Choice among competent and diverse candidates is essential to democracy,
good government
Editing, re-reporting by Carolyn Bennett
Challenger and attorney Gail Goode says it is clear that, heading into midterm elections, entrenched forces brought to bear “all kinds of pressure on several potential U.S. Senate candidates” to ensure that New York Governor David Paterson’s appointee, Sen. Kirsten E. Gillibrand, received no serious opposition.
“New Yorkers have a right to a Democratic primary,” said U.S. Senate candidate Goode, who was successful in building an organization of citizens (more than 45,000 signatures of registered Democrats) who agreed with her mission “to give voters of the Empire State a choice for Senator in this year’s Democratic Primary.”
Described as “a tough lawyer and advocate for the people of the City of New York,” Gail Goode has brought to trial and supervised hundreds of cases defending hardworking people and saving New York taxpayers millions in litigation costs. As a former Assistant District Attorney, she prosecuted career criminals who had committed violent crimes against New Yorkers.
In her view, “New Yorkers are paying a very heavy price for the way the Senate candidate field was cleared for Sen. Gillibrand—simply because those working for her do not believe she [Gillibrand] can defend her very weak and inconsistent voting record in a competitive election.”
Attorney Gail Goode self describes as a political outsider and 24-year advocate representing the voters of New York.
Sources
http://californianewswire.com/2010/07/14/CNW7629_075851.php
http://www.gailgoode.com/2010/07/a-citizen%e2%80%99s-attempt-to-restore-the-democratic-process-to-the-2010-new-york-u-s-senate-campaign/
http://www.gailgoode.com/about-gail/
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Ponder children instead of bickering, text burning
Eighty percent of the world’s 14 million refugees are women and children Re-reporting, editing by Carolyn Bennett
A girl child born in one of the poorest places in the world, probably in sub-Saharan Africa—compared with a child growing up in one of the wealthiest countries—was 10 times likelier to die during the first month of her life. Compared with a child growing up in the richest quintile [upper fifth] of her own country:
Every day approximately 24,000 children under the age of five perish. Millions more are subjected daily to the same deprivations, and worse — especially if they are girls. Especially if they suffer disabilities. Especially if they are from minority or indigenous groups.
UNICEF’s ‘Progress for Children’ report this year reveals that in the reach toward meeting the United Nations Millennium Development Goals by the year 2015, the very poor are falling farther and farther behind.
Regions of sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia [areas of conflict and invasion, exploitation, plunder and occupation] contain more than three-quarters of the 100 million primary school-aged children not attending school. These regions also have the highest rates of child marriage, the lowest level of birth registration, and the most limited health care coverage.
At greatest risk are orphaned children, children with disabilities, children from ethnic minorities, and exploited and trafficked children.
Rural disparities, deepening poverty
Of the 884 million people without access to improved drinking water sources worldwide, 84 percent live in rural areas. Between urban and rural populations, disparities persist.
Other critical factors obstructing the reach of assistance for the very poor are increasingly challenging humanitarian environments, climate change, global financial crises, rapid urbanization.
In the year 2000, world leaders adopted the UN Millennium Declaration committing their nations to make the world a more equitable place and setting out a series of time-bound targets known as Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Every year, UNICEF’s ‘Progress for Children’ report monitors progress towards these targets.
Sources and notes
UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake in foreword to “Progress for Children” report
“‘Progress for Children’ report sheds new light on achieving Millennium Development Goals, Focus on equity” (Chris Niles), http://www.unicef.org/childsurvival/index_55896.html
Report
PROGRESS FOR CHILDREN: Achieving the MDGs with Equity, Number 9, September 2010, Published by UNICEF-Division of Communication, 3 United Nations Plaza, New York, NY 10017, USA, Website: www.unicef.org, Email: pubdoc@unicef.org
http://www.unicef.org/publications/files/Progress_for_Children-No.9_EN_081710.pdf
Millennium Declaration
The historic promise made by 189 world leaders, signatories of the Millennium Declaration at the United Nations Millennium Summit in 2000, agreed to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The MDGs are an eight-point road map with measurable targets and clear deadlines for improving the lives of the world’s poorest people. World leaders have agreed to achieve the MDGs by 2015.
UN Millennium Development Goals
MDG 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
MDG 2: Achieve universal primary education
MDG 3: Promote gender equality and empower women
MDG 4: Reduce child mortality
MDG 5: Improve maternal health
MDG 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
MDG 7: Ensure environmental sustainability
MDG 8: Promote global partnership
http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/global.shtml
http://www.endpoverty2015.org/about
UNICEF
The United Nations in December 1946 created the UN Children’s Fund (or United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund). After World War II, European children were facing famine and disease and UNICEF provided food, clothing and health care for these children. In 1953, UNICEF became a permanent part of the UN.
Today UNICEF works through country programs and National Committees in 190 countries and is part of the Global Movement for Children – a broad coalition dedicated to improving the life of every child. UNICEF upholds the Convention on the Rights of the Child and works to assure equality for those who are discriminated against, girls and women in particular. UNICEF also works for the Millennium Development Goals and for the progress promised in the United Nations Charter [http://www.unicef.org/about/who/index_introduction.html].
Eradicating extreme poverty continues to be one of the main challenges of our time…The Millennium Development Goals set time-bound targets by which progress in reducing income- poverty, hunger, disease, lack of adequate shelter and exclusion — while promoting gender equality, health, education and environmental sustainability — can be measured. The Millennium Development Goals also embody basic human rights — the rights of each person on the planet to health, education, shelter and security. Though ambitious, they are feasible. [United Nations Secretary-General BAN Ki-moon, http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/bkgd.shtml].“AGAINST ALL ODDS” leads this year’s “Progress for Children” report. In this foreword, UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake tells a girl’s story.
A girl child born in one of the poorest places in the world, probably in sub-Saharan Africa—compared with a child growing up in one of the wealthiest countries—was 10 times likelier to die during the first month of her life. Compared with a child growing up in the richest quintile [upper fifth] of her own country:
- She was two times less likely to have been born to a mother who received antenatal care; three times less likely to have come into the world with a skilled attendant present.
