Only through mediation ─ Women leaders of Congo to Women leaders in United States

Activist
Neema Namadamu

Women must join together now
Excerpting, editing, comment by Carolyn Bennett

Enriched ravaged land

Its people and future ruined by endless war

“We ask for the immediate appointment of a special presidential envoy to work with the African Union and United Nations to forge a peace process that addresses both the immediate crisis and the underlying longer-term economic and political interests of the parties involved,” Neema Namadamu pleads the case for her people, her country.

Only through mediation from this level can we hope to establish resolution among the numerous states, rebel armies and special interests that have long fueled this conflict and humanitarian crisis.

It is essential that any action ensures Congolese women—who are uniquely positioned to act on behalf of family and community—have a voice in the peace process and a seat at the table.

Neema Namadamu is one of a group of Congolese grassroots women leaders, the Maman Shujaa (in the Swahili language, ‘Hero Women’). In a overview to a petition letter to women leaders in the United States, Neema Namadamu writes: “I was born in a very remote village in South Kivu Province in eastern Congo. I belong to a marginalized tribe. I am crippled from Polio. But none of these things characterize me. I have a vision for my country: a new and peaceful Congo, which compels me. Its destiny drives me.” 

 After Brazil, “Congo is home to the second largest rain forest in the world and 60 percent of all of Africa’s forests.

It has enough hydropower potential to power all of Africa.

It has an estimated 24 trillion dollars of mineral wealth ─ far greater un-monetized wealth than any other nation in the world.

Yet “the mothers of [Congo’s] children live in poverty, in fear of being raped, daily women fear losing their sons and husbands to endless wars.

“We are brutalized in unconscionable ways by monsters wearing military uniforms. … Several months ago, soldiers indiscriminately beat my own daughter.…” For sixteen years, Neema Namadamu says, “War has ravaged my homeland.”

 

Women together

“We as women must join together now because WE CAN,” she writes. “Even in remote Congo, we have become connected to our global sisterhood.

“We who are ONE with the 35 million+ women of the DRC who are ONE with the 3.5 billion+ women of the world stand for an end to all violence and aggression in Eastern DRC. We will not be quiet until real peace is upon us. 

World flags
UN Geneva

“We the grassroots women leaders of eastern DRC call upon our female counterparts in the White House—our sisters Secretary Hillary Clinton, Ambassador Susan Rice, Senior White House Advisor Valerie Jarrett, and First Lady Michelle Obama—to speak with your President in our behalf and ensure the start of a true peace process in our homeland.

We have had enough. 

We call upon our global sisterhood to take action. 

We will not be quiet until REAL Peace is upon us.

My comment when signing this petition

I sign this petition because with Neema Namadamu I believe we are one. 

We are all wounded when any are wounded ─ denied life and liberty, basic universal human rights ─ in the world; and we must help one another -- nonviolently. 

Only by changing the mode of response − from violence to nonviolence ─ only by working with each other cooperatively and respectfully, seeking to understand one another, our traditions and histories, cultural variations and underlying issues, can we ever, EVER hope to attain peace and justice, insure realization of human aspirations and human rights for all. 

We must want, earnestly desire, commit to peace and justice, rule of law and human rights for all ─ this has not been the aim, attitude or action of the world’s dominant and domineering, arrogantly belligerent (largely but not exclusively male) leaders of the north, south, east or west. Women together must change the paradigm in violence.

Sources and notes

Dissected by the Equator, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), formerly called Zaire, is the third largest country on the African continent. [WorldAtlas search, http://www.worldatlas.com/header_final/search.html?q=DRC%2C%20Congo)

Neema Namadamu, http://www.namadamu.com/

Petitioning Secretary Hillary Clinton 2

From the grassroots women leaders of Congo to the women leaders of the White House

Petition by Neema Namadamu, Bukavu, Congo, the Democratic Republic of the

http://www.change.org/petitions/from-the-grassroots-women-leaders-of-congo-to-the-women-leaders-of-the-white-house

Text of Petition letter

To:

Secretary Hillary Clinton, The White House

Ambassador Susan Rice, The White House

Senior White House Advisor Valerie Jarrett, The White House

First Lady Michelle Obama, The White House

With the M23 Rebels taking cities in North Kivu and threatening instability in an already unstable region, now is our time to act!

