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Tuesday, January 4, 2005 |
FEATURED
ARTICLES:
- Donation Guide, Alternet
- Activists Blast Indonesian Military for Holding Up Critical
Aid, Democracy
Now
- Broken Promises, By Earl Ofari Hutchinson, Pacific
News Service
THE QUOTE:
"I have seen no evidence in my 24 years in Congress of one instance where
because of American military involvement with another military, that the Americans
have stopped that foreign army from carrying out atrocities against their own
people."
- - Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA)
KNOW YOUR HISTORY: January 4th
1965 - President Johnson outlined the goals of his "Great
Society" in
his State of the Union address. The “Great Society” was to be achieved
through a vast program that included an attack on diseases, a doubling of the
war on poverty, greater enforcement of Civil Rights Law, immigration law reform
and greater support of education.
RHINO HERE:
Thanks to all the Rhino's Blog Readers, friends and relatives who responded
to my call for donations to DreamCatchers to purchase injectable antibiotics
to send to Sri Lanka. Over the New Year's weekend, DreamCatchers collected nearly
$20,000 which enabled us to send our nurse/emissary, Kima Douglas, with as much
antibiotics as she is able to take with her. We will stay in touch with
Kima and Doctor Daniel Susott over the next weeks and continue to send them what
they tell us is most needed in their work on the ground in Sri Lanka. Anyone
wishing to make additional contributions to this work can call DreamCatchers
during Pacific Standard business hours: PHONE (310) 457 1617.
For occasional dispatches and photos posted by Dr. Susott, check out:
http://www.danielsusott.info/tsunami/index.html
For more organizations to contribute to for disaster relief, check out:
AlterNet's Donation Guide
A list of aid agencies accepting contributions for those affected by the earthquake
and tsunamis.
http://www.alternet.org/story/20870/
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Is it possible that the inhumane behavior of the Indonesian Government & Military,
long sponsored by U.S. Taxpayer dollars via the CIA, will be once & for all
be made obvious by the blatant non-cooperation & outright theft of relief
efforts in Ache? Rhino sez, "If Colin
Powell wants to make a genuine effort
to repair his reputation after the lies he told the world about Iraq at the U.N.,
what he should do is force the Indonesian Government to stop persecuting its
people & start cooperating with relief efforts."
But where are the tri-letter broadcasters on the subject of the Indonesian Military
atrocities? It seems the same place they were when the Indonesian Army was massacring
thousands of innocents in East Timor. They're looking another direction.
If you're not familiar with the history East Timor of which Rhino speaks, check
out:
ESTAFETA - Voice Of The East Timor Action Network/US
http://www.etan.org/estafeta/99/autumn/toresist.htm
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Here's a link to yesterday's excellent Democracy Now coverage of the Ache
situation:
Nearly 100,000 Dead in Aceh From Tsunami,
as Activists Blast Indonesian Military for Holding Up Critical Aid
Democracy Now, 1/3/05
As the aftermath of the Asian Tsunami continues to devastate the region, the
people of Aceh in Indonesia have paid the heaviest price with some 94,000 feared
dead. But human rights activists and aid groups accuse the Indonesian military
of holding up aid to the most needy because of its war against the province...
Secretary of State General Colin Powell announced that he will visit Aceh on
his tour of the devastation in the region...
...AMY GOODMAN: Allan Nairn also joins us. If you can talk about the
significance of the US Secretary of state, Colin Powell together with the Florida
governor, and president's brother, Jeb Bush, going to Indonesia right now, and
what this means.
ALLAN NAIRN: Well, the US’s long-time sponsor of the Indonesian
military, Powell can have, if he wants, tremendous leverage over the military.
The Indonesian military has staged dozens of raids in north Aceh and east Aceh
against villages in recent days. Even as people are desperate for food and water,
they're interrogating activists, Acehnese activists who are trying to work with
the relief effort. Powell could put a stop to this by telling the Indonesian
military to stop. Likewise it's quite likely that the US Military will now use
this as an excuse to press for renewed sales of helicopters, of transport planes,
of logistics, of weaponry to the Indonesian armed forces. Since those helicopters
and planes are now being used in the relief effort, up until a few weeks ago,
they were being used to attack the Acehnese from the air, and they will be again
soon if the Indonesian military has their way. Powell should also publicly reject
that possibility and say that the US will sever all aid to the Indonesian military
and police...
READ IT ALL AT: http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/01/03/1446230
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Rhino asks, "Will it ever be possible that the world's wealth, that for
so long has been squandered on war, might be directed on providing the minimum
life necessities for the world's poor?" Here are a few factoids, and
then the BOTTOM
LINE, which is a look at how the wealthy nations ignore the poor.
Let's all remember, the countries that were hit by the Tsunami, were already
incredibly poor. What say we raid the billions in the rebuild Iraq coffers to
provide permanent water purification systems to the poorer nations of the Tsunami
region and then the rest of the world?
FACTOIDS
In 2001, world military expenditures topped $839 billion, while at the same time
an estimated 1.3 billion people survive on less than the
equivalent of U.S. $1 a day.
- - Arias Foundation
Approximately 80% of U.S. arms exports to the developing world go to non-democratic
regimes.
- - The Center for International Policy
9:55:29 AM 
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Broken Promises
By Earl Ofari Hutchinson, Pacific News Service, January 3, 2005
Though their response to the tsunami disaster has been admirable, wealthy
nations have fallen behind in efforts to help fight poverty in the developing
world. Whether or not the United States can fairly be called "stingy" in
its response to Asia's tsunami disaster, when it comes to tackling the ongoing
crisis of hunger, poverty and disease in the developing world, rich nations
aren't keeping their promises.
In early December, a report by Oxfam, an international development organization,
found that the foreign aid budgets of the world's wealthy countries as a share
of their national income have plunged since the mid-1960s. At their current rate
of aid spending it will take more than a half-century for rich nations to make
a dent in the chronic poverty in the developing world.
Though President Bush marginally increased the amount of aid earmarked
for HIV/AIDS and disease-prevention programs in Africa and the Caribbean in 2004,
the United States still ranks dead last among the top 22 wealthy nations in overall
foreign aid giving as a percentage of national income. Even that is misleading,
for the bulk of that U.S. aid money goes to a relatively small number of loyal
allies, with Israel and Egypt grabbing the lion's share. Overall, U.S. foreign
aid spending in 2003 was a fraction of what it spent on Iraq...
READ IT ALL AT: http://www.alternet.org/story/20869
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Rhino's Blog is the responsibility of Gary Rhine.
Feedback & requests to be added or deleted from the list are encouraged.
(rhino@kifaru.com)
See The Latest Greatest Political Cartoons
While You Read Rhino's Blog AT : http://www.rhinosblog.info
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http://www.dreamcatchers.org (Indigenous
Assistance & Intercultural Dialog)
http://www.kifaru.com (Native American
Relations Video Documentaries)
Articles are reprinted under Fair Use Doctrine of international copyright law.
http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html
All copyrights belong to original publisher.
9:23:02 AM
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© Copyright 2005 Gary Rhine.
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