Abuse Of Power...

Still recovering from a wide corruption scandal that tarnished its image in 2000, LAPD is facing more troubles with a case of police brutality. A video taken by a witness and published to youtube.com led to the arrest of these 2 cops.



Some people are not mature enough to deserve the legal tools of power that are given to them. Abuse happens all over the world. Some get caught like here; some are still there waiting for the next victims.

Such cops do not belong to the community of 400,000 police officers enforcing local, state and federal laws and sometimes going in harm’s way in order to do so. More than a hundred of them get killed a year in this line of duty.

"The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse."

"Liberty may be endangered by the abuse of liberty, but also by the abuse of power."

James Madison

The Bush effect

It is amazing how some visionary people can predict or see through the cloud of current events. Georges Orwell in his “1984” fiction book described through the story of a couple of lovers how the world would be in 1984. The book was written in 1946, just after WWII and the start of the cold war era.

The deception, the totalitarianism, the despotism, the Big Brother concept, the population surveillance, the spinning of the news, the rewriting of history by governments to suit its politics, justifying the unjustifiable…etc. On all this, Orwell was right on.

And I am not talking here about governments of banana countries, I am thinking about the current administration of the USA, headed by President Bush.

I talked about one of the aspects of news spinning and truth twisting in a post, a couple of days ago. In the same series, I want to share with these blunders made by Bush’s administration.

1) Iraq war spending:
SIGIR, the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, is a body created by US congress to oversee the spending of over $3 billion of taxpayer’s money on Iraq reconstruction. This team audited hundreds of projects saving around $400M. It investigated 243 cases of abuse or embezzlement that sometimes resulted in arrest and jailing of such wrong doers. It also issued reports criticizing the white house effort of reconstruction.

I guess Bush’s administration did not like seeing these contractors having tough time trying to get the money, so in mid September, he instructed republicans in the congress to slip a small provision in a military bill they are working on, that would close this office by 10/07. They did, it passed and he signed it. A lot of congressman did not know that the just did that until 2 days ago! The new democrat led senate just introduced a bill that would extend the SIGIR mission beyond 2007. The fact that a lot of this

2)Bush Internment camps
In January 2006 Homeland Security awarded a $385 million contract to Kellogg, Brown and Root, the subsidiary of Halliburton Co., to build "temporary detention and processing capabilities" aka “internment camps” in the event of an emergency influx of immigrants into the U.S., or to support the rapid development of new programs. Actually more clues about the US switching to be a police state can be found on this article “Toward a police state in America”

3) On October 17, 2006 Bush signed the Military Commissions Act (MCA). This law was barely covered in the US and it breaks all the rules of civil and human. Under the MCA the president or the secretary of defense can declare any person US citizen or not an "enemy combatant" who can be jailed, has no right to an attorney and can even be tortured. Jail time in unlimited!!!! Is this constitutional? You understand now how right was Orwell in “1984”.

4)In the same Military bill used in (1), republicans buried deep down the hundreds of acts, sections and titles a small provision that give full power to the president to use the state national guards, which in the US is normally equivalent to a state martial laws, since that’s the only time where state soldiers report to the president instead of their governor. Some call this a mini coup. This information was not mentioned in any newspaper and it came to light through blog rumors. A journalist took the time to check and confirm it. I did the same exercise by checking the congress site, and found it here, look for Title V, Subtitle B, section 531 :-). So now soldiers can be used on the US soil at any time, peace or war, whenever the president or the secretary of state requires it.

" To see what is in front of one's nose needs a constant struggle. " George Orwell.

" Political language. . . is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind. " George Orwell.

Darfur, the forgotten...

Almost 3.4 million, equivalent of half the population of Sudan is affected by the Darfur drama. 1.3 million children were displaced and live in camp. The UNICEF is overwhelmed and NGO efforts are hindered by the continuous violence. A trap for a million of children who if they make it to be adult, will be marked forever by this experience. And the whole world is watching.....


