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Dallas artists create an action in support of universal health care!
Rob Long, at the Wall Street Journal, is concerned that the world may no longer be able to protect itself from terrorist transvestites.
His hilarious fear stems from a UN report notable for its nuance and sensitivity towards people who find themselves marginalized due to their gender expression.
Martin Scheinin, UN Special Rapporteur, wrote a report for the UN General Assembly titled “Protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism”.
In it, he makes ‘controversial’ statements like:
Gender is not synonymous with women but rather encompasses the social constructions that underlie how women’s and men’s roles, functions and responsibilities, including in relation to sexual orientation and gender identity, are defined and understood. This report will therefore identify the gendered impact of counter-terrorism measures both on women and men, as well as the rights of persons of diverse sexual orientations and gender identities. As a social construct, gender is also informed by, and intersects with, various other means by which roles, functions and responsibilities are perceived and practiced, such as race, ethnicity, culture, religion and class. Consequently, gender is not static; it is changeable over time and across contexts. Understanding gender as a social and shifting construct rather than as a biological and fixed category is important because it helps to identify the complex and inter-related gender-based human rights violations caused by counterterrorism measures; to understand the underlying causes of these violations; and to design strategies for countering terrorism that are truly non-discriminatory and inclusive of all actors.
Just another anti-gay hate crime.
From the Queens Chronicle:
[Jack Price] went to a 24-hour deli on College Point Boulevard and 18th Avenue around 3 a.m. to buy cigarettes. He told police two Hispanic men made reference to his homosexuality, calling him “faggot” and other names.
Police said Daniel Aleman, 26, and an accomplice, Daniel Rodriguez, both of College Point, beat Price after he left the store. Price was able to crawl home 10 blocks away and call police.
…[T]he NYPD says he suffered collapsed lungs, all his ribs broken and he underwent surgery on his spleen and had a metal plate placed in his jaw.
Fun drinking game: take a shot of something fruity every time this article uses the phrase “openly gay”.
A beauty pageant that requires plastic surgery.
From Deutsche Welle:
[G]oing under the knife was a requirement for the 50 contestants of Miss Plastic Hungary 2009.
…The competition was the first beauty show requiring substantial plastic surgery in order to qualify.
…The cosmetic surgeons of the top three contestants also received prizes for their work.“I think this competition was long overdue,” photographer and jury member Marton Sizpal told the Associated Press.
“It is time for Hungarian women to care more about their appearance,” he said.
In-f’in-credible. I really don’t know how to respond to news like this. Your response?
Republicans defend Sen. Jim DeMint by saying he’s like Jews who “take care of the pennies.”
From Gawker:
Bamberg County GOP Chairman Edwin Merwin and Orangeburg County GOP Chairman James Ulmer wrote the Orangeburg Times and Democrat to defend DeMint in a newspaper editorial Sunday that said he was not funneling enough funds to local projects.
“There is a saying that the Jews who are wealthy got that way not by watching dollars, but instead by taking care of the pennies and the dollars taking care of themselves. By not using earmarks to fund projects for South Carolina and instead using actual bills, DeMint is watching our nation’s pennies and trying to preserve our country’s wealth and our economy.”
Wow, Jim, you’ve got some great friends. And the votes of antisemites everywhere. Well, at least the ones in South Carolina. Edwin Merwin, huh? For a guy with “win” twice in his name, he’s awful full of fail.
Roger Ebert is so goddamn awesome.
I am naive enough to think that universal care is obviously good.
…The fallacy of the free enterprise argument is that it assumes corporations are motivated to bring about the public good. Corporations are motivated to maximize profits for shareholders.
I highly recommend you read the whole post. Via Kate Harding.
See my previous posts on this topic here and here.
Shackdwellers Movement under attack in Durban, South Africa
Friday, October 9 2009
12:00pm- 1:30pm
outside the South African consulate
333 E 38th St, btwn 1st & 2nd Aves
(near 4/5/6 trains at 42nd St)
Members of Picture the Homeless, the Poverty Initiative, and Domestic Workers United, three NYC grassroots organizations, met with representatives from the South African Shack Dwellers Movement Abahlali baseMjondolo (AbM) in NYC in August. As AbM faces attack and repression in Durban, poor and struggling people and our allies in NYC make common-cause & stand with our friends in South Africa!
