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Today's
Stories
April
22, 2004
John
L. Hess
The New York Times from 30,000 Feet
April
21, 2004
Gary
Leupp
Yeats on Iraq
Alfredo
Castro
Colombia's Forgotten Prisoners
Dr.
Susan Block
Bush's Taliban Drug Deal
William
A. Cook
George 1 to George 2
Jack
Random
Iraq and Vietnam
Jean-Guy
Allard
Alarcon Meets the Editors
Mike
Whitney
Charade in the Desert
Bill
Christison
Only Major Policies Changes Can
Help Washington Now
April 20, 2004
Dave
Lindorff
Bush and Kerry Share a Problem
Stan
Cox
Wal-Mart's Magic Numbers
Bruce
Anderson
On Listening to Air America
Joseph
Kalvoda
Czech Mate for Condi
Greg
Moses
Yesterday's Intelligence
Stan
Goff
The Democrats and Iraq
Website
of the Day
Santorum Happens
April 19, 2004
Kurt
Nimmo
The "Central Hand" of the
Resistance
Mike
Whitney
Bob Woodward's Imperial Trifles
Douglas
Valentine
52 Pick-Up and the 100-to-1
Rule
John
Chuckman
The Sharon Annex: Evil Does Often
Triumph
Doug
Giebel
Welcome to the Club
Rahul
Mahajan
Hospital Closings and War Crimes
April
16 / 18, 2004
Robert
Fisk
Bush Legitimizes Terror
Saul
Landau
Subverting Brazil and Cuba
Dave
Lindorff
Paying for War: $2,150 per Family
and Counting
Brandy
Baker
Fallujah's Collateral Damage
Mickey
Z.
The Left Attacks from the Right
Bruce
Jackson
The Bush Press Conference: Gott Mit
Uns
Norman
Solomon
How the "NewsHour" Changed
History
Alexander
Cockburn
Bush, Kerry and Empire
April
15, 2004
Greg
Moses
Follow the Families, Not the Script
Virginia
Tilley
The Carnage According to Gen. Kimmitt:
Just Change the Channel
Ron
Jacobs
They Coulda Been Champions of the
World: Hurricane Carter and Ron Kovic
Michael
Neumann
A Happy Compromise: Hate Crimes
Reporting in the Toronto Globe and Mail
April
14, 2004
Tom
Reeves
Return to Haiti: an American Learning
Zone
Reza
Fiyouzat
Japan and Iraq
Ron
Jacobs
What Bush Really Said
Diane
Christian
The Real Passion
April 10 /
12, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
The
Greatest Radical Journalist of His Age
Patrick Cockburn
Ambush, Kidnap, Murder: Another Day in "Post War" Iraq
Ellen Cantarow
Health Under Siege on the West Bank
Tariq Ali
Iraqi
Resistance: a New Phase
Werther
Pseudoconservatism Revisited: When God is Pro War & Other
Delicacies
Robert Fisk
Bush's War Lords to Their Critics: "Just Shut Up"
Gary Leupp
Indian Wars, Vietnam and Orientalist Fantasy
Ron Jacobs
The Iranian Revolution, Cont.
Jorge Mariscal
Perils of the Bootstrap
Phil Gasper
Defying Stereotypes About Death Row
Dave Zirin
Bringing the Black Freedom Struggle Into Sports: an Interview
with Lee Evans
Brandy Baker
The Revolution is Playing at a Theater Near You
Mickey Z.
Underground Music is Free Media: an Interview with Twiin
Ali Tonak
Get Ready for the Million Worker March
Harry Browne
Asking the Wrong Question About Richard Clarke & 9/11
Gideon Samet
The Sharonizing of America
Conn Hallinan
Remote Control Warriors
Website of
the Weekend
Taboo
Tunes
April 9, 2004
Robert Fisk
This
War's Simple Truth: Iraqis Do Not Want Us
John L. Hess
The
Non-Confessions of a Warrior Princess: Condi on the Stand
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Condoleezza's Condescensions
Christopher Brauchli
Holes in the Sky: Bush's Crazed Missile Defense Plan
Don Santina
Forget the Alamo!: Glorifying the Fight for Slavery in Texas
William S. Lind
The 4G Warfare Seminar, Cont.
