USA, How many died today ─ Aden to Atchafalaya Bay?

Re-reported, compiled and edited by Carolyn Bennett

MEDITERRANEAN SEA TO ARABIAN SEA

Gaza (occupied land)
As survivors mourn and the dead are buried, an autopsy and Freedom-Flotilla eyewitnesses give evidence of execution-style slaughter.

The Turkish council of forensic medicine reports that nine men on board the Mavi Marmara were shot a total of 30 times. Five were killed by gunshot wounds to the head.

• A 60-year-old man, Ibrahim Bilgen, was shot four times in the temple, chest, hip and back.
• A 19-year-old named Fulkan Dogan [who also held U.S. citizenship] was shot five times from less that 45cm. He was shot in the face, in the back of the head, twice in the leg and once in the back.
• Two other men were shot four times
• Five of the victims were shot either in the back of the head or in the back

The chairperson of the council of forensic medicine, Dr Haluk Ince, in Istanbul, said that in only one case was there a single bullet wound to the forehead from a distant shot; every other victim suffered multiple wounds. All [the bullets] were intact. This is an important piece of evidence because “when a bullet strikes another place it comes into the body deformed [but] if it directly comes into the body, the bullet is all intact.” The doctor went on to say that all except one of the bullets retrieved from the bodies came from 9mm rounds. The other round was of a kind of material they had not seen before used in firearms. “It was just a container including many types of pellets usually used in shotguns; it [had] penetrated the head region in the temple; we found it intact in the brain.”

The next June mission, the Rachel Corrie, named for a young American activist killed in Gaza in 2003, lands on Saturday and again is boarded by Israel’s military. The aid boat had ignored Israeli orders to divert to Israel’s Ashdod port where Israel had offered to unload the cargo and deliver it to Gaza after inspecting it. The Rachel Corrie carried Irish and other activists and was the latest attempt to break Israel’s four-year old blockade on Gaza. The national coordinator of the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign in Dublin called Israel’s taking of the ship “‘another brazen act of Israeli piracy on the High Seas.’” The abduction comes five days after Israel attacked the multinational aid-carrying Freedom Flotilla.

In separate incidents, five Palestinian fighters died Tuesday in the Gaza Strip after coming under Israeli fire. After Monday’s Israeli attack killing ten people on the aid-carrying Freedom flotilla of hundreds of activists, tension has increased in the Palestinian territories.

Afghanistan

A series of attacks against schools and female students have driven many Afghan girls underground to obtain an education. The Taliban have waged a violent campaign against girls who go to schools in their Afghan strongholds but the Taliban have denied involvement in the recent spate of suspected attacks and have condemned the targeting of school girls. In a 2008 attack in Kandahar men on motorbikes sprayed acid on approximately 15 girls and teachers. Taliban rule in the years 1996-2001 prohibited girls’ attending school.

Also in Afghanistan foreigners reach a death mark. This year alone approximately 230 foreign troops have died in the U.S.-led invasion and occupation of Afghanistan. Two-thirds of the year’s casualties were U.S. citizens, as U.S. forces comprise most of the estimated 130,000 rising to 150,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan. Casualties too will surely rise all round foreign and domestic.

Iraq

An Iraqi politician from the Iraqiya bloc died when armed men opened fire in the northern city of Mosul. Police said unknown assailants shot Faris Jassim al-Jubouri early on Saturday in his home in Mosul about 350km north of Baghdad.

Armed By Global, U.S. War Industry

Arms keep pouring in. The top U.S. commander in Iraq said he expected the United States to meet a long-standing Iraqi request for new Lockheed Martin Corp F-16 multi-role fighter aircraft, although not as soon as Baghdad had expected. [Army General Ray Odierno] said the United States would not meet Iraq’s request before the scheduled completion of a phased U.S. troop withdrawal at the end of next year.

However, Iraqi Defense Minister Abdel Qader Jassim had let it be known in July that Iraq had ‘many alternatives’ for securing such aircraft if the United States failed to supply F-16s. France, Russia, China and others have been jockeying to help fill Iraq’s multibillion-dollar arms wish list, which includes multi-role fighters to defend its air space from its neighbors. Lockheed Martin is the U.S. Pentagon’s No. 1 supplier by sales and the F-16 is the world’s most widely flown fighter. More than 4,400 of them have been produced or are in the pipeline for 25 countries.

