Thursday, February 19, 2004

Ueno’s Homeless

Yoshizawa drew on a cigarette held in his dirt-stained right hand as he sat behind his stall.
He has a nose split up the middle by an inch-long scar and mud sticks to the hems of his dark grey nylon trousers.
Yoshizawa lives homeless in Tokyo?fs Ueno Park.
He used to be a builder but now makes money selling the ginkgo nuts he collects in the park.
?gI do this until December,?h he said in Japanese and then took another drag on his cigarette. During the rest of the year you can see Yoshizawa collecting cans and magazines for recycling.
Yoshizawa is a stocky man originally from the countryside of Shizuoka prefecture.  The greying beard on his chin and the greying hair under the red, white and blue Pepsi Cola cap he wears suggest he has already passed 56, the average age for homeless in Japan according to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.
The number of people like Yoshizawa is increasing as the recession continues.
According to the latest research conducted by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare there are 25,296 homeless living in Japan.  The survey conducted in January and February 2003 showed an increase of 1,206 homeless from two years before. 
Tokyo Prefecture is home to 6,361 of Japan?fs homeless, according to the survey.  However, some sources estimate the figure is higher.
Hiroshi Shinohara of the Japan Jesus Centred Church is one such man.
?gThere are more,?h he said in an interview in Ueno Park during a weekly outdoor service held for homeless people.  ?gAbsolutely more.?h
?gToday there is six hundred or seven hundred here,?h Shinohara said in English.
On this particular Friday a large crowd of homeless were sitting on old newspapers listening to Korean pastor Shim Wonsuck deliver his sermon in fluent Japanese through crackling speakers.
Some of the congregation had embraced religion.  They absorbed pastor Wonsuck?fs preaching and shouted praise in unison with Shinohara and the other protestant volunteers standing at the edge of the congregation in red polo shirts whipping up enthusiasm.
But many were just waiting for the food that always comes after the service.
Some of the homeless in the park do not attend the services.  They are too proud to go.  Shimamura is one of these.  He is also Yoshizawa?fs business partner.
Shimamura lives in an area of trees next to where the weekly service takes place.  Stretching for several hundred metres the area is a sea of blue tarpaulin partially protected from the elements by the trees. 
The homeless that live in these tents usually stay away from the service.
?gWe rarely go,?h Shimamura said in polite Japanese.  ?gThe people without tents go because they don?ft have food.?h
Although the congregation?fs size suggests some tents contain the red packets of Ritz crackers and Cheezits handed out by the church, Shimamura is independent.
?gWe have food,?h Shimamura said proudly. ?gLots of food.?h
Yoshizawa is less forgiving of the homeless who attend church than Shimamura.  Yoshizawa dislikes the church because he thinks the free food makes the younger homeless lazy and reliant on aid.
?gYoung people go and stop working,?h he complained.  ?gThe Christian Church is no good.?h
?gAfter church there?fs a lot of rubbish,?h he said.  ?gWe take turns cleaning it up.?h
For the first time in the interview Yoshizawa started showing his emotions and became more animated.  He certainly has no plans of converting to Christianity, but what about his partner?
?gI?fm not Christian,?h Shimamura said. ?gI?fm Japanese,?h and a smile came to his face that made his skin wrinkle.
Shimamura and Yoshizawa survive without the charity of Christians like Hiroshi Shinohara or government aid.
?gAlmost everything I do myself,?h Shimamura said.
?gSometimes, once or twice a week, I get work.?h
?gI get cash and I can live on it,?h he said as he picked up a bag of the gingko nuts he sells for 500. ?gNow I sell these.?h
Like Yoshizawa and other homeless Shimamura will sell the nuts until December and then he will try to find other work.  Shimamura and Yoshizawa are among the 64.7 per cent of homeless who manage to earn money, according to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare?fs January survey.
The Survey also states 84.1 per cent of Japan?fs homeless population has a fixed residence.  Shimamura and Yoshizawa are part of the 40.8 per cent of this number that live in parks.
Shimamura?fs description of the tented area in the trees behind his stall suggests him and his neighbours are much better off than the ragged tent less men and women who attend pastor Wonsuck?fs Friday services.
?gMost people have TV?fs,?h Shimamura said. ?gOther things are difficult.?h
?gWe have no electricity so we charge batteries, then we can watch TV,?h he said without answering where everyone charged their batteries.
?gWe also have water and in the tents we have something to sleep on,?h he added.
?gWe have stuff to cook with, frying pans, gas.?h
Shimamura does not conform to the stereotypical image of a homeless man.  He was dressed in a clean dark blue tracksuit with a light blue cotton shirt.  His black shoes were clean and his hair had the same side parting many fifty-year-old Japanese men prefer. 
Only his stained teeth hinted at the hardships of living in the park.  And the dark tan many homeless have came from years spent as a builder.
?gI used to build things like that building over there,?h he said as he pointed to a redbrick building in the distance.
But like his partner Yoshizawa he suffered from the construction industry?fs preference for young workers.  According to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, 55 per cent of homeless that had full-time jobs worked in the construction industry.
?gThere aren?ft any building jobs, are there??h Yoshizawa said.  ?gPeople over 50 aren?ft used.?h
Not all the park?fs residents were builders.  Shimamura suggests there are homeless from all backgrounds in the park.
?gThere are doctors, school teachers, many kinds of people, because Japan is in recession,?h he said.  ?gThere are lots of old people in Japan but they don?ft have jobs.?h
Regardless of background life in the park is hard and the homeless feel Japan?fs four seasons more than anyone else.
?gIt?fs tough,?h Shimamura said of the seasons. 
The homeless are forced to survive the cold of winter and the humidity of summer without the comforts taken for granted by most Japanese.
Shimamura?fs smile disappeared as he began talking about the darker aspects of life in the park, especially when he began talking about abuse. 
?gPeople who live in tents get harassed,?h Shimamura said. ?gMany people have died.?h
Attacks by groups of young men have increased recently resulting in several deaths across Japan.  The respect commonly given to elders in Japan is not extended to the homeless. 
Yoshizawa bears the scared nose of a man that has seen violence and blood red bruises cover the side of his left hand.  But Yoshizawa had other concerns he wanted to talk about.
?gYour clothes are dirty, you don?ft bath,?h Yoshizawa said.  His lumberjack shirt had ingrained stains that had faded the colours and his running shoes were caked in soil.
?gYour face is dirty so you look older,?h he said.  ?gIt?fs not easy.?h
According to The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare ill health affects 47.4 per cent of Japan?fs homeless and as you walk through the park physical ailments and mental health issues become brutally apparent.
Yet Yoshizawa still thinks Ueno is the best park to live in Tokyo.  The others are more dangerous.
?gYokohama has a lot of drunks,?h he said.  ?gThere?fs not so many in Ueno.?h
However, when you walk through the park at night you see some homeless drinking cheap spirits and canned beer.  You also see men sleeping on benches or spread on the street with only pieces of cardboard between themselves and the tarmac. 
Others sit next to the bags that hold everything they have or search the bins for cans to recycle or magazines to sell to the commuting horde at the station.
These scenes are not restricted to Ueno Park.  You see characteristic blue tarpaulin or cardboard homes along riverbanks, under bridges and in parks across the capital.  However, it is in parks like Ueno that the problem is most visible.
It is in parks like Ueno that people like Shimamura and Yoshizawa live. 

