[Onthebarricades] Miscellaneous articles 3

[Andy]

*  KENYA:  Understanding the opposition - rival factions explain antinomies
*  KENYA:  Failure of elite transition
*  NEPAL:  Analysing Madhesi demands; understanding the movement
*  INDIA:  Villagers develop forest protection system, parallel "justice" 
system
*  AFGHANISTAN:  Taleban footsoldiers "ignorant of the world" - study
*  JORDAN:  Overview of anarchism in Jordan
*  CANADA/US:  American "economic refugees" head for Canada
*  UK/US:  British head for America for bargains
*  US/GLOBAL:  Do hamburgers cause crime?  Abattoirs linked to violence 
against humans
*  TECHNOLOGY:  RFID chips hackable
*  INDIGENOUS:  History of a global land grab

http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/ngugi050208.html

Understanding the Kenyan Opposition
by Mukoma Wa Ngugi

INTRODUCTION: UNDERSTANDING FOR PEACE

Much has been written about the Kenya elections -- the rigging and
the violence that has ensued, and the way to peace. But next to
nothing has been written regarding the nature of Raila's Orange
Democratic Movement.

To struggle for peace, which in turn calls for engaging with the
political leadership, demands that we think about nature of the
competing political interests, what motivates them, and how they
function and to what effect. It is a sign of how little we have
come to expect of ourselves and of African political processes that
we forgo even the most basic of analysis.

Ask some of the people commentating on Kenya about the differences
within ODM, whether it's a coalition or a party with a single
vision, who are the main players, and the implications for peace,
and the answers will be on the surface.

Ask the same people about the internal workings of the US Democratic
Party, and they will tell you the differences between Hilary Clinton
and Barrack Obama, how Bill Clinton is influencing the race, the
intersections of class, race, and gender, and how each candidate
might relate to Africa or the Middle East.

How can we agitate for peace when we do not understand the nature of
the parties involved? This question is becoming increasingly
urgent. The violence has started to perpetuate itself through the
logic of counter killings and revenge. The solution to ethnic
cleansing is becoming counter-ethnic cleansing.

The myth that the violence is a spontaneous reaction to the rigged
elections has to be debunked because its persistence only gives
cover to the cleansers and counter-cleansers. A January 21st New
York Times article argues that the massacres "may have been
premeditated and organized."

Human Rights Watch has said that it has "evidence that ODM [the
Orange Democratic Movement] politicians and local leaders actively
fomented some post-election violence." And the UN High Commissioner
for Human Rights has called for an independent investigation while
the International Criminal Court has said it is following the
violence closely.

These concerns are coming at time when the government response to
ODM protests -- using a police force that from the time of British
colonialism to the present has kept peace at the expense of innocent
Kenyans -- is racking up a high body count of its own.

A closer analysis of the two political parties finds that they are
mirror image of each other. They both represent the elite of their
different ethnicities, and they manipulate ethnicity to hide their
bankruptcy. The prevailing ideology is ethnocracy. The state,
already seen as the bad ogre, is expected to stomach a high number
of deaths without blinking. In this regard the state remains
predictable. But that the ODM is prepared to do the same has been
unexpected -- and also unexplored.

THE THREE COMPETING ELEMENTS

Within the opposition leadership (or the Pentagon as they refer to
themselves), there are at least three competing elements -- the
activist-intellectual left, the Moi-ist retrogressives, and the
populists.

The first camp is exemplified by Prof. Anyang Nyong'o, an
intellectual activist, and Salim Lone, a former editor of the UN
Africa Recovery magazine and spokesperson for the United Nations
Mission in Iraq. They speak a language that the international media
understands -- and that anti-establishment friends of Africa like to
hear. It is this group that has marketed ODM as a people power
movement, in the process glossing over the ethnic killings.

The intellectual activists favor boycotts, smart sanctions, and
peaceful civil disobedience -- tactics that gather sympathy and
support from the international community while calling attention to
the government. Had their strategies been followed without bending
to the Moi-ist retrogressives, ODM could very well have solidified
international support.

The Moi-ist retrogressives are represented by William Ruto, a former
treasurer for the thuggish Youth for KANU (known as YK 1992). This
group is widely seen as having been responsible for ethnic violence
that in 1992 and 1997 left hundreds dead and thousands displaced in
the Rift Valley. The recent Eldoret church burning and cleansing
took place in Ruto's constituency. William Ruto is leading the ODM
delegation in the Kofi Annan mediated talks.

Surrogates of the Moi regime (the same dictator who was embraced by
the ruling party, hence the mirror image), the retrogressives lack
political finesse. They are crude in their methods. They prefer a
historically tested, albeit failed, solution: ethnic cleansing -- 
that is, drive them out, or kill them.

The Moi-ist retrogressives have cost ODM a lot of political
mileage. After the Eldoret church burning, the support shifted from
getting Raila back the disputed presidency to bringing him and
Kibaki to a negotiated solution. If the ODM is to survive into the
future, it must rid itself these element.

In the populist camp you find the Pentagon leader -- Raila Odinga,
the immovable centerpiece. Raila has solid activist credentials,
having been imprisoned by Moi for six years and having spent most of
his life agitating for democracy in Kenya. The irony is that he
later joined forces with Moi, even serving as his minister of energy
as he positioned himself to be anointed successor.

Raila has a solid Luo support base and youth appeal across
ethnicity. Had ODM not run a campaign along ethnic fault lines, his
support amongst the poor would have been solidified. Raila has all
the contradictions that come with populism.

Populists prefer loud rallies and protests. They want to draw
violence from the state because the consequent anger unites the
people and earns then international political mileage. Populists
also like to "shock and awe." Flamboyant and a millionaire, Raila
drives a red Hummer and at one point hired Dick Morris, the
discredited former Bill Clinton adviser, as ODM's political
consultant. Dick Morris, a political mercenary who services
despots, Democrats and Republicans alike, he is also infamous for
being called (or led) by his first name in red-light districts.

When the populist agenda leads the day, ODM calls for mass
protests. However, mass protests that are ethnically driven are a
contradiction, and they inevitably end with ethnic violence.
Raila's populism therefore gives fuel to the Moi-retrogressives
while isolating the intellectual-activist left.

CENTER THE PEOPLE

Understanding these three elements explains why ODM has since the
beginning of the political crisis sent mixed calls -- one day it
calls for mass rallies, the other worker strikes; it wants to form a
parallel or coalition government, it will accept only a recount or
rerun of the elections while calling for Kibaki's resignation or for
power sharing. At the same time, there was a refusal during the
first month of the violence to seriously call for peace amongst ODM
supporters.

ODM totters in different directions depending on which element leads
the day. Because each of the three elements are mutually dependent
(but with Raila needing everyone less), it is not certain which
element will eventually triumph -- which makes Kenya's future also
uncertain.

At the very least both the government and the opposition need to let
their respective Moi-ist retrogressives go. When both sides are
not swayed by the extremists, a return to the center where sanity
prevails will be possible, and a political solution within grasp.

Ultimately any solution, be it a recount, re-election, or coalition
government, must be one that has the Kenyan people at the center.
And if the cycle of cleansing and counter-cleansing is to be broken,
those responsible for organizing the cleansing and counter cleansing
must also be brought to justice. A political solution must bring
with it much needed justice.

