Published May 3, 2009 8:06 PM

The following excerpted statement was issued by the youth group
FIST—Fight Imperialism, Stand Together.

Fight Imperialism, Stand Together calls for the release of Abduwali
Abdukhadir Muse—the young teen from Somalia who was brought to New York
and arraigned in a federal court—and that he be allowed to return to his
family in Somalia.

Muse, who according to his parents is only 16, has been charged with
five counts, the most serious of which, piracy, carries a life sentence
if convicted. The charges stem from the April 8 seizure of the
Danish-owned Maersk Alabama, which was flying a U.S. flag. The ship had
passed through the Gulf of Aden and was in the Indian Ocean, 350 miles
off the coast of Somalia.

From April 8 to 12, the captain of the Maersk was allegedly detained by
Muse and three of his companions. The incident was ended after Navy
Seals shot to death three young Somali men aboard a tugboat anchored to
their destroyer, the USS Bainbridge. Muse was aboard the destroyer
trying to negotiate the release of the captain of the Maersk, as was
agreed to, when the three youths were killed.

What jurisdiction does the U.S. have over events that occurred off the
coast of the Horn of Africa? Moreover, the so-called pirates have not
killed anyone they have captured. The only people killed so far have
been the three young Somali men, killed by U.S. Seals, and a French
national killed by French commandoes who stormed a yacht that had been
seized.

The popular media can show sympathy for the crews of ships being seized
and their family members. But, rarely do the media that have played up
this human drama delve into the daily existence of the people of
Somalia, Iraq or any place around the world that has been under siege
from imperialist war and intervention.

Events in history give justification to the seizing of ships by
so-called pirates from Somalia.

Barrels of toxic materials have been dumped off the coast of Somalia.
This waste—nuclear waste in some cases—washed ashore after a tsunami in
late 2004. Thousands have become sick with strange rashes, respiratory
infections, stomach illnesses and hundreds have died. The toxic
materials are coming from European companies that pay others to dispose
of nuclear and other types of waste. Instead of responsibly paying to
have the waste disposed of in Europe, they pay smaller fees to have it
dumped off the Somali coast, ignoring the resulting suffering of the
people there.

Additionally, more than $300 million a year in seafood is stolen from
the waters near Somalia by ships from other nations that employ
trawling, a fishing method that involves the dragging of huge nets
across the ocean floor. Trawling not only damages the natural
environment, but is illegal off the coast of many nations. It robs the
many villages and towns on the Somali coast that have relied on fishing
for centuries.

Added to these charges are colonial and imperialist occupation and
subterfuge. The U.S. undermined progressive developments in East Africa
in the 1970s, caused a war between Somalia and Ethiopia, tied Somalia to
foreign aid and occupied the country in the early 1990s, killing
thousands of Somali people.

Currently there are more than two dozen military vessels patrolling
waters off the coast of Somalia. Somalia is occupied by foreign troops
propping up a weak regime beholden to the West.

The EU, the U.S. and other countries discuss how to deal with piracy
coming from Somalia, yet reparations to Somalia for years of imperialist
intervention, theft of sea life and the dumping of toxic waste are not
being discussed. The only option being put on the table is military
action.

FIST demands there be no further imperialist intervention; that
reparations be paid; that the foreign troops in service of Western world
imperialism be removed from Somalia; that all ships off the coast return
to their nations; and that Abduwali Abdukhadir Muse be set free and
returned to his family in Somalia.

U.S. Hands off Somalia!

U.S. Hands off Africa!

Fight Imperialism, Stand Together
-----------------------------------------------------------
Articles copyright 1995-2009 Workers World. Verbatim copying and
distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without
royalty provided this notice is preserved.

Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
Page printed from:
Youth group says: ‘U.S. hands off Somalia’


The real pirates of the seas

Insurance giants profit from Somalia’s poverty

By Caleb T. Maupin
Published May 3, 2009 8:10 PM

There are some pirates who don’t use firearms to seize vessels on the
high seas. There are certain pirates who commit their acts of oceanic
theft from thousands of miles away, in cool office buildings in Chicago
and London.

Patrick G. Ryan is the founder and chairman of the Aon Corporation, the
world’s largest “risk management services” conglomerate. He doesn’t wear
an eye patch and has no hook in place of his hand, although he could
afford one made of solid gold.

In addition to helping his corporation obtain a net income of $685
million in 2004, Ryan took some time off that year to hold a personal
fundraiser for George W. Bush’s reelection campaign at his estate in
Winnetka, Ill., where Laura Bush and many of Ryan’s closest friends
enjoyed a lobster dinner. They never even bothered to pay the $80,000
the city asked for as reimbursement for the massive police protection
the city provided for the event. (Chicago Tribune, Jan. 17, 2005) Though
Ryan is a Republican and strong Bush supporter, he was made a member of
President Barack Obama’s inaugural committee and is working to get the
2016 Olympics in Chicago. (thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com, Nov. 25)

Ryan’s Aon Corporation, along with others in the insurance business,
such as the London-based International Securities Solutions Inc., has
taken advantage of the recent rise in so-called “Somali piracy” by
astronomically raising insurance rates on ships traveling through the
Indian Ocean.

Eleven percent of the world’s seaborne petroleum is carried in tankers
through the Gulf of Aden, a location specifically targeted by “pirates”
of Somali descent. (examiner.com, April 13) Even though the risk of a
ship being seized in the Gulf of Aden has gone up only 1 percent, the
folks at Aon Corporation and their associates in “risk management
services” have raised the cost of insuring a vessel from an average of
$900 to $9,000, according to military historian James F. Dunnigan.
(strategypage.com, Oct. 18)

Presently, however, less than 10 percent of vessels in the Gulf of Aden
even bother to be insured at all, as the costs have gone up so much.
(time.com, April 20)

Aon rewarded for corporate crime

With maritime insurance profits going through the roof, Aon Corporation
still felt it was necessary to cut the pensions of its British workers,
some by as much as 50 percent. (timesonline.co.uk, April 8) A spokesman
for Aon UK told the Times that this was necessary “to protect our
business” and ensure that Aon can “emerge from the recession strong and
successful.”

