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marmar
marmar's Journal
marmar's Journal
April 4, 2012
from OnTheCommons.org:
Debating the Future of Our World's Water
World Water Forum in Marseille sets the stage for important talks at Rio environment conference
By Daniel Moss
The World Water Council, the convener of the World Water Forum, sure knows its market. At their recent global gathering held in Marseille, France, they tapped into the thirst of governments, development agencies, banks, NGOs and private water operators for a conversation about water services and managing the growing water crisis — as well as a shot at lucrative contracts. Exhibition booths included desalinization companies and private firms like Suez and Veolia, the biggest in the industry. The event had the feel of a trade show and the price tag of the Superbowl, dissuasive to thousands of water justice activists who set up a parallel, alternative peoples’ water forum in a dock-side warehouse.
Where is UN leadership on water? A Crisis of Water Governance
The first World Water Forum was held in 1997; the Sixth concluded last month. The World Water Council is a private, not-for-profit body with a board weighted towards private water industry representatives and government officials friendly to private water management. The United Nations might appear a more sensible host for a global conversation about world water policy—water troubles are felt locally but the hydrological cycle is turned topsy-turvy globally. Human rights and environmental activists who steered clear of the Forum advocate moving it to the UN. The same opinion was whispered to me by a Forum session facilitator, “but if we say it out loud, this party is over.”
One obstacle to this shift is the approximately 27 UN agencies that deal with water. This bureaucratic dispersion mirrors the way most national governments split administration of water matters. There tends to be one agency administering potable water, another issuing water permits to mine operators, a third overseeing sanitation and no one watching out for watershed protection. Unlike, say, the World Health Organization (WHO), there is no central UN agency for global water. No one leads; into the vacuum steps the World Water Council.
“Would you have a pharmaceutical business federation run the world conference on health?” Pedro Arrojo, 2003 Goldman Environmental Prize winner asked at a non-Forum meeting of civil society organizations and governments. “It would be unthinkable.” .................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://onthecommons.org/debating-future-our-worlds-water
Debating the Future of Our World's Water
from OnTheCommons.org:
Debating the Future of Our World's Water
World Water Forum in Marseille sets the stage for important talks at Rio environment conference
By Daniel Moss
The World Water Council, the convener of the World Water Forum, sure knows its market. At their recent global gathering held in Marseille, France, they tapped into the thirst of governments, development agencies, banks, NGOs and private water operators for a conversation about water services and managing the growing water crisis — as well as a shot at lucrative contracts. Exhibition booths included desalinization companies and private firms like Suez and Veolia, the biggest in the industry. The event had the feel of a trade show and the price tag of the Superbowl, dissuasive to thousands of water justice activists who set up a parallel, alternative peoples’ water forum in a dock-side warehouse.
Where is UN leadership on water? A Crisis of Water Governance
The first World Water Forum was held in 1997; the Sixth concluded last month. The World Water Council is a private, not-for-profit body with a board weighted towards private water industry representatives and government officials friendly to private water management. The United Nations might appear a more sensible host for a global conversation about world water policy—water troubles are felt locally but the hydrological cycle is turned topsy-turvy globally. Human rights and environmental activists who steered clear of the Forum advocate moving it to the UN. The same opinion was whispered to me by a Forum session facilitator, “but if we say it out loud, this party is over.”
One obstacle to this shift is the approximately 27 UN agencies that deal with water. This bureaucratic dispersion mirrors the way most national governments split administration of water matters. There tends to be one agency administering potable water, another issuing water permits to mine operators, a third overseeing sanitation and no one watching out for watershed protection. Unlike, say, the World Health Organization (WHO), there is no central UN agency for global water. No one leads; into the vacuum steps the World Water Council.
