[LAAMN] Pepe Escobar: Why Turkey won't go to war with Syria
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/07/2012758124728.html Why Turkey won't go to war with Syria Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has yet to understand the new deal struck between Russia and the US. Pepe Escobar http://www.aljazeera.com/mritems/imagecache/89/89/mritems/Images/2011/5/3/2 01153141716347734_9.jpg Pepe http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/profile/pepe-escobar.html Escobar Pepe Escobar is the roving correspondent for Asia Times. His latest book is named Obama Does Globalistan (Nimble Books, 2009) Aljazeera: July 06, 2012 Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan never saw it coming. He knew he was in trouble when the Pentagon leaked http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304830704577497081567553846.h tml?mod=WSJ_World_LEFTSecondNews that the Turkish Phantom RF-4E shot down last week by Syrian anti-aircraft artillery happened off the Syrian coastline, directly contradicting Erdogan's account, who claimed it happened in international air space. And it got worse; Moscow, via Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, http://en.ria.ru/world/20120630/174333287.html offered objective radar data as proof. There was not much to do except change the subject. That's when Ankara introduced a de facto buffer zone of four miles (6.4km) along the Syrian-Turkish border - now enforced by F-16s taking off from NATO's Incirlik base at regular intervals. Ankara also dispatched tanks, missile batteries and heavy artillery to the 500 mile (800km) border, right after Erdogan http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2012/06/20126271837381879.html effectively branded Syria a hostile state. What next? Shock and awe? Hold your (neo-Ottoman) horses. Lord Balfour, I presume? NATO condemns downing of Turkish jet The immediate future of Syria was http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/insidesyria/2012/07/2012628142225151490 .html designed in Geneva recently, in one ore of those absurdist international community plays when the US, Britain, France, Turkey and the Gulf Cooperation Council's Qatar and Kuwait sat down to devise a peaceful solution for the Syrian drama, even though most of them are reportedly weaponising the opposition to Damascus. One would be excused to believe it was all back to the Balfour Declaration days, when foreign powers would decide the fate of a country without the merest consultation of its people, who, by the way, never asked them to do it on their behalf. Anyway, in a nutshell: there won't be a NATO war on Syria - at least for now. Beyond the fact that Lavrov routinely eats US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for breakfast, Russia wins - for now. Predictably, Moscow won't force regime change on Assad; it fears the follow-up to be the absolute collapse of Syrian state machinery, with cataclysmic consequences. Washington's position boils down to accepting a very weak, but not necessarily out, Assad. The problem is the interpretation of mutual consent, on which a transitional government in Syria would be based - the vague formulation that emerged in Geneva. For the Obama administration, this means Assad has to go. For Moscow - and, crucially, for Beijing - this means the transition must include Assad. Expect major fireworks dancing around the interpretation. Because a case can be made that the new no-fly zone over Libya - turned by NATO into a 30,000-sortie bombing campaign - will become Syria's transitional government, based on mutual consent. One thing is certain: nothing happens before the US presidential election in November. This means that for the next five months or so Moscow will be trying to extract some sort of transitional government from the bickering Syrian players. Afterwards, all bets are off. A Washington under Mitt Romney may well order NATO to attack in early 2013. A case can be made that a Putin-Obama or US-Russia deal may have been reached even before Geneva. Russia has http://rt.com/politics/nato-transit-russia-afghanistan-059/ eased up on NATO in Afghanistan. Then there was the highly choreographed move of the US offering a formal apology and Pakistan duly accepting it - thus http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia/2012/07/201275915696842.html reopening NATO's supply routes to Afghanistan. It's crucial to keep in mind that Pakistan is an observer and inevitable future full member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) - run by China and Russia, both BRICS members highly interested in seeing the US and NATO out of Afghanistan for good. The price paid by Washington is, of course, to go easy on Damascus - at least for now. There is not much Erdogan can do about it; he really was not in the loop. Keep the division of labour intact So here's the perverse essence of Geneva: the (foreign) players agreed to disagree - and to hell with Syrian civilians caught in the civil war crossfire. In the absence of a NATO attack, the question is how the Assad system may be able to contain or
