LATER

Well my friends, here is the deal. I've once again decided to suspend operation of the Oread Daily. The reason this time being that a number of years back I wrote this absolutely, incredibly good "novel" of the 60s and 70s based somewhat loosely on my activities. Seriously, I did think it to be the most honest accounts of the times I've read anyway. The biggest problem according to numerous agents (and myself) with it was that it was like 1100 pages long. Would you read an 1100 page book written by an unknown author? I think not. So I put it on the shelf mostly because I was tired of dealing with it (and also because I didn't think the writing itself was all that hot - although it did get better the more I wrote). Well, several people who have read all or part of the manuscript have convinced me that it would be worthwhile to edit it down and do revisions etc. So now, I guess, I'll give it a try and see what happens. Should anything ever come of all this, I absolutely expect each and every one of you to buy a minimum of ten copies for yourself and others. I mean how can a political and historical novel which includes sex, drugs, rock and roll, violence, conspiracy, adventure, political debate, and laughs to boot not be a really good read?

Thanks for reading the Oread Daily these many years...and if it ever returns, you'll be the first to know.

Randy

GREECE IGNORES HUMAN RIGHTS WHILE EVICTING ROMA PEOPLE

The racism against the entire Roma community is extreme and relentless. Greece is no exception.

The Greek government illegally evicts Roma communities with alarming regularity and covers its actions by calling them "cleaning operations" . This allows them to act without adherence to the law. They are just "cleaning up" During these operations, they bulldoze houses without giving adequate time for the occupants to remove their processions, often burying the debris under the ground or burning it. What little the people had in the first place is destroyed.

The fact that housing rights of the Roma in Greece continue to be systematically violated despite rulings by these prestigious human rights monitoring bodies raises serious doubts about Greece's compliance with its international and regional human rights obligations.

The following are from the website of the Dzeno Association.

Municipality of Patras completes evictions of Roma as no one tried to avert them 6. 9. 2006

Greek Helsinki Monitor (GHM) denounces the completion of the eviction of some 70 families from the Makrigianni and Riganokampos districts of Patras. It started in late July and was completed in late August 2006. Less than a dozen sheds remain and it is expected to be demolished soon. The eviction occurred despite previous court decisions upholding Roma’s right to alternative adequate housing and a pending decision in a new judicial procedure of eviction engaged by the municipality in early August 2006. As the court decisions were not favorable to the eviction, the municipal authorities of the “Cultural Capital of Europe for 2006” [sic] opted for summary demolition of the sheds. The events are reflected in the question to the Committee of Ministers tabled by Boris Cilevics (Latvia) on 1 September 2006 at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe; in the two statements by Greek Gypsy Union President Yannis Halilopoulos; and in yesterday’s Viewpoint of the Commissioner for Human Rights Thomas Hammarberg. These texts follow. Greece prides itself for being the “cradle of democracy.” Today it is more appropriate to be known as “the graveyard of minority and Roma rights.”


GHM would like to underline that on 8 and 10 August, it had sent confidential letters to the top competent government official, Minister of Interior Professor Prokopis Pavlopoulos, and to the leader of the official opposition socialist party PASOK, George Papandreou, urging them to take prompt action to stop the imminent eviction by the PASOK-affiliated Patras municipal authorities. Letters were also sent to the leaders of the other two opposition parties, Ms. Aleka Papariga of the communist KKE and Mr. Alekos Alavanos of the leftist “Synaspismos,” asking them to take a public stance against the evictions since their Patras local parties seemed to go along with the anti-gypsy attitude of the municipality (as did the pro-government conservative opposition in the municipality). These letters (in Greek) have now been posted to our website at the following respective addresses:


http://cm.greekhelsinki.gr/uploads/2006_files/letter_se_pavlopoulos_gia_roma_patras_10-8-06_greek.doc

http://cm.greekhelsinki.gr/uploads/2006_files/letter_se_papandreou_gia_roma_patras_8-8-06_greek.doc

http://cm.greekhelsinki.gr/uploads/2006_files/letter_se_papariga_gia_roma_patras_10-8-06_greek.doc

http://cm.greekhelsinki.gr/uploads/2006_files/letter_se_alavano_gia_roma_patras_8-8-06_greek.doc


Moreover, on behalf of the two communities of Patras Roma, and with the appropriate formal authorization of the majority of their members, GHM filed a complaint on 31 July and an update on 8 August with the Greek Ombudsman who is the competent Equal Treatment Authority according to the law implementing the EU’s Race Directive. These complaints (in Greek) have now been posted to our website at the following addresses:

http://cm.greekhelsinki.gr/uploads/2006_files/letter_to_StP_gia_exoseis_makrigianni_patras_31_7_06_upload.doc

http://cm.greekhelsinki.gr/uploads/2006_files/letter_to_StP_gia_exoseis_makrigianni_patras_8_8_06_upload.doc


To date, GHM has received no answer from any of the above, nor is it aware of any action they may have taken. GHM assumes that no one did anything even discretely as, undeterred, the Patras municipal authorities started on 24 August demolishing the remaining Romani sheds in both communities. According to Roma leader Yannis Halilopoulos (see statement below), who was present on 25 August and videotaped the evictions, some of the Roma who were present were offered meager financial incentives to move out. Others who were absent lost part or the whole of their personal belongings. Police gave full support to these illegal evictions that state agencies described once more as “cleaning operations.” By now, less than a dozen sheds in both communities are still standing and they will be demolished soon. Needless to say, no Romani family was offered adequate alternative housing with security of tenure.

It is noteworthy that the municipal authorities threatened Mr. Halilopoulos on 25 August with arrest for “he was filming a worksite.” Later on, on 31 August they publicly slandered him claiming that he comes to Patras in a car without license plates. While, on 3 September, when George Papandreou spoke at a public rally in Patras (celebrating in the Papandreou family birthplace PASOK’s foundation on 3 September 1974) he was invited by a PASOK middle-level cadre to hear a promised reference to Roma rights, which was never made (see his reaction below). This harassment follows similar harassment and the launching of a criminal investigation of GHM and its advocates since early July 2006 by the Patras Chief Appeals Prosecutor Anastasios Kanellopoulos and other first instance prosecutors. GHM has been officially informed by Hellenic Police that it was First Instance Prosecutor Apostolos Tzamalis who was present on 27 July in Makrigianni and had ordered the municipality to proceed with the initial eviction of the Roma on that day and the police to protect the municipal crew! With the Prosecutor’s office ordering illegal evictions, it was impossible for the Roma to seek any legal remedy from 24 August on, when the final Roma cleansing started.


