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5. Drug Wars Update

Mar-16-2012 | Comments (0)

Bird’s Eye: It does seem as though this story gets run in Tikkunista, over and over again. But like the glaciers, the drug prohibitions world wide are slowly melting as it gets clearer and clearer that the war on drugs only benefits those who make and run prisons. We look at a method that does seem to work, and at Latin America. And a useful factoid ends the section on a higher note.

* Drug Market Intervention The Economist

Police watched seven people sell drugs in Marshall Courts and Seven Oaks, two districts in south-eastern Newport News, in Virginia. They built strong cases against them. They shared that information with prosecutors. But then the police did something unusual: they sent the seven letters inviting them to police headquarters for a talk, promising that if they came they would not be arrested. Three came, and when they did they met not only police and prosecutors, but also family members, people from their communities, pastors from local churches and representatives from social-service agencies. Their neighbours and relatives told them that dealing drugs was hurting their families and communities. The police showed them the information they had gathered, and they offered the seven a choice: deal again, and we will prosecute you. Stop, and these people will help you turn your lives around…. This approach is known as drug-market intervention (DMI).

* Is It Time To Decriminalise Drugs? Al Jazeera English (Thanks, Gabe)

With trafficking-related violence increasing across Latin America, leaders call for policy changes.

As drug cartels expand their operations in Central America, the region is seeing the world’s highest homicide rates. Some Latin American leaders now say they are ready to discuss the decriminalisation of narcotics. We look at how the drug war between the military and the narco-traffickers impacts the people of Latin America.

* Colombia Set To Officially Decriminalization Drug Possession

The government of Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos is preparing legislation that will set “personal dose” amounts for drugs that will allow for their possession without the possibility of arrest or prosecution, the Bogota newspaper El Tiempo reported Tuesday. The decriminalization legislation could be presented as early this week, the newspaper said in its exclusive report.

Colombia was the first Latin American country to decriminalize drug possession after a ruling by its Constitutional Court in 1994. But during the presidency Santos’ predecessor, Alvaro Uribe, the government amended the constitution to criminalize drug use, effectively re-criminalizing drug possession.

Last year, the Colombian Supreme Court threw out Uribe’s changes, ruling that the possession of small quantities of drugs for personal use was a constitutional right. This pending legislation recognizes last year’s ruling and actualizes it by setting the “personal dose” amounts. The 56-page document seen by El Tiempo sets the “personal dose” amount at five grams for marijuana and one gram for cocaine. It also sets “personal dose” amounts of 200 milligrams, or three pills, for amphetamine-type stimulants, such as methamphetamine and MDMA.

* Useful fact: you would have to consume 1,500 pounds of marijuana in 15 minutes to overdose

…Simply stated, researchers have been unable to give animals enough marijuana to induce death.

3. Stratfor & Wikileaks

Mar-02-2012 | Comments (0)

Bird’s Eye: Wikileaks this week released 5 million documents from Stratfor, a right-wing research firm. Some chaff, but also some amazing stories. The first one is just mind-blowing.

* No Honour among Thieves Arms Merchants Ynet

WikiLeaks has released an e-mail exchange between employees of Stratfor, the US-based global intelligence company, which reveals Israel and Russia made a deal to swap access codes for defense and surveillance equipment.

According to the leaked document, Israel gave Russia the “data link codes” for unmanned aerial vehicles that the Jewish state sold to Georgia, and in return, Russia gave Israel the codes for Tor-M1 missile defense systems that Russia sold Iran.

* Top 5 Stratfor Revelations Juan Cole Informed Comment

Wikileaks is publishing internal memos of the Stratfor security analysis firm. A few tidbits have emerged in these very early days, to wit:

1. Up to 12 Pakistani active-duty and retired officers from the Inter-Services Intelligence agency knew that Usama Bin Laden was in Abbottabad and were in regular contact with him. The Pakistani chief of staff is denying the report.

2. Dow Chemicals hired Stratfor to spy on activists in Agra who continue to protest over the Bhopal environmental disaster that blinded many workers and destroyed their health. I.e., Stratfor was not just doing analysis but was involved in private intelligence operations against civil society groups that had a right to protest.

