NEO•GRIOT

Abbey Hill Literary's 1st Quarter 2010 challenges are here,

plus a NEW, separate, Flash Fiction competition!

 

Submission Deadline:  February 28, 2010 

 

Select one of the following five challenges and write a short story of up to 1,500 words that begins with the words of that challenge.

 

1.  You gotta' love an underdog.  That's why...

 

2.  Leslie tightened her (his) rain soaked hood, shoved her (his) spade into the muddy dirt, and...

 

3.  Sometimes a kiss is...

 

4.  On her (his, my) left, sun-coaxed daisies waved at the sun, while on her (his,my) right, snow spatter clung to ice blasted trees.

 

5.  Dan guessed the truth was somewhere in the middle. 

(feel free to substitute "he," "she," "I," or another character name) 

 

OR, select one of the two scenarios below and write a short story of up to 1,500 words that incorporates that scenario.

 

6.  Write a story where the plot or main action takes place at a circus, carnival or state fair.  Make us feel the thrum of the creaky rides, hear the scratchy voices of the carnival barkers, or smell the greasy food.  Is there danger and intrigue, or are children giggling over cute stuffed animals to be won with the toss of a ball?  Take us there.

 

7.  Write a story in which the main character, in some way, dies and is reborn.  Does s/he go to heaven?  Hell?  Come back as a grizzly bear or a dragonfly?  Return as a child born half way round the world?  Or is s/he given a chance to start over in this life?  Surprise us with your short story interpretation of this age-old theme.

 

NEW THIS QUARTER:  Abbey Hill Literary is happy to announce the addition of a NEW and separate Flash Fiction contest (up to 750 words) with, at this time, a single prize of $100.00.  The use of the above prompts and scenarios is NOT required for this 750 word competition, and your story may incorporate any theme or plot (excluding, as always, erotica or extreme violence or gore).  Quarterly entries for this contest will be judged separately from entries using the above challenges.  Entry fee is $10, or, $20 if a critique is requested.

  

As in previous Abbey Hill Literary competitions, your short story contest entry that uses one of the above seven challenges must begin with the exact words of  one  of the opening lines, numbered 1 through 5 above, OR it must fit within one of the two scenarios, numbered 6 and 7, above.  You may enter just one, or as many short stories into the contest as you wish, but a separate entry fee of $10.00 is required for each individual story entered.  If you wish to receive a critique of your short story, a total entry fee of $20.00 (which includes one entry fee and one critique) is required.  Critiques are mailed within 45 days after the close of each contest.  Also, be sure to include a title for your story.

 

If you use one of the above seven challenges, and if the opening words of your short story are not exactly as shown in Challenges 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5, OR your story line does not fit within Challenges 6 or 7, your story will be disqualified, discarded, and entry fee forfeited. 

 

Any short story exceeding 1,500 words if using one of the above challenges, or exceeding 750 words if entered into the separate Flash Fiction contest, will also be disqualified, discarded, and entry fee forfeited.  Stories received without entry fee will be discarded without being read or evaluated.  Abbey Hill Literary uses the MS Word count function to determine number of words.

 

Benighted Journalists Assail Haiti

Decent people in North America have tried to help Haitians after the devastating earthquake that struck on January 12, but the corporate media has left them unequipped to do one of the most helpful things they can do - oppose their governments' efforts to inflict more harm on the victims under the cover of disaster relief. If it seems paranoid to claim that Canada and the US will use the earthquake to further set back development and democracy, it is only because the criminal role they have played in Haiti has been very effectively hidden.

The Economics of Mass Murder

German playwright Bertolt Brecht wrote that "In democratic countries the violent character inherent in the economy doesn't show itself; in authoritarian countries the same holds for the economic character of the violence"[1]

With Brecht's words in mind, consider that under the dictatorship of Jean Claude Duvalier ("Baby Doc"), Haiti became the ninth largest assembler of manufactured goods for the US market. His regime kept wages attractively low to foreign investors through mass murder. By the mid 1980s wages were also kept low through the destruction of Haiti's agricultural economy. US imports began to flood the Haitian market, ruining its farmers and driving them into urban areas, especially Port-au-Prince, in search of any work they could find. The mass exodus from the countryside also led people to live in shantytowns where they are vulnerable to the impact of hurricanes and earthquakes. [2]

The Duvalier regimes were responsible for the murder of about 50,000 people. That does not include those who died preventable deaths from malnutrition and disease as a direct result of polices designed to enrich a small Haitian elite and foreign multinationals like Disney.[3]

The Duvalierist model of "development" eventually generated so much opposition within Haiti that it became unsustainable with Duvaliers in charge. In 1986, Baby Doc fled Haiti. In 1990 Jean Bertrand Aristide won Haiti's first free elections. Though the Duvaliers were gone, "Duvalierism without Duvalier" has been the objective of Haitian elite and their foreign allies since 1990. Lavalas, Aristide's movement of the poor, despite its modest objectives, posed a serious threat to Duvalierism.

