As a former state prosecutor and lieutenant governor whose father was a Foreign Service officer, the former Presidential candidate Senator John Forbes Kerry should know a violation of international law when he sees one. Perhaps he could blame intimidation by the American Israeli PAC organization or a need to pander to his Jewish benefactors as he makes another run for the Presidency, but Kerry’s recent co-sponsorship of the Palestinian Compliance Act of 2006 is a violation of Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention that forbids collective punishment and states that a person shall not be punished for an offense he or she has not personally committed. This article explicitly relates to administrative punishment imposed on persons or groups because of acts that they did not personally commit. Article 50 of the Hague Regulations states a comparable prohibition.
scoop.co.nz

ERUSALEM – International Mideast envoy James Wolfensohn plans to step down when his term ends at the end of the month.

Wolfensohn, a former president of the World Bank, has been serving as an envoy for the “Quartet” of Mideast mediators since last June. The Quartet, the sponsor of the “road map” peace plan, includes the U.S., European Union, United Nations and Russia.

“His mandate ends at the end of the month. He has no plans of continuing,” his office said Friday.

Wolfensohn’s efforts focused on rebuilding the Gaza Strip after Israel’s withdrawal last year.

During his tenure, Wolfensohn helped negotiate several agreements between Israel and the Palestinians. They included transferring control of the Rafah border crossing in southern Gaza to the Palestinians, a deal to improve the flow of goods in and out of Gaza, and the purchase of dozens of greenhouses from Israeli settlers for Palestinian use.

These efforts, however, hit repeated obstacles, and in some cases, the agreements were not honored.

Officials had discussed the possibility of extending Wolfensohn’s term. But diplomatic officials said he had decided not to continue in the wake of the establishment of the new Hamas-led Palestinian government.

The Quartet has called on Hamas to renounce violence, recognize Israel and honor past peace agreements. Hamas has rejected these demands, greatly limiting Wolfensohn’s ability to continue work, the diplomats said.

Wolfensohn has accepted a senior advisory position at Citigroup Corp.
thestate.com

The whole album.

hyfntrak.com

A recent international hip-hop festival which brought together rap artists from around the world has raised the question of why non-US rap is so political – whereas mainstream American rap appears frivolous.

Many of the performers at the three-day Trinity International Hip-Hop Festival in Hartford, Connecticut, were critical of the way that US rap – which is by far the best-selling – appears concerned mostly with money, drugs and sex, and has little to do with its roots in the angry political expression of groups like Public Enemy or KRS One.

“There’s this negative perception of hip-hop as being a criminal artform, as being the home of the uneducated and non-thinking people,” said Nigerian MC Oke.

“When you go across the continents of the Earth, people are embracing hip-hop as the force to change and transform the world.”
bbc.co.uk

LA PAZ, Bolivia Ñ At age 13, Casimira Rodriguez left her ardscrabble rural home, hoping to escape poverty by taking a job as a housemaid in the city. What she got instead was a nightmare of virtual slavery, and a first-hand view of the injustice many poor Bolivians experience.

Barely an adolescent herself, Rodriguez cooked, cleaned and looked after the children for an extended family of 14 people. She was not paid and was allowed out only to buy groceries down the street, she says.

After two years, Rodriguez escaped and brought her case for wages owed before a rural court. The judge asked her to be patient. A quarter century later, she’s still waiting.

It’s possible Rodriguez might finally get some satisfaction.

She is Bolivia’s new justice minister, intent on overhauling one of Latin America’s most overburdened, corrupt and inefficient judicial systems.

The 40-year-old former domestic workers’ union leader and Quechua Indian has no law degree or legal training. She would be a striking figure in any government: She wears her hair in traditional Indian braids and layers of velvet skirts under fitted cotton blouses.

Nearly three months after taking office, she has yet to offer a plan for overhauling Bolivia’s judiciary.

Her detractors say she lacks the necessary experience _ a maid for 18 years, she earned a high school degree at night and has studied anthropology in college while running the union. The National Association of Bolivian Lawyers, which represents Bolivia’s 30,000 attorneys, has demanded her resignation.

Evo Morales, the left-leaning president who appointed her, says he has no intention of letting that happen.

Rodriguez is unfazed. She says she hopes to humanize and build trust in the judiciary while strengthening traditional Indian justice systems that depend on community elders rather than courts.

“I know the laws and all their articles, but life has forced us to also live injustice and we can feel the pain and thirst for justice of every Bolivian sister and brother,” Rodriguez told The Associated Press in a recent interview.
axisoflogic.com

Havana, Apr 28 (Prensa Latina) Bolivia’s President Evo Morales and Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez are starting Friday a visit to Cuba and will be welcomed by President Fidel Castro.

Their arrival to Havana coincides with the first anniversary of the signing of agreements between Cuba and Venezuela for the implementation of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA).

According to a note published by Granma newspaper, the aim of the visit is to sign documents allowing Bolivia’s adherence to that integration model.

Such documents, states the daily, depict Morales’ ideas on the Trade Agreements for the Peoples (TCP, in Spanish).