After 16 years of war, after 16 years of the systematic rape and torture against women, after 16 years of the world turning our eyes from the complex conflict that rages in the Eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo—it’s time to take a stand and support a comprehensive peace process. It’s time to support our sisters in Congo and say “NO!” to the persisting violence.

In solidarity with the ‘Hero Women’ of eastern Congo I urge you to act swiftly for our sisters in the Congo and call upon President Obama to appoint a high-level Special Envoy to work with an A.U./U.N. appointed mediator and begin a real peace process that addresses both the immediate crisis and the underlying longer-term economic and political interests of the parties. And, it is essential that any action ensures that women—who are uniquely positioned to act on behalf of family and community—have a voice in the peace process and a seat at the table.

Sincerely,

[Signer’s name]

Link: http://www.change.org/petitions/from-the-grassroots-women-leaders-of-congo-to-the-women-leaders-of-the-white-house

  

Change dot org note: On November 20, 2012, M23 rebels seized Goma, a major city in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, reigniting a war that has ravaged the region for 16 years. Neema Namadamu and a group of grassroots women leaders who call themselves the Maman Shujaa (in Swahili ‘Hero Women’) are calling on you and U.S. woman leaders Hillary Clinton, Susan Rice, Valerie Jarrett, and Michelle Obama to take immediate action in solidarity with the women of the Congo.

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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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A camp is neither house nor home ─ Haiti, Syria, foreign callousness

Flags
Syria left Haiti right 

Self-serving aid, interference ─ the essence of harm

Editing, brief comment by 

Carolyn Bennett

That which deliberately impedes independence creates interminable dependence and hostility

SYRIANS in camps for the homeless

Amid floods in Syria, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is having a hard time dealing with non-stop rain and wind [more than 200 tents have collapsed France24’s editor notes].

The ground absorbs no rainwater so camps flood quickly. Some families have water 40 centimeters (16 inches, one and a quarter feet) deep in their tents and they must move somewhere else. Perhaps to another camp, then another and another.

“Families have to take shelter in the camp’s schools; though slightly raised from the ground and more resistant than the tents, they are made of zinc and not very stable.

Camps visited in recent days reportedly built by the government of Bahrain had a capacity of 2,500 to 3,000 people.

Quoted under the pseudonym Abou Firas, France24 aired the story of a Syrian who was helping other families in the camps and reporting on conditions:

The weather has paralyzed daily life in the camp. No one leaves their tent unless they have to.

We have less contact with each other than before so we are feeling more and more isolated. 

Members of the Syrian opposition don’t answer my calls anymore.

“…I’ve been able to get hold of phone numbers of some members of the [foreign-supported] National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces [the new united front of the Syrian opposition] who are in Jordan. I called them a few days ago. At the start, they got back to me. But they don’t answer my calls anymore.

We feel like everyone has abandoned us.

After Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s speech over the weekend, Press TV reported again this week that in the unrest that began in mid-March 2011, many people, including large numbers of security personnel, have died in the violence and “several international human rights organizations have accused foreign-sponsored militants of committing war crimes in Syria.”

Also the Syrian government repeatedly has said the chaos in Syria “is being orchestrated from outside the country.”

That which deliberately, continually impedes independence ─

─ creates interminable, debilitating dependence and hostility

HAITIANS in camps for the homeless

Three years after the devastating January 12, 2010, earthquake in Haiti left an estimated 300,000 people dead, more than 1.5 million people homeless and a cholera epidemic brought by international U.N. troops that left almost 8,000 people dead and more than half a million sick -- and despite pledges of billions of dollars in international aid -- rebuilding has barely started and almost 400,000 people languish in camps.