HORN OF AFRICA, WESTERN ASIA

(Gulf of Aden to Indian Ocean)
Pirates captured a Panama-flagged cargo vessel carrying sugar from Brazil to the northern Somali city of Bossaso. The ship piloted by a Pakistani captain was “travelling inside of the internationally recommended transit corridor.” Security forces from Somalia’s Puntland region Wednesday stormed the Panama-flagged cargo vessel and freed the ship’s 24-member crew from Egypt, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Ghana. In the gun battle, two Somali soldiers suffered wounds; the Pakistani captain of the MV QSM Dubai died.

EASTERN ASIA

(Sea of Japan to South China Sea) 

An investigation by an anti-government Myanmar broadcaster finds evidence that Myanmar’s [Burma’s] “military regime has begun a program to develop nuclear weapons.” Though “journalists from the Norway-based Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) have been gathering information about secret military projects in Myanmar for years, they say recent revelations from a former army officer show that the military government is pushing ahead with ambitions to become a nuclear power.”

Democratic Voice of Burma observed, “A poor country with a weak economy and starvation yet manages to gather resources to build a nuclear weapon… in many ways North Korea is a parallel to Burma.” Few people a short time ago “imagined that countries like North Korea, Iran and Pakistan would also become nuclear powers.”

KILLER OIL

(Alaska to Atchafalaya Bay)

From Phoenix, Louisiana, activist Tyrone Edwards’ comments in Friday’s interview with Democracy Now
“Once you kill the fishing industry, you have devastated their [fishers’] whole life. For most of these people, that’s how they survive. Their whole living depends on the water environment. That’s all they know. Some people fish every day—Sunday, Saturday, all day, because they own their own oyster bed.

“Not only is the oil spill devastating the environment and people’s livelihoods and the fishing industry, it is destroying people’s health, their lives. We’re concerned about dispersants in the water because everything we do is controlled by the Mississippi River: the water we drink and the water that we bathe in. Once that’s contaminated, we are destroyed. We’re concerned about an epidemic in our community that we had no control over.

“This oil spill disaster has long-term impact. That’s why you have the anxiety among our community now. When we went to Washington, D.C., after we left the House judiciary hearing, we went to [Louisiana Senator Mary L. Landrieu’s] hearing and we were frightened by the fact that she had someone representing the large fishing industry, people who do international business. We had Byron Encalade [owner of Encalade Fisheries in East Pointe a la Hache in Plaquemines Parish] who represents little [fishing business owners] who go out and get 200 sacks of oysters ─ compared to somebody who is dealing with hundreds of thousands of sacks of oysters. We found that more attention was being placed on [big businesses] because what … Landrieu was saying to BP was, ‘Can somebody come to your office—can a business come to your office and file a million-dollar claim?’ Our little fisher men can’t file a million-dollar claim. … We can’t make contributions to elected officials’ campaigns. We vote for what they do for us. We’re concerned that we’re going to get lost in that shuffle because we cannot compete. We think we deserve the same kind of treatment as big business and casinos. We’re talking about our lives.”

War, Occupation Casualty sites reporting

June 5, 2010 (accurate totals unknown, usual reporting not updated)

• Anti-war dot com casualties in Iraq starting March 19, 2003: Since January 20, 2009 inauguration: 174 dead; 31,839-100,000 wounded; 320,000 U.S. veterans with brain injuries; 18 suicides a day [May 8 update], http://www.antiwar.com/casualties/

• Iraq Body Count: documented civilian deaths from violence 96,663 – 105,408, http://www.iraqbodycount.org/

• ICasualties IRAQ: 4,402 U.S, 4,720 Coalition; AFGHANISTAN: 1,089 U.S., 1,797 Coalition http://icasualties.org/oif//

The Washington Post citing senior military and administration officials reported Friday, “Beneath its commitment to soft-spoken diplomacy and beyond the combat zones of Afghanistan and Iraq, the Obama administration has significantly expanded a largely secret U.S. war against al-Qaeda and other radical groups. U.S. Special Operations forces have grown in number and budget and are deployed in 75 countries.” At the beginning of 2009, the Post article said, the number stood at approximately 60. “In addition to units that have spent years in the Philippines and Colombia, teams are operating in Yemen and elsewhere in the Middle East, Africa and Central Asia.”