- She was nearly two times less likely to be treated for pneumonia; about one-and-a-half times less likely to be treated for diarrhea – two of the biggest reasons she was also more than twice as likely to die within the first five years of life.
- She was nearly three times more likely to be underweight; twice as likely to be stunted.
- She was more than one-and-a-half times less likely to be vaccinated for measles; about half as likely to be treated for malaria or to sleep under an insecticide-treated net.
- She was around two thirds as likely to attend primary school; far less likely to attend secondary school than if she lived in a nation with greater resources.
- She is three times likelier to marry during her adolescence
- More than two times less likely to know how to protect herself from HIV and AIDS
- More than 300 times likelier over the course of her lifetime — compared with a girl in an industrialized nation — to die during pregnancy and childbirth
Every day approximately 24,000 children under the age of five perish. Millions more are subjected daily to the same deprivations, and worse — especially if they are girls. Especially if they suffer disabilities. Especially if they are from minority or indigenous groups.
UNICEF’s ‘Progress for Children’ report this year reveals that in the reach toward meeting the United Nations Millennium Development Goals by the year 2015, the very poor are falling farther and farther behind.
- Compared with the richest 20 percent of households, mortality rates for children under the age of five are, on average, more than twice as high for the poorest 20 per cent of households.
- The poorest children are twice as likely to be underweight.
- Girls still have the hardest time receiving an education, particularly at the secondary level.
Regions of sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia [areas of conflict and invasion, exploitation, plunder and occupation] contain more than three-quarters of the 100 million primary school-aged children not attending school. These regions also have the highest rates of child marriage, the lowest level of birth registration, and the most limited health care coverage.
At greatest risk are orphaned children, children with disabilities, children from ethnic minorities, and exploited and trafficked children.
Rural disparities, deepening poverty
Of the 884 million people without access to improved drinking water sources worldwide, 84 percent live in rural areas. Between urban and rural populations, disparities persist.
Other critical factors obstructing the reach of assistance for the very poor are increasingly challenging humanitarian environments, climate change, global financial crises, rapid urbanization.
In the year 2000, world leaders adopted the UN Millennium Declaration committing their nations to make the world a more equitable place and setting out a series of time-bound targets known as Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Every year, UNICEF’s ‘Progress for Children’ report monitors progress towards these targets.
Sources and notes
UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake in foreword to “Progress for Children” report
“‘Progress for Children’ report sheds new light on achieving Millennium Development Goals, Focus on equity” (Chris Niles), http://www.unicef.org/childsurvival/index_55896.html
Report
PROGRESS FOR CHILDREN: Achieving the MDGs with Equity, Number 9, September 2010, Published by UNICEF-Division of Communication, 3 United Nations Plaza, New York, NY 10017, USA, Website: www.unicef.org, Email: pubdoc@unicef.org
http://www.unicef.org/publications/files/Progress_for_Children-No.9_EN_081710.pdf
Millennium Declaration
The historic promise made by 189 world leaders, signatories of the Millennium Declaration at the United Nations Millennium Summit in 2000, agreed to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The MDGs are an eight-point road map with measurable targets and clear deadlines for improving the lives of the world’s poorest people. World leaders have agreed to achieve the MDGs by 2015.
UN Millennium Development Goals
MDG 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
MDG 2: Achieve universal primary education
MDG 3: Promote gender equality and empower women
MDG 4: Reduce child mortality
MDG 5: Improve maternal health
MDG 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
MDG 7: Ensure environmental sustainability
MDG 8: Promote global partnership
http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/global.shtml
http://www.endpoverty2015.org/about
UNICEF
The United Nations in December 1946 created the UN Children’s Fund (or United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund). After World War II, European children were facing famine and disease and UNICEF provided food, clothing and health care for these children. In 1953, UNICEF became a permanent part of the UN.
Today UNICEF works through country programs and National Committees in 190 countries and is part of the Global Movement for Children – a broad coalition dedicated to improving the life of every child. UNICEF upholds the Convention on the Rights of the Child and works to assure equality for those who are discriminated against, girls and women in particular. UNICEF also works for the Millennium Development Goals and for the progress promised in the United Nations Charter [http://www.unicef.org/about/who/index_introduction.html].
Monday, September 6, 2010
Iraq “re-missioned,” switched to State
Lies told to the people…Do the people care?
Re-reporting, compilation, editing by Carolyn Bennett
The only transition underway in Iraq is from U.S. Pentagon deployment to U.S. State Department deployment, says author and foreign affairs analyst Phyllis Bennis — not from United States control to Iraqi control. “Thousands of new military contractors, armored transport, planes, ‘rapid response’ forces and other military resources will all be shifted from Pentagon to State Department control, thus remaining within the terms of the U.S.-Iraqi Status of forces Agreement that calls for all U.S. troops and Pentagon-controlled mercenaries to leave by the end of 2011.…
“The U.S. occupation of Iraq continues on a somewhat smaller scale, with 50,000 troops. These are combat troops ‘re-missioned’ by the Pentagon with new tasks but even Secretary of Defense [Robert] Gates admits they will have continuing combat capability and will continue counter-terrorism operations. The 4,500 Special Forces among them will continue their ‘capture or kill’ raids while building up the Iraqi Special Operations Forces as an El Salvador-style death squad.”
Bennis restated news accounts: that in Iraq violence is up, sectarianism is rampant, government is paralyzed, corruption is high and rising, and oil contracts instead of creating national wealth are creating more violence.
News Sunday from IRAQ
Twelve people died Sunday. Twenty-nine people suffered wounds after being caught in rifle fire and five suicide and car-bomb explosions. Soldiers were among the dead. This attack comes less than a week after the Obama administration declared the end of U.S. combat operations in Iraq [rewording of the same ole ‘Mission Accomplished’ lie]
The area in Sunday’s incident “became an al-Qaeda stronghold at the height of the sectarian warfare unleashed after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, and remained dangerous until mid-2009.”
Sources and notes
Director of the New Internationalism Project at the Institute for Policy Studies Phyllis Bennis is a fellow of Transnational Institute (TNI) and the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington D.C. She directs IPS’s New Internationalism Project and specializes in U.S. foreign policy issues, particularly involving the Middle East and United Nations. Bennis worked as a journalist at the UN for ten years and currently serves as a special adviser to several top-level UN officials on Middle East and UN democratization issues. She is a frequent contributor to U.S. and global media. She has authored many articles and books— particularly on Palestine, Iraq, the UN, and U.S. foreign policy.
