild animal
Cut from its kind.
Though bullets should pierce my skin
I shall still strike and march forth.
Wounds and poison shall I take aflee. Aflee
'Til the pain and pang should disappear.
And I should care even less.
I want to live
for another thousand years.
18 September 2006
Serious grievances
Its shocking when you work for an international organisation that works for human development and come to find out that it is full of inept, misguided, harassing lunatics. I mean, the majority of these people do not know how to relate to people within the office, on a humanist level, much less people on the street. In the process they use the hierarchies within this organisation to compete, climb over people, backstab, maliciously gossip and generally treat people like budawa manure. Management is comprised of a couple of weirdos who do not care about the people or programmes they are spossed to be managing. The Number 1 is a languid, airheaded, lacking substance womanizer who plays ambient music in his post-modern furnished office, and cannot even answer basic questions about human development or MDGs. The Number 2, soon to be transferred to Bangladesh - god help the country - walks around with a puffed up chest, wears glasses like Austin Powers and sports pink shirts. All the while he cannot make decisions and blocks the efficient processes in implementing our programmes. At this rate of administration and hurdles, due to bad management (with managers hired on a nespotic basis), countries in Asia-Pacific will not attain Millennium Development Goals by 2015, most likely 2200 - to be generous.
That brings me to the latest flavour of the development world: the Integrated Package of Services, or the costing of MDG attainment in counties. Its the newest version of Structural Adjustment Programmes, where a number of international organisations, revamping neoliberal private sector mentality, try to restructure governments so that they take priority to achieve the MDGs, without looking at the very particular context of each country. Essentially, this latest programme attempts to impose a macro-economic model, still at its very conceptual and abstract stage, on a country that may not have the technical capacity or fiscal ability to adopt such a model. As I see it, each agency has to come up with priorities of which MDGs it can meet by 2015 and how it will cost the government to do so. Of course, it is not the responsibility of just the government to carry human development objectives forward, it has been launched by (in)formal civil society and collectives.
Loads of development money is funnelled into this programme, but it could likely fail given its poor management and top-down construction, probably developed by the top men economists in the world. If more women or feminist economics were consulted on its design and implementation, it may be more open to accepting feedback from people living in poverty - in a way that asks people what they except from donors or development community, how these international so-called experts can work on their immediate behalf. (For starters, maybe these folks can give up a fraction of their ridiculous salaries and business class treatment - unless there is a dire health or well-being complication, such as special healthcare for staff living with HIV). Its an extremely political programme, with staff getting lauded for their so-called good work on rolling out the implementation of this MDG costing in its 4 pilot countries. Yet these countries (Afghanistan, Bhutan, Mongolia, Pakistan) have not been a success. Afghanistan has fallen apart as any kind of state with the obvious occupation of US and other imperial governments. Bhutan has its own indicators (Gross National Happiness) on measuring and financing human development objectives. Pakistan has met obstacles because leaders in several international organisations have objected to the paradigm of the MDGs, saying that they are not fully inclusive and have been devised in a top-down way. Mongolia is one country that may move further in the implementation. But this programme is another example of policy wonks formulating massive, abstract packages to shove onto Southern countries shoulders - rather than being truly altruistic. Moreover, the leader of this programme is a genius but acts like a prankster child who needs an army of people to clean up after his ideas - who does not necessarily have the practical sense on how to manage or implement things.
Basically, the development world is screwed in this region if management continues to operate like headless chickens. Meanwhile, programme staff who are achieving a good number of things, in terms of linking civil society or networks of people living with HIV and AIDS, or ensure that policies are examined in a gender-sensitive manner, are stunted from moving their projects forward. There are added challenges of power relations (and personal politics) within this organisation, particularly those within South Asia. Too much talking from men, not enough doing, for instance. Or uber-aggressive women without much compassion for other team members.
I honestly do not know how much longer I can sit through these hierarchies and abuses of relative power. There are too many massive reprecussions for speaking out and there is no appropriate forum for expressing grievances.
Then again Im on a precarious contract anyway, so I could bloody well be sacked for any reason - so maybe they are more threatened by me, as I am part of the disgruntled masses who preach ethics, social justice and equality....Perhaps.
That brings me to the latest flavour of the development world: the Integrated Package of Services, or the costing of MDG attainment in counties. Its the newest version of Structural Adjustment Programmes, where a number of international organisations, revamping neoliberal private sector mentality, try to restructure governments so that they take priority to achieve the MDGs, without looking at the very particular context of each country. Essentially, this latest programme attempts to impose a macro-economic model, still at its very conceptual and abstract stage, on a country that may not have the technical capacity or fiscal ability to adopt such a model. As I see it, each agency has to come up with priorities of which MDGs it can meet by 2015 and how it will cost the government to do so. Of course, it is not the responsibility of just the government to carry human development objectives forward, it has been launched by (in)formal civil society and collectives.
Loads of development money is funnelled into this programme, but it could likely fail given its poor management and top-down construction, probably developed by the top men economists in the world. If more women or feminist economics were consulted on its design and implementation, it may be more open to accepting feedback from people living in poverty - in a way that asks people what they except from donors or development community, how these international so-called experts can work on their immediate behalf. (For starters, maybe these folks can give up a fraction of their ridiculous salaries and business class treatment - unless there is a dire health or well-being complication, such as special healthcare for staff living with HIV). Its an extremely political programme, with staff getting lauded for their so-called good work on rolling out the implementation of this MDG costing in its 4 pilot countries. Yet these countries (Afghanistan, Bhutan, Mongolia, Pakistan) have not been a success. Afghanistan has fallen apart as any kind of state with the obvious occupation of US and other imperial governments. Bhutan has its own indicators (Gross National Happiness) on measuring and financing human development objectives. Pakistan has met obstacles because leaders in several international organisations have objected to the paradigm of the MDGs, saying that they are not fully inclusive and have been devised in a top-down way. Mongolia is one country that may move further in the implementation. But this programme is another example of policy wonks formulating massive, abstract packages to shove onto Southern countries shoulders - rather than being truly altruistic. Moreover, the leader of this programme is a genius but acts like a prankster child who needs an army of people to clean up after his ideas - who does not necessarily have the practical sense on how to manage or implement things.
Basically, the development world is screwed in this region if management continues to operate like headless chickens. Meanwhile, programme staff who are achieving a good number of things, in terms of linking civil society or networks of people living with HIV and AIDS, or ensure that policies are examined in a gender-sensitive manner, are stunted from moving their projects forward. There are added challenges of power relations (and personal politics) within this organisation, particularly those within South Asia. Too much talking from men, not enough doing, for instance. Or uber-aggressive women without much compassion for other team members.
I honestly do not know how much longer I can sit through these hierarchies and abuses of relative power. There are too many massive reprecussions for speaking out and there is no appropriate forum for expressing grievances.
