Avian Flu, Swine Flu and the Crisis in Darfur: Wash Your Hands, But Do Not Wash Your Hands of the People of Darfur

Image: Frida Kahlo, Love Embrace of the Universe


Lord, make me
an instrument of Thy peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life. Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi

Avian Flu, Swine Flu and the Crisis in Darfur: Wash Your Hands, But Do Not Wash Your Hands of the People of Darfur

By Richard Power

Life is a oneness. Everything and everyone everywhere is connected. Overcome one threat and you weaken all the others.

The threat of pandemic is real and always with us.

I worked on global pandemic planning a few years back, in response to the danger of Avian Flu, and I understand the concern that many people try to shrug off. At that time, I warned executives in Indonesia that their country would be hit hard. They scoffed. Six months later, the first deaths came in Indonesia, within the next year, they led the world in the number of deaths. More than half of all bird flu deaths worldwide since 2005 have occurred in Indonesia, World Health Organisation figures show. More than twice as many Indonesians have died of the disease than in Vietnam, which with 48 deaths is the second most affected country. AFP, 1-29-08

It is fortunate that Janet Napolitano is in charge at the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS). She communicates toughness and common sense. Indeed, this crisis may help DHS gain a new identity and a new self-respect after coming into being in the incredible and studied incompetence of the Bush-Cheney regime.

Don't underestimate the risks. The WHO's escalation from Alert Level 3 to Alert Level 4 is serious. This is not a drill, and this is not the manipulation of the population by a cynical regime determined to terrorize it.

With luck, we will dodge the bullet.

Although it is less likely we will heed the warning and act on the hidden meaning of this story: Investigations now reveal that the swine flu epidemic that began in Mexico and spread worldwide is probably connected to pollution caused by unsanitary pig breeding farms in the region. Eco Worldly, 4-27-09

Meanwhile, the people of Darfur are in dire need and imminent danger. A slow motion genocide is being conducted by the Thugocray in Karthoum, and the great nations have turned away in moral and political weakness.

Mia Farrow has begun her hunger strike.

She is urging all to call 1-800-Genocide. This toll free number has been set up to put you through to your elected representatives and to the White House.

Life is a oneness. Everything and everyone everywhere is connected. Overcome one threat and weaken all the others.

Here is the transcript of Farrow's appearance on Larry King Live last night, with a link to the full text:

KING: From Bridgewater, Connecticut, we welcome the wonderful, talented Mia Farrow, the actress and activist. She is, as well, a U.N. Goodwill Ambassador. And she began a hunger strike today. Why, Mia?
MIA FARROW, UN GOODWILL AMBASSADOR: Because, Larry, more than a million people are going to die unless the status quo changes. You probably know that for the last six years, there has been what has been called genocide on-going in the Darfur region of Sudan. And hundreds of thousands of people have been killed. Millions have been driven to camps across Darfur and Eastern Chad.
And last March, things just got a whole lot worse when the president of Sudan, a wanted man for war crimes and crimes against humanity, expelled 16 key aid agencies from the Darfur region, leaving about ... four million, approximately, will be without a life line.
And the United Nations has implored the Sudanese president, al Bashir, to readmit the expelled agencies. But so far that hasn't happened. And we could be seeing a genocide that will dwarf the Rwandan genocide.
KING: What do you want, Mia? What do you hope by starving yourself? Do you hope to draw attention, obviously, but what do you want the government -- what do you want the United States to do?
FARROW: Well, you know, I come from a generation that ended a war that we deemed to be unjust by pressure on the government, taking to the streets, as you well know. You know, that was born on campuses. And if we look at Apartheid, that effected change. I don't think the government is going to take robust action without the voice of the people. So I thought, I believe that if the people know what's happening in Darfur, if people inform themselves, and if this is helping at all, then people, let your voices be heard, because Darfur's people are crying out for help. And they can't be heard right now.
So it's great that you're interviewing me, and I suppose you wouldn't have had I not gone on a hunger strike. ...
KING: How do you prepare for this, by the way, for a hunger strike?
FARROW: I asked my doctor, who said he'd never been asked that before. And then I went on the Internet and tried to inform myself about is there a preparation and how long could I go conceivably? And no one knows. I mean, I've set a goal of three weeks. But my doctor said, given my weight, it's unrealistic to suppose I could go that long. Maybe it will be two weeks. Maybe it will be 16 days, one day for every single one of the aid workers that have been expelled.
I think people can be heard in all sorts of ways. One way -- I mean we set up a 1-800-Genocide number. If people want to call that, it will connect them immediately with their legislators and/or with the White House.
KING: That's 1-800-Genocide. Larry King Live, CNN, 4-27-09

As always, I encourage you to follow events in Darfur on Mia Farrow's site, it is the real-time journal of a humanitarian at work; the content is compelling, insightful and fiercely independent.

