Elsewhere Today (392)
Aljazeera:
Annan to Israel: End Lebanon blockade
Wednesday 30 August 2006, 6:30 Makka Time, 3:30 GMT
The UN secretary general has called on Israel to end its air and sea blockade of Lebanon at the earliest.
Arriving in Israel on Tuesday afternoon after visiting UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon, Kofi Annan also blamed Israel for most of the violations of the fragile two-week-old truce that ended the war in Lebanon.
Annan described the Israeli blockade a "humiliation and infringement on [Lebanon's] sovereignty", and suggested the blockade be lifted ""as soon as possible in order to allow Lebanon to go on with normal commercial activities and also rebuild its economy".
Annan, who is visiting the region as part of his bid to secure full implementation of the UN Security Council resolution 1701, which brought about the truce, met Amir Peretz, the Israeli defence minister during the day.
"I hope we can find a way to lift it," Peretz said about the blockade after meeting Annan.
Blockade
Israel has said it will only lift the blockade once it is assured that forces deployed on Lebanon's borders can prevent Hezbollah from importing new weapons to rearm itself for another round of fighting.
Israel wants international forces to help patrol the Lebanon-Syria border to stop the arms flow. Lebanon has said that its troops would be able to secure the border on their own.
"Israel will be happy to stop the sea and aerial blockade if we felt that the land crossings would not be the main smuggling routes," said Miri Eisen, the Israeli government spokeswoman.
"Israel is certain that if there is no serious force to stop [smuggling], both Syria and Iran will continue to back, fund and arm Hezbollah in Lebanon."
Violations
Annan said Israel was responsible for most of the violations of the ceasefire and appealed for everyone to work together to ensure the peace holds and "not risk another explosion in six years or 20 years".
"My hopes are that with the French deployment moving forward and with the Italians beginning on Friday, that we should be able to double relatively quickly the 2,500 men we have on the ground and move up to 5,000 so that the Israelis can withdraw," he said.
Israel has said its troops will remain in southern Lebanon until a sufficiently strong contingent of Lebanese troops and international forces arrives to take control of the area.
Peretz said Israel would pull troops from southern Lebanon once a "reasonable" number of UN soldiers had deployed but he did not give a figure.
Agencies
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/F4259F4A-E9E6-418D-BC95-678071CCD157.htm
Aljazeera:
Nobel winner Naguib Mahfouz dies
Wednesday 30 August 2006, 10:24 Makka Time, 7:24 GMT
Naguib Mahfouz, the first Arab writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, has died after suffering from a bleeding ulcer, Egypt's state-run Middle East News Agency reported.
Dr Hossam Mowafi, head of a medical team supervising his treatment at the Police hospital, said Mahfouz died on Wednesday morning after a sharp decline.
Mahfouz, 94, had been in intensive care since suffering a sudden drop in blood pressure and kidney dysfunction.
He had been hospitalised on July 19 after he fell in the street and sustained a deep head wound that required immediate surgery.
The Egyptian author won the Nobel Prize in 1988 - the first writer in Arabic to win the award - and is best known for his Cairo Trilogy in which he narrated developments in Egypt through the eyes of a middle class family over three generations.
Mahfouz was admitted to hospital regularly in recent years, most famously after being stabbed in the neck in 1994 by Muslim militants because of his portrayal of God in one of his novels.
He spent seven weeks in hospital and the knife damaged a nerve, seriously impairing his ability to use his writing hand.
Biography
Across the span of 50 novels, five plays and scores of short stories and essays, Mahfouz depicted with startling realism the Egyptian "everyman", balancing between tradition and the modern world.
Often the scene of the novels did not stretch beyond a few familiar blocks of Islamic Cairo, the 1,000-year-old quarter of the capital where Mahfouz was born.
Mahfouz studied English at King Fouad University, now Cairo University, graduating with a philosophy degree in 1934.
Mahfouz was strongly political, but kept to a moderate line. He was a great defender of the Palestinian right to an independent state and a critic of US foreign policy in the region, particularly over Washington's support for Israel and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan.
But unlike the majority of novelists, writers and artists, Mahfouz has been a supporter of the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel since it was signed in 1979.
Several of his works were made into movies. For many Arabs, his characters can never be separated from the voices and faces of some of Egypt's most popular actors.
Raymond Stock, his American biographer and translator of some of his works, said Mahfouz's legacy is to leave great novels and convey his "great love of Egypt".
"He is a great son of Egypt, a patriot in the fullest sense of the word."
Agencies
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/E72DE65D-174D-4B42-BFD3-B32EF7289C02.htm
allAfrica: Political Transition Needed
to End Economic Crisis, MDC Leader Says
By Margaret McElligott, Washington, DC
allAfrica.com INTERVIEW
August 29, 2006
Morgan Tsvangirai, founder and leader of Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), ran for president in 2002 after decades of experience in Zimbabwe's labor movement. His party contests elections declared flawed by international observers, and he has been arrested and charged with treason twice.
The MDC broke into two factions last October, splitting over Tsvangirai's decision to boycott senate elections in November. The pro-senate group, headed by former student leader Arthur Mutambara, did contest over objections from the rest of the party, and tensions have remained high. Tsvangirai and Mutambara have met just once since the split, at a late July convention organized by church leaders. Informal talks continued in August and officials met in South Africa over the weekend. Tsvangirai told AllAfrica in an interview that opposition negotiations would continue, even if the eventual form of the party was undecided. Excerpts:
What is the sticking point in opposition talks?
We believe that there is more that unites us than divides us. But one of the sticking points is that are we talking of unity? Are we talking of cooperation? Are we talking of separate political formations? It is quite a complex issue, but certainly so far as the goal of serving our country, it's one that should motivate us.
What would you like to see happen?
I'd like to see that there is more cooperation and less acrimony across the divide. More focus on the objective and goal of the MDC, which is to confront the regime which has caused us all these problems, and more unity of purpose rather than unity of individuals.
What do you think of the role of the churches, the Christian Alliance, in trying to reconcile the MDC?
The church movement in our country is regarded by everybody as an impartial body, so I think that the Christian Alliance came in to provide that leadership at the convention and then became the rallying point of everybody.
What is the status of discussions about peaceful mass protests? Is there a timeline?
No, there's no timeline. You must understand that our people have been battered through state-sponsored violence, and you have to take that into consideration. But I think, however, it is important that preparedness becomes the basis of organizing mass protests and we are working on it. I believe time will come when we will be ready.
You are organizing now?
I said we are working on it structurally and organizationally. The convention was one point which has created a very important opportunity for people to work together in the democratic front, and we think that this is a process that is going on.
What do you see as the role of civil society?
The society in which we live demands that all democratic, like-minded people work together to create a democratic society. I'm sure that the civil society will benefit more in the democratic space that will be created by this joint action, and they will be able to cut out their work as defined in their autonomous chapters.
How much freedom do you have personally in terms of moving about the country and talking to people?
I think that over the last six years, democratic space has been closed in various ways. One is that you cannot hold a meeting of more than three people without seeking police permission, because it is considered political. As you know, there are no correspondents in the country. Newspapers have been shut down, and only state newspapers exist. The space for interaction is limited by those factors. But as we said, we came together in this convention as a demonstration that people actually can communicate, but, of course, in guarded tones, because the regime will respond violently to any type of organization.
You mention people being battered down. What was the economic situation like when you left Zimbabwe?
The state of the economy is catastrophic. If you look at some of the factors, some of the facts, it is untenable. For instance, inflation is over 1,000 percent. Unemployment is over 85 percent. About 90 percent of the people live below [the poverty line]. Food deficit is high in spite of the rains. Life expectancy has declined from 55 at independence to 35 now, an indication of a very catastrophic situation.
What has been the impact so far of the new currency?
The new currency has had an impact. It is almost another Operation Murambatsvina targeting people's savings and people's money. It is hiding the fact that cutting out the zeros, people were caught up with the fact that the dollar had been devalued by 250 percent. The net effect has been spiraling increases of prices, which again has impacted the ability of the people to survive on basic goods and services.
Were there many people that weren't able to trade in their money before the deadline?
I understand that the situation was chaotic because by Friday last week, some of the traders were not accepting old money, so people had to wait to go to the banks to change their new money, which they could not give normally in exchange for new money. What was happening was people were making deposits rather than taking any money in exchange for old currency.
You called for leaders at the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) meeting in Maseru, Lesotho, to put Zimbabwe on the agenda for discussion. Were you happy with the outcome of that meeting?
First of all, I had a mission to Botswana with the chairman of SADC, [Botswana President Festus Mogae], at which we presented this road map to legitimacy, which is a road map to the resolution of the national crisis and tried to influence them so that when SADC convenes, it takes that into consideration. I understand President Mugabe left early, but I'm sure that SADC leaders discussed the Zimbabwe crisis, the outcome of which was an expression of the deteriorating economic and social conditions in Zimbabwe. That's the only comment we heard.
What was the reaction to your visit in Botswana? There are many Zimbabweans trying to find work in Botswana. Do you see Botswana as a country that is receptive to some of the issues you're talking about?
Botswana has been severely affected by the influx of illegal Zimbabweans. These are economic refugees, and they're having a serious impact on the social and economic conditions in Botswana. So Botswana is receptive to a quick, speedy solution to the Zimbabwe crisis because it wants to normalize the relationship. When we were there, they were equally concerned about the deteriorating situation in Zimbabwe.
How went your discussions with President Mogae?
I had a meeting with him and expressed these concerns. I think he shares the same concerns and wants to see a solution as a way of normalizing the relations between Botswana and Zimbabwe.
But he isn't prepared to start speaking publicly about it?
Oh yes. Diplomatically, it would be inappropriate for him to condemn, but I think that there are guarded comments about Zimbabweans talking to each other and finding a solution to save the country.
What has changed most since the November elections?
What is significant to what has changed in Zimbabwe is the economic meltdown has even had a very serious impact on the defenders of the regime. Those pillars of the regime have become less confident about the future than they ever were before. Secondly, there's a resonating convergence on the question of condemnation of what is happening in the country across the political divide. The convention was the culmination of the need for unity, the need to confront the regime, the need to find a way of resolving the crisis.
Do you mean that the people questioning are ZANU-PF supporters or voters?
No, the ZANU-PF supporters. They are equally affected by the economic situation that is prevailing. For instance, they are affected by food shortages. They are affected by currency shortages. They are affected by higher costs of living. The patronage system has collapsed, and the attack by the governor of the Reserve Bank was largely targeted at ZANU-PF elite, rather than the general population.
Have you met with ZANU-PF members who've been disillusioned by the economic situation?
Not directly.
They can't talk to you.
No. They would be concerned as to what would be the repercussions to be seen openly discussing with the leader of the opposition. But these are the expressions that we pick up with our contacts in Parliament, in our contacts everywhere with various ZANU-PF structures.
What do you think is likely to happen with ZANU-PF in terms of succession and the potential that may have for an opening of the political space?
The debate around succession has paralyzed ZANU-PF and hence the inability of the government to deal with the socioeconomic problems we are confronted with. It is an open secret that there are serious divisions within ZANU-PF. We wish the transition from the old generation would be one that would be exploited by the current nationalists, but unfortunately, the longer they stay, the more it is going to be fractious, especially within the ZANU-PF. And, of course, consequently, it will have an impact. Whatever ZANU-PF does with its succession program has a direct impact on the future stability of the country. We are hoping that President Mugabe and some of his ZANU-PF old guard realize that they have a role to play to have a smooth transition.
Are there people in ZANU-PF that you trust and hope would play a larger role in that transition?
Oh yes, of course. There are people everywhere. Every cloud has a silver lining. I'm sure that there are bad people in ZANU-PF, there are good people in ZANU-PF, as well as there are good people in MDC and bad people in MDC, but to a large extent, ZANU-PF has been captive to Mugabe's control, has been captive to the old, centralized political culture, which is the basis of why the MDC believes it's not really helpful for the country.
How do you see NGOs and churches being involved with discussions of the constitution and transition?
NGOs, as the broad civic society, have been champions for a new constitutional dispensation because the NCF had been at the forefront ever since the inception to fight for a new constitution. Remember that the new constitution is the demand of all Zimbabweans, because the Lancaster constitution was merely a political transfer document, but not a democratic document. Therefore, I think, across the political divide, it's one issue that there's national convergence on.
You mentioned that organizing will take time, because people are beaten down, but is it realistic to expect that people struggling for basic needs would be able to risk their safety to hold a protest?
