The Press Reports on Ada-based Global Security Contractor
On Thursday, the Grand Rapids Press reported that the Ada-based company, CSS Alliance, has been awarded a contract by the Somali government to “Provide security consulting services and training for government forces.”
The Press story was on the front page with pictures of the CSS Alliance founders, Somali pirates and a map of the region. This is only the second time we have documented any coverage of the local private military contracting firm. The first time the Press reported on them was in December of 2007 when they were award a contract in Iraq. Now the company has been hired to operate in Somalia.
The Press article says that “CSS Alliance has furnished counterterrorism services in other African nations,” but no details are provided about what these services entail. The Press reporter Ted Roelofs cites one of the co-owners of the company, Chris Frain, early on in the story who makes vague comments about what they will be doing in Somalia.
The article continues with some concerns over the stability of Somalia and references the 1993 US Marine battle in Mogadishu and its Hollywood depiction in Black Hawk Down. The story does cite what the Press calls an “expert in African security issue,” who is with the International Crisis Group. The Press refers to ICG as “an independent nonprofit conflict resolution advocacy group.” According to SourceWatch, ICG is loaded with former diplomats, many of which are from the US. One analysis of the group believes that ICG is not independent and operates with serious conflicts of interest.
The article goes on to discuss “the various Islamic factions that continue to vie for power” in Somalia and mentions the US special forces operation in September. The Press reporter echoes the US State Department position on this action, even though the US has been active for much longer than the recent raid in Somalia and there is no commentary about how Somalia has been a major target of the US war on terror since 9/11.
The rest of the article provides CSS Alliance co-founder Chris Frain with a forum to talk up what good the company has done in New Orleans after Katrina and in Iraq. One would think that with all the new information about human rights abuses and a lack of contractor accountability with private security forces, that the Press might investigate further companies like CSS Alliance before publishing such favorable stories.
Channel 8 posts “story” on Kellogg’s Corn Flakes Branding Scheme
WOOD TV 8 posted on its web page today a story by a reporter that is listed as a “special contributor.” The story is about plans by the Kellogg Company to use laser etching and put a K on their corn flakes.
According to the story, Kellogg’s wants “shoppers to be under absolutely no illusion that Kellogg’s does not make cereal for anyone else.” The company is claiming that there are imposter corn flakes and this is a way to guarantee that customers will not be misled.
The channel 8 story also has a hyperlink to a Kellogg’s Twitter message that has this image of the laser branded flakes. The rest of the posting deals with in part some online media questioning the authenticity of the story, but none of that discussion challenges the idea that this might be a viral marketing ploy by the company. The story also includes a short fact about how many bowls a year the company sells worldwide.
In many ways this story on channel 8’s web page is nothing more than a promotional piece for Kellogg’s Citizens need to ask themselves how this is considered news? Does it address health concerns or economic issues for the public?
Had the story focused on marketing practices that unfairly target children that would be news that the public, consumers and parents would benefit from. Kellogg’s markets products that target children and even uses popular characters like Sponge Bob. Some groups have challenged that practice, like the Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood. These efforts are what constitute news, not PR campaigns by corporations that are primarily about promoting their products.
Bloom Collective Potluck and Anti-Capitalism Discussion
This Saturday, October 17 from 3 – 5pm, the Bloom Collective is hosting a potluck and discussion on the topic of capitalism. Anyone is welcome to attend and Bloom Collective members will provide vegan dishes for the potluck. The Bloom Collective is located at 1134 Wealthy.
Author/Activist challenges people to be part of the Food Revolution
[Despite the fact that Vandana Shiva is a world-renowned author and activist, there was no media coverage of her talk in Grand Rapids last night. This is in contrast to last week’s visit by New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman who also addressed environmental issues.]
Internationally known activist and author Vandana Shiva spoke at Fountain Street Church last night to a crowd of over 500 people. The title of her talk was Food Security in Women’s Hands. Shiva is the author of numerous books on environmentalism and feminism. Her most recent books are Earth Democracy and Soil, Not Oil.
Shiva began her talk by stating, “Freedom begins with freedom for nature…….for all beings. And that freedom means living free of fear and free of hunger.” “The issue of human hunger,” Shiva said, “is at a critical point in human history, where 1 billion people are in permanent state of hunger and another 2 billion people suffering from poor diets.” Her analysis of why the food global food system is unjust is informed by her feminist critique of power. Shiva feels that as long as “womanly hand of Gaia or your mother” has been caring for food, it has never ruined our bodies. Once food became a commodity and came under the control of systems of power, hunger and poor diet expanded.