“‘The End of the War in Iraq’” (Phyllis Bennis, Institute for Policy Studies), September 2010, http://www.tni.org/article/end-war-iraq; http://www.tni.org/featured-articles/rss.xml
On CounterSpin: “Phyllis Bennis on Obama Iraq policy, Dean Baker on Social Security” Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) (9/3/10-9/9/10), http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=4151
“On August 31, 2010, President Obama announced the end of U.S. combat operations in Iraq in a speech from the Oval office. While in a palace in Baghdad the commander of those combat operations, Gen. Ray Odierno, announced that his job was over, proclaiming that in Iraq, ‘hope has replaced despair.’ This was all noted with little challenge by corporate media.” [CounterSpin] spoke Friday with Phyllis Bennis about the changing U.S. role in Iraq.
The Transnational Institute (TNI) founded in 1974 as the international program of the Washington D.C.-based Institute for Policy Studies has been for more than 30 years entwined with the history of global social movements and their struggle for economic, social and environmental justice. The Institute of Policy Studies carries out radical informed analysis on critical global issues; builds alliances with social movements; develops proposals for a more sustainable, just and democratic world. http://www.tni.org/abouttni
“Mini-bus packed with explosives targets former defense ministry building in Baghdad where security has been high,” September 5, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/09/201095125812914312.html
Re-reporting, compilation, editing by Carolyn Bennett
The only transition underway in Iraq is from U.S. Pentagon deployment to U.S. State Department deployment, says author and foreign affairs analyst Phyllis Bennis — not from United States control to Iraqi control. “Thousands of new military contractors, armored transport, planes, ‘rapid response’ forces and other military resources will all be shifted from Pentagon to State Department control, thus remaining within the terms of the U.S.-Iraqi Status of forces Agreement that calls for all U.S. troops and Pentagon-controlled mercenaries to leave by the end of 2011.…
“The U.S. occupation of Iraq continues on a somewhat smaller scale, with 50,000 troops. These are combat troops ‘re-missioned’ by the Pentagon with new tasks but even Secretary of Defense [Robert] Gates admits they will have continuing combat capability and will continue counter-terrorism operations. The 4,500 Special Forces among them will continue their ‘capture or kill’ raids while building up the Iraqi Special Operations Forces as an El Salvador-style death squad.”
Bennis restated news accounts: that in Iraq violence is up, sectarianism is rampant, government is paralyzed, corruption is high and rising, and oil contracts instead of creating national wealth are creating more violence.
News Sunday from IRAQ
Twelve people died Sunday. Twenty-nine people suffered wounds after being caught in rifle fire and five suicide and car-bomb explosions. Soldiers were among the dead. This attack comes less than a week after the Obama administration declared the end of U.S. combat operations in Iraq [rewording of the same ole ‘Mission Accomplished’ lie]
The area in Sunday’s incident “became an al-Qaeda stronghold at the height of the sectarian warfare unleashed after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, and remained dangerous until mid-2009.”
How many (est.) in two-theater
U.S.-led
WAR DEAD?
Casualty sites reporting
September 6, 2010 (accurate totals unknown)
• Anti-war dot com Casualties in Iraq since March 19, 2003
[U.S. war dead since the Obama inauguration January 20, 2009: 189]
Wounded 31,929-100,000
U.S. veterans with brain injuries 320,000
Suicides [estimated] 18 a day
Latest update on this site August 31
• Iraq Body Count figures
97,667 – 106,571
• ICasualties AFGHANISTAN: 1,275 U.S., 2,069 Coalition
IRAQ: 4,416 U.S., 4,734 Coalition
Sources and notes
Director of the New Internationalism Project at the Institute for Policy Studies Phyllis Bennis is a fellow of Transnational Institute (TNI) and the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington D.C. She directs IPS’s New Internationalism Project and specializes in U.S. foreign policy issues, particularly involving the Middle East and United Nations. Bennis worked as a journalist at the UN for ten years and currently serves as a special adviser to several top-level UN officials on Middle East and UN democratization issues. She is a frequent contributor to U.S. and global media. She has authored many articles and books— particularly on Palestine, Iraq, the UN, and U.S. foreign policy.
“‘The End of the War in Iraq’” (Phyllis Bennis, Institute for Policy Studies), September 2010, http://www.tni.org/article/end-war-iraq; http://www.tni.org/featured-articles/rss.xml
On CounterSpin: “Phyllis Bennis on Obama Iraq policy, Dean Baker on Social Security” Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) (9/3/10-9/9/10), http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=4151
“On August 31, 2010, President Obama announced the end of U.S. combat operations in Iraq in a speech from the Oval office. While in a palace in Baghdad the commander of those combat operations, Gen. Ray Odierno, announced that his job was over, proclaiming that in Iraq, ‘hope has replaced despair.’ This was all noted with little challenge by corporate media.” [CounterSpin] spoke Friday with Phyllis Bennis about the changing U.S. role in Iraq.
The Transnational Institute (TNI) founded in 1974 as the international program of the Washington D.C.-based Institute for Policy Studies has been for more than 30 years entwined with the history of global social movements and their struggle for economic, social and environmental justice. The Institute of Policy Studies carries out radical informed analysis on critical global issues; builds alliances with social movements; develops proposals for a more sustainable, just and democratic world. http://www.tni.org/abouttni
“Mini-bus packed with explosives targets former defense ministry building in Baghdad where security has been high,” September 5, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/09/201095125812914312.html
Sunday, September 5, 2010
“Terror” policy will fall, People will stand—Joya
Afghanistan’s Joya exposes entrenched policy, persisting resistance of a people invaded but unbowed
Excerpts, editing by Carolyn Bennett
Leading into the September 11, 2001-September 11, 2010, more from Afghan truth teller Malalai Joya, A woman among warlords
“We Afghans remain trapped between two enemies: the Taliban on the one side and US/NATO forces and their warlord hirelings on the other. We are feeling the squeeze and it is costing us in blood and tears. But the situation is not hopeless. I believe in the power of the people, and I know that there are millions of women and men standing and waiting—eager to play their role in history. Afghans have lost all patience with the corruption and violence that surround them, and they are just one spark away from an uprising that will once more demonstrate their power and show their thirst for freedom and justice.”