Look, we understand that the economic effect has created a poor society, but also for how long can this regime hang on? It's about how you organize. In this instance, I think the people of Zimbabwe have to realize, first and foremost, the burden of the responsibility for liberating Zimbabwe is on them. And therefore it's an unavoidable demand on everyone to commit themselves to confront the regime. International solidarity, yes, but I think the first burden comes from Zimbabweans themselves. I think this has been widely accepted by all Zimbabweans now.
So many Zimbabweans have left the country. What impact does that have on what you can do and how you can organize?
Firstly, the brain drain has been catastrophic to the Zimbabwean economy. Any immigration of skilled manpower is detrimental to any progress in any particular society. But what it has also demonstrated is that four million Zimbabweans leaving the country is a serious indictment on the regime. Whether it is in the short-term possible to bring all these skills [back] is depending on how you resolve the national crisis in the first place.
How optimistic are you about prospects for resolution?
It's unavoidable. The crisis has to be resolved, not in the long-term, not in the medium-term, but as quickly as possible. I think the demand for resolution has become now the rallying cry of every Zimbabwean, and that's why I think the international community must also be in solidarity with this crisis, which has been on the international radar for a long time.
When you say short-term, do you mean the next year, or two years?
It can mean as short as in a month, two months, three months, four months, five months, but I think people have realized that we cannot continue the way we are continuing because it's unsustainable.
How has Operation Murambatsvina affected MDC, as hundreds of thousands of people living in informal settlements outside Harare lost their homes? Have you been able to track party supporters as they've moved?
I don't think that substantially we've lost support. I think the opposite has been the effect. These displaced people have carried their discontent into rural areas. They've mobilized in the rural areas. Some of the villagers who were not conscious of the impact of Murambatsvina all of a sudden become conscious because hordes and hordes of their own children were coming back in the villages. So we have not lost support. It has actually managed to enlighten the rural communities to the extent of the crisis and the brutality of this regime. No matter how they try to justify it, it has not resonated with anybody. We believe that Operation Murambatsvina has had a very serious effect on the ability of this regime in dealing with some of the socioeconomic consequences that we face.
How also has the economic crisis affected the government's ability to provide some of the services it used to provide to supporters?
For a very long time, this regime has depended more on impunity and patronage, but patronage has its limited effect. It depends whether it is continued, sustained patronage, but for the moment, there is nothing to sustain that patronage. The regime has had to use some of its strong-arm tactics by using traditional leaders in the rural areas to force people to meetings, force people to support some of its programs.
Zimbabwean journalists have written about land assigned to party members laying idle. Do you think there is a serious commitment among some members of ZANU-PF to look at how corruption in the land reform program is affecting the economy?
As you can imagine, the issue of land has now affected those who were proponents of land reform in a haphazard way, because the corruption has literally affected ZANU-PF more than anybody else, because of the manner in which that land reform was implemented. Now the chickens are coming home to roost [with] intra-party accusations of corruption in the allocation of land and in the manner in which agriculture has been affected by the haphazard manner of these policies.
So you mean people who thought they would be allocated land and weren't are now angry?
The effect is they were talking about one person, one farm, but now some of the chiefs have almost three, four five farms to one [person] – so the corruption is quite evident. For us in the opposition, we didn't have a piece of it -- nothing to do with it -- because the methodology was totally inadequate.
The Financial Gazette alluded that you might be pushing for the United States to impose stronger sanctions. Do you support that idea?
We have always said that we don't support an international sanction regime against our country, but we support targeted sanctions, travel bans and things of that nature. This is what the international community has imposed. I'm surprised to the extent that people talk about sanctions indicate that Zimbabwe is not able to relate to any country because of economic sanctions. This is just a farce. There are no economic sanctions against the regime, against the country. What has happened is that people have been given travel bans in order to give them incentives to behave properly in the international community.
So you think it's fine the way it is?
Yes, the way it is is a reminder that Zimbabwe's leaders in the current regime are in a pariah status and that they need to work themselves out of that pariah status and be acceptable and legitimate leaders of the country.
Do you think leaders care? Does it help put blame for the economic crisis on the U.S. and Britain?
But you know that the truth of the matter is that the economic crisis has nothing to do with the U.S. and Britain and all these accusations. This is a state of denial and scapegoating. The truth is that this is misgovernance. This is corruption. This is patronage, which has affected the economic performance of the country. It is the haphazard nature in which the land reform has been implemented, and its consequences are coming home to roost.
What must happen in the coming months for there to be a peaceful, democratic transition?
What must happen is that we clearly see a road map to the resolution of this crisis based on three fundamental benchmarks. Firstly, I think the regime has to accept that it has to open up bridges with Zimbabweans so we can all craft out a destiny for the country together. It must accept responsibility for the mess it has created for the country. Two, part of that process would have to involve the crafting of a people-driven constitution, which is acceptable to all Zimbabweans. And, lastly, to accept that a legitimate government, supported by Zimbabweans, can only come out through a free and fair election. To me and to us in the MDC, we have put this through a road map, we have given [it] to ZANU-PF. We have given [it] to the diplomatic community. We believe it is the only way the crisis can be resolved.
Will you continue boycotting elections until that happens?
We will continue to use the elections. Of course, we know they are not free and fair, but it is a process that adds value to our political organization and our people want to participate in elections.
So the MDC will participate in elections in the future? Last year's boycott was an aberration?
Yes, we will participate in elections, but let me say that elections are not an exclusive option to us. We are going to compliment by putting pressure on the regime to accept the road map solution that we have proposed through the collective action of the party and the broad civic society. That is why the convention was called.
Copyright © 2006 allAfrica.com. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com).
http://allafrica.com/stories/200608290831.html
AlterNet:
Blatantly Boasting War Profiteers
By Sarah Anderson, AlterNet
Posted on August 30, 2006
Like Sen. George "macaca" Allen in a crowd of white Virginia Republicans and Rep. Katherine "God chooses our rulers" Harris with a reporter for a Baptist newspaper, defense executives tend to let their hair down in conversations with investment analysts.
In their glossy annual reports, military contractors are typically modest about how much loot they've gotten from a bloody and increasingly unpopular "War on Terror." But read the transcript of virtually any Q&A session with Wall Street and the truth comes out. While millions are suffering from the human and economic costs of the Iraq war, the violence has been very good for the bottom lines of military contractors and their top executives.
Black Hawk up
"Obviously, military was a big bang for us in the post-September 11 period," crowed George David, CEO of United Technologies, in a meeting with analysts last December. UTC makes Black Hawk helicopters and fighter jet engines, along with civilian aircraft and elevators. David went on to boast that UTC had beaten all its competitors because the military side of its business had more than made up for a 25 percent drop in commercial aerospace revenues.
Not surprisingly, David's personal rewards haven't been too shabby either. Since 9/11, he has been by far the highest paid defense executive, hauling in a total of more than $200 million. David and other top defense executives are highlighted in a new report, "Executive Excess," by the Institute for Policy Studies and United for a Fair Economy (PDF).
So confident is Mr. David of continued military largesse that he's biting the hand that feeds him. In a lawsuit that is the first of its kind, UTC is suing the Pentagon to block the public release of documents related to alleged quality control problems in its Black Hawk factories. The Bush administration, not exactly known for its openness, had agreed to make the documents public in response to a journalist's Freedom of Information Act request.
A pop for "Uncle Bucky"
"Obviously, we got a pop during the Iraq and Afghani thing," CEO Gerald Potthoff of Engineered Support Systems International candidly if indelicately told an investment publication last year. A big pop indeed. A series of war-related contracts for logistical services, some awarded on a no-bid basis, drove company earnings to record levels and set up executives for a lucrative sale of the company to another defense contractor, DRS Technologies, earlier this year.
Among the beneficiaries of that sale: President George W. Bush's uncle, William H. T. Bush, an ESSI director, who cleared $2.7 million in cash and stock. Known to the president as "Uncle Bucky," he claims he had nothing to do with the company's landing lucrative defense contracts.
The Securities and Exchange Commission is now investigating whether company officials went even further to jack up their war windfalls by manipulating the value of their stock options. In 2004, Potthoff's pay, including options gains, came to nearly $40 million.
Casualties = $$
Investors shouldn't trouble their little heads over the possibility of a U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq, Health Net CEO Jay Gellert said in a conference call, since the military's own medical capacity will be stretched "into the foreseeable future" by the huge number of injured troops. That's reassuring for Health Net, which, thanks to Pentagon outsourcing, provides managed care services to as many as three million persons in the military and their families.
Another company spokesperson boasted of how war-time stress has turned its mental health services into a "fast-growing business."
The military's booming health care needs have sent CEO Gellert's personal fortunes soaring. He took home a total of more than $28 million during the past four years, compared to only $2.3 million during the four preceding years. That 1,134 percent increase is the biggest enjoyed by any defense executive.
Upbeat reports such as these have helped make Wall Street bullish on defense. The IPS/UFE study found that the top 34 military contractors had a 48 percent increase in their share prices between the end of 2000 and the end of 2005. By contrast, the S&P 500 dropped 5 percent during that period.
These stock gains have translated into big paydays for defense industry executives. The top 34 enjoyed a doubling of their compensation during the four years after 9/11.
Business grows. Stock price rises. CEO gets big reward. That's the American way, right?
Even during peacetime, there are strong arguments for broadening the definition of executive performance beyond the bottom line. Everyone, not just shareholders, has a real stake in how corporations are run and how executives are paid. Compensation should reward responsible leadership, including strong environmental performance and job creation, and not be so astronomical as to exacerbate the inequalities that undermine our democracy.
During times of war, there are even stronger arguments for pay restraint. For years, experts like management guru Peter Drucker have been advising against morale-killing pay gaps within companies. Imagine how it must feel to be risking your life every day on the front lines in Iraq, knowing that military contractors are getting grotesquely rich in the comfort of their executive suites? No wonder we're seeing the U.S. Marine Corps having to force their reservists back to the battlefield.
It's also no secret that defense executives tend to be well-connected politically. Why should we allow guys who play golf with top government officials to have personal profit motives for continuing the war -- or getting into new ones?
Congress could put an end to this by requiring that all defense contractors restrain executive pay to reasonable levels during wartime. This wouldn't need to be a fixed dollar cap. Procurement rules could instead deny defense contracts to companies that pay their top executives more than 20 times what their lowest-paid worker receives.
Current U.S. laws already deny government contracts to companies that discriminate against women and people of color. Why should we let our tax dollars subsidize war profiteering?
Sarah Anderson is a Fellow of the Institute for Policy Studies and a coauthor of the report "Executive Excess 2006: Defense and Oil Executives Cash in on Conflict," published by IPS and United for a Fair Economy.
© 2006 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.
View this story online at:
http://www.alternet.org/story/40962/
Arab News: The Day After:
A Reading Into the Post-Lebanon War
Ramzy Baroud, Aljazeera.net English
Wednesday, 30, August, 2006 (06, Sha`ban, 1427)
If it is true that the 33-day war on Lebanon was the culmination of regional developments and that it can hardly be fathomed separate from the brutal Israeli war on Gaza or the faltering American imperial project in Iraq, then it is hardly inconsistent to ponder the implications of the war’s outcome on the region as a whole, notwithstanding Lebanon.
Syria’s fallout with Lebanon and the subsequent withdrawal of its troops in 2005 has left the country divided to the core. The political diatribe of that period had little to do with democracy. Doubtless, Lebanon’s democratic experience preceded that date by far, but according to the selective readings of the Bush administration, it was then that American pressure, coupled with Lebanon’s so-called Cedar revolution that brought about the end of Syria’s hegemony and the birth of a “genuine” Arab democracy.
The truth is as always at odds with the Bush administration’s narrative. The abrupt removal of Syria has turned Lebanon into a hotbed for civil strife, if not a probable civil war. Lebanon’s conventional powerhouses were now competing for dominance; factionalism was once more the most pertinent factor in deciding the country’s political composition. Hezbollah, and its widening popular support seemed a nuisance amid grand designs to recreate a new Lebanon. A strong-armed resistance, regardless of the very ominous and real Israeli threat, would ensure the political prestige of the Shiites, a historically inferior and politically under-represented group. Former warlords, themselves representatives of various Lebanon sects were all vying for dominance. The simmering power struggle was, expectedly, fought under the banner of “uncovering the truth” of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri’s murder; indeed, the “truth” at times seemed the least urgent objective.
