Gladys Jaxa, a TB patient in Khayelitsha township.

March 24 was World Tuberculosis Day, so Worldfocus decided to take a deeper look at the disease that has long been a deadly threat.

Tonight’s Worldfocus special edition on deadly diseases includes a piece by Debra Daugherty about how one South African community has somewhat successfully combated the disease.

Despite advances, tuberculosis nevertheless remains a deadly threat around the globe. The New York Times describes the South African fight against tuberculosis:

South Africa, the richest country in the region, has poured money into building more space in hospitals for drug-resistant TB patients, but researchers say the number of new patients will grow faster than the country can add hospital beds…

It is hard to imagine a more ideal place than [Khayelitsha, a township outside Cape Town] for the spread of tuberculosis, a disease that hovers in the air. People here live at close quarters in overcrowded shacks that sprawl, like colorful jumbles of debris, as far as the eye can see. They go to work crammed into minibuses. They gather in the evening in the homes of friends who have televisions, or in small saloons…

The idea [of the new pilot program] is to show that such patients can be successfully treated in an impoverished community like Khayelitsha even while they are still infectious.

Tuberculosis is fueled in areas with rampant poverty, overcrowding, HIV and substance abuse and many factors. Cape Town suffers a high rate of TB but has managed to “achieve the best cure rate for the disease (almost 80%) compared to other metros in the country last year.” According to the city’s government:

Cape Town has an extremely high number of TB cases with 28,956 reported cases in 2009 and an incidence rate of 877 per 100,000 (compared with a national figure of about 500 per 100,000).

For its progress, Cape Town has been awarded by the United Nations for its efforts in the battle against TB. According to South African newspaper The Good News:

[Cape Town] received the award for its creative response to two different problems affecting poor communities in Cape Town. The first problem is that the incidence of TB has been rising consistently over the last 10 years while cure rates have remained static. This is partly because patients fail to complete the lengthy treatment or their response to treatment is not adequately documented, due to the intense pressure that nursing staff work under.

The second problem, though not directly a health issue, is the question of unemployment, especially for recently matriculated learners who are unable to find a foothold in the formal economy.

In response to these problems, city, provincial and TB/HIV Care Association health officials came up with the idea of employing unemployed school leavers as TB assistants and TB clerks to monitor and record TB treatment schedules.

After receiving the award in February 2010, the city published new targets for combating TB in 2010.

• New smear positive TB cure rate per quarter: 78%
• Slow the rate of increase of TB per 100 000 of Cape Town population: ≤1090
• % TB patients tested for HIV: 90%
• % HIV-positive TB patients who have a CD4 count: 95%

– Stephanie Savage

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Mongolia’s three million people and forty million animals are now being tested by a brutal winter that followed a drought last summer.

Tony Birtley of Al Jazeera English reports how grazing, the backbone of the country’s economy, is under threat.

Mongolia battles severe weather yearly, but this year, the UB Post reports that Mongolia is experiencing a “dzud,” which is a summer drought followed by an even harsher winter”

Before this winter (2009-2010), Mongolia had not experienced a dzud since early 2002. This winter, Mongolia is experiencing unusually cold weather with temperatures dropping well below minus 20 [-4 Fahrenheit] as early as mid-December. It is expected temperatures will fall to minus 48 [-54 Fahrenheit] as northerly weather brings bitter snow storms from Siberia.

Roughly 47% of Mongolia’s 2.7 million people rely heavily on herding livestock. A blog from the World Bank reports:

Around 35 percent of Mongolia’s work force is dependent on herding for a substantial part of their livelihoods and about 63 percent of rural household’s assets are livestock; livestock herding accounts for about a third of employment in Mongolia. Food security is also worsening, poverty levels are likely to rise and these factors may cause an increase in rural-to-urban migration. Compounding the problem is the poor condition of many pastures as a result of last year’s drought and overgrazing. In addition heavy snowfall started earlier than usual in October 2009.

According to AFP:

More than 3.5 million animals — cows, sheep, goats, yaks, horses and camels — have died so far, with 60 percent of the country still buried under deep snow.

Hundreds of thousands of livestock have perished due to lack of nourishment because the winter weather has made the ground infertile. Dead livestock in the region poses a potential threat for disease and has already directly impacted the economic and physical conditions of the Mongolian nomadic peoples.

The United Nations recently launched a campaign to provide funding to clear out dead livestock. In an effort to boost economic livelihood as well as to avoid further disaster, The Guardian reports that many Mongolian nomads are being paid to clear out the dead livestock in the affected regions.

The United Nations has launched a $4 million dollar carcass-clearing appeal for Mongolia as millions of camels, goats, yaks and horses perish across the steppe from a climate double whammy of summer drought and winter snow.

The international body will pay nomads to collect and bury dead livestock to ease the risks of disease, soil contamination and a worsening humanitarian disaster in a nation where one-third of the 2.7m population depends on animal husbandry.

As an initial step, [the United Nations Development Programme] has allocated $300,000 and will raise more fund to pay herders $4 a day to clean and bury carcasses. Eventually, it hopes to reach 60,000 of the worst affected families.

– Stephanie Savage

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The Israeli West Bank barrier. Photo Flickr user ChrisYunker

Palestinian leaders have agreed to a further round of indirect negotiations with Israel, more than a year after the last attempt to reach a settlement broke down in December 2008.

The planned negotiations, which do not yet have a timetable, will be mediated by the U.S., and special envoy George Mitchell will travel between the two delegations. Direct talks are not envisaged at this stage.

The Palestinian Liberation Organization has set a four-month limit on the process, and its leaders have said they do not expect results from the renewed talks, which have been endorsed by Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, Israel and the U.S.

In a recent development that has strained the peace talk proposals, yesterday Israel has approved the construction of 112 new apartments in the West Bank settlement of Beitar Illit. Israeli officials say the approval was granted before a 10-month moratorium on new construction in Jewish settlements within the disputed territory.

Israel has also approved plans to build 1,600 homes in East Jerusalem, an area not included in the moratorium but which the international community considers occupied territory.

This is how some commentators and bloggers have reacted to the renewed dialogue between Israeli and Palestinian leaders:

From Tikum Olam, a liberal Jewish-American blog:

[A]las it’s all a charade. For all the “proximity” the two sides may have they are universes apart on virtually every major issue that divides them. No commentators I have noticed have remarked upon the fact that these talks are in fact a deep regression from previous rounds of talks which, during the Olmert government, were direct and without U.S. mediation. Those talks too were largely ineffectual. But at least the parties had enough trust in each other that they were willing to talk face to face.

From a Talking Points Memo blog:

Everybody knows the core issues between Israelis and Palestinians, except for the one that will matter the most and can be acted on immediately, before any comprehensive deal; the one where Israel’s concessions will not compromise its security but enhance it. I am speaking of Palestine’s economy, specifically, its private sector, the driver of civil society and spine of any future state. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu talks about “economic peace,” but seems to mean little more than giving Palestinian laborers more jobs in Israeli agriculture and construction projects. What Palestinians need, rather, are entrepreneurs, managers, and professionals with the freedom to build a growing node in an urban and global network. The latter have made a remarkable start, but the occupation is thwarting them in ways few outsiders appreciate.

From Beneath the Surface, commentary on the peace talks:

Most people saw through Netanyahu’s peace bluff in June, but for those who believed the “outstretched” arm he supposedly gave the Palestinians, he just went against his campaign promises. Does Israel want peace with Palestine? By the decisions made the last couple of days it doesn’t seem like it, it seems like Israel want Palestine to surrender to their terms. Netanyahu has been given credit by vice-president Joe Biden for his indirect initiative to peace negotiations, but in reality the prerequisites that he laid aground for these negotiations were a joke!

From an opinion article in Haaretz, an Israeli center-left newspaper:

Israel must talk to Hamas. Not secretly. Not indirectly. Not for a politician to rehabilitate himself on the way to taking over the leadership of a party, as Kadima’s Shaul Mofaz tried to do, but openly and seriously. Just as the United States regularly talks to the Israeli opposition, Israel should maintain a dialogue with the Palestinian opposition. The dialogue should cover all core issues including a final settlement.