Sources and notes, hegemony, geopolitical landscape 
Atchafalaya Bay is an arm of the Gulf of Mexico extending southeastward along the southern coast of the U.S. State of Louisiana. The bay’s reefs contain oyster shells, which provide road ballast and raw materials for making lime and cement at many coastal factories. There are many natural gas and oil fields in the area. The bay also is the focus of the Atchafalaya Delta Wildlife Management Area that occupies some 214 square miles (554 square km) of water and land.

Atchafalaya Bay extends for 21 miles (34 km) from Point Chevreuil to Point Au Fer on Point Au Fer Island. The bay is 10 miles (16 km) wide, and Four League Bay extends another 11 miles (18 km) to the southeast. Eugene Island lies on a long shell reef extending 25 miles (40 km) northwest of Point Au Fer. The Lower Atchafalaya River links the bay with Morgan City, 15 miles (24 km) north, where the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway meets the Plaquemine–Morgan City Waterway and connects to the Mississippi River system.
“Gaza flotilla activists were shot in head at close range,” June 5, 2010,

 http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jun/04/gaza-flotilla-activists-autopsy-results
 Exclusive: Nine Turkish men on board Mavi Marmara were shot a total of 30 times, autopsy results reveal

 “Aid ship Rachel Corrie ‘intercepted’ by Israeli troops: Gaza,” June 5, 2010, http://gulfnews.com/news/region/palestinian-territories/aid-ship-rachel-corrie-intercepted-by-israeli-troops-gaza-committee-1.636962
“‘Rachel Corrie victim of piracy, terror,’” June 5, 2010, http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=129143§ionid=351020202“Five Gazans killed by Israeli fire,” June 1, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/06/201061135822164378.html

“Afghan girls brave Taliban threats,” June 5, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/06/20106510171162225.html
“Foreign troop death toll in Afghanistan hits 230,” AFP - Saturday, June 5, 2010,

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/afp/20100605/tap-afghanistan-unrest-nato-eea7cf4.

“Iraq politician shot dead in Mosul,” June 5, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/06/201065112649147845.html

“U.S. eyes new F-16 fighters for Iraq – commander” (Reporting by Jim Wolf; Editing by Tim Dobbyn UPDATE), Friday June 4, 2010, http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN0414780020100604?type=

“Somali forces free ship,” June 3, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2010/06/20106391238963851.html
The Horn of Africa is an extension of land between the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden inhabited by Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, and Djibouti, cultures linked throughout their long history.

The Gulf of Aden is a deepwater basin forming a natural sea link between the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea. Named after the seaport of Aden, in southern Yemen, the gulf is situated between the coasts of Arabia and the Horn of Africa. In oceanographic and geologic terms, it extends to the eastern limits of the continental shelf [Almost everywhere the shelves represent a continuation of the continental land mass beneath the ocean margins] beyond the Kuria Muria Islands to the north and the island of Socotra to the south, covering an area of some 205,000 square miles (530,000 square km).

The Indian Ocean is bounded by Iran, Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh to the north; the Malay Peninsula, the Sunda Islands of Indonesia, and Australia to the east; Antarctica to the south; and Africa and the Arabian Peninsula to the west. In the southwest, it joins the Atlantic Ocean south of the southern tip of Africa, and to the east and southeast, its waters mingle with those of the Pacific. The question of defining the oceanic limits of the Indian Ocean is complicated and remains unsettled. The Indian Ocean is a body of salt water, covering approximately one-fifth of the total ocean area of the world; it is the smallest, youngest, and physically most complex of the world’s three major oceans.

“Myanmar ‘nuclear plans’ exposed, June 4, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2010/06/2010642542469132.html
Myanmar is bordered by China to the north and northeast, Laos to the east, Thailand to the southeast, the Andaman Sea and Bay of Bengal to the south and southwest, Bangladesh to the west, and India to the northwest.

