5 lawmakers witness grieving survivors caught in callous, cowardly U.S. carnage

Americans, Pakistanis urge nonviolent foreign relations 

Editing and commentary by
Carolyn Bennett

Alan Grayson, Member of the U.S. House of Representatives

In relying on remote technology (unmanned aerial vehicles, UAVs, drones), the United States of America has chosen “unilaterally to kill from the skies within the borders of other states with whom we are not at war….

It is wrong. It is just too dangerous.

“The death of innocents, of an adult and a child, should never be acceptable as collateral damage.

“The unintended consequences of these strikes and the public opinion that has mobilized against us in every victim-nation demand greater [care].”

To survivors, Grayson said:

“I wish you did not have to take this trip to America due to the loss of someone you loved”

In a Congressional hearing this week affording survivors of U.S. drones on foreign lands to give evidence of their experience, Congressman Grayson introduced the issues.

“When it comes to national (U.S.) security matters like drone strikes, he said, “it is important that we hear not only from the proponents of these attacks; but also from the victims.” His job, he said, “is to make sure that [Americans] do not hear just one side of the argument. In the case of the drone attacks,” he said, “there is a side of the story ─ that never gets told.”

Grayson urged the Obama government to adopt an alternative to these “miniature acts of war.”

Of course the whole truth is that these drone attacks are full out warfare, global and endless wars undeclared by the legislative branch of U.S. government and unsupported by vast numbers of people and governments across the world including the United States of America.

T

he hearing was attended by only five members of the U.S. House of Representatives

HON. ALAN GRAYSON

Nabila Rehman 9 alongside her brother Zubair (left) and
father Rafiq (right) and
Member of the
U.S. House of Representative Alan Grayson

Representing the state of Florida and the Democratic Party, Alan Grayson has been a member of the U.S. House of Representatives in the One Hundred Eleventh Congress (January 3, 2009-January 3, 2011) and the One Hundred Thirteenth Congress (January 3, 2013-present). Before entering the Congress Grayson was an assistant with the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (Washington, D.C.) and a lawyer in private practice and a businessman. A native of the Bronx, (Bronx County, New York, b. 1958), he took his academic credentials at Harvard University (A.B., 1978, Cambridge, Massachusetts) and Harvard University (M.P.P and J.D., 1983, Cambridge)

HON. RUSH HOLT

Representing the state of New Jersey and the Democratic Party, Rush Holt has been a member of the U.S. House of Representatives since the One Hundred Sixth Congress and seven succeeding Congresses (January 3, 1999-present). Before entering the Congress, Holt was on the faculty of Swarthmore College (Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, 1980-1988), acting chief of the Nuclear and Scientific Division Office of Strategic Forces, United States Department of State (1987-1989), assistant director of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (1989-1997). A native of Weston, Lewis County, West Virginia (b. October 15, 1948), Holt took his academic credentials at Carleton College (B.A., 1970, Northfield, Minnesota), New York University (M.S., 1974, New York City), New York University (Ph.D., 1981).

 

HON. JANICE D. SCHAKOWSKY

Representing the state of Illinois and the Democratic Party, Janice (Jan) D. Schakowsky has been a member of the U.S. House of Representatives since the One Hundred Sixth and to the seven succeeding Congresses (January 3, 1999-present). Before entering the Congress, she was director of the Illinois State Council of Senior Citizens (1985-1990) and member of the Illinois State House of Representatives (1990-1998). A native of Chicago (b. May 26, 1944), Schakowsky took her academic credentials at the University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign (B.S., 1965).

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HON. RICHARD MICHAEL NOLAN

Representing the state of Minnesota and the Democratic Party, Richard Michael Nolan has been a member of the U.S. House of Representatives in the Ninety-fourth Congress and two succeeding Congresses (January 3, 1975-January 3, 1981) then in the One Hundred Thirteenth Congress (January 3, 2013-present). Before and between his years in the Congress, Nolan was a social studies teacher (Royalton, Minnesota, 1968-1972), a member of the Minnesota State House of Representatives (1969-1973), president of the U.S. Export Corporation (1981-1986), president of the Minnesota World Trade Center (St. Paul, Minnesota, 1987-1994), and business owner and executive. A native of Brainerd, Crow Wing County, Minnesota (b. December 17, 1943), Nolan took his academic credentials at St. John’s University and the University of Minnesota (B.A. 1962, 1966), University of Maryland (1966, postgraduate work in public administration and policy formation, St. Cloud State College, St. Cloud, Minnesota (postgraduate work in education).

