The latest news on the Mideast, New Orleans, energy, CIA, Iraq, Afghanistan, Darfur, North Korea, Canadian financer to fight global poverty, and select Op-Eds.
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Mideast. Israeli, Palestinian leaders to meet “At Egypt’s initiative, Israel and the moderate Palestinian leadership agreed to join a regional summit aimed at reviving peace talks and isolating Hamas.” Egypt to host Mideast summit “Egypt, saying it will not tolerate the birth of a “religious state” on its borders, has invited the leaders of Jordan, Israel and the Fatah-run Palestinian Authority to a summit next week to plot ways of ending Hamas’s rule in the Gaza Strip.” Egypt Organizes Summit Meeting for Abbas “In a gesture of support for the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah, Egypt has organized a summit meeting in which he will meet with President Hosni Mubarak and the Jordanian and Israeli leaders.” ‘The dream is destroyed’ “The brief, brutal civil war that led to the Hamas takeover of Gaza has left Palestinians contemplating a political divide that threatens their long-cherished goal of a state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The two territories now resemble hostile states,”
CIA. CIA to Air Decades of Its Dirty Laundry “The CIA will declassify hundreds of pages of long-secret records detailing some of the intelligence agency’s worst illegal abuses — the so-called “family jewels” documenting a quarter-century of overseas assassination attempts, domestic spying, kidnapping and infiltration of leftist groups from the 1950s to the 1970s.”
Iraq. Troops Pushing South Through Insurgent Area “More than 1,200 American soldiers are pushing south along the Tigris River through a Sunni insurgent haven known as Arab Jubour, a formidable operation that is part of an overall U.S. strategy to take control of the terrain encircling the capital.” Sectarian Fears Percolate in an Iraqi Town“For the first time since the assault began, Iraqi soldiers joined the operation in significant numbers. What made the task especially complex was that many of the Sunni residents had little trust for the Shiite-dominated army, a message that became clear during Company A’s sweep through the northwestern part of the city.” House Votes to Revive Iraq Study Group “In a sign of the growing public pressure on Congress, the House voted 355 to 69 to revive the 10-member panel chaired by former secretary of state James A. Baker III and former congressman Lee Hamilton (D-Ind.) to again review U.S. policy and offer new recommendations.”
Afghanistan. ‘Afghans killed’ in air strikes “Some 25 civilians have died during aerial bombing by foreign forces in the southern Afghan province of Helmand, local residents and senior police say.” NATO airstrikes, clashes kill 25 Afghans “Taliban militants attacked police posts in southern Afghanistan, triggering NATO airstrikes that left 25 civilians dead, including three infants and the local mullah, a senior police officer said Friday.”
New Orleans. New Orleans deaths up 47% “Hurricane Katrina’s tragic aftermath lingered for at least a year after the storm abated, boosting New Orleans’ death rate last year by 47% compared with two years before the levees broke, researchers reported Thursday. Doctors say the dramatic surge in deaths comes as no surprise in a city of 250,000 mostly poor and middle-class people who lost seven of 22 hospitals and half of the city’s hospital beds.”
Energy. Senate OKs big fuel-efficiency increase “Driven by anxiety over global warming and dependence on foreign oil, the Senate passed a major increase in the average fuel efficiency requirement for vehicles on U.S. roads – to 35 miles per gallon from the current 25.” Senate passes pro-renewables energy bill “Democrats celebrated a step toward reducing U.S. dependence on oil as the Senate approved a bill calling for more ethanol and the first boost in gas mileage in decades.”
Darfur. China weighs whether to send troops into Darfur “China’s special envoy on Darfur said yester day that his country will seriously consider whether to send troops on a peacekeeping mission in the war-torn Sudanese region and insisted Beijing is doing its best to help solve the conflict.” China envoy defends Darfur record”China’s special envoy to Darfur has rejected accusations that Beijing was not doing enough to end the violence in the region because of its investments in Sudan’s oil industry.”
North Korea. Hill upbeat after N Korea talks “North Korea has promised to “promptly” shut down its main nuclear facility, the most senior US envoy to visit the country in five years said today. Two days of talks with officials in the reclusive communist nation had been “useful and positive”, the assistant US secretary of state, Christopher Hill, told reporters.”