Thursday, February 12, 2004

No Labor Law In California-

California is known around the world as a worker-friendly environment, a state replete with laws and regulations friendly to the worker.  But all of this is misleading.  It turns out that there is, on a percentage basis, virtually no enforcement of California Labor Law.  Sweatshop conditions are rampant, and now even ordinary workers have no hope of getting justice when their employer flagrantly violates the law.  And the department charged with enforcing these laws has developed a perfect strategy for undermining enforcement of these laws.

The California Labor Commissioner’s Office through their Department of Labor Standards Enforcement division has set up a system of so-called enforcement of labor laws which ensures that, having once filed a claim against an employer, a worker will suffer such severe consequences that he or she will never bother the Labor Department again.

Here’s how it works:  The Governors of California, both Democratic and Republican are completely owned by big business and could never really get away with passing and enforcing, on a large scale, any worker’s rights laws.  So here’s what they did.  In order to look liberal and caring, the Governors signed most any labor law that came to their desk.  But there was a catch:

They realized they could have their cake and eat it to.  They could simply pass all the worker-friendly labor laws they wanted to, and then simply not fund the enforcement division of the Labor Commissioner’s office.  The laws then, would be only sybolic, but, as a practical matter, nonexistent.

Specifically, the Labor Department more or less banned spot-checking.  Spot-checking, in labor law enforcement is like patrolling for the police department.  That is, a criminal doesn’t merely have to worry about someone calling the police on him, the police arriving at some future time and perhaps being in the mood to look for him.  The criminal knows that policemen are driving by, almost randomly, and whether or not a citizen reports their crimes, the truth is, a policeman might see it.  In the same way, for labor law to be effective, spot checking need to happen.  This would make the employer afraid that he would get caught if he violated the law, even if no employee reported the violation.

As the system is now, the Labor Commissioner all but forbids the enforcement division to do spot checking.  And the Governors, who are in the pockets of big business, simply defund the Labor Department to the point where, even if they wanted to do spot checking, they wouldn’t have the people or resources to do it.

But the most evil part of this plot is that means when a violation is reported to the Labor Commissioner, the employer knows his worker is responsible for the claim, and, to make matters worse, the Labor Department makes sure that the whole matter boils down to this one complainer, who inevitably looses his job.  (The Labor Department will claim that retaliation against a complaining employee is illegal, but then, like all the other laws, that law isn’t enforced either.)

Now, the ironic thing is this:  An employer who works for a company that, as a matter of routine, cheats every employee out his legally required breaks, or cheats every employee on every paycheck can have an enforcement action taken against it, and this is how they will do it.  They will punish the whistleblower by using this method:  First, an employee walks into the Labor Commissioner’s office and says, “You should go and see what’s happening at the corporation I work for.  Every worker has five dollars stolen from his check every week.” Now, at this point, instead of sending an investigator to snoop around, ask the other workers and speak to the employer, this is what the Labor Department will do:  They will pretend they didn’t hear about the system-wide violations, and consistently ask over and over again that the worker confine his claim to only his or her single paycheck issue.  So the worker, if cheated out of a hundred dollars, will get their hundred dollars paid to them, but at the cost of their jobs, which the Labor Commissioner falsely pretends he will protect.  Then, get this, regarding the millions of other dollars in breaks and in lost pay, the corporation will be let off completely free.  Each worker would be forced, one at a time, to publically declare that they are reporting their boss, at which point they individually are retaliated against.

Except for two or three carefully planned showcases, per year, against politically unpopular companies, who can’t cause the Governor any problems, and whose campaign contributions won’t be missed, will be punished on a wide scale.  This would be along the lines of punishing one mafia kingpin per year that didn’t pay his bribes, and then letting the entirety of the rest of the mafia proceed with their crimes.  In fact, the Labor Department really represents the essence of a State Government by Orgainized Crime.  The Governor takes the campaign contribution bribes and, in exchange, appoints an impotent Labor Commissioner.  (Our current Republican Governor won’t even appoint a Labor Commissioner and has brazenly left the seat vacant.) Then the impotent, unfunded Labor Commissioner orders all his workers to stay at their desks and never to spot check any employers.  Then, the hapless workers who come in to report massive, system-wide violations against thousands of employees are told that the whole case will boil down to their own particular claim for back wages.  Then, the foolish worker is forced to announce to the world that he and only he has complained against his boss.  A few months later this worker receives his $100 back pay and then must report to the unemployment line, where, incidentally, he will be denied unemployment because he has quit his job.  (Employers found out that as long as you don’t fire a worker, you can torture them almost limitlessly until they quit.  Then, after the worker quits, the employer also gets out of paying a higher percentage to the unemployment department.  So now the complaining worker is out of a job and can’t collect unemployment and could be in danger of homelessness, as he sits there ironically with his $100 check.)

California, in a word, through the cold, heartless, caluculating evil of the Labor Commissioner’s office’s Department of Labor Standards Enforcement is really a third-world dictatorship style nightmare.  Shockingly, this is our State of California today.

Wednesday, February 11, 2004

- Iowa Peace, Justice & Protest Books from the Heartland

Mike Palecek is an Iowa author, former federal prisoner for peace, seminarian, and newspaper reporter. He was the Iowa Democratic Party nominee for the U.S. House, 5th District, 2000 election.

Order here:
http://www.iowapeace.com/

(1)
“Twins”: based in Minneapolis/Saint Paul. Twin brothers, one a revolutionary priest, the other the warden of the local federal penitentiary, battle in the streets and from the rooftops. It’s a sibling rivalry, rich vs. poor, yuppies against the gangs of the ghetto, the Kiwanis Club meets the prison yard weightlifters. It’s walleye sizzling in the crisp north woods air and dirty diapers in the gutter. It’s food on a stick, a seat on the third-baseline, and halftime mud wrestling between Dorothy Day and Mary Tyler Moore, in this one-of-a-kind American metropolis.

