Politics: Venezuela: Chavez manipulates rule of law to grant dictatorial powers

A breaking news email from Fox.com carries the sad news that "Venezuela's Congress Grants Chavez Special Powers to Remake Country"
(Jan31,2k7).

CARACAS, Venezuela — A congress wholly loyal to President Hugo Chavez approved a law Wednesday granting the Venezuelan leader authority to enact sweeping measures by presidential decree.

Meeting at a downtown plaza in a session that resembled a political rally, lawmakers unanimously approved all four articles of the law by a show of hands.

"Long live the sovereign people! Long live President Hugo Chavez! Long live socialism!" said National Assembly President Cilia Flores as she proclaimed the law approved. "Fatherland, socialism or death! We will prevail!"

Chavez, who is beginning a fresh six-year term, says the legislation will be the start of a new era of "maximum revolution" during which he will consolidate Venezuela's transformation into a socialist society. His critics, however, are calling it a radical lurch toward authoritarianism by a leader with unchecked power.

Hundreds of Chavez supporters wearing red — the color of Venezuela's ruling party — gathered in the plaza, waving signs reading "Socialism is democracy" as lawmakers read out passages of the law giving Chavez special powers for 18 months to transform 11 broadly defined areas, including the economy, energy and defense.

Like the Iranian mullahs with whom he is allied, Chavex backs up his version of "democracy" with the country's vast oil wealth and indulges in foreign adventures, so far mostly sabre-rattling but now with a militarization program to be paid-for with the oil.

--Politicarp

Politics: Northern Ireland: Sinn Fein conference votes to support NI policing

Canada's state broadcaster CBC News reports "Sinn Fein votes to support Northern Ireland police" (Jan28,2k7).

Members of the Republican Sinn Fein party voted overwhelmingly on Sunday to begin co-operating with the Northern Ireland police.

The vote, by hundreds of party members at a conference in Dublin, formally abandons Sinn Fein's decades-old hostility to legal law and order in the British territory.

The result was confirmed by a sea of raised hands, but no formally recorded vote.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair said the result increases the chances of reviving a Catholic-Protestant administration, the long-elusive goal of the 1998 Good Friday peace pact, by Britain's deadline of March 26.

One more hurdle overcome. This could be part of a process to bring permanent peace acceptable to all sides. Now attention will turn to focus on the Protestant response, particularly that of leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, Rev Dr Ian Paisley, moderator of the Free Presbyterian Church. In recent months, he met for the first time with the Catholic Bishop of Armagh to pledge together their support commonly-held social goals in the small country, part of the UK.

-- Politicarp

Economics: Technics: Mass ID theft from TJX conglomerate's customers from several of its brand chains in US, Puerto Rico, & Canada

With a Hat Tip to Mike Vizard's IT Security email newsletter, we're alerted to Matt Hines writing at eWeek details the story of a retail conglomerate subject to grand theft of customers' identities, "TJX Intrusion Highlights Pursuit of Corporate Data" (Jan18,2k7). This major mass ID theft resulted in the rapid transmission of customers' personal date to criminals who charged their acquisitions to the stolen credit card numbers in numerous places throught the world.

The potentially massive data theft reported by discount retail conglomerate TJX Companies illustrates the continued efforts of hackers to rob businesses of their most valuable information.

On Jan. 17, the company, based in Framingham, Mass. which operates a handful of North American and European retail chains including T.J. Maxx, Marshalls, HomeGoods and A.J. Wright, reported that a computer systems intrusion may have compromised the personal data of an undetermined number of customers.

TJX officials said that outsiders were specifically able to gain access to the portion of its computer network that retains its customers' credit card, debit card and check information, along with data related to merchandise return transactions.

The information involved was drawn from the company's T.J. Maxx, Marshalls, HomeGoods and A.J. Wright stores in the United States and Puerto Rico, along with its Winners and HomeSense stores in Canada.

TJX said the data theft may also affect customers of its T.J. Maxx stores in the United Kingdom and Ireland, as well as its Bob's Stores chain in the United States.

TJX operates an estimated 2,500 retail locations in total.

While the company did not reveal how many customers may be affected by the incident, TJX said that a majority of the data involved is related to individuals who shopped at its stores in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico during 2003, and between May and December 2006.

World Economy > Cyber-crime

Company officials said that they have been able to isolate a limited number of credit and debit cardholders whose information was removed from its systems, as well as a smaller group of people whose drivers license details were stolen.

In addition to working with all major credit and debit card firms to help investigate any related fraud, along with law enforcement officials including the U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Secret Service and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, TJX said it has directly contacted individuals whose information was known to have been exposed via the intrusion and is offering additional customer support to people concerned that their data may have been compromised.

A number of banks have issued warnings to customers whose data may be involved in the incident, as have the credit card brokers.

TJX said it kept a lid on the details of the intrusion up until now at the request of law enforcement officials. This quiet period has become a common practice as investigators attempt to gather evidence of data incidents before details of the events are made public.

Since the break-in was discovered, TJX said it has "significantly strengthened the security of its computer systems" and hired IT specialists General Dynamics and IBM to help further investigate the intrusion and assess the volume of data that may have been stolen.

This cyber crime which includes TJX companies Winners and HomeSense in Canada, comes on the heels of the loss of data IDing a half-million clients of mutual-funds products of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC). Yours Truly happens to be a customer of the latter, but I own no mutual funds. And my East End neiborhood's mall includes a Winners. I don't shop there, and Winners' winners are suddenly losers (how hate I that last word!, but Oh the irony). For a relevant link on CIBC fiasco, see below.

--Owlb

Further Research:

Info Thieves Take Aim at the Enterprise, Matt Hines, Jan11,2k7

CIBC loses data on 470,000 fund clients--Canadians also confirmed as victims in Winners, HomeSense hacking case; Don Macdonald and Emily Mathieu, The Montreal Gazette and National Post, Jan19,2k7

Economy: Environment: Canada's Harper doesn't want to follow Bush on severe goals on auto/gas air pollution

Altho the President of the USA in his State of the Union message did not linger long on issues of oil-product pollution in the environment, he did take a strong approach to using Mideast resources, particularly in relation to what is now called "oil security." A day later, Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper was reported by Canadian Press via No plans to follow Bush on oil consumption, says Harper (Jan24,2k7).

OTTAWA — Canada won't follow the Bush administration's lead in setting hard targets for reducing oil consumption, but will instead impose tougher emissions standards on the auto sector and other industries, says Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

However, any regulations intended to protect the environment won't come at the expense of the economy, Mr. Harper said Wednesday.

"The government does intend to regulate emissions across all sectors including the automobile sector," Mr. Harper said in an exclusive interview with Canadian Press.

The problem is not just automobiles, we underscore, lest there be some misunderstanding. The problem is autos, trucks, buses, boats, lawnmowers, ski-doos, and airplanes.

"(But) we have to consult the industry and ultimately come up with targets that make progress on the environment while being achievable for industry in a way that doesn't jeopardize Canadian jobs," Mr. Harper added.

"That's our target."<'blockquote>Again, Harper doesn't pause to notice that, were we to start with the auto-manufacture industry and certain of its satellites, we could keep people employed while be would bring new models of hybrid models, like the concept car Chebrolet Volt. With an element of inter-companies agreement and government command, a strict plan of full employment could be maintained in the industry during the entire period of the change-over. It's just too obvious that Harper is beholden to particular industrial investors' interests in gas and autos etc, that is quite aside from employment as such.

Harper just doesn't get it that air pollution is an absolute anti-health violation of the entire population and an enemy of the health system. As the report says:

"... [U]nlike U.S. President George W. Bush, cutting energy consumption won't be Canada's focus as it aims at becoming a world energy superpower, Mr. Harper said .

In his State of the Union Address this week, Mr. Bush said he wants to reduce oil consumption by 20 per cent in Middle East oil imports over 10 years. That would reduce American dependence on oil from the Middle East by 75 per cent.

Canada is now the leading exporter of energy to the United States when oil and gas are factored into the equation. The Bush administration has sought to increase oil imports from Canada, which is seen as a reliable and secure source of energy, since the Sept. 11 attacks.

At the same time, it's important to note that Harper does have something of an energy strategy for Canada, a strategy which is bigger than oil-products, vehicle power, and a strong tolerance of unacceptable rates of air pollution.

Canada is an emerging world energy superpower. We have an abundance of all forms of energy. We're an exporter of virtually all forms of energy."

"Our need and our desire to deal with these things and set targets is really in the context of environmental improvement and environmental preservation and less in terms of energy security."

Mr. Harper appears to be heeding warnings from Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty and Canadian Auto Workers President Buzz Hargrove.

Mr. McGuinty has warned the federal government not to solve its greenhouse gas emission problems on the backs of the industry that is the engine of the Ontario economy.

Mr. Hargrove has also cautioned Harper not to shackle an industry "already on its knees" with more regulation.

The auto industry has been operating under a voluntary emission reduction plan that will end in 2010.

Thus, as it turns out, the problem in Canada is Ontario's Liberals who control the govt lock, stock and barrell, in cahoots with the automakers here and the Canadian Auto Workers.