Twice, in 1991 and 2004, democratically elected governments in Haiti led by Aristide have been overthrown in US backed coups that led to the murder of thousands of his supporters. US governments (and their allies in Canada and France who helped out with the 2004 coup) are much like the Mafia. The Godfather has long decided that Haiti will offer some of the world's lowest wages to multinational corporations like Disney, Levi Strauss and Gilden Activeware. Haiti may be the smallest shopkeeper in the US neighborhood, but no competent Mafia Don lets the smallest shopkeeper defy him. [4]

Burying the Past and the Present

It is impossible to rationally assess foreign intervention in Haiti - present or future - without discussing to the two coups against Aristide's governments in 1991 and 2004. With numerous ideas being floated in the press about how to "fix", "rebuild" and even "re-imagine" Haiti, it's instructive to look at how often the coups were mentioned in articles written after the earthquake.

Between January 12 and February 6, according to Lexis Nexis, the words "Aristide" and "coup" appear in only 6.4% of the articles about Haiti in the major English newspapers (8% in the case of Canada's five largest newspapers). None of the articles that mention "Aristide" and "coup" in Canada's major newspapers were editorials. In contrast, two editorials (in the Globe & Mail, January 14 and Montreal Gazette, January 16) approvingly mentioned Paul Collier, a World Bank economist and leading proponent of the Duvalierist economic polices described above. Collier has written

"Haiti has labor costs that are fully competitive with China, which is the global benchmark. Haitian labor is not only cheap, it is of good quality. Indeed, because the garments industry used to be much larger than it is currently [my emphasis], there is a substantial pool of experienced labor."[5]

Just don't ask how wages will be kept appalling low or how they got that way. Collier's cheerleaders in the press ignore the violence that has always been required in Haiti for Collier's, hardly novel and untested, "suggestions" to be implemented.

Even those rare articles that mentioned the coups against Aristide usually regurgitated the version of events offered by the US and Canadian governments. A good example of the standard whitewash appeared in an article written by Geoffrey York for the Toronto Globe and Mail ("Exiled Aristide bidding to come home", January 16, 2010). [6]

I wrote to Geoffrey York about his article and pointed out facts that, judging by his article, he was completely unaware of. York replied, and a lengthier exchange ensued than I have ever had with a corporate journalist.

The full exchange can be read here

http://canuckmediamonitor.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=325

One of the things York said in defense of his work was that "brevity" forced him to leave things out. This is how York summarized recent Haitian history in his article:

"He was elected president in a landslide victory in 1990, but was overthrown in a military coup in 1991.After years of exile in Venezuela and the United States, he was reinstated to power in 1994 with the help of heavy pressure from the U.S. government, including the deployment of 20,000 troops.

In 2000, he won election again, but human-rights groups criticized his campaign for using violence and intimidation. Opposition parties boycotted the election and refused to recognize his victory.

Over the next four years his government was plagued by protests against human-rights abuses, corruption, economic woes and high unemployment. His armed supporters were accused of attacking journalists and political opponents.

The anti-government protests intensified in 2004 and turned violent, and Mr. Aristide was forced to flee the country. He later complained that he was 'kidnapped' and bundled onto a U.S. airplane by U.S. security agents. He was flown to the Central African Republic and later to South Africa, where the government gave him a villa in Pretoria."

Using an equal number of words (just as much "brevity") Geoffrey York could have written the following:

"In 1990, after decades of dictatorship bankrolled by Washington, Haitians voted in their first free presidential election. The winner, Jean Bertrand Aristide, was quickly deposed in a US backed coup. Bill Clinton ordered the regime to resign in 1994 but insisted that Aristide's years in exile count as years served in office and that Aristide implement policies favored by the Haitian elite. Clinton ensured that perpetrators of the coup escaped justice or remained employed in Haiti's security forces.

From 1995-2002, the US spent 70 million dollars on strengthening Aristide's opponents. Aristide was elected again in 2000. His opponents used the international media to spread baseless allegations of electoral fraud, human rights abuses and corruption. The US and Canada imposed a crippling aid embargo. Aristide says he was kidnapped by US troops in 2004. The US blocked efforts by the Caribbean Community and the African Union to bring about an investigation. During 2004-2006, under a US (and Canadian) backed dictatorship, thousands of Aristide's supporters were murdered."

