[This is a series of posts based upon my experiences during an August tour of Venezuela. Each post is a stand alone commentary, but, if you are interested, here are Part 1 and Part 2. Comments can be e-mailed to me at restes60@earthlink.net.]
People familiar with the intense conflicts associated with the neoliberal globalization process may find this lengthy post tiresome, but it is not possible to properly understand the economic ambitions of the Bolivarian Revolution without recognizing the alternatives that it has rejected. Much has been written about the economic collapse of Venezuela since the oil boom of the 1970s, and the emergence of Chavez as conditions worsened. But it is also important to understand why the preservation of state control over the aluminum and oil industries, though CVG Alcasa, CVG Venalum and PDVSA, is a marked departure from the discredited form of global economic development implemented around the world by the United States, Japan and Western Europe.
Tuesday, September 20, 2005
Cuban doctors
Well, the U.S. isn't going to accept Cuba's generous offer of 1586 doctors to offer medical care to victims of Hurricane Katrina (an offer which still stands, by the way, and which is still needed, albeit without the urgency of three weeks ago when the offer was first made). However those doctors are still on standby, not just waiting to serve the people of the United States, but the people of the world. In a speech today, Fidel Castro announced the creation of the Henry Reeve International Contingent of Disaster and Epidemic Physicians, ready to provide services anywhere in the world there is an epidemic or catastrophe. One particularly interesting section of Castro's speech is what he has to say about AIDS:
El Alto, Bolivia: A New World Out Of Differences
El Alto, Bolivia, at 13,300 feet above sea level, is in shambles viewed from the outside, if one cultivates someone else’s Western, colonial way of looking. Another perspective, though, reveals the history of an amazing place where social mobilization has called the powers that be into question and done it without centralized or unified organizations. Here are facts and insights for understanding the Aymaras’ capital city that reinvented the word insurrection.
"If the Imperialist Government of the White House Dares to Invade Venezuela, the War of 100 Years Will be Unleashed in South America"
Scores of world leaders have come to the United States for a summit at the United Nations. Among them, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
In a speech before the world body, Chavez accused the US of trying to hijack the UN summit and described the US as a terrorist nation because it is harboring the tele-evangelist Pat Robertson who recently called for his assassination. He has accused the United States of being behind the aborted coup against him in 2002, condemned the U.S. invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan and threatened to cut off oil sales to the United States.
Democracy Now! met with President Chavez on Friday in his first sit-down interview in the United States. Amy Goodman interviewed him with Democracy Now! co-host Juan Gonzalez and Margaret Prescod of Pacifica Radio station KPFK at the Venezuelan ambassador to the UN's residence in New York City.
In a speech before the world body, Chavez accused the US of trying to hijack the UN summit and described the US as a terrorist nation because it is harboring the tele-evangelist Pat Robertson who recently called for his assassination. He has accused the United States of being behind the aborted coup against him in 2002, condemned the U.S. invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan and threatened to cut off oil sales to the United States.
Democracy Now! met with President Chavez on Friday in his first sit-down interview in the United States. Amy Goodman interviewed him with Democracy Now! co-host Juan Gonzalez and Margaret Prescod of Pacifica Radio station KPFK at the Venezuelan ambassador to the UN's residence in New York City.
Feds Whitewash US Bio-Chemical Tests in Alaska
President Bush extended holiday greetings to military troops this Christmas, but one gift he'll never open is the executive order he signed, which keeps sensitive documents secret about biological and chemical testing at Fort Greely near Fairbanks, Alaska.
The president, by sealing important documents, obviously feels military health concerns were of secondary importance to protecting the Department of Defense (DOD) against potential exposure for injuries resulting from chemical testing and dumping.
What little is known about chemical and biological testing at Fort Greely has surfaced from leaked documents, eyewitness accounts and other general information provided reluctantly by the DOD after health problems began to surface by those living near the base.
Other information, scratching the surface of what really happened, has also appeared in Seymour Hersh's book Chemical and Biological Testing: America's Hidden Arsenal, a historical account of the base by Norman Chase and a March 2003 article entitled "Northern Exposure" in The Nation magazine by Korey Capozza.
"The real story of what went on is in the classified documents kept secret by the DOD and President Bush," said Capozza, a critic of the recent executive order signed by Bush. "They have yet to give veterans a clear definition of possible causes of their health problems. The DOD also refuses to grant any of the veterans health care based on exposure to agents used in the secret site's experiments."
