Zapatista Music and the Cancionero Zapatista

Thanks to the hard work of, let's call him Compañero Rogelio, the music of the Zapatistas is now widely available for musicians young and old to learn, play and teach to others. While CDs of the songs featured in the songbook, prepared by Rogelio using the songs played and recorded by Zapatista music groups in the Mexican state of Chiapas like Nuevo Amanecer, these disks are not widely available in the United States.

With the permission of the Junta of Buen Gobierno, the songs themselves are now available north of the border in the "Canciones Zapatistas" inspired by the "Little Red Songbook" of the IWW.

Schools for Chiapas are rumored to be bringing down many copies to be distributed to Zapatista schools for the benefit of the students there.

The Indypendent Reader Release Party

The Indypendent Reader, a new publication by Baltimore Indymedia and Camp Baltimore, is having a release party this Thursday at the Contemporary Museum in Mt. Vernon. Though somewhat narrow in focus, the first issue was very deep in its analysis of the creation of the ghetto and gentrification in East Baltimore.

Interpreter Times: The Patient and Their "Comañeros"

My colleague Roig and I started a new interpreters' trade blog, Interpreter Times
An excerpt from my first piece on the new site:

For example, what if a patient is asked by hospital staff where he works and, instead of answering, looks deferentially toward a "compañero del trabajo" who advises him to say he is unemployed? Is this not a sign that the patient's "friend" may have a conflict of interest, violate the patient's confidentiality and compromise his/her care? The interpreter obviously cannot tell the compañero not to accompany the patient to the consultation, but should s/he inform a nurse or physician of the potential problem? Should the interpreter or some other hospital staff be prepared to share information with the patient about his/her rights in this situation?

This may not seem important, but what if the patient's friends informs him that work will only pay for the most basic hospital services or that subsequent visits could get him/her in trouble with immigration? The patient may not come to follow-up appointments or may skip/avoid therapy because the patient cannot afford it him/herself. In this sense, the health care professionals could very well be failing the patient if they allow a representative/friend/compañero from work to be present during all communication with the injured worker.... read more

The Baltimore Examiner

I am not an avid reader of the Baltimore Examiner daily tabloid newspaper. The paper does not go far into depth, the politics of the editorial staff are atrocious and its another cog in the syndicated Examiner machine. I first became aware of the Examiner's politics when they published advertisements for the San Francisco version showing a picture of a young white girl in school and a young Arab girl with an AK-47 with the words "PTA to PLO / No Local Newspaper Has Ever Delivered News Of This Scope." The original ad and an analysis are published here.

This ad caused quite a reaction, with local Arab groups pointing out that this undated, unsigned photo was likely taken in refugee camps decades ago. An anonymous photo with no context and strong comment amounted to a racist stereotype of Palestinians, in the eyes of San Franciscans. Since the photo was not new, it was hardly "news" as the ad claimed. The Examiner pulled the ad from the Bay area market, but republished it in DC when the Washington Examiner was started. If the ad was racist in San Francisco, it should have been racist in DC. But the Examiner was only interested in its PR campaign rather than questions about journalistic integrity of a newspaper. This was the reputation that the Examiner carried with it to Baltimore.

However, my grandmother points out that the paper scooped up some reporters from The Sun since its parent, the Tribune Company, has been increasingly using its syndicated columnists and reporters over local voices. The length of the paper also make it good bus and toilet reading material.

So I picked up a copy on my way to work on May 9th, and was not surprised to find an editorial calling for health care reforms based on suggestions from the American Enterprise Institute, without any mention of the neo-conservative ideology of the organization. The column, written by the editor of the Capitol Hill publication Roll Call Morton Kondracke is available here.

I wrote a response published, which was way too long for the 150 word max. I will publish it in full at the bottom of this post.

Most of my edited response was published by the Examiner here.

Though the following two key sentences were deleted.
"[Kondracke's] analysis is at best poor journalism, at worst rightist propaganda and it reflects poorly on the journalistic credibility of the Examiner."

I think those were crucial sentences. While its always good to have a second paper in a market like Baltimore, I am not confident that the presence of one of the Examiner's many tentacles will make up for the declining quality of the Baltimore Sun. A better sign (however humble) is the introduction of the Indypendent Reader, a project of the Baltimore Indypendent Center and Camp Baltimore. The first quarterly issue focuses on the creation of the ghetto, gentrification, and community power. One highlight is an interview with McElderry Park community association president (and green party candidate for city council) Glen Ross.

Landon graduate from Bethesda indicted in Duke rape case

David Evans, a 23-year-old senior and team co-captain from Bethesda, Md., was indicted on charges of first-degree forcible rape, sexual offense and kidnapping.

He was a renter at the house where the party took place where an exotic dancer says she was beaten, berated and raped.

Evans, from Bethesda, is a graduate of the prestigious all-male Landon School in that Maryland suburb of Washington, D.C.

This new indictment comes in the face of increasing media appeals calling this a political prosecution by the DA Nifong, attacking the credibility of the rape survivor, and other assertions in support of the accused.

Though the Duke lacrosse coach quit and had the lacrosse season canceled because of the behavior (some of it documented through emails) of his players, Sports Illustrated is reporting that some graduating seniors Duke wore the accused lacrosse jersey numbers on their morterboards at graduation ceremonies.

Madness in Atenco

Despite little press attention north of the Rio Grande, the simmering tensions around the Mexican election campaign and the Zapatistas "Other Campaign" exploded in the small towns of Texcoco and San Salvador Atenco on the outskirts of the Mexican Capital (or Distrito Federal).