No doubt, the need for brevity forces a reporter to over simply things, to leave out supporting facts and arguments that, ideally, would be included. For example, among other things, the two preceding paragraphs do not say enough about Canada's complicity with the 2004 coup. Canadian troops secured the airport as US troops took Aristide out of Haiti. Canada oversaw the Haitian judiciary as it filled Haitian jails with political prisoners. A Canadian government funded "human rights group" (RNDDH) spearheaded the campaign to criminalize any association with Aristide's government. [7]

However, the need for brevity (in and of itself) does not force anyone to regurgitate government spin. This is trivially obvious, but anyone who has corresponded with journalists knows that "brevity", "concision", or "lack of space" is constantly invoked by journalists as an excuse for parroting establishment views.

Geoffrey York also pointed out to me that he is based in Johannesburg and covers sub-Saharan Africa after spending years in China and Russia. This is very important because it means his research about Haiti consisted of reviewing of corporate press reports. It would have been miraculous if York had written differently than he did – putting aside other constraints – if he relied on the corporate media.

There are a few corporate journalists who have broken with the pack in their reporting on Haiti. Two examples, which I pointed out to York, are Andrew Buncombe and Andy Kershaw of the UK Independent. Their work stands apart because they've looked beyond establishment friendly sources for information, but their work is so rare that anyone would almost have to know about it in advance in order to find it. Even the liberal newspaper Buncombe and Kershaw work for has taken editorial positions as blinkered and reactionary as one can find in the right wing press - virtually applauding the coup in Haiti in 2004 and openly cheering the one in Honduras in 2009. [8]

Another one of the few articles to mention coups against Aristide was one written by Peggy Curran for the Montréal Gazette ("How Haiti Lost its Way", January 30). Curran's article was over three thousand words long, so brevity would be an especially feeble excuse for her distortions of history.

She wrote about the brutality of the Duvaliers but not about the crucial support they received from the US. She even cast the Reaganites as heroes who pressured Jean Claude Duvalier to flee Haiti in 1986. The US did finally cut Duvalier loose - and immediately transferred support to his military henchmen. In the first year after Duvalier fled, the Haitian military government, generously funded by the US, openly killed more protestors than Jean Claude Duvalier did in fifteen years.[9]

Of the 1991 coup, Curran merely wrote that Aristide was "returned to power with the help of U.S. troops in 1994 after his first term was interrupted for three years,"

The three year "interruption" was a bloodbath sponsored by the US that left 4000 people murdered, thousands tortured, and hundreds of thousands driven into hiding. Emmanuel Constant, one of the key ringleaders, was on the CIA payroll and was protected from deportation to Haiti for years by the Clinton Administration. [10]

Curran wrote of the 2004 coup that deposed Aristide's second government:

"...he, too, would be forced to flee, scuttled onto a plane to nowhere, one more in a dismal succession of failed leaders and abusive, discredited régimes in a land seemingly forever doomed by its past."

If her characterization of Aristide were accurate then Rene Preval's electoral victory in 2006 is impossible to explain. Preval was not part of the US and Canadian funded opposition to Aristide. Preval's candidacy was violently opposed by supporters of the coup, and, in contrast, endorsed by prominent Aristide allies such as the late Father Gerard Jean-Juste, and applauded by Aristide himself.[11]

I made many of these points in an email I sent to Peggy Curran. She did not reply.

Securing Disaster and Reviving Colonialism

Yves Engler, a Canadian writer and activist, recently pointed out that Haiti now has more foreign troops on its soil per square mile than Afghanistan or Iraq. [12] There is no war going on, but if these troops were providing effective assistance to the victims of the earthquake, then their presence could be justified. The reality is that the militarized relief effort has been a disgrace.

First hand accounts by independent journalists (Kevin Pina, Amy Goodman, Ansel Herz), other independent observers (Bill Quigley, Timothy Schwatrz) and even some corporate journalists (Mark Doyle of the BBC) have exposed the relief efforts as "pathetic" (Doyle's evaluation). Peter Hallward, in his essay entitled "Securing Disaster", thoroughly reviewed the evidence that justifies this assessment. [13]

As Hallward and others have argued, while the militarized relief effort has done little for the victims, it could help deal with "the ever-nagging threat of popular political participation and empowerment".

Corporate pundits have not been shy about calling for direct foreign control over Haiti. The Economist stated uninhibitedly that "Some will object that this would undermine a democratically elected government. But there is not much left to undermine."[14]

The US occupied Haiti from 1915-1934. Future trampling of Haitian sovereignty will require historical editing of that occupation. Right on cue, Peter Shawn Taylor, an editor-at-large of the Canadian magazine, Macleans, stepped forward with an article entitled "What we can learn form the US Occupation of Haiti." (Globe and Mail, February 1)

Taylor wrote that the US occupation was a "golden era" in Haitian history which "provides a convenient frame of reference for what the rest of the world can expect as it tries to rebuild the benighted country." For readers who will have to look up the word "benighted" (as I did), it means "to be in a state of intellectual, moral, or social darkness". Like all apologists for the US occupation, Taylor raved about the building of roads and other infrastructure.