--Poliicarp

War: Politics: Anti-American Iraqi Shi'ite's parliamentarians, cabinet members return after 2 months boycott

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Following upon US forces seizing a top aide to the venomous Muqtada al-Sadr, the Shi'ite with his own militia, 30 members of the Iraqi parliament, 6 cab ministers, and a large stretch of slum in Baghdad, has recoiled apparently in fury to send his political wing back the Iraqi leglislature and government. We can't expect any change of heart in his strategy of divide and conquer. He wants to steer Iraq into unity with Iran, and supports Hezbullah in Lebanon. Most likely he's in governement in the first place to overthrow it. Here's what the state broadcaster in Canada reports CBC News (Jan21,2k7):

Followers of the Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr said on Sunday that they are ending a two-month-old boycott of Iraq's parliament.

The boycott was first announced in late November to protest the close relationship between the Iraqi government and the United States, marked by a summit between Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and President George W. Bush.

MidEast > Iraq > Parliament

The political faction loyal to the anti-American cleric holds 30 seats in parliament and six cabinet ministries. Under a compromise to lure them back, Iraqi politicians will review al-Sadr's demand for a U.S. pullout.

The group's support has been crucial for al-Maliki to regain influence in the legislature.

But at the same time, the U.S. is relying on al-Maliki's government to neutralize al-Sadr's powerful militia, which is accused of operating Baghdad death squads and carrying out attacks on Sunnis.

So, a massive contradiction hovers over whatever deal al-Maliki has made with al-Sadr. The US is at the moment in an untenable political situation in regard to al-Maliki's govt.

--Politicarp

More Info: coming

Politics: UK: Will the Scottish National Party lead a secession of Scotland from the United Kingdom?

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The left-slant worldnews website, both analytic and spritely, open
Democracy is running an engaging piece, "Union in a State: a Scots eye" (Jan16,2k7):

Scotland's parliament voted to abolish itself on 16 January 1707. In 1999, devolution restored a measure of self-government. Now, Scots are contemplating independence once more. The historian and Scottish National Party candidate Christopher Harvie explains why.

Reading this viewpoint was quite a shock to me, not the historical part, but the more current account and viewpoint. Candidate Harvie may be an astute politician jockeying for his party's coming to power in the Scottish parliament, and establishing a strong bargaining position for relations afterward with the British Crown's govt. But, on the other hand, Mr Harvie also seems capable of carrying a full load of hardcore nationalist ideology under the surface of his fascinating historiographical notes, and witticisms.

Europe > UK > Scotland

Meanwhile the special election in Scotland is heating up. According to Murdo MacLeod in the Scotsman (Jan14,2k7):

Salmond says Labour MP 'has never had a real job'

THE run-up to May's Holyrood election is becoming ever more personal, with SNP leader Alex Salmond accusing a senior Labour minister of "never having had a job in his life".

In an outspoken attack on Labour's Scottish Secretary, Douglas Alexander, who will oversee the Labour election campaign this May, Salmond compared the minister to an overeager Sunday school pupil, and said Alexander looked ridiculous.
Click to learn more...

Salmond's outburst has come in response to an increasingly intense and personal Labour campaign against the SNP, which recently saw First Minister Jack McConnell attack Salmond because of the Nationalist leader's laugh.

Speaking to Holyrood magazine, Salmond said of Alexander: "Douglas has never had a real job in his life. I think he practised as a solicitor for about two weeks. He has been nourished and germinated in the ranks of the Labour Party. His hand has been given to him."

Salmond, a former Royal Bank of Scotland economist, continued: "Some of us have had to get where we are without that patronage. To be an economist at the Royal Bank you have to be able to cut it. If Douglas ever gets a real job then he might be in a place to comment."

Salmond added: "The guy looks like he brushes his teeth 10 times a day and gets patted on the head. You basically want to say to him: 'It is OK, Douglas, we will still give you good marks and an extra star at Sunday school if you are really well behaved.'"

Alexander, 39, is regarded by many as Gordon Brown's most loyal political ally.

In response to Salmond's comments, a spokesman for Alexander said: "We're not going to bother commenting."

Elsewhere in the press, I noted that Scottish voters favour the SNP but not independence. In any case, the campaign promises to be something of a political slugfest.

--Politicarp

Further Research:

Scottish National Party
Scotland's Independence

War: Iraq: Bush's troop augmentation in Iraq greeted, despite opponents of new policy

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Foreign Policy carries an essay by Donald Stoker, "Insurgencies Rarely Win – And Iraq Won’t Be Any Different (Maybe)" (Jan2k7):

The cold, hard truth about the Bush administration’s strategy of “surging” additional U.S. forces into Iraq is that it could work. Insurgencies are rarely as strong or successful as the public has come to believe. Iraq’s various insurgent groups have succeeded in creating a lot of chaos. But they’re likely not strong enough to succeed in the long term. Sending more American troops into Iraq with the aim of pacifying Baghdad could provide a foundation for their ultimate defeat, but only if the United States does not repeat its previous mistakes.

Myths about invincible guerrillas and insurgents are a direct result of America’s collective misunderstanding of its defeat in South Vietnam. This loss is generally credited to the brilliance and military virtues of the pajama-clad Vietcong. The Vietnamese may have been tough and persistent, but they were not brilliant. Rather, they were lucky—they faced an opponent with leaders unwilling to learn from their failures: the United States. When the Vietcong went toe-to-toe with U.S. forces in the 1968 Tet Offensive, they were decimated. When South Vietnam finally fell in 1975, it did so not to the Vietcong, but to regular units of the invading North Vietnamese Army. The Vietcong insurgency contributed greatly to the erosion of the American public’s will to fight, but so did the way that President Lyndon Johnson and the American military waged the war. It was North Vietnam’s will and American failure, not skillful use of an insurgency, that were the keys to Hanoi’s victory.

In anothr development, CBC reported the endorsement of Bush's troop-augmentation strategy as a basically positive one; the endorsement was somewhat surprising in that it came from a number of strongly Sunni Muslim states. "Arab states voice support for Bush's Iraq stategy" (Jan16,2k7):

Some Arab states are backing U.S. President George W. Bush's plan to send more than 20,000 troops to Iraq to try to stabilize the region.

The foreign ministers of Egypt, Jordan and the Gulf Co-operation Council — which includes Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Qatar and Bahrain —all met with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in Kuwait Tuesday.

Rice is in the region trying to drum up support for Bush's new strategy to send 21,500 more troops to Iraq to halt violence, mainly around Baghdad.

"We expressed our desire to see the president's plan to reinforce American military presence in Baghdad as a vehicle … to stabilize Baghdad and prevent Iraq sliding into this ugly war, this civil war," Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammad al-Salem al-Sabah told a joint news conference with Rice.

In a statement, the foreign ministers said that they "welcomed the commitment by the United States" to defend the security of the Gulf and the territorial integrity of Iraq.

It said that sectarian violence "should be condemned" and that all militias "should be disarmed and dismantled."

These voices go counter to the chorus of knee-jerk critics of the Bush move.

--Politicarp

Politics: Venezuela: Launching his 2nd term, Prez Hugo Chavez punishes enemies, starts to nationalize country's industries

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CNN's Alberto Padilla offers his "Analysis: Chavez living up to radical promise" (Jan16,2k7):

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is living up to his promise to radicalize his Bolivarian Revolution after his re-election.

In fact, Chavez has stopped referring ambiguously to some sort of socialism and openly announced that Venezuela will become a socialist country, albeit with a "Socialism of the 21st Century."

But, how modern really is the socialism that Chavez proposes for Venezuela?

Given the announcements made last week, when he was inaugurated for a new term and named a new Cabinet, we can say that Venezuela is heading towards the old communism of the last century, and more in the Cuban or North Korean style than the Chinese.

The decisions announced by Chavez are very similar to those taken in the early years of the Cuban Revolution.

Saying that these were strategic sectors from the point of view of national interests, Chavez announced the nationalization of CANTV, Venezuela's largest telephone company which is controlled by Verizon, as well as the production and distribution of electricity.

Although in the latter case he did not mention names, one of the most important electric power companies in Venezuela is Electricidad de Caracas, which belongs to the U.S. company AES.

And although the government has said there will be compensation for investors, it is far from clear that this compensation will be by market rules -- that investors will be compensated for the real market value of the properties they are being forced to hand over. And, of course, it is even more doubtful that a company that belongs to a government will offer even an adequate level of service and efficiency.

At the same time President Chavez announced that the license of Radio Caracas Televisión, a national television network, would not be renewed. He accuses the company of having backed an attempted coup against him.

Latin America > Venezuela

While Chavez is not the only openly leftist Latin American president, he is proving to be the most radical.

Bolivia's Evo Morales also "nationalized" that country's gas industry, but it was little more than a change in the rules that allowed the country to increase its income from the extraction and sale of gas.

Nestor Kirchner in Argentina and Luis Inacio Lula da Silva in Brazil have similar ideologies to Chavez but don't share his statism.

And among the newly elected left presidents, Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega was just sworn in but has promised to respect private property and encourage foreign investment. He supported an already negotiated free trade agreement with the United States, but one of his first actions as president was to join ALBA, a Venezuela-initiated bloc that seeks to limit U.S. influence and also includes Cuba and Bolivia.

On January 15, Rafael Correa was sworn in as President of Ecuador. He is another left of center socialist who has promised a series of radical measures against open markets, but how much Correa will be able to do is an open question, since Congress is entirely in the hands of the opposition.

Chavez, on the other hand, has succeeded in increasing his power within Venezuela in a way no one else has been able to do in recent years in Latin America.

That is why it's likely that, like Cuba, Venezuela will remain an economic island, at least in the medium-term. And even that is open to question, because despite his personal popularity, the polls indicate the big majority of Venezuelans oppose the idea of their country becoming another Cuba.