For ten years, GHM has been telling Greece’s Roma that they cannot be evicted without being served some eviction paper that could be challenged in court and that there existed a state obligation to provide them with alternative adequate housing with security of tenure. GHM will no longer be able to repeat that after the Patras eviction. GHM has to amend it, arguing henceforth that all that exists in theory, but should a Greek authority opt to evict them without previously doing all the above, there will be no one to deter it. The Patras example also confirmed that every political party in Greece, especially on the eve of local elections (scheduled for October 2006), in effect and regardless of their “politically correct” rhetoric, would support illegal evictions while neither the Ombudsman nor EU’s anti-discrimination legislation would be of any effective help. In fact, the inter-governmental organizations cannot do anything either to prevent an eviction. At best NGOs can record it, denounce it and -if anyone provides resources to the Roma and their advocates- help seek redress including compensation several years later through the ECtHR.


Parliamentary Assembly Assemblée parlamentaire
Doc. 11014


1 September 2006


Implementation of the European Social Charter by Greece: Forced evictions of Roma


Written question No 502 to the Committee of Ministers


presented by Mr Cilevičs

http://assembly.coe.int/Main.asp?link=/Documents/WorkingDocs/Doc06/EDOC11014.htm


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

One year ago, replying to my questions, the Committee of Ministers reassured the Assembly that Greek authorities were working on finding a permanent solution to the housing problems of the Roma in Patras. They also stated that the information on how Greece complied with its obligations under Article 16 of the European Social Charter was to be evaluated by the European Committee of Social Rights (ECSR). The Assembly was informed that, on the basis of the result of that evaluation, the Committee of Ministers was to decide on the follow-up.


However, in July 2006 the ECSR concluded that the situation in Greece has not been brought into conformity with Article 16 as there is still a shortage of adequate housing for Roma, who still do not have sufficient legal protection. Citing the Commissioner for Human Rights March 2006 follow up report on Greece, as well as Greek Helsinki Monitor (GHM) and Amnesty International reports, the ECSR mentioned that Roma continue to be evicted from settlements without being offered alternative housing.


Recently, GHM information provided to competent UN and Council of Europe agencies and international NGOs indicates that relocation plans for Patras Roma failed because of strong local community reactions. Instead, between 27 July and 25 August 2006, the Municipality of Patras demolished the homes of Roma families in the Makrigianni district who were absent for seasonal work, served the remaining families with notices of emergency police measures of eviction, and without waiting for their confirmation by a prosecutor proceeded to forced evictions. Furthermore, in June 2006, all Roma families of the Riganokampos district were referred to a criminal trial for illegal squatting on state land, while in August 2006 they were told to leave. All that despite the protocols of eviction for both Roma communities had been overturned as abusive in October 2005 by magistrates. In June 2006, the Chief Appeals Prosecutor of Patras announced an obviously intimidating criminal investigation of the magistrates who issued these rulings and of GHM who offered legal support to the Roma. GHM also provided information on several evictions elsewhere in Greece and quoted official Hellenic Police statistics indicating that its officers were involved in 60 eviction procedures in 2005 and in another 121 in 2004.


Mr Cilevičs,


To ask the Committee of Ministers,


What urgent action does the Committee of Ministers intend to take on Greece’s continuing non-compliance with Article 16, the widespread evictions which violate fundamental human rights and the mounting antigypsyism accompanying these evictions?


What mechanisms of effective supervision of the implementation by states of Social Charter rulings does the Committee of Ministers intend to introduce?


Signed:


CILEVIČS, Boriss, Latvia, Socialist Group


STATEMENT BY YANNIS CHALILOPOULOS


“GREEK GYPSY UNION” PRESIDENT


25 August 2006

“Patras, Europe’s Cultural Capital for 2006, ‘dressed up’ to welcome PASOK’s [GHM note: Panhellenic Socialist Movement - the major opposition party in Greece] Chairman on 3 September. On August 24 and 25, crews of the PASOK-affiliated Municipality of Patras demolished the sheds of Gypsies in the Makrigianni district. As I was told today by Gypsies in Patras, some of the Gypsies who had household items in their sheds were offered a monetary incentive in order to move out, while others were vaguely and orally promised that the municipality would undertake to pay their rents for two or three months, when they manage to find a house to rent. Until then they will remain homeless, as will those who were away from Patras on seasonal employment when the demolitions took place. The municipality also requested from the Gypsies in the Riganokampos district to find houses for rent and promised likewise that they would provide them with rent subsidies for two or three months. This constitutes the biggest eviction of Gypsies in Greece during the last years, as well as the most blatantly illegal, since the municipality did not respect even judicial decisions that have been issued or are pending. But then again, who said that there is justice for Gypsies in Greece?”


STATEMENT BY YANNIS CHALILOPOULOS


“GREEK GYPSY UNION” PRESIDENT


ON GEORGE PAPANDREOU’s SPEECH IN PATRAS

“THERE’S NO PLACE FOR GYPSIES IN PAPANDREOU’S GREECE”

4 September 2006

Yesterday evening, a PASOK [the major opposition political party in Greece] official from the Central Office in Athens informed me that PASOK President George Papandreou would make a reference to the Gypsies in his speech yesterday night in Patras. Optimistically, we traveled to Patras to listen to the speech. Much to our anger, we found out that we had been deceived, since whichever reference had been prepared was not included in the final text. George Papandreou noted:

“A just society is a society that safeguards dignity. Dignity for the pensioner. Dignity for the persons with disabilities. Dignity for the mother. Dignity for the patient. Dignity for the immigrant. Dignity for the unemployed. Dignity for the drug addict. Dignity for every citizen. A society that leaves no citizen in the margins. A society where we create a social capital, the intangible capital of social solidarity. A society where the citizen does not feel isolated, marginalized. A society where he does not feel impotent, is not afraid, does not face the heavy and faceless bureaucracy.”

