UN rights expert sounds alarm over ‘blood feuds’ and domestic violence in Albania

An independent United Nations human rights expert today voiced concern over Albanian society’s widespread acceptance of settling personal scores through deadly violence and prevalence of violence in the home.

UN agency approves $5 million internal loan to sustain Yemen aid effort

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has approved a nearly $5 million internal loan to bridge an acute funding gap so that it can continue providing life-saving assistance to hundreds of thousands of people uprooted by clashes between Government forces and rebels in northern Yemen.

UN agency approves $5 million internal loan to sustain Yemen aid programme

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has approved a nearly $5 million internal loan to bridge an acute funding gap so that it can continue providing life-saving assistance to hundreds of thousands of people uprooted by clashes between Government forces and rebels in northern Yemen.

Over 7 million people in Niger facing food insecurity owing to bad harvest, warns UN

More than 7 million people in Niger, which last week saw its Government overthrown in a coup d’état, are facing food insecurity, the United Nations health agency warned today.

UN agency approves $5 million internal loan to sustain Yemen aid effect

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has approved a nearly $5 million internal loan to bridge an acute funding gap so that it can continue providing life-saving assistance to hundreds of thousands of people uprooted by clashes between Government forces and rebels in northern Yemen.

Global treaty may make your ISP spy on you

A leaked document suggests that internet service providers may be compelled to sift through their customers’ data looking for copyright transgressions

Rare rhino pregnancy fuels hope for endangered species

When the news came, animal conservationist Susie Ellis was ecstatic. This wasn’t just an extraordinary pregnancy, but hope for the survival of a vanishing species.

Ratu, a Sumatran rhino, is pregnant and if all goes well, she will give birth at an Indonesian rhino sanctuary in May 2011. Her mate, Andalas, is the first of only three Sumatran rhinos born in captivity in 112 years. His offspring will be the fourth.

“This is a big step forward for the species,” said Ellis, executive director of the International Rhino Foundation, based in Yulee, Florida.

Sumatran rhino numbers have decreased by more than 50 percent over the last 15 years, Ellis said. They are the rarest of five existing rhino species, having dwindled down to 200 in the wild and 10 in captivity.

Every individual counts; every pregnancy is momentous.

Like other threatened animal species, Sumatran rhinos began disappearing because of human encroachment on their rainforest habitats and the practice of poaching. Rhino horns are commonly sold to make analgesics in some forms of Asian medicine.

But it has been difficult to boost the population, Ellis said.

Sumatran rhinos, also known as hairy rhinos because of their hairy body and tufted ears, are solitary animals that are rarely spotted in the wild. For a long time, researchers did not understand the rhinos’ breeding mechanisms.

One person who made headway is Dr. Terri Roth, director of Cincinnati Zoo’s Center for Conservationand research of Endangered Wildlife. It was under her guidance that Andalas and two other rhinos were born.

Roth was able to determine when a female was ready to ovulate so she could be introduced to a mate at an optimally fertile time.

That’s what happened with Ratu and Andalas.

Andalas, born at the Cincinnati Zoo in 2001, was raised at the Los Angeles Zoo. In 2007, the young pachyderm journeyed for 63 hours by plane, truck and ferry to the Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary, 250 acres in Indonesia’s Way Kambas National Park.

Ratu was born in the wild and had wandered into a village near the park. Ellis said villagers did not know what to make of her; some thought she was an overgrown pig.

After months of gradual introduction by scent, sound, sight and physical proximity, Ratu and Andalas mated.

Ellis and other animal conservationists recognize that breeding in captivity can never be a substitute for protection in the wild, but at this critical point in 50 million years of rhinoceros history, it’s essential to keep the species from extinction.

“It’s the right thing to do,” Ellis said about rhino recovery efforts. “Once they’re lost, they are gone forever.”

Source:
Cable Network News, “Rare rhino pregnancy fuels hope for endangered species“, accessed February 20, 2010

African-American Farmers Continue Struggle for Economic Justice

African-American Farmers Continue Struggle For Economic Justice

New settlement announced by Department of Agriculture amid national demonstrations

By Abayomi Azikiwe
Editor, Pan-African News Wire

A series of demonstrations took place during February in support of the demands put forward by African-American farmers who are seeking an end to land loss and the racist policies of the Department of Agriculture which have driven millions of people from the rural areas of the South for decades. Rallies were held in Washington, D.C., Little Rock, Memphis, Jackson, MS, Montgomery, Columbus, GA, Columbia, SC and Richmond, VA.