The Democracy Now news program today spoke with author and former Associated Press correspondent in Haiti (2007-2011) Jonathan Katz. He said the critical problem in Haiti is one associated with foreign aid all over the world:

Donor countries avoid local governments, they avoid local institutions, they fund through their own agencies, their own NGOs, their own military personnel; thus weakening institutions.

This means local institutions already weakened when faced with a disaster such as the earthquake have a very, very hard time responding on their own.

Foreigners rush in cash or otherwise descend and “a lot of the money is spent in the wake of the natural disaster, Katz said. A lot of money is literally burned off for jet fuel or spent on hotel rooms for aid workers and officials.

Even things that are bought and ultimately got into the hands of people in Haiti ─  for example, donations of money to an organization specializing in providing tarps for shelter and bags of rice for people to eat ─ afterward left Haitians with a tarp and an empty bag of rice.

What is striking time and again, Katz said, is “a lack of permanence and durability.”

Sources and notes

SYRIA

“Syria lambasts West’s response to Bashar al-Assad’s plan ─ Syria has taken a swipe at the West for rejecting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s proposed plan for ending the ongoing violence in the country,” January 9, 2013, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/01/09/282604/syria-raps-west-for-rejecting-assads-bid/

 “Floods and misery for Syrian refugees” (January 10, 2013, JORDANIE)

France24 quotes Abou Firas (not his real name), former shopkeeper in Deraa, southwestern Syrian city and starting point of the 2011 uprising against President Bashar al-Assad.  Abou Firas has been living “at Zaatari with ten members of his family since the end of August.”

  

HAITI

“Three Years after the Quake, How the World Came to Save Haiti and Left Behind a Disaster,”

January 11, 2013, http://www.democracynow.org/2013/1/11/three_years_after_the_quake_how

Jonathan Katz is author of The Big Truck That Went By: How the World Came to Save Haiti and Left Behind a Disaster.

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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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Genetically Modified maize (irreversible, global human, environmental impact) OUT say concerned scientists

Woman prepares porridge-like drink
based on maize starch

Preserve, defend “community-controlled, biodiversity-based food systems” ─ an ethical imperative

Excerpting, editing by 

Carolyn Bennett

From UNIÓN DE CIENTÍFICOS COMPROMETIDOS CON LA SOCIEDAD, A.C. (UCCS) letter to Mexico’s head of state

  

Farmer
Native Maize
varieties

Genetically Modified maize in México scientists believe will have “irreversible, adverse effects on maize agricultural biodiversity, on farmer livelihoods, and on the right to food – not only for México and its people, but for maize farmers and consumers around the world.”

FarmerNative Maize
varieties

Being “bound by a sense of ethical duty to preserve this critical resource for humanity, and at the heart of the Mesoamerican culture,” UCCS wrote in 2009, “we demand that the administrations of President Felipe Calderón, as well as that of the elected President, take all necessary measures to guarantee that no transgenic maize is released in Mexico, the center of origin and diversity of this essential food crop.”

Women preparing maize

The UCCS said that its report, GM (genetically modified) maize in Mexico: An irreversible path away from agricultural biodiversity, farmer livelihoods and the right to food within the center of origin of maize (originally written in English to reach the international community), “has been endorsed by well-recognized networks of scientists and academics, and internationally recognized non-governmental organizations

c

oncerned about the impact of technological developments on society and the environment around the world: Unión de Científicos Comprometidos con la Sociedad (UCCS), European Network of Scientists for Social 

Maize
varieties

 and Environmental Responsibility (ENSSER), Third World Network (TWN), GRAIN and the International Network of Engineers and Scientists for Global Responsibility (INES).

At the time of the letter, Mexico’s Union of Concerned Scientists (Unión de Científicos Comprometidos con la Sociedad de México) had issued a call to action statement signed by more than 2,000 academicians and scientists, Nobel laureates, winners of the Mexican national prize, and other concerned citizens around the world. The statement ─

Maize Farmer

R

ejects the planting of genetically modified (GM) maize in Mexico

Alerts on threats to maize in its center of origin and diversity

Alerts of human health risks that may potentially result from large-scale releases of genetically modified maize in Mexico

In the statement Mexico’s Union of Concerned Scientists reemphasized its continuing quest for support and mission to inform academic and scientific communities on “the necessity to protect maize agricultural biodiversity.”

