RED EYE 2/16/11

Microcredit: no miracle cure

NYT, 1/6 — Microcredit is losing its halo in many developing countries. Microcredit was once extolled by world leaders like Bill Clinton and Tony Blair as a powerful tool that could help eliminate poverty, through loans as small as $50 to cowherds, basket weavers and other poor people for starting or expanding businesses. But now microloans have prompted political hostility in Bangladesh, India, Nicaragua and other developing countries.

In December, the prime minister of Bangladesh…turned her back on them. She said microlenders were “sucking blood from the poor in the name of poverty alleviation.”….In Nicaragua, Pakistan and Bolivia, activists and politicians have urged borrowers not to repay their loans.

The hostility toward microfinance is a sharp reversal….Most borrowers do not appear to be climbing out of poverty, and a sizable minority is getting trapped in a spiral of debt….Some lenders have minted profits that might make Wall Street bankers envious.

Palestinian leaders seek sellout

GW, 1/28 — The 1,600 or so documents in the Palestine papers were obtained by al-Jazeera and shared in advance of publication with the Guardian...The overwhelming impression that emerges from the confidential records of a decade of Middle East peace talks is of the weakness and desperation of Palestinian leaders, the unyielding... of Israeli negotiators and the often contemptuous attitude towards the Palestinian side shown by U.S. politicians and officials....

During 2009-10, Palestinian negotiators are shown adopting an increasingly injured and despairing tone with U.S. officials.

In an emotional outburst to Barack Obama’s Middle East envoy...the senior Palestinian negotiator...complained that the Ramallah-based Palestinian leadership wasn’t even being offered “a fig leaf....”

The scale of concessions offered by...Palestinian Authority negotiations — far beyond what the majority of Palestinians would be likely to accept — was insufficient for Israeli leaders....PLO leaders accepted Israel’s demand to define itself as an explicitly Jewish state, in sharp contrast to their public position.

School cheats on class-size law.

NYT, 1/18 — At North Miami Beach Senior High School, Naomi Baptiste expected to be greeted by her teacher when she walked into her precalculus class.

“All there were were computers in the class,” said Naomi, who walked into a room of confused students...

Naomi is one of over 7,000 students in Miami-Dade.... virtual classrooms, called e-learning labs... put in place last August as a result of Florida’s Class Size Reduction Amendment.... The amendment limits the number of students allowed inside classrooms, but not in virtual labs.

School administrators said that they had to find a way to meet class-size limits....The virtual labs were necessary because “there’s no way to beat the class-size mandate without it.”...

“The way our state is dealing with class size is nearly criminal,” said...an English teacher...in Miami.

Israeli democracy on a witch-hunt

GW, 1/14 — The funding of Israeli human and civil rights groups is to be investigated amid claims they are acting against the country’s interests, members of the Israeli parliament decided last week — a move described by opponents as “McCarthyite.”...

The supporters of the bill claimed the groups’ work was “delegitimizing” Israel and was funded by anti-Israel international bodies....Rights organizations... claimed the bill was part of a larger campaign to intimidate groups and individuals who speak out against the actions of the Israeli state.

The real Obama is bosses’ man

NYT, 1/24 — Meet the new buzzword, same as the old buzzword. In advance of the State of the Union, President Obama has telegraphed his main theme: competitiveness....But let’s not kid ourselves: talking about “competitiveness” as a goal is fundamentally misleading....It could lead to policies based on the false idea that what’s good for corporations is good for America.

Consider....employment is way down, but profits are hitting new records. Who, exactly, considers this economic success?....The ideology that brought the economic disaster in 2008 is back on top — and seems likely to stay there until it brings disaster again.

Farm labor wins long fight, but...

NYT, 1/19 — IMMOKALEE, Fla. - After fighting for more than a decade for better wages, a group of Florida farmworkers has hashed out the final piece of an extraordinary agreement with local growers and several big-name buyers, including fast-food giants McDonald’s and Burger King, that will pay the pickers roughly a penny more for every pound of fruit they harvest.

Farm laborers are among the lowest-paid workers in the United States, and the agreement could add thousands of dollars to their income....Still, some in the industry worry, the unusual agreement could be undermined if enough buyers turn to competitors in California and Mexico willing to sell tomatoes at a cheaper price.

World’s #1 democracy kills dissent

NYT, 1/23 - Activists like Mr. Jethwa - making pointed inquiries at the dangerous intersection of high-stakes business and power politics in India - have paid a heavy price. Perhaps a dozen have been killed...and countless others have been beaten or harassed...

India may be the world’s largest democracy, but...citizens are treated like subjects. Officials who are meant to serve them often act more like feudal lords than representatives of the people...

Mr. Jethwa was a longtime activist...His objective was to stop illegal quarries...This mining has had serious consequences....for water used for drinking and farming.

In February 2008, Mr. Jethwa was attacked by a gang of men on motorbikes...His father begged them to stop....”But he used to say: ‘Forget that you have three sons and say you have two sons. Let me do my work.’”....On July 20, late at night, he was gunned down.