3. Stratfor Vice President Fred Burton, a former State Department official involved in counter-terrorism, lamented that in the old days the US would simply have assassinated Venezuelan leftist leader Hugo Chavez and Bolivian leftist leader Evo Morales.

* Wikileaks’ Stratfor Dump Lifts Lid On Intelligence-Industrial Complex Pratap Chatterjee Guardian

What price bad intelligence? …The most striking revelation from the latest disclosure is not simply the military-industrial complex that conspires to spy on citizens, activists and trouble-causers, but the extremely low quality of the information available to the highest bidder. Clients of the company include Dow Chemical, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon, as well as US government agencies like the Department of Homeland Security, the Defense Intelligence Agency and the Marines.

Analysts working on the Middle East for the company appeared to be very poorly informed, with no more experience than a semester of studying abroad, according to journalists who have studied the documents. “They used Google translate to read al-Akbar news articles,” says an incredulous Jamal Ghosn, associate editor of that newspaper in Beirut, Lebanon. “This is a guaranteed way for good intelligence to be lost in translation.”

Mike Bonnano of the Yes Men, a group of international pranksters who impersonate corporate executives and government leaders to highlight environmental and social abuses, was astonished to discover that his group was being tracked by Stratfor, which was apparently making money selling a list of his public-speaking engagements.

6. The Art of Protest

Feb-03-2012 | Comments (0)

Bird’s Eye: Protests: we march down the street, wave banners, and maybe click in the little box to send a prewritten letter to a preselected recipient. Doing that is better than not doing it… but here are a few more challenging acts of protest to emulate. The Target video is a must see. Adbusters, the Canadian group who catalyzed the Occupy protests is becoming a nexus for such actions.

* 5 Acts of Creative Disruption NationofChange

• When Target spent $150,000 to support a Minnesota politician who favors anti-gay legislation, thousands of people decided to boycott the big-box chain. But instead of simply shopping elsewhere, these activists turned to the popular musical-style TV show, GLEE, for inspiration. With choreography, a catchy tune, and Target accessories as props, they took shoppers and employees by surprise.

• To draw attention to the destructive practices of Enbridge, the oil company responsible for the 2010 spill in Michigan, pranksters The Yes Men—Mike Bonanno and Andy Bichlbaum—coordinated a campaign called “MyHairCares”: In the name of the company, they requested that salons send in discarded hair to be used as an oil sponge.

* Doll ‘Protesters’ Present Small Problem For Russian Police The Guardian (Thanks, Linda)

Russian police don’t take kindly to opposition protesters – even if they’re 5cm high and made of plastic.

Police in the Siberian city of Barnaul have asked prosecutors to investigate the legality of a recent protest that saw dozens of small dolls – teddy bears, Lego men, South Park figurines – arranged to mimic a protest, complete with signs reading: “I’m for clean elections” and “A thief should sit in jail, not in the Kremlin”.

“Political opposition forces are using new technologies to carry out public events – using toys with placards at mini-protests,” Andrei Mulintsev, the city’s deputy police chief, said at a press conference this week, according to local media. “In our opinion, this is still an unsanctioned public event.”

* Occupy Education Adbusters Culturejammer Headquarters (25 minute video)

For the past eight months Chilean high school students have shut down classrooms, organized massive street protests and refused to go to school. Watch this Al Jazeera report about Latin America’s most unequal education system and what young people there are doing to fight back.

7. Drug Cartels vs the World

Nov-04-2011 | Comments (0)

Bird’s Eye: Who you going to call? As Mexican drug cartels continue to grow in power, owning police and government in Mexico, killing investigative journalists, infiltrating the US, only one group appears willing or able to take them on. It’s time to update “the pen is mightier than the sword”, as soon as we find out whether the mouse is mightier than the gun.

* Anonymous Vs. the Zetas

In just the past few days, rumors of a showdown between Anonymous and the Zetas drug cartel have been the subject of a veritable media frenzy. Speculation about the scope of the confrontation abounds, fueled by several conflicting reports about the “hacktivist” group’s intentions. The source of the confusion is a YouTube video … which shows a masked speaker accusing the Zetas in Veracruz of having kidnapped a member of Anonymous in that state. As retribution, the individual claims that Anonymous will expose Zetas-linked police officers, officials and journalists unless their associate is released. “You made a great mistake in taking one of us; release him and if something happens to him, you [expletive] will remember the 5th of November.”

