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Editorials: Mulino and Panama’s image problem; and An imploding GOP

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José raúl Mulino
President Mulino at the United Nations. Photo from his Twitter / X feed.

It’s not as if…

President Mulino isn’t on a mission to the UN like General Torrijos undertook. He’s not rallying the non-aligned nations behind the cause of Panama’s decolonization. Unlike Che Guevara, he’s not at the UN imparting a photogenic young badass image on the cause of Latin American revolution. Instead, President Mulino is at the UN to threaten sanctions against countries that take Panama to task for laundering the funds of their tax evaders and gangsters.

They don’t even live in Panama, Mulino pleads. Is that his excuse about convicted money launderer Ricardo Martinelli, the leader of his party, who’s holed up in the Nicaraguan Consulate — technically a spot of Nicaraguan territory — and issuing political pronouncements from there instead of serving his long prison term for stealing more than $70 million from the Panamanian people and laundering the proceeds through several other countries as well as this one?

Will the Third World line up behind Panama as it resists European and OECD gray lists? Instead of hassling Venezuelans, will the police go out of their way to be discourteous to US or French citizens found on the isthmus? Will Russian or Chinese ships get better spots in the lines to transit the Panama Canal than Spanish or Swiss vessels?

Our president is making us look ridiculous at the United Nations. That image will cost ordinary Panamanians in the long run.

plastic lady
THIS Republican lady, Montana Secretary of State Christi Jacobson, sent out absentee ballots to overseas and military voters with Kamala Harris not listed. She blamed it on a contractor, of course.

Implosion talk

So the Republican nominee for vice president of the United States says that Democrats intend to fly black women into the United States to have abortions.Is Part B of the hallucination that he’s going to turn in as many Democrats as possible to The Bogeyman?

Near the top of the North Carolina ballot, Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson was outed in an online Mediaite column for some outrageous posts he made on a disgusting social mediium page, CNN picked up on it, checked it out and ran with it, the guy’s top campaign staffers quit, and now North Carolina becomes a major presidential battleground state with the GOP in retreat. So Robinson is threatening to sue CNN.

Meanwhile in Montana, the GOP secretary of state brazenly sent out absentee ballots to overseas voters without Kamala Harris listed as a candidate. In many a red state, with fewer than 90 day to go before Election Day, Republican elected officials have shut down thousands of voting site in African-American or Hispanic neighborhoods. It’s a great set of opportunities for the judiciary to define what is and isn’t a free and fair election, but we all ought to know better than to rely on the current US Supreme Court to do the right things.

For ordinary citizens, the thing to do is register, vote, swamp the desperate Republicans in a tidal wave of votes, and afterward insist on full civil and criminal accounting for the liars and cheaters.

Roger Bacon
Sir Francis Bacon, Lord High Chancellor of England, from a 1617 portrait by Paul van Somer.

                  A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds.

Francis Bacon                   

Bear in mind…

 

I have long since come to believe that people never mean half of what they say, and that it is best to disregard their talk and judge only their actions.

Dorothy Day

 

I say that good painters imitated nature; but that bad ones vomited it.

Miguel de Cervantes

 

Arbitrary power is like most other things which are very hard, very liable to be broken.

Abigail Adams

 

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STRI, ¡Que viva la rana! – XIII festival de la Rana Dorada 2024

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El Valle's honored locals
Atelopus zeteki: La rana dorada es el anfibio nacional de Panamá y su día se celebra hoy, 14 de agosto. Fue venerada por los pueblos indígenas precolombinos y sus imágenes fueron plasmadas en talismanes de oro y arcilla llamados huacas. La última observación confirmada de la rana dorada panameña en la naturaleza fue en 2009. Foto por Brian Gratwicke, Zoológico Nacional de los Estados Unidos.

Smithsonian celebra el XIII Festival de la Rana Dorada

por el Instituto Smithsonian de Investigaciones Tropicales – STRI

El décimo tercer festival de la rana dorada, con distintos eventos a lo largo de Panamá, unirá a locales y visitantes de todo el mundo en la misión de celebrar y conservar los tesoros vivientes de Panamá: los anfibios.

La rana dorada de Panamá es endémica de Panamá central, donde fue descubierta en El Valle de Antón y sus alrededores. Esta preciosa rana, amarilla y negra, es un símbolo medioambiental y cultural en Panamá. Solía ser abundante desde El Valle de Antón hasta el Parque Nacional y Reserva Biológica Altos de Campana, pero debido a la enfermedad fúngica llamada quitridiomicosis, ha experimentado un gran declive en toda su área de distribución.

La rana dorada panameña fue observada en estado salvaje por última vez en el 2009. Anterior al declive causado por la epidemia de quitridiomicosis, el hábitat de esta especie fue degradándose debido a las actividades humanas, además que esta especie era capturada para el mercado de mascotas.