HON. JOHN CONYERS JR.

Representing the state of Michigan and the Democratic Party, John Conyers Jr has been a member of the U.S. House of Representatives since the Eighty-ninth and twenty-four succeeding Congresses (January 3, 1965-present). He has been involved in bringing impeachment proceedings and had chaired committees on Government Operations (One Hundred First through One Hundred Third Congresses) and the Judiciary (One Hundred Tenth and One Hundred Eleventh Congresses).

[It is way past time for Conyers to leave the Congress]

Before entering the Congress, Conyers was a lawyer in private practice, a member of the National Guard (1948-1950), the United States Army (1950-1954), the United States Army Reserves (1954-1957); general counsel for three labor locals (Detroit, 1959-1964); executive board member of the Detroit, Michigan American Civil Liberties Union (1964- present); executive board member of the Detroit NAACP (1963- present); and referee for Michigan workmen’s compensation department (1961-1963). A native of Detroit, Wayne County, Michigan (b. May 16, 1929), Conyers took his academic credentials at Wayne State University (B.A., Detroit, 1957) and Wayne State Law School (LL.B., Detroit, 1958).

G

rayson appeals to the U.S. President to end the carnage. A survivor is quoted saying, “If I had the opportunity to meet with him, I would say to President Obama:

‘What happened to me and my family was wrong’

I would ask him to find an end ─ a peaceful end ─ to what is happening.

Clearly the Obama government’s model of foreign relations can only be described as unspeakably cruel.

In his appearance with his children, Zubair, 13, and Nabila, 9, before the five members of the U.S. Congress, the Pakistani primary school teacher, Rafiq ur Rehman, said his slain mother had been gathering okra with her grandchildren when they were attacked by a UAV. The children were injured physically ans. d psychologically in the attack. The grandmother was blown to bits in front of their eyes. Rehman described his mother, Momina Bibi, in words that you and I might have used to describe our mothers: she was the “string that held our family together.”

We are the deaths we cause, the wounded we wound. We are the people we slaughter. Why is that so hard to see, to feel; so easy to ignore?  

U.S. government officials have said repeatedly that very few civilians have been killed by U.S. drones and have argued that the U.S. campaign is conducted “consistent with all applicable domestic and international law”. Of course we know this is a flagrant lie. But unofficial reports, time and again, have said that HUNDREDS of people HAVE BEEN KILLED ─ in Pakistan alone, “with up to 200 children killed”,  slaughtered on the ground of this undeclared, illegal, callous U.S. war on the world.  

Try to swallow that one without choking. Try to sleep easy at night. I find it hard, indeed; and you should too.

Sources and notes

“Victims recount horror of drone strikes” (Anwar Iqbal), published Octoer 30, 2013, http://www.dawn.com/news/1052803/victims-recount-horror-of-drone-strikes

“Drone strikes: tears in Congress as Pakistani family tells of mother’s death: Translator brought to tears by family’s plea as Congress hears from civilian victims of alleged U.S. drone strike for the first time” by Karen McVeigh in New York, theguardian.com, Tuesday October 29, 2013 15.24 EDT, http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/29/pakistan-family-drone-victim-testimony-congress

“U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson stages briefing to attack drone strikes” By Mark K. Matthews, Washington Bureau October 29, 2013, http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2013-10-29/news/os-grayson-drones-inquiry-20131029_1_drone-attacks-u-s-rep-grayson

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Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire http://www.facebook.com/#!/bennetts2ndstudy

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USA Patriot Actors’ “USA Freedom Act” falls far short of stopping lawlessness

Righting long train of government wrongs requires upholding rule of law: independent adjudication and oversight; reining in of the head of state’s foreign and domestic reach; imposing penalties, that is, prosecution of government officials and henchmen discovered in breach of law, human rights principles and conventions.

Editing and commentary by Carolyn Bennett

Given the murderous abuses committed over the past many years (at least from LBJ-RM Nixon heir Ronald Reagan) by U.S. government officials and their henchmen ─ key points of U.S. legislator Sensenbrenner’s draft “USA Freedom Act” illustrate again how this government repeatedly and selfishly falls far short of getting to the core of issues and effectively solving problems.

BREACHED
AT EVERY TURN!