Shiva also asserted that in nature everything is food or is someone else’s food. There is no imbalance and nothing is wasted. But now, new studies are showing that the current food system leads to tremendous waste. She looks at the example of how animals are raised for meat to underscore this system of waste. “Animals were meant to eat grass, not grains,” Shiva said. “Now humans are competing with animals for grains.” So much energy and resources are used to feed livestock instead of feeding people. Feeding cows grains for example makes us all less healthy and the structure of animal feed operations means that concentrated amounts of animal waste is now a major source of water pollution. This contrasts drastically with traditional Indian culture, which sees cow dung as sacred. Shiva even said that there is a festival for cow dung on October 17th in India.
“In a womanly world there has never been a scarcity of a permanent kind. Nature provides abundance. If you live within nature’s abundance, there would never be anyone in need. In fact, it is a sacred duty to save seeds.” Seed saving was a major theme of Shiva’s presentation. She stressed that seed saving is an ancient practice and was/is a way of preserving both diversity and the future. However, there is a war against seed diversity and Shiva called out Monsanto as a major culprit, since Monsanto has been genetically modifying seeds an attempting to patent seeds around the world.
Shiva said the patenting of seeds is just another form of colonization. She pointed out that the word patent has a long history within colonization. “The letter that Columbus brought when he arrived in the Americas was called a Patent, it was an open letter for colonization, because it said that the King of Spain could now claim the land because Columbus carried this letter.” Today the word patents continue this same type of colonization, where now the products of the land are commodities and have been given legal ownership to corporations.
Continuing on this theme of colonialism Shiva then cites then several European thinkers who supported colonization. She mentioned a phrase they used repeatedly, terra nullius, Latin for “an empty land” or “land devoid of anything.” Many European thinkers believed that the Americas were not really populated, since Native people where not seen as fully human. However, the larger problem was that the land was not being used to make money and therefore devoid of value.
She calls the economy of what indigenous people of the Americas and all around the world practiced an “economy of abundance” where you only use what you need. This contrasted radically with the European notions of capital and wealth.
Shiva stressed that the shifts in food that are taking place today are radical and are affecting all of us. She believes that food should stay in the hands of women in order to avoid catastrophe. “The monoculture of the mind will not tolerate food diversity, but women have always practiced biodiversity.”
One example of monoculture is where plants that have not been made into commodities are now called weeds. “There was nothing like a weed in traditional societies. Everything had a purpose, a use.” Most greens are uncultivated foods, but when monoculture controls the food, you must have a war on biodiversity. One example of this warfare is the Monsanto created herbicide RoundUp. Shiva also pointed out that pesticides were originally designed to kill people during warfare, but the chemical companies figured out a way to convince governments that this chemical weapon could now be used to kill “weed.”
Dr. Shiva said that the “Green Revolution” was supposed to help bring more food to the world, but what happened was that multinational corporations became wealthier and the only foods that increased in production were rice and wheat, which are not sufficient for a healthy diet.
Shiva says that our current food system is unsustainable. She said that since a large percentage of the unsustainability is the fact that most foods travel long distances before they are consumed. Our dependence on fossil fuels in this current food system is a major source of globalized greenhouse gases. What the activist/author said we need to do is to reclaim localized food systems.
Localism is a big part of the current struggle in India, where farmers are battling companies like Monsanto and Coca-Cola. When Monsanto was recently brought to court in India over their attempts to control seed stock they made it clear that they had every right to charge people what they want since they owned the intellectual property rights of seeds. Some communities in India have fought this and won.
“With these monocultures of the mind,” Shiva said, “We end up having a war against food, the land, climate, water and our bodies. It is time to take back the seeds, which will be our bodies. We have to take back the seed for diversity and because the type of seeds they are now creating have no life. Feminists have marched to take back the night, but we need to take back more than the night, we need to take back the world. Women are at the forefront of this movement and need to be acknowledged as the leaders in our future. As long as we have a masculinized approach to food production we will have no future. When we have just a few companies controlling most of the food production, we have a totalitarian food system, a food dictatorship. What we need is a food revolution, which begins with the seed and in the kitchens of the world.”
Interview with Vandana Shiva
Dr. Vandana Shiva was in Grand Rapids today to speak at an event hosted by the West Michigan Women’s Studies Council. GRIID had the opportunity to speak with her and ask her about the role of women in food security, the importance of reclaiming the commons, her seed saving project called Navdanya, climate justice, and Green Capitalism.