As for the rest of Latin America, Hugo Chavez is as unpopular as his favorite nemesis, U.S. President George W. Bush, according to polling firm Latinbarometer.
-----
Alberto Padilla is the business and financial news anchor and reporter for CNN en Español.

-- Polticarp

Further Research:

The Mystery of Hugo Chavez (National Post, Toronto, Jan16,2k7)

Venezuela's Hugo Chavez Targets Major Foreign Oil Companies in Nationalization Fight (Fox, Jan16,2k7)

Canada: Quebec: 59% self-describe themselves as racists--prejudice against Jews, Blacks, Muslims specified in various degrees

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CBC reports "59 per cent of Quebecers say they're racist: poll" (Jan15,2k7)

Fifty-nine per cent of Quebecers admit to being racist to some degree, according to a Léger Marketing survey published Monday in Le Journal de Montréal.

In comparison, only 47 per cent of those outside of Quebec say they are racist to some degree. One per cent of Quebecers surveyed said they were very racist, 15 per cent said moderately racist and 43 per cent responded that they were mildly racist.

Update:
One source informs us: "In Quebec, the level of minority representation in the civil service hasn't risen beyond 3% since 1981, said Fo Niemi, executive director of the Centre for Research-Action on Race Relations. "We have socially progressive programs but when it comes to ethnic and racial progress, institutionally speaking we're still very closed and exclusionary."

The findings stunned Jean Dorion of the Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste [the leading Quebec natonalist-patriotic organization].

"I do not perceive the Quebec society as being racist," he told Le Journal de Montréal.

The findings come from three surveys done in late December and early January. The first two surveys were conducted over the internet, with 2,228 Quebecers taking part, while the third survey interviewed 3,092 people across Canada.

The survey looked at Quebecers' views of a variety of cultural groups.

It found 36 per cent of Quebecers have a bad opinion of Jewish people, while 27 per cent have a poor opinion of blacks. Fifty per cent have a bad opinion of Muslims.

Jean-Marc Léger, president of Leger Marketing, said Quebecers are influenced by the images of Muslims seen after the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.

"The Arab community carries the weight of September 11 and religios extremists," Léger told Le Journal de Montréal. "People were thinking of them when they answered the survey."

North America > Canada > Quebec

Bashir Hussein, who represents Quebec in the Council of Muslim Communities of Canada, said people are also shaped by the media coverage of violence in the Middle East.

"Whatever people read in the newspapers, they form their opinion from," he told CBC News.
Survey methods questioned

Jack Jedwab, a Montrealer who has done extensive statistical and demographic work, questions how the survey was structured, especially the sections asking Quebecers if they consider themselves racist.

Quebecers were asked if they consider themselves very racist, moderately racist, slightly racist or not racist at all.

Jedwab said in three out of four answers, respondents end up labelling themselves racist.

If Jedwab were writing the question, he would have made the ratio two questions out of four, asking people if they are very racist, somewhat racist, not racist or not at all racist.

Jedwab, who's the executive director of the Montreal-based Association of Canadian Studies, said it's dangerous to have a survey that shows such a high level of racism.

"It will lead people to say, 'Let's face it, everyone's racist,'" he told CBC News Online. "They'll think it's to be expected. That will minimize the resolve to combat this problem of racism that needs to be addressed."

The Quebec portion of the survey is considered to have a margin of error of 3.1 per cent, 19 times out of 20. The one done outside Quebec had a margin of error of 1.8 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

The problem is complex in ways not explored in this news report of an opinon poll. Too often the link between the nationalist views of some are nested in racist views of minority segments of the Quebec population. But attitudes of the majority (and, in Quebec, that majority must be carefully specified, as definitions can differ widely) are polarized and further weighted toward racism due to the defensive perception that every criticism of Quebec and its majority's natoinalism is "Quebec bashing." This can't be helpful in the long run.

--Politicarp

More Info:

Anti-Racism Project in Quebec (Dec2k6)

Quebec bashing [strongly slanted to hide Quebec nationalism's related racism

In France, Dominique de Villepin represents elite anti-semitic tradition

Politics: Canada: 3 empty seats in Ontario Legislature up for special election, what if the Libs lose them all?

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Ontario political observer, Toronto Star's Rob Ferguson details the prospects and issues in "3 GTA by-elections on Feb. 8" (Jan 11,2k7).

NDP vows to turn votes into referendum on MPPs' pay raise

New Democrats are hoping to turn three GTA by-elections Feb. 8 into a referendum on the controversial 25-per-cent pay hike for MPPs that Premier Dalton McGuinty pushed through the Legislature just before Christmas.

McGuinty set the date for votes in Burlington, Markham and York South-Weston hours before heading off on a two-week trade mission to India and Pakistan yesterday.

New Democrat Peter Kormos (Niagara Centre) said many people remain angry about the pay raise, which was supported by the Conservatives and which boosts the base salary for MPPs to almost $111,000 annually. He contrasted it to the government's 25-cent increase in the minimum wage, to $8 hourly, starting Feb. 1.

"I think it's going to be a significant factor," Kormos said at Queen's Park.

All three parties have been lining up candidates in anticipation of the by-elections that Kormos said will be a "test run" for the Oct. 4 provincial vote.

"This is an opportunity for people in these communities ... to tell the Liberals that what they did was unfair, unreasonable and certainly inappropriate in a context when low-income families are struggling harder than ever," Kormos added.

The ridings have been vacant since last fall but McGuinty was reluctant to call the votes to avoid conflicting with November's municipal elections and the holiday season.

While the Liberals are touting a record of education improvements, including higher test scores and smaller class sizes, as well as an improvement in medical waiting times, a senior party insider acknowledged the pay raise could make things tougher on the campaign trail.

"That will be part of the challenge," he said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "By-elections are always a challenge for governments."

Ontario > Greater Toronto Area

The Liberals were stung in their last by-election race, losing former education minister Gerard Kennedy's riding of Parkdale-High Park to New Democrat Cheri DiNovo, who has introduced a private member's bill to push the minimum wage to $10 an hour.

The Liberals have held two of the ridings, with York South-Weston long considered a stronghold. It was represented until last September by former economic development minister Joe Cordiano, who left politics to spend more time with his family. Markham was held by Liberal Tony Wong, who left for a seat on Markham council.

The Conservatives would like to win back Markham, held until 2003 by former cabinet minister David Tsubouchi.

"We've got some ground to make up," said Conservative Leader John Tory, who also wants to keep the riding of Burlington in the party fold. Former cabinet minister Cam Jackson, elected Burlington's mayor two months ago, won it by fewer than 2,000 votes in 2003.

Tory, who campaigned with two of his candidates yesterday, said voters have not been raising the pay-hike issue.

"They're talking about broken Liberal promises, taxes, crime and gridlock."

In York South-Weston OMNI television news anchor Laura Albanese is running for the Liberals. She was handed the nomination after the riding association ruled against letting another candidate to run against her. Real estate lawyer Pina Martino is running for the Tories.

In Markham, business Alex Yuan is running for the Conservatives and businessman Michael Chan for the Liberals.

In Burlington, former Halton Region chair Joyce Savoline is running for the Conservatives, and veteran city councillor Joan Lougheed for the Liberals.

The NDP has not yet picked candidates for the ridings but will hold nomination meetings tomorrow in Burlington and Saturday in York South-Weston.

Current standings in the Legislature are 68 Liberals, 23 Conservatives and 9 New Democrats, with three [GTA] seats vacant.

I think John Tory's provincial Conservatives promise to be a vast improvement over both the oversize-majority of the provincial Libs, and the conceptual smog of the NDP, to say nothing of its devotion to spending without means.--Politicarp

More Info:

Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario

Ontario New Democratic Party

Ontario Liberal Party

Canada: Communications: Conservative government wants to revamp state and free-enterprise communications across the continent

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Toronto's Globe & Mail carries an important article by Simon Tuck, entitled "Conservatives set to mould altered CRTC (Jan14,2k7). That's the Canadian Radio Tevelvision Commission which, among other things regulates the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), an English language service, and the French language service Radio Canada. These are the principle means of ideological transmission of the left-Liberal/NDP
worldview in which opinon-making marinates itself in statist Canada. These are also the chief enemies of free-enterprise broadcasting, which has besetting problems of its own in Canada. But the needed inner reformation of f-e broadcasters does not offset the even more drastic necessity of reforminfg the CRTC, CBC, RC, and certain practices of pay-for cable TV carriers like Rogers (which owns the cable TV district I live in, thankyou, CRTC).

The Harper government will attempt to fill as many as seven seats on the 13-member Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission — including the chair — in the next year, and industry officials say the Conservatives are likely to reshape the regulator with appointees who take a more market-oriented view.

Some government and industry officials are suggesting that the Conservatives will also use the openings to add different types of people to the commission — perhaps a consumer advocate or small-business owner — instead of filling it with more veterans of the telecommunications and broadcast sectors.

Some Conservatives, including Industry Minister Maxime Bernier, believe the commission is too close to the two sectors it regulates, and that previous commissioners have been appointed largely because of their experience in at least one of those industries.

“Harper won't call central casting for this,” said one industry official who follows the CRTC closely.

Seats on the commission are considered plum posts because they can pay more than $135,000 a year for up to five years and don't attract great scrutiny.

In filling the vacancies, the government will consider traits such as gender, race, ethnicity, language and region, similar to constructing a mini-cabinet. In the past, six of the seats have been reserved for each of the country's main regions, with about half of the commission coming from each of the two sectors.