Este festival nació como un llamado de atención sobre la pérdida de ranas panameñas debido a esta enfermedad fúngica y el deterioro de sus hábitats. No obstante, poblaciones de ranas doradas se mantienen vivas en programas de cría en cautiverio en Panamá y los Estados Unidos. El Proyecto de Rescate y Conservación de Anfibios de Panamá (PARC por sus siglas en inglés), fue creado en el 2009 como una asociación entre los zoológicos New England Zoo, Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, Houston Zoo y Smithsonian National Zoo, junto al Instituto Smithsonian de Investigaciones Tropicales (STRI), para rescatar y establecer poblaciones sostenibles de ésta y otras especies de anfibios que se encuentran en peligro de extinción en todo Panamá. También se centran los esfuerzos y experiencia en el desarrollo de metodologías para reducir el impacto del hongo quítrido, además de realizar ensayos de reintroducción a la naturaleza.

No existe por el momento un tratamiento eficaz para combatir la enfermedad, pero se mantiene el optimismo de poder devolver algún día la rana dorada a su hábitat natural.

El Q?bus, el Busito de la Ciencia visitará junto a científicos del PARC escuelas en Chicá, Panamá Oeste el 14 de agosto, Día de la Rana Dorada y El Centro Natural Punta Culebra en la Calzada de Amador organizará un día de actividades durante programa escolar y público en la Semana de los Anfibios, destacando la conservación a través de lecciones enfocadas donde los visitantes podrán ver las ranas (incluyendo ranas doradas nacidas en cautiverio), aprender sobre las valiosas contribuciones que los anfibios hacen a los ecosistemas panameños y descubrir cómo ayudar a conservarlos.

Durante este festival también recordamos a Lucrecia Arosemena (QEPD), cuya incansable labor ayudó a que la legislación panameña reconociera el 14 de agosto de 2010 como el primer día nacional de la rana dorada.

Lucrecia
Ana Lucrecia Arosemena (q.e.p.d.) Gracias a su liderazgo, el 14 de agosto de cada año celebramos el Día Nacional de la Rana Dorada.

 

tiny
Andinobates geminisae adulta. Descubierta en Donoso, Panamá, esta rana de dardo venenosa, color rojo naranja, fue descrita en 2014 por científicos del Instituto Smithsonian de Investigaciones Tropicales, la Universidad Autónoma de Chiriquí en Panamá y la Universidad de los Andes en Colombia. Fue bautizada Andinobates geminisae en honor a Geminis Vargas, la esposa de uno de los investigadores. Foto por Brian Gratwicke, Zoológico Nacional de los Estados Unidos.

 

certus
EAtelopus certus. Este sapo de color rojo o naranja, con manchas negras, se encuentra en áreas montañosas de la serranía del Sapo en Darién, Panamá. Los renacuajos tienen un gran disco de succión en el vientre, que les sirve para aferrarse a rocas y guijarros en los arroyos. Foto por Brian Gratwicke, Zoológico Nacional de los Estados Unidos.

 

glyphus
Atelopus glyphus. Esta especie se encuentra en el este de Panamá, en la Serranía de Pirre, y en Colombia, en el Chocó. Las ranas adultas son marrones con pequeñas marcas amarillas. Gran parte del hábitat de esta especie se encuentra protegida por el Parque Nacional Darién, un sitio del Patrimonio Mundial, pero esto realmente no ayuda a mitigar el hongo que es su principal amenaza. Foto por Brian Gratwicke, Zoológico Nacional de los Estados Unidos.

 

Atelopus limosus. Esta especie es endémica de los bosques de tierras bajas en Panamá central y se encuentra típicamente en las laderas de arroyos rocosos. En algunas zonas, el patrón de color de esta rana se parece al limo de los riachuelos, por lo que puede pasar desapercibida. Además del hongo quítrido, otra amenaza es la disminución en la extensión y calidad de su hábitat, debido a la agricultura, contaminación y los proyectos de infraestructura. Foto por Brian Gratwicke, Zoológico Nacional de los Estados Unidos.

 

lemur
Agalychnis lémur. Esta especie vive en Panamá, Costa Rica y Colombia. Algunos componentes en la piel de las ranas adultas tienen propiedades antibacterianas y antifúngicas. El ‘lemur’ en su nombre científico se refiere a la forma en que camina esta rana, que es similar a la de los lémures. Foto por Brian Gratwicke, Zoológico Nacional de los Estados Unidos.

 

varius
Atelopus varius. Vive en Panamá y en Costa Rica, donde está casi extinta. Uno de sus alimentos predilectos son las hormigas. Generalmente su piel tiene marcas negras y de otro color, como verde brillante, amarillo, amarillo-naranja o rojo. Se mueve muy lentamente y posiblemente las toxinas en su piel lo protegen de los depredadores. Foto por Brian Gratwicke, Zoológico Nacional de los Estados Unidos.