A massive police round up of unlicensed vendors in Texcoco caused a dramatic reaction in Texcoco.

Locals, armed with machetes, detained the police that had been holding the unlicensed vendors, though the captive police were later handed to the Red Cross. A massive police operation to retake the town resulted in 200 arrests, and up to 50 police injuries, according to official statements.

The people of San Salvador Atenco suffered an even greater loss. Javier Cortés Santiago, a 14 year old youth, was killed. According to the BBC, "Television images of police beating bound demonstrators caused a national outcry after the riots." While others are still reported as "disappeared," human rights groups have documented 16 rapes of women in police custody and sexual assaults (including the introduction of foreign objects into the bodies of both men and women).

A Chilean film maker told the BBC "They insulted me, groped me, anything they wanted. Whenn they jailed me that was when I saw the girls with their pants and underwear torn, sobbing." Her full letter is available on NarcoNews here

This seems like an insane escalation overvunlicensed vendors. The obvious question is, Why in San Salvador Atenco?

The populace of the area had already been radicalized and organized in 2002 when the local, state and federal governments wanted to confiscate the farmlands of Atenco in order to build a new airport for Mexico City. During that fight, the people waged a popular campaign of struggle when it became clear that all three levels of government were colluding against them. Their marches, yielding machetes as symbols of their rural labor, were met with police violence. After police detained, beat and arrested marchers, one slipped into a coma and died from lack of treatment in police custody.

Narco News has a two part series on the 2002 confrontations here and here. There is also a video at Salon Chingon.

Furthermore, activists from Atenco had been participating in the Zapatista's "Other Campaign," the attack on the vendors (who are becoming an important yet marginalized part of the new "post-Fordist" economy and have been important in other political organizing such as the Bolivian uprising that swept Evo Morales into power) came as Marcos was arriving in Mexico City.

While the Zapatistas' spokesperson Marcos (or Delegate Zero) is promising to remain in Mexico, D.F. until the detained people of Atenco are freed (even if it keeps him there through the elections). Meanwhile mass media like the BBC are forecasting more election violence based on the Atenco experience.

While perhaps attempting to marginalize the "Other Campaign," the Mexican government may be giving it legitimacy. As the Zapatistas call for all of its supporters to open a campaign of non violent resistance on behalf of the people of Atenco, their actions may be winning them alliances and earning them relevance beyond the indigenous enclaves of rural Chiapas.

Systematic Torture on Chicago's South Side

Democracy Now breaks a story that I am shocked not to have heard before.

For nearly two decades a part of the city’s jails known as Area 2 was the epicenter for what has been described as the systematic torture of dozens of African-American males by Chicago police officers. In total, more than 135 people say they were subjected to abuse including having guns forced into their mouths, bags places over their heads, and electric shocks inflicted to their genitals. Four men have been released from death row after government investigators concluded torture led to their wrongful convictions. ...[W]ith the abuse of detainees in US custody are getting renewed attention at the United Nations this week, where the UN Committee Against Torture is holding hearings on U.S. compliance with its international obligations. But there is one name expected to arise this week that few people in this country will have heard about – and it’s the one that’s closest to home. It’s called Area 2... Read More

Broken Arm, Death Squads and the Salvador Option

Though I would write more on this, perhaps, if I didn´t have a broken arm,


John Pilger is arguing that the increase in militia and death squad activity is the effect of the so-called "Salvador Option" in Iraq in a piece in the New Statesman.

BBC reported at the beginning of the year that "US officials [have been] talking about a "Salvador Option" in Iraq, not only for democracy-building, but also for a more aggressive campaign to eliminate Iraqi insurgents and their supporters."

With so many executed bodies appearing everymorning, the newspaper al-Hayat refers to "the war of corpses," (qtd. juancole.com) the recent arrest of Iraqi Interior Ministry officials for running a "death squad" makes one wonder what roll the Department of Defense, the CIA and (former ambassador of Iraq last year and Honduras during the Salvadoran war and now current head of US intelligence) John Negroponte had in creating these reincarnated death squads.

Study Tsotsil (or Spanish) in Liberated Territory

Several of the few comments I have received on my blog have been about the Mayan language Tsotsil because of several posts I made while in the Mexican state of Chiapas. So I just want to let you all know that you can actually study Tsotsil (or Spanish) with native speaking "promoters" in Oventic. For more information, see the home page of the ZAPATISTA REBEL AUTONOMOUS EDUCATION SYSTEM OF NATIONAL LIBERATION OF THE HIGHLANDS OF CHIAPAS.

Web folk, can you help us figure out how to make this page come out higher on google for "Zapatista Language School," "Chiapas Language Classes," "Tsotsil Classes," etc.

A Broken Arm, the Death of Damu Smith, and Other Bad News

I have been almost a month without writing because of several reasons, the most recent of which is a broken right wrist which has made it difficult to write.

The Death of Damu Smith
I met Damu Smith when he spoke at the University of Maryland in 2004 against the invasion of Iraq. He came across as not only intelligent and outspoken, but thoughtful and sincere. Unfortunately, he was also uninsured. According to Democracy Now

Legendary peace activist Damu Smith died Friday morning in Washington, DC of colon cancer. The founder of Black Voices for Peace and the National Black Environmental Justice Network, he spent years fighting environmental racism, particularly in the South.

He was a key leader in the anti-Apartheid movement and fought police brutality in Washington, DC and around the country. Damu was diagnosed with colon cancer last year while on a peace mission in the Occupied Territories. He then not only fought for his life, but against racial disparities in the health care system. Damu is survived by his daughter Aisha and his legacy lives on in all those who fight for justice.