Entrenched policy experienced firsthand
“The people of Afghanistan can see very clearly that the warlords are supported and protected by the United States and other foreign troops. They could not continue their fascist agenda for even one day without the backing of the United States and NATO …
“Intervening against countries where governments take action against U.S. corporate interests is the policy of every president. It is, after all—militarism —imperialism—that has given the United States a dominant position in the world. Without war its empire will have no future. American foreign policy, in reality, is set; the job of the president is simply to implement it.
“If we look at the historical record, the policies of U.S. governments have been very consistent for decades. War making has been the policy of every president.…
“… Recent world events prove that ‘exporting democracy’ is just a hoax behind U.S. foreign policy.… Some of the closest allies of the United States are anything but democratic. In the Middle East, two key pillars of U.S. influence in the region are the dictatorship in Egypt and the fundamentalist monarchy in Saudi Arabia. When we analyze this record, it should not be too surprising to see the type of antidemocratic figures that the United States is propping up in positions of power in Afghanistan…
“Although the U.S./NATO forces say they are staying in Afghanistan to hunt down bin Laden and a resurgent Taliban, they might consider beginning their search in Kabul. … The new Afghan government is not only a photocopy of the Taliban, but some of the prominent figures from that former regime have been recycled and repackaged and now hold positions of power.”
This goes to show that the United States “has been less interested in destroying the Taliban than in cultivating ‘our Taliban,’ the ‘good Taliban,’ or any other ‘good’ fundamentalists who will serve their interests.…”
With a situation like this, “our country cannot stand on its own feet and will remain dependent on foreign troops.” The policy of the U.S. government “is to keep us in this situation [and] if things continue on this course, I believe the foreign powers could even lead us toward the breakup of our country along ethnic lines.… [Afghans] must fight against the disintegration of our national unity. We do not want to lose our Afghanistan.”
Terror inside out
“There are all kinds of terror in the world [Afghanistan in the past thirty years has been subjected to every kind of atrocity in the name of socialism, religion, freedom, democracy and liberation, now in the name of a ‘war on terror’ ],” Joya writes. “We live every day of our lives in the terror of endless war.”
“The ‘war on terror’ today serves as an excuse for war and intervention. As in the past, when many democratic governments were overthrown and replaced with dictatorships in the name of ‘fighting communism,’ so it is today with the language of ‘fighting terrorism.’…
“This so-called war on terror is in fact an extremely dishonest policy.” The only way this war needs to last decades is if the real purpose is for the United States and its allies to establish permanent bases to serve their strategic aims.
“To our people, the idea that the United States, with all its military might, technology, and power, could not have already defeated these medieval-minded groups—assuming that was the real American war aim—is like a bad joke. Instead, it looks like they are playing a game of cat-and-mouse in order to justify keeping their military in Afghanistan…
“What is important for the world is not whether the president is black or white, but what his ideas and his actions are. You cannot eat symbolism, and for us [U.S. President] Obama will only become a symbol of an unjust policy of war and domination if he continues down the path he has chosen to follow.”
“I believe only the people in the United States and other countries, once they understand their responsibility, can change this situation.…”
People unbowed
Afghans are more than just a handful of warlords, Taliban, drug lords, and lackeys. I have a country full of people who know what I know and believe what I believe, Joya writes.
“Our enemies can cut down the flower, but nothing can stop the coming of the spring.…”
“Our fight for independence has gone on for centuries, and it will continue because it is a just and dignified struggle.”
“A river is made drop by drop. It is a long struggle but if we unite for justice and democracy, our people will be like a flood that no one can stop.
Social activist and politician Malalai Joya was born in Afghanistan’s remote Farah Province. She grew up in refugee camps in Iran and Pakistan and is the youngest person ever to be elected to the Afghan Parliament. She was suspended from that Parliament in 2007 for continuing to denounce warlords and their cronies in government. In that year, Joya received a nomination for the European Parliament’s Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought.
Source
Her book A Woman among Warlords: The extraordinary story of an Afghan who dared to raise her voice (2009 with Derrick O'Keefe), excerpts from pages 196-210
WEEKEND NEWS
Afghanistan
Ten people died Saturday in Kandahar and more than a dozen suffered wounds in two separate attacks. Among the dead were police officers and civilians including a child [http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/09/201094161033100180.html].
Hundreds of Afghans have been unsuccessful in withdrawing money from the country’s largest bank, amid concerns that it could collapse. “The panic was sparked by reports that Kabul Bank has lent millions of dollars to members of the political elite, who used the money to make risky investments” [http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/09/20109592512818877.html].
Neighboring Pakistan
Sixty-five people died after a suicide bomb exploded in a Shia Muslim procession Friday in the Pakistani city of Quetta. More than 150 people suffered wounds. In the past three years, more than 3,660 people have died as a result of “a series of suicide attacks and bomb explosions, many of them carried out by the Taliban and other al-Qaeda-linked fighters” [http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/09/2010948413333315.html]
Excerpts, editing by Carolyn Bennett
Leading into the September 11, 2001-September 11, 2010, more from Afghan truth teller Malalai Joya, A woman among warlords
“We Afghans remain trapped between two enemies: the Taliban on the one side and US/NATO forces and their warlord hirelings on the other. We are feeling the squeeze and it is costing us in blood and tears. But the situation is not hopeless. I believe in the power of the people, and I know that there are millions of women and men standing and waiting—eager to play their role in history. Afghans have lost all patience with the corruption and violence that surround them, and they are just one spark away from an uprising that will once more demonstrate their power and show their thirst for freedom and justice.”
“The unjust and criminal occupation of Afghanistan and its puppet regime cannot last forever.
The use, abuse, and destabilization of Afghanistan by great powers and neighboring countries cannot last forever.
The domination of our country by warlords, Taliban, and their so-called intellectual lobbyists cannot last forever.
The impunity of war criminals—whether sitting in the Parliament or Kabul or at the ranch in Texas—cannot last forever.
