PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — As his plane lifted off the runway here in August 2003, Brian Dean Curran rewound his last, bleak days as the American ambassador in this tormented land.

Haiti, Mr. Curran feared, was headed toward a cataclysm, another violent uncoupling of its once jubilant embrace of democracy more than a decade before. He had come here hoping to help that tenuous democracy grow. Now he was leaving in anger and foreboding.

Seven months later, an accused death squad leader helped armed rebels topple the president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Haiti, never a model of stability, soon dissolved into a state so lawless it stunned even those who had pushed for the removal of Mr. Aristide, a former Roman Catholic priest who rose to power as the champion and hero of Haiti’s poor.

Today, the capital, Port-au-Prince, is virtually paralyzed by kidnappings, spreading panic among rich and poor alike. Corrupt police officers in uniform have assassinated people on the streets in the light of day. The chaos is so extreme and the interim government so dysfunctional that voting to elect a new one has already been delayed four times. The latest date is Feb. 7.

Yet even as Haiti prepares to pick its first elected president since the rebellion two years ago, questions linger about the circumstances of Mr. Aristide’s ouster — and especially why the Bush administration, which has made building democracy a centerpiece of its foreign policy in Iraq and around the world, did not do more to preserve it so close to its shores.
nytimes.com

Preserve it?? How about undermine it at every turn? For 200 years?

…The other important factor to consider when thinking of justice for Africans is that justice must be rooted in history. History is important because it provides the means for us to understand the roots of the indignities we experience and it also gives us the means to express anger, pain and frustration at the present economic system. As we encounter the poor in our society, we experience the power of anger that motivates us to stand in solidarity with those who are pushed to the margins by the institutionalized power relations in our societies. Deconstructing our history also gives us a reason to celebrate our survival despite the oppression we have experienced by providing us with memories of those who fought for justice even unto death. African history has its roots in African traditional culture, colonialism and neocolonialism. We have to analyze the effects of this history on our social institutions and on our identity. Understanding our history helps us to define ourselves not as helpless victims but as survivors who are the agents of change. It gives us not only the motivation and the courage to work for change but also a vision of what kind of society we want to strive for.
africafiles.org

As 2005 holiday celebrations were getting underway last December, the International Monetary Fund pledged a gift to Nicaragua: complete cancellation of the $201 million debt that Nicaragua owed the multilateral financial institution. Many have applauded this move, part of the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative, as a needed step towards unshackling historically debt-ridden countries like Nicaragua. In early January I told a group of US citizens visiting Managua that this event may signify an achievement in Nicaragua’s long struggle for self-determination, giving us something, finally, to celebrate. Considering recent moves by the IMF, it appears I was wrong.

The mood in Managua lately has been anything but celebratory. Yesterday, my neighbor Blanca Obando came to my door, said hello, and burst into tears. Through her sobs, she related how her diabetic sister-in-law, Reina Landeros Poveda, had recently cut her foot and developed a painful skin infection. Soon thereafter, Blanca escorted her sister-in-law to the Lenin Fonseca public hospital. Outside the hospital entrance, they found throngs of infected and suffering people who were lying on the curbs “like dogs,” vomiting in the street, and urinating where they could as they awaited nonexistent medical attention. “It was the worst thing I’ve seen in Nicaragua,” Blanca cried. Such words should not be taken lightly from someone who’s seen her country dominated by a US-backed dictator, crushed by a US-funded contra war, and strangled by a US-imposed economic embargo. Edging through the crowd, Blanca and Reina reached the hospital gates and found them locked shut. Hospital staff turned the women back to the street, informing Reina that she could not enter unless she had been shot, run over, or could otherwise show she was on the brink of death.
commondreams.org

The top climate scientist at NASA says the Bush administration has tried to stop him from speaking out since he gave a lecture last month calling for prompt reductions in emissions of greenhouse gases linked to global warming.

The scientist, James E. Hansen, longtime director of the agency’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, said in an interview that officials at NASA headquarters had ordered the public affairs staff to review his coming lectures, papers, postings on the Goddard Web site and requests for interviews from journalists.
nytimes.com

Last fall, Brigham Young University physics professor Steven E. Jones made headlines when he charged that the World Trade Center collapsed because of “pre-positioned explosives.” Now, along with a group that calls itself “Scholars for 9/11 Truth,” he’s upping the ante.

“We believe that senior government officials have covered up crucial facts about what really happened on 9/11,” the group says in a statement released Friday announcing its formation. “We believe these events may have been orchestrated by the administration in order to manipulate the American people into supporting policies at home and abroad.”