For a Words of Power Archive of posts on the Crisis in Darfur, click here.

Here are other sites of importance:

Dream for Darfur

Enough: The Project to End Genocide and Mass Atrocities

Genocide Intervention Network

Divest for Darfur.

Save Darfur!

Richard Power's Left-Handed Security: Overcoming Fear, Greed & Ignorance in This Era of Global Crisis is available now! Click here for more information.

Swine Flu, Avian Flu Darfur, Divestment, Enough, UN, Genocide, Mia Farrow, Dream for Darfur, Sudan, Investors Against Genocide, Richard Power, Words of Power

Hard Rain Late Night: Madonna -- Nobody Knows Me (Re-Invention Tour, 2004)

Hard Rain Late Night: Madonna -- Nobody Knows Me (Re-Invention Tour, 2004)



Click here for Hard Rain Late Night Music Video -- Archive

Madonna, Late Night, Music, Richard Power, Words of Power

Darfur Crisis Update: Mia Farrow is Going on a Hunger Strike. When is the Change Coming to US Policy on Darfur?

For More Compelling Photos from Mia Farrow's Journeys, click here.

On April 27th I will begin a fast of water only in solidarity with the people of Darfur and as a personal expression of outrage at a world that is somehow able to stand by ... I undertake this fast in the heartfelt hope that world leaders who know what is just and right will call upon the Government of Sudan to urgently readmit all of the expelled agencies or otherwise insure that the gap is filled ...
Mia Farrow
April 15, 2009

Darfur Crisis Update: Mia Farrow is Going on a Hunger Strike. When is the Change Coming to US Policy on Darfur?

By Richard Power

Will the Obama-Biden administration do whatever it must to ensure accountability for those who so contemptuously violated the Bill of Rights and the Geneva Accords (among many other wrongs) during their time in power? Will the White House or the DoJ or the Congress heed the demands of conscience as well as the oath of their office, and hound the leaders of that cabal into the reckoning that history and honor demand? I do not care what route we take to get there, just as long as we get there, and they have to answer to the rule of law.

Will an abrupt turn of events or a sudden shift in the political winds open up the opportunity for a more progressive response to the global economic and financial crisis than what is being proffered by men such as Summers and Geithner? (Read Naomi Klein's marvelous Why We Should Banish Larry Summers from Public Life)

Whatever happens in regard to both of these vital issues, the Obama-Biden administration has done a tremendous job of turning this nation around already -- restoring sanity, undoing wrongs and establishing a healthier tone -- in so many ways.

We are no longer on the fast track to Hell.

However, we are ignoring the plight of those who preceded us down that fast track.

The people of Darfur are still in Hell.

We are still waiting on meaningful change in US policy on Darfur.

Not that a meaningful change in US policy will result in an immediate alleviation of their suffering.

But at least we could feel as if our government was aggressively engaged toward that end.

Meanwhile, Mia Farrow is going to go on a hunger strike on 4/27.

And I confess to you that if the circumstances of my life were such that I could undertake such an act and still meet my personal obligations, I would.

There is nothing more maddening than being reminded day after night and night after day just how hollow the great nations' lofty rhetoric on genocide has proven to be.

Here is Mia's statement, followed by a link to her site:

On April 27th I will begin a fast of water only in solidarity with the people of Darfur and as a personal expression of outrage at a world that is somehow able to stand by and watch innocent men, women and children needlessly die of starvation, thirst and disease.
The Darfur crisis deepened on March 4th when the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Sudanese president President Omer al-Bashir for his essential role in the murder, rape, torture and displacement of millions. Al Bashir retaliated immediately by expelling thirteen key international aid agencies from Sudan, including Save the Children, Doctors Without Borders, CARE, Oxfam and the International Rescue Committee (IRC) along with three highly respected Sudanese agencies.
Sudanese U.N. Ambassador Abdalhaleem claimed his government would have no problem filling in any gaps created by the expulsions. But U.N. humanitarian affairs chief John Holmes spoke honestly about the desperate realities: "We do not, as the U.N. system, the NGOs do not, and the Sudanese government does not have the capacity to replace all the activities that have been going on. This is a decision which is likely to have a major impact on millions of people in Darfur who are in need on a daily basis, of life-saving humanitarian assistance." According to the UN, as of this May more than a million people will be without food aid, medical assistance, and drinkable water.
The United Nations humanitarian agencies issued their joint plea; "The suspended NGOs account for more than half of the capacity for the aid operation in Darfur. If the life-saving assistance these agencies were providing is not restored shortly, it will have immediate, lasting and profound impacts on the well being of millions of Sudanese citizens. These organizations provide a lifeline to 4.7 million people."
I undertake this fast in the heartfelt hope that world leaders who know what is just and right will call upon the Government of Sudan to urgently readmit all of the expelled agencies or otherwise insure that the gap is filled, giving aid workers unimpeded access to the populations before they begin to die in numbers that could dwarf the Rwandan genocide. I also call upon President Obama and other leaders with influence to help build a credible peace process that can end the suffering in Darfur.
I hope human rights advocates and citizens of conscience around the world will join me in some form of fasting, even if for one day. And when I can no longer continue, I pray another will take my place, and another-- until finally there is justice and peace for Darfur's people.
Mia Farrow
April 15, 2009