Then again Im on a precarious contract anyway, so I could bloody well be sacked for any reason - so maybe they are more threatened by me, as I am part of the disgruntled masses who preach ethics, social justice and equality....Perhaps.
09 September 2006
Rambutan, Durian, Zulfi, Flatmate
Rambutan (red lychee) and Durian season are over. Durian is a strange fruit that smells atrocious - like sour garbage, and tastes like burnt soysauce with a texture of chicken or some kind of sinewy meat. You are not spossed to eat durian after drinking any alcohol, apparently the doshas - or energies - are both heated so the compounds can kill you. I will have to keep that in mind before boarding a 30-hour flight back to North America.
Also, a photo of my trusty three-wheeler, Zulfi. His son is Zafar (as tagged on the front of his three-wheeler), daughters are Zahara and Zara, and wife is Begem. Completely patient, loyal, my daily newsman, tourguide, translator, price negotiator at markets, mechanic, body guard, and chauffeur. At this point, I dont know what Id do without him! Even his wife cooks me rasam - a soup made of only spices - when I have fevers, and makes me polos - a very difficult curry made from a tuber that resembles jack fruit.
Finally, a photo of my flatmate, a British intellectual property lawyer, who has an active social life and queue of admirers. Now he is redeeming his soul by working on conflict and poverty issues with a local NGO. A bit flamboyant with obnoxious jetsetting friends, including two main squeezes - a Cockneyed-accented, coddled Sri Lankan girl and a French born-lisping metrosexual peace journalist of North African descent. Are they dating - no one really knows, but they are the drama queens in this rather posh flat.
Still, a good change from the chaos in Wella Watte.
18 August 2006
Fighting monks
To clarify, the school that was bombed by the Government of Sri Lanka in the north, was, in fact, a school for orphaned girls. GoSL had the coordinates, knew it was a regular school, committed the war atrocity anyway.
To add to the horror and sorrow, a beloved advocate for peace and research partner at Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA), Mr. Ketheesh Loganathan. He was gunned down at his home by anonymous assailants, government blaming LTTE, but government could be behind it or know more than is telling. Mr. Loganathan worked as Deputy Secretary General of the Peace Secretariat for the government of Sri Lanka, and headed the Poverty and Conflict Analysis unit at CPA until this past April. Definitely telling that academics, activists, scholars are targets and it is hard to find independent news source.
In a separate incident, right-wing Buddhist monks picked fights with anti-war protestors at one of the main parks in Colombo, yesterday evening. Swinging punches for peace? Chanting fascism intermingled with promises of intransient being?
An interesting site on all that is Sri Lankan: http://www.indi.ca/
17 August 2006
more than 60 kids bombed, then more bombings in Colombo
In addition, UNICEF helped to run this 'orphanage', possibly a school or programme for former child soldiers. Gov't of Sri Lanka claims the school was a training camps for child soldiers. In any case, more than 60 CHILDREN were massacred - I am utterly stunned. More than 800 civilians have died these past few months due to intensified fighting. International gaze averted to Middle East, all is lost:
COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers said a government bombing raid hit an orphanage in rebel territory in the island's north on Monday, killing 43 schoolgirls and wounding 60 as the worst fighting since a 2002 truce raged.
"The Sri Lankan air force bombed the premises of an orphanage where schoolgirls were studying first aid," Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) spokesman I. Ilanthirayan said. "Forty-three... students were killed and 60 wounded."
A military source said air raids had been launched on rebel territory on Monday but said they had no details of targets hit or casualties.
By Simon Gardner
COLOMBO (Reuters) - Seven people were killed and 17 others were injured on Monday, when a security forces convoy escorting a Pakistan embassy vehicle was hit by a Claymore fragmentation mine, officials and bomb squad officers said.
A driver from the convoy said the embassy vehicle was slightly damaged, but no one was hurt. He refused to identify any passengers in the vehicle. The Pakistani ambassador was uninjured, the bomb squad said.
"Seven people were dead on arrival. We have 17 other people who are injured and being treated now," Colombo National Hospital director Hector Weerasinghe.
The blast shook the windows of the Reuters office in the capital, and hit just hours after a suspected Tamil Tiger front threatened to attack civilians if the military continued attacks on Tamil Tiger rebel territory.
The rebels had earlier on Monday accused the government of bombing an orphanage in rebel territory and killing 43 schoolgirls.
A driver from the convoy which was escorting a Pakistan embassy vehicle said he believed the convoy had been hit by two Claymore fragmentation mines.
The embassy vehicle was slightly damaged, but nobody in it was injured.
The Pakistani Embassy was immediately available for comment.
A three wheeler taxi was on fire. The other vehicles in the convoy continued away from the site of the blast. Ambulances rushed to the scene.
The blast shook the windows of the Reuters office in the capital, and comes just hours after a suspected Tamil Tiger front threatened to attack civilians if the military continued attacks on Tamil Tiger rebel territory.
FIGHTING DISPLACES 100,000
The government accused the rebels of shelling civilian areas in the northern Jaffna peninsula, saying it feared fatalities as the worst fighting since a 2002 ceasefire raged on.
The military said it had launched air strikes on identified Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) targets such as camps in the northeast, but gave no further details.
With contact with the conflict-hit areas limited, the LTTE report on the bombing of the orphanage could not be immediately confirmed. Aid workers estimate around 100,000 people have been displaced during three weeks of fighting. Dozens are confirmed dead, and many fear the eventual death toll will be far higher.
"The Sri Lankan air force bombed the premises of an orphanage where schoolgirls were studying first aid," Tiger military spokesman Rasiah Ilanthiraiyan said. "Forty-three ... students were killed and 60 wounded."
He said the students were between 15 and 18 years old.
The government said civilian casualties were also likely around the Jaffna peninsula, where the LTTE over-ran government forward positions on Saturday, although the army says they had since been repulsed. The rebels, who ignored a government demand to surrender, are furious at President Mahinda Rajapakse's outright rejection of their demands for a separate ethnic homeland for Tamils in the island's north and east.
"They have mingled with civilians and are calling artillery fire onto the areas of the security forces," said Major Upali Rajapakse of the National Security Center. "It is falling in and around civilian areas. There has to be civilian dead."
He said the country's east was quiet but artillery rained down on Kayts island, just to the west of Jaffna town, and was being fired across a no-man's land that separates government from rebel territory around 20 miles to the east.
STOCKPILING FOOD
The pro-rebel Web site www.tamilnet.com said 15 civilians were killed when army rockets and shells hit a church, but there was no independent confirmation.
Jaffna residents flocked to shops to stockpile food after the army briefly lifted a curfew. With no prospect of fresh supplies from the country's south, prices of basic goods were soaring.