[LAAMN] watsonville takes on methyl iodide, philippine hotel union interview
WATSONVILLE TEACHERS AND STUDENTS TAKE ON METHYL IODIDE By David Bacon Z Magazine, July 2012 http://www.zcommunications.org/watsonville-teachers-and-students-take-on-methyl-iodide-by-david-bacon Teachers at Watsonville's Ohlone Elementary School were more than relieved when Arysta LifeScience, a giant Japanese chemical company, announced on March 20 that it would no longer sell methyl iodide in the U.S. for use as a pesticide. The school, on the edge of Watsonville, is separated from agricultural fields by no more than a 30-foot wide road. Over the last decade, growers have planted strawberries, artichokes and brussels sprouts in the long rows that snake over the hillside, ending a stones throw from the playground where children kick their ball or hang from the jungle gym every day. When those fields get sprayed with pesticides, or when chemicals are plowed into the soil to kill the nematodes and root fungus that infest strawberry plants, everyone at the school gets a dose. It can come from the spray directly, or from the dust that blows out of the fields into the adjacent neighborhood. Either way, this pesticide drift means that whatever is used to kill pests also gets ingested by children and adults when it wafts through the air into their lungs, or when it coats their clothing or food for lunch. We know that methyl iodide causes birth defects, says Jenn Laskin, grievance office for the Pajaro Valley Federation of Teachers. But we also suspect that it is one of a host of pesticides that are having far-reaching effects on students, and on ourselves as teachers. That realization motivated Laskin and a group of PVFT members to become part of a broad coalition that has fought methyl iodide and methyl bromide use for several years. When Arysta (the world's largest privately held crop protection and life science company) announced it was pulling methyl iodide from the market, the coalition called it a victory. Arysta's announcement stated that the decision was ... based on its economic viability in the U.S. marketplace, and that it would continue to support the use of iodomethane outside of the U.S. where it remains economically viable. What made methyl iodide economically unviable in the U.S. was an almost-certain ruling by Alameda County Superior Court Judge Frank Roesch that the chemical's original approval violated both science and law. Behind that legal suit was not only an accumulation of scientific evidence, but also a political firestorm organized by its opponents, PVFT among them. Methyl iodide is used primarily by strawberry growers to kill root infestations. It was a replacement for methyl bromide, whose use was banned in 1990 by the Montreal Protocol on Ozone Depleting Substances. Methyl bromide attacks the ozone layer in the atmosphere. Despite the ban, however, in 1999 over 70,000 tons of methyl bromide were still being used worldwide as a soil fumigant, mostly in the U.S. Arysta then proposed methyl iodide as a substitute. In opposition, 54 leading scientists wrote to the EPA: We are skeptical of U.S. EPA's conclusion that the high levels of exposure to methyl iodide that are likely to result from broadcast applications are 'acceptable' risks ... none of U.S. EPA's calculations account for the extra vulnerability of the unborn fetus and children to toxic insults. Methyl iodide is listed as a carcinogen by other Federal agencies, including the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the Centers for Disease Control. The California Department of Pesticide Regulation itself had called the chemical highly toxic and found that any anticipated scenario for the agricultural or structural fumigation use of this agent would result in exposures to a large number of the public and thus would have a significant adverse impact on the public health, and that limiting exposure from pesticide drift would be difficult, if not impossible. Nevertheless, EPA approved it in 2007. Then the California DPR approved it as an emergency regulation in December 2010, in the final days of the Schwarzenegger administration. Three months later the department's chief regulator, Mary-Ann Warmerdam, went to work for chemical giant Clorox Corp. A lawsuit was filed on January 5, 2011, challenging the approval, but meanwhile methyl iodide application began in Fresno County in May 2011. Beyond the scientific and legal arguments, however, are growing concerns by teachers about what many see as the rising effects of chemical exposure on students. Jenny Dowd teaches second grade at Ohlone, and has worked at the school for 18 years. I've seen a rise in asthma and behavioral problems over that time, especially in the last few years, she says We have more kids with autism. There's more hyperactivity among students, attention span problems and chronic respiratory infections. I
