Re: [PEN-L] Random thoughts on food/energy linkages
On 03/set/06, at 03:18, Michael Perelman wrote: The idea of corn-based energy system strikes me as wildly irrational. I fully agree, they would require too much land, pesticides, water, energy. since we have to shift from oil based energy we better change something at a deeper level rather than thinking this type of substitutions. Oil is a concentrated that incorporates many thousand acres of organic products coming from the past, thinking to use in a large scale not-concentrated products coming from agriculture today seems to me quite crazy consuming local food supplies is probably a simpler method of conserving fuel. I think that this is the solution, but there is a power infrastructure in place with interests that work exactly in the opposite way. It seems unbelievable but, in Italy, we are doing NOW what you have done in the US long ago. They are moving all shops and movie theatres from downtown, where people live, to cheaper areas, building big complexes, where everybody needs to go by car. This means exactly the opposite of a rational organization that acknowledges the need of a shift in the energy consumption approach. A couple of days ago I was talking to my friend of the possibility of exchanging our products (we both have some small farming) and this could work well also in a larger scale, may be using the internet to show what one has to sell, to avoid unnecessary travels. (This raises another problem. Traveling less is a good thing, but people should meet often to be able to exchange ideas and be a group and not individuals put together) Massimo Portolani [Natural justice is a utility pact, to prevent one person from harming or being harmed by another (Epicurus)]
[PEN-L] Hamas, Fatah, and a Civil Servant Strike in Palestine
If Fatah and the PLO are indeed sitting on more than $1 billion, as a Hamas representative charges in a Jerusalem Post article below, that's a scandal, for the Palestinian government needs only about $150 million a month to cover salaries and obligations, and $1 billion can cover half a year easily. That the unions on strike are controlled by Fatah is no surprise, for government jobs are just about the only steady jobs in the OPTs, and Fatah had long ruled through patronage. blockquotehttp://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1154525981350pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull Palestinian Affairs: Fighting to join forces Khaled Abu Toameh, THE JERUSALEM POST Aug. 31, 2006 Mahmoud Abbas was back in Gaza City this week for another round of talks with Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh on the prospects of establishing a national unity government. Abbas arrived in the Gaza Strip straight from a meeting he held in Ramallah with United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who voiced his full support for the Palestinian leader's efforts to join forces with Hamas. Abbas, his aides said, has also won the backing of some Arab and European countries for his national-unity plan. Last week he even managed to persuade the Fatah central committee, a decision-making body comprised of representatives of the old guard and former cronies of Yasser Arafat, to support his initiative. At the end of a three-day meeting in Amman, the committee members, some of whom have had their names linked to financial corruption in the Palestinian Authority over the past decade, authorized Abbas to launch negotiations with Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other factions to explore the possibility of forming a broad coalition. Abbas's main argument is that the Palestinians can no longer bear the effects of the international sanctions imposed on them since Hamas took over the government earlier this year. Just before he headed to the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, Abbas told thousands of angry government employees who came to demonstrate outside his office in Ramallah that the Hamas government was responsible for the continued sanctions by the international community. He explained that the national-unity government was needed to persuade the US and EU to resume financial aid to the Palestinians as soon as possible. Only a national unity government would be able to bring us money, he said. The fact that most of the PA's 145,000 civil servants have not received full salaries for the past seven months has triggered a wave of protests and violent demonstrations in the West Bank and Gaza. The anger, however, is not directed only against Haniyeh and his Hamas government, but against Abbas and his Fatah party as well. WHILE ABBAS and his aides are exploiting the predicament of the miserable civil servants to incite against Hamas, the Hamas government and its spokesmen are telling the Palestinians that if anyone is responsible for the financial crisis, it is Abbas and his aides in Ramallah, who continue to receive tens of millions of dollars from various sources in the US and EU. According to one Hamas representative, Abbas and the PLO are sitting on more than $1 billion. Why are they hiding the money from the people? Another Hamas leader, Abdullah Abu Sabah, who serves as Minister of Culture in Haniyeh's cabinet, revealed that Abbas recently took $35 million from the budget to pay his top aides and advisers in the PLO and Fatah. The minister said that that was one of the reasons why his government was unable to pay full salaries to civil servants. Abbas's attempts to undermine the Hamas government by cashing in on the plight of the unpaid civil servants have thus far met little success. Many of the demonstrators who took to the streets of Ramallah and Gaza City to demand their salaries chose to chant slogans against Abbas and Fatah, accusing them of financial corruption and of being part of the US-led sanctions against the Hamas government. Abbas is now trying to use Fatah-controlled workers' unions to frighten the Hamas government. The teachers' union, for example, is now threatening to declare a general strike in all Palestinian schools on September 1. Other Fatah-controlled unions are threatening to follow suit. Ironically, Abbas's strenuous efforts to get rid of the Hamas government suffered a setback this week when a large group of Fatah representatives openly launched a scathing attack on him and the party's central committee members who met in Jordan. As Abbas sits with Hanyih to discuss the national-unity government, many disgruntled Fatah operatives are holding talks on the possibility of declaring an intifada against the old guard. The reason: the Fatah central committee did not devote a single minute to discussing the implications of the party's defeat in the parliamentary elections earlier this year. Even worse, Abbas and his longtime colleagues ignored repeated demands for reforming Fatah and holding internal elections as one of
[PEN-L] Iran, Russia, China, Europe, and Japan: A Multipolar World Order Finally?
