BAIDOA, Somalia — The young man is nostalgic for a time he can’t even remember.

Aden Osman was 4 when the Somalian government collapsed in 1991. When he was 6, the bodies of American servicemen were dragged through the streets of Mogadishu and most of the world turned its back on his country.

That’s when his childhood memories begin to grow clearer.

There was the day when he was 9 and his uncles were shot while fetching water. He had to bury them. Another time, a rival clan slaughtered the family’s livestock and poisoned their well. And in a battle between warlords, he was separated from his family for five days without food.

Most of all, he remembers the running, the constant fleeing through the bush as his family sought refuge from the clan warfare that seized the country 15 years ago after the fall of strongman Mohamed Siad Barre. They prayed for enough time in one place just to grow some food.

But Aden’s parents have told him about better times, before the warlords, when the country was run by something called a government. Back then, they had cattle and crops to eat. People walked the streets at night without fear, his parents said. Children went to school and there was a hospital for the sick.

These are the times Aden dreams of.

”My parents say there were no checkpoints back then,” he said. “There was no random killing without reason. And if you killed someone or robbed someone, you were punished. I wish I lived then. I guess I was born in an unlucky time.”

Aden is one of millions of teens coming of age with little memory of Somalia’s past and few skills to build its future.
twincities.com

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Schools closed. Building permits were on hold. Renewing a driver’s license was impossible.

Many basic functions of Puerto Rico’s government were unavailable Monday as the U.S. commonwealth ran out of money and imposed a partial public-sector shutdown — putting nearly 100,000 people — including 40,000 teachers — out of work and granting an unscheduled holiday to 500,000 public school students.

The shutdown — the first in Puerto Rico’s history — happened despite last-minute attempts by members of the legislature and Gov. Anibal Acevedo Vila to agree on a bailout plan.

Police and other emergency services were not affected, but dozens of public offices were either shuttered or partially closed. Hundreds of government employees stood in the rain outside the capitol to protest the politicians’ failure to avoid the shutdown, and to spur them into resolving the impasse.

”I’m not earning any money and the kids don’t have classes,” said Sonia Ortiz, a 44-year-old teacher and single mother of two who attended the protest. ”I have savings but not enough.”

A protest late in the afternoon in San Juan’s financial district turned into a confrontation between police and masked youths, who scrawled graffiti calling for revolution. Officers used nightsticks to disperse the protesters and one youth was taken away in an ambulance. There were no reports of arrests.
nytimes.com

Havana, April 30 (ACN) This century will see the end of the US empire, said Hugo Chavez on Saturday during a rally in Havana, where he highlighted the progress of Latin American integration efforts.

Addressing thousands of youth present at a rally, Chavez proclaimed you will witness the fall of the US empire, since this century will see the birth of our common homeland.
cubaweb.cu

Peruvian candidate for President Alan Garcia compared Sunday Venezuelan President Hugo Chvez with ex Iraqi ruler Saddam Hussein and ascribed him a double moral with regard to the United States.

“He is a meddler who is breaking fundamental international principles. What does he think he is? Is he a Saddam Hussein who, because of having oil can take ownership of other countries?” Garcia commented based on Chavez’ support of Nationalist candidate Ollanta Humala.

Additionally, Social-Democrat Garcia called Chavez “corrupt and alcoholic” in a new round in the clash following Venezuela’s decision to leave the Andean Community of Nations (CAN) a week ago, AFP reported.

“I am not afraid of Chavez. I am not a Venezuelan conscript,” Garcia emphasized.

Garcia, who was the Peruvian President from 1985 to 1990 and a friend of ex Venezuelan President Carlos Andres Perez, a major political opponent of Chavez, stated, “I will not make further remarks. I will not waste more time with you, Mr. Chavez.”
eluniversal.com