An estimated 3.4 million people—equivalent to almost 51 percent of the total population in the region—have been affected by the crisis in Darfur. At least 1.3 million children are living in 200 refugee camps as a result.


Darfur's children have borne the brunt of this ongoing conflict. They live in a constant state of fear, according to UNICEF Emergency Communications Officer Gordon Weiss. "They have lost their homes and their families and suffered terrible abuses," he said

In recent weeks, increasing violence has made it extremely difficult for humanitarian workers to continue to effectively respond with needed relief. Acute malnutrition has reached 27 percent in some parts of Darfur and health care systems are failing. Sexual violence against women and children is as widespread as ever, and people yearn for a place where they can feel safe.

The world cannot and should not allow this senseless loss of life to continue. We call upon all parties to cease the conflict and protect the families and children.
Source(UNICEF)
BBC: facts about the crisis
Human right watch: photos of the conflict(may be censored in TN)

Mr. Bush’s covert propaganda.

I stumbled across a year old article in NYT about the Bush administration and the propaganda machine they built using our tax dollars. I heard last year about Armstrong Williams, the reporter who got paid $241,000 by the department of education in order to praise Bush’s education policy. But I was never aware by the extent of this unethical and misleading approach.

In fact it seems that the US government through dozens of its agencies is becoming a rival to Hollywood producers by producing fictions or fake reports concerning many subjects, even false interviews!!!! These pre-packaged news report are given to TV producers for free who under pressure of budget or for other unethical reason broadcast it as if it is exclusivity and never mention the origin of these reports!!!

Here are a few excerpts from the article:”Under Bush, a New Age of Prepackaged TV News”



It is the kind of TV news coverage every president covets.

"Thank you, Bush. Thank you, U.S.A.," a jubilant Iraqi-American told a camera crew in Kansas City for a segment about reaction to the fall of Baghdad. A second report told of "another success" in the Bush administration's "drive to strengthen aviation security"; the reporter called it "one of the most remarkable campaigns in aviation history." A third segment, broadcast in January, described the administration's determination to open markets for American farmers.

To a viewer, each report looked like any other 90-second segment on the local news. In fact, the federal government produced all three. The report from Kansas City was made by the State Department. The "reporter" covering airport safety was actually a public relations professional working under a false name for the Transportation Security Administration. The farming segment was done by the Agriculture Department's office of communications.

Under the Bush administration, the federal government has aggressively used a well-established tool of public relations: the prepackaged, ready-to-serve news report that major corporations have long distributed to TV stations to pitch everything from headache remedies to auto insurance. In all, at least 20 federal agencies, including the Defense Department and the Census Bureau, have made and distributed hundreds of television news segments in the past four years, records and interviews show. Many were subsequently broadcast on local stations across the country without any acknowledgement of the government's role in their production.



Local affiliates are spared the expense of digging up original material. Public relations firms secure government contracts worth millions of dollars. The major networks, which help distribute the releases, collect fees from the government agencies that produce segments and the affiliates that show them. The administration, meanwhile, gets out an unfiltered message, delivered in the guise of traditional reporting.



Confronted with such evidence, most news directors were at a loss to explain how the segments made it on the air. Some said they were unable to find archive tapes that would help answer the question. Others promised to look into it, then stopped returning telephone messages. A few removed the segments from their Web sites, promised greater vigilance in the future or pleaded ignorance


The explanation begins inside the White House, where the president's communications advisers devised a strategy after Sept. 11, 2001, to encourage supportive news coverage of the fight against terrorism. The idea, they explained to reporters at the time, was to counter charges of American imperialism by generating accounts that emphasized American efforts to liberate and rebuild Afghanistan and Iraq



United States law contains provisions intended to prevent the domestic dissemination of government propaganda. The 1948 Smith-Mundt Act, for example, allows Voice of America to broadcast pro-government news to foreign audiences, but not at home. Yet State Department officials said that law does not apply to the Office of Broadcasting Services. In any event, said Richard A. Boucher, a State Department spokesman: "Our goal is to put out facts and the truth. We're not a propaganda agency."