Listen to the May 5th Democracy Now. In addition to an audio clip of Damu Smith talking about race based health disparities and global apartheid, the show features a recording of Rumsfeld being interrupted by protesters including former CIA analyst Ray McGovern, as well as an interview with the same.

Biology Student Murderer in College Park
University of Maryland Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics student was arrested for the arson and murder of Michael Scrocca after a party last year. This murder always disturbed me because the landlord was the same as our landlord at the time. In fact, when it came out that the burned house had more than the legal limit of residence, we also had to get some people out of our house to comply with the housing code.

The house was also around the corner from the Leonardtown Apartments where I lived for years, and the Sigma Chi abandoned fraternity house that I always meant to take over with other students and turn into a base of student progressive activism. The frat house is now almost as decrepit looking as the burnt out house of the late Mike Scrocca before the latter was bulldozed to the ground.

What can I say, it gives me a sense of missed opportunities and a realization that "This is madness!"

Hamas aid cutoff: Israeli attacks kill 16 including 2 children

Over the last four days, from Friday to today, Israeli shelling has killed 16 Palestinians including two Palestinian Children, one girl inside her home and a young boy near a car hit by rockets in Rafah. This massive offensive coincides with the Israeli announcement that they are cutting off connections with the Palestinian government and ruling out any negotiations with any member of the current Palestinian Authority including Abbas.

Meanwhile, many American news sources like the AP reported the attacks over the weekend as a small paragraph in other articles. Locally, the Baltimore Sun mentioned the deaths of 14 Palestinians including one child on Friday and Saturday in the 12th paragraph of a story entitled Olmert aides OK Ending Ties.

This disproportionate weight in the value of Palestinian versus Israeli life can only cause the increased desperation of Palestinians, as they are increasingly isolated from direct and even indirect aid from the US and Europe even as Israel increasingly isolates those from the West Bank from Gaza. The reactionary elements of both Palestinian and Israeli armed wings will surely be emboldened by this new status quo, as I have argued before.

Remember These Children has yet to update its list of dead Israeli and Palestinian children to keep up with this weekend's carnage. They do, however, show the death of "Mohammed Farid Hassan Zayed, 15, of Qalandya refugee camp, Ramallah District... Killed by an Israeli patrol with five live bullets to the lower part of his body" on April 3rd.

A Haiku for the Headlocked

The Beltway Poetry Quarterly has released its Wartime Issue, in which friend, activist, engineer and UMD employee Zein El-Amine offers his

Haiku for the Headlocked
We thrash, curse for air
As our strangler declares, look
How violent the Arab

Jonah House Nuns from Baltimore Return to missile Silo: Risk Arrest

CNN reports that

Three pacifist nuns who were jailed for an October 2002 protest at a missile silo returned to the site, vowing to continue their nonviolent resistance to the nuclear armaments.

While CNN reports that the women are from the Dominican Order in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Jonah House confirms that these are the same Sr. Carol Gilbert and Ardeth Platte who live with the Jonah House community in West Baltimore.


They are risking arrest by refusing to pay court ordered restitution and by skipping a supervised release visit with their parole officers that did not allow them to attend events in Colorado against the use, stockpiling and proliferation of nuclear weapons. No news on whether a bench warrant is or will be issued for the arrest of the nuns.

The Jonah House community has a history of anti-war and non-violent acts of resistance motivated by a deep belief in the teachings of Jesus Christ. Founding member Father Phillip Berrigan awakened a nation's conscience and went to jail as part of the Baltimore Four and Catonsville Nine, who destroyed Selective Service records at the Baltimore Custom House and the Catonsville Draft Board with blood and homemade napalm. This action was meant to prevent the killing of American youth and Vietnamese by preventing conscription of soldiers. This was the birth of the plowshares movement in whose name Platte and Gilbert destroyed the Colorado missile silos.

More recently Jonah House members conducted a rare protest in Cuba by illegally traveling to the island and marching to the Guantanamo naval base to protest the torture of prisoners there. The Sun article on that protest is available online.

The dedication of Jonah House members and other dedicated Christians to the actual teachings of Christ makes one wonder how a religion founded because of a pacifist dedicated to social justice who was tortured to death could be use to promote violence, war and torture. One wonders what Jesus would have to say to the leaders of the so-called "Christian Right" who promote the politics of corporate capitalism, militarism and racism.

I´m busy... Be back soon

Friends, families, strangers and neighbors. I have been quite busy this month, finalizing medical school plans and moving to a new address. I have not quite, but the blog has been low on my list of priorities this month. I will be back up and running the first week of April, expect updates then.

Israeli Forces Kill Palestinian Children: Hamas Must Renounce Violence

According to Palestinian doctors, an Israeli aircraft fired missiles into a crowded Gaza street on Monday, killing five people including two Islamic Jihad leaders and 2 child bystanders. This incident is part of an unfortunate pattern of children loosing their lives in this conflict. Two more Palestinian children were killed near the Al Boreij refugee camp when an undetonated Israeli shell exploded near the youths. According to Remember These Children, these deaths bring the total number of Palestinian children killed by Israeli soldiers and settlers since September 2000 to 707 (in comparison, 123 Israeli children have lost their lives in this time).

These deaths coincide with Israeli threats to kill any Palestinian member of Hamas, including members of the Palestinian government.

Ironically, these deaths have not been deemed as newsworthy in the New York Times or the Washington Post, CNN, and only seemed to have been mentioned in passing in the USA Today in an article on the Israeli threat mentioned above. Washington Post instead decided to focus on the Oscar nomination of "Paradise Now" and the reaction of family members of people killed by suicide bombings.