On Jan. 8, Aon Corporation received the largest fine ever given for
financial crime in the history of the England. It was fined 5.25 million
pounds for making $7 million worth of “suspicious payments” to unnamed
sources abroad, without checking to make sure these firms were not
involved in “corruption.” The fine was originally 7.5 million pounds,
but Aon was rewarded for its “cooperation” with the investigation by a
30 percent cut in its fine. (ifaonline.co.uk, Jan. 9)

When interviewed by Time magazine, an executive at Cooper Gay, a British
insurance giant making huge profits from the “piracy” off the coast of
Somalia, was asked if some of the profits made could be used to
“develop” Somalia and prevent the poverty that causes the starving
people of Somalia to seize ships and take people for ransom. He
responded by snorting, “It’s not down to insurance companies to promote
peace in Somalia.” (time.com, April 20)

He should have said that actually the opposite is true. Dunnigan said
that a 1,000 percent hike in insurance costs for vessels would be
“modest.” (strategypage.com, Oct. 18) The fact that impoverished,
starving people in Somalia are reduced to “piracy” in order to survive
has made the folks in the insurance business richer than ever. If
anything, they see it as their responsibility to make sure it continues.

Aon Corporation announced that its revenue for 2007 was $7.15 billion.
But with insurance costs for those traveling across the Gulf of Aden
going up 1,000 percent as Dunnigan estimated, Aon is bound to do even
better in the coming months. Yet the company still found it necessary to
reduce its British workers’ pensions to “protect” itself and be able to
“re-emerge” in the “challenging conditions” they now face.

Is it ironic that a few years before Bush would bomb Somalia and kill
thousands of innocent civilians, his spouse Laura was eating lobster at
the home of a man who would use the impoverishment of Somalia as an
opportunity to line his ever-hungry pockets?

YouTube - Raw Info - Black History 101- Dr. Erin Moore YouTube - Raw Info - Black History 101- Dr. Erin Moore





one of my childrens' African history book:
Amazon.com: African American History: A Journey of Liberation: Molefi Kete Asante: Books Amazon.com: African American History: A Journey of Liberation: Molefi Kete Asante: Books Amazon.com: African American History: A Journey of Liberation: Molefi Kete Asante: Books


Peace be upon you

YouTube - KRS-One - Can't Wake Up (I'm A Blunt) YouTube - KRS-One - Can't Wake Up (I'm A Blunt)







Peace be upon you

Home




The words on the monument speak for themselves
Treachery Commemorated

After posting this, I received the following Email from a descendent of Standish:
May 31, 2008
Dear Dr. Paul:

Thank you for posting that article about the Real Thanksgiving, and the role of Myles Standish in early Plymouth.

I am a descendent of Standish and it has been my goal to understand him and the events concerning him in a deeper way.

I want to know ALL the history. I’ve read the WASP approved version and it’s good to see the other versions coming to light.

I work very closely with my ancestors and live my life to redeem their blood. A better knowing of the results of their actions helps in two ways; it clears the propaganda and glamour from my eyes and it inspires me to be a better person in my daily decisions and living.

It also teaches me history. Which I wasn’t very good at in high school.

Now it has a whole new meaning as I think about my ancestors living in those times and places. My nieces and nephews will learn the truth from me. And their children too.

For what its worth, I apologise for my grandfathers actions. Indeed all my ancestors.
Respectfully and sincerely,
Clarence Standish, IV

The Real Thanksgiving

Quoted from: The Hidden History of Massachusetts

Much of America's understanding of the early relationship between the Indian and the European is conveyed through the story of Thanksgiving.

Proclaimed a holiday in 1863 by Abraham Lincoln, this fairy tale of a feast was allowed to exist in the American imagination pretty much untouched until 1970, the 350th anniversary of the landing of the Pilgrims. That is when Frank B. James, president of the Federated Eastern Indian League, prepared a speech for a Plymouth banquet that exposed the Pilgrims for having committed, among other crimes, the robbery of the graves of the Wampanoags.

He wrote: "We welcomed you, the white man, with open arms, little knowing that it was the beginning of the end; that before 50 years were to pass, the Wampanoag would no longer be a free people."

But white Massachusetts officials told him he could not deliver such a speech and offered to write him another.

Instead, James declined to speak, and on Thanksgiving Day hundreds of Indians from around the country came to protest.

It was the first National Day of Mourning, a day to mark the losses Native Americans suffered as the early settlers prospered. This true story of "Thanksgiving" is what whites did not want Mr. James to tell.

What Really Happened in Plymouth in 1621?

According to a single-paragraph account in the writings of one Pilgrim, a harvest feast did take place in Plymouth in 1621, probably in mid-October, but the Indians who attended were not even invited. :|

Though it later became known as "Thanksgiving," the Pilgrims never called it that. And amidst the imagery of a picnic of interracial harmony is some of the most terrifying bloodshed in New World history.

The Pilgrim crop had failed miserably that year, but the agricultural expertise of the Indians had produced twenty acres of corn, without which the Pilgrims would have surely perished.

The Indians often brought food to the Pilgrims, who came from England ridiculously unprepared to survive and hence relied almost exclusively on handouts from the overly generous Indians-thus making the Pilgrims the western hemisphere's first class of welfare recipients.

The Pilgrims invited the Indian sachem Massasoit to their feast, and it was Massasoit, engaging in the tribal tradition of equal sharing, who then invited ninety or more of his Indian brothers and sisters-to the annoyance of the 50 or so ungrateful Europeans.

No turkey, cranberry sauce or pumpkin pie was served; they likely ate duck or geese and the venison from the 5 deer brought by Massasoit.

In fact, most, if notall, of the food was most likely brought and prepared by the Indians, whose 10,000-year:history: familiarity with the cuisine of the region had kept the whites alive up to that point.

The Pilgrims wore no black hats or buckled shoes-these were the silly inventions of artists hundreds of years since that time.

These lower-class Englishmen wore brightly colored clothing, with one of their church leaders recording among his possessions "1 paire of greene drawers." Contrary to the fabricated lore of storytellers generations since, no Pilgrims prayed at the meal, and the supposed good cheer and fellowship must have dissipated quickly once the Pilgrims brandished their weaponry in a primitive display of intimidation.

What's more, the Pilgrims consumed a good deal of home brew. In fact, each Pilgrim drank at least a half gallon of beer a day, which they preferred even to water. This daily inebriation led their governor, William Bradford, to comment on his people's "notorious sin," which included their "drunkenness and uncleanliness" and rampant "sodomy"...