Lima recalls ambassador from Venezuela
LIMA, Peru — Peru said yesterday it withdrew its ambassador to Venezuela for the second time this year over “persistent and flagrant interference” in the country’s affairs by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
The Peruvian government cited Mr. Chavez’s threat Friday to withdraw his ambassador to Lima and cut relations with Peru if former President Alan Garcia won the Peruvian presidential election. Mr. Chavez favors leftist Ollanta Humala.
“The Peruvian government has decided to withdraw its ambassador to the Republic of Venezuela with immediate effect, due to its persistent and flagrant interference in Peru’s domestic affairs,” the Foreign Ministry said.
Venezuelan officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
Mr. Chavez, a self-proclaimed socialist revolutionary sharply at odds with Washington, first clashed with Peru at the start of the year after openly backing Mr. Humala, who won the first round of the April 9 presidential election.
Peru temporarily withdrew its ambassador from Caracas on Jan. 5 after President Alejandro Toledo accused Mr. Chavez of “political meddling” in the election by supporting Mr. Humala.
Mr. Humala has pledged greater state intervention in Peru’s free-market economy and to radically redistribute Peru’s wealth in favor of the poor.
In Havana earlier yesterday, Mr. Chavez criticized both Mr. Garcia and Mr. Toledo as “crocodiles from the same water hole.”

Bolivia weighs in on Peru vote along with Venezuela
LA PAZ, Bolivia (Reuters) – Bolivian President Evo Morales invited nationalist Peruvian candidate Ollanta Humala on Sunday to visit Bolivia, after Peru withdrew its ambassador to Caracas over Venezuela’s comments backing Humala in its presidential election.

Bolivia’s President Evo Morales decreed the nationalization of the country’s natural gas industry today, following through on an election pledge to increase control over the energy industry.

Under the decision, he ordered foreign firms to send production to a state company for sales and industrialization, and said that the state will also recover Bolivian hydrocarbons companies that were privatized in the 1990’s, with the state taking over shares that are in the hands of foreign companies and of semi-public Bolivian entities, according to an Associated Press report based on Mr. Morales’s speech, which was delivered at the country’s San Alberto gas and oil field.

He also ordered the military to occupy the natural gas fields, the A.P. said.

“The time has come, the awaited day, a historic day in which Bolivia retakes absolute control of our natural resources,” Mr. Morales said from the facility, which is operated by Petrobras of Brazil in association with Repsol-YPF of Spain, the A.P. said.

The move highlights a regional trend in Latin America of a struggle over who controls energy resources. Protesters in Bolivia have in the past called for the outright expropriation of private gas installations operated by British Gas, Repsol, and Petrobras. Such protests over energy policy have weakened or forced out of power a number of presidents in Bolivia, which has South America’s second largest natural gas reserves.

In the past, Mr. Morales has raised concerns in the United States and Europe with his plans to increase government control of the energy industry, and with his pledges to decriminalize the cultivation of coca, the plant used to make cocaine.

Mr. Morales warned that companies that rejected the decree would have to leave Bolivia.

He said all the companies must turn their production over to the state’s Yacimientos Petroliferos Fiscales Bolivianos, which was privatized in 1996 and 1997, it reported.
nytimes.com

They never fail to put th coca part in…

“Politically speaking, it is an excellent tool devised by the United States to privatise the peace process.”
Montaser Oklah, Jordanian Ministry of Industry and Trade

On an industrial park in the middle of Jordan, rows of factory workers stitch jeans for the American market.

On a good day they can turn out thousands of pairs and put in a shipment to New York and the mid-west.

For the owners of this factory, the economics make good sense but this is really a political project designed to change the Middle East.

More than a decade ago, Israel and Jordan signed a peace treaty. But it is cold peace – there is little trade or travel between the two countries.

Among ordinary Jordanians, the treaty is deeply unpopular.

Hence this scheme designed to encourage interaction between the two countries.

The jeans being made in Jordan are allowed into the United States without duty or quota restrictions.

To secure that valuable concession, they must have 8% Israeli contents.

“That’s a big advantage – one of the main reasons we came here,” explained the director of the company, Ali Imran.

“Ultimately, we are business people, we have to look after our business.”

Businessmen like Mr Imran have helped produce a huge expansion in Jordanian exports to the United States.
bbc.co.uk

Yup, turn the Arab world into a giant “Free Trade Zone”, which is the new term for slave colony. Exporting democracy indeed.

The Arab League, which has collected $70 million for the Palestinians, will pay the salaries of civil servants straight into their bank accounts.

A Hamas government spokesman said on Monday: “We have given the list and bank account details of the civil servants to the Arab League so that the salaries can be paid to them directly.

“We have had a lot of contact with the Arab League and secretary general Amr Mussa to find a solution to the financial crisis as quickly as possible” Ghazi Hamas said.

He could not say when the money would be transferred.

The money collected by the 22-member Arab League only covers a fraction of the needs of the cash-strapped Hamas-led government, which requires about $240 million to pay its 160,000 employees for March and April.
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