 

 

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Editorials: Seguro Social, and Coming to the USA

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CSS Boquete
CSS archive photo of a facility in Boquete.

Let’s get a good, if painful, Seguro Social compromise

The Social Security Fund (Caja de Seguro Social or CSS) is in trouble, both on its retirement and disability pensions (IVM) and health care system sides. It has been looted for years, in an ubroken chain back to dictatorship times. It has been funded by a system that encourages all sorts of dodges – outright evasion, “costs of representation,” things included or excluded from the calculations.

Half of our work force is in the tiny businesses of the informal sector, not paying into, nor taking out of the system. Yes, an informal worker can go to a Seguro Social clinic and be served, for a small, generally nominal, fee. Yes, the fund has been raided to give stipends to those who don’t qualify for pensions.

A big drain has been on the investments of the fund’s resources. Sweetheart deals with the politically connected, gifts that disappear into the banking sytstem, outright embezzlent and so on have abounded.

We get proposals from the worst of the business sector and the political caste, amounting to “We keep what we stole and all you other folks pay more and receive less.” We get these foward-looking proposals for draconian penalties by those expecting anything but uniform application. We get all these fingers pointed at the poorer half of Panama’s work force, who toil in the informal sector.

We have not had a full and honest accounting, which would be a herculean task. We do know enough about the numbers to know that some painful moves will have to be made. Will we get a GOOD deal? That would be one that just about everybody dislikes.

 

perv
Will after the special election to fill the House vacancy created by Matt Gaetz’s departure, the district still represented by a Republican who does his hair in a perv wave? Cropped from a Wikimedia photo by Gage Skidmore.

Coming to the USA…

An unusual and difficult period is coming for the American people. A rapist and convicted felon is taking over and making noises like he expects none of the political and constitutional checks and balances to apply to himself and his entourage. He’s chosen a shorteye perv to head the Justice Department.

How brutal does he want the fight to be? Maybe enough to bring in North Korean troops or the Russian Army, for all we know. He will face resistance, no matter how extreme he gets.

Time for Democrats to get real, get positive and get better leadership. As in, to pick up the pieces after a severe defeat and carry on the fight, not so much among ourselves as against the Republicans and their corporate base. Let’s end Trump’s effective presidency in by-elections to come and in the 2026 midterms.

 

Petra Kelly Street
The late Petra Kelly, founder of the Green movement who was shot dead way before her time, has a street in Munich named after her. Unattributed Wikimedia photo.

If we don’t do the impossible, we shall be faced with the unthinkable.

Petra Kelly

Bear in mind…

 

What is defeat? Nothing but education; nothing but the first step to something better.

Wendell Phillips

 

The free expression of the hopes and aspirations of a people is the greatest and only safety in a sane society.

Emma Goldman

 

Why shouldn’t things be largely absurd, futile, and transitory? They are so, and we are so, and they and we go very well together.

George Santayana

 

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¿Wappin? Blackbirds and those of other hues

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blackbirds
Photo and electronic manipulation by Eric Jackson.

A playlist for and about us
Una lista de reproducción para y sobre nosotros

Beatles – Blackbird
https://youtu.be/Man4Xw8Xypo?si=zXmnIYtTnGrXrIyr

Peter, Päul & Mary – No Esay Walk to Freedom
https://youtu.be/VmrPbXijhCQ?si=2nKFQkofSL8w1rqH

Willie Colón & Rubén Blades — Plantación Adentro
https://youtu.be/zx6qSntme3o?si=9WUPFH4aleWIbVc8

Best of Mon Laferte 2024
https://youtu.be/JD0r8pAymCg?si=mTOfk25CeTgAXTZO

Laurie Anderson – Waiting for the Barbarians
https://youtu.be/rI15W-BBhrw?si=Psgtgf88l7A0p1ZM

Pink Floyd – Wish You Were Here
https://youtu.be/6qQA7ZqmSr8?si=fa8Ij1hT5OTCI0Jv

Roberta Flack – Oh Freedom
https://youtu.be/nDP3fST_vjM?si=sFwaxB4wphK1jt_5

 

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Browsing through art and craft work at the El Valle public market

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golden frogs

It would not be El Valle without the emblematic golden frogs. The symbol lives on, but the amphibians almost didn’t. An outbreak of chytrid fungus infection nearly made the whole lineage go extinct but some scientists have made and are making a valiant effo0rt to bring the golden frogs back from the brink.   

On a misty Thursday morning in El Valle

photos and captions by Eric Jackson

 

baskets
Fish baskets, but not only. There are people who find ways to make these woven split-bamboo baskets decorative, but people find even more ways to use the things.

