by Patrick Mathangani
Plans by Mau Mau veterans to sue the British government for reparations have gathered momentum following the completion of the first stage of collecting evidence from former freedom fighters.

Nearly 100 former freedom fighters have recorded statements detailing a shocking catalogue of injuries, deaths and injustices meted by colonial forces in the 1950s, The Standard has established.

And excitement is building up among members of a team preparing the case, following the impending publication of the first book ever detailing the brutal torture of Mau Mau fighters by the colonial government.

The book, Imperial Reckoning – TheUntold Story of the End of the Empire in Kenya, is being hailed as a shot in the arm for the case because of the amount of torture evidence it reveals.

The bestiality of punishment detailed in the book by Harvard Professor Caroline Elkins has been compared to the infamous treatment of Iraqi prisoners in the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad.

Full Article:eastandard.net

Abu Ghraib has set the gold standard for bestiality.

by John Reed
Ibrahimo Soba, a traditional healer, sees patients in his one-room practice on the outskirts of Maputo, Mozambique’s capital. As incense wafts and Brazilian telenovelas blare from a television set, he dispenses herbal remedies for an array of afflictions including tuberculosis, impotence and increasingly HIV/Aids.

For patients recently infected with HIV, Mr Soba prescribes a thrice-daily regimen of palm oil, rock salt and an indigenous herb called tondulo dissolved in water. He also slices their arms with a razor and administers a “vaccine”.

It is made of HIV-infected dried blood burned first, he insists, “to avoid reinfecting people”. Like many of his peers, he claims he can purge HIV from some infected patients’ bodies, a feat not yet managed by western medicine.

Millions of Africans seeking health care or spiritual comfort turn first to traditional healers such as Mr Soba. The World Health Organisation estimates that up to 80 per cent of the continent’s population uses traditional medicine.

Healers form an ancient and enduring part of the social fabric. They are trusted figures in areas where bewitchment or ancestral wrath are commonly believed to be causes of disease.

But the Aids epidemic has focused new attention and sparked a lively debate on the role of the largely unregulated sector. With life-prolonging antiretroviral (ARV) drugs available to only a minority of the estimated 25m Africans with HIV, traditional healers have been quick to step in. South Africa, with an estimated 5.6m with HIV, passed its first law regulating their work in September.

Authorities in Mozambique, where about 14 per cent of the population is HIV-positive, are trying to rein in unscrupulous practitioners who charge large sums for Aids “cures”. In extreme cases traditional healers can endanger patients’ health by re-using razor blades or concocting remedies using untreated water.

“Most traditional healers try to follow basic health rules,” says Dr Joao Manuel Carvalho Fumane, director of Mozambique’s National Institute of Health. “But we also realise we have charlatans people who claim they are a kind of god that can save people and solve all their problems.”

Mozambican newspapers abound in advertisements promising to treat Aids or, in one commonly used euphemism, “incurable diseases”.

Mozambique, unlike many other African countries, has an Aids treatment plan that aims to put up to 400,000 people on ARVs over five years. But given the limits of the health infrastructure Dr Carvalho Fumane estimates that ARVs will reach only about half the people who need them.

Full Article: ft.com

I would suggest that superior Westerners who mock traditional medicine should keep their mouths shut until they find a cure for AIDS. Also, if they are so concerned about ‘charlatans,’ you’d think they would come up with enough ARV’s to treat everyone. Pharmaceutical corporations have raised charlatanism to a high art: takes one to know one.

President Hugo Chavez Frias has declared war on still rampant corruption five years after he won the Presidency of the Republic of Venezuela on a ticket to get rid of more than forty years of endemic corruption that saw multi millionaires made out of the pseudo-democratic politicians and businessmen who had pillaged the country since the fall of the last military dictatorship in the mid fifties.

Pledging a “fight to the death” against corruption, 50-year-old Chavez Frias has urged his loyal supporters to give up their material possessions and give everything to their country to pull it back from the brink of bankruptcy in which it was left by octogenarian President Dr. Rafael Caldera in 1998.

The President’s pledge came as anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International ranked Venezuela 114th in a survey of 146 countries suffering from serious levels of corruption.

Chavez has pulled no punches since winning a recall referendum in August, to accuse government ministers, army generals and many of his hangers-on of amassing to themselves a wealth which is well in excess of their government salaries.

Political opponents from among the disenfranchised political parties (Accion Democratica and the Christian Socialists) that corrupted Venezuela for nearly half a century has sniped at Chavez Frias social welfare and health programs for the poor as a “robo-lution” (robbery revolution) and in a reversal of their own roles in previous administrations are now claiming rampant corruption in the administration that replaced their own.

Chavez Frias supporters and independent observers of the Venezuelan domestic-political scene claim, however, that corruption was worse before Chavez took office in February 1999 and that Chavez has done much more than any previous President to ensure that oil wealth is distributed fairly to Venezuela’s 80% poor and not spirited away to corrupt politicians’ feather-bedded bank accounts in Florida et.al.