Canadian financier to fight global poverty. Tycoon rallies industry to help the poor “Over the course of more than two decades, Frank Giustra earned a reputation as the consummate dealmaker, a man who used artful suasion and tenacity to amass a fortune rumoured to be worth more than $1-billion. Yesterday, the reclusive Vancouver mining financier pulled off what might be his most skillful deal yet: finding a way to give some of this money back. Mr. Giustra, together with former U.S. president Bill Clinton and Mexican telecom mogul Carlos Slim Helu, has unveiled a massive philanthropic effort, one that will enlist some of the biggest names in Canada’s resources sector to combat poverty in the developing world.” The pursuit of wealth for the greater good “Mr. Giustra decided he could keep spinning billion-dollar deals, but not to pad out his already considerable personal fortune. Instead, he would put his deal-making finesse to work for charity. “I could do what I love to do, which is to create the wealth, but to do it for a different reason – to give it away,” Mr. Giustra said.”
OP-ED
Why Pro-Choice Is a Bad Choice for Democrats(Melinda Henneberger,Washington Post) “The standard response from Democratic leaders has been that anyone lost to them over this issue is not coming back – and that regrettable as that might be, there is nothing to be done. But that is not what I heard from these voters. Many of them, Catholic women in particular, are liberal, deep-in-their-heart Democrats who support social spending, who opposed the war from the start and who cross their arms over their chests reflexively when they say the word “Republican.” Some could fairly be described as desperate to find a way home. And if the party they’d prefer doesn’t send a car for them, with a really polite driver, it will have only itself to blame.”
Courage at a Cost (Michael Gerson, Washington Post) “On occasion, Sen. John McCain seems like a martyr anxious for the stake, offering his own lighter to get the proceedings started. His flamboyant heresies on campaign finance reform, global warming and immigration have left conservatives suspicious that he has a mild form of Chuck Hagel’s disease:”
posted June 22, 2007 at 9:52 pm
Also published by the Chicago Tribune was a commentary by Palestinian- American Ali Abunimah,
who wrote:
When it won the elections, Hamas had already observed a one-year unilateral truce with Israel, and had suspended the suicide bombings against Israeli civilians that had made it notorious. It tried to enter mainstream politics through the front door, to play by the rules, but was undermined at every step. The bitter conclusion for many Palestinians is that the U.S. is not interested in supporting real democracy, and will intervene relentlessly to overthrow leaders it does not support, regardless of the will of the Palestinian people…
…There has been much talk that the events in Gaza herald the birth of a “three-state solution” — Israel, plus a Hamas stronghold in Gaza and a Fatah-led West Bank. In reality, the West Bank and Gaza had already long been isolated from each other by Israeli policy. Ultimately, neither Hamas nor Fatah controls the fate of Palestinians; they remain under crushing Israeli military rule.
Some Israelis assert that intra-Palestinian fighting proves that Palestinians are incapable of democracy. They hope that all the heat will be off Israel as it entrenches Bantustan-like separation and discrimination against non-Jews under its rule.
The reality remains that 11 million souls — half Palestinians and half Israelis — inhabit a small country. Closing off Gaza and allowing it to descend into further misery, and propping up a Fatah-led Palestinian Authority that has lost legitimacy, while Israel continues to build Jewish-only settlements across the West Bank, is not the path to peace.
Intra-Palestinian dialogue without outside interference, and South Africa or Northern Ireland-style peace talks aimed at ending all forms of military occupation, inequality and discrimination, with strong outside support, may yet save the situation. But so far there are no signs that the Bush administration will heed these obvious rudiments of peace.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-oped0621gazajun21,0,4877386.story?coll=chi-newsopinioncommentary-hed
On my fourth trip to OPT last Novemeber, the Anglican Reverend Naim Ateek, a 1948 refugee and author of “Justice and Only Justice”, addressed over 300 international ecumenical Christians who had gathered to learn more about the Christian Exodus from the Holy Land:
“Israel will not survive unless it does justice! All we are asking for is that they honor International Law! Israel is afraid of International law and this proves something is very wrong with Israel. We want Israel to live in peace and with security. The only way is honoring International law…Our relation with Israel is the most important issue for there can be no peace without justice. There can be no effective policy without ending the occupation in accordance with all UN Resolutions.”
On May 14, 1948, the Declaration of the Establishment of Israel affirmed:
“On the day of the termination of the British mandate and on the strength of the United Nations General Assembly declare The State of Israel will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel: it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion it will guarantee freedom of religion [and] conscience and will be faithful to the Charter of the United Nations.”