Hezbollah needed to reinforce its relevance in the ongoing debate, especially after the loss of Syria, a very significant backer. Thus, regardless of the precise nature of the border clash with Israeli troops on July 12 — which sent Israel scrambling to produce one of its most self-defeating military adventures — Hezbollah used the opportunity without any reservations.
Israel had entered the war based on premeditated calculations and has long prepared for it with full American backing, which was displayed brazenly the moment the first Israeli bomb fell on Lebanon, to eventually destroy most of its infrastructure. This claim was validated repeatedly by Israeli and American officials, as was counted for by the influential American journalist Seymour Hersh in the New Yorker on Aug. 14 (“Washington’s Interests in Israel’s War”.)
Newly elected Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert awaited the opportunity that would cement his position as a ruthless and canny military man — an important job description for any Israeli leader. The Israeli media and the opposition in the Likud Party were — and are still — in doubt of such a claim. Since his open war against Palestinians as a collective punishment for electing Hamas to power yielded little success, the need for diversion was imperative. (Israel has hoped to topple Hamas, either directly or by inciting a civil war among Palestinians, as it empowered and armed the Fatah faction, a loser in the most recent Palestinian elections, to lock horns with the elected Hamas leadership. Though the plan worked to the extent that dozens of Palestinians were killed and wounded in sporadic clashes, a civil war seemed unlikely. To the contrary, both Hamas and Fatah became much closer to a deal that would guarantee a power sharing government, and a much more moderate Hamas political stance.)
Moreover, another war front in Lebanon would allow Israel to claim a battle on two fronts against Islamic terrorists, as government spokesmen often asserted; going as far as describing Hamas as “Israel’s own Al-Qaeda.”
That precise logic was the needed platform that would also allow the Bush administration to lend a helping hand, and unreservedly so, to defeat Israel’s foes, for it is all interlinked, or so the neoconservative logic goes: Hamas and Hezbollah champion Islamic agenda; both are backed and financed by Iran (an Islamic regime) and Syria (a secular regime, but never mind that), and all are hell-bent on destroying Israel and America. A naive logic, perhaps, but with the right media spins, it could justify yet another war or two.
However, this convenient logic meant full American involvement in support for Israel, just shy from actual combat with the enemy. “It is time for a new Middle East. It is time to say to those who do not want a new Middle East that we will prevail,” is how US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice wished to convey the new nature of her government’s alliance with Israel in a joint press conference with Olmert, two weeks after the Lebanon war began. Rice signaled the official entry of Israel into the US “war on terror” club. Time has proved her assertion a costly mistake.
The Bush administration insists on engaging in new military debacles to escape old ones. A victory, any victory could be of essence before the November elections, as an unimpressed American public continues to withdraw their support of their government’s reckless policies. A victory in the Lebanon war, as a proxy war against Iran, would’ve served such an objective well.
Thus it was not mere coincidence, in my mind, that Israel’s war of “self-defense” on Lebanon was timed to cover the failure of the administration’s newest military sweep in Baghdad, and the return of thousands of troops to the warring city, at a time when the administration spoke proudly of possible troop reduction. The war on Afghanistan was the only claim of victory in the war on terror. That prize too, is being gradually lost.
Few had expected the Lebanon war to yield such unprecedented outcomes. Despite the war of rhetoric, immediately after the declaration of an end to hostilities in accordance with UN resolution 1701, it was clear that Israel had failed, and for the first time, to militarily subdue an Arab foe. Over 30,000 Israeli troops armed with the best weapons American money could buy failed to defeat 1,200 lightly armed Hezbollah fighters. How will such an historic setback impact the Israeli collective psyche is yet to be seen, though I worry that Palestinians will feel the brunt of Israel’s attempt to restore its confidence. As for the impact on the Arab psyche, so accustomed to defeats, and suspicious of unwarranted claims of victory, watching one elated episode of “Ma’ al-Nas” (With the People) on Al-Jazeera television, speaks volumes.
Amid the intense debate regarding the looming political reformation in Lebanon, it seems that a more consequential debate has been forgotten: The relationship between the Lebanon war and the real future of the Middle East. The stratagem that was meant to crush any meaningful nationalistic project and secure the US and Israel’s economic and strategic dominance in the region, received another major blow in Lebanon.
Copyright: Arab News © 2003 All rights reserved.
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=7§ion=0&article=78213&d=30&m=8&y=2006
Clarín:
Murió el Premio Nobel de Literatura de Egipto
Naguib Mahfuz, que tenía 94 años, estaba internado en un hospital público de El Cairo por una insuficiencia renal y una neumonía. Fue el primer y único novelista de lengua árabe que recibió el Nobel. Entre otros libros, era autor de "La trilogía de El Cairo", integrada por las novelas "Entre dos palacios", "Palacio del deseo" y "La azucarería".
Clarín.com, 30.08.2006
El escritor egipcio Naguib Mahfouz, galardonado con el Premio Nobel de Literatura en 1988, murió hoy en un hospital público de El Cairo a los 94 años.
Naguib Mahfuz estaba gravemente enfermo y había sido hospitalizado el 16 de julio con una insuficiencia renal y una neumonía.
El escritor, nacido en El Cairo en 1911, autor de unas 50 obras literarias, era el intelectual más célebre de Egipto. Entre otros libros era autor de "La trilogía de El Cairo", integrada por las novelas "Entre dos palacios", "Palacio del deseo" y "La azucarería".
En 1988, Mahfouz fue el primer novelista de lengua árabe que recibió el Premio Nobel de Literatura, y sigue siendo el único hasta la fecha.
Naguib Mahfouz, que en 1994 fue víctima de un intento de asesinato por parte de un islamista, siempre preconizó la tolerancia y la moderación. Desde ese atentado tenía la mano derecha paralizada y dejó de escribir, viéndose obligado a dictar sus textos.
Mahfouz fue uno de los raros intelectuales egipcios y árabes que aprobaron los acuerdos de paz entre Egipto e Israel en 1979, aunque se declaró totalmente solidario de los palestinos.
Debido a sus posiciones sobre Israel, su obra fue boicoteada en numerosos países árabes. En 2001 apoyó a un dramaturgo egipcio excluido de la Unión de Escritores porque él también era favorable a la normalización de las relaciones con Israel.
Copyright 1996-2006 Clarín.com - All rights reserved
http://www.clarin.com/diario/2006/08/30/um/m-01262008.htm
Guardian:
Lift Lebanon blockade, Annan tells Israel
· Lebanese suffering 'humiliation'
· Israeli PM sidesteps question
· Annan pledge on captured Israeli troops
Staff and agencies
Wednesday August 30, 2006
Israel must lift its air and sea blockade of Lebanon, which the Lebanese people see as a "humiliation and infringement of their sovereignty", Kofi Annan warned today.
The UN secretary general renewed his call for the removal of the blockade at a news conference in Jerusalem with the Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert. Mr Olmert made no commitments on the blockade.
Mr Annan, who was in Israel after a trip to Lebanon earlier this week, was seeking to strengthen the two-week-old ceasefire, which ended 34 days of fighting between Israel and Hizbullah fighters. He said lifting the blockade was a key step towards helping Lebanon's economy recover.
Israel has refused to lift the blockade, saying UN troops must first deploy along the Lebanese border with Syria to prevent Hizbullah rearming.
Lebanon has said it will deploy its own forces there, but not international troops. Mr Annan has backed that approach.
Today he said Beirut was responsible for controlling Lebanon's borders but added that Lebanese officials had assured him they were taking measures to stop the flow of weapons.
Mr Annan said he believed Israel's security concerns could be addressed. "In the meantime, I do believe the blockade should be lifted."
Mr Olmert did not respond specifically to Mr Annan's demand, saying only that the ceasefire deal must be implemented in its entirety. "The international community must not divert its attention" until that happened, he said.
Mr Olmert, who has been facing increasing pressure domestically over his handling of the conflict, said he hoped the ceasefire would provide an opening for contact between Israel and Lebanon.
"I hope the conditions will change rapidly to allow direct contact between the government of Israel and the government of Lebanon to hopefully reach agreement between the two countries."
The ceasefire deal could be "a cornerstone to build a new reality between Israel and Lebanon", Mr Olmert said.
Mr Annan said he hoped soon to double to 5,000 the number of UN troops in southern Lebanon. "We should all work together to ensure that this time the fragile peace that we are solidifying in Lebanon is for good, and that we are not going to see another escalation."
Mr Annan spoke earlier with the Israeli defence minister, Amir Peretz, who said Israel would pull out thousands of troops that remained in southern Lebanon once a "reasonable" number of UN soldiers had been deployed. He did not specify a figure. UN security council resolution 1701 calls for deployment of 15,000 peacekeepers by November 4.
Mr Annan said he would do everything he could to bring about the release of three captured Israeli soldiers. Hizbullah captured two soldiers on July 12 on the Israel-Lebanon border in an incident that Israel said triggered its huge military response. Palestinian militants linked with Hamas seized a third Israeli soldier in late June.
Mr Annan said he had met Hizbullah officials in Lebanon, and had the impression the soldiers were still alive.
On a visit to the devastated south of Lebanon yesterday, Mr Annan said the fates of the abducted soldiers, as well as that of Lebanese prisoners held in Israel, were "serious irritants" to the truce.
Mr Annan's next destination is the West Bank, where he will meet the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas. UN aides have said he will also travel to Syria and Iran, Hizbullah's main backers, later in the week.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
http://www.guardian.co.uk/syria/story/0,,1861043,00.html
Guardian:
UN faces rising anger in Lebanon
Cluster bombs and blockade fuel resentment towards 'unjust' world body as Annan leaves for Israel
Clancy Chassay in Beirut and agencies
Wednesday August 30, 2006
The UN secretary-general, Kofi Annan, visited UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon yesterday, a day after he was met with protests by angry residents of Beirut's devastated southern suburbs.
Timur Goksel, the former senior adviser and spokesman for the UN interim force in Lebanon (Unifil), said the international organisation was now more unpopular in the region than at any point in its history.
"The UN guys are uncomfortable with the mood; they know there is lot of anger toward the UN," said Mr Goksel, who served for 24 years with Unifil.
Mr Annan laid a wreath in Naqoura for five UN staff killed in Israeli attacks this summer and flew over swaths of southern Lebanon to see the scale of destruction.
Before departing for Israel, where he was due to meet the prime minister, Ehud Olmert, and the defence minister, Amir Peretz, the secretary-general called on Israel to lift its air and sea blockade of Lebanon, which he said the Lebanese saw as a "humiliation and infringement of their sovereignty". He also called for the issue of the Israeli soldiers abducted by Hizbullah to be resolved "very quickly".
In Geneva a spokesman for Unicef said 12 people had been killed by cluster bombs in southern Lebanon since the war ended. "Unexploded ordnance continues to be a major threat, especially to children," said Michael Bociurkiw. He said 359 Israeli cluster bomb sites had been reported in the south.
In some Beirut neighbourhoods anti-UN graffiti adorns the walls and stickers reading "Unjust" in the UN's distinctive blue font have appeared on car windows.
Many Lebanese were frustrated with "the UN's seeming passivity" in the face of the destruction wreaked by the 34-day war between Israel and Hizbullah, Mr Goksel said. "There is a lot of disappointment in the street. The people wanted Annan to declare the blockade over and that the Israelis troops were leaving, but he knows his limitations."
Bashir, the manager of an upmarket restaurant in West Beirut, said: "They [the UN] are not good. We don't trust them. They didn't help the civilians in the south. They are like an instrument in the hands of the Americans."
In an interview with Lebanon's New TV on Sunday night, screened across the Arab world, the leader of Hizbullah, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, said Mr Annan's envoy Terje Roed-Larsen "serves the Israelis first and foremost".
"If Nasrallah is saying that, you can bet a lot of people in the region agree with him," said Mr Goksel. "There is no doubt there is a negative perception of Larsen in the region."
Mr Roed-Larsen has been a vocal proponent of a divisive clause within UN resolution 1559 that calls for the disarmament of Hizbullah.
Many Lebanese blame the UN for the deaths of 18 people in a southern Lebanese village when an Israeli helicopter fired rockets at a minivan. Amid the deadly air strikes, the passengers had pleaded to be allowed refuge in a nearby UN base but were turned away.
"They didn't want a repeat of Qana," said Mr Goksel, referring to the killing in 1996 of more than 100 people who had taken refuge in a UN base during Israel's offensive against Hizbullah. "The people turned up at the base and the officer on the gate told them he didn't have room for them; he went by the book."