The Pilgrims of Plymouth, The Original Scalpers
Contrary to popular mythology the Pilgrims were no friends to the local Indians. They were engaged in a ruthless war of extermination against their hosts, even as they falsely posed as friends. Just days before the alleged Thanksgiving love-fest, a company of Pilgrims led by Myles Standish actively sought to chop off the head of a local chief. They deliberately caused a rivalry between two friendly Indians, pitting one against the other in an attempt to obtain "better intelligence and make them both more diligent." An 11-foot-high wall was erected around the entire settlement for the purpose of keeping the Indians out.
Any Indian who came within the vicinity of the Pilgrim settlement was subject to robbery, enslavement, or even murder. The Pilgrims further advertised their evil intentions and white racial hostility, when they mounted five cannons on a hill around their settlement, constructed a platform for artillery, and then organized their soldiers into four companies-all in preparation for the military destruction of their friends the Indians.
Pilgrim Myles Standish eventually got his bloody prize. He went to the Indians, pretended to be a trader, then beheaded an Indian man named Wituwamat. He brought the head to Plymouth, where it was displayed on a wooden spike for many years, according to Gary B. Nash, "as a symbol of white power." Standish had the Indian man's young brother hanged from the rafters for good measure. From that time on, the whites were known to the Indians of Massachusetts by the name "Wotowquenange," which in their tongue meant cutthroats and stabbers.
Who Were the "Savages"?
The myth of the fierce, ruthless Indian savage lusting after the blood of innocent Europeans must be vigorously dispelled at this point. In actuality, the historical record shows that the very opposite was true.
Once the European settlements stabilized, the whites turned on their hosts in a brutal way. The once amicable relationship was breeched again and again by the whites, who lusted over the riches of Indian land. A combination of the Pilgrims' demonization of the Indians, the concocted mythology of Eurocentric historians, and standard Hollywood propaganda has served to paint the gentle Indian as a tomahawk-swinging savage endlessly on the warpath, lusting for the blood of the God-fearing whites.
But the Pilgrims' own testimony obliterates that fallacy. The Indians engaged each other in military contests from time to time, but the causes of "war," the methods, and the resulting damage differed profoundly from the European variety:
o Indian "wars" were largely symbolic and were about honor, not about territory or extermination.
o "Wars" were fought as domestic correction for a specific act and were ended when correction was achieved. Such action might better be described as internal policing. The conquest or destruction of whole territories was a European concept.
o Indian "wars" were often engaged in by family groups, not by whole tribal groups, and would involve only the family members.
o A lengthy negotiation was engaged in between the aggrieved parties before escalation to physical confrontation would be sanctioned. Surprise attacks were unknown to the Indians.
o It was regarded as evidence of bravery for a man to go into "battle" carrying no weapon that would do any harm at a distance-not even bows and arrows. The bravest act in war in some Indian cultures was to touch their adversary and escape before he could do physical harm.
o The targeting of non-combatants like women, children, and the elderly was never contemplated. Indians expressed shock and repugnance when the Europeans told, and then showed, them that they considered women and children fair game in their style of warfare.
o A major Indian "war" might end with less than a dozen casualties on both sides. Often, when the arrows had been expended the "war" would be halted. The European practice of wiping out whole nations in bloody massacres was incomprehensible to the Indian.
According to one scholar, "The most notable feature of Indian warfare was its relative innocuity." European observers of Indian wars often expressed surprise at how little harm they actually inflicted. "Their wars are far less bloody and devouring than the cruel wars of Europe," commented settler Roger Williams in 1643. Even Puritan warmonger and professional soldier Capt. John Mason scoffed at Indian warfare: "[Their] feeble manner...did hardly deserve the name of fighting." Fellow warmonger John Underhill spoke of the Narragansetts, after having spent a day "burning and spoiling" their country: "no Indians would come near us, but run from us, as the deer from the dogs." He concluded that the Indians might fight seven years and not kill seven men. Their fighting style, he wrote, "is more for pastime, than to conquer and subdue enemies."
All this describes a people for whom war is a deeply regrettable last resort. An agrarian people, the American Indians had devised a civilization that provided dozens of options all designed to avoid conflict--the very opposite of Europeans, for whom all-out war, a ferocious bloodlust, and systematic genocide are their apparent life force. Thomas Jefferson--who himself advocated the physical extermination of the American Indian--said of Europe, "They [Europeans] are nations of eternal war. All their energies are expended in the destruction of labor, property and lives of their people."
Puritan Holocaust
By the mid 1630s, a new group of 700 even holier Europeans calling themselves Puritans had arrived on 11 ships and settled in Boston-which only served to accelerate the brutality against the Indians.
In one incident around 1637, a force of whites trapped some seven hundred Pequot Indians, mostly women, children, and the elderly, near the mouth of the Mystic River. Englishman John Mason attacked the Indian camp with "fire, sword, blunderbuss, and tomahawk." Only a handful escaped and few prisoners were taken-to the apparent delight of the Europeans:
To see them frying in the fire, and the streams of their blood quenching the same, and the stench was horrible; but the victory seemed a sweet sacrifice, and they gave praise thereof to God.
This event marked the first actual Thanksgiving. In just 10 years 12,000 whites had invaded New England, and as their numbers grew they pressed for all-out extermination of the Indian. Euro-diseases had reduced the population of the Massachusett nation from over 24,000 to less than 750; meanwhile, the number of European settlers in Massachusetts rose to more than 20,000 by 1646.
By 1675, the Massachusetts Englishmen were in a full-scale war with the great Indian chief of the Wampanoags, Metacomet. Renamed "King Philip" by the white man, Metacomet watched the steady erosion of the lifestyle and culture of his people as European-imposed laws and values engulfed them.
In 1671, the white man had ordered Metacomet to come to Plymouth to enforce upon him a new treaty, which included the humiliating rule that he could no longer sell his own land without prior approval from whites. They also demanded that he turn in his community's firearms. Marked for extermination by the merciless power of a distant king and his ruthless subjects, Metacomet retaliated in 1675 with raids on several isolated frontier towns. Eventually, the Indians attacked 52 of the 90 New England towns, destroying 13 of them. The Englishmen ultimately regrouped, and after much bloodletting defeated the great Indian nation, just half a century after their arrival on Massachusetts soil. Historian Douglas Edward Leach describes the bitter end:
The ruthless executions, the cruel sentences...were all aimed at the same goal-unchallengeable white supremacy in southern New England. That the program succeeded is convincingly demonstrated by the almost complete docility of the local native ever since.
When Captain Benjamin Church tracked down and murdered Metacomet in 1676, his body was quartered and parts were "left for the wolves." The great Indian chief's hands were cut off and sent to Boston and his head went to Plymouth, where it was set upon a pole on the real first "day of public Thanksgiving for the beginning of revenge upon the enemy." Metacomet's nine-year-old son was destined for execution because, the whites reasoned, the offspring of the devil must pay for the sins of their father. The child was instead shipped to the Caribbean to spend his life in slavery.
As the Holocaust continued, several official Thanksgiving Days were proclaimed. Governor Joseph Dudley declared in 1704 a "General Thanksgiving"-not in celebration of the brotherhood of man-but for [God's] infinite Goodness to extend His Favors...In defeating and disappointing... the Expeditions of the Enemy [Indians] against us, And the good Success given us against them, by delivering so many of them into our hands...
Just two years later one could reap a ££50 reward in Massachusetts for the scalp of an Indian-demonstrating that the practice of scalping was a European tradition. According to one scholar, "Hunting redskins became...a popular sport in New England, especially since prisoners were worth good money..."
References in The Hidden History of Massachusetts: A Guide for Black Folks ©© DR. TINGBA APIDTA, ; ISBN 0-9714462-0-2
For purchase details Email A. Muhammad "mghemlf@att.net"
********************