Meanwhile the United States, Israel, Europe and much of the world have continued to argue for economic and military isolation of Palestine until the ruling Hamas party "renounces violence and recognizes Israel's right to exist." Israel has taken this opportunity to impound money it has taxed from Palestinians, and the U.S. government has demanded back money it had given to the Palestinian Authority before the election victory by Hamas. The Palestinian crisis is so severe that the World Bank has given an emergency $42 million dollar grant to keep the PA from collapsing BEFORE the Hamas party formally takes power. Israeli leaders have called this strategy "putting starving Palestinians on a diet."

Ironically, while Hamas itself has held to an informal truce for over a year, and Israel has continued attacks that kill Palestinian civilians and threaten to assassinate Palestinian politicians and heads-of-state, international attention has focused on Hamas' violence and Israel's "right to defend itself." This moral double standard is can only be seen as hypocrisy as Palestinians and others who identify with them. While many may consider this position as "Pro-Israel," it could lead to more violence and destabilization in the Middle East that conflicts with Israel's long term interests.

A recent combative Al Jazeera interview with Aziz Duwaik illustrates a more nuanced position of local Hamas politics (and Al Jazeera editorial policy). Aziz Duwaik is professor of urban planning at the Najah University of Nablus and elected member of parliament in the recent Palestinian legislative elections as a representative of Hamas

Do you fear a Holocaust against Muslims similar to what happened to the Jews?

Why not? The Holocaust was committed by human beings, not by citizens of another planet, and Germany, where Nazism thrived, was probably the most culturally advanced European country in the 1930s and 1940s.

But Europe is now democratic, unlike Nazi Germany?

Yes, but who told you those democracies don't commit genocide? America is a democracy, but we saw recently how this democracy invaded and destroyed two small and weak countries based on lies, while most Americans were duped into believing that Bush was doing the right thing.

Let's talk about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Do you still want to destroy Israel?

You are asking the victims of Israeli oppression, occupation and racism if they are interested in destroying their oppressors and tormentors? This is a tendentious question that should be asked to Israel, which is occupying our country and oppressing our people and carrying out ethnic cleansing against us.

In fact, all that we want is to be free. Is freedom for the Palestinian people tantamount to destruction of Israel?

Are you not are evading the question?

I am not evading anything; it is you who is evading and ignoring reality here. Just take a look and see for yourself who is destroying whom, who is stealing whose land, who is savaging and persecuting and brutalising whose people, and who is practising ethnic cleansing and slow-motion genocide against the other.

But the question remains, how can Israel possibly talk with Hamas as long as Hamas refuses to recognise Israel's right to exist?

Why on earth should we recognise Israel while Israel refuses to recognise Palestine? Indeed, we can't understand why the international community, strangely enough including some Arab leaders, is demanding that we recognise Israel but making no similar demands on Israel that it ought to recognise Palestine.

But Israel is a reality while Palestine is not.

Palestine is also a reality. There are nearly five million Palestinians living in Palestine and these people have an inherent right to self-determination. Do you think that we are children of a lesser God or something?

Israel has recognised the PLO and said it will accept President Bush's vision which calls for the creation of a Palestinian state that would live in peace alongside Israel?

The important thing is not what Israel says but what Israel does. Israel has built hundreds of Jewish-only colonies in the West Bank and transferred hundreds of thousands of its citizen to the occupied territories. This alone shows the mendacity of its claims regarding Palestinian statehood.

Are you implying that the creation of a Palestinian state is no longer possible or realistic?

Precisely. Israel has effectively killed all prospects of a genuine and viable Palestinian state in the West Bank. In a nutshell, there is no room left for a true and viable Palestinian state in the West Bank. The implanting of so many Jewish colonies has made the creation of such a state utterly impossible.

Will you be willing to negotiate with Israel?

Negotiation in itself is not the issue. The issue is our rights as human beings and as a nation. If Israel is willing and ready to come to terms with our human, civil and political rights, then we can negotiate, otherwise we will not allow ourselves to repeat the same failed process of the past 10 years all over again. We maybe weak politically, but we certainly are not stupid.

The Oslo process was not a peace process. It was a process of deception and cheating and lies which enabled Israel to truncate our homeland with settlements and separation walls and roadblocks and closed military zones. We will not deceive our people as the Palestinian Authority did for 10 years.

Some authoritarian tendencies of Hamas, and its history of attacks on civilians certainly are reasons for sincere, legitimate concern. However, Israel's plan to kill Palestinians and call for the isolation and destruction of Hamas while Hamas sticks to a truce and struggles for legitimacy can only reinforce the most radical elements in Hamas, while marginalizing those who call for co-existence and a peaceful resolution. The other powerful countries that support and participate in this strategy are only damning the region to continued violence, and the continued loss of life of the guilty and the innocent alike. Unfortunately the death toll of children in Israel and its occupied Palestine will not stay at 830 forever.

Aristide: A Man that the Powerful Love to Hate

Those reading the news on Haiti these days may be surprised to continuously read comments by American officials and analysis by international media (including the New York Times or the BBC) to only understand the Haitian political crisis through the lens of the deposed president Jean Bertrand Aristide. Indeed, the hatred and distrust is so profound that George Bush is reportedly advising President-elect Preval to deny Aristide re-entry into the country in violation of the constitution, and BBC argued until recently that the political violence was a metaphorical "Shadow of Aristide."

Aristide as a target since 1987

However, the truth is that violence and persecution of Aristide, his allies and what he represents has been a much more consistent element of Haitian politics than has been the peaceful transfer of power from one elected official to another (only once has an elected Haitian president handed over power in this way to another elected president when Preval ceded his position to Jean Bertrand Aristide in 2002).