Mukoma wa Ngugi is editor of Pambazuka News (www.pambazuka.org),
author of Hurling Words at Consciousness and a political columnist
for the BBC Focus on Africa Magazine.

http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/kaara090208.html
Kenya: Failures of Elite Transition
by Kiama Kaara

The events in Kenya after the much criticized and controversial
elections of 27 December 2007 have exposed the planned failures of
our nascent democracy and the ideological rot and inadequacy across
the Kenyan body politic. This has left many wondering what actually
went wrong. I posit that an ideologically bankrupt political
process that revolves around access to power, its consolidation, and
its use to accumulate wealth is a recipe for failure. A bastard
political economy founded on self preservation ushers in not only
a 'bandit' economy but a flawed political process that on one hand
is divorced from the aspirations of the citizenry (based on
a 'social contract' typology) and on the other hand is appended to
the global capital class, to serve it and act as a transmission line
for resource extraction and capital flows best expounded by Walter
Rodney in How Europe Underdeveloped Africa.

With a relative calm and stability since independence and ground
gained as the economic powerhouse on this eastern seaboard of
Africa, Kenya's unraveling has confounded many. As a haven of peace
in the midst of warring neighbors across all its borders, Kenya has
attained and played a significant strategic role within the global
political, financial, and economic architecture. It is arguably
the most dependable and consistent gateway to Anglo-American
imperialist interests on these shores.

But in the aftermath of the December 2007 elections, it has shown
that calm doesn't necessarily mean peace. An innate, now glaring
conflict -- suspicion, mistrust, competing, contested, and
contentious interests especially on the question of access to
resources and ability to secure livelihoods -- threatens to tear the
social fabric of the Kenyan nation apart.

Commentators and observers alike vary in their approaches to the
analysis of the underlying issues and the emergent aftermath (albeit
all too often based on their persuasions relative to the warring
sides). But across the board, all are united on the fact that this
was not just a one-off affair and that its consequences -- tangible
in the numbers of deaths, rapes, internally displaced persons
(IDPs), forced displacements and forced occupations, razed houses,
collapsed businesses and infrastructure, as well as animosity,
mutual suspicions, lawlessness, and the general rapture of the
social fabric -- will have a wide-ranging effect, with monumental
influence on the character, pace, and nature of the emergent Kenyan
body politic.

In this paper, with the hindsight of various discussions and
comments on the Kenyan situation (notable among them took place at
the Kenya Seminar, the Centre for Civil Society, UKZN, Durban, 22
January 2008; at the World Social Forum, Day of Action, Durban, 26
January 2008; through email communication with Lee Strauser for the
Socialist Register; at the GENTA - Africa Trade and Finance Linkages
Meeting, Johannesburg, 30 January 2008; and in the Jubilee USA
Newsletter), I strive to answer the question: "The crisis in Kenya --
the accident of a fraudulent elections outcome or a deep-seated
structural problem of the country's political economy and history?"

In this quest, I will focus on the class structure of the political
economy in Kenya; the root of the conflict and its contemporary
features; and lessons for African countries, particularly Zimbabwe
and Swaziland which are to hold their elections this year and where
the potential for similar conflicts is real.

'Elite Transition'

"We are a nation of ten billionaires and twenty million
beggars. . . ." -- Statement attributed to J.M. Kariuki, a populist
politician murdered in the 1970s . . . and whose murderers have
never been arrested or brought to justice

"Do you know? A one percent increase in Africa's share of trade
would deliver seven times more than Africa receives in Aid? In
2005, the UK imported 20,700 tonnes of cut flowers from the North
and Sub-Saharan Africa! This had a declared value of around US$ 110
million. Of these, the majority came fro Kenya (18,650 tonnes) with
a value of 104 million!" -- Msafiri, Kenya Airways In-flight
Magazine, November-December 2007

The above quotations give a glimpse of the construct of the Kenyan
political economy. J.M. Kariuki, a vocal 'populist' voice for the
poor, squatters, and the landless, was very wealthy in his own
right. But his outspokenness lifted the veil from the inherent
politico-economic mindset of the ruling elite in post-independent
Kenya.

The second quotation speaks for itself. Forty five years after
independence, the pride of our economy, carried through our aptly
named airline "Pride of Africa," is that we are a raw material-
producing, export-oriented economy. Our share of global wealth is
on the basis of how best we feed the desires (romantic or otherwise)
of our Western counterparts. Any person with a slight idea on
horticulture farming (our second most important exchange earner
after tourism) will attest, it's a sweatshop business littered with
blood of the faceless poor, especially young women who never get to
Valentine Day candlelight dinners! But, again, we must not be left
out on the globalization train. These are the social costs of our
march to economic development, we are told.

I argue that Kenya's problems today are a result of the planned
failures of the development paradigm of a well entrenched
bureaucratic state. A relic of colonialism, the dominant neo-
colonial patrimonial state founded on patronage has only served to
develop a perverse brand of a rabid 'winner-takes-all' brand of
capitalism. As the guiding ideology, this has undermined both
nation formation and integration and only served to perpetuate the
state as the site of competition for an anarchic 'primitive' mode of
accumulation. In the process, a distinct 'elite,' the elite who
control both the instruments of the state and the economic
machinery, have gelled to ensure the continuation of control and
domination best manifested in the rise of an imperial presidency. I
posit that it's the dysfunctional nature of this political and
economic 'elite' in its blind pursuit to concentrate power among its
members that has plunged Kenya in the current abyss.

In quest of an 'Elite Transition,' the political class has ignored
the resistance of the people to domination, increasing inequality,
poverty, and penury, unemployment, hopelessness, and despair.

Kenya's crisis today lies in this historical malady and the
perpetuation of the concentration of power around the presidency, an
imperial presidency built on patronage and nepotism, under which
access to power is the driving motif of any political persuasion and
engagement.

Thus, the state is the site of accumulation of personal wealth, its
protection, and an assurance of a free rein to multiply it. This
has been the perverse legacy of the Kenyatta, Moi, and Kibaki
regimes. Networks of patronage deepen, a powerful cabal of
individuals runs the state for a strong, pervasive corruption
network, whose interest is to use state coffers both to enrich
itself and to perpetuate its hold on power by any means.

This has been coupled by the subcription to the dictates of the
global political and economic architecture with the overall
embracing of deregulatory neo-liberalism as the dominant economic
model.

Democracy has functioned as a mere facade to facilitate access to
power. People's development, as well as the idea of the state as
the pivotal development agency allocating values and resources in
society, takes a back seat. As a result, the gulf between the rich
and the poor continues to grow exponentially, with Kenya ranking
both as one of the most unequal and corrupt nations in the world.

To hold the edifice together, the powerful and dominant class has
deliberately used the identity of ethnicity to entrench a notion of
collective responsibility. Casting the dominant class's gains in
the context of tribes and representing any criticism of that class
as an onslaught on the whole tribe(s) holding power at a particular
moment. Kenyatta set the fertile ground for this, giving rise to the
infamous 'Kiambu/Kikuyu' mafia that held sway in his government,
while Moi and Kibaki have only managed to deepen this, albeit in
different shades.

Hence, valid discussions of equality and equity, social development
and societal wellbeing, are projected as primordial competition of
one tribe trying to gain the upper hand over the others. A
misrepresentation that unfortunately international journalists,
commentators, and observers of Africa seem to swallow hook, line,
and sinker!