 

hats
In Panama you should wear a hat to at least partially block the sun and rain. There are several varieties here but the Panamanian genre is far from fully represented in this vendor’s corner. If it’s a gorra — a baseball hat — Panama is this county of New York Yankees fans. You need to go elsewhere to get a Coclé Leña Roja or Detroit Tigers hat.

 

molas
Don’t be so stereotypical as to equate molas with all there is to Panamanian indigenous art. this Guna applique and mostly reverse applique needlework is one of the symbols of our nation.

 

footwear
Gotta be shod. While warm weather invites barefooting, you can pick up infections that way. Panamanian footwear is nothing nearly so sinister at the Colombian stuff. 

 

maracas
See, if you want to play along with the band but you’re not THAT sophisticated of an instrumentalist.

 

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Editorial, Looking for a respectful cultural expression for a new resistance era

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When escaping to freedom on the Underground Railway, slaves would avoid the roads and their armed white militia patrols — the original “Second Amendment People” — and wade in streams, rivers and lakes to break the trail of their scent that the slave catchers’ dogs would follow. We don’t know who wrote this traditional song, but it was to educate the resistance of that time.

What will be the music of this
coming resistance period?

In a way, it was a trap that Democrats walked right into, notwithstanding history’s warnings.

Didn’t Richard Nixon, the former carnival barker and ultimate corporate politician, get elected to the US Senate by calling actress Helen Gahagan Douglas, a proud union member, an elitist?

Now Donald Trump, against the opposition of an overwhelming majority of American writers, composers and performing artists, has portrayed Kamala Harris as the candidate of the elites. A guy whose own accomplishments are largely matters of fiction, whose fortune derives from his grandfather the pimp, whose best-paying job was in that excretion of television culture, a “reality TV” show in which he fired people, portrayed the most creative people on the US cultural scene as “elitists” and tens of millions of voters bought that.

Yes, there were all these entertainers who sang, played and shared the stage at Kamala rallies but as it turned out the best cultural response to Trump from the blue side came from a South African.

It’s as if Democrats had fully bought into the neoliberal culture of celebrity, that actors and musicians, rather than skilled working people with their own intellects and things to say, are these market commodities whose value can be expressed in dollars and cents. That in a campaign season that partly coincided with a Screen Actors Guild strike. That’s behind us now, and the USA and the world are going into a new political and cultural period. Back then, beatniks and jazz were at the forefront of the popular cultural resistance to the McCarthy era of the 50s. The hippies and the black militants, and their cultural expressions, were the better part of the events leading to the night they drove Dick Nixon down.

A new period is coming, most probably not to a tune bought or stolen from an entertainment corporation. The new resistance needs its own, popular songs and symbols.

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US defense contractor held liable for torture

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Abu Ghraib
US Army Sergeant Michael Smith uses a dog to torture a terrified Iraqi detainee at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad. US Army photo.

“This victory is a shining light for everyone who has been oppressed and a strong warning to any company or contractor practicing different forms of torture and abuse,” said one of the Iraqi plaintiffs.

‘Big day… for justice’: Virginia federal jury finds contractor liable for Abu Ghraib torture

by Brett Wilkins – Common Dreams

In a landmark verdict cheered by human rights defenders around the world, a federal jury in Virginia found a US military contractor liable for the torture of three prisoners at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison during the invasion and occupation of Iraq in the early 2000s.

The jury ordered CACI Premier Technology to pay each of the three Iraqi plaintiffs $3 million in compensatory damages and $11 million in punitive damages, for a total of $42 million. It is the first time that a civilian contractor has been found legally responsible for abusing Abu Ghraib detainees.

The lawsuit against CACI—filed in 2008 by the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) on behalf of Suhail Al Shimari, Asa’ad Al Zuba’e, and Salah Al-Ejaili—alleged that company officials conspired with US military personnel in subjecting the plaintiffs to torture and other crimes.

As CCR noted Tuesday:

The plaintiffs brought their case under the Alien Tort Statute, a 1789 federal law that allows foreign nationals to seek redress in US courts for certain violations of international law. This historic outcome follows 16 years of litigation, more than 20 attempts by CACI to have the case dismissed, and a previous trial in which the jury was unable to reach a verdict. Never before this case had survivors of US post-9/11 torture testified in a US courtroom. It also featured testimony from US generals, CACI employees, and former [military police officers] involved in the torture.

“Today is a big day for me and for justice,” said Al-Ejaili. “I’ve waited a long time for this day.”

“This victory isn’t only for the three plaintiffs in this case against a corporation,” he added. “This victory is a shining light for everyone who has been oppressed and a strong warning to any company or contractor practicing different forms of torture and abuse.”