For more information, contact Picture the Homeless at 646-314-6423 or brandon@picturethehomeless.org and tej@picturethehomeless.org
More information about what’s going on in South Africa: http://abahlali.org
***
Abahlali baseMjondolo is making the following suggestions, in terms of folks doing actions in solidarity with their movement:
1. Affirm our right to exist and our right to be critical of the government.
2. Organize in support of our demands.
3. Support those of us who have lost their homes and all their possessions with material support.
4. Support those of us who are traumatized, including the children, with counseling and spiritual support.
5. Organize serious discussions about the nature of democracy in our country – and include delegates from poor people’s organizations in those discussions on the basis of equality.
You can also take action NOW by calling or e-mailing the South African Consulate and supporting the demands of the Shack Dwellers!
Call: 212-213-4880 or e-mail: consulate.ny@foreign.gov.za
A couple days ago, I mentioned a story about a mother whose newborn baby was snatched from her by a knife-wielding woman claiming to be an immigration agent. The Tennessee mother, Maria Gurrolla, is an immigrant, you see.
Good news: The perp, Tammy Renee Silas, is in custody and baby Yair was recovered unharmed.
Bad news: Not only does Maria still not have custody of Yair, but he, along with her three other children, has been kidnapped by the state of Tennessee. Maria was allowed to see Yair briefly before the authorities took him and his siblings away from her again. Authorities will not explain why, but claim it is for the children’s safety.
From the AP article: “State officials say the children were taken into custody Saturday for safety reasons but have not offered details.”
Yet… “Siskovic, an FBI special agent in the Memphis division, said there was no indication of an ongoing threat to Gurrolla’s family. He could not say why the children were put into state custody.”
Huh. Unless there is something completely startling that we don’t know about Gurrolla that makes her an unfit parent, we are looking at an egregious human rights abuse as well as unnecessary revictimization at the hands of the state.
Let us hope that justice prevails.
UPDATE 10/6/09
Yair is back! All siblings have been returned to Maria, after police realized she hadn’t been trying to sell Yair to the woman who followed her home and stabbed her before running off with Yair. That was the totes probable scenario, I presume, when the news sez the police took Maria’s children because “someone claimed a family member had tried to sell him.”
“It’s a bad horror movie,” she said. “Gurrola said she had wanted to return to Mexico after the attack and never return to the home where the kidnapping and stabbing happened.”
I’ve divided today’s issue into sections. Oh boy!
Overseas
The Czech people are celebrating the collapse of American plans to put (more) American military equipment in their country! Go Czechs!
Idiot far-right German political party NPD sent offensive letters to “parliamentary candidates of immigrant heritage, telling them to go home.” It’s part of their cynical plan to stir up the not-properly-riled dormant xenophobic neo-nazi element in German society to vote for NPD in future elections.
Good news for the gheyz!
Not only does Nevada’s same-sex Domestic Partnership Registry Act take effect today, but the ban on same-sex marriage in Texas was declared unconstitutional!
So Topical!
Ed Kilgore wrote about David Brooks and anti-anti-racism. Did you read what he calls Brooks’ “unintentionally hilarious column”?
American Girl debuts “Gwen”, their new homeless doll! How topical! Here’s a snippet of her story:
Gwen and her mother Janine fell on hard times when her father lost his job; they later lost the house as they were unable to keep up payments. Soon after, Gwen’s father left them and they became homeless the fall before the start of the book’s events.
LOL your post-racial America!
(got that title from Shakesville btw)
US attorney Jim Greenlee in Mississipi targeted convenience store owners based only on the evidence that their names sound Muslim. Not like kinda on the DL, but as a stated initiative. The Convenience Store Initiative, to be precise.
Of the more than 100 people listed as being investigated by federal authorities, nearly every name appears to be Islamic. FBI officials would not comment.
FAIL. Good thing my pals at Mississippi Immigrants Rights Association are ON IT.
ANNnnnd to cap it all off with the worst thing ever: a white woman claiming to be an immigration officer stabbed an immigrant woman and stole her 4-day-old baby. This 
happened yesterday in Tennessee to mother Maria Gurrolla. Her missing baby’s name is Yair Anthony Carrillo. Investigators said:
“The child was taken by a white female who was posing as an immigration worker. She had come to the residence and demanded the mother give her the baby. When the mother refused to comply she stabbed the mother approximately 8 times.”