View footage of a checkpoint outside of the Beitar Illit settlement, which has a majority ultra-Orthodox Jewish population:

– James Matthews

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An Iraqi woman votes in Nasiriyah. Photo: Flickr user DVIDSHUB

According to Iraq’s 2005 constitution, women are granted a quarter of the seats in the nation’s 325-member Parliament.

Iraq remains a male-dominated society, but women have nevertheless made significant progress in the post-conflict society.

The parliamentary elections were held Sunday, the day before International Women’s Day. This year’s theme has been dubbed: “Equal rights, equal opportunities: Progress for all.”

In an interview with NPR, Professor Christina Asquith of the University of Vermont explains how the quota for female parliamentarians has a positive impact on the Iraqi political arena:

I hands down would say the quota has been absolutely fantastic for women. Because I think we have to imagine what the situation would be like if not for the quota. I think we would see almost no women running. It would be just difficult for women to get an edge in, get a foot in the door.

You see all of the candidates talking about the same thing, which is basically security, stability, rule of law. So, I think that, you know, the women, while they may have been quote, unquote “used” the first time around, that’s happening less and less now as women are able to reemerge. They’re really coming forward. And if not for the quota, I just don’t think we would see women at all.

One Iraqi candidate for Parliament is against this quota but remains an inspirational figure for women in Iraq. Jenan Mubarak is the founder of Iraq’s first all-female political party.

The Institute for War and Peace Reporting writes, “She has a dream: that women’s representation in parliament should be equal to that of men.” Mubarak elaborates:

I want to tell women, ‘You can do a lot.’ I want them to know they have choices; that they can be whatever they want. ‘Your achievements are who you are.’ That’s my message to women.’

Mubarak has thousands of female supporters who back her position on increasing the quota for female seats in the Iraqi Parliament. She continues:

Only a few women have been active in decision-making during the former legislatures because they are members of political parties run by others, and they can’t express their own opinion…We need a strong woman’s voice that has the ability to convince others in parliament.

Salama al-Khafaji, one of 1,801 female candidates up for election, told EuroNews:

The vision is still a masculine one and parties still nominate men rather than women to the high positions due to the fact that these positions are always given to men who assume ministerial positions and are nominated by their parties or political bloc.

But Maysoun al-Damlouji, a prominent Sunni lawmaker, explains:

The politicians who worked mostly against women’s rights and the quota are now introducing another vision that women have to take part in the political development as well as economic and every other development that Iraq needs.

– Stephanie Savage

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The Rosetta Project created this map to highlight the near-extinct languages in Africa and the Americas. They are working to update the map to include the entire world.

View Larger Map

Click below to view UNESCO’s interactive map of endangered languages around the world:

The blog Repeating Islands writes about Berbice Dutch, a language spoken in Guyana that was recently declared extinct:

Berbice Dutch is a mixture of the Zeeland dialect of Dutch, the local Arawak Indian language, and Ijo, which was spoken by slaves from Nigeria… The last speakers of this language were found in the 1970s by Ian Robertson, living on the upper reaches of the Berbice River in and around the area of the Wiruni Creek. The last known Berbice Dutch Creole speaker was Bertha Bell, who was 103 years old when last interviewed by Ian Robertson and a UWI linguistics research team in March, 2004. She died in 2005.

Linguist Hubert Devonish explains the dying language and interviews the last speaker of Berbice Dutch:

Listen to a BBC report on Boa Sr, the last speaker of the Bo language, which was spoken by the Bo tribe of the Andaman islands for up to 65,000 years.

The death of an 85-year-old woman in the Andaman islands, part of India but physically closer to Indonesia, has marked the death of an entire language:

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Santiago, Chile. Photo: Flickr user Luis Iturra

The 8.8 magnitude earthquake that hit Chile two days ago has resulted in over 700 confirmed deaths thus far and infrastructure damage throughout the country.

Tsunami warnings spread across the Pacific, as far away as Japan and Alaska. Chilean coastal towns and off-shore islands experienced tsunamis from the quake. Rescue efforts are underway and the military has been called in to fend off looters.

Blogs and social media sites have been addressing the disaster and the impact of the quake around the world.

Foreign Policy Blogs writer Richard Basas discusses the immediate impact of Chile’s earthquake, concerns in the coming days and the differences between Chile’s and Haiti’s ability to handle natural disasters:

The actual quake was felt as far as Buenos Aires, but the main concern now for non-Chileans has been a Tsunami effect that has already hit Chile and islands near the mainland of Chile and South America. So far the damage from Tsunami has been limited, but warning about possible Tsunamis have been issued as far as Mexico and Hawaii, and even as far as Asia. Some reports have come out about Tsunamis landing in Mexico and Central America, and countries closer to Chile’s quake like Peru and Colombia but information is limited at this point.

Chile was hit by the largest recorded earthquake in history at 9.0 in the same area of the country in 1960. Unlike Haiti, whose quake was unexpected as one had not occurred for over 200 years before 2010, Chile and its structures have been designed and built to withstand quakes, and emergency plans and sophisticated Search and Rescue equipment exists in Chile to deal with quakes that are well known in Chile. Aid efforts in Concepcion, a city of 670,000 people and the town very close to the quake zone, Talca, are underway as few structures, even those earthquake resistant one can withstand an 8.8 magnitude earthquake. People trapped under collapsed structures often were inside their homes as the earthquake occurred in the middle of the night while most were asleep in their homes.

While Chile’s earthquake was 500 times stronger than the earthquake that rocked Haiti just over a month ago, Chile’s death toll was much smaller. Global Voices blogger Silvia Viñas writes about the praise that Chile is receiving for its disaster preparedness:

Quakes are commonplace in Chile; since 1906 and counting this most recent earthquake, Chile has experienced 28 earthquakes [es]—without counting the smaller in magnitude but still frequent seismic activity that is often felt around the country. The three biggest earthquakes that many Chileans can still remember left 30,000 dead in 1939, 3,000 in 1960, and 177 in 1985.

The international community, together with Chileans living abroad, have praised Chile’s preparedness in front of this devastating situation, which could have had an even higher casualty total.

Chile is the world’s leading supplier of copper, but the country’s copper mines and seaports are struggling to get back to full capacity, after suffering damages and power outages from the quake. The price of copper rose over 5 percent when the markets opened on Monday, and over a fifth of the copper mine capacity was shut down, according to Reuters.

Gwen Robinson, of the Financial Times blog Alphaville, discusses the damage done to Chile’s infrastructure and its impact on global copper prices:

A crucial factor for Chile is its identity as one of the most quake-prone countries on the Pacific Rim. This, as the FT explains, has ensured the country is well prepared for big shocks, with building codes that require shake-resistant construction and a rapid emergency response system.

Chile’s top copper mines also managed to escape much damage because of such factors — though commodities markets still reacted to the earthquake with precautionary buying of the metal.

In an effort to calm commodities markets, Santiago Gónzalez, Chile’s mining minister, said on Sunday that the country would honor all export commitments, citing its ample copper stocks.

But that hasn’t stopped copper prices soaring by the biggest amount in nearly a year on Monday. amid fears of supply interruptions and infrastructure damage to Chile’s copper facilities.

Social media such as Twitter and Facebook have been used in Chile to get information and locate loved ones. Mashable‘s Matt Silverman writes about one woman’s use of Twitter to track down her family member:

A woman was able to track down her missing sister-in-law today thanks to the help of a fellow Twitter user.

Earlier we posted some of the Chile earthquake pictures that Chileans have been sharing on Twitter of the devastation caused by this morning’s magnitude-8.8 earthquake. Many of our readers were moved, as we were, to see some of the destruction first-hand. But one reader, Sheryl Breuker, shared a personal story with us in the comments about the true power of social media in crisis situations.

Also on Mashable, CEO and founder Pete Cashmore, discusses the launch of Google’s new person finder:

The simple interface lets you choose between two options — “I’m looking for someone” and “I have information about someone,” then either query the database or enter new information. At the time of writing, the Person Finder app has 3,100 records.