I wrote to Taylor and pointed out facts his article ignored completely.

My full correspondence with Taylor can bee seen here

http://canuckmediamonitor.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=341

The infrastructure Taylor wrote about was built by reinstituting the "corvee" (slave labour) which had not been used since 1863. US troops and their Haitian collaborators killed 3,000 to 15,000 Caco rebels in order to pacify the country (while sustaining only about 98 killed and wounded themselves). Some historians say the death toll for Haitians was higher. North American firms grabbed 266,000 acres of Haitian land by robbing 50,000 peasants of their land in the north of Haiti alone. The US occupation also left behind the modernized Haitian army which would effectively continue the US occupation after it officially ended. [15]

Taylor replied to me by saying that

"…the 'Golden Era' for Haiti to which I was referring was in regard to the amount of infrastructure built during the US occupation".

He made no attempt to explain his silence about slave labor or about the killing and dispossession of tens of thousands of Haitians. He wrote that he had been "thinking of mentioning your point about the gendarmerie [the Haitian army], but ran out of space."

He ended his reply by asking

"Can you suggest any time period in which more rapid development and modernization occurred in Haitian history?"

I answered his question as follows:

"Yes, under democratic rule between 1994-2000 more schools were built in Haiti than between 1804–1994. By 2003, literacy campaigns reduced the illiteracy rate from 85% to 55%., infant mortality declined from 125 deaths per 1000 to 110. The Haitian army was abolished. All of that just scratches the surface of what was achieved despite the efforts of the US over this period (with Canada's enthusiastic help over the past several years) to crush democracy in Haiti." [16]

I asked Taylor why he didn't look at what Haitians achieved when they had a limited opportunity to govern themselves - and suggest that era, rather then the US occupation, as the template for moving forward.

He wrote back

"With respect to which period of time has seen more development in Haiti, I think we are at a stalemate. You cite some impressive evidence on building schools from a pro-Aristide group document, however even this paper shows that the American-era saw the construction of more hospitals and clinics..".
.
Taylor closed by saying

"You may disagree with by perspective, but again, that is a matter of opinion."

I replied again:

"I don't see a 'stalemate' when you consider that between 1994-2003 the Haitian governments (under both Aristide and Preval) were freely elected and did not resort to the murder and dispossession of tens of thousands of people or to the use of slave labour - all of which the US did during the occupation.

It is shocking to have to make this point - again - to a writer in the 21rst century with access to a large audience.

It comes down to values. A writer who glorifies a brutal occupation through lies of omission does not appear to value basic human rights or democracy."

Actually, it's possible that Peter Shawn Taylor does values human rights and democracy - just not for Haitians. That's an attitude that has proven to be quite prevalent in the corporate media.

SUGGESTED ACTION(S)

1) If you haven't already, make a donation to one the relief organizations recommended by the Canada Haiti Action Network (CHAN)
http://canadahaitiaction.ca/

2) Send polite, non-abusive emails to the following
( copy all letters and replies to Joe@canuckmedeiamonitor.org )

Peggy Curran
pcurran@thegazette.canwest.com

Montreal Gazette:
letters@thegazette.canwest.com

Toronto Star
lettertoed@thestar.ca

Toronto Globe & Mail
letters@GlobeAndMail.ca

3) Forward this alert far and wide

NOTES
[1] cited by Eduardo Galeano; "Open Veins of Latin America" pg 274

[2] see Paul Farmer's "Uses of Haiti" page 99, 291; also Peter Hallward's "Damming the flood" pages 5,6

[3] See Hallward's "Option Zero" essay
http://www.zcommunications.org/option-zero...-peter-hallward

[4] The Haiti as small shopkeeper analogy was used by Noam Chomsky in this 2007 interview
http://www.haitianalysis.com/2007/1/15/god...homsky-on-haiti

[5] Haiti: From Natural Catastrophe to Economic Security: A Report for the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Paul Collier, Department of Economics, Oxford University, January 2009
In Haiti, the menu of policies Collier advocates have, for decades, been derided as the "death plan".

[6] Rick Salutin and Gerald Caplan wrote articles mentioning US wrong doing in Haiti. Caplan's was quite hard hitting ("Some facts Stephen Harper should have on Haiti, Globe & Mail", February 5, 2010) but both Caplan and Salutin said nothing about Canada's deep complicity with US.