"We are used to being displaced, but this time it came about so suddenly we were ill-prepared," said 50-year-old fisherman Ledil Amaldas, who fled his coastal village and is staying with a relative in Jaffna.
"I have 5,000 rupees ($48) with me," he said, standing in a long queue to buy sugar and flour. "I hope we can manage for another 12-14 days. After that I don't know what will happen."
The High Security Zone Residents Liberation Force (HSZRLF), a presumed Tiger front group that says it wants the military out of civilian areas, said if the military targeted minority Tamils then bombs would explode in the majority Sinhalese south.
We regret to inform that the HSZRLF's Central Committee has given orders to all cadres stationed across the island to carry out attacks against civilian targets in southern Sri Lanka if Sri Lankan armed forces continue to massacre innocent unarmed civilians in the Northeast," it said in a faxed statement.
The HSZRLF claimed responsibility for previous attacks on troops in the north, and proclaimed a ceasefire in early 2006 when the Tigers went to peace talks before claiming more attacks in April. Analysts say it is clearly a Tiger front.
Many of Sri Lanka's most prominent Tamils come from Jaffna and analysts say the Tigers are bent on eventually capturing a town that they have controlled in previous phases of a war which has killed more than 65,000 people since 1983.
COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers said a government bombing raid hit an orphanage in rebel territory in the island's north on Monday, killing 43 schoolgirls and wounding 60 as the worst fighting since a 2002 truce raged.
"The Sri Lankan air force bombed the premises of an orphanage where schoolgirls were studying first aid," Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) spokesman I. Ilanthirayan said. "Forty-three... students were killed and 60 wounded."
A military source said air raids had been launched on rebel territory on Monday but said they had no details of targets hit or casualties.
By Simon Gardner
COLOMBO (Reuters) - Seven people were killed and 17 others were injured on Monday, when a security forces convoy escorting a Pakistan embassy vehicle was hit by a Claymore fragmentation mine, officials and bomb squad officers said.
A driver from the convoy said the embassy vehicle was slightly damaged, but no one was hurt. He refused to identify any passengers in the vehicle. The Pakistani ambassador was uninjured, the bomb squad said.
"Seven people were dead on arrival. We have 17 other people who are injured and being treated now," Colombo National Hospital director Hector Weerasinghe.
The blast shook the windows of the Reuters office in the capital, and hit just hours after a suspected Tamil Tiger front threatened to attack civilians if the military continued attacks on Tamil Tiger rebel territory.
The rebels had earlier on Monday accused the government of bombing an orphanage in rebel territory and killing 43 schoolgirls.
A driver from the convoy which was escorting a Pakistan embassy vehicle said he believed the convoy had been hit by two Claymore fragmentation mines.
The embassy vehicle was slightly damaged, but nobody in it was injured.
The Pakistani Embassy was immediately available for comment.
A three wheeler taxi was on fire. The other vehicles in the convoy continued away from the site of the blast. Ambulances rushed to the scene.
The blast shook the windows of the Reuters office in the capital, and comes just hours after a suspected Tamil Tiger front threatened to attack civilians if the military continued attacks on Tamil Tiger rebel territory.
FIGHTING DISPLACES 100,000
The government accused the rebels of shelling civilian areas in the northern Jaffna peninsula, saying it feared fatalities as the worst fighting since a 2002 ceasefire raged on.
The military said it had launched air strikes on identified Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) targets such as camps in the northeast, but gave no further details.
With contact with the conflict-hit areas limited, the LTTE report on the bombing of the orphanage could not be immediately confirmed. Aid workers estimate around 100,000 people have been displaced during three weeks of fighting. Dozens are confirmed dead, and many fear the eventual death toll will be far higher.
"The Sri Lankan air force bombed the premises of an orphanage where schoolgirls were studying first aid," Tiger military spokesman Rasiah Ilanthiraiyan said. "Forty-three ... students were killed and 60 wounded."
He said the students were between 15 and 18 years old.
The government said civilian casualties were also likely around the Jaffna peninsula, where the LTTE over-ran government forward positions on Saturday, although the army says they had since been repulsed. The rebels, who ignored a government demand to surrender, are furious at President Mahinda Rajapakse's outright rejection of their demands for a separate ethnic homeland for Tamils in the island's north and east.
"They have mingled with civilians and are calling artillery fire onto the areas of the security forces," said Major Upali Rajapakse of the National Security Center. "It is falling in and around civilian areas. There has to be civilian dead."
He said the country's east was quiet but artillery rained down on Kayts island, just to the west of Jaffna town, and was being fired across a no-man's land that separates government from rebel territory around 20 miles to the east.
STOCKPILING FOOD
The pro-rebel Web site www.tamilnet.com said 15 civilians were killed when army rockets and shells hit a church, but there was no independent confirmation.
Jaffna residents flocked to shops to stockpile food after the army briefly lifted a curfew. With no prospect of fresh supplies from the country's south, prices of basic goods were soaring.
"We are used to being displaced, but this time it came about so suddenly we were ill-prepared," said 50-year-old fisherman Ledil Amaldas, who fled his coastal village and is staying with a relative in Jaffna.
"I have 5,000 rupees ($48) with me," he said, standing in a long queue to buy sugar and flour. "I hope we can manage for another 12-14 days. After that I don't know what will happen."
The High Security Zone Residents Liberation Force (HSZRLF), a presumed Tiger front group that says it wants the military out of civilian areas, said if the military targeted minority Tamils then bombs would explode in the majority Sinhalese south.
We regret to inform that the HSZRLF's Central Committee has given orders to all cadres stationed across the island to carry out attacks against civilian targets in southern Sri Lanka if Sri Lankan armed forces continue to massacre innocent unarmed civilians in the Northeast," it said in a faxed statement.
The HSZRLF claimed responsibility for previous attacks on troops in the north, and proclaimed a ceasefire in early 2006 when the Tigers went to peace talks before claiming more attacks in April. Analysts say it is clearly a Tiger front.
Many of Sri Lanka's most prominent Tamils come from Jaffna and analysts say the Tigers are bent on eventually capturing a town that they have controlled in previous phases of a war which has killed more than 65,000 people since 1983.
04 August 2006
Anthropological Study of an American Pop Star in Dubai, While Bombs Drop Over Baghdad, Beirut, Muttur, Jaffna…
Delayed in Dubai airport, while en route to Montreal to attend a friend’s wedding. Journey, as usual, is wrought with witnessing glaring vulgarities of enormous wealth. I am mesmerised by some familiar pop star reading Anthony Keidis’ autobiography, who is concentrating on the perfection of his hair, instead of waking up to the realities of Middle East brutality. I am using my return business class ticket for my flight, so it offers a glimpse into the vacuous noggins of the obscenely rich – ah, but perhaps I have already become one, at least as I am considered in Sri Lanka. But I cannot understand the rich and comfortable decision to sit back and watch atrocities unfold on telly, and not lambast their governments, international organisation, neighbours, their own consumption, for not doing a bloody thing!