Apparently George Papandreou is not interested in the dignity of the most marginalized social group in Greece, the Gypsies. Consequently, for PASOK, Gypsies should continue to live in the margins. To experience isolation, impotence, fear. To experience the faceless, oppressive and racist bureaucracy mainly of the local authorities. To be subjected to illegal evictions, such as the ongoing one in Patras, carried out by PASOK’s cherished officials in Patras. Yesterday PASOK’s president effectively endorsed and adopted the ‘cleaning operations’ against the Gypsies of Patras, as well as the slanderous attacks by the PASOK deputy mayors against me and against the few others who stand up for Roma rights.


George Papandreou also said:

“A just society is a society where human rights are non-negotiable. A multicultural society with no phobic syndromes towards foreigners.”

PASOK however does negotiate in general and in Patras specifically the human rights of Gypsies, in order to secure the votes of the “balame” (gadje), thereby sustaining a society with a phobic syndrome against the Gypsies.


“Forced eviction of Roma families must stop”

[04/09/06 12:00] Concerned over several forced evictions of Roma in Europe during the summer, the Commissioner for Human Rights stresses the need to respect the housing rights of Roma in effective consultation with the Roma themselves.

“Forced eviction of Roma families must stop”


http://www.coe.int/t/commissioner/Viewpoints/Default_en.asp

[04/09/06] In recent months a number of Roma families in several European countries have been evicted by force from their homes. In most cases the decisions were taken by local authorities. The tenants were not given adequate notice or offered a real alternative. It is clear that several of these evictions violated European and international human rights standards.

Several serious cases have been reported to me. In the Dorozhny village in Kaliningrad more than 200 Roma were evicted in late May – early June and had their houses bulldozed to ruins. This followed speedy court procedures which were criticised by reliable non-governmental organizations for being unfair to the Roma.

In the village of Elbasan in Albania a similar action was taken in July against 109 Roma residents. It is reported that they were not allowed to remove their personal belongings before the destruction of their homes and that many of them now are homeless. In Patras, Greece, 13 homes of Makrigianni Roma who were away for seasonal work elsewhere were demolished in late July.

I have also received information about evictions or planned such actions in other parts of the Russian federation and in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, France, Turkey, and the United Kingdom. In several cases the destruction of homes and property has been accompanied by violence and racist language.

These reports, many of them confirmed by the European Roma Rights Centre in Budapest, raise several concerns. One is that there appears to be an alarming element of racism or anti-ziganism behind these actions and the way they are enforced.

Another is, of course, the dramatic consequences for the families themselves, including their children. Without a real home they also face difficulties in enjoying other rights, such as the right to education and health. A pattern of social segregation is perpetuated.

An argument put forward for the evictions in several cases has been the need to construct new, more modern buildings in the same area. However, Roma families are seldom offered accommodation in such new houses. Indeed, they are still disproportionately represented among the homeless and those living in sub-standard housing. Roma ghettos and shanty towns can still be found on our continent today.

My predecessor as Commissioner for Human Rights reported several times that poor housing conditions is a major cause of Roma exclusion in Europe. He did not accept, rightly so, the old “argument” that Roma people are nomads and therefore do not want or need proper housing.

Decisions that some people have to move because of new city plans are of course sometimes justified. However, the manner in which such initiatives are prepared and implemented should be in accordance with agreed human rights norms and procedural safeguards.

The consequence of these norms is that forced evictions only can be carried out in exceptional cases and in a reasonable manner. Everyone concerned must be able to access courts to review the legality of planned evictions before they are carried out – this requires the existence of both legal remedies and legal aid possibilities. Alternatives to evictions should be sought in genuine consultation with the people affected, while compensation and adequate resettlement have to be offered when forced evictions take place.

These norms also apply to local authorities. That abusive decisions sometimes are taken on local level does not absolve the central government from responsibility under its international obligations. The state should exercise oversight and, if necessary, regulate local action.

The monitoring mechanisms of the European Social Charter have already found several countries at fault of their treaty obligations regarding the housing rights of Roma. Furthermore, the European Court of Human Rights has judged that poor housing conditions can, in certain cases, amount to breaches of the prohibition of torture and inhuman and degrading treatment under the European Convention. The UN Committee against Torture has taken a similar position.

National, regional and local authorities have to take action now. In a recommendation dating from 2005, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe has given clear guidance to all member states on improving the housing conditions of Roma. Instead of evicting Roma families their right to adequate housing should be respected. One precondition is an effective consultation with the Roma themselves.

Europe has a shameful history of discrimination and severe repression of the Roma. There are still widespread prejudices against them in country after country on our continent. This makes it particularly important that governments are alert to the risk of unfair and degrading treatment of Roma – also by local authorities.


Thomas Hammarberg


This Viewpoint can be re-published in newspapers or on the internet without our prior consent, provided that the text is not modified and the original source is indicated in the following way: "First published by the Council of Europe, at www.commissioner.coe.int"


Dženo focuses on the emancipation process of Romany in Central and Eastern Europe. The association aims to support and develop traditional Romany values and characteristics, which include open-mindedness, independence, sense of honor and righteousness, respect for elders, loving care for children and solidarity among Romany regardless of their social status. All of Dženo’s activities are aimed at supporting and promoting this basic goal.

NEW DOCUMENTARY ATTRIBUTES HITLER TO DARWIN

The following is taken from Media Transparency and is by my old pal Billy Berkowitz.