The subjugation of women as second-class citizens cannot last forever.
The unpunished rape, abduction, murder, and mistreatment of women and girls cannot last forever.
The government and NGO corruption and embezzlement, the drug running and profiteering, all of which deny Afghans basic services such as health care and education, cannot last forever.
The terrorizing of honest journalists and the silencing of dissenting voices through violence and intimidation cannot last forever.
The suppression of the democratic and progressive people and parties in Afghanistan cannot and must not last forever.”
Entrenched policy experienced firsthand
“The people of Afghanistan can see very clearly that the warlords are supported and protected by the United States and other foreign troops. They could not continue their fascist agenda for even one day without the backing of the United States and NATO …
“Intervening against countries where governments take action against U.S. corporate interests is the policy of every president. It is, after all—militarism —imperialism—that has given the United States a dominant position in the world. Without war its empire will have no future. American foreign policy, in reality, is set; the job of the president is simply to implement it.
“If we look at the historical record, the policies of U.S. governments have been very consistent for decades. War making has been the policy of every president.…
“… Recent world events prove that ‘exporting democracy’ is just a hoax behind U.S. foreign policy.… Some of the closest allies of the United States are anything but democratic. In the Middle East, two key pillars of U.S. influence in the region are the dictatorship in Egypt and the fundamentalist monarchy in Saudi Arabia. When we analyze this record, it should not be too surprising to see the type of antidemocratic figures that the United States is propping up in positions of power in Afghanistan…
“Although the U.S./NATO forces say they are staying in Afghanistan to hunt down bin Laden and a resurgent Taliban, they might consider beginning their search in Kabul. … The new Afghan government is not only a photocopy of the Taliban, but some of the prominent figures from that former regime have been recycled and repackaged and now hold positions of power.”
This goes to show that the United States “has been less interested in destroying the Taliban than in cultivating ‘our Taliban,’ the ‘good Taliban,’ or any other ‘good’ fundamentalists who will serve their interests.…”
With a situation like this, “our country cannot stand on its own feet and will remain dependent on foreign troops.” The policy of the U.S. government “is to keep us in this situation [and] if things continue on this course, I believe the foreign powers could even lead us toward the breakup of our country along ethnic lines.… [Afghans] must fight against the disintegration of our national unity. We do not want to lose our Afghanistan.”
Terror inside out
“There are all kinds of terror in the world [Afghanistan in the past thirty years has been subjected to every kind of atrocity in the name of socialism, religion, freedom, democracy and liberation, now in the name of a ‘war on terror’ ],” Joya writes. “We live every day of our lives in the terror of endless war.”
“The ‘war on terror’ today serves as an excuse for war and intervention. As in the past, when many democratic governments were overthrown and replaced with dictatorships in the name of ‘fighting communism,’ so it is today with the language of ‘fighting terrorism.’…
“This so-called war on terror is in fact an extremely dishonest policy.” The only way this war needs to last decades is if the real purpose is for the United States and its allies to establish permanent bases to serve their strategic aims.
“To our people, the idea that the United States, with all its military might, technology, and power, could not have already defeated these medieval-minded groups—assuming that was the real American war aim—is like a bad joke. Instead, it looks like they are playing a game of cat-and-mouse in order to justify keeping their military in Afghanistan…
“What is important for the world is not whether the president is black or white, but what his ideas and his actions are. You cannot eat symbolism, and for us [U.S. President] Obama will only become a symbol of an unjust policy of war and domination if he continues down the path he has chosen to follow.”
“I believe only the people in the United States and other countries, once they understand their responsibility, can change this situation.…”
People unbowed
Afghans are more than just a handful of warlords, Taliban, drug lords, and lackeys. I have a country full of people who know what I know and believe what I believe, Joya writes.
That we Afghans can govern ourselves without foreign interference
That democracy is possible here but can never be imposed at gunpoint“With the help of peace-loving people around the world, I know that the Afghan women and men are ready to do their part to stop this cycle of misery and build a better future. The ‘war on terror’ is a dead end for the people in the Middle East, in Central Asia, and in the West. Only a great, united movement of people can put an end to this foolish policy.”
That the blood of millions of freedom-loving martyrs runs through our veins, and their memories live on in every corner of our country
That Afghan women have been at the forefront of our struggle throughout our proud history [and] they inspire us to pick up the flag and carry on the struggle for justice and freedom.
It is a battle we will never surrender.”
“Our enemies can cut down the flower, but nothing can stop the coming of the spring.…”
“Our fight for independence has gone on for centuries, and it will continue because it is a just and dignified struggle.”
“A river is made drop by drop. It is a long struggle but if we unite for justice and democracy, our people will be like a flood that no one can stop.
Social activist and politician Malalai Joya was born in Afghanistan’s remote Farah Province. She grew up in refugee camps in Iran and Pakistan and is the youngest person ever to be elected to the Afghan Parliament. She was suspended from that Parliament in 2007 for continuing to denounce warlords and their cronies in government. In that year, Joya received a nomination for the European Parliament’s Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought.
Source
Her book A Woman among Warlords: The extraordinary story of an Afghan who dared to raise her voice (2009 with Derrick O'Keefe), excerpts from pages 196-210
WEEKEND NEWS
Afghanistan
Ten people died Saturday in Kandahar and more than a dozen suffered wounds in two separate attacks. Among the dead were police officers and civilians including a child [http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/09/201094161033100180.html].
Hundreds of Afghans have been unsuccessful in withdrawing money from the country’s largest bank, amid concerns that it could collapse. “The panic was sparked by reports that Kabul Bank has lent millions of dollars to members of the political elite, who used the money to make risky investments” [http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/09/20109592512818877.html].
Neighboring Pakistan
Sixty-five people died after a suicide bomb exploded in a Shia Muslim procession Friday in the Pakistani city of Quetta. More than 150 people suffered wounds. In the past three years, more than 3,660 people have died as a result of “a series of suicide attacks and bomb explosions, many of them carried out by the Taliban and other al-Qaeda-linked fighters” [http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/09/2010948413333315.html]
Friday, September 3, 2010
Fighting to EDUCATE, educators expose fakes
Harvard-trained ignoramuses leading school “reform” — Welcome back, kids!