Absolutely fabulous. Iran, through its intransigence, dragged Russia, China, Europe, and even Japan closer to creating a new multipolar world order. -- Yoshie http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/02/world/middleeast/02iran.html September 2, 2006 Russia Hints It Won't Back Any Penalties Against Iran By STEVEN LEE MYERS MOSCOW, Sept. 1 — Russia on Friday cast new doubt on the prospects for the Bush administration's efforts to punish Iran for refusing to suspend its nuclear program, even as European leaders expressed wariness at moving quickly to impose sanctions. In Moscow, officials expressed regret that an Aug. 31 deadline had passed without an agreement by Iran to halt its efforts to enrich uranium that could be used for building nuclear weapons, as American and European officials believe Iran intends to do. At the same time, Russian officials made it clear that they do not support retaliatory sanctions or other steps to isolate Iran's leadership. That was a view that seemed to be widely shared across Europe, despite public consternation over Iran's defiance of a United Nations Security Council resolution. Despite weeks of diplomacy and compromise among the Security Council's permanent members — the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia — the resolute deadline set by the Security Council for Iran to halt its nuclear work seemed fairly irresolute once it passed. Russia's defense minister, Sergei B. Ivanov, said that the issue of sanctions was not acute, and added that diplomats from the five permanent members and Germany would meet to discuss further steps. France's Foreign Ministry said the meeting was scheduled for next Thursday in Berlin. Russia's foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, said that Russia favored continued negotiations and not punitive measures, calling into question their effectiveness. Even though Russia previously joined the other permanent members of the Security Council in setting the deadline for Iran to comply — with the implicit threat of sanctions — Mr. Lavrov left in doubt whether Russia would ever agree to any penalties. His view echoed one heard increasingly here: that sanctions could be a first step toward a new American-led military conflict in the Middle East. We cannot support ultimatums that lead everyone to a dead end and cause escalation, the logic of which always leads to the use of force, Mr. Lavrov said, speaking broadly in an address to students at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations. At a meeting of European Union foreign ministers in Finland, the Union's chief foreign affairs official, Javier Solana, was quoted as saying that there would now be a period of talks over the conflict with Iran, making any discussion of sanctions unreasonable for now. Other European leaders also expressed eagerness to avoid the immediate imposition of punitive measures, which they fear would worsen the confrontation with Iran. At a joint news conference in Rome with Prime Minister Romano Prodi of Italy, the French prime minister, Dominique de Villepin, called Iran's response to the international demands totally unsatisfying, but said it remained possible to go forward with dialogue. Mr. Prodi agreed. If there is a even a small opening to get to the negotiating table, he said, it should be taken. United States officials have said no action will be sought against Tehran until after Mr. Solana meets with Ali Larijani, Iran's nuclear negotiator, next week. We'll find out in the next several weeks whether we're able to proceed to sanctions, the American ambassador to the United Nations, John R. Bolton, told CNN on Friday. We're consulting with European countries. What we're going to aim at is the leadership of Iran and the programs involving their nuclear and ballistic missile capabilities. In Iran, meantime, officials remained defiant, arguing that the country is pursuing a peaceful, civilian nuclear program that it has a right to engage in. Peter Kiefer contributed reporting from Rome for this article. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/01/world/middleeast/01cnd-iran.html September 1, 2006 Europe Is Not Ready to Impose Sanctions on Iran By DAN BILEFSKY and STEVEN LEE MYERS BRUSSELS, Sept. 1 — The European Union said today that it was too early to impose sanctions on Iran for defying a United Nations deadline to halt uranium enrichment. Speaking in Lappeenranta, Finland, at an informal meeting of foreign ministers of the union's member states, Erkki Tuomioja, the Finnish foreign minister, said the union was determined to use diplomacy to bring Iran into line, rather than resort to the sanctions that Washington has pushed harder for in recent days. For the E.U., diplomacy remains the No. 1 way forward, said Mr. Tuomioja, whose country now holds the rotating presidency of the union. He said at a news conference that this is not the time or place for the international community to impose sanctions on Iran. Russia, too, expressed wariness today about
[PEN-L] US Plans For Redrawing The Middle East Map Take Shape
*August 31, 2006 at 08:09:08* US Army Contemplates Redrawing Middle East Map to Stave-off Looming Global Meltdown http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_nafeez_m_060831_us_army_contemplates.htm /by Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed http://www.opednews.com/author/author2152.html/ http://www.opednews.com In a little-noted article printed in early August in the Armed Forces Journal http://www.armedforcesjournal.com/2006/06/1833899, a monthly magazine for officers and leaders in the United States military community, early retired Major Ralph Peters sets out the latest ideas in current US strategic thinking. And they are extremely disturbing. Ethnically Cleansing the Entire Middle East Maj. Peters, formerly assigned to the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence where he was responsible for future warfare, candidly outlines how the map of the Middle East should be fundamentally re-drawn, in a new imperial endeavour designed to correct past errors. Without such major boundary revisions, we shall never see a more peaceful Middle East, he observes, but then adds wryly: Oh, and one other dirty little secret from 5,000 years of history: Ethnic cleansing works. Thus, acknowledging that the sweeping reconfiguration of borders he proposes would necessarily involve massive ethnic cleansing and accompanying bloodshed on perhaps a genocidal scale, he insists that unless it is implemented, we may take it as an article of faith that a portion of the bloodshed in the region will continue to be our own. Among his proposals are the need to establish an independent Kurdish state to guarantee the long-denied right to Kurdish self-determination. But behind the humanitarian sentiments, Maj. Peters declares that: A Free Kurdistan, stretching from Diyarbakir through Tabriz, would be the most pro-Western state between Bulgaria and Japan. He chastises the United States and its coalition partners for missing a glorious chance to fracture Iraq, which should have been divided into three smaller states immediately. This would leave Iraq's three Sunni-majority provinces as a truncated state that might eventually choose to unify with a Syria that loses its littoral to a Mediterranean-oriented Greater Lebanon: Phoenecia reborn. Meanwhile, the Shia south of old Iraq would form the basis of an Arab Shia State rimming much of the Persian Gulf. Jordan, a US-Israeli friend in the region, would retain its current territory, with some southward expansion at Saudi expense. For its part, the unnatural state of Saudi Arabia would suffer as great a dismantling as Pakistan. Iran too would lose a great deal of territory to Unified Azerbaijan, Free Kurdistan, the Arab Shia State and Free Baluchistan, but would gain the provinces around Herat in today's Afghanistan. Although this vast imperial programme could be impossible to implement now, with time, new and natural borders will emerge, driven by the inevitable attendant bloodshed. As for the goals of this plan, Maj. Peters is equally candid. While including the necessary caveats about fighting for security from terrorism, for the prospect of democracy, he also mentions the third important issue -- and for access to oil supplies in a region that is destined to fight itself. The whole thing sounds disturbingly familiar, especially to those who have read the musings of then Israeli Foreign Ministry official Oded Yinon http://student.cs.ucc.ie/cs1064/jabowen/IPSC/articles/article0005345.html. Keeping the World Safe... for Our Economy Despite trying to dress up his vision as an exercise in attempting to selflessly democratize the Middle East, in a contribution to the quarterly US Army War College journal Parameters http://www.carlisle.army.mil/USAWC/parameters/97summer/peters.htm almost a decade ago, he acknowledged with some jubilation that: Those of us who can sort, digest, synthesize, and apply relevant knowledge soar--professionally, financially, politically, militarily, and socially. We, the winners, are a minority. This minority will inevitably conflict with the vast majority of the world's population. For the world masses, devastated by information they cannot manage or effectively interpret, life is 'nasty, brutish . . . and short-circuited.' In every country and region, these masses who can neither understand the new world, nor profit from its uncertainties... will become the violent enemies of their inadequate governments, of their more fortunate neighbors, and ultimately of the United States. The coming clash, then, is not really about blood, faith, ethnicity, at all. It is about the gap between the haves and the have-nots. We are entering a new American century, he says, in a veiled reference to the Bush administration Project http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Project_for_the_New_American_Century of the same name founded in the same year he was writing. In the new century, we will become still
[PEN-L] Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani walks away from Iraqi politics
Juan Cole: http://www.juancole.com/2006/09/south-asian-pilgrims-slaughtered.html opednews.com, Ron Fullwood, reads about the same way: ... The Independent is reporting that Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani has abandoned attempts to restrain his followers and no longer believes he can stand in the way of the growing civil war. I will not be a political leader any more, he reportedly told aides. I am only happy to receive questions about religious matters. Sistani's departure from Iraq's political scene and his return to his religious role signals an end to the Maliki regime's attempt to consolidate power and sell his reconciliation plan to the myriad of warring factions who are engaged in armed and deadly struggles against his regime, and against each other as well. It was Sistani who brought the thousands of his followers to the polls, forcing Bush to make good on his promise of early elections. It was Sistani who forged an alliance with former militant, Shiite cleric, Moqtada al-Sadr allowing the elections to proceed. It's no exaggeration that, without Sistani's participation there may never have been elections in Iraq, or a Maliki government. It's also clear that, without Sistani's involvement in Iraq's political future, Sadr's political influence will be elevated in the short term. It remains to be seen, though, if Sadr, who is arguably more prone to lead his followers to armed and active resistance, and, whose followers are already engaging government troops in street battles, will follow Sistani and lead his congregation away from the political sweet spot he's carved out for himself in the Iraqi legislature. One thing that's certain, however, is that Iraq is indeed poised for a complete breakdown along sectarian lines, whatever you want to call it, and a devolution into a full-scale battle for each faction's political and material survival. In an ominous sign of things to come, the Kurds have replaced the Iraqi flag they were flying with one of their own. Iraq is splitting apart. ... http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_ron_full_060903_sistani_led_his_foll.htm