What must pass through this bimbo pop star’s head (o, what is his name? Some-kind-of-singer) to ignore, not even blink, at the carnage unfolding on the bbc? Moreover, how have we gotten to the point where genocide, massive amounts of unfounded violence, is a pleasurable pastime, that can never really satiate our hollywoodised appetite for destruction?
Meanwhile, I am doubly disturbed about my companion passenger coming from Colombo. Apparently, this Indian fellow is in charge of marketing, developing, controlling, managing, cracking the slave whip, of Victoria’s Secret in Sri Lanka. His factories produce all the fabric used for Victoria’s Secret – serviced by sub-contracted Korean manufactories. This fabric supplies all the sub-contractors that produce lingerie, swim-wear, and all ready-made garments (ah, the latest season’s fashions) for Victoria’s Secret, as well as Next, Neiman Marcus, Marks& Spencer’s, Gap. I noted to him that it is interesting that none of these garments are available domestically in Sri Lanka – everything is produced and exported from the Export Processing Zones, surrounding the airport. This nameless Indian guy finished off the summer’s end blitz of preparing to meet Back-to School clothing demands, and now is off to join his Zambian wife (daughter of a Prime Minister) and 3 children on a trip to Egypt, snowing South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Oh, you should have heard the way he romanticised Africa – all deserted, with lovely noble savages – Maasai. It is perplexing to observe class stratification within a formerly colonised society (albeit, India or Zambia or Sri Lanka).
I tried to bring up that I visited a garment workers’ home, 9 crammed into a 8 sq. ft slum dwelling, and that they had no idea what clothing lines they supplied. They had no idea about fair wages or that they are entitled to good working conditions, as Sri Lanka is bound to ILO codes. It means little that these garment workers often turn to seeking other forms of employment to supplement their monthly pittances. In addition to slave labour, in order to clothe the emperors of this neo-liberal paradigm, many of these young women become sex workers or members of terrorist circles. In the case of Nason, he harboured impoverished LTTE cadres in the home he also let out to garment workers; are the lines blurred here?
So however much I chat with this moghul about workers’ conditions coming before profit, he argues that the workers for V.S. are taken care of, that bad incidences of factories are only anecdotal not indicative of the whole industry, and that he is offering them employment. It is often true that many women living in poverty prefer a job in a sweatshop, rather than revert to begging or sex work, but it cannot be the main excuse to continue to let labour conditions deteriorate. No matter how much you harp on, try to explain things from an economic perspective (many studies show that good wage and working conditions improve productivity, stability in employment, commitment to MNCs, etc), the rich and powerful do not listen, as they want to hang on to their small bit of wealth and power.
In other news, there are 22,000 recently displaced Sri Lankans, due to escalating violence in North and East. Tigers have bombed Muttur – a predominantly Muslim town near Jaffna. Unfounded and unforgiveable. So this brief journey, as I continue to wait in Dubai, has shown more interconnections of violence, only there are significant differences in terms of which ones corporate media decides to highlight.
P.S. Words of Caution: Don't Eat Dorian Fruit If Drinking Alcohol - some say it can cause death?!
What must pass through this bimbo pop star’s head (o, what is his name? Some-kind-of-singer) to ignore, not even blink, at the carnage unfolding on the bbc? Moreover, how have we gotten to the point where genocide, massive amounts of unfounded violence, is a pleasurable pastime, that can never really satiate our hollywoodised appetite for destruction?
Meanwhile, I am doubly disturbed about my companion passenger coming from Colombo. Apparently, this Indian fellow is in charge of marketing, developing, controlling, managing, cracking the slave whip, of Victoria’s Secret in Sri Lanka. His factories produce all the fabric used for Victoria’s Secret – serviced by sub-contracted Korean manufactories. This fabric supplies all the sub-contractors that produce lingerie, swim-wear, and all ready-made garments (ah, the latest season’s fashions) for Victoria’s Secret, as well as Next, Neiman Marcus, Marks& Spencer’s, Gap. I noted to him that it is interesting that none of these garments are available domestically in Sri Lanka – everything is produced and exported from the Export Processing Zones, surrounding the airport. This nameless Indian guy finished off the summer’s end blitz of preparing to meet Back-to School clothing demands, and now is off to join his Zambian wife (daughter of a Prime Minister) and 3 children on a trip to Egypt, snowing South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Oh, you should have heard the way he romanticised Africa – all deserted, with lovely noble savages – Maasai. It is perplexing to observe class stratification within a formerly colonised society (albeit, India or Zambia or Sri Lanka).
I tried to bring up that I visited a garment workers’ home, 9 crammed into a 8 sq. ft slum dwelling, and that they had no idea what clothing lines they supplied. They had no idea about fair wages or that they are entitled to good working conditions, as Sri Lanka is bound to ILO codes. It means little that these garment workers often turn to seeking other forms of employment to supplement their monthly pittances. In addition to slave labour, in order to clothe the emperors of this neo-liberal paradigm, many of these young women become sex workers or members of terrorist circles. In the case of Nason, he harboured impoverished LTTE cadres in the home he also let out to garment workers; are the lines blurred here?
So however much I chat with this moghul about workers’ conditions coming before profit, he argues that the workers for V.S. are taken care of, that bad incidences of factories are only anecdotal not indicative of the whole industry, and that he is offering them employment. It is often true that many women living in poverty prefer a job in a sweatshop, rather than revert to begging or sex work, but it cannot be the main excuse to continue to let labour conditions deteriorate. No matter how much you harp on, try to explain things from an economic perspective (many studies show that good wage and working conditions improve productivity, stability in employment, commitment to MNCs, etc), the rich and powerful do not listen, as they want to hang on to their small bit of wealth and power.
In other news, there are 22,000 recently displaced Sri Lankans, due to escalating violence in North and East. Tigers have bombed Muttur – a predominantly Muslim town near Jaffna. Unfounded and unforgiveable. So this brief journey, as I continue to wait in Dubai, has shown more interconnections of violence, only there are significant differences in terms of which ones corporate media decides to highlight.
P.S. Words of Caution: Don't Eat Dorian Fruit If Drinking Alcohol - some say it can cause death?!