The president, by sealing important documents, obviously feels military health concerns were of secondary importance to protecting the Department of Defense (DOD) against potential exposure for injuries resulting from chemical testing and dumping.
What little is known about chemical and biological testing at Fort Greely has surfaced from leaked documents, eyewitness accounts and other general information provided reluctantly by the DOD after health problems began to surface by those living near the base.
Other information, scratching the surface of what really happened, has also appeared in Seymour Hersh's book Chemical and Biological Testing: America's Hidden Arsenal, a historical account of the base by Norman Chase and a March 2003 article entitled "Northern Exposure" in The Nation magazine by Korey Capozza.
"The real story of what went on is in the classified documents kept secret by the DOD and President Bush," said Capozza, a critic of the recent executive order signed by Bush. "They have yet to give veterans a clear definition of possible causes of their health problems. The DOD also refuses to grant any of the veterans health care based on exposure to agents used in the secret site's experiments."
Depleted uranium is WMD
My grandfather, U.S. Army Col. Edwin Joseph McAllister, was born in Battle Creek in 1895. He does not know that his first grandchild is an international expert on depleted uranium. I have worked in two U.S. nuclear weapons laboratories, and in 1991 I became a whistleblower at the Livermore lab. Depleted uranium is very, very, very nasty stuff:
Depleted uranium (DU) weaponry meets the definition of weapon of mass destruction in two out of three categories under U.S. Federal Code Title 50 Chapter 40 Section 2302.
DU weaponry violates all international treaties and agreements, Hague and Geneva war conventions, the 1925 Geneva gas protocol, U.S. laws and U.S. military law.
Since 1991, the U.S. has released the radioactive atomicity equivalent of at least 400,000 Nagasaki bombs into the global atmosphere. That is 10 times the amount released during atmospheric testing which was the equivalent of 40,000 Hiroshima bombs. The U.S. has permanently contaminated the global atmosphere with radioactive pollution having a half-life of 2.5 billion years.
The U.S. has illegally conducted four nuclear wars in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and twice in Iraq since 1991, calling DU "conventional" weapons when in fact they are nuclear weapons.
La política agraria del Banco Mundial en el inicio del siglo XXI: Ofensiva neoliberal en marcha acelerada
Está en curso una ofensiva política del Banco Mundial (BM) en el sector agrario, especialmente latino-americano. Entre el 1990 y el 2004, el BM suscribió con 32 países, 45 préstamos para proyectos relacionados con su política agraria. Sumados los proyectos concluidos y en curso, se observa que las regiones de América Latina y el Caribe responden por un 33,3% del total; el Este Europeo y Asia Central, por un 26,6%; el este de Asia y la región del Pacífico, por un 24,4%; África y Oriente Medio, por un 13,4% y el sur de Asia por un 2,2%. Se nota también, que el BM viene acelerando significativamente la aprobación de tales proyectos: entre 1990 y 1994, 3; de 1995 la 1999, 19, totalizando US$ 700 millones; desde el 2000 hasta el 2004, 25, totalizando US$ 1000 millones en préstamos. Paralelamente, el BM viene articulando, en diversos países, cursos y talleres para la burocracia estatal directamente responsable de la implementación de políticas en el medio rural, a fin de ejercer una efectiva dirección intelectual y moral sobre la definición de la política agraria de los Estados nacionales.
UP IN FLAMES
HUNDREDS of tons of British food aid shipped to America for starving Hurricane Katrina survivors is to be burned.
US red tape is stopping it from reaching hungry evacuees.
Instead tons of the badly needed Nato ration packs, the same as those eaten by British troops in Iraq, has been condemned as unfit for human consumption.
And unless the bureaucratic mess is cleared up soon it could be sent for incineration.
One British aid worker last night called the move "sickening senselessness" and said furious colleagues were "spitting blood".
US red tape is stopping it from reaching hungry evacuees.
Instead tons of the badly needed Nato ration packs, the same as those eaten by British troops in Iraq, has been condemned as unfit for human consumption.
And unless the bureaucratic mess is cleared up soon it could be sent for incineration.
One British aid worker last night called the move "sickening senselessness" and said furious colleagues were "spitting blood".
Imperio y democracia
Nunca, desde los tiempos de Pericles, se había profundizado tanto el abismo entre contenidos y formas de la democracia. Aún en la antigua Grecia, se sabía que este sistema de gobierno beneficiaba sólo a los hombres libres y no a los esclavos que lo sustentaban.