[On India’s western border is Pakistan and on Pakistan’s western border is Afghanistan; on China’s eastern border on the Sea of Japan is North Korea. The largest of all Asian countries, with the world’s largest population, occupying nearly the entire East Asian landmass, approximately one-fourteenth of the land area of the Earth ─ China is bounded by Mongolia to the north; Russia and North Korea to the northeast; the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea to the east; the South China Sea to the southeast; Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar (Burma), India, Bhutan, and Nepal to the south; Pakistan to the southwest; and Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan to the west. In addition to the 14 countries that border directly on it, China also faces South Korea and Japan, across the Yellow Sea, and the Philippines, which lie beyond the South China Sea]. 

Officially the Union of Myanmar (also called Burma, Burmese Myanmar or Pyidaungzu Myanma Naingngandaw country), Myanmar sits in the western portion of mainland Southeast Asia. In 1989, the country’s official English name was changed from the Union of Burma to the Union of Myanmar; in the Burmese language, the country has been known as Myanma (or, more precisely, Mranma Prañ) since the 13th century. The English name of the capital, Rangoon, in 1989 became Yangôn. 

“Nearly 5 Years After Katrina, African American Fishing Community in Louisiana's Plaquemines Parish Faces New Struggle in Oil Spill Devastation and BP Obstruction,” June 4, 2010, http://www.democracynow.org/

“U.S. ‘secret war’ expands globally as Special Operations forces take larger role” (Jennifer Jenkins), June 4, 2010, http://voices.washingtonpost.com/washingtonpostinvestigations/2010/06/us_secret_war_expands_globally.html?wprss=washingtonpostinvestigationsBackground notes: Britannica

“We who believe in freedom” ─ Reagon’s Ella

Lyrics excerpted with minor edits by Carolyn Bennett for Today's Insight News
In an interview today on WBIA, Bernice Johnson Reagon discussed her activism, her career and work, Ella Baker, U.S. history, context and current affairs.

African American woman’s voice, child of Southwest Georgia, voice raised in song, born in the struggle against racism in America during the Civil Rights Movement of the 50s and 60s, Bernice Johnson Reagon has been a major cultural voice for freedom and justice. She is a composer, singer, song leader, scholar and producer. Four decades ago, Bernice Johnson Reagon organized Sweet Honey In The Rock.

She is the composer of

“Ella’s Song”

Ccopyright: Songtalk Publishing Co.

We who believe in freedom cannot rest

We who believe in freedom cannot rest until it comes

We who believe in freedom cannot rest
We who believe in freedom cannot rest until it comes

Until the killing of Black men, Black mothers’ sons
Is as important as the killing of White men, White mothers’ sons

We who believe in freedom cannot rest

We who believe in freedom cannot rest until it comes

… That which touches me most is that I had a chance to work with people
Passing on to others that which was passed on to me

We who believe in freedom cannot rest

We who believe in freedom cannot rest until it comes

To me young people come first, they have the courage where we fail
… If I can shed some light as they carry us through the gale

We who believe in freedom cannot rest

We who believe in freedom cannot rest until it comes

The older I get the better I know that the secret of my going on
Is when the reins are in the hand of the young who dare to run against the storm

We who believe in freedom cannot rest

We who believe in freedom cannot rest until it comes

Not needing to clutch for power, not needing the light just to shine on me
I need to be just one in the number as we stand against tyranny

We who believe in freedom cannot rest

We who believe in freedom cannot rest until it comes

Struggling myself don’t mean a whole lot I come to realize
…Teaching others to stand up and fight is the only way my struggle survives

We who believe in freedom cannot rest
We who believe in freedom cannot rest until it comes

I’m a woman who speaks in a voice and I must be heard
At time I can be quite difficult, I’ll bow to no man’s word

We who believe in freedom cannot rest

We who believe in freedom cannot rest until it comes

We who believe in freedom cannot rest

We who believe in freedom cannot rest until it comes

Bernice Johnson Reagon is the composer Ella’s Song copyright: Songtalk Publishing Co.
http://www.bernicejohnsonreagon.com/ella.shtml
http://www.bernicejohnsonreagon.com/

Bernice Johnson Reagon was in interview live on WBAI, New York City, May 3, 2010, http://wbai.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=category§ionid=4&id=221&Itemid=135

Complicit U.S. gov't denies Israeli massacre

Edited excerpts by Carolyn Bennett from today’s Democracy Now interview with Ali Abunimah, Executive Director of Electronic Intifada

People have tried to reach Gaza to break the siege. They have tried by land. They have tried by sea. They have… given their lives in the cause of breaking this siege on Gaza.