CCR legal director Baher Azmy said that “our clients have fought bravely for 16 years in search of justice for the horrors they endured at Abu Ghraib, against all of the challenges this massive private military contractor threw in their way over the years to avoid basic accountability for its role in this shameful episode in American history.”

“We are awed by our clients’ courage and by the power of their testimony in court, and we are grateful that this jury knew enough to credit their story over the deflections of CACI,” Azmy added. “We thank the jury for affording our clients the measure of justice they came to a United States court to seek.”

Like Guantánamo Bay, Abu Ghraib became a byword for US torture during the Bush administration as it waged a worldwide war on terrorism following the September 11, 2001 attacks. The prison’s worldwide notoriety stems from the leak and publication in 2004 of photos showing US troops torturing and abusing Abu Ghraib detainees, both living and dead, often with smiles on their faces.

A 2004 investigation by US Army Lieutenant General Anthony Jones and Major General George Fay found that CACI employees participated in and encouraged the torture of Abu Ghraib prisoners.

Investigators found that employees of CACI and Titan Corporation (now L3 Technologies) tortured Abu Ghraib detainees and encouraged US troops to do likewise. Dozens of Abu Ghraib detainees died in US custody, some of them as a result of being tortured to death. Abu Ghraib prisoners endured torture ranging from rape and being attacked with dogs to being forced to eat pork and renounce Islam.

A separate US Army report concluded that most Abu Ghraib prisoners were innocent, with the Red Cross estimating that between 70-90% of inmates there were wrongfully detained. These include women who were held as bargaining chips to induce suspected militants to surrender.

Eleven low-ranking US soldiers were convicted and jailed for their roles in Abu Ghraib torture. Brigadier General Janis Karpinski, the prison’s commanding officer, was demoted. No other high-ranking military officer faced accountability for the abuse. Senior Bush administration officials—who had authorized many of the “enhanced interrogation techniques” used at prisons including Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo Bay—lied about their knowledge of the torture. None of them were ever held accountable.

 

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Hackers (AGAIN!)

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latest hacker

Trying to figure it out, but more immediately to fix it

We have been here before.

In 2008 a bot coming from China sucked up all of our bandwidth and shut down the website. The immediate thought was that it was this obnoxious guy, a competitor at the time and a shill for every scam that would pay him to be such, behind it. We took steps to get thepanamanews.com back up, and only some time later did we get a clue about who it actually was. A new website host added a “most viewed articles” feature and by using that and following up it turned out that a few weeks before we had run an article about a Falun Gong event in Parque Omar some weeks before. SOMEBODY connected this article, via London and Prague, across China’s Internet firewall. Hundreds of thousands of people in China saw it. Falun Gong is officially deemed an “evil cult” by the Beijing authorities and here’s this little website in Panama defying their blackout ban, albeit without a thought about publishing in China? The Chinese government, or somebody working on their behalf or thinking that he, she or they were doing so, retaliated against us. Sometime after that the US and Chinese governments came to an uderstanding or sorts and China eschewed such Internet warfare.

In 2013, 2014 and 2015 a series of hacks shut down The Panama News website several times. We think from surrounding circumstances that it was one politically motivated person and his camp in Panama, using the Israeli NOS company’s Pegasus system, then various more ordinary criminal elements piling on to send out spam ijn the name of our website’s dedicated email address. After a series of battles we regained control of our name and website and set up a WordPress site. There were immediate attacks with bundles of spam messages in the comments section, aimed at overloading and shutting down the website. That’s why we have no comments feature on the website itself. Make your comments on one of our social media extensions, the Facebook page or the Twitter / X account. We are fairly sure on whose behalf the Pegasus attack was made and have some compelling clues about who the computer nerd who actually did it was. None of it would stand up in a Panamanian court, although in a US process that includes interrogatories, depositions and compelled production of documents we might have a winning case. Whether we could afford the litigation is another matter. Almost certainly the US National Security Agency has files that would indicate who did what and even more certainly they would not share such data to help The Panama News.

NOW we use the usual log-in button for our wordpress.org website and get a message coming from somebody calling themselves wordpress.com, demanding payment to register our website with them. It’s a criminal hacking scam and if it’s very widespread is a major attack on the small, independent online news media. We found a way back into our website but so far not a way to complain to wordpress.org. We are working on it.

Knowing the published history of WordPress hacks, there has been a rash of them that were used to send out illegal commercial spam messages. If you get some email saying that it’s from The Panama News or from WordPress – most probably purporting to sell you some product or service – it’s something that belongs in your spam file. For one thing, we are reader supported and do not sell ads. Malicious jerks MAY be able to buy off The Washington Post or The Los Angeles Times, but not The Panama News.

Bear with us. We are not omniscient, nor do we have the resources to hire Internet sleuths to chase down and expose the hackers and the people who employ them. We ARE, however, doing the best we can to protect our readers. Hence this message. If you have anything to report, do so on our Facebook page or via our Twitter / X account.