Two Palestinians were killed by an Israeli tank shell near Gaza City yesterday. Two others were killed in a gunfight with Israeli soldiers in Nablus in the West Bank.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
http://www.guardian.co.uk/syria/story/0,,1860940,00.html
Guardian: War stalls Beirut's rebirth
as young seek better life elsewhere
Declan Walsh in Beirut
Wednesday August 30, 2006
The line snaked past the Canadian embassy in Beirut on a sweltering afternoon. Sandra fanned herself with the visa application she prayed was her ticket out of Lebanon.
"I can't live here any more," said the 35-year-old university researcher, who gave only her first name. "I really wanted to stay. But this war was the final straw."
The mood was equally black down the sweaty queue. Israel's bombs not only smashed bridges and killed innocent people, most said, they also wrecked their plans for a life in Lebanon. "As soon as the fighting started we decided to leave," said Abdel Jhalil, a 25-year-old factory worker from Tripoli, further up the coast. "Things are not going to improve. It will always be like this."
Shocked by the intensity of Israel's 34-day offensive and dispirited about the prospects for peace, a new generation of young Lebanese are packing their bags. Official statistics on the exodus are unavailable but a weight of anecdotal evidence suggests it is sizeable and includes some of the country's brightest and best-educated minds.
Best option
Charli Hanna, a high-scoring 18-year-old student, wanted to attend university in Beirut this autumn. But as the bombs exploded around his father's farm in the Bekaa valley this summer he surfed the internet for other options. After some frantic queries, a school in Kentucky offered him a scholarship. He leaves in a few weeks. "It seemed the best option," he said.
The brain drain is more regrettable for the fact that until the war Beirut was busy consolidating its reputation as the most glamorous city in the Middle East. Memories of the traumatic assassination of the prime minister Rafiq Hariri in February 2005 were receding. Stylish restaurants and luxury hotels were popping up. Celebrity billionairess Ivana Trump had joined a throng of property investors.
Tourists from the oil-rich Gulf states, uneasy about partying in the west, were flooding in. The government predicted 1.2 million visitors this year - not bad in a country of 3.5 million people.
"There was a sense that things were really happening," said Ramsay Short, the editor of the local Time Out, which started publishing in January.
Now the buzz has gone. The airport remains partially closed due to a continuing Israeli air embargo, oils slicks stain beaches, and cafe terraces in the proudly rebuilt downtown district are near-deserted. "We have been pushed 15 years into the past," said Bassem Bouhabib, a 30-year-old sales manager with an application for Canadian citizenship on his desk.
Not everyone is ready to leave. The city's party scene has sprung back to life, interrupted only by power cuts. On Saturday night on Rue Monot, a street lined with impossibly trendy nightclubs, young people packed into heaving venues such as Crystal, which is famed for the price of its champagne.
The American University of Beirut says 90% of students turned up for the resumed summer term this week. Some students were transferring their studies abroad for a term, said admissions director Salim Kannan. "We expect to get them back in the spring," he said.
The spirit of resilience was also strong in De Prague, a jazzy lounge where hip urbanites draped over low-slung armchairs sipped cocktails and surfed the internet.
Yana Najjar, a 22-year-old medical student, said: "I just love this place so much. In Lebanon everything is in Technicolor. Outside the world seems black and white."
Vast diaspora
At the next table Raghad Midani, 23, paused from updating her blog. While Israel bombed Beirut's southern suburbs she had continued her classical dance classes and watched English football on television, she said. "It was better than the news."
Still, she had just said goodbye to friends who had left for Saudi Arabia. "They have no jobs, no family, nothing over there," she said. "I hope it works out for them."
Exodus is nothing new to the Lebanese. A vast diaspora, rooted in centuries-old traditions of seafaring and travel, is estimated at between 4 million and 15 million people. Money from Europe, Africa and the US helped fund the recent property boom.
And those who remained at home are well schooled in living through war. Abdullah Ghorayeb, 37, recalled his youth during the 15-year civil war - nipping across battle lines to attend university, dodging sniper fire and helping to free his father from five separate kidnap episodes.
But this time it is different. The luxury goods store Mr Ghorayeb manages in central Beirut is deserted, and he has a young family to protect. "I don't want my children to have that life," Mr Ghorayeb said, outlining his plans to move to Qatar.
But like many others, he would not rule out a return.
"Nobody ever really leaves Lebanon," he said. "If normality returns we will be back. You feel this place very deeply inside you."
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
http://www.guardian.co.uk/syria/story/0,,1860948,00.html
Guardian:
First Arab Nobel laureate dies, aged 94
Associated Press
Wednesday August 30, 2006
Naguib Mahfouz, who became the first Arab writer to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, died at his home today. He was 94.
Mahfouz, whose novels depicted Egyptian life in his beloved corner of ancient Cairo, was admitted to the hospital just over a month ago after falling in his home and injuring his head. He died this morning after a sharp decline, according to Dr Hossam Mowafi, the head of a medical team that had been supervising his treatment.
Long established as one of the Middle East's finest and best-loved writers, and an ardent advocate of moderation and religious tolerance, Mahfouz's acceptance of the Nobel Prize in 1988 brought him to international notice. But a wider readership came at a price: in 1994, an attacker inspired by a militant cleric's ruling that one of Mahfouz's novels was blasphemous stabbed the then-82-year-old writer as he left his Cairo home. The attack damaged the nerves leading to his right arm, effectively putting an end to his former practice of writing for hours in longhand.
Nevertheless, Mahfouz maintained a busy schedule well into his 90s. In his final years, he met with friends at Cairo's literary watering holes almost every evening while continuing to work during the day, dictating short stories, sometimes only a few paragraphs long, to a friend who would also read him the newspapers. His final major work, published in 2005, was a collection of stories about the afterlife, The Seventh Heaven. Speaking to the Associated Press at his 94th birthday celebration last December, Mahfouz explained that he wrote book "because I want to believe something good will happen to me after death."
Over the course of 50 novels, five plays and a score of short stories and essays, Mahfouz depicted life in Egypt, balanced between tradition and the modern world, with startling realism. The action of his novels was often confined to the 1,000-year-old Islamic quarter of Cairo where Mahfouz was born, a crowded neighbourhood of alleys and mosques which was the setting for his 1950s masterpiece, the Cairo Trilogy, which deals over the course of three books (Palace Walk, Palace of Desire and Sugar Street) with the fluctuating fortunes of a Muslim merchant family not unlike Mahfouz's own.
It was his 1959 novel, Children of Gebelawi, that mired him in the controversy that was to dog him for the rest of his life. An allegory of the lives of Islam's prophets, it was first serialized in Egyptian newspapers in 1959, when it caused an uproar similar to that created by Nikos Kazantzakis's The Last Temptation of Christ, which appeared a year later. Egyptian religious authorities banned it from being published as a book, but it was later released in Lebanon and subsequently translated into English.
The controversy resurfaced years later when Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa against Salman Rushdie following the publication of The Satanic Verses in 1989. In a copycat move in the same year, the Egyptian radical sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman said Mahfouz deserved to die for Children of Gebelawi, a pronouncement that led directly to his stabbing five years later.
In the final decades of his life, Mahfouz became a fixture on the Cairo literary scene, and was most frequently to be found in the company of friends and colleagues at Nile-side cafes. His last novel, 1988's semi-autobiographical Qushtumar, centres on the lives of four elderly friends who meet weekly at a cafe that gives the book its title. Raymond Stock, Mahfouz's American biographer and translator, named Mahfouz's as "a great son of Egypt, a patriot in the fullest sense of the word." But his relevance extends far beyond the boundaries of his native country. His work, according to Fatma Moussa, a renowned Egyptian critic and writer, "has to do with the plight of humanity as a whole. He has presented it from the local angle, but it's not really local at all. It's kind of a microcosm of the whole world, a little image of the fate of man."
http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,,1861106,00.html
il manifesto:
Stranieri gli autori e pure le vittime
A Milano stazionari gli stupri di strada, dice il centro antiviolenza della Mangiagalli
Gli immigrati minacciano la «donna bianca»? Forse. Ma il 50% delle vittime degli stupri sono straniere. Due terzi delle violenze continua ad avvenire «in casa», per mano di maschi ben conosciuti. Solo il 43% dei casi segnalati si traduce in una denuncia
Manuela Cartosio
Milano
I dati sgonfiano l'allarme ma, come sempre, arrivano post festum, quando l'enfasi mediatica e la paura hanno già fatto corto circuito, alimentandosi in un reciproco gioco di specchi. A Milano nell'arco di una settimana sono stati compiuti due stupri e altri due sono stati tentati. Tutti casi di violenza sessuale «di strada», compiuta o tentata da immigrati. Questi gravissimi episodi sono stati presi come il segnale di un avvenuto rovesciamento di tendenza, di un aumento delle violenze di strada ad opera di sconosciuti rispetto alle violenze domestiche perpetrate sulle donne da familiari o maschi conosciuti. I dati del «Soccorco violenze sessuali» della clinica Mangiagalli dicono che non è così. Ce li illustra la ginecologa Alessandra Kustermann.
Dal primo gennaio 2005 allo scorso 21 agosto il centro della Mangiagalli ha raccolto 422 «racconti» di violenze sessuali. Di questi, 51 parlano di violenze subite da sconosciuti. Pari al 37%, una percentuale che resta stabile nel tempo mentre il numero complessivo delle violenze segnalate aumenta ogni anno (la dottoressa Kustermann ammette onestamenta di non sapere se l'incremento dei casi derivi «solo» dalla crescita del numero di donne informate dell'esistenza del centro). Le 19 violenze da parte di sconosciuti censite nei primi otto mesi di quest'anno sono in linea con le 32 del 2005. Costanti anche i casi di violenze sessuali «di strada», 12 negli ultimi 20 mesi.
Ciò detto, è vero che nelle violenze per mano di sconosciuti aumentano quelle compiute da stranieri. Dei 19 casi censiti quest'anno, solo 3 hanno un autore italiano. Ma - e questa è la vera novità che riserva il dossier Mangiagalli - si è rovesciato il rapporto anche tra le vittime: 12 sono donne straniere e 7 italiane. Anche nelle violenze subite da persone conosciute alle straniere va molto peggio che alle italiane. Nel 50% dei casi la vittima ha un nome straniero, nonostante le immigrate siano assai meno della metà della popolazione femminile complessiva. Sulla nazionalità degli immigrati autori di strupri e violenze la dottoressa Kustermann non ci fornisce particolari. Dice che solo il 43% dei casi «raccontati» al centro della Mangiagalli si traduce in una denuncia penale.
L'ultima tentata violenza a Milano conferma il quadro tracciato dalla dottoressa Kustermann. Domenica pomeriggio in una cabina del Lido quattro giovanissimi rom (due hanno 12 anni e sono «impunibili») hanno cercato di stuprare una quattordicenne romena. Hanno cercato di metterle un sacchetto sulla testa, lei è riuscita a divincolarsi, ha gridato, soon accorsi i guardiani della piscina che hanno chiamato i carabinieri.
Fregati dalla loro tracotanza e dal solito sms, sono stati arrestati i due tunisini che hanno stuprato due francesi incontrate alla Stazione centrale. Avevano accettato un passaggio in auto, si sono ritrovate in un cascinale di Sale (in provincia di Alessandria) con un coltello alla gola. Il caso ha una sua peculiarità quanto a corsi e ricorsi: il «datore di lavoro» dei due tunisini è Angelo Angeli (vedi box), bombarolo nero, sospettato d'aver fatto parte del commando di gentiluomini che vollero lasciare il segno, anche delle sigarette accese, sul corpo di Franca Rame, per punire la donna e, attraverso di lei, il marito.