We have to ask for what crime 1.5 million people in Gaza are being held prisoner?

There is a museum in Berlin dedicated to those who were killed ─ machine-gunned to death while trying to cross over the Berlin Wall. An unknown number of people (Israel will not release numbers) have been machine-gunned to death for trying to break Israel’s blockade.

When will there be accountability?

When will the Obama administration stop this outrageous complicity, this enabling, this acting as an accomplice with these crimes against people in Palestine, and now (on the ‘Freedom Flotilla’) crimes against Americans, Turks, Greeks, Jordanians, Palestinians, Lebanese, Swedes, French people, German people, members of Parliament, doctors, retired people, trying to bring medicine to people in Gaza?

That our government has not stood up and condemned this [attack on six aid-carrying ships to Gaza] in the clearest possible terms is a sign that something is sick in the United States’ system when it comes to speaking about and dealing with Israel. This sickness must be addressed.



Sources and notes
“Global Condemnation of Israeli Armed Attack on Gaza-Bound Freedom Flotilla: At Least 10 Dead, Hundreds Remain in Detention.” June 1, 2010, http://www.democracynow.org/2010/6/1/global_condemnation_of_israeli_armed_attack
“Massacre at sea ─ Israel attacks aid flotilla to Gaza,” May 31-June 1, 2010, http://electronicintifada.net/new.shtml

The Electronic Intifada (EI) is a not-for-profit, independent publication committed to comprehensive public education on the question of Palestine, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the economic, political, legal, and human dimensions of Israel’s 40-year occupation of Palestinian territories. EI provides a needed supplement to mainstream commercial media representations of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. http://electronicintifada.net/v2/aboutEI.shtml
EI’s Executive Director is Ali Abunimah, its Managing Editor is Maureen Clare Murphy [http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article2242.shtml]

Occupiers’ impunity persists amid world outrage, UNSC meets

Re-reporting, editing by Carolyn Bennett
Blood on our hands...

Israeli commandos today off the coast of the Gaza Strip attacked the “Freedom Flotilla,” a convoy of six aid-carrying ships. This Israeli attack early Monday killed up to 19 people and injured dozens on board the vessels.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said nothing justifies the appalling outcome of this operation. She went on to “unequivocally condemn what appears to be disproportionate use of force, resulting in the killing and wounding of so many people attempting to bring much-needed aid to the people of Gaza, who have now been enduring a blockade for more than three years.” Without the blockade, she said, “there would be no need for flotillas like this.” She also called for an investigation and accountability.

The blockade, Navi Pillay said, “lies at the heart of so many of the problems plaguing the Israel-Palestine situation, as does the impression that the Israeli Government treats international law with perpetual disdain.”

The UN Special Rapporteur Richard Falk charged that “Israel is guilty of shocking behavior by using deadly weapons against unarmed civilians on ships that were situated in the high seas where freedom of navigation exists, according to the law of the seas.” He went on to say that “unless prompt and decisive action is taken to challenge the Israeli approach to Gaza all of us will be complicit in criminal policies that are challenging the survival of an entire beleaguered community.”

Palestinian Civil Society Organizations and International activists are calling for worldwide pressure on governments to end Israel’s abductions and killings in attacks against the Gaza Freedom Flotilla and pressure on governments to begin global efforts to “hold Israel accountable for the murder of civilians at sea and the illegal piracy of civilian vessels carrying humanitarian aid for Gaza.”

Amnesty International today recounts “the nearly three years, Israel, the occupying power in the Gaza Strip, has implemented a policy of banning all movement of goods and people, except for the most basic humanitarian necessities, which are imported by international aid agencies. A fraction of patients needing treatment outside Gaza are allowed to leave and dozens have died while waiting for a travel permit from Israel.”

By restricting the entry of food, medical supplies, educational equipment and building materials, Israel’s blockade does not target armed groups but rather punishes Gaza’s entire population. The impact falls heaviest “on the most vulnerable among Gaza’s 1.5 million people: children, the elderly, and the sick.” Under international law, Israel’s “blockade constitutes collective punishment and must be lifted immediately.”