The ultimatum received little attention from Mexican media until STRATFOR picked up on the story and published an analysis of the incident. In their report, the global intelligence company points out that any individual that Anonymous names as a Zetas collaborator will likely be killed, “whether or not the information released is accurate.” The report also notes that the move opens up the hackers to reprisal attacks, as the Zetas have been known to target their online critics in the past. Three individuals were tortured and killed in Nuevo Laredo in two separate incidents in September, with signs left next to the bodies accusing them of reporting crimes on Internet forums.

…the incident is an illustration of the role that fear plays in the Zetas’ exercise of power. Anonymous members’ doubts about the operation are well-founded, as the Zetas are generally thought of as the most dangerous drug cartel in Mexico, who carry out brutal public revenge on their enemies. But as the hacking collective decided to go through with the operation, the Zetas could be in a highly vulnerable position. If they give in to Anonymous’ demands and free the kidnapping victim — presuming he or she exists — then they risk opening themselves up to further challenges to their authority.

* Dying For The Truth: Drug Cartels Target Journalists In Mexico Journalism•co•uk

Early last September, two female journalists were found dead in a park in Mexico City. The crime was attributed to the work of drug cartels. Ana María Yarce Viveros, the founder of the weekly magazine Contralinea, and Rocio González Trápaga, a freelance journalist, were kidnapped after leaving work on 31 August and were strangled to death later that night. Their murders brought the journalist death toll in Mexico to 80 since the year 2000.

Mexico is now considered to be the most dangerous country in the western hemisphere in which to practice journalism. “Reporters who choose to ignore the drug trafficking scene are usually safe,” explains Michael Forbes, the editor-in-chief of the Guadalajara Reporter newspaper. For the same reason, many newspapers have also deliberately stop covering stories related to drug-related crimes.

* Beyond the Border: Measuring Mexican Cartels’ Influence in the USInsight

A report released in August by the U.S. Department of Justice’s National Drug Intelligence Center [claims] that overall drug availability is increasing. According to the 2011 National Drug Threat Assessment, “heroin, marijuana, MDMA [otherwise known as ecstasy] and methamphetamine are readily available throughout the United States, and their availability is increasing in some markets.” The only exception to the trend is cocaine, which remains less available than it was prior to 2007, a year which drug officials claim to have caused a supply reduction. As InSight Crime has reported, however, the evidence for this drop is not decisive. Not surprisingly, the report shows that the southern border continues to act as a gateway for the vast majority of these drugs. As it turns out, however, the quantity and type of drug smuggled across the border varies by location. Whereas remote areas along the southern Arizona border are the site of large-scale shipments of marijuana, the NDIC claims this does not apply to all drugs. Instead, smugglers of cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine prefer to bring in their product in multiple, smaller shipments through border checkpoints in Texas and California. This means that a certain percentage will always be caught, but drug trafficking organizations rely on secret compartments, the law of averages and pay-offs to ensure that enough of the drugs get through to meet the level of wholesale demand in the U.S

10. World Travails

Sep-23-2011 | Comments (0)

Bird’s Eye: Big Picture shows us the student protests still ongoing in Chile, while In Focus shows us life in Peru, and Pakistan trying to deal with this year’s floods. Too much to be Eyecandy, to many great photos to be news. Take a look and file as you will.

* Student protests in Chile The Big Picture

* Scenes From Peru Alan Taylor – In Focus

* New Devastating Pakistan Floods Alan Taylor – In Focus

1. Cuba Anniversary: 50 Years since Bay of Pigs Invasion

Apr-22-2011 | Comments (0)

Bird’s Eye: We start our anniversary issue by looking at Cuba, which successfully defended itself fifty years ago against a US sponsored military invasion. The result has been an economic boycott, which has caused poverty and inspired huge domestic creativity. We offer two articles about the current political changes in Cuba, and a fine Big Picture look back at the revoluçion and at the present Cuban world.

* Cuba: Viva the capitalist revolution? Al Jazeera

Communist Party big wigs are holding their first convention in 14 years from April 16-19. They are debating plans to improve Cuba’s inefficient economy and seem to be relying on some standard prescriptions of capitalist austerity: Firing one million public sector workers, increasing foreign investment in key industries and eliminating some food subsidies.