Janet Bagnall of the Montreal Gazette took the same approach. My brief exchange with Bagnall is below
http://canuckmediamonitor.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=339

Other correspondence with Canadian journalists about Haiti and other topics can be read here
http://canuckmediamonitor.org/forums/index.php?showforum=6

[7] See "Canada in Haiti: Waging war on the poor majority" by Yves Engler and Anthony Fenton

[8] Andrew Buncombe, "Discovered by Columbus, built by France – and wrecked by dictators"
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/am...rs-1869513.html

Andy Kershaw; "Stop treating these people like savages."
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/comme...es-1874218.html

Independent Editorial; "At Last, The US joins France to send Forces to Haiti", March 1, 2004

Independent Editorial; "Guns and Deomcracy" June 30, 2009

[9] See pg 109,110 of Paul Farmer's "Uses of Haiti"

[10] See my exchange my with Geoffrey York for sources and discussion of HRW's reporting on Haiti
http://canuckmediamonitor.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=325

[11] On Father Gerard Jean-Juste's endorsement of Preval see
AP: February 6, 2006 Monday "Haitian priest urges vote for Preval in Haiti election"

See also Hallward's interview with Aristide in "Damming the Flood"

[12] Yves Engler made the point at the following talk http://www.cctv.org/watch-tv/programs/cata...atural-disaster

[13] Kevin Pina's reports from Haiti can be accessed here
http://www.flashpoints.net/

Blog reports from Haiti by Ansel Haerz can be accessed here
http://www.mediahacker.org/

For Amy Goodman's reports see
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/1/19/hait...ken_to_the_core

See Hallward; "Securing Disaster" for other sources http://www.zcommunications.org/securing-di...-peter-hallward

[14] (Economist, January 23, A plan for Haiti; After the earthquake)

[15] See "Uses of Haiti" pg 82-85; "Damming the Flood" pg 14

[16] The source I cited about the 1994-2003 era in my exchange with Taylor was the following
http://www.teledyol.net/WWNF/wwnf.pdf