 

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¿Wappin? Is there a winter soldier here?

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sad day
Retreating from the Nazis – for the time being – Minsk 1941.

Ready to resist?
¿Listo para resistir?

Leadbelly – The Bourgeois Blues
https://youtu.be/Dk6Y9uIwiMI?si=gu3CuEgXOP4RCl1P

Mahalia Jackson – How I Got Over
https://youtu.be/l49N8U3d0Bw?si=qQN_xYeeL3GUlbJI

Quicksilver Messenger Service – What About Me?
https://youtu.be/hOJk74QCGuw?si=5U-LSlUODPTUraSl

Holly Near – Hay Una Mujer Desaparecida
https://youtu.be/zuqD-OxLDm4?si=aR0OdrNjBjQSvOuO

Mon Laferte – Viña del Mar 2017
https://youtu.be/OSoCF1lud0E?si=2uF-Fi413Qce6hFF

Carlos Mejía Godoy – No Pasarán
https://youtu.be/U9e793oeYBc?si=bUWfVmSr5g1QSO5

Adán Jodorowsky & Natalia Lafourcade – Vivir Con Valor
https://youtu.be/hUrlHEsmFMA?si=4sR_jXOBuuXgM7NG

Rubén Blades & Roby Draco Rosa — Patria
https://youtu.be/ql0G312R2IQ?si=glCPAO-oB1wDnZtV

Bruce Springsteen – Eyes On The Prize
https://youtu.be/qd6J2QF3fJY?si=Aanv2XzyVfnm26Xc

Laurie Anderson – Waiting For The Barbarians
https://youtu.be/rI15W-BBhrw?si=HzJNieMRdUlkyK4k

Jefferson Airplane – Volunteers
https://youtu.be/p53KddneD-k?si=1aVC8lu1mlDB4rW1

 

 

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van Nieuwkerk, The promise of BRICS+ – and the problem with that

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those guys
Putin’s guests at the recent expanded BRICS summit in Kazan. Wikimedia photo by Foption – BRICS.

BRICS+ could shape a new world order, but it
lacks shared values and a unified identity

by Anthoni van Nieuwkerk, University of South Africa

}The last two summits of BRICS countries have raised questions about the coalition’s identity and purpose. This began to come into focus at the summit hosted by South Africa in 2023, and more acutely at the recent 2024 summit in Kazan, Russia.

At both events the alliance undertook to expand its membership. In 2023, the first five BRICS members – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – invited Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to join. All bar Saudi Arabia have now done so. The 2024 summit pledged to admit 13 more, perhaps as associates or “partner countries.”

On paper, the nine-member BRICS+ strikes a powerful pose. It has a combined population of about 3.5 billion, or 45% of the world’s people. Combined, its economies are worth more than US$28.5 trillion – about 28% of the global economy. With Iran, Saudi Arabia and the UAE as members, BRICS+ produces about 44% of the world’s crude oil.

Based on my research and policy advice to African foreign policy decision-makers, I would argue that there are three possible interpretations of the purpose of BRICS+.

  • A club of self-interested members – a kind of global south cooperative. What I’d label as a self-help organization.
  • A reforming bloc with a more ambitious goal of improving the workings of the current global order.
  • A disrupter, preparing to replace the western-dominated liberal world order.

Analyzing the commitments that were made at the meeting in Russia, I would argue that BRICS+ sees itself more as a self-interested reformer. It represents the thinking among global south leaders about the nature of global order, and the possibilities of shaping a new order. This, as the world moves away from the financially dominant, yet declining western order (in terms of moral influence) led by the United States. The move is to a multipolar order in which the east plays a leading role.

However, the ability of BRICS+ to exploit such possibilities is constrained by its make-up and internal inconsistencies. These include a contested identity, incongruous values and lack of resources to convert political commitments into actionable plans.

Summit outcomes

The trend towards closer trade and financial cooperation and coordination stands out as a major achievement of the Kazan summit. Other achievements pertain to global governance and counter-terrorism.

When it comes to trade and finance, the final communiqué said the following had been agreed:

  • adoption of local currencies in trade and financial transactions. The Kazan Declaration notes the benefits of faster, low cost, more efficient, transparent, safe and inclusive cross-border payment instruments. The guiding principle would be minimal trade barriers and non-discriminatory access.
  • establishment of a cross-border payment system. The declaration encourages correspondent banking networks within BRICS, and enabling settlements in local currencies in line with the BRICS Cross-Border Payments Initiative. This is voluntary and nonbinding and is to be discussed further.
  • creation of an enhanced roles for the New Development Bank, such as promoting infrastructure and sustainable development.
  • a proposed Br Grain Exchange, to improve food security through enhanced trade in agricultural commodities.