…Anxiety aside, the Congress has already produced some surprising proposals. Raul Castro, who took over his brother Fidel’s role as president in 2008, stated that top positions in the Communist Party – including his own – should be limited to two five-year terms. One of the Castro boys has ruled Cuban since the revolution in 1959. It is difficult to know how these decisions transpired or what power relations are at play behind the speeches supporting socialism and the stage managed calls for change.

* Thoughts of reform in Cuba Live Mint

Cuba’s Raul Castro this week took over as head of the ruling Communist Party. And with his accession in a four-day congress, Cuba approved hundreds of political and economic reform measures that even a few years ago would have been unthinkable.

Some are indeed startling for a country that has till now been one of the last true bastions of socialism in the world. In a clear nod to the right to private property (one of the plinths of capitalism), Cubans may now be able to buy and sell homes and cars. Havana also promises to open up the private sector and, in a land where the government pays for pretty much everything, cut down on state spending

* Cuba Looks Back – And Forward - The Big Picture

6. Man Vs Nature

Apr-22-2011 | Comments (0)

Bird’s Eye: In the US it’s the corporations which have equal rights to humans… but in Bolivia, it’s Mother Earth that does. Read the astounding new laws coming out of the resurgence in the Andean spiritual view based on the Pachamama… then contrast it to what’s happening nearer home. Wonder what the Bolivian immigration rules are….

* Bolivia enshrines natural world’s rights with equal status for Mother Earth The Guardian

Bolivia is set to pass the world’s first laws granting all nature equal rights to humans. The Law of Mother Earth, now agreed by politicians and grassroots social groups, redefines the country’s rich mineral deposits as “blessings” and is expected to lead to radical new conservation and social measures to reduce pollution and control industry.

The country, which has been pilloried by the US and Britain in the UN climate talks for demanding steep carbon emission cuts, will establish 11 new rights for nature. They include: the right to life and to exist; the right to continue vital cycles and processes free from human alteration; the right to pure water and clean air; the right to balance; the right not to be polluted; and the right to not have cellular structure modified or genetically altered.Controversially, it will also enshrine the right of nature “to not be affected by mega-infrastructure and development projects that affect the balance of ecosystems and the local inhabitant communities”.

* Toxic Chemicals Injected Into Wells New York Times

Oil and gas companies injected hundreds of millions of gallons of hazardous or carcinogenic chemicals into wells in more than 13 states from 2005 to 2009, according to an investigation by Congressional Democrats. The chemicals were used by companies during a drilling process known as hydraulic fracturing, or hydrofracking, which involves the high-pressure injection of a mixture of water, sand and chemical additives into rock formations deep underground. The process, which is being used to tap into large reserves of natural gas around the country, opens fissures in the rock to stimulate the release of oil and gas.

Hydrofracking has attracted increased scrutiny from lawmakers and environmentalists in part because of fears that the chemicals used during the process can contaminate underground sources of drinking water…. The report, released late Saturday, also faulted companies for at times “injecting fluids containing chemicals that they themselves cannot identify.”

* The Prometheus Tree Wikipedia

Prometheus was the nickname given to the oldest known non-clonal organism, a Great Basin Bristlecone Pine (Pinus longaeva) tree growing near the tree line on Wheeler Peak in eastern Nevada, USA. The tree, which was at least 4862 years old and likely approaching or over 5000 years, was cut down in 1964 by a graduate student and U.S. Forest Service personnel for research purposes

6. Good News: Health and Wealth

Mar-25-2011 | Comments (0)

Bird’s Eye: Sometimes there is improvement in the world, and amidst the gore and war stories you don’t hear about it. Here are three unquestionable improvements in the world, one economic and two medical.

* New Consumer Class Powering Economic Growth Across South America The Washington Post

From Paraguay to Chile and Brazil to Peru, a growing middle class armed with cheap credit and new confidence in the future is contributing to the most vigorous economic expansion in decades. The growth in South America is still largely driven by Asia-bound exports of copper, iron ore, tin, meat and soybeans. But economists now talk of a new dynamic that reflects the stronger foundation of more-mature economies: increasingly affluent consumer societies.