Headed by Jones and Jim Fetzer, University of Minnesota Duluth distinguished McKnight professor of philosophy, the group is made up of 50 academicians and others.

They include Robert M. Bowman, former director of the U.S. “Star Wars” space defense program, and Morgan Reynolds, former chief economist for the Department of Labor in President George W. Bush’s first term. Most of the members are less well-known.

The group’s Web site (www.ST911.org) includes an updated version of Jones’s paper about the collapse of the Twin Towers and a paper by Fetzer that looks at conspiracy theories. The government’s version of the events of 9/11 — that the plane’s hijackers were tied to Osama bin Laden — is its own conspiracy theory, says Fetzer, who has studied the John F. Kennedy assassination since 1992.

“Did the Bush administration know in advance about the impending attacks that occurred on 9/11, and allow these to happen, to provoke pre-planned wars against Afghanistan and Iraq? These questions demand immediate answers,” charges a paper written collectively by Scholars for 9/11 Truth. The group plans to write more papers, and present lectures and conferences.
deseretnews.com

By Gillian Caldwell
Executive director, Witness

OK so today is the celebrity blog, because I spent the last 24 hours being with and thinking about “celebrities” and the complexities of their engagement in the issues we work on.

As I mentioned, Peter Gabriel is our founder and we are truly blessed to have such a humble, imaginative, smart and generous soul on our side. Witness was his idea and his involvement has been critical to our creation and continued existence.

When Peter arrives in Davos, we tend to pal around together because I like him… and because the more time I spend with him, the more opportunity I can generate for our work and for the human rights organisations and issues we are trying to get focus on – issues like slavery in Brazil, child soldiers in the Congo, educational desegregation in Bulgaria, the militarisation of the US-Mexico border etc.

I met Angelina Jolie (Angie) last year with Peter, and she has since become involved in our work. We caught up yesterday and I met her partner Brad Pitt (as if I had to tell you, but I hold out some lifeless hope that the BBC audience is a little less consumer-culture oriented?).

Anyway, Angie and Brad are here, genuinely committed to learning and to trying to improve the state of the world. It’s frustrating for me, knowing Angie personally and having seen first-hand how hard she works on a range of issues, to see people dismiss celebrity engagement as superficial, or worse yet a play for positive media attention.

The challenge of working with her or anyone at the megastar level is that you simply can’t predict or control what the press will choose to focus on. For example, even when they promised us interviews focused on the issue of Sierra Leone at our December benefit in NY, the exclusive focus of the coverage was on whether or not she was pregnant … and it appears all they were really after was a shot of her midriff!

It’s frankly appalling with all that’s going on the world and I think the press should stop underestimating their audience and start realising that Angie’s enormous fan base actually does care what she has to say, for good reason.

Some high-profile people may dabble, but many others are well served by focused, informed engagement which gets pressing issues to a massive global audience. Bono is a perfect example. He spoke today on a panel titled What’s Next for Africa, with the President of Nigeria and the Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown of Britain amongst others.

Bono is brilliant, funny, tactical, and he knows his issues of debt relief and trade inside and out. (By the way, in response to recent complaints that he shouldn’t have accepted the Red card from American Express’ offer of 1% of sales in Britain contributed to the causes he is involved in, he is reported to have said “we’re not endorsing them – they are endorsing us!”)

I’m not the type of person to go running around after celebrities and perhaps that’s why I am getting along well with a couple of them. If they’re committed, I’ve got plenty of time. Otherwise, I can’t be bothered.

It was funny meeting Michael Douglas last night though – he is receiving a Crystal Award for his work on handgun control and nuclear proliferation. Being just as media-saturated as the next red-blooded American, I confessed that all I could think about when I looked at him was that boiling bunny (for those of you recall Fatal Attraction).

Anyway, we got passed that and I talked the poor man’s ear off for a while about US foreign policy… and asked him what fed his soul, which is always of interest to me as my staff will tell you.

And, to conclude my musings on celebrity, I was approached on my way through the metal detector just now by a man I had never met before (Danny Quah from the London School of Economics) who said “Oh, Ms. Caldwell, I love your BBC blog!” I was amazed and responded to say I was rushing to write another entry just now on celebrity – and that his introduction was giving me my first personal insight into the genre!

PS: I forgot to mention that I got Peter signed up to be the musical director for Mel Young’s Homeless World Cup which will being teams of homeless people together from more than 40 countries in South Africa in September (he won’t be paid to do it, of course).