2013 has been declared the “Year of Resistance and Defense of Native Corn”

Sources and notes

UNIÓN DE CIENTÍFICOS COMPROMETIDOS

CON LA SOCIEDAD, A.C.

San Pedro No. 70 Col. El Carmen Coyoacán C.P. 04100 México, D.F.

Tel. 5622-9013, 5658-4497, www.uccs.mx

November 26th, 2012.

To the President of Mexico, Lic . Felipe Calderón Hinojosa

To the Elected President of Mexico, Lic. Enrique Peña Nieto

To the Biosafety Authorities of the Government of Mexico

Signed: UCCS, Dr. Antonio Turrent (President)

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/71023113/A-peasant-experience-of-rescuing-corn-and-other-native-seeds

Mexico’s Union of Concerned Scientists statement publicly presented November 15, 2012,

San Pedro No. 70 Col. El Carmen Coyoacán C.P. 04100 México, D.F.

Tel. 5622-9013, 5658-4497, www.uccs.mx

http://www.grain.org/article/entries/4622-gm-maize-in-mexico-an-irreversible-path

http://www.uccs.mx/doc/g/plantinggmo-corn

“Mexican farmers, environmentalists call on government to block large scale production of GMO corn ─ In Mexico, groups of small farmers and environmentalists are calling on the government to reject permit applications which would open up large swathes of productive agricultural land to commercial production of genetically modified corn. They cite cultural and scientific concerns. FSRN’s Shannon Young reports from Oaxaca,” Free Speech Radio News, January 9, 2013, http://fsrn.org/audio/mexican-farmers-environmentalists-call-government-block-large-scale-production-gmo-corn/11408

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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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Arab women unbowed take hold of historic moment, stand up, defend their rights

Arab women's cyber uprising

Women at the forefront of ‘Arab Spring,’ their hopes sidelined, continue to rise

Edited by Carolyn Bennett

Dictators fell and reforms took hold, Natalia Sinitsa writes today at Pravda.Ru, but women were refused “the rights they hoped for.” Even the slight successes women had achieved at the time of ‘Arab Spring’ have dissolved.”

Then in the belief that only they can declare their mission a failure, the women brought their fight for rights to the Internet.

Human Rights
Women of Color

Unbowed

In October of 2011, the 28-year-old Lebanese activist, Haidar Diyala, along with four like-minded women launched a Facebook campaign, 'The Uprising of Women in the Arab World,' “to tell the world about the injustices against women in the region,” Natalia Sinitsa reports.

At every stage of history, Haidar Diyala declared, there have been excuses such as “war is not the time to discuss [women’s rights]”; but it is now the time to say, “We want our rights” …

Activist Tawakkol Karman
Yemeni women uprising

 The Arab Spring was held “under the banner of freedom, dignity and equality ─ but these cannot be established if the women are left out of the equation. …”

So “… it is too early to say that the Arab Spring has failed for women. This can only be stated when women themselves declare failure of their mission.

One cannot betray women standing up to defend their rights and deciding to take advantage of an historic moment.

Source

“The female face of Arab Spring” (Natalia Sinitsa, Pravda.Ru), January 9, 2013, http://english.pravda.ru/society/stories/09-01-2013/123409-arab_spring_female_face-0/

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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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Unthinkable becomes almost a done deal: no breach to far for this presidency

Mendacity, murderous spinelessness, indifference: real horrors abroad

Editing by Carolyn Bennett

With drone strikes in Pakistan having accelerated since 2008, the CIA has been transformed into a quasi-military force and as a spy agency, CIA instincts are to wage war the way it runs covert actions – in secret, by its own rules. Therefore, U.S. president’s nomination of his architect of the secretive deadly drone program to head the CIA should not be confirmed ─ if at all − until the nominee publicly commits to getting the CIA out of the killing business. [Naureen Shah writing in the Guardian]

U.S. Drone destruction in Yemen

Proven lies qualify high public office

“

 The bodies of civilian dead are never pictured even when these deaths are reported,” Naureen Shah writes today at the Guardian.