The farmers were demanding a resolution to the 1999 legal settlement which was supposed to provide compensation for decades of systematic discrimination by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. However, the federal bureaucracy placed enormous roadblocks to the farmers receiving settlement funds.

Only 15,000 African-American farmers were able to navigate the complicated paperwork to collect compensation which was reported to have averaged a mere $50,000 per family. Most of the farmers were excluded and in 2008 the U.S. Congress acknowledged the problems and granted additional time for another 70,000 people to apply for compensation.

Despite this supposed commitment to speed up the processing of applications for compensation, Congress cut $1.5 billion in funding that President Obama had included in the first budget of the current administration that was specifically designated for black farmers. Obama has included a similar amount in the budget for the next fiscal year that is now going before the Congress.

“The primary issue now, I think, is that there’s not money appropriated to pay the successful claimants,” according to Rep. Mel Watt, D-N.C., who is a member of the Congressional Black Caucus. Despite the fact that the Democratic Party controls both houses of Congress, there is no real commitment to address the problems of African-American farmers.

In a demonstration outside the U.S. Department of Agriculture on February 15, John Boyd, the President of the National Black Farmers Association (NBFA) presented 538 ears of corns and packets of Forget-Me-Not seeds demanding that each member of the House of Representatives and Senate include the $1.5 billion in the 2010 budget for compensation. “Our long journey to justice should now come to a successful close,” said Boyd.

Boyd continued by stating that “We have endured many hardships, waited many years and traveled many miles. Now it’s time for Congress to do its part and fund fairness for black farmers.” ((PRWEB, Feb. 15)

Speaking for thousands of African-American farmers and their supporters throughout the country, Boyd said “Thousands of farmers who can’t be in Washington showed their support by traveling long distances through snow and rain to join our rallies. We’re here to represent them and get the job done.” (PRWEB, Feb. 15)

In a press conference held on February 4, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs responded to a question related to ongoing plight of African-American farmers. Gibbs said “Clearly, it’s something important to him (Obama). It’s been an issue that has been worked on by the federal government now in several different administrations and dating back many years. Obviously, ensuring that justice is done is important in this situation.” (PRWEB, Feb. 15)

On February 18, the Department of Agriculture announced the latest settlement to provide compensation and resources to African-American farmers. Another organization that represents African-American farmers, the Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund, that was founded in 1967, welcomed the announced settlement.

Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund spokesperson Heather Gray said of the recent settlement that “After years of negotiations and questions, Black farmers who have never been able to have their claims of discrimination against the United States Department of Agriculture settled, there is finally some hope. The Obama administration and attorneys representing Black farmers have reached a settlement in the second phase of the lawsuit originally filed by Black farmers against the USDA in 1999.” (The Federation/LAF, Feb. 18)

According to the Executive Director of the Federation, Ralph Paige, “The long-awaited settlement in this second phase of the Pigford lawsuit is a major step forward. The $1.25 billion settlement proposed by the Obama administration is a vast improvement over the $100 million offered by Congress in the 2008 Farm Bill. Now there is hope that the thousands of black farmers whose cases have been pending can receive awards and damages after decades of discrimination.”

A History of Discrimination and Land Loss

The plight of African-American farmers is by no means a new phenomena and the claims against the federal government did not originate in the lawsuit filed during the 1990s. This problem stems from the legacy of slavery, the failure of reconstruction and the ongoing discriminatory practices of the Department of Agriculture and the banks.

Although the abolitionist movement fought for decades to end slavery in the United States, it would take a bloody four year Civil War to bring about the collapse of this institution rooted in the extreme exploitation and oppression of 4 million Africans in the United States. The question of what provisions would be made for the former slaves, as well as so-called free Africans, was discussed during the war but was never formally settled.

In 1862 some Union army generals began to break up plantations in liberated areas of the South and provide settlements for small African farmers. For example, in St. Helena Island and Port Royal, SC in 1863, the Union government issued confiscated land to philanthropists who hired Freedmen to produce cotton and to make arrangements for mortgages so that Africans could purchase farm land for themselves.

In 1865 the first Freedmen’s Bureau Act developed plans for 40-acre plots of land to be sold to former slaves at cheap rates. This land would have come from evacuated plantations and areas that were unsettled during this period.