Justice requires all people do indeed have inalienable human rights as outlined in the UN UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS; and only when that becomes reality, can security and peace follow.
Eileen Fleming
Author “KEEP HOPE ALIVE” and “Memoirs of a Nice
Irish-American Girl’s Life in Occupied Territory”
Reporter and Editor
http://www.wearewideawake.org/
posted June 23, 2007 at 11:37 am
Re: New Orleans
USA Today has been saying very little about New Orleans in the past several months other than “the crime and murder rates are up.” This is to some degree true, but as usual USA Today isn’t telling the whole story. New Orleans’ economy went in the toilet when oil and gas became much more of an import commodity than one located and refined domestically. Many of our jobs, most of our pre-Katrina development, and the economic base used to come from oil/natural gas exploration and refining. In the ’80s and ’90s the companies in that industry moved part or all of their operations away, which sent New Orleans and much of the rest of Louisiana into a tailspin. We’ve been trying to recover from that for a long time, and trying to find some other principal economic base. The biggest thing New Orleans has found is tourism (whether conventions or individual/family recreation) … guess what sort of news is likely to reduce or kill tourism? High crime rates. Guess what publication shows up at the door of the average business traveler or family staying at a hotel on vacation? USA Today. And guess what happens when a community’s economic base gets knocked out from under them? They lose their jobs and might well conclude that violence, drugs, and crime are their only remaining means to survive. I haven’t seen any indication in USA Today’s reporting that they understand these factors, or that they care. Instead of hearing only about the horrible crime problem (which is horrible, New Orleanians do recognize this), why doesn’t the rest of the country hear more about programs such as Cafe Reconcile, which brings in young people (who might otherwise be out on the streets becoming embroiled in the violence) and gives them a job and training fitted to the tourism-based economy of the city? I’m on my soapbox here, but as a social work student and lifelong Louisianian it deeply frustrates me that the rest of the country sees only what is wrong with New Orleans and never hears about what we’re trying to do right, or how much we need the support of all our fellow Americans – still – if we’re going to survive as the major port, and the major AMERICAN producer of seafood, sugar, petroleum products, salt, etc. that we have been and can be again. Whether the rest of the country recognizes it or not, the whole country has taken/received great benefit from us, and once upon a time America thought this land worth so much they negotiated the Louisiana Purchase to get it. We’re suffering from the same problems the rest of the country does, just in different ways and more starkly because of the events of August 2005. Don’t write us off in USA Today as unsafe and unsaveable.
posted June 24, 2007 at 4:42 pm
Virginia C.,
I am not a native of New Orleans. I’m here working on my MPH. I lived here in 2000-2001 and fell in love with this city. I am just as enamored of post-Katrina New Orleans. (I even like the weather! I work in an air conditioned building and always get a grin on my face when I get off work and step outside into that dense, humid air – like a warm embrace)
When I tell people from outside of New Orleans how much I enjoy living here, many of them remark about the wonderful food and music here, but I’m on a student’s budget – so I eat a lot of red beans & rice and occasionally splurge on a muffellata (Café Reconcile is on my list of places to visit). I listen to WWOZ (the greatest radio station in the world, IMHO, the tower of which sits atop of my school) for my “New Orleans music experience” (okay, I went to Jazz Fest one day this year).
What I really love about this city are its people. It’s hard to explain, but there is a spirit here that I doubt many tourists are able to perceive. I’ve found what looks like an interesting volunteer medical outreach gig through one of the churches in New Orleans and hope to start soon. I have done volunteer work in New Orleans and loved it because I got to interact with people I might not have otherwise ever met.
When my wife and I told people in Seattle we were moving to New Orleans, some of them asked, “Is there anything left down there?”
The media are notorious for sensationalizing the bad and diverting attention away from the real issues. In 1978 I lived in Tehran. When the revolution began in earnest, and people stateside began hearing about it, some of them thought my family and I were living in a war zone – just as some people outside of New Orleans seem to believe that it’s not safe to be on the streets of this city.
As for USA Today, the couple of times I’ve picked it up I’ve found it to be completely uninteresting and utterly worthless – uninteresting, because I really don’t care for fluff and hype.
Peace, and WHO DAT!
neuro_nurse