Here are some Twitter posts about Chile today, some sharing information and others trying to locate people:

LisaTw RT @Baybe_Doll: #Chile #need help Building collapse – 52 families affected #loc Edificio Diego Portales

lluviafina RT @microsiervos: Google ofrece un servicio para la localización de víctimas del terremoto de Chile (@la_informacion) http://bit.ly/ccaD10 (citing Google’s new Person Finder service)

LaConqui #terremotochile SE BUSCA a Fernando Hormazabal y Lidia Concha de #Pellehue #chile Info al fono 02 – 3301412 (favor RT) #chileayuda (seeking info about missing persons)

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Photo: Flickr user 0neiros

In response to Europe’s economic woes, protests have erupted in Greece and spread across the continent.

The Economist blog, Charlemagne’s notebook, writes about the protests spreading across Europe, and notes that these strikes have been made up of people of privilege and not solely the underclass.

In Greece, the strikers have included customs officers and tax collectors: workers who not only enjoy special tax free allowances and early retirement on big pensions, but also include in their ranks some of the most notoriously corrupt officials in Greece, known for their willingness to take bribes in order to allow the wealthy to avoid paying their taxes (a big reason why Greece is broke). The public sector workers were striking, among other things, against plans to increase their retirement age from 61 to 63 (when many European countries are talking about raising it from 65 to 67). Greek taxi drivers are due to strike against plans to open their closed profession. It is symptomatic of the unhealthy power of the trade unions that the Greek deputy prime minister, Theodoros Pangalos, was forced to “clarify” what he meant when he said that in the future civil servants could not expect a job for life.

Global Voices blogger, Asteris Masouras, takes a look at the fierce response from Greek bloggers on the financial crisis there and offers this translation from political  blogger Panos Zervas.

I really don’t think this was our only alternative. What made it the only alternative was the incredible inadequacy of our civilian leadership. Two parties swapping power, headed by two blatantly inadequate princely heirs, burdened by an incredible gang of graft “ideologues”. An entire army of bootlickers, mediocrities and common crooks. With the capable and selfless having been exiled from politics decades ago, because there simply isn’t any room for them.
The wretched vultures of power weren’t and aren’t capable of plotting and executing policies to steer the country out of the crisis without turning it into shambles. Fearful, incompetent, and finally shameless, they will do what the “outsiders” dictate.

Foreign Policy Blogs writer Elison Elliott discusses the impact that a Greek default would have on the 16-nation eurozone.

The paucity of detail underlines how delicate a matter aid to Greece is. The euro zone is built around the idea that each nation manages its own fiscal affairs, subject to monitoring by the EU’s executive arm. A bailout of Greece would imply that a badly behaving nation—Greece for years violated rules against overspending—can be saved from the consequences.

Neither are the saviors happy. Germany, which as the bloc’s biggest and most stable economy would have to take the brunt of any bailout, has been wary. Helping its profligate peer is unpopular in thrifty Germany. But letting Greece default has risks, too—mostly for the stability of the euro—and EU leaders are deeply reluctant to let the International Monetary Fund extend help. Many in Brussels believe that would be an embarrassing sign of weakness.

Social Europe Journal contributor, Steven Hill, however, has a surprisingly optimistic analysis.

With some $25 billion worth of loan payments coming due for which Greece will need to refinance, the bond markets became skittish that a Greek default may lead to a wave of other national defaults in Portugal and Spain, and drag down the euro itself (much like Lehman Brothers initiated the global financial industry’s collapse).

But that seems unlikely. Greece’s economy comprises only 2% of the overall European economy – about the same magnitude as Indiana’s in the United States. Greece’s deficit to GDP ratio, while high at about 12.5%, is not that much higher than that of both the US and Japan, around 10.5%. True, Greece has a sizable accumulated debt over many years, estimated at about 110 percent of its GDP, but even the US has a debt to GDP estimated at 94 percent and projected to break 100 percent by 2012.

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Dilma Rousseff, Brazilian presidential candidate. Photo Flickr user Joka Madruga.

Brazil’s ruling Workers’ Party (PT) nominated Dilma Roussef on February 20 as its presidential candidate for the upcoming October 3 general election.

Rousseff, a 62-year-old economist and former guerrilla leader, was personally nominated by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and endorsed at a party conference. She is currently Lula’s chief of staff and has also served as Brazil’s energy minister.

According to Brazilian electoral law, the popular outgoing president is unable to stand for a third consecutive term.

Rousseff has not yet stood for public office and, according to recent polls, she trails five to 10 percentage points behind her main rival, the conservative governor of São Paulo state, José Serra. However, the gap is narrowing.

If elected, Rousseff has said she will maintain the strict fiscal discipline that has underpinned Brazil’s recent growth and economic stability. She has also pledged to continue working with the 11 parties that make up Lula’s current coalition government.

Bloggers have commented on the nomination:

From Dilma 2010, a blog in support of the Workers’ Party presidential candidate [translated by Worldfocus from Portuguese]:

Is it possible to elect a woman to the Brazilian presidency? The Brazilian people are already mulling over the possibility given that Dilma Rousseff is now the PT’s candidate and has Lula’s support. His government is widely recognized to be the best this country has ever had, and Rousseff has played a role in that success as the president’s colleague, both as a party member and as a minister.

From Carlos Selonke‘s blog, commentary on Brazil:

The coming weeks and months will give us a better clue on what to expect of Ms. Rousseff. Lula’s support will be crucial, but she will have to emerge eventually and expose herself to Brazil’s voters and the media. While she can safely assume to win in the poor Northeast, a region where Lula is considered a saint, she will have to explain to middle-class voters in the populous Southeast how she pretends to push urgently needed reforms with a party behind her that, despite the triumph of pragmatism during the Lula years, at times seems dangerously wedged to ideology.

From Post-Western World, issues to watch in 2010:

José Serra or Dilma Rousseff? The candidates have a lot in common: They largely agree on economic policy. They are both surprisingly uncharismatic, but quite competent and easy to underestimate. Ms. Rousseff, Lula’s chosen heiress, is more likely to continue Lula’s South-South diplomacy that aimed to position Brazil as the “Leader of the South”. Serra, on the other hand, would realign Brazil more with the United States and Europe, yet maintaining ties to other emerging powers. Under Serra, Iran’s Ahmadinejad will have to skip Brasília on his next visit to South America, and relations to Venezuela’s Chavez are likely to turn sour. Neither Serra nor Rousseff will be able to achieve Lula’s global stardom. Nonetheless, Brazil is a force to reckon with: Home to the world’s largest carbon sink, the Amazon, Brazil’s stance on climate change will be crucial, and only Brazil is able to salvage democracy in an increasingly divided South America.

– James Mathews

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Closing ceremony of the Latin American and Caribbean Unity summit. Photo Miguel Romero/Presidencia de la República, Flickr user Presidencia de la República del Ecuador.

Latin American and Caribbean leaders are set to launch a regional group that will be an alternative to the U.S.-led Organization of American States.

More than 30 heads of state met on Monday, February 22, in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, for the two-day Rio Group unity summit.

The group – that includes Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Colombia and Venezuela – will discuss plans to launch the Latin American and Caribbean Community in 2011. All nations in the Americas will be represented, with the exception of both the U.S. and Canada, and the organization’s goal is to promote greater international cooperation.

The conference, however, has been overshadowed by the spat between Colombia’s Alvaro Uribe and Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez. According to officials, Uribe urged Chávez to “Be a man!” and the Venezuelan president reacted and told Uribe to “Go to hell!”

The row – that has highlighted the lack of unity between some countries in Latin America – erupted when Uribe complained to Chávez about the Venezuelan trade embargo on Colombian goods. Chávez in turn accused Uribe of plotting his assassination by paramilitary forces and threatened to leave the summit early.

Another pressing issue that will be considered by the Rio Group – whose meetings are not public – is whether to acknowledge Porfirio Lobo as the legitimate president of Honduras. Lobo, who was not invited to the summit, was elected president following a coup in June last year and the ejection of his predecessor, Manuel Zelaya, from the country.