[PEN-L] Rising Production Costs Join the List of What China Exports
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/26/business/worldbusiness/26inflate.html August 26, 2006 Rising Production Costs Join the List of What China Exports By CARTER DOUGHERTY, International Herald Tribune During 20 years in the toy business, Anthony Temple has reveled in the bounty of cheap stuffed animals, coffee mugs and figurines on sale from China. But this year, his buying trip for his London-based company, Rainbow Designs, resulted in a rude awakening. Traveling through the Pearl River delta north of Hong Kong, Mr. Temple found that cost increases — for raw materials, but above all for labor — dominated every discussion he had with suppliers. Far from being keen to underbid each other, Chinese companies talked so consistently about marking up their prices 5 percent to 10 percent that Mr. Temple, whose company owns the British distribution rights to such cuddly creatures as Paddington Bear and Jemima Puddle-Duck, became convinced that these were not simply negotiating tactics. When I went over there, I was under the belief that China is a bottomless pit of cheap product, Mr. Temple said. When I left, I was not. As the Chinese economy races forward, signs are multiplying that the Asian giant is beginning to slow its export of something dear to the hearts of many consumers in developed countries: ever cheaper products. For at least a decade, China has provided a boost to a welcome tailwind for inflation-fighting central banks in Europe and the United States by consistently cutting prices on a wide variety of goods, helping counterbalance the upward drift of overall consumer price levels. At Jackson Hole, Wyo., the chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben S. Bernanke, opened a conference of central bankers yesterday with a speech that noted how the emergence of China as an export powerhouse has altered the world economy in less than 30 years. [Page C3.] China's role in global disinflation — as the phenomenon is known to economists and central bankers — is not going to disappear. But a few recent numbers, along with anecdotal evidence, suggest that China's contribution to low prices globally may be ebbing. This spring, the European Central Bank vowed to step up research into what has been called the China effect. Top officials at the Federal Reserve have also begun speaking out about it. And the debate over how much China has contributed to taming global inflation is a central topic at the annual Jackson Hole gathering of the world's leading central bankers and academic economists. In the United States, data shows that Chinese import prices, which have fallen since data collection began in 2003, are leveling off, as are prices from other low-cost emerging markets. The price of Chinese goods at the factory gates has leapt upward in the last four months, according to the purchasing managers' survey taken by the London-based NTC Research. Its index was a tad below 50 — a level indicating stable prices — in March but now stands at 56, a steep increase by the standards of a survey that usually moves in fractional increments. For years now, China's galloping economy has been sending ripples through the global economy — as Chinese demand has raised prices for critical commodities like oil and copper and Chinese buying of United States Treasury securities has helped keep interest rates low. And not all economists buy the overall notion that Chinese prices will soon pump up inflation rates in the industrialized world and force central bankers to press harder on the brakes. Skeptics about the China effect tend to focus on the ability of China and its customers to adapt. As Chinese costs increase, foreign investors can set up shop in places like India and Bangladesh, which lag behind China as manufacturing centers. Other companies will press into China's vast interior to escape rising labor costs on the coast. The global labor arbitrage is alive and well, said Stephen Roach, chief economist at Morgan Stanley. It still pays very much to relocate production and employment to China to keep your labor costs down. The cheap clothes and toys that consumers around the world have purchased with seeming abandon have tempered prices, even depressing them over the years. Now, as Chinese makers move to increase their prices in response to higher costs, some central bankers worry that this global salve will disappear. Even in China, with its growing manufacturing base and large pool of labor, some indicators are showing upward pressures on export prices, Mervyn A. King, the governor of the Bank of England, said in a recent speech. And, in turn, that is raising our import prices, over and above the increases resulting from higher energy costs. The prospect of higher prices for finished consumer goods has become an obsession of sorts in the supply-chain business, according to interviews with retailers, importers, independent consultants and trade associations in Europe and the United States. We may well be reaching a
Re: [PEN-L] back to China again
Michael Perelman wrote: What do the China experts think this portends? . Non expert opinion: U.S. industrial spying in China, the miltary extensions thereof, leading to spying arrests, Sino-U.S. tensions, and an excuse to nuke China for 'stealing' our 'sensitive' military-industrial secrets. Leigh http://leighm.net/ Paranoid? I'm not paranoid! Why are you looking at me like that?
Re: [PEN-L] Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani walks away from Iraqi politics
On 9/3/06, Leigh Meyers [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Juan Cole: http://www.juancole.com/2006/09/south-asian-pilgrims-slaughtered.html opednews.com, Ron Fullwood, reads about the same way: ... The Independent is reporting that Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani has abandoned attempts to restrain his followers and no longer believes he can stand in the way of the growing civil war. I will not be a political leader any more, he reportedly told aides. I am only happy to receive questions about religious matters. Sistani's departure from Iraq's political scene and his return to his religious role signals an end to the Maliki regime's attempt to consolidate power and sell his reconciliation plan to the myriad of warring factions who are engaged in armed and deadly struggles against his regime, and against each other as well. It was Sistani who brought the thousands of his followers to the polls, forcing Bush to make good on his promise of early elections. It was Sistani who forged an alliance with former militant, Shiite cleric, Moqtada al-Sadr allowing the elections to proceed. It's no exaggeration that, without Sistani's participation there may never have been elections in Iraq, or a Maliki government. It's also clear that, without Sistani's involvement in Iraq's political future, Sadr's political influence will be elevated in the short term. It remains to be seen, though, if Sadr, who is arguably more prone to lead his followers to armed and active resistance, and, whose followers are already engaging government troops in street battles, will follow Sistani and lead his congregation away from the political sweet spot he's carved out for himself in the Iraqi legislature. One thing that's certain, however, is that Iraq is indeed poised for a complete breakdown along sectarian lines, whatever you want to call it, and a devolution into a full-scale battle for each faction's political and material survival. In an ominous sign of things to come, the Kurds have replaced the Iraqi flag they were flying with one of their own. Iraq is splitting apart. ... http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_ron_full_060903_sistani_led_his_foll.htm IMHO, Sistani's support for the 2005 elections in Iraq, run on the basis of sectarian parties vying for seats and spoils, contributed to the rise of sectarian violence. Daily Attacks by Insurgents: May 2003 5 May 2004 53 May 2005 70 May 2006 90 Monthly Incidents of Sectarian Violence: May 2003 5 May 2004 10 May 2005 20 May 2006 250 SOURCE: Nina Kamp, Michael O'Hanlon, and Amy Unikewicz, The State of Iraq: An Update, New York Times, 16 June 2006 http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/StateofIraq16Jun06.gif Note the more than tenfold increase in sectarian violence since the elections. The Iraqi people need a national liberation front, rather than sectarian parties. A national liberation front has to include those Sunni and Shi'is who have taken up arms, but it cannot solely consist of fighters; it has to be the kind of front in which women can participate, the kind of front that can wage mass struggles (largely) without arms, in the fashion that the Iranians forced out the Shah (in which armed struggles had very little -- virtually no -- role). If a national liberation front of this sort comes about at all (it won't be easy to create one, especially if you want the Kurds in), it will do so in large part due to Moktada al-Sadr's initiative,* for he has a genuine popular base among the Shi'i working class, alone among the Shi'is leaders of Iraq, and he is not Persian (unlike Sistani, who is Iranian-born and is said to speak with a Persian accent), a big bonus point, and yet knows how to make friends with Tehran. Sadr has to sell Tehran on his idea, so Tehran will either drop SCIRI and Badr or compel them to sign on to it (the former is better than the latter); or better yet, Sadr will get more popular among Shi'is and relegate SCIRI and Badr to irrelevance. * blockquoteAs part of his effort to influence the political forces in Iraq prior to the forthcoming parliamentary election, at the end of November Muqtada al-Sadr had his supporters distribute the draft of a Pact of Honor, and called on Iraqi parties to discuss and collectively adopt it at a conference to be organized before the election. This conference was actually held on Thursday, December 8, in al-Kadhimiya (North of Baghdad). Despite extensive search, I found it only reported in a relatively short article in today's Al-Hayat and in dispatches from the National Iraqi News Agency (NINA). There is legitimate ground to suspect that this media blackout has political significance; indeed most initiatives by the Sadrist current are hardly reported by the dominant media, even when they consist of important mass demonstrations (like those organized yesterday in Southern Iraq against British troops). In the case of the recent conference, the vast array of forces that were represented and that signed
Re: [PEN-L] bye-bye Mao
It depends on the type of contradiction... is it contingent, relative, absolute etc., The US example of contradiction proves that you can fool the people all the time... Do you Yahoo!? Get on board. You're invited to try the new Yahoo! Mail.