The interview is in 2 parts.
Media Bites – Absolut Vodka
This week’s Media Bites takes a look at a recent Absolut Vodka ad. The spot is highly stylized, with beautiful scenery and various artists who craft words for the alcohol commercial. It is not until the very end of the commercial that we know what is being sold, but here the brand is primarily about what association viewers will have with the scenery and the music.
Immigrant Rights the Focus of Send-Off Rally
A crowd of approximately 150 gathered at Garfield Park Monday evening to rally around 55 area residents headed by bus to Washington D.C. There, they plan to join the Oct. 13 national march for immigration reform being organized by Reform Immigration For America. Thousands of immigration reform leaders from across the United States will converge on the nation’s capitol, where they plan on meeting with members of congress and staging a vigil on the West Lawn of the White House.
Even before the rally began, the park came alive with the energy of hope, hope for real change for the hard working immigrant families who contribute so much to our country and our economy but must hide in the shadows. “We’re here to send a message to the government that it’s time than our immigration system lives up to our American values,” said Jordan Bruxvoort, organizer with Michigan Organizing Project (MOP). “We need a system that keeps families together, rewards those who are willing to sacrifice, and work hard to make a better life for their kids.”
Maria Salinas, organizer with the Michigan Chapter of the Gamaliel Foundation added, “We need immigration reform that is comprehensive, fair and that serves justice. (In the current system) families are torn apart. If we were able to have a better path to citizenship, it would help our economy.”
As the rally got started, the 55 headed for Washington DC were brought to the front of the crowd, which was roused by the speeches by area immigration rights leaders and chants of “Si se pueda!” (Yes, we can!)! Organizers then directed onlookers to form two lines. The 55 ran through the lines, giving hearty high fives to the crowd pressed on either side, and then boarded the tour bus.
Dolores Olivarez had in her hands the letter she received from President Obama; he writes of “a responsible path to earn citizenship by demonstrating sound character, a commitment to America, and a strong work ethic.” She’s placing her hope in these words, and in the thousands making the trek to Washington to stand up for immigration reform. “Immigrants are here to work, to make a difference and to make their lives better,” Olivarez said. “Give them that opportunity so they don’t have to be in hiding, living in fear.”
Indigenous People’s Day – October 12
In honor of Indigenous People’s Day, we thought it might be appropriate to reprint a statement from the first gathering of Indigenous Peoples of the Americas in Quito, Ecuador, in 1990.
Indigenous Alliance of the Americas on 500 Years of Resistance
Quito, Ecuador, July 1990
The Continental Gathering ‘500 Years of Indian Resistance,’ with representatives from 120 Indian Nations, International and Fraternal organizations, meeting in Quito, July 17-20, 1990, declare before the world the following:
The Indians of America have never abandoned our constant struggle against the conditions of oppression, discrimination and exploitation which were imposed upon us as a result of the European invasion of our ancestral territories.
Our struggle is not a mere conjunctural reflection of the memory of 500 years of oppression which the invaders, in complicity with the ‘democratic’ governments of our countries, want to turn into events of jubilation and celebration. Our Indian People, Nations and Nationalities are basing our struggle on our identity, which shall lead us to true liberation. We are responding aggressively, and commit ourselves to reject this ‘celebration.’
The struggle of our People has acquired a new quality in recent times. This struggle is less isolated and more organized. We are now completely conscious that our total liberation can only be expressed through the complete exercise of our self-determination. Our unity is based on this fundamental right. Our self-determination is not just a simple declaration.
We must guarantee the necessary conditions that permit complete exercise of our self-determination; and this, In turn must be expressed as complete autonomy for our Peoples. Without Indian self-government and without control of our territories, there can be no autonomy.
The achievement of this objective is a principal task for Indian Peoples however, through our struggles we have learned that our problems are not different, in many respects, from those of other popular sectors. We are convinced that we must march alongside the peasants, the workers, the marginalized sectors, together with intellectuals committed to our cause, In order to destroy the dominant system of oppression and construct a new society, pluralistic, democratic and humane, in which peace Is guaranteed.
The existing nation states of the Americas, their constitutions and fundamental laws are judicial/political expressions that negate our socio-economic, cultural and political rights.
From this point in our general strategy of struggle, we consider it to be a priority that we demand complete structural change; change which recognizes the inherent right to self-determination through Indian own governments and through the control of our territories.
