CNN’s Lou Dobbs Problem

August 3, 2009Leave a comment

3 August, 2009 — http://dobbsconspiracy.org

This week, we are launching the television ad below against CNN and Lou Dobbs. We purchased airtime on Dobbs’ show as well as on Fox News and MSNBC. It will air starting on Tuesday, and we need your help to run it as many times as possible, so please click on the link above.

http://widgets.vodpod.com/w/video_embed/Groupvideo.3108068more about “CNN’s Lou Dobbs Problem“, posted with vodpod

We have momentum, and Lou Dobbs and CNN are clearly feeling the pressure. Dobbs lashed out at Media Matters on his radio show last Friday, calling us “an attack group” and “sort of the Swift Boat of the left.” [1]

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Michael O'McCarthy interviews Costa Rican Presidential Candidate Ottón Solís

August 3, 2009Leave a comment

30 July, 2009 — Council on Hemispheric Affairs

With a constitution lending itself to the development of a complete social democracy and with its notable lack of a standing military force, Costa Rica is unique among Latin American nations. After a very narrow victory over Ottón Solís in 2006, the country has been governed by Óscar Árias of the social-democratic Partido de Liberación Nacional (PLN, or Party for National Liberation). Despite his prominence as a Nobel Peace Prize winner in 1987, Árias has received much criticism as a result of several corruption scandals, the polarization of his government against the political opposition, as well as for his support of free trade, most strongly exemplified by his push for the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) with the United States. The agreement was ratified by Árias’ government in October 2007, after only 51 percent of the population voted in its favor during a national referendum.

The presidential election coming up in February 2010 has thus been viewed by political parties that opposed CAFTA as an opportunity to bring the country back onto a track of greater social justice. Michael O’McCarthy, is a progressive activist, journalist, and author of Rebels in Hell, and is currently living in Costa Rica. O’McCarthy, who also serves as a COHA Research Fellow, interviewed 2010 presidential candidate Ottón Solís about his views on the way his country has been run for the past few years as well as on the nature of his campaign platform for the Partido de Acción Cuidadano (PAC, or Citizen Action Party). The discussion centered in particular on questions of free trade, corruption in Costa Rican political circles and Solís’ vision for the path toward social justice in his nation.

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The Coup in Honduras: A Set Back for both Democracy and U.S.-Latin American Unity

August 3, 2009Leave a comment

31 July, 2009 — Council on Hemispheric Affairs

Over a month has passed since the Honduran Congress ordered the military ousting of the country’s legitimate Honduran president Manuel Zelaya, sparking hemispheric-wide unrest and nasty flashbacks to a recent history of military coups, which many had hoped were no longer part of the landscape. Last month’s Honduran coup, which was almost unanimously decried across the hemisphere as unlawful, has brought global focus to Latin America. But while scores of various governments and international bodies have come together against the coup, their efforts to restore the lawful president to power have so far fallen flat in an effort which, has basically run out of steam, even though the golpe regime is friendless and an international pariah.

The de facto regime, lead by now-president Roberto Micheletti, remains comfortably in power while Zelaya can do little more than hold interviews from Nicaragua and taunt the government in Tegucigalpa by poking his toes in Honduran soil for scant minutes at a time. Of course a higher reality is being played off camera, as the interim regime runs out of international reserves, inflation mounts, and factional strife begins to break out, not the least amongst the military. This multiplicity of factors working against him are certainly the driving force behind Micheletti’s mixed support of the San José accords, orchestrated by Costa Rican president Oscar Arias, that would reinstate Zelaya as President of Honduras, but forbid him to change the constitution, and would also move elections forward.

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Nicaragua Under Daniel Ortega's Second Presidency: Daniel-Style Politics as Usual?

August 3, 2009Leave a comment

31 July, 2009 — Council on Hemispheric Affairs

Daniel Ortega, popular from his days as the leader of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), has twice served as President of Nicaragua. First known as a fiery revolutionary during his initial term in office, Ortega now presents himself as a mature politician devoted to enacting social change at the service of his beloved country and fellow citizens. However, a close examination of Ortega’s second presidency also reveals crude manipulations of the Nicaraguan electorate, shameless seizures of power and under-the-table deal-making. Danielistas see this as part of his blessings and part of the problem.

Once the dominant member of the 5-person ‘Junta of National Reconstruction’ that ruled Nicaragua following the overthrow of President Anastasio Somoza in 1979, Ortega served as the country’s president from January 1985 to April 1990. Ortega and his administration attempted to institute a number of significant Marxist-inspired reforms while combating both dissent and the opposition of US-backed, right-wing Contras. Although the Ortega administration achieved some genuine social transformations during his term in office, including a higher literacy rate and, to a degree, the inclusion of women within the governing process, it was also marked by corruption and controversy, including human rights violations and numerous scandals. Ortega lost the 1990 presidential election to Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, with some help from the CIA. Since then, the Sandinistas have sought political power at almost every possible opportunity. Ortega was finally reelected to the presidency in 2006; his reelection was marked by a purported personal transformation, significant policy changes, calculated political maneuvering, and a renewed commitment to social justice, as well as a huge infusion of foreign funds from all sides.