Tunisie: Appel des parlementaires pour la candidature de Ben Ali en 2009!

samedi 11 novembre 2006, 15h48

Tunisie: appel de parlementaires au président Ben Ali pour qu'il se représente à l'élection de 2009

TUNIS (AP) - Des parlementaires tunisiens ont appelé l'actuel président Zine El Abidine Ben Ali à renouveler sa candidature aux élections prévues en 2009 pour briguer un cinquième mandat de cinq ans, a-t-on appris samedi de source officielle.

Le ministre d'Etat Abdelaziz Ben Dhia, porte-parole officiel de la présidence de la République, a fait état de communiqués publiés dans ce sens par la Chambre des députés et la Chambre des conseillers (Sénat).

Tout en appuyant cette proposition, "témoignage de reconnaissance pour les acquis enregistrés en Tunisie grâce à sa politique judicieuse et éclairée", M. Ben Dhia, un proche collaborateur du chef de l'Etat, a déclaré que "la décision définitive relève cependant des seules prérogatives du président de la République".

Selon la première commission du Sénat, un nouveau mandat devrait permettre à l'actuel président de "poursuivre la conduite de la Tunisie vers davantage de progrès et d'invulnérabilité".

M. Ben Ali avait accédé au pouvoir en 1987. Il avait démis l'ancien président Habib Bourguiba (84 ans) dont il était le Premier ministre pour "sénilité" sur la foi d'une attestation signée par six médecins jugeant "le père de l'indépendance" dans l'incapacité de continuer d'assumer les charges de l'Etat.

Après avoir aboli la résidence à vie instituée par son prédécesseur, il modifia de nouveau la Constitution par voie référendaire en 2002 pour supprimer la limitation du nombre de mandat présidentiel fixés à trois dans un premier temps.

Le nouvel amendement a repoussé en même temps l'âge limite pour un candidat à la présidence de 70 à 75 ans. M. Ben Ali qui aura 73 ans en 2009, avait été élu lors de ses quatre mandats avec plus de 99% des voix, sauf en 2004 où le scrutin lui a donné plus de 94% des suffrages.

Lors des deux premières élections (1989 et 1994), il était candidat unique du parti au pouvoir, le Rassemblement constitutionnel démocratique (RCD), avant d'instituer le pluralisme des candidatures présidentielles qui ont permis à des dirigeants de l'opposition de briguer la magistrature suprême lors des scrutins de 1999 et 2004. AP

bb/tl

Source (AP)

Au moins une rumeur de plus qui se dissipe :-)
Hey, l'ancien record a battre est de 30 ans (25/7/57 au 07/11/87), le "nouveau" n'est qu'a 19ans, en 2009 ce sera 22 ans, apres 5 ans ce sera 27 ans, tiens il faut penser a 2013. Je suis sur que ce serait un autre sujet de rumeur, mais bon c'est encore loin.

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Sur une autre note completement independante de ce sujet, quelque quotes du jour:

العمل متواصل زرع آباؤنا فأكلنا ونزرع ليأكل أبناؤنا

إذا قيل لك جبل زال عن مكانه فصدق و إذا قيل لك رجل زال عن طبعه فلا تصدق

All wrong-doing arises because of mind. If mind is transformed can wrong-doing remain? (Buddah)

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Water kills 5,000 children a day!!!

Some of us think that global warming, changes in weather patterns, the ozone layer and the environment problems in general are just an exaggeration of scientists and an issue for intellectuals in need of causes to embrace. Some think that environment problems are good problems since they mean development. The truth is that these problems can cause more than flooding, hurricanes or other natural wrath resulting in hundreds of victims. The truth is that it could be responsible for the death of 2 million of our children a year or 5,000 a day. Take a moment and think about that number, because it really needs your full attention. Unfortunately, the victims here are generally very poor kids, living in countries that never make the news but when a celebrity actor or singer brings his TV crew to cover his charity work or adopt one of them.