In its latest assault, the Israeli government persisted in claiming self-defense but Al Jazeera reporters found something else. From aboard the flotilla’s lead ship, the reporters said a white surrender flag had been raised from the ship but “Israeli troops assaulted with “live ammunition.” About 50 flotilla activists (among them students, Nobel laureates, children, and Jewish holocaust survivors) were subjected to extensive security checks and imprisoned, the goods they carried taken and placed in a terminal. Activists were given the choice if going home immediately, in which case they would be taken by bus to Tel Aviv airport; or, if they resisted deportation, taken to a nearby detention center and held for at least 72 hours.

International solidarity movement’s call from Gaza for global response has been signed by several organizations: The One Democratic State Group, University Teachers Association, Arab Cultural Forum, Palestinian Students’ Campaign for the Academic Boycott of Israel, Association of Al-Quds Bank for Culture and Info, Popular Committee against the Wall and Settlements, International Solidarity Movement, Palestinian Network of Non-Governmental Organizations, Palestinian Women Committees, Progressive Students Union, Medical Relief Society, The General Society for Rehabilitation, Gaza Community Mental Health Program. General Union of Palestinian Women, Afaq Jadeeda Cultural Centre for Women and Children, Deir Al-Balah Cultural Centre for Women and Children, Maghazi Cultural Centre for Children, Al-Sahel Centre for Women and Youth, Ghassan Kanfani Kindergartens, Rachel Corrie Centre, Rafah, Rafah Olympia City Sisters, Al Awda Centre, Rafah, Al Awda Hospital, Jabaliya Camp, Ajyal Association, Gaza, General Union of Palestinian Syndicates, Al Karmel Centre, Nuseirat, Local Inititiative, Beit Hanoun, Union of Health Work Committees, Red Crescent Society Gaza Strip, Beit Lahiya Cultural Centre, Al Awda Centre, Rafah [Updated on May 31, 2010].

People of Gaza are calling on people across the world to

Demonstrate and support the courageous men and women who went on the Flotilla, many now murdered on a humanitarian aid mission.
Insist on severing diplomatic ties with Israel, bringing to trial for war crimes, securing International protection of the civilians of Gaza
Join the growing campaigns of international boycott, divestment and sanction of a country proving again to be so violent and yet unchallenged
Join the growing critical mass around the world with a commitment to the day when Palestinians are entitled to the same rights as any other people, when the siege is lifted, the occupation is over, and the six million Palestinian refugees are finally granted justice.

By the afternoon today Eastern Time, reports from international waters were still coming in. In New York City, the UN Security Council was meeting to discuss Israel's attack on the Freedom Flotilla. The League of Arab States also was expected to hold an urgent session on the matter.

Sources and notes
“Deadly Israeli raid on aid,” May 31, 2010 fleethttp://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/05/201053113252437484.html
“Israeli killings of Gaza ship activists must be investigated,” May 31, 2010, http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/israeli-killings-gaza-ship-activists-must-be-investigated-2010-05-31
“Call from Gaza for global response to killings on the freedom flotilla,” May 31, 2010, http://palsolidarity.org/2010/05/12597/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+palsolidarity+%28International+Solidarity+Movement%29
“Secretary-General 'shocked' by deadly raid on Gaza aid flotilla,” May 31, 2010, http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=34863&Cr=gaza&Cr1=

Irony
Today in history: Adolf Eichmann was hanged ─ On May 31, 1962, Israel hanged German official Adolf Eichmann for his part in “the Nazi extermination of Jews during World War II.” Eichmann had escaped from a prison camp in 1946 and spent some 14 years in hiding [Britannica].

West inflames, East cools down ─ U.S. v. Asia again

Re-reporting, editing by Carolyn Bennett

A hundred thousand (100,000) people gathered today in Pyongyang, North Korea, to condemn the United States and South Korea’s behavior against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) concerning the sinking in March of a South Korean warship. Also at a summit in South Korea today, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama exchanged views on the Cheonan warship incident and offered condolences over the deaths of 46 sailors in that incident. The Chinese and Japanese leaders further stated that “they attached importance to the joint investigation by South Korea and some other countries into the incident and have noted the responses from concerned parties.”