Interview: Tortured, Exiled Honduran Journalist Recalls His Experiences

Written by Tamar Sharabi

Sunday, 14 February 2010 13:04

Upside Down World: Before the Honduras Coup Detat of June 28th 2009, tell me a little about your life. Cesar Silva: I have always been involved in popular struggles. During university I was elected Secretary of the University Reform Front (FRU) from where we constantly held a line of complaints denouncing corruption and participating in different actions to benefit students. I was also elected president of Journalism Students for two consecutive terms from 1998 to 2002, during which we founded the "Vanguard University Journal" and "Magazine Alert" that circulated once a month across the country's universities. Upon graduating from the National Autonomous University of Honduras (UNAH), I worked for six years as a reporter for Channel 9 TV (Vica TV), the last two years of which I was a news director for that company in Tegucigalpa. I also worked for Channel 63 for two years, along with Renato Alvarez who is now director of the news of Televicentro. (Read, ‘Coup Mouthpiece’) I also worked four years at Channel 54, which produced a program called "The protagonists of the News.” In 2006 Jorge Arturo Reina Idiáquez (Ambassador of Honduras to the UN) offered me a position with the Ministry of Interior and Justice in the Zelaya Government. My position was Director of Communications where I worked directly with the newspaper and Channel 8, called ‘Citizen Power Information Network’ founded under Zelaya’s government. In May 2009 I was called to work with the Presidential Palace to coordinate work for production and coverage of the popular consultation process (‘cuarta urna’) for public Channel 8. I was assigned a mobile unit to report from the northern municipalities of Olancho and Francisco Morazán beside the first lady, Xiomara Castro. That's how I became involved directly in the events during the coup. UDW: What happened to you on June 28th? CS: Preparations were intense in the days before the coup and increased when the Armed Forces refused to distribute electoral materials. The ballot boxes were held at the air base Hernan Acosta. President Zelaya along with supporters came to rescue the ballots to distribute them into state cars. From there it was a race of information. The night of June 27, I was at the Presidential Palace until midnight and in the early morning I left towards Olancho. When I passed the town of Guaimaca (a town 90 km from Tegucigalpa) the President was being captured. There, police and the army captured me as well. My cameraman, driver, and assistants managed to escape to warn people what had happened. People gathered in Guaimaca at the town's central park and demanded that the police release me. I was finally released by noontime because of the people’s pressure. Still, the police called for reinforcements from another municipality and within a half hour an army truck arrived and began to repress people in the park and the police forces chased me down. People took me from house to house, jumping lots and properties until I was in a safe place outside the town. I stayed there until nighttime when presidential house vehicles (that were still under the legitimate government) came to pick me up. We had to travel on back roads to evade the army and police posts to arrive in Tegucigalpa at two in the morning. Since their was a curfew we had no choice but to reach the presidential palace where people remained gathered in protest. They seized the entire equipment of the team; cameras and microphones. In Olancho they stole our truck the mobile unit that accompanied the first lady, Xiomara Castro. On the 29th more chaos came and repression continued. UDW: The 5th of July you helped carry the dead body of Isis Obed. How did it feel to pause from your reporters role to help Isis receive medical attention? CS: It is impossible to separate being a journalist and being a human being. As a reporter I was interested in taking pictures, and I took the first ones because I thought that Isis Murillo Obed was dead. Then I approached him and saw that he was breathing and moving in the density of all the tear gas. People were shouting that he was dead, but when I took him in my arms he opened his eyes and tried to say something that molded into a moan of pain. There was still army gunfire hitting a small wall near where Isis Obed fell. We could hear the bullets striking the wall, and at that very moment there was an explosion and everyone hit the ground. It turned out to be a motorcycle that had exploded. Consequently, I gave the camera to a friend and shouted that we needed to move Isis. With the help of some other guys we carried him about 300 meters to a car that we found. I felt anger, pain and helplessness. I did not know the child's age, and perhaps had never seen him in my life. I thought he was 10 or 12 years old. He had no weapons, he just looked helpless. It looked so unfair that I just felt like yelling "Gorillas assassinate children." I forgot that I was a reporter and I just thought of the life of that child. I asked for his family but nobody knew anything. I hoped he would be saved in the hospital, but taking the pictures, it seemed impossible for him to live. The shot impacted his skull. On my chest there were remains of his brain and his blood. UDW: After this day, did anything change about the way you reported on the situation in the country? CS: I will never forget that moment. That event drives me to continue so that Isis’s life and others will not go unpunished. The murderers must pay their crime. Witnessing so many beatings, so much unjustified repression, it was clear that the intentions of the coup were to establish a dictatorship. I decided to continue looking for ways to disseminate what was happening. I started working for the internet blog and the National Resistance Front Against the Coup, and freelanced with Radio Globo, Telesur and the History Channel. I changed; I am more insistent, I'm more critical. During the Michelletti regime I collaborated in every way possible to denounce the coup. We went from neighborhood to neighborhood, people to people. I grew more into a neighborhood journalist, I just had to be more creative because they stole or destroyed the equipment we had at every opportunity. UDW: As a national reporter, how did you feel about the international media reporting on Honduras? CS: As always there are many interests. At first it seemed somewhat balanced, but within a few days it was clear who uninformed and those who told the truth. The big chains such as CNN, Univision, Telemundo and others within a few days took off their mask and began calling Michelletti president and considered it a constitutional succession. Other European countries were more objective. The independent press were the ones who maintained the reality. They called it like it was. Telesur was objective about the crackdowns and repression, but in fact they were favorable towards Zelaya. UDW: Talk about the elections that took place under the coup regime. CS: I classify the elections on November 29th in two scenarios: 1 . The Resistance and the conscious people knew that the elections were only to change the face of the coup, but that the situation would stay the same. 2. The Nationalists interested in winning the elections wanted to secure work with the new government. There was a low turnout. Supporters of the National party took advantage of the situation because the Liberal party was split and had called on supporters to boycott the elections. The images speak for themselves. The streets were full of policemen and soldiers, the military in the polling areas, and a permanent anxiety in the population; panic, fear, terror and empty booths. UDW: When did you begin to be threatened personally? CS: The threats started after July 5 when the police and army did not view me as a journalist anymore. This increased when I traveled to Nicaragua to do reports on Zelaya and after the demonstration on August 12 at the National Congress when Deputy Ramon Velasquez Nassar was kicked. There was brutal repression that day and I was physically assaulted. The military forces took pictures and video of me. In every march afterwards the police would see me. Also in the eviction of the peasants from the National Agrarian Institute (INA), the police assaulted me and took pictures. Later, I would constantly receive anonymous threatening phone calls. I changed my number, but I was still being watched and persecuted. I ignored these threats and didn’t take them seriously because everyday nothing would happen. Then I received a call from the Intelligence of the Armed Forces who warned me to stop doing my work. I denounced this to Cofadeh and CODEH, two human rights organizations. UDW: Explain the events on that day you were kidnapped. CS: I was kidnapped on Monday December 29th when I was on my way from the south where I went to distribute a documentary about the resistance and met with related colleagues. Arriving in Tegucigalpa, I took a taxi from ‘Loarque’ on the beltway around the city to my house. Having traveled less than one kilometer, a vehicle approached us, a beige van, and individuals drew their weapons from the window ordering the taxi to pull over. We initially tried to run, but another vehicle crossed us on the highway and we could not advance. They approached the taxi and held the driver at gunpoint, telling him to stay quiet otherwise they would kill him. They pulled me out of the taxi beating me up and took me into their car to a remote place in the mountains. We traveled about an hour while I was beaten inside the car. First they made me sit with my head between my legs, then they put a hood on me. The kidnappers did not cover their faces nor were they wearing military clothes but by their vocabulary and communication by telephone with the ‘Jackal,’ it was clear they were getting orders. We reached an area away from the city where they put me in a dark room. I was held from December 29 at 9:00am until the December 30th at noon. During these 27 hours I was interrogated every 45 minutes and punched in areas that leave no trace; my feet soles, testicles, stomach, and back, using their fists. I was naked and they kept wetting my body. In a moment of increased tension they tried to suffocate me with water. They threw water on my face until I was no longer able to breathe. I swallowed as much water as possible, but as I felt like I was drowning, another officer yelled that they would kill me another faster way. The interrogations were about weapons; where they were, who were my contacts and how many leaders existed. They also asked where all my photos and videos were stored and what type of profile information we had of military leaders. They continued to threaten that I would not leave there alive and that I'd better trust in God. They offered me drugs to take to ease the pain of dying which I refused to accept. On the morning of December 30, one of the officers told me that my life might be saved but that he wasn’t sure. Then I heard the torturers begin to plan my death. One of them suggested a shot in the head but then decided I would not suffer enough that way. Another one said they would let me hang myself from a tree or that they drag me attached to the car along the street. Then one of them said they could open my stomach and slowly pull out my intestines so I could talk as I died. Hours later they took me out of there blindfolded with a hood and took me to “throw me out”. They dumped me in Tegucigalpa between the neighborhood ‘Cerro Grande’ and ‘El Chile,’ in a sector that is mountainous and very isolated. UDW: You are currently living in exile. How much time do you imagine you will need to live outside your country in order to protect yourself? CS: Yes I am in exile now. Human rights organizations supported me to leave Honduras and my few remaining friends recommended me to do the same in order to save my life since Renan Fajardo who edited my documentary was murdered in his apartment and Walter Trochez who helped distributed the material was also killed. Without a doubt the next one was me. I do not know how long I'll be out of the country. I am anxious to return to be with my family and to continue to produce reports of the experiences of people in the street, but it is difficult at this point. UDW: In what way do you continue working from exile? CS: I have been fortunate to find many people who have been supportive and have invited me to do lectures in universities and in grassroots organizations. I've given four lectures with audiovisual students about media coverage in risky situations. I also do some radio and television to discuss my experiences and do political analysis on the situation in Honduras. I continue to write the chronicles of the coup repression and am working on a book which I think will be called "Repressed Honduras," which tells the whole story that people really lived. UDW: What is the hardest part of being in exile? CS: Maybe it's the hurry of leaving everything abandoned; your home, your family, the stuff you had a hard time sacrificing and working for. In my case, I left my loved ones in tears; my mother, my son. The difficulty in arriving in the new place is getting rid of the hatred and to stop thinking of what you left behind. You have to live here as a ‘nobody’ so that know one can find you and you can avoid the risks. The dreams abandon you, the uncertainty eats you. UDW: As you analyze the difficulties of the 'free press' in Honduras with the new "unity government" of Pepe Lobo? CS: Free Press?! That will be difficult. This government is only the continuation of the coup d'etat. They are not interested in telling the truth to the the population. Porfirio Lobo and his people are interested in being well and having their companies and their businesses do well. The independent press will remain at war, but the economically suffocating private enterprise will remove them within a short time. Watch Channel 36 and you will realize that the editorial policy has changed. Although it continues to support the resistance, its profile is different; it is more ‘pepista’. The program ‘Habla como Habla’ of Channel 66 has also changed, it is not with the resistance anymore, but with the new government. Only Radio Globo stands firm. Independent journalists and foreigners using their own websites are those that will continue telling the truth. Tamar Sharabi is an environmental engineer and freelance journalist living in Central America. She is working on media empowerment with human rights organizations and on a documentary about the Honduran coup detat. To support her work visit: www.giveforward.com/tamardocuments.