Reports that drone strikes having killed more than 100 children “have sullied the international reputation of the United States” and led the United Nations to call for an investigation; but within the United States, “there is little if any public interest in debating the cost of drones on civilian lives.”

In yesterday’s Guardian, Glenn Greenwald recounted that before Barack Obama’s first inauguration, a controversy had erupted over reports that the president-elect intended to appoint John Brennan as CIA director and that opposition to this man had “centered on the fact that Brennan, as a [George W.] Bush-era CIA official ─

Yemenis protest
U.S. drone strikes

had expressly endorsed the Bush programs of torture (other than water boarding) and rendition and also was a vocal advocate of immunizing lawbreaking telecoms for their role in the illegal Bush NSA eavesdropping program.

T

he opposition caused Brennan to withdraw his name from consideration but the president pushed aside the concerns of the people of the United States. The Obama government, Greenwald recalls, then appointed Brennan as top counter-terrorism adviser, a position in which Brennan “exerted at least as much if not more influence as he would have done as Director of the CIA.” As top counter-terrorism adviser, Greenwald wrote ─

Brennan last year got caught outright lying when he claimed Obama’s drone program caused no civilian deaths in Pakistan over the prior year.

He also spouted complete though highly influential falsehoods to the world in the immediate aftermath of the Osama bin Laden killing, including claiming that bin Laden ‘engaged in a firefight’ with Navy SEALS and had ‘used his wife as a human shield.’

Pakistanis protest U.S. drone strikes

Brennan has also been in charge of many of Obama’s most controversial and radical policies, including ‘signature strikes’ in Yemen - targeting people without even knowing who they are - and generally seizing the power to determine who will be marked for execution without any due process, oversight or transparency.

In his nomination announcement on Monday, Naureen Shah recalls, the U.S. President “complimented Brennan on recognizing the responsibility to be as ‘open and transparent as possible’ about counter-terrorism policies and Brennan himself pledged ‘full and open discourse’ – though only with ‘appropriate elective representatives.’” However, Shah writes, it would be naive to expect the CIA, too accustomed to secrecy and under a Brennan directorship, to engage fully with the American public about the drone program.

“

If Brennan and Obama were serious about transparency over killing, they would extract the CIA from the drone program altogether. America’s premier spy agency should no longer also be its chief assassin.” But this will not happen.

Somalis suffer U.S. drone strikes

Signature character of a head of state

 “The reason the president needs a new CIA chief, Greenwald writes, “is because David Petraeus was forced to resign. Here we see the ethos and morality of imperial Washington:

Past support for torture and rendition does not disqualify one for a top national security position; only an extramarital affair can do that.

“

It is a perfect illustration of the Obama legacy that a person who was untouchable as CIA chief in 2008 because of his support for [the Bush government’s] most radical policies is not only President Obama’s choice for the same position”; but this nomination “will encounter very little resistance.

“Within this change one finds one of the most significant aspects of the Obama presidency:

His conversion of what were once highly contentious right-wing policies into harmonious dogma of the D.C. bipartisan consensus.… The eagerness to deceive and his long record of supporting radical and unaccountable powers make Brennan the perfect person to run the CIA [and] it seems clear that this is Obama’s calculus.

Sources and notes

“New director John Brennan must kill the CIA's drone assassination policy ─ Brennan’s nomination is the time to restore the CIA to being a spy agency and end its role as a remote-control death squad” (Naureen Shah), January 8, 2013, http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jan/08/john-brennan-cia-assassination-drones

“John Brennan's extremism and dishonesty rewarded with CIA Director Nomination ─ Obama’s top terrorism adviser goes from un-confirmable in 2008 to uncontroversial in 2013, reflecting the Obama legacy” (Glenn Greenwald, guardian.co.uk), January 7, 2013,

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jan/07/john-brennan-dishonesty-cia-director-nomination

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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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America: Union Unreconstructed

A

 nation of people whose perverted nostalgia tars them to a deeply flawed past (all the while claiming otherwise) can but fail their revolution and descend inexorably into regression

Excerpting, editing, brief comment by 

Carolyn Bennett

New Birth of Freedom: Reconstruction during the Civil War

 

“At the war’s outset, the Lincoln administration insisted that restoring the Union was its only purpose. But as slaves by the thousands abandoned the plantations and headed for Union lines, and military victory eluded the North, the president made the destruction of slavery a war aim -- a decision announced in the Emancipation Proclamation of January 1863.”