But that could all change.

The chair's job came open at the start of the year and the Prime Minister's Office has already rejected the two leading candidates — Fernand Bélisle, a former CRTC vice-chairman of broadcasting, and George Addy, a former Telus Corp. executive who was once head of the federal competition watchdog — because, it is widely believed, each was considered too much of an insider who would be unlikely to lead an overhaul.

Sources say the government is also looking for outsider candidates to fill the two existing commissioner vacancies, but a government official said finding non-insiders who have adequate expertise isn't easy.

North America > Canada

The Conservatives would also like to use the CRTC appointments to change the commission's view of its role, particularly toward the broadcast sector. Mr. Bernier was able to force the commission last year to take a more market-oriented approach toward the telecom sector, but changing the regulator's role in thorny broadcast issues such as Canadian content would be much more politically dangerous. With a minority government, overhauling broadcast legislation is considered highly unlikely.

Many in the broadcast and telecom industries, meanwhile, are concerned that the government will weaken the CRTC by appointing people who simply lack the background to do a good job.

“It's supposed to be a body with specialized expertise,” a broadcast executive said.

Established in 1968 to regulate broadcasters, the CRTC is widely credited with helping foster the domestic television and radio industries, as well as the artists and others who create content.

David McKendry, a consultant who once sat on the CRTC, said the commissioners' role shouldn't be taken lightly. “I think it's very important — we're talking about Canadian culture.”

With seven of the commission's 13 seats either already vacant or scheduled to become so by the middle of November, the expected change in direction comes at an important time. The commission is poised to weigh such tough issues as foreign ownership of a major broadcaster. Alliance Atlantis Communications Inc. agreed last week to be sold to CanWest Global Communications Corp. and U.S.-based Goldman Sachs Group Inc. for a proposed $2.3-billion.

The CRTC is also trying to rebound from one of its most difficult periods and prove that it's still relevant in the digital age. Key industry voices and many analysts have said in recent months that the commission is having difficulty adapting to a world where technology has left national borders more porous. The commission has also had to contend with the introduction of Internet-based telephones, satellite radio, and the emergence of foreign-based broadcasters such as Rai and Al-Jazeera.

A spokesman for Heritage Minister Bev Oda wouldn't comment Friday on the CRTC vacancies.

I've been waiting for Bev Oda to make her move, waiting ever since she was appointed to the Ministery, a ministry whose very name exposes just how much CBC/RC is a statist enterprise. But even more, it's obvious that placing the entirety of the programs and fields under CRTC admin, the entire mixed-bag dumped idiotically into the single category of "Heritage" -- obviously all that is ideologically motivated.

What the very name tells us , first of all, is that there is in Canada actually no general Communications Ministry, a telltale fact that illuminates both the technically retrograde mindsets of the CRTC political appointees -- these all being drawn from the ranks former CBC/RC employees and their supporting bureaucracy -- and a blockage point thru-out the previous federal governments in regard to the development of a ministry effectively grappling with the implications of the rapid advance in all sorts of means of communications via the airwaves and satellites, mobile phones and traditional phones. Traditional phones?--don't get me started. I live in the miserable demi-world where your own name can be put on a commercial list for annoyance calls to y0u, against your will, courtesy of Bell Canada and a business practice approved by the CRTC--unless you double-pay your own way out!

The CRTC package is the dirty little secret behind the "Heritage" concept as the left-Libs handed it down in their dynastic self-replacements (replacements arranged not least of all by scams and scandals). But a misnomered "Heritage Ministry" is what we've got. If we are to retain a statist broadcast system, then, at least let it be devoted to the many heritages of Canada, a history and ethnomosaic broadcasting system perhaps still maintained at federal state expense.

But many other initiatives toward a genuine pluralism of the governing and the regulation of communications according to the principle of public-legal justce for all (worldviews) is an urgent requirement of our day in Canada.

--Politicarp

More Info:

CRTC
Wikipedia article on CRTC

Daily Darfur: If we can trust Sudan's govt, which has broken all its promises in the past, then here's a good thing!

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eNewsChannels carries a report by Christopher Simmons
"Cease-Fire Agreement Offers a Moment of Opportunity for Political Settlement in Worsening Darfur Crisis (Jan13,2k7)

On Save Darfur Coalition trip, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson Gets Commitment for Cease-Fire and Improved Humanitarian Aid and Media Access to Darfur

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Save Darfur Coalition (www.SaveDarfur.org) welcomes the agreement reached today (Jan. 10) by New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson and Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir that his government and rebel groups will cease hostilities for a period of 60 days while they work towards a lasting peace.

The cease-fire was one of several issues agreed to in talks between Governor Richardson and President al-Bashir in Khartoum on Wednesday. Governor Richardson traveled to Sudan at the invitation of the Save Darfur Coalition, and was accompanied by Save Darfur Senior International Coordinator Ambassador (ret.) Lawrence Rossin, Refugees International Executive Director Kenneth Bacon, and Public and International Law and Policy Group senior attorney Amjad Atallah.

Save Darfur “There was positive movement on a number of issues, most notably the agreement to a cease-fire between the government and rebel groups that will immediately save lives. The agreement also creates an improved environment for a political settlement, based on the Darfur Peace Agreement, to move forward. There has been a deteriorating situation on the ground in recent weeks, clearly demonstrating an urgent need for increased international diplomacy and action,” said Ambassador Rossin.

The Save Darfur Coalition said the cease-fire agreement, which also included a number of concessions to improve humanitarian aid and media access to Darfur, must be accompanied by a new round of diplomacy involving Sudan, rebel leaders, the African Union, United Nations and other countries. “We must work to ensure that President al-Bashir and rebel leaders keep the commitments they have agreed to, and that the international community does not miss this important opportunity to press for a permanent, peaceful solution to the tragedy in Darfur,” said David Rubenstein, Executive Director, Save Darfur Coalition.

The Save Darfur Coalition will continue to press Khartoum as well, in part through active engagement in the agreed-upon “ongoing dialogue” with the Sudanese Government aimed at ending the violence in Darfur and achieving a political solution to the crises.

The two parties issued the following statement
at the conclusion of their talks:

Joint Press Statement on the conclusion of the visit
by Governor Bill Richardson to the Sudan
7th - 10th January 2006

H.E Bill Richardson Governor of New Mexico accompanied by a delegation sponsored by and including members of the Save Darfur Coalition, the leading United States-based Darfur peace advocacy organization, conducted a visit to Sudan to discuss ways to secure peace in the Darfur region of Sudan and the protection of all civilians and other non-combatants. The Governor and the delegation visited EI Fasher and Nayala in Darfur, for meetings with internally displaced persons in Darfur, rebel groups that are signatories to the (DPA) as well as those which are not as of yet, international agencies, the United Nations, and humanitarian aid as well as the Wali of North Darfur and the Deputy Wali of Southern Darfur States and held meetings in Khartoum with H.E President Omer Hassan Al Bashir,Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr. Lam Akol Ajawin, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Mr. Ali Ahmed Karti and a number of high ranking Sudanese officials.

Both sides agreed that ending the conflict in Darfur is Sudan’s and the international communities highest priority. Peace, they agreed, can only come through a political settlement that is joined in by and addresses the needs of all parties, on the basis of the Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA) of 5 May 2006 reiterating their support for preserving Sudan’s territorial integrity and the importance of respect for Sudan’s sovereignty.

Both sides agreed that there was a compelling need for a comprehensive cease-fire to launch a political process based on the DPA that would lead to a durable end to the conflict as soon as possible. Both agreed to a 60-day cessation of hostilities by all parties within the framework of the DPA, accompanied by a start in African Union/United Nations diplomatic efforts, within the framework of the DPA, to begin narrowing the gaps between the non-signatories, including government approval of a field commanders’ conference attended by the African Union and United Nations. This would be followed at the appropriate moment by an African Union/United Nations - sponsored peace summit, again in the framework of the DPA, no later than 15 March 2007. Simultaneously, both agreed that the UN needed to expedite as quickly as possible the provision of UN personnel agreed in Addis Ababa and further specified in Abuja in November 2006. President Bashir re-affirmed his commitment to continue to facilitate the deployment of UN personnel and equipment consistent with his agreement with the Secretary General of the UN on Phases II and III, including the eventual conclusions of the Tripartite Committee as stipulated in the DPA.

The two sides noted that Governor Richardson had secured a commitment from commanders of the Justice and Equality Movement and of the Non-Signatory Front to participate in a process including a 60-day cease fire agreement within the framework of the DPA. Governor Richardson and Save Darfur Coalition expressed their grave concern to all parties with whom they met about continuing and increasing attacks on civilians and other non-combatants.

They reiterated that gender-based violence and such crimes must be condemned and prosecuted regardless of which party or organization was responsible, noting that Governor Richardson and the Save Darfur Coalition emphasized the need in all their meetings for implementing mechanisms to ensure that “zero tolerance” policies towards gender-based violence be applied in practice, quickly and robustly. Governor Richardson noted with appreciation President Bashir’s commitment to welcome a significant contribution of female members to the AU/UN hybrid operations. Both sides expressed their grave concern at allegations of gender -based violence by United Nations personnel in South Sudan.

Governor Richardson and the delegation also met with the Under-Secretary of Justice, the Rapporteur of the Advisory Council for Human Rights and Dr. Attigatt who presented a briefing on Sudanese Government efforts to institutionalize protections for women. The Governor and the delegation accepted the offer to work with the Ministry to analyze and extend existing efforts to support Sudanese women against all gender-based violence.