Chavez says: “Let’s fight to the death against corruption … I don’t have a house or a car, nor do I want one … when I leave this job I’ll sling my hammock somewhere. … I don’t have a farm or cattle.”

Full Article: vheadline.com

by Jonathan Fowler
GENEVA – People are plundering the world’s resources at a pace that outstrips the planet’s capacity to sustain life, the environmental group WWF said Thursday.

In its regular Living Planet Report, the World Wide Fund for Nature said humans currently consume 20 percent more natural resources than the earth can produce.

Consumption of fossil fuels such as coal, gas and oil increased by almost 700 percent between 1961 and 2001, it said. But the planet is unable to move as fast to absorb the resulting carbon-dioxide emissions that degrade the earth’s protective ozone layer.

“We are spending nature’s capital faster than it can regenerate,” said WWF chief Claude Martin, launching the conservation body’s 40-page study.

“We are running up an ecological debt which we won’t be able to pay off unless governments restore the balance between our consumption of natural resources and the earth’s ability to renew them.”

Populations of terrestrial, freshwater and marine species fell on average by 40 percent between 1970 and 2000, the study said. It cited destruction of natural habitats, pollution, overfishing and the introduction by humans of nonnative animals, such as cats and rats, which often drive out indigenous species.

“The question is how the world’s entire population live with the resources of one planet,” said Jonathan Loh, one of the report’s authors.

Full Article:commondreams.org

by Jesse Sharkey
We first began to realize something was wrong when teams of teams of men with suits and clipboards began walking through the halls of our high school during the first week of classes. We had heard that the U.S. Navy was planning to open a “Naval Academy” on Chicago’s North Side, but it never occurred to us that they would try to put it in our building. After all, we were already using our building!

Nonetheless, it became clear that the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) was in fact targeting our school after we crashed a meeting at the 48th ward alderman’s office–and discovered that CPS was planning a “community forum” at Senn to sell the idea.

In some ways, Senn High School is a pretty typical “inner-city” school. Ninety-two percent of our students are poor. We don’t have lots of resources, our building needs paint, and our students are not the ones who test into the fancy magnet programs.

But in other ways, our school is a remarkable community resource, with plenty of morale. Our students come from 70 nationalities, speak 57 different languages and still maintain a sense of unity and mutual respect. Senn students have performed 70,000 hours of community service over the past five years and have been recognized with a national service award. Senn has also developed some of the city’s most successful academic programs for at-risk kids.

So instead of waiting for the ax to fall, we began to fight back. We researched the effect that the military takeover would have on our school and community, and wrote fact sheets. We made flyers about our concerns and put up 3,500 of them, with another 500 in Spanish. We reached out and met with community organizations, launched a Web site, wrote press releases and organized to get people out to support us. On October 5, we brought about 700 people out to the CPS forum at our school.

The mood in the room was electric. Students had been preparing all week–they had written speeches, drawn dozens of handmade signs and brought along many of their parents. When CPS officials tried to show us a slick promotional video about the Navy ROTC program, the room rebelled. The entire audience stood up and turned its back to the presentation.

David Pickens, the deputy chief of staff for schools CEO Arne Duncan, glared at the angry crowd for the next five minutes in a dramatic standoff, while the heckling grew louder. Then someone in the audience started to chant “We say no,” and soon, the whole crowd was booming its opposition.

counterpunch.org

A video showing Margaret Hassan, the kidnapped director of aid agency Care International, pleading for British troops to be withdrawn from Iraq was today broadcast on Arabic television.

The al-Jazeera channel screened footage showing the Dublin-born Ms Hassan, who has lived in Iraq for more than 30 years, weeping as she appealed for help.

“Please help me,” she begged. “This might be my last hour. Please help me. The British people, tell Mr Blair to take the troops out of Iraq and not bring them here to Baghdad. That’s why people like myself and Mr [Kenneth] Bigley have been caught. Please, please, I beg of you.”

Ms Hassan’s appeal was aired three days after she was abducted by gunmen on her way to work in western Baghdad.

“I don’t want to die like Bigley,” she said, again referring to the British hostage whose execution was shown in a video posted on an Islamist website this month.

An editor at al-Jazeera, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the Associated Press that the network had received the tape today, but refused to say who had handed it to them. He said the tape did not include any claim of responsibility, and did not show any of the kidnappers.

Dozens of foreigners have been kidnapped in Iraq over the last year, and at least 32 of those have been killed.

Full Article: Guardian UK

by Laura King
JERUSALEM — Increasingly concerned about Iran’s nuclear program, Israel is weighing its options and has not ruled out a military strike to prevent the Islamic Republic from gaining the capability to build atomic weapons, according to policymakers, military officials, analysts and diplomats.