Domani vertice sull'«emergenza» stupri, anche se il prefetto Lombardi dice che non di emergenza si tratta, ma di orrenda normalità. La giunta di Palazzo Marino porterà le proposte messe a punto ieri: più forze dell'ordine sul territorio, processo per direttima per gli stupratori, costituzione di parte civile del Comune nei processi per stupro. Il vicesindaco De Corato (An), con delega alla sicurezza, annuncia mille telecamere da installare nelle zone più a rischio e promette accordi con l'Atm e con i tassisti per «accompagnare di notte» le donne. L'assessore alla salute Carla De Albertis (An), che si vanta di saper far centro con la pistola in tutte le posizioni, pensa di fornire alle donne «sistemi d'allarme da azionare in caso di pericolo per attirare l'attenzione dei passanti» (fischietti o cicalini Beghelli?). Resta inteso che il metodo migliore è «espellere con mano ferma gli immigrati irregolari».
http://www.ilmanifesto.it/Quotidiano-archivio/29-Agosto-2006/art39.html
il manifesto:
La laguna nera dell'America
Katrina un anno dopo. Libri, riviste e blog ricostruiscono, analizzano e raccontano l'intreccio fra catastrofe naturale e politica, disastro annunciato e catena di disfunzioni burocratiche e cattiva amministrazione. E l'incubo continua. Come spiega Mike Davies, nella «ricostruzione» di New Orleans è all'opera un vero e proprio «capitalismo della catastrofe»
Filippo Del Lucchese
Ogni casa ha la sua croce. Le squadre di soccorso, nei giorni e nelle settimane successive all'alluvione, hanno percorso le strade di New Orleans in cerca dei sopravvissuti e poi delle vittime. Ogni porta è segnata da una croce di vernice fosforescente. Una grossa «X» con la data, il codice della squadra intervenuta e una cifra, semplice e agghiacciante, che indica il numero dei cadaveri recuperati all'interno. Nel silenzio dei quartieri, ancora oggi disabitati, l'atmosfera è spettrale. Esattamente un anno fa gli argini saltavano in più punti, allagando l'80% della città. Le riprese aeree fecero immediatamente il giro del mondo. Non troppo diverse dal ritratto visionario che James Ballard immagina nel suo Il mondo sommerso, dove lo scienziato Robert Kerans osserva ciò che resta delle metropoli, dopo che una serie di tempeste solari ha surriscaldato e mutato per sempre il volto del pianeta. I palazzi sommersi emergono da una laguna nera, infestata e contaminata, risultato di un'apocalisse che ha ricacciato la civiltà umana in un'età primordiale. Come i reietti di Ballard, anche gli abitanti di New Orleans sono stati condannati dall'incompetenza e dal razzismo delle autorità a sopravvivere per cinque giorni immersi in un terrificante Hazmat: un miscuglio di acqua e sostanze tossiche, invaso da ratti e serpenti, su cui galleggiavano i cadaveri delle vittime.
A un anno di distanza dall'uragano, non è però il momento della fiction. Gli scaffali delle librerie americane si sono riempiti, nelle ultime settimane, di decine di volumi in cui si cerca di offrire la spiegazione di uno degli eventi più tragici della storia di questo paese. Il modello letterario è Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America (Touchstone 1998), di John M. Barry. È incredibile il senso di déjà vu che si prova nel leggere la storia di questa precedente inondazione. Famiglie costrette a rifugiarsi sui tetti delle proprie abitazioni, errori tecnici nella manutenzione degli argini, politici corrotti sullo sfondo di un razzismo che allora prendeva il nome di Ku Klux Klan. In questa ricostruzione, Berry è attento a mettere in evidenza gli effetti catasotrofici non solo dei fenomeni naturali, ma della loro interazione con un preciso sistema e ordine sociale.
Questa è anche la cifra della «sociologia delle catastrofi» di Mike Davis, uno dei più acuti interpreti della società americana, che ha scritto in questi mesi numerosi saggi sulle premesse e le conseguenze politiche dell'uragano Katrina, così come sulla posta in gioco nella ricostruzione della città del jazz (l'analisi di Davis su Katrina si può leggere anche su www.socialistworker.org). La gentrificazione di New Orleans, sostiene Davis, era iniziata ben prima di Katrina, con l'abbattimento delle case popolari per far posto agli ipermercati o con il dirottamento dei fondi federali dalle spese per la manutenzione degli argini verso la fortificazione del confine messicano. Davis parla di un vero e proprio «capitalismo della catastrofe», simile in tutto al capitalismo di guerra di cui l'amministrazione Bush si nutre da qualche anno. Già nell'ottobre del 2005, solo per fare un esempio, la Halliburton dell'azionista nonché vicepresidente Dick Cheney, riceve i primi contratti milionari per la ricostruzione degli argini.
Un punto di vista esperto e informato è anche quello di Ivor van Heerden, docente alla Louisiana State University, coautore insieme a Mike Bryan di The Storm: What Went Wrong and Why During Hurricane Katrina (Viking Adult 2006). Nel luglio del 2005, van Heerden lavora alla simulazione di un ipotetico uragano, per mettere a punto delle strategie di difesa e prevenzione. Fin dal 2001, infatti, insieme a un attacco terroristico a New York e a un terremoto a San Francisco, un uragano sulla Louisiana è ritenuto una delle tre peggiori e possibili catastrofi per la nazione. La simulazione mette in evidenza come niente, sulla costa, sia pronto per affrontare una tale evenienza. Van Heerden è fra i pochi a non ignorare i risultati dell'esperimento e il suo libro rende oggi la definizione di «catastrofe annunciata», usata a piene mani per Katrina, poco più di un eufemismo.
Con un taglio più giornalistico, invece, affrontano l'intreccio fra catastrofe naturale e politica sia Jed Horne in Breach of Faith. Hurricane Katrina and the Near Death of a Great American City (Random House), sia Douglas Brinkley in The Great Deluge. Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast (William Morrow). Horne scrive per The Times-Picayune, il quotidiano di New Orleans che, durante la crisi, ha continuato a funzionare come un vero e proprio blog di coordinamento dei soccorsi, nell'assenza pressoché totale delle autorità (un archivio degli epici resoconti si trova su www.nola.com). Per Horne non è il razzismo la principale chiave di lettura del disastro, ma la micidiale catena di disfunzioni burocratiche e cattiva amministrazione della città. Il suo giudizio è durissimo, ad esempio, nei confronti del primo cittadino Ray Nagin.
Sindaco nero, eletto col voto dei bianchi, Nagin è fra i principali responsabili del disastro che ha investito la città. Per non incorrere nella critica di un eccessivo allarmismo e, soprattutto, per difendere gli interessi del settore commerciale e alberghiero, Nagin ha emesso con colpevole ritardo, la mattina del 28 agosto, l'ordinanza di evacuazione obbligatoria della città. Questo errore, che anche Douglas Brinkley mette in evidenza, è alla base di una catena di decisioni fallimentari che costeranno la vita a migliaia di persone. Sul lavoro di Brinkley si è anche basato Spike Lee per il suo documentario When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts, che sarà presentato nei prossimi giorni alla mostra di Venezia. Il giudizio di Lee, tuttavia, è molto meno duro sull'operato del sindaco nero. Ed è un giudizio che rispecchia il comune sentire di gran parte della cittadinanza. Il sindaco Nagin è un politico estremamente abile che, ammettendo in parte le proprie responsabilità, è riuscito a scaricare tutta la colpa sui livelli alti dell'amministrazione federale.
Nell'aprile di quest'anno, Nagin ha ripresentato la propria candidatura a sindaco. I pronostici erano incerti, ma il risultato è stato davvero sorprendente. Nagin è stato rieletto, questa volta con l'80% dei voti della comunità nera e il 40 della comunità bianca. Molte e complesse sono le cause di questo risultato. Fra queste, secondo alcuni osservatori, la mancata partecipazione delle decine di migliaia di sfollati - i più colpiti dall'uragano, per lo più afroamericani - che non sono rientrati in città per votare. Ma ha giocato anche la mancanza di un candidato nero credibile, in alternativa al «nero-bianco» Nagin, come lo definisce Brinkley. Il suo diretto avversario era Mitchell Joseph Landrieu, cattolico bianco e democratico, rampollo di una dinastia di politici con solide radici in Louisiana. Dopo la debacle di Nagin nell'affrontare Katrina, per la prima volta dopo quasi 30 anni, le élite cittadine hanno visto l'opportunità di riconsegnare la City Hall nelle mani di un bianco.
Ma cento anni di conflitto lungo la linea del colore, evidentemente, non si cancellano così facilmente. Il giovane Mitch è figlio di Moon Landrieu, ultimo sindaco bianco della città, che all'inizio degli anni '70 ispirò una vera e propria guerra contro movimenti come le pantere nere e, prima ancora, il Deacons for Defence and Justice, composto da veterani della II guerra mondiale e della Corea, organizzati per la difesa armata dei lavoratori contro la violenza razzista del KKK. Landrieu partecipò all'organizzazione di più di un assalto, con elicotteri e carri armati, nei quartieri popolari come il Desire Project, dove i militanti neri si erano radicati. Solo il nome di Landrieu quindi, per chi ha ancora un po' di memoria, deve aver ispirato un certo scetticismo rispetto all'eventualità di riconsegnare ai bianchi il governo della città. Nonostante i propri fallimenti, l'abile e populista Nagin ha avuto buon gioco nel guadagnarsi i voti dei neri rimasti.
Ma dalle analisi di Brinkley e Horne, così come da Come Hell or High Water: Hurricane Katrina and the Color of Disaster (Perseus Books), di Michael Eric Dyson, non è solo Nagin, ma un'intera classe politica a venir condannata. Tutti questi lavori danno corpo e parole alle impressioni suscitate dalle tragiche immagini di un anno fa. Anziani e bambini, in maggioranza poveri e neri, che chiedevano cibo e assistenza, fronteggiati nelle strade o nel famigerato Superdome da agenti di polizia armati fino ai denti. Proprio il Superdome è stato, forse, il punto più alto della violenza, non solo simbolica, che le istituzioni hanno perpetrato contro la popolazione di New Orleans. E proprio il Superdome ha messo in luce come la spiegazione della catastrofe andasse cercata in alcune categorie spesso dismesse dal lessico politico occidentale, come «razza» e «classe». Decine di migliaia di persone avevano trovato, nello stadio dei Saints, un rifugio estremo alla furia dell'uragano. Abbandonate per giorni senza assistenza, nel clima malsano di una città sommersa, con i cadaveri delle vittime lasciati nei corridoi, avevano tentato in tutti i modi di uscire, di organizzarsi, di trovare una risposta collettiva alla situazione disperata a cui la colpevole incompetenza delle autorità le stava condannando.
Le stesse autorità non trovarono di meglio, nei giorni successivi, che dipingere i rifugiati e i superstiti come una moltitudine minacciosa di looters and rapers, saccheggiatori e stupratori. Di fronte a chi cercava in tutti i modi di non morire di fame e di sete, Bush e Blanco invocarono a gran voce «tolleranza zero» e autorizzarono la guardia nazionale ad aprire il fuoco per ristabilire l'ordine. L'ultimo «dono» avvelenato delle autorità, ai dannati di New Orleans, era il marchio infame di ladri e violentatori. Le violenze non sono mancate ma, nella più parte dei casi, sono state il frutto di uno sguardo apertamente razzista, alimentato da politici e media. Perfino i poliziotti hanno partecipato in quei giorni al saccheggio e, curiosamente, nessuno dei libri fotografici, in questi giorni in libreria, riporta le immagini degli agenti che escono dai negozi con la merce rubata, disponibili invece su internet.
E proprio internet, oltre all'ottimo lavoro di questi scrittori e giornalisti, offre oggi l'antidoto migliore alla «storia ufficiale» dell'uragano Katrina. Migliaia di racconti sono stati raccolti sui blog spontanei sorti fin dai primissimi giorni del disastro. Una vera e propria controstoria della catastrofe, ad esempio, è quella firmata da Francisco di Santis e nata in seno al Collettivo di ispirazione anarchica «Common Ground», fondato tra gli altri dall'ex-leader delle black panther Malik Rahim. Di Santis ha raccolto, nei mesi successivi all'uragano, una serie di ritratti e storie delle vittime dell'uragano. Il risultato è un'impressionante coro di denuncia, ma anche una straordinaria manifestazione di resistenza nei confronti di chi tenta oggi di sfruttare il disastro per ripulire New Orleans dalla «feccia» che abitava i quartieri popolari. Con intelligenza, di Santis allarga l'obiettivo anche oltre la dimensione immediata della tragedia, intervistando ad esempio molti immigrati ispanici illegali, arrivati massicciamente nell'ultimo anno per cercare lavoro nella ricostruzione.