These points as listed in the Guardian this month do not cover “foreigners” including a variety of “non-Americans,” foreign individuals and groups, foreign leaders and heads of state who have been repeatedly and with impunity threatened, tortured, abducted, imprisoned without charge or standing before a court of law, targeted and cold-bloodedly assassinated (many unknown numbers of civilian children and women and other innocents, “innocent until proven guilty” slaughtered and covered up with lies) by the U.S. officials and their “allies,” agents, and hired assassins. The points of this new Act, this show, do not restore or shore up, unequivocally, habeas corpus, equal protection under law.

Tenets embedded in the proposed “USA Freedom Act” do not ensure unbiased, independent review and adjudication free of influence by prejudicial nations with their agendas or private corporations, domestic revolving-door "patriots" (lobbyists), political sectarians and partisans (private, public or nonprofit) or office holders within U.S. branches of government.

Really? 

Critical of all, they do not include penalties for past, present and future breach (or appearance of breach) of domestic or international laws and abuse of human rights. They do not allow for charges of conflict of (or appearance of conflicts) of interest by officials in government or their direct or indirect allies, agents or hires.

Key points “USA Freedom Act” (abbreviated)

END BULK METADATA COLLECTION: Section 215 of USA Patriot Act tightened, placing onus on intelligence agencies to show they are looking for specific suspects, not inadvertently sweeping up information on innocent Americans. Show a FISA court judge that the target was thought to be an agent of a foreign power, was engaged in activity that was the subject of an investigation, or was an individual in contact with an agent of foreign power.

Brought to you by
Sensenbrenner 

DISCLOSE: Attorney general required to disclose decisions by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance (FISA) court that contain a significant construction or interpretation of law, but may continue to classify confidential parts. Specific information on individuals not disclosed, policy changes disclosed.

Bush tenure

TRANSPARENTIZE: Internet and telephone companies that received FISA court orders would be allowed to report the number of FISA orders and national security letters complied with and number of users on whom information was demanded.

Obama tenure

ADVOCATE PRIVACY: Office of special advocate created within the FISA court and would have standing to appear and represent public and privacy concerns. FOREIGN LOOPHOLES: The bill amends section 702 (b) of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to prevent intelligence agencies from ‘reverse targeting’ that may allow them to intercept email and internet communications of Americans. It also calls on the U.S. inspector general to investigate whether current minimization procedures adequately protect the constitutional rights of people of the United States and gives more legal powers to the privacy and civil liberties oversight board.

BLOCK END RUNS: Title 4 of FISA (aka the pen register and trap-and-trace provisions) amended to ensure that the government does not just rebuild its metadata dragnet using different authorities.  

Saying they did “something” does not address fundamental concerns or solve problems. And I expect the drafters of this “USA Freedom Act” (the same ones who sponsored the earlier breach of rights “USA Patriot Act”) are very much aware of this.

Officials in elective office often say ─ especially in election seasons and always as they are covering their backsides and the hind parts of their paymasters ─

“It’s better to have something to show (pull off anything, appear to do something ─ the hucksters don’t even hide their charlatanism any more) than nothing” to pacify America’s gullible, consumer-distracted electorate. 

I won’t even call the American public “voters” because usually they don’t bother to vote.    

If a public official is doing something wrong ─ say, abducting and torturing people, throwing them into prison without due process, charge or trial, intercepting people’s private, business or official-government communications ─ that official can tell you, "yes, I’m torturing people and spying on them," thus complying with the "transparency" rule. But if he is not made to stop torturing people, stop surveilling; then the wrong, the injury, the breach deepens and becomes the ‘norm.’ Lawlessness with impunity becomes lawful. 

I don’t want to live in that kind of world. 

My father was fond of saying, “We get the government we deserve”  ─ until we stop allowing ourselves to be bamboozled and distracted; and, by god, demand what this country deserves, what the world deserves and should expect of us. A good start, in my humble opinion,  would be to begin shoveling out of office all of the current legislators and executives. 

Sources and notes

“The USA Freedom Act: a look at the key points of the draft bill: Republican Jim Sensenbrenner prepares to publish legislation and says it's time 'to put their metadata program” by Dan Roberts in Washington theguardian.com, October 10, 2013, http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/10/the-usa-freedom-act-a-look-at-the-key-points-of-the-draft-bill

 

HON. FRANK JAMES SENSENBRENNER JR

Representing the state of Wisconsin and the Republican Party, Frank James (Jim) Sensenbrenner Jr. has been a member of the U.S. House of Representatives starting with the Ninety-sixth Congress and for eighteen succeeding Congresses (January 3, 1979-present).