(2)
“Prophets Without Honor”: Co-author is William Strabala, former reporter for the Denver Post, and Rocky Mountain News

The book tells the story of a group of American men who happen to be priests who happen to have served decades in American prisons for opposition to United States military policy. Darrell Rupiper, Larry Rosebaugh and Carl Kabat are Oblate missionary priests. Frank Cordaro is a diocesan priest from Des Moines . Roy Bourgeois is a Maryknoll priest. Charlie Liteky is an ex-Trinitarian priest.

(3)
*The Truth*: through fiction we are able to tell the truth about the murderous, deceitful administration of United States President George W. Bush. Follow Iowa postman Pete Penny on his daily route and discover what you really, truly already know.

(4)
“Joe Coffee’s Revolution”: former peace protester Joseph Coffee runs for Congress in Iowa as a Democrat on an anti-prison, anti-military, pro-Hispanic platform: and the Democratic Party doesn’t like it. It’s not nice to fool with Mother Nature.

(5)
KGB: George Bush Jr. is a war criminal.

Like Son Like Father.

The prisoners in D Block in the Woodbury County Jail read about the arrest of General Pinochet, in the one newspaper copy passed around to all the blocks. They determine that George Bush Sr. is also a war criminal.

These prisoners, the damned of America, scheme how to bring about justice in these United States.

Order here:
http://www.iowapeace.com/

Palecek has written for the National Catholic Reporter, Cherokee [IA] Daily Times, N’West Iowa Review, Byron [MN] Review, Rochester [MN] Post-Bulletin, The Weekender [Sioux City, IA],and Sioux Falls [SD] Argus-Leader.

During the 1980s he spent time in the U.S. federal prisons at Terre Haute, IN, Leavenworth, KS, El Paso, TX, El Reno, OK, as well as county jails in Lincoln, Nebr., Omaha, Neb. and Council Bluffs, Ia. for trespass at Offutt Air Force Base in protest of American military policy.

“Imaginative and and well-written.”

- Danny Schechter, founder of Globalvision, one of first producers of CNN, 20/20 producer, two-time Emmy award winner.

“A book to inspire us all, because it looks beyond the false gods of our time, the ruthless political leaders, the timid intellectuals, the stars of People magazine and tells the story of the bravest people in America.

- Howard Zinn

“Through fiction we can tell the truth about America. The truth we cannot seem to get from Tom Brokaw or the Sioux City Journal or the Des Moines Register or the New York Times.”

- author Mike Palecek

“They also discovered that the America they grew up in never existed. They read history and learned about America’s militarism, its attempts at global hegemony, and they felt they must resist. They wanted with all their hearts for their childhood America to be made real ‹ a just and loving America ‹ even if that meant they must spend years behind prison walls.”

-Dictator Alberto Fujimori and Japanese Government Silence

From ZNet Sustainer Forum

Please consider joining and supporting ZNet

By Andre Vltchek

In 1993, one year after the ‘self-coup’ performed by Alberto Fujimori, his supporters and the military, the office of ‘Coordinadora nacional de los derechos humanos’ (‘National Coordination Office for Human Rights’) in Lima was packed with desperate old women, arriving from every corner of the country. They were holding old photographs of their sons and daughters who had disappeared in recent months and years.

The Director of the office, corpulent, determined and overworked Francisco Soberon and his staff were desperately trying to record information, to file petitions, and inform the foreign press about the situation. Thousands of people were missing, some unaccounted for, some rotting alive in cold, high altitude, high security prisons around Puno and elsewhere having been convicted in emergency trials conducted by judges with their heads and faces covered by masks. The army, police and intelligence services were continuing to rape and torture, to perform extra-judiciary executions, and to ‘disappear’ people who were accused of supporting ‘terrorism’ (read: Maoist ‘Shining Path’ and Marxist ‘MRTA’).

And Alberto Fujimori, President of Peru - agrarian engineer of Japanese descent - and his intelligence chief Vladimiro Montesinos, were in charge!

By then, the civil or ‘dirty’ war was already officially over, with the leaders of both Shining Path and MRTA behind bars. But the witch-hunt continued: people were still dying and disappearing, and the army ruled the mountains, coast and jungle through fear and terror.

Japan continued to provide unconditional generous assistance to this Andean country or, more accurately, to its dictatorship. In the past, it had rarely shown generosity towards South America, despite exporting hundreds of thousands of economic refugees into its countries in the past (today, there is well over a million people of Japanese descent living in Brazil and Peru). When Fujimori became President, everything changed. He was of Japanese stock, after all! There was Japanese blood flowing through his veins!

When the MRTA rebels took over the Japanese Ambassador’s residency in Lima during a lavish party to celebrate the Emperor’s birthday, almost the entire Japanese nation were in no doubt that what was happening was an act of terrorism against their country. At that time, I was working in Lima for Asahi Shimbun—a large Tokyo daily. The news and information flowing from Peru through the Japanese media was being carefully ‘moderated’ to take the ‘sensitivity’ of the topic into consideration.

Still, even so we managed to interview and put on the record the words of Otilia Campos de Polay, the mother of Victor Polay, the then imprisoned leader of MRTA, herself an important figure in Peruvian politics and a co-founder of one of the largest political parties—APRA. She sent this message to the Japanese public: “I know your country well. I visited your ancient cities, saw your holy mountains. Once you were poor and we were rich. Your people came here to live and they were accepted. Now you are rich and we are dirt poor. And you are supporting the dictatorship in our country. Why? Please try to understand our people...”

Fujimori had no interest in solving the problem. He suppressed the information from our interview with MRTA where they declared that all they wanted was to improve conditions of the poor and to be legalized as a political opposition party. He directed the kidnapping of several men from the rescue brigade of the highest mine in the world—Cerro de Pasqua—and ordered them to dig tunnels under the Japanese compound. In April 1997, he ordered an attack which led to killing of all the MRTA members, including a pregnant girl who was shot at point blank range while begging for mercy.

Despite the fact that this act was contrary to all the Japanese government plans, it was never publicly condemned by Japan.

Fujimori tried his best to be a good friend of the United States by his ‘war against terrorism’ and his ‘war on drugs’. And it paid off! His excesses were forgiven by the ‘North’, and his human rights record mostly overlooked.

Many Peruvians, tired of a civil war that had cost at least 35 thousand lives and dispirited by the disastrous economic performance of Fujimori’s corrupt predecessor --APRA President Alan Garcia, were willing to accept his ‘iron-fist’ rule for many years. He defeated the two left-wing movements and curbed hyper-inflation.

However, the price of the ‘victory’ was tremendous: the kidnapping and murders (apparently, Fujimori was fully aware of the existence of the ‘death squad’ known as ‘The Grupo Colina’), the torture (he didn’t hesitate to order the arrest of his wife who publicly criticized his policies - she was then tortured in detention), the growing social disparities, the uncontrollable corruption, and his dark political designs that almost led to a full blown war Peru’s neighbour Ecuador. He controlled the mass media and intimidated and spied on his political opponents. He re-wrote the constitution and stuffed Congress with his own supporters.