“Would you have a pharmaceutical business federation run the world conference on health?” Pedro Arrojo, 2003 Goldman Environmental Prize winner asked at a non-Forum meeting of civil society organizations and governments. “It would be unthinkable.” .................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://onthecommons.org/debating-future-our-worlds-water
April 4, 2012
Broken Promises: America's Forgotten Iraqi Allies Face Death and a Long Road Home
Tuesday, 03 April 2012 09:47
By Mike Ludwig, Truthout | Report
A young Iraqi interpreter named Ali was riding with members of the United States Army 1st Armored Division on a 2003 midnight raid outside of Baghdad when the driver made a mistake in the darkness and their armored Bradley vehicle flipped into a canal. Ali was bleeding from the head, but maintained his composure and acted fast as water filled the vehicle. Loren Ferguson, a combat medic who was in the vehicle, was pinned down by debris under water until he felt Ali pull his head up. Ferguson looked up to see Ali pulling another interpreter's head above water. Ferguson remembers struggling to get a flashlight working as Ali moved debris out the way and opened compartment doors, allowing the driver and gunners in the vehicle's turret to escape. Thanks to Ali's cool head and quick thinking, everyone in the vehicle survived the crash.
"Ali came forward at a time when other Iraqis wouldn't even look at us," says Ferguson, remembering the early days of the war in Iraq. "He knew we were there to fight for freedom and not just take them over." Without interpreters like Ali, Ferguson says, coalition forces would not have accomplished anything. Allies like Ali were motivated "by a true want for freedom that Americans haven't felt in hundreds of years."
Ferguson considers Ali a hero and says he deserves a medal, or at least a place to live in the United States. The US government, however, considers him just another Iraqi refugee who was forced to flee Iraq after working through a contracting company for the Army. Ali is one of thousands of Iraqis currently wading through a sea of red tape, with the safety and opportunity of America on one shore, and vengeful insurgent and militia groups on the other.
Revealing Ali's full name could compromise his safety, but during the war, his American comrades affectionately nicknamed him "Tony Humvee." In an interview, Ali told Truthout he saw combat alongside American troops, helped interrogate insurgents and his skills helped save both American and Iraqi lives. Ferguson and his fellow American troops are back home in the US after serving in Iraq, but the war is not over for Ali, who says he is wanted by insurgent groups and militias for aiding the occupation. .............(more)
The complete piece is at: http://truth-out.org/news/item/8258-broken-promises-americas-forgotten-iraqi-allies-face-death-and-a-long-road-home
Broken Promises: America's Forgotten Iraqi Allies Face Death and a Long Road Home
Broken Promises: America's Forgotten Iraqi Allies Face Death and a Long Road Home
Tuesday, 03 April 2012 09:47
By Mike Ludwig, Truthout | Report
A young Iraqi interpreter named Ali was riding with members of the United States Army 1st Armored Division on a 2003 midnight raid outside of Baghdad when the driver made a mistake in the darkness and their armored Bradley vehicle flipped into a canal. Ali was bleeding from the head, but maintained his composure and acted fast as water filled the vehicle. Loren Ferguson, a combat medic who was in the vehicle, was pinned down by debris under water until he felt Ali pull his head up. Ferguson looked up to see Ali pulling another interpreter's head above water. Ferguson remembers struggling to get a flashlight working as Ali moved debris out the way and opened compartment doors, allowing the driver and gunners in the vehicle's turret to escape. Thanks to Ali's cool head and quick thinking, everyone in the vehicle survived the crash.
"Ali came forward at a time when other Iraqis wouldn't even look at us," says Ferguson, remembering the early days of the war in Iraq. "He knew we were there to fight for freedom and not just take them over." Without interpreters like Ali, Ferguson says, coalition forces would not have accomplished anything. Allies like Ali were motivated "by a true want for freedom that Americans haven't felt in hundreds of years."
Ferguson considers Ali a hero and says he deserves a medal, or at least a place to live in the United States. The US government, however, considers him just another Iraqi refugee who was forced to flee Iraq after working through a contracting company for the Army. Ali is one of thousands of Iraqis currently wading through a sea of red tape, with the safety and opportunity of America on one shore, and vengeful insurgent and militia groups on the other.