[PEN-L] Welcome to the Service Economy
Welcome to the Service Economy by Peter Rachleff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . What kinds of jobs do we find in this service economy? The picture, frankly, is grim. According to recent research, in a Minnesota family of four with both parents working, each worker must earn $12.00 an hour just to meet their basic needs. Of the five occupations in Minnesota with the most job openings, only one pays a median wage of more than $8.00 per hour. The two occupational groups with the most job openings are retail sales and food preparation/serving, accounting for more than one-fourth of all job openings. Workers in these industries earn an average of $7.29 an hour. In other words, most of these service-sector jobs are not family-supporting jobs. FULL TEXT: http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/rachleff020906.html -- Yoshie http://montages.blogspot.com/ http://mrzine.org http://monthlyreview.org/
Re: [PEN-L] bye-bye Mao
soula avramidis wrote: */It depends on the type of contradiction... is it contingent, relative, absolute etc.,/* */The US example of contradiction proves that you can fool the people all the time.../* . The U.S. example of contradiction shows quite plainly that Americans WANT to be fooled (at least at this juncture in history). It helps the rationalization/denial process. 50 percent of U.S. says Iraq had WMDs By Jennifer Harper Washington Times July 25 2006 http://www.washtimes.com/national/20060724-110410-8309r.htm ...Up from 36% last year. Leigh http://leighm.net/
Re: [PEN-L] Welcome to the Service Economy
Yoshie Furuhashi wrote: Welcome to the Service Economy by Peter Rachleff . Jeez that sounds like Santa Cruz! I just posted the snippet and a link to the Santa Cruz Senile's (Sentinel's) forums where I've been having an interesting time posting on the mechanics of ill-thought-out municipal ordinances socially engineering a rather benign street culture into a downtown area full of junkies, winos, and speedfreaks. The lack of a broad economic spectrum of families who can afford to live in Santa Cruz county is one of the problems. The thread on the forum for Yoshie's mRzine post: Welcome to the Santa Cruz Service Economy http://forums.santacruzsentinel.com/cgi-bin/forums/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=4;t=000387 See also: Who DOESN'T want housing in Santa Cruz? http://forums.santacruzsentinel.com/cgi-bin/forums/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=4;t=000383 Leigh http://leighm.net/
[PEN-L] On the proper use of pen-l
E-mail lists are different from conversation. You and I may sit down and go back-and-forth with an argument many times. After one or two attempts to provide decisive evidence proves futile, the conversation becomes more like an interminable wrestling match. We may continue for hours, enjoying the sport of trying to best the other, knowing that it is unlikely to happen. An list-based e-mail conversation involves many other people -- some of whom have mailboxes that go over limit and others who just get bored or even angry with the upsurge in posts. Once a long thread becomes dominated by two people, it is time to stop. Just continue your continue your conversation off-line. After you've made a couple of attempts to make your point and your opponent refuses to concede, just continue your conversation off-line. The Mao thread was particularly offensive because of all of the personal attacks. That has no place here. Do not demand that other people respond to you. We just had somebody I value greatly sign off, because that person felt obligated to continue to respond, and finally found the game too time-consuming. Carrying on with a single theme over and over when you are the only one pushing that position, even if it is a different thread, contaminates the list. I think all of us would like to see a list that is both informative and enjoyable. I would like to see more new people jump in, without fearing to be caught up in some sort of flame war. I would like to see more people provide us with information about their areas of expertise. I would also like to see a socialist world. At this point I'm not sure which of my desires is most likely to occur. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu michaelperelman.wordpress.com
[PEN-L] remember sept 11
On September 11, 1906 Mohandas Gandhi convened a meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa, to mobilize his community to oppose racially degrading legislation. That September 11th, more than 3000 people solemnly pledged to disobey the proposed law, despite the consequences, without the use of violence. This fall, Nonviolent Peaceforce invites you to resolve to break the new cycle of violence that began on September 11, 2001. http://www.nvpf.org/np/english/workadayforpeace/index.asp.html -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu michaelperelman.wordpress.com
Re: [PEN-L] On the proper use of pen-l
It won't help with pay-by-the-byte bandwidth use issues, but creative use of the message filtering built in to most mailreaders, and more clunkily invoked through the use of G or Y!s webmail's [find] would decrease the frustration level for some. The conversation seemed a bit... intense. Leigh Michael Perelman wrote: E-mail lists are different from conversation. You and I may sit down and go back-and-forth with an argument many times. After one or two attempts to provide decisive evidence proves futile, the conversation becomes more like an interminable wrestling match. We may continue for hours, enjoying the sport of trying to best the other, knowing that it is unlikely to happen. An list-based e-mail conversation involves many other people -- some of whom have mailboxes that go over limit and others who just get bored or even angry with the upsurge in posts. Once a long thread becomes dominated by two people, it is time to stop. Just continue your continue your conversation off-line. After you've made a couple of attempts to make your point and your opponent refuses to concede, just continue your conversation off-line. The Mao thread was particularly offensive because of all of the personal attacks. That has no place here. Do not demand that other people respond to you. We just had somebody I value greatly sign off, because that person felt obligated to continue to respond, and finally found the game too time-consuming. Carrying on with a single theme over and over when you are the only one pushing that position, even if it is a different thread, contaminates the list. I think all of us would like to see a list that is both informative and enjoyable. I would like to see more new people jump in, without fearing to be caught up in some sort of flame war. I would like to see more people provide us with information about their areas of expertise. I would also like to see a socialist world. At this point I'm not sure which of my desires is most likely to occur. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu michaelperelman.wordpress.com
[PEN-L] Capitalism Has Only Hurt Latin America: Interview with Evo Morales - Der Spiegel
SPIEGEL: Do you believe that the Indian peoples have developed a better social model than the white, Western democracies? Morales: There was no private property in the past. Everything was communal property. In the Indian community where I was born, everything belonged to the community. This way of life is more equitable. We Indians are Latin America's moral reserve. . DER SPIEGEL 35/2006 - August 28, 2006 URL: http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/spiegel/0,1518,434272,00.html SPIEGEL Interview with Bolivia's Evo Morales Capitalism Has Only Hurt Latin America Bolivia's President Evo Morales, 46, talks to DER SPIEGEL about reform plans for his country, socialism in Latin America, and the often tense relations of the region's leftists with the United States. Bolivian President Evo Morales sits in front of a picture made out of coca leaves depicting leftist revolutionary Ernesto Che Guevara. http://www.spiegel.de/img/0,1020,618907,00.jpg SPIEGEL: Mr. President, why is such a large part of Latin America moving to the left? Morales: Injustice, inequality and the poverty of the masses compel us to seek better living conditions. Bolivia's majority Indian population was always excluded, politically oppressed and culturally alienated. Our national wealth, our raw materials, was plundered. Indios were once treated like animals here. In the 1930s and 40s, they were sprayed with DDT to kill the vermin on their skin and in their hair whenever they came into the city. My mother wasn't even allowed to set foot in the capital of her native region, Oruro. Now we're in the government and in parliament. For me, being leftist means fighting against injustice and inequality but, most of all, we want to live well. SPIEGEL: You called a constitutional convention to establish a new Bolivian