23 July 2006
sunday morning
thom yorke has new album, indepedent but intrinsically influenced by radiohead, which is alarmingly good and full of good samples.
and about the continuation of the conflict in mid-east. it's just exacerbated by us/uk involvement. im so sick of it, but i cant imagine how the people living there feel about it. it makes absolutely no sense that israel invades lebanon! it really is all starting to collapse and a matter of time before it spreads to most inhabited places, i.e. pakistan-india, amerikkka, etc. we all know that it was from the decree of us/uk, that it is a way to sink their teeth in the region. and we've royally skrewd it up for the next couple centuries. who's keen idea was it put a jewish 'homeland' by bulldozing present day inhabitants, at the expense of another minority? and i;ve already had my fill of listening to bizarre anti-semitic conversations for the week. i tend to take the zero-tolerance view on hierarchies of power and perpetuating inequalities that only serve to spawn and rebirth global capitalism and to squeeze the last drop of black gold. it is truly gruesome and unforgivable. so basically, coming from the latest chummy talk between bush and blair at G8, us outsourced 'reconstruction' of afghanistan to canada and its trans-national corporations, and iraq to uk TNCs, so that it could be more focused at the wheel of tarnation in israel-lebanon-syria. ah, but at least now we can say the un will be on board, gagged and bound!
it is all reminiscent of the situation in sri lanka - conflict with no end in sight. the more i learn about it the more complex it is. it is not clear-cut in terms of buddhists v. tamil hindus v. tamil muslims/et al. nor about 2 sides fighting each other for a scrap of (the best) land in north and east. there are viable ways to end the conflict if each side is willing to go through processes of demilitarisation, but there is no commitment on either side and there is too much money/power at stake. (you think western patriarchy is bad - take a glimpse at south asian schoolboy patriarchical mentality). and just last week, we saw a major general of ltte admitted to a prominent hospital in colombo (where there is a ban on admitting ltte members into south). meanwhile, the former bitch president, chandrika, helped get the main ltte fellow's daughter a visa in order for her to study in uk. what kind of reasoning is that??? so the government is working hand in hand with ltte, at the expense of poor civilians caught in cross-fire. absolutely mad! neither gov't or ltte is serious about peace talks, ceasefire etc - they are the face of the same side of the coin.
life otherwise on this island paradise is fairly tame - truly tropical and lovely, but sweltering! such friendly, smiling people. the best food in the world, and such different landscapes. i recently shifted to subletting a room in a posh apartment with a semi-gay/metrosexual intellectual property lawyer, who currently works on building up conflict-areas' livelihoods. nice fellow, a bit erratic, very sociable and a parade of men, women and beasts coming through each evening to fawn over him. a bit surreal change from the other residence, which served to prop up the ltte. i've been learning to cook sri lankan and to speak tamil....
and about the continuation of the conflict in mid-east. it's just exacerbated by us/uk involvement. im so sick of it, but i cant imagine how the people living there feel about it. it makes absolutely no sense that israel invades lebanon! it really is all starting to collapse and a matter of time before it spreads to most inhabited places, i.e. pakistan-india, amerikkka, etc. we all know that it was from the decree of us/uk, that it is a way to sink their teeth in the region. and we've royally skrewd it up for the next couple centuries. who's keen idea was it put a jewish 'homeland' by bulldozing present day inhabitants, at the expense of another minority? and i;ve already had my fill of listening to bizarre anti-semitic conversations for the week. i tend to take the zero-tolerance view on hierarchies of power and perpetuating inequalities that only serve to spawn and rebirth global capitalism and to squeeze the last drop of black gold. it is truly gruesome and unforgivable. so basically, coming from the latest chummy talk between bush and blair at G8, us outsourced 'reconstruction' of afghanistan to canada and its trans-national corporations, and iraq to uk TNCs, so that it could be more focused at the wheel of tarnation in israel-lebanon-syria. ah, but at least now we can say the un will be on board, gagged and bound!
it is all reminiscent of the situation in sri lanka - conflict with no end in sight. the more i learn about it the more complex it is. it is not clear-cut in terms of buddhists v. tamil hindus v. tamil muslims/et al. nor about 2 sides fighting each other for a scrap of (the best) land in north and east. there are viable ways to end the conflict if each side is willing to go through processes of demilitarisation, but there is no commitment on either side and there is too much money/power at stake. (you think western patriarchy is bad - take a glimpse at south asian schoolboy patriarchical mentality). and just last week, we saw a major general of ltte admitted to a prominent hospital in colombo (where there is a ban on admitting ltte members into south). meanwhile, the former bitch president, chandrika, helped get the main ltte fellow's daughter a visa in order for her to study in uk. what kind of reasoning is that??? so the government is working hand in hand with ltte, at the expense of poor civilians caught in cross-fire. absolutely mad! neither gov't or ltte is serious about peace talks, ceasefire etc - they are the face of the same side of the coin.
life otherwise on this island paradise is fairly tame - truly tropical and lovely, but sweltering! such friendly, smiling people. the best food in the world, and such different landscapes. i recently shifted to subletting a room in a posh apartment with a semi-gay/metrosexual intellectual property lawyer, who currently works on building up conflict-areas' livelihoods. nice fellow, a bit erratic, very sociable and a parade of men, women and beasts coming through each evening to fawn over him. a bit surreal change from the other residence, which served to prop up the ltte. i've been learning to cook sri lankan and to speak tamil....
16 July 2006
WTF with the Zionist invasion of Lebanon?!
And they're bloody well sending Condaleeza Rice in to negotiate Cease Fire Agreement? Who will offer the highest bid for the reconstruction contracts? With the nation-state eroding how can we still justify utterly brutal, genocidal wars in the name of one's 'sovereign' capability to do so: 'cos we feel like it'? Are we using the facade of territoriality (mine vs. yours vs. ours) to further the corporate-led military project? Hot damn: this is what 'progress' looks like!
13 July 2006
so people in the Gulf should drive less, consume less?
Development: Crowded planet feels the heat
New York, 11 Jul (IPS/Fritzroy A. Sterling) -- Consider the following statistics: at
the beginning of the 20th century, the world population was less than two billion,
but at the dawn of the 21st century, there were more than six billion people on
earth.
According to the US Census Bureau's population clock, the world's population is
now 6,527,525,419. Every 14 years, one billion people are added to the planet. At
this rate, the total number of people in the world will be a little more than 9.1
billion in 50 years.
Although the population growth rate has slowed, the world's population is still
growing. The US population is projected to reach 300 million by October.
According to a report by the Washington-based group Population Connection,
more than half of the world's population will live in cities by 2007, "Making us,
for the first time, an urban species."
Emissions of greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming have also
increased significantly since the 20th century. There are greater concentrations of
carbon dioxide (CO2), one of the chief contributors to global warming, in the
atmosphere as a result of continued burning of fossil fuels.
"We have to look at the overall contribution of human activities as it relates to
increased CO2 emissions since industrialisation," said Jay Gulledge, senior
research fellow for Science and Impacts at the Pew Centre on Global Climate
Change.
"There has been a 35% increase in the concentration of atmospheric CO2, up from
280 ppm (parts per million) pre-industrial times to a current 380 ppm."