As always, I encourage you to follow events in Darfur on Mia Farrow's site, it is the real-time journal of a humanitarian at work; the content is compelling, insightful and fiercely independent.

For a Words of Power Archive of posts on the Crisis in Darfur, click here.

Here are other sites of importance:

Dream for Darfur

Enough: The Project to End Genocide and Mass Atrocities

Genocide Intervention Network

Divest for Darfur.

Save Darfur!

Richard Power's Left-Handed Security: Overcoming Fear, Greed & Ignorance in This Era of Global Crisis is available now! Click here for more information.

Darfur, Divestment, Enough, UN, Genocide, Mia Farrow, Dream for Darfur, Sudan, Investors Against Genocide, Richard Power, Words of Power

Earth Day 2009: This is A Profound Moment -- Choose Your Battles Very Carefully. Do Not Lose Perspective. Keep Your Priorities Straight.

Celtic Triple Spiral/Triple Goddess Symbol


A “catastrophic” rise in the ocean of 4 meters to 6 meters (13 feet to 19.6 feet) is possible, said Paul Blanchon, a scientist at the National University of Marine Sciences in Cancun, Mexico, whose team studied the fossilized reefs. Bloomberg, 4-15-09

"Suicide is high. Depression is huge. Families are breaking up. It's devastation," he said, shaking his head. "I've got a neighbor in terrible trouble. Found him in the paddock, sitting in his [truck], crying his eyes out. Grown men -- big, strong grown men. We're holding on by the skin of our teeth. It's desperate times."
A result of climate change?
"You'd have to have your head in the bloody sand to think otherwise," Eddy said.
Julie Cart, L.A. Times, 4-9-09

Put simply, the carbon trading that President Obama supports is an unenforceable, shell game that allows polluters to pay to pollute. Shifting greenhouse gas pollution around is not going to result in the dramatic cuts in atmospheric levels of greenhouse gases that we need. ... James Hansen, top climate scientist at NASA said, "We can still roll things back, but it is going to require a quick turn in direction." Karyn Strickler, Common Dreams, 4-3-09

Earth Day 2009: This is A Profound Moment; Choose Your Battles Very Carefully. Do Not Lose Perspective. Keep Your Priorities Straight.

By Richard Power

There is much to say about accountability for war crimes and for economic crimes.

There is much to say about the right wing's further descent into delusion since the swearing in of President Obama.

And indeed there is also much to say about the dreadful and thankless choices that Obama and the leadership of the ruling party have to make in the wake of all that has happened to us.

Words of Power will not remain silent on these issues.

But at this moment, I want to do what I have done so many times over the past decade, i.e., when there is a hot story begging to be addressed, turn away from it, and again take the opportunity to draw your attention to the greatest challenge of our time, the one that will define us for the rest of time, and will sooner than later overshadow all that presently dominates the news.

Here are excerpts from six important pieces from diverse sources -- Bloomberg, the Los Angeles Times, Time Magazine, Agence France Press, Seed Daily and Common Dreams -- with links to the full texts:

Fossilized coral reefs formed the last time the Earth was warmer than today show sea levels could rise rapidly by the end of the century if global warming triggers a collapse of ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica.
A “catastrophic” rise in the ocean of 4 meters to 6 meters (13 feet to 19.6 feet) is possible, said Paul Blanchon, a scientist at the National University of Marine Sciences in Cancun, Mexico, whose team studied the fossilized reefs. The death and re-emergence on higher elevation of reefs 121,000 years ago could only result from a rapid increase in ocean levels caused by the breakdown of ice sheets, he said. ...
The complete melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet would add about 7 meters to sea levels and endanger low-lying coastal cities, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said in 2007.
New York, Boston and Washington are among the largest U.S. cities facing flood risk over the next century from rising sea levels, Florida State University-led scientists said in a March 16 study. ... ...
Last week, the Boulder, Colorado-based National Snow and Ice Data Center said older, thicker Arctic sea ice that is better able to survive the summer shrank to the thinnest level ever recorded this winter. Older ice, which is generally thicker, is now about a third of the 1981 through 2000 average. Bloomberg, 4-15-09