Yet still Japan stood aside, offering moral and financial support.

When the ‘irregularities’ became blatantly obvious before the May 2000 elections, even the United States and the Organization of American States expressed their concern. When the then spy-chief Vladimiro Montesinos was caught bribing a Congressman on tape, all hell broke loose. The opposition gained ground and dismissed Fujimori on the grounds of his ‘moral incapacity’.

Fujimori fled to Japan and, to save face, tendered his resignation. Congress refused the offer, and insisted on dismissing him instead.

For more than a decade, Fujimori’s nationality had been a mystery. According to the Peruvian constitution, only a person born in Peru could become the country’s president. Fujimori’s birth certificate had mysteriously ‘disappeared’. As part of my work for Asahi Shimbun, we launched an investigation in Japan, trying to find out whether the certificate existed there, while almost all Peruvian newspapers embarked on searches in their home country. The result was nil. It was widely believed that the secret of Fujimori’s birth was known only to Montesinos, who was therefore in position to blackmail the president and exercise enormous power. According to one theory, Fujimori was born on the boat between Japan and Peru.

The former dictator received a warm welcome in Japan and was granted Japanese citizenship almost immediately. When the Peruvian ambassador to Tokyo—Luis Macchiavello - presented a 700-page extradition request, it was met by a humiliating silence. A later request by Interpol met a similar fate. Japan declared that it had no extradition treaty with Peru, and the Japanese Foreign Ministry said that “We will follow only our domestic laws in deciding how to respond.”

Many people in Peru and other countries in South America found Tokyo’s response insulting. The extradition request had been based on well-documented cases that accused Fujimori, among other things, of being involved in the killing of suspected leftist rebels in Lima in 1991, in the kidnapping and killing nine students and a professor from La Cantuta University in 1992, and in giving Montesinos $15million in severance pay.

In March, Interpol placed Fujimori on its most-wanted list and Peruvian prosecutors threatened to take the case to the International Court of Justice if Japan continued in its obduracy. The only response from Tokyo was that “Japan has no plan to take any sort of action against Mr. Fujimori at this moment.”

By July, Fujimori was laughing and ridiculing the entire extradition process. He declared in Tokyo that he would one day return to Peru, not to stand trial but to head a new Peruvian party - ‘Si Cumple’ (‘Yes, he fulfils promises’).

In Japan, Fujimori is barely recognized as a dictator. The mass media present him as reformist, a fighter against terrorism and, of course, Japanese by blood. At present, there are no serious enquiries or protests by the Japanese public against the treatment of a South American country that once accepted thousands of desperate Japanese immigrants and later became torn by brutal civil war.

Tokyo’s approach is, without doubt, patronizing, humiliating and racist. It shows indifference to the crimes committed by a man who is now holding Japanese citizenship; crimes in which Japan is also implicated by its support for his dictatorship from beginning to end. It is unfortunate that, in many ‘developed countries’, when blood ties are involved, justice and morality become irrelevant.

Monday, February 09, 2004

-Chomsky on the Hutton Whitewash

Recently Noam Chomsky was asked his views on the Hutton Report in the ZNet Sustainer Forum:

Would you be willing to comment on the Hutton report, the BBC’s coverage of the British government’s role in the invasion, and the “vindication” of Tony Blair?

Reponse:

The most interesting thing about the Hutton inquiry, in my opinion, is that it took place.  The idea that the state—whether hiding itself beyond a judge’s robes or not—should even have a voice in whether a journalist’s report was “unfounded” is utterly shocking, an indication of remarkably low level of respect for freedom of speech and reverence for authority.  Just for laughs, can you imagine an inquiry into whether a press report praising state or corporate power was “unfounded”?

The report was also scandalous on narrower grounds, so much so as to have elicited mainstream media criticism both in UK and here.  The Financial Times editors pointed out that “the questions raised about the use of intelligence were beyond Lord Hutton’s remit,” which alone makes the inquiry mostly irrelevant beyond the very narrow question of Kelly’s death.  The New York Times report, without saying so, made it clear enough that the conclusion is fair.  Here are a few excerpts:

Lord Hutton allowed in his report that it was possible to say that Mr. Blair had “sexed up” the intelligence findings, as long as the meaning was that the final dossier “made the case against Saddam Hussein as strong as the intelligence in it permitted.” But if the meaning was that the intelligence was “embellished” with items “known or believed to be false or unreliable,” then Lord Hutton said, “I consider that the allegation was unfounded.”

Lord Hutton can “consider” what he likes, but it is not the role of the state to decide which of several interpretations to give to a phrase in a news report.  This merely underscores the scandalous nature of the proceedings.  Continuing with the NYT:

In those hearings, for instance, Sir Richard Billing Dearlove, the chief of the Secret Intelligence Service known as MI6, testified that “it is a valid criticism” to say that Mr. Blair’s dossier improperly indicated that British forces were under threat from Iraqi chemical and biological weapons that could be deployed within 45 minutes....Moreover, the British intelligence view that Mr. Hussein was “prepared to use chemical and biological weapons if he believes his regime is under threat” was changed at the behest of Mr. Blair’s chief of staff, Jonathan Powell, to remove the caveat “if he was attacked.” When the final dossier emerged, it said Mr. Hussein “is willing to use chemical and biological weapons,” a phrase that represented a far more threatening view of the former Iraqi leader.

In simple words, Blair intervened to “sex up” the intelligence reports so as to drive the country to war, and it is “a valid criticism” to report that.  Recall that the “45 minute” story is the heart of the issue relating to use of intelligence.  Dearlove tacitly conceded in his Hutton testimony that the story came second-hand from one Iraqi army officer.  The CIA-backed Iraqi National Accord is the apparent conduit.  It has stated publicly that the information was raw intelligence, passed on with a mass of other unanalyzed data for British intelligence to evaluate—not blindly accept, handing it to Blair for further “sexing up.” The Washington spokesman for the INA says that the Iraqi officer had never seen the alleged chemical weapons, and that the report transmitted to MI6 seems to have been a “crock of shit”.

Hutton himself has a terrible record with regard to state crimes, in Ulster and in trying to undermine the Pinochet extradition.  But I still think the fundamental question has to do with the very existence of the inquiry, even if it had been properly conducted.

-10,000 Deaths in Iraq: What Koizumi, Bush and Blair Don’t Want You to Know

UK and US authorities discourage counting of deaths as a result of the conflict. But academics are monitoring the toll and have identified a grim new milestone

David Randall

02/08/04: (The Independent) More than 10,000 civilians, many of them women and children, have been killed so far in the Iraqi conflict, The Independent on Sunday has learnt, making the continuing conflict the most deadly war for non-combatants waged by the West since the Vietnam war more than 30 years ago.