The 2007 election has to be seen in the backdrop of sustained
pressure to correct these historical injustices. Whereas the import
of this is still debatable, I am of the opinion that the 2007
election afforded the opportunity when the Kenyan people were united
in the conviction that they could correct these historical
injustices through their democratic power -- the ballot -- as shown
by the intensity of political campaigns, the large voter turnout,
the patience exhibited at voting centers, the degree of youth
participation, the massive increase in women's participation, and
the voting patterns themselves.

Notable commentators have argued, however, that certainly not all
Kenyans were united in this quest -- otherwise how would you explain
a very large number of people (largely Kikuyu) who, even the rigging
notwithstanding, still voted for Kibaki and his elite cronies? In
any event, Raila Odinga himself is hardly a progressive thinker; he
is a populist and rank opportunist.

It is this contradiction that warrants a deeper look. Does Kenya
have a class formation in the classical sense: a (national)
bourgeoisie; a middle class; a proletariat; and a lumpenproletariat?

My take would be that the cleavages are not in black and white, but
in massive shades of grays. What we have in Kenya is a national
elite who controls the political and economic realms and sets the
agenda. It derives its sustenance on the ability to monopolize the
state as the site of accumulation and to link up to international
capital albeit as a mere appendage. It's the 'shape-shifting'
nature of this 'elite,' from political office to economic mandarins
through civil service bureaucracy and back, that shapes and sustains
its existence. Access to the state has been its supreme
consideration in all instances. Whether it's a bourgeoisie remains
debatable.

As for a middle class, functioning as a 'class of ideas,' I contend
that what we have in Kenya is an aspiring intellectual elite, who,
though lacking in the excesses of wealth, has at least enough from
careers and other forms of employment, in service of the
bureaucratic state. Otherwise how else do you explain the big rush
of professionals in civil service, civil society, or private sector
for parliamentary office? Certainly this is not founded on
philanthropic altruistic notions of 'service to mankind is service
to God' but the appeal of entry into the political/economic
government machinery for more accumulation and wealth. Exceptions
exist but the rule remains.

Hence defense of Kibaki centered on an ethnic mantle doesn't deter
the overall conviction that one of the driving motifs of the past
election was pursuit for change. Raila Odinga may as well ride that
wave through populism, but what curtails his ability to do so is his
failure to internalize the message of citizenry and present himself
as a viable alternative. The ideological bankruptcy that I alluded
to earlier informs this failure, though the power of the political
process to smokescreen the dichotomy of anti-people and pro-people
struggles and initiatives does not disfigure the fact that the
persuasion of a whole lot of citizenry revolves around a challenge
to the status quo.

It is in this political void that the 'ethnicization' of the
political/economic process rears its ugly head. The 'us'
versus 'them' typology plays on 'offensive' and 'defensive'
abstractions interpreted in the context of contending forces,
preventing an explicit understanding of the political/economic
dynamics at play.

With the benefit of hindsight, however, the adverse limitations of
liberal democracy as a political process, especially when twinned
with the debilitating effects of neo-liberalism and its attendant
capital onslaught on all facets of life, are now clearly emerging
into view.

Thus we see that the defining moment of the Kenya crisis is not just
the flawed elections but the historical construct of the state.
Inbuilt are the changing roles of various 'elites' and how
transition from one set of 'elite' to another at any time plays
itself out. None of the 'elites' fits into an identifiable class
structural function due to their reliance on the sate as the main
lever of their coming and going through necessary ethnic
mobilization.

It's worth noting that the elections themselves were not a
revolutionary attempt at reconfiguring the Kenyan society -- they
were merely a formal democratic exercise whose outcome however
manifested the deep divisions existing between the poor urban
working class, the peasantry, and the lumpenproletariat. It's sad
indeed that it's these deprived classes which are attempting to
eliminate one another rather than their common enemy, the rich
propertied classes. But again, this misidentification has to be
blamed on the well entrenched and well propagated notion of ethnic
collective responsibility, i.e., the overwhelming belief that one is
in a sense connected to one's ethnic lords by some affinity and
hence it warrants their defense in the face of ascendancy of other
ethnic groups. Such has been the divide and rule script of colonial
hangover.

A Look through History

When Kenya gained independence in 1963, the seeds whose fruits are
plaguing the nation today were sowed. Instead of embarking on an
integrative reconstruction of society to build a shared identity,
Kenya under Kenyatta took the path of 'everyone for himself -- only
the strongest survive.' This was a well choreographed strategy to
cheat and disinherit those who had fought for independence,
especially the Mau Mau, silencing the clarion call for Land and
Freedom. In their place, Kenyatta embraced former colonial home
guards and their lackeys as the pillars of the independent nation.
And in a vintage Orwellian fashion, the British colonial
administrative policy of 'divide and rule' for 'some are more equal
than others' was re-entrenched and perfected after independence.

Such was the first betrayal.

Without embarking on a historical literature review, it is worth
remembering that the initial contestation of the space of
independence represented by the fallout between Kenyatta and Odinga,
and best captured in the latter's seminal work Not Yet Uhuru,
attests to this.

Whereas Odinga and company stood for a more equal society with
guaranteed access for all, Kenyatta and his cabal adopted a more
individualistic stance. Throw in the Cold War dynamics, and it was
a pure conflict of what kind of a development model to adopt.
Kenyatta stuck to the capitalist notion of 'winner takes all' while
Odinga and his group of socialist orientation of equality and social
welfare were ostracized.

Thus Kenya missed the opportunity that Nyerere took in Tanzania: to
build a cohesive nation through the integration of society.

With the independence 'high' giving Kenyatta a blank check to
maneuver, he set in motion the first most elaborate and deliberate
pursuit to 'ethnicize' politics, having the all too often embraced
perception of a 'Kikuyu' versus 'Luo' conflict set the stage. More
was to follow as ethnic identities and orientations helped to
service this juggernaut. Subsequent regimes have only served to
entrench this.

Playing ethnicity as a political populist agenda reigned, but a more
instrumental policy to underwrite this orientation is superbly
presented in the "Sessional Paper No.10 on African Socialism and Its
Implications and Principles on Economic Development." Whereas this
was celebrated as a great blueprint for a nation emerging from
colonialism, it set the basis for the neo-colonial agenda. With its
broad adherence to the principles of capitalism and the emergent neo-
liberal agenda, it served to divide the nation into compartments
of "high potential and low potential areas." Thus, the focus of the
government would be on the "high potential areas," gains made this
way supposedly trickling down to the "low potential areas." Thus
the folly of trickle down economics was embraced as the development
model, and hope was generated that, at the end of the day, all
Kenyans would be lifted to new heights of development. It's worth
noting that the high potential areas were mainly around the white
highlands extending through central Kenya and the Rift Valley: the
broader home of the Kikuyu and those who had been integrated
earliest to the colonial capitalist economy. A continuation of
the 'White Mischief' in other ways!

The Failures of Elite Transition:
Lessons for Zimbabwe and Swaziland

Patrick Bond has written authoritatively on the elite deal making
and pacting that wheels political processes with specific reference
to South Africa. But this can also be applied to the Kenyan
situation and moreover can present classic lessons for other nascent
democracies in Africa, especially Zimbabwe and Swaziland, on the
pitfalls of electoral democracy.