As the population increases, particularly in urban areas, the demand for more
energy requires power plants that already emit huge volumes of greenhouse gases
to produce even more. And as people in lesser developed countries gain access to
electricity, more power plants that emit greenhouse gases are built.
Population growth also goes hand-in-hand with deforestation and clearing of land
to make way for urban sprawl. While living forests act as "carbon sinks",
absorbing greenhouse gases, dead and decaying trees emit carbon into the
atmosphere.
"A third of all current CO2 emissions come from automobiles," Gulledge added.
"Coal-fired power plants and heavy industry also accounts for much of the
greenhouse gas emissions."
"Population growth and global warming are definitely intertwined," Janet Larsen,
director of research at the Earth Policy Institute, told IPS. "A growing population
means a growing use of energy."
The US currently has five percent of the world's population, but produces 25% of
the world's global warming pollution, according to a report by the US-based
environmental group Sierra Club. Together, the most industrialised nations
consume 60% of the world's fossil fuels.
The George W. Bush administration has not offered any indication that it will
accept the terms of the Kyoto Protocol, which has been ratified by 163 nations,
because it believes that the treaty to reduce CO2 emissions would put a strain on
the economy, resulting in a decline in GDP.
US officials have also complained that India and China, two of the biggest emitters
of greenhouse gases, are exempt from the requirements of the Kyoto Protocol.
"The Kyoto Protocol was designed to be a first step in what is to become a more
progressive effort," said Tim Herzog, a research associate at the World Resources
Institute. "China and India will have to be addressed in a significant way in
subsequent meetings."
Still, many critics argue that since the nation that emits more than any other, the
US must take a more proactive approach to setting an international standard for the
reduction of greenhouse gases.
"The US consumes more energy and emits more greenhouse gases than any other
nation on earth," Janet Sawin, senior researcher and director of the Energy and
Climate Change Programme at the Worldwatch Institute, told IPS.
"If you add 100,000 more people to the population here, and 100,000 people to a
country in sub-Saharan Africa, the effect of greenhouse gas emissions here would
be far greater because we use more energy per capita here than someone in
sub-Saharan Africa does."
The combined effects of global warming and population growth are palpable,
despite efforts by groups such as the National Centre for Policy Analysis (NCPA)
to cast doubt on the science behind global warming.
According to an October 2005 report from NCPA, "Historical data and ongoing
hurricane research reveal scant evidence linking human-caused warming to more
frequent or powerful hurricanes."
Gulledge dismissed those claims. "I don't speak in absolute terms because science
is not absolute," he said.
"But there is hard scientific evidence that global warming affects hurricanes,
making them more intense in general and more frequent in the Northern Atlantic.
Global warming is causing the loss of mountain glaciers, and some two billion
people rely on glaciers for water supply."
John Seager, the president of Population Connection, said that too often, the
debate about population growth and global warming ignores the fundamental
question of population control.
"There is a deafening silence when it comes to the question of population growth,"
he said. "Most of the discussions about how to handle population growth are
dominated by technological discussions versus basic family planning."
According to Seager, people everywhere should control basic decision-making
about when and whether to have children. This, he said, would in the long run curb
population growth and, eventually, the effects of unchecked population growth on
global warming.
Others argue that undertaking adaptive and preventive policies simultaneously will
best alleviate the effects of global warming.
"We need to act now to do what we can to slow down the rate of global warming,"
said Larsen.
"Most of the world's population growth will occur in underdeveloped countries
where people are most vulnerable to severe climate changes. Therefore,
underdeveloped countries have to develop in a manner that is sustainable."
The transition to cleaner fuels must be swift and widespread, according to Herzog.
He said that people everywhere should become less reliant on coal and petroleum.
"Because growth results in increased GDP, governments should explore
hydropower and wind energy," Herzog said.
New York, 11 Jul (IPS/Fritzroy A. Sterling) -- Consider the following statistics: at
the beginning of the 20th century, the world population was less than two billion,
but at the dawn of the 21st century, there were more than six billion people on
earth.
According to the US Census Bureau's population clock, the world's population is
now 6,527,525,419. Every 14 years, one billion people are added to the planet. At
this rate, the total number of people in the world will be a little more than 9.1
billion in 50 years.
Although the population growth rate has slowed, the world's population is still
growing. The US population is projected to reach 300 million by October.
According to a report by the Washington-based group Population Connection,
more than half of the world's population will live in cities by 2007, "Making us,
for the first time, an urban species."
Emissions of greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming have also
increased significantly since the 20th century. There are greater concentrations of
carbon dioxide (CO2), one of the chief contributors to global warming, in the
atmosphere as a result of continued burning of fossil fuels.
"We have to look at the overall contribution of human activities as it relates to
increased CO2 emissions since industrialisation," said Jay Gulledge, senior
research fellow for Science and Impacts at the Pew Centre on Global Climate
Change.
"There has been a 35% increase in the concentration of atmospheric CO2, up from
280 ppm (parts per million) pre-industrial times to a current 380 ppm."
As the population increases, particularly in urban areas, the demand for more
energy requires power plants that already emit huge volumes of greenhouse gases
to produce even more. And as people in lesser developed countries gain access to
electricity, more power plants that emit greenhouse gases are built.
Population growth also goes hand-in-hand with deforestation and clearing of land
to make way for urban sprawl. While living forests act as "carbon sinks",
absorbing greenhouse gases, dead and decaying trees emit carbon into the
atmosphere.
"A third of all current CO2 emissions come from automobiles," Gulledge added.
"Coal-fired power plants and heavy industry also accounts for much of the
greenhouse gas emissions."
"Population growth and global warming are definitely intertwined," Janet Larsen,
director of research at the Earth Policy Institute, told IPS. "A growing population
means a growing use of energy."
The US currently has five percent of the world's population, but produces 25% of
the world's global warming pollution, according to a report by the US-based
environmental group Sierra Club. Together, the most industrialised nations
consume 60% of the world's fossil fuels.
The George W. Bush administration has not offered any indication that it will
accept the terms of the Kyoto Protocol, which has been ratified by 163 nations,
because it believes that the treaty to reduce CO2 emissions would put a strain on
the economy, resulting in a decline in GDP.
US officials have also complained that India and China, two of the biggest emitters
of greenhouse gases, are exempt from the requirements of the Kyoto Protocol.
"The Kyoto Protocol was designed to be a first step in what is to become a more
progressive effort," said Tim Herzog, a research associate at the World Resources
Institute. "China and India will have to be addressed in a significant way in
subsequent meetings."
Still, many critics argue that since the nation that emits more than any other, the
US must take a more proactive approach to setting an international standard for the
reduction of greenhouse gases.
"The US consumes more energy and emits more greenhouse gases than any other
nation on earth," Janet Sawin, senior researcher and director of the Energy and
Climate Change Programme at the Worldwatch Institute, told IPS.