In a new study published April 13 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), scientists at UA found that water-deprived piñon pines raised in temperatures about 7 F (4 C) above current averages died 28% faster than pines raised in today's climate. It's the first study to isolate the specific impact of temperature on tree mortality during drought - and it indicates that in a warmer world, trees are likely to be significantly more vulnerable to the threat of drought than they are today. "This raises some fundamental questions about how climate change is going to affect forests," says David Breshears, a professor at UA's School of Natural Resources and a co-author of the PNAS paper. "The potential for lots of forest die-off is really there."
The PNAS study, led by Henry Adams, a doctoral student at UA's ecology and evolutionary biology department, also confirms that hotter temperatures actually suffocate trees in dry times. Piñon pines respond to drought by closing the pores in their needle-like leaves to stop water loss. That keeps them from going thirsty, but it also prevents them from breathing in the carbon dioxide they need to live - and eventually, the drought-stressed trees simply suffocate. (See pictures of activists defending backcountry forests from logging.) Time Magazine, 4-14-09

"Suicide is high. Depression is huge. Families are breaking up. It's devastation," he said, shaking his head. "I've got a neighbor in terrible trouble. Found him in the paddock, sitting in his [truck], crying his eyes out. Grown men -- big, strong grown men. We're holding on by the skin of our teeth. It's desperate times."
A result of climate change?
"You'd have to have your head in the bloody sand to think otherwise," Eddy said. ... Climate scientists say Australia -- beset by prolonged drought and deadly bush fires in the south, monsoon flooding and mosquito-borne fevers in the north, widespread wildlife decline, economic collapse in agriculture and killer heat waves -- epitomizes the "accelerated climate crisis" that global warming models have forecast. ...
"Australia is the harbinger of change," said paleontologist Tim Flannery, Australia's most vocal climate change prophet. "The problems for us are going to be greater. The cost to Australia from climate change is going to be greater than for any developed country. We are already starting to see it. It's tearing apart the life-support system that gives us this world." Julie Cart, L.A. Times, 4-9-09

Put simply, the carbon trading that President Obama supports is an unenforceable, shell game that allows polluters to pay to pollute. Shifting greenhouse gas pollution around is not going to result in the dramatic cuts in atmospheric levels of greenhouse gases that we need. ...
President Obama proposes that we cap or reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 and 80% below that by 2050. While his proposal is more ambitious than most current local or state-level proposals, given the magnitude of the problem, those reductions are inadequate to the challenge that we face. ... James Hansen, top climate scientist at NASA said, "We can still roll things back, but it is going to require a quick turn in direction."
We must see this serious situation as an opportunity for transcendent change, a chance for American ingenuity and creativity to shine once more. But our timeline for getting it right is short. We cannot continue business as usual even for a few more decades. Karyn Strickler, Common Dreams, 4-3-09

Experts studying the mass beaching of whales along Australia's coast have warned that such tragedies could become more frequent as global warming brings the mammals' food stocks closer to shore.
Almost 90 long-finned pilot whales and bottlenose dolphins died after washing up last week at Hamelin Bay, on the country's west coast.
It was the second mass stranding in March, and took the total number of cetaceans to beach in southern Australia in the past four months beyond 500, including a single stranding of almost 200 on King Island. Agence France Press, 4-2-09

Global warming could have chilling consequences for European livestock, warned Professor Peter Mertens from the Institute for Animal Health, at this week's meeting of the Society for General Microbiology in Harrogate.
Since 1998, rising temperatures have led to outbreaks of bluetongue (BT) across most of Europe, which have killed over 2 million ruminants (mainly sheep).
The outbreak (the largest on record) caused by Bluetongue virus serotype 8 (BTV-8), which started in the Netherlands and Belgium during 2006, has since spread to most European countries, including the UK in August and September 2007.
This outbreak, the first ever recorded in northern Europe, was not an isolated event. There are also fears that related viruses, such as African horse sickness virus, which can have a fatality rate of more than 95% and shares the same insect vectors as bluetongue, could also be introduced. Seed Daily, 3-31-09

If you have not already joined the Alliance for Climate Protection, Al Gore and I urge you to do so. Click here.

For the Words of Power Climate Crisis Updates Archive, click here.

Richard Power's Left-Handed Security: Overcoming Fear, Greed & Ignorance in This Era of Global Crisis is available now! Click here for more information.