The passing of this startling milestone will be recorded today by Iraq Body Count, the most authoritative organisation monitoring the human cost of the war. Since the invasion began in March, this group of leading academics and campaigners has registered all civilian deaths in Iraq attributable to the conflict. They do this in the absence of any counts by US, British, or Baghdad authorities.

Iraq Body Count’s co-founder, John Sloboda, said: “This official disinterest must end. We are now calling for an independent international tribunal to be set up to establish the numbers of dead, the circumstances in which they were killed and an appropriate and just level of compensation for the victims’ families.”

His call was backed by Bob Marshall Andrews, Labour MP for Medway. He said: “These are figures which are airbrushed out of the political equation and yet are central to whether it is possible to create a stable and democratic Iraq.”

Iraq Body Count said last night that deaths are only recorded by them when reported by at least two media outlets. Its leading researcher Hamit Dardagan said that its careful, but necessarily incomplete, records are in contrast to “the official indifference” to counting either the Iraqi lives lost or those blighted by injuries.

Neither the US or British military, nor the Coalition Provisional Authority have kept a record of Iraq civilian or military casualties, and Washington and London have both rejected calls for them to compile such totals.....Rest of story here.

Read the Information Clearing House for these and other stories:

Daniel Ellsberg : Leak against this war : US and British officials must expose their leaders’ lies about Iraq - as I did over Vietnam. I served three US presidents - Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon - who lied repeatedly and blatantly about our reasons for entering Vietnam, and the risks in our staying there. For the past year, I have found myself in the horrifying position of watching history repeat itself.

Iraq: Water, sickness, and a brewing Storm: I am here to state, unequivocally, that 100% of the people I spoke with in this area south of Baghdad have stated that their living conditions are worse now than when Saddam was in power.

Our doubts about Dr Kelly’s suicide : As specialist medical professionals, we do not consider the evidence given at the Hutton inquiry has demonstrated that Dr David Kelly committed suicide.

Noam Chomsky: What a fair trial for Saddam would entail: In a (virtually unimaginable) fair trial for Saddam, a defence attorney could quite rightly call to the stand Colin Powell, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, George Bush I and other high officials who provided significant support for the dictator, even through his worst atrocities.

Authorities Missed Al Qaeda Clues, 9/11 Panel Says: Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the suspected mastermind of the Sept. 11 plot, obtained a visa to come to the United States just weeks before the attacks despite being under a federal terrorism indictment, a report by the federal commission investigating the attacks revealed Monday....and many more.....

Read the Information Clearing House for these and other stories.

-Global Warming Will Plunge Europe Into New Ice Age ‘Within Decades”

Source: The Independent/UK
[Jan 26, 2004]

“We may be approaching a threshold that would shut down [the Gulf
Stream] and cause abrupt climate changes.”

Britain is likely to be plunged into an ice age within our lifetime by
global warming, new research suggests.

A study, which is being taken seriously by top government scientists,
has uncovered a change “of remarkable amplitude” in the circulation of
the waters of the North Atlantic.

Similar events in pre-history are known to have caused sudden “flips”
of the climate, bringing ice ages to northern Europe within a few
decades. The development - described as “the largest and most dramatic
oceanic change ever measured in the era of modern instruments”, by the
US Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, which led the research -
threatens to turn off the Gulf Stream, which keeps Europe’s weather
mild.

If that happens, Britain and northern Europe are expected to switch
abruptly to the climate of Labrador - which is on the same latitude -
bringing a nightmare scenario where farmland turns to tundra and
winter temperatures drop below -20C. The much-heralded cold snap
predicted for the coming week would seem balmy by comparison.

A report by the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme in Sweden
- launched by Nobel prize-winner Professor Paul Crutzen and other top
scientists - warned last week that pollution threatened to “trigger
changes with catastrophic consequences” like these.

Scientists have long expected that global warming could,
paradoxically, cause a devastating cooling in Europe by disrupting the
Gulf Stream, which brings as much heat to Britain in winter as the sun
does: the US National Academy of Sciences has even described such
abrupt, dramatic changes as “likely”. But until now it has been
thought that this would be at least a century away.

The new research, by scientists at the Centre for Environment,
Fisheries and Acquaculture Science at Lowestoft and Canada’s Bedford
Institute of Oceanography, as well as Woods Hole, indicates that this
may already be beginning to happen.

Dr Ruth Curry, the study’s lead scientist, says: “This has the
potential to change the circulation of the ocean significantly in our
lifetime. Northern Europe will likely experience a significant
cooling.”

Robert Gagosian, the director of Woods Hole, considered one of the
world’s leading oceanographic institutes, said: “We may be approaching
a threshold that would shut down [the Gulf Stream] and cause abrupt
climate changes.

“Even as the earth as a whole continues to warm gradually, large
regions may experience a precipitous and disruptive shift into colder
climates.” The scientists, who studied the composition of the waters
of the Atlantic from Greenland to Tierra del Fuego, found that they
have become “very much” saltier in the tropics and subtropics and
“very much” fresher towards the poles over the past 50 years.

This is alarming because the Gulf Stream is driven by cold, very salty
water sinking in the North Atlantic. This pulls warm surface waters
northwards, forming the current.

The change is described as the “fingerprint” of global warming. As the
world heats up, more water evaporates from the tropics and falls as
rain in temperate and polar regions, making the warm waters saltier
and the cold ones fresher. Melting polar ice adds more fresh water.

Ominously, the trend has accelerated since 1990, during which time the
10 hottest years on record have occurred. Many studies have shown that
similar changes in the waters of the North Atlantic in geological time
have often plunged Europe into an ice age, sometimes bringing the
change in as little as a decade.

The National Academy of Sciences says that the jump occurs in the same
way as “the slowly increasing pressure of a finger eventually flips a
switch and turns on a light”. Once the switch has occurred the new,
hostile climate, lasts for decades at least, and possibly centuries.


When the Gulf Stream abruptly turned off about 12,700 years ago, it
brought about a 1,300-year cold period, known as the Younger Dryas.
This froze Britain in continuous permafrost, drove summer temperatures
down to 10C and winter ones to -20C, and brought icebergs as far south
as Portugal. Europe could not sustain anything like its present
population. Droughts struck across the globe, including in Asia,
Africa and the American west, as the disruption of the Gulf Stream
affected currents worldwide.

Some scientists say that this is the “worst-case scenario” and that
the cooling may be less dramatic, with the world’s climate
“flickering” between colder and warmer states for several decades. But
they add that, in practice, this would be almost as catastrophic for
agriculture and civilisation.