The central theme is the state as the site of patronage and
largesse. Competing interests for access to the state are masked as
pro-people challenges to the status quo in a quest to reassert
people's sovereignty and ability to secure their livelihoods.

With bankrupt ideological foundations, an 'elite' cabal controls
power across the government, the civil service bureaucracy, the
private sector, and the military. It gels into an edifice that is
purely anti-people, though on occasion it needs to mask its
interests in the language of the people to facilitate the 'elite
pacting' and transition for purposes of reinventing itself. It
never breaks from the orthodoxy of neo-liberalism and neo-colonial
interests that continues to chain the people to servitude, poverty,
and penury. Otherwise how do you explain the emergence of the same
faces on the power circuit every time?

The failures of this elite transition in the Kenyan case is a
telling example that the progressive forces in Zimbabwe, Swaziland,
and the rest of Africa need to pay attention to closely, so that
they can fashion comprehensive alternatives.

When all is said and done, this election was not between Raila
Odinga and Mwai Kibaki. It was a quest by the Kenyan people to
correct past injustices and re-orient their development priorities.
With the sad outcome as it has turned out to be, in the end, the
losers will be the Kenyan people.

As one American friend commented tongue in cheek, "How ironic? In
Kenya, people riot when the president steals an election. In the US
we sit and wait." . . . Perhaps. Our stakes are higher, which
requires that we illuminate our progressive prospects in a clear and
decisive manner, devoid of the usual suspect appeal of 'Talking Left
and Walking Right.'

-
Kiama Kaara was formerly coordinator of the World Social Forum's
youth gathering in Nairobi in 2007 and is presently a researcher
with the Kenyan Debt Relief Network. He is a regular commentator on
political affairs and is embarking upon post-graduate study at the
University of KwaZulu-Natal's Centre for Civil Society.

http://www.kantipuronline.com/kolnews.php?&nid=137551
Six-point demand
By AMEET DHAKAL

Life in the tarai remains crippled due to a strike called by the
United Democratic Madhesi Front (UDMF). The UDMF has said the strike
would continue until its six-point demand was addressed. What is in
the six-point demand? Is the UDMF demanding something that is
impossible to meet? Is it something that the state has been ignoring
even though it could readily address it?
Below is my take on it.

The first in the six-point demand is declaring 45 people who died in
the Madhes movement as martyrs besides providing compensation to
their families and the injured who have become handicapped for the
rest of their lives.

The state has already made reparation to the families of 24 people
who were killed in the Madhes movement based on the findings of the
Khila Raj Regmi Commission constituted to probe the agitation. But
it hasn't so far recognized the dead as martyrs. It also hasn't paid
compensation to the Madhesi people rendered handicapped during the
movement.

On the other hand, the state has recognized all protestors killed
during the April movement as martyrs and paid one million rupees in
compensation to each of their families. Those who were disabled for
life in the April movement have also been paid two hundred thousand
rupees each as compensation.

If you engage any Madhesi leader in a conversation for a few
minutes, you will soon realize that dignity and equality form the
emotional core of the Madhes movement. By refusing to recognize
those who died during the Madhes movement as martyrs, the state has
insulted the Madhesi call for equality and dignity. This is a
national shame and should be corrected immediately. All citizens are
equal and should be treated identically by the state.

So far as how many actually died during the Madhes movement is
concerned, the state and the Madhesi parties should form a quick
inquiry commission to find out if the Khila Raj Regmi Commission
miscounted those who lost their lives during the Madhes movement.
Not to recognize those who actually died during the movement is an
injustice, and to confer martyrdom on those who died in other
incidents would, actually, be an insult to the real martyrs. On the
issue of compensation to those who suffered grievous bodily injury
during the Madhes movement, the state should again follow the
principle of equality and provide compensation and other facilities
to all of them on a par with those handicapped in the April
movement.

The second demand relates to a constitutional commitment to form a
Federal Democratic Republic with autonomy and the right to self-
determination. The Interim Constitution already says that Nepal will
be a Federal Democratic Republic in the future. Federation, in
principle, is always about autonomy and sharing of power and
resources. The only question is about the degree and modality of the
autonomy. That's an issue only the Constituent Assembly can and
should decide.

There seems to be a great misconception about the right to self-
determination. Does that mean the right to secession? Hridayesh
Tripathi, senior leader of the UDMF, said in a recent TV interview
that the right to self-determination means cultural, political and
economic rights and not the right to secede. I think the UDMF hasn't
done enough to clarify this point to the public, and different
Madhesi leaders have been interpreting it differently. Mainstream
party leaders and the intelligentsia, by and large, are also
unnecessarily suspicious about the Madhesi leaders' intentions. As
far as the demand to include the principle of autonomy and the right
to self-determination in the Interim Constitution is concerned, it
actually has no meaning. The present constitution cannot be legally
binding on the freshly elected Constituent Assembly. The Interim
Constitution was amended for the third time to include the clause of
Federal Democratic Republic only as a face-saving formula for the
Maoists. But if this again serves as a way for the Madhesi parties
to save face, let's do it. Why not for the fourth time?

The third demand of the UDMF is more problematic and perhaps the
most contentious issue in the six-point demand. It has demanded an
amendment to Article 7 of the Election Act 2007. The article makes
it mandatory for any party contesting in more than 20 percent of the
constituencies under the first-past-the-post system to prepare an
inclusive list of candidates to be selected through the proportional
system. The UDMF wants the exemption limit raised to 50 percent.

This demand is fraught with many problems and contradicts the
principle of inclusion, the central philosophy of the Madhesi
movement itself. If a party fielding candidates in 50 percent of the
constituencies is allowed to flout the principle of inclusion, why
should it be binding to the other parties? Will it make the
Constituent Assembly more inclusive? The only defense in support of
this argument that I have heard so far is that the state should
recognize the existence of regional parties. Fine. But can a party
contesting in 50 percent of the constituencies in a national
election call itself just a regional party? Moreover, does that mean
that regional parties do not have to be inclusive? Does this mean,
for instance, that a state government that could be based in
Janakpur in the future will have the luxury of ignoring minorities
in the region? Above all, is the principle of inclusion, which has
been raised by the Madhesi parties, applicable only to others and
not to them? Forgive me for my language, but this is sheer
hypocrisy!

The fourth demand relates to proportional representation of
Madhesis, Janajatis, Dalits, other minority groups and women in all
state organs and at each level. Wait a minute! Does this mean that
the state should fill all its posts on the basis of quotas allocated
to different castes and ethnicities and abandon free competition
altogether? The Madhesi parties are yet to clarify their stand on
this matter. But what I know is that there is no modern state on
earth that allocates all the places in the civil service in
proportion to the ethnic make-up of the country.

India's Supreme Court put a cap on reservation at 50 percent when
some states tried to increase that quota to over 60 to 70 percent of
the total positions. We have a serious exclusion problem, and it
needs to be addressed. No doubt about that. Realizing the need, the
government recently amended the Civil Service Act and reserved 45
percent of state jobs for underprivileged groups. What more needs to
be done in this area? The UDMF should come forward with specific
suggestions.

The fifth demand is that Madhesis should be enlisted in the Nepal
Army en masse since it discriminated against them in the past. The
Nepal Army already has a separate battalion comprising of
underprivileged Madhesis. So it's not that the army has totally
ignored the call for inclusion. But that is certainly not enough.
The Nepal Army Act should also be amended and 45 percent of the
positions should be reserved for ethnic groups and castes that are
least represented in the army.