President Bashir and Governor Richardson also agreed that more light needs to be shed on the full situation in Darfur. President Bashir agreed to allow and facilitate travel by journalists from all over the world to Darfur.

The two sides underscored the need to disarm all armed groups, including the Janjaweed, pursuant to the provision of the DPA, and further agreed not to have the National military aircraft painted in white markings normally reserved for international organizations.

President Bashir agreed that government forces would attempt to improve security conditions in all areas of Darfur with special emphasis on El Geneina, and would provide protection to food and other humanitarian convoys. They also agreed that humanitarian aid agencies have greatly assisted the Government and people of Sudan by providing much needed emergency and development aid in Darfur and other parts of Sudan. President Bashir agreed to expedite procedures for entry visas for all humanitarian aid workers as well as goods. He also agreed to terminate the requirement of exit visas for humanitarian aid workers. President Bashir noted with satisfaction the strong statements by the Save Darfur Coalition to rebel commanders condemning attacks by their members on humanitarian aid operations and agreed to initiate an ongoing dialogue with the Save Darfur Coalition aimed at ending the violence in Darfur and on achieving a political solution to the crises.

The two sides agreed to apprise African Union Special Envoy Salim Ahmed Salim and United Nations Special Envoy Jan Eliasson of these developments, so that the African Union and United Nations will facilitate the commanders meeting and launch the political discussion and to maintain regular communication assessing progress on these important initiatives to identify areas of difficulty on which further engagement may be necessary to ensure rapid progress and durable outcomes.

Both sides agreed that an improvement of relations is in the mutual interest of both countries.

###

About Ambassador (ret.) Lawrence Rossin — Amb. (ret.) Lawrence Rossin, Senior International Coordinator at the Save Darfur Coalition, is responsible for designing and leading implementation of the Coalition’s outreach to foreign governments and non-governmental organizations to advocate on behalf of the people of Darfur. Rossin joined the Coalition after serving as Assistant Secretary General and Principal Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary General for the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti, and as part of the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo. He has also served in a number of diplomatic positions in the U.S. Department of State.

About Kenneth Bacon — Kenneth Bacon has served as the president of Refugees International since 2001. An expert in international affairs and security issues, Mr. Bacon has concentrated on expanding Refugees International’s capacity to promote more effective ways for the international community to meet the needs of refugees and displaced people. From 1994-2001, he was Assistant Secretary, Public Affairs, at the U.S. Department of Defense and served as Pentagon spokesman. From 1969 — 1994, he was a reporter, editor and columnist for the Wall Street Journal based in Washington, DC. Bacon is also the co-chairman of the Partnership for Effective Peacekeeping.

About Amjad Atallah — Amjad Atallah is founder and President of Strategic Assessments, a not-for-profit organization committed to providing legal and policy assistance to parties involved in negotiations in conflict and post-conflict situations, as well as a Senior Attorney with the Public International Law and Policy Group (PILPG). Prior to founding Strategic Assessments, Mr. Atallah advised the Palestinian negotiating team, and later Palestinian Prime Minister Abbas’ office, in peace negotiations with Israel on the issues of international borders, security, and constitutional issues. He was also responsible for liaising with US government officials in Washington, D.C. on these issues. Mr. Atallah is also co-founder and a member of the Board of Directors of Women for Women International (www.womenforwomen.org).

About David Rubenstein — David Rubenstein, Executive Director of the Save Darfur Coalition, helped organize the Coalition in 2004 and has worked since then to raise awareness about the crisis and to advocate for the protection for the people of Darfur. Rubenstein has met with world leaders, noted global advocates, refugees, and hundreds of allied organizations to discuss the crisis and how to spur the world community to action. He recently returned with from refugee camps in the eastern regions of Chad directly affected by the crisis in Darfur.

About the Save Darfur Coalition — The Save Darfur Coalition raises public awareness about the ongoing genocide in Darfur and mobilizes a unified response to the atrocities that threaten the lives of people throughout the Darfur region. It is an alliance of more than 175 faith-based, advocacy and humanitarian organizations. The Coalition’s member organizations represent 130 million people of all ages, races, religions and political affiliations united together to help the people of Darfur. For more information on the Coalition, please visit www.SaveDarfur.org.

Technorati Tags: Save Darfur Coalition, David Rubenstein, Amjad Atallah, Darfur cease fire


Christopher Laird Simmons has been a creative artist, marketing specialist, working journalist and PR pro for more than 20 years (he started as a teenager). He founded Neotrope (formerly Mindset) in 1983, and has written widely for numerous national magazines, and is frequently interviewed by same. He is a member of the PRSA and ASCAP and resides in Torrance, California.

War: Somalia: Restored govt declares State of Emergency for 3 months, AlQaeda rebels regrouping for guerrilla war

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Reuters reporter Hassan Yare" in a dispatch today, "Somali parliament declares state of emergency" (Jan13,2k7) describes the complex situation faced by government there in the wake of the invasion by its Ethiopian ally, an invasion that displaced the rule of the AlQaeda-backed Union of Islamc Courts. Toward the end of that move, the USA also entered the scene in an airstrike against the AlQaeda leadership covertly behind the UIC.

Somalia's parliament declared on Saturday a three-month state of emergency amid fears of a return to clan violence after weeks of war ousted Islamists.

The terminology used here is correct but does not mention that this particular variety of Islamism (or, Islamicism) is Islamofascist in the sense that it is covertly directed or influenced by Al Qaeda (yes, the same folks directing the Taliban in Afghanistan and a major stream in the Iraqi civil war. A caution: not all Islamist parties and governments are fascist, a democratic Islamic party governs Turkey, for instance.

However, in the case of Iraq's Al Qaeda, such Sunni deviants have carried forward a program of murder against Shi'ites that eventually provoked the Shia militias there, and triggered the present civil war.

Update:

U.S. raid may have hit top Somali militant: Pentagon (Jan17,2k7)

In Somolia, however, where the population is 95% Muslim, and Sunni, the AlQaedist stream of Sunnis will now be attacking other Sunnis.

Members of parliament in the government's interim seat of Baidoa -- its home until Ethiopian and Somali troops defeated Islamists who controlled much of the south, voted 154 to two to ratify Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi's plan to restore order.

The government, which is seeking to install itself in the capital Mogadishu, faces a huge challenge to bring peace and security to the Horn of Africa nation, which has been without effective central rule since the 1991 ouster of a dictator.

The present government is of more recent vintage, according to the US State Departments webpage on Somalia: "Somalia has had no functioning national government since the collapse of the regime of Maj. Gen. Mohamed Siad Barre in January 1991. The present political situation in much of Somalia is marked by inter-clan fighting and the lack of security, with some areas of relative peace and stability. On October 10, 2004, Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed was elected Transitional Federal President of Somalia for a five-year period. A Prime Minister, Ali Mohamed Gedi was approved by the Transitional Federal Assembly on December 24, 2004. A cabinet, known as the Council of Ministers, also exists. [The legislative structure is] parliamentary (Transitional Federal Assembly, established in August 2004. Shariff Hassan Sheikh Adan was elected Speaker of the Assembly in September 2004.)

A three-month state of emergency has been passed [into law]. If the need arises for the government to extend the period then the president will have to ask parliament for approval," second deputy speaker Osman Elmi Boqore told parliament.

The law prohibits demonstrations and bans possession of weapons. "The president has powers to announce a decree on how the state of emergency can be implemented," a parliamentary statement said.

Africa > Somalia

President Abdullahi Yusuf called on clan elders and warlords to hand over militia for a new national army. The warlords had already agreed to merge their forces into such a force.

"You have to hand them over to the government and we will train them as government security officers, such as police and military," he said. "As we can see the guerrilla war that the Islamists talked about is starting."

An earlier report by Mohamed Olad Hassan of Associated Press via San Diago's Union-Tribune, "Somali warlords agree to disarm as government troops capture last Islamic[ist holdout in the south"
(Jan12,27)

MOGADISHU, Somalia – As Somalia's warlords were signing a deal to lay down their weapons, six militiamen were gunned down just yards away in a dispute over a parking spot.

Their bodies were propped up against a bullet-scarred wall opposite the presidential palace on Friday – a stark reminder of the challenges facing the government as it tries to restore order and establish real authority in this fractious, heavily armed country.

The government was only able to enter Mogadishu two weeks ago after Ethiopian troops routed an Islamic movement that had controlled most of southern Somalia for the past six months. Now it must deal with clan divisions that have spoiled the last 13 attempts to form an effective government since the last one collapsed in 1991.

There are believed to be around 20,000 militiamen in Somalia and the country is awash with guns. Other obstacles include remnants of the Islamic movement – some are believed to be hiding in Mogadishu – and resentment among some Somalis of Ethiopia's intervention in the war.

I take exception to AP's terminology here. There are many "Islamic movements," many of which are not Islamist, or "Islamicist. There are many Islamic movements in Somalia, only those that try to impose an AlQaeda/Taliban kind authoritarian political Wahabbist Sunni regime, opposed to democracy (which of course, would have its own general Islamic characteristics due to the demographics of the country) should be indicated.

Hours after the signing, Defense Minister Col. Barre “Hirale” Aden Shire said Ethiopian-backed government forces had captured the last remaining stronghold of the Islamic movement after five days of fighting in the southern town of Ras Kamboni. He said Ethiopian and Somali forces chased fleeing Islamic fighters into nearby forests and the fighting would continue.