republic. What should the new Bolivia look like? Morales: We don't want to oppress or exclude anyone. The new republic should be based on diversity, respect and equal rights for all. There is a lot to do. Child mortality is frighteningly high. I had six siblings and four them died. In the countryside, half of all children die before reaching their first birthday. SPIEGEL: Your socialist party, MAS, does not have the necessary two-thirds majority amend the constitution. Do you now plan to negotiate with other political factions? Morales: We are always open to talks. Dialogue is the basis of Indian culture, and we don't want to make any enemies. Political and ideological adversaries, perhaps, but not enemies. SPIEGEL: Why did you temporarily suspend the nationalization of natural resources, one of your administration's most important projects? Does Bolivia lack the know-how to extract its raw materials? Morales: We are continuing to negotiate with the companies in question. The current lack of investment has nothing to do with nationalization. It's the fault of the right-wing government of (former president) Tuto Quiroga, who stopped all investment in natural gas production in 2001 because, as he claimed, there was no domestic market for natural gas in Bolivia. We plan to start drilling again. We have signed a delivery agreement for natural gas with Argentina, and we are also cooperating with Venezuela. We have signed a contract to work an iron mine with an Indian company. This will create 7,000 direct and 10,000 indirect jobs. We have negotiated much better prices and terms than our predecessors. SPIEGEL: But there are major problems with Brazil. Bolivia is demanding a higher price for natural gas shipments. Doesn't this harm your relationship with (Brazilian) President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva? Morales: Lula is showing his solidarity. He behaves like a big brother. But we are having problems with Petrobras, the Brazilian energy company. The negotiations are very difficult, but we are optimistic. SPIEGEL: Petrobras has threatened to end all of its investments in Bolivia. Morales: This isn't coming from the Brazilian government, but from a few Petrobras executives. They print these threats in the press to put us under pressure. Brazil is a major power, but it has to treat us with respect. Compañero Lula told me that there will be a new agreement, and that he even wants to import more gas. SPIEGEL: Bolivia doesn't sell natural gas to Chile because the Chileans took away Bolivia's access to the sea in a war more than 120 years ago. Now a socialist is in power in Chile. Will you supply them with natural gas now? Morales: We want to overcome our historical problems with Chile. The sea has divided us and the sea must bring us back together again. Chile has agreed, for the first time, to talk about sea access for Bolivia. That's a huge step forward. The Chilean president came to my inauguration, and I attended (Chilean President) Michelle Bachelet's inauguration in Santiago. We complement each other. Chile needs our natural resources and we need
[PEN-L] query: national parks
does anyone know of a relatively analytical book on the economics (and political economy) of the U.S. national parks? -- Jim Devine / But the wage of sin don't adjust for inflation. It's a buyer's market when you sell your soul. -- Jeffery Foucault, Ghost Repeater.
Re: [PEN-L] query: national parks
Jim Devine wrote: does anyone know of a relatively analytical book on the economics (and political economy) of the U.S. national parks? -- Jim Devine / But the wage of sin don't adjust for inflation. It's a buyer's market when you sell your soul. -- Jeffery Foucault, Ghost Repeater. . I used Questia and this turned up on a search for Economics AND National Parks. The Preface claims it is Junior/Sophmore material Principles of Environmental Economics: Economics, Ecology and Public Policy Book by Ahmed M. Hussen; Routledge, 2000 Subjects: Ecology, Environmental Economics, Environmental Policy PRINCIPLES OF ENVIRONMENTAL ECONOMICS This text offers a systematic...environmental and natural resource economics. It presents the economic and ecological...as just another subset of applied economics. The main subject areas include... http://www.questia.com/SM.qst?act=moreResultsmediaType=bookoffset=1 [Not sure if the search is pasword protected] First page of the Preface: Preface The primary objective of this book is to present the economic and ecological principles essential for a clear understanding of the complex contemporary environmental and natural resource issues and policy considerations. Several textbooks have been written on this subject in recent years. One may ask, then, what exactly differentiates this one from the others? LEVEL This book is written for an introductory-level course in environmental and resource economics. It is primarily designed for college sophomores and juniors who want to study environmental and resource concerns with an interdisciplinary focus. The academic majors of these students could be in any field of study, but the book would be especially appropriate for students with majors in economics, political science, environmental studies or biological sciences. Several other textbooks may claim to have the above-stated features. However, very few, if any, offer two chapters that are exclusively designed to provide students with fundamental economic concepts specifically relevant to environmental and resource economics. In these chapters, economic concepts such as demand and supply analysis, willingness to pay, consumers’ and producers’ surplus, rent, marginal analysis, Pareto optimality, factor substitution and alternative economic measures of scarcity are thoroughly and systematically explained. The material in these two chapters (Chapters 2 and 3) is optional. They are intended to serve as a good review for economics students and a very valuable foundation for students with a major in a field other than economics. This book requires no more than a semester course in microeconomics. Thus, unlike many other textbooks in this field, it does not demand a knowledge of intermediate micro-economics, either implicitly or explicitly. The claim that environmental and resource economics should be studied within an interdisciplinary context is taken very seriously. Such a context requires students to have, in addition to microeconomics, a good understanding of the basic principles of the natural and physical sciences that govern the natural world. This book addresses this concern by devoting -xix-
[PEN-L] The New York Review of Books versus Marxism
In the Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx wrote: A spectre is haunting Europe the spectre of communism. All the powers of old Europe have entered into a holy alliance to exorcise this spectre: Pope and Tsar, Metternich and Guizot, French Radicals and German police-spies. Even though the Communist Manifesto is widely regarded in polite, academic circles as a kind of Victorian era relic, its spectre still seems to be haunting Tony Judt, a British-born professor at NYU. In the latest issue of the NY Review of Books, his reviews of Leszek Kolakowskis Main Currents of Marxism and My Correct Views on Everything, and Jacques Attalis Karl Marx ou lesprit du monde provide an opportunity to exorcise this spectre one more time. A word or two of introduction to Tony Judt might be in order since the NY Review has two big-time intellectuals whose first names that start with T and whose last name includes ud: 1. Tony Judt: Specialist in French and European politics with a focus on the Marxist left; the continental equivalent of people like Harvey Klehr and John Earl Haynes. 2. Tim Judah: Spent most of the 1990s pushing for war on the Serbs, for which the NY Review played the same role that the Hearst press played in the Spanish-American war. 3. These two should not be confused with Timothy Garton Ash, another NY Review contributor, who is a blend of Judah and Judt. He writes Serb-bashing material like Judah but also finds time for the occasional Marxism is dead hackwork. To compound the confusion, you have to remember that Michael Ignatieff and David Rieff are not the same person even though their last name ends in ieff. Both shared Ash and Judahs enthusiasm for war on the dastardly Serbs throughout the 1990s but Rieff (son of Susan Sontag) seems to have joined the rest of the world recently in questioning whether US imperialism has any business meddling in the rest of the world. Ignatieff, on the other hand, still maintains an outlook like Niall Fergusons, namely that the savages need to be civilized at the point of a bayonet. full: http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2006/09/03/the-ny-review-of-books-versus-marxism/
[PEN-L] IMF ex-honcho on international economic imbalances