Representatives will also discuss aid to help Haiti recover from the devastating January 12 earthquake and the disputed sovereignty of the British-owned Falkland Islands. The Latin American and Caribbean nations backed Argentina’s claim to the Atlantic islands where Britain has plans to drill for oil.

Bloggers have reacted to the summit and to the altercation between the two leaders:

From El Tiempo, a Colombian newspaper’s blog:

Colombians and Venezuelans have two loquacious leaders who don’t measure their words. They speak without minding the consequences to the two countries’ relations. The effects are evident: the so-called economic blockade that Caracas maintains on Colombia, the poverty that Venezuela faces and the crisis of Colombian exporters. What is also true is that Chávez has been responsible for wild, vulgar and disrespectful verbal abuse, not just against Uribe, but also against all Colombians. He deserved a manly rebuttal.

From Juventud Surversiva, a pro-Bolivarian revolution blog:

Uribe and his henchmen have handed over not only their nation, but also the entirety of Latin America on a plate. How can anyone justify an extensive and impertinent U.S. military presence in Colombia to combat drug trafficking and terrorism?

From The American,the Journal of the American Enterprise Institute blog:

Ironically, this confrontation came at a summit of Latin American and Caribbean leaders intended to launch a “regional mechanism” that might serve as an alternative to the Organization of American States (OAS). Apparently, Latin and Caribbean diplomats think that a new forum—minus the United States and Canada—might advance their common interests more effectively. However, it is clear from the showdown in Cancún that Chávez is the problem. His polarizing, bullying style has poisoned the atmosphere at the OAS and will undermine confidence wherever he goes.

Meanwhile, La Crónica de Hoy, a Mexican newspaper, quoted President Evo Morales of Bolivia, an ally of Chávez:

[P]resident Uribe provoked President Chávez, who listened patiently and then tried to explain the issues. President Uribe would not let him speak and that is when the small problems arose.

– James Matthews

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Mostly living in the northern island of Hokkaido, Ainu are believed to descend from people who lived in Japan as early as 13,000 years ago. Their culture is distinct from mainstream Japanese society.

In the 19th century, Japan banned the Ainu language, seized their land, and outlawed their hunting and religious practices. Today the Ainu language is almost completely extinct.

Just under 24,000 people identified themselves as Ainu, in a 2006 study by the Hokkaido prefectural government. However, many of those included were of mixed blood. Also, it is not known how many Ainu live outside Hokkaido.

In June 2008, Japan’s parliament passed a resolution that formally recognized the Ainu as an indigenous people with a distinct language, religion and culture. Today, the Ainu have their own cultural institutions and are working with the Japanese government to maintain their unique heritage.

Harry Fawcett of Al Jazeera English reports from Hokkaido on the struggle to save their way of life.

Global Voices blogger Scilla Alecci writes about the extinction of indigenous languages in Japan, including the Ainu language:

In February UNESCO presented the Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger, giving an accurate and worrying description of the languages considered endangered (about 2,500). Among these eight belong to the Japanese archipelago. Not a big surprise if we think about the severe policies of linguistic and cultural assimilation carried out by the Japanese government until the end of the WW2, after completing the annexation during the 19th century of the Ryukyu reign (now Okinawa) and the island of Hokkaido inhabited by the Ainu people.

Scienceblogs.com contributor Razib Khan writes about the relationship between language and genes of near extinct people’s around the world:

This is a case where the preponderance of evidence seems to be that the Yayoi rice-culture bearers arrived from the continent and predominantly replaced the indigenous post-Jomon culture. The Ainu may be a residue of the Jomon natives, and a non-trivial, though minority, component of the Japanese ancestry can be traced back to the Jomon.

The Ainu Museum in Hokkaido explores the history of the Ainu people:

“Ainu” means “human.” The Ainu people regard things useful to them or beyond their control as “kamuy” (gods). In daily life, they prayed to and performed various ceremonies for the gods. These gods include: “nature” gods, such as of fire, water, wind and thunder; “animal” gods, such as of bears, foxes, spotted owls and grampuses; “plant” gods, such as of aconite, mushroom and mugwort; “object” gods, such as of boats and pots; and gods which protect houses, gods of mountains and gods of lakes. The word “Ainu” refers to the opposite of these gods.

The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History held an exhibition dedicated to exploring the ancient origin of the Ainu, their evolving relations with the Japanese, and the 20th century Ainu cultural renaissance.

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Last Friday, the fifth anniversary of the Bil’in demonstrations, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and former Prime Minister Nabil Shaath joined 1,000 marchers from the West Bank, Israel and abroad.

The protests concern the 420-mile barrier, which Israel began constructing in 2002 — partitioning the West Bank from the rest of the country. About 10 percent of the barrier is 25-foot tall concrete sections, and the other 90 percent is mostly electronic fencing.

Israel claims the barrier is necessary to protect its citizens from Palestinian terrorism, while Palestinians call it an illegal land grab.

In the town of Bil’in, the wall has split apart the olive grove landholdings of villagers.

But this year, the Israeli military has begun to move part of the wall near the town, in compliance with a 2007 Israeli Supreme Court decision. However, local villagers claim the new route will only return one-third of their land.

Heather Sharp reported for the BBC from Bil’in:

Some of the remainder [of the land] had previously been designated Israeli state land and allocated for the expansion of a Jewish settlement. Mahmoud Samarra, 64, says he will get only a tiny fraction of his 93 dunums (23 acres) of land back. He points over the hill beyond the coils of barbed wire and the towering mesh of the fence. “It was like paradise,” he says, describing how he planted olive trees with his children and watched them grow over 17 years.

The protests continue, buoyed by the decision of the Supreme Court. Bil’in residents want to maintain media attention on their situation, even as another weekly protest in nearby Ni’in — which sprung up in 2008 — competes for the spotlight.

A joint Palestinian-Israeli activist organization, The Alternative Information Center, quoted Mohammed Khatib, one of the protest leaders:

The Israeli court had already ruled two years ago that the Wall here should be rerouted, but it is our struggle, not their court, that forces the Army to implement this decision now.

The International Court of Justice in the Hague ruled that the Wall should be dismantled in its entirety, and not just partially like the Israeli court had ordered. Today the demonstrators made an important step towards the implementation of this decision.

The protests often turn violent. Israel blames demonstrators who throw rocks at its soldiers, and Palestinians point to the belligerence of the Israeli army toward the protesters — including night-time raids on the houses of suspected participants.

Israeli military spokeswoman Avital Leibovich explains why the protests deteriorate into violence:

Those rocks they’re throwing can kill people…damage costing hundreds of thousands of shekels has been done to the fence and 77 Israeli soldiers have been injured in the past two years.

They go to the fence and tear it down, then we have no choice but to show up and defend the fence. And then they start throwing rocks.

Mepeace.org describes the violence from the Palestinian perspective:

Over its five years of protest, Bil’in has seen a sharp increase in violence and repression, with regular night raids targeting protest organizers, thousands injured by riot-dispersal equipment alongside real bullets, and the death of a Palestinian man last year after a tear-gas canister was shot at him from a high-velocity gun. Basem Ibrahim Abu Rahmeh was 29 years old when he was killed.

The post Weekly W. Bank protest in Bil’in celebrates 5th anniversary appeared first on WORLDFOCUS.

Worldfocus compares current marijuana policy throughout the U.S. to policy in Europe and the rest of the world.

The American decriminalization of marijuana has been a gradual process, with New Jersey becoming the 14th state to allow marijuana for medical use in January.

This map shows 15 states that allow medical marijuana, including Maryland — a state not often included because the law there only reduces penalties for medical marijuana use.

Map: Wikimedia Commons.

Following New Jersey’s change, Emily S. Rueb wrote in the New York Times‘ City Room about the potential for medical marijuana in New York:

But though 14 states have now legalized medical marijuana, New York, which has relatively liberal possession laws and actually passed a medical-marijuana law in 1980 but never put it to use, remains forbidden ground for those who seek to relieve their symptoms with cannabis. This year, however, supporters of medical marijuana in Albany and elsewhere hope to harness what they see as growing momentum.