Nonetheless, by late 1865, President Andrew Johnson halted these initiatives by the Union army to allocate small farm settlements for the former slaves. Another agreement that was adopted in 1866 also made proposals for land redistribution but these actions lacked effective enforcement mechanism and consequently went largely unimplemented.

With the lack of governmental commitment to land redistribution in the South, the acquisition of farms by African-Americans took place on a largely individual basis. Many African-Americans were able to acquire land as a result of the dire economic conditions prevailing in the South after the Civil War.

In a study issued by Bruce J. Reynolds in 2002 entitled “Black Farmers in America, 1865-2000: The Pursuit of Independent Farming and the Role of Cooperatives,” he cites the work of earlier scholars in documenting the degree of land acquisition in the aftermath of slavery and reconstruction. Reynolds says that “W.E.B. DuBois estimated 19th century progress in land ownership by black farmers: 3 million acres in 1875, 8 million in 1890, and 12 million in 1900.”

Reynolds goes on to point out that “The Census of Agriculture shows a steady increase in the number of farm operators owning land in the South from 1880 to 1890 and again in 1900, but does not distinguish between white and non-white owners until 1900. Census figures show 1920 was the peak year in the number of nonwhite owners of farmland in the South.”

The author continues by stating that “In terms of acreage owned, the census shows 1910 as the peak year for the South. More than 12.8 million acres were fully and partly owned, respectively, by 175,290 and 43,177 nonwhite farmers.”

Yet with the rise of terrorist organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan and the abandonment of reconstruction by the federal government, this left African-American farmers and their families open to systematic campaigns by the racists that drove many people off their farms through force of arms and state laws that favored the former slave owning elites. This process would continue well into the 20th century resulting in the loss of millions of acres of land acquired by African-Americans in the South.

These efforts to drive independent African-American farmers off their land was coupled with the systematic denial of credit and the corporatization of agricultural which took hold during latter years of the 20th century. More farmers began to look toward cooperative agriculture as a means to maintain their livelihoods and access to land.

However, as Reynolds points out “The population of independent farmers is declining through farm consolidations and through contracting systems that diminish decision-making requirements of farmers. As this trend continues, the usefulness of cooperatives, as well as the capacity of farmers to organize them, will decline.”

By 1992, it was reported by the U.S. Census of Agriculture that there were only 18,000 African-American farmers remaining and land ownership was down to 2.3 million acres. Since the early 1990s the conditions for African-American farmers have worsened with the burgeoning economic crisis that has disproportionately affected nationally oppressed groups in the United States.

The Need for Support of the African-American Farmers Struggle

With the consistent efforts on the part African-American farmers through their organizations such as the Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund and the National Black Farmers Association, the federal government has been forced to at least address their demands. Nonetheless, it will take support from civil rights organizations, trade unions and progressive forces in general to ensure that the Obama administration and Congress upholds its pledges to provide compensation for African-American farmers.

The plight of African-American farmers constitute an integral part of the overall question of national oppression in the U.S. It is inextricably linked to the economic crisis and its impact on African-Americans through millions of job losses and home foreclosures. Consequently, the fight for justice for African-Americans farmers must be raised alongside other demands including an end to home foreclosures, evictions, utility shut-offs and for a real jobs program to employ the tens of millions of workers who are bearing the brunt of the deepening economic crisis in the world capitalist system.

Euro-Bosses Try to Make Workers Pay for Greece’s Debt Crisis

Euro-bosses try to make workers pay for Greece’s debt crisis

By G. Dunkel
Published Feb 22, 2010 8:38 PM

The elected leaders of the 16 countries of the euro zone gathered in Brussels, Belgium, on Feb. 11 and said they would work to prevent Greece from defaulting on its debt. By Feb. 14, they made it clear that their intention is not so much to bail out the Greek government but to pressure it into making a direct attack on the Greek working class.

The European big bourgeoisie gathered in Brussels to prevent any possible collapse of the euro, and to assure that the cost of the debt crisis was placed on the shoulders of the workers — in Greece and in the rest of the euro zone.

European Union President Herman Van Rompuy said, “We call on the Greek government to implement all these [austerity] measures in a rigorous and determined manner to effectively reduce the budgetary deficit by 4 percent in 2010.” (CNN World, Feb. 14)

At a televised cabinet meeting on Feb. 12, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou criticized the plan to “help” Greece as “timid” and late. The plan is supposedly designed to help Greece pay off the big European banks that hold its debt and get new loans. Greece has a debt of 53 billion euros, now equivalent to about $71 billion, coming due this year.