In this light, it is an important question to ask for newcomers to Haitian politics. Why does the United States (and the Haitian elite) hate Aristide with such a passion?

My grandmother Peg recently asked me this question. She is no political neo-phyte, and was once even thrown out of a gala thrown in Omaha for Oliver North because she was passing out satirical programs for the event which boasted of his "many accomplishments in Central America" and pictured women and children murdered by CONTRA forces on the inside. Luckily, her familiarity with the politics of Central America during the 1980s will allow her to better understand the current Haitian situation.

I may be overanalyzing, but I have tried to thoroughly answered the question, so my response is long. The short answer is 1) Aristide is a symbol and a leader of a movement that has tried to bring the massive social underclass into power where a small elite minority has traditionally ruled. 2) The same actors that tried to prevent this transition from dictatorship to true democracy in the 1980s are still those fueling the anti-Aristide hatred. 3) Since those actors that are in the United States are then, therefore, still fueled by a cold-war anti-communism and Central American style dirty war, they still attack Aristide in the same brutal and anachronistic way that they operated in Central America in the 1980s.

The "Salvadorization" of Haiti

First of all, Aristide must understood in the context of the intense class struggle of countries like Haiti and El Salvador. This is pointed out in the quintessential book on the topic, The Uses of Haiti written by Harvard physician Paul Farmer. In addition to helping run clinics in Haiti, Peru and Rwanda, Farmer took time out last month to diagnose and help treat Haitian priest and Aristide ally Fr. Gerard Jean Juste. "Both countries are small and agrarian; both are extremely inegalitarian and dependent on the United States," (Farmer 247).

Aristide first became famous as a Catholic priest in Cite Soleil, the poorest slum in the capital of the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. This sprawling shanty-town is currently cited as the home of "bandits" and "armed gangs" blamed with insecurity in Haiti. It was also the site of many of the most serious accusations of Florida/Ohio-style disenfranchisement of poor Haitian voters.

He rose to prominence during the presidency of Ronald Reagan, as the movement for democracy in Haiti grew to a flood, the meaning of the name "lavalas" the movement gave itself. He stood out as much for his determination and his bravery as much as for the rhetoric of his sermons that so frightened the small wealthy minority of Haiti. Aristide maintained a high profile as openly challenging of the Haitian army despite the string of political motivated killings and massacres that so much resembled the massacres in El Salvador like El Mazote, the so-called "Salvadorization of Haiti" (qtd. Farmer 148). "While others in the opposition had gone into hiding after receving multiple death threats, he remained adamantly visible," (qtd. Farmer 135). More than one assassination attempt failed, gaining him prestige among Haiti's oppressed and passionate hatred from the army and the ruling class.

While the U.S. government and Haitian elites called Aristide a "communist," political attacks mounted against popular movements and their representatives under Cold War logic being designed by characters like Otto Reich, Roger Noriega and Eliott Abrams. These were the same people carrying out U.S. support for the Salvadoran and Honduran military atrocities and illegally obtaining support for the Contra attacks on the Sandinistas by selling arms to the Iranians. This became known as the "Iran-Contra Affair," though despite its illegalities, everyone who went to jail was pardoned by Reagan or George Bush the first. However, at the same time, the U.S. government was pressuring for formal elections to justify these policies under the rubric of the fight for democracy.

It is important to point out that many of the same people who designed the brutal anti-communist policies in Haiti and Central America were put in prominent positions of power in the George W. Bush government. In addition to the three named above (Otto Reich and Roger Noriega have been explicitly working on overthrowing the Aristide government), the former U.S. ambassador to Honduras John Negroponte who coordinated with the CIA and the notorious torture-squad Battalion 316 is now the head of U.S. intelligence. Not surprisingly U.S. policy still reflects brutal and anachronistic cold war logic of the Reagan era, including the stance on Aristide.

Meanwhile, Haitians involved in the brutality against activists of Lavalas have also returned to positions of prominence. The recent coup's military leaders, many of whom were trained in the United States and paid by the CIA, were from the line of Tonton Macoute's that protected the old dictatorships and lead a coup in 1990. American journalist in Haiti Kevin Pina writes,

Several of the paramilitary leaders now rampaging Haiti are men who were at the forefront of the US-backed campaign of terror during the 1991-94 coup against Aristide. Among the paramilitary figures now leading the current insurrection is Louis Jodel Chamblain, the former number 2 man in the FRAPH paramilitary death squad.

These "death squad leaders" have since been freed by the coup era courts while Lavalas activists were imprisoned. The current politicians that argue against the Préval presidency and against Aristide's right to return are also many of the same characters who the dictatorship tried to usher into power during the transition. Leslie Manigat, who won 12% of the last elections, is currently challenging the legitimacy of the Préval election. Manigat was the first un-elected "president" to serve after Baby Doc Duvalier stepped down from power.

Aristide as a symbolic target

It is also important to note that Aristide is seen as a prominent symbol of liberation theology outside of the American mainland. This incorporation of values of social justice and empowerment of the poor as essential lessons of the gospel were hated enough by Americans in power that they have allowed systematic murder, torture, and rape of priests and nuns in Central America and in Haiti. Furthermore, many of those in this country that most supported such attacks had connections to powerful Christian organizations. Meanwhile, the vatican and other organizations have attempted to marginalize Aristide and others because of their politics and have never adequately come to the defense of Christians of the cloth under attack by right wing death squads. One wonders if the attack on Aristide isn't the continuation of this violence against Christians who support the poor because they represent a real challenge to the right-wing configuration of political christianity that is so closely connected to powerful states, transnational corporations and wealthy individuals.