* Cancer Survivors in U.S. Rise by 20% in 6 Years The New York Times

“There’s still a concept that cancer is a death sentence,” said Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control. But, he said, “for many people with cancer there’s a need for them and their families and caregivers to recognize that this is a stage. They can live a long and healthy life.” About 65 percent of cancer survivors have lived at least five years since receiving their diagnosis, 40 percent have lived 10 years or more, and nearly 10 percent have lived 25 years or longer.

* Life Expectancy: And Now For the Good News Rob Lyons

Given the number of health panics we are constantly bombarded with, you’d think we all had one foot in the grave. One way or another, it seems, we’re going to eat, drink or smoke ourselves to an early grave. That is, if bird flu or some other horrible lurgy doesn’t get us first. But the reality is that we’re living longer, in spite of those things.

Last week, a paper in the International Journal of Epidemiology provided chapter and verse on this good news story. In Western Europe, since 1970, life expectancy has typically increased by between six and eight years. Moreover, as the author David Leon notes, these trends are ‘overwhelmingly driven by changes in mortality in adult life, not in infancy or childhood’. Some of this is due to the gradual decline in smoking, but much of it is also due to improvements in the treatment of disease. That’s important because it means there some basis to hope that these trends will continue for some time, whereas the room for improvement at the start of life is more limited.

2. It’s Good News Week

Sep-03-2010 | Comments (0)

Bird’s-Eye: There are positive changes happening in the world, and there is reason for optimism. Stephen Walt explores five positive global news stories; we look at the continuing transformation of Latin America; and Germany bans Monsanto GMO corn. And a strong (and visually brilliant) argument that humans are becoming more empathetic. And for those who can’t take good news straight, and need a shot of wry, here’s the 1960’s Hedgehoppers Anonymous song, “It’s Good News Week”

* The International System Is Not All Gloom And Doom Stephen M. Walt

Despite current economic woes, the long-term implications of climate change, and the looming fiscal problems facing states, local governments, and plenty of other countries too, there is plenty of good news out there as well. Amid all the insecurity and tragedy of modern life, there is much to celebrate. Every day, all around the world, millions of people are finding love, expressing joy, dissolving in peals of laughter, making a new discovery, or enjoying the quiet satisfaction of doing a job well and with purpose. Every day, countless anonymous acts of kindness and respect are binding diverse and complicated societies together, and help thwart those who would rather drive us into our separate tribes and keep us isolated and afraid. So in that spirit, today I wanted to highlight five “good news” stories in the current world scene, in no particular order of importance….

* The Transformation Of Latin America Is A Global Advance Seumas Milne The Guardian

Nearly two centuries after it won nominal independence and Washington declared it a backyard, Latin America is standing up. The tide of progressive change that has swept the continent for the past decade has brought to power a string of social democratic and radical socialist governments that have attacked social and racial privilege, rejected neoliberal orthodoxy and challenged imperial domination of the region.

Its significance is often underestimated or trivialised in Europe and North America. But along with the rise of China, the economic crash of 2008 and the demonstration of the limits of US power in the “war on terror”, the emergence of an independent Latin America is one of a handful of developments reshaping the global order. From Ecuador to Brazil, Bolivia to Argentina, elected leaders have turned away from the IMF, taken back resources from corporate control, boosted regional integration and carved out independent alliances across the world.

* Monsanto Uprooted :: Germany Bans Cultivation of GM Corn BreakTheMatrix

The sowing season may be just around the corner, but this year German farmers will not be planting gentically modified crops: German Agriculture Minister Ilse Aigner announced Tuesday she was banning the cultivation of GM corn in Germany. Under the new regulations, the cultivation of MON 810, a GM corn produced by the American biotech giant Monsanto, will be prohibited in Germany, as will the sale of its seed. Aigner told reporters Tuesday she had legitimate reasons to believe that MON 810 posed “a danger to the environment,” a position which she said the Environment Ministry also supported.

* The Empathic Civilisation Jeremy Rifkin RSA Animate -YouTube

Bestselling author, political adviser and social and ethical prophet Jeremy Rifkin investigates the evolution of empathy and the profound ways that it has shaped our development and our society.

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