Bill Christison
9/11
Commission is Bush's New Lapdog
Website of the Day
What We've Done to Fallujah
April 8,
2004
Wayne Madsen
Rice
(and the Record) Proves It: Bush Knew, But Failed to Act
Kurt Nimmo
Will
Bush Flatten Fallajuh?
Patrick Cockburn
Guided
Missile; Misguided War
Laura Flanders
Steamed
Rice
Larry Everest
What Condi Rice is Hiding
Adam Federman
Sacred Capitalism Hits Russia
M. Junaid Alam
The Iraqi Intifada Begins
Norman Solomon
The Quest for a Monopoly on Violence
Douglas Valentine
Echoes
of Vietnam: Phoenix, Assassination and Blowback in Iraq
Website of the Day
Xispas: Chicano Art, Culture and Politics
April 7, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Those
Pulitzers!
Sen. Robert
Byrd
Deeper
into the Mouth of Hell: We Must Find the Exit from Iraq
Ron Jacobs
Tet
in Iraq: Closer to the Cosmic Disaster?
Patrick Cockburn
Battles
Across Iraq: US Death Toll Mounts
Kathy Kelly
Pacification: Worth the Price?
Sonali Kolhatkar
What Are You Doing About Afghanistan?
Rahul Mahajan
Report from Baghdad: Opening the Gates of Hell
Robert Fisk
US Airlifts Saddam to Qatar
Mike Whitney
America Out of Iraq, Now!
Sam Hamod
Bush, Pandora's Box and the Tiger
April 6,
2004
C.G. Estabrook
Mercenaries
and Occupiers
William Blum
The
Anti-Empire Report: the Israel Lobby
Col. Dan Smith
The
Language of Disbelief: 1.3 Billion Still Live in War Zones
Dr. Bulent Gokay
The Coming Islamic Republic of Iraq?
Lynn Landes
Faking Democracy: Americans Don't Vote; Machines Do
Sheila Samples
What Would Royko Write?
Jason Leopold
Condi's Blind Spot: Rice Never Mentioned al-Qaeda
Mickey Z.
A Reality Show with No End in Sight
Robert Fisk
Iraq on the Brink of Anarchy
April 5, 2004
John Farrell
Lessons
from El Salvador and Iraq
Robert Fisk
Bloodbath
a Bad Omen for Bush
Gary Leupp
Shiites Say No: Another "Nightmare
Scenario"
April 3 / 4, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Anti-Depressants
a Problem? We're Shocked
Jeffrey St. Clair
How Neil Bush Succeeded in Business
Without Really Trying
Gary Leupp
On Jefferson, Diderot and the Political Uses of God
Lawrence Davidson
Orwell and Kafka in Israel / Palestine
Frederick B.
Hudson
Condi Rice: the Family Retainer
Phillip Cryan
The Magic of Coca-Cola: Colombian Workers, Civil Rights and Advertising
Dave Zirin
Lester Speaks: an Interview with Lester "Red" Rodney
Ben Tripp
Talking Dirty: Obscene But Not Heard
Bruce Anderson
Phony Liberals and Fake Concern for the Homeless
Bill Fletcher, Jr.
Justice and Legitimacy in Haiti
Mark Scaramella
Do You Have What It Takes to Be Sec. of Defense? Take the Rumsfeld
Quiz
Sharon Smith
Do Most Iraqis Really Want the US to Stay?
Rick Giombetti
Melissa Ann Rowland: a Witch for Our Time
Nader/Kerry
Quandary
Stephen Gowans
Communists
for Capitalism?
Frank Bardacke / Doug Lummis
Support Nader; Dump Bush: an Election Manifesto
Mickey Z
Turn ON
Saul Landau
Kerry: a Less Dangerous Imperialist?
Richard Oxman
Nader and/or Death?
Poets' Basement
Holt, LaMorticella, Davies, Albert and Tripp
Website of the Weekend
Missing
April 2, 2004
Dave Lindorff
Barbaric
Relativism: the Press and Fallujah
Kurt Nimmo
Wherever
Bush Goes, Osama is Bound to Follow
Emma Miller
The
Role of the West in the Rwandan Genocide
Dr. Susan Block
Same
Sex Marriages: Just Say "No" to Prohibition
Norman Solomon
Media Strategy Memo for George & Dick
Sacha Guney
The Meaning of the Elections in Turkey
Christopher
Brauchli
The
Disturbing Case of Cpt. Yee
Website of the Day
Mercenaries, Inc.