All nine BRICS+ countries committed themselves to the principles of the UN Charter – peace and security, human rights, the rule of law, and development – primarily as a response to the western unilateral sanctions.

The summit emphasised that dialogue and diplomacy should prevail over conflict in, among other places, the Middle East, Sudan, Haiti and Afghanistan.

Faultlines and tensions

Despite the positive tone of the Kazan declaration, there are serious structural fault lines and tensions inherent in the architecture and behavior of BRICS+. These might limit its ambitions to be a meaningful change agent.

The members don’t even agree on the definition of BRICS+. President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa calls it a platform. Others talk of a group (Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi) or a family (Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jianan).

So what could it be?

BRICS+ is state-driven – with civil society on the margins. It reminds one of the African Union, which pays lip service to citizens’ engagement in decision-making.

One possibility is that it will evolve into an intergovernmental organization with a constitution that sets up its agencies, functions and purposes. Examples include the World Health Organization, the African Development Bank and the UN general assembly.

But it would need to cohere around shared values. What would they be?

Critics point out that BRICS+ consists of democracies (South Africa, Brazil, India), a theocracy (Iran), monarchies (UAE, Saudi Arabia) and authoritarian dictatorships (China, Russia). For South Africa this creates a domestic headache. At the Kazan summit, its president declared Russia a friend and ally. At home, its coalition partner in the government of national unity, the Democratic Alliance, declared Ukraine as a friend and ally.

There are also marked differences over issues such as the reform of the United Nations. For example, at the recent UN Summit of the Future the consensus was for reform of the UN security council. But will China and Russia, as permanent security council members, agree to more seats, with veto rights, on the council?

As for violent conflict, humanitarian crises, corruption and crime, there is little from the Kazan summit that suggests agreement around action.

Unity of purpose

What about shared interests? A number of BRICS+ members and the partner countries maintain close trade ties with the west, which regards Russia and Iran as enemies and China as a global threat.

Some, such as India and South Africa, use the foreign policy notions of strategic ambiguity or active non-alignment to mask the reality of trading with east, west, north and south.

The harsh truth of international relations is there are no permanent friends or enemies, only permanent interests. The BRICS+ alliance will most likely cohere as a global south co-operative, with an innovative self-help agenda, but be reluctant to overturn the current global order from which it desires to benefit more equitably.

Trade-offs and compromises might be necessary to ensure “unity of purpose.” It’s not clear that this loose alliance is close to being able to achieve that.The Conversation

Anthoni van Nieuwkerk, Professor of International and Diplomacy Studies, Thabo Mbeki African School of Public and International Affairs, University of South Africa

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

 

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Dunn, What a Trump victory in the USA would mean for the rest of the world

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them
Wikimedia photo by Elver Barnes.

US election: what a Trump victory would mean for the rest of the world

by David Hastings Dunn — University of Birmingham

According to the United Nations 2024 is “the biggest election year in human history” with half of the world’s population – some 3.7 billion people in 72 countries – able to vote. Yet some elections are more consequential than others which is why the world is watching as the USA goes to the polls.

The United States is the world’s largest economy, and the biggest military power. But it also the lynchpin of many international strategic alliances, the economic and financial system and many of the world’s liberal institutions.

These elections are a pivotal moment in US history which could have massive implications for how the country is governed and for the future of the post-war order that Washington has helped build.

Unlike any election since 1945 the basic tenets of US relations with the rest of the world are in contention. The choice is between Donald Trump’s Republican party potentially offering a complete break from the US role in the international community, compared to Kamala Harris’s more international agenda under the Democrats. Under Harris the United States is likely to continue to play a significant role in NATO, for instance.

Tariffs on China

The most conspicuous assault on the US foreign policy tradition is Trump’s plans to impose a universal tariff of 20% on all foreign imports. Tariffs on China could be much higher with threats from Trump of 60-200%. As well as being inflationary and damaging to the American economy such moves are likely to result in retaliation, trade wars and dislocation with the world economy. By limiting access to the world’s largest national market, they would also hamper global efforts to transition to a zero-carbon economy.

If re-elected Donald Trump will move away from Joe Biden’s climate change policies.

Such matters are of little concern to Trump however, who plans to repeat his withdrawal of Washington from the Paris agreement on climate change, to repeal the environmental protection measures implemented by Joe Biden, and to authorize the unrestricted exploitation of US oil and gas deposits through deregulated fracking. Trump’s plans would add tons of extra carbon to the atmosphere if executed and would be likely to significantly undermine global work on climate change.

Also in contention in the 2024 election is the US commitment to defend its friends and allies from hostile states. As a member of NATO the United States is bound to come to the aid of the other members under article 5, if another country attacks them. The United States also has similar treaties with Japan and South Korea. The Biden administration led NATO in supporting Ukraine with military and financial aid to prevent its total subjugation to Russian occupation.