Max Roach Interview

Black History Month

 

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Black History Month - Max Roach - The Power of Jazz

A fantastic hour long interview with Jazz Drum master Max Roach. Max talks about growing up in jazz, history of African culture and African-American culture today, and his own personal struggles and achievments.

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Army spares single mother from a court-martial, but still demotes her and revokes benefits.

Spc. Alexis Hutchinson, a 21-year-old Army cook, refused to deploy to Afghanistan in November because she had no one to take care of her 10-month-old son. Hutchinson said when she brought her situation to her superiors’ attention, they told her that she would have to deploy anyway and place the child in foster care. After skipping her unit’s flight out of Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah, GA, military police arrested her, and the Army eventually filed charges. However, today, the New York Times reports that the Hutchinson won’t be facing a court-martial, which could have resulted in jail time if she had been convicted:

On Thursday, Specialist Hutchinson received an other-than-honorable discharge, ending an impasse that had surprised many legal experts and spurred lively debate in military circles.

In a news release, the Third Infantry Division at Fort Stewart, Ga., said Specialist Hutchinson’s rank had been reduced to private and that she would lose some Army and veterans’ benefits.

Last year, there were more than “10,000 single parents on active military duty deployed overseas,” and legal experts speculated that commanders may have been using Hutchinson’s case to “send a message to other single-parent soldiers in the brigade.”