During March 1623 Myles Standish lured two Chiefs to a meeting then murdered them. The picture of the monument, erected by the Weymouth Historical Commission, depicts how the town of Weymouth, Mass, takes pride in his barbaric deed.
What Hellish Pride and Prejudice
What in hell is a hearth built on blood of a brother’s harvest you absconded, along with a curve of land kissed by ocean for first people given this fine land, who were sickened on your flu-filled flannel gifts until they were too weak to wise on to your malicious plans?
You merchant-adventurers of Weymouth, mount your monument of treason against corn-fed Wessagusset, as you celebrate 300 years of your encroachment on eternity’s placement of a people who had heroes like Pecksuot who, even thirty years ago, still, is said, tucked a child into her covers at Bricknell house so she did not have to see your scurrilous skirmishes.
You promote your pestilent importance on this land, as if you thought you would be allowed to stay forever. You hold a fatal flaw in this grasp to make it seem you made something worthy.
What is worthier than Wampanoag in first light, who had their blood spilled by you, on the very ground you grind against?
Listen, they speak, and trace truthful steps through and around this place you think you own: Such pride and prejudice in this piece of cement that will not outlast us, the true people of the East, or sun that burns red on mornings it remembers.
Carol Desjarlais
*******************
New York Times
November 25, 2004
Banned in Boston: American Indians, but Only for 329 Years
By KATIE ZEZIMA
BOSTON, Nov. 24 - It is a prejudicial, archaic concept that prohibited Native Americans from entering a city for fear members of their "barbarous crew" would cause residents to be "exposed to mischief."
But it is more than notions and phrases in Boston. A ban on Indians entering Boston has been the law since 1675.
Mayor Thomas M. Menino took a step toward repealing the ban on Wednesday, filing a home rule petition. Mr. Menino said a repeal would remove the last vestiges of discrimination from a vibrant, diverse city that is looking past old racial conflicts.
"This law has no place in Boston," Mr. Menino said. "Fortunately this act is no longer enforced. But as long as it remains on the books, this law will tarnish our image. Hatred and discrimination have no place in Boston. Tolerance, equality and respect - these are the attributes of our city."
Joanne Dunn, executive director of the Boston Native American Center, said she laughed a bit as she drove into Boston on Wednesday, realizing that she was, technically, breaking the law (being without benefit of the "two musketeers" required to escort American Indians with business in the city). "For us indigenous people it brings some closure," Ms. Dunn said. "You come into the City of Boston and it crosses your mind that you're not welcome here."
The Boston City Council, which in April 2003 unanimously passed a resolution calling for repeal, must now approve the petition to remove the ban. The repeal must then pass the legislature and be signed by Gov. Mitt Romney.
A spokeswoman for Robert E. Travaglini, the president of the State Senate, said Mr. Travaglini had not seen the petition and would allow the City Council to act before considering action. A spokeswoman for Mr. Romney, a Republican, said he had not seen the petition either and would be "happy to take a look at it" when it crossed his desk.
Felix Arroyo, a city councilman, said he expected the measure to pass unanimously at a council meeting on Dec. 1. "I think all of us will look forward to voting yes on this," Mr. Arroyo said.
The Massachusetts General Court enacted the law, called the Indian Imprisonment Act, in 1675. The legislation came at the height of King Philip's War, a conflict between the Wampanoag tribe, led by Metacom, known as Philip, and settlers near Plymouth, Mass. The war began in 1675 with a raid on the town of Swansea and spread across Massachusetts, spilling north to New Hampshire and south to Connecticut. The war, one of the bloodiest on American soil, ended the next year.
The law rolled over when the state's Constitution was enacted in 1780 and has lingered for centuries, with no one taking the steps to repeal it. The Muhheconnew National Confederacy, a lobbying group based in Falmouth, Mass., started pushing for repeal in 1996 after working with the city to protect Indian burial grounds on the Boston Harbor islands. The group petitioned the legislature, then the city, and received the necessary resolution last year. It renewed the push in July, before the Democratic National Convention.
"It means a great thing," said Sam Sapiel, 73, a member of the Penobscot Nation of Maine who lives in Falmouth and worked with the Muhheconnew Confederacy on the repeal. "It's what we've been striving for."
It was little coincidence that Mr. Menino signed the petition the day before Thanksgiving. The podium at the news conference was decorated with a splash of crimson chrysanthemums, and the desk Mr. Menino used to sign the petition was festooned with a pumpkin and other gourds. An Indian leader also invoked the holiday.
"Being so close to Thanksgiving, this is a good day for native people," said Beverly Wright, a member of the Wampanoag tribe of Martha's Vineyard, the state's only federally recognized tribe. "It's been on the books for a long time."
Ms. Wright believes there might be other, similarly discriminatory laws. Mr. Menino said he would look into the possibility of repealing them.
BACKHOMEWEB SITE MAP

The Real Thanksgiving

Banned in Boston: American Indians, but Only for 329 Years - Live Search


Peace be upon you

April 27, 2009- “Good Times” artist Ernie Barnes dies at age 70


Posted on May 03rd, 2009 in 01_nappy commentary

Most of us know Ernie Barnes best by his painting “Sugar Shack” that could be seen at the end of every “Good Times” episode. On April 27, 2009, Ernie Barnes passed away at age 70 in Los Angeles. I became reacquainted with his work when living in the Raleigh-Durham area a few years back (Ernie is a Durham, NC native) and immediately bought a “Sugar Shack” print to add to my collection.
What was news to me to read was that Ernie was a pro football player…Drafted into professional football in 1959, Barnes, a lineman, played for the New York Titans, Baltimore Colts, San Diego Chargers and Denver Broncos. (source: The News & Observer)
Regarding the details of his death…Ernie Barnes was born with a rare blood disorder that eventually contributed to his death, said James. He died Monday night in a Los Angeles hospital, near where he had made his home for decades. (source: The News & Observer)
I found this tidbit interesting about Ernie’s artwork…Barnes never painted his subjects with their eyes open.
“We don’t see each other,” he said once in an interview. “We are blind to each other’s humanity.” (source: NPR News)
Read more about the life and work of Ernie Barnes from the links I’m sharing below…
kanYe West blog- ERNIE BARNES (1938-2009) RETROSPECTIVE
The Root- A BELATED FAREWELL TO PAINTER ERNIE BARNES
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette- OBITUARY: ERNIE BARNES
LA Times Blogs- FAREWELL, BOB OATES AND ERNIE BARNES