Reconstruction Ended  

“In the 1870’s, violent opposition in the South and the North’s retreat from its commitment to equality, resulted in the end of Reconstruction. By 1876, the nation was prepared to abandon its commitment to equality for all citizens regardless of race.

“… The election of 1876 hinged on disputed returns from Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina, where Republican governments still survived.

“After intense negotiations involving leaders of both parties, the Republican candidate, Rutherford B. Hayes, became president, while Democrats assumed control of the disputed Southern states.

“Reconstruction had come to an end.”

Revolution Unfinished

“In the generation after the end of Reconstruction, the Southern states deprived [American Negroes] of their right to vote and ordered public and private facilities of all kinds to be segregated by race. Until job opportunities opened in the North in the twentieth century, spurring a mass migration out of the South, most [Negroes] remained locked in a system of political powerlessness and economic inequality.

“A hostile and biased historical interpretation of Reconstruction as a tragic era of ‘black supremacy’ became part of the justification for the South’s new system of ‘white supremacy.’

“Not until the mid-twentieth century would the nation again attempt to come to terms with the political and social agenda of Reconstruction.

Civil Rights Demonstrations
1950s

“The civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s is often called the ‘Second Reconstruction.’ Its achievements were far-reaching.

“Today, racial segregation has been outlawed, blacks vote on the same terms as whites; more black Americans hold public office than ever before.”

However, “like the first Reconstruction, the second failed to erase the economic inequalities that originated in slavery and were reinforced by decades of segregation. Many black Americans have entered the middle class, but unemployment and poverty remain far higher than among whites Americans.

“Some Americans believe the nation has made major progress in living up to the ideal of equality. Other Americans are struck by how far away we are from the ideal of equality.”

First colored  American
Senators and Representatives

1863-1877

Reconstruction was “one of the most turbulent and controversial eras in American history.” It began during the Civil War and ended in 1877.”

Reconstruction “witnessed America’s first experiment in interracial democracy.

“Just as the fate of slavery was central to the meaning of the Civil War, so the divisive politics of Reconstruction turned on the status former slaves would assume in the reunited nation.

“Reconstruction remains relevant today because the issues central to it ─ the role of the federal government in protecting citizens’ rights, and the possibility of economic and racial justice ─ are still unresolved.

“For all Americans, Reconstruction was a time of fundamental social, economic, and political change. The overthrow of Reconstruction left to future generations the troublesome problem of racial justice.”

T

he failure of continuous progress beyond 19th century Reconstruction is also reflective of a general failure in the United States: a failure to progress in ideas, in law, in relations foreign and domestic. A sad state of affairs that is connected with and rises from a pervasive all-round environment of entrenchment, nepotism, corruption, an often perverted nostalgia retaining the same ole policies, political parties, and people in power.

Sources and notes

America’s Reconstruction: People and Politics after the Civil War (Copyright 2003)

http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/exhibits/reconstruction/section1/section1_intro.html

http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/exhibits/reconstruction/epilogue.html

Related:

Columbia University Professor Eric Foner is author of

Nothing But Freedom: Emancipation and Its Legacy (1983); Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877 (1988) (winner, among other awards, of the Bancroft Prize, Parkman Prize, and Los Angeles Times Book Award); The Reader’s Companion to American History (with John A. Garraty, 1991); The Story of American Freedom (1998); and Who Owns History? Rethinking the Past in a Changing World (2002). His survey textbook of American history, Give Me Liberty! An American History and a companion volume of documents, Voices of Freedom, appeared in 2004. His books have been translated into Chinese, Korean, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, and Spanish.  His most recent book, The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery (winner, among other awards, of the Bancroft Prize, Pulitzer Prize for History, and The Lincoln Prize) was published in the fall of 2010.