[LAAMN] Peru: Humala challenged by allies and the popular sector
http://lo-de-alla.org/2012/07/peru-humala-challenged-by-allies-and-the-popular-sector/ Peru: Humala challenged by allies and the popular sectorhttp://lo-de-alla.org/2012/07/peru-humala-challenged-by-allies-and-the-popular-sector/ * http://lo-de-alla.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/x-ollanta-humala.jpgTwelve civilians have died in repression of social protests in the first year of this presidents term* [Translation of an article from *Brasil de Fato* of São Paulo for July 3. See original here http://www.brasildefato.com.br/node/10005 and related articles herehttp://lo-de-alla.org/2011/07/peru-ollanta-humala-assumes-the-office-of-president/, herehttp://lo-de-alla.org/2011/06/humala-i-will-make-every-effort-to-heal-perus-fractures/, here http://lo-de-alla.org/2011/06/peru-humala-and-the-neoliberal-system/andherehttp://lo-de-alla.org/2011/04/peru-heads-toward-presidential-and-parliamentary-elections/ .] by Marcio Zonta Ollanta Humala Tasso finishes his first year in office in the midst of contradictions. In the first week of June alone, the Gana Perú congressional caucus, the base of the Partido Nacionalista Peruano, suffered four losses, for a total of five resignations of congress members who do not approve of the directions taken by the current administration. Absorbed in the controversial issues of mining and the armys confrontations in the Peruvian jungles with supposed drug traffickers and members of Sendero Luminoso, Humala has shown little aptitude or receptiveness to dialogue. On the other hand, he shows an extreme readiness for military solutions. *During this year Humala has been only a soldier in the service of the transnationals operating in Peru, declares Hugo Blanco, one of the founders and a leader of the Confederación Campesina del Perú (CCP).* The Peruvian government has already chalked up12 deaths by police repression against social protests and already has its first political prisoner, the mayor of Espinar, Óscar Mollohuanca Cruz, sentenced early on to five months in prison pending investigation into his responsibility for stirring up the anger of popular groups against the Swiss mining company Xstrata in late May. Rosa Mavila León, one of the members of congress who is resigning, charges, The Humala administration has shown no independence from the mining businesses and, in the face of protests against the environmental damage brought on by the mining companies, assumes the position of ordering States of Emergency and police repression against the people. *So far the record of the Peruvian president is notable for the 250 active and latent conflicts occurring in all parts of the country, of which approximately 48 percent are of a socio-environmental nature, political scientist Antonio Zambrano points out. Data point toward persistence of previous administrations of the Peruvian neoliberal extreme Right, like his predecessor Alan García, who accounted for 191 deaths in social conflicts.* *Fujimorismo* In the face of this repressive political posture, Peruvian analysts have also attributed to the Humala administration a *Fujimorista* character, a consequence of a political accord with the Right, which is being fulfilled through the distribution of positions in the government and the shifting around of ministers. Humala is clearing the Peruvian palace of progressive functionaries, Óscar Ugarteche, a Peruvian economist who works in the Instituto de Pesquisas Económicas of the University of Mexico, points out. This situation is occurring because Humala chose the easiest way to hold onto power and this involves alliances with the Right and its agents, who know much better than the leftist ministers from the beginning of his administration how to manage the state from within, because many of them had already worked in other administrations, reflects political scientist Antonio Zambrano. The main expression of the Right is the untouchable prime minister, General Óscar Valdés, assured a position in the Humala administration by a Right led by *Fujimorismo* and business associations. General Valdés himself has already stated in several interviews that he favors the pragmatism of former dictator Alberto Fujimori. Therefore, the permanence of the Left in the government is unsustainable because it clashes with all the policies the administration is pursuing, which have betrayed the proposals for change that the Left supports, declares Carlos Monge, historian and researcher for the Centro de Estudios y Promoción del Desarrollo. Javier Diez Canseco, one of the congressmen who have left the Partido Nacional caucus in the past week, states that Humalas activity following victory at the polls on June 5, 2011, was already showing signs of the direction he would take. When the president won the election in the second round, he informed us, strangely enough, of his unilateral decision to end his alliance with the Gana Perú caucus to develop his activities and decisions