New Orleans è, ancora oggi, una città in guerra, che ha perso più del 60% della popolazione, in cui è triplicato il tasso di suicidi e che subisce l'attacco delle elite cittadine, che tentano oggi una delle più grandi operazioni di gentrificazione nella storia del paese. Il ciclone, scriveva Victor Hugo, ha trovate da carnefice e la sua devastazione presenta gli aspetti di un supplizio. Proprio come un carnefice, mentre stermina, anatomizza le sue vittime. Si direbbe che Katrina abbia anatomizzato e messo a nudo alcuni aspetti della politica e della società di questo paese. L'incubo, per molti, non è ancora finito. Esattamente un anno fa, il 29 agosto, rinchiusi nel carcere minorile, i detenuti battevano inutilmente le sbarre. Le guardie erano fuggite in cerca di salvezza. Nel buio delle celle, il livello dell'acqua cresceva a vista d'occhio. Per giorni i ragazzi sono rimasti immersi nell'acqua contaminata, costretti a mangiare ciò che per caso ancora galleggiava, finché qualcuno si è ricordato di loro. Purtroppo questa non è l'immaginazione visionaria e post-apocalittica di Ballard, ma la cruda realtà di «New Orleans anno zero».
http://www.ilmanifesto.it/Quotidiano-archivio/29-Agosto-2006/art52.html
il manifesto:
Ecco che cosa ho visto
Di ritorno dal Libano, il giornalista Rai, Ennio Remondino, spiega tutte le difficoltà di un cronista che vuole raccontare la verità. Viaggiando sempre con una spada di Damocle sulla testa: quella delle accuse di antisemitismo
Ennio Remondino
Torno da lunghissime settimane trascorse nel sud del Libano, e ho voglia di dire due o tre cose su quella tragedia e su come è stata raccontata. Nessuna voglia di rintuzzare polemiche ferragostane, quanto piuttosto provare a riflettere. Due le questioni che sento di dover premettere, nella forma di «lettera al direttore», di sfogo personale e quindi sottratto a qualsiasi vincolo di scuderia. Autodifesa, diciamo.
1. Non c'è accusa più infamante per chi è figlio di una cultura democratica e antifascista nata dalla Lotta partigiana e dalla Resistenza, di quella di antisemitismo.
2. Non c'è accusa più scontata, se ti capita di elevare in qualche modo critiche all'operato del governo israeliano in carica, di quella diretta o indiretta di antisemitismo.
Vorrei provare a ribellarmi a questa trappola che non aiuta nessuno. Non aiuta me, rotellina occasionale sul campo della notizia, a fare meglio i miei resoconti, non aiuta la responsabilità di chi vuole proporre analisi utili, ad evitare la tentazione della tifoseria.
Tutto quanto accade attorno ad Israele, sembra destinato a suscitare sensibilità e reazioni forti. C'è una frase del grande intellettuale arabo palestinese Edward W. Said, recentemente scomparso, che credo esprima meglio di qualsiasi altro ragionamento lungo e complicato, la tragedia che si sta consumando da sempre in Palestina e in Israele. «La tragedia di essere vittime di un popolo vittima». Due tragedie in una. La tragedia del popolo palestinese senza Stato e spesso senza terra, vittima di uno stato, quello israeliano, e di un popolo, gli ebrei, contro cui il nazismo ha consumato sessant'anni fa il peggiore dei crimini possibili: il tentativo di sterminio.
Essere «vittima» delle «vittime», ti toglie quasi la speranza, ti riduce le solidarietà attorno, trasforma in «antisemitismo» ogni critica legittima allo Stato d'Israele. La trappola del conflitto arabo-israeliano in Palestina, tiene prigioniero il mondo da decenni, e nessuno sembra oggi neppure in grado di immaginare come e quando se ne potrà uscire con una pace che ha come condizione un po' di giustizia assieme al diritto di esistere. Il Libano, la Siria e quant'altro di crisi politiche o guerreggiate ci sia in medio Oriente, persino una parte del terrorismo immondo di Al Qaeda, ruota attorno a questo.
L'informazione giunta in Italia sulla guerra in Libano, mi appare una delle molte marginalità al problema centrale individuato prima. Il problema nella forma di cui dicevo prima: si può discutere sulla politica di Israele, e sulla difesa armata di Israele, e sulla proporzionalità della sua reazione anti Hezbollah in Libano, senza finire sotto schiaffo con accuse sottintese di antisemitismo che feriscono innanzitutto la tua coscienza democratica? Alle critiche in buona fede, credo sia dovuta una risposta sui fatti, e non attraverso anatemi di segno opposto.
Quarta settimana di bombardamenti sul Libano, e la «nuova frontiera di sicurezza» sul fiume Litani promessa dal ministro della difesa israeliano assomiglia sempre di più alle promesse elettorali di Berlusconi. La Cnn e altre televisioni internazionali di prestigio, aprono la riflessione sul rischio di un «Vietnam israeliano in Libano», un pantano politico-militare da cui Gerusalemme dà l'impressione di non sapere bene come uscire. La polemica divampa ovviamente anche al centro del bersaglio, e tu, cronista sul campo, ne dai conto frenando sui facili entusiasmi partigiani che sbandierano vittorie bugiarde dell'una o dell'altra parte.
«La percezione tra la gente del posto che la potenza militare israeliana stia trovando nel sud del Libano il suo Vietnam, non consola chi oggi va a raccogliere i pacchi di emergenza donati (...)». Banale, forse, ma fotografico. Poi il racconto si restringe, in proporzione alla libertà di movimento concessa ai testimoni giornalistici. «Dal fiume Litani a sud, dalla sfida degli ultimi soccorsi arrivati ieri, all'impossibile di oggi: ogni movimento di veicoli è interdetto», è la cronaca. «Preavviso a firma dello Stato di Israele, con volantini lanciati dagli aerei in cui si avverte la popolazione e noi giornalisti in particolare. Nessuna protezione sperata dalla scritta TV sul tetto delle auto, visto che, affermano a Gerusalemme, vetture simili sarebbero utilizzate dagli Hezbollah per trasportare i loro razzi».
Chiosa conclusiva del cronista: «Testimoni assediati e ora appiedati, insomma, con l'intento forse di trasformarci nelle famose tre scimmiette, che non sentono, non vedono, non parlano e soprattutto non fanno vedere». Fazioso? Tutto può essere, ma a me appare soltanto efficace, soprattutto avendo ascoltato gli altri resoconti telegiornalistici che in mille lingue viaggiano da Tiro verso il mondo. Perché tutto questo accade solo in Italia e non altrove? è la domanda.
La questione dell'equilibrio dell'informazione italiana su quella tragedia forse riguarda altro. Che sia un problema di nuovo equilibrio imposto dai fatti della guerra, rispetto ad un «disequilibrio» diffuso e generalizzato che s'era imposto per schieramento nelle settimane precedenti? Forse anche per le guerre si vorrebbe far valere una sorta di «Par condicio» fra le parti in conflitto. E' accaduto. Un pezzo da Gerusalemme, uno da Beirut. Uno pari, palla al centro. Il sud del Libano che il suo centro l'ha avuto soltanto nella collimazione delle coordinate di puntamento di bombe e missili? Quello non conta.
C'è un sito internet israeliano che con involontario umorismo si chiama "Informazione corretta". Ci lavora tra gli altri una simpatica signora nata in Italia, Deborah Fait, con cui ho avuto modo, anni addietro, di intrecciare molte schermaglie e rari consensi. Per un anno, nel 2000, memoria lontana anche per me, ho diretto anche la sede di corrispondenza Rai di Gerusalemme, riuscendo infine, felicemente, a fuggirne. Ora la mia amica Deborah (o chi con lei), critica «l'esibizione di spuntoni di proiettile, venduti come presunte bombe Cluster, vietate dalle convenzioni internazionali».
Caspita, cara Deborah. Io su quelle bombe ho rischiato di saltarci in aria. Non soltanto le ho viste ed evitate, ma le ho anche filmate e mostrate nel dettaglio. Pensa, cara Deborah, che Amnesty International e ora l'Onu ci dice oggi di 288 contenitori di Cluster bomb (per migliaia di bombe-mina) lanciati sul sud del Libano, e già di 12 morti civili nella contabilità dell'altro ieri. Pensa che quei faziosi organizzati di giornalisti americani e della Bbc ci hanno recentemente raccontato di Abbas Youssef Abbas, 5 anni, in fin di vita per quella vecchia forniture americana di 20 anni fa ad Israele. Cara "Informazione corretta", che dovevo fare quel giorno a Bent Jbail, o fra le piantagioni di tabacco di Aita ech Chaab, cittadina che ora non esiste più, in mezzo alle Cluster inesplose? Di nuovo le tre scimmiette che non vedono, non sentono e non dicono?
La questione vera, ancora una volta, mi appare quella del dito che oscura la vista della luna. O ci ostiniamo alla propaganda dove ognuno rivendica il suo diritto alla faziosità, o ci sforziamo tutti quanti di capire. Non soltanto il sacrosanto diritto alla critica, ma anche quello necessario della buona fede. Contemporaneamente, confrontiamoci innanzitutto sui fatti. I fatti della guerra per come è stata realmente condotta, i fatti della informazione su questa guerra per come è stata e non per come uno l'ha digerita, e soprattutto i risultati che la guerra ha ottenuto e quelli che ci ha lasciato in eredità.
La malafede non era mia dal sud del Libano, e non era certamente di chi ha voluto apertamente criticarmi. Pace fatta, da parte mia. Sulla questione del ruolo svolto dall'informazione Rai, ad altri competenza e responsabilità di risposta, magari con un po' di spina dorsale. Da parte mia soltanto un sospetto. L'impressione del solito poligono di tiro in cui la sagome di cartone cambiano figura e nome, vuoi Israele o vuoi Libano, ma dove il bersaglio immaginato da qualche puntatore era un altro. Nella confusione di una guerra vera, capita che qualche colpo apparentemente fuori rotta, si scelga un bersaglio comunque utile. Più o meno come i due missili Usa che nel nugolo di bombe su Belgrado si infilano sul tetto dell'ambasciata cinese.
La malafede e l'equivoco su cosa possa e debba essere l'informazione in frangenti tanto drammatici, li ho visti altrove. Sui manifesti che mi hanno accolto a Roma col Paolini-Hezbollah di Beirut che si è esibito accanto al ministro D'Alema e che è diventato occasione di cronache col vuoto a perdere. Li vedo, in alcune cronache della manifestazione di Assisi, impegnate a privilegiare le inevitabili presenze dissonanti rispetto al coro inequivoco che ne è venuto fuori.
Sempre a proposito di Assisi. Nel giornalismo strangolato a titoli, pare vada di moda discutere la quantità di «Se» e di «Ma» che accompagnano o meno la parola Pace e adesso, lo schieramento di truppe Onu in Libano. «Se» e «Ma» ancora una volta ideologici, mi sembra, là dove la virtù del dubbio dovrebbe vincolare ognuno di noi. Da "reduce" consentitemi, per finire, di non considerare una novità di poco conto il primo "arbitrato internazionale" che s'è imposto, dopo decenni, sulla logica dell'esercizio della forza unilaterale Israelo-Statunitense in Medio oriente. Dopo Srebrenica, ricordava Adriano Sofri qualche giorno fa, rivedere la bandiera blu dell'Onu vestire le divise militari con un progetto politico, merita un credito di speranza.
http://www.ilmanifesto.it/Quotidiano-archivio/29-Agosto-2006/art77.html
Jeune Afrique: Patassé condamné à 20 ans
de travaux forcés par contumace à Bangui
CENTRAFRIQUE - 29 août 2006 – AFP
L'ex-président centrafricain Ange-Félix Patassé a été condamné par contumace mardi à 20 ans de travaux forcés pour "faux et usage de faux" par la Cour criminelle de Centrafrique, qui a disjoint le dossier de détournement de deniers publics le concernant.
"La Cour déclare Ange-Félix Patassé et (son ex-conseiller) Luis Sanchez coupables de faux et usage de faux" et les condamne "à 20 ans de travaux forcés et à 6 millions de francs CFA (9.100 euros) d'amende", selon le verdict rendu en audience publique.
Les deux hommes sont également condamnés solidairement à payer 7 milliards de francs CFA (10,7 millions d'euros) de dommages et intérêts à l'Etat centrafricain.
La Cour "retient" également la culpabilité de M. Patassé et d'un autre ancien conseiller Michel Banguet-Tandet, concernant le détournement de deniers publics, mais ordonne la disjonction du dossier, jugé insuffisamment instruit, et le confie à un juge d'instruction qui a deux mois pour le clôturer.
La Cour les déclare coupables "mais en l'absence d'informations détaillées sur cette affaire se réserve de rendre une décision immédiatement", a expliqué un juriste à l'AFP.
La Cour condamne également l'ancien ministre délégué aux Finances de M. Patassé, Lazare Doukoula, à 20 ans de travaux forcés pour détournement de deniers publics, ordonne la confiscation de tous ses biens "meubles et immeubles" et le condamne à 15 millions de francs CFA (22.900 euros) d'amende et à verser 2 millions de francs CFA (3.000 euros) de dommages et intérêts à l'Etat centrafricain.