The police...made no effort to investigate....”The message that has gone out is that if you resort to your right to information to try to harass a political person, even after your murder, that man will go scot-free....

“You cannot fix the system. Everybody is getting money. If I give my life, what is the point?”

Big O speech dodges all specifics

NYT, 1/26 - Mr. Obama offered a rosy economic vision. The president who once emphasized the problems he inherited from his predecessor was instead looking forward and making the case that the nation had at long last emerged from economic crisis.

“Two years after the worst recession most of us have ever known, the stock market has come roaring back,” Mr. Obama said. “Corporate profits are up. The economy is growing again.”

The speech was a light on new policy proposals...to bring the unemployment rate below 9 percent...He called for legislation to address illegal immigration but provided no details...He talked only generally about the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan....Government itself, he said, needs to be updated...”We can’t win the future with a government of the past,” he said.

Junta thrives vs. Burma rebel saint

New Yorker, 1/24 - Aung San Suu Kyi...became annoyed when I asked her about...the failure of the N.L.D. party to galvanize the young. “I think the party is stronger now than it has been in a long time,” she insisted....

Even so, two decades after her return from Oxford to lead the opposition, the country shows few signs of progress. The military dictatorship is entrenched, and pro-democracy forces have been weakened. Some of the monks who led the Saffron Revolution remain in Myanmar’s prisons, and the regime has taken over many of the monasteries, carefully vetting all applicants for their political loyalties....

Aung San Suu Kyi’s critics fear that she and the rest of the N.L.D.’s Old Guard remain wedded to traditional forms of protest - hunger strikes, demonstrations, election boycotts, calls for more sanctions - that are ineffective in a world where China is happy to do business with countries that manifest little or no concern for human rights...”I wouldn’t say the regime is afraid of her.” They would be scared of “any movement that would consolidate a grassroots following...But the N.L.D. is not that anymore.”

Big-biz media won’t cover the war

Thom Hartman Blog, 12/20 - A new study by the Pew Research Center may explain why outrage isn’t growing around the country over the unpopular war in Afghanistan. Simply - the media isn’t talking about it....The war costs taxpayers more than $160 billion a year - but it’s not even talked about in the public sphere - even in terms of deficit reduction - which has been a hot-button topic all year....Corporations who own our news media...won’t cover it.

Sounds like we need “CHALLENGE”

Thom Hartman Blog, 12/27 - “The Nation” magazine uncovered at least 75 corporate lobbyists or PR officials that now appear on television political talk shows with no disclosure of what business interests they actually work for. Their job? To do the bidding of their corporate overlords under the guise of “expert political commentary.”....We need to create new media outlets that aren’t beholden to corporate interests.

Capitalists win after Socialist vote

GW, 1/28 - For my money the greatest European socialist of them all was Bruno Kreisky, born 100 years ago.

Kreisky led his country for 13 years, from 1970-83, winning a clear majority for the Socialist party of Austria a remarkable three times. During his time in office as the first popularly elected “red” chancellor, he transformed Austria into one of the most egalitarian societies on earth. Kreisky promoted working-class education, extended public ownership and expanded the welfare state...”Hundreds of thousands unemployed matter more than a few billion schillings of debt.”

Kreisky’s career shows us what can be achieved if the main party of the left elects a leader who is committed, sincere and refuses to apologize for his or her socialist beliefs....

But for the past 20 years, the main parties of the European left have gone in another direction. They have elected leaders...who have tamely accepted the international rule of money power...The forces of capital have managed to destroy many of the economic and social advances made in the postwar era, and those advances which still remain are threatened by the new round of cutbacks.

Obama isn’t even hiding retreat

NYT, 1/22 - SCHENECTADY, N.Y. - President Obama, sending another strong signal that he intends to make the White House more business-friendly, named a high-profile corporate executive on Friday as his chief economic adviser, continuing his efforts to...reclaim the political center.

Tunis flare-up needs a red focus

NYT, 1/19 - It is Friday, Jan. 14, in downtown Tunis. In the streets, we shout “No!”- a million tongues together against the dictatorial, 23-year-long government of President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali. Tear gas, bullets and death fly above us.

...On Monday we are told that a new “unity” government has formed. When Tunisians see that some members of the old regime have been named to cabinet posts, there is a new wave of disturbances, and people start saying that the revolution has been stolen from them.

On Tuesday, young people again take to the streets, demanding the dissolution of Mr. Ben Ali’s party, the Democratic Constitutional Rally Party, which has ruled Tunisia since independence in 1956... While I agree that it may be impossible to dissolve the party without sending the country into chaos, I think we have no choice but to try...

As for myself, I feel an overwhelming happiness that I will be able to write freely...

I support the revolution and, like so many of the young people, worry that it will be stolen from us by the traitors, thieves and killers who have ruled us for far too long.