[This means it is way past time for Sensenbrenner to leave the Congress]

Congressman Sensenbrenner SPONSORED THE USA PATRIOT ACT and has chaired committee on Science (One Hundred Fifth and One Hundred Sixth Congresses) and the Judiciary (One Hundred Seventh through the One Hundred Ninth Congresses). He has been involved in bringing several impeachment proceedings against U.S. public officials. Before entering the U.S. Congress, he was a member of the Wisconsin State Assembly (1969-1975), the Wisconsin State Senate (1975-1979) and assistant minority leader (1977-1979); and a lawyer in private practice. Though a native of Chicago (b. June 14, 1943, in Cook County, Illinois), Sensenbrenner took his academic credentials at Stanford University-Stanford, California (A.B.) and University of Wisconsin Law School-Madison (J.D.).

http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=S000244

  

“Lawmakers propose USA Freedom Act to curb NSA’s powers” by Brendan Sasso, October 29, 2013, http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/331199-usa-freedom-act-would-curb-nsa-power

Dozens of lawmakers from both parties introduced legislation Tuesday to rein in the National Security Agency’s spying powers.

The USA Freedom Act, which has 16 co-sponsors in the Senate and more than 70 in the House, would end the agency’s massive phone record collection program — one of the most controversial revelations from the leaks by Edward Snowden.

The bill was authored by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Rep. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.), the original author of the Patriot Act in 2001.

HON. PATRICK JOSEPH LEAHY

Representing the state of Vermont and the Democratic, Party Patrick Joseph Leahy has been a member of the Senate of the United States since in 1974 his current term scheduled to end on January 3, 2017.

[This means it is way past time for Leahy to leave the Senate]

Senator Leahy has been president pro tempore (December 17, 2012-); and has chaired committees on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry (One Hundredth through One Hundred Third Congresses) and on the Judiciary (One Hundred Seventh Congress [January 3-20, 2001; June 6, 2001-January 3, 2003], One Hundred Tenth to One Hundred Thirteenth Congresses). Before entering the U.S. Senate, Leahy was Chittenden County, Vermont, State’s Attorney (1966-1974; and a lawyer in private practice (Burlington, Vermont).

A native of Montpelier (Washington County, Vermont b. March 31, 1940), Leahy took his academic credentials at St. Michael’s College (baccalaureate, Winooski, Vermont, 1961) and Georgetown University (J.D., Washington, D.C., 1964). http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=L000174

CO-SPONSORING “USA FREEDOM ACT” 

Other Senate co-sponsors: Senators Mike Lee (R-Utah), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Dean Heller (R-Nev.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Tom Udall (D-N.M.), and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). 

Other House of Representatives co-sponsors: Representatives John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.), Justin Amash (R-Mich.), Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), and Darrell Issa (R-Calif.).

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Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire http://www.facebook.com/#!/bennetts2ndstudy

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Eradicate poverty: End Western theft of indigenous land, livelihood

Africa hope of self-sufficiency charred in foreign grab: Palm Oil

Editing by Carolyn Bennett

A recent analysis of land grabs found that “Reported land deals in Africa concern an area equivalent to 4.8 percent of Africa’s total agricultural area.” 

This represents a serious threat to the livelihoods of small farmers and to food sovereignty in the often very poor countries where control of large areas of fertile land is being handed to foreign interests. Reports suggest the majority of land acquired by foreign investors will not be used to meet local needs or improve food security but to grow crops for export—both food and biofuel feedstock, says a Greenpeace report.

Land grabs also threaten Africa’s forests, which contain rare habitats and huge quantities of stored carbon. Unabated land grabbing for commercial agriculture represents a massive new threat to biodiversity and an increase in greenhouse gas emissions. 

In the Congo Basin, logging companies already control some 44 million hectares of forest, while another several hundred thousand hectares are threatened by new palm oil ventures.

Derivatives of Palm Oil

Derivatives of palmitic acid were used in combination with naphtha during World War II to produce aluminum naphthenate and aluminum palmitate: napalm

Processed foods (many) contain palm oil as an ingredient. The highly saturated nature of palm oil renders it solid at room temperature in temperate regions, making it a cheap substitute for butter in uses where solid fat is desirable, such as the making of pastry dough and baked goods: in this respect, it is less of a health-hazard than the alternative substitute of partially hydrogenated trans fat.