Israel would much prefer a diplomatic agreement to shut down Iran’s uranium enrichment program, but if it concluded that Tehran was approaching a “point of no return,” it would not be deterred by the difficulty of a military operation, the prospect of retaliation or the international reaction, officials and analysts said.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (news – web sites) and his top aides have been asserting for months that a nuclear-armed Iran would pose a clear threat to Israel’s existence. They have repeatedly threatened, in elliptical but unmistakable terms, to use force if diplomacy and the threat of sanctions fail.

Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz told the Yediot Aharonot newspaper last month that “all options” were being weighed to prevent Iran from achieving nuclear weapons capability. The army chief of staff, Moshe Yaalon, declared: “We will not rely on others.”

news.yahoo.com/LA Times

Many states are facing legal challenges over possible voting problems Nov. 2. A look at some of the developments Friday:

COLORADO:

– The state’s top election official told The Associated Press that Colorado could be one of several states that may hold up the results of the presidential election for days or even weeks because of new voting rules and potential legal fights. Political experts have expressed similar concerns about Colorado in recent weeks.

– Several voters have sued election officials in Boulder County, accusing them of violating the state constitution by printing serial numbers and bar codes on ballots. The voters believe the ballots could lead to an invasion of privacy. But officials say voters will not be matched to the serial numbers.

MARYLAND:

A federal judge blocked electronic voting opponents from stationing people at polling places to watch for problems with the state’s machines on Election Day. The opponents claim the state has covered up problems with e-voting machines.

OHIO:

– The U.S. Justice Department got involved in a court fight over provisional ballots in Ohio, siding with the Republican secretary of state in a legal dispute that could have national implications. The battleground state’s handling of provisional ballots could prove key in a close election.

– Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader asked the U.S. Supreme Court to order his name placed on the ballot in Ohio. The filing follows two defeats for the Nader campaign in courts in Ohio.

PENNSYLVANIA:

Republican lawmakers have accused Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell of trying to suppress military votes for President Bush by failing to push for an extension of the deadline to accept overseas military and civilian ballots. Democrats said there wasn’t a “single shred of evidence” to back up the claim.

SOUTH DAKOTA:

The attorney general said six Republican notary publics face misdemeanor charges for illegally notarizing absentee ballot applications filled out on college campuses. The attorney general said there’s no evidence of fraud, but the applications in question will likely be challenged in court.

Guardian UK

PRETORIA (Reuters) – South Africa on Friday defended its warming of relations with Israel, criticized by pro-Palestinian groups, and said it would play an even hand in its attempt to help find a solution to the Middle East conflict.

President Thabo Mbeki met Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Pretoria on Friday behind closed doors as part of a series of meetings by Mbeki’s black-led government with factions in the Palestinian conflict.

South Africa says it hopes to use its experience in negotiating the end of white rule to help bring peace in Israel, but has also been a vocal critic of Israel’s security polices.

“It’s not a question of warming up of relations, it’s a continuation, so that we can extend out contacts with factions of the Israeli society,” Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad said after Mbeki and Olmert posed for photographers.

“We are not mediators, we want to use our own experience to help them,” he told a news conference. “We will criticize actions, for instance of Israeli defense forces occupying territories and at the same time criticize actions of the Palestinian groups, such as suicide bombing.”

He said South Africa wanted to see a legitimate Palestinian state living side by side with Israel behind secure borders.

Pahad said talks to discuss broad issues covering peace in the Middle East would continue later in the day.

South Africa’s willingness to talk to the Israeli government, and its position as Israel’s largest trading partner in Africa, has angered some pro-Palestinian activists drawn mainly from its economically influential Muslim minority.

The Palestinian Solidarity Group this week accused Pretoria of “squandering the moral high ground” by forging links with Israel, while other activists accused South Africa of purposely keeping Olmert’s visit a hush-hush affair to limit protests.

Full Article: Reuters

JOHANNESBURG, Oct. 20 – The exiled former president of Haiti, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, angrily denied accusations on Wednesday that he was fomenting violence in his homeland and accused Haiti’s interim leader of brutally suppressing dissent.

Gang and political violence has killed more than 50 Haitians in the past two weeks.

“Latortue, stop the lying, stop the killings,” Mr. Aristide said in a statement from South Africa directed at Gérard Latortue, Haiti’s interim prime minister.

“True dialogue is the only solution. With the lives of millions at stake, public officials must act responsibly,” he said in the statement.

Mr. Aristide has been in South Africa since May after he was forced into exile in February in what he says was a coup engineered by the United States.

The statement was his first public reaction to an attack from Mr. Latortue last Sunday. In it, Mr. Latortue accused Thabo Mbeki, the president of South Africa, of allowing Mr. Aristide to direct a violent campaign in Haiti by his supporters.

Full Article: Reuters