Coral Ridge Ministries new "documentary" featuring Ann Coulter attributes Hitler to Charles Darwin

ADL calls it "an outrageous and shoddy attempt by D. James Kennedy to trivialize the horrors of the Holocaust"

The buzz before and after the broadcast of "Darwin's Deadly Legacy" -- on Christian cable networks and about 200 television stations around the country -- centered just as much on the film's assertion that Adolph Hitler grounded his genocidal actions on Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, as it did on whether a prestigious scientist was duped into participating in the documentary, the ventures of D. James Kennedy, the powerful pastor of the Ft. Lauderdale, Florida-based Coral Ridge Ministries (CRM) which produced the film. Also in the spotlight is the growing split in the Jewish community over relations with conservative Christian evangelicals.

The documentary aired August 26-27 during Coral Ridge Ministries' "Coral Ridge Hour," accompanied by a book titled "Evolution's Fatal Fruit: How Darwin's Tree of Life Brought Death to Millions." The film "connects the dots between Charles Darwin and Adolph Hitler," a pre-broadcast CRM statement claimed. The statement boasted that "the program features 14 scholars, scientists and authors who outline the grim consequences of Darwin's theory of evolution and show how his theory fueled Hitler's ovens."

In a statement, Kennedy said: "To put it simply, no Darwin, no Hitler. Hitler tried to speed up evolution, to help it along, and millions suffered and died in unspeakable ways because of it."

CRM spokesman John Aman contended that "Darwinism is a philosophy, it's a worldview, and one of the key things in it is that evolution advances by death, so death is a good thing. Hitler thought he was doing civilization a favor by eliminating lives that were not worth living. We of course think that is an egregious moral tragedy and a consequence of the worldview that was initiated by Darwin and popularized by his followers."

Hosted by Kennedy, "Darwin's Deadly Legacy" (website) features Ann Coulter, author of "Godless"; Richard Weikart, author of "From Darwin to Hitler"; Lee Strobel, author of "The Case for a Creator"; Jonathan Wells, author of "Icons of Evolution"; Phillip Johnson, author of "Darwin on Trial"; Michael Behe, author of "Darwin's Black Box"; and Ian Taylor, author of "In the Minds of Men."

According to the CRM website, the accompanying book was written by Tom DeRosa, Executive Director of the Creation Studies Institute -- "Reaching the World with the Truths of creation" (website) -- (an outreach of Coral Ridge Ministries), and it "explains how Hitler tried to use genocide to speed up evolution and reveals how the American eugenics movement is likewise indebted to Darwin."

CRM sandbags scientist
One scientist, Dr. Francis Collins, the director of the National Human Genome Research Institute for the NIH, was "absolutely appalled" at how his comments were used in the film. "I had no knowledge that Coral Ridge Ministries was planning a TV special on Darwin and Hitler, and I find the thesis of Dr. Kennedy's program utterly misguided and inflammatory," Collins told the Anti-Defamation League.

"I would not have agreed to participate if I had understood that the program would promote the concept of a direct connection between Darwin's theory of evolution and the evils of the Holocaust and the massacre at Columbine High School.

"My own views on evolution and faith are...strongly discordant with the perspective put forward by the producers of this documentary."

A CRM statement disputed Collins' version of events: "A producer told Dr. Collins in person before the interview began that he was being interviewed for a program that would address the adverse social consequences of Darwin, the August 24 statement read. "In addition, he was asked specifically, during the interview, about the Darwin-Hitler connection and responded on tape that he did not agree with that view. Dr. Collins also signed a Talent Release, which gives Coral Ridge Ministries the right to use his interview ‘without limitation in all perpetuity.'"

In an article in the Baptist Press dated the August 24, Jerry Newcombe, a co-producer of the program, said that CRM "interviewed a number of scientists for the science section [of the program]." He pointed out that "We didn't interview Dr. Collins ... about Hitler. In hindsight, we would not have put Dr. Collins in the program. But he understood it was Coral Ridge Ministries. He understood we were doing a special about Darwinism.... We're sorry we had this misunderstanding and we wish him well."

According to the Washington Post, CRM agreed to pull the Collins segment from "any future airings of the documentary and would stop using his name to promote it."

"We consider him a fellow Christian and have reached a friendly understanding with him about this matter," Kennedy's organization said.

A few days before the film aired, Abraham H. Foxman, the National Director of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), issued a statement calling the film "an outrageous and shoddy attempt by D. James Kennedy to trivialize the horrors of the Holocaust. Hitler did not need Darwin to devise his heinous plan to exterminate the Jewish people. Trivializing the Holocaust comes from either ignorance at best or, at worst, a mendacious attempt to score political points in the culture war on the backs of six million Jewish victims and others who died at the hands of the Nazis.

"It must be remembered that D. James Kennedy is a leader among the distinct group of 'Christian Supremacists' who seek to 'reclaim America for Christ' and turn the U.S. into a Christian nation guided by their strange notions of biblical law."

Lapin leaps in
On August 24, Rabbi Daniel Lapin, the head of the conservative Jewish organization Toward Tradition (website), a close friend of the indicted Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff, and the go-to-rabbi for conservative Christian evangelicals, stepped into the fray. In a statement called "Help or Harm - Which Jews Does the ADL Really Represent?" and published both at the CRM and Toward Tradition websites, Lapin called the ADL's statement on the film an "intemperate and hysterical attack" against Kennedy's Coral Ridge Ministries, and apologized for Foxman's behavior: "On behalf of all those American Jews who feel misrepresented by the ADL, I apologize to Dr. D. James Kennedy for Foxman's ad hominem attack. Dr. Kennedy has always been friendly and supportive towards Jews and has courageously defended the Biblical values shared by both Judaism and Christianity."

In addition to criticizing Foxman, Lapin also stated his backing for the film: "I believe it appropriate for thoughtful Jews to support the Coral Ridge documentary and perhaps even for it to be shown in Jewish schools because there really are only two ways to account for human presence on our planet. One is that God created us in His image. The other is that by a lengthy and random process of totally unaided materialistic evolution, primitive protoplasm evolved into Bach, Brahms, and Beethoven. This approach, ruling out any role for God, is simply incompatible with Jewish values."