"If you add 100,000 more people to the population here, and 100,000 people to a
country in sub-Saharan Africa, the effect of greenhouse gas emissions here would
be far greater because we use more energy per capita here than someone in
sub-Saharan Africa does."
The combined effects of global warming and population growth are palpable,
despite efforts by groups such as the National Centre for Policy Analysis (NCPA)
to cast doubt on the science behind global warming.
According to an October 2005 report from NCPA, "Historical data and ongoing
hurricane research reveal scant evidence linking human-caused warming to more
frequent or powerful hurricanes."
Gulledge dismissed those claims. "I don't speak in absolute terms because science
is not absolute," he said.
"But there is hard scientific evidence that global warming affects hurricanes,
making them more intense in general and more frequent in the Northern Atlantic.
Global warming is causing the loss of mountain glaciers, and some two billion
people rely on glaciers for water supply."
John Seager, the president of Population Connection, said that too often, the
debate about population growth and global warming ignores the fundamental
question of population control.
"There is a deafening silence when it comes to the question of population growth,"
he said. "Most of the discussions about how to handle population growth are
dominated by technological discussions versus basic family planning."
According to Seager, people everywhere should control basic decision-making
about when and whether to have children. This, he said, would in the long run curb
population growth and, eventually, the effects of unchecked population growth on
global warming.
Others argue that undertaking adaptive and preventive policies simultaneously will
best alleviate the effects of global warming.
"We need to act now to do what we can to slow down the rate of global warming,"
said Larsen.
"Most of the world's population growth will occur in underdeveloped countries
where people are most vulnerable to severe climate changes. Therefore,
underdeveloped countries have to develop in a manner that is sustainable."
The transition to cleaner fuels must be swift and widespread, according to Herzog.
He said that people everywhere should become less reliant on coal and petroleum.
"Because growth results in increased GDP, governments should explore
hydropower and wind energy," Herzog said.
06 July 2006
Protecting Americans through Torture, Eavesdropping, Dictatorial Decrees
United States: Signing away the Constitution?
New York, 1 Jul (IPS/William Fisher) -- Last March, the US Congress passed
legislation requiring Justice Department officials to give them reports by certain
dates on how the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is using the USA Patriot
Act to search homes and secretly seize papers.
But when President George W. Bush signed the measure into law, he added a
"signing statement". The statement said the president can order Justice Department
officials to withhold any information from Congress if he decides that it could
impair national security or executive branch operations.
Late last year, Congress approved legislation declaring that US interrogators
cannot torture prisoners or otherwise subject them to cruel, inhuman, and
degrading treatment.
But President Bush's signing statement said the president, as commander in chief,
can waive the torture ban if he decides that harsh interrogation techniques will
assist in preventing terrorist attacks.
These are but two examples of more than 100 signing statements containing over
500 constitutional challenges that President Bush has added to new laws passed by
the Congress - many times more than any of his predecessors.
While he has never vetoed a law, many constitutional scholars say the president is,
in effect, exercising a "line item veto" by giving himself authority to waive parts of
laws he doesn't like.
The practice has infuriated members of Congress in both parties because it
threatens to diminish their power. They consider it an assault on the notion that the
constitution establishes the United States' three branches of government -
legislative, judicial, and executive - as co-equal.
Further fuelling Congressional anger is Bush's defence of his National Security
Agency (NSA) "domestic eavesdropping" programme, in which the president
claimed that he could ignore a 1978 law prohibiting wiretaps of US citizens
without "probable cause" and a warrant issued by a court.
The NSA programme was revealed by the New York Times last December. Since
then, newspapers have disclosed other secret programmes, including amassing
millions of domestic phone call records and examining perhaps thousands of
financial transactions in an effort to track and interrupt possible terrorist activity.
A member of Bush's own party, Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, chairman
of the Senate Judiciary Committee, opened hearings on the subject this week. He
said, "The real issue here is whether the president can cherry-pick what he likes."
And the senior Democrat on the committee, Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont,
said, "The president hasn't vetoed any bills, but basically he has done a personal
veto. He has said which laws he will not follow and... put himself above the law,
even the same law he has signed."
The hearing is part of a continuing effort by many in Congress to reclaim authority
that they say the president has usurped as he has expanded the power of the
executive branch.
Bush claims that the constitution gives the executive branch of government
"inherent power" to do "whatever it takes" to protect the people of the United
States.
Testifying at the Judiciary Committee hearing on behalf of the Bush
administration, Michelle Boardman, deputy assistant attorney general in the Office
of Legal Counsel at the US Department of Justice, said that signing statements
serve a "legitimate and important function" and are not an abuse of power.
"Congress should not fear signing statements, but welcome the openness they
provide," she said. "The president must execute the law faithfully, but the
constitution is the highest law of the land. If the constitution and the law conflict,
the president must choose," she said.
But many constitutional scholars disagree.
Among them is Barbara Olshansky, director of the Global Justice Initiative at the
Centre for Constitutional Rights, a prominent advocacy group. She told IPS, "I
think it is hard evidence of (Bush's) continued aggressive arrogation of power. It is
a blatant attempt to expand power by pulling the rug out from under Congress each
time it passes a bill that he dislikes."
She added, "Many of the laws that Bush has decided to bypass or overwrite by this
method involve the military, where he once again invokes the idea that as
commander-in-chief he can ignore any law that seeks to regulate the military."
Another opposition view came from Prof. Edward Herman of the University of
Pennsylvania, who told IPS, "The brazenness of Bush's use of this practice is
remarkable. But even more remarkable is the fact that this de facto further
nullification of congressional authority fails to elicit sustained criticism and
outrage. It is part of a step-by-step abrogation of constitutional government, and it
is swallowed by the flag-wavers and normalised."
"We are in deep trouble," he added.
Signing statements are not new - their use started with the fifth US President,
James Monroe (1817-1825), and from that time they were used sparingly and
mostly for rhetorical purposes. Until Ronald Reagan became President in 1980,
only 75 statements had been issued. Reagan and his successors, George H. W.
Bush and Bill Clinton, made 247 signing statements between them.
But President Bush has taken the practice to a new level, attracting criticism both
for the number of statements he has issued as well as for his apparent attempts to
nullify any legal restrictions on his actions.
Democratic members of both the House of Representatives and the Senate are
viewing President Bush's signing statements as a dangerous over-reach of
presidential power - and a campaign issue for the congressional elections in
November.
Last week, House Democrats introduced a resolution requiring the president to
notify Congress if the president "makes a determination to ignore a duly enacted
provision of law".
And Senator Edward M. Kennedy, known as the "lion" of the Senate, declared this
week, "For far too long, Congress has stood by and watched while President Bush
has slowly expanded the unilateral powers of the presidency at the expense of the
rest of the government and the people."