Along with the dominant U.S. dollar and the Japanese yen, the euro is one of the world’s major currencies. The euro zone consists of the 16 countries in the EU that use the euro as their currency. The big capitalists and bankers of Western Europe created the EU and the euro zone so they could strengthen the hand of European capital against the European working class and the oppressed nations of their former colonies.

Germany, France, Italy and Spain are the countries in the euro zone with the biggest economies. Greece is also a member, but one of the poorest. Besides Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Spain and even Italy face a sovereign-debt crisis, that is, the inability to pay debt service on their sovereign debt. A sovereign debt is one contracted by selling bonds the government issues, especially in a currency other than the one the government can print, such as a Greek government debt in U.S. dollar- or euro-based bonds.

Shares in euro zone banks had slumped as the sovereign-debt crisis developed, with Greek banks falling by more than 50 percent.

Greek workers refuse to submit

The day before the Feb. 11 Brussels meeting, 500,000 Greek civil servants went out on a one-day strike. In Greece, civil servants include teachers, doctors, air traffic controllers, and many other workers who keep the country running. A major slogan of the workers on strike was, “It’s not us who should have to pay for this crisis.” (l’Humanité, Feb. 10).

Maria Loakimidou, a middle-aged social worker at an Athens hospital said, “After 20 years on the job I only earn 1,300 euros [a month] and now the government wants to steal from me. The big guys who stole in the past [through corruption] should be paying,” she added, referring to Greece’s rich elite. (Financial Times, Feb. 11)

On Feb. 11, Athens’ taxi drivers — a major part of that capital city’s transportation system — struck for a day over high fuel prices. Meanwhile, Greek farmers strengthened their blockades of roads along the border with Bulgaria to express their continuing outrage at the government. They have been blockading on and off for a month.

Before the Brussels meeting, Papandreou’s government had announced an austerity program that includes freezing civil servants’ salaries and cutting bonuses and stipends. It includes raising the average retirement age by two years to 63 and hiking taxes. For every five civil servants who retire, the government is going to hire only one replacement. This means speedup for the remaining workers.

The Greek workers, with Communist leadership in the PAME labor confederation, have a well-deserved reputation for combative responses to attacks on their living standards. Europe’s big capitalists also fear that a successful mass movement in Greece could inspire similar struggles in Portugal and in Spain, Italy or Ireland, where similar “reforms” are in the works.

Sovereign debt and German tutelage

Since the Greek government no longer controls Greece’s money supply — it uses the euro, not a national currency — it can’t devalue its way out of this economic crisis. Devaluing currency is the traditional cure for a government in financial distress. The Greek regime, however, plans instead to drive living standards for its workers down so far that it creates an “internal devaluation.”

It appears likely that the European Central Bank or EU commissioners, with technical assistance from the International Monetary Fund, will have monitors or examiners in every department and major office of the Greek government to make sure that the budget guidelines that Papandreou’s government promulgated, under intense pressure, are followed.

The ECB is already asking for even more intense austerity. Germany is the dominant financial power in the euro zone and its bankers will have the most influence with the “monitors.”

Athens is on a very short leash, since there is to be a mid-March interim progress report, a further one in mid-May, and quarterly updates thereafter.

Both industrial production and retail sales have been falling since the middle of 2007 (Financial Times, Feb. 6), so it is very unlikely that Greece is going to be able to export its way out of the crisis.

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Iran to Add Two New Enrichment Sites for Nuclear Program

Iran to add 2 enrichment sites

Xinhua

Teheran–Head of the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran Ali Akbar Salehi said yesterday that Iran may start construction of two new enrichment sites in the Iranian new calendar year, which starts on March 21, the ISNA news agency reported.

Salehi said Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is to announce “good news” on the kind of new centrifuges that are to be installed in the new enrichment sites.

During a meeting held late December, Iranian ministers decided that the AEOI should within two months start construction of five enrichment sites and the locations of the sites have been set across the country.

The organisation will also offer suitable locations for other five enrichment sites. Salehi said the AEOI has found nearly 20 locations for building the sites and the 10 new enrichment sites will be constructed in a way that they are protected against any attack.

“We have informed President Ahmadinejad of these places . . . (which) have potentials for establishment of the enrichment sites,” Salehi said.

Western powers suspected Iran of attempting to build nuclear weapons, but Teheran said its nuclear programme was aimed at generating nuclear energy for civilian purposes. — Xinhua.