Niger

A July 27 NY Times article by Nicholas Kristof showed the mind-jarring difference between US media coverage of celebrities (huge, of course) and their coverage of the genocide in Darfur (absolutely minimal.) The same media seem to be doing somewhat better reporting now on the starvation in Niger.

Tonight BBC online has posted a stark report on the Niger disaster. Here are the closing lines:

"Even at the best of times, Niger is an extremely poor country with about one in four children dying before their fifth birthday and only about 18% of the population knowing how to read and write.

"On the UN's human development index, Niger rates 176th out of 177 countries.

"Now the combination of a poor harvest in 2004 and an invasion of locusts has pushed Niger over the edge.

"'It makes me angry,' says Johanna Sakannus of MSF (Doctors Without Borders). 'I'm very sad about this situation. It could have been avoided if the international community had sent in resources earlier.'"

Death in the desert

Because of 12 years of insane US border policy, thousands of migrants have died trying to come to the US to work. Since last Oct. 1, at least 174 have died just along the Arizona-Mexico border. Today we had a prayer service at the spot where 35-year-old Lucrecia Dominguez Luna died - in the scorching desert 10 miles from Highway 286 and 37 miles north of the border. Her father Cesario and his friend Jose searched for her body every day for almost a month. Lucrecia's son who survived the journey helped find the spot, but he had been deported, so Cesario and Jose had to drive 64 miles from Tucson to Nogales each afternoon to show the boy photos they had taken. Eventually his descriptions of landmarks led them to the right arroyo. Before our service, Cesario (at right in photo) and Jose (at left) mixed cement with the arroyo sand, added water and set their memorial cross exactly where Lucrecia died. As we were about to leave, Cesario asked us to put our remaining water bottles at the foot of the cross for the next dehydrated migrants who would come by.

Ricardo on Thursday night

Darfur & the media

Yesterday (July 26) in his New York Times column, Nicholas Kristof delivered a powerful condemnation of the media for their neglect of the Darfur genocide. Here are just two quotes from the article:

-- "The real failure has been television's. According to monitoring by the Tyndall Report, ABC News had a total of 18 minutes of the Darfur genocide in its nightly newscasts all last year - and that turns out to be a credit to Peter Jennings. NBC had only 5 minutes of coverage all last year, and CBS only 3 minutes - about a minute of coverage for every 100,000 deaths. In contrast, Martha Stewart received 130 minutes of coverage by the three networks."

-- "If only Michael Jackson's trial had been held in Darfur. Last month, CNN, Fox News, NBC, MSNBC, ABC and CBS collectively ran 55 times as many stories about Michael Jackson as they ran about genocide in Darfur."

Learning (or not) from Vietnam

We hear it over and over again from Bush's shills and hacks: Iraq is not Vietnam. They say it and shout it because once the "other half" of America (the Bush voters) see our country has been marching down the same disastrous road, the end will begin.

All of America should be pondering what Vietnam meant: American casualties (1964-1975): 58,266 dead (61% under 21); 303,000 wounded, more than 100,000 seriously; 2,338 missing in action.  Estimated Vietnamese casualties (1954-1975): over 3 million North & South Vietnamese, military and civilian, dead. And Laotian and Cambodian deaths in the hundreds of thousands. The financial cost of Vietnam for the US: $150 billion ($650 billion in today's dollars)

One more kind of domination

Power in the world food industry has become concentrated in a few hands:

-- 30 companies now account for a third of the world's processed food.
-- Five companies control 75% of the international grain trade.
-- Six companies manage 75% of the global pesticide market.
-- Two companies dominate sales of half the world's bananas.
-- Three companies trade 85% of the world's tea.
-- One company (Wal-Mart) now controls 40% of Mexico's retail food sector.
-- Monsanto controls 91% of the global GM seed market.

(Reference: www.actionaid.org)

Islamic frustration

Certainly nothing can justify the terror attacks being carried out repeatedly by Islamic militants. But it would be good if the media would stop interviewing retired generals for a while and bring in some historians. If we do not even give a second look to the frustrations of the Muslim world, we are shooting ourselves in the foot.

The Ottoman Empire lasted for six centuries. By 1600, it stretched from Hungary to Egypt. Takeover by the West began with Napoleon when he conquered Egypt in 1798. (The British took over in 1882.) From about 1850 until the early 20th century, Europe lorded over every Muslim country but Arabia, Turkey and Iran. The French took northern and western Africa. The British controlled India. The Dutch dominated Indonesia.