La culpa es de Gary Cooper
No presten atención al discurso del presidente venezolano Hugo Chávez en la ONU. El imperialismo yanqui, la Doctrina de Seguridad Nacional (estadounidense) y el Nuevo Orden Mundial (también estadounidense) son conceptos pasados de moda. Olvídense del Fondo Monetario Internacional, de las empresas Texaco, Halliburton, Chevron, Bechtel y Enron.
Is the EPA Withholding Information on New Orleans Contamination? (like after 9/11 in NY)
Journalists, government watchdogs and a top Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) official have criticized EPA’s inability to provide adequate data on the location and danger of chemicals leaked into New Orleans communities in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
Last week Hugh Kaufman, a senior EPA policy analyst in the Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response, said of EPA’s water testing efforts, “There is not enough information to draw any conclusions other than EPA has become totally incompetent at water testing, or there is a cover up.” [1]
George Sorvalis, outreach associate for OMB Watch, a nonprofit government accountability group, told BushGreenwatch, “EPA does not appear to be testing for chemicals related to the petrochemical and oil industries, including diesel and byproducts of petrochemical refining. These are chemicals you would expect EPA to test for.”
“EPA’s sampling to date has been spotty and inconsistent,” says Darryl Malek-Wiley, a New Orleans-based environmental justice advocate for Sierra Club, who spoke to BushGreenwatch from Baton Rouge. “The amount of sampling that has been done doesn’t fully characterize what is happening in New Orleans.”
Last week Hugh Kaufman, a senior EPA policy analyst in the Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response, said of EPA’s water testing efforts, “There is not enough information to draw any conclusions other than EPA has become totally incompetent at water testing, or there is a cover up.” [1]
George Sorvalis, outreach associate for OMB Watch, a nonprofit government accountability group, told BushGreenwatch, “EPA does not appear to be testing for chemicals related to the petrochemical and oil industries, including diesel and byproducts of petrochemical refining. These are chemicals you would expect EPA to test for.”
“EPA’s sampling to date has been spotty and inconsistent,” says Darryl Malek-Wiley, a New Orleans-based environmental justice advocate for Sierra Club, who spoke to BushGreenwatch from Baton Rouge. “The amount of sampling that has been done doesn’t fully characterize what is happening in New Orleans.”
on Iraq's Missing Sea of Oil
The strangest aspect of media coverage of our invasion and occupation of Iraq involved that country's oil. Everyone, including the Bush administration, was well aware that Iraq sat on a sea of it. It was obvious that Middle Eastern oil was a global lifeline and an ever more valuable commodity; and yet, unless you were a faithful reader of the business pages, for days, weeks, even months on end, it was impossible to find serious discussion of Iraqi oil in the mainstream media. Forget the fact that a number of the major players in the Bush administration came out of the energy business; that Condoleezza Rice, the national security advisor, had had an oil tanker named after her (when she was still on Chevron's board of directors); that the neocons and their supporters evinced a special interest in the oil heartlands of our planet (a.k.a. "the arc of instability"); or that the Pentagon was staking those heartlands out, base by base.
Who's Blowing Up Iraq? New evidence that bombs are being planted by British (and CIA)
"The Iraqi security officials on Monday variously accused two Britons they detained of shooting at Iraqi forces or TRYING TO PLANT EXPLOSIVES." Washington Post, Ellen Knickmeyer, 9-20-05; "British Smash into Jail to Free Two Detained Soldiers"
In more than two years since the United States initiated hostilities against Iraq, there has never been a positive identification of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
Never.
That doesn't mean that he doesn't exist; it simply suggests that prudent people will challenge the official version until his whereabouts and significance in the conflict can be verified.
Bush's 'bullhorn moment' just bull
I'm amazed that anyone is amazed that it took George W. Bush three days to show up in New Orleans after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.
That's exactly how long it took him to show up at Ground Zero after 9/11.
So it mystifies me that the pundits and the cable gasbags keep telling us that George W. Bush missed his "bullhorn moment" in New Orleans.
No, he didn't.
Because his bullhorn moment in New York City was just as late and just as disgraceful as his fumbling handling of the Katrina carnage.
I wish I had a bullhorn to shout just how tired I am of hearing about how wonderful George W. Bush's "bullhorn moment" was.
That's exactly how long it took him to show up at Ground Zero after 9/11.
So it mystifies me that the pundits and the cable gasbags keep telling us that George W. Bush missed his "bullhorn moment" in New Orleans.