Thank you for your contribution, Ernie Barnes.
http://affrodite.net/?p=858

Peace be upon you

WALL STREET AND
THE RISE OF HITLER
By
Antony C. SuttonTABLE OF CONTENTSPrefaceIntroduction Unexplored Facets of Naziism
PART ONE: Wall Street Builds Nazi IndustryChapter One Wall Street Paves the Way for Hitler
1924: The Dawes Plan
1928: The Young Plan
B.I.S. — The Apex of Control
Building the German Cartels
Chapter Two The Empire of I.G. Farben
The Economic Power of I.G. Farben
Polishing I.G. Farben's Image
The American I.G. Farben
Chapter Three General Electric Funds Hitler
General Electric in Weimar, Germany
General Electric & the Financing of Hitler
Technical Cooperation with Krupp
A.E.G. Avoids the Bombs in World War II
Chapter Four Standard Oil Duels World War II
Ethyl Lead for the Wehrmacht
Standard Oil and Synthetic Rubber
The Deutsche-Amerikanische Petroleum A.G.
Chapter Five I.T.T. Works Both Sides of the War
Baron Kurt von Schröder and I.T.T.
Westrick, Texaco, and I.T.T.
I.T.T. in Wartime Germany
PART TWO: Wall Street and Funds for HitlerChapter Six Henry Ford and the Nazis
Henry Ford: Hitler's First Foreign Banker
Henry Ford Receives a Nazi Medal
Ford Assists the German War Effort
Chapter Seven Who Financed Adolf Hitler?
Some Early Hitler Backers
Fritz Thyssen and W.A. Harriman Company
Financing Hitler in the March 1933 Elections
The 1933 Political Contributions
Chapter Eight Putzi: Friend of Hitler and Roosevelt
Putzi's Role in the Reichstag Fire
Roosevelt's New Deal and Hitler's New Order
Chapter Nine Wall Street and the Nazi Inner Circle
The S.S. Circle of Friends
I.G. Farben and the Keppler Circle
Wall Street and the S.S. Circle
Chapter Ten The Myth of "Sidney Warburg"
Who Was "Sidney Warburg"?
Synopsis of the Suppressed "Warburg" Book
James Paul Warbur's Affidavit
Some Conclusions from the "Warburg" Story
Chapter Eleven Wall Street-Nazi Collaboration in World War II
American I.G. in World War II
Were American Industrialists and Financiers
Guilty of War Crimes?
Chapter Twelve Conclusions
The Pervasive Influence of International Bankers
Is the United States Ruled by a Dictatorial Elite?
The New York Elite as a Subversive Force
The Slowly Emerging Revisionist Truth
Appendix A Program of the National Socialist German
Workers Party
Appendix B Affidavit of Hjalmar Schacht
Appendix C Entries in the "National Trusteeship" Account
Appendix D Letter from the U.S. War Department to
Ethyl Corporation
Appendix E Extract from Morgenthau Diary (Germany)
FootnotesBibliographyIndex

***** Dedicated to the memory of Floyd Paxton — entrepreneur, inventor, writer, and American, who believed in and worked for individual rights in a free society under the Constitution*****
Copyright 2000This work was created with the permission of Antony C. Sutton.
All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced without written permission from the author, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in connection with a review.
HTML version created in the United States of America by Studies in Reformed Theology

WALL STREET AND THE RISE OF HITLER, by Antony C. Sutton



Peace be upon you

YouTube - IBM and the Holocaust YouTube - IBM and the Holocaust





like a census?

A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population.

The term is used mostly in connection with national 'population and door to door censuses' (to be taken every 10 years according to United Nations recommendations), agriculture, and business censuses. The term itself comes from Latin: during the Roman Republic the census was a list which kept track of all adult males fit for military service.

The census can be contrasted with sampling in which information is obtained only from a subset of a population. Census data is commonly used for research, business marketing, and planning as well as a base for sampling surveys. In some countries, census data is used to apportion electoral representation (sometimes controversially so - see e.g. Utah v. Evans).






Sounds familiar, and since my vote doesn't count I got a question...? How does the government keep an accurate assesment of the population while preserving the vote? Through the census count...? Ummm, but that's kinda of slow, how about through mail in ballots? Somebody has to get paid still, even if my vote doesn't count, they still need to know how many citizens reside in the state, right?


Right.

Constitution...
(Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons.) (The previous sentence in parentheses was modified by the 14th Amendment, section 2.)


The Electoral College

Presidential electors are selected on a state-by-state basis, as determined by the laws of each state. Each state currently uses its statewide popular vote on Election Day to appoint electors.

The priestly class of society grew continually, playing an increasing role in the economy and in government as the dynasties went by. At the end of the 20th Dynasty, the High Priests of Amun aspired to, and even attained, the power of the king.

Although ballots list the names of the presidential candidates, voters within the 50 states and Washington, D.C. actually choose electors for their state when they vote for President and Vice President.

These presidential electors in turn cast electoral votes for those two offices. Even though the aggregate national popular vote is calculated by state officials and media organizations, the national popular vote is not the basis for electing a President or Vice President.



Amendment 12 - Choosing the President, Vice-President. Ratified 6/15/1804. Note History The Electoral College

The Electors shall meet in their respective states, and vote by ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves; they shall name in their ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-President, and they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as President, and of all persons voted for as Vice-President and of the number of votes for each, which lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate;


The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted;

The person having the greatest Number of votes for President, shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed; and if no person have such majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers not exceeding three on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President.

But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by states, the representation from each state having one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two-thirds of the states, and a majority of all the states shall be necessary to a choice. And if the House of Representatives shall not choose a President whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, before the fourth day of March next following, then the Vice-President shall act as President, as in the case of the death or other constitutional disability of the President.

The person having the greatest number of votes as Vice-President, shall be the Vice-President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed, and if no person have a majority, then from the two highest numbers on the list, the Senate shall choose the Vice-President; a quorum for the purpose shall consist of two-thirds of the whole number of Senators, and a majority of the whole number shall be necessary to a choice. But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States.