Revealing Ali's full name could compromise his safety, but during the war, his American comrades affectionately nicknamed him "Tony Humvee." In an interview, Ali told Truthout he saw combat alongside American troops, helped interrogate insurgents and his skills helped save both American and Iraqi lives. Ferguson and his fellow American troops are back home in the US after serving in Iraq, but the war is not over for Ali, who says he is wanted by insurgent groups and militias for aiding the occupation. .............(more)
The complete piece is at: http://truth-out.org/news/item/8258-broken-promises-americas-forgotten-iraqi-allies-face-death-and-a-long-road-home
April 4, 2012
http://www.poclad.org/DemocracyInsurgencyCurriculum/
DEMOCRACY INSURGENCY CURRICULUM
Real change, led by We the People, is needed in our nation and world. A bottom-up democracy insurgency calling and working for genuine self-governance has begun. It's represented in the US by multi-state responses to attacks on workers, the Occupy Wall Street movement and Move to Amend; and internationally by the massive "Arab Spring" demonstrations throughout the Middle East, North Africa and beyond.
The Declaration of Independence in 1776 was the first major collective statement in the colonies outlining oppression and asserting self-determination. The Populists followed the same course in their Omaha Platform of 1892.
The problem isn't a few corporate "bad apples" or in general this or that corporate abuse. The fundamental problem is never-intended constitutional powers and rights corporations have acquired permitting them to usurp us, We the People, from governing ourselves.
POCLAD invites you to join together with others where you are in study/action groups to study, learn and act. We've prepared this Democracy Insurgency Curriculum to assist those who want to embark on this quest.
Democracy Insurgency Curriculum
This gem is from POCLAD (Program on Corporations, Law & Democracy). It contains links to source material about the history of corporate 'personhood' and the transfer of rights from people to corporations, including court cases, studies articles etc. In other words, all the essential information we're not getting from schools or the corporate media. Here's the link to the page with the link to all of the resource materials:http://www.poclad.org/DemocracyInsurgencyCurriculum/
DEMOCRACY INSURGENCY CURRICULUM
Real change, led by We the People, is needed in our nation and world. A bottom-up democracy insurgency calling and working for genuine self-governance has begun. It's represented in the US by multi-state responses to attacks on workers, the Occupy Wall Street movement and Move to Amend; and internationally by the massive "Arab Spring" demonstrations throughout the Middle East, North Africa and beyond.
The Declaration of Independence in 1776 was the first major collective statement in the colonies outlining oppression and asserting self-determination. The Populists followed the same course in their Omaha Platform of 1892.
The problem isn't a few corporate "bad apples" or in general this or that corporate abuse. The fundamental problem is never-intended constitutional powers and rights corporations have acquired permitting them to usurp us, We the People, from governing ourselves.
POCLAD invites you to join together with others where you are in study/action groups to study, learn and act. We've prepared this Democracy Insurgency Curriculum to assist those who want to embark on this quest.
April 4, 2012
LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) — Police say doctors amputated the foot of a man who was shot in the leg during raucous celebrations in Lexington of Kentucky's NCAA basketball championship.
Lexington police spokeswoman Sherelle Roberts says 31-year-old Harold Calloway remained hospitalized Tuesday afternoon. He was shot around 2 a.m. as Kentucky fans were celebrating in the streets. No arrests have been made in the shooting.
Roberts says police don't typically identify wounded victims, but Calloway has outstanding criminal warrants in Indiana. ...........(more)
The complete piece is at: http://xfinity.comcast.net/articles/sports-cbk/20120403/20120403142830688316704/
Man shot in Kentucky revelry has foot amputated
LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) — Police say doctors amputated the foot of a man who was shot in the leg during raucous celebrations in Lexington of Kentucky's NCAA basketball championship.
Lexington police spokeswoman Sherelle Roberts says 31-year-old Harold Calloway remained hospitalized Tuesday afternoon. He was shot around 2 a.m. as Kentucky fans were celebrating in the streets. No arrests have been made in the shooting.