Bitter medicine Kenneth Rogoff September 3, 2006 09:00 AM/ GUARDIAN [U.K.] http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/kenneth_rogoff/2006/09/bitter_medicine.html When world financial leaders meet in Singapore this month for the joint World Bank/International Monetary Fund meetings, they must confront one singularly important question. Is there any way to coax the IMF's largest members, especially the United States and China, to help diffuse the risks posed by the world's massive trade imbalances? This year, the US will borrow roughly $800 billion to finance its trade deficit. Incredibly, the US is now soaking up roughly two-thirds of all global net saving, a situation without historical precedent. While this borrowing binge might end smoothly, as the US Federal Reserve chairman, Ben Bernanke, has speculated, most world financial leaders are rightly worried about a more precipitous realignment that would likely set off a massive dollar depreciation and possibly much worse. Indeed, if policymakers continue to sit on their hands, it is not hard to imagine a sharp global slowdown or even a devastating financial crisis. Although Bernanke is right to view a soft landing as the most likely outcome [yeah, right], common sense would suggest agreeing on some prophylactic measures, even if this means that the US, China, and other large contributors to the global imbalances have to swallow some bitter medicine. Unfortunately, getting politicians in the big countries to focus on anything but their own domestic imperatives is far from easy. Though the comparison is unfair, it is hard not to recall the old quip about the IMF's relative, the United Nations: When there is a dispute between two small nations, the UN steps in and the dispute disappears. When there is a dispute between a small nation and a large nation, the UN steps in and the small nation disappears. When there is a dispute between two large nations, the UN disappears. [cute, but all too true.] Fortunately, the IMF is not yet in hiding, even if some big players really don't like what it has to say. The IMF's head, the Spaniard Rodrigo Rato, rightly insists that China, the US, Japan, Europe, and the major oil exporters (now the world's biggest source of new capital) all take concrete steps towards alleviating the risk of a crisis. Though the exact details remain to be decided, such steps might include more exchange-rate flexibility in China, and perhaps a promise from the US to show greater commitment to fiscal restraint. [wasn't it a lack of _private sector_ restraint that was the problem in the 1990s, Ken?] Oil exporters could, in turn, promise to increase domestic consumption expenditure, which would boost imports. Likewise, post-deflation Japan could promise never again to resort to massive intervention to stop its currency from appreciating. Europe, for its part, could agree not to shoot its recovery in the foot with ill-timed new taxes such as those that Germany is currently contemplating. Will the IMF be successful in brokering a deal? The recent catastrophic collapse of global trade talks is not an encouraging harbinger. Europe, Japan, and (to a much lesser extent) the US, were simply unwilling to face down their small but influential farm lobbies. The tragic result is that some of the world's poorest countries cannot export their agricultural goods, one of the few areas where they might realistically compete with the likes of China and India. Fortunately for Rato, addressing the global imbalances can be a win-win situation. The same proposed policies for closing global trade imbalances also, by and large, help address each country's domestic economic concerns. For example, China needs a stronger exchange rate to help curb manic investment in its export sector, and thereby reduce the odds of a 1990's style collapse. As for the US, a sharp hike in energy taxes on gasoline and other fossil fuels would not only help improve the government's balance sheet, but it would also be a way to start addressing global warming. [do the Bushies think this? do they even care?] What better way for new US treasury secretary Hank Paulson, a card-carrying environmentalist, to make a dramatic entrance onto the world policy stage? Similarly, the technocrats at the Bank of Japan surely realize that they could manage the economy far more effectively if they swore off anachronistic exchange-rate intervention techniques and switched whole-heartedly to modern interest-rate targeting rules such as those used by the US Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank. With Europe in a cyclical upswing, tax revenues should start rising even without higher tax rates, so why risk strangling the continent's nascent recovery in the cradle? Saudi Arabia, with its burgeoning oil revenues, could use a big deal to reinforce the country's image as a major anchor of global financial stability. If today's epic US borrowing does end in tears, and if world leaders fail to help the IMF
[PEN-L] U.S. Wages of Arab, Muslim Men Fell after 9/11
http://in.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNewsstoryID=2006-08-25T060438Z_01_NOOTR_RTRJONC_0_India-264823-1.xml U.S. wages of Arab, Muslim men fell after 9/11 - study Fri Aug 25, 2006 6:10 AM IST By Ellen Wulfhorst NEW YORK (Reuters) - The earnings of Arab and Muslim men working in the United States dropped about 10 percent in the years following the 9/11 attacks, according to a new study. The drop in wages was most dramatic in areas that reported high rates of hate crimes, according to the study due to be published in the Journal of Human Resources. The study measured changes in wages of first- and second-generation immigrants, from countries with predominantly Arab or Muslim populations from September 1997 to September 2005. It then compared them to changes in the wages of immigrants with similar skills from other countries. The average wage was approximately $20 an hour ahead of the attacks in 2001 and dropped by $2 an hour after them, Robert Kaestner, co-author of the study and a University of Illinois at Chicago professor of economics, said on Thursday. That drop persisted through 2004 but showed signs of abating in 2005, he said. I was surprised, Kaestner said. We see an immediate and significant connection between personal prejudice and economic harm. Looking for explanations, the study found a change in the industries where Arab and Muslim men worked, shifting away from higher-paying industries to those that pay less. It also found Arab and Muslim men were 20 percent less likely, after the 9/11 attacks by Islamic extremist hijackers, to move within the state where they lived. That could affect their ability to pursue better paying jobs, Kaestner said. I think it's clear that the impact of anti-Muslim bias is more than just a hate crime or an overt act of discrimination, said Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Washington. I think the study shows that bias and prejudice can have an impact on many levels in the society and many levels within an individual's life, he said. In areas where the rate of hate crimes was above average, wages dropped approximately 12 to 13 percent after 9/11, while in areas with lower-than-average rates, the drop was 6 to 7 percent, Kaestner said. The study looked at 4,300 Arab and Muslim men, ages 21-54, from the 20 U.S. states where 85 percent of all Arab and Muslim Americans live. It also used hate crime data from the FBI. The study is scheduled to appear in the journal's spring 2007 edition. Anti-Arab Racism, Islam, and the Left by Rami El-Amine Racism against Arabs and Muslims long preceded the 9-11 terrorist attacks and has much of its roots in Western imperialism in the Middle East, especially Israel's colonization of Palestine. Yet, the escalation that we witness today can be traced to the war on terror launched after 9-11 by Bush and his neoconservative ideologues with the backing of the Democrats. Anti-Arab/anti-Muslim racism has helped sell the detentions, wars, gulags, and occupations of US imperialism's latest and boldest venture into the Middle East and South Asia. In turn, this imperial venture has further inflamed racist views of Arabs and Muslims. What makes this growing racism so frightening is its wide acceptance in US society, particularly by the left. With the latter, it is not as much conscious racism as not doing enough to fight it. Part of this may be due to ambivalence, but it also stems from a lack of a dynamic understanding of Islamism. Broad support gives anti-Arab/anti-Muslim racism a sense of legitimacy and respectability that makes building a mass movement that can end the war and occupation of Iraq difficult, if not impossible, since so much of the support for the war is fueled by fear and racism. FULL TEXT: http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/elamine030906.html -- Yoshie http://montages.blogspot.com/ http://mrzine.org http://monthlyreview.org/
[PEN-L] Even the 'critters' don't want them there...