"Serious people are asking these three questions," Lapin's statement read:

"Why is a movie that shows how Darwinian thought helped shape Hitler's murderous mind, dangerous to Jews?
Why is it necessary to insult so harshly one of America's most prominent Christian leaders? Or to put it more bluntly, how exactly does it help Jews when the ADL humiliates an Evangelical leader whom as many as forty million Americans revere? Especially since Christian conservatives are virtually alone in acting benevolently towards Jews and standing with Jews in support of Israel.
"Finally, had some Protestant pastor said in 2000, ‘Vice presidential candidate Joe Lieberman is a leader among a distinct group of Jewish supremacists who seek to eradicate Christianity from America and turn the U.S. into a secular society based upon their strange notions of Jewish socialism,' would Mr. Foxman not have decried it as anti-Semitic? Intellectual honesty, if not a sense of decency, surely compels us to acknowledge that if anti-Semitism is an evil, so is anti-Christianism -- bigotry is, after all, bigotry."

Stop ‘bashing Christians' say conservative Jews
Distress that critical comments by Jews about conservative Christian evangelicals will threaten their support for Israel is not just Lapin's concern. In a late-May interview with Ed Lasky of the American Thinker, David Brog, the newly appointed Jewish executive director of Christians United for Israel pointed out that Christians, while supporters of Israel "do not expect any kind of quid pro quo from the Jewish community" and "it [their support] comes with no strings attached," nevertheless it is important to keep in mind "that Christians are human beings with normal human emotions."

"When they spend a great deal of time supporting Israel and fighting anti-Semitism, they are disappointed when these efforts are ignored by the Jewish community, and when the only time they hear from representatives of the Jewish community is to attack them because of their positions on social issues," Brog said.

"This cold reception doesn't sway evangelicals from their course of support for Israel. But it does cause a certain disappointment, a certain feeling of rejection, that I think is unfortunate. We in the Jewish community should try to express greater appreciation for what our Christian friends are doing on our behalf."

In a recent commentary, David Klinghoffer suggested that the reason the ADL's Foxman "stoke[s] our fears?" about evangelicals wanting to Christianize America is to mobilize his followers and raise money. Headlined "Why tout ‘menace' of evangelicals? To raise money" and posted by the Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle, Klinghoffer, a columnist for the Forward, a senior fellow at the anti-evolution Discovery Institute and the author most recently of "Why the Jews Rejected Jesus: The Turning Point in Western History," argued that the reason the ADL "wildly exaggerate]s the] menace of Christian evangelicals ... [is] a financial one."

Klinghoffer added that "For whatever reason, hyperventilating about Christians makes Jews open their wallets."

Klinghoffer has criticized the ADL in other venues. In a June 2002 piece for National Review Online he wrote that Christians should be able to "ask" groups like the ADL, the American Jewish Congress, and Wiesenthal Center to "lay off a bit." Since Christians provide significant support for Israel, "at least until the Mideast crisis has subsided," Abe Foxman should stop "bashing Christians."

PROTESTING TOXIC WASTE DUMPING IN THE IVORY COAST

Youths blocked roads in Ivory Coast's economic capital Abidjan on Wednesday to protest at the dumping of pungent toxic waste which doctors said killed two people and made hundreds ill after it was found around the city.

"There were two deaths, a four-year-old girl and another aged nine years," an official at Abidjan's teaching university hospital of Cocody, where more than 340 people have been treated since Thursday told South Africa's News 24.

Authorities said the petrol-type substance with a high sulphur content was unloaded from a Panamanian-registered ship at Abidjan port on August 19 and then dumped in at least eight sites around the densely populated city.

The government was holding an emergency meeting in the political capital Yamoussoukro to work out a response and had requested international help to analyse the substance and work out how the city can be decontaminated.

Toxic waste dumping has been going on in the Third World for several years. Countries in the West find it cheaper to export their wastes to poor Third World countries, than to dispose of the wastes themselves.

Lately, its been high tech waste dumping in less developed countries thats become all the rage. First world computers end up in these landfills because developed countries ship them there either as charity (the idea is that these computers actually still work) or as waste. The reason why they go to all the trouble of shipping their old computers to countries like India and China instead of dumping them in their own landfills is that computers are toxic.

While you are not likely to get mercury poisoning or develop cancer from sitting in front of your computer, the hazardous materials in computers become a serious concern when they are left to leak into the land and water supply.

"A lot of these materials are being sent [to developing nations] under the guise of reuse—to bridge the digital divide," Richard Gutierrez, a toxics policy analyst for the Seattle, Washington-based Basel Action Network told National Geographic.

Earlier this year the activist organization issued a report titled "The Digital Dump." The paper concludes that three-quarters of the supposedly reusable electronics shipped to Africa's largest port are broken.

One of the problems is that no one certifies whether donated machines work before they hit the seaways. Because of this, the report says, e-waste is a growing problem in Lagos, Nigeria, and elsewhere in the developing world.

Gordon Davy, an engineer with technology firm Northrop Grumman in Baltimore, Maryland, responded to this in a manner that betrays the thinking of corporate power. He told National Geographic,""Pollution in the third world is clearly deplorable," he said. "But as far as health consequences [of e-waste is concerned], the environmental activists need to provide supporting evidence. They need to identify and count their victims."

Richard Gutierrez, a toxics policy analyst for the Seattle, Washington-based Basel Action Network responded to Davy's incredible statement. "We're dealing with toxic substances that have been studied to death. We need not come up with further studies. It would be an overanalysis of an obvious problem."

"The e-waste crisis is relatively young," he said. "The problems [that people] are being exposed to will germinate for years." By the time chronic diseases such as cancer arise, it will be too late to avert a public-health disaster, he said.

Anyway, back to the Ivory Coast for some good old fashion toxic waste dumping.

The following comes from IRIN.

Hundreds Hospitalised After Breathing Toxic Fumes
UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
Abidjan

Hundreds of people have been admitted to hospital after breathing toxic fumes from poisonous waste dumped in residential areas of Cote d'Ivoire's main city, Abidjan.

On Tuesday, hundreds of the city's residents threw up barricades in protest, prompting the government to appeal on national television for roads to be cleared so that medical personnel could get through. The waste is residue from gasoline cargo shipped to Abidjan's port last month.

Local newspapers this week reported that two children died after inhaling the toxic fumes.