George Bush Sued for Racketeering

On November 26,2003 an amended RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act) Lawsuit was filed by Ellen Mariani against George Bush and his Administration; the complete text can be read at the website that Mrs.Mariani’s lawyer Mr.Berg put online at [url=http://www.911forthetruth.com]http://www.911forthetruth.com[/url] , there is other information about the Lawsuit like the Deposition Request for Saddam Hussein and a petition to sign to have the US Government tell the Truth about the 9/11/01 Attacks.
I am the person who provided the information about the 28 Year old US Congressional Commissioned Military Study to Improve US Air Travel Security that is on pages 25-26 of the Lawsuit text; I have a website of my information at [url=http://www.codenamegrillfire.com]http://www.codenamegrillfire.com[/url] and I will be posting a seperate story about it in the near future.
For now if you familiarize yourself with the information that has been documented against George Bush at the Lawsuit’s website and sign the petition for the US Government to tell the Truth will prepare you for my US Military Study information.
You can also contact Mr.Berg or Mrs.Mariani at to ask questions about the Lawsuit.  [url=http://www.septembereleventh.org]http://www.septembereleventh.org[/url] is another good site for American activities in promoting the Lawsuit.

- US Soldier: “Sometimes it is a soldier’s duty to tell the truth, no matter what”

By Jay Shaft- Coalition For Free Thought In Media

he following interview was conducted with a US Army high level commander who has been back from Iraq less than two weeks. I was shocked that someone of his rank would be so open and willing to speak out, but he told me he has lost over 100 soldiers from his command since the war started.

The man I spoke too had spent months with a front line combat unit and had seen terrible and horrific sights. I consider myself extremely fortunate to have the opportunity to get his tale of the horrors in Iraq.

I have taken every precaution to insure his identity remains a secret for reasons he details in this article. In this time of war and reprisals against soldiers who speak out, he has exhibited extreme bravery and true valor.

JS- Good morning sir, are you enjoying your time back in the states?

USO- No, to be honest, I am not enjoying being back here. I keep seeing the soldiers dying every time I turn on the news or pick up a paper. I can’t get a sense of relief at being home when many of my fellow soldiers will not ever be coming home. It is hard to feel good about no longer being in Iraq. I just can’t seem to put my feelings in any kind of perspective.

Imagine how terrible it is to be home and not be able to tear your mind away from the worst hellhole you could ever imagine. I pace the floor at night when I think about all the soldiers that are still there or imminently going over, I worry about the ones that are on call up or training to go take their turn at trying to stay alive.

I was in several other combat theaters and I have never seen something as bad as Iraq. I have well over 15 years in service and was in the first Gulf War. I thought I had seen every thing that had to do with combat and police actions. I was wrong, and most of my fellow officers have said the same thing. None of us were really prepared for this, no matter what type of training or experience we have......

See whole story at Japan Indymedia

-2 月のピースイベント☆ 2/8 版 !

皆さん、たびたび申し訳ありません。hanaです。
数時間前に送らせて頂いた
【転送転載歓迎】 2 月のピースイベント☆ 2/8 版 !
のメールに間違いがありました。たいへんに申し訳ありません。
訂正箇所は以下です：
＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝
■2/14(土)
http://bbs12.otd.co.jp/truce_bbs/bbs_plain?base=752
2/14【大阪】RAWA学習会　　←（訂正：×京都　○大阪）
＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝

またこのあいだ、以下の情報がありましたので追加しました：
＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝
■2/10（火）
http://bbs12.otd.co.jp/truce_bbs/bbs_plain?base=755
2/10[京都]JVC 高橋清貴さんイラクODA問題 講演会
＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝

申し訳ありませんが、転送・転載される際には以下の訂正版をお使い下さい。
もう転送転載してくださった方にはたいへん申し訳ありませんが、この訂正版
を再度流していただけると幸いです。

◇訂正版◇【転送転載歓迎】2月のピースイベント☆2/8版 !

※2/8・3:45pm発行のリストに間違いがありました。
※　　　＞■2/14(土)
※　　　＞http://bbs12.otd.co.jp/truce_bbs/bbs_plain?base=752
※　　　＞2/14【大阪】RAWA学習会　　←（訂正：×京都　○大阪）
※大変申し訳ありません。

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
日本時間2/8・10:45pm発行の最新版です。
イベント名と場所と日時のみのリストです。
各イベントの詳細は、URL先をご覧下さい。
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
■2/3（火）-11（水）
http://bbs12.otd.co.jp/truce_bbs/bbs_plain?base=736
2/3-11広島安佐北区可部「イラク・湾岸戦争の子どもたち」パネル展

■2/5（木）<---終了しました☆
http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20040205-00000253-kyodo-soci
http://bbs12.otd.co.jp/yuji_story/bbs_plain?base=1630
2/5防衛庁を平和の灯で取り囲もう(5000人→パレード中に1万人に)

■2/7（土）-12（木）
http://www.ywca.or.jp/kyoto/topics.html#写真展
2/7-12[京都]中川祐次写真展「カンボジアの人々は、今」

■2/8（日）-9（月）
http://bbs12.otd.co.jp/truce_bbs/bbs_plain?base=589
http://bbs12.otd.co.jp/truce_bbs/bbs_plain?base=672
自衛隊のイラク派兵に反対する旭川駐屯地要請行動への参加協力のお願い
◇2/8旭川駅前での宣伝行動、地元の人たちとの交流会
◇2/9旭川陸上自衛隊第二師団駐屯地での要請行動
◇賛同人募集中

■2/9（月）
http://bbs12.otd.co.jp/truce_bbs/bbs_plain?base=750
2/9抗議集会＠参院議員会館前

http://bbs12.otd.co.jp/truce_bbs/bbs_plain?base=593
2/9[中野]DAYS JAPAN　創刊前夜祭　リレートーク＆ビジュアル・プレゼンテー
ション

http://bbs12.otd.co.jp/truce_bbs/bbs_plain?base=709
2/9”茅ヶ崎「9の日」反戦スタンディング”

■2/9（月）-13（金）
http://www2.cc22.ne.jp/~yfukuma/schedule.htm#murayama
2/9-13[山形県村山市]森住卓写真展

■2/10（火）
http://bbs12.otd.co.jp/truce_bbs/bbs_plain?base=755
2/10[京都]JVC 高橋清貴さんイラクODA問題 講演会

■2/10（火）-11（水）
http://www2.cc22.ne.jp/~yfukuma/schedule.htm#tigasaki
2/10-11[茅ヶ崎]森住卓写真展

■2/10（火）-12（木）
http://bbs12.otd.co.jp/truce_bbs/bbs_plain?base=739
2/10-12［豊橋］森住卓写真展