Ras Kamboni is in a rugged coastal area a few miles from the Kenyan border. It is not far from the site of a U.S. airstrike Monday targeting suspected al-Qaeda militants – the first U.S. offensive in Somalia since 18 American soldiers were killed here in 1993.

This tragic event was immortalized in the famous movie Black Hawk Down.

The agreement reached Friday between President Abdullahi Yusuf and the clan warlords aimed to establish enough security in the capital so that international peacekeepers can deploy and protect the government until it can establish an effective police force and army.

“The warlords and the government have agreed to collaborate for the restoration of peace in Somalia,” said government spokesman Abdirahman Dinari. “The agreement means they have to disarm their militia and their men have to join the national army.”

One of Somalia's most powerful warlords, Mohamed Qanyare Afrah, told Associated Press after the meeting that the clans were “fed up” with guns and ready to cooperate.

But another warlord issued a warning to the government.

“If the government is ready to reconcile its people and chooses the right leadership, I hope there is no need to revolt against it,” said Muse Sudi Yalahow, whose fighters control northern Mogadishu. “If they fail and lose the confidence of the people, I think they would be called new warlords.”

Friday's fighting in the capital began when clan gunmen fired a rocket-propelled grenade and briefly exchanged gunfire with government troops. The battle, which one militiaman said was sparked by a dispute over where to park an armored car, left at least six dead and 10 wounded.

Since Tuesday, there have been several attacks against government forces and their Ethiopian allies, and five people have been killed, witnesses said. In addition, assailants threw a grenade into a Mogadishu hotel late Thursday, killing a government soldier, said lawmaker Jini Boqor. The hotel is used by Somalia's police chief.

The United States, United Nations and the African Union all want to deploy peacekeepers to stop Somalia from returning to clan-based violence and anarchy. But so far no African governments have responded to the call for an 8,000-strong peacekeeping force for the country, although Uganda has indicated it is willing to send 1,500 peacekeepers as part of a wider mission.

Late Thursday, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged the international community to redouble efforts to stabilize Somalia and reiterated his concern that U.S. attacks were harming civilians and could have “unintended consequences.”

Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki said in a statement on a government Web site Friday that U.S. involvement in Somalia is creating turmoil in the Horn of African region and would “incur dangerous consequences.” Eritrea and Ethiopia are bitter rivals.

Ethiopian and U.S. forces are pursuing three top al-Qaeda suspects believed to be in Somalia. The U.S. has repeatedly accused the Somali Islamist movement of harboring the suspects, wanted in connection with the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.

Recent air attacks against the fleeing Islamic movement have killed 70 nomadic herdsmen in the last four days, British charity Oxfam said Friday, citing its local Somali partner organizations. It said the deaths occurred near Afmadow, about 220 miles southwest of Mogadishu.

60 percent of the population are nomadic, and 85% of the land is desert.

The United States has said it only conducted one airstrike and no civilians were killed. The Ethiopian military has used attack helicopters against militants in Somalia.

The U.N. food agency said it has started distributing food to 18,000 Somalis, many of whom were women and children and had fled fighting in the south. The agency said ongoing military activity meant they could not get food to another 190,000 people who were desperately in need.

Somalia has not had a functioning government since clan-based warlords toppled dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 and then turned on each other, sinking the Horn of Africa nation of 7 million people into chaos.

The war, at least the general instablity, is not over. And it is part of an AlQaeda offensive on at least three fronts: Afghanistan, Iraq, and Somalia.

--Politicarp

Further Research:

Bush battles for posterity in Somalia (Scotsman, Jan14,2k7)
USA attack on Al Quaeda in Somalia (Sunday Herald, Scotland, Jan14,2k7)

Technics: Car Batteries: GM enters automakers "heated race for a new kind of battery"

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Christian Science Monitor's Mark Clayton tells us about the "New race for automakers: build a better battery" (Jan12,2k7).

Can you imagine this scenario: An American automaker leapfrogs its Japanese competitors with a gasoline-electric hybrid that gets 150 miles to the gallon and can travel 40 miles on battery power alone?

Update Jan13,2k7:
CNet photo of Chevrolet Volt (Jan12,2k7)

General Motors set out that possibility when it unveiled on Sunday the Chevy Volt, a concept car with a much larger electric motor than today's Toyota Prius.

If it's ever built, the car could push the venerable manufacturer to the forefront of next-generation car technology. But to win that contest, GM will have to win another: the auto industry's increasingly heated race for a new kind of battery.

The benefits are potentially huge. A more robust hybrid car could reduce America's reliance on oil and trim its greenhouse-gas emissions while giving a major boost to carmakers that find the winning technology.

"What you're seeing with GM is that they're going for broke on batteries," says Tom Gage, president of AC Propulsion, a San Dimas, Calif., company that retrofits hybrid cars. "There is a very real race going on here, but not just with General Motors and Toyota. All the car companies understand battery technology is key to electrifying the automobile."

This week, the Big Three automakers asked the federal government to fund a $500 million five-year battery-development program. To support their proposal, GM, Ford, and Daimler-Chrysler submitted to the White House a study indicating that the US was lagging Japan in battery development, according to press reports.

Experts say the contest amounts to a search for a technology that can power a car for 40 miles, discharge most of its power, and be recharged thousands of times without major deterioration. The technology should be reliable enough to carry warranties of 150,000 miles and 10 years. The search ranges from lithium-ion batteries, used in cellphones and laptop computers, to experimental systems that aren't batteries at all, such as capacitors.

The biggest and most visible contestants in the battery race are GM and Toyota. Besides unveiling the Volt concept car, GM plans to introduce a new version of its Saturn hybrid SUV. Both would be plug-in models, which means that, in contrast to the Prius, they would use much larger battery packs and come with a plug for recharging when the car wasn't in use. Two days before it showed off the Volt, GM announced two major battery partnerships that pit existing technologies against one another in search of a winner.

At the same time, Toyota is busy developing its own battery partnerships and systems for its plug-in program.

The battery race began in earnest in the early 1990s with GM's all electric EV1. It used lead-acid batteries, but later switched to lighter and more powerful nickel-metal hydride batteries, also used by Toyota's Prius, which arrived in the late 1990s.

But plug-in hybrid cars use larger electric motors (and smaller gas engines) than today's hybrids. That's why the search is intensifying for a new power source, such as lithium-ion batteries, which offer about twice the power and half the weight of today's nickel-metal hydride batteries.

World Economy > Auto Batteries

"You can see where lithium-ion can be scaled," says David Cole, chairman of the nonprofit Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Mich. "The science is there. Yes, it requires engineering. [But] it's not like climbing Mt. Everest."

The companies involved in GM's two battery partnerships - Johnson Controls and partner Saft Advanced Power Solutions as well as Cobasys and its partner A123Systems - will soon submit rival lithium-ion batteries to GM for engineering tests. Toyota, too, is reportedly focused on lithium-ion technology.

Critics say it's not ready for prime time.

"The battery issue is a big problem," says Walter McManus, director of the automotive analysis division of the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute. "The technology is not here yet. It's not a matter of simply commercializing something that already exists. It's more serious than that."

For one thing, the engineering hurdles are big, these experts say.

"Saying battery technology is ready today for plug-ins is like saying we can have the technology for a moon colony - we just need to do a little engineering," says Ann Marie Sastry, a battery expert and professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Michigan. "System integration is a big thing and there are still scientific challenges. It's not just a matter of putting parts together."

Another challenge is costs. With their bigger batteries, plug-ins will be more pricey initially than today's hybrids.

"It's real expensive right now," says Davide Andrea, vice president for engineering at Hybrids Plus, one of several upstart companies that convert Toyota Prius and other hybrids into plug-ins using lithium-ion batteries. Despite the $32,000 price tag to convert a car, Mr. Andrea says his Boulder, Colo., company has several orders. "Right now only pioneers are doing it - government and individuals who believe strongly in making a difference," he says. "But as the cost comes down that will change."

Officials at A123Systems of Watertown, Mass., which makes the batteries Andrea is using and GM is testing, say costs will drop rapidly once they begin producing thousands of units.

Another question mark: safety. Sony last year recalled 9.3 million lithium-ion batteries in laptop computers because several overheated, causing a fire hazard.

Lithium-ion batteries for cars, subject to far greater pressures and hazards, use different technology, manufacturers say.

"We have a completely different approach that doesn't have that thermal instability," says David Vieau, president of A123 Systems. "Ours are safe."

GM officials have not set a date for the Volt. "We see real potential in using electricity as fuel and as a real competitive advantage for us, if we can develop this technology and get it to the market quickly," says Nicholas Zielinksi, GM's chief engineer for advanced system integration on the Volt."We've proved battery cells that give us what we need in energy storage and power capacity. The real challenge is tying the cells together to monitor them and seeing how they perform."

We need to have governments seize on this development, as in the case of Canada's Province of Ontario, to make the new batery-technology mandatory for autos manufactured in this key jurisdiction. More than that, we need prompt enactment of a growing freeze on the manufacture and operation of pollution cars and their batteries.

--Politicarp

More Info:

GM goes electric with new concept car [Reuters, Jan7,2k7]
Chevrolet News, a list with several articles on the Volt

Tags: New mostly-electric car's battery

• economics
• technics
• autoindustry
• GM
• batteryhybrid
• VoltChevy

Economics: Oil: Iraq may sign deal for Western companies to develop oil extraction massively despite war

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In a rabid display of rhetorical prejudgment, The Independent, London, UK, carries an article by Danny Fortson, Andrew Murray-Watson and Tim Webb, " Future of Iraq: The spoils of war--How the West will make a killing on Iraqi oil riches" (Jan7,2k7).