Global Warming, Energy Security, Environmental Security, Alternate Energy, Sustainability, Green Power, Renewable Resources, Climate Change, Al Gore,George Monbiot, An Inconvenient Truth,Laurie David, Stop Global Warming!, The Eleventh Hour, Organic Gardening, Richard Power, Words of Power

Hard Rain Late Night: Emmylou Harris -- Shores of White Sand/All I Intended To Be (David Letterman Show)

Hard Rain Late Night: Emmylou Harris -- Shores of White Sand/All I Intended To Be (David Letterman Show)

i feel it raining
and the crosswinds are changing
blowing my chances
to make it alone

but should you get lonesome
and your child need a mother
just look for my traces
on shores of white sand

some say i'm sinking
to the muddy bottom
But somehow i'm sailing
to shores of white sand



Click here for Hard Rain Late Night Music Video -- Archive

Emmylou Harris,You Tube, Late Night, Music, Richard Power, Words of Power

Scientists Make Breakthrough in Search for the Source of Wisdom; Meanwhile, in Burma, Tibet & Darfur, Brute Force & Blind Greed Still Rule

Image: Aung San Suu Kyi, TIME 100


Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have compiled the first-ever review of the neurobiology of wisdom - once the sole province of religion and philosophy. Terra Daily, 4-8-09

And [Lech Walesa’s] message for the Burmese people was: don’t be downhearted, but be creative in challenging the regime. He told the Burmese people to be prepared. All authoritarian regimes fall unexpectedly, he said. Irrawaddy, 4-9-09

A court in Tibet has sentenced two people to death over riots in Lhasa last year, China's state media said … in what was the harshest sentence yet reported over the deadly unrest.. Agence France Press, 4-9-09

Prendergast argues that post-Rwandan activism is already having an effect in war zones such as Darfur. … Sudanese actions in Darfur have killed "only" 300,000, thus far. "Hundreds of thousands of Darfurians are very likely alive today because of the strength of the antigenocide activist movement," argues Prendergast. Christian Science Monitor, 4-7-09

Scientists Make Breakthrough in Search for the Source of Wisdom; Meanwhile, in Burma, Tibet & Darfur, Brute Force & Blind Greed Still Rule

By Richard Power

Researchers at the University of California’s School of Medicine in San Diego have been exploring the brain, seeking the source of wisdom, and there are promising results:

They found, for example, that pondering a situation calling for altruism activates the medial pre-frontal cortex, while moral decision-making is a combination of rational (the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, which plays a role in sustaining attention and working memory), emotional/social (medial pre-frontal cortex), and conflict detection (the anterior cingulate cortex, sometimes also associated with a so-called "sixth sense") functions. Interestingly, several common brain regions appear to be involved in different components of wisdom. The UC San Diego researchers suggest that the neurobiology of wisdom may involve an optimal balance between more primitive brain regions (the limbic system) and the newest ones (pre-frontal cortex.) Knowledge of the underlying mechanisms in the brain could potentially lead to developing interventions for enhancing wisdom. Terra Daily, 4-8-09

My initial response in reading of this research was to exhort them to please hurry.

The news from Burma, Tibet and Darfur is grim and will likely get grimmer.

But then I realized that there are governments, business interests and even religious hierarchies in this world that would be more interested in removing the source of wisdom than “developing interventions for enhancing it.”

Here are three important stories about the great deeds of a few people who have found their own way to some degree of that “optimal balance between the more primitive regions of the brains and the newest ones,” and the great misdeeds of others who have lost their way in whatever regions of the mind activate the impulses to cruelty and greed:

He was one of 112 former presidents and prime ministers—including former US presidents George H W Bush and Jimmy Carter, former British prime ministers Tony Blair, Margaret Thatcher and John Major, former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and former Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi—who recently urged UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to return to Burma and pressure the military junta to free all political prisoners. ... Walesa was convinced that there must be a way out to resist the regime in Burma, if not in the streets. He also said that people should have the courage to say: “No.” ... His message was: if you cannot lead the people onto the streets, a different strategy to counter the regime has to be found. And his message for the Burmese people was: don’t be downhearted, but be creative in challenging the regime.
He told the Burmese people to be prepared. All authoritarian regimes fall unexpectedly, he said. Irrawaddy, 4-9-09

A court in Tibet has sentenced two people to death over riots in Lhasa last year, China's state media said on Wednesday in what was the harshest sentence yet reported over the deadly unrest.
Two others were given suspended death sentences while another was given life in prison in three separate cases, said the report, which quoted a spokesman for the intermediate court in the Tibetan capital.
Fierce anti-China riots broke out in Lhasa in March last year and spread across Tibet and adjacent areas with Tibetan populations, deeply embarrassing the Chinese government as it was preparing to host the Beijing Summer Olympics.
China blamed the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, for inciting the violence and responded with a massive security crackdown on the region that has remained in place ever since. Agence France Press, 4-9-09

Prendergast argues that post-Rwandan activism is already having an effect in war zones such as Darfur. Whereas the Sudanese regime once denied humanitarian access to civilians in its conflict with Southern Sudanese separatists – killing up to 2 million – Sudanese actions in Darfur have killed "only" 300,000, thus far. "Hundreds of thousands of Darfurians are very likely alive today because of the strength of the antigenocide activist movement," argues Prendergast.
Yet even proponents of international justice say that progress is slow. ICC prosecutors, say some, have been too eager to apply the legal term "genocide" to the conflict in Darfur, and powerful nations have been reluctant to follow through on their own commitments to respond. And while the world sends ever-larger peacekeeping missions to places such as Darfur and Congo (a nation with no effective government), the peacekeepers themselves are poorly equipped and often told by their own governments to keep their heads down and come home alive. Christian Science Monitor, 4-7-09

For a Words of Power Archive of posts on the Crisis in Darfur, click here.