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GLOBAL WARMING

Snowmageddon

"Snowmageddon." "Snowpocalypse." "SnOMG." These popular depictions of the record snowstorms that crippled the Mid-Atlantic region in recent days demonstrate that the American public knows the weather is disastrously out of control. Instead of galvanizing Congress to take action to stop the man made disruption of our climate, political pundits are using these storms to justify inaction. According to the Washington Post's Dana Milbank, the "back-to-back snowstorms in the capital were an inconvenient meteorological phenomenon for Al Gore." Fox News host Sean Hannity argued "the most severe winter storm in years" would "seem to contradict Al Gore's hysterical global warming theories." "Where's Al Gore when we need him?" quipped Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY). Before the storm hit, the Virginia GOP launched a web ad mocking "12 inches of global warming," attacking Democrats who had voted in favor of climate and clean energy legislation. After hundreds of thousands of people lost power, several people died, and states of emergency were declared in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware, Sen. Jim Inhofe's (R-OK) family joined in the mockery, building an igloo on the National Mall and calling it "Al Gore's New Home." The Washington press dutifully reported the "climate-change debate."

WARMING FUELS WINTER STORMS: "The last few years have brought several unusually heavy snowstorms as warmer and moister air over southern states has penetrated further north, colliding with bitter cold air masses," National Wildlife Federation climate scientist Amanda Staudt explains. Even as winters have been getting shorter -- spring arrives 10-14 days earlier than it did 20 years ago -- many areas are seeing bigger and more intense snowstorms. "The fact that the oceans are warmer now than they were, say, 30 years ago," top climate scientist Kevin Trenberth told NPR, "means there's about on average 4 percent more water vapor lurking around over the oceans than there was, say, in the 1970s." As the Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States report issued by the federal government describes, warmer oceans and shifting atmospheric circulation mean "strong cold season storms are likely to become stronger and more frequent." A 2006 scientific paper by Chagnon et al. found that "most of the United States had 71% -- 80% of their snowstorms in warmer-than-normal years," so that "a future with wetter and warmer winters" will "bring more snowstorms." This season's extreme weather is also influenced by natural oscillations in oceanic and atmospheric circulation, including El Nino -- unusual warmth in the equatorial Pacific Ocean that climate researchers expect may become permanent if global warming continues to rise. "Like it or not," says scientist Daniel Richter, "we live in the Anthropocene age."

KILLING THE MESSENGER: Even as right-wing allies of the fossil fuel industry cite snowstorms to attack Al Gore, a more concerted campaign has been launched against the credibility of climate scientists. After hacked e-mails from climate researchers surfaced last November, conspiracy theorists and conservative operatives have used the "Climategate" e-mails to falsely assert malfeasance by the scientists. Based on the claims of bloggers and right-wing journalists, Fox News host Glenn Beck argued that members of the Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) should commit suicide because they had "so dishonored themselves." The mainstream press now agrees that the IPCC is compromised by "steady drip of unsettling errors" in its landmark reports on climate science. The New York Times ran a front-page story about the IPCC facing a "siege on their credibility," quoting Chris Monckton, a global warming denier who has called some climate activists "Hitler Youth." Not to be outdone, the Washington Post claimed that a "series of missteps by climate scientists" threatens the "climate-change agenda." Despite the effectiveness of the right-wing noise campaign in getting journalists to blame the victims, the IPCC's work, done by unpaid volunteers, remains utterly sound. A review of the claimed errors found "so far only one -- or at most two -- legitimate errors" in the entirety of the 3,000 page IPCC 2007 report. However, the IPCC report has been found to be overly conservative with respect to sea level rise and greenhouse gas emissions -- meaning its warnings are insufficiently strong.

THE WARMEST WINTER: Global warming, while exacerbating both warm and cold weather, necessarily increases warmth more often than it does cold. After the hottest decade on record, we are in the hottest winter in the satellite record, and this past January was one of the hottest Januaries on record for the planet. Vancouver's Winter Games "are quickly earning a reputation as the Rain Games," since "the warmest January in Vancouver history" is forcing the organizers of the 2010 Winter Olympics to helicopter in snow to cover mountains. Increased warmth and changing weather patterns have led to glacial retreat and unreliable snowfall across the globe, putting the future of alpine sports and the Winter Olympics in jeopardy. Israel is in its "longest winter heat wave" in 38 years, and intense heat is scorching Malaysia. Nations south of the equator are likewise suffering from a sweltering summer. Record heat and drought in Australia is causing massive crop loss, and "fire authorities are expecting the state's worst fire conditions in five years." A heat wave in Brazil has killed 32 people, and South Africa is experiencing a "crippling bout of heat and humidity." Until action is taken to reduce greenhouse gas pollution, the destruction of our climate will continue, just as scientists have been warning for decades.