Iraq's massive oil reserves, the third-largest in the world, are about to be thrown open for large-scale exploitation by Western oil companies under a controversial law which is expected to come before the Iraqi parliament within days.

The US government has been involved in drawing up the law, a draft of which has been seen by The Independent on Sunday. It would give big oil companies such as BP, Shell and Exxon 30-year contracts to extract Iraqi crude and allow the first large-scale operation of foreign oil interests in the country since the industry was nationalised in 1972.

The huge potential prizes for Western firms will give ammunition to critics who say the Iraq war was fought for oil. They point to statements such as one from Vice-President Dick Cheney, who said in 1999, while he was still chief executive of the oil services company Halliburton, that the world would need an additional 50 million barrels of oil a day by 2010. "So where is the oil going to come from?... The Middle East, with two-thirds of the world's oil and the lowest cost, is still where the prize ultimately lies," he said.

Oil industry executives and analysts say the law, which would permit Western companies to pocket up to three-quarters of profits in the early years, is the only way to get Iraq's oil industry back on its feet after years of sanctions, war and loss of expertise. But it will operate through "production-sharing agreements" (or PSAs) which are highly unusual in the Middle East, where the oil industry in Saudi Arabia and Iran, the world's two largest producers, is state controlled.

Opponents say Iraq, where oil accounts for 95 per cent of the economy, is being forced to surrender an unacceptable degree of sovereignty.

MidEast > Iraq

Proposing the parliamentary motion for war in 2003, Tony Blair denied the "false claim" that "we want to seize" Iraq's oil revenues. He said the money should be put into a trust fund, run by the UN, for the Iraqis, but the idea came to nothing. The same year Colin Powell, then Secretary of State, said: "It cost a great deal of money to prosecute this war. But the oil of the Iraqi people belongs to the Iraqi people; it is their wealth, it will be used for their benefit. So we did not do it for oil."

Supporters say the provision allowing oil companies to take up to 75 per cent of the profits will last until they have recouped initial drilling costs. After that, they would collect about 20 per cent of all profits, according to industry sources in Iraq. But that is twice the industry average for such deals.

Greg Muttitt, a researcher for Platform, a human rights and environmental group which monitors the oil industry, said Iraq was being asked to pay an enormous price over the next 30 years for its present instability. "They would lose out massively," he said, "because they don't have the capacity at the moment to strike a good deal."

Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister, Barham Salih, who chairs the country's oil committee, is expected to unveil the legislation as early as today. "It is a redrawing of the whole Iraqi oil industry [to] a modern standard," said Khaled Salih, spokesman for the Kurdish Regional Government, a party to the negotiations. The Iraqi government hopes to have the law on the books by March.

Several major oil companies are said to have sent teams into the country in recent months to lobby for deals ahead of the law, though the big names are considered unlikely to invest until the violence in Iraq abates.

World Economy > Oil

James Paul, executive director at the Global Policy Forum, the international government watchdog, said: "It is not an exaggeration to say that the overwhelming majority of the population would be opposed to this. To do it anyway, with minimal discussion within the [Iraqi] parliament is really just pouring more oil on the fire."

Vince Cable, the Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman and a former chief economist at Shell, said it was crucial that any deal would guarantee funds for rebuilding Iraq. "It is absolutely vital that the revenue from the oil industry goes into Iraqi development and is seen to do so," he said. "Although it does make sense to collaborate with foreign investors, it is very important the terms are seen to be fair."

I really don't want to wade thru the tendentious presumptions of this political tract, which gives no credit to the Iraqis concerned for their country's own development even in the midst of war, nor to the oil corporations which begin work in the midst of a sectarian war in Iraq at present and for some time to come. It took The Independent 3 reporters to get the wholesale bias built into this story; the article has to be deconstructed to wring the real news value out of it. It's not out of the question that a huge industrial megaproject enters the realm of scam scam, but to prejudge all this in advance even of a signing is over the top and down into the dustbin where bad jouralism belongs.

--Politicarp

Further Research:

Irish greed for Iraqi oil [Nation, Jan2k4]
Iran oil exports could dwindle

Politics: Nukes: Israel has plan and is training airforce squadrons to nuke Iranian nukes

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The Times (London, UK) via Fox News Channel, "Israel Planning Nuke Raid on Iran Uranium Enrichment Sites" (Jan6,2k7):

Israel has drawn up secret plans to destroy Iran’s uranium enrichment facilities with tactical nuclear weapons. Two Israeli air force squadrons are training to blow up an Iranian facility using low-yield nuclear “bunker-busters”, according to several Israeli military sources.

The attack would be the first with nuclear weapons since 1945, when the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Israeli weapons would each have a force equivalent to one-fifteenth of the Hiroshima bomb.

Under the plans, conventional laser-guided bombs would open “tunnels” into the targets. “Mini-nukes” would then immediately be fired into a plant at Natanz, exploding deep underground to reduce the risk of radioactive fallout.

“As soon as the green light is given, it will be one mission, one strike and the Iranian nuclear project will be demolished,” said one of the sources.

The plans, disclosed to The Sunday Times last week, have been prompted in part by the Israeli intelligence service Mossad’s assessment that Iran is on the verge of producing enough enriched uranium to make nuclear weapons within two years.

Israeli military commanders believe conventional strikes may no longer be enough to annihilate increasingly well-defended enrichment facilities. Several have been built beneath at least 70ft of concrete and rock.

However, the nuclear-tipped bunker-busters would be used only if a conventional attack was ruled out and if the United States declined to intervene, senior sources said.

Israeli and American officials have met several times to consider military action. Military analysts said the disclosure of the plans could be intended to put pressure on Tehran to halt enrichment, cajole America into action or soften up world opinion in advance of an Israeli attack.

Some analysts warned that Iranian retaliation for such a strike could range from disruption of oil supplies to the West to terrorist attacks against Jewish targets around the world.

Israel has identified three prime targets south of Tehran which are believed to be involved in Iran’s nuclear programme:

MidEast > Israel vs Iran

—Natanz, where thousands of centrifuges are being installed for uranium enrichment

—A uranium conversion facility near Isfahan where, according to a statement by an Iranian vice-president last week, 250 tons of gas for the enrichment process have been stored in tunnels

—A heavy water reactor at Arak, which may in future produce enough plutonium for a bomb Israeli officials believe that destroying all three sites would delay Iran’s nuclear programme indefinitely and prevent them from having to live in fear of a “second Holocaust”.

The Israeli government has warned repeatedly that it will never allow nuclear weapons to be made in Iran, whose president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has declared that “Israel must be wiped off the map”.

Robert Gates, the new US defence secretary, has described military action against Iran as a “last resort”, leading Israeli officials to conclude that it will be left to them to strike.

Israeli pilots have flown to Gibraltar in recent weeks to train for the 2,000-mile round trip to the Iranian targets. Three possible routes have been mapped out, including one over Turkey.

Air force squadrons based at Hatzerim in the Negev desert and Tel Nof, south of Tel Aviv, have trained to use Israel’s tactical nuclear weapons on the mission. The preparations have been overseen by Major General Eliezer Shkedi, commander of the Israeli air force.

Sources close to the Pentagon said the United States was highly unlikely to give approval for tactical nuclear weapons to be used. One source said Israel would have to seek approval “after the event”, as it did when it crippled Iraq’s nuclear reactor at Osirak with airstrikes in 1981.

Scientists have calculated that although contamination from the bunker-busters could be limited, tons of radioactive uranium compounds would be released.

The Israelis believe that Iran’s retaliation would be constrained by fear of a second strike if it were to launch its Shehab-3 ballistic missiles at Israel.

However, American experts warned of repercussions, including widespread protests that could destabilise parts of the Islamic world friendly to the West.

Colonel Sam Gardiner, a Pentagon adviser, said Iran could try to close the Strait of Hormuz, the route for 20 percent of the world’s oil.

Some sources in Washington said they doubted if Israel would have the nerve to attack Iran. However, Dr Ephraim Sneh, the deputy Israeli defence minister, said last month: “The time is approaching when Israel and the international community will have to decide whether to take military action against Iran.”

To think the mullocracy has brawt the people of Iran to such a sad state that any country has to defend itself in order to avoid annihilation.

Update:

Israel denies reports of plan, training for air attack on Iran

--Politicarp

Further Research:

Israel plans for nuclear strike [Reuters]

Tags: Israel plans to nuke Iran's nukes

• politics
• politicsIsrael
• militaryIsrael
• Israeldefense
• IsraelvsIran
• Israelnukes

Politics: Canada: Prime Minister reshuffles his cabinet and gets a bonus member for his caucus

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United Press International in a theadbare and poorly written report carries word of Prime Minister Harper's reshuffle of his Canadian govt cabinet (Jan4,2k7).

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper reshuffled his Cabinet Thursday in moves designed to prepare the Conservative Party for an expected election.

The highest profile move took Rona Ambrose from Environment minister to minister for Intergovernmental Affairs, the Toronto Globe and Mail reported. Ambrose has been under heavy criticism for failing to sell her party's Clean Air Bill.

John Baird, president of the Treasury Board, replaced Ambrose at the Ministry for the Environment.