For a Words of Power Archive of Human Rights Updates, click here.

Richard Power's Left-Handed Security: Overcoming Fear, Greed & Ignorance in This Era of Global Crisis is available now! Click here for more information.

Tibet, Burma, Aung San Suu Kyi, Lech Walesa, Darfur, Richard Power, Words of Power


Economic Insecurity Update: Fraud, Cover-up, a Money Grab, a Global Food Crisis, & the Impact of Poverty on the Brains of Children

Migrant Mother/Pea-Picker in the Dust Bowl, Photo by Dorothea Lange, 1936


The crucial breakthrough was made three years ago, when Martha Farah of the University of Pennsylvania showed that the working memories of children who have been raised in poverty have smaller capacities than those of middle-class children. The Economist, 4-2-09

But worse still, said Black, Timothy Geithner, President Barack Obama's Secretary of the Treasury, is currently engaged in a cover-up to keep the truth of America's financial insolvency from its citizens. Raw Story, 4-4-09

The sad part of all this is that there are now several much better ideas circulating among experts, but none of these seems to get the time of day from the Treasury. Jeffrey Sachs, Huffington Post, 4-7-09

And now there are ominous signs of another food crisis in the making this year, spurred in part by the ongoing credit crunch that has made it difficult for farmers to get loans. Seed Daily, 4-6-09

Economic Insecurity Update: Fraud, Cover-up, a Money Grab, a Global Food Crisis, & the Impact of Poverty on the Brains of Children

By Richard Power

I enjoy reading the Economist. Like the Financial Times, it is a worthy source of news and analysis. Unlike ideologically conservative news organizations in the USA, both of these British publications have remained reality-based, i.e., the editors have not devolved into warping the facts to fit their underlying political orientation.

But from time to time, the Economist also is a source of unintended amusement. For example, the 4-2-09 issue heralded a cover story on "The Rise and Fall of the Wealthy, the Attack on the Rich," an impassioned defense of the wealthiest among us, who have apparently been unfairly targeted in these global hard times; while buried toward the back of the magazine, in the Science and Technology section, was "I am just a poor boy though my story's seldom told," a feature highlighting some fascinating research that indicates "how poverty passes from generation to generation … lies in the effect of stress on two particular parts of the brain."

The crucial breakthrough was made three years ago, when Martha Farah of the University of Pennsylvania showed that the working memories of children who have been raised in poverty have smaller capacities than those of middle-class children. Working memory is the ability to hold bits of information in the brain for current use—the digits of a phone number, for example. It is crucial for comprehending languages, for reading and for solving problems. Entry into the working memory is also a prerequisite for something to be learnt permanently as part of declarative memory—the stuff a person knows explicitly, like the dates of famous battles, rather than what he knows implicitly, like how to ride a bicycle. The Economist, 4-2-08

Tell me, which strikes you as the more compelling story of human need, that those who have benefited most from the obscenely irresponsible economic philosophy that has ruled our lives for the last few decades should finally feel a little heat, or that generation upon generation of children are experiencing severe psychological and physical deprivation? Which one do you think warrants the cover of the planet's best weekly news magazine?

But even when the Economist sticks it foot in its own excrement, it is a far superior product to most offerings in the US mainstream news media (print or broadcast).

Today, for example, I randomly turned on one of the cable news networks in the early afternoon; two attractive young anchors were introducing a segment on the fact that President Obama was going to church this weekend (Easter) for the first time since taking office and whether or not this was an important issue. (This ludicrous distraction is particularly offensive in a nation that was both founded and saved by men who did not consider themselves Christians, i.e., Washington, Jefferson, Paine and Lincoln.)

Meanwhile, some vital stories were only being covered at the periphery of the mainstream media, stories that relate to life and death issues for you and your loved ones, as well as for your nation and your planet, stories you need to hear.