Our problems will not be resolved through the self-serving politics of governmental entities, which seek Integration and ethno-development. It is necessary to have an integral transformation at the level of the state and national society; that is to say, the creation of a new nation.
In this Gathering It has been clear that territorial rights are a fundamental demand of the Indigenous Peoples of the Americas.
Based on these aforementioned reflections, the organizations united in the First Continental Gathering of Indigenous Peoples reaffirm:
1. Our emphatic rejection of the Quincentennial celebration, and the firm promise that we will turn that date into an occasion to strengthen our process of continental unity and struggle towards our liberation.
2. Ratify our resolute political project of self-determination and conquest of our autonomy, In the framework of nation states, under a new popular order, respecting the appellation which each People determines for their struggle and project.
3. Affirm our decision to defend our culture, education, and religion as fundamental to our Identity as Peoples, reclaiming and maintaining our own forms of spiritual life and communal coexistence, in an Intimate relationship with our Mother Earth.
4. We reject the manipulation of organizations which are linked to the dominant sectors of society and have no Indigenous representation, who usurp our name for (their own) Imperialist interests. At the same time, we affirm our choice to strengthen our own organizations, without excluding or isolating ourselves from other popular struggles.
5. We recognize the important role that Indigenous women play In the struggles of our Peoples. We understand the necessity to expand women’s participation in our organizations and we reaffirm that it is one struggle, men and women together, in our liberation process, and a key question in our political practices.
6. We Indian Peoples consider it vital to defend and conserve our natural resources, which right now are being attacked by transnational corporations. We are convinced that this defence will be realized if it is Indian People who administer and control the territories where we live, according to our own principles of organization and communal life.
7. We oppose national judicial structures which are the result of the process of colonization and neo-colonization. We seek a New Social Order that embraces our traditional exercise of Common Law, an expression of our culture and forms of organization. We demand that we be recognized as Peoples under International Law, and that this recognition be incorporated into the respective Nation States.
8. We denounce the victimization of Indian People through violence and persecution, which constitutes a flagrant violation of human rights. We demand respect for our right to life, to land, to free organization and expression of our culture. At the same time we demand the release of our leaders who are held as political prisoners, an end to repression, and restitution for the harms caused us.
Vandana Shiva Speaks in Grand Rapids on Tuesday
Author and activist Vandana Shiva is speaking this Tuesday (October 13), 7pm at Fountain Street Church. The West Michigan Women’s Studies Council is hosting Dr. Shiva for a free lecture. The topic of her talk is “Women and Food Security.”
In recognition of her visit and in light of the upcoming Copenhagen talks on global climate justice, we wanted to reprint a recent essay by Vandana Shiva entitled, “The Poor Are Burdened Twice.”
The science of climate change is now clear, but the politics is very muddy. Historically, the major polluters were the rich, industrialised countries, so it made sense that they should pay the highest price. The Kyoto Protocol, adopted in December 1997, set binding targets for these countries to reduce their greenhouse-gas emissions by 5 per cent on average against 1990 levels by 2012. But by 2007, America’s greenhouse-gas levels were 16 per cent higher than 1990 levels. The American Clean Energy and Security Act, which was passed in June, commits the US to reduce emissions to 17 per cent below 2005 levels by 2020, yet this is just 4 per cent below 1990 levels.
The Kyoto Protocol also allows industrialised countries to trade their allocation of carbon emissions, and to invest in carbon mitigation projects in developing countries in exchange for Certified Emission Reduction Units, which they can use to meet reduction targets. But emissions trading, or offsetting, is not in fact a mechanism to reduce emissions. As the Breakthrough Institute, an environmental think tank, has pointed out, the emissions offset in the American act would allow “business as usual” growth in US emissions until 2030, “leading one to wonder: where’s the ‘cap’ in ‘cap and trade’?”.
Such schemes are more about privatising the atmosphere than about preventing climate change; the emissions rights established by the Kyoto Protocol are several times higher than the levels needed to prevent a 2°C rise in global temperatures. Allocations for the UK, for example, added up to 736 million tonnes of carbon dioxide over three years, meaning no reduction commitments. And emissions rights generate super profits for polluters.
The Emissions Trading Scheme granted allowances of 10 per cent more than 2005 emission levels. This translated to 150 million tonnes of surplus carbon credits, which at 2005 prices translates into profits of more than $1bn.