The US legal community is also concerned. Earlier this month, the American Bar
Association's board of directors formed a Task Force on Presidential Signing
Statements and the Separation of Powers Doctrine to review the use of signing
statements and whether or not this use is consistent with the US Constitution.
Bush's signing statements have covered a wide variety of subjects, ranging from
the ability of military lawyers to give independent legal advice to their
commanders to timely transmission of government-funded scientific information
to Congress to rules for firing a government employee whistle-blower who tells
Congress about possible wrongdoing.
But until President Bush's signing statement on the anti-torture legislation, the
subject went virtually unreported by the US press.
According to Phillip Cooper, a Portland State University public administration
professor who is an authority on signing statements, "I think one of the important
things here is for reporters to apply their journalistic instincts to this story."
Cooper concludes that the Bush White House "has very effectively expanded the
scope and character of the signing statement not only to address specific
provisions of legislation that the White House wishes to nullify, but also in an
effort to significantly re-position and strengthen the powers of the presidency
relative to the Congress."
New York, 1 Jul (IPS/William Fisher) -- Last March, the US Congress passed
legislation requiring Justice Department officials to give them reports by certain
dates on how the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is using the USA Patriot
Act to search homes and secretly seize papers.
But when President George W. Bush signed the measure into law, he added a
"signing statement". The statement said the president can order Justice Department
officials to withhold any information from Congress if he decides that it could
impair national security or executive branch operations.
Late last year, Congress approved legislation declaring that US interrogators
cannot torture prisoners or otherwise subject them to cruel, inhuman, and
degrading treatment.
But President Bush's signing statement said the president, as commander in chief,
can waive the torture ban if he decides that harsh interrogation techniques will
assist in preventing terrorist attacks.
These are but two examples of more than 100 signing statements containing over
500 constitutional challenges that President Bush has added to new laws passed by
the Congress - many times more than any of his predecessors.
While he has never vetoed a law, many constitutional scholars say the president is,
in effect, exercising a "line item veto" by giving himself authority to waive parts of
laws he doesn't like.
The practice has infuriated members of Congress in both parties because it
threatens to diminish their power. They consider it an assault on the notion that the
constitution establishes the United States' three branches of government -
legislative, judicial, and executive - as co-equal.
Further fuelling Congressional anger is Bush's defence of his National Security
Agency (NSA) "domestic eavesdropping" programme, in which the president
claimed that he could ignore a 1978 law prohibiting wiretaps of US citizens
without "probable cause" and a warrant issued by a court.
The NSA programme was revealed by the New York Times last December. Since
then, newspapers have disclosed other secret programmes, including amassing
millions of domestic phone call records and examining perhaps thousands of
financial transactions in an effort to track and interrupt possible terrorist activity.
A member of Bush's own party, Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, chairman
of the Senate Judiciary Committee, opened hearings on the subject this week. He
said, "The real issue here is whether the president can cherry-pick what he likes."
And the senior Democrat on the committee, Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont,
said, "The president hasn't vetoed any bills, but basically he has done a personal
veto. He has said which laws he will not follow and... put himself above the law,
even the same law he has signed."
The hearing is part of a continuing effort by many in Congress to reclaim authority
that they say the president has usurped as he has expanded the power of the
executive branch.
Bush claims that the constitution gives the executive branch of government
"inherent power" to do "whatever it takes" to protect the people of the United
States.
Testifying at the Judiciary Committee hearing on behalf of the Bush
administration, Michelle Boardman, deputy assistant attorney general in the Office
of Legal Counsel at the US Department of Justice, said that signing statements
serve a "legitimate and important function" and are not an abuse of power.
"Congress should not fear signing statements, but welcome the openness they
provide," she said. "The president must execute the law faithfully, but the
constitution is the highest law of the land. If the constitution and the law conflict,
the president must choose," she said.
But many constitutional scholars disagree.
Among them is Barbara Olshansky, director of the Global Justice Initiative at the
Centre for Constitutional Rights, a prominent advocacy group. She told IPS, "I
think it is hard evidence of (Bush's) continued aggressive arrogation of power. It is
a blatant attempt to expand power by pulling the rug out from under Congress each
time it passes a bill that he dislikes."
She added, "Many of the laws that Bush has decided to bypass or overwrite by this
method involve the military, where he once again invokes the idea that as
commander-in-chief he can ignore any law that seeks to regulate the military."
Another opposition view came from Prof. Edward Herman of the University of
Pennsylvania, who told IPS, "The brazenness of Bush's use of this practice is
remarkable. But even more remarkable is the fact that this de facto further
nullification of congressional authority fails to elicit sustained criticism and
outrage. It is part of a step-by-step abrogation of constitutional government, and it
is swallowed by the flag-wavers and normalised."
"We are in deep trouble," he added.
Signing statements are not new - their use started with the fifth US President,
James Monroe (1817-1825), and from that time they were used sparingly and
mostly for rhetorical purposes. Until Ronald Reagan became President in 1980,
only 75 statements had been issued. Reagan and his successors, George H. W.
Bush and Bill Clinton, made 247 signing statements between them.
But President Bush has taken the practice to a new level, attracting criticism both
for the number of statements he has issued as well as for his apparent attempts to
nullify any legal restrictions on his actions.
Democratic members of both the House of Representatives and the Senate are
viewing President Bush's signing statements as a dangerous over-reach of
presidential power - and a campaign issue for the congressional elections in
November.
Last week, House Democrats introduced a resolution requiring the president to
notify Congress if the president "makes a determination to ignore a duly enacted
provision of law".
And Senator Edward M. Kennedy, known as the "lion" of the Senate, declared this
week, "For far too long, Congress has stood by and watched while President Bush
has slowly expanded the unilateral powers of the presidency at the expense of the
rest of the government and the people."
The US legal community is also concerned. Earlier this month, the American Bar
Association's board of directors formed a Task Force on Presidential Signing
Statements and the Separation of Powers Doctrine to review the use of signing
statements and whether or not this use is consistent with the US Constitution.
Bush's signing statements have covered a wide variety of subjects, ranging from
the ability of military lawyers to give independent legal advice to their
commanders to timely transmission of government-funded scientific information
to Congress to rules for firing a government employee whistle-blower who tells
Congress about possible wrongdoing.
But until President Bush's signing statement on the anti-torture legislation, the
subject went virtually unreported by the US press.
According to Phillip Cooper, a Portland State University public administration
professor who is an authority on signing statements, "I think one of the important
things here is for reporters to apply their journalistic instincts to this story."
Cooper concludes that the Bush White House "has very effectively expanded the
scope and character of the signing statement not only to address specific
provisions of legislation that the White House wishes to nullify, but also in an
effort to significantly re-position and strengthen the powers of the presidency
relative to the Congress."
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