■2/10（火）-15（日）
http://bbs12.otd.co.jp/truce_bbs/bbs_plain?base=738
3/10-15[筑紫野]豊田直巳「イラク・戦火の下の子どもたち」写真展

■2/11（水）
http://bbs12.otd.co.jp/truce_bbs/bbs_plain?base=663
2/11紀元節復活反対！北海道集会

http://bbs12.otd.co.jp/1214569/bbs_plain?base=1625
2/11[渋谷]イラク派兵と靖国を問う◆2.11反「紀元節」集会

http://bbs12.otd.co.jp/truce_bbs/bbs_plain?base=728
2/11[福井]本多勝一講演会「イラクとアメリカそして日本」

http://bbs12.otd.co.jp/truce_bbs/bbs_plain?base=673
2/11イラク派兵反対！許すな憲法改悪2．11福井県民集会

http://bbs12.otd.co.jp/truce_bbs/bbs_plain?base=590
2/11大阪「100人村と世界の子どもたち」

http://www.morizumi-pj.com/sc1.html#koube
2/11[神戸市・中央区]つくろう平和、守ろう子どもたち　2・11兵庫県民のつど
い／森住卓講演「戦火のなかのイラクの子どもたち」＋パレード

http://bbs12.otd.co.jp/truce_bbs/bbs_plain?base=682
名古屋ＹＷＣＡ第31回天皇制問題を考える2・11集会

http://www.freeml.com/message/chance-action@freeml.com/0006149
2/11香川「アイ・ラブ・ピース」上映会

■2/12（木）
http://www.freeml.com/message/chance-action@freeml.com/0006109
2/12[東京]第２回口頭弁論 意見陳述◇テロ対策特別措置法・自衛隊海外派兵は
違憲 市民訴訟の会

http://bbs12.otd.co.jp/truce_bbs/bbs_plain?base=751
2/12[大阪地裁]マウンマウンさん裁判に参加を！

■2/13（金）
http://www.stop-yuji.jp/yobikake.txt
2/13[東京]守ろう、平和といのち2・13大集会　自衛隊のイラク派遣NO、STOP！
有事法制

http://bbs12.otd.co.jp/truce_bbs/bbs_plain?base=724
2/13[東京]緊急公開セミナー：７月参院選、市民にとっての争点とは？

■2/13（金）-15（日）
http://www.npo-wakayama.or.jp/morizumi-gaiyou.htm
2/13-15[和歌山市]森住卓写真展「イラク・湾岸戦争の子どもたち」

■2/14(土)
http://bbs12.otd.co.jp/truce_bbs/bbs_plain?base=752
2/14【大阪】RAWA学習会　　←（訂正：×京都　○大阪）

http://bbs12.otd.co.jp/truce_bbs/bbs_plain?base=684
2/14[京都]藤田祐幸さん講演会「イラク・ウラン兵器被害調査の報告―今すべ
きことは自衛隊派遣ではない」

http://www.morizumi-pj.com/sc1.html#chikuma
2/14[長野県・千曲市]2004平和ふぉーらむ・いん・長野/森住卓講演会「イラク
・湾岸戦争の子どもたち」

■2/14(土）-15（日）
http://bbs12.otd.co.jp/truce_bbs/bbs_plain?base=749
2/14-15[札幌・千歳]北海道から平和発信！イラク 派兵を認めない！全国交流
集会
◇2/14[札幌]北海道から平和発信！イラク 派兵を認めない！全国交流集会
　　　　　　　　　＋ピースウォーク　in さっぽろ
◇2/15[千歳]ピースアクション　in　千歳

■2/14（土）-22（日）
http://www2.cc22.ne.jp/~yfukuma/schedule.htm#kousai
2/14-22[滋賀県甲西町]森住卓写真展

■2/15（日）
http://bbs12.otd.co.jp/truce_bbs/bbs_plain?base=729
2/15,3/13防衛庁抗議行動＋署名3/10まで

http://bbs12.otd.co.jp/truce_bbs/bbs_plain?base=620
2/15「月桃の花」歌舞団・2月世田谷公演「爆弾男のマブイ込め イラクから希
望の歌が聞こえる」

http://bbs12.otd.co.jp/truce_bbs/bbs_plain?base=708
2・15 ピースウォーク in茅ヶ崎

http://www2.cc22.ne.jp/~yfukuma/schedule.htm#izumisano
2/15[泉佐野市]森住卓写真展

http://www1.odn.ne.jp/~ceq25780/pw.htm
2/15[京都]ピースウォーク

http://www1.kcn.ne.jp/~kmae/
http://bbs12.otd.co.jp/truce_bbs/bbs_plain?base=742
2/15[奈良]イラク占領支配と自衛隊のイラク派兵NO! 2.15ならピースウオーク
のよびかけ

http://www.morizumi-pj.com/sc1.html#wakayama
http://www.npo-wakayama.or.jp/morizumi-gaiyou.htm
2/15[和歌山市]森住卓講演会

■2/17（火）-22（日）
http://bbs12.otd.co.jp/truce_bbs/bbs_plain?base=738
3/17-22[大牟田]豊田直巳「イラク・戦火の下の子どもたち」写真展

■2/17（火）-3/7（日）
http://www2.cc22.ne.jp/~yfukuma/schedule.htm#yokota
2/17-3/7[島根県横田町]森住卓写真展

■2/18（水）
http://www.morizumi-pj.com/sc1.html#taitou
2/18[台東区]森住卓「イラクからの報告‐私の見たイラク戦争」台東革新懇の
総会の記念講演

■2/19（木）
http://bbs12.otd.co.jp/truce_bbs/bbs_plain?base=703
2/19[東京]第2回平和政策塾セミナー「ヒバクシャ（HIBAKUSHA　世界の終わり
に）」上映会

http://bbs12.otd.co.jp/truce_bbs/bbs_plain?base=710
2/19”茅ヶ崎「9の日」反戦スタンディング”

■2/20（金）-22（日）
http://www2.cc22.ne.jp/~yfukuma/schedule.htm#mito
2/20-22[水戸市]森住卓写真展

■2/20（金）-29（日）
http://www2.cc22.ne.jp/~yfukuma/schedule.htm#saitama
2/20-29[埼玉県三郷市]森住卓写真展

■2/21（土）
http://bbs12.otd.co.jp/truce_bbs/bbs_plain?base=747
2/21[東京]神楽坂会議〜もの言えぬ職場から「戦地」へ part2〜

http://www.freeml.com/message/chance-action@freeml.com/0006138
2/21[東京]イラク・パレスチナ報告、 ＯＤＡを考える　ＪＶＣ

http://www.morizumi-pj.com/sc1.html#uji
2/21[宇治市]森住卓講演 ＠第４３次京都青年教研

http://bbs12.otd.co.jp/truce_bbs/bbs_plain?base=701
2/21[京都]へなへないと 第十一夜■「アイヌの1人として思うこと」