Carbon trading uses the resources of poorer people and poorer regions as “offsets” for richer countries: it is between 50 and 200 times cheaper to plant trees in poor countries to absorb CO2 than it is to reduce emissions at source. In other words, the burden of “clean-up” falls on the poor. From a market perspective, this might appear efficient, but in terms of energy justice, it is perverse to burden the poor twice – first with the impact of CO2 pollution in the form of climate disasters and then with offsetting the pollution of the rich.
In a globalised economy, addressing pollution by setting emissions levels for each country is inappropriate for two reasons. First, not all the citizens of a country contribute to pollution. As a result of China becoming the world’s factory, its CO2 emissions outstrip those of the US, putting it in first place worldwide. In 2006, China produced 6.1 billion tonnes of CO2; the US produced 5.75 billion tonnes. But in the US, emissions were 19 tonnes of CO2 per capita, compared with 4.6 tonnes in China. And much of China’s CO2 could be counted as US emissions, because China is producing goods for US companies that America will consume. Wal-Mart, for example, procures most of what it sells from China.
Similarly, while only 2.13 per cent of the world’s emissions emanate from the UK’s domestic economy, CO2 is created on the UK’s behalf in China, India, Africa and elsewhere. The global carbon footprint of UK companies is not known, but estimates suggest that emissions associated with worldwide consumption of the top 100 UK products accounts for between 12 and 15 per cent of the world total.
Thanks to industrialisation, the rural poor in China and India are losing out on their land and livelihood. To count them as polluters is doubly criminal. When global firms outsource to China or India, they need to be responsible for the pollution they carry overseas.
Regulating by carbon trading is like fiddling as Rome burns. Governments and the UN should impose a carbon tax on corporations, both for production – wherever their facilities are located – and for transport, which the Kyoto Protocol does not account for directly. Incentives for renewable energy are also essential. We face a stark choice: we can destroy the conditions for human life on the planet by clinging to “free-market” fundamentalism, or we can secure our future by bringing commerce within the laws of ecological sustainability and social justice.
Obama Gets $680 Billion Military Budget, Wins Nobel Peace Prize
Well, it’s hard not to know that US President Barack Obama has now won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. Already there is a great deal of online buzz about how such a prize could be given to someone who has been in office only 9 months. Things are not always as they seem and it is worth exploring the context of the Nobel Committee’s announcement.
First, it should be noted that many other heads of state have won the Nobel Peace Prize as well as a few other US diplomats. Jimmy Carter (2002) won it after leaving the White House, Al Gore Jr. (2007) for Global Warming education and Woodrow Wilson (1919) for founding the League of Nations.
Second, the Nobel Committee has a long history of giving the award to questionable people for questionable actions. For instance, international war criminal Henry Kissinger won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973. Several Israeli leaders have also won the award while their country was illegally occupying Palestinian land, such as Menachem Begin in 1978 and Yitzhak Rabin in 1994. So, we shouldn’t equate winning the Nobel Peace Prize with people who are committed to radical social change that results in lasting peace, like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr or Guatemalan activist Rigoberta Menchu Tum, both of whom also won the Nobel Prize.
Third, the reason that the Nobel Committee gave Obama the prize was because of his verbal commitments to reducing nuclear weapons proliferation and to improve relations with the Muslim world. While these are noble efforts, we should look at substance rather than rhetoric in determining whether or not someone is worthy of being called a peacemaker.
Just a few days ago the House voted to approve the Obama administration’s Military budget for 2010, a budget that is bigger than any during the Bush years standing at $680 Billion. How could this administration claim to be taking the country in a new direction if the military budget continues to grow? This budget includes operations for the ongoing US occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan. These occupations continue the murder of innocent civilians as Glenn Greenwald points out in his response to the Nobel announcement today. The bulking military budget also means maintaining roughly 750 military bases around the world, so US planners can continue to have easy access to the world’s natural resources. It includes $3 billion a year to Israel for weapons and military occupation. It includes money for new military bases in Colombia, which will no doubt be used to destabilize the Bolivarian revolution in South America.
Then there is the issue of torture, which the Obama administration has yet to renounce. Guantanamo is still open and still operating, habeas corpus is still being denied and the Obama administration refuses to prosecute Bush administration officials who knowingly advocate for torture.
So one has to ask, in his brief 9 months of occupying the White House, what evidence do we have a this US President’s commitment to peace? It would seem to this writer that there is more evidence of his commitment to war and torture than to anything that remotely resembles peace.
For some additional analysis of the Nobel Peace Prize being awarded Barack Obama check out the interview on Democracy Now! With Naomi Klein and Tariq Ali.
Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy 