Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Psychologists and Torture in Iraq, Afganistan and Guantanamo

June 7, 2007

The Pentagon's IG Report Contradicts What the APA Has Said About the Involvement of Psychologists in Abusive Interrogations

A Q&A on Psychologists and Torture

By STEPHEN SOLDZ, STEVE REISNER
and BRAD OLSON

What is the OIG Report and Why is it Important?

On May 18, the Department of Defense (DoD) declassified an August 2006 report by the departments' Office of the Inspector General (OIG) entitled Review of DoD-Directed Investigations of Detainee Abuse. In this report is conclusive evidence from the oversight division of the DoD confirming that psychologists played a central role in the development of the regime of psychological torture used at the US detention facilities at Guantánamo and in Iraq and Afghanistan. 

The OIG report further substantiates numerous press reports published over the last several years that the military's Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape (SERE) program had been "reverse-engineered" to develop the harsh interrogation techniques used in our country's detention facilities housing terrorist suspects.

Since 2004, as these reports emerged, the leadership of the American Psychological Association (APA) ignored or disparaged them; in each case reiterating the APA policy statement, that "psychologists have a critical role in keeping interrogations safe, legal, ethical and effective."

This briefing paper documents and explains the content of the OIG report and its refutation of the claims of APA leadership, including those made by Dr.  Stephen Behnke, Director of APA Ethics Directorate, and Past Presidents Gerald Koocher and Ronald Levant. At the end of the document is a list of urgent action steps the APA must take to immediately reform its flawed ethics policy and restore the reputation of our profession as a force that defends human rights, promotes core principles of health professional ethics, and acts to protect the well-being of the individual, regardless of political, ethnic, or religious distinctions. 

What is SERE?

SERE is the military's Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape program that trains US Special Operations forces, aviators and others at high risk of capture on the battlefield to evade capture and to resist 'breaking' under torture, particularly through giving false confessions or collaborating with their captors. During SERE training, trainees are subjected to harsh and abusive treatment modeled upon the cold war-era psychological torture techniques used by the Chinese, the North Koreans, and the former Soviet Union. SERE-type techniques, when used by other countries, have been described as torture by the United States government in State Department human rights reports for decades.

Reports of the treatment of detainees in US custody as part of the global war on terror have paralleled techniques known to have been used as part of SERE training: prolonged isolation, prolonged sleep deprivation, sensory deprivation, extremely painful "stress positions," sensory bombardment (such as prolonged loud noise and/or bright lights), forced nudity, sexual humiliation, cultural humiliation (such as disrespect to holy books), being subjected to extreme cold that induces hypothermia, the exploitation of phobias, and simulation of the experience of drowning (waterboarding). Experience with torture survivors and the medical and psychological literature document that these techniques can have profound long-term negative effects upon individuals, including psychosis, depression, suicidal ideation and/or post-traumatic stress disorder. Many SERE program graduates have complained of these symptoms.

Do SERE Techniques Violate the Geneva Conventions?  YES.

"SERE training incorporates physical and psychological pressures, which act as counterresistance techniques, to replicate harsh conditions that the Service member might encounter if they are held by forces that do not abide by the Geneva Conventions" (OIG Report, p. 23)

"The Commander, Joint Personnel Recovery Agency, explained that he understood that the detainees held by TF-20 [in Iraq] were determined to be Designated Unlawful Combatants (DUCs), not Enemy Prisoners of War (EPW) protected by the Geneva Convention and that the interrogation techniques were authorized and that the JPRA team members were not to exceed the standards used in SERE training on our own Service members." (OIG Report, p. 28)

The OIG Report cites the description in the Army Field Manual 34-52, which makes clear that SERE-type interrogation techniques constitute "physical or mental torture and coercion under the Geneva conventions": 

"Physical or mental torture and coercion revolves around eliminating the source's free will and are expressly prohibited by GWS [Geneva Convention for the Amelioration of the Wounded and Sick in Armed Forces in the Field], Article 13; GPW [Geneva Convention Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War], Articles 13 and 17; and GC [Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War], Articles 31 and 32. Torture is defined as the infliction of intense pain to body or mind to extract a confession or information, or for sadistic pleasure. Examples of physical torture include-- electric shock, forcing an individual to stand, sit, or kneel in abnormal positions for prolonged periods of time, food deprivation, and any form of beating. Examples of mental torture include-mock executions, abnormal sleep deprivation, and chemically induced psychosis. Coercion is defined as actions designed to unlawfully induce another to compel an act against one's will. Examples of coercion include-threatening or implying physical or mental torture to the subject, his family or others to whom he owes loyalty." (OIG Report, pp. 3-4)

Are SERE Techniques Regarded as Torture by SERE Psychologists?  YES.

PENS Task Force member Captain Bryce Lefever, a former SERE psychologist for the Navy SEALs, describes his SERE duties in his PENS biography as including the supervision of "personnel undergoing intensive exposure to enemy interrogation, torture, and exploitation techniques."

Were SERE Techniques Taught and Utilized at Guantánamo? YES.

The OIG report documents in detail that Ft. Bragg SERE psychologists provided training to interrogators at Guantánamo for the purpose of using SERE techniques to break down detainees:

"Counterresistance techniques taught by the Joint Personnel Recovery Agency [the agency responsible for SERE training] contributed to the development of interrogation policy at the U.S. Southern Command [i.e., Guanatanamo]." OIG Report, p. 24)

"[These] Counterresistance techniques were introduced because personnel believed that interrogation methods used were no longer effective in obtaining useful information from some detainees." (OIG Report, p. 24)

"JTF-170 [the command overseeing interrogations at Guantánamo] requested that Joint Personnel Recovery Agency instructors be sent to Guantánamo to instruct interrogators in SERE counterresistance interrogation techniques. SERE instructors from Fort Bragg responded to Guantánamo requests for instructors trained in the use of SERE interrogation resistance techniques" (OIG Report, p. 26).

Were Psychologists Involved in the Transformation of SERE Training Techniques into Interrogation methods? YES.

"On September 16, 2002, the Army Special Operations Command and the Joint Personnel Recovery Agency co-hosted a SERE psychologist conference at Fort Bragg for JTF-170 interrogation personnel. The Army's Behavioral Science Consultation Team [BSCT] from Guantánamo Bay also attended the conference. Joint Personnel Recovery Agency personnel briefed JTF-170 representatives on the exploitation techniques and methods used in resistance (to interrogation) training at SERE schools. The JTF-170 personnel understood that they were to become familiar with SERE training and be capable of determining which SERE information and techniques might be useful in interrogations at Guantánamo. Guantánamo Behavioral Science Consultation Team personnel understood that they were to review documentation and standard operating procedures for SERE training in developing the standard operating procedure for the JTF-170, if the command approved those practices.  The Army Special Operations Command was examining the role of interrogation support as a 'SERE Psychologist competency area.'" (OIG Report, p. 25, emphasis added.)

How did SERE Techniques Become Transformed into Abusive Interrogation Techniques?

On October 11, the Commander of JTF-170 forwarded a memorandum requesting approval of harsh, SERE-based technique. From the memorandum:

"...the following techniques and other aversive techniques, such as those used in U.S. military interrogation resistance training or by other U.S. government agencies, may be utilized in a carefully coordinated manner to help interrogate exceptionally resistant detainees." (OIG Report, p. 26)

"[T]he U.S. Southern Command's request led to the issuance of Secretary of Defense, December 2, 2002, memorandum [authorizing the use of many harsh, abusive techniques]. In response to Service-level concerns, a Working Group was formed to examine counterresistance techniques, leading to the Secretary of Defense, April 16, 2003, memorandum that approved counterresistance techniques for U.S. Southern Command." (OIG Report, p. 26)

Did the Interrogation Methods Considered by the Pentagon's "Working Group" and Authorized by Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld Originate With SERE Psychologists?  YES.

"[T]he U.S. Southern Command's request led to the issuance of Secretary of Defense, December 2, 2002, memorandum." (OIG Report, p. 26)

"I stand for 8-10 hours a day. Why is standing limited to 4 hours?" (Rumsfeld Memorandum Dec. 2, 2002)

"In response to Service-level concerns, a Working Group was formed to examine counterresistance techniques, leading to the Secretary of Defense, April 16, 2003, memorandum that approved counterresistance techniques for U.S.  Southern Command." (OIG Report, p. 26)

"Application of these interrogation techniques is subject to the following general safeguards: (i) limited to use only at strategic interrogation facilities; (ii) there is a good basis to believe that detainee possesses critical intelligence; (iii) the detainee is medically and operationally evaluated as suitable (considering all techniques to be used in combination); (iv) interrogators are specifically trained for the techniques; (v) a specific interrogation plan (including reasonable safeguards. limits on duration, intervals between applications, termination criteria and the presence or availability of qualified medical personnel) has been developed; (vi) there is appropriate supervision; and, (vii) there is appropriate, specified senior approval for use with any specific detainee(after considering the foregoing and receiving legal advice)."

(Rumsfeld's "Memorandum for the Commander, US Southern Command. Subject: Counter-Resistance Techniques in the War on Terrorism (S). April 16, 2003, p. 5.)

Were the SERE Techniques Used in Iraq and Did Psychologists Play a Role in Bringing Them There? YES.

"The Joint Personnel Recovery Agency [responsible for SERE] was also responsible for the migration of counterresistance interrogation techniques into the U.S. Central Command's area of responsibility [Iraq and Afghanistan]. In September 2003, at the request of the Commander, TF-20 [the special forces group hunting Saddam Hussein and other former Baath and top insurgency leaders], the Commander, Joint Personnel Recovery Agency sent an interrogation assessment team to Iraq to provide advice and assistance to the task force interrogation mission. The TF-20 was the special mission unit that operated in the CJTF-7 area of operations" (OIG Report, p. 28).

Did SERE Techniques Migrate to Afghanistan? YES.

"The Afghanistan SOP was influenced by the counterresistance memorandum that the Secretary of Defense approved on December, 2, 2002 (see Appendix U), and incorporated techniques designed for detainees who were identified as 'unlawful combatants.' Subsequent battlefield interrogation SOPs included techniques such as yelling, loud music, light control, environmental manipulation, sleep deprivation/adjustment, stress positions, 20 hour interrogations, and controlled fear (muzzled dogs)" (OIG Report, pp. 15-16).

Did the OIG Find the Use of SERE Techniques to be Inappropriate? YES.

"We are not suggesting that SERE training is inappropriate for those subject to capture; however, it is not appropriate to use in training interrogators how to conduct interrogation operations" (OIG Report, p.  29).

"We recommend that the Commander, U.S. Joint Forces Command, Office of Primary Responsibility for Personnel Recovery and Executive Agent for all Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape training implement formal policies and procedures that preclude the introduction and use of physical and psychological coercion techniques outside the training environment." (OIG Report, p. 30, emphasis removed)

Were Psychologists Central to the Development and Promulgation of Abusive Interrogation Techniques? YES.

As the OIG report documents, SERE psychologists instructed military intelligence, Special Operations forces, psychologists serving as part of the Behavioral Science Consultation Teams (BSCTs), and other interrogation personnel on how to use SERE techniques during interrogations.  Additionally, BSCT psychologists understood that they were to utilize SERE methods in "developing the standard operating procedure for the JTF-170 [GTMO interrogators]," pending command approval (OIG Report, p. 29). BSCT psychologists also were directly involved in implementing the SERE tactics during interrogations, according to multiple reports.  One well-known example is the involvement of military psychologist Major John Leso in the interrogation of Muhammed Al-Qatani.

Did Leading SERE Psychologists and Other Psychologists Engaged in Interrogations Co-author the PENS Task Force Report and Recommendations? YES.

In response to reports of psychologists' and other health professionals' involvement in abusive interrogations, the APA convened a Presidential Task Force on Psychological Ethics and National Security (PENS) in 2005. Six of the nine voting members were from the DoD and the US intelligence community, most with direct involvement in national security interrogations at Guantánamo, Iraq, and Afghanistan.  Perhaps most problematic, it is clear from the OIG Report that three of the PENS members were directly in the chain of command translating SERE techniques into harsh interrogation tactics.  Although we cannot know exactly what each of these individuals did, their presence in the chain of command is deeply troubling.

Colonel Morgan Banks "is the senior Army Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape (SERE) Psychologist, responsible for the training and oversight of all Army SERE Psychologists.  He provides technical support and consultation to all Army psychologists providing interrogation support, and his office currently provides the only Army training for psychologists in repatriation planning and execution, interrogation support, and behavioral profiling" (PENS Task Force member biographies). Since 2005, several reporters have implicated Colonel Banks in the "reverse engineering" of SERE techniques for interrogation purposes.

Colonel Larry James "was the Chief Psychologist for the Joint Intelligence Group at GTMO, Cuba" (PENS Task Force member biographies) starting in January 2003, immediately after Secretary Rumsfeld authorized the use of the most brutal SERE-based techniques as Guantánamo. He was in command of psychologists at GTMO at the time these abusive policies and practices were in effect with the direct involvement of military psychologists.

Captain Bryce Lefever had been a SERE psychologist (from 1991-1993) where he supervised "personnel undergoing intensive exposure to enemy interrogation, torture, and exploitation techniques." He "was deployed as the Joint Special Forces Task Force psychologist to Afghanistan in 2002, where he lectured to interrogators and was consulted on various interrogation techniques" (PENS Task Force member biographies). That is, he had the requisite SERE background and it appears that he was involved in interrogations in Afghanistan at the time, as the OIG report makes clear, that the abusive SERE-based techniques were being utilized by Special Operations forces and others.

While we do not know exactly what each of these PENS Task Force members did in their settings and how their roles influenced the SERE/BSCT migration process, the OIG report makes it clear that the commands that these psychologists held or served under played a lead role establishing and implementing the policies that adapted SERE tactics use in interrogations during the time the events described in the OIG report occurred.  This conflict of interest was already raised in the press at the time of the PENS process by the release of the ICRC report; it is confirmed by the OIG report. This conflict raises the strong possibility that the selfsame psychologists who wrote the APA policy permitting participation in US national security interrogations were part of the process generating the policies and procedures that made the abusive SERE techniques standard operating procedure throughout all three primary theaters of US combat and human intelligence operations as part of the War on Terror.

In addition to the PENS Task Force members apparently involved in DoD interrogations, one member, R. Scott Shumate, was the chief operational psychologist in the CIA Counter Terrorism Center and later for DoD counterintelligence operations.  The CIA's so-called "enhanced interrogation methods," as described in several media reports, are strikingly similar to the SERE tactics:

R. Scott Shumate's PENS Task Force biographical statement reads: "He has worked for the federal government in highly classified positions that have required him to travel extensively and live overseas. He has performed many of his duties under highly stressful and difficult circumstances. In May of 2003, Dr. Shumate accepted a senior position in the Department of Defense as the Director of Behavioral Science for the Counterintelligence Field Activity ["CIFA"]. Currently, he has 20 psychologists and a multimillion dollar budget as he provides operational psychological support to several Defense Agencies though CIFA."The biographical statement goes on: "He was the chief operational psychologist for the Counter-Terrorism Center from 2000 to 2003 and has interviewed many renowned individuals associated with various terrorist networks."

A more recent biographical statement posted on a website for a conference where Shumate was scheduled to speak states that, "Dr. Shumate worked as an undercover officer for the Central Intelligence Agency where he worked against a wide array of targets including the Middle Eastern, Russian, and Chinese. From April 2001 until May of 2003 he was the chief operational psychologist for the CIA's Counter Terrorism Center (CTC).  He has been with several of the key apprehended terrorists."

Shumate, it appears, was "with several of the key apprehended terrorists," in his capacity as chief operational psychologist for the CIA's Counter Terrorism center or while CIFA Behavioral Science staff were offering guidance for the questioning of Guantánamo detainees. The legality of the interrogation practices used by these units will be the subject of imminent hearings by the Senate Armed Services Committee and the Senate Intelligence Committee.

What has the APA Said About Psychologists Participation in National Security Interrogations [emphases added unless otherwise noted]?