In an October 2009 Gallup poll, 54 percent of Americans said they were opposed to legalizing marijuana, while 44 percent — a historical high — said they were in favor of legalization.

Across the Atlantic, countries such as the Netherlands are famous for allowing the personal use and sale of marijuana, while many other European nations have decriminalized the drug to varying levels.

The Czech Republic legalized the cultivation of up to five marijuana plants for personal use on January 1. Here’s a map showing the range of European marijuana restrictions:

The status of marijuana laws in Europe. (Iceland not to scale). Map: Wikimedia Commons

Europeans’ attitudes towards marijuana decriminalization are not as simple as some might assume. In his blog Travel as a Political Act,  travel writer Rick Steves discusses the real Dutch view of marijuana policy:

The Dutch are not necessarily “pro-marijuana.” In fact, most have never tried it or even set foot in a coffeeshop. They just don’t think the state has any business preventing the people who want it from getting it in a sensible way. To appease Dutch people who aren’t comfortable with marijuana, an integral component of the coffeeshop system is discretion. It’s bad form to smoke marijuana openly while walking down the street. Dutch people who don’t like pot don’t have to encounter or even smell it.  And towns that don’t want coffeeshops don’t have them. Occasionally a coffeeshop license will not be renewed in a particular neighborhood, as the city wants to keep a broad smattering of shops (away from schools) rather than a big concentration in any one area.

In Latin America too, drug laws have begun to loosen up, after decades of zero-tolerance policies. Mexico recently decriminalized the possession of up to 5 grams (0.18 oz.) of marijuana for personal use.

Global Voices blogger Issa Villarreal writes about the popular response to Mexico’s shift:

Reactions are mixed, but certainly two things always came up in discussions: the situation of violence and murder in several Mexican cities related to the narco and drug trafficking, and also the haste approval. It can be said that an important part of the distribution of the story was “hand to hand” through social networks and re-publishing in independent media, but not properly from newspapers, which also carries some critique. Among the discussions, the difference between legalization and decriminalization was a frequent one, considering that the latter holds specific limits of use.

Also from Global Voices, Juliana Rincón Parra writes about citizen groups around the world pushing for legalization:

There are groups of people advocating for the legalization of drugs, but what would that actually mean? From Hungary to Colombia, from youth to teachers, from cops and clergy, individuals and groups are taking to citizen media to put forth their arguments regarding this potentially controversial subject.

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Al-Bustan Rotana Hotel in Dubai where Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was murdered on January 20. Photo: christiankloeppel on Flickr

A story of murder and intrigue is dominating the news in Israel and beyond.

News commentators, law enforcement officials and political leaders are scrambling to piece together evidence leading to the identification of the perpetrators.

At least 11 members of the group suspected of the murder of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai on January 20 used European passports, according to Dubai police officials. Another six suspects have yet to be identified.

Six of the suspects held British passports, while the others used Irish, French and German documents to enter the UAE. Both the British and the Irish governments have said the passports were fake and want to investigate further.

The Irish and German counterfeit documents even had the wrong number of digits and letters.

There are conflicting reports from the Dubai police, and it is unclear whether al-Mabhouh was injected with a lethal drug or strangled in his hotel room.

Hamas, the Islamist group in control of the Gaza Strip, and al-Mabhouh’s family have blamed the Israeli national intelligence agency, Mossad, for the assassination. But Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman claims there is no proof that Israel was behind the crime.

Worldfocus has culled together a selection of comments on the web. From Aidan Maconachy Blog:

It is certainly true that the Dubai assassination has a number of characteristics in common with Mossad operations in the past. In addition the al-Mabhouh assassination occurred at a time when Israel is being accused of engaging in a subversive, undeclared war in the region.

From War in Context, :

There’s no conclusive proof yet that this was a Mossad operation but the images [of the suspects] do at least carry suggestions that the individuals involved had taken measures to conceal their identities.

For instance, this crew all seem to go to an optician who specializes in retro-frames – hunky ugly ones that stand out until the operative stops wearing them or switches to an everyday designer frame. The woman, minus blond wig and ruby lipstick would also lose her signature look. Six shaved/cropped heads – again, a few months of hair growth and they’ll be harder to pick out.

As Dubai police indicated in their briefing, this team even went to the lengths of avoiding using cell phones. Add all this up and this looks like an operation meticulously designed to be clandestine.

From Elder of Ziyon:

Everyone is blaming everyone else for the assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai – but almost everyone blames the one country that there is no evidence for (yet).

The latest: Dubai police extradited two Palestinian Arabs from Jordan and arrested them in connection with the murder, and one of them is a [Palestinian Authority] official. So Hamas is accusing the PA of working with the Israelis in planning the hit.

The PA, meanwhile, says that Hamas members themselves must have been involved, and that Israeli intelligence has penetrated the highest leadership positions of Hamas (something that Hamas itself has been investigating.)

Dubai police had meanwhile given out photos of eleven people they say were involved, plus a very neat videotape showing parts of the operation.

Watch a Gulf News compilation of CCTV footage of the hit squad’s movements in the Dubai hotel:

– James Matthews

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Mexico City civil rights groups honor the 15 teenagers killed in Ciudad Juárez on January 31. Photo: Flickr user diegohg.

On February 13, around 1,300 Mexicans took to the streets of Ciudad Juárez to protest the continued presence of the armed forces in the northern border city.

Civil rights groups say the deployment of 6,000 combat troops has worsened the drug-related crime wave and have organized a “March of Anger” to voice their opposition.

Ciudad Juárez is now infamous as the murder capital of Mexico and last year 2,660 people were killed in the city. Most deaths are the result of cartels fighting over drug-smuggling routes into the U.S.

On January 31, armed men gunned down 15 innocent teenagers at a party, triggering a response against the incessant bloodshed from civil rights groups. President Felipe Calderón initially said the youths had connections to drug gangs but later retracted his accusation.

The demonstrations took place just after the president visited Ciudad Juárez and vowed to refine his strategy against organized crime. Calderón also announced the deployment of a further 3,000 federal police officers to the city.

Bloggers in Ciudad Juárez and elsewhere have commented on the weekend’s protests. Worldfocus translated a few excerpts:

From S.O.S. Juarez, one of the organizing civil rights groups:

The state’s failure to provide public safety forces organizations out onto the streets and to take up the demands of the relatives of those massacred [on January 31]. We need to stand up for our rights and defeat the fear that has paralyzed a large swathe of society…[T]he protesters held three minutes of silence and, in a symbolic gesture representing hundreds of executions, threw themselves on the floor to remember the thousands killed. The fallen are the result of a senseless war declared by an illegitimate government [a reference to the contested 2006 general election].

From Chihuahua Resiste, on the reaction of one bereaved relative:

A central figure [of the protests] has been Luz María Dávila, the mother of two of the victims of the [January 31] massacre. Last Thursday she became known to the world when she squared up to President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa and demanded swift justice for her children.

From Pocamadrenews, a blog that calls for further action against the rising violence:

Although there have been other protests in Juárez and other cities, I believe it is time to come together in solidarity and organize a national strike movement. This will create further pressure because protest marches achieve very little.

From Poverty News, a blog that comments on the allure of the drug trade for Ciudad Juárez’s youth:

Safety prevents many children from even receiving an education in Ciudad Juárez. Even if the streets were safe many families could not afford the costs for education that is not free for that region of Mexico. All of this this makes entering the drug trade an attractive option to earn a lot of money fast for pre-teens without an education.

– James Matthews

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Influential al-Qaeda-linked Yemeni cleric Anwar al-Awlaki. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Worldfocus takes a look at the evolution of al-Qaeda into a fragmented network of jihadi terrorist elements, often united more by philosophy than by concrete linkages between AfPak and cells in Iraq, Yemen, North Africa and beyond.

The escalated drone war in northwest Pakistan has brought attention to the attenuated al-Qaeda core that moved from Afghanistan in late 2001.

But two events in late December — a failed Christmas Day bombing and a suicide attack on CIA operatives in Afghanistan — have led analysts to re-assess al-Qaeda’s perceived decline in popularity and power.