President of the Chicago Teachers Union Karen Lewis and New Jersey City University professor of education Lois Weiner spoke today with Democracy Now!
Re-reporting, editing, notes, minor comment by Carolyn Bennett
The Obama administration’s education secretary, in effect, the nation’s superintendent of schools is not unlike the G. W. Bush administration’s Brownie at FEMA; and, as the Brits would say, he is “unfit for purpose.” U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is a creation of nepotism, a sports jock; skids greased by the notorious Daley family, the gentleman slipped uneducated into Chicago’s top education office and from there into Obama’s White House.
According to a February 1, 2010, New Yorker article, the esteemed Arne Duncan “has played basketball with [U.S. President] Barack Obama for nearly two decades.” At Harvard Duncan “co-captained the varsity basketball team and was named a first team Academic All-American. He went to Australia (1987-1991) and played professional basketball with Melbourne’s Eastside Spectres of Australia’s National Basketball League, a Wikipedia article notes. Too bad he didn’t remain down under.
Ignoramuses purport to “reform” education
Mr. Duncan is no educator and never had any experience, says Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis. The man “would be arrested if he went into a classroom and tried to teach, because he is completely uncredentialed,” she said. “His [Chicago] legacy is: ‘I don’t know what to do. Let me just give it over to the privatizers’.…
“Basically, under his aegis, the [Chicago] Board of Education abrogated their responsibility towards education and gave it away, because he literally had no idea, and still has no idea, what to do.”
There is no question that the U.S. education system is broken. It has not changed basically since the 1900s—1800s, for that matter, Lewis said; and as a result, it has never been able to absorb real innovation. There is also no question about the need for accountability, she said.
“That’s not the issue. … We know that, basically, high-stakes testing (the ‘reformers’ main strategy) tells us more about students’ socioeconomic status than it does anything else.” We have failed to be honest about that and refused to deal with the fact that “we have neighborhoods in our cities and across the nation that have been under-resourced and for decades have been devalued for some reason or other, and that the schools are supposed to fix all that and change it.”
The easy and educationally unsound strategy is “to test, test, test children using a narrow curriculum of reading, reading, reading, reading, reading, reading, math, math, math, reading, reading, reading, reading, math in which elementary kids are bored to tears. There is no joy, no passion, and pupils begin hating school at an early age.” The results bear this out.
Big picture of regress:
Child left behind races to the bottom
The Obama administration’s ‘Race to the Top’ gimmick “is not unique to the United States and what Arne Duncan did in Chicago is not unique to Chicago,” Education Professor Lois Weiner says. “The contours of this program were carried out first under [military junta leader and Chilean dictator Augusto] Pinochet. [This] program was implemented by force of military dictatorships and the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in Latin America.
“[The] results have been verified by researchers there. They produced increased stratification. … [What] we are seeing right now are the results of that increased stratification, an inequality of results … [issuing from the G.W. Bush program] ‘No Child Left Behind’ now almost a decade old …
“The results are a growing gap between poor minority, achievement of poor minority kids — and of kids who come from prosperous families who live in affluent suburbs and attend suburban schools.”
Almost anything that you can point to that’s being done in Chicago or New York or San Francisco can be found, has already been done in another place in the world. “We can look at those results and they are not good.”
Dumbing down in lieu of jobs policy
It is important to understand, Weiner says, that the current “focus on educational reform is a substitute for a jobs policy. Education can democratize the competition for the existing jobs but it cannot create new jobs.
“When most jobs being created are by companies like Wal-Mart, education cannot do anything about that. We need to look critically at ‘Race to the Top’ and understand the way it fits into this new economic order of a so-called jobless recovery:
Destroying teaching profession
“These reforms are driving teachers out of their jobs. Principals are terrorizing young teachers. Schools in which new, activist teachers work, very often the most vulnerable schools —because that’s where the jobs are — are being shut down.”
The fundamental thinking, Weiner says, is that “teaching really is not a profession, does not have to be a skilled profession — because we’re not going to ‘educate’ kids to do anything more than work in Wal-Mart or its equivalent. Kids need only a seventh or an eighth grade education— at most, a ninth grade education” — the thinking goes; “so we don’t need teachers who are more than … ‘good enough.’ ‘Good enough’ to follow a scripted curriculum and teach to standardized tests; and if you need only ‘good-enough’ teachers, you do not have to pay them very much. That’s the project.”
Sources
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/02/01/100201fa_fact_rotella
Educators Push Back Against Obama’s "Business Model" for School Reforms September 3, 2010, http://www.democracynow.org/2010/9/3/educators_push_back_against_obamas_business
Michael Brown was the George W. Bush administration’s director/administrator of the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) during the 2005 Hurricane Katrina.
President of the Chicago Teachers Union Karen Lewis and New Jersey City University professor of education Lois Weiner spoke today with Democracy Now!
Re-reporting, editing, notes, minor comment by Carolyn Bennett
The Obama administration’s education secretary, in effect, the nation’s superintendent of schools is not unlike the G. W. Bush administration’s Brownie at FEMA; and, as the Brits would say, he is “unfit for purpose.” U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is a creation of nepotism, a sports jock; skids greased by the notorious Daley family, the gentleman slipped uneducated into Chicago’s top education office and from there into Obama’s White House.
According to a February 1, 2010, New Yorker article, the esteemed Arne Duncan “has played basketball with [U.S. President] Barack Obama for nearly two decades.” At Harvard Duncan “co-captained the varsity basketball team and was named a first team Academic All-American. He went to Australia (1987-1991) and played professional basketball with Melbourne’s Eastside Spectres of Australia’s National Basketball League, a Wikipedia article notes. Too bad he didn’t remain down under.
Ignoramuses purport to “reform” education
Mr. Duncan is no educator and never had any experience, says Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis. The man “would be arrested if he went into a classroom and tried to teach, because he is completely uncredentialed,” she said. “His [Chicago] legacy is: ‘I don’t know what to do. Let me just give it over to the privatizers’.…
“Basically, under his aegis, the [Chicago] Board of Education abrogated their responsibility towards education and gave it away, because he literally had no idea, and still has no idea, what to do.”