Eric Foner is DeWitt Clinton Professor of History at Columbia University and a prominent U.S. historian. He took his doctoral degree at Columbia, and has served as president of three major professional organizations: the Organization of American Historians, American Historical Association, and Society of American Historians; and is recipient of the Bancroft and Pulitzer Prizes. http://www.ericfoner.com

Britannica note

Reconstruction in U.S. history is a period during and after the American Civil War in which attempts were made to solve the political, social, and economic problems arising from the readmission to the Union of the 11 Confederate states that had seceded at or before the outbreak of war.

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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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Scathing review and long view: Keiser critiques U.S. domestic leadership

Unconscionable, deliberate erosion of social fabric

Editing by Carolyn Bennett

New fiscal deal erodes the American society’s social fabric: it delays actual response to and mischaracterizes the real crisis… 

Either we are talking about a debt and a fiscal problem or we are talking about a deeper fundamental problem with the economy in the United States; and I believe it is in the latter. 

I think the real problems are those of poverty, those of social injustice and other issues that are not addressed by any so-called ‘Fiscal Cliff,’ which itself is a manufactured problem, kicking the can down the road and not terribly far. 

What we are looking at is another fight shaping up for about eight to ten weeks from now, in which we are going to see the cuts that we did not see in this deal. ─ Founder of Stopimperialism.com, Eric Draitser, in Press TV interview

T

his is some of Max Keiser’s scathing appraisal of the Obama government’s performance and its impact on the people of the United States and beyond.

Central Banks

Deep disparity fails society

Central banks like the Federal Reserve or the ECB or the Bank of Japan or Bank of England have all coordinated their activities ─ they collude which is anti-competitive ─ to keep interest rates near zero percent. At the same time, they have off-balance-sheet accounts, what they call the shadow banking system which is now around the world.

Interest rates will rise, setting off a chain reaction of global fiat currency collapse.… This is why the very rich in America are buying assets like fine art, like gold and silver, like diamonds, precious metals because they know that ultimately the hyperinflation is coming. The currency collapse is coming because of the catastrophe that they engineered. They rule the world.

Deep disparity

W

e have to return to feudalism to find something similar ─ the incredible disparity between the top and everybody else in the economy. It is neo-feudalism and it is being engineered by people around the world and we see the results today.

Poverty is skyrocketing. Food stamp use is skyrocketing.

JP Morgan is involved not only in shadow banking with the Federal Reserve Bank in Washington and in Wall Street; but they are also the biggest purveyor of food stamps in America.

People in America are having their purchasing power completely decimated by JP Morgan’s loans and shadow banking and money printing have to go to JP Morgan and they get their food stamps processed.

Deep disparity, manufactured disparity

His Excellency presides over bottomless pit

The United States needs better metaphors than fiscal cliff, Keiser says, “It is more like a bottomless pit, a bottomless pit of debt whose numbers keep rising because there is no fiscal responsibility.”

If you are Obama’s “friend,”  “he gives you a big wet kiss and free tax reductions. If you are not his friend, you get to “stand in the food line and or a soup kitchen and pound sand because he is not interested.

“… The country is diving, sliding into this bottomless pit of debt and of course the one thing that they will not cut − the biggest expense ─ is the Pentagon…

… When America takes on more debt than they are able to collect in taxes, the difference is paid for and financed by China [and] as long as China finances America, America can continue to pretend as if they can spend more than they take in by an incredible percentage ─ one of the worst ever in the G20 countries, and in the history of G20 countries.

“…As soon as Japan and China start not a currency war but a shooting war… we are going to see currency collapse. The U.S. dollar will collapse because China will not finance it anymore. That is the risk that we are talking about, the risk that Obama does not tell his population.”