Peace be upon you


http://www.assatashakur.org/forum/br...holocaust.html


http://www.assatashakur.org/forum/co...l-college.html

After a 10-year hiatus, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is back at Stanford University where she is a Senior Fellow on Public Policy at the Hoover Institution. Rice has said she's ready for spirited debate, but it is unlikely she anticipated being caught on videotape last week, when she was cornered by a student demanding she explain her role in authorizing torture. This week about 150 veterans of protest, who led the fight 40 years ago to dislodge Stanford University from the War in Vietnam, called on Stanford to sever relations with the former Provost.

A mighty daughter of Africa makes her transition to greet the ancestors of Mbalia Camara, Fannie Lou Hamer and Kwame Ture. Sista Mawina Kouyate will forever be remembered for her Revolutionary African personality, her revolutionary love and her revolutionary commitment to humanity and especially to the African masses. Give thanks to the Almighty Creator for sending her to us to make such an exceptional revolutionary contribution to the upliftment and advancement of our peoples sacred liberation movement. On behalf of the All-African People's Revolutionary Party and the All African Women's Revolutionary Union we raise our voices high in honor of Sista Mawina. And to our family, friends, comrades and all freedom loving militants who were blessed as we were to have known her and to have been touched by her life and powerful inspiration we bring you these few words in her honor.

The daughter of Norma McLaughlin and Allen Ferguson, Mawina was born on in 1941 in Boston, Massachusetts. Her son Michael Sowa and grandson, Yero Sowa, survive Sista Mawina. Join the AAPRP and the AAWRU in pouring this revolutionary libation for one of African's Mighty daughters and Pan African Freedom Fighters, Sista Mawina Kouyate. Fortunately we were able to help her realize her pan-African dream of living her final days at home in Africa. On September 3, 2002 in The Gambia, West Africa our dear sista made her transition. On September 12, 2002 there will be a memorial held in The Gambia. Following this will be another celebration of Sista Mawina's life in Harlem, New York at the end of September 2002.

It is our responsibility to never forget our ancestors and to never let their names die. In the spirit of African culture, which our dear Sista Mawina embodied completely and dynamically each and everyday of her life, we pour these words on this page as a libation to her and her hard work, to her beautiful spirit and her clear understanding, to her vision of the revolutionary path. If only we can walk in her footsteps we are sure to reach our objective of Pan Africanism, World-wide Socialism and Women's Emancipation.

Sista Mawina represented each of these revolutionary aspirations with each breath and step of her entire walk through the journey of life. Sista Mawina brought all she had learned from her humble beginnings to spark a fire and shine a light so bright it could only lead her to organize for African people in everyway she could. By 1964 Sista Mawina took her experiences and began her freedom march in Boston Massachusetts working for The National Tenants Rights Organization. Representing the poor and oppressed, especially African women, she rose through the ranks of this organization to become Regional Coordinator for the Northeast (representing the masses from Boston to D.C.).

Sista Mawina will always be remembered for her fighting spirit and strong gentle loving arms that if you were lucky, hugged you tight and touched your soul. At a Tribute to her life held in Harlem New York March 2002, numerous individuals mentioned Sista Mawina's loving arms that seemed to have the capacity to reach across oceans and not only support you politically, but socially, culturally and spiritually as well. Her fiery spirit inspired and calmed us as we readied ourselves for all battlefronts and battlefields.

After moving from the battlefield of Tenants Rights she moved consciously into the Pan African Movement and joined the AAPRP in 1973. The fight for African Women's Liberation was her rally cry. She was one of the first AAPRP voices to understand the significance of an African Women's Union within the AAPRP. Into the AAPRP she brought with her, skills as an organizer of the masses and so for every African Liberation Day (ALD) she organized bus loads of students, women and workers to this event in D.C. Never forgetting her roots in Tenant organizing, her neighborhood, whether Boston or later the Lower East Side or Harlem were on those ALD buses as well.

Sista Mawina is well remembered for using her life, her house and her organization as a vehicle for serving the masses. Her revolutionary love was so broad and deep that her place of residence was known as a “Safe House” for anyone in need, especially African women. So much so did she live by example, the masses of women in the AAPRP voted her in as our first Women's Union representative in 1980. Again in 1983 she was one of two sistas to be the first women elected to the AAPRP Central Committee.

In 1990 at the lead of our Women's Union Sista Mawina guided us towards one of the most significant mass meetings of the AAPRP. The ten-year anniversary of The AAWRU was held outside of the u.s. in London, England. But this was only the preparation for yet another historical moment. Union 2000 took the AAPRP home at Sista Mawina's determination to have a mass meeting with other revolutionary sister organizations at home, Africa in Guinea Bissau.

Never tired and always seeing the vision of a United Socialist Africa, Sista Mawina understood how to implement Pan-Africanism on local levels. After the assassination of Amadou Diallo, this true revolutionary woman demonstrated the most conscious example of African love. As the enemy's cancer continued to try and stop her, she responded by creating another instrument to fight. Sista Mawina was a significant part of creating another African organization. This weapon was called, Women for Justice, and it was comprised of the mothers and women tired of seeing the police massacre our African men.

Sista Mawina's thirty-eight years as an activist and twenty-nine years of organizing for the AAPRP were critical to advancing the Party's Anti-Zionist, pro-African United Front lines to significant heights. She is remembered by one Palestinian comrade for blasting the zionist enemy even as her illness progressed in 2001 when she gave a passionate speech in Texas. The December 12th Coalition will also never forget the dedication and commitment of Sista Mawina as a principled tireless worker of the masses. She has led AAPRP/AAWRU delegations to Libya and Kenya and been instrumental in supporting critical AAPRP work in Azania, South Africa. She often worked two jobs one of them assisted thousands of us with travel arrangements to get home, to Africa.

Long Live Mighty Daughter of Africa Mawina Kouyate!!
Forward to One Unified Socialist Africa!!

La Habana Cuba, Fourteenth Youth Festival
August 3, 1997, Chris Zim for BLU
Q: Where do you think the Movement-the struggle for justice-is heading, and how do you think it could or should go forward?