Roberts says police don't typically identify wounded victims, but Calloway has outstanding criminal warrants in Indiana. ...........(more)
The complete piece is at: http://xfinity.comcast.net/articles/sports-cbk/20120403/20120403142830688316704/
April 3, 2012
from TomDispatch:
Data Mining You
How the Intelligence Community Is Creating a New American World
By Tom Engelhardt
I was out of the country only nine days, hardly a blink in time, but time enough, as it happened, for another small, airless room to be added to the American national security labyrinth. On March 22nd, Attorney General Eric Holder and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, Jr. signed off on new guidelines allowing the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), a post-9/11 creation, to hold on to information about Americans in no way known to be connected to terrorism -- about you and me, that is -- for up to five years. (Its previous outer limit was 180 days.) This, Clapper claimed, “will enable NCTC to accomplish its mission more practically and effectively.”
Joseph K., that icon of single-lettered anonymity from Franz Kafka’s novel The Trial, would undoubtedly have felt right at home in Clapper’s Washington. George Orwell would surely have had a few pungent words to say about those anodyne words “practically and effectively,” not to speak of “mission.”
For most Americans, though, it was just life as we’ve known it since September 11, 2001, since we scared ourselves to death and accepted that just about anything goes, as long as it supposedly involves protecting us from terrorists. Basic information or misinformation, possibly about you, is to be stored away for five years -- or until some other attorney general and director of national intelligence think it’s even more practical and effective to keep you on file for 10 years, 20 years, or until death do us part -- and it hardly made a ripple.
If Americans were to hoist a flag designed for this moment, it might read “Tread on Me” and use that classic illustration of the boa constrictor swallowing an elephant from Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince. That, at least, would catch something of the absurdity of what the National Security Complex has decided to swallow of our American world. ..............(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175524/tomgram%3A_engelhardt%2C_the_intelligence_bureaucracy_that_ate_our_world/#more
Data Mining You: How the Intelligence Community Is Creating a New American World
from TomDispatch:
Data Mining You
How the Intelligence Community Is Creating a New American World
By Tom Engelhardt
I was out of the country only nine days, hardly a blink in time, but time enough, as it happened, for another small, airless room to be added to the American national security labyrinth. On March 22nd, Attorney General Eric Holder and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, Jr. signed off on new guidelines allowing the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), a post-9/11 creation, to hold on to information about Americans in no way known to be connected to terrorism -- about you and me, that is -- for up to five years. (Its previous outer limit was 180 days.) This, Clapper claimed, “will enable NCTC to accomplish its mission more practically and effectively.”
Joseph K., that icon of single-lettered anonymity from Franz Kafka’s novel The Trial, would undoubtedly have felt right at home in Clapper’s Washington. George Orwell would surely have had a few pungent words to say about those anodyne words “practically and effectively,” not to speak of “mission.”
For most Americans, though, it was just life as we’ve known it since September 11, 2001, since we scared ourselves to death and accepted that just about anything goes, as long as it supposedly involves protecting us from terrorists. Basic information or misinformation, possibly about you, is to be stored away for five years -- or until some other attorney general and director of national intelligence think it’s even more practical and effective to keep you on file for 10 years, 20 years, or until death do us part -- and it hardly made a ripple.
If Americans were to hoist a flag designed for this moment, it might read “Tread on Me” and use that classic illustration of the boa constrictor swallowing an elephant from Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince. That, at least, would catch something of the absurdity of what the National Security Complex has decided to swallow of our American world. ..............(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175524/tomgram%3A_engelhardt%2C_the_intelligence_bureaucracy_that_ate_our_world/#more
April 3, 2012
http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/04/03/11003782-two-tornadoes-reported-in-dallas-area
At least two tornadoes appear to have touched down in areas around Dallas on Tuesday, NBC News reported.
With the storms still moving through the area, at least four homes were were damaged or destroyed, NBCDFW.com reported.
"This is a serious situation," the NBC affiliate reported over the air, as meteorologists showed live footage of "debris balls" in Dallas and Johnson counties.
Live video showed a huge funnel cloud moving through a populated area as flashes of exploding power lines lit the sky.