No, he didn't.
Because his bullhorn moment in New York City was just as late and just as disgraceful as his fumbling handling of the Katrina carnage.
I wish I had a bullhorn to shout just how tired I am of hearing about how wonderful George W. Bush's "bullhorn moment" was.
Will Neocon Fanaticism Destroy America?
The "cakewalk war" is now two and one-half years old. U.S. casualties (dead and wounded) number 20,000. As 20,000 is the number of Iraqi insurgents according to U.S. military commanders, each insurgent is responsible for one U.S. casualty.
U.S. troops in Iraq number about 150,000. Obviously, U.S. troops have not inflicted 150,000 casualties on the Iraqi insurgents. U.S. troops have perhaps inflicted 150,000 casualties on the Iraqi civilian population, primarily women and children who are the "collateral damage" of the "righteous" and "virtuous" U.S. invasion that is spreading civilian deaths all over Mesopotamia in the name of democracy
What could the U.S. have possibly done to give America a worse name than to invade Iraq and murder its citizens?
According to the Sept. 1 Manufacturing & Technology News, the Government Accounting Office has reported that over the course of the cakewalk war, the U.S. military's use of small caliber ammunition has risen to 1.8 billion rounds. Think about that number. If there are 20,000 insurgents, it means U.S. troops have fired 90,000 rounds at each insurgent.
U.S. troops in Iraq number about 150,000. Obviously, U.S. troops have not inflicted 150,000 casualties on the Iraqi insurgents. U.S. troops have perhaps inflicted 150,000 casualties on the Iraqi civilian population, primarily women and children who are the "collateral damage" of the "righteous" and "virtuous" U.S. invasion that is spreading civilian deaths all over Mesopotamia in the name of democracy
What could the U.S. have possibly done to give America a worse name than to invade Iraq and murder its citizens?
According to the Sept. 1 Manufacturing & Technology News, the Government Accounting Office has reported that over the course of the cakewalk war, the U.S. military's use of small caliber ammunition has risen to 1.8 billion rounds. Think about that number. If there are 20,000 insurgents, it means U.S. troops have fired 90,000 rounds at each insurgent.
Choreography by the Scriptures for a struts-and-bull presidency
For President Bush every appearance, every word, every joke, every strut, every backdrop is staged for iconic effect by an army of ghostwriters and television producers. But symbolism designed to have the force of a papal bull can just as easily be full of a different kind of bull. Bush's address to the nation from New Orleans last Thursday night was especially rancid. The city's stink was not to blame. The fishiness was Bush's alone. To appreciate its bouquet, a brief retrospective in Bush choreography is helpful. Hold your nose.
Venezuela "Invests in Its People...U.S. Invests In Tax Cuts for the Wealthy and a War that does not Make Sense in Iraq"
The Rev. Jesse Jackson spoke Saturday night in New York City at an event with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Jackson said, "(The Venezuelan) government's priorities are to invest in its people. They subsidize oil, gas, health care and education and that's civil. We cannot subsidize our oil and education because we are investing in tax cuts for the wealthy and a war that does not make sense in Iraq. We need new values, we need to go another way."
During his three-day tour of New York City, President Chavez visited the South Bronx. At night, he addressed a packed audience at the Saint Paul and Saint Andrew Methodist Church on the Upper West Side.
Also speaking were New York Congressmember Jose Serrano and the Reverend Jesse Jackson. Jackson traveled to Caracas in August to offer support to Chavez just days after tele-evangelist Pat Robertson called for his assassinatio
During his three-day tour of New York City, President Chavez visited the South Bronx. At night, he addressed a packed audience at the Saint Paul and Saint Andrew Methodist Church on the Upper West Side.
Also speaking were New York Congressmember Jose Serrano and the Reverend Jesse Jackson. Jackson traveled to Caracas in August to offer support to Chavez just days after tele-evangelist Pat Robertson called for his assassinatio
New Venezuelan Parliament Focuses on Socialist Project
The governing Bloque de Cambio (Bloc of Change) formalized the socialist nature of the National Assembly as polls closed for Venezuelan parliamentary elections on Monday.
President Hugo Chavez referred to the strategic importance of the legislature to start strengthening the process "toward socialism" by 2006.
Chavez fully trusts in the overwhelming support of most Venezuelans supporting the social policy effective since 1999 to improve the distribution of oil resources, and his supporters hope to win over two-thirds of the 167 councils to approve key laws and reforms.