And I had a good conversation with Gavin Newsome, the mayor of San Francisco, who said he was absolutely committed to transforming the city’s juvenile justice system this year and had already allocated the money to do it!
bbc.co.uk

Gosh! What super-yum fun! Who knew that fixing the world could be such a groovy experience???

On a September day 4 1/2 years ago, nearly 1,100 ninth-graders — a little giddy, a little scared — arrived at Birmingham High School in Van Nuys. They were fifth-generation Americans and new arrivals, straight arrows and gangbangers, scholars and class clowns.

On a radiant evening last June, 521 billowing figures in royal blue robes and yellow-tasseled mortarboards walked proudly across Birmingham’s football field, practically floating on a carpet of whoops and shouts and blaring air horns, to accept their diplomas.

It doesn’t take a valedictorian to do the math: Somewhere along the way, Birmingham High lost more than half of the students who should have graduated.

What happened to the Class of 2005?
latimes.com

As Hamas wins an upset victory in the Palestinian parliamentary elections, we take a look at the little-known rise of the militant group with investigative journalist Robert Dreyfuss, author of the new book “Devil’s Game: How the United States Helped Unleash Fundamentalist Islam.” In it, Dreyfuss reveals how the U.S. looked the other way when Israel’s secret service supported the creation of Hamas. [includes rush transcript]

According to Middle East analyst Dilip Hero, the success of Hamas in the Palestinian parliamentary elections comes as other Islamist groups gaining political strength in the Middle East. Last year Islamist candidates won most of the seats in the municipal elections in Saudi Arabia. In Lebannon, Hizbollah has emerged as the preeminent representative of Lebanese Shiites. In Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood won 60% of the seats it contested last year. And in Iraq, religious Shiite and Sunni parties performed best in December parliamentary elections.
democracynow.org

Hamas History Tied to Israel
By Richard Sale
UPI Terrorism Correspondent

06/18/02 “UPI” — — In the wake of a suicide bomb attack Tuesday on a crowded Jerusalem city bus that killed 19 people and wounded at least 70 more, the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, took credit for the blast.

Israeli officials called it the deadliest attack in Jerusalem in six years.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon immediately vowed to fight “Palestinian terror” and summoned his cabinet to decide on a military response to the organization that Sharon had once described as “the deadliest terrorist group that we have ever had to face.”

Active in Gaza and the West Bank, Hamas wants to liberate all of Palestine and establish a radical Islamic state in place of Israel. It is has gained notoriety with its assassinations, car bombs and other acts of terrorism.

But Sharon left something out.

Israel and Hamas may currently be locked in deadly combat, but, according to several current and former U.S. intelligence officials, beginning in the late 1970s, Tel Aviv gave direct and indirect financial aid to Hamas over a period of years.

…Not since the glory days of Watergate and Nixon’s Luciferian fall has there been so much written about the dogged deceits and creative criminalities of our rulers. We have also come to a point in this dark age where there is not only no hero in view but no alternative road unblocked. We are trapped terribly in a now that few foresaw and even fewer can define despite a swarm of books and pamphlets like the vast cloud of locusts which dined on China in that ’30s movie “The Good Earth.”

I have read many of these descriptions of our fallen estate, looking for one that best describes in plain English how we got to this now and where we appear to be headed once our good Earth has been consumed and only Rapture is left to whisk aloft the Faithful. Meanwhile, the rest of us can learn quite a lot from “Dark Ages America: The Final Phase of Empire” by Morris Berman, a professor of sociology at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.
truthdig.com

By Joel Stein
01/24/06 “Los Angeles Times” — — I DON’T SUPPORT our troops. This is a particularly difficult opinion to have, especially if you are the kind of person who likes to put bumper stickers on his car. Supporting the troops is a position that even Calvin is unwilling to urinate on.

I’m sure I’d like the troops. They seem gutsy, young and up for anything. If you’re wandering into a recruiter’s office and signing up for eight years of unknown danger, I want to hang with you in Vegas.

And I’ve got no problem with other people — the ones who were for the Iraq war — supporting the troops. If you think invading Iraq was a good idea, then by all means, support away. Load up on those patriotic magnets and bracelets and other trinkets the Chinese are making money off of.

But I’m not for the war. And being against the war and saying you support the troops is one of the wussiest positions the pacifists have ever taken — and they’re wussy by definition. It’s as if the one lesson they took away from Vietnam wasn’t to avoid foreign conflicts with no pressing national interest but to remember to throw a parade afterward.
informationclearinghouse.info