In a bid to reassure the population, health officials appeared on state television late Tuesday to say the government was trying to locate the sites where the waste had been discharged.

"Indeed, the waste consists of toxic products," said Health Minister Remi Allah Kouadio, adding that the government was considering supplying local hospitals with medication.

Hundreds of people had turned up at local hospitals, some with complaints ranging from eye irritation to nausea, while others were desperately seeking information about the nature of the waste following rumours that it was radioactive, a health official told IRIN on condition of anonymity.

Local media reports about the waste began appearing last week as residents complained of a pervading noxious odour emanating from several different neighbourhoods, including the city's main garbage dump.

Protests began on Monday near the garbage disposal site and the city zoo, with scores of people barricading roads to stop tanker trucks and brandishing placards accusing the government of negligence.

"We have been living with this horrible smell for two weeks and it is making us sick," said Guy Roland, a young resident of Plateau Dokui, one of the affected neighbourhoods. "We are asking the authorities to do something."

After gasoline from the Netherlands-based commodities trading firm Trafigura Beheer B.V. was unloaded two weeks ago a local company specialising in chemical waste disposal was charged with getting rid of the residue, according to Trafigura.

The waste contains the strong-smelling chemicals hydrogen sulphide and mercaptan, according to a report by the Ivorian Anti-Pollution Centre (CIAPOL), obtained by IRIN.

The report says hydrogen sulphide is "a toxic substance that can lead to immediate death when inhaled".

In a statement, Trafigura said it was "very concerned that the residue of the ship... has been disposed of inappropriately in Abidjan".

Trafigura Beheer B.V. is the holding company of Trafigura Group, a leading independent commodities trading company specialising in petrol, gasoline and base metals. (Editors Note: Netherlands based Trafigura Group, one of the world's top trading companies. Established in 1993, Trafigura now employs more than 630 people in 58 offices in 46 countries worldwide. In 2004 turnover exceeded $17.5 billion. Group equity now stands in excess of $500 million.)

The company confirmed in a statement that the cargo had been gasoline, containing a mixture of petrol and sulphur, with an added concentration of sulphuric products. It said it had informed authorities about the nature of the waste and had sent a written request that it should be safely discarded.

The company declined requests for an interview.

VERMONTERS GATHER TO FIGHT GLOBAL WARMING

Forming a line that stretched nearly half a mile, more than 600 people marched into Burlington Monday in what organizers said was the country's largest global warming demonstration to date.

“This is the largest political rally in Vermont in a really long time, and you are the largest demonstration about global warming in the United States to date,” said author Bill McKibben to the energized throng.

"I started working on climate change almost 20 years ago," McKibben, an author who wrote about global warming in his 1989 book "The End of Nature," told the Rutland Herald. "This morning is the single most hopeful I've been in that 20 years, just to see the unbelievable level of response."

"We're hoping to incite political action on global warming," Rebecca Sobel, state organizer of the Project HotSeat campaign for the environmental activist group Greenpeace also told the Herald. "The time for research in the science of global warming is over. We need solutions and we need them now. The technology is already there. We need politicians to help implement it."

Several days ago when the walk began Sobel said, "People no longer are questioning the science of global warming. They're demanding solutions."

McKibben and the international environmental group Greenpeace organized the walk and rally in hopes of putting global warming at the top of the national agenda.

Other groups involved included the Vermont Public Interest Research Group and the Vermont Natural Resources Council whose director, Raven Burchard of Brattleboro, speaking to the walkers a few days ago said that political fighting must end and global warming must be dealt with squarely. "Politics won't mean squat if we can't survive on this planet," Burchard said.

“Think of this march as the first step in a marathon for our grandchildren,” said marcher Elizabeth Courtney.

The following is from the Burlington Free Press.

Walkers tackle global warming

SHELBURNE -- The new sidewalks on U.S. 7 got a workout Monday when more than 500 people walked from Shelburne to Burlington to put global warming in the political spotlight.

The 49-mile walk called "From the Road Less Traveled: Vermonters Walking Toward a Clean Energy Future," began Thursday in Ripton, the hometown of writer and event organizer Bill McKibben. Walkers were free to join the group at any point as it traveled north, crossing through Middlebury, Vergennes and Charlotte. Participation waxed and waned over the five-day period, and the largest group departed from Shelburne Farms on Monday morning, traveling down Shelburne's Harbor Road, South Burlington's U.S. 7 and eventually into Burlington's Battery Park.

Amy Schumer, a high school senior, came from Middlebury to walk with her dad and a high school friend. Schumer, 16, said she was concerned by the crowd, which contained few high-school age teens.

"I'm a little worried because I feel like people my age should care about the environment," Schumer said. "We can't vote, but I still want to raise awareness."

Roger Hill, meteorologist for WDEV, walked with his wife and his dog. Because he studies Vermont's climate on a daily basis, Hill said the tangible effects of global warming are becoming evident: heavier, wetter snow that causes power failures, severe wear and tear on taxpayer-funded roads because of recurring cycles of freezing and thawing, changes in maple sugaring seasons and regions, and economic damage to the state's ski industry.

Global warming is a trend, he said, that will hit Vermonters in their pocketbooks.

"This is not looney-tune leftist plots," Hill said. "This is mainstream science."

While some wore costumes and wildly decorated hats, Margaret Bullitt-Jonas walked in her black vestments. The associate pastor for Grace Episcopal Church in Amherst, Mass., came to walk because she's concerned about the fate of the Earth.

"To me, global warming is an issue of faith. It's the most urgent moral and spiritual issue humanity faces today," Bullitt-Jonas said. "God gave us the Earth to protect and to care for, and human beings are in the process of destroying life on this planet."

The environment and global warming was a favored topic of discussion for the walkers who meandered down the roads. The journey provided an opportunity to meet new people with similar political and social beliefs. Conversations buzzed through the group as people talked about surfing and composting, sports and their kids' accomplishments.

Drivers gawked as they passed, sometimes waving or honking, but often, the walkers were too absorbed in conversations to notice.