The ALBA, points out Granma, is an integration model based on cooperation, solidarity and common will, and seeks to satisfy the Latin American and Caribbean countries’ needs and desires and preserve independence, sovereignty and identity.

Morales and Chavez’ visit will reassert the three governments’ willingness to continue working together for regional integration and strengthen excellent ties of friendship and solidarity among Cuba, Venezuela and Bolivia, the source reports.
plenglish.com

There exists an enormous discrepancy between promises of relief from the colossal threat of starvation in the world on the one hand and the stark reality on the other hand. In India, in Africa, in Latin America and elsewhere, world leaders and companies such as the giant Monsanto hold out hollow promises of fabulous crops of genetically modified seeds while in India there are thousands and thousands of suicides among farmers who can no longer make a living on their land and there are millions of deaths from starvation in Africa. The sufferings of countless hungry and malnourished children in Africa, Asia and Latin America can not be calculated in cold figures.

Monsanto, a multinational company specializing in biotechnology, is a major producer of GM seeds and pesticides and it has for decades promised blue skies and end of hunger to starving people in the developing world. However, this multinational is just one of an ever-increasing number of biotech companies that have appeared all over the world.

Who will make hunger history?
With an estimated 24,000 people succumbing globally to hunger every day, more than 120 million people could perish by the year 2015 from this shameful scourge. In Gleneagles, however, the leaders of the world’s richest economies did not even provide lip-service to the hungry and malnourished.
– Devinder Sharma, 3 August 2005
axisoflogic.com

Chevron Corp.’s first-quarter profit soared 49 percent to $4 billion, joining the procession of U.S. oil companies to report colossal earnings as lawmakers consider ways to pacify motorists agitated about rising gas prices.

Chevron released its results Friday after two of its biggest rivals, ConocoPhillips and Exxon Mobil Corp., already provoked public outrage with similarly large first-quarter profits. Combined, the three oil companies earned $15.7 billion during the first three months of the year.

San Ramon, Calif.-based Chevron’s net income for the three months ended in March translated into $1.80 per share, two cents above the average estimate among analysts polled by Thomson Financial. It compared to a profit of $2.7 billion, or $1.28 per share, in the same January-March period last year.
abcnews.go.com

by Steven Lendmen
Large transnational corporations are clearly the dominant institution of our time. They’re preeminent throughout the world but especially in the Global North and its epicenter in the US. They control or greatly influence what we eat and drink, where we live, what we wear, how we get most of our essential services like health care and even what we’re taught in schools up to the highest levels. They create and control our sources of information and greatly influence how we think and our view of the world and them. They even now own patents on our genetic code, the most basic elements of human life, and are likely planning to manipulate and control them as just another commodity to exploit for profit in their brave new world that should concern everyone. They also carefully craft their image and use catchy slogans to convince us of their benefit to society and the world, like: “better things for better living through chemistry” (if you don’t mind toxic air, water and soil), “we bring good things to life” (for them, not us), and “all the news that’s fit to print” (only if you love state and corporate friendly disinformation and propaganda). The slogans are clever, but the truth is ugly.

Corporations also decide who will govern and how. We may think we do, but it’s not so and never was. Those national elections, especially the last two, only looked legitimate to most people, but not to those who know and understand how the system works. Here’s how it really works. The “power elite” or privileged class C. Wright Mills wrote about 50 years ago in his classic book by that title are the real king and decision makers. He wrote how corporate, government and military elites formed a trinity of power after WW II and that the “power elite” were those “who decide whatever is decided” of importance. The holy trinity Mills wrote about still exists but today in the shape of a triangle with the transnational giants clearly on top and government, the military and all other institutions of importance there to serve their interests. These corporations have become so large and dominant they run our lives and the world, and in a zero sum world and the chips that count most in their stack, they do it for their continuing gain and at our increasing expense. Something is way out of whack, and in this essay I’ll try to explain what it is and why we better understand it.
informationclearinghouse.info

In the last few weeks, the people living in the Kurdish cities of Turkey showed a determined resistance and civil uprising. Starting in Diyarbakir, the uprising spread to other cities including Batman, Siirt, Mardin, Kiziltepe, Nusaybin, Hakkari, Agri, Van, Ergani, Kars, and Istanbul. Kurds took to the streets to voice their demands and defended themselves against police attacks by throwing stones and firebombs. The clashes started with the killing of 14 HPG (PeopleÕs Defensive Forces of Kurdish Liberation Movement (KLM)) guerrilla fighters. The HPG claimed that chemical weapons had been used against the guerrillas and demanded that NGOs should investigate the incidence. The families of the guerrillas said that they saw burns and other signs of chemical weapons on their corpses. This information triggered large-scale demonstrations in Diyarbakir during the funeral. The police attacked the funeral using firearms. The demonstrations to protest the attack and the use of chemical weapons spread to other cities. During the demonstrations 13 people, including three children aged three to six, were killed by bullets and several people were hospitalised. Hundreds were arrested and tortured.

How did things come to this point?
zmag.org