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Water in Latin America: The Importance of Gender Relations

August 3, 2009Leave a comment

30 July, 2009 — Council on Hemispheric Affairs

Intergovernmental organizations (IGOs), private corporations, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have explored possible solutions to the worldwide water crisis in the past. Consequently, water policy has been shaped by debate, discussion, and field work alike. As these players refine their arguments and sharpen policy, their focus will shift to reflect the realities of the contemporary world. Among these shifts is a realignment of policy to reflect the perspective of the world’s competition for water as a finite resource, especially for disadvantaged minorities and women.

As caretakers and homemakers, women are usually responsible for finding water according to its accessibility, availability, quality, and use. Despite their prominent role in the use and management of water, women are generally not consulted on matters of water infrastructure or policy, even though United Nations researchers suggest that the perspectives of women need to be taken into account when building wells and bettering access to cleaner water. This oversight is a blow to gender empowerment around the globe, as women remain economically subservient to their male counterparts and without formal rights to a vital resource. Recognizing the importance of women in relation to water can elevate the status of women while providing all members of society with an essential resource.

Gender Inequality in the Community
Though water has long been considered a basic need, and defined by the United Nations as a basic right in 2002, 1.1 billion people globally remain without access to potable water. In fact, only half of the world population has access to piped water. Moreover, an astonishing 2.6 billion people across the globe remain without sanitation services, even though the World Health Organization states that ‘water and sanitation are among the most important determinants of public health.’

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China’s Policy Paper on Latin America and the Caribbean

August 3, 2009Leave a comment

30 July, 2009 — Council on Hemispheric Affairs

On November 5, 2008, the Chinese government released a policy paper on Latin America and the Caribbean, as it had previously done so for Europe in 2003 and for Africa in 2006. Although it may not come as a huge surprise that Latin America is the most recent region for which China has formally spelled out its foreign policy position, the region has been historically perceived as being under the United States’ sphere of influence. Perhaps the importance of the Chinese policy paper lies in the timing of its release. The release of the paper deliberately coincided with the unfolding of the current financial crisis; this congruence of events has allowed China to expand its influence in this somewhat neglected region without attracting any lasting venom from the U.S. China’s policy paper formally evidences the importance of Latin America and the Caribbean as part of China’s growth plan for its long-term strategic interests. Most of all, this includes access to raw materials as well as a plethora of natural resources, the infiltration of new foreign markets, the reduction of diplomatic support for the Republic of Taiwan, and the strengthening of Beijing political standing on the global stage through strong alliances cemented with the developing world.

The policy paper’s general context

The policy paper explicitly states its main objective is to ‘clarify the goals of China’s policy in this region, outline the guiding principles for future cooperation […] and sustain the sound, steady and all-around growth of China’s relations with Latin America and the Caribbean.’ In the economic realm, China expresses an interest in investing in energy, mineral resources, forestry, fishing, and agriculture, areas important to expanding China’s productivity. Additionally, the Chinese government seems to show interest in infrastructure projects not directly related to its economy, albeit essential in the transportation of natural resources, and proposes to fund these projects in order to be perceived as a partner in development. Furthermore, China expresses its desire to increase military diplomacy and sale of equipment to the region. Although many of the report’s statements are merely rhetoric and general in scope, the paper helps formalize China’s economic, diplomatic and military ties with Latin America, which were first proposed by then President of China Jiang Zemin in 2001.

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Joe Bageant: A Yard Sale in Chernoybl

August 3, 2009Leave a comment

3 August, 2009 — Joe Bageant

‘It’s only a system,’ she said, as we floated through the sprawling supermarket’s gleaming commodity lined indoor streets. ‘THE HELL IT IS! It’s a goddamned air conditioned zombie hell of waste and gluttony,’ I thought to myself, before the usual vertigo completely enveloped me. Just back from Central America’s simple, comprehensible mercados, bodegas and street cart vendors, the effect of this most common American shopping venue was, as always, one of vertigo. Head splitting light beats down on pyramids of plastic eggs, as if to incubate their hatching of the ladies stockings within, dozens of kinds of toothpaste, well scrubbed dead chickens, lurid baskets of too-perfect flowers, plastic wraps, tissue for faces, asses and wrapping gifts, row upon row of polished vegetables and fruits standing like soldiers waiting for the annihilation of salads or the ovens of casseroledom.