Assata: Well, from my perspective, in the 1960s and 70s we talked at people; we were very narrow; we were sectarian. We relied on rallies, on passing out leaflets, on trying to organize people. This was necessary, but I think, looking back, that now we need to humanize the Movement. We need to be much broader; we need to have a more creative vision that includes other people and other people's needs.
We need to include children; we need to make space to help them be part of the social change. At Party meetings the kids were always in the back playing games at the table, and we'd shush them up. We had no time for them! We need to get to know each other as human beings; to care about whether people are having problems at home, in their families, and so on.
If we are going to change the world, we need to change ourselves and the way we relate to each other. People are so alienated. They are afraid to say good morning to each other, to say hi, to look at each other in the elevator. It's hell. There's really no community at all. Yet everybody is talking about community.
How do you organize community if there is no community there? Social and revolutionary change is not about the faceless masses. It's about community-about learning from each other and listening to each other, because all of us, no matter how experienced we think we are, have a lot to learn.
Our primary task is to build community in our homes, in our work places, and in our immediate neighborhoods. That's the only way we will ever achieve true revolution in our society.
We've been socialized to believe that unless we see what we do on the 6:00 news, it's not worth it. Forget it. There's been a basic news blackout of worthwhile progressive/alternative stories since 1970! A dog with three ears will make the news, but a gathering of 10,000 for a political rally won't: that's not regarded as a legitimate story. So don't worry about the news. Just keep your sense of opposition alive. Keep talking, and keep organizing…Also, focus on local happenings. I know it's a cliché, but "think globally, act locally" is an important piece of advice. We have to act locally if we're going to be effective. Of course, there's always the problem of splintering, and we need to organize nationally whenever we can.

I won't romanticize the sixties, but it does seem that today's rampant individualism is making it harder than ever to organize. Everything is so separate, so contradictory. There's so little discipline. Society teaches us a dog-eat-dog, me-first mentality. And even if we reject that attitude in our politics, if we're honest with ourselves we have to admit that every one of us acts like this at one time or another on a personal level, even if subconsciously. So the first part of being an activist, in my experience, is changing the person in the mirror. You cannot be dogmatic and talk all the time, also as a group. You cannot always be trying to spread your message to other people. You need to listen, you need to learn, you need to appreciate others-also their differences.

Oppressed people are wounded people. They're disrespected every day. They may be angry, but you have to listen to them. Some times they're misunderstood because they take out their anger and their indignities on each other, in their families; this happens a lot in our black communities. We need to be healed, also on a spiritual level. In the US this was not a possibility for me, but in Cuba it is. If you're black or poor, the US is a war zone. Cuba is the first place I've been able to live in peace…

Q: Is there something that could hold us together? So many people are fighting the same injustices, but they often work against each other.

Assata: Work for unity. But avoid uniformity. Look instead for ways to connect. And don't look for unity to shine down like a light from above. Unity is born from within. Not everybody in the world is going to have the same vision. There will always be divisive issues; we won't all be liberated in the same way. But even if we disagree with each other, we need to respect each other's viewpoints. After all, we're all trying to work for a better future.

Q: Do you have a message for young people in the US?

Assata: Yes. Become more conscious of your identity in the sense of assuming leadership and responsibility. Know your strengths and weaknesses. I'm not saying we need the macho, talking-head type of leadership I saw in the Movement in the 1960s. That had too much to do with the ego and its contradictions. People would say one thing on the podium and then go home and do the opposite. They'd be for freedom in public, but at home they'd be the oppressor-the bourgeoisie. But you have to have confidence.
As the '90s started, I was depressed. Seemed it was just going to be the end of one more bloody, oppressive century. But there is hope. And doesn't the next century belong to you?


Assata Shakur began her political activities in the 1960s while she was going to school in Manhattan and organizing ac-tivities to oppose the Vietnam War. She joined the Panthers and was targeted by COINTELPRO around the time when NYC’s “Panther 21” were accused of conspiring to blow up downtown department stores. Assata’s house was searched and she was continually harassed. The FBI offered immunity if she would co-operate with them, but she decided to go underground. This resulted in a nationwide manhunt led by the NYC police, the FBI, and the Daily News. There was a reward for her capture, dead or alive. She was wanted for several bank robberies, for which she was eventually tried and acquitted more than once. In May 1973, during a shootout on the New Jersey Turnpike, Assata was shot with her hands in the air and left to die. When the cops realized that she wasn’t dying she was taken to a Jersey hospital. She was chained to the bed, tortured, and denied access to lawyers for many days. After being tried by an all-white jury she was sentenced to life, 30 months, and 30 days. With the help of other anti-imperialist activists she escaped from prison and now lives in exile in Cuba. She firmly believes, as do Mumia and many others, that the US does not have a justice system, but a criminal system.

The Home Depot in Capitola was targeted on May 3rd with hundreds of stickers and handbills to publicize the company's involvement in a controversial development project in Patagonia, Chile. The HidroAysen project involves three dams on the Pascua River and two dams on the Baker River that would flood globally rare forest ecosystems and some of the most productive agricultural land in the Aysen region.

New Akoben House Publication Yurugu's Eunuchs by Mwalimu K. Bomani Baruti Description (taken from "Introduction"): "This book was written expressly in

More...

Akoben Institute presents a 6-Week ONLINE Course on THE SEX IMPERATIVE taught by Mwalimu K. Bomani Baruti Every Wednesday Night 7:30PM - 9PM June 3 - July 8,

More...

Akoben Institute presents a 6-Week Course in ATLANTA on THE SEX IMPERATIVE taught by Mwalimu K. Bomani Baruti Every Tuesday Night 7:30PM - 9PM June 3 - July 8,

More...

After months of pressure for greater transparency in BART policy making by Oscar Grant's family, community members, and activists, BART has scheduled its first public meeting on police oversight for Saturday, May 2nd in Oakland. Activists intend to remind BART that they still question if BART even needs its own police force, as well as to continue to demand that General Manager Dorothy Dugger and BART Police Chief Gary Gee be held accountable.

by Johann Hari

The Chicago Tribune reported that at this “hog hell” in Bloomfield, Neb.: “Dozens of dead piglets are dumped in piles or encased in pools of manure beneath the floor, having drowned there after falling through a hole. Dead hogs remain in their cages, discarded and stiff in walkways or rotting in pens as other pigs gnaw at their carcasses.” - Photo: Pete Souza, Chicago Tribune A swelling number of scientists believe swine flu has not happened by accident. No, they argue this global pandemic - and all the deaths we are about to see - is the direct result of our demand for cheap meat. So is the way we produce our food really making us sick as a pig?

At first glance, this seems wrong. All through history, viruses have mutated, and sometimes they have taken nasty forms that scythe through the human population. This is an inescapable reality we just have to live with, like earthquakes and tsunamis.

But the scientific evidence increasingly suggests that we have unwittingly invented an artificial way to accelerate the evolution of these deadly viruses - and pump them out across the world. They are called factory farms. They manufacture low-cost flesh, with a side-dish of viruses to go.