April 1, 2004
Ron Jacobs
Dying in Vain in Iraq
Harry Browne
No Smoke, Plenty of Fire: Ireland's Pubs Go Smokefree
Chris Floyd
Towel Boy: Bush Hits Workers with Chemical Weapons
Nicole Colson
Inside America's Concentration Camp: Tortured at Guantanamo
Charles Arthur
Haiti's Army Cracks Down on Workers
Laura Flanders
Elaine
Chao: a First Daughter for the First Son
March 31, 2004
M. Junaid Alam
Israel:
Suicide Nation?
John L. Hess
Condi
Under Oath: But What About the NYTs Reporters?
Fernando Suarez
del Solar
A
Year Since My Son's Death in Iraq
Sofia Perez
Spain's
U-Turn on Iraq is Real Democracy in Action
David Vest
Stick 'Em Up: Put Cheney and Bush Under Oath
Tanya Reinhart
As in Tiannamen Square: Justice and the Yassin Assassination
Mike Whitney
Time to Dump the Pledge
Donald Kaul
Martha Stewart's Lesson: Never Talk to the FBI
Milt Bearden
Mired in the Tracks of Alexander the Great
Marjorie Cohn
The
Illegal Coup in Haiti: How the Kidnapping of Aristide Violated
US and International Law
Website of the Day
New Pentagon Papers Dropped at DC Starbucks
Hot Stories
Alexander Cockburn
Behold,
the Head of a Neo-Con!
Subcomandante
Marcos
The
Death Train of the WTO
Norman Finkelstein
Hitchens
as Model Apostate
Steve Niva
Israel's
Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings?
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Sheldon
Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of Propaganda
in the Iraq War
Wendell
Berry
Small Destructions Add Up
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click
Here for More Stories.
|
April
22, 2004
Why They Fast
Hunger
Strike Remembers Victims of World Bank
By ROBERT JENSEN
For tourists interested in democracy,
the best attraction in Washington, DC, from April 23-26 will
be the World Bank at 1818 H St. NW.
It's not what is inside the
building that is worth the stop those days, but the three people
who will be across the street on a symbolic hunger strike "to
commemorate the forgotten people in the Bank's 60-year history,
those whose right to development has been violated by the very
institution that claims to listen to the voices of the poor."
The action, which will coincide
with the Bank's and International Monetary Fund's annual meetings,
is at odds with the Bank's campaign to cast itself as the new
champion of the downtrodden. "The global imbalance between
rich and poor countries must be urgently addressed if the world
is to prosper into the 21st century," reads the news release.
Beyond the slick statements
of Bank officials, we should look to the experience of the people
who deal directly with the Bank. As Indian activist Medha Patkar
put it in an interview this fall: "The existing development
process is skewed; in the name of development, it leaves a large
majority of our population out of the real benefits of this growth
model." Instead of promoting a more democratic system, "institutions
like the World Bank undermine the process of community participation
within the country," Patkar said. (Read
the whole interview)
Angana Chatterji (anthropology
professor, California Institute of Integral Studies), Dana Clark
(president, International Accountability Project, Berkeley, CA)
and Dickson Mundia (founder, Basilwizi Trust, Zimbabwe) hope
their strike will inject some reality into the Bank's publicity
campaign by highlighting the devastating effects on people evicted
from their lands and homes as a result of projects financed by
the Bank.
Their statement, excepted below,
deserves close study and consideration by those engaged in the
global-justice and anti-empire movements in the United States.
For the full version, with the list of demands and a place to
endorse, go to: http://www.aidindia.org/wbfast/
* *
*
Why Are We Fasting?
We are here to commemorate
the forgotten people in the Bank's 60-year history, those whose
right to development has been violated by the very institution
that claims to listen to the voices of the poor. We are bearing
witness to situations across the globe where the Bank's lending
has violated its mandate and its policy framework, and we are
undertaking a fast to call attention to this aspect of the Bank's
legacy. We stand in solidarity with those who have suffered devastating
impacts after having been evicted from their lands and their
homes to make way for Bank-financed projects.
We are here to call on the
Bank to abandon its indifference to the plight of people who
are suffering from the effects of these failures, and instead
to respect the rights of project-affected people, and to support
the right to development for those marginalized and impoverished
communities that have borne the brunt of 60 years of lending
dangerously.