After nearly five hours on the road, participants convened in Battery Park for what McKibben called "a good, old-fashioned town meeting." Local political leaders and candidates were asked to publicly sign a pledge to support legislation to work toward an 80 percent reduction in carbon emissions by 2050, increase fuel economy standards for vehicles to 40 miles per gallon and require that 20 percent of the nation's energy come from renewable resources by 2020.

Eight political leaders and candidates were present to sign the pledge

WHAT'S UP IN BOLIVIA?

The Bolivian government rejected yesterday a general strike called by the opposition that is planned in four regions. Officials from the four provinces -- Santa Cruz, Tarija, Beni and Pando -- said that the strike would be staged in response to "the ruling party's dominating and arbitrary handling of the constitutional assembly."

The Constituent Assembly (AC), which opened last month, was to rewrite the country's constitution aimed at giving its indigenous people more power.

Bolivian President Evo Morales called on the country’s indigenous population to defend the Constituent Assembly underway and the nationalization of Bolivia’s hydrocarbon reserves, in the face of what he termed a rightwing conspiracy. Morales spoke Sunday at a mass rally of small farmers in the town of Huarina on Lake Titicaca, 75 kilometers northwest of the capital.

Morales warned that whatever the opposition tries to do, the Constituent Assembly will march forward.

“With your support and the unity of the Bolivian people, those who sold out the nation will never return; nor will those who sacked the country’s natural resources and who through their parties are carrying out a campaign of attacks against the government,” Morales stressed.

The following is by Jim Shultz and is part of his regular series "BLOG from Bolivia" found on the website of The Democracy Center.

Rumbles at Bolivia's Constituent Assembly

What's going on at Bolivia's Constituent Assembly to rewrite the nation's constitution? Pick your metaphor.

Is it this one reported last week? Assembly delegates from MAS, the socialist party of President Evo Morales, were saying something (evidently with great passion) in their native Quechua. Delegates from the PODEMOS party, the political vehicle of the nation's wealthier elite, responded back, "We don't understand you. We don't speak Quechua."

Are the rumblings at the Assembly evidence that Bolivians from such different viewpoints just can't speak to each other?

Or, is it this one? On Friday the head of the MAS delegation tripped into the 6-foot-deep orchestra pit in the Assembly hall while speaking to delegates. He suffered a skull fracture and remains in critical condition.

Is MAS so enamored with its own agenda and its own speeches that it can't see itself walking into a deep hole of political opposition?

Is it a power grab by Morales and MAS, as their critics claim? Is it a move by national elites, beaten badly at the polls twice, to block a legitimate process of transformation?

The Assembly has been an important political demand of indigenous and other social movement groups for years. Their aim has been to rewrite the rules of Bolivian politics to empower a national majority long marginalized, both politically and economically. This week the Assembly is in a state of turmoil, not over any differences of what the new national "Magna Carta" should contain (not yet), but over the process of the Assembly itself.

What is a Majority?

Under the law approved by the Bolivian Congress that convened the Assembly, the proposal that comes out of that process must clear it with a "supermajority" 2/3 vote. That number is very significant because, while MAS came in a huge first place in the July 2 vote to seat delegates, it has a strong majority but not 2/3. For any vote requiring 2/3, PODEMOS and the other main opposition party, UN, is in a position to block MAS over and over.

On Friday MAS delegates engineered a vote declaring that, on the litany of issues relating to how the Assembly does its business, a simple majority will do. Critics in the opposition were quick to declare that this is exactly the kind of Morales/MAS power grab that they feared.

The parties went into full polarization mode from there. PODEMOS announced that it was boycotting further Assembly sessions until the rule is changed. They, along with civic organizations in Santa Cruz and Beni, strongholds of anti-MAS opposition, began talking about organizing a regional general strike, the same kind of tactic that MAS and MAS allies commonly used against previous presidents.

Vice-President Alvaro Garcia-Linera took the tact of chiding PODEMOS and the others, for having eagerly governed the country (and pushing through huge economic changes like privatization) with governments elected with less than a quarter of the vote and less than half the mandate MAS enjoys. Morales announced over the weekend that he was ready to call on social movements to "mobilize" to Sucre (the city where the Assembly is meeting) to "protect" the process.

Hearing that no doubt caused opposition forces to remember June 2005, when mobilizations of miners blocked members of Congress from leaving Sucre and effectively stopped the President of the Senate from taking over the presidency when Carlos Mesa resigned. Morales' weekend warnings only further inflamed the opposition.

Looking a Little Deeper

We've gotten several calls this week from reporters trying to make sense of the story. What does all this really mean beyond the fireworks of people falling into orchestra pits and threats of general strikes by the old guard elite?

First, when it comes to what the Morales government has a mandate to do, the two main sides really are speaking very different languages. Rightly or wrongly, Morales and MAS believe that they have a historic mandate to alter the political landscape of the nation in deep and far-reaching ways. PODEMOS and its allies, I think, still look at the MAS people as just having their turn at bat, so to speak. They have five years to do a few things here and there, but not wholesale political reconstruction of the state.

When MAS looks at its mandate it see Mandela and the ANC taking over the reins in South Africa in 1994 – a new constitution, a new weave of power, a new nation. PODEMOS sees Tuto handing over power to Goni in 2002, "Ok, your turn to steer a while, but keep moving in the same basic direction."

That said, is the MAS/Morales effort to reshape Bolivia according to its vision any more radical that Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada's massive changes in economic course in the 1990s, including the privatization of the nation's energy reserves and a long list of public enterprises? It would be hard to find changes as radical as those, and those he did with a voter mandate in the low 20s.

Should MAS opponents be wary of a political power grab that tilts the scales unfairly to Morales' favor? Of course, unchecked political power in any hands, be they of the left or right, is a dangerous thing – Political Science 101. But are the screams of PODEMOS and others really a rallying cry to protect democracy or the sound of that old elite finally finding some political traction in its effort to block MAS undoing the political instruments of its historic power?

In my view, that's the real debate here.

Update Tuesday Morning

Here's the latest on the political battle over the Constituent Assembly.