Then came the home-grown (or US-supported) dictators to further enrage the Muslim in the street. (Remember the Shah?) And in the land called "holy," the desperation of Palestinian youth has grown every day for years and years. Finally, we see the results of Bush's attack and occupation of Iraq, a country that was not a seedbed for international terrorism but now has become just that.

Muslim frustration and anger is almost cosmic. One example: Pakistan has 151 million people. Half of them support Osama Bin Ladin.

Peace is far from visible on the horizon, but Western understanding of the roots of the rage can start us on our way there.

Body bags and flip-flops

In Iraq chaos moves from street to street with new ferocity. Sunni leaders who joined Shiites to work on the new constitution have been assassinated. As of Tuesday, the number of US troops killed in Iraq since Bush attacked on March 19, 2003, numbered 1770. A new British study reports nearly 25,000 Iraqi civilians killed, 37% of them by US forces. But Bush and Company keep finding ways to distract Americans from reality. It has even reached the super-absurd with nationwide reporting on four young women who dared to wear flip-flops with their nice outfits on a group visit to the White House.

Will somebody please now turn the cameras back on Karl the Architect, who is undoubtedly whipping up new barrels of Teflon for his boss even as reporters go out to price the flip-flops?

Iraq death update

Since Bush began his war of occupation on March 19, 2003, 1,758 US troops have been killed. Since Bush's infamous fly-in declaration of "Mission Accomplished" (staged to the last detail by Karl Rove and company) on May 1, 2003, 1,621 US troops have been killed. The official number of US wounded is now 15,000, but the real number is estimated to be over 38,000.

The number of dead Iraqis has to have gone by now well beyond the 100,000 counted by The Lancet.

In the meantime, Bush's poll numbers continue to slide. Could it be that the majority is finally seeing what is really behind the mask that Karl made for George?

Lest we forget as usual

Today marks the 10th anniversary of the murder of thousands of Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica -- what the BBC has called "Europe's worst atrocity since World War II." Till now, the number of dead has been put at about 8000, but a new mass grave has just been found. In the meantime, the top Bosnian Serb terrorists of that period, Radovan Karadzic and General Radko Mladic, are still on the loose (even though they have been indicted for genocide.)

Those who cannot forget about celebrities and game scores long enough to remember this massacre are not likely to be very concerned about the tens of thousands of Iraqis the US war and occupation have killed.

London

As the day of the London bombings was ending, it seemed to me that some wise heads were finding space on the airwaves.
Among the comments:
* Just as in World War II, the people of London are again showing their courage and their steadfastness.
* Fundamentalist Islamist terrorists do not hate our freedoms and our values as Bush says; they hate our presence in places like Iraq and Saudi Arabia.
* Something like 75 times as much money has been spent to protect US air transport as has been spent to protect ground transport.
* Bush makes no sense when he says it is better to fight terrorists in Iraq than at home. He is producing terrorists in Iraq.
* 10% of what is being spent in Iraq would hugely strengthen true security against terrorism at home.
* Why do so few in the US - and especially in the US media - put the spotlight on the massive death that the Bush war/occupation has inflicted on innocent people in Iraq?

Gonzales the next Supreme?

With all the chatter about Alberto Gonzales perhaps being chosen by Bush for the Supreme Court, many people might forget that this is the guy who called the Geneva Convention on Torture "quaint." And he did not say that in a void. Gonzales is one of the producers of these Bush times, where oddball terms have been invented to push aside international law, ethics and plain old morality. In Bushworld, "unlawful combatant" justifies the removal of anybody from international and US legal protections. In Bushworld, "extraordinary rendition" means someone can be secretely flown off to Egypt or Jordan or Syria (or who knows where else?) to be tortured. Most of the world recognizes this cancer. They know "others do it" is no excuse. They expect worlds better of us. But will enough US citizens forget about celebrities long enough to look twice and demand a turnaround?

25% of Republicans? Amazing.

I monitor a lot of news but I've only seen these findings from a new Zogby poll in one instance (MSNBC).

"A large majority of Democrats (59%) say they agree that the President should be impeached if he lied about Iraq, while just three-in-ten (30%) disagree. Among President Bush’s fellow Republicans, a full one-in-four (25%) indicate they would favor impeaching the President under these circumstances, while seven-in-ten (70%) do not. Independents are more closely divided, with 43% favoring impeachment and 49% opposed."

25% of Republicans -- and hopefully growing!

As says the bumpersticker: PRACTICE COMPASSIONATE IMPEACHMENT.