The APA leadership has repeatedly said that psychologists' participation in interrogations helps keep them "safe, legal, ethical and effective." This language, it turns out, is nearly identical to that used by Department of Defense officials, including former Army Surgeon General Lt. General Kevin Kiley, involved in protecting what we now know were abusive interrogation techniques that violate the Geneva Conventions.  The following quotes demonstrate how the statements of APA leadership directly contradict the findings of the OIG report: 

"APA derives its position from Principle A, "Do No Harm," in the Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct (2002), and from Principle B, which addresses psychologists' responsibilities to society.  By virtue of Principle A, psychologists do no harm; by virtue of Principle B, psychologists use their expertise in, and understanding of, human behavior to aid in the prevention of harm.  A corollary to this first rule is that psychologists may not participate in interrogations that rely on coercion." (APA Director of APA's Ethics Office, APA Monitor on Psychology, July/August, 2006)

"It is consistent with the APA Code of Ethics for psychologists to serve in consultative roles to interrogation- or information-gathering processes for national security-related purposes. While engaging in such consultative and advisory roles entails a delicate balance of ethical considerations, doing so puts psychologists in a unique position to assist in ensuring that such processes are safe and ethical for all participants." (PENS Report)

"The task force concluded psychologists have a critical role in keeping interrogations safe, legal, ethical and effective." (Olivia Moorehead-Slaughter, Chair of the PENS Task Force, emphasis in original)

"I wish I had the assurance that Jane Mayer and that Dr. Reisner apparently have that there are APA members doing bad things at Guantánamo or elsewhere, because any time I have asked these journalists or other people who are making these assertions for names so that APA could investigate its members who might be allegedly involved in them, no names have ever been forthcoming." (2006 APA President Gerald Koocher on Democracy Now! radio June 16, 2006)

"APA has a strong interest in the role that psychologists are playing in national security investigations as part of the Joint Task Force and wishes to continue to help advise our members and DoD to ensure that such work by psychologists is safe, legal, ethical, and effective." (2005 APA President Ronald Levant in Military Psychology, 2007)

"Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape (SERE) training for BSCTs was discussed. SERE training has been provided to BSCTs so that they can learn the perspective of persons in captivity. General Hood stated that the purpose was not so that they would learn how to use SERE techniques in interrogation." (2005 APA President Ronald Levant in Military Psychology, 2007)

"The Association's position is rooted in our belief that having psychologists consult with interrogation teams makes an important contribution toward keeping interrogations safe and ethical." (2007 APA President Sharon Brehm, Letter to the Editor, Washington Monthly, January 9, 2007).

"A number of opportunistic commentators masquerading as scholars have continued to report on alleged abuses by mental health professionals." (2006 APA President Gerald Koocher, APA Monitor on Psychology, February, 2006)

"colleagues have expressed concerns that behavioral scientists have helped interrogators create aversive interrogation techniques as noted in press accounts (e.g., sleep deprivation, social isolation, extreme temperature changes or degrading and embarrassing interventions). Such concern ignores the fact that the use of such strategies hardly constitutes a recent development, and did not originate as the ideas of psychologists." (2006 APA President Gerald Koocher, APA Monitor on Psychology, July/August, 2006)

"In the purest sense, the mission of the BSCT is to provide forensic psychological expertise and consultation in order to assist the command in conducting safe, legal, ethical, and effective interrogation and detainee operations." (Lt. Gen. Kevin C. Kiley, Surgeon General of the Army "Final Report: Assessment of Medical Operations for OEF, GTMO, and OIF "Section 18-21, p. 13.)

"Students [military intelligence] are trained about the roles of the BSCT staff, which include:  checking the medical history of detainees with a focus on depression, delusional behaviors, manifestations of stress, and 'what are their buttons.' Students are alaso trained that BSCT staff will greatly assist them with: obtaining more accurate intelligence information, knowing how to gain better rapport with detainees, and also knowing when to push or not to push harder in the pursuit of intelligence information." (Lt. Gen. Kevin C. Kiley, Surgeon General of the Army "Final Report: Assessment of Medical Operations for OEF, GTMO, and OIF" Section 19-14, p. 19-7.)

 

What Should the APA Do Now? 

With the release of the OIG report, the APA's argument for psychologist participation, that it keeps these interrogations "safe, legal, ethical, and effective," has been definitively proven false. The APA should immediately take several steps to correct its flawed policy:

1.  APA should immediately rescind the PENS Task Force Report because it was based upon a flawed process and was written by senior DoD and intelligence personnel involved in the chain of command that oversaw the very ethical abuses it was constituted to investigate.

2.  Prior to the upcoming August Council Meeting, the APA Board of Directors and the Ethics Committee should endorse the resolution entitled, "A moratorium on psychologist involvement in interrogations at US detention centers for foreign detainees," introduced by Neil Altman and scheduled for a vote at the August Council of Representatives.  The Council of Representatives should pass this resolution.  Passing the Moratorium will immediately establish that psychologists no longer belong in the interrogation rooms where, as the OIG report documents, they helped to create the procedures for, and supervise the methods of, abusive SERE interrogations. Such a step would do much to bring the APA in line with the positions adopted some time ago by the American Psychiatric Association, the American Medical Association, and the American Nurses Association.

4. APA should modify Ethics Code Standard 1.02, which allows psychologists to disregard the APA Ethics Code when following a law or military regulation, thus removing what amounts to the "Nuremberg Defense" from the APA Ethics Code.

5.  The APA Board of Directors should commence a neutral third-party investigation of any conflicts of interest between the APA and the Executive Branch of the US Government that influenced the PENS process and the APA's position on this important issue.

It is necessary to uncover why and how the APA has steadfastly continued its commitment to its current policy despite the continually emerging evidence that psychology and psychologists have been involved in detainee abuse. An independent investigation ­ conducted by a panel of experts in international, military and US law, health professional ethics, human rights, and other related fields ­ would shed much-needed light on the APA's formulation of policy in this area. as well as structural, cultural, and other issues that contributed to the APA's policy development process.

Among the issues this investigation must examine are:

a) the numerous procedural irregularities alleged to have occurred during the PENS process;

b) the role of the military and intelligence agencies in the formulation and functioning of the PENS Task Force;

c) the reasons why the APA and its leadership have systematically ignored the accumulating evidence that psychologists participating in interrogations are contributing to torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment, rather than helping to prevent it; and

d) the overall nexus of close ties between the APA staff/leadership and the military and intelligence agencies, and whether that nexus contributed to the APA policy on interrogations, and further, to the failure of the APA to substantively investigate allegations of mass ethical abuses by psychologists in the military and intelligence services.

Contact Information:

Stephen Soldz, Director, Center for Research, Evaluation, and Program Development & Professor, Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis; University of Massachusetts, Boston. He can be reached at:

Steven Reisner is Senior Faculty and Supervisor, International Trauma Studies Program, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University; Clinical Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry, New York University Medical School:

Brad Olson is an Assistant Research Professor, at Northwestern University:

Click here to read an Open Letter from Psychologists to the President of the American Psychology Association on Torture.

Alexander Cockburn and George Monbiot debate climate change issue

Cockburn wrote a piece critical of global warming theorists. ZNet asked Monbiot to respond. 
Below is their exchange…

Alexander Cockburn is a long time journalist and co-editor of the political newsletter CounterPunch for which his article was originally written. He is author of many books.

George Monbiot is the author of many books, most recently Heat: how to stop the planet from burning (SEP, 2007). He writes a weekly column for the Guardian newspaper. 

Debating Global Warming
The precipitating essay by Cockburn… Cockburn: Global Warming Sin? April 28, 2007.  Cockburn's second article … Cockburn:  Merchants of Fear? May 13, 2007. Cockburn's third article … Cockburn: Explosion of the Fearmongers May 26, 2007. Cockburn's fourth article … Cockburn: Sources and Authorities June 9, 2007. Cockburn's fifth article … Cockburn: “Peer Review” and Global Warming June 16, 2007.	Monbiot's first Reply… Monbiot: Responding to Cockburn A ZNet article published May 3, 2007. Monbiot's second Reply… Monbiot: Request for Climate References May 13, 2007. Monbiot's third Reply… Monbiot: Cockburn & Corrupt Science May 31, 2007. Monbiot's fourth Reply… Monbiot: The Conspiracy Widens June 13, 2007.
Related items … Rancourt:  Truth or Dare? Feb 27 , 2007. Noble:  Corporate Climate Coup May 8 , 2007. Nobel: Regression on the Left May 30 , 2007.	Others respond to Cockburn… Mann: The CO2 Rise. Whodunit? May 6, 2007. Podur: Global Warming Confusions May 11, 2007. Demers: Fetters of the Old Contrarians May 24 , 2007. Frank: Global Warming Skeptics June 1 , 2007. O’Keefe: Global Warming Debate June 8, 2007.

2 from Z: Abunimah- Hamas and Hizballah and Miles- Israeli-Palestine Question

Uncertain Outcomes: The Israeli-Palestine Question

by Jim Miles

October 29, 2007

After 9/11, 2001, when I first started examining the various landscapes – physical, political, cultural, military – of events relating to that day, I had no real idea that it would lead me into an advocacy position of Palestinian rights, but everything about the American empire at the time pointed towards Israel and Palestine as the then current focal point of the majority of the Middle East, European, and Asian political problems.  I had long been familiar with American arrogance and patriotic jingoism, with its various wars of suppression supposedly in the name of protecting the free world from communism, with its corporate mentality as witnessed by the failed Multilateral Agreement on Investments as supported by the World Trade Organization and others in the group of the Washington Consensus, and with its military supremacy, its phoney antagonism to communism, but most notable in its formidable yet essentially unusable nuclear arsenal.  I had a lot of the pieces for the puzzle, but had not put them together into a coherent framework.   When that framework did materialize and I was able to see the big picture quite distinctly – yet still with puzzle pieces missing – Palestine-Israel appeared to be the central focus.  There are many other nuances in different areas of the globe, but the central feature remained Israel and the Middle East.

 

Now with events in Iraq and Afghanistan becoming predominant within the newscasts, Israel-Palestine has not seemed to be central to the picture.  Unfortunately it still is, as the Jewish lobby in America has the ear – and foremost its wallets – of many Americans in its thrall, and those same groups are now clamouring for an attack on Iran because of Iran’s alleged desire to completely destroy Israel and Israel’s self-willed fear of Iranian nuclear power.  Regardless of that global centrality, even if it were not there, the question of what will happen in Israel-Palestine remains. 

 

That basic Palestinian-Israeli question relates to what will be the ultimate kind of country that rises from the current conflict.  The ‘status quo’ has never held the same within Palestine-Israel except for the one factor of the power dominance of the Israelis in most aspects of life over the Palestinian people.  The geographical situation has changed over time:  from the initial Jewish immigrants; the rebellions against the British by both the Palestinians and the Jews; through the sudden and swift changes forced by the nakba and twenty years later the Six Day War (or the naksah); to the gradual and seemingly inexorable pace of settlement colonies in the occupied territories.  It has seen government structures within Palestine grow and develop, from a relatively unconstituted state of subjection by conquest to an acceptance of the PLO as the Palestinian representatives, the creation of the Palestinian Authority, and finally the democratic victory of Hamas denied and subverted by everyone caught out on the weak limb of their own democratic discourse.  Still the question lingers as there have been no political settlements, only vague negotiations for future status, roadmaps that lead nowhere, and ‘horizons’ that do as all horizons do by simply retreating as the searcher advances. The question remains.  What will be the outcome of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict?

 

It is obvious that the current situation will not remain that way for long.  Events within and outside the area both provide momentum towards some kind of change towards some kind of settled outcome, of which there are several, some kind, some not. 

 

Ethnic Cleansing

The worst possible scenario, the most repugnant of the choices, is that of genocide/ethnic cleansing.  While few actually advocate this, the refrain is still evident in some Israeli voices.  And while few actually advocate measures that would apply ethnic cleansing in one grand large gesture, it could be argued that most of the events that have occurred in Palestine-Israel over the past half-century are in essence a prolonged form of ethnic cleansing.  The UN “Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide” states that genocide “is a crime under international law” which involves various acts “with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group as such.”   Of the five acts listed in Article Two the first three are apparent within Palestine-Israel: “(a) Killing members of the group; b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.”   Along with genocide, Article Three finds punishable, “(b) Conspiracy to commit genocide; (c) Direct and public incitement to commit genocide” [1] Obviously there will be arguments and rationales from the Israelis about defence of their country and the fight against terrorism, but the overall presentation of information coming largely from Jewish revisionist scholarship is that if the above three parameters are applied to Israel, then they are participating in genocide/ethnic cleansing. [2]

Even before the nakba the Zionist plan included settlements placed intermittently within the Palestinian population to prevent and block a contiguous Palestinian geographic area.  The nakba provided a focus in which over five hundred Palestinian villages and towns were destroyed quickly and ‘efficiently’, if terror, murder and expulsion can be considered ‘efficient’. After the 1967 Six Day War colonial settlements became the norm again, continuing the earlier Zionist plans to split the Palestinian areas into non-functional territories surrounded by a Jewish state.  Certainly there have been incidents of killing, either in groups as with Tantura, Jenin, Sabra, and Shatilla or within the ongoing IDF interventions during either of the intifadas or as basic ongoing crime and punishment within the daily lives of the occupied Palestinian territories. 

 

To date this settlement pattern has been successful for the Jewish state as the majority of Palestinians reside in small non-contiguous areas, many cut off from their former agricultural areas, water sources, cultural centres, and employment, having to communicate on back roads threaded under and around roads preserved for Jews only.  The situation within these bantustan style cantonments very deliberately inflicts “conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part,” with the Israeli voice expressing the idea that hopefully conditions will be made so miserable that the Palestinians will “choose” to leave. This ‘status quo’ will not remain; the pressures are much too great.  Gaza is essentially an immense outdoor prison camp; the Westbank is divided up into three small areas, none of which have any control over any aspect of what could be considered state-hood, except when acting as proxies for the Israelis.

 

Guarding a series of prison-based cantonments is not a viable means of achieving peace for the region, nor of establishing a democratic state.  While the situation with Iran remains tenuous, the direction that Israel will take is also uncertain, and while I am loathe to enter into conjecture about the future, an Iranian ‘venture’ on the part of Israel or the U.S. could open up the path to more severe and impulsive genocide/ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian population. 

 

While genocide/ethnic cleansing is an illegal and morally repugnant manner to have a final outcome (especially in consideration of the Jewish trauma from their own holocaust), the path to the other two main solutions are also highly problematic, although much more favourably arguable from a moral-legal perspective.  Those two aspects, first the “two state” outcome, secondly the “democratic state for all the peoples” outcome, will require enormous efforts by both sides to make them agreeable, and while not everyone can be satisfied, the majority would hopefully improve the lot of both groups such that peace and a healthy social-cultural-political interaction could grow between the parties.  

 

Yankee go home

 

The path would be made much easier if one of the main protagonists would simply ‘butt out’.  For while there are two cultures, two identities trying to achieve a peaceful home, it is compounded by a third group that is there only for the fortune of political and geostrategic considerations – the Americans, who really do not care about the Palestinians at all and are only supportive of Israel for their grand strategy towards the Middle East.  To a lesser but still influential sector, the American Christian right simply wants the Jews to succeed and fulfill Christian prophecy so that they can come in afterwards and establish their own Christian kingdom.  A further complicating factor is the Jewish lobby, most highly recognized under the acronym AIPAC, but extending into many more organizations and operations that influence American politics.   Even with full and open ended approval of the Bush administration, the Israelis have not progressed to a Palestinian final settlement as expressed above, perhaps recognizing deep down the complete moral contradiction that would have in light of their own history; or perhaps as they recognize that the moral force behind the situation has turned against the use of more explicit violence and relocation, they hesitate to do so unless conditions become suddenly more catastrophic.  One of my favourite refrains, “yankee go home”, would not solve the situation but would facilitate - given other appropriate conditions – a more equal dialogue between the two identities. 

 

The American-Israeli relationship is a tenuous symbiotic one with the Israeli government relying heavily on American military and financial subsidies along with the political support.  American aid, mostly in the form of military aid, is generally calculated to be around the three billion dollar mark per year [3], with much of that going into military research that is then exported around the world.  This constitutes one third of American foreign aid and makes up about seven per cent of the Israeli annual budget and supports an Israeli per capita income of twenty-six thousand eight hundred dollars [4]. Going the other way, AIPAC exerts great pressure within the U.S. electoral system with its ability to target legislators with financial assistance or conversely with electoral challenges.  Arguments swirl around the two as to who has the most significant impact over the other, but regardless of that, the reality for others is of a double-headed monster threatening the countries and cultures of the Middle East.

 

I realize the likelihood of the duo self-extracting themselves from this relationship is minimal, making the chances of a successful resolution that is acceptable to both sides equally unlikely.  It would require a politician/statesman of enormous personal presence – or maybe even enormous skills at subterfuge to get around his or her compatriots – in order to separate the two.  However other peoples have resolved their problems, not perfectly, but at least beginnings towards peace and reconciliation have been made and the killings and subjugation of other peoples has been significantly diminished.

 

Israel, by it sheer military power, could readily prevail in the Middle East without U.S. support.  The Arab governments are not united behind Palestine and never have been.  Jordan has always played the geostrategic game to its advantage, never being a vociferous voice against Israeli atrocities or occupation, nor challenging or threatening in any way militarily.  Saudi Arabia appears much closer in its ties to the Americans than it to the Palestinians.  Egypt pursued and achieved peace with Israel, again with massive U.S. foreign aid ($2 billion per year) under a non-democratic government.  Lebanon is so torn apart by its own internal factions that it will never be a threat to Israel other than that Israel seems to want the territory up to the Litani River, a mainly Shiite area mixed up with Palestinian refugees, natural antagonists to Israeli desires.  Syria has never seriously threatened Israel and the recent incursion by Israeli jets, while still not fully understood as to its full strategic significance, does indicate an Israeli ability and readiness to intrude freely on their air space.  Without the U.S., Israel would be able to defend itself against any regional challengers. 

 

That would lead to the conclusion that Israel derives moral support and perhaps even moral ‘diversion’ for its actions in Palestine, while the world in general foments about the imperial hubris of the U.S. as it attacks various countries for its own strategic interests (control of oil, containment of China and Russia being foremost).  The U.S. gains a military protégé that is capable of supporting its strategic efforts under the guise of a ‘war on terror’, provides intelligence information, and may or may not accompany the U.S. on an attack on Iran.  The combination is lethal and in the short term makes a peaceful settlement in Israel-Palestine remote at the present, but the effort still needs to be put forward as to what that eventual outcome could be.

 

Two state or one state?

 

Regardless of the U.S.  role, the two identities involved have several levels of definition for what will eventually become of whatever form of co-existence is imposed or chosen.  Ethnic cleansing is still a possibility as discussed above.  The remaining solutions concern the central idea of a two state or one state solution, with the two state solution carrying within itself several possibilities.  The one state solution is obviously a singularity, but the internal workings of such a state could have many possible permutations. 

 

Canada’s CBC Radio talk show “The Current” recently hosted two authors, Ali Abunimah, a Palestinian refugee and American educated founder of The Electronic Intifada, and Akiva Eldar, a Ha’aretz diplomatic affairs correspondent. [5]  The two duelled verbally about their respective ideas, Abunimah favouring the single state, Eldar supporting the two state idea. 

 

Abunimah spoke first, arguing that a government was needed that represented the population of 11 million Arab and Jewish people, to provide “protection for all the communities” with “equal rights”.   His view of the current situation is that of a reality “intertwined and inseparable on the ground.”

 

Eldar started by saying the situation had “nothing to do with religion” but with “national and personal identity” and insisted the one state solution was “not doable”.  He continued saying that “most Palestinians I know” support him and “after one hundred years of animosity, we need a good divorce lawyer.”  “If we wait any longer,” he said, “we’ll find ourselves in a one state and it’s going to be hell.”

 

Abunimah, by far the stronger and more eloquent of the two speakers, insisted “We’re already in a one state solution, there’s a fallacy that we have two separate states or entities.  The fact that the Israeli government alone decides whether people in Gaza eat or drink, have light or darkness, is a clear indication that there is one government.”  He continued his argument along ethnic lines, saying “Right now it is a purely sectarian state, a Jewish sectarian state where just as in Northern Ireland you had a sectarian Protestant state and they’ve found there that total victory of one side or the other was impossible….The only solution was power sharing, and if you think a one state solution in Palestine-Israel is impossible, go to Belfast” where the shared government “between Sinn Fein and the Democratic Unionist Party…is the political equivalent of a Hamas-Likud coalition.”  Current events, he stated, are “leading to the destruction of both peoples.  It’s time for something new.” 

 

Eldar argued that Israeli-Arabs did not want to leave the Israeli state if given the choice to move to the occupied territories, to which Abunimah replied, “Of course Palestinian citizens of Israel don’t want to leave, why should they?   It’s their country, they were born there, but what they are agitating for is….converting Israel from an ethnic Jewish state which gives special and better rights to Jews into a democracy of all its citizens.” 

 

When Eldar started to discuss the Jewish settlers in the occupied territories, Abunimah had to interrupt to get him to agree that one had to include the settlers in Jerusalem in the total.  Eldar argued that by removing 50-70 000 of the settlers that a two state situation could be accomplished.  Abunimah’s counter argument derided both these aspects, “First of all, how can you exclude Jerusalem?  Jerusalem is at the centre of this conflict….he is saying only ten to twelve per cent, fifty to seventy thousand, would leave.  A Palestinian state with half a million settlers implanted in the middle of it is a bantustan as in the South African model and that’s why the Camp David accords failed, it wasn’t because of this myth that Arafat rejected a generous offer, it was because Palestinians understood that what they were being offered is a South African style Bantustan.”  Arguing that while Israel “is increasingly being recognized as an apartheid state…the solution…is not more partition and apartheid, it is to start to bring the people together in a situation where they have equal rights and protections.” 

 

Eldar’s response, “is a one state solution doable?  Israel is a democracy…” became entangled in both participants trying to over talk each other, with clarity returning when Eldar argued that the “right of return” was “another non-starter”.  Abunimah riposted quite vociferously, “What is a non-starter for you, it seems Akiva, with all due respect, is anything that approaches equality among all human beings regardless.”

 

The show host, Anna Maria Tremonti, closed off by asking, “What do you do?  What happens?” When the two began overtaking each other, Abunimah again grabbed the lead, talking pointedly at Eldar’s phrase that it is “just the bottom line is different.”  Abunimah responded, “The bottom line is equality and whether you can live with it and it sounds to me like you’re not ready but what we are talking about is the equality between Israel as a superpower and Gaza which Israel cuts electricity and water off from, that’s not equality.”

 

“That’s wrong,” agreed Eldar.

 

“That’s a bantustan,” Abunimah added a qualification.

 

“A one state solution is a non-starter because most of the Israelis will not accept it so we are wasting our time discussing it,” Eldar continued.

 

“Most Israelis don’t accept a two state solution….”

 

“No that’s not true…” 

 

…and the bell rang to end the round.

 

Lords of the Land

 

From this radio discussion, the weight of common sense argument and clarity of argument would have to ride in Abunimah’s favour, and it prompted me to go buy both author’s most recent books to see how their positions were represented within. 

 

 

Akiva Eldar’s most recent work, co-authored with Idith Zertal, is Lords of the Land – The War Over Israel’s Settlements in the Occupied Territories, 1967-2007 (Nation Books, New York, 2005, 2007).    Eldar takes a very negative view of the settlement process that he examines within the years indicated within the title.  He recognizes them as being illegal, with his chapter that discusses the issue “analyzes the legalization [legitimation?] of the basic illegality of the civilian Jewish presence in the occupied territories.”  Further, while arguing over the legality perspective he ironically supports Abunimah’s contention that there is already only one state, that by “Imposing Israeli judicial authority on the territories, and in thus expanding the authority of the Israeli courts beyond the boundaries of the State of Israel, the army in effect annexed the territories.”  Because the inhabitants had no other recourse, they were “coerced….to recognize, whether they wanted to or not, this legal annexation and the authority of the Israeli judiciary system over them.”  In full contradiction to what he tried to say to Abunimah on “The Current” he concludes, “This single act also rendered the state of Israel and the territories a single [emphasis added] judiciary-political entity, blurring the borders of June 4, 1967.”  The actions of the courts  “eventually afforded the highest legal and moral seal of approval to Israel’s ruthless occupation in the territories.”  At least for my way of thinking, he is in agreement with Abunimah, that there currently is only one state, “intertwined and inseparable,” legally, politically, and geographically.

 

For the most part, the book is an excellent guide to a standard political style history of the development of the settlements.  To their credit the authors find the process both legally and morally reprehensible.  Their view of the future, should the settlement patterns continue, “will lead Israel along a sure path to more disputes, more hatred, and more bereavement.”  Consistent with the interview, Israel is seen as a democratic state.  Eldar’s two state solution, whether supported by Zertal or not, supports for the Palestinians the “non-starter” of not recognizing the settlements that are effectively annexing Arab Jerusalem, and another “non-starter” the denial of the right of return to Palestinian refugees and diaspora. 

 

A two state solution has many permutations, from the prison-like to the relatively autonomous.  If the current situation were stabilized ‘unilaterally’ there would still be much division and separation, with minimal access to other areas, and minimal control of access and egress.  Some voices have considered a Jordanian partner to help ‘govern’ the bantustans, a form of governance that would be fraught with difficulty, and still provide only a nominal autonomy – without independence – and a nominal democracy – the kind imposed by an external controlling power. 

 

The wall, presented as a defence against terrorists, and as a boundary to enclose settlements within Israel, may be presented unilaterally as a new boundary between Palestinians and Israelis.  But as best described by Roger Lieberman a graduate student at Rutgers University, a unilateral declaration of the wall as a boundary creates a situation where “The economic havoc wreaked by the Wall and hundreds of checkpoints is seen by many hawkish Zionists as the most “practical” means of carrying out ethnic cleansing.” That perspective is compared to the Golan Heights where “depopulation, colonization, and annexation – is what a substantial and dangerous segment of the Israeli body politic (along with its enablers in America) has long had in mind for the West Bank.”  According to Lieberman the Golan Heights serves as a demonstration as to the efficacy of “how Israeli unilateralism effectively erased a substantial Arab community in the Levant without many people in the outside world taking notice and protesting.”[6] The wall, and a two state outcome based on it, would not provide a long-term stable structure.  The added complication of the Gaza Strip and how it would fit into the arrangement seriously compromises any two state solution at this level.

 

The most advanced and probably only truly viable acceptable form of a two state solution would be the withdrawal of the Jewish people to the green line, including the areas of East Jerusalem they have annexed and the diplomatic-legal unification with Gaza Strip.   The return of the Jordan Valley to Palestinian control would be a good part of this arrangement.  While Israel cries ‘fear’ for its security, Jordan has proven consistently that it has no true aggressive stance towards Israel and has been very accommodating in maintaining a peaceful neutrality with its Jewish neighbour. While all this in itself represents a major concession on the part of the Palestinians in consideration of the land occupied and destroyed in the nakba and its aftermath, it could present a ‘realpolitik’ outcome to the current situation.  

 

When there was a tentative agreement reached in 1993, many Palestinians thought, “that this unprecedented historic compromise, though bitter, was necessary.  Those who rejected the creation of a state limited to the Westbank and Gaza Strip…were relegated to the margins of the Palestinian movement.[7]”  That the Israeli government was only interested in investing in more time to settle more territory became apparent not too much later.

 

It is the “enablers in America” combined with the ongoing perception of all options being “non-starters” that makes this argument academic today, yet at the same time essential.  For while there are many non-starters, and many negative enablers, possibilities do exist and need to be kept up front where the moral and legal weight of the rest of the world can perhaps impose some form of saner view on the situation. 

 

One Country

 

Ali Abunimah’s book, One Country – A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse is consistent with his arguments on “The Current”.  Before discussing the one state outcome, he provides a well-written precise of events leading from the nakba to the present.  It is readily accessible, combining anecdotal material with a clearly delineated sequence of events.  Throughout it all he remains consistent with his message of democratic and human rights principles for all people.  There is not really too much force behind his arguments until later in the book:  his arguments are rational and academically sound, but seem to be just that, academic in the face of the real situation on the ground.  But then he enters his discussion on South African apartheid and quickly demonstrates that this is more than purely an academic argument, that if the situation in South Africa - very similar to the one in Israel, from the warring occupiers fighting against the British and then trying to dominate and exclude the indigenous population – can be changed so dramatically, then there is a very real possibility that the same could happen in Israel-Palestine. 

 

Abunimah begins this section with several recognizable arguments: first that the Africans and Arabs are seen as uncivilized peoples whose resistance to domination is irrational and motivated by hatred (the White Man’s Burden again); secondly, the Zionist and Afrikaners  “responded to resistance” by “rhetorically reversing the colonial relationship, claiming that they…were the true indigenous people; and that neither the Afrikaner nor Zionist would have gained control “without the benefit of British power, which crushed and deligitimized indigenous resistance on their behalf.” 

 

Abunimah defines two points of time in which the academic argument could become a viable reality.  First is the “hope held out by South Africa…that when Israelis and Palestinians finally do conclude that separation is unachievable, there is an example of an alternative to perpetual conflict.”   Similarly, when “Israelis and Palestinians commit themselves to full equality, there is no rationale for separate states.”  Abunimah outlines several points as to how the unified government could sort out its binational, democratic, equal rights self.  Hamas, much to the consternation of many, receives support as being the best group to lead any Palestinian identity within a unified state partly as they “have shown little inclination to implement far-reaching social changes along religious lines,” and have genuinely acted at the democratic people’s level, “while remaining remarkably open to peaceful coexistence with Israelis.” 

 

The one state solution, while enviable as presented in the manner done by Abunimah, is far from being a timely proposal.  As with South Africa, the two combatants would need to arrive at similar positions of recognizing that ongoing violence will do neither side any good.   There are obviously huge obstacles, ranging from American involvement to the current insistence on the part of the Israelis that the Palestinians are terrorists, their state is fully democratic, and that their conquest of the land is a god given right.   It will take some time, some significant about face in political ideology, to realize any stable outcome within Palestine-Israel.  

 

There is a way forward

 

Current prospects are dim for any actual settled, peaceful outcome in which human rights and democracy are basic to whatever the final arrangement would be.  Still in a state of tension, magnified by American threats and occupations elsewhere in the Middle East, no settlement is likely to be found soon.  There are three over-riding possible outcomes to the Israeli-Palestine problem: bantustan style cantonments; a two state solution of some kind; or a one state solution of some form. 

 

The status quo may deteriorate further into the unacceptable and repugnant form of prison-like cantonments.  There may be an imposed ‘agreement’ based on the current wall outlines and the current settlement patterns in the West Bank and Jerusalem, with Gaza complicating that arrangement.  How does one reintegrate a ‘hostile entity’ of ones own creation into a Palestinian ‘autonomous’ territory?  A withdrawal to the Green Line would more than likely prove acceptable to the majority of Palestinians, reluctantly, bitterly, perhaps necessary.

 

The one state solution, from an academic human rights – democratic argument is most strongly and effectively argued by Abunimah and has the examples of Ireland (as in the radio discussion) and South Africa (as well-defined in his book) to work with.  Obviously, from the way this presentation is worded, I, at the moment, favour Abunimah’s one state solution as the most significant humanitarian, egalitarian, and democratic manner into which the situation would hopefully evolve.  It will not be an easy road to follow for either side as both have their internal factions to deal with as well as having external geopolitical interests imposing themselves upon the area.  There are also many, many areas – religion, right of return for both groups, education, social structures and support, national and regional governance to name a few - that would need significant discussion and cooperation to facilitate a one state rapprochement.  While chances at the moment seem highly improbable, the goal, the vision, the possibility needs to be maintained, for its own end, and also to guard against the bleak view of seeing only a prison landscape.  A better world is possible and while it may be well over the horizon at the moment, the hope for it needs to be maintained. 

 

 

[1] Adopted by Resolution 260 (III) A of the United Nations General Assembly on 9 December 1948.  http://www.un.org/Depts/dpa/prev_genocide/convention.htm

 

[2] Rather than footnote all this information, the sources I have read include the following books - see among others:

 

·        Abunimah, Ali.  One Country

·        Baroud, Ramzy.  The Second Palestinian Intifada

·        Bucaille, Laetitia.  Growing up Palestinian

·        Cook, Jonathan. Blood and Religion

·        Derek, Gregory.  The Colonial Present

·        Eldar, Akiva and Zertal, Idith.  Lords of the Land

·        Haddad, Toufic and Honig-Parnass. Tikva.  Between the Lines

·        Mishal, Shaul and Sela, Avraham. The Palestinian Hamas

·        Pappe, Ilan.  The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine

·        Pappe, Ilan.  A History of Modern Palestine, Second Edition

·        Pappe, Ilan, Ed.  The Israel/Palestine Question

·        Rabkin, Yakov M.  A Threat From Within

·        Reinhart, Tanya.  Israel/Palestine

·        Reinhart, Tanya.  The Road Map to Nowhere.

·        Simons, Geoff.  The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine

·        Sorkin, Michael, Ed.  Against the Wall

 

Many internet sites are also sources of information for anyone wishing to research more information on the Israel-Palestine question. 

 

[3] Many web sources support this figure while providing a breakdown of the details, including:

 

·        Zunes,  Stephen.  “The Strategic Functions of U.S. Aid to Israel.” http://www.wrmea.com/html/us_aid_to_israel.htm

·        Francis, David R. “Economist Tallies Selling Cost of Israel to US.” www.csmonitor.com/2002/1209/p16s01.html

·        de Rooij Paul. “U.S. Aid to Israel – Feeding the Cuckoo.” Counterpunch, November 16, 2002. http://www.counterpunch.org/rooij1116.html

·        Frida Berrigan and William D Hartung.  “Israel's star-spangled arsenal”, Asia Times Online, July 28, 2006.  http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HG28Ak03.html

 

[4] 18 October, 2007.  https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/is.html#Econ

 

[5] “One-State for Israel-Palestine,” September 24, 2007. http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/2007/200709/20070924.html

 

[6] Lieberman, Roger.  “Annapolis and the Mandate of Heaven”.  Palestine Chronicle, October 24, 2007. http://www.palestinechronicle.com/story-10240735218.htm

 

[7] Abunimah, Ali.  One Country – A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse.  Metropolitan Books, Henry Holt and Company.  New York, 2006. p. 11-12.

 

Read more...

Indian ‘slave’ children found making low-cost clothes destined for Gap (by Dan McDougall ZNET)

Child workers, some as young as 10, have been found working in a textile factory in conditions close to slavery to produce clothes that appear destined for Gap Kids, one of the most successful arms of the high street giant.

Speaking to The Observer, the children described long hours of unwaged work, as well as threats and beatings.

 

Gap said it was unaware that clothing intended for the Christmas market had been improperly subcontracted to a sweatshop using child labour. It announced it had withdrawn the garments involved while it investigated breaches of the ethical code imposed by it three years ago.

 

The discovery of the children working in filthy conditions in the Shahpur Jat area of Delhi has renewed concerns about the outsourcing by large retail chains of their garment production to India, recognised by the United Nations as the world's capital for child labour.

 

According to one estimate, more than 20 per cent of India's economy is dependent on children, the equivalent of 55 million youngsters under 14.

 

The Observer discovered the children in a filthy sweatshop working on piles of beaded children's blouses marked with serial numbers that Gap admitted corresponded with its own inventory. The company has pledged to convene a meeting of its Indian suppliers as well as withdrawing tens of thousands of the embroidered girl's blouses from the market, before they reach the stores. The hand-stitched tops, which would have been sold for about £20, were destined for shelves in America and Europe in the next seven days in time to be sold to Christmas shoppers.

 

With endorsements from celebrities including Madonna, Lenny Kravitz and Sex and the City star Sarah Jessica Parker, Gap has become one of the most successful and iconic brands in fashion. Last year the firm embarked on a huge poster and TV campaign surrounding Product Red, a charitable trust for Africa founded by the U2 lead singer Bono.

 

Despite its charitable activities, Gap has been criticised for outsourcing large contracts to the developing world. In 2004, when it launched its social audit, it admitted that forced labour, child labour, wages below the minimum wage, physical punishment and coercion were among abuses it had found at some factories producing garments for it. It added that it had terminated contracts with 136 suppliers as a consequence.

 

In the past year Gap has severed contracts with a further 23 suppliers for workplace abuses.

 

Gap said in a statement from its headquarters in San Francisco: 'We firmly believe that under no circumstances is it acceptable for children to produce or work on garments. These allegations are deeply upsetting and we take this situation very seriously. All of our suppliers and their subcontractors are required to guarantee that they will not use child labour to produce garments. In this situation, it's clear one of our vendors violated this agreement and a full investigation is under way.'

 

Professor Sheotaj Singh, co-founder of the DSV, or Dayanand Shilpa Vidyalaya, a Delhi-based rehabilitation centre and school for rescued child workers, said he believed that as long as cut-price embroidered goods were sold in stores across Britain, America, continental Europe and elsewhere in the West, there would be a problem with unscrupulous subcontractors using children.

 

'It is obvious what the attraction is here for Western conglomerates,' he told The Observer. 'The key thing India has to offer the global economy is some of the world's cheapest labour, and this is the saddest thing of all the horrors that arise from Delhi's 15,000 inadequately regulated garment factories, some of which are among the worst sweatshops ever to taint the human conscience.

 

'Consumers in the West should not only be demanding answers from retailers as to how goods are produced but looking deep within themselves at how they spend their money.'

Putting the ‘Israel Lobby’ in Perspective (Alternet)

John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt's 82-page paper "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy" has entered the canon of contemporary political culture in the United States. So much, positive and negative, has been written about the March 2006 essay that the phrase "the Mearsheimer-Walt argument" is now shorthand for the idea that pro-Israel advocates exert a heavy—and malign—influence upon the formulation of U.S. Middle East policy. To veteran students of Middle East affairs, this idea is hardly new, of course. But the fact that two top international relations scholars affiliated with the University of Chicago and Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, respectively, have espoused this analysis has lent it unprecedented currency. Farrar, Straus and Giroux will publish a book-length version of the professors' argument in late 2007. Along with President Jimmy Carter's volume Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, "The Israel Lobby" (as the paper is commonly known) has opened up a debate that many members of the lobby have long sought to suppress.

Like Carter, Mearsheimer and Walt have faced ugly and unsubstantiated allegations of racism for drawing attention to the imbalance in U.S. Middle East policy and the lobby's clout. Walt's Harvard colleague, Alan Dershowitz, labeled them "bigots" and "liars," and the Anti-Defamation League accused them of promulgating "a classical conspiratorial anti-Semitic analysis invoking the canards of Jewish power and Jewish control." Reams of angry newsprint later, these kneejerk cries of anti-Semitism have not registered and for good reason. Plainly, a lobby that is universally recognized by Washington insiders—and even promotes itself—as one of the few most powerful in the country is influential. Saying so cannot be inherently anti-Semitic.

The related allegation of sloppy research is also silly. In December 2006, Mearsheimer and Walt released a point-by-point rebuttal, perhaps not coincidentally also 82 pages long, of the charges of poor scholarship leveled by Benny Morris, Martin Kramer and others. Almost every charge was a misreading of the original paper. Nor is "The Israel Lobby" "piss-poor, monocausal social science," as political scientist and blogger Daniel Drezner would have it. On the contrary, the text is full of caveats and qualifiers.

The essential flaw in the Mearsheimer-Walt argument is not, as many critics have said, the authors' exaggeration of the pro-Israel lobby's power, for although the authors do this in some instances, the thrust of their argument remains sound. It is not even their inattention to the other factors that have historically defined the U.S. interest in the Middle East for the bipartisan foreign policy establishment. Rather, the most serious fault lies in the professors' conclusion—soothing in this day and age—that U.S. Middle East policy would become "more temperate" were the influence of the Israel lobby to be curtailed. This conclusion is undercut by the remarkable continuities in U.S. Middle East policy since the Truman administration, including in times when the pro-Israel lobby was weak. And other factors—chiefly the drive for hegemony in the Persian Gulf—have also embroiled the United States in plenty of trouble.

The Cold War prism

Mearsheimer and Walt issue a broad indictment of their subject. "No lobby," they write, "has managed to divert U.S. foreign policy as far from what the American national interest would otherwise suggest, while simultaneously convincing Americans that U.S. and Israeli interests are essentially identical." Has the lobby's influence always explained U.S. support for Israel? This question is crucial because it helps to define the extent to which that influence explains U.S. policy toward Israel today.

From the day in 1948 that President Harry Truman announced his support for the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine, Israel has held a special place in the hearts and minds of many Americans, Jewish and otherwise. The fledgling state was more European than Middle Eastern in orientation, providing common cultural ground. The mythos surrounding the creation of Israel and the sympathy generated by the horrifying tragedy of the Holocaust played major roles in shaping popular American sympathy in the 1960s and 1970s, when the "special relationship" between Israel and the United States was cemented. Christians, including many African-Americans, responded warmly to the narrative wherein a plucky people, fleeing horrific persecution and age-old prejudice, made the desert bloom in the Holy Land and stoutly defended their new polity against all comers.

On the official level, Israel found its early sources of support elsewhere, while working tirelessly to build support in the United States. After Israel's decisive victory over neighboring Arab states in 1967, the United States committed itself more and more to what might be called "the Israel track." The reason, however, was neither a domestic lobby nor a sentimental soft spot among policymakers for the Jewish state. The reason was that policymakers saw the Middle East through the prism of the Cold War.

Concern about Soviet backing for Egypt had led Lyndon Johnson, while a congressman, to oppose President Dwight Eisenhower's determination to force Israel to pull out of the Sinai and away from the Suez Canal in 1956, without some move toward changing the status quo. The outcome of the 1967 war, entailing the humiliation of Soviet-allied Egypt and Syria, strengthened President Johnson's conviction that Israel was a useful Cold War asset. After the war, an anonymous State Department official told the press: "Israel has probably done more for the United States in the Middle East in relation to money and effort than any of our so-called allies elsewhere around the globe since the end of the Second World War. In the Far East we can get almost no one to help us in Vietnam. Here the Israelis won the war singlehandedly, have taken us off the hook and have served our interests as well as theirs.” Aspiring chief executive Richard Nixon—also not known for philo-Semitism—supported Israel vigorously on the 1968 campaign trail, pursuant to a visit to Israel the previous June, when he met wounded Egyptian soldiers in an Israeli hospital. There he wrote down an Egyptian tank commander's complaint: "Russia is to blame. They furnished the arms. We did the dying."

 

CONTINUE TO PAGES 2-5 

Weapons Industry Dumps Republicans, Backs Hillary (from Alternet)

he U.S. arms industry is backing Hillary Clinton for President and has all but abandoned its traditional allies in the Republican party. Mrs Clinton has also emerged as Wall Street's favourite. Investment bankers have opened their wallets in unprecedented numbers for the New York senator over the past three months and, in the process, dumped their earlier favourite, Barack Obama.

Mrs. Clinton's wooing of the defence industry is all the more remarkable given the frosty relations between Bill Clinton and the military during his presidency. An analysis of campaign contributions shows senior defence industry employees are pouring money into her war chest in the belief that their generosity will be repaid many times over with future defence contracts.

Employees of the top five U.S. arms manufacturers—Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop-Grumman, General Dynamics and Raytheon—gave Democratic presidential candidates $103,900, with only $86,800 going to the Republicans. "The contributions clearly suggest the arms industry has reached the conclusion that Democratic prospects for 2008 are very good indeed," said Thomas Edsall, an academic at Columbia University in New York.

Republican administrations are by tradition much stronger supporters of U.S. armaments programmes and Pentagon spending plans than Democratic governments. Relations between the arms industry and Bill Clinton soured when he slimmed down the military after the end of the Cold War. His wife, however, has been careful not to make the same mistake.

After her election to the Senate, she became the first New York senator on the armed services committee, where she revealed her hawkish tendencies by supporting the invasion of Iraq. Although she now favours a withdrawal of U.S. troops, her position on Iran is among the most warlike of all the candidates—Democrat or Republican.

This week, she said that, if elected president, she would not rule out military strikes to destroy Tehran's nuclear weapons facilities. While on the armed services committee, Mrs. Clinton has befriended key generals and has won the endorsement of General Wesley Clarke, who ran Nato's war in Kosovo. A former presidential candidate himself, he is spoken of as a potential vice-presidential running mate.

Mrs. Clinton has been a regular visitor to Iraq and Afghanistan and is careful to focus her criticisms of the Iraq war on President Bush, rather than the military. The arms industry has duly taken note.

So far, Mrs. Clinton has received $52,600 in contributions from individual arms industry employees. That is more than half the sum given to all Democrats and 60 percent of the total going to Republican candidates. Election fundraising laws ban individuals from donating more than $4,600 but contributions are often "bundled" to obtain influence over a candidate.

The arms industry has even deserted the biggest supporter of the Iraq war, Senator John McCain, who is also a member of the armed services committee and a decorated Vietnam War veteran. He has been only $19,200. Weapons-makers are equally unimpressed by the former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani. Despite a campaign built largely around the need for an aggressive U.S. military and a determination to stay the course in Iraq, he is behind Mrs Clinton in the affections of arms executives. Mr. Giuliani may be suffering because of his strong association with the failed policies of President Bush and the fact he is he is known as a social liberal.

Mrs. Clinton's closest competitor in raising cash from the arms industry is the former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, who raised just $32,000.

"Arms industry profits are so heavily dependent on government contracts that companies in this field want to be sure they do not have hostile relations with the White House," added Mr Edsall.

The industry's strong support for Mrs. Clinton indicates that she is their firm favourite to win the Democratic nomination in the spring and the presidential election in November 2008. In the last presidential race, George Bush raised more than $800,000—twice the sum collected by his Democratic rival John Kerry.

Mr. Edsall's analysis of the figures reveals that, over the past 10 years, the defence industry has favoured Republicans over Democrats by a 3-2 margin, making Mrs. Clinton's position even more remarkable.

 

 

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Latest News and Announcements

Oct 23

Sweatshops and Article 9 Press Conference The sweatshops info is for my students.  The press conference is about preserving article 9, which is under attack from the right wing in Japan as well as the U.S.  (While the right wing pretends it is rejecting a U.S. imposed constitution, in fact it is carrying out U.S. demands that it support U.S. wars around the world.

Sweatshops…

Article 9 Press Conference

自主企画」を広く募集します♪♪～共通テーマ「私たちは、９条の考え方�

All opinions of those of the original posters. 

スウェットショップからの問題提起 -

 

Tuesday, October 09, 2007

Recent Articles on Japan and World Issues

 

The most recent stories include the following:
Tokyo Spring: Supporting the teachers opposing the singing of Kimigayo in schools
Japan faces hunger pains as poor slip through net
郵政民営化の本質としてのグローバリズムは日本人を幸福にするか？！
 
110,000 Okinawans demand textbooks depict historical facts, other stories (Japan Press Service)

BURMA: With Technology as Weapon, Citizens Become Reporters

ビルマ（ミャンマー） : 【緊急行動】拷問または虐待の恐れ/健康への懸念

Homeless Support Festa: The 4th Nagai Park Dairin Festival

第4回 長居公園 大輪祭り ご案内 Homeless Support Festival

Our Planet TV (アワー・プラネット・ティービー)

エドワード・サイード、ノーム・チョムスキー、Middle　East…(中野真紀子)
From translator Nakano Makiko on Edward Said. Noam Chomsky  and the Middle East. See "Democrcy Now Japan" below, of which Nakano san is one of the key members.

イラク分割統治という幻想 ( 益岡賢のページ)
From Masuoka Ken, above are translations of  articles on Iraq. Below are translations of his on the U.S. as a sponsor of terrorism, followed by translations of articles by John Pilger , Noam Chomsky, and others. After that, translations of articles on the Middle East. East Timor, Afghanistan…
テロリズムについて、米国について

ジョン・ピルジャーの文章、ノーム・チョムスキー

アフガニスタン、パレスチナ／イスラエル、東チモール・インドネシア

田中宇の国際ニュース解説: 世界はどう動いているか
"Tanaka News"

デモクラシー・ナウ！/Democracy Now! JAPAN (Oct 5) 
Democracy Now Japan (translations of transcripts as well as sub-titled videos)

Burma People’s Movement/Technology

戦争を放棄した 日本国憲法第９条を世界に広げよう:  アレン・ネルソン氏

From Common Dreams  

Jeremy Scahill: The Scandal of Blackwater; Cindy Sheehan: Imagine Peace; Helen Thomas: The Democrats Who Enable Bush…

Between the Lines Internet Radio (like Democracy Now)
Chervron's Investments in Burma

Announcement:  “The Iraq Crisis as a Global Crisis” in Harajuku

Top 25 Censored Stories 

From CounterPunch (Recent Articles)
  Dick Cheney, a Eulogy; Uri Avnery:The Power of the Israel Lobby…

Znet: Mideast, Iraq, Iran, Race and Gender, more: latest articles

Japan Focus latest articles: Nationalism, Militarizing Japan, Working Poor….

 September stories included the following:

• 小出裕章氏のインタビュー
• Recent articles from JAPAN FOCUS in English
• 10/5 International Day Of Action To Defend Anti-War Japanese Teachers
• インタビューDavid Rovics in 長崎 (ourplanet-TV)
• 厚 生労働省「住居喪失不安定就労者等の実態に関する調査」にお ける、大阪での調査について Osaka Homeless Support Groups criticize Ministry of Labor's 'Net Cafe Refugee' Survey
• G8サミット: G8 Summmit alternative media prep meeting (Yutaka Tsuchiya: Video-Act)

An Engaged Political Culture in Venezuela
Skills Building for Social Change : Sept 30
Commmon Dreams News: War in Iran? Many more reports and commentaries

September 11, 1973:  What happened

Calendar Sept- Nov
 
 August stories:
Japan and World Issues

 

• Media: なにがわるい？
• Media and World Social Issues in English
• HIV SCANDAL/Kawada Ryuhei
• Asian News and Japanese Social Problems in English
• Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Earthquake・【声明 ： 東京電力柏崎刈羽原子力発電所の閉鎖を
• Mad Cow Disease: “The Report Blocked by the Japanese Government
• Japanese Kenpo, Articles from English to Japanese, etc.
• Japan Press Service
• Tokyo Spring Film and Discussion
• Gyaku Japan
• Some more news sources
• ニューズ,etc: Resources in Japanese and English (News and Activism)

For example, in the above you will find some of these:

AIDS Scandal 薬害エイズ

JaNP+［日本HIV陽性者ネットワーク・ジャンププラス］

第16回国際エイズ会議（トロント）（English）

エイズ予防情報ネット

第20回 日本エイズ学会 学術集会・総会

ぷれいす東京

Yahoo! JAPAN - レッドリボンキャンペーン2005

JaNP+［日本HIV陽性者ネットワーク・ジャンププラス］

エイズ予防情報ネット

第16回国際エイズ会議（トロント）（English）

第20回 日本エイズ学会 学術集会・総会

ぷれいす東京

Yahoo! JAPAN - レッドリボンキャンペーン2005

Media: なにがわるい？

Commentary :: Peace and War・平和と戦争

「敗戦６０周年に寄せて　憲法９条に向けたアピール」

by Brian Covert

ブライアン・コバート（フリージャーナリスト）が第２次世界大戦終結６０周年の２００５年８月１５日、日本国憲法第９条の戦争放棄条項に沿った平和のための国際行動を求めたアピール。インターネット上の米国の「インディペンデント メディア センター」に掲載した。
次のサイトでも見られます。　(２００７年７月更新)　（English article on Article 9 and the 60th anniversary of the war)

Eng

Japanese

 

• アスベスト
• 医療と患者の権利
• 外国人の権利
• 企業と人権
• 刑法・刑事手続
• 国際人権
• 個人情報保護・
  プライバシー
• 情報公開・知る権利
• 情報通信・ＩＴ
• 女性の権利
• 精神障害者の権利
• 表現の自由・
  マスメディア
• 予防接種被害
• その他の人権

田中 宇の

国際ニュース解説

益岡賢のページ:

コ ロンビア

イラク

アフガニスタン

パレスチナ

イスラエル
東 チモール・

インドネシア

アメリカ合州国

ラ テン・アメリカ／カリブ

Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Earthquake・【声明 ： 東京電力柏崎刈羽原子力発電所の閉鎖を

The Japanese government tried to blame the foreign media for scaring people, but the reality is that it is protecting the profits of big business: " This was not the biggest earthquake that could possibly hit Japan. This one was just a warning. There were enough failures this time to enable us to imagine what might happen if a bigger earthquake struck. In particular, we saw how the confusion caused by the earthquake led to errors and lapses of judgment. We saw equipment failures which in themselves might be manageable, but which, when compounded with the many other failures that earthquakes inevitably cause, could have been catastrophic. Unfortunately, there is no indication that the government will prioritize safety over the narrow economic interests of the power companies." MORE 【声明 ： 東京電力柏崎刈羽原子力発電所の閉鎖を訴える】 More in Japanese

Asano KenIchi's page
Well known journalist and professor
One of the links on his page is this, about the 'criminal activity' of Bush and
Koizumi in Iraq:

Japanese media and Iraq
Asano article

What is wrong with the Japanese media
Another by Asano

Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting
Well-known US site

Media Lens
Correcting for the distorted lens of the corporate media

Who owns the media?

Who owns it (2)

Between the Lines Internet Radio (like Democracy Now)

THIS WEEK'S PROGRAM

 

• Chevron, Other Oil Firms Back
  Brutal Burmese Junta with
  Multi-Million Dollar Investments
  For story text and audio, Click here!

   

• Costa Rican Opponents of CAFTA
  Rally to Defeat Trade Pact
  For story text and audio, Click here!

   

• Union Dissenters Say No
  to UAW-GM Agreement
  For story text and audio, Click here!

   

• Underreported News Summary
  from Around the World
  For full summary, Click here!

Announcement:  “The Iraq Crisis as a Global Crisis” in Harajuku

Saturday November 3, 1:00-3:00pm
"The Iraq Crisis as a Global Crisis"
A discussion over brunch with Middle East expert and author
Professor Juan Cole
 * still looking for a translator so that we can have Japanese consecutively.

Location: Fujimama's in Harajukuhttp://www.fujimamas.com/contact-map.html
Cost - 4000 yen (2000 yen for students with a valid ID),
includes brunch and a 1000 yen donation to both a PSC supporting organization and DAJ's GOTV effort.
* This event is open to all but limited to the first 60 registrants  
To join as a participant, please contact //‘;l[1]=’a’;l[2]=’/’;l[3]=’<';l[4]=' 109';l[5]=' 111';l[6]=' 99';l[7]=' 46';l[8]=' 115';l[9]=' 97';l[10]=' 109';l[11]=' 97';l[12]=' 109';l[13]=' 105';l[14]=' 106';l[15]=' 117';l[16]=' 102';l[17]=' 64';l[18]=' 110';l[19]=' 101';l[20]=' 114';l[21]=' 117';l[22]=' 97';l[23]=' 108';l[24]='>‘;l[25]=’\“‘;l[26]=’ 109’;l[27]=’ 111’;l[28]=’ 99’;l[29]=’ 46’;l[30]=’ 115’;l[31]=’ 97’;l[32]=’ 109’;l[33]=’ 97’;l[34]=’ 109’;l[35]=’ 105’;l[36]=’ 106’;l[37]=’ 117’;l[38]=’ 102’;l[39]=’ 64’;l[40]=’ 110’;l[41]=’ 101’;l[42]=’ 114’;l[43]=’ 117’;l[44]=’ 97’;l[45]=’ 108’;l[46]=’:’;l[47]=’o’;l[48]=’t’;l[49]=’l’;l[50]=’i’;l[51]=’a’;l[52]=’m’;l[53]=’\“‘;l[54]=’=’;l[55]=’f’;l[56]=’e’;l[57]=’r’;l[58]=’h’;l[59]=’a ‘;l[60]=’<'; for (var i = l.length-1; i >= 0; i=i-1){ if (l.substring(0, 1) == ‘ ‘) document.write("&#"+unescape(l.substring(1))+";"); else document.write(unescape(l)); } //]]>

Printable Version

Top 25 Censored Stories

 

From CounterPunch (Recent Articles)

Alexander Cockburn
A Rainbow Over a Graveyard

 

October 5, 2007

Andy Worthington
The Anonymous Victims of Guantánamo

David Macaray
De-Skilling America's Labor Force

Lee Sustar
The Democrats and Iran: Can They Sink Any Lower?

Dan La Botz
Cincinnati Six Years After the Killings and the Riots

Aaron Hess
Hate Week Comes to Campus

William A. Cook
Unmasking AIPAC

Website of the Day
Range of Memory

 

October 4, 2007

Uri Avnery
The Power of the Israel Lobby

Dave Marsh
Dick Cheney, a Eulogy

Valerio Volpi
How Italy Became a Launching Pad for the US Military

Cecilie Surasky
Dissenting at Your Own Risk

Dave Lindorff
Remaking Iraq, as Vietnam

Norman Solomon
Sputnik, 50 Years Later

Laura Carlsen
Costa Rica and CAFTA: Memo Reveals Manipulation Scheme

Walter Brasch
When Compassion Fails: Bush and the Children's Health Act

Ben Terrall
Haitian Human Rights Advocate Kidnapped

William S. Lind
Beyond the OODA Loop

Website of the Day
Musicians in Handcuffs

 

October 3, 2007

Vijay Prashad
Gang of Four

Anita Sinha
Black Ties and Bulldozers in New Orleans

Winslow T. Wheeler
Posturing at the Petraeus Hearings: Where was the Oversight?

Sharon Smith
The Kucinich Quandary

Jeff Leys
Our Bonhoeffer Moment

Sen.  Russ Feingold
We Must End This Tragedy

Mohamad Bazzi
Playing Into the Hands of Ahmadinejad

Brenda Norrell
A Cry from the Top of the World

Robert Weissman
No Sex, Still a Scandal at the IMF

Website of the Day
Jena by Mellencamp

 

October 2, 2007

Ibrahim Warde
Logical Lies About Bin Laden's Wealth

Gary Leupp
"I Hate All Iranians": Frank Talk from a Defense Dept.  Official

David Macaray
The Hunt for a Blue November: In Pursuit of the Labor Vote

Conn Hallinan
Religion and Foreign Policy

John Ross
The Great American Chess Match

Alan Farago
Ripping Off Miami's Poor

Sonja Karkar
The Right to Exist: States or People?

Niranjan Ramakrishnan
The Meteor and the Mahatma

Website of the Day
Grandin on Che's Legacy

 

October 1, 2007

Al Giordano
The Clinton Campaign's Reckless Race for Big Money Donors

Paul Craig Roberts
From Burma to Iraq: Hypocrisy Rules the West

Moshe Adler
The Crimes of Microsoft

Ingmar Lee
My Kayak Journey Down the Wild Pacific Coast

John V. Walsh
Ahmadinejad is Not My Enemy

Norman Solomon
Political Science and Truth of Consequences

Roger Burbach
Historic Victory in Ecuador for the Left

Ramzy Baroud
The Politics of Assassination

Stephen Lendman
The Maestro of Misery: Greenspan's Dark Legacy

Susie Day
Honey, I Shrank the Military!

Website of the Day
Letters from Fort Lewis Brig

 

September 29 / 30, 2007

Alexander Cockburn
Clinton Time: Do We Set Our Clocks Forward or Back?

Uri Avnery
So What About Iran?

Andrew Cockburn
Iraq's WMD Myth: Why Clinton is Culpable

Jeffrey St. Clair
Through the Gates of Lodore

Wajahat Ali
The Good, the Bad and the Iraqi

Andy Worthington
The Curse of the Military Commissions

Don Santina
Ethnic Cleansing in San Francisco

Ralph Nader
Free Lunches, for Corporations!

Fred Gardner
The Man Behind the MoveOn Ad

Seth Sandronsky
The US Economy Since 1980

Gideon Levy
The Children of 5767

William S. Lind
A Ticking Bomb

Reza Fiyouzat
An Anti-Imperialist Case Against a Nuclear Iran

Richard Rhames
Wag the Tail, Frag the Dog

David Michael Green
Buyer's Remorse: Their Purchase, Our Regret

Zach Mason
Hate and Hope in Herndon

Poets' Basement
Gibbons, Ali, Davies and Suss

Website of the Weekend
Domestic Crusaders

 

 

September 28, 2007

Kathleen and Bill Christison
The Teflon Alliance with Israel

Roberto J. González /
David H. Price
When Anthropologists Become Counter-Insurgents

Saul Landau
September, the Cruelest Month in Chile

Tom Clifford
Burma by the Numbers

Christopher Brauchli
Of Toxic Almonds and Bad Beef

Martha Rosenberg
Spinning Suicide Statistics

Dave Zirin
Soldier in Winter: John Carlos Speaks Out on the Jena 6

Laray Polk
Bush Library or Lockbox?

Binoy Kampmark
When Reagan Turned Brown

James McEnteer
Hell, Columbia: an Academic Hotshot Introduces a Petty Tyrant

Website of the Day
Concerned Anthropologists

 

Sunday, October 07, 2007

Znet: Mideast, Iraq, Iran, Race and Gender, more: latest articles

Mideast
Hedges: Israel's Toy Soldiers
Surasky: Dissent at Own Risk
Baroud: Lebanon and Syria
Godfrey-Goldstein: Tide is Turning

Iraq   
 Engelhardt: We Count
Jacobs: Beyond the Green Zone
Hayden: Secret Iraqi Negotiations
Scahill: Blackwater Bloodbath

Iran
Avnery: What About Iran?
Kumar: Iranian Women
Abrahamian: Israel, Iran, & US Dealings
Goodman: Consensus Not Conquest

Venezuela
Hands Off / (video, 1 hr+)
No Volveran / (video 1 hr +)
Golinger Interviews Chomsky
Kaufman: Chavez Biography Review
Wilpert: Changing Venezuela Intro
Wilpert: Changing Venezuela Interview

Latin America
Fernandes: Gender & Pink Tide
Cournoyer:  Sandinista Government
James: Morales Wins Hearts and Minds
Emersberger: COHA gets an "F"

Africa
Funk: Divestment from Darfur
Ngugi: Thomas Sankara Lives!
Gowans: Darfur Intervention
Berrigan: Military Frontier Africa

Asia
Mian: US-India Nuclear Deal
Raina: Gutter Paved With Gold
Goodman: Burma & Chevron
Tanaka: Bombing Japan

Terror/Foreign Pol.
Bricmont: War in the Name of Peace
Carlyle: Afghanistan Six Years On
Hallinan: Errant Nukes, Syrian Mystery
Joya: Germany Interview

Global Economics
Bello: Post-Washington Dissensus
Castro: Strange Deaths & Aggression
Lendman: Shock Doctrine Review
Miles: Review of Stiglitz

 

Europe
[ Eurotopia ]
Castro: Aznar’s Silence
Grossman: Greens of Germany
Seabrook: Rich Man's World

U.S.
Miles: American Empire & God
Winter: Proportional Representation
Street: Justifying Hiroshima
Culture / Race
Dixon: Jena Baby Steps
Bervera: Justice Jena Demands
Gender / Sexuality
Ireland: Gay Pride
Gandy: Supreme Court Ruling
Economics / Class
Lendman: "Capitalism and Freedom"
Baker: Greenspan's Bubbles
More U.S....

Labor
Cutler: UAW & GM
Levine: Union-busting Confidential
Ezorsky: Freedom in Workplace?
Williams: United Workers Vigilant

Race / Gender  
Fletcher: Obama, Black America & War
Paretsky: Planned Parenthood's Fight
Ginty: Black Health Woes
Jensen: End of Masculinity

Immigration
Bacon: Immigration Raids Plan
Okie: Immigrants & Health Care
Bacon:  Immigrant Rights
Walia: Increasing Precarity

Ecology/Climate/Oil
Reyes: Agro-Fooling Ourselves
Loeb: Wild Weather
Susskind: Hurricane Felix
Frank: Save the Rockies

Science/Health/Ed
Ehrenreich:  Health Insurance
Schulte: Hillary on Health Care
Jacobs:  Jena to College Park
Kozol: Why I Fast

 

Parecon Site
[ Parecon / Realizing Hope
UK Project for a Parsoc
Chicago Parecon
Vancouver Parecon
Myspace Parecon Page ]
Albert: Replying to Devine
Albert: There is an Alternative
Koumbit Open Source
Albert: German talks video
Albert: Kritische Masse
Spannos: Parecon Organizing
Intro to Realizing Hope
Polish / Greek / Spanish / Italian / Argentine / Swedish
See also Debates / Parecon Site

Remembering Tomorrow
Remembering Tomorrow: The Book
Albert/Chomsky/Goodman: DVD
Majavu: Remembering Tomorrow
Kelly: Remembering Tomorrow
Democracy Now: Audio / Print
Author Interview / Table of Contents
Introduction / Index /Reader Reactions

<

Printable Version

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Sweatshops…

Article 9 Press Conference

自主企画」を広く募集します♪♪～共通テーマ「私たちは、９条の考え方�

 

My students are looking for info on sweatshops in Japanese. I have found a few things.  (See below)｡

All opinions of those of the original posters. 

スウェットショップからの問題提起 -

 

File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View as HTML

 

PLAY FAIR プレイフェア」（オックスファム・インターナショナル・オリンピックキャンペーン）

 

 

※写真はクリックすると拡大表示されます
※写真右／「1日12時間労働・週7日休み無し」「1万円のランニングシューズを作るのに日給3$（330円）」「時給33円で毎分4枚のシャツを作る」「週45時間の強制残業」
※写真左／オーストラリアのシドニーでオックスファム・オーストラリア（OCAA）がアテネオリンピックに向けてスポーツウェアを作る縫製工場のワーカーたちが悲惨な人権状況にあることを訴えたパフォーマンス（写真：OCAA）
※写真はいずれも許可を得てOxfam Japan サイトより転載

貧困や人権無視とその背景にある経済的政治的不公正をただすプロジェクトを中心として世界100ヶ国以上で活動する国際NGO「オックスファム・インターナショナル」（本部・イギリス）が、アテネ・オリンピックを期に、スポーツウェア産業労働者の権利尊重を求める「PLAY FAIR プレイフェア」キャンペーンを行っている。

す でに90年代後半のアメリカで「スウェットショップ（Sweatshop）」が問題化した。もともと19世紀に長時間低賃金無権利状況下に汗まみ れでこきつかわれる繊維産業などの労働者が働く「搾取工場」（日本で言えば「女工哀史」や「ああ野麦峠」の世界）を指す歴史的な用語だったが、グローバリ ゼーションはこのことばを現代によみがえらせた。
「95年に労働省が摘発した工場の悲惨さは、第三世界にまさるとも劣らぬものだった。たとえばロサンゼルス郊外の工場では、六十余名のタイ移民女性労働者 が監禁され、1週7日、ときには1日20時間も働かされていた。時給はわずか70セント、脱走者には暴力とレイプが加えられたという。その製品は大手百貨 店や通信販売を通じて、高級ブランドとして販売されていた。…同省によれば90年代にアメリカ国内で生産された高級衣料品の6割はスウェットショップがか かわったものだという」（「安さの陰にひそむ矛盾／古沢広祐ー『安ければそれでいいのか!?』（山下惣一・編著／コモンズ）

スポーツウェアビジネスは現在国際的な大企業を中心とした寡占体制であり、オリンピックはその最大のPRチャンスだ。
「オックスファム・インターナショナル」が発表した「PLAY FAIR」レポート全文がボランティアの手で翻訳され日本語で読める（Oxfam Japan 「PLAY FAIR プレイフェア」よりダウンロード可）。
69ページにおよぶこのレポートは、ナイキ、アディダス、リーボック、プーマ、フィラ、アシックス、ミズノなどの華々しいブランドイメージを持つ商品群 が、中国やタイ、カンボジア、インドネシアからトルコ、ブルガニアに至るまでの貧しい人々（特に女性の割合は圧倒的に多い）の過酷な労働と人権無視、暴力 的な抑圧のもとで作られている実態をインタビューもまじえて生々しく描き出す。
企業は表向き改善の姿勢を見せても、実際はそれに相反するノルマと責任を末端の供給者におしつけ、受け入れねば工場を替えると脅し、構造は固定化し再生産されている。

「先進国」の私たちはこのような背景をほとんど知ることなく無自覚に買っている。

 

 Nike打倒の新兵器。「Black Spot Sneaker」登場！！

 

 
フィル・ナイツには夢があった。彼は靴をうり、人々に夢を与え、そして裕福になった。
しかし一方で、彼は必要であれば搾取工場も使っていた。
そして今、新しい靴が現れた。
素朴で、単純で、安くて、公平なその靴は
フィル・ナイツを倒すためにこの世に生を受けたのだった。

 

皆さんはフィル・ナイツ氏をご存知だろうか？
このおっさん↓

彼は超有名企業「Nike」の創設者でありCEOも勤めるナイスガイ。アメリカの経済史にその名を
残すであろう偉人である。幼い頃からスポーツをこよなく愛し、Nikeを設立した後は、普通の靴に
様々な機能性を持たせて従来の靴の常識を打ち破り、かつ、マイケル・ジョーダン等の一流アス
リート達がその靴のCMに登場したことからNikeの靴は爆発的な人気を獲得し、フィル氏自身も
アメリカの長者番付けに名を連ねるようになりました。しかし、彼とNikeの栄光の裏には恐るべき
事実が隠されていました。

生産コストを極力少なくするためNikeは生産工場をアメリカ国内ではなく、人権費の安い東南アジア
や中国などの下請け企業に依頼しています。しかし、下請け工場の労働条件は非常に過酷であり、
１２から１６時間労働で深夜に及ぶシフトがあり、残業手当は無しかごく小額しか支給されません。
結婚したり労働組合に参加すると一方的に退職させられたり、悪質な嫌がらせを受けることがあり
ます。 労働者を搾取する工場ということで、こうした工場は、スウェットショップ、Sweat Shops（搾取
工場）と呼ばれています。こうした工場はNikeをはじめとした衣料品産業のグローバルカンパニー
（Gap、リーバイスなど）に利用されており、アメリカ国内におけるNGO等で強い反対運動が行われて
います。

搾取工場などに関する詳細は↓をどうぞ。
http://www.globalvillage.or.jp/pages/camp_2.html
http://www.aseed.org/trade/company.htm

おしゃれな広告やロゴの裏側に潜む発展途上国の悲劇。そして、それが公に出てこない不幸。
こうした状況を鑑みて、我らがアドバスターズもスプーフアド等を通してこうした悪質な営業姿勢
を批判してきましたが、この度、自らも衣料品業界に殴りこみを掛けるべく、開発した新商品
が「Black Spot Sneaker」です。

　　　
（こちらがオシャレなV1）　　　　　　　　　　　　　（こちらがワイルドなV2）

大企業のロゴのようなカッコいいものもなく、ただ白い点がついているだけのこの黒いスニーカー。
しかし、このスニーカーには前述した搾取に対するアンチテーゼとあのようなことが起こっている
ことを何も知らない人々に少しでも状況を理解してもらうためのメッセージが詰め込まれて
います。

本当の『カッコよさ』とは何なのか？
皆さんものこの機会に一度考えてみてくださいまし。.

スニーカーの注文方法
スニーカーができるまで
これからの活動内容

 

スウェット・ショップ

現在翻訳作業中！

●注意：以下の文章は、作業途中の文章です。時間があるときに少しずつ翻訳作業をしているので、誤訳・不適切な用語・意味不明な文章のままになっていて、 間違いだらけのノートのようなものであり、正確さを欠きます。そのため、現時点ではあまり参考にはならないと思いますが、それは翻訳途中の文章を掲載して いる私の怠慢と翻訳能力不足のせいであって、オリジナル文章のクオリティが低いわけではありません、たぶん。閲覧する際は、その点をご注意ください。不完 全な文章を読むと訂正などのツッコミを入れたくなると思います。なので共同作業者も募集中です。一緒に訳しましょう。これらは、wikiで現在編集制限し ていないので誰でも編集できます。直しちゃったり、加筆しちゃったり、を歓迎します。貢献しだいで翻訳精度や情報の信頼性は向上し、情報量は増大します よ。また、「こんなとこでちまちまやってないでWikipediaに直接執筆すればいいじゃん」と思う人もいらっしゃると思います。ごもっともです。そう いう方で元気がある方はどんどんWikipediaに新規執筆、加筆、翻訳をしてください。この翻訳中の文章は、実際に項目を書く前の下書き、下調べのよ うなものなのです。ある程度の精度の翻訳になった場合には、本家Wikipediaに掲載する予定でいます。お問い合わせは、メール　drill.xx (at)gmail.comまで。

  

 

日米センターNPOフェローシップ　月次報告(2006年7月)

岩附 由香
日米センターNPOフェローシップ(第6期)
月次研修報告書(2006年7月分)

 フェロー:岩附由香　(特定非営利活動法人ACE(東京)　代表)　
研修テーマ: 児童労働分野のNGOのアドボカシーとプログラム、資金調達とネットワーク活動
研修先: Winrock International (Arlington, Virginia)
研修期間: 2006年3月29日～2006年12月28日

 

サンフランシスコに事務所を構えるグローバル・エクスチェンジ（Global Exchange, 以下GE）は 反スウェットショップ運動の中心的NGOのひとつである。(スウェットショップの定義については後述)GEはスタディーツアー（通称「リアリティー・ツ アー」）の実施が活動と予算の大きな部分を占め、フェアトレードとキャンペーンがその他の主な活動であり、各活動がそれぞれに関わる費用をまかなう仕組み である。児童労働に関しては1998年にナイキの労働搾取に対するキャンペーンを行なった頃から関わりを持ち始め、2001～2002年頃はカカオ生産過 程の児童労働に反対する運動やフェアトレードカカオ豆の採用率を高めるよう企業に求める運動を行なってきた。またフェアトレードチョコレートの販売も行な い、秋に新しい企画をスタートする予定である。事務局長のクリステン・モラー（Christen Moller）さんに話を聞いた。

児童労働に関する考えを聞いたところ、親が適正な生活水準を保てる賃金を払われるようになれば、子どもが働かずに済むようになるはずだということだった。
GEはアドボカシー団体であり、これまでも反スウェットショップ運動の一環として途上国で労働搾取に遭った元労働者を招へいするスピーカー・ツアーや、ビ デオ制作などを通じて、世論喚起でその頭角を現してきた。この団体のウェブサイトからは、スウェットフリー・ツールキットという、68ページに渡る開発教 育教材がダウンロードできる。これはスウェットショップ問題に関するQ＆Aから実際に行動を起こすためのイベントやキャンペーン実施ガイド、また「ス ウェットショップと私」というタイトルのついたビンゴゲームに使うシートまで、幅広い内容を取り扱っており、この団体の世論喚起、マス・アドボカシーの経 験の蓄積を物語っている。

反スウェットショップ運動を政策面のアドボカシーを中心に行なっているのが、スウェットショップ・ウォッチ（Sweatshop Watch、以下SW）である。この団体はLAに拠点を持ち、ネットワーク団体として政策提言、企業キャンペーン、啓発・教育の3つを柱に活動を行なっている。
SWによるスウェットショップの定義は以下である。

スウェットショップとは、法律違反がある職場であり、また労働者が 生活最低賃金の欠如を含む極端な搾取　 健康・安全性の問題や長時間労働などの悪い労働環境　 言語また身体的虐待等の懲罰　 申し立て、組織化、労働組合の形成の試みに対する恐れや脅迫　 などにさらされている職場をいう。

この団体の理論を支えるのが上の図である。一番上に小売業者があり、その下に製造業者、契約・下請け業者、そして一番下に労働者がいる。このピラミッド構 造における力と富の配分を変えようとしているのがこの団体である。
「スウェットショップ」問題の多くは途上国の労働者搾取という捉え方で日本では報じられる傾向があるが、実はこの団体の場合は国内問題としても捉えてい る。カリフォルニア州の衣料品産業は243億ドル規模であり、ロサンゼルスにおいては最大の産業である。同州内で5千以上の工場で、10万人以上の労働者 （多くは移民女性）が働いているといわれている。
1995年のロス郊外エル・モンティ（El Monti）で72人のタイ人労働者が拘束され働かされていたことが大々的に報道され、この問題に関心が高まったことから、それまで共同で90年代初頭か ら活動していたNGOがこのネットワーク団体を設立し、以後活動を続けている。実際に事務所を訪ねてみると、あたり一面が衣料品を格安の値段で売っている 卸問屋であり、事務所は元倉庫を改造した部屋であった。

そのような背景もあり、この団体が力を入れてきたのが、政策提言、とくに法律を通じたアドボカシーである。通常、労働権侵害にあたり責任を問われるのは労 働者を直接雇っている工場を操業する企業であり、ナイキやウォールマートというような小売業者（ピラミッドの一番上）がそのような下請工場と契約をしてい たとしてもは法律上の責任を問われることはなかった。
しかしAB633（Assembly Bill 633）が2000年1月1日に発効し、これによって、賃金保障の責任を小売業者にまで広げることが可能となったのである。これは小売業者に対し労働条件を守る工場との契約を選好させる、すなわち、安いという価値観だけではなく、労働条件の遵守という価値を契約工場選択の要素として入れ込むことを可能としている。
従来の労働搾取を摘発し罰するという手法のみならず、法律遵守に付加価値を創造し、遵守を促進させるメカニズムを作っているこの法律は、企業行動に対する ひとつの取り組み方を示し、企業の社会的責任の文脈で児童労働問題を考える際にも示唆に富む例である。ちなみに、このように明確に小売業者の責任を追求す る法律があるのはカリフォルニア州だけだそうだ。

2005年にSWが他団体と共同で発行したこの法律の施行に関するレポートによれば、賃金保障の申し立ては4倍に、また実際に小売業者が支払いに応じた案件も出てきた。 しかし、法律で求められている労働条件に関する記録管理などは守られていない場合も多く、またこの法律の執行を担当するべき労働基準施行局 （Division of Labor Standard Enforcement、以下DLSE）の人員不足なども同レポートで指摘し、改善を求めている。またこのレポート発行後、DLSEと同じテーブルにつき この内容について話し合い、解決策として労働監査担当者に対するトレーニングを提案し実施するなど、アドボカシーを行なうだけでなく、実際の施行を助ける支援を行なうなど協力的関係を築き協働していることは特筆すべき点である。
その他の法律については団体としてリーダーシップを取る場合もあれば、その他の団体のイニシアティブを支援するという形も取る。

郡、市などの行政単位や警察、また学校や大学などにおける反スウェットショップ購買法の促進も運動の大きな一部である。ウェブで検索してみたところ、クリーンクローズコネクション（Clean Clothe Connection, CCC）に複数の市における取り組みの分析レポートが載っていたが、マサチューセッツ州、ボストン市、サンフランシスコなど西海岸、東海岸の市や政府がそ のようなポリシーを持っているようである。基本的には警察や刑務所の制服などの購入にあたってスウェットショップで作られた製品を購入することを禁じるも のであるが、このようなイニシアティブの施行に対して予算配分を行なっているのはロサンゼルス市だけであり、この予算は第三者のモニタリング費用に当てら れる。今回お話を伺ったSWのアソシエイト・ディレクターのアレハンドラ・ドメンザイン(Alejandra Domenzain)さんは、この予算配分の重要性を強調し「立法だけでなく、予算の配分を実施し、施行を実現することが重要」と語っていた。
このような2つの異なるアプローチでアドボカシーを行なう団体の共通の悩みは資金調達である。両団体とも主な資金を個人寄付と財団等からの助成金としてお り、SWは資金不足で企業キャンペーン担当者を解雇し、現在2名で運営を行なっている。双方とも政府からの資金調達はこれまで試みたことがないが、今後試 みるつもりはあるか尋ねたところ、GEはNo、SWはYESであったのが対照的である。また企業からの資金提供については、GEは企業献金を受け、また企 業献金に対するポリシーの有無についてはないと答えているが、SWは企業からの献金は受けず、また、ポリシーとしても基本的には受け付けない方針であると いう。これもまた対照的な結果となった。
この2団体は双方とも自身を「アドボカシーNGO」と格付けしており、プログラム実施を行なっていない。それが、資金調達の難しさに結びついており、日本で感じていたことがアメリカにおいてもまったくその通りであることを実感した。

ネットワークという観点から見ると、双方ともそのアドボカシー活動の中で他団体との協働の重要性を指摘しており、これは今回のカリフォルニア訪問でインタ ビューを行なった国際労働権利財団（International Labor Rights Fund, 以下ILRF）の前事務局長、ファリス・ハーヴェイ（Pharis Harvey）さんもその重要性を強調していた。ハーヴェイさんは数年前までILRFの事務局長としてカカオ生産の児童労働に対するキャンペーン等様々な 対企業キャンペーンを展開したほか、児童労働コアリション（Child Labor Coalition）を発足させ、共同代表を務めていた。

ハーヴェイさんにこの資金調達の難しさについて話をしていたところ、打開策のひとつとしてアドボカシー活動の中の内容物を細かく分けて資金調達をすること を学んだ。例えば、アドボカシー活動には事前の調査研究が不可欠である。そのため、この調査研究の部分のみに対しての資金調達をまず行ない、そのような方 法でキャンペーンやアドボカシー活動をスタートさせることをこれまでも行なってきたそうだ。その調査研究の中に調査のための現地渡航費、人件費、出版物作 製費やその他経費も計上してドナーを探したそうである。
確かに、出版物を作成すればその後の重要なアドボカシー・ツールとなる。このような方法が一般的かどうかはわからないが、ACEでもアドボカシー活動の始 まりとして出版物を出す必要を感じたことから、偶然かつ無意識にまずその部分に対して資金調達活動を行なってきた経験があり、アドボカシー活動の細分化に よる資金調達は有効であると思った。その後のアドボカシー活動、すなわちキャンペーン部分を支える資金調達については、アドボカシー活動の中に資金調達を 組み込む際にマス・アドボカシーのノウハウが必要になってくるのではないかと想像するが、効果的な資金調達の具体的方法についてはまだ新しいアイディアを 得られてはいない。

●その他の活動報告
ウィンロックで任されているベストプラクティスのスケジュール管理、及び評価資料作成については今月も予定通り行なうことができた。また自分自身も評価者 としてフィリピンのNGOのプロジェクトを評価し、その取り組みについて学んだことは大変興味深かった。このような現地NGOの取り組みとその成功の秘訣 を文書化することがこのベストプラクティスプロジェクトの目的であり、そのためのコンサルタントを雇用するにあたって、TOR（Terms of Reference）作成を補佐した。
またこの評価に使用するフォームの改訂を提案し、採用された。CIRCLEプロジェクトに新しいスタッフが加わり、事務所内で仕事場所を移動した。スペー スが前より大分狭くなったのは残念だが、スーパーバイザーの部屋と近くなったためスーパーバイザーが立ち寄って話をする機会が増えた。その他NGO、企業 の社会的責任に関するコンサルティングを行なう会社、労働省の国際児童労働プログラムの担当官とインタビューを行なった。

 

 

※本報告内容は、執筆者の見解によるもので、国際交流基金(ジャパンファウンデーション)の公式見解とは必ずしも一致するものではありません。

Printable Version

自主企画」を広く募集します♪♪～共通テーマ「私たちは、９条の考え方�

自主企画」を広く募集します♪♪
～共通テーマ「私たちは、９条の考え方をどう生かしていくのか」～

 

2008年5月4～5日、幕張メッセで開かれる「９条世界会議」。このイベントの柱は大きく分けて３つ。ひとつはノーベル平和賞受賞者や、世界の著 名人を招いての「全体会」。もうひとつは、国際ＮＧＯや平和のアクションを行なっている人たちを世界や日本各地から招いて行なう「分科会」。この２つのコ ンテンツに関しては、このイベントをこれまでにない有意義なものにするため、いずれも日本実行委員会が全力をあげてコーディネート中です。

そして３つめの大きな柱が、みなさんに提案していただき、作り上げていく「自主企画」です。この会議が多彩で賑やかなフェスティバルとなるための、 かなめの部分を担っている大切なコンテンツ。「私たちは、９条の考えをどう生かしていくのか」が共通テーマだから、広く、平和や地球の未来を考える企画な らＯＫ。こんなことができたら面白そう、楽しそう、新しい……、そんな企画を待っています！

１．日時・場所

日時

2008年5月5日（月、祝）
午前の部　10:00～12:45　（2時間45分）
昼の部　　13:00～14:30　（1時間30分）
午後の部　14:45～15:30　（2時間45分）
※時間帯は目安であり、全体プログラムによって若干の変更がありえます。

 

場所

幕張メッセ　国際会議場
〒261-0023　千葉県千葉市美浜区中瀬 2-1
http://www.m-messe.co.jp/

「９条世界会議」全体のプログラムの枠組みは、以下の通りです。（別添の表も参照）

2008年5月4日（日）全体会　13:00～20:00（仮）
（会場）幕張メッセ、イベントホール
5月5日（月）分科会および自主企画
（会場）幕張メッセ　国際会議場
5月4～5日両日にわたりブース企画・パネル展示等
（会場）幕張メッセ、国際会議場

２．募集要件

1. 応募者は、９条の考え方をふまえ、平和を創造するための活動、戦争や軍隊のない世界をめざす活動をしている、あるいはそれら平和的な活動を理念として掲げている団体。（複数の団体での応募も可能です）。
2. 応募者は「９条世界会議」に賛同していること。

■日本国内からの参加の場合

参加費用はとくにかかりませんが、応募時に賛同団体になっていただく必要があります（賛同団体賛同金一口10000円）。また、選考の結果「自主企画」参 加が決定しました時に、会議全体に関わっていただくために、日本実行委員会のメンバーになっていただきます（日本実行委員会参加費5000円。すでに日本 実行委員の方の納入は必要ありません）。
注）日本実行委員になった場合、東京で開催される実行委員会にご出席いただくのが原則ですが、遠隔地の場合、メーリングリストなどを通じての参加も可能です。

■海外からの参加の場合

選考の結果「自主企画」の参加決定となった場合、企画参加費として12000円または100米ドルが必要です。
3. 企画内容としては、「９条の考え方をどう生かしていくのか」ということをふまえ、以下のような内容をご検討ください。
   軍備（武器）縮小・廃絶、核兵器廃絶、戦争放棄、紛争予防、平和構築、軍事基地、軍需産業、非軍事化、国連、国際法、歴史、平和の文化・芸術、経済・貿易、環境、女性、ジェンダー、子ども、人権、教育、医療、福祉、格差社会・貧困など。
4. 日本国外在住のゲスト（以下、海外ゲスト）が参加する企画（Ａ企画）とそうでない企画（Ｂ企画）の両方を募集します。
   Ａ企画における海外ゲスト招聘費用に関しては、日本実行委員会から一定の補助金を支給します。詳しくは、別項を 参照してください。（注：日本実行委員会が企画・実施する全体会および分科会の海外ゲストを自主企画の海外ゲストとして活用することも可能です。それに よって自主企画のための海外ゲスト招聘が不要になった場合には、招聘費用補助はありません。日本実行委員会としての海外ゲスト招待予定状況については、事 務局にお問い合わせください。）
5. 営利目的ないし、特定の政党または宗教を支持または反対する目的の企画でないこと。
6. 参加費の徴収はしないこと。

３．自主企画募集件数

19件程度

４．応募方法

別紙「自主企画申請書」に必要事項を明記のうえ、郵送でお申し込みください。なお、ファックス ・電子メール による申込みはお受けできませんので、ご注意ください。
なお、企画が固まっていない段階のものも、歓迎します。

５．申込締め切り

2007年10月30日（火）必着

選考調整に時間を要することから、企画が固まっていない段階でも概要を申し込み、その後締め切りまでの間に詳細を固めていくことをお勧めします。

６．海外ゲスト招聘費用について

日本国外在住のゲスト（海外ゲスト）の参加する企画（Ａ企画）に関しては、「９条世界会議」日本実行委員会が、当該企画主催団体に対して、以下の招聘補助金（１名分）を支給します。

費目	地域	金額
渡航費 ※右記上限額ないし実費（領収書必須）の低い方の金額を支給します ※査証代、旅行保険代を含みます	東アジア （朝鮮半島、中国、台湾、モンゴル、極東ロシア、ＡＳＥＡＮ諸国）	10万円（上限）
	その他の地域	20万円（上限）
滞在補助費		10万円（上限）

招聘費用補助金の考え方

• 自主企画は、基本的に、自主企画の主催団体の責任において実施するものです。しかし同時に、自主企画主催団体は「９条世界会議」日本実行委員会にも参加して「９条世界会議」全体の成功に責任をもつことが求められます。
• 自主企画主催団体が、海外ゲスト招聘補助金を得て企画を実施する場合には、海外ゲストの招聘状は「９条世界会議」日本実行委員会および自主企画主 催団体の連名において出すものとします。そして、日本実行委員会と自主企画主催団体が互いに協力しながら、海外ゲストの来日および滞日に関するケアについ て責任を共有するものとします。
• 滞在補助費（10万円）は、以下のものに使われることを想定します。
  1. 宿泊費。（日本実行委員会が会場近くのホテルを手配することも可能です（５月３日～７日の４泊）。その場合はホテル代が10万円から減額されます）
  2. 食費補助
  3. 国内交通費（空港から宿泊場所、宿泊場所から会場などを含む）
  4. 通訳補助費（通訳は自主企画主催団体による自己手配を原則とします。自主企画は原則として逐次通訳を想定しており、特別な同時通訳設備はありません。同時通訳設備を設置する場合には、自主企画主催団体の責任により、この補助費等を活用してください。）
  5. ゲストのアテンドに関わる費用（交通費、食費、通訳費など）
  6. 「９条世界会議」の期間の前後に滞在が必要になる場合は、その費用は自主企画主催団体で負担してください
• 自主企画主催団体は、以下のことを責任をもって実施してください。
  1. 招聘する海外ゲストとの連絡
  2. 海外ゲストが、航空券および査証を取得し旅行保険に加入することを確保すること
  3. 空港とホテル、ホテルから会場への移動を含む、国内移動の必要な援助
  4. 食事等に関する必要な援助
  5. その他滞在期間中に必要となる援助
• 「９条世界会議」日本実行委員会は、以下のことを実施します。
  1. 会議プログラム等、公式なインフォメーションの提供（原則として日本語および英語。他言語の場合は要相談）
  2. 全体会（５月４日）、分科会（５月５日）、関連レセプション等、「９条世界会議」日本実行委員会の公式プログラムにおける通訳の提供（原則として日本語および英語。他言語の場合は要相談）
• 「補助金の支給を受けた自主企画主催団体は、事後、「９条世界会議」日本実行委員会に対して補助金の使途に関する会計報告をしなければなりません。
• 以上の基本的な考え方と枠組みに基づき、詳細は、自主企画決定後に「９条世界会議」日本実行委員会と自主企画主催団体との間で覚え書きを交わします。

７．分科会実施の決定

分科会実施の決定は、応募要件や会場・日程等を考慮し、有識者による「選考調整小委員会」で調整の上決定します。趣旨や内容の重なる企画が複数ある場合には、企画の統合をお願いする場合もあります。

2007年12月上旬までにご通知します（決定についてのお電話等でのお問い合わせはご遠慮ください）。

８．会場と実施時間帯枠

	定員 音出し※	午前の部 10:00～12:45	昼の部 13:00～14:30	午後の部 14:45～17:30
中会議室 303	160人 音出し不可	１	２	３
中会議室 201A	144人 音出し不可	４	５	６
中会議室 201B	144人 音出し不可	７	８	９
中会議室 301A	126人 音出し不可	10		11
中会議室 301B	108人 音出し不可	12		13
中会議室 101	126人 音出し可	14	15	16
中会議室 202	70人 音出し可	17	18	19

※「音出し」とは、音楽等大きな音を発する企画の実施の可・不可に関するものです。
「自主企画申請書」に希望枠（1～19のいずれかの番号）と希望順位をご記入ください。複数の枠をつなげて一つの企画とすることも可能です。
なお、会場設営・片付けは自主企画主催団体が責任をもって行ってください。とくに昼の部と午後の部に関しては、前の企画が終了してから15分間の休憩時間の間に片付けと設営を協力して行ってください。

９．シネマ、ライブハウス、ブース、パネル等の申請について

本要項による自主企画の募集とは別に、「９条シネマ」「９条ライブハウス」「ブース、パネル展示」に関する募集も行います（別添の表を参照）。これらに関しては、後日募集要項を発表します。詳しくはお問い合わせください。

10．その他

■応募にあたって必要となる書類は以下よりダウンロードしてください。
※書類の閲覧および印刷には、お使いのPCにAdobe Readerがインストールされている必要があります。入手はこちらで» http://www.adobe.com/jp/products/acrobat/readstep2.html

» 自主企画募集要項.pdf　（本ページと同じ内容）
» 自主企画申請書.pdf
» 会議プログラムの枠組み.pdf

■終了後、所定の様式により、自主企画実施報告書をご提出ください。補助金の支給を受けた場合は、その会計報告書もあわせてご提出ください

■自主企画実施中、主催者の託児を予定しています。詳しくは決定後お知らせします

11．申込み先及び問い合わせ先

「９条世界会議」日本実行委員会　事務局
〒169-0075
東京都新宿区高田馬場3-14-3八達ビル２階　ピースボート気付
「９条世界会議」自主企画係宛
電　話　　03-3363-7561　（担当：渡辺、川崎）
ファックス　03-3363-7562
電子メール　http://whynot9.jp/info/より
ウェブサイト　http://whynot9.jp

 

Printable Version

Article 9 Press Conference

PRESS RELEASE (also attached as PDF)

=========================================================================
Global Article 9 Conference to Abolish War
May 2008, Makuhari Messe
=========================================================================

Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution renounces war as a means of
settling international disputes and prohibits the maintenance of armed
forces and other war potential. Article 9 is an international oath
declaring No to War.

Yet today the Japanese government is moving towards amending Article 9,
partly due to the US demand for full-fledged military support from
Japan. This is one of the hottest political issues in Japan today, and
has not only domestic implications but will affect the entire world.

In order to support Japan's peace constitution, and spread its
principles internationally, the Global Article 9 Conference to Abolish
War is being planned for May 4-6, 2008. At Makuhari Messe in Chiba,
10,000 people are expected to attend, including Nobel Peace Laureates,
intellectuals, cultural figures and NGO activists. As well as keynote
speeches by Nobel Prize Laureates such as Northern Ireland's Mairead
Corrigan Maguire, a variety of events open to the public such as
lectures, music and various performances and displays will also take
place. Events will be held not only at the main Chiba venue, but also in
Sendai, Osaka and Hiroshima.

A press conference will be held as follows to launch the Global Article
9 Conference and the promotion of disarmament, demilitarization and a
culture of peace.