UPI NewsTrack - Top News Lebanese wildlife attacking Israeli troops NAHARIYA, Lebanon, Sept. 3 (UPI) -- Eight Israel Defense Forces troops have been hospitalized in Lebanon recently after attacks from scorpions and a snake, The Jerusalem Post reported. All seven of the men stung by scorpions are currently in good condition after receiving treatment, while the one Israeli soldier bitten by a snake remains at Nahariya's Western Galilee Government Hospital, the report said. While the soldiers who encountered black scorpions recovered quickly due to the animal's non-poisonous nature, those troops attacked by yellow scorpions and the lone soldier enduring a snake bite were treated with antidote to relieve symptoms from the venom. A spokesman for the hospital said that the attacks occurred at various locations in Lebanon. http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php?StoryID=20060903-021204-2473r
[PEN-L] Meanwhile, south of the border: Leftist lawmakers storm Congress to protest
...Forcing Vincente Fox to deliver his State of the Nation speech via Tell-Unh-Vision. An auspicious begining for a 21st century revolution. Perhaps the revolution WILL be televised! ...and it won't be a B movie http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xm8f59IHJh0 (This clip is his rap-tro into B Movie, and appears to have been done about the same time (the early 80s) my partner and I did the audio at Soledad prison for him. It was sponsored by KUSP community radio, and It... Was... Awesome!) . Fearing violent protests, authorities surrounded Congress for up to 10 blocks with multiple layers of steel barriers; attack dogs in cages, ready to be released; water cannons; and riot police in protective gear. Neighborhoods were sealed off, preventing some of the city's sprawling markets from opening, and nearby subway stations were shut down. Police used mirrors and dogs to inspect cars for explosives before allowing them to pass, and opposition lawmakers said police even tried to prevent them from arriving despite their credentials. Some said they were pushed and shoved by authorities. ``It's completely militarized around here. It is completely illegal, unconstitutional,'' Party of the Democratic Revolution congressman Cuauhtémoc Sandoval said. ``Vicente Fox started out as a president, and is finishing up as a dictator.'' .. Posted on Sat, Sep. 02, 2006 Fox forced to give speech on TV LEFTIST LAWMAKERS STORM CHAMBERS, PROTEST MEXICO VOTE By Julie Watson Associated Press http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/mld/mercurynews/news/world/15425363.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp MEXICO CITY - President Vicente Fox was forced to forgo his final State of the Nation address Friday after leftist lawmakers stormed the stage of Congress to protest disputed July 2 elections. Instead, he gave his speech on television, and called on Mexico to mend deep divisions that he said threaten the nation's democracy. It was the first time in modern Mexican history a president hasn't given the annual address to Congress. Fox arrived at the Legislative Palace, submitted a written copy of the speech and announced over the loudspeaker that he wouldn't appear before lawmakers. He did not enter the chambers, and Congress was adjourned. Appearing on television later as thousands of protesters occupied Mexico City's center, Fox said the nation ``requires harmony, not anarchy.'' ``Whoever attacks our laws and institutions also attacks our history and Mexico,'' he said, a thinly veiled reference to leftist presidential candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador. He criticized lawmakers' actions as ``contrary to democratic practices'' and said: ``A divided society is a weak society, a society that is incapable of achieving its goals or taking care of its neediest members.'' The opposition lawmakers took over the stage in Congress shortly before Fox arrived, shouting ``Vote by Vote'' -- a rallying cry for López Obrador's bid for a full recount in the election. The standoff came six days before the top electoral court must declare a president-elect or annul the July 2 vote and order a new election. So far, rulings have favored ruling party candidate Felipe Calderón, who was ahead by about 240,000 votes in the official count. López Obrador has said he won't recognize the electoral court's decision, and he plans to create a parallel government and rule from the streets. Fearing violent protests, authorities surrounded Congress for up to 10 blocks with multiple layers of steel barriers; attack dogs in cages, ready to be released; water cannons; and riot police in protective gear. Neighborhoods were sealed off, preventing some of the city's sprawling markets from opening, and nearby subway stations were shut down. Police used mirrors and dogs to inspect cars for explosives before allowing them to pass, and opposition lawmakers said police even tried to prevent them from arriving despite their credentials. Some said they were pushed and shoved by authorities. ``It's completely militarized around here. It is completely illegal, unconstitutional,'' Party of the Democratic Revolution congressman Cuauhtémoc Sandoval said. ``Vicente Fox started out as a president, and is finishing up as a dictator.'' Many had feared the deepening political turmoil over the election to replace Fox could explode into violence, but López Obrador called on his supporters to remain peacefully gathered in Mexico City's Zocalo plaza -- instead of marching on Congress as they had previously planned. ``We aren't going to fall into any trap. We aren't going to be provoked,'' he told tens of thousands who waited in a driving rain to hear him speak. Several hundred protesters marched within a few blocks of Congress, throwing rocks at riot police. But there were no major clashes. The tense situation was a far cry from the optimism and enthusiasm that followed Fox's victory six years ago. That
[PEN-L] López Obrador's speech - Mexico's City's Zócalo - 9/3/2006
I strongly recommend that you use Altavista's Babelfish or Google's Language Tools to translate and read López Obrador's latest speech. He is making a very audacious move, raising the stakes significantly, after the successful action taken by the congress people of the Coalición on 9/1. It's a very delicate moment, but I believe there's momentum. He's made a very well reasoned speech, setting the broad parameters of the struggle, and spelling out the kind of issues that the upcoming Convención Nacional Democrática (9/16/2006) is going to take up and resolve on. They are nothing short of a re-foundation of Mexico's entire political system. The speech is here, in Spanish: http://www.amlo.org.mx/noticias/discursos.html?id=55230
[PEN-L] Tapping Islam's Feminist Roots
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2002674911_sunislamwomen11.html Wednesday, December 14, 2005 - Page updated at 01:01 PM Islam in America Tapping Islam's feminist roots By Asra Q. Nomani Special to The Washington Post BARCELONA, Spain — Several months ago, when a group of Spanish Muslims approached city officials here about sponsoring a conference on Islamic feminism, one responded, Isn't that an oxymoron? That's what many people believe. To conservative Muslims, the phrase is an insult to Islam. But to many moderate Muslims — and I count myself among them — an Islamic feminist movement fits with the religion's early teachings and offers one of our best hopes for countering extremism. Indeed, those of us who have joined the movement since it emerged in the 1990s have come to understand that Islam needs to go backwards to its progressive 7th-century roots if it is to move forward into the 21st century. How difficult that is — and how important — became clear to me when I joined the first International Congress on Islamic Feminism, which was held in this Spanish city in late October. When the floor was opened for questions during one session, a young Muslim man made the comment I've heard so often: In Islam, there is no place for feminism. ... Sitting on the dais, where I had just chronicled our successful struggle to integrate some U.S. mosques, I took it in stride. I've become accustomed to belittling comments, even death threats. (I received an e-mail death threat this past July that the FBI traced to Seattle. It came after The Seattle Times ran an article chronicling my campaign