■2/21（土）-22（日）
http://www.geocities.jp/kj20021012
http://bbs12.otd.co.jp/truce_bbs/bbs_plain?base=605
2/21-22京都「日本と朝鮮半島の友好を考える京都学生シンポジウム」

■2/22（日）
http://bbs12.otd.co.jp/truce_bbs/bbs_plain?base=733
2・22PEACE DAY 〜2月22日午後22分〜全国一斉にピース♪アクション 企画賛同
者募集☆

http://bbs12.otd.co.jp/truce_bbs/bbs_plain?base=732
2/22[東京]占領止めて撤退させよう！2・22PEACE DAY in東京

http://bbs12.otd.co.jp/truce_bbs/bbs_plain?base=666
2/22[東京] Talk Live 〜個人の可能性が開花することが平和を創ること〜

http://bbs12.otd.co.jp/truce_bbs/bbs_plain?base=664
2/22自衛隊イラク派兵と昭和天皇記念館建設に反対する2・22立川集会・デモ

http://bbs12.otd.co.jp/truce_bbs/bbs_plain?base=745
2．22ピースデイin京都のおしらせ　

http://bbs12.otd.co.jp/truce_bbs/bbs_plain?base=752
2/22ICTA京都・2月例会：映画「ヤカオランの春」試写会他

http://www.freeml.com/message/chance-action@freeml.com/0006149
2/22香川「ジェニン　ジェニン」上映会＋重信メイさんの講演「パレスチナ問
題とロードマップ」

■2/26（木）-27（金）
http://www2.cc22.ne.jp/~yfukuma/schedule.htm#okazaki
2/26-27[岡崎市]森住卓写真展

■2/28（土）
http://bbs12.otd.co.jp/truce_bbs/bbs_plain?base=720
2/28[藤沢]市民でつくる平和ミュージカル第6回公演　『もっと平和に！』

http://bbs12.otd.co.jp/1214569/bbs_plain?base=1615
2/28[静岡]『平和でナイト』--- 核兵器も戦争もない平和な世界を私たち青年
の手で！2004

http://bbs12.otd.co.jp/truce_bbs/bbs_plain?base=726
2/28[広島]イラク世界民衆法廷広島公聴会実行委員会結成集会「ブッシュ、ブ
レアの戦争犯罪を告発するためのアクション」

■2/29（日）
http://bbs12.otd.co.jp/truce_bbs/bbs_plain?base=711
2/29”茅ヶ崎「9の日」反戦スタンディング”

http://bbs12.otd.co.jp/yuji_story/bbs_plain?base=1649
2/29[静岡市]ビキニ水爆実験を裁く市民法廷

■その他
http://www.freeml.com/message/chance-action@freeml.com/0006144
毎週土曜18:00-19:00新宿西口地下広場・反戦意思表示

http://bbs12.otd.co.jp/truce_bbs/bbs_plain?base=667
戦争よりも祭りを！イラク訪問団☆..喜納昌吉＆チャンプルーズ　ピースコン
サートinイラク..☆

http://bbs12.otd.co.jp/truce_bbs/bbs_plain?base=696
http://bbs12.otd.co.jp/truce_bbs/bbs_plain?base=625
「自衛隊イラク派遣差止訴訟」原告募集（できれば2/17(火)までに）

http://bbs12.otd.co.jp/truce_bbs/bbs_plain?base=569
【署名】自衛隊イラク派兵を勇気をもって断念させる意見申し入れ

http://bbs12.otd.co.jp/truce_bbs/bbs_plain?base=621
http://www.jcp.or.jp/tokusyu/shomei/iraq0311.html
【署名】「自衛隊のイラク派兵に反対する請願書」げんざい100万筆！！！

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復興支援なんてポーズだけじゃん、
実際「人道復興支援」するのは派遣される陸自のたったの5分の1?!
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■2月のピースイベント☆2/8版!
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-Conscience and a Music Teacher’s Refusal to Play the National Anthem

The singing of Japan’s national anthem Kimigayo, an ode to the emperor, and the flying of the Hinomaru flag, both evocative of Japan’s colonial era, have become flashpoints of conflict in recent years as the Japanese government presses to reincorporate these controversial emblems in a variety of public events. Nowhere has the conflict been more intense than in the public schools. The struggle by music teacher Sato Miwako to preserve her conscience in the wake of a 1999 national flag and national anthem law offers insight into issues of colonialism, war, and historical memory as well as contemporary nationalism. It also addresses both ethical and constitutional issues. This article appeared in Sekai, November 2003, pp. 38-46. Tanaka Nobumasa is a Japanese journalist.

... In August 1999 a national flag and national anthem law was enacted, and thereafter the pressure and attacks on public schools which did not fully implement this new law became fierce. The promise in the Japanese Diet not to make it compulsory was ignored, and the Japanese constitution, which ensured freedom of thought, conscience, and religion, was effectively subordinated to the ‘Guiding Principles in Education.’ There emerged here and there on the horizon a situation resembling “legal insubordination.”

Kunitachi City became engulfed in this torrent and, in no time at all, the Hinomaru and “Kimigayo” were brought to all eleven of its elementary schools. In the process, human rights were smashed.

“My feeling was that the Hinomaru and ‘Kimigayo’ had been made mandatory which was unthinkable. Postwar Japan was supposed to be a country of laws. This was unbelievable.” And, yet, the realization of the “impossible” advanced inexorably. For Sato, “it was as if my life was being crushed.”......


Whole Story at Japan Focus

-Self-Defense Forces and the Constitution: Heed the past to find a path to the future

Translated by Japan Focus

...So-called postwar progressive intellectuals were by and large critical of the Constitution that was forced on the nation by the occupation forces. But these people switched to a pro-Constitution position around 1950 mainly in reaction to America’s changed Japan policy. Because of the Cold War, the United States began demanding that Japan rearm itself and sends its troops overseas.

For this reason, even such a rightist as novelist Yukio Mishima conceded, “If we go the way of constitutional amendment, we would only be playing into America’s hands.’ At the time, rewriting the Constitution was tantamount to acquiescing to U.S. policy, while defending the Constitution and pursuing pacifism stood not only for “democracy’ but “independent statehood’ and “patriotism’ as well.

But such an understanding is often lacking in recent discussions about the Constitution, SDF dispatch abroad and patriotism. And some advocates of constitutional revision have even begun citing “a general sense of frustration in society’ as a reason for change, as if a new Constitution could perk people up like some new fashion trend might. This is cavalier at best....

Whole Story