The somewhat resurgent organization is highly decentralized and relies more on a brand name and local franchises than on ideological, communications and operations control by the group’s top leaders.

An Asia Times commentary article from 2004 addresses the al-Qaeda brand name:

Legitimized by President George W Bush’s administration’s declaration of war, al-Qaeda has now become a global phantom, plagued by its own reputation and in need of solid ground. Indeed, the post-September 11 security environment finds al-Qaeda lacking not only a physical safe haven as it had in Afghanistan, but also the critical manpower and expertise that it had in the moments prior to September 11.

This, by any means, is not the end of al-Qaeda, however. The ultimate power in such groups is not necessarily the leadership, but always the cause that defines the legitimacy of the group and the leadership that guides it. Bin Laden’s existence, perhaps as it always has been, is largely political and symbolic – but will nevertheless remain a powerful source of his straining influence on various members of the global umma. Thus the “war on terror”, although controversial in many minds, has undermined both the conventional and unconventional abilities of al-Qaeda and its global entities…

In sum, the power of the al-Qaeda cause, once inherited and customarily altered from the Muslim Brotherhood, has remained close to the political spirit of many radical variations of Islam. The twist here is that the elimination of the “physical” al-Qaeda nexus and the resulting decentralization of its regional elements into like-minded, local leadership groups may ultimately prove more of stratagem advantage versus US policy than a vulnerability.

Then a 2005 BBC article examined the terrorist organization as a global, corporate franchise:

Most newspaper reports encourage us to visualize al-Qaeda as an army, with a high command; or perhaps as a multinational organization, with bin Laden as its chief executive officer and men like Ayman al-Zawahri as his senior management.

We are told that the Bali bombings, like those in London, Madrid and half a dozen other places since the attacks of 11 September 2001, “bear all the hallmarks of” al-Qaeda – formulaic language that has not varied since the days when the violence of the IRA and ETA was at its peak.

The implication is that its senior figures order these attacks, and that local operatives carry them out…

Just as you can buy the franchise for, say, a Holiday Inn or an Intercontinental Hotel, so you can adopt the principles of Osama bin Laden and set up your own deadly group, murdering those you identify as the enemies of the faith – and anyone else, of course, who happens to be passing at the time.

And an AP article from July 2009 compares al-Qaeda’s expansion to fast food franchising:

The al-Qaeda of the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM, is perhaps the best example of how al-Qaeda is morphing and broadening its reach through loose relationships with local offshoots. The shadowy network of Algerian cells recruits Islamist radicals throughout northern and western Africa, trains them and sends them to fight in the region or Iraq, according to Western and North African intelligence officials who asked to remain anonymous because of the nature of their jobs. In turn, AQIM gets al-Qaeda’s brand name and some corporate know-how.

“The relationship with the al-Qaeda mother company works like in a multinational,” says Jean-Louis Bruguiere, France’s former top counterterrorism judge and an expert on North African networks. “There’s a strong ideological link, but the local subsidiary operates on its own.”

Another Western intelligence official compares AQIM to a local fast food franchise, “only for terrorism.”

The cover of The Guardian Weekly from September 11, 2009. Photo: Wikipedia

The Guardian published a piece in September 2009 — on the 8th anniversary of the September 11 attacks — about the organization’s perceived decline:

Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida is under heavy pressure in its strongholds in Pakistan’s remote tribal areas and is finding it difficult to attract recruits or carry out spectacular operations in Western countries, according to government and independent experts monitoring the organization…

Its activity is increasingly dispersed to “affiliates” or “franchises” in Yemen and North Africa, but the links of local or regional jihadi groups to the center are tenuous; they enjoy little popular support and successes have been limited.

Lethal strikes by CIA drones – including two this week alone – have combined with the monitoring and disruption of electronic communications, suspicion and low morale to take their toll on al-Qaeda’s Pakistani “core,” in the jargon of western intelligence agencies.

Interrogation documents seen by the Guardian show that European Muslim volunteers faced a chaotic reception, a low level of training, poor conditions and eventual disillusionment after arriving in Waziristan last year.

“Core” al-Qaida is now reduced to a senior leadership of six to eight men, including Bin Laden and his Egyptian deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, according to most informed estimates. Several other Egyptians, a Libyan and a Mauritanian occupy the other top positions. In all, there are perhaps 200 operatives who count.

Yet, after a failed Christmas Day bombing and a successful Khost attack on CIA operatives, The Economist ran a piece last month that refuted assumptions about al-Qaeda’s imminent demise:

ONLY a few months ago, intelligence experts were saying that al-Qaeda and its allies were in decline, both militarily and ideologically. But two bombs less than a week apart, one failed and the other successful, have put an end to such optimism.

The talk of al-Qaeda’s downfall did not come from thin air. In the view of many analysts, the network’s central leadership had been decimated through drone attacks in Pakistan’s tribal belt; al-Qaeda’s Saudi branch was all but defeated; its brethren in Iraq were marginalized; and those in other regions could mount only local attacks. Al-Qaeda had failed to land a blow in the West since the London bombs of 2005. Funds were dwindling, and more Muslims were eschewing global terror.

Though still dangerous, “al-Qaeda is under more pressure, is facing more challenges and is a more vulnerable organisation than at any time since the attacks on 11 September 2001,” declared Mike Leiter, the director of America’s National Counterterrorism Center last September.

Such assessments are being hurriedly revised. Mr Leiter, Barack Obama’s favorite spook, is now among those having to explain why his newish organization, which is supposed to fuse all information on terrorist threats, failed to connect several partial warnings about Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. The Nigerian student, who moved from London to Yemen last year, tried to set off explosives sewn into his underpants on board a Northwest Airlines flight, carrying 290 people from Amsterdam, as it prepared to land in Detroit on Christmas Day.

For more on al-Qaeda in Yemen, listen to Worldfocus Radio: Yemen’s Multiple Wars.

– Ben Piven

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Photo: Flickr user lepiaf.geo

Prior to entering office, President Barack Obama spoke of the need for a new approach to U.S.-Cuba relations and a sea change from the past.

As reported by The New York Times, in a speech May 2008, Obama said:

John McCain’s been going around the country talking about how much I want to meet with Raúl Castro, as if I’m looking for a social gathering or I’m going to invite him over and have some tea. That’s not what I said, and John McCain knows it. After eight years of the disastrous policies of George Bush, it is time to pursue direct diplomacy, with friend and foe alike, without preconditions.

Last April, the Obama administration lifted some restrictions on Cuban-Americans, including regulations on travel and on sending money back to Cuba.

However, the nearly fifty-year-old embargo on Cuban trade and travel with the United States remains intact. Moreover, President Obama renewed the embargo for another year this past fall.

The relationship between Cuba and the United States has received little attention lately.

Let’s look at what bloggers are saying about life in Cuba and the state of U.S.-Cuba relations today.

U.S. Representative Lincoln Diaz-Balart’s (R-FL) is staunchly opposed to the Communist government in Cuba and an advocate for Cuban-Americans. Susannah Vila of Global Voices discusses Diaz-Balart’s decision to not run for reelection:

As is the case with many of the Obama administration’s accomplishments during its first year, advancements in relations between the US and Cuba have been subtle.  Yet small changes in policy may mean bigger shifts in behavior, especially when it comes to Cuban-Americans and the voting booth.

Bloggers in Miami and Cuba are buzzing over the news that US Representative Lincoln Diaz-Balart will not run for reelection in the fall. Diaz-Balart, a Republican, is a staunch supporter of the trade embargo against Cuba, and he took this as an opportunity to highlight his role in codifying the blockade. As a senior member of the House Rules Committee, the Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Legislative and Budget Process, and the Co-Chairman of the Florida Congressional Delegation, Diaz-Balart’s absence will definitely be felt.

Melissa Lockhart of Foreign Policy Blogs writes how 2010 could be the year that change is realized, even after a slow down in the political will to open relations with Cuba:

The Congressional push to open up Cuba for travel by U.S. citizens was buried at the end of last year in the urgency (at the time) of the health care reform debate. The bill’s sponsors—including Representatives Bill Delahunt (Democrat) and Jeff Flake (Republican)—intend to dig it out and press forward, starting now. The problem at the moment is the Democrats’ reluctance to actually bring the bill to the floor for a vote. The votes may be there (across party lines), but the issue isn’t at the top of their agenda and is one that splits the caucus.