The UN through its development program just published its 2006 Human Development report focusing on the problem of the water. It states that 2,000,000 children die a year from infected water and sanitations problems, that 1.2 billion of the world population don’t have access to safe water and 2.6 billion without access to sanitation!!!!! And we dare talk about globalization...

“In a world of unprecedented wealth, almost 2 million children die each year for want of a glass of clean water and adequate sanitation. Millions of women and young girls are forced to spend hours collecting and carrying water, restricting their opportunities and their choices. And water-borne infectious diseases are holding back poverty reduction and economic growth in some of the world’s poorest countries.

Beyond the household, competition for water as a productive resource is intensifying. Symptoms of that competition include the collapse of water-based ecological systems, declining river flows and large-scale groundwater depletion. Conflicts over water are intensifying within countries, with the rural poor losing out. The potential for tensions between countries is also growing, though there are large potential human development gains from increased cooperation.

The Human Development Report continues to frame debates on some of the most pressing challenges facing humanity. Human Development Report 2006:

• Investigates the underlying causes and consequences of a crisis that leaves 1.2 billion people without access to safe water and 2.6 billion without access to sanitation
• Argues for a concerted drive to achieve water and sanitation for all through national strategies and a global plan of action
• Examines the social and economic forces that are driving water shortages and marginalizing the poor in agriculture
• Looks at the scope for international cooperation to resolve cross-border tensions in water management
• Includes special contributions from Gordon Brown and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, President Lula, President Carter, and the UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan.
source



Besides infection, the water is a source of bigger problems, which could cause the striving to death of whole populations. It is really hard to grasp the extent of this problem.

“Climate change threatens to further undermine the livelihoods of poor people. Water availability will be more unpredictable, with increasing prevalence of droughts, floods and other adverse weather events. While hydrologists disagree on the exact details for some regions, there is broad agreement that this will have some impact on crop productivity. One recent study points to large losses in crop productivity of more than 25% in already food insecure parts of Sub-Saharan Africa, such as Mozambique, Zambia and countries of the Sahel.”
Source

We are all fed up with governments restricting freedom of speech or encouraging corruption and we all neglect and never talk about other actions that are more basic. I really hope that we all start at least to feel the importance of such tragedy and do whatever we can at our level to help. This could be just by making people aware it. Water, not oil is the next resource to be worth fighting for!!

"“The report urges governments to guarantee that each person has at least 20 litres of clean water a day, regardless of wealth, location, gender or ethnicity. If water was free to the poor, it adds, it could trigger the next leap forward in human development.
Many sub-Saharan Africans get less than 20 litres of water a day and two-thirds have no proper toilets. By contrast, the average Briton uses 150 litres a day while Americans are the world's most profligate, using 600 litres a day. Phoenix, Arizona, uses 1,000 litres per person on average - 100 times as much as Mozambique.
"Water, the stuff of life and a basic human right, is at the heart of a daily crisis faced by countless millions of the world's most vulnerable people," says the report's lead author, Kevin Watkins.
Hilary Benn, international development secretary, said: "In many developing countries, water companies supply the rich with subsidised water but often don't reach poor people at all. With around 5,000 children dying every day because they drink dirty water, we must do more."
Many countries spend less than 1% of national income on water. This needs to rise sharply, as does the share of foreign aid spent on water projects, the UNDP says. It shows how spending on clean water and sanitation led to dramatic advances in health and infant mortality in Britain and the United States in the 1800s.
In the world's worst slums, people often pay five to 10 times more than wealthy people in the same cities or in London. This is because they often have to buy water from standpipes and pay a middle man by the bucket. "The poorer you are, the more you pay," says Mr Watkins.”
Source

The report does interesting comparisons between the GDP and the Human Development Index (HDI) or how good are governments in turning their wealth into human development like health and education. You can also use this interactive map to learn more about the HDI by country. The comparison between Tunisia and Sri Lanka is interesting and the USA case too. I really encourage you to do your own homework on these issues and try to come up with a few things you can do to help.

PS: My friend ALGY also posted about this problem on her blog