There is no question that the U.S. education system is broken. It has not changed basically since the 1900s—1800s, for that matter, Lewis said; and as a result, it has never been able to absorb real innovation. There is also no question about the need for accountability, she said.
“That’s not the issue. … We know that, basically, high-stakes testing (the ‘reformers’ main strategy) tells us more about students’ socioeconomic status than it does anything else.” We have failed to be honest about that and refused to deal with the fact that “we have neighborhoods in our cities and across the nation that have been under-resourced and for decades have been devalued for some reason or other, and that the schools are supposed to fix all that and change it.”
The easy and educationally unsound strategy is “to test, test, test children using a narrow curriculum of reading, reading, reading, reading, reading, reading, math, math, math, reading, reading, reading, reading, math in which elementary kids are bored to tears. There is no joy, no passion, and pupils begin hating school at an early age.” The results bear this out.
Big picture of regress:
Child left behind races to the bottom
The Obama administration’s ‘Race to the Top’ gimmick “is not unique to the United States and what Arne Duncan did in Chicago is not unique to Chicago,” Education Professor Lois Weiner says. “The contours of this program were carried out first under [military junta leader and Chilean dictator Augusto] Pinochet. [This] program was implemented by force of military dictatorships and the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in Latin America.
“[The] results have been verified by researchers there. They produced increased stratification. … [What] we are seeing right now are the results of that increased stratification, an inequality of results … [issuing from the G.W. Bush program] ‘No Child Left Behind’ now almost a decade old …
“The results are a growing gap between poor minority, achievement of poor minority kids — and of kids who come from prosperous families who live in affluent suburbs and attend suburban schools.”
Almost anything that you can point to that’s being done in Chicago or New York or San Francisco can be found, has already been done in another place in the world. “We can look at those results and they are not good.”
Dumbing down in lieu of jobs policy
It is important to understand, Weiner says, that the current “focus on educational reform is a substitute for a jobs policy. Education can democratize the competition for the existing jobs but it cannot create new jobs.
“When most jobs being created are by companies like Wal-Mart, education cannot do anything about that. We need to look critically at ‘Race to the Top’ and understand the way it fits into this new economic order of a so-called jobless recovery:
What’s really going on is a vocationalization of education, a watering down of curriculum for most kids, so that they [must] take jobs that require only a seventh or an eighth grade education. Those are the jobs that are being created in this economy.
“They are doing career education in first grade, if you look at these standards; preparing kids for the workforce when they’re in first grade. Foundations, the right-wing foundations, including the [Bill and Melinda] Gates Foundation, are absolutely driving this. They’re funding it and funding the media campaign to persuade people that this is necessary.”
Destroying teaching profession
“These reforms are driving teachers out of their jobs. Principals are terrorizing young teachers. Schools in which new, activist teachers work, very often the most vulnerable schools —because that’s where the jobs are — are being shut down.”
The fundamental thinking, Weiner says, is that “teaching really is not a profession, does not have to be a skilled profession — because we’re not going to ‘educate’ kids to do anything more than work in Wal-Mart or its equivalent. Kids need only a seventh or an eighth grade education— at most, a ninth grade education” — the thinking goes; “so we don’t need teachers who are more than … ‘good enough.’ ‘Good enough’ to follow a scripted curriculum and teach to standardized tests; and if you need only ‘good-enough’ teachers, you do not have to pay them very much. That’s the project.”
So, kids, what we must do is
support the educators and
sack the fakes and ignoramuses.
Welcome back!
Sources
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/02/01/100201fa_fact_rotella
Educators Push Back Against Obama’s "Business Model" for School Reforms September 3, 2010, http://www.democracynow.org/2010/9/3/educators_push_back_against_obamas_business
Michael Brown was the George W. Bush administration’s director/administrator of the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) during the 2005 Hurricane Katrina.
Thursday, September 2, 2010
What would you do?
The poor among riches riot for bread
Re-reporting, editing, notes, brief comment by Carolyn Bennett
Bread prices rose 30 percent and Mozambicans rioted. Theirs is one of the poorest countries in the world, a country of 23 million people also suffering from the high cost of imports and unhealed past conflicts.
Demonstrators in the past two days have blocked roads with burned tires, the Guardian and wires report. People looted shops in Mozambique’s capital, Maputo.
Six people, among them children, died when police opened fire on the protesters.
Mozambicans have experienced rising costs of basic needs as wheat prices spiked around the world and the costs of imports from South Africa rose sharply. Already poorer than most people in the world, these rises have hit Mozambicans especially hard.
What would you do?
Sources and notes
Mozambique (Republic of Mozambique, Portuguese República de Moçambique), situated on the southeastern coast of Africa, is bordered to the south and southwest by South Africa and Swaziland, to the west by Zimbabwe, to the northwest by Zambia, Lake Nyasa (Niassa), and Malaŵi, and to the north by Tanzania.
The Mozambique Channel separates the country from Madagascar to the east. Maputo (formerly Lourenço Marques), the country’s capital, is in the nation’s southernmost province.
Mozambique’s extensive coastline (1,563 miles) features some of Africa’s best natural harbors, a fact that contributes to the nation’s important transportation and communication role in the region. The massive Zambezi River dominates the central area and provides sufficient hydroelectric potential to make Mozambique the region’s powerhouse.
Portuguese is the official language of Mozambique but the vast majority of Mozambicans speak languages of the Niger-Congo group — the so-called Bantu languages— which dominate central and southern Africa. [Britannica note]
“Mozambique bread riots spread as police shoot protesters dead — Demonstrators killed in capital Maputo after live rounds used because officers ‘ran out of rubber bullets,’” http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/02/mozambique-bread-riots-looters-dead
“Every anguish passes except the anguish of hunger,” Malalai Joya relates an Afghan saying.
There is a common plight in countries of the South and East. Like other developing countries, Joya writes in A Woman among Warlords, “Afghanistan has been feeling the disastrous outcome of globalization in the years following the U.S. occupation. The reliance on privatization and the unchecked market economy has had a terrible impact on the poorest people, and it has widened the gap between the rich and poor. …
“[With] the worldwide increase in the price of staple foods, it is ‘the poor’ in places like Afghanistan [and Mozambique], who suffer most. Women and children suffer most of all.”