While Harper made extensive changes, no one was pushed out of the 27-member Cabinet and the ministers in charge of the four most important departments -- Finance, Foreign Affairs, Public Safety and Defense -- remained in place.

The picked up more seats than the Liberals in last year's election but failed to win a parliamentary majority or to form a majority coalition with the Bloc Quebecois or the New Democrats.

The Liberal Party, which was forced into an election when its alliance with the New Democrats fell apart, has had a recent comeback in popularity and is even with the Conservatives in recent polls.

But even the latter has changed more recently, with the Liberal Leadership Convention and the election there of Stephane Dion as the party's leader after a year in disarray giving the Libs a bounce but the slow steady slide in poll numbers has made the Conserves again the party with the most public support, of all the parties in the Federal parliament.

It was a tactical strength for Harper to wait until after Dion was in plaqce, and until after the tone of the Lib attack under Dion was settled, before making cabinet reshuffle of his own. So, in theory with a Lib leader in place and new elements in the Conserve govt's cabinet, things are set for an election.

Meanwhile, Harper's Liberal advisor (Canada's Pakistan/India relations), Wajid Khan has been order to drop the post or be dismissed from the Lib caucus. Allan Woods reported in Toronto Star (Jan5,2k7). Khan crossed the floor of parliament to join the Conservs as a backbencher.

The internicine statistics regarding the House of Commons now have shifted so that the Prime Minister only needs the NDP's vote to pass legislation--as has already been the case with Federal Accountability Act and the proposed Clean Air Act.

--Politicarp

Daily Darfur Jan5,2k7

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BBC UN & African Union in "new peace drive for darfur" (Jan5,2k7).

Economics: Philanthropics: American pledges to charity exceed all US records, says FT's Rebecca Knight, Boston

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The excellent Financial Times features an accounting report by Rebbeca Knight in Boston, "Charity pledges smash all US records" (Jan1,2k7). The piece is interestingly one-dimensional, but the demographical/sociological "implications" as to the societal-sphere-specific distribution of the sum total of the targets and of the sources of record-h+ pledges of dollar-gifts across the country, remains. The story-teller in most each of us begins to engage in "wondering-whether," a proces that inherently arises thru imagination in many of us (but not all, there are different styles of learning with different paces) when contemplating the pertinent facts.

Warren Buffett’s historic $31bn (€23.5bn) donation to the Gates Foundation made 2006 a banner year for US charitable giving, smashing previous records by a huge margin.

According to figures from the Chronicle of Philanthropy, the top 15 charitable gifts and pledges in the US weighed in at $35bn. By contrast, the largest 15 gifts of 2005 and 2004 totalled $2bn and $4.4bn respectively, according to the Chronicle, which has compiled an annual list of the largest announced gifts and pledges by individuals since 1997.

Mr Buffett accounted for the overwhelming bulk of that sum with his $31bn pledge to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Mr Buffett’s gift – which will help the foundation pursue its goal of curing the world’s 20 leading fatal diseases – is the biggest charitable donation in history.

But even without Mr Buffett’s largesse, it was an exceptional year for philanthropy with a record number of gifts of more than $100m. This year there were 14 gifts of $100m or more. In 1998 – the year that came closest to that number – there were 12, and last year, 10 donations of that size were made. “It’s not just the Bill Gates and the Warren Buffetts of the world who are giving; it’s a lot of different people,” said Stacy Palmer, Chronicle editor.

Morals, moralities, mores, manners

People who made money in real estate and financial services dominate this year’s list. The second and third largest gifts were by donors who profited from the sale of Golden West Financial Corporation to the Wachovia Corporation.

Herbert and Marion Sandler, co-chief executive officers of Golden West Financial Corporation, gave $1.3bn to their family foundation, which supports basic science research at the University of San Francisco. Bernard Osher, co-founder of Golden West Financial Corporation, gave $723.2m to his eponymous foundation that awards scholarships and grants to students in California’s San Francisco and Alameda Counties and the State of Maine.

Fourth on the list was Jim Joseph, a California real estate developer, who left a $500m bequest to his foundation that provides educational programmes for Jewish youth; and fifth was David Rockefeller, retired chairman of Chase Manhattan Bank, who gave $225m to the foundation he and his brothers formed.

Nine of the biggest gifts this year went to foundations.

Four of the largest went to universities. Philip Knight, chairman of Nike, pledged $105m to his alma mater, Stanford University Graduate School of Business, for a new management centre campus and Ronald Stanton, chairman of Transammonia, pledged $100m to Yeshiva University in New York.

FT.com/FinancialTimes Copyright

Among the several other key dimensions are those suggested by the following categorics: ethics economics philanthropics philanthropyaccounting accounting charity dollargifts foundations capitalization fund-raisers institutionsphilanthropy USAphilanthropy ....

Update:

theodp writes "Justice Eta, a Nigerian infant, has an ink spot on his tiny thumb to show he was immunized against polio and measles thanks to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. But Justice still faces respiratory trouble, which locals call 'the cough' and blame on fumes and soot spewing from 300-foot flames at a nearby oil plant owned by Itallian energy giant Eni, whose investors include the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Part one of an L.A. Times investigation reports that the world's largest philanthropy pours money into investments that are hurting many of the people its grants aim to help. With the exception of tobacco companies, MuBy way of update Jan5,2k7, the follpowing info comes from Roger Friedman's 411 email newsletter on the entertainment industry and its stars:

Oprah's Charities Now Worth More Than $200 Million / AP Oprah Winfrey opens Leadership Academy in South Africa.
With all the talk about the opening of the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa this week, it’s kind of amazing to realize what her charities are now worth. It’s an astounding amount of money, with some interesting trivia, too.

According to GuideStar.org and federal tax filings, Winfrey runs three different charities: The Oprah Winfrey Foundation, Oprah Winfrey’s Angel Network and The Oprah Winfrey Operating Foundation.

The Angel Network, of course, is heavily promoted on Winfrey’s show for fans to help raise money for worthy causes.

In 2005, the Angel Network distributed more than $4 million to 40 organizations with a lot of emphasis on Africa, Winfrey’s chief interest.

They also sent $2 million to disaster relief for victims of Hurricane Katrina and the Indian Ocean tsunami. The Angel Network claimed $15 million in net assets in 2004-2005.

Oprah’s Operating Foundation, with $19 million in assets, is set up just for the recently opened Leadership Academy in South Africa.

But the real meat and potatoes of Oprah’s giving comes from her personal foundation. According to its most recent filing, the Oprah Winfrey Foundation has total assets of a whopping $172 million. Just last year, Winfrey parked some $36 million of her own money in the Foundation, which in turn distributed $8 million to numerous educational, arts and medical groups.

Some of them, like something called the U.S. Dream Academy, depends on Winfrey almost entirely for their funding (she gave them $1 million last year).

Winfrey gives a lot to African causes and groups, but also gives millions domestically. Jackson (Miss.) State University is one of her largest recipients, as is Morehouse College.

And while most of Winfrey’s interests are to help African Americans, she has a soft spot for rich white kids, too.

Winfrey, according to her filing, is in the middle of doling out a $1 million contribution to the ultra-WASPy, very, very exclusive Miss Porter’s, the famed finishing school in Farmington, Conn. She sent her nieces there in the early '90s, and has remained a steadfast supporter.

The large donation seems a little unusual given that it would seem, from the school’s quarterly online newsletter “Salamagundy,” that the racial makeup of the academy hasn’t changed much since the days when Jackie Kennedy or George Bush 41’s mother, Dorothy, were students.

Other graduates of Miss Porter’s include Vanderbilts, Rockefellers and billionaire heiresses like Dina Merrill and the late Barbara Hutton. The school has an $80 million endowment.

Likewise, Winfrey is in the middle of giving a similar chunk of change to the very prestigious and exclusive Lake Forest Academy, on the tony north shore of Chicago.

The alumni section of Lake Forest’s Web site shows 99 percent Caucasians, with an occasional black student thrown in. Winfrey must have a plan for these two schools. It should be great when it’s revealed.

In a story posted on Johannesburg’s Business Day, though, writer Cara Bouwer reported on Wednesday that Winfrey actually modeled her Leadership School on Miss Porter’s. The difference, Bouwer observed, was that tuition for Miss Porter’s is $38,000. The Leadership Academy’s annual per student bill is $32,000 rand, or $4,500, all paid by Winfrey.

And no matter the Lake Forest or Miss Porter’s donations, the rest of the Oprah Winfrey Foundation is so solid that I’m surprised she hasn’t been knighted, or given the President Medal of Freedom.

When you compare her charitable activity to Donald Trump, of which I wrote about last week ($750,000 a year), or to the empty promises of “charity singles” that come from Michael Jackson, Winfrey’s work is unparalleled and unprecedented. She’s put about $5 million into a Boys and Girls club in her Mississippi hometown, for example, and last year another $500,000 went to the Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation.

And for all our sakes, let’s hope Winfrey lives a long time. According to an amendment in her 2004 filing, Oprah is the sole member of the Foundation and is the only who has grant approval for those millions and millions of dollars.

But enjoy it while you can, charities, because a new line reads: “After the death of Oprah G. Winfrey, the Foundation shall have no members.”

Personal charity has always had personal tics and twists.

--Owlb

Further Research:

CharityWatch by the American Institute for Philanthropy

American Philanthropic Values and the Future of Philanthropy [Ford Foundation]

Gates Foundation under cloud [Slashdot, Jan7,2k7]