However, perhaps the most important point in understanding the hatred of Aristide is that we should not assume that the Americans and Haitians in positions of power hate Aristide because of Aristide the individual. Indeed, as Farmer poinst "existing power structures" see "popular organizations that threaten to offer the overwhelming majority a voice in managing their own affairs [as] a threat to democracy," (Farmer 32). Aristide the priest is not the threat, but Aristide the leader of Lavalas is. Furthermore, the U.S. government and media as well as the Haitian elites would have a hard time arguing that they were working for democracy if they showed open contempt toward the %80 of the population that voted for Aristide.

They therefore have focused on rhetorically attacking Aristide on the international stage while physically attacking and judicially persecuting everyone else in the Lavalas movement that worked with Aristide. These include the former Prime Minister Yvon Neptune, the Priest Gerard Jean Juste (now in Miami on conditional release for cancer treatment), folk singer So Anne, and many others. There is some speculation that any Lavalas member that was seen as a potential presidential candidate was imprisoned as a preventative measure.

The current president-elect Préval would probably have been a target of government repression if he had been more of an active candidate for presidency. Many international analysts called Préval "an enigma" before the election because he kept quiet and out of sight before the election. He has stated that he did not intend to run for president, but after other Lavalas candidates were imprisoned and forbidden to run, "1,000 peasants showed up at [his farmers'] cooperative meeting area and urged him to run. They told him he would be a traitor if he didn't."

Since the election, Préval has kept his remarks relatively coy on issues such as Aristide's return, saying "The Haitian Constitution says that whatever Haitian can return to his country, he does not need a visa, so he must decide whether he wants to return, if there are legal and other actions." This statement is legally based, arguing that no one is above the law, but neither can extra-judicial decisions be made to ban a resident of Haiti from his country because of politics. However, diplomats from the U.S., French, Canadian, and Haitian interim (coup) government have been pushing for Aristide to be banned from the country and have been taking Préval's statements out of context so that they seem to agree with the foreign diplomats' position. The media is playing into this game as well, as the recent round of "Aristide's Return May Cause Chaos" articles

What does it all mean?
This is a difficult position for the Haitian people and Préval, in general. While having won an important battle to bring Préval to power, this is the fourth election in which the candidate supported by the poor came to power. However, since the first election there have been 3 coups (2 of them successful). The death squad leaders are free while Lavalas politicians and technocrats have been imprisoned, killed, or run into hiding. The economic health of the country has been devastated and all of the health, transportation and education projects have been targetted for repression as part of "Aristide's" Lavalas movement.

We need to watch the Haitian news carefully. The more criticism heaped on coup supporters for a lack of "democracy" or "legitimacy" in the international media, the more likely a coup or other dirty trick is in the works.

New Orleans after Mardi Gras

My older brother, a former New Orleans resident, invited me down to Mardi Gras this year. I went down with him years ago, and found it to be too decadent, too crazy. New Orleans was lively enough without being so packed with out of town youths agressively drinking for a week.

When he invited me this time, I think I said, "I don't think I want to drink excessively in NOLA while many of its former residents are still struggling and unable to return. Maybe if we can find some of the black New Orleans Mardi Gras rituals..."

Jordan Flaherty, a New Orleans resident and union organizer with Left Turn published a piece "Nothing Stops Mardi Gras." This piece captures my ambivalence well, and details many of the alternative Mardi Gras rituals I didn't know about.

Jordan also appeared on Democracy Now today with Amy Goodman.

On Friday Feb. 24th, Andrei Codrescu published another piece called "Mardi Gras After the Deluge."

Work For Peace

I was listening recently to "Work For Peace" by Gil Scott-Heron. This 1994 release of the 1970's "proto-rapper" is profoundly prophetic as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan continue to dog us. Furthermore, the military-industrial complex and our government's funding priorities are even worse than when Mr. Heron sang about them.

The Military and the Monetary,
get together whenever they think its necessary,
They turn our brothers and sisters into mercenaries,
they are turning the planet into a cemetery.

The Class of 2000 at Baltimore Polytechnic Institute might remember when I performed his "Revolution will not be televised" at senior farewell. Though the sound on the mic was too low, people said they never saw an audience in that auditorium so quietly listening to the words of the speaker. Afterwards I remember that my old English teacher Ms. Bowie congratulated me on the performance saying something to the effect "That was my joint back in college."

I cannot help thinking that I should have performed "Work for Peace" instead. While less belligerently militant and exciting, the message is equally revolutionary and contains a much sharper analysis. I could have broken up some of the more boring parts of the hook by letting Justin have more time to play on the turn tables with some Gil Scott-Heron and Common records.

I tried to channel that 2000 performance at Poly again on March 5th 2003 when I performed the poem without a microphone to gather a crowd for the "Student Strike" antiwar protest at University of Maryland, College Park.

Perhaps this hindsight of my own reflects a growth or maturation, much like the artist's (Gil Scott-Heron) own growth from 1970 to 1994. The revolutionary fire that motivated him threatened to overcome him, but his experiences opened up a path to liberation that he may not have considered revolutionary 20 years before.

As Scott-Heron points out,

If everyone believed in Peace the way they say they do,
we'd have Peace.
The only thing wrong with Peace,
is that you can't make no money from it.

I wanted to incite people when I performed "Revolution," but where does incitement lead us without wisdom to put that energy to work? Where are we gonna be 20 years from now? Are we going to be "working for peace" like all of those people out there "working for war." How do we incite our neighbors to become dedicated to work for peace, justice and community?