for women's rights, including a stop at the local Idriss Mosque where men harassed me and refused to pray when I attempted to stand behind them in the main hall instead of going to a secluded women's balcony.) In Barcelona, what happened next stunned me. From the middle of the audience of some 250 women and men, Amina Wadud, a Muslim scholar of Islamic studies who calls herself a pro-faith feminist, stood up. You are out of order, she said to the man. What you are doing is exactly the kind of thing that we are here to be able to stop. The audience broke into cheers. Another Muslim man tried to protest. I interrupted him. We're changing history today, I said. We're not going to shut up. What stunned me was not only the confidence with which we spoke but the willingness of the group to back us — 12 Muslim women scholars and activists and one Muslim man activist who had been invited to attend the conference by a small but ambitious group of largely Spanish Muslim converts, the moderate Catalan Islamic Board. The force of our collective effort convinced me that we have the strength to challenge the men's club that defines most of the Muslim world. It was an affirmation of the commitment that had brought me and the 11 other participants here from as far away as Malaysia, Mali, Nigeria, France, Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States and refugee camps in the disputed territory of Western Sahara to share stories from the trenches in the gender jihad. We Muslim feminists view it as a struggle that taps Islamic theology, thinking and history to reclaim rights granted to women by Islam at its birth but erased by manmade rules and tribal traditions masquerading as divine law. In the communities where we live, we have begun challenging customs that deny women rights from the mosque to the bedroom: gender segregation, mandatory veiling, forced early marriages, clitorectomies, polygamy, death for sex outside of marriage, domestic violence and strict domestic roles. We have many Muslim men on our side: The chief or-ganizer of the conference was a man, Abdennur Prado, who hustled nonstop behind the scenes. And we are taking a lead from Christian and Jewish women who are generations ahead of us today in their efforts to challenge traditions that block them from the workplace, the political arena and the pulpit. To many, we are the bad girls of Islam. But we are not anti-sharia (Islamic law) or anti-Islam. We use the fundamentals of Islamic thinking — the Koran, the Sunnah, or traditions and sayings of the prophet Muhammad, and ijtihad, or independent reasoning — to challenge the ways in which Islam has been distorted by sharia rulings issued mostly by ultraconservative men. What we are wrestling with are laws created in the name of Islam by men, specifically eight men. The Muslim world of the 21st century is largely defined by eight madhhabs, or Islamic schools of jurisprudence, with narrow rulings on everything from criminal law to family law: the Shafi, Hanafi, Maliki and Hanbali schools in the majority Sunni sect; the Jafari and Zaydi schools, for the minority Shiite sect; and the Ibadi and Thahiri schools among other Muslims. But the first centuries of Islam's 1,400-year history were quite different — characterized by scores of schools of jurisprudence, many progressive and women-friendly. It is not Islam that
[PEN-L] Farid Muttaqin: Changes Needed to Islamic View on Homosexuality
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detaileditorial.asp?fileid=20060902.F04irec=3 Changes needed to Islamic view on homosexuality Farid Muttaqin, Athens, Ohio It is important to begin any discussion on homosexuality in Islam with a look at how some hegemonic cultures and traditions before Islam influenced Islamic teachings. Greek Hellenism and ancient Arabic society were two important groups that supported a type of Islamic law on homosexuality. Same-sex relationships have deep roots in the history of humankind. The story of Lot's people in the Koran proves that homosexuality has been a part of human life for a long time. Some famous Greek philosophers such as Aristotle and Plato also experienced same-sex relationships. In ancient societies, homosexuality was considered common behavior. Why do we now view homosexuality as social deviancy? Why is it believed among Muslims that homosexuality is such a terrible sin? The characteristics of Islamic teaching and its interpretations are possibly colored by the traditions of previous societies. In ancient Greek society homosexuality was a usual sexual behavior. Meanwhile, Islam strongly discourages its believers from mimicking traditions of previous societies. This was significant for early Islamic believers to clearly distinguish themselves from non-Muslims. The Islamic restriction against homosexuality has a correlation to this teaching. Additionally, the stigma against homosexuality refers to the academic tradition of interpretation within Islamic society, including the subject of homosexuality. Also, the stigma of homosexuality is related to the political interests of the early formation of Islamic society. One of the most influential traditions in Islam is the patriarchal view of ancient Arabic society. This society encouraged people to show the power of masculinity. It was a common view within ancient Arabic society that only a man could be a leader. Having a daughter embarrassed parents. Fathers would even kill their daughters in order to save the family from disgrace. Having several wives or concubines was a measure of male power. Ancient Arabic society eradicated feminine values in order to keep their masculine images. The Prophet Muhammad introduced Islamic teachings in this patriarchal Arabic society. Thus, it is possible that the patriarchal views of Arabic society interfered with the tradition of Islamic interpretation, including on homosexuality. Ancient Arabic society resisted homosexual behavior because homosexuality was considered a feminine value. These stereotyped effeminate males were contrary to tribal interests in conflicts which required masculine values such as bravery, courage, strength, roughness and dominance. Homosexuality could reduce these masculine values and lead to losing tribal wars. It was also common among the first group of Islamic believers to face socio-political and religious wars with non-Muslim societies. Jihad as a spirit of religious defense was a well-known Islamic dogma to win these wars. As with other dogmas of war, jihad at that time was overwhelmed by masculine values, and under the patriarchal influences of Arabic society the first group of Muslims restricted homosexuality as an irrelevant value of jihad (Wafer, 1997:92). In addition to this fact, the verses of the Koran on homosexuality describe more male homosexual experiences than female homosexual ones. The patriarchal interests influencing Islamic teachings did not count females as significant members of the society. In times of peace that required feminine values such as beauty, love and compassion, rather than the spirit of masculine values, it is not difficult to find homosexual experiences in Islamic societies. Some great Islamic scholars experienced same-sex relationships. Abu Nawas, the greatest Arab poet, was homosexual. It was common among male Sufis to experience homosexuality in correlation with the belief that sexual lust or nafs (desire) toward women would lead them to spiritual decadence (Schimmel, 1979:124). These realities are crucial evidence that in some contexts homosexuality has not been a major problem within Islamic society. Homosexual experiences have been alive among recent Islamic societies, including Iran, Turkey, Morocco, Syria and Pakistan (Schmitt and Sofer, 1992). Among Muslims in Indonesia, homosexual experiences are common in pesantren, or Islamic boarding schools. However, patriarchal views still dominate Islamic teaching and its interpretations, including on homosexuality. Thus, Islamic societies tend to maintain the construction of a pseudo socio-religious belief that homosexuality is a major sin. Progressive Islamic groups have to be aware that stereotypes against homosexuals in the name of Islamic teachings encourage discrimination and even violence. An example of this discrimination can be found in the fact that some Muslim countries criminalize homosexuality. Based on the fact that various stereotypes and