The sixth and final demand says that the government should take the
initiative to hold talks with the political groups waging an armed
struggle in the tarai. Who disagrees with that so long as the armed
bands are ready for unconditional talks?

http://www.nepalnews.com/archive/2008/others/guestcolumn/feb/guest_columns_10.php
Understanding the Madeshi Movement for Inclusive Nation Building

Those who make sweeping remarks such as Madhesi movements being the
act of criminals or that it it's a planned attempt by
the `regressive forces' including the monarchy, Hindu
fundamentalists and (phantom) imperialist forces to disrupt the CA
election and thus prevent the eventual takeover by the Maoists
display how much (dis)respect they have for Madhesi leaders and
their lack of sympathy for the grievances of the people living in
that part of the country.

By B. Sijapati

The year-long continuous political crisis in the Terai-Madhes region
has gathered further momentum after the indefinite general strike
called by the United Democratic Madhesi Front (UDMF). Available
information indicates that the entire Terai-Madhes region is in
flames with an adverse effect to the already crippled social,
economic and political situation of this nation. This crisis is most
likely to hamper the Constituent Assembly (CA) election and, if
there is not immediate solution, it may even force the Seven Party
Alliance (SPA) government once again to postpone the election.
However, none of the members of the ruling alliance is prepared to
face the consequences of postponing the election again.

Last week's developments that witnessed government's desire to be
more inclusive by announcing commitments for a reasonable
proportional representation in governance, creation of a credible
negotiation team by replacing one-man team consisting of the
Minister of Peace and Reconstruction, and the meeting held between
the Prime Minister and the UDMF leaders gave some room for hope.
However, within less than 24 hours of his meeting with the agitating
leaders the Prime Minister declared he was not willing to negotiate
on the two key demands of the UDMF, i.e., right to self-
determination and the formation of Terai-Madhes as one autonomous
region. Thus, by preempting issues for any negotiated settlement, he
has once again pushed the country back to square one.

The root cause of this state of affairs can be found in the attitude
of the ruling elite who consider themselves to be more Nepali than
their Madhesi brethren. These chauvinist elements always questioned
the integrity and national identity of Madhesi leaders. The
statements made by the so-called established leaders, including the
prime ministers-in-waiting Madhav Kumar Nepal and Sher Bahadur
Deuba, show their lack of respect for the people in the Terai and a
genuine appreciation of their grievances. Recently, the prime
minister declared that he could solve the crisis in ten minutes if
he got necessary cooperation from the India, implying that he does
not see any use of negotiation with the Terai-Madhes leaders. More
recently, he did not even hesitate to declare that the "Terai
demands that affect national unity won't be met". Such insensitive
remarks reinforce his doubts over the loyalty of the Madhesi leaders
towards Nepal. Those who make sweeping remarks such as Madhesi
movements being the act of criminals or that it's a planned attempt
by the `regressive forces' including the monarchy, Hindu
fundamentalists and (phantom) imperialist forces to disrupt the CA
election and thus prevent the eventual takeover by the Maoists
display how much (dis)respect they have for Madhesi leaders and
their lack of sympathy for the grievances of the people living in
that part of the country.

On their part, the established Madhesi leaders grossly
underestimated the significance of the spontaneous civil unrest
across the entire Terai-Madhes for almost a year. Only recently did
they seem to have realised how they were being by passed by the
change of events in the region. The vacuum created by the depleting
political hold of the established leaders nonetheless, it was
gradually being filled by armed extremist groups. The recently
launched UDMF movement has thus two main objectives: (a) strong
desire to bring about greater say in the governance process (by
establishing a separate identity); and (b) to regain the lost
political ground, i.e., political survival. The second is the main
reason behind the willingness of so many well-established leaders to
sacrifice their positions, power and privileges. In order to achieve
these goals they are replicating techniques adopted by the Maoists.
The Maoists so far succeeded by flexing their muscles. The UDMF
decided to join the bandwagon and provided impetus to the on going
agitation by launching a fresh movement of civil strife.

It is apparent that the top brass of the SPA continues to suffer
from the chauvinistic complexes and is underestimating the extent
and magnitude of the issues involved. Responsible leaders are once
again assuring us that the government will conduct the CA election
by hook or by crook, implying possible deployment of the armed
forces. They are also citing example of elections being held in the
Indian states of Kashmir and Punjab under similar security
situation. It is true that pro forma elections can be organised in
any conflict situation. The SPA leaders overlook the fact that the
proposed election is not for governance but to write a new
constitution.

Those who are advocating for the election to go ahead irrespective
of the political situation are the ones who know they do not stand a
chance if a fair election is held. It is, therefore, understandable
why they prefer the CA election to be conducted in a hurry. However,
if the SPA government wishes to honor the wishes of common people it
has no choice but to explore all avenues possible to find a solution
within a day or two.

It is high time for both the SPA government and the agitating UDMF
to defuse the situation since both have a lot to lose if the
existing unsettled situation continues. But this requires commitment
on the part of the establishment to prove it-self as a reliable and
credible partner. The situation also calls for the UDMF to be more
flexible. Traditional wisdom suggests that should both the
government and the UDMF do not succeed in resolving the issues at
the negotiation table, sooner than later both are going to end up
being the losers.

If the SPA government does not succeed in holding the CA election it
will lose what ever credibility it has. This will also end the
relevance of its existence. Postponing CA election may pave the way
for another cycle of violent confrontation. For the UDMF, there is a
danger that the leaders will be systematically marginalised by
militant groups. If the government were to allow this to happen, it
will have to confront the armed separatist groups in the Madhes. The
result will be more bloodshed, increased sufferings and the
inevitable disintegration of the nation. The looming catastrophe can
only be avoided if both parties show their desire and commitment to
embark on the journey to create a more inclusive nation-state.

http://www.hindu.com/2008/02/18/stories/2008021856450300.htm

ORISSA
Experts fault Maoists for roping in forest dwellers
Satyasundar Barik

Villagers have evolved a unique forest protection practice called Thengapali

BHUBANESWAR: Did the dense forests and its human inhabitants in Nayagarh 
district provide Maoist rebels the launching pad to attack security 
establishments on Friday night? The answer seems to be in the negative.

Although exploitation of poor people under "restrictive" forest laws 
provided a fertile ground to the extremists, Nayagarh may not fit into the 
scheme of Maoists. The district witnessed first naxalite attack but all 
Maoist cadres came from outside, intelligence sources said.

Experts on security opined the extremist groups could never have roped in 
Nayagarh's forest dwellers to attack police establishments but it was a 
well-devised plan and they executed it immaculately to loot.

Forest dwellers of Nayagarh are one of the most vibrant forest communities 
in the country and they are aware about their rights better than of their 
counterparts in other naxalite-infested districts such as Malkanagiri, 
Gajapati, Koraput, Rayagada and Sambalpur.

The awareness level was high so much so that villagers dictate 
implementation of Government welfare schemes in their respective regions.

"At any given point of time, each forest of the district is manned by 
villagers. Reports of any unusual movement inside the jungles gets 
circulated immediately," Laxmidhrar Balia, former president of Jungle 
Surakshya Mahasangh (JSM) of Nayagarh, said.