Here are excerpts from three such pieces, with links to the full texts:

In an explosive interview on PBS' Bill Moyers Journal, William K. Black, a professor of economics and law with the University of Missouri, alleged that American banks and credit agencies conspired to create a system in which so-called "liars loans" could receive AAA ratings and zero oversight, amounting to a massive "fraud" at the epicenter of US finance.
But worse still, said Black, Timothy Geithner, President Barack Obama's Secretary of the Treasury, is currently engaged in a cover-up to keep the truth of America's financial insolvency from its citizens. Raw Story, 4-4-09

The sad part of all this is that there are now several much better ideas circulating among experts, but none of these seems to get the time of day from the Treasury. The best ideas are forms of corporate reorganization, in which a bank weighed down with toxic assets is divided into two banks -- a "good bank" and a "bad bank" -- with the bad bank left holding the toxic assets and the long-term debts, while owning the equity of the good bank. ...
Cynics believe that the Geithner-Summers Plan is exactly what it seems: a naked grab of taxpayer money for Wall Street interests. Geithner and Summers argue that it's the least bad approach to a messy situation, in which we need to restore banking functions but don't have any perfect ways to do that. If they are serious about their justification, let them come forward to confront their critics and to explain to the American people why the other proposals are not being pursued. Jeffrey Sachs, Huffington Post, 4-7-09

We tend to forget that the worldwide plunge into recession last year was the result of three separate phenomena that combined to breed disaster. The financial crisis was joined by a food crisis and a fuel crisis as the prices of food and energy soared, triggering food riots across the world.
And now there are ominous signs of another food crisis in the making this year, spurred in part by the ongoing credit crunch that has made it difficult for farmers to get loans.
"I think the world would like to focus on one crisis at a time, but we really can't afford to," warned Josette Sheeran, executive director of the U.N. World Food Program. Food supplies are tight and prices still high, she said, and more people in poor countries are unable to afford what they need because of the recession.
"These are not separate crises. The food crisis and the financial one are linking and compounding," she noted, adding that food shortages often trigger political instability. "I'm really putting out the warning that we're in an era now where supplies are still very tight, very low and very expensive."
Alarm bells are starting to ring about another food crisis this summer. Seed Daily, 4-6-09

For an archive of Words of Power posts on Economic Insecurity, click here.

Richard Power's Left-Handed Security: Overcoming Fear, Greed & Ignorance in This Era of Global Crisis is available now! Click here for more information.

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Josette Sheeran,
News Media, Richard Power, Words of Power

Hard Rain Late Night: Erykah Badu -- Annie ...

Hard Rain Late Night: Erykah Badu -- Annie ...



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Erykah Badu, Late Night, Music, Richard Power, Words of Power

Not Invited to the Party: Open Letter to President Obama from a Leader in a Refugee Camp in Darfur

For More Compelling Photos from Mia Farrow's Journeys, click here.

Mr. President, the Khartoum genocidal regime continues to defy the international community on Darfur so as to complete its crimes on people of Darfur whom they believe must be eliminated from the earth. Open Letter to President Obama from Hussein Abu Sharati the Spokesman of the IDPs and Refugees in Darfur and Chad

Not Invited to the Party: Open Letter to President Obama from a Leader in a Refugee Camp in Darfur

By Richard Power

Don't get me wrong.

The Obamas journey to Europe was important and successful, both symbolically and substantively.

The G-20 Summit was important. It was vital that action be taken to divert the molten lava flowing toward the developing world from the meltdown of the global financial establishment. (Of course, we will have to see if the nations actually cough up the $1 trillion pledged.) It was also important because it took us beyond the all but failed paradigm of the G-8 (so badly damaged during the disastrous Bush-Cheney era). The challenges that confront the human race in the 21st Century (e.g., the Climate Crisis) demand a broader base than the G-8 offered anyway. Indeed, it is exhilarating to have a US President who not only understands that we now live in a multilateral world, but also enthusiastically embraces it.

Furthermore, Michelle Obama's interaction with London schoolgirls was a spiritually and psychologically transcendent moment that points to a vital undercurrent that could prove far more transformative,on a global level, than anything coming from the men in suits. (Click here to watch it.)

But here are some excerpts from an open letter to President Obama from someone who was not invited to the party, who could not be seen hob-nobbing with Silvio Berlusconi or Carla Bruni or Gordon Brown or Angela Merkel. (Oh yeah, in a side meeting, Obama and China's Hu "pledged to work together" on the "humanitarian situation" in Darfur. Don't hold your breath. China is the principle enabler of the Thugoracy in Karthoum.)

This remarkable document, posted in the shadow of the G-20 Summit and the Obamas brilliant European tour, offers a chilling reminder of the abominable chasm between the wretched of the Earth and those who have the power to rescue them.