By contrast Trump has indicated that he would end this support and pressure Kyiv to accept peace on Moscow’s terms. Rather than seeing a network of alliances as the basis of strength and influence, Trump sees these as a source of risk and a burden.

Defending friends

Many former officials, such as former national security advisor John Bolton, suspect that Trump would seek to leave Nato in a second term or weaken its effectiveness through tepid support. In Asia, Trump’s recent comments that “Taiwan should pay us for defense. You know, we’re no different than an insurance company” suggest a weakening of US commitment to the island.

For many observers these elections also matter because the US ability to conduct a free, fair and undisputed election and the peaceful transfer of power is in question. From his first involvement in the Republican party primary process in 2016 Trump has never accepted the results of an election that he lost.

What is more remarkable is that he has convinced a majority of Republican voters to side with him in asserting that the 2020 election was stolen, only a third believe the election was legitimate. When faith in the electoral process is so undermined it is difficult to see how the USA can come together to be governed after the election.

For the Trump camp, however, there is a ready answer for this question. If elected, Project 2025, a document of policies prepared by a right-leaning thinktank, suggests that his administration would replace the top tier of Washington’s bureaucracy with 50,000 officials who pledge loyalty to him over the constitution. It also suggests that a Trump administration would disband a myriad of federal agencies such as the departments of justice, energy, and education as well as the FBI and Federal Reserve and to use his newly claimed executive authority to impose his policy agenda.

Such measures are designed to enable Trump to introduce a raft of policies that many regard as authoritarian, such as the deportation of millions of “illegal aliens”, using the National Guard and army, if necessary.

The US experiment with democracy has fascinated and inspired the world since its inception in 1776. Never before, however, has it seemed in such jeopardy. The United States is deeply divided on many fundamental questions, from taxation, immigration, abortion, trade, energy and environmental policy, and its role in the world.

For the first time these divisions seem more important to many electors than respect for their democratic institutions and traditions. More fundamentally, many US citizens seem unable to accept the result of the democratic process and the subsequent legitimacy of the winner. Who wins the election and how the USA is governed as a result, matters more now, to more people, than ever.

David Hastings Dunn, Professor of International Politics in the Department of Political Science and International Studies, University of Birmingham

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

¿Wappin? Halloween, The Day of the Dead and a referendum on fascism

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Campaigning with the late Chas. Addams.

Desde Halloween, el Día de los Muertos
hasta un referéndum sobre el fascismo

Cannibal Corpse – Evisceration Plague
https://youtu.be/482tDopNzoc?si=gzvntiTjclzbdqw8

Screaming Lord Sutch — Dracula’s Daughter
https://youtu.be/ocS-Nx5ihSs?si=vRZybbr1Y5b9XaZ2

Denise Gutiérrez — Bestia
https://youtu.be/mqb2C9LmeDg?si=RQ_KZwbuB0Pes7o4

Calle Arriba de Las Tablas – La Tulivieja
https://youtu.be/WPSeRm8uLZs?si=oChXDMD7atdpcOLp

Alice Cooper – I Love the Dead
https://youtu.be/d0n8stu14BI?si=VpIHgn0lBsjlvVVG

Paul Kantner & Grace Slick – When I was a boy I watched the wolves
https://youtu.be/SXOe_rbN-nI?si=rDDGmkLT_D0uUIlz

Shakira – Loba
https://youtu.be/P95o72c-XIM?si=VxdZ4u_4kaV-KAgo

Alice Phoebe Lou – Witches
https://youtu.be/JuklRMZj7CA?si=ncN8bKfFIcp2wcVr

Black Sabbath — Paranoid
https://youtu.be/0qanF-91aJo?si=r5_EX9Kv1uARXuOx

Taylor Swift – Blank Space
https://youtu.be/e-ORhEE9VVg?si=JjLcvmB994CKZZ8m

Of Monsters And Men – Wolves Without Teeth
https://youtu.be/h6OuIpdqGhQ?si=sNMCAgvMBpZJomzi

Rubén Blades – The Hit
https://youtu.be/lhfWf6dyRyU?si=Dzz0c5ED7cfcrbHh

Led Zeppelin – No Quarter
https://youtu.be/wdqDmJbm2eY?si=Q11HWT4wxBeJ4zDY

Chrissy Hynde — Creep
https://youtu.be/lGRsEDDfLz8?si=1gY48zZTy3BCkXcw

Sinéad O’Connor – Drink Before the War
https://youtu.be/k0bjykX3D30?si=Kt44wk9gvXwBb-IQ

Frank Zappa – The Torture Never Stops
https://youtu.be/sw_LpINt8lk?si=DRlmZTlxk_nVhJX5

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