=========================================================================

Press Conference

Date:        26 October 2007 (Fri), 14:00-15:00

Venue:        Shufu Kaikan Plaza F (4F Chatolet Room), 1 min from JR
Yotsuya                                 Station
        15-6 Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo        TEL 03-3265-8111
        Map:         http://www.plaza-f.or.jp/information/otoiawase/otoiawase.html

Content:
1.        Introduction to the Global Article 9 Conference to Abolish War
2.        Video messages for the Global Article 9 Conference to Abolish                         War
from Nobel Prize Laureates         including Wangari Maathai                         (Kenya) and
Mairead Corrigan Maguire (Northern Ireland)

Attending Co-Initiators of the Global Article 9 Conference to Abolish
War include:

Hoshikawa Jun (Executive Director, Greenpeace Japan)
Isezaki Kenji (Lecturer, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies; former
Chief of the Disarmament, Demobilization & Reintegration (DDR)
Coordination Section of the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone)
Ito Makoto (Director, Ito Juku and Japan Institute of Constitutional Law)
Junkerman, John (film director)
Naruse Masahiro (Artist)
Niikura Osamu (President, Japanese Lawyers International Solidarity
Association)
Nishino Rumiko (Co-Chairperson, VAWW-NET JAPAN)
Shinagawa Masaji (Chairperson, International Development Center of
Japan; Co-executive, Japan Association of Corporate Executives)
Taniyama Hiroshi (President, Japan International Volunteer Center)
Tsutsumi Mika (Journalist)
Yoshioka Tatsuya (Director, Peace Boat)
Yukawa Reiko (songwriter and music critic)

Organiser / Contact:
Global Article 9 Conference to Abolish War, Japan Organizing Committee
(Office within Peace Boat)
Tel: 03-3363-7967
Email:

For further information, please see:
Japanese: http://whynot9.jp / English: http://www.article-9.org

※ Contact on the day:
Rika Watanabe, 090-9145-2864 (English and Japanese OK)

Printable Version

Tuesday, October 09, 2007

Welcome to TokyoProgressive

The most recent stories include the following:
Tokyo Spring: Supporting the teachers opposing the singing of Kimigayo in schools
Japan faces hunger pains as poor slip through net
郵政民営化の本質としてのグローバリズムは日本人を幸福にするか？！
 
110,000 Okinawans demand textbooks depict historical facts, other stories (Japan Press Service)

BURMA: With Technology as Weapon, Citizens Become Reporters

ビルマ（ミャンマー） : 【緊急行動】拷問または虐待の恐れ/健康への懸念

Homeless Support Festa: The 4th Nagai Park Dairin Festival

第4回 長居公園 大輪祭り ご案内 Homeless Support Festival

Our Planet TV (アワー・プラネット・ティービー)

エドワード・サイード、ノーム・チョムスキー、Middle　East…(中野真紀子)
From translator Nakano Makiko on Edward Said. Noam Chomsky  and the Middle East. See "Democrcy Now Japan" below, of which Nakano san is one of the key members.

イラク分割統治という幻想 ( 益岡賢のページ)
From Masuoka Ken, above are translations of  articles on Iraq. Below are translations of his on the U.S. as a sponsor of terrorism, followed by translations of articles by John Pilger , Noam Chomsky, and others. After that, translations of articles on the Middle East. East Timor, Afghanistan…
テロリズムについて、米国について

ジョン・ピルジャーの文章、ノーム・チョムスキー

アフガニスタン、パレスチナ／イスラエル、東チモール・インドネシア

田中宇の国際ニュース解説: 世界はどう動いているか
"Tanaka News"

デモクラシー・ナウ！/Democracy Now! JAPAN (Oct 5) 
Democracy Now Japan (translations of transcripts as well as sub-titled videos)

Burma People’s Movement/Technology

戦争を放棄した 日本国憲法第９条を世界に広げよう:  アレン・ネルソン氏

From Common Dreams  

Jeremy Scahill: The Scandal of Blackwater; Cindy Sheehan: Imagine Peace; Helen Thomas: The Democrats Who Enable Bush…

Between the Lines Internet Radio (like Democracy Now)
Chervron's Investments in Burma

Announcement:  “The Iraq Crisis as a Global Crisis” in Harajuku

Top 25 Censored Stories 

From CounterPunch (Recent Articles)
  Dick Cheney, a Eulogy; Uri Avnery:The Power of the Israel Lobby…

Znet: Mideast, Iraq, Iran, Race and Gender, more: latest articles

Japan Focus latest articles: Nationalism, Militarizing Japan, Working Poor….

 September stories included the following:

• 小出裕章氏のインタビュー
• Recent articles from JAPAN FOCUS in English
• 10/5 International Day Of Action To Defend Anti-War Japanese Teachers
• インタビューDavid Rovics in 長崎 (ourplanet-TV)
• 厚 生労働省「住居喪失不安定就労者等の実態に関する調査」にお ける、大阪での調査について Osaka Homeless Support Groups criticize Ministry of Labor's 'Net Cafe Refugee' Survey
• G8サミット: G8 Summmit alternative media prep meeting (Yutaka Tsuchiya: Video-Act)

An Engaged Political Culture in Venezuela
Skills Building for Social Change : Sept 30
Commmon Dreams News: War in Iran? Many more reports and commentaries

September 11, 1973:  What happened

Calendar Sept- Nov
 
 August stories:
Japan and World Issues

 

• Media: なにがわるい？
• Media and World Social Issues in English
• HIV SCANDAL/Kawada Ryuhei
• Asian News and Japanese Social Problems in English
• Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Earthquake・【声明 ： 東京電力柏崎刈羽原子力発電所の閉鎖を
• Mad Cow Disease: “The Report Blocked by the Japanese Government
• Japanese Kenpo, Articles from English to Japanese, etc.
• Japan Press Service
• Tokyo Spring Film and Discussion
• Gyaku Japan
• Some more news sources
• ニューズ,etc: Resources in Japanese and English (News and Activism)

For example, in the above you will find some of these:

AIDS Scandal 薬害エイズ

JaNP+［日本HIV陽性者ネットワーク・ジャンププラス］

第16回国際エイズ会議（トロント）（English）

エイズ予防情報ネット

第20回 日本エイズ学会 学術集会・総会

ぷれいす東京

Yahoo! JAPAN - レッドリボンキャンペーン2005

JaNP+［日本HIV陽性者ネットワーク・ジャンププラス］

エイズ予防情報ネット

第16回国際エイズ会議（トロント）（English）

第20回 日本エイズ学会 学術集会・総会

ぷれいす東京

Yahoo! JAPAN - レッドリボンキャンペーン2005

Media: なにがわるい？

Commentary :: Peace and War・平和と戦争

「敗戦６０周年に寄せて　憲法９条に向けたアピール」

by Brian Covert

ブライアン・コバート（フリージャーナリスト）が第２次世界大戦終結６０周年の２００５年８月１５日、日本国憲法第９条の戦争放棄条項に沿った平和のための国際行動を求めたアピール。インターネット上の米国の「インディペンデント メディア センター」に掲載した。
次のサイトでも見られます。　(２００７年７月更新)　（English article on Article 9 and the 60th anniversary of the war)

Eng

Japanese

 

• アスベスト
• 医療と患者の権利
• 外国人の権利
• 企業と人権
• 刑法・刑事手続
• 国際人権
• 個人情報保護・
  プライバシー
• 情報公開・知る権利
• 情報通信・ＩＴ
• 女性の権利
• 精神障害者の権利
• 表現の自由・
  マスメディア
• 予防接種被害
• その他の人権

田中 宇の

国際ニュース解説

益岡賢のページ:

コ ロンビア

イラク

アフガニスタン

パレスチナ

イスラエル
東 チモール・

インドネシア

アメリカ合州国

ラ テン・アメリカ／カリブ

Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Earthquake・【声明 ： 東京電力柏崎刈羽原子力発電所の閉鎖を

The Japanese government tried to blame the foreign media for scaring people, but the reality is that it is protecting the profits of big business: " This was not the biggest earthquake that could possibly hit Japan. This one was just a warning. There were enough failures this time to enable us to imagine what might happen if a bigger earthquake struck. In particular, we saw how the confusion caused by the earthquake led to errors and lapses of judgment. We saw equipment failures which in themselves might be manageable, but which, when compounded with the many other failures that earthquakes inevitably cause, could have been catastrophic. Unfortunately, there is no indication that the government will prioritize safety over the narrow economic interests of the power companies." MORE 【声明 ： 東京電力柏崎刈羽原子力発電所の閉鎖を訴える】 More in Japanese

What is Alternative Media
By Paul Arenson

Asano KenIchi's page
Well known journalist and professor
One of the links on his page is this, about the 'criminal activity' of Bush and
Koizumi in Iraq:

Japanese media and Iraq
Asano article

What is wrong with the Japanese media
Another by Asano

Media issues in general

Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting
Well-known US site

Media Lens
Correcting for the distorted lens of the corporate media

Who owns the media?

Who owns it (2)

Printable Version

Sunday, October 07, 2007

Japan faces hunger pains as poor slip through net

from THE ZEIT GIST (Japan Times)

By JOHN SPIRI

First in a two-part series

World Food Day, celebrated every Oct. 16, was established by the U.N. to highlight issues such as food scarcity, agricultural pollution, and food distribution problems that still plague much of the world. So what does that have to do with Japan? Plenty, says Charles McJilton of Second Harvest Japan (2HJ).

 

Homeless people on the streets of cities like Osaka (top) and Tokyo (below) are just one facet of poverty in Japan. JOHN SPIRI PHOTOS

McJilton first became involved with the homeless in Japan in 1991 when he lived in Sanya, one of the poorer areas of Tokyo. In January 1997 he began living with the homeless along the Sumida River near Sanya and stayed until April 1998. That experience radically changed him and how sees his role at 2HJ.

"I don't see myself so much helping people as giving them the resources to help themselves," said McJilton.

Although still a passionate supporter of Tokyo's homeless population, McJilton is now focusing his activism on a broader range of have-nots in Japan.

"Forget (writing about) the homeless," McJilton told me. "Everybody knows about that problem. It's so visible. What people don't see, and don't know, is that there are plenty of hungry people living right here in Tokyo."

Appearances don't always fit with the reality, McJilton argues.

"The poverty line is considered one half the median income, or around ¥2.3 million per year. The current poverty rate for Japan is 15.3 percent. That means more than 19 million live below the poverty line. Forty percent of the more-than-1.2-million single mothers make less than ¥1.5 million per year.

"In Utsunomiya a few years ago a mother starved to death with her child. It happens, and will, unfortunately, probably become more common."

As a professor at Japanese Red Cross University, J. Sean Curtin has written extensively on poverty in Japan. In a 2002 article Curtin wrote that lone-mother families, with an average annual income of just ¥2.52 million, were the most economically disadvantaged group in Japan. The elderly were next at ¥3.19 million. This put many — if not most — lone-mother families "well below the poverty line."

Citing a government survey, Curtin noted that 81.6 percent of Japanese single mothers said they were experiencing "real hardship."

More troubling, the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development), in a July 2006 report, warned that despite sustainable growth Japan is "endangered by increasing poverty, income inequality and by the effects of an aging population."

For those experiencing extreme financial hardship, including the homeless, a separate welfare program ("seikatsu hogo") exists. Also, local governments have been trying, with limited success, to relocate the homeless into subsidized housing. McJilton feels the government's approach is terribly flawed.

"They make it difficult for people to get on the system, and they treat the people on it like criminals, under constant surveillance to make sure they're not cheating. Then they have laws that say, 'You're on welfare so you can't save any money. You're not allowed to buy a car either even if you live in a rural area where it's necessary.' If you do save money or buy a car, your benefits get cut. It's insane."

While surveys show the number of homeless decreasing, McJilton is not impressed.

 

"It's true that ڜ3,000 apartments are getting people off the streets, but they deliberately separate neighbors, putting them in different parts of the city so they 'won't be a bad influence on each other.' " McJilton explained.

"When you concentrate people who have specific needs in a specific area it's much easier to provide services than when you spread them out."

Some groups of homeless are likely not to be counted in surveys, said Sister Akiyama of Fuchu Catholic Church.

"While the stay-put homeless have decreased, the number that wander from place to place every night has increased," she said.

Also, "Internet cafe refugees" are not included in the survey. These individuals, which number in the thousands, are likewise homeless, renting a room in an Internet cafe or all-night eatery from night to night.

Curtin has also written about flaws in Japan's welfare system, namely divorced fathers who don't pay child support to their children, euphemistically known as "deadbeat dads" in the United States. As it stands, divorce terms may "require" the father to pay child support, but there is no means to compel him to pay. The mother can bring the issue to court, but the decision might take years, and then only compel the father to pay a quarter of the agreed-upon sum, making the whole process fruitless.

Efforts have been made to amend legislation to compel deadbeat dads to pay, but conservative lawmakers keep blocking the effort. For example, in 1985 such an amendment was killed because it would "go against Japanese tradition."

Second Harvest Japan currently serves approximately 100 families with weekly or monthly shipments of food. Of those, 75 percent are headed by lone mothers. In addition, they deliver food to agencies that support single mothers.

"I would estimate we support over 1,000 families directly and through the agencies we support," said McJilton.

Convenience stores and restaurants often face the problem of having food that has not expired but cannot be sold for a variety of reasons. Donating this food helps companies save money, make a positive impact on society and reduce waste. For every ¥1,000 2HJ spends, the group can deliver over ¥10,000 in food.

For the time being, homelessness remains the visible face of poverty in Japan. Sister Akiyama makes a weekly "homeless patrol" to check on needs and befriend the homeless. One goal she has is to convince the homeless to make use of the services offered by local governments.

"Many refuse to register for housing. They feel there are too many rules, like a curfew, for those in subsidized apartments. Also, they have too much pride."

One homeless man we visited along the Tama River explained that he goes to city hall once a month to collect his pension. It might be enough to cover food expenses, he said, but not enough to rent an apartment. The talk does lend some credibility to stereotypes, however, as Mr. Matsuzaka noted that two young homeless (aged 27 and 31) set up a shelter next door and are choosing the lifestyle.

"They go back to their parents' house once or twice a month. They don't want to work," he added without malice.

None of the other homeless I spoke with — a day laborer, car counter, house cleaner, cardboard collector and a retired man who lost his arm in a work accident — said they were homeless by choice.

Matsushige Ito of Osaka's Kamagasaki homeless district rejects the claim that homeless "choose that lifestyle."

"It's a rationalization," said Ito. "Most people want to blame the victim. The cause of homelessness is lack of employment. There simply aren't enough jobs."

McJilton agreed, calling the homelessness problem "a train wreck (that was) waiting to happen."

He explained that many laborers moved to Tokyo and Osaka during economic boom years, living at the "genba" (work site). Construction jobs dried up, or the men got too old or ill to work, and those without a personal safety net dropped through.

Although hunger problems in Japan do exist, and are growing, many other countries have far more severe problems with poverty. It is estimated that one-seventh of the world's population cannot get enough daily nutrition. According to globalissues.org, half the world's children — one billion — live in poverty.

The theme of this year's World Food Day is "The right to food." Organizers note: "The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 first recognized the right to food as a human right." This right to food is universal and includes every woman, man and child. It includes food security: Access should be to healthy food, devoid of harmful substances and culturally acceptable.

To commemorate World Food Day, 2HJ is hosting a Harvest for Hunger gathering on Oct. 16. They are also conducting a nationwide food drive with fitness group Curves Japan in November and are seeking churches, community centers, and agencies that will accept food for subsequent delivery to those in need. The ultimate dream is to create a national network where anyone in need of food can go get emergency food locally. For more information contact .

World Food Day 2007: www.fao.org/wfd2007/index_wfd2007.html Second Harvest Japan: www.2hj.org/index.php/news/C4 Oxfam Japan: english.oxfam.jp/ Send comments/story ideas to:

 

Printable Version

Page 3 of 70 pages « First  <  1 2 3 4 5 >  Last »

Search this website only

Advanced Search

Search many progressive sites worldwide