Over the past sixty years,
the Bank has supported projects that, in the name of development,
have led to the displacement of tens of millions of people. Nobody
knows exactly how many people have been displaced by Bank projects
over time, because the Bank has been negligent in keeping track.
However, the reality is that World Bank-financed dam projects
alone have displaced ten million people over the years. The World
Bank's own research has shown that most people who are involuntarily
resettled do not easily regain their previous standard of living,
much less benefit from the project and have their standard of
living improved, as called for by Bank policy.
We are gravely concerned by
the role played by the World Bank in funding and legitimizing
many projects that have come to represent a legacy of implementation
difficulties, of underestimated and under-resourced externalities
and costs, costs which are borne by those least able to bear
them. The Kariba dam in Zimbabwe and Zambia, built during a time
of British colonial occupation in the 1950s, has been an enduring
source of misery for 50 years for the Tonga people. The Singrauli
coal-fired plants in India, financed by the Bank from the mid-70s
to the early 90s, have wreaked havoc on the lives of hundreds
of thousands of people. The Yacyreta dam in Paraguay and Argentina,
financed in the 1980s and early 1990s by the World Bank and Inter-American
Development Bank, has been the subject of multiple inspection
panel claims and yet problems still persist and effective remedial
measures remain elusive.
We recognize that in the past
two decades, there have been significant shifts in the World
Bank's commitment to sustainable development, in particular the
development of a set of environmental and social policies and
the creation of the groundbreaking Inspection Panel. We commend
this attention to the empowerment of the people affected by World
Bank lending and the increased awareness of social and environmental
risks associated with World Bank lending.
We are also aware of an unfortunate
recent trend that has manifested itself: the World Bank's shifts
to minimize its obligations and shift more of the burdens and
risks onto local people and borrowing governments. This tendency
is reflected in the recent exercises in reformulating Bank operational
policies. Many organizations have engaged in dialogue with the
Bank over the years regarding revisions to its policy framework
- including policies on involuntary resettlement and indigenous
peoples - only to be frustrated by the Bank's practice of weakening
policies and resisting calls for the policies to be improved
and brought into line with existing and emerging standards of
international law. This frustration is similarly reflected in
the press conference being held this week by participants in
the World Commission on Dams, Structural Adjustment Review Initiative,
and the Extractive Industries Review; in each case, the Bank
is seeking to avoid recommendations developed as part of multi-stakeholder
processes.
We are particularly concerned
about project supervision issues. Although the Bank has apparently
been paying more attention to due diligence at the design stage
ever since the China Western Poverty Reduction Project, there
is still much to be desired in the Bank's approach to project
supervision and project implementation. In 2001, the World Bank
significantly weakened the language of its project supervision
policy; the revision was done without public input.
In correspondence last month
regarding the threat of an increase in the height of Sardar Sarovar
dam on the Narmada river without adequate rehabilitation and
in violation of the terms of the loan agreement, the country
director for India confirmed that the Bank as a rule does not
supervise projects beyond the disbursement of funds by the bank
to the borrower. We note that when the Bank was forced to withdraw
from Sardar Sarovar in 1993, the Bank's General Counsel clarified
that the terms of the loan agreement continue to apply to a project
until it is repaid. The Sardar Sarovar Project loan has not been
repaid and is therefore still legally binding. Nonetheless, Bank
Management is taking a hands-off, laissez-faire approach to project
supervision - at least with respect to the environmental and
social loan conditionalities. This approach makes a mockery of
the terms of the involuntary resettlement, indigenous peoples,
and other policies that are supposed to mitigate the longer-term
impacts of Bank-financed projects. By failing to ensure that
funds are being used in accordance with the purpose and conditions
of the loan, the Bank is abrogating its responsibilities as a
lender, and its mandate of poverty alleviation.
We are acting in solidarity
with people affected by Sardar Sarovar on the Narmada river,
where the World Bank has willfully ignored publicly reported
accounts of policy violations, and remained silent when the Indian
government authorized yet another increase in the height of the
dam. The Bank shares complicity in last month's decision to increase
the dam height to 110 meters, as a result of which thousands
of people - mostly indigenous or tribal people - will face an
onslaught of miseries this year.