Nobody can do everything,
but everybody can do something,
everyone must play a part,
everyone got to go to work, Work for Peace.
Spirit Say Work, Work for Peace
If you believe the things you say, go to work.
If you believe in Peace, time to go to work.
Cant be wavin your head no more, go to work.

HR 4437: Passing the Buck on National Security

On February 10, 2006, a van carrying 28 undocumented immigrants hit a
spike strip laid by the US Border Patrol on Rt. 905 in San Diego. The
spike strip flattened at least one tire while the van was traveling at
"close to freeway speed," causing it to jump a guardrail and careen
down an embankment, ejecting and scattering passengers in a scene that
San Diego Fire-Rescue's spokesman likened to "a mini war zone."
Twenty-one passengers were injured, eight seriously. And this wasn't
the first time. According to the The San Diego Union-Tribune, similar
chases of undocumented immigrants have led to more than 50 traffic
accidents in San Diego and Imperial counties since 1993, killing 75
people and injuring over 500.

No one can deny that our immigration policy is broken. Now immigrant
rights groups and armed right-wing militias are engaged in a showdown
over how to fix it. In February, Border Angels and Gente Unida
(People United) crisscrossed the country on a "March for Migrants" in
opposition to HR 4437, the "Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and
Illegal Immigration Control Act" that passed the House and is expected
to go before the Senate soon. The Minutemen, on the other hand, left
their binoculars and firearms in Arizona and headed to Washington, DC,
to rally and lobby Congress to pass the anti-immigrant legislation
that will criminalize doctors, social workers, and charities that help
undocumented immigrants.

The Border Angels is one such charity that will face jail time under
HR 4437. The organization began in the mid-1980s as an outreach
program of several San Diego religious groups. The gospel is their
motto: "For I was hungry, and you gave me food to eat. I was thirsty,
and you gave me drink." (Matthew 25:35). Volunteer Angels bring
water, food, and blankets to life-saving stations in the desert in an
attempt to stem the growing number of migrant deaths at the
Mexico-U.S. border. Over 4,000 migrants have died since October 1994,
when the Defense Department's Operation Gatekeeper erected a steel
wall made from landing platforms used in the first Gulf War. Rather
than reducing the number of illegal immigrants, Gatekeeper has shifted
migration flows to the harsh mountains and desert east of San Diego,
resulting in a 500% increase in border deaths.

The Minuteman Project is notorious for its vigilante patrols of the
U.S.-Mexico border. Many Minutemen are armed and some have humiliated
detained migrants or held them at gunpoint. However, the militia's
biggest impact may be in Congress. The Minutemen joined with other
anti-immigrant organizations, and, with the support of racist groups
such as the National Alliance, Ranch Rescue, and English First, they
are lobbying for the passage of HR 4437, which will extend the wall on
the U.S.-Mexico border, increase the penalty for being an undocumented
immigrant from a civil violation to a felony, and potentially
criminalize doctors, social workers, members of the clergy, and
charities for assisting undocumented immigrants.

The criminalization of undocumented immigrants and doctors who treat
them is particularly disturbing. A handful of states passed
legislation in the 1990s that similarly required doctors to play the
role of law enforcement by reporting pregnant drug users' positive
test results to the police for prosecution. The Supreme Court
eventually struck down the laws because they were a violation of
patient-doctor confidentiality, and because the American Medical
Association argued that the laws harmed women and their fetuses by
deterring drug users from seeking prenatal care and drug treatment.
Enrique Morones, the executive director of Border Angels, says that
while the Supreme Court may also strike down this section of HR 4437,
the fact that lawmakers even proposed it is "a tremendous statement in
racism." Furthermore, like the hundreds of pregnant women who
delivered their babies in prison prior to the Supreme Court ruling,
immigrants and doctors will suffer while battles rage in the courts
for years.

The effect HR 4437 will have on asylum seekers is also troubling. It
will lengthen the amount of time those who enter the US illegally are
held in jail and make it easier to deport them before an asylum
hearing. The law also expands the aggravated felony category to
include being in the US illegally (currently a civil offense) as well
as a variety of misdemeanor crimes such as drunk driving. Asylum
seekers convicted of an aggravated felony will be permanently barred
from seeking permanent resident status. Given that asylum seekers
find themselves in grave danger in their home countries, many travel
with fake documents and enter the US illegally, committing an
aggravated felony under HR 4437. Thus, this bill jeopardizes our
obligation to asylum seekers under international law.

HR 4437 is the right's obvious attempt to further capitalize on 9-11
by equating immigrants with terrorists. Daniel Morales from Gente
Unida says that conservatives are using immigration as a wedge issue
in the same way they used gay marriage during the 2004 elections. In
reality, HR 4437 does little to nothing to address the security
failures that led to the terrorist attacks. Congress members who
support the bill, such as Delaware's Mike Castle, like to point out
that the majority of the 9-11 hijackers were in the country illegally.
What they choose to ignore is that most of them entered the country
legally. Existing mechanisms were not enforced when the hijackers
overstayed their visas. Furthermore, as Morones points out, "Had the
wall on the Mexico-U.S. border been 100 feet high, September 11 still
would have happened." HR 4437 is designed to merely make us feel
safer while inflicting further suffering on the Latino migrant workers
who hold up our economy.