At least two tornadoes appear to have touched down in areas around Dallas
http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/04/03/11003782-two-tornadoes-reported-in-dallas-area
At least two tornadoes appear to have touched down in areas around Dallas on Tuesday, NBC News reported.
With the storms still moving through the area, at least four homes were were damaged or destroyed, NBCDFW.com reported.
"This is a serious situation," the NBC affiliate reported over the air, as meteorologists showed live footage of "debris balls" in Dallas and Johnson counties.
Live video showed a huge funnel cloud moving through a populated area as flashes of exploding power lines lit the sky.
April 3, 2012
from the SF Chronicle:
Dozens of federal agents on Monday raided the Oakland businesses and apartment of Richard Lee, the state's most prominent advocate for the legalization and regulation of marijuana, carting away loads of pot and belongings but not revealing the purpose of their investigation.
The agents targeted Oaksterdam University, the internationally famous school that Lee established to train people in the marijuana industry, a medical cannabis dispensary called Coffeeshop Blue Sky, and three properties being rented by Lee, including his apartment near Lake Merritt.
The armed and sometimes masked agents from the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency and the U.S. Marshals Service came with a battering ram, a sledgehammer, power saws and a locksmith.
They left Oaksterdam University carrying numerous file boxes, a safe and black trash bags. From other downtown properties, agents carried away sacks with dozens of marijuana plants. ...................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/04/03/MNBJ1NTK9T.DTL
Weed Witch Hunt
from the SF Chronicle:
Dozens of federal agents on Monday raided the Oakland businesses and apartment of Richard Lee, the state's most prominent advocate for the legalization and regulation of marijuana, carting away loads of pot and belongings but not revealing the purpose of their investigation.
The agents targeted Oaksterdam University, the internationally famous school that Lee established to train people in the marijuana industry, a medical cannabis dispensary called Coffeeshop Blue Sky, and three properties being rented by Lee, including his apartment near Lake Merritt.
The armed and sometimes masked agents from the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency and the U.S. Marshals Service came with a battering ram, a sledgehammer, power saws and a locksmith.
They left Oaksterdam University carrying numerous file boxes, a safe and black trash bags. From other downtown properties, agents carried away sacks with dozens of marijuana plants. ...................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/04/03/MNBJ1NTK9T.DTL
April 3, 2012
from the SF Chronicle:
The former nursing student who authorities say gunned down seven people at an Oakland Christian college left behind a string of debts and minor traffic citations in his former home state of Virginia, where he was evicted from one apartment complex. He also kept hunting and fishing licenses there for several years.
One Goh, 43, lived in Springfield and Hayes, Va., before moving to California, where he lived in Castro Valley and Oakland. He attended Oikos University before being kicked out several months ago.
Last year, Goh lost two family members, his mother and a brother.
His brother, U.S. Army Sgt. Su Wan Ko, died in March 2011 in an auto wreck in Virginia while on special forces training. ..........(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/04/02/BAVA1NTS8J.DTL#ixzz1qynnlPtv
Oakland shooting suspect had string of debts
from the SF Chronicle:
The former nursing student who authorities say gunned down seven people at an Oakland Christian college left behind a string of debts and minor traffic citations in his former home state of Virginia, where he was evicted from one apartment complex. He also kept hunting and fishing licenses there for several years.
One Goh, 43, lived in Springfield and Hayes, Va., before moving to California, where he lived in Castro Valley and Oakland. He attended Oikos University before being kicked out several months ago.
Last year, Goh lost two family members, his mother and a brother.
His brother, U.S. Army Sgt. Su Wan Ko, died in March 2011 in an auto wreck in Virginia while on special forces training. ..........(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/04/02/BAVA1NTS8J.DTL#ixzz1qynnlPtv
April 3, 2012
How Corporations Destroyed American Democracy - Chris Hedges.
Filmed at Socialism 2010 in Chicago by Paul Hubbard
Chris Hedges: How Corporations Destroyed American Democracy
How Corporations Destroyed American Democracy - Chris Hedges.
Filmed at Socialism 2010 in Chicago by Paul Hubbard
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