President Hugo Chavez referred to the strategic importance of the legislature to start strengthening the process "toward socialism" by 2006.
Chavez fully trusts in the overwhelming support of most Venezuelans supporting the social policy effective since 1999 to improve the distribution of oil resources, and his supporters hope to win over two-thirds of the 167 councils to approve key laws and reforms.
Evangelicals in Venezuela: Pat Robertson only the latest controversy
Vice President Rangel leads a campaign for anti-evangelical vigilance as the Robertson affair reminds him and the nation of the suspect activities of the New Tribes Mission decades ago.
[vfp-chaptercontacts] Digest Number 1104
This was a personal email to Cindy Sheehan from a doctor attempting to participate in the relief effort. "VFP" Veterans For Peace.
Via Cindy: I received the email below from a Doctor whom I met in Louisiana. I told him I would pass it along:
Dear Cindy,
My name is Stuart Leeds - I'm the family practice MD that you met at the storage facility shortly before we all caravanned to Algiers today.
It was a great honor and delight to meet you! I'm also pleased and somewhat relieved to have the opportunity to give you a brief report on the state of affairs visa vi the medical relief effort in the afflicted areas.
In short strokes: people are not getting the help they need, because our government, through the agency of FEMA, has totally politicized the relief effort. I'm sure you've already gotten wind of the reports that the Bush Administration is handing out huge contracts to favored vendors, much as they have done in Iraq. But what is not widely known is - and I can verify this personally -- that FEMA is preventing certain groups and individuals from participating in the relief efforts. Here's a quick synopsis of the experience I and my companions (my wife, and two respiratory therapists) had today, in our attempts to offer our services to the Red Cross operation in Covington, LA.
We got a call from an official at the Red Cross that the Vets for Peace were being invited to send doctors to Abita Springs, a nearby community. When we got there around 9 AM, some of director Dr Rachel Murphy's assistants welcomed us, and started making lists of materials we would need. Suddenly, a man wearing a Homeland Security shirt came over and rudely asked us to leave. He brought a local cop with him, and their body language was pretty threatening. We explained that we were coming at the request of both Dr. Murphy and the mayor of Covington, Candace Watkins. He (whose name was Rodney Hart) would hear none of it from us; he forced us to leave immediately.
We went to Mayor Watkins, who called Dr. Murphy and arranged for us to be allowed into the Red Cross center. We decided that only my wife and I would go - realizing that the other gentlemen, who were wearing VFP T-shirts, would be less than welcome at the center. We met Dr. Murphy a little after noon, and she was very friendly. She told us she would find a place for us to work - I as a physician, and my wife as an organizational specialist. However, midway through our tour of the facility, she stepped into the office of Mr. Hart, the Homeland security rep, and there were some tense words exchanged between them. She repeatedly exclaimed that we were not representing VFP, and finally there was a long period of silence. Mr. Hart apparently made some gestures we couldn't see. She sighed, and turned to us, and abruptly suggested we get some lunch in the basement. As we ate, she started talking about how the Red Cross was pulling out of her parish within a week, how there were already an excess of docs, and that our services wouldn't be needed.
She also explained that the reason that VFP was not welcome with the Red Cross (or indeed, within the entire parish) was because of a series of allegations that we had already heard from others in the center. We had heard several conflicting versions of these stories: that someone with VFP had stolen $15,000 worth of medical supplies, and that he turned out to be a child molester; that the Vets for Peace had come to one center and were taking over, and bringing cameras into clinics; that VFP was illegally collecting Red Cross donations on the Internet. We could not substantiate any of these rumors, and indeed, I think it's unlikely that there was truth to any of them.
Clearly, FEMA and/or Homeland Security is trying to keep "political undesirables" from lending a hand during this catastrophe. Perhaps they are marching to orders from Bush's political hacks to prevent peace groups from upstaging the administration in the relief effort - which would hardly be difficult to do, on anything like a level playing field.
It is so sad to think that the Bush machine would put politics in front of the safety and security of human beings, even in a the wake of a natural disaster of Katrina's magnitude.
But in the eyes of this physician, I believe that is exactly what is happening. And it will continue, as long as the responsible government agencies can get away with it..
We must hold them accountable. But more importantly, we must let people know this is happening, and thus bring such pressure to bear on these obstructionist agencies that they can no longer keep VFP, or indeed any group of caring citizens from pitching in.
Thanks, Cindy. And keep up the great work.
F.Stuart (Skip) Leeds, MS, MD
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