To understand how this happens, you have to compare two farms. My grandparents had a pig farm in the Swiss mountains, with around 20 swine at any one time. What happened there if, in the bowels of one of their pigs, a virus mutated and took on a deadlier form?

At every stage, the virus would meet stiff resistance from the pigs’ immune systems. They were living in fresh air, on the diet they evolved with and without stress - so they had a robust ability to fight back. If the virus did take hold, it would travel only as far as the sick hog could walk. So the virus would then have around 20 other pigs to spread and mutate in - before it would hit the end of its own evolutionary path, and die off.

If it was a really lucky, plucky virus, it might make it to market - where it would come up against more healthy pigs living in small herds. It has little opportunity to fan out across a large population of pigs or evolve a strain that could be transmitted to humans.

Now compare this to what happens when a virus evolves in a modern factory farm. In most swine farms today, 6,000 pigs are crammed snout-to-snout in tiny cages where they can barely move and are fed for life on an artificial pulp, while living on top of cess-pools of their own stale feces.

Instead of having just 20 pigs to experiment and evolve in, the virus now has a pool of thousands, constantly infecting and re-infecting each other. The virus can combine and recombine again and again. The ammonium from the waste they live above burns the pigs’ respiratory tracts, making it easier yet for viruses to enter them.

Pigs in huge factory farms like this are, Hari says, “stressed, depressed and permanently in panic,” making them vulnerable to viruses, which can then live in their manure for more than a month. Better still, the pigs’ immune systems are in free-fall. They are stressed, depressed and permanently in panic, making them far easier to infect. There is no fresh air or sunlight to bolster their natural powers of resistance. They live in air thick with viral loads, and they are exposed every time they breathe in.

As Dr. Michael Greger, director of public health and animal agriculture at the Humane Society of the United States, explains: “Put all this together, and you have a perfect storm environment for these super-strains. If you wanted to create global pandemics, you’d build as many of these factory farms as possible. That’s why the development of swine flu isn’t a surprise to those of us in public health community. Back in 2003, the American Public Health Association - the oldest and largest in world - called for a moratorium of factory farming because they saw something like this would happen. It may take something as serious as a pandemic to make us realize the real cost of factory farming.”

Many of the detailed studies of factory farms that have been emerging in the past few years reinforce this argument. Dr. Ellen Silbergeld is professor of environmental health sciences at Johns Hopkins University. She tells me her detailed on-the-ground studies led her to conclude there is “very much” a link from factory farms to the new, more powerful forms of flu we are experiencing. “Instead of a virus only having one spin of the roulette wheel, it has thousands and thousands of spins, for no extra cost. It drives the evolution of new diseases.”

“It may take something as serious as a pandemic to make us realize the real cost of factory farming.” - Dr. Michael Greger

Until yesterday, we could only speculate about the origins of the current H1N1 virus killing human beings - but now we know more. The Centre for Computational Biology at Columbia University has studied the virus and found that it is not a new emergence of a triple human-swine-bird flu virus. It is a slight variant on a virus we have seen before. We can see its family tree - and its daddy was a virus that evolved in the artificial breeding ground of a vast factory farm in North Carolina.

Did this strain evolve, too, in the same circumstances? Already, the evidence is suggestive, although far from conclusive. We know that the city where this swine flu first emerged - Perote, Mexico - contains a massive industrial pig farm and houses 950,000 pigs.

These dead pigs were left in plain sight of the other pigs, increasing their stress and vulnerability to disease. Dr. Silbergeld adds: “Factory farms are not biosecure at all. People are going in and out all the time. If you stand a few miles down-wind from a factory farm, you can pick up the pathogens easily. And, like in the U.S., the manure from these farms isn’t disposed of according to any regulations, even though we know viruses can remain alive in it for more than a month. They can just sit in cesspools. The viruses can be transmitted from there by flies.”

It’s no coincidence that we have seen a sudden surge of new viruses in the past decade at precisely the moment when factory farming has intensified so dramatically. For example, between 1994 and 2001, the number of American pigs that live and die in vast industrial farms in the US spiked from 10 percent to 72 percent. Swine flu had been stable since 1918 - and then suddenly, in this period, went super-charged.

How much harm will we do to ourselves in the name of cheap meat? We know that bird flu developed in the world’s vast poultry farms.  And we know that pumping animal feed full of antibiotics in factory farms has given us a new strain of MRSA. It’s a simple, horrible process.

The only way to keep animals alive in such dirty conditions is to pump their feed full of antibiotics. But this has triggered an arms race with bacteria, which start evolving to beat the antibiotics - and emerge in the end as pumped-up, super-charged bacteria invulnerable to our medical weapons. This system gave birth to a new kind of MRSA that now makes up 20 percent of all human infections with the virus. Sir Liam Donaldson, the British government’s chief scientist, warns: “Every inappropriate use in animals or agriculture [of antibiotics] is potentially a death warrant for a future patient.”

Of course, agribusinesses is desperate to deny all this is happening: Their bottom line depends on keeping this model on its shaky trotters. But once you factor in the cost of all these diseases and pandemics, cheap meat suddenly looks like an illusion.

We always knew that factory farms were a scar on humanity’s conscience - but now we know they are a scar on our health. If we carry on like this, bird flu and swine flu will be just the beginning of a century of viral outbreaks. As we witness a global pandemic washing across the world, we need to shut down these virus factories - before they shut down even more human lives.

Johann Hari is a writer for the Independent newspaper. He has reported from Iraq, Israel/ Palestine, the Congo, the Central African Republic, Venezuela, Peru and the U.S., and his journalism has appeared in publications all over the world. In 2007 Amnesty International named him Newspaper Journalist of the Year. To contact him, email johann@johannhari.com or visit his website at JohannHari.com. This column previously appeared in the Independent and Huffington Post.

On Tuesday, April 21st, over 110 therapists, mental health practitioners, and therapists-in-training across the Bay Area filled Namaste Hall at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) to hear directly from transgender and gender queer clients and consumers of therapy and mental health services.

On May 1, International Workers Day, rallies and marches are planned for cities in the San Francisco Bay Area, Santa Cruz County, and the Central Valley. Demonstrators will call for action in defense of jobs, families, immigrant rights, and unions.

On May 1, International Workers Day, rallies and marches are planned for cities in the San Francisco Bay Area, Santa Cruz County, and the Central Valley. Demonstrators will call for action in defense of jobs, families, immigrant rights, and unions.

On May 1, International Workers Day, rallies and marches are planned for cities in the San Francisco Bay Area, Santa Cruz County, and the Central Valley. Demonstrators will call for action in defense of jobs, families, immigrant rights, and unions.