HR 4437 does nothing to address the reasons migrants risk their lives
to cross the border. It doesn't stop the US government from creating
conflict zones or funding military regimes, which leads to an influx
of refugees. It doesn't stop NAFTA from decimating the Mexican
economy, causing former farmers to seek work in the US. It doesn't
stop the US from pursuing this failed policy for other countries
through the Central American Free Trade Agreement and the Free Trade
Area of the Americas. It also doesn't stop restaurant kitchens across
the country from using cheap undocumented labor, or force
slaughterhouses to improve safety so that more US citizens would work
in them, or close the legal loophole that allows big agriculture to
pay farm workers a fraction of the minimum wage. Would any Minuteman
take a job that pays 45 cents for every 32 pounds of tomatoes picked
during a grueling 12-hour shift in the burning sun?

Until US employers stop capitalizing on the misfortunes of
undocumented immigrants, start paying living wages, and bring all
workplaces up to health and safety codes, the most virulently
xenophobic bills will not stop the influx of immigrants—it will only
cause more to die trying. Immigrants don't take jobs that would
otherwise be filled by citizens, and they don't depress
wages—capitalists do. Why else would Perdue Chicken oppose HR 4437?
Tyson Foods executives weren't smuggling undocumented immigrants to
work in their plants because of a severe shortage of available labor
here in the US. They did it because they don't want to pay minimum
wage.

In the end, HR 4437 is a racist, xenophobic wolf in a pro-national
security sheep's clothing. Congress should stop labeling immigrants
as terrorists and instead pass earned legalization laws that reward
the full rights of citizenship to the migrant workers who support our
economy. After all, Al Qaeda's roots can't be traced to Mexico. Its
humble beginnings are right here in Washington, DC, on the CIA
payroll.

For more information:
http://www.borderangels.org
http://www.stopgatekeeper.org
http://www.ilrc.org/HR4437.htm

Zombís en la Habana

To anyone who has every seen a George Romero movie, I want to share with you an idea for a movie that I think will be an instant cult classic: Zombis en la Habana. To those that haven't ever seen a Romero movie, check out the original Dawn of the Dead (though the remake is also very fun to watch). For other Zombie movie suggestions see yesterday's post.

My screenplay borrows part of its title from the seventies era Cuban cartoon film Vampiros en la Habana, which I suggest to all Spanish speakers enthusiastically. Subtitled versions are available for rent in hip American rental stores like Video Americain. I also think that children in the movie should be watching "Vampiros en La Habana" at some point early in the movie, focusing on the introduction where the narrator says "pero Pepé se involucró en otra guerra... una guerra sorda y cruel... una guerra de vampiros," after a second of the musical introduction of the movie (which includes some of the wickedest horns I have ever heard) the family can be left in the dark from an "apagón," a roving blackout.

The rhythm of the movie should borrow much from the traditional Romero narrative, while the subtext of the plot should refer to two events/periods in modern Cuban history. The movie will be set, first of all, in "pleno periodo especial" after the collapse of the Soviet Union and during the intensification of the US American war of attrition on the Cuban Revolution during which time famine and hunger were rampant in Cuba for the first time since 1959 and streams of "boat people" headed for Miami in the largest emigration wave since the Mariel boat lift of 1980. In addition, the the Cuban government response in the film will draw a lot from the public health response to the AIDS epidemic in Cuba.

I figure the story will start out with a family drama about finding food, work and money in Special Period Cuba as background media start to make vague references to an outbreak of a strange disease near a US American biological research/bioweapons facility. Details about the origins of the disease can be borrowed from Romero's "The Crazies" in which a plane carrying an experimental biological weapon crashes near Pittsburgh. The news of strange deaths and riots will become increasingly central to the attention of the characters on everything from Radio Reloj (which beeps every second of the day and tells the time on every minute as narrators give news, propaganda, and announcements between minutes) to a clip of a Castro speech on the incident to the evening news.

At some point a case of Zombismo will reach the island, perhaps by boat people fleeing from Miami, or perhaps involving the Guantanamo naval base in some way. Castro will give a speech declaring this an act of imperialist aggression, and the already disintigrating chaos of Cuban life in the special period will collapse, resulting in military organization, debates on the appropriate response, quarantine of sick people, etc. This point of the movie should draw on imagery from riots in Centro Habana and Habana Vieja in 1984, with battles between zombis, hungry Cubans and "Constructores" -Castro loyalists brought in to quell such disturbances.

The zombi attacks must bring out the resiliant spirit of Cubans and the Cuban sense of humor despite the "susto fatigado" (exhausted shock) of daily life during the collapse of Cuban society.

At one point, borrowing from the dark comedy that at least one Cuban doctor used to cope with the difficulty her patients faced, a sign in the hospital should read "Está prohibido hablar de la cosa" (It is forbidden to talk about the thing - Originally a doctor in Santa Clara had to stop her patients from complaining about the hardships of the special period because she did not have time to hear all of their concerns and still treat all her patients).

This outline is very vague, indeed, I have left it fairly vague on purpose. I think any such movie should have a strongly Cuban identity and sense of humor, and that it should be primarily written or Co-written by a Cuban (and Roig has been only slightly helpful in the matter). Other possible details have occurred or been suggested to me. I think that the drama of the movie during the full crisis should unfold at Hospital Ameijeires, which towers over the skyline of Centro Habana at the Malecón. Others have suggested that Cuban Santería or the country's proximity to Haiti should be used to further explore the origins of the mythology of zombies based in "voodoo" (mixtures of Catholic and African traditions).

I am putting this idea out in the public domain because I'd rather encourage the idea to develop than claim ownership over it. However, I reserve the right to take some part (however small) in the production, and to demand that a Cuban be the main driving force behind subsequent development of the plot.

Also, anyone with links to Tom Savini or George Romero should bring this to his attention. This is an instant cult classic with almost unlimited potential.