Tent City

Unconscionable lack of leadership

“

As an American,” Keiser says, “it is embarrassing to have a president who is such a coward, who will not talk to his people honestly about the true risks of his recklessness and his lack of leadership and who is really working for vested interests of Wall Street, the entertainment industry and the military contractors.”

The president must “Grow up! Keiser says, “Talk to the people as human beings and employ “a coherent foreign policy” instead of being “so quick to bomb people with drones.”

Sources and notes

“U.S. currency will collapse in 2013: Max Keiser” (Interview with Max Keiser), January 3, 2013, http://www.presstv.com/detail/2013/01/03/281581/us-fiscal-cliff-bottomless-pit-of-debt/

 Max Keiser 

American broadcast journalist and film-maker Timothy Maxwell (Max) Keiser was born (January 23, 1960) in New Rochelle, New York (USA) and lives in London, England (UK). He studied at New York University. Keiser invented ‘Virtual Specialist Technology,’ a software system used by the Hollywood Stock Exchange. His broadcast credits include:

“People and Power”: Keiser produced 10 short documentary films covering aspects of financial markets for Al Jazeera’s series People and Power. The films include Rigged Markets; Money Geyser; Death of the Dollar; Peaked; Extraordinary Antics; Savers vs. Speculators; Banking On It; Private Finance or Public Swindle?; and Focus on Locusts.

“The Oracle with Max Keiser”: A pilot episode was produced for Al-Jazeera English titled The Oracle. The show was developed into a series for BBC World News. Intended to be a humorous take on financial news before it happens, the program explored financial current affairs from the perspective of prediction markets. It ran for 10 episodes in 2009.

“On The Edge”: A weekly half-hour financial commentary show that started in 2009 and is broadcast on Press TV, featuring interviews with well-known alternative economists.

“The Keiser Report”: Since September 2009 on the RT network, Keiser has hosted The (30-minute) Keiser Report with financial news and analysis. The program is produced three times a week.

Keiser bio: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Keiser

G20

The Group of Twenty Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors (also known as the G-20, G20, and Group of Twenty) is a group of finance ministers and central bank governors from 20 major economies: 19 countries plus the European Union, which is represented by the President of the European Council and by the European Central Bank. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G-20_major_economies

G20 members represent almost:

1. 90% of global GDP.

2. 80% of international global-trade.

3. 2/3 of the world's population lives in G20 member countries.

4. 84% of all fossil fuel emissions are produced by G20 countries [1].

http://www.g20.org/docs/about/about_G20.html

1.   Federal Republic of Germany

2. Canada

3. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

4. Japan

5. The Republic of South Africa

6. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

7. The Italian Republic

8. The Russian Federation

9. The Federative Republic of Brazil

10. The Republic of Indonesia

11. The United Mexican States

12. The French Republic

13. The Republic of India

14. The Republic of Korea

15. The Republic of Turkey

16. The Argentine Republic

17. The Peoples Republic of China

18. The United States of America

19. The Commonwealth of Australia

20. European Union

G20 2013

The G20 is the leading international cooperation forum, focusing on the most important international economic and financial issues. Russia assumed the G20 presidency for the first time on December 1, 2012, and the G20 Leaders' Summit will be held in St. Petersburg on September 5-6, 2013

The official logo of Russia's G20 presidency contains the colors of the Russian flag and its graphic element an expression of "will, progress, transformation, a commitment to innovation, candor, and bold ideas - the values personified by the Group of Twenty. The combination of logo elements, with various shapes and colors coexisting harmoniously in one space is also a testament to a core idea behind the G20."

http://www.g20.org/docs/summit/summit_2013.html

“New fiscal deal erodes the American society’s social fabric: Analyst,” January 3, 2013,

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/01/03/281584/new-fiscal-deal-to-erode-us-social-fabric/

Eric Draitser is founder of Stopimperialism.com from New York City

(?) Eric Draitser (at Linked in): English/Language Arts Teacher Greater New York City Area | Education Management Current: Teacher at NYC Department of Education: Brooklyn College, New School University, UC Santa Barbara Summary: I have spent the last three years working in high-needs, urban high schools in New York City. During this time, I have gained extensive knowledge...

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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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