Unfortunately, the momentum that came from Obama’s lifting of travel restrictions for Cuban-Americans last year is now slowed, and the issue has faded from the ever-shifting public attention. Meanwhile, there is bipartisan opposition to the bill as well, and funds channel to members of both parties from opposition, pro-embargo (often Cuban-American) groups. So bipartisanship is not necessarily a relevant asset at all for the backers of this bill.

In her blog Generation Y, well-known Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez discusses the difficulties Cubans face because of their own government’s travel restrictions:

I know how it feels. I know how hard it is to go to the Cuban consulate in any country and be asked to sign your name in support of freedom for the Interior Ministry’s five agents – prisoners in the United States – while they do not even ask you if there’s anything they can do to help you. I have listened to a young man cry at an embassy in Europe while a bureaucrat repeats that he cannot return to his own country because he exceeded the eleven months he is allowed to be away. I have also witnessed it from the other side, the denial received by many here who apply for the White Card needed to board a plane and leave this Island. The travel restrictions have become routine and some have come to believe it should be this way, because to know other places is a perk that they give us, a prerogative that they award us.

Read Sanchez’ interview with President Obama.

In her blog KubaSepia, another Cuban blogger, Katia Sonia, writes about Cuban President Raul Castro and her desire for change:

The new president was surprised by several labor leaders who led an entourage to his ailing brother.  These ideas were conceived to disrupt the roots of the Castros’ base, and strip them of absolute power.  This was an opportunity for the state to fulfill its role of channeling and ensuring the full and total development that the individual needs. Nothing changed. Raúl Castro made two or three stuttering interventions that plunged the nation into the expectation of CHANGE — the possibility of increasing diplomatic relations with the United States; ignoring reality he declared that the world financial crisis would not reach the islanders or their currency exchanges — all designed to buy time.

For more on Cuba, visit our Worldfocus extended coverage page: Cuba after Fidel.

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A Predator armed with AGM-114 Hellfire missiles. Photo: USAF

This week, the Pakistani Taliban finally confirmed what the Pakistani army had claimed many days ago — that Hakimullah Mehsud was killed last month in a missile strike by U.S. drones.

While there are conflicting reports about which strike dealt Mehsud the mortal blow, the Pakistani Taliban are left leaderless for the second time in six months.

As the late Mehsud’s faction — as well as various other Taliban-affiliated groups — scramble to defend themselves from unmanned aerial vehicles, some policymakers are wondering whether these assassinations are strategically sound.

Although many of President Barack Obama’s harshest critics at home have lavished praise on the administration for its escalation of the drone campaign, some naysayers now contend that the U.S. may be killing high-value targets before being able to extract information from them — in northwest Pakistan, as well as in other anti-terror arenas such as Yemen.

Marc Thiessen explains this problem in Foreign Policy:

The Predator has become for President Obama what the cruise missile was to President Bill Clinton — an easy way to appear like he is taking tough action against terrorists, when he is really shying away from the hard decisions needed to protect the United States.

To be sure, unmanned drones are critical in the struggle against al-Qaeda. They allow the United States to reach terrorists hiding in remote regions where it would be difficult for special operations forces to reach them, or to act on perishable intelligence when the only choice is to kill a terrorist or lose him. Constantly hovering Predator (or Reaper) drones also have a psychological effect on the enemy, forcing al-Qaeda leaders to live in fear and spend time focusing on self-preservation that would otherwise be used planning the next attack. All this is for the good.

The problem is that Obama is increasingly using drone strikes as a substitute for operations to bring terrorist leaders in alive for questioning — and that is putting the country at risk…

With every drone strike that vaporizes a senior al-Qaeda leader, actionable intelligence is vaporized along with him. Dead terrorists can’t tell you their plans to strike America.

Meanwhile, Dawn reports that the Obama administration’s recent budget proposal includes a 75 percent increase in funds for the drone campaign, which also includes new, more advanced crafts.

View our interactive map showing approximate locations of all U.S. drone attacks in Pakistan since 2004:

See larger map. [Yellow = pre-2008 strikes / Red = 2008 strikes / Green = Obama administration strikes]

In a Sydney Morning Herald analysis piece America’s Deadly Robots Rewrite the Rules, Paul McGeough writes:

The changed ground rules making extrajudicial killing more acceptable are a product of post-September 11 thinking. In 2001 Bush overturned President Gerald Ford’s 1976 prohibition on assassinations by US intelligence agencies – but there’s something else in the works, too…

But, as critics of the drone wars struggle to get traction in public debate, it is curious that in the absence of any negative reaction to Obama’s expansion of his remote killing program last year, the former Bush administration was under attack for revelations that it had considered dispatching more traditional hit-squads abroad to take out al-Qaeda operatives.

Forty-four countries now use unmanned aircraft for surveillance – only the US and Israel deploy them as killers.

In the first weeks of his presidency Obama reportedly wrestled with the moral and strategic implications of the program. But, as reported in The New York Times, he pointedly declared to one of his earliest Situation Room gatherings: “The CIA gets what it needs.”

The American Civil Liberties Union explained in a Freedom of Information application last month: “It appears … that lethal force is being exercised by individuals who are not in the military chain of command, are not subject to military rules and discipline; and do not operate under any other public system of accountability or oversight.”

A Democrat’s targeted killings, it seems, are not quite the same as those of a Republican.

The first drones flew before the September 11 attacks – searching for Osama bin Laden. Now the US Air Force estimates that about 15 per cent of its $US230 billion ($260 billion) arms-procurement program will be spent on robot equipment within five years.

Predators can fly [420 miles], then hover for 30 hours at a stretch, feeding real-time video and other data through 10 simultaneous streams to controllers in 10 locations. Priced at $4.5 million, Predators carry sensors that intercept electronic signals and listen in on phone conversations – and they carry missiles. The newer Reapers cost $17 million and can fly nearly [3600 miles].

The US Air Force now has more drone operators in training than fighter and bomber pilots.

A recent article from the Associated Press argues that two main factors have enabled the drone war to take off: the drawdown of troops and resources in Iraq and the Obama administration’s increased intelligence-sharing with the governments of Pakistan and Yemen:

Intelligence officials and analysts say the drawdown of troops in an increasingly stable Iraq is part of the reason for the increase in drone strikes. The military once relied on drones for around-the-clock surveillance to flush out insurgents, support troops in battle and help avoid roadside bombs.

With fewer of those missions required, the U.S. has moved many of those planes to Afghanistan, roughly doubling the size of the military and CIA fleet that can patrol the lawless border with Pakistan, officials said.

“These tools were not Obama creations, but he’s increased their use and he has shifted the U.S. attention full front to Afghanistan,” said Thomas Sanderson, a defense analyst and national security fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

The article goes on to explain the second reason for the drone war’s escalation:

Obama has also abandoned terms like “radical Islam” and “Islamo-fascism,” rhetoric that was seen as anti-Muslim by many in the Arab world and which [Yemen’s Ambassador to the UN] al-Saidi said made it harder for governments to openly cooperate with Washington.

View our original post: U.S. intensifies drone attacks on Pakistan’s tribal region

– Ben Piven

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Solar panels in Shanghai. Photo: Flickr user jcrakow

China, the world’s largest producer of wind turbines and solar panels, is rapidly becoming the leading global manufacturer of clean energy.

According to the U.S. News and World Report, China also provides almost 97 percent of the world’s supply of rare-earth materials, which are used in many electronics and may be the future of clean technologies. China is also the world’s biggest greenhouse gas emitter.

Some critics are concerned that, as the the U.S. and other countries become less dependent on oil, they may become increasingly dependent on China for alternative energy technologies.

A New York Times article by Keith Bradsher analyzes these concerns and how this shift may be more positive for the Chinese economy than for the planet:

These efforts to dominate renewable energy technologies raise the prospect that the West may someday trade its dependence on oil from the Mideast for a reliance on solar panels, wind turbines and other gear manufactured in China.