A Woman among Warlords: The Extraordinary Story of an Afghan Who Dared to Raise Her Voice by Malalai Joya and Derrick O'Keefe, pages 192-193
Re-reporting, editing, notes, brief comment by Carolyn Bennett
Bread prices rose 30 percent and Mozambicans rioted. Theirs is one of the poorest countries in the world, a country of 23 million people also suffering from the high cost of imports and unhealed past conflicts.
Demonstrators in the past two days have blocked roads with burned tires, the Guardian and wires report. People looted shops in Mozambique’s capital, Maputo.
Six people, among them children, died when police opened fire on the protesters.
Mozambicans have experienced rising costs of basic needs as wheat prices spiked around the world and the costs of imports from South Africa rose sharply. Already poorer than most people in the world, these rises have hit Mozambicans especially hard.
What would you do?
Sources and notes
Mozambique (Republic of Mozambique, Portuguese República de Moçambique), situated on the southeastern coast of Africa, is bordered to the south and southwest by South Africa and Swaziland, to the west by Zimbabwe, to the northwest by Zambia, Lake Nyasa (Niassa), and Malaŵi, and to the north by Tanzania.
The Mozambique Channel separates the country from Madagascar to the east. Maputo (formerly Lourenço Marques), the country’s capital, is in the nation’s southernmost province.
Mozambique’s extensive coastline (1,563 miles) features some of Africa’s best natural harbors, a fact that contributes to the nation’s important transportation and communication role in the region. The massive Zambezi River dominates the central area and provides sufficient hydroelectric potential to make Mozambique the region’s powerhouse.
Portuguese is the official language of Mozambique but the vast majority of Mozambicans speak languages of the Niger-Congo group — the so-called Bantu languages— which dominate central and southern Africa. [Britannica note]
“Mozambique bread riots spread as police shoot protesters dead — Demonstrators killed in capital Maputo after live rounds used because officers ‘ran out of rubber bullets,’” http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/02/mozambique-bread-riots-looters-dead
“Every anguish passes except the anguish of hunger,” Malalai Joya relates an Afghan saying.
There is a common plight in countries of the South and East. Like other developing countries, Joya writes in A Woman among Warlords, “Afghanistan has been feeling the disastrous outcome of globalization in the years following the U.S. occupation. The reliance on privatization and the unchecked market economy has had a terrible impact on the poorest people, and it has widened the gap between the rich and poor. …
“[With] the worldwide increase in the price of staple foods, it is ‘the poor’ in places like Afghanistan [and Mozambique], who suffer most. Women and children suffer most of all.”
A Woman among Warlords: The Extraordinary Story of an Afghan Who Dared to Raise Her Voice by Malalai Joya and Derrick O'Keefe, pages 192-193
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Afghan independent spirit Joya inspires …
Independence, honesty, international solidarity for good
Excerpt, minor editing by Carolyn Bennett
Afghan social activist, politician Malalai Joya
Party
In a meeting with progressive MPs, Malalai Joya says a Finnish member of the European Parliament asked about the name of her party. “I told her that my party has no name,” Joya says, “but it is a powerful party whose members are the helpless, barefoot, and hungry people of my country; … they are the ordinary people of Afghanistan. …
“They are most loyal to me and have never abandoned me. If I am still alive today, it is because of the support of this strong party, which is not in power now.”
Priorities
“…I do not want to encourage the idea prevalent in the West that the burqa is the only or the most important problem facing Afghan women.
“Without security or a justice system that protects women from rape, without employment, food, and basic services, the issue of the burqa is secondary.”
People united for good
“My goal abroad has always been the same as when I am inside Afghanistan: to unite people and to build power to destroy the domination of the warlords and the Taliban, and to end the occupation of our country.
“My wish is that this international solidarity will build strength and unity, and that when people become aware, they will rise like a storm that brings the truth.
“One voice—or even many isolated voices—is powerless; but when we weave our voices and our efforts together, we can become unbreakable.
“This movement we are weaving must come from struggles in every corner of the world:
“Our sufferings—and enemies—are the same…. Our happiness is the same.” Malalai Joya
Source
A Woman among Warlords: The Extraordinary Story of an Afghan Who Dared to Raise Her Voice by Malalai Joya and Derrick O'Keefe (2009), pages 172, 175-176
Excerpt, minor editing by Carolyn Bennett
Afghan social activist, politician Malalai Joya
Party
In a meeting with progressive MPs, Malalai Joya says a Finnish member of the European Parliament asked about the name of her party. “I told her that my party has no name,” Joya says, “but it is a powerful party whose members are the helpless, barefoot, and hungry people of my country; … they are the ordinary people of Afghanistan. …
“They are most loyal to me and have never abandoned me. If I am still alive today, it is because of the support of this strong party, which is not in power now.”
Priorities
“…I do not want to encourage the idea prevalent in the West that the burqa is the only or the most important problem facing Afghan women.
“Without security or a justice system that protects women from rape, without employment, food, and basic services, the issue of the burqa is secondary.”
People united for good
“My goal abroad has always been the same as when I am inside Afghanistan: to unite people and to build power to destroy the domination of the warlords and the Taliban, and to end the occupation of our country.
“My wish is that this international solidarity will build strength and unity, and that when people become aware, they will rise like a storm that brings the truth.
“One voice—or even many isolated voices—is powerless; but when we weave our voices and our efforts together, we can become unbreakable.
“This movement we are weaving must come from struggles in every corner of the world:
Our voice of resistance in Afghanistan
The cries of agony of the children of Palestine
The tears for democracy denied in Burma
The young freedom-loving students of Iran
The struggle of men and women in Turkey
from whom I hear inspiring stories of bravery and courage
in the face of horrible torture and killings
in the Turkish prisons
The endeavors of Venezuela, Chile, Cuba,
Bolivia, and progressive movements in other American nations
The fight of African people for just and free societies
“Our sufferings—and enemies—are the same…. Our happiness is the same.” Malalai Joya
Source
A Woman among Warlords: The Extraordinary Story of an Afghan Who Dared to Raise Her Voice by Malalai Joya and Derrick O'Keefe (2009), pages 172, 175-176
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