Villagers in remote areas have evolved a unique forest protection practice 
called Thengapali (rotation of batons). As per the practice, every family of 
forest fringe areas is bound to donate one day for protection.

Moreover, forest dwellers of Nayagarh have managed to bargain better deals 
from minor forest produce traders by sheer strength of their awareness and 
community unity.

JSM President Prasanna Kumar Panda said police interference, which was often 
considered as way to further exploitation and favourable ground for 
naxalites to get closer to people, in day to day affairs of forest 
communities was almost negligible.

The forest communities have instituted an innovative parallel "judiciary 
system" called Jan Ban Adalat, (People's Forest Court) for conflict 
resolution.
While forest protection federation is the apex body to decide people's 
quarrel, six zonal committees and hundreds of regional committees dispose 
off petty matters at their own level.

At present, more than 700 villages are actively involved in forest 
protection in dense forested regions such as Dasapalla, Nuagaon, Ranapur and 
Khandapada. During last two decades, their efforts have helped regeneration 
of denuded jungles and prevent timber mafi

as from cutting down trees. The forest communities are very assertive about 
their rights and they determine as to how would be the shape of development 
in their regions," Nayagarh Divisional Forest Officer Bansidhar Behera said.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Taliban foot soldiers deeply ignorant of the world
Survey reveals Kandahar fighters know next to nothing about Canada or U.S., 
contradicting view Taliban are sophisticated terrorists
GRAEME SMITH gsmith at globeandmail.com March 27, 2008 The Globe and Mail
KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN -- The typical Taliban foot soldier battling Canadian 
troops and their allies in Kandahar is not a global jihadist who dreams of 
some day waging war on Canadian soil. In fact, he would have trouble finding 
Canada on a map.

A survey of 42 insurgents in Kandahar province posed a series of questions 
about the fighters' view of the world, and the results contradicted the 
oft-repeated perception of the Taliban as sophisticated terrorists who pose 
a direct threat to Western countries.

Faced with a multiple-choice question about Canada's location, only one of 
42 fighters correctly guessed that Canada is located to the north of the 
United States, meaning the insurgents performed worse than randomly.

None of them could identify Stephen Harper as the Prime Minister of Canada, 
and they often repeated the syllables of his name - "Stepheh Napper," "Sehn 
Hahn," "Steng Peng Beng," "Gra Pla Pla" - that reflected their puzzlement 
over a name they had never heard.

Nor did they seem to associate the word "Canada" with anything except, in 
some cases, the soldiers now serving in Afghanistan. Most could not 
distinguish between the French- and English-speaking rotations of troops.

One of The Globe and Mail's questions offered the Taliban a chance to 
volunteer any information about Canada: "Do you know about this country? 
What kind of people are there? Is it a big country or a small country? Poor 
country, rich country? Cold or warm? Do Muslims live there?" None offered 
any meaningful responses, and most of them simply declined to answer. One of 
the few who guessed, a 21-year-old farmer, seemed to think the word "Canada" 
indicated a faraway city.

"It might be an old and destroyed city," he said.

The results show the depth of ignorance among front-line insurgents in 
Kandahar. In a previous visit to the tribal areas of Pakistan, a reporter 
for The Globe and Mail personally met with more sophisticated Taliban who 
demonstrated a keen grasp of politics and appeared to know the latest news 
of the war. But those politically astute Taliban were hundreds of kilometres 
away from the battlefields, and it remains unclear how much control such 
organizers exert over the day-to-day operations of the insurgency.

The Taliban became synonymous with ignorance during their years in 
government, banning media such as television that might bring foreign ideas 
into the country. As insurgents, however, they've shown a newfound flair for 
technology, distributing video propaganda and sending press statements via 
text message to reporters' mobile phones.

"The Taliban also have a sophisticated media strategy and full grasp of 
modern technology," said a report by the European Council on Foreign 
Relations in January.

Canadian politicians and military officials often make public statements 
that suggest the Taliban monitor political trends in Ottawa and choose to 
attack at politically sensitive moments: General Rick Hillier, Canada's 
Chief of the Defence Staff, raised the possibility that a suicide bombing 
that killed more than 100 people in Kandahar province in February may have 
been connected with debates in the House of Commons about the future of the 
mission.

But a Western expert who reviewed The Globe's video footage said the kind of 
worldliness described by Gen. Hillier isn't the most likely explanation.

"Those [insurgents] making decisions are more sophisticated than those you 
are interviewing, so there is some chance of this being plausible," the 
expert said. "But I think they're working to their own calendar, not ours." 
Three fighters in the survey didn't recognize the name of U.S. President 
George W. Bush, and another mispronounced his name as "Bukh," suggesting he 
wasn't familiar with the word.

Those who had heard of the U.S. President often gave responses that revealed 
more of their parochialism. He was called a "Jew," and "King of America." 
Sometimes, amid the errors, the Taliban showed their simplistic view of 
world politics. "He is the son of George W, [and] he is the son of Clinton 
W, and he is American, and is a serious enemy of Islam," said one fighter in 
his description of Mr. Bush.

"Why is he an enemy of Islam?" he was asked.

"The Koran says: 'Jews and Christians will be unhappy until you obey them. 
When you obey them, they will be satisfied,' " the insurgent replied. "This 
means if you obey them they are happy, but if you don't accept their 
commands, they will fight you."

Some of the comments about Mr. Bush showed the Taliban's enthusiasm for 
crude violence: "If I were to capture him, I would cut a piece of his flesh 
even as he was still alive." They were equally vitriolic in their 
descriptions of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, calling him a "slave" of the 
Americans. "There is no difference between the red-faced and green-eyed 
infidel, and him," one said.

When the Taliban demonstrated any understanding beyond their immediate 
surroundings, it was often references to their own version of Islamic 
history. They invoked stories of ancient Egypt and compared the U.S. 
President to one of the pharaohs, also drawing a parallel between the U.S. 
invasion of Afghanistan and the medieval Christians who launched Crusades.

Another described the war in Afghanistan as part of a conflict that 
stretches back to the founding of Islam as a religion.

"Non-Muslims have been against Muslims for a long time," he said. "Just as 
they attacked the Prophet Mohammed and broke his teeth, so they are against 
us since that era."

http://tinyurl.com/2zr925

An overview of anarchism in Jordan today
by hamza -- jordanian anarchists Wednesday, Mar 26 2008, 6:36pm
hamza_hhh at hotmail.com phone: 00962788467931
mashriq / arabia / iraq / anarchist movement / news report

Anarchists in Jordan . . . theory and activites

Finally after more than 50 years of communist activism in Jordan the
anarchists started to gather . . . most Jordanian anarchists are artists
who work in music, film making, and graphic design, one of our comrades
is finishing his master in gender studies . . . some comrades are
Jordanian and others are Palestinian refugees living in Jordan.

Most of us come from Marxist background so theory has great importance
for us.two comrades finally found an Arabic book that talks about
anarchism . . . actually we found three more books but with different
Arabic words for "anarchism"
1- Fawdawiya which literary means kenotic
2- La soltawiya which literary means anti-authoritarianism
3- Taharoriya which literary means libertarianism
4- Anarkeya which literary means anarchism

We also found an Egyptian and Lebanese anarchist websites which were
extremely helpful.

Until now we are about 20 comrades . . . I believe that there more
anarchists in the country but it is hard to find them!

Lately, We became part of a bigger movement called the social left which
consists of Marxists feminists and others . . . despite the fact that
the movement has more than a 1000 member, we -- anarchists -- have,
relatively, very strong influence and effect in/on the group . . . we
meet in Anti-globalization office in Jordan

When we started reading we looked for any form of anarchy in our own
history and local culture . . . after reading a book called "Sufi
tropics" written by an Iraqi writer (Hadi al Alawi) . . . we found that
Sufism is ALL ABOUT anarchism . . . actually we found a website on the
internet that talks abut Sufi-anarchism . . .now most of us label
themselves as Sufi anarchists . . . we even found Sufi anarchist
movements and groups from the 8-16 century . . . So after reading what
we were able to find from Bakunin's Prodon's [Proudhon's] Kropotkin's
books . . . and after studying the history of anarchy in Spain Ukraine
Paris Mexico . . . and after studying Sufism, we started to have our own
understanding of anarchism . . .

others r messed up comrade of us even worked on his own understanding of
sufi-anarchism in away compatible with his own understanding of post
modernism and the fall of ideology or what he called nihilist Sufi
anarchism (plz don't ask me to explain!!!)

We heard about other groups in Egypt, morocco, Lebanon and Palestine but
never met any of them . . .

Last week, a very important columnist wrote about us -- anarchists -- in
the most popular newspaper in the country . . . after he saw our flag
for the first time in a protest . . .

All political movements and parties in Jordan have a problem with
numbers, . . . recruiting more people can be very difficult because most
people are too afraid to participate . . .

In Jordan we still suffer from
expulsion from universities because of any political activities
laws that r extremely hard to understand and interpret which r used
against political activists like:
disturbing civil harmony!
bashing higher status!
long tongue!!!
copying without permission!
Unauthorized gatherings!
Human Rights Watch talks about torture, kidnappings . . .there is also 3
years in prison because of founding unauthorized groups . . .

So, anarchism in Jordan still have a long way to go but it is expected
to grow in the upcoming years . . .
 From ur brothers/sisters . . . comrades
Anarchists of Jordan

http://www.chycho.com/?q=node/1631

chycho.com
blog about contact login donate RSS
Home » Blog » chycho's blog
American Refugees are flooding into Canada: Tens of thousands of Americans 
are now economic refugees
In September of 2007, the city of Windsor, which borders the United States, 
officially asked for financial assistance from Ottawa to deal with American 
refugees flooding into Canada. This is proving to be the tip of the iceberg, 
and only the first wave of economic refugees that have been created in the 
United States.
There are now tent cities being built outside most large metropolitan areas, 
one of the largest of which is in Los Angeles. The following report from the 
BBC highlights the consequence of the US subprime meltdown and the fears 
that the crisis is growing.

The homelessness situation has grown so rapidly in the United States that 
certain cities are issuing color-coded wristbands - blue for those who can 
stay, "orange for people who need to provide more documentation, and white 
for those who must leave." Refugees will no longer be able to stay in one 
area, meaning that many towns and cities will now have to be prepared to 
receive migrant refugees displaced by local governments from other districts 
and States.
Canadians will also need to be prepared for this influx, especially 
considering that the average processing time for a refugee claim in Canada 
is currently 14.2 months, "a period during which the applicant is eligible 
for financial and other support. A failed claimant then also has the right 
to seek leave to appeal his or her rejection to federal court." If the 
American refugee crisis continues to grow as analysts predict, then the cost 
to Canadians will be astronomical.
Aside from tens of thousands of Americans becoming refugees in their own 
country, there is another problem. As The Atlantic is reporting, "the 
subprime crisis is just the tip of the iceberg. Fundamental changes in 
American life may turn today's McMansions into tomorrow's tenements." Over 
60% of the homes in certain communities "were in foreclosure as of late last 
year. Vandals have kicked in doors and stripped the copper wire from vacant 
houses; drug users and homeless people have furtively moved in."
"The experience of cities during the 1950s through the '80s suggests that 
the fate of many single-family homes on the metropolitan fringes will be 
resale, at rock-bottom prices, to lower-income families-and in all 
likelihood, eventual conversion to apartments. much of the future decline is 
likely to occur on the fringes, in towns far away from the central city, not 
served by rail transit, and lacking any real core. In other words, some of 
the worst problems are likely to be seen in some of the country's more 
recently developed areas-and not only those inhabited by subprime-mortgage 
borrowers. Many of these areas will become magnets for poverty, crime, and 
social dysfunction."
All of this is occurring while: the US government bails out Wall Street; 
credit card companies raise record amounts of money by issuing shares; the 
economic crisis draws comparison to the 1929 stock market crash; 
investigation of predatory banks gets killed; The Federal Deposit Insurance 
Corp. prepares for bank failures; and the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta 
releases a crisis peparedness video.
And some thought that Stocking the Root Cellar was only for conspiracy 
theorists.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rant: Take Them Back to Dear Old Blighty
The ugliest byproduct of the sagging dollar
Michael C. Moynihan | April 2008 Print Edition
Last December, Ricky Hatton, a stout-chugging, ruddy-faced British boxer, 
was laid out on a Las Vegas canvas by the American welterweight champion 
Floyd Mayweather. The crowd of Union Jack-bedecked fans -"drunken dullards" 
and "boors," according to The Daily Telegraph's horrified sports 
correspondent-became so unruly that for the first time in its history, the 
MGM Grand casino shut down its archipelago of bars. Hatton's troglodyte 
supporters achieved what was long considered impossible: They managed to 
class-down Vegas.

Drawn by a plummeting dollar, the British are arriving en masse on American 
shores. In the streets of Manhattan, pale-skinned men in Manchester United 
shirts marvel loudly at what all these iPods, "trainers," and Nike track 
suits would cost them back home. While generously pumping much-needed money 
into the U.S. economy, the feral packs of lager louts are, one hopes, 
helping correct America's long-held misperception that the English are a 
nation of Inspector Morse bit players-sophisticated, fastidious, 
snobby-especially when compared to us rubes.

We're not quite free of our inferiority complex just yet. After a 2005 stint 
playing on London's West End, former Top Gun actor Val Kilmer enthused that 
English audiences were "smarter" than their American counterparts because 
"they read books." (This is true, though if the current British bestseller 
list is any indication, our bibliophilic cousins are feeding their heads 
with diet guides and biographies of topless models.) The American blogger 
Matt Janovic, enraged by his intellectual isolation in the Midwest, summed 
up the prevailing confusion nicely: "Face it: an English schoolgirl sounds 
more authoritative than the voice of most American politicians.we sound like 
the cavemen that many around the world (rightly) think we are."

And the filmmaker Michael Moore, always eager to play suck-up abroad, told 
one English audience in 2003 that the "dumbest Brit here is smarter than the 
smartest American." In other words, theirs is a nation of abeyant Evelyn 
Waughs.

Waugh himself bristled at such stereotypes-insisting, for instance, that in 
etiquette "Americans are immensely the superiors of the English." When 
Esquire asked the curmudgeonly novelist to write of the "crudeness" of 
America's literary milieu, Waugh demurred, arguing that the Yanks were far 
more "literate" than his London-based contemporaries.

It's high time that self-hating, pusillanimous Americans everywhere revisit 
Waugh's assessment. And there is no better educational tool than extended 
encounters with that breed of Britons known colloquially as the chav, a 
pejorative recently added to the Collins English Dictionary to describe "a 
young working class person who dresses in casual sports clothing." (Also 
added, incidentally, was asbo, an acronym for youths racking up violations 
of the "anti-social behavior order," a malady which midwifed the British 
reality show ASBO Teen to Beauty Queen.)

While Britain is fast catching up to America-and leading Europe-in 
illiteracy, obesity, and violent crime (despite ubiquitous surveillance 
cameras and an ineffective ban on handguns), the Wittgenstein references in 
Monty Python still shape our assumptions of British cultural supremacy. But 
as the English social critic Theodore Dalyrymple observed in 2004, to 
profess an interest in high culture in today's Britain is to be met with 
accusations of homosexuality.

So before President Ron Paul restores the gold standard, it should be 
acknowledged that the sagging dollar is providing one useful service: a 
long-overdue corrective to our self-image as lesser Brits. Europeans, who 
ranked the English as the "world's worst tourists" in a recent Expedia poll, 
have long ago disabused themselves of such stereotypes. Take a look around 
New York, Boston, or Los Angeles, and spot the omnipresent gaggle of chavs, 
waddling through the Adidas shop, shouting drunken insults in local Irish 
pubs, converting the currency on every product within reach. England is just 
America writ small.

Michael C. Moynihan is an associate editor of Reason.

http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/03/do-hamburgers-cause-crime/

April 3, 2008,  3:04 pm
Do Hamburgers Cause Crime?

Most of us who eat meat regularly would still rather not kill an animal
with
our own hands. So we have, for generations, delegated that work to
others.

Jennifer Dillard, at Georgetown Law, authored a new paper looking at
what
that delegation costs the workers of industrial slaughterhouses. She
argues
that prolonged work on a kill floor exposes workers to the risk of
psychological damage, including post-traumatic stress disorder, and
that
they
should be compensated under O.S.H.A. for any ill effects they suffer.

Giving slaughterhouse workers therapy might also reduce another cost
associated with the meat-processing industry: increased crime.

Writing for the American Sociological Association, Amy Fitzgerald finds
a
spill-over effect from the violent work of the slaughterhouse into the
surrounding community. According to her research, U.S. counties that
have
slaughterhouses consistently have higher rates of violent crime than
demographically similar counties that don't.

http://www.boingboing.net/2008/03/19/bbtv-how-to-hack-an.html

BBtv - How to hack RFID-enabled credit cards for $8
Posted by Xeni Jardin, March 19, 2008 7:00 AM | permalink

A number of credit card companies now issue credit cards
with embedded RFIDs (radio frequency ID tags),
with promises of enhanced security and speedy transactions.
But on today's episode of Boing Boing tv, hacker and inventor
Pablos Holman shows Xeni how you can use about
$8 worth of gear bought on eBay to read personal data
from those credit cards -- cardholder name, credit card number,
and whatever else your bank embeds in this manner.
Fears over data leaks from RFID-enabled cards aren't new,
and some argue they're overblown -- but this demo shows
just how cheap and easy the "sniffing" can be.
Link to complete Boing Boing tv post
with discussion and downloadable video.

END

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/357294_ecocultural02.html
*Land Grab on a Global Scale*

by Dennis Martinez
April 2, 2008 by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Among the English-speaking settler societies --- U.S., Canada,
Australia, New Zealand --- an irrational but powerful myth still
prevails. It drove "manifest destiny" and is still alive and well, if
usually unconscious.

Divinely inspired colonists wrested lands occupied by native peoples and
bestowed the mixed blessings of civilization on them. The
rationalization for dispossession then --- and now --- was that these
"primitive" peoples were not making productive use of their lands. What
they did not know, and still do not, is that they took over lands that
were largely shaped and maintained by indigenous peoples through
extensive and intensive land care practices that enabled them to not
only survive but also thrive.

Enter the 21st century. The work of indigenous dispossession is about to
be completed. The last great global land grab and indigenous asset
stripping is happening as I write. (I borrowed these phrases from
Rebecca Adamson of First Peoples Worldwide and Andy White of Rights and
Resources Initiative at a meeting of the World Bank that I participated in.)

We have a big problem. Some unintended outcomes of well-intentioned
climate mitigation measures are below the media radar screen. Land
values are dramatically increasing because of demand by northern
multinational corporations for land to produce biofuels, plantation
monocultures for carbon trading offsets and transfat substitutes such as
palm oil in the developing south.

Indigenous peoples presently occupy 22 percent of the Earth's land
surface, are stewards of 80 percent of remaining biodiversity and
comprise 90 percent of cultural diversity. As demand increases the value
of indigenous lands --- already poorly protected --- the rate of loss of
indigenous assets and livelihood options becomes more rapid. Adding to
these losses are losses of homelands set aside by big environmental NGOs
and third-world government elites for conservation reserves and parks
through forced evictions. Also disappearing is global genetic diversity
maintained by indigenous peoples, which is essential for maintaining the
capacity of plants and animals to adapt to climate change.

Disappearing with land and resources are an incalculable wealth of
stewardship experience and knowledge. But climate change is here. While
the developed north (west) is scrambling for solutions, indigenous
peoples are receiving the brunt of the effects of climate change caused
by the north. Ignored in the global debate are indigenous cultures that
have survived intact for millennia while "great" civilizations have
repeatedly collapsed. Indigenous peoples are neither noble nor ignoble.

Some have made environmental mistakes in the past and did not survive.
The cultures that survived have done so in proportion as they have
learned to adapt. They are just people like everyone else, but people
with great practical know-how.

The current economic asymmetry is the result of the myth that wealth
will eventually filter down to the poor through so-called free trade and
speculative global markets. But as the wealth of a small number of
privileged individuals has increased, world poverty has increased fivefold.

The Rio Convention on Biological Diversity (1992), Article 8 (j), and
Agenda 21 affirmed that indigenous cultures protect biodiversity and
should be compensated for their sustainable practices and products. But
the U.S.-dominated Uruguay round of GATT in the same year effectively
shut out indigenous peoples from any protection or compensation.

In the meantime the world is losing its best strategy for mitigating
climate change --- viable indigenous cultures who are the stewards of
genetic diversity through traditional land practices. They will also
lose the continuing contributions of native knowledge to medicine,
sustainable agriculture, health products, lubricants, common foods,
wildlife and fisheries management, and more.

The tobacco industry is now liable for costs to states for paying
smokers' health bills. Why not hold the developed nations accountable
for the damage to ecosystems and indigenous ecosystem peoples who are
suffering from climate change that they didn't cause? Where is the
accountability? Why not support existing national and international laws
and treaties that are simply ignored?

We do not want victimhood. We want parity and compensation through
recognition of our substantial contributions to your wealth. It is not
an "ethnic" issue. Indigenous peoples are the miner's canary. It is
about the survival of all humans and it is about the loss of the
collective heritage of our species. It is all of our lands and all of
our assets that are being stolen by economic criminals. They benefit and
we pay.

Dennis Martinez is founder and co-chairman of the Indigenous Peoples'
Restoration Network of the Society for Ecological Restoration International.
http://www.ser.org/iprn/default.asp