Yesterday civic leaders in four departments – Santa Cruz, Beni, Pando and Tarija – met in Santa Cruz. They denounced MAS' moves in the Assembly as unconstitutional, announced a four-department general strike for Friday, and threatened to convene a rival Constituent Assembly to write their own constitution for Bolivia.

Vice-President Garcia-Linera repeated MAS' position that a 2/3 vote would still be required for approval of the final proposal to come out of the Assembly, and that the majority vote rule would apply only to the work of the Assembly's committees and on procedural issues. The V.P. also made a new proposal, echoed by one of the leaders of the opposition, the UN party's Samuel Doria Medina, that if the new proposed constitution fails to win a 2/3 vote in the Assembly, it would go to a nationwide voter referendum where it could be approved by a majority of those voting.

The National Assembly on Human Rights called on all the parties to start talking again, sort of a "Can't we all just get along?" declaration. In Cochabamba, Governor Manfred Reyes Villa stuck his nose under the tent of national politics (Reyes Villa nearly won the presidency in 2002 and is clearly positioning himself to run again), calling on MAS and others to respect the law that convened the Assembly but declining the opportunity to join with the more hostile anti-MAS opposition in Santa Cruz.

DISAPPEARED IN NEPAL: FAMILIES WANT ANSWERS

Hundreds of people protested in the Nepali capital for the second straight day today demanding information about friends and relatives they say disappeared during a decade-old fight against Maoist rebels.

Over six dozen demonstrators were injured when police tried to disperse them from their sit-in near the Nepalese army headquarters in Kathmandu, eyewitnesses said Tuesday.

The protestors chanted slogans in front of the army stronghold warning of dire consequences if the government continued to ignore their pleas.

In addition, the protestors also blocked traffic at capital's major thoroughfares, including Sahidgate and Singha Durbar gate.

Protestor Chandra Kala Uprety said, 'We are not here for anything but to know the fate of our beloved family members.'

Senior Maoist leader Dina Nath Sharma said at the site Tuesday that the sit-in would continue 'for an indefinite period.' The Maoists expressed solidarity with the protestors and condemned the police action.

Another senior Maoist leader Babu Ram Bhattarai told a gathering last week that the Maoists would make public the status of those allegedly disappeared by them as soon as they joined the proposed interim government.

An estimated 5,000 Nepalese citizens have disappeared over the last decade of armed conflict following their arrests by the state-controlled security forces, the Society of the Family of Disappeared Citizens by the State, said last month in the capital, Kathmandu.

“I will never stop fighting for justice. We are not seeking revenge or huge compensation, but to find these perpetrators who murdered my daughter,” said Debi Sunwar, 50-year-old mother of Maina, who was killed by officials of the Nepalese army after she was heavily tortured following her arrest on alleged charges of being a Maoist rebel, according to Advocacy Forum. She was only 15 years old

The following is taken from Nepalnews.

Families of disappeared people continue sit-in

The families of the disappeared people by the State have started indefinite sit-in strike at Bhadrakali protesting the police brutality in their protest programme on Monday.

Over a hundred people were injured when police intervened in the sit-in protest carried by the families of the disappeared people in front of the Army Headquarters yesterday.

They said that the sit-in protest will continue until the demands are met. They are demanding to publicize the whereabouts of their dear ones, who went missing in the hands of the State.

According to National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), national rights watchdog, the fate of 563 people disappeared by the state are still unknown.

Issuing a press statement on Tuesday, chairman of the civil society for peace and development, Dr. Sundar Mani Dixit condemned the government’s use of force in the protest of families of disappeared people.

Meanwhile, the temporary schoolteachers also organized a sit in at Maitighar Mandala to protest the police intervention in their peaceful rally on Monday at Bhadrakali.

Over three-dozen schoolteachers were injured when police baton charged in the protest rally of the temporary teachers organized demanding permanency in their jobs yesterday.

Various groups including civil servants have been continuously organizing various protest programmes to exert pressure on the government to fulfill their demands.

"RIGHT WING NEO NAZI" GROUPING JOINS LOYALIST FOR MARCH IN NORTHERN IRELAND

"The British Ulster Alliance Flute Band are proud to confirm that we will be taking part in this years parade around the White City Estate," announces their website. The British Ulster Alliance, a group formed in October 1999 by what was described as 'loyalists, patriots and British nationalists on the mainland,'is actually nothing more than a fascist front often featured on various nazi like websites. Just what's needed in Northern Ireland, eh.

The statment below comes from a friend in Northern Ireland.

For Immediate Release : 5 September, 2006

Sinn Féin Assembly member for North Antrim Philip McGuigan has demanded that the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) give the public an explanation for one of their recently formed 'Kick the Pope' flute bands being listed to appear alongside a right wing neo nazi organisation, the British Ulster Alliance, at a loyalist parade planned for the Whitewell area of North Belfast.

Mr McGuigan said:

"Since the formation of two 'Kick the Pope' flute bands bearing the DUP name and logo, one in South Down the other in Upper Bann, the DUP leadership have consistently refused to answer questions as to exactly why a political party sees the need to sponsor such organisations. Both bands have regularly appeared on contentious parades across the six counties alongside bands carrying UDA and UVF flags.

"Now it has emerged that the South Down DUP band is listed to appear alongside an organisation called the British Ulster Alliance at a loyalist parade in the Whitewell area of North Belfast in the coming weeks. This area has recently seen a marked increase in sectarian attacks on Catholic homes including a recent attempt to murder a 12 week old baby in an arson attack.

"The British Ulster Alliance has been widely reported in the media over recent years as being a right wing neo nazi type grouping. The British Ulster Alliance describe themselves as 'anti-Peace Process' and comprised of 'loyalists, patriots and British Nationalists'. The DUP leadership owe people an explanation. If the DUP are serious about nationalists and republicans entering into a power sharing arrangement with them then they need to tell us what are their links to right wing groupings like this and what action they intend to take regarding their bands appearance alongside right wing neo nazi organisations." ENDS

N.B. The British Ulster Alliance have been reported as being a fascist group by both Searchlight and Anti-Fascist Action