Splitting of oils and fats by hydrolysis, or under basic conditions saponification (saponification is a process that produces soap, usually from fats and lye), yields fatty acids with glycerin (glycerol) as a byproduct. 

Biodiesel: Palm oil can be used to produce biodiesel (aka palm oil methyl ester), created through a process called transesterification. Palm oil biodiesel is often blended with other fuels to create palm oil biodiesel blends. Palm oil biodiesel meets the European EN 14214 standard for biodiesels. The world’s largest palm oil biodiesel plant is the Finnish operated Neste Oil biodiesel plant in Singapore, which opened in 2011.

 

Energy: The organic waste matter that is produced when processing oil palm including oil palm shells and oil palm fruit bunches can also be used to produce energy. This waste material can be converted into pellets that can be used as a biofuel.

Additionally, palm oil that has been used to fry foods can be converted into methyl esters for biodiesel. The used cooking oil is chemically treated to create a biodiesel similar to petroleum diesel.

The use of palm oil in the production of biodiesel has led to concerns that the need for fuel is being placed ahead of the need for food, leading to malnourishment in developing nations.

Exploitation, human rights abuse for Palm Oil

Cameroon (West Africa): Herakles Farms in the United States has a production project underway in Cameroon, a project that has been halted under pressure from Greenpeace, WWF (World Wildlife Fund for Nature), and other civil society organizations in Cameroon. Local villagers also oppose the project.

While palm oil production reportedly provides “employment opportunities and has been shown to improve infrastructure, social services and reduce poverty,” says a Wikipedia article, oil palm plantations have also developed lands without consulting or compensating indigenous people who live on the land thus causing social conflict. The use of illegal immigrants in Indonesia has also raised concerns about working conditions within the palm oil industry.

Herakles Farms: Greenpeace reports that the Herakles Farms Project in the Cameroon area “includes 62,433 hectares (154,209 acres) of dense natural forest as well as farmland and agro-forestry small holdings” and local residents (as most farmers in Africa lack formal title to their land) fear this foreign incursion “will deprive them of their land and access to forest products.

 

“

A Greenpeace team documented that the setting up of one of the project’s nurseries at Fabe (Village of Fabe in Cameroon) deprived people of access to a valuable collecting area for forest products, and that cocoa farms have been taken without farmers’ consent.

“Locals were not properly consulted before the establishment convention was signed. The convention gives Herakles Farms the exclusive right to farm in the area and includes no provisions for compensation of residents.”

Herakles “claims ‘a huge outpouring of support from communities’ and says its project will not displace people,” Greenpeace reports; but, at the same time, “communities have consistently objected to the plans by complaining to the government, signing petitions, and organizing peaceful demonstrations.”

 Environmental harm: Palm Oil plantations

Palm oil cultivation has been criticized for negatively affecting the natural environment: e.g., deforestation, loss of natural habitats which threaten critically endangered species such as the orangutan and Sumatran tiger, and increased greenhouse gas emissions ─ Palm oil plantations (many of them) are built on top of existing peat bogs, and clearing the land for palm oil cultivation may contribute to greenhouse gas emissions. For these reasons, Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and others oppose the use of palm oil biofuels.

I

n its 2001 “Assessment of Rural Poverty Western and Central Africa” the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) wrote, “Poverty in Western and Central Africa is essentially a rural phenomenon. The incidence of poverty is approximately 75 percent in rural areas, out of a total impoverished population of about 120 million people” and as urbanization grows so urban poverty will become dominant by the 2020s. 

The IFAD report concluded that the “battle against poverty cannot succeed without concerted effort(s) working to eliminate poverty at local, regional and global levels” and programs aimed at reducing rural poverty must “include the effective participation of rural African women, men and youth at all stages of design, implementation, evaluation.”

The report “Assessment of Rural Poverty Western and Central Africa” is therefore “an appeal to good will and solidarity with those who are trying to raise themselves from poverty.”

  

Sources and notes

“Herakles Farms in Cameroon: A showcase in bad palm oil production” (Greenpeace), Version 1.1 updated March 5, 2013, previous version published February 2013 by Greenpeace USA, 702 H Street NW Suite 300, Washington, DC 20001, Tel/ 202.462.1177, book design by Andrew Fournier, http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/en/media-center/reports/Herakles-Farms-in-Cameroon/

greenpeace.org

“Herakles Farms in Cameroon: A showcase in bad palm oil production,” publication February 19, 2013: “The palm oil project being developed by the U.S.-owned company Herakles Farms in Cameroon demonstrates the threat posed by badly managed expansion of oil palm plantations.

The project covers 73,086 hectares (180,599 acres) of forest and existing farmland and is home to an estimated 14,000 people, mostly small farmers.

Residents are fiercely opposing the plantation, fearing it will deprive them of their farmland and access to forest products.

International and Cameroonian NGOs and scientists are also critical of the project on the grounds of illegality, social and economic injustice and environmental destruction.

http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/en/media-center/reports/Herakles-Farms-in-Cameroon/

http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/Global/usa/planet3/PDFs/Forests/HeraklesCrimeFile.pdf

“Greenpeace is an independent campaigning organization that acts to expose global environmental problems and achieve solutions that are essential to a green and peaceful future.”

PALM OIL

Palm oil (also known as dendê oil, from Portuguese) is an edible vegetable oil derived from the mesocarp (reddish pulp) of the fruit of the oil palms, primarily the African oil palm Elaeis guineensis, and to a lesser extent from the American oil palm Elaeis oleifera and the maripa palm Attalea maripa. Palm oil is a common cooking ingredient in the tropical belt of Africa, Southeast Asia and parts of Brazil. Its use in the commercial food industry in other parts of the world is buoyed by its lower cost and by the high oxidative stability (saturation) of the refined product when used for frying. Refined bleached deodorized palm oil (RBDPO) is the basic oil product sold on the world’s commodity markets although many companies fractionate it further to produce palm olein for cooking oil or process it into other products.

The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil and others have engaged in efforts to promote sustainable cultivation of palm oil. Wikipedia notes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palm_oil

“Assessment of Rural Poverty Western and Central Africa”, IFAD International Fund for Agricultural Development, © 2001 International Fund for Agricultural Development. All rights reserved. “This Report is a product of the staff of IFAD and the judgments made herein do not necessarily reflect the views of its Member Countries or the representatives of those Member Countries appointed to its Executive Board. IFAD does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this publication and accepts no responsibility whatsoever for any consequence of their use. Designations employed, presentation of material in maps do not imply expression of any opinion on the part of IFAD concerning the legal status of any country or territory or the delineation of its frontiers.” http://www.ifad.org/poverty/region/pa/english.pdf

Some Facts On Palm Oil  

IMPORTANT: Just because a product says it is ‘Organic’ or ‘Cruelty-Free’ does not mean it doesn’t contain palm oil. In fact, most natural/organic products do contain palm oil - because palm oil is very much a natural ingredient. It’s the way it is produced that is far from natural, which is something many companies fail to realize. - See more at: http://arzone.ning.com/forum/topics/some-facts-on-palm-oil#sthash.Msiz4UXS.dpuf

30 NAMES PALM OIL CAN BE LABELLED UNDER

Foods, Body Products, Cosmetics & Cleaning Agents:

-Vegetable Oil	-Vegetable Fat
-Sodium Laureth Sulfate (in almost everything that foams) ^	-Sodium Lauryl Sulfate ^
-Sodium Dodecyl Sulphate (SDS or NaDS) ^	-Palm Kernel#
-Palm Oil Kernel #	-Palm Fruit Oil #
-Palmate #	-Palmitate #
-Palmolein #	-Glyceryl Stearate #
-Stearic Acid #	-Elaeis Guineensis #
-Palmitic Acid #	-Palm Stearine #
-Palmitoyl oxostearamide #	-Palmitoyl tetrapeptide-3 #
-Steareth -2 *	-Steareth -20 *
-Sodium Kernelate #	-Sodium Palm Kernelate #
-Sodium Lauryl Lactylate/Sulphate *	-Sodium Lauryl Sulfoacetate ^
-Hyrated Palm Glycerides #	-Sodium Isostearoyl Lactylaye ^
-Cetyl Palmitate #	-Octyl Palmitate #
-Cetyl Alcohol ^	-Palmityl Alchohol #
	# These ingredients are definitely palm oil or derived from palm oil.
* These ingredients are often derived from palm oil, but could be derived from other vegetable oils.	^ These ingredients are either derived from palm oil or coconut oil.
- See more at: http://arzone.ning.com/forum/topics/some-facts-on-palm-oil#sthash.Msiz4UXS.dpuf

http://arzone.ning.com/forum/topics/some-facts-on-palm-oil

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Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire http://www.facebook.com/#!/bennetts2ndstudy

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Squandering chance at change: Rep. Gutierrez appraises current leadership

Puerto Rican descendant sees disgraceful presidential legacy

Editing by Carolyn Bennett

Still Dreaming

“‘A candid, savvy, inspiring, and often hilarious memoir’” painting a picture of hard work and perseverance, a political trajectory, a commentary on key moments in U.S. political history are words describing U.S. Congressman Luis V. Gutierrez’s Still Dreaming: My Journey from the Barrio to Capitol Hill. In the book, Congressman Gutierrez recounts his life between two worlds: his birthplace, the United States where he is too Puerto Rican and urged to ‘go back to where you came from’; and in the Puerto Rican birthplace of his parents where he is too American and ridiculed as a “gringo” who couldn’t speak Spanish.

 

Arson at home

 “I try to get along with people [but] I have my limits,” Gutierrez says in Still Dreaming.

“The policeman assigned to the fire that night was about as interested in figuring out what caused it as he was in running the Chicago marathon. … I resisted the urge to call him the names that were on the tip of my tongue; instead I explained to him why I didn’t think it was the TV or the boiler or the wiring that had caused the fire. [The police officer] looked up at me for the first time and said, ‘Board it up and call your insurance company.’ And he drove off.…

“My house had burned

and the police weren’t exactly being helpful. … Just as the last flames from my house were crackling out and the smoke was starting to drift away, two younger and more interested investigators from the bomb and arson squad showed up. … I told them what happened: the crash, the weird cone of flame.… We talked while the water dripped off the front of my now-exposed living room and the house started to cool down. The younger investigator said we should go in and look around. The younger investigator said we should go in and look around. It looked dangerous to me but I was eager to see what I could salvage. The glow of his flashlight illuminated what was left. The fire department had put the fire out quickly, and the back of the house was still in decent shape. … As the investigator and I carefully walked through what used to be my living room, he stopped. It was hot. He sniffed and looked at me. ‘Electrical fire, huh?’ I wasn’t sure if he was making fun of me or the other cop. His flashlight scanned the floor then stopped. ‘You collect bricks, Mr. Gutierrez?’ He shined his light on a brick smoldering in the debris, just a few feet away from where I had been sleeping on the couch.

“No sir, I don’t collect bricks. ‘You ever seen that brick before?’ He moved his light over the area around the brick and then looked back at me. 

“‘Have you been drinking, Mr. Gutierrez?’ I wasn’t quite sure whether to be mad or amused. No, I haven’t been drinking. And I hadn’t. My only liquid vice is drinking Coca-Cola for breakfast.

“‘Well, that sure looks like the bottom of a big jug of wine to me,’ he said. He was right. Near the brick was the still-intact bottom of a Gallo or Paul Masson wine jug. It looked like a green Frisbee made out of glass. Then he leaned down and found the handle and the top of the jug, with part of a rag still sticking out of the hole. He held it up. He was smiling. He pushed the rag up toward me.

“‘Take a look at this and smell the house. What do you smell?’ I hadn’t thought too much about the smell—it just smelled like fire and smoke. It smelled like it was going to cost me a lot of time and money. But once I really sniffed, the smell was unmistakable, the same thing you smelled every time you pulled into the Mobile station. It smelled like gasoline. I was still confused: Why the brick?

“‘

They threw the brick through the window. That was probably your crash. Then they threw the jug filled with gasoline through the hole where your window used to be. The jug filled with gasoline won’t break the window. It would just break and catch on fire when it hits the window. That just gives you an exterior fire, and they wanted to make sure they got the gasoline inside the house.’  But why, I asked, still not quite convinced.

“He looked at me like I was a little slow. ‘Because they wanted to hurt you’, he said”

A

 book review at Repeating Islands says that a look at much of Luis Gutierrez’s early life would suggest that he would have been the last person to rise to national prominence. Yet his tremendous will and resilience shaped his varied experiences—from picking coffee beans to driving a taxi—into one of the most surprising careers in U.S. politics.

He campaigned for Chicago’s first black mayor, Harold Washington.

Someone threw a Molotov cocktail through the window of his house and he grew more committed to reform.

Tested in the crucible of the notoriously tough Chicago City Council, Gutiérrez earned the nickname ‘El Gallito’, little fighting rooster.

L

uis V. Gutierrez is a member of the U.S. House of Representatives representing Illinois’s Fourth District (Chicago) elected as a Democrat to the One Hundred Third and to ten succeeding Congresses (January 3, 1993-present). In the 110th and 111th Congresses Gutierrez held a seat on the Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security, and International Law Subcommittee. He has been a senior Member of the Financial Services Committee (20 years’ service) and Ranking Democratic Member on the Subcommittee on Insurance, Housing, and Community Opportunity during the 112th Congress.  In 2011, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California appointed Rep. Gutierrez to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Through the 113th Congress, the Congressman served on the Subcommittee on Terrorism, HUMINT, Analysis, and Counterintelligence.

Immigrants
back-breaking labor

In interview with the Democracy Now program Gutierrez appraises Immigration Reform and the Obama Government

 

“

We missed a wonderful opportunity, the grand opportunity. We had a majority in the Senate, a majority in the House of Representatives and a freshly minted new president of the United States. I challenged [U.S. President] Barack Obama at that time, because, as you recall, when he campaigned in 2008, he said he would make it a signature issue. 

“He said he’d get it done and sign the bill [during his] first year as president of the United States. And yet he did little or nothing to promote it. We gave up our majority in the House and weakened it the Senate; and two more years went by.”

Legacy of a U.S. “leader” 

 

“President Barack Obama’s history, his tenure as president of the United States, is going to be marked by one of two things:

…being the president of the United States that’s deported more people than anyone else—… he will deport over three-and-a-half million people. Pretty soon the banner headline is going be somewhere ─ that he has reached the two-million goal.

“

I want a president of the United States,” Gutierrez says, “who signs a comprehensive immigration bill for two reasons: it stops the deportation and brings justice, fairness, and equity to the immigrant community”; and it means Barack Obama becomes “known as the president who led us to 11 million people reaching freedom in this country.”

Sources and notes

At Democracy Now October 20, 2013 [lead into today’s interview with Rep. Luis Gutierrez  (D-IL) on Immigration Reform and His New Book Still Dreaming] Excerpt from Still Dreaming: My Journey from the Barrio to Capitol Hill by Luis Gutiérrez with Doug Scofield. Copyright © 2013 by Luis Gutiérrez and Doug Scofield. With permission of the publisher, W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.

New Book and Presentation: Luis V. Gutiérrez’s  Still Dreaming—My Journey from the Barrio to Capitol Hill At Repeating Islands: News and commentary on Caribbean culture, literature, and the arts, October 12, 2013, http://repeatingislands.com/2013/10/12/new-book-and-presentation-luis-v-gutierrezs-still-dreaming-my-journey-from-the-barrio-to-capitol-hill/

U.S. Representative Gutierrez

Luis V. Gutierrez is a member of the U.S. House of Representatives representing Illinois’s Fourth District (Chicago) elected as a Democrat to the One Hundred Third and to the ten succeeding Congresses (January 3, 1993-present). In the 110th and 111th Congresses Gutierrez held a seat on the Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security, and International Law Subcommittee. He has been a senior Member of the Financial Services Committee, having served on the Committee for over 20 years, and served as Ranking Democratic Member on the Subcommittee on Insurance, Housing, and Community Opportunity during the 112th Congress.  In 2011, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California appointed Rep. Gutierrez to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Through the 113th Congress the Congressman served on the Subcommittee on Terrorism, HUMINT, Analysis, and Counterintelligence.

Before coming to the U.S. Congress, Luis V. Gutierrez was a teacher, social worker, cab driver, community activist, and city official. In 1986, he was elected Alderman from the city’s 26th ward; on the Chicago City Council, “he led the fight for affordable housing, tougher ethics rules, and a law to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation and was a key lieutenant in the progressive multi-ethnic coalition of Chicago Mayor Harold Washington.”

Gutiérrez was born in Chicago (December 10, 1953), later moved to Puerto Rico (birthplace of his parents), then returned for his college years to Chicago. He graduated from Northeastern Illinois University (B.A., 1977) with a degree in English. As a U.S. member of Congress, Gutiérrez has made a reputation for “tireless leadership championing causes of Latino and immigrant communities.”

http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=G000535

U.S. House of Representatives, Congressman Luis V. Gutiérrez, http://gutierrez.house.gov/about-me/full-biography

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