The Bank's silent acceptance
of forcible displacement without adequate resettlement and rehabilitation
is in violation of its own policy framework, and in violation
of basic principles of international law. Its determination to
continue displacing people and ignoring the consequences is reflected
in its renewed emphasis on high-risk infrastructure, including
potential support for the Omkareshwar dam upstream of Sardar
Sarovar, a dam project that would displace 50,000 people.
We are aware that many projects
in the Bank's portfolio are out of compliance with the loan agreements
and Bank policies - including projects like Sardar Sarovar that
are not actionable through the Panel process. In addition, we
are troubled that those problems that have been identified by
local people and confirmed by the Inspection Panel have not been
adequately remedied. We stand in solidarity with communities
affected by these accountability gaps.
We are concerned that lessons
of the past do not seem to be affecting plans for the future.
A recent report by International Rivers Network, "The World
Bank at 60: A Case of Institutional Amnesia?" documents
the Bank's return to a strategy of financing high-risk and unsound
infrastructure projects, and emphasis on a government and corporate
focused approach to development that systematically marginalizes
civil society in decision-making. Where is the Bank's commitment
to addressing critical problems and implementing effective remedial
measures? These problems must not be ignored, as they play out,
harshly impacting people and the environment.
To remedy some of these problems,
we call on the Bank to ensure, at a minimum, that projects that
it has supported are brought into compliance with its own policies
and loan covenants. We call in particular for full compliance
with the terms of the resettlement policy for all communities
that have been displaced by a Bank-financed project. The Bank
must ensure that people who have suffered displacement by its
projects are able to regain and improve their standard of living.
The Bank should dedicate new resources and create institutional
capacity to address implementation failures and assist the borrowers
and affected communities to come to terms with legacy issues.
We call on the World Bank to take responsibility for ensuring
the development effectiveness of its lending and the accomplishment
of a rights-respecting and rights-enhancing approach to development.
----------------------------
Angana Chatterji, Associate Professor of Anthropology,
California Institute of Integral Studies. Since 1984, Dr. Chatterji
has been conducting advocacy and policy research with postcolonial
social movements toward enabling participatory democracy for
social and ecological justice.
Dana Clark, President, International Accountability
Project, Berkeley, CA. Ms. Clark is a human rights and environmental
lawyer that has recently edited a book assessing the efficacy
of the World Bank's Inspection Panel.
Dickson Mundia, Founder, Basilwizi Trust, Kariba
Dam (Zimbabwe) oustee. Mr. Mundia is a lawyer campaigning for
compensation for the Tonga people, displaced by the World Bank
funded Kariba Dam in Zimbabwe.
Robert Jensen is a journalism professor at the University
of Texas at Austin and author of "Citizens
of the Empire: The Struggle to Claim Our Humanity."
He can be reached at rjensen@uts.cc.utexas.edu.
Weekend
Edition Features for April 3 / 4, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Anti-Depressants
a Problem? We're Shocked
Jeffrey St. Clair
How Neil Bush Succeeded in Business
Without Really Trying
Gary Leupp
On Jefferson, Diderot and the Political Uses of God
Lawrence Davidson
Orwell and Kafka in Israel / Palestine
Frederick B.
Hudson
Condi Rice: the Family Retainer
Phillip Cryan
The Magic of Coca-Cola: Colombian Workers, Civil Rights and Advertising
Dave Zirin
Lester Speaks: an Interview with Lester "Red" Rodney
Ben Tripp
Talking Dirty: Obscene But Not Heard
Bruce Anderson
Phony Liberals and Fake Concern for the Homeless
Bill Fletcher, Jr.
Justice and Legitimacy in Haiti
Mark Scaramella
Do You Have What It Takes to Be Sec. of Defense? Take the Rumsfeld
Quiz
Sharon Smith
Do Most Iraqis Really Want the US to Stay?
Rick Giombetti
Melissa Ann Rowland: a Witch for Our Time
Nader/Kerry
Quandary
Stephen Gowans
Communists
for Capitalism?
Frank Bardacke / Doug Lummis
Support Nader; Dump Bush: an Election Manifesto
Mickey Z
Turn ON
Saul Landau
Kerry: a Less Dangerous Imperialist?
Richard Oxman
Nader and/or Death?
Poets' Basement
Holt, LaMorticella, Davies, Albert and Tripp
Website of the Weekend
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