MM. Patassé, Sanchez et Doukoula sont en outre privés de leurs droits civiques.
Les quatre accusés étaient jugés par contumace. Le procès s'est résumé à la longue lecture par la Cour de l'acte d'accusation et de renvoi, qui a pris plusieurs heures. Le tribunal, qui siégeait en l'absence de jurés conformément à la procédure de la contumace, s'est ensuite retirée pour délibérer et a rendu son verdit après seulement 30 minutes.
Le cas d'un cinquième accusé, Simon Kouloumba, le seul présent en Centrafrique où il est incarcéré, a été disjoint. Cet autre ex-conseiller de M. Patassé devrait être jugé début septembre.
La justice estime à au moins 70 milliards de francs CFA (106 millions d'euros) les sommes détournées au détriment du Trésor public par les accusés.
Le produit de la vente de 55.000 tonnes de carburant données en 1999 par la Libye à Bangui, alors alliée du président Patassé, avait notamment disparu, selon la justice.
Selon l'accusation, M. Patassé et ses collaborateurs ont également détourné la moitié d'un prêt de 6,6 milliards FCFA consenti par la Libyan Arab Bank en 2000, pour le paiement des arriérés de salaires, bourses et pensions, de même que les montants des hypothèques de certains immeubles appartenant à l'Etat et devant servir au remboursement du prêt.
M. Patassé, élu en 1993 et réélu en 1998, a été renversé le 15 mars 2003 par le général François Bozizé, depuis élu président en mai 2005.
Interrogé par l'AFP à Lomé, où il vit en exil depuis sa destitution, l'ancien président a "récusé" dimanche la Cour criminelle, estimant qu'"elle n'a ni qualité, ni compétence".
"Je suis un président légitime et légal. Nous ne pouvons éventuellement être jugés que par la Haute Cour de justice pour haute trahison. Or l'Assemblée nationale actuelle, issue d'un régime hors-la-loi et putschiste, n'a pas qualité pour siéger en la demeure", a-t-il estimé.
En avril, la Cour de cassation centrafricaine a renvoyé M. Patassé devant la Cour pénale internationale (CPI) pour divers crimes et exactions commis en Centrafrique contre des civils centrafricains et tchadiens par les forces loyalistes, lors de la répression d'une première tentative de coup d'Etat du général Bozizé, venu du Tchad, en octobre 2002.
© Jeuneafrique.com 2006
http://www.jeuneafrique.com/jeune_afrique/article_depeche.asp?
art_cle=AFP53036patasiugnab0
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Ciudad que huele a tragedia
HUELLAS DE KATRINA EN NUEVA ORLEANS, UN AÑO DESPUES
La principal ciudad de Luisiana sigue sin haber reparado sus diques para afrontar la nueva temporada de huracanes. La reconstrucción es lenta. Menos de la mitad de los evacuados regresó.
Por Yolanda Monge*
Desde Nueva Orleans, Miércoles, 30 de Agosto de 2006
El último cadáver “apareció” hace dos semanas. Sí, porque en Nueva Orleáns los cadáveres “aparecen”. Alguien buscaba a su madre y no pudo encontrarla en un año. Y al remover los dolorosos escombros de una casa en la que la víctima se refugió como último escondite contra el agua, apareció su cuerpo. O lo que quedaba de él. Esa mujer muerta suma el frío número 1464, que es el balance total de muertes que el Katrina dejó en Luisiana, por ahora, un año después. Sin unos diques, una vez más, a la altura de las circunstancias para enfrentar la temporada de huracanes, que está en su máximo apogeo. Con sólo 200.000 de sus 460.000 habitantes retornados. Con casi tres cuartas partes de los hogares sufriendo las consecuencias de haber sido inundados por, cuanto menos, un metro de agua. Sin electricidad y agua corriente todavía en algunas partes de la ciudad. Hace un año, una ciudad estadounidense se ahogaba. Pasado un año, Nueva Orleáns intenta respirar en medio de algo parecido a una reconstrucción: chapucera, lenta y sin planificación.
El 29 de agosto de 2005, el violento Katrina tocaba tierra. El agua que traía ganó el pulso a los diques que contenían al lago Pontchartrain. A medida que subían las aguas, el miedo de los habitantes que se jugaron el todo por el todo y decidieron resistir en sus hogares alcanzó límites de terror cuando se llevaron a la boca, esperando estar equivocados, los dedos mojados de agua: era agua salada.
“No era agua de lluvia, no venía del cielo”, dijo Ernestine Prendergast. Su peor pesadilla se hacía realidad. “Tuve la certeza de que moriríamos muchos.” Prendergast no murió ahogada. Fue rescatada de un tejado. Pero la cuna del jazz quedó anegada. Los pronósticos más desesperados aconsejaban no reconstruir, “volverá a ocurrir”, decían. Para bien o para mal, en cinco o diez años desde ahora, Nueva Orleáns volverá a latir, dicen los expertos.
El crimen es, desgraciadamente, marca registrada de la ciudad. Con el dudoso honor de haber llegado a ser uno de los más altos de la nación. No es el mismo que antes del Katrina. Es peor. Los crímenes del mes de julio superan ya a los de julio del año pasado, y con sólo la mitad de población. En las últimas semanas, se han desplegado 300 miembros de la Guardia Nacional para garantizar el orden tras varias ejecuciones que llevan el sello de bandas de gangsters. Resulta difícil mantener el optimismo sobre una ciudad que necesita ser patrullada por vehículos Humvee para imponer la ley.
El huracán barrió la ciudad en cuestión de horas. Pero sus habitantes vivirán con su legado durante décadas. Nueva Orleáns luce un inquietante vacío. Todavía se siente el olor del Katrina. Una peste dulzona, gases fétidos, agua emponzoñada... Olores que surgen de los residuos cuando se hurga en las tripas de una casa desvencijada. En el barrio Nueve, pobre hasta vaciar de sentido la palabra, no hay rastro de vida humana. Las ratas sí abundan. Se mire donde se mire hay desolación. Se pise donde se pise hay destrucción. Hasta donde alcanza la vista sólo se adivina un paisaje arrasado.
Imposible imaginar que una vez allí vivió alguien. Imposible también esbozar que alguien vivirá algún día. Pero ahí están los más de 40.000 permisos para reconstruir pedidos al ayuntamiento. Aunque volverán a levantar sus hogares desde el suelo, a pesar de que ya se inundaron una vez. “Estoy levantando la casa desde llano, desde cemento”, dice Tanya Harris, quien vivía en la zona más devastada del barrio Nueve. “Tuve casi cinco metros de agua cubriendo mi casa”, explica. “¿Cómo se construye para evitar cinco metros de agua?”, se pregunta. Aunque Harris acabara mañana de arreglar su pobre casa, no podría mudarse: no hay ni luz ni agua. Es un barrio fantasma. Sobre algunas puertas todavía se ven las cruces naranjas que informaban que allí dentro había cadáveres que recoger.
Desde otro lugar del país en el que hay agua y electricidad, el presidente de EE.UU., George W. Bush, llegó a la costa del golfo. Lo hizo para prometer lo mismo que hace un año. “Seguiremos aquí hasta que el trabajo haya acabado”, dijo en aquella ocasión, y lo repitió ayer. Y volvió a admitir que había habido errores en todos los niveles de la escala gubernamental.
“El último año de mi vida ha sido como vivir en el infierno”, dice Duff Jones. “Hemos subsistido en condiciones en las que jamás hubiéramos soñado que podríamos vivir. No sabemos qué va a pasar, pero será difícil que Nueva Orleáns vuelva a ser la que era.” Hace un año, el agua era el enemigo. Hoy ha sido reemplazada por un adversario más insidioso: la incertidumbre.
“Toda nuestra costa está en alerta”, declaró ayer la gobernadora de Luisiana, Kathleen Blanco, ante la llegada del Ernesto. Mientras Nueva Orleáns, asolada por el huracán Katrina hace un año, celebra el primer aniversario de la tragedia, la tormenta tropical Ernesto incrementaba su fuerza y se transformaba en el primer huracán de la temporada en el Atlántico.
El Ernesto se formó el viernes en el mar Caribe y se mueve en dirección Oeste-Noroeste. Podría golpear el sudeste de EE.UU. a finales de semana. Las autoridades han ordenado a los turistas que abandonen los cayos de Florida.
Atrás quedarán los blues. Se recuperarán los buenos momentos. Y seguirán los mismos problemas.
* De El País de Madrid. Especial para Página/12.
© 2000-2006 www.pagina12.com.ar|República Argentina|Todos los Derechos Reservados
http://www.pagina12.com.ar/diario/sociedad/3-72218-2006-08-30.html
Página/12: Lluvia de críticas contra Olmert
por las comisiones investigadoras
El premier israelí anunció la formación de dos comisiones para investigar lo actuado en la guerra del Líbano, pero recibió muchos cuestionamientos por el limitado alcance del mandato.
Por Sergio Rotbart
desde Jerusalén, Miércoles, 30 de Agosto de 2006
“La responsabilidad por la decisión de salir a la guerra y por sus resultados es totalmente mía”, dijo Ehud Olmert en el marco del discurso con el que anunció que no creará una comisión investigadora estatal sobre el desempeño de su gobierno durante la guerra en el Líbano. Si bien el premier israelí pidió paciencia para evaluar en forma más íntegra los logros del conflicto militar con el Hezbolá, por otro lado sentenció: “No permitiré que se convierta al ejército en blanco de la flagelación colectiva, no dejaré que se lo paralice durante largos meses o aún más”.
No obstante, Olmert designó dos “comisiones examinadoras” sobre la guerra: una se ocupará del papel de la dirigencia política y la otra se centrará en el accionar de la cúpula militar.
Los miembros de la primera ya fueron elegidos: la encabezará Nahum Admoni, ex titular del Servicio de Inteligencia (Mosad), y junto a él la integrarán los juristas Ruth Gabison y Yehezkel Dror y los generales (de la reserva) Yedidya Yaari y David Ivri. Se estima que la segunda comisión estará basada en la que ya designó el ministro de Defensa, Amir Peretz, liderada por Amnon Lipkin-Shahak, ex jefe del ejército, y a ella se sumarían personalidades del ámbito jurídico. Con respecto a la preparación de la defensa civil durante la guerra, el gobierno le encomendará la revisión del tema al contralor del Estado, el juez Micha Lindenstrauss.
David Ibri, uno de los integrantes de la comisión encargada de examinar la actuación del gobierno durante la guerra, fue comandante de la fuerza aérea y titular del Consejo de Seguridad Nacional. En un artículo publicado ayer en el diario Haaretz, Ibri argumentó: “Pudimos haber conseguido los objetivos razonables en el tercer día de la guerra. De ahí en adelante no había chance de mejorar los logros diplomáticos, por eso lo correcto hubiese sido parar”.
Varios representantes del campo político criticaron la decisión del primer ministro y su opción de haber descartado la creación de una comisión investigadora estatal. El ministro laborista Ophir Pines dijo que se opondrá a la medida, dado que “la comisión que propuso Olmert para investigar al poder político carece de una clara autoridad y de agenda”. Pines agregó que la existencia de más de una comisión creará un estado de confusión. El líder de su partido, Amir Peretz, se abstuvo hasta el momento de pronunciarse sobre el tema. Zehava Gal-On, titular de la bancada parlamentaria del partido de centroizquierda Meretz, llamó a los designados miembros de la comisión creada por Olmert a no servir como taparrabos encubridores de la verdad. Desde el otro flanco del arco político, el vocero del partido derechista Likud señaló que “es ilógico que el primer ministro designe una comisión que revisará su propio desempeño”. Mientras que Efi Eitam (Unidad Nacional) definió la instancia investigadora “comisión de encubrimiento y rehuida de la responsabilidad”.
Los organizadores de la protesta de los soldados reservistas que combatieron en el Líbano, por otro lado, manifestaron su condena a la decisión gubernamental de no crear una comisión investigadora estatal. Y si bien la causa que defienden no ha crecido, a juzgar por el número de manifestantes que congrega, sus líderes esperan que el paso dado por Ehud Olmert sea un buen motivo para promover la concurrencia de adherentes que hasta ahora preferían no salir de sus casas. “Olmert creó tres comisiones, sólo falta la comisión de decorado. Es un acto de manipulación, trucos de abogado”, dijo Nir Hirshman, vocero de la protesta. Eliad Shraga, titular del Movimiento por la Transparencia Gubernamental, inició, junto con otros tres miembros del organismo, una huelga de hambre destinada a conseguir la creación de una comisión estatal. Shraga no oculta su enojo: “El primer ministro demuestra que quizá la exigencia de su renuncia sea lógica, quizá no sea digno del puesto que ocupa. Se crearon comisiones investigadoras por cosas más ínfimas, como la caída de las acciones de la bolsa en los años ’80. Se trata de otra maniobra sucia de sus asesores de imagen”.