“Most of the energy equipment will carry a brass plate, ‘Made in China,’” said K. K. Chan, the chief executive of Nature Elements Capital, a private equity fund in Beijing that focuses on renewable energy.

President Obama, in his State of the Union speech last [month], sounded an alarm that the United States was falling behind other countries, especially China, on energy. “I do not accept a future where the jobs and industries of tomorrow take root beyond our borders.”

Foreign Policy blogger Elizabeth Balkan writes how a Chinese solar company plans to build a U.S.-based manufacturing plant to take advantage of the market demand and government incentives. She explains what this could mean for China-U.S. green energy cooperation:

Suntech, the world’s largest solar energy company in terms of photovoltaic module production, said it could cut transport costs and emissions by building closer to its market. The cost of shipping heavy renewable units, combined with the fact that the U.S. and EU currently constitute the majority of clean tech demand, makes local manufacturing facilities a sensible strategy for long-term growth.

Political considerations were also not lost on the company. Appealing to both green jobs enthusiasts and those who perceive China as taking manufacturing jobs from the U.S., Shi said he is hopeful that “initiating manufacturing in the U.S. will drive further growth of green jobs.”

A study last year by the Georgia Tech Research Institute concluded that China would surpass the United States in technology and science by using demand for clean energy as a catalyst for economic growth:

The study’s indicators predict that China will soon pass the United States in the critical ability to develop basic science and technology, turn those developments into products and services – and then market them to the world. Though China is often seen as just a low-cost producer of manufactured goods, the new “High Tech Indicators” study done by researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology clearly shows that the Asian powerhouse has much bigger aspirations.

“For the first time in nearly a century, we see leadership in basic research and the economic ability to pursue the benefits of that research – to create and market products based on research – in more than one place on the planet,” said Nils Newman, co-author of the National Science Foundation-funded study. “Since World War II, the United States has been the main driver of the global economy. Now we have a situation in which technology products are going to be appearing in the marketplace that were not developed or commercialized here. We won’t have had any involvement with them and may not even know they are coming.”

Blogger CC Huang at ResponsibleChina.com, writes citizen participation in China’s clean energy push:

Another way in which China could be an example to other countries is rooted in the habits of its citizens. The 2009 Greendex survey showed that China ranked third in terms of environmentally friendly consumer behavior. Chinese citizens drink boiled tap water instead of bottled water, use bikes for transportation more often than cars (China scoring highest overall in the transportation category), and practice energy-saving activities when it comes to housing.

Of course, China is still very much a coal-guzzling economy. Due to the massive amounts of coal found within China’s borders, this might not change anytime soon. Also, as China still has a ways to go before being fully “developed,” consumption is likely to increase.

For more on clean energy developments in China, check out our Worldfocus signature video on Chinese knockoff electric cars and multimedia features at the Asia Society’s China Green.

Also, The Green Leap Forward, by energy analyst Julian L. Wong, who appeared on Worldfocus Radio: Red China Goes Green, takes a look at the most recent solar power developments in China.

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Laura Chinchilla, 50, has already served as vice-president and minister of justice. Photo Costa Rican Ministry of Justice

On Sunday, February 7, Costa Rica elected Laura Chinchilla as the country’s first female president.

Chinchilla, of the ruling National Liberation Party (PLN), received 47 percent of the vote. Her principal rival, Ottón Solís of the Citizens Action Party, won 25 percent.

The election was held without incident and Chinchilla, a former vice-president, has committed to the free-market policies of current president, Oscar Arias. She has also pledged to combat drug-trafficking and its associated violent crime.

Despite smugglers increasingly using the country as a staging post for drugs en route from South America to the US, Costa Rica is one of Latin America’s most stable nations. The country abolished its army in 1949 and is today renowned as a tourist destination.

Costa Rican bloggers commented on the smooth election process. (Original blogs in Spanish, with translations by James Matthews.)

From Elecciones 2014-2018-Costa Rica, a blog monitoring the electoral race:

The elections took place with a festive atmosphere, as has been the tradition in this Central American nation over the last 50 years – Costa Rica is considered one of the most solid and longstanding democracies in Latin America.

There was, however, a mixed reaction to the election result and many commentators questioned Chinchilla’s strong links with the incumbent president.

From Wolverine, commentary on Costa Rica:

[Chinchilla] is now our president. Let’s give her a chance to demonstrate her independence [from outgoing President Oscar Arias] and prove that she is capable of holding the office of president of Costa Rica, and exceeding the expectations of the people.

From Conoche San José de Noche, an opinion blog:

Let’s have faith in the great support that [Chinchilla] has from a big sector of the country. Let’s hope that she will return that support with intelligent policies that will tackle the country’s biggest problems – crime, poverty and unemployment. It is no secret, however, that if the PLN’s strongman, Oscar Arias, has been unable to make inroads on these problems, it will be a difficult task for [Chinchilla].

Other bloggers expressed outright disappointment at the election of a president from the governing party.

From El Mae del Bajo:

I had hopes for a surprise. There was a festive atmosphere on the streets and it seemed that we possessed greater political maturity. I didn’t believe the polls…It was our opportunity to remove these neoliberals from power – I don’t want to live in this Costa Rica of few haves and many have-nots. Unfortunately, it was not enough to convince the indecisive and to spread the word.

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Umaru Yar’Adua at the 2008 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Photo: Andy Mettler/World Economic Forum on Flickr

The Nigerian national assembly voted today to install Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan as interim leader until ailing President Umaru Yar’Adua is fit enough to return to office.

Yar’Adua has been in Saudi Arabia since November 2009, where he is receiving medical treatment for a heart condition. His absence has left the country without a formal leader, and has led to a breakdown in a government cease-fire with fighters in the oil-producing Niger Delta.

In addition, there has been renewed sectarian violence in the central city of Jos, where almost 400 people were killed in two days of clashes between Muslims and Christians in November 2008.

Questions remain over the legality of Jonathan’s appointment as temporary leader, a measure approved by both houses of the assembly. According to Nigeria’s constitution, Yar’Adua must make a written declaration that he is unfit to govern – a move which he has not yet taken.

In Nigeria, bloggers have commented on living in a country of 150 million without a formal leader and the political uncertainty that it has unleashed:

From Nigerian Curiosity, the “musings of a concerned Nigerian”:

A ‘rule of law’ President all the way in Saudi Arabia does not help the average Nigerian and the confusion this absence leaves in its wake only compounds issues. What is beyond confusion, nevertheless, is that the political disorientation Nigeria currently experiences will not soon abate.

From Grandiose Parlor, commentary on Nigeria:

The president has broken his contract with the Nigerian people who voted him into office … [T]here are just too many controversies surrounding his medical stay in Saudi Arabia to warrant forgiveness from the Nigerian people. Dead or alive, Alhaji Umaru YarAdua is no longer fit to govern Federal Republic of Nigeria.

The leadership crisis has also triggered criticism of Nigeria’s political class. From Adeola Aderounmu’s blog, Thy Glory O Nigeria..!

Those who own and run Nigeria don’t care about the millions living in poverty and desperation … [S]ince we don’t have democracy in Nigeria and since those who run Nigeria do not give account to anyone, the rest of us can remain in coma with the runaway fake president. Welcome to Nigeria, a country ruled by mad politicians and gangsters called godfathers. They are sharing money, bribing themselves back and forth and everything is so uncertain.

The author of Nigerian Curiosity has also predicted that any statement from Yar’Adua on his capacity to govern will be questioned from many quarters:

This disturbing reality – questions about Yar’Adua’s capacity – lends itself to any letter that might be issued and signed by him. Already, there is a court case alleging that the 2010 budget introduced during the President’s absence has a forged signature on it. Hence, it is likely that any letter supposedly signed by the President to the National Assembly will equally be questioned and rightly so as it remains unclear whether President Yar’Adua is in a position, healthwise, to perform such functions. And, if he is capable, then how long will he be gone for? Will this time be added to the almost 80 days he has been gone? The questions are limitless …

– James Matthews

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