I can only hope for the safety of these housing activists and their impoverished communities. Mazwi, the first speaker, is one of the Abahlali members whom I met at a poverty camp here in the States. He is a very young man, and yet as you can see in the video he has the fire in him!
Please refer to my previous post on this matter, Shack Dwellers Attacked – People Have Been Killed to find out how you can get involved.
There will be a protest in London at 6pm today outside of the South African’s Trafalgar Square embassy. Find out more at London Coalition Against Poverty.
Also, here’s a statement from the NGO Children of South Africa on the attacks.
Below is a solidarity statement from Slum Dwellers International.
TODAY from Durban, South Africa:
Kennedy Road Development Committee (KRDC)
Emergency Press Release, Sunday 27 September 2009
Kennedy Road Development Committee Attacked – People Have Been Killed
Last night at about 11:30 a group of about 40 men heavily armed with guns, bush knives and even a sword attacked the KRDC near the Abahlali baseMjondolo office in the Kennedy Road settlement. The movement was holding an all night camp for the Youth League but the camp was not attacked but the people at the camp were intimidated and threatened.
The men who attacked were shouting: ‘The AmaMpondo are taking over Kennedy. Kennedy is for the AmaZulu.” Some people were killed. We can’t yet say exactly how many. Some are saying that three people are dead. Some are saying that five people are dead. Many people are also very seriously injured. The attackers broke everything that they could including the windows in the hall. They destroyed 15 houses before launching their attack. They were knocking on each door shouting ‘All the amaZulu must come out’ and then destroying the shacks. As far as we know two of the attackers were killed when people managed to take their bush knives off them. This was self defense.
The Sydenham police were called but they did not come. They said that they had no vans but they didn’t radio their vans to come. This has led some people to conclude that this was a carefully planned attack on the movement and that the police knew in advance that it had been planned and stayed away on purpose. Why else would the police refuse to come when they are being called while people are being openly murdered? When the attack happened one officer from Crime Intelligence was there in plain clothes.
The rest of this press release is below the fold.
This is heart-breaking. I recently met some leaders from Abahlali baseMjondolo at a poverty camp in the States. They are back in South Africa now. I am worried about their safety.
Read this amazing solidarity letter.
Sign a petition to South African President Jacob Zuma to end the violence.
Looks like some people don’t like what I have to say about housing discrimination:
check this out – someone from FAR AWAY made it a point to support the apts we are fighting. please go to this blog and post your comments. if we make enough noise, he will shut down his blog for awhile. thx! ~Arabi~http://theczech.wordpress.com/2009/09/15/keeping-blacks-out-of-st-bernard/
It’s a little bit scary, but I guess it means I’m on the right track! And my site hits are waaay up.
PS. I am not shutting my blog down.
UPDATE 9/29/09: My friend robert, from the first St. Bernard thread, has kindly advertised this here “liberal activist from Brooklyn” blog at Tigerdroppings.com. Someone who has been successfully absorbing his daily Limbaugh Lessons responds eloquently.
It’s not just St. Bernard Parish or Westchester County.
For example, it’s also Brazil and South Africa.
“I think it must be clear to all that if there is no equal sharing of goods there can be no equal sharing of power. So for me this equal sharing of goods is crucial to the definition of democracy. If democracy is the right to have a decent life, health, education, freedom and security, then i am a democrat.”
-By Loyiso
Community Leader
Mandela Park Back Yarders
Mandela Park, Khayelitsha
South Africa
Do we all remember the depressing story of Jamie Lee Jones, who, while an employee of Halliburton/KBR in Iraq, was drugged, gang-raped by fellow employees, then locked up without food or water in an empty shipping container for 24 hours? And then told that if she sought medical attention outside of Iraq she would lose her job? And then Halliburton, a company whose previous CEO was Dick Cheney, refused to take any action against her assailants? And then the Department of Justice refused to take her case because she had signed a (clearly illegal) document saying “these matters” would be handled in secret extra-judicial arbitration?
Well…. she is still fighting and has won a small battle. She went to trial against the Halliburton arbitration agreement to fight for her right to go to trial against Halliburton for realz. And 2-1 the the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in her favor.
Apparently, Halliburton tried to argue that the gang-rape was a “work-related” activity and was therefore rightfully dealt with by forced arbitration with a tots impartial Halliburton-paid arbitrator.
There is so much justice going on in this story I almost can’t handle it. Does it add any justice-y awesomeness that this arbitration policy was put into place during Cheney’s watch? I should hope so.
More power to Jamie for drawing a line in the sand. The courage it takes to stand up to a mega-company like Halliburton, and to the Department of “Justice” is awe-inspiring. She deserves real justice, and the perpetrators deserve to be ferreted out. Where are those cowards now?
I have to say something about this craziness. I will tell the story of racist housing policy in St. Bernard Parish, LA below, and hope to follow up down the line, as the story develops. What follows would be hilarious if it weren’t so… nefarious.
St. Bernard Parish is located to the south of New Orleans. Whereas New Orleans is 67% black, St. Bernard Parish just a few miles away is only 7.6% black.
Hurricane Katrina severely damaged both St. Bernard Parish and Orleans Parish (whose boundaries are identical with New Orleans city). In St. Bernard, nearly all of the housing where black and low-income renters lived was destroyed, eliminating much of the already tiny black population.
Now, the white residents of St. Bernard are fighting an all-out battle to prevent blacks from returning or migrating over from New Orleans, where there is also an affordable-housing shortage. The Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center, which has been fighting against racist housing policies, has a detailed timeline of the battle.
It officially started when Craig Taffaro Jr. (pictured), president of the St. Bernard Parish Council, introduced the infamous blood-relative ordinance, which states that property owners can only rent to their blood relatives. The ordinance passed in 2006. Before the storm, whites owned 93% of the housing stock. (reference) We can see pretty easily the effects of such an ordinance.
The Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center (GNOFHAC) sued the Parish for racially discriminatory housing practices and won. The Parish settled, and then enacted an ordinance banning multi-family housing, i.e. most rental housing, affordable housing and most forms of public housing.
The same judge, U.S. District Judge Ginger Berrigan, who is apparently awesome, found St. Bernard to be in contempt of court and ordered that the ban be repealed, as it also violated the Fair Housing Act. She also ordered St. Bernard to pay fees, costs and damages to GNOFHAC. So the Parish went ahead and repealed the ban, simply switching it for a year-long moratorium on multi-family building.
Provident Realty Advisors then applied to the Parish to build affordable housing projects. After a public hearing rife with racist statements both implied and open, their application was denied. After GNOFHAC took the Parish to court again, Judge Berrigan found them in contempt of the court order and hit them with more fines. She also had this to say:
Based on the factual record and judged under a clear preponderance of the evidence, the Court finds that defendants’ conduct since March 25, 2009, by subverting the re-subdivision process, has a discriminatory effect on African-Americans and therefore violates the Fair Housing Act, 42 U.S.C. §3604(a), and the terms of the February 2008 Consent Order.
Does St. Bernard Parish get it yet?
DUH, of course not. As a matter of fact, the Parish Council is seeking a ballot referendum that would force any developer seeking to build a development with more than 12 units to have their plans approved by a public referendum, which the developer would also have to pay for. How soon will this be voted on? “In order to get the measure on a Nov. 14 ballot, the parish would have to pass the ordinance and get approval from the state Bond Commission and the secretary of state’s office before Sept. 29.”
Meanwhile, Judge Berrigan is fed up with St. Bernard’s delays in approving Provident’s development application and has granted a THIRD motion of contempt against them just last Friday, saying:
Defendants are hereby enjoined from interfering or withholding approval of Provident’s re-subdivision applications. Provident’s re-subdivision applications are deemed approved.
…If the defendants fail to meet any of the various deadlines without advance notice and good cause shown for their failure, a daily sanction beginning at $5,000 for the first day, and increasing to $10,000 each day thereafter per each individual missed deadline will be imposed.
New Orleans, Louisiana, this 11th day of September, 2009.
Booyah St. Bernard Parish Council and racist inhabitants.
This story is developing. So is my analysis. More to come.
Learn more:
From GNOFHAC: Timeline of the Lawsuit
The Root: Keeping St. Bernard Parish White
Facing South: Fight heats up over discriminatory housing laws in New Orleans area
Read the coverage at the Times-Picayune, starting here: St. Bernard Parish Council housing plan drawing fire
Scathing Times-Picayune Op-ed: Housing bias in St. Bernard Parish is proving costly in the long run
Scathing Times-Picayune Editorial: Legally and Morally Wrong
TAKE ACTION!
You can donate to the Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center here.
And you can respectfully and without making inappropriate threats contact the St. Bernard Parish Government here to let them know how you feel about this situation.
Cross-posted at Womanist Musings.
Insurance companies have used the excuse of “pre-existing conditions” to deny coverage to countless Americans. From cancer patients to the elderly suffering from arthritis, these organizations have padded their profit margins by limiting coverage to patients deemed “high risk” because of their medical condition.
But, in DC and eight other states, including Idaho, Mississippi, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, and Wyoming, insurance companies have gone too far, claiming that “domestic violence victim” is also a pre-existing condition.
…In 1994, an informal survey conducted by the Subcommittee on Crime and Criminal Justice of the United States Senate Judiciary Committee revealed that 8 of the 16 largest insurers in the country used domestic violence as a factor when deciding whether to extend coverage and how much to charge if coverage was extended.
It is clear that insurance companies refuse to police themselves. It’s up to us to call on Congress to take action now to pass health care reform and end discrimination against patients with pre-existing conditions.
UPDATE: The National Women’s Law Center has just confirmed that in April, Arkansas actually passed a law prohibiting insurance discrimination against domestic violence survivors…
By Maria Tchijov
Please email, tweet, facebook, repost, and reblog this. This is cRaZy shit and people need to KNOW. BTW, I love the invisible hand of the market.
HAVE YOU HUGGED YOUR INVISIBLE HAND TODAY?
Urgent Action Appeal
UNITED KINGDOM: Forced Eviction of Dale Farm
17 August 2009
Dear friends,
More than 100 families living in chalets, mobile-homes and caravans in the largest Romani Gipsy and Irish Traveller community in the United Kingdom, at Dale Farm, Crays Hill and nearby Hovefields, Essex County, are facing imminent forced eviction. Approximately 1,000 people have been residing on the estate for more than seven years, including many children. The community has been resisting forced evictions attempts by Basildon District Council (BDC) since May 2005 when it voted to clear a large part of the settlement. Although all residents hold land ownership titles, sections of the site had no planning permission and Basildon Council has subsequently refused all attempts to regularise the situation, preferring the enforcement option.
Dale Farm community
Enforcement orders have been served by Basildon Council requiring plot owners to remove their homes, although previously much of the site had been licensed as a large scrap-yard from 1978 until 2001. After the BDC voted to take direct action, the residents sought a judicial review of this decision and won in the High Court. This judgment was overturned by the Court of Appeal in January 2009 and an appeal to the House of Lords was denied in May. Despite the fact the UK Government has told Basildon it is required to provide land for a minimum of 62 additional pitches by 2011, no alternative site have been made available by Basildon District Council to which the residents can lawfully move.
The wishes of the residents are to remain where it is and not to be split up. There is a strong communal ethic, with the elderly being cared for by the younger generation and small children protected. No one, young or old, wants to be accommodated in bricks-and-mortar housing. Romanies and Travellers feel that having lost the possibility to follow the old nomadic life-style, it is essential to the preservation of their culture and ethnicity to keep Dale Farm community intact.
In line with the Housing Act 1996, it is incumbent on the BDC to consider the claim of the occupants to not be evicted as the families threatened with forced removal have no place to go.
The community is therefore seeking your support to urge the Basildon Council to:
- Put on hold the forced eviction of the Dale Farm community and engage in meaningful consultation discussions with the residents and their representatives for the purpose of seeking to achieve an amicable solution;
- Consider both the possibility of a) issuing planning permission to allow their permanent residence on their present properties; or b) utilising the 4 million Euro set aside for the eviction to provide an alternative area to which the residents can relocate;
- Respect and protect the housing and property and family rights of the Dale Farm community, and in particular the rights of the children.
Suggested Action
Please send an appeal letter by e-mail or fax to the addresses listed below requesting the Basildon Council to act on this issue. Sample letters and further background information are provided below.
Read the rest of this entry »
The Exciting Times is back with some morsels of news for your brain to chew on.
Is golf unethical?
Yes.
There, that wasn’t hard. But here’s an opinion piece by Randy Cohen in which he mulls over this very question. I found it quite interesting.
A Niqab Ban in Michigan Courts?
Is America inching towards a French-style burqa-ban debate? Ginnah Muhammad, who wears a niqab as the result of sincerely-held religious belief, was brave enough to sue a judge, Paul Paruk, who wouldn’t preside over her case if she didn’t remove portions of her religious clothing he didn’t like. CAIR and the ACLU got involved. She lost. The Michigan courts are going to have a field day with this one.
US Indefinitely Holding Reuters Journalist
Ah yes, the Leader of the Free World is at it again.
‘Reuters is concerned at the continued and protracted incarceration of Ibrahim Jassam, and continues to urge the U.S. military to either charge or release him. Reuters believes that any accusation against a journalist should be aired publicly and dealt with fairly and swiftly, with the journalist having the right to counsel and present a defense.’
…Ibrahim Jassam, 31, is an Iraqi freelance photographer. Since Sept. 2, 2008, when U.S. soldiers seized him at his home near Baghdad, he has been held without charge in American military prisons.
A Program for Juvenile Offenders that Works? IN MISSOURI?
While America’s juvenile system is often criticized for corruption and abuse, Missouri state officials say its juvenile justice solution has saved billions of dollars and reduced the number of repeat offenders…
Known as the Missouri model, the program focuses on therapy, comfortable living conditions and an emphasis on job training and education…
Each offender is placed in a small group of 10 to 15, assigned a case worker and sent to school during the day. Offenders also put on Shakespeare stage productions and play sports. They learn about teamwork through camping and rock climbing.
Apparently the program has a low recidivism rate, a suicide rate of 0%, a high rate of high school graduation, AND saves Missouri hella cash. Who knew that there were benefits to not abusing juveniles’ human rights?
by Bill Quigley & Davida Finger
0. Number of renters in Louisiana who have received financial assistance from the $10 billion federal post-Katrina rebuilding program Road Home Community Development Block Grant – compared to 116,708 homeowners.
0. Number of hospitals in New Orleans providing in-patient mental health care as of September 2009 despite post-Katrina increases in suicides and mental health problems.
1. Rank of New Orleans among U.S. cities in murders per capita for 2008.
1. Rank of New Orleans among U.S. cities in percentage of vacant residences.
2. Number of Katrina cottages completed in Louisiana as of beginning of 2009 hurricane season under $74 million dollar federal program.
33. Percent of 134,000 FEMA trailers in which Katrina and Rita storm survivors were housed after the storms which are estimated by federal government to have had formaldehyde problems.
35. Percent of child care facilities re-opened in New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina.
35. Percent increase of demand in 2009 at emergency food programs in Orleans and surrounding parishes, “an increase pinned on the swelling ranks of under-employed and rising food, housing, and fuel costs.”
50. Ranking of Louisiana among states for overall healthcare.
52. Percent increase in rents in New Orleans since Katrina.
52. Percent of federal rebuilding money allocated to New Orleans that has actually been received.
60. Percent of children in New Orleans public schools who attend public charter schools.
88: Percent of the 600 New Orleans residents who will displaced by proposed new hospital complex who are minorities.
160. Number of units which will be public housing eligible in the new St. Bernard area after demolition and rebuilding. St. Bernard was constructed with 1400 public housing apartments. Only a small percentage of the 4000 families in public housing in New Orleans before Katrina will be allowed to live in the new housing being constructed on the site where their apartments were demolished.
27,279. Number of Louisiana homeowners who have applied for federal assistance in repair and rebuilding after Katrina who have been determined eligible for assistance but who have still not received any money.
30,396. Number of children who have not returned to public school in New Orleans since Katrina. This reduction leaves the New Orleans public school population just over half of what it was pre-Katrina.
63,799. Number of Medicaid recipients who have not returned to New Orleans since Katrina.
65,888. Unoccupied addresses in New Orleans. This is 31% of the addresses in the City and nearly as many as Detroit, a city twice the size of New Orleans.
128,341: Number of Louisianians looking for work.
143,193. Fewer people in New Orleans than before Katrina, according to the Greater New Orleans Community Data Center estimate of 311,853, the most recent population estimate in Orleans.
9.5 Million. Dollar amount of federal Medicaid stimulus rejected outright by Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal which would have expanded temporary Medicaid coverage for families who leave welfare and get a job.
98 million: Dollar amount of unemployment federal stimulus dollars rejected by Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal that was available to bolster the unemployment compensation funds to assist 25,000 families in Louisiana.
900 Million: Dollar amount paid to ICF International, the company that was hired by the State of Louisiana to distribute federal Road Home rebuilding dollars.
?. Current vulnerability to storm-related flooding. The Army Corps of Engineers continues work to provide protection from a storm surge that has a 1 percent chance of occurring any given year. However, Katrina was a stronger storm than the system under construction is designed to protect against. Because no updated indicators exist on land loss, coastal restoration and mitigation of flood risk due to human engineering, tracking recovery is, at best, challenging.
Davida Finger is a social justice lawyer and clinical professor at Loyola University New Orleans. Bill Quigley is a human
rights lawyer on leave from Loyola now serving as legal director at the Center for Constitutional Rights. A version of
this article with sources is available if you write to the authors c/o quigley77@gmail.com.
Welcome to The Exciting Times, a collection of news items that caught my interest!
*There has been another anti-Latino hate crime in Patchogue, New York, a small town with a history of anti-Latino violence, including the murder of Marcelo Lucero. This time a Latino mad was beaten and robbed by a gang of white men. White dudes: get your shit together over there!
*One of the first things I ever blogged about was that Oklahoma had passed a law mandating ultrasounds for women seeking abortion. Ultrasounds are commonly given before abortions, but it is unusual for the government to mandate normally elective medical procedures. My problem with this that it is almost assuredly just another ploy to make abortion less accessible, and it amounts to mandating medical rape.
Well, HUZZAH, because the law has been repealed! Though kind of on a technicality, and might be back again next year. Apparently the law also included a set of rules mandating that doctors go over the ultrasound with the patient and describe to her how much like a baby it looks. Can’t wait to see this one come back next year.
*Canadian citizen disowned and left in jail in Kenya. The woman, Suaad Hagi Mohamud, had immigrated from Somalia to Canada and is a naturalized citizen. For some reason her passport was “challenged” when she was trying to travel from Kenya to Canada this May. She was detained in Kenya, and when she appealed for help from the Canadian consulate, diplomat Liliane Khadour denied Mohamud was Canadian, claiming falsely that she had “carried out conclusive investigations” and determined that “the person brought to the Canadian High Commission on suspicion of being an imposter is not the rightful holder of the aforementioned passport.”
All’s well that ends well, right? Am I right? Well, Khadour has been “recalled” and Mohamud, after three months, the help of friends, and DNA testing, proved her identity and returned to her country.
*Don’t miss The Women’s Crusade in the NYT Magazine this week. Though I don’t agree with every statement in the article, there are plenty of intriguing points made. For example:
It appears that more girls and women are now missing from the planet, precisely because they are female, than men were killed on the battlefield in all the wars of the 20th century. The number of victims of this routine “gendercide” far exceeds the number of people who were slaughtered in all the genocides of the 20th century.
and
[I]t is emerging that male domination of society is also a risk factor [for turbulence and violence]; the reasons aren’t fully understood, but it may be that when women are marginalized the nation takes on the testosterone-laden culture of a military camp… Indeed, some scholars say they believe the reason Muslim countries have been disproportionately afflicted by terrorism is not Islamic teachings about infidels or violence but rather the low levels of female education and participation in the labor force.
ANNNNnnnd finally:
*Need some fuel to win health care arguments with your backwards-thinking relatives and coworkers? Here are some numbers for you to take a gander at, comparing health data collected from the US, the UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand. One of these countries doesn’t have nationalized health care. One of these countries also shows significantly worse health and health care than the others. CAN YOU GUESS WHICH??
There used to be a mountain here. A man who lives near this crater told me that if you stood where those people are standing and looked 400 feet up, you would see the top of the mountain.
Instead what we see here is mountain top removal mining on Kayford Mountain in West Virginia. To my understanding, this method of mining involves blowing up a mountain and then looking through the rubble for coal. Apparently, the coal companies say, this is much more efficient than the kind of mining where you just dig holes into the mountain.
How can efficiency always be good if sometimes it means blowing up mountains? Do you think the coal companies put them back when they’re done?
The coal that comes from mountain top removal is of the kind labeled “clean coal”. This means that it is low-sulfur. However, as you can see, this coal is far from “clean”. There is considerable air pollution from the blasts and water pollution from the disposal of slurry, which seeps toxic heavy metals into the local water supply. Residents of West Virginia report that they are seeing unusually high rates of asthma, cancer, and other illnesses that they suspect can be traced to MTR.
While in West Virginia recently, I had the pleasure of meeting Larry Gibson, a native West Virginian and an anti-MTR activist. Here’s his story:
Larry Gibson’s family has lived on or near Kayford Mountain since the late 1700’s. More than 300 relatives are buried in the cemetery on Kayford Mountain. Larry and his family used to live on the lowest lying part of the mountain, and looked “up” to the mountain peaks that surrounded them. Since 1986, the slow motion destruction of Kayford Mountain has been continuous — 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Eighteen years after the “mountain top removal” project began, Larry Gibson now occupies the highest point of land around; he is enveloped by a 12,000 acre pancake in what was previously a mountain range.
The coal companies and their workers want Larry off his mountain so they can mine it. He has received numerous threats and been shot at several times. Fortunately, the snipers have missed so far. Larry’s website is: Keeper of the Mountains.
You can go to Larry’s website or any of the ones below to learn about action steps you can take, if interested. Or simply to learn.
Catch more photos at the Stop MTR Photoblog.
Gather more information at:
Stop Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining
I Love Mountains Action and Resource Center
Well how about that. There is a post about MTR up on Feministe today. One woman takes on King Coal. And wins.
I will simply re-post their announcement plus a picture:
THE SHACK DWELLERS MOVEMENT IN NEW YORK – SCHEDULE
WEDNESDAY, 19th AUGUST, 2009
Meeting with members of DOMESTIC WORKERS UNITED
Founded in 2000, Domestic Workers United [DWU] is an organization of Caribbean, Latina and African nannies, housekeepers, and elderly caregivers in New York, organizing for power, respect, fair labor standards and to help build a movement to end exploitation and oppression for all.
TIME: 11:00AM – 1:00PM
LOCATION: Domestic Workers United office,1201 Broadway, Suite 907 – 908, New York, NY 10001.
PH: (212) 481-5747
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 19TH, 2009
Shack Dwellers Movement from South Africa at the Brecht Forum
DEAR MANDELA (15 min, 2009), a documentary work-in-progress about South Africa’s Shack Dwellers Movement, will be screening at the Brecht forum as part of the Visual Liberation Film Series, curated by Red Channels.
TIME: 7:30PM
ADDRESS: 451 West Street (that’s the West Side Highway) between Bank & Bethune Streets
DIRECTIONS:
A, C, E or L to 14th Street & 8th Ave, walk down 8th Ave. to Bethune, turn right, walk west to the River, turn left
1, 2, 3 or 9 to 14th Street & 7th Ave, get off at south end of station, walk west on 12th Street to 8th Ave. left to Bethune, turn right, walk west to the River, turn left.
THURSDAY, 20th AUGUST, 2009
Panel Discussion & Screening at the Poverty Initiative
Please join the Poverty Initiative at Union Theological Seminary for an evening of discussion and film about Abahlali baseMjondolo (the Shack Dwellers Movement) of South Africa. Two of their leaders, Mazwi Nzimande and Reverend Mavuso Mbhekiseni, will be attending the Poverty Initiative’s Poverty Scholars Leadership School. They then are spending a week in New York sharing experiences from their work and lives, meeting with Poverty Scholars organizations and building relationships of solidarity with similar movements here. There will be a screening of DEAR MANDELA (15 min, 2009), a documentary work-in-progress about the Shack Dwellers Movement, directed by Dara Kell & Christopher Nizza. The evening will also include a discussion with Poverty Initiative leaders about how to build deeper connections across continents.
7:30pm – 9:00pm in Room 205 at Union Theological Seminary, Room 205, New York, NY 10027
LOCATION: Union Theological Seminary is located at 121st Street and Broadway near the Columbia University campus. Take the 1 subway to 116th Street/Columbia University and walk north to 121st Street. When you enter the main entrance at Union Theological Seminary, the guards at the security desk will be able to direct you to Room 205.)
Abahlali baseMjondolo is the largest social movement of the poor in post-apartheid South Africa. The movement’s key demand is for ‘Land & Housing in the City’ but it has also successfully politicized and fought for an end to forced removals and for access to education and the provision of water, electricity, sanitation, health care and refuse removal as well as bottom up popular democracy. Amongst other victories the Abahlali have democratized the governance of many settlements, stopped evictions in a number of settlements, won access to schools and forced numerous government officials to ‘come down to the people’. For more information, visit http://www.abahlali.org
Afghan Husbands Win Right to Starve Wives
…when they don’t supply enough sexxx.
And other horrors. Interestingly, the law was designed in secret.
It’s neat to know that women’s basic human rights, such as, you know, the right to life, are just one bargaining chip amongst many in the game of politics.
When do you think we’ll hear of a country enforcing a woman’s right to starve her husband?
Never? And why exactly would that be?
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