Por su parte, los familiares de soldados caídos en el Líbano decidieron endurecer los términos de su protesta contra el gobierno. Ayer realizaron una marcha desde el Centro Beguin, en Jerusalén, hasta la casa del primer ministro bajo la consigna “Olmert, no podés más” (parafraseando al dicho del ex premier Menajem Beguin, quien abandonó su cargo a raíz de la primera guerra del Líbano). Allí iniciaron una huelga de silencio hasta que el actual premier acepte recibirlos. “Si no se reúne con nosotros debido a la potencia de las palabras, lo hará debido a la potencia de nuestro silencio”, explicó Elifaz Baluha, cuyo hijo Nadav murió en la reciente guerra.
© 2000-2006 www.pagina12.com.ar|República Argentina|Todos los Derechos Reservados
http://www.pagina12.com.ar/diario/elmundo/4-72204-2006-08-30.html
Página/12:
Pequeño Fontanarrosa Ilustrado
Por Roberto Fontanarrosa*
Miércoles, 30 de Agosto de 2006
- Los libros “Hay un tema que yo he dicho en muchos casos y que puede sonar provocativo en una feria del libro, pero les voy a explicar desde mi punto de vista cómo yo elijo un libro. Ustedes lo toman como quieran, pero yo les voy a decir qué condiciones tiene que tener un libro para que yo lo elija.”
“Primero y principal no tiene que ser un libro gordo. Un libro gordo me parece un abuso de confianza del autor hacia mi tiempo. Es como si aparece alguien y me dice: ‘Quisiera hablar con vos, tenés dos semanas libres...’. ¿Cuál es el lazo de confianza que me une a ese escritor para que durante dos meses yo me vaya a la cama con él y su libro?”
“Segundo, y lo va a comprender la gente que ya tiene cierta edad, y no es por la madurez: tiene que tener letra grande. Hay escritores que escribían con letra muy chiquita, y ya a esta altura del campeonato ese esfuerzo es excesivo.”
“Otra cosa: tiene que tener espacios en blanco. Si abro un libro y veo un masacote negro, como si fuera un amontonamiento de hormigas, yo digo: ‘¿Por dónde entro al texto?’.”
“Otra alternativa: fíjense en capítulos cortos. Ustedes mismos se van a dar cuenta de la sabiduría del cuerpo humano: usted está leyendo un libro y de repente observa que sin darse cuenta su mano derecha va buscando las páginas hasta llegar a un capítulo.”
“Otra cosa que me interesa también es que tenga diálogos, porque a mí me gusta escuchar a los protagonistas. Antes pasaba en algunos diarios, porque ahora el género del reportaje es mucho más fluido, que hacían un reportaje y decían: ‘Estuvimos en la casa del afamado escultor fulano de tal, y nos dijo que está pensando en hacer una escultura que representa a un caballo comiendo una codorniz’.”
“Yo digo: dejalo hablar al escritor, qué te metés en el medio. A mí con los libros me pasa eso. Y si están bien escritos mejor, pero siempre préstenle atención a esas consideraciones.”
- Los amigos “Es placentero y descansado encontrarse a las ocho de la tarde con los amigos en El Cairo o en algún boliche, porque a los amigos, a los verdaderos amigos, no hay por qué darles pelota. Si un amigo te dice: ‘Fui a ver una película iraní’, yo le digo: ‘Dejáme de romper las pelotas’.”
- Los estudios “Yo desde mi ignorancia me hago una pregunta: ¿por qué los chicos se tienen que levantar tan temprano para ir a la escuela? Gardel se levantaba a las ocho de la noche. Y fue Gardel. (...) Les voy a contar que estuve en Córdoba, donde me dieron el Doctor Honoris Causa, lo que indica lo mal que está la educación argentina. Imagino la desolación de los estudiantes que estudian ocho horas diarias y ven que a un tipo como yo le dan el Doctor Honoris Causa. Yo no terminé el tercer año de la escuela secundaria. Y no levanto como bandera el ser un ‘salvaje ilustrado’; digo que no terminé la escuela porque desde el comienzo sostuve una batalla desigual contra las matemáticas. Desigual por la simple condición de superioridad numérica de ellas. Los números son millones, y yo era uno solo. Yo fui a lo que era el Politécnico y me acuerdo de aquellas épocas de estudiantes, con todas las expectativas..., ¡qué horrible que era eso! Para mí era un espanto, similar a lo que me ocurrió no hace mucho, que tuve que hacer una dieta ayurveda de vegetales.”
- La lectura “Siempre he ligado la lectura con el placer. Siempre he sido un lector vago. Y repito otra consideración que pasará al mármol: creo que casi todos los grandes logros y avances de la civilización se debieron a la vagancia. O sea, el tipo que inventó la rueda es porque no quería caminar más. Y después de la rueda, el otro invento maravilloso, que ha hecho dar un salto cualitativo y cuantitativo a la humanidad, es el cambiador del televisor. Volviendo a la literatura, no entiendo el esfuerzo por leer, cuando uno se encuentra con tantos libros que los empieza y no los puede dejar, se siente atrapado por los libros, quiere terminarlos y está feliz mientras los lee.”
- La relación autor-personaje “Sé que algo mío hay dentro de Boggie e Inodoro Pereyra; es más parecido a mí y a cualquiera, porque es un antihéroe que a veces reacciona bien, a veces reacciona mal, es temeroso. Más temeroso es Mendieta. Pero hay algunas cosas mías en esos personajes. Incluso en Eulogia, pero eso lo vamos a hablar en otro momento.”
- Los nuevos medios de comunicación “Con los mensajes de texto estamos muy susceptibles. Yo me acuerdo de los telegramas. A nadie se le ocurrió decir que ese invento estaba arruinando el lenguaje. Está la gente que dice enfadada que no le gustan los shoppings. Y, no vayas querido, cuál es el problema. Si no, es muy fácil pegarle a la televisión, que a mi juicio es un invento maravilloso. Y repito, si solamente hubiera sido creado para transmitir fútbol ya estaría largamente justificado. Ahora, como todas estas cosas, como la historieta, es un instrumento. Si alguien me escucha a mí tocar el piano, dirá que el piano es un instrumento nefasto. Ahora, si lo escucha a Richard Clayderman, por ejemplo, dirán que es un instrumento sublime. Con la televisión pasa lo mismo. Ahora, estoy de acuerdo con que se usa un vocabulario bastante pequeño, y en ese aspecto la lectura te da más posibilidades de expresarte. Para mí la lectura siempre ha sido un placer. Hay muchísima información, e imperceptiblemente uno va ganando una vastedad de lenguaje, y aparte es una compañía formidable. Se puede vivir perfectamente sin leer un libro. Creo que más de las tres cuartas partes de la población mundial jamás ha leído un libro. Pero, entre una cosa y otra, prefiero leerlos.”
* Extractado de la extraordinaria charla abierta que brindó el escritor y humorista en la Feria del Libro de Rosario.
© 2000-2006 www.pagina12.com.ar|República Argentina|Todos los Derechos Reservados
http://www.pagina12.com.ar/diario/contratapa/13-72219-2006-08-30.html
The Nation:
Pay To Be Saved
by NAOMI KLEIN
[posted online on August 29, 2006]
The Red Cross has just announced a new disaster-response partnership with Wal-Mart. When the next hurricane hits, it will be a co-production of Big Aid and Big Box.
This, apparently, is the lesson learned from the government's calamitous response to Hurricane Katrina: Businesses do disaster better.
"It's all going to be private enterprise before it's over," Billy Wagner, emergency management chief for the Florida Keys, currently under hurricane watch for Tropical Storm Ernesto, said in April. "They've got the expertise. They've got the resources."
But before this new consensus goes any further, perhaps it's time to take a look at where the privatization of disaster began, and where it will inevitably lead.
The first step was the government's abdication of its core responsibility to protect the population from disasters. Under the Bush administration, whole sectors of the government, most notably the Department of Homeland Security, have been turned into glorified temp agencies, with essential functions contracted out to private companies. The theory is that entrepreneurs, driven by the profit motive, are always more efficient (please suspend hysterical laughter).
We saw the results in New Orleans one year ago: Washington was frighteningly weak and inept, in part because its emergency management experts had fled to the private sector and its technology and infrastructure had become positively retro. At least by comparison, the private sector looked modern and competent (a New York Times columnist even suggested handing FEMA over to Wal-Mart).
But the honeymoon doesn't last long. "Where has all the money gone?" ask desperate people from Baghdad to New Orleans, from Kabul to tsunami-struck Sri Lanka. One place a great deal of it has gone is into major capital expenditures for these private contractors. Largely under the public radar, billions of taxpayer dollars have been spent on the construction of a privatized disaster-response infrastructure: the Shaw Group http://www.shawgrp.com/
's new state-of-the-art Baton Rouge headquarters, Bechtel's battalions of earthmoving equipment, Blackwater USA http://www.blackwaterusa.com/
's 6,000-acre campus in North Carolina (complete with paramilitary training camp and 6,000-foot runway).
I call it the Disaster Capitalism Complex. Whatever you might need in a serious crunch, these contractors can provide it: generators, water tanks, cots, port-a-potties, mobile homes, communications systems, helicopters, medicine, men with guns.
This state-within-a-state has been built almost exclusively with money from public contracts, including the training of its staff (overwhelmingly former civil servants, politicians and soldiers). Yet it is all privately owned; taxpayers have absolutely no control over it or claim to it. So far, that reality hasn't sunk in because when these companies are getting their bills paid by government contracts, the Disaster Capitalism Complex provides its services to the public free of charge.
But here's the catch: The US government is going broke, in no small part thanks to this kind of loony spending. The national debt is $8-trillion; the federal budget deficit is at least $260-billion. That means that sooner rather than later, the contracts are going to dry up. And no one knows this better than the companies themselves. Ralph Sheridan, chief executive of Good Harbor Partners, one of hundreds of new counter-terrorism companies, explains that "expenditures by governments are episodic and come in bubbles." Insiders call it the "homeland security bubble."
When it bursts, firms such as Bechtel, Fluor and Blackwater will lose their primary revenue stream. They will still have all their high-tech gear giving them the ability to respond to disasters-while the government will have let that precious skill whither away-but now they will sell back the tax-funded infrastructure at whatever price they choose.
Here's a snapshot of what could be in store in the not-too-distant future: helicopter rides off of rooftops in flooded cities ($5,000 a pop, $7,000 for families, pets included), bottled water and "meals ready to eat" ($50 per person, steep, but that's supply and demand) and a cot in a shelter with a portable shower (show us your biometric ID-developed on a lucrative Homeland Security contract-and we'll track you down later with the bill. Don't worry, we have ways: Spying has been outsourced too).
The model, of course, is the US healthcare system, in which the wealthy can access best-in-class treatment in spa-like environments while 46 million Americans lack health insurance. As emergency response, the model is already at work in the global AIDS pandemic: Private-sector prowess helped produce lifesaving drugs (with heavy public subsidies), then set prices so high that the vast majority of the world's infected cannot afford treatment.
If that is the corporate world's track record on slow-motion disasters, why should we expect different values to govern fast-moving disasters, like hurricanes or even terrorist attacks? It's worth remembering that as Israeli bombs pummeled Lebanon not so long ago, the US government initially tried to charge its citizens for the cost of their own evacuations. And of course anyone without a Western passport in Lebanon had no hope of rescue.
One year ago, New Orleans's working-class and poor citizens were stranded on their rooftops waiting for help that never came, while those who could pay their way escaped to safety. The country's political leaders claim it was all some terrible mistake, a breakdown in communication that is being fixed. Their solution is to go even further down the catastrophic road of "private-sector solutions."
Unless a radical change of course is demanded, New Orleans will prove to be a glimpse of a dystopic future, a future of disaster apartheid in which the wealthy are saved and everyone else is left behind.
Editor's Note: A shorter version of this piece appeared in the Los Angeles Times.
Copyright © 2006 The Nation
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060911/klein
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