Mr. President, the genocidal government of Sudan burned, completely destroyed our livelihood, killed in hundreds of thousand, raped woman and children in systematically and occupied our land by the Janjaweed militias and the new settlers. However; without International community respond that is embodied in United Nations and its NGOs and the humanity loving countries; all people of Darfur would have been eliminated on the surface of the earth long ago.
Mr. President, the Khartoum genocidal regime continues to defy the international community on Darfur so as to complete its crimes on people of Darfur whom they believe must be eliminated from the earth. Thus, the genocide master mind President Bashir on his statements continues on his adamant attitudes rejecting the settlement of the crisis. The latest is the current expulsion of the live-giving organizations of the IDPs which is the regime’s final goal and the deadly blow to accelerate our death by slow motion through starvation, malnutrition and diseases. ...
Mr. President Obama, we are in very desperate and miserable conditions so we demand from you the following 1. We need quick and immediate multi-lateral or uni-lateral intervention to save us from the imminent death. 2. Unconditional return of the international NGOs expelled by the regime. 3. Verified disarmament of the Janjaweed militias to ensure the free flow of humanitarian assistances for us. 4. Remove the new settlers from our occupied lands. ...
Hussein Abu Sharati the Spokesman of the IDPs and Refugees in Darfur and Chad

The full text of this Open Letter can be read at www.miafarrow.org. NOTE: Mia's site does not contain permalinks, so scroll to her post from 4-3-09.

As always, I encourage you to follow events in Darfur on Mia Farrow's site, it is the real-time journal of a humanitarian at work; the content is compelling, insightful and fiercely independent.

For a Words of Power Archive of posts on the Crisis in Darfur, click here.

Here are other sites of importance:

Dream for Darfur

Enough: The Project to End Genocide and Mass Atrocities

Genocide Intervention Network

Divest for Darfur.

Save Darfur!

Richard Power's Left-Handed Security: Overcoming Fear, Greed & Ignorance in This Era of Global Crisis is available now! Click here for more information.

Darfur, Divestment, Enough, UN, Genocide, Mia Farrow, Dream for Darfur, Sudan, Investors Against Genocide, Richard Power, Words of Power

Congo Crisis: You & I are Intimately Involved in the Catastrophe; We are the Ultimate Benefactors of the Misery, & Perhaps the Only Hope of Ending It

Read Mission Song. John Le Carre's extraordinary thriller about the Congo. Click here for the Buzzflash review.

Because we are all unconsciously part of the problem in Congo, all of us can consciously become part of the solution. Collectively, American consumers have enormous leverage over the companies from which we purchase our electronics. We can marshal that power to press them to play a positive role to protect and empower Congo’s women. John Prendergast, Can You Hear Congo Now?, Enough, 4-1-09

Congo Crisis: You & I are Intimately Involved in the Catastrophe; We are the Ultimate Benefactors of the Misery, & Perhaps the Only Hope of Ending It

By Richard Power

John Prendergast of Enough, who has done brilliant work on Darfur, has now written a very important piece on the catastrophe in the Congo and how intimately involved in it you and I really are.

Since the crisis in Darfur was not even a blip on the screen of the G-20 Summit yesterday (yes, yes, I know the point of it was to slow down the slide toward a global Great Depression), it might seem as if the crisis in the Congo was light years away on a distant star, but the painful truth is that you and I are intimately involved in that particular catastrophe. So involved, I suppose, that we will never hear our leaders address it in any meaningful way -- unless of course the subject is forced upon them.

Here is an excerpt from Prendergast's Congo paper, with a link to the full text:

Democratic Republic of the Congo is the scene of the deadliest conflict globally since World War II.
There are few other conflicts in the world where the link between our consumer appetites and mass human suffering is so direct.
Most electronic companies and consumers genuinely do not appreciate the complex chain of events that ties widespread sexual violence in Congo with the minerals that power our cell phones, laptops, mp3 players, video games, and digital cameras.
The general use of violence against communities includes forced labor, torture, recruitment of child soldiers, extortion, and killings by armed groups to oppress and control civilians. In particular, sexual violence has become a tool of war and control for the armed groups in Congo on an immense scale. The Congo war has the highest rate of violence against women and girls in the world, and reports indicate that hundreds of thousands have been raped, making it the most dangerous place in the world to be a woman or girl. ...
Because we are all unconsciously part of the problem in Congo, all of us can consciously become part of the solution. Collectively, American consumers have enormous leverage over the companies from which we purchase our electronics. We can marshal that power to press them to play a positive role to protect and empower Congo’s women. John Prendergast, Can You Hear Congo Now?, Enough, 4-1-09

For a Words of Power Archive of Human Rights Updates on the Congo and other Crises, click here.

For a Words of Power Archive of posts on the Crisis in Darfur, click here.

Richard Power's Left-Handed Security: Overcoming Fear, Greed & Ignorance in This Era of Global Crisis is available now! Click here for more information.

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Coltan, Enough Project,John Prendergast, Medicines Sans Frontieres, Richard Power, Words of Power


Late Night Hard Rain: Madonna -- Miles Away

Hard Rain Late Night: Madonna -- Miles Away



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Madonna, Late Night, Music, Richard Power, Words of Power