At the rally held on the Kim Il Sung Square, Choe Yong Rim, chief secretary of the Pyongyang City Committee of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea, said the “inter-Korean relations have been driven into a situation, in which a war may break out anytime.”… Other speakers at the rally expressed the “determination to react with a rapid retaliatory strike if South Korea shows the slightest sign of ‘punishment’ and ‘retaliation’ together with foreign forces.” The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), state news agency of North Korea, reported a bulletin released by the Secretariat of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea denouncing South Korea for “persistently linking the warship sinking with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).”

Also responding to latest East-West actions, reactions

Russian Federation: energy superpower
Russia (the Russian Federation) extends across the whole of northern Asia and 40 percent of Europe, spans nine time zones and incorporates a wide range of environments, and is the largest country in the world, covering more than a ninth of Earth’s land area. Russia is the ninth most populous nation in the world, with 142 million people. Russia has the world’s largest forest reserves and its lakes contain approximately one-quarter of the world’s fresh water. This country possesses the world’s largest reserves of mineral and energy resources and is an energy superpower.

Friday May 28 (AFP) ─ “Russia will not support efforts to punish North Korea for sinking a South Korean warship until it is fully convinced Pyongyang was behind the incident, a foreign ministry spokesman said on Thursday. ‘We need to receive 100 percent proof of North Korea’s role in the sinking of the corvette.’” Russia has a short land border with North Korea. As a Permanent Member of the UN Security Council, it has the power to veto any new sanctions against North Korea in the warship incident. In June, Russia will hold “major naval exercises in the Sea of Japan, close to the Korean Peninsula”; these exercises “had been planned before the current tensions broke out.”

Diplomats from Russia and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) also confirmed their continuing consultations in search of ways out of the ongoing crisis on the Korean Peninsula.

People’s Republic of China: export powerhouse, most peopled 
China (The People’s Republic of China or PRC) lies in East Asia and is the most populous state in the world with more than 1.3 billion people. Under a single-party system, China is ruled by the Communist Party of China (CPC).

Sunday May 30 ─ Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao called for the proper handling of the serious consequences of the March sinking of a South Korean warship and efforts to gradually ease tensions in the region over the incident.

Koreas: China, Russia neighbors
South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK, capital is Seoul) lies in East Asia on the southern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its western neighbor is China, eastern Japan, and northern North Korea.
North Korea, officially the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK, capital and largest city Pyongyang) lies in East Asia and occupies the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. The Korean Demilitarized Zone is the buffer zone between North and South Korea.

Sunday May 30 ─ South Korea’s military suspended a plan to fly “anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).

Sources and notes
“100,000 people gather in Pyongyang to protest against U.S., S. Korea over warship sinking,” English.news.cn May 30, 2010, http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2010-05/30/c_13323973.htm

The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA, December 5, 1946-) is the state news agency of North Korea headquartered in the capital city of Pyongyang.
Also Wikipedia

Educators decry bull invasion

Re-reporting, editing by Carolyn Bennett

The State Board of Education’s final approval of new social studies curriculum standards makes clear that the Texas way of deciding curriculum content for public school children is seriously flawed, writes Texas education activist Kathy Miller.

“Teams of teachers and scholars labored throughout much of last year to draft new social studies curriculum standards,” she says. “Then the politicians on the Texas State Board of Education sent the experts home.” Took the drafts and in short shrift made “detailed, ill-considered and blatantly political” changes leaving proper professionals dumbfounded.

Board members voted on hundreds of changes in the social studies curriculum ─ without one historian, economist or any other social studies expert in the room to advise them; and though individual board members claimed to have vetted their revisions with experts before the meetings, other members said they had been forced to cast votes on changes they had never seen. The result was that many decisions, Miller reports, were based on members’ “Google and Wikipedia” searches, their “limited personal knowledge and personal and political biases.…

“Educators could only watch in despair.… Schoolchildren deserve far better.”

The social studies and history curriculum adopted by the Texas State Board of Education last Friday, the Associated Press reported, “amends or waters down the teaching of religious freedoms and the United States’ relationship with the United Nations.” Students are required to “evaluate efforts by global organizations such as the United Nations to undermine U.S. sovereignty.” The board increases requirements for “teaching Judeo-Christian influences” on U.S. founders and mandates references to U.S. government not as democratic but as a “‘constitutional republic.’” Students are required “to study the decline in the value of the U.S. dollar and the abandonment of the gold standard.” Voting 9-5 along political party lines, the board’s action targeting high school government courses waters down “the rationale for separation of church and state and requires students to compare and contrast the judicial language with wording in the First Amendment.”

A study by the Texas Freedom Network Education Fund found that “78 percent of parents want teachers and scholars ─ not elected state board members ─ to be responsible for writing curriculum standards and textbook requirements for public schools.”

In her opinion piece this week, Miller as president of the Texas Freedom Network declares that it is time to fix a flawed system the state board is “clearly unwilling to fix.” The Texas Legislature so far has considered but failed to pass bills putting primary responsibility for the adoption of curriculum standards and textbooks in the hands of classroom teachers and academic experts. It is time for lawmakers to revisit those recommendations to “ensure that public schools are focused on educating children ─ not promoting the personal and political agendas of elected state board members.”


Sources and notes
“Kathy Miller: ‘Time for Texas to fix flawed curriculum process,’” May 25, 2010, http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/viewpoints/stories/DN-miller_26edi.State.Edition1.244ea05.html
Kathy Miller is president of the Texas Freedom Network, a public education and religious liberties watchdog based in Austin, Texas.
“Texas board adopts new social studies curriculum,” April Castro, Associated Press May 21, 2010, http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gPQ3ktQNqImWyQ23yXKoCFXWrN1QD9FRK9E01



“The chemicals we manufacture for modern needs are complex synthetic compounds. Most are untested and some are toxic to nature and the human body. But the new science of green chemistry offers the possibility of products that are ‘benign by design,’ modeled on natural processes” [http://aworldofpossibilities.org/]

School uniforms > equal footing, “shot at meritocracy” ─ Sachdev

Re-reporting, editing by Carolyn Bennett

Should schoolchildren have the right to wear what they want?
Mathematics teacher Sapna Krishan says, No, You’re not going for a party!

“Everybody wants his or her children to [learn discipline],” Sapna Krishan said. “As a parent I would love my son to be disciplined. Discipline starts in school. School has certain rules laid out. Wearing uniform is one of them. It leads to uniformity amongst the children.”

The conspicuous disparity effect in students’ wearing what they want is seen when “in certain schools children come from different sections of society. Four children: A, B, C, and D. A and B come from industrialized families; D comes from working-class families, professional [class]. C’ and D’ parents move all over the world getting various things from different parts of the world. A’s and B’s parents do not because they do not travel so much all around the globe. What happens? Some have branded [brand-name] jeans. Others do not have and they feel, ‘Oh, she’s wearing branded jeans, why can’t I wear it.’”

Schools are places for concentration and study, she says.

You’re going to school, you’re going there to study. You’re not going for a party!
So when you go to study, you concentrate on what is happening in the class not what others are wearing.
This definitely effects how students are treating each other: Competition comes and difference is created.

Journalist Chhavi Sachdev writes, “Even if we didn’t think so [while] in school, there really is a rationale behind wearing these uniforms. Uniforms may be stifling to the kids but they inculcate them with fundamental values of respect and discipline.

“Uniforms give kids a chance to be seen on equal footing with everyone else ─ at least, for the time they’re in school.”

Nearly every schoolchild in India is required to wear a uniform. Chhavi Sachdev grew up in India, wore a uniform, and hated it.

“I wanted to wear jeans to school,” she said. “I wanted to wear my new earrings, and wear my hair open, not confined in silly braids. Back then, I desperately envied the expat kids who went to the American School and could wear whatever they wanted. They got to show off their own identities while ours were hidden behind the sameness of grey tunics and blue ties.” Sachdev later saw the wisdom behind the school uniform rule.

“[E]ven with uniforms on, you can tell who’s stinking rich and who’s not so well-off, but these bland outfits give the have-nots a fighting chance to blend in, to achieve without worrying about unvoiced, even unknown prejudice.

“[E]specially where the chasm between the haves and have-nots is so wide and so glaringly obvious, little things like standardized clothing are what give us a shot at being a meritocracy.”


Source and notes
Chhavi Sachdev is a writer and independent journalist.
“Uniformity and equality” (Chhavi Sachdev), The State We’re In - India Edition, Radio Netherlands Worldwide, December 12, 2010, http://static.rnw.nl/migratie/www.radionetherlands.nl/thestatewerein/otherstates/tswi-081212-unifroms-india-redirected